Part 6 (1/2)
Miss Allison laughed. ”Oh, there's no harm in Ogle. She's jealous of anyone trying to come between her and Mrs. Kane, that's all.”
”She hates me,” said Rosemary. ”She spies on me. She hates Clement too. I've got a sort of sixth sense that tells me she does.”
”I think you're mistaken,” said Patricia, not because she did think so but with the unhopeful object of nipping this obsession in the bud. ”She just doesn't care tuppence for anyone but Mrs.
Kane.”
But Ogle's dislike of the Clement Kanes was so bitter that it superseded her mistrust of Miss Allison. She said: ”Them to be in the master's place, driving my dear into her grave with their nasty ways!”
”Nonsense!” said Miss Allison.
Ogle shot a smouldering look at her under her thick low brows. ”You may call it nonsense if you please, miss. I'm only an ignorant old woman that never had any fine education, but I know what I know, and no one'll ever persuade me different.” She went on folding Emily's clothes away, handling them tenderly, as though they were a part of Emily. ”Forty-five years I've been with her. I know her better than Mr. Silas did, better than the old master did.” She paused and added grimly: ”He was a bad husband to her. Light come, light go. But she never said anything. She was never one to talk about her troubles.”
”You should not tell me this,” Patricia said gently.
”You could learn it easy enough from others besides me. She's too old to have more troubles.”
”I know it's unfortunate that she should dislike Mr. Clement, but perhaps she'll get used to him.
He's very kind to her, after all.”
”She won't get used to him!” Ogle said fiercely. ”She'll eat her heart out, with no one but me to turn to! Everyone leaves her but me. There's no one cares what becomes of her. She took a fancy to you, but you don't mean to stay.”
Patricia said guiltily: ”I'm going to be married.”
”Yes, miss, she told me. You're going to marry Mr. James. Why don't you stay with her, the both of you?”
”We couldn't do that. This is Mr. Clement's house. Of course, I shall stay till she finds someone else to take my place.”
Ogle rolled up a pair of stockings, her hands trembling a little. ”Some worthless madam to plague her life out! You're the only one she ever had that wasn't a worriting fool! But you don't care!
No one cares but me!”
Miss Allison felt that the news of her approaching nuptials could scarcely be said (in Oscar Roberts' phraseology) to have gone over big either with Ogle or with Rosemary.
Emily, however, had seemed pleased; and Clement, though it was evident that he thought his cousin might have done better for himself, congratulated both parties and said that Miss Allison would be a great loss to everyone at Cliff House. Young Mr. Harte was no believer in marriage and was inclined to look upon his stepbrother's engagement as yet another instance of a promising career blighted, but he admitted that Miss Allison was quite a decent sort.
”Anyway, she's not half as bad as that Malcolm dame you were nuts on two years ago,” he said.
This handsome tribute failed to please. Jim said in a dulcet voice: ”My little pet, what a gift from heaven you are! It may interest you to know that I don't even remember what the Malcolm dame looked like.”
”She was a bit like the other one you were gone on,” said Timothy helpfully. ”I forget her name, but she had red fingernails, and--”
”If you don't shut up I'll wring your neck!” said Mr. James Kane.
This ferocious threat made Mr. Harte aware suddenly that he had hit upon a subject for blackmail. His eye brightened; he said: ”I bet Miss Allison doesn't know about the others.”
”There weren't any others,” said Jim. ”Don't try to be funny!”
Mr. Harte drove his hands into the pockets of his trousers and said with a grin: ”Say, buddy, let's talk business!”
Jim sighed his resignation. ”You're barking up the wrong tree. My life's an open book.”
”Sure it is,” agreed Mr. Harte. ”The way I figure it--”
”Talk Englis.h.!.+”
”Right!” said Mr. Harte briskly. ”Will you take me with you when you have the speedboat out?”
”I might.”
”Nix on that!” said Mr. Harte, reverting to a foreign tongue. ”I've got the drop on you, and don't you forget it!”
Miss Allison arrived on the scene a few minutes later to find Mr. Harte, in a highly dishevelled condition, ensconced on the branch of a tree well above Jim's reach. She shook her head regretfully.
”You should have wrung his neck while you had him,” she said.
”I know I should,” replied Jim. ”Blackmail's his latest racket.”
”Do you swear to take me out every time with you in the boat?” demanded Mr. Harte.
”No. Do your worst!” said Jim.
”You are a rotten cad!” said Mr. Harte, disgusted. ”I've a jolly good mind to blow the gaff.”
”Ha!” exclaimed Miss Allison. ”I knew it! You've got a guilty secret. Timothy, is there another woman in his life?”
”Hundreds of them!” said Timothy with relish.
Miss Allison appeared to be overcome and begged Mr. James Kane, in throbbing accents, not to touch her.
”Curse you, you have been my ruin!” groaned Mr. Kane, shaking his fist at the tree.
”I say, Jim, you will take me, won't you?” said Mr. Harte, abandoning blackmail.
”Yes, and drop you overboard with a weight tied round your ankles. Come down!”
”Is it pax if I do?” inquired Mr. Harte suspiciously.
”All right,” agreed Jim.
Mr. Harte descended, gave his trousers a perfunctory brush with his hands, and said darkly: ”I know one person who'll probably have a fit when he hears about Miss Allison and you getting married.”
”Talking about serpents' teeth--” began Miss Allison hastily.
”No, you don't!” interrupted Jim. ”Go on, Timothy; who is it?”