Three

GOSSIP

It was arranged that I should go to Tell Yarimjah the following week.

Mrs.?Kelsey was settling into her house at Alwiyah, and I was glad to be able to take a fewthings off her shoulders.

During that time I heard one or two allusions¹ to the Leidner expedition. A friend ofMrs.?Kelsey’s, a young squadron leader, pursed his lips in surprise as he exclaimed: “LovelyLouise. So that’s her latest!” He turned to me. “That’s our nickname for her, nurse. She’s alwaysknown as Lovely Louise.”

“Is she so very handsome then?” I asked.

“It’s taking her at her own valuation. She thinks she is!”

“Now don’t be spiteful, John,” said Mrs.?Kelsey. “You know it’s not only she who thinks so!

Lots of people have been very smitten² by her.”

“Perhaps you’re right. She’s a bit long in the tooth, but she has a certain attraction.”

“You were completely bowled over yourself,” said Mrs.?Kelsey, laughing.

The squadron leader blushed and admitted rather shamefacedly: “Well, she has a way withher. As for Leidner himself, he worships the ground she walks on — and all the rest of theexpedition has to worship too! It’s expected of them!”

“How many are there altogether?” I asked.

“All sorts and nationalities, nurse,” said the squadron- leader cheerfully. “An Englisharchitect, a French Father from Carthage—he does the inscriptions—tablets and things, you know.

And then there’s Miss?Johnson. She’s English too—sort of general bottle-washer. And a littleplump man who does the photography—he’s an American. And the Mercados. Heaven knowswhat nationality they are—Dagos of some kind! She’s quite young—a snaky-looking creature—and oh! doesn’t she hate Lovely Louise! And there are a couple of youngsters and that’s the lot. Afew odd fish, but nice on the whole—don’t you agree, Pennyman?”

He was appealing to an elderly man who was sitting thoughtfully twirling a pair of pince-nez.

The latter started and looked up.

“Yes—yes—very nice indeed. Taken individually, that is. Of course, Mercado is rather aqueer fish—”

“He has such a very odd beard,” put in Mrs.?Kelsey. “A queer limp kind.”

Major Pennyman went on without noticing her interruption.

“The young ’uns are both nice. The American’s rather silent, and the English boy talks a bittoo much. Funny, it’s usually the other way round. Leidner himself is a delightful³ fellow—somodest and unassuming. Yes, individually they are all pleasant people. But somehow or other, Imay have been fanciful, but the last time I went to see them I got a queer impression of somethingbeing wrong. I don’t know what it was exactly .?.?. Nobody seemed quite natural. There was aqueer atmosphere of tension. I can explain best what I mean by saying that they all passed thebutter to each other too politely.”

Blushing a little, because I don’t like airing my own opinions too much, I said: “If people aretoo much cooped up together it’s got a way of getting on their nerves. I know that myself fromexperience in hospital.”

“That’s true,” said Major Kelsey, “but it’s early in the season, hardly time for that particularirritation to have set in.”

“An expedition is probably like our life here in miniature,” said Major Pennyman. “It has itscliques and rivalries⁴ and jealousies⁵.”

“It sounds as though they’d got a good many newcomers this year,” said Major Kelsey.

“Let me see.” The squadron leader counted them off on his fingers. “Young Coleman is new,so is Reiter. Emmott was out last year and so were the Mercados. Father Lavigny is a newcomer.

He’s come in place of Dr.?Byrd, who was ill this year and couldn’t come out. Carey, of course, isan old hand. He’s been out ever since the beginning, five years ago. Miss?Johnson’s been outnearly as many years as Carey.”

“I always thought they got on so well together at Tell Yarimjah,” remarked Major Kelsey.

“They seemed like a happy family—which is really surprising when one considers what humannature is! I’m sure Nurse Leatheran agrees with me.”

“Well,” I said, “I don’t know that you’re not right! The rows I’ve known in hospital andstarting often from nothing more than a dispute about a pot of tea.”

“Yes, one tends to get petty in close communities,” said Major Pennyman. “All the same Ifeel there must be something more to it in this case. Leidner is such a gentle, unassuming man,with really a remarkable⁶ amount of tact⁷. He’s always managed to keep his expedition happy andon good terms with each other. And yet I did notice that feeling of tension the other day.”

Mrs.?Kelsey laughed.

“And you don’t see the explanation? Why, it leaps to the eye!”

“What do you mean?”

“Mrs.?Leidner, of course.”

“Oh come, Mary,” said her husband, “she’s a charming woman—not at all the quarrelsomekind.”

“I didn’t say she was quarrelsome. She causes quarrels!”

“In what way? And why should she?”

“Why? Why? Because she’s bored. She’s not an archaeologist, only the wife of one. She’sbored shut away from any excitements and so she provides her own drama. She amuses herself bysetting other people by the ears.”

“Mary, you don’t know in the least. You’re merely imagining.”

“Of course I’m imagining! But you’ll find I’m right. Lovely Louise doesn’t look like theMona Lisa for nothing! She mayn’t mean any harm, but she likes to see what will happen.”

“She’s devoted⁸ to Leidner.”

“Oh! I dare say, I’m not suggesting vulgar intrigues⁹. But she’s an allumeuse, that woman.”

“Women are so sweet to each other,” said Major Kelsey.

“I know. Cat, cat, cat, that’s what you men say. But we’re usually right about our own sex.”

“All the same,” said Major Pennyman thoughtfully, “assuming all Mrs.?Kelsey’s uncharitablesurmises to be true, I don’t think it would quite account for that curious sense of tension—ratherlike the feeling there is before a thunderstorm. I had the impression very strongly that the stormmight break any minute.”

“Now don’t frighten nurse,” said Mrs.?Kelsey. “She’s going there in three days’ time andyou’ll put her right off.”

“Oh, you won’t frighten me,” I said, laughing.

All the same I thought a good deal about what had been said. Dr.?Leidner’s curious use of theword “safer” recurred¹⁰ to me. Was it his wife’s secret fear, unacknowledged or expressed perhaps,that was reacting on the rest of the party? Or was it the actual tension (or perhaps the unknowncause of it) that was reacting on her nerves?

I looked up the word allumeuse that Mrs.?Kelsey had used in a dictionary, but couldn’t getany sense out of it.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “I must wait and see.”

 

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