Part 57 (2/2)
”I did send word that I would not be in to lunch. But those boys are so stupid that it's ten to one if he conveyed my message.”
”Don't you alarm yourself on that point,” Peter J. said, cheerfully.
”But if you think you can explain things better yourself, why we'll go along together. But mind you, we return together, even at the risk of an earthquake.”
”Let Kitty come as well,” Madeline said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
”All right, my dear. The more the merrier. I'll take the skipper and the crew if you think it might impress his lords.h.i.+p and make the way easier.”
”No, I think the three of us will be sufficient,” Madeline said, with a laugh. ”But no hint must be given that I'm to be absent more than two or three days. Sir Charles had made all arrangements to leave for Paris on Monday.”
”You leave that to P. J. H., my dear. If I'm not quite a full-blown diplomat it's only for want of opportunity. Now let us be off. If Lord Charles What's-his-other-name don't yield without a murmur, I shall be surprised.”
Half-an-hour later they were walking up the steps of the hotel. Sir Charles was in the lounge, with a cigar in his mouth and his eyes towards the door. He was feeling much more anxious than he cared to admit. Gervase had gone by an early train to Monte Carlo and had not returned. Lady Tregony and Beryl were in their bedrooms.
Sir Charles sprang to his feet and heaved a big sigh of relief when the swing door was pushed open, and Madeline entered, radiant and smiling, followed by Kitty Harvey and her father.
”My dear Madeline,” he said, reproachfully, ”you have given us a fright.
We have been looking for you everywhere.”
”Oh! I am sorry,” she answered. ”But I told one of the page-boys I met outside to tell you I was going to lunch with some friends.”
”No such message was brought to me,” he answered, severely. ”It would have been better if you had left word at the office.”
”I am sorry if I have caused you any anxiety,” she answered, quietly.
”But I met some American friends on the promenade, and have been with them on their yacht to lunch.”
At the word yacht Sir Charles p.r.i.c.ked up his ears, and a somewhat mollified expression stole over his face.
”Allow me to introduce my friend Miss Kitty Harvey,” Madeline said, in her most engaging manner, ”and this is her father, Mr. P. J. Harvey, of New York City, and a friend of my father's.”
Sir Charles bowed very pompously, and muttered something under his breath about being delighted to meet them.
Peter J. had said nothing up to this point, but stood in the background--as a modest man should--chewing the end of a cigar.
”I can a.s.sure you, Colonel, the pleasure is reciprocated,” he said, in his slowest manner, and with a twinkle in the corner of his eye. ”The truth is my daughter and I have come along as a sort of deputation.”
”Indeed! Will you not be seated?”
”Well, thank you. As it's as cheap to sit as to stand, and talking comes easier as a rule when you are sitting down, I guess I'll fall in with the suggestion.”
Sir Charles waited for Mr. Harvey to proceed. Madeline and Kitty sat on a lounge side by side, the former feeling very uncomfortable. She saw in a moment that Sir Charles did not like the American's free and easy ways, and Mr. Harvey was dimly conscious of the same truth.
”Not to waste words over the business,” Peter J. went on, ”we want to take Miss Grover just for a little run on our steamer, and we came across to ask your consent. These formalities are considered proper I believe, and we fall in with them. Though as a citizen of the United States I presume the lady can just do as she likes.”
”Well, no!” Sir Charles replied, pompously. ”Miss Grover is my ward till she comes of age. At any rate, it amounts to that----”
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