Part 38 (1/2)

”Do I look it?”

”My imagination fell a long way short. It's months since I 've seen you in this sort of thing.”

He indicated her gauzy evening frock of pale rose-colour. A wreath of tiny rosebuds crowned her hair; a little silver basket of roses, ribbon-tied, lay in her lap, a dinner favour like those the others carried, but suiting her attire with special charm.

”Do you remember our first party?” asked s.h.i.+rley, smiling at him.

”I certainly do,” Peter a.s.sured her. ”You had on a white dress and pink ribbons--pink slippers, too. You came up and slid your hand into mine, because you saw I was feeling lonely. You were jolly kind to me that night, and I never forgot it. I suppose I was a pitiful object, standing there looking on, all by myself.”

”You did n't look pitiful at all, but rather superior, if I remember, like a big St. Bernard, condescending to watch the antics of a lot of frolicsome terriers.”

Peter threw back his head and laughed low, with a gleam of white teeth.

Whatever there might have been that was odd about Peter's appearance at that first party, there could be no criticism of his looks to-night.

Olive, taking critical note of s.h.i.+rley's companion, owned that she should feel no hesitation in presenting him to Mr. Arthur Crewe and his brother as a connection of the family. When that moment arrived, the American and the Englishmen appeared to take a frank liking to one another on the spot, for the Crewes both sat down to talk, and Peter, sitting up, met them half-way in a cordial effort to become acquainted in the brief time allotted them.

”Will you tell me what you think of him?” It was Olive, slipping for a moment toward the end of the evening into the chair by Peter's, he being temporarily left to himself.

”I think he's a man,” said Peter, heartily, and to the point. ”There 's nothing better I could say than that, is there?”

”I suppose not, being one yourself. A woman would think it necessary to add a number of complimentary things about his appearance and his manner and all that.”

”I could do that, at a pinch,” said Peter, smiling, ”for my memory would tell me that they were all right, though I thought nothing about them at the time. I was looking to see what it was you were going to marry, and I found out--as far as a half-hour's talk would show it. I wish you great happiness, Olive--and I believe you 'll get it.”

”Thank you,” and Olive was gone again, being in constant demand, as the central figure of the occasion. She found time, however, to ask much the same question of Arthur Crewe concerning Peter Bell, and received so nearly the same sort of answer that she laughed, and told him of the similarity in the two estimates.

”I am flattered,” said Crewe, ”for I don't know when I 've met a young American I 've liked better. He 's both frank and reserved--a combination which appeals to me. It looks a bit as if you were going to have him in the family, I believe you told me? I sincerely hope you will--though, if you don't mind my saying it, now that I see your sister, I feel as if I 'd like to leave Geoffrey here for the summer, with deliberate intention. I fancy it's too late for that, though.”

”I 'm glad you like Peter. It would be too unkind to the family to take more than one daughter to England.”

”See how well Geoffrey appreciates his privileges?” whispered Crewe, indicating his brother, as that personable young man went by with s.h.i.+rley, his manner suggesting concentration of attention upon the subject in hand. Then he looked in Peter's direction. ”The chap in the chair isn't deserted, is he? I think each bridesmaid has taken a turn at him, and he seems equal to them all.”

However this might have been, Peter found himself thoroughly weary at the end of the evening, and glad to be put into a wheeled chair and taken home, ignominious as that mode of departure seemed. Arthur Crewe insisted on walking at Peter's elbow, all the way round to the house in Gay Street and the two parted with friendly warmth of good-will on each side.

According to Nancy, who kept Peter informed, Geoffrey Crewe neglected none of the opportunities afforded him by his brief visit, and in one way and another s.h.i.+rley was kept busy all the next day. The wedding was to take place in the evening, so Peter had plenty of time to rest and reflect on the advantages an able-bodied man has over a temporary cripple, as he caught glimpses, from time to time, of such sights as s.h.i.+rley driving off in the trap with the younger Englishman, or sitting beside Brant Hille as he took a portion of the bridal party away for a spin in his big green car.

Olive had chosen to be married at home, so every effort at effective decoration had been expended upon the house and grounds in Worthington Square. For a hot night in July, it was expected that the outdoor arrangements would be most popular, and the great lawn, with its natural beauties of landscape-gardening enhanced by the devices of electricity and Chinese lanterns, flowers and bunting, was like a fairyland.

”If a fellow's will amounted to anything, a scene like this would make him get on his legs, if both of them were only just out of the repair-shop!” groaned Peter, as he was brought through the gates by Rufus at an early hour. He took note of the paths winding away through the grounds, made enticing to promenades by every witchery of art, and his imagination already pictured s.h.i.+rley, in her maid-of-honour attire, floating away down one of them, devotedly attended by Brant Hille or Geoffrey Crewe.

”Cheer up. The wounded-hero role is awfully taking with the girls, you know,” consoled Rufus, divining the tantalising effect of this stage setting upon his handicapped brother.

”Wounded hero be shot!” retorted Peter.

”It would be the most soothing thing that could happen to him. Would you like to change places with him, instead of being able to dash about in search of what you want?”

”I shouldn't mind, if my crippled condition seemed to have the hypnotic effect yours did last evening. According to Nancy, the bride-elect was n't in it with you at posing as an interesting figure. She said the bridesmaids were four deep around you.”

”Kind-hearted things--they were nearly the finish of me. When I become a society man please notify my family. I shall not have the brains, myself.”

”I will. Where will you be placed for the ceremony?”