Part 80 (1/2)
The Professor then became demonstratively absorbed in the Sabellians, or Bopsius, or both, and Laet.i.tia acted as instructed, but without coming on the newspaper-paragraph. She couldn't ask for a clue after so broad a hint, so she had to be contented with supposing her father referred to the return of Sir Charles Penderfield, Bart., as a Home Rule Unionist and Protectionist Free Trader. Only if it was that, it was the first she had ever known of her father being aware of the Bart.'s admiration for herself. So she made the tea, and waited till the pen-scratching stopped, and the Sabellians or Bopsius were blotted, glanced through, and ratified.
”There, that'll do for that, I suppose.” His tone surrendered the grievance as an act of liberality, but maintained the principle.
”Well, have we found it?”
”Found what?”
”The heroic rescue--at your place--Saint Somebody--Saint Sena.n.u.s....”
”No! Do show me that.” Laet.i.tia forms a mental image of a lifeboat going out to a wreck. How excited Sally must have been!
”Here, give it me and I'll find it.... Yes--that's right--a big lump and a little lump. I'm to take less sugar because of gout. Very good!
Oh ... yes ... here we are. 'Heroic Rescue at St. Sennans' ... just under 'Startling Elopement at Clapham Rise'.... Got it?”
Laet.i.tia supplied the cup of tea, poured one for herself, and took the paper from her father without the slightest suspicion of what was coming. ”It will have to wait a minute till I've had some tea,” she said. ”I'm as thirsty as I can be. I've been to see my mother-in-law and Constance”--this was Julius's sister--”off to Southend. And just fancy, papa; Pag and I played from nine till a quarter-to-one last night, and he never felt it, nor had any headache nor anything.” The topic is so interesting that the unread paragraph has to wait.
The Professor cannot think of any form of perversion better than ”Very discreditable to him. I hope you blew him well up?”
”Now, papa, don't be nonsensical! Do you know, I'm really beginning to believe Pag's right, and it _was_ the little galvanic battery.
Shouldn't you say so, though, seriously?”
”Why, yes. If there wasn't a big galvanic battery, it must have been the little one. It stands to reason. But _what_ does my musical son-in-law think was the little galvanic battery?”
”Oh dear, papa, how ridiculous you are! Why, of course, his nerves going away--as they really _have_ done, you know; and I can't see any good pretending they haven't. Yesterday was the fourth evening he hasn't felt them....”
”Stop a bit! There is a lack of scientific precision in the structure of your sentences. A young married woman ought really to be more accurate. Now let's look it over, and do a little considering.
I gather, in the first place, that my son-in-law's nerves going away was, or were, a little galvanic battery....”
”Dear papa, don't paradox and catch me out. Just this once, be reasonable! Think what a glorious thing it would be for us if his nerves _had_ gone for good. Another cup? Was the last one right?”
”My position is peculiar. (Yes, the tea was all right.) I find myself requested to be reasonable, and to embark on a career of reasonableness by considering the substantial advantages to my daughter and her husband of the disappearance of his nervous system....”
”Oh, I wish you wouldn't! _Do_ be serious....” The Professor looked at her reflectively as he drank the cup of tea, and it seemed to dawn on him slowly that his daughter _was_ serious. The fact is, Tishy was very serious indeed, and was longing for sympathy over a matter for great elation. She and Julius had been purposely playing continuously for long hours to test the apparent suspension or cessation of his nervous affection, and had not so far seen a sign of a return; but they were dreadfully afraid of counting their chickens in advance.
”I noticed the other evening”--the Professor has surrendered, and become serious--”that Julius wasn't any the worse, and he had played a long time. What should you do?” Tishy looked inquiringly. ”Well, I mean what steps could be taken if it were...?”
”If we could trust to it? Oh, no difficulty at all! Any number of engagements directly.”
”It would please your mother.” Tishy cannot help a pa.s.sing thought on the oddity of her parents' relations to one another. Even though he spoke of the Dragon as a connexion of his daughter he was but little concerned with, the first thought that crossed his mind was a sort of satisfaction under protest that she would have something to be pleased about. Tishy wondered whether she and Julius would end up like that. Of course they wouldn't! What pity people's parents were so unreasonable!
”Yes; mamma wouldn't be at all sorry. Fiddlers are not Baronets, but anything is better than haberdas.h.i.+ng. _I'm_ not ashamed of it, you know.” She had subjected herself gratuitously to her own suspicion that she might be, and resented it.
Her father looked at her with an amused face; looked down at these social fads of poor humanity from the height of his Olympus. If he knew anything about the Unionist Home Ruler's aspirations for Laet.i.tia, he said nothing. Then he asked a natural question--what _was_ the little galvanic battery? Tishy gave her account of it, but before she had done the Professor was thinking about Sabines or Lucanians. The fact is that Tishy was never at her best with her father. She was always so anxious to please him that she tumbled over her own anxiety, and in this present case didn't tell her story as well as she might have done. He began considering how he could get back to the shreds of Bopsius, if any were left, and looked at his watch.
”Well, that was very funny--very funny!” said he absently. ”Now, don't forget the heroic rescue before you go.”
Tishy perceived the delicate hint, and picked up the paper with ”I declare I was forgetting all about it!” But she had scarcely cast her eyes on it when she gave a cry. ”Oh, papa, papa; it's _Sally_! Oh dear!” And then: ”Oh dear, oh dear! I can hardly see to make it out.
But I'm sure she's all right! They say so.” And kept on trying to read. Her father did what was, under the circ.u.mstances, the best thing to do--took the paper from her, and as she sank back with a beating heart and flushed face on the chair she had just risen from read the paragraph to her as follows:
”HEROIC RESCUE FROM DROWNING AT ST. SENNANS-ON-SEA.--Early this morning, as Mr. Algernon Fenwick, of Shepherd's Bush, at present on a visit at the old town, was walking on the pier-end, at the point where there is no rail or rope for the security of the public, his foot slipped, and he was precipitated into the sea, a height of at least ten feet. Not being a swimmer, his life was for some minutes in the greatest danger; but fortunately for him his stepdaughter, Miss Rosalind Nightingale, whose daring and brilliant feats in swimming have been for some weeks past the admiration and envy of all the visitors to the bathing quarter of this most attractive of south-coast watering-places, was close at hand, and without a moment's hesitation plunged in to his rescue. Enc.u.mbered as she was by clothing, she was nevertheless able to keep Mr. Fenwick above water, and ultimately to reach a life-buoy that was thrown from the pier. Unfortunately, having established Mr. Fenwick in a position of safety, she thought her best course would be to return to the pier. She was unable in the end to reach it, and her strength giving way, she was picked up, after an immersion of more than twenty minutes, by the boats that put off from the sh.o.r.e. It will readily be imagined that a scene of great excitement ensued, and that a period of most painful anxiety followed, for it was not till nearly four hours afterwards that, thanks to the skill and a.s.siduity of Dr. Fergus Maccoll, of 22A, Albion Crescent, a.s.sisted by Dr. Vereker, of London, the young lady showed signs of life. We are happy to say that the latest bulletins appear to point to a speedy and complete recovery, with no worse consequences than a bad fright. We understand that the expediency of placing a proper railing at all dangerous points on the pier is being made the subject of a numerously signed pet.i.tion to the Town Council.”