CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A remarkably dandified Tommy; a solemn and significant Tommy, who shook hands solemnly with his sister and Carron and then sat down and took off his gloves.
"I have come on business, Brigit," he announced quietly.
Carron rose. "Then I will go. Thanks very much, Brigit, for your hospitality--and I will look in again in three or four weeks, if you don"t mind."
Tommy"s frame of mind was too dignified to permit of his staring, but he was obviously surprised at Carron"s presence, and when the man had gone he said with considerable importance: "Since when has Carron been calling on you?"
"This is the first time. Oh, Tommy--should you have come?"
"I have just left mother at Aunt Emily"s," he answered, his voice explaining plainly what his dignity forbade his putting into words.
So her mother knew!
"New clothes; also gloves; also something smelly and _very_ nice on your hair!"
Brigit bent over and kissed him tenderly, her face very sweet with affection. "Please elucidate, little brother. Has mother sent you?"
"No. She knows I have come, though."
"Some tea?"
"If you please."
So she lit the kettle and going to a cupboard produced two enchanting-looking white jars. "Marmalade or cherry jam?"
"I think--neither, please," returned Kingsmead, with an effort. "I--am not hungry."
It was all very mysterious, and Brigit, scanning the little boy"s face, saw that he was nervous as well as important; pale as well as elegant in attire. So she made the tea and gave him a cup in silence.
After a long pause he cleared his throat and began. "Brigit, of course I"m only a kid--and all that sort of thing."
"Yes, dear?"
"And you are grown up, and have a great deal more--well, experience than I. And then you are very beautiful, and I am--not," he added with a flicker of irrepressible mirth that was immediately quenched.
"Yes, Tommy?"
"Well--I just say all that, dear old thing, so you won"t think me sidey, you know."
"I don"t, Tommy. In fact, I have sometimes observed in you symptoms of almost radical----"
"Don"t laugh, Brigit," he broke in with a quaint wave of his hand. "What I mean to say is simply this. I am, although so young, and not very big--the Head of the Family."
This magnificent declaration was so unlike his usual style of conversation that his sister with difficulty refrained from laughing.
"Well, Tommy--yes, there would be no use in my denying that you, not I, are the Earl of Kingsmead. But--your manner is somewhat solemn; surely you are not thinking of marrying?"
The earl"s mouth broadened spasmodically, and his eyes gleamed with amus.e.m.e.nt.
"I say, Bick, if you laugh at me, how on earth am I ever to get it said?"
"All right. Only take some jam and don"t terrify me with magnificence.
This is the first time to my knowledge that an earl has ever shed the effulgence of his presence in these humble walls----"
Tommy"s grandeur gave up the ghost, and with a yell of delight he dived deep into one of the jars and heaped his plate with suspiciously crimson cherry jam.
"Good old Bick! I must have looked an awful little a.s.s. But--well, _will_ you chuck it all and come home?"
"Oho!"
"Yes, "oho" as much as you like, but it is all rot your living here, and _she_ hates it, and it"s unpleasant all round. Besides the country is really lovely now, and I miss you."
"Do you, Tommy dear?"
"I do."
"Did mother send you?"
"No. She said you wouldn"t come if she did, but that you might if I--if I----"
"If you exerted your authority as Head of the Family!"
"Well, yes." Tommy, now completely shamefaced, took more jam and handed back his cup.
"She _is_ funny," mused Brigit. "To have so little sense of humour."
"That"s what I told her. But Aunt Emily says people are talking about your living alone, etc. And--besides, I think she is really rather fond of you, Bick."
"Oh, no, she isn"t. However, M. l"Amba.s.sadeur, you have fulfilled your mission, so be content."
Tommy paused in his task of biting into a piece of cake and looked up at her. "Then--you will?"
"No, dear; I most certainly won"t. But don"t you bother about that. I like this very well, and after all it isn"t for long."
"Oh. You mean you are going to marry Theo. When?"
"In October, probably. Nothing is settled. More jam?"
"No, thanks. I say, Bicky, what are you going to do in September?"
"I don"t know. Why?"
"Because they are all going to La-bas, to the Golden Wedding. They were talking about it the other day. Are you going, too?"