"Quite so," I answered, "quite so. Pray do not mention the matter any more, although-" These words seemed to jerk themselves out of my throat, "you did call each other by such very hard names."
"I daresay," he answered with a vacant smile, "but if so they meant nothing."
"No, I understand, just like a lovers" quarrel. But look here, you left some diamonds on the table which I took to keep the Kaffirs out of temptation. I will fetch them."
"Did I? Well, probably I left some I.O.U."s also which might serve for pipelights. So suppose we set the one against the other. I don"t know the value of either the diamonds or the pipelights, it may be less or more, but for G.o.d"s sake don"t let me see the beastly things again. There"s no need, I have plenty."
"I must speak to Ans...o...b..," I answered. "The money at stake was his, not mine."
"Speak to whom you will," he replied, and I noted that the throbbing vein upon his forehead indicated a rising temper. "But never let me see those diamonds again. Throw them into the gutter if you wish, but never let me see them again, or there will be trouble."
Then he flung out of the room, leaving his breakfast almost untasted.
Reflecting that this queer old bird probably did not wish to be cross-questioned as to his possession of so many uncut diamonds, or that they were worth much less than the sum he had lost, or possibly that they were not diamonds at all but gla.s.s, I went to report the matter to Ans...o...b... He only laughed and said that as I had got the things I had better keep them until something happened, for we had both got it into our heads that something would happen before we had done with that establishment.
So I went to put the stones away as safely as I could. While I was doing so I heard the rumble of wheels, and came out just in time to see a Cape cart, drawn by four very good horses and driven by a Hottentot in a smart hat and a red waistband, pull up at the garden gate. Out of this cart presently emerged a neatly dressed lady, of whom all I could see was that she was young, slender and rather tall; also, as her back was towards me, that she had a great deal of auburn hair.
"There!" said Ans...o...b... "I knew that something would happen. Heda has happened. Quatermain, as neither her venerated parent nor her loving fiance, for such I gather he is, seems to be about, you had better go and give her a hand."
I obeyed with a groan, heartily wishing that Heda hadn"t happened, since some sense warned me that she would only add to the present complications. At the gate, having given some instructions to a very stout young coloured woman who, I took it, was her maid, about a basket of flower roots in the cart, she turned round suddenly and we came face to face with the gate between us. For a moment we stared at each other, I reflecting that she really was very pretty with her delicately-shaped features, her fresh, healthy-looking complexion, her long dark eyelashes and her lithe and charming figure. What she reflected about me I don"t know, probably nothing half so complimentary. Suddenly, however, her large greyish eyes grew troubled and a look of alarm appeared upon her face.
"Is anything wrong with my father?" she asked. "I don"t see him."
"If you mean Mr. Marnham," I replied, lifting my hat, "I believe that Dr. Rodd and he-"
"Never mind about Dr. Rodd," she broke in with a contemptuous little jerk of her chin, "how is my father?"
"I imagine much as usual. He and Dr. Rodd were here a little while ago, I suppose that they have gone out" (as a matter of fact they had, but in different directions).
"Then that"s all right," she said with a sigh of relief. "You see, I heard that he was very ill, which is why I have come back."
So, thought I to myself, she loves that old scamp and she-doesn"t love the doctor. There will be more trouble as sure as five and two are seven. All we wanted was a woman to make the pot boil over.
Then I opened the gate and took a travelling bag from her hand with my politest bow.
"My name is Quatermain and that of my friend Ans...o...b... We are staying here, you know," I said rather awkwardly.
"Indeed," she answered with a delightful smile, "what a very strange place to choose to stay in."
"It is a beautiful house," I remarked.
"Not bad, although I designed it, more or less. But I was alluding to its inhabitants."
This finished me, and I am sure she felt that I could think of nothing nice to say about those inhabitants, for I heard her sigh. We walked side by side up the rose-fringed path and presently arrived at the stoep, where Ans...o...b.., whose hair I had cut very nicely on the previous day, was watching us from his long chair. They looked at each other, and I saw both of them colour a little, out of mere foolishness, I suppose.
"Ans...o...b..," I said, "this is-" and I paused, not being quite certain whether she also was called Marnham. "Heda Marnham," she interrupted.
"Yes-Miss Heda Marnham, and this is the Honourable Maurice Ans...o...b..."
"Forgive me for not rising, Miss Marnham," said Ans...o...b.. in his pleasant voice (by the way hers was pleasant too, full and rather low, with just a suggestion of something foreign about it). "A shot through the foot prevents me at present."
"Who shot you?" she asked quickly.
"Oh! only a Kaffir."
"I am so sorry, I hope you will get well soon. Forgive me now, I must go to look for my father."
"She is uncommonly pretty," remarked Ans...o...b.., "and a lady into the bargain. In reflecting on old Marnham"s sins we must put it to his credit that he has produced a charming daughter."
"Too pretty and charming by half," I grunted.
"Perhaps Dr. Rodd is of the same way of thinking. Great shame that such a girl should be handed over to a medical scoundrel like Dr. Rodd. I wonder if she cares for him?"
"Just about as much as a canary cares for a tom-cat. I have found that out already."
"Really, Quatermain, you are admirable. I never knew anyone who could make a better use of the briefest opportunity."
Then we were silent, waiting, not without a certain impatience, for the return of Miss Heda. She did return with surprising quickness considering that she had found time to search for her parent, to change into a clean white dress, and to pin a single hibiscus flower on to her bodice which gave just the touch of colour that was necessary to complete her costume.
"I can"t find my father," she said, "but the boys say he has gone out riding. I can"t find anybody. When you have been summoned from a long way off and travelled post-haste, rather to your own inconvenience, it is amusing, isn"t it?"
"Wagons and carts in South Africa don"t arrive like express trains, Miss Marnham," said Ans...o...b.., "so you shouldn"t be offended."
"I am not at all offended, Mr. Ans...o...b... Now that I know there is nothing the matter with my father I"m-But, tell me, how did you get your wound?"
So he told her with much amusing detail after his fashion. She listened quietly with a puckered up brow and only made one comment. It was,-
"I wonder what white man told those Sekukuni Kaffirs that you were coming."
"I don"t know," he answered, "but he deserves a bullet through him somewhere above the ankle."
"Yes, though few people get what they deserve in this wicked world."
"So I have often thought. Had it been otherwise, for example, I should have been-"
"What would you have been?" she asked, considering him curiously.
"Oh! a better shot than Mr. Allan Quatermain, and as beautiful as a lady I once saw in my youth."
"Don"t talk rubbish before luncheon," I remarked sternly, and we all laughed, the first wholesome laughter that I had heard at the Temple. For this young lady seemed to bring happiness and merriment with her. I remember wondering what it was of which her coming reminded me, and concluding that it was like the sight and smell of a peach orchard in full bloom stumbled on suddenly in the black desert of the burnt winter veld.
After this we became quite friendly. She dilated on her skill in having produced the Temple from an old engraving, which she fetched and showed to us, at no greater an expense than it would have cost to build an ordinary house.
"That is because the marble was at hand," said Ans...o...b...
"Quite so," she replied demurely. "Speaking in a general sense one can do many things in life-if the marble is at hand. Only most of us when we look for marble find sandstone or mud."
"Bravo!" said Ans...o...b.., "I have generally lit upon the sandstone."