"Well?"
It was the morning of the next day, Mrs. Dennison sat in her place in the little garden on the cliff, and Willie Ruston stood just at the turn of the mounting path, where Marjory had paused to look at her friend.
"Well, here I am," said he.
She did not move, but held out her hand. He advanced and took it.
"I met your children down below," he went on, "but they would hardly speak to me. Why don"t they like me?"
"Never mind the children."
"But I do mind. Most children like me."
"How is everything?"
"In London? Oh, first-rate. I saw your husband the----"
"I mean, how is Omof.a.ga?"
"Capital; and here?"
"It has been atrociously dull. What could you expect?"
"Well, I didn"t expect that, or I shouldn"t have come."
"Are the stores started?"
"I thought it was holiday time? Well, yes, they are."
She had been looking at him ever since he came, and at last he noticed it.
"Do I look well?" he asked in joke.
"You know, it"s rather a pleasure to look at you," she replied. "I"ve been feeling so shut in," and she pushed her hair back from her forehead, and glanced at him with a bright smile. "And it"s really going well?"
"So well," he nodded, "that everything"s quiet, and the preparations well ahead. In three months" (and his enthusiasm began to get hold of him) "I shall be off; in two more I hope to be actually there, and then--why, forward!"
She had listened at first with sparkling eyes; as he finished, her lips drooped, and she leant back in her chair. There was a moment"s silence; then she said in a low voice,
"Three months!"
"It oughtn"t to take more than two, if Jackson has arranged things properly for me."
Evidently he was thinking of his march up country; but it was the first three mouths that were in her mind. She had longed to see the thing really started, hastened by all her efforts the hour that was to set him at work, and dreamt of the day when he should set foot in Omof.a.ga. Now all this seemed a.s.sured, imminent, almost present; yet there was no exultation in her tone.
"I meant, before you started," she said slowly.
He looked up in surprise.
"I can"t manage sooner," he said, defending himself. "You know I don"t waste time."
He was still off the scent; and even she herself was only now, for the first time and as yet dimly, realising her own mind.
"I have to do everything myself," he said. "Dear old Carlin can"t walk a step alone, and the Board"--he paused, remembering that Harry Dennison was on the Board--"well, I find it hard to make them move as quick as I want. I had to fix a date, and I fixed the earliest I could be absolutely sure of."
"Why don"t they help you more?" she burst out indignantly.
"Oh, I don"t want help."
"Yes, but I helped you!" she exclaimed, leaning forward, full again of animation.
"I can"t deny it," he laughed. "You did indeed."
"Yes," she said, and became again silent.
"_Apropos_," said he. "I want to bring someone to see you this afternoon--Baron von Geltschmidt."
"Who?"
"He was the German capitalist, you know."
"What! Why, what"s he doing here?"
"He came to see me--so he says. May I bring him?"
"Why, yes. He"s a great--a great man, isn"t he?"
"Well, he"s a great financier."
"And he came to see you?"
"So he says."
"And don"t you believe him?"
"I don"t know. I want your opinion," answered Ruston, with a smile.
"Are you serious?" she asked quickly. "I mean, do you really want my opinion, or are you being polite?"
"I don"t think _you_ a fool, you know," said Willie Ruston.
She flashed a glance of understanding, mingled with reproach, at him, and, leaning forward again, said,
"Has he come about Omof.a.ga?"
"That you might tell me too--or will you want all Omof.a.ga if you do so much?"