Part 11 (1/2)

”I don't know about that,” I replied; ”but we have other traits as well.

We know what we want; very often we get it.”

Mr. Parker rose to his feet. He put his hand on my shoulder. He was the very prototype of the self-respecting, conscientious, prospective father- in-law.

”Young fellow,” he confessed, ”I shall end by liking you!” I drove with Eve for about two hours. We went out nearly as far as Kingston and wound up in the heart of the West End. I tried to persuade her to walk down Bond Street, but she shook her head.

”To tell you the truth,” she confided, ”I am not very fond of being seen upon the streets. You know how marvelously clever dad is; still we have been talked about once or twice, and there are several people whom I shouldn't care about meeting.”

I sighed as I looked out of the window toward the jewelers' shops.

”I should very much like,” I said, ”to buy you an engagement ring.”

She laughed at me.

”You absurd person! Why, I am not engaged to you yet!”

”You are very near it,” I a.s.sured her. ”Anyhow, it would be an awfully good opportunity for you to show me the sort of ring you like.”

She shook her head.

”Not to-day,” she decided. ”Somehow or other I feel that if ever I do let you, you'll choose just the sort of ring I shall love, without my interfering. Where did we say we'd pick father up?”

”Here,” I answered, as the car came to a standstill outside the Cafe Royal. ”I'll go in and fetch him.”

I found Mr. Parker seated at a table with two of the most villainous specimens of humanity I had ever beheld. They were of the same cla.s.s as the men with whom he had been talking at the Milan, but still more disreputable. He welcomed me, however, without embarra.s.sment.

”Just pa.s.sing the time, my dear fellow!” he remarked airily. ”Met a couple of acquaintances of mine. Will you join us?”

”Miss Parker is outside in the car,” I explained. ”If you don't mind I will go out and wait with her. You can join us when you are ready.”

”Five minutes--not a moment longer, I promise!” he called out after me.

”Sorry you won't join us.”

I took my place once more by Eve's side. Perhaps my tone was a little annoyed.

”Your father is in there,” I said, ”with two of the most disreputable- looking ruffians I have ever seen crawling upon the face of the earth.

What in the world induces him to sit at the same table with them I cannot imagine.”

”Necessity, perhaps,” she remarked. ”Very likely they are highly useful members of our industry.”

Mr. Parker came out almost immediately afterward. I suggested the Ritz for luncheon. They looked at each other dubiously.

”To be perfectly frank with you, my dear fellow,” Mr. Parker explained, as he clambered into the car and took the place I had vacated by his daughter's side, ”it would give us no pleasure to go to the Ritz. We have courage, both of us--my daughter and I--as you may have observed for yourself; but courage is a different thing from rashness. We have been enjoying a very pleasant and not unlucrative time for the last six weeks, with the--er--natural result that there are several ladies and gentlemen in London whom I would just as soon avoid. The Ritz is one of those places where one might easily come across them.”

”The Carlton? Prince's? Claridge's? Berkeley?” I suggested. ”Or what do you say to Jules' or the Milan grill-room?”

Mr. Parker shook his head slowly.

”If you really mean that you wish me to choose,” he said, ”I say Stephano's.”