A Curious Engagement.
For several days Lawrence had only a flying interview with Gwen, so
occupied was she with balls and receptions and gayeties of all kinds,
and meanwhile he still pondered the question of the Adairs. At last
Gwen noticed he was unusually quiet, and taxed him in her customary
outspoken fashion.
“There’s something the matter with you, Lawrie,” she said. “You’ve been
looking as solemn as a boiled owl for days. Is it an attack of liver,
or the hundred-and-ninety-ninth love episode? Come, out with it, and
let me give you the benefit of my sage advice.”
They were standing on the large staircase at the Viceroy’s, having met
at a reception there, and she had detained him in passing.
“Why not choose a more public spot?” Lawrence asked. “Only half
Calcutta would hear us here, and they might as well all know.”
“You goose,” she laughed. “I suppose you want a _tête-à-tête_. Oh,
dear!” with a sigh; “and I’ve got such a lot of special friends here
to-night. Never mind, I’ll manage it. I’ll go with you to have
refreshments at eleven o’clock, and then we’ll—well, we’ll go and look
at the idols and mummies and things,” and she passed gayly on.
Later they found their way into a quiet alcove that overlooked the big
reception rooms, and Gwen at once plunged into the subject.
“Is it anything to do with the little Irish girl?” she asked.
“Partly.”
“Well, what’s happened.”
“Her father is dead.”
“Dead!” echoed Gwen, in a shocked voice.
“Yes. He died after a few days’ illness, about six weeks ago, of some
heart attack.”
“Goodness! How sudden it seems. When did you hear?”
“The night I told you about them.”
“Fancy! And I’ve never given you a chance to speak of it.”
Lawrence was silent.
“I can see that’s not all,” she said.
“No. The money all seems to have gone, and they have to leave their
home and go and live in London, and Paddy’s going to be a dispenser.”
“What in the name of wonder is a dispenser?”
“A person who makes up prescriptions.”
“In a chemist’s shop!” opening her eyes wide.
“Sometimes; but in this case it would be in a private doctor’s
surgery.”
“What an extraordinary occupation! What on earth put it into their
heads! If I had to earn money I’d go into a big establishment where you
did nothing all day long except try on lovely dresses and pat yourself
on the back because you knew you looked infinitely better in them than
the annoying people who had the money to buy them.”
“That wouldn’t suit Paddy. She’d probably end by throwing the dresses
at the people’s heads. It’s quite likely that’s what she’ll eventually
do with the bottles of medicine.”
“Poor Paddy,” said Gwen softly. “Do you know, I don’t hate her a bit
now! I’m just awfully sorry.”
Lawrence was silent a moment.
“It will be terrible for those girls to have to live in London,” he
said at last.
“What—are they sisters?” she cried. “Do you mean Paddy and the
goody-goody girl?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t say they were sisters before.”
“Didn’t I?” carelessly. “Well, probably I didn’t think about it.”
Gwen watched him thoughtfully.
“Do you know,” she said at last, “I think you’ll just have to go home
and marry Paddy, and make the mother and the other one a present of
their old home.”
“Paddy would almost as soon marry the Sultan of Turkey.”
Gwen looked at him with a sudden light of understanding.
“Lawrie,” she exclaimed, “you don’t mean to tell me that you’ve been
foolish enough to make love to the goody-goody one!”
“I told you she was not goody-goody,” shortly.
“Well, what is she, then!”
There was a pause.
“She’s like my mother,” he said slowly; “only mother was never as
good-looking.”
“Yes, that’s all very well,” quoth Gwen; “but men never want to marry
their mothers, even when they worship them. I can just see the whole
thing now, and you’ve behaved like an idiot, for all your brains and
cleverness. If I had been there to look after you it wouldn’t have
happened. A man of your type does not _love_ a girl of her type; he
only admires and respects from a distance. If you had married her you
wouldn’t have made her happy, so it’s a very good thing for her you’ve
come away. Why! your morose, taciturn moods would have broken her
heart, and your temper would have been like an icy blast to a delicate
hot-house flower. She would never have understood you at all; and being
sweet-tempered and unselfish herself would only have left her more
hopelessly in the dark, and in the end have irritated you awfully. Oh!
I am very wise, Lawrie, about some things. I don’t know how I got it,
but it’s there, and possibly father spared me a biggish slice of his
brains. Now the other girl, Paddy, would suit you well, but it’s a pity
she’s plain. If you were moody and sullen with her I expect she’d throw
something at your head, and that’s just about what you need.”
“You are very kind.”
“Glad you think so,” with a little laugh; “but meanwhile, what’s to be
done with your friends!”
Lawrence was annoyed with her plain speaking, probably because she was
so distinctly in the right.
“I think,” he said coolly, “that I shall return to England and marry
Paddy’s sister.”
Gwen looked into his face, and saw with her usual intuition exactly how
matters stood.
“Very well,” she said airily, getting up. “Go and make the funeral pile
of your own happiness and hers as well. I’m sure I don’t care, and I’ve
got quite as much on my hands out here just now as I can well attend
to, so I’ll be quite relieved to leave you to look after your own
affairs entirely. But when you’ve managed to fit a square block into a
round hole by becoming a pattern, stay-at-home country squire, just let
me know, as by that time I shall be wanting to see something unique.
Good-by! I have an important engagement,” and without giving him time
to offer his escort she was off.
Lawrence remained where he was, and thought of Eileen, drawing back
into deep shadow, and staring moodily down at the gay throng below him.
After a long time, getting no nearer to a decision, he went below again
and joined a small coterie of men about the Hon. Jack Carew, discussing
the probability of disturbances on the Afghan frontier in the spring.
A few days later, while still in a state of indecision, he made the
discovery that Gwen was in a fix. He came upon her unexpectedly in the
morning-room, and caught her with tears in her eyes before she had time
to brush them away. She did so angrily enough directly he entered, but
by that time he had seen them. Lawrence looked at her a moment, and
then crossed and carefully closed the door and came back again.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, as if he meant to be told.
“Nothing,” she answered shortly.
“When I came in your were crying.”
“No, I wasn’t!” and she tossed her head.
“Fibber,” from Lawrence.
“Well, I suppose I can please myself.”
“Not much good though, when I know the truth.”
“I tell you I wasn’t crying,” stamping her foot.
“Very well, then, we’ll begin again. How did you manage to get such a
cold, Gwen?”
“I haven’t a cold.”
“Indeed! I thought your eyes were running.”
She made no reply. Lawrence drew near and leaned on the table beside
her.
“What’s the matter, chum?” he said coaxingly.
“Oh! just everything,” she broke out. “I can’t think why Heaven made
men such fools.”
“Admirers getting entangled?” he asked.
“Yes,” pettishly. “I believe Captain O’Connor is going to make Lord
Selloyd fight.”
“You needn’t worry. Woolly lambs don’t fight—they run away.”
“Oh, but can’t you see how silly it is!” she cried in exasperation. “It
is bound to get round to the clubs, and then to the women, and mother
will be furious. I must make them come to their senses somehow.”
“What’s it all about?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” expressively. “A storm in a tea-cup, of course, but
you Irishmen are so ridiculously hot-headed. Take a hot-headed Irishman
and an Englishman who is a fool, and they’re sure to do something
silly.
“I don’t mind about them,” running on, “but I do want to keep it from
mother and father. You see, they give me a lot of liberty, and they’ll
think I’ve been abusing it, and it really wasn’t my fault this time,”
and the tears sprang to her eyes again.
“What happened?”
“Well, it was at the Inglis’ dance. Lord Selloyd would follow me about,
and Captain O’Connor got angry. I think they had both had too much
champagne for supper, and in the end they had a row.”
“Probably it has all blown over by now.”
“No, it hasn’t. They will both be at the Markhams’ to-night, and it
will be very unpleasant.”
“I shall be there,” said Lawrence. “Can’t I see you through!”
Gwen was thoughtful a few moments, and suddenly she looked up with an
idea.
“Look here, Lawrence,” she said, “if I could once for all convince both
of them it wasn’t the least use thinking any more about me, I believe
they’d just leave Calcutta, and no one would ever know there had been
this bother.”
“And can’t you?”
“I can’t by merely talking. I must try and prove it—and I have an idea,
Lawrence.”
“Say on.”
“If I could tell them I was engaged it would just simplify everything.”
Lawrence nodded, to show he was following, and waited. “I can only do
that with someone to corroborate it, and I’ve been thinking, Lawrence,
if you wouldn’t mind helping me, you’re just the man.”
“I am ready for anything. What do you want?”
“I want you to be secretly engaged to me for this evening.”
Lawrence looked up, and there was amusement in his eyes.
“It’s a splendid idea,” she exclaimed, warming to her subject. “I shall
tell Captain O’Connor and make him understand it can’t be announced for
some particular reason, and he’ll be flattered at being told, and just
keep it to himself and say no more. You must, of course, be there
yourself to sanction it or he might not believe it.”
Gwen talked on, and Lawrence listened, falling in with her plans easily
enough because he saw no harm in the trick and it was the least
trouble. When Mrs Carew joined them later, Gwen was radiant again and
rather looking forward to her evening. Afterward she was still more
radiant, for everything had gone well. Captain O’Connor, a fiery young
officer, spending a month’s leave in Calcutta before starting to
England, was quickly brought to reason by Gwen’s charming way of
confiding in him, and, while announcing his intention of running
himself through, in the same moment grasped Lawrence’s hand, and told
him he was the luckiest chap on earth.
The next morning he did actually start for England, a week sooner than
he intended, leaving Lord Selloyd to congratulate himself upon having
got out of the quarrel so simply.
The incident dispersed Gwen’s passing displeasure with Lawrence also,
and she condescended once more to mention the subject of the Adairs,
asking him if he had decided what to do. He was standing with his hands
in his pockets looking out of the window, and for a moment he did not
reply. Gwen came and leaned against the window-frame beside him.
“If you go, Lawrie, are you quite certain it would have to be the
pretty one?” she asked.
“Yes—quite,” he answered.
“Then stay here. I’m awfully sorry for them—at least I’m sorry for
Paddy,” she continued, as he did not speak, “but I’m absolutely certain
it would be a mistake for you to marry the other one. Deep down in your
heart you think so yourself, don’t you?”
“I have long been under the impression that I had no heart.”
“Rubbish! Why, that’s what people say about me, and do you think I
don’t know better! When ‘John Right’ comes along you’ll all see I’ve
got just as much heart as any one else, but until he does—a short life
and a merry one, say I! That’s how it will be with you, Lawrie. When
Mary Jane Right turns up you’ll tear your hair—what there is of it—and
stamp, and rave, and storm, just like any other love-sick male. Till
then, if it pleases you to be cynical and _blasé_, and all that
nonsense, why, be cynical and _blasé_; it doesn’t hurt any one else—in
fact, it’s rather amusing,” and she rested her hand on his arm and
looked into his face with roguish, laughing eyes. “I’d have just loved
to have a brother,” she said, “but, like that nice old General Adair
who wanted a son, I guess I’ve got the next best thing.”
So, in the end, Lawrence did not return to England, and nothing
happened to avert the hard change for Paddy and Eileen and their
mother.