Prince Charlie Part 40

"Insult!"

"I think that's the correct word; I can't find a more expressive one lying about."

"Pray who are the friends of mine that you do not like?"

"Refrain from the obvious! You haven't fifty thousand of them staying in the house just now!"

"The Chantrelles, you mean. I repeat, who invited them here? Answer me!"

She stamped her foot as she let loose her shaft. It went home this time: buried its head, rendering d.i.c.k furious. He had cursed himself a hundred times for being the cause of their presence. But for that----

"Look here, Mab, you and I don't want to quarrel."

A quarrel just then was the thing he was itching for; if he could have hit something or somebody it would have been an immense relief to his feelings; he went on:

"I have a friend; a man who saved my life! A man who devoted himself to me; but for whom, I should be now at the bottom of the sea."

"d.i.c.k!"

She hid her face in her hands. All the memories she had thrust aside, grateful memories, rushed back on her. She did not want d.i.c.k to see what she knew her face would show: horror of her own ingrat.i.tude to Masters.

The recollection of all he had done for her brother flooded her.

"Oh, it's true! I'm not romancing. When I said good-bye to you in that Lambeth bedroom, I meant it to be a good-bye. I went on board that boat with the full intention of making a hole in the water."

"d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k! Don't say it!"

"I do say it. I say it emphatically. Life didn't seem worth the living to me. Masters shared my cabin; nursed me; tended me; made me see things differently. In fact, made a man of me. When I think of him, and all he did for me, I cry from my heart: G.o.d bless him! G.o.d bless him!"

He turned his head that she might not see the tears filling his eyes; continued:

"When I think of the debt I owe him, a debt I would pay with my life cheerfully if it would help him, I--I--I----"

She interrupted him; was standing close to him again, white-faced, dry-eyed, breathing heavily.

"d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k!" she gasped. "You don't know how you are hurting me!"

"And I bring him here," he spluttered, "to your home. Because it was the only place I could bring him to; because I thought my sister loved me, that she would stretch out a warm hand of welcome to the man who saved me. What happens? What happens? She doesn't throw the plates and dishes at him, but, by G.o.d! I wish she had! It would have been better than the cold, cutting, contemptuous nature of her insults!"

He struggled to get free from her arms; they had found their way round his neck, and her head was on his bosom. But she held him too tightly.

He was unfair; she knew it; not all the wrong was on her side.

"You think nothing of me, d.i.c.k!" Her sobbing expostulation: "You ignore the things he has done; the way he has behaved to me!"

"Yes," replied d.i.c.k grimly. "Perhaps it's just as well I do. Gracie tells me that in the dead of night he came, and sat up, and nursed her back to life! That's one of the things he did for you and the child you profess to love so much! He's good at nursing, is Prince Charlie, poor old chap!--I have had some. You have had some. But it seems to have struck us in different lights; to have inspired different feelings.

Personally, I'd lay down my life for him! The grandest fellow I ever met; G.o.d bless him!"

"d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k!"

She covered her face with her hands; the tears were streaming through her fingers. He went on pitilessly; his blood was too hot now for softness.

"You don't see anything to be grateful for in what he did for you. On the contrary, his kindly affection for Gracie is a cause of complaint!

You coolly tell me I don't know the things he has done, and how he has behaved to you! 'Prince Charlie'--yes. Gracie was right in naming him so. He is a prince; a Real Prince. The child has more grat.i.tude in her little finger than you----"

She stopped him. Would not let him continue. Placed a hand over his mouth as she cried:

"d.i.c.k, you are breaking my heart!"

CHAPTER x.x.xII

RESUMPTION OF d.i.c.k'S GOOD TEMPER

Although she had got her arms round him again, Mabel could not stop d.i.c.k's voice. He had something to say and was determined to say it; felt wound up to go.

"Breaking your heart!" he commented contemptuously. "You have already broken his; but you will have Percy to mend yours."

"Percy! How dare you suggest such a thing!"

He looked at her astonished; was startled into absolute amazement at the indignation in her voice as she broke away from him.

"Dare! Well----"

"Percy!" She repeated the name scornfully. "You know I hate, detest, despise, loathe him."

Her face was so very expressive just then that there could be no doubt she was saying what she meant. d.i.c.k was quick to realize that. Was so astonished at the turn matters had taken that he could only e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e:

"Eh!"

A small word, but all he felt capable of shaping just then; was his way of expressing the unutterable mystification and astonishment which had gripped hold of him.

"You _know_ it, d.i.c.k!" Boot on floor: tattoo resumed. "Don't stand there with that idiotic vacant look on your face, as if you were surprised to hear it."

Surprised! It was a feeble description; idiotic was distinctly better.

He stood as one paralysed, listening whilst she excitedly continued:

"I have told you so dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of times!"

Trust a woman if she picks up figures to shed them with a lavish hand!

The blank look on d.i.c.k's face intensified. He shook his head in utter hopelessness; the mystery was too much for him. He was dealing with a woman, and--and--well, he was only an average specimen of a man after all!

"Do I sleep?" He found voice at last; quoted: "Do I dream? Or are visions about?"

"I felt mad when I got the letter to say you insisted on the Chantrelles coming here for Christmas. But I didn't like to disappoint you, d.i.c.k, the moment of your home-coming, too."

"I insisted?" He was all eagerness as he blurted out the question. "Who says I insisted?"