In For It!
"I shall keep out of his way for a day or two--put up at the Royal instead
of going home," Reggie had explained to Bessie in the quarter of an hour
he was _tête-à-tête_ with her before Deleah came in. "By the time he sees
me again he'll have forgotten all about finding me here."
"I suppose you don't see that all this fuss about being 'found' in our
house is not very complimentary to us?" Bessie said.
"Oh hang!" said Reggie. "How can I help it if he objects? You all know
very well you're good enough for me."
He was not a clever nor a tactful young man, although quite good-natured.
He did not intend to offend, and never understood why he sometimes did so.
Bessie was "touchy," as he often declared, but she bore no malice. So long
as she had the young man dangling around, so long as she could dress for
him, put on her long mauve ribbons for him, do up her hair for him in a
chignon whose dimensions should surpass those of any other chignon in
Brockenham, so long as Emily continued to make him the subject for her
winks and nods and innuendoes, she lived in her Paradise and was fairly
content.
But by putting up at the Royal Reggie did not long evade the discussion he
foresaw might be unpleasant; for on the very next morning, before he had
arisen from his bed he received a message from his brother asking for his
presence at a certain hour at the Brewery.
"I'm in for it now," he said to himself when he got the message; but he
did not dream of disregarding it.
He presented himself, therefore, punctually enough, in the pleasant
private room which looked out upon the river flowing black and oily so far
beneath; where the portrait of the father of the two men hung above Sir
Francis's head as he stood upon the hearthrug.
"Oh, there you are, Reggie! Good-morning."
"Here I am. Sharp as a new pin, and bright as a button."
"I hope I have not upset any plans for the day by sending for you;
but--You have not been overworking yourself of late, have you?"
"Thank you, no," Reggie said, choosing to ignore the sarcasm, if any were
intended.
"You're looking very nice, and fit, I'm sure. That brown velvet coat is
the latest, I suppose? Looks a little as if you were thinking of giving up
Beer for the Arts, eh? I've been wondering if you'd like to travel for a
year?"
Reggie sat down and stared at his brother, with a perplexed vacuity of
eye. This was not at all what he had expected. He thought of Deleah in a
flash. If Deleah would marry him and go with him, the very thing!
"You haven't been about the world very much," the brother went on.
"Neither have I, you will say. But I can't be spared. You--perhaps--can.
We will try, at any rate, to carry on the business without you."
Reggie, accepting the remark in all seriousness, nodded a solemn head in
silence.
"You might even combine business with pleasure, which I am sure would meet
with your approval."
"When do you want me to go? I can't be ready for some little time."
"Why not? If you go at all I want you to go at once."
"What do you call at once?"
"Next week, at latest."
Reggie shook his head. He couldn't be sure of Deleah in that time. How
long would it take to get married, he wondered.
"No, thank you. I really don't care for it. I couldn't possibly get away
so soon."
"Why not?"
"There are the Widdimouth races next week, and I've booked several
engagements for the week after."
"The fact is I want you to get away for a time, Reggie. This place is all
very well if you've got a business or a profession to attend to, but
simply to idle away your time here isn't healthy."
"What's wrong with Brockenham?" Reggie asked, who had a great admiration
for his native town. "Any one been gossiping about me again?"
"No one has mentioned you to me. But Ada was hearing an interesting piece
of news about you, yesterday."
"Ada's as bad as the other old women."
"Nonsense. You had better go, Reggie. I mean it."
Reggie passed a ringed hand over his smooth, fair hair, felt his
moustache, opening his mouth beneath the caressing fingers as he did so.
"The engagements you mention are negligible ones?"
Reggie nodded, gazing at his brother, busy with the corners of the
moustache, making up his mind for a plunge. "Fact is," he got out, "I'm
thinking of settling down."
Sir Francis left his position on the hearthrug, walked across to the
table, to arrange more symmetrically some papers which lay there;
returning, took up his place on the hearth again. "Getting married, you
mean?" he asked.
Reggie nodded, still holding his mouth open, the more satisfactorily to
handle the moustache.
"My dear fellow, that intention need not deter you. You have held it so
often before. Go away for twelve months, at least. Get engaged, if you are
still so inclined, when you come home."
"Perhaps," amended Reggie artlessly, "if I were to put off going for a
month, or even a couple of months, we might get married, and she could go
too."
"Who is the lady at the present moment, may I ask?"
"I expect you've formed a pretty good guess," said Reggie, bold as a lion.
"You saw me there yesterday."
"A daughter of Mrs. Day, at the grocer's shop; widow of----? But we
needn't go into that."
"It doesn't seem necessary. Her daughter."
"Well--!" said Sir Francis slowly. "You have given me one reason more, my
dear boy, and that a supreme one, for hastening your departure. Take my
advice--you will never regret it--and go to-morrow."
"No," Reggie said, and then both were silent.
When the elder again began, he had changed his easy, almost indifferent
tone for one firmer and less indulgent.
"What you propose is impossible," he said.
"I don't see it."
"Have you thought what you would be marrying? The grocer's shop, the
debts, the helpless mother, the disreputable private soldier of a brother
(he enlisted, I am told, to save himself from prison, as the father killed
himself for the same purpose). A charming family with which to ally
yourself, truly!"
"I don't intend to marry the family. I should allow the mother--not a bad
sort at all. I'm fond of her--a hundred a year, to shut the shop up. I
should--"
"Nonsense! The idea is ridiculous; monstrous. Get married if you must, but
take a girl of your own position in life. Easy enough to find--"
"I don't care a hang about position!"
"Then, more fool you. But if you don't, at least marry a woman that has
honest blood in her veins--for your children's sake."
Reggie turned away his head sulkily. "The Days were good enough for me
before they fell into trouble," he said.
His brother lifted his head and squared his shoulders, standing up tall
and imposing before the empty grate. "William Day was never good enough
for me," he said.
"I don't see that a girl is to be made to suffer all her life because her
father was not good enough for you," Reggie said sulkily.
"Try not to be an ass, my dear fellow. You don't suppose you can be
allowed to do a mad thing like this without my telling you what I think of
it. You know, I have never had much opinion of your judgment--except,
perhaps, in the matter of horses; but in your admiration for this Miss Day
your taste is to my thinking astoundingly bad. I call her a commonplace,
almost vulgar young woman."
"Vulgar? _Vulgar!_"
"She is pretentious, she is affected, she is gushing--what is that but to
be vulgar? She is not even pretty--"
"Not pretty!" Reggie cried, and started up from his chair. "Not pretty!
Deleah Day!"
"Deleah! The young one?"
"I've been telling you so, all along, haven't I? Who did you think it
was?"
"It was the other, when we spoke of the Days before," Sir Francis reminded
him, but flatly, and his face had fallen.
Here was more serious matter. Not that flaunting extravagant queen, not
Bessie with her plump prettiness, her cheap wiles, her nets that were
spread in the sight of man; but Deleah, the dainty, charmingly pretty
child. The marriage would be none the less hideously undesirable on the
social side, and from the point of view of the family; but it would be
infinitely more difficult to stop. Sir Francis, in his widowed estate,
with twenty years more of experience on his head, was yet not so old but
that he could picture how deeply, how dangerously in love a young man of
his brother's age could imagine himself with Deleah Day.
Reggie was recalling attention to himself by a loud snort of contempt.
"I'm not very likely to have thought of Bessie when Deleah was on the
spot," he said.
"Except that the younger sister has a more attractive appearance, all the
objections remain the same in either case."
"The Days are down-pins, I admit," Reggie said dispassionately; "and the
father and brother were rotten; but no one'll think of those things when
they look at Deleah. I'm not afraid."
Sir Francis contemplated his young brother meditatively. "Let us know
precisely how we stand, Reggie. Are you actually engaged to this girl?"
"Oh, yes! I'm engaged to her, right enough."
"What does being 'engaged right enough' mean exactly?" There had been a
something indicating a want of confidence in Reggie's tone.
"There's no doubt about me. I'm running straight."
"But the girl? What has she to say to it?"
"The fact is, she's afraid of Bessie. She can't get over it that I was
once considered to be Bessie's property--by Bessie. I never was; but
Bessie chose to lay claim to me."
"So, although you are engaged to Miss Deleah Day, Miss Deleah Day, so far
as I understand the matter, is not engaged to you?"
"That's about how we stand at present, I suppose."
"I see," Sir Francis said.