"I was nearly letting out official secrets, mother. Of course I mustn"t do that, must I?"
"Of course not, dear," said Mrs. West.
"Yes," continued Dorothy, her head on one side, "I like John Dene. It must be ripping to be able to bully a First Lord of the Admiralty," she added irrelevantly.
"Bully a First Lord," said Mrs. West. Mrs. West seemed to be in a perpetual state of repeating in a bewildered manner her daughter"s startling statements.
"He doesn"t care for anybody. He calls Mr. Blair, that"s Sir Lyster"s secretary, the prize seal, and I"m sure he takes a delight in frightening the poor man. That"s the best of being a Canadian, you see you don"t care a d.a.m.n----"
"Dorothy!" There was horror in Mrs. West"s voice.
"I"m so sorry, mother dear; but it slipped out, you know, and really it"s such an awfully convenient word, isn"t it? It"s so different from not caring a bother, or not caring a blow. Anyway, when you"re a Canadian you don"t care a--well you know, for anybody. If a man happens to be a lord or a duke, you"re rude to him just to show that you"re as good as he is. Sometimes, mother, I wish I were a Canadian,"
said Dorothy pensively. "I should so like to "ginger-up" Sir Lyster."
"Your language, my dear," said Mrs. West gently.
"Oh, that"s John Dene," said Dorothy airily. "That"s his favourite expression, "ginger-up." He came over here to "ginger-up" the Admiralty, and in fact "ginger-up" anybody who didn"t very strongly object to being "gingered-up," and those who did, well he gingers them up just the same. You should see poor Mr. Blair under the process."
Dorothy laughed as she thought of Mr. Blair"s sufferings. "The girls call him "Oh, Reginald!" and he looks it," she added.
Mrs. West smiled vaguely, finding it a little difficult to follow her daughter along these paths of ultra-modernism.
"You see, if Sir Lyster says to me "go," I have to go," continued Dorothy, "and if he says to me "come," I have to come; but if he says to John Dene "go," he just says "shucks.""
"Says what, Dorothy?"
"Shucks!" she repeated with a laugh, "it means go to--well, you know, mother."
"And does he say that to Sir Lyster?" enquired Mrs. West in awe-struck voice.
Dorothy nodded vigorously.
"The only one that seems to understand him is Sir Bridgman North, and he never stands on his dignity, you know. If I were in the Navy," said Dorothy meditatively, "I should like to be under Sir Bridgman, he"s really rather a dear."
"But why do----" began Mrs. West, "why does Sir Lyster allow----"
"Allow," broke in Dorothy. "It doesn"t matter what you allow with John Dene. If you agree with him he just grunts; if you don"t he says "shucks," or else he questions whether you"ve got any head-filling."
"Any what?" asked Mrs. West.
"Head-filling, that means brains. Oh, you"ve got an awful lot to learn," she added, nodding at her mother in mock despair. "I think John Dene very clever," she added.
"Dorothy, you mustn"t call him "John Dene."
"He"s always called "John Dene,"" said Dorothy. "You can"t think of him as anything but John Dene, and do you know, mother, all the other girls are so intrigued. They"re always asking me how I get on with "the bear," as they call him. That"s because he doesn"t take any notice of them, except Marjorie Rogers, and she"s as cheeky as a robin."
"But he isn"t a bear, is he, Dorothy?"
"A bear? He"s the most polite creature that ever existed," said Dorothy--"when he remembers it," she added after a moment"s pause.
"You see they all expect me to marry him."
"Dorothy!"
"I"m not so sure that they"re wrong, either," she added navely. "You see, he"s got plenty of money and----"
"I don"t like to hear you talk like that, dear," said Mrs. West gravely.
"Oh, I"m horrid, aren"t I?" she cried, running over to her mother and putting her arm round her neck. "What a dreadful thing it must be for you, poor mother mine, to have such a daughter! She outrages all the dear old Victorian conventions, doesn"t she?"
"You mustn"t talk like that, Dorothy dear," said Mrs. West. There was in her voice that which told her daughter she was in earnest.
"All right, mother dear, I won"t; you know my bark is worse than my bite, don"t you?"
"Yes, but dear----"
"You see, way down, as John Dene would say, in his own heart there is chivalry, and that is very, very rare nowadays among men. He is much nicer to me than he would be to Lady Grayne, or Mrs. Llewellyn John, or to the Queen herself, I believe. I"m sure he likes me," added Dorothy half to herself. "You see," she added, "he broke my teapot, and he owes me something for that, doesn"t he?"
"Dorothy, you are very naughty." There was no rebuke in Mrs. West"s voice.
"And you"re wondering how it came about that such a dear, sweet, conventional, lovely, Victorian symbol of respectability and convention should have had such a dreadfully outrageous daughter as Dorothy West.
Now confess, mother, aren"t you?"
Mrs. West merely smiled the indulgent smile that Dorothy always interpreted into forgiveness for her lapses, past, present and to come.
"You see, mother, John Dene has got it into his head that we"re hopelessly out of date," she said. "He"s quite sincere. He thinks we"re fools, Sir Lyster, Sir Bridgman and the whole lot of us, and as for poor Mr. Blair, he knows he"s a fool. He thinks that Mr. Llewellyn John is almost a fool, in fact he"s sure in his own mind that unless you happen to be born a Canadian you"re a fool and can"t help it. He"s quite nice about it, because it really isn"t your fault."
"I"m afraid he must be very narrow-minded," said Mrs. West gently.
"No, he isn"t, that"s where it"s so funny, it"s just his idea. He looks upon himself as a heaven-sent corrective to the British Government. I"m afraid poor John Dene is going to have a nasty jar before he"s through, as he would say himself."
"How do you mean, Dorothy?" enquired Mrs. West.
"I mustn"t say any more, because I should be divulging official secrets. The other girls are so curious to know what is happening.
Bishy, that"s Miss Bishcroft, asked me whether John Dene made love to me, and Rojjie is sure that he kisses me." Dorothy rippled off into laughter.
"How impertinent of her!" Mrs. West was shocked.
"It wasn"t impertinence, mother, it was funny. If you could only see John Dene, and imagine him making love to anyone. It really is funny.
Sometimes I sit and wonder if he knows how to kiss a girl."
"Dorothy, you are----" began Mrs. West.
"Why shouldn"t we be frank and open about such matters? Every man kisses a girl at some time during his life, except John Dene," she added. "In Whitehall it"s nothing but minutes and kisses. Why shouldn"t we talk about it? It"s helping to win the war. It"s so silly to hide everything in that silly Victorian way of ours. If a nice girl meets a nice man she wants him to kiss her, and she"s disappointed if he doesn"t. Now isn"t she?" challenged Dorothy as she perched herself upon the arm of her mother"s chair and looked down at her, her eyebrows and mouth screwed up, impertinent and provocative.
"I wish you wouldn"t talk like that, dear," said Mrs. West, as she regarded her daughter"s pretty features.
"Why, mother?" she enquired, bending and brushing a swift kiss upon her mother"s white hair.
"It--it doesn"t seem----" she paused, then added rather weakly, "it doesn"t seem quite nice."