The Brother of Daphne Part 29

My brother-in-law regarded us scornfully. Then:

"What I want to know," he said, "is how the Punch office can spare you both at the same time."

Daphne, Berry and I were playing a three-ball match, while Jill and Jonah--who had sprained his wrist--were walking round with us. Berry is rather good really, but just now he was wearing a patch over one eye, which made him hopeless.

It was glorious spring weather on the coast of Devon. A little village is Feth. Over and round about it the wind blows always, but the cl.u.s.ter of white cottages and the old brown inn themselves lie close in a hollow of the moorland, flanked by the great cliffs. Only the grey church, set up on the heights, half a mile distant, endures the tempests. The wind pa.s.ses over Feth and is gone. A busy fellow, the wind. He has no time to stop. Not so the suns.h.i.+ne. That lingers with Feth all day, decking: the place gloriously. It is good to be a pet of the sun. So are the gardens of Feth bright with flowers, the white walls dazzling, the stream, that scrambles over brown pebbles to the little bay, merry water.

Except for the natives, we had the place to ourselves. But then Feth sees few visitors at any season. Sixteen miles from a station is its salvation. True, there is Mote Abbey hard by--a fine old place with an ancient deer-park and deep, rolling woods. Ruins, too, we had heard.

A roofless quire, a few gra.s.s-grown yards of cloister and the like.

Only the Abbot's kitchen was at all preserved. There's irony for you.

We were going to see them before we left. We were told that in summer at the house itself parties a.s.sembled. But the family was away now.

The round of golf proceeded. "How many is that?" said Berry, as he sliced into the sea.

"Seven," said I. "Not seven into the sea, you know. Seven strokes.

You've only hit three into the sea altogether."

"Isn't he clever with his sums? Here, give me another ball. Where's Henry?"

I handed him the last-named--a favourite cleek. The caddie had gone to collect the flotsam.

"Now then. Ladies and gentlemen, with your kind permission I shall now proceed to beat the sphere into the sky."

It was a tremendous shot, and we could see that it must have reached the green; but when we came up and found the ball in the hole n.o.body was more surprised than Berry. Of course, he didn't show it. Berry doesn't give things away.

"Ah!" he said pleasantly. "That's better. I'm beginning to get used to playing with one eye. You know, all the time I--er--seem to see two b.a.l.l.s."

"Nonsense," said Daphne.

"If you said you'd been seeing two holes all day, I could believe it,"

said Jonah. "Anyone might think so from the way you've been playing."

Berry smiled ecstatically. "My recent--er--chef d'oeuvre--(note the Parisian accent)--has ipso facto--(Latin of the Augustan Age)--placed me beyond the p.r.i.c.ks of criticism. The venom, brother, which you would squirt upon me, bespatters but yourself. Boy, place me the globe upon yon pinnacle of sand. So. Now indicate to me the distant pin. Thank you. Do I see it? No. Natheless (obsolete, but pure), I say nameless it beckons me. And now give me--yes, give me Douglas."

The caddie handed him a bra.s.sie. He had caddied for Berry before.

"Don't breathe for a moment, anyone," said Daphne.

Her husband frowned and silently sliced into the sea.

"How many b.a.l.l.s did you see that time?" said Jonah.

"Three," said I. "That's why he's going to p.a.w.n his clubs."

"The aftermath of gluttony." I spoke disgustedly. It was after luncheon, and Daphne was already asleep. Jill and Jonah drooped comfortably in huge chairs. Berry sprawled upon a sofa.

"I suppose we outrage what you call your sense of decency." murmured the latter.

"You do. Incidentally, you also irritate me, because I shall have to go round alone."

"Friend, your foul egoism leaves me unmoved. Go forth and harry your b.a.l.l.s. I am about to slumber like a little child. Do you think I shall dream, brother?"

"Probably," said I. "About fried fish shops."

Jill shuddered in her chair, and Berry sat up.

"After that most offensive allusion," he said pompously, "I have no option but to ask you to withdraw. The touts' room is downstairs.

Before leaving you may give me what cigarettes you have in your case."

I smiled grimly. Then: "I'm afraid I don't approve of--ah--children smoking," I said, moving towards the door. "Besides, a little exercise'll do you good. There is a box in my room--you know where that is?"

"Where?" snarled my brother-in-law.

I put my head round the door and looked at him. "Immediately above the touts'," said I.

The breeze of the morning had died away, and though the month was the month of April, it might have been a midsummer afternoon. I started on my solitary round, well enough pleased, really, to be alone. The weather was excellent company. My clubs I carried myself.

The fourth hole lies in a little valley, under the lee of a steep, rock-studded hill, whose other side falls sheer into the tumbling waves. On an idle impulse I left my clubs at the fifth tee and scrambled on up the green slope to gaze upon and over the sea below. I have a weakness for high places on the edges of England. I cannot match the dignity of them. Where yellow sands invite, these do not even stoop to challenge. They are superb, demiG.o.ds, the Royalty of the coast.

As I breasted the summit, I heard a child's voice reading aloud.

"And the people told him of all the splendid things which were in the city, and about the King, and what a pretty Princess the King's daughter was."

'Where can one get to see her?' asked the soldier.

"'She is not to be seen at all,' said they, all together 'she lives in a great copper castle, with a great many walls and towers round about it; no one but the King may go in and out there, for it has been prophesied that she shall marry a common soldier, and the King can't bear that."'

"'I should like to see her,' thought the soldier..."

"The reading came from beyond and below me. I fell on my knees, crawled forward, and peered over the top of a slab of rock. On the warm gra.s.s, twenty paces from the edge of the cliff, sat a little boy, his brown knees propping a book. By his side, facing the sea, lay a girl of nineteen or twenty years, her hands clasped behind her head.

Her eyes were closed. She seemed to be asleep. The reading continued.

"And all his friends knew him again, and cared very much for him indeed."

Once he thought to himself,' It is a very strange thing that one cannot get to see the Princess. They all say she is very beautiful; but what is the use of that, if she has always to sit in the great copper castle with the many towers? Can I not get to see her at all? Where is my tinder-box?' And so he struck a light, and whisk! came the dog with eyes as big as teacups.

"'It is midnight, certainly, said the soldier; 'but I should very much like to see the Princess, only for one little moment.'"

Here the child shaded his eyes and looked down at the sands of a creek, quarter of a mile away.

"There they are," he exclaimed, dropping the book and scrambling to his feet. He waved delightedly to two specks on the sands below. Then:

"Good-bye, Cousin Lallie," he cried. "I'll be home by six," and tore away down the green slope like a mad thing. But his cousin never waked. I watched her meditatively.

A skirt of grey-blue tweed, and the fresh white of a blouse beneath a smart coat to match. Her small grey hat lay on the gra.s.s by her side.

Her slim legs were crossed comfortably, and the bright sun lighted a face at once strong and gentle, clear-cut under its thick black hair, which was parted in the middle and hung low over each temple. Her brews were straight, and on the red mouth was a faint smile.