"Yes; and Semingham is letting his shooting this year."
She laughed, and glanced at him as she asked,
"Then it cost a great deal?"
"Fifty thousand!"
"Oh, then we can"t take Lord Semingham"s shooting, or anybody else"s.
Poor Harry!"
"He doesn"t know yet?"
"Aren"t you almost afraid to tell him, Mr. Ruston?"
"Aren"t you, Mrs. Dennison?"
He smiled as he asked, and Mrs. Dennison lifted her eyes to his, and let them dwell there.
"Why did you do it?" he asked.
"Will the money be lost?"
"Oh, I hope not; but money"s always uncertain."
"The thing"s not uncertain?"
"No; the thing"s certain now."
She sat down with a sigh of satisfaction, and pa.s.sed her hand over her broad brow.
"Why did you do it?" Ruston repeated; and she laughed nervously.
"I hate going back," she said, twisting her hands in her lap.
He had asked her the question which she had been asking herself without response.
He sat down opposite her, flinging his soft cloth hat--for he had not been home since his arrival in London--on the table.
"What a bad hat!" said Mrs. Dennison, touching it with the end of a forefinger.
"It"s done a journey through Omof.a.ga."
"Ah!" she laughed gently. "Dear old hat!"
"Thanks to you, it"ll do another soon."
Mrs. Dennison sat up straight in her chair.
"You hope----?" she began.
"To be on my way in six months," he answered in solid satisfaction.
"And for long?"
"It must take time."
"What must?"
"My work there."
She rose and walked to the window, as she had when she was about to send the telegram. Now also she was breathing quickly, and the flush, once so rare on her cheeks, was there again.
"And we," she said in a low voice, looking out of the window, "shall just hear of you once a year?"
"We shall have regular mails in no time," said he. "Once a year, indeed!
Once a month, Mrs. Dennison!"
With a curious laugh, she dashed the blind-ta.s.sel against the window. It was not for the sake of hearing of her that he wanted the mails. With a sudden impulse she crossed the room and stood opposite him.
"Do you care _that_," she asked, snapping her fingers, "for any soul alive? You"re delighted to leave us all and go to Omof.a.ga!"
Willie Ruston seemed not to hear; he was mentally organizing the mail service from Omof.a.ga.
"I beg pardon?" he said, after a perceptible pause.
"Oh!" cried Maggie Dennison, and at last her tone caught his attention.
He looked up with a wrinkle of surprise on his brow.
"Why," said he, "I believe you"re angry about something. You look just as you did on--on the memorable occasion."
"Uh, we aren"t all Carlins!" she exclaimed, carried away by her feelings.
The least she had expected from him was grateful thanks; a homage tinged with admiration was, in truth, no more than her due; if she had been an ugly dull woman, yet she had done him a great service, and she was not an ugly dull woman. But then neither was she Omof.a.ga.
"If everybody was as good a fellow as old Carlin----" began Willie Ruston.
"If everybody was as useful and docile, you mean; as good a tool for you----"
At last it was too plain to be missed.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "What are you pitching into me for, Mrs.
Dennison?"
His words were ordinary enough, but at last he was looking at her, and the mails of Omof.a.ga were for a moment forgotten.
"I wish I"d never made them send the wretched telegram," she flashed out pa.s.sionately. "Much thanks I get!"