After lunch we settled down to see her collection. We went a, back into the shady parlour with its frills and femininity Isa’s room. We sat at a table and from a safe she took out the now familiar rolled-up cases. She had some magnificent I stones and she was clearly knowledgeable about them. They were of all varieties and all exquisite.
“I only want the very best,” she told me.
That’s what you have,” replied Joss. ” Coming from such a connoisseur that’s gratifying,” she said, smiling at him.
“Yes,” said Ezra, “Isa always wanted her collection to be the a best in Australia.”
“In the world,” she corrected him. ‘now . ”
She had taken a small case and opened it. She laid it on the table, and there on the black velvet in all its glory was the Harlequin Opal. I stared at it. It couldn’t be. It must be something similar and I was not experienced enough to see the difference. It couldn’t possibly be the Harlequin, for how could it have II come so soon into her possession ?
Isa chuckled.
“She recognizes it,” she said.
I looked up and caught joss’s eyes on me. He was watching me intently.
I stammered: “I thought it had a look of the Harlequin.”
“It is the Harlequin.”
“Oh… It’s certainly very beautiful.”
“Pick it up,” commanded Isa.
“Hold it in the palm of your hand. I know you love it. I saw by the way you looked at it before. Ifs a beauty. I reckon it’s one of the finest I have.”
“You are very fortunate to have such a stone,” I said.
“I have to thank my very good friend …” She was smiling at Joss, and I felt such cold anger in my heart that I was astonished at myself.
“Your… very good friend ?” I said.
“Dear joss! He knew how I coveted it. He gave it to me, didn’t he, Ezra?”
“It was a generous gift,” said Ezra complacently.
“How… interesting,” I said.
I put it back on the black velvet and hoped my fingers were not trembling with the rage which consumed me. I was shocked and angrier than I have ever been.
I glanced at Ezra. He did not seem in the least perturbed. How should a man feel when his wife accepted expensive gifts from another man?
The same as a woman would feel when her husband bestowed those gifts on another woman?
I heard myself say coolly: “So you acquired it after all. I know you wanted it badly.”
“I always get what I want, don’t I, Ezra ?”
“It seems so, my dear.”
“You certainly have a most interesting collection. Has it taken you many years to amass it?”
“Not really. Only since I came out here and married Ezra. Fifteen years or thereabouts, isn’t it, Ezra ?”
“Such a short time?” I said, pointedly implying that I thought it might have been longer, which was a feeble barb compared with the blow she had just delivered. I could see that Joss was amused by the asperity in my voice. I hated him.
The collection was put away and I thought: The object of the visit is over. We sat awhile and as I listened to their talk and now and then managed to join in, I kept seeing Isa’s tiger eyes and the smouldering response I fanced I detected in those of Joss.
It was a great relief to go down to the stables where Ezra took a fond farewell of Wattle, and then we rode back to Peacocks.
I was deep in thought and tried to keep aloof from Joss, but he rode beside me and insisted on walking our horses. “You’re silent,” he said.
You should have warned me that we were going there.
“I thought it would be a pleasant surprise. Isa made us very welcome, didn’t she?”
“Especially you.”
Well, she has known me for a long time. “
“And very well, I imagine.”
“Oh, we’re very old friends.”
“And she must be grateful to you. You give her such wonderful presents.”
“It’s rather a beauty, isn’t it?“
” I can agree with that. “
“Something has occurred to me. Is that rather pleasant little retrousse nose somewhat out of joint ?”
“What do you mean ?”
“You show such stem disapproval.”
“I thought it was an odd thing to do.”
“Did you want it? You did rather fancy it, I know, and now you are beginning to learn something through the good offices of Jeremy Dickson, you can recognize opal when you see it. You should have asked me for it. Who knows, I might have been persuaded to give it to you.”
“Unlike that woman, I have no wish to take expensive gifts from you.”
“Yet you seem rather angry because I gave it to her.”
“And what of that … so-called husband of hers?”
“He doesn’t really mind any more than my so-called wife does… or so I thought. I may be wrong.”
“I think it was a very foolish thing to do.”
“Why? She wanted it. She appreciated it. What’s wrong with giving people things they want ?”
“It seems to me very … unusual … to give someone’s wife such a present and then ask your own wife … who knew nothing about it … to applaud your action.”
“I didn’t ask you to applaud my action. What action of mine have you ever applauded?”
“It’s most unconventional.”
“We can’t always observe the conventions out here.”
‘you are that woman’s lover. “
He was silent.
“Are you?” I demanded.
“We have to be conventional, don’t we? Now it is considered right not to divulge the secrets of others. That’s the only reason why I don’t answer your question.”
“You have answered my question.”
“And you have shown me clearly that you disapprove of my actions. But have you any right? You don’t want me. You have rejected me. Can you take me to task if I look for affection elsewhere?”
I turned to look at him. His eyes were lowered in an expression of resignation. He was mocking me. When had he ever ceased to mock me?
I could endure no more. I started to gallop.
“Steady,” he called.
“Where do you think you’re going? You’ll be lost in the Bush if you go that way. Just follow me." So I followed him back to Peacocks.
I went straight to my room. I felt wretched and angry at the same time, and I tried to feed my anger because it was the only way to soothe my wretchedness.
He’s in love with Isa Bannock, I thought. Of course he would be. She’s feminine and attractive. She’s everything that I am not and she’s his mistress.
I lay on my bed and stared up at the ceiling.
I dislike him, I told myself. He’s arrogant and conceited, heartless and ruthless. He’s everything that I hate.
“Peacock,” I muttered.
“Nothing but a peacock flaunting your glory.”
But the flashing light of the Harlequin Opal had revealed something to me. I wouldn’t face it. At least I was trying not to, but how stupid that was. Why should I be so angry? Why should I care so much? Because I must face it because I knew it was true. I was either in love with him or fast getting into that terrifying state. It had taken his devotion to another woman to make me face up to what had been slowly revealed to me. I had so far refused to see the signs when I had looked for him, felt that certain exhilaration in his company which I could not find elsewhere. Why hadn’t I been wise enough to understand the true nature of this excessive hatred?
At least now I faced the truth. I was in love with Joss Madden, my own husband, and it made no difference to me what fresh revelations I discovered. He was everything that I should have thought I would most dislike in a man and yet I had to fall in love with him!
"Your are mad" maybe I was. Perhaps one sometimes is in love. I had been in my room for more than an hour considering this extraordinary situation which had burst upon me when there was a knock on my door. I called: “Come in,” and Mrs. Laud entered.