Winding Paths Part 32

"It's a good thing I am the only witness," she laughed. "The poorness of your jokes alone would have horrified your colleagues, but to see you eating such a tea must have meant a request for your resignation - it is so incompatible with the dignity of a Cabinet Minister."

"I had almost forgotten I was a Cabinet Minister. Gad! but it's nice to get right away from the cares of office occasionally like this.

When will you come again?"

"Oh, I don't think I must come any more," roguishly. "I'm sure Brother Dudley will not consent."

"What has Brother Dudley go to do with it?... Did he consent this time?"

"Not exactly. I antic.i.p.ated his willingness."

"You little fibber. You mean you antic.i.p.ated his firm refusal, and took French leave, so that you need not disobey him."

"It is true that Dudley and I differ occasionally, but I do not disobey him... if I can help it."

"Well, if you took French leave this time, you can easily do it again."

"But this time it was a novelty. I was curious to find out how I should enjoy an afternoon with you?"

"Rubbish. You knew perfectly well you would enjoy it immensely. So did I. Two people who like each other always know those kind of things at once."

Hal leaned back in her chair, and her expressive mouth twitched in a way that made him long to kiss it hard.

"There are occasions when I don't like you at all," she said.

"Fibber again. When don't you like me?"

"Chiefly when you are quite positive certain sure that I do."

"Well, that is never; so you are a fibber."

"I thought you seemed particularly confident nine seconds ago."

"I was only teasing you. I could hardly have been serious after you have called me a worm, and an old man. So now - when will you come again?"

"In about a month. Let's go out as Guys on the fifth of November."

"A month be blowed! I want to know which day next week?"

"I am full up next week."

"Full up of what?"

"Lorraine Vivian, d.i.c.k Bruce, Quin, the Beloved Chief, and the Baby."

"What a list! Is Lorraine Vivian the actress? Who are Quin and the Baby?"

"She is... and they are!..."

"Who does the Baby belong to?"

"It would be difficult to say. About a dozen probably claim him."

"And doesn't he know his own mother?"

"Oh, I wasn't thinking of mothers."

"Who were you thinking of?"

"The ladies who have lost their hearts to him."

"I see. Are you one of them?"

"I am not. You see, his beauty has never struck me all of a heap, because I've got so used to it."

"Is he a beautiful baby, or a youth, or a man?"

"A bit of all three. He stands 6 ft. 5 1/2 in., and is superbly handsome. I call him sometimes, for variation, the stuffed blue-and-gold Apollo."

"Well, that's better than 'a positive worm'," laughing, "but I don't mind him. Who is Quin?"

"Quin is a philanthropist, sentimentalist, and hero. He spends his life working in the East End."

"I don't mind him either, and d.i.c.k Bruce I've seen. The actress doesn't count, and your precious chief you see every day. Now, then, when will you come again?"

He got up from his seat and came round to her side of the table. He had a vague intention of imprisoning her hand, and perhaps her waist, but some indescribable quality held him off. It was difficult to suppose she did not half guess what was in his mind, and yet, without showing the smallest consciousness or shyness, she faced him with a look so boyishly frank and open it utterly disarmed him.

"I am not a bit more persuasive on my right side than my left, and I have promised next Sat.u.r.day to the Three Graces - who are d.i.c.k and Quin and Baby. We are going to the Crystal Palace to see a football match."

"Then what about Sunday?"

"Oh, I can't come on Sunday."

"Why not?"

"I hardly know, except that it usually belongs to Dudley or d.i.c.k."

"Next Sunday needn't."

"Well, that's what I don't know."

"Yes you do." He moved a little nearer. "You've got to keep next Sunday for me. It's my turn. We'll have a splendid day. We'll take Peter, and we'll start early and fly down to the New Forest. It's glorious in the autumn. We'll have a picnic-lunch, and tea at an hotel on the way back. So that's settled." He got up, and lifted her ulster from the back of a chair. "Now come along, and we'll slip home before it gets late enough to cause trouble."

Hal let it pa.s.s for the time, and got into her ulster. She was clever enough to see the advantage of retaining a way of escape if she changed her mind, or accepting the invitation if she wanted to later on.

She knew perfectly well a girl did not always go out for a whole day with a man like Sir Edwin with impunity; but she had also something of contempt for a girl who missed a great treat for want of pluck. She preferred to leave the question open, and if she badly wanted to go at the end of the week she would not, at any rate, stay away because she was afraid.

As it happened, circ.u.mstances played into Sir Edwin Crathie's hands.

About Wednesday, with a diffidence that made Hal secretly amused and secretly curious, Dudley asked her if she would mind if he was away for the whole day on Sunday. As she was generally away herself as long as the summer lasted, she wondered why he should ask her in that manner.

It was just as they had finished breakfast, and he busied himself with his pipe-rack as he made the announcement.