Captain Jim Part 21

"We'll do our best for it," Norah promised her. "I'm sure it will be lovely. Shall I come and tell you how it looked, afterwards?"

Miss de Lisle beamed.

"Now, that would be very kind of you," she said. "It's so seldom that any one realizes what these things mean to the cook. A _souffle_ like this is an inspiration--like a sonata to a musician. But no one ever dreams of the cook; and the most you can expect from a butler is, 'Oh, it cut very nice, ma'am, I'm sure. Very nice!'" She made a despairing gesture. "But some people would call Chopin 'very nice'!"

"Miss de Lisle," said Norah earnestly, "some day when we haven't any guests and Dad goes to London, we'll give every one else a holiday and you and I will have lunch here together. And we'll have that _souffle_, and eat it beside the range!"

For a moment Miss de Lisle had no words.

"Well!" she said at length explosively. "And I was so horrible to you at first!" To Norah's amazement and dismay a large tear trickled down one cheek, and her mouth quivered like a child's. "Dear me, how foolish I am," said the poor cook-lady, rubbing her face with her overall, and thereby streaking it most curiously with flour. "Thank you very much, my dear. Even if we never manage it, I won't forget that you said it!"

Norah found herself patting the stalwart shoulder.

"Indeed, we'll manage it," she said. "Now, don't you worry about anything but that lovely _souffle_."

"Oh, the _souffle_ is a.s.sured now," said Miss de Lisle, beating her mixture scientifically. "Now I shall have beautiful thoughts to put into it! You have no idea what that means. Now, if I sat here mixing, and thought of, say, Mrs. Atkins, it would probably be as heavy as lead!" She sighed. "I believe, Miss Linton, I could teach you something of the real poetry of cooking. I'm sure you have the right sort of soul!"

Norah looked embarra.s.sed.

"Jim says I've no soul beyond mustering cattle," she said, laughing.

"We'll prove him wrong, some day, Miss de Lisle, shall we? Now I must go: the motor will be back presently." She turned, suddenly conscious of a baleful glance.

"Oh!--Mrs. Atkins!" she said feebly.

"I came," said Mrs. Atkins stonily, "to see if any help was needed in the kitchen. Perhaps, as you are here, miss, you would be so good as to ask the cook?"

"Oh--nothing, thank you," said Miss de Lisle airily, over her shoulder. Mrs. Atkins sniffed, and withdrew.

"That's done it, hasn't it?" said the cook-lady. "Well, don't worry, my dear; I'll see you through anything."

A white-capped head peeped in.

"'Tis yersilf has all the luck of the place, Katty O'Gorman!" said Bride enviously. "An' that Sarah won't give me so much as a look-in, above: if it was to turn down the beds, itself, it's as much as she'll do to let me. Could I give you a hand here at all, Miss de Lisle?

G.o.d help us, there's Miss Norah!"

"If 'tis the way you'd but let her baste the turkey for a minyit, she'd go upstairs reshted in hersilf," said Katty in a loud whisper.

"The creature's destroyed with bein' out of all the fun."

"Oh, come in--if you're not afraid of Mrs. Atkins," said Miss de Lisle. Norah had a vision of Bride, ecstatically grasping a basting-ladle, as she made her own escape.

Allenby was just shutting the hall-door as she turned the corner. A tall man in a big military greatcoat was shaking hands with her father.

"Here's Captain Hardress, Norah."

Norah found herself looking up into a face that at the first glance she thought one of the ugliest she had ever seen. Then the newcomer smiled, and suddenly the ugliness seemed to vanish.

"It's too bad to take you by storm this way. But your brother wouldn't hear of anything else."

"Of course not," said Mr. Linton. "My daughter was rather afraid you might be a brigadier. She loses her nerve at the idea of pouring tea for anything above a colonel."

"Indeed, a colonel's bad enough," said Norah ruefully. "I'm accustomed to people with one or two stars: even three are rather alarming!" She shot a glance at his shoulder, laughing.

"I'm sure you're not half as alarmed as I was at coming," said Captain Hardress. "I've been so long in hospital that I've almost forgotten how to speak to any one except doctors and nurses." His face, that lit up so completely when he smiled, relapsed into gloom.

"Well, you mustn't stand here," Norah said. "Please tell me if you'd like dinner in your room, or if you'd rather come down." She had a sudden vision of Mrs. West's shrill voice, and decided that she might be tiring to this man with the gaunt, sad face.

Hardress hesitated.

"I think you'd better stay upstairs," said David Linton. "Just for to-night--till you feel rested. I'll come and smoke a pipe with you after dinner, if I may."

"I should like that awfully," said Hardress. "Well, if you're sure it would not be too much trouble, Miss Linton----?"

"It's not a sc.r.a.p of trouble," she said. "Allenby will show you the way. See that Captain Hardress has a good fire, Allenby--and take some papers and magazines up." She looked sadly after the tall figure as it limped away. He was not much older than Jim, but his face held a world of bitter experience.

"You mustn't let the Tired People make you unhappy, mate," said her father. He put his arm round her as they went into the drawing-room to await their guests. "Remember, they wouldn't be here if they didn't need help of some sort."

"I won't be stupid," said Norah. "But he has such a sorry face, Dad, when he doesn't smile."

"Then our job is to keep him smiling," said David Linton practically.

There came a high-pitched voice in the hall, and Mrs. West swept in, her husband following at her heels. To Norah's inexperienced eyes, she was more gorgeous than the Queen of Sheba, in a dress of sequins that glittered and flashed with every movement. Sarah, who had a.s.sisted in her toilette, reported to the kitchen that she didn't take much stock in a dress that was moulting its sequins for all the world like an old hen; but Norah saw no deficiencies, and was greatly impressed by her guest's magnificence. She was also rather overcome by her eloquence, which had the effect of making her feel speechless.

Not that that greatly mattered, as Mrs. West never noticed whether any one else happened to speak or remain silent, so long as they did not happen to drown her own voice.

"Such a lovely room!" she twittered. "_So_ comfortable. And I feel sure there is an exquisite view. And a fire in one's bedroom--in war-time! Dear me, I feel I ought to protest, only I haven't sufficient moral courage; and those pine logs are _too_ delicious.

Perhaps you are burning your own timber?--ah, I thought so. That makes it easier for me to refrain from prodding up my moral courage--ha, ha!"

Norah hunted for a reply, and failed to find one.

"And you are actually Australians!" Mrs. West ran on. "_So_ interesting! I always do think that Australians are so original--so quaintly original. It must be the wild life you lead. So unlike dear, quiet little England. Bushrangers, and savage natives, and gold-mining. How I should like to see it all!"

"Oh, you would find other attractions as well, Mrs. West," Mr. Linton told her. "The 'wild life in savage places' phase of Australian history is rather a back number."

"Oh, quite--quite," agreed his guest. "We stay-at-homes know so little of the other side of the world. But we are not aloof--not uninterested. We recognize the fascination of it all. The glamour--yes, the glamour. Gordon's poems bring it all before one, do they not? Such a true Australian! You must be very proud of him."

"We are--but he wasn't an Australian," said Mr. Linton. The lady sailed on, unheeding.

"Yes. The voice of the native-born. And your splendid soldiers, too!--I a.s.sure you I thrill whenever I meet one of the dear fellows in the street in London. So tall and stern under their great slouch-hats. Outposts of Empire, that is what I say to myself.

Outposts here, in the heart of our dear little Surrey! Linking the ends of the earth, as it were. The strangeness of it all!"

Garrett, who had made an un.o.btrusive entrance some little time before, and had been enjoying himself hugely in the background, now came up to the group on the hearthrug and was duly introduced.

"Lately from France, did you say?" asked Mrs. West. "Yesterday!

Fancy! Like coming from one world into another, is it not, Captain Garrett? To be only yesterday 'mid the thunder of shot and sh.e.l.l out yonder; and to-night in----"

"In dear little Surrey," said Garrett innocently.

"Quite. Such a peaceful county--war seems so remote. You must tell me some of your experiences to-morrow."

"Oh, I never have any," said Garrett hastily.