i

She got up and dressed for dinner as if nothing had happened, or, rather, as if everything were about to happen and she were going through with it magnificently, with no sign that she was beaten.  She didn’t know yet what she would do; she didn’t see clearly what there was to be done.  She might not have to do anything; and yet again, vaguely, half-fascinated, half-frightened, she foresaw that she might be called on to do something, something that was hard and terrible and at the same time beautiful and supreme.

And downstairs in the hall, she found Eliot.

He told her that he had come down to see Anne and that he had done his best to keep her from going away and that it was all no good.

“We can’t stop her.  She’s got an unbreakable will.”

“Unbreakable,” she said.  “And yet she’s broken.”

“I know,” he said.

In her nervous exaltation she felt that Eliot had been sent, that Eliot knew.  Eliot was wise.  He would help her.

“Eliot ­” she said.  “Will you see me in the library after dinner?  I want to ask you something.”

“If it’s about Anne, I don’t know that there’s anything I can say.”

“It’s about Jerrold,” she said.

After dinner he came to her in the library.

“Where’s Jerrold?”

“In the drawing-room with Colin.  He won’t come in.”

“Eliot, there’s something awfully wrong with him.  He can’t sleep.  He can’t eat.  He’s sick if he tries.”

“He looks pretty ghastly.”

“Do you know what’s the matter with him?”

“How can I know?  He doesn’t tell me anything.”

“It’s ever since he heard that Anne’s going.”  “He’s worried about her.  So am I. So are you.”

“He isn’t worrying.  He’s fretting....  Eliot ­do you think he cares for her?”

Eliot didn’t answer her.  He looked at her gravely, searchingly, as if he were measuring her strength before he answered.

“Don’t be afraid to tell me.  I’m not a coward.”

“I haven’t anything to tell you.  It isn’t altogether this affair of Anne’s.  Jerrold hasn’t been fit for a long time.”

“It’s been going on for a long time.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Oh,” said Maisie, “everything.”

“Then why don’t you ask him?”

“But ­if it is so ­would he tell me?”

“I don’t know.  Perhaps he wants to tell you, only he’s afraid.  Anyhow, if it isn’t so he’ll tell you and you’ll be happy.”

“Somehow I don’t think I’m going to be happy.”

“Then,” he said, “you’re going to be brave.”

She thought:  He knows.  He’s known all the time, only he won’t give them away.

“Yes,” she said, “I’ll ask him.”

“Maisie ­if it is so what will you do?”

“Do?  There’s only one thing I can do.”

She turned to him, and her milk-white face was grey-white, ashen; the skin had a slack, pitted look, suddenly old.  The soft flesh trembled.  But her mouth and eyes were still.  In this moment of her agony no base emotion defaced their sweetness, so that she seemed to him utterly composed.  She had seen what she could do.  Something hard and terrible.

“I can set him free.”

ii

That was the end she had seen before her, vaguely, as something not only hard and terrible, but beautiful and supreme.  To leave off clinging to the illusion of her happiness.  To let go.  And with that letting go she was aware that an obscure horror had been hanging over her for three days and three nights and was now gone.  She stood free of herself, in a great light and peace, so that presently when Jerrold came to her she met him with an incomparable tranquillity.

“Jerrold ­”

The slight throbbing of her voice startled him coming out of her stillness.

They stood up, facing each other, in attitudes that had no permanence, as if what must pass between them now would be sudden and soon over.

“Do you care for Anne?”

The words dropped clear through her stillness, vibrating.  His eyes went from her, evading the issue.  Her voice came with a sharper stress.

“I must know. Do you care for her?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s why she’s going?”

“Yes.  That’s why she’s going.  Did Eliot say anything?”

“No.  He only told me to ask you.  He said you’d tell me the truth.”

“I have told you the truth.  I’m sorry, Maisie.”

“I know you’re sorry.  So am I.”

“But, you see, it isn’t as if I’d begun after I married you.  I’ve cared for her all my life.”

“Then why didn’t you marry her?”

“Because, first of all, I didn’t know I cared.  And afterwards I thought she cared for Colin.”

“You never asked her?”

“No.  I thought ­I thought they were lovers.”

“You thought that of her?”

“Well, yes.  I thought it would be just like her to give everything.  I knew if she cared enough she’d stick at nothing.  She wouldn’t do it for herself.”

“That was ­when?”

“The time I came home on leave three years ago.”

“The time you married me.  Why did you marry me, if you didn’t care for me?”

“I would have cared for you if I hadn’t cared for her.”

“But, when you cared for her ?”

“I thought we should find something in it.  I wanted you to be happy.  More than anything I wanted you to be happy.  I thought I’d be killed in my next action and that nothing would matter.”

“That you wouldn’t have to keep it up?”

“Oh, I’d have kept it up all right if Anne hadn’t been there.  I cared enough for you to want you to be happy.  I wanted you to have a child.  You’d have liked that.  That would have made you happy.”

“Poor Jerrold ­”

“I’d have been all right if I hadn’t seen Anne again.”

“When did you see her again?”

“Last spring.”

“Only last spring?”

“Yes, only.”

“When I was away.”

She remembered.  She remembered how she had first come to Wyck and found Jerrold happy and superbly well.

“But,” she said, “you were happy then.”

He sighed, a long, tearing sigh that hurt her.

“Yes.  We were happy then.”

And in a flash of terrific clarity she remembered her home-coming and the night that followed it and Jerrold’s acquiescence in their separation.

“Then,” she said, “if you were happy ­”

“Do you want to know how far it went?”

“I want to know everything.  I want the truth.  I think you owe me the truth.”

“It went just as far as it could go.”

“Do you mean ­”

He stood silent and she found his words for him.

“You were Anne’s lover?”

“Yes.”

Her face changed before him, as it had changed an hour ago before Eliot, ashen-white and slack, quivering, suddenly old.

Tears came into his eyes, tears of remorse and pity.  She saw them and her heart ached for him.

“It didn’t last long,” he said.

“How long?”

“From March till ­till September.”

“I remember.”

“Maisie ­I can’t ask you to forgive me.  But you must forgive Anne.  It wasn’t her fault.  I made her do it.  And she’s been awfully unhappy about it, because of you.”

“Ah ­that was why ­”

“Won’t you forgive her?”

“I forgive you both.  I don’t know how I should have felt if you’d been happy.  I can’t see anything but your unhappiness.”

“We gave it up because of you.  That was Anne.  She couldn’t bear going on after she knew you, when you were such an angel.  It was your goodness and sweetness broke us down.”

“But if I’d been the most disagreeable person it would have been just as wrong.”

“It wouldn’t, for in that case we shouldn’t have deceived you.  I should have told you straight and left you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, Jerrold?  Why didn’t you tell me in the beginning?”

“We were afraid.  We didn’t want to hurt you.”

“As if that mattered.”

“It did matter.  We were going to tell you.  Then you were ill and we couldn’t.  We thought you’d die of it, with your poor little heart in that state.”

“Oh, my dear, did you suppose I’d hurt you that way?”

“That was what we couldn’t bear.  Not being straight about it.  That was why we gave each other up.  It never happened again.  Anne’s going away so that it mayn’t happen....  Maisie ­you do believe me?”

“Yes, I believe you.  I believe you did all you knew.”

“We did.  But it’s my fault that Anne’s going.  I lost my head, and she was afraid.”

“If only you’d told me.  I shouldn’t have been hard on you, Jerry.  You knew that, didn’t you?”

“Yes.  I knew.”

“And you went through all that agony rather than hurt me.”

“Yes.”

“The least I can do, then, is to let you go.”

“Would you, Maisie?”

“Of course.  I married you to make you happy.  I must make you happy this way, that’s all.  But if I do you mustn’t think I don’t care for you.  I care for you so much that nothing matters but your happiness.”

“Maisie, I’m not fit to live in the same world with you.”

“You mustn’t say that.  You’re fit to live in the same world with Anne.  I suppose I could have made this all ugly and shameful for you.  But I want to keep it beautiful.  I want to give you all beautiful to Anne, so that you’ll never go back on it, and never feel ashamed.”

“You made me ashamed every time we thought of you.”

“Don’t think of me.  Think of each other.”

“Oh ­you’re adorable.”

“No, I’m doing this because I love you both.  But if I didn’t love you I should do it for myself.  I should hate myself if I didn’t.  I can’t think of anything more disgusting and dishonourable than to keep a man tied to you when he cares for somebody else.  I should feel as if I were living in sin.”

“Maisie ­will you be awfully unhappy?”

“Yes, Jerrold.  But not so unhappy as if I’d kept you.”

“We’ll go away somewhere where you won’t have to see us.”

“No.  It’s I who’ll go away.”

“But I want you to have the Manor and ­and everything.  Colin’ll look after the estate for me.”

“Do you think I could stay here after you’d gone?...  No, Jerry, I can’t do that for you.  You can’t make it up that way.”

“I wasn’t dreaming of making it up.  I simply owe you everything, everlastingly, and there’s nothing I can do.  I only remembered that you liked the garden.”

“I couldn’t bear it.  I should hate the garden.  I should hate the whole place.”

“I’ve done that to you?”

“Yes, you’ve done that to me.  It can’t be helped.”

“But, what will you do, Maisie?”

“I shall go back to my own people.  They happen to care for me.”

That was her one reproach.

“Do you think I don’t?”

“Oh no.  I’ve done the only thing that would make you care.  Perhaps that’s what I did it for.”

He took the hand she gave him and bowed his head over it and kissed it.

iii

Maisie had a long talk with Eliot after Jerrold had left her.

She was still tranquil and composed, but Jerrold was worried.  He was afraid lest the emotion roused by his confession should bring on her pain.  That night Eliot slept in his father’s room, so that he could go to her if the attack came.

But it did not come.

Late in the afternoon Jerrold went down to the Barrow Farm and saw Anne. 
He came back with a message from her.  Anne wanted to see Maisie, if
Maisie would let her.

“But she thinks you won’t,” he said.

“Why should I?”

“She’s desperately unhappy.”

She turned from him as if she would have left him, and then stayed.

“You want me to see her?”

“If you wouldn’t hate it too much.”

“I shall hate it.  But I’ll see her.  Go and bring her.”

She dreaded more than anything the sight of Anne.  Her new knowledge of her made Anne strange and terrible.  She felt that she would be somehow different.  She would see something in her that she had never seen before, that she couldn’t bear to see.  Anne’s face would show her that Jerrold was her lover.

Yet, if she had never seen that look, if she had never seen anything in Anne’s face that was not beautiful, what did that mean but that Anne’s love for him was beautiful?  Before it had touched her body it had lived a long time in her soul.  Either Anne’s soul was beautiful because of it, or it was beautiful because of Anne’s soul; and Maisie knew that if she too was to be beautiful she must keep safe the beauty of their passion as she had kept safe the beauty of their friendship.  It was clear and hard, unbreakable as crystal. She had been the one flaw in it, the thing that had damaged its perfection.  Now that she had let Jerrold go it would be perfect.

Anne stood in the doorway of the library, looking at her and not speaking.  She was the same that she had been yesterday, and before that, and before that; dressed in the farm clothes that were the queer rough setting of her charm.  The same, except that she was still more broken, still more beaten, and still more beautiful in her defeat.

“Anne ­”

Maisie got up and waited, as Anne shut the door and stood there with her back to it.

“Maisie ­I don’t know why I’ve come.  There were things I wanted to say to you, but I can’t say them.”

“You want to say you’re sorry you took Jerrold from me.”

“I’m bitterly sorry.”

She came forward with a slender, awkward grace.  Her eyes were fixed on Maisie, thrown open, expecting pain; but she didn’t shrink or cower.

Maisie’s voice came with its old sweetness.

“You didn’t take him from me.  You couldn’t take what I haven’t got.”

“I gave him up, Maisie.  I couldn’t bear it.”

“And I’ve given him up. I couldn’t bear it, either.  But,” she said, “it was harder for you.  You had him.  I’m only giving up what I’ve never really had.  Don’t be too unhappy about it.”

“I shall always be unhappy when I think of you.  You’ve been such an angel to me.  If we could only have told you.”

“Yes.  If only you’d told me.  That was where you went wrong, Anne.”

“I couldn’t tell you.  You were so ill.  I thought it would kill you.”

“Well, what if it had?  You shouldn’t have thought of me, you should have thought of Jerrold.”

“I did think of him.  I didn’t want him to have agonies of remorse.  It’s been bad enough as it is.”

“I know what it’s been, Anne.”

“That’s what I really came for now.  To see if you’d had that pain again.”

“You needn’t be afraid.  I shall never have that pain again.  Eliot told me all about it last night.”

“What did he say?”

“He showed me how it all happened.  I was ill because I couldn’t face the truth.  The truth was that Jerrold didn’t care for me.  It seems my mind knew it all the time when I didn’t.  I did know it once, and part of me went on feeling the shock of it, while the other part was living like a fool in an illusion, thinking he cared.  And now I’ve been dragged out of it into reality.  I’m facing it. This is real.  And whatever I may be I shan’t be ill again, not with that illness.  I couldn’t help it, but in a way it was as false as if I’d made it up on purpose to hide the truth.  And the truth’s cured me.”

“Eliot told me it might.  And I wouldn’t believe him.”

“You can believe him now.  He said you and Jerrold were all right because you’d faced the truth about yourselves and each other.  You held on to reality.”

“Eliot said that?”

“Yes.  He said it was the test of everybody, how they took reality, and that Jerrold had had to learn how, but that you had always known.  You were so true that your worst punishment was not being able to tell me the truth.  I was to think of you like that.”

“How can you bear to think of me at all?”

“How can I bear to live?  But I shall live.”

Maisie’s voice dropped, note by note, like clear, rounded tears, pressed out and shaped by pain.

Anne’s voice came thick and quivering out of her dark secret anguish, like a voice from behind shut doors.

“Jerrold said you’d forgiven me.  Have you?”

“It would be easier for you if I didn’t.  But I can’t help forgiving you when you’re so unhappy.  I wouldn’t have forgiven you if you hadn’t told me the truth, if I’d had to find it out that time when you were happy.  Then I’d have hated you.”

“You don’t now?”

“No.  I don’t want to see you again, or Jerrold, either, for a long time.  But that’s because I love you.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you too, Anne.”

“How can you love me?”

“Because I’m like you, Anne; I’m faithful.”

“I wasn’t faithful to you, Maisie.”

“You were to Jerrold.”

Anne still stood there, silent, taking in silence the pain of Maisie’s goodness, Maisie’s love.

Then Maisie ended it.

“He’s waiting for you,” she said, “to take you home.”

Anne went to him where he stood by the terrace steps, illuminated by the light from the windows.  In there she could hear Colin playing, a loud, tempestuous music.  Jerrold waited.

She went past him down the steps without a word, and he followed her through the garden.

“Anne ­” he said.

Under the blackness of the yew hedge she turned to him, and their hands met.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said.  “Next week I’ll take you away somewhere till it’s over.”

“Where?”

“Oh, somewhere a long way off, where you’ll be happy.”

Somewhere a long way off, beyond this pain, beyond this day and this night, their joy waited.

“And Maisie?” she said.

“Maisie wants you to be happy.”

He held her by the hand as he used to hold her when they were children, to keep her safe.  And hand in hand, like children, they went down through the twilight of the fields, together.