XX
Nevertheless the last word remained to be spoken, and it was destined to be heard by Sir Julian when he made casual enquiry of Fairfax Fuller on Monday morning.
"Have you settled the day that Miss Marchrose leaves us?"
"Yes, Sir Julian."
"Well?" enquired Sir Julian, after a moment, as his subordinate appeared quite indisposed to make any further communications.
"She's not coming back here at all."
"Is that with your sanction?" said the surprised Julian.
"I talked it over with her on Saturday evening, Sir Julian."
"Then you did find her?"
"Down by what they call the sea-wall."
Fuller, his dark face marvellously heated, looked full at his chief.
"I've asked the girl to marry me, Sir Julian," he remarked.
Some weeks later, Julian wrote a letter, and addressed it to Miss Marchrose in London.
My dear Pauline Marchrose,Since you ask for my opinion, I send it to you for what it is worth, admitting that, as you say, I stand committed to a certain degree of officiousness already. That, however, is not the word of which you made use. Thank you, on the contrary, for the expressions that you have selected.I am glad that you are marrying Fuller. He is a good fellow through and through, and the other side of his bulldog tenacity is a very real and dependable loyalty. I think that that loyalty will be of great service to you. And don't think that you are relinquishing the abstract ideal of which we spoke one afternoon down by the sea-wall. You were never false to your standards for a moment, and to recognise defeat is not always an implication of weakness. It may, as in your case, denote the courage of a perfectly sincere outlook. Humbug is the only thing to be afraid of. You have eliminated that, and Fairfax Fuller is not prone to illusion or self-deception. Besides, your intercourse took place at a time and in circumstances which admitted of the luxury of sincerity. For that, and for the fact that Fuller knows something of the extent of his incredible good fortune, I send you my congratulations and I wish you luck.
My dear Pauline Marchrose,
Since you ask for my opinion, I send it to you for what it is worth, admitting that, as you say, I stand committed to a certain degree of officiousness already. That, however, is not the word of which you made use. Thank you, on the contrary, for the expressions that you have selected.
I am glad that you are marrying Fuller. He is a good fellow through and through, and the other side of his bulldog tenacity is a very real and dependable loyalty. I think that that loyalty will be of great service to you. And don't think that you are relinquishing the abstract ideal of which we spoke one afternoon down by the sea-wall. You were never false to your standards for a moment, and to recognise defeat is not always an implication of weakness. It may, as in your case, denote the courage of a perfectly sincere outlook. Humbug is the only thing to be afraid of. You have eliminated that, and Fairfax Fuller is not prone to illusion or self-deception. Besides, your intercourse took place at a time and in circumstances which admitted of the luxury of sincerity. For that, and for the fact that Fuller knows something of the extent of his incredible good fortune, I send you my congratulations and I wish you luck.
Sir Julian paused for a long while.
The episode was over. His letter was a postscript merely.
"Are you coming upstairs, Julian?" said Edna's most forbearing tones, full of fatigue.
"Is it late?"
"It's nearly twelve. It's the servants that I'm thinking of. I hate keeping them up."
"It's quite unnecessary to keep any of them up. I am perfectly capable of putting out the lights in the hall without Horber's assistance."
"I shall not ring for Mason. I never do ring for her if I'm later than eleven o'clock. After all, it's a very little thing, when once one realises that a maid is a sister-woman, when all's said and done...."
All was so far from being said that Julian, taking up his pen again, slowly added the final sentence to his letter, unconsciously adjusting his speed to words that struck upon his hearing and penetrated hardly at all to his thoughts.
"I believe so much inlittlethings, in the immense power of a thought, of a kind glance, of a smile...."
If the Colonial scheme materialises rapidly, as I think it will, I shall send Fuller out. It is largely owing to his management that we have the funds in hand to extend the branches of the College, and I can see both you and him as pioneers, in the near future.
If the Colonial scheme materialises rapidly, as I think it will, I shall send Fuller out. It is largely owing to his management that we have the funds in hand to extend the branches of the College, and I can see both you and him as pioneers, in the near future.
"Sometimes I think that when one has not received very much oneself, it only makes one readier to give. One knows the lack——"
Keep up a very good courage—but that I believe you will always do. You have got your scale of relative values clear, and, once that's done, you can afford to accept truth. Nothing else matters.
Keep up a very good courage—but that I believe you will always do. You have got your scale of relative values clear, and, once that's done, you can afford to accept truth. Nothing else matters.
"Perhaps one would be less tired at the end of the day if one gave out less, but after all, it's all part of the great, wonderful, Divine plan."
"Have you finished writing, Julian? 'Jorrocks' is on the table."
"Yes, quite finished," said Sir Julian, and, first signing his name, he sealed his letter.
Cornwall, Jan., 1919.Surrey, June, 1919.
Cornwall, Jan., 1919.Surrey, June, 1919.
THE END
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