When the honeymoon pair returned to the hotel the four remaining guests were sitting outside on the gravelled square, before the veranda. They were enjoying the restful interlude of "between the lights." It was too dark to write letters, or read-too early to dress for dinner. Empty cups and cake-crumbs on one of the tables showed that they had taken afternoon tea in the open and had not moved since.
It was typical of two of them, the Misses Flood-Porter, to settle. They were not the kind that flitted, being in the fifties and definitely set in their figures and their habits. Both had immaculately waved grey hair, which retained sufficient samples of the original tint to give them the courtesy-title of blondes. They had also, in common, excellent natural complexions and rather fierce expressions.
The delicate skin of the elder-Miss Evelyn-was slightly shrivelled, for she was nearly sixty, while Miss Rose was only just out of the forties. The younger sister was taller and stouter; her voice was louder, her colour deeper. In an otherwise excellent character, was a streak of amiable bully, which made her inclined to scold her partner at contract.
During their visit, they had formed a quartette with the Reverend Kenneth Barnes and his wife. They had travelled out on the same train, and they planned to return to England together. The vicar and his wife had the gift of pleasant companionship, which the Misses Flood-Porter-who were without it-attributed to mutual tastes and prejudices.
The courtyard was furnished with iron chairs and tables, enamelled in brilliant colours, and was decorated with tubs of dusty evergreen shrubs. As Miss Flood-Porter looked round her, she thought of her own delightful home in a Cathedral city.
According to the papers, there had been rain in England, so the garden should look its best, with vivid green grass and lush borders of asters and dahlias.
"I'm looking forward to seeing my garden again," she said.
"Ours," corrected her sister, who was John Blunt.
"And I'm looking forward to a comfortable chair," laughed the vicar. "Ha. Here comes the bridal pair."
In spite of a sympathetic interest in his fellows he did not call out a genial greeting. He had learned from his first-and final-rebuff that they resented any intrusion on their privacy. So he leaned back, puffing at his pipe, while he watched them mount the steps of the veranda.
"Handsome pair," he said in an approving voice.
"I wonder who they really are," remarked Miss Flood-Porter. "The man's face is familiar to me. I know I've seen him somewhere."
"On the pictures, perhaps," suggested her sister.
"Oh, do you go?" broke in Mrs. Barnes eagerly, hoping to claim another taste in common, for she concealed a guilty passion for the cinema.
"Only to see George Arliss and Diana Wynyard," explained Miss Flood-Porter.
"That settles it," said the vicar. "He's certainly not George Arliss, and neither is she Diana."
"All the same, I feel certain there is some mystery about them," persisted Miss Flood-Porter.
"So do I," agreed Mrs. Barnes. "I-I wonder if they are really married."
"Are you?" asked her husband quickly.
He laughed gently when his wife flushed to her eyes.
"Sorry to startle you, my dear," he said, "but isn't it simpler to believe that we are all of us what we assume to be? Even parsons and their wives." He knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and rose from his chair. "I think I'll stroll down to the village for a chat with my friends."
"How can he talk to them when he doesn't know their language?" demanded Miss Rose bluntly, when the vicar had gone from the garden.
"Oh, he makes them understand," explained his wife proudly. "Sympathy, you know, and common humanity. He'd rub noses with a savage."
"I'm afraid we drove him away by talking scandal," said Miss Flood-Porter.
"It was my fault," declared Mrs. Barnes. "I know people think I'm curious. But, really, I have to force myself to show an interest in my neighbour's affairs. It's my protest against our terrible national shyness."
"But we're proud of that," broke in Miss Rose. "England does not need to advertise."
"Of course not. But we only pass this way once. I have to remind myself that the stranger sitting beside me may be in some trouble and that I might be able to help."
The sisters looked at her with approval. She was a slender woman in the mid-forties, with a pale oval face, dark hair, and a sweet expression. Her large brown eyes were both kind and frank-her manner sincere.
It was impossible to connect her with anything but rigid honesty. They knew that she floundered into awkward explanations, rather than run the risk of giving a false impression.
In her turn, she liked the sisters. They were of solid worth and sound respectability. One felt that they would serve on juries with distinction, and do their duty to their God and their neighbour-while permitting no direction as to its nature.
They were also leisured people, with a charming house and garden, well-trained maids and frozen assets in the bank. Mrs. Barnes knew this, so, being human, it gave her a feeling of superiority to reflect that the one man in their party was her husband.
She could appreciate the sense of ownership, because, up to her fortieth birthday, she had gone on her yearly holiday in the company of a huddle of other spinsters. Since she had left school, she had earned her living by teaching, until the miracle happened which gave her-not only a husband-but a son.
Both she and her husband were so wrapped up in the child that the vicar sometimes feared that their devotion was tempting Fate. The night before they set out on their holiday he proposed a pact.
"Yes," he agreed, looking down at the sleeping boy in his cot. "He is beautiful. But It is my privilege to read the Commandments to others. Sometimes, I wonder-"
"I know what you mean," interrupted his wife. "Idolatry."
He nodded.
"I am as guilty as you," he admitted. "So I mean to discipline myself. In our position, we have special opportunities to influence others. We must not grow lop-sided, but develop every part of our nature. If this holiday is to do us real good, it must be a complete mental change. My dear, suppose we agree not to talk exclusively of Gabriel, while we are away?"
Mrs. Barnes agreed. But her promise did not prevent her from thinking of him continually. Although they had left him in the care of a competent grandmother, she was foolishly apprehensive about his health.
While she was counting the remaining hours before her return to her son, and Miss Flood-Porter smiled in anticipation of seeing her garden, Miss Rose was pursuing her original train of thought. She always ploughed a straight furrow, right to its end.
"I can't understand how any one can tell a lie," she declared. "Unless, perhaps, some poor devil who's afraid of being sacked. But-people like us. We know a wealthy woman who boasts of making false declarations at the Customs. Sheer dishonesty."
As she spoke, Iris appeared at the gate of the hotel garden. She did her best to skirt the group at the table, but she could not avoid hearing what was said.
"Perhaps I should not judge others," remarked Mrs. Barnes in the clear carrying voice of a form-mistress. "I've never felt the slightest temptation to tell a lie."
"Liar," thought Iris automatically.
She was in a state of utter fatigue, which bordered on collapse. It was only by the exercise of every atom of willpower that she forced herself to reach the hotel. The ordeal had strained her nerves almost to breaking-point. Although she longed for the quiet of her room, she knew she could not mount the stairs without a short rest. Every muscle felt wrenched as she dropped down on an iron chair and closed her eyes.
"If any one speaks to me, I'll scream," she thought.
The Misses Flood-Porter exchanged glances and turned down the corners of their mouths. Even gentle Mrs. Barnes' soft brown eyes held no welcome, for she had been a special victim of the crowd's bad manners and selfishness.
They behaved as though they had bought the hotel and the other guests were interlopers, exacting preferential treatment-and getting it-by bribery. This infringement of fair-dealing annoyed the other tourists, as they adhered to the terms of their payment to a travelling agency, which included service.
The crowd monopolised the billiard-table and secured the best chairs. They were always served first at meals; courses gave out, and bath-water ran luke-warm.
Even the vicar found that his charity was strained. He did his best to make allowance for the animal spirits of youth, although he was aware that several among the party could not be termed juvenile.
Unfortunately, Iris' so-called friends included two persons who were no testimonial for the English nation; and since it was difficult to distinguish one girl in a bathing-brief from another, Mrs. Barnes was of the opinion that they were all doing the same thing-getting drunk and making love.
Her standard of decency was offended by the sunbathing-her nights disturbed by noise. Therefore she was specially grateful for the prospect of two peaceful days, spent amid glorious scenery and in congenial company.
But, apparently, there was not a complete clearance of the crowd; there was a hangover, in this girl-and there might be others. Mrs. Barnes had vaguely remarked Iris, because she was pretty, and had been pursued by a bathing-gentleman with a matronly figure.
As the man was married, his selection was not to her credit. But she seemed to be so exhausted that Mrs. Barnes' kindly heart soon reproached her for lack of sympathy.
"Are you left all alone?" she called, in her brightest tones.
Iris shuddered at the unexpected overture. At that moment the last thing in the world she wanted was mature interest, which, in her experience, masked curiosity.
"Yes," she replied.
"Oh, dear, what a shame. Aren't you lonely?"
"No."
"But you're rather young to be travelling without friends. Couldn't any of your people come with you?"
"I have none."
"No family at all?"
"No, and no relatives. Aren't I lucky?"
Iris was not near enough to hear the horrified gasp of the Misses Flood-Porter; but Mrs. Barnes' silence told her that her snub had not miscarried. To avoid a further inquisition, she made a supreme effort to rise, for she was stiffening in every joint, and managed to drag herself into the hotel and upstairs to her room.
Mrs. Barnes tried to carry off the incident with a laugh.
"I'm afraid I've blundered again," she said. "She plainly resented me. But it seemed hardly human for us to sit like dummies, and show no interest in her."
"Is she interested in you?" demanded Miss Rose. "Or in us? That sort of girl is utterly selfish. She wouldn't raise a finger, or go an inch out of her way, to help any one."
There was only one answer to the question, which Mrs. Barnes was too kind to make. So she remained silent, since she could not tell a lie.
Neither she-nor any one else-could foretell the course of the next twenty-four hours, when this girl-standing alone against a cloud of witnesses-would endure such anguish of spirit as threatened her sanity, on behalf of a stranger for whom she had no personal feeling.
Or rather-if there was actually such a person as Miss Froy.
