The groom and the chef shook hands. I am ashamed to say that James squeezed Monsieur Pierre"s flabby hand out of active service for several hours that followed. Beads of agony sparkled on Monsieur Pierre"s expansive brow as he turned to enter the kitchen.
"Shall we ride to-day, Miss?" he asked, inwardly amused.
"No, _I_ shall not ride this morning,"--calmly.
James bowed meekly under the rebuke. What did he care? Did he not possess a rose which had known the pressure of her lips, her warm, red lips?
"You may go," she said.
James went. James whistled on the way, too.
Would that it had been my good fortune to have witnessed the episode of that afternoon! My jehu, when he hears it related these days, smiles a sickly grin. I do not believe that he ever laughed heartily over it. At three o"clock, while Warburton was reading the morning paper, interested especially in the Army news of the day, he heard Pierre"s voice wailing.
"What"s the fat fool want now?" James grumbled to William.
"Oh, he"s always yelling for help. They"ve coddled him so long in the family that he acts like a ten-year-old kid. I stole a kiss from Celeste one day, and I will be shot if he didn"t start to blubber."
"You stole a kiss, eh?" said James, admiringly.
"Only just for the sport of making him crazy, that was all." But William"s red visage belied his indifferent tone. "You"d better go and see what he wants. My hands are all harness grease."
Warburton concluded to follow William"s advice. He flung down his paper and strode out to the rear porch, where he saw Pierre gesticulating wildly.
"What"s the matter? What do you want?"--churlishly.
"Frightful! Zee stove-pipe ees vat you call _bust!_"
James laughed.
"I can not rrreach eet. I can not cook till eet ees fix". You are tall, eh?"--affably.
"All right; I"ll help you fix it."
Grumbling, James went into the kitchen, mounted a chair, and began banging away at the pipe, very much after the fashion of Bunner"s "Culpepper Ferguson." The pipe acted piggishly. James grew determined.
One end slipped in and then the other slipped out, half a dozen times.
James lost patience and became angry; and in his anger he overreached himself. The chair slid back. He tried to balance himself and, in the mad effort to maintain a perpendicular position, made a frantic clutch at the pipe. Ruin and devastation! Down came the pipe, and with it a peck of greasy soot.
Monsieur Pierre yelled with terror and despair. The pies on the rear end of the stove were lost for ever. Mademoiselle Celeste screamed with laughter, whether at the sight of the pies or M"sieu Zhames, is more than I can say.
James rose to his feet, the cuss-words of a corporal rumbled behind his lips. He sent an energetic kick toward Pierre, who succeeded in eluding it.
Pierre"s eyes were full of tears. What a kitchen! What a kitchen! Soot, soot, everywhere, on the floor, on the tables, on the walls, in the air!
"Zee pipe!" he burst forth; "zee pipe! You haf zee house full of gas!"
James, blinking and sneezing, boiling with rage and chagrin, remounted the chair and finally succeeded in joining the two lengths. Nothing happened this time. But the door to the forward rooms opened, and Miss Annesley looked in upon the scene.
"Merciful heavens!" she gasped, "what has happened?"
"Zee stove-pipe bust, Mees," explained Pierre.
The girl gave Warburton one look, balled her handkerchief against her mouth, and fled. This didn"t add to his amiability. He left the kitchen in a downright savage mood. He had appeared before her positively ridiculous, laughable. A woman never can love a man, nor entertain tender regard for him at whom she has laughed: And the girl had laughed, and doubtless was still laughing. (However, I do not offer his opinion as infallible.)
He stood in the roadway, looking around for some inanimate thing upon which he might vent his anger, when the sound of hoofs coming toward him distracted him. He glanced over his shoulder... and his knees all but gave way under him. Caught! The rider was none other than his sister Nancy! It was all over now, for a certainty. He knew it; he had about one minute to live. She was too near, so he dared not fly. Then a brilliant inspiration came to him. He quickly pa.s.sed his hand over his face. The disguise was complete. Vidocq"s wonderful eye could not have penetrated to the flesh.
"James!" Miss Annesley was standing on the veranda. "Take charge of the horse. Nancy, dear, I am so glad to see you!"
James was anything but glad.
"Betty, good gracious, whatever is the matter with this fellow? Has he the black plague? Ugh!" She slid from the saddle unaided.
James stolidly took the reins.
"The kitchen stove-pipe fell down," Betty replied, "and James stood in the immediate vicinity of it."
The two girls laughed joyously, but James did not even smile. He had half a notion to kiss Nancy, as he had planned to do that memorable night of the ball at the British emba.s.sy. But even as the notion came to him, Nancy had climbed up the steps and was out of harm"s way.
"James," said Miss Annesley, "go and wash your face at once."
"Yes, Miss."
At the sound of his voice Nancy turned swiftly; but the groom had presented his back and was leading the horse to the stables.
Nancy would never tell me the substance of her conversation with Miss Annesley that afternoon, but I am conceited enough to believe that a certain absent gentleman was the main topic. When she left, it was William who led out the horse. He explained that James was still engaged with soap and water and pumice-stone. Miss Annesley"s laughter rang out heartily, and Nancy could not help joining her.
"And have you heard from that younger brother of yours?" Betty asked, as her friend settled herself in the saddle.
"Not a line, Betty, not a line; and I had set my heart on your meeting him. I do not know where he is, or when he will be back."
"Perhaps he is in quest of adventures."
"He is in Canada, hunting caribou."
"You don"t tell me!"
"What a handsome girl you are, Betty!"--admiringly.
"What a handsome girl you are, Nancy!" mimicked the girl on the veranda. "If your brother is only half as handsome, I do not know whatever will become of this heart of mine when we finally meet." She smiled and drolly placed her hands on her heart. "Don"t look so disappointed, Nan; perhaps we may yet meet. I have an idea that he will prove interesting and entertaining;"--and she laughed again.
"Whoa, Dandy! What _are_ you laughing at?" demanded Nancy.
"I was thinking of James and his soap and water and pumice-stone. That was all, dear. Sat.u.r.day afternoon, then, we shall ride to the club and have tea. Good-by, and remember me to the baby."
"Good-by!"--and Nancy cantered away.
What a blissful thing the lack of prescience is, sometimes!
When James had sc.r.a.ped the soot from his face and neck and hands, and had sudsed it from his hair, James observed, with some concern, that Pirate was coughing at a great rate. His fierce run against the wind the day before had given him a cold. So James hunted about for the handy veterinarian.