"Peachy, what do you think has happened? Oh, _do_ guess!"
The voice was Leonetta's. The question was followed by a laugh, a laugh
that spoke at once of triumph and merriment.
It was lunch-time on the morning of the ninth day of their holiday. Mrs.
Delarayne, in the garden of "The Fastness," was stretched on her
_chaise-longue_ reading. Beside her Cleopatra, who had not felt inclined
for a bathe that morning, and who, therefore, had not been into
Stonechurch, was working at some fancy embroidery.
"I haven't any idea," Mrs. Delarayne replied, as Leonetta stalked up the
garden path with Denis at her side, followed by Vanessa, Guy Tyrrell,
and the Fearwells. They all had their wet bathing things with them, and
even the matronly Vanessa had her hair hanging over her shoulders.
"Why, the man in the sweetstuff shop at the corner of the High Street
took Denis and me for husband and wife!" Leonetta exclaimed, bursting
with laughter once more.
Cleopatra's hand shook a little, but she did not look up.
"He probably noticed us waiting outside and thought you were the
schoolmistress of the party,--that's all," interjected Vanessa.
Everybody laughed except Leonetta.
"That's absurd," she protested, "because he could scarcely have thought
I could be----"
But her voice was drowned by more laughter, led chiefly by Vanessa.
"Oh, well, it's not worth arguing about, any way," said the Jewess,
twirling her bathing dress round very rapidly.
"Don't do that!" cried Leonetta sharply. "Can't you see that you're
simply drenching poor Peachy?"
Mrs. Delarayne smiled imperceptibly at this remark, and all the bathers
ran off to prepare for lunch.
"I think," said the widow to her elder daughter, "that it would have
been only considerate if Denis had offered to stay behind to keep you
company this morning."
Cleopatra, bundling up her work with lightning speed, rose. Her ears
were hot and red, and she could not let her mother see her face.
"Do you,--oh, well, I don't," she said a little tetchily, and made
rapidly towards the house.
Mrs. Delarayne stared sadly after her. Had she said anything
offensive?--Children were difficult, very difficult, she thought; and
she longed for the freedom and the society of her London home.
"I think I made Denis rather savage this morning," Leonetta was
explaining to Vanessa, meanwhile, as the two were arranging their hair
in the bedroom they shared.
Vanessa, stopping her operations for a moment, turned and regarded her
friend with some interest.
"When and where?" she demanded.
"Well, you know that awfully good-looking boy who was sitting on the
bench when we bathed yesterday----"
Vanessa nodded in her business-like way.
"Well, didn't you notice that he bathed at the same time as we did
to-day?"
"Oh, I thought I saw him," replied Vanessa.
"And he kept standing in the water," Leonetta continued, "with his arms
folded, staring at me. He looked most awfully wicked,--it was lovely!"
she cried laughing.
"But where does Denis come in?" enquired the Jewess, who was not too
prone to jump to hasty conclusions concerning other people's triumphs.
"Well, don't you see,--Denis saw him, and saw that I sometimes stared
back at him."
"Oh, is that all?" Vanessa exclaimed, with a somewhat exaggerated note
of disappointment in her voice. "But did he say anything then?"
"Yes, after the bathe," Leonetta rejoined, dropping her voice to a
whisper, "he asked me whether I knew that strange young man."
"Well?" Vanessa demanded, still retaining the note of disappointed
expectancy in her voice.
"That's all," Leonetta replied, conscious that Vanessa had ruined the
effect of her little narrative.
For some moments Vanessa silently continued her toilet; then when she
was quite ready to go downstairs, she sat down and waited for her
friend.
"Are you fond of Denis?" she enquired at last.
"He's not bad," replied Leonetta carelessly. "What do you think he
thinks of me?"
Vanessa's keen Jewish features became inscrutable in a moment, and her
eyes turned as it were indifferently to the window. A week ago she might
have replied that Denis was obviously "smitten"; but four days of almost
total neglect and really formidable rivalry are hard to forgive, even
when one flatters oneself that one is "above" such treatment.
"He certainly seems to be amused by you," she said cryptically.
Leonetta did not like this way of putting it, and the conversation
therefore ceased to interest her. "Are you coming?" she said, and made
towards the door.
In another room Cleopatra had been listening to Agatha Fearwell's
account of what had occurred at Stonechurch that morning, and the facts
she culled from the girl's guileless and unsuspecting statement had not
reassured her.
"Cleo, what on earth's the matter?" Agatha cried suddenly.
"Why--what?" Cleopatra rejoined, bracing herself, but turning a drawn
and haggard face, that had just grown unusually pale, to her friend.
"My dear, aren't you well?"
"Quite," replied Cleopatra, parting her lips in a faint, hardly
convincing smile.
"But you can't be,--sit down, do!" said Agatha.
Cleopatra made a stupendous effort to recover herself, which was
singularly reminiscent of her undefeated mother. "The heat, I suppose,"
she observed.
But Agatha was not satisfied. She was too intelligent to be silenced by
such an obvious feminine defence. She could not help drawing her own
conclusions, although Cleopatra's proud reserve forbade her asking any
further questions.
Denis stayed to lunch at "The Fastness" that day, and in the afternoon
there was tennis. The beautiful weather still continuing, Mrs. Delarayne
was loath to join Sir Joseph on his interminable excursions by car. He
had her sister with him, and the Tribes, and she had also sent Vanessa,
of whom he had grown very fond, to represent her. "If people will keep a
lot of fat chauffeurs who must be occupied," she said, "I don't see why
I should be compelled to bore myself for hours at a time on that
account." However, they were all returning to "The Fastness" to tea that
afternoon.
So she reclined on her _chaise-longue_ in one of the shady corners of
her garden behind the lawn, reading the latest of Richard Latimer's
novels, and there very soon Cleopatra joined her. Between them stood an
occasional table, and upon it were tumblers, a few bottles of ale, and a
glass jug containing still lemonade.
A moment before Agatha had had five minutes' private conversation with
Mrs. Delarayne, and the latter was looking a trifle serious when her
daughter joined her.
"Cleo, my dear," she began, "you look tired,--been overdoing it?"
"I have a headache," Cleopatra retorted impatiently.
No more than Agatha was Mrs. Delarayne likely to be satisfied with this
reply. She saw now that Agatha had been right, and blamed herself for
her blindness hitherto.
"I don't like you to be so interested in that silly needlework," she
added. "You are not yourself, or you would not work so ridiculously
fast."
Cleopatra said nothing.
"Cleo, do you hear me?" she cried. "I'm speaking to you. Look up?--Why
are you so silent?"
"Oh, Edith, for Heaven's sake!" exclaimed the distracted girl. "I don't
think I could have slept well last night--that's all."
"Why aren't you Denis's partner at tennis?"
"For the simple reason," Cleopatra replied, with a self-revelatory glare
in her eyes, "that Baby is!"
Mrs. Delarayne turned to her novel for a moment. "Who's Agatha playing
with?" she enquired at last.
"With Guy of course."
"And where's Stephen?"
"Oh, he's somewhere. I believe he's cleaning his motor-cycle."
At this point Guy's voice was heard from the lawn:
"We're thirty and Leonetta and Denis are love!"
Cleopatra made a violent movement with her foot, and accidently kicked
the table so that all the tumblers rang in unison.
"Oh, Cleo, my dear!--do be careful!" the widow exclaimed. "What have you
done?"
"It's nothing, Edith--nothing."
"Forty--love," cried Guy Tyrrell.
"The terminology of tennis is at times a little tiresome," thought Mrs.
Delarayne.
"You must play in the next game," she said, regarding her daughter a
little anxiously.
"Oh, I'm sick of tennis," Cleopatra sighed. "I hate all games."
"You used to like it so!" her mother expostulated.
Then suddenly there came the sound of shrieks from the direction of the
lawn, and Guy's voice was heard again: "I say, Denis, old man," it said,
"do attend to the game, please; you can flirt with Leonetta later on."
Cleopatra put down her embroidery with a jerk and pressed a hand
spasmodically to her brow. "Don't you think it's dreadfully hot here?"
she exclaimed.
Mrs. Delarayne frowned. "My dear, you couldn't have a cooler place in
all Brineweald. Take some lemonade." Then after a pause during which she
made another brief examination of her daughter's looks, she added: "I
certainly think you ought to go and lie down; but I do wish they
wouldn't shout so."
Then she took up her novel again.
A few minutes passed thus, Mrs. Delarayne pretending to read, and
wondering all the while whether Agatha had not perhaps overstated
Cleopatra's trouble; and Cleopatra working frantically like one who is
determined not to think at all.
All of a sudden Leonetta came racing down the path from the lawn, and
dashed past her mother and sister, with Denis close at her heels.
Mrs. Delarayne looked up, and her expression was one of annoyance. She
saw Denis catch her younger daughter just as she reached the shrubbery
concealing the kitchen end of the house from the garden.
"Leo, will you give that up!" panted Denis.
They were only a few yards away, and Mrs. Delarayne followed the whole
proceeding with a frown. "Well, tell me first what it is!" rejoined the
flapper, holding her hands behind her back, and smiling defiantly at
him.
"I thought you two were playing tennis," Mrs. Delarayne cried aloud,
with just a suggestion of indignation, and craning her neck so as to be
seen by them.
"Oh, we've done with that long ago," Leonetta replied, obviously a
little excited.
"It's my note-book," said Denis, "it must have fallen out of my pocket."
He caught the girl by the arm, and she laughed. Then quickly shaking him
off, she dashed up the garden with Denis close behind her.
"The game of chasing and being chased," said a familiar voice, and
Cleopatra looked up. It was Vanessa, followed by all the motoring party.
"Yes, the oldest game of mankind," added Sir Joseph.
"And one of which I suppose the human female never grows tired," Mrs.
Delarayne observed rising.
"Any excuse will do," Vanessa continued, resting a hand gently on
Cleopatra's shoulder. "Won't it, Cleo dear?"
Cleopatra darted up, saw that her mother was too much engaged greeting
the party from the Park to notice her disappearance, and made rapidly
towards the house.
"Isn't Cleo well?" Miss Mallowcoid demanded, her eyebrows high up in her
fringe with indignant surprise.
"It surely isn't as bad as all that!" ejaculated the unfortunate widow.
"Do you notice it too?"
"It certainly is very noticeable, I should have thought," Vanessa
remarked.
Mrs. Delarayne then begged the young Jewess to find out what Cleopatra
was doing, and to persuade her if possible to lie down. She thereupon
conducted her guests to a small marquee where tea was laid, and called
to the tennis-players to join them.
In a moment Vanessa returned.
"She doesn't want me," she exclaimed. "She says she wants to be alone."
"But isn't she going to have any tea?" cried Mrs. Delarayne shrilly.
"Later on, she said," the Jewess replied.
"How full of caprice these young things are!" interjected Miss
Mallowcoid. "Why, she did not even wish us good-day!"
"The truth is," said Mrs. Delarayne, "Cleo hates being ill, and probably
wished to avoid being asked questions."
"Oh, how natural that is!" Mrs. Tribe observed, glancing half fearfully
at Miss Mallowcoid.
"You've made this place look very pretty," said Sir Joseph, smiling
unctuously at his hostess; "charming, charming! A perfect setting for
a--for a precious----"
"Here, you want some refreshment," snapped Miss Mallowcoid gruffly.
"Edith, where's Sir Joseph's cup?"
Sir Joseph laughed a little boisterously, and the tennis players
arrived.
"Where's Cleo?" was Leonetta's first question. She looked hot and
excited, but extremely happy.
Miss Mallowcoid explained that Cleo was in one of her "precious" moods,
as she put it. She had never been a great favourite with her nieces, and
since the fuel of affection is so largely a distillation of vanity, she
did not feel much love towards them. Her remark, however, succeeded in
making Mrs. Delarayne fill Sir Joseph's saucer with tea.
"That's not kind," said the widow, glaring first at her sister and then
at Denis. "Cleo, I'm afraid, is not very well."
"The heat perhaps," lisped the Incandescent Gerald.
"And other things," added Agatha, in her quiet, eloquent way.
Her brother Stephen stared perplexedly at her for some seconds, and then
looked round the party with an air of utter bewilderment.
"Ah, these young people will do too much!" Sir Joseph remarked solemnly.
Then turning to his hostess he added: "It was the same at the time of
the bicycle craze in the early nineties,--but you would scarcely
remember that, my dear lady!"
"What!" ejaculated Miss Mallowcoid. "Edith not remember the bicycle
craze of the nineties! My dear Sir Joseph, what absurd rubbish!"
Miss Mallowcoid was beginning to make her sister feel what the doctors
call "febrile."
"You so frequently jump at wrong conclusions in your efforts to set the
world right, my dear Bella," she said with bitter precision. "Surely
one's life may be so full of other preoccupations that one can forget
even the most startling events."
"Oh, I see what you mean," said Miss Mallowcoid, speaking with her mouth
full of very dry short-bread, "I didn't know he meant it in that way."
Sir Joseph was about to exclaim that he did not, as a matter of fact,
mean it "in that way"; but realising the hyperbolic quality of his
intended compliment, he preferred to appear eager to swallow the end of
a chocolate _eclair_ rather than attempt to explain.
At this point Denis was observed to try and snatch back a piece of cake
that Leonetta had, in keeping with her customary tactics, previously
taken from his plate. In doing so, however, he struck the top of the
milk jug with his elbow, and the vessel toppled over and emptied itself
upon his own and Leonetta's clothes.
Mrs. Delarayne flushed a little in anger. At any other time she would
have laughed with the rest over such an incident, but in the
circumstances it was too intimately connected with the cause of her
anxiety to be passed over in silence.
"Leo, you really are a pest," she exclaimed. "You simply cannot leave
Denis alone one minute. Really, Denis, if you'll excuse my being
outspoken, I'm surprised at your encouraging the child!"
"What it is to be young and good-looking!" sighed Vanessa, casting a
sidelong glance at the young gentleman in question.
"All right, Peachy!" Leonetta snapped, vexed and almost outraged by her
mother's bald statement of the plain truth, "it's only an accident; you
needn't be so cross."
Mrs. Delarayne was on the point of administering a stinging lesson to
her flapper daughter,--a lesson which that young person would certainly
have remembered to the end of her days,--when, suddenly, Wilmott
appeared on the lawn in front of the marquee.
"Yes, Wilmott, what is it?" Mrs. Delarayne enquired irritably.
"If you please, mum, will you come and see Miss Cleopatra; she's fallen
down in the billiard-room."
"Fallen down in the billiard-room?" everybody repeated.
The whole party were on their legs in an instant.
"Now, what are you all going to do?" cried Mrs. Delarayne, never more
herself than when a heavy demand was laid upon her self-possession.
"Please remain where you are, and get on with your tea. I'll go and see
what's happened. Agatha!"
Mrs. Delarayne and Agatha, followed by Wilmott, went back to the house,
and, as they went, the maid explained that it was a wonder Miss
Cleopatra had not killed herself, as her head "was quite close up
against the fender."
* * * * *
That evening, on the terrace of Brineweald Park, where the whole party
had dined, Mrs. Delarayne and Sir Joseph sat solemnly talking.
"You will have to do something, Joseph," the widow was saying. "He's
certainly in your power. Convey to him by some means that he cannot play
fast and loose in this way. He accepted the rise of two hundred on the
understanding that he would marry."
"Well, my dear Edith, I can't exactly make him marry, can I?" Sir Joseph
protested.
"But he has not even proposed yet!" the lady cried.
Sir Joseph grunted.
"Instead, if you please, he is making a fool of himself with Leo, and
turning her into an insufferable little prig."
"Not really!"
"Really!"
Sir Joseph grunted again.
"It's making Cleopatra quite ill. Agatha says it is, and I'm sure she's
right. She fainted in the billiard-room this afternoon and her head was
within an inch of the fender. The poor girl almost killed herself.
Besides, I hate a child to have her head turned by a man of thirty. It's
such easy going for him, and she's too young to know the difference
between an actor and a coachman."
"I'll see what I can do," said the baronet, stirring himself a little.
"But you'll admit the position is delicate."
"It's so absurd, because Leonetta has not got the marks of the cradle
off her back yet."
"A child as fascinating as her dear mother," Sir Joseph interposed,
taking the widow's hand.
She brushed his fingers from her. "I've lost patience with him," she
cried. "What is it makes these young Englishmen always abandon
full-blown maturity for flapperdom? I suppose it is the tradition of
their manufacturing race to worship raw material."
"Oh, he's not in love with her," Sir Joseph objected.
In another part of the park Miss Mallowcoid, Agatha, and Cleopatra were
walking arm-in-arm. Miss Mallowcoid, always stirred to some act of
self-sacrificing devotion by the sight of genuine illness, was making it
her duty to give her niece a little healthy exercise before going to
bed. Cleopatra would have given a good deal to escape this determined
altruism on her aunt's part, but Miss Mallowcoid was not so easily
thwarted in the practice of her virtues.
Meanwhile, Denis, surrounded by the rest of the party, was indulging in
a form of amusement that he had popularised of late among the younger
members of the two households. It consisted in a sort of uneven
cock-fight between himself and Gerald Tribe, on the question of
religion, and it was punctuated by roars of laughter from Leonetta,
Vanessa, Guy Tyrrell, and even Stephen Fearwell; while the unfortunate
Mrs. Tribe, feeling that her husband was being made to look ridiculous
for the edification of the rest of the party, would repeatedly interrupt
the proceedings by urging her spouse to "come to bed." This, however,
he always resolutely refused to do, much to the satisfaction of
everybody present; and the unequal contest would be continued.
Sometimes the sensitive and sensible woman would interpolate a remark
which considerably discomfited her husband's aggressor; and then, hoping
to bring the controversy quickly to an end on this note of triumph,
would tug vigorously at his coat sleeve. But Incandescent Gerald, hot,
excited, beaten, and indignant, was not to be lured away to the marital
bed while he still smarted from his opponent's blows, and endeavouring
ever afresh to turn the tide of battle, would remain to blunder on into
another rout.
At one moment on the evening of the day of Cleopatra's first fall, when
the laughter against him rose too high, the moon revealed to Stephen
Fearwell that tears of indignation were welling in Mrs. Tribe's eyes;
and then thinking of Miss Mallowcoid, and of how this one holiday in the
year, away from the hard spinster's cold tyranny, was being spoilt for
her by these evening debates, he rose smartly to his feet, clapped the
Incandescent Gerald on the back, and tugged at his collar.
"Look here, sir," he cried, "you're beginning to interest me in this
Inner Light of yours. Come for a walk and tell me more about it. Perhaps
Mrs. Tribe will join us?"
"Oh, don't take them away!" cried Guy Tyrrell, while Leonetta and
Vanessa moaned.
"Sorry," said Stephen, "but I honestly want to hear all about it. Come
on, Tribe!"
Incandescent Gerald rose, half dazed. He believed in his Inner Light,
whatever Denis might have to say against it, and he could hardly resist
Stephen's gratifying suggestion. He smiled guilelessly into the young
man's face, and he, Stephen, and Mrs. Tribe vanished into the darkness.
"Stephen was a lout to go and do that!" Guy exclaimed.
"I think he noticed that Mrs. Tribe was beginning to cry," said Vanessa.
"Nonsense, Nessy, you must be dreaming!" retorted Denis.