'To be sure,' said Merton. 'Luncheon shall be brought at once.' He rang
the bell, and, going out, interpellated the office boy.
'Why did you laugh when my friends came to luncheon? You must learn
manners.'
'Please, sir, the kid, the young gentleman I mean, said he came on
business,' answered the boy, showing apoplectic symptoms.
'So he did; luncheon is his business. Go and bring luncheon for--five,
and see that there are chicken, cutlets, tartlets, apricots, and ginger-
beer.'
The boy departed and Merton reflected. 'A hoax, somebody's practical
joke,' he said to himself. 'I wonder who Miss None-so-pretty is.' Then
he returned, assured Batsy that luncheon was even at the doors, and
leaving her to look at _Punch_, led Mr. Apsley aside. 'Tommy,' he said
(having seen his signature), 'where do you live?'
The boy named a street on the frontiers of St. John's Wood.
'And who is your father?'
'Major Apsley, D.S.O.'
'And how did you come here?'
'In a hansom. I told the man to wait.'
'How did you get away?'
'Father took us to Lord's, with Miss Limmer, and there was a crowd, and
Bats and I slipped out; for None-so-pretty said we ought to call on you.'
'Who is Miss Limmer?'
'Our governess.'
'Have you a mother?'
The child's brown eyes filled with tears, and his cheeks flushed. 'It
was in India that she--'
'Yes, be a man, Tommy. I am looking the other way,' which Merton did for
some seconds. 'Now, Tommy, is Miss Limmer kind to you?'
The child's face became strangely set and blank; his eyes looking vacant.
'Miss Limmer is very kind to us. She loves us and we love her dearly.
Ask Batsy,' he said in a monotonous voice, as if he were repeating a
lesson. 'Batsy, come here,' he said in the same voice. 'Is Miss Limmer
kind to us?'
Batsy threw up her eyes--it was like a stage effect, 'We love Miss Limmer
dearly, and she loves us. She is very, very kind to us, like our dear
mamma.' Her voice was monotonous too. 'I never can say the last part,'
said Tommy. 'Batsy knows it; about dear mamma.'
'Indeed!' said Merton. 'Tommy, _why_ did you come here?'
'I don't know. I told you that None-so-pretty told us to. She did it
after she saw _that_ when we were bathing.' Tommy raised one of his
little loose breeks that did not cover the knee.
_That_ was not pleasant to look on: it was on the inside of the right
thigh.
'How did you get hurt _there_?' asked Merton.
The boy's monotonous chant began again: his eyes were fixed and blank as
before. 'I fell off a tree, and my leg hit a branch on the way down.'
'Curious accident,' said Merton; 'and None-so-pretty saw the mark?'
'Yes.'
'And asked you how you got it?'
'Yes, and she saw blue marks on Batsy, all over her arms.'
'And you told None-so-pretty that you fell off a tree?'
'Yes.'
'And she told you to come here?'
'Yes, she had read your printed article.'
'Well, here is luncheon,' said Merton, and bade the office boy call Miss
Blossom from the inner chamber to share the meal. Batsy had as low a
chair as possible, and was disposing her napkin to do the duty of a
pinafore.
Miss Blossom entered from within with downcast eyes.
'None-so-pretty!'
'None-so-pretty!' shouted the children, while Tommy rushed to throw his
arms round her neck, to meet which she stooped down, concealing a face of
blushes. Batsy descended from her chair, waddled up, climbed another
chair, and attacked the girl from the rear. The office boy was arranging
luncheon. Merton called him to the writing-table, scribbled a note, and
said, 'Take that to Dr. Maitland, with my compliments.'
Maitland had been one of the guests at the inaugural dinner. He was
entirely devoid of patients, and was living on the anticipated gains of a
great work on Clinical Psychology.
'Tell Dr. Maitland he will find me at luncheon if he comes instantly,'
said Merton as the boy fled on his errand. 'I see that I need not
introduce you to my young friends, Miss Blossom,' said Merton. 'May I
beg you to help Miss Apsley to arrange her tucker?'
Miss Blossom, almost unbecomingly brilliant in her complexion, did as she
was asked. Batsy had cold chicken, new potatoes, green peas, and two
helpings of apricot tart. Tommy devoted himself to cutlets. A very mild
shandygaff was compounded for him in an old Oriel pewter. Both children
made love to Miss Blossom with their eyes. It was not at all what Merton
felt inclined to do; the lady had entangled him in a labyrinth of
puzzledom.
'None-so-pretty,' exclaimed Tommy, 'I am glad you told us to come here.
Your friends are nice.'
Merton bowed to Tommy, 'I am glad too,' he said. 'Miss Blossom knew that
we were kindred souls, same kind of chaps, I mean, you and me, you know,
Tommy!'
Miss Blossom became more and more like the fabled peony, the crimson
variety. Luckily the office boy ushered in Dr. Maitland, who, exchanging
glances of surprise with Merton, over the children's heads, began to make
himself agreeable. He had nearly as many tricks as Miss Maskelyne. He
was doing the short-sighted man eating celery, and unable to find the
salt because he is unable to find his eyeglass.
Merton, seeing his clients absorbed in mirth, murmured something vague
about 'business,' and spirited Miss Blossom away to the inner chamber.
'Sit down, pray, Miss Blossom. There is no time to waste. What do you
know about these children? Why did you send them here?'
The girl, who was pale enough now, said, 'I never thought they would
come.'
'They are here, however. What do you know about them?'
'I went to stay, lately, at the Home Farm on their grandmother's place.
We became great friends. I found out that they were motherless, and that
they were being cruelly ill-treated by their governess.'
'Miss Limmer?'
'Yes. But they both said they loved her dearly. They always said that
when asked. I gathered from their grandmother, old Mrs. Apsley, that
their father would listen to nothing against the governess. The old lady
cried in a helpless way, and said he was capable of marrying the woman,
out of obstinacy, if anybody interfered. I had your advertisement, and I
thought you might disentangle him. It was a kind of joke. I only told
them that you were a kind gentleman. I never dreamed of their really
coming.'
'Well, you must take them back again presently, there is the address. You
must see their father; you must wait till you see him. And how are you
to explain this escapade? I can't have the children taught to lie.'
'They have been taught _that_ lesson already.'
'I don't think they are aware of it,' said Merton.
Miss Blossom stared.
'I can't explain, but you must find a way of keeping them out of a
scrape.'
'I think I can manage it,' said Miss Blossom demurely.
'I hope so. And manage, if you please, to see this Miss Limmer and
observe what kind of person she is,' said Merton, with his hand on the
door handle, adding, 'Please ask Dr. Maitland to come here, and do you
keep the children amused for a moment.'
Miss Blossom nodded and left the room; there was laughter in the other
chamber. Presently Maitland joined Merton.
'Look here,' said Merton, 'we must be rapid. These children are being
cruelly ill-treated and deny it. Will you get into talk with the boy,
and ask him if he is fond of his governess, say "Miss Limmer," and notice
what he says and how he says it? Then we must pack them away.'
'All right,' said Maitland.
They returned to the children. Miss Blossom retreated to the inner room.
Bats simplified matters by falling asleep in the client's chair. Maitland
began by talking about schools. Was Tommy going to Eton?
Tommy did not know. He had a governess at home.
'Not at a preparatory school yet? A big fellow like you?'
Tommy said that he would like to go to school, but they would not send
him.
'Why not?'
Tommy hesitated, blushed, and ended by saying that they didn't think it
safe, as he walked in his sleep.
'You will soon grow out of that,' said Maitland, 'but it is not very safe
at school. A boy I knew was found sound asleep on the roof at school.'
'He might have fallen off,' said Tommy.
'Yes. That's why your people keep you at home. But in a year or two you
will be all right. Know any Latin yet?'
Tommy said that Miss Limmer taught him Latin.
'Are you and she great friends?'
Tommy's face and voice altered as before, while he mechanically repeated
the tale of the mutual affection which linked him with Miss Limmer.
'_That's_ all very jolly,' said Maitland.
'Now, Tommy,' said Merton, 'we must waken Batsy, and Miss Blossom is
going to take you both home. Hope we shall often meet.'
He called Miss Blossom; Batsy kissed both of her new friends. Merton
conducted the party to the cab, and settled, in spite of Tommy's
remonstrances, with the cabman, who made a good thing of it, and nodded
when told to drive away as soon as he had deposited his charges at their
door. Then Merton led Maitland upstairs and offered him a cigar.
'What do you think of it?' he asked.
'Common post-hypnotic suggestion by the governess,' said Maitland.
'I guessed as much, but can it really be worked like that? You are not
chaffing?'
'Simplest thing to work in the world,' said Maitland. 'A lot of
nonsense, however, that the public believes in can't be done. The woman
could not sit down in St. John's Wood, and "will" Tommy to come to her if
he was in the next room. At least she might "will" till she was black in
the face, and he would know nothing about it. But she can put him to
sleep, and make him say what he does not want to say, in answer to
questions, afterwards, when he is awake.'
'You're sure of it?'
'It is as certain as anything in the world up to a certain point.'
'The girl said something that the boy did not say, more gushing, about
his dead mother.'
'The hypnotised subject often draws a line somewhere.'
'The woman must be a fiend,' said Merton.
'Some of them are, now and then,' said the author of _Clinical
Psychology_.
* * * * *
Miss Blossom's cab, the driver much encouraged by Tommy, who conversed
with him through the trap in the roof, dashed up to the door of a house
close to Lord's. The horse was going fast, and nearly cannoned into
another cab-horse, also going fast, which was almost thrown on its
haunches by the driver. Inside the other hansom was a tall man with a
pale face under the tan, who was nervously gnawing his moustache. Miss
Blossom saw him, Tommy saw him, and cried 'Father!' Half-hidden behind a
blind of the house Miss Blossom beheld a woman's face, expectant. Clearly
she was Miss Limmer. All the while that they were driving Miss Blossom's
wits had been at work to construct a story to account for the absence and
return of the children. Now, by a flash of invention, she called to her
cabman, 'Drive on--fast!' Major Apsley saw his lost children with their
arms round the neck of a wonderfully pretty girl; the pretty girl waved
her parasol to him with a smile, beckoning forwards; the children waved
their arms, calling out 'A race! a race!'
What could a puzzled parent do but bid his cabman follow like the wind?
Miss Blossom's cab flew past Lord's, dived into Regent's Park, leading by
two lengths; reached the Zoological Gardens, and there its crew alighted,
demurely waiting for the Major. He leaped from his hansom, and taking
off his hat, strode up to Miss Blossom, as if he were leading a charge.
The children captured him by the legs. 'What does this mean, Madam? What
are you doing with my children? Who are you?'
'She's None-so-pretty,' said Tommy, by way of introduction.
Miss Blossom bowed with grace, and raising her head, shot two violet rays
into the eyes of the Major, which were of a bistre hue. But they
accepted the message, like a receiver in wireless telegraphy. No man,
let be a Major, could have resisted None-so-pretty at that moment. 'Come
into the gardens,' she said, and led the way. 'You would like a ride on
the elephant, Tommy?' she asked Master Apsley. 'And you, Batsy?'
The children shouted assent.
'How in the world does she know them?' thought the bewildered officer.
The children mounted the elephant.
'Now, Major Apsley,' said Miss Blossom, 'I have found your children.'
'I owe you thanks, Madam; I have been very anxious, but--'
'It is more than your thanks I want. I want you to do something for me,
a very little thing,' said Miss Blossom, with the air of a supplicating
angel, the violet eyes dewy with tears.
'I am sure I shall be delighted to do anything you ask, but--'
'Will you _promise_? It is a very little thing indeed!' and her hands
were clasped in entreaty. 'Please promise!'
'Well, I promise.'
'Then keep your word: it is a little thing! Take Tommy home this
instant, let nobody speak to him or touch him--and--make him take a bath,
and see him take it.'
'Take a bath!'
'Yes, at once, in your presence. Then ask him . . . any questions you
please, but pay extreme attention to his answers and his face, and the
sound of his voice. If that is not enough do the same with Batsy. And
after that I think you had better not let the children out of your sight
for a short time.'
'These are very strange requests.'
'And it was by a strange piece of luck that I met you driving home to see
if the lost children were found, and secured your attention before it
could be pre-engaged.'
'But where did you find them and why?'
Miss Blossom interrupted him, 'Here is the address of Dr. Maitland, I
have written it on my own card; he can answer some questions you may want
to ask. Later I will answer anything. And now in the name of God,' said
the girl reverently, with sudden emotion, 'you will keep your promise to
the letter?'
'I will,' said the Major, and Miss Blossom waved her parasol to the
children. 'You must give the poor elephant a rest, he is tired,' she
cried, and the tender-hearted Batsy needed no more to make her descend
from the great earth-shaking beast. The children attacked her with
kisses, and then walked off, looking back, each holding one of the
paternal hands, and treading, after the manner of childhood, on the
paternal toes.
Miss Blossom walked till she met an opportune omnibus.
About an hour later a four-wheeler bore a woman with blazing eyes, and a
pile of trunks gaping untidily, from the Major's house in St. John's Wood
Road.
The Honourable Company had won its first victory: Major Apsley, having
fulfilled Miss Blossom's commands, had seen what she expected him to see,
and was disentangled from Miss Limmer.
The children still call their new stepmother None-so-pretty.