“That’s right. She met your father, it was love at first sight, and they were going to be married and go out to opal country. I didn’t think it was any place for such a dainty creature, but she was raring to go. As long as he’d be there, that was the place for her. She was fast catching opal fever; she swore she’d put up with anything as long as they could be together. And she would have too. I used to envy Desmond Dereham his happiness; he was a handsome boy, good family too.
And honest . so I thought. He’d got adventure in his blood and that was what sent him out to Australia. He’d come for gold at first, like we all do, and when he found his first opal he no longer cared for gold. He had a feeling he’d stumbled on one of the richest opal mines in New South Wales. He talked constantly about this place. He had a feeling for it and we joked about it, calling it Desmond’s Fancy. Then we started to think there might be something in it. It was to discuss this that we all gathered together at Oakland. Then he met your mother and they fell in love and planned to marry. That was how it was up to that night. “
“What actually happened on that night?”
Ben appeared to consider carefully. There was Joss, Desmond, Croissant, and myself. Joss was fourteen then, going to school over here. My goodness, he was a sharp one. You’d never take him for so young. He already knew what he was going to do. He was going to be the biggest opal man in Australia . oh no, not just Australia . the whole world! That was his way of looking at everything. He was already telling me what I ought to do. That made me sit up, I can tell you.
But the crunch was that he was sometimes right. He already towered above us all and he hadn’t finished growing Six feet five inches.
That’s Joss now and in his stockinged feet. “
“Yes, yes,” I said a little impatiently, being eager to hear about the fateful night and tired of hearing of the perfections of his son Joss Madden.
“Well, Joss then, and David Croissant. David had merchanted stones all over Australia, America, England and the Continent of Europe.
Where opals were concerned he was a man who knew what he was talking about. Then there was Desmond Dereham. Very enthusiastic, he was. We sat here in this room and Desmond laid out his plans for the Fancy and we studied them. He’d examined the land, done a bit of prospecting and although so far he’d found only the smallest traces of opal, he had the feeling that this could prove one of the richest fields in New South Wales. Of course we wanted proof and so far there was little to go on. He’d found opal dirt there and he’d found round hard lumps of silica-just fine grains of sand cemented together and in this are veins of opal. Anyway it’s an indication that somewhere in land like this there could be big fine opals. We worked out where the best place to sink the shafts would be. We were going to keep it fairly small just at first, and then if Desmond’s hunch proved correct we’d go all out in a big way. David Croissant was coming to examine the first finds and decide what would be the best way of marketing them. Then we’d need cutters and the latest equipment to get things in motion.
There we were discussing all this, feeling our way, as it were. I remember Desmond’s enthusiasm. He knew we were going to make a big strike, he said. Gougers are superstitious in a way. Some of them believe that there’s a guiding hand that leads them to success, and that’s how we all felt about Desmond’s hunch that night. There was something in him . a sort of sheen of confidence. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve seen it before. It nearly always means success and I think that every one of us sitting round the table that night believed that Desmond’s Fancy was going to yield the finest, opals yet come to light. We reckoned it would be black opal, and the market was growing for that kind. At one time it was all for the light milky ones, as I’ve told you. Pretty enough, but black was coming into fashion. I said I reckoned we’d never find anything as good as the Green Flash at Sunset. Then we got talking of the Flash and they wanted to look at it.
“I brought them all in here and opened the safe to show them. There it lay in its velvet nest. What a sight! You haven’t seen opal till you’ve seen the Green Flash. Desmond Dereham stretched out his hands to take the Flash. He let her lie in his palm for a moment, and then he called out: ” I saw it. I saw the Green Flash. ” I snatched it from him and stared at the opal. I turned it round, but I couldn’t catch the flash.
You know I saw the real green flash once when I was coming home from Australia, just as the sun dropped below the horizon I saw it as I had seen it once in the opal.
“You really saw it, Desmond?” I cried then.
“I’m sure of it,” answered Desmond. Joss swore he saw it too. He always had to be there right in the centre of everything. No one must score over him. The next morning your father had gone. He had packed his bags and taken his belongings with him and quietly slipped away.
And the Green Flash had disappeared. “
“I can’t believe that my father took it.”
“four loyalty does you credit, but it’s never wise to blink facts when they’re as plain as all the pike staffs in the world. Desmond Dereham came here, lived here for a while in this house, seduced your mother, promised to marry her, and then the temptation of the Green Flash was too strong for him … so he took her and ran off with her instead.”
“There must be another explanation.”
Ben leaned forward and took my hand.
"I know what you’re thinking. He was your father. Well, I understand how you feel. But what happened to the Green Flash? David Croissant wouldn’t have taken it. He’d never have had the guts. He was a salesman. He saw opals just as money. He knew their quality as few people did, but he didn’t have the sentimental feeling for any one stone. He’d see its market value, and what market value would the Green Flash have had when it was offered? It would be recognized at once, and he’d be exposed as a thief, Joss? ” Ben chuckled.
“Granted Joss would be capable of anything. I knew how he felt about the Green Rash, but he could see it when he wanted to. Unless of course the urge came over him to own it.. ” You said it was that sort of stone. It had a peculiar fascination. “
“Now you are trying to put this on to joss, are you … to I exonerate your father? There were a lot of people who were II afraid of the Green Flash. As I told you, it was sometimes known as the Unlucky One. There were legends attaching to it. It was said to bring misfortune. I never believed it. But look at me now.”
“But you’d lost it. I just don’t believe my father would have deserted my mother.”
“He didn’t know you were on the way then. Perhaps that would have made a difference … or perhaps not. You’ve never seen the Green Flash. If you had you might understand what effect it can have on people. There’s a lot you’ve got to learn about men and the world and this thing called fascination, obsession … never mind what you call it, it’s what it is that counts.”
“What happened to my father’s Fancy?"
” It’s now one of the finest opal fields in Australia. “So he was right about that.”
“Oh yes, he was right.”
“Do you think he would never have come back to look at it?”
“How could he when he had the Green Hash?”
“Do you believe he would have given up his dream … his Fancy .. and my mother … for the sake of one opal which be would never be able-openly-to call his own?”
“I can only repeat. Miss Jessie, that you have never seen the Green Flash.” He reached for his crutch.
“You watch me walk across the room.
I’m getting used to old peg leg I’ll soon be moving around as though I had two sound limbs. Then.“
I looked at him searchingly, but he just shook his head. I knew what he meant and that he didn’t want to tell me now. If he could get about more easily he would be thinking of leaving Oakland Hall. I did not want to contemplate how I wretched I should be without him. ‘
When I left Ben that day and was coming down the Oakland Drive, my grandmother, who had been taking some hemmed busters to the ‘poor’, saw me. She stood very still and stared at me as though she thought she were dreaming. I felt defiant. There was not going to be any more pretence.
“Jessica,” she cried incredulously, ‘where have you been? “
I answered almost flippantly: “Visiting Mr. Ben Henniker!” I waited for the storm to burst. It didn’t immediately, of use. Her sense of decorum would always govern her anger, as we went into the Dower House, Xavier and Miriam ‘e just coming and she cried to them: “Come into the wing-room and, Miriam, ask your father if he can tear is elf away from his cards and spare us a moment’ when we were all gathered together in the drawing-room, I grandmother shut the door so that the servants couldn’t pw,
"Jessica, I should like an explanation,” she said. simple. I retorted.
“I was visiting my friend Mr. Ben"
Your friend! “
“Yes, and a better friend than anyone in this house has ever been to me.”
“Have you taken leave of your senses ?” “No. I am in full possession of them and that is why I seek friendship outside this house of pretence and shame.”
“Pray be silent. You had better explain at once how you came to be at Oakland Hall.”
“First I should like you to explain why you have pretended to be my mother all these years and why you made her life so miserable that she drowned herself…”
They were all staring at me. I was sure it was the first time in her life that my grandmother had ever felt at a disadvantage.
“Jessica!” cried Miriam, looking from her mother to Xavier, seeking a clue as to what she should think, I supposed, while my grandfather looked about him as though searching for The Times to cower behind; only Xavier was calm.
“I suspect someone has told you the story of your birth,” he said.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” I answered.
“It depends on what you’ve heard.”
“I know that my mother is dead and how she died and that she’s buried in the Waste Land and you tried to forget her.”
“It was a tragic time for us all,” said Xavier.
“And mostly for her,” I cried.
Then my grandmother spoke.
“We had done nothing to deserve it.”
“You deserved everything that came to you,” I retorted scornfully.
This,” said my grandmother, ‘is what comes of friendship with miners.”
“Please do not speak slightingly of Mr. Henniker. He’s a good man. If he had been here he would have helped her as none of you did.”
“On the contrary,” went on my grandmother, ‘we inconvenienced ourselves greatly to help her. We sold the silver salver and the George IV punch bowl to get her abroad, and I accepted you as my daughter. “
"You didn’t give her kindness, and that was what she wanted. You made her life miserable . you and your silly conventions. You didn’t love her and help her. Don’t you realize she had lost the one she loved ?
The one she loved! ” cried my grandmother.
“A thief … a seducer… the stupid girl!”
“Oh, I can see how wretched you made her. You … who always do the right thing-or think you do. The right thing is to be cruel then, is it? Why didn’t you comfort her? Why didn’t you make life easier for her? You could have helped her. But you didn’t. You let her die, you my grandmother pretending to be my mother. I might have known you were not, for you were never a mother to me. And you-‘ I turned to my grandfather, ‘you haven’t the guts’ (I was talking like Ben Henniker and even at such a dramatic moment I saw my grandmother wince)-‘not you nor Miriam nor Xavier … not one of you helped her. You’re despicable. Miriam can’t face life with her curate because he’s too poor. Xavier can’t marry Lady Clara because she’s too rich. It makes me laugh. What are you made of … all of you? Straw!” I turned on my grandmother.
“Except you. You’re made of the granite of unkindness and carelessness towards others put together with so much pride that there’s little else beside it’ …” And coming to the end of my tirade I turned to the door and ran up to my room.
I was shaking with emotion. I had told them what I thought, of them, and for once they had no answer for me.
Miriam came up soon afterwards. She looked bewildered and what she said was: “We shall no longer have to hide the Family Bible.” This struck me as so funny that I burst out laughing, which did something to relieve my feelings. Then she went on as though talking to herself:
“I suppose it’s better to be poor than let everything pass you by.”
Later I saw the Family Bible, which had hitherto been locked away in the drawing-room cabinet. There was my mother’s name inscribed in beautiful copperplate and mine too. I turned the pages and looked at the names of long-dead Claverings and wondered what trials and secrets they had had to suffer.
When I went down to dinner that night nothing was said about my outburst. It was as though it had never happened, and I couldn’t help marvelling at the conversation, which was all about the weather and village affairs as usual. No one would have believed that in the afternoon there had been such a storm. In a way I had to admire them.
But of one thing I was certain. No one was going to stop my friendship with Ben Henniker. Strangely enough, no one tried to, and after that I walked boldly up the drive to Oakland Hall and made no secret of my visits.