The Painted Veil / Узорный покров. Уильям Сомерсет Моэм
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equally trivial, about a tennis tournament. His voice as a rule was agreeable, but now he spoke on one note. It was strangely unnatural. And all the time his eyes were directed to his plate, or the table, or to a picture on the wall. She realized that he could not bear to look at her.
“Shall we go upstairs?” he said when dinner was finished.
“If you like.”
She rose and he held open the door for her. His eyes were cast down as she passed him. When they reached the sitting-room he took up the illustrated paper once more.
“Is this a new issue? I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t noticed.”
It had been lying about for a fortnight and she knew that he had looked it through and through. He took it and sat down. She lay again on the sofa and took her book. As a rule in the evening, when they were alone, they played cards. He was sitting in an armchair, and his attention seemed absorbed by the illustration he was looking at. He did not turn the page. She tried to read, but she could not see the print before her eyes. Her head began to ache violently. When would he speak?
They sat in silence for an hour. She was afraid to make the smallest gesture or the smallest sound. He sat quite still, in that same position, and stared with those wide, immobile eyes of his at the picture. His stillness was strangely threatening. It gave Kitty the feeling of a wild beast prepared to spring.
When suddenly he stood up she started. She clenched her hands and she felt herself grow pale. Now!
“I have some work to do,” he said in that quiet, toneless voice. “If you don’t mind I’ll go into my study. I think you’ll be asleep by the time I’ve finished.”
“I am rather tired tonight.”
“Well, good night.”
“Goodnight.”
He left the room.
XIX
As soon as she could next morning she rang Townsend up at his office:
“Yes, what is it?”
“I want to see you.”
“My dear, I’m awfully busy. I’m a working man.”
“It’s very important. Can I come down to the office?”
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Well, come here then.”
“I can’t possibly get away. What about this afternoon? And don’t you think it would be better if I didn’t come to your house?”
“I must see you at once.”
There was a pause.
“Are you there?” she asked anxiously.
“Yes, I was thinking. Has anything happened?”
“I can’t tell you over the telephone.”
There was another silence before he spoke again.
“Well, look here, I can manage to see you for ten minutes at one o’clock. You’d better go to Ku-Chou’s and I’ll come along as soon as I can.”
“The curio shop?” she asked in dismay.
“Well, we can’t meet in the hall at the Hong Kong Hotel,” he answered.
She noticed a trace of irritation in his voice.
“Very well. I’ll go to Ku-Chou’s.”
XX
She went to the back of the shop and walked up the dark stairs. The Chinese followed her and unlocked the door that led into the bedroom. It was stuffy and there was a smell of opium. She sat down on a sandalwood chest.
In a moment she heard a heavy step on the creaking stairs. Townsend came in and shut the door behind him. His face bore a gloomy look, as he saw her it vanished, and he smiled in that charming way of his. He took her quickly in his arms and kissed her lips.
“Now what’s the trouble?” He sat down on the bed and lit a cigarette.
“I don’t think I closed my eyes all night.”
He gave her a look. He was smiling still, but his smile was a little unnatural. She thought there was a shade of anxiety in his eyes.
“He knows,” she said.
There was an instant’s pause before he answered.
“What did he say?”
“He hasn’t said anything.”
“What!” He looked at her sharply. “What makes you think he knows?”
“Everything. His look. The way he talked at dinner.”
“Was he disagreeable?”
“No, on the contrary, he was very polite. For the first time since we married he didn’t kiss me good night.”
She was not sure if Charlie understood. As a rule Walter took her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers and would not let them go. His whole body grew tender and passionate with his kiss.
“Why do you think he didn’t say anything?”
“I don’t know.”
There was a pause. Kitty sat very still on the sandalwood box and looked with anxious attention at Townsend. His face once more was gloomy. But all at once he looked up and a gleam of malicious amusement came into his eyes.
“I wonder if he is going to say anything.”
She did not answer. She did not know what he meant.
“After all, he wouldn’t be the first man who’s shut his eyes in a case of this sort. What can he gain by making a row?” His lips broke into a broad smile.
“You didn’t see his face last night.”
“I expect he was upset. It was naturally a shock. It’s a damned humiliating position for any man. He always looks a fool. Walter doesn’t give me the impression of a fellow who would wash a lot of dirty linen in public.”
“I don’t think he would,” she answered reflectively, “He’s very sensitive, I’ve discovered that.”
“That’s all to the good as far as we’re concerned. There’s only one way in which a man can save his face when he’s in that sort of position and that is to pretend he knows nothing. I am sure that is exactly what he’s going to do.”
The more Townsend talked the more cheerful he became. He irradiated an encouraging confidence.
“The chances are that I will be Colonial Secretary when Simmons goes home, and it’s to Walter’s interest to keep on the right side of me. He’s got his bread and butter to think of, like the rest of us: do you think the Colonial Office are going to do much for a fellow who makes a scandal? Believe me, he’s got everything to gain by keeping silence and everything to lose by making a row.”
Kitty moved uneasily. She knew how shy Walter was and she could believe that the fear of a scene, and the dread of public attention, might have influence upon him; but she could not believe that he would be affected by the thought of a material advantage. Perhaps she didn’t know him very well, but Charlie didn’t know him at all.
“Has it occurred to you that he’s madly in love with me?”
“Well, you know, women are often under the impression that men are much more madly in love with them than they really are.”
For the first time she laughed.
“I am sure you haven’t been bothering much about your husband lately. Perhaps he isn’t quite so much in love with you as he was.”
“At all events I don’t think that you are madly in love with me,” she replied.
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Ah, how good it was