"May I come in?" asked the bronzed, soldierly-looking man, as he opened
the door of Ben's room, having brought his handsome face and easy charm
to break down, with their usual success, Jan's opposition.
"My dear Cecil!" Ben exclaimed, rushing into her brother's arms, "what
brings you here? I thought you were in Paris."
"So we were," he said, "but I had to leave in self-defence. Yvonne was
ruining me. We were to have stayed there a month, but I should never
have got away at all if I hadn't put out all my strength and insisted
on coming now.
"The clothes that child buys!" he continued. "We're heading straight
for Queer Street. I see that you solve domestic problems; well, if
anyone ever asks you for advice as to marrying a foreigner, tell them
not to. The answer is in the negative. Foreigners are all right in
their place, but don't marry them."
"Poor Cecil!" said Ben.
"No, it isn't as bad as that," he said. "Yvonne and I get on very
well. But she's a foreigner, and once a foreigner, always a foreigner.
They never get to understand. I can't make her realize that I'm not
rich. She thinks that all Englishmen must be rich. She has plenty of
relations in the French Army--naturally--and they are poor enough, but
an English officer must necessarily be wealthy. Nothing that I can
say or do has any effect. I show her my accounts; but I might just as
well be exhibiting a bridge score. She has no idea of money or figures
whatever. And if by any chance a glimmering that I may be telling the
truth enters her brain, she says 'Ah, but your father is rich. Some
day he will die--he is an old man--and then you will be rich too.'
They're so practical, the French. They go straight for what they want,
and what she wants is her father-in-law's death. But, as a matter of
fact, as I have told her, judging by the governor's general appearance
to-day, he is far less likely to peg out than I am. He's as skittish as
a two-year-old on stepmother's money; and he and Yvonne are as thick as
thieves. They're at some function or other together to-day--Ranelagh, I
believe. Thank God you can't buy clothes at Ranelagh!"
"No," said Ben, "but you can see them and get envious and plot
terrific campaigns for to-morrow."
Cecil groaned.
"As a matter of fact," he said, "I don't see what I've gained by
bringing her to London. There's a Rue de la Paix here too! The old joke
had it that first you paid and then you rued, but I don't see how I can
pay. It's her only fault, but it's deadly. I can't put a notice in the
papers disowning her bills, because I'm not that sort, but it's getting
very serious, and if something doesn't happen or someone doesn't leave
me a fortune, I shall be up against it. When you see her, Ben, do try
and make her understand."
"Of course I'll try," said Ben. "What a pity you haven't any children!
If she had something like that to occupy her, she'd forget about dress."
"Not Yvonne!" said Cecil. "If Yvonne had been the old woman who lived
in a shoe, she'd have had a different dress to do every whipping in."
"Doesn't she read?" Ben asked.
"She lies on the sofa with a book," said Cecil, "but she's not a
reader. She's at heart a _mannequin_; but she's a darling too," he
added hastily. "Don't think I'm not in love with her still. I am. I
adore her. But heavens! she's extravagant: I've had to give up polo
entirely because of it. She doesn't know it, but I have. I pretended
I'd strained my back."
That evening Ben and Yvonne met at Colonel Staveley's.
"But, my dear Ben," said Yvonne, in her pretty broken English, "you
would not 'ave me shabbee?"
"That would be impossible," said Ben. "But poor old Cecil isn't rich,
you know."
"Ah!" said Yvonne, giving Ben a pat with delicate ringed hands, "'e
'ave spoke with you about me. And you say 'I will defend my big brozzer
against this--this--so naughty butterfly?' Is it not so?"
"Cecil adores you," said Ben. "I wish you had some children."
Yvonne's large brown eyes filled with tears.
"And I," she said. "Always I think of it. But _le bon Dieu_, 'E say no."