Obeying an impulse of genuine affection, Henry spoke.
‘Promise me, Katharine, that if I can ever help you, you will let me.’
She seemed to consider, looking once more into the red of the fire, and decided to refrain from any explanation.
‘Yes, I promise that,’ she said at length, and Henry felt himself gratified by her complete sincerity, and began to tell her now about the coal-mine, in obedience to her love of facts.
They were, indeed, descending the shaft in a small cage, and could hear the picks of the miners, something like the gnawing of rats, in the earth beneath them, when the door burst open, without any knocking.
‘Well, here you are!’ Rodney exclaimed. Both Katharine and Henry turned round very quickly and rather guiltily. Rodney was in evening dress. It was clear that his temper was ruffled.
‘That’s where you’ve been all the time,’ he repeated, looking at Katharine.
‘I’ve only been here ten minutes,’ she replied.
‘My dear Katharine, you left the drawing-room over an hour ago.
She said nothing.
‘Does it very much matter?’ Henry asked.
Rodney found it hard to be unreasonable in the presence of another man, and did not answer him.
‘They don’t like it,’ he said. ‘It isn’t kind to old people to leave them alone—although I’ve no doubt it’s much more amusing to sit up here and talk to Henry.’
‘We were discussing coal-mines,’ said Henry urbanely.
‘Yes. But we were talking about much more interesting things before that,’ said Katharine.
From the apparent determination to hurt him with which she spoke, Henry thought that some sort of explosion on Rodney’s part was about to take place.
‘I can quite understand that,’ said Rodney, with his little chuckle, leaning over the back of his chair and tapping the woodwork lightly with his fingers. They were all silent, and the silence was acutely uncomfortable to Henry, at least.
‘Was it very dull, William?’ Katharine suddenly asked, with a complete change of tone and a little gesture of her hand.
‘Of course it was dull,’ William said sulkily.
‘Well, you stay and talk to Henry, and I’ll go down,’ she replied.
She rose as she spoke, and as she turned to leave the room, she laid her hand, with a curiously caressing gesture, upon Rodney’s shoulder. Instantly Rodney clasped her hand in his, with such an impulse of emotion that Henry was annoyed, and rather ostentatiously opened a book.
‘I shall come down with you,’ said William, as she drew back her hand, and made as if to pass him.
‘Oh no,’ she said hastily. ‘You stay here and talk to Henry.’
‘Yes, do,’ said Henry, shutting up his book again. His invitation was polite, without being precisely cordial. Rodney evidently hesitated as to the course he should pursue, but seeing Katharine at the door, he exclaimed:
‘No. I want to come with you.’
She looked back, and said in a very commanding tone, and with an expression of authority upon her face:
‘It’s useless for you to come. I shall go to bed in ten minutes. Good night.’
She nodded to them both, but Henry could not help noticing that her last nod was in his direction. Rodney sat down rather heavily.
His mortification was so obvious that Henry scarcely liked to open the conversation with some remark of a literary character. On the other hand, unless he checked him, Rodney might begin to talk about his feelings, and irreticence is apt to be extremely painful, at any rate in prospect. He therefore adopted a middle course; that is to say, he wrote a note upon the fly-leaf of his book, which ran, ‘The situation is becoming most uncomfortable.’ This he decorated with those flourishes and decorative borders which grow of themselves upon these occasions; and as he did so, he thought to himself that whatever Katharine’s difficulties might be, they did not justify her behaviour. She had spoken with a kind of brutality which suggested that, whether it is natural or assumed, women have a peculiar blindness to the feelings of men.
The pencilling of this note gave Rodney time to recover himself. Perhaps, for he was a very vain man, he was more hurt that Henry had seen him rebuffed than by the rebuff itself. He was in love with Katharine, and vanity is not decreased but increased by love, especially, one may hazard, in the presence of one’s own sex. But Rodney enjoyed the courage which springs from that laughable and lovable defect, and when he had mastered his first impulse, in some way to make a fool of himself, he drew inspiration from the perfect fit of his evening dress. He chose a cigarette, tapped it on the back of his hand, displayed his exquisite pumps on the edge of the fender, and summoned his self-respect.
‘You’ve several big estates round here, Otway,’ he began. ‘Any good hunting? Let me see, what pack would it be?’
‘Sir William Budge, the sugar king, has the biggest estate. He bought out poor Stanham, who went bankrupt.’
‘Which Stanham would that be? Verney or Alfred?’
Alfred ... I don’t hunt myself. You’re a great huntsman, aren’t you? You have a great reputation as a horseman, anyhow,’ he added, desiring to help Rodney in his effort to recover his complacency.
‘Oh, I love riding,’ Rodney replied. ‘Could I get a horse down here? Stupid of me! I forgot to bring any clothes. I can’t imagine, though, who told you I was anything of a rider.’
