"Where you been?" he inquired.
"Miles and miles away. You know the Battery?"
William Bannister nodded.
"Well, a long way past that. First I took a ship and went ever so many miles. Then I landed and went ever so many more miles, with all sorts of beasts trying to bite pieces out of me."
This interested William Bannister.
"Tigers?" he inquired.
"I didn"t actually see any tigers, but I expect they were sneaking round. There were mosquitoes, though. You know what a mosquito is?"
William nodded.
"b.u.mps," he observed crisply.
"That"s right. You see this lump here, just above my mouth? Well, that"s not a mosquito-bite; that"s my nose; but think of something about that size and you"ll have some idea of what a mosquito-bite is like out there. But why am I boring you with my troubles? Tell me all about yourself. You"ve certainly been growing, whatever else you may have been doing while I"ve been away; I can hardly lift you. Has Steve taught you to box yet?"
At this moment he was aware that he had become the centre of a small group. Looking round he found himself gazing into a face so stiff with horror and disapproval that he was startled almost into dropping William. What could have happened to induce Mrs. Porter to look like that he could not imagine; but her expression checked his flow of light conversation as if it had been turned off with a switch. He lowered Bill to the ground.
"What on earth"s the matter?" he asked. "What has happened?"
Without replying, Mrs. Porter made a gesture in the direction of the nursery, which had the effect of sending Mamie and her charge off again on the journey upstairs which Kirk"s advent had interrupted. Bill seemed sorry to go, but he trudged st.u.r.dily on without remark. Kirk followed him with his eyes till he disappeared at the bend of the stairway.
"What"s the matter?" he repeated.
"Are you mad, Kirk?" demanded Mrs. Porter in a tense voice.
Kirk turned helplessly to Ruth.
"You had better let me explain, Aunt Lora," she said. "Of course Kirk couldn"t be expected to know, poor boy. You seem to forget that he has only this minute come into the house."
Aunt Lora was not to be appeased.
"That is absolutely no excuse. He has just left a ship where he cannot have failed to pick up bacilli of every description. He has himself only recently recovered from a probably infectious fever. He is wearing a beard, notoriously the most germ-ridden abomination in existence."
Kirk started. He was not proud of his beard, but he had not regarded it as quite the pestilential thing which it seemed to be in the eyes of Mrs. Porter.
"And he picks up the child!" she went on. "Hugs him! Kisses him! And you say he could not have known better! Surely the most elementary common sense--"
"Aunt Lora!" said Ruth.
She spoke quietly, but there was a note in her voice which acted on Mrs. Porter like magic. Her flow of words ceased abruptly. It was a small incident, but it had the effect of making Kirk, grateful as he was for the interruption, somehow vaguely uneasy for a moment.
It seemed to indicate some subtle change in Ruth"s character, some new quality of hardness added to it. The Ruth he had left when he sailed for Colombia would, he felt, have been incapable of quelling her masterful aunt so very decisively and with such an economy of words. It suggested previous warfare, in which the elder women had been subdued to a point where a mere exclamation could pull her up when she forgot herself.
Kirk felt uncomfortable. He did not like these sudden discoveries about Ruth.
"I will explain to Kirk," she said. "You go up and see that everything is right in the nursery."
And--amazing spectacle!--off went Mrs. Porter without another word.
Ruth put her arm in Kirk"s and led him off to the smoking-room.
"You may smoke a cigar while I tell you all about Bill," she said.
Kirk lit a cigar, bewildered. It is always unpleasant to be the person to whom things have to be explained.
"Poor old boy," Ruth went on, "you certainly are thin. But about Bill.
I am afraid you are going to be a little upset about Bill, Kirk. Aunt Lora has no tact, and she will make a speech on every possible occasion; but she was right just now. It really was rather dangerous, picking Bill up like that and kissing him."
Kirk stared.
"I don"t understand. Did you expect me to wave my hand to him? Or would it have been more correct to bow?"
"Don"t be so satirical, Kirk; you wither me. No, seriously, you really mustn"t kiss Bill. I never do. n.o.body does."
"What!"
"I dare say it sounds ridiculous to you, but you were not here when he was so ill and nearly died. You remember what I was telling you at the dock? About giving Whiskers away? Well, this is all part of it. After what happened I feel, like Aunt Lora, that we simply can"t take too many precautions. You saw his nursery. Well, it would be simply a waste of money giving him a nursery like that if he was allowed to be exposed to infection when he was out of it."
"And I am supposed to be infectious?"
"Not more than anybody else. There"s no need to be hurt about it. It"s just as much a sacrifice for me."
"So n.o.body makes a fuss over Bill now--is that it?"
"Well, no. Not in the way you mean."
"Pretty dreary outlook for the kid, isn"t it?"
"It"s all for his good."
"What a ghastly expression!"
Ruth left her chair and came and sat on the arm of Kirk"s. She ruffled his hair lightly with the tips of her fingers. Kirk, who had been disposed to be militant, softened instantly. The action brought back a flood of memories. It conjured up recollections of peaceful evenings in the old studio, for this had been a favourite habit of Ruth"s. It made him feel that he loved her more than he had ever done in his life; and--incidentally--that he was a brute to try and thwart her in anything whatsoever.
"I know it"s horrid for you, dear old boy," said Ruth coaxingly; "but do be good and not make a fuss about it. Not kissing Bill doesn"t mean that you need be any the less fond of him. I know it will be strange at first--I didn"t get used to it for ever so long--but, honestly, it is for his good, however ghastly the expression of the thing may sound."
"It"s treating the kid like a wretched invalid," grumbled Kirk.
"You wait till you see him playing, and then you"ll know if he"s a wretched invalid or not!"
"May I see him playing?"
"Don"t be silly. Of course."