THE amount of brandy that Henry Snow had drunk to support what he called his misfortune made him loquacious for the first part of the journey. While he and Sylvia waited during the night at a railway junction, he held forth at length not merely upon the event that was driving him out of France, but generally upon the whole course of his life. Sylvia was glad that her father treated her as if she were grown up, because having conceived for him a kind of maternal solicitude, not so much from pity or affection as from the inspiration to quit Lille forever which she gratefully owed to his lapse, she had no intention of letting him re-establish any authority over herself. His life's history, poured forth while they paced the dark platform or huddled before the stove in the dim waiting-room, confirmed her resolve.
"Of course, when I first got that job in Lille it seemed just what I was looking for. I'd had a very scrappy education, because my father, who was cashier in a bank, died, and my mother, who you're a bit like--I used to have a photograph of her, but I suppose it's lost, like everything else--my mother got run over and killed coming back from the funeral. There's something funny about that, you know. I remember your mother laughed very much when I told her about it once. But I didn't laugh at the time, I can tell you, because it meant two aunts playing battledore and shuttlecock. Don't interrupt, there's a good girl. It's a sort of game. I can't remember what it is in French. I dare say it doesn't exist in France. You'll have to stick to English now. Good old England, it's not a bad place. Well, these two aunts of mine grudged every penny they spent on me, but one of them got married to a man who knew the firm I worked for in Lille. That's how I came to France. Where are my aunts now? Dead, I hope. Don't you fret, Sylvia, we sha'n't trouble any of our relations for a long time to come. Then after I'd been in France about four years I married your mother. If you ask me why, I can't tell you. I loved her; but the thing was wrong somehow. It put me in a false position. Well, look at me! I'm only thirty-four now. Who'd think you were my daughter?
"And while we're talking on serious subjects, let me give you a bit of advice. Keep off jealousy. Jealousy is hell; and your mother was jealous. Well--Frenchwomen are more jealous than Englishwomen. You can't get over that fact. The scenes I've had with her. It was no good my pointing out that she was fourteen years older than me. Not a bit of good. It made her worse. That's why I took to reading. I had to get away from her sometimes and shut myself up. That's why I took to cards. And that's where your mother was wrong. She'd rather I gambled away her money, because it's no use to pretend that it wasn't her money, than go and sit at a café and perhaps observe--mind you, simply observe--another woman. I used to drink a bit too much when we were first married, but it caused such rows that I gave that up. I remember I broke an umbrella once, and you'd really have thought there wasn't another umbrella in the whole world. Why, that little drop of brandy I drank to-night has made me feel quite funny. I'm not used to it. But there was some excuse for drinking to-night. I've had runs of bad luck before, but anything like these last two months I've never had in my life. The consequence was I borrowed some of my salary in advance without consulting anybody. That's where the manager had me this afternoon. He couldn't see that it was merely borrowing. As a matter of fact, the sum wasn't worth an argument; but he wasn't content with that; he actually told me he was going to examine--well--you wouldn't understand if I tried to explain to you. It would take a commercial training to understand what I've been doing. Anyway, I made up my mind to make a bolt for it. Now don't run away with the notion that the police will be after me, because I very much hope they won't. In fact, I don't think they'll do anything. But the whole affair gave me a shock and Valentine's behavior upset me. You see, when your mother was alive if I'd had a bad week she used to help me out; but Valentine actually asked me for money. She accused me of all sorts of things which, luckily, you're too young to understand; and I really didn't like to refuse her when I'd got the money.