"Oh, Tony! Tony! We are so glad you are back, dear Tony! What have you brought us, Tony?"
CHAPTER V
HE MEETS THE HEROINE
"Polly, come and have a look round, and give me your advice, will you?
My fellow says he"s got all the luggage up, and he wants to know where to put some of the new things."
Mr. Anthony Churchill would have felt himself insulted if you had called his "fellow" a valet. Australian gentlemen don"t keep valets. The person in question had certainly filled that office in England, where his master had picked him up, but was now merely a sort of private male housemaid of superior quality, who waited on his employer in the East Melbourne chambers, and made him more comfortable than anybody else could have done. When he was away travelling, Maude took on his servant as an extra footman, in order to guard him against the seductions of other wealthy bachelors who were known to covet him; but when Tony was at home, Jarvis was his indispensable attendant. Mary Oxenham used to say that Jarvis was the main cause of that celibacy which she could not but deplore in a man of thirty-five, who could so well afford a wife and family.
"Yes, dear," she said, in response to his proposal; "I shall be delighted." She rose from the Toorak luncheon-table to dress for the expedition.
"Oh, Tony, you are _not_ going away?" cried Mrs. Churchill, prettily aghast. "When I have hardly had a word with you! And when you know it is my day at home, and I can"t come with you! Mary, it"s very nasty and selfish of you, to carry him off and keep him all to yourself--especially when he has been in town the whole morning."
"I"ll come back to dinner," he said soothingly. "And we"ll have a game of billiards together in the evening, if you like."
"But I want you _now_, Tony! All the world is coming this afternoon, just on purpose to see you, and I did so want to show you off."
"The very reason, madam, why I go. I don"t like being shown off."
"But you know what I mean, Tony--you can do exactly what you like--go away and smoke, or anything. And there are several new girls--pretty girls--whom you haven"t seen before."
"Pretty girls have ceased to interest me very much. I"ve seen such a lot of them."
"You are a nasty, horrid, disagreeable boy! I suppose _I_ have ceased to interest you--that"s what you"d like to say if you weren"t too polite."
"I"d cut my tongue out before I"d say such a thing."
He smiled down upon her, strong, calm, amused, indifferent, as if she were a kitten frisking. He was always interested in her, if only because he had to be always on his guard to keep her from making a fool of herself. She looked up at him, with a pout and a laugh, and proceeded to make hay while the sun shone--to make the most of the little time that Mary gave her for the enjoyment of his company.
Brother and sister departed as soon as the latter was ready, preferring the homely tram to the carriage that Mrs. Churchill desired to order for them; and spent a quiet hour together in Tony"s chambers, where Jarvis had left nothing to find fault with. There were pictures for Mrs.
Oxenham to see, and a mult.i.tude of pretty things that Tony had brought out to adorn his rooms, or as presents for his friends; and these were very interesting to a lady of modern culture, as she was, secretly proud of and confident in her discriminating artistic sense. And she much enjoyed an uninterrupted gossip with her brother, he and she having been close comrades for many years before Maude was heard of. They had a great deal to say that they didn"t care to say when she was present.
Jarvis offered tea, but it was declined. "No, thank you," said Mary.
"There"s a little place where I make a point of having tea whenever I am in town--kept by some people whom I am interested in. And it isn"t good for me to drink too much. I think, Tony, I"ll be going, as I have a commission to do for Maude."
"I"ll go with you," said Tony, "if you"ll just let me finish my pipe.
It"s the sweetest pipe I have had for a long time. After all"--with a luxurious sigh--"there"s no place like home."
"Don"t call _this_ a home," his sister retorted.
He cast a complacent eye around the handsome room, which had witnessed so many masculine symposiums. "I might go further and fare worse," he said, with a comfortable laugh. "Do you remember the man in _Punch_ who didn"t marry because he was so domesticated? I think I am like him. I love a quiet life. I like my armchair and my fireside of an evening." He puffed meditatively, while Mary drew on her gloves. "What"s your errand for Maude?" he asked abruptly.
"She wants me to tell Mrs. Earl something."
"I could have sworn it. Now, if I had a wife who thought of nothing but her clothes----"
"Who _wants_ you to have a wife who thinks of nothing but her clothes?
Do you suppose they are all Maudes? Come along, and don"t aggravate me."
He heaved himself out of his deep chair, retired to take off his smoking-jacket, and escorted her to the tram and to Collins Street.
"If you are going to be long," he said, at Mrs. Earl"s door, "I"ll look into the club for a few minutes."
"I"m not going to be a second, but don"t wait for me," she answered, "Go to your club, old fogey, but be home in good time for dinner."
However, when she had done her errand, which was only to deliver an urgent message concerning the tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of a Cup gown--to which Mrs. Earl was not likely to pay the least attention, knowing her business better than any lady could teach her--there was Tony on the pavement, still in devoted attendance.
"Where do you want to go now, Polly?" he asked, as if clubs were nothing to him.
"Oh, nowhere--except just to get my tea. Don"t wait, dear boy."
"Where do you go for your tea?"
"To a room in Little Collins Street."
"What an extraordinary place to have one"s tea in!" He signalled for a hansom. "I"ll go with you."
"Oh, no; don"t you bother. It"s not a place for men."
"I"ll take you to the door, at any rate."
He took her to the door, and the outside of the basket-maker"s premises made him curious to see the inside, and he begged to be allowed to escort her upstairs. "If only to see that you are not robbed and murdered," he said.
"No fear of that," she returned, laughing. "You go and amuse yourself at the club. This is a ladies" place."
"Men prohibited?"
"Not prohibited, but they don"t want them."
"All right. I"ll leave the cab for you."
He went to his club, and she to her tea and scones (the room was satisfactorily full, and Jenny too busy to be talked to); and they met again at Toorak in time to entertain Maude for half an hour before she had to dress.
Next day Maude was determined to have her stepson for herself--especially as there was a dark rumour that he was going to desert her the day after for the superior attractions of Jarvis and his bachelor abode; and Anthony was quite willing to gratify her.
Recognising that she would be _de trop_, Mary Oxenham chose to stay at home and amuse the children; and he and his pretty stepmother (seven years his junior) drove away after luncheon for the ostensible purpose of paying calls together.
They paid two calls, and then, being in East Melbourne, Maude proposed that they should go and have some tea.
"What!" exclaimed Tony. "Haven"t you had enough tea for one afternoon?"
"It was horribly bad tea," said she, "and I know a place where you can get it exceptionally good. I am just dying for a cup."
"Where is your place?"