PLANS AND THREATS
When the choice of Owen’s future employment was duly imparted to his
uncle and brother-in-law, the latter received it with approval, the
former with a series of alarming explosions.
“His nephew--his heir--a common chauffeur! Outrageous! Why not enlist,
and be the King’s servant, if livery he _must_ wear?” Then, in a tone
of angry sarcasm, “I see--I see his reason. The fellow will be gadding
round, making believe to himself it’s his own machine; to many young
asses, driving a car is an extraordinary pleasure. Yes, that’s why he
hit on it!” and he slapped his leg with a gesture of triumph.
“You are wrong, Uncle Richard, it was _I_ who hit on it,” protested the
culprit. “Owen never had an idea of being a chauffeur till I suggested
it.”
“That’s likely enough; his ideas are few and far between. Well, now
look here, Leila, I forbid him to adopt your plan.”
“But, my dear uncle, have you not washed your hands of him for the next
two years?” she demanded, with raised brows. “Do you really think you
are consistent?”
“But a greasy chauffeur, got up in black leather, like a boot----”
“The pay is not bad, it’s a job he can manage, and, after all, you
will allow that Owen must live; or are you going to say, ‘_Je n’en vois
pas la necessité_’?”
“Umph! I wonder, Leila, where you got that tongue of yours?”
“And,” dismissing the question with an airy gesture, “I know of a nice
quiet place in a country village, with two darling old maiden ladies,
where he will be, so to speak, out at grass, with his shoes off!”
“Oh yes,” he snarled, “_I_ know your quiet, wicked little country
village, with the devil peeping behind the hedges and finding plenty
for an idle young man to do. Villages are pestilential traps, swarming
with pretty girls. Just the place where Owen will fall into the worst
scrape of all--matrimony. He is a good-looking chap; they’ll all be
after him!”
“I don’t believe there’s a woman in Ottinge under forty, and I
never saw a more hard-featured lot--never. You know I stayed in the
neighbourhood with the Davenants years ago.”
“Another thing--no one can take Owen for anything but a gentleman!” and
Sir Richard put up his glasses and surveyed his niece, with an air as
much as to say, “There’s a poser!”
“Oh yes. He has only to show his hands, worn with manual labour, and
I’ll tell him to grow his hair long, wear gaudy ties, and hold his
tongue.”
“Well, have your own way! But, as sure as I’m a living sinner, harm
will come of this mad idea; it’s nothing more or less than play-acting.
He’d much better have gone on the stage when he was about it.”
“Unfortunately, there’s one objection,--it is the most precarious of
all professions; for an amateur it would be hard work and _no_ pay. In
five years Owen might, with great luck, be earning thirty shillings a
week. Oh, I’ve thought over no end of plans, I can assure you, Uncle
Dick, and the chauffeur scheme is by far the most promising.”
“Of course you always get the better of me in _talk_; but I’ve my own
opinion. You and Owen will make a fine hash of his affairs between
you. Bear in mind that I won’t have the Wynyard name made little of in
a stinking garage. He is not to use it, or to let any one know he is
a Wynyard, and that’s flat; and you can tell him that, as sure as he
takes service as Owen Wynyard, I’ll marry--and to that I stick!” and
with this announcement, and a very red face, he snatched up his hat and
departed.
Sir Martin Kesters, on the other hand, saw nothing derogatory in his
brother-in-law’s employment, and warmly applauded the scheme. At
twenty-six Owen should be learning independence; moreover, it was his
wife’s plan, and, in his opinion, everything she said or did was right.
“I think it’s a sound scheme,” he said. “If money is wanted, Leila, you
know where to get it.”
“No, no; Owen has a little, and he must not touch a halfpenny that he
has not earned--it’s in the bond; and he will have nothing to spend
money on down there. I don’t believe there’s a billiard-table or a pack
of cards in the place.”
“The typical hamlet, eh? Half a dozen cottages, a pump, and an
idiot--poor devil!”
“Owen or the idiot?”
“Both. All the same, Leila, I feel sure that, now you’ve taken Owen in
hand, he will come out on top.”
Wynyard fell in with everything, without question or argument, and
cheerfully accepted his sister’s arrangements, with the exception of
the ties. He drew the line at an orange satin with green spots, or
even a blue with scarlet horse-shoes.
No, he declared, nothing would induce him to be seen in them; he was
always a quiet dresser. He could wear a muffler, hold his tongue, or
even drop his h’s if necessary; but he barred making an object of
himself, and suggested that she should offer the discarded ties as a
birthday present to Payne.
“He’d give notice. Payne, in his unprofessional kit, looks like a chief
justice. Well, I won’t insist on the ties, but you must promise to be
_very_ countrified and dense. You know you can take off any one’s way
of talking in the most remarkable way, and do Uncle Richard to the
life!”
“One of my rare accomplishments; and as to being dense, why, it’s my
normal condition.”
“Oh yes, you may joke! But I do hope you won’t let the cat out of the
bag, Owen, or allow any one to suspect that ‘things are not what they
seem!’ I wonder how you will manage in the kitchen and stables, and if
you will be unmasked?”
“Well, I promise to do my best to pick up the local manners and patois,
and, my dear Leila, you appear to forget that for the last year I’ve
lived among a very mixed lot, and got on all right.”
“Got on all right!” she cried. “How _can_ you say so? when you told
me yourself that you had half killed a man! However, as you and I
are confederates in this most risky enterprise, I feel sure you will
do your utmost for my sake. Think of the uproar and scandal if Miss
Parrett were to discover that you were _my_ brother--late of Eton
College and the Red Hussars. Explanation would be impossible; I should
be compelled to flee the country!”