The Phantom Lover Part 12

Miss Mason chuckled; she pushed the tray to one side along the floor.

"I don't mind telling you that I've never used cream to my skin at all," she said. "But people think I do, and so there you are! Have some more tea?"

She refilled Esther's cup and lit another cigarette. "So that's what I am," she said. "And now go on, and tell me about yourself. You said you were at Eldred's!"

"Yes, I was there for two years. I rather liked it! I love pretty things, and I was in the workroom. They paid me quite well, too, though it was hard work, and then--well, then I left----" her voice changed subtly.

"Why?"

The query was only interested, and not at all impertinent.

Esther flushed.

"Well--well--I thought I was going to be married. He--well, he asked me to leave to marry him, and so I did...."

"But you're not married?"

"No----" Esther was looking away into the fire. "No, I'm not married,"

she said in a stifled voice. "He--my fiance--has had to go away on business--abroad, and I don't know when I shall see him again."

Her voice sounded sad and dispirited.

"You poor little thing!" said June Mason. She leaned over and laid her hand on Esther's. "Never mind! The time will soon pa.s.s, and then he'll come back and you'll live happily ever after----"

Esther smiled.

"I know. I keep on telling myself it's foolish to worry. I felt quite happy this morning. I had a letter from him, and somehow when I read it things didn't seem half so bad; but----"

"And you'll have another to-morrow, I expect." Miss Mason insisted.

"And another the next day, and one every day while he's away. There!

That's better," she added cheerily as Esther laughed.

"I don't like to see you look so sad. I'm going to cheer you up. I shan't allow you to be miserable. And anyway," she added, with a sudden softening, "you've got some one who loves you, and that's worth everything else in the world."

"Yes," said Esther. Her eyes shone and she thought of the letter which was even then lying against her heart. Somehow she had never realised how much he really cared for her till to-day.

"And what are you going to do till he comes home?" Miss Mason asked interestedly. "If you had something to do you'd find the time pa.s.s ever so much more quickly."

"It's a question of having to do something rather than how to pa.s.s the time," Esther said. "I haven't any money except what I can make. My aunt left me a little when she died, but it was only a very little, and I spent most of it at first while I was looking for work. So I'm going back to Eldred's--if they will have me, and I think they will."

Miss Mason said "Humph!"

"I think you're too good for a petticoat shop," she said bluntly.

"You're wasted there! n.o.body sees you, and you're so pretty----"

"Oh, what nonsense!" Esther exclaimed. She laughed in sheer amus.e.m.e.nt.

To her it seemed absurd for this girl to call her pretty; she considered June Mason such a personality--so attractive!

She really did make a picturesque figure as she sat there with her mauve cushions all around her. Her yellow blouse and dark hair and wonderful rose-leaf skin reminded one of some brilliant portrait painted by a master-hand.

Esther would have been surprised could she have known the thought in June's mind at that moment.

"She's just sweet! I don't know when I've seen a face I admire more.

Micky would adore her! She's just the sort of woman he always raves about. I must ask him to tea to meet her one day."

"There are heaps of other berths going besides Eldred's, you know,"

she said earnestly. "However, you must do as you like, of course." She threw away another unfinished cigarette. "Do you think we are going to be friends?" she asked.

"I am sure we are," Esther said. She really did think so; she had never met any one in the least like June Mason before. She began to feel glad that she had come to this house. It was much more expensive than the Brixton Road, certainly, but it was well worth it, even if only because she had met this quaint little woman.

It was nearly seven o'clock before she thought of going back to her own room, and then it was only the chiming of a clock on the shelf that roused her.

"Nearly seven!" She started up in dismay. "I had no idea it was so late. I am sorry for having stayed so long."

"There's nothing to be sorry for," June declared. "You may go shares with this room if you like. I'm out so much, it isn't used half the time. Think it over, will you?"

Esther flushed nervously.

"It's awfully kind of you; I should love to, but I couldn't afford it.

I'm really paying more money now than I ought to. I want to save, too----"

Miss Mason laughed.

"For the wedding! Lucky girl! I hope you'll ask me to come and see you married--and I hope he's very nice," she added.

"He is," said Esther eagerly. "And he's very handsome," she added shyly.

But Miss Mason was not impressed.

"I don't care a fig if a man is handsome or not," she said bluntly.

"If he's just manly and straightforward and kind, that's all I expect him to be. Now look here--we have dinner at half-past seven in this establishment. It's only supper really, but we all put on our best blouses--if we've got any--and call it dinner. I'll call for you on the way down and we'll go in together. I'll tell Mrs. Elders you are going to share my table, if you like; it's deadly dull sitting alone."

"I should like to sit with you very much," Esther said eagerly. "But I really haven't got a 'best' blouse." She glanced down at the plain white silk shirt she wore; it had been washed many times, and had lost its first freshness.

"Come down as you are, then," Miss Mason urged, "and I will too! I hate changing. This yellow rag is good enough for the old tabbies we get here."

Esther went half-way down the stairs and came back.

"Charlie--I've forgotten Charlie."

"Charlie can stay where he is till bedtime," June declared. "You can come up and fetch him then. Hurry, or you'll be late."

Esther went down to her room, feeling more light-hearted than she had done for a long time.

As she unpacked her boxes and tidied her hair she could hear June Mason moving about upstairs, singing cheerily.

"I'm going to like her--I'm going to like her awfully," she told herself. She hurried to be ready in time, but the rather unmelodious dinner-bell had clanged through the house twice before June came to the door.

"You've unpacked, then?" she said. She looked round the small room approvingly. "I can see you're one of the tidy ones," she said. "I'm not; I wish I were. However, we can't all be the same. Are you ready?"