32

But Benham did not leave England again until he had had an encounter with Lady Marayne.

The little lady came to her son in a state of extraordinary anger and distress.  Never had she seemed quite so resolute nor quite so hopelessly dispersed and mixed.  And when for a moment it seemed to him that she was not as a matter of fact dispersed and mixed at all, then with an instant eagerness he dismissed that one elucidatory gleam.  “What are you doing in England, Poff?” she demanded.  “And what are you going to do?

“Nothing!  And you are going to leave her in your house, with your property and a lover.  If that’s it, Poff, why did you ever come back?  And why did you ever marry her?  You might have known; her father was a swindler.  She’s begotten of deceit.  She’ll tell her own story while you are away, and a pretty story she’ll make of it.”

“Do you want me to divorce her and make a scandal?”

“I never wanted you to go away from her.  If you’d stayed and watched her as a man should, as I begged you and implored you to do.  Didn’t I tell you, Poff?  Didn’t I warn you?”

“But now what am I to do?”

“There you are!  That’s just a man’s way.  You get yourself into this trouble, you follow your passions and your fancies and fads and then you turn to me!  How can I help you now, Poff?  If you’d listened to me before!”

Her blue eyes were demonstratively round.

“Yes, but—­”

“I warned you,” she interrupted.  “I warned you.  I’ve done all I could for you.  It isn’t that I haven’t seen through her.  When she came to me at first with that made-up story of a baby!  And all about loving me like her own mother.  But I did what I could.  I thought we might still make the best of a bad job.  And then—.  I might have known she couldn’t leave Pip alone. . . .  But for weeks I didn’t dream.  I wouldn’t dream.  Right under my nose.  The impudence of it!”

Her voice broke.  “Such a horrid mess!  Such a hopeless, horrid mess!”

She wiped away a bright little tear. . . .

“It’s all alike.  It’s your way with us.  All of you.  There isn’t a man in the world deserves to have a woman in the world.  We do all we can for you.  We do all we can to amuse you, we dress for you and we talk for you.  All the sweet, warm little women there are!  And then you go away from us!  There never was a woman yet who pleased and satisfied a man, who did not lose him.  Give you everything and off you must go!  Lovers, mothers. . . .”

It dawned upon Benham dimly that his mother’s troubles did not deal exclusively with himself.

“But Amanda,” he began.

“If you’d looked after her properly, it would have been right enough.  Pip was as good as gold until she undermined him. . . .  A woman can’t wait about like an umbrella in a stand. . . .  He was just a boy. . . .  Only of course there she was—­a novelty.  It is perfectly easy to understand.  She flattered him. . . .  Men are such fools.”