chapter iv
sackcloth and ashes
there was trouble and enough to spare in the house of john charlock. a day or two had passed. the child was buried, and the blinds were drawn up once more. it was characteristic of charlock that he held his grief sternly in hand and devoted his energy and attention in striving to get to the bottom of the mystery which surrounded the death of his wife's maid. the affair had created a sensation in the district. it was held to be so important that it had passed out of the hands of the local police into those of scotland yard. as to the girl's past, nothing could be discovered. no trace of her relatives could be found. and it could not be proved that she had been entangled in any love affair. robbery was not the motive, either, for she had a well-filled purse in her pocket and wore a handsome gold watch.
yet, in some way, charlock felt that the woman had been more or less of a dangerous character. he had never liked her. he distrusted her manner, which had always been a mixture of humility and veiled insolence. she was just the sort of creature who would have stooped to blackmail, and from this point of view charlock was working. but a week had passed, and nothing had happened to throw light on the mystery.
and, besides, charlock had other things to occupy him. he had made up his mind to end the present intolerable state of things. he was waiting now in his studio for his wife. the paint brush hung idly in his hand and his thoughts were far away. this was john charlock in one of his most dangerous moods. he turned upon his wife a pair of sullen, brooding eyes.
"well, what do you want?" he demanded.
"i am sorry to intrude," mrs. charlock said coldly, "but we cannot go on like this."
"that is true," charlock said, a grim smile playing about the corners of his mouth. "if it is any consolation to you to know it, some change must be made. i have sat opposite to you for three days now, with hardly a word, but your thoughts have been to me like an open book. you have made up your mind what to do. your programme is clear. now that the child has gone, and there is no tie to bind us, you think it would be far better not to remain under this roof. grossly extravagant though you are, you are shrewd enough, when it comes to a question of money to spend. you calculate, i suppose, that my income is about four thousand a year."
"really, you fill me with pain," mrs. charlock murmured.
"our lady of pain!" charlock sneered. "good heavens, do you want to pose after we have been married five years? why, there is not a cranny in your soul that holds a dark place for me. i say you have reckoned it all out, and you are going to propose that i should share my income with you and give you a free hand to do as you like. this opportunity of martyrdom is not to be lost. think how you would look wearing a crown! what a picturesque figure of a long-suffering woman you would make! and all your friends would pity the dear saint and condemn the malignant husband. but we need not go into that. do you know that i am over six thousand pounds in debt? i have not a single commission on hand and hardly know where to turn for the money to pay the servants' wages. this is one of the tricks that fortune plays a man who gets his living as i do. two of my commissions are in abeyance, and two other pictures may never be paid for, because the men who ordered them are dead. it sounds like a romance, but it is literally true. and of this load of debt that hangs about my neck like a millstone, less than two hundred of it belongs to me! putting aside the expenses of the household, which have not been heavy, in the last two years you have pledged my credit for more than four thousand pounds. you said nothing to me. you ordered what you wanted. i have one bill here for five hundred pounds from a bond street milliner. you may call this only thoughtlessness, if you like, but i call it mean and dishonourable. and with all your beauty and sweetness and sympathy, you are little better than a criminal. and the joke of it is, it is i who have to pay the penalty, i who will incur the contempt of honest men, while you get off scot free. but there is going to be an end of all this. before the week is out everything shall be disposed of."
kate charlock looked up swiftly. there was something like a challenge in her eyes. the mantle of sweetness and resignation had fallen from her shoulders.
"do you mean to say you will give up this house?" she demanded. "do you mean to tell me that you will sell the furniture? surely there is no necessity."
"i owe all that money," charlock said doggedly, "and i am going to pay it off. i could easily whitewash myself as other men do, but that is not my way. to be candid with you, there is a bill of sale on the things here which covers their value, and, at any time, my creditors could come in and remove everything. now, make the best of it. revel in your extravagance while it lasts, for the time is getting short. and you shall have your opportunity to prove to your friends that you are the saint they take you to be. everything i can lay my hands upon i shall realise for the benefit of my creditors. i will not rest till the last farthing is paid. it will be a question of rigid economy for a couple of years, and then i shall be able to look the world in the face once more. but in future there is going to be no london or paris for you. we shall move into a three-roomed cottage, where we shall not even keep a servant. i will take the rough work off your hands, and in return you will do the housework and cooking. i intend to keep back no more than three pounds a week from my earnings until my debts are paid. that is all i am entitled to. this you can share with me, or, if you prefer it, you can have thirty shillings a week to live upon. if you take legal proceedings to obtain more, you will find that no court will ask a man to give his wife more than half his income."
kate charlock stood white and rigid, striving in vain to force a smile.
"you are mad," she said hoarsely. "you could not do it. think of your position! think of what the world would say!"
"did i ever care what the world said?" charlock cried. "what does it matter, so long as one's good name remains unsmirched? i have no more to say. i have no desire to argue the thing farther. i have already taken the cottage and furnished it. you have till the end of the week to make up your mind. you will please yourself whether you come with me or not, and i care little or nothing what your decision may be. now, as i am busy, i shall be glad to be alone."
mrs. charlock crept from the studio to her own room. there were real tears in her eyes. she was trembling from head to foot with a sense of humiliation and disappointment. she no longer doubted what her husband had said. she knew that when john charlock had made up his mind to a thing it was as good as done. and he was doing this deliberately, in order to spite her, to wound her most susceptible feelings, because she had made such a terrible mistake the night of the boy's death. he would not understand her point of view. she could not induce him to believe that she had never dreamt the end was so near. no mother would have gone away had she known what was likely to happen. and as to charlock's debts, it would have been easy to retrench and wipe them off by degrees.
kate charlock wept as she looked about her. it was a beautiful house, luxuriously and artistically furnished. all kate charlock's friends envied her such a place.
to give it up was an act of mean and cowardly vengeance. the thing would never have been thought of had the boy lived. it never occurred to the passionate, weeping woman that john charlock valued his honour beyond his comfort, for there were scores of people in the smart set to which she belonged who never paid their debts at all. there were members of that charmed circle who boasted of this and were thought none the worse of.
here were the beautiful pictures, the magnificent furniture, the marvellous old silver which kate charlock had bought from time to time. here was everything that made life sweet and enjoyable, and she was commanded to resign it all, and live alone in a draughty cottage with the man whom she regarded less as her husband than as her jailer. two years' penal servitude at least! the thing was impossible, insupportable!
she must tell somebody. she must confide in someone. but in whom? among her frivolous friends, who would give her a measure of broad and genuine sympathy? she could only think of one person, and the colour crept into her cheeks as she recalled arnold rent. then she became conscious that a servant had come into the room and stood watching her curiously.
"well?" she demanded. "what do you want? don't you see that i want to be alone?"
"it is mr. rent, madam," the servant said. "he is waiting in the drawing-room, and would like to see you."
