"Your eyes are red," he told her gently.
She looked up at him with resentment, and suddenly the tears came again. Kettering bit his lip hard. He did not speak for some time.
"I"ve got a headache," Christine said at last with an effort. "I--oh, I know it"s silly. Don"t laugh at me."
"I"m not laughing." His voice dragged a little; he kept his eyes steadily before him.
"I thought perhaps something had happened--that you had had bad news,"
he said presently. "If--if there is anything I can do to help you, you know--you know I----"
"There isn"t anything the matter," she interrupted with a rush. She was terrified lest he should guess that her tears were because of Jimmy; she had a horror nowadays that everyone would know that she cared for a man who cared nothing for her; she brushed the tears away determinedly; she set herself to talk and smile.
They had tea at Heston, in the little square parlour of a country inn where the floor was only polished boards, and where long wooden trestles ran on two sides of the room.
"It looks rather thick," Kettering said ruefully, standing looking down at the plate of bread and b.u.t.ter. "I hope you don"t mind; this is the best place in the village."
Christine laughed.
"It"s like what we used to have at school, and I"m hungry."
She looked up at him with dancing eyes; she had quite forgotten her sorrow of the morning. Somehow this man"s presence always cheered her and took her out of herself. She poured tea for him, and laughed and chatted away merrily.
Afterwards they sat over the fire and talked.
Christine said she could see faces in the red coals; she painted them out to Kettering.
He had to stoop forward to see what she indicated; for a moment their heads were very close together; it was Christine who drew back sharply.
"Oughtn"t we to be going home?" she asked with sudden nervousness.
She rose to her feet and went over to the window; the sunshine had gone, and the country road was grey and shadowy. Kettering"s big car stood at the kerb. After a moment he followed her to the window; he was a little pale, his eyes seemed to avoid hers.
"I am quite ready when you are," he said.
She was fastening her veil over her hat; her fingers shook a little as she tied the bow.
Kettering had gone to pay for the tea; she stood looking after him with dawning apprehension in her eyes.
He was a fine enough man; there was something about him that gave one such a feeling of safety--of security. She could not imagine that he would ever deliberately set himself to hurt a woman, as--as Jimmy had.
She went out to the car and stood waiting for him.
"All that tea for one and threepence!" he said, laughing, when he joined her. "Wonderful, isn"t it?"
She laughed too. She got in beside him and tucked the rug round her warmly.
"How long will it take to get home?" she asked. She seemed all at once conscious of the growing dusk, conscious, too, of anxiety to get back to Gladys. She was a little afraid of this man, though she would not admit it even to herself.
"We ought to be home in an hour," he said. He started the engine.
The car ran smoothly for a mile or two. Christine began to feel sleepy. Kettering did not talk much, and the fresh evening air on her face was soothing and pleasant. She closed her eyes.
Presently when Kettering spoke to her he got no answer; he turned a little in his seat and looked down at her, but her head was drooping forward and he could not see her face.
"Christine." He spoke her name sharply, then suddenly he smiled; she was asleep.
He moved so that her head rested against his arm; he slowed the car down a little.
Kettering was not a young man, his fortieth birthday had been several years a thing of the past, but all his life afterwards he looked back on that drive home to Upton House as the happiest hour he had ever known, with Christine"s little head resting on his arm and the grey twilight all about them. When they were half a mile from home he roused her gently. She sat up with a start, rubbing sleepy eyes.
"Oh! where are we?" He laid his hand on hers for a moment.
"You"ve been asleep. We"re nearly home."
He turned in at the drive of Upton House. He let her get out of the car una.s.sisted.
Gladys was at the door; her eyes were anxious.
"I thought you must have had an accident," she said. She caught Christine"s hand. "You"re fearfully late."
"We had tea at Heston," Christine said. She ran into the house.
Kettering looked at the elder girl.
"You would not come," he said. "Don"t you care for motoring?"
"No." She came down the steps and stood beside him. "Mr. Kettering, may I say something?"
He looked faintly surprised.
"May you! Why, of course!"
"You will be angry--you will be very angry, I am afraid," she said.
"But--but I can"t help it."
"Angry! What do you mean?"
There was a moment"s silence, then:
"Well," said Kettering rather curtly.
She flushed, but her eyes did not fall.
"Mr. Kettering, if you are a gentleman, and I know you are, you will never come here again," she said urgently.
A little wave of crimson surged under Kettering"s brown skin, but his eyes did not fall; there was a short silence, then he laughed--rather mirthlessly.
"And if I am _not_ the gentleman you so very kindly seem to believe me," he said constrainedly.