I turned to walk to the station. I could not guess even remotely what time it was. The sun was shining through the trees, but in the road outside the grounds there were no signs of workers beginning the day.
It was half past five when I reached the station. A sleepy porter informed me that there would be a train to London, a slow train, at six.
. . . . .
I remained in London two days, and on the third went down to Sanstead to see Audrey for the last time. I had made my decision.
I found her on the drive, close by the gate. She turned at my footstep on the gravel; and, as I saw her, I knew that the fight which I had thought over was only beginning.
I was shocked at her appearance. Her face was very pale, and there were tired lines about her eyes.
I could not speak. Something choked me. Once again, as on that night in the stable-yard, the world and all that was in it seemed infinitely remote.
It was she who broke the silence.
‘Well, Peter,’ she said listlessly.
We walked up the drive together.
‘Have you been to London?’
‘Yes. I came down this morning.’ I paused. ‘I went there to think,’ I said.
She nodded.
‘I have been thinking, too.’
I stopped, and began to hollow out a groove in the wet gravel with my heel. Words were not coming readily.
Suddenly she found speech. She spoke quickly, but her voice was dull and lifeless.
‘Let us forget what has happened, Peter. We were neither of us ourselves. I was tired and frightened and disappointed. You were sorry for me just at the moment, and your nerves were strained, like mine. It was all nothing. Let us forget it.’
I shook my head.
‘No,’ I said. ‘It was not that. I can’t let you even pretend you think that was all. I love you. I always have loved you, though I did not know how much till you had gone away. After a time, I thought I had got over it. But when I met you again down here, I knew that I had not, and never should. I came back to say good-bye, but I shall always love you. It is my punishment for being the sort of man I was five years ago.’
‘And mine for being the sort of woman I was five years ago.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘Woman! I was just a little fool, a sulky child. My punishment is going to be worse than yours, Peter. You will not be always thinking that you had the happiness of two lives in your hands, and threw it away because you had not the sense to hold it.’
‘It is just that that I shall always be thinking. What happened five years ago was my fault, Audrey, and nobody’s but mine. I don’t think that, even when the loss of you hurt most, I ever blamed you for going away. You had made me see myself as I was, and I knew that you had done the right thing. I was selfish, patronizing–I was insufferable. It was I who threw away our happiness. You put it in a sentence that first day here, when you said that I had been kind–sometimes–when I happened to think of it. That summed me up. You have nothing to reproach yourself for. I think we have not had the best of luck; but all the blame is mine.’
A flush came into her pale face.
‘I remember saying that. I said it because I was afraid of myself. I was shaken by meeting you again. I thought you must be hating me–you had every reason to hate me, and you spoke as if you did–and I did not want to show you what you were to me. It wasn’t true, Peter. Five years ago I may have thought it, but not now. I have grown to understand the realities by this time. I have been through too much to have any false ideas left. I have had some chance to compare men, and I realize that they are not all kind, Peter, even sometimes, when they happen to think of it.’