Part 63 (1/2)
”I was just going to suggest it,” he answered placidly.
”I feel quite queer,” said Eve, as she fingered the necklace, in the car, when all formalities were accomplished and they had left the cave of Aladdin.
”And well you may, my child,” said Mr. Prohack. ”The interest on the price of that necklace would about pay the salary of a member of Parliament or even of a professional cricketer. And remember that whenever you wear the thing you are in danger of being waylaid, brutally attacked, and robbed.”
”I wish you wouldn't be silly,” Eve murmured. ”I do hope I shan't seem self-conscious at the lunch.”
”We haven't reached the lunch yet,” Mr. Prohack replied. ”We must go and buy a safe first. There's no safe worth twopence in the house, and a really safe safe is essential. And I want it to be clearly understood that I shall keep the key of that safe. We aren't playing at necklaces now. Life is earnest.”
And when they had bought a safe and were once more in the car, he said, examining her impartially: ”After all, at a distance of four feet it doesn't look nearly so grand as the one that's lying at Scotland Yard--I gave thirty pounds for that one.”
CHAPTER XXII
MR. PROHACK'S TRIUMPH
”And where is your charming daughter?” asked Mr. Softly Bishop so gently of Eve, when he had greeted her, and quite incidentally Mr. Prohack, in the entrance hall of the Grand Babylon Hotel. He was alone--no sign of Miss Fancy.
”Sissie?” said Eve calmly. ”I haven't the slightest idea.”
”But I included her in my invitations--and Mr. Morfey too.”
Mr. Prohack was taken aback, foreseeing the most troublesome complications; and he glanced at Eve as if for guidance and support. He was nearly ready to wish that after all Sissie had not gone and got married secretly and prematurely. Eve, however, seemed quite undisturbed, though she offered him neither guidance nor support.
”Surely,” said Mr. Prohack hesitatingly, ”surely you didn't mention Sissie in your letter to me!”
”Naturally I didn't, my dear fellow,” answered Mr. Bishop. ”I wrote to her separately, knowing the position taken up by the modern young lady.
And she telephoned me yesterday afternoon that she and Morfey would be delighted to come.”
”Then if you know so much about the modern young lady,” said Eve, with bright and perfect self-possession, ”you wouldn't expect my daughter to arrive with her parents, would you?”
Mr. Softly Bishop laughed.
”You're only putting off the evil moment,” said Mr. Prohack in the silence of his mind to Eve, and similarly he said to Mr. Softly Bishop:
”I do wish you wouldn't call me 'my dear fellow.' True, I come to your lunch, but I'm not your dear fellow and I never will be.”
”I invited your son also, Prohack,” continued Mr. Bishop. ”Together with Miss Winstock or Warburton--she appears to have two names--to make a pair, to make a pair you understand. But unfortunately he's been suddenly called out of town on the most urgent business.” As he uttered these last words Mr. Bishop glanced in a peculiar manner partly at his nose and partly at Mr. Prohack; it was a singular feat of glancing, and Mr. Prohack uncomfortably wondered what it meant, for Charles lay continually on Mr. Prohack's chest, and at the slightest provocation Charles would lie more heavily than usual.
”Am I right in a.s.suming that the necklace affair is satisfactorily settled?” Mr. Softly Bishop enquired, his spectacles gleaming and blinking at the adornment of Eve's neck.
”You are,” said Eve. ”But it wouldn't be advisable for you to be too curious about details.”
Her aplomb, her sangfroid, astounded Mr. Prohack--and relieved him. With an admirable ease she went on to congratulate their host upon his engagement, covering him with petals of flattery and good wishes. Mr.
Prohack could scarcely recognise his wife, and he was not sure that he liked her new worldiness quite as much as her old ingenuous and sometimes inarticulate simplicity. At any rate she was a changed woman.
He steadied himself, however, by a pertinent reflection: she was always a changed woman.