Mrs. Bindle Part 48

Millie found comfort in plying Bindle with dainties. He had received no orders to curtail his appet.i.te, so he had decided in his own idiom to "let 'em all come"--and they came, tarts and turnovers, fruit-salad and blanc-mange, custard and jelly. By the time the cheese and biscuits had arrived, he was forced to lean back in his chair and confess himself vanquished.

"Not if you was to pay me," he said, as he shook a regretful head.

After the meal, they returned to the drawing-room. Millie showed Mrs.

Bindle an alb.u.m of coloured postcards they had collected during their honeymoon, whilst Charley wandered about like a restless spirit, missing his after-dinner pipe.

"Ain't we goin' to smoke?" Bindle had whispered hoa.r.s.ely, as they entered the drawing-room; but Charley shook a sad and resigned head.

"She mightn't like it," he whispered back, so Bindle seated himself in the corner of a plush couch, and wondered how long it would be before Mrs. Bindle made a move to go home.

Millie was trying her utmost to make the postcards last as long as possible. Charley had paused beside her in his restless strolling about the room, and proceeded to recall unimportant happenings at the places pictured.

At length the photographs were exhausted, and both Millie and Charley began to wonder what was to take their place, when Mrs. Bindle rose, announcing that she must be going. Millie pressed her to stay, and strove to stifle the thanksgiving in her heart, whilst Charley began to count the minutes before he would be able to "light up."

The business of parting, however, occupied time, and it was fully twenty minutes later that Bindle and Mrs. Bindle, accompanied by Charley and Millie, pa.s.sed down the narrow little pa.s.sage towards the hall door.

Another five minutes were occupied in remarks upon the garden and how they had enjoyed themselves--and then the final goodnights were uttered.

As his niece kissed him, Bindle muttered, "I been all right, ain't I, Millikins?" and she squeezed his arm rea.s.suringly, at which he sighed his relief. The tortures he had suffered that evening were as nothing, provided Millie were happy.

As the hall door closed, Charley struck a match and lighted his pipe.

Returning to the drawing-room, he dropped into the easiest of the uneasy chairs.

"What's the matter with Uncle Joe to-night, Millie?" he enquired, and for answer Millie threw herself upon him, wound her arms round his neck and sobbed.

"Been a pleasant evenin', Lizzie," said Bindle conversationally, as they walked towards the nearest tram-stop.

Mrs. Bindle sniffed.

"Nice young chap, Charley," he remarked a moment later. He was determined to redeem his promise to Millie.

"What was the matter with you to-night?" she demanded aggressively.

"Matter with me?" he enquired in surprise. "There ain't nothink the matter with me, Lizzie, I enjoyed myself fine."

"Yes, sitting all the evening as if b.u.t.ter wouldn't melt in your mouth."

"But----" began Bindle.

"Oh, I know you," she interrupted. "You wanted Millie and Charley to think it's all my fault and that you're a saint. They should see you in your own home," she added.

"But I ain't said nothink," he protested.

"You aren't like that at home," she continued. "There you do nothing but blaspheme and talk lewd talk and sneer at Mr. Hearty. Oh! I can see through you," she added, "and you needn't think you deceived Millie, or Charley. They're not the fools you think them."

Bindle groaned in spirit. He had suffered acutely that evening, mentally having had to censor every sentence before uttering it.

"Then look at the way you behaved. Eating like a gormand. You made me thoroughly ashamed of you. I could see Millie watching----"

"But she was watchin' to see I 'ad enough to eat," he protested.

"Don't tell me. Any decently refined girl would be disgusted at the way you behave. Eating jam tarts with your fingers."

"But wot should I eat 'em with?"

Before she had time to reply, the tram drew up and, following her usual custom, Mrs. Bindle made a dart for it, elbowing people right and left.

She could always be trusted to make sufficient enemies in entering a vehicle to last most people for a lifetime.

"But wot should I eat 'em with?" enquired Bindle again when they were seated.

"Sssh!" she hissed, conscious that a number of people were looking at her, including several who had made acquaintance with the sharpness of her elbows.

"But if you ain't to eat jam tarts with yer fingers, 'ow are you goin'

to get 'em into yer mouth?" he enquired in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, which was easily heard by the greater part of the occupants of the tram. "They don't jump," he added.

A ripple of smiles broke out on the faces of most of their fellow-pa.s.sengers.

"_Will_ you be quiet?" hissed Mrs. Bindle.

"Mind you don't grow up like that, kid," whispered an amorous youth to a full-busted young woman, whose hand he was grasping with interlaced fingers.

Mrs. Bindle heard the remark and drew in her lips still further.

"Been gettin' yer face sticky, mate?" enquired a little man sitting next to Bindle, in a voice of sympathy.

Bindle turned and gave him a wink.

No sooner had they alighted from the tram at The King's Head, than Mrs.

Bindle's restraint vanished. All the way to Fenton Street she reviled Bindle for humiliating her before other people. She gave full rein to the anger that had been simmering within her all the evening. Millie should be told of his conduct. Charley should learn to hate him, and Little Joey to execrate the very mention of his name.

"But you shouldn't go a-jabbin' yer elbows in people's----" Bindle paused for a word sufficiently delicate for Mrs. Bindle's ears and which, at the same time, would leave no doubt as to the actual portion of the anatomy to which he referred.

"I'll jab my elbows into you, if you're not careful," was the uncompromising response. "I'm referring to the tarts."

And Bindle made a bolt for it.

"Now this all comes through tryin' to sit on a safety-valve," he muttered. "Mrs. B. 'as got to blow-orf some'ow, or she'd bust."

CHAPTER XIII

MRS. BINDLE'S DISCOVERY