Lalage's Lovers Part 23

t.i.therington took several careful notes in his book.

"It's not much of a chance," I said, "but it will keep you busy for a while and anything is better than sitting still and repining."

"In the infernal fix we're in," said t.i.therington, "anything is worth trying."

CHAPTER XIV

During the time that t.i.therington and I were thrown together I learned to respect and admire him, but I never cared for him as a companion.

Only once, so far as I recollect, did I actually wish to see him. The day after I gave him the hint about Hilda's mother I waited for him anxiously. I was full of curiosity. I wanted to know what Hilda's surname was, a matter long obscure to me, which t.i.therington, if any man living, would find out. I also wanted to know how Hilda's mother took the news of her daughter's political activity. I waited for him all day but he did not visit me. Toward evening I came to the conclusion that he must have found himself obliged to go up to Dublin in pursuit of Selby-Harrison, junior. I spent a pleasant hour or two in picturing to myself the interview between them. t.i.therington had spoken of using violent means of persuasion, of dragging the surname of Hilda out of the young man. He might, so I liked to think, chase Selby-Harrison round the College Park with a drawn sword in his hand. Then there would be complications. The Provost and senior fellows, not understanding t.i.therington's desperate plight, would resent his show of violence, which would strike them as unseemly in their academic groves. Swift, muscular porters would be sent in pursuit of t.i.therington, who would, himself, still pursue Selby-Harrison. The great bell of the Campanile would ring furious alarm peals. The Dublin metropolitan police would at last be called in, for t.i.therington, when in a determined mood, would be very difficult to overpower.

All this was pleasant to think about at first; but there came a time when my mind was chiefly occupied in resenting t.i.therington's thoughtlessness. He had no right to go off on a long expedition without leaving me the key of the bag in which we kept the champagne. I felt the need of a stimulant so badly that I ventured to ask McMeekin, who called just before I went to bed, to allow me half a gla.s.s of Burgundy.

Burgundy would not have been nearly as good for me as champagne, but it would have been better than nothing. McMeekin sternly forbade anything of the sort, and I heard him tell the nurse to give me barley water when I asked for a drink. This is another proof that McMeekin ought to be in an asylum for idiots. Barley water would depress me and make me miserable even if I were in perfect health.

As a set-off against t.i.therington's thoughtlessness and McMeekin's imbecility, I noticed that during the day the nurse became gradually less obnoxious. I began to see that she had some good points and that she meant well by me, though she still did things of which I could not possibly approve. She insisted, for instance, that I should wash my face, a wholly unnecessary exertion which exhausted me greatly and might easily have given me cold. Still I disliked her less than I did before, and felt, toward evening that she was becoming quite tolerable. I always like to give praise to any one who deserves it, especially if I have been obliged previously to speak in a different way. After I got into bed I congratulated her on the improvement I had noticed in her character and disposition. She replied that she was delighted to see that I was beginning to pick up a little. The idea in her mind evidently was that no change had taken place in her but that I was shaking off a mood of irritable pessimism, one of the symptoms of my disease. I did not argue with her though I knew that she was quite wrong. There really was a change in her and I had all along kept a careful watch over my temper.

The day after that, being, I believe, the eighth of my illness, I got up at eleven o'clock and put on a pair of trousers under my dressing-gown.

McMeekin, backed by the nurse, insisted on my sending for a barber to shave me. I did not like the barber, for, like all his tribe, he was garrulous and I had to appeal to the nurse to stop him talking.

Afterward I was very glad I had endured him. Lalage and Hilda called on me at two o'clock, and I should not have liked them to see me in the state I was in before the barber came. They both looked fresh and vigorous. Electioneering evidently agreed with them.

"We looked in," said Lalage, "because we thought you might want to be cheered up a bit. You can't have many visitors now that poor t.i.thers is gone."

"Dead?"

"Oh, no, not yet at least, and we hope he won't. t.i.thers means well and I daresay it's not his fault if he don't speak the truth."

"They've put him in prison, I suppose. I hardly thought they'd allow him to chop up Selby-Harrison in the College Park."

Hilda gaped at me. Lalage went over to the nurse and whispered something in her ear. The nurse shook her head and said that my temperature was normal.

"If you're not raving," said Lalage, "you're deliberately talking nonsense. I don't know what you mean, nor does Hilda."

"It ought to be fairly obvious," I said, "that I'm alluding to Mr. t.i.therington's attempt to find out Hilda's surname from young Selby-Harrison."

Hilda giggled convulsively. Then she got out her pocket handkerchief and choked.

"t.i.thers," said Lalage, "is past caring about anybody's name. He's got influenza. It came on him the night before last at twelve o'clock. He's pretty bad."

"I'm glad to hear that. I was afraid he might have been arrested in Dublin. If it's only influenza there's no reason why he shouldn't send me the key of the bag. I suppose you'll be going round to see him in the course of the afternoon, Lalage."

"We hadn't thought of doing that," said Lalage, "but of course we can if you particularly want us to."

"I wish you would, and tell him to send me the key of the bag at once.

You could bring it back with you."

"Certainly," said Lalage. "Is that all?"

"That's all I want; but it would be civil to ask how he is."

"There's no use making a special, formal visit for a trifle like that.

Hilda will run round at once. It won't take her ten minutes."

Hilda hesitated.

"Run along, Hilda," said Lalage.

Hilda still hesitated. It occurred to me that she might not know where t.i.therington's house was.

"Turn to the right," I said, "as soon as you get out of the hotel.

Then go on to the end of the street. Mr. t.i.therington's house is at the corner and stands a little way back. It has 'Sandringham' in gilt letters on the gate. You can't miss it. In fact, you can see it from the door of the hotel. Nurse will show it to you."

Even then Hilda did not start.

"The key of what bag?" she asked.

"Is it any particular bag?" said Lalage.

"Of course it is," I said. "What on earth would be the use----?"

"Will t.i.thers knows what bag you mean?" said Lalage.

"He will. Now that he has influenza himself he can't help knowing."

"Off with you, Hilda."

This time Hilda started, slowly. The nurse, who evidently thought that Hilda was being badly treated, went with her. She certainly took her as far as the hotel door. She may have gone all the way to t.i.therington's house. Lalage sat down opposite me and lit a cigarette.

"We are having a high old time," she said. "Now that t.i.thers is gone and O'Donoghue, who appears to be rather an a.s.s, professes to have a sore throat----"

She winked at me.

"Do you suspect him of having influenza?" I asked.

"Of course, but he won't own up if he can help it."

"Vittie is only shamming," I said. "t.i.therington told me so, he may emerge at any moment."

"It's just like t.i.thers to say that. The one thing he cannot do is speak the truth. As a matter of fact Vittie is in a dangerous condition. His aunt told me so."

"Have you been to see him."

"No. The aunt came round to us this morning with tears in her eyes, and begged us to spare Vittie."

"I suppose the things you have been saying about him have made him worse."

"According to his aunt they keep him in such an excitable state that he can't sleep. I told her I was jolly glad to hear it. That just shows the amount of good the A.S.P.L. is doing in the district. It's making its power felt in every direction."