A Civil Contract Read online

  Lord Oversley, rising also, and going to him to lay a hand on his shoulder, said: ‘I know, my boy, I know! And if I were a rich man –’

  He was interrupted. The door opened suddenly; a male voice was heard to exclaim: ‘No, dash it, Julia, you can’t – !’ and he and Adam turned to see that Miss Oversley was standing on the threshold, one hand clasping the door-knob, the other holding her riding-whip and gloves.

  For a moment or two she remained there, her lips parted in eagerness, her eyes, almost too large for her little delicate face, full of light. The picture she presented was lovely indeed. She was a slim creature, so fragile that it was easy to understand why her admirers called her Sylph. Even the feathery curls peeping from under a hat like a shako were ethereal; and her severely cut riding-dress seemed merely to emphasize her fairy-like charm.

  Adam stood gazing at her, his heart in his eyes. She let her whip and gloves fall, and ran forward, uttering in a soft, joyful voice: ‘I knew it! You couldn’t be so close to me and I not know! Adam!’

  Entering the room in her wake, her brother Charles interpreted this for his father’s ear, saying in an undervoice: ‘Saw the hat in the hall, and guessed how it was! Darted off before I knew what she meant to do.’

  She would have thrown herself into Adam’s arms, but he prevented her, catching her hands in a painful grip, and holding her at a distance. He was very pale, and could not command his voice to speak more than her name. He bent his head to kiss her hands, his own shaking.

  Lord Oversley said bracingly: ‘A little less in alt, Julia, if you please! We are all glad to see Adam home again, but there is no occasion for these transports. I don’t think you and Charlie met when you were last in England, Adam, but I daresay you haven’t forgotten each other.’

  His heir, nobly seconding this attempt to create a diversion, said immediately: ‘Lord, no! That is, I remember you, Lynton, though you might not remember me. How do you do?’

  Adam released Julia’s hands. He was still pale, but he replied with tolerable composure: ‘Of course I remember you! I own, however, that I might not have recognized you again.’

  ‘No, well, I was only a schoolboy when you first joined. Jupiter, how much I did envy you!’

  ‘Adam!’ Julia faltered. ‘Oh, what has Papa been saying to you?’

  ‘Now, for heaven’s sake, Julia!’ interrupted Oversley testily. ‘I’ve said nothing Adam doesn’t say himself, so –’

  ‘Oh, no!’ she exclaimed, turning her brimming eyes towards Adam. ‘No, no, I don’t believe it! You haven’t changed! I know you have not!’

  ‘No – not that, but –’

  ‘For shame, Adam!’ she said, showing him an April face. ‘Oh, how vexed I am with you! What a scold you deserve! Did you think I was fickle? Or that I care a rush for wealth? I think I will give you a scold!’

  She had stretched out her hands to him again, an enchanting smile trembling on her lips. He took them, but he dared not trust himself to look into her face, and said, keeping his eyes lowered: ‘I could never doubt you. But when I – when we – when I had the presumption to ask your father –’ He broke off rather hopelessly, and continued after a moment’s pause: ‘I thought then that I should be able to support you. The ugly truth is that I’m not even able to provide for my sisters. If I were to be thinking of marriage now I should be the greatest villain unhung – and your father as bad, if he so much as considered my suit!’ he added, trying for a smile.

  She directed an arch look at her parent, and said audaciously: ‘Pooh! As though we couldn’t bring Papa about our thumbs! Stoopid!’

  Adam raised his eyes. ‘Julia, you haven’t understood. Dear love, this is no case of being obliged to live for a time in straitened circumstances. I – I have no circumstances. Within a very short space now I shan’t even have a home to offer you.’

  She stared at him incredulously. ‘No home? But – but Fontley – ?’

  ‘I am putting Fontley up for sale.’

  There was a shocked silence. Charles Oversley directed a look of astonished enquiry at his father, but Oversley was looking under suddenly frowning brows at Adam. Julia cried, in a throbbing voice: ‘Oh, no, no, no!’

  Adam did not speak.

  She pulled her hands free. ‘You cannot mean that! Oh, how can you talk so? Dear, dear Fontley! All its associations – the home of the Deverils throughout the ages!’

  ‘No, hang it, Ju!’ expostulated her brother. ‘Can’t have been! I mean, it’s a Priory! That’s the same as a monastery, ain’t it? Dissolution of the monasteries – well, I don’t precisely remember when that was, but the thing is there can’t have been any Deverils living there before it – unless, of course – No, that won’t fit!’ he decided, adding knowledgeably: ‘Celibacy of the clergy, you know. So that’s a hum!’

  In spite of himself Adam laughed. ‘Yes, I’m afraid it is. The first Deveril of whom we have any very precise information settled in Leicestershire. There has been a Deveril at Fontley only since 1540 – and a shocking rogue he was, from all I can discover!’

  ‘Very likely,’ agreed Mr Oversley sagely. ‘Seems to me that most of those old fellows were regular thatchgallows. Well, only think of the Oversley who made our fortunes! When he wasn’t playing least in sight he was pretty well swimming in lard, wasn’t he, Papa?’

  ‘Alas, too true!’ said his father, twinkling.

  ‘Oh, don’t talk so, don’t talk so!’ Julia broke in. ‘How can you turn everything to jest? Adam, you didn’t mean it! Strangers at Fontley? Oh, no! every feeling revolts! The groves and the alleys! The chapel ruins where I’ve so often sat, feeling the past all about me, so close that I could almost fancy myself a part of it, and see the ghosts of those dead Deverils who lived there!’ She paused, looking from one to the other, and cried passionately: ‘Ah, you don’t understand! Not even you, Adam! How is it possible? Charlie doesn’t, I know, but you – ?’

  ‘I should rather think I don’t!’ said her brother. ‘If you ever saw a ghost you’d run screeching for your life! What’s more, I remember those ruins quite as well as you do, and very likely better! Whenever we stayed at Fontley we used to play at hide-and-seek amongst ’em, and capital sport it was!’

  ‘There were other days,’ Julia said, in a low tone. ‘You choose to pretend that you don’t care, Adam, but I know you too well to be hoaxed! You were used to partake of all my sentiments: this reserve has been forced on you by Papa!’

  Adam replied steadily: ‘I do care. It would be absurd to pretend that I didn’t. If I seem to you reserved it’s because I care too much to talk about it.’

  She said, with quick sympathy: ‘Oh, how horrid I am! how stupid! I understand you – of course I understand you! We won’t speak of it, or even think of it! As for repining, I shan’t do so, I promise you! Could you be happy in a cottage? I could! How often I have longed to live in one – with white walls, and a thatched roof, and a neat little garden! We’ll have a cow, and I’ll learn to milk, and make butter and cheese. And some hens, and a bee-hive, and some pigs. Why, with these, and our books, and a pianoforte, we shall be as rich as nabobs, and want nothing to complete our felicity!’

  ‘Oh, won’t you?’ struck in her unappreciative brother. ‘Well, if you mean to cook the meals Lynton will precious soon want something more! And who’s to kill the pigs, and muck out the henhouse?’

  This sardonic interpolation went unheeded. Julia was rapt in contemplation of the picture she had conjured up; and Adam, tenderly amused though he was, felt too deeply moved to laugh. He could only shake his head; and it was left to Lord Oversley to bring his daughter down to earth, which he did, by saying briskly: ‘Very pretty, my dear, but quite impractical. I hope Adam can find something better to do than to keep pigs. Indeed, I have no doubt he will, and all the more easily without encumbrance! No one is more sorry than I am that things have turned out as they have, but you must be a good girl, and understand that marriage is out of the question. Adam feels this as str