As for Mr. Burden, as I said, he disappeared from our view; but I doubt if we disappeared from his. You may think this is conceited in me, but, as he took off his Panama in saying good-bye, he contrived to peer at me round an unfortified corner of the Dragon, and the look he flung me said more plainly than words: "This is all right, but I"m hanged if I don"t see it through," or something even more emphatic to that effect.
Sir Lionel was surprised when he saw my luggage, which we picked up when he"d claimed his own.
"I thought young ladies never went anywhere without a dozen boxes," said he.
"Oh, mamma and I travelled half over Europe with only one trunk and two bags between us," I blurted out, before I stopped to think. Then I wished the floor would yawn and swallow me up.
He did stare!--and his eyes are dreadfully piercing when he stares. They are very nice-looking gray ones; but I can tell you they felt like hatpins.
"I should have thought you were too young in those days to know anything about luggage," said he.
That gave me a straw to clutch. "Madame de Maluet has told me a great deal." (So she has, about one thing or another; mostly my own faults.)
"Oh, I see," he said. It must have seemed funny to him, my saying that about the trunks, as Ellaline"s mother died when E. was four.
He hadn"t much luggage, either; no golf clubs, or battle-axes, or whatever you play about with in Bengal when you aren"t terrorizing the natives. He sent the brown servant off in one cab with our things, and put me in another, into which he also mounted. It did seem funny driving off with him, for when I came to think of it, I was never alone with a man before; but he was gawkier about it than I was. Not exactly shy; I hardly know how to express it, but he couldn"t help showing that he was out of his element.
Oh, I forgot to tell you, he"d shaken hands with the Mock Dragon, and shunted him off just as ruthlessly as he did the boy. "See you in London, sooner or later," said he. As if anyone could want to see such a disagreeable old thing! Yet, perhaps, if I but knew, the Mock Dragon"s character may be the n.o.bler of the two. If I were to judge by appearances, I should have liked the real Dragon"s looks, and thought from first sight that he was rather a brave, fine, high-principled person, even unselfish. Whereas I know from all Ellaline has told me that his qualities are quite the reverse of these.
We were going to the Grand Hotel, and driving there he pumped up a few perfunctory sort of questions about school, the way grown-up people who don"t understand children talk to little girls. You know: "Do you like your lessons? What do you do on holidays? What is your middle name?"
sort of thing. I was afraid I should laugh, so I asked him questions instead; and all the time he seemed to be studying me in a puzzled, surprised way, as if I were a duck that had just stepped out of a chicken egg, or a goblin in a Nonconformist home. (If he keeps on doing this, I shall _have_ to find out what he means by it, or _burst_.)
I asked him about his sister, as I thought Bengal might be a sore subject, and he appeared to think that I already knew something of her.
If Ellaline does know, she forgot to tell me; and I hope other things like that won"t be continually cropping up, or my nerves won"t stand it.
_I_ shall take to throwing spoons and tea-cups.
He reminded me of her name being Mrs. Norton, and that she"s a widow. He hadn"t expected her to come over, he said, and he was surprised to get her telegram, but no doubt he"d find out that she"d a pretty good reason. And it was nothing to be astonished at, her not meeting him at the Gare de Lyon, for she invariably missed people when she went to railway stations. It had been a characteristic of hers since youth. When they were both young they were often in Paris together, for they had French cousins (Ellaline"s mother"s people, I suppose), and then they stopped at the Grand Hotel. He hadn"t been there, though, he added, for nearly twenty years; and had been out of England, without coming back, for fifteen. That made him seem old, talking of what happened twenty years ago--almost my whole life. Yet he doesn"t look more than thirty-five at most. I wonder does the climate of Bengal preserve people, like flies in amber? Perhaps he"s really sixty, and has this unnatural appearance of youth.
"Does Mrs. Norton know about--me?" I asked.
"Why; of course she does," said he. "I wrote her she must come and live with me when I found I"d got to have----" He shut up like a clam, on that, and looked so horribly ashamed of himself that I burst out laughing.
"Please don"t mind," said I. "I know I"m an incubus, but I"ll try to be as little trouble as possible."
"You"re _not_ an incubus," he contradicted me, almost indignantly.
"You"re entirely different from what I thought you would be."
"Oh, then you thought I _would_ be an incubus?" I couldn"t resist the temptation of retorting. Maybe it was cruel, but there"s no society for the prevention of cruelty to dragons, so it can"t be considered wrong in humane circles.
"Not at all. But I--I don"t know much about women, especially girls,"
said he. "And I told you I thought of you as a child."
"I hope you haven"t gone to the trouble of engaging a nurse for me?" I suggested. And if he were cross at being teased, he didn"t show it. He said he"d trusted all such arrangements to his sister. He hadn"t seen her for many years, but she was good-natured, and he hoped that we would get on. What I princ.i.p.ally hoped was that she wouldn"t prove to be of a _suspicious_ nature; for a detective on the hearth would be inconvenient, and women can be so sharp about each other! I"ve found that out at Madame de Maluet"s; I never would from you, dear. You weren"t a cat in any of your previous incarnations. I think you must have "evoluted" from that neat blending of serpent and dove which eventually produces a perfect Parisienne.
We went into the big hall of the Grand Hotel, where Sir Lionel said in "his day" carriages used to drive in; and suddenly, to my own surprise, I felt gay and excited, as if this were life, and I had begun to live. I didn"t regret having to play Ellaline one bit. Everything seemed great fun. You know, darling, I haven"t had much "life," except in you and books, since I was sixteen, and our pennies and jauntings finished up at the same time; though I had plenty before that--all sorts of "samples,"
anyhow. I suppose it must have been the bright, worldly look of the hotel which gave me that tingling sensation, as if a little wild bird had burst into song in my heart.
Although it"s out of season for Parisians, the hall was full of fashionable-seeming people, mostly Americans and other foreigners. As we came in, a lady rose from a seat near the door. She was small, and the least fashionable or well-dressed person in the room, yet with the air of being satisfied with herself morally. I saw at once she was of the type who considers her church a "home from home"; who dresses her house as if it were a person, and upholsters herself as if she were a sofa. Of course, I knew it was Mrs. Norton, and I _was_ disappointed. I would almost have preferred her to be catty.
She and her brother hadn"t seen each other for fifteen years, but they met as calmly as if they had lunched together yesterday. I think, though, that was more her fault than his, for when he held out his hand she lifted it up on a level with her chin to shake; and of course that would have taken the "go" out of a gra.s.shopper. I suppose it wouldn"t have been "good form" to kiss in a hotel hall, but if _I_ retrieved a long-lost brother in any sort of hall, I don"t believe I could resist.
Her hair was so plainly drawn back, it was like a moral influence, and her toque sat up high on her head like a bun or a travelling pincushion.
The only tr.i.m.m.i.n.g on her dress was b.u.t.tons, but there were a large family of them.
Sir Lionel introduced us, and she said she was pleased to meet me. Also, that I was not at all like my mother or father. Then she asked if I had ever been to England; but luckily, before I"d had a chance to compromise myself by saying that I"d lived a few months in London, but had been nowhere else (there"s where our money began to give out), her brother reminded her that I was only four when I left England.
"Of course, I had forgotten," said Mrs. Norton. "But don"t they ever take them over to see the British Museum or the National Gallery? I should have thought it would be an education--with cheap returns."
"Probably French schoolmistresses believe that their pupils get their money"s worth on the French side of the Channel," replied Sir Lionel.
"Oh!" said Mrs. Norton; and looked at me as if to see how the system had answered. I"m sure she approved of the gray serge and the sailor hat more than she approved of the girl in them. You see, I don"t think she sanctions hair that isn"t dark brown.
We didn"t sit down, but talked standing up. Sir Lionel and his sister throwing me words out of politeness now and then. She has a nice voice, though cold as iced water that has been filtered. Her name is Emily. It _would_ be!
He said he was surprised as well as pleased to get her telegram on arriving at Ma.r.s.eilles, and it was very good of her to come to Paris and meet him. She said not at all, it was no trouble, but a pleasure, or rather it would be, if it weren"t for the sad reason that brought her.
"Why, is anybody dead?" asked Sir Lionel, looking as if he were running over a list in his head, but couldn"t call up a name which concerned him personally.
"There"s been a thinning off among old friends lately, I"m sorry to say; I"ve told you about most of them, I think, in postscripts," replied Mrs.
Norton. "But it wasn"t their loss, poor dears, which brought me over. It was the fire."
"What fire?" her brother wanted to know.
"Why, _your_ fire. Surely you must have seen about it in to-day"s London papers?"
"To-day"s London papers won"t get to Ma.r.s.eilles till to-morrow, and I haven"t been long enough in Paris to see one yet," explained Sir Lionel.
"Have I had a serious fire, and what has been burnt?" He spoke as coolly as if it were the question of a mutton chop.
"Part of the house," returned Mrs. Norton, not even trying to break it to him.
"I hope not the old part," said he.
"No, it is the new wing. But _that_ seemed to me such a pity. Such a beautiful bathroom, hot and cold, spray and shower, quite destroyed; and a n.o.ble linen closet, heated throughout with pipes, and fully stocked."
"The bathroom may have been early Pullman, and the linen closet late German Lloyd, my dear Emily; but the rest of the house is Tudor, and can"t be replaced," said Sir Lionel; and I was sure, as he looked down at his sister, of a thing I"d already suspected: that he has a sense of humour. That"s a modern improvement with which you wouldn"t expect a dragon to be fitted; but I begin to see that this is an elaborate and complicated Dragon. Some people are Pharisees about their sense of humour, and keep harping on it till you wish it were a live wire and would electrocute them. _He_ would rather be ashamed of his, I fancy, and yet it must have amused him, and made him feel good chums with himself, away out in Bengal.
Mrs. Norton said that Warings had very handsome Tudor dining-rooms in one or two of their model houses, so nothing was irrevocable nowadays; but she was pleased, if he was, that only the modern wing was injured.
It had happened yesterday morning, just too late for the newspapers, which must have annoyed the editors; and she had felt that it would be best to undertake the journey to Paris, and consult about plans, as it might make a difference (here she glanced at me); but she hadn"t mentioned the fire when wiring, because things seemed worse in telegrams, and besides, it would have been a useless expense. No doubt it had been stupid of her, but she had fancied he would certainly see it in the paper, with all details, and therefore guess why she was meeting him.
"We have nowhere to take Miss Lethbridge," said she, "since Graylees Castle will be overrun with workmen for some time to come. I didn"t know but you might feel it would be best, after all, for us to put her again in charge of her old schoolmistress for a few weeks."
If hair could really rise, mine would have instantly cast out every hairpin, as if they were so many evil spirits, and have stood out all around my head like Strumpelpeter"s. Yet there was nothing I could say.
If I were mistress of a dozen languages, I should have had to be speechless in every one. But I saw Sir Lionel looking at me, and I hastily gave him a silent treatment with my eyes. It had the most satisfactory effect.
"No, I don"t think we will take her back to Madame de Maluet"s," said he. "Madame may have made other plans for the holiday season. Perhaps she is going away."
"I"m sure she is," said I. "She is going to visit her mother-in-law"s aunt."
Sir Lionel was still looking at me, lost in thought. (I forget if I mentioned that he has nice eyes? I haven"t time to look back and see if I did, now. I"m scribbling as fast as I can. We shall soon land, and I want to post this at Dover, if I can get an English stamp "off" someone, as "Sissy" Williams, our only British neighbour, says.)