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For, this time, in the long year of his exile, the prodigal's prodigality had exceeded the measure of all former years. And, to his intense surprise, he found that Majendie drew the line somewhere. In consequence of this, and of the "entanglement" to which Majendie had once referred, the aspect of Gorst's affairs was peculiarly dark and threatening.
Edith's colour mounted; she made an effort to control the trembling of her mouth, the soft woman's mouth where all that was bodily in her love still lingered. But the sweetness deepened in her eyes, which were the dwelling-place of the immortal, immaterial power. They met Gorst's eyes steadily, laying on his restlessness their peace.
He had asked her what she had wanted with Gorst, and it seemed that what Maggie wanted was "to help him." He said to himself that he wouldn't be in Gorst's place for a good deal, to have that on his conscience. As it happened, the prodigal's conscience was by no means easy. He called in Prior Street that evening to learn the result of his friend's intervention.
"Well and you'll like that, won't you? And I shall like having Gorst, and so will Edie, and Gorst will like seeing her, and everybody will be pleased." Overhead Mr. Gorst burst into a dance measure, so hilarious that it seemed the very cry of his delight. "As long as Edie goes on seeing him, he'll think it's all right." Overhead Mr. Gorst's gay tune proclaimed that indeed he thought so.
He remembered long afterwards the manner of her coming; how he heard her blow her poor nose outside the door before she entered; how she stood on the threshold and looked at him, and made him a stiff little bow; how she approached shyly and slowly, with her arms hanging awkwardly at her sides, and her eyes fixed on him in terror, as if she were drawn to him against her will; how she held Gorst's card tight in her poor little hand; how her eyes had foreknowledge of his errand and besought him to spare her; and how in her awkwardness she yet preserved her inimitable grace.
His diplomatic advances and offers of local government were met with sheer sulkiness. The semi-comic incident of Sir John Gorst's newspaper skirmish at Te Awamutu did no good. Gorst was stationed there as Commissioner by the Government, as an agent of peace and conciliation. In his charge was an industrial school. It was in the heart of the King Country.
In spite of her condemnation, they barely counted; they were mere attendants, accessories in the vision of sin presented by Lady Cayley. Nothing could have been more conspicuous than her appearance, more unabashed than the proclamation of her gay approach. Her face was turned to Gorst's face, his to hers. He looked more than ever brilliant, charming and charmed, laughing aloud with his companion.
The woman went into the adjoining room and returned, politely embarrassed. "Miss Forrest is very sorry, sir, but she can't see anybody." He wrote his name on Gorst's card and sent her back with it. Then Maggie came to him.
When you're just proposing to stop Gorst's coming here?" "It's not I that's stopping him. It's his own conduct. He is hard on himself, and he is hard on her. There's nobody else to blame." "Do you mean to say you think I'm actually going to tell him not to come any more?" "My dear, it's the least you can do for me after " "After what?" "After everything."
When he found that he had not to encounter the terrible eyes of Mrs. Majendie, Mr. Gorst's relief was so great that it robbed him of reflection. And when he began to think, he merely thought that Majendie had asked him because his wife was absent, rather than that Majendie's wife was absent because he had been asked. Majendie had calculated on this.
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