Renshaw Fanning's Quest Part 9

But although by the time they returned home Sellon and the boys had become great friends; a number of swimming dodges which he taught them having in a measure established him in their respect; yet when he appeared at the breakfast-table he found the joke public property already. But he was a man who could stand chaff--which was fortunate-- for he was destined to hear enough of it on the subject of the iguana episode.

But he had matters to think of this morning beside which the above incident was the merest thistledown for triviality; an undertaking on hand, the key to which lay snug in his pocket in the shape of the tiniest of notes; slipped into his hand, deftly and surrept.i.tiously, though under everybody's nose, during the process of exchanging good-nights the evening before. Thus it ran--

"To-morrow. The garden. Middle of the morning. Watch me.--V."

The barest outline, but sufficient for all purposes. It had come, too, just at the right time. He had felt nettled, annoyed, sore, at Violet's light-heartedness. She had treated him as the merest stranger, and when she talked to him, had rattled away at the veriest commonplaces. All her captivating glances, all her dangerous modulations of tones, he had kept for Fanning. Fanning it was who had engrossed the lion's share of her attention throughout the evening. He had mentally cursed Fanning.

He could not make it out. He began to hate Fanning. Then, sore and angry, that tiny bit of paper had come in the nick of time, and he had slept soundly and risen in the best of spirits, as we have seen.

Yet as the time drew near his spirits sustained a check. That Violet would find her opportunity he had no sort of doubt. Let her alone for that. But would he be equally fortunate?

After breakfast he was taken possession of by his host. With accurate instinct he realised that at any rate during the earlier half of the morning, when the ladies were busy with household details, the presence of a man and a stranger whom they would feel more than half bound not to neglect, could be nothing other than an unmitigated nuisance. So he submitted to his host's "showing around" with the best grace he could muster, and the three men hindered forth, strolling around in that easy, pleasant, dawdling fashion, dear to the heart of the prosperous colonial farmer who can afford to take it easy from time to time when he has a congenial guest and an appreciative listener--and Christopher Selwood had both on his hands that morning.

Yes, it was pleasant enough wandering around in the sunshine, looking at this and looking at that, stopping every now and then for a lounge against a wall, or in some shady nook while fresh pipes were filled and lighted. It was all pleasant enough, but by the time they had inspected the stables and the kraals, the garden and the cultivated lands, and had visited certain traps and spring-guns placed along the fences of the latter for the benefit of invading bucks or porcupines, and had, moreover, talked stock and wild sport unlimited, it was uncommonly near the "middle of the morning," and they were some distance from the house.

Sellon began to feel at his wits' end.

"_The middle of the morning. Watch me. V_." It was already the first, and as for the second, how could he watch her when he was nearly a mile away, pinned fast on the top of a stone wall, listening to an otherwise interesting disquisition from his host upon the habits of certain wild game? Renshaw it was who came to the rescue.

"I expect we are boring Sellon to death, with all the 'shop' we've been talking," he said, noting the "cornered" expression in the latter's face.

"Not a bit--not in the least," was the hurried reply; "quite the contrary. Only--the fact is, though I don't like owning to it, I'm a trifle headachy this morning."

"Well, you were out rather early, which I dare say you're not much used to," said Christopher. "Look here, now, Sellon. If you're tired cut off to the house and take it easy. You'll find the drawing-room cool and quiet, and there's a lot of stuff to read in the shelves."

"Well, I think I will, if you don't mind."

"Mind--mind? No. Make yourself at home, man--make yourself at home.

That's what you've got to do here," was the hearty reply.

Now, skirting the way our artful manoeuvrer has to travel is a high quince hedge, and in this hedge is a gate, and not very far inside this gate is a rustic bench, and upon this rustic bench is a cool, tasteful dress of light material, surmounted by a very broad-brimmed straw hat.

There is also upon the said bench a book, but it is not altogether lying on it, for it is still held by a well-shaped little hand. But for the thoroughfare aforesaid the spot is a secluded one, as it certainly is a pleasant one, and shady withal; thanks to the foliage of the large, well-grown fruit trees. Now, what does our manoeuvring scamp do but steal softly up behind this attractive figure, and throw both arms around it, while with equal want of ceremony the scampish countenance is inserted beneath that very broad-brimmed straw hat, and there it remains during the few moments of faint, because feigned, scuffle in which its wearer sees fit to indulge.

"At last, my darling!" he exclaims gleefully, seating himself on the bench beside her. "At last!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

"AMORIS INTEGRATIO."

"On, Maurice, how could you be so imprudent?"

"Imprudent be--somethinged! If you only knew the difficulty I've had to cut loose from the other fellows at all."

"Yes, imprudent," she went on, ignoring the last remark. "Supposing any of those wretched children had been about--and they're just like little savages, always jumping out upon you unexpectedly from nowhere. And we are quite by a pathway, too."

"Then the sooner we get away from it the better, for I intend repeating the operation with interest before we rejoin the merry crowd."

"How did you find me out, Maurice? How did you know where I was?"

"Aha, you couldn't hide from me, you see," he replied. "No good, was it?"

She made no answer. She seemed to be undergoing a struggle with herself. Then at last--

"Why did you break through our agreement? We were not to see each other for six months. It is not four yet."

"Violet! Do you mean to tell me you are sorry I have not kept that boshy arrangement of ours. Look me straight in the face and tell me you are--if you can."

He turned her face towards him. The dark soft eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g, the delicate features were working with a wild yearning, which its owner was in vain striving to suppress.

"Sorry to see you? Oh, Maurice, my darling, I have thought of late I should never see you again," she cried, breaking into a storm of sobs as she threw herself on his breast.

And this was the girl who, but a few days before, and almost on that very spot, had made an utter mock of all that savoured of real feeling.

"I almost wish it would come true. It would be such a novel sensation,"

had been her words to Marian. Ah, but it had come true--and that long before she uttered them. Certain it is that none there at Sunningdale had ever seen this side of Violet Avory; had ever suspected this secret chapter in her history.

"Don't cry, little one," said Maurice, soothingly, drawing her further within the recesses of the garden, and away from the obnoxious quince hedge, which might shelter prying eyes. "We are going to have such a happy time together now."

"Now, yes," she answered. "But--after? Nothing but misery."

"Not a bit of it. We can go on waiting. Patience--that's the word.

When I used to get my 'cast' hung up or otherwise tangled while fishing, instead of blowing off a volley of cuss words, and tearing and tugging at the stuff, I made it a rule to remark aloud, 'Pazienza!' That answered, kept one in a cool and even mind, and saved further tangle and a lot of cussing. Well, that must be our watchword--'Pazienza!'"

"I have got you now, at all events," she murmured, pressing his arm.

"But now, don't you see why I met you as a perfect stranger last night?"

"Not altogether. It annoyed me a good bit--in fact, worried me all the evening. I should have thought it would have been better to have let them know we were old acquaintances, at any rate. They would have left us more to ourselves."

"Not a bit of it. They would have set up a romance on the spot. As soon as a woman gets wind of a romance, she can't for the life of her, with the best intentions in the world, help watching its progress. It would have been a case of every one hurrying to _ecarter_ themselves as soon as they saw as together, doing it, too, in the usual blundering and clumsy manner. I know it all so well--I've seen it so often, and, I may as well add, gone through it."

"That was the reason, was it? Well, you do know a thing or two, little one," he said admiringly. "But look here. We must s.n.a.t.c.h a little time together as often as we can. We'll make Selwood get up rides and expeditions, and pair off, lose ourselves by accident, and all that sort of thing. But mind, I can't go on talking to you day after day, only as one of a crowd. I can't stand it. We must manage somehow."

"Do you think I am a bit less anxious to than you? But, Maurice darling, do mind what I'm going to say. You must be on your guard before people, you always were such an awful old blunderer. You mustn't go letting slip any 'Violets,' for instance, and you're quite as likely to as not."

"I'm not going to let one slip at the present moment, anyway," he replied with a laugh. "And so you thought you were never going to see me again?"

"Ah, I have sometimes feared so. The agonies I have gone through! I know what you are going to say--that it was my own doing. I did it to test you, Maurice. Six months is not a long time, but ah, I have at times thought I should die long before it was over! Day after day, week after week, no news, not a word from you, or even of you. And every one here thinks I am utterly heartless. I never try to undeceive them; in fact, I rather encourage them in the idea."

No one would have thought so could they but have seen her there that morning, slowly wending through the mimosa brake encircled by her lover's arm; for they had left the somewhat precarious refuge of the garden. The restless, eager face, the quick, pa.s.sionate tones, as though she were talking against time, and grudged every one of the too swiftly flying moments which were bringing this doubly sweet, because surrept.i.tious, interview to its end.

They had reached the river-bank. The cool water bubbling along beneath the shade of the trees, the varying call of birds in the brake, the chirruping tree-crickets, the hum of bees dipping into the creamy cups of snow-white arums which grew in the moist shade, the melodious shout of the hoopoe echoing from the black kloofs that rent the mountain side--all made an appropriate framework, a fitting accompaniment of harmonious sounds to this sweet stolen interview. High overhead the h.o.a.ry crest of a great mountain frowned down from the dazzling blue.

"You haven't told me yet how you managed to find me out," said Violet at length, after a good deal of talk that we feel under no special necessity to reproduce, because, given the circ.u.mstances, the reader should have no difficulty in guessing its nature.

"Oh, that was the most astonishing piece of luck that ever came about,"

he answered. "You had better call it a fatality. I had started to look for you in quite the wrong direction, and fell in with that queer fellow, Fanning. Came down here with him, as you know."

"Did Mr Fanning talk about--er--tell you about--me?" she said hesitatingly.

Maurice Sellon was not the man to betray poor Renshaw's involuntary and delirious confidences, even to Violet herself--at least, not unless some strong motive existed for doing so, which at present was not the case.