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Di
“Be done at Condaford, Di
Di
“When I was married everybody kissed me,” whispered her aunt, “so promiscuous. I knew a girl who married to get kissed by his best man. Aggie Tellusson. I wonder. They’re comin’ back!”
Yes! How well Di
“Stand by me, Di
“It IS his mother—kippered. Here’s Hen Bentworth!… Hen, Wilmet’s here, she’s got a bone to pick… How d’you do? Yes, isn’t it—so tirin’… How d’you do? The ring was so well done, don’t you think? Conjurers!… Di
Di
As they went back to the door Fleur said: “I saw Wilfrid Desert in the church. How did he come there?”
Really Fleur was too sharp for anything!
“Here you are!” said Lady Mont. “Which of these three comin’ is the Duchess? The scraggy one. Ah!… How d’you do? Yes, charmin’. Such a bore, weddin’s! Fleur, take the Duchess to have some presents… How d’you do? No, my brother Hilary. He does it well, don’t you think? Lawrence says he keeps his eye on the ball. Do have an ice, they’re downstairs… Di
“I’ve put some powder on it, Auntie.”
“There! Have I streaked?… How d’you do? Isn’t it silly, the whole thing? As if they wanted anybody but themselves, you know… Oh! Here’s Adrian! Your tie’s on one side, dear. Di
On her errand to Blore Di
“I don’t believe it, Jean,” she heard him say.
“Well,” said Jean, “the bazaars do buzz with rumour. Still, without fire of some sort there’s never smoke.”
“Oh! yes, there is—plenty. He’s back in England, anyway. Fleur saw him in the church today. I shall ask him.”
“I wouldn’t,” said Jean: “if it’s true he’ll probably tell you, and if it isn’t, it’ll only worry him for nothing.”
So! They were talking of Wilfrid. How find out why without appearing to take interest? And suddenly she thought: ‘Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Anything that matters he must tell me himself. I won’t hear it from anyone else.’ But she felt disturbed, for instinct was always warning her of something heavy and strange on his mind.
When that long holocaust of sincerity was over and the bride had gone, she subsided into a chair in her uncle’s study, the only room which showed no signs of trouble. Her father and mother had started back to Condaford, surprised that she wasn’t coming too. It was not like her to cling to London when the tulips were out at home, the lilacs coming on, the apple blossom thickening every day. But the thought of not seeing Wilfrid daily had become a positive pain.
‘I HAVE got it badly,’ she thought, ‘worse than I ever believed was possible. Whatever is going to happen to me?’
She was lying back with her eyes closed when her uncle’s voice said:
“Ah! Di
Di
“I’ve only twice known it happen to fellows in the East, and they were Frenchmen and wanted harems.”
“Money’s the only essential for that, Uncle.”
“Di
“Does religion matter, Uncle, so long as people don’t interfere with each other?”
“Well, some Moslems’ notions of woman’s rights are a little primitive. He’s liable to wall her up if she’s unfaithful. There was a sheikh when I was in Marakesh—gruesome.”
Di
“‘From time immemorial,’ as they say,” went on Sir Lawrence, “religion has been guilty of the most horrifying deeds that have happened on this earth. I wonder if young Desert has taken up with it to get him access to Mecca. I shouldn’t think he believes anything. But you never know—it’s a queer family.”
Di
“What proportion of people in these days do you think really have religion, Uncle?”
“In northern countries? Very difficult to say. In this country ten to fifteen per cent of the adults, perhaps. In France and southern countries, where there’s a peasantry, more, at least on the surface.”
“What about the people who came this afternoon?”
“Most of them would be shocked if you said they weren’t Christians, and most of them would be still more shocked if you asked them to give half their goods to the poor, and that would only make them well disposed Pharisees, or was it Sadducees?”
“Are you a Christian, Uncle Lawrence?”
“No, my dear; if anything a Confucian, who, as you know, was simply an ethical philosopher. Most of our caste in this country, if they only knew it, are Confucian rather than Christian. Belief in ancestors, and tradition, respect for parents, honesty, moderation of conduct, kind treatment of animals and dependents, absence of self-obtrusion, and stoicism in face of pain and death.”
“What more,” murmured Di