Part 6 (1/2)

”Who thought of it first?” demanded Mr. Raggett ferociously. ”Who came to me and asked me to court his slip of a girl?”

”Don't you be a' old fool,” said Mr. Boom heatedly. ”It's done now, and what's done can't be undone. I never thought to have a son-in-law seven or eight years older than what I am, and what's more, I don't want it.”

”Said I wasn't much to look at, but she liked my chest o' drawers,”

repeated Raggett mechanically.

”Don't ask me where she gets her natur' from, cos I couldn't tell you,”

said the unhappy parent; ”she don't get it from me.”

Mr. Raggett allowed this reflection upon the late Mrs. Boom to pa.s.s unnoticed, and taking his hat from the table, fixed it firmly upon his head, and gazing with scornful indignation upon his host, stepped slowly out of the door without going through the formality of bidding him good-night.

”George,” said a voice from above him.

Mr. Raggett started, and glanced up at somebody leaning from the window.

”Come in to tea to-morrow early,” said the voice pressingly; ”good-night, dear.”

Mr. Raggett turned and fled into the night, dimly conscious that a dark figure had detached itself from the stile opposite, and was walking beside him.

”That you, d.i.c.k?” he inquired nervously, after an oppressive silence.

”That's me,” said d.i.c.k. ”I heard her call you 'dear.'” Mr. Raggett, his face suffused with blushes, hung his head.

”Called you 'dear,'” repeated d.i.c.k; ”I heard her say it. I'm going to pitch you into the harbour. I'll learn you to go courting a young girl.

What are you stopping for?”

Mr. Raggett delicately intimated that he was stopping because he preferred, all things considered, to be alone. Finding the young man, however, bent upon accompanying him, he divulged the plot of which he had been the victim, and bitterly lamented his share in it.

”You don't want to marry her, then,” said the astonished d.i.c.k.

”Course I don't,” snarled Mr. Raggett; ”I can't afford it. I'm too old; besides which, she'll turn my little place topsy-turvy. Look here, d.i.c.k, I done this all for you. Now, it's evident she only wants my furniture: if I give all the best of it to you, she'll take you instead.”

”No, she won't,” said d.i.c.k grimly; ”I wouldn't have her now not if she asked me on her bended knee.”

”Why not?” said Raggett.

”I don't want to marry that sort o' girl,” said the other scornfully; ”it's cured me.”

”What about me, then?” said the unfortunate Raggett.

”Well, so far as I can see, it serves you right for mixing in other people's business,” said d.i.c.k shortly. ”Well, good-night, and good luck to you.”

To Mr. Raggett's sore disappointment, he kept to his resolution, and being approached by Mr. Boom on his elderly friend's behalf, was rudely frank to him.

”I'm a free man again,” he said blithely, ”and I feel better than I've felt for ever so long. More manly.”

”You ought to think of other people,” said Mr. Boom severely; ”think of poor old Raggett.”

”Well, he's got a young wife out of it,” said d.i.c.k. ”I dare say he'll be happy enough. He wants somebody to help him spend his money.”