"Talkin' o' the Derby," began Elizabeth.
As a matter of fact I was not talking of the Derby or even thinking of
it at the moment. I had just been telling Elizabeth that the omelette
which she had served us at dinner was leathery, and her remark struck
me as irrelevant.
"Master thinks the omelettes would be lighter if you fried them in
more butter," I continued. Of course Master had thought nothing of the
kind. But nowadays complaints must be conveyed to domestics in this
indirect way.
Elizabeth ignored the omelette. "I'm goin' to win fifty pounds at
least," she exclaimed, and in her excitement broke the cup she held--I
mean to say the cup came in two in her hand as she spoke. "I've got a
bit on an 'orse for the Derby."
I felt slightly shocked. It is always surprising to discover a latent
sporting instinct in one's domestics, unless they are highly placed
and dignified domestics like butlers or head-footmen; but in a
cook-general it seems peculiarly low.
"I shouldn't bet if I were you," I advised; "I think--er--_Master_
thinks," I added involuntarily--"that you might lose money at it."
"But I'm goin' to _win_ money this time," announced Elizabeth
triumphantly; "my young man ses so, and 'e knows."
"Which young man?" I inquired.
Elizabeth, I ought perhaps to explain, is uncertain about her young
men. She never has any lack of them; but they are like ships that pass
in the night (her night out as a rule) and one by one they drift off,
never stopping to cast anchor in her vicinity. You know what I mean.
Elizabeth can't _keep_ a young man. Perhaps she lacks the charm which
BARRIE describes as "a sort of a bloom on a woman." Or if she has any
of that bloom it must be swamped in the moist oleaginous atmosphere of
washing-up which seems to cling permanently about her.
"It's a new young man," said Elizabeth in answer to my question, "an'
'e's got work in a racin' stable, so that's 'ow 'e knows wot's goin'
to win. It'll be an outsider, 'e ses, which makes it all the better
for me."
"All the better for you?"
"Yes, 'm. You see, the more you puts on the more you wins."
Elizabeth may not have charm but she certainly has simplicity. "You
don't mean to say," I cried, a light breaking on me, "that you got
your next month's wages in advance just to put it all on a horse?"
"That I did," she replied complacently. "You see, my young man ses
that, if you put it on some time before'and, you get a better price,
so I thort I'd give it to 'im to put on at once. 'E promised 'e
wouldn't waste a minnit over it."
"But this is most foolish of you--to trust your money to an entire
stranger," I expostulated.
"'E isn't a stranger--'e's my young man," corrected Elizabeth, tossing
her head.
For the following few days she was radiant--but then anybody would be
who was certain of the winner of the Derby a week before the race.
In addition to this she had got a young man. Those brief periods
when Elizabeth's young men are in the incipient stages of paying her
attention are agreeable to everybody. Elizabeth, feeling no doubt in
her rough untutored way that God's in His heaven and all's right with
the world, sings at her work; she shows extraordinary activity when
going about her duties. She does unusual things like remembering to
polish the brasses every week--indeed you have only to step into the
hall and glance at the stair-rods to discover the exact stage of her
latest "affair." I remember that, when one ardent swain "in the flying
corpse" went to the length of offering her marriage before he flew
away, she cleaned the entire house down in her enthusiasm, and had
actually got to the cellars before he vanished out of her life.
The follower from the racing stable might aptly be described as "The
Man Who Never Came Back." He romped out of Elizabeth's existence on
the Sunday preceding the Derby.
"I waited for 'im four-an'-an-'arf 'ours, an' 'e didn't turn up," she
informed me next day.
"Perhaps he was prevented from keeping the appointment," I suggested
to comfort her, though I felt the outlook was gloomy.
She shook her head. "I'll never see 'im no more. I _know_ 'em," she
said, drawing on the depth of her experience of young men who do the
vanishing trick. "An' my money gone too. It's 'eartbreakin'. But I
might 'ave known that that there 'orse was a bad sign."
"What horse?" I asked, bewildered.
"The one 'e told me to put my money on. The name alone ought to have
set me agen it; it was too true to life."
"And what was the name of the horse?" I inquired as she drifted
dismally to the door.
"'E Goes," said Elizabeth mournfully.
* * * * *
[Illustration: "TRY 'IM WIV A WORM, GUV'NOR!"]
* * * * *