Betty Trevor Part 23

The voyage, it appeared, had been unusually calm and agreeable, and the partners had thoroughly enjoyed the rest after the somewhat worrying work of the last six months. Yes, everything was working out splendidly as regards the new mine, and Miles was convinced that only time was necessary to turn it into a huge success. Will Gerard would be a millionaire some fine day, or something very like a millionaire, and he would deserve all he got. The best fellow and the smartest, and the hardest working, and the truest chum--

In the background saucy Jill dumbly echoed these well-worn sentiments, rolling her eyes ceilingwards, and declaiming with outstretched hands, till Miles, turning suddenly, caught sight of her, and burst into one of his old hearty laughs.

"Well, what does that mean, Jill? What have I said to amuse you?"

Jill sparkled at him in her most captivating manner.

"_Toujours le bon_ Gerard! We have heard so much of this marvel that we are dying to behold him. Snap-shots, we know, are not the most flattering medium, so we ought not to judge by the likenesses we have already seen, but he hardly appeals to me as a miracle of beauty! When does he propose to dazzle our eyes by appearing before us in the flesh?"

Miles laughed once more.

"Not till next week, so you must exercise your patience, my dear. He has his own people to see, and besides that he has too much tact to intrude upon a fellow's first days at home. Gerard always knows what is the right--" He broke off hastily as Jill resumed her silent pantomime of admiration. "Oh, all right! I won't praise him any more. You can find out his good points for yourself. If the truth were known, I daresay he is anxious to get a new rig-out before he pays calls on fascinating young ladies. We have neither of us a decent coat to our backs, and must go tailor-hunting the first thing to-morrow morning. We have not had much ladies' society abroad. I expect Gerard will fall headlong in love when he sees you in that blouse, Jill!"

"I expect he will. They generally do! But it's no use. I don't care for Colonials!" drawled Miss Jill, chin in air, and Miles' heated repudiation of the term as applied to either his partner or himself failed to move her from her front.

"Jill is waiting for Prince Edward of Wales. There's no other unmarried male who comes up to her standpoint," said her father, laughing; and once more Miles marvelled at the changes of the years!

When bedtime came, Betty looked shyly at the new Miles, who seemed still more than half a stranger, and felt her heart throb with pleasure as his grasp tightened on her arm, and he said affectionately--

"Come into my room for a chat, old girl, before you turn in! It won't seem like home unless I see you perched on my bed nursing your knees and your grievances at the same time. Got any grievances nowadays, eh? You used generally to have a good stock on hand. We'll have to lay them together while I'm at home. That's what I want to do--give you all a rattling good time! It's what I have looked forward to most in coming home. How are things going, really? Quite well? No bothers and worries that you have been keeping to yourselves, for fear of making me anxious?"

"Nothing big, dear--only the little worries which one must grin and put up with."

Betty perched herself on the bed, and fell into the old position, while Miles sat down on the chair by the dressing-table, and began unlacing his shoes with the same, oh, the very same gestures which he had used every night during the many long years when this evening conference had been the brightest spot in the day! It was as if time had flashed back for a moment, and they were boy and girl together once more! Betty's eyes melted in tender rejoicing, and Miles cried heartily--

"Bet, my dear, you've grown rattling pretty! You beat Jill into fits when you look like that. You must wear that frock when Gerard comes next week. It suits you splendidly."

"I got it for your sake--not Mr Gerard's. You always liked pink, Miles. Oh, I shan't have any grievances now that you are home. I am really and truly far less grumbly than I used to be. I have tried hard to make it a duty to be happy, since I discovered--you know how!--how imaginary my troubles really were--but sometimes I have felt very lonely. I think one does, as one grows older, for there seem so many things that one can't talk about to the best of friends. Of course you may not understand the feeling--you are so devoted to Mr Gerard."

Miles kicked his shoes in opposite directions--another old trick!--and stroked his chin silently. The offending beard had disappeared, but the skin was dark with constant shaving, and there were new lines in his face. This was a man indeed. The boy had disappeared for ever.

"I don't think I should advertise my loneliness even to Gerard," he said slowly. Then, leaning forward and opening a drawer in the dressing- table, "How is Cynthia?" he queried abruptly.

"Better!" replied Betty, so quietly that no one would have guessed the leap of excitement which her heart had given at the sound of her friend's name uttered in this connection. "Very delicate still, but certainly better. They live entirely in the country for her sake, and the doctors think that in a year or two she will probably be quite well again. Meantime she is treated like an invalid, and we can seldom meet.

It isn't good for her to chatter, and it isn't supposed to be good for my health to be there. I _ache_ for her, Miles! No one will ever know what it has meant for me to be separated like this."

Miles sat silently staring at his stockinged feet. His eyes were hidden, the heavy moustache covered the lines of his mouth, yet as Betty looked at him she felt a stab of reproach, as if, while pitying herself, she had inadvertently probed a deeper wound. Had Miles also ached for Cynthia? Had the separation from her been the hardest part of his long exile? She longed to question him on the subject, but the stern, set face gave no encouragement to curiosity, however affectionate.

"We are to go down to see her some day soon. She was almost as much excited about your coming home as we were ourselves, and we can run down to Franton and back quite easily in the day. You won't be occupied with business every day while you are at home, will you, Miles? You will be able to give up some of your time to us?"

"Oh dear, yes. This is by way of being a holiday, and I mean to take you girls about, and the mater too, if she will come. We must see the mining business in train first, and then we'll go off somewhere and have a good time. I haven't worked for nothing all these years, and the best chance of enjoying myself is to see your enjoyment. Things don't always work out as we expect--but we must make the best of what remains--"

He sighed, and rose from his chair with a gesture which somehow made Betty conscious that he wished to be alone. It had been a very short chat, and the impression left was rather sad than cheerful. She put her arms round Miles' neck, kissed him fervently, but in silence, and stole away to her own room.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

MR. GERARD.

Clad in an immaculate frock-coat, with a hat of irreproachable shininess on his head, a flower in his b.u.t.tonhole, and every detail of his attire correctly up-to-date, "my chum Gerard" made his appearance to call at Brompton Square on the Monday afternoon following Miles' return.

"I've met him a hundred times in Piccadilly!" was Jill's comment on the stranger, and indeed he had far more the air of a fashionable Londoner than of a miner from the far-off wilds of Mexico. As tall as Miles, though of a more slender build, showing in the same eloquent fashion the marks of recent shaving, rather handsome than plain, rather dark than fair, there seemed at first sight little to distinguish him from a hundred other men of the same age. On a closer acquaintance, however, a further attraction was found in the grave, steady glance of the eyes, and in a rare smile, lighting up somewhat careworn features into a charming flash of gaiety. Mr Gerard was evidently unused to laughter-- with all his sterling qualities Miles could not be described as a humorous companion!--and the programme of the past years had been all work and no play. As he sat in Mrs Trevor's drawing-room that first afternoon, he listened in a somewhat dazed fashion to the banter which went on between Jack and his sisters; but after some time had pa.s.sed his face began to soften, the corners of his mouth twitched, and presently out flashed that delightful, whole-hearted smile, and Betty, meeting it, buried at once and for ever all lingering prejudices against her brother's friend.

It was fortunate that Mr Gerard had made a favourable impression on the young people, for, at Miles' earnest request, he was invited to take up his quarters at Brompton Square for the next few weeks.

"His own people live in the country; he has no friends that he cares about in town, and I hate the thought of him moping alone in an hotel after all he has done for me. Besides, we ought to be together just now. There will be business to talk over every night until we get this company floated, and if he were not here I should always have to be going over to him--"

The last argument settled the matter in Mrs Trevor's eyes. Truth to tell, she was not too anxious to introduce a stranger into her reunited family circle, but if it were easier and more convenient for Miles, and ensured for herself a greater amount of his society, it was impossible to refuse. She reaped the reward of merit in a growing liking and admiration for her guest, who was even pathetically grateful for her hospitality, and appreciative of the home atmosphere to which he had so long been a stranger.

Business engrossed the greater part of the time, but there were odd hours of leisure when the girls were suddenly commanded to get ready with all possible speed, and spirited off for an afternoon on the river, or on bicycle expeditions to the country, ending up with an evening meal at some old-fashioned country inn. They were treated to concerts also, and to entertainments of all sorts, including welcoming parties at friends' houses, and when they bemoaned the speedy wearing out of evening dresses, Miles insisted upon providing new ones, regardless of expense.

"It's most grateful and comforting to have a gold-mine in the family,"

cried Jill, making languishing eyes at the senior partner. Of course she flirted with him--Jill flirted with everything in the shape of a man--monopolising his attention on all occasions in a manner which would have been somewhat trying to most elder sisters.

"But I know you don't mind. You like best of all to be with Miles,"

said Jill easily, when some remark of the sort was made, and Betty's reply held an unexpected tartness.

"I don't mind in the least. It is a matter of perfect unconcern to me how Mr Gerard behaves; but you are my sister. I am sorry to see you lowering your dignity, by being so silly, and flighty, and ridiculous!

I am sure he must laugh at you in private?"

"He laughs to my face, dear. I amuse him wonderfully. He told me yesterday that I was as good as a tonic. Such a pity you should bother your poor old head about me! _I_ understand men, my dear!"

The insinuation of that emphasised "I" was unmistakable. Jill began to hum--an aggravating habit of hers when she felt the mistress of a situation--and tripped lightly out of the room.

And Betty sat and thought. Burning like a furnace, throbbing in every nerve, shaking her even as she sat, came a sudden fierce heat of anger such as she had not experienced for many a long year. She had been accustomed to regard Jill's flirtation from a mental height of affectionate disdain, to laugh with purest amus.e.m.e.nt at her a.s.sumption of superiority, but now of a sudden indifference had changed to anger and a sore rankling of jealousy, which puzzled as much as it disturbed.

It could not be that she herself coveted Mr Gerard's attention!

Cynthia, Nan Vanburgh, all her friends had remarked times and again upon her indifference to masculine admiration, for, strange as it might seem, that romantic interview in the fog six years before had linked her sympathies so strangely with one man's lot that she had had none to spare for later comers. Under G.o.d's providence she had saved a life, and while those voiceless messengers told of its preservation, it must remain the one supreme interest of life. Some day "Ralph" would come home. Some day he would appear before her to announce his task completed, and to claim her friendship as his reward. Her mother pleaded with her not to allow a romantic fancy to ruin her life, pointed out that "Ralph" might have married long before now, that even if he returned she might be bitterly disappointed in his ident.i.ty. In vain!

Betty could not argue. She _felt_--and that was the end of the matter.

The sympathetic attraction was too strong to be one-sided. At the other side of the ocean "Ralph" was waiting for her, even as she for him, and the meeting would surely come. It might be years hence, but--marvellous thought!--it might be to-day. Each fresh awakening brought with it a thrill and a hope.

All these long years had this fantasy lasted; it was not possible that it was beginning to fade at the sight of a pair of grave grey eyes, at the sound of a man's deep-toned voice!

Betty sat and thought. Ten minutes pa.s.sed, twenty minutes, half an hour.

Jill thrust her head round the corner of the door to give a careless invitation.

"I'm going for a trot before dinner. Come along too. It will do you good."

"No, thank you. I'd rather not."

"Sulking still? Goodness, I thought you'd have recovered by this time!

Bye-bye, my dear. Hope you'll get it over before dinner."

She was humming again as she made her way to the door, where, no doubt, Mr Gerard waited to accompany her. The invitation had been a polite matter of form to which an acceptance was not desired. Betty leant her head on the table and lived through a moment of bitterness before the door opened once more, and a voice said--

"If you are not going out, may I come in for a few minutes? Miles has not yet--" Then, in a tone of startled concern, "I beg your pardon! I am interrupting you. You are in trouble?"

Betty straightened herself with a nervous laugh.