PLAYING TRUANT
“Demobilized! Oh, Bob--truly?”
“Truly and really,” said Bob. “At least, I shall be in twenty-seven
days. Got my orders. Show up for the last time on the fifteenth of next
month. Get patted on the head, and told to run away and play. That's the
programme, I believe, Tommy. The question is--What shall we play at?”
Cecilia brushed the hair from her brow.
“I don't know,” she said vaguely. “It's too big to think of; and I can't
think in this awful house, anyhow. Take me out, quick, please, Bobby.”
“Sure,” said Bob, regarding her with an understanding eye. “But you want
to change or something, don't you, old girl?”
“Why, yes, I suppose I do,” said Cecilia, with a watery smile, looking
at her schoolroom overall. “I forgot clothes. I've had a somewhat packed
morning.”
“You look as if this had been your busy day,” remarked Bob. “Right-oh,
old girl; jump into your things, and I'll wait on the mat. Any chance of
the she-dragon coming back?”
“No; she's gone out to tea.”
“More power to her,” said Bob cheerfully. “And the dragon puppies?”
“Oh, they're safely out of the way. I won't be five minutes, Bob. Don't
shut the door tight--you might disappear before I opened it.”
“Not much,” said Bob, through the crack of the door. “I'm a fixture.
Want any shoes cleaned?”
“No, thanks, Bobby dear. I have everything ready.”
“From what the other fellows say about their sisters, I'm inclined to
believe that you're an ornament to your sex,” remarked Bob. “When you
say five minutes, it really does mean not more than five and a half, as
a rule; other girls seem to mean three-quarters of an hour.”
“I get all my things ready the night before when I'm going to meet you,”
said Cecilia. “Catch me losing any time on my one day out. You can come
back again--my coat's on the hanger there, Bobby.” He put her into it
deftly, and she leaned back against him. “If you knew how good it is
to see you again--and you smell of clean fresh air and good tobacco and
Russia leather, and all sorts of nice things.”
“Good gracious, I'll excite attention in the street!” grinned Bob. “I
didn't imagine I was a walking scent-factory!”
“Neither you are--but everything in this house smells of coal-smoke and
cabbage-water and general fustiness, and you're a nice change, that's
all,” said Cecilia. They ran downstairs together light-heartedly, and
let themselves out into the street.
“Do we catch a train or a 'bus?”
“Oh, can't we walk?” Cecilia said. “I think if I walked hard I might
forget Mrs. Rainham.”
“I'd hate you to remember her,” Bob said. “Tell me what she has been
doing, anyhow, and then we won't think of her any more.”
“It doesn't sound much,” Cecilia said. “There never is anything very
much. Only it goes on all the time.” She told him the story of her day,
and managed to make herself laugh now and then over it. But Bob did not
laugh. His good-humoured young face was set and angry.
“There isn't a whole lot in it, is there?” Cecilia finished. “And no
one would think I was badly off--especially when the thing that hit me
hardest of all was just dusting that awful drawing-room while she plays
her awful tunes. Yes, I know I shouldn't say awful, and that no lady
says it--that must be true because Mrs. Rainham frequently tells me
so--but it's such a relief to say whatever I feel like.”
“You can say what you jolly well please,” said Bob wrathfully. “Who's
she, I'd like to know, to tell us what to say? And she kept you there
all the afternoon, when she knew you were due to meet me!--my hat, she
is a venomous old bird! And now it's half-past four, and what time does
she expect you back?”
“Oh--the usual thing; the children's tea-time at six. She told me not to
be late.”
Bob set his jaw.
“Well, you won't be late, because you won't be there,” he said. “No
going back to tea for you. We'll have dinner at the Petit Riche in Soho,
and then we'll do a theatre, and then I'll take you home and we'll face
the music. Are you game?”
Cecilia laughed.
“Game? Why, of course--but there will be awful scenes, Bobby.”
“Well, what can she do to you?” asked Bob practically. “You're too big
to beat, or she'd certainly do it; she can't stop your pay, because you
don't get any; and as you have your meals with the youngsters, she can't
dock your rations. That doesn't leave her much beside her tongue. Of
course, she can do a good deal with that; do you think you can stand
it?”
“Oh, yes,” said Cecilia. “You see, I generally have it, so it really
doesn't matter much. But if she forbids me to go out with you again,
Bobby?”
Bob pondered.
“Well--you're nineteen,” he said. “And the very first minute I can, I'm
going to take you away from her altogether. If you were a kid I wouldn't
let you defy her. But, hang it all, Tommy, I'm not going to let her
punish you as though you were ten. If she forbids you to meet me--well,
you must just take French leave, that's all.”
“Oh, Bob, you are a satisfying person!” said Cecilia, with a sigh.
“Well, I don't know--it's you who will have to stand the racket,” said
Bob. “I only wish I could take my share, old girl. But, please goodness,
it won't be for long.”
“Bob,” said Cecilia, and paused. “What about that statement of
hers--that it would be illegal for you to take me away? Do you think
it's true?”
“I've asked our Major, and he's a bit doubtful,” said Bob. “All the
other fellows say it's utter nonsense. But I'm going to ask the old
lawyer chap who has charge of Aunt Margaret's money--he'll tell me. We
won't bother about it, Tommy; if I can't get you politely, I'll steal
you. Just forget the she-dragon and all her works.”
“But have you thought about what you are going to do?”
“I don't think of much else, and that's the truth, Tommy,” said her
brother ruefully. “You see, there's mighty little in sight. I could get
a clerkship, I suppose. I could certainly get work as a day labourer.
But I don't see much in either of those possibilities towards a
little home with you, which is what I want. I'm going to answer every
advertisement I can find for fellows wanted on farms.” He straightened
his square shoulders. “Tommy, there must be plenty of work for any chap
as strong as an ox, as I am.”
“I'm sure there's work,” said Cecilia. “But the men who want jobs don't
generally advertise themselves as 'complete with sister.' I'm what's
technically known as an encumbrance, Bob.”
“You!” said Bob. “You're just part of the firm, so don't you forget it.
Didn't we always arrange that we should stick together?”
“We did--but it may not be easy to manage,” Cecilia said, doubtfully.
“Perhaps we could get some job together; I could do inside work, or
teach, or sew.”
“No!” said Bob explosively. “If I can't earn enough for us both, I ought
to be shot, Aunt Margaret didn't bring you up to work.”
“But the world has turned upside down since Aunt Margaret died,” said
Cecilia. “And I have worked pretty hard for the last two years, Bob; and
it hasn't hurt me.”
“It has made you older--and you ought to be only a kid yet,” said Bob
wistfully. “You haven't had any of the fun girls naturally ought to
have. I don't want you to slave all your time, Tommy.”
“Bless you!” said his sister. “But I wouldn't care a bit, as long as it
was near you--and not in Lancaster Gate.”
They had turned across Hyde Park, where a big company of girl guides
was drilling, watched by a crowd of curious on-lookers. Across a belt of
grass some boy scouts were performing similar evolutions, marching with
all the extra polish and swagger they could command, just to show the
guides that girls were all very well in their way, but that no one with
skirts could really hope to do credit to a uniform. Cecilia paused to
watch them.
“Thank goodness, the children can come and drill in the park again!” she
said. “I hated to come here before the armistice--soldiers, soldiers,
drilling everywhere, and guns and searchlight fixings. Whenever I saw a
squad drilling it made me think of you, and of course I felt sure you'd
be killed!”
“I do like people who look on the bright side of life!” said Bob
laughing. “And whenever you saw an aeroplane I suppose you made sure I
was crashing somewhere?”
“Certainly I did,” said his sister with dignity.
“Women are queer things,” Bob remarked. “If you had these unpleasant
beliefs, how did you manage to write as cheerfully as you did? Your
letters were a scream--I used to read bits of 'em out to the fellows.”
“You had no business to do any such thing,” said Cecilia, blushing.
“Well, I did, anyhow. They used to make 'em yell. How did you manage
them?”
“Well, it was no good assuring you you'd be killed,” said Cecilia
practically. “I thought it was more sensible to try to make you laugh.”
“You certainly did that,” said Bob. “I fancied from your letters that
life with the she-dragon was one huge joke, and that Papa was nice and
companionable, and the kids, sweet little darlings who ate from your
hand. And all the time you were just the poor old toad under the
harrow!”
“I'm not a toad!” rejoined his sister indignantly. “Don't you think you
could find pleasanter things to compare me to?”
“Toads aren't bad,” said Bob, laughing. “Ever seen the nice old fellow
in the Zoo who shoots out a tongue a yard long and picks up a grub every
time? He's quite interesting.”
“I certainly never had any inclination to do any such thing,” Cecilia
laughed.
They had turned into Piccadilly and were walking down, watching the
crowded motor traffic racing north and south. Suddenly Bob straightened
up and saluted smartly, as a tall staff officer, wearing a general's
badges, ran down the steps of a big club, and nearly cannoned into
Cecilia.
“I beg your pardon!” he said--and then, noticing Bob--“How are you,
Rainham?” He dived into a waiting taxi, and was whisked away.
“Did he bump you?” inquired Bob.
“No--though it would be almost a privilege to be bumped by anyone as
splendid as that!” Cecilia answered. “He knows you, too!--who is he,
Bobby?”
“That's General Harran, the Australian,” said Bob proudly. “He's a great
man. I've run into him occasionally since I've been with the Australians
in France.”
“He looks nice.”
“He is nice,” replied Bob. “Awful martinet about duty, but he treats
every one under him jolly well. Never forgets a face or a name, and he's
always got a decent word for everybody. He's had some quite long talks
to me, when we were waiting for some 'plane or other to come back.”
“Why wouldn't he?” asked Cecilia, who considered it a privilege for
anyone to talk to her brother.
Bob regarded her in amazement.
“Good gracious!” he ejaculated. “Why, he's a major-general; I can tell
you, most men of his rank haven't any use for small fry like me--to talk
to, that is.”
Cecilia had a flash of memory.
“Isn't he the general who was close by when you brought that German
aeroplane down behind our lines? Didn't he say nice things to you about
it?”
“Oh, that was only in the way of business,” said Bob somewhat confused.
“The whole thing was only a bit of luck--and, of course, it was luck,
too, that he was there. But he is just as nice to fellows who haven't
had a chance like that.”
Out of the crowd two more figures in Air Force uniform came, charging at
Bob with outstretched hands.
“By Jove, old chap! What luck to meet you!”
They shook hands tumultuously, and Bob made them known to
Cecilia--comrades he had not seen for months, but with whom he had
shared many strange experiences in the years of war. They fell into
quick talk, full of the queer jargon of the air. The newcomers, it
appeared, had been with the army of occupation in Germany; there seemed
a thousand things they urgently desired to tell Bob within the next
few minutes. One turned to Cecilia, presently, with a laughing
interpretation of some highly technical bit of slang.
“Oh, you needn't bother to translate to Tommy,” Bob said. “She knows all
about it.”
The other boys suddenly gave her all their attention.
“Are you Tommy? But we know you awfully well.”
“Me?” Cecilia turned pink.
“Rather. We used to hear your letters.”
The pink deepened to a fine scarlet.
“Bob!” said his sister reproachfully. “You really shouldn't.”
“Oh, don't say that,” said the taller boy, by name Harrison. “They were
a godsend--there used to be jolly little to laugh about, pretty often,
and your letters made us all yell. Didn't they, Billy?”
“They did,” said Billy, who was small and curly-haired--and incidentally
a captain, with a little row of medal ribbons. “Jolliest letters ever.
We passed a vote of thanks to you in the mess, Miss Tommy, after old Bob
here had gone. Some one was to write and tell him about it, but I don't
believe anyone ever did. I say, you must have had a cheery time--all the
funny things that ever happened seemed to come your way.”
Cecilia stammered something, her scarlet confusion deepening. A rather
grim vision of the war years swept across her mind--of the ceaseless
quest in papers and journals, and wherever people talked, for “funny
things” to tell Bob; and of how, when fact and rumour gave out, she used
to sit by her attic window at night, deliberately inventing merry jests.
It had closely resembled a job of hard work at the time; but apparently
it had served its purpose well. She had made them laugh; and some one
had told her that no greater service could be rendered to the boys who
risked death, and worse than death, during every hour of the day and
night. But it was extremely difficult to talk about it afterwards.
Bob took pity on her.
“I'll tell you just what sort of a cheery time she had, some time or
other,” he remarked. “What are you fellows doing this evening?”
“We were just going to ask you the same thing,” declared Billy. “Can't
we all go and play about somewhere? We've just landed, and we want to be
looked after. Any theatres in this little town still?”
“Cheer-oh!” ejaculated Billy. “Let's all go and find out.”
So they went, and managed very successfully to forget war and even
stepmothers. They were all little more than children in enjoyment of
simple pleasures still, since war had fallen upon them at the very
threshold of life, cutting them off from all the cheery happenings that
are the natural inheritance of all young things. The years that would
ordinarily have seen them growing tired of play had been spent in grim
tasks; now they were children again, clamouring for the playtime they
had lost. They found enormous pleasure in the funny little French
restaurant, where Madame, a lady whose sympathies were as boundless
as her waist, welcomed them with wide smiles, delighting in the
broken French of Billy and Harrison, and deftly tempting them to fresh
excursions in her language. She put a question in infantile French to
Bob presently, whereupon that guileless youth, with a childlike smile,
answered her with a flood of idiomatic phrases, in an accent purer than
her own--collapsing with helpless laughter at her amazed face. After
which, Madame neglected her other patrons to hover about their table
like a stout, presiding goddess, guiding them gently to the best dishes
on the menu, and occasionally putting aside their own selection with a
hasty, “Mon-non; you vill not like that one to-day.” She patted Cecilia
in a motherly fashion at parting, and their bill was only about half
what it should have been.
They found a musical comedy, and laughed their way through it--Billy and
Harrison had apparently no cares in the world, and Bob and Cecilia were
caught up in the whirl of their high spirits, so that anything became
a huge joke. The evening flew by on airy wings, when Billy insisted
on taking them to supper after the theatre. Cecilia allowed herself a
fleeting vision of Mrs. Rainham, and then, deciding that she might as
well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, followed gaily. And supper was so
cheery a meal that she forgot all about time--until, just at the end,
she caught sight of the restaurant clock.
“Half-past eleven! Oh, Bobby!”
“Well, if it is--you poor little old Cinderella,” said Bob.
But he hurried her away, for all that, amid a chorus of farewells and
efforts, on the part of Billy and Harrison, to arrange further meetings.
They ran to the nearest tube station, and dived into its depths; and,
after being whisked underground for a few minutes, emerged into the cool
night. Cecilia slipped her arm through her brother's as they hurried
along the empty street.
“Now, you keep your nose in the air,” Bobby told her. “You aren't
exactly a kid now, and she can't really do anything to you. Oh, by
Jove--I was thinking, in the theatre, she might interfere with our
letters.”
“She's quite equal to it,” said Cecilia.
“Just what she'd revel in doing. Well, you can easily find out. I'll
write to you to-morrow, and again the next day--just ordinary letters,
with nothing particular in them except an arrangement to meet next
Saturday. If you don't get them you'll know she's getting at the mail
first.”
“What shall I do, then?”
“Drop me a line--or, better still, wire to me,” said Bob. “Just say,
'Address elsewhere.' Then I'll write to you at Mr. M'Clinton's; the old
solicitor chap in Lincoln's Inn; and you'll have to go there and get the
letters. You know his address, don't you?”
“Oh, yes. I have to write to him every quarter when he sends me my
allowance. You'll explain to him, then, Bob, or he'll simply redirect
your letters here.”
“Oh, of course. I want to go and see the old chap, anyhow, to talk over
Aunt Margaret's affairs. I might as well know a little more about them.
Tommy, the she-dragon can't actually lock you up, can she?”
“No--it couldn't be done,” said Cecilia. “Modern houses aren't built
with dungeons and things. Moreover, if she tried to keep me in the house
she would have to take the children out for their walks herself; and she
simply hates walking.”
“Then you can certainly post to me, and get my letters, and I'll be up
again as soon as ever I can. Buck up, old girl--it can't be for long
now.”
They turned in at the Rainhams' front gate, and Cecilia glanced up
apprehensively. All the windows were in darkness; the grey front of the
house loomed forbiddingly in the faint moonlight.
“You're coming in, aren't you?” she asked, her hand tightening on his
arm.
“Rather--we'll take the edge off her tongue together.” Bob rang the
bell. “Wonder if they have all gone to bed. The place looks pretty
dark.”
“She's probably in the little room at the back--the one she calls her
boudoir.”
“Horrible little den, full of bamboo and draperies and pampas grass--I
know,” nodded Bob. “Well, either she's asleep or she thinks it's fun to
keep us on the mat. I'll try her again.” He pressed the bell, and the
sound of its whirring echoed through the silent house.