The man on the other side

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on Hbrary shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http : //books . google . com/|

THE MAN ON THE
OTHER SIDE

V>4 M Ap-

THE MAN ON THE
OTHER SIDE

ADA BARNETT

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1922

TO NEV/ VT.K

PUBLIC LIBRAR"^

01759HA

^,^^. ltViox and

TILD^N rv- DAriuNS

.

Bt dodd, mkad and oohpast. xva

pmmD nr u. s. A.

• • •

• • •

• • '

•
• • •

• • • •

•• •.. . . •:•.••

• • «

• » •

• ■

DEDICATED
TO HIM

tlO

X

'If J

*'OA, / would siege the golden cocuds

Of space y and climb high Heaven* s dome^
So I might see those million ghosts
Come home.'^

Stella Benson

The Man on the Other Side

CHAPTER I

RUTH COURTHOPE SEER stood on her
own doorstep and was content. She
looked across the garden and the four-acre
field with the white may hedge boundary. It
was all hers. Her eyes slowly followed the
way of the sun. Another field, lush and green,
sloped to a stream, where, if the agents had
spoken truth, dwelt trout in dim pools beneath
the willows. Field and stream, they too were
hers. Good fields they were, clover thick,
worthy fields for feed for those five Short-
horns, bought yesterday at Uckfield market.

The love of the land, the joy of possession,
the magic of the spring, they swept through her
being like great clean winds. She was over
forty; she had worked hard all her life. Fate
had denied her almost everything — father or
mother, brother or sister, husband or children.
She had never had a home of her own. And
now fate had given her enough money to buy
Thorpe Farm. The gift was immense, still

almost unbelievable.

I

2 The Man on the Other Side

**Yon perfectly exquisite, delicious, duck of
a place,'' she said, and kissed her hand to it.

The house stood high, and she could see on
the one hand the dust-white road winding for
the whole mile to Mentmore station; on the
other, green fields and good brown earth, wood-
land, valley, and hill, stretching to the wide
spaces of the downs, beyond which lay the sea.
In 1919, the year of the Great Peace, spring
had come late, but in added and surpassing
beauty. The great yearly miracle of creation
was at its height, and behold, it was very good.

In front of her sat Sarah and Selina. The
day's work was over. They had watched seeds
planted and seeds watered. They had assisted
at the staking of sweet peas and the two-hourly
feeding of small chicken. Now they demanded,
as their habit was, in short sharp barks of a
distinctly irritating nature, that they should be
taken for a walk.

Sarah and Selina were the sole extravagance
of Euth's forty years of life. They had been
unwanted in a hard world. Aberdeens were
out of fashion, and their sex, like Ruth's own
in the struggle for existence, had been against
them. So bare pennies which Ruth could ill
afford had gone to the keep of Sarah and
Selina, and in return they loved her as only a
dog can love.

The Man on the Other Side 3

Sarah was a rather large lady, usually of
admirable maimers and behaviour. Only once
had she seriously fallen from grace, and, to
Buth's horror, had presented her with five black
and white puppies of a description unknown
before in heaven or earth. Moreover, she was
quite absurdly pleased with herself, and Selina
was, equally absurdly, quite unbearably jealous.

Selina had never been a lady, either in man-
ners or behaviour. She was younger and
smaller than Sarah, and of infinite wickedness
both in design and execution.

Ruth looked at them as they sat side by side
before her.

* * To the stile and back, ' ' she said, * * and you
may have ten minutes ' hunt in the wood. * '

The pathway to the stile led through a field
of buttercups, the stile into the station road.
That field puzzled Ruth. It was radiantly
beautiful, but it was bad farming. Also it was
the only bit of bad farming on the whole place.
Every other inch of ground was utilized to the
best advantage, cultivated up to the hilt, well-
fed, infinitely cared for.

Ruth was not curious^, and had asked no ques-
tions concerning the late owner of Thorpe, nor
was any one of this time left on the farm. The
war had swept them away. But after two
months ' possession of the place, she had begun

4 The Man on the Other Side

to realize the extraordinary amoimt of love and
care that had been bestowed on it by some one.
In a subtle way the late owner had materialized
for her. She had began to wonder why he had
done this or that. Once or twice she had caught
herself wishing she could ask his advice over
some possible improvement.

So she looked at the buttercups and wondered,
and by the stile she noticed a hole in the hedge
on the left-hand side, and wondered again. It
was the only hole she had found in those well-
kept hedges.

'She sat on the stile and sniffed the spring
scents luxuriously, while Sarah and Selina had
their hunt. The may, and the wild geranium,
and the clover. Heavens, how good it all was !
The white road wandered down the hill, but
no one came. She had the whole beautiful
world to herself. And then a small streak came
moving slowly along the centre of the road.
Presently it resolved itself into a dog. Tired,
soref ooted, by the way it ran, covered with dust,
but running steadily. A dog with a purpose.
Sarah and Selina, scenting another of their
kind, emerged hot foot and giving tongue from
the centre of the wood. The dog — ^Ruth could
see now it was a Gordon Setter in haste about
his business — slipped through the hole in the
hedge, and went, trotting wearily but without

The Man on the Other Side 5

pause;, across the buttercup field towards the
house. To Buth's amazement^ Sarah and
Selina made no attempt to follow. Instead they
sat down side by side in front of her and pro-
ceeded to explain.

Ruth looked at the hole, wondering. ^^He
must have belonged here once, of course," she
said, **I wonder how far he has come, the poor
dear.'' She hurried up the slope, and reached
the house in time to hear Miss McCox 's piercing
wail rend the air from the kitchen.

**And into every room has he been like
greased lightning before I could hinder, and
covered with dust and dirt, and me that have
enough to do to keep things clean as it is, with
those two dirty beasts that Mistress Seer sets
such store by. But it's encouraging such things
she is, caring for the brutes that perish
more than for Christian men and women with
mortal souls "

Bed of face, shrewish of tongue, but most
excellent as a cook. Miss McCox paused for
breath.

**She do be wonderful set on animals," said
the slow Sussex voice of the cowman. He set-
tled his folded arms on the kitchen window-
sill. A chat about the new mistress of Thorpe
never failed in interest. **But 'tis all right so
long as we understand one another."

6 The Man on the Other Side

Ruth passed his broad back, politely blind to
Miss McCox's facial efforts to inform him of
her appearance in the background.

The dog was now coming up the garden path
between apple-trees still thickest with blossom.
A drooping dejected dog, a dog sick at heart
with disappointment, a dog who could not under-
stand. A dusty forlorn thing wholly out of
keeping with the jubilant spring world.

Ruth called to him, and he came, politely and
patiently.

**0h, my dear," she said. **You have come
to look for some one and he is not here, and I
cannot help you.*'

She did what she could. Fetched some water,
which he drank eagerly, and food, which he
would not look at. She bathed his sore feet,
and brushed the dust from his silky black and
tan coat, until he stood revealed as a singularly
beautiful dog. So beautiful that even Miss
McCox expressed unwilling admiration.

Sarah and Selinu behaved with the utmost
decorum. This was unusual when a stranger
entered their domain. Ruth wondered while
she brushed. It seemed they acknowledged
some greater right. Perhaps he had belonged
to the man who had so loved and oared for
Thorpe before she came. An^he had left it
all — and the dog.

The Man on the Other Side 7

Presently the dog lay down in a chosen place
from which he could command a view of both
the front drive and the road from the station.
He lay with his nose between his paws and
watched.

After supper Buth Seer went and sat with
him. The stars looked down with clear bright
eyes. The night wind brought the scent of a
thousand flowers. An immense peace and
beauty filled the heavens. Yet, as she sat, she
fancied she heard again the low monotonous
boom from the Channel to which people had
grown so accustomed through the long war
years. She knew it could not really be ; it was
just fancy. But suddenly her eyes were full of
tears. She had lost no one out there — she had
no one to lose. But she was an English woman.
They were all her men. And there were so
many white roads, from as many stations.

The next morning the stranger dog had van-
ished, after, so Miss McCox reported bitterly
at 6 A. M., a night spent on the spare-room
bed. It was a perfect wonder of a morning.
Even on that first morning when the stars
sang together it could not have been more won-
derful, thought Ruth Seer, looking, as she never
tired of looking, at the farm that was hers.
The five Shorthorns chewed the cud in the four-
acre field. The verdict of Miss McCox, the

sliiiiiiii;' like satin and wholly dele
The only blot on the perfection
was the behaviour of Selina. At
was detected by Miss McCox, in fu]
the last hatched brood of chicke
or to be fair to Selina, cornered, b;
staff, at 11.30, she was well and
whipped, and crept, an apparentl;
dog, into the shelter of the house,
ever, so soon as the dang of the I
claimed the busy dinner hour, sli
ceeded to the room sacred to the ;
Miss McCox and, undisturbed, hw
made a hole in the pillow on which M
head nightly reposed, extracting tb
feathers of many chickens. These
lavishly, and without favouritism, o
face of the entire carpet, and, w
withdrew silently and discreetly tn
cincts of Thorpe Farm.

The Man on the Other Side 9

bread-and-butter. Visions of rabbit holes^ steel
trapSy of angry gamekeepers with gons, had
began to form in Ruth's mind. Her well-earned
appetite for tea vanished. Full forgiveness
and an undeservedly warm welcome awaited
Selina whenever she might choose to put in an
appearance.

Even Miss McCox, when she cleared away
the tea, withdrew the notice given in the heat
of discovery, and suggested that Selina might
be hunting along the stream. iShe had seen the
strange dog down there no longer than an hour
ago.

It seemed to Ruth a hopeful suggestion. Also
she loved to wander by the stream. In all her
dreams of a domain of her own always there
had been running water. And now that too
was hers. One of the slow Sussex streams mov-
ing steadily and very quietly between flowered
banks, under overhanging branches. So quietly
that you did not at first realize its strength. So
quietly that you did not at first hear its song.

It was that strange and wonderful hour which
comes before sunset after a cloudless day of
May sunshine, when it is as if the world had
laughed, rejoiced, and sung itself to rest in
the everlasting arms. There is a sudden hush,
a peace falls, a strange silence — ^if you listen.

Buth ceased to worry about Selina. She

10 The Man on the Other Side

drifted along the path down the stream^ and
love of the whole world folded her in a great
content. A sense of oneness with all that moved
and breathed, with the little brethren in hole and
hedge, with the flowers ' lavish gift of scent and
colour, with the warmth of the sun, a oneness
that fused her being with theirs as into one
perfect flame. Dear God, how good it all was,
how wonderful ! The marshy ground where the
kingcups and the lady smocks were just now
in all their gold and silver glory, the wild
cherry, lover of water, still in this late season
blossoming mnong its leaves, the pool where
the kingfishers lived among the willows and
river palms.

And, dreaming, she came to a greensward
place where lay the stranger dog. A dog well
content, who waved a lazy tail as she came.
His nose between his paws, he watched no
longer a lonely road. He watched a man. A
man in a brown suit who lay full length on the
grass. Ruth could not see his face, only the
hack of a curly head propped by a lean brown
liand ; and he too was watching something. His
absolute stillness made Ruth draw her breath
and remain motionless where she stood. No
proprietor's fury against trespassers touched
her. Perhaps because she had walked so long
on the highway, looking over walls and barred

The Man on the Other Side 11

gateways at other people's preserves. She
crept very softly forward so that she too could
see what so engrossed him. A pair of king-
fishers teaching their brood to fly.

Two had already made the great adventure
and sat side by side on a branch stretching
across the pool. Even as Ruth looked^ sur-
rounded by a flashing escort, the third joined
them, and there sat all three, very dose to-
gether for courage, and distinctly puffed with
pride.

The parent birds with even greater pride
skinmied the surface of the stream, wheeled
and came back, like radiant jewels in the sun-
light. Ruth watched entranced. Hardly she
dared to breathe. All was very stilL

And then suddenly the scream of a motor
siren cleft the silence like a sword. Ruth
started and turned round. When she looked
again all were gone. Man, dog and birds.
Wiped out as it were in a moment. The birds '
swift flight, even the dog's, was natural enough,
but how had the slower-moving human being
so swiftly vanished? Ruth looked and, puzded,
looked again, but the man had disappeared
as completely as the kingfishers. Then she
caught sight of the dog. Saw him run across
the only visible comer of the lower field, and
disappear in the direction of the front gate.

12 The Man on the Other Side

Towards the front gate also sped a small two-
seated car, down the long hill from the main
road which led to the pleasant town of Fair-
bridge.

Bnth felt suddenly caught up in some se-
quence of events outside her consciousness.
Something, she knew not what, filled her also
with a desire to reach the front gate. She ran
across the plank which bridged the stream at
that point, and, taking a short cut, arrived
simultaneously with the car and the dog. And
lo and behold ! beside the driver, very stiff and
proud, sat Selina; the strange dog had hurled
himself into the driver's arms, while, myste-
riously sprung from somewhere, Sarah whirled
round the entire group, barking furiously.

Ruth laughed. The events were moving with
extraordinary rapidity.

** Larry will have already explained my
sudden appearance," said the driver, looking
at her with a pair of humorous tired eyes over
the top of the dog's head.

**0h, is his name Larry T" gasped Buth,
breathless from Selina 's sudden arrival in her
arms after a scramble over the man and a take-
off from the side of the car ; * * I did so want to
know. Be quiet, Selina; you are a bad dog."

**I must explain," said the driver gravely,
''that I have not kidnapped Selina. We

The Man on the Other Side 13

stopped to water the car at Mentmore^ and she
got in and refused to get out. She seemed
to know what she wanted, so I brought her
along/*

' * I am ever so grateful, ' * said Buth ; * * she has
been missing since twelve o'clock, and I have
been really worried/'

He nodded sympathetically.

**One never knows, does one? Larry, you
rascal, let me get out. I have been worried
about Larry too. I only came home two hours
ago and found he had been missing since yester-
day morning. May I introduce myself f My
name is Roger North.''

'*OhI" exclaimed Ruth, involuntarily.

It was a name world-famous in science and
literature.

**Yes, the Roger North! It is quite all right.
People always say * Oh, ' like that when I intro-
duce myself. And you are the new owner of
Thorpe."

*'I am that enormously lucky person," said
Ruth. '*Do come in, won't youf And won't
you have some tea — or something? That
sounds rather vague, but I haven't a notion as
to time."

' * Capital ! Is that a usual habit of yours, or
only this onceT" asked this somewhat strange
person who was the Roger North. *'I don't

14 The Man on the Other Side

know if you Ve noticed it, but most people seem
to spend their days wondering what time it
is ! And I can drink tea at any moment, thanks
very much. Take care of the car, Larry. * '

Larry jumped on the seat, stretched himself
at full length and became a dog of stone.

**The car belonged to his master,'* explained
Roger North, as they went up the garden path.
** Larry and the car both came to me when he
went to France, and though the old dog has
often run over here and had a hunt round,
this is the first time he has not come straight
back to me.'*

* * He arrived here about six o 'dock last even-
ing," said Ruth. *'He hunted everywhere, as
you say, and then lay down and watched.
I gather he spent the night in the spare room,
but this morning he had disappeared, and I
only found him again half an hour ago down
by the stream. Quite happy apparently with
a man. I don't know who the man is. He
was lying by the stream watching some king-
fishers, and then your car startled us all, and
I can't think where he disappeared to."

North shook his head.

**I don't know who it could have been. All
the men Larry knew here left long ago, and he
doesn 't make friends readily. ' '

The path to the house was a real cottage-

The Man on the Other Side 15

garden path, bordered thickly with old-fash-
ioned flowers, flowers which must have grown
undisturbed for many a long year, only thinned
out, or added to, with the forethought bom of
love. Memories thronged North's mind as he
looked. He wondered what demon had induced
him to come in, to accept tea. It was unlike
him. But to his relief the new owner of
Thorpe made no attempt at small talk. Indeed,
she left his side, and gathered a bunch of the
pinks, whose fragrance went up like evening
incense to Heaven, leaving him to walk alone.

For Euth iSeer sensed the shadow of a great
grief. It fell like a chill across the sunlight.
A sense of pity filled her. Fearing the tongue
of Miss McCox, which ceased not nor spared,
she fetched the tea herself, out on to the red-
bricked pathway, facing south, and proudly
called the terrace.

Sarah and Selina had somehow crowded into
the visitor's chair and fought for the largest
space.

*'I won't apologize," said Ruth. **That
means you are a real dog lover."

He laughed. *'My wife says because they
cannot answer me! How did the little ladies
take Larry's intrusion T"

**They seemed to know he had the greater
right."

16 The Man on the Other Side

North dropped a light kiss on each black head.

** Bless you!'* he said.

He drank his tea and fed the dogs shame-
lessly, for the most part in silence, and Euth
watched him in the comfortable certainty that
he was quite oblivious of her scrutiny. He in-
terested her, this man of a world-wide fame,
not because of that fame, but because her in-
stinct told her that between him and the late
owner of Thorpe there had been a great love.
When she no longer met the glance of the hu-
morous, tired eyes, and the pleasant voice, talk-
ing lightly, was silent, she could see the weary
soul of the man in his face. A tragic face,
tragic because it was both powerful and hope-
less. He turned to her presently and asked^
**May I light a pipe, and have a mouch round f

Euth nodded. She felt a sense of comrade-
ship already between them.

**You will find me here when you come back,*'
she said. **This is my hour for the news-
paper.''

But though she unfolded it and spread it out,
crumpling its pages in the effort, after the fash-
ion of women, she was not reading of *'The Eail-
way Deadlock," of **The Victory March of
the Guards," or of ''The 1,000-Mile Flight by
British Airship," all spread temptingly before
her; she was thinking of the man who had

The Man on the Other Side 17

owned Thorpe Farm, the man whom Larry and
Roger North had loved, the man who lived for
her, who had never known him, in the woods
and fields that had been his.

The first evening shadows began to fall
softly ; a flight of rooks cawed home across the
sky. The sounds of waking life about the farm
died out one by one.

Presently Roger North came back and sat
down again, pulling hard at his pipe. • His
strong dark face was full of shadows too.

**I am glad you have this place,'* he said
abruptly. **He would have been glad too.''

And suddenly emboldened, Ruth asked the
question that had been trembling on her lips
ever since he had come.

**Will you tell me something about himf"
she said. ** Lately I have so wanted to know.
It isn't idle curiosity. I would not dare to ask
you if it were. And it would be only some one
who cared that can tell me what I want to know.
Because — I don't quite know how to explain —
but I seem to have got into touch, as it were,
with the mind of the man who made and loved
this place. At first it was only that I kept
wondering why he had done this or that, if he
would approve of what I was doing. But lately
I have — oh, how can I explain itf — ^I have a
sense of awareness of him. I know in some

18 The Man on the Other Side

sort of odd way, what he would do if he were
still here. And when I have carried a thing
ont, made some change or improvement, I know
if he is pleased. Of course I expect it sounds
quite mad to you. It isn't even as if I had
known him '*

She looked at North apologetically.

**My dear lady/' said North gently, **it is
quite easily explained. You love the place very
much, that is easily seen, and you realized at
once that the previous owner had loved it too.
There was evidences of that on every hand.
And it was quite natural when yoti were mak-
ing improvements to wonder what he would
have done. It only wants a Uttle imagination
to carry that to feeling that he was pleased
when your improvements were a success.*'

Buth smiled.

*'Yes, I know. It sounds very natural as
you put it. But, Mr. North, it is more than
that. How shall I explain itf My mind is in
touch somehow with another mind. It is like
a conscious and quiet effortless telepathy.
Thoughts, feelings, they pass between us .with-
out any words being necessary. It is another
mind than mine which thinks, *It will be better
to put that field down in lucerne this year,'
when I had been thinking of oats. But I catch
the thought, and might not he catch minef

The Man on the Other Side 19

In the same way I feel when he is pleased;
that is the most certain of all.''
Roger North shook his head.

* * Snch telepathy might be possible if he were
alive,'' he said. **We have much to learn on
those lines. Bnt there was no doubt as to his
fate. He was killed instantaneously at Albert. "

**You do not think any communication pos-
sible after death t ' '
There was a pause before North answered.

* * Science has no evidence of it. ' '

**I could not help wondering," said Ruth
diffidently, and feeling as it were for her words,
** whether this method by which what he thinks
or wishes about Thorpe seems to come to me
might not possibly be the method used for com-
munication on some other plane in the place of
speech. Words are by no means a very good
medium for expressing our thoughts, do you
think?"

**Very inadequate indeed," agreed North.
He got up as £e spoke, and passed behind her,
ostensibly to knock the ashes out of his pipe
against the window-sill. When he came back
to his chair he did not continue the line of con-
versation.

**You asked me to tell you something of my
friend, Dick Carey," he said as he sat down.
**And at any rate what you have told me gives

20 The Man on the Other Side

you, I teelj the right to ask. There isn't muoh
to tell. We were at school and college together.
Charterhouse and Trinity. And we knocked
about the worid a good bit together till I mar-
ried. Then he took Thorpe and settled down
to fanning. He loved the place, as you have
discovered. And he loved all beasts and birds.
A wonderful chap with horses, clever too on
other lines, which isn't always the case. A
great reader and a bit of a musician. He went
to France with Eatchener's first hundred thou-
sand, and he lived through two years of that
hell. He wasn't decorated, or mentioned in
dispatches, but I saw the men he commanded,
and cared for, and fought with. They knew.
They knew what one of them called * the splen-
did best' of him. Oh well! I suppose he was
like many another we lost out there, but for me,
when he died, it was as if a light had gone out
and all the world was a darker place."

** Thank you," said Buth quite simply, yet
the words said much.

There was a little pause, then he added:

**He became engaged to my daughter just
before he was killed."

**Ahl" The little exclamation held a world
of pain and pity, '

He felt glad she did not add the usual **poor
thing," and possibly that was why he volun-

The Man on the Other Side 21

teered further. ^'She has married since, bnt I
doubt if she has got over it.'*

It was some time before either spoke again.
Then Buth said, abnost shyly, ** There is just
one thing more. The buttercup field f I can't
quite understand it. It is bad farming, that
field. The only bit of bad farming on the
place.''

**You did not guess t"

* * No. ' ' Buth looked at him, her head a little
on one side, her brow drawn, puzzled.

**He kept it for its beauty," said North. **It
is a wonderful bit of colour you know, that
sheeted gold," he added almost apologetically,
when for a moment Buth did not answer.

But she was mentally kicking herself.

**0f course!" she exclaimed. **How utterly
stupid of me. I ought to have understood.
How utterly and completely stupid of me. I
have never thought of what he would wish from
that point of view. I have been simply trying
to farm well. And I love that field for its beauty
too. Look at it in the western sunlight against
the may hedge. ' '

**It was the same with the may hedges," said
North. **A fellow who came here to buy pigs
said they ought to be grubbed up, they were
waste of land. He wanted railings. He
thought old Dick mad when he said he got his

22 The Man on the Other Side

value out of them to look at, and good value
too/'

''I didn't know about the hedges wasting
land/' said Buth. ^^But I might have grubbed
up the buttercups."

She looked so genuinely distressed that North
laughed.

** Don't let this idea of yours get on your
nerves," he said kindly. ** Believe me it is
really only what I said, and don't worry about
it. I am glad though that you love the place
so much. It would have hurt to have it spoilt
or neglected, or with some one living here who
— ^jarred. Indeed, to own the truth, I have been
afraid to come here; I could not face it. But
nofw" — ^he paused, then ended the sentence
deliberately — ^**I am glad."

^^ Thank you," she said again, in that quiet
simple way of hers, and for a while they sat on
in silence. The warmth was still great, the
stillness perfect, save for the occasional sleepy
twitter of a bird in its nest.

Never since Dick Carey had been killed had
he felt so at rest. The burden of pain seemed
to drop away. The bitterness and resentment
faded. He felt as so often in the old days, when
he had come from some worry or fret or care
in the outer world or in his own home, to the
peace of the farm, to Dick's smile, to Dick's

The Man on the Other Side 23

understanding. Almost it seemed that he was
not dead, had never gone away. And he
thought of his friend, for the first time since that
telegram had come, without an anguish of pain
or longing, thought of him as he used to, when
the morrow, or the next week at least, meant
the clasp of his hand, his * * Hullo, old Boger, * *
and the content which belongs to the mere pres-
ence only of some one or two people alone in
our journey through life.

He wisely made no attempt to analyse the
why and wherefore. He remembered with
thankfulness that he had left word at home that
he might be late, and just sat on and on while
peace and healing came dropping down like dew.

And this quite marvellous woman never tried
to make conversation, or fussed about, moving
things. She just sat there looking out at the
spring world as a child looks at a play that
enthralls.

She had no beauty and could never have had,
either of feature or colouring, only a slender
length of limb, a certain poise, small head and
hands and feet, and a light that shone behind
her steady eyes. A soul that wonders and
worships shines even in our darkness. She gave
the impression of strength and of tranquillity.
Her very stillness roused him at length, and
he turned to look at her.

24 The Man on the Other Side

She met the look with one of very pure
friendlinesB.

**I hope now I have made the plunge you will
let me come over here sometimes/' he said;
** somehow I think we are going to be friends. ''

**I think we are friends already,*' she said,
smiling, **and I am very glad. One or two of
the neighbours have called and asked me to tea
parties. But I have lived such a different life.
Except for those who farm or garden we haven *t
much in conunon/'

**You have always lived on the landf he
asked.

**0h no/'' she laughed, looking at him with
amusement. **I lived all my life until I was
seventeen at Parson's Green, and after that
in a little street at the back of Tottenham
Court Boad, until the outbreak of war. And
then I was for four years in Belgium and North-
em France, cooking.''

''Good heavens! And all the time this was
what you wanted!"

* * Yes, this was what I wanted. I didn 't know.
But this was it. And think of the luck of get-
ting it!" She looked at him triumphantly.
**The amazing wonderful luck! I feel as if
I ought to be on my knees, figuratively, all the
time, giving thanks."

**0f course," said Roger North slowly.

The Man on the Other Side 25

**That is your mental attitude. No wonder
yon are so nnnsnal a person. And how abont
the years that have gone before f

''I sometimes wonder/' she said^ thinking,
** since I have come here of course, whether
every part of our lives isn 't arranged definitely,
with a purpose, to prepare us for the next part.
It would help a bit through the bad times as
well as the good, if one knew it was so, don't
you thinkt"

**I daresay," Roger North answered vaguely,
as was his fashion, Ruth soon discovered, if
questioned on such things. * * I wish you would
tell me something of yourself. What line you
came up along would really interest me quite
a lot. And it isn't idle curosity either."

There was a little silence.

**I should like to tell you," she said at length.

But she was conscious at the back of her mind
that some one else was interested too, and it
was that some one else whom she wanted most
of aU to telL

CHiAPTEB n

RUTH SEER'S father had been a clergy-
man of the Church of England, and had
spent a short life in doing, in the eyes of his
family— a widowed mother and an elderly
sister — ^incredibly foolish things.

To begin with he openly professed what were
then considered extreme views, and thereby
hopelessly alienated the patron of the comfort-
able living on which his mother's eye had
been fixed when she encouraged his desire to
take Holy Orders.

**As if lighted candles, and flowers on the
altar, and that sort of thing, mattered two
brass farthings when £800 a year was at stake, ' '
wailed Mrs. Seer, to a sympathizing friend.

Paul Seer then proceeded to fall in love, and
with great promptitude married the music mis-
tress at the local High School for Girls. She
was adorably pretty, with the temper of an
angel, and they succeeded in being what Mrs.
Seer described as ** wickedly happy'' in a state
of semi-starvation on his curate's pay of £120
a year.

26

The Man on the Other Side 27

They had three children with the greatest
possible speed.

That two died at birth Mrs. Seer looked upon
as a direct sign of a Merciful Providence.

Poor lady, she had struggled for so many
years on a minute income, an income barely
sufficient for one which had to provide for three,
to say nothing of getting the boy educated
by charity, that it was small wonder if a heart
and mind, narrow to start with, had become
entirely ruled by the consideration of ways and
means.

And, the world being so arranged that ways
and means do bulk iniquitously large in most
people's lives, obliterating, even against their
will, almost everything else by comparison, per-
haps it was also a Merciful Providence which
took the boyish curate and his small wife to
Itself within a week of each other, during the
first influenza epidemic. You cannot work very
hard, and not get enough food or warmth, and at
the same time hold your own against the Influ-
enza Fiend when he means business. So, at the
age of three, the Benevolent Clergy's Orphan-
age, Parson's Green, London, S.E., swallowed
Buth Courthope Seer. A very minute figure
all in coal black, in what seemed to her a
coal-black world. For many a long year, in
times of depression, that sense of an all per-

28 The Man on the Other Side

vading blackness would swallow Bath up,
struggle she never so fiercely.

Asked, long after she had left it, what the
Orphanage was like, she answered instantly and
without thought:

**It was an ugly place/'

That was the adjective which covered to her
everything in it, and the life she led there. It
was ugly.

The Matron was the widow of a Low Church
parson. A worthy woman who looked on life
as a vale of tears, on human beings as miserable
sinners, and on joy and beauty as a distinct
mark of the Beast.

She did her duty by the orphans according to
the light she possessed. They were sufficiently
fed, and kept warm and clean. They learnt the
three B *s, sewing and housework. Also to play
**a piece'* on the piano, and a smattering of
British French. The Orphanage still in these
days considered that only three professions
were open to ** ladies by birth.'' They must
be either a governess, a companion, or a hos-
pital nurse.

The Matron inculcated the virtues of grati-
tude, obedience and contentment, and two great
precepts, **You must bow to the Will of God"
and **You must behave like a lady."

**The Will of God" seemed to typify every

The Man on the Other Side 29

unpleasant thing that could possibly happen to
you; and Buth, in the beginnings of dawning
thought, always pictured It as a large purple-
black storm-cloud, which descended on all and
sundry at the most unexpected moments, and
before which the dust blew and the trees were
bent double, and human beings were scattered
as with a flail. And in Ruth's mind the storm-
cloud was peculiarly terrible because unaccom-
panied by rain.

With regard to the second precept, when
thought progressed still farther, and she began
to reason things out, she one day electrified the
whole Orphanage when rebuked for unladylike
behaviour, by standing up and saying, firmly
but politely, **If you please. Matron, I don't
want to be a lady. I want to be a little girl. ' '

But for the most part she was a silent child
and gave little trouble.

Twice a year a severe lady, known as **your
Grandmother, ' ' and a younger less severe lady,
known as **your Aunt Amelia," came to see
her, and they always hoped she **was a good
girl."

Then Aunt Amelia ceased to come, for she had
gone out to India to be married, and **your
Grandmother" came alone. And then Grand-
mother died and went to heaven, and nobody
came to see Buth any more. Only a parcel

30 The Man on the Other Side

oame, an event hitherto unknown in Ruth's drab
little existence, and of stupendous interest. It
contained a baby 's first shoe, a curl of gold hair
in a tiny envelope, labelled **Paul, aged 2,'* in
a pointed writing, a letter in straggling round
hand beginning '^My dear Mamma,'' another
letter in neat copper plate beginning **My dear
Mother,'* and a highly coloured picture of St.
George attacking the dragon, signed **Paul
Courthope Seer,*' with the date added in the
pointed writing.

It was many years later that Buth first under-
stood the pathos of that parcel.

When she was seventeen the Committee found
a situation for her as companion to a lady. The
Matron recommended her as suitable for the
position, and the Committee informed her, on
the solemn occasion when she appeared before
them to receive their parting valediction, deliv-
ered by the Chairman, that she was extremely
lucky to secure a situation in a Christian house-
hold where she would not only have every com-
fort, but even Every Luxyiry.

So Ruth departed to a large and heavily fur-
nished house, where the windows were only
opened for a half an hour each day while the ser-
vants did the rooms, and which consequently
smelt of the bodies of the people who lived in it.
Every day, except Sunday, she went for a drive

The Man on the Other Side 31

with an old lady in a brougham with both win-
dows closed. On fine warm days she walked
out with an old lady leaning on her arm. Every
morning she read the newspaper aloud. At
other times she picked up dropped stitches in
knitting, played Halma, or read a novel aloud^
by such authors as Rhoda Broughton or Mrs.
Hungerford.

Any book less calculated to have salutary
effect on a young girl who never spoke to any
man under fifty, and that but rarely, can hardly
be imagined.

If there had been an animal in the house, or
a garden round it, Ruth might have struggled
longer. As it was, at the end of three months
she proved to be one of the Orphanage's few
failures and, without even consulting the Com-
mittee, gave notice, and took a place as shop
assistant to a second-hand bookseller in a small
back street off the Tottenham Court Road.
And here Ruth stayed and worked for the space
of seventeen years — to be exact, until the year
of the Great War, 1914.

The Committee ceased to take an interest in
her, and her Aunt Amelia, still in India, ceased
to write at Christmas, and Ruth's last frail
links with the world of her father were broken.

It was a strange life for a girl in the little
bookshop, but at any rate she had achieved

32 The Man on the Other Side

some measnre of freedom, she had got rid of
the burden of her ladyhood, and in some notable
directions her starved intelligence was fed.

Her master, Raphael Goltz, came of the most
despised of all race combinations; he was a
German Jew, and he possessed the combined
brain-power of both races.

He had the head of one of Michael Angelo's
apostles, on the curions beetle-shaped body of
the typical Jew. He was incredibly mean, and
rather incredibly dirty, and he had three pas-
sions — ^books, music, and food.

When he discovered in his new assistant a
fellow lover of the two first, and an intelligence
considerably above the average, he taught her
how and what to read, and to play and sing
great music not unworthily. With regard to
the third, he taught her, in his own interest,
to be a cook of supreme excellence.

And on the whole Ruth was not unhappy.
Sometimes she looked her loneliness in the face,
and the long years struck at her like stones.
Sometimes her dying, slowly dying, youth called
to her in the night watches, and she counted the
hours of the grey past years, hours and hours
with nothing of youth's meed of joy and love
in them. But for the most part she strangled
these thoughts with firm hands. There was
nothing to be gained by them, for there was

The Man on the Other Side 33

nothing to be done. An untrained woman,
without money or people, must take what she
can, get and be thankful.

She read a great many both of the wisest and
of the most beautiful books in the world, she
listened to music played by the master hand,
and her skilled cooking interested her. As the
years went on, old Goltz left the business more
and more to her, spending his time in his little
back parlour surrounded by his beloved first
editions, which he knew better by now than to
offer for sale, drawing the music of the spheres
from his wonderful Bluthner piano, and stead-
ily smoking. He gave Ruth a sitting-room of
her own upstairs, and allowed her to take in
the two little dogs Sarah and Selina. On Sat-
urday afternoons and Sundays she would take
train into the country, and tramp along miles
with them in the world she loved.

And then, when it seemed as if life were going
on like that for ever and ever, came the breath-
less days before August 4, 1914, those days
when the whole world stood as it were on tip-
toe, waiting for the trumpet signal.

Ah well! there was something of the wonder
and glory of war, of which we had read, about
it then — ^before we knew — ^yes, before we knew!
The bugle call — the tramp of armed men — ^the
glamour of victory and great deeds — and of sac-

34 The Man on the Other Side

rifice too, — of sacrifice too. The love of one's
country suddenly made concrete as it v^re.
Just for that while, at any rate, no one thinking
of himself, or personal profit. Personal glory,
perhaps, which is a better matter. Every one
standing ready. * ' Send me. * '

The world felt cleaner, purer.

It was a wonderful time. Too wonderful to
last perhaps. But the marks last. At any rate
we have known. We have seen white presences
upon the hills. We have heard the voices of the
Eternal Gods.

The greatest crime in history. Yes. But we
were touched to finer issues in those first days.

And then Raphael Goltz woke up too. He
talked to Ruth in the hot August evenings in-
stead of sleeping. Even she was astonished at
what the old man knew. He had studied for-
eign politics for years. He knew that the cause
of the war lay farther back, much farther back
than men realized. He saw things from a wide
standpoint. He was a German Jew by blood
and in intellect, Jew by nature, but England
had always been his home. That he loved her
well Ruth never had any doubt after those
evenings.

He never thought, thought, that it would come
to war. It seemed to him impossible. **It
would be infamy,*' he said.

Tbe Man on the Otheb Side 35

And then it came. Came with a shock, and
yet with a strange sense of exhilaration about
it. Men who had stood behind counters, and
sat on office stools since boyhood, stretched
themselves, as the blood of fighting forefathers
stirred in their veins. They were still the sons
of men who had gone voyaging with Drake
and Frobisher, of men who had sailed the seven
seas, and fought great fights, and found strange
lands, and died brave deaths, in the days when
a Great Adventure was possible for all. For
them too had, almost inconceivably, come the
chance to get away from greyly monotonous
days which seemed like ** yesterday come back'';
for them too was the Great Adventure possible.
The lad who, under Ruth's supervision, took
down shutters, cleaned boots, knives and win-
dows, swept the floors and ran errands, was
among the first to go, falsifying his age by two
years, and it was old Raphael Goltz, German
Jew, who even in those first days knew the war
as the crime of all the ages.

Ruth was the next, and he helped her too;
while the authorities turned skilled workers
down, and threw cold water in buckets on the
men and women standing shoulder to shoulder
ready for any sacrifice in those first days, old
Raphael Goltz, knowing the value of Ruth's
cooking and physical soundness, found her the

36 The Man on the Other Side

money to offer her services free — old Raphael
Qoltz, who through so many years had been so
incredibly mean. He disliked dogs cordially,
yet he undertook the care of Sarah and Selina
in her absence. To Buth^s further amazement,
he also gave her introductions of value to lead-
ing authorities in Paris who welcomed her
gladly and sent her forthwith into an estaminet
behind the lines in Northern France.

Something of her childhood in the Orphanage,
and of the long years with Baphael Goltz, Buth
told North, as they sat together in the warmth
and stillness of the May evening, but of the
years in France she spoke little. She had
seen unspeakable things there. The memory
of them was almost unbearable. They were
things she held away from thought. Beautiful
and wonderful things there were too, belonging
to those years. But they were still more im-
possible to speak of. She carried the mark of
them both, the terrible and the beautiful, in her
steady eyes. Besides, some one else, who was
interested too, who was surely — ^the conscious-
ness was not to be ignored — ^interested too,
knew all about that. And suddenly she real-
ized how that common knowledge of life and
death at their height was also a bond, as well as
love of Thorpe, and she paused in her tale, and
sat very stilL

The Man on the Other Side 37

**And thenf said North, after a while.

**I was out there for two years, without com-
ing home, the first time. There seemed nothing
for me to come home for, and I didn ^t want to
leave. There was always so much to be done,
and one felt of use. It was selfish of me really,
but I never realized somehow that Raphael Qoltz
cared. Then I had bad news from him. You re-
member the time when the mobs wrecked the
shops with German names? Well, his was one
of theuL So I got leave and came back to him.
It was very sad. The old shop was broken
to pieces, his books had been thrown into the
street and many burnt, and the piano, his beau-
tiful piano, smashed past all repair. I found
him up in the back attic, with Sarah and Selina.
He had saved them for me somehow. He
cried when I came. He was very old, you see,
and he had felt the war as much as any of
us.

Her eyes were full of tears, and she stopped
for a moment to steady her voice. **He bore
no malice, and three days after I got back he
died, babbling the old cry, *We ought to have
been friends.'

**It was always that, *We ought to have been
friends,* and once he said, * Together we could
have regenerated the world.* He left every-
thing he had to me, over £60,000. It is to him

38 The Man on the Other Side

I owe Thorpe/' Her eyes shone through the
tears in them.

** Cornel and let me show you,'' she said, and
so ahnost seemed to help him out of his chair,
and then, still holding his hand, led him through
the door behind them, along the passage into
the front hall. Here he stopped, and undoubt-
edly but for the compelling hand would have
gone no farther. But the soft firm grip held,
and something with it, some force outside both
of them, drew him after her into the room that
once was his friend's. A spacious friendly
room, with wide windows looking south and
west, and filled just now with the light of a
cloudless sunset.

And the dreaded moment held nothing to fear.
Nothing was changed. Nothing was spoilt. He
had expected something, which to him, unrea-
sonably perhaps, but uncontrollably, would have
seemed like sacrilege; instead he found it was
sanctuary. Sanctuary for that, to him, anni-
hilated personality which had been the compan-
ion of the best years of his life.

Dick might have come back at any moment
and found his room waiting for him, as it had
waited on many a spring evening just like this.
His capacious armchair was still by the window.
The big untidy writing-table, with its many
drawers and pigeon-holes, in its place. The

The Man on the Other Side 39

piano where he used to sit and strum odd bits of
music by ear.

^^But it is all just the same," he said, stand-
ing like a man in a dream when Ruth dropped
his hand inside the threshold.

**I was offered the furniture with the house,''
she said, '*and when I saw this room I felt I
wanted it just as it is. Before that I had all
sorts of ideas in my head as to how I would
furnish! But this appealed to me. There is
an air of space and comfort and peace about
the room that I could not bear to disturb. And
now I am very glad, because I feel he is pleased.
Of course, his more personal things have gone,
and I have added a few things of my own.
Look, this is what I brought you to see. ' '

She pointed towards the west window, where
stood an exquisitely carved and gilded table of
foreign workmanship which was new to him,
and on it burnt a burnished bronze lamp, its
flame clear and bright even in the fierce glow of
the setting sun. Beside the lamp stood a glass
vase, very beautiful in shape and clarity, filled
with white pinks.

North crossed the room and examined the
lamp with interest.

**What does it meanf he asked.

* * It is a custom of the orthodox Jews. When
anyone belonging to them dies, they keep a

40 The Man on the Other Side

lamp burning for a year. The flame is never
allowed to go ont. It is a symbol. A symbol
of the Life Eternal. All the years of the war
Baphael Goltz kept this lamp burning for the
men who went West. You see it is in the west
window. And now I keep it burning for him.
You don't think he would mind, although my
poor old master was a German Jew, racially t ' '

She looked up at North anxiously, as they
stood side by side before the lamp.

**Not Dick — certainly not Dickl'* said North.
Euth heaved a sigh of relief.

**You see, I don't really know anything about
him except what I feel about the farm, and I
did want the lamp here.''

**No, Dick wouldn't mind. But you are mad,
you know, quite mad 1 ' '

For all that his eyes were very kindly as he
looked down at her.

**I expect it is being so much alone," she said
tranquilly, stooping to smell the pinks.

**Was Goltz an orthodox Jew then?" asked
North.

**0h no, very far from it. He wasn't any-
thing in the least orthodox. If you could have
known him!" Ruth laughed a little. **But he
had some queer religion of his own. He be-
lieved in Beauty, and that it was a revelation of
something very great and wonderful, beyond

The Man on the Other Side 41

the wildest dreams of a crassly ignorant and
blind humanity. That glass vase was his.
Have you noticed the wonderful shape of it?
And look now with the light shining through.
Do you think it is a shame to put flowers in it?
But their scent is the incense on the altar. ^^

' ' Oh, that 's the idea, is it t ^ ' said North. He
spoke very gently, as one would to a child show-
ing you its treasures.

**This place is full of altars,'* said Ruth, her
eyes looking west. * * Do you know the drive in
the little spinney? All one broad blue path of
hyacinths, and white may trees on either side.''

**0h, that's the idea, is it?" said North. He
in his voice — **you mean Dick's * Pathway to
Heaven' I"

^^Didhecallitthatt"

**He said it was so blue it must be."

**Yes, and it seems to vanish into space be-
tween the trees."

**As I must," said North. **I have paid you
an unwarrantable visitation, and I shall only
just get home now before lighting-up time. ' '

**You will come again?" said Ruth as they
went down the garden. **I want to show you
the site for my cottages. I think it is the right
one."

**Oottages!"

"Yes, I am going to build three. My lawyer

42 The Man on the Other Side

tells me it is economically an unsonnd invest-
ment. My conscience tells me it has got to be
done, if I am to enjoy Thorpe properly. Two
couples are waiting to be married until the
cottages are ready, and one man is working here
•and his wife living in London because there is
no possible place for them. I am giving him
a room here at present. * '

North raised his eyebrows.

* * Do you take in anybody promiscuously who
comes along f" he asked.

**Well, this man went through four years of

the war. Was a sergeant, and holds the Mons

Medal and the D.C.M. He is a painter by trade,

and worked for Baxter, who is putting up a

billiard-room and a garage at Mentmore Court. ' *

**Mentmore Court?" North looked across at
the big white house on the hill. ** Why, there is
a billiard-room and a garage there already."

'*I believe they are turning the existing bil-
liard-room into a winter garden, or something
of that sort. And they have six cars, so the
present garage is not big enough. ' '

**Your cottages will probably be of more use
to the country," said North. **I hear he made
his money in leather, and his name is Pithey.
Do you know himt"

**Well, he took a * fancy' to my Shorthorns,

The Man on the Other Side ^

and walked in last week to ask if I ^d sell. Price
was no object. He fancied them. Hien he took
a fancy to some of the furniture and offered to
buy that, and finally he said if I was open to
take *a profit on my deaP over the farm, he was
prepared to go to a fancy price for it.''

North stopped and looked at her.

' * Are you making it up f he asked.

Ruth bubbled over into an irrepressible
laugh.

** When he went away he told me not to worry.
Mrs. Pithey was coming to call, but she had been
so busy, and now those lazy dogs of workmen
couldn't be out of the place for another month
at least."

** And my wife is worrying me to call on him,"
groaned North. ** Halloo, where is Larry?"

* * He was there a moment ago ; I saw him just
before you stopped, but I never saw him jump
out."

North called in vain until he gave a peculiar
whistle, which brought a plainly reluctant Larry
to view.

**He doesn't want to come with me," said
North. **Get in, Larry." And Larry obeyed
the peremptory command, while Ruth checked
an impulse to suggest that she should keep him.

As the car started slowly up the hill he turned,

44 The Man on the Other Side

laying his black and tan velvet mnzzle on the
back of the hood. Long after they had van-
ished, Ruth was haunted by the wistful amber
eyes looking at her from a cloud of dust.

Slowly she went up home through the scented
evening. It had been a wonderful day. And
she had made a friend. It was not such an
event as it would have been before she went to
France, but it was suflSciently uplifting even
now. She sang to herself as she went. And
then quite suddenly she thought of the man in
the brown suit. **I wonder who he was, and
where he disappeared to,'' she said to herself,
as she answered Miss McCox's injured sum-
mons to supper.

CHAPTER III

M

4 4"m ^ Y dear Roger/' said Mrs. North, vith
that peculiar guinea-hen quality in her
voice which it was her privilege and pleasure
to keep especially for her husband, **have you
nothing of interest to tell us f No one has seen
you since four o 'clock yesterday afternoon. At
any rate, not to speak to."

North looked across the beautifully appointed
lunch-table at the ill-chosen partner of his joys
and sorrows, while the silence, which usually
followed one of her direct attacks on him, fell
upon the party surrounding it.

**I see you brought Larry back with you,
and conclude you found him at Thorpe," con-
tinued Mrs. North, **and I suppose you saw
Miss Seer. As it is a moot point whether we
call on her or not, you might rouse yourself so
far as to tell us what you thought of her. I
am sure Arthur would like to hear too. ' '

**Very much I Very much I" said the fair,
cherubic-looking little man sitting on her right
hand. ** Thorpe was such a pleasant house in
poor dear Carey 's time. It would be a serious

46

46 The Man on the Otheb Side

loss if the new owner were impossible. I look
upon the changes in the neighbourhood very
seriously, very seriously indeed. I was only
thinking yesterday that of our old circle only
poor old Mentmore, the Condors, and ourselves
are left. The Court and Whitemead both
bought by newly rich people, whom I really
dread inspecting. ''

* * The St. Ubes may be all right, * ' interpolated
Mrs. North. **I hear they made their money
doing something with shipping, and St. Ubes
does not sound a bad name.^'

'*No,'' aUowed Mr. Fothersley. '*No. Yet
I do not remember to have heard it before. It
has a Cornish sound. We must inquire. They
have not arrived yet, I gather, as the new ser-
vants' wing is not ready. But the people at
the Grange, I fear, are not only Jews, but Ger-
man Jewsl What a milieu! And we were
such a happy little set before the war, very
happy — ^yes.*'

'*At any rate,'' said the fourth member of
the lunch party, a very beautiful young woman,
the only child and married daughter of the
house, **they have all an amazing amount of
money, which I have no doubt they are prepared
to spend, and the German Jews I conclude you
\will not take up. As for Thorpe, it is dis-

The Man on the Other Side 47

gusting that anyone should have it. What is
the woman like, father f

* * Oh, all right, ' * said North. * * She is looking
after the place well, and hasn 't been seized with
the present mania for building billiard-rooms
and winter gardens and lordly garages/'

**But what is she likef asked Mrs. North.

**Is she a lady, or isn't she? You can't call
on a woman because she hasn't built a winter
garden. ' '

**Why not?" returned her husband, in his
most irritating fashion.

**By the way," interposed Mr. Fothersley
adroitly, **I hear Miss Seer intends building
cottages. A thing I do not consider at all de-
sirable. ' '

"Why not?" asked his host again.

**We want nothing of that sort in Mentmore,"
said Fothersley decisively. **It is, in its way,
the most perfect specimen of an English village
in the country — ^I might say in England. Build-
ing new cottages is only the thin end of the
wedge."

**They appear to be wanted," said North,
pushing the cigars towards his guest.

**That is the Government's business," an-
swered Mr. Fothersley, making a careful selec-
tion. **And we may at least hope they will

48 The Man on the Other Side

put them np in suitable places. Thank Heaven
the price of land here is prohibitive. There,
however, is the danger of these newly rich
people. They must spend their money some-
how. However, it may not be true. I only
heard it this morning. '*

**Did she say anything about it, Roger f
asked Mrs. North.

**Yes, she mentioned it,^' answered North
curtly.

Mrs. North made an exaggerated gesture of
despair as she struggled with a cigarette. She
had never succeeded in mastering the art of
smoking.

**Are you going to tell us what we want to
know or not?" she asked, with ominous calm-
ness. **Do you advise calling on the woman,
or don't youf

Here Violet Riversley broke in.

**When will you learn to put things quite
plainly to father?'' she asked. **You know he
can 't understand our euphuisms. I suppose it 's
one of the defects of a scientific brain. ' '

She helped herself to a cigarette and held
it out to North for a light.

*'What we want to know, father, is just this.
Do you think Miss Seer is likely to subscribe
to the Hunt and various other things we are
interested inf If to this she adds the desire

The Man on the Other Side 49

to entertain us, so much the better, but the
subscriptions are the primary things.^'

''No, no, my dear!^' exclaimed Mr. Fother-
sley, deeply pained. * * That is just what I com-
plain about in you young people of the present
day. You have not the social sense — ^you *'

''Dear Arthur,*^ Violet cut him short ruth-
lessly, "don*t be a humbug with me. Your
Violet has known you since she was two years
old. Let us in our family circle be honest.
Lord Mentmore and the Condors called on the
Pithey people because Mr. Pithey has sub-
scribed liberally to the Hunt, and you and
mother have called because they did. Inciden-
tally they will probably give us excellent din-
ners. All I can say is, I hope you will draw the
line at the German Jews, however much money
they have.'^

"Well, Roger, '* said Mrs. North, who had
kept her eyes fixed on her husband during
her daughter's diversion, "shall I call or nott
Surely you are the proper person to advise me,
as you have met Miss Seer.'*

North frowned irritably.

"No, I certainly should not call,'' he said,
rising from the table. "She is a lady, but you
would have nothing in conmion, and I should
not think she has enough money to make it
worth while from the point of view Vi has put

50 The Man on the Other Side

80 delicately before ns. That all right, Vit^'

His daughter rose too, and slipped her arm
through his.

** Quite good for you!^' she said. **And now
Gome and smoke your dgar with me in the gar-
den. Arthur will excuse you.'*

*' Certainly! Certainly!*' said Mr. Fother-
sley, who sincerely liked both husband and wife
apart, and inwardly deplored the necessity that
they should ever be together. He recognized
the lack of fine feeling in the wife which so con-
stantly irritated the husband, but which did not
alienate Fothersley himself because his own
mind moved really on the same plane, in that he
cherished no finer ideals. He recognized, too,
the corresponding irritation North's total lack
of the social instinct was to a woman of his
wife 's particular type. Pretty, vivacious, with
a passionate love of dress, show, and amuse-
ment, Mrs. North would have liked to go to a
party of some sort, or give one, every day in the
year. She was an admirable and successful
hostess, and Mr. Fothersley was wont to declare
that Mentmore would be lost without Mrs.
North.

They were great friends. Mr. Fothersley had
never seen his way to embark on matrimony.
At the same time he enjoyed the society of
women. Ab a matter of fact he was on terms

The Man on the Other Side 51

of platonic, genuinely platonic, friendship, with
every attractive woman within reasonable reach
of Mentmore. Undoubtedly, however, Mrs.
North held the first place. For one thing the
Norths were his tenants, occupying the Dower
House on his estate. It was always easy to run
across to West wood, hot foot with any little
bit of exciting gossip. They both took a lively
interest in their neighbours^ private affairs.
Violet Riversley had once said that if there
was nothing scandalous to talk about, they
evolved something, after the fashion of the
newspapers in the silly season. They both
loved, not money, but the things which money
means. To give a perfect little dinner, rich
with all the delicacies of the season, was to
them both a keen delight. He was nearly as
fond of pretty clothes as she was, and liked to
escort her to the parties, where she was al-
ways the centre of the liveliest group and from
which North shrank in utter boredom. They
agreed on all points on matters of the day, both
social and political; he gathered his opinions
from The Times and she from the Daily Mail.
He looked upon her as an extremely clever and
intelligent woman. Also he was in entire
sympathy with her intense and permanent
resentment against her husband because he had
persisted in devoting to further chemical re-

52 The Man on the Other Side

search the very large sums of money which his
scientific discoveries had brought him in from
time to time. The fact that, in addition to
these sums, he derived a considerable income
from a flourishing margarine factory started
by his late father's energy and enterprise, of
which income she certainly spent by far the
larger portion, consoled her not at all. She
spent much, but she could very easily have
spent more. She too could have done with
four or five cars, she too could have enlarged
and expanded in various expensive directions,
even as these new nouveaiix riches. Fother-
sley, who devoutly held the doctrine that not
only whatsoever a man earned, but whatsoever
he inherited, was for his own and his family's
benefit and spending, with a reasonable con-
tribution to local charities, or any exceptional
collection in time of stress authorized by the
Mayor, felt that Mrs. North's resentment was
wholly natural. A yearly contribution of, say,
twenty-five guineas, to researclh would have
amply covered any possible claim on even a
scientist's philanthropy in this direction, and
he had even told North so.

Therefore it was only natural for Mrs. North
to turn to him, even more than to her other
friends, for sympathy and understanding.

'^ There now!" she exclaimed as her husband

The Man on the Other Side 53

left the room. * ' Can you imagine any man be-
ing so disagreeable and surly? Just because
he was asked a perfectly natural question. And
I shall certainly call on the woman. ' '

^'I believe she is quite possible from all I
have heard, '^ said Mr. Fothersley, adroitly
lighting Mrs. North ^s cigarette, which had gone
out. **As you know, I mean to call myself, if
you would prefer to wait for my report. '*

'* Thank you. But I may as well come with
you. I shall probably be a help, and you see
Roger says she is a lady, and, funnily enough,
he really knows. I expect she is as dull as
ditchwater ; I hear she was something in the na-
ture of a companion before she came into some
money. But anything must be better than the
Pitheys.''

She shuddered as she replenished Mr. Foth-
ersley 's wineglass.

**They appear from all accounts to be very
bad,'^ sighed Mr. Fothersley.

*^I could bear their commonness, ' ' said Mrs.
North, ' ' one has got used to it these days, when
one meets everyone everywhere, but it is the
man's self-satisfaction that is so overpowering.
However, I am depending on you to look after
him this afternoon. Roger won't, and Violet
is nearly as bad. I don't know if you have no-

54 The Man on the Other Side

ticed it, but Violet is getting Roger's nasty sar-
castic way of saying things, and she always
seems to back him up now against me."

Her pretty eyes were tearful, and Mr. Fother-
sley looked distressed.

''Dear Violet has never been the same since
poor Carey's death,'* he said.

Mrs. North agreed. ' ' And yet, as you know, ' '
she added, ''I never really approved of the en-
gagement. Poor Dick was a dear — ^no one
could help liking him ; but, after all, there was
no getting away from the fact that he was old
enough to be her father, and besides he was
not very well oflf, and owing to Roger's folly,
wasting his money as he has, we could not have
made Violet a big allowance. Really, you know,
Fred is a much better match for her in every
way. ' '

''Quite, quite," assented Mr. Fothersley.
"But there is no doubt she felt Carey's death
very much at the time. I certainly have no-
ticed a difference in her since, which her mar-
riage has not dispelled. But indeed all the
young people seem altered since this terrible
war — there is — ^how shall I put itt — a want of
reticence — of respect for the conventions."
Mr. Fothersley shook his head. "I regret it
very much — ^very much. ' '

In the meantime North and his daughter had

The Man on the Other Side 55

wandered out into the shade of the great beech-
tree which was the crowning glory of an ex-
quisite lawn. The garden was in full perfection
this wonderful May, and the gardeners were
busy putting the finishing touches before the
afternoon *s party. Not a weed or stray leaf
was to be seen. Every edge was clipped to
perfection.. The three tennis courts were newly
marked out, their nets strung to the exact
height, while six new balls were neatly arranged
on each service line. Presently Mrs. North
would come out and say exactly where each
chair and table should go.

Violet Riversley looked at the pretty friendly
scene with her beautiful gold brown eyes, and
the misery in them was like a devouring fire.
She was one of the tragedies of the war. She
could neither endure nor forget. With her
mother ^8 good looks, pleasure-loving tempera-
ment, and quick temper, she had much of her
father *s ability. Spoilt from her cradle, she
had gone her own way and taken greedily of the
good things of this world with both hands, until
Dick Carey's death had smitten her life into
ruins.

She was twenty-four, and she had never be-
fore known pain, sorrow or trouble. Always
she had had everything she wanted. Other
people ^s griefs passed her by. She simply had

56 The Man on the Other Side

no understanding of them. She was not gen-
erousy because she never realized what it was
to go without. And yet everyone liked and
many loved her. She was so gay and glad and
beautiful a thing.

When she said good-bye to Dick Carey, she
was simply unable to grasp that he could be
taken from her, and when the news of his death
came she had passionately and vehemently
fought against the agony and pain and desola-
tion that came with it. She had genuinely
and really loved him, and nothing, absolutely
nothing, seemed left. There was no pleasure
any more in anything. That was what she could
not understand, could not cope with. Her con-
ventional faith fell from her, and she let it go
without a struggle. But her happiness she re-
fused to let go. She clung to it, or to the mi-
rage of it, savagely, desperately. Dickj was
dead, yes, and she wanted him with a devour-
ing hunger. But all the other things were left.
Things she had loved. Things that had made
her happy. She would not let them go.

After a brief space, in which the devils of
bitterness and resentment and impotent wrath
rent her in pieces, she took up her old life again,
with apparently added zest. Her friends said
*' Violet was very plucky, ^^ and no one was
astonished when after a year she accepted and

The Man on the Other Side 57

married Fred Riversley. It was altogether a
more suitable match than one with poor Dick
Carey. Riversley was of more suitable age,
rich, devoted, and a good fellow, and as Mrs.
North said to her best friends, ** Violet was
never suited for the wife of a poor man. * ^ Only
Roger North watched her anxiously at times.
She had been her mother ^s child before, but
since Dick^s death she had turned more and
more to her father. Something of his dogged
patient strength of mind seemed to become
clear to her. Something of the courage with
which he faced life.

She remembered a saying of his one day when
her mother had been flagrantly unjust and bitter
to him on some matter of expenditure, so that
even she had felt ashamed. Whatever her
father *s faults, his generosity was past ques-
tion. She had gone into the study and striven
to make amends, and he had looked at her with
those tired humorous eyes of his and said :

* * My dear, nothing can hurt you if you don ^t
let it.'*

She seized on that as some sort of creed amid
the welter of all she had ever thought she beJ
lieved.

She would not let things hurt her. She
plunged more eagerly than ever into the amuse-
ments of her world. After her marriage she

58 The Man on the Other Side

started and ran a smart officers' hospital in
London. Mrs. Biversley's name was on many
committees. She was a noted giver of the then
fashionable boy and girl dances. A celebrated
personage said she reminded him of a human
fire. There seemed a fever in her body, a rest-
lessness which never left her. Since the cessa-
tion of hostilities this restlessness had in-
creased, or possibly now that others were ceas-
ing their activities it was more noticeable.

While North sat smoking his dgar she fetched
a racquet and began to practice her service on
the court nearest him. She served over-hand
a swift hard service, and North watched the
long slim line of her figure, her exquisite poise,
as she swung her racquet above her head and
drove the ball home. It was typical somehow
of the driving force that seemed behind her
restlessness.

Presently she stopped, and came and sat
down close beside him, and when he looked at
her he saw that her mask was down and the
tormented soul of her for a moment bare.

**It all looks just the same as ever, doesn't
itf she said. ''And weVe got to get through
it somehow to the very end.'*

*'My dear,** began her father, and stopped.
A blank hideous horror of emptiness possessed
him. He shivered in the hot sunshine. There

The Man on the Other Side 59

was nothing to say. He had no comfort to give
her.

* * Heaven knows I Ve done my best, ' * she said.
**I swore I wouldn't let Dick's death spoil my
life. I married Fred because he could give me
everything else — everything but what was im-
possible, and he 's a good fellow. ' ' She paused,
then went on again, her voice very low and thin.
* * There 's only one thing would do me any good
— if I could hurt those whoVe hurt me. That
God, who let all this happen. I'm not the only
one. That God they teach us is almighty, and
this is the best he can do for us. Tou don't
believe He's there at all, father — oh no, you
don't— I'm not a fooll But I do, and I see
Him watching it all happening, letting it all
happen, according to plan, as those danmed
Germans used to say. If only I could hurt them
— ^hurt them myself. If they had only one neck
that I could wring — ^with my own two hands —
slowly — ^very slowly — ^I think that would do me
good.''

North pulled himself together.

**How long have you been feeling like this,
Vit" he asked.

' * Ever since they killed Dick, ' ' she said dully,
as if the fire had smouldered down, after a
sudden sheet of flame. '*I think I am made
up of hate, father. It's the strongest thing in

60 The Man on the Other Side

me. It's so strong that I can't love any more.
I don't think I love Dick now. And Fred,
sometimes I hate Fred, and he 's a good fellow,
you know.''

The words filled North with a vague uncanny
horror. He struggled after normal, everyday
words, but for a moment none came. He knew
the girl was overwrought, suffering from strain,
but what was it that had looked at him out of
those vehement, passionate eyes?

**Look here, Vi," he said at length, striving
to speak naturally, *'you are just imagining
things. Can't you take a pull on yourself and
go easy for a bitt You're overdoing it, you
know, and these sort of ideas are the result."

'*I'm sorry, father."

She bent sideways, letting her head rest
against his shoulder, and seeking his hand, held
it close. Such a demonstration was foreign to
her with him. When she was small, some queer
form of jealousy on her mother's part had come
between them. He felt shy and awkward.

*'I don't know what made me break out like
that," she went on. **I think it must have been
coming back here and seeing everything just
the same as it used to be before the war came.
Until to-day, when I've been down it's been so
quiet and different, with no parties, and noth-

The Man on the Other Side 61

ing going on. Now it*s gone back like every-
thing else is going back — only I cannot. ' ^

* * Nothing goes back, dear, * * answered North.
**It's not the same for anyone really. Not even
for the quiet young people who^U come and
play here without a trouble as you used to.
But there's always the interest of going for-
ward. If we Ve suffered, at least we Ve gained
experience from it, which is knowledge. And
there's always some work to be done for every
season that could not be done sooner or later.
That helps, I think.''

*'Dear old father,'' she said softly. **We
used not to be really great friends in the old
days. But now somehow you 're the only person
I find any comfort in. I think perhaps it is
because we are both putting up a hard fight. ' '

** Don't forget the spice of life is battle, Vi,
as Stevenson has it. I'm inclined to think,
though" — he spoke slowly as one envolving a
thought new to him — **I'm inclined to think we
sometimes confuse bitterness and rebellion with
it. That's not clean fighting. My dear, put
that hate you speak of away from you, if you
can — and have nothing to do with bitterness
— they are forces which can only make for evil."

There was a little pause.

**I don't think I can, father. It's part of me.

62 The Man on the Other Side

Sometimes I think it^s all me, and sometimes
I 'm frightened. * *

'*Look here, Vi,*' said North, struggling with
a disinclination to make the proposition that
was in his mind, a disinclination that he felt
was ridiculous, **I wish you would go over to
Thorpe and get to know Miss Seer/'

Violet sat up and looked at him with wide-
open eyes.

* * But why t I should hate it ! ' ' she exclaimed.
'*It would remind me — oh, of so many things!
It would make me feel even worse '*

'*Well, so I thought,** said North. '*I can
tell you I dreaded going. But the old place is
full of a — a. strange sort of rest. I didn't re-
alize how full of bitterness and resentment I
had been until sitting there it all dropped away
from me. It was as if a stone had been rolled
away. I hadn't realized how it was hurting
until it left oflf."

He spoke disjointedly, and as if almost
against his will. He was glad when the sound
of his wife's and Mr. Fothersley's approaching
voices made Violet release his hand and stand
up.

** You think Thorpe would lay my devils too t "
she asked, looking down at him.

**I think," he said gravely, '*it is worth try-
ing."

CHAPTER IV

MBS. NORTH *S tennis party pursued its
usual successful career in the brilliant
sunshine, which, as Mr. Fothersley remembered,
always favoured her. Fred Riversley had
brought an unexpected carload of R. A. F.
boys down from London with him. This made
a tournament possible, as Mrs. North saw
at once. They drew partners with much fun
and laughter. Mr. Fothersley telephoned to
Fairbridge for a selection of prizes to be sent
out by the 4.30 bus. It was one of the charming
sort of things which Mr. Fothersley did. It
was more particularly nice of him on this par-
ticular afternoon than usual, because, so far as
Mr. Fothersley was concerned, Mr. Pithey was
making it almost unbearable.

He was a large, flat, pale yellow gentleman,
with a peculiarly penetrating metallic voice.
He had a very long nose, with a broad tip curv-
ing upwards, and small keen eyes which darted
everywhere. Without the slightest hesitation
he took the place which from time immemorial
belonged to Mr. Fothersley at all Mentmore

64 The Man on the Other Side

parties. Under the beech-tree, where by all
the rights of precedence Mr. Fothersley should
have led the conversation, Mr. Pithey 's metallic
voice held sway and drove all before it. In the
usual walk round the garden, always person-
ally conducted by Mr. Fothersley and his host-
ess, Mr. Pithey laid down the correct lines on
which to bed out, to grow carnations, to keep
down weeds, or anything else that cropped up.
When Mr. Fothersley drew attention to the fact
that on any of the courts the final of the hard-
fought set was in progress, it was Mr. Pithey ^s
voice that drowned all others as he shouted
**Well played!" and gave advice to all con-
cerned. In fact, Mr. Pithey dominated the
party.

Mrs. Pithy, a small blue-faced lady, very ex-
pensively dressed, sat in a comfortable basket
chair with her feet on a stool and, unless actu-
ally asked a question, she spoke to no one except
her husband, whom she always addressed by
name. Bertie when she remembered, 'Erb
when she forgot.

Even the arrival of Lady Condor, undoubt-
edly the personage of the place, made no im-
pression on this strange couple's evident con-
viction that they were people of supreme im-
portance in the universe. Lady Condor could
have put the Old Gentleman himself in his place

The Man on the Other Side 65

if the mood were on her, but on this ocoasion,
as it happened, she was frankly and evidently-
entertained by the Pitheys. Mr. Fothersley
regretted it. Seldom had he looked out more
anxiously for the arrival of her wheeled chair
surrounded by its usual escort of five white
West Highlanders. Lady Condor always used
her chair, in preference to her car, for short
journeys, so that her dogs also might have an
outing. Seldom had he been more disappointed
in her, and Lady Condor was given to amazing
surprises This was certainly one of them. Sol-
emnly, and as far as was possible in his man-
ner conveying the honour being conferred on
him, Mr. Fothersley led Mr. Pithey to Lady
Condor ^s chair, so soon as she had been en-
sconced by her hostess in a comfortable and
shady spot near the tea-tables and with a good
view of the tennjis. Not that she ever looked
at it for more than a second at a time, she was
always too busy talking, but it was de rigeur
that she should have the best place at any en-
tertainment.

Mrs. Pithey, for the moment, it was impossi-
ble to introduce, as it would plainly not occur to
her to leave her chair until she had finished her
tea for anybody, except, possibly, Mr. Pithey.

Mr. Fothersley effected Mr. Pithey 's intro-
duction admirably. The delicate shade of def-

66 The Man on the Other Side

erence in Ids own manner left nothing to be
desired.

**May I be allowed to present Mr. Pithey,
dear Lady Condor f'^ he asked, deftly bringing
that gentleman's large pale presence into her
line of vision.

**Ah — ^how-d 'ye-do f No, don't trouble to
shake hands." She waved away a large ap-
proach. **Yon can't get at me for the dogs.
And where are my glasses? Arthur, I have>
dropped them somewhere. Could it have been
in the drive f No, I had them since. What ! on
my lapf Oh yes — thank you very much."

She put them on and looked at Mr. Pithey,
and Mr. Pithey looked at her.

** Pleased to meet you," he said. **Do you
always take a pack of dogs about with youf "
Plainly Mr. Pithey disapproved. Jock and
Jinny, father and mother of the family, were
moving in an unfriendly manner round his feet.
** Just call them off, will you?"

Mr. Fothersley awaited the swift and com-
plete annihilation of Mr. Pithey. It was a
matter of doubt if even Lady Condor could have
accomplished it; at any rate, she made no at-
tempt. She continued to look at him with what
might almost be described as appreciation in
her shrewd eyes under their heavy lids. Only
she did not caXL the dogs off.

The Man on the Other Side 67

And then, to an amazed company of the Ment-
more elite, she gave Mr. Pithey her whole and
nndivided attention for the space of nearly half
an honr.

Mr. Pithey gave his opinion as it was always
apparently his pride and pleasure to do, on
many and various things.

**The old order changeth, yielding place to
new,^' might have served for the text of Mr.
Pithey 's conversation.

**Who^s been at the head of affairs in this
village I don^t know,*' he said largely, **but
more rotten management, more want of enter-
prise, more lack of ordinary sense, IVe never
come across. Why, you see it everywhere!
Here ^s the whole place without any light, unless
you call lamps and candles light, and a stream
running through the place. Water power at
your doors, by Jingo ! And money in it too, or
I shouldn 't be taking it up. Ever been in Ger-
many? '^ He gulped down his third cup of tea,
and looked around at his now more or less in-
terested audience.

**Well, they've got electric light in every
potty little village you go to, got it there still
at this minute, and'' — Mr. Pithey laid a large
yellow hand on Lady Condor 's knee — * * cheaper
than you can get it over here."

68 The Man on the Other Side

* * One really can 't believe it ! ' ' exclaimed Mrs.
North. ** Surely it's not possible 1'*

** Everything is possible,'' said Lady Condor,
curiously examining Mr. Pithey 's hand through
her glasses.

**I was over there, staying near Cologne on
business last week," returned Mr. Pithey im-
pressively. **So I ought to know. And when
you know me better, Mrs. North" — ^Mr. Fother-
sley's shudder was almost audible — **you'll
know I don 't talk without my book. I got nails
over there — ^metal, mind you — cheaper than you
can get 'em here. P'rhaps you won't credit
that!"

He helped himself to more cake, and started
afresh.

**Now look at the farming round about here.
Botten, that's what it is, rotten! Never went
in for it myself before, but I know when a con-
cern's run as it should be or not. There's
only one farm in this district that 's real tip-top,
and that's Thorpe. It's a little bit of a place,
but it's well run. Run by a woman too! But
she's a fool. If you 11 believe me, I oflfered
her a twenty-five per cent, profit on whatever
the price she gave for that little place, and she
wouldn't take it. Just have suited me to play
with. And there's one or two things there I'd

The Man on the Other Side 69

like up at the Court. By the way, any gentle-
man or lady here got some of those old lead
water tanks they'd like a fancy price for, be-
cause I'm a buyer."

By this time the assembly under the beech-
tree was more or less paralysed, and Mrs. North
was wondering what madness had possessed her
to be the first to ask Mr. Pithey to meet Lady
Condor. But Lady Condor continued to beam;
not only to beam, but every now and then to
break into a chuckle. And yet this was not at
all the sort of thing one would have expected
to amuse her.

**01d lead water tanks!" she repeated,
thoughtfully. **Dear Arthur, would you mind
putting Jock on my lapf Thank you so much.
And now Jinny! There, darKngs! Don't be
nervous, Mr. Pithey. They never really bite
unless you come too close. Let me see, where
were wet Oh — yes — ^tanks! No, I am afraid
I have none for sale just now. ' '

**You see," said Mr. Pithey confidentially,
**if I get the stuff off some of you old inhabi-
tants I know it's the right sort, and I don't mind
what I pay."

**If you go on talking much longer, Bertie,
you '11 be late for seeing the man who 's coming
about the butler's place," said Mrs. Pithey, sud-

70 The Man on the Other Side

denly, from her chair. She had just finished
her tea, and swept many crumbs from her lap
as she spoke.

** Quite right, my dear! Quite right!" Mr.
•Pithey rose as he spoke. **I'm never late for
an appointment, Mrs. North. Matter of con-
science with me, never mind who it^s with,
butler or duke." It was characteristic of Mr.
Pithey that he put the butler first. **Well,
good-by to you all." Mr. Pithey shook hands
largely all round, followed by Mrs. Pithey.
** Pleased to have met your Ladyship. Sorry
not to have seen your good husband, Mrs.
North. The man in this place, I reckon. That
margarine business of his is one of the best
managed in Leicester, and we don't let flies
walk on us there, anyhow. He goes in for a
bit of science and writing as well, doesn't het
Good all round man, ehf "

And, conscious of having been generally
pleasant, Mr. Pithey removed his large pale
presence to where his Rolls-Royce car awaited
him in the front drive.

**I know you will forgive me, dear lady,"
said Mr. Fothersley, his voice trembling with
emotion, *4f I do not see them oflf."

** Indeed, yes!" exclaimed Mrs. North. The
allusion to the margarine factory had made her
hot all over. **What perfectly hateful people!

The Man on the Other Side 71

He did nothing but talk, and she did nothing
buteatl'*

Lady Condor arose briskly from her chair,
scattering West Highlanders aronnd her.

** Where is Roger f'^ she demanded. **I am
going to be really clever if I can only concentrate
sufficiently to say what I mean. Don 't distract
my thoughts, any of you! But I must have
Boger ! He is the only really brainy one among
us — at least, I mean he is the only one who's
used his brains. I have naturally a very good
brain, but it is rusty from want of use. All
our brains are rusty. But what is it I want?
Oh yes — ^Roger. In his study, my deart Let
us all go — ^yes. Where are my glasses, and my
gloves? Please put them in your pocket until
I go, Arthur. I cannot afford to lose them as
I used to do. Down, children ! down ! ' '

She took Mrs. North's arm, and with Mr.
Fothersley on her other hand and the dogs in
full chorus, started across the lawn toward the
house.

**Well played, Violet! well played! The
child's as good as ever at it. But where were
we going? Oh yes — ^I must have Roger. We
will surprise him through the window. He will
be very cross, but he won't say anything because
it's me. Ah — ^but there he is "

North's long figure came out into the sunlight,

72 The Man on the Other Side

and as he approached the group he had much
the air of a big schoolboy who had been play-
ing traant.

**I apologize profusely,'^ he said. **My
intentions were of the very best. I intended to
come out to tea, but I happened on Mr. Pithey
in the hall, where he was endeavouring to pur-
chase Mansfield "

There was a chorus of exclamations.

* * Well, he was asking Mansfield to recommend
him a good butler for a gentleman's establish-
ment. Salary no object, if man satisfactory.
I confess I ran away. Lady Condor, if you will
drink another cup of tea I should love to fetch
it for you, but it is plainly not my fault if you
will encourage my wife to entertain these
people.''

**You would never entertain anybody if you
had your own way," said his wife.

**I would always entertain Lady Condor. Or
rather, I am always sure Lady Condor will en-
tertain me."

**Well, I am delighted with Mr. Pithey," an-
nounced Lady Condor, reoccupying her chair,
and enjoying the sensation she created. **Yes.
In Mr. Pithey I see our — ^now what is the word
I want? — oh yes— our avengier! The people
have dethroned Us. They are taxing Us out of
existence. Condor told me this morning he must

The Man on the Other Side 73

put the Cleve estate into the market. I shall
be lucky if I keep my diamonds, and poor Hawk-
hurst will be lucky if he and his wife don't end
in the workhouse. But where was It I had
got it all in my head just now. If only I could
write it all down directly I think of it, I could
make my fortune as a writer of leaders in a
daily paper. Yes. They* have dethroned Us,
and they will get Pitheys, dozens of Pitheys,
instead. We shall be ruined, obsolete, extinct,
but we shall be revenged. They will get Pitheys
in our place. Heaven be praised! The old
nouveaux riches were bearable. They had rev-
erence, they recognized their limitations, they
were prepared to be taught. Look at you dear
people, of course we have all known about the
margarine. And you, dear Nita, yours was wine
— or was it mineral water? — something to drink,
wasn't it? We needn't hide anything now,
because the Pitheys will strip everything bare.
If you dear things had come here with 2i4d. a
year, and lived in a villa, we should never have
known you. And yet — yes, now I have it — ^yet
really and truly, Roger was the real aristocracy.
The aristocracy of brains. The margarine and
wine didn 't matter, nor did the money — at least,
I mean it ought not to have. I'm getting
terribly muddled! And where is my scarf f
Did I drop it when I got upf Oh, here it is.

74 The Man on the Other Side

Ton see. We made the aristocrax^y of wealth.
We couldn't resist the shoots in Scotland for
the boySy and the balls for the girls, and the
snug directorships on big companies. Yes —
we smirched our position— our grandfathers
and grandmothers would never have done
it. And now here we are positively being
patronized — ^yes, dear Arthur — patronized by
Pitheys. I think I have gone off on to another
tack. It was losing my scarf I But I am de-
lighted with Pithey. He will avenge Us on
the masses — ^Pithey the Avenger — ^yes. But I
should have put it much better if I could have
said it while he was here. Arthur, do look
more cheerful ! Think of Pithey as the avenger.
It makes him so bearable. And I will have
that cup of tea, Roger!'*

**I cannot laugh," said Mr. Fothersley. His
voice, even though addressing Lady Condor,
held a word of rebuke. **We should never
have called! It enrages me to think that we
should have submitted to such — such "

Words failed him. ** However, '* he added,
**we have reason to be thankful we did not call
on the St. Ubes. I gathered to-day that the
name, which might easily have misled us, was
originally Sturbbs. I shall not call. These
Pithey people ''

The Man on the Other Side 75

Again words failed him, and Lady Condor
chuckled.

**Mr8. Pithey disapproves of me,'' she an-
nounced. **She is probably telling Mr. Pithey
that I paint. I must own it is very badly done
to-day; Mullins was in a temper. She always
makes me up badly when she is in a temper.
Now do let us enjoy ourselves ! Let us forget
the Pithian invasion. Thank you — and some
cake — ^yes. And some one else must have some
tea to keep me company. Dear Nita — ^yes.
The poor hostess never gets enough tea. Now
this is cosy. And where are my glasses? I
have not looked at the tennis yet. And I know
it is very good. And I have not spoken to
dear Violet, or to Fred. And there, why surely
they are playing together. Did they draw
together? How strange! The child is love-
lier than ever. And now they have finished.
Bring them to have tea with me. What
is Fred now? A major! Isn't it too ridic-
ulous? And I suppose those little boys you
have brought with you in E.A.F. uniforms are
Brigadier-Generals. And have you won the
tournament, my dears ? ' '

**No," said Fred Riversley. He and Vio-
let had shaken hands and had waited till
Lady Condor stopped for breath. **No. I

76 The Man on the Other Side

played very badly. Even Vi couldn't pull me
through. ' '

He was a fair heavily-built young man, and
while the ladies talked, all three seemingly
at once, for Lady Condor rarely ceased, he sat
down on the grass and was at once the centre
of attraction for the five dogs. When a mo-
mentary pause occurred, he asked, ** How's Dud-
ley?''

** Dudley," said Lady Condor, **has got his
aluminium leg. It is really too wonderful.
You'd never guess it wasn't a real live leg —
unless he tries to run, which of course he musn't
do. But everything else. And John, we had
letters from only yesterday. Russia — yes —
and Heaven knows when we'll get him back.
And where is your Harry t Why, it seems
only yesterday he was retrieving tennis balls
in a sailor suit!"

** Harry is stuck at Marseilles," said River-
sley, **on his way to Egypt. Doesn't know
what's going to happen to him till Peace is
signed."

The little group fell on a sudden silence, a
silence that the steady thud of the tennis balls,
the call of the scores, the applause, did not
touch. A shadow seemed to cross the sun-
bathed lawns and brilliant flower-beds. There
were others whom they all remembered, of

The Man on the Other Side 77

whom no one would ever ask for news again.

Riversley got up and carried the empty cups
back to the tea-table. Then he stood and
watched the tennis for a little space.

His mind moved heavily, but he was con-
scious that, in spite of all the momentum given
by a great reaction, it would not be so easy
as of old to make a business of pleasure.

Presently he slipped away to the peace and
seclusion of his father-in-law ^s study. It was
a long low room, lined from floor to ceiling with
books. North ^s writing-table stood in one win-
dow, the other opened on to the lawn, while a
further means of escape was afforded by a
second door at the end of the room opening
into his laboratory. In the great armchair
guarding the hearth slept respectively Larry
and Victoria, the little lady fox-terrier who
owned Roger North. Between Vic and Larry
there existed a curious compact, immovable ap-
parently as the laws of the Medes and Persians.
Each had a share of the room on which the
other never encroached, and Larry possessed
certain privileges, plainly conceded by Vic-
toria, with regard to North, beyond which he
never went. In all other matters the two were
fast friends, and had been so long before Larry
came to live at Westwood. Lady Condor's
West Highlanders they tolerated in the garden,

78 The Man on the Other Side

but never in the hoase. Both dogs greeted
Riversley with effusion, and the heavy, silent
young man sat with Victoria on his knee and
Larry at his feet, surrounding himself with
clouds of smoke and stroking the little sleek
head against his arm.

Presently North joined him. **You are
staying the night f" he asked, accepting a prof-
fered cigar.

**No." Riversley emptied his pipe of ashes
and began to refill it.

**I've made the excuse of business in Lon-
don,'* he went on after that little pause. **I
think Vi wants a change from — everything. ' '

There was another pause, but still North did
not speak. He understood this stolid and
apparently rather ordinary young man better
than most people did. He knew the diflSculty
with which he spoke of things that touched
him deeply, things that really mattered. So he
lit his cigar and passed the light in silence,
and presently Riversley went on again.

**You see, I still think Vi did the best thing
she could, under the circumstances, when she
married me,'^ he said, **but even so it has not
been the success I hoped it would have been.
There ^s something wrong. Something more
than having to put up with me instead of a
chap like old Dick. It was a knock-down blow

The Man on tkb Other Side 79

losing him, but Vi was damned plucky over that,
and it doesn't account for ^*

**Whatt*^ asked North, sharply this time,
when the usual pause came.

*'I don't know,'' answered Riversley, stolid
as ever. ** That's what worries me. I can't
put a name to it. But there 's something wrong.
Vi's altered, and it isn't for the better."

'*Alteredt"

**Well, she looks at things differently — she's
lost — oh, I don 't know. ' '

''My dear fellow, can't you be a little more
explicit t ' '

''No. I'm a stupid sort of a fellow, or per-
haps I'd understand better what's wrong. The
only thing definite that I can lay hold of is,
that she gets sudden spasms of hatred, and it's
— ^well, it's like looking into a red-hot hell. I
don 't know how else to describe it. She always
had a bit of a temper, you know, but this is
diflFerent. And" — his voice dropped a little
and lost its steadiness for a moment — "the
animals won't go near her sometimes."

There was a queer strange silence for a
minute across which the laughter outside broke
like a jangling wire.

"I expect she's treated them unjustly," said
North, conscious even as he spoke of the futil-
ity of his reason.

80 The Man on the Other Side

**Dogs never resent where they care/' said
Riversley briefly. ''It's not that. They —
they are afraid of her for some reason, and it's
horribly uncanny sometimes. I thought per-
haps if she came down here without me, had a
rest from me you know, it would help her a
bit."

North nodded. **I think you are wise. I
hope it's only a passing phase. She's been
through a stiff time, and we are none of us yet
quite normal, I fancy."

* * It isn 't as if she 'd care for me, ' ' Riversley
went on steadily. **I took my risk, and I'd
take it again, and I'm not blaming her, mind
you. Aiid I 'm only telling you about it because
she seems to hang on to you, and you 11 be able
to help her better if you know. ' '

**Yes, I understand that." returned North.
He felt, as a matter of fact, particularly help-
less. What Riversley had just told him, coupled
with Violet's outburst to himself that after-
noon, worried and disturbed him not a little.
He remembered those words of hers: ** Some-
times I am frightened." The words over-
wrought, hysterical, long-strained, jumbled in
his mind and brought no comfort. Then sud-
denly, like a hand stretched out to a stumbling
man, came the thought of Thorpe, its radiant
peace, the steady eyes of Ruth Seer. And with

The Man on the Other Side 81

that came the thought of Dick Carey. He
looked across at Riversley.

*' There's one thing I'd like to tell you," he
said, **and that is, Dick wished Violet had
chosen you instead of himself. He felt some-
how that you were really better suited to her.*'

Riversley 's eyes met his in blank amazement.
**Dick thought thatf'

* * He always felt he was too old for Vi. But
she was desperately in love with him, and he
knew it, and you know old Dick. Besides, Vi
could twist almost any man round her little
iSnger. But that he would have been glad if her
choice had fallen on you instead of himself, I
have no doubt whatever.''

Riversley stood up, filling his chest with a
long breath. *' Thank you for telling me," he
said. **It's a help."

'* There's one other thing I'd like to say,"
North went on, speaking rather hurriedly, * * and
that is, see that you and Vi don 't get like myself
and her mother. Vi is like her in some ways,
and though no doubt I 've been in fault too, and
we were always wholly unsuited, yet we began
under better conditions than you have. And
now we've got on each other's nerves so much
that everything she says or does irritates me,
and vice versa. We canH get right now if we
would. She thinks she's fond of me still, be-

82 The Man on the Other Side

cause it's the correct thing to be fond of yonr
husband, but it's far nearer hatred than love.
And I — ^have no delusions. And for God's
sake, my boy, keep clear of following in our
footsteps."

**We come of a different generation, sir,"
said Riversley simply. **If we can't hit it off,
we shall part. Only if there is trouble ahead
for her, and I am afraid there is, I'm right
there."

North looked at him with kindly eyes, but he
sighed. He knew only too well how the long
years of misunderstanding, and irritability, and
want of give and take, can wear out what at
first seemed such a wonderful and indestruc-
tible thing.

** Roger! Roger!" shrilled his wife's voice
from the lawn. ** Everyone is going. Aren't
you coming to say good-bye t"

She flashed on their vision as she called, her
face flushed with indignation under her be-
flowered hat, her hands full of small boxes,
tissue paper and cotton wool.

"I really do think you might help a little!
It looks so odd, and all my friends think you
peculiar enough already."

Brought back with a shock to the deadly
importance of the ordinary routine, North be-

The Man on the Other Side 83

came flippant. **Tou don't mean to say they
tell yon so f he asked.

**It'8 easy enongh to guess what they must
think, without any telling/* retorted his wife.
**At any rate, if you can't behave with common
civility yourself, you might let Fred come and
help me. Fred, I have arranged for cold supper
at 8.30. Will you come at once and look after
the friends you brought down, while Violet and
I change. And don% I beg you, for Violet's
sake, get into the same ways as her father/'

Riversley followed her meekly across the
lawn. **I'm really awfully sorry," he apolo-
gized. * * Is there anything else I can do t "

Then he stopped. His mother-in-law was
inmiersed in a group of her guests saying good-
bye, and his eyes had found the figure they
always sought. Outside the front door, Lady
Condor, her scarves, gloves, and glasses, were
all being packed carefully into her bath-chair,
and a little way down the drive was his wife.
In front of her, just out of arm's length, were
the little pack of West Highlanders, barking
furiously. She stooped down, coaxing them to
come and be petted.

He progressed across the lawn towards her
in his usual rather ponderous fashion, and
stood watching. All the light of the sxm seemed

84 The Man on the Other Side

•

for him to centre round that slim white figure.
It touched the smooth dark silk of her hair
with a crown of glory, and found no flaw in the
clear pale skin, the rose-red mouth. Those
slender hands held out to the dogs, he would
have followed them to the end of the earth.
He loved all of her, with every thing he had or
was.

Presently she gave up her hopeless efforts,
and, standing to her full height, looked at him
across the still barking dogs.

*'They have forgotten me, the little pigs!'*
she said. * ' They won 't even let me pat them. ' '

But Riversley knew, even as dogs do not
resent where they love, neither do they forget.

CHAPTER V

**T F I were not a farmer, I would like to be

X a master mason, ^' said Bnth Seer very
&nnky.

She was sitting by the roadside, watching
the workmen lay the foundation for her first
cottage. The process interested her enor-
mously. The master mason at intervals paused
in his work and instructed her as to its pur-
port. She was learning the use and meaning
of the square, the level, and the plumb-rule.
She was also enjoying herself quite a lot.

Across her knees lay Bertram Aurelius. He
guggled cheerfully in answer, and bit her fore-
finger vigorously with such teeth as he pos-
sessed.

Bertram Aurelius had come into the world
without benefit of clergy. His father belonged
to the B.E.F., his mother was a between-maid,
and in the ordinary course of events he should
have gone to his own place. But values had
shifted considerably during the years of the
Great War, and in the year of Peace both male
Irabies, even though unauthorized, and between-

85

86 The Man on the Other Side

maids, had come to be recognized as very dis-
tinctly valuable assets.

Oladys Bone, Bertram Aurelius's mother,
aged eighteen, was pathetically anxious to
please, a trait which had probably assisted in
her undoing, and took the good advice meekly,
except where Bertram Aurelius was concerned.
Here the good ladies, who had with great diffi-
culty scraped together the money to start a
rescue home for unmarried mothers in Fair-
bridge, reasoned with her in vain. She in-
sisted on his certainly somewhat startling
combination of names and persisted in calling
him by both. She was perfectly xmashamed of
the fact that he had no authentic father.

**Ain^t he beautiful f seemed to appear to
her quite a sufficient answer to those who en-
deavoured to present the subject in its proper
light. And, worst of all, she absolutely refused
to be separated from him.

The little grey-haired, pink-cheeked spinster,
who practically settled such matters, was in
despair. In her inmost heart she sympathized
with Gladys, Bertram Aurelius being an infant
of considerable charm. At the same time she
realized that it was almost impossible to find
anyone mad enough to engage a housemaid, or
oven a between-maid, with a baby thrown in.

One day, however, when Bertram Aurelius

The Man on the Other Side 87

had reached the adorable age of ten months^
the unexpected happened. Little Miss Luce
travelled from London in the same carriage
with Bath Seer, and getting into conversation,
told her the story of Oladys and Bertram
Aorelius Bone. At the moment Bnth was
meditating the possibility of getting a girl to
help Miss McCox without permanently destroy-
ing the peace of Thorpe Farm. Oladys Bone
seemed the possibility. Never having lived,
save for her brief three months ' companionship,
in a well-regulated family, the accompanying
baby did not strike her as an impossibility,
but rather as a solution.

Then and there on arriving at Fairbridge did
Miss Luce carry her off to see them both.

Bertram Aurelius had eyes the colour of a
delphinium, a head of red down, and a skin like
strawberries and cream. He had little hands
that held you tight and pink toes which he curled
and uncurled. He crowed at Buth and promptly
put her finger in his mouth.

*'Ain*t he beautiful?^' said his small mother.

' * She is really an excellent worker, * ' and little
Miss Luce, when Gladys and Bertram Aurelius
had been dismissed. "And she will do any-
thing for anyone who is good to the baby. If
you think you cotdd manage with him, pos-
sibly V

88 The Man on the Other Side

She looked at Buth anxiously.

Ruth laughed. ^'My dear lady,'^ she said,
*'I have just discovered that the one thing
wanted to make Thorpe perfect is a baby. ' '

*'But you have other servants, '^ suggested
Miss Luce. ''I fear you may find them a diffi-
culty. ''

Certainly Miss McCox's attitude towards the
situation was more than doubtful, but Ruth had
learnt that a distinctly soft kernel existed some-
where under the hard shell of an unattractive
personality. She thought of Bertram Aure-
lius's blue eyes and soft red head.

* ' I think you must send Gladys out to Thorpe
to apply for the situation tvith Bertram Aure-
lius," she said.

They looked at each other, and Miss Luce
nodded comprehensively. * ' He is a very attrac-
tive baby,'* she murmured.

It was the next morning, while Ruth was rev-
elling in the arrival of delicious fluffy yellow
things in her fifty-egg incubator, that Miss
McCox emerged from the house, evidently
the bearer of news of importance.

As always, she was spotlessly clean and al-
most unbearably neat, and her clothes appeared
to be uncomfortably tight. Her collar was
fastened by a huge amber brooch, her waist-
belt by a still larger glittering metal buckle,

The Man on the Other Side 89

both presents from the young man to whom she
she had been engaged in her distant youth, and
who had died of what Miss McCox described
as a declining consumption. Out of the comer

of Ruth's eye she looked distinctly uncompro-
mising.

'* There's a young woman come to apply for
the situation/' she announced.

*'Does she seem likely to be any good?"
asked Buth, still busy with the incubator.

*' She's got a baby," said Miss McCox, who
always came to the point. **And she wants to
keep it."
^^Ababyt"

* * A baby, ' ' repeated Miss McCox firmly. * * A
baby as didn't ought to have come, but it's
there. ' '

i **0h!" said Ruth weakly. **Well, what do

I you think about itt"

I Miss McCox fingered the amber brooch. This

Ruth knew to be a distinct sign of weakness.

**The young woman's civil spoken, and I
reckon there 's worse about tvith their ring on, ' '
she said darkly. **I'm willin' to try her, if
you are."
Ruth hid a smile among the yellow chicks.
i The charm of Bertram Aurelius had worked.

I "But the babyf " she asked. **Can we pos-

sibly manage with the babyf"

T

90 The Man on the Other Side

*'Why notf returned Miss McCox sharply.
* * Babies aren 't much trouble, God knows ! It 's
the grown-ups make me sick ! ' '

So Bertram Aurelius came to live at Thorpe,
and was rapidly absorbed into the life on the
farm. He was a good and cheerful infant, and
anyone could take charge of him. He was
equally contented, whether viewing the world
over Euth's shoulder while she inspected the
farm, or in his cradle in the comer of the kit-
chen listening to curious noises called singing,
which Miss McCox, to the amazement of the
whole establishment, produced for his benefit.
He would lie among the hay in a manger, even
as the Babe of all time, while Buth and the
cowman milked, or on his crawler on the terrace,
guarded by Sarah and Selina, who took to him
much as if he had been one of those weird
black and white puppies of Sarah's youthful
indiscretion. And Gladys, his. mother, worked
cheerfully and indefatigably to please, sitting
at Miss McCox *s feet for instructions, and the
peace and comfort of Thotpe deepened and
broadened day by day.

It was now near mid-June, and the fine
weather still held. Day after day broke to
unclouded sunshine, a world full of flowers and
the rhythmic life of growing things. The seeds
and baby plants cried for rain, the hay and

The Man on the Other Side 91

fruit crops would suffer, but Buth, her heart
torn both ways, could not regret. It was all
so beautiful, and when the rain came, who could
tellt It might be all the real summer weather
of the year, this wonderful May and June.

To-day, little ever-so-soft white clouds broke
the clear blue of the sky, but there was still no
sign of change. The wild roses and the broom
were in perfection, and everywhere was the
honey and almond scent of gorse; the butter-
cup glory was over but the ox-eyed daisies were
all out, turning their sweet moon faces to the
sun.

From where she sat Buth could see the rose-
red roofs of Thorpe with the white pigeons
drowsing in the heat. Her cottages were to be
equally beautiful on a smaller scale. She
dreamt, as she sat in the warmth and the sweet-
ness, with Bertram Aurelius cooing softly in her
lap, visualizing pictures such as were growing in
the minds of many in the great year of Peace,
seeing beautiful homes where the strong man
and the mother, with sturdy round-limbed
children, should live, where the big sons and
comely daughters should come in and out, in
the peace of plenty and to the sound of laughter.
It might all be so wonderful, for the where-
withal is ours, is here with us. The good brown
earth, the sun and the rain, fire and water, all

92 The Man on the Other Side

the teeming life of nature, all ours to mould
into a life of beauty for ourselves and our
children.

Dreams t Yes. But such dreams are the
seeds of the beautiful, which shall, if they iSnd
soil, blossom into beauty in the time to come,
for the little children lying on our knees, clutch-
ing at our hearts.

Presently there intruded into Buth 's dreams
the large presence of Mr. Pithey, and she dis-
covered him standing in the white dust of the
road in front of her. Disapproval and curiosity
both appeared together in his little sharp
eyes. According to Mr. Pithey 's ideas it was
distinctly unseemly for a person in Euth 's posi-
tion to sit by the roadside ''like a common
tramp, ^* as he expressed it to Mrs. Pithey later
on. To his mind, somehow, the baby in her lap
accentuated the unseemliness, and it made the
thing worse that she was both hatless and glove-
less. Had she been properly dressed for the
roads, the rest might have been an accident.

**I should think you'd get a sunstroke, sitting
by the road like that without your hat, ' ' he said.

Mr. Pithey himself was expensively dressed
in pale grey with a white waistcoat and spats.
On his head he wore a five-guinea panama, and
his general appearance forcibly reminded Euth

The Man on the Other Side 93

of an immaculately groomed large, pale yellow
pig. Her grey eyes smiled at him out of her
sim-browned face. She had a disarming smile.

* * I believe I was nearly asleep, * * she said, and
dug her knuckles into her eyes much as a child
does.

Mr. Pithey softened. **What on earth are
you sitting there fort^' he asked.

^ ' Just dreaming. But you mustn 't think I 'm
an idler, Mr. Pithey. Even Pan sleeps at this
hour. ' '

Her smile deepened, and Mr. Pithey softened
still more. He stepped out of the dust into
the grass, passing as he did so into a more
friendly attitude.

**Pant — ^that's a queer name for a baby!*^
he said.

The smile became just the softest thing in
laughs. '*Well, his proper name is Bertram

Aurelius. But Pan '^ She held Bertram

Aurelius up the while he chuckled at her, striv-
ing to fit his hand into his mouth. ''Look at
his blue eyes, and his little pointed ears, and his
head of red down. Beally Pan suits him much
better.**

* ' Um, * * said Mr. Pithey. * * Bertram is a good
sensible name for a boy, like my own, and not
too common. Better stick to that. So you've

94 The Man on the Other Side

started your cottages. Well, you remember
what I told you. Don't you think they're going
to pay, because they won't.''

**0h yes, they'll pay," said Euth. **Why,
of course they'll payl" There was mischief
in her eye.

*'Now look here," said Mr. Pithey heavily.
^^It's no good talking to a woman; it's in at
one ear and out of the other. But if you'll walk
up to the house with me, I'll put it down in
black and white. The return you'll get for
your money "

* * Oh, money I ' ' interrupted Buth. * * I wasn 't
thinking of money. ' '

Mr. Pithey heeled over, as it were, like a ship
brought up when saiUng f uU before the wind.

**If it's damned rotten sentiment you're
after," he exclaimed, **well you can take my
word for it that doesn't pay either 1"

Buth looked up at him as he stood over her,
a very wrathfuUy indignant immaculate, pale
yellow pig indeed. She thought of his millions,
and the power they wielded and then of the
power they might wield if backed by any im-
agination.

**Mr. Pithey," she said, and her voice was
very low, and it had in it the sound of many
waters which had gone over her soul, **I have

The Man on the Other SroE 95

seen our dead men lie in rows, many hun-
dreds, through the dark night, waiting till the
dawn for burial; they did not ask if it paid/*

Mr. Pithey shuffled with his big feet in the
grass. ** That's different, '* he said, but his
little sharp eyes fell. **I should have gone
myself, but my business was of national im-
portance, as of course you know. Yes, that's
different. That's different.'' He seemed to
find satisfaction in the words. He eyed Buth
again with equanimity. **0f course you ladies
don't understand, but you can't bring senti-
ment into business. ' '

He puffed himself out. Again the phrase
pleased.

Euth rose to her feet. Even to her broad
charity he had become oppressively obnoxious.

**How much did you offer me for Thorpe T"
she asked suddenly.

Mr. Pithey 's eyes snapped. ** Twenty-five
per cent, on your money," he said, **or I might
even go a bit higher as you 're a lady. ' '

Euth tossed Bertram Aurelius over her
shoulder, laughing.

**Do you know what has made Thorpe the
gem it isT" she asked. *'Why, sentiment 1
Unless you have some to spend on it, it wouldn't
pay you to buy. ' '

96 The Man on the Other SroE

She nodded a farewell and left him with a
strangled **damn'' on his lips. He yearned
after Thorpe. As a pleasure farm for himself
it left little to be desired.

He expressed his feelings to Mrs. Pithey,
who, coming along presently in her Rolls-Eoyce,
with the two elder children in their best clothes,
picked him out of the dust and took him home
to tea.

**Why, it must have been her I passed just
now I ' ' she exclaimed. * * There now, if I didn 't
think it was just a common woman, and never
bowed ! * *

**A good thing too!" said Mr. Pithey majes-
tically. And he said to Mrs. Pithey all the
things he would have said to Miss Seer if she
had given him a chance.

Undisturbed by the omission, Euth went
home across the flowered fields, but Mr. Pithey
himself oppressed her. It seemed grossly unfit,
somehow, that the life sacrifice of those dead
boys should result in benefit, material benefit at
any rate, to the Pitheys of the world ; it shocked
even one's sense of decency.

But. Bertram Aurelius's head was very soft
against her throat as he dropped into sleep.
The sun was very warm, the almond and honey
scent of gorse was very sweet. Presently

The Man on the Other Side 97

she unraffledy and began to sing the song
which seemed to her to belong especially to
Thorpe :

**When I have reached my journey's end
And I am dead and free,
I pray that God will let me go
Along the flowered fields I know
That look towards the sea."

So she came to the stile which led to the but-
tercup field, crimson and white now with sorrel
and ox-eyed daisies. And standing among the
flowers was a slim figure, the figure of a woman
dressed all in white. Buth stopped on the stile
to look. It was so beautiful in poise and out-
line, it gave her that little delightful shock of
joy which only beauty gives. Backed by the
blue sky, bathed in the broad afternoon sunlight,
it was worthy even of her flower fields. Very
still the figure stood, gazing across those fields
that * * looked towards the sea, ' ' and just as still,
in a breathless pause, Buth stood and watched
and wondered.

For gradually she became aware of a strange
appearance as of fire surrounding the slim
figure. It was of oval shape, vivid scarlet in
colour, deepening at the base. Other colours
there were in the oval, but the fiery glow of the

98 The Man on the Other Side

red drowned them into insignificance. Buth
shaded her eyes with her disengaged hand^
suspecting some illusion of light, but the oval
held its shape under the steady scrutiny, and
with a little gasp she realized that she was
looking at that which the ordinary physical
sight does not reveal. Vague memories of
things read in old books out of Baphael Goltz 's
library, descriptions of the coloured auric egg
which, invisible to the human eye, surrounds all
Uving forms, raced hurriedly through her mind,
but she had read of them more with curiosity
than with any thought that they would ever
come within the boundary of her own conscious-
ness. As she realized what the phenomenon
was, a growing shrinking from it, a sense of
horror, a feeling that there was something sin-
ister, threatening, in the fiery implacable red
of the appearance, came over her like a wave.
She was glad of Bertram Aurelius *s warm little
body against her own, and found she was fight-
ing a desire to turn back and retrace her steps.
A desire so wholly absurd on the face of it,
that she shook herself together and resolutely
moved forward. As she did so, the white figure
moved too, coming down the slope of the field
to meet her, and as it came the scarlet oval
faded, flickered, and, so far as Buth was con-
cerned, seemed to go out. The ordinary every-

The Man on the Other SroB 99

day things of life came back with a curious
dislocating jerk, and she found herself looking
into a very wonderful pair of golden-brown eyes
set in shorty but oddly thick, black lashes, and
a light high voice spoke, a voice with sudden
bell-Uke cadences in it, so often heard in the
voice of French women. It was as attractive
as all the rest of Violet Riversley's physical
equipment.

**Is it Miss Seert May I introduce myself T
I expect as Roger North's daughter will be
simplest," she said, holding out her hand.
*' Father dropped me here on his way to Fair-
bridge with Lady Condor. They are both call-
ing here later to see you and pick me up, also
hoping for tea, father told me to say. Your
maid told me I should find you if I came down
this way. Do you mind that I have picked
some of your moon daisies T There are none so
fine as grow in this field."

**No, no, of course not," Ruth half stam-
mered, realizing for the first time that she car-
ried a sheaf of daisies in the bend of her arm.
Why, everything would have been hers but for
the chance of war. This was the woman who
was to have married Dick Carey. And some-
how, all at once, Ruth knew that this meeting
was not the ordinary everyday occurrence such
meetings mostly are. It had a meaning, a pur-

t^^

t^SN^

100 The Man on the Othes Side

pose of its own. She felt a sudden shrinking
of some inner sense, even as she had just now
felt a physical shrinking. She wanted to back
out of something, she knew not what, just as
she had had that ridiculous desire just now to
turn round and go the other way. And yet,
standing staring at her in this stupid dumb
way, she did not dislike Violet Eiversley; far
from it. She was distinctly attracted by her,
and her beauty drew Euth like a charm.

It seemed quite a long time before she heard
her own voice saying, * * Please pick — ^tdke — any-
thing you like. ' '

* * Thanks ever so much, * * said Mrs. Biversley.
She had turned to walk up the path. **I'm
just like a child. I always want to pick flowers
when I see them, and they seem to grow here
better than anywhere else I know. Mr. Carey
used to say he had squared the Flower Elemen-
tals.'^

She spoke the name quite simply and casually;
while Buth was conscious of a ridiculous feel-
ing of shyness.

**I think it quite likely,'' she answered.
**Look at the wisteria.'' They had reached
the ridge of the slope and could see where the
flowered fields merged into the garden proper.
^^AU along the top of the wall, against the blue.
I have never seen any so wonderful."

The Man on the Other SroE 101

It was amazingly wonderful, but Mrs. River-
sley looked at it without any apparent pleasure.

**It is ever so good of you to let me come and
invade you in this informal way,'* she said,
with her little gracious social manner. * * Father
said he was sure you would not mind. And
you won 't let me interrupt you, will you T You
work on the farm yourself, don't youT It is
not just a pretence of farming with you. ' '

*'I was just going to milk,*' said Ruth, smil-
ing. **We are one hand short to-day, so if you
won't mind my leaving you till teatime, and you
will just do exactly what you like, and pick
anything you like "

Then Violet Riversley did, for her, an un-
usual thing. She slipped her hand into Ruth 's,
as a shy, rather lonely child might have done.
It was one of the moments when she was ir-
resistible.

**Let me come with you and watch, '* she said.
**And why do you carry that big baby about!
Is it a good workf

**He's the farm baby,'* said Ruth, her eyes
twinkling. * * And we found him under a goose-
berry-bush. ' '

They had reached the terrace, and the pi-
geons, just awake from their midday slumber on
the sun-baked roof, came tumbling down, flut-
tering round Ruth, searching the big pockets of

102 The Man on the Other SroE

her overall for com, while Bertram Aurelius
vamly strove to catch a wing or tail.

Mrs. Riversley stood at a little distance.
**My goodness, they are tame,'* she exclaimed,
as the pretty chase for the hidden food went on.

**Just as tame as they were with ** She

stopped and looked round her. ^*It is extraor-
dinary how little the place has changed — and
it's not pretending either — ^it really is just the
same here. The same old comfortable at-home
feeling. Did you know Mr. Carey by any
chance T No, I suppose not. But it 's funny —
I have something the same feeling with you
I always had with him, and with no one else
ever in the world. You rest me — ^you do me
good — you are something cool on a hot day. You
know, father felt it too, and he is not given to
feelings. Do get rid of that great fat lump.
Put him back under his gooseberry-tree. Then
we will go milking. ' ' She advanced on Bertram
Aurelius threateningly. ** Where does he gof

Ruth broke into laughter. **He will go in
the manger on the hay, or anywhere else that
comes handy. Or — ^but wait a minute — ^here
come the dogs.*'

Sarah and Selina were proceeding decorously
up the path from the front gate. To all appear-
ances they had been taking a little gentle exer-
cise. There was an air of meekness, an engag-

The Man on the Other SroE 103

ing innocence, about them which, to those who
knew them, told its own tale. They had nn-
donbtedly been np to mischief.

**The dogsf queried Mrs. Riversley.

**They will look after him,'* explained Buth.

She went into the house and brought out a
small wooden cradle on rockers. In this she
arranged Bertram Aurelius, who took the
change with his usual philosophy, waved his
bare pink legs with vigour, and strove to catch
the sunbeams flickering through the jasmine
leaves. The little dogs sat side by side, very
alert and full of responsibility.

It was a picture full of charm, but Mrs. River-
sley held herself aloof, though she watched
the swift neat movement of Ruth's work-worn
hands with interest until she joined her.

Then she became for the next half -hour an
entirely delightful companion, talking gaily in
her pretty cadenced voice, flitting here and
there like some white bird about the big fra-
grant cowshed, eager with the impulsive eager-
ness of a child to show that she too knew how to
milk. Dick had taught her. She spoke of him
frequently and without self -consciousness. She
told Ruth many things that interested her to
know. And gradually the curious shell of hard-
ness, that apparent want of sympathy with all
the beautiful teeming life of the farm disap-

104 The Man on the Other Side

peared. She nnlked, to Buth's astonishment^
well and deftly. She understood mnch abont
chicken and pigs. She held the down-soft
yellow ducklings in her shapely hands, and
broke into open enthusiasm over the little white
kid who ran with the herd.

* * I wonder, ' ' she said, when the milking was
over and Ruth suggested tea, **I wonder if by
any chance our ^ house on the wall' is still
there!"

**You mean where the kitchen garden wall is
built out to meet the beech-tree, and the
branches are like three seats, the highest one
in the middle, and there are some shelves f ' '

* * Yes — ^yes ! and you can see all round and no
one can see you. Dick built it for us when we
were children — Fred, and I, and the Condor
boys. We were always here. We played at
keeping house up there, and Dick used to tell
us stories about all the animals — there was one
about a mouse family too — and about the Ele-
mentals. The Water Elementals, who took
care of the river, and who brought the rain, and
the dew in the early summer mornings; they
were all like silver gossamer and white foam.
And the Earth Elementals, who looked after the
flowers' food; and the Elementals of Fire."

She stopped suddenly and shivered. They
were crossing a comer of the orchard on their

The Man on the Other Side 105

way to the kitchen garden, and, to Ruth's as-
tonishment, she looked round her with some-
thing like fear in her eyes.

* * Did you feel it get colder, quite cold, ' ' she
said, **as we crossed the footpath just there f

**I believe it did, now you say so,'* said Buth.
** You get those funny bands of colder air some-
times. The ground dips too, under those apple-
trees. ' '

Violet shivered again. She looked at the
apple trees and the odd look of fear in her
eyes deepened. **Has anyone ever spoken to
you of a man called von Schade, a German, who
used to stay heref " she asked.

**No,'' said Ruth, and wondered.

* ' He asked me to marry him, just over there,
under that biggest tree. It was covered with
blossom then, and there were white butterflies
about. Oh, he frightened me T ' Her voice rose
in a little cry. **He frightened me. I hate to
think of it even now. I felt as if he could make
me do it, whether I wanted to or no. He kissed
me — ^like no one had ever kissed me before — ^I
could have killed him, I hated him so. But
even then I was afraid he might make me do it.
I was afraid. I would not see him again alone,
and I never felt really safe till I was engaged
to Dick, and even then'* — ^her voice dropped
very low — ^**I was glad when Karl was killed.

106 The Man on the Other ISide

Do you think it was very horrid of met I
couldn't help it. Sometimes, even now, I
dream in the night that he has never died, that
he has come back and can make me do what
he likes." She shuddered. ^'I have to shake
myself quite wide awake before I know it is
only a beastly dream. And I haven't Dick now
any more."

She looked back over her shoulder and
shivered again.

^ ^ You are sure that cold feeling was just quite
ordinary t ' '

*'Why, yes," said Euth. **What should it
be!"

'^I don't know. Let us get to the house on
the wall."

She hurried on, and her slender feet in white
went up the rough steps as one at home. She
stood for a few moments and looked round,
while the old memories of what seemed like
another life came thronging back. Then she
climbed up into the middle seat, and sat there,
gathering herself together as a child does when
it is concentrating deeply. In the flickering
shadow of the leaves above and around, her face
looked wan, mysterious almost, hei' strange
golden eyes curiously alive, yet gazing, it
seemed, into another world.

Her seat in the circle looked out across the

The Man on the Other Side 107

great endless valley stretching away to the west.
Immediately below was the big hay field, ready
now for cutting. It fell in a gentle slope to
the river, which, diving nnder the roadway by
the front gate, curved round the garden, and
broke out into a miniature pond at the bottom of
the field, before it vanished among the braoken
where the territory of Thorpe ended and the
great beautiful forest of the Condor estate com-
menced. In the pond were water-liUes, rose-
coloured and white, and tall brown bulrushes,
all in their season of perfection. Most notice-
able in the noble stretch of landscape beyond
was a clump of beech-trees on the ridge of the
near side of the valley, lifted up sheer against
the height of the sky. They had caught for
many years the full blast of the winds coming
up from the north-east, and only the topmost
branches survived, leaving their straight ex-
quisite trunks bare. To-day, standing high
above the blue distances, in the shimmering
light and heat, they had about them more than
usual of majesty and mystery.

Violet Eiversley sat very still. The myriads
of summer leaves rustled softly; here and there
a bird sang. Presently she began to speak,
even as another bird might have begun to sing.

**And it takes a long time to get the water-
lilies to grow, because they won't come any-

108 The Man on the Other Side

where until they are sure you really love them,
not just want them for show. It's the same
with the Madonna lilies. And they never make
mistakes. YouVe got really to love them.
And the water-lilies like bulrushes close at hand
for a bodyguard, because the water-lilies are of
royal birth. The Water Elementals told Dick
all this. And so the lilies grew, and I loved the
pink ones best, but he loved the white. And
the tops of the beech-trees with the long trunks
are where the Earth Elementals say their
prayers ; they choose trees like that so that the
Earth children cannot climb up and disturb
them. If you disturb them when they are say-
ing their prayers they get cross, and then the
flowers come all wrong. Eed roses with a green
spike in their hearts, and the lime flowers
covered with black. And all that shinamery heat
is like it is in the desert, all like that and no
green. Only here and there water in a grove
of palm-trees. And there is the wood where
the Winds live. They will all be at home to-
day, resting.'*

Buth held her breath while she listened, and
then the voice fell very softly into silence. And
quite suddenly there came a sudden shower of
big soft tears. They made blurred marks on
the lustrous white skin, and she looked at Buth

The Man on the Other Side 109

with dim wet eyes like a child who had been
naughty.

Presently she got up and came and sat down
on the top of the wall facing the garden.

**Come and sit here too,** she said, patting
the bricks beside her. * * It *8 quite comfy if you
put your heels back into the steps. There *s
just room for two. We used to watch for Dick
coming home from here — ^I and Fred and the
eldest Condor boy. He was killed at Messines
— and little Teddy Bawson, the Vicar *s son —
he was afraid of ahnost everything— mice and
ferrets — ^just like a girl — and he died a heroes
death at Gallipoli. And Sybil Bawson — she
went as a nurse to Salonica, and was torpedoed
coming home, and drowned. Only Fred and I
left, and the two youngest Condors.**

Again she fell on silence, and again Buth held
her breath. She feared that any word of hers
might break the spell of this return to the past
days which were like another life.

**The flowers grow for you too. They are
just as wonderful as ever,** Mrs. Biversley
went on again, after a little while. **And you
have got a blue border. Delphinium, an-
chusa, love-in-the-mist, and the nemophila — all
of them. I wonder how you came to think of
thatt**

110 The Man on the Other Side

** There were some of the plants still left,
and I — somehow I think I guessed. * *

* * And the birds t Are they still as tame t * *

**They were shy at first, but they are begin-
ning to come back/'

**The robins used to fly in and out of the
house. An.d even the swallow and kingfishers
used to come quite close to Dick. If I was with
him I had to be quite still for a long time before
they would come.**

Buth's face lighted with a sudden thought.
* * The kingfishers T * * she said.

**They are the shyest of all birds. I sup-
pose we humans have always tried to catch
and kill them for their plumage. Dick hated
that sort of thing.** Her face grew hard and
the strange fire burnt up again in her eyes.
**And then he was shot down himself — shot
down as we shoot any bird or beast. * *

She stopped suddenly, the words choked back
in her throat, as the Condor car came over the
bridge and pulled up at the gate.

Then she slipped down from the wall and
stood looking up at Ruth. ** Thank you for
letting me go round with you — ^and talk. It*s
been good.** She pushed up the heavy wave
of hair from her forehead under her wide-
brimmed hat. ^ ^ It 's taken me back for a little,
to what life used to be, from what I am to what

The Man on the Other Side 111

I was. And now let ns go and pick up all the
things Lady Condor will drop.''

Lady Condor's cheerful chatter was already
with them.

**Now have I got everything? Yes — ^no^
where is my handkerchief? Did I put it into
the pocket T The parcels can all stay. No one
will touch them. Oh, there it is ! Thank you,
Roger. ' '

She began to ascend the path, shedding a blue
chiffon scarf, which North retrieved as he fol-
lowed her.

* * Oh, there you are, Violet ! And this is Miss
Seert An unpardonably late call, but I have
been taking the chair at a meeting to discuss
the Women 's Victory Memorial. We discussed
for hours — the weirdest ideas I And the heat 1
At the Town HallT Yes. Why are town halls
and hospitals always hideous? There can't be
any necessity for it. Tea indoors, out of the
sunt How nice! I never do like tea out-of-
doors myself really, though sometimes I pre-
tend to. And the dear old room — almost just
like it used to be. I am glad, though it makes
me want to cry. Yes. But where was IT Oh
yes, the weirdest ideas. Even a crematorium
was suggested. No, I am not inventing, dear
Violet. The good lady had lost her husband,
and was obliged to take him all the way to

112 The Man on the Other Side

Woking. Most trying, of course 1 I was really
sorry for her. But it seemed so odd for a
Victory Memorial. So we settled on a mater-
nity home, a quite excellent idea. Trenching
on the improper, of course. It brought the
fact of babies coming into the worid into such
a very concrete form as it were. But so neces-
sary just now — and that they should have every
chance. So even the dear ladies who attend
St. Christopher *s Church agreed. We parted
in the utmost harmony. So pleasant — and so
unusual 1 * *

** And have you settled on a War Memorial? **
asked North, rescuing her handkerchief from
Selina's clutches.

**Not yetl And I see no prospect — ^we are
still talking. We shall until some adventurous
spirit among us says, * Well, something must be
done/ Then we shall go the way of least resis-
tance — always so safe and so unoriginal. An-
other of those delightful sandwiches, please.
Your own Devonshire cream, of course. Why
can't my cook make Devonshire cream t But
where was I? Oh yes — ^the War Memorial.
Then we shall erect an artistically offensive
monument. Who invented that word, I won-
der. And did the word come from the mon-
strosity, or after t But it is so descriptive of

The Man on the Other Side 113

what it is. Yes. And what is your idea of
a good memorial, Miss Seert*^

**I have only one idea at present,** said Bnth,
smiling. **And that is cottages.**

** Quite a good one too,** said North. **Why
hasn *t anyone thought of it T * *

**Much too obvious, my dear,** exclaimed
Lady Condor. **The people are shrieking to
be housed, so we shall build them a library —
yes.**

**And the Pithians will build themselves
winter gardens and billiard-rooms and marble
swimming-baths,** said Mrs. Riversley.

* * Pithians ! ' * exclaimed Lady Condor. * * Who
was it thanked someone else for a word?
Thank you, dear Violet. Did I invent it my-
self the other day T How clever of me 1 Pith-
ians — ^yes. Democracy will kill privilege as it
did in France, but the Pithians arise on our
ashes — or should it be Phoenix T I am getting
dreadfully muddled — ^it comes from talking too
much. Roger, why don*t you talk, instead of
letting me monopolize Miss Seer and all the
conversation T * *

**My dear lady, the Pithian glory is but
for a moment. We are all converging to the
same heap of ashes with amazing velocity, and
what will arise from those ashes you must ask
a wiser man than L*'

114 The Man on the Other Side

**You think seriously of the outlook t*' asked
Euth.

North helped himself to more bread-and-
butter. **I don*t think,** he said. **It won't
bear thinking of — ^when you can do nothing.**

Then Lady Condor, for once, put a straight
question without continuation.

**What do you think of things T** she asked,
looking at Buth.

The silence grew, in some odd way, tense,
while they all waited for the answer. It sur-
prised North to find that he was waiting for it
with something which distinctly approached
interest.

Buth Seer*s face looked troubled for a mo-
ment, and the colour came sweeping into it like
a flood, and left her very white. When she
spoke she felt as if the words came, dragged
with difficulty, from some unknown conscious-
ness. And though the words she spoke, un-
doubtedly she felt to be true, were a testimony
of her own faith, yet she had only that moment
known the truth she was stating.

**I believe,** she said slowly, haltingly, but
with a strange intensity of conviction, **I be-
lieve we are not alone. Things are in the hands
of the men who have given their lives so that
things should be different — ^better. Their in-
fluence is here — all about us. They, with added

The Man on the Other Side 115

knowledge — ^gnide — through our darkness. It
is their great reward/*

There was another silence, and Buth flushed
again painfully, under the scrutiny of three
pairs of eyes. ** Where did you get that idea
fromt** asked Lady Condor.

* * I don *t know, * * she answered, then amended
her statement. **At least, I am not sure. But
I believe it is true.'*

**I like it,** announced her Ladyship. **I
lUte it enormously — ^yes — quite enormously.
My poor dear Hartley 1 He was so keen on
everything, so interested in this old world. He
didn't want rest in heaven — at twenty-four.
No — is it likely T And les choses ne vont pas
si vite. It isn*t in the nature of things they
should. Nature hasn't great big gaps Uke that
with no sense in them. I don't know, my dear,
if Z'm talking sense, but I know what I mean,
and I'm sure it's right. Yes — ^I like your idea. "

**But that does not make it true. Some
people can believe anything they want to. I
can't." Mrs. Eiversley moved impatiently
from her seat. ** All we know is, they are gone,
so far as we are concerned; we cannot see or
touch or hold them any more. Why do you
discuss and imagine t They are gone."

Lady Condor shrank together at the words.
The wonderful vitality which enabled her to

116 The Man on the Other Side

defy age and satiety failed for the moment.
She looked old and piteous.

**Yes,** she said, **they are gone.** She
looked at North. **And yon can tell ns nothing
— ^with all your learning — with all your discov-
eries. And the parsons talk of faith and hope.
Yes. But we have lost our first-borns. * *

North did not answer. He gathered her va-
rious belongings and put them in her lap.
** There are one or two things I have to do to
the car, * * he said.

The door opened on to a clamour of dogs.
Sarah and Selina, shrill with welcome, barked
in chorus around Larry, who appeared to have
just arrived. **Now what the devil ** mut-
tered North to himself, while Larry smote him
with a feathered paw, and begged with wistful
eyes for pardon.

Buth sat very late out on her terrace that
night. The heavens were dark, but full of
stars. Their radiance filled all space. Who
and what was it had spoken those words this
afternoon, for neither the thought nor the words
had been her own T She believed it was a true
thought ; something deeper than brain or under-
standing knew it was true. And Buth Seer sat
and prayed. Was she on the threshold of that
Open Doorway, which in all ages men have
sought and sought in vaint Had she somehow

The Man on the Other Side 117

stumbled on something vast and beyond all
measure valuable? She knew how valuable,
she had seen the dead men lie in thousands
waiting burial, and heard with her soul the
tears of their women. Gone, as Violet Eiver-
sley said, out of sight, or touch, or sound. And
yet surely a communion deeper and fuller
than sight, or touch, or hold, had sprung
up, was growing, between herself and one
of those dead men. A man unknown to her
on this physical plane. That was the crown-
ing wonder of this wonderful thing which
was happening. How had it coa^e about T
What did it mean T And it was no thing apart
from this earthly life, from the little daily
round. It was no other world.

The night deepened. A magic of starlight
lay on the farm, on the dull silver of the stream,
over the violet distances. The little farm she
loved, with all its sleeping creatures, belonged
to the wonderful whole, the great space, the
inmaensity of light, the glory and the mystery.

The beauty of it all was like a draught of
wine, was like a silver sword, was like a harp of
gold.

And suddenly a nightingale began to sing.
A small brown-feathered thing with that wonder
of sound in its tiny throat. And then it came.
Faith — ^Hope — they cannot pass the open door

118 The Man on the Other Side

I — only Love. And love not of one to another,
however deep, however tme, but love of the
universal whole, that love which she and Dick
Carey had in common, focused as it were on
Thorpe. That was the password, that the key,
that the communion between the living and the
dead which she had found.

And Larry, lying at her feet, for North bad
let him stay, waved a slow-moving tail, and
dreamed, content.

Up above, on the hill, the lights of the great
Pitbian mansion, with all it symbolized, went
out one by one, and Ruth, who loved her Eng-
land, was not afraid.

A deep sense of great responsibility re-
mained. If that which she had sensed was
really so, and she had neither then nor at any
later time any doubt of it, what had They, with
their wider knowledge, the great advance in
evolution whidi they who had made the supreme
gift of all they had on this physical plane must
surely have attained, what had They to build
the new order with save those who_w«re leftt
Living stones for the Great New Temple never
made with hands.

The glory of it touched Ruth as with a sudden
blaze of light. The thought was like a bugle
call. To work ^vith for them still. She had
only herself to offer. One small stone to i

The Man on the Other Side 119

for use, to make as perfect as miglit be. She
offered it under the starlit heavens with all her
heart. life took on a new and more beautiful
meaning, any work of service a deeper, fuller
joy. It was still for, and with, Them.

CHAPTER VI

IT was a few days later that Mr. Fothersley,
as was his frequent custom, emerged from
his front door at eleven o 'clock, on his way to
the post. In his left hand he carried a sheaf
of letters for the twelve o'clock post out. As
he often said, it made **an object for his morn-
ing stroll.*' Not that Mr. Fothersley ever
really strolled. It would have been a physical
impossibility. His little plump legs always
trotted. They trotted now along the immac-
ulate gravel drive which curved between two
wide strips of smooth mown sward. On the
right hand the grass merged into a magnificent
grove of beech-trees, on the left it was fenced
by a neat iron railing, dividing it from what
the house agent describes as finely timbered
park-land. Behind him, with all its sun-blinds
down, the grey old house slept serenely in the
sunshine. The parterres were brilliant with
calceolaria, geranium, and heliotrope. Mr.
Fothersley rather prided himself on an early

120

The Man on the Other Side 121

Victorian taste in gardening, and his herba-
ceous borders, very lovely though they were,
dwelt in the kitchen garden region.

Leigh Manor had belonged to Mr. Fother-
sley from the day of his birth, which occurred
two months after the death of his father. That
gentleman had married late in life for the sole
and avowed purpose of providing his estate with
an heir, of which purpose his son most cordially
approved. At the same time he had never seen
his way to go so far himself. The Fothersleys
were not a marrying family. His mother, a
colourless person, of irreproachable lineage, and
a view of life which contemplated only two
aspects, the comfortable and the uncomfortable,
had lived long enough to see him well into the
forties, by which time he was as skillful as she
had been in the management of an establish-
ment. Everything continued to run in the same
perfect order, and Mr. Fothersley felt no more
inclined than during her lifetime to disturb the
smooth current of his pleasant life by embark-
ing on the very uncertain adventure of matri-
mony. On this particular morning he paused
outside his own gate to look at the view — almost
the same view that was obtainable from the
** house on the wall*^ at Thorpe Farm. Ever
since he was a small child, Mr. Fothersley could
remember taking visitors to see **our view,"

122 The Man on the Other Side

and he had, at an early age, esteemed it nnfor-
tnnate that none so good was to be obtained
from the grounds of Leigh Manor. He looked
out over the quiet scene. The great beautiful
valley, with the suggestion only of the sea be-
yond, the dotted farmsteads, with here and
there some noble old mansion like his own se-
cluded among its trees, and, at his feet, little
Mentmore village, with its grey church tower,
half hidden in the hollow. It was typical of all
he held most dearly. A symbol of the well-
ordered ease and superiority of his position,
of the things which were indeed, though imcon-
sciously, Mr. Fothersley^s religion.

In the grey church his forbears had, like him-
self, sat with their peers, in the front pews,
while their dependents had herded discreetly
at the back behind the piUars. In these emi-
nently picturesque cottages, of two or three
rooms, dwelt families who, he had always taken
more or less for granted, regarded him and his
with a mixture of respect and reverence, just
touched — only touched — ^with awe. On the
whole most worthy and respectable people. Mr.
Fothersley was generous to them out of his
superabundance. He was indeed attached to
them ; and although Mr. Fothersley prided him-
self on moving with the times, it was plain that
any alteration in the admirable state of things

The Man on the Other Side 123

existing in Mentmore would not only be a mis-
take, but absolutely wrong.

Therefore, on this fine June morning, Mr.
Fothersley was perturbed. The knowledge
that Mr. Pithey dwelt in the noble grey stone
house on the opposite hill, in the place of his
old friend, Helford Bose, spoilt **his view** for
him. And, for the first time, too, one of Euth
Seer's new cottages had become visible just
below his own pasture fields. The workmen
were putting on the roof. It was to Mr. Fother-
sley an unseemly sight in Mentmore. Euth had
done her best, she had spent both time and
money in securing material that would not spoil
the harmony or character of the little village,
but as Mr. Fothersley had said, it was the thin
end of the wedge.

What was to prevent Mr. Pithey from scatter-
ing some horrible epidemic of hideous utilita-
rian domiciles broadcast over his wide estate?
Mr. Fothersley shuddered, and remembered
with thankfulness that they were not at present
a paying proposition.

Still, he wished Miss Seer had not these queer
manias. Not that he disliked her — far from it.
Indeed, the little basket of his special early
strawberries, poised in his right hand, was on
its way to her. And he had even traced a dis-
tant cousinship with her on the Courthope side.

124 The Man on the Other Sn>E

Since what was now familiarly known in his
set as the Pithian Invasion he considered her
a distinct asset at Thorpe.

**I would not have had old Dick's place vul-
garized for a good deal, ' ' he said to himself as
he descended the hill. **And I know even he
did talk of building some cottages before the
war, poor dear fellow. ' '

All the same, he did not feel in his usual
spirits, and presently, to add to his discomfort,
he passed the local sweep, window cleaner, and
generally handy man, who, instead of touching
his hat as of old, nodded a cheery, ** Good-
morning, Mr. Fothersleyl Nice weather," to
him.

Mr. Fothersley did not like it. Most dis-
tinctly it annoyed him 1 It had been one thing
to go and see Mankelow when he was wounded,
and a patient in the local V.A.D., and make
a considerable fuss over him, but that, as Mr.
Pithey was fond of saying, **was different.*'
It was decidedly presuming on it for Manke-
low to treat him in that * * Hail fellow, well met ' '
way.

This brought to Mr. Fothersley 's mind the
threatening strikes among the miners, trans-
port workers, and what Mr. Fothersley vaguely
designated as * * those sort of people. ' ' He won-
dered what would happen if all the sweeps went

The Man on the Other Bide 125

on strike. It was a most dangerous thing to
light fires with a large accumulation of soot up
the chinmey — ^most dangerous.

At this moment he nearly collided with Buth
Seer, as she came swiftly round the Post Office
comer.

They both stopped, laughed, and apologized.

* * I was just on my way to you with some of
our early strawberries,'* said Mr. Fothersley,
exposing a comer of the contents of his
basket.

**How very good of youP' exclaimed Buth.
**And I do love theuL Will you wait for me
one moment f I am going on my way to send a
telegram to Mr. North.''

Now curiosity was the most prominent trait
in Mr. Fothersley 's funny little character, and
it was the naked and unashamed curiosity of
the small child. It might almost be looked on
as a virtue turned inside out, so real and keen
was his interest in his neighbors* affairs, an
interest often followed by sympathy and help.

** Telegraphing to North 1" he exclaimed.
** What about r*

No inhabitant of any length of time would
have been in the least astonished, but Buth, for
a moment or two taken thoroughly aback, sim-
ply stared at him. Then, somewhat late in the
day, it began to dawn on her that her telegram

126 The Man on the Other Side

to Boger North might possibly demand an ex-
planation, and one she had no intentions of
giving.

** Telegraphing to North? What about r*
repeated Mr. Fothersley, his little pink face
beaming with kindly interest.

The whole truth being out of the question,
there was nothing for it but as much as pos-
sible.

'^I want to see him to ask his opinion on a
matter of importance," said Buth.

Astonishment mingled with the curiosity on
Mr. Fothersley 's speaking countenance. Many
things flashed through his mind in the minute
while he and Buth again stared at each
other, the most prominent being the tongue of
the Postmistress and Mrs. North's fiery jeal-
ousy.

Mr. Fothersley could remember terrible
times, when it had been aroused by lesser mat-
ters than this telegram, aroused to such an ex-
tent that all Mentmore had become aware of
it, and much unnecessary dirty linen washed
in public before the storm subsided.

North himself on these occasions was, in Mr.
Fothersley 's language, difficult, most difficult.
He either teased his wife unmercifully, or lost
his temper and used bad language. The whole
affair was always, again in Mr. Fothersley 's

The Man on the Other Side 127

language, ** regrettable, most regrettable,'' while
the groundwork of the whole matter was, that
women bored North far more than they ever
«amused him, so that if he did talk to one it was
noticeable.

It was quite evident to Mr. Fothersley that
Miss Seer was wholly unconscious of anything
unusual in her action. This surprised him, for
he had understood she had been a companion,
and a companion's knowledge of such things,
as a rule, passes belief.

Buth made a movement to pass on, the fatal
document in her hand. But it was one of those
moments when Mr. Fothersley was supreme.

**My dear lady," he exclaimed, **I am going
to Westwood so soon as I have deposited my
little offering on your doorstep. Allow me to
take the message for you."

With a deft movement the paper was in his
possession, was neatly folded and placed in
safety in his waistcoat pocket. His little plump
figure turned, plainly prepared to escort her
back to Thorpe.

**The telegram will explain itself t" he asked,
* * or shall I give any message 1 ' '

**I want to consult him about some happen-
ings on the farm, ' ' answered Buth. * * Things I
should like to talk over with him with as little
delay as possible. Mr. North has been very

128 The Man on the Other Side

kind, andy I thinks takes a real interest in
Thorpe.*'

**No doubt. No doubt." Mr. Fothersley
acquiesced cordially. **He was poor Carey's
most intimate friend. Though indeed we were
all his friends. A most lovable fellow. Indeed,
he was almost too kind-hearted. Anyone could
take him in — and didP' added Mr. Fothersley,
with warmth. ** There was a German fellow,
very pleasant, I own, to meet, who used to stay
with him quite a lot at one time. I always felt
how, if they had invaded England, he would
have known every inch of the country round
here, for no doubt he took notes of everything,
as they always did. Funnily enough, he was
taken prisoner badly wounded by Dick's own
regiment, and died at the clearing station, be-
fore they could get him to a hospital."

Buth looked at the sunlit peace of the farm,
for they had reached the gate. She remem-
bered what Violet Riversley had told her. And
yet Dick Carey had cared for this man.

**And they had parted here as friends," she
said.

**I believe Dick was quite cut up about it,"
said Mr. Fothersley. ''Very odd. But poor
dear Dick was oddl No sense of proportion,
you knowl"

This was a favourite saying of both Mr.

The Man on the Other Side 129

Fothersley's and Mrs. North ^s. It is doubtful
if either of them quite knew what they meant
by it, but it sounded well.

Mr. Fothersley repeated it over again, leaning
with his arms on the gate. * * No sense of pro-
portion. A lovable fellow though, most lovable.
Many's the time we've stood here, just as you
and I are standing, watching his birds. You
have the bird pool still, I see.'* Mr. Fother-
sley fumbled for his glasses. **Yes, and those
wretched little blue-tits everywhere — the worst
offenders in the garden. Even the blossom is
not safe from them. Madness to encourage
them with coconuts and bacon-rind. But as I
said, poor Dick '*

By this time Mr. Fothersley had his glasses
firmly planted across the bridge of his nose.
He could see the pool plainly, and in addition
to several blue-tits, two round cherub faces,
open mouthed, very still, hanging over the edge
of tJ»e bank.

**Good heavens 1 What are those f he ex-
claimed.

* * Only two small visitors of mine, ' ' said Buth,
smiling. **It is quite wonderful how still they
have learnt to be to watch the birds. They
live in Blackwall Tenements, and their only
playground there is a strip of pavement under
a dust shoot."

130 The Man on the Other Side

**0h!'^ said Mr. Fothersley dubiously.
**Blackwall. That is somewhere in the City.'*

He was interrupted by a shrill, excited, plainly
female voice on its topmost note.

**0h, Tommyl 'e's caught a f yP*

The next moment every bird had gone, while
the complete figures belonging to the moon faces
arose, as it were out of the ground.. Both wore
knickers, both had short hair, but it was plainly
the master male who administered swift and
primitive punishment.

** There, you've done it again!*'

**I forgot — ^I " Sobs, bitter and violent,

stopped the lament.

The boy pocketed his hands and moved off.

**Jes' like a woman," he called over his
shoulder.

The other small figure followed him at a hum-
ble distance, wailing aloud till both disappeared
from view.

Mr. Fothersley shuddered.

**How can you bear itt" he asked, his little
pink face really concerned. **Even Dick "

** Stopped short at Germans," Euth ended
for him. * * Well, it has its compensations. And
after all, what can one do? I know that play-
ground under the dust sootl And I have all
this. One could not bear it, if one didn't have
them down. ' '

The Man on the Other Side 131

'*How manyt" asked Mr. Fothersley faintly.

Buth leant back against the gate and gave
way to helpless laughter, while Mr. Fothersley
prodded holes in the bank with his stick and
waited with dignity till she should recover. He
saw nothing to laugh at.

**I beg your pardon,'^ said Euth, hurriedly
suppressing what she felt from his manner was
most unseemly mirth. **I only have two at a
time/' she added appeasingly. **And they are
really very good on the whole. ' '

* * I should relegate them to the back garden, ' *
said Mr. Fothersley decisively. **I remember
as a child even / was never allowed to run
wild where I pleased. Good heavens! what is
that noise f He cocked an attentive ear, as a
sound, like nothing he had ever heard before,
made itself evident.

At the same moment, over the crest of the
lawn appeared a wonderful procession. First
came the small female figure in knickers, bran-
dishing in her right hand a crimson flag, while
with the left she held a small tin trumpet to
her lips, with which at intervals she blew a
breathless note. The same which had attracted
Mr. Fothersley 's attention. Then, strapped into
his go-cart, and positively smothered in flags
and flowers, oame Bertram Aurelius. Finally,
pushing the go-cart with somewhat dangerous

132 The Man on the Other Sn>E

vigour^ the small Lord of the Show. Around
the procession, leaping and barking, skirmished
Sarah and Selina, while beside the go-cart Larry
padded sedately, snuflSng the air delicately, wav-
ing a stately taiL

The procession circled the lawn at the full
speed of the children 's small legs, dropped over
into the garden pathway and disappeared
towards the farmyard.

Mr. Fothersley softened. The scene had been
a pretty one.

^ ^ Quite like one of the delightful illustrations
in the children 's books of to-day, ' ' he said, smil-
ing. ** Please don't think me unsympathetic,
dear lady. A love of children is one of the most
beautiful traits in a woman ^s character, and
philanthropy has also its due place. But do
not be carried away by too much enthusiasm.
Do have, as I used to say to poor Dick, a due
sense of proportion. Otherwise you will only
get imposed upon, and do no good in the long
run. Believe me, you have gone quite far
enough with these innovations, and do let it
stop there before you have cause for regret.**

Mr. Fothersley paused and smiled, well
pleased with the turning of his phrases. Also
he felt his advice was good. Buth acquiesced
with becoming humility, aware only of a little
running commentary which conveyed nothing

The Man on the Other Side 133

to her. Her mind was entirely absorbed with
the fact that Larry had accompanied the small
procession which had so swiftly crossed their
line of vision and disappeared — Larry, who
kept children severely in their place as became
a dignified gentleman of a certain age, and on
whom not even Selina's wiliest enticement
produced the smallest effect.

**No good ever comes of moving people out
of their natural surroundings,*' continued Mr.
Fothersley, holding on his way with complete
satisfaction. **A11 men cannot be equal, and
it only makes them discontented with the state
of life in which it has pleased God to place
them. Personally I believe also they are quite
unable to appreciate better conditions. Why,
when '*

And here, to the little man's astonishment,
Euth suddenly, and very vividly, turned on
him, shaking a warning finger in front of his
startled nose.

**Mr. Fothersley, if you tell me that old story
about the chickens in the bathroom, I warn you
I am quite unable to bear it. I shall hold forth,
and either make you very cross with me or
bore you to death. I have lived amongst the
very poor, and between your view of them and
mine there is a great gulf fixed. I know what
you cannot know — ^their sufferings, their en-

134 The Man on the Other Side

durance, their patience. I would have every
child in London down here if I could — so there 1
And they may love their squalor and filth, as
people here have said to me. It is all the home
they have ever known. It is the great indict-
ment against our civilization. ' *

Then she stopped and suddenly smiled at him,
it was a smile that barred offence.

** There, you see! Don't start me off, what-
ever you do!'*

Mr. Fothersley smiled back. * * My dear lady,
I admire your kindness of heart. It is your
lack of any sense of proportion *'

It was at this moment that Mr. Pithey ap-
peared, magnificent in a new tweed knicker-
bocker suit of a tawny hue, with immaculate
gaiters, brown boots and gloves ; a cap to match
the suit, upon his head; the inevitable cigar in
his mouth; looking incongruous enougfa, beh
tween the wild rose and honeysuckle hedges.

To discover a couple of anything like mar-
riageable age alone together, in what he called
**the lanes,*' suggested one thing and one thing
only to Mr. Pithey 's mind. His manner as-
sumed a terrible geniality.

''Now don't let me disturb you," he said,
waving a large newly gloved hand. **Just a
word with this lady, and I'm off." He perpe-
trated a wink that caused Mr. Fothersley to

The Man on the Other Side 135

shut his eyes. ** Two's company and three's
none, ehf

Mr. Fothersley opened his eyes and endeav-
oured to stare him down with concentrated rage
and disgust. But Mr. Pithey held on his way,
undisturbed.

** Wonderful how you meet everybody in this
little place ! Just passed Lady Condor. Jove 1
how that woman does cake her face with paint.
At her age too! What's the use? Doesn't
worry me, but Mrs. Pithey disapproves of that
sort of thing root and branches. ' '

If Mr. Fothersley could have called down fire
from heaven and slain Mr. Pithey at that mo-
ment, he would undoubtedly have done so ; as it
was, he could only struggle impotently for words
wherewith to convey to him some sense of his in-
sufferable impertinence.

And words failed him. His little round face
quivering with rage, he stammered for a moment
unintelligibly, making furious gestures with his
disengaged hand at the astonished Mr. Pithey.
Finally he turned his back and thrust the basket
of strawberries into Ruth's hand.

** Please send the basket back at your con-
venience. Miss Seer," he said. Even in that
moment he did not forget the importance of
the return of one of the Leigh Manor baskets.
* * Good-morning. ' '

136 The Man on the Other Side

* * Touching little brute, ' ' remarked Mr. Pithey
cheerfully, gazing after him. ** What's upset
him nowt He'll have an apoplectic fit if he
walks at that rate in this heat, a man of his
built and a hearty eater too!''

Indeed poor Mr. Fothersley, by the time he
reached the Manor, between rage and nervous-
ness, for who could say what thoughts Mr.
Pithey 's egregious remarks might not have
given rise to in Miss Seer's mind, was in a very
sad state.

It was impossible to risk driving to Westwood
in an open car. He ordered the landaulette,
closed.

It was necessary to go because he had Miss
Seer's telegram to deliver. Also the desire was
strong upon him for the people of his own little
world, those who felt things as he felt them,
and saw things even as he saw them. He wanted
to talk over the various small happenings of
the morning with an understanding spirit; the
sweep's familiarity, Miss Seer's odd activities,
and last, but not least, Mr. Pithey 's hateful
facetiousness. Above all, though he hardly
knew it himself, he wanted to get with people
who were the same as people had been before
the war, to get away from this continual ob-
trusion of an undercurrent of difference, of

The Man on the Other Side 137

change^ which so disquieted him, and he wanted,
badly wanted, comfort and sympathy.

The Norths were by themselves, and propor-
tionately glad to see him. Violet had left, on
a sudden impulse, that morning, and fresh visi-
tors were not expected till the following week.

The very atmosphere of Nita North com-
forted the little man. The atmosphere of the
great commonplace, the unimaginative, the ego-
tistic. An atmosphere untouched by the war.
Peace descended on his troubled spirit as he
unfolded his table napkin and watched the
butler, in the very best manner of the best butler
lift the silver cover in front of Mrs. North from
the golden brown veal cutlets, each with its
dainty roll of fat bacon, Mr. Fothersley's fa-
vourite luncheon dish, while North, who had his
moments of insight, said:

**Some of the Steinberg Cabinet for Mr.
Fothersley, Mansfield. ' '

Indeed, both the Norths saw at once that Mr.
Fothersley was not quite himself, that he had
been upset.

It was impossible to tell the chief causes of
his annoyance before the servants, though, in
an interval, he commented on the familiar
behaviour of the sweep, and his views as to
the results of **the new independence** on the

138 The Man on the Other Side

working classes^ and the danger of strikes.

**I have no patience with this pandering to
the lower classes/* said Mrs. North. **They
must be tanghf

North, who was genuinely fond of little Mr.
Fothersley, did not ask **Howr* as he had an
irritating habit of doing when he heard his wife
enunciate this formula.

Mr. Fothersley agreed. ** Certainly, they
must be taught."

He was di-stinctly soothed. The Steinberg
Cabinet had not altered, indeed it had gained
in its power to minister. The objectionable
feeling that the foundations on which his world
was built were quivering and breaking up sub-
sided into the background, and by the time
the coffee came, and the servants departed, he
was his usual genial kindly little self, and could
even give a risible turn to his account of Mr.
Pithey 's impertinence.

**I lost my temper and, I am afraid, practi-
cally gibbered at him with rage," he owned.
**I was hardly dignified. But that I should
live to hear that Marion Condor is disapproved
of by Mrs. Pithey 1"

** Insolent brute!" said Mrs. North, all un-
conscious that her language was Pithian * * Can
nobody put him in his placet"

**He must be taught," suggested North

The Man on the Otheb Side 139

wickedly. But, though his wife shot a doubt-
ful glance at him, Mr. Fothersley took the sug-
gestion in good faith.

**I quite agree with you, Roger. The ques-
tion is. How? Unfortunately we have all
caUed.**

**We could all cut him,** suggested Mrs.
North.

* * I don *t approve of cutting people, my dear
Nita. In a small community it makes things
very unpleasant and leads to such uncomfor-
table situations.** Indeed, Mr. Fothersley had
more than once interposed in almost a high-
handed manner to prevent Mrs. North cutting
ladies of whom she thought she had reason to
be jealous. * ' No, I sincerely wish we had never
called, but having called, and indeed invited
these people to our houses, received them as
guests, I should deprecate cutting them. You
agree with me, Roger?**

'* Certainly. The Pitheys would not care if
you did. Also he is the sort of man who
could worry you a good deal in the village if
he took it into his head to do so. Better keep
on good terms with him if you can.**

*'What did Miss Seer say?** asked Mrs.
North.

**I don*t remember her saying anything, but
I was so agitated. I didn% of course, even

140 The Man on the Other Side

look at her. You don^t think his remarks will

give rise to any ideas ^' Mr. Fothersley

paused, looking from one to the other.

**Good Lord, no!^^ said North.

*'How do you know?^^ asked his wife «harply.
* * I should certainly advise Arthur to keep away
for the future.**

North shrugged his shoulders as he rose from
the table.

'*I expect you will like your cigar in the
garden with Nita,** he said, pushing the box
across the table to his guest. **IVe got some
letters to write.**

When he reached his study he took Ruth*s
telegram out of his pocket-book and, lighting a
match, burned it very carefully to ashes.
*' Bless their small minds,** he said.

CHAPTER Vn

RUTH met North as he came up the garden
path.

'*So you have come this afternoon! I did
so hope you would.**

''What ifi it?** he asked. ** Nothing wrong
with the farm?**

''Wrong with the farm!** Buth laughed.
"Now just feel it.**

It was steeped in sunshine and the scent
of violas. On the garden wall the pigeons
cooed sleepily. From the river came the lilt of
a child *s laugh.

' ' It feels all right, * * said North gravely.

' ' Just as happy and sound and wholesome as
can be,** she said. "I asked you to come be-
cause something wonderful — ^I believe wonder-
ful — has happened. I felt I must tell you at
once. And I want to ask you things, want to
ask you quite terribly badly. Come up and sit
by the blue flower border. I have the chairs
there. It is at its very best. * *

"So you have kept that too,** said North,
even as his daughter had said.

141

142 The Man on the Otheb Side

^'It is one of the many beautiful things I
found here,** she answered. '*The place is fuU
of thoughts just Hke that. I hope I have not
lost any, but if I have they will come back/*
She stopped to lift up some of the frail nemo-
philas. Just so North had seen women arrange
their children *s hair.

^^Are not the delphiniums in perfection?
They always look to me as if they were pray-
ing.**

Now years ago, standing in just that selfsame
spot, Dick Carey had said that very same thing.
It came back to North in a flash, and how he
had answered:

*'I should think those meek droopy white
things look more like it.**

For a moment he hesitated. Then he gave
her the same answer.

**0h no I** she exdayned. "To pray you
must aspire. And they must be blue. * *

Dick Carey had said. ** Prayer is aspiration,
not humility. Besides, they*re not blue.**

Again that sense of well-being which had be-
longed to the companionship of his friend stole
over North. Again the bitterness and pain
seemed to fade and melt. The present took on
a new interest, a new understanding. He gave
himself up to it with a sigh of content as he
dropped into the chair by Buth Seer*8 side.

The Man on the Other Side 143

The warmth of the June afternoon, the sleepy
murmur of the life of the farm, the hum of
bees, that wonderful blue, it was all part of it.

**Now light your pipe and be very comfor-
table,'' she said, and left him alone while the
peace and beauty soaked in. Left him alone
for how long he did not know. When you touch
real rest, time ceases.

Presently he re-lit the pipe which he had
lighted and left to go out.

* * Now, ' ' he said, * * tell me. I am ready to be
convinced of anything wonderful, just here and
now. ' '

Buth smiled. She was sitting very still, her
elbow on her knee, her chin in the hollow of her
hand. A great content made her face beauti-
ful. Her grey eyes dwelt lovingly upon the
little world, which held so many worlds in its
circle. The laughter of the children came again
across the field. Then she began to talk.

**It is so wonderful,'* she said. **I can
hardly yet believe it can be true, which is
so foolish, because the truth undoubtedly is
wonderful beyond our conceiving. We only see
such little bits of it here, even the wisest of us.
And we will think it is the whole. When we
do see the whole, I think what will be the most
wonderful thing about if will be its amazing
simplicity. We shall wonder how we ever

144 The Man on the Other Side

groped about among so many seeming complica-
tions, so much dirt and darkness/^

She stopped for a few moments, and North
waited. He felt he was shrinking back into
himself, away from whatever might be coming.
Like many very intellectual persons, he was
inclined to resent what he could not account
for, and to be wholly unsympathetic, if not a
little brutal, towards it.

Psychical investigation always had repelled
him. Repelled him only less, and in a different
way, than the search for knowledge among the
tortured entrails of friendly dogs. With the
great forces of nature he could fight cleanly,
and courageously, to harness them to the service
of man. They were enormously interesting,
amazingly beautiful. Powerful enough to pro-
tect themselves if necessary. One wrested
their secrets from them at one's own peril.
And the scientist who strives with the great
forces of nature has the mark of his craft
branded into his very soul. Its name is Truth.
To that mark, if he be a true scientist, he is
faithful absolutely, unswervingly. Indeed it
must be so. And, ever seeking the truth, the
true scientist knows that his discoveries are
ever only partial ; that soon, even before his own
little day here is ended, will come new discov-
eries which shall modify the old. So that he

The Man on the Other Side 145

will never say * * I know, * * only * * I am learning. * ^
And now for the first time psychic investiga-
tion was making its appeal to him, by the mouth
of Ruth Seer, in the name of Truth.

' * Very well, tell me, ^ * he said, struggling with
his dislike. **I will cast from me, as far as
possible all preconceived objections, and, pos-
sibly, prejudices. I will bring an open mind. * ^

Buth turned, her whole face alight. **Ah,
that is just what I want ! Only be as critical as
you will. I want that too. That is why I
wanted so much to tell you, because you will
bring a trained mind to bear on it all. Because
of that, and also because you are his friend, I
can speak about it to you. It would be very
diflScult to anyone else.*^

She stopped, gathering herself up as it were,
before she started.

**You remember the day you first camef To
fetch Larry ?*^

North nodded.

**We all forgathered together at the gate,
you and I and the dogs. I told you about Larry,
how he had come the night before, tired and
miserable, and hunted everywhere, and early in
the morning he had gone again, so far as I knew.
And just before you came I had found him down
by the stream, quite happy apparently, with a
man. I think I told you?^^

146 The Man on the Other Side

"Yes/'

'*The man was watching some kingfishers,
and I stopped to watch them too. Very still we
all were. I had never seen the birds so close.
The man was lying on the grass, but he looked a
tall man. He wore a brown suit, rather shabby.
I could not see his face, only the back of his head
propped up on his hand. It was a long, thin
hand, very sunburnt. A well-shaped, sensitive
hand. And he had dark hair with a strong
wave in it. Though it was cut very short, the
waves showed quite plainly and evenly.**

North had taken his pipe out of his mouth
now and was staring at it.

**Then your motor siren startled us all, and
the man vanished as swiftly, it seemed, as the
birds. I wondered just a little — when I thought
of it after, where he could have got to — ^but not
for long. This morning I saw the same man
again. I was in the buttercup field, and he
was standing in the road in front of the new
cottages, looking at them. Again I could only
see his back, and he is very tall. He had no
hat on, and it was the same dark wavy hair.
You know the little pitch of hill that goes up
to the cottages ? When I reached the bottom I
could see him quite clearly. He was pulling
Larry towards him by a handkerchief lead, and
then letting him go suddenly — splaying with him,

The Man on the Other Side 147

you know. And I conld hear Larry snarling
as a dog does in play. Then Larry caught
sight of me and stopped to look. And when
he looked the man turned and looked at me
too ''

She paused. The summer sounds of the farm
sang on, but it seemed that just around those
two there was a tense silence. North broke it.

'^ Well I'' he said, his voice harsh and almost
impatient.

**He had a thin, very sunburnt face,'*
Buth went on, ''lined, but with the lines that
laughter makes. Very blue eyes, the blue eyes
that look as if they had a candle lit behind them.
When he saw me he smiled. There was a flash
of very white teeth, and his smile was like a
sudden bright light.**

North *s pipe dropped on to the flagged path-
way with the little dull dick of falling wood.

Buth leant towards him; her voice dropped
almost to a whisper.

'*Was Dick Carey like that?** she asked.

' ' Yes. * * North met her eyes for the first time
since she had begun to tell him. The sugges-
tion of unwillingness to listen which had shown
in his manner from the first dropped from him.
'*What happened next?**

''I don*t quite know how to describe it. He
did not fade or vanish or anything like that.

14S The Man on the Other Side

He remamed quite distinct, and that wonder-
ful smile still shone, but my sight failed. It
seemed to grow more and more dim until at last
I could not see him at all. I hurried, I even
tried to call out to him, but it was no good.'*

* * But you were not blind ; you could see every-
thing elsef

**Yes, when I looked for them I could. I
wish I could explain to you how it was. The
nearest I can get to it is, that his figure, while I
saw it, stood out more distinctly than anything
else. All the rest seemed in the background,
indistinct by comparison. Ah, I know — ^Uke —
have you ever noticed on a bright sunny day,
looking in a shop window, how suddenly the
things reflected are much clearer and more
visible than the things actually in the window?
They seem to recede, and the reflection is strong
and clear. Well, it was something like that.
As if one had two sights and one for the mo-
ment overbore the other. I 'm explaining badly,
but it's difficult. At any rate he did not evap-
orate or fade as they say these visions invaria-
bly do. It was the sight failed me.*'

"That is enormously interesting,'* said North
slowly.

' ' You see, ' ' said Ruth eagerly, * * ever since I
came here this — this being in touch with Dick
Carey has been growing. It is becoming a won-

The Man on the Other Side 149

derful experience; it seems to me of possibly
enormous value, but I don *t want to take it one
step beyond where it can reasonably and
legitimately be taken. I want the truth about
it. I want your brains, your intelligence, to
help me. I want you honestly and truly to
tell me just what you think of these happenings.
And I want to know whether you yourself have
had any sense of his presence here, even ever
so faint.*'

North recovered his pipe, re-lit it, and began
to smoke again before he answered. Indeed,
he smoked in silence for quite a long time.

*'I cannot deny the fact,** he said at length,
**that I have what perhaps should be described
as a prejudice against any supposed communi-
cation with the dead. It has always been sur-
rounded, to my mind, with so much that is un-
desirable, nor do I believe in any revelation save
that of science, and on these lines science has no
revelation. But there are two things here that
do force themselves on my consideration. One
is that you never knew Dick in the flesh, the
other that since you came here, not before, I
have myself felt, not a presence of any sort,
but the sense of well-being and content which
always belonged to my companionship with him.
And that I never feel anywhere but at Thorpe,
or at Thorpe except when you are with me. The

150 The Man on the Other Side

latter can be explained in various ways. The
former is rather different. Have you ever seen
a photograph of Dick^ or has anyone described
him to you?^'

**No. I have never seen a photograph, and
no one has ever described his appearance to
me.**

Then she smiled at him suddenly and delight-
fully. **I am not a curious woman, but I am
human,** she said. ** Before we go any further,
for pity*s sake describe Dick Carey to me, and
tell me if he was in the habit of leading Larry
by a pocket-handkerchief!**

**You have described him,** said North, smil-
ing too. '* Especially his smile. I am short-
sighted, but I could always tell Dick in a crowd
if he smiled, long before I could distinguish his
features. And he did lead Larry by his hand-
kerchief. It was a regular game between them. * *

* * Surely that is in the nature of proof I * * ex-
claimed Buth.

**Let us call it circumstantial evidence.**
**But worth even your — a scientist *s— con-
sideration ? * *

* * Undoubtedly ! By the way, what happened
to Larry?**

**When I thought of him again it was some
little time later ; he was going back to the house

The Man on the Other Side 151

across the field. And — and— oh, I know it
sonnds mad — ^he was following somebody, and
so were Sarah and Selina. Yon know, don't
yon, what I meanf Dogs ran qnite differently
when they are ont on their own. And I have
never known Sarah and Selina leave me to
follow anyone eke before, in all their lives.'*

*'Any dog wonld follow Dick,*' said North,
and then looked as if he wonld like to have
taken the words back, bnt she stopped him.

**Yon promised,'* she said. **And that, too,
is a piece of evidence. As I said, I don 't want
to pnsh it a fraction of an inch beyond where
it will go. Bnt think what it means f The
breaking down of that awfnl impassable wall
between the living and the dead. Think what
some knowledge, of the next step only, beyond
the Gateway of Death means. ' '

*' Always supposing there is a next step,"
said North. ** Again there is no evidence I can
accept. Though, mind you" — he was really in
earnest now — **I am not among those who are
content, indeed glad, that it should all end here.
This old universe is too interesting a riddle to
drop after a few years' study."

**Ah, do you know Walt Whitman's lines f —

' * This day, before dawn, I ascended a hill and looked
at the crowded Heaven.

152 The Man on the Other Side

And I said to my spirit,

When we become the enfolders of these orbs, and

the pleasure and knowledge of everything in

them.
Shall we be filled and satisfied thent
And my spirit said, No, we but level that lift to pass

and continue beyond."

North nodded. **That^8it! I ^m out for that
right enough, if it^s going. I don^t say, mind
you, that I^m certain we don't go on. I'm not
such a fool. But, to my mind, all the evidence
so far is the other way. ' '

**Have you ever tried to get evidence?''

**No. All the methods appear to me to be
objectionable, very. Even over this — ^this pos-
sible sight of yours — ^I don't feel keen on the
idea that those who have gone are hanging
round their old homes, round us who cannot
cognize them."

He spoke haltingly, as if expressing him-
self with difficulty. His unwillingness to dis-
cuss these matters again became evident.

* * But surely time and space in the next world
will not exist as we understand them here, and
that must make an almost incalculable dif-
ference. And when you think that so many
gave their lives for this world, isn't it reason-
able to think that the work for some of them
may still be linked up with it? Do you remem-

The Man on the Otheb Side 153

ber when yon were talking of the ontlook at
the present moment, and Lady Condor asked
me what I thought of itf And I said we were
not alone, that those who had died that things
might be better, they with their added knowl-
edge — ^gnided — Whelped — ^yon remember? Well,
that wasn 't my own idea somehow. It came to
me from somewhere else, quite suddenly, on
the moment, as it were. And I had to say it —
though I felt shy and uncomfortable. One does
not speak of these things to all the world. But
some one wanted me to say it — ^just then and
there. ^*

She stopped, and in both their minds was a
vision of Violet Eiversley^s beautiful angry un-
happy face.

* * I remember, * ' answered North. ' ' And your
idea is that Dick's mind can communicate with
yours by thoughts

Buth thought a little; her eyes looked out
without seeing.

^'It is not an idea," she said at last. ^^I
know. * '

**And have you any idea or knowledge why it
should be so, seeing you never knew each other
in this life? If you had, and had loved very
deeply, it would be more comprehensible, though
less interesting from the point of view of prov-
ing communication. As it is, t&ere seemjB to

154 The Man on the Other Side

me nothing sufficiently important to account for
it. Nothing beyond a certain likeness of
thought and interests. * *

Buth smiled. The interest had gripped him
again. He was thinking out aloud. She waited
un.til he looked at her.

**What is your explanation?'* he asked.

And suddenly Buth found it amazingly dif-
ficult to explain. The memory of that velvet
night of stars, the message in the song of the
little brown bird, the revelation which had come
to her, swept over her again with a renewed
and surprising sweetness, but of words she
seemed bereft. Compared with the wonder and
beauty of the thought they seemed utterly in-
adequate and hopeless. She put out both her
hands with a little foreign gesture of helpless-
ness.

*'You have nonef he asked, and she caught
the disappointment in his voice, and looking at
him saw, as she had seen once before on his
first visit, the lonely tired soul of the man who,
losing Dick Carey, had lost much. And Dick
Carey was there, so very surely there.

^ ' It isn 't the personal love for one that really
brings together, ' ' she said, her voice very, very
gentle. ^'It is the love for everything that has
life or breath. That love must be communion.
It makes you belong.*'

The Man on the Other Side 155

There was a little silence before she went on :

** You see, I never had any one person to con-
centrate on, unless it was old Baphael Goltz,
and looking back, I see now he was a cosmic sort
of person. He did really in some way grip
the whole of things, and it helped me more than
I had any idea of at the time. Then I cared
so much for all the men out in Flanders who
came in and out of my life so swiftly and apas-
modically. Then I came here, and found how
much I cared for all living things in the lower
worlds. And he is linked up too with them all,
because he cared so much. And we have both
by chance, whatever chance may be, focused
on Thorpe. Do you at all understand what I
mean?'*

* * Yes, after a fashion, * * said North. * * It *8 like
watching some one dimly moving about in an
unknown, and to me a visionary, world. I own
you are right — ^he moved in it too; and I am
also ready to own it is possible because of my
own limitations that I can only regard it as
visionary. * *

' ' Raphael had many books dealing with these
things, * * said Ruth. * * I feel so sorry now that
they did not interest me then. You see, I had
never lost anyone by death. I had no one to
lose. It was only out in France when the men
came in and drank my soup or coffee, and some

156 The Man on the Other Side

slept like tired children, and others played a
game of cards, or talked to me of home, and we
all seemed like children of one family belonging
to each other. And in a few hours, perhaps
less, I would see one or more of them lying
dead — gone out like flames extinguished quite
suddenly. And I didn 't know what life or death
meant. ' '

North nodded. ''It hits one sometimes,'' he
said.

**And their people at home — ^I used to write
for some of those who were brought in to the
estaminet and died before they could get them
farther. One thought of them all the time.
Going on with their everyday life at home,
and waiting. That is why what has happened
to me here seems so amazingly important, why
its truth needs such close questioning, why I
so much want your help. ' '

**For what it is worth it is at your disposal,
and" — ^he paused before he went on with de-
cision — **I own I am interested, as I have never
been before in so-called communication with
another world."

** There are some books here dealing with
psychic faculties. I found them on the top of
the oak bookcase. Mostly by German authors.
Would they have been Mr. Carey 'sf"

The Man ok the Other Side 157

**More likely they belonged to a friend of his
who used to stay here/'
**0h, the German friend!** exclaimed ButL

* * You have heard of him f * *

* * Mr. Fothersley spoke of him only this mom-
ingy and your daughter mentioned him the other
day/'

**He was an interesting personality, and very
strong on the point that there were extraor-
dinary powers and forces latent in man. I
never cared to discuss them with him. He went
too far, and looking back I think I almost un-
consciously dreaded his influence over Dick.
I don't think I need have. Dick was, I recog-
nize it now, the stronger of the two.''
^ ' But he was interested in the same things f ' '
** Undoubtedly. Possibly I was jealous; I
preferred him to be interested in my particular
line of study. He was interested to a great ex-
tent of course, but von Schade 's lines of thought
appealed to him more. I remember the last
night von Schade was here. It was in the June
of 1914. He had been paying Dick a long visit
and was leaving in the morning. It was the
sort of night when the world seems much big-
ger than it does by day — sl wonderful night.
The sky was thick with stars, and he stood just
over there with their light on his face, and

158 The Man on the Other Side

talked to us as if we were a public meeting.
He was a good-looking chap in a hard frozen
sort of style. Oliver Lodge had been speaking
to the Eoyal Art Society on the Sources of
Power, and it had got von Schade on to his
hobby.

** *You talk of the power of atomic energy,
you scientists,* he said; * it is as nothing com-
pared with the forces possessed by man in him-
self. If we studied these, if we understood
these, if we knew how to harness and direct
them, there is nothing in heaven and earth we
should not be masters of. Men — ^we should be
gods I And you men with brains puddle about
among the forces of nature, blind and deaf to
the forces in man which could harness every
one of the forces of nature obedient to your
will, and leave the study of these things to hys-
terical madmen and neurotic women. And
those who have some knowledge, who have the
gift, the power, to experiment with these forces
if they would, they are afraid of this and that.
My God, you make me sick I '

**He threw out both his arms and his face
was as white as a sheet. Old Dick got up and
put his arm round the fellow's shoulders.
Goodness knows what he saw in him I * We'll
get the forces harnessed right enough, old
fellow, when we 're fit to use them, ' he said.

The Man on the Other Side 159

**And they looked at each other for a full
minute, von Schade glaring and Dick smiling,
and then von Schade suddenly began to laugh.

** 'Mostly I'm fond of you, Dick,' he said,
'but sometimes I hate you like the deuce!'

' ' He went the next morning, and I was glad.
For another thing he fell in love with Vi, and
she was such a little demon to flirt that until
the last minute you never knew if she was se-
rious or not. Morally and socially he was ir-
reproachable, but — ^well, I didn't like him I
I often wondered how he took the news of her
engagement to Dick."

''That happened after he leftf"

"Yes. The second time Dick went out to
the front. He wasn't a marrying man really.
But you know how things were then. Vi broke
down over his going, and he had always been
fond of her since she was a baby. But I don 't
think it would have been a success. I never
could picture old Dick as anything but a bach-
elor. ' '

He stopped, for he saw she was not listening.
She was thinking hard. Her black brows bent,
her grey eyes almost as black beneath them.

"That is very interesting," she said pres-
ently, speaking slowly, as one tracking an idea.
"Von Schade must have known that Dick Carey
knew better how to exercise those latent powers

160 The Man on the Other Side

than he did. They were both seeking the same
thing from different motives.*'

* * Explain, please. * '

Buth was silent again for a moment^ still
thinking hard. **It*s not easy, you know,** she
said. **But this is the best I can do. They
were both scientists of the invisible, just as you
are a scientist of the visible, but Dick Carey
was seeking union with God and von Schade
was seeking knowledge and power for himself.
Therefore they studied the unseen sources of
life and death by different methods, and Dick
Carey had got farther than von Schade and
von Schade knew it.**

North shook his head. **Now you are wan-
dering in the mist so far as I am concerned,**
he said.

Buth sighed. **I explain badly, but then I
am only struggling in the mist myself. I wish
I had cared for these things when Baphael Goltz
was alive! So many things he said which
passed me by then come back to me now with
a new meaning. But there is one thing just
lately I have felt very strongly. When he was
in the physical body Dick Carey was a far more
wonderful man than any of you knew — except
probably von Schade. Yes, you loved him I
know, the world is black without him, but you
didn*t think he was anything extraordinary.

The Man on the Other Side 161

Ton are a great man and he was nobody, in the
eyes of the world. Yon don^t know even now
how wonderful he was. And now he has escaped
from this clogging mould, this blinding veil of
physical matter, he is, I firmly believe, making
this little comer of the earth, this little Sussex
farm, what every home and village the town
might be if we were in touch with the invisible
secret source of all.**

She stopped, for she felt that North was not
following her any longer, was shrinking back
again.

* * Oh ! * ' she cried, * * why won *t you believe it is
worth your study at any rate t * *

North turned on her suddenly, harshly, al-
most brutally.

* * I can *t, * * he said hoarsely. * * Don *t you see
it's all shapeless, formless, to a mind like minef
I want to believe. God! it would give one
an horizon beyond eternity; but you talk of
what to me is foolishness. ' '

He looked at her with an inuneasurable
dreariness of soul in his eyes, and very gently
she put her worn brown hand in his and held
it.

** Listen,** she said, and her voice was deep
with sudden music. **The children come now.
You cannot keep them away. Something draws
them to Thorpe. The wild creatures one can

162 The Man on the Other Side

understand. It is sanctuary. But the chil-
dren — ^it must mean something.'*

**You are here.*'

She shrank back as if hurt. * * No, oh no ! It
is not me. It is something altogether beyond
me. Oh, do listen. They were always slipping
in, or standing by the gate with their little faces
peeping between the bars. Quite tinies some of
them, and I took them back to their homes at
first. I thought their mothers would be anx-
ious. And then — then I began to guess. So
now I have given them the field beyond the
stream and they come out of school hours. * *

**The lower field!** exclaimed North. **No
wonder you have taken Fothersley's breath
away. * '

**0h, he does not know of that. Fortunately
he was here in the morning during school
hours, so he only saw the Blackwall children.
You see, * * she added apologetically, * * it is stich
a child's field, with the stream and the little
wood with blue-bells, and there are cowslips
in the spring and nuts in the autumn, and I
shall make hay as usual, of course. We cut
on Tuesday.**

** Don't you find them very destructive?**

*'They haven't trampled down a yard of
grass, * * said Ruth triumphantly. * * I gave them
a strip by the stream under the silver birches.

The Man on the Other Side 163

The primrose bit, you know, and the wood.
And the hay is in a way their property. You
go and try to walk across it! You'll have a
nest full of jackdaws at you!''

* ' But the trees and flowers ! ' '

^*That is just another thing," she smiled at
him. **0h, why won't you believe? I have
had to teach them hardly anything. They
know. No branch is ever torn down. Never
will you find those pathetic little bunches of
picked and thrown-away flowers here. The
birds are just as tame. I teach them very little.
I'm afraid of spoiling my clumsy help. It is
so wonderful. They bring crumbs of any
special bit of cake they get, for the birds, and
plant funny little bits of roots and sow seeds.
Come down and see them with me. I don't
take, or tell, other people. I am so afraid of
it getting spoilt."

North extracted his Jong frame from his
chair.

**A11 right," he said, with that odd smile of
his as of one humouring a child. * * But you are
mad, you know, quite mad."

* * You said that to me before. ' '

And then North remembered suddenly that
he had often said it to Dick Carey.

Their way led across the flower garden, and
under the cherry-orchard trees where the

164 The Man on the Other Side

daisies shone like snow on the green of the
close-cut grass. Here they found Bertram Au-
relius lying on his back talking in strange lan-
guage to the whispering leaves above him, and
curling and uncurling his bare pink toes in the
dappled sunlight. His mother sat beside him,
her back against a tree trunk, mending the
household linen when she could keep her eyes
off him for more than a minute. The dogs fell
upon Bertram Aurelius, who took them literally
to his bosom, fighting them just as a little
puppy fights, and his mother smiled up at them
with her big blue eyes and foolish loose-lipped
red mouth.

**Have you ever heard anything of the
father!*' said North, when they were out of
earshot.

** Killed at BuUecourt, ' * Buth answered. '*I
could not help feeling it was perhaps best. He
will be a hero to her now always.'*

The lower field was steeped in the afternoon
sunshine, and the children were chirping like
so many birds. Two sat by the stream blow-
ing dandelion clocks, which another small child
carried to them with careful footsteps, his
tongue protruding in the anxious effort to con-
vey the fragile globes in safety before they
floated away. Two bigger boys were planting
busily in a clearing in the wood. . Another slept.

The Man on the Other SroB 165

seemingly just as he had f alien, with all the lis-
som grace of childhood, and on the bank beside
him a small girl crooned to something she
nursed against her flat little chest.

Boger North looked at the peaceful scene
with relief.

**I believe I*d expect a sort of school feast, '*
he said. **If you don^t break forth any more
violently than this, I*m with you. What are
the little beggars plantingf ''

'^ Michaelmas daisies. They should do there,
don^t you think f And we are trying lilies in
that far comer. The soil is damp and peaty.
We were too late for fruit trees this year but
IVe great plans for autumn planting.'*

North, oddly enough, so it seemed to many,
was popular with children. He never asked
them endless questions, or if they wanted to
do this or that. He liked the little people, and
had discovered that at heart they were like
the shy wild things. Leave them alone and keep
quiet, and, ten to one, presently a little hand
will creep into yours.

He let himself down on the bank near the
crooning child, in silence. She was a thin white
slip of a thing, with very fair hair and a pair
of big translucent eyes. It was an old doll
she was nursing, so old that its face had prac-
tically disappeared, and a blank white circle

166 The Man on the Other Side

gazed to heaven from under a quite smart tam-
o*-shanter. She 'was telling some story ap-
parently, but only now and then were any words
intelligible.

Presently she began to look at North side-
ways, and her voice rose out of its low mono-
tone into a higher key. It was like the sudden
movement of a bird nearer to something or
some one whose bona fides it has at first mis-
trusted.

The words she was crooning became more
intelligible, and gradually North realized, to
his astonishment, that she was repeating, after
her own fashion, the old Saga of Brynhild the
warrior maid whom Segurd found clad in helm
and byme. A queer mixture of the ride of the
Valkyries, of Brynhild asleep surrounded by
the eternal fires. Brynhild riding her war-
horse on to the funeral pyre. Loki the Fire
God. Wotan with his spear. All were mixed
up in a truly wonderful whole. But still more
to his astonishment it was the sword which
appealed evidently above all to this small white
maiden. On the sword she dwelt lovingly, and
wove her tale around its prowess. And when
she had brought her recital to a triumphantly
shrill close at the moment when Siegmund
draws the sword from the tree, she turned and

The Man on the Other Side 167

looked him full in the face, half shyly, half
triumphantly, wholly appealing. It was as if
she said, **What do you think of that nowf

North nodded at her. '*That*s first rate,
you know,'* he said.

** Which would you choose, if you had the
choice? Would you choose the ring or the
sword f she asked.

**Well, I'm inclined to think old Wotan's
spear is more in my line, ' ' said North in a tone
of proper thoughtful consideration. ' ' It broke
the sword once, didn't itf At least I believe
it did. But it's rather a long time ago since I
read about these things. Do you learn them
at school?"

**They aren't lessons." She looked at him
with some contempt. ** They 're stories."

**It's such a long time ago since anyone told
me stories," said North apologetically. **I'm
afraid I've forgotten."

She looked at him with compassion, holding
the battered doll closer to her. Her eyes re-
minded him of a rain-washed sky.

*^I tell Tommy lots of stories," she said.

Another child's voice called to her from the
wood, '^Moira, Moira," and she fled away. It
was like the sudden flight of a bird.

**Who is the child who tells her dolls the story

16B The Man on the Other Sh>e

of the Bingf '' he asked Buth, when she rejoined
him. ^^She is rather like one of Backham's
Bhine Maidens herself, by the way/'

* * Moria Kent t Isn *t she a lovely little thing t
Her mother is the village school-mistress/'

^*Ahy that accounts for it I suppose/' said
North.

Buth opened her mouth to speak, and closed
it again. Instead of what she had meant to say,
she said, ^ ^ Come, it is time for tea. And I have
ordered strawberries and cream. * '

CHAPTBE Vm

ROGER NORTH let himself down into the
cane deck-chair by his study window with
a sigh of relief. The wonderful weather still
held. It had been a hot morning, there were
people staying in the house — ^people who bored
North — and lunch had been to him a weari-
some meal. Everyone had consumed a great
deal of food and wine and talked an amazing
lot of nonsense, and made a great deal of noise,
and the heat had become unbearable.

Here, though the warmth was great, the still-
ness was perfect. The rest of the world had
retired to their rooms to change for the tennis
party in the afternoon. North felt he could
depend on at least an hour of quiet. Across
the rosebeds and smooth lawns he could see his
cattle lying in the tall grass under the trees.
He watched others moving slowly from shade
to shade — ^Daisy and Bettina, and Fancy —
and presently Patricia, the big white mother
of many pigs, hove in sight on her way to the
woods. For North was a farmer too, and loved

160

170 The Man on the Other Side

his beasts better, it must be owned, than he
loved his own kind.

He cut a hole in the orange he had brought
from the lunch-table and commenced to suck
it iQ great content. Like the ladies of Cran-
ford he considered there was no other way to
eat an orange. He also agreed with them that
it was a pleasure that should be enjoyed in
private.

He gave himself up to the soothing peace
and rest of his cool shaded room. The friendly
faces of his beloved books looked down on him,
the fragrance of his roses came in, hot and
sweet, a very quintessence of summer. Patrica
had reached the wood now; he watched her
dignified waddle disappear in its green depths.
What a pleasant and beautiful world it all was,
except for the humans.

He dropped the jangling remains of the irri-
tating lunch interval out of his consciousness,
and his mind drifted back to his morning's
work, the conclusion of a week of observation,
of measurements, of estimating quantities, of
balancing relations. A week of the scientist's all-
labsorbing pursuit of knowledge, which had, as
his wife complained, made him deaf and dumb
and blind to all else. A disturbing fact in his
work was beginning to force itself upon him.
He was becoming more and more conscious

The Man on the Other Side 171

that, in spite of the exquisite delicacy of scien-
tific apparatus, observation was becoming in-
creasingly difficult. He could no longer make
the atom a subject of observation; it escaped
him. He was beginning to base his arguments
on mathematical formulae. Even with the chem-
ical atom, four degrees below the ultimate phys-
ical atom, he was beginning to reason, with-
out basing his reasons on observation, because
he could not observe ; it was too minute, too fine,
too delicate — ^it escaped him. He had no in-
strument delicate enough to observe. He had
come to a deadlodk. The fact forced itself
upon him with ever-increasing insistence; he
could no longer deny it. He could carry some
of his investigations no farther without the aid
of finer, subtler instruments. His methods
failed him. Nor could his particular order of
mind accept the new psychology. He could not
investigate by means of hypnotism, or au-
toscopy, or accept the strange new psycho-
logical facts which were revolutionizing all the
old ideas of human consciousness, because he
could not get away from the fundamental fact
that science had no theory with which these
strange new things would fit, no explanation,
as he had said to Buth Seer, which could ar-
range them in a rational order. And, dream-
ing in the warmth of the afternoon, with the

172 The Man on the Other Side

fragrance and beauty of the wonderful uni-
verse filtering into his consciousness, the idea
penetrated with ever-growing insistence: Had
the gods, by some wonderful chance, by some
amazing good fortune, placed in his hands, his,
Roger North's, an instrument, finer, subtler,
more delicate, than any of which he had ever
dreamed, the consciousness that was material-
izing as Buth Seert He seemed struggling
with himself, or rather with another self— a
self that was striving to draw him into misty
unreal things, and he shrank back into his world
of what seemed to him solid, tangible things,
things that he could touch and handle and prove
by measure and calculation and observation.
And then again the larger vision gripped him.
Was there indeed a finer, subtler, more wonder-
ful matter, waiting to be explored by different,
finer, subtler methods t What was it Dick Carey
and Ruth Seer cognized, contracted with outside
his kent Could he be certain it did not exist?
**6od! it would give you an horizon beyond
eternity,*' he had said to Ruth Seer; that was
true enough — if the vision was true. Always
till now he had thought of any vision beyond
as a fable, invented by wise men to help lesser
men through what was after all but a sorry
business. And now, for the first time, it really
gripped him — ^what it would mean if it were

The Man on the Other Side 173

not a fable, not a usefnl deception for weaker
men who could not face life as it really was.
God! it would give you an horizon beyond
eternity I The vision was as yet only a dim
muddle of infinite possibilities and Roger
North's mind hated muddle. He was like the
blind man of Bethsaida who, when Christ
touched his eyes, looked up, and saw men, as
trees, walking.

Suddenly he got up and moved a photograph
of Dick Carey that stood upon his writing-
table, moved it to an inconspicuous place on
the mantelshelf amongst other photographs.
Then he hesitated for a moment before he took
one of the others and put it on the writing-
table.

And this simple action meant that Roger
North had put on one side his shrinking from
the intangible and invisible and had started on
new investigations with new instruments for
observation.

Then he went back to his chair and began a
second orange. Mansfield had just carried out
the croquet mallets and balls, and was arrang-
ing for the afternoon games in his usual ad-
mirable manner. North watched him lazily as
he sucked the orange, pleasantly conscious that
a new interest had gripped his life, his mind
already busy, tabulating, arranging the dif-

174 The Man on the Other Side

f erent subtler matter he proposed to work with.

It was here the door opened, and with the
little clatter and bustle which always heralded
her approach, his wife entered, curled, pow-
dered and adorned, very pretty and very smart,
for her afternoon party.

A visit from her at this moment was alto-
gether unexpected. It was also unfortunate.

It is doubtful if much had depended on it,
whether Mrs. North could have helped some
expression of her objection to orange-sucking
when indulged in by her husband. She came to
an abrupt halt in the doorway and looked much
as if there was a bad smell under her nose.

There was an unpleasant pause. North, in-
wardly fumed, continued to suck his orange.
He had, it is to be feared, the most complete
contempt for his wife 's opinion on all subjects,
and it irritated him to feel that she had never-
theless, at times, a power which, it must be
confessed, she had used unmercifully in the
early days of their married life, to make him
feel uncomfortable.

Finally he flung the orange at the wastepaper
basket, missed his aim, and it landed, the gap-
ing hole uppermost, in the centre of the hearth.

* * If you want to speak to me, * ' he said irrita-
bly, **you had better come arid sit down. On
the other hand, if you do not like my sucking

The Man on the Other Side 175

an orange, you might have gone away till I
had finished."

* * I didn 't say anything, ' * said Mrs. North.

She skirted the offending orange skin care-
fully and arranged the fluffy curls at the back
of her neck in front of the glass. Then she sat
down and arranged the lace in front of her
frock.

**I can't think why you are always so dis-
agreeable now," she complained at length.
^*You used to be so fond of me once."

By this time the atmosphere was electric
with irritation. A more inopportune moment
for such an appeal could hardly have been
chosen.

**I donH suppose you have dressed early to
come down and tell me that," said North. It
was not nice of him, and he knew it was not nice,
but for the life of him he could not help it. In-
deed it was only by a superhuman effort that
his answer had not verged on the brutal.

**I came to talk to you about Violet, but it's
so impossible to talk to you about anything."

**Why tryt" interposed North.

**I suppose you take some interest in your
own child?" retorted Mrs. North. **I daresay
you have not noticed it, but she is looking
wretchedly ill."

North relapsed into silence and continued to

176 The Man on the Other Side

watch Mansfield's preparation on the lawn.

**Have you noticed itf asked his wife, her
voice shrill now with exasperation.

**Yes,'' said North.

**Very well then, why can't you take some
interest? Why can't you ever talk things over
with me like other husbands do with their wives t
And it isn 't only that she looks ill ; she 's altered
— she isn't the same girl she was even a year
ago. And people remark on it. She isn 't pop-
ular like she used to be. People seem afraid
of her."

She had secured North's attention now. The
drawn lines on his face deepened. There was
anxiety as well as irritation in his glances.

**Have you spoken to herf Tried to find out
what is wrong?"

**No," said Mrs. North. **At least I have
tried, but it's impossible to get anything out of
her. It's like talking to a stranger. Really,
sometimes I'm frightened of her. It sounds
ridiculous, of course, but there it is. And we
used to be such good friends and tell each other
everything."

**I am afraid she has never really got over
Dick's death," said North, his manner appre-
ciably gentler. **And possibly her marriage
so soon after was not the wisest thing."

The Man on the Other Side 177

^^You approved of it quite as much as I
did/'

** Certainly. I am not in any sense blaming
you. Besides, Violet did not ask either our
advice or our approval. My meaning rather
is, that possibly she is paying now for what
I own seemed to me at the time a quite amazr
ing courage. ''

**She confided in you all that dreadful time
far more than she did in me,*' said Mrs. North
fretfully, and with her pjtiful inability to meet
her husband when his natural kindness of heart
or sense of duty moved him to try to discuss
things of mutual interest with her in a friendly
spirit. **If you had not taken her away from
me then, it might have been different.''

North shrugged his shoulders, and returned
to his contemplation of the croquet lawn and
Mansfield's preparations. Violet had never
from her babyhood been anything but a bone
of contention, unless he had been content never
to interfere or express opinions contrary to his
wife's.

**What do you want me to dot" he asked.

**Only show some natural interest in your
own child, ' ' she retorted. * * But you never can
talk anything over without being irritable.
And as to her marriage with Fred, we were

178 The Man on the Other Side

all agreed it was an excellent thing. Of course
if you haven't noticed how altered she is, it's
no good my telling you.''

**I have noticed it," said North shortly.

**Well, what do you think we had better dot"

**You really want my opinion?"

North had said this before over other matters.
He wrestled with the futility of saying it over
this. But he knew that his wife was a de-
voted, if sometimes an unwise, mother, and he
had on the whole been very generous to her with
regard to their only child. He sympathized
with her now in her anxiety.

* * Of course I do, " she responded. * * Isn 't it
what I've been saying all this timet"

**Then honestly I don't see what either you
or I can do but stand by. She knows we're
there right enough, both of us. She can depend
on Fred too, she knows that. But it seems to
me that until she comes to us we 've got to leave
her alone to fight out whatever the trouble is
in her own way. I think you are right — there
is trouble. But we can't force her confidence
and we should do no good if we did. I 'm afraid
you won 't think that much help. ' ' He looked at
her with some kindness. **But I believe it is
quite sound advice."

**It's dreadful to feel like a stranger with
one's own child," complained Mrs. North. **It

The Man on the Other Side 179

makes me perfectly miserable. Of course I
don't think a father feels the same as a
mother. * '

A shadow fell across the strip of sunlight
coming in from the window. A gay voice broke
the sequence of her complaint.

* * Oh, here you are ! ' ' it said.

Both of them looked up hastily, almost guilt-
ily. Violet Bliversley stood on the gravel path-
way outside. A gay and gallant figure, slim
and straight in her favourite white. The sun
shone on the smooth coiled satin of her dark
hair, on the whiteness of her wonderful skin.
Her golden eyes danced as she crossed the step
of the French window.

**I felt in my bones you would be having a
party this afternoon,'' she said. **So I put
Fred and myself into the car, and here we are ! ' '

She looked from one to the other and they
looked at her, momentarily bereft of speech.
For here was the old Violet, gay with over-
brimming life and mirth, the beautiful irresist-
ible hoyden of the days beforfe the war, before
Dick Carey had died, suddenly back again as
it were. And now, and now only, did either
of them realize to the full the difference be-
tween her and the Violet they had just been dis-
cussing.

**What is the matter with you both?" she

180 The Man on the Other Side

cried. * * You look as if you were plotting dark
and desperate deeds I And Mansfield is nearly
in tears under the beech-tree because he can't
arrange the chairs to his satisfaction without
you/' She looked at her mother. **He says'*
— she looked at her father and bubbled with
mirth — **the trenches have spoilt his sense
of the artistic! And he says he is a champion
at croquet now himself. He won all the com-
petitions at V.A.D. hospital. Do you think
we ought to ask him to play this afternoon t ' '

**My dear Violet *' began Mrs. North,

smitten by the horror of the suggestion.

**Look here, Vi," said North. On a sudden
impulse he put his long legs down from his deck-
chair, sat erect, and swept her gay badinage
aside. **We were talking about you.''

*'Me!"

She bent her straight black brows at him, a
shadow swept over her brilliance, she shivered
a little.

**I suppose I have been pretty poisonous to
you lately." She meditated for a moment.
Then her old irresistible mischievous smile
shone out. * * But it 's nothing to what I 've been
to poor Fred. ' '

She ran her lithe fingers through North's
grizzled hair and became serious again.

The Man on the Other Sn>B 181

^'Dad and Mums, darlings, I don't know
what 's been the matter with me — ^but I Ve been
in hell. I woke up this morning and felt like
Shnna-something's daughter when the devil
was driven out of her. And I got up and
danced round the room in my nighty, because
the old world was beautiful again and I didn't
hate everything and everybody. And don't
talk to me about what I've been like, darlings
— ^I don't want to think of it. All I know is,
it's gone, and if it ever comes back "

She stopped and repeated slowly:

**If it ever comes back "

Her slim erect figure shivered, as a rod of
steel shivers driven by electric force.

Then she flung up a defiant hand and laughed.
The gay Ught laughter of the old Violet. ^ * But I
won't let it! Never again! Never, never,
never! Mums, come out and wrestle with
Mansfield's lost artistic sense."

She lifted Mrs. North, protesting shrilly,
bodily out of her chair.

''My dear Violet! Don't! Oh, my hat!"
she cried, and retreated, like a ruffled bird, to
the looking-glass over the mantel-shelf to re-
arrange her plumage.

Violet seized her father by both hands and
pulled him too out of his chair.

182 The Man on the Other Sn>E

**Come and play a game of croquet with me
before the guests come, Heir Professor,'* she
said.

It was her old name for him in the days when
Karl von Schade had brought many Grerman
expressions and titles into their midst. It
struck North with a curious little unpleasant
shock.

**Why have you put poor Dick's photo up
heref asked his wife.

**0h, do leave my things alone!'* exclaimed
North.

His wife's capacity for discovering and in-
quiring into any little thing he did not want
to explain was phenomenal. It irritated him to
see her pick up the frame. It irritated him
that she would always speak of his dead friend
as *'poor Dick."

The atmosphere disturbed by Violet's sudden
radiant entrance became once more charged
with electric irritation.

Mrs. North put down the frame with a little
click.

**I thought it was some mistake of the serv-
ant's," she said stiflSy.

Violet pulled her father out of the French
window. * ' Come, we have only time for half a
game now," she said.

Mrs. North followed.

The Man on the Other Side 183

^^Your Miss Seer is coming this afternoon,
Roger,** she said. **I do hope you won't talk
to no one else, if you intend to appear at alL
It looks so bad, and only makes everyone talk ! ' '

With which parting shot she retreated to-
wards Mansfield and the chairs.

Violet slipped her arm through her father's
as they crossed the lawn. **She can't help it,
daddy," she said soothingly.

North laughed, a short mirthless laugh.

**I suppose not. Go ahead, Vi. I'll take
bMe."

They buried themselves in the game after
the complete and concentrated manner of the
real croquet player. Both were above the aver-
age, and it was an infinite relief to North to
find Violet taking her old absorbing interest in
his defeat.

Presently Fred Biversley wandered out and
stood watching them, stolid and heavy as usual,
but his nod to North held meaning, and a great
content. North was beginning to like this
rather dull young man in a way he would once
have thought impossible. He had been the
plainest, the least attractive, and the least in-
teresting of the group of brilliant children who
had grown up in such a bewilderingly sudden
way, almost, it seemed, on the declaration of
war, and of whom so few were left. North's

184 The Man on the Other Side

mind drifted back to those days which seemed
so long ago, another lif etime, to those gay glad
children who had centred round his friend and
so been part of his own life. And then a sudden
nostalgia seized him, a sick sense of the pur-
poseless horror of life. And you cared — really
cared — ^if you made a bad shot at croquet, or
if your wife objected to your sucking oranges.
Mansfield, who had faced death by torture min-
ute after minute out there, was worried because
he could not arrange the chairs at a tennis
party. And those boys and the girl, little Sybil
Bawson, were all broken up, smashed out of
existence, finished. They had not even left any
other boys and girls of their own behind ; they
were some of nature's waste.

He missed his shot, and Violet gave a cry
of triumph. It gave the game into her hands.
She went out with a few pretty finish
shots.

^^Not up to your usual mark that, sir!'' said
Eiversley.

**No," said North. **It was a rotten shotl"
And he did care. He was annoyed with him-
self. * * Rotten I " he said, and played the stroke
over again.

** Absolutely unworthy!" laughed his daugh-
ter.

She put out first one and then the other of

The Man on the Other Side 185

her balls with deft precision and waved her
mallet to an approaching car.

**Here are the Condors, ^^ she said. **And
Condie himself! I haven't seen him for ages,
the old dear!''

She skimmed the lawn like a bird towards
the front door.

Mansfield was tenderly assisting an enor-
mously stout gentleman to get out of the car
backwards.

** Excellent, bombardier!" said the stout
gentleman, i* * Excellent. You havei let !me
down without a single twinge. Now they put
my man into the motor transport. Most un-
fortunate for me. The knowledge of how to
handle a live bomb would have been invaluable."

He heaved slowly round in time to receive
Violet Eiversley's enthusiastic welcome. His
face was very round and full, the features, in
themselves good, partially buried in many rolls
of flesh, the whole aspect one of benign good
nature. Only an occasional penetrating flash
from under his heavy eyelids revealed the keen
intelligence which had given him no small rep-
utation in the political world.

**Ah, little Vi! It's pleasant to see you
again," he said. **How are you. North!"
His voice was soft and thick, but had the beauty
of perfect pronunciation.

186 The Man on the Other Side

It was the only sound ever known to check
his wife's amazing flow of conversation. She
owned herself that it had been difficnlt, but she
had recognized the necessity early in their mar-
ried life.

**You see, no one wanted to hear me talk if
they could hear him,'* she explained. **Now it
has become a habit. Condor has only to say
^Ah!' and I stop like an automaton.''

At this moment she was following him from
the car amid the usual shower of various be-
longings. Violet and her husband assisted her
while North and Mansfield gathered up the
d6bris.

**Yes, my dears, we have been to a meeting
as usual. Natural — ^I mean National Economy.
Condor made a really admirable speech, recom-
mending impossible things ; excellent, of course
— only impossible! My glasses f Thank you,
Eoger. Yes, isn't the car shabby! I am so
thankful. A new Bolls-Boyce has such a pain-
fully rich appearance, hasn't itt And the old
ones go just as well, if not better. That scarf t
Um — ^yes — ^perhaps I will want it. Let us put
it into Condor's pocket. A little more padding
makes no difference to him."

* * When I was younger it used to be my privi-
lege and pleasure to pick up these little odds
and ends for my wife," said Lord Condor,

The Man on the Other Side 187

smiling good-naturedly, while his wife stuffed
the scarf into his pocket. ^ ^ But alas I my figure
no longer permits/*

**I remember my engagement was a most try-
ing time,** said Lady Condor. **My dear
mother impressed on me that if Condor once
realized the irritation my untidiness and habit
of dropping my things about would cause him
in our married life, he would break it off.
What, ViT Oh, danm the thing!**

Violet Riversley, holding a gold bag which
had mysteriously dropped from somewhere,
went off into a helpless fit of laughter.

**Don*t laugh, my dear. It is nothing to
laugh at. I do hope Mansfield did not hear!
One catches these bad habits, but I have not
taken to swearing. I do not approve of it for
women — or of smoking — do I, Condor t But
that wretched bag has spoilt my whole after-
noon ; that is the fifth time it has been handed
to me. I could not really enjoy Condor *s
speech. Quite admirable — only no one could
possibly do the things he recommended. But
where was It Oh yes — the bag — you see, I
bought it at Asprey*s! You know, in Bond
Street — yes. There was a whole window full
of them. How should it strike one that they
were luxuries, and that the scarcity of gold
was so great f One has got quite used to the

188 The Man on the Other Side

paper money by now. And somehow it never
seems so valnable as real sovereigns. I am snre
our extravagance is due to this. It*s nearly as
bad as paying by cheque. But where was It
Oh, my bag I You see, we all went to this meet-
ing to patronize National Economy. Most nec-
essary, Condor says, and we must all do our best.
But it really would have been better, I think,
if we had not all gone in our cars and taken our
gold bags. Everyone seemed to have a gold
bag — and aigrettes on their heads. I never
wear them myself. The poor birds — ^I couldn *t.
But I know they cost pounds and pounds, and
no one could call them necessities. Or the gold
bags of course, if gold is so very scarce. Ought
we to send them to be melted down! I will
gladly send mine into the lower regions. Just
as we were entering it plopped down on the step,
and you can imagine the noise it made, and a
quite poor-looking man picked it up and gave
it back to me. He had on one of the dread-
ful-looking suits, you know, that they gave our
poor dear men when they were demobilized.
He was most pleasant, but what must he have
thought T And I could not explain to him about
the shop window-full because Condor was wait-
ing for me. And then, on the platform, just
as Condor was making one of his most telling

The Man on the Other Side 189

points, it clanged down off my lap, and of
course it fell just where there was no carpet.
I tried to kick it under the chair, but little Mr.
Peckham — ^you know him, dear — ^would jump up
and make quite a show of it, handing it back to
me. No, don^t give it me again. Put it into
Condor's pocket. But he has gone! To see
the pigs with Roger! Isn't it wonderful the
attraction pigs have for men of a certain age I
My dear father was just the same, and he called
his pigs after us — or was it us after the pigsf —
I don't quite remember which. And where is
your mother I Oh, I see — splaying croquet with
Mrs. Ingram. My dear, did you ever see such
a hat ! Like a plate of petrified porridge, isn 't
it! No, tell your mother not to come. I will
just wave my hand. Go and tell her not to stop
her game, dear Violet. And here is Arthur I
He has something important to tell me — ^I know
by his walk. Now let us get comfortable first,
and where we shall not be disturbed. Yes.
Those two chairs over there."

**I do want a little chat if possible, Marion,"
said Mr. Fothersley. He retrieved a scarf
which had floated suddenly across his path, with
the skill bom of long practice. **Yes, I will
keep it in case you feel cold. ' '

He folded it in a neat square so that it could

190 The Man on the Other Side

go into his pocket without damage to either
scarf or pocket, and held the back of her chair
while she fitted herself into it.

**A footstool! Thank you, Arthur. I will
say for Nita, she understands the art of making
her guests comfortable. Now at the Howies*
yesterday I had a chair nearly impossible to get
into and quite impossible to get out of! But
where were we I Oh yes — you have got some-
thing you want to tell me. I always know by
your waif

Mr. Fothersley was a little vexed. **I can-
not see how it can possibly affect my walk,
Marion.**

**It is odd, isn*t itt** said her Ladyship
briskly. **It is just like my dear father. A
piece of news was written all over him until
he got rid of it. I remember when poor George
Somerville shot himself — ^my dear mother and
I were sitting on the terrace, and we saw my
father coming up from the village — quite a long
way off— you could not distinguish a feature-
but we knew at once he was bringing news —
news of importance. But where were we!**

She stopped suddenly and looked at him with
the smile which had turned the heads of half
the gilded youth of fifty years ago.

^^I am a garrulous old woman, my dear
Arthur. You are anxious about something,

The Man on the Other Side 191

and here am I worrying you with my silly
reminiscences — ^yes — ^now what is itt Tell me
all about it, and we will see what can be done. ' '

**I am certainly perturbed/' said Mr. Foth-
ersley. He smoothed down his delicate grey
waist-coat and settled himself back in his chair.
^^I am afraid there is no doubt Nita is becom-
ing jealous of Miss Seer.'*

^^Good heavens! I would as soon suspect
that blue irisl^'

** Quite so! Quite so! But you know what
Nita is about these things. And, unf ortunately,
it appears that Eoger has been over to Thorpe
once or twice alone lately.*'

* * Perfectly natural, ' ' said her Ladyship judi-
cially. ^^He would be interested in the farm
for Dick's sake. I like to go there myself. She
hasn't spoilt the place."

**Nita called her *that woman' to me just
now," said Mr. Fothersley solemnly.

Lady Condor raised her hand. * * That settles
it, of course ! And now, dear Arthur, what is
to be done! We really cannot have one of
those dreadful performances that have un-
fortunately occurred in the past ! ' '

**I really don't know," said Mr. Fothersley.
He was divided between excitement and dis-
tress. ^^It is quite useless to talk to either of
them. Nita generally consults me, but she

192 The Man on the Other Side

listens neither to reason nor advice. And
Eoger only laughs or loses his temper. ^^

**Yes/* agreed Lady Condor. **I think it
depends on the state of his liver. And as for
poor Nita listening to reason on that subject —
well — as you say!^^

**If only she would not tell everybody it
would not be so terrible. ^^

**Ah, that is just the little touch of bour-
geois/^ said Lady Condor. **It was wine,
wasn^t itt Or was it something dried! And
poor dear Boger is really so safe — ^yes — ^he
would be terribly bored with a real affair de
ccsur. He would forget any woman for weeks if
he were arranging a combination of elements to
see if they would blow each other up. And if
the poor woman made a scene, or uttered a
word of reproach even, he would be oflF for
good and all — ^pouf — ^just like that. And what
good is that to any woman! I have told Nita
so, but it is no good — ^no! Now if she had
been married to Condor! Poor darling, he is
perfectly helpless in the hands of anything
in petticoats! It is not his fault. It is tem-
perament, you know. All the Hawkhursts
have very inflammable dispositions. And when
he was younger, women were so silly about
him ! I used to pretend not to know, -and I was

The Man on the Other Side 193

always charming to them all. It worked ad-
mirably. * '

**I always admired your dignity, dear
Marion,*^ said Mr. Fothersley.

''TFe have always shielded our men,*^ said
Lady Condor, and she looked a very great lady
indeed.

**Our day is passing,** said Mr. Fothersley
sadly. **I deplore it very much. Very much
indeed. * *

** Fortunately * * — ^Lady Condor pursued her
reminiscences — ** Condor has a sense j)f humour,
which always prevented him making himself
really ridiculous : that would have worried me.
A man running round a woman looking like an
amorous sheep! Where are my glasses,
Arthur! And who is that girl over there, all
legs and neckt Of course the present style
of dress has its advantages — one has nothing
on to lose. But where was It Something
about sheep! Oh yes, dear Condor. I have
always been so thankful that when he lost his
figure— he had a very fine. figure as a young
man you remember — ^he gave up all that sort
of thing. You must, of course, if you have any
sense of the ridiculous. But about Boger and
Miss Seer. She is a woman with dignity. Now
where can she have got it from! She seems

1914 The Man on the Other Side

to have been bronght up between an orphan
clergy school and some shop — ^was it old furni-
ture! — something old I know. Not clothes —
no — ^but something old. And some one said she
had been a cook. But one can be anything these
days. * *

* * She is of gentle birth, * ^ said Mr. Fothersley.
**Her mother, I gather, was a Courthope, and
the Seers seem to be quite good people — ^Irish
I believe — ^but of good blood. It always tells. ^ ^

* * You never know which way, ^ * said her Lady-
ship sagely. **Now look at my Uncle Marcus.
Oh, there is Miss Seer. Yes — ^I really don^t
think we need worry. It would be difficult to
be rude to her. There, you see — dear Nita is
being quite nice ! And Roger is quite safe with
Condor and the pigs.*^

It was indeed late in the afternoon before
North came upon Ruth, watching a set of tennis.

*'You don^t playt^^ he asked.

^'I never had the chance to learn any of the
usual things,*^ she said, smiling. **I'm afraid
I only came to-day with an ulterior motive. I
want you to show me a photograph of Dick
Carey. '^

* * That, oddly enough, was also in my mind, ^ *
he said, smiling too. **Come into my study and
find it for yourself. ^^

He was conscious of a little pleasant excite-

The Man on the Other Side 195

ment as they went, and also of a carions uncer-
tainty as to whether he wanted the experiment
to succeed or not.

Euth went in front of him through the French
window and stood for a while looking round her.
She was not a slow woman, but nothing she did
ever seemed hurried.

**What a delicious room!*^ she said. **And
what a glory of books ! And I do like the way
you have your writing-table. How much better
than across the window, and yet you get all the
light. I may poke aboutt*^

**0f course. *'

She moved the writing-table and picked up
a quaint letter-weight with interest. The photo-
graph she ignored.

**I love your writing-chair,'^ she said.

**It was my grandfather's. The only bit I
have of his. My parents cleared out the whole
lot when they married — ^too awful, wasn't itt"

* * But your books are wonderful ! Surely you
have many first editions here. Old Baphael
would have loved them."

* * The best of my first editions are on the right
of the fireplace."

She turned, and then suddenly her face lit.
Lit up curiously, as if there were a light behind
it.

**Ohl" she said quite softly, then crossed to

196 The Man on the Other Side

the fireplace and stood looking at the photograph
he had moved that afternoon from the writing-
table.

She did not pick it up or touch it ; only looked
at it with wide eyes for quite a long time.

Then she turned to him.

**That is the man I saw/' she said. **Now
will you believe f

And at that moment the Horizon beyond
Eternity did indeed approach closer, approach
into the realm of the possible.

He admitted nothing, and she did not press it.
She sat down in the big armchair on the small
corner left by Larry, who was curled up in it
asleep. He shifted a little to make more room
for her and laid a gentle feathered paw upon
her knee.

^^ That's odd," said North. **He won't let
anyone else come near my chair when he's in
it."

^^He knows I'm a link," said Buth, smiling.
**I wish you could look on me as that too."

**I do— but for purposes of research only.
You mustn't drive me too quickly."

*'I won't. Indeed I won't." She spoke with
the earnestness of a child who has asked a
favour. **I only want you just not to shut it
all out."

^^I'm interested, and that is as far as I can

The Man on the Other Side 197

go at present. I wondered if you would care
to read a bit of Dick *8 diary which I have here.
It came to me with other papers, and there are
some letters here.*'

* * Oh ! * * The exclamation was full of interest
and pleasure.

He gave her the small packet, smiling, and
she held it between both her hands for a mo-
ment looking at it.

**They will be very sacred to me,** she said.

He nodded. * * One feels like that. It is only
a small portion of a diary. I fancy he kept
one very intermittently. Dick was never a
writer. But the letter about von Schade will
interest you. * *

Euth stood with her eyes fixed on the small
packet. ** Could you tell me — would you mind
— how it happened!** she said.

**A shell fell, burying some of his men. He
went to help dig them out. Another shell fell
on the same place. That was the end.**

She looked up. Her eyes shone.

**He was saving life, not taking it. Oh, I
am glad.**

She put the packet into the pocket of her linen
skirt, gave him a little smile, and slipped away
almost as a wraith might slip. She wanted,
suddenly and overpoweringly, to get back to
Thorpe. ...

198 The Man on the Other Side

Lady Condor, enjoying, as was her frequent
custom, a second tea, said quite suddenly, in
the middle of a lament on the difficulty of ob-
taining reliable cosmetics, **That is a clever
woman ! ' ^

Mr. Fothersley, who was honestly interested
in cosmetics, tore his mind away from them
and looked round.

*'Who!'* he asked.

**Miss Seer. I have been watching, after
what you told me. You have not noticed ! She
has been in Boger *s study with him, only about
ten minutes — ^yes — ^but she has done it without
Nita knowing. Look, she is saying good-bye
now. And dear Nita all smiles and quite
pleasant. Nita was playing croquet of course

but even then Perhaps it was just luck —

but quite amazing. ^^

Mr. Fothersley agreed. **Most fortunate,^'
he added.

'*You know, Arthur, she is not unattrac-
tive, ' ' Lady Condor continued. * * By no means
in her premiere jeunesse and can never have
been a beauty. But there is something cool
and restful-looking about her which some men
might like. You never know, do you! I re-
member once Condor was quite infatuated for
a few weeks, with a woman rather in the same
style. ^'

The Man on the Other Side 199

**But I thought you didn't think " began

Mr. Fothersley.

* * Of course I don *t think — ^not really. ' ' Lady
Condor watched Euth's farewells through her
glasses. '^That's what is so stupid about all
these supposed affairs of Roger's. There never

is anything in them. So stupid '' She

stopped suddenly and looked sideways at him,
rather the look of a child found with a for-
bidden toy.

**But — — '' began Mr. Fothersley, and
stopped also.

The two old friends looked at each other.

** Arthur,*' said Lady Condor. **I believe
you are as bad as I am. Yes — don't deny it.
I saw the guilt in your eyes. So funny — ^just as
I discovered my own. But so nice — ^we can be
quite honest with each other."

*'My dear Marion — ^I don't " Mr. Foth-
ersley began to protest.

**Dear Arthur, yes — ^you do. We both of us
enjoy — yes — ^where are my glasses? What a
mercy you did not tread on them. But where
was It Yes. We both of us enjoy these little
excitements. Positively" — ^her shrewd old face
lighted up with mischief — ** positively I be-
lieve we miss it when Roger is not supposed to
be carrying on with somebody. I discovered
it in a flash just this very moment ! I do hope

\

200 The Man on the Other Side

we don 't really hope there is something in it all
the time. It would be so dreadful of us.**

*' Certainly we do not,** said Mr. Fothersley,
deeply pained but associating himself with her
from long habit. * * Most certainly not ! I can
assure you my conscience is quite clear. Beally,
you are allowing your imagination to run away
with you. We have always done our best to
stop Nita creating these most awkward
situations. * *

* * Yes, of course we have, * * said Lady Condor
soothingly. '*I did not mean that. But now
where is Condor? Oh, he has walked home
across the fields. So good for his figure! I
wish I could do the same for mine. Yes, Nita
has been quite nice to Miss Seer, and now Violet
is seeing her oflF.**

**I am motoring back to town to-night,**
Violet Riversley was saying as she shut the
door of Ruth Seer*s little two-seater car, **or
I would like to come over to Thorpe. How is
it?**

**Just lovely,** said Ruth, smiling. **Be
sure and come whenever you can.**

She had taken off the brakes, put out the
clutch and got into gear before Violet answered.
Then she laid her hand, as with a sudden im-
pulse, on the side of the car.

**If one day I should— quite suddenly — ^wire

The Man on the Other Side 201

to you and ask you to have me to stay — ^would
yout" she asked.

**Why yes, of course,** said Ruth.

'*You might have other visitors— or be
away. ' *

**No, I shall not have other visitors, and I
shall not be away.*'

The conveyances of other guests had begun to
crowd the drive, and Euth had to give all her
attention to getting her car out of a gate built
before the day of cars. It was only when she
was running clear, down the long slope from
Fairbridge, that she remembered the curious
and absolute certainty with which she had an-
swered Violet Eiversley *s question.

CHAPTER IX

THE clouds of a thunderstorm were looming
slowly up as Ruth motored home, and soon
after she got back a sudden deluge swept over
Thorpe. In ten minutes the garden paths were
running with water unable to get into the sun-
baked ground and every hand on the farm was
busy getting young things into shelter.

**I said we should have rain soon,** announced
Miss McCox, after the triumphant manner of
weather prophets, as she brought in Bertram
Aurelius, busy trying to catch the falling silver
flood with both hands.

**He has never seen rain before to remember.
Think of it!*' said Ruth. **And he isn't a bit
frightened. Where are the other children?**

**A little wet, more or less, will do them no
harm,'* replied Miss McCox. ** They're more
in the river than out of it, I'm thinking, bring-
ing in mess and what not." She handed Ber-
tram Aurelius, protesting for once vigorously,
through the kitchen window to his mother.
**It*8 the young chicken up in the top field I'm
after," she added.

202

The Man on the Other Side 203

Buth langhed as she picked up Selina's shiv-
ering little body which was cowering round
her feet, and ran for the river. She liked the
rush of the rain against her face, the eager
thirst of the earth as it drank after the long
drought, the scent of the wet grass. It was all
very good. And if it only lasted long enough,
it would make just all the difference in the world
to the hay crop. The thunder was muttering
along the hill-tops while she rescued the children
from the shelter of a big tree, helped Miss
McCox with the young chicken, and hurriedly
staked some carnations which should have been
done days ago; then she fled for the house,
barely in time to escape the full fury of the
storm.

**The carnations could have been left,*' said
Miss McCox, as she met her at the front door.
' * There 's no sense in getting your feet soaked
at your age. I have a hot bath turned on for
you and if you don *t go at once it will be cold. * *

Bathed, dressed, and glowing with content
of mind and body, Buth watched the end of
the storm from the parlour window. The big
clouds were drifting heavily, muttering as they
went, down towards the east, the rain still fell,
but softly now, each silver streak shining sep-
arately in the blaze of sunlight from the west,
and presently, as Buth watched, a great rain-

204 The Man on the Other Side

bow, perfect and complete, arched in jewelled
glory the sullen blackness of the retreating
storm.

After her dinner she took the packet Roger
North had given her, and sat holding it between
her hands in the big armchair by the window.
The beautiful gracious old room was filling with
the evening shadows, but here the light was
still clear and full. The sunset lingered,
although already the evening star was shining
brightly. Buth sat there, as Dick Carey must
often have sat after his day's work, looking
across his pleasant fields, dreaming dreams,
thinking long thoughts, loving the beauty of
it all.

Here he must have thought and planned
for the good and welfare of the farm. The
crops and flowers and fruit, the birds and
beasts. And in those last days, of the children
who should come, calling him father, to own
the farm one day, and love it as he had loved
it.

Masefield's beautiful lines passed through
Ruth's mind:

**If there be any life beyond the grave,
It must be near the men and things we love,
Some power of quick suggestion how to save,
Touching the living soul as from above."

The Man on the Other Side 205

She sat very still; the lamp, symbol of the
Life Eternal, gleamed more brightly as the
shadows deepened. The glow in the west died
away, and the great stars shone with kindly
eyes, just as it must have shone on Dick Carey,
sitting there dreaming too, loving the beauty
of it all.

And presently Buth became conscious of
other things. Curious and poignantly there
grew around her, out of the very heart of the
stillness, the sense of a great movement of
men and things, the clash of warring instincts,
an atmosphere of fierce passions, of hatred and
terror, of tense anxiety, like an overstrained
rod that must surely break, and yet holds. A
terrible tension of waiting for something —
something that was coming — coming — some-
thing that fell. She knew where she was now;
for, through all the drenched sweetness of the
fields and gardens, sickening, sufiFocating,
deadly, came the smell of the Great Battle-
fields of the world. All of it was there — ^the
sweat of men, the sour atmosphere of bivouac
and dug-out, rotten sacking and wood, the fumes
of explosives, the clinging horror of gas,
the smell of the unattended death. It was all
there, in one hideous whole. Shuddering,
clutching the letters tightly with clenched hands

206 The Man on the Other Side

in her lap^ Bnth was back there again; again
she was an atom in some awful scheme, again
she knew the dread approach. The wait . • .
Great roaring echoes rolled np and filled all
space. Sounds crashed and shattered, rent and
destroyed.

And then, through it all, Bnth felt — ^held it
as it were between the hands of her heart —
something so wonderful it took her breath away,
and she knew it for what it was, through all
the tumult, the horror, and the evil, the strong
determined purpose of a man for a certain
end. It grew and grew, in wonder and in
glory, until her heart could no longer hold it,
could no longer bear it, for it became the strong
determined purpose of many men for a certain
end. It joined and unified into a current of
living light and fire, and sang as it flowed, sang
so that the sounds of horror passed and
fled and the melody of its flowing filled all space,
the sound of the great Song of the Return.

She was no longer a lonely atom in a scheme
she could not understand, no longer a stranger
and a pilgrim in a weary land, but part of
an amazing and stupendous whole, working in
unison, making for an end glorious beyond
conception. Limits of time and space were
wiped out, but when the strange and wonderful
happening had passed over, never then, or at

The Man on the Other Side 2OT

any later time, had she any donbt as to the
reality of the experience. She knew and under-
stood, though, with the Apostle of old, she could
have said, ** Whether in the body or out of the
body I cannot teU.'*

But suddenly the body daimed her again, and
Buth Seer did what was a very unusual thing
with her — she put her face between her hands
and cried and cried till they were wet with tears,
her whole being shaken as by the passing of a
great wind.

When, some time later, she opened the packet
she found the few pages of diary much what
she had somehow expected. Just the short
notes of a man pressed for every minute of
his time, because every minute not given to
definite duty was spent with, or for, his men.
His love and care for them were in every line
of those hasty scraps of writing, kept princi-
pally, it seemed to Buth, so that nothing for
each one might be forgotten. It was that per-
sonal touch that struck her most forcibly. Not
one of his men had a private trouble but he
knew it and took steps to help, not one was miss-
ing but he headed the search party if prior
duties did not prevent, not one died without him
if it were in any way possible for him to be
there. That lean brown hand which she knew
—had seen — whait a sure thing it bad been to

208 The Man on the Other Side

hold. From the little hastly scribbled scraps it
could be pieced together. That wonderful life
which he, and many another, had led in the
midst of hell. The light was fading when she
took the letter out of its thin unstamped enve-
lope, but Dick Carey *s writing was very clear,
each word somewhat unusually far apart.

'*Deab old Bogeb (it ran), —

''We have been badly knocked about, and are
here to refit. Seven of our officers killed and four
wounded ; 348 out of 726 men killed and wounded —
some horribly maimed — ^my poor fellows. This is
butchery, not war. The Colonel was wounded early
in the day and I was in command. Eelsey is gone,
and Marriott, and little Kennedy, of those you knew.
Writing to mothers and wives is hard work. You
might go and see Mrs. Eelsey. She would like it. I
have not a scratch and am well, but the damnable
horror of this war is past belief. I have told Vi as
little as possible, and nothing of the following. Poor
von Schade was brought into our lines, strangely
enough, last evening, terribly mutilated. They had
to amputate both legs and right arm at the clearing
station. I managed to get down after things were
over to see him. But he was still unconscious. We

are in a ruined chateau on the right of ^Forest.

There is a lake in which we can bathe — a godsend.

* * Just midnight ; and while I write a nightingale is
singing. It goes on though the roar of the guns is
echoing through the forest like a great sigh, and even

The Man on the Other Side 209

the crask of an occasional shell does not disturb it.
I suppose bom and bred to it. My Gk)d, what
wouldn 't I give to wake up and hear the nightingales
singing to the river at Thorpe and find this was only
an evil dream!

*'20ih. Yon Schade is gone. I was with him at
the end, but it was terrible. I could not leave him
and yet perhaps it would have been better. He
seemed mad with hatred. Poor fellow, one can hardly
wonder. It was not only himself, so mutilated, but
he seemed convinced, certain, that they were beaten.
He cursed England and the English. Me and mine
and Thorpe. Even Vi. It was indescribably hor-
rible. The evil of this war incarnate as it were "

The letter broke off, and ended with the
scrawled initials

Trs., R. C."

ti-

and an undecipherable postscript:

*'Don't tell Vi."

Had he been called away hurriedly by the
falling shell which had buried his men? The
envelope was addressed in another writing.
She felt it must have been so. Very swiftly he
had followed the man who had died cursing
him and his, out into the world where thought
and emotion, unclogged by this physical matter,
are so much the more powerful and uncontrolled.

210 The Man on the Other Side

Had they met, these two strong spirits, moving
on different lines of force, working for different
endsT What had been let loose when Karl
von Schade had died in that British clearing
station, cnrsing ^^ England and the English,
me and mine and Thorpe. Even Vi/' The
great emotional forces, so much greater than
the physical body which imprisons them, what
power was there when freed; this hatred in a
man of great and cultivated intellect, whose
aim had been no mean or contemptible thing,
whose aim had been power, what was that force
on the other side of death? How much could
it accomplish if, with added knowledge, it so
willed?

Ruth shivered in the warm June night. A
sense of danger to the farm stole over her. A
warning of something sinister, impending,
brooding, as the great thunder-cloud had loomed
up before it burst. She stepped out over the low
window-ledge on to the terrace, looked across
the sleeping beauty before her. Still she held
the papers in her hand. A glimmering moon
was rising behind the trees, a little faint wind
whispered among the leaves. They made black
patterns on the silvered grass as it moved them
very gently. The wind fell, and with it a great
stillness. And out of the stillness came to Ruth
Seer a Word,

The Man on the Other Side 211

She went back into the sitting-room, dark
now except for the light of the little lamp, and
knelt before it, and prayed.

And her prayer was just all the love and
the pity she could gather into her heart for the
strong spirit that had gone out black, and bitter,
and tortured, and filled with hate. The spirit
that had been Karl von Schade.

CHAPTER X

THORPE was rich with the antumn yield
before Violet Riversley claimed Ruth's
promise. July had been on the whole a wet
month, providing however much-needed rain,
but the August and September of Peace Year
were glorious as the late spring, and at Thorpe
an abundant harvest of com was stored by
the great stacks of scented hay. The apple and
pear trees were heavy with fruit. Blenheim
Orange and Ribston Pippin with red cheeks
polished by much sun ; long luscious Jargonelles
and Doyenne du Comice pears gleamed yellow
and russet. The damson-ti'ees showed purple
black amid gold and crimson plums. Mulberry
and quince and filbert, every fruit gave lavishly
and in full perfection that wonderful autumn;
and all were there. Dick Carey had seen to
that. The Blackwall children came and went,
made hay, picked fruit and reaped corn, as
children should. They gathered blackberries
and mushrooms and hazel nuts, and helped Ruth
to store apples and pears, and Miss McCox to
make much jam. Bertram Aurelius got on his

212

The Man on the Other Side 213

feet and began to walk, to the huge joy of Sarah
and Selina. The world was a pleasant place.
Bnth moved among her children and animals
and froit and flowers, and listened to her nighi-
inj^aleSy amid no alien com, and sang the song
old Raphael Goltz had taught her long ago, in
a content so great and perfect that sometimes
she felt almost afraid that she would wake np
one morning and find it all a dream.

**It's just like a fairy-tale that all this should
come to me,** she said to Roger North.

The cottages were finished and tenanted,
their gardens stored and stocked with veg-
etables and fruit-trees, and bright with autumn
flowers, from the Thorpe garden. Even Mr.
Fothersley was reconciled to their existence.

Ruth had been to no more parties; the days
at home were too wonderful. She garnered
each into her store as a precious gift. But the
neighbours liked to drop in and potter round
or sit on the terrace. The place was undoubt-
edly amazingly beautiful and perfect in its way.
The friendliness and trust of all that lived and
moved at Thorpe appealed even to the unrecep-
tive. Here there were white pigeons that flut-
tered round your head and about your feet.
Unafraid, bright-eyed tiny beautiful birds came
close, so that you made real acquaintance with
those creatures of the blue sky, the leaf and the

214 The Man on the Other Side

sunlight. So timid always of their hereditary
enemy through the ages, yet here the bolder
spirits would almost feed from your hand.
Their charm of swift movement, of sudden
wingSy seen so near, surprised and delighted.
Their bright eager eyes looked at you as
friends. The calves running with their
mothers in the fields rubbed rough silken fore-
heads against you; and gentle velvet-nosed
cart-horses came to you over the gates asking
for apples. The children showed you their
quaint treasures, their little play homes in the
trees and by the river. In their wood the
Michaelmas daisies, mauve and white and pur-
ple, were making a brave show, and scarlet
poppies, bad farmers but good beauties, bor-
dered the pale gold stubble fields. Everywhere
was the fragrant pungent scent of autumn and
the glory of fruitful old Mother Earth yielding
of her wondrous store to those who love her
and work for it.

Mr. Pithey was fond of coming, and, still
undaunted, made Buth fresh offers to buy
Thorpe.

"YouVe got the pick of the soil here,'* he
complained. **Now I Ve not a rose in my place
to touch those Bay on d'Or of yours. Second
crop tool And it ain^t for want of the best
manure, or choosing the right aspect. My

The Man on the Other Side 215

man knows what he's about too. Better than
yonrs does, I reckon. He was head man to the
Dnke of Bichborongh, so he ought to."

Buth's eyes twinkled.

**Try giving them away,'' she suggested.

**Givin' 'em away!" Mr. Pithey glared at
her.

** Giving them away," repeated Buth firmly.
**Now sit down here while I tell you all about
it."

Buth herself was sitting on a heap of stubble
by the side of the com field, with little Moira
Kent tucked close to her side.

Mr. Pithey had one of his little girls with him,
and both were dressed as usual in new and ex-
pensive clothing. They looked at Buth's heap
of stubble with evident suspicion, then the
child advanced a step towards her.

**Are you going to tell us a story!"

Buth smiled. **If you like I will," she said.

The child's rather commonplace pert little
face broke into an answering smile. She took
out a very fine lace-bordered handkerchief and
spread it carefully on the ground. Then she
sat down on it with her legs sticking out in front
of her.

Mr. Pithey resigned himself to the inevitable,
and let his well-groomed heavy body gingerly
down too. During the wet weather of July

216 The Man on the Other Side

the little blue-faced lady had contracted pneu-
monia and very nearly died. Backed with
anxiety, for family ties were dear to him, Mr.
Pithey 's inflation and self-importance had failed
him, and between him and Buth a queer friend-
ship had arisen.

**She cared — she really cared,** he explained
afterward to his wife.

So Mr. Pithey showed himself to Buth at his
best, and though perhaps it was not a very
handsome best, the direct result was a row of
cottages as a thank-offering.

**Once upon a time,** began Buth, ** there was
a little Earth Elemental who had made the most
beautiful flower in all the world, or at least it
thought it was the most beautiful, so of course,
for it, it w;a^.''

*' What is an Earth Elemental!** asked Elaine
Pithey.

**The Earth Elementals are the fairies who
help make the plants and flowers.**

**We don*t believe in fairies,** said Elaine
primly.

* * She 's a bit beyond that sort of stuff, * * added
Mr. Pithey, looking at the small replica of him-
self with pride.

**Some people don*t,** answered Buth po-
litely, watching the little blue butterflies among
the pale gold stubble, with lazy eyes. Almost

The Man on the Other Side 217

she heard echoes of elfin laughter, high and
sweet.

**IVe seen them/* Moira broke out very sud-
denly and to Buth's astonishment. That Moira
**saw*' things she had little doubt, but even
to her the little lady was reticent. Something
in the Puritan self-complacence had apparently
roused her in defence of her inner world.

**What are they like thenf asked Elaine,
supercilious still, but with an undercurrent of
excitement plainly visible.

* * They *re different, * ' said Moira. * * Some are
like humming-birds, only they've colours, not
feathers, and some are like sweet-peas made of
starlight. But some of them are just green and
brown — ^very soff

**We took first prize for our sweet-peas at
the flower show,*' announced Elaine suddenly
and aggressively.

^^As big again as any other exhibit they
were,** said Mr. Pithey, dusting the front of his
white waistcoat proudly. * * You may beat us in
roses, but our sweet-peas are bigger, 1*11 lay
half a crown.**

**Why don*t I see fairies any way, if you
do ! * * asked Elaine, returning to the attack now
she had asserted her superiority. But Moira
had withdrawn into herself, bitterly repentant
of her revelation.

218 The Man on the OxkER Side

**Have you ever looked through a micro-
scope t" Buth asked, putting a sheltering arm
round the small figure beside her.

Blaine looked at her suspiciously.

**You mean there's plenty I can't see,'' she
said shrewdly. **But why don't I see fairies
if she does?"

Bluth smiled. ^'I am afraid as a rule they
avoid us as much as possible. You see, we
human beings mostly kill and torture and de-
stroy all the things they love best. ' '

''I don'tl"

Ruth pointed to the tightly held bunch of
dying flowers in the child's hand.

* ' They 're only conunon poppies I ' ' said Elaine
contemptuously.

Ruth took them from her, and, turning back
the sheath of one of the dying buds, looked at
the perfect silken lining of it.

* * Some one took a lot of trouble over making
that," she said. **But suppose you listen to
my story. ' ' Moira 's small hot hand crept into
hers, and she began again.

*^ There was once a little Earth Elemental
who had made the most beautiful flower in the
world. I think it was a crimson rose, and it
had all the summer in its scent. And the little
Elemental wondered if it was beautiful enough
for the highest prize of all."

The Man on the Other SroE 219

**At Battersea Flower Show!'* asked Elaine.

**No. The highest prize in the world of the
Elementals is to serve. And one day a child
came and cut the rose very carefully with a
pair of scissors, and the Elemental was sad,
for it had made the flower its home and loved
it very much. But the child whispered to the
rose that it was going into one of the dark places
which men had made in the world, with no sun-
shine, or sununer, or joy, or beauty, to take
them a message to say that God's world was
still beautiful, and the sun and stars still shone,
and morning was still full of joy and evening
of peace. Then the Elemental was not sorry
any more, for its rose had won the highest
prize. ' '

Elaine's Pithian armour had fallen from her;
out of the little pert face looked the soul of a
child. She had lost her self -consciousness for
the moment.

**And what became of the Elemental!" she
asked.

**The Elemental did not leave its home then.
It went with it. And when the rose had done its
work and slipped away into the Fountain of
all Beauty, the Elemental slipped away with it
too."

** Where is the Fountain of all Beauty!"

**In the Heart of God."

220 The Man on the Other Side

Elaine looked disappointed. ^^Then it's all
an alle — ^gory, I s'pose.*'

**No, it's quite true, or at least I believe it
is. Mr. Pithey" — ^Buth turned on him and her
grave eyes danced — **take a big bunch of your
best roses, a big bunch, mind, down to the Fair-
bridge Common Lodging House for Women,
in Darley Street, and tell the Elementals where
you are taking them. It will stir them up no
end to give you better roses. ' '

* * The Common Lodging House I ' ' Mr. Pithey
was plainly aghast. **Why, they'd think I
was mad, and 'pon my word and honour I
think you are — ^if you don't mind my saying
so."

**Not a bit. I get told that nearly every
day."

*'I'll tell the Elementals, Daddy, and you
can take the roses, and then we'll see," an-
noxmced Elaine, who had been pondering the
matter.

Mr. Pithey regarded her with pride. ** Prac-
tical that, ehf" he said. '*WeU, we'll think
about it. But you '11 have to come along now or
we'll be late for tea with mother. And
as to the roses, I'll beat you yet. Elemen-
tals all nonsense! Dung — good rich dung —
that's what they want. You wait till next
year. ' '

The Man on the Other Side 221

He shook hands warmly, and took his large
presence away.

Buth sent Moira home to tea, and wandered
np the hedgerow, singing to her self, while
Sarah and Selina hunted busily. On the terrace
she found Roger North. He looked worn and
ill and bad tempered. It was some time since
he had been to see her. His wife *s jealousy of
Buth had culminated in a scene and he had a
dread of disturbing the peace of the farm. But
the silliness of the whole thing had irritated
him, and he was worried about Violet on whom
the strange black cloud had descended again
more noticeably than ever. Biversley had gone
to Scotland, writing him a laconic note, **I*m
better away — this is my address if you want
me.''

He drank his tea for the most part in silence,
and when she had finished hers Buth left him
and went about her work. North lit his pipe
and sat on smoking, while the two little dogs
fought as usual for the possession of a seat in
his chair, edging each other out. And presently
Bertram Aurelius came staggering out of the
front door and plump down on the ground be-
fore him. His red hair shone like an aureole
round his head and he made queer and pleasant
noises, gazing at North with friendly and evi-
dent recognition. Larry came padding softly

222 The Man on the Other SroB

up from his favourite haunts by the river and
lay watching them with his wistful amber eyes.

* ' Thank God for the blessed things that don *t
talk/* said North.

The deep lines on his face had smoothed out,
his irritation subsided, he no longer felt bad
tempered.

When Buth came back he smiled at her.
** Thank you, I'm better, '* he said. **When I
arrived I wasn^t fit to * carry guts to a bear.'
You know Marryat *s delightful story, of course !
And how is the farm!'*

*' Can't you feel!''

She stood in the attitude of one listening.
And curiously and strangely there came to
North's consciousness a something that all his
senses seemed to cognize and contract at once.
It was not a sound, it was not a vision, it was
not a sensation, though it combined all three.
Eadiant and sweet and subtle, and white with
glory, it came and went in a flash. Was it only
a minute or eternity !

'*What was it!" His own voice sounded
strange in his ears.

Ruth smiled. ' ' You felt it ! "

*'I felt something. I believe you mesmerized
me, you witch woman."

She shook her head. **I couldn't make any-

The Man on the Other Side 223

one feel that if I knew all the arts in the world.
Only yourself can find that for you/*

**What was it, anyhow!'*
. **I think** — she paused a moment — **I think
it is getting into the Unity of All.**

** Where does the bad go to!**

There was a moment *s silence between them.
But the world of the farm was alive with sound.
The pigeons * coo, the call of the cowman to his
herd, the chuckles of the baby, accompanied
by the full evening chorus of birds.

*' There isn*t any bad in there,** said Ruth.

**Your farm is bewitched,** said North. **I
might be no older than Bertram Aurelius talking
nonsense like this. Come down to earth, you
foolish woman. There's a telegraph boy com-
ing up the drive.**

Ruth*s face clouded a little. **I have not
got over the dread of telegrams, * * she said. * * It
takes one back to those dreadful days **

She shivered as they waited for the boy to
reach them. He whistled as he came, undis-
turbed by much clamour from Sarah and Selina ;
they were old friends and he knew their ways.

Ruth tore the envelope open, read the tele-
gram, and handed it to North. * * May I come ! * *
were its three short words, and it was signed
** Violet Riversley.**

224 The Man on the Other Side

**You will have her!** said North.

**Yes, of course/' Euth penciled her answer
on the prepaid form and handed it to the boy.

North heaved a sigh of relief. **It's good
of you. You know she has not been well. * *

Buth sat down and pointed to the other chair.

**Tell me all you know. It may help.*'

North told her as well as he could. **It^h
all so indefinite and intangible,'' he ended.
** Sometimes I wonder if her mind is affected
in any way. From the shock Dick's death
was to her you know. That anyone should be
afraid of Vi! It seems ridiculous, remember-
ing what she was. She isn't herself. That's
the only way I can describe it to you. Upon my
word sometimes lately I've almost believed
she's possessed by a devil. But if she comes
here — ^well, I don't know why — ^but I think she
will get all right."

Buth did not answer at first. She sat think-
ing, with her elbows on her knees, her face hid-
den between her hands.

That sense of danger to the farm had swept
over her again. A warning as of something im-
pending, brooding; looming up like a great
cloud on the edge of her blue beautiful sky.
Something strange and terrible was coming,
coming into her life and the life of the farm.
And she could not avert it, or refuse to meet

The Man on the Otheb Side 225

it. Whatever it was it had to be met and
fought. Would it be conquered! For it was
strong, terribly strong, and it was helped by
many. And Kvhile the moment lasted, Euth
felt small and frightened and curiously alone.

*'What is the matter f asked Eoger North.
His voice was anxious, and when she looked
up she met his eyes full of that pure and honest
friendship which is so good a thing, and so rare,
between man and woman. Just so might he
often have looked at Dick Carey.

She put out her hand to meet his, as a man
might do on a bargain. ** We will do our best,*'
she said.

And she knew that we was strong.

CHAPTER XI

^^'Vr^Sj I ^^ quite satisfied with things on
X the whole,*' said Lady Condor. **Dear
Roger, you need not snort. Of course you are
a pessimist, so nice! One of the lucky people
who never expect anything, so are never disap-
pointed. Or you always expect everything bad,
is it? and you are never disappointed, because
you think everything is bad I It doesn *t sound
right somehow, but you know what I mean.'*

* * Certainly I It is quite clear, ' * said North,
with commendable gravity.

They were both calling at Thorpe, one cold
afternoon early in October. Ruth had a big
log fire burning in the grate, in the room which
still seemed to belong to Dick Carey. Its
warmth mingled with the scent from big bowls-
full of late autunm roses, lent a pleasing illusion
of summer. Lady Condor, wonderful to behold
in the very latest thing in early autunm hats, on
which every conceivable variety of dahlia
seemed gathered together, sat by the fire talk-
ing of many things.

^'So nice of you to understand!** she ex-

226

The Man on the Other SroB 227

•

claimedy nodding at North genially. **Tliat is
the charm of talking to some one with brains.
But where was I ! Oh yes I I am quite satis-
fied with things, because I see the end of this
horrible adoration of money. The Pithians
have far surpassed my wildest hopes. It has
become positively discreditable to be very
wealthy. At last everyone begins to realize how
truly vulgar has been their idea. I have always
resented this kow-towing down to money. It
gets the wrong people in everywhere, and no
wonder the country goes to the dogs, as my poor
dear father used to say. Now why have we
got Dunlop Biancid as our member! Because
he has brains to help govern! Certainly
not I He is our member because his father
made a large fortune in buttons — or was it
bones! — ^perhaps it was bone buttons. But
something like that. And he subscribed largely
to the party funds, so he represents us, and
when he took me into dinner last week he didn^t
know where King Solomon 's Islands were. Nor
did II But of course that was different. My
dear ' * — she looked suddenly at Violet Eiversley
— **why on earth don^t you make Fred stand
for Parliament! He has a fund of common
sense which would be invaluable to the country,
and he has only to write a big cheque for the
party funds and there he will be.*'

228 The Man on the Otheb Side

Violet Eiversley was curled — almost cronched
— ^up in the armchair opposite her Ladyship.
She lifted her head when directly questioned
and laughed a little. It was not a nice laugh.
It fell across the warm sweet-scented room like
a note from a jarred string.

**Why should one bother!** she said. **The
country is welcome to go to the dogs for all I
care. I*m sorry for the dogs, that*s all.**

There was a little silence, a sense of discom-
fort. The bitterness underlying the words
made them forceful— of account. Lady Condor
felt they were in bad taste, and North got up,
frowning irritably, and moved away to the
window. Violet, however, was paying no atten-
tion to either of them. She was looking at
Buth, with her golden eyes full of something
approaching malice.

*'You go on playing with your little bits of
kindness and your toys, and think everything
in the garden is lovely I** She laughed again,
that little hateful laugh. **And what do you
suppose is really going on all the time I You
human beings are the biggest fraud on the face
of the earth I * *

Buth started a little at the pronoun. Her
serenity was disturbed ; she looked worried.

**You talk of righteousness, and justice, and
brotherhood, and all the rest of the rotten hum-

The Man on the Other Side 229

bug,** Violet Biversley went on, **and hold up
your hands in horror when other people trans-
gress against your paper ideals. But every
nation is out for what it can make, every people
will wade through oceans of blood and torture
and infamy if it thinks it can reap any benefit
from it. And why not? Survival of the fittest,
that is nature *s law. But why can *t you say so ?
Instead of all this hypocrisy and pretence of
high morals. You make me sick! What pos-
sible right have you to howl at the Germans?
You are all the same — ^England and Prance and
America — the whole lot of you. You have all
taken by force or fraud. You have all driven
out by arms and plots weaker peoples than your-
selves. I don't blame you for that — ^weaker
people should go — ^it is the law of nature. But
don *t go round whining about how good you are
to them. You are just about as good to them as
you are to your animals or anything else weaker
than yourselves. Why can't you have the cour-
age of your brutality, and your lust, and your
strength. It might be worth something then.
You might be great. As it is you are only
contemptible — the biggest fraud on the face of
creation. ' '

She faltered suddenly, and stopped. Ruth's
eyes had met hers steadily, all the time she had
been speaking ; and now her hostess spoke slowly

230 The Man on the Other Side

and quietly, as one speaks to a little child when
one wants to impress something upon it.

**Why do yon talk like that, Violet Kiver-
sley ? * ' she asked% * * Yon know yon do not think
like that yonrself.**

North, standing by the window, watched, with
the fingers of a horrible anxiety gripping him.
His daughter's face in the leaping firelight
looked like a twisted distorted mask. Lady
Condor, open-mouthed, comically perplexed,
stared from one to the other, for once speech-
less. .

**It is the truth. '* Violet Kiversley uttered
the words slowly, it seemed with difficulty.

^^You do not think so,'* answered Ruth, still
as one who would impress a fact on a child.
Then she rose from her chair. **Comef she
said, with a strange note of command in her
voice, **I know you will all like to walk round
the place before tea.''

Violet passed her hand across her eyes, much
as a person will do when waking from the
proverbial forty winks. She stood up, and
shivered a little.

Ruth was talking, after a fashion unusual to
her, almost forcing the conversation into certain
channels. **Yes, of course, you are very right,
Lady Condor," she said. **No man can be
valued truly until you see what he can do just

The Man on the Other Side 231

with his brain and his character and his own
two hands. Now I can give Violet a really fine
character for work. As a matter of fact I am
filled with jealousy. She can milk quicker than
I can. I think because she learnt when she was
quite young. Mr. Carey taught her. * '

* * Poor dear Dick I He did teach the children
such queer things,** said Lady Condor, allowing
herself to be assisted out of her comfortable
chair by the fire without protest. **But who
was it learnt to milkf Some one quite cele-
brated. Was it Marie Antoinette! Or was it
Queen Elizabeth? It must be just milking time ;
let us go, dear Violet, and see you milk. It
will interest us so much, ' ' she added, witjli that
amazing tact which no one except those who
knew her best ever realized.

Violet followed them into the garden with-
out speaking. Her eyes had a curious vacant
look; she moved like a person walking in her
sleep.

Lady Condor took Ruth's arm and dropped
behind the others on the way to the farmyard.
**My dear,*^ she said, **I don't know what's
the matter, but I see you wish to create a di-
version. Poor dear Violet, I have never heard
her talk such nonsense before. Rather un-
pleasant nonsense too, wasn't itf Can it be
she has fallen in love with one of those dreadful

232 The Man on the Other Side

Socialist creatures? I believe they can some-
times be quite attractive, and the young women
of the present day are so oiUre, you never know
who or what they will take up with. Besides,
I believe they wash nowadays. The Socialists
I mean, of course. In my day they thought it
showed independence to appear dirty and with-
out any manners. So funny, was it not? But
I met one the other day who was charming.
Quite good looking and well dressed, even his
boots. Or, let me see, was he a Theosophist?
There are so many * ists ' now, it is difficult not
to get them mixed up. But where was If Oh
yes — dear Violet! Where can she have got
those queer ideas from! I do hope she is not
attracted by some 4st.' I so often notice that
when a woman gets queer opinions there is
either a man, or the want of a man, at the bot-
tom of it. And it cannot be the latter with
dear Violet. Ah, now here we are. Don^t the
dear things look pretty! And you have such
a lovely milking shed for them. Violet, you
really must show me how you milk. I should
like to begin myself. But donH you have to
lean your head against the cow f — and it would
ruin my dahlias.'*

**Come and see the real dahlias instead, '*
said Violet, laughing. ** Yours are the most
wonderful imitation I have ever seen. I don't

The Man on the Other Side 233

believe you could tell them from the real ones.
Where did you get them? Madame Elsaf **

Her voice and manner were wholly natural
again. North looked palpably relieved, but
when his daughter had disappeared with Lady
Condor towards the flower garden he turned
anxiously to Buth.

^^Does she often talk like thatf he asked.
**It is so unlike her — so absolutely unlike — '*
He stopped, his eyes searched Buth's, and for
a moment there was silence. **What is itf**
he asked.

They were wandering now, aimlessly, back
to the house.

**If I were to tell you what I think,'* said
Buth slowly, **you would call me mad.'*

**You don't mind that." He spoke im-
patiently. ** Tell me."

**Not yet — ^wait. Did anything strike you
when she burst out like that just now?"

North did not answer. He had ridden over,
and still held his whip in his right hand. He
struck the fallen rustling leaves backwards and
forwards with it as he walked, with the sharp
whish expressive of annoyance and irritation.

**Tou women are enough to drive a man crazy
between you," he said.

This being plainly no answer to her question
Buth simply waited.

234 The Man ox the Other Side

**How often has she talked in that strain?**
North asked at length*

** Twice only, before to-day.*'

**And yon — call her back to herself — ^as yon
did jnst now?**

**Ye8.**

They had reached the terrace, and he stood
facing her. He searched her eyes with his as
he had done before.

**It is not possible,** he said, bnt the words
lacked conviction.

Bnth said nothing. Her eyes were troubled,
bnt they met his steadily-
Then at last North told her. **It might
have been Karl von Schade speaking,** he
said.

**Come indoors,** she said gently.

He followed her into the warm rose-scented
room and sat down by the fire, shivering. She
threw more logs upon it, and the flames shot
np, many-hned, rose and amber, sea-green and
heliotrope.

**Tell me what you think, what you know,**
said North.

Buth looked into the leaping mass of flame,
her face very grave. Her voice was very low,
hardly above a whisper.

* * I think the hatred in which Karl von Schade
passed into the next world has found a physical

\

►-«±^'.

Man

instrument through which to manifest here,'*
she said.

**And that instrument is — good God I''
North 's voice was sharp with horror. * * It isn 't
possible — the whole thing is ridiculous. But go
on. I heard to-day. That has happened twice
before you say. You suspected then, of course.
Is there anything elsef

And even as he spoke, things, Uttle things,
that Violet had said and done, came back to him.
The shrinking of the dogs, his own words —
**She is not herself — took on new meaning.

** There is a blight upon the farm since she
came, ' ' said Buth. * * The joy and peace are not
here as they were. Perhaps you would not
feel it, coming so seldom.'*

* * Yes, I noticed it. But Violet has not made
for peace of late. I thought it was just her
being here."

**The children don't care to come as they
did, and there have been quarrels. The crea-
tures are not so tame. Nothing is doing quite
so well. These are little things, but taken all
together they make a big whole."

** Anyway it's not fair on you," said North
shortly. **The place is too good to spoil, and
you "

In that moment, the supreme selfishness with
which he and his had used her for their own

236 The Man on the Other Side

/ benefit, as some impersonal creature, that could
not be weary or worried or overtaxed, came
home to him. He felt suddenly ashamed.

Buth smiled at him. * * No, ' ' she said. * * The
farm, I, you, are all just instruments too, as
she has become, poor child. Only we are in-
struments on the other side.'* Her voice
dropped, and he leant forward to catch the
words. * * Dick Carey 's instruments ; we cannot
fail him.**

*'Then you think ''

* * See I ' ' She held herself together, after her
queer fashion, as a child does when thinking
hard. **You remember in the letter about von
Schade, when Mr. Carey wrote: *he died curs-
ing England, the English, me and mine and
Thorpe. It was like the evil of this war incar-
nate.' Do you think that force of emotion
perished with the physical, or do you think
the shattering of the physical left it free?
And remember too, Karl von Schade had stud-
ied those forces, had learnt possibly something
of how to handle them. Then Violet, Violet
whom he had loved, after his own fashion, and
to whom he would therefore be drawn '*

**But if there is any justice, here or there,'*
broke in North, **why should she become the
brute *s instrument ? * *

* ^ Because she too was filled with hate. Only

The Man on the Other Side 237

so could it have been possible. Think for a
minute and you will see/'

In his youth, North had been afflicted with
spasms of stammering. One seized him now.
It seemed part of the horror which was piercing
the armour in which he had trusted, distorting
with strange images that lucid brain of his, so
that all clear train of thought seemed to desert
him. He struggled painfully for a few mo-
ments before speech returned to him.

**D — danm him. D — damn him. Damn
him," he said.

Buth sprang up, and laid her hand across
his mouth. Fear was in her eyes. He had
never thought to see her so moved, she who was
always so calm, so secure.

**For pity's sake stop,'* she said; **if you
feel like that you must go. You must not
come here again. You must keep away from
her. Oh, don't you see you are helping him?
I ought not to have told you; I did not realize
it might fill you with hate too."

**I'm sorry," said North harshly. **I'm
afraid anything else is beyond me."

He had given up all attempt to insist that
it was impossible. The uncanny horror had
him in its grip. He felt that he had bidden
farewell to common sense.

Buth grew imperative. ^^For Qod's aake.

238 The Man on the Other Side

try!'* she said. **DonH hate. Don't curse
him like that. Don *t you see — ^you cannot over-
come hate with hate ; you can only add to it. I
find it so hard myself not to feel as you do.
But oh, don't you see, all his life Dick Carey
must have loved, in a small far-off way of
course, as God loves. And everything that
lived and moved and breathed came within the
scope of his tenderness and his pity. And That
which was himself did not perish with the phys-
ical either. That too is free — ^free and fight-
ing. You can only overcome hate with love.
But on a physical plane, even God Himself
can only work through physical instruments/'

She stopped, and looked at North implor-
ingly.

* * I have your meaning, ' ' he said more gently.
Her sudden weakness moved him indescribably.

**And the worst of it is,'' she went on, **I
have lately lost that sense of being in touch
with him. You remember how I told you about
it. It came, I thought, through us both loving
the farm, but indeed I did know, in some strange
way, what he wanted done and when he was
pleased. You will remember I told you. If I
could feel still what was best to do, but it
is like struggling all alone in the dark ! Only
one thing I know, I hold to. You cannot over-

The Man on the Other Side 239

come hate with hate. You can only overcome
hate with love. But the love i-s going out of
the farm. It was so full of it — 60 full — ^I could
hear it singing always in my heart. But now
there is something awful here. I can sense it
in the night, I can feel it in all sorts of ways.
The peace has gone that was so beautiful, the
radiance and the joy. And always now I have
instead the sense of great struggle, and some
evil thing that threatens. ' *

**It is not fair on you or on the farm,** said
North, very gently now. ** Violet ought to
leave. ' *

**I don*t know. Sometimes I have thought
so — and yet — I don't know. I am working in
the dark. I know so little really of these things
— we all know so little.**

**Her presence is injuring the farm, or so it
seems. Indeed, it must be so. A human being
full of hate and mi-sery is no fit occupant for
any home. Also we have no right **

Ruth looked at him, and again he felt
ashamed. **I beg your pardon,** he said.

**We have the sort of right that you acknowl-
edge, I know, but I don*t think we should
claim it.**

^^She came to me, or rather, I think, to the
farm, to the nearest she could get to him. Or

240 The Man on the Other Side

again, it might be the other force driving her.
I don^t know. But I can't send her away. I
think of it sometimes, but I know I can'f

**What is she like on the whole f

^^DuU and moody sometimes, wandering
about the place, hardly speaking at alL Once
or twice she stayed in her room all day and
refused all food. But at other times she will
follow me about wherever I go, clinging to me
like a child, eager to help. Sometimes she will
commit some horrible Uttle cruelty, and be
ashamed of it afterwards and try to hide it.
If she could speak of it at all, confide in any-
one it would be better I think. But she does
not seem able to.*'

North sat staring into the fire with haggard
eyes, the deep lines of his face very visible as
the flames leapt and fell.

**It will send her out of her mind if it goes
on,'' he said at length.

Ruth did not answer. Her silence voiced
her own exceeding dread; it seemed to North
terrible. If she should fail he knew that it
would be one of the worst things which had ever
happened to him. In that moment he knew
how much she had come to stand for in his
mind. He kept his eyes upon the fire and did
not look at her. He dreaded to see that fear
again in her eyes, dreaded to see her weak. It

The Man on the Other Side 241

was as if the evil of the world was the only
powerful thing after all. And he knew now
that he had begun to hope, things deep down
in his consciousness had begun to stir, to come
to life.

But presently Ruth spoke again, and, look-
ing up, he met the old comforting friendliness
of her smile. Her serenity had returned. Her
face looked white and very worn, but it was
no longer marred with fear.

^^I am sorry, ^' she said, ^^and I am ashamed
to have been so foolish, to have let my-
self think for a moment that we should fail.
Hate is very strong and very terrible ; but love
is stronger and very beautiful. Let us only
make ourselves into fit instruments for its
power. We must. If Karl von Schade lasts
beyond, so too, more surely still, does Dick
Carey. Why should we be afraid? Will you
give to Karl von Schade the instruments for his
power and deny them to the friend you loved?
And is it so difficult after all? Think what he
must have suffered, his poor body broken into
pieces, his mind full of anguish that his coun-
try was ruined, beaten, and full of the horrors
he had seen and which he attributed to us.
Think of those last awful hours of his, and have
you at least no pity? Try for it, reach out for
it, get yourself into that mind which you knew

242 The Man on the Other Side

as Dick Carey. Take Karl van Schade into it
too in your thought/*

She stopped, her voice broken, but the light
that shone in her face was like a star.

* * I will try, * ' said Roger North.

In the pause that followed the approaching
clatter of Lady Condor's re-entry was almost
a relief. She brought them back into the re-
gions of ordinary everyday things. Violet, too,
was laughing, getting more like herself. The
tension relaxed.

^^Miss Seer, if I had planted my dahlias
among yours, really you would, never have
found it out. They are an amazing imita-
tion — quite amazing. Condor thinks my taste
in hats too loud. But if men had their way we
should all dress in black. So depressing!
Tea! I should love it. But no, I cannot stay.
I have a duty party at home. So dull, but Con-
dor is determined that Hawkhurst shall stand
for the Division now he is safely tucked away
in the other House himself. All the old party
business is beginning again, just as if there
had been no war, when we were all shrieking
*No more party politics.' *No more hidden
policies.' So like us, isn't it? I shall put
Caroline Holmes in the chair at all the women *s
meetings. She does s.o love it — and making
speeches. Yes. She is to marry her Major this

The Man on the Other Side 243

antamn, but she assures me it will not ^curtail
her activities.' Curtail! so nice! But where
was If Oh yes, my tea-party, and I would so
much rather stay here. I remember I was just
going to be clever, and what happened? Oh,
we went out to see Violet milk, and we saw the
dahlias instead. Good-bye. Good-bye. And
come soon to see me."

So Lady Condor conveyed herself, talking
steadily, outside the sitting-room, with Roger
North in attendance carrying her various be-
longings. But as she progressed across the
hall, and intrt her waiting car, she fell upon
a most unusual silence. It was not until she
was well settled in that she spoke again.

**I don't like Violet's looks, Roger," she said
then, her shrewd old eyes very kindly. **Why
are there no babies f There should always be a
nursery full of babies for the first ten years of
a woman's married life. And where is Fred?
You should speak to him about it. ' '

She waved a friendly hand at him, various
articles falling from her lap as she did so, and
the car rolled away.

North gave a little snort of bitter laughter as
he turned back into the house. Fred? Fred
was eating his heart out, catching salmon in
Scotland ; and Violet was at Thorpe, obsessed by
a dead man 's hatred. He was filled with all a

244 The Man on the Other Side

man's desire to cat the whole wretched business
summarily, but the thing had got him in its
devilish meshes, and there was no escape. He
stayed to tea because he felt he must help Ruth,
and yet with the uneasy consciousness that he
was doing rather the reverse. Violet had fallen
into one of the moody silences so common to her
now, and, after she had had her tea, went back
to her chair by the fire and a book. Ruth and
Bioger talked of the farm intermittently and
with a sense of restraint, and presently Violet
tossed her book on to the opposite chair and left
the room.

''What is she reading!'' asked Roger.

He crossed to the fire and picked the book up.
It was The Road to Self -Knowledge, by Ru-
dolph Steiner, and on the flyleaf, neatly written
in a stiflf small writing, *'K. von Schade."
Then Roger suddenly saw red. The logs still
burnt brightly in the grate, and with a con-
centrated disgust, so violent that it could be felt,
he dropped the book into the heart of the flames
and rammed it down there with the heel of his
riding boot. The smell of burnt leather filled
the room before he lifted it, and watched, with
grim satisfaction, the printed leaves curl up in
the heat.

He made no apology for the act, though pre-
sumably the book was now Ruth's property.

The Man on the Other Side 245

' * That will show you just how much help I ^m
likely to be, * ' he said. ' ' Always supposing that
you are right. And now I'd better go.'*

Ruth smiled at him. The child in man will
always appeal to a woman. *'Yes, go,'' she
said. ' ' I will let you know if there is anything
toteU."

North rode home with all the little demons of
intellectual pride and prejudice, of manlike con-
tempt for the intangible, whispering to him,
''You fool."

His wife made a scene after dinner about his
visit to the farm. She resented Violet having
gone there. It had aroused her jealousy, and
her daughter came under the lash of her tongue
equally with her husband. Then North lost his
temper, bitterly and completely ; they said hor-
rible things to each other, things that burn in,
and corrode and fester after, as human beings
will when they utterly lose control of them-
selves. It ended, as it always did, in torrents of
tears on Mrs. North's side, which drove North
into his own room ashamed, disgusted, furious
with her and himself.

He opened the windows to the October night
air. It was keen, with a hint of frost. The
thinned leaves showed the delicate tracery of
branches, black against the pale moonlit sky.
The stars looked a very long way off. Utterly

246 The Man on the Other Side

sick at heart, filled with self -contempt for his
outbreak of temper, straggling in a miasma of
disgast with life and all things in it, he leant
against the windowsill; the keen cool wind
seemed to cleanse and restore.

A little well-known whine roused him, to find
Vic scratching against his knee. He picked her
up, and felt the small warm body curl against
his own. She looked at him as only a dog can
look, and, carrying her, he turned towards the
dying embers of the fire and his easy chair.
Then he stopped, remembering, noticing, for the
first time, that Larry had not come back with
him.

^^^r-

CHAPTER Xn

NORTH did not visit the farm again. He
sent Ruth a brief line: **I am better
away/' That he made no apology and ex-
pressed no thanks gave her the measure of his
trust in her and her friendship.

She answered his brief communication by one
equally brief: **Try not to think of it at all if
you cannot think the right way. '*

So North buried himself in his work, forced
and drove himself to think of nothing else.
Slept at night from sheer weariness, and grew
more haggard and more silent day by day. At
least if he could not be on the side of the angels
he would not help the devils.

The month was mostly wild and wet, with
here and there days of supreme beauty. It
was on one of these, the last day of October, that
Ruth and Violet went, as they often did, for a
long tramp through the wet woods and over the
wind-swept hills towards the sea. The atmos-
phere was that exquisite clearness which often
follows much rain. The few leaves remaining
on the trees, of burnished golden-brown, came
falling in soft rustling showers with each gust

247

248 The Man on the Other Side

of the fresh strong wind. They had walked
far, so far that they had come by hill and dale
as the crow flies to where the fall of the ground
came so abruptly as to hide the middle distance,
and the edge of the downs, broken by its low
dark juniper-bushes, stood before them, clear-
cut, against the great sweep of coastline far
away beneath. Pale gold and russet, the flat
lands stretched, streaked with the sullen silver
of sea-bound river and stream, to where, like
a hard steel blue line on the horizon, lay the sea
itself. And behind that straight line, black and
menacing, and touched with a Uvid ragged edge,
rolled up the coming of a great storm.

It made a noble picture, and Buth watched it
for a few moments, her face responding, an-
swering to its beauty. She loved these land-
scapes of England, loved them not only with her
present self, but also with some far-away depth
of forgotten experience. And it seemed to her
that she loved with them also those '* unknown
generations of dead men^^ to whom they had
been equally dear. For these few moments, as
she looked out over the edge of the downs, she
forgot the haunting evil which was darkening all
her days, forgot everything but the beauty of
great space, of the wild rushing wind, the free-
dom — ^the escape.

Odd bits of quotations came to her, as they

The Man on the Other Side 249

always did in these moments ; one, more insis-
tent than the others, sang, put itself into mnsic,
clear, bell-like, mysterious :

**When I have reached my journey's end,
And I am dead and free.''

And in that moment her sense of being in
touch with Dick Carey came back to her. Came
flooding in like a great tide of help and encour-
agement and power.

''And I am dead and free.

>>

And yet people were afraid of death I
The great winds came up from the sea across
the earth-scented downs, shouting as they came.
She loved them, and the big dark masses of
cloud. She could have shouted too, for joy of
that great sense of freedom, of power, of con-
trol, because she was one with those magnificent
forces of nature. In her too was that strength
and freedom which bowed only to the One who
isAU.

The blood tingled in her veins; in the full
sweep of the wind she was warm— warm with
life. She forgot Violet Eiversley cowering at
her side. Forgot the little dogs crouching,
tucked against her feet, and swept for one wild
moment out into the immensity of a great free-
dom. Then, suddenly, the steel-blue line of sea

250 The Man on the Other Side

broke into white, the storm-clouds met and
crashed, and lightning, like the sharp thrust of a
living sword, struck across the downs, struck
and struck again. Heaven and earth and the
waters under the earth shuddered and reeled in
the grip of the storm, and Violet Riversley,
screaming with terror, fell on her knees by Ruth,
clasping her, crying:

*'Keep it away from me I Keep it away I
God! I can't bear it any longer! Keep it
away!'*

And at her cry all the motherhood in Ruth's
nature, never concentrated only on the few,
leapt into full life and splendour, spread its
white wings of protection. And away and be-
yond her own love and pity she felt that of
another. Away and above her own fight was a
greater fight, infinitely greater. She picked the
girl up into the shelter of her arms, and her
whole heart cried out in a pwission of pity. She
said odd little foolish words of tenderness, as
mothers will, for the form she held was as light
as that of a little child; just a shell it felt,
nothing more.

And then, suddenly, the rain fell in one blind-
ing rushing flood, drenching the little group to
the skin, blotting out everything with its tor-
rential flow.

**Ah, look!'* said Ruth, almost involuntarily.

The Man on the Other Side 251

A great flash of light had broken through from
the west, and against the violet black sky the
rain looked like a silver wall. It was amaz-
ingly, even terribly, beautiful.

''We are in for a proper ducking,*^ she said,
trying to regain the normal. ''Wet to the skin
already, all of us. And Sarah and Selina
frightened to death, the little cowards ! You 'd
better keep moving, dear. Come along. * *

It seemed a weary way home. Never had
Buth been more thankful for the presence of
Miss McCox in her household. Fires, hot baths,
hot coffee, all were ready; and she dried even
Selina, though surreptitiously, behind the
kitchen door that none might behold her weak-
ness, with her own hand. She put Violet to bed
after her hot bath, and ordered her to stay there.
Nothing but asserting herself forcibly kept Buth
from a like fate.

' ' Them as will be foolish, there is no reason-
ing with,'' said Miss McCox, with dignity, and
retreated to the kitchen muttering like the
storm.

After a lull, it had returned again with re-
newed force. The old house rocked as the great
wind hurled itself upon it, shrieking against the
shuddering windows as if demanding admit-
tance. Sheets of wild rain broke upon the
panes, and every now and then the thunder

252 The Man on the Other Side

crashed and broke and rent. After her dinner
Ruth went up and sat by the log fire in Violet *8
room. The pillow on which she lay was hardly
whiter than the girPs face. Her great gold eyes
gazed out into the shadows blankly. Very
small and young and helpless she looked, and
Euth's heart ached for her. She chatted on
cheerfully, as she wove a woollen garment for
some little child of France with her ever-busy
fingers; chatted of the little things about the
farm; told little quaint stories of the animals
and flowers. Had she known it, just so had
Dick Carey often talked, in the winter evenings
over the fire, to the listening children. But
Violet Eiversley just lay still, gazing into the
shadows, taking little notice. She made no allu-
sion to her violent attack of terror out in the
storm, and it grew on Euth uncannily and hor-
ribly that the girl who had clung to her, crying
for help, had slipped away from her again,
somewhere out into the darkness and silence,
torn from all known anchorage.

The little dogs had remained in their baskets
downstairs; only Larry had followed her up,
and lay across the doorway, his nose upon his
paws, his eyes gleaming watchfully out of the
shadow. Every now and then, when the shat-
tering wind with increasing violence struck
against the house again and again and wailed

The Man on the Other Side 253

away like a baffled spirit^ he growled in his
throat as at a visible intruder.

It was late before Buth gathered her work up
and said good-night. She was honestly tired in
mind and body, but an unaccountable reluctance
to leave Violet held her. And yet the girl was
apparently less restless, more normal, than
usual. Tired out, like herself, surely she would
sleep. Her terror out in the storm seemed en-
tirely to have gone.

So Buth reasoned to herself as she went down-
stairs.

In the sitting-room the little dogs slept
soundly in their bai^ets. The fire still burned,
a handful of warm red ashes. The whole place
seemed full of peace and comfort, in marked
contrast to the rush and wail of the storm out-
side. Buth crossed to the lamp to see that it
was in order, and moved about putting little
tidying touches to the room, as women do the
last thing before they go upstairs to bed. She
was fully alive to the fact that the three weeks
of Violet 's visit had been a heavy strain on her,
mentally and bodily. It would be quite easy
to imagine things, to let this knowledge that she
was fighting steadily, almost fiercely, against
some awful unseen force overwhelm her, to
drive her beyond the limits of what was sanely
and reasonably possible. With her renewed

254 The Man on the Other Side

sense of awareness of Dick Carey's presence
had come an indefinable yearning tenderness for
Violet Riversley which had been lacking before
in her kindly interest and friendship. To give
way to fear or dread was the surest way to fail
in both.

She looked out at the night. By the light
streaming from the window she could see a
streak of rain-washed lawn, and, dimly, beyond,
the tortured branches of trees bowed and
strained under the whip of the wind. She drew
all the forces of her mind to the centre of her
being.

' ' Lord of the heights and depths. Who dwell-
est in all the Forms that Thou hast made. * *

She let the blind fall into its place and moved
back into the room. Larry had settled himself
in the big armchair which had been Dick Gary *s.
She stooped to stroke his head, and he looked
at her with eyes that surely understood.

' ' Lord of the heights and depths. Who dwell-
est in all the Forms that Thou hast made.*'

She kept the words and the thought in her
mind quite steadily. Almost as soon as she lay
down she passed into sleep, and dreamt —
dreamt that she was walking in the buttercup
field with Dick Carey and it was early morning
in the heart of the springtime. And he told her
many things, many and wonderful and beautiful

■_; . . - ^v^vr^

The Man on the Other Side 255

things, which afterwards she tried to recall and
could not. And then, suddenly, he was calling
to her from a distance, and she was broad wide
awake sitting up in bed, and Larry in the room
below barked fiercely, then was silent.

The next instant she had thrown her dressing-
gown over her shoulders and was running bare-
footed across the landing and down the stairs.
Midway across the big old hall she stopped dead,
for on her had fallen, swiftly and terribly, that
old horror of her small childhood, a sense of all-
pervading blackness. It gripped her as forcibly
as it had done in those far-off days. Again she
was a small utterly helpless thing in its hideous
clutch. The light streaming from under the
sitting-room door accentuated the blackness,
gleamed evilly, assumed a sinister and terrible
importance.

Almost she turned and fled — fled out of the
door behind her into the storm-swept night,
away to the clean air, to the darkness which was
full of beauty and healing. Not this — this that
stifled, and soiled, and buried. Away — ^any-
where — anyhow — from what was behind that
flickering evil light, which made the hideous
blackness visible as well as tangible.

Almost, but not quite. That which the long
years of patience and endurance had built into
her, held. Dick Carey had called to her. What

[56 The Man on the Other Side

if he were in there, fighting, fighting against
odds. For the world was full of this Evil let
loose, the vibrations became palpable, engulfed
her, beat her down. For a moment that seemed
endless she fought for more than physical life.

Then she moved forward again, and it was as
in dreams when feet are leaden-weighted and
we move them with an effort that seems past
our strength. But she did not hesitate again.
Steadily she opened the door. Dragging those
leaden feet she went in and closed it behind her.

A blast of hot air met her, insufferably hot.
Some one had made up the fire again. Piled
high with logs it burnt fiercely. The room was
in disorder. In the far comer by the south
window the little dogs lay cringing with terror,
trembling, while before them Larry crouched,
his white fangs bare, his lips lifted till the gums
showed, his blazing eyes fixed on the figure in
the centre of the room — the figure of Violet
Eiversley.

Before her, piled on the floor, were various
articles, books and papers, gathered together
and heaped in the shape of a bonfire. At her
feet lay the bronze lamp. In her right hand she
held the wick, still alight. Curiously, the light
from the blazing logs played on the long folds
of her white gown. Almost it seemed as if she
were clothed in flame.

The Man on the Other Side 257

It was more subconsciously than in any other
way thait Ruth took in these details, for every
sense she had — ^and all had become most acutely
alive — concentrated on the terrific and hideous
fact that, enveloping Violet, encasing her as it
were, was a great outstanding Figure or Pres-
ence. Fear gripped her to the soul like ice.
She could have screamed with very terror, but
she was beyond the use of the body, beyond, it
seemed, all help. For the entity that was not
Violet Riversley, very surely not Violet Eivers-
ley, but a being infinitely stronger and more
powerful, looked at her with the eyes of a soul
self -tortured, self -maimed, and she saw in all
their terrific hideousness Hate and Revenge in-
carnate.

And as ehe looked a worse horror gripped
her. The Thing was trying to master her, to
make her its instrument, even as it had made
Violet Riversley. The very hair of her head
rose upon it as she felt her grip on herself loos-
ening, weakening. Her individuality seemed to
desert her, to disintegrate, to disappear.

It might have been a moment ; it might have
been an eternity.

Then, as from a long way off, she heard Larry

give a strange cry. Something between a howl

and a bay its vibration sitirred the air through

. miles. The cry of the wolf to the pack for help.

258 The Man on the Other Side

The old dog had stood up, his jowl thrust for-
ward, his body tense, ready for the spring.

With a final desperate effort, which seemed
to tear her soul out of her body, But& cried too
— cried to all she had ever thought or dreamed
or held to of Good; and in that moment her
awareness of Dick Carey suddenly became
acute. Afterwards, in her ordinary oonscious-
nees, Ruth always found it impossible to recap-
ture, or in any way adequately to remember, the
sensations of the next overwhelming moment.
Not only were they beyond speech they seemed
beyond the grip of ordinary thought.

After that moment of supreme terror, of in-
credible struggle, with the acute return of her
awareness of Dick Carey, with some crash of
warring elements and forces, mingling as part
of and yet distinct from the raging of the out-
side storm, she regained Herself. Was out as
it were, in illimitable space, fighting shoulder to
shoulder, hand to hand, one with Dick Carey.
One, too, with some mighty force, fighting glor-
iously, triumphantly, surely; fighting through
all the Ages, through all the Past, on through
all the Future, beyond Space and beyond Time.

Then, suddenly, she was carried out — ^in no
other way could she describe it afterwards — out
of the strees and the battle on a wave of very

■>*l.w-l

^,^.<^jlt&-

The Man on the Other Side 259

pure and perfect compassion into the heart of a
radiance before which even the radiance of the
fullest sunlight would be as a rush candle.
And into that inj&nite radiance came too the
deadly hatred, the unspeakable malice, the crav-
ing for revenge, the bitterness, the rebellion —
came and was swallowed up, purified, trans-
muted. In a great and glorious moment she
knew that the Force was one and the same, and
that it is the motive power behind which makes
it Good or Evil.

Then the outside storm concentrated and fell[
in one overwhelming crash. The house rocked,
and rocked again. Ruth, mechanically step-
ping forward, caught in her arms a body which
fell against her almost like a paper shell. Very
swiftly she carried it out into the hall. Her
normal senses were suddenly again acute ; they
worked quickly. And on the stair, infinitely to
her relief, appeared the shiniiig polished coun-
tenance of Miss McCox. Her attire defied
description, and in her hands she held, one in
each, at the carry, the proverbial poker and
tongs. Behind her came Gladys, open-mouthed,
dishevelled, likewise fully armed, and accom-
plishing a weird sound which appeared to be a
combination of weeping and giggling.

Ruth struggled with delightful and inextin-

260 The Man on the Other Side

gaishable laughter, i;^ch she felt might very
easily degenerate into hysterics, for she was
shaking in every limb.

* * No, no ; it is not burglars I ' ' she said. * * Put
those things down, and take Mrs. Biversley.
She has been walking in her sleep, and I am
afraid has fainted. You know what to do. I
must telephone the doctor.*'

In her mind was the immediate necessity of
dealing with that sinister bonfire before it could
work damage, also before any eyes but her own
should see it.

The lighted wick had fallen on to papers
sprinkled with the oil, and already, when she
returned to the sitting-room, little tongues of
flame were alight and a thin pillar of smoke
crowned its apex. She delt swiftly with it with
the heavy rugs luckily to her hand, and when
the creeping fire was crushed out and stifled she
put the injured remains of treasured books and
ornaments hurriedly into the drawers of the big
bookcase. The damage to the carpet there was
no possibility of concealing, and after a moment
of thought she took one of the charred logs,
black and burnt out, and scattered it where the
pUe had been. Then she took the wick in which
the light still burned, true symbol of the Life
Eternal, and restored it and the lamp to its own

Ik

The Man on the Other Side 261

place, drew back the cartainSy and opened the
great window looking south.

It was early morning. The storm was riding
away in broken masses of heavy cloud.
I>renched and dim, and covered with a rising
silver mist, the racked world rested in a sudden
calm. But the storm had left its traces in the
broken branches strewing lawn and garden and
field, and across the pathway a great elm-tree,
snapped half-way up the main trunk, lay with
its proud head prostrate, blocking the main
entrance.

The coolness of the dawn touched like a bene-
diction Buth 's tired face and black and bruised
hands. For a few moments ehe stood looking
up at the washed sky, the fading stars, while the
dogs nestled against her, craving for notice.
A great sense of life and happiness came flow-
ing into her, flowing like a mighty tide with
the wind behind it, and she knew that all was
well.

She would have given a good deal to sit down
and cry, but there was much to be done. That
morning passed like a hurried nightmare, the
whole house pervaded with that painful agita-
tion which the shadow of death, coming sud-
denly, brings, for Violet Biversley was
desperately and dangerously ill. She was in a

262 The Man on the Other Sidf

high fever, wildly delirious, and Ruth found it
impossible to leave her. Miss McCox took com-
mand in her absence, and moved about house
and farm a very tower of strength in emer-
gency, while Gladys haunted her footsteps, cry-
ing at every word, as is the manner of her kind
in such moments. In the sitting-room, Boger
North and his wife, summoned by telephone,
waited while the doctor made his examination.
The room had been stiflBy set in order by Miss
McCox's swift capable hands. Over the
scordhed and blackened patch on the carpet she
had set a table, nothing but a general air of
bareness and smell of burning remained to hint
of anything unusual. Both windows were
opened wide to the chill early morning air, and
Mrs. North crouched by the fire shivering.

She was utterly unnerved and overcome.
The message had arrived just as she was dress-
ing. She had swallowed a hurried breakfast^
when, quite strangely, it did not matter that the
coffee was not so good as usual, and the half-
dozen notes and letters from various friends
were of no real concern whatever. She had
been engaged to lunch at the Condors. In the
afternoon she had promised to give away the
prizes at a Village Work Show. And into all
this pleasant everyday life had come, shatter-

The Man on the Other Side 263

ing it all into little bits, the sadden paralyzing
fact that Violet had been taken dangerously ill
during the night.

She and her husband had driven over in the
little car to find the doctor still in the sick-room.
Ruth was also there, and questioning Miss
McCox was much like extracting information
from the Sphinx.

^^I always disliked that woman; she has no
more heart than a stone, '* Mrs. North com-
plained tearfully. ^^And I do think she ought
to tell Miss Seer we have arrived. It is dread-
ful to be kept away from one's own child like
this and not know what is happening. '^

** Eliot will be down soon, I expect, '* said
North. He was wandering aimlessly, rest-
lessly, about the room, for as the time length-
ened his nerves too grew strained with waiting.
What had happened? All sorts of horrible
possibilities pressed themselves upon him. If
only Ruth would come and he could see her
alone for a moment I

He stopped in his restless pacing, and looked
down kindly at his wife's shivering form.
** Shall I shut the windows f he asked.

**No,'' she answered; ** never mind. Oh,
Roger, do you think she will die T I can 't bear
it I Oh, why doesn 't he come 1 ' '

264 The Man on tkb Other Side

She got up and clutched her husband 's coat-
sleeve, hiding her face on his shoulder.
** Roger, I couldn't bear her to die.*'

Never before had the great presence of Death
really come near to her, except to summon the
very old whose life had already almost passed
to the other side. And now, suddenly, like a
bolt out of a serene blue sky, it was standing
beside her, imminent, threatening, and, to her,
unspeakably terrible.

Soger North put an awkward arm round her.
He felt uncomfortably stiff and useless, €tnd
ridiculously conscious of the fact that she had
forgotten in her hurry and distress to take her
hair out of the curler at the back of her neck.

He was honestly anxious to be sympathetici
to be all that was kind and helpfuL His own
anxiety racked him, and yet, absurdly enough,
that curler obtruded itself on his notice until
he found himself saying, **You have left one of
your curlers in. ' *

He was acutely aware that it was about the
last thing he should have said and wholly un-
suitable to the moment, but his wife, fortunately,
took no such view.

**It just shows the state of my mindl'* she
exclaimed, trying with shaking fingers to dis-
entangle it. **I have never done such a thing

The Man on the Other Side 265

in my life before ! What a mercy you noticed
itr'

He helped her to get the little instroment out,
■and put it in his pocket.

There was the sound of a closing door above,
the hurried movement of feet, and Mrs. North
clutched her husband's arm. They both looked
towards the door. But silence fell again, and
she began to cry.

**Do you think she's dying, Roger!"

**No, no! Eliot would send for us, of
course. ' ' He began his restless walk to and fro
again. ^^I wish we had got here before Eliot
did. You could have gone in with him then.''

And here, at last, footsteps came down the
stairs, across the hall, the door opened, and the
doctor came in.

He was an imusual man to find buried in a
country practice. A man of outstanding intel-
lect and of a very charming presence. Be-
tween him and North a warm friendship ex-
isted.

**Ah, you have come I" he exclaimed.

He took Mrs. North's hand and looked down
at her with exceeding kindness.

**The child is very ill and I fear brain trou-
ble," he said. **I gather she went for a long
walk yesterday and got drenched in the storm,

266 The Man on the Other Side

80 it is possibly aggravated by a chilL Do yon
know of any special worry or troubled

** Nothing whatever, '* said Mrs, North deci-
sively. ** Except, of course, poor Dick's death.
She felt that very much at the time, and Roger
thinks she has never got over it, don't you,
Roger!''

Roger nodded. For a moment he considered
laying before his friend the abnormal situation
in which Ruth Seer believed, and which he him-
self had come anyway to recognize as within
the realms of possibility. But the inclination
faded almost as soon as bom. He had had no
speech yet with Ruth, nor did it seem fair to
Violet. Possibly, perhaps, some personal pride
held him.

The doctor looked at him kindly. **Poor lit-
tle girl I Well, she made a brave fight, I re-
member. Now, Mrs. North, no worrying.
How old is the child! Twenty-six! You can
get over anything at twenty-six I I'm sending
in a nurse, and that woman upstairs is worth
her weight in gold. You couldn't have her in
better hands. Now you 'd like to go up and have
a look at her. Don't get worried because she
won 't know you ; that's part of the illness. ' '

But outside he looked at Roger with an anx-
ious face.

** She's very ill, North," he said. *'It must

The Man on the Other Side 267

have been coming on for some time. The storm
— ^yes — ^that shook it up into active mischief , no
doubt. We'll pull her through, I hope; but
would you like a specialist's opinion! These
brain troubles are very obscure.*'

**I leave it to you,'' said North, his whole
being sick and empty.

**Well, well see how she goes on in the next
twenty-four hours."

He sped away, and Roger wandered aimlessly
about the farm, looking at the wreckage of the
storm, with Larry and the little dogs, conscious
in their dumb way that their beloveds were in
trouble, keeping at his heel.

By one of those vagaries which make the Eng-
lish climate iso lovable in spite of its iniquities,
it was, after the day and night of storm and
rain, that very wonderful thing a perfectly
beautiful morning in November. The sun
shone with astonishing warmth, scattering great
masses of grey and silver cloud, against which
the delicate black tracery of bough and twig,
stripped of every lingering leaf, showed in ex-
quisite perfection.

The farm was wide awake and astir with the
life of a new day. But Vi, little Vi, was lying
up there, at the Door of Death. BecoUections
of her as a soft-headed, golden-eyed baby came
back to him ; as a small child flitting like a white

268 The Man on the Other Side

butterfly about the garden ; as a swift vision of
long black legs and a cloud of dark hairy running
wild with the boys ; as the glorious hoyden who
had taken her world by storm in the days just
before the war. And now she lay there a
broken thing, tossed and driven to death in the
purposeless play of soulless and unpitying
forces. He ground his teeth in impotent rage,
overcome with a very anguish of helpless pain
and wrath. If only Ruth would come and tell
him what had happened I

The cowman, who was helping the gardener
clear away the remains of the storm, came up
from the fallen tree and spoke to him. He was
sorry to hear there was illness at the house.
North thanked him mechanically and escaped
into the flower garden. The few remaining
flowers were beaten to the groxmd, their heads
draggled in the wet earth. He got out his knife
and began to cut them off and tidy up the bor-
der. He could watch the house at the same
time. The minutes dragged like hours, and
then, at last, the door on to the terrace opened,
and Buth came out.

She looked round and, catching sight of him,
hurried by the shortest way, across the wet
grass, to meet him. His pain-ravaged face
smote her with a great pity. She held out both
her hands to meet his.

The Man on the Other Side 269

**I could not come before,'* she said. **She
is quieter now. Oh, do not feel like that I She
will get well. I know she will get well.*'

** Where can we go to be alone f he asked.
**I must hear what happened. It is that which
has been driving me mad. ' *

^ ^Let us go and walk along the path under the

* house on the wall,' '' she said. **No one will
come there and it is sheltered and warm in the
sun. ' '

And there, pacing up and down, she told him,
as well as she could, the happenings of the night
before.

North ground his teeth. * * She would be bet-
ter dead,'* he said. **And yet '* He

looked at her, a new horror growing in his hag-
gard eyes, a question f

**She wiU not die,'' said Ruth. **But don't
you understand, don 't you believe, whether she
lives or dies the evil is conquered, is transmuted,
is taken in to the Eternal Good? "

**No, I cannot believe," said North harshly.

* * I think you are playing with words. It seems
to me that only Evil is powerful. If anything
survives, it is that."

Ruth looked at him with very gentle eyes.

* * Wait, ' ' she said. * * Have just a little patience.
She will get well, and then you will believe. ' '

**I cannot believe," said Roger North. The

270 The Man on the Other Side

words fell heavily, like stones. He paced rest-
lessly backwards and forwards, crunching the
wet gravel viciously under his feet.

**The house might have been burnt down.
You — ^I suppose you think that was the objects

**Yes, I think it must have been so. At any
rate one of them. ' '

**That is the loathsome horror of it all I''
North burst forth savagely. **I believe just
enough, because in no other way can I account
for what has happened, to make me dread death
for her in a way I should never have dreaded it
otherwise. I have always looked on our per-
sonal grief as fundamentally selfish."

Ruth was silent. He seemed beyond the
reach of help, and she would have given so much
to help him. That he, at any rate for the mo-
.ment, gave no thought to what she had been
through disturbed her not at all.

** Listen, '* she said presently. **You may
think it all imagination, or what people call
imagination, but if you could only have seen it,
as I did, you would know it was very, very real.
It was when I was alone with her waiting for
Doctor Eliot. I went to the window to pull the
blind down a little, and when I turned round
again — ^I saw'' — she stopped, searching for ad-
I equate words — **I saw what looked like a wall

f

The Man on the Other Side 271

of white light. I can't describe it any other
way, though it was not like any light we know
of here, more wonderful, alive in some strange
way. It was all round her. No evil thing could
get through. I am so sure.'*

She looked at him with her heart in her eyes,
but Boger North shook his head.

**It leaves me cold,'* he said. **Is that why
you feel so sure she will get wellf

**No. But I am sure; that is all I kn^ow.'*

And to that Buth held through the days of
tense anxiety that followed, through the visit of
the specialist from London, who gave little hope,
through the despair of others. She moved
among them as one carrying a secret store of
strength. Mrs. North, pitiably broken up, clung
to her for help and comfort, but North, after the
talk in the garden, had withdrawn into himself
and kept aloof. The ravages day after day
marked on his face went to Buth's heart when
he came over to inquire. But for the moment
he was beyond her reach or help. Whatever
devils from the bottomless pit rent and tore his
soul during these dark days, he fought them
single-handed, as indeed, ultimately, they must
be fought by every man.

Mrs. North and Fred Biversley stayed at
Thorpe.

272 The Man on the Other Sid?

** Uncommonly decent of Miss Seer/' said Mr.
Pithey to his wife. * * Turning her house into a
hotel as well as a hospital ! That stuck-up little
Mrs. North, too. IVe heard her say things
about Mi«s Seer that have put my bristles up.
Give me Lady Condor every time. Paint or no
paint I '*

But Mrs. Pithey had leamt things down in the
dark valley. She was not so censorious as of
old.

**I don't cotton to Mrs. Nori;h myself, '* she
answered. ** She's a woman who overprices
herself. But she's a mother, and Miss Seer
could do no less than take her in. Tou might
take down some of these best Musk Gat grapes
after tea, 'Erb. P'raps Mrs. Riversley could
fancy 'em.'*

Everyone indeed was very kind, but with the
exception of Lady Condor and Mr. Fothersley,
Euth kept visitors away from Mrs. North.

Fred Eiversley had astonished everyone by
turning out a wonderful nurse, and what little
rest Violet had was in his strong arms, nursed
like a child. She seemed nothing more, and in
her delirium had gone back to the days of her
childhood and talked of little else, and more and
more happily as the time went by.

**One might as well try to keep a snow
wreath, *' he said one afternoon to Buth, who

The Man on the Other Side 273

was giving him tea after his usual tramp round
the fields for some fresh air and exercise.

Even as he spoke there was a little bustle and
scuny outside the door, and before it opened
Biversley was on his feet and moving towards
it.

Mrs. North stood there, half laughing, half
crying. **0h, she is better!'* she cried. **She
has gone into a real sleep. Nurse says we may
hope. She will get well.'*

She dropped on to her knees by the fire and
buried her face against the cushions of the sofa,
sobbing and crying, while Riversley tore across
the hall and up the stairs two steps at a
time.

■ . ....

It was early on the following morning that
Violet Riversley opened her eyes and looked at
her husband with recognition in them.

**Dear old Freddy, *' she said weakly.
**What's the matter!''

He put his arms round her with the tears run-
ning down his cheeks, and she nestled to him like
a tired child and fell asleep again.

When she woke the second time the room was
full of the pale November sunshine. She looked
round it curiously for a moment, then her mind
seemed to give up the effort to remember where
she was and she looked at him.

274 The Man on the Other Side

**I do love you, Freddy,*' she said.

The morning sounds of the farm came in
through the open window and she smiled. ^ ^ Of
course, I'm at Thorpe. I dreamt I was with
Dick.'*

Outside, Ruth went across the terrace to her
farm work. Her face was that of one who holda
secure some hidden store of happiness. She
sang to herself as she went :

**When I have reached my joum^'s end,
And I am dead and free."

The words floated up clear and sweet through
the still air.

**Dead and free.*' Violet repeated them in
a small faint voice, and again Fear gripped
Riversley by the throat. He longed to hold her
more closely and dared not. There seemed no
perceptible substance to hold. His mouth went .
dry while he struggled with his diflSculty of
speech.

**The journey is worth making too, Vi,** he
said.

The husky strangled voice made its appeaL
She looked with more of understanding into his
bloodshot eyes, his haggard ravaged face, and
her own face became suddenly very sweet and
of a marvellous brightness.

The Man on the Other Side 275

^^Yes,*' she said, **the journey is worth mak-
ing too.'*
More distant came the sound of Ruth's song:

''I pray that Gt)d will let me go
And wander with them to and fro,
Along the flowered fields I know,

That look towards the sea,

That look towards the sea. "

The white pigeons swooped down about her.
The dogs, so long kept in to heel, rushed wildly
over the lawn and down to the river, uttering
sharp cries of joy. A robin, perched on the
coping of the old wall, sang sweet and shrill.
She looked out over her beloved fields, over the
long valley full of misty sunshine, and was con-
tent. The farm was Itself again. She moved
on across the lawn leaving footprints on the
silver wet grass, to where, standing by the gate,
she saw Roger North.

He turned at the sound of her coming, and she
called to him :

**She has slept ever since I 'phoned to you.
She will get well."

*' Thank God!^^ he said, as men will in. these
moments, whether they believe or no.

His face was curiously alive, alight with some
great happening; there was an air of joyous

276 The Man on the Other Side

excitement about him. He moved towards her,
and smiled a little, rather shamefaced smile,
and the odd likeness to a schoolboy who is feel-
ing shy was very apparent. Then he blurted it
out.

^ ' I have seen him, ' ' he said.

**AhI'' The exclamation was a note of pure
joy. **0h, tell me about it I'*

**He was leaning over the gate. He was
looking for me, waiting for me, just as he used
to do. And he looked at me with his dear old
grin. It was ever eo real."

**Yes. Yes."

**And he spoke. Just as you have told me.
It isn 't the same as speaking here. It 's some-
thing like a thought passing "

He stopped, his face all alight. He looked
years younger. The heavy lines were hardly
visible.

^^I wish I had spoken. Somehow at the mo-
ment I couldn^t."

* * I know. One cannot. I believe it is because
of the vibrations. I suppose * ' Buth hesita-
ted. * * Can you tell me t * '

*'What he saidt It — ^it seems so ridiculous.
One expected it would be something important,
something — ^well, different. * '

She laughed, looking at him with affection.

The Man on the Other Side 277

with that wonderful look of pure friendliness.

"Bntwhyshonlditt^'

He laughed too — ^joyously. As he had not
laughed since boyhood. Surely again the world
was full of wonder and of glory. Again all
things were possible, in the light of the Horizon
beyond Eternity.

**He said — ^just as he used to, you know —
KJome on, oldBogerl' '*

THB VNJ>

■•!- •np-"" •*

THB NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
RBFBRBNCB DBPARTMBNT

This book » under no circumatenocs to be
taken from the

fwrni 410