Part 31 (1/2)
”Obviously.”
”If you had taken the trouble to look, you would have found an equally resplendent G on the opposite end of each and every trunk, Mr. Schmidt,” she said quietly.
”I did not examine your luggage, Miss Guile,” said he stiffly. She hadn't left much for him to stand upon. ”Rather unique way to put one's initials on a trunk, isn't it?”
”It possesses the virtue of originality,” she admitted, ”and it never fails to excite curiosity. I am sorry you were misled. Nothing could be more distressing than to be mistaken for the heroine of a story and then turn out to be a mere n.o.body in the end. I've no doubt that if the amiable Miss Blithers were to hear of it, she'd rush into print and belabour me with the largest type that money could buy.”
”Oh, come now, Miss Guile,” he protested, ”it really isn't fair to Miss Blithers. She was justified in following an ill.u.s.trious example.
You forget that the Prince of Graustark was the first to rush into print with a flat denial. What else could the poor girl do?”
”Oh, I am not defending the Prince of Graustark. He behaved abominably, rus.h.i.+ng into print as you say. Extremely bad taste, I should call it.”
Robin's ears burned. He could not defend himself. There was nothing left for him to do but to say that it ”served him jolly well right, the way Miss Blithers came back at him.”
”Still,” she said, ”I would be willing to make a small wager that the well-advertised match comes off in spite of all the denials. Given a determined father, an ambitious mother, a purse-filled daughter and an empty-pursed n.o.bleman, and I don't see how the inevitable can be avoided.”
His face was flaming. It was with difficulty that he restrained the impulse to put her right in the matter without further ado.
”Are you sure that the Prince is so empty of purse as all that?” he managed to say, without betraying himself irretrievably.
”There doesn't seem to be any doubt that he borrowed extensively of Mr. Blithers,” she said scornfully. ”He is under some obligations to his would-be-father-in-law, I submit, now isn't he?”
”I suppose so, Miss Guile,” he admitted uncomfortably.
”And therefore owes him something more than a card in the newspapers, don't you think?”
”Really, Miss Guile, I--I--”
”I beg your pardon. The Prince's affairs are of no importance to you, so why should I expect you to stand up for him?”
”I confess that I am a great deal more interested in Miss Blithers than I am in the Prince. By the way, what would you have done had you been placed in her position?”
”I think I should have acted quite as independently as she.”
”If your father were to pick out a husband for you, whether or no, you would refuse to obey the paternal command?”
”Most a.s.suredly. As a matter of fact, Mr. Schmidt, my father has expressed a wish that I should marry a man who doesn't appeal to me at all.”
”And you refuse?”
”Absolutely.”
”More or less as Miss Blithers has done,” he said pointedly.
”Miss Blithers, I understand, has the advantage of me in one respect.
I am told that she wants to marry another man and is very much in love with him.”
”A chap named Scoville,” said Robin, unguardedly.