"I had to call on my broker."
"Hush! Hush!"
"What"s the matter?"
"Nothing, nothing... . We"ve got visitors. You know Freddie Rooke, of course?"
"How are you, Freddie, my boy?"
"Cheerio!" said Freddie. "Pretty fit?"
"And Miss Bryant," said Jill.
"How do you do?" said Uncle Chris in the bluff, genial way which, in his younger days, had charmed many a five-pound note out of the pockets of his fellow-men and many a soft glance out of the eyes of their sisters, their cousins, and their aunts.
"Come and have some tea," said Jill. "You"re just in time."
Nelly had subsided shyly into the depths of her big armchair. Somehow she felt a better and a more important girl since Uncle Chris had addressed her. Most people felt like hat after encountering Jill"s Uncle Christopher. Uncle Chris had a manner. It was not precisely condescending, and yet it was not the manner of an equal. He treated you as an equal, true, but all the time you were conscious of the fact that it was extraordinarily good of him to do so. Uncle Chris affected the rank and file of his fellow-men much as a genial knight of the Middle Ages would have affected a scurvy knave or varlet if he had cast aside social distinctions for awhile and hobn.o.bbed with the latter in a tavern. He never patronized, but the mere fact that he abstained from patronizing seemed somehow impressive.
To this impressiveness his appearance contributed largely. He was a fine, upstanding man, who looked less than his forty-nine years in spite of an ominous thinning of the hair which he tended and brushed so carefully. He had a firm chin, a mouth that smiled often and pleasantly beneath the closely-clipped moustache, and very bright blue eyes which met yours in a clear, frank, honest gaze. Though he had served in his youth in India, he had none of the Anglo-Indian"s sun-scorched sallowness. His complexion was fresh and sanguine. He looked as if he had just stepped out of a cold tub,--a misleading impression, for Uncle Chris detested cold water and always took his morning bath as hot as he could get it.
It was his clothes, however, which, even more than his appearance, fascinated the populace. There is only one tailor in London, as distinguished from the ambitious mechanics who make coats and trousers, and Uncle Chris was his best customer. Similarly, London is full of young fellows trying to get along by the manufacture of foot-wear, but there is only one boot-maker in the true meaning of the word,--the one who supplied Uncle Chris. And, as for hats, while it is no doubt a fact that you can get at plenty of London shops some sort of covering for your head which will keep it warm, the only hatter--using the term in its deeper sense--is the man who enjoyed the patronage of Major Christopher Selby. From foot to head, in short, from furthest South to extremest North, Uncle Chris was perfect. He was an ornament to his surroundings. The Metropolis looked better for him. One seems to picture London as a mother with a horde of untidy children, children with made-up ties, children with wrinkled coats and baggy trouser-legs, sighing to herself as she beheld them, then cheering up and murmuring with a touch of restored complacency, "Ah, well, I still have Uncle Chris!"
"Miss Bryant is American, Uncle Chris," said Jill.
Uncle Chris spread his shapely legs before the fire, and glanced down kindly at Nelly.
"Indeed?" He took a cup of tea and stirred it. "I was in America as a young man."
"Whereabouts?" asked Nelly eagerly.
"Oh, here and there and everywhere. I travelled considerably."
"That"s how it is with me," said Nelly, overcoming her diffidence as she warmed to the favorite topic. "I guess I know most every town in every State, from New York to the last one-night stand. It"s a great old country, isn"t it?"
"It is!" said Uncle Chris. "I shall be returning there very shortly."
He paused meditatively. "Very shortly indeed."
Nelly bit her lip. It seemed to be her fate today to meet people who were going to America.
"When did you decide to do that?" asked Jill.
She had been looking at him, puzzled. Years of a.s.sociation with Uncle Chris had enabled her to read his moods quickly, and she was sure that there was something on his mind. It was not likely that the others had noticed it, for his manner was as genial and urbane as ever. But something about him, a look in his eyes that came and went, an occasional quick twitching of his mouth, told her that all was not well. She was a little troubled, but not greatly. Uncle Chris was not the sort of man to whom grave tragedies happened. It was probably some mere trifle which she could smooth out for him in five minutes, once they were alone together. She reached out and patted his sleeve affectionately. She was fonder of Uncle Chris than of anyone in the world except Derek.
"The thought," said Uncle Chris, "came to me this morning, as I read my morning paper while breakfasting. It has grown and developed during the day. At this moment you might almost call it an obsession.
I am very fond of America. I spent several happy years there. On that occasion, I set sail for the land of promise, I admit, somewhat reluctantly. Of my own free will I might never have made the expedition. But the general sentiment seemed so strongly in favor of my doing so that I yielded to what I might call a public demand. The willing hands for my nearest and dearest were behind me, pushing, and I did not resist them. I have never regretted it. America is a part of every young man"s education. You ought to go there, Freddie."
"Rummily enough," said Freddie, "I was saying just before you came in that I had half a mind to pop over. Only it"s rather a bally f.a.g, starting. Getting your luggage packed and all that sort of thing."
Nelly, whose luggage consisted of one small trunk, heaved a silent sigh. Mingling with the idle rich carried its penalties.
"America," said Uncle Chris, "taught me poker, for which I can never be sufficiently grateful. Also an exotic pastime styled c.r.a.ps,--or, alternatively, "rolling the bones"--which in those days was a very present help in time of trouble. At c.r.a.ps, I fear, my hand in late years had lost much of its cunning. I have had little opportunity of practising. But as a young man I was no mean exponent of the art. Let me see," said Uncle Chris meditatively. "What was the precise ritual?
Ah! I have it, "Come, little seven!""
""Come, eleven!"" exclaimed Nelly excitedly.
""Baby ..." I feel convinced that in some manner the word baby entered into it."
""Baby needs new shoes!""
""Baby needs new shoes!" Precisely!"
"It sounds to me," said Freddie, "dashed silly."
"Oh, no!" cried Nelly reproachfully.
"Well, what I mean to say is, there"s no sense in it, don"t you know."
"It is a n.o.ble pursuit," said Uncle Chris firmly. "Worthy of the great nation that has produced it. No doubt, when I return to America, I shall have opportunities of recovering my lost skill."
"You aren"t returning to America," said Jill. "You"re going to stay safe at home like a good little uncle. I"m not going to have you running wild all over the world at your age."
"Age?" declaimed Uncle Chris. "What is my age? At the present moment I feel in the neighborhood of twenty-one, and Ambition is tapping me on the shoulder and whispering "Young man, go West!" The years are slipping away from me, my dear Jill,--slipping so quickly that in a few minutes you will be wondering why my nurse does not come to fetch me. The wanderl.u.s.t is upon me. I gaze around me at all this prosperity in which I am lapped," said Uncle Chris, eyeing the arm-chair severely, "all this comfort and luxury which swaddles me, and I feel staggered. I want activity. I want to be braced!"
"You would hate it," said Jill composedly. "You know you"re the laziest old darling in the world."
"Exactly what I am endeavoring to point out. I am lazy. Or, I was till this morning."
"Something very extraordinary must have happened this morning. I can see that."
"I wallowed in gross comfort. I was what Shakespeare calls a "fat and greasy citizen"!"
"Please, Uncle Chris!" protested Jill. "Not while I"m eating b.u.t.tered toast!"
"But now I am myself again."
"That"s splendid."
"I have heard the beat of the off-sh.o.r.e wind," chanted Uncle Chris, "and the thresh of the deep-sea rain. I have heard the song--How long! how long! Pull out on the trail again!"
"He can also recite "Gunga Din,"" said Jill to Nelly. "I really must apologize for all this. He"s usually as good as gold."
"I believe I know how he feels," said Nelly softly.
"Of course you do. You and I, Miss Bryant, are of the gipsies of the world. We are not vegetables like young Rooke here."
"Eh, what?" said the vegetable, waking from a reverie. He had been watching Nelly"s face. Its wistfulness attracted him.