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Miss Van Tuyn did not go into details. She spoke only of models, of Garstin's varying moods, of his way of getting a thing on to canvas, of his views on colour and technique. "It must be absorbingly interesting to watch such a man at work," Lady Sellingworth said presently. "It is. It's fascinating." "And so that is the reason why you are staying so long in smoky old London?"
There was a pause; then the agitated voice said: "A cable has come from the Bahamas." "The Bahamas! Well? Well?" "Your poor father has " The voice failed. "Oh, do tell me! For Heaven's sake, what is it?" "Your poor father is dead. Oh, Beryl!" Miss Van Tuyn stood quite still for a moment. "My father dead!" she thought. She felt surprised. She felt shocked.
Now then!" He began to move the easel. Miss Van Tuyn got up, and Arabian, without saying a word, stretched himself, looked at her steadily for a moment, then pulled up his silk vest and carefully buttoned it with his strong-looking fingers. Then he too got up, and went away to the dressing-room to put on his shirt, waistcoat, collar and tie. "May I see, Dick?" asked Miss Van Tuyn.
Nevertheless, when he left the Foreign Office on the Monday about half-past four, instead of going towards Mayfair he found himself walking quickly in the direction of Chelsea. Miss Van Tuyn was in Garstin's studio on that day. Although apparently calm and self-possessed she was in a condition of acute nervous excitement. Craven's mention of Glebe Place through the telephone had startled her.
Anyhow, one seldom sees her about. Beryl Van Tuyn is very audacious. She does things that no other lovely girl in her position would ever dare to do, or could do without peril to her reputation. But somehow she brings them off. Mind, I haven't a word to say against her.
"Mockery?" "Yes. I feel it." "But didn't you find her very kind?" "Oh, yes. I meant of self-mockery." Braybrooke looked rather dubious. "I think," continued Craven, perhaps a little obstinately, "that she looks upon herself with irony, while Miss Van Tuyn looks upon others with irony. Perhaps, though, that is rather a question of the different outlooks of youth and age." "H'm?"
"Probably a successful blackmailer." For some obscure reason Miss Van Tuyn felt outraged by this opinion of Garstin. "The fact is," she said, but in quite an impersonal voice, "that your mind is getting warped by living always among the scum of London, and by studying and painting only the scum. It really is a great pity. A painter ought to be a man of the world, not a man of the underworld."
Then he sat still and took a pull at his cigar, and then he said: "You need not be afraid of me, Adela. I have made up my mind about you. Do you know what that means? It means that you cannot surprise me. And I think it is surprise which oftenest brings about changes in feeling. What is it? You say it is something to do with Miss Van Tuyn?"
We thought you had gone to the Riviera, probably to Cap Martin." "I did go to the Riviera first." "It must have been a desert." "Not quite. Cannes would have been quite pleasant. But I had to go on to Geneva to see a friend." Miss Van Tuyn thought of Lausanne, of doctors. Many women whom she knew in Paris swore by the doctors of Berne and Lausanne.
She felt sure that when he had made it Braybrooke had told her a lie. Craven had amply proved to her his indifference towards Miss Van Tuyn. Braybrooke's lie surely indicated a desire to detach his old friend's attention from the young man he had introduced into her life, and must mean that he was a little afraid of her influence.
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