Part 32 (1/2)

On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good night, and left the room.

Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and expressed his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. It was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children, rankled. He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of Africa, by much more ferocious creatures. But after sleeping on the matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield children were allowed to fish his water.

CHAPTER XIII

AND AN APOLOGY

The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's faint appet.i.te.

She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed, definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman of spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness of her life in the country. It was sapping her strength and energy; in it she would grow old long before her time. The Twins had been used to find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings; and the change troubled them. Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her. But she made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the springs of her being.

Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound of the Twins on the bank of the stream. To his pleased surprise he neither saw nor heard them. For the most part they fished in the early morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appet.i.te at breakfast. But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other acted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of his sight. They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy a.s.sured them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James. As the Terror phrased it:

”He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point in rubbing it in.”

Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them. Erebus was playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare Sir James' feelings. Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.

He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it snapped the gut and was gone.

”Evidently you're no so good at fis.h.i.+ng as blackmailing,” said Sir James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him still rankled in his heart.

”I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!” said Erebus with some heat; and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.

Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]

He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.

”This is Sir James Morgan, mother,” said the Terror quickly.

Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully: ”It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish.”

”Oh--ah--yes--n-n-not at all,” stammered Sir James, blus.h.i.+ng faintly.

He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.

”Oh, but it was,” said Mrs. Dangerfield. ”And I'm seeing that they don't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that, thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none too many fish in the stream.”

”It's very good of you. B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch,”

said Sir James.

He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence. Yet he did not wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.

Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: ”You would, if I let them catch as many as they'd like to.”

”Are they as good fishermen as that?” said Sir James.

”Well, they've been fis.h.i.+ng ever since they could handle a rod. They are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every spring. So I limit them to three fish a day,” said Mrs. Dangerfield; and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.