Driftwood Spars Part 12

She said that nothing at all was the matter and he went away and pondered. Next day he asked her if he could row her on the river as he wanted some exercise, and Augustus was not available to take her for a drive or anything.

"I should love it, John dear," she said. "You row like an ox," and John, who had been reckoned an uncommon useful stroke, felt that a compliment was intended if not quite materialized.

Mrs. Pat Dearman enjoyed the upstream trip, and, watching her husband drive the heavy boat against wind and current with graceful ease, contrasted him with the puny, if charming, Augustus--to the latter's detriment. He was so safe, so sound, so strong, reliable and true. But then he never needed any protection, care and help. It was impossible to "mother" John. He loved her devotedly and beautifully but one couldn't pretend he leaned on her for moral help. Now Augustus did need her or he had done so--and she did so love to be needed. _Had_ done so? No--she would put the thought away. He needed her as much as ever and loved her as devotedly and honourably.... The boat was turned back at the weir and, half an hour later, reached the Club wharf.

"I want to go straight home without changing, Pat; do you mind? I'll drop you at the Gymkhana if you don't want to get home so early," said Dearman, as he helped his wife out.

"Won't you change and have a drink first, John?" she replied. "You must be thirsty."

"No. I want to go along now, if you don't mind."

He did want to--badly. For, rowing up, he had seen something which his wife, facing the other way, could not see.

Under an over-hanging bush was a punt, and in the punt were Augustus and the lady known as Mrs. Harris.

The bush met the bank at the side toward his wife, but at the other side, facing Dearman, there was an open s.p.a.ce and so he had seen and she had not. Returning, he had drawn her attention to something on the opposite bank. This had been unnecessary, however, as Augustus had effected a change of venue without delay. And now he did not want his wife to witness the return of the couple and learn of the duplicity of her s.n.a.t.c.hed Brand.

(He'd "brand" him anon!)

Augustus Clarence Percy Marmaduke Grobble sat in the long cane chair in his sitting-room, a gla.s.s beside him, a cigarette between his lips, a fleshly poet in his hand, and a reminiscent smile upon his flushed face.

She undoubtedly was a spanker. Knew precisely how many beans make five.

A woman of the world, that. Been about. Knew things. Sort of woman one could tell a good story to--and get one back. Life! Life! Knew it up and down, in and out. d.a.m.n reformation, teetotality, the earnest, and the strenuous. Good women were unmitigated bores, and he.... A sharp knock at the door.

"_Kon hai_?"[47] he called. "_Under ao_."[48]

[47] Who's there.

[48] Come in.

The door opened and large Mr. Dearman walked in. He bore a nasty-looking malacca cane in his hand--somewhat ostentatiously.

"Hullo, Dearman!" said Augustus after a decidedly startled and anxious look. "What is it? Sit down. I'm just back from College. Have a drink?"

Large Mr. Dearman considered these things _seriatim_.

"I will sit down as I want a talk with you. You are a liar in the matter of just being back from College. I will not have a drink." He then lapsed into silence and looked at Augustus very straight and very queerly, while bending the nasty malacca suggestively. The knees of Augustus smote together.

Good G.o.d! It had come at last! The thrashing he had so often earned was at hand. What should he do? What _should_ he do!

Dearman thought the young man was about to faint.

"Fine malacca that, isn't it?" he asked.

"Ye-yes!"

"Swishy, supple, tough."

"Ye-yes!" (How could the brute be such a fool as to be jealous now--now when it was all cooling off and coming to an end?)

"Grand stick to thrash a naughty boy with, what?"

"Ye-yes!--Dearman, I swear before G.o.d that there is nothing between me and----"

"Shut up, you infernal G.o.d-forsaken cub, or I shall have to whip you.

I----"

"Dearman, if you are jealous of me----"

"Better be quiet and listen, or _I_ shall get cross, and _you'll_ get hurt.... You have given us the pleasure of a great deal of your company this year, and I have come to ask you----"

"Dearman, I have not been so much lately, and I--"

"That's what I complain of, my young friend."

"What?"

"That's what I complain of! I have come to protest against your making yourself almost necessary to me, in a sense, and then--er--deserting me, in a sense."

"You are mocking me, Dearman. If you wish to take advantage of my being half your size and strength to a.s.sault me, you----"

"Not a bit of it, my dear Augustus. I am in most deadly earnest, as you'll find if you are contumacious when I make my little proposition.

What I say is this. _I_ have grown to take an interest in you, Augustus.

_I_ have been very kind to you and tried to make a better man of you.

_I_ have been a sort of mother to you, and you have sworn devotion and grat.i.tude to me. _I_ have reformed you somewhat, and you have admitted to me that I have made another man of you, Augustus, and that you love me for it, you love _me_ with a deep Platonic love, my Augustus, and--don't you forget it."

"I admit that your wife----"

"Don't you mention my wife, Augustus, or you and I and that malacca will have a period of great activity. I was saying that _I_ am disappointed in you, Augustus, and truly grieved to find you so shallow and false. I asked you to take me on the river to-night and you lied to me and took a very different type of--er--person. Such meanness and ingrat.i.tude fairly get me, Augustus. Now I never _asked_ you to run after me and come and swear I had saved your dirty little soul alive, but since you did it, Augustus, and _I_ have come to take a deep interest in saving the thing--why, you've got to stick it, Augustus--and if you don't--why, then I'll make you, my dear."

"Dearman, your wife has been the n.o.blest friend----"

"_Will_ you come off it, Augustus? I don't want to be cruel. Now look here. _I_ have got accustomed to having you about the house and employing you in those funny little ways in which you are a useful little animal. I am under no delusion as to the value of that Soul of yours--but, such as it is, _I_ am determined to save it. So just you bring it round to tea to-morrow, as usual; and don't you ever be absent again without my permission. You began the game and I'll end it--when I think fit. Grand malacca that."

"Dearman, I will always----"

"'Course you will. See you at tea to-morrow, Gussie. If ever my wife hears of this I'll kill you painfully. Bye-Bye."

Augustus was present at tea next day, and, thenceforth, so regular was he that Mrs. Dearman found, first, that she had been very foolish in thinking that her Brand was slipping back into the fire and, later, that Gussie was a bore and a nuisance.

One day he said in the presence of John:--

"I can't keep that golf engagement on Sat.u.r.day, dear lady, I have to attend a meeting of the Professors, Princ.i.p.al and College Board".

"Have you seen my malacca cane, Pat," said Dearman. "I want it."

"But I really have!" said Augustus, springing up.