"Here"s your Ball, young gent. Now you"d better hop out and dance."
His fare began to explain the situation through the little trap in the roof, demonstrating to the Jehu that his object was to observe the ball from without, not to dance at it within, and that it was necessary for him to drive on a little further. That worthy grew indignant.
"Blowed if I don"t believe you"re a bilk," he shouted through the hole.
"Here, you pay me my fare and hook it, young codger."
G.o.dfrey descended and commenced a search for money, only to remember that he had left his purse in his bag at the hotel. This also he explained with many apologies to the infuriated cabby, two gorgeous flunkeys who by now had arrived to escort him into the house, and a group of idlers who had collected round the door.
"I told yer he was a bilk. You look after your spoons, Thomas; I expect that"s wot he"s come for. Now you find that bob, Sonny, or I fetches the perlice."
Then an inspiration flashed on G.o.dfrey"s bewildered mind. Suddenly he recollected that, by the direction of heaven, Mrs. Parsons had sewn a ten shilling piece into the lining of his waistcoat, "in case he should ever want any money sudden-like." He undid that garment and heedless of the mockery of the audience, began to feel wildly at its interior calico. Joy! there it was in the lefthand corner.
"I have money here if only I can get it out," he gasped.
A woman in the gathering crowd, perhaps from pity, or curiosity, in the most unexpected way produced a pair of scissors from her pocket with which he began to hack at the waistcoat, gashing it sadly. At length the job was done and the half-sovereign appeared wrapped in a piece of cotton wool.
"Take it," said G.o.dfrey, "and go away. Let it teach you to have more trust in your fellow creatures, Mr. Cabman."
The man seized the coin, examined it by the light of his lamp, tasted it, bit it, threw it on the top of the cab to see that it rang true, then with a "Well, I"m blowed!" whipped up his horse and went off.
G.o.dfrey followed his example, as the flunkeys and the audience supposed to recover his change, though the last thing he was thinking of at that moment was change--except of locality. He ran a hundred yards or more to a part of the square where there was no lamp, then paused to consider.
"I have made a fool of myself," he reflected, "as Isobel always says I do when I get the chance. I have come all this way and been abused and laughed at for nothing."
Then his native determination began to a.s.sert itself. Why should it be for nothing? There was the house, and in it was Isobel, and oh! he wanted to see her. He crossed to the square-garden side and walked down in the shadow of the trees which grew there.
Under one of these he took his stand, squeezing himself against the railings, and watched the glowing house that was opposite, from which came the sounds of music, of dancing feet, of laughter and the tinkling of gla.s.ses. It had balconies, and on these appeared people dressed in all sorts of costumes. Among them he tried to recognise Isobel, but could not. Either she did not come or he was too far off to see her.
A dance was ending, the music grew faster and faster, then ceased with a flourish. More people appeared on the balconies. Others crowded into the hall, which he could see, for the door was open. Presently a pair came onto the steps. One of them was dressed as a knight in shining armour. He was a fine, tall young man, and his face was handsome, as the watcher could perceive, for he had taken off his plumed helm and carried it in his hand. The other was Isobel in her Plantagenet costume, to which were added one rose and a necklet of pink pearls.
They stood on the steps a little while laughing and talking. Then he heard her say:
"Let us go into the square. It will be cooler. The key is hanging on the nail."
She vanished for a moment, doubtless to fetch the key. Then they walked down the steps, over the spread carpet, and across the roadway. Within three paces of where G.o.dfrey stood there was a gate. She gave the key to the knight, and after one or two attempts the gate swung open.
Whilst he was fumbling at the lock she stood looking about her, and presently caught sight of G.o.dfrey"s slim figure crouched against the railings in the deepest of the shadows.
"There is someone there, Lord Charles," she said.
"Is there?" he answered, indifferently. "A cab-tout or a beggar, I expect. They always hang about parties. Come on, it is open at last."
They pa.s.sed into the garden and vanished. A wild jealousy seized G.o.dfrey, and he slipped after them with the intention of revealing himself to Isobel. Inside the railings was a broad belt of shrubs bordered by a gravel path. The pair walked along the path, G.o.dfrey following at a distance, till they came to a recessed seat on which they sat down. He halted behind a lilac bush ten paces or so away, not that he wanted to listen, but because he was ashamed to show himself.
Indeed, he stopped his ears with his fingers that he might not overhear their talk. But he did not shut his eyes, and as the path curved here and the moon shone on them, he could see them well. They seemed very merry and to be playing some game.
At any rate, first with her finger she counted the air-holes in the knight"s helmet which he held up to her. Then with his finger he counted the pearls upon her neck. When he had finished she clapped her hands as though she had won a bet. After this they began to whisper to each other, at least he whispered and she smiled and shook her head.
Finally, she seemed to give way, for she unfastened the flower which she wore in the breast of her dress, and presented to him. G.o.dfrey started at the sight which caused him to take his fingers from his ears and clutch the bush. A dry twig broke with a loud crack.
"What"s that?" said Isobel.
"Don"t know," answered Lord Charles. "What a funny girl you are, always seeing and hearing things. A stray cat, I expect; London squares are full of them. Now I have won my lady"s favour and she must fasten it to my helm after the ancient fashion."
"Can"t," said Isobel. "There are no pins in Plantagenet dresses."
"Then I must do it for myself. Kiss it first, that was the rule, you know."
"Very well," said Isobel. "We must keep up the game, and there are worse things to kiss than roses."
He held the flower to her and she bent forward to touch it with her lips. Suddenly he did the same, and their lips came very close together on either side of the rose.
This was too much for G.o.dfrey. He glided forward, as the stray cat might have done, of which the fine knight had spoken, meaning to interrupt them.
Then he remembered suddenly that he had no right to interfere; that it was no affair of his with whom Isobel chose to kiss roses in a garden, and that he was doing a mean thing in spying upon her. So he halted behind another bush, but not without noise. His handsome young face was thrust forward, and on it were written grief, surprise and shame. The moonlight caught it, but nothing else of him. Isobel looked up and saw.
He knew that she had seen and turning, slipped away into the darkness back to the gate. As he went he heard the knight called Lord Charles, exclaim:
"What"s the matter with you?" and Isobel answer, "Nothing. I have seen a ghost, that"s all. It"s this horrible dress!"
He glanced back and saw her rise, s.n.a.t.c.h the rose from the knight"s hand, throw it down and stamp upon it. Then he saw and heard no more for he was through the gate and running down the square. At its end, as he turned into some street, he was surprised to hear a gruff voice calling to him to stop. On looking up he saw that it came from his enemy, the hansom-cab man, who was apparently keeping a lookout on the square from his lofty perch.
"Hi! young sir," he said, "I"ve been watching for you and thinking of wot you said to me. You gave me half a quid, you did. Jump in and I"ll drive you wherever you want to go, for my fare was only a bob."
"I have no more money," replied G.o.dfrey, "for you kept the change."
"I wasn"t asking for none," said the cabby. "Hop in and name where it is to be."
G.o.dfrey told him and presently was being rattled back to the Charing Cross Hotel, which they reached a little later. He got out of the cab to go into the hotel when once again the man addressed him.
"I owe you something," he said, and tendered the half-sovereign.
"I have no change," said G.o.dfrey.
"Nor "ain"t I," said the cabman, "and if I had I wouldn"t give it you.
I played a dirty trick on you and a dirtier one still when I took your half sov, I did, seeing that I ought to have known that you ere just an obfusticated youngster and no bilk as I called you to them flunkeys.
What you said made me ashamed, though I wouldn"t own it before the flunkeys. So I determined to pay you back if I could, since otherwise I shouldn"t have slept well to-night. Now we"re quits, and goodbye, and do you always think kindly of Thomas Sims, though I don"t suppose I shall drive you no more in this world."
"Goodbye, Mr. Sims," said G.o.dfrey, who was touched. Moreover Mr. Sims seemed to be familiar to him, at the moment he could not remember how, or why.
The man wheeled his cab round, whipping the horse which was a spirited animal, and started at a fast pace.
G.o.dfrey, looking after him, heard a crash as he emerged from the gates, and ran to see what was the matter. He found the cab overturned and the horse with a "bus pole driven deep into its side, kicking on the pavement. Thomas Sims lay beneath the cab. When the police and others dragged him clear, he was quite dead!
G.o.dfrey went to bed that night a very weary and chastened youth, for never before had he experienced so many emotions in a few short hours.
Moreover, he could not sleep well. Nightmares haunted him in which he was being hunted and mocked by a jeering crowd, until Sims arrived and rescued him in the cab. Only it was the dead Sims that drove with staring eyes and fallen jaw, and the side of the horse was torn open.
Next he saw Isobel and the Knight in Armour, who kept pace on either side of the ghostly cab and mocked at him, tossing roses to each other as they sped along, until finally his father appeared, called Isobel a young serpent, at which she laughed loudly, and bore off Sims to be buried in the vault with the Plantagenet lady at Monk"s Acre.
G.o.dfrey woke up shaking with fear, wet with perspiration, and reflected earnestly on his latter end, which seemed to be at hand. If that great, burly, raucous-voiced Sims had died so suddenly, why should not he, G.o.dfrey?