Part 26 (1/2)
”Why do you harp on my age so?... If I am old enough to be your father, it doesn't follow that I'm too old to be your lover?”
He was standing clos to her now, looking down into her face, and Hal felt a little conscious tremor run through her blood. She faced him squarely, however, and answered in a gay, careless voice:
”Of course it doesn't, only, as I don't happen to want a lover, it's a contingency not worth considering.”
”Perhaps the post is already filled?” he suggested, refusing likewise to be daunted.
”Quite filled. It's a case for a placard stating 'House Full', and you,” she finished, ”would naturally be at the tail end of the queue which has to go away.”
He laughed with relish, and gave it up.
”I can see you will take some taming,” he said, as he handed her into the car. ”My weighty and important position evidently does not impress you in the least.”
”Of course not, as you're a Liberal. They have so few really good men, they have to take anything they can get. Back up the Budget and the Chancellor, and exhibit a colossal amount of impudence, and there you are!”
”Well, there isn't much to boast of in the way of men on the Conservative side, is there? Chiefly a collection of cousins, and second-cousins, and cousins by marriage, shoved in by a few interfering old aunts. You don't need me to tell an enlightened young woman like you that even impudence might serve the country better than cousin-s.h.i.+p.”
”I wonder sometimes if any of you honestly put the country first at any time; or whether it is just a popular name for a very big 'me'?”
”You are such a little sceptic. Do you always credit people with self-interested motives?”
”I don't know that I do; but if you are a city-worker it is a fairly safe basis to work upon, until you can find proof that you are wrong.”
He looked down at her with amus.e.m.e.nt.
”What a wise little head it is! Do you know, I don't think I ever met any one quite like you before,”
”What you have missed!” was the gay rejoinder, and they both laughed.
”I suppose I mustn't take you home?” as they neared Piccadilly.
”Brother Dudley might see us?”
”No, thanks. If you will drop me at Hyde Park Corner I will take a homely bus, and return to my Bloomsbury level.”
”Until my next free afternoon, I hope. Will you come again soon?”
”Perhaps.”
”What do you do on Sundays?”
”I generally go out with d.i.c.k Bruce.”
”Does d.i.c.k Bruce consider himself ent.i.tled to every Sunday?”
”Well, I consider myself ent.i.tled to d.i.c.k!...” laughing.
”You're evidently very fond of d.i.c.k.”