"I might make a hash of it."
"Heavens, Ginger! There must be something in this world that you wouldn"t make a hash of. Don"t stand arguing any longer. Are you dry?
and clean? Very well, then. Let"s be off."
"Right ho."
Ginger took a step towards the door, then paused, rigid, with one leg in the air, as though some spell had been cast upon him. From the pa.s.sage outside there had sounded a shrill yapping. Ginger looked at Sally. Then he looked--longingly--at the bed.
"Don"t be such a coward," said Sally, severely.
"Yes, but..."
"How much do you owe Mrs. Meecher?"
"Round about twelve dollars, I think it is."
"I"ll pay her."
Ginger flushed awkwardly.
"No, I"m hanged if you will! I mean," he stammered, "it"s frightfully good of you and all that, and I can"t tell you how grateful I am, but honestly, I couldn"t..."
Sally did not press the point. She liked him the better for a rugged independence, which in the days of his impecuniousness her brother Fillmore had never dreamed of exhibiting.
"Very well," she said. "Have it your own way. Proud. That"s me all over, Mabel. Ginger!" She broke off sharply. "Pull yourself together. Where is your manly spirit? I"d be ashamed to be such a coward."
"Awfully sorry, but, honestly, that woolly dog..."
"Never mind the dog. I"ll see you through."
They came out into the pa.s.sage almost on top of Toto, who was stalking phantom rats. Mrs. Meecher was manoeuvring in the background. Her face lit up grimly at the sight of Ginger.
"Mister Kemp! I been looking for you."
Sally intervened brightly.
"Oh, Mrs. Meecher," she said, shepherding her young charge through the danger zone, "I was so surprised to meet Mr. Kemp here. He is a great friend of mine. We met in France. We"re going off now to have a long talk about old times, and then I"m taking him to see my brother..."
"Toto..."
"Dear little thing! You ought to take him for a walk," said Sally. "It"s a lovely day. Mr. Kemp was saying just now that he would have liked to take him, but we"re rather in a hurry and shall probably have to get into a taxi. You"ve no idea how busy my brother is just now. If we"re late, he"ll never forgive us."
She pa.s.sed on down the stairs, leaving Mrs. Meecher dissatisfied but irresolute. There was something about Sally which even in her pre-wealthy days had always baffled Mrs. Meecher and cramped her style, and now that she was rich and independent she inspired in the chatelaine of the boarding-house an emotion which was almost awe. The front door had closed before Mrs. Meecher had collected her faculties; and Ginger, pausing on the sidewalk, drew a long breath.
"You know, you"re wonderful!" he said, regarding Sally with unconcealed admiration.
She accepted the compliment composedly.
"Now we"ll go and hunt up Fillmore," she said. "But there"s no need to hurry, of course, really. We"ll go for a walk first, and then call at the Astor and make him give us lunch. I want to hear all about you. I"ve heard something already. I met your cousin, Mr. Carmyle. He was on the train coming from Detroit. Did you know that he was in America?"
"No, I"ve--er--rather lost touch with the Family."
"So I gathered from Mr. Carmyle. And I feel hideously responsible. It was all through me that all this happened."
"Oh, no."
"Of course it was. I made you what you are to-day--I hope I"m satisfied--I dragged and dragged you down until the soul within you died, so to speak. I know perfectly well that you wouldn"t have dreamed of savaging the Family as you seem to have done if it hadn"t been for what I said to you at Roville. Ginger, tell me, what did happen? I"m dying to know. Mr. Carmyle said you insulted your uncle!"
"Donald. Yes, we did have a bit of a sc.r.a.p, as a matter of fact. He made me go out to dinner with him and we--er--sort of disagreed. To start with, he wanted me to apologize to old Scrymgeour, and I rather gave it a miss."
"n.o.ble fellow!"
"Scrymgeour?"
"No, silly! You."
"Oh, ah!" Ginger blushed. "And then there was all that about the soup, you know."
"How do you mean, "all that about the soup"? What about the soup? What soup?"
"Well, things sort of hotted up a bit when the soup arrived."
"I don"t understand."
"I mean, the trouble seemed to start, as it were, when the waiter had finished ladling out the mulligatawny. Thick soup, you know."
"I know mulligatawny is a thick soup. Yes?"
"Well, my old uncle--I"m not blaming him, don"t you know--more his misfortune than his fault--I can see that now--but he"s got a heavy moustache. Like a walrus, rather, and he"s a bit apt to inhale the stuff through it. And I--well, I asked him not to. It was just a suggestion, you know. He cut up fairly rough, and by the time the fish came round we were more or less down on the mat chewing holes in one another. My fault, probably. I wasn"t feeling particularly well-disposed towards the Family that night. I"d just had a talk with Bruce--my cousin, you know--in Piccadilly, and that had rather got the wind up me. Bruce always seems to get on my nerves a bit somehow and--Uncle Donald asking me to dinner and all that. By the way, did you get the books?"
"What books?"
"Bruce said he wanted to send you some books. That was why I gave him your address." Sally stared.
"He never sent me any books."
"Well, he said he was going to, and I had to tell him where to send them."
Sally walked on, a little thoughtfully. She was not a vain girl, but it was impossible not to perceive in the light of this fresh evidence that Mr. Carmyle had made a journey of three thousand miles with the sole object of renewing his acquaintance with her. It did not matter, of course, but it was vaguely disturbing. No girl cares to be dogged by a man she rather dislikes.
"Go on telling me about your uncle," she said.
"Well, there"s not much more to tell. I"d happened to get that wireless of yours just before I started out to dinner with him, and I was more or less feeling that I wasn"t going to stand any rot from the Family. I"d got to the fish course, hadn"t I? Well, we managed to get through that somehow, but we didn"t survive the fillet steak. One thing seemed to lead to another, and the show sort of bust up. He called me a good many things, and I got a bit fed-up, and finally I told him I hadn"t any more use for the Family and was going to start out on my own. And--well, I did, don"t you know. And here I am."
Sally listened to this saga breathlessly. More than ever did she feel responsible for her young protege, and any faint qualms which she had entertained as to the wisdom of transferring practically the whole of her patrimony to the care of so erratic a financier as her brother vanished. It was her plain duty to see that Ginger was started well in the race of life, and Fillmore was going to come in uncommonly handy.
"We"ll go to the Astor now," she said, "and I"ll introduce you to Fillmore. He"s a theatrical manager and he"s sure to have something for you."
"It"s awfully good of you to bother about me."