"Sit down, colonel," he urged. "You will have to give old Mark a turn before you"ve done."
"I have not troubled a doctor for the last ten years," said Colonel Faversham.
"Oh, Mark wouldn"t mind the trouble," cried Jimmy, and then he began to say "good-bye."
Never until this afternoon had Colonel Faversham seen Bridget in a room with any one outside his own family. While on the one hand he rejoiced to observe the ease of her manner, it dawned upon him that she was not likely to be contented to shut herself off from all the world but himself. Departing from his custom, he went to Golfney Place after dinner that evening, and, flinging himself recklessly into a chair, began to rail against Mrs. Reynolds.
"I hate a woman with a long tongue!" he exclaimed. "Talk, talk, talk!
She would argue with the Recording Angel! I positively saw nothing of you this afternoon. No time for a sensible word."
"Still, I have managed to survive, you see," said Bridget, "and Mr.
Clynesworth is lovely!"
"So is a python from one point of view!" was the answer.
"Oh, what a far-fetched comparison!" she said, and leaned back, laughing, in her chair.
"Not at all," cried Colonel Faversham. "You"ll generally find there"s something in what I say. You can"t be too careful of a man like Jimmy Clynesworth. For my part, I very seldom know what he is talking about; I question whether he knows himself. I am a plain, straightforward man--but there! I didn"t come to talk about Jimmy."
"I thought you did," said Bridget.
"No, no," he replied; "I want you to fix the day for our marriage.
Upon my word, I don"t feel quite certain that frankness isn"t the best in the long run--far the best."
The effect of this expression of opinion surprised Colonel Faversham.
He had never seen Bridget so greatly excited. She started to her feet, and flushed almost as deeply as Carrissima.
"If you mean," she exclaimed, "that you have changed your mind, I have not changed mine. After all your wonderful arguments! Please understand, you are not to breathe a word to anybody, and to talk of our marriage before we have been engaged a week is really too ridiculous for anything."
Although Colonel Faversham left Golfney Place in a condition of intense dissatisfaction however, his sensations might have proved even more unenviable if he could have heard what Jimmy Clynesworth said to Sybil the same afternoon.
CHAPTER XIII
A WALK ABROAD
"Sybil," said Jimmy, "at last I"ve seen her!"
"And did she say she would come to-morrow?" asked his sister.
"Oh well, of course you must go there in the first place," he answered.
"Jimmy, what do you mean?" said Sybil, with an expression of bewilderment. "It is not in the least like Carrissima to be so ceremonious----"
"Who was talking about Carrissima?" cried Jimmy.
"I naturally thought you were."
"Not a bit of it," said Jimmy. "Bridget--Miss Rosser!"
"Rosser--Rosser," murmured Sybil, taxing her memory. "I fancy there used to be some people named Rosser at Crowborough when I stayed with Colonel Faversham so many years ago."
"You must go and see her to-morrow," urged Jimmy. "The address is Number 5, Golfney Place. There"s the woman I should like to marry,"
added Jimmy, causing Sybil to jump out of her chair.
She pleaded tentatively, however, that she could not go the following afternoon, for the simple reason that she expected a visit from Carrissima, whose arrival she now eagerly awaited.
"My dear," she said, pecking at her visitor"s cheeks, as she clung to her hand, "I"ve been positively longing to see you. How very well you are looking! Now pray sit down and tell me all about this Miss Rosser."
"So Jimmy has already been singing her praises," suggested Carrissima.
"Oh dear, he simply took my breath away," said Sybil. "You would never believe it! He actually told me he should like to marry her! Did ever you hear such a thing?"
"He never loved who loved not at first sight," cried Carrissima, with a laugh.
"Of course, my dear, Jimmy was only joking," said Sybil.
"I scarcely imagined he had made up his mind so rapidly," answered Carrissima, "although Bridget is obviously quite irresistible. What an admirable solution! How I wish it might come to pa.s.s!"
"Oh, but, Carrissima!"
"It"s no use," she said. "Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and if she doesn"t marry Jimmy she will very likely marry my father."
"Carrissima!" cried Sybil in the tone of one severely shocked.
"I am perfectly serious," was the reply.
"But a man of the colonel"s age! And what a horrid--horrid person she must be!"
"Oh dear, no," said Carrissima. "You will see what she is. If only Jimmy effects a diversion I shall feel grateful as long as I live."
The net result of the interview with Carrissima was that Sybil did an extremely unusual thing. Although Jimmy strongly urged her to go to Golfney Place, she positively refused to gratify him.
"Jimmy, I am very, very sorry," she insisted, "but I couldn"t possibly go. Miss Rosser really doesn"t seem to be quite respectable."
"That generally signifies something rather piquant, you know," said Jimmy in his equable way. "Just think of the things and the people we do respect--in your delightful sense. If we could only see through their skins; though of course they"re far too thick. Anyhow, if you won"t go now, you will later on, and meantime," he added, "you throw me on my own resources."
The consequence of Sybil"s refusal was that Jimmy pa.s.sed the end of Golfney Place several times a day and presently met with a reward. It was about half-past eleven one sunny morning that he saw Bridget come forth from her door, and without a glance in his direction, turn towards the further end of the street. Quickening his pace, he at once set out in pursuit. Walking behind her, he saw the light on her chestnut-coloured hair, saw that she knew (rare accomplishment) how to walk, and a few moments later, still a foot or two in the rear, he exclaimed--
"Good-morning, Miss Rosser."
"Oh, good-morning, Mr. Clynesworth," she answered, without stopping.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"To my dressmaker"s in Dover Street!"