Part 34 (1/2)

For she had just remembered that this was the second time some one had thought this thing. She heard again the mercilessly shrewd voice of that French manageress at Les Pins.

”_Monsieur le Capitaine, he with the one arm, who admires Mademoiselle._”

She, Olwen, had actually been silly enough to believe it, then. She didn't believe it now; how could she? Did she have any reason? Those Fridays were the only time she saw him to speak to, and even those, as he'd practically pointed out to her, were the purest accident.

The rest of the time--she laughed again.

”My _dear_ Golden, if you could _only_ see him at the Honeycomb!”

And there seemed to resound in her mind echoes of Captain Ross's voice at the Honeycomb--or were they echoes of Mrs. Newton's mimicries of Captain Ross?

”Hullo--yes?” curtly down the telephone in his office where Olwen had come for instructions. ”Yes; Miss Howel-Jones _is_ working on the Honeycomb. You will find her number in room 0369----” Then, in an iron tone to Olwen, ”Miss Howel-Jones, I should be glad if you would give your _correct_ telephone number to any friends whom you wish to ring you up....”

And so on. Was that the manner of a man who cares?

More echoes were broken in upon by the gentler voice of Golden.

”I don't need to see him at any Honeycomb. I saw it in one, at the Eagle Hut. If he's different in the office, why, that's his fine sense of duty, and you ought to like him for that.... Jack thinks a deal of Captain Ross. So does Mrs. Cartwright, and she's a real, intelligent woman. Why, do you know, just before Captain Ross came on to the meeting tonight, your little friend Mrs. Newton said something about him; I think she likes to make fun of him a little. Mrs. Cartwright said, quite quietly, '_I have a great affection for Captain Ross!_'

”I guess she wouldn't have said that without some reason for liking him.

Jack thinks he's fine,” young Awdas's sweetheart concluded her plea for the absent. ”Don't you like him, Olwen?”

There was a silence as the two girls walked up Tottenham Court Road, comparatively empty at this time of the evening.

Then Olwen drew a quick little breath, turned up her face to her friend's, and let out an emphatic ”I did like him.” Then in a soft hurry of words, ”I liked him all that time in France. Yes. Awfully! I thought of him and thought of him, Golden. It seemed to make everything ...

beautiful to me.” Then a little ashamed laugh, ”I was----silly, then!”

”Silly?” repeated her friend gently. ”That's not the way it seems to me. That's a lovely thing in a girl's life.” She lifted her chin over the leopard-skin stole and looked ahead to the stars above the murky lamps, to the skies in which lay her own lover's pathless way. ”Make everything beautiful; that's what love should do. I _know_,” said Golden, shyly, but proudly. ”I didn't know for certain, until Jack showed me. I'm so pleased you know too....”

”Oh, but--that's not new,” Olwen protested quickly. ”That's over.”

”Over? Then--if you don't mind telling me, what do you feel about Captain Ross now? What does he mean in your life?”

Little Olwen had asked herself this very same question until she'd given it up, and now she scarcely knew whether to laugh or to shrug her shoulders.

”I'll tell you,” she said lightly, after a moment, ”exactly how I feel about Captain Ross. I would have told you before, if you'd asked me. To start with, I work all day at the Honeycomb, where there are hundreds of other girls, and men. Some of these people amuse me, and some don't, so----”

”But----'_amuse_'----” repeated Golden, blankly. ”Does that stand for anything big?”

The soft Welsh voice of the other girl retorted, ”It does, when you are working, and--and there isn't anything else. Isn't it natural that one likes the amusing people best? Mrs. Newton is amusing. Major Leefe doesn't mean to be, but he is. Mr. Ellerton is nice to go about with----”

Again Golden broke in gently. ”Olwen! I don't like to hear you talk that way.”

”Why not? Les Pins is over. And when a thing's over,” p.r.o.nounced this sage of twenty, ”sensible people don't waste any more time on it.”

”When you say that, it seems to me to be belittling a very----” Golden made the characteristic American pause after the adverb--”beautiful thing.”

”It's different for you who have one man meaning the whole world to you.

As I haven't. Well, I want to be amused, Golden.”

More gently still Golden repeated, ”I don't like to hear you talk that way, Olwen. Don't you feel any more that Captain Ross is different from the others?”