Captain Jim Part 9

"I cannot sit with your housekeeper," she averred. "You must remember, Mr. Linton, that I told you when engaging with you, that I expected special treatment."

"And _you_ must remember," said Mr. Linton, with sudden firmness, "that we ourselves have not been half an hour in the house, and that we must have time to make arrangements. As for what you require, we will see into that later."

Miss de Lisle sniffed.

"It's not what I am accustomed to," she said. "However, I will wait.

And the kitchenmaid?"

"I can't make a kitchenmaid out of nothing," said Mr. Linton gloomily.

"I hope to hear of one in a day or two; I have written to Ireland."

"To Ireland!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Miss de Lisle in accents of horror. "My dear sir, do you know what Irish maids are like?"

"They're the nicest maids I know," said Norah, speaking for the first time. "And so kind and obliging."

"H'm," sniffed the cook-lady. "But you are not sure of obtaining even one of these treasures?"

"Well, we'll all help," said Norah. "Sarah will give you a hand until we get settled, and my brother and Mr. Meadows and I can do anything.

There can't be such an awful lot of work!" She stopped. Miss de Lisle was regarding her with an eye in which horror and amazement were mingled.

"But we don't _do_ such things in England!" she gasped. "Your brother! And the other officer! In my kitchen, may I ask?"

"Well, one moment you seem afraid of too much work, and the next, of too much help," said Norah, laughing. "You'd find them very useful."

"I trust that I have never been afraid of work," said Miss de Lisle severely. "But I have my position to consider. There are duties which belong to it, and other duties which do not. My province is cooking. Cooking. And nothing else. Who, I ask, is to keep my kitchen clean?"

"Me, if necessary," said a voice in which Allenby the butler was clearly merged in Allenby the sergeant. "Begging your pardon, sir."

He was deferential again--save for the eye with which he glared upon Miss de Lisle. "I think, perhaps, between me and Sarah and--er--this lady, we can arrange matters for the present without troubling you or Miss Linton."

"Do," said his employer thankfully. He beat a retreat, followed by Norah--rather to Norah's disappointment. She was beginning to feel warlike, and hankered for the battle, with Allenby ranged on her side.

"I'm going to love Allenby," she said with conviction, as they gained the outer regions.

"He's a trump!" said her father. "But isn't that a terrible woman, Norah!"

"Here's another, anyhow," said Norah with a wild inclination to giggle.

A dismal cab halted at a side entrance, and the driver was struggling with a stout iron trunk. The pa.s.senger, a tall, angular woman, was standing in the doorway.

"The housekeeper!" breathed Mr. Linton faintly. "Do you feel equal to her, Norah?" He fled, with disgraceful weakness, to the billiard-room.

"Good morning," Norah said, advancing.

"Good morning," returned the newcomer, with severity. "I have rung three times."

"Oh--we're a little shorthanded," said Norah, and began to giggle hopelessly, to her own dismay. Her world seemed suddenly full of important upper servants, with no one to wait on them. It was rather terrible, but beyond doubt it was very funny--to an Australian mind.

The housekeeper gazed at her with a sort of cold anger.

"I'm afraid I don't know which is your room," Norah said, recovering under that fish-like glare. "You see, we've only just come. I'll send Allenby." She hurried off, meeting the butler in the pa.s.sage.

"Oh, Allenby," she said; "it's the housekeeper. And her trunk.

Allenby, what does a housekeeper do? She won't clean the kitchen for Miss de Lisle, will she?"

"I'm afraid not, miss," said Allenby. His manner grew confidential; had he not been so correct a butler, Norah felt that he might have patted her head. "Now look, miss," he said. "You just leave them women to me; I'll fix them. And don't you worry."

"Oh, thank you, Allenby," said Norah gratefully. She followed in her father's wake, leaving the butler to advance upon the wrathful figure that yet blocked the side doorway.

In the billiard-room all her men-folk were gathered, looking guilty.

"It's awful to see you all huddling together here out of the storm!"

said Norah, laughing. "Isn't it all terrible! Do you think we'll ever settle down, Daddy?"

"Indeed, I wouldn't be too certain," responded Mr. Linton gloomily.

"How did you get on, Norah? Was she anything like Miss de Lisle?

That's an appalling woman! She ought to stand for Parliament!"

"She's not like Miss de Lisle, but I'm not sure that she's any nicer,"

said Norah. "She's very skinny and vinegarish. I say, Daddy, aren't we going to have a wild time!"

"Well, if she and the cook-lady get going the encounter should be worth seeing," remarked Jim. "Talk about the Kilkenny cats!"

"I only hope it will come off before we go," said Wally gleefully.

"We haven't had much war yet, have we, Jim? I think we deserve to see a little."

"I should much prefer it in some one else's house," said Mr. Linton with haste. "But it's bound to come, I should think, and then I shall be called in as referee. Well, Australia was never like this. Still, there are compensations."

He went out, returning in a moment with a battered hat of soft grey felt.

"Now you'll be happy!" said Norah, laughing.

"I am," responded her father. He put on the hat with tender care. "I haven't been so comfortable since I was in Ireland. It's one of the horrors of war that David Linton of Billabong has worn a stiff bowler hat for nearly a year!"

"Never mind, no one in Australia would believe it unless they saw it photographed!" said Jim soothingly. "And it hasn't had to be a top-hat, so you really haven't had to bear the worst."

"That is certainly something," said his father. "In the dim future I suppose you and Norah may get married; but I warn you here and now that you needn't expect me to appear in a top-hat. However, there's no need to face these problems yet, thank goodness. Suppose we leave the kitchen to fight it out alone, and go and inspect the cottage?"

It nestled at the far side of a belt of shrubbery: a cheery, thatched place, with wide cas.e.m.e.nt windows that looked out on a trim stretch of gra.s.s. At one side there was actually a little verandah! a sight so unusual in England that the Australians could scarcely believe their eyes. Certainly it was only a very tiny verandah.

Within, all was bright and cheery and simple. The cottage had been used as a "barracks" when the sons of a former owner had brought home boy friends. Two rooms were fitted with bunks built against the wall, as in a ship's cabin: there was a little dining-room, plainly furnished, and a big sitting-room that took up the whole width of the building, and had cas.e.m.e.nt windows on three sides. There was a roomy kitchen, from which a ladder-like staircase ascended to big attics, one of which was fitted as a bedroom.

"It's no end of a jolly place," was Jim's verdict. "I don't know that I wouldn't rather live here than in your mansion, Norah; but I suppose it wouldn't do."

"I think it would be rather nice," Norah said. "But you can't, because we want it for the Hunts. And it will be splendid for them, won't it, Dad?"

"Yes, I think it will do very well," said Mr. Linton. "We'll get the housekeeper to come down and make sure that it has enough pots and pans and working outfit generally."

"And then we'll go up to London and kidnap Mrs. Hunt and the babies,"