Our interview with Sir Beverley Drake was most satisfactory. Because he had known old Mr. Ralston and my grandmother, the great specialist granted my earnest request.
“I had almost vowed not to receive one solitary patient,” he laughed, “yet here I am promising to motor thirty miles for the pleasure of calling on one.”
“You won't regret it,” I prophesied. “You will find Major Murray an interesting man, and as enthralling a case as you ever met. As for the bride, you'll fall in love with her. Every man must.”
It was finally arranged that he should visit Ralston Murray early in the following week. He could not go before, as he was expecting visitors, but it was already Wednesday, so there were not many days to wait.
Jim and I had decided not to run over to see the Murrays at once, but to give them time to “settle in.” We would go on Sunday afternoon, we thought, but on Saturday I had a telegram from Rosemary,
I was utterly amazed, for in London she had seemed as keen on consulting the specialist as I was, and had thanked us warmly for the offer of breaking our journey at Exeter.
“We can't force Sir Beverley on Murray,” Jim said. “It wouldn't be fair to either of them.” But I insisted.
“There's something odd about this,” I told him. “Let's spin over to-day instead of to-morrow, and tell the Murrays that Sir Beverley would be offended. I shall say to Rosemary that, as we asked him to call, it would be humiliating to us to have him treated in such a way.”
I think Jim has laid down for himself a certain line of action with me. He yields to me on all matters on which he's comparatively indifferent, so that I won't notice much when he turns into the Rock of Gibraltar over big issues.
This was one of the occasions when he yielded, and we flashed to Ralston Old Manor directly after lunch. There wasn't time for a telegram to be delivered there before our arrival, and the Manor had no telephone, so we arrived en surprise. And the surprise was a double one, for I was amazed to come upon Mrs. Jennings walking with Rosemary down the elm avenue. Evidently the visitor was going home, and her hostess was accompanying her as far as the gate. Our car coming up the drive startled them from what appeared to be the most intimate talk. At sight of us they both looked up, and their manner changed. Rosemary smiled a welcome. Gaby smiled in politeness. But before the smile, there was the fraction of a second when each face revealed something it didn't mean to reveal, or I imagined it. Rosemary's had lost the look of exalted happiness which had thrilled me on her wedding day. For that instant it had a haunted look. As for Gaby, the fleeting expression of her face was not so hard to understand. For some reason she was annoyed that we had come, and felt an impulse of dislike toward us.
“Can those two have met before?” I asked myself. It seemed improbable, yet it was odd that strangers who had known each other only a couple of days should be on such terms.
They parted on the spot, when we had slowed down, Mrs. Jennings walking on alone the short distance to the gate, and Rosemary getting into the car with us, to drive to the house. I couldn't resist asking the question:
“Had you ever seen Mrs. Jennings before she was married?” For, after all, there was no reason why I should not ask it. But Rosemary looked me full in the face as she answered:
“No, I never met her until she and her husband called the day before yesterday. She has been very kind about getting the house beautifully ready for us, and finding servants. I feel I know her quite well, because she has come in every day to explain about repairs that have had to be made, and that sort of thing.”
“Do you like her?” I asked,
“I think she's tremendously clever,” Rosemary said.
I was inclined to think so too.
“It's she who has been trying to persuade the Murrays not to have Sir Beverley Drake,” I told myself. “She wants the job for her husband.”
Happiness had had a wonderful effect upon Murray, even in these few days. It seemed to have electrified him with anew vitality. He had walked a few steps without any help, and for the first time in many weeks felt an appetite for food.
