I a.s.sured her that it was no trouble.
We duly reached the orchard, where Miss Damer ate three green apples and presented me with a fourth, which, fearing a fifth, I consumed as slowly as possible, hoping for the sake of our first parents that Eve"s historic indiscretion took place in late September and not early August.
Presently we came to a red-brick wall with a south aspect, upon which the noonday sun beat warmly. High up upon its face grew plums, fat, ripe, and yellow.
Miss Damer threw away the core of an apple and turned to me.
"I should like a plum," she said, with a seraphic smile.
The wall was fifteen feet high, and the plums grew near the top.
"I will find a ladder," I replied obediently.
"That would be bothering you too much," said the considerate Miss Damer.
"Can"t you put your foot in that root and pull yourself up by the branches?"
The branches, be it said, were gnarled and fragile, and lay flat against the wall.
"I think the ladder would be better," I repeated. "My weight might pull the whole thing away from the wall, and then we should have a few observations from Lady Adela."
"You are right; that would never do," replied my right-minded companion gravely. "But I don"t know where they keep the ladder, and in any case it would probably be locked up. What a pity I have this white skirt on!"
She turned away. A low tremulous sigh escaped her.
Next moment, feeling utterly and despicably weak-minded, I found myself ascending the wall, much as a blue-bottle ascends a window-pane. Miss Damer stood below with clasped hands.
"Do be careful, Mr. Carmyle," she besought me. "You might hurt yourself very seriously if you fell. I will have that big one, please, just above your head."
I secured the object indicated and threw it down to her. She caught it deftly.
"There is another one on your left," continued Eve. "Can you reach it?"
I could, and did.
"I will keep this one for you, Mr. Carmyle," said my thoughtful companion as she caught it. "I think I will have one more. There is a perfectly lovely one there, out to your right. You can just get it if you stretch. Throw it down."
The plum in question was a monster, and looked ripe to the moment. I straddled myself athwart the plum tree, much in the att.i.tude of a man who is about to receive five hundred lashes, and reached far out to the right.
"Another two inches will do it," called out Miss Damer encouragingly.
She was right. I strained two inches further, and my fingers closed upon the fruit. Simultaneously the greater part of the plum tree abandoned its adherence to the wall, and in due course,--about four-fifths of a second, I should say,--I found myself lying on my back in a gooseberry-bush, clasping to my bosom the greater part of a valuable fruit tree, dimly conscious, from glimpses through the interstices of my leafy bower, of the presence of a towering and majestic figure upon the gravel walk beside Miss Damer.
It was Lady Adela Mainwaring, my hostess, armed _cap-a-pie_ in gauntlets, green baize ap.r.o.n, and garden hat, for a murderous morning among the slugs.
I struggled to a sitting position, slightly dazed, and not a little apprehensive lest I should be mistaken for a slug.
Neither Miss Damer nor my hostess uttered a word, Lady Adela because her high breeding and immense self-control restrained her; Miss Damer, I shrewdly suspect, because she was engaged in bolting the last evidence of her complicity. But both ladies were regarding me with an expression of pained reproach.
I shook myself free from my arboreal surroundings, and smiled weakly.
"Have you hurt yourself, Mr. Carmyle?" enquired Lady Adela.
"No, thank you," I replied, wondering if I would have received a lighter sentence if I had said yes.
"If you should desire to eat fruit at any time," continued Lady Adela in a gentle voice, much as one might address an imbecile subject to sudden attacks of eccentric mania, "one of the gardeners will always be glad to get it for you. You had better go in now and dress, as we start for the races in half an hour. Constance, dearest, run and find Puttick, and ask him if anything can be done for this tree."
Miss Damer tripped obediently away in search of the head-gardener, and Lady Adela led me kindly but firmly past the gooseberry-bushes and other sources of temptation to the house.
I did not see Miss Damer again until I met her with the others in the hall half an hour later.
She projected a sad smile upon me through her motor-veil, and shook her head.
"I hope you did n"t hurt yourself," she said softly.
"I hope the last plumstone did n"t choke you!" I replied sternly.
At this moment Lady Adela joined the party, and p.r.o.nounced sentence as recorded at the beginning of this chapter. The other five accordingly descended the steps and began to pack themselves into the motor.
"May I drive, d.i.c.ky?" enquired Miss Damer.
No one ever thought of refusing Miss Damer anything. Her request was evidently the merest matter of form, for she was at the wheel almost as soon as she made it. Even Lady Adela merely smiled indulgently.
"Constance, _dear child_!" she murmured.
d.i.c.ky carefully packed his _fiancee_ into the back seat, where his sister had already taken her place.
"You had better sit between us, I think," said Miss Beverley.
"I am going to sit in front," said d.i.c.ky, "in case Connie does anything specially crack-brained with the car. Crick, old friend, just separate these two fair ladies, will you?"
Mr. Crick obeyed with alacrity. The Freak, heedless of a tiny cloud upon Miss Beverley"s usually serene brow, stepped up beside Miss Damer.
That lady released her clutch-pedal, and the car, spurting up gravel with its back wheels, shot convulsively forward and then began to crawl heavily on its way.
"We"ll put something on for you if you aren"t in time for the first race, Bill," called The Freak to me. "What do you want to back?"
I inflated my lungs, and replied _fortissimo_:--
"Plumstone!"
Miss Damer"s small foot came heavily down upon the accelerator, and the car whizzed down the drive.
CHAPTER VII
UNEARNED INCREMENT