Part 38 (1/2)

”I'm always a bit wakeful when the fly's up, sir; the river seems to draw me, and I can't leave it.”

”Have a cigar,” said Reggie, and sat down beside him.

They smoked in silence for a few minutes till Willets said--

”Seen anything of Miss Mary up there, sir?”

”No, Willets, I haven't been able to get away for a minute till now, but I may manage to run down to Woolwich next week just to buck to the General about my catch. You'll have him down then post haste--I bet----”

”I suppose, sir,” said Willets, with studied carelessness, ”you never happened to come across the young man that's member for these parts?”

”What, young Gallup? I believe I saw him once. He's making quite a name for himself I hear, his maiden speech was in all the papers. By the way though, I _did_ hear of him the other day in a letter I had from Miss Mary. They'd all been to dine at the House of Commons with him, and had no end of a time.”

”Well I _am_ d.a.m.ned!” said Willets.

He said it seriously, almost devoutly, and Reggie turned right round to stare at him.

”I beg your pardon, sir, I'm sure, but I really was fairly flabbergasted.”

He stood up st.u.r.dy and respectful in a patch of moonlight, and his keen brown eyes raked Reggie's as though they would read his very soul.

It wasn't an easy soul to read, and Reggie knew that Willets had something on his mind, so he waited.

”I beg your pardon, sir,” Willets said again. He had never got over the feeling that Reggie was one of the young gentlemen, and that it behoved him to be careful of his language in front of him.

Reggie Peel laughed. ”Look here, Willets,” he said, ”what's your objection? Why shouldn't they go to the House of Commons to dine with Gallup if it amuses them?”

”I don't know, sir, I'm sure, but I was took aback. An' in a small place like this it's certain to make talk. That old Miss Gallup, now, she'll be boasting everywhere that our Miss Mary went to dine with her nephew, just as she did when he went to a dinner party up at the house, and for us as _belongs_ to the house--well, we don't relish it. I hope, sir,” Willets went on in quite a different tone, ”that you'll make it convenient to go up and see after Miss Mary?”

The hawk's eyes were fixed unwinkingly on Reggie's face, so lean and sallow and set; the moonlight accentuated the rather hollow cheeks.

and cast black shadows round his eyes, which looked green and sinister.

Suddenly he smiled, and when Reggie smiled, his whole face altered.

”Out with it, Willets,” he said, ”what maggot have you got in your head now? You're worried about something; you may as well tell me. I'm safe as a church.”

”I'd like to know, sir,” Willets remarked in a detached impersonal tone, ”what's your opinion of mixed marriages?”

”_What_ sort of marriages?”

”Well marriages where one of the parties has had a different bringing up to the other. Now suppose, sir--do you know Miss s.h.i.+pway--over to Marlehouse; her father's got that big shop top of the market-place full of bonnets and mantles and such--good-looking girl she is----”

”I'm afraid I don't know the lady, Willets; why?”

”Well, sir, it's this way. She'll have a tidy bit of money when old s.h.i.+pway dies; her mother was cook at the Fleece, but they've got on.

Well now, sir, suppose you was to go after Miss s.h.i.+pway-----”

Reggie's eyes twinkled. ”It might be a most sensible proceeding on my part--a poor devil like me--if as you say she's a nice girl and will have a lot of money. Will you give me an introduction?”

”I'm not jokin', sir, nor taking the liberty to propose anything of the sort; it's only----”