She flushed slightly.
"Not the Savoy," she faltered.
"Why not, mother?" cried the girl, spiritedly. "Mr. Anson, my mother does not care to meet a.s.sociates of--of other days. I tell her she thinks far too much of these considerations. Why should she fear to face them simply because we are poor?"
"I think, Mrs. Atherley," he said, quietly, "that you are very rich, far richer than many a _mere de famille_ we shall meet at the restaurant."
This neat compliment turned the scale of the mother"s hesitation.
Indeed, she might well be proud of her beautiful daughter.
The two ladies seated themselves in the luxurious landau with an ease that showed familiarity, but Mrs. Atherley, being a woman, could not help being troubled in the matter of dress.
"The Savoy!" she murmured, as the rubber-tired vehicle glided away noiselessly. "I have not been there for years. And people at supper are always attired so fashionably. Could we not----"
The girl put her arm around her waist.
"Just for once, mamma, you shall not care a little bit, and none may be the wiser. Here is Mr. Anson--quite an _elegant_ himself--he would never guess that our gowns were homemade."
"The women, dear one. They will know."
"Oh, you deceiver! You said my toilet was perfect, and I am quite sure yours is."
This logic was incontrovertible. Mrs. Atherley sighed, and asked what took place the previous night.
Philip imagined that the girl hung back, so he boldly undertook an explanation. By describing the cabman as apparently intoxicated, and certainly impudent, he covered a good deal of ground, and the rest was easy.
When they reached the Savoy, the anxious mother had relegated the incident to the limbo of unimportant things. Only one other matter troubled her--the somewhat unconventional origin of her daughter"s acquaintance with this pleasant-mannered young gentleman.
She was far too tactful to hint at such a point just then. It should be reserved for home discussion.
Meanwhile, they were early arrivals. The head waiter marshaled them to a window table. Mrs. Atherley smiled; she knew her London.
"You were sure we would accompany you?" she cried.
"Not at all sure; only hopeful," said Philip.
"Ah, well. It is good occasionally to revisit the old scenes. No, Elf, I will sit here; I will not be _en face_ to that row of tables. Half a dozen people would certainly recognize me, and I do not wish it."
Elf! The name drove Philip"s thoughts backward with a bound--back to a torrential night in a London square, and the tearing open of a carriage door in time to save a sweet little girl all robed in white, who, but for him, would have fallen with an overturned vehicle.
Elf! It was an unusual pet name. The child of ten years ago would be about the age of the lively and spirituelle girl by his side. The child had faced her enraged uncle on that memorable night; the woman had refused to leave him when she thought danger threatened in the park.
Could it be possible! He was startled, bewildered, utterly dumfounded by even the remote possibility that another figure from the past should come before him in such wise.
"Mr. Anson! What have you found in the menu to perplex you so terribly?
Does danger lurk in the _agneau du printemps_? Is there a secret horror in the _salmi_?"
Evelyn"s raillery restored his scattered wits.
"May I say something personal?" he inquired.
"About the lamb?"
"About you? Mrs. Atherley called you "Elf" just now."
"Yes. I regret that I earned the t.i.tle in ages past. The habits have ceased, but the name remains."
"I once met a little girl named Elf. It was ten years ago, on a March evening, in a West End square. There had been a carriage accident. A pair of horses were frightened by a terrific thunderstorm. The girl was accompanied by a somewhat selfish gentleman. He jumped out and left her to her own devices; indeed, slammed the door in her face. A ragged boy----"
"A boy with newspapers--a boy who spoke quite nicely--saved her by running into the road. The carriage overturned in front of Lord Vanstone"s house. I was the girl!"
Both ladies were amazed at the expression on Philip"s face. He betrayed such eagerness, such intense longing, such keen anxiety to establish her ident.i.ty with the child who figured in an accident of no very remarkable nature, that they could not help being vastly surprised.
Their astonishment was not lessened when Philip exclaimed:
"And I was the boy!"
"But I said "a boy with newspapers.""
"Yes, a very urchin, a waif of the streets."
"My uncle struck you."
"And you defended me, saved me from being locked up, in fact."
"Oh, this is too marvelous. Mother, you must remember----"
"My dear one, I remember the event as if it had taken place yesterday.
Your uncle would not have cared were you killed that night. All he wanted was your money. Now he has that, and mine. He was, indeed, a wicked man."
"Mother dear, he is unhappy. Are we? But, Mr. Anson, what wonderful change in your fortunes has taken place since our first meeting? Is the newspaper trade so thriving that a carriage and pair, a supper at the Savoy, stalls at the Regent"s Hall, and a bouquet from Rosalind"s, are mere tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, so to speak, to a busy day?"
"Evelyn!" protested Mrs. Atherley.
But the girl was too buoyant, too utterly oblivious of all that this meeting meant to Philip, to cease from chaffing him.
"Please, Mr. Anson, do tell us the secret. I will sell any paper you name. I get five guineas for singing two songs, I admit, but I may only sing them once a month. I have loads of time to run about crying, "Extrey speshul! "Orrible disawster." Or does the magic spring from writing those thrilling stories one sees placarded on the h.o.a.rdings? I believe I could do it. I once won a prize in a lady"s magazine for a set of verses, the genuine and unaided production of a girl aged under fourteen."
Philip compelled himself to respond to her mood. He promised to reveal his specific for money-making at some future period, when she was sufficiently dazzled to accept his words as those of a prophet.
With the tact of a woman of the world, Mrs. Atherley led the conversation back to less personal channels. The great restaurant was rapidly filling now. The occupants of neighboring tables cast occasional glances at the merry trio which discussed the foibles of the musical world, the ways of agents, the little meannesses and petty spites of the greatest artists, and, incidentally, did ample justice to an excellent meal.
Philip thought he had never before met such a delightful girl. Evelyn was quite certain that some unknown good fairy had given her this pleasant acquaintance, and Mrs. Atherley, after a silent spasm of regret that her daughter should be denied the position in the greater world for which she was so admirably fitted, abandoned herself to the infectious gayety of the younger people.
Both she and Evelyn confessed to a feeling of renewed surprise when Philip happened to mention his London address.
Whatever faults the denizens of Park Lane may possess, that of being unknown cannot be reckoned among them, and Mrs. Atherley, in a period not very remote, knew the occupants of every house in that remarkable thoroughfare. She could not, however, recall the name of Anson.