Michael with his gentlemanly push, with his breezy good-nature, had got them both a lot of publicity and their photographs appeared in the illustrated papers.
They were asked to a number of parties and Michael, notwithstanding his thriftiness, did not hesitate to spend money on entertaining people who might be of service.
Julia was impressed by his lavishness on these occasions.
An actor-manager offered Julia the leading part in his next play, and though there was no part for Michael and she was anxious to refuse it, he would not let her.
He said they could not afford to let sentiment stand in the way of business.
He eventually got a part in a costume play.
They were both acting when the war broke out.
To Julia’s pride and anguish Michael enlisted at once, but with the help of his father, one of whose old brother officers was an important personage at the War Office, he very soon got a commission.
When he went out to France Julia bitterly regretted the reproaches she had so often heaped upon him, and made up her mind that if he were killed she would commit suicide.
She wanted to become a nurse so that she could go out to France too and at least be on the same soil as he, but he made her understand that patriotism demanded that she should go on acting, and she could not resist what might very well be his dying request.
Michael thoroughly enjoyed the war.
He was popular in the regimental mess, and the officers of the old army accepted him almost at once, even though he was an actor, as one of themselves.
It was as though the family of soldiers from which he was born had set a seal on him so that he fell instinctively into the manner and way of thinking of the professional soldier.
He had tact and a pleasant manner, and he knew how to pull strings adroitly; it was inevitable that he should get on the staff of some general.
He showed himself possessed of considerable organizing capacity and the last three years of the war he passed at G.H.Q.
He ended it as a major, with the Military Cross and the Legion of Honour.
Meanwhile Julia had been playing a succession of important parts and was recognized as the best of the younger actresses.
Throughout the war the theatre was very prosperous, and she profited by being seen in plays that had long runs.
Salaries went up, and with Michael to advise her she was able to extort eighty pounds a week from reluctant managers.
Michael came over to England on his leaves and Julia was divinely happy.
Though he was in no more danger than if he had been sheep-farming in New Zealand, she acted as though the brief periods he spent with her were the last days the doomed man would ever enjoy on earth. She treated him as though he had just come from the horror of the trenches and was tender, considerate, and unexacting.
It was just before the end of the war that she fell out of love with him.
She was pregnant at the time.
Michael had judged it imprudent to have a baby just then, but she was nearly thirty and thought that if they were going to have one at all they ought to delay no longer; she was so well established on the stage that she could afford not to appear for a few months, and with the possibility that Michael might be killed at any moment—it was true he said he was as safe as a house, he only said that to reassure her, and even generals were killed sometimes—if she was to go on living she must have a child by him.
The baby was expected at the end of the year.
She looked forward to Michael’s next leave as she had never done before.
She was feeling very well, but she had a great yearning to feel his arms around her, she felt a little lost, a little helpless, and she wanted his protective strength.
He came, looking wonderfully handsome in his well-cut uniform, with the red tabs and the crown on his shoulder-straps.
He had filled out a good deal as the result of the hardships of G.H.Q. and his skin was tanned.
With his close-cropped hair, breezy manner and military carriage he looked every inch a soldier.
He was in great spirits, not only because he was home for a few days, but because the end of the war was in sight.
He meant to get out of the army as quickly as possible.
What was the good of having a bit of influence if you didn’t use it?
So many young men had left the stage, either from patriotism or because life was made intolerable for them by the patriotic who stayed at home, and finally owing to conscription, that leading parts had been in the hands either of people who were inapt for military service or those who had been so badly wounded that they had got their discharge.
There was a wonderful opening, and Michael saw that if he were available quickly he could get his choice of parts.
When he had recalled himself to the recollection of the public they could look about for a theatre, and with the reputation Julia had now acquired it would be safe to start in management.
They talked late into the night and then they went to bed.
She cuddled up to him voluptuously and he put his arms round her.
After three months of abstinence he was amorous.
‘You’re the most wonderful little wife,’ he whispered.
He pressed his mouth to hers.
She was filled on a sudden with a faint disgust.
She had to resist an inclination to push him away.
Before, to her passionate nostrils his body, his young beautiful body, had seemed to have a perfume of flowers and honey, and this had been one of the things that had most enchained her to him, but now in some strange way it had left him.
She realized that he no longer smelt like a youth, he smelt like a man.
She felt a little sick.
She could not respond to his ardour, she was eager that he should get his desire satisfied quickly, turn over on his side, and go to sleep.
For long she lay awake.
She was dismayed.
Her heart sank because she knew she had lost something that was infinitely precious to her, and pitying herself she was inclined to cry; but at the same time she was filled with a sense of triumph, it seemed a revenge that she enjoyed for the unhappiness he had caused her; she was free of the bondage in which her senses had held her to him and she exulted.