Part 17 (1/2)

Eloquent opened the parlour door for her with stiff politeness, and she pa.s.sed out with bent head and shoulders that trembled under the heavy fur. Surely this militant young person was not going to cry!

He followed her in some anxiety down to the garden gate, held it open for her to pa.s.s through, which she did in absolute silence, and he waited to watch her mount her bicycle.

This she did in a very curious fas.h.i.+on. She started to run with it, leapt lightly on one pedal, and then, to Eloquent's amazement, essayed to throw her other leg over like a boy.

The lady's skirt was tight, the Redmarley roads were extremely muddy, the unexpected jerk caused the bicycle to skid, and lady and bicycle came down sideways with considerable violence.

”d.a.m.n!” exclaimed Miss b.u.t.termish.

”Oh, those modern girls!” thought the shocked Eloquent as he ran forward to a.s.sist. He pulled the bicycle off Miss b.u.t.termish, and stood it against the wall. She sat up, her hat very much on one side.

”Do you know,” she said rather huskily, ”I do believe I've broken my confounded arm.”

She held out her left hand to Eloquent, who pulled her to her feet.

Her right arm hung helpless, and even through her bespattered veil he could see that she was very white.

”Pray come in and rest for a little,” he said concernedly, ”and we can see what has happened.”

”I'm sure it's broken, I heard the beastly thing snap----” the girl stumbled blindly, Eloquent caught her in his arms, and saw that she had fainted from pain.

He carried her into the house and laid her on the horsehair sofa, put a cus.h.i.+on under her arm, and seizing the large scissors that his orderly aunt kept hanging on a hook at the side of the fire, cut her jacket carefully along the seam from wrist to shoulder. She wore a very mannish, coloured flannel s.h.i.+rt. This sleeve, too, he cut, and disclosed a thin arm, extremely brown nearly to the elbow, and very fair and white above, but the elbow was distorted and discoloured; a bad break, Eloquent decided, with mischief at the joint as well probably. He had studied first-aid at cla.s.ses, and he shook his head.

It did not occur to him to call the little servant to a.s.sist him. With his head turned shyly away he removed the young lady's hat and loosened her heavy furs. Then he flew for water and a sponge, thinking the while of her curious Christian name ”Elsmaria.” She looked pathetically young and helpless lying there. Eloquent forgot her militancy and her shocking language in his sorrow over her pain. As he knelt down by the sofa to sponge her face he started so violently that he upset a great deal of the water he had brought.

It was already growing dark, but even in the dim light as he looked closely at Miss b.u.t.termish without her hat, her likeness to Mary Ffolliot was striking. She wore her hair cropped close. ”Could she have been in prison?” thought Eloquent, remembering how light she was when he carried her in.

With hands that trembled somewhat he pushed the wet curly hair back from the forehead so like Mary's. There were the same wide brow, the same white eyelids with the sweeping arch and thick dark lashes, the delicate high-bridged nose and well-cut, kindly mouth; the same pure oval in the line of cheek and chin.

Certainly an extraordinary resemblance. She must at least be a cousin; and, in spite of his sincere commiseration of the young lady's suffering, he felt a jubilant thrill in the reflection that this accident must bring him into further contact with the Ffolliots.

There was no brandy in the house, for both he and his aunt were total abstainers, so he fetched a gla.s.s of water and held it to the young lady's lips as she opened her eyes. She drank eagerly, looked searchingly at him, then she glanced down at her bare arm and the cut sleeve. The colour flooded her face, and with real horror in her voice she exclaimed, ”You've never gone and _cut_ that jacket!”

”I had to. Your arm ought to be set at once, and goodness knows where the doctor may be to-day. You'd best be taken to Marlehouse Infirmary, I think; it's a bad break.”

”But it's her best coat, quite new,” Miss b.u.t.termish persisted fretfully, ”quite new; you'd no business to go and cut it. I promised to take such care of it.”

”I'm very sorry,” Eloquent replied meekly; ”but it really was necessary that your arm should be seen to at once, and I dared not jerk it about.”

”Can it be mended, do you think, so that it won't show?” There was real concern in her voice.

”I'm sure of it,” he answered, much astonished at this fuss about a coat at such a moment; ”I cut it carefully along the seam.”

”I say,” exclaimed Miss b.u.t.termish, ”I must get out of this”--and she prepared to swing her feet off the sofa--rather big feet, he noted, in stout golfing shoes. Forcibly he held her legs down.

”Please don't,” he implored. ”You must not jar that arm any more than can be helped. Shall I go up to the Manor House and get them to send a conveyance for you?--you really mustn't think of walking, and I don't know where else we could get one to-day.”

Miss b.u.t.termish closed her eyes and frowned heavily. Then in a faint voice--

”How do you know I'm from the Manor House?”