Instantly the shadow fell from Mr. Triggs"s face and he turned upon Patricia and beamed, pressing her hand against his side. Then with another sudden change he said, ""Ettie annoys me when she"s like that; but I"ve given "er something to think about," he added, pleased at the recollection of his parting shot.
Patricia smiled at him, she never made any endeavour to probe into the domestic difficulties of the Triggs-Bonsor menage.
"Do you know what I told "er?" enquired Mr. Triggs.
Patricia shook her head.
"I said that if she wasn"t careful I"d engage you as my own secretary.
That made "er sit up." He chuckled at the thought of his master-stroke.
"But you"ve got nothing for me to secretary, Mr. Triggs," said Patricia, not quite understanding where the joke came.
"Ah! "Ettie understands. "Ettie knows that every man that ain"t married marries "is secretary, and she"s dead afraid of me marrying."
"Am I to take that as a proposal, Mr. Triggs?" asked Patricia demurely.
Mr. Triggs chuckled.
"Now we"ll forget about everything except that we are truants," cried Patricia. "I"ve earned a holiday, I think. On Sunday and Monday there was Aunt Adelaide, yesterday it was national importance of pigs and----"
"Hi! Hi! Taxi! Taxi!" Mr. Triggs yelled, dashing forward and dragging Patricia after him. A taxi was crossing a street about twenty yards distance. Mr. Triggs was impulsive in all things.
Having secured the taxi and handed Patricia in, he told the man to drive to the Zoo, and sank back with a sigh of pleasure.
"Now we"re going to "ave a very "appy afternoon, me dear," he said.
"Don"t you worry about pigs."
Arrived at the Zoo, Mr. Triggs made direct for the monkey-house.
Patricia, a little puzzled at his choice, followed obediently. Arrived there he walked round the cages, looking keenly at the animals.
Finally selecting a little monkey with a blue face, he pointed it out to Patricia.
"They was just like that little chap," he said eagerly. "That one over there, see "im eating a nut?"
"Yes, I see him," said Patricia; "but who was just like him?"
"I"ll tell you when we get outside. Now come along."
Patricia followed Mr. Triggs, puzzled to account for his strange manner and sudden lack of interest in the monkey-house. They walked along for some minutes in silence, then, when they came to a quiet spot, Mr.
Triggs turned to Patricia.
"You see, me dear," he said, "it was there that I asked her."
"That you asked who what?" enquired Patricia, utterly at a loss.
"You see we"d been walking out for nearly a year; I was a foreman then.
I "ad tickets given me for the Zoo one Sunday, so I took "er. When we was in the monkey-house there was a couple of little chaps just like that blue-faced little beggar we saw just now." There was a note of affection in Mr. Triggs"s voice as he spoke of the little blue-faced monkey. "And one of "em "ad "is arm round the other and was a-making love to "er as "ard as ever "e could go," continued Mr. Triggs. "And I says to Emily, just to see "ow she"d take it, "That might be you an"
me, Emily," and she blushed and looked down, and then of course I knew, and I asked "er to marry me. I don"t think either of us "ad cause to regret it," added the old man huskily. "G.o.d knows I "adn"t."
Patricia felt that she wanted both to laugh and to cry. She could say nothing, words seemed so hopelessly inadequate.
"You see this is our wedding-day, that"s why I wanted to come,"
continued Mr. Triggs, blinking his eyes, in which there was a suspicious moisture.
"Oh! thank you so much for bringing me," said Patricia, and she knew as she saw the bright smile with which Mr. Triggs looked at her that she had said the right thing.
"Thirty years and never a cross word," he murmured. "She"d "ave liked you, me dear," he added; "she "ad wonderful instinct, and everybody loved her. "Ere, but look at me," he suddenly broke off, "spoilin"
your afternoon, and you lookin" so tired. Come along," and Mr. Triggs trotted off in the direction of the seals, who were intimating clearly that they thought that something must be wrong with the official clock.
They were quite ready for their meal.
For two hours Patricia and Mr. Triggs wandered about the Zoo, roving from one group of animals to another, behaving rather like two children who had at last escaped from the bondage of the school-room.
After tea they strolled through Regent"s Park, watching the squirrels and talking about the thousand and one things that good comrades have to talk about. Mr. Triggs told something of his early struggles, how his wife had always believed in him and been his helpmate and loyal comrade, how he missed her, and how, when she had died, she had urged him to marry again.
"Sam," she had said, "you want a woman to look after you; you"re nothing but a great, big baby."
"And she was right, me dear," said Mr. Triggs huskily, "she was right as she always was, only she didn"t know that there couldn"t ever be anyone after "er."
Slowly and tactfully Patricia guided the old man"s thoughts away from the sad subject of his wife"s death, and soon had him laughing gaily at some stories she had heard the night previously from the Bowens. Mr.
Triggs was as easily diverted from sadness to laughter as a child.
It was half-past seven when they left the Park gates, and Patricia, looking suddenly at her wristlet watch, cried out, "Oh! I shall be late for dinner, I must fly!"
"You"re going to dine with me, me dear," announced Mr. Triggs.
"Oh, but I can"t," said Patricia; "I--I----"
"Why can"t you?"
"Well, I haven"t told Mrs. Craske-Morton."
"Who"s she?" enquired Mr. Triggs.
"Of course it doesn"t matter, how stupid of me," said Patricia; "I should love to dine with you, Mr. Triggs, if you will let me."
"That"s all right," said Mr. Triggs, heaving a sigh of relief.
They walked down Portland Place and Regent Street until they reached the Quadrant.
"We"ll "ave dinner in the Grill-room at the Quadrant," announced Mr.
Triggs, with the air of a man who knows his way about town.
"Oh, no, not there, please!" cried Patricia, in a panic.
"Not there!" Mr. Triggs looked at her, surprise and disappointment in his voice. "Why not?"
"Oh! I"d sooner not go there if you don"t mind. Couldn"t we go somewhere else?"
For a moment Mr. Triggs did not reply.