Part 24 (1/2)
”Say, Pearson, I don't want to b.u.t.t in, but what about that little bunch of calico of yours--the one you're saving up for?”
”Calico, sir?” said Pearson, at sea, but hopeful. Whatsoever the new Mr. Temple Barholm meant, one began to realize that it was not likely to be unfriendly.
”That's American for HER, Pearson. 'Her' stands for the same thing both in English and American, I guess. What's her name and where is she? Don't you say a word if you don't want to.”
Pearson drew a step nearer. There was an extraordinary human atmosphere in the room which caused things to begin to go on in his breast. He had had a harder life than Tembarom because he had been more timid and less buoyant and less unselfconscious. He had been beaten by a drunken mother and kicked by a drunken father. He had gone hungry and faint to the board school and had been punished as a dull boy. After he had struggled into a place as page, he had been bullied by footmen and had had his ears boxed by cooks and butlers. Ladies'- maids and smart housemaids had sneered at him, and made him feel himself a hopeless, vulgar little worm who never would ”get on.” But he had got on, in a measure, because he had worked like a slave and openly resented nothing. A place like this had been his fevered hope and dream from his page days, though of course his imagination had not encompa.s.sed attendance on a gentleman who had never owned a dress- s.h.i.+rt in his life. Yet gentleman or no gentleman, he was a Temple Barholm, and there was something about him, something human in his young voice and grin and queer, unheard-of New York jokes, which Pearson had never encountered, and which had the effect of making him feel somehow more of a man than his timorous nature had ever allowed of his feeling before. It suggested that they were both, valet and master, merely masculine human creatures of like kind. The way he had said ”Miss Hutchinson” and the twinkle in his eye when he'd made that American joke about the ”little bunch of calico”! The curious fact was that thin, neat, white-blooded-looking Pearson was pa.s.sionately in love. So he took the step nearer and grew hot and spoke low.
”Her name is Rose Merrick, sir, and she's in place in London. She's lady's-maid to a lady of t.i.tle, and it isn't an easy place. Her lady has a high temper, and she's economical with her servants. Her maid has to sew early and late, and turn out as much as if she was a whole dressmaking establishment. She's clever with her needle, and it would be easier if she felt it was appreciated. But she's treated haughty and severe, though she tries her very best. She has to wait up half the night after b.a.l.l.s, and I'm afraid it's breaking her spirit and her health. That's why,--I beg your pardon, sir,” he added, his voice shaking--”that's why I'd bear anything on earth if I could give her a little home of her own.”
”Gee whizz!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Temple Barholm, with feeling. ”I guess you would!”
”And that's not all, sir,” said Pearson. ”She's a beautiful girl, sir, with a figure, and service is sometimes not easy for a young woman like that. His lords.h.i.+p--the master of the house, sir,--is much too attentive. He's a man with bad habits; the last lady's-maid was sent away in disgrace. Her ladys.h.i.+p wouldn't believe she hadn't been forward when she saw things she didn't like, though every one in the hall knew the girl hated his bold ways with her, and her mother nearly broke her heart. He's begun with Rose, and it just drives me mad, sir, it does!”
He choked, and wiped his forehead with his clean handkerchief. It was damp, and his young eyes had fire in them, as Mr. Temple Barholm did not fail to observe.
”I'm taking a liberty talking to you like this, sir,” he said. ”I'm behaving as if I didn't know my place, sir.”
”Your place is behind that fellow, kicking him till he'll never sit down again except on eider-down cus.h.i.+ons three deep,” remarked Mr.
Temple Barholm, with fire in his eyes also. ”That's where your place is. It's where mine would be if I was in the same house with him and caught him making a goat of himself. I bet nine Englishmen out of ten would break his darned neck for him if they got on to his little ways, even if they were lords.h.i.+ps themselves.”
”The decent ones won't know,” Pearson said. ”That's not what happens, sir. He can laugh and chaff it off with her ladys.h.i.+p and coax her round. But a girl that's discharged like that, Rose says, that's the worst of it: she says she's got a character fastened on to her for life that no respectable man ought to marry her with.”
Mr. Temple Barholm removed his leg from the arm of his chair and got up. Long-legged, sinewy, but somewhat slouchy in his badly made tweed suit, sharp New York face and awful American style notwithstanding, he still looked rather nice as he laid his hand on his valet's shoulder and gave him a friendly push.
”See here,” he said. ”What you've got to say to Rose is that she's just got to cut that sort of thing out--cut it right out. Talking to a man that's in love with her as if he was likely to throw her down because lies were told. Tell her to forget it --forget it quick. Why, what does she suppose a man's FOR, by jinks? What's he FOR?”
”I've told her that, sir, though of course not in American. I just swore it on my knees in Hyde Park one night when she got out for an hour. But she laid her poor head on the back of the bench and cried and wouldn't listen. She says she cares for me too much to--”
Tembarom's hand clutched his shoulder. His face lighted and glowed suddenly.
”Care for you too much,” he asked. ”Did she say that? G.o.d bless her!”
”That's what I said,” broke in Pearson.
”I heard another girl say that--just before I left New York--a girl that's just a wonder,” said his master. ”A girl can be a wonder, can't she?”
”Rose is, sir,” protested Pearson. ”She is, indeed, sir. And her eyes are that blue--”
”Blue, are they? ” interrupted Tembarom. ”I know the kind. I'm on to the whole thing. And what's more, I'm going to fix it. You tell Rose-- and tell her from me--that she's going to leave that place, and you're going to stay in this one, and--well, presently things'll begin to happen. They're going to be all right--ALL RIGHT,” he went on, with immensely convincing emphasis. ”She's going to have that little home of her own.” He paused a moment for reflection, and then a sudden thought presented itself to him. ”Why, darn it!” he exclaimed, ”there must be a whole raft of little homes that belong to me in one place or another. Why couldn't I fix you both up in one of them?”
”Oh, sir!” Pearson broke forth in some slight alarm. He went so fast and so far all in a moment. And Pearson really possessed a neat, well- ordered conscience, and, moreover, ”knew his place.” ”I hope I didn't seem to be expecting you to trouble yourself about me, sir. I mustn't presume on your kindness.”
”It's not kindness; it's--well, it's just human. I'm going to think this thing over. You just keep your hair on, and let me do my own valeting, and you'll see I'll fix it for you somehow.”
What he thought of doing, how he thought of doing it, and what Pearson was to expect, the agitated young man did not know. The situation was of course abnormal, judged by all respectable, long-established custom. A man's valet and his valet's ”young woman” were not usually of intimate interest. Gentlemen were sometimes ”kind” to you--gave you half a sovereign or even a sovereign, and perhaps asked after your mother if you were supporting one; but--
”I never dreamed of going so far, sir,” he said. ”I forgot myself, I'm afraid.”
”Good thing you did. It's made me feel as if we were brothers.” He laughed again, enjoying the thought of the little thing who cared for Pearson ”too much” and had eyes that were ”that blue.” ”Say, I've just thought of something else. Have you bought her an engagement-ring yet?”