第34章

"I want you and your mother,"he said suddenly,"to come for the afternoon next Sunday.My house is on the river,it's not too late in this weather;and I can show you some good pictures.What do you say?"Annette clasped her hands.

"It will be lovelee.The river is so beautiful""That's understood,then.I'll ask Madame."

He need say no more to her this evening,and risk giving himself away.But had he not already said too much?Did one ask restaurant proprietors with pretty daughters down to one's country house without design?Madame Lamotte would see,if Annette didn't.

Well!there was not much that Madame did not see.Besides,this was the second time he had stayed to supper with them;he owed them hospitality.

Walking home towards Park Lane--for he was staying at his father's--with the impression of Annette's soft clever hand within his own,his thoughts were pleasant,slightly sensual,rather puzzled.Take steps!What steps?How?Dirty linen washed in public?Pah!

With his reputation for sagacity,for far-sightedness and the clever extrication of others,he,who stood for proprietary interests,to become the plaything of that Law of which he was a pillar!There was something revolting in the thought!Winifred's affair was bad enough!To have a double dose of publicity in the family!Would not a liaison be better than that--a liaison,and a son he could adopt?But dark,solid,watchful,Madame Lamotte blocked the avenue of that vision.No!that would not work.It was not as if Annette could have a real passion for him;one could not expect that at his age.If her mother wished,if the worldly advantage were manifestly great--perhaps!If not,refusal would be certain.Besides,he thought:'I'm not a villain.I don't want to hurt her;and I don't want anything underhand.But I do want her,and I want a son!There's nothing for it but divorce--somehow--anyhow--divorce!'Under the shadow of the plane-trees,in the lamplight,he passed slowly along the railings of the Green Park.

Mist clung there among the bluish tree shapes,beyond range of the lamps.How many hundred times he had walked past those trees from his father's house in Park Lane,when he was quite a young man;or from his own house in Montpellier Square in those four years of married life!And,to-night,making up his mind to free himself if he could of that long useless marriage tie,he took a fancy to walk on,in at Hyde Park Corner,out at Knightsbridge Gate,just as he used to when going home to Irene in the old days.What could she be like now?--how had she passed the years since he last saw her,twelve years in all,seven already since Uncle Jolyon left her that money?Was she still beautiful?Would he know her if he saw her?

'I've not changed much,'he thought;'I expect she has.She made me suffer.'He remembered suddenly one night,the first on which he went out to dinner alone--an old Malburian dinner--the first year of their marriage.With what eagerness he had hurried back;and,entering softly as a cat,had heard her playing.Opening the drawingroom door noiselessly,he had stood watching the expression on her face,different from any he knew,so much more open,so confiding,as though to her music she was giving a heart he had never seen.And he remembered how she stopped and looked round,how her face changed back to that which he did know,and what an icy shiver had gone through him,for all that the next moment he was fondling her shoulders.Yes,she had made him suffer!

Divorce!It seemed ridiculous,after all these years of utter separation!But it would have to be.No other way!'The question,'he thought with sudden realism,'is--which of us?She or me?She deserted me.She ought to pay for it.There'll be someone,I suppose.'Involuntarily he uttered a little snarling sound,and,turning,made his way back to Park Lane.