That possibility at any rate only made it a happier thought that I should carry the boy away to visit other cities. There were many assuredly much more worthy of his attention than Homburg. In the course of the morning (it was after our early luncheon) I walked round to Mrs Pallant’s, to let her know that this truth had come over me with force; and while I did so I again felt the unlikelihood of the part attributed by my fears and by the mother’s own, if they were real, to Linda. Certainly if she was such a girl as these fears represented her she would fly at higher game. It was with an eye to high game, Mrs Pallant had frankly admitted to me, that she had been trained, and such an education, to say nothing of such a subject, justified a hope of greater returns. A young American who could give her nothing but pocket-money was a very moderate prize, and if she were prepared to marry for ambition (there was no such hardness in her face or tone, but then there never is), her mark would be at the least an English duke. I was received at Mrs Pallant’s lodgings with the announcement that she had left Homburg with her daughter half an hour before. The good woman who had entertained the pair professed to know nothing of their movements beyond the fact that they had gone to Frankfort, where however it was her belief that they did not intend to remain. They were evidently travelling beyond. Sudden? Oh yes, tremendously sudden. They must have spent the night in packing, they had so many things and such pretty ones; and their poor maid all the morning had scarcely had time to swallow her coffee. But they evidently were ladies accustomed to come and go. It did not matter: with such rooms as hers she never wanted; there was a new family coming in at three o’clock.
IV
THIS piece of strategy left me staring and I confess it made me rather angry. My only consolation was that Archie, when I told him, looked as blank as myself and that the trick touched him more nearly, for I was not in love with Louisa. We agreed that we required an explanation and we pretended to expect one the next day in the shape of a letter satisfactory even to the point of being apologetic. When I say ‘we’ pretended I mean that I did, for my suspicion that he knew (through an arrangement with Linda) what had become of our friends lasted only a moment. If his resentment was less than my own his surprise was equally great. I had been willing to bolt, but I felt rather slighted by the facility with which Mrs Pallant had shown that she could part with us. Archie was not angry, because in the first place he was good-natured and in the second it was evidently not definite to him that he had been encouraged, having, I think, no very particular idea of what constituted encouragement. He was fresh from the wonderful country in which between the ingenuous young there may be so little question of ‘intentions’. He was but dimly conscious of his own and would have had no opinion as to whether he had been provoked or jilted. I had no wish to exasperate him, but when at the end of three days more we were still without news of our late companions I remarked that it was very simple; it was plain they were just hiding from us; they thought us dangerous; they wished to avoid entanglements. They had found us too attentive and wished not to raise false hopes. He appeared to accept this explanation and even had the air (so at least I judged from his asking me no questions) of thinking that the matter might be delicate for myself. The poor youth was altogether much mystified, and I smiled at the image in his mind of Mrs Pallant fleeing from his uncle’s importunities.
We decided to leave Homburg, but if we did not pursue her it was not simply that we were ignorant of where she was. I could have found that out with a little trouble, but I was deterred by the reflection that this would be her own reasoning. She was dishonest and her departure was a provocation – I am afraid that it was in that stupid conviction that I made out a little independent itinerary with Archie. I even said to myself that we should learn where they were quite soon enough and that our patience – even my young man’s – would be longer than theirs. Therefore I uttered a small private cry of triumph when three weeks later (we happened to be at Interlaken) he told me that he had received a note from Miss Pallant. His manner of telling me was to inquire whether there were any particular reasons why we should longer delay our projected visit to the Italian lakes; was not the fear of the hot weather, which was moreover in summer our native temperature, at an end, as it was already the middle of September? I answered that we would start on the morrow if he liked, and then, pleased apparently that I was so easy to deal with, he revealed his little secret. He showed me the letter, which was a graceful, natural document – it covered with a few flowing strokes but a single page of notepaper – not at all compromising to the young lady. If however it was almost the apology I had looked for (save that that should have come from the mother), it was not ostensibly in the least an invitation. It mentioned casually (the mention was mainly in the date) that they were on the Lago Maggiore, at Baveno; but it consisted mainly of the expression of a regret that they had to leave us at Homburg without giving notice. Linda did not say under what necessity they had found themselves; she only hoped we had not judged them too harshly and would accept ‘these few hasty words’ as a substitute for the omitted good-bye. She also hoped we were passing our time in an interesting manner and having the same lovely weather that prevailed south of the Alps; and she remained very sincerely, with the kindest remembrances to me.
The note contained no message from her mother and it was open to me to suppose, as I should judge, either that Mrs Pallant had not known she was writing or that they wished to make us think she had not known. The letter might pass as a common civility of the girl’s to a person with whom she had been on very familiar terms. It was however as something more than this that my nephew took it; at least so I was warranted in inferring from the very distinct nature of his determination to go to Baveno. I saw it was useless to drag him another way; he had money in his own pocket and was quite capable of giving me the slip. Yet – such are the sweet incongruities of youth – when I asked him if he had been thinking of Linda Pallant ever since they left us in the lurch he replied, ‘Oh dear no; why should I?’ This fib was accompanied by an exorbitant blush. Since he must obey the young lady’s call I must also go and see where it would take him, and one splendid morning we started over the Simplon in a post-chaise.
I represented to him successfully that it would be in much better taste for us to alight at Stresa, which as every one knows is a resort of tourists, also on the shore of the major lake, at about a mile’s distance from Baveno. If we stayed at the latter place we should have to inhabit the same hotel as our friends, and this would be indiscreet, considering our peculiar relations with them. Nothing would be easier than to go and come between the two points, especially by the water, which would give Archie a chance for unlimited paddling. His face lighted up at the vision of a pair of oars; he pretended to take my plea for discretion very seriously and I could see that he immediately began to calculate opportunities for being afloat with Linda. Our post-chaise (I had insisted on easy stages and we were three days on the way) deposited us at Stresa toward the middle of the afternoon, and it was within an amazingly short time that I found myself in a small boat with my nephew, who pulled us over to Baveno with vigorous strokes. I remember the sweetness of the whole impression (I had had it before, but to my companion it was new and he thought it as pretty as the opera); the enchanting beauty of the place and hour, the stillness of the air and water, with the romantic, fantastic Borromean Islands in the midst of them. We disembarked at the steps at the garden-foot of the hotel, and somehow it seemed a perfectly natural part of the lovely situation that I should immediately become conscious Mrs Pallant and her daughter were sitting there – on the terrace – quietly watching us. They had all the air of expecting us and I think we looked for it in them. I had not even asked Archie if he had answered Linda’s note; that was between themselves and in the way of supervision I had done enough in coming with him.
There is no doubt there was something very odd in our meeting with our friends – at least as between Louisa and me. I was too much taken up with that part of it to n
otice very much what was the manner of the encounter of the young people. I have sufficiently indicated that I could not get it out of my head that Mrs Pallant was ‘up to’ something, and I am afraid she saw in my face that this suspicion had been the motive of my journey. I had come there to find her out. The knowledge of my purpose could not help her to make me very welcome, and that is why I say we met in strange conditions. However, on this occasion we observed all forms and the admirable scene gave us plenty to talk about. I made no reference before Linda to the retreat from Homburg. She looked even prettier than she had done on the eve of that manoeuvre and gave no sign of an awkward consciousness. She struck me so, afresh, as a charming, clever girl that I was puzzled afresh to know why we should get – or should have got – into a tangle about her. People had to want to complicate a situation to do it on so simple a pretext as that Linda was admirable. So she was, and why should not the consequences be equally so? One of them, on the spot, was that at the end of a very short time Archie proposed to her to take a turn with him in his boat, which awaited us at the foot of the steps. She looked at her mother with a smiling ‘May I, mamma?’ and Mrs Pallant answered, ‘Certainly, darling, if you are not afraid.’ At this – I scarcely knew why – I burst out laughing; it seemed so droll to me somehow that timidity should be imputed to this competent young lady. She gave me a quick, slightly sharp look as she turned away with my nephew; it appeared to challenge me a little – to say, ‘Pray what is the matter with you?’ It was the first expression of the kind I had ever seen in her face. Mrs Pallant’s eyes, on the other hand, were not turned to mine; after we had been left there together she sat silent, not heeding me, looking at the lake and mountains – at the snowy crests which wore the flush of evening. She seemed not even to watch our young companions as they got into their boat and pushed off. For some minutes I respected her reverie; I walked slowly up and down the terrace and lighted a cigar, as she had always permitted me to do at Homburg. I noticed that she had an expression of weariness which I had never seen before; her delicate, agreeable face was pale; I made out that there were new lines of fatigue, almost of age, in it. At last I stopped in front of her and asked her, since she looked so sad, if she had any bad news.
‘The only bad news was when I learned – through your nephew’s note to Linda – that you were coming to us.’
‘Ah, then he wrote?’ I exclaimed.
‘Certainly he wrote.’
‘You take it all harder than I do,’ I remarked, sitting down beside her. And then I added, smiling, ‘Have you written to his mother?’
She slowly turned her face to me and rested her eyes on mine. ‘Take care, take care, or you’ll insult me,’ she said, with an air of patience before the inevitable.
‘Never, never! Unless you think I do so if I ask you if you knew when Linda wrote.’
She hesitated a moment. ‘Yes; she showed me her letter. She wouldn’t have done anything else. I let it go because I didn’t know what it was best to do. I am afraid to oppose her, to her face.’
‘Afraid, my dear friend, with that girl?’
‘That girl? Much you know about her! It didn’t follow that you would come – I didn’t think it need follow.’
‘I am like you,’ I said – ‘I am afraid of my nephew. I don’t venture to oppose him to his face. The only thing I could do under the circumstances was to come with him.’
‘I see; I’m glad you have done it,’ said Mrs Pallant, thoughtfully.
‘Oh, I was conscientious about that! But I have no authority; I can’t order him nor forbid him – I can use no force. Look at the way he is pulling that boat and see if you can fancy me.’
‘You could tell him she’s a bad, hard girl, who would poison any good man’s life!’ my companion suddenly broke out, with a kind of passion.
‘Dear Mrs Pallant, what do you mean?’ I murmured, staring.
She bent her face into her hands, covering it over with them, and remained so for a minute; then she went on, in a different manner, as if she had not heard my question: ‘I hoped you were too disgusted with us, after the way we left you planted.’
‘It was disconcerting, assuredly, and it might have served if Linda hadn’t written. That patched it up,’ I said, laughing. But my laughter was hollow, for I had been exceedingly impressed with her little explosion of a moment before. ‘Do you really mean she is bad?’ I added.
Mrs Pallant made no immediate answer to this; she only said that it did not matter after all whether the crisis should come a few weeks sooner or a few weeks later, since it was destined to come at the first opening. Linda had marked my young man – and when Linda had marked a thing!
‘Bless my soul – how very grim! Do you mean she’s in love with him?’ I demanded, incredulous.
‘It’s enough if she makes him think she is – though even that isn’t essential.’
‘If she makes him think so? Dearest lady, what do you mean? I have observed her, I have watched her, and after all what has she done? She has been nice to him, but it would have been much more marked if she hadn’t. She has really shown him nothing but the common friendliness of a bright, good-natured girl. Her note was nothing; he showed it to me.’
‘I don’t think you have heard every word that she has said to him,’ Mrs Pallant rejoined, with a persistence that struck me as unnatural.
‘No more have you, I take it!’ I exclaimed. She evidently meant more than she said, and this impression chilled me, made me really uncomfortable.
‘No, but I know my own daughter. She’s a very rare young woman.’
‘You have a singular tone about her,’ I responded – ‘such a tone as I think I have never heard on a mother’s lips. I have observed it before, but never so accentuated.’
At this Mrs Pallant got up; she stood there an instant, looking down at me. ‘You make my reparation – my expiation – difficult!’ And leaving me rather startled, she began to move along the terrace.
I overtook her presently and repeated her words. ‘Your reparation – your expiation? What on earth do you mean by that?’
‘You know perfectly what I mean – it is too magnanimous of you to pretend you don’t.’
‘Well, at any rate I don’t see what good it does me or what it makes up to me for that you should abuse your daughter.’
‘Oh, I don’t care; I shall save him!’ she exclaimed, as we went, with a kind of perverse cheerfulness. At the same moment two ladies, apparently English, came toward us (scattered groups had been sitting there and the inmates of the hotel were moving to and fro), and I observed the immediate charming transition (it seemed to me to show such years of social practice), by which, as they greeted us, she exchanged her excited, almost fevered expression for an air of recognition and pleasure. They stopped to speak to her and she asked with eagerness whether their mother were better. I strolled on and she presently rejoined me; after which she said impatiently, ‘Come away from this – come down into the garden.’ We descended into the garden, strolled through it and paused on the border of the lake.
V
THE charm of the evening had deepened, the stillness was like a solemn expression on a beautiful face and the whole air of the place divine. In the fading light my nephew’s boat was too far out to be perceived. I looked for it a little and then, as I gave it up, I remarked that from such an excursion as that, on such a lake, at such an hour, a young man and a young woman of ordinary sensibility could only come back doubly pledged to each other. To this observation Mrs Pallant’s answer was, superficially at least, irrelevant; she said after a pause:
‘With you, my dear sir, one has certainly to dot one’s “i’s”. Haven’t you discovered, and didn’t I tell you at Homburg, that we are miserably poor?’
‘Isn’t “miserably” rather too much, when you are living at an expensive hotel?’
‘They take us en pension, for ever so little a day. I have been knocking about Europe long enough to learn there are certain ways of doing things.
Besides, don’t speak of hotels; we have spent half our life in them and Linda told me only last night that she hoped never to put her foot into one again. She thinks that when she comes to such a place as this it’s the least that she should find a villa of her own.’