Part 30 (2/2)
Whitaker in despair sought wildly for an excuse to detain her.
”Please--I'm famished for human society. Have pity. Sit down. Tell me where you've been with the boat.”
”Merely to the head of the bay to have the gasoline tanks filled. A most boresome errand. They've no proper facilities for taking care of motor-boats. Imagine having to sit with your hands folded while garrulous natives fill a sixty-gallon tank by hand.”
”Expressions of profound sympathy. Tell me some more. See, I even consent not to talk about myself as an extra inducement--if you'll only stay.”
”No--really--unique though the prospect be! I left Elise and the cook alone, two poor defenceless women; the gardener is taking his weekly day-off in the village. We won't see anything of him till morning, probably--when he'll show up very meek and damp about the head.”
”Aren't you afraid?”
”I? Nonsense! I'm shamelessly able-bodied--and not afraid to pull a trigger, besides. Moreover, there aren't any dangerous characters in this neighbourhood.”
”Then I presume it's useless for me to offer my services as watch-dog?”
”Entirely so. And when I choose a protector, I shall pick out one sound of limb as well as wind.”
”Snubbed,” he said mournfully. ”And me that lonesome.... Think of the long, dull evening I've got to live through somehow.”
”I have already thought of it. And being kind-hearted, it occurred to me that you might be one of those mean-spirited creatures who can enjoy double-dummy.”
”It's the only game I really care for with a deathless pa.s.sion.”
”Then, if I promise to come over this evening and play you a rubber or two--will you permit me to go home now?”
”On such terms I'll do anything you can possibly suggest,” he declared, enchanted. ”You mean it--honest Injun?”
”Cross my heart and hope to die--”
”But ... how will you get here? Not alone, through the woods! I can't permit that.”
”Elise shall row me down the sh.o.r.e and then go back to keep cook company. Sum Fat can see me home--if you find it still necessary to keep up the invalid pose.”
”I'm afraid,” he laughed, ”I shall call my own bluff.... Must you really go so soon?”
”Good afternoon,” she returned demurely; and ran down the steps and off to her boat.
Smiling quietly to himself, Whitaker watched her cast the boat off, get under way, and swing it out of sight behind the trees. Then his smile wavered and faded and gave place to a look of acute discontent.
He rose and limped indoors to ransack Ember's wardrobe for evening clothes--which he failed, perhaps fortunately, to find.
He regarded with an overwhelming sense of desolation the tremendous arid waste of time which must intervene before he dared expect her: a good four hours--no, four and a half, since she would in all likelihood dine at a sensible hour, say about eight o'clock. By half-past eight, then, he might begin to look for her; but, since she was indisputably no woman to cheapen herself, she would probably keep him waiting till nearly nine.
Colossal waste of time, impossible to contemplate without exacerbation...!
To make matters worse, Sum Fat innocently enough served Whitaker's dinner promptly at six, under the misapprehension that a decent consideration for his foot would induce the young man to seek his bed something earlier than usual.
Three mortal hours to fritter away in profitless antic.i.p.ation ...
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