False Colours

‘Yes, yes, but he didn’t know who I was! I couldn’t tell them! Mrs Askham was in a regular stew over it, thinking what would be her feelings, if it had happened to Jeffrey, or Philip! They are her two elder sons. I haven’t met Jeffrey: he’s a parson; but Philip was there – a very good fellow! he’s up at Cambridge. Then there’s Ned. He’s still at Rugby, but he’s army-mad. And, in the nursery –’

‘Yes, I daresay!’ said Kit, ruthlessly interrupting this enthusiastic catalogue. ‘But what I want to know is why these excellent people didn’t think to take a look inside your card-case! If you were going to see Silverdale – yes, I know about that! – you can’t have forgotten to take it with you!’

‘No, no, I did remember to do that!’ Evelyn assured him. He cast another of his guilty looks upon his twin, but his eyes were brimful of laughter. ‘The thing was that there weren’t any cards in it! Now, Kester, don’t comb my hair! I was in a hurry, but I did remember to assure myself that the case was in my pocket, and – dash it, I won’t let you rake me down! I am your elder brother, and the head of the family, so just you keep your tongue between your teeth!’

‘God help the family!’ retorted Kit, the laughter reflected in his own eyes. ‘Of all the paperskulls – ! Was there nothing to tell the Askhams who you are?’

‘No, what should there be? I’d only my nightbag with me, and you don’t suppose I flaunt about the country with my crest blazon

ed on my sporting carriages, do you?’

‘No, but when you came round? They must have asked you what your name was!’

‘Yes, they did – at least, Mrs Askham did, when I came round the first time. I don’t remember it, and they say I slipped off again, but it seems that Mrs Askham asked me what my name was, and though I didn’t answer until she’d asked me several times, in the end I said “Evelyn”. Very likely I thought I was at Harrow, and saying my catechism! I don’t know! But when I really did come to my senses I found they were calling me Mr Evelyn. At first, I didn’t care what they called me. Then, when I got to be more myself, and knew how many days had passed, and that I must have lurched myself with the Stavelys, it didn’t seem to signify. Well, Kester, I was all to pieces, and they didn’t encourage me to talk, because Dr Elstead had warned them not to do so! And later – I didn’t want to tell them.’ He paused, studying his right hand, lying in the sling, the flicker of a reminiscent smile playing about the corners of his mouth. After a moment, as Kit waited, in some bewilderment, he looked up, and for the first time in his life met his twin’s eyes with a little shyness in his own. ‘Kester, when I woke up the second time, and looked round, wondering where the devil I was – I saw an angel!’

‘You saw what?’

‘Sitting in a chair, and watching me,’ said Evelyn, in a rapt voice. ‘With eyes of such a clear blue – oh, like the sky! and shining – I can’t describe them to you! And the sweetest, tenderest mouth – and pale gold hair, like a halo! I almost thought myself dead, and in heaven! And then she rose up out of the chair, and said, in her soft, pretty voice: “Oh, you are better!” With such a smile as only an angel could have!’

‘Oh, did she?’ said Kit, no longer bewildered. ‘As though we weren’t in a bad enough tangle already! And what else did she say?’

‘Nothing,’ replied Evelyn simply. ‘She vanished!’

This was rather too much for even the most devoted twin to accept with complaisance. ‘Stubble it!’ commanded Kit wrathfully. ‘If you don’t stop talking as if you’d rats in your upper storey, Eve, I’ll go back to Vienna tomorrow, and leave you to get yourself out of this hobble as best you may!’

‘Kester!’ exclaimed Evelyn, in accents of deep reproach.

Kit’s lips quivered, but he said sternly: ‘Cut line!’

Evelyn laughed. ‘Well, she seemed to vanish! She went away to fetch Mrs Askham back into the room. She had been set to watch me, you see – they never left me alone until I came to myself, and Nurse had gone off to her dinner, and Mrs Askham had been called away, which was why Patience was there. After that, I only saw her when she brought up a glass of milk for me, or some such thing, and then only for a moment, and never alone, of course, for Mrs Askham guards her strictly, until that curst sawbones – no, I don’t mean that! He was a famous fellow! – until I was allowed to leave my bed. James – Mrs Askham’s man-servant – was used to help me dress, and to support me downstairs, for I was as weak as a cat for days! Fit for nothing but to lie on a sofa, which they carried into the garden for me, and to watch the children at their play!’

‘Also to talk to the angel, I collect!’ said Kit dryly. ‘Is she a daughter of the Askhams?’

‘The eldest daughter. Yes, then I was able to talk to her, but always – always with Mrs Askham there, or Nurse, or the children! It didn’t signify – they were right to guard her! And though I knew, the instant I clapped eyes on her, that it was bellows to mend with me, she is so – so divinely innocent, Kester, I couldn’t suppose that she felt the same! They might have left us alone for hours: I – I wouldn’t have said a word to her that might have startled her! She’s such a shy little bird – no, not shy, precisely! So open, and confiding! So unaffected, so –’

‘Innocent,’ supplied Kit, as his besotted twin hesitated for a word.

‘Yes,’ agreed Evelyn. ‘Did you – did you ever meet a girl, Kester, who made you feel that – that the only thing you wanted to do in life was to protect her – shield her from so much as a draught?’

‘No,’ replied Kit. He added tactfully: ‘Not yet!’

‘I hope you may!’ Evelyn said, in all sincerity. The next instant, he frowned, and shook his head. ‘No, I don’t! Not in your style!’

‘It doesn’t sound to me as if she was quite in yours,’ Kit ventured to suggest.

A brilliant smile answered him. ‘I didn’t know, until I saw Patience, what was my style! How could I? I never met a girl that even faintly resembled her!’

There did not seem to be anything to be said in reply to this. Kit merely asked: ‘Are the Askhams still labouring under the impression that you are Mr Evelyn?’

‘No. Before I came away, I made a clean breast of it to Mr Askham. I told him about that damned Trust, and – and how I had meant to bring it to an end – Oh, not why, of course! – and – well, all of it, except what concerned Mama! I daresay it may seem odd to you that I should do so, but you won’t think it when you’ve met him, Kester! He is a man of strong principle, and considerable pride, but he wants neither sense nor feeling, and one can talk to him, as if he were – I was about to say one’s father, but the lord knows we could never talk anything but commonplace to Papa, could we? He was very much surprised, of course, and he didn’t like it above half, but in the end I managed to get him to say that although he must forbid me to say anything to Patience, until I’d settled my affairs, and that neither he nor Mrs Askham had ever wished Patience to make an unequal marriage – such stuff! – he wouldn’t forbid me to come to the house again, if I was seriously attached to Patience, and if he believed her affections to be engaged also. I couldn’t hope for more, and I think Mrs Askham will stand my friend – though she gave me the devil of a scold! I would have left Woodland House then – thinking it was what I ought to do, besides knowing I must see you as soon as possible – but Mrs Askham wouldn’t hear of it, because the doctor came to see me that day, and told her to keep me quiet for another day or two.’

‘Oh, so you knew I was here, did you?’

‘Good God, Kester!’ exclaimed Evelyn. ‘You may be the clever twin, but you haven’t all the wits in the family! Of course I knew it, the instant I saw that thing in the Morning Post! If old Lady Stavely and Cressida had gone to stay with Lord Denville at Ravenhurst, it was as plain as anything could be that you’d come home, and had stepped into my shoes!’ His voice changed suddenly, with his mood. ‘I know why you did it. Only to get me out of a scrape! You couldn’t have done anything else – but O God, I wish you hadn’t! It was bad enough before, but I could have gone to Cressy – told her the truth – then! There was never any pretence between us, and she has a great deal of sense – not one of your simpering die-aways! But now, when she’s been staying at Ravenhurst, and that curst newspaper has set everyone’s ears acock – ! And even if that hadn’t happened, there is still Mama to be considered! Kester, what am I to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Kit frankly. ‘But I can relieve your mind of one thing! I’ve played you false, Eve! I am going to marry Cressy!’

Evelyn had sunk his brow on to his clenched fist, but at these words he raised his head, staring at Kit, as if he could scarcely believe his ears. ‘You are going – Does she know, then? That you’re not me?’