Part 12 (2/2)

They rushed out. At the end of the pa.s.sage Miss de Lisle and the irreproachable Allenby struggled in a heap--in an ever-widening pool of water that came from an overturned bucket lying a yard away. The family rushed to the rescue. Allenby got to his feet as they arrived, and dragged up the drenched cook-lady. He was pale with apprehension.

”I--I--do beg your pardon, mum!” he gasped. ”I 'adn't an idea in me 'ead there was any one there, least of all you on your knees. I just come backin' out with the bucket!”

”I say, Miss de Lisle, are you hurt?” Jim asked anxiously.

”Not a bit, which is queer, considering Allenby's weight!” returned Miss de Lisle. ”But it's--it's just t-too funny, isn't it!” She broke into a shout of laughter, and the others, who had, indeed, been choking with repressed feeling, followed suit. Allenby, after a gallant attempt to preserve the correct demeanour of a butler, unchanged by any circ.u.mstance, suddenly bolted into the kitchen like a rabbit. They heard strange sounds from the direction of the sink.

”But, I say, you're drenched!” said Jim, when every one felt a little better.

Miss de Lisle glanced at her stained and dripping overall.

”Well, a little. I'll take this off,” she said, suiting the action to the word, and appearing in a white blouse and grey skirt which suited her very much better than the roseate garment. ”But my floor! And I had it so beautifully polished!” she raised her voice. ”Allenby!

What are you going to do about this floor?”

”Indeed, mum, I've made a pretty mess of it,” said Allenby, reappearing.

”You have, indeed,” said she.

”But I never expected to find you 'ere a-polis.h.i.+n',” said the bewildered ex-sergeant.

”And I certainly never expected to find the butler scrubbing!”

retorted Miss de Lisle; at which Allenby's jam dropped, and he cast an appealing glance at Jim.

”This is a working-bee,” said Jim promptly. ”We're all in it, and no one else knows anything about it.”

”Not Mrs. Atkins, I hope, sir,” said Allenby.

”Certainly not. As for Sarah, she's out of it altogether.”

Allenby sighed, a relieved butler.

”I'll see to the floor, sir,” he said. ”It's up to me, isn't it? And polish it after. I can easy slip down 'ere for a couple of hours after lunch, when you're all out ridin'.”

”Then I really had better fly,” said Miss de Lisle. ”I am pretty wet, and there's lunch to think about.” She looked at them in friendly fas.h.i.+on. ”Thank you all very much,” she said--and was gone, with a kind of elephantine swiftness.

The family returned to the dining-room, leaving Allenby to grapple with the swamp in the pa.s.sage.

”Don't we have cheery adventures when we clean house!” said Wally happily. ”I wouldn't have missed this morning for anything.”

”No--it _has_ been merry and bright,” Jim agreed. ”And isn't the cook-lady a surprise-packet! I say, Nor, do you think you'd find a human side to Mrs. Atkins if we let Allenby fall over her with a bucket of water?”

”'Fraid not,” said Norah.

”You can't find what doesn't exist,” said Wally wisely. ”Mrs. Atkins is only a walking cruet--sort of mixture of salt and vinegar.”

They told the story to Mr. Linton over the luncheon-table, after Allenby had withdrawn. Nevertheless, the butler, listening from his pantry to the shouts of laughter from the morning-room, had a fairly good idea of the subject under discussion, and became rather pink.

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