Lady Staines followed the direction of his eyes; then she said to Estelle, "You'd better go in now, my dear; I'll talk to you later."

Sir Peter shouted in his stentorian voice an appeal to his sons to join him. Lady Staines, while she waited, took off her white kid gloves and her purple bonnet, and deposited them upon the bal.u.s.trades.

"What are you up to," demanded Sir Peter when they came within earshot, "sticking down there by the river with your heads glued together like a set of d.a.m.ned Guy Fawkeses--instead of saying good-by to your mother's guests--who haven't had the sense to get under way before seven o'clock--though I gave 'em a hint to be off an hour ago?"

"Helping villagers to climb greasy poles, and finishing a sack race,"

Charles explained. "Lively time Winn's been having down there--I had no idea our second housemaid was so pretty."

"None of that! None of that!" said Sir Peter, sharply. "You keep to bar-maids, young Charles--and manicure girls, though there ought to be an act of Parliament against 'em! Still, I'll admit you can't do much harm here--three of you together, and your mother on the front doorstep!"

"Harm," said James, winking in the direction of his mother; "what can poor chaps like us do--here to-day and gone to-morrow--Mother'd better keep her eye on those near home!"

"Off to-night you might as well say!" remarked Charles, glancing at James with a certain intentness.

"Why off to-night?" asked Lady Staines. "I thought you were staying over the week-end?"

"Winn's put us on to something," explained Charles. "Awfully good show, he says--on at the Oxford. Pretty hot stuff and the censor hasn't smelt it out yet--we rather thought we'd run up to-night and have a look at it."

Winn stuck his hands in his pockets, set his jaw, and looked at his mother. Lady Staines was regarding him with steady eyes.

"You didn't get a telegram, too?" she asked.

"No," said Winn. "Why should I?"

"Not likely," said James, genially. "Always behindhand in the--"

"d.a.m.n these midges!" said Charles, hurriedly. James stopped with his mouth open.

"Army, you were going to say, weren't you?" asked his mother, suavely.

"If you are my sons I must say you make uncommonly poor liars."

Sir Peter, whose attention had wandered to tender places in the lawn, looked up sharply.

"What's that? What's that?" he asked. "Been telling lies, have they? A nice way you've brought 'em up, Sarah! What have they been lying about?

A woman? Because if they have, I won't hear a word about it! Lies about a woman are perfectly correct, though I'm hanged if I can see how they can all three be lying about one woman. That seems a bit thick, I must say."

To Sir Peter's surprise, n.o.body made any reply. Charles yawned, James whistled, and Winn kept his eyes steadily fixed on Lady Staines.

"Those were orders then," Lady Staines observed in a dry quiet voice. "I thought it very likely. I suppose it's Germany. I felt sure we should have trouble with that excitable young man sooner or later. He had too good an opinion of himself to be an emperor."

"Not Ulster!" exclaimed Sir Peter. "G.o.d bless my soul--not Ulster!"

"Oh, we can take on Ulster afterwards," said James rea.s.suringly. "Now we'll see what submarines can do; 'member the j.a.ps?"

"Winn," said Lady Staines, "before you're off, say good-by to your wife."

Winn frowned, and then he said, "All right, Mother," and left them.

It was a very still evening, the scent of new mown hay and the mysterious sweetness of the starry white tobacco plant haunted the delicate air.

Winn found Estelle lying down by the open window. He had not been in her room for some time. He sat down by the sofa, and fingered the ta.s.sels at her waist.

"Is anything the matter?" she asked coldly.

He had only himself to thank that she was cold--he knew that. He saw so plainly now, all the mistakes he'd made, that the ones Estelle had made, receded into the distance. He'd never been gentle to her. Even when he thought he loved her, he wasn't really gentle.

Gentleness was superlative kindness, and no woman who had not had just that sort of kindness from the man she married, could help being rather nasty. He had owed it to Estelle--no matter whether she told him the truth or not.

"Look here, Estelle," he began. "I want our boy to go to Charterhouse."

It wasn't exactly what he meant to say, but it was something; he had never called Peter "our boy" before. Estelle did not notice it.

"Of course, I should prefer Eton," she said, "but I suppose you will do as you like--as usual!"

Winn dropped the piece of ta.s.sel, but he persevered.

"I say," he began, "don't you think we've got rather off the track? I know it's not your fault, but your being ill and my being away and all that? I don't want you to feel sore about it, you know. I want you to realize that I know I've been rather a beast to you. I don't think I'm fitted somehow for domestic life--what?"

"Fitted for it!" said Estelle, tragically. "I have never known one happy moment with you! You seem incapable of any kind of chivalry! I never would have believed a man could exist who knew _less_ how to make a woman happy! It's too late to talk of it all now! I've made my supreme sacrifice. I've offered up my broken heart! I am living upon a higher plane! You would never understand anything that wasn't coa.r.s.e, brutal, and low! So I shan't explain it to you. I know my duty, but I don't think after the way you have behaved I really need consider myself under any obligation to live with you again. Father Anselm agrees with me."

Winn laughed. "Don't you worry about that," he hastened to a.s.sure her, "or Father Anselm either; there isn't the least necessity--and it wasn't what I meant."

Estelle looked annoyed. It plainly should have been what Winn meant.

"Have as much of the higher plane as you like," he went on, "only look after the boy. I'm off to London to-night, there's probably going to be some work of a kind that I can do. I mayn't be back directly. Hope you'll be all right. We can write about plans."

He stood up, hesitating a little. He had an idea that it would make him feel less strange if she kissed him. Of course it was absurd, because just to have a woman's arms round his neck wasn't going to be the least like Claire. But he had a curious feeling that perhaps he might never be alone with a woman again, and he wanted to part friends with Estelle.

"I wonder," he said, leaning towards her, "would you mind very much if I kissed you?"

Estelle turned her head away with a little gesture of aversion.

"I am sorry," she said. "I shall not willingly allow you to kiss me, but of course you are my husband--I am in your power."

"By Jove," said Winn, unexpectedly, "what a little cat you are!"

They were the last words he ever said to her.

CHAPTER x.x.x

For a time he could do nothing but think of his luck--it was astounding how obstacles had been swept aside for him.

The best he had expected was that in the hurry of things he might get back to India without a medical examination, in the hope that his regiment would be used later. But his work at the Staff College had brought him into notice, a man conveniently died, and Winn appeared at the right moment.

Within twenty-four hours of his visit to the War Office, he was attached for staff duty to a British division.