"Bless her! Charming woman, but bit of a tyrant, sir. Love her like
mad don't half express it; but there are times when a man does like a
run alone. Just off with a friend for a bit of a cruise when the
check-string was pulled tight. You understand?"
"Oh, yes; I begin to understand."
"Ah, here's the stimulus, and I'm sure we require it."
_Pop_!
"Thanks, waiter. Needn't wait. Now, doctor: bless her--the dear
thing's health. Hah, not bad--for the country. I may take her back
to-day, eh?"
"Well, er--if great care were taken, and you broke the journey if the
lady seemed worse--I--er--think perhaps you might risk it," said Asher,
setting down his empty glass. "Of course you would take every
precaution."
"Who would take more, doctor? Put out, of course; but the weaker sex,
eh? Yes, the weaker sex."
He refilled the doctor's glass and his own.
"An accident. Pray, don't think it was anything else; and, I say: you
will contradict any one who says otherwise?"
"Of course, of course."
"There are disagreeable people who might say that the poor dear sprang
off the pier in a fit of temper at being left behind, but we know
better, eh, doctor?"
"Oh, of course," said Asher, playing with and enjoying his glass of
champagne.
"It's a wonderful thing, temper. Take a cigar?"
"Thanks, no. I never smoke in the daytime."
"Sorry for you, doctor. Professional reasons, I suppose?"
Asher bowed.
"I was going to say," continued Gellow, carefully selecting one out of
the four cigars he carried, for no earthly reason, since he would smoke
all the others in their turn. "I was going to say that it is a
wonderful thing how Nature always gives the most beautiful women the
worst tempers."
"Compensation?" hazarded Asher.
"Eh? Yes; I suppose so. Going, doctor?"
"Yes; other patients to see."
"Then my eternal gratitude, sir, for what you have done, and with all
due respect to you and your skill, I hope I may never have to place a
certain lady in your care again. Shake hands, my dear sir. Doctor
Asher, I think you are called? That name will be engraven on the lady's
heart."
"You will take the greatest care?" said Asher.
"Of course."
"And break the journey, if needful?"
"And break the journey if I think it needful. You need be under no
apprehension, my dear doctor. Good-morning, and goodbye.
"Yes; bless her! I'll take the greatest care, Asher, by gad!" said
Gellow to himself, as he saw the doctor pass the window, when he filled
his own glass, took a hasty sip, and then drew out his pocket-book.
"Shall I make a lump charge on this journey," he said, "or put down the
separate items? Better be exact," he muttered, and he carefully wrote
down,--
"Doctor's fees, twenty guineas; lunch for doctor, one guinea."
"Always as well to be correct," he muttered, as he replaced his pencil
in the book, and drew round the elastic band with a snap. "How am I to
know about how she is going on? By jingo!"
He started, so sudden was the apparition of the woman, who flung open
the door, and closed it loudly, being evidently in a fierce fit of
excitement and rage.
"Where is my hosband?" she cried, speaking in a low voice, and through
her teeth.
Gellow beckoned her to the window, and pointed out to where _The Fair
Star_ was careening over, with a pleasant breeze sending her rapidly
through the water.
"He is dere," she said, watching the yacht through her half-closed eyes.
"Yes, he's off. Gave me the slip while I was helping you. By jingo,
ma'am, you had a narrow escape."
"And you came down here to reveal him I was coming," she said, turning
upon him suddenly, with her eyes widely open and flashing.
"Come, I like that," he replied, with cool effrontery. "How the dickens
should I know that you were coming down here?"
She did not reply, but stood gazing at him searchingly.
"But I wish to goodness you hadn't come."
"And why, monsieur, do you wish that I shall not come?"
"Because you spoil sport. Do you know that Glyddyr owes me thousands?"
"Of francs? He is vairay extravagant."
"Francs, be hanged! Pounds. I came down here to try and get some, and
just as I'd got him safe, and he was taking me aboard his yacht to give
me some money, you came and had that accident."
"Yais, I come and had that ac-ceedon," said the woman through her teeth.
"Where to is he gone, monsieur?"
"Glyddyr? Ah! that's what I should like to know. Going to sail back to
London, I expect. Gravesend, perhaps. How are you now?"
"He will come back here?" said the woman, paying no heed to the
question.
Gellow burst into a roar of laughter.
"What for you laugh?" said the woman angrily. "Am so I redeeculose in
dese robe which do not fit me?"
"Eh? Oh, no. 'Pon honour I never noticed your dress. With a face like
yours one does not see anything else."
"Aha, I see," said the woman, raising her eyebrows. "You flatter me,
monsieur. I am extreme oblige. You tell me my face is handsome?"
"Yes; and no mistake."
"You tell me somting else I do not know at all."
"Eh? Oh, very well. I will when I think of it."
"You tell me now. What for you laugh?"
"Eh, why did I laugh?" The woman screwed up her eyelids, and nodded her
head a great deal.
"I remember now. It was at your thinking that Glyddyr would come back
here."
"He has sail away in his leettler sheep--in his yacht. Why will he not
come back to-night, to-morrow, the next day?"
"Shall I tell you?"
"Yes; you shall tell me."
"Because he will say to himself: `no, I will not go back to Danmouth,
because Madame Denise is so fond of me she will be waiting.' Do you
understand?"
"Oh, yais. I understand quite well. You sneer me, but you are his
friend. You are his friend."
"Ha, ha, ha," laughed Gellow; "you wouldn't have said that if you had
heard him when I talked about money."
"Well?"
The abrupt question was so sudden, that Gellow looked at the speaker
wonderingly.
"Well what?" he said.
"Why do you look at me? Why do you ask me question? You go your way, I
go mine. I want my hosband. I will have my hosband. Why is he here?"
"He isn't here," said Gellow, in reply to the fierce question.
"No, I know dat; and you know what I mean. Why comes he here?"
"Well," said Gellow, "I should think it was so as to get out of my way,
and--now, don't be offended if I tell you the truth."
"Bah! I know you. You cannot offend me."
"Well, I'm sorry I am so insignificant in madame's beautiful eyes."
"What?"
"I say I am sorry I am so insignificant, but I'll tell you all the same.
I should say that Mr Parry Glyddyr came down to this delectable,
out-of-the-way spot so as to be where Mademoiselle Denise--"
"Madame Denise Glyddyr, sare."
"Ah, that's what Glyddyr says you are not."
"What?"
"I beg your pardon; I only tell you what he says."
"We shall see," cried the woman, stamping her foot, "what you did not
finish yourself?"
"And I don't mean to," said Gellow, _sotto voce_.
"Well?"
"I have no more to say, only that I believe he came here so as to avoid
you, and he is off somewhere now to be away from you."
"Yes, it is true," said the woman bitterly.
"If you had not come down, I daresay he would have run back here."
"What for?"
"How should I know? Play billiards, read the odds."
"He has a wife here, then."
"Do you mean Madame Denise?" said Gellow innocently.
She gave him a scornful look.
"Are you fool, or make fun of me?" she cried fiercely. "Bah, I am too
much angry. Is there a lady here?"
"No, I should think not, but we could easily find out. If he has, it is
too bad, owing me so much as he does. No, I don't think so; stop--yes I
do. By Jingo, it's too bad. That's why he did not want to take me out
in his yacht."
"What do you mean?" said the woman searchingly.
"If there is one, madame--if he is married, she is aboard his yacht, and
yonder they go--no, they don't; they're out of sight."
There was so much reality in Gellow's delivery of this speech, that his
_vis-a-vis_ was completely hoodwinked. She tried to pass it off with a
laugh, but the compression of her lips, the contraction about her eyes,
all showed the jealous rage she was in; and it was only by giving one
foot a fierce stamp on the carpet, and by walking quickly to the window,
that she could keep herself from shrieking aloud.
"Well, madame," said Gellow, "you are getting all right again."
"Oh, yais; I am getting all right."
"And you can do without my services?"
"Oh, yais."
"Then I'll say good-bye. Glad I was near to help you out. Glad to see
you again if you like to give me a call in town."
"Where are you going?"
"Going? Back to London as fast as I can."
"And what for, sir?"
"To read up all the yachting news, and see where _The Fair Star_ puts
in, and then run down and give Master Glyddyr a bit of my mind."
"Stop--an hour--two hours."
"What for?"
"Till I get back my dress all a dry. I go back wiz you."
"Oh, certainly, if you wish it; but I wouldn't; you had better stop here
and rest for a few days--a week. I'll write and tell you all I find
out."
"I go back wiz you," said the woman decidedly. And she kept her word,
for in two hours they caught a train.
The next day came a telegram from Underley, giving that as Glyddyr's
temporary address.
Gellow wrote back advising that the yacht should in future sail under
another name, with her owner incog, and he added that the coast at
Danmouth was now clear.
Volume One, Chapter XIII.