it was a golden summer’s evening. in his little temperamental car he was chugging through the quantock hills. his car was temperamental chiefly because he had picked it up as a bargain second hand. in his wanderings of the last month he had established a friendship with it which was almost human, as a man does with a piece of machinery when he is lonely.
when the tour had first been planned it had included ruddy; but at the last moment ruddy had joined a pierrot-troupe, leaving teddy to set off by himself. that vacant place at his side reproached him; a two-seater is so obviously meant for two persons. he had told himself faery-tales about how he might fill it. sometimes he had invented a companion for himself—a girl with gray eyes and bronze-black hair. she seemed especially real to him when night had fallen and the timid shadows of lovers pressed back into the hedges as his lamps discovered them on the road ahead.
for the past month his mind had been ablaze with an uplifted sense of beauty. he had come down from london by lazy stages, halting here a day and there a day to sketch. every mile of the way the air had been summer-freighted; the freedom of it had got into his blood. everywhere that he had gone he had encountered new surprises—gray cathedral cities, sleepy villages, the blue sea of devon; places and things of which he had only heard, and others which he hadn’t known existed. dreams were materializing and stepping out to meet him. eden row, with its recluse atmosphere, was ceasing to be all his world. his emotions gathered themselves up into an urgent longing—to be young, to live intensely, to miss nothing.
to-day he had crossed exmoor, black with peat and purple with heather, and was proposing to spend the night at nether stowey. he had chosen nether stowey because coleridge had lived there. he had sent word to his mother that it was one of the points to which letters could be forwarded. when he had written his name in the hotel book, the proprietress looked up. “oh, so you’re the gentleman!”
“why? have you got such stacks of letters for me?”
“no. a telegram.”
he tore it open and read, “however late, push on to-night to the pilgrims? inn, glastonbury.” the signature was “madame josephine.”
he looked to see at what time it had been received. it had arrived at three o’clock; so it had been waiting for him five hours.
“i’m sorry i shan’t need that room,” he said. “how far is it to glastonbury?”
“about twenty-three miles. i suppose you’ll stay to dinner, sir? it’s being served.”
“i’m afraid not.”
without loss of time, he cranked up his engine, jumped into his car and started.
“however late, push on to-night to glastonbury.” why on earth? what interest could madame josephine have in his going to glastonbury, and why to-night so especially? he had planned to go there to-morrow—to make a dream-day of it, full of memories of king arthur and reconstructions of chivalrous history and legend. he had intended reading the idyls of the king that evening to key himself up to the proper pitch of enthusiasm. it seemed entirely too modern and not quite decent, to go racing at the bidding of an unexplained telegram into “the island valley of avilion, where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow.”
as he hummed along through the green-gold country he gave himself up to the mood of enchantment. in the transforming light of the fading sunset it seemed certain that a bend in the road would bring to view champions of the round table riding together.
he smiled and shook his head at himself; he hadn’t grown much older since those old days at ware. it was this sight that he and desire had expected—the sight of knights in clanking armor and ladies with flowing raiment, sauntering together in a magic world. it had seemed to them that the enraptured land which their hearts-imagined, must lie just a little further beyond the hills and hedges. to find it, it was only necessary to go on and on.
he recalled how he had read to her those legends as they had lain side by side, hidden in tall meadow-grasses from fanner joseph. he remembered how they had quarreled when she had said, “i like sir launcelot best.”
“but you mustn’t. king arthur was the good one. if sir launcelot hadn’t done wrong, everything would have been happy always.”
“yes, but if everything had been happy always, there wouldn’t have been any story, teddy. i know why you don’t like my loving sir launcelot: it’s because you’re a king arthur yourself.”
he laughed. how hurt he had felt at her accusation that he was a proper person!
and there was another memory: how, after playing at knights and ladies, she had tried to make him declare that she was beautiful. “do you think i’m beautiful, teddy?” and he, intent on keeping her vanity hungry, “you have beautiful hands.”
he had always promised himself that some day, if they ever met, one of the first places they would visit should be glastonbury. it would add a last chapter to those chivalrous games which they had played together as children.
far away in the orchard valley lights were springing up. out of the misty distance came the lowing of cattle. like a cowled monk, with peaceful melancholy, the gloaming crept across the meadows.
as he approached the town, it came as something of a shock to notice that its outskirts bore signs of newness. but as he drove into the heart of it, medieval buildings loomed up: gray, night-shrouded towers; stooping houses with leaded windows; the dusky fragrance of ivy, and narrow lanes which turned off into the darkness abruptly. somewhere in the shadows was chalice hill, where the cup of the last supper lay buried. not far distant, within the abbey walls, the coffin of king arthur was said to have been found. his imagination thrilled to the antiquity of the legend.
with reluctance he swung his mind back to the present. pulling up outside the pilgrims’ inn, he left his car and entered.
“if you please, has any one been inquiring for me? my name’s gurney.”
the landlady inspected him through the office-window. she was a kind-faced, motherly woman; the result of her inspection pleased her. she laid down her pen.
“gurney! no. not that i remember.”
“puzzling!” he took her into his confidence, handing her the telegram. “i received that at nether stowey. i was going to have stayed there, and should have come on here to-morrow. but you see what it says, ’however late, push on to-night to the pilgrims’ inn, glastonbury.’ so—so i pushed on.” he laughed.
“this madame josephine who signs it,” the landlady was turning the telegram over, “d’you know her?”
“oh, yes. i know her.”
“i asked because—— well, ladies do play jokes cm gentlemen. and we’ve a lot of actor-folk in glastonbury at present—larky kind of people. i don’t take much stock in them myself. shouldn’t think you did by the look of you.”
“i don’t.”
the landlady put her elbows on the desk and crouched her face in her hands. “i didn’t think you would. these people, they’ve been here a week for the arthurian pageant some of them stay with me; i’ve seen all i want of ’em. too free in their manners, that’s what i say. it don’t seem right for girls and men to be so friendly. i wasn’t brought up that way. it puts false notions into girls’ heads, that’s what i say. i suppose you’ve dined already?”
“i haven’t. i hope it won’t put you to too much trouble.”
she led the way through the low-ceilinged hostel, explaining its history as she went. how in the middle-ages it had been the guest-house of the abbey and the pilgrims had stayed there at the abbot’s expense. how they had two haunted rooms upstairs, in one of which anne boleyn had slept. how the walls were tunneled with secret stairways which led down to subterranean passages. when the meal had been spread she left him, promising to let him know if there were any inquiries.
odd! all through dinner he kept thinking about it. to have found out where to reach him madame josephine must have inconvenienced herself. probably she’d had to send to orchid lodge, and orchid lodge had had to send to his mother. she wouldn’t have done all that unless her reason had been important.
he went down to the office. “has any one called yet?”
“not yet.”
he glanced at the clock; it was ten. nobody would come now. he walked out into the high street to garage his car and to take a stroll before turning in to bed.
the town lay silent. here and there a faint light, drifting from a street-lamp or from behind a curtained window, streaked the darkness. no people were about. stars, wheeling high above embattled house-tops, were the only traffic.
“the island valley of avilion, where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow.” the words sang themselves over as he wandered. what if the telegram had been a bait to lure him back into the past? what if the door of forgotten ages had opened to him and closed behind him, as in william morris’s romance of the hollow land?
he played with the fancy, embroidering its extravagance. to-morrow he would awake in the ancient hostel to find that the landlady had changed into a fat old abbot. pilgrims would be passing to and fro below his window; ladies on palfreys and palmers whose sandaled feet had brought them home from the holy land. what if he should remain a captive to the past and never find his way into the present?
he drew up sharply. wailing music came to him, made by instruments that he had never heard before. it rose into a clamor and sank away sobbing. he tried to follow it, but it seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all in the same moment it lost itself in the echoing of overhanging walls. at last, turning down a passage, he traced it to a barnlike building. as he got there the doors were flung wide and people came pouring out.
he was amused; he had almost been persuaded that he had stumbled on the supernatural. glancing in, he saw the orchestra gathering up their old-fashioned horns and wind-instruments. the curtain bad been partly raised; slipping from under it the performers, still in costume, were climbing down and mingling with the thinning audience. for the moment the audience seemed the unreal people and the performers the people of his world.
he went out into the darkness and stood back a little from the passage that he might retain the medieval illusion as they passed. he made guesses at their characters. here came sir galahad in silver armor, joking with merlin, who carried his beard across his arm to prevent it from sweeping the ground. king arthur, with his sword rattling between his legs, was running to catch up with sir launcelot. the girls were more difficult to identify; in their long robes, with their bare arms and plaited hair, there was nothing to distinguish them. as he watched, he saw one with a crown upon her head. the stones in it glinted as she approached. queen guinevere, he thought.
she was supple and slight and tall. she walked unhurriedly, with an air of pride, as though she had not yet shaken off her part. a man accompanied her. he was speaking earnestly; she gazed straight before her, taking little notice of what he said. her hair was brushed back from her forehead to reveal the curve of her ears and the gleam of her shoulders. her garment was of green and gold, caught in at the waist with a golden girdle; on her feet were golden sandals, which twinkled. the white intensity of her face and throat shone in the darkness. there was an ardency about her that arrested attention.
“it can’t be helped,” she spoke shortly, “so there’s no use talking. i’ve got to get there, whatever happens.”
teddy followed her down the street. at the sound of her voice his heart had quickened. he wished she would turn her head beneath a lamp that he might see her clearly. before the pilgrims’ inn there was a crowd; when he came up to it she had vanished.
on entering, he found a scene which might have walked out of the brain of chaucer, so utterly were the costumes in keeping with the hostel. he cast his eyes about, seeking for queen guinevere.
as he stood hesitating between pursuing his fancy further or going to bed, the landlady came out from her office. catching sight of him, she elbowed her way towards him.
“news for me?” he asked.
“not exactly.” she frowned slightly. “i thought you said you didn’t know any of these actor-folk?”
“i don’t.”
“well, there’s one of them in there,” pointing back into the office, “who’s got a telegram. she says you’re the man she’s expecting, though she wouldn’t know you from adam. she says she’s sure you’re the man because you’ve got a car.”
“i don’t think i am. but i’ll go and find out.”
the landlady smiled disapprovingly: “i begin to have my doubts about you, sir.”
in the office the girl who had played the part of guinevere was standing. the moment he caught her eyes he was certain. excitement ran through him like a sword.
he felt himself trembling. he wanted to rush forward and claim her. he wanted to go down on his knees to her. most of all, he wanted to see her recognize him. but she stood there smilingly distant and gracious.
“i’m so sorry to trouble you,” she said. “i’m afraid our introduction’s a trifle unconventional, but i’m in rather a pickle. you see, i want to go to london to-night. in fact, i must go to london, and there are no trains till to-morrow. i have a friend who’s—— but there, read my telegram. it’ll save explan—— to london to-night. in fact, i must go to london, and there are no trains till to-morrow. i have a friend who’s—— but there, read my telegram. it’ll save explanations.”
he took it from her hand and read:
“dear little d.—got to sail new york to-morrow. train leaves euston at twelve. have booked your berth. ask for a man at pilgrims’ inn with telegram signed madame josephine. madame josephine says, if you ask him nicely, he’ll bring you to london in his car. tell him she suggested. awful sorry to rush you. real reason horace too pressing. my excuse engagement with freelevy. love and kisses. fluffy.”
as he reached the end, she came close and took it from him. he could hear the circlet about her waist jingle; her breath touched him.
“your hand’s trembling most awfully.” she laughed. “is it too much of a shock?” and then, before he could answer: “madame josephine keeps the beauty palace. we go there to be glorified. you know madame josephine, don’t you?”
“yes.” his voice hardly came above a whisper.
“then, you are the man?”
was he the man? he wanted to tell her. he had planned this meeting so often—staged it with such wealth of romance and tenderness. and this was how it had happened!
“then, you are the man?”
perhaps his nod didn’t carry sufficient enthusiasm. she began to explain and apologize. she made the babies come into her gray eyes, the way she used to as a child when she wanted anything. “i know it’s a lot to ask of a stranger, robbing him of his night’s rest and all. but you see i can’t help it. my friend, fluffy, is an actress and—— well, you know what actresses are—she’s very temperamental of course that part about freelevy may be true. he’s the great american producer. she wouldn’t tell a downright fib, i’m sure. but the part about horace is truer; i expect he’s wanting to marry her and—and the only way she can think of escaping him and not hurting his feelings—— you understand what i mean, don’t you? as for me, i have a beautiful mother in america who let me come abroad with fluffy; so of course i have to go back with her. you see, i’m not an actress yet—i’m only an amateur.” she rounded her eyes and made them very appealing. “if i don’t sail to-morrow, i’ll have to go back unchaperoned, and that—— well, it wouldn’t be quite proper for a young girl. so you will take me to london to-night, won’t you?”
he burst out laughing. if this wasn’t desire, it was some one extraordinarily like her—some one who knew how to use the same dear inconsequent coaxing arguments. who but desire would urge the propriety of a night ride to london with an unknown man to save the impropriety of an unchaperoned trip across the atlantic?
she spread her fingers against the comers of her mouth to prevent her lips from smiling. “why do you laugh? i rather like you when you laugh.”
he wasn’t going to tell her—at least, not yet. “i thought i’d strike a bargain with you. if you’ll promise not to change that dress, i’ll take you.”
“but why this dress?”
he hunched his shoulders. “a whim, perhaps.”
“all right. i’ll go up and pack.”
she walked slowly out of the office, her brows drawn together with thought. at the door she turned:
“you remind me of some one i once knew. i can’t remember who it was. he used to screw up his shoulders just like that.”
before he could make up his mind whether or not to assist her memory, she was gone.
