Jack left it thoughtfully for Jenny to open the campaign. She did so very adroitly.
"Mr. Jack came over to see me," she said, "and I thought I couldn"t entertain him better than by bringing him up to see you. You haven"t such a thing as a cigarette, Lord Talgarth?"
He felt about in his pockets, drew out a case and pushed it across the table.
"Thanks," said Jenny; and then, without the faintest change of tone: "We"ve some news of Frank at last."
"Frank, eh? Have you? And what"s the young cub at, now?"
"He"s in trouble, as usual, poor boy!" remarked Jenny, genially. "He"s very well, thank you, and sends you his love."
Lord Talgarth cast her a pregnant glance.
"Well, if he didn"t, I"m sure he meant to," went on Jenny; "but I expect he forgot. You see, he"s been in prison."
The old man jerked such a face at her, that even her nerve failed for an instant. Jack saw her put her cigarette up to her mouth with a hand that shook ever so slightly. And yet before the other could say one word she recovered herself.
"Please let me say it right out to the end first," she said. "No; please don"t interrupt! Mr. Jack, give me the letter ... oh! I"ve got it." (She drew it out and began to unfold it, talking all the while with astonishing smoothness and self-command.) "And I"ll read you all the important part. It"s written to Mr. Kirkby. He got it this morning and very kindly brought it straight over here at once."
Jack was watching like a terrier. On the one side he saw emotions so furious and so conflicting that they could find no expression, and on the other a restraint and a personality so complete and so compelling that they simply held the field and permitted no outburst. Her voice was cool and high and natural. Then he noticed her flick a glance at himself, sideways, and yet perfectly intelligible. He stood up.
"Yes, do just take a stroll, Mr. Kirkby.... Come back in ten minutes."
And as he pa.s.sed out again through the thick archway on to the terrace he heard, in an incredibly matter-of-fact voice, the letter begin.
"DEAR JACK...."
Then he began to wonder what, as a matter of interest, Lord Talgarth"s first utterance would be. But he felt he could trust Jenny to manage him. She was an astonishingly sane and sensible girl.
(III)
He was at the further end of the terrace, close beneath the stable wall, when the stable clock struck the quarter for the second time. That would make, he calculated, about seventeen minutes, and he turned reluctantly to keep his appointment. But he was still thirty yards away from the opening when a white figure in a huge white hat came quickly out. She beckoned to him with her head, and he followed her down the steps. She gave him one glance as if to rea.s.sure him as he caught her up, but said not a word, good or bad, till they had pa.s.sed through the house again, and were well on their way down the drive.
"Well?" said Jack.
Jenny hesitated a moment.
"I suppose anyone else would have called him violent," she said. "Poor old dear! But it seems to me he behaved rather well on the whole--considering all things."
"What"s he going to do?"
"If one took anything he said as containing any truth at all, it would mean that he was going to flog Frank with his own hands, kick him first up the steps of the house then down again, and finally drown him in the lake with a stone round his neck. I think that was the sort of programme."
"But--"
"Oh! we needn"t be frightened," said Jenny. "But if you ask me what he will do, I haven"t the faintest idea."
"Did you suggest anything?"
"He knows what my views are," said jenny.
"And those?"
"Well--make him a decent allowance and let him alone."
"He won"t do that!" said Jack. "That"s far too sensible."
"You think so?"
"That would solve the whole problem, of course," went on Jack, "marriage and everything. I suppose it would have to be about eight hundred a year. And Talgarth must have at least thirty thousand."
"Oh! he"s more than that," said Jenny. "He gives Mr. d.i.c.k twelve hundred."
There was a pause. Jack did not know what to think. He was only quite certain that the thing would have been far worse if he had attempted to manage it himself.
"Well, what shall I say to Frank?" he asked. Jenny paused again.
"It seems to me the best thing for you to do is not to write. I"ll write myself this evening, if you"ll give me his address, and explain--"
"I can"t do that," said Jack. "I"m awfully sorry, but--"
"You can"t give me his address?"
"No, I"m afraid I mustn"t. You see, Frank"s very particular in his letter...."
"Then how can I write to him? Mr. Kirkby, you"re really rather--"
"By George! I"ve got it!" cried Jack. "If you don"t mind my waiting at the Rectory. Why shouldn"t you write to him now, and let me take the letter away and post it? It"ll go all the quicker, too, from Barham."
He glanced at her, wondering whether she were displeased. Her answer rea.s.sured him.
"That"ll do perfectly," she said, "if you"re sure you don"t mind waiting."
The Rectory garden seemed more than ever a harbor from storm as they turned into it. The sun was a little lower now, and the whole lawn lay in shadow. As they came to the door she stopped.
"I think I"d better go and get it over," she said. "I can tell father all about it after you"ve gone. Will you go now and wait there?" She nodded towards the seat where they had sat together earlier.
But it was nearly an hour before she came out again, and a neat maid, in ap.r.o.n and cap, had come discreetly out with the tea-things, set them down and retired.
Jack had been thinking of a hundred things, which all centered round one--Frank. He had had a real shock this morning. It had been intolerable to think of Frank in prison, for even Jack could guess something of what that meant to him; and the tone of the letter had been so utterly unlike what he had been accustomed to from his friend. He would have expected a bubbling torrent of remarks--wise and foolish--full of personal descriptions and unkind little sketches. And, indeed, there had come this sober narration of facts and requests....
But in all this there was one deep relief--that it should be a girl like Jenny who was the heart of the situation. If she had been in the least little bit disturbed, who could tell what it would mean to Frank? For Frank, as he knew perfectly well, had a very deep heart indeed, and had enshrined Jenny in the middle of it. Any wavering or hesitation on her part would have meant misery to his friend. But now all was perfectly right, he reflected; and really, after all, it did not matter very much what Lord Talgarth said or did. Frank was a free agent; he was very capable and very lovable; it couldn"t possibly be long before something turned up, and then, with Jenny"s own money the two could manage very well. And Lord Talgarth could not live for ever; and Archie would do the right thing, even if his father didn"t.
It was after half-past four before he looked up at a glint of white and saw Jenny standing at the drawing-room window. She stood there an instant with a letter in her hand; then she stepped over the low sill and came towards him across the gra.s.s, serene and dignified and graceful. Her head was bare again, and the great coils of her hair flashed suddenly as they caught a long horizontal ray from the west.