Part 3 (2/2)
”Hasn't there been no fearful doings on in the world, daddy?”
”Jack! Jack! I've got a new tonic. It has done me such a lot of good!”
Jack turned from one to the other.
”No, boys, no,--no more accidents to-day! What is it, darling? You look radiant. What is the joke?”
”Look out of the window for a minute! Margot, you talk to him, and don't let him look round.”
Edith pinned on the new hat before the mirror, carefully adjusting the angles, and pulling out her cloudy hair to fill in the necessary s.p.a.ces.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes sparkled; it was no longer the worn white wife, but a pretty, coquettish girl, who danced up to Jack's side with saucy, uplifted head.
”There! What do you think of that?”
The answer of the glowing eyes was more eloquent than words. Jack whistled softly beneath his breath, walking slowly round and round to take in the whole effect.
”I say, that _is_ fetching! That's something like a hat you wore the summer we were engaged. You don't look a day older. Where did you run that to earth, darling?”
”Can't you see Bond Street in every curve? I should have thought it was self-evident. Margot said I was shabby, and that a new hat would do me good, so we went out and bought it. Do you think I am extravagant?
It's better to spend on this than on medicine, and three guineas isn't expensive for real lace, is it?”
She peered in her husband's face with simulated anxiety, but his smile breathed pleasure unqualified.
”I'm delighted that you have bought something at last! You have not spent a penny on yourself for goodness knows how long.”
”Goose!” cried Edith. ”He has swallowed it at a gulp. Three guineas, indeed--as if I dare! Four and eleven-pence three-farthings in Edgware Road, and my old lace veil, and one of the paste b.u.t.tons you gave me at Christmas, and some roses off last year's hat, and Margot's clever fingers, and my--pretty face! Do you think I am pretty still?”
”I should rather think I do!” Jack framed his wife's face in his hands, stooping to kiss the soft flushed cheeks as fondly as he had done in the time of that other lace-wreathed hat six years before. Pat and Jim returned to their dominoes, bored by such foolish proceedings on the part of their parents, while Margot covered her face with her hands, with ostentatious propriety.
”This is no place for me! Consider my feelings, Jack. I'm like a story I once read in an old volume of _Good Words_, 'Lovely yet Unloved!'
When you have quite finished love-making, I want a private chat with you, while Edie puts the boys to bed. They will hate me for suggesting such a thing, but it is already past their hour, and I must have ten minutes' talk on a point of life and death!”
”Come away, boys; we are not wanted here. Daddy will come upstairs and see you again before you go to sleep.”
Mother and sons departed together, and Jack Martin sat down on the corner of the sofa and leant his head on his hand. With his wife's departure the light went out of his face, but he smiled at his sister- in-law with an air of affectionate _camaraderie_.
”You are a little brick, Margot! You have done Edie a world of good.
What can I do for you in return? I am at your service.”
Margot pulled forward the chair that her sister had chosen as the least lumpy which the room afforded, and seated herself before him, returning his glance with an odd mixture of mischief and embarra.s.sment.
”It's about Ron. The year of probation is nearly over.”
”I know it.”
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