第70章

Out in the street he swore deeply,quietly,to himself.A spider's web,and to cut it he must use this spidery,secret,unclean method,so utterly repugnant to one who regarded his private life as his most sacred piece of property.But the die was cast,he could not go back.And he went on into the Poultry,and locked away the green morocco case and the key to that cipher destined to make crystal-clear his domestic bankruptcy.

Odd that one whose life was spent in bringing to the public eye all the private coils of property,the domestic disagreements of others,should dread so utterly the public eye turned on his own;and yet not odd,for who should know so well as he the whole unfeeling process of legal regulation.

He worked hard all day.Winifred was due at four o'clock;he was to take her down to a conference in the Temple with Dreamer Q.C.,and waiting for her he re-read the letter he had caused her to write the day of Dartie's departure,requiring him to return.

"DEAR MONTAGUE,"I have received your letter with the news that you have left me for ever and are on your way to Buenos Aires.It has naturally been a great shock.I am taking this earliest opportunity of writing to tell you that I am prepared to let bygones be bygones if you will return to me at once.I beg you to do so.I am very much upset,and will not say any more now.I am sending this letter registered to the address you left at your Club.Please cable to me.

"Your still affectionate wife,"WINIFRED DARTIE."Ugh!What bitter humbug!He remembered leaning over Winifred while she copied what he had pencilled,and how she had said,laying down her pen,"Suppose he comes,Soames!"in such a strange tone of voice,as if she did not know her own mind."He won't come,"he had answered,"till he's spent his money.That's why we must act at once."Annexed to the copy of that letter was the original of Dartie's drunken scrawl from the Iseeum Club.Soames could have wished it had not been so manifestly penned in liquor.

Just the sort of thing the Court would pitch on.He seemed to hear the Judge's voice say:"You took this seriously!Seriously enough to write him as you did?Do you think he meant it?"Never mind!

The fact was clear that Dartie had sailed and had not returned.

Annexed also was his cabled answer:"Impossible return.Dartie."Soames shook his head.If the whole thing were not disposed of within the next few months the fellow would turn up again like a bad penny.It saved a thousand a year at least to get rid of him,besides all the worry to Winifred and his father.'I must stiffen Dreamer's back,'he thought;'we must push it on.'

Winifred,who had adopted a kind of half-mourning which became her fair hair and tall figure very well,arrived in James'barouche drawn by James'pair.Soames had not seen it in the City since his father retired from business five years ago,and its incongruity gave him a shock.'Times are changing,'he thought;'one doesn't know what'll go next!'Top hats even were scarcer.He enquired after Val.Val,said Winifred,wrote that he was going to play polo next term.She thought he was in a very good set.She added with fashionably disguised anxiety:"Will there be much publicity about my affair,Soames?Must it be in the papers?It's so bad for him,and the girls."With his own calamity all raw within him,Soames answered:

"The papers are a pushing lot;it's very difficult to keep things out.They pretend to be guarding the public's morals,and they corrupt them with their beastly reports.But we haven't got to that yet.We're only seeing Dreamer to-day on the restitution question.Of course he understands that it's to lead to a divorce;but you must seem genuinely anxious to get Dartie back--you might practice that attitude to-day."Winifred sighed.

"Oh!What a clown Monty's been!"she said.