CHAPTER XX
SINFUL WASTE OF A PENNY STAMP
Ten minutes passed. Hughie, leaning heavily against the frame of theFrench window, gazed listlessly out at a squirrel which was inviting himto a game of hide-and-seek from the far side of a tree-trunk.
"One thing," he mused,--"I shall be able to go abroad again now. No moreof this--"
There was the faintest perceptible rustle behind him. Joan must havecome in very quietly, for the door was shut and she was sitting on thecorner of the writing-table,--exactly where the recently-departedHaliburton had been posing,--swinging her feet and surveying her lateguardian's back. In her hand she held a pink slip of paper.
Hughie never forgot the picture that she presented at that moment. Shewas dressed in white--something workmanlike and unencumbering--with asilver filigree belt around her waist. She wore a battered Panamahat--the sort of headgear affected by "coons" of the music-hallpersuasion--with a wisp of pale blue silk twisted round it. The eveningsun, streaming through the most westerly of the windows, glinted on herhair, her belt, and the silver buckles on her shoes. Hughie caught hisbreath.
Joan spoke first.
"Here's something for you, Hughie," she said.
Hughie took the proffered slip of paper. It was a cheque, made out tohimself and signed by Jimmy Marrable.
"I think that covers all the expense to which you have been put on myaccount while Uncle Jimmy has been away," said Joan. Her voice soundedgruff and businesslike.
Hughie examined the cheque. "Yes," he said, "it does."
"It was very good of you," said Joan formally, "to advance me so muchmoney. I had no idea you were doing it. Apparently you might never havegot it back again."
Hughie gazed at her curiously. He began to grasp the situation. He wasto be whitewashed: the compromising past was to be decently buried, and"Temporary Loan" was to be its epitaph.
"Never mind that," he said awkwardly. "All in the day's work, you know!Afraid I was a rotten trustee."
Suddenly Joan's demeanour changed.
"And now, my man," she said briskly, "will you be good enough to explainwhat you mean by compromising a lady in this way?"
Hughie looked at her for a moment in dismay. Then he saw that her eyeswere twinkling, and he heaved a sudden sigh of incredulous relief. Hewas forgiven!
"Joey!" he said,--"Joey, you mean to say you're not angry?"
"Furious!" replied Miss Gaymer, smiling in her old friendly fashion.
"Thank God!" said Hughie.
Miss Gaymer changed the subject, rather hurriedly.
"There's something else I want to ask you," she said. "Will you kindlyinform me what has become of my--ahem!--young man?"
"Who?" said Hughie. "Oh, _that_ chap? He is gone."
"Gone? Where?"
"London, I should think."
"Why?"
"In the first place, because I told him about your--I mean--I wouldn'tadvise you to ask me, Joey. You see--I should hate--"
"You would hate," said Miss Gaymer, coming to his rescue, "to say 'Itold you so!' I know, Hughie. It's like you, and I love you for it."
Hughie winced. These colloquial terms of endearment are sometimes rathertantalising. Still, he must not mind that. The girl, too, had had herdisappointment, and was bearing herself bravely. At least--
"Joey," he said suddenly, "did you _really_ care for that bloke?"
The lady on the table stiffened suddenly.
"What--that poisonous bounder?" She rolled up her eyes. "My che-ild!"
"But you let him make love to you."
"_Did_ I? I suppose you were there," observed Miss Gaymer witheringly,"disguised as a Chinese lantern!"
"Well, what _did_ you do, then?"
"He asked me to be his blushing bride," said the unfeeling Miss Gaymer,"and tried to grab my hand. I squinted down my nose, and looked veryprim and sweet, and thought we had better be getting back to theballroom, and he could talk to Mr. Marrable in the morning. If that'syour idea of allowing people to make _love_, dear friend--"
"But you--you--promised to marry him!" said poor Hughie.
Joan stared at him.
"Do you mean to tell me, Hughie," she said slowly, "that he told you_that_?"
"Yes--with one or two corroborative details. That was why I had to tellhim--everything, you know. It was the only way, I thought, to choke himoff."
"O--o--oh!" Miss Gaymer wriggled indignantly. "The creature! And when heheard I had no money, he cried off?"
Hughie bowed his head. Joan gave a low gurgling laugh.
"There's no getting over it, Hughie!" she said. "He scored. A nasty slapfor little me! But I deserved it, for trying to trifle with his youngaffections. Well, you have given me one reason for his departure. Whatwas the other?"
Hughie eyed her in some embarrassment. Then he said,--
"He began to talk about you, Joey, in a way I didn't like, so I--"
His eye slid round towards the window, and then downward in thedirection of his right foot. A smile crept over his troubled face, andhe glanced at Joan.
"Oh, Hughie, _did_ you?" she exclaimed rapturously.
"Yes. He landed in that rose-bed. Look!"
Joey shuffled off the table and joined him by the window. A few feetbelow them, on the rose-bed, lay the unmistakable traces of the impactof a body falling from rest with an acceleration due to something morethan the force of gravity.
Joan cooed softly, evidently well pleased. Hughie turned and regardedher with a puzzled expression. No man ever yet fathomed the workings ofthe feminine mind, but he never quite gives up trying to do so.
"Are you glad that he got thrown out?" he asked.
Joan pondered.
"It's not exactly that," she said. "I'm not glad he was thrown out: itmust have hurt him, poor dear! But I'm glad you threw him out, if youunderstand the difference."
Hughie was not at all sure that he did, but he nodded his head in acomprehending manner. Then he continued:--
"Tell me, Joey, if you didn't care for him, why did you send him to me,instead of giving him the knock direct?"
Joey surveyed her retired "warder" with eyes half-closed.
"Well," she said reflectively, "there were heaps of reasons, but you area man and wouldn't understand any of them. But, roughly speaking, it wasbecause I wanted to see how you would handle him. I knew you wouldn'tlet him marry me, of course, but I wanted to see how you would play yourcards. (You simply don't _know_ how fascinating these things are towatch.) Besides, I thought it would be good for him to come face to facewith--a _man_," she added, almost below her breath.
"I only got the best of him," said Hughie humbly, "by laying all mycards on the table. There's not much _finesse_ required for a game likethat."
"Still, you won," said Joan.
Hughie sighed.
"Haliburton lost, if you like," he said; "I don't quite see what _I_--"
"No--you _won_!" said a very small but very insistent voice by his side.
Hughie turned sharply. Miss Gaymer was breathing expansively upon theglass of the window, and assiduously scribbling a pattern thereon withher finger--an infantile and unladylike habit of which her nurse thoughtshe had cured her at the age of eight. Also, her cheeks were aglow, andthat with a richness of colouring which sufficed to convey someglimmerings of intelligence even into the brain of the obtuse young manbeside her. Hughie suddenly felt something inside his head beginto buzz. His gigantic right hand (which still contained JimmyMarrable's cheque tucked in between two fingers) closed cautiously butcomprehensively upon Joan's left, which was resting on the window-frame,much as a youthful entomologist's net descends upon an unwary butterfly.
"Joey," he said unsteadily,--"Joey, what do you mean?"
Miss Gaymer sighed, in the resigned but persevering fashion of a patientSunday-school teacher. Then she slipped her hand from under Hughie's,extracting as she did so the folded cheque from between his fingers.Hughie wat
ched her dumbly.
Joan unfolded the cheque, and perused it in a valedictory sort ofmanner. Then she kissed it softly. Then she tore it up very slowly intosmall pieces.
She sighed again pensively, and said:--
"There goes my ransom! It's a wicked waste--of a cheque-stamp! Now," sheadded cheerfully, "I am compromised worse than ever. Hughie, dear, I_really_ think, after this, that you'll have to--Ough! Hughie!_Hughie!_"
For blind, groping Hughie's eyes were open at last. With an exultantwhole-hearted roar he initiated a sudden enveloping movement; and then,turning away from the fierce light that beats upon actions performed ata window, strode majestically (if rather top-heavily) towards a greatleather sofa in a secluded corner beyond the fireplace. The scandalisedMiss Gaymer, owing to circumstances over which she had no control,accompanied him.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Throughout the document the oe ligature was replaced with "oe".
Throughout the dialogues there were words used to mimic accents of thespeakers. Those words were retained as-is.
On page 27, a quotation mark was added after "And are you going down forgood next week?".
On page 121, the period after "after gulping the water" was replacedwith a comma.
On page 151, "it may he" was replaced with "it may be".
On page 172, the "care of" symbol was replaced with "c/o".
On page 252, the closing parenthesis was moved from the end of "smilingdisarmingly." to the end of "you see".
On page 256, the "He" in "He appeared to be choosing" was changed to"He".
On page 270, "Mr Gaymer" was replaced with "Mr. Gaymer".
On page 315, "sitsing" was replaced with "sitting".
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