The extension of the scheme of restoration which Lord Blandamer's
liberality involved, made it necessary that Westray should more than
once consult Sir George Farquhar in London. On coming back to Cullerne
from one of these visits on a Saturday night, he found his meal laid in
Mr Sharnall's room.
"I thought you would not mind our having supper together," Mr Sharnall
said. "I don't know how it is, I always feel gloomy just when the
winter begins, and the dark sets in so soon. It is all right later on; I rather enjoy the long evenings and a good fire, when I can afford a good one, but at first it is a little gloomy. So come and have supper with me. There is a good fire to-night, and a bit of driftwood that I got specially for your benefit."
They talked of indifferent subjects during the meal, though once or
twice it seemed to Westray that the organist gave inconsequential
replies, as though he were thinking of something else. This was no
doubt the case, for, after they had settled before the fire, and the
lambent blue flames of the driftwood had been properly admired, Mr
Sharnall began with a hesitating cough:
"A rather curious thing happened this afternoon. When I got back here
after evening-service, who should I find waiting in my room but that
Blandamer fellow. There was no light and no fire, for I had thought if
we lit the fire late we could afford a better one. He was sitting at
one end of the window-seat, damn him!"—(the expletive was caused by Mr
Sharnall remembering that this was Anastasia's favourite seat, and his
desire to reprobate the use of it by anyone else)—"but got up, of
course, as I came in, and made a vast lot of soft speeches. He must
really apologise for such an intrusion. He had come to see Mr Westray, but found that Mr Westray had unfortunately been called away. He had taken the liberty of waiting a few minutes in Mr Sharnall's room. He was anxious to have a few moments' conversation with Mr Sharnall, and so on, and so on. You know how I hate palaver, and how I disliked—how I dislike" (he corrected himself)—"the man; but he took me at a disadvantage, you see, for here he was actually in my room, and one cannot be so rude in one's own room as one can in other people's. I felt responsible, too, to some extent for his having had to wait without fire or light, though why he shouldn't have lit the gas himself I'm sure I don't know. So I talked more civilly than I meant to, and then, just at the moment that I was hoping to get rid of him, Anastasia, who it seems was the only person at home, must needs come in to ask if I was ready for my tea. You may imagine my disgust, but there was nothing for it but to ask him if he would like a cup of tea. I never dreamt of his taking it, but he did; and so, behold! there we were hobnobbing over the tea-table as if we were cronies."
Westray was astonished. Mr Sharnall had rebuked him so short a time
before for not having repulsed Lord Blandamer's advances that he could
scarcely understand such a serious falling away from all the higher
principles of hatred and malice as were implied in this tea-drinking. His experience of life had been as yet too limited to convince him that most enmities and antipathies, being theoretical rather than actual, are apt to become mitigated, or to disappear altogether on personal contact—that it is, in fact, exceedingly hard to keep hatred at concert-pitch, or to be consistently rude to a person face to face who has a pleasant manner and a desire to conciliate.
Perhaps Mr Sharnall read Westray's surprise in his face, for he went on
with a still more apologetic manner:
"That is not the worst of it; he has put me in a most awkward position. I must admit that I found his conversation amusing enough. We spoke a good deal of music, and he showed a surprising knowledge of the subject, and a correct taste; I do not know where he has got it from."
"I found exactly the same thing with his architecture," Westray said. "We started to go round the minster as master and pupil, but before we finished I had an uncomfortable impression that he knew more about it than I did—at least, from the archæologic point of view."