Best Short Stories - [56]

For the moment his foremost thought was one of wonder at the way in which she had shed the phase of existence which her marriage with Haskett implied. It was as if her whole aspect, every gesture, every inflection, every allusion, were a studied negation of that period of her life. If she had denied being married to Haskett she could hardly have stood more convicted of duplicity than in this obliteration of the self which had been his wife.

Waythorn started up, checking himself in the analysis of her motives. What right had he to create a fantastic effigy of her and then pass judgment on it? She had spoken vaguely of her first marriage as unhappy, had hinted, with becoming reticence, that Haskett had wrought havoc among her young illusions… It was a pity for Waythorn’s peace of mind that Haskett’s very inoffensiveness shed a new light on the nature of those illusions. A man would rather think that his wife has been brutalized by her first husband than that the process has been reversed.

IV

‘Mr Waythorn, I don’t like that French governess of Lily’s.’

Haskett, subdued and apologetic, stood before Waythorn in the library, revolving his shabby hat in his hand.

Waythorn, surprised in his armchair over the evening paper, stared back perplexedly at his visitor.

‘You’ll excuse my asking to see you,’ Haskett continued. ‘But this is my last visit, and I thought if I could have a word with you it would be a better way than writing to Mrs. Waythorn’s lawyer.’

Waythorn rose uneasily. He did not like the French governess either; but that was irrelevant.

‘I am not so sure of that,’ he returned stiffly; ‘but since you wish it I will give your message to — my wife.’ He always hesitated over the possessive pronoun in addressing Haskett.

The latter sighed. ‘I don’t know as that will help much. She didn’t like it when I spoke to her.’

Waythorn turned red. ‘When did you see her?’ he asked.

‘Not since the first day I came to see Lily — right after she was taken sick. I remarked to her then that I didn’t like the governess.’

Waythorn made no answer. He remembered distinctly that, after that first visit, he had asked his wife if she had seen Haskett. She had lied to him then, but she had respected his wishes since; and the incident cast a curious light on her character. He was sure she would not have seen Haskett that first day if she had divined that Waythorn would object, and the fact that she did not divine it was almost as disagreeable to the latter as the discovery that she had lied to him.

‘I don’t like the woman,’ Haskett was repeating with mild persistency. ‘She ain’t straight, Mr. Waythorn — she’ll teach the child to be underhand. I’ve noticed a change in Lily — she’s too anxious to please — and she don’t always tell the truth. She used to be the straightest child, Mr. Waythorn —’ He broke off, his voice a little thick. ‘Not but what I want her to have a stylish education,’ he ended.

Waythorn was touched. ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Haskett; but frankly, I don’t quite see what I can do.’

Haskett hesitated. Then he laid his hat on the table, and advanced to the hearth-rug, on which Waythorn was standing. There was nothing aggressive in his manner; but he had the solemnity of a timid man resolved on a decisive measure.

‘There’s just one thing you can do, Mr. Waythorn,’ he said. ‘You can remind Mrs. Waythorn that, by the decree of the courts, I am entitled to have a voice in Lily’s bringing up.’ He paused, and went on more deprecatingly: ‘I’m not the kind to talk about enforcing my rights, Mr. Waythorn. I don’t know as I think a man is entitled to rights he hasn’t known how to hold on to; but this business of the child is different. I’ve never let go there — and I never mean to.’

The scene left Waythorn deeply shaken. Shamefacedly, in indirect ways, he had been finding out about Haskett; and all that he had learned was favorable. The little man, in order to be near his daughter, had sold out his share in a profitable business in Utica, and accepted a modest clerkship in a New York manufacturing house. He boarded in a shabby street and had few acquaintances. His passion for Lily filled his life. Waythorn felt that this exploration of Haskett was like groping about with a dark-lantern in his wife’s past; but he saw now that there were recesses his lantern had not explored. He had never inquired into the exact circumstances of his wife’s first matrimonial rupture. On the surface all had been fair. It was she who had obtained the divorce, and the court had given her the child. But Waythorn knew how many ambiguities such a verdict might cover. The mere fact that Haskett retained a right over his daughter implied an unsuspected compromise. Waythorn was an idealist. He always refused to recognize unpleasant contingencies till he found himself confronted with them, and then he saw them followed by a special train of consequences. His next days were thus haunted, and he determined to try to lay the ghosts by conjuring them up in his wife’s presence.

When he repeated Haskett’s request a flame of anger passed over her face; but she subdued it instantly and spoke with a slight quiver of outraged motherhood.