notdreadfully shocked when he told you, for of course he must have toldyou, how we got to know each other?"
"Not in the least," said Mr Pomfret stoutly. "I explained to him thatpeople can become acquainted, without being properly introduced in theconventional sort of way."
"Ah, then, he had some doubts himself?" flashed Miss Burton. "I expecthe was a little shocked, if you were not."
"Not in the slightest, I assure you," replied Mr Pomfret easily. Hewas not above telling a white lie upon occasions. He remembered toowell the remarks that his friend had made upon the girl's unconventionalbehaviour, but he was not going to admit anything.
Miss Burton spoke softly, after a brief pause.
"You and Captain Murchison are very great friends, are you not?"
"Awful pals," was the genuine response. "You see, he knows all myfamily. And when I joined the regiment, they deputed him to look afterme. He has got a hard task," he added with a laugh.
"Oh, not so very hard really, I am sure of that." Norah's voice wasvery sweet, very caressing. "But you and your friend are of verydifferent temperaments."
"In what way?"
She smiled. "Oh, in half a hundred ways. Captain Murchison is as trueas steel, but also as hard as steel. You, now, are not in the leasthard. You are very kind and compassionate, you think the best ofeverybody."
"Don't flatter me too much, please," interjected the bashful Pomfret.
"Oh, pardon me, I know just the kind of man you are." The sweet facewas very close to his own, the beautiful, rather sad eyes were lookingsteadily into his. "You are a rich man, or you would not be in thisexpensive regiment. But, if you were a poor man, and you had only tenpounds in your pocket, you would lend an impecunious friend five ofthem, and not trouble whether he repaid you or not."
"I think you have fitted me, Miss Burton. My dear old chum Hugh isnever tired of telling me I am an awful ass."
"You are both right, really," answered Miss Burton.
"You see, we look at life from two different standpoints."
"I fancy you come from two different classes?" queried the charmingyoung woman.
Pomfret felt a little embarrassed. He did not want to give away hisparticular chum. But there were no doubt certain inherited commercialinstincts in Hugh that sometimes offended the descendant of a morecareless and aristocratic family.
"You see, Hugh has come from the trading class, originally. Hisancestors, no doubt, were close-fisted people. Hugh is not close-fistedhimself: he is, in a certain way, the soul of generosity, but sometimesthe old Adam peeps out in little things."
He had a swift pang of remorse when he had said this. For he suddenlyremembered Hugh's generous offer of the two hundred which Pomfret, by avery diplomatic letter, was going to cajole out of the octogenariangreat-aunt.
"Believe me," added he fervently, "Hugh is one of the best. He is alittle peculiar sometimes in small things. I ought not to have spokenas I have done. I am more than sorry if I have conveyed a wrongimpression of him."
"But you have not," cried Norah Burton swiftly. "He would be hard insome things: I am sure--for instance--he would never forgive a reallydishonourable action, even in the case of his best friend."
"No, I am sure he would not," assented Pomfret. "But I don't fancy hehas been much tried that way. We don't get many `rotters' amongst ourlot."
"_Noblesse oblige_," quoted Miss Burton, lightly. Then she added moreseriously: "And I am sure he is very kind-hearted and thoughtful. I wasimpressed with his reluctance to smoke because of the curtains. Ofcourse, he did not remember that it did not matter in the least, as wenever have callers."
She was getting on the theme of their social isolation, but Pomfret wassure that, unlike her brother, strangely subdued to-night from his usualboisterousness, she would handle the subject with her customary tact andgood taste.
"Ah, of course, all that is very regrettable. It is not so much yourloss, as the loss of Blankfield. I suppose you won't stay very longhere."
For a moment there came a blazing light in the soft, beautiful eyes. "Afew days ago, I advised my brother to pack up and clear out. Thesnobbish plutocracy of Blankfield had beaten us, made up of retiredshopkeepers and merchants. To-night, with you and Captain Murchison asour guests, I think we have beaten Blankfield with its fat mothers andplain daughters."
She looked superb, as she drew her slender form up to its full height,the glow of indignant triumph blazing on her cheek. At the moment shewas extremely beautiful. If Pomfret had been attracted before, he wasinfatuated now.
"I will help you to beat the Blankfield people, for whom I don't care arow of pins. I will come, whenever you want me."
"And your friend Captain Murchison, will he come, too?"
Pomfret smiled whimsically. "Oh yes, he will come, if I make a point ofit. Old Hugh thinks he leads me, but I really lead him." She leanedforward eagerly. "Can you bring some of your brother officers, MrPomfret? Please don't think I am bold and forward and presumptuous.But I do long to be even with these Blankfield people. I would love tomake a little sort of _salon_ of my own. I know it is useless to expectthe women at present, but they might come in time. Mind you, I don'twant them."
"I will try," said Pomfret slowly. "I think I may say that Hugh and Iare the two most popular men in the regiment; I say it without vanity.And I don't suppose we care a snap of the fingers about the Blankfieldpeople. Still, I don't want to raise hopes that may never be fulfilled.I can only say, I will try." There was a pause. Then she spoke, andthere was a far-away look in her eyes. "You hesitate, I see. Oh, Iquite believe you when you say you will try. But there is somestumbling-block in the way, isn't there?" Pomfret had perforce todissemble. "There is no stumbling-block that I know of, except runningthe risk of offending Blankfield. That is not a great one, as we shallbe out of here in about two months."
She leaned closer to him, and her voice sank to a whisper. "There is astumbling-block, I know. You are too kind and generous to state what itis, you could not, as to-night he is your host. It is my brother."
And then poor, infatuated Pomfret sought no further refuge insubterfuge. He blurted out the truth. "Some of our chaps wouldn'tstand him, you know," he said simply.
There was a little convulsive movement of the delicate hands. "And heis such a dear good fellow at heart, wanting I know in the littledelicacies that mark a real gentleman. You see a great differencebetween us, don't you?"
"A very distinct difference," assented Pomfret.
"I will explain it to you in a few words. My father was a harum-scarumsort of person, as I told you last time you were here, hard-riding andhard-drinking. When he was a boy of twenty-five he married a woman outof his own class, a shopgirl or a barmaid, I am not quite sure which.George is many years older than myself, as I told you he is really myhalf-brother. The first wife died, my father married again, this time alady. I am the daughter of the second marriage. Now, I think youunderstand."
Pomfret was delighted at this avowal, it proved his own prescience.
"I am so glad you told me, but as it happens, it was just what Iguessed."
Miss Burton looked at him with admiring eyes. "You are really veryclever, you know. Well, I will not exactly say this is a secret, butyou will whisper it about discreetly. You need not be quite so frank asI have been about details, but you can hint at a _mesalliance_. I hateto have to tell you so much, for my brother has been so good to me."
"Ah!" Mr Pomfret's air plainly showed that he was eager for furtherinformation.
And Miss Burton was quite willing to gratify him. The young man was apleasant, comfortable sort of person to talk to. He was an admirablelistener, and never broke in with unnecessary, or irritatinginterruptions.
"When my father died he left little behind him but debts; my mother hadpreceded him some ten years. Poor George had gone into a stockbroker'soffice, through the good offices of a distant connection. His salarywas very small, but he made
a home for me. He would not hear of myearning my own living."
"That could not have been very long ago," remarked Pomfret, "because youare not very old now."
"No, it was not long," answered the girl, not committing herself to anydefinite dates. "Well, we had a very hard time, as you can imagine.Then suddenly our luck changed. An uncle of George's on his mother'sside had gone out to Australia as a boy, and amassed, we won't say afortune from your point of view, but what we should look upon as wealth.He had never married, and when he died, a will was found in which heleft all he was possessed of to