第80章

And his heart stood still.If--if he did,then,of course,he would know that his mother didn't really want his father back.His mother spoke again,a thought more fashionably.

"No,my Lord,but you see I had refused to give him any more money.

It took him a long time to believe that,but he did at last--and when he did.""I see,you had refused.But you've sent him some since.""My Lord,I wanted him back."

"And you thought that would bring him?"

"I don't know,my Lord,I acted on my father's advice."Something in the Judge's face,in the sound of the papers behind him,in the sudden crossing of his uncle's legs,told Val that she had made just the right answer.'Crafty!'he thought;'by Jove,what humbug it all is!'

The Judge was speaking:

"Just one more question,Mrs.Dartie.Are you still fond of your husband?"Val's hands,slack behind him,became fists.What business had that Judge to make things human suddenly?To make his mother speak out of her heart,and say what,perhaps,she didn't know herself,before all these people!It wasn't decent.His mother answered,rather low:"Yes,my Lord."Val saw the Judge nod.'Wish I could take a cock-shy at your head!'he thought irreverently,as his mother came back to her seat beside him.Witnesses to his father's departure and continued absence followed--one of their own maids even,which struck Val as particularly beastly;there was more talking,all humbug;and then the Judge pronounced the decree for restitution,and they got up to go.Val walked out behind his mother,chin squared,eyelids drooped,doing his level best to despise everybody.His mother's voice in the corridor roused him from an angry trance.

"You behaved beautifully,dear.It was such a comfort to have you.

Your uncle and I are going to lunch."

"All right,"said Val;"I shall have time to go and see that fellow."And,parting from them abruptly,he ran down the stairs and out into the air.He bolted into a hansom,and drove to the Goat's Club.His thoughts were on Holly and what he must do before her brother showed her this thing in to-morrow's paper.

When Val had left them Soames and Winifred made their way to the Cheshire Cheese.He had suggested it as a meeting place with Mr.

Bellby.At that early hour of noon they would have it to themselves,and Winifred had thought it would be 'amusing'to see this far-famed hostelry.Having ordered a light repast,to the consternation of the waiter,they awaited its arrival together with that of Mr.Bellby,in silent reaction after the hour and a half's suspense on the tenterhooks of publicity.Mr.Bellby entered presently,preceded by his nose,as cheerful as they were glum.

Well!they had got the decree of restitution,and what was the matter with that!

"Quite,"said Soames in a suitably low voice,"but we shall have to begin again to get evidence.He'll probably try the divorce--it will look fishy if it comes out that we knew of misconduct from the start.His questions showed well enough that he doesn't like this restitution dodge.""Pho!"said Mr.Bellby cheerily,"he'll forget!Why,man,he'll have tried a hundred cases between now and then.Besides,he's bound by precedent to give ye your divorce,if the evidence is satisfactory.We won't let um know that Mrs.Dartie had knowledge of the facts.Dreamer did it very nicely--he's got a fatherly touch about um!"Soames nodded.

"And I compliment ye,Mrs.Dartie,"went on Mr.Bellby;"ye've a natural gift for giving evidence.Steady as a rock."Here the,waiter arrived with three plates balanced on one arm,and the remark:"I 'urried up the pudden,sir.You'll find plenty o'

lark in it to-day."

Mr.Bellby applauded his forethought with a dip of his nose.But Soames and Winifred looked with dismay at their light lunch of graviffred brown masses,touching them gingerly with their forks in the hope of distinguishing the bodies of the tasty little song-givers.Having begun,however,they found they were hungrier than they thought,and finished the lot,with a glass of port apiece.

Conversation turned on the war.Soames thought Ladysmith would fall,and it might last a year.Bellby thought it would be over by the summer.Both agreed that they wanted more men.There was nothing for it but complete victory,since it was now a question of prestige.Winifred brought things back to more solid ground by saying that she did not want the divorce suit to come on till after the summer holidays had begun at Oxford,then the boys would have forgotten about it before Val had to go up again;the London season too would be over.The lawyers reassured her,an interval of six months was necessary--after that the earlier the better.People were now beginning to come in,and they parted--Soames to the city,Bellby to his chambers,Winifred in a hansom to Park Lane to let her mother know how she had fared.The issue had been so satisfactory on the whole that it was considered advisable to tell James,who never failed to say day after day that he didn't know about Winifred's affair,he couldn't tell.As his sands ran out;the importance of mundane matters became increasingly grave to him,as if he were feeling:'I must make the most of it,and worry well;I shall soon have nothing to worry about.'

He received the report grudgingly.It was a new-fangled way of going about things,and he didn't know!But he gave Winifred a cheque,saying:

"I expect you'll have a lot of expense.That's a new hat you've got on.Why doesn't Val come and see us?"Winifred promised to bring him to dinner soon.And,going home,she sought her bedroom where she could be alone.Now that her husband had been ordered back into her custody with a view to putting him away from her for ever,she would try once more to find out from her sore and lonely heart what she really wanted.