Viviette jumped up and clapped her hands.
"Why, that"s the very thing for d.i.c.k!" she cried exultingly.
"G.o.d bless my soul!" said Austin. "So it is. I never thought of it."
"If you get it for him I"ll thank you in the sweetest way possible." She glanced at him swiftly, under her eyelids. "I promise you I will."
"Then I"ll certainly get it," replied Austin.
Austin then went into details. Lord Overton wanted a man of education--a gentleman--one who could ride and shoot and make others work. He would have to superintend the planting and the cutting and the transportation of timber, and act as agent for the various farms Lord Overton possessed in the wide district. The salary would be 700 a year.
The late superintendent had suddenly died, and Lord Overton wanted a man to go out at once and fill his place. If only he had thought of d.i.c.k!
"But you"re thinking of him now. It can"t be too late--men with such qualifications aren"t picked up at every street corner."
"That"s quite true," said Austin. "And as for my recommendation," he added in his confident way, "Lord Overton and I are on such terms that he would not hesitate to give the appointment to a brother of mine. I"ll write at once."
"And we"ll say nothing to d.i.c.k until we"ve got it all in black and white."
"Not a word," said he.
Then they burst out laughing like happy conspirators, and enjoyed beforehand the success of their plot.
"The old place will be very strange without him," said Austin.
A shadow pa.s.sed over Viviette"s bright face. The manor-house would indeed be very lonely. Her occupation as d.i.c.k"s liege lady, confidante, and tormentor would be gone. Parting from him would be a wrench. There would be a dreadful scene at the last moment, in which he would want to hold her tight in his arms and make her promise to join him in Vancouver. She shivered a little; then tossed her head as if to throw off the disturbing thoughts.
"Don"t let us look at the dismal side of things. It"s selfish. All we want is d.i.c.k"s happiness." She glanced at the clock and started up.
"It"s midnight. If Katherine knew I was here she would lecture me."
"It"s nothing very dreadful," he laughed. "Nor is Katherine"s lecture."
"I call her Saint Nitouche--but she"s a great dear, isn"t she? Good night."
He accompanied her to the foot of the stairs and lit her candle. On the third stair she paused.
"Remember--in all this it"s I who am the fairy G.o.dmother."
"And I," said Austin, "am nothing but the fairy G.o.dmother"s humble and devoted factotum." He took the hand which she extended and, bending over it, kissed it gallantly.
Then by unhappy chance out came d.i.c.k from the armoury, and beheld the spectacle which robbed him of his peace of mind.
The next morning, when d.i.c.k came down gloomily to breakfast, she was very gentle with him, and administered tactfully to his wants. She insisted on going to the sideboard and carving his cold ham, of which he ate prodigious quant.i.ties after a hot first course, and when she put the plate before him laid a caressing touch on his shoulder. She neglected Austin in a bare-faced manner, and drew d.i.c.k into reluctant and then animated talk on his prize roses and a setter pup just recovering from distemper. After the meal she went with him round the garden, inspected both roses and puppy, and manifested great interest in a trellis he was constructing for the accommodation later in the summer of some climbing cuc.u.mbers, at present only visible as modest leaves in flower-pots.
Neither made any reference to the little scene of the night before.
Morning had brought to d.i.c.k the conviction that in refusing her hand and slamming the door he had behaved in an unpardonably bearish manner; and he could not apologise for his behaviour unless he confessed his jealousy of Austin, which, in all probability, would have subjected him to the mocking ridicule of Viviette--a thing which, above all others, he dreaded, and against which he knew himself to be defenceless. Viviette, too, found silence golden. She knew perfectly well why d.i.c.k had slammed the door. An explanation would have been absurd. It would have interfered with her relations with Austin, which were beginning to be exciting. But she loved d.i.c.k in her heart for being a bear, and evinced both her compunction and her appreciation in peculiar graciousness.
"You"ve never asked me to try the new mare," she said. "I don"t think it a bit kind of you."
"Would you care to?" he asked eagerly.
"Of course I should. I love to see you with horses. You and the trap and the horse seem to be as much one mechanism as a motor-car."
"I can make a horse do what I want," he said, delighted at the compliment. "We"ll take the dog-cart. When will you come? This morning?"
"Yes--let us say eleven. It will be lovely."
"I"ll have it round at eleven o"clock. You"ll see. She"s a flyer."
"So am I," she said with a laugh, and pointed to the front gate, which a garden lad had just run to open to admit a young man on horseback.
"Oh, lord! it"s Banstead," said d.i.c.k with a groan.
"Au revoir--eleven o"clock," said Viviette, and she fled.
Lord Banstead dismounted, gave his horse to the lad, and came up to d.i.c.k. He was an unhealthy, dissipated-looking young man, with l.u.s.treless eyes, a characterless chin, and an underfed moustache. He wore a light blue hunting stock, fastened by a ruby fox in full gallop, and a round felt hat with a very narrow flat brim, beneath which protruded strands of Andrew aguecheek hair.
"Hallo, Banstead," said d.i.c.k, not very cordially.
"Hallo," said the other, halting before the rose-bed, where d.i.c.k was tying up some blooms with bast. He watched him for a moment or two.
Conversation was not spontaneous.
"Where"s Viviette?" he asked eventually.
"Who?" growled d.i.c.k.
"Rot. What"s the good of frills? Miss Hastings."
"Busy. She"ll be busy all the morning."
"I rather wanted to see her."
"I don"t think you will. You might ring at the front door and send in your card."
"I might," said Banstead, lighting a cigar. He had tried this method of seeing Viviette before, but without success. There was another pause.
d.i.c.k snipped off an end of bast.
"You"re up very early," said he.
"Went to bed so bally sober I couldn"t sleep," replied the misguided youth. "Not a soul in the house, I give you my word. So bored last night I took a gun and tried to shoot cats. Shot a d.a.m.n c.o.c.k pheasant by mistake, and had to bury the thing in my own covers. If I"m left to myself to-night I"ll get drunk and go out shooting tenants. Come over and dine."
"Can"t," said d.i.c.k.
"Do. I"ll open a bottle of the governor"s old port. Then we can play billiards, or piquet, or cat"s-cradle, or any rotten thing you like."
d.i.c.k excused himself curtly. Austin had come down for Whitsuntide, and a lady was staying in the house. Lord Banstead pushed his hat to the back of his head.
"Then what the devil am I to do in this hole of a place?"
"Don"t know," said d.i.c.k.