When he parted from her, he again kissed her hand and again said: "God
bless you!" She accompanied him to the hall, where the Chinaman,
ghostly in the dimness, was awaiting him with hat and coat. Suddenly
she felt that she abhorred the Chinaman.
That night she slept but little, striving to analyse her feelings. Of
one fact only did the dawn bring certainty--that, for all her love of
him, for all his charm, for all his tenderness towards her, during
dinner she had feared him horribly.
She saw him the next morning in a new and yet oddly familiar phase. He
was attended by his secretary, a pallid man with a pencil, note-book,
and documents, for ever at his elbow, ghostly, automatic, during their
wanderings with the surveyor through the bare and desolate old house.
She saw the master of men at work, accurate in every detail of a
comprehensive scheme, abrupt, imperious, denying difficulties with
harsh impatience. He leaned over his secretary and pointed to portions
of the report just as though he could read them, and ordered their
modification.
"Mr. Withers," he said once to the surveyor, who was raising
objections, "I always get what I want because I make dead sure that
what I want is attainable. I'm not an idealist. If I say a thing is
to be done, it has got to be done, and it's up to you or to someone
else to do it."
They went through the house from furnace to garret, the pallid
secretary ever at Roger's elbow, ever rendering him imperceptible
services, ever identifying himself with the sightless man, mysteriously
following his thoughts, co-ordinating his individuality with that of
his master. He was less a man than a trained faculty, like the Chinese
servant. And again Winifred shivered and felt afraid.
More and more during the weeks that followed, did she realize the iron
will and irresistible force of the man she loved. He seemed to lay a
relentless grip on all those with whom he came in contact and compel
them to the expression of himself. Only towards her was he gentle and
considerate. Many times she accompanied him to London to the great
shops, the self-effacing secretary shadow-like at his elbow, and
discussed with him colours and materials, and he listened to her with
affectionate deference. She often noticed that the secretary
translated into other terms her description of things. This irritated
her, and once she suggested leaving the secretary behind. Surely, she
urged, she could do all that was necessary. He shook his head.
"No, my dear," he said very kindly. "Jukes sees for me. I shouldn't
like you to see for me in the way Jukes does."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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