Part 12 (1/2)
as the poet hath it, and when one has walked eight or nine miles across the moors the man within cries out for food and drink even more than for art. And therefore I have ventured to introduce myself to Mrs.
Hubbard and to inquire if she would make me a cup of tea, and she has very kindly consented to do so.”
I looked at Mother Hubbard, who had sufficient sense of the appropriate to blush very becomingly.
”You old sinner!” I said, ”how dare you impose upon my good nature!
Are there so few neighbours of ours who cater professionally for the requirements of these 'men within' that we must needs enter into compet.i.tion with them?”
Mother Hubbard's nods and winks became so alarmingly expressive, however, during the course of my speech, that I was in real danger of becoming confused, so I turned to our guest and extricated myself.
”Be pleased to enter our humble abode, to which we make you heartily welcome. And in return for such poor hospitality as we can offer you, you shall regulate the clock, which has lately developed certain eccentricities, and nail up the creeper on the gable end. Then if time permits you shall rest your limbs on the wicker chair in the garden and enlighten us as to what is going on in the world of men.”
”With all my heart,” he agreed, ”and I promise to make so good a tea that the debt will not be easily repaid.”
He did pretty well, I must admit, and when it was over Mother Hubbard, with a self-conscious cough, and a look that was eloquence itself, expressed her fixed determination to clear away without my help.
”It's just a little fancy I have, love,” she protested, as I tied on my ap.r.o.n; ”I really would like to do it all myself. I am tired of sitting, and knitting seems to try my eyes to-day.”
”Mother Hubbard,” I replied, ”you are a hypocritical old humbug, and you are wanting to persuade Mr. Derwent that I am not domesticated, which is too bad of you. And you know that I take my share of the work.”
”Really, love,” said Mother Hubbard, who was almost in tears at the denseness of my intelligence, ”I'm sure Mr. Derwent will understand my meaning.”
I am only too much afraid that he did, for he looked at me out of the corners of his eyes and said, with a merry twinkle which was provoking:
”I shall certainly need some information about the clock, and a little a.s.sistance with the creeper. Miss Holden, you had better yield to Mrs.
Hubbard's wishes.”
”If you cannot regulate a clock without a woman standing over you, or hold a bit of jasmine in one hand and a hammer in the other without a woman's a.s.sistance, you deserve to remain in your ridiculous background. You will find the tools in the top drawer of the dresser.
If you will be good enough to get them and go on with your work, Mother Hubbard and I will soon finish ours.”
He grinned, and Mother Hubbard groaned; but before long we were sitting together in the garden, with the knitting needles making music as usual.
The Cynic leaned back in his chair and watched the blue smoke curl lazily from his cigarette. The laughter of the visitors had ceased in the streets, but the voice of song was wafted occasionally to our ears from the fields below. How is it that homeward-bound excursionists always sing?
”I take it, Miss Holden, that you are a Prototype, which I spell in capitals. But I venture to predict that you will not have a large following. The modern craze is for kudos, and in this particular the success of an enterprise like yours is not likely to be remarkable.”
”What, exactly, is my enterprise?” I inquired. ”Please interpret me to myself.”
”The surface reading is easy,” he replied, ”but the significance is hieroglyphic. Who can read the riddle of woman's motives? They are past finding out, and man can only grope for the meaning with half-blind observation, having eyes indeed, but seeing not; hearing, but not understanding.”
”As, for instance?” I again inquired.
”I will come to your case shortly,” he continued, ”and meantime I will speak in parables. I went into a fas.h.i.+onable draper's shop the other day, as I had business with one of the princ.i.p.als. He was engaged, and I elected to wait and was accommodated with a seat near the glove counter. My experiences were distinctly interesting, but I cannot yet read the riddle they offered me. Before I was summoned to the office three customers had approached the counter at separate times, and the procedure was in all three cases on approximately similar lines.
”The lady sailed up to the counter, deposited her parcels upon it, seated herself upon the waiting chair, adjusted her skirt, and then, turning to the deferential young gentleman whose head was inclined artistically to one side in the way that is characteristic of the most genteel establishments, murmured languidly: 'Gloves, please.'
”The deferential young gentleman brought his head to the perpendicular and replied: 'Gloves! Yes, madam,' and proceeded to reach down a half-dozen boxes from the shelves at his back.
”'This, madam,' he said, bringing forth a pair of grey suedes, 'is a beautiful glove. One of Flint's very best make, and they are produced specially for our firm. Every pair is guaranteed. We can very strongly recommend them.'