A Pair of Blue Eyes | Page 4

it was not powerful; it was weak. Some women can
make their personality pervade the atmosphere of a whole banqueting
hall; Elfride's was no more pervasive than that of a kitten.
Elfride had as her own the thoughtfulness which appears in the face of
the Madonna della Sedia, without its rapture: the warmth and spirit of
the type of woman's feature most common to the beauties--mortal and
immortal--of Rubens, without their insistent fleshiness. The
characteristic expression of the female faces of Correggio--that of the
yearning human thoughts that lie too deep for tears--was hers
sometimes, but seldom under ordinary conditions.
The point in Elfride Swancourt's life at which a deeper current may be
said to have permanently set in, was one winter afternoon when she
found herself standing, in the character of hostess, face to face with a
man she had never seen before--moreover, looking at him with a
Miranda-like curiosity and interest that she had never yet bestowed on a
mortal.
On this particular day her father, the vicar of a parish on the sea-swept
outskirts of Lower Wessex, and a widower, was suffering from an
attack of gout. After finishing her household supervisions Elfride
became restless, and several times left the room, ascended the staircase,
and knocked at her father's chamber- door.
'Come in!' was always answered in a hearty out-of-door voice from the
inside.
'Papa,' she said on one occasion to the fine, red-faced, handsome man

of forty, who, puffing and fizzing like a bursting bottle, lay on the bed
wrapped in a dressing-gown, and every now and then enunciating, in
spite of himself, about one letter of some word or words that were
almost oaths; 'papa, will you not come downstairs this evening?' She
spoke distinctly: he was rather deaf.
'Afraid not--eh-hh !--very much afraid I shall not, Elfride. Piph-ph-ph! I
can't bear even a handkerchief upon this deuced toe of mine, much less
a stocking or slipper--piph-ph-ph! There 'tis again! No, I shan't get up
till to-morrow.'
'Then I hope this London man won't come; for I don't know what I
should do, papa.'
'Well, it would be awkward, certainly.'
'I should hardly think he would come to-day.'
'Why?'
'Because the wind blows so.'
'Wind! What ideas you have, Elfride! Who ever heard of wind stopping
a man from doing his business? The idea of this toe of mine coming on
so suddenly!...If he should come, you must send him up to me, I
suppose, and then give him some food and put him to bed in some way.
Dear me, what a nuisance all this is!'
'Must he have dinner?'
'Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey.'
'Tea, then?'
'Not substantial enough.'
'High tea, then? There is cold fowl, rabbit-pie, some pasties, and things
of that kind.'

'Yes, high tea.'
'Must I pour out his tea, papa?'
'Of course; you are the mistress of the house.'
'What! sit there all the time with a stranger, just as if I knew him, and
not anybody to introduce us?'
'Nonsense, child, about introducing; you know better than that. A
practical professional man, tired and hungry, who has been travelling
ever since daylight this morning, will hardly be inclined to talk and air
courtesies to-night. He wants food and shelter, and you must see that he
has it, simply because I am suddenly laid up and cannot. There is
nothing so dreadful in that, I hope? You get all kinds of stuff into your
head from reading so many of those novels.'
'Oh no; there is nothing dreadful in it when it becomes plainly a case of
necessity like this. But, you see, you are always there when people
come to dinner, even if we know them; and this is some strange
London man of the world, who will think it odd, perhaps.'
'Very well; let him.'
'Is he Mr. Hewby's partner?'
'I should scarcely think so: he may be.'
'How old is he, I wonder?'
'That I cannot tell. You will find the copy of my letter to Mr. Hewby,
and his answer, upon the table in the study. You may read them, and
then you'll know as much as I do about our visitor.'
'I have read them.'
'Well, what's the use of asking questions, then? They contain all I know.
Ugh-h-h!...Od plague you, you young scamp! don't put anything there!
I can't bear the weight of a fly.'

'Oh, I am sorry, papa. I forgot; I thought you might be cold,' she said,
hastily removing the rug she had thrown upon the feet of the sufferer;
and waiting till she saw that consciousness of her offence had passed
from his face, she withdrew from the room, and retired again
downstairs.
Chapter II
'Twas on the evening of a winter's day.'
When