It was apparent to Miss Fawcett within one minute of her arrival at the Grange that her host was not in the best of tempers. He met her in the hall, not, she believed, of design, and favoured her with a nod. "It's you, is it?" he said ungraciously. "Somewhat unexpected, this visit, I must say. Hope you had a good journey."
Miss Fawcett was a young lady not easily discouraged.
Moreover, she had been General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith's sister-in-law for five years, and cherished no illusions about him. She shook him briskly by the hand, and replied with perfect equanimity: "You know quite well it's impossible to have a good journey on this rotten line, Arthur. And how you can say I'm unexpected when I sent an expensive telegram to prepare you both for the joy in store for you -"
The General's scowl deepened. "Short notice, you'll admit!" he said. "I suppose you've brought a ridiculous quantity of baggage?"
"Something tells me," remarked Miss Fawcett intelligently, "that I'm not really welcome."
"Oh, I've no doubt Fay's delighted!" replied the general, with a short laugh. "Though where she is I don't know. She packs the house with visitors, but can't trouble herself to be here when they arrive."
At this moment his erring wife came down the stairs. "Oh, darling!" she said in a voice that held a plaintive note. "How lovely to see you! How are you?"
Miss Fawcett embraced her warmly. "Hullo, Fay! Why didn't you send a wire to put me off? Arthur's all upset about it."
The large, rather strained blue eyes flew apprehensively to the General's face. "Oh, no!" Fay said. "Arthur doesn't mind having you, Dinah. Do you, Arthur dear?"
"Oh, not at all!" said the General. "You'd better take her up to her room instead of keeping her standing about in the hall."
"Yes, of course," Fay said. "You'd like to come up, wouldn't you, Dinah?"
This was said a trifle beseechingly, and Miss Fawcett, who wore all the signs of one about to do battle, relaxed, and agreed that she would like to go up to her room.
"I've had to put you in the little west room," Fay told her. "I knew you wouldn't mind. We're — we're rather full up."
"Yes, so I gathered," said Dinah, rounding the bend of the staircase. "It seems to be worrying little Arthur."
She had a clear, carrying voice. Fay glanced quickly down the stairs. "Dinah, please!" she begged.
Dinah threw her a glance of slightly scornful affection, and replied incorrigibly: "All right, but it's putting an awful strain on me."
They ascended the remaining stairs in silence, but as soon as the door of the west room was securely shut on them Dinah demanded to know what was the matter with Arthur.
Lady Billington-Smith sank down on to a chair, and put up one of her thin hands to her head, pushing the pale gold hair off her brow in a nervous gesture peculiar to her. "Something dreadful has happened," she answered. "It has upset Arthur terribly."
"Ha!" said Dinah, casting her hat on to the bed. "The cook burned his Sacred Porridge, I suppose."
A slight smile flickered across her sister's face. "Oh, don't be an ass, Dinah, for heaven's sake!"
"Well, that was it the last time I came," said Dinah, hunting in her dressing-case for a comb.
"This is much worse. It's Geoffrey."
"Dipped again?" inquired Miss Fawcett sympathetically.
"Worse than that, even. He's engaged to be married. At least, he says he is."
Miss Fawcett combed out her short brown locks, and began to powder her nose. "Barmaid, or tobacconist's assistant?" she asked, as one versed in the follies of young men.
"Neither. She's a cabaret dancer."
Miss Fawcett gave a crow of laughter. "Oh, no! No cabaret dancer would fall for Geoffrey."
"Well, this one has. And it isn't even as though she's English. She's a Mexican." Lady Billington-Smith allowed this piece of information to sink in, and followed it up by a final announcement. "And he's bringing her here to spend the week-end."
"But how rich! how luscious!" exclaimed Dinah. "I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Has Geoffrey gone mad, do you suppose? Who is the girl?"
"Her name," replied Fay, "is Lola de Silva. It sounds awfully improbable, doesn't it? It — it put Arthur off right away. I've had rather a dreadful time with him, because Geoffrey wrote to me, not to his father, and — and asked me to break the news. I'm afraid Geoffrey's quite infatuated. He seems to think Arthur has only to see this Lola person and he'll fall for her."
"The joys of being a stepmother," commented Dinah. "Is that what Arthur meant when he said that you'd packed the house full of people?"
"Partly, I expect. But he's blaming me for having the Hallidays now, just because he'd rather they weren't here when Geoffrey comes."
"And who," asked Dinah, "are the Hallidays? Kindly enumerate."
"People we met in the south of France," replied Fay, a little guardedly. "He was knocked up in the War, and she's — she's rather pretty, and smart." She raised her eyes to her sister's face and coloured faintly. "Well, you're bound to see it. Arthur flirts with her. That's why they're here."
"More fool you to invite them," said Dinah sternly. "You don't understand. Arthur made me." Dinah snorted.
"It's no good, Dinah. You're the fighting sort, and I'm not. Anyway, it doesn't matter. He doesn't mean anything serious, and if it keeps him in a good temper I don't mind."
"Anyone else here?" asked Dinah, abandoning a hopeless topic.
"Yes, Francis. He arrived in time for lunch."
Dinah grimaced. "If I'd known he was going to be here, I wouldn't have come. What's he turned up for? To touch dear Uncle Arthur? That'll make it a very merry party. Anyone else?"
Fay got up, apparently to rearrange the flowers that stood in a vase on the dressing-table. "Only Stephen Guest," she replied. "He said he'd be here in time for tea."
"Oh!" said Dinah.
It was a disinterested monosyllable, but it did not seem to satisfy Fay. She looked up into the mirror, and met her sister's frank gaze. "There's no reason why he shouldn't come here," she said. "After all, he's a connection of Arthur's, isn't he?"
Dinah dug her hands into the pockets of her severely tailored coat. "Who said he shouldn't come?"
"I know what you think."
"I think you're a blighted ass. Always did."
Fay tried to remember that she was five years older than Dinah, and failed rather miserably. Her lip trembled; she sank back into the chair. "It's no use, Dinah. You don't know what it's like, being married to Arthur. You don't know what it is to care for anyone, and never to see them. It isn't as though Stephen and I as though we… I mean, I wouldn't, and — and of course he wouldn't, but we can at least see each other sometimes."
"Is Arthur being noisome?" inquired Dinah, not much moved by this incoherent speech.
"I suppose he's no worse than usual," Fay replied listlessly. "It's me. My nerves are all to pieces. Probably there are some women who wouldn't mind his temper and the way he blusters and the things he says. You wouldn't. You'd shout back."
"No. Delicately nurtured female. Wouldn't have married him," said Dinah decidedly.
"I was a fool. Only I thought he was different."
"Personally, I didn't. We knew his first wife walked out on him, and she must have had some reason."
"Oh, she ran off with another man. It wasn't anything to do with Arthur's temper; or, anyway, if it was, I couldn't have guessed that. Only I was too young. I ought never to have been allowed to marry him. If mother had had any sense by the way, where is mother? I haven't heard from her for ages."
Dinah selected a cigarette from her case and lit it. "At home, trying a new treatment."
"Oh, lord!" sighed Fay, momentarily diverted. "I thought she'd taken up Christian Science?"
"It didn't last. She read a bit in some evening paper about proper dieting, and she's gone all lettucey. Nuts, too. That's why I'm here. There's a filthy beverage you drink for breakfast instead of coffee. I thought not, so I cleared out."
"Well, I do hope she won't make herself ill," said Fay.
"Not she. By the time I get back she'll have got religion, or something, and we shall have grace before meals, but not before lettuces, so to speak. As for her having sense enough to stop you marrying Arthur — well, pull yourself together, Fay!"
Fay smiled rather wanly. "I know. Now, say I made my bed and must lie on it."
"I shouldn't think anyone could possibly lie on any bed you ever made, ducky. Cut loose." "Cut loose?"
Dinah blew smoke rings, one through the other. "Isn't Barkis willing? I thought he was frightfully willing."
Fay coloured. "Yes, but I couldn't. You don't know what you're talking about. I'd sooner die than face the scandal, and the Divorce Court, and all that hatefulness."
"All right," said Dinah equably. "Have it your own way. Do we have tea in this well-run establishment, or are you slimming?"
Fay cast a startled glance at the clock, and sprang up. "Heaven's, it's past four! I must fly or Arthur will have a fit. He can't bear unpunctuality. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready," said Dinah, "but I shall dawdle for ten minutes for the good of Arthur's soul."
She began in a leisurely way, as soon as her sister had left the room, to unpack her dressing-case, and it was quite a quarter of an hour later when she at last prepared to join the tea-party on the terrace. A slight frown puckered her brow. It did not seem to her that the weekend promised well. Obviously Fay was overwrought and in no condition to manage an ill-assorted gathering; while Arthur, who belonged to that class of soldier who believes that much is accomplished by rudeness, was already in a thunderous mood.
Miss Fawcett had never, even at the impressionable age of twenty, succumbed to the General's personality. He was a well-preserved man, with handsome features and hair only slightly grizzled above the temples. He was large, rich, and masterful, and when he chose, he could make himself extremely pleasant. He was convinced of the inferiority of the female, and his way of laughing indulgrently at the foibles of the fair sex induced Fay to imagine that in him she had found the wise, omnipotent hero usually to be discovered only in the pages of romance.
Fay was helpless and malleable, as pretty as a picture drawn in soft pastels, and the General asked her to marry him. He had retired from the army; he wanted to settle down in England. A wife was clearly necessary. Discrepancy of age did not weigh with him: he liked women to be young and pretty and inexperienced.
Nor did it weigh with Mrs. Fawcett. She said that the General was such a distinguished man, and she was quite sure he would be the ideal husband for her little Fay. And since Fay was also sure of it, and neither she nor her mother was likely to pay any heed to the indignant protests of twenty-year-old Dinah, the marriage took place with a good deal of pomp and ceremony, and Fay departed with her Arthur for a honeymoon on the Italian Riviera. She was to discover during the years that followed that a man who had bullied one woman into deserting him and ridden rough-shod over all his inferiors for quite twenty years, was not likely to change his ways thus late in life.
Between him and his sister-in-law there raged a guerrilla warfare which both enjoyed. They disliked one another with equal cordiality. The General said that Dinah was an impudent hussy. Whereas Dinah drove him to the verge of an apoplexy by remarking with an air of naive wonder: "What odd expressions people of your generation do use! I remember my grandfather…'
The explosion which had cut short this reminiscence had made Fay wince and shrink into herself; it produced in Dinah nothing but a kind of bright-eyed interest.
She was quite ready to spar with the General, if he felt like that, which apparently he did, but it sounded, from what Fay had told her, that there would be trouble enough during the week-end already. She strolled downstairs to tea, whistling softly to herself, still dressed in the severely tailored grey flannel coat and skirt which so admirably became her.
The terrace was at the back of the house, facing south, find was reached either by way of the drawing-room or the billiard-room, both of which apartments had several long windows opening on to it. Fay was seated behind a table which seemed almost too frail to support its expensive and ponderous load of silver ware. An enormous silver tray quite covered it, and the embossed teapot, which Fay had picked up, shook in her weak bold.
As Dinah stepped out on to the terrace a big man in rough tweeds got up from his seat and took the teapot from Fay, saying in a deep voice that somehow matched his tweeds: "Let me do that for you. It's too heavy for you to hold."
Dinah recognised Stephen Guest, and smiled. In repose her face had a youthful gravity; her smile dispelled that completely. It was a friendly, infectious smile, crinkling the corners of her eyes. If Dinah smiled you had to smile back, as Stephen Guest did now. His rugged, curiously square face softened. "Hullo, Dinah!" He said, and went back to his task of pouring out the tea for Fay.
A tall and slender young man with sleekly shining black hair, thin lips under a tiny moustache, and quite incredibly immaculate tennis flannels, got up with the grace of muscles under perfect control, and pulled forward another chair. "Ah, Dinah, light of my eyes!" he drawled. "Come and sit beside me, darling, and comfort me."
"Hullo!" said Dinah discouragingly.
There were two other people on the terrace, to whom Fay proceeded to make her sister known. Basil Halliday was a thin man in the late thirties, with a face prematurely lined through ill health. He had very deepset, almost sunken eyes and a way of twitching his brows over them that indicated nerves on edge. His wife Dinah regarded with more interest. Camilla Halliday was a pretty woman. She had corn-coloured hair, shingled and perfectly waved, a pair of shallow blue eyes, and a predatory little mouth sharply outlined by scarlet lipstick. She was lounging in a long chair, a cigarette between her lips, and made no effort to get up. Removing the cigarette with one hand, she extended the other towards Dinah. "Oh, how do you do? Do forgive me, but I'm quite too exhausted to move."
Dinah noticed that the pointed finger-nails were polished lacquer red. She shook hands, and turned to receive her cup and saucer from Fay. "What exhausted you?" she inquired.
Francis Billington-Smith, who had exerted himself to bring a plate of sandwiches to Dinah, raised his brows. "My dear, didn't you hear me ask you to comfort me? I have been ignominiously beaten at tennis. It's what people write letters to the Daily Mirror about. "What is wrong with the Men of Today?" So belittling."
"Oh, but you let me win!" said Camilla, throwing him a glance which Dinah felt to be mechanically provocative.
"Rubbish!" pronounced Sir Arthur loudly. "No stamina in these modern young men. You play a fine game, Camilla. Pleasure to watch you! Now what do you say to taking me on after tea?"
Camilla smiled up at him. "Tisn't fair to make fun of poor little me. You know you could give me thirty and beat me with your horribly terrifying service."
"Oh, come, come!" said Sir Arthur, visibly gratified. "It isn't as terrifying as that, surely?"
"Why not have a mixed doubles?" suggested Fay in her gentle voice. "You'll play, won't you, Dinah?" She looked across at her husband, and said timidly: "Francis and Dinah against Camilla and Basil, don't you think, Arthur? You haven't forgotten that Geoffrey and — and Miss de Silva are coming?"
"Whether they come or do not is not my affair," said Sir Arthur. "I may remind you, my dear, that you asked them, and I suggest that it is for you to entertain them when they are to arrive. Dinah, you can play with Francis against Camilla here, and me. How will that be, Camilla?"
"You'll have to be very kind to me, then, and takee all the difficult balls," said Camilla. "But perhaps Miss Fawcett doesn't want to play?"
"As a matter of fact I don't, much," replied Dinah, accepting another sandwich.
"Hm! I suppose this is a specimen of the modern frankness we hear so much about!" remarked Sir Arthur I belligerently. "Personally, I should have thought that common politeness -"
"You wouldn't," interrupted Dinah, quite unperturbed. "You told me last time I came that you'd ceased to expect ordinary courtesy from me."
"Upon my word -!"began the General.
Camilla laid a hand on his arm. "Oh, but I do frightfully agree with Miss Fawcett. I know I offend lots of people, I'm so dreadfully outspoken myself."
"I'm quite sure," said the General gallantly, "that you could never offend anyone, my dear lady. But you shall have your tennis. My wife will play instead of her sister."
"Arthur, really I'd rather not!" Fay said. "I've got things to do before dinner, and — and one of us must be ready to receive Miss de Silva."
This slightly tactless reference to his son's betrothed provoked the General into saying with a rasp in his voice: "I've already told you I've no interest in the young woman, and I don't want her name dinned in my ears all day long. Go and put your tennis shoes on, and for God's sake consider your guests' wishes for once in a way!"
There was a moment's uncomfortable silence. Fay got up, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes downcast to hide the sudden, startled tears. Stephen Guest rose also, his gaze fixed on her.
Camilla gave an affected little shriek. "Really, you are the most dreadfully masterful man I've ever met!" she said. "I should be terrified of being your partner now. I know you'd bark at me in that paralysing parade voice of yours every time I missed a shot, and I should be simply petrified with fear. And it isn't I who want to play at all. I'm completely exhausted, and I'd far rather stay where I am, and — now don't be cross with me! Promise you won't be?"
"That's a very easy promise," said the General.
"Then I'll confess that I'm simply dying to meet the de Silva!" said Camilla audaciously. "I think it's just too thrilling!"
"Who is this Miss de Silva?" asked Stephen Guest in a low voice.
"Geoffrey's intended," replied Dinah, finishing what was left of her tea. "Cabaret dancer. Said to be Mexican."
"Good heavens! Is he bringing her here? Young fool!" He glanced towards Fay, who had seated herself again behind the tea-table, and added, almost beneath his breath: "I suppose you realise who it is who will be made to suffer?"
"Let us go and look at the roses," said Dinah. "Come on!"
He looked down at her, his eyes still smouldering, but considerably puzzled. "What?"
"Go and look at the roses," repeated Dinah firmly, and got up. "We're going for a stroll in the rose garden, Fay."
Mrs. Halliday overheard this, and gave her brittle laugh. "How too romantic!"
"My husband is a very keen gardener," Fay said. "You must get him to show you round some time."
Camilla Halliday sent her a quick look under her lashes, weighing her. "I should adore it!" she murmured. "Will you, dear Sir Arthur?"
"Delighted!" he assured her. "Any time! I can only say that I should like my roses to see you."
Dinah looked back over her shoulder. "And even that isn't original," she said pensively. "Come on, Stephen."
They descended the shallow steps on to the lawn, and began to stroll across it. Once they were out of earshot Dinah said: "You were an awful ass to come, you know."
"Maybe."
"It's no use trying to shut me up," said Dinah. "Ask Arthur. And if you don't mind my saying so, you won't make matters any better by doing the strong, silent man stuff whenever Arthur goes for Fay."
He smiled rather reluctantly. "Do I?"
"Rather! Like a western hero."
"I've been out west," he remarked inconsequently.
"I should think you were a huge success," said Dinah with great cordiality.
"Africa too," he ruminated. "Then I struck Australia for a spell. It's a great country."
"So I've been told. Is there anywhere you haven't been?"
"I've knocked round most of the tough spots in this world," he admitted. "You learn quite a lot, rolling round."
"What you don't seem to learn," said Dinah, "is a little ordinary sense. It's just dam' silliness to come and stay here. All it does is to make you want to take Arthur into a wide, open space and knock his teeth down his throat. I know."
Stephen Guest's large,, capable hands clenched slowly. "By God, it does!" he said, and drew a long breath.
"Well, you can't go knocking people's teeth out when they're as old as Arthur," Dinah pointed out.
"I don't know that that would worry me a lot," replied Guest. "It wouldn't take much from him to make me see red."
"Then you jolly well oughtn't to come here."
"Fay wanted me," he said.
"Your job," said Dinah, "is to make Fay want you much more than that. I've been advising her to run away with you."
He reddened under his tan, and said gruffly: "You're a good sort, Dinah. She won't, though."
"No, not while she can get you to come down here every time she feels like it."
Stephen Guest considered this. "I see," he said presently. "Thanks for the advice. Don't know that I shall take it." He paused under an arbour, and frowningly regarded a cluster of pink blooms. "Ever seen Lola de Silva?"
"That pleasure is yet to come. Have you?"
"M'm." A gleam of satisfaction shone in his eye. "Saw her at the Cafe Grecque once."
Dinah waited for more, but as Guest seemed to have relapsed into his habitual taciturnity she urged him kindly not to keep anything back.
Thus adjured, he replied: "Oh, I don't know anything about her! I only thought she'd be a bit out of place here — from what I saw."
Nothing further could be elicited from him. Dinah gave it up, and led the way back to the terrace.