CHAPTER XXI
JASPER EXPERIMENTS
Dinner was over at Netherhall, and Mrs. Carson’s party had gone to the drawing-room. Mrs. Carson was conservative and she refused to banish the early-Victorian walnut furniture. She claimed Gibbons carved the noble fireplace, but the plate glass carried across above the big grate did not altogether stop the smoke. Tall brass pillars supported oil lamps; the piano and card-table were lighted by candles in old silver sticks.
Although the furniture was ugly, the spacious room had dignity and Mrs. Carson harmonized. Her mouth was thin and her face was pinched. Sometimes her look was mean, she was frankly parsimonious, and her clothes were not good, but her stamp was the stamp of the proud old school.
For Netherhall, the party was large. Jasper had arrived from Liverpool; he had rooms at Sheffield and London, but his habit was to stop for a day or two with his brother. Agatha had arrived from the hospital, and Ledward from town. When he was bored he visited at Netherhall. Ledward was Mrs. Carson’s favorite and he cleverly cultivated her. Mrs. Carson knew her nephew, but she was flattered. Mrs. Haigh and Evelyn were her friends, and as a rule they came across when she had other guests.
“You were at Liverpool?” she said to Jasper.
“I was sending off a man to Montreal. I myself ought to have gone, but when the St. Lawrence freezes one must go by Halifax or New York, and now I get old I begin to hate the shaking cars.”
Smoke whirled about the glass shield, rain beat the windows, and the trees by the river roared like the sea.
“I should hate the steamer,” Mrs. Carson remarked. “So long as another was willing to go for me, I would be content.”
“The trouble is, I’m forced to be content. Ambitious young men, keen to undertake my job, are numerous, but I doubt their talent, and since I have not an engineer relation I must hold out as long as possible.”
“We thought Kit might have helped,” Alan Carson remarked.
“Kit had other plans,” said Jasper dryly and turned to Agatha. “You are an independent lot. When I could have got you an easier post you stuck to your hospital.”
“At the hospital I have some authority, and one likes to command,” said Agatha, smiling. “Independence is attractive.”
“Sometimes it’s expensive. I suppose you get news from your brother?”
“Kit has not written to me for some time. All I know is he was engaged at a Manitoba bridge.”
“We got two letters,” said Mrs. Haigh. “The first was optimistic; Kit was to stay at the bridge for the winter and superintend. The other was rather apologetic. He had given up his post and was going to the company’s workshops.”
“He stated he had resigned his post?”
“The engineer at the bridge wanted him to stay. Kit’s grounds for refusing were not very clear and his note was short.”
“Kit’s habit is to resign his posts. To know he was not forced to do so is some comfort,” Mrs. Carson remarked.
“He was certainly not forced,” said Evelyn, with an angry blush. “We don’t know why he went, but his object was good.”
Jasper gave her a queer, fixed look and then studied Mrs. Haigh. She obviously agreed with Evelyn, but he thought Kit’s not remaining at the bridge had annoyed her. In fact, since he imagined she did not like to own Kit had omitted to seize his opportunity, her frankness was perhaps strange. Mrs. Haigh, however, knew where frankness paid.
“Do you know who are his employers?” he inquired.
Mrs. Haigh stated the company’s title, and Alan looked up with surprise. Jasper smiled ironically.
“I was willing to go without my nephew’s help, but I didn’t reckon on his joining my antagonists,” he said and turned to Mrs. Carson. “The company is the competitor of a Canadian house in which I’m interested. Just now, a railroad weighs its tenders for some important contracts against ours.”
“You don’t imply that Kit knew?” Evelyn rejoined.
“It’s possible he did not. For all that, I imagine the bridge company knew whom they employed. When one engages an engineer one makes inquiries, and a number of people know I support the opposition.”
“I don’t see the others’ object,” said Alan in a disturbed voice.
“It looks like a joke, but Canadian engineers are not remarkably humorous. Then, although I expect they found out about Kit’s leaving the shipyard, they risked engaging him.”
“Kit was not bound to enlighten the people,” Mrs. Haigh remarked.
“Something depends upon one’s point of view,” Jasper replied, and turned to Agatha. “What do you think about it?”
“When Kit was engaged his employers knew all that weighed against him.”
“If they found out he was your nephew, they perhaps hoped they might use him,” said Mrs. Carson.
Agatha looked up, but she saw Evelyn’s eyes sparkle and she waited.
“Then they were very foolish; Kit would not take a bribe to be shabby,” Evelyn declared, and Jasper gave her an indulgent smile.
“On the whole, I agree. There’s another thing; Canadians are not fools, and if they studied Kit for a very short time, they’d be satisfied he had not much talent for intrigue. Well, I think we’ll let it go.”
Mrs. Carson beckoned her husband, and Mrs. Haigh and Jasper went with them to the card-table, but Agatha stopped in the corner by the fireplace. She had studied the others and now she pondered.
Mrs. Carson was frankly spiteful; she, no doubt, felt Kit had humiliated his relations and ought to be punished. Alan was Kit’s friend, but he dared not oppose his wife, and Agatha thought Jasper’s remark about the Carsons’ independence carried a sneer. Since Evelyn was not plucky, her championing Kit was curious; Agatha wondered whether she had reckoned on her mother’s support. Yet, as a rule, Mrs. Haigh played up to Mrs. Carson. Moreover, she was something of an adventuress and Kit was poor and, so to speak, in disgrace. Agatha admitted she did not see much light.
Ledward had said nothing, but the ground was awkward, and his habit was to be tactful. Although Agatha thought Evelyn attracted him, Ledward was not the man to marry a poor wife. Agatha did not see him carried away by romantic passion. Harry was clever and had made his mark at Oxford, but, although he was not rich, he was apparently satisfied to do nothing. Now he talked to Evelyn and Evelyn smiled.
Jasper excited Agatha’s curiosity. She imagined he had studied the group with a sort of ironical humor, and when he talked about Kit she got a hint of antagonism. She thought it strange, because the old fellow was rather inscrutable; and if he were antagonistic, she fancied he would not be willing for the others to know. Well, there was not much use in speculating, and she joined Evelyn.
When Agatha sat down Ledward went off. For a young man he was rather fat; but he was a handsome fellow and marked by a cultivated urbanity. Agatha let him go and turned to Evelyn. “You’re loyal,” she said. “I thought you plucky!”
“Kit’s my lover. I promised to marry him when he makes good.”
“Then the stipulation was not, if he made good?”
“Sometimes you’re like Jasper Carson; one doubts if you are kind.”
“I’m Kit’s sister; perhaps I’m shabbily jealous,” Agatha replied.
“Oh, well, I’m going to be frank. Mrs. Carson hates Kit and mother’s afraid of her; she punishes people who do not agree. I really think I was noble, because when we got Kit’s last letter I was annoyed. I felt he had thrown away another chance.”
Agatha’s look got sympathetic. “Since to go cost him something, I expect he went because he was convinced he ought to go.”
“It’s possible,” Evelyn agreed in a moody voice. “Kit’s romantic and sometimes I’d sooner he was selfish. We don’t yet altogether know why he gave up his post at the shipyard; but, if he had thought only for himself, he need not have done so. Now I wonder whether he has not again allowed his rash generosity to carry him away.”
Agatha had speculated about something like that. Evelyn knew her lover, but it looked as if she did not approve. In the circumstances, for her to do so would perhaps be hard.
“Sometimes I feel Kit does not think of me,” Evelyn resumed, and although she blushed her look was calculating. “We are poor and I hate poverty. The proper plan was to make a good marriage. Yet I stuck to Kit. To talk about it jars, but I’m human and I’m bothered. For one thing, mother indulged me although she knew I was foolish, and I’d hate to feel Kit had disappointed her.”
“Kit does not disappoint his friends,” Agatha remarked in a quiet voice.
“But he ought to be ambitious. One must not be generous where another is forced to pay. Kit does not weigh things; I expect he’s plunged into a fresh entanglement, but he ought not to be rash. You see, I must stop at dreary Netherdale. Then people know Kit’s poverty, and when they pretend to sympathize I feel they sneer. Mrs. Carson’s remarks hurt worse because she was persuaded they were justified. There’s the trouble—it looks as if the people who doubted Kit were justified——”
Agatha was disturbed. Evelyn’s loyalty cost her something and might yet cost her much. So far she had paid, but Agatha wondered whether she could keep it up. Evelyn was selfish and rather shabbily ambitious. All the same, one must acknowledge her part was hard.
“You must not exaggerate, my dear,” she said. “Kit has talent, and he’ll soon make progress.” After a time the card party broke up. Alan Carson and Ledward went to the billiard-room and Agatha went for a book. When she came back she saw Jasper in the hall and she stopped.
“It looked as if Miss Haigh gave you her confidence,” he said.
“Evelyn was angry. Aunt was not kind.”
“So far as she sees, my sister-in-law is sincere. Do you imply that her unkindness was all that bothered Miss Haigh?”
“You implied that our talk was confidential,” Agatha rejoined. “In a way, I’m sorry for Evelyn. You don’t like her?”
“You’re blade-straight and keen as steel,” said Jasper with a dry smile. “Well, I own I don’t like Mrs. Haigh and one inherits much. I’d sooner trust a fool than a calculating woman.”
“It doesn’t look as if Evelyn calculated. She means to stick to Kit.”
“I wonder whether you thought it remarkable,” Jasper observed.
Agatha said nothing and he resumed: “Had you chosen a wife for your brother, would you have chosen Miss Haigh?”
“Perhaps I would not. Our business, however, is not to choose Kit’s wife, and we ought not to meddle.”
“Then Miss Haigh has your support?”
“She has my sympathy,” Agatha replied, and Jasper gave her a queer smile and went off.
For a few minutes Agatha stopped by the fire in the hall. On the whole she liked Jasper Carson, but he puzzled, and sometimes daunted her. Now she saw he had tried to find out if she believed Evelyn really meant to stick to her lover, and she thought his interest ominous. When she went back to the drawing-room, Jasper was not about and Mrs. Carson said he and Ledward had gone to smoke.
In the smoking-room Jasper gave Ledward a cigar.
“You ought to have an occupation, Harry. Have you thought about it?”
“I rather thought I might be a barrister, but I don’t know.... One must keep twelve terms at an inn; something like three years before one can start.”
Jasper nodded. “Then, unless you’re lucky and remarkably talented, the reward’s not large. What about business?”
“If I sold all I have got, the sum I could invest would not carry me far, and since I’m not much attracted, I’d hesitate to face the risk. Then, if I took a post, I imagine the pay would be small, and so long as I’m not extravagant I can meet my bills.”
“You might resolve to marry. When one is married one’s bills go up.”
“It’s possible,” Ledward agreed in a careless voice. “So far, I have not thought much about marriage.”
“Suppose I offered you a good post?”
“That’s another thing. I’d weigh your offer.”
“Very well! I’m getting old and begin to feel I need help. Although I can buy help, I want a man I know, whose interests would be mine. At one time I thought I might use Kit, and by and by he might carry on the forge, but I saw the plan would not work.”
Ledward thought his luck was good. Jasper was not looking for a clerk; he implied he wanted a man who would take control when he was forced to let things go. In fact, he really wanted something like an heir. Kit was his relation, but he had not taken the proper line and now Jasper hinted that he had done with him. All the same, one must use some caution.
“The difficulty is, I am not an engineer.”
“At Oxford you were a mathematician, and I want help to handle rather complicated finance. If you are willing, I’ll try you out.”
“I’m keen, sir,” Ledward replied.
“Then, I must arrange for you to meet me at my town office. If I am satisfied, you will not grumble about the pay.”
“Thank you,” said Ledward. “In the meantime, would you sooner I did not talk about it?”
“I think we will not yet announce our agreement,” Jasper replied. “For one thing, I don’t know if you have the qualities I want; and then you may not like your job.”