AS SOBER AS A JUDGE
That determination of his, to wait, was a hard thing for Masters to
adhere to. He knew it was a wholesome resolve; at the same time the pill
was very bitter: uncoated kind.
It is so much easier to do things on the spur of the moment; courage is
an unbidden lieutenant then. Later on the aid must consciously be
gathered together.
Curiously enough, Masters experienced pleasure in making the way hard
for himself; there was no attempt to boil the peas before putting them
in his shoe. It seemed more just to her whom he had wronged, this
penance: a flagellation of his soul, as it were.
"She must witness my utter, abject humility," he reflected. "Must hear
my prayer for forgiveness of my doubt of her. My sorrow must be seen; I
can't paint it in pen and ink. Whatever I wrote--oh, the voice is
mightier than the pen!--she might refuse to forgive me. Besides, if she
is forewarned, knows I intend seeking her, she may even refuse to see
me. I won't give her the chance; I won't write at all."
That was his decision; the result of half-an-hour's close thought and
the consumption of three pipes of tobacco. Then he sought his companion
on deck. Braced himself up for the interview, rightly guessing the
manner in which he would be assailed.
"Hullo!" Dick grinned. "What have you come up on deck for--inspiration?
Think to infuse a sea-kissed salty air in your correspondence? I
wouldn't lose any of that four hours if I were you. How many quires of
my superfine cream-laid vellum note paper have you consumed so far? I
know you haven't got any of your own."
"Not a sheet."
"Eh?"
"I have changed my mind."
"I deny the possibility of that! You haven't a mind to change!"
"I am not going to write a letter at all."
"What! After all this fuss too! Well, I am--there! After those
absolutely brutal and unprovoked assaults on me too! Truly has the
mountain laboured!"
"What I have to say shall be uttered orally."
"I doubt that! If my sister takes the advice I have given her in this
letter, you'll never have a chance of getting within earshot. I have
told her that you are the most violent, headstrong, ferocious, wrathful
savage I ever met; that you are coming home. I have advised her to flee
from the wrath to come."
"You are incorrigible, Dick."
"I like that! For pure and adulterated cheek, that annexes Huntley &
Palmers' entire factory! I am viciously assaulted by a rabid lunatic. I
am deprived of the use of ink and paper purchased with my own hard coin.
I am thrown out of my cabin. And the man guilty of these foul crimes
coolly stands in front of me with a pipe and a jeering remark in his
mouth. Incorrigible!"
"My dear old Dick----"
Masters commenced a speech so; putting his hand on the boy's shoulder
affectionately. He was interrupted by the cry of:
"Hands off!"
Dick assumed an appearance of abject fear, shivering like a calves-foot
jelly. It was belied by the grin he could not keep off his face as he
continued:
"No more of your affection! I want to walk ashore. I don't want to be
carried on a stretcher, maimed for life."
Masters was in earnest: deadly earnest. He wished he could get his
companion to veer round from his frivolous mood. There was a slight
frown on his face, as he said:
"Will you be serious, Dick?"
The boy was not insensible to the intonation of the words. Looked up,
saying:
"Well, what is it?"
"I want to talk to you about your sister."
The opportunity was too good to be missed; appealed irresistibly to the
humorous side of the listener; frivolity gained the day. Dick's nature
was such that happiness ever wanted to bubble up, and it was so long
since he had felt inclined to give it a show. He emitted a groan; leaned
back in the deck chair and thrust his hands into his pockets.
"I thought that," he said. "I guessed it! Existence aboard this lugger's
going to be made a curse to me! I am going to have her drummed into my
ears all the rest of the voyage."
"Dick!"
"Understand, Prince Charleigh, that I know her. Have known her for
nearly one-and-twenty years. By your own showing, you have known her
little more than a month. ... Very well, two months then. It's out of
your power to present her in any light in which I haven't seen her. I
know the colour of her eyes, hair and teeth; the tilt of her nose and
the length of it; how she looks when she's doing this, and how she looks
when she's doing that. You understand? I'm not going to be bored all day
long with your two-months old description of her."
"My dear Dick!"
Masters could not help laughing. Concluded that it would be best to let
the boy run on. Necessarily he must reach the end of his tether, and his
own turn would come then, when, in the natural course of things, the
other's exuberance had subsided.
"You may laugh! You're infected. The disease is coursing through your
veins. But you're not going to make a victim of me. When you feel it
coming on, you just go to the bows--there's never any one there--and
rhapsodize to the ship's figurehead. Spare me."
"Dick!"
Masters spoke quite patiently, smiling the while. He was giving the
other his head; it was his best, his only, plan.
"Grin on, you old lunatic! But I warn you, if you seek to make my life a
misery by pouring lover-like descriptions of my sister into my unwilling
ear, I'll abandon myself to the mercy of the ocean, and sneak off alone
in the Captain's gig."
"Well, I do want to talk to you about your sister."
Dick groaned again. He was in great good humour; his feet were beating a
lively tattoo; Masters continued:
"But I don't propose now, or hereafter, to say one word about her
appearance, manner or ways."
"Thanks, thanks, kind sir. For this relief much thanks. Excuse this
emotion; they are tears of relief."
There was a limit; Masters was reaching it. Was forced into saying, half
seriously, half jokingly:
"You are the most unsympathetic, hard-hearted brute that ever existed."
Dick grinned. It was exactly what he wanted to hear; took the utterance
as the greatest possible compliment. He was succeeding admirably;
restraining his delight, he said:
"Your flattery is too subtle. You wrap it up too much: like an American
caramel. Please remember that my perception is not as delicate as
yours."
"There is one thing I wanted to ask you, but whilst you are in this
mood, I won't."
He turned to walk away. Dick realized the possibility of carrying a joke
too far; in a minute was all repentance. He would not have wounded his
friend's feelings for worlds; called out:
"Come back.... Orate. I'll be as sober as a judge."
He fully meant that.