"I hope better than you did that odious little widow. But she is well paid out."
"Follow me to the riverside," said Joseph; "at 8.33 p.m. I am due there, and so is another--a lady."
"And pray why did you not make her come here instead of lugging me all the way down there?"
"Because I could not make an appointment with a young lady in my bachelor"s apartments."
"That"s all very fine. But I am there."
"Yes, you--but you are only an imaginary character, and she is a substantial reality."
"I think I had better accompany you," said Lady Mabel.
"I think not. If your ladyship will kindly occupy my fauteuil till I return, that chair will ever after be sacred to me. Come along, Poppy."
"I"m game," said she.
On reaching the riverside Joseph saw that Miss Vincent was walking there in a listless manner, not straight, but swerving from side to side. She saw him, but did not quicken her pace, nor did her face light up with interest.
"Now, then," said he to Poppy, "what do you think of her?"
"She ain"t bad," answered the fict.i.tious character; "she is very pretty certainly, but inanimate."
"You will change all that."
"I"ll try--you bet."
Asphodel came up. She bowed, but did not extend her hand.
"Miss Vincent," said Joseph. "How good of you to come."
"Not at all. I could not help. I have no free-will left. When you wrote Come--I came, I could do no other. I have no initiative, no power of resistance."
"I do hope, Miss Vincent, that the thing you so feared has not happened."
"What thing?"
"You have not been snapped up by a fortune-hunter?"
"No. People have not as yet found out that I have lost my individuality.
I have kept very much to myself--that is to say, not to myself, as I have no proper myself left--I mean to the semblance of myself. People have thought I was anaemic."
Leveridge turned aside: "Well, Poppy!"
"Right you are."
Leveridge waved his hand. Instantly all the inertia pa.s.sed away from the girl, she stood erect and firm. A merry twinkle kindled in her eye, a flush was on her cheek, and mischievous devilry played about her lips.
"I feel," said she, "as another person."
"Oh! I am so glad, Miss Vincent."
"That is a pretty speech to make to a lady! Glad I am different from what I was before."
"I did not mean that--I meant--in fact, I meant that as you were and as you are you are always charming."
"Thank you, sir!" said Asphodel, curtsying and laughing.
"Ah! Miss Vincent, at all times you have seemed to me the ideal of womanhood. I have worshipped the very ground you have trod upon."
"Fiddlesticks."
He looked at her. For the moment he was bewildered, oblivious that the old personality of Asphodel had pa.s.sed into his book and that the new personality of Poppy had invaded Asphodel.
"Well," said she, "is that all you have to say to me?"
"All?--oh, no. I could say a great deal--I have ordered my supper for nine o"clock."
"Oh, how obtuse you men are! Come--is this leap year?"
"I really believe that it is."
"Then I shall take the privilege of the year, and offer you my hand and heart and fortune--there! Now it only remains with you to name the day."
"Oh! Miss Vincent, you overcome me."
"Stuff and nonsense. Call me Asphodel, do Joe."
Mr. Leveridge walked back to his lodgings as if he trod on air. As he pa.s.sed by the churchyard, he noticed the vicar, now shaven and shorn, labouring at a laden wheelbarrow. He halted at the rails and said: "Why, vicar, what are you about?"
"The s.e.xton has begun a grave for old Betty Goodman, and it is unfinished. He must dig another." He turned over the wheelbarrow and shot its contents into the grave.
"But what are you doing?" again asked Joseph.
"Burying the Mitre hymnals," replied the vicar.
The clock struck a quarter to nine.
"I must hurry!" exclaimed Joseph.
On reaching his lodgings he found Major Dolgelly Jones in his sitting-room, sitting on the edge of his table tossing up a tennis-ball.
In the armchair, invisible to the major, reclined Lady Mabel.
"I am so sorry to be late," apologised Joseph. "How are you, sir?"
"Below par. I have been so ever since you put me into your book. I have no appet.i.te for golf. I can do nothing to pa.s.s the weary hours but toss up and down a tennis-ball."