"You know very well you can always do whatever you like with me." The voice deepened with emotion.
"Oh, dear me, no, I can"t."
"Why not?"
"I can"t keep you turning steadily at that crank. Here, let me show you how it ought to be done."
Tucker knew that she had come out of the kitchen. By leaning over the railing he could see the kitchen door.
He leant over.
The s.p.a.ce before the entrance was paved in large square flagstones; here an ice-cream freezer was standing, and over it bent a young man of a somewhat solid build, but with the unmistakable manner and bearing of a gentleman. He straightened himself as Jane-Ellen came out, and watched her closely as she grasped the handle of the freezer; but it seemed to the spectator above that he watched her with other emotions than the sincere wish to learn the correct manner of freezing.
Tucker looked straight down upon her, upon the part in her light brown hair, upon her round little arms, for her sleeves were rolled up above the elbow, as she said didactically:
"It ought to be a steady, even--"
But she got no further, for her pupil without a word, stooped forward and gathering her into his arms, kissed her.
IV
THERE was no doubt whatsoever in the mind of the spectator that this caress, provoked or unprovoked, was not agreeable to its recipient. The young man was large and heavy and she was minute and probably weak, but the violence of her recoil was sufficient to free her within a second.
""Her strength,"" thought Tucker, ""was as the strength of ten,"" and he hoped it was for the reason alleged by the poet.
She stood an instant looking at her visitor, and then she said, in a tone that no well-trained dog would have attempted to disobey:
"Go away. Go home, and please don"t ever come back."
Tucker was deeply moved. It is to be feared that he forgot Mrs.
Falkener, forgot his plans for his friend"s protection, forgot everything except that he had just heard himself described as a hero of romance by a girl of superlative charms; and that that girl had just been the object of the obviously unwelcome attentions of another. He recognized that the stern but sympathetic husband on the stage would instantly have come to the rescue of the weak young wife in any similar situation, and he determined on the instant to do so; but he found a slight difficulty in making up his mind as to the particular epigram with which he should enter. In fact, he could think of nothing except, "Ah, Jane-Ellen, is the ice-cream ready?" And that obviously wouldn"t do.
While, however, he hesitated above, the dialogue below rushed on, unimpeded.
"The truth is," said the young man, with the violence of one who feels himself at least partially in the wrong, "the truth is you are a cold, cruel woman who thinks of nothing but her own amus.e.m.e.nt; you don"t care anything about the sufferings of others, and in my opinion Lily is worth ten of you."
"Then why don"t you go and kiss Lily?"
"Because Lily isn"t that sort. She wouldn"t stand it."
This reply not unnaturally angered the cook.
"And do you mean to say I stand it? I can"t help it. I"m so horribly small, but if I could, I"d kill you, Randolph, and as it is, I hate you for doing it, hate you more than you have any idea."
"You know very well it"s your own fault. You tempted me."
"How could I know about your silly lack of self-control?"
"You"ve always pretended to like me."
"Just what I did--pretended. But I"ll never have to pretend again, thank heaven. I don"t really like you and I never did--not since we were children."
"You"ll be sorry for saying that, when you"re calmer."
"I may be sorry for saying it, but I"ll think it as long as I live."
"I pity the man who marries you, my girl. You"ve a bitter tongue."
"You"d marry me to-morrow, if you could."
"I would not."
"You would."
"Not if you were the last woman in the world."
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Scene from the Play_ PAUL DAINGERFIELD SUBMITS TO INSPECTION. _Act I_]
"Good night."
"Good-by."
The culprit seized his hat and rushed away through the shadows before Tucker had time to think put the dignified rebuke that he had intended.
There was a pause. He was conscious that an opportunity had slipped from him. He knew now what he ought to have said. He should have asked the young fellow--who was clearly a gentleman, far above Jane-Ellen in social position--whether that was the way he would have treated a girl in his own mother"s drawing-room, and whether he considered that less chivalry was due to a working girl than to a woman of leisure.
Though his great opportunity was gone, he decided to do whatever remained. After a short hesitation he descended a flight of steps at one end of the piazza. The kitchen opened before him, large and cavernous.
Two lamps hardly served to light it. It was red tiled; round its walls hung large, bright, copper saucepans, and on shelves of oak along its sides were rows of dark blue and white plates and dishes.
Tucker was prepared to find the cook in tears, in which case he had a perfectly definite idea as to what to do; but the disconcerting young woman was moving rapidly about the kitchen, humming to herself. She held a small but steaming saucepan in her hand, which was, as Tucker swiftly reflected, a much better weapon than the handle of an ice-cream freezer.
"Good evening, Jane-Ellen," he said graciously.
"Good evening, sir."
She did not even look in his direction, but bent witch-like over a cauldron.
"I wished to speak to you," he said, "about that little incident of this morning. You must not think that I am by nature cruel or indifferent to animals. On the contrary, I am a life member in the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to them. I love animals." And as if to prove his words, he put out his hand and gently pulled the ears of Willoughby, who was asleep in a chair. Cats" ears are extraordinarily sensitive, and Willoughby woke up and withdrew his head with a jerk.
Willoughby"s mistress, on the other hand, made no reply whatsoever; indeed it would have been impossible to be sure she had heard.
"How different she is," thought Tucker, "in the presence of a man she really respects, and recognizes as her superior. All the levity and coquetry disappear from her bearing."
"I was truly sorry," he went on, drawing nearer and nearer to the range, "to have been the occasion--"