Merry Go Round (5 page)

When the men were left to smoke, Reggie, helping himself to a third glass of port, drew his chair to Hurrell's.

'I say, Frank,' he exclaimed, 'that was a nice little woman next to me, wasn't it?'

'Had you never met Mrs Castillyon before?'

'Never! Regular ripper, ain't she? By Jove! I thought this dinner would be simply deadly – politics and religion, and all that rot. The mater always makes me come, because she says there's intellectual conversation. My God!'

Frank laughed at the idea of Mrs Barlow-Bassett combining instruction with amusement for her son at Miss Ley's dinner-table.

'But Mrs Castillyon's a bit of all right, I can tell you. Little baggage! And she don't mind what you say to her. ... Why, she isn't like a lady at all.'

'Is that a great recommendation?'

'Well, ladies ain't amusing, are they? You talk to 'em of the Academy and all that sort of rot, and you've got to take care you don't swear. Ladies may be all very well to marry, but, upon my soul, for giving you a good time I prefer them a bit lower in the scale.'

A little later, on the stairs, when they were going up to the drawing-room, Reggie slipped his arm through Frank's.

'I say, old man, don't give me away if my mater thanks you for asking me to dinner on Saturday.'

'But I haven't. Neither have I the least desire that you should dine with me on that day.'

'Good Lord! d'you think I want to come – and talk about bugs and beetles all the evening? Not much! I'm going to dine with a little girl I know – typewriter, my boy, and a real love touch. Stunning little thing, I can tell you.'

'But I don't see why, because you wish to entertain a young person connected with typewriting, I should imperil my immortal soul.'

Reggie laughed.

'Don't be an ass, Frank; you might help me. You don't know how utterly rotten it is to have a mother like mine who wants to keep me tied to her apron-strings. She makes me tell her everything I do, and of course I have to fake up some yarn. The only thing in it is that she'll swallow any damned lie I tell her.'

'You can tell her lies till you're blue in the face,' said Frank, 'but I don't see why the devil I should.'

'Don't be a beast, Frank. You might help me just this once. It won't hurt you to say I'm grubbing with you. The other night, by Jove! I nearly gave the show away. You know she always waits up for me. I told her I should be working late with my crammer, and went to the Empire. Well, I met a lot of chaps there and got a bit squiffy. There would have been a shindy if she'd noticed it, but I managed to pull myself together a bit, and said I'd got the very deuce of a headache. And next day I heard her tell someone that I was next door to a teetotaller.'

They reached the drawing-room and Frank found himself close to Mrs Bassett.

'Oh, Dr Hurrell,' she said, 'I want to thank you so much for asking Reggie to dinner on Saturday. He's been working so hard that I think a little relaxation will do him good. And his tutor keeps him sometimes till past eleven – it can't be good for him, can it? The night before last he was so tired when he came in that he could scarcely get up the stairs.'

'I'm delighted that Reggie should care to come and dine with me sometimes,' answered Frank, somewhat grimly.

'I'm always glad to think he's with you. It's so important that a young man should have really trustworthy friends, and I feel sure your influence is good for him.'

Reggie, listening to this, gave Frank a very slow and significant wink, then went off with a light heart to resume his conversation with Mrs Castillyon.

P
RESENTLY
all Miss Ley's guests, except Frank Hurrell, bade her good night, and he showed no intention of following their example.

'You don't want to go to bed yet, do you?' she asked the Dean. 'Let us go into the library.'

Here Frank took from a drawer his pipe, and helping himself from a tobacco-jar placed in readiness, sat down. Miss Ley, noticing Bella's slight look of surprise, explained.

'Frank keeps a pipe here and makes me buy his favourite tobacco. It's one of the advantages of old age that you can sit into the small hours of the morning and talk with young men.'

But when he too was gone, Miss Ley, an old-fashioned hostess solicitous for her guests' comfort, accompanied Bella to her room.

'I hope you enjoyed my little party,' she said.

'Very much,' replied Bella. 'But why do you ask Mrs Castillyon? She's dreadfully common, isn't she?'

'My dear,' answered Miss Ley ironically, 'her husband is a most important person – in Dorsetshire, and her own family has a whole page in the
Gentleman's Bible
or the
Landed Gentry:

'I shouldn't have thought she was county,' said Bella seriously; 'she seemed to me very vulgar.'

'She is very vulgar,' answered Miss Ley, 'but it's the sort of vulgarity which is a mark of the highest breeding. To talk too loud and to laugh like a bus-driver, to use the commonest slang and to dress outrageously, are all signs of the
grande dame.
Often in Bond Street I see women with painted cheeks and dyed hair dressed in a manner which even a courtesan would think startling, and I recognize the leaders of London fashion. ... Good night. Don't expect to see me at breakfast;
that is a meal which only the angels of heaven should eat in company.'

Miss Langton sat down as though she had no wish to go to bed.

'Don't go just yet. I want to know all about Mr Kent.'

Miss Ley, following her friend's example, made herself comfortable in an armchair. Once Miss Dwarris asserted that a virtuous person as a matter of discipline should do every day two things which he disliked, whereupon Miss Ley answered flippantly that then she must be on the direct road to everlasting happiness, for within the twenty-four hours she invariably performed a brace of actions which she thoroughly detested: she got up, and she went to bed. Now, therefore, in no hurry to go to her own room, she proceeded to tell Miss Langton what she knew of Basil Kent. In truth it was not strange that he had attracted Bella's attention, for his appearance was unusual; he managed to wear the conventional evening dress of an Englishman with becoming grace, but one felt, such was his romantic air, he should by rights have borne the armour of a Florentine knight. His limbs were slender and well made, his hands white and comely, and his brown curly hair, worn somewhat long, set off the fine colour of his face; the dark eyes, thin cheeks, and full sensual mouth were set into a passionate wistfulness of expression which recalled again those faces in early Italian pictures wherein the spirit and the flesh seem ever to fight a restless battle – to them the earth is always beautiful, rich with love and warfare, with poetry and deep blue skies, but yet everywhere is disillusion also, and the dark silence of the cloister, even amid the painted turbulence of court or camp, whispers its irresistible appeal. None looking at Basil Kent could imagine that any great ease of life awaited him; through his brown eyes appeared a soul at the same time sensual and ascetic, impulsive and chivalrous, yet so sensitive that the storms and buffets of the world, to which inevitably he exposed himself, must assault him with double violence.

'Well, he's the son of Lady Vizard,' said Miss Ley.

'What?' cried Bella, 'you don't mean the woman about whom there was that dreadful case five years ago?'

'Yes. He was then at Oxford, where Frank and he were bosom friends. It was through Frank that I first knew him. His father, a cousin of the present Kent of Ouseley, died when he was a child, and Basil was brought up by his grandmother, for his mother married Lord Vizard very shortly after her husband's death. Even now she's a beautiful woman. In those days she was perfectly gorgeous; her photograph was in all the shop-windows – her prime coincided with the fashion for young men to buy the portraits of celebrated beauties they did not know, and the chastest women thought it no shame for their pictures to be exposed in every stationer's shop or to decorate the chimney-piece of a platonic counter-jumper. At that time Lady Vizard's doings were minutely chronicled in the papers that concern themselves with such things, and her parties were thronged with all the fashion of London. She was to be seen at every race-meeting surrounded by admirers; of course she had a box at the opera, and at Homburg attracted the most august attention.'

'Did Mr Kent ever see her?' asked Bella.

'He used to spend part of his holidays with her, and she dazzled him as she dazzled everyone else. Frank told me that Basil simply worshipped his mother; he has always had a passion for beauty, and was immensely proud of her magnificent appearance. I used at one time occasionally to meet her at parties, and she struck me as one of the most splendid, majestic women I ever saw; one felt that something like that must have looked Madame de Montespan.'

'Was she fond of her son?'

'In her way. Naturally she didn't want him bothering around her. She kept her youth marvellously. Lord Vizard was younger than herself, and she didn't much care to produce a boy who was very nearly grown up. So she was quite pleased that old Mrs Kent, whom she detested, should look after him. But when he came to stay she filled his pockets with money, took him to the play every night and thoroughly amused him. I dare say she too was pleased with his good looks, for at sixteen he must have been more beautiful than a Greek ephebe. But if ever he showed any signs of inconvenient attachment, I
doubt whether Lady Vizard encouraged him. From Harrow he went to Oxford, and Frank, who is a very acute observer, told me that then Basil was a peculiarly innocent boy, absurdly open and frank, who never kept a secret from anybody, and said without thinking, ingenuously, everything that came into his head. Of course scandal for a good many years had been busy with Lady Vizard; her extravagance was notorious, and Vizard was known to be neither rich nor generous; but his wife did everything that cost a great deal of money, and her emeralds were obviously worth a fortune. Even Basil cannot have helped seeing how many masculine friends she had, though perhaps, when he was spending with her the occasional week to which he looked forward so intensely, she took pains that nothing too flaunting should come to his eyes; and when strange gentlemen slipped sovereigns into his hand he pocketed them under the impression that his own merit had earned them. And now I must go to bed.'

Miss Ley, with a tantalizing smile, rose from her chair, but Bella stopped her.

'Don't be cattish, Mary. You know I want to hear the rest of the story.'

'Are you aware that it's past one o'clock?'

'I don't care, you must finish it now.'

Miss Ley, having created this small diversion, sat down again, proceeding, not at all against her will, with the recital.

'Basil's only vanity was his mother, and he talked of her incessantly, taking a manifest pride in her social success and the admiration which everywhere she excited; he would have staked his life on her immaculate character, and when the crash came he was simply overwhelmed. You remember the case; it was one of those in which a prudish English public takes keen delight. Every placard announced in huge letters that for the especial delectation of the middle classes a divorce in high life was being fought at the Law Courts in which there were no less than four co-respondents. It appeared that Lord Vizard, chiefly because he was frightened of his wife's extravagance, had at last filed a petition in which he named Lord Ernest Torrens, Colonel Roome, Mr Norman Wynne and somebody else. The pair evidently had not for some time enjoyed
great connubial felicity, for Lady Vizard brought a counter-petition, accusing her husband of philandering with her own maid and with a certain Mrs Platter, a lady who inhabited a flat in Shaftesbury Avenue. The case was fought on both sides with the greatest acrimony, and a crowd of witnesses testified to behaviour which one at least hopes is unusual in the houses of the great. But of course you read the details in the
Church Times,
Bella.'

'I remember it was reported in the
Standard,'
answered Miss Langton, 'but I read nothing.'

'Virtuous creature!' said Miss Ley, with a thin smile. 'The average Englishman would never keep his respect for titled persons if the reports of proceedings in the Divorce Court did not periodically give him some insight into their private life. ... Anyhow, the things of which Lord and Lady Vizard accused one another were enough to make the hair of a suburban paterfamilias stand right on end.'

Miss Ley paused for a moment, and then with calm deliberation, as though she had given this matter the attention of a lifetime and carefully weighed all sorts, proceeded.

'A divorce, you know, can be managed in two ways – respectably, when both parties are indifferent or afraid and no more is said than is essential for the non-intervention at a subsequent stage of that absurd gentleman, the King's Proctor; and vindictively, when in their eagerness to bespatter the person whom at some previous period they solemnly vowed to love to the end of their days, they care not how much mud is thrown at themselves. Lady Vizard made a practice of detesting her husbands, and she loathed the second far more because he had not the grace to die, like the first, four years after the marriage. His penuriousness, ill-temper, insobriety were dragged into the light of day; and he brought servants to testify to his wife's most private habits, produced letters which he had intercepted, and subpoenaed tradesmen to swear by whom accounts for jewellery and clothes had been settled. Lord Vizard engaged the cleverest criminal lawyer of the time, and for two days his wife with unparalleled wit, courage, and resource bore a cross-examination which would have ruined a weaker woman. It was partly on this account, because they
admired the good fight she made, partly because it seemed impossible that such an imposing creature should have done the quite odious things of which the husband accused her, but still more because they thought there was precious little to choose between kettle and pot, that the jury found the charges not proven; and Lady Vizard in a manner remained mistress of the position. The rest you can guess for yourself.'

'No, I can't, Mary. Go on.'

'No word had reached Basil that proceedings were to be taken, and his first knowledge of the affair came with the morning paper and his eggs and bacon. He could scarcely believe his eyes, and he read the report with incredulity changing quickly to dismay and horror. The news dazed and crushed him. A hundred trifles he had seen but never noticed came to his mind, and he knew that his mother was no better than the painted harlot who sells her body for a five-pound note.'

'But how d'you know all this, Mary?' asked Bella doubtfully. 'You're not inventing it, are you?'

'I read the papers,' answered Miss Ley, with some asperity. 'Frank told me a good deal, and my common sense the rest. I flatter myself I have a certain knowledge of human nature, and if Basil didn't feel what I tell you, he should have. But I shall never finish my story if you keep on interrupting me.'

'I beg your pardon,' said Bella humbly. 'Pray go on.'

'Frank, you know, is somewhat older than Basil, and at that time was in Oxford, taking his M.B. He found the poor boy overcome with shame, anxious like a stricken beast to hide himself from all strange eyes. But Frank is made of sterner stuff; he persuaded him to go about as though nothing had happened, and even to dine in hall as usual. What for the one would not have been so very difficult to the other was unendurable. Basil imagined that everyone stared at him as though he were a thing unclean; he had bragged a good deal of his wonderful parent, and he thought now that all his words must be scornfully repeated. The papers continued their edifying story; witnesses told shameful things; and Basil, haggard and sleepless, could not conceal his torment. Frank had set him an ordeal beyond his strength, and without a word
to anyone he fled to London. After the trial he went to see Lady Vizard, but what happened then I do not know. He never returned to Oxford. At that time they were recruiting for the Imperial Yeomanry, and Basil, passing by chance through St James's Park, saw the men drilling. He wished to get out of England, where everyone seemed to point at him with scorn, and here was an opportunity; he enlisted, and a month later sailed for South Africa.'

'As a trooper?' asked Miss Langton.

'Yes. I believe he distinguished himself, for they offered him a commission, but this he refused and was given instead the Medal for Distinguished Conduct in the Field. He remained there three years, and did not return to England till the last batch of Yeomanry was brought home. Then he settled down to read for the Bar, and was called last year.'

'Does he ever see his mother, d'you know?'

'I believe never. He has a small income, about three hundred a year, and on that in a modest way is able to live. I think he has only gone to the Bar as a sort of form, for he means to write. You probably never saw the little book of South African sketches which he brought out last year – impressions of scenery and studies of character. It had no particular success, but to my mind showed a good deal of promise; I remember an account of some battle about which there was an uncommon swing and dash. He's working at a novel now, and I dare say some day will write a very clever book.'

'D'you think he'll ever be famous?'

Miss Ley shrugged her shoulders.

'You know, to achieve great success in literature you must have a certain coarseness in your composition, and that I don't think Basil has. Really to move and influence men you must have complete understanding, and you can only get that if you have in you something of the common clay of humanity. ... But now I really must go to bed. You're such a chatterbox, Bella, I believe you would keep me up all night.'