"If you tell me to speak frankly," he said at last, "I should have a doubt that you"ve made this one false step. You haven"t kept everything in proportion."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, I mean it strikes me--quite unbiased, you know--that you"ve let Number One overshadow the situation. You"ve drawn it all too personal to yourself."
"I don"t see that," said Dale, forcibly, almost hotly. "It"s the principle I stand for--pretty near as much as for myself."
"Ah, yes, just so," said Mr. Ridgett. "And now I"m going to ask you to help me find a bedroom somewhere handy, and put me up to knowing where I"d best get my meals;" and he laughed cheerfully. "Don"t think I"m _establishing_ myself--but one may as well be comfortable, if one can.
And I do give you this tip. You"re in for what we used to call the devil"s dance up there. Caesar is a slow mover. I mean, it won"t be "Step this way, Mr. Dale. Walk in this minute." They"ll keep you on the dance. I should take all you"re likely to want for a week--at the least."
Dale made arrangements for the future comfort of the visitor, and hospitably insisted that he should take his first substantial meal up-stairs.
"It"s served at seven sharp," said Dale; "and we make it a meat tea; but you aren"t restricted to non-alcolic bev"rages."
"Oh, tea is more than good enough for me, thank you."
"Mavis," said Dale, introducing his guest, "this is Mr. Ridgett, who is so kind as to honor us without ceremony." And, as if to demonstrate the absence of ceremony, he put his arm round his wife"s waist and kissed her.
Mr. Ridgett smiled, and opened conversation in a very pleasant easy fashion.
"From the look of things," he said facetiously, "I hazard the guess that you two aren"t long home from the honeymoon."
"You"re off the line there," said Dale. "We"re quite an old Darby and Joan."
"Really!" And Mr. Ridgett"s smile, as he regarded Mrs. Dale, expressed admiration and surprise. "Appearances are deceitful. And how long may you have been running in double harness?"
"Eleven years," said Dale.
"Never! Any children?"
"No," said Mrs. Dale.
"No," said her husband. "We haven"t been blessed that way--not as yet."
"I note the addition. Not as yet! Very neatly put." Mr. Ridgett laughed, and bowed gallantly to Mrs. Dale. "Plenty of time for any amount of blessings."
Then they all sat down to the table.
During the course of the meal, and again when it was over, they spoke of the business that lay before Dale on the morrow.
"I"ve ventured to tell your husband that perhaps he has been taking it all too seriously."
"Oh, has he? I"m so glad to hear you say it." And Mavis Dale, with her elbows on the table, leaned forward and watched the deputy"s face intently.
"Too much of the personal equation."
"Yes?"
"What I say is, little accidents happen to all of us--but they blow over."
Mavis Dale drew in her breath, and her eyebrows contracted. "Mr.
Ridgett! The way you say that, shows you really think it"s serious for him."
"Oh, I don"t in the least read it up as ruin and all the rest of it.
It"s just a check. In Mr. Dale"s place, I should be philosophical. I should say, "This is going to put me back a bit, but nothing else.""
Dale shrugged his shoulders and snorted. Mrs. Dale"s eyebrows had drawn so close together that they almost touched; her eyes appeared darker, smaller, more opaque. Mr. Ridgett continued talking in a tone of light facetiousness that seemed to cover a certain deprecating earnestness.
"Yes, that would be _my_ point of view--quite general, philosophical.
I should say to myself, "Old chap, if you"re in for a jolly good wigging, why, just take it. If you"re to be offered a little humble pie to eat--well, eat it.""
"I won"t," cried Dale, loudly; and he struck the table with his clenched fist. "I"m not goin" to crawl on my belly any more. I"ve done it in my time, when perhaps I felt myself wrong. But I won"t do it now when I"m right--no, so help me, G.o.d, I won"t."
It was as if all restraints had been burst by the notion of such injustice.
"Ah, well," said Ridgett, looking uncomfortable, "then I must withdraw the suggestion."
Mavis Dale was trembling. Her husband"s noisy outburst seemed to have shaken her nerves; the downward lines formed themselves at the corners of her mouth; and her eyelids fluttered as if she were on the verge of tears. "Will," she murmured, "you--you ought to listen, if it"s good advice. Mr. Ridgett knows the ropes--he, he has experience--and he means you well."
"Indeed I do," said Ridgett cordially.
"And I thank you for it, sir," said Dale. "And now--" He mastered his emotions and was calm and polite again, as became a host. "Now, what about two or three whiffs?"
"If madam permits."
"Mav don"t mind. She"s smoke-dried."
All three remained sitting at the table. The two men smoked their pipes reflectively, and spoke only at intervals, while Mavis sank into the motionless silence of a deep reverie. The golden sunlight came no more into the room; bright colors of oleograph pictures, hearth-rug, and window-curtains imperceptibly faded; the whole world seemed to be growing quiet and cool and gray. The sounds of voices and the rumble of pa.s.sing wheels rose so drowsily from the street that they did not disturb one"s sense of peace.
All at once Mavis roused herself, or rather, seemed to be roused involuntarily by some inward sensation--perhaps an ugly and unexpected turn that her thoughts had suddenly taken. She gave a little shiver, looked across the table at the visitor as if surprised at his presence, and then began to talk to him volubly.
"Do you know this part of the world? It"s a pretty country--especially the forest side. Lots of artists and photographers come here on purpose to take the views."
For a little while she and Mr. Ridgett chatted gaily together; and Dale observed, not without satisfaction, that the deputy patently admired Mavis. "Yes," he thought, "it must be an eye-opener for him or anybody else to come up those stairs and find a postmaster"s wife with all the education and manners of a lady, and as pretty as a bunch of primroses into the bargain."
And indeed little Mr. Ridgett was fully susceptible to Mavis" varied charms. He liked her complexion--so unusually white; he liked her hair--such a lot of it; he liked the mobility of her lips, the fineness and straightness of her nose; and he also greatly liked the broad black ribbon that was tied round her slender neck. The simple decoration seemed curiously in harmony with something childlike pertaining to its wearer. He did not attempt to a.n.a.lyze this characteristic, but he felt it plainly--something that drew its components from voice, expression, gesture, and that as a whole carried to one a message of extreme youth.
And how fond of her husband! The anxiety for his welfare that she had shown just now quite touched a soft spot in Mr. Ridgett"s dryly official heart.
"You know," said Dale, interrupting the conversation, and speaking as though the subject that occupied his own mind was still under debate, "they can"t pretend but what I warned them. I said it"s madness to go and put the instruments anywhere but the place I"ve marked on the plan. If they"d listened to my words _then_--"
"Ah, there you are again," said Mr. Ridgett. "The personal equation!"
"Where"s the personality of it?"
"I"ll tell you. London isn"t Rodchurch. What you said--how many years ago?--isn"t going to govern the judgment of people who never heard you say it."
"It ought to have gone on record. It _is_ on record over at Rodhaven."