Edgell was better: he was up again and at work—working very hard, the woman said (and bed-makers know something about work). He was 'going on as quiet and as steady as any gentleman on the staircase.' This verdict from such a quarter was as good as a college testimonial.
When there is a mixed University, and a lady President at the lodge1, and a female Vice-Chan[Pg 149]cellor, and the affairs of the Senate are conducted by dowagers, bed-makers will no doubt be required to sign college testimonials.
The first time Lucy saw Wyatt Edgell after that day when she put the wet bandage round his head, and promised to pick up the dreadful thing Eric had thrown out of window, and carry it away with her, was at the college chapel2.
It was a fortnight after the day when she had picked him out from among all the men of St. Benedict's as Pamela Gwatkin's brother. He was sitting in the same place, and he was very little changed; he was paler, Lucy thought, and he was muffled3 up round the throat for that warm May day. She couldn't help looking at him. Her eyes would wander over to the bench where he sat, do what she would to keep them fixed4 in quite an opposite direction.
The Master took such a long time over the Litany that morning. He had read it for so many years in that college chapel, Sunday after Sunday, but he had never read it so slowly as he was read[Pg 150]ing it to-day. The men yawned and fidgeted as he read, and the old fellows in the stalls opposite looked across with grave, questioning eyes—they would have to elect another Master shortly—and the women-folk kneeling by his side looked up anxiously; but Lucy's eyes had wandered again to the end seat on the last bench, while her lips were murmuring:
'"That it may please Thee to raise up them that fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet."'
Wyatt Edgell looked up while she was praying for him—she was distinctly praying for him, she had prayed this very prayer for him every night and morning since Eric had told her how he needed her prayers—and their eyes met.
Lucy was covered with confusion. She was quite sure in that swift momentary5 glance that he had read her inmost thoughts. She was ashamed that he should know that she had been praying all this time that he should be strengthened and comforted and helped and picked up again when he[Pg 151] fell, and that the enemy should be beaten down under his feet. She never looked at that end of the chapel again all the rest of the service.
It was over at last—the long, long Litany and the slow, faltering6 prayers: the men need not have been so restless, they would not hear them much longer. The old walls would echo another voice soon, and the feeble lips would be repeating another Litany elsewhere.
The old college chapel was full of echoes and shadows; there would be another shadow shortly, and the echo of a tremulous, quavering voice would join those other ancient echoes in the roof. It was a dark, gloomy old chapel; it had been built for hundreds of years, and it was full of old memories. Every bench and stall and desk had a memory of its own, stretching back, far back, into quite early ages—memories of old Masters and Fellows and scholars and undergraduates who had worshipped there through, oh! so many generations.
There was a musty smell of old Masters rising up from the vaults7 beneath and pervading8 the chapel,[Pg 152] and in the ante-chapel beyond there were monuments on the walls, and brasses—quite lovely old brasses—on the pavement, and great hideous9 tombs of long dead and gone Masters and Fellows. It was touching10 to see how they were forgotten after a generation or two; how even their very tomb-stones were hidden away in a corner, and covered up with organ pipes. There was the marble effigy11 of an old, old Master, whose learning and virtues12 were recited in a long Latin epitaph on an elaborate tablet hidden away behind the organ.
Everyone had forgotten him years ago, and his old monument was in the way, and so they had covered it up. Music is so much more delightful13 than old memories. They will all be swept away soon, and a new chapel will be built. There will be no old memories and old ghosts and old storied windows, no decaying woodwork or musty odour of old Masters. It will all be fresh and bright and sweet-smelling and shiny as new paint and varnish14 can make it, and there will be a new organ with electric stops. It will be dark and shadowy no[Pg 153] longer; the old echoes and the old ghosts will all be scared away—they will vanish quite away in the blaze of the new electric lamps with which the chapel will be lighted.
Lucy vanished out of the college chapel almost as rapidly as the ghosts will by-and-by. She did not linger in the cloisters15 to-day. She hurried back to the lodge, and left Cousin Mary and the Master's wife to toddle16 back beside the Master.
'How do you think your uncle looks to-day, my dear?' the old lady asked Lucy when they had got him safely back to the lodge, and had put him in his great armchair, and given him some wine.
There was a shade of anxiety in her voice as she asked the question. Lucy hadn't seen the Master for a week, so she might have been expected to notice any change in him.
'Oh, I think he looks lovely, aunt! He walked back from chapel quite strong.'
Mrs. Rae shook her head; she was not quite convinced.
'There were two of us supporting him, my dear,[Pg 154] one on either side, and I thought he leant rather heavily.'
He had nearly crushed the poor little soul into the ground; she could not have supported his weight a dozen steps more.
'Perhaps you are not so strong yourself to-day, auntie dear; you are looking pale. Most likely the weakness is yours, and you are not so well able to bear his weight. He always leans heavily; I often wonder how you and Mary can keep him up!'
'Perhaps so, my dear. I hope it may be so!' But still the cloud on the dear old face did not quite vanish. 'I fancied that his reading in chapel was slower to-day than usual—that his voice was weak. Did you notice it?'
'Oh yes; I noticed that he read lovely! I never heard him read so well as he read to-day.'
'You really think so? I am very glad! The fault must be in me. I don't think I am quite so strong to-day—I can't expect to be at my age; but I am very glad there is nothing unusual the matter with the Master. You would have been quite sure[Pg 155] to have noticed it, my dear, if there had been, as you haven't seen him for a week.'
She kissed that mendacious17 little Lucy and tottered18 out of the room. She was very feeble to-day—perhaps the Master's weight had been too much for her; but there was quite a glad smile on her patient face. She was so happy, the brave old soul, to feel that the weakness was hers, not his.
Wyatt Edgell went back straight from chapel to his own rooms. He met Eric coming out of chapel, and they went back together.
'Where have I seen that girl before?' he asked Eric when they got back to the room.
'Oh, you've often seen her in chapel. She's the Master's niece, or grand-niece, or something of the kind,' said Eric evasively.
But the other was not so easily put off.
'I have seen her somewhere else, besides in chapel,' he said thoughtfully. 'I've seen her in this room. I've seen her beside my bed. Good heavens! Wattles, you didn't let that girl in—when—when——'
[Pg 156]
'When you weren't quite yourself, old man,' said Eric cheerfully, filling up the gap. 'What on earth should the Master's niece come in here for? Be reasonable, and don't ask such foolish things!'
'Foolish or not, I'll be hanged if I didn't see her in this room, standing19 where you stand now! You may as well tell the truth, Wattles. You may as well say you called her in and showed her the spectacle!'
He was a very determined20-looking young man, and he didn't look like one to be trifled with, as he stood with his back to the empty fireplace, leaning against the mantelpiece, and his great hands stuck down well in his pockets.
'Dear old man, you may take my word for it: I did not call her in; I should as soon have thought of calling the Master in!'
'I wish to Heaven you had called the Master in—I should have known the worst then; but for this girl to see me—in—in that state!'
[Pg 157]
'You take too much for granted, old man,' said the other; but he couldn't put any heartiness22 into his voice. 'Haven't I told you that not a soul in the college but Brannan and myself came into the room—while—while you were ill?'
'Yes,' said the other moodily23—'not a soul in the college; but this girl from Newnham came in. I'll swear it! I saw it in her eyes.'
It was no use Eric pretending. Edgell was not in a mood to be trifled with. He was a great big, determined fellow. He could have taken Eric up and flung him to the other end of the room with the same ease with which he had flung the pillow.
'Go on,' he said moodily; 'go on, and tell me all about it. Tell me why this girl came in, and the spectacle she saw. Let me know exactly the degradation24 to which I have sunk!'
There was no help for it. Eric had to tell him all about Lucy's visit—Lucy's second visit; he didn't say anything about the first. How could he tell the poor fellow that she had come in at that dreadful time; that it was her hands that had[Pg 158] wiped up all the traces of his crime; that it was she who had helped him when he had put those stitches in that gaping25 wound in his throat!
Eric told him quite enough. His head had fallen forward on his breast, and he looked a picture of despondency. A despondent26 giant of six feet, with a great broad chest, and big muscular limbs, and a splendid head splendidly set on a splendid full white throat—it was muffled up now, but it was as white and shapely as a woman's beneath the crisp, close-cut whisker curling down below the cheek. His chin and his great square jaw27 were close-shaven, but there was a thin, slight, crisp moustache on his upper lip, and his short hair curled crisply at the edges. He wore it parted in the middle, not very neatly28 parted, and tossed back off his forehead. Everything about him denoted strength and courage—such a man could not be despondent long.
'Then she knows the worst,' he said—'the very worst. There is nothing else she has got to learn about me. There is only one thing to be done,[Pg 159] Wattles, with a girl who knows so much about me: I must marry her. You must introduce me again, old man, and I shall make her an offer, and—and she will marry me.'
His gloom and depression had quite gone, and he was smiling again. He was a delightful fellow when he smiled. Not a man in the college could resist that delightful smile; it disarmed29 the wrath30 of all the Dons, and it won the hearts of bed-makers.
'Marry her!' said Eric, turning quite pale. 'Dear old man, don't be in such a hurry. Think it over. She isn't the sort of woman for you, Edgell.'
Wyatt Edgell laughed. His laugh was a full-blown edition of his smile; but Gwatkin looked serious.
'Perhaps you'll tell me, Wattles, what is the sort of woman for me.'
'Oh, I wouldn't pretend to say; only, old man, don't trifle with this poor little thing. She's the sort of girl to break her heart for a man. I wouldn't break her heart if I were you.'
[Pg 160]
'Perhaps she'll break mine,' said Edgell dryly; and then he sat down and ate his lunch which the bed-maker had already spread out on the table.
It was a very nice college lunch. It was not tinned beef, or brawn31, or tongue, or any questionable32 dainty that had been soldered33 up a year or two in a metal case. It was a lovely head and shoulders of salmon34, and it had been judiciously35 pickled, and there was cucumber cut up in a dish—little delicate flakes36 of cucumber which Edgell ate with the healthy returning appetite of a man who had long been denied this delicacy37.
The salmon was followed by a chicken and a ham, to which he also applied38 himself with the same zest39. The edge was quite taken off his appetite, when Eric pushed these things aside and set a jelly just freshly turned out of a mould before him.
'I don't want any of that stuff,' he said, and he pushed over his glass in the direction of the claret.
'I don't think I'd take any more, old man,'[Pg 161] said Eric; 'you've already had four glasses. I wouldn't have any more. Have a soda40?'
'I'll be hanged if I do!' said the other doggedly41, 'unless you put some brandy in it. I must have a nip of brandy, Wattles. I'm sure that cucumber has disagreed with me. I haven't had any cucumber for an age, and it never did agree with me.'
Eric got up and unlocked a cupboard, and took out a liqueur-bottle more than half full of brandy, and poured a small—a very small—quantity into a glass, and filled it up with seltzer-water.
He had put the bottle back into the cupboard and the key into his pocket, and was putting on his gown to go out. He always took a service somewhere in the country, or did some open-air preaching on Sunday afternoons, and he was in a hurry to get away.
'I wish you'd leave that key behind you, Wattles,' Edgell called out when he got to the door. 'That confounded cucumber or the pickled salmon has disagreed with me. I may want the key before you come back.'
[Pg 162]
Eric took the key out of his pocket reluctantly and laid it on the mantelpiece.
'You'll be careful, old man,' he said; 'you'll be sure to be careful. Remember——'
'Shut up!' said the other angrily. 'Do you think I'm such a fool?'
Eric went out and shut the door. When he came back two hours later the liqueur-bottle was on the table empty, and Edgell was breathing heavily on the floor.
It was all that confounded pickled salmon and cucumber!
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1
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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2
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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3
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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4
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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5
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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7
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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8
pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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9
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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10
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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11
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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12
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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13
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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14
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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15
cloisters
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| n.（学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的）走廊( cloister的名词复数 )；回廊；修道院的生活；隐居v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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16
toddle
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| v.（如小孩）蹒跚学步 | |
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17
mendacious
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| adj.不真的，撒谎的 | |
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18
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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19
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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20
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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21
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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22
heartiness
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| 诚实，热心 | |
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moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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24
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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25
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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26
despondent
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| adj.失望的，沮丧的，泄气的 | |
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27
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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28
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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29
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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30
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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31
brawn
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| n.体力 | |
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32
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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33
soldered
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| v.（使）焊接，焊合( solder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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35
judiciously
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| adv.明断地，明智而审慎地 | |
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36
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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37
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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38
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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39
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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40
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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41
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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