"Mrs. Hilary," I began, "is an exceedingly attractive--"
Dolly rose with a sigh.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"More pots," said Dolly, standing opposite me. "I must go on, you see."
"Till when, Lady Mickleham?"
"Till you tell the truth," said Dolly, and she suddenly burst into a little laugh.
"Woman--woman--woman!" said I again. "Let"s go in to lunch."
"I"m going to carry the pots," said Dolly. "It"s awfully hot, Mr.
Carter--and look at my poor hands!"
She held them out to me.
"Lunch!" said I.
"Pots!" said Dolly, with infinite firmness.
The window of the dining room opened and Archie put his head out.
"Come along, you two," he called. "Everything"s getting cold."
Dolly turned an appealing glance on me.
"How obstinate you are!" she said. "You know perfectly well--"
I began to walk towards the house.
"I"m going in to lunch," said I.
"Ask them to keep some for me," said Dolly, and she turned up the sleeves of her gown, till her wrists were free.
"It"s most unfair," said I indignantly.
"I don"t care if it is," said Dolly, stooping down to lift a pot.
I watched her strain to lift it. She had chosen the largest and heaviest; she sighed delicately and delicately she panted. She also looked at her hands, and held them up for me to see the lines of brown on the pink. I put my hands in my pockets and said most sulkily, as I turned away towards the house:
"All right. It wasn"t Mrs. Hilary then."
Dolly rose up, seized me by the arm, and made me run to the house.
"Mr. Carter," she cried, "would stop for those wretched pots. He"s moved all except two, but he"s broken three. Isn"t he stupid?"
"You are an old a.s.s, Carter," said Archie.
"I believe you"re right, Archie," said I.
ONE WAY IN
I had a very curious dream the other night. In fact, I dreamt that I was dead. I pa.s.sed through a green baize door and found myself in a small square room. Opposite me was another door inscribed "Elysian Fields,"
and in front of it, at a large table with a raised ledge, sat Rhadamanthus. As I entered I saw a graceful figure vanish through the door opposite.
"It"s no use trying to deceive me," I observed. "That was Mrs. Hilary, I think; if you don"t mind, I"ll join her."
"I"m afraid I must trouble you to take a seat for a few moments, Mr.
Carter," said Rhadamanthus, "while I run over your little account."
"Any formalities which are usual," I murmured politely, as I sat down.
Rhadamanthus turned over the leaves of a large book.
"Carter--Samuel Travers, isn"t it?" he asked.
"Yes. For goodness sake don"t confuse me with Vincent Carter. He only paid five shillings in the pound."
"Your case presents some peculiar features, Mr. Carter," said Rhadamanthus. "I hope I am not censorious, but--well, that fine at Bowstreet?"
"I was a mere boy," said I, with some warmth, "and my solicitor grossly mismanaged the case.."
"Well, well!" said he soothingly. "But haven"t you spent a great deal of time at Monte Carlo?"
"A man must be somewhere," said I.
Rhadamanthus scratched his nose.
"I should have wasted the money anyhow," I added.
"I suppose you would," he conceded. "But what of this caveat lodged by the Dowager Lady Mickleham? That"s rather serious, you know; isn"t it now--joking apart?"
"I am disappointed," I remarked, "to find a man of your experience paying any attention to such an ill-natured old woman."
"We have our rules," he replied, "and I"m afraid, Mr. Carter, that until that caveat is removed--"
"You don"t mean that?"
"Really, I"m afraid so."
"Then I may as well go back," said I, taking my hat.
At this moment there was a knock at the door.