Part 21 (1/2)

”We'll do our best for it,” Norah promised her. ”I'm sure it will be lovely. Shall I come and tell you how it looked, afterwards?”

Miss de Lisle beamed.

”Now, that would be very kind of you,” she said. ”It's so seldom that any one realizes what these things mean to the cook. A _souffle_ like this is an inspiration--like a sonata to a musician. But no one ever dreams of the cook; and the most you can expect from a butler is, 'Oh, it cut very nice, ma'am, I'm sure. Very nice!'” She made a despairing gesture. ”But some people would call Chopin 'very nice'!”

”Miss de Lisle,” said Norah earnestly, ”some day when we haven't any guests and Dad goes to London, we'll give every one else a holiday and you and I will have lunch here together. And we'll have that _souffle_, and eat it beside the range!”

For a moment Miss de Lisle had no words.

”Well!” she said at length explosively. ”And I was so horrible to you at first!” To Norah's amazement and dismay a large tear trickled down one cheek, and her mouth quivered like a child's. ”Dear me, how foolish I am,” said the poor cook-lady, rubbing her face with her overall, and thereby streaking it most curiously with flour. ”Thank you very much, my dear. Even if we never manage it, I won't forget that you said it!”

Norah found herself patting the stalwart shoulder.

”Indeed, we'll manage it,” she said. ”Now, don't you worry about anything but that lovely _souffle_.”

”Oh, the _souffle_ is a.s.sured now,” said Miss de Lisle, beating her mixture scientifically. ”Now I shall have beautiful thoughts to put into it! You have no idea what that means. Now, if I sat here mixing, and thought of, say, Mrs. Atkins, it would probably be as heavy as lead!” She sighed. ”I believe, Miss Linton, I could teach you something of the real poetry of cooking. I'm sure you have the right sort of soul!”

Norah looked embarra.s.sed.

”Jim says I've no soul beyond mustering cattle,” she said, laughing.

”We'll prove him wrong, some day, Miss de Lisle, shall we? Now I must go: the motor will be back presently.” She turned, suddenly conscious of a baleful glance.

”Oh!--Mrs. Atkins!” she said feebly.

”I came,” said Mrs. Atkins stonily, ”to see if any help was needed in the kitchen. Perhaps, as you are here, miss, you would be so good as to ask the cook?”

”Oh--nothing, thank you,” said Miss de Lisle airily, over her shoulder. Mrs. Atkins sniffed, and withdrew.

”That's done it, hasn't it?” said the cook-lady. ”Well, don't worry, my dear; I'll see you through anything.”

A white-capped head peeped in.

”'Tis yersilf has all the luck of the place, Katty O'Gorman!” said Bride enviously. ”An' that Sarah won't give me so much as a look-in, above: if it was to turn down the beds, itself, it's as much as she'll do to let me. Could I give you a hand here at all, Miss de Lisle?

G.o.d help us, there's Miss Norah!”

”If 'tis the way you'd but let her baste the turkey for a minyit, she'd go upstairs reshted in hersilf,” said Katty in a loud whisper.

”The creature's destroyed with bein' out of all the fun.”

”Oh, come in--if you're not afraid of Mrs. Atkins,” said Miss de Lisle. Norah had a vision of Bride, ecstatically grasping a basting-ladle, as she made her own escape.

Allenby was just shutting the hall-door as she turned the corner. A tall man in a big military greatcoat was shaking hands with her father.

”Here's Captain Hardress, Norah.”

Norah found herself looking up into a face that at the first glance she thought one of the ugliest she had ever seen. Then the newcomer smiled, and suddenly the ugliness seemed to vanish.

”It's too bad to take you by storm this way. But your brother wouldn't hear of anything else.”

”Of course not,” said Mr. Linton. ”My daughter was rather afraid you might be a brigadier. She loses her nerve at the idea of pouring tea for anything above a colonel.”

”Indeed, a colonel's bad enough,” said Norah ruefully. ”I'm accustomed to people with one or two stars: even three are rather alarming!” She shot a glance at his shoulder, laughing.