Part 25 (1/2)

”Hullo!” was her greeting. ”Hope I haven't kept you waiting. I've had a busy afternoon helping my chief to give you and The Right Honourable Hayes Matheson a good slanging.”

”Oh, you have, have you?”

The grey eyes were growing more and more approving, as he noted each detail most likely to appeal to a man who had made a study of women for many years. The shapely little ears with the glossy hair curling round them, the full, rounded throat, the determined little chin, the frank, fearless eyes.

He still hardly knew whether she was pretty or not, but he discerned wery quickly that she was amply blessed with that rare gift of personality and humour that is so much more durable than a pretty face.

Hal, for her part, was no less interested in him, but she found little else than that she had already seen: humorous, quizzical grey eyes, a face a good deal lined, and a mouth and chin suggesting a nature fond of enjoyment and self-indulgence, which it had never seen any cause to deny itself. She saw that he was very grey about the temples, and a trifle inclined to stoutness, but tall enough and broad enough to carry it off.

A fine figure of a man, though one, she felt instinctively, belonging to a very different world to hers. Because she felt his careful scrutiny, and because she wanted to a.s.sert her indifference to it, she remarked suddenly, after a moment:

”Well, how do you like me by daylight?”

”How do you like me?” he retorted, and laughed.

She shook her head, and her eyes grew mischievous.

”Old,” she said; ”quite old and grey.”

”Old be d.a.m.ned! Forty-eight is the prime of life.”

She was taking her seat, and gave a low chuckle of enjoyment at having drawn him.

”Ah, you may laugh now,” he said, ”but I'll soon show you forty-eight is far more attractive than twenty-eight. Where shall we go?”

”I don't mind in the least, but I should prefer to steer for tea and buns.”

”Tea and buns!... how like a woman!... How can you expect to get the vote on tea and buns?”

They were spinning along the Broughton Road now, heading for Putney and Richmond, and Hal felt her spirits rising momentarily with the joy of the motion and comfort and fresh air.

”We don't expect to get in on tea and buns; we expect to get it on whisky and beer. That is to say, we expect the course of events to prove that tea and buns conduce to a frame of mind better able to cope with the questions of the day than the whisky and beer drained in such quant.i.ties by men.”

”And when you've got it you'll all vote for the man who happens to be good-looking, and who can pay you the prettiest compliments.”

”A few will vote that way, no doubt, but not the majority. Women are not so fond of pretty men as they were”; and her lips curled significantly.

”Pretty men!...” he echoed, with enjoyment.

”Little woman, you have a neat way of putting things.”

He was silent a few minutes, then added:

”I suppose, down at that office they are all in love with you?”

”I don't know. I haven't asked them,” with twinkling eyes. ”I'm a bit in love with the chief myself.”

”Oh, your are, are you? And what aged man might he be?”

”Oh, he's quite old,” she laughed; ”somewhere about forty-eight.”