‘Halloa!’ said Nutty.
He was cheerful and debonair. His little eyes were alight with contentment. He hummed a tune.
‘Where’s Dawlish?’ he said.
‘He has gone.’
Nutty’s tune failed in the middle of a bar. Something in his sister’s voice startled him. The glow of contentment gave way to a look of alarm.
‘Gone? How do you mean–gone? You don’t mean–gone?’
‘Yes.’
‘Gone away?’
‘Gone away.’
They had reached the house before he spoke again.
‘You don’t mean–gone away?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you mean–gone away?’
‘Yes.’
‘You aren’t going to marry him?’
‘No.’
The world stood still. The noise of the crickets and all the little sounds of summer smote on Nutty’s ear in one discordant shriek.
‘Oh, gosh!’ he exclaimed, faintly, and collapsed on the front steps like a jelly-fish.
23
The spectacle of Nutty in his anguish did not touch Elizabeth. Normally a kind-hearted girl, she was not in the least sorry for him. She had even taken a bitter pleasure and found a momentary relief in loosing the thunderbolt which had smitten him down. Even if it has to manufacture it, misery loves company. She watched Nutty with a cold and uninterested eye as he opened his mouth feebly, shut it again and reopened it; and then when it became apparent that these manoeuvres were about to result in speech, she left him and walked quickly down the drive again. She had the feeling that if Nutty were to begin to ask her questions–and he had the aspect of one who is about to ask a thousand–she would break down. She wanted solitude and movement, so she left Nutty sitting and started for the gate. Presently she would go and do things among the beehives; and after that, if that brought no solace, she would go in and turn the house upside down and get dusty and tired. Anything to occupy herself.
Reaction had set in. She had known it would come, and had made ready to fight against it, but she had underestimated the strength of the enemy. It seemed to her, in those first minutes, that she had done a mad thing; that all those arguments which she had used were far-fetched and ridiculous. It was useless to tell herself that she had thought the whole thing out clearly and had taken the only course that could have been taken. With Bill’s departure the power to face the situation steadily had left her. All she could think of was that she loved him and that she had sent him away.
Why had he listened to her? Why hadn’t he taken her in his arms and told her not to be a little fool? Why did men ever listen to women? If he had really loved her, would he have gone away? She tormented herself with this last question for a while. She was still tormenting herself with it when a melancholy voice broke in on her meditations.
‘I can’t believe it,’ said the voice. She turned, to perceive Nutty drooping beside her. ‘I simply can’t believe it!’
Elizabeth clenched her teeth. She was not in the mood for Nutty.
‘It will gradually sink in,’ she said, unsympathetically.
‘Did you really send him away?’
‘I did.’
‘But what on earth for?’
‘Because it was the only thing to do.’
A light shone on Nutty’s darkness.
‘Oh, I say, did he hear what I said last night?’
‘He did hear what you said last night.’
Nutty’s mouth opened slowly.
‘Oh!’
Elizabeth said nothing.
‘But you could have explained that.’
‘How?’
‘Oh, I don’t know–somehow or other.’ He appeared to think. ‘But you said it was you who sent him away.’
‘I did.’
‘Well, this beats me!’
Elizabeth’s strained patience reached the limit.
‘Nutty, please!’ she said. ‘Don’t let’s talk about it. It’s all over now.’
‘Yes, but–‘
‘Nutty, don’t! I can’t stand it. I’m raw all over. I’m hating myself. Please don’t make it worse.’
Nutty looked at her face, and decided not to make it worse. But his anguish demanded some outlet. He found it in soliloquy.
‘Just like this for the rest of our lives!’ he murmured, taking in the farm-grounds and all that in them stood with one glassy stare of misery. ‘Nothing but ghastly bees and sweeping floors and fetching water till we die of old age! That is, if those blighters don’t put me in jail for getting that money out of them. How was I to know that it was obtaining money under false pretences? It simply seemed to me a darned good way of collecting a few dollars. I don’t see how I’m ever going to pay them back, so I suppose it’s prison for me all right.’