Part 8 (2/2)
”I'm so sorry, for your sake in the first place, and ours as well,” said her hostess; ”do you think you could induce a short nap after breakfast?
It would be so good for you-and you _might_ dream something. There would still be time for us to get our bets on.”
”I'll try if you like,” said Lola; ”it sounds rather like a small child being sent to bed in disgrace.”
”I'll come and read the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ to you if you think it will make you sleep any sooner,” said Bertie obligingly.
Rain was falling too steadily to permit of outdoor amus.e.m.e.nt, and the party suffered considerably during the next two hours from the absolute quiet that was enforced all over the house in order to give Lola every chance of achieving slumber. Even the click of billiard b.a.l.l.s was considered a possible factor of disturbance, and the canaries were carried down to the gardener's lodge, while the cuckoo clock in the hall was m.u.f.fled under several layers of rugs. A notice, ”Please do not Knock or Ring,” was posted on the front door at Bertie's suggestion, and guests and servants spoke in tragic whispers as though the dread presence of death or sickness had invaded the house. The precautions proved of no avail: Lola added a sleepless morning to a wakeful night, and the bets of the party had to be impartially divided between Nursery Tea and the French Colt.
”So provoking to have to split out bets,” said Mrs. de Claux, as her guests gathered in the hall later in the day, waiting for the result of the race.
”I did my best for you,” said Lola, feeling that she was not getting her due share of grat.i.tude; ”I told you what I had seen in my dreams, a brown horse, called Bread and b.u.t.ter, winning easily from all the rest.”
”What?” screamed Bertie, jumping up from his sea, ”a _brown_ horse!
Miserable woman, you never said a word about it's being a brown horse.”
”Didn't I?” faltered Lola; ”I thought I told you it was a brown horse.
It was certainly brown in both dreams. But I don't see what the colour has got to do with it. Nursery Tea and Le Five O'Clock are both chestnuts.”
”Merciful Heaven! Doesn't brown bread and b.u.t.ter with a sprinkling of lemon in the colours suggest anything to you?” raged Bertie.
A slow, c.u.mulative groan broke from the a.s.sembly as the meaning of his words gradually dawned on his hearers.
For the second time that day Lola retired to the seclusion of her room; she could not face the universal looks of reproach directed at her when Whitebait was announced winner at the comfortable price of fourteen to one.
BERTIE'S CHRISTMAS EVE
It was Christmas Eve, and the family circle of Luke Steffink, Esq., was aglow with the amiability and random mirth which the occasion demanded.
A long and lavish dinner had been partaken of, waits had been round and sung carols; the house-party had regaled itself with more caroling on its own account, and there had been romping which, even in a pulpit reference, could not have been condemned as ragging. In the midst of the general glow, however, there was one black unkindled cinder.
Bertie Steffink, nephew of the aforementioned Luke, had early in life adopted the profession of ne'er-do-weel; his father had been something of the kind before him. At the age of eighteen Bertie had commenced that round of visits to our Colonial possessions, so seemly and desirable in the case of a Prince of the Blood, so suggestive of insincerity in a young man of the middle-cla.s.s. He had gone to grow tea in Ceylon and fruit in British Columbia, and to help sheep to grow wool in Australia.
At the age of twenty he had just returned from some similar errand in Canada, from which it may be gathered that the trial he gave to these various experiments was of the summary drum-head nature. Luke Steffink, who fulfilled the troubled role of guardian and deputy-parent to Bertie, deplored the persistent manifestation of the homing instinct on his nephew's part, and his solemn thanks earlier in the day for the blessing of reporting a united family had no reference to Bertie's return.
Arrangements had been promptly made for packing the youth off to a distant corner of Rhodesia, whence return would be a difficult matter; the journey to this uninviting destination was imminent, in fact a more careful and willing traveller would have already begun to think about his packing. Hence Bertie was in no mood to share in the festive spirit which displayed itself around him, and resentment smouldered within him at the eager, self-absorbed discussion of social plans for the coming months which he heard on all sides. Beyond depressing his uncle and the family circle generally by singing ”Say au revoir, and not good-bye,” he had taken no part in the evening's conviviality.
Eleven o'clock had struck some half-hour ago, and the elder Steffinks began to throw out suggestions leading up to that process which they called retiring for the night.
”Come, Teddie, it's time you were in your little bed, you know,” said Luke Steffink to his thirteen-year-old son.
”That's where we all ought to be,” said Mrs. Steffink.
”There wouldn't be room,” said Bertie.
The remark was considered to border on the scandalous; everybody ate raisins and almonds with the nervous industry of sheep feeding during threatening weather.
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