"Well, I"ve got rather nice legs, and--Oh! but I"m sure he doesn"t. We had fillets of sole done up in a most wonderful way the other day, and he asked if it was cod. He"s got cod on the brain, poor dear." With a sigh she turned once more to regard herself in the looking-gla.s.s. "If he could see me in this hat, it would be all "u.p." with Honest John;"
and she laughed wickedly as she caught her mother"s eye.
"I wish you wouldn"t use such expressions," protested Mrs. West gently, "and--and----" She stopped and looked appealingly at her daughter.
"I know I"m a horrid little beast," she cried, turning quickly, "and I say outrageous things, don"t I?" Then with a sudden change of mood she added: "But why shouldn"t a girl be pleased because she"s got nice legs, mother?"
"It"s not nice for a young girl to talk about legs," said Mrs. West a little primly, making the slightest possible pause before the last words.
"But why, mother?" persisted Dorothy.
"It"s--it"s not quite nice."
"Well, mine are, anyway," said Dorothy with a little grimace. "Now we must be off."
Mrs. West merely sighed, the sigh of one who fails to understand.
"Mother dear," said Dorothy, observing the sigh, "if I didn"t laugh I"m afraid I should cry." All the brightness had left her as she looked down at her mother. "I wonder why it is?" she added musingly.
To Mrs. West, Sat.u.r.day afternoons were the oases in her desert of loneliness. During the long and solitary days of the week, she looked forward with the eagerness of a child to the excursions Dorothy never failed to plan for her entertainment. If it were dull or wet, there would be a matinee or the pictures; if fine they would go to Kew, Richmond, or the Zoo. It was an understood thing that Mrs. West should know nothing about the arrangement until the actual day itself.
"I think," remarked Dorothy, as they walked across Kew Bridge, "that I must be looking rather nice to-day. That"s the third man who has given me the glad-eye since----"
"Oh, Dorothy! I wish you wouldn"t say such dreadful things," protested Mrs. West in genuine distress.
Slipping her arm through her mother"s, the girl squeezed it to her side.
"I know I"m an outrageous little beast," she said, "but I love shocking you, you dear, funny little mother, and--and you know I love you, don"t you?"
"But suppose anyone heard you, dear, what would they think?" There was genuine concern in Mrs. West"s voice.
"Oh, I"m dreadfully respectable with other people. I never talk to John Dene about legs or glad-eyes, really." Her eyes were dancing with mischief as she looked down at her mother. "Now I"ll promise to be good for the rest of the day; but how can a girl say prunes and prisms with a mouth like mine. It"s too wide for that, and then there are those funny little cuts at the corners; they are what make me wicked,"
she announced with a wise little nod.
Mrs. West sighed once more; she had learned that it was useless to protest when her daughter was in her present mood.
They entered the Gardens, and for an hour walked about absorbing their atmosphere of peace and warmth, sunlight and shadow and the song of birds; the war seemed very far away.
Presently they seated themselves by the broad walk leading to the large tropical greenhouse, and gazed idly at the stream of pa.s.sers-by.
"I wish I were a girl bird," said Dorothy dreamily, as she listened to the outpourings of a blackbird fluting from a neighbouring tree.
Mrs. West smiled. She was very happy.
"It would be lovely to be made love to like that," continued Dorothy, "so much nicer than---- Mother, darling, look!" she broke off suddenly, clutching Mrs. West"s arm. "There"s John Dene."
Following the direction of her daughter"s eyes, Mrs. West saw a rather thick-set man with hunched-up shoulders, looking straight in front of him, a cigar gripped aggressively between his teeth. He was walking in the direction that would bring him within a few feet of the seat on which they sat.
"He"ll never see us," whispered Dorothy excitedly. "He never sees anything, not even a joke. Oh! I wish he would," she added. "I should so like you to meet him."
Mrs. West did not speak; she was gazing with interest at the approaching figure.
"Mother dear, do you think you could faint?" Dorothy"s eyes were shining with excitement.
"Faint!" echoed Mrs. West.
"Yes, then I could call for help and John Dene would come, and you would get to know him. I"m sure he"ll never see us."
"Hush, dear, he might hear what you are saying," said Mrs. West.
When John Dene was within a few feet of them, Dorothy"s sunshade fell forward, seeming to bring him back with a start to his surroundings.
Instinctively he stepped forward, picked up the sunshade and lifting his hat handed it to Dorothy. For a moment there was a puzzled expression in his eyes, followed instantly by one of recognition; and then John Dene smiled, and Mrs. West liked him.
"You see, I found my way," he said to Dorothy when she had introduced him to her mother, and for some reason she blushed.
"We often come here," said Dorothy lamely, conscious that her mother"s eyes were upon her.
"It"s fine. I"ve just been looking around," he remarked, as he took a seat beside Mrs. West. "We haven"t anything like this in Can"da," he added generously.
"I suppose you have parks, though," said Mrs. West conversationally.
"Sure," he replied; "but this is way beyond anything we"ve got."
"You don"t think it wants gingering-up then, Mr. Dene," asked Dorothy demurely.
"Dorothy!" expostulated Mrs. West in shocked tones; but John Dene merely looked at her, at first without understanding and then, seeing the point of her remark, he smiled right into her eyes, and again Dorothy blushed and dropped her eyes.
"You see," he said, turning to Mrs. West, "we"re a new country and it doesn"t matter a bean to us how a thing was done yesterday, if some one comes along and tells us how we can do it better to-morrow, and we don"t mind its getting known. That"s what she meant," he added, nodding in Dorothy"s direction.
"You must all feel delightfully free," murmured Mrs. West tactfully.
"Free," echoed John Dene in a tone of voice that seemed to suggest that in no place of the world was freedom so well understood as in the Dominion. "In Can"da we"re just about as free as drinks at an election."
Dorothy giggled; but John Dene seemed to see nothing strange in the simile.
"You see, mother, Mr. Dene thinks we"re all hopelessly old-fashioned,"
said Dorothy with a mischievous side-glance at John Dene; then, as he made no response, she added, "Mr. Dene can do three or four different things at the same time and--and----"
She broke off and began to poke holes in the gravel with the point of her sunshade.
"And what?" he demanded peremptorily.
"Well, we"re not all so clever," she concluded, angry to feel herself flushing again. "Oh----"
Suddenly Dorothy started forward. A little boy who had been playing about in front of them for some time past, had tripped and fallen on his face. In an instant she was down on her knees striving to soothe the child"s frightened cries, and using her dainty lace-edged handkerchief to staunch the blood that oozed from a cut on his cheek.
John Dene, who had risen also, stood watching her, his usual expression changed to one of deep concern. He looked from the child to Dorothy, obviously struck by the change in her. There was knowledge and understanding of children in the way in which she handled the situation, he decided. He also noticed that she seemed quite oblivious of the fact that she was kneeling on the rough gravel to the detriment of her pretty frock.
When eventually the mother of the child had led it away pacified by the attentions of Dorothy and the largesse of John Dene, he turned to the girl.