"I always felt that Sunday's forced abstinence was putting too great a strain on Arthur," remarked Mrs. Twining thoughtfully. "Where is Geoffrey now?"
"Well, I don't really know. He was outside Lola's door at half past ten. He may be in her room. To tell you the truth, Mrs. Twining, I'm not awfully interested in his troubles, except when they affect Fay."
"Why should you be?" said Mrs. Twining. "I am sure I am not surprised. It was so extremely stupid of him to bring that remarkable young woman of his here. But I don't think we must let Arthur cast him on the world."
Dinah glanced curiously at her. "You're very fond of Geoffrey, aren't you?"
Mrs. Twining had stooped to smell a great crimson rose. "Too full-blown to pick. What a pity! No, my dear, I don't know that I should describe myself as being very fond of Geoffrey. I knew him when he was in his cradle, however, and I have always been sorry for the boy."
"Did you know his mother, Mrs. Twining?" asked Dinah. "I've often wondered."
Mrs. Twining put back a trailing rambler with her gloved hand. "Have you, my dear? Yes, I knew her quite well."
"What was she like? Arthur never mentions her, you know, and there isn't even a photograph."
"When Arthur puts people out of his life," said Mrs. Twining, with a faint smile, "he does it very thoroughly. She was generally thought to be pretty."
"I don't really blame her for leaving Arthur, but it was rather rotten of her to leave Geoffrey," reflected Dinah.
Mrs. Twining passed through the gap in the hedge again on to the lawn. "Yes, it was, as you say, rotten of her," she replied. "But whatever she did that was rotten, or foolish, she had to pay for. Tell me, is Arthur in, do you know?"
"Yes, I think he must be. Oh, there is Fay, coming away from the vegetable garden! Fa-ay!"
They waited for Fay to catch up with them. She gave her hand to Mrs. Twining, saying: "It's so nice of you to have come, Julia. Things are being — a little difficult. Perhaps if you spoke to him Arthur might listen."
"Listening is not his speciality, but I will try," promised Mrs. Twining. "Where is he?"
"Oh, it would never do if you disturbed him before lunch!" said Fay, looking quite flustered at the bare thought of such a thing. "He's writing letters in his study."
They ascended the steps on to the terrace. Stephen Guest pulled up a chair, his gaze on Fay's face. "Come and sit down," he said. "You look done up."
She pushed the hair away from her forehead. "I've got a headache. It's nothing." Her voice was forlorn; as she sat down she raised her eyes fleetingly to his, and he saw that they had filled with tears. She tried to smile, and said in a low, unsteady voice for his ears alone: "It's all right, Stephen. Really it's all right."
Mrs. Twining was talking in her pleasant way to Camilla Halliday; Dinah was wondering what had happened to Geoffrey and his Lola, when Finch came on to the terrace to tell Fay that Mrs. Chudleigh had called, and would like to see her.
"Oh dear!" said Fay involuntarily; then, recollecting herself, she added: "Ask her if she will come out on to the terrace, please."
"Blast and damn!" said Dinah. "What on earth can she want?"
"Dinah darling!" expostulated Fay.
"That's a lady who's mightily interested in other people's business," said Guest. "I can't say I like the type myself."
"She wants me to give a talk at the Women's Institute, said Fay. "I said I'd let her know, only I forgot."
"Mrs. Chudleigh!" announced Finch.
The Vicar's wife stepped briskly out on to the terrace. and sent one of her quick, peering glances round. She looked rather hot and more than a little crumpled in a tussore coat and skirt, and a burnt-straw hat of no particular shape; and she wore in addition to these garments a blue shirt blouse, dark brown shoes and stockings, and a pair of white wash-leather gloves. She shook hands with Fay, nodded to Mrs. Twining and to Dinah, and favoured Camilla with a stiff little bow. "I'm so sorry to come bothering you, Lady Billington-Smith, but you know I always say I do all my unpleasant tasks on a Monday! It is the Children's Holiday Fund, and I know you are always so good and generous in giving towards it."
"Don't you ever shirk your unpleasant tasks?" inquired Camilla, with an air of patronage amounting to insolence.
But Camilla was no match for the Vicar's wife. "No, Mrs. Halliday, never!" replied Mrs. Chudleigh in a steely voice. "I hope that I should never shirk jury duty, however unpleasant."
"God help us, we're for it again!" murmured Dinah to Stephen Guest.
Camilla was looking a little foolish, and had given a half-laugh, and shrugged her shoulders.
"Do come and sit down over here, Mrs. Chudleigh!" Fay intervened. "Of course my husband and I are only too glad to subscribe to the Fund."
Mrs. Chudleigh accepted the chair indicated, which was placed on the outskirts of the group, and said that she must not stop, for that would make her late for lunch. "And Hilary is so absent-minded that he would never think to begin without me," she said, her face softening as it always did when she spoke of her husband. "I really only came to beg, and to ask you whether you are going lo address us on Friday? You said you might give the Women a little talk on Gardens, and I'm sure it would be much appreciated. Only when you did not let me know," she added with a significant look, "I wondered whether perhaps you have rather too much on your hands just now?"
Fay coloured. "No, I should be pleased to speak, if you think it would interest the Club. But you know I'm not very good at giving lectures."
"Then we shall consider that settled," said Mrs. Chudleigh, ignoring the last part of this speech. "I see you still have some of your guests remaining with you. You will be glad, I expect, to have the house to yourself again. If you will allow me to say so, you are not looking at all the thing, Lady Billington-Smith."
"I have a slight headache," acknowledged Fay. "The week-end has been a little trying, as I'm afraid you were made to realise on Saturday."
"That dreadful young woman!" Mrs. Chudleigh said, drawing in her breath sharply. "I assure you I felt for you. A very difficult situation to deal with. I take the greatest interest in every member of Hilary's Parish, high or low, and I have been most distressed to think of Geoffrey, who is such a nice boy, being caught by — really, I must say an adventuress! But you know, Lady Billington-Smith, young people, and especially what I call highly-strung young people, sometimes need very careful handling. You must forgive me, but from what Sir Arthur said at the dinner-table I gathered that he was very much enraged."
"Yes," Fay said, helpless under this flood of words. "My husband is very angry indeed."
Mrs. Chudleigh shifted her chair rather closer. "How very unfortunate! I was afraid it must be so. I suppose there is no truth in the story that is going round the village that it has actually come to an open breach?"
Fay's heart sank. She said rather feebly: "I can't imagine how such a story could have got about."
"You know what servants are," replied Mrs. Chudleigh darkly.
"Always ready to gossip! The baker's man told my cook that your kitchen-maid had told him that the General had quarrelled violently with Geoffrey this morning. Of course, personally, I never pay any heed to what servants say, but I feel I know you so well, Lady Billington-Smith, that it is really my duty to let you know what is being said. And if there is no truth in it, I shall be only too glad to contradict the story whenever I hear it."
A nerve in Fay's head was throbbing unbearably. She got up. "Mrs. Chudleigh, I'm afraid I can't discuss the matter with you. Geoffrey has very seriously angered his father. I don't know what is going to come of it, so I'm not in a position to tell you anything. You must forgive me if I seem rude, but I — I am a little upset."