"Betty, darling," she cried, "go home--go home.You must not stay here.""When I go, you will go with me," Betty answered."Iam not going back to mother without you."She made a collection of many facts before their interview was at an end, and they parted for the night.Among the first was that Nigel had prepared for certain possibilities as wise holders of a fortress prepare for siege.A rather long sitting alone over whisky and soda had, without making him loquacious, heated his blood in such a manner as led him to be less subtle than usual.Drink did not make him drunk, but malignant, and when a man is in the malignant mood, he forgets his cleverness.So he revealed more than he absolutely intended.
It was to be gathered that he did not mean to permit his wife to leave him, even for a visit; he would not allow himself to be made ridiculous by such a thing.A man who could not control his wife was a fool and deserved to be a laughing-stock.
As Ughtred and his future inheritance seemed to have become of interest to his grandfather, and were to be well nursed and taken care of, his intention was that the boy should remain under his own supervision.He could amuse himself well enough at Stornham, now that it had been put in order, if it was kept up properly and he filled it with people who did not bore him.There were people who did not bore him--plenty of them.Rosalie would stay where she was and receive his guests.
If she imagined that the little episode of Ffolliott had been entirely dormant, she was mistaken.He knew where the man was, and exactly how serious it would be to him if scandal was stirred up.He had been at some trouble to find out.The fellow had recently had the luck to fall into a very fine living.
It had been bestowed on him by the old Duke of Broadmorlands, who was the most strait-laced old boy in England.
He had become so in his disgust at the light behaviour of the wife he had divorced in his early manhood.Nigel cackled gently as he detailed that, by an agreeable coincidence, it happened that her Grace had suddenly become filled with pious fervour--roused thereto by a good-looking locum tenens--result, painful discoveries--the pair being now rumoured to be keeping a lodging-house together somewhere in Australia.Aword to good old Broadmorlands would produce the effect of a lighted match on a barrel of gunpowder.It would be the end of Ffolliott.Neither would it be a good introduction to Betty's first season in London, neither would it be enjoyed by her mother, whom he remembered as a woman with primitive views of domestic rectitude.He smiled the awful smile as he took out of his pocket the envelope containing the words his wife had written to Mr.Ffolliott, "Do not come to the house.Meet me at Bartyon Wood." It did not take much to convince people, if one managed things with decent forethought.The Brents, for instance, were fond neither of her nor of Betty, and they had never forgotten the questionable conduct of their locum tenens.Then, suddenly, he had changed his manner and had sat down, laughing, and drawn Rosalie to his knee and kissed her--yes, he had kissed her and told her not to look like a little fool or act like one.Nothing unpleasant would happen if she behaved herself.Betty had improved her greatly, and she had grown young and pretty again.She looked quite like a child sometimes, now that her bones were covered and she dressed well.If she wanted to please him she could put her arms round his neck and kiss him, as he had kissed her.
"That is what has made you look white," said Betty.
"Yes.There is something about him that sometimes makes you feel as if the very blood in your veins turned white,"answered Rosy--in a low voice, which the next moment rose.
"Don't you see--don't you see," she broke out, "that to displease him would be like murdering Mr.Ffolliott--like murdering his mother and mine--and like murdering Ughtred, because he would be killed by the shame of things--and by being taken from me.We have loved each other so much--so much.
Don't you see?"
"I see all that rises up before you," Betty said, "and Iunderstand your feeling that you cannot save yourself by bringing ruin upon an innocent man who helped you.I realise that one must have time to think it over.But, Rosy," a sudden ring in her voice, "I tell you there is a way out--there is a way out! The end of the misery is coming--and it will not be what he thinks.""You always believe----" began Rosy.
"I know," answered Betty."I know there are some things so bad that they cannot go on.They kill themselves through their own evil.I KNOW! I KNOW! That is all."