"And I should think "e misses you," retorted Mrs. Kybird, unable to restrain herself; ""e must miss your conversation and what I might call your liveliness."
Mrs. Kingdom turned and regarded her, and the red stole back to her cheeks again. She smoothed down her dress and her hands trembled. Both ladies were now regarding each other in a fashion which caused serious apprehension to the rest of the company.
"I am not a great talker, but I am very careful whom I converse with," said Mrs. Kingdom, in her most stately manner.
"I knew a lady like that once," said Mrs. Kybird; "leastways, she wasn"t a lady," she added, meditatively.
Mrs. Kingdom fidgeted, and looked over piteously at her niece; Mrs. Kybird, with a satisfied sniff, sat bolt upright and meditated further a.s.saults. There were at least a score of things she could have said about her adversary"s cap alone: plain, straightforward remarks which would have torn it to shreds. The cap fascinated her, and her fingers itched as she gazed at it. In more congenial surroundings she might have s.n.a.t.c.hed at it, but, being a woman of strong character, she suppressed her natural instincts, and confined herself to more polite methods of attack.
"Your nephew don"t seem to be in no hurry," she remarked, at length; "but, there, direckly "e gets along o" my daughter "e forgits everything and everybody."
"I really don"t think he is coming," said Hardy, moved to speech by the glances of Miss Nugent.
"I shall give him a little longer," said Mrs. Kybird. "I only came "ere to please "im, and to get "ome alone is more than I can do."
Miss Nugent looked at Mr. Hardy, and her eyes were soft and expressive. As plainly as eyes could speak they asked him to take Mrs. Kybird home, lest worse things should happen.
"Would it be far out of your way?" she asked, in a low voice.
"Quite the opposite direction," returned Mr. Hardy, firmly.
"How I got "ere I don"t know," said Mrs. Kybird, addressing the room in general; "it"s a wonder to me. Well, once is enough in a lifetime."
"Mr. Hardy," said Kate Nugent, again, in a low voice, "I should be so much obliged if you would take Mrs. Kybird away. She seems bent on quarrelling with my aunt. It is very awkward."
It was difficult to resist the entreaty, but Mr. Hardy had a very fair idea of the duration of Miss Nugent"s grat.i.tude; and, besides that, Murchison was only too plainly enjoying his discomfiture.
"She can get home alone all right," he whispered.
Miss Nugent drew herself up disdainfully; Dr. Murchison, looking scandalized at his brusqueness, hastened to the rescue.
"As a medical man," he said, with a considerable appearance of gravity, "I don"t think that Mrs. Kybird ought to go home alone."
"Think not?" inquired Hardy, grimly.
"Certain of it," breathed the doctor.
"Well, why don"t you take her?" retorted Hardy; "it"s all on your way. I have some news for Miss Nugent."
Miss Nugent looked from one to the other, and mischievous lights appeared in her eyes as she gazed at the carefully groomed and fastidious Murchison. From them she looked to the other side of the room, where Mrs. Kybird was stolidly eyeing Mrs. Kingdom, who was trying in vain to appear ignorant of the fact.
"Thank you very much," said Miss Nugent, turning to the doctor.
"I"m sorry," began Murchison, with an indignant glance at his rival.
"Oh, as you please," said the girl, coldly. "Pray forgive me for asking you."
"If you really wish it," said the doctor, rising. Miss Nugent smiled upon him, and Hardy also gave him a smile of kindly encouragement, but this he ignored. He crossed the room and bade Mrs. Kingdom good-bye; and then in a few disjointed words asked Mrs. Kybird whether he could be of any a.s.sistance in seeing her home.
"I"m sure I"m much obliged to you," said that lady, as she rose. "It don"t seem much use for me waiting for my future son-in-law. I wish you good afternoon, ma"am. I can understand now why Jack didn"t come."
With this parting shot she quitted the room and, leaning on the doctor"s arm, sailed majestically down the path to the gate, every feather on her hat trembling in response to the excitement below.
"Good-natured of him," said Hardy, glancing from the window, with a triumphant smile.
"Very," said Miss Nugent, coldly, as she took a seat by her aunt. "What is the news to which you referred just now? Is it about my father?"
CHAPTER XVI
The two ladies received Mr. Hardy"s information with something akin to consternation, the idea of the autocrat of Equator Lodge as a stowaway on board the ship of his ancient enemy proving too serious for ordinary comment. Mrs. Kingdom"s usual expressions of surprise, "Well, I never did!" and "Good gracious alive!" died on her lips, and she sat gazing helpless and round-eyed at her niece.
"I wonder what he said," she gasped, at last.
Miss Nugent, who was trying to imagine her father in his new role aboard the Conqueror, paid no heed. It was not a pleasant idea, and her eyes flashed with temper as she thought of it. Sooner or later the whole affair would be public property.
"I had an idea all along that he wasn"t in London," murmured Mrs. Kingdom. "Fancy that Nathan Smith standing in Sam"s room telling us falsehoods like that! He never even blushed."
"But you said that you kept picturing father walking about the streets of London, wrestling with his pride and trying to make up his mind to come home again," said her niece, maliciously.
Mrs. Kingdom fidgeted, but before she could think of a satisfactory reply Bella came to the door and asked to speak to her for a moment. Profiting by her absence, Mr. Hardy leaned towards Miss Nugent, and in a low voice expressed his sorrow at the mishap to her father and his firm conviction that everything that could be thought of for that unfortunate mariner"s comfort would be done. "Our fathers will probably come back good friends," he concluded. "There is nothing would give me more pleasure than that, and I think that we had better begin and set them a good example."
"It is no good setting an example to people who are hundreds of miles away," said the matter-of-fact Miss Nugent. "Besides, if they have made friends, they don"t want an example set them."
"But in that case they have set us an example which we ought to follow," urged Hardy.
Miss Nugent raised her eyes to his. "Why do you wish to be on friendly terms?" she asked, with disconcerting composure.
"I should like to know your father," returned Hardy, with perfect gravity; "and Mrs. Kingdom--and you."
He eyed her steadily as he spoke, and Miss Nugent, despite her utmost efforts, realized with some indignation that a faint tinge of colour was creeping into her cheeks. She remembered his covert challenge at their last interview at Mr. Wilks"s, and the necessity of reading this persistent young man a stern lesson came to her with all the force of a public duty.
"Why?" she inquired, softly, as she lowered her eyes and a.s.sumed a pensive expression.
"I admire him, for one thing, as a fine seaman," said Hardy.
"Yes," said Miss Nugent, "and--"
"And I"ve always had a great liking for Mrs. Kingdom," he continued; "she was very good-natured to me when I was a very small boy, I remember. She is very kind and amiable."
The baffled Miss Nugent stole a glance at him. "And--" she said again, very softly.
"And very motherly," said Hardy, without moving a muscle.
Miss Nugent pondered and stole another glance at him. The expression of his face was ingenuous, not to say simple. She resolved to risk it. So far he had always won in their brief encounters, and monotony was always distasteful to her, especially monotony of that kind.
"And what about me?" she said, with a friendly smile.