The Fingerprint

Chapter XLIII

ANTHONY RANG up from Lenton. The first sound of Johnny’s voice was enough to tell him that Mirrie had been found and was safe.

“And you’d better come back quick or there won’t be anything left to eat. We’re not waiting for anyone, and personally I could cope with an ox.”

Anthony hung up and came out of the call-box. He hadn’t reckoned on Georgina being so close to him. She had insisted on coming, but they had hardly spoken until now when he almost ran into her and she caught him by the arm and said,

“What is it?”

“She’s all right. They’ve got her back.”

Just for a moment they stood close together like that, her hands on his coat-sleeve, her face tilted up to him and the greenish light of a street-lamp turning her hair to silver. She was bare-headed, with a coat thrown round her, and there was no colour about her anywhere, not in her face nor in her lips, nor in the pale glimmer of her hair. Only her eyes were dark and fixed upon his own. She said,

“Thank God!” Then her hands fell and she stepped back from him, and they got into the car and drove away.

But as soon as they were clear of the town she spoke again.

“Anthony, I want to talk to you. Will you draw in to the side of the road?”

“Not here-not now. They’ll be expecting us back.”

There was a moment’s silence before she said,.

“Does that matter to you so much?”

“I think we should get back.”

She had the feeling that if she let him put her away from him now, there would be no time in which they would come together again. She said,

“Anthony, will you stop now if I tell you that it is very important to me?”

They had been so near, and for so long, that she could feel him resisting her. And then quite suddenly the resistance lessened and the car slowed down and stopped. He said without turning towards her,

“I shall be going away tomorrow. I only came back to get my things.”

“Yes, I thought that was what you were going to do. You didn’t feel there was anything you had to say to me?”

“I was going to write.”

“You were afraid to come to me and say that you had let yourself be carried away-that you don’t really care for me the way I thought you did.”

“You know that’s a lie.”

“I know you said you loved me. But you didn’t, did you? You only said so because Uncle Jonathan had hurt me so much and you thought it would comfort me. And now, of course, I don’t need comforting any more”’

“ Georgina!”

“That doesn’t get us very far, does it? You are Anthony, and I am Georgina, and I thought you loved me. You did too. I want to know when you stopped. Have you fallen in love with someone else?”

“You know I haven’t.”

A little warmth came into her voice and shook it.

“Of course I know! I shouldn’t be talking to you like this if I didn’t. You’ve loved me for a long time. I knew when you began, and I should know if you were to stop. You haven’t stopped. You’re just offering us both up as a burnt sacrifice to your pride, and it’s a horrible, cruel thing to do and completely senseless.”

“You don’t understand.”

“I understand perfectly. Everyone understands but you. Uncle Jonathan did. That last evening when I talked to him he told me he did. He said he had always wanted us to get married some day. He said he thought we should be very happy, and he had left you something in his will as a mark of his trust and confidence.”

He turned round then for the first time.

“Did he say that? Are you sure he meant it that way? I thought-”

“What did you think?”

“I thought- No, it doesn’t matter. It sounds-”

“You thought you were being put on your honour to keep away from me?”

“No, no-of course not-”

“I knew it was that. You see, I do always know what you are thinking-at least I always have until now. And when you began to lock your doors and bolt yourself away, and I couldn’t get near you-” Her voice broke off short.

He could see that she turned away from him, catching at the edge of the open window and hiding her face against her hands. If he touched her he wouldn’t be able to hold out any more. He had only to take her in his arms and all that obstinate ingrowing pride would melt. He sat where he was and heard the sound of her weeping.

It was not for long.

She sat up, straightening herself and leaning back. Then she said,

“I don’t think you love me very much. I just want to say that there wouldn’t be a terrible lot for your pride to swallow after all. Mr. Maudsley says I can’t give Mirrie any of the capital, but I can make her an allowance of five hundred a year if I like, so that is what I shall do. I don’t quite know how much there will be left by the time all the duties are paid, and Cousin Anna’s legacy. Mr. Maudsley doesn’t know yet, but he says I shall have to pay the income tax on Mirrie’s allowance. Goodbye, Anthony.”

She had spoken in a soft, tired voice and without any expression. On the last word she turned the handle of the door and stepped out into the road. Since he had been trying not to look at her, he was not really aware of what she was doing until it had been done and he saw her walking away from him into the darkness.

Anger. An absolute fury of anger putting paid to the struggle in his mind. She would walk out on him, would she? Walk three lonely miles on the Lenton road in thin evening shoes rather than sit by him another moment and let him drive her home! Didn’t she know how impossible it was for either of them to leave the other? He had wrenched mind and body to do it, only to find how damned impossible it was. He was out of the car, banging the door behind him and catching her up before she had gone a dozen yards.

Georgina heard him come. She went on walking, neither quickening her step nor slowing down. If she had been quite alone she would have walked like that, without hurry and without delay. He took her by the arm and she did not turn her head.

“Come back and get into the car!”

Her heart leapt at the fury of his tone. If this was to be a battlefield, she could fight and lose, or fight and win. It was being alone in a cold wilderness with no voice nor any that answered which had brought her to the breaking-point. She wasn’t afraid of Anthony when he was angry. She wasn’t afraid of anything as long as he was there-not half a universe away in some cold hell of his own making.

“Did you hear what I said? Come back at once!”

“Thank you, I would rather walk.”

Her tone made him the merest stranger.

“ Georgina, are you mad?”

“I don’t know. Would it be anything to do with you if I was?”

He experienced a horrifying resurgence of the emotions of primitive man. There was nothing but a little matter of perhaps half a million centuries between him and the male creature who knocked his woman over the head with a lump of stone and dragged her senseless to their cave. A gratifying experience if there ever was one! But the centuries had done their work. He merely stopped her where she stood and made her face him with a bruising grip upon either arm.

“Don’t be such a damned fool!”

She said in a whispering voice,

“You may go away from me, but I mustn’t go away from you?”

“You mustn’t ever go away from me! I can’t bear it! Georgina, I can’t!”

She began suddenly to laugh very softly.

“Darling, you don’t have to. You don’t really, you know. Not unless you want to.”

He put his head down on her shoulder, and they stood like that for a long time until the headlights of an oncoming car picked them up and dazzled them out of their dream.