AN APPOINTMENT
"Oh dear!" cried Bridget, as she clasped the belt round her waist, "how
kind you always are to me!"
"I don't see why you should sigh about that," answered Colonel
Faversham. "I mean to be kind to you as long as I live, and I hope
that will be a good many years yet. But there's nothing like tit for
tat, you know, Bridget. Come, now, my darling, I want you to be kind
to me."
"If only you could see into my mind you would say I was a perfect
little wretch!" she murmured, taking off the belt and laying it on a
table.
"Just as well we can't do that sort of thing," said the colonel. "I
never care for women who are too good for human nature's daily food.
You don't mind if I light a cigar," he added, sitting down with caution.
"Oh dear, no," she returned, and going to the mantelshelf, brought a
box of matches, one of which she struck, holding it to the end of his
cigar. When he had lighted it, he captured her wrist with elephantine
playfulness.
"Bridget," he exclaimed, as she laughingly freed herself, "suppose we
cut the cackle and get to the bosses. I think I've been patient long
enough."
"I have never imagined that patience was your strong point," said
Bridget.
"Well, well, too much of it makes a man look like a fool," was the
answer, "and besides, to tell the truth, I'm devilish impatient. Who
could look at you and be anything else? What's the use of wasting time
in this way? I could fix things up in a week, and never a word to
Lawrence or Carrissima till we're safely out of England. Come now,
when shall we get married?"
For a few moments, while Colonel Faversham sat smoking, she did not
answer. She was standing a few yards away, with her fingers
interlocked. Her breath came and went quickly and her face had lost
all its colour.
"It's no use," she suddenly exclaimed. "I can't tell you."
"Why not--why not?" demanded Colonel Faversham. "Good gracious, my
little pet isn't frightened of me!"
"I think I am," she faltered.
"What is there to be frightened about?"
"You have always been so kind--I am going to treat you so horridly----"
"No, you're not," he said. "You're going to make me the dearest little
wife in the world. Come, now, Bridget?"
He was too fatuously enamoured to dream that she could be struggling
for strength to dismiss him. Her obvious timidity was ascribed to
natural maidenly bashfulness, which made her appear wonderfully
enticing. She clasped her hands more tightly together and turned her
head this way and that, glancing at the windows, at the door, as if she
longed to run away and make her escape from the man whose chief desire
in life was to keep her always by his side.
He saw her moisten her lips and raise her hands for a moment to her
forehead.
"I can't say it," she cried. "I suppose I am too great a coward.
You--you shall know to-morrow!"
"You will fix the day for certain!" said Colonel Faversham eagerly.
"You shall know to-morrow," she repeated.
"Now, that," he exclaimed, rising from his chair, "is a promise!"
"A solemn promise," murmured Bridget; and a few minutes later Colonel
Faversham went away, strutting along the street with his chest puffed
out, walking on air, and certainly never doubting that Bridget's
promise would be fulfilled. At the end of Golfney Place his expression
changed as he saw Jimmy Clynesworth--on his way to No. 5, no doubt!
Well, let Jimmy make the most of his opportunities. He would not find
very many more! Another week or two and Bridget would be whisked away
from England to return as Mrs. Faversham.
"Some one," remarked Jimmy, as he entered Bridget's sitting-room, "has
been smoking a decent cigar!"
"Colonel Faversham," replied Bridget.
"His visit doesn't seem to have bucked you up," said Jimmy, with his
eyes on her face, as he held her hand. "I despise the man who can't
interfere with what doesn't concern him on occasion! I have been
wondering lately whether you can possibly be in any kind of hobble.
Bridget, I should immensely like to help you out."
This was intended to be the prelude to a formal proposal of marriage.
After keeping silence with difficulty so long, Jimmy considered that
the time had at last come when he might put his fate to the touch. Nor
was he tormented by any very serious doubts concerning her surrender.
Jimmy had seen enough to feel blissfully satisfied that Bridget loved
him, and for his own part, he had never met any other woman whom he
desired to marry.
"Jimmy!" she murmured, looking up at him wistfully.
"Bridget," he said, in an equally low and solemn voice.
"You see--the fact is--I am engaged to Colonel Faversham!"
Although he suddenly released her hand, she still remained in the same
attitude, watching his face as if waiting to see the effect of her
announcement.
He drew in a deep breath and thrust his clenched hands into his jacket
pockets.
"Then I ought to felicitate you," said Jimmy. "Why," he asked quietly,
"didn't you give me the opportunity earlier?"
"Colonel Faversham didn't wish anybody to be told," she answered.
"You are consequently not gratifying him by telling me now!"
"No," said Bridget.
"Why have you told me?" he demanded.
"Oh well," she replied, "I felt that I wanted you to know--that is the
only reason."
"Should you mind telling me something else?" said Jimmy.
"Anything--anything!"
"Did the--the auspicious event take place before or since that
afternoon we first met in Grandison Square?"
"A few days before."
"I am sorry you kept me in the dark," was the answer.
"So am I," she said.
He took one hand out of his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair.
"You see," he remarked, "I have known the colonel nearly my whole life.
Well, good-bye," he added, holding out his hand.
"Oh--good-bye," said Bridget, and Jimmy was on his way down-stairs the
next moment, out of the house and losing no time in finding his way
back to Upper Grosvenor Street. Going at once to the smoking-room, he
sat down, and leaning forward, covered his face with his hands. In
this dejected attitude Sybil found him a few minutes later. As he had
obviously not observed her entrance, she went to his side, resting a
hand on his shoulder.
"My dearest Jimmy," she explained, "whatever is the matter?"
Rising from his chair, he walked to the mantelshelf, took a cigarette
from a box and lighted it.
"I may as well get it off my chest," he said. "I went to ask Bridget
to marry me."
"Oh--Jimmy!" was the reproachful answer.
"You needn't bother yourself," he explained. "She took the wind out of
my sails by the announcement that she was affianced to old Faversham
before I saw her face."
"To Colonel Faversham!" cried Sybil. "Poor Carrissima!"
Sybil, it is true, had too much experience to be actually astonished at
such enormity, but nevertheless she was deeply shocked. Why, Miss
Rosser was engaged to be married to the colonel at the time when she
had been seen in Mark Driver's arms.
"Understand," said Jimmy, "Carrissima is not to be told. No one knows
but the two concerned and myself. I was never so sorely tempted in my
life."
"Tempted!" exclaimed Sybil.
"To play the part of Young Lochinvar, you know. She would have gone
with me!" he added excitedly. "She would have gone with me!"
"My dear," returned his sister, "you could surely never dream of acting
so dishonourably. Such an old friend as Colonel Faversham, too!"
"Oh yes, I dreamed of it," said Jimmy. "You know they say we're all no
better than we should be in our dreams. My difficulty was that I woke
too soon!"