‘To Cynthia, as I say, it was final. She simply could not see that the matter was not irrevocably settled. I thought it so fine of her. But I am her mother, and it was my duty not to give in and accept the situation as inevitable while there was anything I could do for her happiness. I knew your chivalrous, unselfish nature, Peter. I could speak to you as Cynthia could not. I could appeal to your generosity in a way impossible, of course, for her. I could put the whole facts of the case clearly before you.’
I snatched at the words.
‘I wish you would. What are they?’
She rambled off again.
‘She has such a rigid sense of duty. There is no arguing with her. I told her that, if you knew, you would not dream of standing in her way. You are so generous, such a true friend, that your only thought would be for her. If her happiness depended on your releasing her from her promise, you would not think of yourself. So in the end I took matters into my own hands and came to see you. I am truly sorry for you, dear Peter, but to me Cynthia’s happiness, of course, must come before everything. You do understand, don’t you?’
Gradually, as she was speaking, I had begun to grasp hesitatingly at her meaning, hesitatingly, because the first hint of it had stirred me to such a whirl of hope that I feared to risk the shock of finding that, after all, I had been mistaken. If I were right–and surely she could mean nothing else–I was free, free with honour. But I could not live on hints. I must hear this thing in words.
‘Has–has Cynthia–‘ I stopped, to steady my voice. ‘Has Cynthia found–‘ I stopped again. I was finding it absurdly difficult to frame my sentence. ‘Is there someone else?’ I concluded with a rush.
Mrs Drassilis patted my arm sympathetically.
‘Be brave, Peter!’
‘There is?’
‘Yes.’
The trees, the drive, the turf, the sky, the birds, the house, the automobile, and Jarvis, the stuffed chauffeur, leaped together for an instant in one whirling, dancing mass of which I was the centre. And then, out of the chaos, as it separated itself once more into its component parts, I heard my voice saying, ‘Tell me.’
The world was itself again, and I was listening quietly and with a mild interest which, try as I would, I could not make any stronger. I had exhausted my emotion on the essential fact: the details were an anticlimax.
‘I liked him directly I saw him,’ said Mrs Drassilis. ‘And, of course, as he was such a friend of yours, we naturally–‘
‘A friend of mine?’
‘I am speaking of Lord Mountry.’
‘Mountry? What about him?’ Light flooded in on my numbed brain. ‘You don’t mean–Is it Lord Mountry?’
My manner must have misled her. She stammered in her eagerness to dispel what she took to be my misapprehension.
‘Don’t think that he acted in anything but the most honourable manner. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He knew nothing of Cynthia’s engagement to you. She told him when he asked her to marry him, and he–as a matter of fact, it was he who insisted on dear Cynthia writing that letter to you.’
She stopped, apparently staggered by this excursion into honesty.
‘Well?’
‘In fact, he dictated it.’
‘Oh!’
‘Unfortunately, it was quite the wrong sort of letter. It was the very opposite of clear. It can have given you no inkling of the real state of affairs.’
‘It certainly did not.’
‘He would not allow her to alter it in any way. He is very obstinate at times, like so many shy men. And when your answer came, you see, things were worse than before.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘I could see last night how unhappy they both were. And when Cynthia suggested it, I agreed at once to come to you and tell you everything.’
She looked at me anxiously. From her point of view, this was the climax, the supreme moment. She hesitated. I seemed to see her marshalling her forces, the telling sentences, the persuasive adjectives; rallying them together for the grand assault.