What Will People Say? A Novel 64 – Hughes · Verses Across
Literature · Romance
What Will People Say? A Novel 64Chapter 64
18
Literature · Romance
What Will People Say? A Novel 64
Chapter 64
HughesEnglish
Persis awaited his departure impatiently, tapping her foot with restlessness. She fell into reverie of indefinite duration. The bell rang. She gave a start of joy. Crofts went by on his way to the door. She checked him. "I'm expecting Captain Forbes." He got the name on the third iteration. "If it is he, show him in here." He nodded and set out again. She called after him, "If it is any one else I'm not at home."
She ran to a mirror, preened herself expectantly, and waited with a look of joy. Crofts returned with a card. Persis took it, and asked, "You told her I was out?"
Crofts was alarmed at once. "No, ma'am, I said you were at home."
"But I said I was out to every one except--"
Crofts was in despair at his blunder. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm afraid I'm too old and deaf to--"
She relented and patted his hard shoulder-blade. "There, there! don't worry, we'll get through the day somehow. Show Mrs. Neff in; but nobody else except Captain Forbes."
Crofts smiled like a forgiven child, and returned with Mrs. Neff, who bustled in crying, "Ah, my dear, such luck to find you at home."
"So sweet of you to come," said Persis. She was in no mood for Mrs. Neff. She determined to be rid of her. She explained about the early dinner and begged to be excused lest Willie murder her for being late. Persis rang for Crofts, kissed Mrs. Neff a grateful good-by, and fled. As Crofts opened the door to let Mrs. Neff out he let Winifred Mather in. Crofts protested feebly that Persis was not at home, but Winifred came in anyway.
Winifred was just returned from Paris, foiled in her campaign for the late Ambassador, and determined to regain her control over Bob Fielding. She had not seen Mrs. Neff, and she had much to say. Ignoring the helpless Crofts, they drifted back to the drawing-room to swap scandals from the opposite shores of the ocean. In this fascinating barter they forgot the flight of time, forgot even the place they were in, for they fell to discussing Persis and her affair with Forbes.
Winifred had heard of it even in Paris.
"But what does Willie think of it?" she asked; "if he can think?"
"In any intrigue, my dear," Mrs. Neff pronounced, "the last three persons to learn what all the world knows are the husband and the two intriguers."
"I saw Bob Fielding yesterday," said Winifred. "He told me about it on the dock. He's furious at Persis. He said somebody ought to tell Willie."
"He's right, my dear," said Mrs. Neff; "but who wants to do that sort of job? It's like street-cleaning--very necessary and sanitary, but we don't care to do it ourselves, and we don't admire the people who do. Crooked things have a way of arranging themselves in this naughty world. Leave Persis alone. Some day some little accident she couldn't foresee--the mistake of a messenger-boy or a postman or somebody--and bang! out comes the whole scandal. Persis is clever, but she's juggling with dynamite."
It was only the last thirteen words that Persis overheard as she came down to the drawing-room, never dreaming that Mrs. Neff had not gone or that Winifred had come. Her slippers were soft, and her gown made no frou-frou. The voices of the women, softened to a ghoulish stealth, reached her with uncanny clearness.
She paused, struck to stone. Her heart pummeled her till her throat throbbed visibly. She wanted to fall down and die. She wanted to run from the house and from the town. Instead, she shook off every primitive impulse, and, tossing her head in defiance of fate, marched into the room with all the gracious majesty of a young queen going to her coronation. Her costume completed the picture: she was robed for the opera, and she wore her all-around crown of diamonds. She stared incredulously at Winifred, and cried with ardent hospitality:
"Winifred, it's you! I didn't know you were in town!"
And Winifred, assured by her manner that she had not overheard, hastened to embrace her, exclaiming: "Persis, darling! I haven't seen you for a thousand years."
And they kissed each other.
"You see, I haven't gone yet," Mrs. Neff apologized. "Winifred and I fell to talking--about you, of course."
"Say it to my face," said Persis.
Winifred lied angelically. "Cornelia was telling me how famously you and Willie get along. You're so congenial."
Persis recognized the intended obloquy, and beamed in answer: "Willie is a duck of a husband. Why don't you try marriage?"
This was so straight a lunge that Winifred slid in a sly riposte:
"Do you ever see that li'l snojer man of yours any more?"
"Li'l snojer man? Have I one?" said Persis, white-mouthed with fear at the directness of the attack, and at the simultaneous tingle of the door-bell. She tried to check Crofts, calling to him as he moved to the door. But he did not hear.
Mrs. Neff was enjoying the rare treat of seeing Persis discomfited, ill at ease. She joined the onset.
"She means Captain Forbes."
"Yes--that's the one," Winifred smiled. "See him often?"
"Oh, once in a long while," Persis confessed. "Why?"
"I just wondered. He used to be so devoted to you."
"Oh, that was ages ago," Persis laughed. And then Crofts came in with his little salver. Persis regarded it with as much dread as if it bore the head of John the Baptist instead of a tiny white card.
Crofts was so proud of remembering his instructions that he murmured, with a senile smile: "You told me you were at home to him, ma'am."
Persis read the name, and it danced before her eyes, fantastically. In the phrase of the prize-fighters, "they had her going." It was all so simple and foolish, yet so naggingly annoying, that she was utterly nonplussed. She stood a moment snapping the card in her fingers. Then she had a mad inspiration. She smiled stupidly between Mrs. Neff and Winifred and said:
"It's my--my lawyer. I--I'll go to the door and see him."
"But I asked him to come up!" Crofts protested in a doddering collapse, and vanished like a ghost at cockcrow.
Forbes appeared at the door. He saw Persis, and there was no mistaking the love in his eyes. Then he saw Winifred and Mrs. Neff, and there was no mistaking his confusion, though he tried to put on a smile of delight at the sight of them.
Mrs. Neff grinned with rapturous malice, and bewildered Forbes utterly by asking three ironical questions and not staying for an answer:
"Changed your profession, Captain Forbes? A lawyer now? Specialty divorces?"
Then she nodded to Winifred, and they made their way out, ignoring Persis' outstretched hand.
