Part 20 (1/2)
As he wheeled his bicycle into the coach-house of the hotel, Dorothy ran into it, caught him by the arm, and cried, ”Did they fight? Is your father hurt?”
He looked at her white, strained face, and said with a dogged air, ”My father's all right. What do you mean about fighting? I--I've been for a ride--on my bicycle.”
”Then you did stop it!” cried Dorothy; and before he could ward her off she had kissed him.
”Look here,” said Tinker firmly, but gently, ”these things won't bear talking about. They won't really.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
TINKER BORROWS A MOTOR-CAR
A few days later, early in the afternoon, Sir Tancred was leaning on the wall of the gardens of the Temple of Fortune, smoking a cigarette, and looking down on the Mediterranean in a very thoughtful mood.
Tinker was by his side, also looking down on the Mediterranean, also silent, out of respect to his father's mood.
Suddenly Sir Tancred turned towards him, and said abruptly, ”What did you say you paid your governess?”
”Thirty pounds a year,” said Tinker.
”She dresses well,” said Sir Tancred.
Tinker turned his head and eyed his father with a trifle of distrust.
”She does dress well,” he said gravely, ”and I can't quite make it out.
Sometimes I think that her people must have lost their money, and she bought her gowns before that happened. Sometimes I really think she's only being a governess for fun.”
”For fun?” said Sir Tancred. ”But I thought her references were all right. Yes; you told me she carried them about with her.”
”Well, she has the nicest kind of face,” said Tinker; and his own was out of the common guileless.
”Oh! her face was her reference, was it?” said Sir Tancred quickly.
”You can forge references, but you can't forge a face,” said Tinker with the air of a philosopher.
Sir Tancred laughed gently. ”My good Tinker,” he said, ”I look forward to the day when you enter the diplomatic service. The diplomacy of your country will be newer than ever. But don't be too sure that a woman can't forge her face.”
”There'd be a precious lot of forgery, if they could forge faces like Dorothy's,” said Tinker with conviction.
”You seem a perfect well of truth to-day,” said Sir Tancred.
They were silent a while, gazing idly over the sea; then Tinker said, ”I'm beginning to think that Dorothy is rather mysterious, don't you know. She gets very few letters, but lots of cablegrams, from America.
She has lots of money, too, and she spends it. Sometimes I have to talk to her seriously about being extravagant.”
”You do? What does she say?”
”Oh, she laughs. That's what makes me think she's only a governess for fun. I never knew a girl so ready to laugh--though she did cry that morning.” He spoke musingly, half to himself.
”What morning was that?” said Sir Tancred quickly.