Auntie Hamps and Mr. Peartree knew nothing of the peculiar phenomena induced in Edwin’s mind by the first sight of the legendary Abel Peartree after twenty years. But Auntie Hamps, though puzzled for an explanation, comprehended that she was decisively beaten. The blow was hard. Nevertheless she did not wince. The superb pretence must be kept up, and she kept it up. She smiled and, tossing her curls, checked Edwin with cheerful, indomitable rapidity.
“Now, now! Don’t decide at once. Think it over very carefully, and we shall ask you again. Mr. Peartree will write to you. I feel sure...”
Appearances were preserved.
The colloquy was interrupted by Hilda, who came in excited, gay, with sparkling eyes, humming an air. She had protested vehemently against an At Home. She had said again and again that the idea of an At Home was abhorrent to her, and that she hated all such wholesale formal hospitalities and could not bear “people.” And yet now she was enchanted with her situation as hostess—delighted with herself and her rich dress, almost ecstatically aware of her own attractiveness and domination. The sight of her gave pleasure and communicated zest. Mature, she was yet only beginning life. And as she glanced with secret condescension at the listless Mr. Peartree she seemed to say: “What is all this talk of heaven and hell? I am in love with life and the senses, and everything is lawful to me, and I am above you.” And even Auntie Hamps, though one of the most self-sufficient creatures that ever lived, envied in her glorious decay the young maturity of sensuous Hilda.
“Well,” said Hilda. “What’s going on here? They’re all gone mad about missing words in the drawing-room.”
She smiled splendidly at Edwin, whose pride in her thrilled him. Her superiority to other women was patent. She made other women seem negative. In fact, she was a tingling woman before she was anything else—that was it! He compared her with Clara, who was now nothing but a mother, and to Maggie, who had never been anything at all.
Mr. Peartree made the mistake of telling her the subject of the conversation. She did not wait to hear what Edwin’s answer had been.
She said curtly, and with finality:
“Oh, no! I won’t have it.”
Edwin did not quite like this. The matter concerned him alone, and he was an absolutely free agent. She ought to have phrased her objection differently. For example, she might have said: “I hope he has refused.”
Still, his annoyance was infinitesimal.
“The poor boy works quite hard enough as it is,” she added, with delicious caressing intonation of the first words.
He liked that. But she was confusing the issue. She always would confuse the issue. It was not because the office would involve extra work for him that he had declined the invitation, as she well knew.
Of course Auntie Hamps said in a flash:
“If it means overwork for him I shouldn’t dream—” She was putting the safety of appearances beyond doubt.
“By the way, Auntie,” Hilda continued. “What’s the trouble about the pew down at chapel? Both Clara and Maggie have mentioned it.”
“Trouble, my dear?” exclaimed Auntie Hamps, justifiably shocked that Hilda should employ such a word in the presence of Mr. Peartree. But Hilda was apt to be headlong.
To the pew originally taken by Edwin’s father, and since his death standing in Edwin’s name, Clara had brought her husband; and although it was a long pew, the fruits of the marriage had gradually filled it, so that if Edwin chanced to go to chapel there was not too much room for him in the pew, which presented the appearance of a second-class railway carriage crowded with season-ticket holders. Albert Benbow had suggested that Edwin should yield up the pew to the Benbows, and take a smaller pew for himself and Hilda and George. But the women had expressed fear lest Edwin “might not like” this break in a historic tradition, and Albert Benbow had been forbidden to put forward the suggestion until the diplomatic sex had examined the ground.
“We shall be only too pleased for Albert to take over the pew,” said Hilda.
“But have you chosen another pew?” Mrs. Hamps looked at Edwin.
“Oh, no!” said Hilda lightly.
“But—”
“Now, Auntie,” the tingling woman warned Auntie Hamps as one powerful individuality may warn another, “don’t worry about us. You know we’re not great chapel-goers.”
She spoke the astounding words gaily, but firmly. She could be firm, and even harsh, in her triumphant happiness. Edwin knew that she detested Auntie Hamps. Auntie Hamps no doubt also knew it. In their mutual smilings, so affable, so hearty, so appreciative, apparently so impulsive, the hostility between them gleamed mysteriously like lightning in sunlight.
“Mrs. Edwin’s family were Church of England,” said Auntie Hamps, in the direction of Mr. Peartree.
“Nor great church-goers, either,” Hilda finished cheerfully.
No woman had ever made such outrageous remarks in the Five Towns before. A quarter of a century ago a man might have said as much, without suffering in esteem—might indeed have earned a certain intellectual prestige by the declaration; but it was otherwise with a woman. Both Mrs. Hamps and the minister thought that Hilda was not going the right way to live down her dubious past. Even Edwin in his pride was flurried. Great matters, however, had been accomplished. Not only had the attack of Auntie Hamps and Mr. Peartree been defeated, but the defence had become an onslaught. Not only was he not the treasurer of the District Additional Chapels Fund, but he had practically ceased to be a member of the congregation. He was free with a freedom which he had never had the audacity to hope for. It was incredible! Yet there it was! A word said, bravely, in a particular tone,—and a new epoch was begun. The pity was that he had not done it all himself. Hilda’s courage had surpassed his own. Women were astounding. They were disconcerting too. His manly independence was ever so little wounded by Hilda’s boldness in initiative on their joint behalf.
“Do come and take something, Auntie,” said Hilda, with the most winning, the most loving inflection.
Auntie Hamps passed out.
Hilda turned back into the room: “Do go with Auntie, Mr. Peartree. I must just—” She affected to search for something on the mantelpiece.
Mr. Peartree passed out. He was unmoved. He did not care in his heart. And as Edwin caught his indifferent eye, with that “it’s-all-one-to-me” glint in it, his soul warmed again slightly to Mr. Peartree. And further, Mr. Peartree’s aloof unworldliness, his personal practical unconcern with money, feasting, ambition, and all the grosser forms of self-satisfaction, made Edwin feel somewhat a sensual average man and accordingly humiliated him.
As soon as, almost before, Mr. Peartree was beyond the door, Hilda leaped at Edwin, and kissed him violently. The door was not closed. He could hear the varied hum of the party.
“I had to kiss you while it’s all going on,” she whispered. Ardent vitality shimmered in her eyes.
Chapter IV
The Word
