Philippa Carr - [Daughters of England ] by Pool of St. Branok

Author:Pool of St. Branok
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Return

THE VOYAGE WAS UNEVENTFUL. There were warm days on deck when we sat and dreamily talked. We could not help comparing this with the last voyage and memories of Gervaise were ever present. He had been full of optimism, so certain was he that he would come home a rich man. It had never occurred to him that he might not come home at all.

There was rough weather in the Tasman Sea and sailing round the Cape, Morwenna kept to her cabin. Justin and I sat on deck and, because we were alone, we could refer to matters which we had kept secret from Morwenna.

He was amazingly frank. I think he could not forget that Gervaise had saved his life and it seemed incredible that he could have lost his own in doing so when only a short time ago he had clearly shown that he despised him.

I had a notion that Justin wished to look after me as a kind of compensation for not being able to express his gratitude to Gervaise.

“He was the one who should have been saved,” he said. “He was a better man than I. I do not believe I should have gone down to save him. I have thought a lot about it, Angelet. They brought him up dead and my first thought was: No one will know now what happened. Only Angelet knows and I am safe with her.”

“I should not reproach yourself on that score, Justin,” I said. “I suppose it would be a natural reaction.”

“But that he should have died saving me …”

“Yes, that was significant. But it was typical of Gervaise. He would always act nobly automatically … in ordinary life. It was only when he was at the card table that he changed.”

“But he would never have cheated.”

“No … not at cards. But it is cheating in a way to gamble with money you haven’t got.” I was thinking too of Madame Bougerie. “Gervaise did that.” I went on: “He was noble in a way; he was wonderfully kind, self-sacrificing too as he showed so clearly … but no one is perfect. Justin, you’ve got to forget all this. It’s all behind you.”

“I haven’t cheated at cards since,” he said.

“And you will give all that up?”

He was silent for a while. Then he said: “It was my living, Angelet.”

“You mean … you lived on your winnings … those which came to you through your way of playing!”

“It’s polite of you to put it that way. It’s what is called living by your wits. One can win large sums of money in the London clubs. What I did in the township was … trivial. It’s exciting because once you are caught it is over forever. But I was very good at it. I must have been very slack to have been caught like that by Gervaise.”

“Poor Morwenna,” I said. “She has such a high opinion of you.”

“I promised myself that if I found gold I’d give it all up. I was longing for that.

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