Life is like some crazy machine that is always going either tooslow or too fast. From the cradle to the grave we alternate betweenthe Sargasso Sea and the rapids--forever either becalmed orstorm-tossed. It seemed to Maud, as she looked across thedinner-table in order to make sure for the twentieth time that itreally was George Bevan who sat opposite her, that, after months inwhich nothing whatever had happened, she was now living through aperiod when everything was happening at once. Life, from being abroken-down machine, had suddenly begun to race.
To the orderly routine that stretched back to the time when she hadbeen hurried home in disgrace from Wales there had succeeded a madwhirl of events, to which the miracle of tonight had come as afitting climax. She had not begun to dress for dinner till somewhatlate, and had consequently entered the drawing-room just as Keggswas announcing that the meal was ready. She had received her firstshock when the love-sick Plummer, emerging from a mixed crowd ofrelatives and friends, had informed her that he was to take her in.
She had not expected Plummer to be there, though he lived in theneighbourhood. Plummer, at their last meeting, had stated hisintention of going abroad for a bit to mend his bruised heart: andit was a little disconcerting to a sensitive girl to find hervictim popping up again like this. She did not know that, as far asPlummer was concerned, the whole affair was to be considered openedagain. To Plummer, analysing the girl's motives in refusing him,there had come the idea that there was Another, and that this othermust be Reggie Byng. From the first he had always looked uponReggie as his worst rival. And now Reggie had bolted with theFaraday girl, leaving Maud in excellent condition, so it seemed toPlummer, to console herself with a worthier man. Plummer knew allabout the Rebound and the part it plays in the affairs of theheart. His own breach-of-promise case two years earlier had beenentirely due to the fact that the refusal of the youngest Devenishgirl to marry him had caused him to rebound into the dangeroussociety of the second girl from the O.P. end of the first row inthe "Summertime is Kissing-time" number in the Alhambra revue. Hehad come to the castle tonight gloomy, but not without hope.
Maud's second shock eclipsed the first entirely. No notificationhad been given to her either by her father or by Percy of theproposed extension of the hand of hospitality to George, and thesight of him standing there talking to her aunt Caroline made hermomentarily dizzy. Life, which for several days had had all theproperties now of a dream, now of a nightmare, became more unrealthan ever. She could conceive no explanation of George's presence.
He could not be there--that was all there was to it; yet thereundoubtedly he was. Her manner, as she accompanied Plummer down thestairs, took on such a dazed sweetness that her escort felt that incoming there that night he had done the wisest act of a lifetimestudded but sparsely with wise acts. It seemed to Plummer that thisgirl had softened towards him. Certainly something had changed her.
He could not know that she was merely wondering if she was awake.
George, meanwhile, across the table, was also having a littledifficulty in adjusting his faculties to the progress of events. Hehad given up trying to imagine why he had been invited to thisdinner, and was now endeavouring to find some theory which wouldsquare with the fact of Billie Dore being at the castle. Atprecisely this hour Billie, by rights, should have been putting thefinishing touches on her make-up in a second-floor dressing-room atthe Regal. Yet there she sat, very much at her ease in thisaristocratic company, so quietly and unobtrusively dressed in someblack stuff that at first he had scarcely recognized her. She wastalking to the Bishop. . .
The voice of Keggs at his elbow broke in on his reverie.
"Sherry or 'ock, sir?"George could not have explained why this reminder of the butler'spresence should have made him feel better, but it did. There wassomething solid and tranquilizing about Keggs. He had noticed itbefore. For the first time the sensation of having been smittenover the head with some blunt instrument began to abate. It was asif Keggs by the mere intonation of his voice had said, "All thisno doubt seems very strange and unusual to you, but feel no alarm!
I am here!"George began to sit up and take notice. A cloud seemed to havecleared from his brain. He found himself looking on hisfellow-diners as individuals rather than as a confused mass. Theprophet Daniel, after the initial embarrassment of finding himselfin the society of the lions had passed away, must have experienceda somewhat similar sensation.
He began to sort these people out and label them. There had beenintroductions in the drawing-room, but they had left him with abewildered sense of having heard somebody recite a page fromBurke's peerage. Not since that day in the free library in London,when he had dived into that fascinating volume in order to discoverMaud's identity, had he undergone such a rain of titles. He nowtook stock, to ascertain how many of these people he couldidentify.
The stock-taking was an absolute failure. Of all those present theonly individuals he could swear to were his own personal littleplaymates with whom he had sported in other surroundings. There wasLord Belpher, for instance, eyeing him with a hostility that couldhardly be called veiled. There was Lord Marshmoreton at the head ofthe table, listening glumly to the conversation of a stout womanwith a pearl necklace, but who was that woman? Was it Lady JaneAllenby or Lady Edith Wade-Beverly or Lady Patricia Fowles? Andwho, above all, was the pie-faced fellow with the moustache talkingto Maud?
He sought assistance from the girl he had taken in to dinner. Sheappeared, as far as he could ascertain from a short acquaintance,to be an amiable little thing. She was small and young and fluffy,and he had caught enough of her name at the moment of introductionto gather that she was plain "Miss" Something--a fact which seemedto him to draw them together.
"I wish you would tell me who some of these people are," he said,as she turned from talking to the man on her other-side. "Who isthe man over there?""Which man?""The one talking to Lady Maud. The fellow whose face ought to beshuffled and dealt again.""That's my brother."That held George during the soup.
"I'm sorry about your brother," he said rallying with the fish.
"That's very sweet of you.""It was the light that deceived me. Now that I look again, I seethat his face has great charm."The girl giggled. George began to feel better.
"Who are some of the others? I didn't get your name, for instance.
They shot it at me so quick that it had whizzed by before I couldcatch it.""My name is Plummer."George was electrified. He looked across the table with more vividinterest. The amorous Plummer had been just a Voice to him tillnow. It was exciting to see him in the flesh.
"And who are the rest of them?""They are all members of the family. I thought you knew them.""I know Lord Marshmoreton. And Lady Maud. And, of course, LordBelpher." He caught Percy's eye as it surveyed him coldly from theother side of the table, and nodded cheerfully. "Great pal ofmine, Lord Belpher."The fluffy Miss Plummer twisted her pretty face into a grimace ofdisapproval.
"I don't like Percy.""No!""I think he's conceited.""Surely not? 'What could he have to be conceited about?""He's stiff.""Yes, of course, that's how he strikes people at first. The firsttime I met him, I thought he was an awful stiff. But you should seehim in his moments of relaxation. He's one of those fellows youhave to get to know. He grows on you.""Yes, but look at that affair with the policeman in London.
Everybody in the county is talking about it.""Young blood!" sighed George. "Young blood! Of course, Percy iswild.""He must have been intoxicated.""Oh, undoubtedly," said George.
Miss Plummer glanced across the table.
"Do look at Edwin!""Which is Edwin?""My brother, I mean. Look at the way he keeps staring at Maud.
Edwin's awfully in love with Maud," she rattled on with engagingfrankness. "At least, he thinks he is. He's been in love with adifferent girl every season since I came out. And now that Regg............