The 'Mind the Paint' Girl Part 51

[_To JEYES, protruding her lower lip._] I-- I didn't mean half I said, Nicko; I didn't mean half of it. [_Eyeing FARNCOMBE askance as she replaces the atomizer._] And I-- I'm ashamed of myself for losing my self-control as I did. [_There is another pause and then JEYES gets to his feet and silently returns the note to LILY. She looks up at him piteously and puts the note back into her bosom. Then he takes out his key-ring, removes the latch key from it, and throws the key on to the table. Having done this, he drags his cap from his pocket and makes for the door on the left. As he pa.s.ses LILY, she rises and gently plucks at his sleeve._] Nicko-- Nicko----

JEYES.

[_In a thick voice._] Eh?

LILY.

Won't you-- won't you give Lord Farncombe-- some explanation----?

JEYES.

Explanation----?

LILY.

Of the sort of terms we've been on, you and I, He-- he must be-- rather puzzled-- [_turning away to the table._] Oh, it's due to you as well as to me!

JEYES.

[_Dully._] Just as you please. [_With a hard laugh._] Ho, ho! Yes, perhaps it _is_ due to me that he should learn a little more about me than he's been able to gather from personal observation-- and from your eloquent but summary description. [_Under his breath, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his cap._] Idler-- waster-- loafer----!

LILY.

[_Penitently._] Nicko!

JEYES.

[_To FARNCOMBE, quietly._] Oh, it's a true bill, Farncombe. And yet, a very few years back-- _she_ won't dispute it-- I was one of the smartest chaps going, good at my job, with prospects as rosy as any man's in my regiment. There wasn't a cloud the size of your hand, apparently, in my particular bit of sky at the time I speak of; not a speck! Then I met this young lady, and-- [_pointing to the box-ottoman_] well, since we're in for it----!

FARNCOMBE.

Oh, Captain Jeyes----

JEYES.

No, no; she wishes you to understand the exact nature of the friendship between her and me. I'm obeying instructions. [_FARNCOMBE sits on the ottoman, nursing his hat and overcoat. Then JEYES sits in the arm-chair by the centre table, first turning the chair so that it faces FARNCOMBE._] Farncombe, I was under thirty, and still a subaltern, when I made Miss Parradell's acquaintance. Like most of my pals, I was spending my nights, whenever I could get away from Aldershot, in the stalls at the Pandora-- much the same as _you've_ been doing recently, and as a certain cla.s.s of young man'll go on doing as long as the Pandora, and similar shops, continue to flourish.

Ha! How honoured we felt, we men, in those days, at knowing some of the Pandora girls, and having the privilege of supping 'em and standing 'em dinner on Sunday evenings! If they'd been royal princesses we couldn't have been more elated. [_With a gesture._]

Don't jump at conclusions. It generally ended there, or with our running into debt at a jeweller's. _We_ were young, _they_ were beautiful-- or we thought 'em so; but the majority of us weren't vicious, any more than the majority of the girls were-- though many of 'em were mighty calculating. It would have been better for us men if all the girls _had_ been wicked; the glamour, the infatuation, the folly, would have been sooner over, and one of us at least would have had a different tale to tell.

[_JEYES pauses, gazing at the floor, FARNCOMBE moves impatiently on the ottoman and LILY seats herself upon the settee._

LILY.

[_Plaintively._] Nicko-- Nicko-- I merely wanted you to----

JEYES.

[_Rousing himself and speaking to LILY over his shoulder._] Who was it introduced us?

LILY.

Miss Du Cane-- Aggie Du Cane.

JEYES.

Agnes Du Cane. _She's_ gone under. [_To LILY._] Outside Buckley's oyster-bar, wasn't it?

LILY.

Not outside; in the parlour.

JEYES.

[_To FARNCOMBE._] Lily had only lately come to the Pandora-- a pale-faced slip of a thing. [_To LILY._] Eighteen, weren't you?

LILY.

[_Nodding._] Eighteen.

JEYES.

I confess I wasn't overwhelmingly attracted by her at first; she was so unlike the rest. [_Laughing bitterly._] Ha, ha, ha!

LILY.

[_Weakly._] Ha, ha, ha! Wasn't I dowdy!

JEYES.

But she was humble, and nave, and confiding; and my vanity was tickled by her delight at the little treats I gave her, and by her grat.i.tude for a tuppeny-ha'penny present or two. n.o.body, I believe, with any pretensions to being a gentleman, had paid her much attention before I arrived on the scene.

LILY.

[_In a murmur._] No; n.o.body.

JEYES.

I didn't find out that I was in love with her-- you guess it's a love story, don't you?----

FARNCOMBE.

[_Delicately._] My dear Captain Jeyes----

JEYES.

I didn't find out that I was neck and heels in love with her until nearly a year afterwards, when my regiment went to the Curragh. _That_ did it-- separation! What I suffered in that hole, thinking of her, starving for her! In less than three months I was in London again, on leave, and in my old stall at the Pandora. But even then, Farncombe, I hadn't your pluck.

FARNCOMBE.