If Winter Don't Part 7

"I've a lot more to say, only I can't think of it. I never can. But it's there. Inside my head. On the letter paper you and he will have your names above the line, and mine will be below it."

"That merely shows that I know where to draw the line. I wish you did."

"It's not for myself I mind so much. It's those dear little books of mine. All bound in lilac morocco. Sitting down. It's just as if they were slighted. If this kind of thing goes on, I shan't play any more."

"I'm not asking you to. But you can return to your work. And you remind me. I have had a bill from the binders of those books sent in to the firm's account. I have explained that this should be charged to your private account. You will get it in due course. Close the door quietly, please, as you go out."

On his way back to his own room Luke again encountered Arthur Dobson.

"It's all right," said Luke, "I said you didn't tell me, but had given it away by blus.h.i.+ng when I chanced to speak of it."

"Couldn't you have thought of a better one than that?"

"Oh, it's all right. And I don't mind telling you I've given him a pretty good dressing-down. I let him have the rough side of my tongue."

"Ah," said Dobson, "now that really is something like a lie."

Luke went back to his own room and sat there deep in thought. Why was everybody so hard and cold? Diggle, Dobson, Mabel--they were all so cruel and rude to him. n.o.body loved him. Except Dot and Dash, and possibly ...

No, that was not to be thought of.

All the same it reminded him that it was time for him to brush his hair and wash his little hands, and go up to lunch at Gallows.

2

It was a large luncheon party, for Gallows was full of guests.

Everybody was very merry and bright, except Luke. Tyburn was specially elated, for his little drive with the zebras had only cost thirteen hundred altogether. There had apparently been a terrific rag the night before. While the guests were at dinner, Tyburn arranged for a number of wild beasts to be brought up from the Mammoth Circus. One was put into the bedroom of each guest to greet him or her on going to bed.

No, there had been no real damage done. One of the lions had fainted.

It had been given sal volatile, and had recovered. Only three of the animals and two of the guests were missing. And one of the guests was a Bishop who had never been really wanted. Jona told the whole story hilariously.

Why was it, Luke asked himself, that she was always so merry and bright with others, and so very different when she was with him? Could it be that she wore a mask to the rest of the world, and disclosed her real self only to him? It could. It could also be just the other way round. That was the annoying part of it.

He was depressed during lunch. The story of Tyburn's practical joke of the previous evening had upset him. He did not like these practical jokes. He was nervous. He felt that at any moment, at a preconcerted signal, the table might blow up, or the ceiling fall down. Everybody else would laugh, and he would hate it. He seldom laughed at anything anybody else laughed at, though he enjoyed some little jokes of his own that n.o.body else seemed to appreciate. Especially Mabel. She seemed to be enjoying herself at the other side of the table, laughing at the stories that Major Capstan was telling her. From the Major's expression, Luke diagnosed that the stories were not quite--well, not exactly--oh, you know. Would it be Doom Dagshaw or Major Capstan? Oh, what was he thinking of?

Why had he not been put next to Jona? Why did the girl on his right, whom he had never met before, persist in addressing him as Funnyface?

Why is a mouse when it spins? The world was full of conundrums.

In the garden after lunch, Jona came straight up to him.

"We are going to play games," she said.

"What games?"

"Well, this morning we played leap-frog down the stairs. That was a little idea of Bill's."

Luke had noticed at lunch that two of the guests wore sticking-plaster on their noses. This explained it.

"I don't think I should like playing leap-frog," he said. "I sometimes play at boats with Dot."

"We'll play at hide-and-seek," said Jona. "You and I will hide together. Come along."

They hid in the cool dusk of the tool-shed. Jona sat on the wheelbarrow and talked, and talked, and talked.

At the end of half-an-hour, Luke had failed to ask her what she had meant by certain things on the day that she had called at his office.

He made rather a specialty of not being able to say anything that he particularly wanted to say.

He said: "It's funny they've not found us yet."

"Not so very funny," said Jona. "You see, I forgot to tell any of them that we were going to play this game. Here's one of the gardeners coming. d.a.m.n. I suppose we'd better join the rest of the crowd."

It was not until Mabel and Luke were leaving that Luke got a chance of another word with Jona.

"We're leaving for town to-morrow," said Jona. "You'll write and tell me everything that's in your old head, won't you?"

Luke felt that he ought not to write. Mabel would not like it. It would be wrong.

"Thanks," he said, "we so seldom have any postage stamps in the house.

And I've lost my Onoto pen, and I sprained my wrist falling off my bicycle."

"Oh, do write, Lukie dear." She held out her hand to him.

"Good-by," he said, and ran down the steps. At the bottom of the steps stood the cab, an interesting antique, which was to convey Mabel home.

Mabel and Major Capstan were waiting near the door.

"You only took about twenty minutes saying good-by to Lady Tyburn,"

said Mabel. "I'm giving Major Capstan a lift. If you think it's fair on the horse to ask it to draw the three of us, get in, of course.

Otherwise, it's beautiful weather for a nice walk."

"I will walk," said Luke. "I prefer it." He wished to be alone.

He sat down on the first milestone in the road, and meditated with his head in his hands.

Mabel. His wife. He was very good to her. He had been perfectly faithful to her. And was it worth while? What did she think about him?

How much did she care for him? There were two men after her. He seemed to visualize the situation as a sc.r.a.p from the stop-press of a newspaper.

1. MABEL.

2. DOOM.

3. CAPSTAN.

Also ran. Luke Sharper, Esq.

3

He recalled some of the things Jona had said to him in the tool-shed.

She had been rather frank in speaking of her husband.

"Bill's wonderful," she said. "He caught the tiger last night. When the keeper couldn't get it. He does everything well. He is the most fascinating man in the world--until you get used to him. I've got used to him. He fascinates all women. That would not matter so much, but nearly all women fascinate him. I pretend not to notice it. I think he does it partly to see how I will take it. I remain merry and bright.