The Tower of Oblivion Part 68

"She never once mentioned Jennie's name. She simply said that she understood that a bicycle was to be fetched back to Ker Annic, and as she was coming out that way she'd said she'd call for it. It seems to have been quite all right. He didn't ask any questions either; he got it out and put it on the tram for her himself."

"The same tram? She came straight back?" (I may say that there is only one tram to St Briac, which runs backwards and forwards).

"No, the next journey. It had gone, so she had to wait. She tried to ride the bicycle, but couldn't quite manage it. So he showed her his pictures, as he did to us."

"Before she went to the Golf Club, or after?"

"She didn't say."

"And he didn't even ask why the bicycle had been sent for?"

"Not a word about it. He just put it on the tram."

I can't say I much liked the look of this. I remembered how he had formerly bamboozled me.

"Then he simply accepts the situation?" I said.

"Whatever it is, apparently."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, that's the funny part. What _is_ the situation? You see, Arnaud's knowing you complicates it. If he hadn't known you I expect Alec would have sent him about his business at the double. Not that you're to blame in any way; it's nothing at all to do with you. But then is Jennie to blame either for falling in love with the delicious creature? I told Alec so. Oh, we had a lively hour yesterday while you and Julia were out bathing and walking and enjoying yourselves! Alec bl.u.s.tered, and he wouldn't have this and he wouldn't have that, but I asked him, 'Where was the harm if the young man came round in a straightforward way and took his chance with the others?' 'I don't call this straightforward,'

he said; and of course I could hardly say it was, but we've all been young once. Anyway, the long and the short of it was that there's to be no more bicycle-riding, but he hasn't forbidden her to see him provided everything's above-board and we're told about it."

"Was that a concession for my sake?"

"It's for Jennie's sake. It's her happiness I'm thinking about. You've nothing to do with it."

"Except to provide his credentials," I thought, but said nothing.

I begin to like it less and less. Not one single thing about it did I like. Julia was supposed not to know this Arnaud, but that had not prevented her from thrusting herself into his affairs and lying unblushingly about an appointment at the Golf Club seven miles away at nine o'clock in the morning. And if Madge thought that Julia and Jennie were "behaving with ordinary decency" at that moment, so did not I. As for Derry, honestly I was afraid of him. He had had a whole night in which to think over the almost certain consequences of that surprise among the sarrasin stooks, and if he was caught without a plan he was not the man I took him for. Julia might think she had scored during that hour and a half when he had shown her his pictures, but the change was just as likely to be in his pocket. Probably he had expected that that bicycle would be sent for before the day was many hours old. The only thing he could not have expected was that Julia Oliphant would come in person for it.

Then the dance ended, and Julia, as barefaced as she was barearmed, came straight up to me, wide-smiling, daring.

"Well, George! Good morning! Enjoying yourself?"

"Hadn't Derry a nerve!" she had said to me when I had told her about the tea-party at Ker Annic. I don't think his nerve surpa.s.sed her own. I looked straight at her.

"Since it's good morning, come for a turn," I said.

Still smiling all over her face, she placed a resplendent arm on mine, and we pa.s.sed out on to the terrace.

She wore an immense white hat, so cavalierly dragged down on one side and so arrogantly jutting up on the other that from certain points you had to walk half way round her before you saw her face at all. One eye lurked permanently within the recess of that outrageous brim. She had also done something to her lips.

There were little round tables on the terrace, and at one of these we sat down, vis-a-vis. She placed the backs of her clasped hands under her chin and sat there, magnetising me.

"Well, how goes it?" she said.

"I hear," I said, "that you're learning to ride a bicycle."

"No, George."

"What's that?"

"Not a bicycle. Only a free-wheel. I rode a bicycle years ago. It's only the free-wheel that's a bit tricky."

"You saw him?"

"Of course. Didn't Madge tell you?"

"And he knew you?"

"My dear George, do pull yourself together! He was expecting me!"

"What! By appointment?"

"No, no, no, I don't mean that. I didn't write or send him a telegram or anything of that kind. But, of course, he knew I was here. He knew days ago--before I came probably. What would be the first thing Jennie'd tell him? That they were expecting a visitor, but it needn't make any difference to their meetings. So of course he was expecting me. Perhaps not quite so early in the morning, but oh, quite soon!"

"What I meant was, did he recognise you?"

"Recognise me? Why not? He called me Miss Oliphant and showed me his sketches. They're"--the eye I could see sparkled, taking in the whole bright terrace--"they're glorious!"

"What about the bicycle?"

"Glo--rious! He's a divine painter! Why, his books are like sawdust after his painting! I don't paint worth a rap myself, but oh, I know celestial stuff when I see it!"

"What did he say about the bicycle?"

"I didn't go there to talk about bicycles. I went there to see his glorious pictures and his glorious self!"

"And incidentally to meet an apocryphal person at the Golf Club."

"Pooh!" She took that in her stride. "But about those pictures----"

"Leave the pictures for a moment. Why have you avoided me the whole afternoon until you came up a moment ago and said good morning?"

"Surely you can guess that?" Again the fascination of the smile.

"Guessing's lost some of its novelty for me lately."

"Well, I wanted to dance with Jennie, you see."

"I'm afraid I don't see."

She looked at me quizzically, reflectively. "N--o. Perhaps it isn't as simple as I thought. But you were glad when I danced with Jennie, weren't you?"

"I won't say glad. I was--very interested."