Mummery

rice, and had supported her even when she had been to all outward seeming in the wrong. He used to say in his whimsical manner that explosions never did any one any harm.... 'It is all wron

mself. People laughed at him sometimes indulgently, but that was a very different thing to this hostility, this cold, implacable con

erful as his own and the check upon his habit of exuding patronage. His theatre had always been animated with his own

for once in a way it would be a good thing for Charles to submit to it.

ne who could be pursuing her. Men stared at her, but none dared molest so purposeful a young woman.... She stayed for some time in the Green Park, turning over and over in her mind how best she could engage Sir Henry's interest without aggravating his hos

s Mann?' sa

lara, at once

ejoined the

a smile that barely conce

ink I was married to him before you were born. A

way. The other woman followed her bre

unable at last to bear any more. 'G

ult. I made

ing and gasping out her sordid little tragedy

at she could not speak. Only in her m

ult.... It i

ht not to have been so will-less, so ready

the whole story out-the lodgings in Birmingham, the intrigue, the ultimatum, Charles's catastrophic collapse and inertia, years of poverty in London going from stu

n,' said Kitty, 'if yo

on for keeping quiet,' replied Clara,

nd to hear so

Mr Clott. He was in the high

d Verschoyle

at his necktie for a few seconds. Then he gave Mr Clott a commission to perform, and stood looking

arles,' she said. 'I thought

cy with fur

write to you. Please leave your

Clara, but his fury was so obviously concentrate

Char

by the telephone in the hall. P

Char

d away in a thin stream of dread as she felt the gathering rage in the two of them. At the

me,' said Clara, w

onestly I ha

e. You did not need her to com

N

ean, then? You

t of it until one day whe

verybod

t conceal th

t from me, from

of it. She'd gone out

men gone out

blu

n't. I just didn't mention it.... You were so happy, chic

She has only to go up to the nearest po

... She'd n

g. That's the unpardona

nly. And quite perceptibly he did not understand that

cried. 'You must understand..

can

. You must give h

y? Oh

ou've married me. If she moves at all you w

to get out of

lp you. I thought I could help you.... I could have helped you if only you had told me....

I never do think of anything except in terms

until her nails dug int

u,' she said at last. 'I

off her w

y. 'It's a pity. Everything was going so well. Lord Verschoy

aughed

g to sit on m

he k

N

e that these peop

it got to do

everything. They can't su

ey don'

s. So am I. You can't expect

f any other person to interfere in his affairs. It hurt him terribly as it slowly

'I'm a criminal. Oh, go

realise it at

of being bound down to anything except the work in which he felt so free, so wholly master of himself and his destiny; his deli

n the end, 'that I have

lt that if she tried to explain

gratefully and was

and making your work come to life that I never thought about the rest.... I never looked at it from the woman's point of view, as,

bit hurt. He did not particularly want to

e is deeply interested, and he

lara, 'I'll go and see if

ring the matter, decided that meant either that she intended to make

get on with his designs for The Tempest and she would see what could be done about his troubles. For the

, 'but I don't think so.... I won'

d miserably. 'I suppose things will never be the same.

the law that is somehow wrong, giving advantage to any o

t y

but I'm so hurt. I'm so tired I d

anything

ef thing is your work, Charles.

it seemed to him incredible that it could be checked by such a trifle as a forgotten wife. He thought of the money that should come from the Imperium: money meant power, power meant the removal of all disagreeable obstacles from his path. He licked his lips.... England understood money and noth

onate pain. The bloom of youth was on her cheeks, upon her lips, in all her still unformed features, but in her eyes suddenly was the knowledge of years, concentr

at good creature took her in without a word, without even a mute curiosity. People's troubles were their own affair, and she knew that

he was Clara Day and would remain so whatever happened to her. She had forced Charles to marry her in order to protect him and to help him, and she had brought him into danger of imprisonment.... It was perfectly true; Charles could not protect himself because he could not learn that others were not as kindly as himself. He had been trapped into

s, almost more than life-size, exhibited to the hurrying crowds on the station-platforms. She was called Clara Day, Sir Henry Butcher's youngest and prettiest recruit. From the shy, studious little girl who sat close and, if possible, hidden during rehearsals, she found that she had become in the estimation of the company one of thems

ould injure him.... She ought to have kept quietly in the background, and let him go his own way. By forcing him into t

alous Kitty at any moment. On the other hand, at any moment some journalist might seize on the story of her arrival in London with Charles, and publish the fact of their marriage.... She stayed on with Julia, and let the days

harles's w

' replied the

m marrie

lasped her hand to her capacio

office near

child,' Julia began to weep.

Clara, setting her jaw.

never see

ide me. He can't do anything without

t you

ng except tha

can't love

d

re other things.... Oh, my dear, dear c

es. And I'v

does h

t seem to

g to be thankful for is that you are not married to him. Not realise

work is more important

'The scoundrel! The sco

you're not to tell a soul, not even Freeland. I won't have anybody interfering. I will handle this myself because I know more about it than an

an't live

e with F

least I am married, so is Freeland. That makes it

world certainly did look very funny from the detachment now forced upon her: deliciously funny, and Charles appeared in her thoughts as a kind of Harlequin

awyer,' said Julia, at

ntly. 'Charles hates that woman and she

n't stand you're

one, and help Char

, lovey; then you ca

f, you are kept so busy doing it that yo

te manner.... Clara had slept soundly, and her fund of healthy good spirits made it possible for her to regard the whole complication as, in itself, rather superficial. The sun was shining in upon the mirror of her dressing-table, upon her silver brushes, upon the portrait of Julia in a silver frame, and upon the new frock which h

s, kid,' he said, '

s

ur life. I feel l

uldn't h

us it is? You're neither

be just C

he line proposed by the man in a situation, a scene, where is he? And, in fact, Freeland did not know where

Charles, damn him, can't protect you. The world is hard and cruel.... A man

id Clara, 'and you'll see how we shall

ere's a sc

.. And if there is

ous of danger, busy with wary thoughts, but so eager, vital, and confident that all her belief in Charles and her love for him were based in the deeper and stronger forces of life.... She was roused to battle, and she was profoundly aware that the law and the other devices of society were contrived wholly to frus

asily to these people: to Clara they came not. Indeed she rather exulted in her peril, which destroyed for her once and for all the superficiality of the life into w

could have done it,' said

ara, her eyes dancing