The Honorable Percival Part 23

He obediently produced his cigar-case, and together they selected a cigar. She made a great point of cutting off the end, and then, when he had got it into his mouth, she struck a match and, sheltering the blaze with her scarf, held it close. The sudden intimacy of that beautiful face in the little circle of light, with the darkness all around, was quite too much for Percival. He looked straight into her eyes for one resolution-breaking second, then he blew out the match and catching her to him, pa.s.sionately kissed those smiling, upturned lips.

"Mr. Has...o...b..!" she protested, shrinking away; but Percival had made his leap and nothing could stop him.

"You are mine!" he cried rapturously, pressing her hand again and again to his lips. "It's all quite right, my darling. Don't be frightened. We shall be married any time, anywhere you say, to-morrow, if you like, in Hong-Kong."

"But, Mr. Has...o...b..--"

"Not Mr. Has...o...b... Percival, Percy, if you will. Fancy! Love at first sight. One glance on those desolate plains, and you were mine!"

"But I'm not. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

He looked at her fatuously. "But you will be! My little lady of the manor! My beautiful little mistress of Has...o...b.. Hall!"

She struggled away from him, and stood at bay.

"How _can_ you talk to me like this?" she cried, her voice trembling with indignation, "after what I told you that day in the wind-shelter?"

"In the wind-shelter?" He looked at her in bewilderment.

"Yea, about Hal Ford and the captain and all that. Why, you promised to help me, and now--"

"Hal Ford?" repeated Percival, dazed. "What has he to do with it?"

"More than anybody else in the world. He's waiting for me in Wyoming, and I'm counting the days and the hours and the minutes until I get back to him. I thought you understood, and were helping me bring the captain around."

He stood before her too stunned to speak.

Sheer amazement for the moment crowded out the pain.

"But--but don't you love me?" he stammered at last.

"Of course I don't," said Bobby, almost indignantly; "I never have loved anybody, and I never will love anybody but Hal."

Then Percival realized that it was quite possible for lightning to strike twice in the same place. He felt a sudden pain in his throat, a burning under his lids, and he sat down limply.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I'm so sorry!" whispered Bobby, putting her arm impulsively around his heaving shoulders]

"I'm so sorry!" whispered Bobby, putting her arm impulsively around his heaving shoulders. "I thought we were playing a game. I thought you understood. Please forgive me, Mr. Has...o...b..! Please! Won't you?"

He shook off her arm and stood up. He was whiter than he had been on the night of the accident, but he managed to achieve a smile.

"Nothing whatever to forgive, I a.s.sure you. Just a bit of a bunker, you know. Silly a.s.s I was, not to have seen it all along. May I offer my congratulations?" he added.

She took the hand that he hold out, and for a longer time than either of them knew they stood silent, looking out into the vast mystery of the night, while the throbbing strains of "La Paloma" floated up from below, mingling with the music of the rippling water.

"I guess this is good-by," said Bobby, tremulously.

Then it was that the Honorable Percival ill.u.s.trated the fact that an English gentleman is often greatest in defeat.

"Not necessarily," he said gamely. "Quite possible you and your husband may come to England."

"Or you to Wyoming!" cried Bobby, brightening instantly, and turning upon him the full splendor of her eyes. "Hal and I'd just _love_ to give you a summer on the ranch. Do you suppose it ever will be possible?"

"Oh, I dare say," said the Honorable Percival, nonchalantly adjusting his monocle.

XVI

IN PORT

The next morning the long voyage of the _Saluria_ came to an end.

The steamer docked at Hong-Kong just as the first pink streaks of dawn crept over the bay and the terraced city.

Bobby was up with the officers, and breakfasted alone with the captain.

"Can you spare me five minutes?" she asked as he was hurrying through his second cup of coffee.

"What for?"

"For a talk. I've got something to tell you."

"It'll have to wait," said the captain, gruffly. "We are landing a cargo of sugar machinery here, and I've got my hands full."

"I don't want your hands," said Bobby, quietly; "I want your ears.

There's something I've just got to tell you."

"I can't listen. I'm due on the bridge now."

He escaped for the time being, but later In the morning, when the commotion of arrival was at its height, and the pa.s.sengers were beginning to go ash.o.r.e, he found Bobby on the bridge beside him. He fancied he saw defiance written all over her, from the crown of her white hat to the tip of her white shoes.

"Captain," she said, "It won't take a minute."

He was on the point of refusing when she laid her hand on his.

"Cut away!" he said, looking straight ahead of him. "Make it short."

"It's about Mr. Has...o...b... He's--he's asked me to marry him."

The captain jerked his hand away and brought it down on the rail with a resounding blow.

"You sha'n't do it!" he thundered. "I'd see you sewed up in a bag and dropped alongside first."

"But, Captain--"

"I won't have it! There's no use arguing. The idea of a girl of mine being carried away by a condescending, conceited jack-in-the-box--"