Part 20 (1/2)

”Number, please?” said a bored voice.

”Some one was speaking to me--you've cut me off,” said Norah frantically.

”I've been trying to get you for the last ten minutes. You shouldn't have rung off,” said the voice coldly. ”Wait, please.”

Norah swallowed her feelings and waited.

”Hallo! Hallo! Hallo!--oh, _is_ that you, Norah?” said Jim, his tone crisp with feeling. ”Isn't this an unspeakable machine! And I'm due in three minutes--I must fly. Sure you can have Hardress? He'll get to you by the 6.45. Are you all well? Yes, we're all right. Sorry, I'll get told off horribly if I'm late. Good-bye.”

Norah hung up the receiver, and stood pondering. She wished the telephone had not chosen to behave so abominably; only the day before Wally had rung her up and had spent quite half an hour in talking cheerful nonsense, without any hindrance at all. Norah wished she knew a little more about her new ”case”; if he were very weak--if special food were needed. It was very provoking. Also, there was Mrs. Atkins to be faced--not a prospect to be put off, since, like taking Gregory's Powder, the more you looked at it the worse it got.

Norah stiffened her shoulders and marched off to the housekeeper's room.

”Oh, Mrs. Atkins,” she said pleasantly, ”there's another officer coming this evening.”

Mrs. Atkins turned, cold surprise in her voice.

”Indeed, miss. And will that be all, do you think?”

”I really don't know,” said Norah recklessly. ”That depends on my father, you see.”

”Oh. May I ask which room is to be prepared?”

”The one next Captain Garrett's, please. I can do it, if the maids are too busy.”

Mrs. Atkins froze yet more.

”I should very much rather you did not, miss, thank you,” she said.

”Just as you like,” said Norah. ”Con can take a message for anything you want; he is going to the station.”

”Thank you, miss, I have already telephoned for larger supplies,” said the housekeeper. The conversation seemed to have ended, so Norah departed.

”What did she ever come for?” she asked herself desperately. ”If she didn't want to housekeep, why does she go out as a housekeeper?”

Turning a corner she met the butler.

”Oh, Allenby,” she said. ”We'll have quite a houseful to-night!” She told him of the expected arrivals, half expecting to see his face fall. Allenby, on the contrary, beamed.

”It'll be almost like waiting in Mess!” he said. ”When you're used to officers, miss, you can't get on very well without them.” He looked in a fatherly fas.h.i.+on at Norah's anxious face. ”All the arrangements made, I suppose, miss?”

”Oh, yes, I think they're all right,” said Norah, feeling anything but confident. ”Allenby--I don't know much about managing things; do you think it's too much for the house?”

”No, miss, it isn't,” Allenby said firmly. ”Just you leave it all to me, and don't worry. Nature made some people bad-tempered, and they can't 'elp it. I'll see that things are all right; and as for dinner, all that worries Miss de Lisle, as a rule, is, that she ain't got enough cooking to do!”

He bent the same fatherly glance on her that evening as she came into the hall when the hoot of the motor told that her father and his consignment of Tired People were arriving. Norah had managed to forget her troubles during the afternoon. A long ride had been followed by a very cheerful tea at Mrs. Hunt's, from which she and Garrett had returned only in time for Norah to slip into a white frock and race downstairs to meet her guests. She hoped, vaguely, that she looked less nervous than she felt.

The hall door opened, letting in a breath of the cold night air.

”Ah, Norah--this is my daughter, Mrs. West,” she heard her father's voice; and then she was greeting a stout lady and a grey-haired officer.

”Dear me!” said the lady. ”I expected some one grown up. How brave!