"May I go with you----"
"That sounds," cried Bridget gaily, "like the beginning of a nursery rhyme."
"There never was a prettier maid," he answered, walking by her side.
"I suppose you know a great many," she suggested.
"They are all cast into oblivion----"
"Is it your experience," said Bridget, turning to look into his face, "that they appreciate this--this sort of thing?"
"Don"t you?" asked Jimmy.
"I rather prefer being spoken to as if I were a reasonable being!"
"I was hoping you were not one," he said. "The spring is too intoxicating. Everything," he continued, as they turned with one consent from Knightsbridge into the park, "seems unaccustomed, fresh, young, and you the most of all. Hang being reasonable! Suggest something mad and let us do it together. But," he cried, abruptly changing his tone, "what should you like me to talk about?"
"I suppose your favourite topic is yourself," she said. "Tell me what you do--if ever you do anything."
"I don"t," he replied. "I am what is called a spoilt child of fortune."
"You like being spoilt?"
"It depends on the spoiler. Sometimes I hate it."
"Why?" asked Bridget.
"Oh well," he said, as they walked by the side of Rotten Row, and Jimmy occasionally lifted his straw hat to some pa.s.ser-by who did not fail to stare at his companion, "if we have to be serious, one has moments of inspiration and pines for better things."
"Aren"t they within your reach?"
"Your most ardent socialist," said Jimmy, "won"t dream of pooling his money till the millennium. What would be the use of my setting to work and cutting out some poor devil who wants it?"
"Mightn"t you go into parliament?" suggested Bridget.
"Original minds there are at a discount."
"Is your mind original?"
"An independent member is certain to be shunted at the first opportunity," said Jimmy. "They want men who think in droves."
"There"s the army," returned Bridget. "At least you might learn how to defend your country."
"Yes, I have done that," he said, as they reached Hyde Park Corner. "I used to be in the --th Hussars. Unfortunately, I got a rather bad sunstroke in India. That may account for any small eccentricity you notice."
"I was wondering," answered Bridget.
"As I had to come home," he explained, "and to keep quiet for I don"t know how long, I sold out. Since then I"ve raised a troop of yeomanry at Atlinghurst. I have a place there, you know."
"Surely you might find a useful occupation in its management!"
"I did," said Jimmy, "until it was taken away."
"How?" asked Bridget.
"Simply because of one of the prettiest girls you have ever seen," he answered, bringing Bridget"s eyes again to his face.
"I understand," she murmured.
"I"m certain you don"t," he said, with a laugh. "Erica Danvers. She got herself engaged to a man who used to be at Trinity with me. The misfortune was that he had six brothers older than himself. Well, Erica came to me one day and declared she had hit on a capital plan.
Why shouldn"t I make Bolsover my steward, pay him a living wage, and all the rest of it. He and Erica have twins," added Jimmy.
Bridget walked a few yards along Piccadilly in silence.
"You have been extraordinarily unfortunate," she said rather gravely, "although you ought to be pitied rather than blamed."
"Not since I met you the other afternoon. Do you see much of old Faversham?" he asked, for the colonel"s admiration had been manifest at Grandison Square.
"He has always been very kind to me," she faltered.
"Surely you meet with kindness everywhere," said Jimmy.
"Except from Fate!" answered Bridget, with a sigh.
"Wait and see!" he exclaimed. "The better part of life is before you."
"Are you by way of telling my fortune?" asked Bridget.
"I hope to be allowed to influence it," said Jimmy, as she stopped at the corner of Dover Street. "You will let me come and see you," he urged, taking her hand.
"You said your sister was coming!" Bridget reminded him.
"Yes," he said.
"You must ask her to bring you."
CHAPTER XIV
THE WOOING O"T
Jimmy Clynesworth now began to employ all his arts to induce Sybil to take some notice of Bridget. His eagerness, however, stood in his way.
The more forcibly he attempted to convince his sister of his desire, the more obstinately she maintained her ground. Her hand was strengthened by a visit to Charteris Street, where Victor often attracted her, although some gla.s.s beads on her jacket made the child regard her as an enemy.
After Phoebe had voiced her husband"s opinion of Miss Rosser, Lawrence himself came home in time to dot the i"s and cross the t"s. Sybil left the house with the opinion that poor Jimmy stood in the acutest danger.
It seemed evident that she had scarcely exaggerated when she declared, in the first place, that Bridget was not "respectable"!