Part 28 (2/2)

”Very soon. . . . Fortnight or three weeks. Quite a quiet affair, you know; Baxter is dead against any big function. Besides, he has to run over to France so often, and so unexpectedly, that it might have to be postponed a day or two at the last moment. Makes it awkward if half London has been asked.”

The car swung through the gates and rolled up the drive to the house.

The brown tints of autumn were just beginning to show on the trees, and an occasional fall of dead leaves came fluttering down as they pa.s.sed underneath. Then, all too quickly for Vane, they were at the house, and the chauffeur was holding open the door of the car. Now that he was actually there--now that another minute would bring him face to face with Joan--he had become unaccountably nervous.

He followed Mr. Sutton slowly up the steps, and spent an unnecessarily long time taking off his coat. He felt rather like a boy who had been looking forward intensely to his first party, and is stricken with shyness just as he enters the drawing-room.

”Come in, come in, my boy, and get warm.” Mr. Sutton threw open a door. ”Mary, my dear, who do you think I found in Lewes? Young Derek Vane--I've brought him along. . . .”

Vane followed him into the room as he was speaking, and only he noticed that Joan half rose from her chair, and then sank back again, while a wave of colour flooded her cheeks, and then receded, leaving them deathly white. With every pulse in his body hammering, but outwardly quite composed, Vane shook hands with Mrs. Sutton.

”So kind of your husband,” he murmured. ”He found me propping up the hotel smoking-room, and rescued me from such a dreadful operation. . . .”

Mrs. Sutton beamed on him. ”But it's delightful, Captain Vane. I'm so glad you could come. Let me see--you know Miss Devereux, don't you?”

Vane turned to Joan, and for the moment their eyes met. ”I think I have that pleasure,” he said in a low voice. ”I believe I have to congratulate you, Miss Devereux, on your approaching marriage.”

He heard Joan give a gasp, and barely caught her whispered answer: ”My G.o.d! why have you come?”

He turned round and saw that both the old people were occupied for a moment. ”Why, just to congratulate you, dear lady . . . just to congratulate you.” His eyes burned into hers, and his voice was shaking. ”Why else, Joan, why else?”

Then Mrs. Sutton began to talk, and the conversation became general.

”It's about these German prisoners; they're giving a bit of trouble,”

Vane said in answer to her question. ”And so we've formed a sort of board to investigate their food and general conditions . . . and--er--I am one of the board.”

”How very interesting,” said the old lady. ”Have you been on it for long?”

”No--not long. In fact,” said Vane looking fixedly at Joan, ”I only got my orders last night. . . .” With the faintest flicker of a smile he watched the tell-tale colour come and go.

Then she turned on him, and her expression was a little baffling. ”And have you any special qualification, Captain Vane, for dealing with such an intricate subject?”

”Intricate?” He raised his eyebrows. ”I should have thought it was very simple. Just a matter of common sense, and making . . . er . . .

these men--well--get their sense of proportion.”

”You mean making them get your sense of proportion?”

”In some cases there can be only one,” said Vane gravely.

”And that one is your own. These--German prisoners you said, didn't you?--these German prisoners may think it their duty to disagree with your views. Doubtless from patriotic motives. . . .”

”That would be a great pity,” said Vane. ”It would then be up to me to make them see the error of their ways.”

”And if you fail?” asked the girl.

”Somehow I don't think I shall,” he answered slowly. ”But if I do--the trouble of which I spoke will not diminish. It will increase. . . .”

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