I hesitated. It is not very amusing to eat in a crowded restaurant by oneself, but it was late to go to a club and I decided that I had better stay where I was. I strolled into the dining-room. It has never given me any particular satisfaction (as it appears to do to so many elegant persons) to be known by name to the head waiters of fashionable restaurants, but on this occasion I should certainly have been glad to be greeted by less stony an eye. The maître d’hôtel with a set and hostile face told me that every table was occupied. I looked helplessly round the large and stately room and on a sudden to my pleasure caught sight of someone I knew. Lady Elizabeth Vermont was an old friend. She smiled and noticing that she was alone I went up to her.
‘Will you take pity on a hungry man and let me sit with you?’ I asked.
‘Oh, do. But I’ve nearly finished.’
She was at a little table by the side of a massive column and when I took my place I found that notwithstanding the crowd we sat almost in privacy.
‘This is a bit of luck for me,’ I said. ‘I was on the point of fainting from hunger.’
She had a very agreeable smile; it did not light up her face suddenly, but seemed rather to suffuse it by degrees with charm. It hesitated for a moment about her lips and then slowly travelled to those great shining eyes of hers and there softly lingered. No one surely could say that Elizabeth Vermont was cast in the common mould. I never knew her when she was a girl, but many have told me that then she was so lovely, it brought the tears to one’s eyes, and I could well believe it; for now, though fifty, she was still incomparable. Her ravaged beauty made the fresh and blooming comeliness of youth a trifle insipid. I do not like these painted faces that look all alike; and I think women are foolish to dull their expression and obscure their personality with powder, rouge, and lipstick. But Elizabeth Vermont painted not to imitate nature, but to improve it; you did not question the means but applauded the result. The flaunting boldness with which she used cosmetics increased rather than diminished the character of that perfect face. I suppose her hair was dyed; it was black and sleek and shining. She held herself upright as though she had never learned to loll and she was very slim. She wore a dress of black satin, the lines and simplicity of which were admirable, and about her neck was a long rope of pearls. Her only other jewel was an enormous emerald which guarded her wedding-ring, and its sombre fire emphasized the whiteness of her hand. But it was in her hands with their reddened nails that she most clearly betrayed her age; they had none of a girl’s soft and dimpled roundness; and you could not but look at them with a certain dismay. Before very long they would look like the talons of a bird of prey.
Elizabeth Vermont was a remarkable woman. Of great birth, for she was the daughter of the seventh Duke of St Erth, she married at the age of eighteen a very rich man and started at once upon a career of astounding extravagance, lewdness, and dissipation. She was too proud to be cautious, too reckless to think of consequences, and within two years her husband in circumstances of appalling scandal divorced her. She married then one of the three corespondents named in the case and eighteen months later ran away from him. Then followed a succession of lovers. She became notorious for her profligacy. Her startling beauty and her scandalous conduct held her in the public eye and it was never very long but that she gave the gossips something to talk about. Her name stank in the nostrils of decent people. She was a gambler, a spendthrift, and a wanton. But though unfaithful to her lovers she was constant to her friends and there always remained a few who would never allow, whatever she did, that she was anything but a very nice woman. She had candour, high spirits, and courage. She was never a hypocrite. She was generous and sincere. It was at this period of her life that I came to know her; for great ladies, now that religion is out of fashion, when they are very much blown upon take a flattering interest in the arts. When they receive the cold shoulder from members of their own class they condescend sometimes to the society of writers, painters, and musicians. I found her an agreeable companion. She was one of those blessed peisons who say quite fearlessly what they think (thus saving much useful time), and she had a ready wit. She was always willing to talk (with a diverting humour) of her lurid past. Her conversation, though uninstructed, was good, because, notwithstanding everything, she was an honest woman.
Then she did a very surprising thing. At the age of forty, she married a boy of twenty-one. Her friends said it was the maddest act of all her life, and some who had stuck to her through thick and thin, now for the boy’s sake, because he was nice and it seemed shameful thus to take advantage of his inexperience, refused to have anything more to do with her. It really was the limit. They prophesied disaster, for Elizabeth Vermont was incapable of sticking to any man for more than six months, nay, they hoped for it, since it seemed the only chance for the wretched youth that his wife should behave so scandalously that he must leave her. They were all wrong. I do not know whether time was responsible for a change of heart in her, or whether Peter Vermont’s innocence and simple love touched her, but the fact remains that she made him an admirable wife. They were poor, and she was extravagant, but she became a thrifty housewife; she grew on a sudden so careful of her reputation that the tongue of scandal was silenced. His happiness seemed her only concern. No one could doubt that she loved him devotedly. After being the subject of so much conversation for so long Elizabeth Vermont ceased to be talked about. It looked as though her story were told. She was a changed woman, and I amused myself with the notion that when she was a very old lady, with many years of perfect respectability behind her, the past, the lurid past, would seem to belong not to her but to someone long since dead whom once she had vaguely known. For women have an enviable faculty of forgetting.
But who can tell what the fates have in store? In the twinkling of an eye all was changed. Peter Vermont, after ten years of an ideal marriage, fell madly in love with a girl called Barbara Canton. She was a nice girl, the youngest daughter of Lord Robert Canton who was at one time Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and she was pretty in a fair and fluffy way. Of course she was not for a moment to be compared with Lady Elizabeth. Many people knew what had happened, but no one could tell whether Elizabeth Vermont had any inkling of it, and they wondered how she would meet a situation that was so foreign to her experience. It was always she who had discarded her lovers; none had deserted her. For my part I thought she would make short work of little Miss Canton; I knew her courage and her adroitness. All this was in my mind now while we chatted over our luncheon. There was nothing in her demeanour, as gay, charming, and frank as usual, to suggest that anything troubled her. She talked as she always talked, lightly but with good sense and a lively perception of the ridiculous, of the various topics which the course of conversation brought forward. I enjoyed myself. I came to the conclusion that by some miracle she had no notion of Peter’s changed feelings, and I explained this to myself by the supposition that her love for him was so great, she could not conceive that his for her might be less.
We drank our coffee and smoked a couple of cigarettes, and she asked me the time.
‘A quarter to three.’
‘I must ask for my bill.’
‘Won’t you let me stand you lunch?’
‘Of course,’ she smiled.
‘Are you in a hurry?’
‘I’m meeting Peter at three.’
‘Oh, how is he?’
‘He’s very well.’
She gave a little smile, that tardy and delightful smile of hers, but I seemed to discern in it a certain mockery. For an instant she hesitated and she looked at me with deliberation.
‘You like curious situations, don’t you?’ she said. ‘You’d never guess the errand I’m bound on. I rang up Peter this morning and asked him to meet me at three. I’m going to ask him to divorce me.’
‘You’re not,’ I cried. I felt myself flush and did not know what to say. ‘I thought you got on so well together.’
‘Do you think it’s likely that I sho
uldn’t know what all the world knows? I’m really not such a fool as all that.’
She was not a woman to whom it was possible to say what one did not believe and I could not pretend that I did not know what she meant. I remained silent for a second or two.
‘Why should you allow yourself to be divorced?’
‘Robert Canton is a stuffy old thing. I very much doubt if he’d let Barbara marry Peter if I divorced him. And for me, you know, it isn’t of the smallest consequence: one divorce more or less . . .’
She shrugged her pretty shoulders.
‘How do you know he wants to marry her?’
‘He’s head over ears in love with her.’
‘Has he told you so?’
‘No. He doesn’t even know that I know. He’s been so wretched, poor darling. He’s been trying so hard not to hurt my feelings.’
‘Perhaps it’s only a momentary infatuation,’ I hazarded. ‘It may pass.’
‘Why should it? Barbara’s young and pretty. She’s quite nice. They’re very well suited to one another. And besides, what good would it do if it did pass? They love each other now and the present in love is all that matters. I’m nineteen years older than Peter. If a man stops loving a woman old enough to be his mother do you think he’ll ever come to love her again? You’re a novelist, you must know more about human nature than that.’
‘Why should you make this sacrifice?’
‘When he asked me to marry him ten years ago I promised him that when he wanted his release he should have it. You see there was so great a disproportion between our ages I thought that was only fair.’
‘And are you going to keep a promise that he hasn’t asked you to keep?’
She gave a little flutter of those long thin hands of hers and now I felt that there was something ominous in the dark glitter of that emerald.
‘Oh, I must, you know. One must behave like a gentleman. To tell you the truth, that’s why I’m lunching here today. It was at this table that he proposed to me; we were dining together, you know, and I was sitting just where I am now. The nuisance is that I’m just as much in love with him now as I was then.’ She paused for a minute and I could see that she clenched her teeth. ‘Well, I suppose I ought to go. Peter hates one to keep him waiting.’
She gave me a sort of little helpless look and it struck me that she simply could not bring herself to rise from her chair. But she smiled and with an abrupt gesture sprang to her feet.
‘Would you like me to come with you?’
‘As far as the hotel door,’ she smiled.
We walked through the restaurant and the lounge and when we came to the entrance a porter swung round the revolving doors. I asked if she would like a taxi.
‘No, I’d sooner walk, it’s such a lovely day.’ She gave me her hand. ‘It’s been so nice to see you. I shall go abroad tomorrow, but I expect to be in London all the autumn. Do ring me up.’
She smiled and nodded and turned away. I watched her walk up Davies Street. The air was still bland and springlike, and above the roofs little white clouds were sailing leisurely in a blue sky. She held herself very erect and the poise of her head was gallant. She was a slim and lovely figure so that people looked at her as they passed. I saw her bow graciously to some acquaintance who raised his hat, and I thought that never in a thousand years would it occur to him that she had a breaking heart. I repeat, she was a very honest woman.
A string of beads
‘WHAT A BIT of luck that I’m placed next to you,’ said Laura, as we sat down to dinner.
‘For me,’ I replied politely.
‘That remains to be seen. I particularly wanted to have the chance of talking to you. I’ve got a story to tell you.’
At this my heart sank a little.
‘I’d sooner you talked about yourself,’ I answered. ‘Or even about me.’
‘Oh, but I must tell you the story. I think you’ll be able to use it.’
‘If you must, you must. But let’s look at the menu first.’
‘Don’t you want me to?’ she said, somewhat aggrieved. ‘I thought you’d be pleased.’
‘I am. You might have written a play and wanted to read me that.’
‘It happened to some friends of mine. It’s perfectly true.’
‘That’s no recommendation. A true story is never quite so true as an invented one.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Nothing very much,’ I admitted. ‘But I thought it sounded well.’
‘I wish you’d let me get on with it.’
‘I’m all attention. I’m not going to eat the soup. It’s fattening.’
She gave me a pinched look and then glanced at the menu. She uttered a little sigh.
‘Oh, well, if you’re going to deny yourself I suppose I must too. Heaven knows, I can’t afford to take liberties with my figure.’
‘And yet is there any soup more heavenly than the sort of soup in which you put a great dollop of cream?’
‘Bortsch,’ she sighed. ‘It’s the only soup I really like.’
‘Never mind. Tell me your story and we’ll forget about food till the fish comes.’
‘Well, I was actually there when it happened. I was dining with the Livingstones. Do you know the Livingstones?’
‘No, I don’t think I do.’
‘Well, you can ask them and they’ll confirm every word I say. They’d asked their governess to come in to dinner because some woman had thrown them over at the last moment – you know how inconsiderate people are – and they would have been thirteen at table. Their governess was a Miss Robinson, quite a nice girl, young, you know, twenty or twenty-one, and rather pretty. Personally I would never engage a governess who was young and pretty. One never knows.’
‘But one hopes for the best.’
Laura paid no attention to my remark.
‘The chances are that she’ll be thinking of young men instead of attending to her duties and then, just when she’s got used to your ways, she’ll want to go and get married. But Miss Robinson had excellent references, and I must allow that she was a very nice, respectable person. I believe in point of fact she was a clergyman’s daughter.
‘There was a man at dinner whom I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of, but who’s quite a celebrity in his way. He’s a Count Borselli and he knows more about precious stones than anyone in the world. He was sitting next to Mary Lyngate, who rather fancies herself on her pearls, and in the course of conversation she asked him what he thought of the string she was wearing. He said it was very pretty. She was rather piqued at this and told him it was valued at eight thousand pounds.
‘“Yes, it’s worth that,” he said.
‘Miss Robinson was sitting opposite to him. She was looking rather nice that evening. Of course I recognized her dress, it was one of Sophie’s old ones; but if you hadn’t known Miss Robinson was the governess you would never have suspected it.
“That’s a very beautiful necklace that young lady has on,” said Borselli.
‘“Oh, but that’s Mrs Livingstone’s governess,” said Mary Lyngate.
‘“I can’t help that,” he said. “She’s wearing one of the finest strings of pearls for its size that I’ve ever seen in my life. It must be worth fifty thousand pounds.”
‘“Nonsense.”
‘“I give you my word it is.”
‘Mary Lyngate leant over. She has rather a shrill voice.
‘“Miss Robinson, do you know what Count Borselli says?” she exclaimed. “He says that string of pearls you’re wearing is worth fifty thousand pounds.”
‘Just at that moment there was a sort of pause in the conversation so that everybody heard. We all turned and looked at Miss Robinson. She flushed a little and laughed.
‘“Well, I made a very good bargain,” she said, “because I paid fifteen shillings for it.”
‘“You certainly did.”
‘We all laughed. It was of course absurd. We’ve all heard of wives pal
ming off on their husbands as false a string of pearls that was real and expensive. That story is as old as the hills.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, thinking of a little narrative of my own.
‘But it was too ridiculous to suppose that a governess would remain a governess if she owned a string of pearls worth fifty thousand pounds. It was obvious that the Count had made a bloomer. Then an extraordinary thing happened. The long arm of coincidence came in.’
‘It shouldn’t,’ I retorted. ‘It’s had too much exercise. Haven’t you seen that charming book called A Dictionary of English Usage?’
‘I wish you wouldn’t interrupt just when I’m really getting to the exciting point.’
But I had to do so again, for just then a young grilled salmon was insinuated round my left elbow.
‘Mrs Livingstone is giving us a heavenly dinner,’ I said.
‘Is salmon fattening?’ asked Laura.
‘Very,’ I answered as I took a large helping.