“Well, said the Dean in her ear, ”we are having a night!”
“Who’s with Miss Newland?”
“Miss Edwards. I’ve warned her not to let the child say anything if she can help it. And I’ve muzzled that nice policeman. Accident, my dear, accident. It’s quite all right. We’ve taken your cue. You kept your head wonderfully. Miss Stevens lost hers a bit, though. Started to cry and talk about suicide. I soon shut her up.”
“Damn!” said Harriet. “What did she want to do that for?”
“What indeed? You’d think she wanted to make a scandal.”
“Somebody obviously does.”
“You don’t think Miss Stevens-? She did her bit with the rescue-work, you know.”
“Yes, I know. All right, Dean. I don’t think. I won’t try to think. I thought she and Miss Edwards would have that boat over between them.”
“Don’t let’s discuss it now. Thank Heaven the worst hasn’t happened. The girl’s safe and that’s all that matters. What we’ve got to do now is to put the best face on it.”
It was nearly five in the morning when the rescuers, weary and bandaged, sat once again in the Warden’s house. Everybody was praising everybody else.
“It was so clever of Miss Vane,” said the Dean, “to realize that the wretched child would go up to that particular place. What a mercy that we arrived just when we did.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” said Harriet. “We may have done more harm than good. Do you realize that it was only when she saw us coming that she made up her mind to do it?”
“Do you mean she mightn’t have done it at all if we hadn’t gone after her?”
“Difficult to say. She was putting it off, I think. What really sent her in was that shout from the other boat. Who shouted, by the way?”
“I shouted,” said Miss Stevens. “I looked over my shoulder and saw her. So I shouted.”
“What was she doing when you saw her?”
“Standing up in the canoe.”
“No she wasn’t,” said Miss Edwards. “I looked round when you shouted, and she was just getting to her feet then.”
“You’re quite mistaken,” contradicted Miss Stevens. “I say she was standing up when I saw her, and I shouted to stop her. You couldn’t have seen past me.”
“I saw perfectly plainly,” said Miss Edwards. “Miss Vane is quite right. It was when she heard the shout that she got up.”
“I know what I saw,” said the Bursar, obstinately.
“It’s a pity you didn’t take somebody to cox,” said the Dean. “Nobody can see clearly what’s going on behind her back.”
“It is hardly necessary to argue about it,” said the Warden, a little sharply “The tragedy has been prevented, and that is all that matters. I am exceedingly grateful to everybody.”
“I resent the suggestion,” said Miss Stevens, “that I drove the unfortunate girl to destroy herself. And as for saying that we ought not to have gone in search of her-”
“I never said that,” said Harriet, wearily. “I only said that if we had not gone it might not have happened. But of course we had to go.”
“What does Newland say herself?” demanded the Dean.
“Says, why couldn’t we leave her alone?” replied Miss Edwards. “I told her not to be an inconsiderate little ass.”
“Poor child!” said Miss Shaw.
“If I were you,” said Miss Edwards, “I shouldn’t be too soft with these people. Bracing up is what does them good. You let them talk too much about themselves-”
“But she didn’t talk to me,” said Miss Shaw. “I tried very hard to make her.”
“They’d talk much more if you’d only leave them alone.”
“I think we’d better all go to bed,” said Miss Martin.
“What a night,” said Harriet, as she rolled, dog-weary, between the sheets. “What a gaudy night!” Her memory, thrashing round her brain like a cat in a sack, brought up the images of Mr. Pomfret and the pro-Proctor. They seemed to belong to another existence.
13
My sad hurt it shall releeve,
When my thoughts I shall disclose,
For thou canst not chuse but greeve,
When I shall recount my woes:
There is nothing to that friend,
To whose close uncranied breast,
We our secret thoughts may send,
And there safely let it rest;
And thy faithfull counsell may
My distressed case assist,
Sad affliction else may sway
Me a woman as it list.
– MICHAEL DRAYTON
You must see,” said Harriet, “that it’s impossible to go on like this. You’ve got to call in expert help and risk the consequences. Any scandal is better than a suicide and an inquest.”
“I think you are right,” said the Warden.
Only Miss Lydgate, the Dean and Miss Edwards sat with Dr. Baring in the Warden’s sitting-room. The brave pretence at confidence had been given up. In the Senior Common Room, members averted their eyes from one another and set a guard upon their lips. They were no longer angry and suspicious. They were afraid.
“The girl’s parents are not likely to keep quiet about it,” went on Harriet, remorselessly. “If she had succeeded in drowning herself, we should have the police and the reporters in at this moment. Next time, the attempt may come off.”
“Next time-” began Miss Lydgate.
“There will be a next time,” said Harriet. “And it may not be suicide; it may be open murder. I told you at the beginning that I did not think the measures adequate. I now say that I refuse to take any further share in the responsibility. I have tried, and I have failed, every time.”
“What could the police do?” asked Miss Edwards. “We did have them in once-about those thefts, you remember, Warden. They made a great deal of fuss and arrested the wrong person. It was a very troublesome business.”
“I don’t think the police are the right people at all,” said the Dean. “Your idea was a firm of private detectives, wasn’t it?”
She turned to Harriet.
“Yes; but if anybody else has anything better to suggest-”
Nobody had any very helpful suggestion. The discussion went on. In the end:
“Miss Vane,” said the Warden, “I think your idea is the best. Will you get into communication with these people?”
“Very well, Warden. I will ring up the head of the firm.”
“You will use discretion.”
“Of course,” said Harriet. She was becoming a little impatient; the time for discretion seemed to her to be past. “If we call people in, we shall have to give them a free hand, you know,” she added.
This was obviously an unpalatable reminder, though its force had to be admitted. Harriet could foresee endless hampering restrictions placed upon the investigators, and felt the difficulties that went with a divided authority. The police were answerable to nobody but themselves, but paid private detectives were compelled to do more or less as they were told. She looked at Dr. Baring, and wondered whether Miss Climpson or any other underlings was capable of asserting herself against that formidable personality.
“And now,” said the Dean, as she and Harriet crossed the quad together, “I’ve got to go and tackle the Newlands. I’m not looking forward to it. They’ll be terribly upset, poor things. He’s a very minor civil servant, and their daughter’s career means everything to them. Quite apart from the personal side of it, it’ll be a frightful blow if this ruins her Schools. They’re very poor and hard-working, and so proud of her-”
Miss Martin made a little despairing gesture, squared her shoulders and went to face her task.
Miss Hillyard, in her gown, was making for one of the lecture-rooms. She looked hollow-eyed and desperate, Harriet thought. Her glance shot from side to side, as though she were pursued.