"Barbara is not feeling very well," said Marjolaine, sympathetically;
and immediately Barbara looked languishing and pathetic.
"Heavens!" cried Basil in genuine alarm, "Shall I play to her?"
"Oh, no!" cried Marjolaine, innocently, "it's not so bad as that. But
it's her evening hour with Doctor Johnson, and she does n't feel quite
equal to it."
Ruth had overheard this last statement. "Why, bless her heart!" she
interrupted tartly, "she 's been sitting with that bird all day!"
Barbara lifted great reproachful eyes at her. "Unkind Ruth! The lonely
bird!"
Marjolaine went on rapidly, addressing Basil, "So she wondered whether
you would take her place for once."
"Why, of course!" cried Basil. "With the greatest pleasure in life!"
Barbara glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and said very
demurely, "Oh, but you don't know what you may hear."
"Yes," exclaimed Ruth, sharply, "he swears horribly."
"I'll soothe his savage breast!" cried Basil, enthusiastically. "I 'll
be Orpheus with his Lute! I 'll play the Kreutzer Sonata to him!"
Barbara turned anxiously to Marjolaine: this wouldn't do at all!
"No! no!" cried the latter, "just let him talk! Just let him talk!"
But Basil was already inside the house. Marjolaine and Barbara retired,
giggling, into the Gazebo, where they sat and twittered mutual
confidences. Ruth joined the other ladies, who were listening to Mr.
Brooke-Hoskyn. The Admiral was leaning out of his upstair window to
take in his thrush.
"Indeed, yes," continued Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn, "I have collected the witty
sayings of my distinguished friends. I shall make a book of them. A
small quarto. I shall call it, 'Pearls'"--he caught sight of the
Admiral--"'Pearls before Swine.'" The Admiral disappeared. Mr.
Brooke-Hoskyn proceeded, "Did I tell you my friend Sherry's bonn mott
about the weather?"
"Yes! Oh, yes!" cried all three ladies, with alacrity, and fled from
him, leaving him abashed and rather offended. He saw Barbara in the
Gazebo, and brightened up. "Ah! but Miss Barbara was not there!" He
crossed on tip-toe, and, much to her alarm, seized her by the arm and
dragged her to the elm. "Imagine, then," he boomed, condescendingly,
while Barbara signalled in vain to Marjolaine for help, "Imagine, then,
that you are standing--ah--just where you are standing; and I am
Sheridan." Barbara had no idea of what he was talking about. Had he
suddenly gone mad? If so, was he harmless? "You remember how we
perspired on Saturday evening?" "Oh!" cried Barbara, with disgust. "I
come up to you--so." He suited the action to the word. "I place my
hand familiarly on your shoulder--so--"
"Really!" cried Barbara, indignantly.
Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn explained. "You understand: you are Sheridan--no; I
am Sheridan and you are me. And I--that is Sheridan--say to you--I
mean, me--'Brooke, my boy--'"
Jane, Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn's pretty maid, came rushing out of the house.
She was in a flutter of excitement; also she was in a dreadful
hurry--and here was her master, talking to a lady!
"'Brooke, my boy'"--repeated Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn, leading up to his point.
"Master--! Master--!" whispered Jane, hoarsely.
Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn waved her away impatiently.
"'Brooke, my boy--'" he repeated for the third time. But Jane was
tugging at his coat-tails.
"What is it?" cried Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn, peevishly. "What the devil is
it? Go away!"
Jane clung to him like a limpet. "Master!" she cried again; and then,
putting her lips close to his ear and covering them with one hand, while
with the other she pointed frantically to the upstairs window, she
whispered a piece of news which petrified him and made his eyes start
out of his head. Then she ran back into the house as quickly as she had
come.
"Eh? What?" he cried, in great perturbation. "There, now!--So like
Selina! Spoilt the point of my story!" He turned to the utterly
bewildered Barbara, with half a mind to continue his anecdote, but
thought better of it, and with a brusque, "Excuse me!" dashed headlong
into the house.
Madame, who had been quietly conversing with Mrs. Poskett and Ruth, came
to Marjolaine. "I think I shall go in. Will you come, Marjolaine?"
"Oh, Maman," pleaded Marjolaine, "I have so much to say to Barbara!"
She accompanied her mother to their gate.
"You are so feverish--so unlike yourself--! You are not going to be
indisposed?"
Marjolaine caught sight of Jack in the Doctor's study. "Oh, Maman!" she
cried, throwing her arms round her mother's neck and kissing her with
quite unusual ardour, "I am so well, so well!--I never was so well!"
Madame looked at her searchingly. Could her daughter be heartless? To
be sure, she herself had besought her to forget her girlish love, but
Marjolaine had forgotten it too quickly. Madame went into her house with
an uneasy mind and a troubled countenance.
Miss Ruth had been arguing with Mrs. Poskett. "Well," she said,
evidently alluding to the Admiral, "That's what I should do! Bring him
to his knees."
There was a dangerous glitter in Mrs. Poskett's eyes as she replied, "I
brought Poskett to his: why should n't I bring Peter?"
"Strike while the iron's hot. He knows we're all disappointed with him,
and he's ashamed of himself. Now's the time, when he ain't sure of
himself. Come along in. Put on your prettiest cap. I'll help you."
Just as they were at Mrs. Poskett's gate they saw Doctor Sternroyd come
shuffling round the corner. His manner was furtive, and he was burdened
with a variety of small parcels.
"Dear me, Doctor! How you are loaded!" cried Miss Ruth.
The antiquary had evidently hoped to get home unnoticed. "Good evening,
Ladies!" he stammered, in confusion. "Pray excuse me if I cannot remove
my hat."
"And not books, this time?" said Mrs. Poskett.
"No, no, no!" cried the antiquary, looking as guilty as if he had been
caught carrying stolen goods. "Not books. Not what you might call
books. Just parcels. Simple necessaries, I assure you." He made a
wide curve in order not to come into closer contact with Ruth and Mrs.
Poskett, and they went laughing into the latter's house. But the wide
curve brought him up against Marjolaine and Barbara, who had come out of
the Gazebo. "More women!" groaned the Doctor; and before either of them
had spoken he had added hastily, "Simple necessaries, I do assure you!"
Barbara hopped up to him eagerly. She touched all the parcels, which he
vainly tried to keep out of her reach. "Doctor," she said, eagerly,
"which is the licence?"
The Doctor was utterly taken aback. "Eh? Oh, dear! dear! Miss
Marjory, you told her!"
"Of course," said Marjory. "She's my dearest friend!"
"Tut, tut!--Dear, dear!--What says the Swan of Avon? 'Who was't
betrayed the Capitol?--A woman!'"
Jack had opened the window and now leant out and said in a ghastly
whisper, "Doctor!--For Heaven's sake look sharp with the victuals!"
"There, there!" cried the flustered Doctor, as he shuffled on into the
house, "the cuckoo in the nest!"
At the same instant Mr. Basil Pringle came bounding out of the Misses
Pennymint's house, shouting, "Miss Barbara!"