"Jimmy is in London; he saw me off this morning. He--he isn"t able to come down just yet."
There was a little silence.
"I see," said Kettering. Only ten days married, and not able to come down. Jimmy had never done an hour"s work in his life, so far as Kettering could remember. He knew quite well that he was living on an allowance from his brother; it seemed a curious sort of situation altogether.
He took his tea from Christine"s hands. He noticed that they trembled a little, as if she were very nervous, he tried to put her at her ease; he spoke no more of Jimmy.
"I wonder what has happened to your friend?" he said cheerily. "I dare say she will turn up here directly."
"I hope she will." Christine glanced towards the window; it was rapidly getting dusk. "I hope she will," she said again apprehensively. "I should hate having to stay here by myself." She shivered a little as she spoke. She turned to him suddenly.
"Are you--married?" she asked interestedly.
He laughed.
"No. . . . Why do you ask?"
"I was only wondering. I hope you don"t think it rude of me to have asked you. I was only thinking that--if you were married and had any children, this is such a lovely house for them. When we were all little we used to have such fine times. There is a beautiful garden and a great big room that runs nearly the length of the house upstairs, which we used to have for a nursery."
"You had brothers and sisters, then?"
"No--but Jimmy was always here; and Gladys--Gladys is the friend I am expecting--she is like my own sister, really!"
"I see." His eyes watched her with an odd sort of tenderness in them.
"And so you have known Jimmy a great many years?" he asked.
"All my life."
"Then you know his brother as well?"
"I have met him--yes; but I dare say he has forgotten all about me."
"He will be very pleased with Jimmy"s choice of a wife," he answered her quickly. "He always had and idea that Jimmy would bring home a golden-haired lady from behind the footlights, I think," he added laughingly.
He broke off suddenly at sight of the pain in little Christine"s face.
There was an awkward silence. Christine herself broke it.
"Shall we go and look over the house before it gets quite dark?"
She had taken off her coat and furs; she moved to the door.
Kettering followed silently. He was fully conscious that in some way he had blundered by his laughing reference to a "golden-haired lady of the footlights"; he felt instinctively that there was something wrong with this little girl and her marriage--that she was not happy.
He tried to remember what sort of a fellow Jimmy had been in the old days; but his memory of him was vague. He knew that Horace had often complained bitterly of Jimmy"s extravagance--knew that there had often been angry scenes between the two Challoners; but he could not recall having heard of anything actually to Jimmy"s discredit.
And, anyway, surely no man on earth could ever treat this little girl badly, even supposing--even supposing----
"It"s not such a very big house," Christine was saying, and he woke from his reverie to answer her. "But it"s very pretty, don"t you think?" She opened a door on the left. "This used to be our nursery,"
she told him. They stood together on the threshold; the room was long and low-ceilinged, with a window at each end.
A big rocking-horse covered over with a dust-sheet stood in one corner; there was a doll"s house and a big toy box together in another. The whole room was painfully silent and tidy, as if it had long since forgotten what it meant to have children playing there--as if even the echoes of pattering feet and shrill voices had deserted it.
Kettering glanced down at Christine. Her little face was very sad; she was looking at the big rocking-horse, and there were tears in her eyes.
She and Jimmy had so often ridden its impossible back together; this deserted room was full of Jimmy and her mother--to her sad heart it was peopled with ghost faces, and whispering voices that would never come any more.
Kettering turned away.
"Shall we see the rest of the house?" he asked. He hated that look of sadness in her face; he was surprised because he felt such a longing to comfort her.
But they had no time to see the rest of the house, for at that moment someone called, "Christine--Christine," from the hall below, and Christine clasped her hands delightedly.
"That is Gladys. Oh, I am so glad--so glad."
She forgot all about Kettering; she ran away from him, and down the stairs in childish delight. He followed slowly. He reached the hall just in time to see her fling herself into the arms of a tall girl standing there; just in time to hear smothered e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns.
"You poor darling!" and "Oh, Gladys!" and the sound of many kisses.
He stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Over Christine"s head, his eyes met those of the elder girl. She smiled.
"Christine . . . you didn"t tell me you had visitors."
Christine looked up, all smiles now and apologies, as she said:
"Oh, I am so sorry--I forgot." She introduced them. "Mr.
Kettering--Miss Leighton. . . . Mr. Kettering has been looking over the house; I hope he will buy it," she added childishly.
"It"s a shame it has got to be sold," said Gladys bluntly. There was something very taking about her, in spite of red hair and an indifferent complexion; she had honest blue eyes and a pleasant voice.
She looked at Kettering a great deal as she spoke; perhaps she noticed how often his eyes rested on Christine. When presently they went out into the garden, she walked between them; she kept an arm about Christine"s little figure.
"I missed the train," she explained. "I got your husband"s wire, Christine. Oh, yes, I got it all right, and I rushed to pack the very minute; but the cab was slow, and I just missed the train. However, I"m here all right."
She looked at Kettering.
"Do you live near here?" she asked him.
"No; but I am hoping to soon," he said; and again she wondered if it were only her imagination that his eyes turned once more to Christine.
When they got back to the house he bade them "good-bye." The big car was still waiting in the drive; its headlights were lit now, and they shone through the darkness like watchful eyes.
"Who is he, anyway?" Gladys asked Christine bluntly, when Kettering had driven off. Christine shook her head.
"I don"t know; he came down in the train with me, and we had lunch at the same table, and he spoke. He was coming down here to look at our house, and so--well, we came up together."
"What do you think Jimmy would say?"
"Jimmy!" There was such depths of bitterness in Christine"s voice that the elder girl stared.
"Jimmy! He wouldn"t care what I did, or what became of me. I--I--I"m never going to live with him any more."