"That was when I thought, p"raps, I could help you to patch it up. But if I can"t, it"s another matter."
"Patch it up? Do you think I"d let you try? I don"t believe in patching things up, once they"re--broken off."
"I say Flossie, it hasn"t come to that?"
"It couldn"t come to anything else, the way it was going."
"Oh Lord"--Spinks buried a crimson face in his hands. If only he hadn"t felt such a horrible exultation!
"I thought you knew. Isn"t that what we"ve been talking about all the time?"
"I didn"t understand. I only thought--_he_ didn"t tell me, mind you--I thought it was just put off because he couldn"t afford to marry quite so soon."
"Don"t you think three hundred a year is enough to marry on?"
"Well, I shouldn"t care to marry on that myself; not if it wasn"t regular. He"s quite right, Flossie. You see, a man hasn"t got only his wife to think of."
"No--I suppose he must think of himself a little too."
"Oh well, no; if he"s a decent chap, he thinks of his children."
Flossie"s face was crimson, too, while her thoughts flew to that unfurnished room in the brown house at Ealing. She was losing sight of Keith Rickman; for behind Keith Rickman there was Sidney Spinks; and behind Sidney Spinks there was the indomitable Dream. She did not look at Spinks, therefore, but gazed steadily at the top of Mr. Partridge"s head. With one word Spinks had destroyed the effect he had calculated on from his honourable reticence. Perhaps it was because Flossie"s thoughts had flown so far that her voice seemed to come from somewhere a long way off, too.
"What would you think enough to marry on, then?"
"Well, I shouldn"t care to do it much under four hundred myself," he said guardedly.
"And I suppose if you hadn"t it you"d expect a girl to wait for you any time until you"d made it?"
"Well of course I should, if we were engaged already. But I shouldn"t ask any girl to marry me unless I could afford to keep her--"
"You wouldn"t _ask_, but--"
"No, and I wouldn"t let on that I cared for her either. I wouldn"t let on under four hundred--certain."
"Oh," said Flossie very quietly. And Spinks was crushed under a sense of fresh disloyalty to Rickman. His defence of Rickman had been made to turn into a pleading for himself. "But Razors is different; he"ll be making twice that in no time, you"ll see. I shouldn"t be afraid to ask any one if I was him."
Vainly the honourable youth sought to hide his splendour; Flossie had drawn from him all she needed now to know.
"Look, here, Floss, you say it"s broken off. Would you mind telling me was it you--or was it he who did it?" His tone expressed acute anxiety on this point, for in poor Spinks"s code of honour it made all the difference. But he felt that his question was clearly answered, for the silence of Razors argued sufficiently that it was he.
"Well," said Flossie with a touch of maidenly dignity, "whichever it was, it wasn"t likely to be Keith."
Spinks"s face would have fallen, but for its immense surprise. In this case Rickman ought, yes, he certainly ought to have told him. It wasn"t behaving quite straight, he considered, to keep it from the man who had the best right in the world to know, a fellow who had always acted straight with him. But perhaps, poor chap, he was only waiting a little on the chance of the Beaver changing her mind.
"Don"t you think, Flossie, that if he tried hard he could bring it on again?"
"No, he couldn"t. Never. Not if he tried from now till next year. Not if he went on his bended knees to me."
Spinks reflected that Rickman"s knees didn"t take kindly to bending.
"Haven"t you been a little, just a little hard on him? He"s such a sensitive little chap. If I was a woman I don"t think I could let him go like that. You might let him have another try."
Poor Spinks was so earnest, so sincere, so unaffectedly determined not to take advantage of the situation, that it dawned on Flossie that dignity must now yield a little to diplomacy. She was not making the best possible case for herself by representing the rupture as one-sided. "To tell you the truth, Sidney, he doesn"t want to try.
We"ve agreed about it. We"ve both of us found we"d made a great mistake--".
"I wish _I_ could be as sure of that."
"Why, what difference could it make to you?" said Flossie, turning on him the large eyes of innocence, eyes so dark, so deep, that her thoughts were lost in them.
"It would make all the difference in the world, if I knew you weren"t making a lot bigger mistake now." He rose, "I think, if you don"t mind, I"ll "ave a few words with Rickets, after all. I think I"ll go up and see him now."
There was no change in the expression of her eyes, but her eyelids quivered. "No, Sidney, don"t. For Goodness" sake don"t go and say anything."
"I"m not going to say anything. I only want to know--"
"I"ve told you everything--everything I can."
"Yes; but it"s what you can"t tell me that I want to know."
"Well, but do wait a bit. Don"t you speak to him before I see him.
Because I don"t want him to think I"ve given him away."
"I"ll take good care he doesn"t think that, Flossie. But I"m going to get this off my mind to-night."
"Well then, you must just take him a message from me. Say, I"ve thought it over and that I"ve told you everything. Don"t forget. I"ve told you everything, say. Mind you tell him that before you begin about anything else. Then he"ll understand."
"All right. I"ll tell him."
Her eyes followed him dubiously as he stumbled over Mr. Partridge"s legs in his excited crossing of the room. She was by no means sure of her amba.s.sador"s discretion. His heart would make no blunder; but could she trust his head?
Up to this point Flossie had played her game with admirable skill. She had, without showing one card of her own, caused Spinks to reveal his entire hand. It was not until she had drawn from him the a.s.surance of his imperishable devotion, together with the exact amount of his equally imperishable income, that she had committed herself to a really decisive move. She was perfectly well aware of its delicacy and danger. Not for worlds would she have had Spinks guess that Rickman was still waiting for her decision. And yet, if Spinks referred rashly and without any preparation to the breaking off of the engagement, Rickman"s natural reply would be that this was the first he had heard of it. Therefore did she so manoeuvre and contrive as to make Rickman suppose that Spinks was the accredited bearer of her ultimatum, while Spinks himself remained unaware that he was conveying the first intimation of it. It was an exceedingly risky thing to do. But Flossie, playing for high stakes, had calculated her risk to a nicety.
She must make up her mind to lose something. As the game now stood the moral approbation of Spinks was more valuable to her than the moral approbation of Rickman; and in venturing this final move she had reckoned that the moral approbation of Rickman was all she had to lose. Unless, of course, he chose to give her away.
But Rickman could be trusted not to give her away.
When Spinks presented himself in Rickman"s study he obtained admission in spite of the lateness of the hour. The youth"s solemn agitation was not to be gainsaid. He first of all delivered himself of Flossie"s message, faithfully, word for word.
"Oh, so she"s told you everything, has she? And what did she tell you?"
"Why, that it was all over between you, broken off, you know."
"And you"ve come to me to know if it"s true, is that it?"
"Well no, why should I? Of course it"s true if she says so."
Rickman reflected for a moment; the situation, he perceived, was delicate in the extreme, delicate beyond his power to deal with it.
But the G.o.d did not forsake his own, and inspiration came to him.