Part 23 (1/2)
”What, dear?” I said, smiling.
She choked. ”Oh ... my good, big man!”
(”Laugh now,” the wicked one prompted; and I laughed.)
”Good heavens, what a tale!... Who told you? Archie? Just you see if I don't tweak that young man's ears!”
In her infinite relief the poor woman broke down utterly. She shook with the mingled grat.i.tude and humiliation of my pardon.
”Louie Causton!” I scoffed. ”You actually asked her that? Why, how she must have laughed!”
”Oh--you're wonderful, Jeff!” Kitty adored me.
”Oh,” I replied, quickly recollecting myself, ”don't think I'm not angry! I'll give that young man a jacket-dusting! He shall have a wedding present from me he'll remember, I promise you! Why, of all the mean tricks!...”
I went on. Presently Kitty had found me so wonderful that once more she could even toy a little with a peril.
”Louie wouldn't tell me ... who ... she said she'd die first....” she half sobbed by-and-by.
I looked into her little puffed eyes. ”Then,” I said, smiling, ”you've only the word of a not very trustworthy woman for it that after all ...
eh?”
A saint could hardly have cheapened the wors.h.i.+pping look she gave me.
”So,” I resumed presently, ”that was what ailed you all last night, when I was thinking all the time it was my uniform?”
”Yes--I tried hard to tell you, Jeff----”
”And does Archie really believe this tale himself, or is it just one of his little pleasantries?”
She didn't know.
”Is he at the college this morning?”
”Yes.”
”Good. Will you send him down to me if I walk back with you? I think we won't lose any time over this.”
”And you'll give him a really severe talking-to?” she asked eagerly.
”I will,” I promised. ”Come----”
Twenty minutes later I was again in the doorway of the Business College, waiting for Archie to descend.
And as I waited I reflected how well-nigh irrevocably I had tied myself up with Kitty now. I think that up to then she would have stuck to me even had this of Miss Causton been true; but now she would never, never let me go. Perhaps I may here mention the plan I had at first had for getting rid of her when I should require her no longer. I had based that plan on the fascination the ”compromising situation” of her favourite novels always had for her. I never knew anyone so self-conscious about her defencelessness, and I had worked it out that I had only to propose my own chamber for an a.s.signation and she would conceive herself to be looking into the bright face of danger indeed. All peril and all romance would lie for her in her setting foot on the lowest of my stairs....
And doubtless one glance at that naked room of mine (I had p.a.w.ned even my oil-stove) would, I had estimated, drive her away in instant and horrified fright.... I had not been above planning this.
But now she would never, never leave her big, wonderful man.
Yes. I had fettered myself fairly completely.