When the taxi, for which Ray had ’phoned, came rushing up, they all met
again at the front gate to give him their various God-speeds on his
gallant errand.
Mrs Dare handed him the note she had hastily penned to Lois, with a
warm, “We are very grateful to you, Ray, for your thought of her. Bring
her safe home to us.”
The Colonel handed him a small buff paper bag which chinked, saying,
“If you haven’t enough there, my boy, you will let me know. God bless
you both!”
Vic said enviously, “Just wish I was going! Wouldn’t it be ripping,
Nor, to be stranded out there and have someone come out from England to
rescue you?”
“Ripping! Let’s try it! Where could we get to?”
“Little girls are better at home,” said Noel, with his golf-clubs slung
over his shoulder so that not a moment of this last precious holiday
should be missed. “Good-luck, old man! If you get into any boggle wire
for me and I’ll come and get you out of the mud. Jawohl! Hein! Nicht
wahr!”
“I shall hope to find you all in the best of health about Tuesday or
Wednesday,” said Ray, with a final wave of the hand, and the taxi
whirled away round the corner.
“See you two later,” cried Noel, as he swung away towards the links.
“I’ll feed up yonder and meet you at the courts at three.”
The girls sauntered away, arm in arm, up the Oakdene path, to talk it
all over. The Colonel wrung Mrs Dare’s hand again, and said, with warm
feeling that subdued his voice to some extent, “We will congratulate
one another again, ma’am. Nothing could have pleased me better. Lois
is one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met, and Ray will do us all
credit.”
“He’s a fine boy. I’m sure they will be very happy. I am thankful it
has fallen out so. I was a little afraid, at times, last summer----”
“You mean that spick-and-span, cut-and-dried, starched and stuck-up
German dandy? Pooh, ma’am! I knew better than that myself.”
“He was a good-looking lad, you know, and his music was quite
exceptional.”
“Always strikes me as rather namby-pamby in a man. But--a word in your
ear, ma’am!”--in a portentous whisper induced by the discharge of his
feelings,--“D’you know, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we came on
another link in the chain before long.”
“Another link?” echoed Mrs Dare, and stared at him in great surprise.
“Yes,” with a twinkle of beaming eyes. “What do _you_ suppose made
my eldest girl take to that nursing business? You know she’d no need
to----”
“You mean Con?”
“Why, of course! Who else? I’ve a great belief in Con. He’ll go far
before he’s through. And I know Alma. And it’s only in the light of Con
that I can explain her.”
“You’re just an incorrigible old match-maker,” laughed Mrs Dare, more
amused than convinced.
“When you’re out of the game yourself there’s nothing like watching the
young ones at it. If it had been my luck now to meet yourself before
Dare came along----”
“You’d have found me in my cradle,” she laughed again, as she went up
the path towards the front door.
“No,--in short frocks,” said the Colonel emphatically. “But I’d have
waited all right.”
It was a standing joke among them that the Colonel had fallen in love
with his neighbour’s wife, and he confessed to it like a man, to John
Dare’s very face.
“Duty calls,” said Mrs Dare. “I’ve got two rooms to turn out this
morning, because my charlady couldn’t come yesterday. And there she is
going in at the back gate. Good-bye, Colonel! I’m half hoping Con may
come over to-day. It’s three weeks since he was here and he sometimes
manages it on a Saturday. I’ll send you word if he comes and perhaps
you’ll come round for a cup of tea.”
“I will. And bring Alma with me,” he twinkled.
“Is she to be here? I didn’t know.”
“Neither do I, but they generally manage to hit on the same day
somehow. Curious, isn’t it?” and he lifted his hat and marched away,
chuckling to himself like a plump little turkey-cock.