第45章

Mrs.Gammidge lifted her eyebrows.'I dare say that is what they imagine it.Well, they're never in the same room for two minutes without being aware of it, and their absorption when they get in a corner--I saw her keep the Viceroy waiting, the other night after dinner, while Colonel Innes finished a sentence.And then she was annoyed at the interruption.Here's Kitty Vesey, lookin' SUCH a dog! Hello, Kitty! where did you get that hat, where did you get that tile? But that wasn't the colour of your hair last week, Kitty!'

'Don't feel any kind of a dog'--Mrs.Vesey's pout, though becoming, was genuine.'I'm in a perfectly furious rage, my dears, and I'm coming home to cry, just as soon as I've had an ice.What do you think--they won't let me have Val for Captain Wynne's part in 'The Outcast Pearl'--they say he's been tried before, and he's a stick.

Did you ever hear of such brutes? They want me to act with Major Dalton, and he's MUCH too old for the part.'

'Kitten,' said Mrs.Mickie, with conviction, 'Valentine Drake on the stage would be fatal to your affection for him.'

'I don't care, I won't act with anybody else--I'll throw up the part.Haven't I got to make love to the man? How am I to play up to such an unkissable-looking animal as Major Dalton? I shall CERTAINLY throw up the part.'

'Don't do anything rash, Kitty.If you do, they'll probably offer it to me, and I warn you I won't give it back to you.'

'Oh, refuse it, like a dear! I am dying to put them in a hole.

It's jealousy, that's what it is.Goodbye, Mrs.Jack, I've had a lovely time.Val and I have been explaining our affection to the Archdeacon, and he says it's perfectly innocent.We're going to get him to put it on paper to produce when Jimmy sues for a divorce, aren't we, Val?'

'You're not going?' said Mrs.Jack Owen.

'Oh, yes, I must.But I've enjoyed myself awfully, and so has everybody I've been talking to.I say, Mickie, dear--about tomorrow afternoon--I suppose I may bring Val?'

'Oh, dear, yes,' Mrs.Mickie replied.'But you must let me hold his hand.'

'I don't know which of you is the most ridiculous,' Mrs.Owen remarked; 'I shall write to both your husbands this very night,' but as the group shifted and left her alone with Mrs.Gammidge, she said she didn't know whether Mrs.Vesey would be quite so chirpy three weeks hence.'When Mrs.Innes comes out,' she added in explanation.

'Oh, yes, Valentine Drake is quite her property.My own idea is that Kitty won't be in it.'

Where the road past Peliti's dips to the Mall Madeline met Horace Innes.When she appeared in her rickshaw he dismounted, and gave the reins to his syce.She saw in his eyes the look of a person who has been all day lapsing into meditation and rousing himself from it.'You are very late,' she said as he came up.

'Oh, I'm not going; at least, you are just coming away, aren't you?

I think it is too late.I'll turn back with you.'

'Do,' she said, and looked at his capable, sensitive hand as he laid it on the side of her little carriage.Miss Anderson had not the accomplishment of palm-reading, but she took general manual impressions.She had observed Colonel Innes's hand before, but it had never offered itself so intimately to her inspection.That, perhaps, was why the conviction seemed new to her, as she thought 'He is admirable--and it is all there.'

When they got to the level Mall he kept his hold, which was a perfectly natural and proper thing for him to do, walking alongside;but she still looked at it.

'I have heard your good news,' she said, smiling congratulation at him.

'My good news? Oh, about my wife, of course.Yes, she ought to be here by the end of the month.I thought of writing to tell you when the telegram came, and then I--didn't.The files drove it out of my head, I fancy.'

'Heavy day?'

'Yes,' he said, absently.They went along together in an intimacy of silence, and Madeline was quite aware of the effort with which she said:

'I shall look forward to meeting Mrs.Innes.'

It was plain that his smile was perfunctory, but he put it on with creditable alacrity.

'She will be delighted.My wife is a clever woman,' he went on, 'very bright and attractive.She keeps people well amused.'

'She must be a great success in India, then.'

'I think she is liked.She has a tremendous fund of humour and spirits.A fellow feels terribly dull beside her sometimes.'

Madeline cast a quick glance at him, but he was only occupied to find other matters with which he might commend his wife.