"Hulloa," said James, knowing very well. "What"s up?"
She poured the tea. "Only that I"m glad to be here."
Glances were exchanged, quick but rea.s.suring.
Lancelot said, "There"s a ripping cake. Mr. Urquhart would like some, I bet you."
Lucy said, "He can"t have any cake just yet." Upon which remark she avoided James"s eye, and eyegla.s.s, with great care. But on a swift afterthought she stooped and kissed Lancelot.
EPILOGUE
Really, the only fact I feel called upon to add is the following announcement, culled from a fashionable newspaper.
"On the 3rd June," we read, "at ---- Onslow Square, to Mr. and Mrs.
James Adolphus Macartney, a daughter."
That ought to do instead of the wedding bells once demanded by the average reader. Let it then stand for the point of my pair"s pilgrimage.
I promised a romantic James and have given you a sentimental one. It is a most unfortunate thing that it should be thought ridiculous for a man to fall in love with his wife, for his wife to fall in love with him; and we have to thank, I believe, the high romanticks for it. They must have devilry, it seems, or cayenne pepper. But I say, Scorn not the sentimental, though it be barley-sugar to ambrosia, a canary"s flight to a skylark"s. Scorn it not; it"s the romantic of the unimaginative; and if it won"t serve for a magic carpet, it makes a useful anti-maca.s.sar.
The Macartneys saw no more of Urquhart, who, however, recovered the use of his backbone, and with it his zest for the upper air. He sent Lucy some flowers after the event of June, and later on, at the end of July, a letter, which I reproduce.
"_Quid plura_? I had news of you and greeted it, and am gone.
I have hired myself to the Greeks for the air. I take two machines of my own, and an m. b. If you can forgive me when I have worked out my right we shall meet again. If you, I shall know, and keep off. Good-bye, Lucy.
"J. U.
"The one thing I can"t forgive myself was the first, a wild impulse, but a cad"s. All the rest was inevitable. Good-bye."
She asked Lancelot what _Quid plura_ meant. He snorted. "Hoo! Stale!
It means, what are you crying about? naturally. Who said it? That letter? Who"s it from? Mr. Urquhart, I suppose?"
"Yes, it"s from Mr. Urquhart, to say Good-bye. He"s going to Greece, to fly for the navy."
"Oh. Rather sport. Has he gone?"
"Yes, dear, I think so."
"You"ll write to him, I suppose?"
"I might."
"I shall too, then. Rather. I should think so."
THE END