CHAPTER IX
Andrew came face to face with his brother in the village street on thenext morning. He looked at him for a moment in surprise.
"What have you been doing?" he asked, drily. "Sitting up all night?"
Cecil nodded dejectedly.
"Pretty well," he admitted. "We played bridge till nearly five o'clock."
"You lost, I suppose?" Andrew asked.
"Yes, I lost!" Cecil admitted.
"Your party," Andrew said, "does not seem to me to be an unqualifiedsuccess."
"It is not," Cecil admitted. "Miss Le Mesurier has been quiteunapproachable the last few days. She's just civil to me and no more.She isn't even half as decent as she was in town. I wish I hadn't askedthem here. It's cost a lot more money than we can afford, and done nogood that I can see."
Andrew looked away seaward for a moment. Was it his fancy, or was thereindeed a slim white figure coming across the marshes from the Hall?
"Cecil," he said, "are you quite sure that your guests are worth thetrouble you have taken to entertain them? I refer more particularly tothe two men."
"They go everywhere," Cecil answered. "Lord Ronald is a bit of awastrel, of course, and I am not very keen on Forrest, but we were alltogether when I gave the invitation, and I couldn't leave them out."
Andrew nodded.
"Well," he said, "I should be careful how I played cards with Forrestif I were you."
Cecil's face grew even a shade paler.
"You do not think," he muttered, "that he would do anything that wasn'tstraight?"
"On the contrary," Andrew answered, "I have reason to believe that hewould. Isn't that one of your guests coming? You had better go and meether."
Andrew passed on his way, and Cecil walked towards Jeanne. All thetime, though, she was looking over his shoulder to where Andrew's tallfigure was disappearing.
"What a nuisance!" she pouted. "I wanted to see Mr. Andrew, anddirectly I came in sight he hurried away."
"Can I give him any message?" Cecil asked with faint irony. "He will nodoubt be up with the fish later in the day."
She turned her back on him.
"I am going back to the house," she said. "I did not come out here towalk with you."
"Considering that I am your host," he began--
"You lose your claim to consideration on that score when you remind meof it," she answered. "Really the only man who has not bored me forweeks is Mr. Andrew. You others are all the same. You say the samethings, and you are always paving the way toward the same end. I amtired of it. Stop!"
She turned suddenly round.
"I quite forgot," she said. "I must go into the village after all. I amgoing to send a telegram."
They retraced their steps in silence. As they entered thetelegraph-office Andrew was just leaving, and the postmistress waswishing him a respectful farewell. He touched his hat as the twoentered, and stepped on one side. Jeanne, however, held out her hand.
"Mr. Andrew," she said, "I am so glad to see you. I want to go outagain in that great punt of yours. Please, when can you take me?"
"I am afraid," Andrew answered, "that I am rather busy just now. I--"
He stopped short, for something in her face perplexed him. It wasimpossible for her, of course, to feel disappointment to that extent,and yet she had all the appearance of a child about to cry. He feltsuddenly awkward and ill at ease.
"Of course," he said, "if you really care about it, I should be verypleased to take you any morning toward the end of the week."
"To-morrow morning, please," she begged.
He glanced towards his brother, who shrugged his shoulders.
"If Miss Le Mesurier is really inclined to go, Andrew," the lattersaid, "I am sure that you will take good care of her. Perhaps some ofus will come, too."
She nodded her farewells to Andrew, and turned back with her hosttoward the Hall. Cecil looked at her a little curiously. It was certainthat she seemed in better spirits than a short time ago. What acreature of caprices!
"Will you tell me, Mr. De la Borne," she asked, "why the postmistresscalled Mr. Andrew 'sir' if he is only a fisherman?"
"Habit, I suppose," Cecil answered carelessly. "They call every one sirand ma'am."
"I am not so sure that it was habit," she said thoughtfully. "I thinkthat Mr. Andrew is not quite what he represents himself to be. No onewho had not education and experience of nice people could behave quiteas he does. Of course, he is rough and brusque at times, I know, butthen many men are like that."
Cecil did not reply. A grey mist was sweeping in from the sea, andJeanne shivered a little as they turned into the avenue.
"I wonder," she said pensively, "why we came here. My mother as a rulehates to go far from civilization, and I am sure Lord Ronald ismiserable."
"I think one reason why your mother brought you here," Cecil saidslowly, "is because she wanted to give me a chance."
She picked up her skirts and ran, ran so lightly and swiftly thatCecil, who was taken by surprise, had no chance of catching her. Fromthe hall door she looked back at him, panting behind.
"Too many cigarettes," she laughed. "You are out of training. If you donot mind you will be like Lord Ronald, an old young man, and I wouldnever let any one say the sort of things you were going to say whocouldn't catch me when I ran away."
She went laughing up the stairs, and Cecil de la Borne turned into hisstudy. The Princess was playing patience, and the two men were ineasy-chairs.
"At last!" the Princess remarked, throwing down her cards. "My dearCecil, do you realize that you have kept us waiting nearly an hour?"
"I thought, perhaps," he answered, "that you had had enough bridge."
"Absurd!" the Princess declared. "What else is there to do? Come andcut, and pray that you do not draw me for a partner. My luck is deadout--at patience, anyhow."
"Mine," Cecil remarked, with a hard little laugh, "seems to be out allround. Touch the bell, will you, Forrest. I must have a brandy and sodabefore I start this beastly game again."
The Princess raised her eyebrows.
"I trust," she said, "that my charming ward has not been unkind?"
"Your charming ward," Cecil answered, "has as many whims and fancies asan elf. She yawns when I talk to her, and looks longingly after one ofmy villagers. Hang the fellow!"
"A very superior villager," the Princess remarked, "if you mean Mr.Andrew."
Forrest looked up, and fixed his cold intent eyes upon his host.
"I suppose," he said, "you are sure that this man Andrew is really whathe professes to be, and not a masquerader?"
"I have known him," Cecil answered, "since I was old enough to rememberanybody. He has lived here all his life, and only been away three orfour times."
They played until the dressing-bell rang. Then Cecil de la Borne rosefrom his seat with a peevish exclamation.
"My luck seems dead out," he said.
The Princess raised her eyebrows.
"Possibly, my dear boy," she said, "but you must admit that you alsoplayed abominably. Your last declaration of hearts was indefensible,and why you led a diamond and discarded the spade in Lord Ronald's 'notrump' hand, Heaven only knows!"
"I still think that I was right," Cecil declared, a little sullenly.
The Princess said nothing, but turned toward the door.
"Any one dining to-night, Mr. Host?" she said.
"No one," he answered. "To tell you the truth there is no one to askwithin a dozen miles, and you particularly asked not to be botheredwith meeting yokels."
"Quite right," the Princess answered, "only I am getting a littlebored, and if you had any yokels of the Mr. Andrew sort, with just alittle more polish, they might be entertaining. You three men aregetting deadly dull."
"Princess!" Lord Ronald declared reproachfully. "How can you say that?You never give any one a chance to see you until the afternoon, andthen we generally start bridge. One cannot be brilliantly entertainingwhile one is playing cards
."
The Princess yawned.
"I never argue," she said. "I only state facts. I am getting a littlebored. Some one must be very amusing at dinner-time or I shall have aheadache."
She swept up to her room.
"I suppose we'd better go and change," Cecil remarked, leading the wayout into the hall.
Forrest, who was at the window, screwed his eyeglass in and leanedforward. A faint smile had parted the corner of his lips, and hebeckoned to Cecil, who came over at once to his side. On the top of thesand-dyke two figures were walking slowly side by side. Jeanne, withthe wind blowing her skirts about her small shapely figure, was lookingup all the time at the man who walked by her side, and who, against theempty background of sea and sky, seemed of a stature almost gigantic.
"Quite an idyll!" Forrest remarked with a little sneer.
Cecil bit his lip, and turned away without a word.