CHAPTER IV
THE FATAL STREAK
"My lady!"
Anne looked up with a start. She had been sitting with closed eyes underthe lilac tree.
Dimsdale, discreet and deferential as ever, stood before her.
"Mr. Lucas Errol is here," he told her, "with another gentleman. I knewyour ladyship would wish to be at home to him."
"Oh, certainly," she answered, rising. "I am always at home to Mr. LucasErrol. Please tell him I am coming immediately."
But she did not instantly follow Dimsdale. She stood instead quitemotionless, with her face to the sky, breathing deeply.
When she turned at length she had recovered all her customary serenity.With the quiet dignity peculiar to her, she passed up the garden path,leaving the thrush still singing, singing, singing, behind her.
She found her visitors in the drawing-room, which she entered by theopen window. Lucas greeted her with his quiet smile and introducedCapper--"a very great friend of mine, and incidentally the finestdoctor in the U.S.A."
She shook hands with the great man, feeling the small green eyes runningover her, and conscious that she blushed under their scrutiny. Shewondered why, with a vague feeling of resentment. She also wondered whathad moved Lucas to bring him.
As she sat at the tea-table and dispensed hospitality to her guests itwas Lucas who kept the conversation going. She thought he seemed inwonderful spirits despite the heavy droop of his eyelids.
Capper sat in almost unbroken silence, studying his hostess soperpetually that Anne's nerves began to creak at last under the strain.
Quite suddenly at length he set down his cup. "Lady Carfax," he saidabruptly, "I'm told you have a herb garden, and I'm just mad on herbs.Will you take me to see it while Lucas enjoys a much-needed andwell-earned rest?"
Anne glanced up in surprise. They were almost the first words he hadspoken. Capper was already upon his feet. He stood impatiently crackinghis fingers one by one.
She rose. "Of course I will do so with pleasure if Mr. Erroldoesn't mind."
"Certainly not, Lady Carfax," smiled Lucas. "I am extremely comfortable.Pray give him what he wants. It is the only way to pacify him."
Anne smiled and turned to the window. They went out together into thegolden spring evening.
The herb garden was some distance from the house. Capper strode along insilence, with bent brows. More than ever Anne wondered what had broughthim. She did not try to make conversation for him, realising by instinctthat such effort would be vain as well as unwelcome. She merely walkedquietly beside him, directing their steps whither he had desired to go.
They were out of sight of the house before he spoke. "Say, madam,I'm told you know the Errol family off by heart without needing tolook 'em up."
She glanced at him in surprise. "Of course I know them. Yes, I knowthem all."
"Well?" he demanded.
"Oh, quite well." Almost involuntarily she began to explain the intimacy."I was taken to their house after a hunting accident, and I was aninvalid there for several weeks."
"That so?" Again piercingly the American's eyes scanned her. "You're realfriendly then? With which in particular?"
She hesitated momentarily. Then, "I am very fond of Mrs. Errol," shesaid, speaking very quietly. "But Nap was my first friend, andafterwards Lucas--"
"Oh, Nap!"
There was such withering contempt in the exclamation that she hadperforce to remark it.
"Nap is evidently no favourite with you," she said.
He raised his brows till they nearly met his hair. "Nap, my dear lady,"he drily observed, "is doubtless all right in his own sphere. It isn'tmine, and it isn't yours. I came over to this country at his request andin his company, and a queerer devil it has never been my lot toencounter. But what can you expect? I've never yet seen him in a blanketand moccasins, but I imagine that he'd be considerably preferable thatway. I guess he's just a fish out of water on this side of civilisation."
"What can you mean?" Anne said.
For the second time that afternoon she felt as if the ground beneath herhad begun to tremble. She looked up at him with troubled eyes. Surely thewhole world was rocking!
"I mean what I say, madam," he told her curtly. "It's a habit of mine.There is a powerful streak of red in Nap Errol's blood, or I am muchmistaken."
"Ah!" Anne said, and that was all. In a flash she understood him. Shefelt as if he had performed some ruthless operation upon her, and she wastoo exhausted to say more. Unconsciously her hand pressed her heart. Itwas beating strangely, spasmodically; sometimes it did not beat at all.For she knew beyond all doubting that what he said was true.
"I don't say the fellow is an out-and-out savage," Capper was saying."P'r'aps he'd be more tolerable if he were. But the fatal streak isthere. Never noticed it? I thought you women noticed everything. Oh, Ican tell you he's made things hum on our side more times than I'vetroubled to count. Talk of the devil in New York and you very soon findthe conversation drifting round to Nap Errol. Now and then he has a lapseinto sheer savagery, and then there is no controlling him. It's just asthe fit takes him. He's never to be trusted. It's an ineradicable taint."
She shivered at the words, but still she did not speak.
Capper went unconcernedly on. "I fancy Lucas once thought he was going tomake a gentleman of him. A gentleman, ye gods! Teach a tiger to sit upand beg! He has a most amazing patience, but I guess even he realises bynow that the beast is untamable. Mrs. Errol saw it long ago. There's afine woman for you--A.1., gilt-edged, quality of the best. You know Mrs.Errol, you say?"
"Yes, I know her." Anne heard the words, but was not conscious ofuttering them.
Capper gave her a single straight look. "You wouldn't think, would you,"said he, "that that woman carries a broken heart about with her? But Iassure you that's so. Nap Errol was the tragedy of her life."
That quickened her to interest. She was conscious of a gradual sinkingdownwards of her dismay till it came to rest somewhere deep in her inmostsoul, leaving the surface free for other impressions.
"He came out of nowhere," Capper went on. "She never tried to account forhim. He was her husband's son. She made him hers. But he's been a tiger'scub all his life, a hurricane, a firebrand. He and Bertie are usually atdaggers drawn and Lucas spends his time keeping the peace; which is aboutas wearing an occupation for a sick man as I can imagine. I want to put astop to it, Lady Carfax. I speak as one family friend to another. Lucasseems to like you. I believe you could make him see reason if you tookthe trouble. Women are proverbially ingenious."
Anne's faint smile showed for a moment. They had entered the herb gardenand were passing slowly down the central path. It was a small enclosuresurrounded by clipped yew hedges and intersected by green walks. Theevening sunlight slanting down upon her, had turned her brown hair toruddiest gold. There was no agitation about her now. The grey eyes weregravely thoughtful.
She bent presently to pluck a sprig of rosemary. "Will you tell me," shesaid, "what it is that you want to do?"
Capper shot her a keen side-glance. "I want to cure him," he said. "Iwant to make a whole man of him."
"Could you?" she asked.
"I could." Abruptly Capper stopped. His yellow face was curiously aglow."I say I could," he asserted almost fiercely, "if I could choose myconditions. If I could banish that pestilent brother of his, if I couldrouse him to something like energy, if I could turn his will in onedirection only, I could do it. Given his whole-hearted co-operation, Icould do it. Without it, I am powerless. He would simply die ofinanition."
"It would mean an operation then? A very serious one?" Anne had pausedupon the green path. Her eyes sought Capper's.
He answered her with curt directness. "My dear lady, it would mean notone, but two. I won't trouble you with technical details which youwouldn't understand. Put briefly, it would mean in the first place apulling down and in the second a building up. Both operations would be aserious tax upon his strength, but I am satisf
ied that he has thestrength for both. Six months would elapse between the two, and duringthat time he would be flat on his back. If he could hold on for those sixmonths he would come through all right. Of that I am convinced. But thosesix months are my stumbling-block. Freedom from all anxiety is essential.He wants a stanch friend continually beside him to keep him cheery and atpeace. That fellow Nap is the principle obstacle. He stirs up hell andtommy wherever he goes, and he's never absent for long. Lucas himselfadmits that his brothers are a care to him. Oh, it's all an infernaltangle. I sometimes think family ties are the very deuce."
Capper tugged at his beard with restless fingers and ground his heelinto the turf.
"If you consider Nap an obstacle--why don't you speak to him?" Anne askedin her quiet voice.
Capper shrugged his shoulders. "He hates me--and small wonder! I've toldhim the brutal truth too often."
Anne passed the matter by. "And Lucas does not wish to undergo theoperation?"
"That's just the infernal part of it!" burst forth Capper. "He wouldundergo it to-morrow if he didn't consider himself indispensable to theseyoung whelps. But that isn't all. Lady Carfax, he wants help. He wantssomeone strong to stand by. I believe you could do it--if you would. Youare the sort of woman that men turn to in trouble. I've been watchingyou. I know."
Again very faintly Anne smiled, with more of patience than amusement."Dr. Capper, has Lucas been telling you about me?"
Capper thrust out a hand. "Yes."
"You know how I am situated?" she questioned.
"I do." There was no sympathy in Capper's voice or face; only in thegrasp of his hand.
"And you think I could be of use to him?"
"I don't think," said Capper. "I know." He released her hand as abruptlyas he had taken it. His long fingers began to curve and crackmechanically. "I'll tell you something," he said. "Don't know why Ishould, but I will. I love Lucas Errol as if he were my son."
"Ah!" Anne said gently. "I think we all love him in our different ways."
"That so?" said the American keenly. "Then I shall leave the matter inyour charge, Lady Carfax. I can see you're a capable woman. I'm comingback in September to perform that operation. You will have a willingpatient ready for me--by willing I mean something gayer thanresigned--and my bugbear, Nap--that most lurid specimen of civiliseddevilry--hunting scalps on the other side of the Atlantic."
"Oh, I don't know!" Anne said quickly. "I don't know!"
She spoke breathlessly, as one suddenly plunged into a strong current.Her face was bent over the sprig of rosemary which she was threading inher dress. Her fingers were trembling.
Capper watched her silently.
"Let me!" he said at last.
He took the sprig from her with a hand that was perfectly steady, held ita moment, seemed to hesitate, finally withdrew it and planted it in hisown buttonhole.
"I guess I'll keep it myself," he said, "with your permission, in memoryof a good woman."
Anne commanded herself and looked up. "Keep it, by all means," she said."But do not expect too much from me. No woman is always good. The bestof us fail sometimes."
"But you will do your best when the time comes?" he said, in a tone thatwas a curious blend of demand and entreaty.
She met his eyes quite fully. "Yes," she said, "I will do my best."
"Then I'm not afraid," said Capper. "We shall pull him through betweenus. It will be a miracle, of course, but"--a sudden smile flashed acrosshis face, transforming him completely--"miracles happen, Lady Carfax."