Captain Jim Part 20

"Number, please?" said a bored voice.

"Some one was speaking to me--you've cut me off," said Norah frantically.

"I've been trying to get you for the last ten minutes. You shouldn't have rung off," said the voice coldly. "Wait, please."

Norah swallowed her feelings and waited.

"Hallo! Hallo! Hallo!--oh, _is_ that you, Norah?" said Jim, his tone crisp with feeling. "Isn't this an unspeakable machine! And I'm due in three minutes--I must fly. Sure you can have Hardress? He'll get to you by the 6.45. Are you all well? Yes, we're all right. Sorry, I'll get told off horribly if I'm late. Good-bye."

Norah hung up the receiver, and stood pondering. She wished the telephone had not chosen to behave so abominably; only the day before Wally had rung her up and had spent quite half an hour in talking cheerful nonsense, without any hindrance at all. Norah wished she knew a little more about her new "case"; if he were very weak--if special food were needed. It was very provoking. Also, there was Mrs. Atkins to be faced--not a prospect to be put off, since, like taking Gregory's Powder, the more you looked at it the worse it got.

Norah stiffened her shoulders and marched off to the housekeeper's room.

"Oh, Mrs. Atkins," she said pleasantly, "there's another officer coming this evening."

Mrs. Atkins turned, cold surprise in her voice.

"Indeed, miss. And will that be all, do you think?"

"I really don't know," said Norah recklessly. "That depends on my father, you see."

"Oh. May I ask which room is to be prepared?"

"The one next Captain Garrett's, please. I can do it, if the maids are too busy."

Mrs. Atkins froze yet more.

"I should very much rather you did not, miss, thank you," she said.

"Just as you like," said Norah. "Con can take a message for anything you want; he is going to the station."

"Thank you, miss, I have already telephoned for larger supplies," said the housekeeper. The conversation seemed to have ended, so Norah departed.

"What did she ever come for?" she asked herself desperately. "If she didn't want to housekeep, why does she go out as a housekeeper?"

Turning a corner she met the butler.

"Oh, Allenby," she said. "We'll have quite a houseful to-night!" She told him of the expected arrivals, half expecting to see his face fall. Allenby, on the contrary, beamed.

"It'll be almost like waiting in Mess!" he said. "When you're used to officers, miss, you can't get on very well without them." He looked in a fatherly fashion at Norah's anxious face. "All the arrangements made, I suppose, miss?"

"Oh, yes, I think they're all right," said Norah, feeling anything but confident. "Allenby--I don't know much about managing things; do you think it's too much for the house?"

"No, miss, it isn't," Allenby said firmly. "Just you leave it all to me, and don't worry. Nature made some people bad-tempered, and they can't 'elp it. I'll see that things are all right; and as for dinner, all that worries Miss de Lisle, as a rule, is, that she ain't got enough cooking to do!"

He bent the same fatherly glance on her that evening as she came into the hall when the hoot of the motor told that her father and his consignment of Tired People were arriving. Norah had managed to forget her troubles during the afternoon. A long ride had been followed by a very cheerful tea at Mrs. Hunt's, from which she and Garrett had returned only in time for Norah to slip into a white frock and race downstairs to meet her guests. She hoped, vaguely, that she looked less nervous than she felt.

The hall door opened, letting in a breath of the cold night air.

"Ah, Norah--this is my daughter, Mrs. West," she heard her father's voice; and then she was greeting a stout lady and a grey-haired officer.

"Dear me!" said the lady. "I expected some one grown up. How brave!

Fancy you, only--what is it--a flapper! And don't you hate us all very much? _I_ should, I'm sure!"

Over her shoulder Norah caught a glimpse of her father's face, set in grim lines. She checked a sudden wild desire to laugh, and murmured something civil.

"Our hostess, Algernon," said the stout lady, and Norah shook hands with Colonel West, who was short and stout and pompous, and said explosively, "Haw! Delighted! Cold night, what?"--which had the effect of making his hostess absolutely speechless. Somehow with the a.s.sistance of Allenby and Sarah, the newcomers were "drafted" to their rooms, and Norah and her father sought cover in the morning-room.

"You look worn, Daddy," said his daughter, regarding him critically.

"I feel it," said David Linton. He sank into an armchair and felt hurriedly for his pipe. "Haven't had a chance of a smoke for hours.

They're a little trying, I think, Norah."

"Where did you get them?" Norah asked, perching on the arm of his chair, and dropping a kiss on the top of his head.

"From the hospital where the boys were. Colonel West has been ill there. Brain-fever, Mrs. West says, but he doesn't look like it.

Anyhow, they're hard up, I believe; their home is broken up and they have five or six children at school, and a boy in Gallipoli. They seemed very glad to come."

"Well, that's all right," said Norah practically. "We can't expect to have every one as nice as the Hunts. But they're not the only ones, Dad: Captain Garrett is here, and Jim is sending some one called Hardress by the 6.45--unfortunately the telephone didn't allow Jim to mention what he is! I hope he isn't a brigadier."

"I don't see Jim hob-n.o.bbing to any extent with brigadiers," said her father. "I say, this is rather a shock. Four in a day!"

"Yes, business is looking up," said Norah, laughing. "Captain Garrett is a dear--and he can ride, Dad. I had him out on Killaloe. I'm a little uneasy about the Hardress person, because he's just out of a convalescent home, and Jim seemed worried about him. But the telephone went mad, and Jim was in a hurry, so I didn't get any details."

"Oh, well, we'll look after him. How is the household staff standing the invasion?"

"Every one's very happy except Mrs. Atkins, and she is plunged in woe.

Even Sarah seems interested. I haven't dared to look at Miss de Lisle, but Allenby says she is cheerful."

"Has Mrs. Atkins been unpleasant?"

"Well," said Norah, and laughed, "you wouldn't call her exactly a bright spot in the house. But she has seen to things, so that is all that counts."

"I won't have that woman worry you," said Mr. Linton firmly.

"I won't have _you_ worried about anything," said Norah. "Don't think about Mrs. Atkins, or you won't enjoy your tea. And here's Allenby."

"Tea!" said Mr. Linton, as the butler entered, bearing a little tray.

"I thought I was too late for such a luxury--but I must say I'm glad of it."

"I sent some upstairs, sir," said Allenby, placing a little table near his master. "Just a little toast, sir, it being so late. And if you please, miss, Miss de Lisle would be glad if you could spare a moment in the kitchen."

The cook-lady, redder than ever, was mixing a mysterious compound in a bowl. Katty, hugely important, darted hither and thither. A variety of savoury smells filled the air.

"I just wanted to tell you," said Miss de Lisle confidentially, "that I'm making a special _souffle_ of my own, and Allenby will put it in front of you. Promise me"--she leaned forward earnestly--"to use a thin spoon to help it, and slide it in edgeways as gently as--as if you were stroking a baby! It's just a _perfect_ thing--I wouldn't sleep to-night if you used a heavy spoon and plunged it in as if it was a suet-pudding!"

"I won't forget," Norah promised her, resisting a wild desire to laugh.

"That's a dear," said the cook-lady, disregarding the relations of employer and employed, in the heat of professional enthusiasm. "And you'll help it as quickly as possible, won't you? It will be put on the table after all the other sweets. Every second will be of importance!" She sighed. "A _souffle_ never gets a fair chance. It ought, of course, to be put on a table beside the kitchen-range, and cut within two seconds of leaving the oven. With a _hot_ spoon!" She sighed tragically.