"Because I don't like him, I suppose. I never get on very well with
poets at any time. They always seem to belong to the cherub
family,--cut off at the shoulders, I mean, and surrounded with Christmas
card clouds."
Franklin laughed again. "You should see him whipping a trout stream or
crawling after deer."
"Mrs. Keene's in the next room," said Mrs. Larpent, warningly. Would he
take the hint and be a little less sun-parlorish?
"Is she? By Jove, yes. I mustn't make such a row. I wouldn't disturb
her for anything."
No, he had missed it. She crossed one leg over the other. Rather more
than a slim, white ankle showed. Well, the night was all in front of
them. "It was a horrid trick, getting rid of us like that. I had just
settled down on the _Galatea_ and was preparing to have the first really
happy time of my life. You alone among men have it in your power to do
that for me, Pelham." She felt that she was hurrying a little.
"Well, the _Galatea_ can be at your service again. Not yet though, I'm
afraid. Malcolm and I have a plan in the back of our heads." He got up
and heaved a sigh and walked about. Beatrix came back into his head at
the mention of the _Galatea_. He could see her leaning against the
starboard rail with the sun on her golden head and her chin held high.
He would always be able to see that picture, thank God!
"Tell me about it," said Mrs. Larpent, hoping that, after all, she had
not hurried too fast and that it was not her remark that made him
restless. Any other man almost would have caught her meaning.
"Not yet," he said. "It isn't sufficiently formed." And then he lit a
cigarette and sat down again, with a chuckle. "I can't fancy _you_ in
this one-eyed hole. I thought, of course, that you'd stay the night here
and then take the first possible train to New York."
"Did you think what would happen to me after that?"
"No, I confess I didn't. Southampton, or some such place. Society on
the beach. You said something about Southampton, in the summer when you
had mercy on me that time and we did the theatres. You were awfully good
to me then."