"I am sure you would," said Mrs. Parker Bangs, approvingly; while Jane leaned over, at Myra"s request, and pinched Billy.
Slash went Ronnie"s racket. "Deuce! deuce!" shouted half a dozen voices.
"They shouldn"t say that," remarked Mrs. Parker Bangs, "even if they are mad about it."
Billy hugged his knees, delightedly; looking up at her with an expression of seraphic innocence.
"No. Isn"t it sad?" he murmured. "I never say naughty words when I play. I always say "Game love." It sounds so much nicer, I think."
Jane pinched again, but Billy"s rapt gaze at Mrs. Parker Bangs continued.
"Billy," said Myra sternly, "go into the hall and fetch my scarlet sunshade. Yes, I dare say you WILL miss the finish," she added in a stern whisper, as he leaned over her chair, remonstrating; "but you richly deserve it."
"I have made up my mind what to ask, dear queen," whispered Billy as he returned, breathless, three minutes later and laid the parasol in Lady Ingleby"s lap. "You promised me anything, up to the half of your kingdom. I will have the head of Mrs. Parker Bangs in a charger."
"Oh, shut up, Billy!" exclaimed Jane, "and get out of the light! We missed that last stroke. What is the score?"
Once again it was Garth"s vantage, and once again Ronnie"s arm swung high for an untakable smasher.
"Play up, Dal!" cried a voice, amid the general hubbub.
Garth knew that dear voice. He did not look in its direction, but he smiled. The next moment his arm shot out like a flash of lightning. The ball touched ground on Ronnie"s side of the net and shot the length of the court without rising. Ronnie"s wild scoop at it was hopeless. Game and set were Garth"s.
They walked off the ground together, their rackets under their arms, the flush of a well-contested fight on their handsome faces. It had been so near a thing that both could sense the thrill of victory.
Pauline Lister had been sitting with Garth"s coat on her lap, and his watch and chain were in her keeping. He paused a moment to take them up and receive her congratulations; then, slipping on his coat, and pocketing his watch, came straight to Jane.
"How do you do, Miss Champion?"
His eyes sought hers eagerly; and the welcoming gladness he saw in them filled him with certainty and content. He had missed her so unutterably during these days. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday had just been weary stepping-stones to Friday. It seemed incredible that one person"s absence could make so vast a difference. And yet how perfect that it should be so; and that they should both realise it, now the day had come when he intended to tell her how desperately he wanted her always.
Yes, that they should BOTH realise it--for he felt certain Jane had also experienced the blank. A thing so complete and overwhelming as the miss of her had been to him could not be one-sided. And how well worth the experience of these lonely days if they had thereby learned something of what TOGETHER meant, now the words were to be spoken which should insure forever no more such partings.
All this sped through Garth"s mind as he greeted Jane with that most commonplace of English greetings, the everlasting question which never receives an answer. But from Garth, at that moment, it did not sound commonplace to Jane, and she answered it quite frankly and fully. She wanted above all things to tell him exactly how she did; to hear all about himself, and compare notes on the happenings of these three interminable days; and to take up their close comradeship again, exactly where it had left off. Her hand went home to his with that firm completeness of clasp, which always made a hand shake with Jane such a satisfactory and really friendly thing.
"Very fit, thank you, Dal," she answered. "At least I am every moment improving in health and spirits, now I have arrived here at last."
Garth stood his racket against the arm of her chair and deposited himself full length on the gra.s.s beside her, leaning on his elbow.
"Was anything wrong with London?" he asked, rather low, not looking up at her, but at the smart brown shoe, planted firmly on the gra.s.s so near his hand. "Nothing was wrong with London," replied Jane frankly; "it was hot and dusty of course, but delightful as usual. Something was wrong with ME; and you will be ashamed of me, Dal, if I confess what it was."
Garth did not look up, but a.s.siduously picked little blades of gra.s.s and laid them in a pattern on Jane"s shoe. This conversation would have been exactly to the point had they been alone. But was Jane really going to announce to the a.s.sembled company, in that dear, resonant, carrying voice of hers, the sweet secret of their miss of one another?
"Liver?" inquired Mrs. Parker Bangs suddenly.
"m.u.f.fins!" exclaimed Billy instantly, and, rushing for them, almost shot them into her lap in the haste with which he handed them, stumbling headlong over Garth"s legs at the same moment.
Jane stared at Mrs. Parker Bangs and her m.u.f.fins; then looked down at the top of Garth"s dark head, bent low over the gra.s.s.
"I was dull," she said, "intolerably dull. And Dal always says "only a dullard is dull." But I diagnosed my dulness in the train just now and found it was largely his fault. Do you hear, Dal?"
Garth lifted his head and looked at her, realising in that moment that it was, after all, possible for a complete and overwhelming experience to be one-sided. Jane"s calm grey eyes were full of gay friendliness.
"It was your fault, my dear boy," said Jane.
"How so?" queried Garth; and though there was a deep flush on his sunburned face, his voice was quietly interrogative.
"Because, during those last days at Overdene, you led me on into a time of musical dissipation such as I had never known before, and I missed it to a degree which was positively alarming. I began to fear for the balance of my well-ordered mind."
"Well," said Myra, coming out from behind her red parasol, "you and Dal can have orgies of music here if you want them. You will find a piano in the drawing-room and another in the hall, and a Bechstein grand in the billiard-room. That is where I hold the practices for the men and maids. I could not make up my mind which makers I really preferred, Erard, Broadwood, Collard, or Bechstein; so by degrees I collected one of each. And after all I think I play best upon the little cottage piano we had in the school-room at home. It stands in my boudoir now. I seem more accustomed to its notes, or it lends itself better to my way of playing."
"Thank you, Myra," said Jane. "I fancy Dal and I will like the Bechstein."
"And if you want something really exciting in the way of music,"
continued Lady Ingleby, "you might attend some of the rehearsals for this "service of song" they are getting up in aid of the organ deficit fund. I believe they are attempting great things."
"I would sooner pay off the whole deficit, than go within a mile of a "service of song,"" said Jane emphatically.
"Oh, no," put in Garth quickly, noting Myra"s look of disappointment.
"It is so good for people to work off their own debts and earn the things they need in their churches. And "services of song" are delightful if well done, as I am sure this will be if Lady Ingleby"s people are in it. Lawson outlined it to me this morning, and hummed all the princ.i.p.al airs. It is highly dramatic. Robinson Crusoe--no, of course not! What"s the beggar"s name? "Uncle Tom"s Cabin"? Yes, I knew it was something black. Lawson is Uncle Tom, and the vicar"s small daughter is to be little Eva. Miss Champion, you will walk down with me to the very next rehearsal."
"Shall I?" said Jane, unconscious of how tender was the smile she gave him; conscious only that in her own heart was the remembrance of the evening at Overdene when she felt so inclined to say to him: "Tell me just what you want me to do, and I will do it."
"Pauline will just love to go with you," said Mrs. Parker Bangs. "She dotes on rural music."
"Rubbish, aunt!" said Miss Lister, who had slipped into an empty chair near Myra. "I agree with Miss Champion about "services of song," and I don"t care for any music but the best."
Jane turned to her quickly, with a cordial smile and her most friendly manner. "Ah, but you must come," she said. "We will be victimised together. And perhaps Dal and Lawson will succeed in converting us to the cult of the "service of song." And anyway it will be amusing to have Dal explain it to us. He will need the courage of his convictions."
"Talking of something "really exciting in the way of music,"" said Pauline Lister, "we had it on board when we came over. There was a nice friendly crowd on board the Arabic, and they arranged a concert for half-past eight on the Thursday evening. We were about two hundred miles off the coast of Ireland, and when we came up from dinner we had run into a dense fog. At eight o"clock they started blowing the fog-horn every half-minute, and while the fog-horn was sounding you couldn"t hear yourself speak. However, all the programmes were printed, and it was our last night on board, so they concluded to have the concert all the same. Down we all trooped into the saloon, and each item of that programme was punctuated by the stentorian BOO of the fog-horn every thirty seconds. You never heard anything so cute as the way it came in, right on time. A man with a deep ba.s.s voice sang ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP, and each time he reached the refrain, "And calm and peaceful is my sle-eep," BOO went the fog-horn, casting a certain amount of doubt on our expectations of peaceful sleep that night, anyway. Then a man with a sweet tenor sang OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT, and the fog-horn showed us just how oft, namely, every thirty seconds. But the queerest effect of all was when a girl had to play a piano-forte solo. It was something of Chopin"s, full of runs and trills and little silvery notes. She started all right; but when she was half-way down the first page, BOO went the fog-horn, a longer blast than usual. We saw her fingers flying, and the turning of the page, but not a note could we hear; and when the old horn stopped and we could hear the piano again, she had reached a place half-way down the second page, and we hadn"t heard what led to it. My! it was funny. That went on all through. She was a plucky girl to stick to it. We gave her a good round of applause when she had finished, and the fog-horn joined in and drowned us. It was the queerest concert experience I ever had.
But we all enjoyed it. Only we didn"t enjoy that noise keeping right on until five o"clock next morning."
Jane had turned in her chair, and listened with appreciative interest while the lovely American girl talked, watching, with real delight, her exquisite face and graceful gestures, and thinking how Dal must enjoy looking at her when she talked with so much charm and animation. She glanced down, trying to see the admiration in his eyes; but his head was bent, and he was apparently absorbed in the occupation of tracing the broguing of her shoes with the long stalk of a chestnut leaf. For a moment she watched the slim brown hand, as carefully intent on this useless task, as if working on a canvas; then she suddenly withdrew her foot, feeling almost vexed with him for his inattention and apparent indifference.
Garth sat up instantly. "It must have been awfully funny," he said.
"And how well you told it. One could hear the fog-horn, and see the dismayed faces of the performers. Like an earthquake, a fog-horn is the sort of thing you don"t ever get used to. It sounds worse every time.
Let"s each tell the funniest thing we remember at a concert. I once heard a youth recite Tennyson"s Charge of the Light Brigade with much dramatic action. But he was extremely nervous, and got rather mixed. In describing the att.i.tude of mind of the n.o.ble six hundred, he told us impressively that it was"
""Theirs not to make reply; Theirs not to do or die; Theirs BUT TO REASON WHY.""
"The tone and action were all right, and I doubt whether many of the audience noticed anything wrong with the words."
"That reminds me," said Ronald Ingram, "of quite the funniest thing I ever heard. It was at a Thanksgiving service when some of our troops returned from South Africa. The proceedings concluded by the singing of the National Anthem right through. You recollect how recently we had had to make the change of p.r.o.noun, and how difficult it was to remember not to shout:"
""Send HER victorious"? Well, there was a fellow just behind me, with a tremendous voice, singing l.u.s.tily, and taking special pains to get the p.r.o.nouns correct throughout. And when he reached the fourth line of the second verse he sang with loyal fervour."
""Confound HIS politics, Frustrate HIS knavish tricks!""
"That would amuse the King," said Lady Ingleby. "Are you sure it is a fact, Ronnie?"