Part 20 (1/2)
MAKING A START
Self-possession was one of Jimmy's leading characteristics, but for the moment he found himself speechless. This girl had been occupying his thoughts for so long that--in his mind--he had grown very intimate with her. It was something of a shock to come suddenly out of his dreams, and face the fact that she was in reality practically a stranger. He felt as one might with a friend whose memory has been wiped out. It went against the grain to have to begin again from the beginning after all the time they had been together.
A curious constraint fell upon him.
”Why, how do you do, Mr. Pitt?” she said, holding out her hand.
Jimmy began to feel better. It was something that she remembered his name.
”It's like meeting somebody out of a dream,” said Molly. ”I have sometimes wondered if you were real. Everything that happened that night was so like a dream.”
Jimmy found his tongue.
”You haven't altered,” he said, ”you look just the same.”
”Well,” she laughed, ”after all, it's not so long ago, is it?”
He was conscious of a dull hurt. To him, it had seemed years. But he was nothing to her--just an acquaintance, one of a hundred. But what more, he asked himself, could he have expected? And with the thought came consolation. The painful sense of having lost ground left him.
He saw that he had been allowing things to get out of proportion. He had not lost ground. He had gained it. He had met her again, and she remembered him. What more had he any right to ask?
”I've crammed a good deal into the time,” he explained. ”I've been traveling about a bit since we met.”
”Do you live in Shrops.h.i.+re?” asked Molly.
”No. I'm on a visit. At least, I'm supposed to be. But I've lost the way to the place, and I am beginning to doubt if I shall ever get there. I was told to go straight on. I've gone straight on, and here I am, lost in the snow. Do you happen to know whereabouts Dreever Castle is?”
She laughed.
”Why,” she said, ”I am staying at Dreever Castle, myself.”
”What?”
”So, the first person you meet turns out to be an experienced guide.
You're lucky, Mr. Pitt.”
”You're right,” said Jimmy slowly, ”I am.”
”Did you come down with Lord Dreever? He pa.s.sed me in the car just as I was starting out. He was with another man and Lady Julia Blunt.
Surely, he didn't make you walk?”
”I offered to walk. Somebody had to. Apparently, he had forgotten to let them know he was bringing me.”
”And then he misdirected you! He's very casual, I'm afraid.”
”Inclined that way, perhaps.”
”Have you known Lord Dreever long?”