"REPLY PAID"
Valentia had been hurt at the tone in which Harry had given his orders,
and turned from him to help to find the mowing-machine.
"Doesn't she look jolly at sunrise? All that pink and mauve in the sky
tones in so well. It seems to suit her. That's how she really should be
painted," said Harry, in the tone of an artist admiring his model.
"Don't you think so?"
"Yes," said Romer.
"She looks like a golden rose," Harry went on. He wanted to please Val,
who he saw was annoyed with him, and to emphasise the openness of his
admiration to Romer. "Doesn't she?"
"Quite," said her husband.
Harry felt the morning was spoilt and the situation absurd. He could not
bear to be thwarted in any way. He went back to his own room, bounced
angrily on to his bed, and went to sleep again, after having seen
Valentia through the window helping to push the mower, and saying to
himself--
"How like a woman! I shall go up to town with Van Buren and send a wire
to Alec."
This was his revenge.
Their momentary fears about Romer were completely dissipated. He seemed
exactly as usual. As a rule he was even-tempered. Not many people had
seen him put out, though he could be very angry, except with Valentia.
During this day he seemed, for him, a little irritable. Perhaps, Val
thought, through getting up too early.
Harry went up to town with Van Buren for the day, intending to return
the same evening. He soon recovered himself in the course of copious
confidences in the train. As soon as he had arrived in London he began
to count the minutes before he should go back.
Valentia expected the elder Mrs. Wyburn to lunch.
"What shall we do with her to-day?" Val asked Daphne. "She must be kept
in a good temper, because it's the last time she'll come down before
going to Bournemouth. It's rather a pity they've all gone. Romer is sure
to say the wrong thing to her--let out some trifle that we have been
carefully concealing for months--praise up Harry, or something."
"Doesn't she like Harry?"
"Since he went to see her she likes him for herself, but not for me."
"What cheek! But he's not here."
"No, if he were she might like him again all right. Then, Romer talks
too slowly for her. Her mind works quicker than his, and one can only
deal with him by racing on in front, and turning round to beckon. With
Mrs. Wyburn there are only two things that are any use--dash and
volubility. It's difficult to keep the thing going when she's alone with
us."
"Well, why not pass the time this afternoon by returning the Campbells'
visit, and take Mrs. Wyburn with us to 'The Angles'?" Daphne suggested.
"Oh no! It's treating them almost like royalty to go so soon. And
there's the Belgian man."
"Doesn't she like Belgians then, Val?"
"I've never asked her. Only, don't you see, it isn't that but the
Belgian is what Harry calls a blighter--a beano-blighter; and so is Mrs.
Wyburn, and it doesn't do to have two beano-blighters in the same
party."
"Ah, I see; they'd clash. What _is_ a beano-blighter exactly, Val?"
"A person who blights beanos. Who makes every one a little
uncomfortable, casts a gloom over entertainments--has to be taken in
hand and dealt with separately from the others--doesn't blend, you
know."
"You mean some one who isn't the life and soul of the party?"
"No, I don't. That's almost as bad in its way. In fact, the
life-and-soul-of-the-party person casts almost as great a gloom on the
rest as a blighter."
"Oh dear! Yes, I see."
"We must meet her at the station in the motor. I shall put on my blue
serge and my plain sailor. She mustn't see me in the garden without a
hat, nor in a real one. You do the same, Daphne."
"But my sailor's too large in the head, and that makes it fall over my
eyes, and that gives it a Frenchy look, like _L'Art et la Mode_,"
protested Daphne.
"Stuff it with paper. Here's the _Bystander_."
"Oh, isn't it a pity? There's such a pretty picture of----"
"Oh, don't bother."
Mrs. Wyburn was gracious to-day, and all was going well when, about
half-past five, a telegram, reply paid, was brought. It was addressed to
Harry.
"What shall we do?"
"Why, keep it till he comes. He'll be back to dinner," Romer said.
"Suppose it's something urgent," said Val, seeming a little agitated.
"Don't you think perhaps we ought to open it? He won't mind."
"You can't. It's addressed to Harry," said Romer.
Mrs. Wyburn's quick eyes took in some signs of tension, but she
continued giving them advice about the garden. She thought the flowers
too florid, and was always a little shocked at the extravagant scent and
exuberance of the roses. She seemed to think they should be kept more in
their place--not allowed to climb all over the house, and romp or lean
about the garden doing just what they liked. She had winced in the
drawing-room, relented in the dining-room, and refrained, really, only
in the kitchen, that she had insisted upon seeing. It was the only room
to the decoration of which she gave whole-hearted praise and approval.
The cooking at the Green Gate she admitted to be perfect, without
pretension. In fact, she thought everything in the house a little
overdone, except the mutton.
"I can't think who that wire can be from," Val said several times to
Daphne when her mother-in-law had gone. She meant that she could think.
"Well, you'll know directly. Harry's arriving."
Harry found it in the hall, and came in with it.
"You open it for me," he said, giving it to Val.
Since his last instructions to Alec he felt perfectly safe.
She read--
"_Thousand thanks awfully bucked at letter at Queens' Hotel Cowes
for three days could you join us there wire reply fondest love and
kisses._
_Johnson_."