Part 30 (2/2)
”Grown up,--nonsense,” somewhat indignantly; ”I should think I was indeed. Just twenty, and six feet one. There are very few fellows in the service as good a height as I am. 'Grown up,' indeed!”
”I beg your pardon,” Lilian says, meekly. ”Remember I am only a little rustic, hardly aware of what a man really means. Talking of fitting, however, do you know,” thoughtfully, and turning her head to one side, the better to mark the effect, ”I think--I fancy--there is just a little pucker in your trousers, just at the knee.”
”No; is there?” says Taffy, immediately sinking into the deepest melancholy as he again refers to the gla.s.s.
Here Sir Guy comes forward and creates a diversion. He is immensely amused, but still sore and angry at Florence's remarks, while wis.h.i.+ng Lilian would not place herself in such positions as to lay her open to unkind criticism.
”Oh, here is Sir Guy,” says that young lady, quite unembarra.s.sed; ”he will decide. Sir Guy, do you think his trousers fit very well? Look here, now, is there not the faintest pucker here?”
”I think they fit uncommonly well,” says Guy, gravely. Taffy has turned a warm crimson and is silent; but his confusion arises not from Miss Chesney's presence in his room, but because Chetwoode has discovered him trying on his new clothes like a school-boy.
”Lilian wanted so much to see me in my uniform,” he says, meanly, considering how anxious he himself has been to show himself to her in it.
”Yes, and doesn't he look well in it?” asks Lilian, proudly; ”I had no idea he could look so handsome. Most men appear perfect fools in uniform, but it suits Taffy. Don't you think so?”
”I do; and I think something else, too; your auntie is coming up-stairs, and if she catches you in Taffy's room she will give you a small lecture on the proprieties.”
This is the mildest rebuke he can think of. Not that he thinks her at all worthy of rebuke, but because he is afraid of Florence's tongue for her sake.
”Why?” asks Lilian, opening large eyes of utter amazement, after which the truth dawns upon her, and as it dawns amuses her intensely. ”Do you mean to say,” blus.h.i.+ng slightly, but evidently struck with the comicality of the thought,--”what would auntie say, then, if she knew Taffy had been in mine? Yes; he was,--this afternoon,--just before lunch,” nodding defiantly at Sir Guy, ”actually in mine; and he stole my eau de Cologne, which I thought mean of him. When I found it was all gone, I was very near running across to your room to replenish my bottle. Was it not well I didn't? Had I done so I should of course have earned two lectures, one from auntie and one from--you!” provokingly.
”Why, Guardy, how stupid you are! Taffy is just the same as my brother.”
”But he is not your brother,” says Guy, beginning to feel bewildered.
”Yes, he is, and better than most brothers: aren't you, Taffy?”
”Are you angry with Lil for being in my room?” asks Mr. Musgrave, surprised; ”she thinks nothing of it: and why should she? Bless you, all last year, when we were at home--at the Park--she used to come in and settle my ties when we were going out anywhere to dinner, or that.”
”Sir Guy never had a sister, so of course he doesn't understand,” says Lilian, disdainfully, whereupon Guy gives up the point. ”I wish you would come down and show yourself to auntie. Do now, Taffy,”--coaxingly: ”you can't think how well you look. Come, if only to please me.”
”Oh, I couldn't,” says Taffy. ”I really couldn't, you know. She would think me such an awful fool, and Miss Beauchamp would laugh at me, and altogether it wouldn't be form. I only meant to show myself to you, but----”
”Guy, my dear,” says Lady Chetwoode from the doorway, ”why, what is going on here?” advancing and smiling gently.
”Oh, auntie, I am so glad you have come!” says Lilian, going forward to welcome her: ”he would not go down-stairs to you, though I did my best to persuade him. Is he not charming in uniform?”
”He is, indeed. Quite charming! He reminds me very much of what Guy was when first he joined his regiment.” Not for a moment does Lady Chetwoode--dear soul--think of improprieties, or wrong-doing, or the ”decencies of society.” And, watching her, Guy grows gradually ashamed of himself. ”It was really selfish of you, my dear Taffy, to deny me a glimpse of you.”
”Well, I didn't think you'd care, you know,” says Mr. Musgrave, who is positively consumed with pride, and who is blus.h.i.+ng like a demoiselle.
”I couldn't resist coming in when I saw you from the doorway. All my people were in the army: so I have quite an affection for it. But Lilian, darling, dinner is almost ready, and you have not yet changed your dress.”
”I shan't be a minute,” says Lilian; and Guy, lighting a candle, escorts her to her own room, while Lady Chetwoode goes down-stairs.
”Shall I get you the eau de Cologne now?” he asks, pausing on her threshold for a moment.
”If,” says Miss Chesney, lowering her eyes with affected shyness, ”you are _quite_ sure there would be nothing reprehensible in my accepting it, I should like it very much, thank you. By the bye, that reminds me,”
<script>