Part 40 (1/2)
”Insult!”
”I think that's the correct word; I can't find a more expressive one lying about.”
”Pray who are the friends of mine that you do not like?”
”Refrain from the obvious! You haven't fifty thousand of them staying in the house just now!”
”The Chantrelles, you mean. I repeat, who invited them here? Answer me!”
She stamped her foot as she let loose her shaft. It went home this time: buried its head, rendering d.i.c.k furious. He had cursed himself a hundred times for being the cause of their presence. But for that----
”Look here, Mab, you and I don't want to quarrel.”
A quarrel just then was the thing he was itching for; if he could have hit something or somebody it would have been an immense relief to his feelings; he went on:
”I have a friend; a man who saved my life! A man who devoted himself to me; but for whom, I should be now at the bottom of the sea.”
”d.i.c.k!”
She hid her face in her hands. All the memories she had thrust aside, grateful memories, rushed back on her. She did not want d.i.c.k to see what she knew her face would show: horror of her own ingrat.i.tude to Masters.
The recollection of all he had done for her brother flooded her.
”Oh, it's true! I'm not romancing. When I said good-bye to you in that Lambeth bedroom, I meant it to be a good-bye. I went on board that boat with the full intention of making a hole in the water.”
”d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k! Don't say it!”
”I do say it. I say it emphatically. Life didn't seem worth the living to me. Masters shared my cabin; nursed me; tended me; made me see things differently. In fact, made a man of me. When I think of him, and all he did for me, I cry from my heart: G.o.d bless him! G.o.d bless him!”
He turned his head that she might not see the tears filling his eyes; continued:
”When I think of the debt I owe him, a debt I would pay with my life cheerfully if it would help him, I--I--I----”
She interrupted him; was standing close to him again, white-faced, dry-eyed, breathing heavily.
”d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k!” she gasped. ”You don't know how you are hurting me!”
”And I bring him here,” he spluttered, ”to your home. Because it was the only place I could bring him to; because I thought my sister loved me, that she would stretch out a warm hand of welcome to the man who saved me. What happens? What happens? She doesn't throw the plates and dishes at him, but, by G.o.d! I wish she had! It would have been better than the cold, cutting, contemptuous nature of her insults!”
He struggled to get free from her arms; they had found their way round his neck, and her head was on his bosom. But she held him too tightly.
He was unfair; she knew it; not all the wrong was on her side.
”You think nothing of me, d.i.c.k!” Her sobbing expostulation: ”You ignore the things he has done; the way he has behaved to me!”
”Yes,” replied d.i.c.k grimly. ”Perhaps it's just as well I do. Gracie tells me that in the dead of night he came, and sat up, and nursed her back to life! That's one of the things he did for you and the child you profess to love so much! He's good at nursing, is Prince Charlie, poor old chap!--I have had some. You have had some. But it seems to have struck us in different lights; to have inspired different feelings.
Personally, I'd lay down my life for him! The grandest fellow I ever met; G.o.d bless him!”
”d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k!”