diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:55:22 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:55:22 -0700 |
| commit | 9b02ec0c1ee43382d1ddf634814a28fd125703f5 (patch) | |
| tree | 3202c78f2390a7370f8b3f88f86fcd04e0c2227f | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-8.txt | 7677 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 125468 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 506659 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/19310-h.htm | 11490 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/images/img-070.jpg | bin | 0 -> 60196 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/images/img-086.jpg | bin | 0 -> 63053 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/images/img-142.jpg | bin | 0 -> 60616 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/images/img-170.jpg | bin | 0 -> 64921 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/images/img-304.jpg | bin | 0 -> 83233 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310-h/images/img-front.jpg | bin | 0 -> 44225 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310.txt | 7677 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19310.zip | bin | 0 -> 125451 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
15 files changed, 26860 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19310-8.txt b/19310-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1b90e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7677 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Happy Pollyooly, by Edgar Jepson, Illustrated +by Reginald Birch + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Happy Pollyooly + The Rich Little Poor Girl + + +Author: Edgar Jepson + + + +Release Date: September 17, 2006 [eBook #19310] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY POLLYOOLY*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 19310-h.htm or 19310-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310/19310-h/19310-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310/19310-h.zip) + + + + + +HAPPY POLLYOOLY + +The Rich Little Poor Girl + +by + +EDGAR JEPSON + +Author of +Pollyooly, Whitaker's Dukedom, Etc. + +With Illustrations by Reginald Birch + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: She bit the end of her pencil] + + + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Copyright 1915 +The Bobbs-Merrill Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I THE HONOURABLE JOHN RUFFIN MAKES AN ARRANGEMENT + II HILARY VANCE FINDS A CONFIDANTE + III THE INFURIATED SWAINS + IV THE DUCHESS HAS AN IDEA + V POLLYOOLY IS CALLED IN + VI POLLYOOLY PLAYS HER FAVOURITE PART + VII POLLYOOLY PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN + VIII THE QUESTION OF A HOME + IX THE RELUCTANT DUKE + X POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE + XI POLLYOOLY MEETS THE UNPLEASANT PRINCE + XII WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR + XIII THE RAPPROCHEMENT + XIV THE TRAINING OF ROYALTY + XV THE ATTITUDE OF THE GRAND DUKE + XVI POLLYOOLY ENTERTAINS ROYALTY + XVII THE DUKE HAS AN IDEA + XVIII THE DUKE'S IDEA TAKES FORM + XIX POLLYOOLY IS INTRODUCED TO THE COUNTY + XX POLLYOOLY AND THE DUKE + XXI LORD RONALD RICKSBOROUGH COMES TO THE COURT + XXII THE DUKE WINS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + She bit the end of the pencil . . . _Frontispiece_ + + She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders + + They slept on the bench + + The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort + + "You keep away" + + They turned to see the Duchess + + + + +HAPPY POLLYOOLY + + +CHAPTER I + +THE HONOURABLE JOHN RUFFIN MAKES AN ARRANGEMENT + +The angel child looked at the letter from Buda-Pesth with lively +interest, for she knew that it came from her friend and patroness +Esmeralda, the dancer, who was engaged in a triumphant tour of the +continent of Europe. She put it on the top of the pile of letters, +mostly bills, which had come for her employer, the Honourable John +Ruffin, set the pile beside his plate, and returned to the preparation of +his breakfast. + +She looked full young to hold the post of house-keeper to a barrister of +the Inner Temple, for she was not yet thirteen; but there was an +uncommonly capable intentness in her deep blue eyes as she watched the +bacon, sizzling on the grill, for the right moment to turn the rashers. +She never missed it. Now and again those deep blue eyes sparkled at the +thought that the Honourable John Ruffin would presently give her news of +her brilliant friend. + +She heard him come out of his bedroom, and at once dished up his bacon, +and carried it into his sitting-room. She found him already reading the +letter, and saw that it was giving him no pleasure. His lips were set in +a thin line; there was a frown on his brow and an angry gleam in his grey +eyes. She knew that of all the emotions which moved him, anger was the +rarest; indeed she could only remember having once seen him angry: on the +occasion on which he had smitten Mr. Montague Fitzgerald on the head when +that shining moneylender was trying to force from her the key of his +chambers; and she wondered what had been happening to the Esmeralda to +annoy him. She was too loyal to suppose that anything that the Esmeralda +had herself done could be annoying him. + +He ate his breakfast more slowly than usual, and with a brooding air. +His eyes never once, as was their custom, rested with warm appreciation +on Pollyooly's beautiful face, set in its aureole of red hair; he did not +enliven his meal by talking to her about the affairs of the moment. She +respected his musing, and waited on him in silence. She had cleared away +the breakfast tray and was folding the table-cloth when, at last, he +broke his thoughtful silence. + +"There's nothing for it: I must go to Buda-Pesth," he said with a +resolute air. + +"There's nothing the matter with the Esmeralda, sir?" said Pollyooly with +quick anxiety. + +"There's something very much the matter with the Esmeralda--a +Moldo-Wallachian," said the Honourable John Ruffin with stern coldness. + +"Is it an illness, sir?" said Pollyooly yet more anxiously. + +"No; it's a nobleman," said the Honourable John Ruffin with even colder +sternness. + +Pollyooly pondered the matter for a few seconds; then she said: "Is +he--is he persecuting her, sir, like Senor Perez did when I was dancing +with her in 'Titania's Awakening'?" + +"It ought to be a persecution; but I fear it isn't," said the Honourable +John Ruffin grimly. "I gather from this letter that she is regarding his +attentions, which, I am sure, consist chiefly of fulsome flattery and +uncouth gifts, with positive approbation." + +Pollyooly pondered this information also; then she said: + +"Is she going to marry him, sir?" + +"She is not!" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of the deepest +conviction but rather loudly. + +Pollyooly looked at him and waited for further information to throw light +on his manifest disturbance of spirit. + +He drummed a tattoo on the bare table with his fingers, frowning the +while; then he said: + +"Constancy to the ideal, though perhaps out of place in a man, is alike +woman's privilege and her duty. I should be sorry--indeed I should be +deeply shocked if the Esmeralda were to fail in that duty." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in polite sympathy, though she had not the +slightest notion what he meant. + +"Especially since I took such pains to present to her the true ideal--the +English ideal," he went on. "Whereas this Moldo-Wallachian--at least +that's what I gather from this letter--is merely handsome in that cheap +and obvious South-European way--that is to say he has big, black eyes, +probably liquid, and a large, probably flowing, moustache. Therefore I +go to Buda-Pesth." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with the same politeness and in the same +ignorance of his reason for going. + +"I shall wire to her to-day--to give her pause--and to-morrow I shall +start." He paused, looking at her thoughtfully for a moment, then went +on: "I should like to take you with me, for I know how helpful you can be +in the matter of these insolent and infatuated foreigners. But +Buda-Pesth is too far away. And the question is what I am going to do +with you while I'm away." + +"We can stay here all right, sir--the Lump and me," said Pollyooly +quickly, with a note of surprise in her voice. + +Her little brother, Roger, who lived with her in the airy attic above the +Honourable John Ruffin's chambers, had acquired the name of "The Lump" +from his admirable placidity. + +"I don't like the idea of your doing that," he said, shaking his head and +frowning. "I don't know how long I may be away--the affirmation of the +ideal is sometimes a lengthy process. Of course the Temple is a quiet +place; but I don't like to leave two small children alone in it for a +fortnight, or three weeks. It isn't as if Mr. Gedge-Tomkins were at +home. If he were at hand--just across the landing, it would be a very +different matter." + +"But I'm _sure_ we should be all right, sir," said Pollyooly with entire +confidence. + +"Oh, I'm bound to say that if any child in the world could take care of +herself and a little brother, it's you," he said handsomely. "But I want +to devote all my energies to the affirmation of the ideal; and I must not +be troubled by anxiety about you. I shall have to dispose of you safely +somehow." + +With that he rose, lighted a cigar, and presently sallied forth into the +world. The matter of learning the quickest way to Buda-Pesth and +procuring a ticket for the morrow took him little more than half an hour. +Then the matter of disposing safely of Pollyooly and the Lump during his +absence rose again to his mind and he walked along pondering it. +Presently there came to him a happy thought: there was their common +friend, Hilary Vance, an artist who had employed Pollyooly as his model +for a set of stories for _The Blue Magazine_. Hilary Vance was devoted +to Pollyooly, and he had a spare bedroom. But for a while the Honourable +John Ruffin hesitated; the artist was a man of an uncommonly mercurial, +irresponsible temperament. Was it safe to entrust two small children to +his care? Then he reflected that Pollyooly was a strong corrective of +irresponsibility, and took a taxicab to Chelsea. + +Hilary Vance, very broad, very thick, very round, with a fine, rebellious +mop of tow-coloured hair, which had fallen forward so as nearly to hide +his big, simple eyes, opened the door to him. At the sight of his +visitor a spacious round smile spread over his spacious face; and he +welcomed him with an effusive enthusiasm. + +At his christening the good fairy had given to the Honourable John Ruffin +a very lively interest in his fellow-creatures and a considerable power +of observation with which to gratify it. He was used to the splendid +expansiveness of Hilary Vance; but it seemed to him that to-day he was +boiling with an added exuberance; and that curiosity was aroused. He +took up a chair and hammered its back on the floor so that the dust fell +off the seat, sat down astride it, and, bending forward a little, +proceeded to observe the artist with very keen eyes. Hilary Vance, who +was very busy, fell to work again, and after his manner, grew +grandiloquent about the pleasures of the day before, which he had spent +in the country. + +Soon it grew clear to the Honourable John Ruffin that his friend had +swollen with the insolent happiness so hateful to the Fates, and he said: + +"You seem to be uncommonly cheerful, Vance. What's the matter?" + +Hilary Vance looked at him gravely, drew himself upright in his chair, +laid down his pencil, and said in a tone of solemnity calculated to +awaken the deepest respect and awe: + +"Ruffin, I have found a woman--a WOMAN!" + +The quality of the Honourable John Ruffin's gaze changed; his eyes rested +on the face of his friend with a caressing, almost cherishing, delight. + +"Isn't it becoming rather a habit?" he said blandly. + +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance with splendid dignity. +"But this is different. This is a WOMAN!" + +His face filled with an expression of the finest beatitude. + +"They so often are," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Does James know +about her?" + +At the sound of the name of the mentor and friend who had rescued him +from so many difficulties, something of guilt mingled with the beatitude +on Hilary Vance's face, and he said in a less assured tone: + +"James is in Scotland." + +The Honourable John Ruffin sprang from his chair with a briskness which +made Hilary Vance himself jump, and cried in a tone of the liveliest +commiseration and dismay: + +"Good Heavens! Then you're lost--lost!" + +"What do you mean?" said Hilary Vance quite sharply. + +"I mean that your case is hopeless," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a +less excited tone. "_James_ is in Scotland; _I'm_ off to Buda-Pesth; and +_you_ have found a WOMAN--probably THE WOMAN." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance, frowning. + +"That's the worst of it! That's why it's so hopeless!" said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of deep depression. + +"What do you mean?" cried Hilary Vance in sudden bellow. + +"Good-bye, old chap; good-bye," said the Honourable John Ruffin in the +most mournful tone and with the most mournful air. "I _can not_ save +you. I've got to go to Buda-Pesth." He walked half-way to the door, +turned sharply on his heel, clapped his hand to his head with the most +dramatic gesture, and cried: "Stay! I'll wire to James!" + +"I'm damned if you do!" bellowed Hilary Vance. + +"I must! I must!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin, still dramatic. + +"You don't know his address, thank goodness!" growled Hilary Vance +triumphantly. "And you won't get it from me." + +"I shan't? Then it's hopeless indeed," said the Honourable John Ruffin +with a gesture of despair. He stood and seemed to plunge into deep +reflection, while Hilary Vance scowled an immense scowl at him. + +The Honourable John Ruffin allowed a faint air of hope to lighten his +gloom; then he said: + +"There's a chance--there's yet a chance!" + +"I don't want any chance!" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "You can jolly +well mind your own business and leave me alone. I can look after myself +without any help from you--or James either." + +"Whom the gods wish to destroy they first madden young," said the +Honourable John Ruffin sadly. "But there's always Pollyooly; she may +save you yet. I came to suggest that while I'm away in Buda-Pesth you +should let Pollyooly and the Lump occupy that spare bedroom of yours. I +don't like leaving them alone in the Temple; and I thought that you might +like to have them here for a while, though I fear Pollyooly will clean +the place." He looked round the studio gloomily. "But you can stand +that for once, I expect," he went on more cheerfully. "At any rate it +would be worth your while, because you'd learn what grilled bacon really +is." + +At the mention of the name of Pollyooly the scowl on Hilary Vance's face +began to smooth out; as the Honourable John Ruffin developed his +suggestion it slowly disappeared. + +"Oh, yes; I'll put them up. I shall be delighted to," he said eagerly. +"Pollyooly gives more delight to my eye than any one I know. And there +are so few people in town, and I'm lonely at times. I wish I liked +bacon, since she is so good at grilling it; but I don't." + +The Honourable John Ruffin came several steps down the room wearing an +air of the wildest amazement: + +"You don't like bacon?" he cried in astounded tones. "That explains +everything. I've always wondered about you. Now I know. You are one of +those whom the gods love; and I can't conceive why you didn't die +younger." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance, bristling and scowling +again. + +"You don't? Well, it doesn't matter. But I'm really very much obliged +to you for relieving me of all anxiety about those children." + +They discussed the hour at which Pollyooly and the Lump should come, and +then the Honourable John Ruffin held out his hand. + +But Hilary Vance rose and came to the front door with him. On the +threshold he coughed gently and said: + +"I should like you to see Flossie." + +"Flossie?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Ah--the WOMAN." He looked +at Hilary Vance very earnestly. "Yes, I see--I see--of course her name +would be Flossie." Then he added sternly: + +"No; if I saw her James might accuse me of having encouraged you. He +would, in fact. He always does." + +"She's only at the florist's just at the end of the street," said Hilary +Vance in a persuasive tone. + +"She would be," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of +extraordinary patience. "I don't know why it is that the WOMAN is so +often at a florist's at the end of the street. It seems to be one of +nature's strange whims." His face grew very gloomy again and in a very +sad tone he added: + +"Good-bye, poor old chap; good-bye!" + +He shook hands firmly with his puzzled friend and started briskly up the +street. Ten yards up it he paused, turned and called back: + +"She's everything that's womanly, isn't she?" + +"Yes--everything," cried Hilary Vance with fervour. + +The Honourable John Ruffin shook his head sadly and without another word +walked briskly on. + +Hilary Vance, still looking puzzled, shut the door and went back to his +studio. He failed, therefore, to perceive the Honourable John Ruffin +enter the florist's shop at the end of the street. He did not come out +of it for a quarter of an hour, and then he came out smiling. Seeing +that he only brought with him a single rose, he had taken some time over +its selection. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HILARY VANCE FINDS A CONFIDANTE + +That afternoon, when Pollyooly was helping him pack his portmanteau for +his journey to Buda-Pesth, the Honourable John Ruffin told her of the +arrangement he had made with Hilary Vance, that she and the Lump should +spend the time till his return at the studio at Chelsea. + +Pollyooly's face brightened; and there was something of the joy which +warriors feel in foemen worthy of their steel in the tone in which she +said: + +"Thank you, sir. I shall like that. It will be a change for the Lump; +and I've always wanted to know what that studio would look like if once +it were properly cleaned. That Mrs. Thomas who works for Mr. Vance +does let it get so dirty." + +"Yes; I told Mr. Vance that I was sure that you'd get the place really +clean for him," said the Honourable John Ruffin with a chuckle. + +"Oh, yes; I will," said Pollyooly firmly. + +The Honourable John Ruffin chuckled again, and said: + +"Mr. Vance is going to have the spring cleaning of a lifetime." + +"Yes, sir. It's not quite summer-time yet," said Pollyooly. + +The next morning before taking the train to Buda-Pesth, he despatched +her, the Lump, and the brown tin box which contained their clothes, to +Chelsea in a taxicab. Hilary Vance welcomed them with the most cordial +exuberance, led the way to his spare bedroom, and with an entire +unconsciousness of that bedroom's amazing resemblance to a +long-forgotten dust-bin, invited Pollyooly to unpack the box and make +herself at home. + +Pollyooly gazed slowly round the room, and then she looked at her host +in some discomfort. She was a well-mannered child, and careful of the +feelings of a host. Then she said in a hesitating voice: + +"I think I should like to--to--dust out the room before I unpack, +please." + +"By all means--by all means," said Hilary Vance cheerfully; and he went +back to his work. + +Owing to his absorption in it he failed to perceive the curious +measures Pollyooly took to dust out the bedroom. She put on an apron, +fastened up her hair and covered it with a large cotton handkerchief, +rolled up her sleeves, and carried a broom, two pails of hot water from +the kitchen, a scrubbing-brush, and a very large piece of soap into the +room she proposed to dust. She shut herself in, took the counterpane +off the bed, shook it with furious vigour, and even more vigourously +still banged it against the end of the bedstead. When she had finished +with it the counterpane was hardly white, but the room was dustier than +ever. She covered up the bed again, took down the pictures and again +made the room dustier. Then she swept the ceiling and the walls. +After doing so she shook the counterpane again. And the room was still +dusty; but the dust was nearly all on the floor, or on the black face +of Pollyooly. She swept it up. Then she went quietly out into the +street with the strips of carpet and banged them against the railings +of the house; this time it was the street that was dustier than ever; +and Pollyooly appeared to have come from the lower Congo. For the next +half-hour, had he not been absorbed in his work, Hilary Vance might +have heard a steady and sustained rasp of a scrubbing-brush. + +Pollyooly came to the laying of the lunch with her angel face deeply +flushed; but she wore a very cheerful air. Also she displayed an +excellent appetite. In the middle of lunch she said in dreamy +reminiscence, apropos of nothing in particular: + +"I got this place clean once." + +"Isn't it clean now?" said Hilary Vance in a tone of anxious surprise. + +"It depends on what you call clean," said Pollyooly politely. + +After lunch she brought the drawers from the chest of drawers in the +bedroom into the kitchen and washed them and dried them in the sun. +Then, at last, she unpacked the brown tin box and put away their +clothes. + +After that she took the Lump for an hour's walk on the embankment. She +preferred it to the embankment below the Temple; it seemed to her +airier. She returned to tea, and had a little struggle with the +teaspoons. They enjoyed, after the lapse of months, the experience of +shining. After tea Hilary Vance told her regretfully that he would not +be able to come home to supper, but that she would find provisions in +the cupboard, and advising them to go to bed early, bade them an +affectionate good-night and went out in a northeasterly direction to +talk about Art. + +When the door closed behind him Pollyooly heaved a faint sigh of +satisfaction and looked round the studio with the light of battle in +her eye. Then she took the canvases, which were set against the wall +three and four deep, into the street and brushed them. The dust in the +street had been a tedious grey; in front of the house of Hilary Vance +it became a warm black. + +Then she put the Lump, with the toys she had brought with her, into the +clean bedroom, and fell upon the studio. By the time she had brushed +the pictures and the walls and the ceiling its floor had become very +dusty indeed, and she was once more black. She swept it, and then she +was an hour scrubbing it. When it was done she gave the Lump his +supper and put him to bed. After supper she dealt faithfully with the +windows. The skylight gave her trouble; it was so high. But she tied +a wet cloth round the top of a broom, and by standing on the table +reached it. It made her arms ache, but slowly the panes assumed a +transparency to which they had long been unused. When she had cleaned +them from the inside she considered thoughtfully the possibility of +sitting astride the roof and cleaning their outside surfaces. But +there was no way of getting on to the roof. Then she had a hot bath; +she needed it. + +Mrs. Thomas had been apprised of her coming and greeted her amiably. +It is only fair to say that she gave the studio the cleaning it +generally received without observing that anything whatever had +happened to it. + +Hilary Vance, who was of that rare, but happy, disposition, came to +breakfast in splendid spirits. He also did not observe that anything +had happened to the studio. But when he got to his work he kept +looking up from it with a puzzled air. + +At last he said: + +"It's odd--very odd. Lately I've been thinking that my sight was +beginning to weaken. But this morning I can see quite clearly. Yet it +isn't a very bright morning." + +"Perhaps if you had the skylight cleaned on the outside, too, you'd see +clearer still," said Pollyooly in the tone of one throwing out a +careless suggestion. + +Hilary Vance looked round the studio more earnestly: + +"By Jove! You've cleaned it again!" he cried. "You are a brick, +Pollyooly. But all the same you're my guest here; and it's not the +function of a guest to clean her host's house. I ought to have +remembered it and had it cleaned before you came." + +"But I liked doing it. I did, really," said Pollyooly. + +"You are undoubtedly a brick--a splendid brick," he said +enthusiastically. + +Hilary Vance was one of those great-hearted men of thirty who crave for +sympathy; he must unbosom himself. Pollyooly was not quite the +confidante of his ideal; but his mentor, James, the novelist (not +Henry), was in Scotland; and the salt sea flowed between him and the +Honourable John Ruffin. Pollyooly was at hand, and she was +intelligent. No later than the next morning he began to talk to her of +Flossie--her beauty, her charm, her sympathetic nature, her +womanliness, and her intelligence. + +Pollyooly received his confidences with the utmost politeness. She +could not, indeed, follow him in his higher, finer flights; but she +succeeded in keeping on her angel face an expression of sufficient +appreciation to satisfy his unexacting mind. It is to be feared that +she did not really appreciate the splendour of the passion he displayed +before her; it is even to be feared that she regarded it as no more +than a further eccentricity in an eccentric nature. She grew curious, +however, to see the lady who had so enthralled him, and was, therefore, +pleased when she suggested that she should relieve Mrs. Thomas of the +housekeeping, that he accepted the suggestion and told her to procure, +among other things, some flowers for the studio. + +She found Flossie to be a fair, fluffy-haired, plump and pretty girl of +twenty, entirely pleased with herself and the world. It seemed to +Pollyooly that she gave herself airs. She came away with the flowers, +finding the ecstasies of Mr. Hilary Vance as inexplicable as ever. But +she did not puzzle over the matter at all, for it was none of her +business; Mr. Vance was like that. + +Having once begun, Hilary Vance fell into the way of confiding to her +from day to day his hopes and fears, the varying fortunes of his suit. +Some days the skies of his heaven were fair and serene; some days they +were livid with the darkest kind of cloud. Pollyooly, by dint of +hearing so much about it, began to get some understanding of the +matter, and consequently to take a greater interest in it. Always she +made an excellent listener. Her intercourse with the Honourable John +Ruffin had taught her that a comprehension of the matter under +discussion was by no means a necessary qualification of the excellent +listener; and Hilary Vance grew entirely satisfied with his confidante. + +The affair was pursuing the usual course of his affairs of the heart: +one day he was well up in the seventh heaven, talking joyfully of an +early proposal and an immediate marriage; another he was well down in +the seventh hell. Pollyooly was always ready with the kind of +sympathy, chiefly facial, the changing occasion demanded. + +Then one day her host had gone out to lunch with an editor and she was +taking hers with the Lump, when there came a rather hurried knocking at +the front door. She opened it, and to her surprise found Flossie +standing without. She was at once stricken with admiration of +Flossie's hat, which was very large and apparently loaded with the +contents of several beds of flowers. But Flossie herself looked to be +in a state of considerable perturbation. + +"Is Mr. Vance in?" she said somewhat breathlessly. + +She seemed to have been hurrying, and the hat was a little on one side. + +Pollyooly eyed her with some disfavour, and said coldly: "No, he isn't." + +"Will he be in soon?" said Flossie anxiously. + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly yet more coldly. + +Flossie gazed up and down the street with a helpless air; then she said: + +"Then I'd better come In and write a note for him and leave it." And +she walked down the passage and into the studio. + +Still wearing an air of disapproval, Pollyooly found paper and pencil +for her; and she sat down and began to write. She wrote a few words, +stopped, and bit the end of the pencil. + +"It's dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about you," she said in a +tone and with an air in which gratified vanity forced itself firmly +through the affectation of distress. + +"What gentlemen?" said Pollyooly. + +"Mr. Vance and my fiongsay, Mr. Reginald Butterwick," said Flossie. "I +don't know how he found out that Mr. Vance is friendly with me; and I'm +sure there's nothing in it--I told him so. But he's that jealous when +there's a gentleman in the case that he can't believe a word I say. It +isn't that he doesn't try; but he can't. He says he can't. He's got a +passionate nature; he says he has. And he can't do anything with it. +It runs away with him; he says it does. And now it's Mr. Vance. How +he found out I can't think--unless it was something I let slip by +accident about his taking me to the Chelsea Empire. He's so quick at +taking you up--Reginald is; and before you know where you are, there he +is--making a fuss. And what's going to happen I don't know." + +Her effort to look properly distressed failed. + +Pollyooly was somewhat taken aback by the flood of information suddenly +gushed upon her; but she said calmly: + +"But what's he going to do?" + +"He's going to knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance--he said he would. +And he'll do it, too--I know he will. He's done it before. There was +a gentleman friend of mine who lives in the same street as me in +Hammersmith; and he got to know about him--not that there was anything +to know, mind you--but he thought there was. And he blacked his eyes +and made his nose bleed. You see, Reginald's a splendid boxer; he +boxes at the Chiswick Polytechnic. And if he goes for Mr. Vance he'll +half kill him--I know he will. Reginald's simply a terror when his +blood's up." + +"But Mr. Vance is very big," said Pollyooly in a doubting tone. + +"But that makes no difference; bigness is nothing to a good boxer," +said Flossie with an air of superior knowledge. "Mr. Butterwick says +he doesn't mind taking on the biggest man in England, if he's not a +boxer. And he knows that Mr. Vance isn't a boxer, because I asked him +about boxing--knowing Reginald put it into my head--and he told me he +didn't know a thing about it. And he'd have no chance at all against +Reginald. And I let it out when I was telling Reginald that Mr. Vance +was a friend of mine--only just a friend of mine--and he mustn't hurt +him, and there was nothing to make a fuss about." + +"I don't see why you wanted to tell him about Mr. Vance at all for, if +you knew he'd make a fuss," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval. + +"I told you it slipped out when I wasn't thinking," said Flossie, in a +tone which carried no conviction; and she bent hastily to the note and +added a couple of lines. + +Then she broke out again in the same high-pitched, excited tone: + +"And I came round here as soon as I could get away, because there +wasn't any time to be lost. Reginald says he doesn't believe in losing +time in anything. And he's going to take an afternoon off and come +round and knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance this very day. He can +always get an afternoon off, for he's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping, +and the firm has the greatest confidence in him; he says they have." + +She finished the note and folded it, saying with the air which +Pollyooly found hypocritical: + +"It's really dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about one so. But +what am I to do? There's no way of stopping them. You'll know what it +is when you get to my age--at least you would if you hadn't got red +hair." + +With this almost brilliantly tactful remark, she rose, gave Pollyooly +the note, and adjured her to give it to Mr. Hilary Vance the moment he +came in. + +"What time will Mr. Butterwick get here?" said Pollyooly anxiously. + +"There's no saying," said Flossie cheerfully. "But he'll get here as +soon as the firm can spare him. He never loses time--Reginald doesn't." + +Again she adjured Pollyooly to give Hilary Vance the note as soon as he +returned, and hurried down the street to the florist's shop. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE INFURIATED SWAINS + +Flossie's news filled Pollyooly with a considerable anxiety; but she +was at a loss what to do. She knew that Hilary Vance was at the Savage +Club, but she did not know whether she could reach it in time to find +him there, for it was now a quarter of two. It did not seem to her a +matter to be trusted to the electric telegraph; and living as she did +in the old-time Temple, it never occurred to her to telephone. + +There was nothing to do but await his return and give him Flossie's +note of warning the moment he entered. She had been going to take the +Lump for a walk on the embankment; she must postpone it. Then, unused +to idleness, she cast about how she might fill up her time till his +return. + +She had swept and dusted the room that morning, after the departure of +Mrs. Thomas, who had busied herself in them, for a short time, and +ineffectually, with a dustpan, a brush, and a duster, so that there was +no cleaning to be done. Presently it occurred to her that perhaps +there might be some holes in the linen of her host which would be the +better for her mending. A brief examination of his wardrobe showed her +that her surmise was accurate: there was at least a month's hard +mending to be done before that wardrobe would contain garments really +worthy of the name of underclothing. She decided to begin by darning +his socks, for she chanced to have some black darning wool in her +workbox. She brought three pairs of them into the studio, and began to +darn. Nature had been generous, even lavish, to Hilary Vance in the +matter of feet; and his socks were enormous. So were the holes in +them. But their magnitude did not shake Pollyooly's resolve to darn +them. + +She had been at work for about three-quarters of an hour when there +came a knock at the door. She went to it in some trepidation, +expecting to find a raging Butterwick on the threshold. She opened it +gingerly, and to her relief looked into the friendly face of Mr. James, +the novelist. + +On that friendly face sat the expression of weary resignation with +which he was wont to intervene in the affairs of his great-hearted, but +impulsive, friend. + +He greeted Pollyooly warmly, and asked if Hilary Vance were in. +Pollyooly told him the artist was lunching at the Savage Club. + +Mr. James hesitated; then walking down the passage into the studio, he +said: + +"Well, I expect that you'll be able to tell me the latest news of the +affair. I've just got back from Scotland to find a letter from Mr. +Ruffin to say that Mr. Vance has at last found the lady of his dreams +and is engaged to be married to a florist's assistant of the name of +Flossie. I expect Mr. Ruffin's rotting; he knows what a bother Mr. +Vance is. But I thought I'd better come round and make sure. Do you +know anything about it?" + +"I don't think he's engaged to her quite. But he's expecting to be +every day," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, he is, is he?" said Mr. James in a tone of some exasperation. +"What's she like?" + +"She's fair, with a lot of fair hair and a very large hat with lots of +flowers in it," said Pollyooly. + +"She would be!" broke in Mr. James with a groan. + +"And she gives herself airs because of that hat." + +"Just what I supposed," said Mr. James, fuming. + +"But she's engaged to Mr. Reginald Butterwick," said Pollyooly. + +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. James; and a faint gleam of hope +brightened his face. "And who is Mr. Reginald Butterwick?" + +"He's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping; but he can always get an afternoon +off to knock the stuffing out of any one, because he boxes at the +Chiswick Polytechnic. And he's going to get his afternoon off to-day +to knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance." + +"The deuce he is!" cried Mr. James. "Well, a good hiding would do +Hilary a world of good," he added in a vengeful tone. "Teach him not +to go spooning florists' assistants." + +"Oh, no. He might get hurt ever so badly," said Pollyooly firmly. + +Mr. James' face grew stubborn; then it softened, and he said: + +"Well, there's always the danger of his getting a finger broken; and +that wouldn't do. I suppose we must stop the affray--it might get into +the papers too." + +"Yes: we must stop it, if we can," said Pollyooly anxiously. + +"Well, if he's lunching at the Savage he'll play Spelka after it; and I +shall catch him there. I'll keep him out all the afternoon--till his +rival has tired of waiting and gone." + +"Oh, yes. That would be much the best," said Pollyooly gratefully. + +Mr. James went briskly to the door. At it he stopped and said: + +"There's a chance that I may miss him. There may not be a game of +Spelka; and he may come straight home. Perhaps you'd better wait in +till about five." + +"Yes: I think I'd better. He'd be sure to come back and not know +anything about Mr. Butterwick, if there weren't anybody here," said +Pollyooly. + +He bade her good-bye; and let himself out of the house. She returned +to her darning. + +It was as well that she had not left the house, for about twenty +minutes later the front door was opened, and the passage and studio +quivered gently to Hilary Vance's weight. Pollyooly sprang up and met +him at the door of the studio with Flossie's note. + +At the sight of the handwriting, a large, gratified smile covered all +the round expanse of his face. But as he read, the smile faded, giving +way to an expression of the liveliest surprise and consternation. + +"What the deuce is this?" he cried loudly. + +"She said he was going to knock the stuffing out of you, Mr. Vance, and +he might be here any time this afternoon," said Pollyooly. + +"And what the deuce for? What's it got to do with him?" cried Hilary +Vance. + +"She said he was her fiongsay," said Pollyooly, faithfully reproducing +Flossie's pronunciation. + +"Her fiancé?" roared Hilary Vance in accents of the liveliest surprise, +dismay, and horror. "Oh, woman! Woman! The faithlessness! The +treachery!" + +With a vast, magnificent expression of despair he dropped heavily on to +the nearest chair without pausing to select a strong one. Under the +stress of his emotion and his weight the chair crumpled up; and he sat +down on the floor with a violence which shook the house. He sprang up, +smothered, out of regard for the age and sex of Pollyooly, some +language suggested by the occurrence, and with a terrific kick sent the +fragments of the chair flying across the studio. Then he howled, and +holding his right toes in his left hand, hopped on his left leg. He +had forgotten that he was wearing thin, but patent-leather, shoes. + +Then he put his feet gingerly upon the floor, ground his teeth, and +roared: + +"Knock the stuffing out of me, will he? I'll tear him limb from limb! +The insidious villain! I'll teach him to come between me and the woman +I love!" + +Sad to relate Pollyooly's heart, inured to violence by her battles with +the young male inhabitants of the slum behind the Temple, where she had +lodged before becoming the housekeeper of the Honourable John Ruffin, +leapt joyfully at the thought of the fray, in spite of her friendship +with Hilary Vance; and her quick mind grasped the fact that she might +watch it in security from the door of her bedroom. Then her duty to +her host came uppermost. + +"But please, Mr. Vance: he's a boxer. He boxes at the Chiswick +Polytechnic," she cried anxiously. + +"Let him box! I'll tear him limb from limb!" roared Hilary Vance +ferociously; and he strode up and down the studio, limping that he +might not press heavily on his aching toes. + +Pollyooly gazed at him doubtfully. Flossie's account of Mr. +Butterwick's prowess had impressed her too deeply to permit her to +believe that anything but painful ignominious defeat awaited Hilary +Vance at his hands. + +"But he blacks people's eyes and makes their noses bleed," protested +Pollyooly. + +"I'll tear him limb from limb!" roared Hilary Vance, still ferociously, +but with less conviction in his tone. + +"And he doesn't care how big anybody is, if they don't know how to +box," Pollyooly insisted. + +"No more do I!" roared Hilary Vance. + +He stamped up and down the studio yet more vigorously since his aching +toes were growing easier. Then he sank into a chair--a stronger +chair--gingerly; and in a more moderate tone said: + +"I'll have the scoundrel's blood. I'll teach him to cross my path." + +He paused, considering the matter more coldly, and Pollyooly anxiously +watched his working face. Little by little it grew calmer. + +"After all it may not be the scoundrel's fault," he said in a tone of +some magnanimity. "I know what women are--treachery for treachery's +sake. Why should I destroy the poor wretch whose heart has probably +been as scored as mine by the discovery of her treachery? He is a +fellow victim." + +"And perhaps you mightn't destroy him--if he's such a good boxer," said +Pollyooly anxiously. + +"I should certainly destroy him," said Hilary Vance with a dignified +certainty. "But to what purpose? Would it give me back my unstained +ideal? No. The ideal once tarnished never shines as bright again." + +His face was now calm--calm and growing sorrowful. Then a sudden +apprehension appeared on it: + +"Besides--suppose I broke a finger--a finger of my right hand. Why +should I give this blackguard a chance of maiming me?" he cried, and +looked at Pollyooly earnestly. + +"I don't know, Mr. Vance," said Pollyooly, answering the question in +his urgent eyes. + +"If I did break a finger, it might be weeks--months before I could work +again. Why, I might never be able to work again!" he cried. + +"That's just what Mr. James was afraid of," said Pollyooly. + +"Mr. James! Has he been here?" cried Hilary Vance; and there was far +more uneasiness than pleasure in his tone on thus hearing of his +friend's return. + +"Yes. He came to know if you were engaged yet," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, did he?" said Hilary Vance very glumly. + +"Yes. And I told him you weren't." + +"That's right," he said in a tone of relief. + +"And he said we must stop the affray." + +"He was right. It would be criminal," said Hilary Vance solemnly. +"After all it isn't myself: I have to consider posterit--" + +A sudden, very loud knocking on the front door cut short the word. + +"That's him!" said Pollyooly in a hushed voice. + +Hilary Vance rose, folded his two big arms, and faced the door of the +studio, his brow knitted in a dreadful frown. + +"Hadn't I better send him away?" said Pollyooly anxiously. + +Hilary Vance ground his teeth and scowled steadily at the studio door +for a good half-minute. Then he let his arms fall to his sides, walked +with a very haughty air to his bedroom, opened the door, and from the +threshold said: + +"Yes: you'd better send him away--if you can." + +As Pollyooly went to let the visitor in, she heard him (Mr. Vance) turn +his key in the lock of his bedroom door. + +It was perhaps as well that he did so; for as Pollyooly opened the +front door a young man whose flashing eye proclaimed him Mr. Reginald +Butterwick, pushed quickly past her and bounced into the studio. + +Pollyooly followed him quickly, somewhat surprised by his size. He +bounced well into the studio with an air of splendid intrepidity, which +would have been more splendid had he been three or four inches higher +and thicker, and uttered a snort of disappointment at its emptiness. + +He turned on Pollyooly and snapped out: + +"Where's your guv'ner? Where's Hilary Vance?" Pollyooly hesitated; she +was still taken aback by the young man's lack of the formidable +largeness Flossie had led her to expect; and she was, besides, a very +truthful child. Then she said: + +"I expect he's somewhere in Chelsea." + +"When'll he be back?" snapped the young man. + +"He's generally in to tea," with less hesitation; and she looked at him +with very limpid eyes. + +"He is, is he? Then I'll wait for him," said the young man in as +bloodcurdling a tone as his size would allow: he did not stand five +feet three in his boots. + +He stood still for a moment, scowling round the studio; then he said in +a dreadful tone: + +"There'll be plenty of room for us." + +He fell into the position of a prizefighter on guard and danced two +steps to the right, and two steps to the left. + +Pollyooly gazed at him earnestly. Except for his flashing eye, he was +not a figure to dread, for what he lost in height he gained in +slenderness. He was indeed uncommonly slender. In fact, either he had +forgotten to tell Flossie that he was a featherweight boxer, or she had +forgotten to pass the information on. The most terrible thing about +him was his fierce air, and the most dangerous-looking his sharp, +tip-tilted nose. + +Then Pollyooly sat down in considerable relief; she was quite sure now +that did Mr. Reginald Butterwick discover that his rival was in his +bedroom and hale him forth, the person who would suffer would be Mr. +Reginald Butterwick. She took up again the gigantic sock she was +mending; and she kept looking up from it to observe with an easy eye +the pride of the Polytechnic as he walked round the studio examining +the draperies, the pictures, and the drawings on the wall. Whenever +his eye rested on one signed by Hilary Vance he sniffed a bitter, +contemptuous sniff. For these he had but three words of criticism; +they were: "Rot!" "Rubbish!" and "Piffle!" + +Once he said in a bitterly scoffing tone: + +"I suppose your precious guv'ner thinks he's got the artistic +temperament." + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly. + +He squared briskly up to an easel, danced lightly on his toes before +it, and said: + +"I'll give him the artistic temperament all right." + +At last he paused in his wanderings before the industrious Pollyooly, +and his eyes fell on the gigantic sock she was darning. She saw his +expression change; something of the fierce confidence of the intrepid +boxer passed out of his face. + +"I say, what's that you're darning?" he said quickly. + +"It's a sock," said Pollyooly. + +"It looks more like a sack than a sock. Whose sock is it?" said Mr. +Reginald Butterwick; and there was a faint note of anxiety in his tone. + +"It's Mr. Vance's sock," said Pollyooly; and with gentle pride she held +it up in a fashion to display its full proportions. + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick took two or three nervous steps to the right, +looking askance at the sock as he moved. It was not really as large as +a sack. + +"Big man, your guv'ner? Eh?" he said in a finely careless tone. + +"I should think he was!" cried Pollyooly with enthusiasm. + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick looked still more earnestly at the sock and +said: + +"One of those tall lanky chaps--eh?" + +"He's tall, but he isn't lanky--not a bit," said Pollyooly quickly. +"He's tremendously big--broad and thick as well as tall, you know. +He's more like a giant than a man." + +"Oh, I know those giants--flabby--flabby," said Mr. Reginald +Butterwick; and he laughed a short, scoffing laugh which rang uneasy. + +"He's not flabby!" cried Pollyooly indignantly. "He's tremendously +strong. Why--why--when he heard you were coming he smashed that chair +and kicked it into the corner just because he was annoyed." + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick looked at the smallish fragments of the chair +in the corner; and his face became the face of a quiet, respectable +clerk. + +"He did, did he?" he said coldly. + +"Yes, and he wanted to tear you limb from limb. He said so," said +Pollyooly. + +"That's a game two can play at," said Mr. Reginald Butterwick; but his +tone lacked conviction. + +"Oh, he'd do it--quite easily," said Pollyooly confidently. + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick stared at her and then at the sock. He opened +his mouth to speak and then shut it again. Then he whistled a short, +defiant whistle which went out of tune toward the end. Then he walked +the length of the studio and back. Then he stopped and said to +Pollyooly very fiercely: + +"Do you think I've got nothing else to do but wait here all the +afternoon for your precious guv'ner to come home to tea?" + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly politely. + +"Well, I have--plenty," said Mr. Reginald Butterwick savagely. + +Pollyooly said nothing. + +"And what's more, I'm going to do it!" said Mr. Reginald Butterwick yet +more savagely; and he strode firmly to the door. On the threshold he +paused and added: "But you tell your guv'ner from me--Mr. Reginald +Butterwick--that he hasn't seen the last of me--not by a long chalk. +One of these fine nights when he's messing round with--well, you tell +him what I've told you--that's all. He'll know." + +With that he passed through the door and banged it heavily behind him. +The front door was larger and heavier, so that he was able to bang it +more loudly still. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DUCHESS HAS AN IDEA + +Pollyooly heaved a sigh as the studio trembled to the shock of the +banged front door, a sigh chiefly of relief, but tinged also with a +faint regret that she had not seen Mr. Reginald Butterwick torn limb +from limb. She knew that she would not really have enjoyed the sight; +and the mess in the cleaned studio would have been exceedingly +annoying; but there were primitive depths in her heart, and somewhere +in them was the regret that she had missed the thrilling spectacle. + +The studio still quivered to the bang, the sigh still trembled on +Pollyooly's lip, when the bedroom door opened, and Hilary Vance came +forth with an immense scowl on his spacious face and said fiercely: + +"So the scoundrel's gone, has he?" + +"Yes. When I told him how big you were, he didn't seem so eager to +fight. And he went away," said Pollyooly quickly. "But he told me to +tell you that you hadn't seen the last of him--not by a long chalk." + +Her host's scowl lightened a little; there was almost a faint +satisfaction on his face as he said: + +"So he fears my rivalry still, does he?" Then his face grew gloomier +than ever; and he added: "There's no need. I am not one to sit at the +feet of a tarnished ideal. There will be a gap--there is a gap--but I +have done with HER for good and all. I have--done--with--HER." + +He had drawn himself up to utter the last words with a splendid air; +then he said sadly: + +"I think I should like my tea." + +"I'll get it at once," said Pollyooly cheerfully. + +She was not long about it. Hilary Vance took the Lump on his knee, +gave him a lump of sugar, poured out the tea, and began to drink it +with an air of gloomy resignation. + +Presently he patted the Lump's bright red curls and said: + +"Let this be a warning to you, red cherub, never to trust a +woman--never as long as you live." + +The Lump grunted peacefully. + +"He's too young to understand, or it wouldn't be right to teach him +such a thing as that," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval. + +"Not right?" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "But you've seen for +yourself! You've seen how that girl led me on to squander the treasure +of a splendid passion on her unresponsive spirit while, all the time, +she was abasing herself before a miserable, preposterous scoundrel like +that ruffian Butterwick." + +"He was rather small," said Pollyooly thoughtfully. "But I daresay +he'd make her a good husband. He looked quite respectable." + +"A good husband!" cried Hilary Vance with a dreadful sneer. + +"But I expect she'll lead him a life. She looked like it," said +Pollyooly, thoughtfully pursuing the subject. + +"Serve him right!" cried Hilary Vance with terrible scorn. "He has +learnt her treachery to me; and if he marries her after that, he +deserves all he gets. If she betrays my trust, she'll betray his." + +Pollyooly was silent, considering the matter. Then, summing it up, she +said with conviction: + +"I don't think she's the kind of girl to trust at all." + +"I must have been blind--blind," said Hilary Vance. + +Then came the sound of a taxicab drawing up before the house, and then +a knocking at the front door. Pollyooly opened it, and found Mr. James +on the threshold. He looked uncommonly anxious and said quickly: + +"I missed him. Has he come back?" + +"Yes; he's having his tea." + +"And this fellow Butterwick?" said Mr. James. + +"Oh, he came; and then, when he found how big Mr. Vance is, he went +away. But he hasn't done with Mr. Vance--not by a long chalk. He told +me to tell him so," said Pollyooly. + +"Well, I'm glad they didn't scrap," said Mr. James in a tone of relief. +"If they didn't at once, they're not very likely to later." + +"Oh, no: they won't now," said Pollyooly confidently. "You see as soon +as he heard that Mr. Butterwick was her--her fiongsay"--she hesitated +over the word because Hilary Vance had shaken her original conception +of its pronunciation--"he gave her up for good." + +"That is a blessing," said the novelist in a tone of yet greater relief. + +He had been looking forward to a disagreeable and very likely hopeless +struggle with his friend's infatuation. + +He walked down the passage and into the studio briskly. But not +quickly enough to prevent an expression of funereal gloom flooding +Hilary Vance's face. + +"How are you?" said Mr. James cheerfully. + +"In the depths--in the depths--my last illusion shattered," said the +artist in the gloomiest kind of despairing croak. + +"Oh, you never know," said Mr. James. + +"I shall never trust a woman again--never," said the artist in an +inexorable tone. + +"But I thought you'd given up trusting them months ago," said Mr. James +in considerable surprise. + +"I was deceived--this one seemed so different. She was a serpent--a +veritable serpent," said Hilary Vance in his deepest tone. + +"Yes. They are apt to be like that," said Mr. James with some +carelessness. "May I have some tea?" + +Gloomily the artist poured him out a cup of tea; gloomily he watched +him drink it. Heedless of his gloom, Mr. James plunged into an account +of his stay in Scotland, telling of the country, the food, and the +people with an agreeable, racy vivacity. Slowly the great cloud lifted +from Hilary Vance's ample face. He grew interested; he asked +questions; at last he said firmly: + +"I must go to Scotland. Nature--Nature pure and undenied is what my +seared soul needs." + +"It wouldn't be a bad idea," said Mr. James. + +"I shall wear a kilt," said Hilary Vance solemnly. "The winds of +heaven playing round my legs would assist healing nature; and I must be +in complete accord with the country." + +"A kilt wouldn't be a bad idea," said Mr. James. + +Hilary Vance paused and appeared to be thinking deeply; then he said: + +"The Scotch peasant lassies, James--are they as attractive nowadays as +they appear to have been in the days of Burns?" + +"I thought you'd done with women!" cried Mr. James. + +"I _have_ done with women," said the poet with cold sternness. "I have +done with the cold-hearted, treacherous, meretricious women of the +town. But the simple, trusting and trustworthy country girl, the +daughter of the soil, in perpetual touch with nature--surely communion +with her would be healing too." + +"Oh, hang it all!" said Mr. James quite despondently. + +Hilary Vance plunged once more into deep thought; then he said: + +"Where does one buy a kilt--and a sporran?" + +"Whiteley's, I suppose," said Mr. James. Then he added hastily: "But I +say, oughtn't we to do something to amuse these children?" + +At once his friend forgot his seared heart; for the while the process +of healing it did not exercise his wits. He flung himself heart and +soul into the business of amusing Pollyooly and the Lump; and presently +the studio rang with their screams of joy. There may have been some +truth in the assertion of his detractors that Hilary Vance's drawing +was facile and too far on the side of mere prettiness; but no one in +the world could deny that he made a splendid elephant: his trumpeting +was especially true to life. + +Ten days passed pleasantly at his studio; and both Pollyooly and the +Lump were the better for the change. Three times she went to the +King's Bench Walk and cleaned the rooms against the Honourable John +Ruffin's return; four times she went to the dancing class in Soho, +where she was training for a career on the stage. On the evening of +the tenth day came a letter to say that he would be back at noon on the +morrow. After breakfast, therefore, Hilary Vance despatched the two +children back to the King's Bench Walk in a taxicab, the Lump hugging a +large box of chocolate creams, Pollyooly, in no less joy, clasping +firmly her shabby little purse which contained, beyond the silver she +carried to meet any natural expense, a golden sovereign, the artist's +parting gift. Her sky was now serene; but she was still mindful of the +days when the jaws of the workhouse had yawned for her and the Lump, +and she lost no chance of adding to her hoard in the Post Office +Savings Bank. Immediately on her arrival at the Temple she went to the +post office and added the sovereign to it. + +The Honourable John Ruffin arrived from Buda-Pesth, looking the browner +for the change, and in very good spirits. He brought the friendliest +messages and Hungarian gifts to Pollyooly and the Lump from the +Esmeralda, and was able to assure them that she was in excellent +health, and enjoying a genuine triumph. + +When he had delivered the Esmeralda's gifts and assured Pollyooly of +her prosperity, there came a short silence; then Pollyooly said: + +"And the Moldo-Wallachian, sir?" + +The fine grey eyes of the Honourable John Ruffin twinkled, as he said +gravely: + +"The Moldo-Wallachian has returned to Moldo-Wallachia. When the ideal +was once more clearly presented to the Esmeralda, the attractions of +the Moldo-Wallachian faded as flowers fade in a drought." + +"I'm glad she isn't going to marry a foreigner," said Pollyooly with +true patriotism. + +"She would never be happy in Moldo-Wallachia," said the Honourable John +Ruffin with conviction. + +"Oh, no, sir," said Pollyooly. + +There was a pause; then he said: + +"And how did you leave Mr. Vance?" + +"Oh, he was all right, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, he was, was he? Did you by any chance come across a young lady of +the name of Flossie while you were staying at Chelsea?" + +"Yes, sir. But he doesn't have anything to do with her now, sir. He +goes past the shop with an air of cold dignity--he says he does; and +he's going to Scotland to wear a kilt to get quite cured--he says he +is," said Pollyooly quickly. + +"It sounds most efficacious," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "But +how did it all happen?" + +Pollyooly told the story of the intervention of Mr. Butterwick; and the +Honourable John Ruffin chuckled freely, for no reason that she could +see, as he listened to it. At the end of it he said sententiously: + +"Well, all's well that ends well. These foreign countries are not +suited to English girls: Miss Flossie would never be happy in Bohemia." + +The next morning, when she brought in his grilled bacon, he said that +they might now congratulate themselves on the prospect of leading their +quiet, industrious lives in peace for a while. + +These congratulations, however, were premature, for only three days +later he was sitting in his rooms, having just come from the Law +Courts, where he had been acting as junior counsel in an awkward case, +and was bracing himself to the effort of getting himself his afternoon +tea, since Pollyooly had gone with the Lump to take the air in Hyde +Park. + +Suddenly there came a sharp, hurried knocking on his outer door. + +The Honourable John Ruffin raised his eyebrows, opened his eyes rather +wide, and said to his cigarette: + +"A woman in distress, evidently. Who on earth can it be?" + +He did not spring to his feet and dash to the door to offer instant aid +to the distressed one. He rose slowly and walked slowly to the door, +assuming slowly as he went an air of deep, but patient, resignation. + +He opened the door gingerly. On the threshold stood the beautiful, +high-spirited and wilful Duchess of Osterley. + +"Caroline, by Jove! Why, I thought you were out of England, still +hiding Marion from Osterley," he cried, and smiled with pleasure at the +sight of her beautiful face. + +The Duke and Duchess of Osterley had been at daggers drawn for nearly +two years; and since both of them had sought to bring their feud +forcibly to an end in the Law Courts, the Anglo-Saxon peoples had had +no cause to complain of any lack of effort on their part to be +entertaining. The upshot of the law proceedings had been that the +Court, with a futility almost fatuous, had ordered the duchess to +return to her husband, and, what was far more important, had given the +custody of their little daughter of twelve, Lady Marion Ricksborough, +to the duke. + +The Anglo-Saxon peoples felt that the duke had scored heavily; and the +duchess agreed with them. She was not one to sit submissive under +defeat; and presently those peoples read with the liveliest interest +and pleasure that she had carried off her daughter and hidden her with +such skill that the detectives, official and unofficial, had failed +utterly to find her. + +In this carrying off and hiding Pollyooly had played the important +part. It had been a freak of nature to make her and Lady Marion +Ricksborough so closely alike, that even when they were together it was +hard to tell which was which. The duchess had taken advantage of this +likeness to substitute Pollyooly for Lady Marion at Ricksborough Court, +the duke's chief country seat, for a fortnight. + +The duke, Lady Marion's nurse, and her governess had believed Lady +Marion Ricksborough to be still with them, and had given the duchess +all the time she needed to hide her. + +For a whole fortnight Pollyooly had played her part with such skill +that only the duke's nephew and heir, Lord Ronald Ricksborough, had +discovered that she was not Lady Marion. A most discreet boy of +fourteen, and already Pollyooly's warm friend, he was the last person +to spoil the sport; and at the end of the fortnight she had slipped +away and returned by motor car to her post of housekeeper to the +Honourable John Ruffin and Mr. Gedge-Tomkins in the King's Bench Walk. + +Ignorant of the fact that Lady Marion Ricksborough had fled a fortnight +previously, the detectives, both official and private, had taken up the +search for her from the moment of Pollyooly's disappearance from the +Court. It is hardly a matter for wonder that they did not go far along +a trail which had been cold for a fortnight. + +As he said, the Honourable John Ruffin had believed the duchess to be +hiding out of England; and he showed himself unfeignedly pleased to see +her. He put her in his most comfortable chair, made her take off her +hat, and said: + +"Now, I'll make you some tea." + +The Honourable John Ruffin went to the kitchen; the duchess rose +restlessly and followed him. As he made the tea he lectured her on the +importance of making it not only with boiling water, but with water +which had not been boiling for more than a quarter of a minute, and +that poured on to a fine China tea in a warmed pot without taking the +kettle right off the stove. + +The rebellious duchess, impatient to tell him the object of her visit, +made several faces at him; and twice she said contemptuously: + +"You and your old tea!" + +But when she came to drink it, she admitted handsomely that it was +better than she could have made it herself. + +She drank it; grew suddenly serious, and said: + +"John, I'm in a mess, and I've come to you for help." + +"It is yours to the half of my fortune--at present about fourteen +shillings," said the Honourable John Ruffin warmly. + +"Well, I didn't take Marion abroad," said the duchess. "They always +look abroad for people who bolt. I borrowed Pinky Wallerton's car and +drove her down, myself, to a cottage I bought in Devonshire--in the +pinewoods above Budleigh Salterton." + +"That sounds all right." + +"It was--quite--till this morning. Then, without a word of warning, at +eleven o'clock, one of Osterley's lawyers turned up with a detective." + +"And got her?" + +"No. Fortunately she was out in the wood with her nurse. I gave +Eglantine, my maid, twenty pounds and told her to get quietly to Marion +while I kept the brutes in play, rush her down to the station, and +catch the London train. They'd just time if they ran most of the way." + +"But the lawyer would only have to wire to Osterley to meet the train +at Waterloo," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"I thought of that," said the duchess quickly. "I told her to leave +the express at Salisbury, go on to Woking by a slow train, take a taxi +from there to my old nurse's, Mrs. Simpson's, in Camden Town, and leave +Marion with her." + +"Excellent," said the Honourable John Ruffin in warm approval. + +"Then she's to come on here with Marion's clothes in time to catch the +six o'clock to Exeter from Paddington." + +"Here? With Marion's clothes? What for?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Why, to put on Mary Bride--Pollyooly as you call her. I want to +borrow her again, substitute her for Marion, and let her keep the +brutes quiet while I carry Marion off to a cottage I have bought in the +north of Scotland for just such an emergency as this." + +The Honourable John Ruffin sprang to his feet with flashing eyes: + +"What? Rob me of my bacon-griller again? The last time my breakfast +was spoilt for a fortnight. You don't know what you ask!" he cried in +tones in which indignation and horror were nicely blended. + +"Oh, but this won't be for a fortnight--a couple of days at the +outside. Surely you could eat fish for breakfast for a couple of +mornings," pleaded the duchess. + +"I never eat fish for breakfast," said the Honourable John Ruffin +coldly. "I am an Englishman and a patriot--eggs and bacon." + +"But just for once," said the duchess. + +The hard expression faded slowly from his face; he took a turn up and +down the room; then he said in a tone of infinite sadness: + +"Well, well, I suppose I must sacrifice myself again. What a thing it +is to be a cousin! But how are you going to work it? Surely you're +being followed?" + +"Rather," said the duchess cheerfully. "But I don't take Mary Bride +with me. I go back to Budleigh Salterton by the four forty-five from +Waterloo; and my follower will no doubt go with me. Eglantine and Mary +Bride will go down to Exeter by the six o'clock from Paddington, motor +over, and slip into the house late at night. There's sure to be some +one watching it; and once they believe Marion to be in it, they'll go +on watching it without bothering about me. I only want to be left +alone for six hours, and I'll get Marion away without leaving a trace." + +"Strategist," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of admiring +approval. "I hope you'll pull it off. You deserve to for having +thought it out so thoroughly. Fortunately, Pollyooly is due home at a +quarter of five, so there'll be no trouble there. She's the most +punctual person in the Temple." + +"That's lucky," said the duchess with a sigh of thankfulness. + +There was nothing more to be arranged; and if she were going to catch +her train comfortably, it was time that she started for Waterloo. He +escorted her to Fleet Street, put her into a taxicab, and bade her +good-bye. + +The taxicab started; he turned to return to his rooms, stopped short, +and said sharply: + +"Bother! I forgot to arrange about Pollyooly's salary!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +POLLYOOLY IS CALLED IN + +On his way back to the King's Bench Walk the Honourable John Ruffin +pondered this matter of salary and came to the conclusion that five +pounds would not be too high a fee for the duchess to pay for skilled +work of this kind. He must remember to tell Eglantine to tell her to +give Pollyooly that sum. + +Pollyooly was rather earlier than he had expected: at five and twenty +minutes to five he heard her latchkey in the lock of his outer door, +and when it opened he called to her to come to him. + +She entered leading the Lump. His red hair was a rather brighter red +than the hair of Pollyooly; but his eyes were of the same deep blue and +his clear skin of the same paleness. They would have made a charming +picture of Cupid led by an angel child. + +"Ah, Pollyooly!" said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. "You are +about to realise the truth of those immortal lines: + + "Oh, what a tangled web we weave + When first we practice to deceive!" + + +"Please, sir, I haven't been deceiving any one," said Pollyooly, +knitting her brow in a faint anxiety. + +"Not recently, perhaps. But you have deceived. You deceived the Duke +of Osterley by taking the place of his daughter." + +"Oh, him?" said Pollyooly in a very care-free tone; and her face grew +serene. + +"You don't seem to feel it much," said the Honourable John Ruffin +sadly. "But now you are called on to deceive lawyers and detectives." + +"Am I to be Lady Marion again?" said Pollyooly quickly. + +"You are, indeed," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"And shall I be paid again for doing it?" + +Her angel face flushed, and her blue eyes danced. + +"Certainly you will be paid. I am going to tell Eglantine, the +duchess's maid, to see to it. She's coming for you, and you haven't +any time to lose. She's going to take you down to Devonshire by the +train which leaves Paddington at six," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Then I'd better take the Lump round to Mrs. Brown at once," said +Pollyooly; and her eyes sparkled and danced. + +"You had," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "It's only for a couple of +nights at the outside, tell her." + +"And that's quite as long as I like to leave him," she said in a tone +of complete satisfaction; and she ran briskly up-stairs to their attic +for the Lump's sleeping-suit. + +She was not long taking him to Mrs. Brown, who lived in the little +slum, the last remnant of Alsatia, behind the King's Bench Walk; and +she welcomed him warmly. Pollyooly and he had lodged with her before +they had gone to live in the King's Bench Walk, and Mrs. Brown had +grown very fond of him. She had taken charge of him during the time +Pollyooly had spent at Ricksborough Court and was delighted to have him +with her again. Also she was disengaged for the next two days and was +able to take charge of the housekeeping at number 75 the King's Bench +Walk during Pollyooly's absence. + +Pollyooly had not been gone five minutes, when there came a gentle +knocking at the door of the Honourable John Ruffin's chambers. He +opened it to find Eglantine, a pretty, dark, slim girl of twenty-two, +standing on the doormat, carrying a small kitbag and wearing an air of +deepest mystery. + +"You're Mademoiselle Eglantine, I suppose?" he said. + +"Ye--es. And you are Monsieur Ruffin," she whispered with an air of +utter secrecy. "Ze duchess she 'av been 'ere?" + +"She has. Come on in. Pollyooly is making preparations to go with +you," said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. "She'll be here in a +few minutes." + +He stepped aside for her to pass. She looked back down the staircase +carefully and with the greatest caution; then she entered and went on +tiptoe, noiselessly, down the passage into the sitting-room. There +could be no doubt that she was thoroughly enjoying the part of a +conspirator and resolved to play it to the limit. + +The Honourable John Ruffin was the last man in the world to spoil her +simple pleasure, and as they came into the sitting-room he suddenly +gripped her arm. + +Eglantine jumped and squeaked. + +"Hist!" said the Honourable John Ruffin, laying a finger on his lips, +frowning portentously, and rolling his eyes. Then he added in blank +verse, as being appropriate to the conspiratorial attitude: "I thought +I heard a footstep on the stairs." + +They both listened intently--at least Eglantine did; she hardly +breathed in her intentness. Then he said in a declamatory fashion: + +"I was mistaken; we are saved again." + +He loosed her arm. She breathed more easily, tapped the kit-bag, and +said: + +"I 'av brought ze Lady Marion's clo'es." + +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Sit down." + +She sat down, breathing quickly, gazing earnestly at the Honourable +John Ruffin, who folded his arms and wore his best darkling air. + +Presently Pollyooly's key grated in the lock. + +"Hist! She comes!" said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +Eglantine rose, quivering. + +Pollyooly came in, shut the door sharply behind her, and came briskly +down the passage into the sitting-room. + +At the sight of her Eglantine forgot the whispering caution of the +conspirator; she cried loudly: + +"But ze likeness! Eet ees marvellous! Incredible! Eet ees 'er leetle +ladyship exact!" + +"Yes. And she'll be more like her than ever in her clothes. Hurry up +and get her into them," said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. + +He bustled them up the stairs to Pollyooly's attic; and as Eglantine +helped her into Lady Marion Ricksborough's clothes, she continued to +express her lively wonder at the likeness. She was not long making the +change, and they came quickly downstairs. But the Honourable John +Ruffin would not let them start at once. + +"It's no use your getting there too early and hanging about the +station," he said firmly. "That's when you'd get spotted. You want to +get there just about three minutes before the train starts. You've no +luggage to bother you." + +He made both of them eat some cake, and gave Eglantine a glass of wine +with it, for he thought that she needed something to steady her excited +nerves. Then he told her that the duchess was to pay Pollyooly a fee +of five pounds, and bade Pollyooly be sure to wire to him the time of +the train by which she was returning to London. + +Then he decided that it was time for them to start, and wished them +good luck. He did not go with them, for he did not wish to be seen by +any one taking an active part in the affairs of the Duke and Duchess of +Osterley. + +In the taxicab Eglantine was eloquent on the matter of the charm and +distinction of the Honourable John Ruffin: plainly he had made a deep +impression on her. But when they reached the station she resumed the +striking manners of a conspirator so admirably that in the three +minutes she spent paying the taxi-driver and buying tickets she +attracted the keen attention of two of the detectives of the railway. +They followed her, as she tiptoed about with hunched shoulders, and +watched her with the eyes of lynxes; but she puzzled them. They +assured one another that she had some game on (their knowledge of +fallen human nature was too exact for them to miss that fact) but for +the life of them they could not discover, or guess, what it was. + +[Illustration: She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders] + +On the platform she chose an empty compartment and stood before the +door of it for a good half-minute, looking up and down the train with +eyes even more lynxlike than those of the detectives. Then she almost +flung Pollyooly into the carriage, hustled her into the farthest +corner, and fairly sat on her in her effort to screen her from the eyes +of the crowd. + +"Do not stir!" she hissed. "Ze train veel soon start! Zen we are +saved!" + +Pollyooly could not have stirred, had she wished, so firmly did +Eglantine crush her into the corner. One of the detectives came to the +window and stared into the carriage gloomily. Eglantine met his gaze +with steady eyes. The guard whistled and waved his flag; the detective +fell back. He said to his colleague that it was a rum go. The train +started. + +As their carriage passed out of the station, with a deep sigh of relief +Eglantine relaxed to an easier, less crushing posture, and at once took +up the subject of the Honourable John Ruffin. She showed herself +exceedingly curious about him, and Pollyooly's natural discretion was +somewhat strained in answering her questions. It was difficult to +convey as little information as possible. + +But at the end of half an hour Eglantine had exhausted that subject; +and she turned to the yet more interesting matter of her own affairs. +She had much to tell Pollyooly about Devonshire, the wet garden of +England. Its horticultural advantages seemed to weigh but lightly with +her; she dwelt chiefly on the loneliness of the life she had been +leading, and deplored bitterly the fact that its inglorious ease was +spoiling her figure by increasing her girth. + +Then, with an air of mystery and in deeper tones, she confided to +Pollyooly that her lot in this wet desert was not without its +alleviation. A wealthy landowner (he did own a part of the +market-garden he so sedulously cultivated) had developed a grand--oh, +but a grand!--passion for her, and was positively persecuting her with +his honourable intentions. + +Pollyooly was deeply interested by her tale, for her recent experience +with Mr. Hilary Vance, Mr. Reginald Butterwick and Flossie had forced +the tender passion on her attention. She was greatly puzzled by the +reason which Eglantine gave for not making her landowner happy by +marrying him, that he was bearded. Mrs. Brown's husband, a cheerful +policeman, was bearded; but they were uncommonly happy together. In +the end she made up her mind that Eglantine's feeling in the matter +must be a French prejudice. + +They reached Exeter at a few minutes past ten; and having no luggage +but the little kit-bag, in a few minutes, in spite of the +conspiratorial air and behaviour of Eglantine, they were speeding +swiftly in the motor car toward Budleigh Salterton. It was a +delightful, moonlit night, and Pollyooly enjoyed the drive greatly. + +About forty minutes later the car stopped at a little gate leading into +a pine wood, and they descended, bade the driver good night, and went +through it. In the path through the dark wood Eglantine lost her air +of competent and excited leadership. She was timorous, held Pollyooly +tightly by the arm, and when a bird, or an animal, rustled in the +bushes, she squeaked. + +At last the path ended in a little gate opening into the garden of the +lonely house. They came up to it very gently, and Eglantine peered +round the garden, searching for the lawyer and the detective. + +It seemed empty, and as she opened the gate she whispered: + +"We must roon quick!" + +They bolted across the garden to the back door, and as they reached it +a man burst out of the bushes twenty yards on their left, and dashed at +them. Eglantine screamed, but she opened the door, dragged Pollyooly +through it, slammed the door in the pursuer's face, and shot the bolt. +At the sound of the bang the duchess came flying through the lighted +hall. At the sight of Pollyooly she cried: + +"Thank goodness you've come!" + +Eglantine burst into an excited narrative of their journey and narrow +escape from the watcher in the garden. + +"Then he actually saw Mary Bride come into the house?" cried the +duchess joyfully, and she clapped her hands. + +"But yes! Ever so plainly!" cried Eglantine. + +"Good! Nothing could be better!" said the duchess. "They'll think +that Marion is in the house, and that's all I want." + +She kissed Pollyooly, thanked her for coming, asked if the journey had +tired her very much, and led her into the dining-room, where a +delicious supper awaited her. As she ate it the duchess, watching her +with an air of lively satisfaction, matured her plans. At last she +said: + +"I was going to let them catch you to-morrow morning, and then I was +going up to London with you. But you look like a clever little girl; +do you think you could hide in the wood from them all the morning? If +you could, I would go up to London first thing, and I should have lots +of time to get away with Marion before they caught you and found out +who you were." + +"Oh, yes! I'm sure I could!" cried Pollyooly eagerly; and her eyes +shone with a bright joy at the prospect of so excellent a game of +hide-and-seek. "If once I got into that wood, they'd never find me +unless I let them. Only it would be a good deal easier if I wore a +dark frock." + +"You shall!" cried the duchess. "It would be perfectly splendid! I +know you're a clever little girl. Otherwise you couldn't have made +them believe for so long at Ricksborough Court that you were Marion. +Cook shall make you up a packet of sandwiches so that you won't starve; +and if you can keep them busy till the afternoon, we shall have all the +time we want to get comfortably away." + +"I think I can," said Pollyooly with the confidence born of much +experience in hide-and-seek. "But even if they do catch me, they won't +know I'm not Lady Marion; I'm sure I can keep them from bothering you +all day." + +The duchess kissed her again, and said: + +"I shall be ever so much obliged to you if you do. But half a day will +be quite enough. And now you'd better go to bed; you must be sleepy, +and the more sleep you get the fresher you'll be to-morrow. I shall be +gone long before you're up." + +She took her up-stairs to Marion's bedroom, a charming room on the +first floor, and Pollyooly found the most comfortable spring bed so +lulling that in spite of her expectation of an exciting morrow, she +soon fell asleep. + +The yet more excited duchess was longer falling asleep; but she rose at +half-past five and dressed and breakfasted. It was a quarter past six +when she came out into the garden, on her way to the station, and found +the detective sunning himself, after the chill of his night-watch, on +the garden fence at a point from which he had under observation both +the path to the front door and that to the back. He had a rather heavy +face, but he showed a proper sense of her rank and position, for he +rose and raised his hat nearly three inches, respectfully. + +A woman of the world, the duchess knew the advantage of his having a +tale to think upon, for she said with a nice show of indignation: + +"I'm going straight to my solicitor in town to take the final steps to +have this persecution stopped! I'm going to have you removed by the +police. You enter this house and touch my little girl at your own +risk! I've warned you." + +"Yes, your Grace. Quite so, your Grace. It'll be all right, your +Grace," said the detective, sleepily vague, but anxious to propitiate. + +The duchess walked briskly down to the station. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +POLLYOOLY PLAYS HER FAVOURITE PART + +At half-past eight Eglantine, already bubbling, in spite of the +earliness of the hour, with excited animation, awoke Pollyooly and +pulled up the blind of the bedroom window. + +Then she cried: + +"'E ees 'ere! Queek! Queek! Coom to ze window! Let 'im see you!" + +Pollyooly jumped out of bed and ran to the window. The detective stood +on the lawn regarding the house gloomily. At the sight of her face he +beamed sleepily. + +Eglantine laughed and cried: + +"Good! Now 'e zinks you are 'ere! But you must eat your breakfast +queek, and be ready to run fast into ze wood when ze lawyer coom!" + +Pollyooly bathed and dressed quickly, putting on a dark frock that she +might be less visible in the thickets. Then she came briskly +down-stairs and made an excellent breakfast. + +She was just finishing it when Eglantine, on the watch at the window, +cried: + +"'Ere is ze lawyer! You must fly! Oh, but queek!" + +Pollyooly seized a cap and the packet of sandwiches which lay ready to +hand, and as she put on the cap she saw the lawyer, a middle-aged, but +stout gentleman, conferring with the detective and smiling triumphantly +and rubbing his hands at the news of her presence in the house. She +smiled too--a smile of pleasant anticipation. But then, as the lawyer +walked to the front door, the detective walked briskly to the back, and +she frowned. + +"Oh, bothaire! What are we to do?" cried Eglantine. + +"Isn't there a window I could get out of?" said Pollyooly quickly. + +"But yes! Coom quick!" cried Eglantine, running out of the room. + +Pollyooly hurried after her; and there came the loud rat-tat of the +lawyer at the front door. They ran into the drawing-room and Eglantine +opened the window gently. The detective knocked at the back door; the +lawyer knocked again, louder. Pollyooly leaned out of the window, +weighing her chances. She saw that to get to the little gate into the +wood she would have to pass the detective. But on her left, in the +fence of the wood, was a gap which had been filled by a post and rails. +Though it would bring her in sight of the lawyer at the front door, +that seemed the safer way, since he was stouter, and probably less +swift of foot than the detective. She climbed out of the window and +made a dash for it. She reached the fence, went over it like a cat; +and her foot already touched the ground on the other side as the lawyer +saw her, and in his indignation and surprise howled like a skelped +hound. + +He was more used to office work than action; and it was fully five +seconds before he started for the wood. In those five seconds +Pollyooly had gone a good thirty yards into it. He rushed for the post +and rails, and climbed them with his eyes nearly starting out of his +head in his anxiety to see her. Then, instead of trying to hear in +which direction she was moving, he stood on the fence and bellowed to +the detective to come to him. + +The detective, tired by his night watch, was slow in grasping what had +happened. By the time he had reached the lawyer, had learned that +Pollyooly had taken to the woods, and was himself over the fence, many +valuable seconds had been lost; and Pollyooly, who had turned sharply +to the left, was sixty yards down the wood, moving noiselessly, out of +hearing. + +She threaded the mazes of the wood swiftly, with straining ears, +marking the loud rustling of her pursuers in the undergrowth. It grew +fainter and fainter, for they plunged on straight ahead of them; and +then it died quite away. She went on slowly, enjoying the wood, the +fragrance of the flowers, and the song of the birds in the sun-flecked +glades. + +About twenty minutes later she heard again the rustling of her +pursuers, faint and far away, but drawing nearer. She moved along +before it, and came to a gate opening into a leafy lane. Below, about +a mile away, lay the town of Budleigh Salterton, and the sea, shining +in the sun. + +She climbed on to the gate to get a better view (she had time enough), +her active brain working swiftly. She perceived that there were even +pleasanter ways of spending a summer's day in Devonshire than playing +hide-and-seek in a wood with a lawyer and a detective. Then she cast +one look back into the green depths of the wood, slipped over the gate, +and bolted down the lane as hard as she could run. Her only task had +been to keep the lawyer and the detective busy during the morning; and +she thought that the wood might be trusted to keep them busy without +any help from her. Eight minutes later she arrived, panting, in the +High Street of the town, slowed down, and strolled to the beach. + +But the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing hounds. + +As she came on to the esplanade a very large gentleman in grey flannel +was so impressed by her flower-like, angel face that, without pausing +to cast about for an introduction, he entered into conversation with +her. She was very affable with him, but not wholly open; for after a +while she left him under the impression that, so far from being an +orphan, she was staying with her parents in lodgings in the station +road. But she bore away from their colloquy a pleasing shilling with +which he had invited her to buy chocolate. + +She walked along the esplanade somewhat disappointed that the beach +should all of it be large pebbles. She had always believed the shore +of the sea to be sand. She did not, however, repine, but walked along +to the end of it, watching the bathers and the playing children, in a +great content. Then she went down the path beyond the esplanade, +between the sea and marshes, to the mouth of the swift-flowing Otter. +She walked out over the slippery rocks to the edge of the ebbing sea, +and finding some children paddling about in a pool, joined them. + +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. + +The pleasant feel of the warm salt water on her legs inspired Pollyooly +with larger desires. She put on her shoes and stockings and came back +to the esplanade. She soon learned that a bathing-dress and a +bathing-machine could be hired. She hired them and bathed. She bathed +for a long time, a longer time than was good for her. + +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. + +At last she tore herself from the water, dressed, and lay on the warm +pebbles, drying her beautiful red hair in the sun. The church clock +struck twelve; slowly, but with a good appetite, she ate her +sandwiches--chicken sandwiches. + +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. + +After her lunch Pollyooly bought herself a bottle of lemonade at a +confectioner's shop in the High Street; then once more she sought the +mouth of the Otter. There, hunting among the rocks, paddling, watching +the sea-gulls on the red cliffs beyond the stream, she enjoyed herself +greatly. It is to be doubted that a happier child could have been +found out of London. + +The lawyer and the detective no longer ranged the wood like questing +hounds. They had already done all the ranging the weather permitted. +Moreover, the lawyer was not of sleuth-hound build, and the chase had +reddened his face almost to the colour of the carapace of a boiled +lobster. Unfortunately his face was not of the durable texture of a +carapace; and the skin was peeling off his nose. + +They had returned to the pretty garden from which they had started on +their quest; and the detective had gone into the town to get the food +he needed so badly and to bring back lunch for the lawyer. The lawyer +sat on a bench, awaiting his return impatiently. Searching the wood +like a questing hound had given him also a fine appetite. + +It was soon after two o'clock that Pollyooly made the acquaintance of +the boy Edward, or the boy Edward made the acquaintance of Pollyooly. +It is difficult to be sure how these things happened. But both of them +were lonely; Pollyooly was of far too simple and direct a nature to be +much hampered by the cold conventions of a sophisticated civilisation; +and Edward was but ten. + +For all his extreme youth, he was an agreeable companion; and so it +came about that Pollyooly, who had meant to return to the house at +three o'clock, was detained by Edward and the sea till half-past four. +She was not loth to be detained; she was indeed pleased to be giving +the duchess her full measure of hours, and the lawyer and detective a +really good run for their money. + +But as a matter of fact they did no running at all that afternoon. At +three o'clock the replete detective returned with the lunch of the +raging lawyer. From half-past three till four they prowled gently +about the wood; at four they returned to the garden and sat on a bench +in the garden, confident that their quarry must very soon return for +food. + +At four o'clock a flaming Eglantine came out of the house and accused +them furiously of having murdered Lady Marion Ricksborough in the wood. +It took them nearly twenty minutes to persuade her that they had not. +They found it hard work; and doubted even then that they had wholly +succeeded. + +At half-past four Pollyooly said good-bye to the regretful Edward at +the end of the High Street, whither he had accompanied her. She did +not hurry up the hill, but as she went picked flowers to adorn the +Honourable John Ruffin's chambers. When she did come into the garden, +her eyes fell at once on the lawyer and the detective. They slept on +the bench. The lawyer's head rested affably on the detective's +shoulder. He looked not only redder but thinner, as if his quest in +the warm wood had shrunk him a little. + +[Illustration: They slept on the bench] + +Pollyooly did not awaken them; she went quietly into the house, and was +welcomed by Eglantine with kisses and reproaches for the fright she had +given her by her delay. Though in the end persuaded that she had not +been murdered by the lawyer and the detective, she had begun to fear +lest she were lost in the wood. She received Pollyooly's account of +the pleasant day she had spent with many expressions of pleased +amazement; and then she gave her a noble tea. + +Pollyooly was coming to the end of it, listening with an agreeable show +of interest to the further details of Eglantine's affair of the heart +with the landed proprietor of the market-garden, when they were both +startled by a loud snort at the window. The lawyer and the detective +were looking in upon them, their faces beaming with satisfaction at the +sight of their quarry. The detective guarded the window while the +lawyer sprang lithely round the house, through the front door, and into +the room. + +"Thank goodness! I've caught your ladyship at last!" he cried. + +Pollyooly scowled at him and said nothing. It was her habit in the +part of Lady Marion Ricksborough to give herself airs. He snatched his +watch from his pocket and cried: + +"Oh, hang it! We've missed the last train to London!" + +Pollyooly smiled coldly. + +"Well, we must spend the night at the hotel," he said grumpily. "If I +left your ladyship here, there's no saying when I should see you again." + +Pollyooly scowled again, and Eglantine burst into loud and excited +protest: + +"Her ladyship must sleep in the house--in her own bed--properly." + +The lawyer paid no heed to her protest, but bade her pack her young +mistress's clothes at once. He said that the sooner she was at the +hotel, the safer he would feel. He did not get his way without further +and louder protests from Eglantine; but in the end he got it. She +packed the little kit-bag for Pollyooly with clothes of Lady Marion. +The detective carried it. As they were starting she gave Pollyooly two +sovereigns wrapped up in a five-pound note, saying that the duchess had +left it for her. The extra two sovereigns were for expenses, since she +might need money to escape. + +The sum warmed Pollyooly's heart. + +She bade Eglantine an affectionate farewell and invited her to come to +see her whenever she was in London. Then she set out with her captors. +On the way down the hill the lawyer was very respectful and agreeable +to Pollyooly, proclaiming his eager desire to secure her welfare, and +dwelling on the pleasure she must be feeling at the prospect of being +re-united with her affectionate father, the duke. No such prospect lay +before her; and she displayed no interest in the matter. But when the +lawyer, with a fatherly solicitude of his own, suggested that it would +be safer if he took care of her money for her, she rejected the +proposal with an uncommon, haughty curtness. He seemed somewhat hurt, +but he did not press the matter. The detective addressed him as Mr. +Wilkinson. + +Pollyooly was not pleased to leave the pleasant and comfortable house +of the duchess and its so noble breakfasts and teas, though it was some +consolation that she was moving from it to an hotel where, in her +ignorance of provincial England, she supposed that she would fare +luxuriously. She was much less pleased to exchange the society of the +lively Eglantine, so full of interesting confidences, for that of the +ponderous and doubtless uncommunicative Mr. Wilkinson. + +He was fully alive to his importance as being in charge of the daughter +of a duke, and did not dream for a moment of putting her into the care +of the detective. Indeed, in spite of his greater experience in taking +charge of people, that worthy fellow was far too sleepy to be trusted +with so elusive a child. + +Mr. Wilkinson was far more affable and urbane with her than any one +whom Pollyooly had ever met. He was careful to ask her whether she +disliked the smell of tobacco smoke before taking her into the +smoking-room, where he made a light meal on whiskey and soda and +biscuits. He invited her to share his biscuits; but the noble tea was +so recent that she was forced to decline. + +As soon as he had finished it he accepted, with the readiest urbanity, +her suggestion that they should go out on the sea-front. It was +exceedingly gratifying to him to be seen walking hand in hand with the +daughter of a duke. But his hand was hot and moist, and at the end of +fifty yards of it Pollyooly withdrew hers from it with considerable +decision. + +"I'm not going to run away--to-day," she said firmly, putting it behind +her back. + +Mr. Wilkinson protested feebly; but since there seemed no likelihood of +his recovering the hand, in the end he accepted the situation, saying +pompously: + +"I accept your ladyship's assurance that you will not try to escape." + +"Not to-day," said Pollyooly haughtily; and she looked at him darkly. + +"Oh, to-morrow you will be with his grace, and my responsibility ends," +said Mr. Wilkinson in a tone of some satisfaction. + +Pollyooly did not think that she would be with his grace on the morrow; +but she did not say so. + +Presently they sat down on a seat; and under the influence of the +slight meal of which he had recently partaken, Mr. Wilkinson grew +drowsily eloquent about the inestimable privilege she was about to +enjoy of once more sharing her father's ducal home. But since the duke +was not her father, and she had no intention whatever of sharing his +ducal home, again the subject did not really interest her. + +They returned to the hotel to dine; and since, while she was preparing +for it, Mr. Wilkinson informed the manager of what he believed to be +her rank and romantic history, during the meal she enjoyed a fine sense +of self-importance, as the other guests stared at her--frequently with +their mouths full. + +Their interest compelled her to exercise her best manners; that she did +not mind; but she did mind wasting the beautiful evening over a long +dinner of no interest to her. In view of the fact that she had so +lately eaten that noble tea, the earlier courses could hardly be +expected to interest her; but the sweets to which she had been looking +forward proved of a most disappointing, though painstaking, insipidity; +and she was indeed glad when the meal came to an end. + +Mr. Wilkinson talked affably, though with a touch of condescension not +unnatural in one in charge of the daughter of a duke, to a colonel and +golfer from Scotland, about the political situation. Pollyooly did not +realise how much their deference to his opinions, drawn from that +morning's _Daily Mail_, which both of them had read, was due to her +presence beside him. After dinner they returned to the bench on the +esplanade; and Pollyooly, for the first time in her life, had the +opportunity of learning how sentimental, after a bottle of champagne, a +middle-aged man can become about the moon. She gathered that he was +deeply attached to a lady named Myra. + +At half-past nine they returned to the hotel; and when she went to bed +Mr. Wilkinson thoughtfully locked her in. + +She slept well and rose early. The sea, smiling in the morning sun, +attracted her greatly; and it seemed good to her to bathe. In view of +the rank she was enjoying, it also seemed to her that she might very +well have her way in the matter. She dressed quickly, and with the +heel of her own stout shoe, a stouter shoe than Lady Marion ever wore, +she began to hammer on her bedroom door. + +She had not hammered long before an eager, respectful chambermaid came +and asked her what she wanted. When she learned she hurried off to Mr. +Wilkinson and awoke him. Mr. Wilkinson, desiring to sleep yet another +hour, would not hear of any bathing. On learning this, Pollyooly +hammered on the door yet more loudly than before with the heels of her +two stout shoes. The chambermaid summoned the manager; both of them +betook themselves to Mr. Wilkinson, and anxiously informed him that her +young ladyship was awaking the whole hotel. Mr. Wilkinson, as angry as +he could be with the daughter of so distinguished a client, was on the +point of rising, when he had a happy thought. He bade the manager +rouse the detective and tell him to take her young ladyship to bathe, +and to look after her very carefully indeed. + +The detective, also desiring to sleep yet another hour, rose gloomily +and gloomily escorted Pollyooly to the sea. His gloom did not at all +lessen Pollyooly's enjoyment of her bath and she spent the pleasantest +half-hour in the sea. She graciously suffered the detective to pay for +it. + +She returned to the hotel with a glorious appetite and made a glorious +breakfast. Mr. Wilkinson congratulated her on the healthiness of her +appetite, with a somewhat envious air. It seemed to her that the hotel +was more attractive in the matter of breakfasts than of dinners. + +At a few minutes to eleven they started to walk to the station. +Remembering that her parole only covered the day before, Mr. Wilkinson +set her between himself and the detective. Pollyooly had not forgotten +the Honourable John Ruffin's urgent instruction that she should wire +him the time of the arrival of their train at Waterloo, and she learned +from Mr. Wilkinson that it was three twenty-five. When, therefore, +they reached the post office, she made a sudden dash across the road +into it. + +Mr. Wilkinson and the detective bustled after her and found her writing +the telegram. It ran: + +I arrive at three twenty-five. Pollyooly. + +It puzzled them a little; and Mr. Wilkinson said: + +"Why do you telegraph to Mr. Ruffin?" + +"Because he told me to," said Pollyooly. + +"He told you to?" said Mr. Wilkinson with a puzzled air. "When did he +tell you to?" + +"The day before yesterday," said Pollyooly. + +Mr. Wilkinson shook his head with a pained air. He thought that her +ladyship was fibbing. + +"Why do you sign it 'Pollyooly'?" he said. + +"Because it's my name," said Pollyooly. + +Mr. Wilkinson shook his head with a yet sadder air. Had she been the +daughter of a commoner, he would not have let her send the telegram; as +it was he did. Half-way to the station he had grown yet more curious +about it; and he asked her again why she had sent it. + +"You'll know all about it when we get to London," said Pollyooly coldly. + +He could get no more from her. + +They lunched on the train, and under the expanding influence of a small +bottle of champagne, the air of Mr. Wilkinson grew more and more +triumphant at the success of his difficult mission. + +When they descended from the train he clasped Pollyooly's right hand +firmly, the detective clasped her left, and they walked down the +platform. They had not gone thirty yards when they met the Honourable +John Ruffin smiling agreeably. + +"Hullo, Wilkinson! How are you?" he said cheerfully. + +"How are you, Mr. Ruffin? At last we've found her little ladyship, and +we're taking her to his grace. He will be pleased," said Mr. Wilkinson +in tones of ringing triumph. + +"Will he? Where is she?" said the Honourable John Ruffin with an air +of lively curiosity. + +"Here," said Mr. Wilkinson, drawing Pollyooly forward. + +"Where?" said the Honourable John Ruffin, looking at Pollyooly with a +somewhat puzzled air. + +"Here!" said Mr. Wilkinson a little louder. + +"Oh--_there_?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. "How are you, +Pollyooly? I hope you had a pleasant time with Eglantine. But why +have you come back so soon? I didn't expect you for some days." + +"It was Mr. Wilkinson. He made me. He almost dragged me to his +hotel," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, come, Wilkinson: this won't do, you know. This is kidnapping, you +know--high-handed kidnapping," said the Honourable John Ruffin +indignantly. "What do you think you're doing?" + +"I'm taking her to the duke," said Mr. Wilkinson. + +"And do you suppose that Osterley will be pleased at your bringing him +my housekeeper, Wilkinson? On the last occasion, when he did the +kidnapping and took her home himself, he seemed very far from pleased." + +The puzzled look had shifted from the Honourable John Ruffin's face to +that of Mr. Wilkinson, and he said sharply: + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean what I say," said the Honourable John Ruffin firmly. "I find +you dragging my housekeeper, Mary Bride, along the platform of Waterloo +Station, by main force, and with the help of a tall, strong man." + +"I don't know what you are talking about!" cried Mr. Wilkinson +stormily. "And if you'll forgive my saying so, I haven't any time to +waste on your jokes, Mr. Ruffin!" + +"Joke? Do you want me to show you how much of a joke it is by giving +you in charge here and now for kidnapping my housekeeper, Mary Bride?" +said the Honourable John Ruffin coldly. + +Mr. Wilkinson's expression grew yet more puzzled and doubtful, and he +said: + +"Mary Bride? Who is Mary Bride?" + +"Now what's the good of a subterfuge of this kind when you're holding +her by the hand, Wilkinson? You should keep such tricks for maiden +ladies!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin with a fine show of +indignation. + +"This is Lady Marion Ricksborough!" cried Wilkinson; but his tone +lacked conviction. + +"It isn't. It's my housekeeper, Mary Bride. I wonder that a man of +your knowledge of the world did not see at once that you were +kidnapping the wrong person," said the Honourable John Ruffin; and +_his_ tone was full of conviction. + +"I'm not Lady Marion, and I never said I was. It was you who said so. +I am Mr. Ruffin's housekeeper, Mary Bride," said Pollyooly very firmly. + +"B-b-b-but I've been c-c-c-calling her Lady Marion all the t-t-t-time, +and she never p-p-p-protested once!" cried Mr. Wilkinson, gazing wildly +at Pollyooly. + +"Then all I can say is, you must have frightened the life out of her," +said the Honourable John Ruffin indignantly. "And it will look +bad--devilish bad--a man of your age kidnapping a child of twelve and +frightening her to such an extent that she was afraid to tell you who +she really was. Look here, am I to give you in charge here and now, +and thresh the matter out in a police court? That will please +Osterley!" + +"Hold on a bit--hold on a bit," said Mr. Wilkinson faintly. "You're +really not joking?" + +"Certainly not," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Let's go into a waiting-room and talk it over quietly. We don't want +to make any silly mistakes," said Mr. Wilkinson yet more faintly. + +"I should think you didn't! You've made enough already," said the +Honourable John Ruffin frankly. "But you'd better come along to my +chambers. I've got Mary Bride's little brother there and a woman who +has known her all her life. If you can't take my word for it, she'll +convince you all right." + +Mr. Wilkinson was very limp in the taxicab: he perceived that he had +allowed his enthusiasm to carry him away with the result that he had +been hopelessly duped. It was indeed mortifying, the more mortifying +that he could not blame any one but himself--himself and nature. The +more carefully he examined Pollyooly the more impressed he was by her +likeness to Lady Marion Ricksborough. The detective was gloomy; he had +lost a night's rest for nothing, as well as his hope of forthwith +receiving the reward for the capture of the missing child, for it was +he who had tracked her to the house in Devon. Now he might be months +recovering her trail. + +The Honourable John Ruffin on the other hand was in excellent spirits. +He had no desire to embroil himself with his cousin, by definitely +taking the side of the duchess in their quarrel; and he began to see +plainly that the matter would never come to the duke's ears. Neither +the lawyer nor the detective would talk about it; they both cut too +ridiculous a figure. + +At 75 the King's Bench Walk, they found Mrs. Brown and the Lump. Mr. +Wilkinson needed no more evidence than the warmth with which Pollyooly +kissed and hugged her little brother; but none the less he received +Mrs. Brown's convincing assurances that she was Mary Bride. + +When that worthy woman had been dismissed to the kitchen, he said +heavily: + +"This has been an unfortunate mistake--very unfortunate." + +"Not so unfortunate as it would have been if Pollyooly had been ten +years older. It would have cost you hundreds. As it is, I shouldn't +wonder if she would be content with a fiver as compensation," said the +Honourable John Ruffin with a soothing smile. + +Mr. Wilkinson groaned; then he said: + +"Well, I've made a mistake, and I suppose I must pay for it." + +Slowly and sadly he drew a five-pound note from his notebook and handed +it to Pollyooly. + +"Thank you, sir," said Pollyooly; and dropped a curtsey, like the +well-mannered child she was. + +"Your housekeeper? To think that she should have roused the whole +hotel to get that bath!" said Mr. Wilkinson bitterly. + +"She was for the time being the daughter of a duke--by your +appointment," said the Honourable John Ruffin suavely. + +Mr. Wilkinson waved the detective out of the room, and followed him. +At the door he paused to say very heavily: + +"I shall never trust my eyes again." + +"No: I shouldn't," said the Honourable John Ruffin gently. "I think +another time, if I were you, I should try glasses." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +POLLYOOLY PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN + +Mr. Wilkinson had departed, a sadder but very little wiser man, and +taken his detective with him; Mrs. Brown had been thanked, paid, and +dismissed; and Pollyooly, having sufficiently fondled and kissed the +irresponsive but unresisting Lump, went into the kitchen and set about +getting ready the Honourable John Ruffin's tea. + +She had lighted the gas under the kettle and taken the bread and butter +from the cupboard, when he came into the kitchen, wearing an air of the +most earnest purpose, and said impressively: + +"Genius, Pollyooly--genius is the art of taking infinite pains." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly politely. + +"That is why you are unsurpassed in the art of grilling bacon; you take +infinite pains with it," he went on with the same earnestness. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with more understanding. + +"And now I am going to instruct you in the art of making tea," he said +proudly. "I only learned yesterday that it was an art. Till then I +believed that you merely poured boiling water on tea, and there you +were. I have learned that it is not so. Also I have learned that that +vegetable which comes from India and Ceylon, and is called tea by those +who sell it, is not really tea at all. Tea only comes from China; and +I have bought some." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with the air of one receiving information +gratefully. + +"And now I will teach you the art of making it exactly as it was taught +to me," he said with a very schoolmasterly air. + +Thereupon, under his instructions, Pollyooly warmed the tea-pot and +stood by the tea-caddy ready to put in two teaspoonfuls of tea (one for +him, one for the pot) the moment the kettle boiled. The moment it did +boil, following his instructions, she put the tea into the pot, and +then, tilting the kettle without taking it from the stove, she poured +the still boiling water on to it. Then she inverted the little glass +egg-boiler and stood ready to bring the infusing tea into his +sitting-room as soon as the upper half of it was nearly empty of sand. + +Then he said in raised and sonorous tones of profound satisfaction: + +"That is the art of making tea. Now that you have once learnt it, I +know,--I am sure that very soon you will be not only the finest griller +of bacon in England, but also the finest maker of tea." + +"I'll try, sir," said Pollyooly cheerfully. "It doesn't seem very +difficult." + +"To genius nothing is _very_ difficult," said the Honourable John +Ruffin impressively. "The difficulty is to stick to it--to go on +getting the thing right every time. But you can do it with bacon: why +not with tea?" + +When the sand had nearly all run out of the upper part of the glass, +she took the tray into the sitting-room; he poured out a cup of tea, +and declared that it was tea fit for the gods. + +Pollyooly smiled at his satisfaction, and then said: + +"Please, sir: I should like a note to Madame Correlli to say that I +couldn't go to my dancing yesterday because I had to go into the +country. She is so particular." + +"Certainly; I will write it after tea," said the Honourable John Ruffin +amiably. + +After he had finished his tea he wrote the note and gave it to her. +Then she paid a proud visit to the Post Office Savings Bank and added +to her fattening account the sum of twelve pounds. Undoubtedly the +Osterley family were valuable acquaintances. + +Fortified by the exculpatory note from the Honourable John Ruffin, +Pollyooly went next morning to her dancing class with an easy mind. + +It had been clear to her friends that the career of housekeeper, +admirably as she discharged its duties, was far inferior to her +abilities; it did not give them nearly full scope. Those friends were +young, and they were alive, keenly alive, to the fact that there is a +steady demand for angels in that sphere of British and German industry +curiously known as musical comedy. They could not conceive that, since +she had to work for a living, Pollyooly's natural grace and the agility +she had acquired in her earlier childhood, at the village of Muttle +Deeping, and still retained, could be put to more agreeable and +profitable use than that of helping to supply this demand for angels, +and so help to raise the British ideal of womanly beauty. + +For three mornings in the week therefore, Pollyooly, taking the Lump +with her, went to Madame Correlli's dancing class in Soho; and thanks +to her active early life at Muttle Deeping, was esteemed by that +accomplished lady one of her most promising pupils. It is no wonder +that Pollyooly and her young friend and fiancé Lord Ronald +Ricksborough, the heir of the Duke of Osterley, looked forward with +confidence to the day when she should be a shining light of musical +comedy and the proper wife for a British nobleman. + +Madame Correlli read the Honourable John Ruffin's note with indulgence, +accepted the excuse, and set Pollyooly to work. + +Pollyooly was disinclined to make friends, close friends, of the other +little girls in her class. She was indeed very civil to them, like the +well-mannered child she was; but they did not greatly attract her. +Belonging to hard-working, dancing families, they talked a great deal +in their high-pitched, twanging voices about their friends and +relations who danced at the Varolium, Panjandrum, and other music +halls, friends of whom, since she herself aspired to higher things, +Pollyooly had but a poor opinion. Moreover, many of them powdered +their little faces, penciled their eyebrows, and deepened the roses in +their cheeks with rose-carmine or rouge; and to Pollyooly, a daughter +of Muttle Deeping, these practices were repugnant. + +But she had formed one friendship among them, a friendship born of her +protective instinct, with Millicent Saunders, a frail, pale wisp of a +child, whose black eyes looked very big indeed in her thin face, framed +in a mass of black hair. The other pupils were apt to look down on +Millicent, because, though few of them ran to finery, Millicent was +shabby indeed. Pollyooly was quite unaffected by this, for in the days +when she had lived in the dreadful fear that she and the Lump might be +driven by necessity into the workhouse, she had gone shabby herself. +She knew that Millicent's mother, who had once been a dancer, was now a +charwoman, often out of work, and in feeble health. It was Millicent's +perpetual complaint that she herself was so slow growing up to the age +at which she would be earning money and supporting her ailing mother. +Down the vista of the future she saw a splendid vision in which her +mother should always have a bloater with her tea. To Pollyooly +Millicent always looked hungry. + +It was Millicent's great pleasure to sit with the Lump on her knee in +the intervals of their work, mothering him as long as he would suffer +it; and it was her privilege to take his left hand as Pollyooly led him +from Soho, across the dangerous crossings to the safe stretch of the +embankment from Charing-Cross to the Temple. As they went Pollyooly +and Millicent talked of the price of provisions and the trials of +housekeeping. + +But for the whole week before Pollyooly's trip to Devon Millicent had +not been to the class. Pollyooly enquired and Madame Correlli enquired +the reason for her absence, but none of the other pupils could tell +them. It was now ten days since Pollyooly had seen her, and she was +feeling anxious indeed about her. + +Then, after the class was over, as she was leading the Lump down St. +Martin's Lane on their way to the embankment he projected an arm and +broke his placid and perpetual silence with one of his rare, but +pregnant grunts. Pollyooly looked where he pointed, saw Millicent on +the island in the middle of the roadway, and called to her. + +Millicent turned her head and looked at them with somewhat dazed eyes. +Her face did not as usual light up at the sight of the Lump. She +crossed the road to them feebly. + +"How are you? Why haven't you come to the classes for so long?" said +Pollyooly. + +"Mother's dead," said Millicent dully; and her big eyes which had been +so dull, shone suddenly bright with tears. + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Pollyooly pitifully; and as she gazed +anxiously at Millicent's seared and miserable face, her eyes grew moist +with tears of sympathy. + +Millicent stooped and kissed the Lump listlessly, almost mechanically. + +"And what are you going to do?" said Pollyooly with grave anxiety. + +She understood fully the seriousness of Millicent's plight. + +"I'm going to the workhouse," said Millicent dully. + +Pollyooly clutched her arm. It was impossible for her to turn pale for +she was always of a clear, camelia-like pallor; but that pallor grew a +little dead as she cried in a tone of horror: + +"Oh, no! You can't go to the workhouse! You mustn't!" + +Millicent looked at her with the lack-lustre eyes of the vanquished, +and said in the same dull, toneless voice: + +"I've got to. There's nowhere else for me to go to." + +The tears in Pollyooly's eyes brimmed over in her dismay and horror at +this dreadful fate of her friend; and she, the dauntless, Spartan +heroine of a hundred fights with the small boys of Alsatia, was fairly +crying. + +"You mustn't go! You mustn't!" she cried. + +"I didn't want to. I was trying not to," said Millicent slowly. +"After mother's funeral yesterday Mrs. Baker, that's our landlady, said +the relieving officer was coming round this morning to take me to the +workhouse; and I ran away." + +"Yes: that was the right thing to do," said Pollyooly in firm approval. + +"Yes: I got up very early--just when it was light," said Millicent; and +her voice grew a little firmer. "And I packed my clothes"--she gave +the little bundle she was carrying a shake--"and then I sneaked +down-stairs and out of the house. And oh, the trouble the front door +gave me! You wouldn't believe! First it wouldn't open; and then when +it did, it made noise enough to wake the whole house." + +Pollyooly nodded with an air of ripe experience. + +"I made sure they'd wake up and catch me and stop me. But they didn't; +and I got out and ran hard out of the street. Then I walked about and +then I sat on the embankment trying to think what to do and where to +go. And two coppers wanted to know what I was doing all alone on my +own." + +"They would," said Pollyooly in a tone of deep hostility to the police +force of London. + +"Well, I said I was going to my aunt in Southwark. I had an aunt in +Southwark once--only she's dead. But I couldn't think of anywhere to +go--there didn't seem to be anywhere. So I thought I'd better go back +to Mrs. Baker's and let them take me to the workhouse. At any rate +she'll give me something to eat." + +Pollyooly's tears had dried as she listened to her friend's tale; she +wore an alert and able air which went but ill with her delicate beauty. +She said quickly: + +"Haven't you had anything to eat either?" + +Millicent shook her head and said somewhat faintly: + +"Not since supper last night. And I didn't eat much then--I wasn't +hungry--not after the funeral." + +"You wouldn't be," said Pollyooly sympathetically. + +"And I hadn't any money. The funeral took all the money," Millicent +added. + +"Then the first thing to do is to get a bun," said Pollyooly in a tone +of relief at seeing her way to do something. "Then you can come and +have dinner with us." + +"Thank you," said Millicent. + +Her lips worked, as a hungry child's will, at the thought of food; and +a faint colour came into her white cheeks. + +Pollyooly started across the road with the Lump, and Millicent took his +other hand. + +On the other side of the road Pollyooly said firmly: + +"You can't go to the workhouse. You mustn't. But we'll wait till we +get home before we talk about that. But there must be some way for you +not to go to it. We didn't." + +They led the Lump down to the Strand; and at the first confectioner's +shop Pollyooly bought Millicent a bun. The hungry child ate the first +two mouthfuls ravenously; then she paused to break off a piece and give +it to the Lump. + +"No, no!" said Pollyooly quickly. "You eat it all yourself. You want +it. He'll have his dinner as soon as he gets home." + +"Oh, let me give him just a little piece," said Millicent. + +"No: you're to eat it all," said Pollyooly firmly. + +Most children of three would have burst into a roar on hearing this +cruel prohibition. The placidity of the Lump was proof even against so +severe a blow. He merely went on his way with a saddened air. +Millicent ate the rest of the bun with eager thankfulness, brightening +a little as the food heartened her. + +They went down Villiers Street to the safe stretch of the embankment; +and then Pollyooly, her brow knitted in a thoughtful frown, began to +talk of Millicent's plight. The workhouse was so burning a subject +that she could not wait to discuss it at home. + +"You can't go to the workhouse; you can't really," she said. "If you +could stay with us for a little while, you might find something to do. +But it's for Mr. Ruffin to say whether you can stay with us. We live +in his chambers, you know. I'm his housekeeper." + +"Oh, if I could!" said Millicent wistfully. + +"He might let you. He's very kind," said Pollyooly hopefully. "And if +he did, I wonder what kind of a job you could get. What kind of work +can you do?" + +"I can do housework," said Millicent eagerly. "I always did our +room--all of it. And I cooked all our meals. Mother went out such a +lot, you know." + +"It's something," said Pollyooly soberly. "But I expect you've got a +lot to learn. You see I learnt a lot at Muttle Deeping. Aunt Hannah +had a whole house there--before she lost all her savings in a gold mine +and came to London. And she had everything like the gentry +have--pictures, and plate, and brass candle-sticks--only not so much of +them; and I learnt to clean them all. But I expect you'd learn too +quickly enough." + +"I'm sure I'd try," said Millicent. + +"Yes. If Mr. Ruffin would let you stay for a week or two, I could +teach you a lot," said Pollyooly hopefully. + +For the rest of the way to the Temple they discussed in detail +Millicent's accomplishments. They were few and limited; but to her +willingness to work there were no bounds. + +As soon as they reached the Temple they set about getting dinner. +Fortunately Pollyooly had in her larder half a cold chicken; for, as +was his practice, the Honourable John Ruffin had three days before +ordered a cold chicken from the kitchen of the Inner Temple, had made a +pretence of eating some of it at his breakfast, and then had bidden her +never let him see it again. This was one of his ways of making sure +that she and the Lump were properly fed, without weakening her +independence by sapping her belief that she really supported the two of +them. + +Accordingly Millicent made an excellent meal; and it restored her +strength and her spirits. She was surprised by the fact that the Lump +had a whole mugful of milk with his dinner, for she was unused to this +lavishness with that luxury in a child's diet. Pollyooly explained +that it had been an article of faith with her Aunt Hannah that a young +child needed a pint of milk a day; therefore the Lump always had one. +Millicent was deeply impressed: this was indeed affluence. + +She helped Pollyooly wash up after their dinner; and then Pollyooly +suggested that it would be well for her to look very clean indeed when +she was presented to Mr. Ruffin. + +"He's so particular about children being clean. Mr. Gedge-Tomkins +isn't nearly so particular," she said apologetically. "I work for him, +too, you know. He lives across the landing." + +Millicent accepted the suggestion readily enough, for her mother had +been cleaner than her class. Pollyooly helped her wash and dry and +brush out her mass of silken hair, and lent her a clean frock of her +own. Presently, after the good meal on the top of her fast, Millicent +turned very sleepy, and Pollyooly let her sleep. She was still +sleeping when the Honourable John Ruffin returned home. + +Pollyooly did not at once hurry to him with her news. She cut his +bread and butter very thin and nice, and followed his instructions +about the making of tea with scrupulous exactness. She carried the +tray into his sitting-room and set it beside him. Then she hesitated, +looking at him. + +He looked up from the evening paper he was scanning, smiled his usual +smile of appreciation at her angel face, and said amiably: + +"Well, Mrs. Bride: what is it?" + +When he did not call her Pollyooly he called her "Mrs." Bride, because +they had decided that "Miss" Bride did not sound sufficiently dignified +a name for a housekeeper. + +"Please, sir: I've got a little girl here," said Pollyooly in a +somewhat anxious, deprecating tone. + +"A little girl?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a natural surprise. + +"Yes, sir. Her mother's dead; and they wanted to send her to the +workhouse; but she ran away," said Pollyooly quickly. + +"Curious that England's little ones should fly from the home she offers +them," said the Honourable John Ruffin in his most amiable tone. + +"Yes, sir. And she hadn't had anything to eat and she was very hungry, +so I brought her home to dinner," said Pollyooly still quickly. + +"A very proper thing to do," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"And I thought I'd ask you if she could stop here, sir--with me and the +Lump--till she gets some work to do. There'd be lots of room for her, +sir; and she wouldn't bother you at all," said Pollyooly in a tone of +anxious pleading. + +"To get work might take a long time," said the Honourable John Ruffin +gravely. + +"Yes, sir; it might," said Pollyooly no less gravely, for she knew well +the difficulty of getting work in London. + +"And do you propose to keep her till she finds work?" said the +Honourable John Ruffin in the tone of one who finds it difficult to +believe his ears. + +"Oh, yes, sir. She wouldn't eat much," said Pollyooly in a tone of +cheerful serenity. + +"Out of the exiguous wages Mr. Gedge-Tomkins and I pay you?" + +"Yes, sir. I can do it quite well," said Pollyooly confidently; and +then she added hopefully: "And perhaps it wouldn't be for long." + +"On the other hand it may be for years and it may be forever," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a despondent tone. + +"Oh, no, sir: I'm sure it wouldn't be as long as that," said Pollyooly +confidently. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at her earnest, anxious pleading face +for half a minute. Then he said: + +"Let's get it quite exact: you want to saddle yourself with the +maintenance of a little girl for weeks, or it may be months, or even +years, just to save her from the chief of England's representative +institutions?" + +Pollyooly's anxious frown grew deeper as she said: + +"From the workhouse? Yes, sir." + + "Where shall the watchful sun, + England, my England, + Match the master-work you've done, + England my own?" + +quoted the Honourable John Ruffin with deep feeling. Then he added +sententiously: "Well, we must by no means check the generous impulses +of the young. But before I decide I should like to see your protégée. +I take it that she does not rise to those heights of cleanliness at +which you maintain yourself and the Lump; but does she display +sufficient of our chief English virtue?" + +"Oh, yes, sir: I couldn't have her about with the Lump if she wasn't," +said Pollyooly firmly. "But I'll fetch her, sir." She paused, +hesitatingly, and added: "She isn't in mourning, sir. The funeral took +all the money." + +"Then it can not be helped," said the Honourable John Ruffin sadly. + +Pollyooly hurried up-stairs to Millicent, awoke her, and helped her +tidy her hair. She bade her be sure and curtsey nicely to the +Honourable John Ruffin, brought her into the sitting-room, and +presented her to him. Millicent's big eyes were shining brightly from +her sleep; her silken hair was prettily waved by its so recent washing; +and the excitement of this fateful meeting had flushed delicately her +pale cheeks. She appealed alike to the Honourable John Ruffin's +aesthetic and protective instinct. Only her strong London accent +distressed him: he feared lest it might corrupt the speech of Pollyooly +and the Lump, which, owing to the care of their Aunt Hannah, who had +for many years been housekeeper for Lady Constantia Deeping, was that +of gentle-folk. + +However, he talked kindly and sympathetically to Millicent, questioned +her about her acquirements, and gave her leave to stay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE QUESTION OF A HOME + +Millicent left his presence almost dazed with relief and joy. Not only +was the imminent workhouse removed to a distance; but she herself was +transported to a sphere of astonishing luxury. She settled down in a +quiet content, only broken at rare intervals by a fit of weeping for +her dead mother. She helped Pollyooly with the work of the two sets of +chambers, displaying a considerable lack of knowledge and efficiency, +and played untiringly with the Lump. + +Between their dinner and the Honourable John Ruffin's tea she and +Pollyooly hunted for work for her. Mr. Hilary Vance would have been an +ideal, unexacting employer for her; but he was on the point of going to +Paris for six months. They consulted all Pollyooly's friends; and all +of them promised to look out for work for her; but it seemed likely to +be hard to find. + +The Honourable John Ruffin seeing Millicent often, watched and studied +her carefully in the hope that his mind would produce a happy thought +in the way of work for her. He perceived that she needed some well +paid sinecure. + +Then one morning when Pollyooly was clearing away his breakfast, he +said: + +"I have been considering Millicent, and I should be charmed to let her +stay here. You and she are such admirable foils to one another's +fairness and darkness that no cultivated eye can rest on you together +without great pleasure. But I don't think that you are doing the right +thing in trying to find her a job like your own. She couldn't keep it. +She is not a stern red Deeping like you. She is the clinging kind of +orphan, not made to stand alone." + +"But perhaps I should be able to go on helping her if she got work, +sir," said Pollyooly, gazing at him with puckered brow. "I'm sure +anybody would find her very willing." + +"I'm sure they would. So many people are willing. Even the Government +says it's willing. But I don't think that she is fitted to support +herself by her own efforts yet. She has had no training; and evidently +she hasn't been properly fed, and she isn't strong. What I think is +that she's the kind of orphan for whom homes for orphans were created," +he said with the air of one who has weighed the matter very carefully. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in somewhat unhappy assent. + +"At a home they would feed her up, give her open air exercise, and get +her strong. Then they would train her to become the accomplished wife +of one of our empire-builders in--er--er--in Canada, or British +Columbia, or Rhodesia. And when she reached the marriageable age, they +would export her and marry her to him. I think that that would suit +her much better than being an independent, ill-paid worker in London." + +Pollyooly considered his words carefully, frowning deeply. Then she +said: + +"Yes, sir: there's only herself. There isn't any one she wants living +with her like I do the Lump. Perhaps a home would be better for her." + +"I think it would," he said gravely. "You think it over." + +Pollyooly told Millicent at once of his suggestion; and they discussed +it seriously, and at great length. Indeed they talked of nothing else +for the rest of the day. The more they talked of it the more they +approved it. As Pollyooly said many times it was being settled in life +for good--not like a job which you might lose; and always down the +vista of the future, beyond the home, loomed the impressive and +alluring figure of the marriageable empire-builder. They both came to +the conclusion that the suggestion of the Honourable John Ruffin was +indeed excellent. + +Accordingly when she brought in his bacon next morning Pollyooly said: + +"Please, sir: I think you're right about Millicent's going to a home; +and so does she." + +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "There can be no reasonable +doubt that the mantle of Solomon, to say nothing of Benjamin +Franklin's, has descended on your shoulders." + +Pollyooly looked at him with the air of polite interest with which she +was wont to receive his obscure sayings; then she said: + +"Yes, sir. But how could she get into a home?" + +"Oh, there are nominations and elections and that kind of thing," said +the Honourable John Ruffin vaguely. "I'll find out all about it for +you." + +"Thank you, sir. I'll tell Millie." + +Two days later he said to Pollyooly: + +"I've been making enquiries about that home for orphans; and I've found +a very good one. It's called the Bellingham Home. I had an idea that +there was one in the family; and I find that my cousin and your +acquaintance, the Duke of Osterley, is the president of it; and of +course he can get an orphan into it in a brace of shakes. He only has +to nominate her." + +"Oh, that is nice, sir!" cried Pollyooly; and her eyes sparkled. + +"Wait a bit," said the Honourable John Ruffin gloomily. "Unfortunately +at the moment there is a coldness between me and the duke; and we may +not warm to one another for months--not, in fact, till he wants me to +do something for him. In these circumstances if I were to present an +orphan to his attention he would be much more likely to wring her neck +than nominate her." + +"That is a pity, sir," said Pollyooly, and her face fell. + +"Of course there are ladies of my acquaintance who dabble in charity; +but they're not in the position of the duke. It would take them weeks +to get Millicent into the Bellingham Home, while, if he nominated her, +she would be dragged into it at full speed. She wouldn't be given time +to breathe." + +Pollyooly frowned in earnest consideration of the matter; then she said: + +"Couldn't you ask a lady to ask him, sir?" + +"It would be difficult to persuade one," said the Honourable John +Ruffin doubtfully. "You see, the duke has the reputation of being +unamiable; and he has earned it well. My friends are only dabblers in +charity; and I don't think they're keen enough on it to risk getting +snubbed by him." + +Pollyooly's thoughtful frown deepened as she cudgelled her small, but +active, brain for a solution of this problem. Then she said: + +"Perhaps if I was to go and ask him, he'd do it, sir." + +"You?" said the Honourable John Ruffin very doubtfully. "I don't think +that would do at all. You see there was that business of his +kidnapping you in Piccadilly and carrying you off to Ricksborough +House. He's not at all the kind of man to forget that he played the +fool and had to pay you six pounds for doing it." + +"But, please, sir, that wasn't my fault," said Pollyooly. + +"No: it was his. That's why he's sure to be disliking you very much +for it." + +Pollyooly looked puzzled by this view of the working of the ducal mind. + +"No: it wouldn't be any use at all," said the Honourable John Ruffin +decisively. + +For the while Pollyooly accepted his decision. But she accepted it +with deep reluctance, for she was nearly as disappointed as Millicent +by this dashing of their hopes. Naturally in that disappointment the +Bellingham Home grew more and more attractive as it receded into the +distance. She did not cease to discuss it with Millicent; and it grew +clearer and clearer to her that it was worth her while to make the +attempt to procure the duke's assistance in the scheme. + +"He may be disagreeable. But he won't bite," she said in a somewhat +contemptuous tone. + +Accordingly a few mornings later she came to the Honourable John Ruffin +with a very earnest face and said: + +"Please, sir: I think after all I should like to go and ask the duke to +put Millie into that home." + +"You do?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of surprise. +"Well, it's any odds that he'll refuse nastily." + +"Yes, sir: but I think I ought to try. It would be so nice for Millie. +Besides he won't bi--hurt me, sir," said Pollyooly firmly. + +"No, he won't bite you. Dukes don't. Well, after all, if you don't +mind being rebuffed, it is worth trying," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly eagerly, very pleased to find that he did +not forbid her outright to make the attempt. + +The Honourable John Ruffin gazed at her thoughtfully; then he said in +his best judicial tone: + +"Well, if you're going to have a shot at it, there are one or two +things you'd better do to give yourself the best chance of success. In +the first place you must try to catch him after lunch, about a quarter +to three--he's in a good temper then. And when you do catch him, don't +be too gentle with him. Gentleness is rather wasted on Osterley. Be +civil, of course, and be sure to address him as 'Your Grace' all the +time. But be firm. Give yourself a few airs. After all, you are +undoubtedly as much a red Deeping as Lady Marion; and Osterley's great +grandfather was a Manchester tradesman." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly, and her eyes began to shine. + +"And be sure to wear your prettiest frock," the Honourable John Ruffin +went on. "I think your amber silk. Osterley, for all his +cantankerousness, is as susceptible as the next duke." + +"Oh, yes, sir: I'll wear my amber silk of course. And do you think I'd +better take Millie with me so that he can actually see what she's like?" + +The Honourable John Ruffin hesitated, pondering the question. Then he +said with decision: + +"No. Go alone. I think you'll be more effective alone. It will make +Osterley feel more helpless." + +"Very well, sir," said Pollyooly cheerfully. + +During the morning she discussed with the excited and sympathetic +Millicent the coming interview. She had the advantage of going to it +in utter fearlessness. She knew the duke: he had been at Ricksborough +Court during ten days of her stay there; and she had seen something of +him every day. Also there had been the second and more violent meeting +in Piccadilly when he had picked her up and carried her off to +Ricksborough House under the firm conviction that she was his lost +daughter. As a result of these two meetings Pollyooly had made up her +mind that the duke was not a man to be feared by women. Millicent +admired her fearlessness greatly. + +After their dinner Pollyooly put on her amber costume, a silk frock, a +pretty hat, stockings and gloves, all amber in colour and all matching, +gifts of Hilary Vance. Regarding her thus attired, Millicent's great +admiration became an even greater awe. + +"Why, you look the perfect lydy," she said in a hushed voice. + +"If I'm a red Deeping, I'm of the oldest blood in England, and I must +be a lady. Mr. Ruffin says so," said Pollyooly in the tone of one +quite sure of herself. + +She charged Millicent to be very careful of the Lump, and to be sure to +have the kettle boiling by four o'clock so that, should she be detained +till then, she would have nothing to do on her return but forthwith +make the tea. Then she sallied forth. + +As she came into Fleet Street she met the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Ah: so you're off to the fray," he said; and his eyes warmed to the +angel vision. "Well, you certainly have looks on your side; and that +is three-quarters of the woman's battle. It's rather a score for you, +too, that Osterley is one of the most susceptible dukes in England. +But remember: don't be too civil to him; just bow. And then be +firm--very firm." + +"Yes, sir: I will," said Pollyooly very firmly indeed. + +He stood considering her thoughtfully a moment; then he added: + +"And I tell you what: if your prayers fail to move Osterley you might, +as a last resort, try a few tears. Tears are dreadful things; and +these cantankerous men can rarely stand them." + +"Oh yes, sir: I will," said Pollyooly, her face growing bright with a +look of perfect understanding. + +He conducted her to her omnibus, put her on it, and wished her good +luck. + +Then he said after the bus had started: + +"Don't forget the tears!" + +He raised his voice in order to overcome the din of the traffic, and +succeeded admirably. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE RELUCTANT DUKE + +Tears were not at all to Pollyooly's liking. She considered them the +sign of a feeble heart and softening brain. The Honourable John Ruffin +had thrown quite a new light on them in suggesting that they could be +used as a weapon; and she considered this use of them most of the way +to Ricksborough House. + +She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy +nineteenth-century facade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a +little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But +she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly. + +Lucas, the butler of the duke, himself opened the door. At the sight +of Pollyooly he started back; for the moment he thought that his lost +young mistress stood before him. + +Pollyooly stepped across the threshold, and said firmly: + +"I want to see the Duke of Osterley, please." + +The words showed Lucas his mistake; he perceived that before him stood +not his mistress, but that young red Deeping who had once made a +manifestly genuine offer to bite him; and he hesitated. + +"It's very important. Please tell him that Miss Bride wants to see +him," said Pollyooly. + +"Um--er--come this way, miss. I'll see if his grace will see you," +said Lucas in a doubtful voice. + +He would have liked to refuse to let her into the house; but he was +doubtful about her social standing. Therefore he took her to the +nearest drawing-room, said that he would inform his grace, and betook +himself to his master in the smoking-room, wearing a perturbed air, for +the duke had as complete a vocabulary as any nobleman in England, and +he might easily take it ill that this formidable red Deeping had not +been refused admission to his house. + +"If you please, your Grace, there's a young lady--leastways a little +girl of the name of Bride--wants to see your Grace," said Lucas. "It's +the little girl you brought home as turned out not to be Lady Marion." + +"What the deuce did you let her in for?" said the duke on the instant; +and he frowned at him. + +"She said it was very important, your Grace," said Lucas in an unhappy +tone. + +The duke continued to frown, considering: Pollyooly might have brought +word of his missing daughter; and he would by no means let slip an +opportunity of getting information about her. On the other hand he +might be about to be called upon to pay more for his kidnapping +exploit. He had, however, just lunched ducally; and he was in a +vainglorious mood, ready to face anything female. + +At last he said bitterly: + +"I seem to have every jackass in London in my service. Bring her here." + +Lucas gloomily announced the readiness of the duke to receive her to +Pollyooly. She followed him eagerly and came into the smoking-room +with a brave air, though she was not feeling as brave as she looked. +The duke stood on the hearthrug and glowered at her. + +She did not hesitate; she gazed at his unamiable face with limpid eyes +and said tranquilly: + +"How do you do, your Grace?" + +The duke grunted; then grew articulate, and said: + +"What do you want?" + +Pollyooly sat down deliberately in one of the big easy chairs facing +him, and answered: + +"If you please, your Grace, I came to see you about an orphan." + +"An orphan?" said the duke a little less grumpily. He was somewhat +impressed by the angel face of his visitor. During her last, +compulsory visit it had been so much more red Deeping than angel. Also +her costume so amber and so expensive impressed him. + +"Yes: her name is Millicent Saunders; and they wanted to send her to +the workhouse because her mother died who used to dance at the Varolium +in the second row, but of course I couldn't let them do that, could I?" +said Pollyooly in an explanatory tone. + +"I don't know. What's it got to do with me?" said the duke quickly. + +"Millicent is one of those orphans who wouldn't be much good working +for herself, though of course she'd work hard and be very willing," +said Pollyooly speaking very clearly in the explanatory tone, and +looking at him with very earnest eyes. + +"Then she'd better go to the workhouse. She'll have an idle enough +time there," said the duke who was staunchly conservative in feeling. + +"But she can't go to the workhouse," said Pollyooly in a deeply shocked +tone. + +"Why not?" said the duke. + +Pollyooly looked at him very sternly, and said in a very stern voice: + +"Her mother was a very respectable woman; she was in the second row of +the Varolium ballet for years and years; and she always kept Millie +very respectable. Besides, you can't let people go to the workhouse." + +"Why can't you, if it's the proper place for them?" said the duke +stubbornly, for he hated to hear the workhouse in any way disparaged, +since he regarded it as a bulwark of society. + +"How would you like your little girl to go to the workhouse?" said +Pollyooly in a deeply reproachful tone. + +"It's a prospect we needn't consider," said the duke haughtily. + +"We never know what we may come to," said Pollyooly with a happy +remembrance of the pious wisdom of her Aunt Hannah. "But Millie isn't +going into the workhouse anyhow. I'm not going to let her. But she +ought to go to a home and be trained to marry an empire-builder. She's +that kind of orphan: Mr. Ruf--a gentleman says that she is. And I came +to ask you if you'd give her a nomination so that she could go into the +Bellingham Home. They'll do anything you tell them there; and if you +said so, they'd take her in at once. And she'd be ever so much obliged +to you. She'd never forget it--never. And so should I." + +She was leaning forward with clasped hands and shining, imploring eyes. +The duke was not insensible to the charm of her beauty, or to the +appeal of her pleading voice. He was even more sensible to the tribute +she had paid to his power in the matter of the Bellingham Home. But he +was in a captious mood; and he did not wish to oblige her. His mind +was chiefly full of the fact that he had made himself look foolish by +kidnapping her and had had to pay her six pounds compensation. He was +still sore about the foolishness and also about the money, for his was +a thrifty soul. + +But Pollyooly's angel face made a direct refusal difficult. He coughed +and said: + +"I--er--don't--er--do things in this--er--irregular way. +My--er--nominations are--er--only given after I have been approached in +the proper way and received testimonials and--er--sifted them out so as +to nominate the most deserving orphan among the many applicants for +admission." + +"There couldn't be a more deserving orphan than Millie," said Pollyooly +quickly. + +"That remains to be proved. There are often fifty or sixty applicants. +And besides, this isn't the time of year when vacancies in the home are +filled up," said the duke, hardening himself in his resistance, now +that he could throw the odium of it on to the machinery of the home. + +Pollyooly's face had fallen, for her instinct told her that he did not +intend to grant her petition, and was only making excuses. She said +slowly: + +"But that wouldn't matter, because if you told them to take in Millie +at any time of the year they'd do it." + +"But the applications have to be written, setting forth the applicant's +claims in the proper way," said the duke, falling yet more firmly back +behind the safe barrier of red tape. "The matter has to receive +careful consideration." + +Pollyooly frowned thoughtfully: "Well, I could write. There are people +who would tell me what to write," she said in the sad tone of one +confronted with an uncongenial task. "Then you could consider Millie +carefully. I'm sure you couldn't find an orphan who's more--more of an +orphan than Millie." + +"I'm afraid it wouldn't be any use--not at this time of year," said the +duke almost cheerfully, as he saw that in an irreproachable fashion he +was getting his own disobliging way. + +Pollyooly filled with the bitter sense of defeat. She heaved a deep +sigh and was on the point of rising to go, when the last adjuration of +the Honourable John Ruffin flashed into her mind, and on the instant +she grew eager to try the new weapon he had suggested. She looked at +the duke with a calculating eye. Nature, thinking probably that if was +enough for a man to be a duke, had not been lavish of beauty to him: +his somewhat small features were often set in an unamiable expression, +and with the faint light of evil satisfaction at baulking Pollyooly now +on them, they looked more unamiable than usual. He did not indeed seem +to be a man to be easily softened. But the matter was far too +important for her to lose the only chance left. + +Very deliberately she drew her handkerchief from her pocket, blinked +her eyes hard to make them water, hid them under the handkerchief, +sniffed once but loudly, and then sobbed. + +"It's very--hard--on Millie--she'll be--dreadfully--disappointed!" + +A sudden consternation smote the duke. He had looked to make himself +completely disagreeable at his ease, certainly without any such assault +on his feelings as this. He shuffled his feet and said hurriedly: + +"It's no good crying about it. It can't be helped, you know." + +Pollyooly's quick ear caught the change in his tone. She sobbed more +loudly: + +"Oh, yes--it can--you could do it--if you wanted to!" + +"These things have to be done in the proper way," protested the duke. + +"It isn't that. You--you--don't like Millie!" sobbed Pollyooly, +watching the weakening face of the perturbed nobleman with an intent +eye over the top of her handkerchief. "You--you--hate her!" + +"Why, I've never set eyes on her!" cried the duke. + +"Oh, yes: you do--and it's--it's beastly," sobbed Pollyooly. + +No duke likes to hear his conduct described as beastly by an angel +child--especially when the description happens to be accurate--and the +duke ground his teeth. + +Pollyooly, watching him, sobbed on--louder. + +The duke gazed at her in a dismal discomfort. He shuffled his feet +till the shuffle was almost a dance. Then he said in a feebly soothing +tone: + +"There--there--that'll do." + +[Illustration: The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort] + +Pollyooly's sobs grew yet louder--heartrending. + +The duke took a hurried turn up and down the room. + +Pollyooly, a huddled figure of desperate woe, sobbed on. + +The duke grabbed at his scrubby little moustache and held on to it +firmly. It was no real help. + +He ground his teeth; he tugged at his moustache; and then in a tone of +the last exasperation, he cried: + +"Oh, hang it all! Stop that infernal howling; and I'll give you the +nomination!" + +Pollyooly softened her sobs a little; the duke flung himself down into +the chair before the writing-table, at the other end of the room, and +seized pen and paper. + +"What's the brat's name?" he growled. + +"Millicent--Saunders," sobbed Pollyooly. + +The duke wrote the nomination, put it in an envelope, addressed it to +the secretary of the Bellingham Home, licked the flap of the envelope +with wolfish ferocity, and banged it fast. + +He came hastily across the room with it to Pollyooly, held it out, and +said with even greater ferocity: + +"Here you are--and--and--much good may it do her!" + +Pollyooly rose quickly and took it. She could hardly believe her +shining eyes. + +"Oh, thank you, your Grace! Millicent will be so glad!" she cried +joyfully. + +The duke growled in his throat; but in some way Pollyooly's radiant +angel face blunted his ferocity. Also it robbed his surrender of its +sting. He rang the bell; then opened the smoking-room door for her and +bade her good day quite in the manner and tone of an English gentleman. + +On the threshold, like the well-mannered child she was, she paused to +thank him again. When she went out he shut the door quite gently; and +by the time he had settled down again in his easy chair, he was feeling +truly magnanimous. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE + +The motor-bus which carried Pollyooly home crawled, to her impatient +fancy, no faster than the old horse-bus, so eager was she to pour the +news of her success into the ears of Millicent. + +Millicent, however, after her first joy on hearing that the path which +would ultimately lead her to the altar with an empire-builder was open +to her, grew sad. + +"It's a pity I couldn't stay on and on with you here," she said very +plaintively. "I'm sure I shall never be so happy anywhere else." + +"Oh, yes: you will," said Pollyooly firmly. "You'll find the home ever +so nice." + +Millicent shook her head doubtfully and said: + +"And I shan't see anything of you and the Lump any more." + +"Oh, yes: you will. You let us know when visiting day is--there's sure +to be a visiting day to a home; and we'll come and see you." + +Millicent's face grew a little brighter. + +The Honourable John Ruffin congratulated Pollyooly warmly on her +success; then he said: + +"I trust you were not driven to use the weapon I suggested. Osterley's +cantankerousness didn't go so far as that?" + +"Oh, well, sir," said Pollyooly, hesitating a little--"I--I did have to +pretend to cry." + +The Honourable John Ruffin laughed gently. + +"Poor Osterley!" he said. + +The duke's letter plainly stirred the Bellingham Home to instant +activity, for a letter came for Pollyooly by the first post to say that +an official of the home would come for Millicent that very afternoon. + +During the morning Millicent wept several times at the thought of +leaving the Lump; and her final farewell was tearful indeed. But +Pollyooly believed that her sadness would not last long: they had +decided that the empire-builder would have fair hair and a large and +flowing moustache. + +After Millicent's departure their life settled down into its usual even +tenour. Pollyooly missed her; and doubtless the Lump also missed his +devoted and obedient slave, though he was of too placid a nature to +raise an outcry about his loss. She wrote to Pollyooly on the day +after her arrival at the home; and the letter made it clear that her +first impressions of it were pleasing. + +It was on the fifth morning after her going that the Honourable John +Ruffin made the great announcement. It was his habit to chant in his +bath what Pollyooly believed to be poetry; and it is improbable that an +observant child of twelve, who had passed the seven standards at Muttle +Deeping school, could have been mistaken in a matter of that kind. At +any rate his chanting was rhythmical. The habit may have borne witness +to the goodness of his conscience, or it may not (it may merely have +been a by-product of an excellent digestion), but that morning it +seemed to her that he chanted more loudly and with a finer gusto than +usual. + +She was not greatly surprised therefore, when she brought in his +carefully grilled bacon, at his saying in a very cheerful tone: + +"I have had a windfall, Mrs. Bride--a windfall of thirty-five pounds. +It fell out of an auction-bridge tree--a game you do not +understand--and it has made the heat-wave, which ought to be called the +heat-flood, more unbearable than ever. Therefore I have resolved to go +away for a while to the sea." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in a tone of amiable congratulation. + +But her face fell a little; for though the departure of the Honourable +John Ruffin meant that she would have less work; it also meant that she +would have to spend more on food for herself and her little brother the +Lump, since the Honourable John Ruffin did not eat all his bread or +drink all his milk; and there was often half a cake with which he +refused to continue his afternoon tea on the ground that it was stale. +Besides, life was a far more cheerful business when he was at home; his +talk was Pollyooly's chief diversion, though she was hardly conscious +of the fact; and it frequently gave her to think deeply. + +"But the thing that has kept me so long in London submerged in the +heat-flood has not been so much the want of money (I have had enough +for my own escape) as the great bacon difficulty," he said and paused. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"But, thanks to this windfall, I can get over that difficulty by taking +you to the sea to grill my bacon for me, and the Lump to keep you +occupied while you are not grilling it, that Satan may not find some +mischief still for idle hands to do," he said sententiously. + +Pollyooly's large blue eyes opened very wide; and her mouth opened too. + +"Oh, sir, me and the Lump, sir!" she said in a hushed, breathless voice +of incredulous rapture. + +"You and the Lump. The Lump and the sea were made for one another. I +look to see him an admiral one of these days. It is time that England +had a red-headed admiral; I'm tired of these refined, drab-haired ones. +It is my patriotic duty to give him a taste for the sea early." + +"Oh, thank you, sir!" said Pollyooly in a tone of profound gratitude. + +"We will go to Pyechurch. There's an old family servant of ours who +lets lodgings at Pyechurch. I made her life a burden to her when I was +young; and consequently, with true womanliness, she has always +entertained the strongest affection for me. It would be no use taking +you to any other lodgings because you wouldn't be allowed to grill my +bacon for me. But Mrs. Wilson knows that I must be humoured; and +humoured I shall be. Also she will look after you while I am playing +golf at Littlestone--not that I have ever known you to need looking +after." + +"Oh, sir, it will be nice!" said Pollyooly, still somewhat breathless. + +The Honourable John Ruffin smiled at her amiably. + +"This morning we will pack; this afternoon we will go," he said. + +Pollyooly had to slip up to their attic at once to tell the Lump, who +was playing there peacefully, the splendid news. He received it in +placid silence; apparently it did not seem to him to be a matter on +which he was called to comment either favourably or unfavourably. +Pollyooly moved about the world on very light, dancing feet; and as +soon as she had washed up the breakfast things she packed their small +wardrobes in the brown tin box. Then the Honourable John Ruffin, +having finished his cigar and _Morning Post_, summoned her to help him +pack. + +For a while she observed his fashion of doing so with pain and dismay. +He put his clothes in the portmanteau anyhow and crushed them firmly +down. Sometimes he stood on them, quietly. + +Standing painfully now on one leg and now on the other, she endured the +sight for several minutes; then she said: + +"Oh please, sir: you'd better let me do it." + +"Why? What's wrong with my way of doing it?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin, looking down at the confused mess with some surprise. + +"Look how you're crumpling your shirts, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"I thought that that was what trunks and portmanteaux were for. But +have it your own way. Deal with it yourself," said the Honourable John +Ruffin with airy indifference. + +He lighted another cigar and watched Pollyooly take the clothes out of +the portmanteau and replace them neatly with some regard to their shape +and the space to be filled, finding room for a dozen things which he +had been forced to leave out. Then, when she had filled half the +portmanteau, he said: + +"Always fresh accomplishments, Mrs. Bride. If you go on at this rate, +you will certainly go down to posterity as the Admirable Pollyooly." + +He sent down to the Inner Temple kitchen for his lunch; and Pollyooly +gave the Lump his dinner. She ate little herself; she was too excited. +They drove, proudly, in a taxicab to Cannon Street Station; and they +travelled, proudly, first-class. + +The Honourable John Ruffin had bought picture papers for the two +children and a novel for himself, and now and again he paused in his +reading to observe them. It was always a pleasure to a man of his +aesthetic sensibility to gaze at Pollyooly's angel face in its frame of +beautiful red hair and at that redder-headed but authentic cherub, the +Lump. As they ran through London, curiously curled round the Lump, she +was busy showing him the pictures in the papers and receiving his +monosyllabic comments on them, with the ecstatic delight with which his +disciples receive, or should receive, the pregnant utterances of a +genius. When they came into the country she was busy pointing out to +him, with an even more excited delight the common railside objects. It +was more than a year since he had been in the country; and he had to be +told earnestly and more than once that a cow was a cow and a sheep a +baa-lamb, for he was inclined to class them all alike under the genus +gee-gee. When at last he did correctly hail a sheep as a baa-lamb, the +triumphant pleasure of Pollyooly passed all bounds. + +The Honourable John Ruffin read and observed the children, and observed +the children and read. But when they were nearing their journey's end, +he shut up his book and said: + +"I think it will be well for you to cease to be my housekeeper at +Pyechurch, Mrs. Bride. People will ask you about our relations of +course, because by the sea there is so much time for idle curiosity; +and you had better tell them that you are a cousin of mine. That is +nothing but the truth, for you are undoubtedly a red Deeping; and all +the Deepings, red or neutral-tinted, are cousins, first, second, third, +fourth, and so on, of mine." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly gravely. + +"Also I think that you had better give yourself a few airs. You will +have a better time that way, for airs procure you a welcome in the best +circles. Be a red Deeping--not too truculent, you know, but firm." + +Pollyooly's eyes sparkled a little; and she said: + +"Yes, sir: I should like to. I like being a red Deeping, sir, rather. +I liked it when I was at Ricksborough Court." + +"Good. You have the right spirit. One of these days you will become +what the newspapers call a society leader. I foresee it," he said in a +tone of the most assured conviction. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"There's one difficulty though, and that's your hands. At present +they're hardly the hands of a red Deeping," he said thoughtfully. "Not +that they're not small and well-shaped!" he interjected hastily. "But +I expect that a week's idleness will let your nails grow; and brushing +will do the rest." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. + +She had never considered her hands from the aesthetic standpoint. She +had been content to keep them clean. She considered them now, +ruefully. It is indeed hard to do the work of two sets of chambers in +the Temple without the hands showing it. Her nails were very short and +rather jagged; a thumbnail was broken; the skin about them was rough +and broken. She looked from them to the white, carefully kept hands, +with pink shining nails, of the Honourable John Ruffin, and sighed. + +"I think that for the future you'd better work in gloves," he said in a +sympathetic tone. + +"I think I'd better try," said Pollyooly doubtfully. To her firm +spirit the idea of working in gloves savoured of dilettantism. + +"You see a lady--and all red Deepings are gentlefolk of course--a lady +must have good hands," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a deprecating +tone. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly solemnly. + +It was the first time that the meaning of the fact that the Deeping +blood ran in her veins had been brought home to her; and she flushed +faintly with honourable pride at the thought that she was a lady, for +all that she did the work of two sets of chambers in the Temple. She +sat a little more upright. + +"And there's another thing," he went on. "At Pyechurch I shall call +you Pollyooly; and you will call me John, or cousin John." + +"I--I'll try to remember, sir," said Pollyooly, again flushing with +pride. + +"You'll soon get into it," said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. +"And it will be very nice for me to have a cousin always to hand." + +Pollyooly flushed again; and the gratitude in her eyes as they rested +on him was beyond words. + +The train, one of the South-Eastern best, sauntered leisurely through +the pleasant, sunny landscape, stopping meditatively at stations and +between stations, as the whim took it, but at last it reached Hythe. + +They drove from there, proudly, in a wagonette to Pyechurch, along the +edge of Romney Marsh, with the shining sea on their left hand. +Pollyooly enjoyed the felicity of showing it to the Lump, who had never +before seen it; but she was somewhat taken aback by his hailing a ship +as a baa-lamb. + +They found Mrs. Wilson eagerly awaiting them. There was no doubt of +her affection for the Honourable John Ruffin. She had a sumptuous tea +ready for them; and after the journey and its excitement they dealt +with it heartily. + +Any fear that the Honourable John Ruffin had felt of Mrs. Wilson's +objecting to Pollyooly's grilling his bacon passed away when he saw how +her heart went out to the two children. Indeed, before tea was over he +was driven to say: + +"I see what it is, Mrs. Wilson: the Lump is going to usurp my place in +your regard." + +"No one could do that, Master John; and well you know it," said Mrs. +Wilson firmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +POLLYOOLY MEETS THE UNPLEASANT PRINCE + +Tea over, the Honourable John Ruffin proposed that he should take them to +the sands; and Pollyooly agreed eagerly. But as they came out of the +house, two little girls, bare-legged and wearing sandals, passed them. + +He looked from them to Pollyooly's stout shoes and black stockings, +stopped short and said firmly: + +"We must change all this." + +He turned to the right down the street and led them into the chief shop +of the village. Apparently he was well known there, for the proprietor +greeted him with respectful warmth. He bought sandals, bathing-dresses, +blue linen frocks, a sunbonnet for Pollyooly, a linen hat for the Lump, +spades and buckets. + +Loaded with these purchases he came out into the street, and took his way +back to Mrs. Wilson's, saying: + +"You must hurry up and change into these things. First impressions are +so important at the seaside; people have so much leisure to be pernickety +in; and you _must_ look all right!" + +Pollyooly was not long making the change; and when she came out of the +house in the blue linen frock and sunbonnet, he smiled at her with warm +approval and said: + +"There's no doubt about it, you have got the knack of wearing clothes, +Pollyooly." + +To Pollyooly his utterance was entirely cryptic; but she gathered that it +was complimentary and returned his smile. + +He took them down to the sands; and they were soon at the height of +happiness, building a castle, paddling, and picking up shells. He left +them to it; and went for a stroll down the sea wall. Since it was a hot +evening, at seven he fetched them to bathe; and since he let them bathe +in their own timid way, the timid way of children bathing for the first +time, they enjoyed it exceedingly. The Lump found eight inches of water +deep enough for him, Pollyooly eighteen. + +The next morning they bathed again at seven. + +The house was near enough to the sea to allow them to go straight from +their bedrooms to it in their bathing dresses. After their bath the +Honourable John Ruffin returned firmly to bed for an hour and so gave +Pollyooly time to make a leisurely and complete breakfast before grilling +his bacon. He had explained to Mrs. Wilson that it was necessary to his +happiness that it should be grilled by Pollyooly, and she had raised no +objection. She observed the process with interest, but not with approval. + +"All that time spent over cooking a few slices of bacon!" she said with +the womanly air of one sniffing, when it was transferred from the +frying-pan to the dish. + +Pollyooly's brow puckered in a thoughtful frown; and she said gravely: + +"But that's the only way to get it right." + +Mrs. Wilson sniffed outright. + +After his breakfast the Honourable John Ruffin departed to Littlestone to +golf; and Pollyooly and the Lump went down to the sands. There are no +niggers, pierrots, or bands at Pyechurch, only a few donkeys and a +cocoanut-shy. But at low tide there are a thousand acres of firm sand, a +children's paradise. Pollyooly enjoyed it beyond words: not only the +sands and the sea but also the freedom from care. Food, excellent food +and plenty of it, awaited them, paid for, at Mrs. Wilson's. + +The Lump was the cause of Pollyooly's first introduction to +fellow-sojourners in this delectable land. A little girl of four, with +very large brown eyes, who was playing near them, was quite suddenly +attracted by him, and without further ado took possession of him. +Pollyooly was pleased that he should have a playmate of his own age; the +little girl's nurse, observing that they were dressed as other children +and that Pollyooly spoke "prettily," and was inclined to be uncommonly +haughty with her, assented to the acquaintance. The little brown-eyed +girl's blue-eyed sister, Kathleen, who was seven, mothered her little +sister, whose name was Mary. Also now and again she mothered the Lump; +but Pollyooly was not jealous. + +At first the Lump was somewhat taken aback by this sudden acquisition of +a female friend; but his remarkable placidity stood him in good stead, +and he endured it with an even mind. Presently indeed he seemed to be +taking pleasure in it, for he began to bully her in the manliest fashion. + +Then the mother of the little girls joined them and was at once charmed +by the Lump. Pollyooly found no need to display the airs of a red +Deeping, with which she had been treating the nurse, to her; and +presently they were chatting in the friendliest way. Mrs. Gibson, as the +nurse called her, seemed as taken with Pollyooly's serious outlook on +life as with the charm of the Lump; and presently she asked her if her +mother would let them come to tea with Kathleen and Mary and to games on +the sands after it that afternoon. + +Pollyooly explained that they were staying with their cousin John, who +had gone to golf at Littlestone and would not be back till late; +therefore she accepted the invitation herself. Mrs. Gibson was impressed +by the discovery that cousin John was the Honourable John Ruffin; but she +expressed her surprise that he should have gone away for the day and left +them to themselves without a nurse to look after them. Pollyooly, with +an air of considerable dignity, assured her that she would never dream of +trusting the Lump to a nurse; and Mrs. Gibson admitted that she was right. + +Pollyooly and the Lump enjoyed the party exceedingly. There were a dozen +children, fellow-guests; and at tea the manners of the Lump, under +Pollyooly's anxious eye, were beyond reproach. Her hands indeed troubled +her, and she kept them out of sight as much as she could. After all they +were not very large hands to withdraw from view. After tea the younger +children played in the charge of nurses; the elder children, to the +extreme delight of Pollyooly, who loved to run fleetly, disported +themselves in more swift and violent games. She had much to tell the +Honourable John Ruffin on his return from Littlestone. He congratulated +her warmly on their début. + +The next day she found herself well launched in the society of the sands, +with many playmates, and entered upon the fullest and most delightful +life. But there is always a fly in the finer ointments; and the +Pyechurch fly was Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz. + +That morning Pollyooly had her first sight of him. She and the Lump were +playing with Kathleen and Mary, when Kathleen cried in a tone of dismay, +"Here's the prince!" picked up Mary, who would have gone quicker on her +own feet, and staggered off toward their nurse with her. + +Pollyooly picked up the Lump and came with her, though she could see no +reason for Kathleen's dismay, for the prince was but a fat little boy of +ten, small-eyed, thick-lipped, and snub-nosed. His white sailor suit +seemed to give his ugliness its full values. + +Under the wing of their nurse Kathleen and Mary surveyed him with the +eyes of terror; and Kathleen poured into Pollyooly's attentive ear the +story of his dreadful doings: how he had pushed a little boy over the +edge of the sea-wall, kicked several others; how he had hit little girls +with their own spades and pulled the hair of others; how he never passed +a carefully built castle without kicking a breach in it, and always threw +any spades or buckets he could lay hands on far into the sea. + +Pollyooly observed this terror with the unimpressed eye of a connoisseur. +When she had lived with her Aunt Hannah in the little slum at the back of +the King's Bench Walk, she had fought many battles with the small boys of +Alsatia; and she was not at all impressed by the physique of the prince. +She was of the opinion that Henry Wiggins would make very short work of +him; and she could hold Henry Wiggins (by the hair) with her left hand +and smack him with her right till she was nearly as tired of smacking as +he was of being smacked. She knew that she could because she had done it. + +The prince came to the castle they themselves had been building and +kicked down one wall of it. + +"If only you weren't a prince, I'd teach you, my fine young gentleman," +said the nurse softly. + +"You mind the Lump! I'll go and smack him hard!" cried Pollyooly with +eager confidence. + +"No! No! He's a _prince_! You mustn't touch a _prince_, miss!" cried +the nurse in a tone of the last horror, gripping Pollyooly's wrist +tightly. "Besides, he'd hurt you. He's a very nasty, spiteful little +boy." + +"Oh, I don't mind him! I'm not afraid of a little boy like that!" cried +Pollyooly; and she tugged at the restraining grip, hard but in vain, +eying the pest with the bright light of battle in her eyes. + +"I wouldn't let my children play with him like some people do just +because he's a prince--not was it ever so. I should be frightened all +the time," said the nurse. + +"If he ever touches the Lump, I'll teach him!" Said Pollyooly with a +cold, impressive ferocity. + +"If ever he touches one of us, papa will spank him hard. Papa doesn't +care much for princes," said Kathleen. + +"I should think he didn't--if they're like that," said Pollyooly with +conviction. + +They watched the devastating royal progress with indignant eyes. The +back view of the prince was nearly as unpleasant as the front, for he +slouched along with his fat little figure hunched forward in a very ugly +fashion. The children fled before him as he came, and from the shelter +of their nurses, or their mothers, angrily watched him destroy the +castles they had built. But most of their mothers regarded him with a +gloating admiration; they felt that the beach was more glorious for his +royal presence. + +About forty yards behind him came a companion figure, his equerry the +Baron von Habelschwert, a stout, pig-eyed, snub-nosed man of forty-five +who walked with the stiffness of a ramrod of the best Bessemer steel. +His legs were, unfortunately, rather short, and since the lower part of +his body was of a fine protuberant rotundity which the breadth of his +shoulders and the thickness of his chest failed dismally to equal, he +displayed an uncommonly exact resemblance of a perambulating pear. He +had a rich expanse of fat cheek and a small, but dimpled, chin. He was +saved by his fierce moustache, which, upturned in the imperial fashion, +gave him the ferocious air required by his military profession and his +sentiments of a superman of the latest Prussian brand. + +Happiness sat enthroned upon his brow. A passion for blacking is a +distinguishing characteristic of his military caste; and his natural love +of licking the boots of members of the many royal families of the +Fatherland was finding its full expression. In Prince Adalbert he had a +perpetual boot to lick. Sometimes indeed the boot licked him: that very +morning the prince had kicked his shins in a masterly fashion, on being +invited to wash his face for the day. The baron bore it very well. + +His clothes fitted him with an extreme, but somewhat unfortunate, +military tightness. They were of an unpleasant greenish tint which did +not match the green Homberg hat he wore. In his right hand he carried a +short cane and yellow gloves. The morning was hot; his boots were patent +leather. Diffusing an agreeable odour of pomatum on the breeze, he +walked with the air of one taking his ease in a conquered country, for he +was one of the gallant German war-party, and he looked forward with +touching certainty to the day when the mailed fist of his imperial master +should sweep England with fire and sword from sea to sea. He often +talked in a gloating fashion of that great day to his young charge. +Possibly that was one of the reasons which induced Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz to make so free with the castles and persons of the +children of the so-soon-to-be-subjugated English. + +The ogres of the sands having disappeared down the beach, the children +repaired the damage to their castles and once more played in peace. That +afternoon there was another royal progress of the same devastating kind +but more complete, since the prince surprised a little girl and pulled +her hair. The fond English mothers still observed him with a gloating +air, happy to be on the same stretch of sand with him. They said +indulgently to one another: "Boys will be boys," or, with conviction: +"Such a manly little fellow." + +This time the Baron von Habelschwert walked only fifteen yards behind the +prince. He smiled benignly on the destruction of the castles; plainly he +felt that his young charge was treating the so-soon-to-be-subjugated +English in the right spirit. + +There was only one check to the royal progress. The sand-castle on which +Pollyooly and Kathleen had worked so hard stood directly in the line of +it. Kathleen and Mary fled to their nurse at the approach of the prince, +calling wildly to Pollyooly to follow. Pollyooly leaving the Lump in the +castle, stepped out of it, and spade in hand calmly awaited the coming of +the prince. + +When he was three yards from her she said quietly but very distinctly: + +"You keep away." + +[Illustration: "You keep away"] + +The prince advanced two steps and stopped. There was that in Pollyooly's +deep blue eyes which gave him pause. He advanced another step, and +stopped again. Then he called her "pig-dog," in his native tongue, +turned aside, and pursued his way. As he went he kept looking back at +her, scowling malevolently. + +Pollyooly gazed after him with unchanging face. She would have liked to +put her tongue a long way out at him; but she felt that red Deepings did +not do so. + +The nurse came down to the castle with Kathleen and Mary, and said in a +tone of respectful awe: + +"However you dare, miss! And him a prince too!" + +"I don't care a pin for him," said Pollyooly calmly. + +She stepped back to the castle and continued the work of construction. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR + +The royal progress was the event of the morning and afternoon for +several days before it occurred to Pollyooly to tell the Honourable +John Ruffin about it. Then one evening, on their way to bathe, she +told him. + +The Honourable John Ruffin stood still on the edge of the sea, looked +at her thoughtfully, and said: + +"This is interesting indeed. I had no idea that German aggression had +extended to this retired spot." + +"And he's such an ugly little boy," said Pollyooly. + +"And he is all alone?" + +"Oh, no: there's a baron with him to look after him--with a large +moustache. He's very ugly too," said Pollyooly frankly. + +"This grows more interesting still. I think I should enjoy looking +into this matter. Prussian barons always need a firm hand. But I'm +too full up with golf to deal with it for the next day or two. I must +bear it in mind." + +Plainly he did bear it in mind, for on the afternoon of the third day, +to Pollyooly's delight, he joined them on the sands. She introduced +him to Mrs. Gibson; and he thanked her for having had his two little +cousins to tea, and chatted to her in his cheerful and engaging fashion +till Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz came slouching along on his +devastating course. The Honourable John Ruffin observed him with every +appearance of the liveliest interest; but the Baron von Habelschwert +seemed to afford him even greater pleasure than did his young charge; +and upon him he gazed with a fascinated, loving eye. + +"I have rarely seen a more perfect pair," he said to Mrs. Gibson in a +tone of deep content. + +"Detestable creatures!" said Mrs. Gibson with some heat. + +"Perhaps--but how incomparably Prussian!" said the Honourable John +Ruffin with warm appreciation. "And you let these unpleasant ones +terrorise your children?" + +"Well, what can I do?" said Mrs. Gibson. "My husband would have +stopped it, if he had been down here; but he isn't. I have spoken to +one or two men, acquaintances, about it. But they seem afraid to +interfere." + +"We are getting too highly civilised," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a melancholy tone. "The fine old English spirit is dying out; and +they're afraid of getting into the papers. But evidently what is +needed is the giving of lessons; and the proper person to give them is +a fierce small boy--Irish for choice--one who is always and nobly +spoiling for a fight. Unfortunately I have not a fierce small Irish +boy to hand; but, thank goodness! there are still red Deepings left in +England." + +"What is a red Deeping?" said Mrs. Gibson. + +"The red Deepings are an old East Anglian strain--red-haired and very +fierce and cantankerous when roused. My little cousin Pollyooly here +is a red Deeping." + +"Oh, do you think she could cope with that horrid little boy?" said +Mrs. Gibson eagerly. + +"I'm sure of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin with decision. "Come +here, Pollyooly." + +Pollyooly came; and he felt her biceps carefully. Then he said: + +"Didn't Mr. Vance tell me a story of a boy called Henry Wiggins whom +you found disrespectful and taught manners?" + +Pollyooly flushed faintly; but she said bravely, in an explanatory tone: + +"I had to. He was always bothering." + +"I should think that Henry Wiggins was a far more active and difficult +boy in a fight than this fat little prince," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Oh, Henry Wiggins is tough but really he is quite easy. You've only +got to get hold of his hair," said Pollyooly quickly. "But of course +the prince has very short hair, only he isn't tough at all," she added +in the grave tones of one weighing the chances of battle. + +"He certainly is cropped. The Prussians have no aesthetic sense," said +the Honourable John Ruffin in a disparaging tone. "But I should think +that you could get over the difficulty of the hair." + +"Oh, yes: I'm nearly sure I could," said Pollyooly; and her deep blue +eyes began to shine. "May I smack him if he interferes with us?" + +"Not on any account unless I am at hand," said the Honourable John +Ruffin quickly. "I have a deep, patriotic distrust of the chivalry of +Prussian barons. I do not think that this one could be trusted to see +fair play. You might have a baron on your hands as well as a prince; +and it might be too much for a red Deeping of your size. A prince at a +time should be your motto." + +"It would be very amusing," said Mrs. Gibson; and her eyes danced. + +"You shall see it," said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. "Unbiased +spectators of a dramatic scene are always desirable; and it won't be +difficult to arrange your presence, for the business will need a little +stage-managing. You watch the prince, Pollyooly, and see how far he +goes down the beach, so that we can arrange the exact place for his +instruction." + +The next day Pollyooly followed the prince to the end of his royal +progress twice; and she had little doubt that she would be able to draw +him into the battle for which she yearned, for he never saw her without +scowling darkly upon her. + +On the second day the Honourable John Ruffin returned from his golf in +time to lunch with the two children; and he informed Pollyooly that he +proposed to spend the afternoon on the sand with them. They found Mrs. +Gibson with her children; and she accompanied them to the spot at which +the prince usually turned in his course. Twenty yards beyond it the +Honourable John Ruffin bade Pollyooly build a castle; and then he and +Mrs. Gibson left her and the Lump to build it, and retiring to the +sea-wall forty yards away, they sat down and fell into polite +conversation. As they left her, the Honourable John Ruffin's last +words to Pollyooly were: + +"I don't forbid you to scratch him. Scratching is harmonious with the +female nature." + +The statement afforded Mrs. Gibson grounds for the beginning of their +polite conversation. + +Pollyooly and the Lump worked steadily away at the building of the +castle. Pollyooly did the digging; now and again the Lump would pat a +wall placidly. They had been at work for rather more than half an +hour; and the castle was already beginning to wear the rotund air so +dear to the eye of the builder when the progressive prince came in +sight. + +Pollyooly's joyful heart began to beat quickly. He was slouching along +to his doom nearly fifty yards in front of the fragrant baron; and +since there were children to annoy all the way, he came but slowly. It +gave Pollyooly time to lead the Lump half-way to Mrs. Gibson, and send +him toddling the rest. She was back at her castle, and at work again +when the prince caught sight of her. + +He stopped short, his unhasty mind slowly taking in the situation. +That she should be working in loneliness, thirty yards beyond the line +of nurses and children along the beach, seemed too good to be true. +Presently his unhurrying mind grasped the fact that it was true; his +heart blazed in his bosom; he threw back his head and, had his nose +been larger, he would have sniffed the breeze like a warhorse. He +advanced upon her in a quick, shambling slouch. + +Pollyooly saw his eager advance; but she affected not to see it. She +was eager for the fray, but fearful lest a display of that eagerness +should dash the royal courage; moreover she wished the prince to be +flagrantly the aggressor. She worked at the farther wall of the castle +with her back to him. A fray was the last thing the prince looked for. +There had been but one fray in his sheltered life: with a brother +prince carelessly admitted to his society. A fray with a child not of +the blood royal was beyond dreaming. He sprang on to the castle wall +and began to stamp and kick a breach in it with furious, but clumsy, +energy. + +Then Pollyooly turned and sprang. The prince was hardly aware of her +spring; he was only aware of a stinging smack, and then the shock of +her impetus toppled him over on to his back on the sand. Pollyooly +came down too, but not on the sand; she came down on the prince, and +far more heavily than her fragile air warranted. Before he could +collect any scattered wits he may have chanced to have, she was +kneeling astride him, with a painful, grinding knee on either of his +arms, and slapping his face. + +The Honourable John Ruffin walked briskly down from the sea-wall with a +smile of profound pleasure on his face. The perfumed baron had not yet +perceived his charge's plight. + +Pollyooly did not smack very hard at first, for she was resisting the +wriggling of the prince; but once she had dug her toes firmly into the +sand, she gave her mind to delivering each smack with the full swing of +her arm; and the prince began to bellow. Then the baron saw the +terrible, treasonable indignity the hope of the house of +Lippe-Schweidnitz was enduring. He broke into a curious toddling run, +uttering odd, short shrieks of the last horror as he came. + +The Honourable John Ruffin placed himself athwart the course of the +toddling deliverer and said quietly: + +"Don't hurry, Pollyooly, but smack him hard." + +A smile of understanding wreathed Pollyooly's flushed but angel face; +and she did smack him hard. The Honourable John Ruffin's back was +turned to the headlong baron; but his head was bent a little sideways; +and as the already breathless rescuer made his final spurting rush he +moved sharply to the left. + +It was unfortunate (but since he had not eyes in the back of his head, +it could not be helped) that the left shoulder of the Honourable John +Ruffin, jerking upward hard, should have impinged upon the onrushing +right shoulder of the deliverer. The baron left the firm earth, +twirled in the air in a fashion which would have won him the plaudits +of the most exacting music-hall audience, came down on his back on the +sand with a violence which shook the little breath left out of his body +and lay gasping in a darkened world. + +It was a full minute and a half before the bellowing of his +sufficiently besmacked charge came again, dimly, to his comprehending +ears. Then he grew aware, also dimly, that the Honourable John Ruffin +was standing over him and asking loudly, with every appearance of just +indignation, what he meant by not looking where he was going. The +baron was strongly of the opinion that the interposed shoulder had been +no accident; but he was much too busy with his breathing to say so. +Then when his breath came more easily and he had the power to say so, +he had no longer the inclination, for the knowledge of the terrible +position in which he stood, or rather lay, had flashed on him: he, a +German officer, had been knocked down by a civilian and was forever +disgraced. + +Pollyooly continued to smack the bellowing prince; the Honourable John +Ruffin continued to ask the baron what the devil he meant by it; and +the poor wits of the panting nobleman continued to work on his dreadful +problem. Then a flash of inspiration showed him the saving solution: +he could accept his noisy questioner's view that his fall had been an +accident. He sat up and began to apologise faintly and sulkily for +having been knocked down. + +The hands of Pollyooly were sore from smacking Prince Adalbert, but not +so sore as his royal cheeks; and still she smacked on. She interjected +between the smacks requests for an assurance that he would cease to +annoy the children on the beach. His fine Prussian determination not +to be robbed of his simple pleasures prevented him from giving it. He +preferred to bellow. But there are limits even to royal endurance; and +as the baron rose shakily to his feet, the prince howled the assurance +she demanded. + +"And mind you do, or I'll smack you again," said Pollyooly coldly. + +She rose to her feet, flushed and triumphant, and rubbed gently +together her stinging hands. The prince lay where he was, blubbering. + +Ten yards away Mrs. Gibson stood holding the hand of the Lump, who +gazed at the scene in placid wonder; and she was laughing gently. Ten +yards away, on her right, stood a dozen children, surveying their +blubbering pest with joyful, vengeful eyes. Behind them distractedly +hovered three shocked nurses, quivering with horror at the upheaval of +the social edifice; and horror-stricken mothers were slowly approaching +the dreadful spot. + +The baron slowly took in the humiliating significance of the scene; he +saw that the glory of a royal house had been levelled to the dust, or +rather to the sand. He caught his blubbering charge by the arm, jerked +him to his feet, and led him away by one large ear. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked after them and laughed quietly but +joyfully. Then he said: + +"I congratulate you, Pollyooly--an excellent piece of work very neatly +done. The haughty foreigner will trouble you no more." + +Mrs. Gibson came forward and added her congratulations to his. The +children gazed at Pollyooly with deep respect. Only the nurses and the +mothers held aloof; an earthquake shock would hardly have astonished +and confused them more than had this smacking of royalty. Had any one +but the little cousin of the Honourable John Ruffin smacked, they would +have been unable to refrain from an outburst of open disapproval. + +To judge from the royal progress next morning, Pollyooly had indeed +done her work. The Baron von Habelschwert still perfumed the air as he +walked; but it was no longer obviously the air of a conquered country. +His moustache was less fierce, his stride less proprietary. Indeed he +might easily have been mistaken, by those to whom his name and +dignities were unknown, for the pear-shaped but inoffensive keeper of a +delicatessen shop. Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz was also +changed. He no longer roamed afield; he kept within six feet of his +protective equerry. He slouched less; and he had ceased to scowl +arrogantly on the children who no longer fled at his approach. He +regarded little English girls with a respectful, not to say timid, eye, +and edged closer to the baron as he passed one. To his mind the little +English girl was stored with the potentialities of a powder-magazine. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RAPPROCHEMENT + +The noble-hearted humanitarian is ever of the opinion that violence, +physical violence, is degrading alike to those who employ it, and to +those on whom it is employed. In the main, doubtless, he may be right; +but there must be natures, exceptional natures, on which it does not +exercise this disastrous effect; and it is curious that there should be +two human beings in so small a place as Pyechurch at the same time of +this very nature. + +There can be no doubt that Pollyooly had smacked Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz with far greater violence than ever she had smacked +the abhorred Henry Wiggins for yelling "Ginger!" at her. There can be +no doubt that the prince had been so smacked. Yet Pollyooly's face +remained the face of an angel child; her devotion to the Lump and her +politeness to those with whom she came into contact showed no signs of +weakening; and no one could honestly assert that Prince Adalbert looked +a bit more like a pig than he had always done. If anything he had lost +something of his likeness to that nutritious animal. + +At any rate there was no sign of degradation in his behaviour. He now +walked about Pyechurch beach as peacefully as you could wish: he +destroyed no castles; he kicked no children. + +Even that fierce, stout, moustachioed and military Prussian, the Baron +von Habelschwert, seemed to have derived benefit from his violent +impingement on the left shoulder of the Honourable John Ruffin. Though +his more mature nature should have been fixed, there can be no doubt +that he wore a softer air, and no longer trod the English sand with the +air of a disdainful but perfumed conqueror. + +He was by no means an observant man; but stupid as he was, he could not +fail to perceive the change in his pupil, for it was forced on his +attention by the fact that the prince did not kick his shins for +seventy-two hours. The baron was at first surprised, then dismayed: he +feared that the fine Hohenzollern spirit of his young charge might have +suffered a lasting, weakening shock from his encounter with that angel +child; and when the prince for three successive mornings and afternoons +did not assault a single little girl, however much smaller than himself +those who came within his reach chanced to be, the fear deepened. + +Oddly enough the subdued prince did not seem to regard Pollyooly with +the bitterness which might have been expected. He did not even shun +the sight of her. Indeed, as he made his royal progress along the +beach, he would pause and regard her with puzzled but manifestly quite +respectful interest, as she played actively not far from her little +brother, the Lump, with her young friends. + +The baron regarded the Honourable John Ruffin in a very different +manner; he could not set eyes on him without scowling horribly. It was +the desire of his heart to have the blood of Pollyooly's protector; and +though the conduct of Pollyooly had oddly but considerably weakened his +confident expectation of the immediate subjugation of the English +people by his imperial master he longed with a greater fervour than had +ever before burned in him for THE DAY. + +The conversations, strictly confined to the British tongue, between the +baron and his pupil, were always of the briefest and often truculent. +The prince was a silent child, by reason of the fact that he had +nothing to say. But one morning as they came down to the beach he +startled the baron by saying: + +"I want to blay." + +"Yes, 'ighness, whad shall we blay ad?" said the Baron von Habelschwert +uncomfortably, after a little hesitation. + +"I don't want to blay wiz you," said the prince in a tone which showed, +beyond any possibility of misconception, that on that matter his mind +was made up. + +"Bud zere's no one else for you do blay wiz," said the baron in English. + +"I want to blay wiz childrens," said the pupil. + +The baron drew his heels together and became, though still pear-like, +splendidly rigid. His eyes flashed with haughty, but a trifle +vicarious pride, as he said: + +"Zere are no children for your 'ighness do blay wiz 'ere. Zese are nod +'igh and well-born ones." + +"I do nod care," said the prince in the tone of one who knew his own +mind quite well. + +"Id is imbossible," said the baron in a tone of finality. + +The rhinocerine eyes of his little charge flashed in sudden wrath; and +he uttered a curious, pig-like snort as he sprang at the baron, and got +in one severe kick on his left shin before that thoughtless Prussian, +who should have known so well what to expect, could abate his rigidity +and bend forward and hold him off at the length of his arms. He well +knew that, in that constrained attitude to his bellowing pupil, he was +presenting no dignified spectacle. None the less he was aware that he +was affording considerable entertainment to the visitors taking the air +on the sea-wall above him; and his joy in his young charge was not +increased by the fact that among those visitors the Honourable John +Ruffin smiled on the scene with amiable interest. + +Having ascertained beyond all doubting that his well-shod toes could +not reach the shins of his preceptor, the young prince ceased his +futile effort, and with a most ungracious air moved along the beach. +The limping baron followed him gloomily, with itching fingers. He felt +that, in spite of the fact that his imperial master would shortly sweep +her land with fire and sword from sea to sea, the lot of the happy +English child Pollyooly was to be envied, since she could, and did, +smack princes, with a mind untroubled by the sense of their +sacrosanctity. Moreover he felt a sad prescience that his young +charge, careless of the magnificent blood that flowed in his veins, +_would_ play with these children, who were neither high nor well-born. +But he was quite unprepared for the actual group of children his young +charge chose for playmates. He passed no less than four animated and +excited groups before he arrived at that adorned and ruled by Pollyooly. + +It chanced that it had decided to play rounders, and was gathered into +an excited knot in which everybody was discussing, all at the same +time, the process of picking sides. + +The prince, shouldering aside, with proud Hohenzollern manliness, two +or three little girls, thrust into the centre of the group and said: + +"I want do blay." + +The debating voices hushed; the other children stared at him with +startled eyes, then drew aside leaving him face to face with Pollyooly. + +"We don't want him to play with _us_!" cried Kathleen, who occupied the +position of chief friend to Pollyooly. + +"No, we don't!" cried the two other little girls. + +The prince paid no heed to them; he looked at Pollyooly and said: + +"I want do blay." + +Pollyooly considered him thoughtfully, weighing the question of his +admission to their circle with the care it demanded. He was not very +pleasant to look at since he was so podgy, snub-nosed, pasty-faced, and +small-eyed; but Pollyooly, mindful of their late encounter, and +inspired by the magnanimity of the victor, did not at once reject the +appeal. + +"Will you promise to behave properly, if we let you play with us?" she +said coldly. + +The Baron von Habelschwert, standing over the group and nervously +twirling his fierce moustache, shuddered and groaned. It was bad +enough that his young, but pig-headed Hohenzollern should play at all +with children who were neither high, nor well-born; but that he should +only be admitted to play with them on terms passed the limit of human +decency. He had read often in the sterner, but agrarian, papers of his +Fatherland, that, owing to the increase of the Socialist vote, the +world was coming to an end. He felt its once so solid mass trembling +beneath his feet. + +But the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz, insensible to the +tremor, said eagerly: + +"Yes." + +"All right: then we'll try letting you play with us and see," said +Pollyooly. + +There came a faint murmur of protest from her friends, or rather from +her followers; and she added with comforting assurance: + +"Oh, it's all right; you needn't worry about him; I'll see that he +behaves, myself." + +With that assurance they were content--they had to be; the prince was +admitted to the circle; and Pollyooly picked him on her side. + +It had the first innings; and the baron expected the prince to be put +in first. He was annoyed to observe that, as a mere matter of tactics, +since she was by far the fastest of her side, that Pollyooly took that +position herself. He was further annoyed when she put in her friend +Kathleen next, an act of sheer favouritism unjustified by Kathleen's +capacity; and after Kathleen she put in a little boy, and then another +little girl. As they played their innings, she stood beside the prince +and instructed him in the game. Once, since he appeared slow to grasp +her meaning, she caught him by the shoulder and shook him to make it +clearer. The Baron von Habelschwert ground his teeth. When at last +the prince did go in, the baron's heart swelled with proud expectation: +his gallant little charge would display to those English children (they +were neither high, nor well-born) the natural superiority of his royal +blood and race. + +The prince, however, did not fulfil this loyal expectation. He hit the +ball, indeed, and in obedience to Pollyooly's shriek of instruction, +started to run. But he started to run the wrong way round. His side +shrieked as one child, as Pollyooly sprang upon him, swung him round, +and shoved him along in the right direction. She succeeded in +arresting his mad course at the first base by one of the shrillest +shrieks of "Stop!" that ever burst from human lung. The next time the +ball was hit she set him going again by a companion shriek; and with +others of a like piercing quality (they seemed to flow from her lungs +in an inexhaustible abundance) she guided him safely round the bases +and home. From the blundering, stumbling way he ran, her shrieks +seemed to be the only things in the world of which he was really +conscious. + +The baron watched the confused performance of his little charge with a +strong feeling that something very serious indeed was the matter with +the order of nature. When Pollyooly's side went out to field, he was +no more satisfied by the prince's performance. Whenever the ball came +to him, in spite of the fact that an encouraging, instructive shriek +from Pollyooly reached him first, he either missed it, or fumbled it; +and he always shied it in short. The baron's feeling that there was +something very wrong with the cosmos grew stronger. He became +depressed and yet more depressed by the fact that the prince was +playing to an audience; for all the respectful and admiring nurses +edged down the beach to behold him play; and those of them whose little +charges were playing in the same game with him, assumed insufferable +airs. + +After a while the children tired of rounders and betook themselves to +building a sand-castle. Since he had been admitted to their circle on +her instance, Pollyooly seemed to feel herself responsible for the +prince. She seemed also to feel it more important that he should learn +to dig properly than that she should dig herself. For, giving him her +spade, she stood over him and urged him to ply it with the exacting +persistence of a biblical Egyptian superintending the making of bricks. +The baron walked moodily up and down outside the castle wall, +considering bitterly the while the defects in the cosmos. + +The morning sped; and the prince perspired. At last the punctual baron +observed that it was time to return home to lunch. In fact his +vigilant stomach apprised him of the fact before his watch. + +He came close to the castle wall and said: + +"It's time for your Highness to coom 'ome." + +His highness took no notice of him. + +In a louder tone the baron said: + +"Coom along, your Highness. Id's dime we go 'ome." + +His highness shot a savage glance at him out of the corner of his eye, +hunched his shoulders, and went on digging. + +"Don't you hear the baron calling you, Prince?" said Pollyooly in a +tone of some displeasure. + +His highness seemed likely to withdraw his head right out of sight +between his shoulders, and went on digging. He was still perspiring. + +"Now you go along at once--like a good boy!" said Pollyooly sharply. + +His highness raised his disappearing head and saw the cold resolve in +her deep-blue eyes. He gave himself a little shake, stuck his spade +into the sand, stretched his neck and went: but not like a good boy. +He stumbled down the castle wall with his teeth set very tight, and +immediately on reaching level ground kicked the shins of his unprepared +preceptor. The baron, as was his wont, bent like a bow and held his +little charge out at the length of his arms beyond the range of his +shins, till his wrath should have abated. + +Pollyooly's face filled with horror; she came springing lightly down +the castle wall; cried: "Don't do that, you naughty little boy!" and +caught the prince a resounding slap on the cheek. + +The pent-up feelings of the prince escaped in a loud yell. He loosed +his preceptor and pressed a hand to his stinging cheek. + +It was too much for the baron. He tore his hat from his head, flung it +to earth, ground it into the earth with his heel, and flung his arms to +heaven in one frenzied movement: + +"Ach Gott!" he cried to the unregarding sky. "Thad a liddle +Eengleesh-she-devil-child should strike a Hohenzollern!" + +Moved by his emotion, Pollyooly looked at him in anxious surprise: + +"It's all right," she said in a soothing voice. "You don't know how to +manage him. He'll go like a lamb." + +Her surmise (it could have been no more than a surmise) proved +accurate. The prince went blubbering, but he went like a lamb. + +It might be supposed that his proud, Hohenzollern blood would have +boiled for hours at the blow. Nothing of the kind. + +After a hearty lunch he rose and said firmly: + +"I'm going to blay wiz Bollyooly." + +He went. The baron followed him gloomily. Now he knew the cosmic all +to be a mere time-honored cheat. + +In this order they came down on to the beach and approached a group of +children in which Pollyooly reigned. The prince entered it with the +air of an uninvited guest, very doubtful of his welcome, and said to +Pollyooly in a tone half assertive, half beseeching: + +"I've coom to blay." + +Pollyooly looked at him with very stern eyes and said: "Well, you quite +understand you've got to behave yourself." + +The baron groaned. + +Pollyooly turned to him and said with polite interest: + +"Has he kicked you again?" + +"Ach Himmel!" said the baron; and he thrust his hands into his pockets, +clenched his fingers very tightly, and walked away with bowed head. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE TRAINING OF ROYALTY + +On that day began the real instruction of Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz in the art of life and the graces of social +intercourse. Pollyooly continued it with unswerving firmness. Her +method of treating a Hohenzollern was indeed entirely subversive of all +current ideas on the matter of the deference due to the members of a +family which has practically made the history of Europe since the +beginning of this century. It seemed at times as if to her a +Hohenzollern was a hardly animate object which you shoved here and there +as you might an easy-chair which kept catching in the carpet, or at other +times a mere beast of burden which you shoved, or shook, or cuffed gently +into doing what you wanted with a moderate, but uncertain, degree of +precision. Often however a piercing shriek was sufficient to produce the +required action. + +The prince was always in a perspiration, and often out of breath. But he +seemed to thrive on the treatment: his appetite improved; his pastiness +lessened; his skin grew clearer; and his flesh became less abundant and +harder. He also became quicker in his movements, and showed many more +glimmerings of intelligence, sometimes sustained for seconds at a time. + +The baron's deferential soul could not endure the situation; and it never +occurred to him to make the enquiries which would have informed him that +Pollyooly, as a red Deeping, was of an older strain than the +Hohenzollerns. He made many efforts to withdraw the prince from her +society. He remonstrated both with her and with his little charge on the +extraordinary impropriety of their being acquainted. But they seemed to +find it entirely natural; and his efforts were vain. The prince, in +truth, followed Pollyooly about; and what he followed her about like was +a dog. He did not indeed spring to do her bidding, for he was not built +to spring; but it was plain that if he could have sprung he would. + +Perhaps the most remarkable fact about him was the improvement in his +spirits: he was losing his air of gloomy savagery; often he smiled--at a +dish which took his fancy, and on setting out for the sands to join +Pollyooly. At times, when he had performed some small feat, clumsily +indeed, but not with a quite incredible clumsiness, he would turn to her +a triumphant, but appealing, eye which begged for a word, or a smile of +approval. The humane Pollyooly rarely failed to give him that word or +smile to brace him to fresh efforts. With other little girls he had come +to be civil but uninterested; and little boys he ignored. + +There are minds to whom it would have occurred that there were other +seaside resorts equally healthy with Pyechurch to one of which the young +prince might be removed to save him from the social degradation of +playing with children who were neither high, nor well-born. The baron's +was not one of these minds: he was a soldier of the emperor; he had been +instructed that his young charge was to spend a month at Pyechurch; at +Pyechurch he must spend it. But he wrote a long and earnest letter to +his august master, the Grand Duke of Lippe-Schweidnitz, informing him, +with full details, of his son's unfortunate social entanglement with a +red-haired English child, and of the impossibility, in the circumstances, +of his putting an end to it. He got no answer, for the grand duke was +splendidly busy maintaining the agrarian interests of his Fatherland. +The baron therefore found himself compelled to accept the situation +gloomily. Presently he was accepting it with resignation. He found that +Pollyooly lightened his work. She relieved him of his little charge for +the greater part of the day. He could now carry a deck-chair on to the +sands, and stretched at full length in it, with a large, but not +extravagantly fragrant, cigar in his mouth, could spend the sunny hours +in the perusal of the works of the English novelists who appealed most +strongly to his idealistic Teutonic sensibilities. + +Sometimes however he was disturbed in this resigned acceptance of the +situation. One afternoon he raised his head from the enthralled perusal +of "Maiden Sweet" to find that the sands were empty of his charge. He +struggled up from his chair, dropped the luscious masterpiece into it, +and hurried in search of him. Pollyooly was a good sixty yards away; and +he was breathless when he reached her. He clamoured wheezily for +information as to the whereabouts of the prince. Pollyooly told him, +indifferently enough, that he had gone to the village. The baron sought +the village at his best, but curious, toddling rush. In the middle of it +he met his young charge plodding along with an air of perfect content. +In his hand he bore a paper bag. + +"Vot 'af your 'ighness been doing?" cried his richly purple preceptor. + +"Bollyooly zent me to buy bebbermints," said his charge stolidly, without +stopping. + +"Mein Gott!" cried the baron. "And now that she-devil-child uses you as +a lackey!" + +"She wanted zem," said his charge stolidly, pursuing his way without +turning his head. + +"Bud bebbermints you do not like!" cried the baron. + +"Bollyooly wanted bebbermints," said the prince stolidly. + +The baron said no more because there was no more to say. + +He followed his charge to the beach and sought his chair; his charge +sought Pollyooly. Gloomily the baron resumed his perusal of "Maiden +Sweet." He had not read half a page when the thoughtful Pollyooly sent +the prince to offer him a peppermint. The baron refused it with the +proper cold scorn. The prince put it into his own mouth. + +"Bud bebbermints you do not like!" said the baron again. + +"Bollyooly says bebbermints is goot," said the prince stolidly; and he +turned on his heel. + +The baron searched the far-smiling sea with wild, questioning eyes. It +offered neither explanation nor comfort. + +It chanced a few days later that the Honourable John Ruffin put +Pollyooly's skilful cooking to the further test of grilling mushrooms +along with his bacon. They came from the marsh. Presently to +Pollyooly's prudent mind it seemed foolish to pay for vegetables which +might be gathered for nothing. She resolved to gather them herself; and +one afternoon with that end in view she came down to the sands, leading +the Lump, and carrying a basket, and suggested to Kathleen and others of +her young friends that they should accompany her on her quest and share +the spoil. But their nurses, fore-seeing extra work from the mud in the +marsh, would not allow them to go. + +The prince, who had been waiting patiently for the arrival of Pollyooly, +while the baron slept in his deck-chair, listened to the discussion with +uncomprehending ears. It did not occur to her to invite the be-tutored +Hohenzollern to accompany her; but when she started, the prince, doubtful +of the reception of a direct offer to escort her would receive, followed +her at a distance of about thirty yards. Pollyooly was giving her +attention to the Lump, and was not aware of her follower until she had +crossed the bridge over the dyke, from the road into the marsh. There +she turned and saw him; and at the first sight of him she was minded to +send him back to his sleeping tutor. Then it occurred to her that the +company of the prince would be better than no company at all; and she +suffered him to come. + +Though neither of them had any conversation, Pollyooly talked away to the +prince and the Lump, and was quite content with the grunts of assent with +which the prince punctuated her observations. But she was presently +annoyed to find that he shone no more as an assistant mushroomer than as +a conversationalist. It was not so much that he was ignorant of the +difference between mushrooms and toadstools, and equally unskilful in +discovering either, as that he often trod on the fairest members of the +group he was picking. Pollyooly therefore gave him the basket to carry +and picked the mushrooms herself. Twice he dropped it and scattered them +over the turf. She chid him but gently and carried it herself. + +But destiny, which dogs the steps of princes, was leading him to a +catastrophe. The basket was large and growing heavy; but the +indefatigable Pollyooly pushed deeper into the marsh. They had crossed +several dykes safely; then they came to a plank over a small dyke, nearly +dried up. Pollyooly took every possible care to get the expedition +across safely. She carried the Lump across and then the basket of +mushrooms. Then she turned to watch the passage of the prince. The +plank was not more than ten feet long; and it was destiny which chose the +exact middle of it for the prince to fall off. He struck the dyke with a +splash which drew a cry of delight from the Lump, and sank up to his +knees in the thick mud. He burst into a terrified bellow; and Pollyooly +hurried down the steep bank to help him out. But destiny had arranged +that he should be just out of her reach; and he was too frightened to +make the effort to struggle to her helping hand. + +For a while Pollyooly, for all her power of resource, was at a loss; and +the bellowing of the prince did nothing to clear her wits. Then she saw +how she could reach him. She dug her feet into the bank, hugged the +plank over the dyke with her left arm, and leaning forward, succeeded in +getting a grip of his left wrist, and began to tug. Her grip seemed to +inspirit him, for he began to struggle hard toward the bank. It was not +an easy business in the thick mud, but thanks to the purchase afforded by +the plank, Pollyooly could put most of her strength into the effort and +slowly dragged him on to the firmer mud at the edge and then on to the +bank. + +Still blubbering a little, he followed Pollyooly up the bank; on the top +of it she turned and surveyed him with horrified eyes. He was wrapped +nearly up to his waist in a smooth, dripping garment of greenish mud; and +patches of it adorned the rest of him. It would have been difficult to +imagine anything more unlike a Hohenzollern in a white sailor suit; and +his face was hardly attractive enough to justify you in comparing him to +the dripping, weed-be-draped Lorelei of his native land. + +"Well! You _are_ an aggravating little boy! Whatever am I to do with +you?" cried Pollyooly in a tone of despair. + +The prince uttered an apologetic grunt. + +"The only thing to do is to get you home as quick as I can," she said +heavily. + +She carried the Lump back across the dyke, then the basket of mushrooms. +Then she led the prince across it. They took their slow way back to the +village, the prince leaving behind him a trail which would have gladdened +the heart of the last, or any other, of the Cherokees. + +The Baron von Habelschwert, sleeping peacefully beside a sweet work of +genius, called "Dove Wifie," which had fallen from his hand, missed the +departure of his young charge in the wake of Pollyooly. He slept for an +hour; and when he did awake, her friends had moved a long way down the +beach. He struggled to his feet, and set out in search of the prince, +assured that he was somewhere on the sands playing with his active, but +socially impossible, protector. At first he sought him with careless +eyes, then with keener; but it was some twenty minutes before he +satisfied himself that neither his charge nor Pollyooly were on the +sands. Then he set out, in some annoyance to search the village; and +when he had drawn blank all the village shops at which sweets were sold, +he began to grow anxious and alarmed. For all his military contempt for +the English as a people soon to be subjugated, he had a deep distrust of +them. It awoke suddenly in its most violent form; and he began to +suspect that the perfidious politicians of England had stolen his +Hohenzollern. + +The suspicion presently became a conviction; and he acted on it with +splendid, but unwonted, energy. In little more than ten minutes the +village was ringing with the news that the prince was lost; and the baron +was toddling furiously along at the head of a band composed of the +village children, the village idiot, some idle fishermen, and a number of +unoccupied visitors who had leapt at the chance of action. There was no +lack of theories. Every other member of the group had one of his own. +The baron himself made no secret of his belief that the prince was the +victim of a political plot, till the Honourable John Ruffin, out of mere +idle curiosity, stopped the procession to enquire its object and on +learning it proclaimed his firm conviction that the prince was neither +lost, stolen, nor strayed. + +By this time the news had spread to the sands; and a nurse came hurrying +up with the information that the prince had gone into the marsh, +mushrooming with Pollyooly. + +"Ach Gott! Then that little she-devil-child haf 'im drowned in a dyke!" +said the baron cheerfully. + +The suggestion increased greatly the interest of his followers; and they +accompanied him into the marsh eagerly. On that expanse figures are seen +at a great distance; but the searchers had gone a long way into it before +they caught sight of the children. At some distance the figures of +Pollyooly and the Lump, and even the basket of mushrooms were plainly +recognised. But what was that strange object which moved beside them? +The baron and his band quickened their steps, Pollyooly still walked at +the leisurely gait which suited the Lump. + +It was not till he was within ten yards of them that the procession and +the baron recognised his young charge. The procession began to laugh +heartily. + +The baron flung his arms to heaven and cried, or, to be exact, howled: + +"Vhat is it you haf done ad 'im?" + +"I didn't do anything!" cried Pollyooly with indignant heat. "He did it +_himself_! He _would_ fall into the dyke! He's the most aggravating +little boy I ever knew!" + +"You trow 'im into ze dyke! You id on purpose did!" cried the furious +baron. + +"Bollyooly didn't," said his little charge stolidly. + +"Do try and have a little sense, Baron von Habelschwert," said the +Honourable John Ruffin, smiling upon the hope of the house of +Lippe-Schweidnitz. "Pollyooly wouldn't throw any one into dykes." + +"Bud look at 'im!" cried the baron. "'e will the enteric fever haf!" + +"Oh, no. He didn't get any water into his mouth," said Pollyooly +quickly. "I made him open it and looked, because Mr. Ruffin told me the +marsh water gave people fever. It's only mud on his clothes." + +"Moodd! Onlie moodd!" howled the baron. "His cloze, zey are spoiled! +Ze cloze of the bezd dailor of Schweidnitz!" + +That was a misfortune which appealed deeply to Pollyooly. She looked at +the spoiled suit of the prince very sadly, and said generously: + +"Well, I'll give him half of the mushrooms--though really he didn't +gather them; and I had to carry the basket." + +"Mooshrooms!" howled the baron. "Vhat is mooshrooms wiz cloze? Zeze +English, zey are all mad!" + +In his emotion the baron had not kept his usual wary watch on his young +charge, and so failed to observe the light of battle gather and gleam in +his eyes. But as he finished the prince sprang at him, cried angrily: +"Bollyooly isn't!" and kicked him on the shin. + +The kick was stiff and lacked its usual snap; but it was sufficiently +vigorous to dislodge a good deal of the mud from the once white +trouser-leg and bespatter the legs of the baron, who uttered a short howl +and bent like a bow, holding off his little charge, and gazing wildly +round the marsh. This time Pollyooly did not come to his aid; she gazed +at him with a cold eye. + +"It serves you right--talking like that about people when they try to +make up," she said coldly. + +The prince, encouraged by this quite unexpected approval, made another +fine effort to plant a second kick of remonstrance on the shin of his +preceptor. His foot missed it; but plenty of mud hit it. + +"That's enough, Adalbert. Stop it!" said the magnanimous Pollyooly +sharply. + +Adalbert stopped it. + +The baron ground his teeth at this new familiarity; but was glad to be +loosed by his admonished charge; and the procession took its triumphant +way back to the village. + +The prince's valet was a long while cleaning him; but directly after his +tea he was out on the sands again, seeking Pollyooly. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ATTITUDE OF THE GRAND DUKE + +The baron's bitterness was deepened by this accident to his charge; and +he continued stubbornly to lay the blame of it on Pollyooly: if she had +not actually flung him into the dyke, she had led him into the marsh, +where the dyke was. Then two mornings later there came a telegram to +inform him that the Grand Duke of Lippe-Schweidnitz, on his way to +answer the letter of appeal in person, was already in London, and would +reach Pyechurch early in the afternoon. The baron was a glad man. All +the morning, reclined in his deck-chair, with eyes full of a gloating +triumph, he watched Pollyooly direct the play of the prince; and as he +watched he hummed an aria, the same aria, of Mozart. He foresaw a +speedy end to this distressing social entanglement and her evil +domination. + +At lunch he informed his royal charge of the coming of his august sire, +and told him that he must stay at home to welcome him. + +"I go do blay wiz Bollyooly," said his young charge stolidly. + +"You vill nod go," said the baron firmly. + +His young charge said no more; he only looked at his beaming preceptor +with eyes cold with the steeliest contempt. The baron failed to grasp +the purport of the look. + +After lunch he had the prince carefully cleaned, and then set him in an +easy chair under his eye, to await the coming of his august sire, who +would arrive about a quarter to three. Then he walked up and down the +room working out the most effective presentation of his indictment of +Pollyooly and the social entanglement. At intervals he gesticulated +and muttered a phrase. He was making excellent progress with it and at +five and twenty minutes to three he was at the end of it. The prince +sat stolidly in the easy chair by the long windows. At twenty-four +minutes to three the baron flung out the last damning phrase (with the +appropriate splendid gesture) at his image in the looking-glass over +the mantelpiece. Then he turned to beam triumphantly on his little +charge. The easy chair was empty; the prince had gone. + +With language far less sonorous, but more staccato, the baron bounced +to the window, just in time to see his little charge disappear swiftly +over the edge of the sea-wall fifty yards away. Unfortunately the +baron wore his hair too short to be able to tear handfuls of it from +his head, or he would have bereft himself of a handful or two. But +everything that language could do to ease him, language did. He must +be at home to receive his august master: etiquette demanded it +imperatively. He had no time to recover his young charge, whose +presence etiquette demanded no less imperatively. Dashed from his +height of splendid triumph, and exhausted by the fluency with which he +had dealt with the appalling situation, he sank heavily into the easy +chair, an embittered man. + +He was quickly roused from his gloom by the stopping of a barouche +before the house. In it sat his august master, a splendid round figure +of a man, clad in the lightest-coloured tweeds Schweidnitz could boast, +and surmounted by the whitest of white bowlers. His large, broad, +square face ended in three well-moulded chins. In the middle of the +fine expanse of face (his was not a high forehead) was a bristling +imperial moustache, far fiercer than the baron's; above it rose a big, +thick nose. His eyes were a bright blue; and they twinkled in an +engaging fashion somewhat disappointing in a royal personage. Beside +him sat a slim, contrasting equerry. + +The baron rushed forth, and after the manner of his caste, was abject +in his apologies for the absence of Prince Adalbert. . . . He had +taken every precaution. . . . All had been in vain. . . . The +infatuated unfortunate would steal away to the little she-devil-child. + +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke, who made a point of speaking English in +England; and he descended with earth-shaking majesty from the creaking +barouche. + +"Ve vill go to zem," he said after testing the soil of Pyechurch with a +cautious foot to make sure that it was equal to his weight. + +On the way to the sea-wall the baron poured forth his damning +indictment, disjointedly and without the fierceness of phrase and +splendour of gesture he had practised; and three times the grand duke +said, somewhat phlegmatically, the baron thought: + +"Ach zo?" + +They came out on to the wall just above the band of Pollyooly's +subjects, hot and excited in a game of rounders. + +The quick eye of the grand duke at once espied Prince Adalbert running +to field a ball. + +"Ach, he is zlimmer!" he said in a tone of satisfaction. + +"Zlimmer? He is zlimmer, your Highness. Id iz zat leedle +she-devil-child. She nevare--nod nevare--leds 'im be steel. All ze +day she makes 'im roosh and roosh. He haf nevare no breath in hees +loongs--nod nevare!" + +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke calmly. "He is rooning mooch faster zan +he vas could." + +"Id's zat leedle she-devil-child! She make 'im roon and roon all ze +day!" cried the baron. + +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke. "Alzo he is peenk--guite peenk." + +The satisfaction in his tone had increased. He could hardly be called +a fond parent, in the matter of Adalbert; he might more truly be said +to bear with him. Indeed he had never been able to explain the boy to +his satisfaction. There was perhaps a slight physical resemblance +between Adalbert and his parents; but whereas he knew himself to be one +of the astutest princes in the German Empire and his wife to be an +uncommonly clear-witted woman, no father's partiality hid from him the +fact that Adalbert was obtuse. He was inclined to accept sadly the +theory of Professor Muller, professor of anatomy and physiology at the +University of Lippe-Schweidnitz, and court physician, that Adalbert +cast back to his great-grandfather Franz, who had been known to his +irreverent subjects as "The Dolt." + +He gazed at the perspiring and excited band for a minute in silence. +Then he said: + +"Wheech is ze leedle she-devil-child?" + +"Zat von--zat von in ze meedle--wiz ze red 'air," said the baron. + +He pointed to Pollyooly in the middle of the ring where she was acting +as pitcher, her face flushed, her eyes shining, her red hair a flying +cloud. + +An immense slow smile spread over the expanse of royal face; and the +grand duke cried: "Mein Gott! Bud id is nod a child at all--zat! Id +is an anchel--a leedle anchel--Italian renascence! Is id nod, +Erkelenz?" And he turned to his slim equerry. + +"Yes, Highness: authentic," said the equerry. + +The Baron von Habelschwert gasped; he could not believe his ears. + +The little girl, batting, whacked the ball over the prince's head. + +"Run, Adalbert! Run!" shrieked Pollyooly. + +"Roon, Adalbert! Der Teufel! Roon!" bellowed the grand duke. + +It is hard to say whether the shriek of Pollyooly or the terrific +bellow of his august sire was the sharper spur to the prince's legs; +but he saved the rounder. + +"Sblendid! 'e did not roon like an ox," said the grand duke almost +proudly. "Vhat did you write vas ze name of zat leedle anchel?" + +"Bollyooly, your Highness," gasped the baron in a feverish doubt +whether he was standing on his head or his heels, for the grand duke +had heard her call the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz +"Adalbert" with his own ears! + +"Bollyooly? A beautiful name!" cried the grand duke with enthusiasm. + +Then came the great event of Prince Adalbert's life. The little boy +who was batting hit the ball right into his hands. He grabbed at it; +and by a miracle it stuck in his fingers. + +His side leapt and shrieked as one child; and the grand duke leapt and +bellowed. The shock of his descent on the sea-wall made it quiver for +many feet round him. + +He turned upon his slim equerry, seized his arm, and shook him as the +wind shakes a blade of corn. + +"Did you see zat? Id is ze creeket! 'e caught 'im out," he bellowed +in stentorian tones which rang out far across the marsh. "Bollyooly +has made 'im zlim! She has made 'im roon! She has made 'im peenk! +She has taught 'im ze creeket! She shall rewarded be! I will gonfer +on 'er ze Order of Chastity of Lippe-Schweidnitz of ze zecond class!" + +He loosed his slim equerry, and hammered his enormous right palm with +his huge left fist. + +The slim equerry shook his head (this time without any assistance from +his august master) and said: + +"She is too young, your Highness. Ze order can only be gonferred on +ladies of twenty-von or elder." + +"Zen I will gonfer it on 'er when she is twenty-von! Bud I will reward +'er alzo now! Vetch 'er!" cried the grand duke. + +The slim equerry went down the sea-wall across the sands to Pollyooly. +The game stopped while he conferred with her. Pollyooly looked from +him to the fine, round figure on the sea-wall; then she patted her +hair, smoothed her frock, called to her young companions that she would +be back in a minute or two, and went with the slim equerry. She was +not timid, or even shy. Her estimate of the royal family of +Lippe-Schweidnitz had been formed from her knowledge of Prince +Adalbert; and it was not a high one. That royal family left her +unimpressed and certainly unrevering. She was hardly curious about the +grand duke. + +On the way to him the slim equerry asked her her name, and told her to +be sure to address the grand duke as "your Highness." + +On the sea-wall he took her hand, grew rigid, saluted, and said: + +"I present the Fräulein Bollyooly von Bride to your Highness." + +Like the well-mannered child she was, Pollyooly dropped a curtsey. + +The grand duke seized her hand, and shook it warmly, and cried: + +"Mein Gott! if you were zeven--five years elder, I would keess you! +Bud id is far to sdoop. You haf done great good to my zon, ze Prince +Adalbert. You haf made him peenk--guite peenk; and you haf taught him +ze creeket. Id iz sblendid; and you moost rewarded be. Gif me my +burse, Erkelenz." + +The slim equerry took a purse from his pocket and handed it to the +grand duke. The grand duke opened it, turned it upside down, poured on +to his palm eleven golden sovereigns, and pressed them with somewhat +clumsy fingers into Pollyooly's hands. + +The amazed Pollyooly flushed; and her eyes shone like bright stars; the +family of Lippe-Schweidnitz rose a thousand feet in her estimation. + +"Oh! Thank you, your Highness!" she gasped. + +"Zere is no zanks--nod none! You haf made Adalbert peenk. You are von +sblendid anchel child. And id iz me to zank you," said the grand duke; +and very gently, for the size of his fingers, he patted her head. Then +he drew himself up and, with a splendid wave of his gigantic hand, +added: + +"Und now go and blay wiz Adalbert--blay wiz him always!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +POLLYOOLY ENTERTAINS ROYALTY + +Pollyooly came away from the presence of the grand duke in something of +a daze. She came down the steps in the sea-wall quite unconscious of +the fact that she was not moving over level ground. The eleven golden +sovereigns in her hand felt too good to be true; and at the bottom of +the steps she stopped and counted them with eyes which could hardly +believe what they saw: eleven golden sovereigns. + +She gave them into the care of Mrs. Gibson while, in obedience to the +behest of the grand duke, she continued to play rounders. + +The game had fallen into a state of suspended animation during her +absence from it. Her return enlivened it. Presently she was again +absorbed in it, playing it with the concentration with which she did +most things, the concentration which is so large a part of genius, +which made her one of the finest grillers of bacon in England. She +forgot the grand duke; she forgot the eleven golden sovereigns; she +thought only of the game; and she drove her team and the perspiring +prince with merciless vigor. + +The grand duke watched it closely, now and then applauding in an +excited, ringing voice. Prince Adalbert had performed his one great +exploit and was now declined upon a lower level. He played his best, +obeying with his natural clumsiness the shrieked commands of Pollyooly; +but he did not again arise to a really meritorious feat. Nevertheless, +the grand duke was content with him. + +He did not indeed watch him very closely; he had chiefly eyes for +Pollyooly. + +Once he said with enthusiasm: + +"She is ze gompanion Adalbert 'af need of." + +And again he said with enthusiasm: + +"'ow it would be goot if she goom to Schweidnitz and blay wiz 'im all +ze days, Erkelenz!" + +The slim equerry shook his head and said in a tone of conviction: + +"She would nod coom, Highness." + +Being of a younger generation, he spoke better English than his royal +master. + +The grand duke shook his head sadly, and said; + +"No: she would nod goom. Would she nod goom for mooch money, you zink?" + +"I do nod zink she could be persuaded to coom," said his equerry. + +"No: she would nod goom," said the grand duke. The baron had an +inspiration; he said in a stern voice: + +"Ze day, 'ighness; ze day will goom soon. Zen you will gommand only; +and Bollyooly will obey." + +"Ach, yes: ze day," said the grand duke, watching the playing children. +"It will goom soon doubtlez. Bud Bollyooly, will she obey? Zeze +English blay zere creeket very 'ard." + +"She would be made obey," said the baron firmly. + +The grand duke changed the subject by raising his voice in a splendid, +heartening roar at Pollyooly, who was running swiftly around the bases; +and for nearly an hour he did his best to burst the welkin. Then he +summoned the perspiring prince, shouted and waved good-bye to +Pollyooly, and walked to his son's lodgings to take a little +unnecessary nourishment before driving to the station. + +Pollyooly went on playing till a quarter of five, when the game broke +up to let the players go to their tea. She collected the Lump from the +Gibson nurse and the eleven sovereigns from Mrs. Gibson, and started +down the beach tea-wards. As she went down the beach several earnest +enquirers stopped her to ask what the grand duke had said to her and +what she had said to the grand duke. They wore the air of being very +deeply impressed by the occurrence. + +Pollyooly gratified their curiosity. Four of them said that they would +have been so confused by being suddenly hurried into the presence of +royalty that, not knowing whether they were standing on their heads or +their heels, they would not have found a word to say. + +Pollyooly said quite truly that she had not suffered from any such +confusion. She did not add, as with no less truthfulness she might +have done, that what had induced a slight access of confusion in her +had been the sudden and unexpected possession of eleven golden +sovereigns. But she had a feeling, somewhat obscure, that such a +happening should not confuse a red Deeping; therefore she did not say +anything about it. + +She and the Lump were still at tea when the Honourable John Ruffin +returned from his golf and joined them. She told him of the coming of +the grand duke, of his thanks for the improvement in Prince Adalbert's +health, and of the eleven splendid golden sovereigns. + +"And very nice too. I congratulate you," said the Honourable John +Ruffin cheerfully. + +"Thank you," said Pollyooly. + +"I always have heard that the grand duke is a very decent sort, as well +as being astute; and this proves it," he said. + +"But it does seem such a lot for the little I've done. I could have +done a lot more, if I'd known," said Pollyooly in a tone of discomfort. + +"Not a bit of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a confident tone. +"As what you've done goes, eleven golden sovereigns isn't a penny too +much for it. I haven't observed the treatment; but I have no doubt +that you're making another boy of Prince Adalbert." + +"Well, he does look better and he does get about quicker than he did," +said Pollyooly slowly, weighing her words. + +"Well, that's a good deal," said the Honourable John Ruffin in an +encouraging tone. + +"And he is a little brighter too, though he does only grunt; and of +course he behaves better; he doesn't knock the other children about +like he used to." + +"Well, there you are," said the Honourable John Ruffin, in the tone of +one completely satisfied. + +"Oh, but he is slow!" Pollyooly protested. "It would take weeks and +weeks to really do anything with him--weeks and weeks." + +"But what can you expect?" said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. +"The red Deepings were notable people, ruling a county, and hacking and +hewing the best people in four counties round, when the ancestors of +the prince were swineherds in a Prussian forest. And those ancestors +stayed in that forest for five hundred years after that. Prince +Adalbert doesn't throw back more than a hundred and fifty years. If a +red Deeping produced an Adalbert, he would throw back six hundred and +fifty years; and it isn't done." + +"Yes," said Pollyooly politely, though she did not follow at all his +abstruse dissertation. + +"So you see you needn't feel overpaid at all," he said. + +"No," said Pollyooly in the tone of one perfectly satisfied. + +"Besides, if you do, you can always put in a little more training." + +"Oh, yes: that was what I was meaning to do," she said. + +Now that Pollyooly had been approved, or rather enthusiastically +welcomed, as the ideal companion of Prince Adalbert, the baron was all +affability and winning smiles. He had indeed reason to be, for she +made life much easier for him. Without a care he abandoned Prince +Adalbert to her whenever she would have him, and sat reading or +sleeping in his deck-chair on the sunny sands with a mind wholly at +peace. With that approved guardian the prince must be safe. + +Thus it came about that he became Pollyooly's perpetual companion, or, +to be exact, her perpetual hanger-on. He could not be said to afford +companionship to her, for, like the Lump, he preferred the grunt to +articulate speech. He played in all the games in which she played--at +least, if they were not too difficult for his understanding. If they +were, he watched her play them with the dogged attention of an +enthusiast. + +As she came to know him better and better, it is to be feared that +Pollyooly remembered his exalted station less and less. She quite +forgot the prince in the boy. She sometimes deplored the fact to Mrs. +Gibson that though Adalbert could now be trusted not to get into +mischief by any act of will, he was so stupid that he needed a +perpetual eye on him. + +The Honourable John Ruffin sometimes enquired about his progress in +morals, manners, and intelligence; Pollyooly's report on it was always +dispirited. But he was surprised, on returning home from Littlestone +to tea one evening, to find Pollyooly entertaining royalty in the +parlour of the flustered Mrs. Wilson. + +The prince had come back from a walk through the marsh with her, tired; +and she had thought it better that he should have tea before walking +the length of the village to his own lodging. + +The Honourable John Ruffin did not let his surprise be seen; he greeted +his royal guest civilly and sat down. Pollyooly questioned him closely +and with genuine interest about his successes and reverses on the +links. Then the Honourable John Ruffin observed that his royal guest +was flushed; then he discovered that Pollyooly was entertaining him in +a fashion at once negligent and drastic: she made no effort to include +him in their talk, but she was watching him with the eye of a lynx and +giving him a lesson in table manners with the coldest serenity. + +"What is the matter with our royal guest exactly?" said the Honourable +John Ruffin presently. + +"He is so hard to teach," said Pollyooly plaintively. "You'd be +surprised. I keep telling him not to eat like a pig; and for about +four mouthfuls he doesn't. Then he forgets all about it; and I have to +begin all over again." + +The guilty flush deepened in the cheeks of the prince. + +"You must give it time to sink in. He's not used to learning things; +he has been so neglected," said the Honourable John Ruffin with a +hospitable desire to make things easier for her royal guest. + +Pollyooly shook her head doubtfully, and frowned sadly upon the prince. + +"It would take weeks and weeks; and I don't really ever see him at +meals," she said. + +"Never mind: do what you can when you get the chance," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a heartening tone. + +"That's what I must do," said Pollyooly; but there was no great +hopefulness in her voice. + +Sadly she handed a plate of cake to Prince Adalbert. There was a +sudden gleam in his small, but Hohenzollern, eye, and in one swift +gesture he took, or rather, to be exact, grabbed a slice, and thrust a +corner of it into his mouth. + +As Pollyooly had said, for the first four bites all was well; but the +next three were accompanied by a slushy noise such as arises in a +pigstye at mealtime. + +"There! There it is again!" she cried in tones of the bitterest +protest. "Isn't it dreadful?" + +The prince flushed a darker red and hushed the slushy accompaniment. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked sympathetically sad. + +"I couldn't have believed that anybody could be so hard to teach a +little thing like that to," said Pollyooly mournfully. + +The prince grunted. + +"Yes. I know you try to do your best--you needn't tell me that," said +Pollyooly, who appeared to understand his syncopated Prussian. "But +what is the good of a best like that?" + +The prince finished the slice of cake with only two more slushy sounds. +Pollyooly sighed once or twice; and tea came to an end. + +They rose; and Pollyooly said with resolution: + +"I see what I shall have to do. I shall have to look after his outdoor +manners only." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE DUKE HAS AN IDEA + +Pollyooly did not again entertain royalty. She kept firmly to her +resolve to superintend only the outdoor manners and behaviour of Prince +Adalbert. She would not have her feelings again harrowed by his +painfully exact rendering of the noises made by a sturdy, happy porker +over its trough. But out of doors he continued, for the rest of her +stay, to be her perpetual, noiseless, devoted, and generally perspiring +squire. + +That stay came to an end along with the Honourable John Ruffin's +windfall. It had been a very pleasant stay; Pollyooly had enjoyed it +more than any time of her life, more even than the days she had spent +at Ricksborough Court when Lord Ronald Ricksborough had come there from +Eton to spend his holidays. She was a little doubtful (for all that +they were engaged to be married when she should have grown up and +fitted herself to become the wife of an English peer by dancing for a +while in musical comedy) whether the days at Pyechurch would be more +pleasant if he were there, for he would naturally take the place of +leader, and she was very happy in that position herself. + +She wrote only one letter, a brief letter, to him from Pyechurch, for +she was really too busy to write more often (at the Temple she wrote at +least once every ten days) and he wrote back to say that he wished he +were with her instead of mugging away at his beastly work in his stuffy +study. His letter brought home to Pollyooly the great advantage she +had over richer children in having years ago passed the seven standards +at the Muttle Deeping school, and so done with tedious school-books for +good and all. + +It was a sad day for her and the Lump when their stay at Pyechurch came +to an end; but it was an even sadder day for Prince Adalbert. He was +losing the one friend he had ever made, the only person in the world +for whom he felt a warm admiration and a genuine respect--as warm an +admiration indeed as his somewhat limited spirit was capable of +feeling. It was not able to attain to the great heights of emotion; +but to such a height of grief as it could rise to, it rose. As for his +display of that grief, had he been a pretty boy the onlookers could not +have failed to find it pathetic; as it was, for all that they were most +of them keenly sensible of his royal condition, they were hard put to +it not to find it grotesque. + +Tears were not in keeping with his Hohenzollern face; and when he at +last realised that Pollyooly was really going and for good, he bellowed +like a very small, but broken-hearted bull. + +A number of Pollyooly's friends and subjects had come to bid her +good-bye; Prince Adalbert was no little hindrance to their farewells, +for he had a tight grip on Pollyooly's skirt; and not only did his +bellowing drown the sound of their voices but also he kept her chiefly +busy trying to soothe him. + +When at last she detached him from her skirt and bade him good-bye, and +climbed into the wagonette, he tried to climb into it to go with her; +and the Baron von Habelschwert had to lift him down and hold him firmly. + +The wagonette drove off amid a loud chorus of farewells; and little +given to the softer emotions as Pollyooly was, there were tears in her +eyes as she looked back on the friends she was leaving. Her last sight +of the prince was somewhat depressing: in a final access of despair he +was kicking the baron's shins. + +Pollyooly said, with far more indulgence than she had generally shown +him: + +"I don't suppose he'll break out like that very often." + +"Still, after all your training, it is sad to see him massacring his +faithful mentor," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Yes: it isn't nice of him," said Pollyooly without any great annoyance +in her tone. "But really it's the baron's fault; he'd only have to +smack him about twice." + +"I expect he has conscientious scruples against smacking princes of the +blood royal. Many people undoubtedly have," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Perhaps he has. But I think he'll miss me," said Pollyooly in a tone +of sufficient satisfaction. + +The baron would indeed miss her; and he was one of the saddest men in +Pyechurch that day. With the departure of Pollyooly his hours of ease +came to an end. No longer could he in his sunnily disposed deck-chair +read the sweet books he loved in a perfect serenity. Once more he must +follow his royal charge up and down the sands and keep an ever watchful +eye on him. + +The change from Pyechurch to the Temple was trying; but the unrepining +Pollyooly soon grew used to it, though she missed for a while the wide +spaces of the sea and marsh, and the inspiriting breezes from the sea. + +The Honourable John Ruffin made some changes: she was to continue to +call him John, or Cousin John; she was to do her work in gloves; and +she was always to wear a large apron. The use of a large apron, though +it might prevent her from working with her wonted speed, was to enable +her to wear under it always a nice linen frock. Then, when any one +knocked at the door of the chambers, she could slip off the apron, and +let them in no longer in the guise of the Honourable John Ruffin's +housekeeper, but as a member of his family. + +He did not for a moment dream of relieving her altogether of her +housework. In the first place he could not afford to do so; in the +second place he thought it very good for her to be busy most of the +day, and to feel that she was independent, earning her own living. He +did not even bid her give up her post of housekeeper to Mr. +Gedge-Tomkins. He was quite sure that a girl might have too little +work to do, but he was very doubtful whether she could have too much. + +Then he was talking one afternoon to Pollyooly, who had just made his +tea and brought it to him; and she said: + +"Who is Mr. Francis?" + +"Mr. Francis who?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly, knitting her brow. "It was Mrs. Brown +who talked about him. I took the Lump to see her the day after we came +back from Pyechurch; and she said I was growing quite the lady." + +"She would put it like that," said the Honourable John Ruffin sadly. + +"And then she said that after all it wasn't to be wondered at, seeing +who Mr. Francis was. But when I asked her what she meant, she wouldn't +say any more." + +The Honourable John Ruffin sat straighter up in his chair with a +somewhat startled air. But he said in an indifferent enough tone: + +"Ah, she grew mysterious, did she?" + +"Ever so mysterious," said Pollyooly. + +"It's a habit of her class, I believe," said the Honourable John Ruffin +carelessly. "Probably she meant nothing at all." + +Pollyooly went back to the Lump content; but the Honourable John Ruffin +kept his brow puckered by a thoughtful frown for some time after she +had gone. Then he shrugged his shoulders, and his face resumed its +wonted serenity. + +Three afternoons later there was a knocking at the door of the +chambers; and Pollyooly opened it to find the Duke of Osterley standing +on the threshold. She was surprised, because she had no reason to +believe that the coldness which the Honourable John Ruffin had told her +subsisted between himself and the duke had been dissipated; but, like +the well-mannered child she was, she did not let her surprise be seen, +but bowed politely as she had seen ladies at Pyechurch bow, for since +she had been promoted to the position of the Honourable John Ruffin's +cousin she had abandoned the curtsey as out of keeping with that more +exalted station. + +The duke gazed gloomily at her, for it was very present to his mind +that their earlier meetings had, for him, been barren of joy; then he +said gloomily: + +"Ah, you _are_ here. Is Mr. Ruffin back from the Law Courts yet?" + +"No, your Grace; but he won't be long. He'll be back to tea in a +minute or two: the clock's just struck four," she said; and she drew +aside for him to enter. + +The duke stared at her angel face with gloomy thoughtfulness for nearly +a minute. She found it somewhat discomfitting. Then he said gloomily: + +"Very well: I'll come in and wait." + +He walked with a determined air down the passage into the sitting-room. + +Pollyooly ran up to the attic to assure herself that the Lump was not +in mischief--it was the last thing in the world that placid, but +red-headed cherub was likely to get into; none the less she was always +making sure of it. Then she came down to the kitchen, and set about +cutting thin bread and butter for two persons. + +As she cut it she wondered uneasily what had brought the duke to the +King's Bench Walk. If there was one person in the world with regard to +whom she did not enjoy a clear conscience, it was the duke. + +Had he come for the reason: + +(1) That she had helped the duchess in the original evasion of his +daughter? + +(2) That she had spent a fortnight at Ricksborough Court as his +daughter? + +(3) Or had he discovered that she had helped the duchess in the second +evasion of Lady Marion? + +(4) Had Mr. Wilkinson revealed how she had tricked him and the +detective? + +Truly there were reasons why she should be afflicted by an uneasy +conscience with regard to the duke. It was no wonder that his gloomy +stare had made her uncomfortable. She tried to reassure herself by the +consideration that if he had discovered anything, he would surely have +been far grumpier with her; he would never have confined himself to a +gloomy stare. + +She had just finished cutting the bread and butter when the latchkey of +the Honourable John Ruffin grated in the keyhole. + +She stepped to the kitchen door; and as he entered she said: + +"Please, sir, the duke's here." + +The Honourable John Ruffin showed no surprise; he only said: + +"Ah, he must be wanting me to do something for him. I told you that he +would warm to me when he did." + +"Yes, sir. But, please sir, he doesn't look very warm yet," said +Pollyooly doubtfully. + +"He never does. It runs in the family--the Osterley chill. Bring us +some tea," said the Honourable John Ruffin lightly; and he went down +the passage. + +He came into the sitting-room briskly, and found the duke sitting in an +easy chair, with his silk hat thrust well back on his head, in a +fashion which gave him a far from ducal, an even raffish air. + +"How are you, Ruffin?" he said, with an amiable smile, but in a +somewhat nervous and deprecatory tone. + +"How are you, Osterley? Got over the sulks?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin lightly. + +"Sulks? I never sulk!" said the duke with some heat. + +"What do you call them then?" said the Honourable John Ruffin with a +good display of the liveliest most unaffected interest. + +"I don't know what you're talking about!" said the duke coldly; but he +flushed. + +It is likely that the Honourable John Ruffin would have raised him to a +considerable temperature on this matter; but the entrance of Pollyooly, +bearing the tea-tray, closed the discussion of it. The Honourable John +Ruffin poured out the tea and handed the bread and butter to the duke. + +They ate some bread and butter and drank some tea; and then the duke +said plaintively: + +"This is jolly good tea. Why don't I ever get tea like this?" + +"You ought to. You pay enough for it," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a tone which lacked sympathy. + +"I do. I believe I employ every incompetent jackass in London," said +the duke bitterly. + +"And I expect you don't make any secret of your conviction at home," +said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"I don't," said the duke firmly; then yet more plaintively he added: +"Oh, it's a dog's life for a man trying to run places like Ricksborough +House and the court on his own!" + +"I expect it does try you a bit too high," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"It would any man," said the duke with conviction. + +The Honourable John Ruffin thought that a man of tact and amiability +could probably do it quite easily; but he did not say so. He thought +that such a statement might be inhospitable. They went on with their +tea in silence, the duke frowning over his luckless lot. + +Then the Honourable John Ruffin said in a distinctly patient and +long-suffering tone: + +"Well, what is it you want me to do for you this time?" + +"I don't want you to do anything for me!" said the duke sharply. + +"Then what have you come for?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in the +same distinctly patient and long-suffering tone. + +The duke hesitated; then he said: + +"Well, I want you to help me. I've got an idea." + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked skeptical, indeed, and he said a +little wearily: + +"_You_ have? What is it?" + +The duke cleared his throat, assumed a portentous air, and said: + +"I tell you I'm getting devilish sick of this business--living by +myself, without any family, and that sort of thing. And I've come to +the conclusion that it's time Caroline and I were reconciled--" + +"High time," said the Honourable John Ruffin readily. + +"I'm fond of Caroline--in a way--" + +"Your own way--an obscure, secret way," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a cheerful tone. + +The duke scowled at him, but went on: "You don't know how contrary +Caroline is--" + +"How should I? I'm not married to her," said the Honourable John +Ruffin patiently. + +"Well, she is. And I've been thinking that if she found she was +getting her way without interference, she wouldn't want it any longer." + +The keen grey eyes of the Honourable John Ruffin sparkled: + +"By Jove! This is subtlety! Marriage makes Machiavellis of us all. +Continue, Solomon," he said, with more respect in his tone. + +"But I couldn't think of any way of letting her know she was getting +it. It's no use writin' to those scoundrels of lawyers of hers and +telling them. She'd only think it was a trap; or she'd think I'd caved +in, and be so cockahoop we should never get any forrader. Then I got +the idea. It looks a bit roundabout, but I believe it'll work, I do +really. But it'll take a lot of working, and I'm wondering whether +that little housekeeper of yours--what's her name--Mary Bride--will be +up to it." + +"What on earth has Pollyooly got to do with it?" cried the Honourable +John Ruffin. + +"A lot," said the duke firmly. "You know how like Marion she is. Why, +even Mrs. Hutton, who'd been with Marion for years, couldn't tell them +apart. Well, I want Mary Bride to be Marion." + +"The deuce you do!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Yes," said the duke in the tone of a man who had quite made up his +mind. "I want her to come and live at the court as Marion. I'm going +to run her as my daughter, Lady Marion Ricksborough." + +"But what on earth for?" cried the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of +the liveliest bewilderment. + +"Why, don't you see? At first Caroline will be awfully cockahoop at +getting her own way. Then she'll begin to see that Marion's out in the +cold, and I've got another daughter in her place. Then she'll kick +like fury. She'll send Marion back in a brace of shakes to take her +proper place. Then it'll be my turn to kick. I shan't be taking any +Marion--at least, not without Caroline comes back too," said the duke +with an air of uncommon animation. + +He was looking brighter than ever the Honourable John Ruffin had seen +him. His eyes were positively gleaming with a manly fire. + +"By Jove--by _Jove_!" said the Honourable John Ruffin softly. + +"I thought you'd see it," said the duke complacently. + +The Honourable John Ruffin rose from his chair, strode solemnly across +the hearthrug, seized the duke's hand, wrung it, and in a voice +trembling with emotion said: + +"Osterley, I have done you an injustice. I have underrated your +intellect. Under that mild and irritated appearance you hide +genius--veritable genius. The idea is, as you say, roundabout, but it +will work. It will certainly work. You are dealing with a woman." + +The duke smiled with an air of the deepest self-satisfaction. +Compliments from the Honourable John Ruffin were indeed rare. + +"Yes; that's what I thought," he said. Then he chuckled, and added: + +"Won't Caroline be mad when she finds I'm running another Marion?" + +"'Mad' isn't the word for it," said the Honourable John Ruffin with +conviction. + +"I shall certainly be getting a little of my own back," said the duke, +beaming. + +The Honourable John Ruffin frowned at him heavily and said in a tone of +the coldest severity: + +"That's a stupid way of looking at it. The important thing about your +idea is that it will very likely bring you together again. But I +wonder if you can work it. You won't find it an easy job." + +"It all depends on whether Mary Bride can take Marion's place," said +the duke somewhat anxiously. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at him queerly. It was not for him +to say that Pollyooly had already spent a fortnight at Ricksborough +Court as Lady Marion and that during that fortnight the duke had been +as completely duped as his household. + +He only said: + +"It isn't Pollyooly I'm doubtful about. You need have no fears about +her. She's by far the cleverest child I know, and she'll play her part +all right. But, unfortunately, when you kidnapped her in Piccadilly +and took her to Ricksborough House, your butler and Marion's +nurse--what's her name?--Mrs. Hutton, learnt that Marion has a double, +and they may suspect things." + +"Oh, no: Lucas doesn't go to the court; and I discharged Mrs. Hutton +for being an idiot. Also, I dismissed Miss Marlow, Marion's governess. +I had no use for her. Really there's no one at the court now who came +into close contact with Marion at all," said the duke. + +"That does simplify things," said the Honourable John Ruffin +cheerfully. "But of course it's going to be a matter of weeks. +Caroline won't hear about it at once probably, for her friends won't +hear about it to let her know. Then it'll take her some time to get +over her satisfaction at having got her way, and to realise that Marion +is out in the cold." + +"Then she'll come back like a knife," said the duke. + +"Yes; but Pollyooly has got to keep the game going for a good six +weeks. Let's hear what she thinks about taking it on," said the +Honourable John Ruffin, and he rang the bell. + +"Of course she'll take it on. Besides having her at the court, I shall +pay her a trifle," said the duke in a tone of complete assurance. + +"You won't. You'll pay her at least five pounds a week," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in an equally assured tone. "But even so, she +may refuse to leave her little brother for so long." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE DUKE'S IDEA TAKES FORM + +Pollyooly came quickly, but she came in some trepidation lest after all +the duke might be going to scold her. A glance at his face reassured +her: he was certainly not angry. + +The Honourable John Ruffin said gravely: + +"The duke wants you to do a piece of work for him, Pollyooly--a very +well-paid piece of work." + +At the words "well-paid" the duke started in his chair with a look of +pain; but Pollyooly's deep blue eyes shone suddenly like bright stars, +and she smiled a heavenly smile. It was not that she was mercenary. +But it was the chief aim of her life to raise a wall of gold (it could +not be too thick or too high) between the Lump and the workhouse. + +"Yes?" she said a little breathlessly. + +"He wants you to go down to his house in the country and pretend to be +his little daughter, Lady Marion Ricksborough. You're exactly like +her, and if you pretend properly, no one will know you're not her. Do +you think you could do it?" said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. + +Pollyooly smiled again, and said confidently: + +"Oh, yes. I'm sure I could." + +"And the duke will pay you seven or eight pounds a week for six +weeks--so that it will mean thirty-five or forty pounds," said the +Honourable John Ruffin with the same business briskness. + +Pollyooly smiled another heavenly smile, but the duke sprang to his +feet with harried air and cried fiercely: + +"Oh, hang it all! Draw it mild, Ruffin! Seven or eight pounds a week +for a child like that! Oh, hang it! It's too stiff!" + +"Not a bit of it!" said the Honourable John Ruffin with cold business +incisiveness. "Pollyooly has the monopoly of the likeness of Marion, +and she must be paid a monopoly price. Besides, this business has been +costing you over a thousand a year; surely you can't kick at seven or +eight pounds a week for six weeks, or so, to stop it for good and all. +Why, as a monopoly price, seven or eight pounds a week isn't enough. +We must make it ten--or, say, a hundred for the whole job." + +"No, no; seven pounds a week!" cried the duke hastily. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at him with an air of considerable +disapproval, almost contemptuous, and said coldly: + +"Well, you can't expect me to haggle--seven let it be." + +He would have been very well content to get five pounds a week for +Pollyooly; and she would have been overjoyed to get it. But he did not +think it wise to show any pleasure at getting seven. + +But during this discussion of terms Pollyooly's face had fallen; and +its brightness was dimmed. Somewhat plaintively she said: + +"But please, your Grace. If it's going to take six weeks what's to +become of the Lump?" + +"Yes: there's certainly the Lump to be considered," said the Honourable +John Ruffin, frowning. + +"I couldn't go away for six whole weeks and leave the Lump," said +Pollyooly. + +"And who, or what, is the Lump?" said the duke somewhat impatiently. + +"The Lump's her little brother. She mothers him," explained the +Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Well, surely she can find some one to take charge of him for six +weeks. I'm paying her enough," said the duke. + +"Oh, no, your Grace. I couldn't let anybody but myself look after him +for a whole six weeks. I couldn't really. I shouldn't feel that they +would do it properly--all the time. I can't go away and leave him for +six weeks," said Pollyooly; and it was plain enough that she was quite +sincere in her aversion from doing so. + +Indeed she spoke in a tone of unshakable resolution; and the Honourable +John Ruffin and the duke gazed at one another nonplussed. Pollyooly +gazed at the Honourable John Ruffin with expectant eyes; she had a +great belief in his powers. But he only frowned, pondering; and the +duke scratched his head. + +Then she said in a tone of faint hopefulness: + +"But couldn't I take the Lump with me?" + +"That's a solution," said the Honourable John Ruffin quickly. + +"Oh, hang it! I couldn't turn up with two children. It would upset +the apple-cart," the duke protested. + +The face of the Honourable John Ruffin grew clear; and he said firmly: + +"It looks the only solution; and after all why shouldn't you adopt the +Lump? People do adopt children." + +"Not dukes," said the duke coldly. + +"Oh, if you break the ice, I expect they'll adopt them by the dozen," +said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. "There isn't any real +reason why you shouldn't. You have this new and very proper desire to +become thoroughly domesticated. The Lump is one of the very people to +gratify it. Besides, it will give the people at the court something to +talk about, and take their minds off Pollyooly." + +"I should jolly well think it would!" growled the duke. + +"Well, it's the only thing to do," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Do you think so?" said the duke doubtfully; and he blinked. + +"I'm sure of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin confidently. "You +can't have Pollyooly without the Lump." + +The duke shook his head, turned to Pollyooly, and said: + +"I tell you what: I'll make it eight pounds a week, if you'll come +alone." + +Pollyooly shook her head and said sadly: + +"I couldn't, your Grace. I couldn't really." + +It looked indeed like a blind alley; but in the end the duke yielded. +His heart was set on carrying through this scheme for regaining his +duchess. His mind was so rarely guilty of ingenuity that he could not +bear to discourage it. They set themselves, therefore, to making the +presence of the Lump at Ricksborough Court plausible. Fortunately he +was too young to spoil their plan by indiscreet babble, had he been a +babbling child. To the minds of the servants at Ricksborough Court, +minds so carefully trained in the board schools of England, his +pregnant grunts would convey no meaning. + +Then arose the question of a becoming outfit; and into this matter the +Honourable John Ruffin threw himself with enthusiasm. He saw his way +to remove the burden of new summer clothes for herself and the Lump +from Pollyooly's slender resources for several years. + +More than once the duke protested that he was not taking the children +to live at the court for the rest of the century; and when the +Honourable John Ruffin thoughtfully tried to edge in a few winter +vests, he protested hotly that he was not fitting out an expedition to +discover the North Pole, or the South. + +His warm opposition only excited the combative instinct of the +Honourable John Ruffin. Coldly he urged the well-known inclemency of +the English summer; surely the duke did not wish to have two pneumonic +children on his hands; and the vests slipped into the outfit. + +The duke was resolved to give the affair the strongest possible air of +verisimilitude; and he engaged a governess, a Miss Belthrop, for +Pollyooly. That led to his engaging a nurse, Emily Gibbs, for the +Lump, though Pollyooly protested that it was quite unnecessary. + +The duke was indeed falling more and more deeply in love with his +scheme the nearer it came to putting it into effect. On three +afternoons he came to coach Pollyooly in the topography of Ricksborough +Court and its gardens, and in the habits of Lady Marion Ricksborough. +He was astonished and impressed by her intelligence. He was called on +to tell her hardly a single thing twice. He spoke of it to the +Honourable John Ruffin with great respect. + +Then on the tenth day after his first visit he came in a taxicab, +greatly excited, for them and their luggage, and drove them to Waterloo +Station. On the platform they found Emily Gibbs, in charge of +Lawrence, the duke's valet, awaiting them. She found favour in the +exigent eyes of Pollyooly, who let her take charge of the Lump without +a single anxious qualm. Emily Gibbs fell in love with him at first +sight. + +Pollyooly, though all the while she kept a careful eye on him, left him +in the care of Emily Gibbs, till the train was actually outside London. +Then she took him into her corner and pointed out objects of interest +to him. She was convinced that he had made a great advance in +intelligence since his journey down to Pyechurch: not once did he hail +a sheep as a gee-gee. She promoted him to the use of his proper +Christian name, and called him Roger. The duke had grown calm once +more, and read a four-penny-half-penny magazine with every appearance +of absorbed interest. + +In the motor car which carried them from Ricksborough station to the +court, Pollyooly insisted on having the Lump on her knee. Motor drives +did not come their way so often that she could bear to be parted from +him in an hour of such delight. + +Once out of the peaceful seclusion of the railway carriage the duke's +excitement had returned; and now that the real ordeal was at hand, he +had grown uncommonly nervous. It may be that he was unused to deceit. +He had set Emily Gibbs beside the chauffeur that he might have +Pollyooly to himself; and all the way he poured jumbled instructions +into her ear in a fashion which would have brought her to the court +hopelessly confused had she been paying much attention to him. As she +followed him up the steps of the court she fancied that he was even +shaky on his legs. + +Rawlings, the butler, greeted them with a cold and dignified civility +which showed him thoroughly aware of his own value. Also there was a +lack of geniality in his tone which showed that he did not greatly love +the duke; and the one smile he lavished on Pollyooly was stiff and +wooden. But she certainly passed his careless scrutiny. + +Then, they had gone but a few steps into the hall when a slim and +serpentine dachshund trotted forward to greet them. It avoided the +duke and sniffed at Pollyooly. Then it uttered a yelp of joy, and +began to dance round her. At the yelp, four more small dogs hurried +down the hall, and flung themselves on Pollyooly with every sign of the +warmest affection. + +The duke gasped and blinked, suddenly assumed a Machiavellian air, and +said, for the benefit of the butler and footman, in a high, unnatural +voice: + +"Well, at any rate, the dogs haven't forgotten you, Marion." + +"No, papa," said Pollyooly with an angel smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +POLLYOOLY IS INTRODUCED TO THE COUNTY + +He had never done it before, but to-day, to the surprise of his butler, +the duke accompanied his supposed daughter up the stairs to Lady Marion +Ricksborough's suite of rooms. His face was flushed; and he stumbled +twice. His mind was full of the strange behaviour of the serpentine +dachshund and the other dogs. + +When they had risen above the range of hearing of the butler and +footmen in the hall, he said somewhat breathlessly: + +"I was never so flabbergasted in my life. Fancy dogs taking to you +like that! When I saw Hildegarde, who is one of the most particular +dogs I ever came across, dancing round you like that, you could have +knocked me down with a feather." + +"Yes: it is funny," said Pollyooly; and she smiled. + +"But what a blessing it is!" the duke went on quickly. "It will be all +over the place that the dogs recognised you; and after that it's no +good whatever any one's saying that you're not Marion. It settles +it--absolutely." + +"I suppose it does," said Pollyooly calmly. + +She had no intention in the world of telling him that the dogs had the +best of reasons for recognising her, in that they actually had known +her before. It did not trouble her at all to leave him in error. It +suited his purpose so well that no one should know that she had ever +been at the court before. + +The suite of rooms when Pollyooly had last occupied it, had consisted +of her bedroom and school-room, and the bedroom and the sitting-room of +the governess. To these the duke had added a nursery bedroom for the +Lump and a bedroom for his nurse. + +In the schoolroom they found Miss Belthorp awaiting them; and the duke +presented her to Pollyooly. Then with the air of an operating +Camorrist he showed Pollyooly which was her bedroom by the crafty +device of pretending to make sure that her sheets had been aired. + +Pollyooly at once demanded that the Lump should also sleep in it. It +seemed a very natural desire on the part of a little girl; and, much to +the disgust of Emily Gibbs, who wished to have him to herself as much +as possible, the duke ordered a cot to be brought into it. + +Then with the same Machiavellian air, he said to Miss Belthorp: + +"Lady Marion has taken a strong fancy to this little boy I'm adopting. +I hope it will last." + +"It's sure to, your Grace. He's such a dear little boy," said Miss +Belthorp with conviction, for she, too, had fallen a victim to the +silent charm of the Lump. + +Having done his best to secure the first success of his plan, the duke +left them. Pollyooly made haste to have their trunk unpacked; and +then, having put on a linen frock, while Emily Gibbs put one on the +Lump, she took him out into the gardens. Miss Belthorp accompanied +them; and it seemed to Pollyooly that she was uncommonly like Miss +Marlow, Lady Marion's earlier governess, whom she had found at the +court during her last stay there. She realised very soon that it was +really unnecessary to listen to her conversation; the chance of her +saying anything of any real interest being so very small. + +From the windows of the smoking-room the duke saw the two children +crossing the terrace, accompanied by a large proportion of the dogs of +the establishment. In his glowing self-satisfaction with the success +of the first part of his plan, he found that they greatly improved the +appearance of the gardens. + +The Lump approved greatly of the gardens; but he was a little doubtful +about the dogs, and kept a firm hold of Pollyooly's skirts. It was +nearly ten minutes before, encouraged by the very friendly way in which +Pollyooly treated them, he really unbent. He showed a truly marvellous +instinct for discovering which dog would let him pull his tail, and +which would not. + +Pollyooly thought it wise to relax a little from her usual exact +mothering of him. She had him sit by her at tea of course; but she let +Emily Gibbs give him his bath, and contented herself with watching the +operation. She was pleased that the Lump did not accept the change +without objection. He pointed to her and said quite severely: + +"Pollyooly." + +"It's all right, Roger dear," she said in a soothing tone. Then +turning to Emily Gibbs, she added: "I wonder what he means?" + +"I don't know, your ladyship. But he is the dearest little boy I ever +see!" said Emily Gibbs with enthusiasm. "I never knew as how there was +such a little boy!" and she kissed him. + +Pollyooly frowned slightly. These transports seemed to her misplaced. +They were an invasion of her proprietary rights in him. But she did +not frown long: after all, the fonder Emily Gibbs was of him the more +carefully she would watch over him. + +At supper in the servants' hall Emily Gibbs underwent a severe +cross-examination. The coming of the Lump to the court had indeed set +tongues wagging; and Rawlings, since he had failed to find the duke +quite satisfactory, was doing nothing to check it. The chief housemaid +and the second cook (the _chef_ was a Frenchman with a strong Italian +accent which marked also his cooking) seemed to have made up their +minds that Emily Gibbs must necessarily have been made the repository +of the secret of the Lump's origin; and they spared no effort to +extract that secret from her. Emily Gibbs had the most uncomfortable +supper of her life: her fellow-servants, naturally, resented bitterly +the fact that she had met the Lump for the first time that very day at +Waterloo station. They wanted pegs on which to hang romance; and she +did not provide them. + +At last the second cook said: + +"Well: it's as plain as a pikestaff to me that that little boy is the +son of a young lady as his grace was in love with before he ever met +the duchess. And she married somebody else; and they're both dead; and +his grace 'as adopted their little boy for old sake's sake." + +The first housemaid and the second housemaid accepted this theory +warmly; and then Emily Gibbs said: + +"And I expect she had red hair." + +The basic facts of the affair having been thus comfortably settled, the +talk turned on the identity of the lady, and then on the colour of her +hair. Rawlings was of the opinion that the redness of the Lump's hair +was evidence that either his father or his mother had been a relation +of the duke, since there was so much red hair in the Osterley family. +His suggestion met with general approval. + +"It certainly makes his adopting him more natural-like," said the +second housemaid. + +Pollyooly was awake the next morning before any one else at the court; +and soon after six she rose. She dressed the Lump, gave him biscuits, +ate some herself; and accompanied by all the loose dogs in the house, +they went out into the gardens through one of the long windows of the +blue drawing-room. She led the Lump round to the stables and there +unloosed several more dogs, so that they went about the world well +attended, and spent two very pleasant hours before their exigent +appetites demanded their return to breakfast. + +The duke saw them returning from his dressing-room; and once more he +was of the opinion that they improved the appearance of the gardens. + +As it was Lady Marion's first day at the court after so many months, +Miss Belthorp decided that it should be a holiday--a holiday for +Pollyooly, that is; the Lump did not appear to be yet ripe to learn +even the alphabet. + +After breakfast therefore they went out again; and Miss Belthorp went +with them. This was of no advantage to them, for the excursion became +a formal walk, much less attractive than their erratic wanderings when +alone. Also it was a walk along paths; there were no incursions into +the heart of the woods they went through, nor did they go in a single +meadow and roll in the grass with the dogs. Also, since the hour was +undeniably shining, she thought it well to improve it by imparting a +little instruction in botany. Pollyooly found it quite uninteresting; +she did not care at all whether a flower had four stems or fourteen. +Stamens seemed to her childish mind quite unimportant; the colour and +fragrance of the flower seemed to her the only important things. + +As they came into the court Miss Belthorp chanced to say: + +"I do hope that you haven't been neglecting your piano, Marion. I +always think that music is so important in the formation of character." + +Pollyooly had not been neglecting her piano, because she had no piano +to neglect. The piano played no part in any of the seven standards she +had passed at Muttle Deeping school; and she did not know one note from +another. She was taken aback by the suggestion that she was expected +to show herself accomplished in music. Evidently she must consult the +duke. + +She and the Lump and Miss Belthorp lunched with him, or rather they +dined and he lunched. After it, having seen the Lump safely on his way +upstairs with Miss Belthorp, Pollyooly followed the duke into the +smoking-room. + +"Please, your Grace: Miss Belthorp seems to expect me to know how to +play the piano; and I don't know how to at all," she said gravely. + +"The deuce you don't!" said the duke. "Here's another thing I never +thought of." + +"I don't _mind_ learning the piano," said Pollyooly with a sigh. + +"Yes; but if you showed that you didn't know anything about it, it +would look very suspicious indeed," said the duke; and he frowned +deeply as he cudgelled his brains for a way out of this unexpected +difficulty. + +"I expect it would," said Pollyooly. + +He frowned on, fidgeting; then he said with decision: + +"Well, the only thing to do is to stop it altogether." + +"That would be quite safe," said Pollyooly brightening. + +"All right: I'll see to it," said the duke. + +Pollyooly left him with her heart at ease. + +He frowned over the matter for some time, for it did not seem to him to +be quite in the natural order of things that a duke should actually +refuse to allow his daughter to learn the piano. But he could find no +other way of concealing Pollyooly's damning ignorance of the art of +music. + +At last therefore he sent for Miss Belthorp and said: + +"I--er--have decided that--er--Poll--er--Lady Marion is not to learn +the piano." + +"Not learn the piano?" said Miss Belthorp in the tone of one afflicted +with the last amazement. + +"I--er--have never observed the--er--slightest aptitude in her for it," +said the duke with perfect truthfulness. + +Miss Belthorp blinked. She prided herself on the brilliancy with which +she played the piano--especially the scherzo passages. + +"But--b--but she looks such an intelligent child," she said. + +"Yes. That's why," said the duke happily. + +Miss Belthorp blinked again; then in a somewhat helpless tone she said: + +"Oh, very well, your Grace." + +When the door closed behind her, the duke smiled happily and rubbed his +hands together. + +Pollyooly was expecting to spend a quiet afternoon in the gardens and +home wood with the Lump and the dogs and perhaps Miss Belthorp. She +hoped that Miss Belthorp would have some more important way of spending +her time. Of Emily Gibbs she could easily dispose, since already she +was giving her orders with a quiet firmness there was no gainsaying. +Indeed, Emily Gibbs had been far too well brought up not to receive +orders from what she called "A Lady of Title," with humble gratitude, +and execute them with vigour and despatch; and already she was hard at +work making linen overalls for the Lump. But at half-past three, just +as Miss Belthorp had left them to write letters and they had started +for the home wood, the obedient Emily came hurrying along the garden to +say that the duke wished Pollyooly to put on her prettiest clothes and +come with him to pay a call. + +Pollyooly frowned deeply at the thought that had not Miss Belthorp +lingered with them, they would by now have been safely hidden in some +recess of the wood. For the moment she almost wished that the Lump +were not so attractive. But very soon she was serene again. After all +it was a pleasant thing to be prettily dressed and ride in a motor car; +and there was always the exciting anticipation that the cakes at tea +would not only be delicious but quite uncommon. + +She dressed therefore in a complete serenity and gave Emily Gibbs +careful and exact instructions about the care of the Lump during her +absence. Then a footman came up to say that the car was ready; and she +went down the stairs comfortably assured that she was looking her +prettiest. She saw that the duke looked pleased at the sight of her; +his face grew quite bright. + +He put her into the tonneau of the car and stepped in after her. It +was not the first time they had been alone together, but for the moment +she felt somewhat oppressed. But he at once began to instruct her in +the manners and deportment in vogue at garden parties; and presently +she was talking to him with the most amiable affability. + +Three-quarters of an hour's drive brought them to Ilkeston Towers, +their destination; and when Pollyooly and the duke, coming on to the +lawn, which was set with groups of brightly dressed, shrilly chattering +people, were loudly announced by a strong-lunged butler, there was a +sudden hush and a general, quickly checked movement toward them. Then +Lady Ilkeston greeted them; and the duke said to her in a somewhat loud +voice: + +"It's rather dull going about alone, so I brought Marion with me." + +"But how nice!" said Lady Ilkeston; and she welcomed Pollyooly warmly. + +There was by no means an immediate rush to make Pollyooly's +acquaintance; but for half an hour Lady Ilkeston found herself busy +introducing to her people who were firmly resolved to make her +acquaintance, since she was, so to speak, the sub-heroine of the most +interesting local scandal. + +The duke had not looked for anything of the kind; and he was on +tenterhooks; he had expected that as a child she would be left +peacefully in the background. He found her the central figure of the +gathering; and he was in the liveliest dread lest she should fail to +come through the ordeal with her secret safe. + +It never for a moment occurred to Pollyooly that her secret was in any +danger. Naturally therefore she wore an air of perfect ease; and +answered the innumerable questions about her fondness for different +things, the country, dolls, flowers and so forth with serene +simplicity. He was somewhat surprised by her air (it was not +accentuated, or even obvious) of faintly haughty aloofness. He had a +feeling that it was exactly the right air for a daughter of a duke. He +wondered how it had come to her, whether the Honourable John Ruffin was +right in his red Deeping theory. He did not know his experienced +cousin had often laid before Pollyooly the advantage of giving herself +airs, and she had not been slow to see it. He grew easier in mind. + +Lady Ilkeston was the person really pleased. She had not expected to +have any really interesting central figure at her afternoon; and she +was all the more grateful at getting one. Her gratitude took the +practical form of instructing Sir Miles Walpole, an amiable young man +of twenty-four, very fond of children, to take Pollyooly to the long +table under the cedars, and give her a very nice tea indeed. The ices +and the cakes, which surpassed her hopes and expectation, to no small +degree compensated Pollyooly for the loss of that untrammelled ramble +through the home wood. Also she enjoyed the society of Sir Miles +Walpole; she was at once thoroughly at home with him. + +Soon after tea the duke took her away. When the car had started, he +said triumphantly: + +"Well, we came through that all right. Not a soul spotted that you +weren't Marion." + +"But how could they?" said Pollyooly in a tone of lively surprise. + +"Oh, I was a bit afraid at first," said the duke. + +"I wasn't," said Pollyooly simply. + +He took off his hat, let the rushing air cool his brow, and smiled +broadly at the horizon. It seemed to him that if Pollyooly were the +central figure in yet another gathering, or two, the duchess would not +be long in hearing that he had with uncommon success replaced his lost +daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +POLLYOOLY AND THE DUKE + +The duke's delight with the evident publicity which had attended the +presentation of Pollyooly to the county had lessened hardly at all by +the next morning. He thought it likely that, if the duchess were +anywhere in the United Kingdom, she would learn by some post that very +day that he had filled the place of Marion. + +Then it occurred to him that these correspondents would not only +condole with the duchess on having lost her daughter, but also they +would condole with her on having lost such a charming and delightful +daughter; and he laughed more heartily than he had laughed for many a +long day. + +In a natural desire for yet more publicity, that afternoon he took +Pollyooly with him and drove over to Overton Grange to introduce her to +the Ashcrofts, who had tried to play the part of mediators, with signal +ill-success, between him and the duchess. The Ashcrofts had heard that +Lady Marion Ricksborough had been present at the garden party at +Ilkeston Towers the day before. They were surprised by the news and +more than a little hurt that the duchess had not at once informed them +that the duke had recovered her. Also they were feeling that the duke +had brought Pollyooly to show her off to them as his triumph. +Therefore Lord Ashcroft, a strong, silent, bearded man, was a trifle +stiff with him, Lady Ashcroft a trifle cold; but they made up for it by +giving Pollyooly the warmest welcome possible; their friendliness was +almost overwhelming. After tea (to Pollyooly's regret there were no +ices) Lady Ashcroft took her up to the nurseries where she found a +little girl of eight and a little boy of six, and enjoyed herself +thoroughly. They were better than ices. + +Lord Ashcroft and the duke smoked their cigarettes in silence for a +while after Lady Ashcroft and Pollyooly had left them. Lord Ashcroft +looked rather gloomy; the duke looked at peace with the world. Then +Lord Ashcroft said gloomily: + +"How did you get hold of Marion?" + +"Oh, money--just money," said the duke airily but with perfect +truthfulness. + +Lord Ashcroft frowned; and they were silent again. + +The duke, with the same air of content, lighted another cigarette. + +Presently Lord Ashcroft said: + +"She's very much improved both in looks and intelligence." + +The duke sat bolt upright and said quickly and with heat: + +"She's nothing of the kind!" + +"Oh, yes; she is. You know she is," said Lord Ashcroft firmly. "It's +being with her mother." + +"It's nothing of the kind!" said the duke, still with heat. It seemed +to him absurd to suggest that Pollyooly was superior to his daughter. + +"It is; and I shall write and tell Caroline so," said Lord Ashcroft +with the same firmness. + +"I never knew such an obstinate--wrong-headed--" the duke broke out. +He broke off short, paused, began to laugh, and laughed heartily. Then +he said: "Oh, well; have it your own way. Write and tell her so." + +"I shall," said Lord Ashcroft in the tone of one bent on performing a +sacred duty. "I don't see anything to laugh at." + +The duke again remained silent; but twice he laughed sudden, short +laughs. Lord Ashcroft looked at him suspiciously. + +"I don't know quite what's happening to you, Osterley," he said +presently in a tone hardly meant to be pleasant. "You're changing." + +"Yes: getting brighter," said the duke easily. + +"It may be that and again it may not," said Lord Ashcroft coldly; and +he tugged at his beard. + +After that conversation seemed hard to make; and soon the duke said +that he must be going. Lady Ashcroft kept him waiting nearly twenty +minutes before she brought Pollyooly down from the nurseries. Then she +said that Pollyooly must come to spend the whole day with her children; +and Pollyooly said that she would like to come very much. The duke +looked a little doubtful: he was not sure that Pollyooly could stand +the test of hours of intimacy. + +On the way home he talked for a while cheerfully; and since there was +no intellectual gulf between them, they could talk to one another with +perfect ease and understanding. Then he fell into a sudden panic. + +"By Jove!" he cried, clutching at his moustache and missing it. "I'd +forgotten all about it! My sister--Lady Salkeld's coming home +to-morrow!" + +Pollyooly said nothing. She looked at him with enquiring eyes. + +"Suppose she goes and recognises that you aren't Marion?" + +"I don't see why she should any more than any one else," said Pollyooly +in a reassuring tone. + +"Oh, but, hang it! She's seen a lot of Marion. She's known her ever +since she was a baby," said the duke with a harassed air. + +Pollyooly could have set his mind at rest by assuring him that during +her last stay at the court Lady Salkeld had not shown the slightest +tendency to recognise that she was not Lady Marion Ricksborough; but +she did not. She only said: + +"I don't suppose that she'll take much notice of me." + +"There is that. She pretty well thinks of nothing but her own +affairs," said the duke more hopefully. + +"Anyhow, it's no use worrying about it. I expect it'll be all right," +said Pollyooly in a comforting tone. + +The duke was so far reassured by her careless serenity as presently to +resume his easy conversation with her. That evening, since he was +dining alone, he sent for her to come to him at dessert, and talked to +her again. His was a sociable nature; and in view of the presence of +her and the Lump he had not invited any friends to relieve the +loneliness of his stay at the court. + +Lady Salkeld arrived in time for lunch next day; and at lunch Pollyooly +and the Lump met her. The duke was on tenterhooks, needlessly, for she +bestowed a tepid kiss on Pollyooly, tapped the cheek of the Lump even +more tepidly, and addressed herself peaceably to her lunch. + +But after a while she began to give her attention to the Lump, looking +at him earnestly now and again, and blinking. Then she said: + +"That child reminds me of somebody, Osterley. Where did you pick him +up?" + +"These red Deepings are all alike," said the duke carelessly. + +"Oh? He's a red Deeping, is he? Who's his father?" said Lady Salkeld +almost briskly. + +"It's a secret," said the duke with perfect truthfulness, for he did +not know. + +Lady Salkeld looked at him, sniffed, and said with some tartness: + +"Well, I never expected you to be mysterious, Osterley." + +The duke bore the reproach with patient meekness, and said nothing. It +suited him very well that his sister should be giving her attention to +the Lump. From the Lump nothing was to be learned. + +Lady Salkeld's coming made no difference to their lives. Pollyooly +went on her early morning rambles with the Lump; from breakfast to noon +she did her lessons and then went for a sedate walk with Miss Belthorp. +After lunch she played with the Lump till it was time to drive out to +tea with the duke. Naturally she met the same people again and again, +and was now on very friendly terms with some of them. The duke, +regarding her with something of the feeling of an impresario, and +finding that she was everywhere welcomed as an authentic angel child, +began to take pride in displaying her. Also he began to take greater +pleasure in her society. Frequently, when the morning lessons were +over, he would come up to the schoolroom and take her out for a walk +with him. He liked to stroll about his estate and thrill with the +feelings of a landed proprietor. + +Pollyooly enjoyed these walks. The duke never tried to improve her +mind with botany. But she learned much country lore from him, the +names and habits of many birds and small animals. In spite of his +exalted station, he was a simple soul; and he had retained his boyish +interest in the furred and feathered world of the woods and meadows +round the court. Also he enjoyed telling Pollyooly things. +Unconsciously, but quite accurately, he regarded her as his +intellectual equal; and it pleased him very much to tell her things she +did not know. It gave him a sense of passing, but genuine superiority, +a feeling his fellow creatures seldom inspired into him. + +Sometimes he wondered why he had never thought of making a companion of +Marion. He made up his mind that when, presently, he was reconciled +with the duchess (he had no doubt ever that presently they would be +reconciled) he would make a companion of her. It never entered his +mind that there would be any difficulty about doing so. + +The Honourable John Ruffin came down for a week-end and was pleased to +find the duke and Pollyooly on such excellent terms. So pleased was he +that he forebore, by a considerable effort, to tease the duke. At +least he did not tease him more than was good for him. Also, to his +great surprise, he found himself suffering from a twinge of jealousy +now and again at Pollyooly's frank display of friendliness for the +duke. He told himself that it was wholly absurd. But there it was: +with his money and influence the duke could do so much more for her +than he could. He consoled himself with the thought that after all the +duke would be only carrying on his work. + +On the Saturday afternoon they went, as was their wont, for a stroll +through the woods; and the Honourable John Ruffin, who had so carefully +gratified his great inborn interest in the human race that now he +missed very little, observed that once or twice the duke paused and +looked about him as if he missed something. + +The next afternoon as they were starting, the duke said in a voice +which was not as easy as it tried to be, and with an air that was +distinctly shame-faced: + +"I say: we may as well take Pollyooly with us." + +The Honourable John Ruffin raised his eyebrows a little and said: + +"Oh, well--little pitchers have long ears, don't you know." + +"Oh, that's all right--that's all right, we needn't talk secrets," said +the duke quickly; and he ran lightly up the stairs to fetch her. + +It was a pleasant walk; and the Honourable John Ruffin was alive to the +fact that the company of Pollyooly greatly improved it. But at times +to his astonishment he was no less distinctly conscious of the fact +that two were company and three were none; and he was the third. + +At dinner that night he said somewhat gloomily: + +"I wish Caroline would hurry up and start firmly to come back to you. +I miss Pollyooly." + +"Give her time--give her time," said the duke quickly. "Besides the +country is doing the child a lot of good." + +"Oh, it's all very well for you. You've got a chef; but I've got no +one to grill my bacon, and that after training Pollyooly to be the +finest griller of bacon in England," said the Honourable John Ruffin in +a bitterly aggrieved tone. + +"Don't you think you're a bit selfish? You ought to think of the good +the country's doing the child," said the duke in a somewhat lofty tone. + +The Honourable John Ruffin snarled quietly. + +The next afternoon, as he was getting into the car to go to the +station, he paused and said in his most amiable tone: + +"Well, all I can say is: it's a jolly good thing for everybody that +Pollyooly isn't six years older." + +"Oh, get out!" said the duke. + +"Especially for Pollyooly," said the Honourable John Ruffin; and he +stepped into the car. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +LORD RONALD RICKSBOROUGH COMES TO THE COURT + +On the Wednesday morning, in the middle of lessons, a footman came from +the duke to ask Pollyooly to go to him at once. She went wondering, +and found him in the smoking-room in a panic. + +As she entered he waved a telegram at her and said: + +"Here's a new mess. Lord Ronald Ricksborough--you know him--he's my +heir, you know--always spends his holidays at the court. He's been +visiting friends, but his visit's at an end; and he wires to say that +he's coming here--arriving this evening." + +"Oh, that will be nice!" cried Pollyooly. + +"Oh, will it? Suppose he finds out you're not Lady Marion?" cried the +duke. + +"But he knows I'm not; and he knows I'm here," said Pollyooly. + +"The deuce he does!" cried the duke. + +"Yes. I wrote and told him so," said Pollyooly. + +"You did?" cried the duke; and he clutched at his moustache. + +"Yes. We often write to one another--just short letters. You know +we're engaged to be married, when we grow up. He gave me this ring," +said Pollyooly in a tone of quiet explanation, holding out her hand. + +The duke gasped heavily. + +"I don't know what the world's coming to! Children of your age!" he +cried. + +"Oh, it'll be quite all right," said Pollyooly cheerfully. "I'm going +on the stage. I've been on it already--dancing with the Esmeralda--not +really dancing of course, but just filling in the picture (that's what +the Esmeralda called it) in 'Titania's Awakening'--" + +"What? You were the child in 'Titania's Awakening'?" said the duke +heavily. + +"Yes. But when I grow up I'm going on the stage again--in musical +comedy--so that it will be quite all right for Ronald to marry me. The +heirs of peers generally marry girls in musical comedy. Ronald says +they do; and Mr. Ruffin said that he was quite right." + +The duke's eyes were larger than usual, and bulging out. He ground his +teeth and looked as if he could well have torn out some of his hair. + +"I can't think why John Ruffin will talk such silly nonsense!" he +growled in a tone of the last exasperation. + +"Oh, but it isn't, your Grace," said Pollyooly reproachfully. "Lots of +them have done it. Ronald sent me a list of them he made out with two +school-fellows. Only it's at the Temple. It'll be quite all right for +us to get married." + +The duke gnashed his teeth for a change. But he regained some control +of himself and said with moderate calmness: + +"Well, of course it's only children's nonsense. But you may as well +bear in mind that Ronald's going to marry Lady Marion." + +"I don't think you'll get him to," said Pollyooly quickly but +dispassionately. "He says she's such a little duff--" Her natural +politeness stopped the word on her tongue. "They--they don't get on +well together." + +"They'll have to!" said the duke stormily. + +Pollyooly said nothing; but she did not look hopeful. + +The duke waited for a word of encouragement. It did not come. He +crumpled up the telegram, threw it into the grate, and said: + +"But the real question is: will Ronald keep the secret? Will he be +able to?" + +"Oh, yes: he'll keep it quite easily," said Pollyooly confidently. +"He's splendid at keeping secrets." + +The duke gazed at her gloomily and said gloomily: + +"I can't conceive how on earth you and Ronald got to know one another +so well." + +Pollyooly's eyes opened wider and grew uncommonly limpid. She said: + +"Oh, I've been out to lunch with him and to the Varolium--from the +Temple." + +"You have, have you?" said the duke bitterly. "I'm hanged if I know +what the world's coming to!" + +Pollyooly said nothing. She looked at him solemnly as if impressed by +his difficulty. He gazed at her gloomily. Then he said firmly: + +"Look here: I'm not going to have his coming interfere with our walks; +and he's not coming with us to call on people." + +Pollyooly knitted her brow and after a thoughtful pause said: + +"I shouldn't think he'll want to." + +"He won't, if he does," said the duke firmly. "And mind you keep him +up to the mark and see that he doesn't let out that you're not Marion." + +"Oh, I will," said Pollyooly. + +"Well, run away and get your lessons done. I hope to goodness he +doesn't let it out!" + +That evening, while they were at tea, Lord Ronald Ricksborough arrived, +and came straight to the schoolroom. His attitude was admirable. He +greeted Pollyooly with the words, "Hullo, Marion!" in the perfectly +perfunctory manner of a cousin. She greeted him with a like +perfunctoriness and introduced him to Miss Belthorp. He greeted her +politely; then he looked at the Lump with a very good air of surprise +and said: + +"Who's the kid?" + +This display of ignorance was unwarranted by the fact that more than +once, in moments of chivalry, he had carried the Lump up the stairs of +Seventy-five, the King's Bench Walk, after the three of them had been +taking their pleasures in London. + +"He's a little boy his grace has adopted," said Miss Belthorp, smiling +affectionately at the Lump. + +"Adopted? Well, that's a rum go," said Ronald; and he sat down at the +table. + +Over his tea he told them, or, to be exact, he told Pollyooly, for it +was to her that he addressed himself, of his doings at school and +during the time he had spent on the visit which had just come to an +end. After tea he and Pollyooly went out into the gardens together. +When they were out of hearing he said: + +"This is tophole, having you here, old girl!" + +Then as they passed out of sight in a shrubbery, he put his arm, +somewhat clumsily for one in most things uncommonly deft, round her +neck and kissed her. Pollyooly returned the kiss in a matter-of-fact, +almost careless fashion. She was not addicted to kissing, though she +kissed the Lump often enough and with fervour; but this kiss was part +of the business of being engaged to be married. Since Ronald heaved a +sigh of relief at having performed the required feat, it is to be +presumed that his feelings in the matter were very like her own. Then +they went on briskly through the gardens and into the wood, the best +companions in the world. + +With Ronald at the court the days grew pleasanter than ever. He begged +Pollyooly to demand that she too should have a holiday. But this she +would not do. She had seen the world at too close quarters to throw +away things idly; and she was learning French. Indeed, the lessons had +been reduced to French because Pollyooly had heard the Esmeralda say +that she found her knowledge of French a perfect blessing; and agreeing +with her, the Honourable John Ruffin had said that to an artist who +danced on the continent and in the Americas, French must be worth +hundreds a year. + +Pollyooly had the firmest intention of dancing herself on the continent +and in the Americas, and she applied herself to learning the French +tongue with the vigour and tenacity with which she worked at her +dancing. Miss Belthorp was astonished at the quickness with which she +learnt; and she talked with enthusiasm to the duke of his daughter's +gift for languages. + +"She has: has she?" said the duke; and he looked at her somewhat +queerly. + +"It's perfectly wonderful!" said Miss Belthorp. + +"Oh, well: it's a very good thing. I dare say it will come in useful +one of these days," said the duke. + +On their walk that morning he told Pollyooly that Miss Belthorp had +said that she was a marvel at languages; and Pollyooly was very pleased +to hear it. She told the duke her reason for working so hard at her +French. + +He frowned for the next hundred yards, or so; then he said irritably: + +"I can't see why on earth you want to go in for this dancing and all +this stage business at all." + +"Oh, but if you can dance--really dance, they pay you ever so well," +cried Pollyooly. + +"I tell you what it is: you're a jolly sight too keen on money--for a +child of your age--it's--it's mercenary--yes: mercenary," said the duke +severely. + +Pollyooly flushed, and looked at him with her eyes bright either with +tears, or a sparkle of anger. + +"But I _have_ to get money," she said with some heat. "When Mr. +Ruffin's creditors hale him away to the deepest dungeon in Holloway +(he's said they will lots of times) you don't suppose I'm going to let +the Lump go to the workhouse! And where should I get another place +like Mr. Ruffin's? I should only have Mr. Gedge-Tomkins." + +"Oh, well--of course--if it's like that," said the duke in a tone of +awkward apology. + +Pollyooly said nothing for a while; she walked on with knitted brow. +Then she said: + +"And anyhow when the Lump gets bigger, I shall want a lot of money. +There'll be his clothes, and his schooling. I don't want him to go to +a board school--not in London. Such children go there--Aunt Hannah +said so, and so does Mrs. Brown. But there must be schools where they +wouldn't charge very much." + +"Oh--ah--of course, you'll want money for that," said the duke heavily. + +Pollyooly gave a little skip as of one removing an unpleasant matter +from her mind, and said cheerfully: + +"And anyhow I should have to go on the stage. Ronald and I couldn't +get married if I didn't." + +"I keep telling you that he's going to marry Marion," said the duke +very firmly indeed. + +His insistence on this fact did not seem to impair Pollyooly's cheerful +serenity, for after a thoughtful pause she skipped again and said: + +"Oh, well: if I'm actually on the stage, I expect it would be all +right. There must be other heirs of peers." + +The duke looked down on her and said bitterly: + +"I'm hanged if _I_ know what the world's coming to!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE DUKE WINS + +Pollyooly had been at Ricksborough Court rather more than a month when +the Honourable John Ruffin arrived, uninvited and without notice, on +the Friday evening. He found the duke in the garden with the three +children. + +"The kicking has begun," he said to the duke briefly, by way of +explanation. + +The duke seemed taken aback by the suddenness of the news, but soon he +recovered and showed himself in very good spirits. + +That night after dinner, after Pollyooly and Ronald had been dismissed +from dessert to bed, the Honourable John Ruffin said: + +"I got a letter from Caroline, pitching into me like one o'clock for +being a party to a disgraceful plot to rob Marion of her name and +birthright." + +"Where is it?" said the duke quickly. + +"I didn't bring it with me. The home-truths about me on it were +nothing to the home-truths about you. It would sear your soul to read +them," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a very grave voice. + +"Would it?" said the duke. + +"It would. But I thought I would come down, in case she made a descent +and you wanted some one to stand by and stiffen you." + +"Do you know, I don't think I do," said the duke. "I really believe I +can stick it out on my own." + +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"All the same I'm glad you came. If we get beyond having a tremendous +row, we shall very likely want some one to arrange things for us," said +the duke. + +"I shouldn't think a tremendous row was quite your game," said the +Honourable John Ruffin thoughtfully. + +"Oh, _I'm_ not going to row. But you know what Caroline is: she can +have all the row there is to have, without any help from any one," said +the duke. "I'm just going to sit tight as wax and let her wear herself +out, if she does start rowing." + +"That is undoubtedly the course for a man of sense to pursue," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of approval. + +The duke was on tenterhooks the next day, for though he was braced for +the struggle with the duchess, he found the uncertainty when that +struggle would begin trying. Then he was taking his afternoon tea with +the Honourable John Ruffin on the cedar lawn; Ronald and Pollyooly +mindful of the cakes, had sociably joined them; and they were laughing +at a story the Honourable John Ruffin was telling them, when he stopped +short, staring at the entrance to the lawn. They turned to see the +duchess standing in it, and surveying them with the eyes of an avenging +angel. + +[Illustration: They turned to see the Duchess] + +They all rose; and the Honourable John Ruffin said calmly: + +"How are you, Caroline? I suppose you motored down. Charming weather +for motoring." + +"Very," said the duchess in a terrible voice. "And a charming +gathering I find at the end of it." + +"Yes; sit down and have some tea. You must be thirsty," said the +Honourable John Ruffin. + +"How are you, Caroline? Sit down and have some tea," said the duke, +seizing on the opening, in rather uncertain tones. + +"Tea!" said the duchess, in a yet more terrible voice. + +"And bread and butter," said the duke hastily. + +"Do you think I came here to drink _tea_?" said the duchess in the tone +of one who had come to drink blood. + +"A lemon squash then," said the duke hastily. + +"I haven't come here to drink tea, or lemon squashes," said the +duchess. "I've come to learn what this means--to put an end to this +ridiculous farce?" + +"Eh? What? What farce?" said the duke. + +"This farcical substitution of this wicked child, Mary Bride, for +Marion," said the duchess, glaring at Pollyooly. + +"But you're not going to do any substituting. I won't have it," said +the duke firmly. + +"Me? It's you! You've done it already!" cried the duchess, with a +sudden note of astonishment in her voice. + +The duke shook his head, and with a smile of superior knowledge said +firmly: + +"It won't do, Caroline. It's no good your trying it on." + +The duchess gasped: "What do you mean? What _do_ you mean?" she cried; +and her tone was now all astonishment. + +The Honourable John Ruffin created a diversion by saying: + +"As far as I can make out this is a private matter; and little pitchers +have long ears. Come along, little pitchers." And he was sweeping +Pollyooly and Ronald off the lawn. + +The duchess glared at him, and stopped them for a moment with the words: + +"Is this your doing, John?" + +"Heavens, no! Osterley is the originator, and organiser, and +perpetrator of the whole arrangement," he cried over his shoulder in a +tone which carried conviction; and he vanished with the children. + +The duchess turned and glared again at the duke, as if she could not +believe her eyes; she looked almost as if she saw him for the first +time. + +"Sit down and have some tea. You must be wanting it," said the duke +firmly; and he began to pour it out. + +The duchess sat down, with a somewhat helpless air, still staring at +him. Matters seemed to be going differently from what she had +expected. Her fine brown eyes looked very big. + +"You did this all yourself?" she said, in a somewhat breathless voice. + +"Did what? Two lumps, isn't it?" said the duke, putting two lumps into +the cup and handing it to her. + +"Deliberately substituted a strange child for your own," said the +duchess solemnly. + +"Oh, that," said the duke carelessly. "That's all right. You needn't +worry about that. I've quite taken to Mary Bride. She's so--so +companionable--and--and as clever as they make 'em, and as pretty as a +picture. She makes a ripping Lady Marion Ricksborough. Why, when she +comes into a room, or on to a lawn, it's beginning to make as much +sensation as if it were yourself. I was awfully lucky to get hold of +her." His tone had grown truly enthusiastic. + +The duchess ground her teeth and cried: + +"And do you think I'm going to stand it?" + +"Stand it? I thought you'd like it," said the duke in a perplexed +tone. "Of course I'm not going to bother you about Marion any more; +you can keep her. And it's all so deucedly comfortable; you've got the +Marion you want, and I've got the Marion I want. And so we're both +happy." And he smiled amiably. + +"Happy! Happy when a strange child is usurping the place of my child?" +cried the duchess furiously. + +"Oh, that's all right. Marion's got _you_," said the duke. "Besides, +I'm not going to go all my life without any family. It wouldn't be +fair; and you've no right to expect it. I say, how jolly you're +looking!" + +"Jolly!" said the duchess thickly. + +"Well, pretty then. And your figure is better than ever--perfectly +ripping," said the duke with enthusiasm. + +"You can leave me out of it!" cried the duchess in a tone of the last +exasperation. "And if you think I'm going to stand this, I'm not!" + +"But what are you going to do about it?" said the duke mildly. + +"Stop it!" said the duchess through her set teeth. + +"But you can't stop it," said the duke in his most amiable tone. "I'm +getting domesticated, and I'm bent on having something in the way of a +family. Set on it. Of course you can say that your Marion is Lady +Marion Ricksborough; and I shall say that mine is. And some people +will believe you, but most people will believe me. And of course I +shall settle a good lump sum on Mary Bride when she marries, and leave +her all the unentailed property." + +"Oh, but it's impossible!" cried the duchess writhing in her chair. +"Leaving your child out in the cold for a perfect stranger!" + +"But she isn't. I tell you, she and I get on like a house on fire," +said the duke with some impatience. "And it's perfectly all right; you +stick to your Marion; and I'll stick to mine." + +The duchess rose and cried: + +"It's abominable! The most cold-blooded thing I ever heard of! And if +you think you're going to get rid of us like this, you're wrong! I +stay here till this matter has been put right." + +"Oh, I don't want to get rid of _you_," said the duke amiably. + +The duchess ground her teeth and walked across the lawn with the air of +a Boadicea saving her country. The duke watched her graceful figure +till it disappeared through a long window into the pink drawing-room, +with admiring eyes. Then he smiled a Machiavellian smile. + +The duchess went to her rooms in a mood of seething, but somewhat +helpless, fury. She was softened a little by finding them just as she +had left them two years before. Plainly some one had taken care of the +clothes she had left behind her; and her anxiety about a dress to dine +in was lulled to rest. She thought for a while that she would go and +berate Pollyooly; but she came to the conclusion that it would be +absurd to blame her for the action of the duke. It was much more +annoying to find that she could not reasonably blame the duke. She was +forced to admit that he had a right to the domestic life, if he wished +for it. She was also annoyed to feel an uncommonly pleasant sense of +home-coming. She resented it, but she could not rid herself of it. + +She came to dinner very dignified and stern; but the Honourable John +Ruffin saw to it that the meal was unconstrained. He spared no effort +to keep the talk in a light vein; and the duke, after his talk with the +duchess that afternoon, was sufficiently at his ease to second him to +the best of his not very great ability. He won the Honourable John +Ruffin's golden opinions by remembering the other two occasions on +which the duchess had worn the gown she was wearing to-night. + +Little by little, against her will, she thawed. The sense of +home-coming grew stronger. The easy, reminiscent talk--reminiscent of +pleasant days--the familiar room, and, perhaps, her favourite brand of +champagne, softened her till her smiles came easily. Moreover it was +delightful to be amused again; and it was borne suddenly in upon her +that the months she had been living in hiding had been tiresome, boring +months, from the point of view of life, utterly wasted months. Again +and again she looked at the duke as if she saw him for the first time. +Plainly she was amending her opinion of him. + +She yielded readily to the entreaties of the two men to stop and drink +her coffee and smoke her cigarette with them. The Honourable John +Ruffin talked on; she laughed several times. Then, having finished his +cigarette, and lighted a cigar, he said: + +"I have a sonnet to write to the eyebrow of a lady--no, Caroline: you +do not know her--and I must have perfect solitude, by the side of still +water, in the moonlight. So I am going down to the long pool; and I +must on no account be interrupted. So long." + +And he went quickly through the long window. + +He spoke quickly and went quickly, before the duchess could suggest +that he should wait a while. She felt unequal to a tête-à-tête with +her husband, and nervously she half rose. + +"Oh, don't you rush away too," said the duke somewhat plaintively. + +She sank back into her chair. + +The duke looked at her for a while in silence with eyes full of an +admiration at once gratifying and discomfiting; then he said: + +"I say, Caroline, can you remember what it was we first quarrelled +about?" + +The duchess knitted her brow in the effort to recall it, and said: + +"No, I can't. Oh, yes! You grumbled at the way my hair was done." +Then she added in a tone of triumph, "And I've done it exactly the same +ever since; it's done like it now!" + +"Something must have upset me, for it looks perfectly ripping," said +the duke with warm conviction. + +The duchess felt herself blushing under his admiring eyes, and disliked +herself very much for doing so. + +She rose hastily and said: + +"I think I'll go into the garden." + +This time the duke let her go. He finished his cigar before he +followed her. He found her walking up and down the cedar lawn; and +when the moonlight fell on her face, he saw that it was troubled. + +He fell into step beside her and said with enthusiasm: + +"It's a ripping night." + +She said nothing; and they crossed the lawn and turned. + +He said, again with enthusiasm: + +"I do like this lawn. I first kissed you under that old tree." + +The duchess started to leave the lawn with some speed. + +The duke kept pace with her. + +Half-way across the lawn he said in an affectionate tone: + +"There's no need for you to fret about Marion, old girl. You can +arrange it just as you like." + +Then deftly, he slipped his arm round her waist. + +"How dare you, Archie?" she cried, and made to thrust him away with +some vigour. + +It was not enough vigour. The duke's arm did not slip; indeed he +tightened his clasp as he said: + +"I could do much better with a complete family--a wife and a daughter." + +"After the way you've behaved!" cried the duchess. + +"Oh, well, one doesn't always behave the same. One changes," said the +duke. + + +Three days later Pollyooly and Ronald stood by a gate at the end of the +home wood, awaiting the coming of the motor car, in which the +Honourable John Ruffin was bringing the real Lady Marion Ricksborough +to slip quietly into the place which Pollyooly had occupied with such +signal success. The Lump, in the care of Emily Gibbs, was already +speeding in the train to London, to be met at Waterloo and conveyed to +the Temple by Mrs. Brown. + +Ronald looked gloomy; and an air of sadness marred Pollyooly's serenity. + +"It's perfectly rotten your going off like this--before we've done half +the things we were going to. Why on earth couldn't uncle have waited +till the end of the holidays to make the change?" said Ronald in a +bitterly aggrieved tone. + +"Well, you'll have Marion to go about with you," said Pollyooly. + +"Nothing doing!" snapped Ronald. + +His vehemence pleased her. + +"It's a pity," she said sadly. "It's been splendid; and I'm awfully +sorry to have to go." + +Then her face cleared and brightened into an angel smile; she crinkled +in her pocket the five ten-pound notes which the grateful duke had +given her; and added: + +"But it's splendid to think that with what I've got in the Savings Bank +and this, I can keep the Lump out of the workhouse for years and years!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY POLLYOOLY*** + + +******* This file should be named 19310-8.txt or 19310-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/19310-8.zip b/19310-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d01a367 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-8.zip diff --git a/19310-h.zip b/19310-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..50a98d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h.zip diff --git a/19310-h/19310-h.htm b/19310-h/19310-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..afec615 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/19310-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11490 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Happy Pollyooly, by Edgar Jepson</title> +<style type="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: medium; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small ; + margin-left: 15% ; + margin-right: 15% } + +p.dedication {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 15%; + text-align: justify } + +P.published {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 15% } + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link { color:blue; + text-decoration:none; } + link { color:blue; + text-decoration:none; } + a:visited { color:blue; + text-decoration:none; } + a:hover { color:red; + text-decoration: underline; } + pre { font-size: 70%; } + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Happy Pollyooly, by Edgar Jepson, Illustrated +by Reginald Birch</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Happy Pollyooly</p> +<p> The Rich Little Poor Girl</p> +<p>Author: Edgar Jepson</p> +<p>Release Date: September 17, 2006 [eBook #19310]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY POLLYOOLY***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="She bit the end of her pencil" BORDER="2" WIDTH="385" HEIGHT="606"> +<H3> +[Frontispiece: She bit the end of her pencil] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +HAPPY POLLYOOLY +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +<I>The Rich Little Poor Girl</I> +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +EDGAR JEPSON +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Author of</I> +<BR> +POLLYOOLY, WHITAKER'S DUKEDOM, ETC. +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +<BR> +REGINALD BIRCH +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +INDIANAPOLIS +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT 1915 +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="100%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE HONOURABLE JOHN RUFFIN MAKES AN ARRANGEMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">HILARY VANCE FINDS A CONFIDANTE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE INFURIATED SWAINS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE DUCHESS HAS AN IDEA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">POLLYOOLY IS CALLED IN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">POLLYOOLY PLAYS HER FAVOURITE PART</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">POLLYOOLY PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE QUESTION OF A HOME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE RELUCTANT DUKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">POLLYOOLY MEETS THE UNPLEASANT PRINCE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">THE RAPPROCHEMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">THE TRAINING OF ROYALTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">THE ATTITUDE OF THE GRAND DUKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">POLLYOOLY ENTERTAINS ROYALTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">THE DUKE HAS AN IDEA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">THE DUKE'S IDEA TAKES FORM</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">POLLYOOLY IS INTRODUCED TO THE COUNTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">POLLYOOLY AND THE DUKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">LORD RONALD RICKSBOROUGH COMES TO THE COURT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">THE DUKE WINS</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +She bit the end of the pencil . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-070"> +She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-086"> +They slept on the bench +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-142"> +The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-170"> +"You keep away" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-304"> +They turned to see the Duchess +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +HAPPY POLLYOOLY +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HONOURABLE JOHN RUFFIN <BR> +MAKES AN ARRANGEMENT +</H3> + +<P> +The angel child looked at the letter from Buda-Pesth with lively +interest, for she knew that it came from her friend and patroness +Esmeralda, the dancer, who was engaged in a triumphant tour of the +continent of Europe. She put it on the top of the pile of letters, +mostly bills, which had come for her employer, the Honourable John +Ruffin, set the pile beside his plate, and returned to the preparation of +his breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +She looked full young to hold the post of house-keeper to a barrister of +the Inner Temple, for she was not yet thirteen; but there was an +uncommonly capable intentness in her deep blue eyes as she watched the +bacon, sizzling on the grill, for the right moment to turn the rashers. +She never missed it. Now and again those deep blue eyes sparkled at the +thought that the Honourable John Ruffin would presently give her news of +her brilliant friend. +</P> + +<P> +She heard him come out of his bedroom, and at once dished up his bacon, +and carried it into his sitting-room. She found him already reading the +letter, and saw that it was giving him no pleasure. His lips were set in +a thin line; there was a frown on his brow and an angry gleam in his grey +eyes. She knew that of all the emotions which moved him, anger was the +rarest; indeed she could only remember having once seen him angry: on the +occasion on which he had smitten Mr. Montague Fitzgerald on the head when +that shining moneylender was trying to force from her the key of his +chambers; and she wondered what had been happening to the Esmeralda to +annoy him. She was too loyal to suppose that anything that the Esmeralda +had herself done could be annoying him. +</P> + +<P> +He ate his breakfast more slowly than usual, and with a brooding air. +His eyes never once, as was their custom, rested with warm appreciation +on Pollyooly's beautiful face, set in its aureole of red hair; he did not +enliven his meal by talking to her about the affairs of the moment. She +respected his musing, and waited on him in silence. She had cleared away +the breakfast tray and was folding the table-cloth when, at last, he +broke his thoughtful silence. +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing for it: I must go to Buda-Pesth," he said with a +resolute air. +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing the matter with the Esmeralda, sir?" said Pollyooly with +quick anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"There's something very much the matter with the Esmeralda—a +Moldo-Wallachian," said the Honourable John Ruffin with stern coldness. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it an illness, sir?" said Pollyooly yet more anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"No; it's a nobleman," said the Honourable John Ruffin with even colder +sternness. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly pondered the matter for a few seconds; then she said: "Is +he—is he persecuting her, sir, like Senor Perez did when I was dancing +with her in 'Titania's Awakening'?" +</P> + +<P> +"It ought to be a persecution; but I fear it isn't," said the Honourable +John Ruffin grimly. "I gather from this letter that she is regarding his +attentions, which, I am sure, consist chiefly of fulsome flattery and +uncouth gifts, with positive approbation." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly pondered this information also; then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Is she going to marry him, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is not!" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of the deepest +conviction but rather loudly. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly looked at him and waited for further information to throw light +on his manifest disturbance of spirit. +</P> + +<P> +He drummed a tattoo on the bare table with his fingers, frowning the +while; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Constancy to the ideal, though perhaps out of place in a man, is alike +woman's privilege and her duty. I should be sorry—indeed I should be +deeply shocked if the Esmeralda were to fail in that duty." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in polite sympathy, though she had not the +slightest notion what he meant. +</P> + +<P> +"Especially since I took such pains to present to her the true ideal—the +English ideal," he went on. "Whereas this Moldo-Wallachian—at least +that's what I gather from this letter—is merely handsome in that cheap +and obvious South-European way—that is to say he has big, black eyes, +probably liquid, and a large, probably flowing, moustache. Therefore I +go to Buda-Pesth." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with the same politeness and in the same +ignorance of his reason for going. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall wire to her to-day—to give her pause—and to-morrow I shall +start." He paused, looking at her thoughtfully for a moment, then went +on: "I should like to take you with me, for I know how helpful you can be +in the matter of these insolent and infatuated foreigners. But +Buda-Pesth is too far away. And the question is what I am going to do +with you while I'm away." +</P> + +<P> +"We can stay here all right, sir—the Lump and me," said Pollyooly +quickly, with a note of surprise in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +Her little brother, Roger, who lived with her in the airy attic above the +Honourable John Ruffin's chambers, had acquired the name of "The Lump" +from his admirable placidity. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like the idea of your doing that," he said, shaking his head and +frowning. "I don't know how long I may be away—the affirmation of the +ideal is sometimes a lengthy process. Of course the Temple is a quiet +place; but I don't like to leave two small children alone in it for a +fortnight, or three weeks. It isn't as if Mr. Gedge-Tomkins were at +home. If he were at hand—just across the landing, it would be a very +different matter." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm <I>sure</I> we should be all right, sir," said Pollyooly with entire +confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm bound to say that if any child in the world could take care of +herself and a little brother, it's you," he said handsomely. "But I want +to devote all my energies to the affirmation of the ideal; and I must not +be troubled by anxiety about you. I shall have to dispose of you safely +somehow." +</P> + +<P> +With that he rose, lighted a cigar, and presently sallied forth into the +world. The matter of learning the quickest way to Buda-Pesth and +procuring a ticket for the morrow took him little more than half an hour. +Then the matter of disposing safely of Pollyooly and the Lump during his +absence rose again to his mind and he walked along pondering it. +Presently there came to him a happy thought: there was their common +friend, Hilary Vance, an artist who had employed Pollyooly as his model +for a set of stories for <I>The Blue Magazine</I>. Hilary Vance was devoted +to Pollyooly, and he had a spare bedroom. But for a while the Honourable +John Ruffin hesitated; the artist was a man of an uncommonly mercurial, +irresponsible temperament. Was it safe to entrust two small children to +his care? Then he reflected that Pollyooly was a strong corrective of +irresponsibility, and took a taxicab to Chelsea. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance, very broad, very thick, very round, with a fine, rebellious +mop of tow-coloured hair, which had fallen forward so as nearly to hide +his big, simple eyes, opened the door to him. At the sight of his +visitor a spacious round smile spread over his spacious face; and he +welcomed him with an effusive enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +At his christening the good fairy had given to the Honourable John Ruffin +a very lively interest in his fellow-creatures and a considerable power +of observation with which to gratify it. He was used to the splendid +expansiveness of Hilary Vance; but it seemed to him that to-day he was +boiling with an added exuberance; and that curiosity was aroused. He +took up a chair and hammered its back on the floor so that the dust fell +off the seat, sat down astride it, and, bending forward a little, +proceeded to observe the artist with very keen eyes. Hilary Vance, who +was very busy, fell to work again, and after his manner, grew +grandiloquent about the pleasures of the day before, which he had spent +in the country. +</P> + +<P> +Soon it grew clear to the Honourable John Ruffin that his friend had +swollen with the insolent happiness so hateful to the Fates, and he said: +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be uncommonly cheerful, Vance. What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance looked at him gravely, drew himself upright in his chair, +laid down his pencil, and said in a tone of solemnity calculated to +awaken the deepest respect and awe: +</P> + +<P> +"Ruffin, I have found a woman—a WOMAN!" +</P> + +<P> +The quality of the Honourable John Ruffin's gaze changed; his eyes rested +on the face of his friend with a caressing, almost cherishing, delight. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it becoming rather a habit?" he said blandly. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance with splendid dignity. +"But this is different. This is a WOMAN!" +</P> + +<P> +His face filled with an expression of the finest beatitude. +</P> + +<P> +"They so often are," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Does James know +about her?" +</P> + +<P> +At the sound of the name of the mentor and friend who had rescued him +from so many difficulties, something of guilt mingled with the beatitude +on Hilary Vance's face, and he said in a less assured tone: +</P> + +<P> +"James is in Scotland." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin sprang from his chair with a briskness which +made Hilary Vance himself jump, and cried in a tone of the liveliest +commiseration and dismay: +</P> + +<P> +"Good Heavens! Then you're lost—lost!" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" said Hilary Vance quite sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that your case is hopeless," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a +less excited tone. "<I>James</I> is in Scotland; <I>I'm</I> off to Buda-Pesth; and +<I>you</I> have found a WOMAN—probably THE WOMAN." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance, frowning. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the worst of it! That's why it's so hopeless!" said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of deep depression. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" cried Hilary Vance in sudden bellow. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, old chap; good-bye," said the Honourable John Ruffin in the +most mournful tone and with the most mournful air. "I <I>can not</I> save +you. I've got to go to Buda-Pesth." He walked half-way to the door, +turned sharply on his heel, clapped his hand to his head with the most +dramatic gesture, and cried: "Stay! I'll wire to James!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm damned if you do!" bellowed Hilary Vance. +</P> + +<P> +"I must! I must!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin, still dramatic. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know his address, thank goodness!" growled Hilary Vance +triumphantly. "And you won't get it from me." +</P> + +<P> +"I shan't? Then it's hopeless indeed," said the Honourable John Ruffin +with a gesture of despair. He stood and seemed to plunge into deep +reflection, while Hilary Vance scowled an immense scowl at him. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin allowed a faint air of hope to lighten his +gloom; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"There's a chance—there's yet a chance!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want any chance!" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "You can jolly +well mind your own business and leave me alone. I can look after myself +without any help from you—or James either." +</P> + +<P> +"Whom the gods wish to destroy they first madden young," said the +Honourable John Ruffin sadly. "But there's always Pollyooly; she may +save you yet. I came to suggest that while I'm away in Buda-Pesth you +should let Pollyooly and the Lump occupy that spare bedroom of yours. I +don't like leaving them alone in the Temple; and I thought that you might +like to have them here for a while, though I fear Pollyooly will clean +the place." He looked round the studio gloomily. "But you can stand +that for once, I expect," he went on more cheerfully. "At any rate it +would be worth your while, because you'd learn what grilled bacon really +is." +</P> + +<P> +At the mention of the name of Pollyooly the scowl on Hilary Vance's face +began to smooth out; as the Honourable John Ruffin developed his +suggestion it slowly disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes; I'll put them up. I shall be delighted to," he said eagerly. +"Pollyooly gives more delight to my eye than any one I know. And there +are so few people in town, and I'm lonely at times. I wish I liked +bacon, since she is so good at grilling it; but I don't." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin came several steps down the room wearing an +air of the wildest amazement: +</P> + +<P> +"You don't like bacon?" he cried in astounded tones. "That explains +everything. I've always wondered about you. Now I know. You are one of +those whom the gods love; and I can't conceive why you didn't die +younger." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance, bristling and scowling +again. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't? Well, it doesn't matter. But I'm really very much obliged +to you for relieving me of all anxiety about those children." +</P> + +<P> +They discussed the hour at which Pollyooly and the Lump should come, and +then the Honourable John Ruffin held out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +But Hilary Vance rose and came to the front door with him. On the +threshold he coughed gently and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I should like you to see Flossie." +</P> + +<P> +"Flossie?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Ah—the WOMAN." He looked +at Hilary Vance very earnestly. "Yes, I see—I see—of course her name +would be Flossie." Then he added sternly: +</P> + +<P> +"No; if I saw her James might accuse me of having encouraged you. He +would, in fact. He always does." +</P> + +<P> +"She's only at the florist's just at the end of the street," said Hilary +Vance in a persuasive tone. +</P> + +<P> +"She would be," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of +extraordinary patience. "I don't know why it is that the WOMAN is so +often at a florist's at the end of the street. It seems to be one of +nature's strange whims." His face grew very gloomy again and in a very +sad tone he added: +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, poor old chap; good-bye!" +</P> + +<P> +He shook hands firmly with his puzzled friend and started briskly up the +street. Ten yards up it he paused, turned and called back: +</P> + +<P> +"She's everything that's womanly, isn't she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—everything," cried Hilary Vance with fervour. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin shook his head sadly and without another word +walked briskly on. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance, still looking puzzled, shut the door and went back to his +studio. He failed, therefore, to perceive the Honourable John Ruffin +enter the florist's shop at the end of the street. He did not come out +of it for a quarter of an hour, and then he came out smiling. Seeing +that he only brought with him a single rose, he had taken some time over +its selection. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HILARY VANCE FINDS A CONFIDANTE +</H3> + + +<P> +That afternoon, when Pollyooly was helping him pack his portmanteau for +his journey to Buda-Pesth, the Honourable John Ruffin told her of the +arrangement he had made with Hilary Vance, that she and the Lump should +spend the time till his return at the studio at Chelsea. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's face brightened; and there was something of the joy which +warriors feel in foemen worthy of their steel in the tone in which she +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, sir. I shall like that. It will be a change for the Lump; +and I've always wanted to know what that studio would look like if once +it were properly cleaned. That Mrs. Thomas who works for Mr. Vance +does let it get so dirty." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I told Mr. Vance that I was sure that you'd get the place really +clean for him," said the Honourable John Ruffin with a chuckle. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes; I will," said Pollyooly firmly. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin chuckled again, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Vance is going to have the spring cleaning of a lifetime." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. It's not quite summer-time yet," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning before taking the train to Buda-Pesth, he despatched +her, the Lump, and the brown tin box which contained their clothes, to +Chelsea in a taxicab. Hilary Vance welcomed them with the most cordial +exuberance, led the way to his spare bedroom, and with an entire +unconsciousness of that bedroom's amazing resemblance to a +long-forgotten dust-bin, invited Pollyooly to unpack the box and make +herself at home. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly gazed slowly round the room, and then she looked at her host +in some discomfort. She was a well-mannered child, and careful of the +feelings of a host. Then she said in a hesitating voice: +</P> + +<P> +"I think I should like to—to—dust out the room before I unpack, +please." +</P> + +<P> +"By all means—by all means," said Hilary Vance cheerfully; and he went +back to his work. +</P> + +<P> +Owing to his absorption in it he failed to perceive the curious +measures Pollyooly took to dust out the bedroom. She put on an apron, +fastened up her hair and covered it with a large cotton handkerchief, +rolled up her sleeves, and carried a broom, two pails of hot water from +the kitchen, a scrubbing-brush, and a very large piece of soap into the +room she proposed to dust. She shut herself in, took the counterpane +off the bed, shook it with furious vigour, and even more vigourously +still banged it against the end of the bedstead. When she had finished +with it the counterpane was hardly white, but the room was dustier than +ever. She covered up the bed again, took down the pictures and again +made the room dustier. Then she swept the ceiling and the walls. +After doing so she shook the counterpane again. And the room was still +dusty; but the dust was nearly all on the floor, or on the black face +of Pollyooly. She swept it up. Then she went quietly out into the +street with the strips of carpet and banged them against the railings +of the house; this time it was the street that was dustier than ever; +and Pollyooly appeared to have come from the lower Congo. For the next +half-hour, had he not been absorbed in his work, Hilary Vance might +have heard a steady and sustained rasp of a scrubbing-brush. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly came to the laying of the lunch with her angel face deeply +flushed; but she wore a very cheerful air. Also she displayed an +excellent appetite. In the middle of lunch she said in dreamy +reminiscence, apropos of nothing in particular: +</P> + +<P> +"I got this place clean once." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it clean now?" said Hilary Vance in a tone of anxious surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"It depends on what you call clean," said Pollyooly politely. +</P> + +<P> +After lunch she brought the drawers from the chest of drawers in the +bedroom into the kitchen and washed them and dried them in the sun. +Then, at last, she unpacked the brown tin box and put away their +clothes. +</P> + +<P> +After that she took the Lump for an hour's walk on the embankment. She +preferred it to the embankment below the Temple; it seemed to her +airier. She returned to tea, and had a little struggle with the +teaspoons. They enjoyed, after the lapse of months, the experience of +shining. After tea Hilary Vance told her regretfully that he would not +be able to come home to supper, but that she would find provisions in +the cupboard, and advising them to go to bed early, bade them an +affectionate good-night and went out in a northeasterly direction to +talk about Art. +</P> + +<P> +When the door closed behind him Pollyooly heaved a faint sigh of +satisfaction and looked round the studio with the light of battle in +her eye. Then she took the canvases, which were set against the wall +three and four deep, into the street and brushed them. The dust in the +street had been a tedious grey; in front of the house of Hilary Vance +it became a warm black. +</P> + +<P> +Then she put the Lump, with the toys she had brought with her, into the +clean bedroom, and fell upon the studio. By the time she had brushed +the pictures and the walls and the ceiling its floor had become very +dusty indeed, and she was once more black. She swept it, and then she +was an hour scrubbing it. When it was done she gave the Lump his +supper and put him to bed. After supper she dealt faithfully with the +windows. The skylight gave her trouble; it was so high. But she tied +a wet cloth round the top of a broom, and by standing on the table +reached it. It made her arms ache, but slowly the panes assumed a +transparency to which they had long been unused. When she had cleaned +them from the inside she considered thoughtfully the possibility of +sitting astride the roof and cleaning their outside surfaces. But +there was no way of getting on to the roof. Then she had a hot bath; +she needed it. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Thomas had been apprised of her coming and greeted her amiably. +It is only fair to say that she gave the studio the cleaning it +generally received without observing that anything whatever had +happened to it. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance, who was of that rare, but happy, disposition, came to +breakfast in splendid spirits. He also did not observe that anything +had happened to the studio. But when he got to his work he kept +looking up from it with a puzzled air. +</P> + +<P> +At last he said: +</P> + +<P> +"It's odd—very odd. Lately I've been thinking that my sight was +beginning to weaken. But this morning I can see quite clearly. Yet it +isn't a very bright morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps if you had the skylight cleaned on the outside, too, you'd see +clearer still," said Pollyooly in the tone of one throwing out a +careless suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance looked round the studio more earnestly: +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove! You've cleaned it again!" he cried. "You are a brick, +Pollyooly. But all the same you're my guest here; and it's not the +function of a guest to clean her host's house. I ought to have +remembered it and had it cleaned before you came." +</P> + +<P> +"But I liked doing it. I did, really," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"You are undoubtedly a brick—a splendid brick," he said +enthusiastically. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance was one of those great-hearted men of thirty who crave for +sympathy; he must unbosom himself. Pollyooly was not quite the +confidante of his ideal; but his mentor, James, the novelist (not +Henry), was in Scotland; and the salt sea flowed between him and the +Honourable John Ruffin. Pollyooly was at hand, and she was +intelligent. No later than the next morning he began to talk to her of +Flossie—her beauty, her charm, her sympathetic nature, her +womanliness, and her intelligence. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly received his confidences with the utmost politeness. She +could not, indeed, follow him in his higher, finer flights; but she +succeeded in keeping on her angel face an expression of sufficient +appreciation to satisfy his unexacting mind. It is to be feared that +she did not really appreciate the splendour of the passion he displayed +before her; it is even to be feared that she regarded it as no more +than a further eccentricity in an eccentric nature. She grew curious, +however, to see the lady who had so enthralled him, and was, therefore, +pleased when she suggested that she should relieve Mrs. Thomas of the +housekeeping, that he accepted the suggestion and told her to procure, +among other things, some flowers for the studio. +</P> + +<P> +She found Flossie to be a fair, fluffy-haired, plump and pretty girl of +twenty, entirely pleased with herself and the world. It seemed to +Pollyooly that she gave herself airs. She came away with the flowers, +finding the ecstasies of Mr. Hilary Vance as inexplicable as ever. But +she did not puzzle over the matter at all, for it was none of her +business; Mr. Vance was like that. +</P> + +<P> +Having once begun, Hilary Vance fell into the way of confiding to her +from day to day his hopes and fears, the varying fortunes of his suit. +Some days the skies of his heaven were fair and serene; some days they +were livid with the darkest kind of cloud. Pollyooly, by dint of +hearing so much about it, began to get some understanding of the +matter, and consequently to take a greater interest in it. Always she +made an excellent listener. Her intercourse with the Honourable John +Ruffin had taught her that a comprehension of the matter under +discussion was by no means a necessary qualification of the excellent +listener; and Hilary Vance grew entirely satisfied with his confidante. +</P> + +<P> +The affair was pursuing the usual course of his affairs of the heart: +one day he was well up in the seventh heaven, talking joyfully of an +early proposal and an immediate marriage; another he was well down in +the seventh hell. Pollyooly was always ready with the kind of +sympathy, chiefly facial, the changing occasion demanded. +</P> + +<P> +Then one day her host had gone out to lunch with an editor and she was +taking hers with the Lump, when there came a rather hurried knocking at +the front door. She opened it, and to her surprise found Flossie +standing without. She was at once stricken with admiration of +Flossie's hat, which was very large and apparently loaded with the +contents of several beds of flowers. But Flossie herself looked to be +in a state of considerable perturbation. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Mr. Vance in?" she said somewhat breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +She seemed to have been hurrying, and the hat was a little on one side. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly eyed her with some disfavour, and said coldly: "No, he isn't." +</P> + +<P> +"Will he be in soon?" said Flossie anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," said Pollyooly yet more coldly. +</P> + +<P> +Flossie gazed up and down the street with a helpless air; then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'd better come In and write a note for him and leave it." And +she walked down the passage and into the studio. +</P> + +<P> +Still wearing an air of disapproval, Pollyooly found paper and pencil +for her; and she sat down and began to write. She wrote a few words, +stopped, and bit the end of the pencil. +</P> + +<P> +"It's dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about you," she said in a +tone and with an air in which gratified vanity forced itself firmly +through the affectation of distress. +</P> + +<P> +"What gentlemen?" said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Vance and my fiongsay, Mr. Reginald Butterwick," said Flossie. "I +don't know how he found out that Mr. Vance is friendly with me; and I'm +sure there's nothing in it—I told him so. But he's that jealous when +there's a gentleman in the case that he can't believe a word I say. It +isn't that he doesn't try; but he can't. He says he can't. He's got a +passionate nature; he says he has. And he can't do anything with it. +It runs away with him; he says it does. And now it's Mr. Vance. How +he found out I can't think—unless it was something I let slip by +accident about his taking me to the Chelsea Empire. He's so quick at +taking you up—Reginald is; and before you know where you are, there he +is—making a fuss. And what's going to happen I don't know." +</P> + +<P> +Her effort to look properly distressed failed. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was somewhat taken aback by the flood of information suddenly +gushed upon her; but she said calmly: +</P> + +<P> +"But what's he going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's going to knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance—he said he would. +And he'll do it, too—I know he will. He's done it before. There was +a gentleman friend of mine who lives in the same street as me in +Hammersmith; and he got to know about him—not that there was anything +to know, mind you—but he thought there was. And he blacked his eyes +and made his nose bleed. You see, Reginald's a splendid boxer; he +boxes at the Chiswick Polytechnic. And if he goes for Mr. Vance he'll +half kill him—I know he will. Reginald's simply a terror when his +blood's up." +</P> + +<P> +"But Mr. Vance is very big," said Pollyooly in a doubting tone. +</P> + +<P> +"But that makes no difference; bigness is nothing to a good boxer," +said Flossie with an air of superior knowledge. "Mr. Butterwick says +he doesn't mind taking on the biggest man in England, if he's not a +boxer. And he knows that Mr. Vance isn't a boxer, because I asked him +about boxing—knowing Reginald put it into my head—and he told me he +didn't know a thing about it. And he'd have no chance at all against +Reginald. And I let it out when I was telling Reginald that Mr. Vance +was a friend of mine—only just a friend of mine—and he mustn't hurt +him, and there was nothing to make a fuss about." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why you wanted to tell him about Mr. Vance at all for, if +you knew he'd make a fuss," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval. +</P> + +<P> +"I told you it slipped out when I wasn't thinking," said Flossie, in a +tone which carried no conviction; and she bent hastily to the note and +added a couple of lines. +</P> + +<P> +Then she broke out again in the same high-pitched, excited tone: +</P> + +<P> +"And I came round here as soon as I could get away, because there +wasn't any time to be lost. Reginald says he doesn't believe in losing +time in anything. And he's going to take an afternoon off and come +round and knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance this very day. He can +always get an afternoon off, for he's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping, +and the firm has the greatest confidence in him; he says they have." +</P> + +<P> +She finished the note and folded it, saying with the air which +Pollyooly found hypocritical: +</P> + +<P> +"It's really dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about one so. But +what am I to do? There's no way of stopping them. You'll know what it +is when you get to my age—at least you would if you hadn't got red +hair." +</P> + +<P> +With this almost brilliantly tactful remark, she rose, gave Pollyooly +the note, and adjured her to give it to Mr. Hilary Vance the moment he +came in. +</P> + +<P> +"What time will Mr. Butterwick get here?" said Pollyooly anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no saying," said Flossie cheerfully. "But he'll get here as +soon as the firm can spare him. He never loses time—Reginald doesn't." +</P> + +<P> +Again she adjured Pollyooly to give Hilary Vance the note as soon as he +returned, and hurried down the street to the florist's shop. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE INFURIATED SWAINS +</H3> + + +<P> +Flossie's news filled Pollyooly with a considerable anxiety; but she +was at a loss what to do. She knew that Hilary Vance was at the Savage +Club, but she did not know whether she could reach it in time to find +him there, for it was now a quarter of two. It did not seem to her a +matter to be trusted to the electric telegraph; and living as she did +in the old-time Temple, it never occurred to her to telephone. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to do but await his return and give him Flossie's +note of warning the moment he entered. She had been going to take the +Lump for a walk on the embankment; she must postpone it. Then, unused +to idleness, she cast about how she might fill up her time till his +return. +</P> + +<P> +She had swept and dusted the room that morning, after the departure of +Mrs. Thomas, who had busied herself in them, for a short time, and +ineffectually, with a dustpan, a brush, and a duster, so that there was +no cleaning to be done. Presently it occurred to her that perhaps +there might be some holes in the linen of her host which would be the +better for her mending. A brief examination of his wardrobe showed her +that her surmise was accurate: there was at least a month's hard +mending to be done before that wardrobe would contain garments really +worthy of the name of underclothing. She decided to begin by darning +his socks, for she chanced to have some black darning wool in her +workbox. She brought three pairs of them into the studio, and began to +darn. Nature had been generous, even lavish, to Hilary Vance in the +matter of feet; and his socks were enormous. So were the holes in +them. But their magnitude did not shake Pollyooly's resolve to darn +them. +</P> + +<P> +She had been at work for about three-quarters of an hour when there +came a knock at the door. She went to it in some trepidation, +expecting to find a raging Butterwick on the threshold. She opened it +gingerly, and to her relief looked into the friendly face of Mr. James, +the novelist. +</P> + +<P> +On that friendly face sat the expression of weary resignation with +which he was wont to intervene in the affairs of his great-hearted, but +impulsive, friend. +</P> + +<P> +He greeted Pollyooly warmly, and asked if Hilary Vance were in. +Pollyooly told him the artist was lunching at the Savage Club. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. James hesitated; then walking down the passage into the studio, he +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I expect that you'll be able to tell me the latest news of the +affair. I've just got back from Scotland to find a letter from Mr. +Ruffin to say that Mr. Vance has at last found the lady of his dreams +and is engaged to be married to a florist's assistant of the name of +Flossie. I expect Mr. Ruffin's rotting; he knows what a bother Mr. +Vance is. But I thought I'd better come round and make sure. Do you +know anything about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think he's engaged to her quite. But he's expecting to be +every day," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he is, is he?" said Mr. James in a tone of some exasperation. +"What's she like?" +</P> + +<P> +"She's fair, with a lot of fair hair and a very large hat with lots of +flowers in it," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"She would be!" broke in Mr. James with a groan. +</P> + +<P> +"And she gives herself airs because of that hat." +</P> + +<P> +"Just what I supposed," said Mr. James, fuming. +</P> + +<P> +"But she's engaged to Mr. Reginald Butterwick," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. James; and a faint gleam of hope +brightened his face. "And who is Mr. Reginald Butterwick?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping; but he can always get an afternoon +off to knock the stuffing out of any one, because he boxes at the +Chiswick Polytechnic. And he's going to get his afternoon off to-day +to knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance." +</P> + +<P> +"The deuce he is!" cried Mr. James. "Well, a good hiding would do +Hilary a world of good," he added in a vengeful tone. "Teach him not +to go spooning florists' assistants." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no. He might get hurt ever so badly," said Pollyooly firmly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. James' face grew stubborn; then it softened, and he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there's always the danger of his getting a finger broken; and +that wouldn't do. I suppose we must stop the affray—it might get into +the papers too." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: we must stop it, if we can," said Pollyooly anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if he's lunching at the Savage he'll play Spelka after it; and I +shall catch him there. I'll keep him out all the afternoon—till his +rival has tired of waiting and gone." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes. That would be much the best," said Pollyooly gratefully. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. James went briskly to the door. At it he stopped and said: +</P> + +<P> +"There's a chance that I may miss him. There may not be a game of +Spelka; and he may come straight home. Perhaps you'd better wait in +till about five." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: I think I'd better. He'd be sure to come back and not know +anything about Mr. Butterwick, if there weren't anybody here," said +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +He bade her good-bye; and let himself out of the house. She returned +to her darning. +</P> + +<P> +It was as well that she had not left the house, for about twenty +minutes later the front door was opened, and the passage and studio +quivered gently to Hilary Vance's weight. Pollyooly sprang up and met +him at the door of the studio with Flossie's note. +</P> + +<P> +At the sight of the handwriting, a large, gratified smile covered all +the round expanse of his face. But as he read, the smile faded, giving +way to an expression of the liveliest surprise and consternation. +</P> + +<P> +"What the deuce is this?" he cried loudly. +</P> + +<P> +"She said he was going to knock the stuffing out of you, Mr. Vance, and +he might be here any time this afternoon," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"And what the deuce for? What's it got to do with him?" cried Hilary +Vance. +</P> + +<P> +"She said he was her fiongsay," said Pollyooly, faithfully reproducing +Flossie's pronunciation. +</P> + +<P> +"Her fiancé?" roared Hilary Vance in accents of the liveliest surprise, +dismay, and horror. "Oh, woman! Woman! The faithlessness! The +treachery!" +</P> + +<P> +With a vast, magnificent expression of despair he dropped heavily on to +the nearest chair without pausing to select a strong one. Under the +stress of his emotion and his weight the chair crumpled up; and he sat +down on the floor with a violence which shook the house. He sprang up, +smothered, out of regard for the age and sex of Pollyooly, some +language suggested by the occurrence, and with a terrific kick sent the +fragments of the chair flying across the studio. Then he howled, and +holding his right toes in his left hand, hopped on his left leg. He +had forgotten that he was wearing thin, but patent-leather, shoes. +</P> + +<P> +Then he put his feet gingerly upon the floor, ground his teeth, and +roared: +</P> + +<P> +"Knock the stuffing out of me, will he? I'll tear him limb from limb! +The insidious villain! I'll teach him to come between me and the woman +I love!" +</P> + +<P> +Sad to relate Pollyooly's heart, inured to violence by her battles with +the young male inhabitants of the slum behind the Temple, where she had +lodged before becoming the housekeeper of the Honourable John Ruffin, +leapt joyfully at the thought of the fray, in spite of her friendship +with Hilary Vance; and her quick mind grasped the fact that she might +watch it in security from the door of her bedroom. Then her duty to +her host came uppermost. +</P> + +<P> +"But please, Mr. Vance: he's a boxer. He boxes at the Chiswick +Polytechnic," she cried anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Let him box! I'll tear him limb from limb!" roared Hilary Vance +ferociously; and he strode up and down the studio, limping that he +might not press heavily on his aching toes. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly gazed at him doubtfully. Flossie's account of Mr. +Butterwick's prowess had impressed her too deeply to permit her to +believe that anything but painful ignominious defeat awaited Hilary +Vance at his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"But he blacks people's eyes and makes their noses bleed," protested +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tear him limb from limb!" roared Hilary Vance, still ferociously, +but with less conviction in his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"And he doesn't care how big anybody is, if they don't know how to +box," Pollyooly insisted. +</P> + +<P> +"No more do I!" roared Hilary Vance. +</P> + +<P> +He stamped up and down the studio yet more vigorously since his aching +toes were growing easier. Then he sank into a chair—a stronger +chair—gingerly; and in a more moderate tone said: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have the scoundrel's blood. I'll teach him to cross my path." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, considering the matter more coldly, and Pollyooly anxiously +watched his working face. Little by little it grew calmer. +</P> + +<P> +"After all it may not be the scoundrel's fault," he said in a tone of +some magnanimity. "I know what women are—treachery for treachery's +sake. Why should I destroy the poor wretch whose heart has probably +been as scored as mine by the discovery of her treachery? He is a +fellow victim." +</P> + +<P> +"And perhaps you mightn't destroy him—if he's such a good boxer," said +Pollyooly anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I should certainly destroy him," said Hilary Vance with a dignified +certainty. "But to what purpose? Would it give me back my unstained +ideal? No. The ideal once tarnished never shines as bright again." +</P> + +<P> +His face was now calm—calm and growing sorrowful. Then a sudden +apprehension appeared on it: +</P> + +<P> +"Besides—suppose I broke a finger—a finger of my right hand. Why +should I give this blackguard a chance of maiming me?" he cried, and +looked at Pollyooly earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Mr. Vance," said Pollyooly, answering the question in +his urgent eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"If I did break a finger, it might be weeks—months before I could work +again. Why, I might never be able to work again!" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what Mr. James was afraid of," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. James! Has he been here?" cried Hilary Vance; and there was far +more uneasiness than pleasure in his tone on thus hearing of his +friend's return. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. He came to know if you were engaged yet," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, did he?" said Hilary Vance very glumly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And I told him you weren't." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," he said in a tone of relief. +</P> + +<P> +"And he said we must stop the affray." +</P> + +<P> +"He was right. It would be criminal," said Hilary Vance solemnly. +"After all it isn't myself: I have to consider posterit—" +</P> + +<P> +A sudden, very loud knocking on the front door cut short the word. +</P> + +<P> +"That's him!" said Pollyooly in a hushed voice. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance rose, folded his two big arms, and faced the door of the +studio, his brow knitted in a dreadful frown. +</P> + +<P> +"Hadn't I better send him away?" said Pollyooly anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance ground his teeth and scowled steadily at the studio door +for a good half-minute. Then he let his arms fall to his sides, walked +with a very haughty air to his bedroom, opened the door, and from the +threshold said: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: you'd better send him away—if you can." +</P> + +<P> +As Pollyooly went to let the visitor in, she heard him (Mr. Vance) turn +his key in the lock of his bedroom door. +</P> + +<P> +It was perhaps as well that he did so; for as Pollyooly opened the +front door a young man whose flashing eye proclaimed him Mr. Reginald +Butterwick, pushed quickly past her and bounced into the studio. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly followed him quickly, somewhat surprised by his size. He +bounced well into the studio with an air of splendid intrepidity, which +would have been more splendid had he been three or four inches higher +and thicker, and uttered a snort of disappointment at its emptiness. +</P> + +<P> +He turned on Pollyooly and snapped out: +</P> + +<P> +"Where's your guv'ner? Where's Hilary Vance?" Pollyooly hesitated; she +was still taken aback by the young man's lack of the formidable +largeness Flossie had led her to expect; and she was, besides, a very +truthful child. Then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"I expect he's somewhere in Chelsea." +</P> + +<P> +"When'll he be back?" snapped the young man. +</P> + +<P> +"He's generally in to tea," with less hesitation; and she looked at him +with very limpid eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"He is, is he? Then I'll wait for him," said the young man in as +bloodcurdling a tone as his size would allow: he did not stand five +feet three in his boots. +</P> + +<P> +He stood still for a moment, scowling round the studio; then he said in +a dreadful tone: +</P> + +<P> +"There'll be plenty of room for us." +</P> + +<P> +He fell into the position of a prizefighter on guard and danced two +steps to the right, and two steps to the left. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly gazed at him earnestly. Except for his flashing eye, he was +not a figure to dread, for what he lost in height he gained in +slenderness. He was indeed uncommonly slender. In fact, either he had +forgotten to tell Flossie that he was a featherweight boxer, or she had +forgotten to pass the information on. The most terrible thing about +him was his fierce air, and the most dangerous-looking his sharp, +tip-tilted nose. +</P> + +<P> +Then Pollyooly sat down in considerable relief; she was quite sure now +that did Mr. Reginald Butterwick discover that his rival was in his +bedroom and hale him forth, the person who would suffer would be Mr. +Reginald Butterwick. She took up again the gigantic sock she was +mending; and she kept looking up from it to observe with an easy eye +the pride of the Polytechnic as he walked round the studio examining +the draperies, the pictures, and the drawings on the wall. Whenever +his eye rested on one signed by Hilary Vance he sniffed a bitter, +contemptuous sniff. For these he had but three words of criticism; +they were: "Rot!" "Rubbish!" and "Piffle!" +</P> + +<P> +Once he said in a bitterly scoffing tone: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose your precious guv'ner thinks he's got the artistic +temperament." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +He squared briskly up to an easel, danced lightly on his toes before +it, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give him the artistic temperament all right." +</P> + +<P> +At last he paused in his wanderings before the industrious Pollyooly, +and his eyes fell on the gigantic sock she was darning. She saw his +expression change; something of the fierce confidence of the intrepid +boxer passed out of his face. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, what's that you're darning?" he said quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a sock," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"It looks more like a sack than a sock. Whose sock is it?" said Mr. +Reginald Butterwick; and there was a faint note of anxiety in his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Mr. Vance's sock," said Pollyooly; and with gentle pride she held +it up in a fashion to display its full proportions. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Reginald Butterwick took two or three nervous steps to the right, +looking askance at the sock as he moved. It was not really as large as +a sack. +</P> + +<P> +"Big man, your guv'ner? Eh?" he said in a finely careless tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I should think he was!" cried Pollyooly with enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Reginald Butterwick looked still more earnestly at the sock and +said: +</P> + +<P> +"One of those tall lanky chaps—eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's tall, but he isn't lanky—not a bit," said Pollyooly quickly. +"He's tremendously big—broad and thick as well as tall, you know. +He's more like a giant than a man." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know those giants—flabby—flabby," said Mr. Reginald +Butterwick; and he laughed a short, scoffing laugh which rang uneasy. +</P> + +<P> +"He's not flabby!" cried Pollyooly indignantly. "He's tremendously +strong. Why—why—when he heard you were coming he smashed that chair +and kicked it into the corner just because he was annoyed." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Reginald Butterwick looked at the smallish fragments of the chair +in the corner; and his face became the face of a quiet, respectable +clerk. +</P> + +<P> +"He did, did he?" he said coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and he wanted to tear you limb from limb. He said so," said +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a game two can play at," said Mr. Reginald Butterwick; but his +tone lacked conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he'd do it—quite easily," said Pollyooly confidently. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Reginald Butterwick stared at her and then at the sock. He opened +his mouth to speak and then shut it again. Then he whistled a short, +defiant whistle which went out of tune toward the end. Then he walked +the length of the studio and back. Then he stopped and said to +Pollyooly very fiercely: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I've got nothing else to do but wait here all the +afternoon for your precious guv'ner to come home to tea?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," said Pollyooly politely. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I have—plenty," said Mr. Reginald Butterwick savagely. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"And what's more, I'm going to do it!" said Mr. Reginald Butterwick yet +more savagely; and he strode firmly to the door. On the threshold he +paused and added: "But you tell your guv'ner from me—Mr. Reginald +Butterwick—that he hasn't seen the last of me—not by a long chalk. +One of these fine nights when he's messing round with—well, you tell +him what I've told you—that's all. He'll know." +</P> + +<P> +With that he passed through the door and banged it heavily behind him. +The front door was larger and heavier, so that he was able to bang it +more loudly still. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DUCHESS HAS AN IDEA +</H3> + + +<P> +Pollyooly heaved a sigh as the studio trembled to the shock of the +banged front door, a sigh chiefly of relief, but tinged also with a +faint regret that she had not seen Mr. Reginald Butterwick torn limb +from limb. She knew that she would not really have enjoyed the sight; +and the mess in the cleaned studio would have been exceedingly +annoying; but there were primitive depths in her heart, and somewhere +in them was the regret that she had missed the thrilling spectacle. +</P> + +<P> +The studio still quivered to the bang, the sigh still trembled on +Pollyooly's lip, when the bedroom door opened, and Hilary Vance came +forth with an immense scowl on his spacious face and said fiercely: +</P> + +<P> +"So the scoundrel's gone, has he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. When I told him how big you were, he didn't seem so eager to +fight. And he went away," said Pollyooly quickly. "But he told me to +tell you that you hadn't seen the last of him—not by a long chalk." +</P> + +<P> +Her host's scowl lightened a little; there was almost a faint +satisfaction on his face as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"So he fears my rivalry still, does he?" Then his face grew gloomier +than ever; and he added: "There's no need. I am not one to sit at the +feet of a tarnished ideal. There will be a gap—there is a gap—but I +have done with HER for good and all. I have—done—with—HER." +</P> + +<P> +He had drawn himself up to utter the last words with a splendid air; +then he said sadly: +</P> + +<P> +"I think I should like my tea." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll get it at once," said Pollyooly cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +She was not long about it. Hilary Vance took the Lump on his knee, +gave him a lump of sugar, poured out the tea, and began to drink it +with an air of gloomy resignation. +</P> + +<P> +Presently he patted the Lump's bright red curls and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Let this be a warning to you, red cherub, never to trust a +woman—never as long as you live." +</P> + +<P> +The Lump grunted peacefully. +</P> + +<P> +"He's too young to understand, or it wouldn't be right to teach him +such a thing as that," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval. +</P> + +<P> +"Not right?" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "But you've seen for +yourself! You've seen how that girl led me on to squander the treasure +of a splendid passion on her unresponsive spirit while, all the time, +she was abasing herself before a miserable, preposterous scoundrel like +that ruffian Butterwick." +</P> + +<P> +"He was rather small," said Pollyooly thoughtfully. "But I daresay +he'd make her a good husband. He looked quite respectable." +</P> + +<P> +"A good husband!" cried Hilary Vance with a dreadful sneer. +</P> + +<P> +"But I expect she'll lead him a life. She looked like it," said +Pollyooly, thoughtfully pursuing the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"Serve him right!" cried Hilary Vance with terrible scorn. "He has +learnt her treachery to me; and if he marries her after that, he +deserves all he gets. If she betrays my trust, she'll betray his." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was silent, considering the matter. Then, summing it up, she +said with conviction: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think she's the kind of girl to trust at all." +</P> + +<P> +"I must have been blind—blind," said Hilary Vance. +</P> + +<P> +Then came the sound of a taxicab drawing up before the house, and then +a knocking at the front door. Pollyooly opened it, and found Mr. James +on the threshold. He looked uncommonly anxious and said quickly: +</P> + +<P> +"I missed him. Has he come back?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he's having his tea." +</P> + +<P> +"And this fellow Butterwick?" said Mr. James. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he came; and then, when he found how big Mr. Vance is, he went +away. But he hasn't done with Mr. Vance—not by a long chalk. He told +me to tell him so," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm glad they didn't scrap," said Mr. James in a tone of relief. +"If they didn't at once, they're not very likely to later." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no: they won't now," said Pollyooly confidently. "You see as soon +as he heard that Mr. Butterwick was her—her fiongsay"—she hesitated +over the word because Hilary Vance had shaken her original conception +of its pronunciation—"he gave her up for good." +</P> + +<P> +"That is a blessing," said the novelist in a tone of yet greater relief. +</P> + +<P> +He had been looking forward to a disagreeable and very likely hopeless +struggle with his friend's infatuation. +</P> + +<P> +He walked down the passage and into the studio briskly. But not +quickly enough to prevent an expression of funereal gloom flooding +Hilary Vance's face. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you?" said Mr. James cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"In the depths—in the depths—my last illusion shattered," said the +artist in the gloomiest kind of despairing croak. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you never know," said Mr. James. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never trust a woman again—never," said the artist in an +inexorable tone. +</P> + +<P> +"But I thought you'd given up trusting them months ago," said Mr. James +in considerable surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"I was deceived—this one seemed so different. She was a serpent—a +veritable serpent," said Hilary Vance in his deepest tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. They are apt to be like that," said Mr. James with some +carelessness. "May I have some tea?" +</P> + +<P> +Gloomily the artist poured him out a cup of tea; gloomily he watched +him drink it. Heedless of his gloom, Mr. James plunged into an account +of his stay in Scotland, telling of the country, the food, and the +people with an agreeable, racy vivacity. Slowly the great cloud lifted +from Hilary Vance's ample face. He grew interested; he asked +questions; at last he said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"I must go to Scotland. Nature—Nature pure and undenied is what my +seared soul needs." +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't be a bad idea," said Mr. James. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall wear a kilt," said Hilary Vance solemnly. "The winds of +heaven playing round my legs would assist healing nature; and I must be +in complete accord with the country." +</P> + +<P> +"A kilt wouldn't be a bad idea," said Mr. James. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance paused and appeared to be thinking deeply; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"The Scotch peasant lassies, James—are they as attractive nowadays as +they appear to have been in the days of Burns?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you'd done with women!" cried Mr. James. +</P> + +<P> +"I <I>have</I> done with women," said the poet with cold sternness. "I have +done with the cold-hearted, treacherous, meretricious women of the +town. But the simple, trusting and trustworthy country girl, the +daughter of the soil, in perpetual touch with nature—surely communion +with her would be healing too." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang it all!" said Mr. James quite despondently. +</P> + +<P> +Hilary Vance plunged once more into deep thought; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Where does one buy a kilt—and a sporran?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whiteley's, I suppose," said Mr. James. Then he added hastily: "But I +say, oughtn't we to do something to amuse these children?" +</P> + +<P> +At once his friend forgot his seared heart; for the while the process +of healing it did not exercise his wits. He flung himself heart and +soul into the business of amusing Pollyooly and the Lump; and presently +the studio rang with their screams of joy. There may have been some +truth in the assertion of his detractors that Hilary Vance's drawing +was facile and too far on the side of mere prettiness; but no one in +the world could deny that he made a splendid elephant: his trumpeting +was especially true to life. +</P> + +<P> +Ten days passed pleasantly at his studio; and both Pollyooly and the +Lump were the better for the change. Three times she went to the +King's Bench Walk and cleaned the rooms against the Honourable John +Ruffin's return; four times she went to the dancing class in Soho, +where she was training for a career on the stage. On the evening of +the tenth day came a letter to say that he would be back at noon on the +morrow. After breakfast, therefore, Hilary Vance despatched the two +children back to the King's Bench Walk in a taxicab, the Lump hugging a +large box of chocolate creams, Pollyooly, in no less joy, clasping +firmly her shabby little purse which contained, beyond the silver she +carried to meet any natural expense, a golden sovereign, the artist's +parting gift. Her sky was now serene; but she was still mindful of the +days when the jaws of the workhouse had yawned for her and the Lump, +and she lost no chance of adding to her hoard in the Post Office +Savings Bank. Immediately on her arrival at the Temple she went to the +post office and added the sovereign to it. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin arrived from Buda-Pesth, looking the browner +for the change, and in very good spirits. He brought the friendliest +messages and Hungarian gifts to Pollyooly and the Lump from the +Esmeralda, and was able to assure them that she was in excellent +health, and enjoying a genuine triumph. +</P> + +<P> +When he had delivered the Esmeralda's gifts and assured Pollyooly of +her prosperity, there came a short silence; then Pollyooly said: +</P> + +<P> +"And the Moldo-Wallachian, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +The fine grey eyes of the Honourable John Ruffin twinkled, as he said +gravely: +</P> + +<P> +"The Moldo-Wallachian has returned to Moldo-Wallachia. When the ideal +was once more clearly presented to the Esmeralda, the attractions of +the Moldo-Wallachian faded as flowers fade in a drought." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad she isn't going to marry a foreigner," said Pollyooly with +true patriotism. +</P> + +<P> +"She would never be happy in Moldo-Wallachia," said the Honourable John +Ruffin with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, sir," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"And how did you leave Mr. Vance?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he was all right, sir," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he was, was he? Did you by any chance come across a young lady of +the name of Flossie while you were staying at Chelsea?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. But he doesn't have anything to do with her now, sir. He +goes past the shop with an air of cold dignity—he says he does; and +he's going to Scotland to wear a kilt to get quite cured—he says he +is," said Pollyooly quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"It sounds most efficacious," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "But +how did it all happen?" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly told the story of the intervention of Mr. Butterwick; and the +Honourable John Ruffin chuckled freely, for no reason that she could +see, as he listened to it. At the end of it he said sententiously: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, all's well that ends well. These foreign countries are not +suited to English girls: Miss Flossie would never be happy in Bohemia." +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, when she brought in his grilled bacon, he said that +they might now congratulate themselves on the prospect of leading their +quiet, industrious lives in peace for a while. +</P> + +<P> +These congratulations, however, were premature, for only three days +later he was sitting in his rooms, having just come from the Law +Courts, where he had been acting as junior counsel in an awkward case, +and was bracing himself to the effort of getting himself his afternoon +tea, since Pollyooly had gone with the Lump to take the air in Hyde +Park. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly there came a sharp, hurried knocking on his outer door. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin raised his eyebrows, opened his eyes rather +wide, and said to his cigarette: +</P> + +<P> +"A woman in distress, evidently. Who on earth can it be?" +</P> + +<P> +He did not spring to his feet and dash to the door to offer instant aid +to the distressed one. He rose slowly and walked slowly to the door, +assuming slowly as he went an air of deep, but patient, resignation. +</P> + +<P> +He opened the door gingerly. On the threshold stood the beautiful, +high-spirited and wilful Duchess of Osterley. +</P> + +<P> +"Caroline, by Jove! Why, I thought you were out of England, still +hiding Marion from Osterley," he cried, and smiled with pleasure at the +sight of her beautiful face. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke and Duchess of Osterley had been at daggers drawn for nearly +two years; and since both of them had sought to bring their feud +forcibly to an end in the Law Courts, the Anglo-Saxon peoples had had +no cause to complain of any lack of effort on their part to be +entertaining. The upshot of the law proceedings had been that the +Court, with a futility almost fatuous, had ordered the duchess to +return to her husband, and, what was far more important, had given the +custody of their little daughter of twelve, Lady Marion Ricksborough, +to the duke. +</P> + +<P> +The Anglo-Saxon peoples felt that the duke had scored heavily; and the +duchess agreed with them. She was not one to sit submissive under +defeat; and presently those peoples read with the liveliest interest +and pleasure that she had carried off her daughter and hidden her with +such skill that the detectives, official and unofficial, had failed +utterly to find her. +</P> + +<P> +In this carrying off and hiding Pollyooly had played the important +part. It had been a freak of nature to make her and Lady Marion +Ricksborough so closely alike, that even when they were together it was +hard to tell which was which. The duchess had taken advantage of this +likeness to substitute Pollyooly for Lady Marion at Ricksborough Court, +the duke's chief country seat, for a fortnight. +</P> + +<P> +The duke, Lady Marion's nurse, and her governess had believed Lady +Marion Ricksborough to be still with them, and had given the duchess +all the time she needed to hide her. +</P> + +<P> +For a whole fortnight Pollyooly had played her part with such skill +that only the duke's nephew and heir, Lord Ronald Ricksborough, had +discovered that she was not Lady Marion. A most discreet boy of +fourteen, and already Pollyooly's warm friend, he was the last person +to spoil the sport; and at the end of the fortnight she had slipped +away and returned by motor car to her post of housekeeper to the +Honourable John Ruffin and Mr. Gedge-Tomkins in the King's Bench Walk. +</P> + +<P> +Ignorant of the fact that Lady Marion Ricksborough had fled a fortnight +previously, the detectives, both official and private, had taken up the +search for her from the moment of Pollyooly's disappearance from the +Court. It is hardly a matter for wonder that they did not go far along +a trail which had been cold for a fortnight. +</P> + +<P> +As he said, the Honourable John Ruffin had believed the duchess to be +hiding out of England; and he showed himself unfeignedly pleased to see +her. He put her in his most comfortable chair, made her take off her +hat, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, I'll make you some tea." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin went to the kitchen; the duchess rose +restlessly and followed him. As he made the tea he lectured her on the +importance of making it not only with boiling water, but with water +which had not been boiling for more than a quarter of a minute, and +that poured on to a fine China tea in a warmed pot without taking the +kettle right off the stove. +</P> + +<P> +The rebellious duchess, impatient to tell him the object of her visit, +made several faces at him; and twice she said contemptuously: +</P> + +<P> +"You and your old tea!" +</P> + +<P> +But when she came to drink it, she admitted handsomely that it was +better than she could have made it herself. +</P> + +<P> +She drank it; grew suddenly serious, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"John, I'm in a mess, and I've come to you for help." +</P> + +<P> +"It is yours to the half of my fortune—at present about fourteen +shillings," said the Honourable John Ruffin warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I didn't take Marion abroad," said the duchess. "They always +look abroad for people who bolt. I borrowed Pinky Wallerton's car and +drove her down, myself, to a cottage I bought in Devonshire—in the +pinewoods above Budleigh Salterton." +</P> + +<P> +"That sounds all right." +</P> + +<P> +"It was—quite—till this morning. Then, without a word of warning, at +eleven o'clock, one of Osterley's lawyers turned up with a detective." +</P> + +<P> +"And got her?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Fortunately she was out in the wood with her nurse. I gave +Eglantine, my maid, twenty pounds and told her to get quietly to Marion +while I kept the brutes in play, rush her down to the station, and +catch the London train. They'd just time if they ran most of the way." +</P> + +<P> +"But the lawyer would only have to wire to Osterley to meet the train +at Waterloo," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought of that," said the duchess quickly. "I told her to leave +the express at Salisbury, go on to Woking by a slow train, take a taxi +from there to my old nurse's, Mrs. Simpson's, in Camden Town, and leave +Marion with her." +</P> + +<P> +"Excellent," said the Honourable John Ruffin in warm approval. +</P> + +<P> +"Then she's to come on here with Marion's clothes in time to catch the +six o'clock to Exeter from Paddington." +</P> + +<P> +"Here? With Marion's clothes? What for?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, to put on Mary Bride—Pollyooly as you call her. I want to +borrow her again, substitute her for Marion, and let her keep the +brutes quiet while I carry Marion off to a cottage I have bought in the +north of Scotland for just such an emergency as this." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin sprang to his feet with flashing eyes: +</P> + +<P> +"What? Rob me of my bacon-griller again? The last time my breakfast +was spoilt for a fortnight. You don't know what you ask!" he cried in +tones in which indignation and horror were nicely blended. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but this won't be for a fortnight—a couple of days at the +outside. Surely you could eat fish for breakfast for a couple of +mornings," pleaded the duchess. +</P> + +<P> +"I never eat fish for breakfast," said the Honourable John Ruffin +coldly. "I am an Englishman and a patriot—eggs and bacon." +</P> + +<P> +"But just for once," said the duchess. +</P> + +<P> +The hard expression faded slowly from his face; he took a turn up and +down the room; then he said in a tone of infinite sadness: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, I suppose I must sacrifice myself again. What a thing it +is to be a cousin! But how are you going to work it? Surely you're +being followed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Rather," said the duchess cheerfully. "But I don't take Mary Bride +with me. I go back to Budleigh Salterton by the four forty-five from +Waterloo; and my follower will no doubt go with me. Eglantine and Mary +Bride will go down to Exeter by the six o'clock from Paddington, motor +over, and slip into the house late at night. There's sure to be some +one watching it; and once they believe Marion to be in it, they'll go +on watching it without bothering about me. I only want to be left +alone for six hours, and I'll get Marion away without leaving a trace." +</P> + +<P> +"Strategist," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of admiring +approval. "I hope you'll pull it off. You deserve to for having +thought it out so thoroughly. Fortunately, Pollyooly is due home at a +quarter of five, so there'll be no trouble there. She's the most +punctual person in the Temple." +</P> + +<P> +"That's lucky," said the duchess with a sigh of thankfulness. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing more to be arranged; and if she were going to catch +her train comfortably, it was time that she started for Waterloo. He +escorted her to Fleet Street, put her into a taxicab, and bade her +good-bye. +</P> + +<P> +The taxicab started; he turned to return to his rooms, stopped short, +and said sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"Bother! I forgot to arrange about Pollyooly's salary!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY IS CALLED IN +</H3> + + +<P> +On his way back to the King's Bench Walk the Honourable John Ruffin +pondered this matter of salary and came to the conclusion that five +pounds would not be too high a fee for the duchess to pay for skilled +work of this kind. He must remember to tell Eglantine to tell her to +give Pollyooly that sum. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was rather earlier than he had expected: at five and twenty +minutes to five he heard her latchkey in the lock of his outer door, +and when it opened he called to her to come to him. +</P> + +<P> +She entered leading the Lump. His red hair was a rather brighter red +than the hair of Pollyooly; but his eyes were of the same deep blue and +his clear skin of the same paleness. They would have made a charming +picture of Cupid led by an angel child. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Pollyooly!" said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. "You are +about to realise the truth of those immortal lines: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Oh, what a tangled web we weave<BR> +When first we practice to deceive!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Please, sir, I haven't been deceiving any one," said Pollyooly, +knitting her brow in a faint anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"Not recently, perhaps. But you have deceived. You deceived the Duke +of Osterley by taking the place of his daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, him?" said Pollyooly in a very care-free tone; and her face grew +serene. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't seem to feel it much," said the Honourable John Ruffin +sadly. "But now you are called on to deceive lawyers and detectives." +</P> + +<P> +"Am I to be Lady Marion again?" said Pollyooly quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"You are, indeed," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"And shall I be paid again for doing it?" +</P> + +<P> +Her angel face flushed, and her blue eyes danced. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly you will be paid. I am going to tell Eglantine, the +duchess's maid, to see to it. She's coming for you, and you haven't +any time to lose. She's going to take you down to Devonshire by the +train which leaves Paddington at six," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'd better take the Lump round to Mrs. Brown at once," said +Pollyooly; and her eyes sparkled and danced. +</P> + +<P> +"You had," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "It's only for a couple of +nights at the outside, tell her." +</P> + +<P> +"And that's quite as long as I like to leave him," she said in a tone +of complete satisfaction; and she ran briskly up-stairs to their attic +for the Lump's sleeping-suit. +</P> + +<P> +She was not long taking him to Mrs. Brown, who lived in the little +slum, the last remnant of Alsatia, behind the King's Bench Walk; and +she welcomed him warmly. Pollyooly and he had lodged with her before +they had gone to live in the King's Bench Walk, and Mrs. Brown had +grown very fond of him. She had taken charge of him during the time +Pollyooly had spent at Ricksborough Court and was delighted to have him +with her again. Also she was disengaged for the next two days and was +able to take charge of the housekeeping at number 75 the King's Bench +Walk during Pollyooly's absence. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly had not been gone five minutes, when there came a gentle +knocking at the door of the Honourable John Ruffin's chambers. He +opened it to find Eglantine, a pretty, dark, slim girl of twenty-two, +standing on the doormat, carrying a small kitbag and wearing an air of +deepest mystery. +</P> + +<P> +"You're Mademoiselle Eglantine, I suppose?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye—es. And you are Monsieur Ruffin," she whispered with an air of +utter secrecy. "Ze duchess she 'av been 'ere?" +</P> + +<P> +"She has. Come on in. Pollyooly is making preparations to go with +you," said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. "She'll be here in a +few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +He stepped aside for her to pass. She looked back down the staircase +carefully and with the greatest caution; then she entered and went on +tiptoe, noiselessly, down the passage into the sitting-room. There +could be no doubt that she was thoroughly enjoying the part of a +conspirator and resolved to play it to the limit. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin was the last man in the world to spoil her +simple pleasure, and as they came into the sitting-room he suddenly +gripped her arm. +</P> + +<P> +Eglantine jumped and squeaked. +</P> + +<P> +"Hist!" said the Honourable John Ruffin, laying a finger on his lips, +frowning portentously, and rolling his eyes. Then he added in blank +verse, as being appropriate to the conspiratorial attitude: "I thought +I heard a footstep on the stairs." +</P> + +<P> +They both listened intently—at least Eglantine did; she hardly +breathed in her intentness. Then he said in a declamatory fashion: +</P> + +<P> +"I was mistaken; we are saved again." +</P> + +<P> +He loosed her arm. She breathed more easily, tapped the kit-bag, and +said: +</P> + +<P> +"I 'av brought ze Lady Marion's clo'es." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Sit down." +</P> + +<P> +She sat down, breathing quickly, gazing earnestly at the Honourable +John Ruffin, who folded his arms and wore his best darkling air. +</P> + +<P> +Presently Pollyooly's key grated in the lock. +</P> + +<P> +"Hist! She comes!" said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +Eglantine rose, quivering. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly came in, shut the door sharply behind her, and came briskly +down the passage into the sitting-room. +</P> + +<P> +At the sight of her Eglantine forgot the whispering caution of the +conspirator; she cried loudly: +</P> + +<P> +"But ze likeness! Eet ees marvellous! Incredible! Eet ees 'er leetle +ladyship exact!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And she'll be more like her than ever in her clothes. Hurry up +and get her into them," said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. +</P> + +<P> +He bustled them up the stairs to Pollyooly's attic; and as Eglantine +helped her into Lady Marion Ricksborough's clothes, she continued to +express her lively wonder at the likeness. She was not long making the +change, and they came quickly downstairs. But the Honourable John +Ruffin would not let them start at once. +</P> + +<P> +"It's no use your getting there too early and hanging about the +station," he said firmly. "That's when you'd get spotted. You want to +get there just about three minutes before the train starts. You've no +luggage to bother you." +</P> + +<P> +He made both of them eat some cake, and gave Eglantine a glass of wine +with it, for he thought that she needed something to steady her excited +nerves. Then he told her that the duchess was to pay Pollyooly a fee +of five pounds, and bade Pollyooly be sure to wire to him the time of +the train by which she was returning to London. +</P> + +<P> +Then he decided that it was time for them to start, and wished them +good luck. He did not go with them, for he did not wish to be seen by +any one taking an active part in the affairs of the Duke and Duchess of +Osterley. +</P> + +<P> +In the taxicab Eglantine was eloquent on the matter of the charm and +distinction of the Honourable John Ruffin: plainly he had made a deep +impression on her. But when they reached the station she resumed the +striking manners of a conspirator so admirably that in the three +minutes she spent paying the taxi-driver and buying tickets she +attracted the keen attention of two of the detectives of the railway. +They followed her, as she tiptoed about with hunched shoulders, and +watched her with the eyes of lynxes; but she puzzled them. They +assured one another that she had some game on (their knowledge of +fallen human nature was too exact for them to miss that fact) but for +the life of them they could not discover, or guess, what it was. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-070"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-070.jpg" ALT="She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders" BORDER="2" WIDTH="414" HEIGHT="635"> +<H3> +[Illustration: She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +On the platform she chose an empty compartment and stood before the +door of it for a good half-minute, looking up and down the train with +eyes even more lynxlike than those of the detectives. Then she almost +flung Pollyooly into the carriage, hustled her into the farthest +corner, and fairly sat on her in her effort to screen her from the eyes +of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not stir!" she hissed. "Ze train veel soon start! Zen we are +saved!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly could not have stirred, had she wished, so firmly did +Eglantine crush her into the corner. One of the detectives came to the +window and stared into the carriage gloomily. Eglantine met his gaze +with steady eyes. The guard whistled and waved his flag; the detective +fell back. He said to his colleague that it was a rum go. The train +started. +</P> + +<P> +As their carriage passed out of the station, with a deep sigh of relief +Eglantine relaxed to an easier, less crushing posture, and at once took +up the subject of the Honourable John Ruffin. She showed herself +exceedingly curious about him, and Pollyooly's natural discretion was +somewhat strained in answering her questions. It was difficult to +convey as little information as possible. +</P> + +<P> +But at the end of half an hour Eglantine had exhausted that subject; +and she turned to the yet more interesting matter of her own affairs. +She had much to tell Pollyooly about Devonshire, the wet garden of +England. Its horticultural advantages seemed to weigh but lightly with +her; she dwelt chiefly on the loneliness of the life she had been +leading, and deplored bitterly the fact that its inglorious ease was +spoiling her figure by increasing her girth. +</P> + +<P> +Then, with an air of mystery and in deeper tones, she confided to +Pollyooly that her lot in this wet desert was not without its +alleviation. A wealthy landowner (he did own a part of the +market-garden he so sedulously cultivated) had developed a grand—oh, +but a grand!—passion for her, and was positively persecuting her with +his honourable intentions. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was deeply interested by her tale, for her recent experience +with Mr. Hilary Vance, Mr. Reginald Butterwick and Flossie had forced +the tender passion on her attention. She was greatly puzzled by the +reason which Eglantine gave for not making her landowner happy by +marrying him, that he was bearded. Mrs. Brown's husband, a cheerful +policeman, was bearded; but they were uncommonly happy together. In +the end she made up her mind that Eglantine's feeling in the matter +must be a French prejudice. +</P> + +<P> +They reached Exeter at a few minutes past ten; and having no luggage +but the little kit-bag, in a few minutes, in spite of the +conspiratorial air and behaviour of Eglantine, they were speeding +swiftly in the motor car toward Budleigh Salterton. It was a +delightful, moonlit night, and Pollyooly enjoyed the drive greatly. +</P> + +<P> +About forty minutes later the car stopped at a little gate leading into +a pine wood, and they descended, bade the driver good night, and went +through it. In the path through the dark wood Eglantine lost her air +of competent and excited leadership. She was timorous, held Pollyooly +tightly by the arm, and when a bird, or an animal, rustled in the +bushes, she squeaked. +</P> + +<P> +At last the path ended in a little gate opening into the garden of the +lonely house. They came up to it very gently, and Eglantine peered +round the garden, searching for the lawyer and the detective. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed empty, and as she opened the gate she whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"We must roon quick!" +</P> + +<P> +They bolted across the garden to the back door, and as they reached it +a man burst out of the bushes twenty yards on their left, and dashed at +them. Eglantine screamed, but she opened the door, dragged Pollyooly +through it, slammed the door in the pursuer's face, and shot the bolt. +At the sound of the bang the duchess came flying through the lighted +hall. At the sight of Pollyooly she cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Thank goodness you've come!" +</P> + +<P> +Eglantine burst into an excited narrative of their journey and narrow +escape from the watcher in the garden. +</P> + +<P> +"Then he actually saw Mary Bride come into the house?" cried the +duchess joyfully, and she clapped her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"But yes! Ever so plainly!" cried Eglantine. +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Nothing could be better!" said the duchess. "They'll think +that Marion is in the house, and that's all I want." +</P> + +<P> +She kissed Pollyooly, thanked her for coming, asked if the journey had +tired her very much, and led her into the dining-room, where a +delicious supper awaited her. As she ate it the duchess, watching her +with an air of lively satisfaction, matured her plans. At last she +said: +</P> + +<P> +"I was going to let them catch you to-morrow morning, and then I was +going up to London with you. But you look like a clever little girl; +do you think you could hide in the wood from them all the morning? If +you could, I would go up to London first thing, and I should have lots +of time to get away with Marion before they caught you and found out +who you were." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! I'm sure I could!" cried Pollyooly eagerly; and her eyes +shone with a bright joy at the prospect of so excellent a game of +hide-and-seek. "If once I got into that wood, they'd never find me +unless I let them. Only it would be a good deal easier if I wore a +dark frock." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall!" cried the duchess. "It would be perfectly splendid! I +know you're a clever little girl. Otherwise you couldn't have made +them believe for so long at Ricksborough Court that you were Marion. +Cook shall make you up a packet of sandwiches so that you won't starve; +and if you can keep them busy till the afternoon, we shall have all the +time we want to get comfortably away." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I can," said Pollyooly with the confidence born of much +experience in hide-and-seek. "But even if they do catch me, they won't +know I'm not Lady Marion; I'm sure I can keep them from bothering you +all day." +</P> + +<P> +The duchess kissed her again, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be ever so much obliged to you if you do. But half a day will +be quite enough. And now you'd better go to bed; you must be sleepy, +and the more sleep you get the fresher you'll be to-morrow. I shall be +gone long before you're up." +</P> + +<P> +She took her up-stairs to Marion's bedroom, a charming room on the +first floor, and Pollyooly found the most comfortable spring bed so +lulling that in spite of her expectation of an exciting morrow, she +soon fell asleep. +</P> + +<P> +The yet more excited duchess was longer falling asleep; but she rose at +half-past five and dressed and breakfasted. It was a quarter past six +when she came out into the garden, on her way to the station, and found +the detective sunning himself, after the chill of his night-watch, on +the garden fence at a point from which he had under observation both +the path to the front door and that to the back. He had a rather heavy +face, but he showed a proper sense of her rank and position, for he +rose and raised his hat nearly three inches, respectfully. +</P> + +<P> +A woman of the world, the duchess knew the advantage of his having a +tale to think upon, for she said with a nice show of indignation: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going straight to my solicitor in town to take the final steps to +have this persecution stopped! I'm going to have you removed by the +police. You enter this house and touch my little girl at your own +risk! I've warned you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, your Grace. Quite so, your Grace. It'll be all right, your +Grace," said the detective, sleepily vague, but anxious to propitiate. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess walked briskly down to the station. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY PLAYS HER FAVOURITE PART +</H3> + + +<P> +At half-past eight Eglantine, already bubbling, in spite of the +earliness of the hour, with excited animation, awoke Pollyooly and +pulled up the blind of the bedroom window. +</P> + +<P> +Then she cried: +</P> + +<P> +"'E ees 'ere! Queek! Queek! Coom to ze window! Let 'im see you!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly jumped out of bed and ran to the window. The detective stood +on the lawn regarding the house gloomily. At the sight of her face he +beamed sleepily. +</P> + +<P> +Eglantine laughed and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Now 'e zinks you are 'ere! But you must eat your breakfast +queek, and be ready to run fast into ze wood when ze lawyer coom!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly bathed and dressed quickly, putting on a dark frock that she +might be less visible in the thickets. Then she came briskly +down-stairs and made an excellent breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +She was just finishing it when Eglantine, on the watch at the window, +cried: +</P> + +<P> +"'Ere is ze lawyer! You must fly! Oh, but queek!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly seized a cap and the packet of sandwiches which lay ready to +hand, and as she put on the cap she saw the lawyer, a middle-aged, but +stout gentleman, conferring with the detective and smiling triumphantly +and rubbing his hands at the news of her presence in the house. She +smiled too—a smile of pleasant anticipation. But then, as the lawyer +walked to the front door, the detective walked briskly to the back, and +she frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, bothaire! What are we to do?" cried Eglantine. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't there a window I could get out of?" said Pollyooly quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"But yes! Coom quick!" cried Eglantine, running out of the room. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly hurried after her; and there came the loud rat-tat of the +lawyer at the front door. They ran into the drawing-room and Eglantine +opened the window gently. The detective knocked at the back door; the +lawyer knocked again, louder. Pollyooly leaned out of the window, +weighing her chances. She saw that to get to the little gate into the +wood she would have to pass the detective. But on her left, in the +fence of the wood, was a gap which had been filled by a post and rails. +Though it would bring her in sight of the lawyer at the front door, +that seemed the safer way, since he was stouter, and probably less +swift of foot than the detective. She climbed out of the window and +made a dash for it. She reached the fence, went over it like a cat; +and her foot already touched the ground on the other side as the lawyer +saw her, and in his indignation and surprise howled like a skelped +hound. +</P> + +<P> +He was more used to office work than action; and it was fully five +seconds before he started for the wood. In those five seconds +Pollyooly had gone a good thirty yards into it. He rushed for the post +and rails, and climbed them with his eyes nearly starting out of his +head in his anxiety to see her. Then, instead of trying to hear in +which direction she was moving, he stood on the fence and bellowed to +the detective to come to him. +</P> + +<P> +The detective, tired by his night watch, was slow in grasping what had +happened. By the time he had reached the lawyer, had learned that +Pollyooly had taken to the woods, and was himself over the fence, many +valuable seconds had been lost; and Pollyooly, who had turned sharply +to the left, was sixty yards down the wood, moving noiselessly, out of +hearing. +</P> + +<P> +She threaded the mazes of the wood swiftly, with straining ears, +marking the loud rustling of her pursuers in the undergrowth. It grew +fainter and fainter, for they plunged on straight ahead of them; and +then it died quite away. She went on slowly, enjoying the wood, the +fragrance of the flowers, and the song of the birds in the sun-flecked +glades. +</P> + +<P> +About twenty minutes later she heard again the rustling of her +pursuers, faint and far away, but drawing nearer. She moved along +before it, and came to a gate opening into a leafy lane. Below, about +a mile away, lay the town of Budleigh Salterton, and the sea, shining +in the sun. +</P> + +<P> +She climbed on to the gate to get a better view (she had time enough), +her active brain working swiftly. She perceived that there were even +pleasanter ways of spending a summer's day in Devonshire than playing +hide-and-seek in a wood with a lawyer and a detective. Then she cast +one look back into the green depths of the wood, slipped over the gate, +and bolted down the lane as hard as she could run. Her only task had +been to keep the lawyer and the detective busy during the morning; and +she thought that the wood might be trusted to keep them busy without +any help from her. Eight minutes later she arrived, panting, in the +High Street of the town, slowed down, and strolled to the beach. +</P> + +<P> +But the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing hounds. +</P> + +<P> +As she came on to the esplanade a very large gentleman in grey flannel +was so impressed by her flower-like, angel face that, without pausing +to cast about for an introduction, he entered into conversation with +her. She was very affable with him, but not wholly open; for after a +while she left him under the impression that, so far from being an +orphan, she was staying with her parents in lodgings in the station +road. But she bore away from their colloquy a pleasing shilling with +which he had invited her to buy chocolate. +</P> + +<P> +She walked along the esplanade somewhat disappointed that the beach +should all of it be large pebbles. She had always believed the shore +of the sea to be sand. She did not, however, repine, but walked along +to the end of it, watching the bathers and the playing children, in a +great content. Then she went down the path beyond the esplanade, +between the sea and marshes, to the mouth of the swift-flowing Otter. +She walked out over the slippery rocks to the edge of the ebbing sea, +and finding some children paddling about in a pool, joined them. +</P> + +<P> +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. +</P> + +<P> +The pleasant feel of the warm salt water on her legs inspired Pollyooly +with larger desires. She put on her shoes and stockings and came back +to the esplanade. She soon learned that a bathing-dress and a +bathing-machine could be hired. She hired them and bathed. She bathed +for a long time, a longer time than was good for her. +</P> + +<P> +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. +</P> + +<P> +At last she tore herself from the water, dressed, and lay on the warm +pebbles, drying her beautiful red hair in the sun. The church clock +struck twelve; slowly, but with a good appetite, she ate her +sandwiches—chicken sandwiches. +</P> + +<P> +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. +</P> + +<P> +After her lunch Pollyooly bought herself a bottle of lemonade at a +confectioner's shop in the High Street; then once more she sought the +mouth of the Otter. There, hunting among the rocks, paddling, watching +the sea-gulls on the red cliffs beyond the stream, she enjoyed herself +greatly. It is to be doubted that a happier child could have been +found out of London. +</P> + +<P> +The lawyer and the detective no longer ranged the wood like questing +hounds. They had already done all the ranging the weather permitted. +Moreover, the lawyer was not of sleuth-hound build, and the chase had +reddened his face almost to the colour of the carapace of a boiled +lobster. Unfortunately his face was not of the durable texture of a +carapace; and the skin was peeling off his nose. +</P> + +<P> +They had returned to the pretty garden from which they had started on +their quest; and the detective had gone into the town to get the food +he needed so badly and to bring back lunch for the lawyer. The lawyer +sat on a bench, awaiting his return impatiently. Searching the wood +like a questing hound had given him also a fine appetite. +</P> + +<P> +It was soon after two o'clock that Pollyooly made the acquaintance of +the boy Edward, or the boy Edward made the acquaintance of Pollyooly. +It is difficult to be sure how these things happened. But both of them +were lonely; Pollyooly was of far too simple and direct a nature to be +much hampered by the cold conventions of a sophisticated civilisation; +and Edward was but ten. +</P> + +<P> +For all his extreme youth, he was an agreeable companion; and so it +came about that Pollyooly, who had meant to return to the house at +three o'clock, was detained by Edward and the sea till half-past four. +She was not loth to be detained; she was indeed pleased to be giving +the duchess her full measure of hours, and the lawyer and detective a +really good run for their money. +</P> + +<P> +But as a matter of fact they did no running at all that afternoon. At +three o'clock the replete detective returned with the lunch of the +raging lawyer. From half-past three till four they prowled gently +about the wood; at four they returned to the garden and sat on a bench +in the garden, confident that their quarry must very soon return for +food. +</P> + +<P> +At four o'clock a flaming Eglantine came out of the house and accused +them furiously of having murdered Lady Marion Ricksborough in the wood. +It took them nearly twenty minutes to persuade her that they had not. +They found it hard work; and doubted even then that they had wholly +succeeded. +</P> + +<P> +At half-past four Pollyooly said good-bye to the regretful Edward at +the end of the High Street, whither he had accompanied her. She did +not hurry up the hill, but as she went picked flowers to adorn the +Honourable John Ruffin's chambers. When she did come into the garden, +her eyes fell at once on the lawyer and the detective. They slept on +the bench. The lawyer's head rested affably on the detective's +shoulder. He looked not only redder but thinner, as if his quest in +the warm wood had shrunk him a little. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-086"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-086.jpg" ALT="They slept on the bench" BORDER="2" WIDTH="366" HEIGHT="599"> +<H3> +[Illustration: They slept on the bench] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Pollyooly did not awaken them; she went quietly into the house, and was +welcomed by Eglantine with kisses and reproaches for the fright she had +given her by her delay. Though in the end persuaded that she had not +been murdered by the lawyer and the detective, she had begun to fear +lest she were lost in the wood. She received Pollyooly's account of +the pleasant day she had spent with many expressions of pleased +amazement; and then she gave her a noble tea. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was coming to the end of it, listening with an agreeable show +of interest to the further details of Eglantine's affair of the heart +with the landed proprietor of the market-garden, when they were both +startled by a loud snort at the window. The lawyer and the detective +were looking in upon them, their faces beaming with satisfaction at the +sight of their quarry. The detective guarded the window while the +lawyer sprang lithely round the house, through the front door, and into +the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank goodness! I've caught your ladyship at last!" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly scowled at him and said nothing. It was her habit in the +part of Lady Marion Ricksborough to give herself airs. He snatched his +watch from his pocket and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang it! We've missed the last train to London!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly smiled coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we must spend the night at the hotel," he said grumpily. "If I +left your ladyship here, there's no saying when I should see you again." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly scowled again, and Eglantine burst into loud and excited +protest: +</P> + +<P> +"Her ladyship must sleep in the house—in her own bed—properly." +</P> + +<P> +The lawyer paid no heed to her protest, but bade her pack her young +mistress's clothes at once. He said that the sooner she was at the +hotel, the safer he would feel. He did not get his way without further +and louder protests from Eglantine; but in the end he got it. She +packed the little kit-bag for Pollyooly with clothes of Lady Marion. +The detective carried it. As they were starting she gave Pollyooly two +sovereigns wrapped up in a five-pound note, saying that the duchess had +left it for her. The extra two sovereigns were for expenses, since she +might need money to escape. +</P> + +<P> +The sum warmed Pollyooly's heart. +</P> + +<P> +She bade Eglantine an affectionate farewell and invited her to come to +see her whenever she was in London. Then she set out with her captors. +On the way down the hill the lawyer was very respectful and agreeable +to Pollyooly, proclaiming his eager desire to secure her welfare, and +dwelling on the pleasure she must be feeling at the prospect of being +re-united with her affectionate father, the duke. No such prospect lay +before her; and she displayed no interest in the matter. But when the +lawyer, with a fatherly solicitude of his own, suggested that it would +be safer if he took care of her money for her, she rejected the +proposal with an uncommon, haughty curtness. He seemed somewhat hurt, +but he did not press the matter. The detective addressed him as Mr. +Wilkinson. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was not pleased to leave the pleasant and comfortable house +of the duchess and its so noble breakfasts and teas, though it was some +consolation that she was moving from it to an hotel where, in her +ignorance of provincial England, she supposed that she would fare +luxuriously. She was much less pleased to exchange the society of the +lively Eglantine, so full of interesting confidences, for that of the +ponderous and doubtless uncommunicative Mr. Wilkinson. +</P> + +<P> +He was fully alive to his importance as being in charge of the daughter +of a duke, and did not dream for a moment of putting her into the care +of the detective. Indeed, in spite of his greater experience in taking +charge of people, that worthy fellow was far too sleepy to be trusted +with so elusive a child. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson was far more affable and urbane with her than any one +whom Pollyooly had ever met. He was careful to ask her whether she +disliked the smell of tobacco smoke before taking her into the +smoking-room, where he made a light meal on whiskey and soda and +biscuits. He invited her to share his biscuits; but the noble tea was +so recent that she was forced to decline. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as he had finished it he accepted, with the readiest urbanity, +her suggestion that they should go out on the sea-front. It was +exceedingly gratifying to him to be seen walking hand in hand with the +daughter of a duke. But his hand was hot and moist, and at the end of +fifty yards of it Pollyooly withdrew hers from it with considerable +decision. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going to run away—to-day," she said firmly, putting it behind +her back. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson protested feebly; but since there seemed no likelihood of +his recovering the hand, in the end he accepted the situation, saying +pompously: +</P> + +<P> +"I accept your ladyship's assurance that you will not try to escape." +</P> + +<P> +"Not to-day," said Pollyooly haughtily; and she looked at him darkly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, to-morrow you will be with his grace, and my responsibility ends," +said Mr. Wilkinson in a tone of some satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly did not think that she would be with his grace on the morrow; +but she did not say so. +</P> + +<P> +Presently they sat down on a seat; and under the influence of the +slight meal of which he had recently partaken, Mr. Wilkinson grew +drowsily eloquent about the inestimable privilege she was about to +enjoy of once more sharing her father's ducal home. But since the duke +was not her father, and she had no intention whatever of sharing his +ducal home, again the subject did not really interest her. +</P> + +<P> +They returned to the hotel to dine; and since, while she was preparing +for it, Mr. Wilkinson informed the manager of what he believed to be +her rank and romantic history, during the meal she enjoyed a fine sense +of self-importance, as the other guests stared at her—frequently with +their mouths full. +</P> + +<P> +Their interest compelled her to exercise her best manners; that she did +not mind; but she did mind wasting the beautiful evening over a long +dinner of no interest to her. In view of the fact that she had so +lately eaten that noble tea, the earlier courses could hardly be +expected to interest her; but the sweets to which she had been looking +forward proved of a most disappointing, though painstaking, insipidity; +and she was indeed glad when the meal came to an end. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson talked affably, though with a touch of condescension not +unnatural in one in charge of the daughter of a duke, to a colonel and +golfer from Scotland, about the political situation. Pollyooly did not +realise how much their deference to his opinions, drawn from that +morning's <I>Daily Mail</I>, which both of them had read, was due to her +presence beside him. After dinner they returned to the bench on the +esplanade; and Pollyooly, for the first time in her life, had the +opportunity of learning how sentimental, after a bottle of champagne, a +middle-aged man can become about the moon. She gathered that he was +deeply attached to a lady named Myra. +</P> + +<P> +At half-past nine they returned to the hotel; and when she went to bed +Mr. Wilkinson thoughtfully locked her in. +</P> + +<P> +She slept well and rose early. The sea, smiling in the morning sun, +attracted her greatly; and it seemed good to her to bathe. In view of +the rank she was enjoying, it also seemed to her that she might very +well have her way in the matter. She dressed quickly, and with the +heel of her own stout shoe, a stouter shoe than Lady Marion ever wore, +she began to hammer on her bedroom door. +</P> + +<P> +She had not hammered long before an eager, respectful chambermaid came +and asked her what she wanted. When she learned she hurried off to Mr. +Wilkinson and awoke him. Mr. Wilkinson, desiring to sleep yet another +hour, would not hear of any bathing. On learning this, Pollyooly +hammered on the door yet more loudly than before with the heels of her +two stout shoes. The chambermaid summoned the manager; both of them +betook themselves to Mr. Wilkinson, and anxiously informed him that her +young ladyship was awaking the whole hotel. Mr. Wilkinson, as angry as +he could be with the daughter of so distinguished a client, was on the +point of rising, when he had a happy thought. He bade the manager +rouse the detective and tell him to take her young ladyship to bathe, +and to look after her very carefully indeed. +</P> + +<P> +The detective, also desiring to sleep yet another hour, rose gloomily +and gloomily escorted Pollyooly to the sea. His gloom did not at all +lessen Pollyooly's enjoyment of her bath and she spent the pleasantest +half-hour in the sea. She graciously suffered the detective to pay for +it. +</P> + +<P> +She returned to the hotel with a glorious appetite and made a glorious +breakfast. Mr. Wilkinson congratulated her on the healthiness of her +appetite, with a somewhat envious air. It seemed to her that the hotel +was more attractive in the matter of breakfasts than of dinners. +</P> + +<P> +At a few minutes to eleven they started to walk to the station. +Remembering that her parole only covered the day before, Mr. Wilkinson +set her between himself and the detective. Pollyooly had not forgotten +the Honourable John Ruffin's urgent instruction that she should wire +him the time of the arrival of their train at Waterloo, and she learned +from Mr. Wilkinson that it was three twenty-five. When, therefore, +they reached the post office, she made a sudden dash across the road +into it. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson and the detective bustled after her and found her writing +the telegram. It ran: +</P> + +<P> +I arrive at three twenty-five. Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +It puzzled them a little; and Mr. Wilkinson said: +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you telegraph to Mr. Ruffin?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because he told me to," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"He told you to?" said Mr. Wilkinson with a puzzled air. "When did he +tell you to?" +</P> + +<P> +"The day before yesterday," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson shook his head with a pained air. He thought that her +ladyship was fibbing. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you sign it 'Pollyooly'?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Because it's my name," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson shook his head with a yet sadder air. Had she been the +daughter of a commoner, he would not have let her send the telegram; as +it was he did. Half-way to the station he had grown yet more curious +about it; and he asked her again why she had sent it. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll know all about it when we get to London," said Pollyooly coldly. +</P> + +<P> +He could get no more from her. +</P> + +<P> +They lunched on the train, and under the expanding influence of a small +bottle of champagne, the air of Mr. Wilkinson grew more and more +triumphant at the success of his difficult mission. +</P> + +<P> +When they descended from the train he clasped Pollyooly's right hand +firmly, the detective clasped her left, and they walked down the +platform. They had not gone thirty yards when they met the Honourable +John Ruffin smiling agreeably. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo, Wilkinson! How are you?" he said cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Mr. Ruffin? At last we've found her little ladyship, and +we're taking her to his grace. He will be pleased," said Mr. Wilkinson +in tones of ringing triumph. +</P> + +<P> +"Will he? Where is she?" said the Honourable John Ruffin with an air +of lively curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"Here," said Mr. Wilkinson, drawing Pollyooly forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" said the Honourable John Ruffin, looking at Pollyooly with a +somewhat puzzled air. +</P> + +<P> +"Here!" said Mr. Wilkinson a little louder. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—<I>there</I>?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. "How are you, +Pollyooly? I hope you had a pleasant time with Eglantine. But why +have you come back so soon? I didn't expect you for some days." +</P> + +<P> +"It was Mr. Wilkinson. He made me. He almost dragged me to his +hotel," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come, Wilkinson: this won't do, you know. This is kidnapping, you +know—high-handed kidnapping," said the Honourable John Ruffin +indignantly. "What do you think you're doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm taking her to the duke," said Mr. Wilkinson. +</P> + +<P> +"And do you suppose that Osterley will be pleased at your bringing him +my housekeeper, Wilkinson? On the last occasion, when he did the +kidnapping and took her home himself, he seemed very far from pleased." +</P> + +<P> +The puzzled look had shifted from the Honourable John Ruffin's face to +that of Mr. Wilkinson, and he said sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean what I say," said the Honourable John Ruffin firmly. "I find +you dragging my housekeeper, Mary Bride, along the platform of Waterloo +Station, by main force, and with the help of a tall, strong man." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you are talking about!" cried Mr. Wilkinson +stormily. "And if you'll forgive my saying so, I haven't any time to +waste on your jokes, Mr. Ruffin!" +</P> + +<P> +"Joke? Do you want me to show you how much of a joke it is by giving +you in charge here and now for kidnapping my housekeeper, Mary Bride?" +said the Honourable John Ruffin coldly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson's expression grew yet more puzzled and doubtful, and he +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mary Bride? Who is Mary Bride?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now what's the good of a subterfuge of this kind when you're holding +her by the hand, Wilkinson? You should keep such tricks for maiden +ladies!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin with a fine show of +indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Lady Marion Ricksborough!" cried Wilkinson; but his tone +lacked conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't. It's my housekeeper, Mary Bride. I wonder that a man of +your knowledge of the world did not see at once that you were +kidnapping the wrong person," said the Honourable John Ruffin; and +<I>his</I> tone was full of conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not Lady Marion, and I never said I was. It was you who said so. +I am Mr. Ruffin's housekeeper, Mary Bride," said Pollyooly very firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"B-b-b-but I've been c-c-c-calling her Lady Marion all the t-t-t-time, +and she never p-p-p-protested once!" cried Mr. Wilkinson, gazing wildly +at Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Then all I can say is, you must have frightened the life out of her," +said the Honourable John Ruffin indignantly. "And it will look +bad—devilish bad—a man of your age kidnapping a child of twelve and +frightening her to such an extent that she was afraid to tell you who +she really was. Look here, am I to give you in charge here and now, +and thresh the matter out in a police court? That will please +Osterley!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on a bit—hold on a bit," said Mr. Wilkinson faintly. "You're +really not joking?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go into a waiting-room and talk it over quietly. We don't want +to make any silly mistakes," said Mr. Wilkinson yet more faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you didn't! You've made enough already," said the +Honourable John Ruffin frankly. "But you'd better come along to my +chambers. I've got Mary Bride's little brother there and a woman who +has known her all her life. If you can't take my word for it, she'll +convince you all right." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson was very limp in the taxicab: he perceived that he had +allowed his enthusiasm to carry him away with the result that he had +been hopelessly duped. It was indeed mortifying, the more mortifying +that he could not blame any one but himself—himself and nature. The +more carefully he examined Pollyooly the more impressed he was by her +likeness to Lady Marion Ricksborough. The detective was gloomy; he had +lost a night's rest for nothing, as well as his hope of forthwith +receiving the reward for the capture of the missing child, for it was +he who had tracked her to the house in Devon. Now he might be months +recovering her trail. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin on the other hand was in excellent spirits. +He had no desire to embroil himself with his cousin, by definitely +taking the side of the duchess in their quarrel; and he began to see +plainly that the matter would never come to the duke's ears. Neither +the lawyer nor the detective would talk about it; they both cut too +ridiculous a figure. +</P> + +<P> +At 75 the King's Bench Walk, they found Mrs. Brown and the Lump. Mr. +Wilkinson needed no more evidence than the warmth with which Pollyooly +kissed and hugged her little brother; but none the less he received +Mrs. Brown's convincing assurances that she was Mary Bride. +</P> + +<P> +When that worthy woman had been dismissed to the kitchen, he said +heavily: +</P> + +<P> +"This has been an unfortunate mistake—very unfortunate." +</P> + +<P> +"Not so unfortunate as it would have been if Pollyooly had been ten +years older. It would have cost you hundreds. As it is, I shouldn't +wonder if she would be content with a fiver as compensation," said the +Honourable John Ruffin with a soothing smile. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson groaned; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I've made a mistake, and I suppose I must pay for it." +</P> + +<P> +Slowly and sadly he drew a five-pound note from his notebook and handed +it to Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, sir," said Pollyooly; and dropped a curtsey, like the +well-mannered child she was. +</P> + +<P> +"Your housekeeper? To think that she should have roused the whole +hotel to get that bath!" said Mr. Wilkinson bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"She was for the time being the daughter of a duke—by your +appointment," said the Honourable John Ruffin suavely. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson waved the detective out of the room, and followed him. +At the door he paused to say very heavily: +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never trust my eyes again." +</P> + +<P> +"No: I shouldn't," said the Honourable John Ruffin gently. "I think +another time, if I were you, I should try glasses." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN +</H3> + + +<P> +Mr. Wilkinson had departed, a sadder but very little wiser man, and +taken his detective with him; Mrs. Brown had been thanked, paid, and +dismissed; and Pollyooly, having sufficiently fondled and kissed the +irresponsive but unresisting Lump, went into the kitchen and set about +getting ready the Honourable John Ruffin's tea. +</P> + +<P> +She had lighted the gas under the kettle and taken the bread and butter +from the cupboard, when he came into the kitchen, wearing an air of the +most earnest purpose, and said impressively: +</P> + +<P> +"Genius, Pollyooly—genius is the art of taking infinite pains." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly politely. +</P> + +<P> +"That is why you are unsurpassed in the art of grilling bacon; you take +infinite pains with it," he went on with the same earnestness. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with more understanding. +</P> + +<P> +"And now I am going to instruct you in the art of making tea," he said +proudly. "I only learned yesterday that it was an art. Till then I +believed that you merely poured boiling water on tea, and there you +were. I have learned that it is not so. Also I have learned that that +vegetable which comes from India and Ceylon, and is called tea by those +who sell it, is not really tea at all. Tea only comes from China; and +I have bought some." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with the air of one receiving information +gratefully. +</P> + +<P> +"And now I will teach you the art of making it exactly as it was taught +to me," he said with a very schoolmasterly air. +</P> + +<P> +Thereupon, under his instructions, Pollyooly warmed the tea-pot and +stood by the tea-caddy ready to put in two teaspoonfuls of tea (one for +him, one for the pot) the moment the kettle boiled. The moment it did +boil, following his instructions, she put the tea into the pot, and +then, tilting the kettle without taking it from the stove, she poured +the still boiling water on to it. Then she inverted the little glass +egg-boiler and stood ready to bring the infusing tea into his +sitting-room as soon as the upper half of it was nearly empty of sand. +</P> + +<P> +Then he said in raised and sonorous tones of profound satisfaction: +</P> + +<P> +"That is the art of making tea. Now that you have once learnt it, I +know,—I am sure that very soon you will be not only the finest griller +of bacon in England, but also the finest maker of tea." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try, sir," said Pollyooly cheerfully. "It doesn't seem very +difficult." +</P> + +<P> +"To genius nothing is <I>very</I> difficult," said the Honourable John +Ruffin impressively. "The difficulty is to stick to it—to go on +getting the thing right every time. But you can do it with bacon: why +not with tea?" +</P> + +<P> +When the sand had nearly all run out of the upper part of the glass, +she took the tray into the sitting-room; he poured out a cup of tea, +and declared that it was tea fit for the gods. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly smiled at his satisfaction, and then said: +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir: I should like a note to Madame Correlli to say that I +couldn't go to my dancing yesterday because I had to go into the +country. She is so particular." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly; I will write it after tea," said the Honourable John Ruffin +amiably. +</P> + +<P> +After he had finished his tea he wrote the note and gave it to her. +Then she paid a proud visit to the Post Office Savings Bank and added +to her fattening account the sum of twelve pounds. Undoubtedly the +Osterley family were valuable acquaintances. +</P> + +<P> +Fortified by the exculpatory note from the Honourable John Ruffin, +Pollyooly went next morning to her dancing class with an easy mind. +</P> + +<P> +It had been clear to her friends that the career of housekeeper, +admirably as she discharged its duties, was far inferior to her +abilities; it did not give them nearly full scope. Those friends were +young, and they were alive, keenly alive, to the fact that there is a +steady demand for angels in that sphere of British and German industry +curiously known as musical comedy. They could not conceive that, since +she had to work for a living, Pollyooly's natural grace and the agility +she had acquired in her earlier childhood, at the village of Muttle +Deeping, and still retained, could be put to more agreeable and +profitable use than that of helping to supply this demand for angels, +and so help to raise the British ideal of womanly beauty. +</P> + +<P> +For three mornings in the week therefore, Pollyooly, taking the Lump +with her, went to Madame Correlli's dancing class in Soho; and thanks +to her active early life at Muttle Deeping, was esteemed by that +accomplished lady one of her most promising pupils. It is no wonder +that Pollyooly and her young friend and fiancé Lord Ronald +Ricksborough, the heir of the Duke of Osterley, looked forward with +confidence to the day when she should be a shining light of musical +comedy and the proper wife for a British nobleman. +</P> + +<P> +Madame Correlli read the Honourable John Ruffin's note with indulgence, +accepted the excuse, and set Pollyooly to work. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was disinclined to make friends, close friends, of the other +little girls in her class. She was indeed very civil to them, like the +well-mannered child she was; but they did not greatly attract her. +Belonging to hard-working, dancing families, they talked a great deal +in their high-pitched, twanging voices about their friends and +relations who danced at the Varolium, Panjandrum, and other music +halls, friends of whom, since she herself aspired to higher things, +Pollyooly had but a poor opinion. Moreover, many of them powdered +their little faces, penciled their eyebrows, and deepened the roses in +their cheeks with rose-carmine or rouge; and to Pollyooly, a daughter +of Muttle Deeping, these practices were repugnant. +</P> + +<P> +But she had formed one friendship among them, a friendship born of her +protective instinct, with Millicent Saunders, a frail, pale wisp of a +child, whose black eyes looked very big indeed in her thin face, framed +in a mass of black hair. The other pupils were apt to look down on +Millicent, because, though few of them ran to finery, Millicent was +shabby indeed. Pollyooly was quite unaffected by this, for in the days +when she had lived in the dreadful fear that she and the Lump might be +driven by necessity into the workhouse, she had gone shabby herself. +She knew that Millicent's mother, who had once been a dancer, was now a +charwoman, often out of work, and in feeble health. It was Millicent's +perpetual complaint that she herself was so slow growing up to the age +at which she would be earning money and supporting her ailing mother. +Down the vista of the future she saw a splendid vision in which her +mother should always have a bloater with her tea. To Pollyooly +Millicent always looked hungry. +</P> + +<P> +It was Millicent's great pleasure to sit with the Lump on her knee in +the intervals of their work, mothering him as long as he would suffer +it; and it was her privilege to take his left hand as Pollyooly led him +from Soho, across the dangerous crossings to the safe stretch of the +embankment from Charing-Cross to the Temple. As they went Pollyooly +and Millicent talked of the price of provisions and the trials of +housekeeping. +</P> + +<P> +But for the whole week before Pollyooly's trip to Devon Millicent had +not been to the class. Pollyooly enquired and Madame Correlli enquired +the reason for her absence, but none of the other pupils could tell +them. It was now ten days since Pollyooly had seen her, and she was +feeling anxious indeed about her. +</P> + +<P> +Then, after the class was over, as she was leading the Lump down St. +Martin's Lane on their way to the embankment he projected an arm and +broke his placid and perpetual silence with one of his rare, but +pregnant grunts. Pollyooly looked where he pointed, saw Millicent on +the island in the middle of the roadway, and called to her. +</P> + +<P> +Millicent turned her head and looked at them with somewhat dazed eyes. +Her face did not as usual light up at the sight of the Lump. She +crossed the road to them feebly. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you? Why haven't you come to the classes for so long?" said +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother's dead," said Millicent dully; and her big eyes which had been +so dull, shone suddenly bright with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Pollyooly pitifully; and as she gazed +anxiously at Millicent's seared and miserable face, her eyes grew moist +with tears of sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +Millicent stooped and kissed the Lump listlessly, almost mechanically. +</P> + +<P> +"And what are you going to do?" said Pollyooly with grave anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +She understood fully the seriousness of Millicent's plight. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to the workhouse," said Millicent dully. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly clutched her arm. It was impossible for her to turn pale for +she was always of a clear, camelia-like pallor; but that pallor grew a +little dead as she cried in a tone of horror: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! You can't go to the workhouse! You mustn't!" +</P> + +<P> +Millicent looked at her with the lack-lustre eyes of the vanquished, +and said in the same dull, toneless voice: +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to. There's nowhere else for me to go to." +</P> + +<P> +The tears in Pollyooly's eyes brimmed over in her dismay and horror at +this dreadful fate of her friend; and she, the dauntless, Spartan +heroine of a hundred fights with the small boys of Alsatia, was fairly +crying. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't go! You mustn't!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't want to. I was trying not to," said Millicent slowly. +"After mother's funeral yesterday Mrs. Baker, that's our landlady, said +the relieving officer was coming round this morning to take me to the +workhouse; and I ran away." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: that was the right thing to do," said Pollyooly in firm approval. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: I got up very early—just when it was light," said Millicent; and +her voice grew a little firmer. "And I packed my clothes"—she gave +the little bundle she was carrying a shake—"and then I sneaked +down-stairs and out of the house. And oh, the trouble the front door +gave me! You wouldn't believe! First it wouldn't open; and then when +it did, it made noise enough to wake the whole house." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly nodded with an air of ripe experience. +</P> + +<P> +"I made sure they'd wake up and catch me and stop me. But they didn't; +and I got out and ran hard out of the street. Then I walked about and +then I sat on the embankment trying to think what to do and where to +go. And two coppers wanted to know what I was doing all alone on my +own." +</P> + +<P> +"They would," said Pollyooly in a tone of deep hostility to the police +force of London. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I said I was going to my aunt in Southwark. I had an aunt in +Southwark once—only she's dead. But I couldn't think of anywhere to +go—there didn't seem to be anywhere. So I thought I'd better go back +to Mrs. Baker's and let them take me to the workhouse. At any rate +she'll give me something to eat." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's tears had dried as she listened to her friend's tale; she +wore an alert and able air which went but ill with her delicate beauty. +She said quickly: +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you had anything to eat either?" +</P> + +<P> +Millicent shook her head and said somewhat faintly: +</P> + +<P> +"Not since supper last night. And I didn't eat much then—I wasn't +hungry—not after the funeral." +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't be," said Pollyooly sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"And I hadn't any money. The funeral took all the money," Millicent +added. +</P> + +<P> +"Then the first thing to do is to get a bun," said Pollyooly in a tone +of relief at seeing her way to do something. "Then you can come and +have dinner with us." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Millicent. +</P> + +<P> +Her lips worked, as a hungry child's will, at the thought of food; and +a faint colour came into her white cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly started across the road with the Lump, and Millicent took his +other hand. +</P> + +<P> +On the other side of the road Pollyooly said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"You can't go to the workhouse. You mustn't. But we'll wait till we +get home before we talk about that. But there must be some way for you +not to go to it. We didn't." +</P> + +<P> +They led the Lump down to the Strand; and at the first confectioner's +shop Pollyooly bought Millicent a bun. The hungry child ate the first +two mouthfuls ravenously; then she paused to break off a piece and give +it to the Lump. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" said Pollyooly quickly. "You eat it all yourself. You want +it. He'll have his dinner as soon as he gets home." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, let me give him just a little piece," said Millicent. +</P> + +<P> +"No: you're to eat it all," said Pollyooly firmly. +</P> + +<P> +Most children of three would have burst into a roar on hearing this +cruel prohibition. The placidity of the Lump was proof even against so +severe a blow. He merely went on his way with a saddened air. +Millicent ate the rest of the bun with eager thankfulness, brightening +a little as the food heartened her. +</P> + +<P> +They went down Villiers Street to the safe stretch of the embankment; +and then Pollyooly, her brow knitted in a thoughtful frown, began to +talk of Millicent's plight. The workhouse was so burning a subject +that she could not wait to discuss it at home. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't go to the workhouse; you can't really," she said. "If you +could stay with us for a little while, you might find something to do. +But it's for Mr. Ruffin to say whether you can stay with us. We live +in his chambers, you know. I'm his housekeeper." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if I could!" said Millicent wistfully. +</P> + +<P> +"He might let you. He's very kind," said Pollyooly hopefully. "And if +he did, I wonder what kind of a job you could get. What kind of work +can you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can do housework," said Millicent eagerly. "I always did our +room—all of it. And I cooked all our meals. Mother went out such a +lot, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"It's something," said Pollyooly soberly. "But I expect you've got a +lot to learn. You see I learnt a lot at Muttle Deeping. Aunt Hannah +had a whole house there—before she lost all her savings in a gold mine +and came to London. And she had everything like the gentry +have—pictures, and plate, and brass candle-sticks—only not so much of +them; and I learnt to clean them all. But I expect you'd learn too +quickly enough." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure I'd try," said Millicent. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. If Mr. Ruffin would let you stay for a week or two, I could +teach you a lot," said Pollyooly hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +For the rest of the way to the Temple they discussed in detail +Millicent's accomplishments. They were few and limited; but to her +willingness to work there were no bounds. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as they reached the Temple they set about getting dinner. +Fortunately Pollyooly had in her larder half a cold chicken; for, as +was his practice, the Honourable John Ruffin had three days before +ordered a cold chicken from the kitchen of the Inner Temple, had made a +pretence of eating some of it at his breakfast, and then had bidden her +never let him see it again. This was one of his ways of making sure +that she and the Lump were properly fed, without weakening her +independence by sapping her belief that she really supported the two of +them. +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly Millicent made an excellent meal; and it restored her +strength and her spirits. She was surprised by the fact that the Lump +had a whole mugful of milk with his dinner, for she was unused to this +lavishness with that luxury in a child's diet. Pollyooly explained +that it had been an article of faith with her Aunt Hannah that a young +child needed a pint of milk a day; therefore the Lump always had one. +Millicent was deeply impressed: this was indeed affluence. +</P> + +<P> +She helped Pollyooly wash up after their dinner; and then Pollyooly +suggested that it would be well for her to look very clean indeed when +she was presented to Mr. Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"He's so particular about children being clean. Mr. Gedge-Tomkins +isn't nearly so particular," she said apologetically. "I work for him, +too, you know. He lives across the landing." +</P> + +<P> +Millicent accepted the suggestion readily enough, for her mother had +been cleaner than her class. Pollyooly helped her wash and dry and +brush out her mass of silken hair, and lent her a clean frock of her +own. Presently, after the good meal on the top of her fast, Millicent +turned very sleepy, and Pollyooly let her sleep. She was still +sleeping when the Honourable John Ruffin returned home. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly did not at once hurry to him with her news. She cut his +bread and butter very thin and nice, and followed his instructions +about the making of tea with scrupulous exactness. She carried the +tray into his sitting-room and set it beside him. Then she hesitated, +looking at him. +</P> + +<P> +He looked up from the evening paper he was scanning, smiled his usual +smile of appreciation at her angel face, and said amiably: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Mrs. Bride: what is it?" +</P> + +<P> +When he did not call her Pollyooly he called her "Mrs." Bride, because +they had decided that "Miss" Bride did not sound sufficiently dignified +a name for a housekeeper. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir: I've got a little girl here," said Pollyooly in a +somewhat anxious, deprecating tone. +</P> + +<P> +"A little girl?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a natural surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. Her mother's dead; and they wanted to send her to the +workhouse; but she ran away," said Pollyooly quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Curious that England's little ones should fly from the home she offers +them," said the Honourable John Ruffin in his most amiable tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. And she hadn't had anything to eat and she was very hungry, +so I brought her home to dinner," said Pollyooly still quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"A very proper thing to do," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"And I thought I'd ask you if she could stop here, sir—with me and the +Lump—till she gets some work to do. There'd be lots of room for her, +sir; and she wouldn't bother you at all," said Pollyooly in a tone of +anxious pleading. +</P> + +<P> +"To get work might take a long time," said the Honourable John Ruffin +gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir; it might," said Pollyooly no less gravely, for she knew well +the difficulty of getting work in London. +</P> + +<P> +"And do you propose to keep her till she finds work?" said the +Honourable John Ruffin in the tone of one who finds it difficult to +believe his ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, sir. She wouldn't eat much," said Pollyooly in a tone of +cheerful serenity. +</P> + +<P> +"Out of the exiguous wages Mr. Gedge-Tomkins and I pay you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. I can do it quite well," said Pollyooly confidently; and +then she added hopefully: "And perhaps it wouldn't be for long." +</P> + +<P> +"On the other hand it may be for years and it may be forever," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a despondent tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, sir: I'm sure it wouldn't be as long as that," said Pollyooly +confidently. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at her earnest, anxious pleading face +for half a minute. Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Let's get it quite exact: you want to saddle yourself with the +maintenance of a little girl for weeks, or it may be months, or even +years, just to save her from the chief of England's representative +institutions?" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's anxious frown grew deeper as she said: +</P> + +<P> +"From the workhouse? Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Where shall the watchful sun,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">England, my England,</SPAN><BR> +Match the master-work you've done,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">England my own?"</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +quoted the Honourable John Ruffin with deep feeling. Then he added +sententiously: "Well, we must by no means check the generous impulses +of the young. But before I decide I should like to see your protégée. +I take it that she does not rise to those heights of cleanliness at +which you maintain yourself and the Lump; but does she display +sufficient of our chief English virtue?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, sir: I couldn't have her about with the Lump if she wasn't," +said Pollyooly firmly. "But I'll fetch her, sir." She paused, +hesitatingly, and added: "She isn't in mourning, sir. The funeral took +all the money." +</P> + +<P> +"Then it can not be helped," said the Honourable John Ruffin sadly. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly hurried up-stairs to Millicent, awoke her, and helped her +tidy her hair. She bade her be sure and curtsey nicely to the +Honourable John Ruffin, brought her into the sitting-room, and +presented her to him. Millicent's big eyes were shining brightly from +her sleep; her silken hair was prettily waved by its so recent washing; +and the excitement of this fateful meeting had flushed delicately her +pale cheeks. She appealed alike to the Honourable John Ruffin's +aesthetic and protective instinct. Only her strong London accent +distressed him: he feared lest it might corrupt the speech of Pollyooly +and the Lump, which, owing to the care of their Aunt Hannah, who had +for many years been housekeeper for Lady Constantia Deeping, was that +of gentle-folk. +</P> + +<P> +However, he talked kindly and sympathetically to Millicent, questioned +her about her acquirements, and gave her leave to stay. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE QUESTION OF A HOME +</H3> + + +<P> +Millicent left his presence almost dazed with relief and joy. Not only +was the imminent workhouse removed to a distance; but she herself was +transported to a sphere of astonishing luxury. She settled down in a +quiet content, only broken at rare intervals by a fit of weeping for +her dead mother. She helped Pollyooly with the work of the two sets of +chambers, displaying a considerable lack of knowledge and efficiency, +and played untiringly with the Lump. +</P> + +<P> +Between their dinner and the Honourable John Ruffin's tea she and +Pollyooly hunted for work for her. Mr. Hilary Vance would have been an +ideal, unexacting employer for her; but he was on the point of going to +Paris for six months. They consulted all Pollyooly's friends; and all +of them promised to look out for work for her; but it seemed likely to +be hard to find. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin seeing Millicent often, watched and studied +her carefully in the hope that his mind would produce a happy thought +in the way of work for her. He perceived that she needed some well +paid sinecure. +</P> + +<P> +Then one morning when Pollyooly was clearing away his breakfast, he +said: +</P> + +<P> +"I have been considering Millicent, and I should be charmed to let her +stay here. You and she are such admirable foils to one another's +fairness and darkness that no cultivated eye can rest on you together +without great pleasure. But I don't think that you are doing the right +thing in trying to find her a job like your own. She couldn't keep it. +She is not a stern red Deeping like you. She is the clinging kind of +orphan, not made to stand alone." +</P> + +<P> +"But perhaps I should be able to go on helping her if she got work, +sir," said Pollyooly, gazing at him with puckered brow. "I'm sure +anybody would find her very willing." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure they would. So many people are willing. Even the Government +says it's willing. But I don't think that she is fitted to support +herself by her own efforts yet. She has had no training; and evidently +she hasn't been properly fed, and she isn't strong. What I think is +that she's the kind of orphan for whom homes for orphans were created," +he said with the air of one who has weighed the matter very carefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in somewhat unhappy assent. +</P> + +<P> +"At a home they would feed her up, give her open air exercise, and get +her strong. Then they would train her to become the accomplished wife +of one of our empire-builders in—er—er—in Canada, or British +Columbia, or Rhodesia. And when she reached the marriageable age, they +would export her and marry her to him. I think that that would suit +her much better than being an independent, ill-paid worker in London." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly considered his words carefully, frowning deeply. Then she +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir: there's only herself. There isn't any one she wants living +with her like I do the Lump. Perhaps a home would be better for her." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it would," he said gravely. "You think it over." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly told Millicent at once of his suggestion; and they discussed +it seriously, and at great length. Indeed they talked of nothing else +for the rest of the day. The more they talked of it the more they +approved it. As Pollyooly said many times it was being settled in life +for good—not like a job which you might lose; and always down the +vista of the future, beyond the home, loomed the impressive and +alluring figure of the marriageable empire-builder. They both came to +the conclusion that the suggestion of the Honourable John Ruffin was +indeed excellent. +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly when she brought in his bacon next morning Pollyooly said: +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir: I think you're right about Millicent's going to a home; +and so does she." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "There can be no reasonable +doubt that the mantle of Solomon, to say nothing of Benjamin +Franklin's, has descended on your shoulders." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly looked at him with the air of polite interest with which she +was wont to receive his obscure sayings; then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. But how could she get into a home?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there are nominations and elections and that kind of thing," said +the Honourable John Ruffin vaguely. "I'll find out all about it for +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, sir. I'll tell Millie." +</P> + +<P> +Two days later he said to Pollyooly: +</P> + +<P> +"I've been making enquiries about that home for orphans; and I've found +a very good one. It's called the Bellingham Home. I had an idea that +there was one in the family; and I find that my cousin and your +acquaintance, the Duke of Osterley, is the president of it; and of +course he can get an orphan into it in a brace of shakes. He only has +to nominate her." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that is nice, sir!" cried Pollyooly; and her eyes sparkled. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a bit," said the Honourable John Ruffin gloomily. "Unfortunately +at the moment there is a coldness between me and the duke; and we may +not warm to one another for months—not, in fact, till he wants me to +do something for him. In these circumstances if I were to present an +orphan to his attention he would be much more likely to wring her neck +than nominate her." +</P> + +<P> +"That is a pity, sir," said Pollyooly, and her face fell. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course there are ladies of my acquaintance who dabble in charity; +but they're not in the position of the duke. It would take them weeks +to get Millicent into the Bellingham Home, while, if he nominated her, +she would be dragged into it at full speed. She wouldn't be given time +to breathe." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly frowned in earnest consideration of the matter; then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't you ask a lady to ask him, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"It would be difficult to persuade one," said the Honourable John +Ruffin doubtfully. "You see, the duke has the reputation of being +unamiable; and he has earned it well. My friends are only dabblers in +charity; and I don't think they're keen enough on it to risk getting +snubbed by him." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's thoughtful frown deepened as she cudgelled her small, but +active, brain for a solution of this problem. Then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps if I was to go and ask him, he'd do it, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"You?" said the Honourable John Ruffin very doubtfully. "I don't think +that would do at all. You see there was that business of his +kidnapping you in Piccadilly and carrying you off to Ricksborough +House. He's not at all the kind of man to forget that he played the +fool and had to pay you six pounds for doing it." +</P> + +<P> +"But, please, sir, that wasn't my fault," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"No: it was his. That's why he's sure to be disliking you very much +for it." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly looked puzzled by this view of the working of the ducal mind. +</P> + +<P> +"No: it wouldn't be any use at all," said the Honourable John Ruffin +decisively. +</P> + +<P> +For the while Pollyooly accepted his decision. But she accepted it +with deep reluctance, for she was nearly as disappointed as Millicent +by this dashing of their hopes. Naturally in that disappointment the +Bellingham Home grew more and more attractive as it receded into the +distance. She did not cease to discuss it with Millicent; and it grew +clearer and clearer to her that it was worth her while to make the +attempt to procure the duke's assistance in the scheme. +</P> + +<P> +"He may be disagreeable. But he won't bite," she said in a somewhat +contemptuous tone. +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly a few mornings later she came to the Honourable John Ruffin +with a very earnest face and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir: I think after all I should like to go and ask the duke to +put Millie into that home." +</P> + +<P> +"You do?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of surprise. +"Well, it's any odds that he'll refuse nastily." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir: but I think I ought to try. It would be so nice for Millie. +Besides he won't bi—hurt me, sir," said Pollyooly firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, he won't bite you. Dukes don't. Well, after all, if you don't +mind being rebuffed, it is worth trying," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly eagerly, very pleased to find that he did +not forbid her outright to make the attempt. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin gazed at her thoughtfully; then he said in +his best judicial tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if you're going to have a shot at it, there are one or two +things you'd better do to give yourself the best chance of success. In +the first place you must try to catch him after lunch, about a quarter +to three—he's in a good temper then. And when you do catch him, don't +be too gentle with him. Gentleness is rather wasted on Osterley. Be +civil, of course, and be sure to address him as 'Your Grace' all the +time. But be firm. Give yourself a few airs. After all, you are +undoubtedly as much a red Deeping as Lady Marion; and Osterley's great +grandfather was a Manchester tradesman." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly, and her eyes began to shine. +</P> + +<P> +"And be sure to wear your prettiest frock," the Honourable John Ruffin +went on. "I think your amber silk. Osterley, for all his +cantankerousness, is as susceptible as the next duke." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, sir: I'll wear my amber silk of course. And do you think I'd +better take Millie with me so that he can actually see what she's like?" +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin hesitated, pondering the question. Then he +said with decision: +</P> + +<P> +"No. Go alone. I think you'll be more effective alone. It will make +Osterley feel more helpless." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, sir," said Pollyooly cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +During the morning she discussed with the excited and sympathetic +Millicent the coming interview. She had the advantage of going to it +in utter fearlessness. She knew the duke: he had been at Ricksborough +Court during ten days of her stay there; and she had seen something of +him every day. Also there had been the second and more violent meeting +in Piccadilly when he had picked her up and carried her off to +Ricksborough House under the firm conviction that she was his lost +daughter. As a result of these two meetings Pollyooly had made up her +mind that the duke was not a man to be feared by women. Millicent +admired her fearlessness greatly. +</P> + +<P> +After their dinner Pollyooly put on her amber costume, a silk frock, a +pretty hat, stockings and gloves, all amber in colour and all matching, +gifts of Hilary Vance. Regarding her thus attired, Millicent's great +admiration became an even greater awe. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you look the perfect lydy," she said in a hushed voice. +</P> + +<P> +"If I'm a red Deeping, I'm of the oldest blood in England, and I must +be a lady. Mr. Ruffin says so," said Pollyooly in the tone of one +quite sure of herself. +</P> + +<P> +She charged Millicent to be very careful of the Lump, and to be sure to +have the kettle boiling by four o'clock so that, should she be detained +till then, she would have nothing to do on her return but forthwith +make the tea. Then she sallied forth. +</P> + +<P> +As she came into Fleet Street she met the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah: so you're off to the fray," he said; and his eyes warmed to the +angel vision. "Well, you certainly have looks on your side; and that +is three-quarters of the woman's battle. It's rather a score for you, +too, that Osterley is one of the most susceptible dukes in England. +But remember: don't be too civil to him; just bow. And then be +firm—very firm." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir: I will," said Pollyooly very firmly indeed. +</P> + +<P> +He stood considering her thoughtfully a moment; then he added: +</P> + +<P> +"And I tell you what: if your prayers fail to move Osterley you might, +as a last resort, try a few tears. Tears are dreadful things; and +these cantankerous men can rarely stand them." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, sir: I will," said Pollyooly, her face growing bright with a +look of perfect understanding. +</P> + +<P> +He conducted her to her omnibus, put her on it, and wished her good +luck. +</P> + +<P> +Then he said after the bus had started: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't forget the tears!" +</P> + +<P> +He raised his voice in order to overcome the din of the traffic, and +succeeded admirably. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RELUCTANT DUKE +</H3> + + +<P> +Tears were not at all to Pollyooly's liking. She considered them the +sign of a feeble heart and softening brain. The Honourable John Ruffin +had thrown quite a new light on them in suggesting that they could be +used as a weapon; and she considered this use of them most of the way +to Ricksborough House. +</P> + +<P> +She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy +nineteenth-century facade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a +little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But +she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly. +</P> + +<P> +Lucas, the butler of the duke, himself opened the door. At the sight +of Pollyooly he started back; for the moment he thought that his lost +young mistress stood before him. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly stepped across the threshold, and said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see the Duke of Osterley, please." +</P> + +<P> +The words showed Lucas his mistake; he perceived that before him stood +not his mistress, but that young red Deeping who had once made a +manifestly genuine offer to bite him; and he hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"It's very important. Please tell him that Miss Bride wants to see +him," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Um—er—come this way, miss. I'll see if his grace will see you," +said Lucas in a doubtful voice. +</P> + +<P> +He would have liked to refuse to let her into the house; but he was +doubtful about her social standing. Therefore he took her to the +nearest drawing-room, said that he would inform his grace, and betook +himself to his master in the smoking-room, wearing a perturbed air, for +the duke had as complete a vocabulary as any nobleman in England, and +he might easily take it ill that this formidable red Deeping had not +been refused admission to his house. +</P> + +<P> +"If you please, your Grace, there's a young lady—leastways a little +girl of the name of Bride—wants to see your Grace," said Lucas. "It's +the little girl you brought home as turned out not to be Lady Marion." +</P> + +<P> +"What the deuce did you let her in for?" said the duke on the instant; +and he frowned at him. +</P> + +<P> +"She said it was very important, your Grace," said Lucas in an unhappy +tone. +</P> + +<P> +The duke continued to frown, considering: Pollyooly might have brought +word of his missing daughter; and he would by no means let slip an +opportunity of getting information about her. On the other hand he +might be about to be called upon to pay more for his kidnapping +exploit. He had, however, just lunched ducally; and he was in a +vainglorious mood, ready to face anything female. +</P> + +<P> +At last he said bitterly: +</P> + +<P> +"I seem to have every jackass in London in my service. Bring her here." +</P> + +<P> +Lucas gloomily announced the readiness of the duke to receive her to +Pollyooly. She followed him eagerly and came into the smoking-room +with a brave air, though she was not feeling as brave as she looked. +The duke stood on the hearthrug and glowered at her. +</P> + +<P> +She did not hesitate; she gazed at his unamiable face with limpid eyes +and said tranquilly: +</P> + +<P> +"How do you do, your Grace?" +</P> + +<P> +The duke grunted; then grew articulate, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly sat down deliberately in one of the big easy chairs facing +him, and answered: +</P> + +<P> +"If you please, your Grace, I came to see you about an orphan." +</P> + +<P> +"An orphan?" said the duke a little less grumpily. He was somewhat +impressed by the angel face of his visitor. During her last, +compulsory visit it had been so much more red Deeping than angel. Also +her costume so amber and so expensive impressed him. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: her name is Millicent Saunders; and they wanted to send her to +the workhouse because her mother died who used to dance at the Varolium +in the second row, but of course I couldn't let them do that, could I?" +said Pollyooly in an explanatory tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. What's it got to do with me?" said the duke quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Millicent is one of those orphans who wouldn't be much good working +for herself, though of course she'd work hard and be very willing," +said Pollyooly speaking very clearly in the explanatory tone, and +looking at him with very earnest eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Then she'd better go to the workhouse. She'll have an idle enough +time there," said the duke who was staunchly conservative in feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"But she can't go to the workhouse," said Pollyooly in a deeply shocked +tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly looked at him very sternly, and said in a very stern voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Her mother was a very respectable woman; she was in the second row of +the Varolium ballet for years and years; and she always kept Millie +very respectable. Besides, you can't let people go to the workhouse." +</P> + +<P> +"Why can't you, if it's the proper place for them?" said the duke +stubbornly, for he hated to hear the workhouse in any way disparaged, +since he regarded it as a bulwark of society. +</P> + +<P> +"How would you like your little girl to go to the workhouse?" said +Pollyooly in a deeply reproachful tone. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a prospect we needn't consider," said the duke haughtily. +</P> + +<P> +"We never know what we may come to," said Pollyooly with a happy +remembrance of the pious wisdom of her Aunt Hannah. "But Millie isn't +going into the workhouse anyhow. I'm not going to let her. But she +ought to go to a home and be trained to marry an empire-builder. She's +that kind of orphan: Mr. Ruf—a gentleman says that she is. And I came +to ask you if you'd give her a nomination so that she could go into the +Bellingham Home. They'll do anything you tell them there; and if you +said so, they'd take her in at once. And she'd be ever so much obliged +to you. She'd never forget it—never. And so should I." +</P> + +<P> +She was leaning forward with clasped hands and shining, imploring eyes. +The duke was not insensible to the charm of her beauty, or to the +appeal of her pleading voice. He was even more sensible to the tribute +she had paid to his power in the matter of the Bellingham Home. But he +was in a captious mood; and he did not wish to oblige her. His mind +was chiefly full of the fact that he had made himself look foolish by +kidnapping her and had had to pay her six pounds compensation. He was +still sore about the foolishness and also about the money, for his was +a thrifty soul. +</P> + +<P> +But Pollyooly's angel face made a direct refusal difficult. He coughed +and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I—er—don't—er—do things in this—er—irregular way. +My—er—nominations are—er—only given after I have been approached in +the proper way and received testimonials and—er—sifted them out so as +to nominate the most deserving orphan among the many applicants for +admission." +</P> + +<P> +"There couldn't be a more deserving orphan than Millie," said Pollyooly +quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"That remains to be proved. There are often fifty or sixty applicants. +And besides, this isn't the time of year when vacancies in the home are +filled up," said the duke, hardening himself in his resistance, now +that he could throw the odium of it on to the machinery of the home. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's face had fallen, for her instinct told her that he did not +intend to grant her petition, and was only making excuses. She said +slowly: +</P> + +<P> +"But that wouldn't matter, because if you told them to take in Millie +at any time of the year they'd do it." +</P> + +<P> +"But the applications have to be written, setting forth the applicant's +claims in the proper way," said the duke, falling yet more firmly back +behind the safe barrier of red tape. "The matter has to receive +careful consideration." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly frowned thoughtfully: "Well, I could write. There are people +who would tell me what to write," she said in the sad tone of one +confronted with an uncongenial task. "Then you could consider Millie +carefully. I'm sure you couldn't find an orphan who's more—more of an +orphan than Millie." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid it wouldn't be any use—not at this time of year," said the +duke almost cheerfully, as he saw that in an irreproachable fashion he +was getting his own disobliging way. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly filled with the bitter sense of defeat. She heaved a deep +sigh and was on the point of rising to go, when the last adjuration of +the Honourable John Ruffin flashed into her mind, and on the instant +she grew eager to try the new weapon he had suggested. She looked at +the duke with a calculating eye. Nature, thinking probably that if was +enough for a man to be a duke, had not been lavish of beauty to him: +his somewhat small features were often set in an unamiable expression, +and with the faint light of evil satisfaction at baulking Pollyooly now +on them, they looked more unamiable than usual. He did not indeed seem +to be a man to be easily softened. But the matter was far too +important for her to lose the only chance left. +</P> + +<P> +Very deliberately she drew her handkerchief from her pocket, blinked +her eyes hard to make them water, hid them under the handkerchief, +sniffed once but loudly, and then sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +"It's very—hard—on Millie—she'll be—dreadfully—disappointed!" +</P> + +<P> +A sudden consternation smote the duke. He had looked to make himself +completely disagreeable at his ease, certainly without any such assault +on his feelings as this. He shuffled his feet and said hurriedly: +</P> + +<P> +"It's no good crying about it. It can't be helped, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's quick ear caught the change in his tone. She sobbed more +loudly: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes—it can—you could do it—if you wanted to!" +</P> + +<P> +"These things have to be done in the proper way," protested the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't that. You—you—don't like Millie!" sobbed Pollyooly, +watching the weakening face of the perturbed nobleman with an intent +eye over the top of her handkerchief. "You—you—hate her!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I've never set eyes on her!" cried the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes: you do—and it's—it's beastly," sobbed Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +No duke likes to hear his conduct described as beastly by an angel +child—especially when the description happens to be accurate—and the +duke ground his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly, watching him, sobbed on—louder. +</P> + +<P> +The duke gazed at her in a dismal discomfort. He shuffled his feet +till the shuffle was almost a dance. Then he said in a feebly soothing +tone: +</P> + +<P> +"There—there—that'll do." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-142"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-142.jpg" ALT="The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort" BORDER="2" WIDTH="375" HEIGHT="608"> +<H3> +[Illustration: The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Pollyooly's sobs grew yet louder—heartrending. +</P> + +<P> +The duke took a hurried turn up and down the room. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly, a huddled figure of desperate woe, sobbed on. +</P> + +<P> +The duke grabbed at his scrubby little moustache and held on to it +firmly. It was no real help. +</P> + +<P> +He ground his teeth; he tugged at his moustache; and then in a tone of +the last exasperation, he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang it all! Stop that infernal howling; and I'll give you the +nomination!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly softened her sobs a little; the duke flung himself down into +the chair before the writing-table, at the other end of the room, and +seized pen and paper. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the brat's name?" he growled. +</P> + +<P> +"Millicent—Saunders," sobbed Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +The duke wrote the nomination, put it in an envelope, addressed it to +the secretary of the Bellingham Home, licked the flap of the envelope +with wolfish ferocity, and banged it fast. +</P> + +<P> +He came hastily across the room with it to Pollyooly, held it out, and +said with even greater ferocity: +</P> + +<P> +"Here you are—and—and—much good may it do her!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly rose quickly and took it. She could hardly believe her +shining eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you, your Grace! Millicent will be so glad!" she cried +joyfully. +</P> + +<P> +The duke growled in his throat; but in some way Pollyooly's radiant +angel face blunted his ferocity. Also it robbed his surrender of its +sting. He rang the bell; then opened the smoking-room door for her and +bade her good day quite in the manner and tone of an English gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +On the threshold, like the well-mannered child she was, she paused to +thank him again. When she went out he shut the door quite gently; and +by the time he had settled down again in his easy chair, he was feeling +truly magnanimous. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE +</H3> + + +<P> +The motor-bus which carried Pollyooly home crawled, to her impatient +fancy, no faster than the old horse-bus, so eager was she to pour the +news of her success into the ears of Millicent. +</P> + +<P> +Millicent, however, after her first joy on hearing that the path which +would ultimately lead her to the altar with an empire-builder was open +to her, grew sad. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity I couldn't stay on and on with you here," she said very +plaintively. "I'm sure I shall never be so happy anywhere else." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes: you will," said Pollyooly firmly. "You'll find the home ever +so nice." +</P> + +<P> +Millicent shook her head doubtfully and said: +</P> + +<P> +"And I shan't see anything of you and the Lump any more." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes: you will. You let us know when visiting day is—there's sure +to be a visiting day to a home; and we'll come and see you." +</P> + +<P> +Millicent's face grew a little brighter. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin congratulated Pollyooly warmly on her +success; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I trust you were not driven to use the weapon I suggested. Osterley's +cantankerousness didn't go so far as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, sir," said Pollyooly, hesitating a little—"I—I did have to +pretend to cry." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin laughed gently. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Osterley!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +The duke's letter plainly stirred the Bellingham Home to instant +activity, for a letter came for Pollyooly by the first post to say that +an official of the home would come for Millicent that very afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +During the morning Millicent wept several times at the thought of +leaving the Lump; and her final farewell was tearful indeed. But +Pollyooly believed that her sadness would not last long: they had +decided that the empire-builder would have fair hair and a large and +flowing moustache. +</P> + +<P> +After Millicent's departure their life settled down into its usual even +tenour. Pollyooly missed her; and doubtless the Lump also missed his +devoted and obedient slave, though he was of too placid a nature to +raise an outcry about his loss. She wrote to Pollyooly on the day +after her arrival at the home; and the letter made it clear that her +first impressions of it were pleasing. +</P> + +<P> +It was on the fifth morning after her going that the Honourable John +Ruffin made the great announcement. It was his habit to chant in his +bath what Pollyooly believed to be poetry; and it is improbable that an +observant child of twelve, who had passed the seven standards at Muttle +Deeping school, could have been mistaken in a matter of that kind. At +any rate his chanting was rhythmical. The habit may have borne witness +to the goodness of his conscience, or it may not (it may merely have +been a by-product of an excellent digestion), but that morning it +seemed to her that he chanted more loudly and with a finer gusto than +usual. +</P> + +<P> +She was not greatly surprised therefore, when she brought in his +carefully grilled bacon, at his saying in a very cheerful tone: +</P> + +<P> +"I have had a windfall, Mrs. Bride—a windfall of thirty-five pounds. +It fell out of an auction-bridge tree—a game you do not +understand—and it has made the heat-wave, which ought to be called the +heat-flood, more unbearable than ever. Therefore I have resolved to go +away for a while to the sea." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in a tone of amiable congratulation. +</P> + +<P> +But her face fell a little; for though the departure of the Honourable +John Ruffin meant that she would have less work; it also meant that she +would have to spend more on food for herself and her little brother the +Lump, since the Honourable John Ruffin did not eat all his bread or +drink all his milk; and there was often half a cake with which he +refused to continue his afternoon tea on the ground that it was stale. +Besides, life was a far more cheerful business when he was at home; his +talk was Pollyooly's chief diversion, though she was hardly conscious +of the fact; and it frequently gave her to think deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"But the thing that has kept me so long in London submerged in the +heat-flood has not been so much the want of money (I have had enough +for my own escape) as the great bacon difficulty," he said and paused. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"But, thanks to this windfall, I can get over that difficulty by taking +you to the sea to grill my bacon for me, and the Lump to keep you +occupied while you are not grilling it, that Satan may not find some +mischief still for idle hands to do," he said sententiously. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's large blue eyes opened very wide; and her mouth opened too. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, sir, me and the Lump, sir!" she said in a hushed, breathless voice +of incredulous rapture. +</P> + +<P> +"You and the Lump. The Lump and the sea were made for one another. I +look to see him an admiral one of these days. It is time that England +had a red-headed admiral; I'm tired of these refined, drab-haired ones. +It is my patriotic duty to give him a taste for the sea early." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you, sir!" said Pollyooly in a tone of profound gratitude. +</P> + +<P> +"We will go to Pyechurch. There's an old family servant of ours who +lets lodgings at Pyechurch. I made her life a burden to her when I was +young; and consequently, with true womanliness, she has always +entertained the strongest affection for me. It would be no use taking +you to any other lodgings because you wouldn't be allowed to grill my +bacon for me. But Mrs. Wilson knows that I must be humoured; and +humoured I shall be. Also she will look after you while I am playing +golf at Littlestone—not that I have ever known you to need looking +after." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, sir, it will be nice!" said Pollyooly, still somewhat breathless. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin smiled at her amiably. +</P> + +<P> +"This morning we will pack; this afternoon we will go," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly had to slip up to their attic at once to tell the Lump, who +was playing there peacefully, the splendid news. He received it in +placid silence; apparently it did not seem to him to be a matter on +which he was called to comment either favourably or unfavourably. +Pollyooly moved about the world on very light, dancing feet; and as +soon as she had washed up the breakfast things she packed their small +wardrobes in the brown tin box. Then the Honourable John Ruffin, +having finished his cigar and <I>Morning Post</I>, summoned her to help him +pack. +</P> + +<P> +For a while she observed his fashion of doing so with pain and dismay. +He put his clothes in the portmanteau anyhow and crushed them firmly +down. Sometimes he stood on them, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Standing painfully now on one leg and now on the other, she endured the +sight for several minutes; then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh please, sir: you'd better let me do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? What's wrong with my way of doing it?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin, looking down at the confused mess with some surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Look how you're crumpling your shirts, sir," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that that was what trunks and portmanteaux were for. But +have it your own way. Deal with it yourself," said the Honourable John +Ruffin with airy indifference. +</P> + +<P> +He lighted another cigar and watched Pollyooly take the clothes out of +the portmanteau and replace them neatly with some regard to their shape +and the space to be filled, finding room for a dozen things which he +had been forced to leave out. Then, when she had filled half the +portmanteau, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Always fresh accomplishments, Mrs. Bride. If you go on at this rate, +you will certainly go down to posterity as the Admirable Pollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +He sent down to the Inner Temple kitchen for his lunch; and Pollyooly +gave the Lump his dinner. She ate little herself; she was too excited. +They drove, proudly, in a taxicab to Cannon Street Station; and they +travelled, proudly, first-class. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin had bought picture papers for the two +children and a novel for himself, and now and again he paused in his +reading to observe them. It was always a pleasure to a man of his +aesthetic sensibility to gaze at Pollyooly's angel face in its frame of +beautiful red hair and at that redder-headed but authentic cherub, the +Lump. As they ran through London, curiously curled round the Lump, she +was busy showing him the pictures in the papers and receiving his +monosyllabic comments on them, with the ecstatic delight with which his +disciples receive, or should receive, the pregnant utterances of a +genius. When they came into the country she was busy pointing out to +him, with an even more excited delight the common railside objects. It +was more than a year since he had been in the country; and he had to be +told earnestly and more than once that a cow was a cow and a sheep a +baa-lamb, for he was inclined to class them all alike under the genus +gee-gee. When at last he did correctly hail a sheep as a baa-lamb, the +triumphant pleasure of Pollyooly passed all bounds. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin read and observed the children, and observed +the children and read. But when they were nearing their journey's end, +he shut up his book and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I think it will be well for you to cease to be my housekeeper at +Pyechurch, Mrs. Bride. People will ask you about our relations of +course, because by the sea there is so much time for idle curiosity; +and you had better tell them that you are a cousin of mine. That is +nothing but the truth, for you are undoubtedly a red Deeping; and all +the Deepings, red or neutral-tinted, are cousins, first, second, third, +fourth, and so on, of mine." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Also I think that you had better give yourself a few airs. You will +have a better time that way, for airs procure you a welcome in the best +circles. Be a red Deeping—not too truculent, you know, but firm." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's eyes sparkled a little; and she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir: I should like to. I like being a red Deeping, sir, rather. +I liked it when I was at Ricksborough Court." +</P> + +<P> +"Good. You have the right spirit. One of these days you will become +what the newspapers call a society leader. I foresee it," he said in a +tone of the most assured conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"There's one difficulty though, and that's your hands. At present +they're hardly the hands of a red Deeping," he said thoughtfully. "Not +that they're not small and well-shaped!" he interjected hastily. "But +I expect that a week's idleness will let your nails grow; and brushing +will do the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +She had never considered her hands from the aesthetic standpoint. She +had been content to keep them clean. She considered them now, +ruefully. It is indeed hard to do the work of two sets of chambers in +the Temple without the hands showing it. Her nails were very short and +rather jagged; a thumbnail was broken; the skin about them was rough +and broken. She looked from them to the white, carefully kept hands, +with pink shining nails, of the Honourable John Ruffin, and sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that for the future you'd better work in gloves," he said in a +sympathetic tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'd better try," said Pollyooly doubtfully. To her firm +spirit the idea of working in gloves savoured of dilettantism. +</P> + +<P> +"You see a lady—and all red Deepings are gentlefolk of course—a lady +must have good hands," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a deprecating +tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly solemnly. +</P> + +<P> +It was the first time that the meaning of the fact that the Deeping +blood ran in her veins had been brought home to her; and she flushed +faintly with honourable pride at the thought that she was a lady, for +all that she did the work of two sets of chambers in the Temple. She +sat a little more upright. +</P> + +<P> +"And there's another thing," he went on. "At Pyechurch I shall call +you Pollyooly; and you will call me John, or cousin John." +</P> + +<P> +"I—I'll try to remember, sir," said Pollyooly, again flushing with +pride. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll soon get into it," said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. +"And it will be very nice for me to have a cousin always to hand." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly flushed again; and the gratitude in her eyes as they rested +on him was beyond words. +</P> + +<P> +The train, one of the South-Eastern best, sauntered leisurely through +the pleasant, sunny landscape, stopping meditatively at stations and +between stations, as the whim took it, but at last it reached Hythe. +</P> + +<P> +They drove from there, proudly, in a wagonette to Pyechurch, along the +edge of Romney Marsh, with the shining sea on their left hand. +Pollyooly enjoyed the felicity of showing it to the Lump, who had never +before seen it; but she was somewhat taken aback by his hailing a ship +as a baa-lamb. +</P> + +<P> +They found Mrs. Wilson eagerly awaiting them. There was no doubt of +her affection for the Honourable John Ruffin. She had a sumptuous tea +ready for them; and after the journey and its excitement they dealt +with it heartily. +</P> + +<P> +Any fear that the Honourable John Ruffin had felt of Mrs. Wilson's +objecting to Pollyooly's grilling his bacon passed away when he saw how +her heart went out to the two children. Indeed, before tea was over he +was driven to say: +</P> + +<P> +"I see what it is, Mrs. Wilson: the Lump is going to usurp my place in +your regard." +</P> + +<P> +"No one could do that, Master John; and well you know it," said Mrs. +Wilson firmly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY MEETS THE UNPLEASANT PRINCE +</H3> + + +<P> +Tea over, the Honourable John Ruffin proposed that he should take them to +the sands; and Pollyooly agreed eagerly. But as they came out of the +house, two little girls, bare-legged and wearing sandals, passed them. +</P> + +<P> +He looked from them to Pollyooly's stout shoes and black stockings, +stopped short and said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"We must change all this." +</P> + +<P> +He turned to the right down the street and led them into the chief shop +of the village. Apparently he was well known there, for the proprietor +greeted him with respectful warmth. He bought sandals, bathing-dresses, +blue linen frocks, a sunbonnet for Pollyooly, a linen hat for the Lump, +spades and buckets. +</P> + +<P> +Loaded with these purchases he came out into the street, and took his way +back to Mrs. Wilson's, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"You must hurry up and change into these things. First impressions are +so important at the seaside; people have so much leisure to be pernickety +in; and you <I>must</I> look all right!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was not long making the change; and when she came out of the +house in the blue linen frock and sunbonnet, he smiled at her with warm +approval and said: +</P> + +<P> +"There's no doubt about it, you have got the knack of wearing clothes, +Pollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +To Pollyooly his utterance was entirely cryptic; but she gathered that it +was complimentary and returned his smile. +</P> + +<P> +He took them down to the sands; and they were soon at the height of +happiness, building a castle, paddling, and picking up shells. He left +them to it; and went for a stroll down the sea wall. Since it was a hot +evening, at seven he fetched them to bathe; and since he let them bathe +in their own timid way, the timid way of children bathing for the first +time, they enjoyed it exceedingly. The Lump found eight inches of water +deep enough for him, Pollyooly eighteen. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning they bathed again at seven. +</P> + +<P> +The house was near enough to the sea to allow them to go straight from +their bedrooms to it in their bathing dresses. After their bath the +Honourable John Ruffin returned firmly to bed for an hour and so gave +Pollyooly time to make a leisurely and complete breakfast before grilling +his bacon. He had explained to Mrs. Wilson that it was necessary to his +happiness that it should be grilled by Pollyooly, and she had raised no +objection. She observed the process with interest, but not with approval. +</P> + +<P> +"All that time spent over cooking a few slices of bacon!" she said with +the womanly air of one sniffing, when it was transferred from the +frying-pan to the dish. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's brow puckered in a thoughtful frown; and she said gravely: +</P> + +<P> +"But that's the only way to get it right." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wilson sniffed outright. +</P> + +<P> +After his breakfast the Honourable John Ruffin departed to Littlestone to +golf; and Pollyooly and the Lump went down to the sands. There are no +niggers, pierrots, or bands at Pyechurch, only a few donkeys and a +cocoanut-shy. But at low tide there are a thousand acres of firm sand, a +children's paradise. Pollyooly enjoyed it beyond words: not only the +sands and the sea but also the freedom from care. Food, excellent food +and plenty of it, awaited them, paid for, at Mrs. Wilson's. +</P> + +<P> +The Lump was the cause of Pollyooly's first introduction to +fellow-sojourners in this delectable land. A little girl of four, with +very large brown eyes, who was playing near them, was quite suddenly +attracted by him, and without further ado took possession of him. +Pollyooly was pleased that he should have a playmate of his own age; the +little girl's nurse, observing that they were dressed as other children +and that Pollyooly spoke "prettily," and was inclined to be uncommonly +haughty with her, assented to the acquaintance. The little brown-eyed +girl's blue-eyed sister, Kathleen, who was seven, mothered her little +sister, whose name was Mary. Also now and again she mothered the Lump; +but Pollyooly was not jealous. +</P> + +<P> +At first the Lump was somewhat taken aback by this sudden acquisition of +a female friend; but his remarkable placidity stood him in good stead, +and he endured it with an even mind. Presently indeed he seemed to be +taking pleasure in it, for he began to bully her in the manliest fashion. +</P> + +<P> +Then the mother of the little girls joined them and was at once charmed +by the Lump. Pollyooly found no need to display the airs of a red +Deeping, with which she had been treating the nurse, to her; and +presently they were chatting in the friendliest way. Mrs. Gibson, as the +nurse called her, seemed as taken with Pollyooly's serious outlook on +life as with the charm of the Lump; and presently she asked her if her +mother would let them come to tea with Kathleen and Mary and to games on +the sands after it that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly explained that they were staying with their cousin John, who +had gone to golf at Littlestone and would not be back till late; +therefore she accepted the invitation herself. Mrs. Gibson was impressed +by the discovery that cousin John was the Honourable John Ruffin; but she +expressed her surprise that he should have gone away for the day and left +them to themselves without a nurse to look after them. Pollyooly, with +an air of considerable dignity, assured her that she would never dream of +trusting the Lump to a nurse; and Mrs. Gibson admitted that she was right. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly and the Lump enjoyed the party exceedingly. There were a dozen +children, fellow-guests; and at tea the manners of the Lump, under +Pollyooly's anxious eye, were beyond reproach. Her hands indeed troubled +her, and she kept them out of sight as much as she could. After all they +were not very large hands to withdraw from view. After tea the younger +children played in the charge of nurses; the elder children, to the +extreme delight of Pollyooly, who loved to run fleetly, disported +themselves in more swift and violent games. She had much to tell the +Honourable John Ruffin on his return from Littlestone. He congratulated +her warmly on their début. +</P> + +<P> +The next day she found herself well launched in the society of the sands, +with many playmates, and entered upon the fullest and most delightful +life. But there is always a fly in the finer ointments; and the +Pyechurch fly was Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz. +</P> + +<P> +That morning Pollyooly had her first sight of him. She and the Lump were +playing with Kathleen and Mary, when Kathleen cried in a tone of dismay, +"Here's the prince!" picked up Mary, who would have gone quicker on her +own feet, and staggered off toward their nurse with her. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly picked up the Lump and came with her, though she could see no +reason for Kathleen's dismay, for the prince was but a fat little boy of +ten, small-eyed, thick-lipped, and snub-nosed. His white sailor suit +seemed to give his ugliness its full values. +</P> + +<P> +Under the wing of their nurse Kathleen and Mary surveyed him with the +eyes of terror; and Kathleen poured into Pollyooly's attentive ear the +story of his dreadful doings: how he had pushed a little boy over the +edge of the sea-wall, kicked several others; how he had hit little girls +with their own spades and pulled the hair of others; how he never passed +a carefully built castle without kicking a breach in it, and always threw +any spades or buckets he could lay hands on far into the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly observed this terror with the unimpressed eye of a connoisseur. +When she had lived with her Aunt Hannah in the little slum at the back of +the King's Bench Walk, she had fought many battles with the small boys of +Alsatia; and she was not at all impressed by the physique of the prince. +She was of the opinion that Henry Wiggins would make very short work of +him; and she could hold Henry Wiggins (by the hair) with her left hand +and smack him with her right till she was nearly as tired of smacking as +he was of being smacked. She knew that she could because she had done it. +</P> + +<P> +The prince came to the castle they themselves had been building and +kicked down one wall of it. +</P> + +<P> +"If only you weren't a prince, I'd teach you, my fine young gentleman," +said the nurse softly. +</P> + +<P> +"You mind the Lump! I'll go and smack him hard!" cried Pollyooly with +eager confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"No! No! He's a <I>prince</I>! You mustn't touch a <I>prince</I>, miss!" cried +the nurse in a tone of the last horror, gripping Pollyooly's wrist +tightly. "Besides, he'd hurt you. He's a very nasty, spiteful little +boy." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't mind him! I'm not afraid of a little boy like that!" cried +Pollyooly; and she tugged at the restraining grip, hard but in vain, +eying the pest with the bright light of battle in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't let my children play with him like some people do just +because he's a prince—not was it ever so. I should be frightened all +the time," said the nurse. +</P> + +<P> +"If he ever touches the Lump, I'll teach him!" Said Pollyooly with a +cold, impressive ferocity. +</P> + +<P> +"If ever he touches one of us, papa will spank him hard. Papa doesn't +care much for princes," said Kathleen. +</P> + +<P> +"I should think he didn't—if they're like that," said Pollyooly with +conviction. +</P> + +<P> +They watched the devastating royal progress with indignant eyes. The +back view of the prince was nearly as unpleasant as the front, for he +slouched along with his fat little figure hunched forward in a very ugly +fashion. The children fled before him as he came, and from the shelter +of their nurses, or their mothers, angrily watched him destroy the +castles they had built. But most of their mothers regarded him with a +gloating admiration; they felt that the beach was more glorious for his +royal presence. +</P> + +<P> +About forty yards behind him came a companion figure, his equerry the +Baron von Habelschwert, a stout, pig-eyed, snub-nosed man of forty-five +who walked with the stiffness of a ramrod of the best Bessemer steel. +His legs were, unfortunately, rather short, and since the lower part of +his body was of a fine protuberant rotundity which the breadth of his +shoulders and the thickness of his chest failed dismally to equal, he +displayed an uncommonly exact resemblance of a perambulating pear. He +had a rich expanse of fat cheek and a small, but dimpled, chin. He was +saved by his fierce moustache, which, upturned in the imperial fashion, +gave him the ferocious air required by his military profession and his +sentiments of a superman of the latest Prussian brand. +</P> + +<P> +Happiness sat enthroned upon his brow. A passion for blacking is a +distinguishing characteristic of his military caste; and his natural love +of licking the boots of members of the many royal families of the +Fatherland was finding its full expression. In Prince Adalbert he had a +perpetual boot to lick. Sometimes indeed the boot licked him: that very +morning the prince had kicked his shins in a masterly fashion, on being +invited to wash his face for the day. The baron bore it very well. +</P> + +<P> +His clothes fitted him with an extreme, but somewhat unfortunate, +military tightness. They were of an unpleasant greenish tint which did +not match the green Homberg hat he wore. In his right hand he carried a +short cane and yellow gloves. The morning was hot; his boots were patent +leather. Diffusing an agreeable odour of pomatum on the breeze, he +walked with the air of one taking his ease in a conquered country, for he +was one of the gallant German war-party, and he looked forward with +touching certainty to the day when the mailed fist of his imperial master +should sweep England with fire and sword from sea to sea. He often +talked in a gloating fashion of that great day to his young charge. +Possibly that was one of the reasons which induced Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz to make so free with the castles and persons of the +children of the so-soon-to-be-subjugated English. +</P> + +<P> +The ogres of the sands having disappeared down the beach, the children +repaired the damage to their castles and once more played in peace. That +afternoon there was another royal progress of the same devastating kind +but more complete, since the prince surprised a little girl and pulled +her hair. The fond English mothers still observed him with a gloating +air, happy to be on the same stretch of sand with him. They said +indulgently to one another: "Boys will be boys," or, with conviction: +"Such a manly little fellow." +</P> + +<P> +This time the Baron von Habelschwert walked only fifteen yards behind the +prince. He smiled benignly on the destruction of the castles; plainly he +felt that his young charge was treating the so-soon-to-be-subjugated +English in the right spirit. +</P> + +<P> +There was only one check to the royal progress. The sand-castle on which +Pollyooly and Kathleen had worked so hard stood directly in the line of +it. Kathleen and Mary fled to their nurse at the approach of the prince, +calling wildly to Pollyooly to follow. Pollyooly leaving the Lump in the +castle, stepped out of it, and spade in hand calmly awaited the coming of +the prince. +</P> + +<P> +When he was three yards from her she said quietly but very distinctly: +</P> + +<P> +"You keep away." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-170"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-170.jpg" ALT=""You keep away"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="414" HEIGHT="635"> +<H3> +[Illustration: "You keep away"] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The prince advanced two steps and stopped. There was that in Pollyooly's +deep blue eyes which gave him pause. He advanced another step, and +stopped again. Then he called her "pig-dog," in his native tongue, +turned aside, and pursued his way. As he went he kept looking back at +her, scowling malevolently. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly gazed after him with unchanging face. She would have liked to +put her tongue a long way out at him; but she felt that red Deepings did +not do so. +</P> + +<P> +The nurse came down to the castle with Kathleen and Mary, and said in a +tone of respectful awe: +</P> + +<P> +"However you dare, miss! And him a prince too!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care a pin for him," said Pollyooly calmly. +</P> + +<P> +She stepped back to the castle and continued the work of construction. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR +</H3> + + +<P> +The royal progress was the event of the morning and afternoon for +several days before it occurred to Pollyooly to tell the Honourable +John Ruffin about it. Then one evening, on their way to bathe, she +told him. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin stood still on the edge of the sea, looked +at her thoughtfully, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"This is interesting indeed. I had no idea that German aggression had +extended to this retired spot." +</P> + +<P> +"And he's such an ugly little boy," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"And he is all alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no: there's a baron with him to look after him—with a large +moustache. He's very ugly too," said Pollyooly frankly. +</P> + +<P> +"This grows more interesting still. I think I should enjoy looking +into this matter. Prussian barons always need a firm hand. But I'm +too full up with golf to deal with it for the next day or two. I must +bear it in mind." +</P> + +<P> +Plainly he did bear it in mind, for on the afternoon of the third day, +to Pollyooly's delight, he joined them on the sands. She introduced +him to Mrs. Gibson; and he thanked her for having had his two little +cousins to tea, and chatted to her in his cheerful and engaging fashion +till Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz came slouching along on his +devastating course. The Honourable John Ruffin observed him with every +appearance of the liveliest interest; but the Baron von Habelschwert +seemed to afford him even greater pleasure than did his young charge; +and upon him he gazed with a fascinated, loving eye. +</P> + +<P> +"I have rarely seen a more perfect pair," he said to Mrs. Gibson in a +tone of deep content. +</P> + +<P> +"Detestable creatures!" said Mrs. Gibson with some heat. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps—but how incomparably Prussian!" said the Honourable John +Ruffin with warm appreciation. "And you let these unpleasant ones +terrorise your children?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what can I do?" said Mrs. Gibson. "My husband would have +stopped it, if he had been down here; but he isn't. I have spoken to +one or two men, acquaintances, about it. But they seem afraid to +interfere." +</P> + +<P> +"We are getting too highly civilised," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a melancholy tone. "The fine old English spirit is dying out; and +they're afraid of getting into the papers. But evidently what is +needed is the giving of lessons; and the proper person to give them is +a fierce small boy—Irish for choice—one who is always and nobly +spoiling for a fight. Unfortunately I have not a fierce small Irish +boy to hand; but, thank goodness! there are still red Deepings left in +England." +</P> + +<P> +"What is a red Deeping?" said Mrs. Gibson. +</P> + +<P> +"The red Deepings are an old East Anglian strain—red-haired and very +fierce and cantankerous when roused. My little cousin Pollyooly here +is a red Deeping." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do you think she could cope with that horrid little boy?" said +Mrs. Gibson eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin with decision. "Come +here, Pollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly came; and he felt her biceps carefully. Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't Mr. Vance tell me a story of a boy called Henry Wiggins whom +you found disrespectful and taught manners?" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly flushed faintly; but she said bravely, in an explanatory tone: +</P> + +<P> +"I had to. He was always bothering." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think that Henry Wiggins was a far more active and difficult +boy in a fight than this fat little prince," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Henry Wiggins is tough but really he is quite easy. You've only +got to get hold of his hair," said Pollyooly quickly. "But of course +the prince has very short hair, only he isn't tough at all," she added +in the grave tones of one weighing the chances of battle. +</P> + +<P> +"He certainly is cropped. The Prussians have no aesthetic sense," said +the Honourable John Ruffin in a disparaging tone. "But I should think +that you could get over the difficulty of the hair." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes: I'm nearly sure I could," said Pollyooly; and her deep blue +eyes began to shine. "May I smack him if he interferes with us?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not on any account unless I am at hand," said the Honourable John +Ruffin quickly. "I have a deep, patriotic distrust of the chivalry of +Prussian barons. I do not think that this one could be trusted to see +fair play. You might have a baron on your hands as well as a prince; +and it might be too much for a red Deeping of your size. A prince at a +time should be your motto." +</P> + +<P> +"It would be very amusing," said Mrs. Gibson; and her eyes danced. +</P> + +<P> +"You shall see it," said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. "Unbiased +spectators of a dramatic scene are always desirable; and it won't be +difficult to arrange your presence, for the business will need a little +stage-managing. You watch the prince, Pollyooly, and see how far he +goes down the beach, so that we can arrange the exact place for his +instruction." +</P> + +<P> +The next day Pollyooly followed the prince to the end of his royal +progress twice; and she had little doubt that she would be able to draw +him into the battle for which she yearned, for he never saw her without +scowling darkly upon her. +</P> + +<P> +On the second day the Honourable John Ruffin returned from his golf in +time to lunch with the two children; and he informed Pollyooly that he +proposed to spend the afternoon on the sand with them. They found Mrs. +Gibson with her children; and she accompanied them to the spot at which +the prince usually turned in his course. Twenty yards beyond it the +Honourable John Ruffin bade Pollyooly build a castle; and then he and +Mrs. Gibson left her and the Lump to build it, and retiring to the +sea-wall forty yards away, they sat down and fell into polite +conversation. As they left her, the Honourable John Ruffin's last +words to Pollyooly were: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't forbid you to scratch him. Scratching is harmonious with the +female nature." +</P> + +<P> +The statement afforded Mrs. Gibson grounds for the beginning of their +polite conversation. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly and the Lump worked steadily away at the building of the +castle. Pollyooly did the digging; now and again the Lump would pat a +wall placidly. They had been at work for rather more than half an +hour; and the castle was already beginning to wear the rotund air so +dear to the eye of the builder when the progressive prince came in +sight. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's joyful heart began to beat quickly. He was slouching along +to his doom nearly fifty yards in front of the fragrant baron; and +since there were children to annoy all the way, he came but slowly. It +gave Pollyooly time to lead the Lump half-way to Mrs. Gibson, and send +him toddling the rest. She was back at her castle, and at work again +when the prince caught sight of her. +</P> + +<P> +He stopped short, his unhasty mind slowly taking in the situation. +That she should be working in loneliness, thirty yards beyond the line +of nurses and children along the beach, seemed too good to be true. +Presently his unhurrying mind grasped the fact that it was true; his +heart blazed in his bosom; he threw back his head and, had his nose +been larger, he would have sniffed the breeze like a warhorse. He +advanced upon her in a quick, shambling slouch. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly saw his eager advance; but she affected not to see it. She +was eager for the fray, but fearful lest a display of that eagerness +should dash the royal courage; moreover she wished the prince to be +flagrantly the aggressor. She worked at the farther wall of the castle +with her back to him. A fray was the last thing the prince looked for. +There had been but one fray in his sheltered life: with a brother +prince carelessly admitted to his society. A fray with a child not of +the blood royal was beyond dreaming. He sprang on to the castle wall +and began to stamp and kick a breach in it with furious, but clumsy, +energy. +</P> + +<P> +Then Pollyooly turned and sprang. The prince was hardly aware of her +spring; he was only aware of a stinging smack, and then the shock of +her impetus toppled him over on to his back on the sand. Pollyooly +came down too, but not on the sand; she came down on the prince, and +far more heavily than her fragile air warranted. Before he could +collect any scattered wits he may have chanced to have, she was +kneeling astride him, with a painful, grinding knee on either of his +arms, and slapping his face. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin walked briskly down from the sea-wall with a +smile of profound pleasure on his face. The perfumed baron had not yet +perceived his charge's plight. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly did not smack very hard at first, for she was resisting the +wriggling of the prince; but once she had dug her toes firmly into the +sand, she gave her mind to delivering each smack with the full swing of +her arm; and the prince began to bellow. Then the baron saw the +terrible, treasonable indignity the hope of the house of +Lippe-Schweidnitz was enduring. He broke into a curious toddling run, +uttering odd, short shrieks of the last horror as he came. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin placed himself athwart the course of the +toddling deliverer and said quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't hurry, Pollyooly, but smack him hard." +</P> + +<P> +A smile of understanding wreathed Pollyooly's flushed but angel face; +and she did smack him hard. The Honourable John Ruffin's back was +turned to the headlong baron; but his head was bent a little sideways; +and as the already breathless rescuer made his final spurting rush he +moved sharply to the left. +</P> + +<P> +It was unfortunate (but since he had not eyes in the back of his head, +it could not be helped) that the left shoulder of the Honourable John +Ruffin, jerking upward hard, should have impinged upon the onrushing +right shoulder of the deliverer. The baron left the firm earth, +twirled in the air in a fashion which would have won him the plaudits +of the most exacting music-hall audience, came down on his back on the +sand with a violence which shook the little breath left out of his body +and lay gasping in a darkened world. +</P> + +<P> +It was a full minute and a half before the bellowing of his +sufficiently besmacked charge came again, dimly, to his comprehending +ears. Then he grew aware, also dimly, that the Honourable John Ruffin +was standing over him and asking loudly, with every appearance of just +indignation, what he meant by not looking where he was going. The +baron was strongly of the opinion that the interposed shoulder had been +no accident; but he was much too busy with his breathing to say so. +Then when his breath came more easily and he had the power to say so, +he had no longer the inclination, for the knowledge of the terrible +position in which he stood, or rather lay, had flashed on him: he, a +German officer, had been knocked down by a civilian and was forever +disgraced. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly continued to smack the bellowing prince; the Honourable John +Ruffin continued to ask the baron what the devil he meant by it; and +the poor wits of the panting nobleman continued to work on his dreadful +problem. Then a flash of inspiration showed him the saving solution: +he could accept his noisy questioner's view that his fall had been an +accident. He sat up and began to apologise faintly and sulkily for +having been knocked down. +</P> + +<P> +The hands of Pollyooly were sore from smacking Prince Adalbert, but not +so sore as his royal cheeks; and still she smacked on. She interjected +between the smacks requests for an assurance that he would cease to +annoy the children on the beach. His fine Prussian determination not +to be robbed of his simple pleasures prevented him from giving it. He +preferred to bellow. But there are limits even to royal endurance; and +as the baron rose shakily to his feet, the prince howled the assurance +she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"And mind you do, or I'll smack you again," said Pollyooly coldly. +</P> + +<P> +She rose to her feet, flushed and triumphant, and rubbed gently +together her stinging hands. The prince lay where he was, blubbering. +</P> + +<P> +Ten yards away Mrs. Gibson stood holding the hand of the Lump, who +gazed at the scene in placid wonder; and she was laughing gently. Ten +yards away, on her right, stood a dozen children, surveying their +blubbering pest with joyful, vengeful eyes. Behind them distractedly +hovered three shocked nurses, quivering with horror at the upheaval of +the social edifice; and horror-stricken mothers were slowly approaching +the dreadful spot. +</P> + +<P> +The baron slowly took in the humiliating significance of the scene; he +saw that the glory of a royal house had been levelled to the dust, or +rather to the sand. He caught his blubbering charge by the arm, jerked +him to his feet, and led him away by one large ear. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin looked after them and laughed quietly but +joyfully. Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I congratulate you, Pollyooly—an excellent piece of work very neatly +done. The haughty foreigner will trouble you no more." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gibson came forward and added her congratulations to his. The +children gazed at Pollyooly with deep respect. Only the nurses and the +mothers held aloof; an earthquake shock would hardly have astonished +and confused them more than had this smacking of royalty. Had any one +but the little cousin of the Honourable John Ruffin smacked, they would +have been unable to refrain from an outburst of open disapproval. +</P> + +<P> +To judge from the royal progress next morning, Pollyooly had indeed +done her work. The Baron von Habelschwert still perfumed the air as he +walked; but it was no longer obviously the air of a conquered country. +His moustache was less fierce, his stride less proprietary. Indeed he +might easily have been mistaken, by those to whom his name and +dignities were unknown, for the pear-shaped but inoffensive keeper of a +delicatessen shop. Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz was also +changed. He no longer roamed afield; he kept within six feet of his +protective equerry. He slouched less; and he had ceased to scowl +arrogantly on the children who no longer fled at his approach. He +regarded little English girls with a respectful, not to say timid, eye, +and edged closer to the baron as he passed one. To his mind the little +English girl was stored with the potentialities of a powder-magazine. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RAPPROCHEMENT +</H3> + + +<P> +The noble-hearted humanitarian is ever of the opinion that violence, +physical violence, is degrading alike to those who employ it, and to +those on whom it is employed. In the main, doubtless, he may be right; +but there must be natures, exceptional natures, on which it does not +exercise this disastrous effect; and it is curious that there should be +two human beings in so small a place as Pyechurch at the same time of +this very nature. +</P> + +<P> +There can be no doubt that Pollyooly had smacked Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz with far greater violence than ever she had smacked +the abhorred Henry Wiggins for yelling "Ginger!" at her. There can be +no doubt that the prince had been so smacked. Yet Pollyooly's face +remained the face of an angel child; her devotion to the Lump and her +politeness to those with whom she came into contact showed no signs of +weakening; and no one could honestly assert that Prince Adalbert looked +a bit more like a pig than he had always done. If anything he had lost +something of his likeness to that nutritious animal. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate there was no sign of degradation in his behaviour. He now +walked about Pyechurch beach as peacefully as you could wish: he +destroyed no castles; he kicked no children. +</P> + +<P> +Even that fierce, stout, moustachioed and military Prussian, the Baron +von Habelschwert, seemed to have derived benefit from his violent +impingement on the left shoulder of the Honourable John Ruffin. Though +his more mature nature should have been fixed, there can be no doubt +that he wore a softer air, and no longer trod the English sand with the +air of a disdainful but perfumed conqueror. +</P> + +<P> +He was by no means an observant man; but stupid as he was, he could not +fail to perceive the change in his pupil, for it was forced on his +attention by the fact that the prince did not kick his shins for +seventy-two hours. The baron was at first surprised, then dismayed: he +feared that the fine Hohenzollern spirit of his young charge might have +suffered a lasting, weakening shock from his encounter with that angel +child; and when the prince for three successive mornings and afternoons +did not assault a single little girl, however much smaller than himself +those who came within his reach chanced to be, the fear deepened. +</P> + +<P> +Oddly enough the subdued prince did not seem to regard Pollyooly with +the bitterness which might have been expected. He did not even shun +the sight of her. Indeed, as he made his royal progress along the +beach, he would pause and regard her with puzzled but manifestly quite +respectful interest, as she played actively not far from her little +brother, the Lump, with her young friends. +</P> + +<P> +The baron regarded the Honourable John Ruffin in a very different +manner; he could not set eyes on him without scowling horribly. It was +the desire of his heart to have the blood of Pollyooly's protector; and +though the conduct of Pollyooly had oddly but considerably weakened his +confident expectation of the immediate subjugation of the English +people by his imperial master he longed with a greater fervour than had +ever before burned in him for THE DAY. +</P> + +<P> +The conversations, strictly confined to the British tongue, between the +baron and his pupil, were always of the briefest and often truculent. +The prince was a silent child, by reason of the fact that he had +nothing to say. But one morning as they came down to the beach he +startled the baron by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I want to blay." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, 'ighness, whad shall we blay ad?" said the Baron von Habelschwert +uncomfortably, after a little hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to blay wiz you," said the prince in a tone which showed, +beyond any possibility of misconception, that on that matter his mind +was made up. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud zere's no one else for you do blay wiz," said the baron in English. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to blay wiz childrens," said the pupil. +</P> + +<P> +The baron drew his heels together and became, though still pear-like, +splendidly rigid. His eyes flashed with haughty, but a trifle +vicarious pride, as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Zere are no children for your 'ighness do blay wiz 'ere. Zese are nod +'igh and well-born ones." +</P> + +<P> +"I do nod care," said the prince in the tone of one who knew his own +mind quite well. +</P> + +<P> +"Id is imbossible," said the baron in a tone of finality. +</P> + +<P> +The rhinocerine eyes of his little charge flashed in sudden wrath; and +he uttered a curious, pig-like snort as he sprang at the baron, and got +in one severe kick on his left shin before that thoughtless Prussian, +who should have known so well what to expect, could abate his rigidity +and bend forward and hold him off at the length of his arms. He well +knew that, in that constrained attitude to his bellowing pupil, he was +presenting no dignified spectacle. None the less he was aware that he +was affording considerable entertainment to the visitors taking the air +on the sea-wall above him; and his joy in his young charge was not +increased by the fact that among those visitors the Honourable John +Ruffin smiled on the scene with amiable interest. +</P> + +<P> +Having ascertained beyond all doubting that his well-shod toes could +not reach the shins of his preceptor, the young prince ceased his +futile effort, and with a most ungracious air moved along the beach. +The limping baron followed him gloomily, with itching fingers. He felt +that, in spite of the fact that his imperial master would shortly sweep +her land with fire and sword from sea to sea, the lot of the happy +English child Pollyooly was to be envied, since she could, and did, +smack princes, with a mind untroubled by the sense of their +sacrosanctity. Moreover he felt a sad prescience that his young +charge, careless of the magnificent blood that flowed in his veins, +<I>would</I> play with these children, who were neither high nor well-born. +But he was quite unprepared for the actual group of children his young +charge chose for playmates. He passed no less than four animated and +excited groups before he arrived at that adorned and ruled by Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +It chanced that it had decided to play rounders, and was gathered into +an excited knot in which everybody was discussing, all at the same +time, the process of picking sides. +</P> + +<P> +The prince, shouldering aside, with proud Hohenzollern manliness, two +or three little girls, thrust into the centre of the group and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I want do blay." +</P> + +<P> +The debating voices hushed; the other children stared at him with +startled eyes, then drew aside leaving him face to face with Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"We don't want him to play with <I>us</I>!" cried Kathleen, who occupied the +position of chief friend to Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, we don't!" cried the two other little girls. +</P> + +<P> +The prince paid no heed to them; he looked at Pollyooly and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I want do blay." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly considered him thoughtfully, weighing the question of his +admission to their circle with the care it demanded. He was not very +pleasant to look at since he was so podgy, snub-nosed, pasty-faced, and +small-eyed; but Pollyooly, mindful of their late encounter, and +inspired by the magnanimity of the victor, did not at once reject the +appeal. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you promise to behave properly, if we let you play with us?" she +said coldly. +</P> + +<P> +The Baron von Habelschwert, standing over the group and nervously +twirling his fierce moustache, shuddered and groaned. It was bad +enough that his young, but pig-headed Hohenzollern should play at all +with children who were neither high, nor well-born; but that he should +only be admitted to play with them on terms passed the limit of human +decency. He had read often in the sterner, but agrarian, papers of his +Fatherland, that, owing to the increase of the Socialist vote, the +world was coming to an end. He felt its once so solid mass trembling +beneath his feet. +</P> + +<P> +But the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz, insensible to the +tremor, said eagerly: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"All right: then we'll try letting you play with us and see," said +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +There came a faint murmur of protest from her friends, or rather from +her followers; and she added with comforting assurance: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's all right; you needn't worry about him; I'll see that he +behaves, myself." +</P> + +<P> +With that assurance they were content—they had to be; the prince was +admitted to the circle; and Pollyooly picked him on her side. +</P> + +<P> +It had the first innings; and the baron expected the prince to be put +in first. He was annoyed to observe that, as a mere matter of tactics, +since she was by far the fastest of her side, that Pollyooly took that +position herself. He was further annoyed when she put in her friend +Kathleen next, an act of sheer favouritism unjustified by Kathleen's +capacity; and after Kathleen she put in a little boy, and then another +little girl. As they played their innings, she stood beside the prince +and instructed him in the game. Once, since he appeared slow to grasp +her meaning, she caught him by the shoulder and shook him to make it +clearer. The Baron von Habelschwert ground his teeth. When at last +the prince did go in, the baron's heart swelled with proud expectation: +his gallant little charge would display to those English children (they +were neither high, nor well-born) the natural superiority of his royal +blood and race. +</P> + +<P> +The prince, however, did not fulfil this loyal expectation. He hit the +ball, indeed, and in obedience to Pollyooly's shriek of instruction, +started to run. But he started to run the wrong way round. His side +shrieked as one child, as Pollyooly sprang upon him, swung him round, +and shoved him along in the right direction. She succeeded in +arresting his mad course at the first base by one of the shrillest +shrieks of "Stop!" that ever burst from human lung. The next time the +ball was hit she set him going again by a companion shriek; and with +others of a like piercing quality (they seemed to flow from her lungs +in an inexhaustible abundance) she guided him safely round the bases +and home. From the blundering, stumbling way he ran, her shrieks +seemed to be the only things in the world of which he was really +conscious. +</P> + +<P> +The baron watched the confused performance of his little charge with a +strong feeling that something very serious indeed was the matter with +the order of nature. When Pollyooly's side went out to field, he was +no more satisfied by the prince's performance. Whenever the ball came +to him, in spite of the fact that an encouraging, instructive shriek +from Pollyooly reached him first, he either missed it, or fumbled it; +and he always shied it in short. The baron's feeling that there was +something very wrong with the cosmos grew stronger. He became +depressed and yet more depressed by the fact that the prince was +playing to an audience; for all the respectful and admiring nurses +edged down the beach to behold him play; and those of them whose little +charges were playing in the same game with him, assumed insufferable +airs. +</P> + +<P> +After a while the children tired of rounders and betook themselves to +building a sand-castle. Since he had been admitted to their circle on +her instance, Pollyooly seemed to feel herself responsible for the +prince. She seemed also to feel it more important that he should learn +to dig properly than that she should dig herself. For, giving him her +spade, she stood over him and urged him to ply it with the exacting +persistence of a biblical Egyptian superintending the making of bricks. +The baron walked moodily up and down outside the castle wall, +considering bitterly the while the defects in the cosmos. +</P> + +<P> +The morning sped; and the prince perspired. At last the punctual baron +observed that it was time to return home to lunch. In fact his +vigilant stomach apprised him of the fact before his watch. +</P> + +<P> +He came close to the castle wall and said: +</P> + +<P> +"It's time for your Highness to coom 'ome." +</P> + +<P> +His highness took no notice of him. +</P> + +<P> +In a louder tone the baron said: +</P> + +<P> +"Coom along, your Highness. Id's dime we go 'ome." +</P> + +<P> +His highness shot a savage glance at him out of the corner of his eye, +hunched his shoulders, and went on digging. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you hear the baron calling you, Prince?" said Pollyooly in a +tone of some displeasure. +</P> + +<P> +His highness seemed likely to withdraw his head right out of sight +between his shoulders, and went on digging. He was still perspiring. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you go along at once—like a good boy!" said Pollyooly sharply. +</P> + +<P> +His highness raised his disappearing head and saw the cold resolve in +her deep-blue eyes. He gave himself a little shake, stuck his spade +into the sand, stretched his neck and went: but not like a good boy. +He stumbled down the castle wall with his teeth set very tight, and +immediately on reaching level ground kicked the shins of his unprepared +preceptor. The baron, as was his wont, bent like a bow and held his +little charge out at the length of his arms beyond the range of his +shins, till his wrath should have abated. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's face filled with horror; she came springing lightly down +the castle wall; cried: "Don't do that, you naughty little boy!" and +caught the prince a resounding slap on the cheek. +</P> + +<P> +The pent-up feelings of the prince escaped in a loud yell. He loosed +his preceptor and pressed a hand to his stinging cheek. +</P> + +<P> +It was too much for the baron. He tore his hat from his head, flung it +to earth, ground it into the earth with his heel, and flung his arms to +heaven in one frenzied movement: +</P> + +<P> +"Ach Gott!" he cried to the unregarding sky. "Thad a liddle +Eengleesh-she-devil-child should strike a Hohenzollern!" +</P> + +<P> +Moved by his emotion, Pollyooly looked at him in anxious surprise: +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right," she said in a soothing voice. "You don't know how to +manage him. He'll go like a lamb." +</P> + +<P> +Her surmise (it could have been no more than a surmise) proved +accurate. The prince went blubbering, but he went like a lamb. +</P> + +<P> +It might be supposed that his proud, Hohenzollern blood would have +boiled for hours at the blow. Nothing of the kind. +</P> + +<P> +After a hearty lunch he rose and said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to blay wiz Bollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +He went. The baron followed him gloomily. Now he knew the cosmic all +to be a mere time-honored cheat. +</P> + +<P> +In this order they came down on to the beach and approached a group of +children in which Pollyooly reigned. The prince entered it with the +air of an uninvited guest, very doubtful of his welcome, and said to +Pollyooly in a tone half assertive, half beseeching: +</P> + +<P> +"I've coom to blay." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly looked at him with very stern eyes and said: "Well, you quite +understand you've got to behave yourself." +</P> + +<P> +The baron groaned. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly turned to him and said with polite interest: +</P> + +<P> +"Has he kicked you again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ach Himmel!" said the baron; and he thrust his hands into his pockets, +clenched his fingers very tightly, and walked away with bowed head. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRAINING OF ROYALTY +</H3> + + +<P> +On that day began the real instruction of Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz in the art of life and the graces of social +intercourse. Pollyooly continued it with unswerving firmness. Her +method of treating a Hohenzollern was indeed entirely subversive of all +current ideas on the matter of the deference due to the members of a +family which has practically made the history of Europe since the +beginning of this century. It seemed at times as if to her a +Hohenzollern was a hardly animate object which you shoved here and there +as you might an easy-chair which kept catching in the carpet, or at other +times a mere beast of burden which you shoved, or shook, or cuffed gently +into doing what you wanted with a moderate, but uncertain, degree of +precision. Often however a piercing shriek was sufficient to produce the +required action. +</P> + +<P> +The prince was always in a perspiration, and often out of breath. But he +seemed to thrive on the treatment: his appetite improved; his pastiness +lessened; his skin grew clearer; and his flesh became less abundant and +harder. He also became quicker in his movements, and showed many more +glimmerings of intelligence, sometimes sustained for seconds at a time. +</P> + +<P> +The baron's deferential soul could not endure the situation; and it never +occurred to him to make the enquiries which would have informed him that +Pollyooly, as a red Deeping, was of an older strain than the +Hohenzollerns. He made many efforts to withdraw the prince from her +society. He remonstrated both with her and with his little charge on the +extraordinary impropriety of their being acquainted. But they seemed to +find it entirely natural; and his efforts were vain. The prince, in +truth, followed Pollyooly about; and what he followed her about like was +a dog. He did not indeed spring to do her bidding, for he was not built +to spring; but it was plain that if he could have sprung he would. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps the most remarkable fact about him was the improvement in his +spirits: he was losing his air of gloomy savagery; often he smiled—at a +dish which took his fancy, and on setting out for the sands to join +Pollyooly. At times, when he had performed some small feat, clumsily +indeed, but not with a quite incredible clumsiness, he would turn to her +a triumphant, but appealing, eye which begged for a word, or a smile of +approval. The humane Pollyooly rarely failed to give him that word or +smile to brace him to fresh efforts. With other little girls he had come +to be civil but uninterested; and little boys he ignored. +</P> + +<P> +There are minds to whom it would have occurred that there were other +seaside resorts equally healthy with Pyechurch to one of which the young +prince might be removed to save him from the social degradation of +playing with children who were neither high, nor well-born. The baron's +was not one of these minds: he was a soldier of the emperor; he had been +instructed that his young charge was to spend a month at Pyechurch; at +Pyechurch he must spend it. But he wrote a long and earnest letter to +his august master, the Grand Duke of Lippe-Schweidnitz, informing him, +with full details, of his son's unfortunate social entanglement with a +red-haired English child, and of the impossibility, in the circumstances, +of his putting an end to it. He got no answer, for the grand duke was +splendidly busy maintaining the agrarian interests of his Fatherland. +The baron therefore found himself compelled to accept the situation +gloomily. Presently he was accepting it with resignation. He found that +Pollyooly lightened his work. She relieved him of his little charge for +the greater part of the day. He could now carry a deck-chair on to the +sands, and stretched at full length in it, with a large, but not +extravagantly fragrant, cigar in his mouth, could spend the sunny hours +in the perusal of the works of the English novelists who appealed most +strongly to his idealistic Teutonic sensibilities. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes however he was disturbed in this resigned acceptance of the +situation. One afternoon he raised his head from the enthralled perusal +of "Maiden Sweet" to find that the sands were empty of his charge. He +struggled up from his chair, dropped the luscious masterpiece into it, +and hurried in search of him. Pollyooly was a good sixty yards away; and +he was breathless when he reached her. He clamoured wheezily for +information as to the whereabouts of the prince. Pollyooly told him, +indifferently enough, that he had gone to the village. The baron sought +the village at his best, but curious, toddling rush. In the middle of it +he met his young charge plodding along with an air of perfect content. +In his hand he bore a paper bag. +</P> + +<P> +"Vot 'af your 'ighness been doing?" cried his richly purple preceptor. +</P> + +<P> +"Bollyooly zent me to buy bebbermints," said his charge stolidly, without +stopping. +</P> + +<P> +"Mein Gott!" cried the baron. "And now that she-devil-child uses you as +a lackey!" +</P> + +<P> +"She wanted zem," said his charge stolidly, pursuing his way without +turning his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud bebbermints you do not like!" cried the baron. +</P> + +<P> +"Bollyooly wanted bebbermints," said the prince stolidly. +</P> + +<P> +The baron said no more because there was no more to say. +</P> + +<P> +He followed his charge to the beach and sought his chair; his charge +sought Pollyooly. Gloomily the baron resumed his perusal of "Maiden +Sweet." He had not read half a page when the thoughtful Pollyooly sent +the prince to offer him a peppermint. The baron refused it with the +proper cold scorn. The prince put it into his own mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud bebbermints you do not like!" said the baron again. +</P> + +<P> +"Bollyooly says bebbermints is goot," said the prince stolidly; and he +turned on his heel. +</P> + +<P> +The baron searched the far-smiling sea with wild, questioning eyes. It +offered neither explanation nor comfort. +</P> + +<P> +It chanced a few days later that the Honourable John Ruffin put +Pollyooly's skilful cooking to the further test of grilling mushrooms +along with his bacon. They came from the marsh. Presently to +Pollyooly's prudent mind it seemed foolish to pay for vegetables which +might be gathered for nothing. She resolved to gather them herself; and +one afternoon with that end in view she came down to the sands, leading +the Lump, and carrying a basket, and suggested to Kathleen and others of +her young friends that they should accompany her on her quest and share +the spoil. But their nurses, fore-seeing extra work from the mud in the +marsh, would not allow them to go. +</P> + +<P> +The prince, who had been waiting patiently for the arrival of Pollyooly, +while the baron slept in his deck-chair, listened to the discussion with +uncomprehending ears. It did not occur to her to invite the be-tutored +Hohenzollern to accompany her; but when she started, the prince, doubtful +of the reception of a direct offer to escort her would receive, followed +her at a distance of about thirty yards. Pollyooly was giving her +attention to the Lump, and was not aware of her follower until she had +crossed the bridge over the dyke, from the road into the marsh. There +she turned and saw him; and at the first sight of him she was minded to +send him back to his sleeping tutor. Then it occurred to her that the +company of the prince would be better than no company at all; and she +suffered him to come. +</P> + +<P> +Though neither of them had any conversation, Pollyooly talked away to the +prince and the Lump, and was quite content with the grunts of assent with +which the prince punctuated her observations. But she was presently +annoyed to find that he shone no more as an assistant mushroomer than as +a conversationalist. It was not so much that he was ignorant of the +difference between mushrooms and toadstools, and equally unskilful in +discovering either, as that he often trod on the fairest members of the +group he was picking. Pollyooly therefore gave him the basket to carry +and picked the mushrooms herself. Twice he dropped it and scattered them +over the turf. She chid him but gently and carried it herself. +</P> + +<P> +But destiny, which dogs the steps of princes, was leading him to a +catastrophe. The basket was large and growing heavy; but the +indefatigable Pollyooly pushed deeper into the marsh. They had crossed +several dykes safely; then they came to a plank over a small dyke, nearly +dried up. Pollyooly took every possible care to get the expedition +across safely. She carried the Lump across and then the basket of +mushrooms. Then she turned to watch the passage of the prince. The +plank was not more than ten feet long; and it was destiny which chose the +exact middle of it for the prince to fall off. He struck the dyke with a +splash which drew a cry of delight from the Lump, and sank up to his +knees in the thick mud. He burst into a terrified bellow; and Pollyooly +hurried down the steep bank to help him out. But destiny had arranged +that he should be just out of her reach; and he was too frightened to +make the effort to struggle to her helping hand. +</P> + +<P> +For a while Pollyooly, for all her power of resource, was at a loss; and +the bellowing of the prince did nothing to clear her wits. Then she saw +how she could reach him. She dug her feet into the bank, hugged the +plank over the dyke with her left arm, and leaning forward, succeeded in +getting a grip of his left wrist, and began to tug. Her grip seemed to +inspirit him, for he began to struggle hard toward the bank. It was not +an easy business in the thick mud, but thanks to the purchase afforded by +the plank, Pollyooly could put most of her strength into the effort and +slowly dragged him on to the firmer mud at the edge and then on to the +bank. +</P> + +<P> +Still blubbering a little, he followed Pollyooly up the bank; on the top +of it she turned and surveyed him with horrified eyes. He was wrapped +nearly up to his waist in a smooth, dripping garment of greenish mud; and +patches of it adorned the rest of him. It would have been difficult to +imagine anything more unlike a Hohenzollern in a white sailor suit; and +his face was hardly attractive enough to justify you in comparing him to +the dripping, weed-be-draped Lorelei of his native land. +</P> + +<P> +"Well! You <I>are</I> an aggravating little boy! Whatever am I to do with +you?" cried Pollyooly in a tone of despair. +</P> + +<P> +The prince uttered an apologetic grunt. +</P> + +<P> +"The only thing to do is to get you home as quick as I can," she said +heavily. +</P> + +<P> +She carried the Lump back across the dyke, then the basket of mushrooms. +Then she led the prince across it. They took their slow way back to the +village, the prince leaving behind him a trail which would have gladdened +the heart of the last, or any other, of the Cherokees. +</P> + +<P> +The Baron von Habelschwert, sleeping peacefully beside a sweet work of +genius, called "Dove Wifie," which had fallen from his hand, missed the +departure of his young charge in the wake of Pollyooly. He slept for an +hour; and when he did awake, her friends had moved a long way down the +beach. He struggled to his feet, and set out in search of the prince, +assured that he was somewhere on the sands playing with his active, but +socially impossible, protector. At first he sought him with careless +eyes, then with keener; but it was some twenty minutes before he +satisfied himself that neither his charge nor Pollyooly were on the +sands. Then he set out, in some annoyance to search the village; and +when he had drawn blank all the village shops at which sweets were sold, +he began to grow anxious and alarmed. For all his military contempt for +the English as a people soon to be subjugated, he had a deep distrust of +them. It awoke suddenly in its most violent form; and he began to +suspect that the perfidious politicians of England had stolen his +Hohenzollern. +</P> + +<P> +The suspicion presently became a conviction; and he acted on it with +splendid, but unwonted, energy. In little more than ten minutes the +village was ringing with the news that the prince was lost; and the baron +was toddling furiously along at the head of a band composed of the +village children, the village idiot, some idle fishermen, and a number of +unoccupied visitors who had leapt at the chance of action. There was no +lack of theories. Every other member of the group had one of his own. +The baron himself made no secret of his belief that the prince was the +victim of a political plot, till the Honourable John Ruffin, out of mere +idle curiosity, stopped the procession to enquire its object and on +learning it proclaimed his firm conviction that the prince was neither +lost, stolen, nor strayed. +</P> + +<P> +By this time the news had spread to the sands; and a nurse came hurrying +up with the information that the prince had gone into the marsh, +mushrooming with Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Ach Gott! Then that little she-devil-child haf 'im drowned in a dyke!" +said the baron cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +The suggestion increased greatly the interest of his followers; and they +accompanied him into the marsh eagerly. On that expanse figures are seen +at a great distance; but the searchers had gone a long way into it before +they caught sight of the children. At some distance the figures of +Pollyooly and the Lump, and even the basket of mushrooms were plainly +recognised. But what was that strange object which moved beside them? +The baron and his band quickened their steps, Pollyooly still walked at +the leisurely gait which suited the Lump. +</P> + +<P> +It was not till he was within ten yards of them that the procession and +the baron recognised his young charge. The procession began to laugh +heartily. +</P> + +<P> +The baron flung his arms to heaven and cried, or, to be exact, howled: +</P> + +<P> +"Vhat is it you haf done ad 'im?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't do anything!" cried Pollyooly with indignant heat. "He did it +<I>himself</I>! He <I>would</I> fall into the dyke! He's the most aggravating +little boy I ever knew!" +</P> + +<P> +"You trow 'im into ze dyke! You id on purpose did!" cried the furious +baron. +</P> + +<P> +"Bollyooly didn't," said his little charge stolidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do try and have a little sense, Baron von Habelschwert," said the +Honourable John Ruffin, smiling upon the hope of the house of +Lippe-Schweidnitz. "Pollyooly wouldn't throw any one into dykes." +</P> + +<P> +"Bud look at 'im!" cried the baron. "'e will the enteric fever haf!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no. He didn't get any water into his mouth," said Pollyooly +quickly. "I made him open it and looked, because Mr. Ruffin told me the +marsh water gave people fever. It's only mud on his clothes." +</P> + +<P> +"Moodd! Onlie moodd!" howled the baron. "His cloze, zey are spoiled! +Ze cloze of the bezd dailor of Schweidnitz!" +</P> + +<P> +That was a misfortune which appealed deeply to Pollyooly. She looked at +the spoiled suit of the prince very sadly, and said generously: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll give him half of the mushrooms—though really he didn't +gather them; and I had to carry the basket." +</P> + +<P> +"Mooshrooms!" howled the baron. "Vhat is mooshrooms wiz cloze? Zeze +English, zey are all mad!" +</P> + +<P> +In his emotion the baron had not kept his usual wary watch on his young +charge, and so failed to observe the light of battle gather and gleam in +his eyes. But as he finished the prince sprang at him, cried angrily: +"Bollyooly isn't!" and kicked him on the shin. +</P> + +<P> +The kick was stiff and lacked its usual snap; but it was sufficiently +vigorous to dislodge a good deal of the mud from the once white +trouser-leg and bespatter the legs of the baron, who uttered a short howl +and bent like a bow, holding off his little charge, and gazing wildly +round the marsh. This time Pollyooly did not come to his aid; she gazed +at him with a cold eye. +</P> + +<P> +"It serves you right—talking like that about people when they try to +make up," she said coldly. +</P> + +<P> +The prince, encouraged by this quite unexpected approval, made another +fine effort to plant a second kick of remonstrance on the shin of his +preceptor. His foot missed it; but plenty of mud hit it. +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough, Adalbert. Stop it!" said the magnanimous Pollyooly +sharply. +</P> + +<P> +Adalbert stopped it. +</P> + +<P> +The baron ground his teeth at this new familiarity; but was glad to be +loosed by his admonished charge; and the procession took its triumphant +way back to the village. +</P> + +<P> +The prince's valet was a long while cleaning him; but directly after his +tea he was out on the sands again, seeking Pollyooly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ATTITUDE OF THE GRAND DUKE +</H3> + + +<P> +The baron's bitterness was deepened by this accident to his charge; and +he continued stubbornly to lay the blame of it on Pollyooly: if she had +not actually flung him into the dyke, she had led him into the marsh, +where the dyke was. Then two mornings later there came a telegram to +inform him that the Grand Duke of Lippe-Schweidnitz, on his way to +answer the letter of appeal in person, was already in London, and would +reach Pyechurch early in the afternoon. The baron was a glad man. All +the morning, reclined in his deck-chair, with eyes full of a gloating +triumph, he watched Pollyooly direct the play of the prince; and as he +watched he hummed an aria, the same aria, of Mozart. He foresaw a +speedy end to this distressing social entanglement and her evil +domination. +</P> + +<P> +At lunch he informed his royal charge of the coming of his august sire, +and told him that he must stay at home to welcome him. +</P> + +<P> +"I go do blay wiz Bollyooly," said his young charge stolidly. +</P> + +<P> +"You vill nod go," said the baron firmly. +</P> + +<P> +His young charge said no more; he only looked at his beaming preceptor +with eyes cold with the steeliest contempt. The baron failed to grasp +the purport of the look. +</P> + +<P> +After lunch he had the prince carefully cleaned, and then set him in an +easy chair under his eye, to await the coming of his august sire, who +would arrive about a quarter to three. Then he walked up and down the +room working out the most effective presentation of his indictment of +Pollyooly and the social entanglement. At intervals he gesticulated +and muttered a phrase. He was making excellent progress with it and at +five and twenty minutes to three he was at the end of it. The prince +sat stolidly in the easy chair by the long windows. At twenty-four +minutes to three the baron flung out the last damning phrase (with the +appropriate splendid gesture) at his image in the looking-glass over +the mantelpiece. Then he turned to beam triumphantly on his little +charge. The easy chair was empty; the prince had gone. +</P> + +<P> +With language far less sonorous, but more staccato, the baron bounced +to the window, just in time to see his little charge disappear swiftly +over the edge of the sea-wall fifty yards away. Unfortunately the +baron wore his hair too short to be able to tear handfuls of it from +his head, or he would have bereft himself of a handful or two. But +everything that language could do to ease him, language did. He must +be at home to receive his august master: etiquette demanded it +imperatively. He had no time to recover his young charge, whose +presence etiquette demanded no less imperatively. Dashed from his +height of splendid triumph, and exhausted by the fluency with which he +had dealt with the appalling situation, he sank heavily into the easy +chair, an embittered man. +</P> + +<P> +He was quickly roused from his gloom by the stopping of a barouche +before the house. In it sat his august master, a splendid round figure +of a man, clad in the lightest-coloured tweeds Schweidnitz could boast, +and surmounted by the whitest of white bowlers. His large, broad, +square face ended in three well-moulded chins. In the middle of the +fine expanse of face (his was not a high forehead) was a bristling +imperial moustache, far fiercer than the baron's; above it rose a big, +thick nose. His eyes were a bright blue; and they twinkled in an +engaging fashion somewhat disappointing in a royal personage. Beside +him sat a slim, contrasting equerry. +</P> + +<P> +The baron rushed forth, and after the manner of his caste, was abject +in his apologies for the absence of Prince Adalbert.… He had +taken every precaution.… All had been in vain.… The +infatuated unfortunate would steal away to the little she-devil-child. +</P> + +<P> +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke, who made a point of speaking English in +England; and he descended with earth-shaking majesty from the creaking +barouche. +</P> + +<P> +"Ve vill go to zem," he said after testing the soil of Pyechurch with a +cautious foot to make sure that it was equal to his weight. +</P> + +<P> +On the way to the sea-wall the baron poured forth his damning +indictment, disjointedly and without the fierceness of phrase and +splendour of gesture he had practised; and three times the grand duke +said, somewhat phlegmatically, the baron thought: +</P> + +<P> +"Ach zo?" +</P> + +<P> +They came out on to the wall just above the band of Pollyooly's +subjects, hot and excited in a game of rounders. +</P> + +<P> +The quick eye of the grand duke at once espied Prince Adalbert running +to field a ball. +</P> + +<P> +"Ach, he is zlimmer!" he said in a tone of satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Zlimmer? He is zlimmer, your Highness. Id iz zat leedle +she-devil-child. She nevare—nod nevare—leds 'im be steel. All ze +day she makes 'im roosh and roosh. He haf nevare no breath in hees +loongs—nod nevare!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke calmly. "He is rooning mooch faster zan +he vas could." +</P> + +<P> +"Id's zat leedle she-devil-child! She make 'im roon and roon all ze +day!" cried the baron. +</P> + +<P> +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke. "Alzo he is peenk—guite peenk." +</P> + +<P> +The satisfaction in his tone had increased. He could hardly be called +a fond parent, in the matter of Adalbert; he might more truly be said +to bear with him. Indeed he had never been able to explain the boy to +his satisfaction. There was perhaps a slight physical resemblance +between Adalbert and his parents; but whereas he knew himself to be one +of the astutest princes in the German Empire and his wife to be an +uncommonly clear-witted woman, no father's partiality hid from him the +fact that Adalbert was obtuse. He was inclined to accept sadly the +theory of Professor Muller, professor of anatomy and physiology at the +University of Lippe-Schweidnitz, and court physician, that Adalbert +cast back to his great-grandfather Franz, who had been known to his +irreverent subjects as "The Dolt." +</P> + +<P> +He gazed at the perspiring and excited band for a minute in silence. +Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Wheech is ze leedle she-devil-child?" +</P> + +<P> +"Zat von—zat von in ze meedle—wiz ze red 'air," said the baron. +</P> + +<P> +He pointed to Pollyooly in the middle of the ring where she was acting +as pitcher, her face flushed, her eyes shining, her red hair a flying +cloud. +</P> + +<P> +An immense slow smile spread over the expanse of royal face; and the +grand duke cried: "Mein Gott! Bud id is nod a child at all—zat! Id +is an anchel—a leedle anchel—Italian renascence! Is id nod, +Erkelenz?" And he turned to his slim equerry. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Highness: authentic," said the equerry. +</P> + +<P> +The Baron von Habelschwert gasped; he could not believe his ears. +</P> + +<P> +The little girl, batting, whacked the ball over the prince's head. +</P> + +<P> +"Run, Adalbert! Run!" shrieked Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Roon, Adalbert! Der Teufel! Roon!" bellowed the grand duke. +</P> + +<P> +It is hard to say whether the shriek of Pollyooly or the terrific +bellow of his august sire was the sharper spur to the prince's legs; +but he saved the rounder. +</P> + +<P> +"Sblendid! 'e did not roon like an ox," said the grand duke almost +proudly. "Vhat did you write vas ze name of zat leedle anchel?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bollyooly, your Highness," gasped the baron in a feverish doubt +whether he was standing on his head or his heels, for the grand duke +had heard her call the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz +"Adalbert" with his own ears! +</P> + +<P> +"Bollyooly? A beautiful name!" cried the grand duke with enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +Then came the great event of Prince Adalbert's life. The little boy +who was batting hit the ball right into his hands. He grabbed at it; +and by a miracle it stuck in his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +His side leapt and shrieked as one child; and the grand duke leapt and +bellowed. The shock of his descent on the sea-wall made it quiver for +many feet round him. +</P> + +<P> +He turned upon his slim equerry, seized his arm, and shook him as the +wind shakes a blade of corn. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see zat? Id is ze creeket! 'e caught 'im out," he bellowed +in stentorian tones which rang out far across the marsh. "Bollyooly +has made 'im zlim! She has made 'im roon! She has made 'im peenk! +She has taught 'im ze creeket! She shall rewarded be! I will gonfer +on 'er ze Order of Chastity of Lippe-Schweidnitz of ze zecond class!" +</P> + +<P> +He loosed his slim equerry, and hammered his enormous right palm with +his huge left fist. +</P> + +<P> +The slim equerry shook his head (this time without any assistance from +his august master) and said: +</P> + +<P> +"She is too young, your Highness. Ze order can only be gonferred on +ladies of twenty-von or elder." +</P> + +<P> +"Zen I will gonfer it on 'er when she is twenty-von! Bud I will reward +'er alzo now! Vetch 'er!" cried the grand duke. +</P> + +<P> +The slim equerry went down the sea-wall across the sands to Pollyooly. +The game stopped while he conferred with her. Pollyooly looked from +him to the fine, round figure on the sea-wall; then she patted her +hair, smoothed her frock, called to her young companions that she would +be back in a minute or two, and went with the slim equerry. She was +not timid, or even shy. Her estimate of the royal family of +Lippe-Schweidnitz had been formed from her knowledge of Prince +Adalbert; and it was not a high one. That royal family left her +unimpressed and certainly unrevering. She was hardly curious about the +grand duke. +</P> + +<P> +On the way to him the slim equerry asked her her name, and told her to +be sure to address the grand duke as "your Highness." +</P> + +<P> +On the sea-wall he took her hand, grew rigid, saluted, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I present the Fräulein Bollyooly von Bride to your Highness." +</P> + +<P> +Like the well-mannered child she was, Pollyooly dropped a curtsey. +</P> + +<P> +The grand duke seized her hand, and shook it warmly, and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Mein Gott! if you were zeven—five years elder, I would keess you! +Bud id is far to sdoop. You haf done great good to my zon, ze Prince +Adalbert. You haf made him peenk—guite peenk; and you haf taught him +ze creeket. Id iz sblendid; and you moost rewarded be. Gif me my +burse, Erkelenz." +</P> + +<P> +The slim equerry took a purse from his pocket and handed it to the +grand duke. The grand duke opened it, turned it upside down, poured on +to his palm eleven golden sovereigns, and pressed them with somewhat +clumsy fingers into Pollyooly's hands. +</P> + +<P> +The amazed Pollyooly flushed; and her eyes shone like bright stars; the +family of Lippe-Schweidnitz rose a thousand feet in her estimation. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Thank you, your Highness!" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Zere is no zanks—nod none! You haf made Adalbert peenk. You are von +sblendid anchel child. And id iz me to zank you," said the grand duke; +and very gently, for the size of his fingers, he patted her head. Then +he drew himself up and, with a splendid wave of his gigantic hand, +added: +</P> + +<P> +"Und now go and blay wiz Adalbert—blay wiz him always!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY ENTERTAINS ROYALTY +</H3> + + +<P> +Pollyooly came away from the presence of the grand duke in something of +a daze. She came down the steps in the sea-wall quite unconscious of +the fact that she was not moving over level ground. The eleven golden +sovereigns in her hand felt too good to be true; and at the bottom of +the steps she stopped and counted them with eyes which could hardly +believe what they saw: eleven golden sovereigns. +</P> + +<P> +She gave them into the care of Mrs. Gibson while, in obedience to the +behest of the grand duke, she continued to play rounders. +</P> + +<P> +The game had fallen into a state of suspended animation during her +absence from it. Her return enlivened it. Presently she was again +absorbed in it, playing it with the concentration with which she did +most things, the concentration which is so large a part of genius, +which made her one of the finest grillers of bacon in England. She +forgot the grand duke; she forgot the eleven golden sovereigns; she +thought only of the game; and she drove her team and the perspiring +prince with merciless vigor. +</P> + +<P> +The grand duke watched it closely, now and then applauding in an +excited, ringing voice. Prince Adalbert had performed his one great +exploit and was now declined upon a lower level. He played his best, +obeying with his natural clumsiness the shrieked commands of Pollyooly; +but he did not again arise to a really meritorious feat. Nevertheless, +the grand duke was content with him. +</P> + +<P> +He did not indeed watch him very closely; he had chiefly eyes for +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +Once he said with enthusiasm: +</P> + +<P> +"She is ze gompanion Adalbert 'af need of." +</P> + +<P> +And again he said with enthusiasm: +</P> + +<P> +"'ow it would be goot if she goom to Schweidnitz and blay wiz 'im all +ze days, Erkelenz!" +</P> + +<P> +The slim equerry shook his head and said in a tone of conviction: +</P> + +<P> +"She would nod coom, Highness." +</P> + +<P> +Being of a younger generation, he spoke better English than his royal +master. +</P> + +<P> +The grand duke shook his head sadly, and said; +</P> + +<P> +"No: she would nod goom. Would she nod goom for mooch money, you zink?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do nod zink she could be persuaded to coom," said his equerry. +</P> + +<P> +"No: she would nod goom," said the grand duke. The baron had an +inspiration; he said in a stern voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Ze day, 'ighness; ze day will goom soon. Zen you will gommand only; +and Bollyooly will obey." +</P> + +<P> +"Ach, yes: ze day," said the grand duke, watching the playing children. +"It will goom soon doubtlez. Bud Bollyooly, will she obey? Zeze +English blay zere creeket very 'ard." +</P> + +<P> +"She would be made obey," said the baron firmly. +</P> + +<P> +The grand duke changed the subject by raising his voice in a splendid, +heartening roar at Pollyooly, who was running swiftly around the bases; +and for nearly an hour he did his best to burst the welkin. Then he +summoned the perspiring prince, shouted and waved good-bye to +Pollyooly, and walked to his son's lodgings to take a little +unnecessary nourishment before driving to the station. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly went on playing till a quarter of five, when the game broke +up to let the players go to their tea. She collected the Lump from the +Gibson nurse and the eleven sovereigns from Mrs. Gibson, and started +down the beach tea-wards. As she went down the beach several earnest +enquirers stopped her to ask what the grand duke had said to her and +what she had said to the grand duke. They wore the air of being very +deeply impressed by the occurrence. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly gratified their curiosity. Four of them said that they would +have been so confused by being suddenly hurried into the presence of +royalty that, not knowing whether they were standing on their heads or +their heels, they would not have found a word to say. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said quite truly that she had not suffered from any such +confusion. She did not add, as with no less truthfulness she might +have done, that what had induced a slight access of confusion in her +had been the sudden and unexpected possession of eleven golden +sovereigns. But she had a feeling, somewhat obscure, that such a +happening should not confuse a red Deeping; therefore she did not say +anything about it. +</P> + +<P> +She and the Lump were still at tea when the Honourable John Ruffin +returned from his golf and joined them. She told him of the coming of +the grand duke, of his thanks for the improvement in Prince Adalbert's +health, and of the eleven splendid golden sovereigns. +</P> + +<P> +"And very nice too. I congratulate you," said the Honourable John +Ruffin cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"I always have heard that the grand duke is a very decent sort, as well +as being astute; and this proves it," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"But it does seem such a lot for the little I've done. I could have +done a lot more, if I'd known," said Pollyooly in a tone of discomfort. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a confident tone. +"As what you've done goes, eleven golden sovereigns isn't a penny too +much for it. I haven't observed the treatment; but I have no doubt +that you're making another boy of Prince Adalbert." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he does look better and he does get about quicker than he did," +said Pollyooly slowly, weighing her words. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's a good deal," said the Honourable John Ruffin in an +encouraging tone. +</P> + +<P> +"And he is a little brighter too, though he does only grunt; and of +course he behaves better; he doesn't knock the other children about +like he used to." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there you are," said the Honourable John Ruffin, in the tone of +one completely satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but he is slow!" Pollyooly protested. "It would take weeks and +weeks to really do anything with him—weeks and weeks." +</P> + +<P> +"But what can you expect?" said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. +"The red Deepings were notable people, ruling a county, and hacking and +hewing the best people in four counties round, when the ancestors of +the prince were swineherds in a Prussian forest. And those ancestors +stayed in that forest for five hundred years after that. Prince +Adalbert doesn't throw back more than a hundred and fifty years. If a +red Deeping produced an Adalbert, he would throw back six hundred and +fifty years; and it isn't done." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Pollyooly politely, though she did not follow at all his +abstruse dissertation. +</P> + +<P> +"So you see you needn't feel overpaid at all," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Pollyooly in the tone of one perfectly satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +"Besides, if you do, you can always put in a little more training." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes: that was what I was meaning to do," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Now that Pollyooly had been approved, or rather enthusiastically +welcomed, as the ideal companion of Prince Adalbert, the baron was all +affability and winning smiles. He had indeed reason to be, for she +made life much easier for him. Without a care he abandoned Prince +Adalbert to her whenever she would have him, and sat reading or +sleeping in his deck-chair on the sunny sands with a mind wholly at +peace. With that approved guardian the prince must be safe. +</P> + +<P> +Thus it came about that he became Pollyooly's perpetual companion, or, +to be exact, her perpetual hanger-on. He could not be said to afford +companionship to her, for, like the Lump, he preferred the grunt to +articulate speech. He played in all the games in which she played—at +least, if they were not too difficult for his understanding. If they +were, he watched her play them with the dogged attention of an +enthusiast. +</P> + +<P> +As she came to know him better and better, it is to be feared that +Pollyooly remembered his exalted station less and less. She quite +forgot the prince in the boy. She sometimes deplored the fact to Mrs. +Gibson that though Adalbert could now be trusted not to get into +mischief by any act of will, he was so stupid that he needed a +perpetual eye on him. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin sometimes enquired about his progress in +morals, manners, and intelligence; Pollyooly's report on it was always +dispirited. But he was surprised, on returning home from Littlestone +to tea one evening, to find Pollyooly entertaining royalty in the +parlour of the flustered Mrs. Wilson. +</P> + +<P> +The prince had come back from a walk through the marsh with her, tired; +and she had thought it better that he should have tea before walking +the length of the village to his own lodging. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin did not let his surprise be seen; he greeted +his royal guest civilly and sat down. Pollyooly questioned him closely +and with genuine interest about his successes and reverses on the +links. Then the Honourable John Ruffin observed that his royal guest +was flushed; then he discovered that Pollyooly was entertaining him in +a fashion at once negligent and drastic: she made no effort to include +him in their talk, but she was watching him with the eye of a lynx and +giving him a lesson in table manners with the coldest serenity. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter with our royal guest exactly?" said the Honourable +John Ruffin presently. +</P> + +<P> +"He is so hard to teach," said Pollyooly plaintively. "You'd be +surprised. I keep telling him not to eat like a pig; and for about +four mouthfuls he doesn't. Then he forgets all about it; and I have to +begin all over again." +</P> + +<P> +The guilty flush deepened in the cheeks of the prince. +</P> + +<P> +"You must give it time to sink in. He's not used to learning things; +he has been so neglected," said the Honourable John Ruffin with a +hospitable desire to make things easier for her royal guest. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly shook her head doubtfully, and frowned sadly upon the prince. +</P> + +<P> +"It would take weeks and weeks; and I don't really ever see him at +meals," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind: do what you can when you get the chance," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a heartening tone. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I must do," said Pollyooly; but there was no great +hopefulness in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +Sadly she handed a plate of cake to Prince Adalbert. There was a +sudden gleam in his small, but Hohenzollern, eye, and in one swift +gesture he took, or rather, to be exact, grabbed a slice, and thrust a +corner of it into his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +As Pollyooly had said, for the first four bites all was well; but the +next three were accompanied by a slushy noise such as arises in a +pigstye at mealtime. +</P> + +<P> +"There! There it is again!" she cried in tones of the bitterest +protest. "Isn't it dreadful?" +</P> + +<P> +The prince flushed a darker red and hushed the slushy accompaniment. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin looked sympathetically sad. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't have believed that anybody could be so hard to teach a +little thing like that to," said Pollyooly mournfully. +</P> + +<P> +The prince grunted. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I know you try to do your best—you needn't tell me that," said +Pollyooly, who appeared to understand his syncopated Prussian. "But +what is the good of a best like that?" +</P> + +<P> +The prince finished the slice of cake with only two more slushy sounds. +Pollyooly sighed once or twice; and tea came to an end. +</P> + +<P> +They rose; and Pollyooly said with resolution: +</P> + +<P> +"I see what I shall have to do. I shall have to look after his outdoor +manners only." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DUKE HAS AN IDEA +</H3> + + +<P> +Pollyooly did not again entertain royalty. She kept firmly to her +resolve to superintend only the outdoor manners and behaviour of Prince +Adalbert. She would not have her feelings again harrowed by his +painfully exact rendering of the noises made by a sturdy, happy porker +over its trough. But out of doors he continued, for the rest of her +stay, to be her perpetual, noiseless, devoted, and generally perspiring +squire. +</P> + +<P> +That stay came to an end along with the Honourable John Ruffin's +windfall. It had been a very pleasant stay; Pollyooly had enjoyed it +more than any time of her life, more even than the days she had spent +at Ricksborough Court when Lord Ronald Ricksborough had come there from +Eton to spend his holidays. She was a little doubtful (for all that +they were engaged to be married when she should have grown up and +fitted herself to become the wife of an English peer by dancing for a +while in musical comedy) whether the days at Pyechurch would be more +pleasant if he were there, for he would naturally take the place of +leader, and she was very happy in that position herself. +</P> + +<P> +She wrote only one letter, a brief letter, to him from Pyechurch, for +she was really too busy to write more often (at the Temple she wrote at +least once every ten days) and he wrote back to say that he wished he +were with her instead of mugging away at his beastly work in his stuffy +study. His letter brought home to Pollyooly the great advantage she +had over richer children in having years ago passed the seven standards +at the Muttle Deeping school, and so done with tedious school-books for +good and all. +</P> + +<P> +It was a sad day for her and the Lump when their stay at Pyechurch came +to an end; but it was an even sadder day for Prince Adalbert. He was +losing the one friend he had ever made, the only person in the world +for whom he felt a warm admiration and a genuine respect—as warm an +admiration indeed as his somewhat limited spirit was capable of +feeling. It was not able to attain to the great heights of emotion; +but to such a height of grief as it could rise to, it rose. As for his +display of that grief, had he been a pretty boy the onlookers could not +have failed to find it pathetic; as it was, for all that they were most +of them keenly sensible of his royal condition, they were hard put to +it not to find it grotesque. +</P> + +<P> +Tears were not in keeping with his Hohenzollern face; and when he at +last realised that Pollyooly was really going and for good, he bellowed +like a very small, but broken-hearted bull. +</P> + +<P> +A number of Pollyooly's friends and subjects had come to bid her +good-bye; Prince Adalbert was no little hindrance to their farewells, +for he had a tight grip on Pollyooly's skirt; and not only did his +bellowing drown the sound of their voices but also he kept her chiefly +busy trying to soothe him. +</P> + +<P> +When at last she detached him from her skirt and bade him good-bye, and +climbed into the wagonette, he tried to climb into it to go with her; +and the Baron von Habelschwert had to lift him down and hold him firmly. +</P> + +<P> +The wagonette drove off amid a loud chorus of farewells; and little +given to the softer emotions as Pollyooly was, there were tears in her +eyes as she looked back on the friends she was leaving. Her last sight +of the prince was somewhat depressing: in a final access of despair he +was kicking the baron's shins. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said, with far more indulgence than she had generally shown +him: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't suppose he'll break out like that very often." +</P> + +<P> +"Still, after all your training, it is sad to see him massacring his +faithful mentor," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: it isn't nice of him," said Pollyooly without any great annoyance +in her tone. "But really it's the baron's fault; he'd only have to +smack him about twice." +</P> + +<P> +"I expect he has conscientious scruples against smacking princes of the +blood royal. Many people undoubtedly have," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps he has. But I think he'll miss me," said Pollyooly in a tone +of sufficient satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +The baron would indeed miss her; and he was one of the saddest men in +Pyechurch that day. With the departure of Pollyooly his hours of ease +came to an end. No longer could he in his sunnily disposed deck-chair +read the sweet books he loved in a perfect serenity. Once more he must +follow his royal charge up and down the sands and keep an ever watchful +eye on him. +</P> + +<P> +The change from Pyechurch to the Temple was trying; but the unrepining +Pollyooly soon grew used to it, though she missed for a while the wide +spaces of the sea and marsh, and the inspiriting breezes from the sea. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin made some changes: she was to continue to +call him John, or Cousin John; she was to do her work in gloves; and +she was always to wear a large apron. The use of a large apron, though +it might prevent her from working with her wonted speed, was to enable +her to wear under it always a nice linen frock. Then, when any one +knocked at the door of the chambers, she could slip off the apron, and +let them in no longer in the guise of the Honourable John Ruffin's +housekeeper, but as a member of his family. +</P> + +<P> +He did not for a moment dream of relieving her altogether of her +housework. In the first place he could not afford to do so; in the +second place he thought it very good for her to be busy most of the +day, and to feel that she was independent, earning her own living. He +did not even bid her give up her post of housekeeper to Mr. +Gedge-Tomkins. He was quite sure that a girl might have too little +work to do, but he was very doubtful whether she could have too much. +</P> + +<P> +Then he was talking one afternoon to Pollyooly, who had just made his +tea and brought it to him; and she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Who is Mr. Francis?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Francis who?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," said Pollyooly, knitting her brow. "It was Mrs. Brown +who talked about him. I took the Lump to see her the day after we came +back from Pyechurch; and she said I was growing quite the lady." +</P> + +<P> +"She would put it like that," said the Honourable John Ruffin sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"And then she said that after all it wasn't to be wondered at, seeing +who Mr. Francis was. But when I asked her what she meant, she wouldn't +say any more." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin sat straighter up in his chair with a +somewhat startled air. But he said in an indifferent enough tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, she grew mysterious, did she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ever so mysterious," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a habit of her class, I believe," said the Honourable John Ruffin +carelessly. "Probably she meant nothing at all." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly went back to the Lump content; but the Honourable John Ruffin +kept his brow puckered by a thoughtful frown for some time after she +had gone. Then he shrugged his shoulders, and his face resumed its +wonted serenity. +</P> + +<P> +Three afternoons later there was a knocking at the door of the +chambers; and Pollyooly opened it to find the Duke of Osterley standing +on the threshold. She was surprised, because she had no reason to +believe that the coldness which the Honourable John Ruffin had told her +subsisted between himself and the duke had been dissipated; but, like +the well-mannered child she was, she did not let her surprise be seen, +but bowed politely as she had seen ladies at Pyechurch bow, for since +she had been promoted to the position of the Honourable John Ruffin's +cousin she had abandoned the curtsey as out of keeping with that more +exalted station. +</P> + +<P> +The duke gazed gloomily at her, for it was very present to his mind +that their earlier meetings had, for him, been barren of joy; then he +said gloomily: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you <I>are</I> here. Is Mr. Ruffin back from the Law Courts yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, your Grace; but he won't be long. He'll be back to tea in a +minute or two: the clock's just struck four," she said; and she drew +aside for him to enter. +</P> + +<P> +The duke stared at her angel face with gloomy thoughtfulness for nearly +a minute. She found it somewhat discomfitting. Then he said gloomily: +</P> + +<P> +"Very well: I'll come in and wait." +</P> + +<P> +He walked with a determined air down the passage into the sitting-room. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly ran up to the attic to assure herself that the Lump was not +in mischief—it was the last thing in the world that placid, but +red-headed cherub was likely to get into; none the less she was always +making sure of it. Then she came down to the kitchen, and set about +cutting thin bread and butter for two persons. +</P> + +<P> +As she cut it she wondered uneasily what had brought the duke to the +King's Bench Walk. If there was one person in the world with regard to +whom she did not enjoy a clear conscience, it was the duke. +</P> + +<P> +Had he come for the reason: +</P> + +<P> +(1) That she had helped the duchess in the original evasion of his +daughter? +</P> + +<P> +(2) That she had spent a fortnight at Ricksborough Court as his +daughter? +</P> + +<P> +(3) Or had he discovered that she had helped the duchess in the second +evasion of Lady Marion? +</P> + +<P> +(4) Had Mr. Wilkinson revealed how she had tricked him and the +detective? +</P> + +<P> +Truly there were reasons why she should be afflicted by an uneasy +conscience with regard to the duke. It was no wonder that his gloomy +stare had made her uncomfortable. She tried to reassure herself by the +consideration that if he had discovered anything, he would surely have +been far grumpier with her; he would never have confined himself to a +gloomy stare. +</P> + +<P> +She had just finished cutting the bread and butter when the latchkey of +the Honourable John Ruffin grated in the keyhole. +</P> + +<P> +She stepped to the kitchen door; and as he entered she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir, the duke's here." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin showed no surprise; he only said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, he must be wanting me to do something for him. I told you that he +would warm to me when he did." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. But, please sir, he doesn't look very warm yet," said +Pollyooly doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"He never does. It runs in the family—the Osterley chill. Bring us +some tea," said the Honourable John Ruffin lightly; and he went down +the passage. +</P> + +<P> +He came into the sitting-room briskly, and found the duke sitting in an +easy chair, with his silk hat thrust well back on his head, in a +fashion which gave him a far from ducal, an even raffish air. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Ruffin?" he said, with an amiable smile, but in a +somewhat nervous and deprecatory tone. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Osterley? Got over the sulks?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sulks? I never sulk!" said the duke with some heat. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you call them then?" said the Honourable John Ruffin with a +good display of the liveliest most unaffected interest. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you're talking about!" said the duke coldly; but he +flushed. +</P> + +<P> +It is likely that the Honourable John Ruffin would have raised him to a +considerable temperature on this matter; but the entrance of Pollyooly, +bearing the tea-tray, closed the discussion of it. The Honourable John +Ruffin poured out the tea and handed the bread and butter to the duke. +</P> + +<P> +They ate some bread and butter and drank some tea; and then the duke +said plaintively: +</P> + +<P> +"This is jolly good tea. Why don't I ever get tea like this?" +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to. You pay enough for it," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a tone which lacked sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"I do. I believe I employ every incompetent jackass in London," said +the duke bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"And I expect you don't make any secret of your conviction at home," +said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," said the duke firmly; then yet more plaintively he added: +"Oh, it's a dog's life for a man trying to run places like Ricksborough +House and the court on his own!" +</P> + +<P> +"I expect it does try you a bit too high," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"It would any man," said the duke with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin thought that a man of tact and amiability +could probably do it quite easily; but he did not say so. He thought +that such a statement might be inhospitable. They went on with their +tea in silence, the duke frowning over his luckless lot. +</P> + +<P> +Then the Honourable John Ruffin said in a distinctly patient and +long-suffering tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what is it you want me to do for you this time?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want you to do anything for me!" said the duke sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Then what have you come for?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in the +same distinctly patient and long-suffering tone. +</P> + +<P> +The duke hesitated; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I want you to help me. I've got an idea." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin looked skeptical, indeed, and he said a +little wearily: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>You</I> have? What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +The duke cleared his throat, assumed a portentous air, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you I'm getting devilish sick of this business—living by +myself, without any family, and that sort of thing. And I've come to +the conclusion that it's time Caroline and I were reconciled—" +</P> + +<P> +"High time," said the Honourable John Ruffin readily. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm fond of Caroline—in a way—" +</P> + +<P> +"Your own way—an obscure, secret way," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a cheerful tone. +</P> + +<P> +The duke scowled at him, but went on: "You don't know how contrary +Caroline is—" +</P> + +<P> +"How should I? I'm not married to her," said the Honourable John +Ruffin patiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she is. And I've been thinking that if she found she was +getting her way without interference, she wouldn't want it any longer." +</P> + +<P> +The keen grey eyes of the Honourable John Ruffin sparkled: +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove! This is subtlety! Marriage makes Machiavellis of us all. +Continue, Solomon," he said, with more respect in his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"But I couldn't think of any way of letting her know she was getting +it. It's no use writin' to those scoundrels of lawyers of hers and +telling them. She'd only think it was a trap; or she'd think I'd caved +in, and be so cockahoop we should never get any forrader. Then I got +the idea. It looks a bit roundabout, but I believe it'll work, I do +really. But it'll take a lot of working, and I'm wondering whether +that little housekeeper of yours—what's her name—Mary Bride—will be +up to it." +</P> + +<P> +"What on earth has Pollyooly got to do with it?" cried the Honourable +John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"A lot," said the duke firmly. "You know how like Marion she is. Why, +even Mrs. Hutton, who'd been with Marion for years, couldn't tell them +apart. Well, I want Mary Bride to be Marion." +</P> + +<P> +"The deuce you do!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the duke in the tone of a man who had quite made up his +mind. "I want her to come and live at the court as Marion. I'm going +to run her as my daughter, Lady Marion Ricksborough." +</P> + +<P> +"But what on earth for?" cried the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of +the liveliest bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, don't you see? At first Caroline will be awfully cockahoop at +getting her own way. Then she'll begin to see that Marion's out in the +cold, and I've got another daughter in her place. Then she'll kick +like fury. She'll send Marion back in a brace of shakes to take her +proper place. Then it'll be my turn to kick. I shan't be taking any +Marion—at least, not without Caroline comes back too," said the duke +with an air of uncommon animation. +</P> + +<P> +He was looking brighter than ever the Honourable John Ruffin had seen +him. His eyes were positively gleaming with a manly fire. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove—by <I>Jove</I>!" said the Honourable John Ruffin softly. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you'd see it," said the duke complacently. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin rose from his chair, strode solemnly across +the hearthrug, seized the duke's hand, wrung it, and in a voice +trembling with emotion said: +</P> + +<P> +"Osterley, I have done you an injustice. I have underrated your +intellect. Under that mild and irritated appearance you hide +genius—veritable genius. The idea is, as you say, roundabout, but it +will work. It will certainly work. You are dealing with a woman." +</P> + +<P> +The duke smiled with an air of the deepest self-satisfaction. +Compliments from the Honourable John Ruffin were indeed rare. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; that's what I thought," he said. Then he chuckled, and added: +</P> + +<P> +"Won't Caroline be mad when she finds I'm running another Marion?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Mad' isn't the word for it," said the Honourable John Ruffin with +conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall certainly be getting a little of my own back," said the duke, +beaming. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin frowned at him heavily and said in a tone of +the coldest severity: +</P> + +<P> +"That's a stupid way of looking at it. The important thing about your +idea is that it will very likely bring you together again. But I +wonder if you can work it. You won't find it an easy job." +</P> + +<P> +"It all depends on whether Mary Bride can take Marion's place," said +the duke somewhat anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at him queerly. It was not for him +to say that Pollyooly had already spent a fortnight at Ricksborough +Court as Lady Marion and that during that fortnight the duke had been +as completely duped as his household. +</P> + +<P> +He only said: +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't Pollyooly I'm doubtful about. You need have no fears about +her. She's by far the cleverest child I know, and she'll play her part +all right. But, unfortunately, when you kidnapped her in Piccadilly +and took her to Ricksborough House, your butler and Marion's +nurse—what's her name?—Mrs. Hutton, learnt that Marion has a double, +and they may suspect things." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no: Lucas doesn't go to the court; and I discharged Mrs. Hutton +for being an idiot. Also, I dismissed Miss Marlow, Marion's governess. +I had no use for her. Really there's no one at the court now who came +into close contact with Marion at all," said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"That does simplify things," said the Honourable John Ruffin +cheerfully. "But of course it's going to be a matter of weeks. +Caroline won't hear about it at once probably, for her friends won't +hear about it to let her know. Then it'll take her some time to get +over her satisfaction at having got her way, and to realise that Marion +is out in the cold." +</P> + +<P> +"Then she'll come back like a knife," said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but Pollyooly has got to keep the game going for a good six +weeks. Let's hear what she thinks about taking it on," said the +Honourable John Ruffin, and he rang the bell. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course she'll take it on. Besides having her at the court, I shall +pay her a trifle," said the duke in a tone of complete assurance. +</P> + +<P> +"You won't. You'll pay her at least five pounds a week," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in an equally assured tone. "But even so, she +may refuse to leave her little brother for so long." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DUKE'S IDEA TAKES FORM +</H3> + + +<P> +Pollyooly came quickly, but she came in some trepidation lest after all +the duke might be going to scold her. A glance at his face reassured +her: he was certainly not angry. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin said gravely: +</P> + +<P> +"The duke wants you to do a piece of work for him, Pollyooly—a very +well-paid piece of work." +</P> + +<P> +At the words "well-paid" the duke started in his chair with a look of +pain; but Pollyooly's deep blue eyes shone suddenly like bright stars, +and she smiled a heavenly smile. It was not that she was mercenary. +But it was the chief aim of her life to raise a wall of gold (it could +not be too thick or too high) between the Lump and the workhouse. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" she said a little breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"He wants you to go down to his house in the country and pretend to be +his little daughter, Lady Marion Ricksborough. You're exactly like +her, and if you pretend properly, no one will know you're not her. Do +you think you could do it?" said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly smiled again, and said confidently: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes. I'm sure I could." +</P> + +<P> +"And the duke will pay you seven or eight pounds a week for six +weeks—so that it will mean thirty-five or forty pounds," said the +Honourable John Ruffin with the same business briskness. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly smiled another heavenly smile, but the duke sprang to his +feet with harried air and cried fiercely: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang it all! Draw it mild, Ruffin! Seven or eight pounds a week +for a child like that! Oh, hang it! It's too stiff!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it!" said the Honourable John Ruffin with cold business +incisiveness. "Pollyooly has the monopoly of the likeness of Marion, +and she must be paid a monopoly price. Besides, this business has been +costing you over a thousand a year; surely you can't kick at seven or +eight pounds a week for six weeks, or so, to stop it for good and all. +Why, as a monopoly price, seven or eight pounds a week isn't enough. +We must make it ten—or, say, a hundred for the whole job." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no; seven pounds a week!" cried the duke hastily. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at him with an air of considerable +disapproval, almost contemptuous, and said coldly: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you can't expect me to haggle—seven let it be." +</P> + +<P> +He would have been very well content to get five pounds a week for +Pollyooly; and she would have been overjoyed to get it. But he did not +think it wise to show any pleasure at getting seven. +</P> + +<P> +But during this discussion of terms Pollyooly's face had fallen; and +its brightness was dimmed. Somewhat plaintively she said: +</P> + +<P> +"But please, your Grace. If it's going to take six weeks what's to +become of the Lump?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: there's certainly the Lump to be considered," said the Honourable +John Ruffin, frowning. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't go away for six whole weeks and leave the Lump," said +Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"And who, or what, is the Lump?" said the duke somewhat impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"The Lump's her little brother. She mothers him," explained the +Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, surely she can find some one to take charge of him for six +weeks. I'm paying her enough," said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, your Grace. I couldn't let anybody but myself look after him +for a whole six weeks. I couldn't really. I shouldn't feel that they +would do it properly—all the time. I can't go away and leave him for +six weeks," said Pollyooly; and it was plain enough that she was quite +sincere in her aversion from doing so. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed she spoke in a tone of unshakable resolution; and the Honourable +John Ruffin and the duke gazed at one another nonplussed. Pollyooly +gazed at the Honourable John Ruffin with expectant eyes; she had a +great belief in his powers. But he only frowned, pondering; and the +duke scratched his head. +</P> + +<P> +Then she said in a tone of faint hopefulness: +</P> + +<P> +"But couldn't I take the Lump with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's a solution," said the Honourable John Ruffin quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang it! I couldn't turn up with two children. It would upset +the apple-cart," the duke protested. +</P> + +<P> +The face of the Honourable John Ruffin grew clear; and he said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"It looks the only solution; and after all why shouldn't you adopt the +Lump? People do adopt children." +</P> + +<P> +"Not dukes," said the duke coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if you break the ice, I expect they'll adopt them by the dozen," +said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. "There isn't any real +reason why you shouldn't. You have this new and very proper desire to +become thoroughly domesticated. The Lump is one of the very people to +gratify it. Besides, it will give the people at the court something to +talk about, and take their minds off Pollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +"I should jolly well think it would!" growled the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's the only thing to do," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so?" said the duke doubtfully; and he blinked. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin confidently. "You +can't have Pollyooly without the Lump." +</P> + +<P> +The duke shook his head, turned to Pollyooly, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you what: I'll make it eight pounds a week, if you'll come +alone." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly shook her head and said sadly: +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't, your Grace. I couldn't really." +</P> + +<P> +It looked indeed like a blind alley; but in the end the duke yielded. +His heart was set on carrying through this scheme for regaining his +duchess. His mind was so rarely guilty of ingenuity that he could not +bear to discourage it. They set themselves, therefore, to making the +presence of the Lump at Ricksborough Court plausible. Fortunately he +was too young to spoil their plan by indiscreet babble, had he been a +babbling child. To the minds of the servants at Ricksborough Court, +minds so carefully trained in the board schools of England, his +pregnant grunts would convey no meaning. +</P> + +<P> +Then arose the question of a becoming outfit; and into this matter the +Honourable John Ruffin threw himself with enthusiasm. He saw his way +to remove the burden of new summer clothes for herself and the Lump +from Pollyooly's slender resources for several years. +</P> + +<P> +More than once the duke protested that he was not taking the children +to live at the court for the rest of the century; and when the +Honourable John Ruffin thoughtfully tried to edge in a few winter +vests, he protested hotly that he was not fitting out an expedition to +discover the North Pole, or the South. +</P> + +<P> +His warm opposition only excited the combative instinct of the +Honourable John Ruffin. Coldly he urged the well-known inclemency of +the English summer; surely the duke did not wish to have two pneumonic +children on his hands; and the vests slipped into the outfit. +</P> + +<P> +The duke was resolved to give the affair the strongest possible air of +verisimilitude; and he engaged a governess, a Miss Belthrop, for +Pollyooly. That led to his engaging a nurse, Emily Gibbs, for the +Lump, though Pollyooly protested that it was quite unnecessary. +</P> + +<P> +The duke was indeed falling more and more deeply in love with his +scheme the nearer it came to putting it into effect. On three +afternoons he came to coach Pollyooly in the topography of Ricksborough +Court and its gardens, and in the habits of Lady Marion Ricksborough. +He was astonished and impressed by her intelligence. He was called on +to tell her hardly a single thing twice. He spoke of it to the +Honourable John Ruffin with great respect. +</P> + +<P> +Then on the tenth day after his first visit he came in a taxicab, +greatly excited, for them and their luggage, and drove them to Waterloo +Station. On the platform they found Emily Gibbs, in charge of +Lawrence, the duke's valet, awaiting them. She found favour in the +exigent eyes of Pollyooly, who let her take charge of the Lump without +a single anxious qualm. Emily Gibbs fell in love with him at first +sight. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly, though all the while she kept a careful eye on him, left him +in the care of Emily Gibbs, till the train was actually outside London. +Then she took him into her corner and pointed out objects of interest +to him. She was convinced that he had made a great advance in +intelligence since his journey down to Pyechurch: not once did he hail +a sheep as a gee-gee. She promoted him to the use of his proper +Christian name, and called him Roger. The duke had grown calm once +more, and read a four-penny-half-penny magazine with every appearance +of absorbed interest. +</P> + +<P> +In the motor car which carried them from Ricksborough station to the +court, Pollyooly insisted on having the Lump on her knee. Motor drives +did not come their way so often that she could bear to be parted from +him in an hour of such delight. +</P> + +<P> +Once out of the peaceful seclusion of the railway carriage the duke's +excitement had returned; and now that the real ordeal was at hand, he +had grown uncommonly nervous. It may be that he was unused to deceit. +He had set Emily Gibbs beside the chauffeur that he might have +Pollyooly to himself; and all the way he poured jumbled instructions +into her ear in a fashion which would have brought her to the court +hopelessly confused had she been paying much attention to him. As she +followed him up the steps of the court she fancied that he was even +shaky on his legs. +</P> + +<P> +Rawlings, the butler, greeted them with a cold and dignified civility +which showed him thoroughly aware of his own value. Also there was a +lack of geniality in his tone which showed that he did not greatly love +the duke; and the one smile he lavished on Pollyooly was stiff and +wooden. But she certainly passed his careless scrutiny. +</P> + +<P> +Then, they had gone but a few steps into the hall when a slim and +serpentine dachshund trotted forward to greet them. It avoided the +duke and sniffed at Pollyooly. Then it uttered a yelp of joy, and +began to dance round her. At the yelp, four more small dogs hurried +down the hall, and flung themselves on Pollyooly with every sign of the +warmest affection. +</P> + +<P> +The duke gasped and blinked, suddenly assumed a Machiavellian air, and +said, for the benefit of the butler and footman, in a high, unnatural +voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, at any rate, the dogs haven't forgotten you, Marion." +</P> + +<P> +"No, papa," said Pollyooly with an angel smile. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY IS INTRODUCED TO THE COUNTY +</H3> + + +<P> +He had never done it before, but to-day, to the surprise of his butler, +the duke accompanied his supposed daughter up the stairs to Lady Marion +Ricksborough's suite of rooms. His face was flushed; and he stumbled +twice. His mind was full of the strange behaviour of the serpentine +dachshund and the other dogs. +</P> + +<P> +When they had risen above the range of hearing of the butler and +footmen in the hall, he said somewhat breathlessly: +</P> + +<P> +"I was never so flabbergasted in my life. Fancy dogs taking to you +like that! When I saw Hildegarde, who is one of the most particular +dogs I ever came across, dancing round you like that, you could have +knocked me down with a feather." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: it is funny," said Pollyooly; and she smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"But what a blessing it is!" the duke went on quickly. "It will be all +over the place that the dogs recognised you; and after that it's no +good whatever any one's saying that you're not Marion. It settles +it—absolutely." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it does," said Pollyooly calmly. +</P> + +<P> +She had no intention in the world of telling him that the dogs had the +best of reasons for recognising her, in that they actually had known +her before. It did not trouble her at all to leave him in error. It +suited his purpose so well that no one should know that she had ever +been at the court before. +</P> + +<P> +The suite of rooms when Pollyooly had last occupied it, had consisted +of her bedroom and school-room, and the bedroom and the sitting-room of +the governess. To these the duke had added a nursery bedroom for the +Lump and a bedroom for his nurse. +</P> + +<P> +In the schoolroom they found Miss Belthorp awaiting them; and the duke +presented her to Pollyooly. Then with the air of an operating +Camorrist he showed Pollyooly which was her bedroom by the crafty +device of pretending to make sure that her sheets had been aired. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly at once demanded that the Lump should also sleep in it. It +seemed a very natural desire on the part of a little girl; and, much to +the disgust of Emily Gibbs, who wished to have him to herself as much +as possible, the duke ordered a cot to be brought into it. +</P> + +<P> +Then with the same Machiavellian air, he said to Miss Belthorp: +</P> + +<P> +"Lady Marion has taken a strong fancy to this little boy I'm adopting. +I hope it will last." +</P> + +<P> +"It's sure to, your Grace. He's such a dear little boy," said Miss +Belthorp with conviction, for she, too, had fallen a victim to the +silent charm of the Lump. +</P> + +<P> +Having done his best to secure the first success of his plan, the duke +left them. Pollyooly made haste to have their trunk unpacked; and +then, having put on a linen frock, while Emily Gibbs put one on the +Lump, she took him out into the gardens. Miss Belthorp accompanied +them; and it seemed to Pollyooly that she was uncommonly like Miss +Marlow, Lady Marion's earlier governess, whom she had found at the +court during her last stay there. She realised very soon that it was +really unnecessary to listen to her conversation; the chance of her +saying anything of any real interest being so very small. +</P> + +<P> +From the windows of the smoking-room the duke saw the two children +crossing the terrace, accompanied by a large proportion of the dogs of +the establishment. In his glowing self-satisfaction with the success +of the first part of his plan, he found that they greatly improved the +appearance of the gardens. +</P> + +<P> +The Lump approved greatly of the gardens; but he was a little doubtful +about the dogs, and kept a firm hold of Pollyooly's skirts. It was +nearly ten minutes before, encouraged by the very friendly way in which +Pollyooly treated them, he really unbent. He showed a truly marvellous +instinct for discovering which dog would let him pull his tail, and +which would not. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly thought it wise to relax a little from her usual exact +mothering of him. She had him sit by her at tea of course; but she let +Emily Gibbs give him his bath, and contented herself with watching the +operation. She was pleased that the Lump did not accept the change +without objection. He pointed to her and said quite severely: +</P> + +<P> +"Pollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, Roger dear," she said in a soothing tone. Then +turning to Emily Gibbs, she added: "I wonder what he means?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, your ladyship. But he is the dearest little boy I ever +see!" said Emily Gibbs with enthusiasm. "I never knew as how there was +such a little boy!" and she kissed him. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly frowned slightly. These transports seemed to her misplaced. +They were an invasion of her proprietary rights in him. But she did +not frown long: after all, the fonder Emily Gibbs was of him the more +carefully she would watch over him. +</P> + +<P> +At supper in the servants' hall Emily Gibbs underwent a severe +cross-examination. The coming of the Lump to the court had indeed set +tongues wagging; and Rawlings, since he had failed to find the duke +quite satisfactory, was doing nothing to check it. The chief housemaid +and the second cook (the <I>chef</I> was a Frenchman with a strong Italian +accent which marked also his cooking) seemed to have made up their +minds that Emily Gibbs must necessarily have been made the repository +of the secret of the Lump's origin; and they spared no effort to +extract that secret from her. Emily Gibbs had the most uncomfortable +supper of her life: her fellow-servants, naturally, resented bitterly +the fact that she had met the Lump for the first time that very day at +Waterloo station. They wanted pegs on which to hang romance; and she +did not provide them. +</P> + +<P> +At last the second cook said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well: it's as plain as a pikestaff to me that that little boy is the +son of a young lady as his grace was in love with before he ever met +the duchess. And she married somebody else; and they're both dead; and +his grace 'as adopted their little boy for old sake's sake." +</P> + +<P> +The first housemaid and the second housemaid accepted this theory +warmly; and then Emily Gibbs said: +</P> + +<P> +"And I expect she had red hair." +</P> + +<P> +The basic facts of the affair having been thus comfortably settled, the +talk turned on the identity of the lady, and then on the colour of her +hair. Rawlings was of the opinion that the redness of the Lump's hair +was evidence that either his father or his mother had been a relation +of the duke, since there was so much red hair in the Osterley family. +His suggestion met with general approval. +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly makes his adopting him more natural-like," said the +second housemaid. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was awake the next morning before any one else at the court; +and soon after six she rose. She dressed the Lump, gave him biscuits, +ate some herself; and accompanied by all the loose dogs in the house, +they went out into the gardens through one of the long windows of the +blue drawing-room. She led the Lump round to the stables and there +unloosed several more dogs, so that they went about the world well +attended, and spent two very pleasant hours before their exigent +appetites demanded their return to breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +The duke saw them returning from his dressing-room; and once more he +was of the opinion that they improved the appearance of the gardens. +</P> + +<P> +As it was Lady Marion's first day at the court after so many months, +Miss Belthorp decided that it should be a holiday—a holiday for +Pollyooly, that is; the Lump did not appear to be yet ripe to learn +even the alphabet. +</P> + +<P> +After breakfast therefore they went out again; and Miss Belthorp went +with them. This was of no advantage to them, for the excursion became +a formal walk, much less attractive than their erratic wanderings when +alone. Also it was a walk along paths; there were no incursions into +the heart of the woods they went through, nor did they go in a single +meadow and roll in the grass with the dogs. Also, since the hour was +undeniably shining, she thought it well to improve it by imparting a +little instruction in botany. Pollyooly found it quite uninteresting; +she did not care at all whether a flower had four stems or fourteen. +Stamens seemed to her childish mind quite unimportant; the colour and +fragrance of the flower seemed to her the only important things. +</P> + +<P> +As they came into the court Miss Belthorp chanced to say: +</P> + +<P> +"I do hope that you haven't been neglecting your piano, Marion. I +always think that music is so important in the formation of character." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly had not been neglecting her piano, because she had no piano +to neglect. The piano played no part in any of the seven standards she +had passed at Muttle Deeping school; and she did not know one note from +another. She was taken aback by the suggestion that she was expected +to show herself accomplished in music. Evidently she must consult the +duke. +</P> + +<P> +She and the Lump and Miss Belthorp lunched with him, or rather they +dined and he lunched. After it, having seen the Lump safely on his way +upstairs with Miss Belthorp, Pollyooly followed the duke into the +smoking-room. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, your Grace: Miss Belthorp seems to expect me to know how to +play the piano; and I don't know how to at all," she said gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"The deuce you don't!" said the duke. "Here's another thing I never +thought of." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't <I>mind</I> learning the piano," said Pollyooly with a sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but if you showed that you didn't know anything about it, it +would look very suspicious indeed," said the duke; and he frowned +deeply as he cudgelled his brains for a way out of this unexpected +difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect it would," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +He frowned on, fidgeting; then he said with decision: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the only thing to do is to stop it altogether." +</P> + +<P> +"That would be quite safe," said Pollyooly brightening. +</P> + +<P> +"All right: I'll see to it," said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly left him with her heart at ease. +</P> + +<P> +He frowned over the matter for some time, for it did not seem to him to +be quite in the natural order of things that a duke should actually +refuse to allow his daughter to learn the piano. But he could find no +other way of concealing Pollyooly's damning ignorance of the art of +music. +</P> + +<P> +At last therefore he sent for Miss Belthorp and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I—er—have decided that—er—Poll—er—Lady Marion is not to learn +the piano." +</P> + +<P> +"Not learn the piano?" said Miss Belthorp in the tone of one afflicted +with the last amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"I—er—have never observed the—er—slightest aptitude in her for it," +said the duke with perfect truthfulness. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Belthorp blinked. She prided herself on the brilliancy with which +she played the piano—especially the scherzo passages. +</P> + +<P> +"But—b—but she looks such an intelligent child," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. That's why," said the duke happily. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Belthorp blinked again; then in a somewhat helpless tone she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, very well, your Grace." +</P> + +<P> +When the door closed behind her, the duke smiled happily and rubbed his +hands together. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly was expecting to spend a quiet afternoon in the gardens and +home wood with the Lump and the dogs and perhaps Miss Belthorp. She +hoped that Miss Belthorp would have some more important way of spending +her time. Of Emily Gibbs she could easily dispose, since already she +was giving her orders with a quiet firmness there was no gainsaying. +Indeed, Emily Gibbs had been far too well brought up not to receive +orders from what she called "A Lady of Title," with humble gratitude, +and execute them with vigour and despatch; and already she was hard at +work making linen overalls for the Lump. But at half-past three, just +as Miss Belthorp had left them to write letters and they had started +for the home wood, the obedient Emily came hurrying along the garden to +say that the duke wished Pollyooly to put on her prettiest clothes and +come with him to pay a call. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly frowned deeply at the thought that had not Miss Belthorp +lingered with them, they would by now have been safely hidden in some +recess of the wood. For the moment she almost wished that the Lump +were not so attractive. But very soon she was serene again. After all +it was a pleasant thing to be prettily dressed and ride in a motor car; +and there was always the exciting anticipation that the cakes at tea +would not only be delicious but quite uncommon. +</P> + +<P> +She dressed therefore in a complete serenity and gave Emily Gibbs +careful and exact instructions about the care of the Lump during her +absence. Then a footman came up to say that the car was ready; and she +went down the stairs comfortably assured that she was looking her +prettiest. She saw that the duke looked pleased at the sight of her; +his face grew quite bright. +</P> + +<P> +He put her into the tonneau of the car and stepped in after her. It +was not the first time they had been alone together, but for the moment +she felt somewhat oppressed. But he at once began to instruct her in +the manners and deportment in vogue at garden parties; and presently +she was talking to him with the most amiable affability. +</P> + +<P> +Three-quarters of an hour's drive brought them to Ilkeston Towers, +their destination; and when Pollyooly and the duke, coming on to the +lawn, which was set with groups of brightly dressed, shrilly chattering +people, were loudly announced by a strong-lunged butler, there was a +sudden hush and a general, quickly checked movement toward them. Then +Lady Ilkeston greeted them; and the duke said to her in a somewhat loud +voice: +</P> + +<P> +"It's rather dull going about alone, so I brought Marion with me." +</P> + +<P> +"But how nice!" said Lady Ilkeston; and she welcomed Pollyooly warmly. +</P> + +<P> +There was by no means an immediate rush to make Pollyooly's +acquaintance; but for half an hour Lady Ilkeston found herself busy +introducing to her people who were firmly resolved to make her +acquaintance, since she was, so to speak, the sub-heroine of the most +interesting local scandal. +</P> + +<P> +The duke had not looked for anything of the kind; and he was on +tenterhooks; he had expected that as a child she would be left +peacefully in the background. He found her the central figure of the +gathering; and he was in the liveliest dread lest she should fail to +come through the ordeal with her secret safe. +</P> + +<P> +It never for a moment occurred to Pollyooly that her secret was in any +danger. Naturally therefore she wore an air of perfect ease; and +answered the innumerable questions about her fondness for different +things, the country, dolls, flowers and so forth with serene +simplicity. He was somewhat surprised by her air (it was not +accentuated, or even obvious) of faintly haughty aloofness. He had a +feeling that it was exactly the right air for a daughter of a duke. He +wondered how it had come to her, whether the Honourable John Ruffin was +right in his red Deeping theory. He did not know his experienced +cousin had often laid before Pollyooly the advantage of giving herself +airs, and she had not been slow to see it. He grew easier in mind. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Ilkeston was the person really pleased. She had not expected to +have any really interesting central figure at her afternoon; and she +was all the more grateful at getting one. Her gratitude took the +practical form of instructing Sir Miles Walpole, an amiable young man +of twenty-four, very fond of children, to take Pollyooly to the long +table under the cedars, and give her a very nice tea indeed. The ices +and the cakes, which surpassed her hopes and expectation, to no small +degree compensated Pollyooly for the loss of that untrammelled ramble +through the home wood. Also she enjoyed the society of Sir Miles +Walpole; she was at once thoroughly at home with him. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after tea the duke took her away. When the car had started, he +said triumphantly: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we came through that all right. Not a soul spotted that you +weren't Marion." +</P> + +<P> +"But how could they?" said Pollyooly in a tone of lively surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I was a bit afraid at first," said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't," said Pollyooly simply. +</P> + +<P> +He took off his hat, let the rushing air cool his brow, and smiled +broadly at the horizon. It seemed to him that if Pollyooly were the +central figure in yet another gathering, or two, the duchess would not +be long in hearing that he had with uncommon success replaced his lost +daughter. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POLLYOOLY AND THE DUKE +</H3> + + +<P> +The duke's delight with the evident publicity which had attended the +presentation of Pollyooly to the county had lessened hardly at all by +the next morning. He thought it likely that, if the duchess were +anywhere in the United Kingdom, she would learn by some post that very +day that he had filled the place of Marion. +</P> + +<P> +Then it occurred to him that these correspondents would not only +condole with the duchess on having lost her daughter, but also they +would condole with her on having lost such a charming and delightful +daughter; and he laughed more heartily than he had laughed for many a +long day. +</P> + +<P> +In a natural desire for yet more publicity, that afternoon he took +Pollyooly with him and drove over to Overton Grange to introduce her to +the Ashcrofts, who had tried to play the part of mediators, with signal +ill-success, between him and the duchess. The Ashcrofts had heard that +Lady Marion Ricksborough had been present at the garden party at +Ilkeston Towers the day before. They were surprised by the news and +more than a little hurt that the duchess had not at once informed them +that the duke had recovered her. Also they were feeling that the duke +had brought Pollyooly to show her off to them as his triumph. +Therefore Lord Ashcroft, a strong, silent, bearded man, was a trifle +stiff with him, Lady Ashcroft a trifle cold; but they made up for it by +giving Pollyooly the warmest welcome possible; their friendliness was +almost overwhelming. After tea (to Pollyooly's regret there were no +ices) Lady Ashcroft took her up to the nurseries where she found a +little girl of eight and a little boy of six, and enjoyed herself +thoroughly. They were better than ices. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Ashcroft and the duke smoked their cigarettes in silence for a +while after Lady Ashcroft and Pollyooly had left them. Lord Ashcroft +looked rather gloomy; the duke looked at peace with the world. Then +Lord Ashcroft said gloomily: +</P> + +<P> +"How did you get hold of Marion?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, money—just money," said the duke airily but with perfect +truthfulness. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Ashcroft frowned; and they were silent again. +</P> + +<P> +The duke, with the same air of content, lighted another cigarette. +</P> + +<P> +Presently Lord Ashcroft said: +</P> + +<P> +"She's very much improved both in looks and intelligence." +</P> + +<P> +The duke sat bolt upright and said quickly and with heat: +</P> + +<P> +"She's nothing of the kind!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes; she is. You know she is," said Lord Ashcroft firmly. "It's +being with her mother." +</P> + +<P> +"It's nothing of the kind!" said the duke, still with heat. It seemed +to him absurd to suggest that Pollyooly was superior to his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +"It is; and I shall write and tell Caroline so," said Lord Ashcroft +with the same firmness. +</P> + +<P> +"I never knew such an obstinate—wrong-headed—" the duke broke out. +He broke off short, paused, began to laugh, and laughed heartily. Then +he said: "Oh, well; have it your own way. Write and tell her so." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall," said Lord Ashcroft in the tone of one bent on performing a +sacred duty. "I don't see anything to laugh at." +</P> + +<P> +The duke again remained silent; but twice he laughed sudden, short +laughs. Lord Ashcroft looked at him suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know quite what's happening to you, Osterley," he said +presently in a tone hardly meant to be pleasant. "You're changing." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes: getting brighter," said the duke easily. +</P> + +<P> +"It may be that and again it may not," said Lord Ashcroft coldly; and +he tugged at his beard. +</P> + +<P> +After that conversation seemed hard to make; and soon the duke said +that he must be going. Lady Ashcroft kept him waiting nearly twenty +minutes before she brought Pollyooly down from the nurseries. Then she +said that Pollyooly must come to spend the whole day with her children; +and Pollyooly said that she would like to come very much. The duke +looked a little doubtful: he was not sure that Pollyooly could stand +the test of hours of intimacy. +</P> + +<P> +On the way home he talked for a while cheerfully; and since there was +no intellectual gulf between them, they could talk to one another with +perfect ease and understanding. Then he fell into a sudden panic. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" he cried, clutching at his moustache and missing it. "I'd +forgotten all about it! My sister—Lady Salkeld's coming home +to-morrow!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said nothing. She looked at him with enquiring eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose she goes and recognises that you aren't Marion?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why she should any more than any one else," said Pollyooly +in a reassuring tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but, hang it! She's seen a lot of Marion. She's known her ever +since she was a baby," said the duke with a harassed air. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly could have set his mind at rest by assuring him that during +her last stay at the court Lady Salkeld had not shown the slightest +tendency to recognise that she was not Lady Marion Ricksborough; but +she did not. She only said: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't suppose that she'll take much notice of me." +</P> + +<P> +"There is that. She pretty well thinks of nothing but her own +affairs," said the duke more hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Anyhow, it's no use worrying about it. I expect it'll be all right," +said Pollyooly in a comforting tone. +</P> + +<P> +The duke was so far reassured by her careless serenity as presently to +resume his easy conversation with her. That evening, since he was +dining alone, he sent for her to come to him at dessert, and talked to +her again. His was a sociable nature; and in view of the presence of +her and the Lump he had not invited any friends to relieve the +loneliness of his stay at the court. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Salkeld arrived in time for lunch next day; and at lunch Pollyooly +and the Lump met her. The duke was on tenterhooks, needlessly, for she +bestowed a tepid kiss on Pollyooly, tapped the cheek of the Lump even +more tepidly, and addressed herself peaceably to her lunch. +</P> + +<P> +But after a while she began to give her attention to the Lump, looking +at him earnestly now and again, and blinking. Then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"That child reminds me of somebody, Osterley. Where did you pick him +up?" +</P> + +<P> +"These red Deepings are all alike," said the duke carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh? He's a red Deeping, is he? Who's his father?" said Lady Salkeld +almost briskly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a secret," said the duke with perfect truthfulness, for he did +not know. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Salkeld looked at him, sniffed, and said with some tartness: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I never expected you to be mysterious, Osterley." +</P> + +<P> +The duke bore the reproach with patient meekness, and said nothing. It +suited him very well that his sister should be giving her attention to +the Lump. From the Lump nothing was to be learned. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Salkeld's coming made no difference to their lives. Pollyooly +went on her early morning rambles with the Lump; from breakfast to noon +she did her lessons and then went for a sedate walk with Miss Belthorp. +After lunch she played with the Lump till it was time to drive out to +tea with the duke. Naturally she met the same people again and again, +and was now on very friendly terms with some of them. The duke, +regarding her with something of the feeling of an impresario, and +finding that she was everywhere welcomed as an authentic angel child, +began to take pride in displaying her. Also he began to take greater +pleasure in her society. Frequently, when the morning lessons were +over, he would come up to the schoolroom and take her out for a walk +with him. He liked to stroll about his estate and thrill with the +feelings of a landed proprietor. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly enjoyed these walks. The duke never tried to improve her +mind with botany. But she learned much country lore from him, the +names and habits of many birds and small animals. In spite of his +exalted station, he was a simple soul; and he had retained his boyish +interest in the furred and feathered world of the woods and meadows +round the court. Also he enjoyed telling Pollyooly things. +Unconsciously, but quite accurately, he regarded her as his +intellectual equal; and it pleased him very much to tell her things she +did not know. It gave him a sense of passing, but genuine superiority, +a feeling his fellow creatures seldom inspired into him. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes he wondered why he had never thought of making a companion of +Marion. He made up his mind that when, presently, he was reconciled +with the duchess (he had no doubt ever that presently they would be +reconciled) he would make a companion of her. It never entered his +mind that there would be any difficulty about doing so. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin came down for a week-end and was pleased to +find the duke and Pollyooly on such excellent terms. So pleased was he +that he forebore, by a considerable effort, to tease the duke. At +least he did not tease him more than was good for him. Also, to his +great surprise, he found himself suffering from a twinge of jealousy +now and again at Pollyooly's frank display of friendliness for the +duke. He told himself that it was wholly absurd. But there it was: +with his money and influence the duke could do so much more for her +than he could. He consoled himself with the thought that after all the +duke would be only carrying on his work. +</P> + +<P> +On the Saturday afternoon they went, as was their wont, for a stroll +through the woods; and the Honourable John Ruffin, who had so carefully +gratified his great inborn interest in the human race that now he +missed very little, observed that once or twice the duke paused and +looked about him as if he missed something. +</P> + +<P> +The next afternoon as they were starting, the duke said in a voice +which was not as easy as it tried to be, and with an air that was +distinctly shame-faced: +</P> + +<P> +"I say: we may as well take Pollyooly with us." +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin raised his eyebrows a little and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well—little pitchers have long ears, don't you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right—that's all right, we needn't talk secrets," said +the duke quickly; and he ran lightly up the stairs to fetch her. +</P> + +<P> +It was a pleasant walk; and the Honourable John Ruffin was alive to the +fact that the company of Pollyooly greatly improved it. But at times +to his astonishment he was no less distinctly conscious of the fact +that two were company and three were none; and he was the third. +</P> + +<P> +At dinner that night he said somewhat gloomily: +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Caroline would hurry up and start firmly to come back to you. +I miss Pollyooly." +</P> + +<P> +"Give her time—give her time," said the duke quickly. "Besides the +country is doing the child a lot of good." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's all very well for you. You've got a chef; but I've got no +one to grill my bacon, and that after training Pollyooly to be the +finest griller of bacon in England," said the Honourable John Ruffin in +a bitterly aggrieved tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think you're a bit selfish? You ought to think of the good +the country's doing the child," said the duke in a somewhat lofty tone. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin snarled quietly. +</P> + +<P> +The next afternoon, as he was getting into the car to go to the +station, he paused and said in his most amiable tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, all I can say is: it's a jolly good thing for everybody that +Pollyooly isn't six years older." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, get out!" said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Especially for Pollyooly," said the Honourable John Ruffin; and he +stepped into the car. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LORD RONALD RICKSBOROUGH COMES TO THE COURT +</H3> + + +<P> +On the Wednesday morning, in the middle of lessons, a footman came from +the duke to ask Pollyooly to go to him at once. She went wondering, +and found him in the smoking-room in a panic. +</P> + +<P> +As she entered he waved a telegram at her and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a new mess. Lord Ronald Ricksborough—you know him—he's my +heir, you know—always spends his holidays at the court. He's been +visiting friends, but his visit's at an end; and he wires to say that +he's coming here—arriving this evening." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that will be nice!" cried Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, will it? Suppose he finds out you're not Lady Marion?" cried the +duke. +</P> + +<P> +"But he knows I'm not; and he knows I'm here," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"The deuce he does!" cried the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I wrote and told him so," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"You did?" cried the duke; and he clutched at his moustache. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. We often write to one another—just short letters. You know +we're engaged to be married, when we grow up. He gave me this ring," +said Pollyooly in a tone of quiet explanation, holding out her hand. +</P> + +<P> +The duke gasped heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what the world's coming to! Children of your age!" he +cried. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it'll be quite all right," said Pollyooly cheerfully. "I'm going +on the stage. I've been on it already—dancing with the Esmeralda—not +really dancing of course, but just filling in the picture (that's what +the Esmeralda called it) in 'Titania's Awakening'—" +</P> + +<P> +"What? You were the child in 'Titania's Awakening'?" said the duke +heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. But when I grow up I'm going on the stage again—in musical +comedy—so that it will be quite all right for Ronald to marry me. The +heirs of peers generally marry girls in musical comedy. Ronald says +they do; and Mr. Ruffin said that he was quite right." +</P> + +<P> +The duke's eyes were larger than usual, and bulging out. He ground his +teeth and looked as if he could well have torn out some of his hair. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't think why John Ruffin will talk such silly nonsense!" he +growled in a tone of the last exasperation. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but it isn't, your Grace," said Pollyooly reproachfully. "Lots of +them have done it. Ronald sent me a list of them he made out with two +school-fellows. Only it's at the Temple. It'll be quite all right for +us to get married." +</P> + +<P> +The duke gnashed his teeth for a change. But he regained some control +of himself and said with moderate calmness: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, of course it's only children's nonsense. But you may as well +bear in mind that Ronald's going to marry Lady Marion." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you'll get him to," said Pollyooly quickly but +dispassionately. "He says she's such a little duff—" Her natural +politeness stopped the word on her tongue. "They—they don't get on +well together." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll have to!" said the duke stormily. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said nothing; but she did not look hopeful. +</P> + +<P> +The duke waited for a word of encouragement. It did not come. He +crumpled up the telegram, threw it into the grate, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"But the real question is: will Ronald keep the secret? Will he be +able to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes: he'll keep it quite easily," said Pollyooly confidently. +"He's splendid at keeping secrets." +</P> + +<P> +The duke gazed at her gloomily and said gloomily: +</P> + +<P> +"I can't conceive how on earth you and Ronald got to know one another +so well." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly's eyes opened wider and grew uncommonly limpid. She said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I've been out to lunch with him and to the Varolium—from the +Temple." +</P> + +<P> +"You have, have you?" said the duke bitterly. "I'm hanged if I know +what the world's coming to!" +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said nothing. She looked at him solemnly as if impressed by +his difficulty. He gazed at her gloomily. Then he said firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"Look here: I'm not going to have his coming interfere with our walks; +and he's not coming with us to call on people." +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly knitted her brow and after a thoughtful pause said: +</P> + +<P> +"I shouldn't think he'll want to." +</P> + +<P> +"He won't, if he does," said the duke firmly. "And mind you keep him +up to the mark and see that he doesn't let out that you're not Marion." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I will," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, run away and get your lessons done. I hope to goodness he +doesn't let it out!" +</P> + +<P> +That evening, while they were at tea, Lord Ronald Ricksborough arrived, +and came straight to the schoolroom. His attitude was admirable. He +greeted Pollyooly with the words, "Hullo, Marion!" in the perfectly +perfunctory manner of a cousin. She greeted him with a like +perfunctoriness and introduced him to Miss Belthorp. He greeted her +politely; then he looked at the Lump with a very good air of surprise +and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Who's the kid?" +</P> + +<P> +This display of ignorance was unwarranted by the fact that more than +once, in moments of chivalry, he had carried the Lump up the stairs of +Seventy-five, the King's Bench Walk, after the three of them had been +taking their pleasures in London. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a little boy his grace has adopted," said Miss Belthorp, smiling +affectionately at the Lump. +</P> + +<P> +"Adopted? Well, that's a rum go," said Ronald; and he sat down at the +table. +</P> + +<P> +Over his tea he told them, or, to be exact, he told Pollyooly, for it +was to her that he addressed himself, of his doings at school and +during the time he had spent on the visit which had just come to an +end. After tea he and Pollyooly went out into the gardens together. +When they were out of hearing he said: +</P> + +<P> +"This is tophole, having you here, old girl!" +</P> + +<P> +Then as they passed out of sight in a shrubbery, he put his arm, +somewhat clumsily for one in most things uncommonly deft, round her +neck and kissed her. Pollyooly returned the kiss in a matter-of-fact, +almost careless fashion. She was not addicted to kissing, though she +kissed the Lump often enough and with fervour; but this kiss was part +of the business of being engaged to be married. Since Ronald heaved a +sigh of relief at having performed the required feat, it is to be +presumed that his feelings in the matter were very like her own. Then +they went on briskly through the gardens and into the wood, the best +companions in the world. +</P> + +<P> +With Ronald at the court the days grew pleasanter than ever. He begged +Pollyooly to demand that she too should have a holiday. But this she +would not do. She had seen the world at too close quarters to throw +away things idly; and she was learning French. Indeed, the lessons had +been reduced to French because Pollyooly had heard the Esmeralda say +that she found her knowledge of French a perfect blessing; and agreeing +with her, the Honourable John Ruffin had said that to an artist who +danced on the continent and in the Americas, French must be worth +hundreds a year. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly had the firmest intention of dancing herself on the continent +and in the Americas, and she applied herself to learning the French +tongue with the vigour and tenacity with which she worked at her +dancing. Miss Belthorp was astonished at the quickness with which she +learnt; and she talked with enthusiasm to the duke of his daughter's +gift for languages. +</P> + +<P> +"She has: has she?" said the duke; and he looked at her somewhat +queerly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's perfectly wonderful!" said Miss Belthorp. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well: it's a very good thing. I dare say it will come in useful +one of these days," said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +On their walk that morning he told Pollyooly that Miss Belthorp had +said that she was a marvel at languages; and Pollyooly was very pleased +to hear it. She told the duke her reason for working so hard at her +French. +</P> + +<P> +He frowned for the next hundred yards, or so; then he said irritably: +</P> + +<P> +"I can't see why on earth you want to go in for this dancing and all +this stage business at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but if you can dance—really dance, they pay you ever so well," +cried Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you what it is: you're a jolly sight too keen on money—for a +child of your age—it's—it's mercenary—yes: mercenary," said the duke +severely. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly flushed, and looked at him with her eyes bright either with +tears, or a sparkle of anger. +</P> + +<P> +"But I <I>have</I> to get money," she said with some heat. "When Mr. +Ruffin's creditors hale him away to the deepest dungeon in Holloway +(he's said they will lots of times) you don't suppose I'm going to let +the Lump go to the workhouse! And where should I get another place +like Mr. Ruffin's? I should only have Mr. Gedge-Tomkins." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well—of course—if it's like that," said the duke in a tone of +awkward apology. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly said nothing for a while; she walked on with knitted brow. +Then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"And anyhow when the Lump gets bigger, I shall want a lot of money. +There'll be his clothes, and his schooling. I don't want him to go to +a board school—not in London. Such children go there—Aunt Hannah +said so, and so does Mrs. Brown. But there must be schools where they +wouldn't charge very much." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—ah—of course, you'll want money for that," said the duke heavily. +</P> + +<P> +Pollyooly gave a little skip as of one removing an unpleasant matter +from her mind, and said cheerfully: +</P> + +<P> +"And anyhow I should have to go on the stage. Ronald and I couldn't +get married if I didn't." +</P> + +<P> +"I keep telling you that he's going to marry Marion," said the duke +very firmly indeed. +</P> + +<P> +His insistence on this fact did not seem to impair Pollyooly's cheerful +serenity, for after a thoughtful pause she skipped again and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well: if I'm actually on the stage, I expect it would be all +right. There must be other heirs of peers." +</P> + +<P> +The duke looked down on her and said bitterly: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm hanged if <I>I</I> know what the world's coming to!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DUKE WINS +</H3> + + +<P> +Pollyooly had been at Ricksborough Court rather more than a month when +the Honourable John Ruffin arrived, uninvited and without notice, on +the Friday evening. He found the duke in the garden with the three +children. +</P> + +<P> +"The kicking has begun," he said to the duke briefly, by way of +explanation. +</P> + +<P> +The duke seemed taken aback by the suddenness of the news, but soon he +recovered and showed himself in very good spirits. +</P> + +<P> +That night after dinner, after Pollyooly and Ronald had been dismissed +from dessert to bed, the Honourable John Ruffin said: +</P> + +<P> +"I got a letter from Caroline, pitching into me like one o'clock for +being a party to a disgraceful plot to rob Marion of her name and +birthright." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is it?" said the duke quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't bring it with me. The home-truths about me on it were +nothing to the home-truths about you. It would sear your soul to read +them," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a very grave voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Would it?" said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"It would. But I thought I would come down, in case she made a descent +and you wanted some one to stand by and stiffen you." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know, I don't think I do," said the duke. "I really believe I +can stick it out on my own." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"All the same I'm glad you came. If we get beyond having a tremendous +row, we shall very likely want some one to arrange things for us," said +the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"I shouldn't think a tremendous row was quite your game," said the +Honourable John Ruffin thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>I'm</I> not going to row. But you know what Caroline is: she can +have all the row there is to have, without any help from any one," said +the duke. "I'm just going to sit tight as wax and let her wear herself +out, if she does start rowing." +</P> + +<P> +"That is undoubtedly the course for a man of sense to pursue," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of approval. +</P> + +<P> +The duke was on tenterhooks the next day, for though he was braced for +the struggle with the duchess, he found the uncertainty when that +struggle would begin trying. Then he was taking his afternoon tea with +the Honourable John Ruffin on the cedar lawn; Ronald and Pollyooly +mindful of the cakes, had sociably joined them; and they were laughing +at a story the Honourable John Ruffin was telling them, when he stopped +short, staring at the entrance to the lawn. They turned to see the +duchess standing in it, and surveying them with the eyes of an avenging +angel. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-304"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-304.jpg" ALT="They turned to see the Duchess" BORDER="2" WIDTH="430" HEIGHT="635"> +<H3> +[Illustration: They turned to see the Duchess] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +They all rose; and the Honourable John Ruffin said calmly: +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Caroline? I suppose you motored down. Charming weather +for motoring." +</P> + +<P> +"Very," said the duchess in a terrible voice. "And a charming +gathering I find at the end of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; sit down and have some tea. You must be thirsty," said the +Honourable John Ruffin. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Caroline? Sit down and have some tea," said the duke, +seizing on the opening, in rather uncertain tones. +</P> + +<P> +"Tea!" said the duchess, in a yet more terrible voice. +</P> + +<P> +"And bread and butter," said the duke hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I came here to drink <I>tea</I>?" said the duchess in the tone +of one who had come to drink blood. +</P> + +<P> +"A lemon squash then," said the duke hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't come here to drink tea, or lemon squashes," said the +duchess. "I've come to learn what this means—to put an end to this +ridiculous farce?" +</P> + +<P> +"Eh? What? What farce?" said the duke. +</P> + +<P> +"This farcical substitution of this wicked child, Mary Bride, for +Marion," said the duchess, glaring at Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"But you're not going to do any substituting. I won't have it," said +the duke firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Me? It's you! You've done it already!" cried the duchess, with a +sudden note of astonishment in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +The duke shook his head, and with a smile of superior knowledge said +firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do, Caroline. It's no good your trying it on." +</P> + +<P> +The duchess gasped: "What do you mean? What <I>do</I> you mean?" she cried; +and her tone was now all astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +The Honourable John Ruffin created a diversion by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"As far as I can make out this is a private matter; and little pitchers +have long ears. Come along, little pitchers." And he was sweeping +Pollyooly and Ronald off the lawn. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess glared at him, and stopped them for a moment with the words: +</P> + +<P> +"Is this your doing, John?" +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens, no! Osterley is the originator, and organiser, and +perpetrator of the whole arrangement," he cried over his shoulder in a +tone which carried conviction; and he vanished with the children. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess turned and glared again at the duke, as if she could not +believe her eyes; she looked almost as if she saw him for the first +time. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down and have some tea. You must be wanting it," said the duke +firmly; and he began to pour it out. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess sat down, with a somewhat helpless air, still staring at +him. Matters seemed to be going differently from what she had +expected. Her fine brown eyes looked very big. +</P> + +<P> +"You did this all yourself?" she said, in a somewhat breathless voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Did what? Two lumps, isn't it?" said the duke, putting two lumps into +the cup and handing it to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Deliberately substituted a strange child for your own," said the +duchess solemnly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that," said the duke carelessly. "That's all right. You needn't +worry about that. I've quite taken to Mary Bride. She's so—so +companionable—and—and as clever as they make 'em, and as pretty as a +picture. She makes a ripping Lady Marion Ricksborough. Why, when she +comes into a room, or on to a lawn, it's beginning to make as much +sensation as if it were yourself. I was awfully lucky to get hold of +her." His tone had grown truly enthusiastic. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess ground her teeth and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"And do you think I'm going to stand it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Stand it? I thought you'd like it," said the duke in a perplexed +tone. "Of course I'm not going to bother you about Marion any more; +you can keep her. And it's all so deucedly comfortable; you've got the +Marion you want, and I've got the Marion I want. And so we're both +happy." And he smiled amiably. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy! Happy when a strange child is usurping the place of my child?" +cried the duchess furiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right. Marion's got <I>you</I>," said the duke. "Besides, +I'm not going to go all my life without any family. It wouldn't be +fair; and you've no right to expect it. I say, how jolly you're +looking!" +</P> + +<P> +"Jolly!" said the duchess thickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, pretty then. And your figure is better than ever—perfectly +ripping," said the duke with enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +"You can leave me out of it!" cried the duchess in a tone of the last +exasperation. "And if you think I'm going to stand this, I'm not!" +</P> + +<P> +"But what are you going to do about it?" said the duke mildly. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop it!" said the duchess through her set teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"But you can't stop it," said the duke in his most amiable tone. "I'm +getting domesticated, and I'm bent on having something in the way of a +family. Set on it. Of course you can say that your Marion is Lady +Marion Ricksborough; and I shall say that mine is. And some people +will believe you, but most people will believe me. And of course I +shall settle a good lump sum on Mary Bride when she marries, and leave +her all the unentailed property." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but it's impossible!" cried the duchess writhing in her chair. +"Leaving your child out in the cold for a perfect stranger!" +</P> + +<P> +"But she isn't. I tell you, she and I get on like a house on fire," +said the duke with some impatience. "And it's perfectly all right; you +stick to your Marion; and I'll stick to mine." +</P> + +<P> +The duchess rose and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"It's abominable! The most cold-blooded thing I ever heard of! And if +you think you're going to get rid of us like this, you're wrong! I +stay here till this matter has been put right." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't want to get rid of <I>you</I>," said the duke amiably. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess ground her teeth and walked across the lawn with the air of +a Boadicea saving her country. The duke watched her graceful figure +till it disappeared through a long window into the pink drawing-room, +with admiring eyes. Then he smiled a Machiavellian smile. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess went to her rooms in a mood of seething, but somewhat +helpless, fury. She was softened a little by finding them just as she +had left them two years before. Plainly some one had taken care of the +clothes she had left behind her; and her anxiety about a dress to dine +in was lulled to rest. She thought for a while that she would go and +berate Pollyooly; but she came to the conclusion that it would be +absurd to blame her for the action of the duke. It was much more +annoying to find that she could not reasonably blame the duke. She was +forced to admit that he had a right to the domestic life, if he wished +for it. She was also annoyed to feel an uncommonly pleasant sense of +home-coming. She resented it, but she could not rid herself of it. +</P> + +<P> +She came to dinner very dignified and stern; but the Honourable John +Ruffin saw to it that the meal was unconstrained. He spared no effort +to keep the talk in a light vein; and the duke, after his talk with the +duchess that afternoon, was sufficiently at his ease to second him to +the best of his not very great ability. He won the Honourable John +Ruffin's golden opinions by remembering the other two occasions on +which the duchess had worn the gown she was wearing to-night. +</P> + +<P> +Little by little, against her will, she thawed. The sense of +home-coming grew stronger. The easy, reminiscent talk—reminiscent of +pleasant days—the familiar room, and, perhaps, her favourite brand of +champagne, softened her till her smiles came easily. Moreover it was +delightful to be amused again; and it was borne suddenly in upon her +that the months she had been living in hiding had been tiresome, boring +months, from the point of view of life, utterly wasted months. Again +and again she looked at the duke as if she saw him for the first time. +Plainly she was amending her opinion of him. +</P> + +<P> +She yielded readily to the entreaties of the two men to stop and drink +her coffee and smoke her cigarette with them. The Honourable John +Ruffin talked on; she laughed several times. Then, having finished his +cigarette, and lighted a cigar, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I have a sonnet to write to the eyebrow of a lady—no, Caroline: you +do not know her—and I must have perfect solitude, by the side of still +water, in the moonlight. So I am going down to the long pool; and I +must on no account be interrupted. So long." +</P> + +<P> +And he went quickly through the long window. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke quickly and went quickly, before the duchess could suggest +that he should wait a while. She felt unequal to a tête-à-tête with +her husband, and nervously she half rose. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't you rush away too," said the duke somewhat plaintively. +</P> + +<P> +She sank back into her chair. +</P> + +<P> +The duke looked at her for a while in silence with eyes full of an +admiration at once gratifying and discomfiting; then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Caroline, can you remember what it was we first quarrelled +about?" +</P> + +<P> +The duchess knitted her brow in the effort to recall it, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"No, I can't. Oh, yes! You grumbled at the way my hair was done." +Then she added in a tone of triumph, "And I've done it exactly the same +ever since; it's done like it now!" +</P> + +<P> +"Something must have upset me, for it looks perfectly ripping," said +the duke with warm conviction. +</P> + +<P> +The duchess felt herself blushing under his admiring eyes, and disliked +herself very much for doing so. +</P> + +<P> +She rose hastily and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'll go into the garden." +</P> + +<P> +This time the duke let her go. He finished his cigar before he +followed her. He found her walking up and down the cedar lawn; and +when the moonlight fell on her face, he saw that it was troubled. +</P> + +<P> +He fell into step beside her and said with enthusiasm: +</P> + +<P> +"It's a ripping night." +</P> + +<P> +She said nothing; and they crossed the lawn and turned. +</P> + +<P> +He said, again with enthusiasm: +</P> + +<P> +"I do like this lawn. I first kissed you under that old tree." +</P> + +<P> +The duchess started to leave the lawn with some speed. +</P> + +<P> +The duke kept pace with her. +</P> + +<P> +Half-way across the lawn he said in an affectionate tone: +</P> + +<P> +"There's no need for you to fret about Marion, old girl. You can +arrange it just as you like." +</P> + +<P> +Then deftly, he slipped his arm round her waist. +</P> + +<P> +"How dare you, Archie?" she cried, and made to thrust him away with +some vigour. +</P> + +<P> +It was not enough vigour. The duke's arm did not slip; indeed he +tightened his clasp as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I could do much better with a complete family—a wife and a daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"After the way you've behaved!" cried the duchess. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, one doesn't always behave the same. One changes," said the +duke. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Three days later Pollyooly and Ronald stood by a gate at the end of the +home wood, awaiting the coming of the motor car, in which the +Honourable John Ruffin was bringing the real Lady Marion Ricksborough +to slip quietly into the place which Pollyooly had occupied with such +signal success. The Lump, in the care of Emily Gibbs, was already +speeding in the train to London, to be met at Waterloo and conveyed to +the Temple by Mrs. Brown. +</P> + +<P> +Ronald looked gloomy; and an air of sadness marred Pollyooly's serenity. +</P> + +<P> +"It's perfectly rotten your going off like this—before we've done half +the things we were going to. Why on earth couldn't uncle have waited +till the end of the holidays to make the change?" said Ronald in a +bitterly aggrieved tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you'll have Marion to go about with you," said Pollyooly. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing doing!" snapped Ronald. +</P> + +<P> +His vehemence pleased her. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity," she said sadly. "It's been splendid; and I'm awfully +sorry to have to go." +</P> + +<P> +Then her face cleared and brightened into an angel smile; she crinkled +in her pocket the five ten-pound notes which the grateful duke had +given her; and added: +</P> + +<P> +"But it's splendid to think that with what I've got in the Savings Bank +and this, I can keep the Lump out of the workhouse for years and years!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> +<hr class="full" noshade> + +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY POLLYOOLY***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 19310-h.txt or 19310-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/1/19310</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/19310-h/images/img-070.jpg b/19310-h/images/img-070.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2089caf --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/images/img-070.jpg diff --git a/19310-h/images/img-086.jpg b/19310-h/images/img-086.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3427b6e --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/images/img-086.jpg diff --git a/19310-h/images/img-142.jpg b/19310-h/images/img-142.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94c1e38 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/images/img-142.jpg diff --git a/19310-h/images/img-170.jpg b/19310-h/images/img-170.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8f045c --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/images/img-170.jpg diff --git a/19310-h/images/img-304.jpg b/19310-h/images/img-304.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d9a262 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/images/img-304.jpg diff --git a/19310-h/images/img-front.jpg b/19310-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d84e07 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310-h/images/img-front.jpg diff --git a/19310.txt b/19310.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dd36f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7677 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Happy Pollyooly, by Edgar Jepson, Illustrated +by Reginald Birch + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Happy Pollyooly + The Rich Little Poor Girl + + +Author: Edgar Jepson + + + +Release Date: September 17, 2006 [eBook #19310] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY POLLYOOLY*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 19310-h.htm or 19310-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310/19310-h/19310-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310/19310-h.zip) + + + + + +HAPPY POLLYOOLY + +The Rich Little Poor Girl + +by + +EDGAR JEPSON + +Author of +Pollyooly, Whitaker's Dukedom, Etc. + +With Illustrations by Reginald Birch + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: She bit the end of her pencil] + + + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Copyright 1915 +The Bobbs-Merrill Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I THE HONOURABLE JOHN RUFFIN MAKES AN ARRANGEMENT + II HILARY VANCE FINDS A CONFIDANTE + III THE INFURIATED SWAINS + IV THE DUCHESS HAS AN IDEA + V POLLYOOLY IS CALLED IN + VI POLLYOOLY PLAYS HER FAVOURITE PART + VII POLLYOOLY PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN + VIII THE QUESTION OF A HOME + IX THE RELUCTANT DUKE + X POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE + XI POLLYOOLY MEETS THE UNPLEASANT PRINCE + XII WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR + XIII THE RAPPROCHEMENT + XIV THE TRAINING OF ROYALTY + XV THE ATTITUDE OF THE GRAND DUKE + XVI POLLYOOLY ENTERTAINS ROYALTY + XVII THE DUKE HAS AN IDEA + XVIII THE DUKE'S IDEA TAKES FORM + XIX POLLYOOLY IS INTRODUCED TO THE COUNTY + XX POLLYOOLY AND THE DUKE + XXI LORD RONALD RICKSBOROUGH COMES TO THE COURT + XXII THE DUKE WINS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + She bit the end of the pencil . . . _Frontispiece_ + + She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders + + They slept on the bench + + The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort + + "You keep away" + + They turned to see the Duchess + + + + +HAPPY POLLYOOLY + + +CHAPTER I + +THE HONOURABLE JOHN RUFFIN MAKES AN ARRANGEMENT + +The angel child looked at the letter from Buda-Pesth with lively +interest, for she knew that it came from her friend and patroness +Esmeralda, the dancer, who was engaged in a triumphant tour of the +continent of Europe. She put it on the top of the pile of letters, +mostly bills, which had come for her employer, the Honourable John +Ruffin, set the pile beside his plate, and returned to the preparation of +his breakfast. + +She looked full young to hold the post of house-keeper to a barrister of +the Inner Temple, for she was not yet thirteen; but there was an +uncommonly capable intentness in her deep blue eyes as she watched the +bacon, sizzling on the grill, for the right moment to turn the rashers. +She never missed it. Now and again those deep blue eyes sparkled at the +thought that the Honourable John Ruffin would presently give her news of +her brilliant friend. + +She heard him come out of his bedroom, and at once dished up his bacon, +and carried it into his sitting-room. She found him already reading the +letter, and saw that it was giving him no pleasure. His lips were set in +a thin line; there was a frown on his brow and an angry gleam in his grey +eyes. She knew that of all the emotions which moved him, anger was the +rarest; indeed she could only remember having once seen him angry: on the +occasion on which he had smitten Mr. Montague Fitzgerald on the head when +that shining moneylender was trying to force from her the key of his +chambers; and she wondered what had been happening to the Esmeralda to +annoy him. She was too loyal to suppose that anything that the Esmeralda +had herself done could be annoying him. + +He ate his breakfast more slowly than usual, and with a brooding air. +His eyes never once, as was their custom, rested with warm appreciation +on Pollyooly's beautiful face, set in its aureole of red hair; he did not +enliven his meal by talking to her about the affairs of the moment. She +respected his musing, and waited on him in silence. She had cleared away +the breakfast tray and was folding the table-cloth when, at last, he +broke his thoughtful silence. + +"There's nothing for it: I must go to Buda-Pesth," he said with a +resolute air. + +"There's nothing the matter with the Esmeralda, sir?" said Pollyooly with +quick anxiety. + +"There's something very much the matter with the Esmeralda--a +Moldo-Wallachian," said the Honourable John Ruffin with stern coldness. + +"Is it an illness, sir?" said Pollyooly yet more anxiously. + +"No; it's a nobleman," said the Honourable John Ruffin with even colder +sternness. + +Pollyooly pondered the matter for a few seconds; then she said: "Is +he--is he persecuting her, sir, like Senor Perez did when I was dancing +with her in 'Titania's Awakening'?" + +"It ought to be a persecution; but I fear it isn't," said the Honourable +John Ruffin grimly. "I gather from this letter that she is regarding his +attentions, which, I am sure, consist chiefly of fulsome flattery and +uncouth gifts, with positive approbation." + +Pollyooly pondered this information also; then she said: + +"Is she going to marry him, sir?" + +"She is not!" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of the deepest +conviction but rather loudly. + +Pollyooly looked at him and waited for further information to throw light +on his manifest disturbance of spirit. + +He drummed a tattoo on the bare table with his fingers, frowning the +while; then he said: + +"Constancy to the ideal, though perhaps out of place in a man, is alike +woman's privilege and her duty. I should be sorry--indeed I should be +deeply shocked if the Esmeralda were to fail in that duty." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in polite sympathy, though she had not the +slightest notion what he meant. + +"Especially since I took such pains to present to her the true ideal--the +English ideal," he went on. "Whereas this Moldo-Wallachian--at least +that's what I gather from this letter--is merely handsome in that cheap +and obvious South-European way--that is to say he has big, black eyes, +probably liquid, and a large, probably flowing, moustache. Therefore I +go to Buda-Pesth." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with the same politeness and in the same +ignorance of his reason for going. + +"I shall wire to her to-day--to give her pause--and to-morrow I shall +start." He paused, looking at her thoughtfully for a moment, then went +on: "I should like to take you with me, for I know how helpful you can be +in the matter of these insolent and infatuated foreigners. But +Buda-Pesth is too far away. And the question is what I am going to do +with you while I'm away." + +"We can stay here all right, sir--the Lump and me," said Pollyooly +quickly, with a note of surprise in her voice. + +Her little brother, Roger, who lived with her in the airy attic above the +Honourable John Ruffin's chambers, had acquired the name of "The Lump" +from his admirable placidity. + +"I don't like the idea of your doing that," he said, shaking his head and +frowning. "I don't know how long I may be away--the affirmation of the +ideal is sometimes a lengthy process. Of course the Temple is a quiet +place; but I don't like to leave two small children alone in it for a +fortnight, or three weeks. It isn't as if Mr. Gedge-Tomkins were at +home. If he were at hand--just across the landing, it would be a very +different matter." + +"But I'm _sure_ we should be all right, sir," said Pollyooly with entire +confidence. + +"Oh, I'm bound to say that if any child in the world could take care of +herself and a little brother, it's you," he said handsomely. "But I want +to devote all my energies to the affirmation of the ideal; and I must not +be troubled by anxiety about you. I shall have to dispose of you safely +somehow." + +With that he rose, lighted a cigar, and presently sallied forth into the +world. The matter of learning the quickest way to Buda-Pesth and +procuring a ticket for the morrow took him little more than half an hour. +Then the matter of disposing safely of Pollyooly and the Lump during his +absence rose again to his mind and he walked along pondering it. +Presently there came to him a happy thought: there was their common +friend, Hilary Vance, an artist who had employed Pollyooly as his model +for a set of stories for _The Blue Magazine_. Hilary Vance was devoted +to Pollyooly, and he had a spare bedroom. But for a while the Honourable +John Ruffin hesitated; the artist was a man of an uncommonly mercurial, +irresponsible temperament. Was it safe to entrust two small children to +his care? Then he reflected that Pollyooly was a strong corrective of +irresponsibility, and took a taxicab to Chelsea. + +Hilary Vance, very broad, very thick, very round, with a fine, rebellious +mop of tow-coloured hair, which had fallen forward so as nearly to hide +his big, simple eyes, opened the door to him. At the sight of his +visitor a spacious round smile spread over his spacious face; and he +welcomed him with an effusive enthusiasm. + +At his christening the good fairy had given to the Honourable John Ruffin +a very lively interest in his fellow-creatures and a considerable power +of observation with which to gratify it. He was used to the splendid +expansiveness of Hilary Vance; but it seemed to him that to-day he was +boiling with an added exuberance; and that curiosity was aroused. He +took up a chair and hammered its back on the floor so that the dust fell +off the seat, sat down astride it, and, bending forward a little, +proceeded to observe the artist with very keen eyes. Hilary Vance, who +was very busy, fell to work again, and after his manner, grew +grandiloquent about the pleasures of the day before, which he had spent +in the country. + +Soon it grew clear to the Honourable John Ruffin that his friend had +swollen with the insolent happiness so hateful to the Fates, and he said: + +"You seem to be uncommonly cheerful, Vance. What's the matter?" + +Hilary Vance looked at him gravely, drew himself upright in his chair, +laid down his pencil, and said in a tone of solemnity calculated to +awaken the deepest respect and awe: + +"Ruffin, I have found a woman--a WOMAN!" + +The quality of the Honourable John Ruffin's gaze changed; his eyes rested +on the face of his friend with a caressing, almost cherishing, delight. + +"Isn't it becoming rather a habit?" he said blandly. + +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance with splendid dignity. +"But this is different. This is a WOMAN!" + +His face filled with an expression of the finest beatitude. + +"They so often are," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Does James know +about her?" + +At the sound of the name of the mentor and friend who had rescued him +from so many difficulties, something of guilt mingled with the beatitude +on Hilary Vance's face, and he said in a less assured tone: + +"James is in Scotland." + +The Honourable John Ruffin sprang from his chair with a briskness which +made Hilary Vance himself jump, and cried in a tone of the liveliest +commiseration and dismay: + +"Good Heavens! Then you're lost--lost!" + +"What do you mean?" said Hilary Vance quite sharply. + +"I mean that your case is hopeless," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a +less excited tone. "_James_ is in Scotland; _I'm_ off to Buda-Pesth; and +_you_ have found a WOMAN--probably THE WOMAN." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance, frowning. + +"That's the worst of it! That's why it's so hopeless!" said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of deep depression. + +"What do you mean?" cried Hilary Vance in sudden bellow. + +"Good-bye, old chap; good-bye," said the Honourable John Ruffin in the +most mournful tone and with the most mournful air. "I _can not_ save +you. I've got to go to Buda-Pesth." He walked half-way to the door, +turned sharply on his heel, clapped his hand to his head with the most +dramatic gesture, and cried: "Stay! I'll wire to James!" + +"I'm damned if you do!" bellowed Hilary Vance. + +"I must! I must!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin, still dramatic. + +"You don't know his address, thank goodness!" growled Hilary Vance +triumphantly. "And you won't get it from me." + +"I shan't? Then it's hopeless indeed," said the Honourable John Ruffin +with a gesture of despair. He stood and seemed to plunge into deep +reflection, while Hilary Vance scowled an immense scowl at him. + +The Honourable John Ruffin allowed a faint air of hope to lighten his +gloom; then he said: + +"There's a chance--there's yet a chance!" + +"I don't want any chance!" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "You can jolly +well mind your own business and leave me alone. I can look after myself +without any help from you--or James either." + +"Whom the gods wish to destroy they first madden young," said the +Honourable John Ruffin sadly. "But there's always Pollyooly; she may +save you yet. I came to suggest that while I'm away in Buda-Pesth you +should let Pollyooly and the Lump occupy that spare bedroom of yours. I +don't like leaving them alone in the Temple; and I thought that you might +like to have them here for a while, though I fear Pollyooly will clean +the place." He looked round the studio gloomily. "But you can stand +that for once, I expect," he went on more cheerfully. "At any rate it +would be worth your while, because you'd learn what grilled bacon really +is." + +At the mention of the name of Pollyooly the scowl on Hilary Vance's face +began to smooth out; as the Honourable John Ruffin developed his +suggestion it slowly disappeared. + +"Oh, yes; I'll put them up. I shall be delighted to," he said eagerly. +"Pollyooly gives more delight to my eye than any one I know. And there +are so few people in town, and I'm lonely at times. I wish I liked +bacon, since she is so good at grilling it; but I don't." + +The Honourable John Ruffin came several steps down the room wearing an +air of the wildest amazement: + +"You don't like bacon?" he cried in astounded tones. "That explains +everything. I've always wondered about you. Now I know. You are one of +those whom the gods love; and I can't conceive why you didn't die +younger." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Hilary Vance, bristling and scowling +again. + +"You don't? Well, it doesn't matter. But I'm really very much obliged +to you for relieving me of all anxiety about those children." + +They discussed the hour at which Pollyooly and the Lump should come, and +then the Honourable John Ruffin held out his hand. + +But Hilary Vance rose and came to the front door with him. On the +threshold he coughed gently and said: + +"I should like you to see Flossie." + +"Flossie?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Ah--the WOMAN." He looked +at Hilary Vance very earnestly. "Yes, I see--I see--of course her name +would be Flossie." Then he added sternly: + +"No; if I saw her James might accuse me of having encouraged you. He +would, in fact. He always does." + +"She's only at the florist's just at the end of the street," said Hilary +Vance in a persuasive tone. + +"She would be," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of +extraordinary patience. "I don't know why it is that the WOMAN is so +often at a florist's at the end of the street. It seems to be one of +nature's strange whims." His face grew very gloomy again and in a very +sad tone he added: + +"Good-bye, poor old chap; good-bye!" + +He shook hands firmly with his puzzled friend and started briskly up the +street. Ten yards up it he paused, turned and called back: + +"She's everything that's womanly, isn't she?" + +"Yes--everything," cried Hilary Vance with fervour. + +The Honourable John Ruffin shook his head sadly and without another word +walked briskly on. + +Hilary Vance, still looking puzzled, shut the door and went back to his +studio. He failed, therefore, to perceive the Honourable John Ruffin +enter the florist's shop at the end of the street. He did not come out +of it for a quarter of an hour, and then he came out smiling. Seeing +that he only brought with him a single rose, he had taken some time over +its selection. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HILARY VANCE FINDS A CONFIDANTE + +That afternoon, when Pollyooly was helping him pack his portmanteau for +his journey to Buda-Pesth, the Honourable John Ruffin told her of the +arrangement he had made with Hilary Vance, that she and the Lump should +spend the time till his return at the studio at Chelsea. + +Pollyooly's face brightened; and there was something of the joy which +warriors feel in foemen worthy of their steel in the tone in which she +said: + +"Thank you, sir. I shall like that. It will be a change for the Lump; +and I've always wanted to know what that studio would look like if once +it were properly cleaned. That Mrs. Thomas who works for Mr. Vance +does let it get so dirty." + +"Yes; I told Mr. Vance that I was sure that you'd get the place really +clean for him," said the Honourable John Ruffin with a chuckle. + +"Oh, yes; I will," said Pollyooly firmly. + +The Honourable John Ruffin chuckled again, and said: + +"Mr. Vance is going to have the spring cleaning of a lifetime." + +"Yes, sir. It's not quite summer-time yet," said Pollyooly. + +The next morning before taking the train to Buda-Pesth, he despatched +her, the Lump, and the brown tin box which contained their clothes, to +Chelsea in a taxicab. Hilary Vance welcomed them with the most cordial +exuberance, led the way to his spare bedroom, and with an entire +unconsciousness of that bedroom's amazing resemblance to a +long-forgotten dust-bin, invited Pollyooly to unpack the box and make +herself at home. + +Pollyooly gazed slowly round the room, and then she looked at her host +in some discomfort. She was a well-mannered child, and careful of the +feelings of a host. Then she said in a hesitating voice: + +"I think I should like to--to--dust out the room before I unpack, +please." + +"By all means--by all means," said Hilary Vance cheerfully; and he went +back to his work. + +Owing to his absorption in it he failed to perceive the curious +measures Pollyooly took to dust out the bedroom. She put on an apron, +fastened up her hair and covered it with a large cotton handkerchief, +rolled up her sleeves, and carried a broom, two pails of hot water from +the kitchen, a scrubbing-brush, and a very large piece of soap into the +room she proposed to dust. She shut herself in, took the counterpane +off the bed, shook it with furious vigour, and even more vigourously +still banged it against the end of the bedstead. When she had finished +with it the counterpane was hardly white, but the room was dustier than +ever. She covered up the bed again, took down the pictures and again +made the room dustier. Then she swept the ceiling and the walls. +After doing so she shook the counterpane again. And the room was still +dusty; but the dust was nearly all on the floor, or on the black face +of Pollyooly. She swept it up. Then she went quietly out into the +street with the strips of carpet and banged them against the railings +of the house; this time it was the street that was dustier than ever; +and Pollyooly appeared to have come from the lower Congo. For the next +half-hour, had he not been absorbed in his work, Hilary Vance might +have heard a steady and sustained rasp of a scrubbing-brush. + +Pollyooly came to the laying of the lunch with her angel face deeply +flushed; but she wore a very cheerful air. Also she displayed an +excellent appetite. In the middle of lunch she said in dreamy +reminiscence, apropos of nothing in particular: + +"I got this place clean once." + +"Isn't it clean now?" said Hilary Vance in a tone of anxious surprise. + +"It depends on what you call clean," said Pollyooly politely. + +After lunch she brought the drawers from the chest of drawers in the +bedroom into the kitchen and washed them and dried them in the sun. +Then, at last, she unpacked the brown tin box and put away their +clothes. + +After that she took the Lump for an hour's walk on the embankment. She +preferred it to the embankment below the Temple; it seemed to her +airier. She returned to tea, and had a little struggle with the +teaspoons. They enjoyed, after the lapse of months, the experience of +shining. After tea Hilary Vance told her regretfully that he would not +be able to come home to supper, but that she would find provisions in +the cupboard, and advising them to go to bed early, bade them an +affectionate good-night and went out in a northeasterly direction to +talk about Art. + +When the door closed behind him Pollyooly heaved a faint sigh of +satisfaction and looked round the studio with the light of battle in +her eye. Then she took the canvases, which were set against the wall +three and four deep, into the street and brushed them. The dust in the +street had been a tedious grey; in front of the house of Hilary Vance +it became a warm black. + +Then she put the Lump, with the toys she had brought with her, into the +clean bedroom, and fell upon the studio. By the time she had brushed +the pictures and the walls and the ceiling its floor had become very +dusty indeed, and she was once more black. She swept it, and then she +was an hour scrubbing it. When it was done she gave the Lump his +supper and put him to bed. After supper she dealt faithfully with the +windows. The skylight gave her trouble; it was so high. But she tied +a wet cloth round the top of a broom, and by standing on the table +reached it. It made her arms ache, but slowly the panes assumed a +transparency to which they had long been unused. When she had cleaned +them from the inside she considered thoughtfully the possibility of +sitting astride the roof and cleaning their outside surfaces. But +there was no way of getting on to the roof. Then she had a hot bath; +she needed it. + +Mrs. Thomas had been apprised of her coming and greeted her amiably. +It is only fair to say that she gave the studio the cleaning it +generally received without observing that anything whatever had +happened to it. + +Hilary Vance, who was of that rare, but happy, disposition, came to +breakfast in splendid spirits. He also did not observe that anything +had happened to the studio. But when he got to his work he kept +looking up from it with a puzzled air. + +At last he said: + +"It's odd--very odd. Lately I've been thinking that my sight was +beginning to weaken. But this morning I can see quite clearly. Yet it +isn't a very bright morning." + +"Perhaps if you had the skylight cleaned on the outside, too, you'd see +clearer still," said Pollyooly in the tone of one throwing out a +careless suggestion. + +Hilary Vance looked round the studio more earnestly: + +"By Jove! You've cleaned it again!" he cried. "You are a brick, +Pollyooly. But all the same you're my guest here; and it's not the +function of a guest to clean her host's house. I ought to have +remembered it and had it cleaned before you came." + +"But I liked doing it. I did, really," said Pollyooly. + +"You are undoubtedly a brick--a splendid brick," he said +enthusiastically. + +Hilary Vance was one of those great-hearted men of thirty who crave for +sympathy; he must unbosom himself. Pollyooly was not quite the +confidante of his ideal; but his mentor, James, the novelist (not +Henry), was in Scotland; and the salt sea flowed between him and the +Honourable John Ruffin. Pollyooly was at hand, and she was +intelligent. No later than the next morning he began to talk to her of +Flossie--her beauty, her charm, her sympathetic nature, her +womanliness, and her intelligence. + +Pollyooly received his confidences with the utmost politeness. She +could not, indeed, follow him in his higher, finer flights; but she +succeeded in keeping on her angel face an expression of sufficient +appreciation to satisfy his unexacting mind. It is to be feared that +she did not really appreciate the splendour of the passion he displayed +before her; it is even to be feared that she regarded it as no more +than a further eccentricity in an eccentric nature. She grew curious, +however, to see the lady who had so enthralled him, and was, therefore, +pleased when she suggested that she should relieve Mrs. Thomas of the +housekeeping, that he accepted the suggestion and told her to procure, +among other things, some flowers for the studio. + +She found Flossie to be a fair, fluffy-haired, plump and pretty girl of +twenty, entirely pleased with herself and the world. It seemed to +Pollyooly that she gave herself airs. She came away with the flowers, +finding the ecstasies of Mr. Hilary Vance as inexplicable as ever. But +she did not puzzle over the matter at all, for it was none of her +business; Mr. Vance was like that. + +Having once begun, Hilary Vance fell into the way of confiding to her +from day to day his hopes and fears, the varying fortunes of his suit. +Some days the skies of his heaven were fair and serene; some days they +were livid with the darkest kind of cloud. Pollyooly, by dint of +hearing so much about it, began to get some understanding of the +matter, and consequently to take a greater interest in it. Always she +made an excellent listener. Her intercourse with the Honourable John +Ruffin had taught her that a comprehension of the matter under +discussion was by no means a necessary qualification of the excellent +listener; and Hilary Vance grew entirely satisfied with his confidante. + +The affair was pursuing the usual course of his affairs of the heart: +one day he was well up in the seventh heaven, talking joyfully of an +early proposal and an immediate marriage; another he was well down in +the seventh hell. Pollyooly was always ready with the kind of +sympathy, chiefly facial, the changing occasion demanded. + +Then one day her host had gone out to lunch with an editor and she was +taking hers with the Lump, when there came a rather hurried knocking at +the front door. She opened it, and to her surprise found Flossie +standing without. She was at once stricken with admiration of +Flossie's hat, which was very large and apparently loaded with the +contents of several beds of flowers. But Flossie herself looked to be +in a state of considerable perturbation. + +"Is Mr. Vance in?" she said somewhat breathlessly. + +She seemed to have been hurrying, and the hat was a little on one side. + +Pollyooly eyed her with some disfavour, and said coldly: "No, he isn't." + +"Will he be in soon?" said Flossie anxiously. + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly yet more coldly. + +Flossie gazed up and down the street with a helpless air; then she said: + +"Then I'd better come In and write a note for him and leave it." And +she walked down the passage and into the studio. + +Still wearing an air of disapproval, Pollyooly found paper and pencil +for her; and she sat down and began to write. She wrote a few words, +stopped, and bit the end of the pencil. + +"It's dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about you," she said in a +tone and with an air in which gratified vanity forced itself firmly +through the affectation of distress. + +"What gentlemen?" said Pollyooly. + +"Mr. Vance and my fiongsay, Mr. Reginald Butterwick," said Flossie. "I +don't know how he found out that Mr. Vance is friendly with me; and I'm +sure there's nothing in it--I told him so. But he's that jealous when +there's a gentleman in the case that he can't believe a word I say. It +isn't that he doesn't try; but he can't. He says he can't. He's got a +passionate nature; he says he has. And he can't do anything with it. +It runs away with him; he says it does. And now it's Mr. Vance. How +he found out I can't think--unless it was something I let slip by +accident about his taking me to the Chelsea Empire. He's so quick at +taking you up--Reginald is; and before you know where you are, there he +is--making a fuss. And what's going to happen I don't know." + +Her effort to look properly distressed failed. + +Pollyooly was somewhat taken aback by the flood of information suddenly +gushed upon her; but she said calmly: + +"But what's he going to do?" + +"He's going to knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance--he said he would. +And he'll do it, too--I know he will. He's done it before. There was +a gentleman friend of mine who lives in the same street as me in +Hammersmith; and he got to know about him--not that there was anything +to know, mind you--but he thought there was. And he blacked his eyes +and made his nose bleed. You see, Reginald's a splendid boxer; he +boxes at the Chiswick Polytechnic. And if he goes for Mr. Vance he'll +half kill him--I know he will. Reginald's simply a terror when his +blood's up." + +"But Mr. Vance is very big," said Pollyooly in a doubting tone. + +"But that makes no difference; bigness is nothing to a good boxer," +said Flossie with an air of superior knowledge. "Mr. Butterwick says +he doesn't mind taking on the biggest man in England, if he's not a +boxer. And he knows that Mr. Vance isn't a boxer, because I asked him +about boxing--knowing Reginald put it into my head--and he told me he +didn't know a thing about it. And he'd have no chance at all against +Reginald. And I let it out when I was telling Reginald that Mr. Vance +was a friend of mine--only just a friend of mine--and he mustn't hurt +him, and there was nothing to make a fuss about." + +"I don't see why you wanted to tell him about Mr. Vance at all for, if +you knew he'd make a fuss," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval. + +"I told you it slipped out when I wasn't thinking," said Flossie, in a +tone which carried no conviction; and she bent hastily to the note and +added a couple of lines. + +Then she broke out again in the same high-pitched, excited tone: + +"And I came round here as soon as I could get away, because there +wasn't any time to be lost. Reginald says he doesn't believe in losing +time in anything. And he's going to take an afternoon off and come +round and knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance this very day. He can +always get an afternoon off, for he's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping, +and the firm has the greatest confidence in him; he says they have." + +She finished the note and folded it, saying with the air which +Pollyooly found hypocritical: + +"It's really dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about one so. But +what am I to do? There's no way of stopping them. You'll know what it +is when you get to my age--at least you would if you hadn't got red +hair." + +With this almost brilliantly tactful remark, she rose, gave Pollyooly +the note, and adjured her to give it to Mr. Hilary Vance the moment he +came in. + +"What time will Mr. Butterwick get here?" said Pollyooly anxiously. + +"There's no saying," said Flossie cheerfully. "But he'll get here as +soon as the firm can spare him. He never loses time--Reginald doesn't." + +Again she adjured Pollyooly to give Hilary Vance the note as soon as he +returned, and hurried down the street to the florist's shop. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE INFURIATED SWAINS + +Flossie's news filled Pollyooly with a considerable anxiety; but she +was at a loss what to do. She knew that Hilary Vance was at the Savage +Club, but she did not know whether she could reach it in time to find +him there, for it was now a quarter of two. It did not seem to her a +matter to be trusted to the electric telegraph; and living as she did +in the old-time Temple, it never occurred to her to telephone. + +There was nothing to do but await his return and give him Flossie's +note of warning the moment he entered. She had been going to take the +Lump for a walk on the embankment; she must postpone it. Then, unused +to idleness, she cast about how she might fill up her time till his +return. + +She had swept and dusted the room that morning, after the departure of +Mrs. Thomas, who had busied herself in them, for a short time, and +ineffectually, with a dustpan, a brush, and a duster, so that there was +no cleaning to be done. Presently it occurred to her that perhaps +there might be some holes in the linen of her host which would be the +better for her mending. A brief examination of his wardrobe showed her +that her surmise was accurate: there was at least a month's hard +mending to be done before that wardrobe would contain garments really +worthy of the name of underclothing. She decided to begin by darning +his socks, for she chanced to have some black darning wool in her +workbox. She brought three pairs of them into the studio, and began to +darn. Nature had been generous, even lavish, to Hilary Vance in the +matter of feet; and his socks were enormous. So were the holes in +them. But their magnitude did not shake Pollyooly's resolve to darn +them. + +She had been at work for about three-quarters of an hour when there +came a knock at the door. She went to it in some trepidation, +expecting to find a raging Butterwick on the threshold. She opened it +gingerly, and to her relief looked into the friendly face of Mr. James, +the novelist. + +On that friendly face sat the expression of weary resignation with +which he was wont to intervene in the affairs of his great-hearted, but +impulsive, friend. + +He greeted Pollyooly warmly, and asked if Hilary Vance were in. +Pollyooly told him the artist was lunching at the Savage Club. + +Mr. James hesitated; then walking down the passage into the studio, he +said: + +"Well, I expect that you'll be able to tell me the latest news of the +affair. I've just got back from Scotland to find a letter from Mr. +Ruffin to say that Mr. Vance has at last found the lady of his dreams +and is engaged to be married to a florist's assistant of the name of +Flossie. I expect Mr. Ruffin's rotting; he knows what a bother Mr. +Vance is. But I thought I'd better come round and make sure. Do you +know anything about it?" + +"I don't think he's engaged to her quite. But he's expecting to be +every day," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, he is, is he?" said Mr. James in a tone of some exasperation. +"What's she like?" + +"She's fair, with a lot of fair hair and a very large hat with lots of +flowers in it," said Pollyooly. + +"She would be!" broke in Mr. James with a groan. + +"And she gives herself airs because of that hat." + +"Just what I supposed," said Mr. James, fuming. + +"But she's engaged to Mr. Reginald Butterwick," said Pollyooly. + +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. James; and a faint gleam of hope +brightened his face. "And who is Mr. Reginald Butterwick?" + +"He's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping; but he can always get an afternoon +off to knock the stuffing out of any one, because he boxes at the +Chiswick Polytechnic. And he's going to get his afternoon off to-day +to knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance." + +"The deuce he is!" cried Mr. James. "Well, a good hiding would do +Hilary a world of good," he added in a vengeful tone. "Teach him not +to go spooning florists' assistants." + +"Oh, no. He might get hurt ever so badly," said Pollyooly firmly. + +Mr. James' face grew stubborn; then it softened, and he said: + +"Well, there's always the danger of his getting a finger broken; and +that wouldn't do. I suppose we must stop the affray--it might get into +the papers too." + +"Yes: we must stop it, if we can," said Pollyooly anxiously. + +"Well, if he's lunching at the Savage he'll play Spelka after it; and I +shall catch him there. I'll keep him out all the afternoon--till his +rival has tired of waiting and gone." + +"Oh, yes. That would be much the best," said Pollyooly gratefully. + +Mr. James went briskly to the door. At it he stopped and said: + +"There's a chance that I may miss him. There may not be a game of +Spelka; and he may come straight home. Perhaps you'd better wait in +till about five." + +"Yes: I think I'd better. He'd be sure to come back and not know +anything about Mr. Butterwick, if there weren't anybody here," said +Pollyooly. + +He bade her good-bye; and let himself out of the house. She returned +to her darning. + +It was as well that she had not left the house, for about twenty +minutes later the front door was opened, and the passage and studio +quivered gently to Hilary Vance's weight. Pollyooly sprang up and met +him at the door of the studio with Flossie's note. + +At the sight of the handwriting, a large, gratified smile covered all +the round expanse of his face. But as he read, the smile faded, giving +way to an expression of the liveliest surprise and consternation. + +"What the deuce is this?" he cried loudly. + +"She said he was going to knock the stuffing out of you, Mr. Vance, and +he might be here any time this afternoon," said Pollyooly. + +"And what the deuce for? What's it got to do with him?" cried Hilary +Vance. + +"She said he was her fiongsay," said Pollyooly, faithfully reproducing +Flossie's pronunciation. + +"Her fiance?" roared Hilary Vance in accents of the liveliest surprise, +dismay, and horror. "Oh, woman! Woman! The faithlessness! The +treachery!" + +With a vast, magnificent expression of despair he dropped heavily on to +the nearest chair without pausing to select a strong one. Under the +stress of his emotion and his weight the chair crumpled up; and he sat +down on the floor with a violence which shook the house. He sprang up, +smothered, out of regard for the age and sex of Pollyooly, some +language suggested by the occurrence, and with a terrific kick sent the +fragments of the chair flying across the studio. Then he howled, and +holding his right toes in his left hand, hopped on his left leg. He +had forgotten that he was wearing thin, but patent-leather, shoes. + +Then he put his feet gingerly upon the floor, ground his teeth, and +roared: + +"Knock the stuffing out of me, will he? I'll tear him limb from limb! +The insidious villain! I'll teach him to come between me and the woman +I love!" + +Sad to relate Pollyooly's heart, inured to violence by her battles with +the young male inhabitants of the slum behind the Temple, where she had +lodged before becoming the housekeeper of the Honourable John Ruffin, +leapt joyfully at the thought of the fray, in spite of her friendship +with Hilary Vance; and her quick mind grasped the fact that she might +watch it in security from the door of her bedroom. Then her duty to +her host came uppermost. + +"But please, Mr. Vance: he's a boxer. He boxes at the Chiswick +Polytechnic," she cried anxiously. + +"Let him box! I'll tear him limb from limb!" roared Hilary Vance +ferociously; and he strode up and down the studio, limping that he +might not press heavily on his aching toes. + +Pollyooly gazed at him doubtfully. Flossie's account of Mr. +Butterwick's prowess had impressed her too deeply to permit her to +believe that anything but painful ignominious defeat awaited Hilary +Vance at his hands. + +"But he blacks people's eyes and makes their noses bleed," protested +Pollyooly. + +"I'll tear him limb from limb!" roared Hilary Vance, still ferociously, +but with less conviction in his tone. + +"And he doesn't care how big anybody is, if they don't know how to +box," Pollyooly insisted. + +"No more do I!" roared Hilary Vance. + +He stamped up and down the studio yet more vigorously since his aching +toes were growing easier. Then he sank into a chair--a stronger +chair--gingerly; and in a more moderate tone said: + +"I'll have the scoundrel's blood. I'll teach him to cross my path." + +He paused, considering the matter more coldly, and Pollyooly anxiously +watched his working face. Little by little it grew calmer. + +"After all it may not be the scoundrel's fault," he said in a tone of +some magnanimity. "I know what women are--treachery for treachery's +sake. Why should I destroy the poor wretch whose heart has probably +been as scored as mine by the discovery of her treachery? He is a +fellow victim." + +"And perhaps you mightn't destroy him--if he's such a good boxer," said +Pollyooly anxiously. + +"I should certainly destroy him," said Hilary Vance with a dignified +certainty. "But to what purpose? Would it give me back my unstained +ideal? No. The ideal once tarnished never shines as bright again." + +His face was now calm--calm and growing sorrowful. Then a sudden +apprehension appeared on it: + +"Besides--suppose I broke a finger--a finger of my right hand. Why +should I give this blackguard a chance of maiming me?" he cried, and +looked at Pollyooly earnestly. + +"I don't know, Mr. Vance," said Pollyooly, answering the question in +his urgent eyes. + +"If I did break a finger, it might be weeks--months before I could work +again. Why, I might never be able to work again!" he cried. + +"That's just what Mr. James was afraid of," said Pollyooly. + +"Mr. James! Has he been here?" cried Hilary Vance; and there was far +more uneasiness than pleasure in his tone on thus hearing of his +friend's return. + +"Yes. He came to know if you were engaged yet," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, did he?" said Hilary Vance very glumly. + +"Yes. And I told him you weren't." + +"That's right," he said in a tone of relief. + +"And he said we must stop the affray." + +"He was right. It would be criminal," said Hilary Vance solemnly. +"After all it isn't myself: I have to consider posterit--" + +A sudden, very loud knocking on the front door cut short the word. + +"That's him!" said Pollyooly in a hushed voice. + +Hilary Vance rose, folded his two big arms, and faced the door of the +studio, his brow knitted in a dreadful frown. + +"Hadn't I better send him away?" said Pollyooly anxiously. + +Hilary Vance ground his teeth and scowled steadily at the studio door +for a good half-minute. Then he let his arms fall to his sides, walked +with a very haughty air to his bedroom, opened the door, and from the +threshold said: + +"Yes: you'd better send him away--if you can." + +As Pollyooly went to let the visitor in, she heard him (Mr. Vance) turn +his key in the lock of his bedroom door. + +It was perhaps as well that he did so; for as Pollyooly opened the +front door a young man whose flashing eye proclaimed him Mr. Reginald +Butterwick, pushed quickly past her and bounced into the studio. + +Pollyooly followed him quickly, somewhat surprised by his size. He +bounced well into the studio with an air of splendid intrepidity, which +would have been more splendid had he been three or four inches higher +and thicker, and uttered a snort of disappointment at its emptiness. + +He turned on Pollyooly and snapped out: + +"Where's your guv'ner? Where's Hilary Vance?" Pollyooly hesitated; she +was still taken aback by the young man's lack of the formidable +largeness Flossie had led her to expect; and she was, besides, a very +truthful child. Then she said: + +"I expect he's somewhere in Chelsea." + +"When'll he be back?" snapped the young man. + +"He's generally in to tea," with less hesitation; and she looked at him +with very limpid eyes. + +"He is, is he? Then I'll wait for him," said the young man in as +bloodcurdling a tone as his size would allow: he did not stand five +feet three in his boots. + +He stood still for a moment, scowling round the studio; then he said in +a dreadful tone: + +"There'll be plenty of room for us." + +He fell into the position of a prizefighter on guard and danced two +steps to the right, and two steps to the left. + +Pollyooly gazed at him earnestly. Except for his flashing eye, he was +not a figure to dread, for what he lost in height he gained in +slenderness. He was indeed uncommonly slender. In fact, either he had +forgotten to tell Flossie that he was a featherweight boxer, or she had +forgotten to pass the information on. The most terrible thing about +him was his fierce air, and the most dangerous-looking his sharp, +tip-tilted nose. + +Then Pollyooly sat down in considerable relief; she was quite sure now +that did Mr. Reginald Butterwick discover that his rival was in his +bedroom and hale him forth, the person who would suffer would be Mr. +Reginald Butterwick. She took up again the gigantic sock she was +mending; and she kept looking up from it to observe with an easy eye +the pride of the Polytechnic as he walked round the studio examining +the draperies, the pictures, and the drawings on the wall. Whenever +his eye rested on one signed by Hilary Vance he sniffed a bitter, +contemptuous sniff. For these he had but three words of criticism; +they were: "Rot!" "Rubbish!" and "Piffle!" + +Once he said in a bitterly scoffing tone: + +"I suppose your precious guv'ner thinks he's got the artistic +temperament." + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly. + +He squared briskly up to an easel, danced lightly on his toes before +it, and said: + +"I'll give him the artistic temperament all right." + +At last he paused in his wanderings before the industrious Pollyooly, +and his eyes fell on the gigantic sock she was darning. She saw his +expression change; something of the fierce confidence of the intrepid +boxer passed out of his face. + +"I say, what's that you're darning?" he said quickly. + +"It's a sock," said Pollyooly. + +"It looks more like a sack than a sock. Whose sock is it?" said Mr. +Reginald Butterwick; and there was a faint note of anxiety in his tone. + +"It's Mr. Vance's sock," said Pollyooly; and with gentle pride she held +it up in a fashion to display its full proportions. + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick took two or three nervous steps to the right, +looking askance at the sock as he moved. It was not really as large as +a sack. + +"Big man, your guv'ner? Eh?" he said in a finely careless tone. + +"I should think he was!" cried Pollyooly with enthusiasm. + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick looked still more earnestly at the sock and +said: + +"One of those tall lanky chaps--eh?" + +"He's tall, but he isn't lanky--not a bit," said Pollyooly quickly. +"He's tremendously big--broad and thick as well as tall, you know. +He's more like a giant than a man." + +"Oh, I know those giants--flabby--flabby," said Mr. Reginald +Butterwick; and he laughed a short, scoffing laugh which rang uneasy. + +"He's not flabby!" cried Pollyooly indignantly. "He's tremendously +strong. Why--why--when he heard you were coming he smashed that chair +and kicked it into the corner just because he was annoyed." + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick looked at the smallish fragments of the chair +in the corner; and his face became the face of a quiet, respectable +clerk. + +"He did, did he?" he said coldly. + +"Yes, and he wanted to tear you limb from limb. He said so," said +Pollyooly. + +"That's a game two can play at," said Mr. Reginald Butterwick; but his +tone lacked conviction. + +"Oh, he'd do it--quite easily," said Pollyooly confidently. + +Mr. Reginald Butterwick stared at her and then at the sock. He opened +his mouth to speak and then shut it again. Then he whistled a short, +defiant whistle which went out of tune toward the end. Then he walked +the length of the studio and back. Then he stopped and said to +Pollyooly very fiercely: + +"Do you think I've got nothing else to do but wait here all the +afternoon for your precious guv'ner to come home to tea?" + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly politely. + +"Well, I have--plenty," said Mr. Reginald Butterwick savagely. + +Pollyooly said nothing. + +"And what's more, I'm going to do it!" said Mr. Reginald Butterwick yet +more savagely; and he strode firmly to the door. On the threshold he +paused and added: "But you tell your guv'ner from me--Mr. Reginald +Butterwick--that he hasn't seen the last of me--not by a long chalk. +One of these fine nights when he's messing round with--well, you tell +him what I've told you--that's all. He'll know." + +With that he passed through the door and banged it heavily behind him. +The front door was larger and heavier, so that he was able to bang it +more loudly still. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DUCHESS HAS AN IDEA + +Pollyooly heaved a sigh as the studio trembled to the shock of the +banged front door, a sigh chiefly of relief, but tinged also with a +faint regret that she had not seen Mr. Reginald Butterwick torn limb +from limb. She knew that she would not really have enjoyed the sight; +and the mess in the cleaned studio would have been exceedingly +annoying; but there were primitive depths in her heart, and somewhere +in them was the regret that she had missed the thrilling spectacle. + +The studio still quivered to the bang, the sigh still trembled on +Pollyooly's lip, when the bedroom door opened, and Hilary Vance came +forth with an immense scowl on his spacious face and said fiercely: + +"So the scoundrel's gone, has he?" + +"Yes. When I told him how big you were, he didn't seem so eager to +fight. And he went away," said Pollyooly quickly. "But he told me to +tell you that you hadn't seen the last of him--not by a long chalk." + +Her host's scowl lightened a little; there was almost a faint +satisfaction on his face as he said: + +"So he fears my rivalry still, does he?" Then his face grew gloomier +than ever; and he added: "There's no need. I am not one to sit at the +feet of a tarnished ideal. There will be a gap--there is a gap--but I +have done with HER for good and all. I have--done--with--HER." + +He had drawn himself up to utter the last words with a splendid air; +then he said sadly: + +"I think I should like my tea." + +"I'll get it at once," said Pollyooly cheerfully. + +She was not long about it. Hilary Vance took the Lump on his knee, +gave him a lump of sugar, poured out the tea, and began to drink it +with an air of gloomy resignation. + +Presently he patted the Lump's bright red curls and said: + +"Let this be a warning to you, red cherub, never to trust a +woman--never as long as you live." + +The Lump grunted peacefully. + +"He's too young to understand, or it wouldn't be right to teach him +such a thing as that," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval. + +"Not right?" cried Hilary Vance stormily. "But you've seen for +yourself! You've seen how that girl led me on to squander the treasure +of a splendid passion on her unresponsive spirit while, all the time, +she was abasing herself before a miserable, preposterous scoundrel like +that ruffian Butterwick." + +"He was rather small," said Pollyooly thoughtfully. "But I daresay +he'd make her a good husband. He looked quite respectable." + +"A good husband!" cried Hilary Vance with a dreadful sneer. + +"But I expect she'll lead him a life. She looked like it," said +Pollyooly, thoughtfully pursuing the subject. + +"Serve him right!" cried Hilary Vance with terrible scorn. "He has +learnt her treachery to me; and if he marries her after that, he +deserves all he gets. If she betrays my trust, she'll betray his." + +Pollyooly was silent, considering the matter. Then, summing it up, she +said with conviction: + +"I don't think she's the kind of girl to trust at all." + +"I must have been blind--blind," said Hilary Vance. + +Then came the sound of a taxicab drawing up before the house, and then +a knocking at the front door. Pollyooly opened it, and found Mr. James +on the threshold. He looked uncommonly anxious and said quickly: + +"I missed him. Has he come back?" + +"Yes; he's having his tea." + +"And this fellow Butterwick?" said Mr. James. + +"Oh, he came; and then, when he found how big Mr. Vance is, he went +away. But he hasn't done with Mr. Vance--not by a long chalk. He told +me to tell him so," said Pollyooly. + +"Well, I'm glad they didn't scrap," said Mr. James in a tone of relief. +"If they didn't at once, they're not very likely to later." + +"Oh, no: they won't now," said Pollyooly confidently. "You see as soon +as he heard that Mr. Butterwick was her--her fiongsay"--she hesitated +over the word because Hilary Vance had shaken her original conception +of its pronunciation--"he gave her up for good." + +"That is a blessing," said the novelist in a tone of yet greater relief. + +He had been looking forward to a disagreeable and very likely hopeless +struggle with his friend's infatuation. + +He walked down the passage and into the studio briskly. But not +quickly enough to prevent an expression of funereal gloom flooding +Hilary Vance's face. + +"How are you?" said Mr. James cheerfully. + +"In the depths--in the depths--my last illusion shattered," said the +artist in the gloomiest kind of despairing croak. + +"Oh, you never know," said Mr. James. + +"I shall never trust a woman again--never," said the artist in an +inexorable tone. + +"But I thought you'd given up trusting them months ago," said Mr. James +in considerable surprise. + +"I was deceived--this one seemed so different. She was a serpent--a +veritable serpent," said Hilary Vance in his deepest tone. + +"Yes. They are apt to be like that," said Mr. James with some +carelessness. "May I have some tea?" + +Gloomily the artist poured him out a cup of tea; gloomily he watched +him drink it. Heedless of his gloom, Mr. James plunged into an account +of his stay in Scotland, telling of the country, the food, and the +people with an agreeable, racy vivacity. Slowly the great cloud lifted +from Hilary Vance's ample face. He grew interested; he asked +questions; at last he said firmly: + +"I must go to Scotland. Nature--Nature pure and undenied is what my +seared soul needs." + +"It wouldn't be a bad idea," said Mr. James. + +"I shall wear a kilt," said Hilary Vance solemnly. "The winds of +heaven playing round my legs would assist healing nature; and I must be +in complete accord with the country." + +"A kilt wouldn't be a bad idea," said Mr. James. + +Hilary Vance paused and appeared to be thinking deeply; then he said: + +"The Scotch peasant lassies, James--are they as attractive nowadays as +they appear to have been in the days of Burns?" + +"I thought you'd done with women!" cried Mr. James. + +"I _have_ done with women," said the poet with cold sternness. "I have +done with the cold-hearted, treacherous, meretricious women of the +town. But the simple, trusting and trustworthy country girl, the +daughter of the soil, in perpetual touch with nature--surely communion +with her would be healing too." + +"Oh, hang it all!" said Mr. James quite despondently. + +Hilary Vance plunged once more into deep thought; then he said: + +"Where does one buy a kilt--and a sporran?" + +"Whiteley's, I suppose," said Mr. James. Then he added hastily: "But I +say, oughtn't we to do something to amuse these children?" + +At once his friend forgot his seared heart; for the while the process +of healing it did not exercise his wits. He flung himself heart and +soul into the business of amusing Pollyooly and the Lump; and presently +the studio rang with their screams of joy. There may have been some +truth in the assertion of his detractors that Hilary Vance's drawing +was facile and too far on the side of mere prettiness; but no one in +the world could deny that he made a splendid elephant: his trumpeting +was especially true to life. + +Ten days passed pleasantly at his studio; and both Pollyooly and the +Lump were the better for the change. Three times she went to the +King's Bench Walk and cleaned the rooms against the Honourable John +Ruffin's return; four times she went to the dancing class in Soho, +where she was training for a career on the stage. On the evening of +the tenth day came a letter to say that he would be back at noon on the +morrow. After breakfast, therefore, Hilary Vance despatched the two +children back to the King's Bench Walk in a taxicab, the Lump hugging a +large box of chocolate creams, Pollyooly, in no less joy, clasping +firmly her shabby little purse which contained, beyond the silver she +carried to meet any natural expense, a golden sovereign, the artist's +parting gift. Her sky was now serene; but she was still mindful of the +days when the jaws of the workhouse had yawned for her and the Lump, +and she lost no chance of adding to her hoard in the Post Office +Savings Bank. Immediately on her arrival at the Temple she went to the +post office and added the sovereign to it. + +The Honourable John Ruffin arrived from Buda-Pesth, looking the browner +for the change, and in very good spirits. He brought the friendliest +messages and Hungarian gifts to Pollyooly and the Lump from the +Esmeralda, and was able to assure them that she was in excellent +health, and enjoying a genuine triumph. + +When he had delivered the Esmeralda's gifts and assured Pollyooly of +her prosperity, there came a short silence; then Pollyooly said: + +"And the Moldo-Wallachian, sir?" + +The fine grey eyes of the Honourable John Ruffin twinkled, as he said +gravely: + +"The Moldo-Wallachian has returned to Moldo-Wallachia. When the ideal +was once more clearly presented to the Esmeralda, the attractions of +the Moldo-Wallachian faded as flowers fade in a drought." + +"I'm glad she isn't going to marry a foreigner," said Pollyooly with +true patriotism. + +"She would never be happy in Moldo-Wallachia," said the Honourable John +Ruffin with conviction. + +"Oh, no, sir," said Pollyooly. + +There was a pause; then he said: + +"And how did you leave Mr. Vance?" + +"Oh, he was all right, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, he was, was he? Did you by any chance come across a young lady of +the name of Flossie while you were staying at Chelsea?" + +"Yes, sir. But he doesn't have anything to do with her now, sir. He +goes past the shop with an air of cold dignity--he says he does; and +he's going to Scotland to wear a kilt to get quite cured--he says he +is," said Pollyooly quickly. + +"It sounds most efficacious," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "But +how did it all happen?" + +Pollyooly told the story of the intervention of Mr. Butterwick; and the +Honourable John Ruffin chuckled freely, for no reason that she could +see, as he listened to it. At the end of it he said sententiously: + +"Well, all's well that ends well. These foreign countries are not +suited to English girls: Miss Flossie would never be happy in Bohemia." + +The next morning, when she brought in his grilled bacon, he said that +they might now congratulate themselves on the prospect of leading their +quiet, industrious lives in peace for a while. + +These congratulations, however, were premature, for only three days +later he was sitting in his rooms, having just come from the Law +Courts, where he had been acting as junior counsel in an awkward case, +and was bracing himself to the effort of getting himself his afternoon +tea, since Pollyooly had gone with the Lump to take the air in Hyde +Park. + +Suddenly there came a sharp, hurried knocking on his outer door. + +The Honourable John Ruffin raised his eyebrows, opened his eyes rather +wide, and said to his cigarette: + +"A woman in distress, evidently. Who on earth can it be?" + +He did not spring to his feet and dash to the door to offer instant aid +to the distressed one. He rose slowly and walked slowly to the door, +assuming slowly as he went an air of deep, but patient, resignation. + +He opened the door gingerly. On the threshold stood the beautiful, +high-spirited and wilful Duchess of Osterley. + +"Caroline, by Jove! Why, I thought you were out of England, still +hiding Marion from Osterley," he cried, and smiled with pleasure at the +sight of her beautiful face. + +The Duke and Duchess of Osterley had been at daggers drawn for nearly +two years; and since both of them had sought to bring their feud +forcibly to an end in the Law Courts, the Anglo-Saxon peoples had had +no cause to complain of any lack of effort on their part to be +entertaining. The upshot of the law proceedings had been that the +Court, with a futility almost fatuous, had ordered the duchess to +return to her husband, and, what was far more important, had given the +custody of their little daughter of twelve, Lady Marion Ricksborough, +to the duke. + +The Anglo-Saxon peoples felt that the duke had scored heavily; and the +duchess agreed with them. She was not one to sit submissive under +defeat; and presently those peoples read with the liveliest interest +and pleasure that she had carried off her daughter and hidden her with +such skill that the detectives, official and unofficial, had failed +utterly to find her. + +In this carrying off and hiding Pollyooly had played the important +part. It had been a freak of nature to make her and Lady Marion +Ricksborough so closely alike, that even when they were together it was +hard to tell which was which. The duchess had taken advantage of this +likeness to substitute Pollyooly for Lady Marion at Ricksborough Court, +the duke's chief country seat, for a fortnight. + +The duke, Lady Marion's nurse, and her governess had believed Lady +Marion Ricksborough to be still with them, and had given the duchess +all the time she needed to hide her. + +For a whole fortnight Pollyooly had played her part with such skill +that only the duke's nephew and heir, Lord Ronald Ricksborough, had +discovered that she was not Lady Marion. A most discreet boy of +fourteen, and already Pollyooly's warm friend, he was the last person +to spoil the sport; and at the end of the fortnight she had slipped +away and returned by motor car to her post of housekeeper to the +Honourable John Ruffin and Mr. Gedge-Tomkins in the King's Bench Walk. + +Ignorant of the fact that Lady Marion Ricksborough had fled a fortnight +previously, the detectives, both official and private, had taken up the +search for her from the moment of Pollyooly's disappearance from the +Court. It is hardly a matter for wonder that they did not go far along +a trail which had been cold for a fortnight. + +As he said, the Honourable John Ruffin had believed the duchess to be +hiding out of England; and he showed himself unfeignedly pleased to see +her. He put her in his most comfortable chair, made her take off her +hat, and said: + +"Now, I'll make you some tea." + +The Honourable John Ruffin went to the kitchen; the duchess rose +restlessly and followed him. As he made the tea he lectured her on the +importance of making it not only with boiling water, but with water +which had not been boiling for more than a quarter of a minute, and +that poured on to a fine China tea in a warmed pot without taking the +kettle right off the stove. + +The rebellious duchess, impatient to tell him the object of her visit, +made several faces at him; and twice she said contemptuously: + +"You and your old tea!" + +But when she came to drink it, she admitted handsomely that it was +better than she could have made it herself. + +She drank it; grew suddenly serious, and said: + +"John, I'm in a mess, and I've come to you for help." + +"It is yours to the half of my fortune--at present about fourteen +shillings," said the Honourable John Ruffin warmly. + +"Well, I didn't take Marion abroad," said the duchess. "They always +look abroad for people who bolt. I borrowed Pinky Wallerton's car and +drove her down, myself, to a cottage I bought in Devonshire--in the +pinewoods above Budleigh Salterton." + +"That sounds all right." + +"It was--quite--till this morning. Then, without a word of warning, at +eleven o'clock, one of Osterley's lawyers turned up with a detective." + +"And got her?" + +"No. Fortunately she was out in the wood with her nurse. I gave +Eglantine, my maid, twenty pounds and told her to get quietly to Marion +while I kept the brutes in play, rush her down to the station, and +catch the London train. They'd just time if they ran most of the way." + +"But the lawyer would only have to wire to Osterley to meet the train +at Waterloo," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"I thought of that," said the duchess quickly. "I told her to leave +the express at Salisbury, go on to Woking by a slow train, take a taxi +from there to my old nurse's, Mrs. Simpson's, in Camden Town, and leave +Marion with her." + +"Excellent," said the Honourable John Ruffin in warm approval. + +"Then she's to come on here with Marion's clothes in time to catch the +six o'clock to Exeter from Paddington." + +"Here? With Marion's clothes? What for?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Why, to put on Mary Bride--Pollyooly as you call her. I want to +borrow her again, substitute her for Marion, and let her keep the +brutes quiet while I carry Marion off to a cottage I have bought in the +north of Scotland for just such an emergency as this." + +The Honourable John Ruffin sprang to his feet with flashing eyes: + +"What? Rob me of my bacon-griller again? The last time my breakfast +was spoilt for a fortnight. You don't know what you ask!" he cried in +tones in which indignation and horror were nicely blended. + +"Oh, but this won't be for a fortnight--a couple of days at the +outside. Surely you could eat fish for breakfast for a couple of +mornings," pleaded the duchess. + +"I never eat fish for breakfast," said the Honourable John Ruffin +coldly. "I am an Englishman and a patriot--eggs and bacon." + +"But just for once," said the duchess. + +The hard expression faded slowly from his face; he took a turn up and +down the room; then he said in a tone of infinite sadness: + +"Well, well, I suppose I must sacrifice myself again. What a thing it +is to be a cousin! But how are you going to work it? Surely you're +being followed?" + +"Rather," said the duchess cheerfully. "But I don't take Mary Bride +with me. I go back to Budleigh Salterton by the four forty-five from +Waterloo; and my follower will no doubt go with me. Eglantine and Mary +Bride will go down to Exeter by the six o'clock from Paddington, motor +over, and slip into the house late at night. There's sure to be some +one watching it; and once they believe Marion to be in it, they'll go +on watching it without bothering about me. I only want to be left +alone for six hours, and I'll get Marion away without leaving a trace." + +"Strategist," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of admiring +approval. "I hope you'll pull it off. You deserve to for having +thought it out so thoroughly. Fortunately, Pollyooly is due home at a +quarter of five, so there'll be no trouble there. She's the most +punctual person in the Temple." + +"That's lucky," said the duchess with a sigh of thankfulness. + +There was nothing more to be arranged; and if she were going to catch +her train comfortably, it was time that she started for Waterloo. He +escorted her to Fleet Street, put her into a taxicab, and bade her +good-bye. + +The taxicab started; he turned to return to his rooms, stopped short, +and said sharply: + +"Bother! I forgot to arrange about Pollyooly's salary!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +POLLYOOLY IS CALLED IN + +On his way back to the King's Bench Walk the Honourable John Ruffin +pondered this matter of salary and came to the conclusion that five +pounds would not be too high a fee for the duchess to pay for skilled +work of this kind. He must remember to tell Eglantine to tell her to +give Pollyooly that sum. + +Pollyooly was rather earlier than he had expected: at five and twenty +minutes to five he heard her latchkey in the lock of his outer door, +and when it opened he called to her to come to him. + +She entered leading the Lump. His red hair was a rather brighter red +than the hair of Pollyooly; but his eyes were of the same deep blue and +his clear skin of the same paleness. They would have made a charming +picture of Cupid led by an angel child. + +"Ah, Pollyooly!" said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. "You are +about to realise the truth of those immortal lines: + + "Oh, what a tangled web we weave + When first we practice to deceive!" + + +"Please, sir, I haven't been deceiving any one," said Pollyooly, +knitting her brow in a faint anxiety. + +"Not recently, perhaps. But you have deceived. You deceived the Duke +of Osterley by taking the place of his daughter." + +"Oh, him?" said Pollyooly in a very care-free tone; and her face grew +serene. + +"You don't seem to feel it much," said the Honourable John Ruffin +sadly. "But now you are called on to deceive lawyers and detectives." + +"Am I to be Lady Marion again?" said Pollyooly quickly. + +"You are, indeed," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"And shall I be paid again for doing it?" + +Her angel face flushed, and her blue eyes danced. + +"Certainly you will be paid. I am going to tell Eglantine, the +duchess's maid, to see to it. She's coming for you, and you haven't +any time to lose. She's going to take you down to Devonshire by the +train which leaves Paddington at six," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Then I'd better take the Lump round to Mrs. Brown at once," said +Pollyooly; and her eyes sparkled and danced. + +"You had," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "It's only for a couple of +nights at the outside, tell her." + +"And that's quite as long as I like to leave him," she said in a tone +of complete satisfaction; and she ran briskly up-stairs to their attic +for the Lump's sleeping-suit. + +She was not long taking him to Mrs. Brown, who lived in the little +slum, the last remnant of Alsatia, behind the King's Bench Walk; and +she welcomed him warmly. Pollyooly and he had lodged with her before +they had gone to live in the King's Bench Walk, and Mrs. Brown had +grown very fond of him. She had taken charge of him during the time +Pollyooly had spent at Ricksborough Court and was delighted to have him +with her again. Also she was disengaged for the next two days and was +able to take charge of the housekeeping at number 75 the King's Bench +Walk during Pollyooly's absence. + +Pollyooly had not been gone five minutes, when there came a gentle +knocking at the door of the Honourable John Ruffin's chambers. He +opened it to find Eglantine, a pretty, dark, slim girl of twenty-two, +standing on the doormat, carrying a small kitbag and wearing an air of +deepest mystery. + +"You're Mademoiselle Eglantine, I suppose?" he said. + +"Ye--es. And you are Monsieur Ruffin," she whispered with an air of +utter secrecy. "Ze duchess she 'av been 'ere?" + +"She has. Come on in. Pollyooly is making preparations to go with +you," said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. "She'll be here in a +few minutes." + +He stepped aside for her to pass. She looked back down the staircase +carefully and with the greatest caution; then she entered and went on +tiptoe, noiselessly, down the passage into the sitting-room. There +could be no doubt that she was thoroughly enjoying the part of a +conspirator and resolved to play it to the limit. + +The Honourable John Ruffin was the last man in the world to spoil her +simple pleasure, and as they came into the sitting-room he suddenly +gripped her arm. + +Eglantine jumped and squeaked. + +"Hist!" said the Honourable John Ruffin, laying a finger on his lips, +frowning portentously, and rolling his eyes. Then he added in blank +verse, as being appropriate to the conspiratorial attitude: "I thought +I heard a footstep on the stairs." + +They both listened intently--at least Eglantine did; she hardly +breathed in her intentness. Then he said in a declamatory fashion: + +"I was mistaken; we are saved again." + +He loosed her arm. She breathed more easily, tapped the kit-bag, and +said: + +"I 'av brought ze Lady Marion's clo'es." + +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "Sit down." + +She sat down, breathing quickly, gazing earnestly at the Honourable +John Ruffin, who folded his arms and wore his best darkling air. + +Presently Pollyooly's key grated in the lock. + +"Hist! She comes!" said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +Eglantine rose, quivering. + +Pollyooly came in, shut the door sharply behind her, and came briskly +down the passage into the sitting-room. + +At the sight of her Eglantine forgot the whispering caution of the +conspirator; she cried loudly: + +"But ze likeness! Eet ees marvellous! Incredible! Eet ees 'er leetle +ladyship exact!" + +"Yes. And she'll be more like her than ever in her clothes. Hurry up +and get her into them," said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. + +He bustled them up the stairs to Pollyooly's attic; and as Eglantine +helped her into Lady Marion Ricksborough's clothes, she continued to +express her lively wonder at the likeness. She was not long making the +change, and they came quickly downstairs. But the Honourable John +Ruffin would not let them start at once. + +"It's no use your getting there too early and hanging about the +station," he said firmly. "That's when you'd get spotted. You want to +get there just about three minutes before the train starts. You've no +luggage to bother you." + +He made both of them eat some cake, and gave Eglantine a glass of wine +with it, for he thought that she needed something to steady her excited +nerves. Then he told her that the duchess was to pay Pollyooly a fee +of five pounds, and bade Pollyooly be sure to wire to him the time of +the train by which she was returning to London. + +Then he decided that it was time for them to start, and wished them +good luck. He did not go with them, for he did not wish to be seen by +any one taking an active part in the affairs of the Duke and Duchess of +Osterley. + +In the taxicab Eglantine was eloquent on the matter of the charm and +distinction of the Honourable John Ruffin: plainly he had made a deep +impression on her. But when they reached the station she resumed the +striking manners of a conspirator so admirably that in the three +minutes she spent paying the taxi-driver and buying tickets she +attracted the keen attention of two of the detectives of the railway. +They followed her, as she tiptoed about with hunched shoulders, and +watched her with the eyes of lynxes; but she puzzled them. They +assured one another that she had some game on (their knowledge of +fallen human nature was too exact for them to miss that fact) but for +the life of them they could not discover, or guess, what it was. + +[Illustration: She tiptoed about with hunched shoulders] + +On the platform she chose an empty compartment and stood before the +door of it for a good half-minute, looking up and down the train with +eyes even more lynxlike than those of the detectives. Then she almost +flung Pollyooly into the carriage, hustled her into the farthest +corner, and fairly sat on her in her effort to screen her from the eyes +of the crowd. + +"Do not stir!" she hissed. "Ze train veel soon start! Zen we are +saved!" + +Pollyooly could not have stirred, had she wished, so firmly did +Eglantine crush her into the corner. One of the detectives came to the +window and stared into the carriage gloomily. Eglantine met his gaze +with steady eyes. The guard whistled and waved his flag; the detective +fell back. He said to his colleague that it was a rum go. The train +started. + +As their carriage passed out of the station, with a deep sigh of relief +Eglantine relaxed to an easier, less crushing posture, and at once took +up the subject of the Honourable John Ruffin. She showed herself +exceedingly curious about him, and Pollyooly's natural discretion was +somewhat strained in answering her questions. It was difficult to +convey as little information as possible. + +But at the end of half an hour Eglantine had exhausted that subject; +and she turned to the yet more interesting matter of her own affairs. +She had much to tell Pollyooly about Devonshire, the wet garden of +England. Its horticultural advantages seemed to weigh but lightly with +her; she dwelt chiefly on the loneliness of the life she had been +leading, and deplored bitterly the fact that its inglorious ease was +spoiling her figure by increasing her girth. + +Then, with an air of mystery and in deeper tones, she confided to +Pollyooly that her lot in this wet desert was not without its +alleviation. A wealthy landowner (he did own a part of the +market-garden he so sedulously cultivated) had developed a grand--oh, +but a grand!--passion for her, and was positively persecuting her with +his honourable intentions. + +Pollyooly was deeply interested by her tale, for her recent experience +with Mr. Hilary Vance, Mr. Reginald Butterwick and Flossie had forced +the tender passion on her attention. She was greatly puzzled by the +reason which Eglantine gave for not making her landowner happy by +marrying him, that he was bearded. Mrs. Brown's husband, a cheerful +policeman, was bearded; but they were uncommonly happy together. In +the end she made up her mind that Eglantine's feeling in the matter +must be a French prejudice. + +They reached Exeter at a few minutes past ten; and having no luggage +but the little kit-bag, in a few minutes, in spite of the +conspiratorial air and behaviour of Eglantine, they were speeding +swiftly in the motor car toward Budleigh Salterton. It was a +delightful, moonlit night, and Pollyooly enjoyed the drive greatly. + +About forty minutes later the car stopped at a little gate leading into +a pine wood, and they descended, bade the driver good night, and went +through it. In the path through the dark wood Eglantine lost her air +of competent and excited leadership. She was timorous, held Pollyooly +tightly by the arm, and when a bird, or an animal, rustled in the +bushes, she squeaked. + +At last the path ended in a little gate opening into the garden of the +lonely house. They came up to it very gently, and Eglantine peered +round the garden, searching for the lawyer and the detective. + +It seemed empty, and as she opened the gate she whispered: + +"We must roon quick!" + +They bolted across the garden to the back door, and as they reached it +a man burst out of the bushes twenty yards on their left, and dashed at +them. Eglantine screamed, but she opened the door, dragged Pollyooly +through it, slammed the door in the pursuer's face, and shot the bolt. +At the sound of the bang the duchess came flying through the lighted +hall. At the sight of Pollyooly she cried: + +"Thank goodness you've come!" + +Eglantine burst into an excited narrative of their journey and narrow +escape from the watcher in the garden. + +"Then he actually saw Mary Bride come into the house?" cried the +duchess joyfully, and she clapped her hands. + +"But yes! Ever so plainly!" cried Eglantine. + +"Good! Nothing could be better!" said the duchess. "They'll think +that Marion is in the house, and that's all I want." + +She kissed Pollyooly, thanked her for coming, asked if the journey had +tired her very much, and led her into the dining-room, where a +delicious supper awaited her. As she ate it the duchess, watching her +with an air of lively satisfaction, matured her plans. At last she +said: + +"I was going to let them catch you to-morrow morning, and then I was +going up to London with you. But you look like a clever little girl; +do you think you could hide in the wood from them all the morning? If +you could, I would go up to London first thing, and I should have lots +of time to get away with Marion before they caught you and found out +who you were." + +"Oh, yes! I'm sure I could!" cried Pollyooly eagerly; and her eyes +shone with a bright joy at the prospect of so excellent a game of +hide-and-seek. "If once I got into that wood, they'd never find me +unless I let them. Only it would be a good deal easier if I wore a +dark frock." + +"You shall!" cried the duchess. "It would be perfectly splendid! I +know you're a clever little girl. Otherwise you couldn't have made +them believe for so long at Ricksborough Court that you were Marion. +Cook shall make you up a packet of sandwiches so that you won't starve; +and if you can keep them busy till the afternoon, we shall have all the +time we want to get comfortably away." + +"I think I can," said Pollyooly with the confidence born of much +experience in hide-and-seek. "But even if they do catch me, they won't +know I'm not Lady Marion; I'm sure I can keep them from bothering you +all day." + +The duchess kissed her again, and said: + +"I shall be ever so much obliged to you if you do. But half a day will +be quite enough. And now you'd better go to bed; you must be sleepy, +and the more sleep you get the fresher you'll be to-morrow. I shall be +gone long before you're up." + +She took her up-stairs to Marion's bedroom, a charming room on the +first floor, and Pollyooly found the most comfortable spring bed so +lulling that in spite of her expectation of an exciting morrow, she +soon fell asleep. + +The yet more excited duchess was longer falling asleep; but she rose at +half-past five and dressed and breakfasted. It was a quarter past six +when she came out into the garden, on her way to the station, and found +the detective sunning himself, after the chill of his night-watch, on +the garden fence at a point from which he had under observation both +the path to the front door and that to the back. He had a rather heavy +face, but he showed a proper sense of her rank and position, for he +rose and raised his hat nearly three inches, respectfully. + +A woman of the world, the duchess knew the advantage of his having a +tale to think upon, for she said with a nice show of indignation: + +"I'm going straight to my solicitor in town to take the final steps to +have this persecution stopped! I'm going to have you removed by the +police. You enter this house and touch my little girl at your own +risk! I've warned you." + +"Yes, your Grace. Quite so, your Grace. It'll be all right, your +Grace," said the detective, sleepily vague, but anxious to propitiate. + +The duchess walked briskly down to the station. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +POLLYOOLY PLAYS HER FAVOURITE PART + +At half-past eight Eglantine, already bubbling, in spite of the +earliness of the hour, with excited animation, awoke Pollyooly and +pulled up the blind of the bedroom window. + +Then she cried: + +"'E ees 'ere! Queek! Queek! Coom to ze window! Let 'im see you!" + +Pollyooly jumped out of bed and ran to the window. The detective stood +on the lawn regarding the house gloomily. At the sight of her face he +beamed sleepily. + +Eglantine laughed and cried: + +"Good! Now 'e zinks you are 'ere! But you must eat your breakfast +queek, and be ready to run fast into ze wood when ze lawyer coom!" + +Pollyooly bathed and dressed quickly, putting on a dark frock that she +might be less visible in the thickets. Then she came briskly +down-stairs and made an excellent breakfast. + +She was just finishing it when Eglantine, on the watch at the window, +cried: + +"'Ere is ze lawyer! You must fly! Oh, but queek!" + +Pollyooly seized a cap and the packet of sandwiches which lay ready to +hand, and as she put on the cap she saw the lawyer, a middle-aged, but +stout gentleman, conferring with the detective and smiling triumphantly +and rubbing his hands at the news of her presence in the house. She +smiled too--a smile of pleasant anticipation. But then, as the lawyer +walked to the front door, the detective walked briskly to the back, and +she frowned. + +"Oh, bothaire! What are we to do?" cried Eglantine. + +"Isn't there a window I could get out of?" said Pollyooly quickly. + +"But yes! Coom quick!" cried Eglantine, running out of the room. + +Pollyooly hurried after her; and there came the loud rat-tat of the +lawyer at the front door. They ran into the drawing-room and Eglantine +opened the window gently. The detective knocked at the back door; the +lawyer knocked again, louder. Pollyooly leaned out of the window, +weighing her chances. She saw that to get to the little gate into the +wood she would have to pass the detective. But on her left, in the +fence of the wood, was a gap which had been filled by a post and rails. +Though it would bring her in sight of the lawyer at the front door, +that seemed the safer way, since he was stouter, and probably less +swift of foot than the detective. She climbed out of the window and +made a dash for it. She reached the fence, went over it like a cat; +and her foot already touched the ground on the other side as the lawyer +saw her, and in his indignation and surprise howled like a skelped +hound. + +He was more used to office work than action; and it was fully five +seconds before he started for the wood. In those five seconds +Pollyooly had gone a good thirty yards into it. He rushed for the post +and rails, and climbed them with his eyes nearly starting out of his +head in his anxiety to see her. Then, instead of trying to hear in +which direction she was moving, he stood on the fence and bellowed to +the detective to come to him. + +The detective, tired by his night watch, was slow in grasping what had +happened. By the time he had reached the lawyer, had learned that +Pollyooly had taken to the woods, and was himself over the fence, many +valuable seconds had been lost; and Pollyooly, who had turned sharply +to the left, was sixty yards down the wood, moving noiselessly, out of +hearing. + +She threaded the mazes of the wood swiftly, with straining ears, +marking the loud rustling of her pursuers in the undergrowth. It grew +fainter and fainter, for they plunged on straight ahead of them; and +then it died quite away. She went on slowly, enjoying the wood, the +fragrance of the flowers, and the song of the birds in the sun-flecked +glades. + +About twenty minutes later she heard again the rustling of her +pursuers, faint and far away, but drawing nearer. She moved along +before it, and came to a gate opening into a leafy lane. Below, about +a mile away, lay the town of Budleigh Salterton, and the sea, shining +in the sun. + +She climbed on to the gate to get a better view (she had time enough), +her active brain working swiftly. She perceived that there were even +pleasanter ways of spending a summer's day in Devonshire than playing +hide-and-seek in a wood with a lawyer and a detective. Then she cast +one look back into the green depths of the wood, slipped over the gate, +and bolted down the lane as hard as she could run. Her only task had +been to keep the lawyer and the detective busy during the morning; and +she thought that the wood might be trusted to keep them busy without +any help from her. Eight minutes later she arrived, panting, in the +High Street of the town, slowed down, and strolled to the beach. + +But the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing hounds. + +As she came on to the esplanade a very large gentleman in grey flannel +was so impressed by her flower-like, angel face that, without pausing +to cast about for an introduction, he entered into conversation with +her. She was very affable with him, but not wholly open; for after a +while she left him under the impression that, so far from being an +orphan, she was staying with her parents in lodgings in the station +road. But she bore away from their colloquy a pleasing shilling with +which he had invited her to buy chocolate. + +She walked along the esplanade somewhat disappointed that the beach +should all of it be large pebbles. She had always believed the shore +of the sea to be sand. She did not, however, repine, but walked along +to the end of it, watching the bathers and the playing children, in a +great content. Then she went down the path beyond the esplanade, +between the sea and marshes, to the mouth of the swift-flowing Otter. +She walked out over the slippery rocks to the edge of the ebbing sea, +and finding some children paddling about in a pool, joined them. + +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. + +The pleasant feel of the warm salt water on her legs inspired Pollyooly +with larger desires. She put on her shoes and stockings and came back +to the esplanade. She soon learned that a bathing-dress and a +bathing-machine could be hired. She hired them and bathed. She bathed +for a long time, a longer time than was good for her. + +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. + +At last she tore herself from the water, dressed, and lay on the warm +pebbles, drying her beautiful red hair in the sun. The church clock +struck twelve; slowly, but with a good appetite, she ate her +sandwiches--chicken sandwiches. + +And still the lawyer and the detective ranged the wood like questing +hounds. + +After her lunch Pollyooly bought herself a bottle of lemonade at a +confectioner's shop in the High Street; then once more she sought the +mouth of the Otter. There, hunting among the rocks, paddling, watching +the sea-gulls on the red cliffs beyond the stream, she enjoyed herself +greatly. It is to be doubted that a happier child could have been +found out of London. + +The lawyer and the detective no longer ranged the wood like questing +hounds. They had already done all the ranging the weather permitted. +Moreover, the lawyer was not of sleuth-hound build, and the chase had +reddened his face almost to the colour of the carapace of a boiled +lobster. Unfortunately his face was not of the durable texture of a +carapace; and the skin was peeling off his nose. + +They had returned to the pretty garden from which they had started on +their quest; and the detective had gone into the town to get the food +he needed so badly and to bring back lunch for the lawyer. The lawyer +sat on a bench, awaiting his return impatiently. Searching the wood +like a questing hound had given him also a fine appetite. + +It was soon after two o'clock that Pollyooly made the acquaintance of +the boy Edward, or the boy Edward made the acquaintance of Pollyooly. +It is difficult to be sure how these things happened. But both of them +were lonely; Pollyooly was of far too simple and direct a nature to be +much hampered by the cold conventions of a sophisticated civilisation; +and Edward was but ten. + +For all his extreme youth, he was an agreeable companion; and so it +came about that Pollyooly, who had meant to return to the house at +three o'clock, was detained by Edward and the sea till half-past four. +She was not loth to be detained; she was indeed pleased to be giving +the duchess her full measure of hours, and the lawyer and detective a +really good run for their money. + +But as a matter of fact they did no running at all that afternoon. At +three o'clock the replete detective returned with the lunch of the +raging lawyer. From half-past three till four they prowled gently +about the wood; at four they returned to the garden and sat on a bench +in the garden, confident that their quarry must very soon return for +food. + +At four o'clock a flaming Eglantine came out of the house and accused +them furiously of having murdered Lady Marion Ricksborough in the wood. +It took them nearly twenty minutes to persuade her that they had not. +They found it hard work; and doubted even then that they had wholly +succeeded. + +At half-past four Pollyooly said good-bye to the regretful Edward at +the end of the High Street, whither he had accompanied her. She did +not hurry up the hill, but as she went picked flowers to adorn the +Honourable John Ruffin's chambers. When she did come into the garden, +her eyes fell at once on the lawyer and the detective. They slept on +the bench. The lawyer's head rested affably on the detective's +shoulder. He looked not only redder but thinner, as if his quest in +the warm wood had shrunk him a little. + +[Illustration: They slept on the bench] + +Pollyooly did not awaken them; she went quietly into the house, and was +welcomed by Eglantine with kisses and reproaches for the fright she had +given her by her delay. Though in the end persuaded that she had not +been murdered by the lawyer and the detective, she had begun to fear +lest she were lost in the wood. She received Pollyooly's account of +the pleasant day she had spent with many expressions of pleased +amazement; and then she gave her a noble tea. + +Pollyooly was coming to the end of it, listening with an agreeable show +of interest to the further details of Eglantine's affair of the heart +with the landed proprietor of the market-garden, when they were both +startled by a loud snort at the window. The lawyer and the detective +were looking in upon them, their faces beaming with satisfaction at the +sight of their quarry. The detective guarded the window while the +lawyer sprang lithely round the house, through the front door, and into +the room. + +"Thank goodness! I've caught your ladyship at last!" he cried. + +Pollyooly scowled at him and said nothing. It was her habit in the +part of Lady Marion Ricksborough to give herself airs. He snatched his +watch from his pocket and cried: + +"Oh, hang it! We've missed the last train to London!" + +Pollyooly smiled coldly. + +"Well, we must spend the night at the hotel," he said grumpily. "If I +left your ladyship here, there's no saying when I should see you again." + +Pollyooly scowled again, and Eglantine burst into loud and excited +protest: + +"Her ladyship must sleep in the house--in her own bed--properly." + +The lawyer paid no heed to her protest, but bade her pack her young +mistress's clothes at once. He said that the sooner she was at the +hotel, the safer he would feel. He did not get his way without further +and louder protests from Eglantine; but in the end he got it. She +packed the little kit-bag for Pollyooly with clothes of Lady Marion. +The detective carried it. As they were starting she gave Pollyooly two +sovereigns wrapped up in a five-pound note, saying that the duchess had +left it for her. The extra two sovereigns were for expenses, since she +might need money to escape. + +The sum warmed Pollyooly's heart. + +She bade Eglantine an affectionate farewell and invited her to come to +see her whenever she was in London. Then she set out with her captors. +On the way down the hill the lawyer was very respectful and agreeable +to Pollyooly, proclaiming his eager desire to secure her welfare, and +dwelling on the pleasure she must be feeling at the prospect of being +re-united with her affectionate father, the duke. No such prospect lay +before her; and she displayed no interest in the matter. But when the +lawyer, with a fatherly solicitude of his own, suggested that it would +be safer if he took care of her money for her, she rejected the +proposal with an uncommon, haughty curtness. He seemed somewhat hurt, +but he did not press the matter. The detective addressed him as Mr. +Wilkinson. + +Pollyooly was not pleased to leave the pleasant and comfortable house +of the duchess and its so noble breakfasts and teas, though it was some +consolation that she was moving from it to an hotel where, in her +ignorance of provincial England, she supposed that she would fare +luxuriously. She was much less pleased to exchange the society of the +lively Eglantine, so full of interesting confidences, for that of the +ponderous and doubtless uncommunicative Mr. Wilkinson. + +He was fully alive to his importance as being in charge of the daughter +of a duke, and did not dream for a moment of putting her into the care +of the detective. Indeed, in spite of his greater experience in taking +charge of people, that worthy fellow was far too sleepy to be trusted +with so elusive a child. + +Mr. Wilkinson was far more affable and urbane with her than any one +whom Pollyooly had ever met. He was careful to ask her whether she +disliked the smell of tobacco smoke before taking her into the +smoking-room, where he made a light meal on whiskey and soda and +biscuits. He invited her to share his biscuits; but the noble tea was +so recent that she was forced to decline. + +As soon as he had finished it he accepted, with the readiest urbanity, +her suggestion that they should go out on the sea-front. It was +exceedingly gratifying to him to be seen walking hand in hand with the +daughter of a duke. But his hand was hot and moist, and at the end of +fifty yards of it Pollyooly withdrew hers from it with considerable +decision. + +"I'm not going to run away--to-day," she said firmly, putting it behind +her back. + +Mr. Wilkinson protested feebly; but since there seemed no likelihood of +his recovering the hand, in the end he accepted the situation, saying +pompously: + +"I accept your ladyship's assurance that you will not try to escape." + +"Not to-day," said Pollyooly haughtily; and she looked at him darkly. + +"Oh, to-morrow you will be with his grace, and my responsibility ends," +said Mr. Wilkinson in a tone of some satisfaction. + +Pollyooly did not think that she would be with his grace on the morrow; +but she did not say so. + +Presently they sat down on a seat; and under the influence of the +slight meal of which he had recently partaken, Mr. Wilkinson grew +drowsily eloquent about the inestimable privilege she was about to +enjoy of once more sharing her father's ducal home. But since the duke +was not her father, and she had no intention whatever of sharing his +ducal home, again the subject did not really interest her. + +They returned to the hotel to dine; and since, while she was preparing +for it, Mr. Wilkinson informed the manager of what he believed to be +her rank and romantic history, during the meal she enjoyed a fine sense +of self-importance, as the other guests stared at her--frequently with +their mouths full. + +Their interest compelled her to exercise her best manners; that she did +not mind; but she did mind wasting the beautiful evening over a long +dinner of no interest to her. In view of the fact that she had so +lately eaten that noble tea, the earlier courses could hardly be +expected to interest her; but the sweets to which she had been looking +forward proved of a most disappointing, though painstaking, insipidity; +and she was indeed glad when the meal came to an end. + +Mr. Wilkinson talked affably, though with a touch of condescension not +unnatural in one in charge of the daughter of a duke, to a colonel and +golfer from Scotland, about the political situation. Pollyooly did not +realise how much their deference to his opinions, drawn from that +morning's _Daily Mail_, which both of them had read, was due to her +presence beside him. After dinner they returned to the bench on the +esplanade; and Pollyooly, for the first time in her life, had the +opportunity of learning how sentimental, after a bottle of champagne, a +middle-aged man can become about the moon. She gathered that he was +deeply attached to a lady named Myra. + +At half-past nine they returned to the hotel; and when she went to bed +Mr. Wilkinson thoughtfully locked her in. + +She slept well and rose early. The sea, smiling in the morning sun, +attracted her greatly; and it seemed good to her to bathe. In view of +the rank she was enjoying, it also seemed to her that she might very +well have her way in the matter. She dressed quickly, and with the +heel of her own stout shoe, a stouter shoe than Lady Marion ever wore, +she began to hammer on her bedroom door. + +She had not hammered long before an eager, respectful chambermaid came +and asked her what she wanted. When she learned she hurried off to Mr. +Wilkinson and awoke him. Mr. Wilkinson, desiring to sleep yet another +hour, would not hear of any bathing. On learning this, Pollyooly +hammered on the door yet more loudly than before with the heels of her +two stout shoes. The chambermaid summoned the manager; both of them +betook themselves to Mr. Wilkinson, and anxiously informed him that her +young ladyship was awaking the whole hotel. Mr. Wilkinson, as angry as +he could be with the daughter of so distinguished a client, was on the +point of rising, when he had a happy thought. He bade the manager +rouse the detective and tell him to take her young ladyship to bathe, +and to look after her very carefully indeed. + +The detective, also desiring to sleep yet another hour, rose gloomily +and gloomily escorted Pollyooly to the sea. His gloom did not at all +lessen Pollyooly's enjoyment of her bath and she spent the pleasantest +half-hour in the sea. She graciously suffered the detective to pay for +it. + +She returned to the hotel with a glorious appetite and made a glorious +breakfast. Mr. Wilkinson congratulated her on the healthiness of her +appetite, with a somewhat envious air. It seemed to her that the hotel +was more attractive in the matter of breakfasts than of dinners. + +At a few minutes to eleven they started to walk to the station. +Remembering that her parole only covered the day before, Mr. Wilkinson +set her between himself and the detective. Pollyooly had not forgotten +the Honourable John Ruffin's urgent instruction that she should wire +him the time of the arrival of their train at Waterloo, and she learned +from Mr. Wilkinson that it was three twenty-five. When, therefore, +they reached the post office, she made a sudden dash across the road +into it. + +Mr. Wilkinson and the detective bustled after her and found her writing +the telegram. It ran: + +I arrive at three twenty-five. Pollyooly. + +It puzzled them a little; and Mr. Wilkinson said: + +"Why do you telegraph to Mr. Ruffin?" + +"Because he told me to," said Pollyooly. + +"He told you to?" said Mr. Wilkinson with a puzzled air. "When did he +tell you to?" + +"The day before yesterday," said Pollyooly. + +Mr. Wilkinson shook his head with a pained air. He thought that her +ladyship was fibbing. + +"Why do you sign it 'Pollyooly'?" he said. + +"Because it's my name," said Pollyooly. + +Mr. Wilkinson shook his head with a yet sadder air. Had she been the +daughter of a commoner, he would not have let her send the telegram; as +it was he did. Half-way to the station he had grown yet more curious +about it; and he asked her again why she had sent it. + +"You'll know all about it when we get to London," said Pollyooly coldly. + +He could get no more from her. + +They lunched on the train, and under the expanding influence of a small +bottle of champagne, the air of Mr. Wilkinson grew more and more +triumphant at the success of his difficult mission. + +When they descended from the train he clasped Pollyooly's right hand +firmly, the detective clasped her left, and they walked down the +platform. They had not gone thirty yards when they met the Honourable +John Ruffin smiling agreeably. + +"Hullo, Wilkinson! How are you?" he said cheerfully. + +"How are you, Mr. Ruffin? At last we've found her little ladyship, and +we're taking her to his grace. He will be pleased," said Mr. Wilkinson +in tones of ringing triumph. + +"Will he? Where is she?" said the Honourable John Ruffin with an air +of lively curiosity. + +"Here," said Mr. Wilkinson, drawing Pollyooly forward. + +"Where?" said the Honourable John Ruffin, looking at Pollyooly with a +somewhat puzzled air. + +"Here!" said Mr. Wilkinson a little louder. + +"Oh--_there_?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. "How are you, +Pollyooly? I hope you had a pleasant time with Eglantine. But why +have you come back so soon? I didn't expect you for some days." + +"It was Mr. Wilkinson. He made me. He almost dragged me to his +hotel," said Pollyooly. + +"Oh, come, Wilkinson: this won't do, you know. This is kidnapping, you +know--high-handed kidnapping," said the Honourable John Ruffin +indignantly. "What do you think you're doing?" + +"I'm taking her to the duke," said Mr. Wilkinson. + +"And do you suppose that Osterley will be pleased at your bringing him +my housekeeper, Wilkinson? On the last occasion, when he did the +kidnapping and took her home himself, he seemed very far from pleased." + +The puzzled look had shifted from the Honourable John Ruffin's face to +that of Mr. Wilkinson, and he said sharply: + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean what I say," said the Honourable John Ruffin firmly. "I find +you dragging my housekeeper, Mary Bride, along the platform of Waterloo +Station, by main force, and with the help of a tall, strong man." + +"I don't know what you are talking about!" cried Mr. Wilkinson +stormily. "And if you'll forgive my saying so, I haven't any time to +waste on your jokes, Mr. Ruffin!" + +"Joke? Do you want me to show you how much of a joke it is by giving +you in charge here and now for kidnapping my housekeeper, Mary Bride?" +said the Honourable John Ruffin coldly. + +Mr. Wilkinson's expression grew yet more puzzled and doubtful, and he +said: + +"Mary Bride? Who is Mary Bride?" + +"Now what's the good of a subterfuge of this kind when you're holding +her by the hand, Wilkinson? You should keep such tricks for maiden +ladies!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin with a fine show of +indignation. + +"This is Lady Marion Ricksborough!" cried Wilkinson; but his tone +lacked conviction. + +"It isn't. It's my housekeeper, Mary Bride. I wonder that a man of +your knowledge of the world did not see at once that you were +kidnapping the wrong person," said the Honourable John Ruffin; and +_his_ tone was full of conviction. + +"I'm not Lady Marion, and I never said I was. It was you who said so. +I am Mr. Ruffin's housekeeper, Mary Bride," said Pollyooly very firmly. + +"B-b-b-but I've been c-c-c-calling her Lady Marion all the t-t-t-time, +and she never p-p-p-protested once!" cried Mr. Wilkinson, gazing wildly +at Pollyooly. + +"Then all I can say is, you must have frightened the life out of her," +said the Honourable John Ruffin indignantly. "And it will look +bad--devilish bad--a man of your age kidnapping a child of twelve and +frightening her to such an extent that she was afraid to tell you who +she really was. Look here, am I to give you in charge here and now, +and thresh the matter out in a police court? That will please +Osterley!" + +"Hold on a bit--hold on a bit," said Mr. Wilkinson faintly. "You're +really not joking?" + +"Certainly not," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Let's go into a waiting-room and talk it over quietly. We don't want +to make any silly mistakes," said Mr. Wilkinson yet more faintly. + +"I should think you didn't! You've made enough already," said the +Honourable John Ruffin frankly. "But you'd better come along to my +chambers. I've got Mary Bride's little brother there and a woman who +has known her all her life. If you can't take my word for it, she'll +convince you all right." + +Mr. Wilkinson was very limp in the taxicab: he perceived that he had +allowed his enthusiasm to carry him away with the result that he had +been hopelessly duped. It was indeed mortifying, the more mortifying +that he could not blame any one but himself--himself and nature. The +more carefully he examined Pollyooly the more impressed he was by her +likeness to Lady Marion Ricksborough. The detective was gloomy; he had +lost a night's rest for nothing, as well as his hope of forthwith +receiving the reward for the capture of the missing child, for it was +he who had tracked her to the house in Devon. Now he might be months +recovering her trail. + +The Honourable John Ruffin on the other hand was in excellent spirits. +He had no desire to embroil himself with his cousin, by definitely +taking the side of the duchess in their quarrel; and he began to see +plainly that the matter would never come to the duke's ears. Neither +the lawyer nor the detective would talk about it; they both cut too +ridiculous a figure. + +At 75 the King's Bench Walk, they found Mrs. Brown and the Lump. Mr. +Wilkinson needed no more evidence than the warmth with which Pollyooly +kissed and hugged her little brother; but none the less he received +Mrs. Brown's convincing assurances that she was Mary Bride. + +When that worthy woman had been dismissed to the kitchen, he said +heavily: + +"This has been an unfortunate mistake--very unfortunate." + +"Not so unfortunate as it would have been if Pollyooly had been ten +years older. It would have cost you hundreds. As it is, I shouldn't +wonder if she would be content with a fiver as compensation," said the +Honourable John Ruffin with a soothing smile. + +Mr. Wilkinson groaned; then he said: + +"Well, I've made a mistake, and I suppose I must pay for it." + +Slowly and sadly he drew a five-pound note from his notebook and handed +it to Pollyooly. + +"Thank you, sir," said Pollyooly; and dropped a curtsey, like the +well-mannered child she was. + +"Your housekeeper? To think that she should have roused the whole +hotel to get that bath!" said Mr. Wilkinson bitterly. + +"She was for the time being the daughter of a duke--by your +appointment," said the Honourable John Ruffin suavely. + +Mr. Wilkinson waved the detective out of the room, and followed him. +At the door he paused to say very heavily: + +"I shall never trust my eyes again." + +"No: I shouldn't," said the Honourable John Ruffin gently. "I think +another time, if I were you, I should try glasses." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +POLLYOOLY PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN + +Mr. Wilkinson had departed, a sadder but very little wiser man, and +taken his detective with him; Mrs. Brown had been thanked, paid, and +dismissed; and Pollyooly, having sufficiently fondled and kissed the +irresponsive but unresisting Lump, went into the kitchen and set about +getting ready the Honourable John Ruffin's tea. + +She had lighted the gas under the kettle and taken the bread and butter +from the cupboard, when he came into the kitchen, wearing an air of the +most earnest purpose, and said impressively: + +"Genius, Pollyooly--genius is the art of taking infinite pains." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly politely. + +"That is why you are unsurpassed in the art of grilling bacon; you take +infinite pains with it," he went on with the same earnestness. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with more understanding. + +"And now I am going to instruct you in the art of making tea," he said +proudly. "I only learned yesterday that it was an art. Till then I +believed that you merely poured boiling water on tea, and there you +were. I have learned that it is not so. Also I have learned that that +vegetable which comes from India and Ceylon, and is called tea by those +who sell it, is not really tea at all. Tea only comes from China; and +I have bought some." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly with the air of one receiving information +gratefully. + +"And now I will teach you the art of making it exactly as it was taught +to me," he said with a very schoolmasterly air. + +Thereupon, under his instructions, Pollyooly warmed the tea-pot and +stood by the tea-caddy ready to put in two teaspoonfuls of tea (one for +him, one for the pot) the moment the kettle boiled. The moment it did +boil, following his instructions, she put the tea into the pot, and +then, tilting the kettle without taking it from the stove, she poured +the still boiling water on to it. Then she inverted the little glass +egg-boiler and stood ready to bring the infusing tea into his +sitting-room as soon as the upper half of it was nearly empty of sand. + +Then he said in raised and sonorous tones of profound satisfaction: + +"That is the art of making tea. Now that you have once learnt it, I +know,--I am sure that very soon you will be not only the finest griller +of bacon in England, but also the finest maker of tea." + +"I'll try, sir," said Pollyooly cheerfully. "It doesn't seem very +difficult." + +"To genius nothing is _very_ difficult," said the Honourable John +Ruffin impressively. "The difficulty is to stick to it--to go on +getting the thing right every time. But you can do it with bacon: why +not with tea?" + +When the sand had nearly all run out of the upper part of the glass, +she took the tray into the sitting-room; he poured out a cup of tea, +and declared that it was tea fit for the gods. + +Pollyooly smiled at his satisfaction, and then said: + +"Please, sir: I should like a note to Madame Correlli to say that I +couldn't go to my dancing yesterday because I had to go into the +country. She is so particular." + +"Certainly; I will write it after tea," said the Honourable John Ruffin +amiably. + +After he had finished his tea he wrote the note and gave it to her. +Then she paid a proud visit to the Post Office Savings Bank and added +to her fattening account the sum of twelve pounds. Undoubtedly the +Osterley family were valuable acquaintances. + +Fortified by the exculpatory note from the Honourable John Ruffin, +Pollyooly went next morning to her dancing class with an easy mind. + +It had been clear to her friends that the career of housekeeper, +admirably as she discharged its duties, was far inferior to her +abilities; it did not give them nearly full scope. Those friends were +young, and they were alive, keenly alive, to the fact that there is a +steady demand for angels in that sphere of British and German industry +curiously known as musical comedy. They could not conceive that, since +she had to work for a living, Pollyooly's natural grace and the agility +she had acquired in her earlier childhood, at the village of Muttle +Deeping, and still retained, could be put to more agreeable and +profitable use than that of helping to supply this demand for angels, +and so help to raise the British ideal of womanly beauty. + +For three mornings in the week therefore, Pollyooly, taking the Lump +with her, went to Madame Correlli's dancing class in Soho; and thanks +to her active early life at Muttle Deeping, was esteemed by that +accomplished lady one of her most promising pupils. It is no wonder +that Pollyooly and her young friend and fiance Lord Ronald +Ricksborough, the heir of the Duke of Osterley, looked forward with +confidence to the day when she should be a shining light of musical +comedy and the proper wife for a British nobleman. + +Madame Correlli read the Honourable John Ruffin's note with indulgence, +accepted the excuse, and set Pollyooly to work. + +Pollyooly was disinclined to make friends, close friends, of the other +little girls in her class. She was indeed very civil to them, like the +well-mannered child she was; but they did not greatly attract her. +Belonging to hard-working, dancing families, they talked a great deal +in their high-pitched, twanging voices about their friends and +relations who danced at the Varolium, Panjandrum, and other music +halls, friends of whom, since she herself aspired to higher things, +Pollyooly had but a poor opinion. Moreover, many of them powdered +their little faces, penciled their eyebrows, and deepened the roses in +their cheeks with rose-carmine or rouge; and to Pollyooly, a daughter +of Muttle Deeping, these practices were repugnant. + +But she had formed one friendship among them, a friendship born of her +protective instinct, with Millicent Saunders, a frail, pale wisp of a +child, whose black eyes looked very big indeed in her thin face, framed +in a mass of black hair. The other pupils were apt to look down on +Millicent, because, though few of them ran to finery, Millicent was +shabby indeed. Pollyooly was quite unaffected by this, for in the days +when she had lived in the dreadful fear that she and the Lump might be +driven by necessity into the workhouse, she had gone shabby herself. +She knew that Millicent's mother, who had once been a dancer, was now a +charwoman, often out of work, and in feeble health. It was Millicent's +perpetual complaint that she herself was so slow growing up to the age +at which she would be earning money and supporting her ailing mother. +Down the vista of the future she saw a splendid vision in which her +mother should always have a bloater with her tea. To Pollyooly +Millicent always looked hungry. + +It was Millicent's great pleasure to sit with the Lump on her knee in +the intervals of their work, mothering him as long as he would suffer +it; and it was her privilege to take his left hand as Pollyooly led him +from Soho, across the dangerous crossings to the safe stretch of the +embankment from Charing-Cross to the Temple. As they went Pollyooly +and Millicent talked of the price of provisions and the trials of +housekeeping. + +But for the whole week before Pollyooly's trip to Devon Millicent had +not been to the class. Pollyooly enquired and Madame Correlli enquired +the reason for her absence, but none of the other pupils could tell +them. It was now ten days since Pollyooly had seen her, and she was +feeling anxious indeed about her. + +Then, after the class was over, as she was leading the Lump down St. +Martin's Lane on their way to the embankment he projected an arm and +broke his placid and perpetual silence with one of his rare, but +pregnant grunts. Pollyooly looked where he pointed, saw Millicent on +the island in the middle of the roadway, and called to her. + +Millicent turned her head and looked at them with somewhat dazed eyes. +Her face did not as usual light up at the sight of the Lump. She +crossed the road to them feebly. + +"How are you? Why haven't you come to the classes for so long?" said +Pollyooly. + +"Mother's dead," said Millicent dully; and her big eyes which had been +so dull, shone suddenly bright with tears. + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Pollyooly pitifully; and as she gazed +anxiously at Millicent's seared and miserable face, her eyes grew moist +with tears of sympathy. + +Millicent stooped and kissed the Lump listlessly, almost mechanically. + +"And what are you going to do?" said Pollyooly with grave anxiety. + +She understood fully the seriousness of Millicent's plight. + +"I'm going to the workhouse," said Millicent dully. + +Pollyooly clutched her arm. It was impossible for her to turn pale for +she was always of a clear, camelia-like pallor; but that pallor grew a +little dead as she cried in a tone of horror: + +"Oh, no! You can't go to the workhouse! You mustn't!" + +Millicent looked at her with the lack-lustre eyes of the vanquished, +and said in the same dull, toneless voice: + +"I've got to. There's nowhere else for me to go to." + +The tears in Pollyooly's eyes brimmed over in her dismay and horror at +this dreadful fate of her friend; and she, the dauntless, Spartan +heroine of a hundred fights with the small boys of Alsatia, was fairly +crying. + +"You mustn't go! You mustn't!" she cried. + +"I didn't want to. I was trying not to," said Millicent slowly. +"After mother's funeral yesterday Mrs. Baker, that's our landlady, said +the relieving officer was coming round this morning to take me to the +workhouse; and I ran away." + +"Yes: that was the right thing to do," said Pollyooly in firm approval. + +"Yes: I got up very early--just when it was light," said Millicent; and +her voice grew a little firmer. "And I packed my clothes"--she gave +the little bundle she was carrying a shake--"and then I sneaked +down-stairs and out of the house. And oh, the trouble the front door +gave me! You wouldn't believe! First it wouldn't open; and then when +it did, it made noise enough to wake the whole house." + +Pollyooly nodded with an air of ripe experience. + +"I made sure they'd wake up and catch me and stop me. But they didn't; +and I got out and ran hard out of the street. Then I walked about and +then I sat on the embankment trying to think what to do and where to +go. And two coppers wanted to know what I was doing all alone on my +own." + +"They would," said Pollyooly in a tone of deep hostility to the police +force of London. + +"Well, I said I was going to my aunt in Southwark. I had an aunt in +Southwark once--only she's dead. But I couldn't think of anywhere to +go--there didn't seem to be anywhere. So I thought I'd better go back +to Mrs. Baker's and let them take me to the workhouse. At any rate +she'll give me something to eat." + +Pollyooly's tears had dried as she listened to her friend's tale; she +wore an alert and able air which went but ill with her delicate beauty. +She said quickly: + +"Haven't you had anything to eat either?" + +Millicent shook her head and said somewhat faintly: + +"Not since supper last night. And I didn't eat much then--I wasn't +hungry--not after the funeral." + +"You wouldn't be," said Pollyooly sympathetically. + +"And I hadn't any money. The funeral took all the money," Millicent +added. + +"Then the first thing to do is to get a bun," said Pollyooly in a tone +of relief at seeing her way to do something. "Then you can come and +have dinner with us." + +"Thank you," said Millicent. + +Her lips worked, as a hungry child's will, at the thought of food; and +a faint colour came into her white cheeks. + +Pollyooly started across the road with the Lump, and Millicent took his +other hand. + +On the other side of the road Pollyooly said firmly: + +"You can't go to the workhouse. You mustn't. But we'll wait till we +get home before we talk about that. But there must be some way for you +not to go to it. We didn't." + +They led the Lump down to the Strand; and at the first confectioner's +shop Pollyooly bought Millicent a bun. The hungry child ate the first +two mouthfuls ravenously; then she paused to break off a piece and give +it to the Lump. + +"No, no!" said Pollyooly quickly. "You eat it all yourself. You want +it. He'll have his dinner as soon as he gets home." + +"Oh, let me give him just a little piece," said Millicent. + +"No: you're to eat it all," said Pollyooly firmly. + +Most children of three would have burst into a roar on hearing this +cruel prohibition. The placidity of the Lump was proof even against so +severe a blow. He merely went on his way with a saddened air. +Millicent ate the rest of the bun with eager thankfulness, brightening +a little as the food heartened her. + +They went down Villiers Street to the safe stretch of the embankment; +and then Pollyooly, her brow knitted in a thoughtful frown, began to +talk of Millicent's plight. The workhouse was so burning a subject +that she could not wait to discuss it at home. + +"You can't go to the workhouse; you can't really," she said. "If you +could stay with us for a little while, you might find something to do. +But it's for Mr. Ruffin to say whether you can stay with us. We live +in his chambers, you know. I'm his housekeeper." + +"Oh, if I could!" said Millicent wistfully. + +"He might let you. He's very kind," said Pollyooly hopefully. "And if +he did, I wonder what kind of a job you could get. What kind of work +can you do?" + +"I can do housework," said Millicent eagerly. "I always did our +room--all of it. And I cooked all our meals. Mother went out such a +lot, you know." + +"It's something," said Pollyooly soberly. "But I expect you've got a +lot to learn. You see I learnt a lot at Muttle Deeping. Aunt Hannah +had a whole house there--before she lost all her savings in a gold mine +and came to London. And she had everything like the gentry +have--pictures, and plate, and brass candle-sticks--only not so much of +them; and I learnt to clean them all. But I expect you'd learn too +quickly enough." + +"I'm sure I'd try," said Millicent. + +"Yes. If Mr. Ruffin would let you stay for a week or two, I could +teach you a lot," said Pollyooly hopefully. + +For the rest of the way to the Temple they discussed in detail +Millicent's accomplishments. They were few and limited; but to her +willingness to work there were no bounds. + +As soon as they reached the Temple they set about getting dinner. +Fortunately Pollyooly had in her larder half a cold chicken; for, as +was his practice, the Honourable John Ruffin had three days before +ordered a cold chicken from the kitchen of the Inner Temple, had made a +pretence of eating some of it at his breakfast, and then had bidden her +never let him see it again. This was one of his ways of making sure +that she and the Lump were properly fed, without weakening her +independence by sapping her belief that she really supported the two of +them. + +Accordingly Millicent made an excellent meal; and it restored her +strength and her spirits. She was surprised by the fact that the Lump +had a whole mugful of milk with his dinner, for she was unused to this +lavishness with that luxury in a child's diet. Pollyooly explained +that it had been an article of faith with her Aunt Hannah that a young +child needed a pint of milk a day; therefore the Lump always had one. +Millicent was deeply impressed: this was indeed affluence. + +She helped Pollyooly wash up after their dinner; and then Pollyooly +suggested that it would be well for her to look very clean indeed when +she was presented to Mr. Ruffin. + +"He's so particular about children being clean. Mr. Gedge-Tomkins +isn't nearly so particular," she said apologetically. "I work for him, +too, you know. He lives across the landing." + +Millicent accepted the suggestion readily enough, for her mother had +been cleaner than her class. Pollyooly helped her wash and dry and +brush out her mass of silken hair, and lent her a clean frock of her +own. Presently, after the good meal on the top of her fast, Millicent +turned very sleepy, and Pollyooly let her sleep. She was still +sleeping when the Honourable John Ruffin returned home. + +Pollyooly did not at once hurry to him with her news. She cut his +bread and butter very thin and nice, and followed his instructions +about the making of tea with scrupulous exactness. She carried the +tray into his sitting-room and set it beside him. Then she hesitated, +looking at him. + +He looked up from the evening paper he was scanning, smiled his usual +smile of appreciation at her angel face, and said amiably: + +"Well, Mrs. Bride: what is it?" + +When he did not call her Pollyooly he called her "Mrs." Bride, because +they had decided that "Miss" Bride did not sound sufficiently dignified +a name for a housekeeper. + +"Please, sir: I've got a little girl here," said Pollyooly in a +somewhat anxious, deprecating tone. + +"A little girl?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a natural surprise. + +"Yes, sir. Her mother's dead; and they wanted to send her to the +workhouse; but she ran away," said Pollyooly quickly. + +"Curious that England's little ones should fly from the home she offers +them," said the Honourable John Ruffin in his most amiable tone. + +"Yes, sir. And she hadn't had anything to eat and she was very hungry, +so I brought her home to dinner," said Pollyooly still quickly. + +"A very proper thing to do," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"And I thought I'd ask you if she could stop here, sir--with me and the +Lump--till she gets some work to do. There'd be lots of room for her, +sir; and she wouldn't bother you at all," said Pollyooly in a tone of +anxious pleading. + +"To get work might take a long time," said the Honourable John Ruffin +gravely. + +"Yes, sir; it might," said Pollyooly no less gravely, for she knew well +the difficulty of getting work in London. + +"And do you propose to keep her till she finds work?" said the +Honourable John Ruffin in the tone of one who finds it difficult to +believe his ears. + +"Oh, yes, sir. She wouldn't eat much," said Pollyooly in a tone of +cheerful serenity. + +"Out of the exiguous wages Mr. Gedge-Tomkins and I pay you?" + +"Yes, sir. I can do it quite well," said Pollyooly confidently; and +then she added hopefully: "And perhaps it wouldn't be for long." + +"On the other hand it may be for years and it may be forever," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a despondent tone. + +"Oh, no, sir: I'm sure it wouldn't be as long as that," said Pollyooly +confidently. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at her earnest, anxious pleading face +for half a minute. Then he said: + +"Let's get it quite exact: you want to saddle yourself with the +maintenance of a little girl for weeks, or it may be months, or even +years, just to save her from the chief of England's representative +institutions?" + +Pollyooly's anxious frown grew deeper as she said: + +"From the workhouse? Yes, sir." + + "Where shall the watchful sun, + England, my England, + Match the master-work you've done, + England my own?" + +quoted the Honourable John Ruffin with deep feeling. Then he added +sententiously: "Well, we must by no means check the generous impulses +of the young. But before I decide I should like to see your protegee. +I take it that she does not rise to those heights of cleanliness at +which you maintain yourself and the Lump; but does she display +sufficient of our chief English virtue?" + +"Oh, yes, sir: I couldn't have her about with the Lump if she wasn't," +said Pollyooly firmly. "But I'll fetch her, sir." She paused, +hesitatingly, and added: "She isn't in mourning, sir. The funeral took +all the money." + +"Then it can not be helped," said the Honourable John Ruffin sadly. + +Pollyooly hurried up-stairs to Millicent, awoke her, and helped her +tidy her hair. She bade her be sure and curtsey nicely to the +Honourable John Ruffin, brought her into the sitting-room, and +presented her to him. Millicent's big eyes were shining brightly from +her sleep; her silken hair was prettily waved by its so recent washing; +and the excitement of this fateful meeting had flushed delicately her +pale cheeks. She appealed alike to the Honourable John Ruffin's +aesthetic and protective instinct. Only her strong London accent +distressed him: he feared lest it might corrupt the speech of Pollyooly +and the Lump, which, owing to the care of their Aunt Hannah, who had +for many years been housekeeper for Lady Constantia Deeping, was that +of gentle-folk. + +However, he talked kindly and sympathetically to Millicent, questioned +her about her acquirements, and gave her leave to stay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE QUESTION OF A HOME + +Millicent left his presence almost dazed with relief and joy. Not only +was the imminent workhouse removed to a distance; but she herself was +transported to a sphere of astonishing luxury. She settled down in a +quiet content, only broken at rare intervals by a fit of weeping for +her dead mother. She helped Pollyooly with the work of the two sets of +chambers, displaying a considerable lack of knowledge and efficiency, +and played untiringly with the Lump. + +Between their dinner and the Honourable John Ruffin's tea she and +Pollyooly hunted for work for her. Mr. Hilary Vance would have been an +ideal, unexacting employer for her; but he was on the point of going to +Paris for six months. They consulted all Pollyooly's friends; and all +of them promised to look out for work for her; but it seemed likely to +be hard to find. + +The Honourable John Ruffin seeing Millicent often, watched and studied +her carefully in the hope that his mind would produce a happy thought +in the way of work for her. He perceived that she needed some well +paid sinecure. + +Then one morning when Pollyooly was clearing away his breakfast, he +said: + +"I have been considering Millicent, and I should be charmed to let her +stay here. You and she are such admirable foils to one another's +fairness and darkness that no cultivated eye can rest on you together +without great pleasure. But I don't think that you are doing the right +thing in trying to find her a job like your own. She couldn't keep it. +She is not a stern red Deeping like you. She is the clinging kind of +orphan, not made to stand alone." + +"But perhaps I should be able to go on helping her if she got work, +sir," said Pollyooly, gazing at him with puckered brow. "I'm sure +anybody would find her very willing." + +"I'm sure they would. So many people are willing. Even the Government +says it's willing. But I don't think that she is fitted to support +herself by her own efforts yet. She has had no training; and evidently +she hasn't been properly fed, and she isn't strong. What I think is +that she's the kind of orphan for whom homes for orphans were created," +he said with the air of one who has weighed the matter very carefully. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in somewhat unhappy assent. + +"At a home they would feed her up, give her open air exercise, and get +her strong. Then they would train her to become the accomplished wife +of one of our empire-builders in--er--er--in Canada, or British +Columbia, or Rhodesia. And when she reached the marriageable age, they +would export her and marry her to him. I think that that would suit +her much better than being an independent, ill-paid worker in London." + +Pollyooly considered his words carefully, frowning deeply. Then she +said: + +"Yes, sir: there's only herself. There isn't any one she wants living +with her like I do the Lump. Perhaps a home would be better for her." + +"I think it would," he said gravely. "You think it over." + +Pollyooly told Millicent at once of his suggestion; and they discussed +it seriously, and at great length. Indeed they talked of nothing else +for the rest of the day. The more they talked of it the more they +approved it. As Pollyooly said many times it was being settled in life +for good--not like a job which you might lose; and always down the +vista of the future, beyond the home, loomed the impressive and +alluring figure of the marriageable empire-builder. They both came to +the conclusion that the suggestion of the Honourable John Ruffin was +indeed excellent. + +Accordingly when she brought in his bacon next morning Pollyooly said: + +"Please, sir: I think you're right about Millicent's going to a home; +and so does she." + +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. "There can be no reasonable +doubt that the mantle of Solomon, to say nothing of Benjamin +Franklin's, has descended on your shoulders." + +Pollyooly looked at him with the air of polite interest with which she +was wont to receive his obscure sayings; then she said: + +"Yes, sir. But how could she get into a home?" + +"Oh, there are nominations and elections and that kind of thing," said +the Honourable John Ruffin vaguely. "I'll find out all about it for +you." + +"Thank you, sir. I'll tell Millie." + +Two days later he said to Pollyooly: + +"I've been making enquiries about that home for orphans; and I've found +a very good one. It's called the Bellingham Home. I had an idea that +there was one in the family; and I find that my cousin and your +acquaintance, the Duke of Osterley, is the president of it; and of +course he can get an orphan into it in a brace of shakes. He only has +to nominate her." + +"Oh, that is nice, sir!" cried Pollyooly; and her eyes sparkled. + +"Wait a bit," said the Honourable John Ruffin gloomily. "Unfortunately +at the moment there is a coldness between me and the duke; and we may +not warm to one another for months--not, in fact, till he wants me to +do something for him. In these circumstances if I were to present an +orphan to his attention he would be much more likely to wring her neck +than nominate her." + +"That is a pity, sir," said Pollyooly, and her face fell. + +"Of course there are ladies of my acquaintance who dabble in charity; +but they're not in the position of the duke. It would take them weeks +to get Millicent into the Bellingham Home, while, if he nominated her, +she would be dragged into it at full speed. She wouldn't be given time +to breathe." + +Pollyooly frowned in earnest consideration of the matter; then she said: + +"Couldn't you ask a lady to ask him, sir?" + +"It would be difficult to persuade one," said the Honourable John +Ruffin doubtfully. "You see, the duke has the reputation of being +unamiable; and he has earned it well. My friends are only dabblers in +charity; and I don't think they're keen enough on it to risk getting +snubbed by him." + +Pollyooly's thoughtful frown deepened as she cudgelled her small, but +active, brain for a solution of this problem. Then she said: + +"Perhaps if I was to go and ask him, he'd do it, sir." + +"You?" said the Honourable John Ruffin very doubtfully. "I don't think +that would do at all. You see there was that business of his +kidnapping you in Piccadilly and carrying you off to Ricksborough +House. He's not at all the kind of man to forget that he played the +fool and had to pay you six pounds for doing it." + +"But, please, sir, that wasn't my fault," said Pollyooly. + +"No: it was his. That's why he's sure to be disliking you very much +for it." + +Pollyooly looked puzzled by this view of the working of the ducal mind. + +"No: it wouldn't be any use at all," said the Honourable John Ruffin +decisively. + +For the while Pollyooly accepted his decision. But she accepted it +with deep reluctance, for she was nearly as disappointed as Millicent +by this dashing of their hopes. Naturally in that disappointment the +Bellingham Home grew more and more attractive as it receded into the +distance. She did not cease to discuss it with Millicent; and it grew +clearer and clearer to her that it was worth her while to make the +attempt to procure the duke's assistance in the scheme. + +"He may be disagreeable. But he won't bite," she said in a somewhat +contemptuous tone. + +Accordingly a few mornings later she came to the Honourable John Ruffin +with a very earnest face and said: + +"Please, sir: I think after all I should like to go and ask the duke to +put Millie into that home." + +"You do?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of surprise. +"Well, it's any odds that he'll refuse nastily." + +"Yes, sir: but I think I ought to try. It would be so nice for Millie. +Besides he won't bi--hurt me, sir," said Pollyooly firmly. + +"No, he won't bite you. Dukes don't. Well, after all, if you don't +mind being rebuffed, it is worth trying," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly eagerly, very pleased to find that he did +not forbid her outright to make the attempt. + +The Honourable John Ruffin gazed at her thoughtfully; then he said in +his best judicial tone: + +"Well, if you're going to have a shot at it, there are one or two +things you'd better do to give yourself the best chance of success. In +the first place you must try to catch him after lunch, about a quarter +to three--he's in a good temper then. And when you do catch him, don't +be too gentle with him. Gentleness is rather wasted on Osterley. Be +civil, of course, and be sure to address him as 'Your Grace' all the +time. But be firm. Give yourself a few airs. After all, you are +undoubtedly as much a red Deeping as Lady Marion; and Osterley's great +grandfather was a Manchester tradesman." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly, and her eyes began to shine. + +"And be sure to wear your prettiest frock," the Honourable John Ruffin +went on. "I think your amber silk. Osterley, for all his +cantankerousness, is as susceptible as the next duke." + +"Oh, yes, sir: I'll wear my amber silk of course. And do you think I'd +better take Millie with me so that he can actually see what she's like?" + +The Honourable John Ruffin hesitated, pondering the question. Then he +said with decision: + +"No. Go alone. I think you'll be more effective alone. It will make +Osterley feel more helpless." + +"Very well, sir," said Pollyooly cheerfully. + +During the morning she discussed with the excited and sympathetic +Millicent the coming interview. She had the advantage of going to it +in utter fearlessness. She knew the duke: he had been at Ricksborough +Court during ten days of her stay there; and she had seen something of +him every day. Also there had been the second and more violent meeting +in Piccadilly when he had picked her up and carried her off to +Ricksborough House under the firm conviction that she was his lost +daughter. As a result of these two meetings Pollyooly had made up her +mind that the duke was not a man to be feared by women. Millicent +admired her fearlessness greatly. + +After their dinner Pollyooly put on her amber costume, a silk frock, a +pretty hat, stockings and gloves, all amber in colour and all matching, +gifts of Hilary Vance. Regarding her thus attired, Millicent's great +admiration became an even greater awe. + +"Why, you look the perfect lydy," she said in a hushed voice. + +"If I'm a red Deeping, I'm of the oldest blood in England, and I must +be a lady. Mr. Ruffin says so," said Pollyooly in the tone of one +quite sure of herself. + +She charged Millicent to be very careful of the Lump, and to be sure to +have the kettle boiling by four o'clock so that, should she be detained +till then, she would have nothing to do on her return but forthwith +make the tea. Then she sallied forth. + +As she came into Fleet Street she met the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Ah: so you're off to the fray," he said; and his eyes warmed to the +angel vision. "Well, you certainly have looks on your side; and that +is three-quarters of the woman's battle. It's rather a score for you, +too, that Osterley is one of the most susceptible dukes in England. +But remember: don't be too civil to him; just bow. And then be +firm--very firm." + +"Yes, sir: I will," said Pollyooly very firmly indeed. + +He stood considering her thoughtfully a moment; then he added: + +"And I tell you what: if your prayers fail to move Osterley you might, +as a last resort, try a few tears. Tears are dreadful things; and +these cantankerous men can rarely stand them." + +"Oh yes, sir: I will," said Pollyooly, her face growing bright with a +look of perfect understanding. + +He conducted her to her omnibus, put her on it, and wished her good +luck. + +Then he said after the bus had started: + +"Don't forget the tears!" + +He raised his voice in order to overcome the din of the traffic, and +succeeded admirably. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE RELUCTANT DUKE + +Tears were not at all to Pollyooly's liking. She considered them the +sign of a feeble heart and softening brain. The Honourable John Ruffin +had thrown quite a new light on them in suggesting that they could be +used as a weapon; and she considered this use of them most of the way +to Ricksborough House. + +She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy +nineteenth-century facade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a +little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But +she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly. + +Lucas, the butler of the duke, himself opened the door. At the sight +of Pollyooly he started back; for the moment he thought that his lost +young mistress stood before him. + +Pollyooly stepped across the threshold, and said firmly: + +"I want to see the Duke of Osterley, please." + +The words showed Lucas his mistake; he perceived that before him stood +not his mistress, but that young red Deeping who had once made a +manifestly genuine offer to bite him; and he hesitated. + +"It's very important. Please tell him that Miss Bride wants to see +him," said Pollyooly. + +"Um--er--come this way, miss. I'll see if his grace will see you," +said Lucas in a doubtful voice. + +He would have liked to refuse to let her into the house; but he was +doubtful about her social standing. Therefore he took her to the +nearest drawing-room, said that he would inform his grace, and betook +himself to his master in the smoking-room, wearing a perturbed air, for +the duke had as complete a vocabulary as any nobleman in England, and +he might easily take it ill that this formidable red Deeping had not +been refused admission to his house. + +"If you please, your Grace, there's a young lady--leastways a little +girl of the name of Bride--wants to see your Grace," said Lucas. "It's +the little girl you brought home as turned out not to be Lady Marion." + +"What the deuce did you let her in for?" said the duke on the instant; +and he frowned at him. + +"She said it was very important, your Grace," said Lucas in an unhappy +tone. + +The duke continued to frown, considering: Pollyooly might have brought +word of his missing daughter; and he would by no means let slip an +opportunity of getting information about her. On the other hand he +might be about to be called upon to pay more for his kidnapping +exploit. He had, however, just lunched ducally; and he was in a +vainglorious mood, ready to face anything female. + +At last he said bitterly: + +"I seem to have every jackass in London in my service. Bring her here." + +Lucas gloomily announced the readiness of the duke to receive her to +Pollyooly. She followed him eagerly and came into the smoking-room +with a brave air, though she was not feeling as brave as she looked. +The duke stood on the hearthrug and glowered at her. + +She did not hesitate; she gazed at his unamiable face with limpid eyes +and said tranquilly: + +"How do you do, your Grace?" + +The duke grunted; then grew articulate, and said: + +"What do you want?" + +Pollyooly sat down deliberately in one of the big easy chairs facing +him, and answered: + +"If you please, your Grace, I came to see you about an orphan." + +"An orphan?" said the duke a little less grumpily. He was somewhat +impressed by the angel face of his visitor. During her last, +compulsory visit it had been so much more red Deeping than angel. Also +her costume so amber and so expensive impressed him. + +"Yes: her name is Millicent Saunders; and they wanted to send her to +the workhouse because her mother died who used to dance at the Varolium +in the second row, but of course I couldn't let them do that, could I?" +said Pollyooly in an explanatory tone. + +"I don't know. What's it got to do with me?" said the duke quickly. + +"Millicent is one of those orphans who wouldn't be much good working +for herself, though of course she'd work hard and be very willing," +said Pollyooly speaking very clearly in the explanatory tone, and +looking at him with very earnest eyes. + +"Then she'd better go to the workhouse. She'll have an idle enough +time there," said the duke who was staunchly conservative in feeling. + +"But she can't go to the workhouse," said Pollyooly in a deeply shocked +tone. + +"Why not?" said the duke. + +Pollyooly looked at him very sternly, and said in a very stern voice: + +"Her mother was a very respectable woman; she was in the second row of +the Varolium ballet for years and years; and she always kept Millie +very respectable. Besides, you can't let people go to the workhouse." + +"Why can't you, if it's the proper place for them?" said the duke +stubbornly, for he hated to hear the workhouse in any way disparaged, +since he regarded it as a bulwark of society. + +"How would you like your little girl to go to the workhouse?" said +Pollyooly in a deeply reproachful tone. + +"It's a prospect we needn't consider," said the duke haughtily. + +"We never know what we may come to," said Pollyooly with a happy +remembrance of the pious wisdom of her Aunt Hannah. "But Millie isn't +going into the workhouse anyhow. I'm not going to let her. But she +ought to go to a home and be trained to marry an empire-builder. She's +that kind of orphan: Mr. Ruf--a gentleman says that she is. And I came +to ask you if you'd give her a nomination so that she could go into the +Bellingham Home. They'll do anything you tell them there; and if you +said so, they'd take her in at once. And she'd be ever so much obliged +to you. She'd never forget it--never. And so should I." + +She was leaning forward with clasped hands and shining, imploring eyes. +The duke was not insensible to the charm of her beauty, or to the +appeal of her pleading voice. He was even more sensible to the tribute +she had paid to his power in the matter of the Bellingham Home. But he +was in a captious mood; and he did not wish to oblige her. His mind +was chiefly full of the fact that he had made himself look foolish by +kidnapping her and had had to pay her six pounds compensation. He was +still sore about the foolishness and also about the money, for his was +a thrifty soul. + +But Pollyooly's angel face made a direct refusal difficult. He coughed +and said: + +"I--er--don't--er--do things in this--er--irregular way. +My--er--nominations are--er--only given after I have been approached in +the proper way and received testimonials and--er--sifted them out so as +to nominate the most deserving orphan among the many applicants for +admission." + +"There couldn't be a more deserving orphan than Millie," said Pollyooly +quickly. + +"That remains to be proved. There are often fifty or sixty applicants. +And besides, this isn't the time of year when vacancies in the home are +filled up," said the duke, hardening himself in his resistance, now +that he could throw the odium of it on to the machinery of the home. + +Pollyooly's face had fallen, for her instinct told her that he did not +intend to grant her petition, and was only making excuses. She said +slowly: + +"But that wouldn't matter, because if you told them to take in Millie +at any time of the year they'd do it." + +"But the applications have to be written, setting forth the applicant's +claims in the proper way," said the duke, falling yet more firmly back +behind the safe barrier of red tape. "The matter has to receive +careful consideration." + +Pollyooly frowned thoughtfully: "Well, I could write. There are people +who would tell me what to write," she said in the sad tone of one +confronted with an uncongenial task. "Then you could consider Millie +carefully. I'm sure you couldn't find an orphan who's more--more of an +orphan than Millie." + +"I'm afraid it wouldn't be any use--not at this time of year," said the +duke almost cheerfully, as he saw that in an irreproachable fashion he +was getting his own disobliging way. + +Pollyooly filled with the bitter sense of defeat. She heaved a deep +sigh and was on the point of rising to go, when the last adjuration of +the Honourable John Ruffin flashed into her mind, and on the instant +she grew eager to try the new weapon he had suggested. She looked at +the duke with a calculating eye. Nature, thinking probably that if was +enough for a man to be a duke, had not been lavish of beauty to him: +his somewhat small features were often set in an unamiable expression, +and with the faint light of evil satisfaction at baulking Pollyooly now +on them, they looked more unamiable than usual. He did not indeed seem +to be a man to be easily softened. But the matter was far too +important for her to lose the only chance left. + +Very deliberately she drew her handkerchief from her pocket, blinked +her eyes hard to make them water, hid them under the handkerchief, +sniffed once but loudly, and then sobbed. + +"It's very--hard--on Millie--she'll be--dreadfully--disappointed!" + +A sudden consternation smote the duke. He had looked to make himself +completely disagreeable at his ease, certainly without any such assault +on his feelings as this. He shuffled his feet and said hurriedly: + +"It's no good crying about it. It can't be helped, you know." + +Pollyooly's quick ear caught the change in his tone. She sobbed more +loudly: + +"Oh, yes--it can--you could do it--if you wanted to!" + +"These things have to be done in the proper way," protested the duke. + +"It isn't that. You--you--don't like Millie!" sobbed Pollyooly, +watching the weakening face of the perturbed nobleman with an intent +eye over the top of her handkerchief. "You--you--hate her!" + +"Why, I've never set eyes on her!" cried the duke. + +"Oh, yes: you do--and it's--it's beastly," sobbed Pollyooly. + +No duke likes to hear his conduct described as beastly by an angel +child--especially when the description happens to be accurate--and the +duke ground his teeth. + +Pollyooly, watching him, sobbed on--louder. + +The duke gazed at her in a dismal discomfort. He shuffled his feet +till the shuffle was almost a dance. Then he said in a feebly soothing +tone: + +"There--there--that'll do." + +[Illustration: The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort] + +Pollyooly's sobs grew yet louder--heartrending. + +The duke took a hurried turn up and down the room. + +Pollyooly, a huddled figure of desperate woe, sobbed on. + +The duke grabbed at his scrubby little moustache and held on to it +firmly. It was no real help. + +He ground his teeth; he tugged at his moustache; and then in a tone of +the last exasperation, he cried: + +"Oh, hang it all! Stop that infernal howling; and I'll give you the +nomination!" + +Pollyooly softened her sobs a little; the duke flung himself down into +the chair before the writing-table, at the other end of the room, and +seized pen and paper. + +"What's the brat's name?" he growled. + +"Millicent--Saunders," sobbed Pollyooly. + +The duke wrote the nomination, put it in an envelope, addressed it to +the secretary of the Bellingham Home, licked the flap of the envelope +with wolfish ferocity, and banged it fast. + +He came hastily across the room with it to Pollyooly, held it out, and +said with even greater ferocity: + +"Here you are--and--and--much good may it do her!" + +Pollyooly rose quickly and took it. She could hardly believe her +shining eyes. + +"Oh, thank you, your Grace! Millicent will be so glad!" she cried +joyfully. + +The duke growled in his throat; but in some way Pollyooly's radiant +angel face blunted his ferocity. Also it robbed his surrender of its +sting. He rang the bell; then opened the smoking-room door for her and +bade her good day quite in the manner and tone of an English gentleman. + +On the threshold, like the well-mannered child she was, she paused to +thank him again. When she went out he shut the door quite gently; and +by the time he had settled down again in his easy chair, he was feeling +truly magnanimous. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE + +The motor-bus which carried Pollyooly home crawled, to her impatient +fancy, no faster than the old horse-bus, so eager was she to pour the +news of her success into the ears of Millicent. + +Millicent, however, after her first joy on hearing that the path which +would ultimately lead her to the altar with an empire-builder was open +to her, grew sad. + +"It's a pity I couldn't stay on and on with you here," she said very +plaintively. "I'm sure I shall never be so happy anywhere else." + +"Oh, yes: you will," said Pollyooly firmly. "You'll find the home ever +so nice." + +Millicent shook her head doubtfully and said: + +"And I shan't see anything of you and the Lump any more." + +"Oh, yes: you will. You let us know when visiting day is--there's sure +to be a visiting day to a home; and we'll come and see you." + +Millicent's face grew a little brighter. + +The Honourable John Ruffin congratulated Pollyooly warmly on her +success; then he said: + +"I trust you were not driven to use the weapon I suggested. Osterley's +cantankerousness didn't go so far as that?" + +"Oh, well, sir," said Pollyooly, hesitating a little--"I--I did have to +pretend to cry." + +The Honourable John Ruffin laughed gently. + +"Poor Osterley!" he said. + +The duke's letter plainly stirred the Bellingham Home to instant +activity, for a letter came for Pollyooly by the first post to say that +an official of the home would come for Millicent that very afternoon. + +During the morning Millicent wept several times at the thought of +leaving the Lump; and her final farewell was tearful indeed. But +Pollyooly believed that her sadness would not last long: they had +decided that the empire-builder would have fair hair and a large and +flowing moustache. + +After Millicent's departure their life settled down into its usual even +tenour. Pollyooly missed her; and doubtless the Lump also missed his +devoted and obedient slave, though he was of too placid a nature to +raise an outcry about his loss. She wrote to Pollyooly on the day +after her arrival at the home; and the letter made it clear that her +first impressions of it were pleasing. + +It was on the fifth morning after her going that the Honourable John +Ruffin made the great announcement. It was his habit to chant in his +bath what Pollyooly believed to be poetry; and it is improbable that an +observant child of twelve, who had passed the seven standards at Muttle +Deeping school, could have been mistaken in a matter of that kind. At +any rate his chanting was rhythmical. The habit may have borne witness +to the goodness of his conscience, or it may not (it may merely have +been a by-product of an excellent digestion), but that morning it +seemed to her that he chanted more loudly and with a finer gusto than +usual. + +She was not greatly surprised therefore, when she brought in his +carefully grilled bacon, at his saying in a very cheerful tone: + +"I have had a windfall, Mrs. Bride--a windfall of thirty-five pounds. +It fell out of an auction-bridge tree--a game you do not +understand--and it has made the heat-wave, which ought to be called the +heat-flood, more unbearable than ever. Therefore I have resolved to go +away for a while to the sea." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly in a tone of amiable congratulation. + +But her face fell a little; for though the departure of the Honourable +John Ruffin meant that she would have less work; it also meant that she +would have to spend more on food for herself and her little brother the +Lump, since the Honourable John Ruffin did not eat all his bread or +drink all his milk; and there was often half a cake with which he +refused to continue his afternoon tea on the ground that it was stale. +Besides, life was a far more cheerful business when he was at home; his +talk was Pollyooly's chief diversion, though she was hardly conscious +of the fact; and it frequently gave her to think deeply. + +"But the thing that has kept me so long in London submerged in the +heat-flood has not been so much the want of money (I have had enough +for my own escape) as the great bacon difficulty," he said and paused. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"But, thanks to this windfall, I can get over that difficulty by taking +you to the sea to grill my bacon for me, and the Lump to keep you +occupied while you are not grilling it, that Satan may not find some +mischief still for idle hands to do," he said sententiously. + +Pollyooly's large blue eyes opened very wide; and her mouth opened too. + +"Oh, sir, me and the Lump, sir!" she said in a hushed, breathless voice +of incredulous rapture. + +"You and the Lump. The Lump and the sea were made for one another. I +look to see him an admiral one of these days. It is time that England +had a red-headed admiral; I'm tired of these refined, drab-haired ones. +It is my patriotic duty to give him a taste for the sea early." + +"Oh, thank you, sir!" said Pollyooly in a tone of profound gratitude. + +"We will go to Pyechurch. There's an old family servant of ours who +lets lodgings at Pyechurch. I made her life a burden to her when I was +young; and consequently, with true womanliness, she has always +entertained the strongest affection for me. It would be no use taking +you to any other lodgings because you wouldn't be allowed to grill my +bacon for me. But Mrs. Wilson knows that I must be humoured; and +humoured I shall be. Also she will look after you while I am playing +golf at Littlestone--not that I have ever known you to need looking +after." + +"Oh, sir, it will be nice!" said Pollyooly, still somewhat breathless. + +The Honourable John Ruffin smiled at her amiably. + +"This morning we will pack; this afternoon we will go," he said. + +Pollyooly had to slip up to their attic at once to tell the Lump, who +was playing there peacefully, the splendid news. He received it in +placid silence; apparently it did not seem to him to be a matter on +which he was called to comment either favourably or unfavourably. +Pollyooly moved about the world on very light, dancing feet; and as +soon as she had washed up the breakfast things she packed their small +wardrobes in the brown tin box. Then the Honourable John Ruffin, +having finished his cigar and _Morning Post_, summoned her to help him +pack. + +For a while she observed his fashion of doing so with pain and dismay. +He put his clothes in the portmanteau anyhow and crushed them firmly +down. Sometimes he stood on them, quietly. + +Standing painfully now on one leg and now on the other, she endured the +sight for several minutes; then she said: + +"Oh please, sir: you'd better let me do it." + +"Why? What's wrong with my way of doing it?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin, looking down at the confused mess with some surprise. + +"Look how you're crumpling your shirts, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"I thought that that was what trunks and portmanteaux were for. But +have it your own way. Deal with it yourself," said the Honourable John +Ruffin with airy indifference. + +He lighted another cigar and watched Pollyooly take the clothes out of +the portmanteau and replace them neatly with some regard to their shape +and the space to be filled, finding room for a dozen things which he +had been forced to leave out. Then, when she had filled half the +portmanteau, he said: + +"Always fresh accomplishments, Mrs. Bride. If you go on at this rate, +you will certainly go down to posterity as the Admirable Pollyooly." + +He sent down to the Inner Temple kitchen for his lunch; and Pollyooly +gave the Lump his dinner. She ate little herself; she was too excited. +They drove, proudly, in a taxicab to Cannon Street Station; and they +travelled, proudly, first-class. + +The Honourable John Ruffin had bought picture papers for the two +children and a novel for himself, and now and again he paused in his +reading to observe them. It was always a pleasure to a man of his +aesthetic sensibility to gaze at Pollyooly's angel face in its frame of +beautiful red hair and at that redder-headed but authentic cherub, the +Lump. As they ran through London, curiously curled round the Lump, she +was busy showing him the pictures in the papers and receiving his +monosyllabic comments on them, with the ecstatic delight with which his +disciples receive, or should receive, the pregnant utterances of a +genius. When they came into the country she was busy pointing out to +him, with an even more excited delight the common railside objects. It +was more than a year since he had been in the country; and he had to be +told earnestly and more than once that a cow was a cow and a sheep a +baa-lamb, for he was inclined to class them all alike under the genus +gee-gee. When at last he did correctly hail a sheep as a baa-lamb, the +triumphant pleasure of Pollyooly passed all bounds. + +The Honourable John Ruffin read and observed the children, and observed +the children and read. But when they were nearing their journey's end, +he shut up his book and said: + +"I think it will be well for you to cease to be my housekeeper at +Pyechurch, Mrs. Bride. People will ask you about our relations of +course, because by the sea there is so much time for idle curiosity; +and you had better tell them that you are a cousin of mine. That is +nothing but the truth, for you are undoubtedly a red Deeping; and all +the Deepings, red or neutral-tinted, are cousins, first, second, third, +fourth, and so on, of mine." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly gravely. + +"Also I think that you had better give yourself a few airs. You will +have a better time that way, for airs procure you a welcome in the best +circles. Be a red Deeping--not too truculent, you know, but firm." + +Pollyooly's eyes sparkled a little; and she said: + +"Yes, sir: I should like to. I like being a red Deeping, sir, rather. +I liked it when I was at Ricksborough Court." + +"Good. You have the right spirit. One of these days you will become +what the newspapers call a society leader. I foresee it," he said in a +tone of the most assured conviction. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. + +"There's one difficulty though, and that's your hands. At present +they're hardly the hands of a red Deeping," he said thoughtfully. "Not +that they're not small and well-shaped!" he interjected hastily. "But +I expect that a week's idleness will let your nails grow; and brushing +will do the rest." + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly. + +She had never considered her hands from the aesthetic standpoint. She +had been content to keep them clean. She considered them now, +ruefully. It is indeed hard to do the work of two sets of chambers in +the Temple without the hands showing it. Her nails were very short and +rather jagged; a thumbnail was broken; the skin about them was rough +and broken. She looked from them to the white, carefully kept hands, +with pink shining nails, of the Honourable John Ruffin, and sighed. + +"I think that for the future you'd better work in gloves," he said in a +sympathetic tone. + +"I think I'd better try," said Pollyooly doubtfully. To her firm +spirit the idea of working in gloves savoured of dilettantism. + +"You see a lady--and all red Deepings are gentlefolk of course--a lady +must have good hands," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a deprecating +tone. + +"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly solemnly. + +It was the first time that the meaning of the fact that the Deeping +blood ran in her veins had been brought home to her; and she flushed +faintly with honourable pride at the thought that she was a lady, for +all that she did the work of two sets of chambers in the Temple. She +sat a little more upright. + +"And there's another thing," he went on. "At Pyechurch I shall call +you Pollyooly; and you will call me John, or cousin John." + +"I--I'll try to remember, sir," said Pollyooly, again flushing with +pride. + +"You'll soon get into it," said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. +"And it will be very nice for me to have a cousin always to hand." + +Pollyooly flushed again; and the gratitude in her eyes as they rested +on him was beyond words. + +The train, one of the South-Eastern best, sauntered leisurely through +the pleasant, sunny landscape, stopping meditatively at stations and +between stations, as the whim took it, but at last it reached Hythe. + +They drove from there, proudly, in a wagonette to Pyechurch, along the +edge of Romney Marsh, with the shining sea on their left hand. +Pollyooly enjoyed the felicity of showing it to the Lump, who had never +before seen it; but she was somewhat taken aback by his hailing a ship +as a baa-lamb. + +They found Mrs. Wilson eagerly awaiting them. There was no doubt of +her affection for the Honourable John Ruffin. She had a sumptuous tea +ready for them; and after the journey and its excitement they dealt +with it heartily. + +Any fear that the Honourable John Ruffin had felt of Mrs. Wilson's +objecting to Pollyooly's grilling his bacon passed away when he saw how +her heart went out to the two children. Indeed, before tea was over he +was driven to say: + +"I see what it is, Mrs. Wilson: the Lump is going to usurp my place in +your regard." + +"No one could do that, Master John; and well you know it," said Mrs. +Wilson firmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +POLLYOOLY MEETS THE UNPLEASANT PRINCE + +Tea over, the Honourable John Ruffin proposed that he should take them to +the sands; and Pollyooly agreed eagerly. But as they came out of the +house, two little girls, bare-legged and wearing sandals, passed them. + +He looked from them to Pollyooly's stout shoes and black stockings, +stopped short and said firmly: + +"We must change all this." + +He turned to the right down the street and led them into the chief shop +of the village. Apparently he was well known there, for the proprietor +greeted him with respectful warmth. He bought sandals, bathing-dresses, +blue linen frocks, a sunbonnet for Pollyooly, a linen hat for the Lump, +spades and buckets. + +Loaded with these purchases he came out into the street, and took his way +back to Mrs. Wilson's, saying: + +"You must hurry up and change into these things. First impressions are +so important at the seaside; people have so much leisure to be pernickety +in; and you _must_ look all right!" + +Pollyooly was not long making the change; and when she came out of the +house in the blue linen frock and sunbonnet, he smiled at her with warm +approval and said: + +"There's no doubt about it, you have got the knack of wearing clothes, +Pollyooly." + +To Pollyooly his utterance was entirely cryptic; but she gathered that it +was complimentary and returned his smile. + +He took them down to the sands; and they were soon at the height of +happiness, building a castle, paddling, and picking up shells. He left +them to it; and went for a stroll down the sea wall. Since it was a hot +evening, at seven he fetched them to bathe; and since he let them bathe +in their own timid way, the timid way of children bathing for the first +time, they enjoyed it exceedingly. The Lump found eight inches of water +deep enough for him, Pollyooly eighteen. + +The next morning they bathed again at seven. + +The house was near enough to the sea to allow them to go straight from +their bedrooms to it in their bathing dresses. After their bath the +Honourable John Ruffin returned firmly to bed for an hour and so gave +Pollyooly time to make a leisurely and complete breakfast before grilling +his bacon. He had explained to Mrs. Wilson that it was necessary to his +happiness that it should be grilled by Pollyooly, and she had raised no +objection. She observed the process with interest, but not with approval. + +"All that time spent over cooking a few slices of bacon!" she said with +the womanly air of one sniffing, when it was transferred from the +frying-pan to the dish. + +Pollyooly's brow puckered in a thoughtful frown; and she said gravely: + +"But that's the only way to get it right." + +Mrs. Wilson sniffed outright. + +After his breakfast the Honourable John Ruffin departed to Littlestone to +golf; and Pollyooly and the Lump went down to the sands. There are no +niggers, pierrots, or bands at Pyechurch, only a few donkeys and a +cocoanut-shy. But at low tide there are a thousand acres of firm sand, a +children's paradise. Pollyooly enjoyed it beyond words: not only the +sands and the sea but also the freedom from care. Food, excellent food +and plenty of it, awaited them, paid for, at Mrs. Wilson's. + +The Lump was the cause of Pollyooly's first introduction to +fellow-sojourners in this delectable land. A little girl of four, with +very large brown eyes, who was playing near them, was quite suddenly +attracted by him, and without further ado took possession of him. +Pollyooly was pleased that he should have a playmate of his own age; the +little girl's nurse, observing that they were dressed as other children +and that Pollyooly spoke "prettily," and was inclined to be uncommonly +haughty with her, assented to the acquaintance. The little brown-eyed +girl's blue-eyed sister, Kathleen, who was seven, mothered her little +sister, whose name was Mary. Also now and again she mothered the Lump; +but Pollyooly was not jealous. + +At first the Lump was somewhat taken aback by this sudden acquisition of +a female friend; but his remarkable placidity stood him in good stead, +and he endured it with an even mind. Presently indeed he seemed to be +taking pleasure in it, for he began to bully her in the manliest fashion. + +Then the mother of the little girls joined them and was at once charmed +by the Lump. Pollyooly found no need to display the airs of a red +Deeping, with which she had been treating the nurse, to her; and +presently they were chatting in the friendliest way. Mrs. Gibson, as the +nurse called her, seemed as taken with Pollyooly's serious outlook on +life as with the charm of the Lump; and presently she asked her if her +mother would let them come to tea with Kathleen and Mary and to games on +the sands after it that afternoon. + +Pollyooly explained that they were staying with their cousin John, who +had gone to golf at Littlestone and would not be back till late; +therefore she accepted the invitation herself. Mrs. Gibson was impressed +by the discovery that cousin John was the Honourable John Ruffin; but she +expressed her surprise that he should have gone away for the day and left +them to themselves without a nurse to look after them. Pollyooly, with +an air of considerable dignity, assured her that she would never dream of +trusting the Lump to a nurse; and Mrs. Gibson admitted that she was right. + +Pollyooly and the Lump enjoyed the party exceedingly. There were a dozen +children, fellow-guests; and at tea the manners of the Lump, under +Pollyooly's anxious eye, were beyond reproach. Her hands indeed troubled +her, and she kept them out of sight as much as she could. After all they +were not very large hands to withdraw from view. After tea the younger +children played in the charge of nurses; the elder children, to the +extreme delight of Pollyooly, who loved to run fleetly, disported +themselves in more swift and violent games. She had much to tell the +Honourable John Ruffin on his return from Littlestone. He congratulated +her warmly on their debut. + +The next day she found herself well launched in the society of the sands, +with many playmates, and entered upon the fullest and most delightful +life. But there is always a fly in the finer ointments; and the +Pyechurch fly was Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz. + +That morning Pollyooly had her first sight of him. She and the Lump were +playing with Kathleen and Mary, when Kathleen cried in a tone of dismay, +"Here's the prince!" picked up Mary, who would have gone quicker on her +own feet, and staggered off toward their nurse with her. + +Pollyooly picked up the Lump and came with her, though she could see no +reason for Kathleen's dismay, for the prince was but a fat little boy of +ten, small-eyed, thick-lipped, and snub-nosed. His white sailor suit +seemed to give his ugliness its full values. + +Under the wing of their nurse Kathleen and Mary surveyed him with the +eyes of terror; and Kathleen poured into Pollyooly's attentive ear the +story of his dreadful doings: how he had pushed a little boy over the +edge of the sea-wall, kicked several others; how he had hit little girls +with their own spades and pulled the hair of others; how he never passed +a carefully built castle without kicking a breach in it, and always threw +any spades or buckets he could lay hands on far into the sea. + +Pollyooly observed this terror with the unimpressed eye of a connoisseur. +When she had lived with her Aunt Hannah in the little slum at the back of +the King's Bench Walk, she had fought many battles with the small boys of +Alsatia; and she was not at all impressed by the physique of the prince. +She was of the opinion that Henry Wiggins would make very short work of +him; and she could hold Henry Wiggins (by the hair) with her left hand +and smack him with her right till she was nearly as tired of smacking as +he was of being smacked. She knew that she could because she had done it. + +The prince came to the castle they themselves had been building and +kicked down one wall of it. + +"If only you weren't a prince, I'd teach you, my fine young gentleman," +said the nurse softly. + +"You mind the Lump! I'll go and smack him hard!" cried Pollyooly with +eager confidence. + +"No! No! He's a _prince_! You mustn't touch a _prince_, miss!" cried +the nurse in a tone of the last horror, gripping Pollyooly's wrist +tightly. "Besides, he'd hurt you. He's a very nasty, spiteful little +boy." + +"Oh, I don't mind him! I'm not afraid of a little boy like that!" cried +Pollyooly; and she tugged at the restraining grip, hard but in vain, +eying the pest with the bright light of battle in her eyes. + +"I wouldn't let my children play with him like some people do just +because he's a prince--not was it ever so. I should be frightened all +the time," said the nurse. + +"If he ever touches the Lump, I'll teach him!" Said Pollyooly with a +cold, impressive ferocity. + +"If ever he touches one of us, papa will spank him hard. Papa doesn't +care much for princes," said Kathleen. + +"I should think he didn't--if they're like that," said Pollyooly with +conviction. + +They watched the devastating royal progress with indignant eyes. The +back view of the prince was nearly as unpleasant as the front, for he +slouched along with his fat little figure hunched forward in a very ugly +fashion. The children fled before him as he came, and from the shelter +of their nurses, or their mothers, angrily watched him destroy the +castles they had built. But most of their mothers regarded him with a +gloating admiration; they felt that the beach was more glorious for his +royal presence. + +About forty yards behind him came a companion figure, his equerry the +Baron von Habelschwert, a stout, pig-eyed, snub-nosed man of forty-five +who walked with the stiffness of a ramrod of the best Bessemer steel. +His legs were, unfortunately, rather short, and since the lower part of +his body was of a fine protuberant rotundity which the breadth of his +shoulders and the thickness of his chest failed dismally to equal, he +displayed an uncommonly exact resemblance of a perambulating pear. He +had a rich expanse of fat cheek and a small, but dimpled, chin. He was +saved by his fierce moustache, which, upturned in the imperial fashion, +gave him the ferocious air required by his military profession and his +sentiments of a superman of the latest Prussian brand. + +Happiness sat enthroned upon his brow. A passion for blacking is a +distinguishing characteristic of his military caste; and his natural love +of licking the boots of members of the many royal families of the +Fatherland was finding its full expression. In Prince Adalbert he had a +perpetual boot to lick. Sometimes indeed the boot licked him: that very +morning the prince had kicked his shins in a masterly fashion, on being +invited to wash his face for the day. The baron bore it very well. + +His clothes fitted him with an extreme, but somewhat unfortunate, +military tightness. They were of an unpleasant greenish tint which did +not match the green Homberg hat he wore. In his right hand he carried a +short cane and yellow gloves. The morning was hot; his boots were patent +leather. Diffusing an agreeable odour of pomatum on the breeze, he +walked with the air of one taking his ease in a conquered country, for he +was one of the gallant German war-party, and he looked forward with +touching certainty to the day when the mailed fist of his imperial master +should sweep England with fire and sword from sea to sea. He often +talked in a gloating fashion of that great day to his young charge. +Possibly that was one of the reasons which induced Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz to make so free with the castles and persons of the +children of the so-soon-to-be-subjugated English. + +The ogres of the sands having disappeared down the beach, the children +repaired the damage to their castles and once more played in peace. That +afternoon there was another royal progress of the same devastating kind +but more complete, since the prince surprised a little girl and pulled +her hair. The fond English mothers still observed him with a gloating +air, happy to be on the same stretch of sand with him. They said +indulgently to one another: "Boys will be boys," or, with conviction: +"Such a manly little fellow." + +This time the Baron von Habelschwert walked only fifteen yards behind the +prince. He smiled benignly on the destruction of the castles; plainly he +felt that his young charge was treating the so-soon-to-be-subjugated +English in the right spirit. + +There was only one check to the royal progress. The sand-castle on which +Pollyooly and Kathleen had worked so hard stood directly in the line of +it. Kathleen and Mary fled to their nurse at the approach of the prince, +calling wildly to Pollyooly to follow. Pollyooly leaving the Lump in the +castle, stepped out of it, and spade in hand calmly awaited the coming of +the prince. + +When he was three yards from her she said quietly but very distinctly: + +"You keep away." + +[Illustration: "You keep away"] + +The prince advanced two steps and stopped. There was that in Pollyooly's +deep blue eyes which gave him pause. He advanced another step, and +stopped again. Then he called her "pig-dog," in his native tongue, +turned aside, and pursued his way. As he went he kept looking back at +her, scowling malevolently. + +Pollyooly gazed after him with unchanging face. She would have liked to +put her tongue a long way out at him; but she felt that red Deepings did +not do so. + +The nurse came down to the castle with Kathleen and Mary, and said in a +tone of respectful awe: + +"However you dare, miss! And him a prince too!" + +"I don't care a pin for him," said Pollyooly calmly. + +She stepped back to the castle and continued the work of construction. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT THE PRINCE ASKED FOR + +The royal progress was the event of the morning and afternoon for +several days before it occurred to Pollyooly to tell the Honourable +John Ruffin about it. Then one evening, on their way to bathe, she +told him. + +The Honourable John Ruffin stood still on the edge of the sea, looked +at her thoughtfully, and said: + +"This is interesting indeed. I had no idea that German aggression had +extended to this retired spot." + +"And he's such an ugly little boy," said Pollyooly. + +"And he is all alone?" + +"Oh, no: there's a baron with him to look after him--with a large +moustache. He's very ugly too," said Pollyooly frankly. + +"This grows more interesting still. I think I should enjoy looking +into this matter. Prussian barons always need a firm hand. But I'm +too full up with golf to deal with it for the next day or two. I must +bear it in mind." + +Plainly he did bear it in mind, for on the afternoon of the third day, +to Pollyooly's delight, he joined them on the sands. She introduced +him to Mrs. Gibson; and he thanked her for having had his two little +cousins to tea, and chatted to her in his cheerful and engaging fashion +till Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz came slouching along on his +devastating course. The Honourable John Ruffin observed him with every +appearance of the liveliest interest; but the Baron von Habelschwert +seemed to afford him even greater pleasure than did his young charge; +and upon him he gazed with a fascinated, loving eye. + +"I have rarely seen a more perfect pair," he said to Mrs. Gibson in a +tone of deep content. + +"Detestable creatures!" said Mrs. Gibson with some heat. + +"Perhaps--but how incomparably Prussian!" said the Honourable John +Ruffin with warm appreciation. "And you let these unpleasant ones +terrorise your children?" + +"Well, what can I do?" said Mrs. Gibson. "My husband would have +stopped it, if he had been down here; but he isn't. I have spoken to +one or two men, acquaintances, about it. But they seem afraid to +interfere." + +"We are getting too highly civilised," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a melancholy tone. "The fine old English spirit is dying out; and +they're afraid of getting into the papers. But evidently what is +needed is the giving of lessons; and the proper person to give them is +a fierce small boy--Irish for choice--one who is always and nobly +spoiling for a fight. Unfortunately I have not a fierce small Irish +boy to hand; but, thank goodness! there are still red Deepings left in +England." + +"What is a red Deeping?" said Mrs. Gibson. + +"The red Deepings are an old East Anglian strain--red-haired and very +fierce and cantankerous when roused. My little cousin Pollyooly here +is a red Deeping." + +"Oh, do you think she could cope with that horrid little boy?" said +Mrs. Gibson eagerly. + +"I'm sure of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin with decision. "Come +here, Pollyooly." + +Pollyooly came; and he felt her biceps carefully. Then he said: + +"Didn't Mr. Vance tell me a story of a boy called Henry Wiggins whom +you found disrespectful and taught manners?" + +Pollyooly flushed faintly; but she said bravely, in an explanatory tone: + +"I had to. He was always bothering." + +"I should think that Henry Wiggins was a far more active and difficult +boy in a fight than this fat little prince," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Oh, Henry Wiggins is tough but really he is quite easy. You've only +got to get hold of his hair," said Pollyooly quickly. "But of course +the prince has very short hair, only he isn't tough at all," she added +in the grave tones of one weighing the chances of battle. + +"He certainly is cropped. The Prussians have no aesthetic sense," said +the Honourable John Ruffin in a disparaging tone. "But I should think +that you could get over the difficulty of the hair." + +"Oh, yes: I'm nearly sure I could," said Pollyooly; and her deep blue +eyes began to shine. "May I smack him if he interferes with us?" + +"Not on any account unless I am at hand," said the Honourable John +Ruffin quickly. "I have a deep, patriotic distrust of the chivalry of +Prussian barons. I do not think that this one could be trusted to see +fair play. You might have a baron on your hands as well as a prince; +and it might be too much for a red Deeping of your size. A prince at a +time should be your motto." + +"It would be very amusing," said Mrs. Gibson; and her eyes danced. + +"You shall see it," said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. "Unbiased +spectators of a dramatic scene are always desirable; and it won't be +difficult to arrange your presence, for the business will need a little +stage-managing. You watch the prince, Pollyooly, and see how far he +goes down the beach, so that we can arrange the exact place for his +instruction." + +The next day Pollyooly followed the prince to the end of his royal +progress twice; and she had little doubt that she would be able to draw +him into the battle for which she yearned, for he never saw her without +scowling darkly upon her. + +On the second day the Honourable John Ruffin returned from his golf in +time to lunch with the two children; and he informed Pollyooly that he +proposed to spend the afternoon on the sand with them. They found Mrs. +Gibson with her children; and she accompanied them to the spot at which +the prince usually turned in his course. Twenty yards beyond it the +Honourable John Ruffin bade Pollyooly build a castle; and then he and +Mrs. Gibson left her and the Lump to build it, and retiring to the +sea-wall forty yards away, they sat down and fell into polite +conversation. As they left her, the Honourable John Ruffin's last +words to Pollyooly were: + +"I don't forbid you to scratch him. Scratching is harmonious with the +female nature." + +The statement afforded Mrs. Gibson grounds for the beginning of their +polite conversation. + +Pollyooly and the Lump worked steadily away at the building of the +castle. Pollyooly did the digging; now and again the Lump would pat a +wall placidly. They had been at work for rather more than half an +hour; and the castle was already beginning to wear the rotund air so +dear to the eye of the builder when the progressive prince came in +sight. + +Pollyooly's joyful heart began to beat quickly. He was slouching along +to his doom nearly fifty yards in front of the fragrant baron; and +since there were children to annoy all the way, he came but slowly. It +gave Pollyooly time to lead the Lump half-way to Mrs. Gibson, and send +him toddling the rest. She was back at her castle, and at work again +when the prince caught sight of her. + +He stopped short, his unhasty mind slowly taking in the situation. +That she should be working in loneliness, thirty yards beyond the line +of nurses and children along the beach, seemed too good to be true. +Presently his unhurrying mind grasped the fact that it was true; his +heart blazed in his bosom; he threw back his head and, had his nose +been larger, he would have sniffed the breeze like a warhorse. He +advanced upon her in a quick, shambling slouch. + +Pollyooly saw his eager advance; but she affected not to see it. She +was eager for the fray, but fearful lest a display of that eagerness +should dash the royal courage; moreover she wished the prince to be +flagrantly the aggressor. She worked at the farther wall of the castle +with her back to him. A fray was the last thing the prince looked for. +There had been but one fray in his sheltered life: with a brother +prince carelessly admitted to his society. A fray with a child not of +the blood royal was beyond dreaming. He sprang on to the castle wall +and began to stamp and kick a breach in it with furious, but clumsy, +energy. + +Then Pollyooly turned and sprang. The prince was hardly aware of her +spring; he was only aware of a stinging smack, and then the shock of +her impetus toppled him over on to his back on the sand. Pollyooly +came down too, but not on the sand; she came down on the prince, and +far more heavily than her fragile air warranted. Before he could +collect any scattered wits he may have chanced to have, she was +kneeling astride him, with a painful, grinding knee on either of his +arms, and slapping his face. + +The Honourable John Ruffin walked briskly down from the sea-wall with a +smile of profound pleasure on his face. The perfumed baron had not yet +perceived his charge's plight. + +Pollyooly did not smack very hard at first, for she was resisting the +wriggling of the prince; but once she had dug her toes firmly into the +sand, she gave her mind to delivering each smack with the full swing of +her arm; and the prince began to bellow. Then the baron saw the +terrible, treasonable indignity the hope of the house of +Lippe-Schweidnitz was enduring. He broke into a curious toddling run, +uttering odd, short shrieks of the last horror as he came. + +The Honourable John Ruffin placed himself athwart the course of the +toddling deliverer and said quietly: + +"Don't hurry, Pollyooly, but smack him hard." + +A smile of understanding wreathed Pollyooly's flushed but angel face; +and she did smack him hard. The Honourable John Ruffin's back was +turned to the headlong baron; but his head was bent a little sideways; +and as the already breathless rescuer made his final spurting rush he +moved sharply to the left. + +It was unfortunate (but since he had not eyes in the back of his head, +it could not be helped) that the left shoulder of the Honourable John +Ruffin, jerking upward hard, should have impinged upon the onrushing +right shoulder of the deliverer. The baron left the firm earth, +twirled in the air in a fashion which would have won him the plaudits +of the most exacting music-hall audience, came down on his back on the +sand with a violence which shook the little breath left out of his body +and lay gasping in a darkened world. + +It was a full minute and a half before the bellowing of his +sufficiently besmacked charge came again, dimly, to his comprehending +ears. Then he grew aware, also dimly, that the Honourable John Ruffin +was standing over him and asking loudly, with every appearance of just +indignation, what he meant by not looking where he was going. The +baron was strongly of the opinion that the interposed shoulder had been +no accident; but he was much too busy with his breathing to say so. +Then when his breath came more easily and he had the power to say so, +he had no longer the inclination, for the knowledge of the terrible +position in which he stood, or rather lay, had flashed on him: he, a +German officer, had been knocked down by a civilian and was forever +disgraced. + +Pollyooly continued to smack the bellowing prince; the Honourable John +Ruffin continued to ask the baron what the devil he meant by it; and +the poor wits of the panting nobleman continued to work on his dreadful +problem. Then a flash of inspiration showed him the saving solution: +he could accept his noisy questioner's view that his fall had been an +accident. He sat up and began to apologise faintly and sulkily for +having been knocked down. + +The hands of Pollyooly were sore from smacking Prince Adalbert, but not +so sore as his royal cheeks; and still she smacked on. She interjected +between the smacks requests for an assurance that he would cease to +annoy the children on the beach. His fine Prussian determination not +to be robbed of his simple pleasures prevented him from giving it. He +preferred to bellow. But there are limits even to royal endurance; and +as the baron rose shakily to his feet, the prince howled the assurance +she demanded. + +"And mind you do, or I'll smack you again," said Pollyooly coldly. + +She rose to her feet, flushed and triumphant, and rubbed gently +together her stinging hands. The prince lay where he was, blubbering. + +Ten yards away Mrs. Gibson stood holding the hand of the Lump, who +gazed at the scene in placid wonder; and she was laughing gently. Ten +yards away, on her right, stood a dozen children, surveying their +blubbering pest with joyful, vengeful eyes. Behind them distractedly +hovered three shocked nurses, quivering with horror at the upheaval of +the social edifice; and horror-stricken mothers were slowly approaching +the dreadful spot. + +The baron slowly took in the humiliating significance of the scene; he +saw that the glory of a royal house had been levelled to the dust, or +rather to the sand. He caught his blubbering charge by the arm, jerked +him to his feet, and led him away by one large ear. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked after them and laughed quietly but +joyfully. Then he said: + +"I congratulate you, Pollyooly--an excellent piece of work very neatly +done. The haughty foreigner will trouble you no more." + +Mrs. Gibson came forward and added her congratulations to his. The +children gazed at Pollyooly with deep respect. Only the nurses and the +mothers held aloof; an earthquake shock would hardly have astonished +and confused them more than had this smacking of royalty. Had any one +but the little cousin of the Honourable John Ruffin smacked, they would +have been unable to refrain from an outburst of open disapproval. + +To judge from the royal progress next morning, Pollyooly had indeed +done her work. The Baron von Habelschwert still perfumed the air as he +walked; but it was no longer obviously the air of a conquered country. +His moustache was less fierce, his stride less proprietary. Indeed he +might easily have been mistaken, by those to whom his name and +dignities were unknown, for the pear-shaped but inoffensive keeper of a +delicatessen shop. Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz was also +changed. He no longer roamed afield; he kept within six feet of his +protective equerry. He slouched less; and he had ceased to scowl +arrogantly on the children who no longer fled at his approach. He +regarded little English girls with a respectful, not to say timid, eye, +and edged closer to the baron as he passed one. To his mind the little +English girl was stored with the potentialities of a powder-magazine. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RAPPROCHEMENT + +The noble-hearted humanitarian is ever of the opinion that violence, +physical violence, is degrading alike to those who employ it, and to +those on whom it is employed. In the main, doubtless, he may be right; +but there must be natures, exceptional natures, on which it does not +exercise this disastrous effect; and it is curious that there should be +two human beings in so small a place as Pyechurch at the same time of +this very nature. + +There can be no doubt that Pollyooly had smacked Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz with far greater violence than ever she had smacked +the abhorred Henry Wiggins for yelling "Ginger!" at her. There can be +no doubt that the prince had been so smacked. Yet Pollyooly's face +remained the face of an angel child; her devotion to the Lump and her +politeness to those with whom she came into contact showed no signs of +weakening; and no one could honestly assert that Prince Adalbert looked +a bit more like a pig than he had always done. If anything he had lost +something of his likeness to that nutritious animal. + +At any rate there was no sign of degradation in his behaviour. He now +walked about Pyechurch beach as peacefully as you could wish: he +destroyed no castles; he kicked no children. + +Even that fierce, stout, moustachioed and military Prussian, the Baron +von Habelschwert, seemed to have derived benefit from his violent +impingement on the left shoulder of the Honourable John Ruffin. Though +his more mature nature should have been fixed, there can be no doubt +that he wore a softer air, and no longer trod the English sand with the +air of a disdainful but perfumed conqueror. + +He was by no means an observant man; but stupid as he was, he could not +fail to perceive the change in his pupil, for it was forced on his +attention by the fact that the prince did not kick his shins for +seventy-two hours. The baron was at first surprised, then dismayed: he +feared that the fine Hohenzollern spirit of his young charge might have +suffered a lasting, weakening shock from his encounter with that angel +child; and when the prince for three successive mornings and afternoons +did not assault a single little girl, however much smaller than himself +those who came within his reach chanced to be, the fear deepened. + +Oddly enough the subdued prince did not seem to regard Pollyooly with +the bitterness which might have been expected. He did not even shun +the sight of her. Indeed, as he made his royal progress along the +beach, he would pause and regard her with puzzled but manifestly quite +respectful interest, as she played actively not far from her little +brother, the Lump, with her young friends. + +The baron regarded the Honourable John Ruffin in a very different +manner; he could not set eyes on him without scowling horribly. It was +the desire of his heart to have the blood of Pollyooly's protector; and +though the conduct of Pollyooly had oddly but considerably weakened his +confident expectation of the immediate subjugation of the English +people by his imperial master he longed with a greater fervour than had +ever before burned in him for THE DAY. + +The conversations, strictly confined to the British tongue, between the +baron and his pupil, were always of the briefest and often truculent. +The prince was a silent child, by reason of the fact that he had +nothing to say. But one morning as they came down to the beach he +startled the baron by saying: + +"I want to blay." + +"Yes, 'ighness, whad shall we blay ad?" said the Baron von Habelschwert +uncomfortably, after a little hesitation. + +"I don't want to blay wiz you," said the prince in a tone which showed, +beyond any possibility of misconception, that on that matter his mind +was made up. + +"Bud zere's no one else for you do blay wiz," said the baron in English. + +"I want to blay wiz childrens," said the pupil. + +The baron drew his heels together and became, though still pear-like, +splendidly rigid. His eyes flashed with haughty, but a trifle +vicarious pride, as he said: + +"Zere are no children for your 'ighness do blay wiz 'ere. Zese are nod +'igh and well-born ones." + +"I do nod care," said the prince in the tone of one who knew his own +mind quite well. + +"Id is imbossible," said the baron in a tone of finality. + +The rhinocerine eyes of his little charge flashed in sudden wrath; and +he uttered a curious, pig-like snort as he sprang at the baron, and got +in one severe kick on his left shin before that thoughtless Prussian, +who should have known so well what to expect, could abate his rigidity +and bend forward and hold him off at the length of his arms. He well +knew that, in that constrained attitude to his bellowing pupil, he was +presenting no dignified spectacle. None the less he was aware that he +was affording considerable entertainment to the visitors taking the air +on the sea-wall above him; and his joy in his young charge was not +increased by the fact that among those visitors the Honourable John +Ruffin smiled on the scene with amiable interest. + +Having ascertained beyond all doubting that his well-shod toes could +not reach the shins of his preceptor, the young prince ceased his +futile effort, and with a most ungracious air moved along the beach. +The limping baron followed him gloomily, with itching fingers. He felt +that, in spite of the fact that his imperial master would shortly sweep +her land with fire and sword from sea to sea, the lot of the happy +English child Pollyooly was to be envied, since she could, and did, +smack princes, with a mind untroubled by the sense of their +sacrosanctity. Moreover he felt a sad prescience that his young +charge, careless of the magnificent blood that flowed in his veins, +_would_ play with these children, who were neither high nor well-born. +But he was quite unprepared for the actual group of children his young +charge chose for playmates. He passed no less than four animated and +excited groups before he arrived at that adorned and ruled by Pollyooly. + +It chanced that it had decided to play rounders, and was gathered into +an excited knot in which everybody was discussing, all at the same +time, the process of picking sides. + +The prince, shouldering aside, with proud Hohenzollern manliness, two +or three little girls, thrust into the centre of the group and said: + +"I want do blay." + +The debating voices hushed; the other children stared at him with +startled eyes, then drew aside leaving him face to face with Pollyooly. + +"We don't want him to play with _us_!" cried Kathleen, who occupied the +position of chief friend to Pollyooly. + +"No, we don't!" cried the two other little girls. + +The prince paid no heed to them; he looked at Pollyooly and said: + +"I want do blay." + +Pollyooly considered him thoughtfully, weighing the question of his +admission to their circle with the care it demanded. He was not very +pleasant to look at since he was so podgy, snub-nosed, pasty-faced, and +small-eyed; but Pollyooly, mindful of their late encounter, and +inspired by the magnanimity of the victor, did not at once reject the +appeal. + +"Will you promise to behave properly, if we let you play with us?" she +said coldly. + +The Baron von Habelschwert, standing over the group and nervously +twirling his fierce moustache, shuddered and groaned. It was bad +enough that his young, but pig-headed Hohenzollern should play at all +with children who were neither high, nor well-born; but that he should +only be admitted to play with them on terms passed the limit of human +decency. He had read often in the sterner, but agrarian, papers of his +Fatherland, that, owing to the increase of the Socialist vote, the +world was coming to an end. He felt its once so solid mass trembling +beneath his feet. + +But the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz, insensible to the +tremor, said eagerly: + +"Yes." + +"All right: then we'll try letting you play with us and see," said +Pollyooly. + +There came a faint murmur of protest from her friends, or rather from +her followers; and she added with comforting assurance: + +"Oh, it's all right; you needn't worry about him; I'll see that he +behaves, myself." + +With that assurance they were content--they had to be; the prince was +admitted to the circle; and Pollyooly picked him on her side. + +It had the first innings; and the baron expected the prince to be put +in first. He was annoyed to observe that, as a mere matter of tactics, +since she was by far the fastest of her side, that Pollyooly took that +position herself. He was further annoyed when she put in her friend +Kathleen next, an act of sheer favouritism unjustified by Kathleen's +capacity; and after Kathleen she put in a little boy, and then another +little girl. As they played their innings, she stood beside the prince +and instructed him in the game. Once, since he appeared slow to grasp +her meaning, she caught him by the shoulder and shook him to make it +clearer. The Baron von Habelschwert ground his teeth. When at last +the prince did go in, the baron's heart swelled with proud expectation: +his gallant little charge would display to those English children (they +were neither high, nor well-born) the natural superiority of his royal +blood and race. + +The prince, however, did not fulfil this loyal expectation. He hit the +ball, indeed, and in obedience to Pollyooly's shriek of instruction, +started to run. But he started to run the wrong way round. His side +shrieked as one child, as Pollyooly sprang upon him, swung him round, +and shoved him along in the right direction. She succeeded in +arresting his mad course at the first base by one of the shrillest +shrieks of "Stop!" that ever burst from human lung. The next time the +ball was hit she set him going again by a companion shriek; and with +others of a like piercing quality (they seemed to flow from her lungs +in an inexhaustible abundance) she guided him safely round the bases +and home. From the blundering, stumbling way he ran, her shrieks +seemed to be the only things in the world of which he was really +conscious. + +The baron watched the confused performance of his little charge with a +strong feeling that something very serious indeed was the matter with +the order of nature. When Pollyooly's side went out to field, he was +no more satisfied by the prince's performance. Whenever the ball came +to him, in spite of the fact that an encouraging, instructive shriek +from Pollyooly reached him first, he either missed it, or fumbled it; +and he always shied it in short. The baron's feeling that there was +something very wrong with the cosmos grew stronger. He became +depressed and yet more depressed by the fact that the prince was +playing to an audience; for all the respectful and admiring nurses +edged down the beach to behold him play; and those of them whose little +charges were playing in the same game with him, assumed insufferable +airs. + +After a while the children tired of rounders and betook themselves to +building a sand-castle. Since he had been admitted to their circle on +her instance, Pollyooly seemed to feel herself responsible for the +prince. She seemed also to feel it more important that he should learn +to dig properly than that she should dig herself. For, giving him her +spade, she stood over him and urged him to ply it with the exacting +persistence of a biblical Egyptian superintending the making of bricks. +The baron walked moodily up and down outside the castle wall, +considering bitterly the while the defects in the cosmos. + +The morning sped; and the prince perspired. At last the punctual baron +observed that it was time to return home to lunch. In fact his +vigilant stomach apprised him of the fact before his watch. + +He came close to the castle wall and said: + +"It's time for your Highness to coom 'ome." + +His highness took no notice of him. + +In a louder tone the baron said: + +"Coom along, your Highness. Id's dime we go 'ome." + +His highness shot a savage glance at him out of the corner of his eye, +hunched his shoulders, and went on digging. + +"Don't you hear the baron calling you, Prince?" said Pollyooly in a +tone of some displeasure. + +His highness seemed likely to withdraw his head right out of sight +between his shoulders, and went on digging. He was still perspiring. + +"Now you go along at once--like a good boy!" said Pollyooly sharply. + +His highness raised his disappearing head and saw the cold resolve in +her deep-blue eyes. He gave himself a little shake, stuck his spade +into the sand, stretched his neck and went: but not like a good boy. +He stumbled down the castle wall with his teeth set very tight, and +immediately on reaching level ground kicked the shins of his unprepared +preceptor. The baron, as was his wont, bent like a bow and held his +little charge out at the length of his arms beyond the range of his +shins, till his wrath should have abated. + +Pollyooly's face filled with horror; she came springing lightly down +the castle wall; cried: "Don't do that, you naughty little boy!" and +caught the prince a resounding slap on the cheek. + +The pent-up feelings of the prince escaped in a loud yell. He loosed +his preceptor and pressed a hand to his stinging cheek. + +It was too much for the baron. He tore his hat from his head, flung it +to earth, ground it into the earth with his heel, and flung his arms to +heaven in one frenzied movement: + +"Ach Gott!" he cried to the unregarding sky. "Thad a liddle +Eengleesh-she-devil-child should strike a Hohenzollern!" + +Moved by his emotion, Pollyooly looked at him in anxious surprise: + +"It's all right," she said in a soothing voice. "You don't know how to +manage him. He'll go like a lamb." + +Her surmise (it could have been no more than a surmise) proved +accurate. The prince went blubbering, but he went like a lamb. + +It might be supposed that his proud, Hohenzollern blood would have +boiled for hours at the blow. Nothing of the kind. + +After a hearty lunch he rose and said firmly: + +"I'm going to blay wiz Bollyooly." + +He went. The baron followed him gloomily. Now he knew the cosmic all +to be a mere time-honored cheat. + +In this order they came down on to the beach and approached a group of +children in which Pollyooly reigned. The prince entered it with the +air of an uninvited guest, very doubtful of his welcome, and said to +Pollyooly in a tone half assertive, half beseeching: + +"I've coom to blay." + +Pollyooly looked at him with very stern eyes and said: "Well, you quite +understand you've got to behave yourself." + +The baron groaned. + +Pollyooly turned to him and said with polite interest: + +"Has he kicked you again?" + +"Ach Himmel!" said the baron; and he thrust his hands into his pockets, +clenched his fingers very tightly, and walked away with bowed head. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE TRAINING OF ROYALTY + +On that day began the real instruction of Prince Adalbert of +Lippe-Schweidnitz in the art of life and the graces of social +intercourse. Pollyooly continued it with unswerving firmness. Her +method of treating a Hohenzollern was indeed entirely subversive of all +current ideas on the matter of the deference due to the members of a +family which has practically made the history of Europe since the +beginning of this century. It seemed at times as if to her a +Hohenzollern was a hardly animate object which you shoved here and there +as you might an easy-chair which kept catching in the carpet, or at other +times a mere beast of burden which you shoved, or shook, or cuffed gently +into doing what you wanted with a moderate, but uncertain, degree of +precision. Often however a piercing shriek was sufficient to produce the +required action. + +The prince was always in a perspiration, and often out of breath. But he +seemed to thrive on the treatment: his appetite improved; his pastiness +lessened; his skin grew clearer; and his flesh became less abundant and +harder. He also became quicker in his movements, and showed many more +glimmerings of intelligence, sometimes sustained for seconds at a time. + +The baron's deferential soul could not endure the situation; and it never +occurred to him to make the enquiries which would have informed him that +Pollyooly, as a red Deeping, was of an older strain than the +Hohenzollerns. He made many efforts to withdraw the prince from her +society. He remonstrated both with her and with his little charge on the +extraordinary impropriety of their being acquainted. But they seemed to +find it entirely natural; and his efforts were vain. The prince, in +truth, followed Pollyooly about; and what he followed her about like was +a dog. He did not indeed spring to do her bidding, for he was not built +to spring; but it was plain that if he could have sprung he would. + +Perhaps the most remarkable fact about him was the improvement in his +spirits: he was losing his air of gloomy savagery; often he smiled--at a +dish which took his fancy, and on setting out for the sands to join +Pollyooly. At times, when he had performed some small feat, clumsily +indeed, but not with a quite incredible clumsiness, he would turn to her +a triumphant, but appealing, eye which begged for a word, or a smile of +approval. The humane Pollyooly rarely failed to give him that word or +smile to brace him to fresh efforts. With other little girls he had come +to be civil but uninterested; and little boys he ignored. + +There are minds to whom it would have occurred that there were other +seaside resorts equally healthy with Pyechurch to one of which the young +prince might be removed to save him from the social degradation of +playing with children who were neither high, nor well-born. The baron's +was not one of these minds: he was a soldier of the emperor; he had been +instructed that his young charge was to spend a month at Pyechurch; at +Pyechurch he must spend it. But he wrote a long and earnest letter to +his august master, the Grand Duke of Lippe-Schweidnitz, informing him, +with full details, of his son's unfortunate social entanglement with a +red-haired English child, and of the impossibility, in the circumstances, +of his putting an end to it. He got no answer, for the grand duke was +splendidly busy maintaining the agrarian interests of his Fatherland. +The baron therefore found himself compelled to accept the situation +gloomily. Presently he was accepting it with resignation. He found that +Pollyooly lightened his work. She relieved him of his little charge for +the greater part of the day. He could now carry a deck-chair on to the +sands, and stretched at full length in it, with a large, but not +extravagantly fragrant, cigar in his mouth, could spend the sunny hours +in the perusal of the works of the English novelists who appealed most +strongly to his idealistic Teutonic sensibilities. + +Sometimes however he was disturbed in this resigned acceptance of the +situation. One afternoon he raised his head from the enthralled perusal +of "Maiden Sweet" to find that the sands were empty of his charge. He +struggled up from his chair, dropped the luscious masterpiece into it, +and hurried in search of him. Pollyooly was a good sixty yards away; and +he was breathless when he reached her. He clamoured wheezily for +information as to the whereabouts of the prince. Pollyooly told him, +indifferently enough, that he had gone to the village. The baron sought +the village at his best, but curious, toddling rush. In the middle of it +he met his young charge plodding along with an air of perfect content. +In his hand he bore a paper bag. + +"Vot 'af your 'ighness been doing?" cried his richly purple preceptor. + +"Bollyooly zent me to buy bebbermints," said his charge stolidly, without +stopping. + +"Mein Gott!" cried the baron. "And now that she-devil-child uses you as +a lackey!" + +"She wanted zem," said his charge stolidly, pursuing his way without +turning his head. + +"Bud bebbermints you do not like!" cried the baron. + +"Bollyooly wanted bebbermints," said the prince stolidly. + +The baron said no more because there was no more to say. + +He followed his charge to the beach and sought his chair; his charge +sought Pollyooly. Gloomily the baron resumed his perusal of "Maiden +Sweet." He had not read half a page when the thoughtful Pollyooly sent +the prince to offer him a peppermint. The baron refused it with the +proper cold scorn. The prince put it into his own mouth. + +"Bud bebbermints you do not like!" said the baron again. + +"Bollyooly says bebbermints is goot," said the prince stolidly; and he +turned on his heel. + +The baron searched the far-smiling sea with wild, questioning eyes. It +offered neither explanation nor comfort. + +It chanced a few days later that the Honourable John Ruffin put +Pollyooly's skilful cooking to the further test of grilling mushrooms +along with his bacon. They came from the marsh. Presently to +Pollyooly's prudent mind it seemed foolish to pay for vegetables which +might be gathered for nothing. She resolved to gather them herself; and +one afternoon with that end in view she came down to the sands, leading +the Lump, and carrying a basket, and suggested to Kathleen and others of +her young friends that they should accompany her on her quest and share +the spoil. But their nurses, fore-seeing extra work from the mud in the +marsh, would not allow them to go. + +The prince, who had been waiting patiently for the arrival of Pollyooly, +while the baron slept in his deck-chair, listened to the discussion with +uncomprehending ears. It did not occur to her to invite the be-tutored +Hohenzollern to accompany her; but when she started, the prince, doubtful +of the reception of a direct offer to escort her would receive, followed +her at a distance of about thirty yards. Pollyooly was giving her +attention to the Lump, and was not aware of her follower until she had +crossed the bridge over the dyke, from the road into the marsh. There +she turned and saw him; and at the first sight of him she was minded to +send him back to his sleeping tutor. Then it occurred to her that the +company of the prince would be better than no company at all; and she +suffered him to come. + +Though neither of them had any conversation, Pollyooly talked away to the +prince and the Lump, and was quite content with the grunts of assent with +which the prince punctuated her observations. But she was presently +annoyed to find that he shone no more as an assistant mushroomer than as +a conversationalist. It was not so much that he was ignorant of the +difference between mushrooms and toadstools, and equally unskilful in +discovering either, as that he often trod on the fairest members of the +group he was picking. Pollyooly therefore gave him the basket to carry +and picked the mushrooms herself. Twice he dropped it and scattered them +over the turf. She chid him but gently and carried it herself. + +But destiny, which dogs the steps of princes, was leading him to a +catastrophe. The basket was large and growing heavy; but the +indefatigable Pollyooly pushed deeper into the marsh. They had crossed +several dykes safely; then they came to a plank over a small dyke, nearly +dried up. Pollyooly took every possible care to get the expedition +across safely. She carried the Lump across and then the basket of +mushrooms. Then she turned to watch the passage of the prince. The +plank was not more than ten feet long; and it was destiny which chose the +exact middle of it for the prince to fall off. He struck the dyke with a +splash which drew a cry of delight from the Lump, and sank up to his +knees in the thick mud. He burst into a terrified bellow; and Pollyooly +hurried down the steep bank to help him out. But destiny had arranged +that he should be just out of her reach; and he was too frightened to +make the effort to struggle to her helping hand. + +For a while Pollyooly, for all her power of resource, was at a loss; and +the bellowing of the prince did nothing to clear her wits. Then she saw +how she could reach him. She dug her feet into the bank, hugged the +plank over the dyke with her left arm, and leaning forward, succeeded in +getting a grip of his left wrist, and began to tug. Her grip seemed to +inspirit him, for he began to struggle hard toward the bank. It was not +an easy business in the thick mud, but thanks to the purchase afforded by +the plank, Pollyooly could put most of her strength into the effort and +slowly dragged him on to the firmer mud at the edge and then on to the +bank. + +Still blubbering a little, he followed Pollyooly up the bank; on the top +of it she turned and surveyed him with horrified eyes. He was wrapped +nearly up to his waist in a smooth, dripping garment of greenish mud; and +patches of it adorned the rest of him. It would have been difficult to +imagine anything more unlike a Hohenzollern in a white sailor suit; and +his face was hardly attractive enough to justify you in comparing him to +the dripping, weed-be-draped Lorelei of his native land. + +"Well! You _are_ an aggravating little boy! Whatever am I to do with +you?" cried Pollyooly in a tone of despair. + +The prince uttered an apologetic grunt. + +"The only thing to do is to get you home as quick as I can," she said +heavily. + +She carried the Lump back across the dyke, then the basket of mushrooms. +Then she led the prince across it. They took their slow way back to the +village, the prince leaving behind him a trail which would have gladdened +the heart of the last, or any other, of the Cherokees. + +The Baron von Habelschwert, sleeping peacefully beside a sweet work of +genius, called "Dove Wifie," which had fallen from his hand, missed the +departure of his young charge in the wake of Pollyooly. He slept for an +hour; and when he did awake, her friends had moved a long way down the +beach. He struggled to his feet, and set out in search of the prince, +assured that he was somewhere on the sands playing with his active, but +socially impossible, protector. At first he sought him with careless +eyes, then with keener; but it was some twenty minutes before he +satisfied himself that neither his charge nor Pollyooly were on the +sands. Then he set out, in some annoyance to search the village; and +when he had drawn blank all the village shops at which sweets were sold, +he began to grow anxious and alarmed. For all his military contempt for +the English as a people soon to be subjugated, he had a deep distrust of +them. It awoke suddenly in its most violent form; and he began to +suspect that the perfidious politicians of England had stolen his +Hohenzollern. + +The suspicion presently became a conviction; and he acted on it with +splendid, but unwonted, energy. In little more than ten minutes the +village was ringing with the news that the prince was lost; and the baron +was toddling furiously along at the head of a band composed of the +village children, the village idiot, some idle fishermen, and a number of +unoccupied visitors who had leapt at the chance of action. There was no +lack of theories. Every other member of the group had one of his own. +The baron himself made no secret of his belief that the prince was the +victim of a political plot, till the Honourable John Ruffin, out of mere +idle curiosity, stopped the procession to enquire its object and on +learning it proclaimed his firm conviction that the prince was neither +lost, stolen, nor strayed. + +By this time the news had spread to the sands; and a nurse came hurrying +up with the information that the prince had gone into the marsh, +mushrooming with Pollyooly. + +"Ach Gott! Then that little she-devil-child haf 'im drowned in a dyke!" +said the baron cheerfully. + +The suggestion increased greatly the interest of his followers; and they +accompanied him into the marsh eagerly. On that expanse figures are seen +at a great distance; but the searchers had gone a long way into it before +they caught sight of the children. At some distance the figures of +Pollyooly and the Lump, and even the basket of mushrooms were plainly +recognised. But what was that strange object which moved beside them? +The baron and his band quickened their steps, Pollyooly still walked at +the leisurely gait which suited the Lump. + +It was not till he was within ten yards of them that the procession and +the baron recognised his young charge. The procession began to laugh +heartily. + +The baron flung his arms to heaven and cried, or, to be exact, howled: + +"Vhat is it you haf done ad 'im?" + +"I didn't do anything!" cried Pollyooly with indignant heat. "He did it +_himself_! He _would_ fall into the dyke! He's the most aggravating +little boy I ever knew!" + +"You trow 'im into ze dyke! You id on purpose did!" cried the furious +baron. + +"Bollyooly didn't," said his little charge stolidly. + +"Do try and have a little sense, Baron von Habelschwert," said the +Honourable John Ruffin, smiling upon the hope of the house of +Lippe-Schweidnitz. "Pollyooly wouldn't throw any one into dykes." + +"Bud look at 'im!" cried the baron. "'e will the enteric fever haf!" + +"Oh, no. He didn't get any water into his mouth," said Pollyooly +quickly. "I made him open it and looked, because Mr. Ruffin told me the +marsh water gave people fever. It's only mud on his clothes." + +"Moodd! Onlie moodd!" howled the baron. "His cloze, zey are spoiled! +Ze cloze of the bezd dailor of Schweidnitz!" + +That was a misfortune which appealed deeply to Pollyooly. She looked at +the spoiled suit of the prince very sadly, and said generously: + +"Well, I'll give him half of the mushrooms--though really he didn't +gather them; and I had to carry the basket." + +"Mooshrooms!" howled the baron. "Vhat is mooshrooms wiz cloze? Zeze +English, zey are all mad!" + +In his emotion the baron had not kept his usual wary watch on his young +charge, and so failed to observe the light of battle gather and gleam in +his eyes. But as he finished the prince sprang at him, cried angrily: +"Bollyooly isn't!" and kicked him on the shin. + +The kick was stiff and lacked its usual snap; but it was sufficiently +vigorous to dislodge a good deal of the mud from the once white +trouser-leg and bespatter the legs of the baron, who uttered a short howl +and bent like a bow, holding off his little charge, and gazing wildly +round the marsh. This time Pollyooly did not come to his aid; she gazed +at him with a cold eye. + +"It serves you right--talking like that about people when they try to +make up," she said coldly. + +The prince, encouraged by this quite unexpected approval, made another +fine effort to plant a second kick of remonstrance on the shin of his +preceptor. His foot missed it; but plenty of mud hit it. + +"That's enough, Adalbert. Stop it!" said the magnanimous Pollyooly +sharply. + +Adalbert stopped it. + +The baron ground his teeth at this new familiarity; but was glad to be +loosed by his admonished charge; and the procession took its triumphant +way back to the village. + +The prince's valet was a long while cleaning him; but directly after his +tea he was out on the sands again, seeking Pollyooly. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ATTITUDE OF THE GRAND DUKE + +The baron's bitterness was deepened by this accident to his charge; and +he continued stubbornly to lay the blame of it on Pollyooly: if she had +not actually flung him into the dyke, she had led him into the marsh, +where the dyke was. Then two mornings later there came a telegram to +inform him that the Grand Duke of Lippe-Schweidnitz, on his way to +answer the letter of appeal in person, was already in London, and would +reach Pyechurch early in the afternoon. The baron was a glad man. All +the morning, reclined in his deck-chair, with eyes full of a gloating +triumph, he watched Pollyooly direct the play of the prince; and as he +watched he hummed an aria, the same aria, of Mozart. He foresaw a +speedy end to this distressing social entanglement and her evil +domination. + +At lunch he informed his royal charge of the coming of his august sire, +and told him that he must stay at home to welcome him. + +"I go do blay wiz Bollyooly," said his young charge stolidly. + +"You vill nod go," said the baron firmly. + +His young charge said no more; he only looked at his beaming preceptor +with eyes cold with the steeliest contempt. The baron failed to grasp +the purport of the look. + +After lunch he had the prince carefully cleaned, and then set him in an +easy chair under his eye, to await the coming of his august sire, who +would arrive about a quarter to three. Then he walked up and down the +room working out the most effective presentation of his indictment of +Pollyooly and the social entanglement. At intervals he gesticulated +and muttered a phrase. He was making excellent progress with it and at +five and twenty minutes to three he was at the end of it. The prince +sat stolidly in the easy chair by the long windows. At twenty-four +minutes to three the baron flung out the last damning phrase (with the +appropriate splendid gesture) at his image in the looking-glass over +the mantelpiece. Then he turned to beam triumphantly on his little +charge. The easy chair was empty; the prince had gone. + +With language far less sonorous, but more staccato, the baron bounced +to the window, just in time to see his little charge disappear swiftly +over the edge of the sea-wall fifty yards away. Unfortunately the +baron wore his hair too short to be able to tear handfuls of it from +his head, or he would have bereft himself of a handful or two. But +everything that language could do to ease him, language did. He must +be at home to receive his august master: etiquette demanded it +imperatively. He had no time to recover his young charge, whose +presence etiquette demanded no less imperatively. Dashed from his +height of splendid triumph, and exhausted by the fluency with which he +had dealt with the appalling situation, he sank heavily into the easy +chair, an embittered man. + +He was quickly roused from his gloom by the stopping of a barouche +before the house. In it sat his august master, a splendid round figure +of a man, clad in the lightest-coloured tweeds Schweidnitz could boast, +and surmounted by the whitest of white bowlers. His large, broad, +square face ended in three well-moulded chins. In the middle of the +fine expanse of face (his was not a high forehead) was a bristling +imperial moustache, far fiercer than the baron's; above it rose a big, +thick nose. His eyes were a bright blue; and they twinkled in an +engaging fashion somewhat disappointing in a royal personage. Beside +him sat a slim, contrasting equerry. + +The baron rushed forth, and after the manner of his caste, was abject +in his apologies for the absence of Prince Adalbert. . . . He had +taken every precaution. . . . All had been in vain. . . . The +infatuated unfortunate would steal away to the little she-devil-child. + +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke, who made a point of speaking English in +England; and he descended with earth-shaking majesty from the creaking +barouche. + +"Ve vill go to zem," he said after testing the soil of Pyechurch with a +cautious foot to make sure that it was equal to his weight. + +On the way to the sea-wall the baron poured forth his damning +indictment, disjointedly and without the fierceness of phrase and +splendour of gesture he had practised; and three times the grand duke +said, somewhat phlegmatically, the baron thought: + +"Ach zo?" + +They came out on to the wall just above the band of Pollyooly's +subjects, hot and excited in a game of rounders. + +The quick eye of the grand duke at once espied Prince Adalbert running +to field a ball. + +"Ach, he is zlimmer!" he said in a tone of satisfaction. + +"Zlimmer? He is zlimmer, your Highness. Id iz zat leedle +she-devil-child. She nevare--nod nevare--leds 'im be steel. All ze +day she makes 'im roosh and roosh. He haf nevare no breath in hees +loongs--nod nevare!" + +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke calmly. "He is rooning mooch faster zan +he vas could." + +"Id's zat leedle she-devil-child! She make 'im roon and roon all ze +day!" cried the baron. + +"Ach, zo?" said the grand duke. "Alzo he is peenk--guite peenk." + +The satisfaction in his tone had increased. He could hardly be called +a fond parent, in the matter of Adalbert; he might more truly be said +to bear with him. Indeed he had never been able to explain the boy to +his satisfaction. There was perhaps a slight physical resemblance +between Adalbert and his parents; but whereas he knew himself to be one +of the astutest princes in the German Empire and his wife to be an +uncommonly clear-witted woman, no father's partiality hid from him the +fact that Adalbert was obtuse. He was inclined to accept sadly the +theory of Professor Muller, professor of anatomy and physiology at the +University of Lippe-Schweidnitz, and court physician, that Adalbert +cast back to his great-grandfather Franz, who had been known to his +irreverent subjects as "The Dolt." + +He gazed at the perspiring and excited band for a minute in silence. +Then he said: + +"Wheech is ze leedle she-devil-child?" + +"Zat von--zat von in ze meedle--wiz ze red 'air," said the baron. + +He pointed to Pollyooly in the middle of the ring where she was acting +as pitcher, her face flushed, her eyes shining, her red hair a flying +cloud. + +An immense slow smile spread over the expanse of royal face; and the +grand duke cried: "Mein Gott! Bud id is nod a child at all--zat! Id +is an anchel--a leedle anchel--Italian renascence! Is id nod, +Erkelenz?" And he turned to his slim equerry. + +"Yes, Highness: authentic," said the equerry. + +The Baron von Habelschwert gasped; he could not believe his ears. + +The little girl, batting, whacked the ball over the prince's head. + +"Run, Adalbert! Run!" shrieked Pollyooly. + +"Roon, Adalbert! Der Teufel! Roon!" bellowed the grand duke. + +It is hard to say whether the shriek of Pollyooly or the terrific +bellow of his august sire was the sharper spur to the prince's legs; +but he saved the rounder. + +"Sblendid! 'e did not roon like an ox," said the grand duke almost +proudly. "Vhat did you write vas ze name of zat leedle anchel?" + +"Bollyooly, your Highness," gasped the baron in a feverish doubt +whether he was standing on his head or his heels, for the grand duke +had heard her call the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz +"Adalbert" with his own ears! + +"Bollyooly? A beautiful name!" cried the grand duke with enthusiasm. + +Then came the great event of Prince Adalbert's life. The little boy +who was batting hit the ball right into his hands. He grabbed at it; +and by a miracle it stuck in his fingers. + +His side leapt and shrieked as one child; and the grand duke leapt and +bellowed. The shock of his descent on the sea-wall made it quiver for +many feet round him. + +He turned upon his slim equerry, seized his arm, and shook him as the +wind shakes a blade of corn. + +"Did you see zat? Id is ze creeket! 'e caught 'im out," he bellowed +in stentorian tones which rang out far across the marsh. "Bollyooly +has made 'im zlim! She has made 'im roon! She has made 'im peenk! +She has taught 'im ze creeket! She shall rewarded be! I will gonfer +on 'er ze Order of Chastity of Lippe-Schweidnitz of ze zecond class!" + +He loosed his slim equerry, and hammered his enormous right palm with +his huge left fist. + +The slim equerry shook his head (this time without any assistance from +his august master) and said: + +"She is too young, your Highness. Ze order can only be gonferred on +ladies of twenty-von or elder." + +"Zen I will gonfer it on 'er when she is twenty-von! Bud I will reward +'er alzo now! Vetch 'er!" cried the grand duke. + +The slim equerry went down the sea-wall across the sands to Pollyooly. +The game stopped while he conferred with her. Pollyooly looked from +him to the fine, round figure on the sea-wall; then she patted her +hair, smoothed her frock, called to her young companions that she would +be back in a minute or two, and went with the slim equerry. She was +not timid, or even shy. Her estimate of the royal family of +Lippe-Schweidnitz had been formed from her knowledge of Prince +Adalbert; and it was not a high one. That royal family left her +unimpressed and certainly unrevering. She was hardly curious about the +grand duke. + +On the way to him the slim equerry asked her her name, and told her to +be sure to address the grand duke as "your Highness." + +On the sea-wall he took her hand, grew rigid, saluted, and said: + +"I present the Fraeulein Bollyooly von Bride to your Highness." + +Like the well-mannered child she was, Pollyooly dropped a curtsey. + +The grand duke seized her hand, and shook it warmly, and cried: + +"Mein Gott! if you were zeven--five years elder, I would keess you! +Bud id is far to sdoop. You haf done great good to my zon, ze Prince +Adalbert. You haf made him peenk--guite peenk; and you haf taught him +ze creeket. Id iz sblendid; and you moost rewarded be. Gif me my +burse, Erkelenz." + +The slim equerry took a purse from his pocket and handed it to the +grand duke. The grand duke opened it, turned it upside down, poured on +to his palm eleven golden sovereigns, and pressed them with somewhat +clumsy fingers into Pollyooly's hands. + +The amazed Pollyooly flushed; and her eyes shone like bright stars; the +family of Lippe-Schweidnitz rose a thousand feet in her estimation. + +"Oh! Thank you, your Highness!" she gasped. + +"Zere is no zanks--nod none! You haf made Adalbert peenk. You are von +sblendid anchel child. And id iz me to zank you," said the grand duke; +and very gently, for the size of his fingers, he patted her head. Then +he drew himself up and, with a splendid wave of his gigantic hand, +added: + +"Und now go and blay wiz Adalbert--blay wiz him always!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +POLLYOOLY ENTERTAINS ROYALTY + +Pollyooly came away from the presence of the grand duke in something of +a daze. She came down the steps in the sea-wall quite unconscious of +the fact that she was not moving over level ground. The eleven golden +sovereigns in her hand felt too good to be true; and at the bottom of +the steps she stopped and counted them with eyes which could hardly +believe what they saw: eleven golden sovereigns. + +She gave them into the care of Mrs. Gibson while, in obedience to the +behest of the grand duke, she continued to play rounders. + +The game had fallen into a state of suspended animation during her +absence from it. Her return enlivened it. Presently she was again +absorbed in it, playing it with the concentration with which she did +most things, the concentration which is so large a part of genius, +which made her one of the finest grillers of bacon in England. She +forgot the grand duke; she forgot the eleven golden sovereigns; she +thought only of the game; and she drove her team and the perspiring +prince with merciless vigor. + +The grand duke watched it closely, now and then applauding in an +excited, ringing voice. Prince Adalbert had performed his one great +exploit and was now declined upon a lower level. He played his best, +obeying with his natural clumsiness the shrieked commands of Pollyooly; +but he did not again arise to a really meritorious feat. Nevertheless, +the grand duke was content with him. + +He did not indeed watch him very closely; he had chiefly eyes for +Pollyooly. + +Once he said with enthusiasm: + +"She is ze gompanion Adalbert 'af need of." + +And again he said with enthusiasm: + +"'ow it would be goot if she goom to Schweidnitz and blay wiz 'im all +ze days, Erkelenz!" + +The slim equerry shook his head and said in a tone of conviction: + +"She would nod coom, Highness." + +Being of a younger generation, he spoke better English than his royal +master. + +The grand duke shook his head sadly, and said; + +"No: she would nod goom. Would she nod goom for mooch money, you zink?" + +"I do nod zink she could be persuaded to coom," said his equerry. + +"No: she would nod goom," said the grand duke. The baron had an +inspiration; he said in a stern voice: + +"Ze day, 'ighness; ze day will goom soon. Zen you will gommand only; +and Bollyooly will obey." + +"Ach, yes: ze day," said the grand duke, watching the playing children. +"It will goom soon doubtlez. Bud Bollyooly, will she obey? Zeze +English blay zere creeket very 'ard." + +"She would be made obey," said the baron firmly. + +The grand duke changed the subject by raising his voice in a splendid, +heartening roar at Pollyooly, who was running swiftly around the bases; +and for nearly an hour he did his best to burst the welkin. Then he +summoned the perspiring prince, shouted and waved good-bye to +Pollyooly, and walked to his son's lodgings to take a little +unnecessary nourishment before driving to the station. + +Pollyooly went on playing till a quarter of five, when the game broke +up to let the players go to their tea. She collected the Lump from the +Gibson nurse and the eleven sovereigns from Mrs. Gibson, and started +down the beach tea-wards. As she went down the beach several earnest +enquirers stopped her to ask what the grand duke had said to her and +what she had said to the grand duke. They wore the air of being very +deeply impressed by the occurrence. + +Pollyooly gratified their curiosity. Four of them said that they would +have been so confused by being suddenly hurried into the presence of +royalty that, not knowing whether they were standing on their heads or +their heels, they would not have found a word to say. + +Pollyooly said quite truly that she had not suffered from any such +confusion. She did not add, as with no less truthfulness she might +have done, that what had induced a slight access of confusion in her +had been the sudden and unexpected possession of eleven golden +sovereigns. But she had a feeling, somewhat obscure, that such a +happening should not confuse a red Deeping; therefore she did not say +anything about it. + +She and the Lump were still at tea when the Honourable John Ruffin +returned from his golf and joined them. She told him of the coming of +the grand duke, of his thanks for the improvement in Prince Adalbert's +health, and of the eleven splendid golden sovereigns. + +"And very nice too. I congratulate you," said the Honourable John +Ruffin cheerfully. + +"Thank you," said Pollyooly. + +"I always have heard that the grand duke is a very decent sort, as well +as being astute; and this proves it," he said. + +"But it does seem such a lot for the little I've done. I could have +done a lot more, if I'd known," said Pollyooly in a tone of discomfort. + +"Not a bit of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a confident tone. +"As what you've done goes, eleven golden sovereigns isn't a penny too +much for it. I haven't observed the treatment; but I have no doubt +that you're making another boy of Prince Adalbert." + +"Well, he does look better and he does get about quicker than he did," +said Pollyooly slowly, weighing her words. + +"Well, that's a good deal," said the Honourable John Ruffin in an +encouraging tone. + +"And he is a little brighter too, though he does only grunt; and of +course he behaves better; he doesn't knock the other children about +like he used to." + +"Well, there you are," said the Honourable John Ruffin, in the tone of +one completely satisfied. + +"Oh, but he is slow!" Pollyooly protested. "It would take weeks and +weeks to really do anything with him--weeks and weeks." + +"But what can you expect?" said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. +"The red Deepings were notable people, ruling a county, and hacking and +hewing the best people in four counties round, when the ancestors of +the prince were swineherds in a Prussian forest. And those ancestors +stayed in that forest for five hundred years after that. Prince +Adalbert doesn't throw back more than a hundred and fifty years. If a +red Deeping produced an Adalbert, he would throw back six hundred and +fifty years; and it isn't done." + +"Yes," said Pollyooly politely, though she did not follow at all his +abstruse dissertation. + +"So you see you needn't feel overpaid at all," he said. + +"No," said Pollyooly in the tone of one perfectly satisfied. + +"Besides, if you do, you can always put in a little more training." + +"Oh, yes: that was what I was meaning to do," she said. + +Now that Pollyooly had been approved, or rather enthusiastically +welcomed, as the ideal companion of Prince Adalbert, the baron was all +affability and winning smiles. He had indeed reason to be, for she +made life much easier for him. Without a care he abandoned Prince +Adalbert to her whenever she would have him, and sat reading or +sleeping in his deck-chair on the sunny sands with a mind wholly at +peace. With that approved guardian the prince must be safe. + +Thus it came about that he became Pollyooly's perpetual companion, or, +to be exact, her perpetual hanger-on. He could not be said to afford +companionship to her, for, like the Lump, he preferred the grunt to +articulate speech. He played in all the games in which she played--at +least, if they were not too difficult for his understanding. If they +were, he watched her play them with the dogged attention of an +enthusiast. + +As she came to know him better and better, it is to be feared that +Pollyooly remembered his exalted station less and less. She quite +forgot the prince in the boy. She sometimes deplored the fact to Mrs. +Gibson that though Adalbert could now be trusted not to get into +mischief by any act of will, he was so stupid that he needed a +perpetual eye on him. + +The Honourable John Ruffin sometimes enquired about his progress in +morals, manners, and intelligence; Pollyooly's report on it was always +dispirited. But he was surprised, on returning home from Littlestone +to tea one evening, to find Pollyooly entertaining royalty in the +parlour of the flustered Mrs. Wilson. + +The prince had come back from a walk through the marsh with her, tired; +and she had thought it better that he should have tea before walking +the length of the village to his own lodging. + +The Honourable John Ruffin did not let his surprise be seen; he greeted +his royal guest civilly and sat down. Pollyooly questioned him closely +and with genuine interest about his successes and reverses on the +links. Then the Honourable John Ruffin observed that his royal guest +was flushed; then he discovered that Pollyooly was entertaining him in +a fashion at once negligent and drastic: she made no effort to include +him in their talk, but she was watching him with the eye of a lynx and +giving him a lesson in table manners with the coldest serenity. + +"What is the matter with our royal guest exactly?" said the Honourable +John Ruffin presently. + +"He is so hard to teach," said Pollyooly plaintively. "You'd be +surprised. I keep telling him not to eat like a pig; and for about +four mouthfuls he doesn't. Then he forgets all about it; and I have to +begin all over again." + +The guilty flush deepened in the cheeks of the prince. + +"You must give it time to sink in. He's not used to learning things; +he has been so neglected," said the Honourable John Ruffin with a +hospitable desire to make things easier for her royal guest. + +Pollyooly shook her head doubtfully, and frowned sadly upon the prince. + +"It would take weeks and weeks; and I don't really ever see him at +meals," she said. + +"Never mind: do what you can when you get the chance," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a heartening tone. + +"That's what I must do," said Pollyooly; but there was no great +hopefulness in her voice. + +Sadly she handed a plate of cake to Prince Adalbert. There was a +sudden gleam in his small, but Hohenzollern, eye, and in one swift +gesture he took, or rather, to be exact, grabbed a slice, and thrust a +corner of it into his mouth. + +As Pollyooly had said, for the first four bites all was well; but the +next three were accompanied by a slushy noise such as arises in a +pigstye at mealtime. + +"There! There it is again!" she cried in tones of the bitterest +protest. "Isn't it dreadful?" + +The prince flushed a darker red and hushed the slushy accompaniment. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked sympathetically sad. + +"I couldn't have believed that anybody could be so hard to teach a +little thing like that to," said Pollyooly mournfully. + +The prince grunted. + +"Yes. I know you try to do your best--you needn't tell me that," said +Pollyooly, who appeared to understand his syncopated Prussian. "But +what is the good of a best like that?" + +The prince finished the slice of cake with only two more slushy sounds. +Pollyooly sighed once or twice; and tea came to an end. + +They rose; and Pollyooly said with resolution: + +"I see what I shall have to do. I shall have to look after his outdoor +manners only." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE DUKE HAS AN IDEA + +Pollyooly did not again entertain royalty. She kept firmly to her +resolve to superintend only the outdoor manners and behaviour of Prince +Adalbert. She would not have her feelings again harrowed by his +painfully exact rendering of the noises made by a sturdy, happy porker +over its trough. But out of doors he continued, for the rest of her +stay, to be her perpetual, noiseless, devoted, and generally perspiring +squire. + +That stay came to an end along with the Honourable John Ruffin's +windfall. It had been a very pleasant stay; Pollyooly had enjoyed it +more than any time of her life, more even than the days she had spent +at Ricksborough Court when Lord Ronald Ricksborough had come there from +Eton to spend his holidays. She was a little doubtful (for all that +they were engaged to be married when she should have grown up and +fitted herself to become the wife of an English peer by dancing for a +while in musical comedy) whether the days at Pyechurch would be more +pleasant if he were there, for he would naturally take the place of +leader, and she was very happy in that position herself. + +She wrote only one letter, a brief letter, to him from Pyechurch, for +she was really too busy to write more often (at the Temple she wrote at +least once every ten days) and he wrote back to say that he wished he +were with her instead of mugging away at his beastly work in his stuffy +study. His letter brought home to Pollyooly the great advantage she +had over richer children in having years ago passed the seven standards +at the Muttle Deeping school, and so done with tedious school-books for +good and all. + +It was a sad day for her and the Lump when their stay at Pyechurch came +to an end; but it was an even sadder day for Prince Adalbert. He was +losing the one friend he had ever made, the only person in the world +for whom he felt a warm admiration and a genuine respect--as warm an +admiration indeed as his somewhat limited spirit was capable of +feeling. It was not able to attain to the great heights of emotion; +but to such a height of grief as it could rise to, it rose. As for his +display of that grief, had he been a pretty boy the onlookers could not +have failed to find it pathetic; as it was, for all that they were most +of them keenly sensible of his royal condition, they were hard put to +it not to find it grotesque. + +Tears were not in keeping with his Hohenzollern face; and when he at +last realised that Pollyooly was really going and for good, he bellowed +like a very small, but broken-hearted bull. + +A number of Pollyooly's friends and subjects had come to bid her +good-bye; Prince Adalbert was no little hindrance to their farewells, +for he had a tight grip on Pollyooly's skirt; and not only did his +bellowing drown the sound of their voices but also he kept her chiefly +busy trying to soothe him. + +When at last she detached him from her skirt and bade him good-bye, and +climbed into the wagonette, he tried to climb into it to go with her; +and the Baron von Habelschwert had to lift him down and hold him firmly. + +The wagonette drove off amid a loud chorus of farewells; and little +given to the softer emotions as Pollyooly was, there were tears in her +eyes as she looked back on the friends she was leaving. Her last sight +of the prince was somewhat depressing: in a final access of despair he +was kicking the baron's shins. + +Pollyooly said, with far more indulgence than she had generally shown +him: + +"I don't suppose he'll break out like that very often." + +"Still, after all your training, it is sad to see him massacring his +faithful mentor," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Yes: it isn't nice of him," said Pollyooly without any great annoyance +in her tone. "But really it's the baron's fault; he'd only have to +smack him about twice." + +"I expect he has conscientious scruples against smacking princes of the +blood royal. Many people undoubtedly have," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"Perhaps he has. But I think he'll miss me," said Pollyooly in a tone +of sufficient satisfaction. + +The baron would indeed miss her; and he was one of the saddest men in +Pyechurch that day. With the departure of Pollyooly his hours of ease +came to an end. No longer could he in his sunnily disposed deck-chair +read the sweet books he loved in a perfect serenity. Once more he must +follow his royal charge up and down the sands and keep an ever watchful +eye on him. + +The change from Pyechurch to the Temple was trying; but the unrepining +Pollyooly soon grew used to it, though she missed for a while the wide +spaces of the sea and marsh, and the inspiriting breezes from the sea. + +The Honourable John Ruffin made some changes: she was to continue to +call him John, or Cousin John; she was to do her work in gloves; and +she was always to wear a large apron. The use of a large apron, though +it might prevent her from working with her wonted speed, was to enable +her to wear under it always a nice linen frock. Then, when any one +knocked at the door of the chambers, she could slip off the apron, and +let them in no longer in the guise of the Honourable John Ruffin's +housekeeper, but as a member of his family. + +He did not for a moment dream of relieving her altogether of her +housework. In the first place he could not afford to do so; in the +second place he thought it very good for her to be busy most of the +day, and to feel that she was independent, earning her own living. He +did not even bid her give up her post of housekeeper to Mr. +Gedge-Tomkins. He was quite sure that a girl might have too little +work to do, but he was very doubtful whether she could have too much. + +Then he was talking one afternoon to Pollyooly, who had just made his +tea and brought it to him; and she said: + +"Who is Mr. Francis?" + +"Mr. Francis who?" said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"I don't know," said Pollyooly, knitting her brow. "It was Mrs. Brown +who talked about him. I took the Lump to see her the day after we came +back from Pyechurch; and she said I was growing quite the lady." + +"She would put it like that," said the Honourable John Ruffin sadly. + +"And then she said that after all it wasn't to be wondered at, seeing +who Mr. Francis was. But when I asked her what she meant, she wouldn't +say any more." + +The Honourable John Ruffin sat straighter up in his chair with a +somewhat startled air. But he said in an indifferent enough tone: + +"Ah, she grew mysterious, did she?" + +"Ever so mysterious," said Pollyooly. + +"It's a habit of her class, I believe," said the Honourable John Ruffin +carelessly. "Probably she meant nothing at all." + +Pollyooly went back to the Lump content; but the Honourable John Ruffin +kept his brow puckered by a thoughtful frown for some time after she +had gone. Then he shrugged his shoulders, and his face resumed its +wonted serenity. + +Three afternoons later there was a knocking at the door of the +chambers; and Pollyooly opened it to find the Duke of Osterley standing +on the threshold. She was surprised, because she had no reason to +believe that the coldness which the Honourable John Ruffin had told her +subsisted between himself and the duke had been dissipated; but, like +the well-mannered child she was, she did not let her surprise be seen, +but bowed politely as she had seen ladies at Pyechurch bow, for since +she had been promoted to the position of the Honourable John Ruffin's +cousin she had abandoned the curtsey as out of keeping with that more +exalted station. + +The duke gazed gloomily at her, for it was very present to his mind +that their earlier meetings had, for him, been barren of joy; then he +said gloomily: + +"Ah, you _are_ here. Is Mr. Ruffin back from the Law Courts yet?" + +"No, your Grace; but he won't be long. He'll be back to tea in a +minute or two: the clock's just struck four," she said; and she drew +aside for him to enter. + +The duke stared at her angel face with gloomy thoughtfulness for nearly +a minute. She found it somewhat discomfitting. Then he said gloomily: + +"Very well: I'll come in and wait." + +He walked with a determined air down the passage into the sitting-room. + +Pollyooly ran up to the attic to assure herself that the Lump was not +in mischief--it was the last thing in the world that placid, but +red-headed cherub was likely to get into; none the less she was always +making sure of it. Then she came down to the kitchen, and set about +cutting thin bread and butter for two persons. + +As she cut it she wondered uneasily what had brought the duke to the +King's Bench Walk. If there was one person in the world with regard to +whom she did not enjoy a clear conscience, it was the duke. + +Had he come for the reason: + +(1) That she had helped the duchess in the original evasion of his +daughter? + +(2) That she had spent a fortnight at Ricksborough Court as his +daughter? + +(3) Or had he discovered that she had helped the duchess in the second +evasion of Lady Marion? + +(4) Had Mr. Wilkinson revealed how she had tricked him and the +detective? + +Truly there were reasons why she should be afflicted by an uneasy +conscience with regard to the duke. It was no wonder that his gloomy +stare had made her uncomfortable. She tried to reassure herself by the +consideration that if he had discovered anything, he would surely have +been far grumpier with her; he would never have confined himself to a +gloomy stare. + +She had just finished cutting the bread and butter when the latchkey of +the Honourable John Ruffin grated in the keyhole. + +She stepped to the kitchen door; and as he entered she said: + +"Please, sir, the duke's here." + +The Honourable John Ruffin showed no surprise; he only said: + +"Ah, he must be wanting me to do something for him. I told you that he +would warm to me when he did." + +"Yes, sir. But, please sir, he doesn't look very warm yet," said +Pollyooly doubtfully. + +"He never does. It runs in the family--the Osterley chill. Bring us +some tea," said the Honourable John Ruffin lightly; and he went down +the passage. + +He came into the sitting-room briskly, and found the duke sitting in an +easy chair, with his silk hat thrust well back on his head, in a +fashion which gave him a far from ducal, an even raffish air. + +"How are you, Ruffin?" he said, with an amiable smile, but in a +somewhat nervous and deprecatory tone. + +"How are you, Osterley? Got over the sulks?" said the Honourable John +Ruffin lightly. + +"Sulks? I never sulk!" said the duke with some heat. + +"What do you call them then?" said the Honourable John Ruffin with a +good display of the liveliest most unaffected interest. + +"I don't know what you're talking about!" said the duke coldly; but he +flushed. + +It is likely that the Honourable John Ruffin would have raised him to a +considerable temperature on this matter; but the entrance of Pollyooly, +bearing the tea-tray, closed the discussion of it. The Honourable John +Ruffin poured out the tea and handed the bread and butter to the duke. + +They ate some bread and butter and drank some tea; and then the duke +said plaintively: + +"This is jolly good tea. Why don't I ever get tea like this?" + +"You ought to. You pay enough for it," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a tone which lacked sympathy. + +"I do. I believe I employ every incompetent jackass in London," said +the duke bitterly. + +"And I expect you don't make any secret of your conviction at home," +said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"I don't," said the duke firmly; then yet more plaintively he added: +"Oh, it's a dog's life for a man trying to run places like Ricksborough +House and the court on his own!" + +"I expect it does try you a bit too high," said the Honourable John +Ruffin. + +"It would any man," said the duke with conviction. + +The Honourable John Ruffin thought that a man of tact and amiability +could probably do it quite easily; but he did not say so. He thought +that such a statement might be inhospitable. They went on with their +tea in silence, the duke frowning over his luckless lot. + +Then the Honourable John Ruffin said in a distinctly patient and +long-suffering tone: + +"Well, what is it you want me to do for you this time?" + +"I don't want you to do anything for me!" said the duke sharply. + +"Then what have you come for?" said the Honourable John Ruffin in the +same distinctly patient and long-suffering tone. + +The duke hesitated; then he said: + +"Well, I want you to help me. I've got an idea." + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked skeptical, indeed, and he said a +little wearily: + +"_You_ have? What is it?" + +The duke cleared his throat, assumed a portentous air, and said: + +"I tell you I'm getting devilish sick of this business--living by +myself, without any family, and that sort of thing. And I've come to +the conclusion that it's time Caroline and I were reconciled--" + +"High time," said the Honourable John Ruffin readily. + +"I'm fond of Caroline--in a way--" + +"Your own way--an obscure, secret way," said the Honourable John Ruffin +in a cheerful tone. + +The duke scowled at him, but went on: "You don't know how contrary +Caroline is--" + +"How should I? I'm not married to her," said the Honourable John +Ruffin patiently. + +"Well, she is. And I've been thinking that if she found she was +getting her way without interference, she wouldn't want it any longer." + +The keen grey eyes of the Honourable John Ruffin sparkled: + +"By Jove! This is subtlety! Marriage makes Machiavellis of us all. +Continue, Solomon," he said, with more respect in his tone. + +"But I couldn't think of any way of letting her know she was getting +it. It's no use writin' to those scoundrels of lawyers of hers and +telling them. She'd only think it was a trap; or she'd think I'd caved +in, and be so cockahoop we should never get any forrader. Then I got +the idea. It looks a bit roundabout, but I believe it'll work, I do +really. But it'll take a lot of working, and I'm wondering whether +that little housekeeper of yours--what's her name--Mary Bride--will be +up to it." + +"What on earth has Pollyooly got to do with it?" cried the Honourable +John Ruffin. + +"A lot," said the duke firmly. "You know how like Marion she is. Why, +even Mrs. Hutton, who'd been with Marion for years, couldn't tell them +apart. Well, I want Mary Bride to be Marion." + +"The deuce you do!" cried the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Yes," said the duke in the tone of a man who had quite made up his +mind. "I want her to come and live at the court as Marion. I'm going +to run her as my daughter, Lady Marion Ricksborough." + +"But what on earth for?" cried the Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of +the liveliest bewilderment. + +"Why, don't you see? At first Caroline will be awfully cockahoop at +getting her own way. Then she'll begin to see that Marion's out in the +cold, and I've got another daughter in her place. Then she'll kick +like fury. She'll send Marion back in a brace of shakes to take her +proper place. Then it'll be my turn to kick. I shan't be taking any +Marion--at least, not without Caroline comes back too," said the duke +with an air of uncommon animation. + +He was looking brighter than ever the Honourable John Ruffin had seen +him. His eyes were positively gleaming with a manly fire. + +"By Jove--by _Jove_!" said the Honourable John Ruffin softly. + +"I thought you'd see it," said the duke complacently. + +The Honourable John Ruffin rose from his chair, strode solemnly across +the hearthrug, seized the duke's hand, wrung it, and in a voice +trembling with emotion said: + +"Osterley, I have done you an injustice. I have underrated your +intellect. Under that mild and irritated appearance you hide +genius--veritable genius. The idea is, as you say, roundabout, but it +will work. It will certainly work. You are dealing with a woman." + +The duke smiled with an air of the deepest self-satisfaction. +Compliments from the Honourable John Ruffin were indeed rare. + +"Yes; that's what I thought," he said. Then he chuckled, and added: + +"Won't Caroline be mad when she finds I'm running another Marion?" + +"'Mad' isn't the word for it," said the Honourable John Ruffin with +conviction. + +"I shall certainly be getting a little of my own back," said the duke, +beaming. + +The Honourable John Ruffin frowned at him heavily and said in a tone of +the coldest severity: + +"That's a stupid way of looking at it. The important thing about your +idea is that it will very likely bring you together again. But I +wonder if you can work it. You won't find it an easy job." + +"It all depends on whether Mary Bride can take Marion's place," said +the duke somewhat anxiously. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at him queerly. It was not for him +to say that Pollyooly had already spent a fortnight at Ricksborough +Court as Lady Marion and that during that fortnight the duke had been +as completely duped as his household. + +He only said: + +"It isn't Pollyooly I'm doubtful about. You need have no fears about +her. She's by far the cleverest child I know, and she'll play her part +all right. But, unfortunately, when you kidnapped her in Piccadilly +and took her to Ricksborough House, your butler and Marion's +nurse--what's her name?--Mrs. Hutton, learnt that Marion has a double, +and they may suspect things." + +"Oh, no: Lucas doesn't go to the court; and I discharged Mrs. Hutton +for being an idiot. Also, I dismissed Miss Marlow, Marion's governess. +I had no use for her. Really there's no one at the court now who came +into close contact with Marion at all," said the duke. + +"That does simplify things," said the Honourable John Ruffin +cheerfully. "But of course it's going to be a matter of weeks. +Caroline won't hear about it at once probably, for her friends won't +hear about it to let her know. Then it'll take her some time to get +over her satisfaction at having got her way, and to realise that Marion +is out in the cold." + +"Then she'll come back like a knife," said the duke. + +"Yes; but Pollyooly has got to keep the game going for a good six +weeks. Let's hear what she thinks about taking it on," said the +Honourable John Ruffin, and he rang the bell. + +"Of course she'll take it on. Besides having her at the court, I shall +pay her a trifle," said the duke in a tone of complete assurance. + +"You won't. You'll pay her at least five pounds a week," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in an equally assured tone. "But even so, she +may refuse to leave her little brother for so long." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE DUKE'S IDEA TAKES FORM + +Pollyooly came quickly, but she came in some trepidation lest after all +the duke might be going to scold her. A glance at his face reassured +her: he was certainly not angry. + +The Honourable John Ruffin said gravely: + +"The duke wants you to do a piece of work for him, Pollyooly--a very +well-paid piece of work." + +At the words "well-paid" the duke started in his chair with a look of +pain; but Pollyooly's deep blue eyes shone suddenly like bright stars, +and she smiled a heavenly smile. It was not that she was mercenary. +But it was the chief aim of her life to raise a wall of gold (it could +not be too thick or too high) between the Lump and the workhouse. + +"Yes?" she said a little breathlessly. + +"He wants you to go down to his house in the country and pretend to be +his little daughter, Lady Marion Ricksborough. You're exactly like +her, and if you pretend properly, no one will know you're not her. Do +you think you could do it?" said the Honourable John Ruffin briskly. + +Pollyooly smiled again, and said confidently: + +"Oh, yes. I'm sure I could." + +"And the duke will pay you seven or eight pounds a week for six +weeks--so that it will mean thirty-five or forty pounds," said the +Honourable John Ruffin with the same business briskness. + +Pollyooly smiled another heavenly smile, but the duke sprang to his +feet with harried air and cried fiercely: + +"Oh, hang it all! Draw it mild, Ruffin! Seven or eight pounds a week +for a child like that! Oh, hang it! It's too stiff!" + +"Not a bit of it!" said the Honourable John Ruffin with cold business +incisiveness. "Pollyooly has the monopoly of the likeness of Marion, +and she must be paid a monopoly price. Besides, this business has been +costing you over a thousand a year; surely you can't kick at seven or +eight pounds a week for six weeks, or so, to stop it for good and all. +Why, as a monopoly price, seven or eight pounds a week isn't enough. +We must make it ten--or, say, a hundred for the whole job." + +"No, no; seven pounds a week!" cried the duke hastily. + +The Honourable John Ruffin looked at him with an air of considerable +disapproval, almost contemptuous, and said coldly: + +"Well, you can't expect me to haggle--seven let it be." + +He would have been very well content to get five pounds a week for +Pollyooly; and she would have been overjoyed to get it. But he did not +think it wise to show any pleasure at getting seven. + +But during this discussion of terms Pollyooly's face had fallen; and +its brightness was dimmed. Somewhat plaintively she said: + +"But please, your Grace. If it's going to take six weeks what's to +become of the Lump?" + +"Yes: there's certainly the Lump to be considered," said the Honourable +John Ruffin, frowning. + +"I couldn't go away for six whole weeks and leave the Lump," said +Pollyooly. + +"And who, or what, is the Lump?" said the duke somewhat impatiently. + +"The Lump's her little brother. She mothers him," explained the +Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Well, surely she can find some one to take charge of him for six +weeks. I'm paying her enough," said the duke. + +"Oh, no, your Grace. I couldn't let anybody but myself look after him +for a whole six weeks. I couldn't really. I shouldn't feel that they +would do it properly--all the time. I can't go away and leave him for +six weeks," said Pollyooly; and it was plain enough that she was quite +sincere in her aversion from doing so. + +Indeed she spoke in a tone of unshakable resolution; and the Honourable +John Ruffin and the duke gazed at one another nonplussed. Pollyooly +gazed at the Honourable John Ruffin with expectant eyes; she had a +great belief in his powers. But he only frowned, pondering; and the +duke scratched his head. + +Then she said in a tone of faint hopefulness: + +"But couldn't I take the Lump with me?" + +"That's a solution," said the Honourable John Ruffin quickly. + +"Oh, hang it! I couldn't turn up with two children. It would upset +the apple-cart," the duke protested. + +The face of the Honourable John Ruffin grew clear; and he said firmly: + +"It looks the only solution; and after all why shouldn't you adopt the +Lump? People do adopt children." + +"Not dukes," said the duke coldly. + +"Oh, if you break the ice, I expect they'll adopt them by the dozen," +said the Honourable John Ruffin cheerfully. "There isn't any real +reason why you shouldn't. You have this new and very proper desire to +become thoroughly domesticated. The Lump is one of the very people to +gratify it. Besides, it will give the people at the court something to +talk about, and take their minds off Pollyooly." + +"I should jolly well think it would!" growled the duke. + +"Well, it's the only thing to do," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"Do you think so?" said the duke doubtfully; and he blinked. + +"I'm sure of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin confidently. "You +can't have Pollyooly without the Lump." + +The duke shook his head, turned to Pollyooly, and said: + +"I tell you what: I'll make it eight pounds a week, if you'll come +alone." + +Pollyooly shook her head and said sadly: + +"I couldn't, your Grace. I couldn't really." + +It looked indeed like a blind alley; but in the end the duke yielded. +His heart was set on carrying through this scheme for regaining his +duchess. His mind was so rarely guilty of ingenuity that he could not +bear to discourage it. They set themselves, therefore, to making the +presence of the Lump at Ricksborough Court plausible. Fortunately he +was too young to spoil their plan by indiscreet babble, had he been a +babbling child. To the minds of the servants at Ricksborough Court, +minds so carefully trained in the board schools of England, his +pregnant grunts would convey no meaning. + +Then arose the question of a becoming outfit; and into this matter the +Honourable John Ruffin threw himself with enthusiasm. He saw his way +to remove the burden of new summer clothes for herself and the Lump +from Pollyooly's slender resources for several years. + +More than once the duke protested that he was not taking the children +to live at the court for the rest of the century; and when the +Honourable John Ruffin thoughtfully tried to edge in a few winter +vests, he protested hotly that he was not fitting out an expedition to +discover the North Pole, or the South. + +His warm opposition only excited the combative instinct of the +Honourable John Ruffin. Coldly he urged the well-known inclemency of +the English summer; surely the duke did not wish to have two pneumonic +children on his hands; and the vests slipped into the outfit. + +The duke was resolved to give the affair the strongest possible air of +verisimilitude; and he engaged a governess, a Miss Belthrop, for +Pollyooly. That led to his engaging a nurse, Emily Gibbs, for the +Lump, though Pollyooly protested that it was quite unnecessary. + +The duke was indeed falling more and more deeply in love with his +scheme the nearer it came to putting it into effect. On three +afternoons he came to coach Pollyooly in the topography of Ricksborough +Court and its gardens, and in the habits of Lady Marion Ricksborough. +He was astonished and impressed by her intelligence. He was called on +to tell her hardly a single thing twice. He spoke of it to the +Honourable John Ruffin with great respect. + +Then on the tenth day after his first visit he came in a taxicab, +greatly excited, for them and their luggage, and drove them to Waterloo +Station. On the platform they found Emily Gibbs, in charge of +Lawrence, the duke's valet, awaiting them. She found favour in the +exigent eyes of Pollyooly, who let her take charge of the Lump without +a single anxious qualm. Emily Gibbs fell in love with him at first +sight. + +Pollyooly, though all the while she kept a careful eye on him, left him +in the care of Emily Gibbs, till the train was actually outside London. +Then she took him into her corner and pointed out objects of interest +to him. She was convinced that he had made a great advance in +intelligence since his journey down to Pyechurch: not once did he hail +a sheep as a gee-gee. She promoted him to the use of his proper +Christian name, and called him Roger. The duke had grown calm once +more, and read a four-penny-half-penny magazine with every appearance +of absorbed interest. + +In the motor car which carried them from Ricksborough station to the +court, Pollyooly insisted on having the Lump on her knee. Motor drives +did not come their way so often that she could bear to be parted from +him in an hour of such delight. + +Once out of the peaceful seclusion of the railway carriage the duke's +excitement had returned; and now that the real ordeal was at hand, he +had grown uncommonly nervous. It may be that he was unused to deceit. +He had set Emily Gibbs beside the chauffeur that he might have +Pollyooly to himself; and all the way he poured jumbled instructions +into her ear in a fashion which would have brought her to the court +hopelessly confused had she been paying much attention to him. As she +followed him up the steps of the court she fancied that he was even +shaky on his legs. + +Rawlings, the butler, greeted them with a cold and dignified civility +which showed him thoroughly aware of his own value. Also there was a +lack of geniality in his tone which showed that he did not greatly love +the duke; and the one smile he lavished on Pollyooly was stiff and +wooden. But she certainly passed his careless scrutiny. + +Then, they had gone but a few steps into the hall when a slim and +serpentine dachshund trotted forward to greet them. It avoided the +duke and sniffed at Pollyooly. Then it uttered a yelp of joy, and +began to dance round her. At the yelp, four more small dogs hurried +down the hall, and flung themselves on Pollyooly with every sign of the +warmest affection. + +The duke gasped and blinked, suddenly assumed a Machiavellian air, and +said, for the benefit of the butler and footman, in a high, unnatural +voice: + +"Well, at any rate, the dogs haven't forgotten you, Marion." + +"No, papa," said Pollyooly with an angel smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +POLLYOOLY IS INTRODUCED TO THE COUNTY + +He had never done it before, but to-day, to the surprise of his butler, +the duke accompanied his supposed daughter up the stairs to Lady Marion +Ricksborough's suite of rooms. His face was flushed; and he stumbled +twice. His mind was full of the strange behaviour of the serpentine +dachshund and the other dogs. + +When they had risen above the range of hearing of the butler and +footmen in the hall, he said somewhat breathlessly: + +"I was never so flabbergasted in my life. Fancy dogs taking to you +like that! When I saw Hildegarde, who is one of the most particular +dogs I ever came across, dancing round you like that, you could have +knocked me down with a feather." + +"Yes: it is funny," said Pollyooly; and she smiled. + +"But what a blessing it is!" the duke went on quickly. "It will be all +over the place that the dogs recognised you; and after that it's no +good whatever any one's saying that you're not Marion. It settles +it--absolutely." + +"I suppose it does," said Pollyooly calmly. + +She had no intention in the world of telling him that the dogs had the +best of reasons for recognising her, in that they actually had known +her before. It did not trouble her at all to leave him in error. It +suited his purpose so well that no one should know that she had ever +been at the court before. + +The suite of rooms when Pollyooly had last occupied it, had consisted +of her bedroom and school-room, and the bedroom and the sitting-room of +the governess. To these the duke had added a nursery bedroom for the +Lump and a bedroom for his nurse. + +In the schoolroom they found Miss Belthorp awaiting them; and the duke +presented her to Pollyooly. Then with the air of an operating +Camorrist he showed Pollyooly which was her bedroom by the crafty +device of pretending to make sure that her sheets had been aired. + +Pollyooly at once demanded that the Lump should also sleep in it. It +seemed a very natural desire on the part of a little girl; and, much to +the disgust of Emily Gibbs, who wished to have him to herself as much +as possible, the duke ordered a cot to be brought into it. + +Then with the same Machiavellian air, he said to Miss Belthorp: + +"Lady Marion has taken a strong fancy to this little boy I'm adopting. +I hope it will last." + +"It's sure to, your Grace. He's such a dear little boy," said Miss +Belthorp with conviction, for she, too, had fallen a victim to the +silent charm of the Lump. + +Having done his best to secure the first success of his plan, the duke +left them. Pollyooly made haste to have their trunk unpacked; and +then, having put on a linen frock, while Emily Gibbs put one on the +Lump, she took him out into the gardens. Miss Belthorp accompanied +them; and it seemed to Pollyooly that she was uncommonly like Miss +Marlow, Lady Marion's earlier governess, whom she had found at the +court during her last stay there. She realised very soon that it was +really unnecessary to listen to her conversation; the chance of her +saying anything of any real interest being so very small. + +From the windows of the smoking-room the duke saw the two children +crossing the terrace, accompanied by a large proportion of the dogs of +the establishment. In his glowing self-satisfaction with the success +of the first part of his plan, he found that they greatly improved the +appearance of the gardens. + +The Lump approved greatly of the gardens; but he was a little doubtful +about the dogs, and kept a firm hold of Pollyooly's skirts. It was +nearly ten minutes before, encouraged by the very friendly way in which +Pollyooly treated them, he really unbent. He showed a truly marvellous +instinct for discovering which dog would let him pull his tail, and +which would not. + +Pollyooly thought it wise to relax a little from her usual exact +mothering of him. She had him sit by her at tea of course; but she let +Emily Gibbs give him his bath, and contented herself with watching the +operation. She was pleased that the Lump did not accept the change +without objection. He pointed to her and said quite severely: + +"Pollyooly." + +"It's all right, Roger dear," she said in a soothing tone. Then +turning to Emily Gibbs, she added: "I wonder what he means?" + +"I don't know, your ladyship. But he is the dearest little boy I ever +see!" said Emily Gibbs with enthusiasm. "I never knew as how there was +such a little boy!" and she kissed him. + +Pollyooly frowned slightly. These transports seemed to her misplaced. +They were an invasion of her proprietary rights in him. But she did +not frown long: after all, the fonder Emily Gibbs was of him the more +carefully she would watch over him. + +At supper in the servants' hall Emily Gibbs underwent a severe +cross-examination. The coming of the Lump to the court had indeed set +tongues wagging; and Rawlings, since he had failed to find the duke +quite satisfactory, was doing nothing to check it. The chief housemaid +and the second cook (the _chef_ was a Frenchman with a strong Italian +accent which marked also his cooking) seemed to have made up their +minds that Emily Gibbs must necessarily have been made the repository +of the secret of the Lump's origin; and they spared no effort to +extract that secret from her. Emily Gibbs had the most uncomfortable +supper of her life: her fellow-servants, naturally, resented bitterly +the fact that she had met the Lump for the first time that very day at +Waterloo station. They wanted pegs on which to hang romance; and she +did not provide them. + +At last the second cook said: + +"Well: it's as plain as a pikestaff to me that that little boy is the +son of a young lady as his grace was in love with before he ever met +the duchess. And she married somebody else; and they're both dead; and +his grace 'as adopted their little boy for old sake's sake." + +The first housemaid and the second housemaid accepted this theory +warmly; and then Emily Gibbs said: + +"And I expect she had red hair." + +The basic facts of the affair having been thus comfortably settled, the +talk turned on the identity of the lady, and then on the colour of her +hair. Rawlings was of the opinion that the redness of the Lump's hair +was evidence that either his father or his mother had been a relation +of the duke, since there was so much red hair in the Osterley family. +His suggestion met with general approval. + +"It certainly makes his adopting him more natural-like," said the +second housemaid. + +Pollyooly was awake the next morning before any one else at the court; +and soon after six she rose. She dressed the Lump, gave him biscuits, +ate some herself; and accompanied by all the loose dogs in the house, +they went out into the gardens through one of the long windows of the +blue drawing-room. She led the Lump round to the stables and there +unloosed several more dogs, so that they went about the world well +attended, and spent two very pleasant hours before their exigent +appetites demanded their return to breakfast. + +The duke saw them returning from his dressing-room; and once more he +was of the opinion that they improved the appearance of the gardens. + +As it was Lady Marion's first day at the court after so many months, +Miss Belthorp decided that it should be a holiday--a holiday for +Pollyooly, that is; the Lump did not appear to be yet ripe to learn +even the alphabet. + +After breakfast therefore they went out again; and Miss Belthorp went +with them. This was of no advantage to them, for the excursion became +a formal walk, much less attractive than their erratic wanderings when +alone. Also it was a walk along paths; there were no incursions into +the heart of the woods they went through, nor did they go in a single +meadow and roll in the grass with the dogs. Also, since the hour was +undeniably shining, she thought it well to improve it by imparting a +little instruction in botany. Pollyooly found it quite uninteresting; +she did not care at all whether a flower had four stems or fourteen. +Stamens seemed to her childish mind quite unimportant; the colour and +fragrance of the flower seemed to her the only important things. + +As they came into the court Miss Belthorp chanced to say: + +"I do hope that you haven't been neglecting your piano, Marion. I +always think that music is so important in the formation of character." + +Pollyooly had not been neglecting her piano, because she had no piano +to neglect. The piano played no part in any of the seven standards she +had passed at Muttle Deeping school; and she did not know one note from +another. She was taken aback by the suggestion that she was expected +to show herself accomplished in music. Evidently she must consult the +duke. + +She and the Lump and Miss Belthorp lunched with him, or rather they +dined and he lunched. After it, having seen the Lump safely on his way +upstairs with Miss Belthorp, Pollyooly followed the duke into the +smoking-room. + +"Please, your Grace: Miss Belthorp seems to expect me to know how to +play the piano; and I don't know how to at all," she said gravely. + +"The deuce you don't!" said the duke. "Here's another thing I never +thought of." + +"I don't _mind_ learning the piano," said Pollyooly with a sigh. + +"Yes; but if you showed that you didn't know anything about it, it +would look very suspicious indeed," said the duke; and he frowned +deeply as he cudgelled his brains for a way out of this unexpected +difficulty. + +"I expect it would," said Pollyooly. + +He frowned on, fidgeting; then he said with decision: + +"Well, the only thing to do is to stop it altogether." + +"That would be quite safe," said Pollyooly brightening. + +"All right: I'll see to it," said the duke. + +Pollyooly left him with her heart at ease. + +He frowned over the matter for some time, for it did not seem to him to +be quite in the natural order of things that a duke should actually +refuse to allow his daughter to learn the piano. But he could find no +other way of concealing Pollyooly's damning ignorance of the art of +music. + +At last therefore he sent for Miss Belthorp and said: + +"I--er--have decided that--er--Poll--er--Lady Marion is not to learn +the piano." + +"Not learn the piano?" said Miss Belthorp in the tone of one afflicted +with the last amazement. + +"I--er--have never observed the--er--slightest aptitude in her for it," +said the duke with perfect truthfulness. + +Miss Belthorp blinked. She prided herself on the brilliancy with which +she played the piano--especially the scherzo passages. + +"But--b--but she looks such an intelligent child," she said. + +"Yes. That's why," said the duke happily. + +Miss Belthorp blinked again; then in a somewhat helpless tone she said: + +"Oh, very well, your Grace." + +When the door closed behind her, the duke smiled happily and rubbed his +hands together. + +Pollyooly was expecting to spend a quiet afternoon in the gardens and +home wood with the Lump and the dogs and perhaps Miss Belthorp. She +hoped that Miss Belthorp would have some more important way of spending +her time. Of Emily Gibbs she could easily dispose, since already she +was giving her orders with a quiet firmness there was no gainsaying. +Indeed, Emily Gibbs had been far too well brought up not to receive +orders from what she called "A Lady of Title," with humble gratitude, +and execute them with vigour and despatch; and already she was hard at +work making linen overalls for the Lump. But at half-past three, just +as Miss Belthorp had left them to write letters and they had started +for the home wood, the obedient Emily came hurrying along the garden to +say that the duke wished Pollyooly to put on her prettiest clothes and +come with him to pay a call. + +Pollyooly frowned deeply at the thought that had not Miss Belthorp +lingered with them, they would by now have been safely hidden in some +recess of the wood. For the moment she almost wished that the Lump +were not so attractive. But very soon she was serene again. After all +it was a pleasant thing to be prettily dressed and ride in a motor car; +and there was always the exciting anticipation that the cakes at tea +would not only be delicious but quite uncommon. + +She dressed therefore in a complete serenity and gave Emily Gibbs +careful and exact instructions about the care of the Lump during her +absence. Then a footman came up to say that the car was ready; and she +went down the stairs comfortably assured that she was looking her +prettiest. She saw that the duke looked pleased at the sight of her; +his face grew quite bright. + +He put her into the tonneau of the car and stepped in after her. It +was not the first time they had been alone together, but for the moment +she felt somewhat oppressed. But he at once began to instruct her in +the manners and deportment in vogue at garden parties; and presently +she was talking to him with the most amiable affability. + +Three-quarters of an hour's drive brought them to Ilkeston Towers, +their destination; and when Pollyooly and the duke, coming on to the +lawn, which was set with groups of brightly dressed, shrilly chattering +people, were loudly announced by a strong-lunged butler, there was a +sudden hush and a general, quickly checked movement toward them. Then +Lady Ilkeston greeted them; and the duke said to her in a somewhat loud +voice: + +"It's rather dull going about alone, so I brought Marion with me." + +"But how nice!" said Lady Ilkeston; and she welcomed Pollyooly warmly. + +There was by no means an immediate rush to make Pollyooly's +acquaintance; but for half an hour Lady Ilkeston found herself busy +introducing to her people who were firmly resolved to make her +acquaintance, since she was, so to speak, the sub-heroine of the most +interesting local scandal. + +The duke had not looked for anything of the kind; and he was on +tenterhooks; he had expected that as a child she would be left +peacefully in the background. He found her the central figure of the +gathering; and he was in the liveliest dread lest she should fail to +come through the ordeal with her secret safe. + +It never for a moment occurred to Pollyooly that her secret was in any +danger. Naturally therefore she wore an air of perfect ease; and +answered the innumerable questions about her fondness for different +things, the country, dolls, flowers and so forth with serene +simplicity. He was somewhat surprised by her air (it was not +accentuated, or even obvious) of faintly haughty aloofness. He had a +feeling that it was exactly the right air for a daughter of a duke. He +wondered how it had come to her, whether the Honourable John Ruffin was +right in his red Deeping theory. He did not know his experienced +cousin had often laid before Pollyooly the advantage of giving herself +airs, and she had not been slow to see it. He grew easier in mind. + +Lady Ilkeston was the person really pleased. She had not expected to +have any really interesting central figure at her afternoon; and she +was all the more grateful at getting one. Her gratitude took the +practical form of instructing Sir Miles Walpole, an amiable young man +of twenty-four, very fond of children, to take Pollyooly to the long +table under the cedars, and give her a very nice tea indeed. The ices +and the cakes, which surpassed her hopes and expectation, to no small +degree compensated Pollyooly for the loss of that untrammelled ramble +through the home wood. Also she enjoyed the society of Sir Miles +Walpole; she was at once thoroughly at home with him. + +Soon after tea the duke took her away. When the car had started, he +said triumphantly: + +"Well, we came through that all right. Not a soul spotted that you +weren't Marion." + +"But how could they?" said Pollyooly in a tone of lively surprise. + +"Oh, I was a bit afraid at first," said the duke. + +"I wasn't," said Pollyooly simply. + +He took off his hat, let the rushing air cool his brow, and smiled +broadly at the horizon. It seemed to him that if Pollyooly were the +central figure in yet another gathering, or two, the duchess would not +be long in hearing that he had with uncommon success replaced his lost +daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +POLLYOOLY AND THE DUKE + +The duke's delight with the evident publicity which had attended the +presentation of Pollyooly to the county had lessened hardly at all by +the next morning. He thought it likely that, if the duchess were +anywhere in the United Kingdom, she would learn by some post that very +day that he had filled the place of Marion. + +Then it occurred to him that these correspondents would not only +condole with the duchess on having lost her daughter, but also they +would condole with her on having lost such a charming and delightful +daughter; and he laughed more heartily than he had laughed for many a +long day. + +In a natural desire for yet more publicity, that afternoon he took +Pollyooly with him and drove over to Overton Grange to introduce her to +the Ashcrofts, who had tried to play the part of mediators, with signal +ill-success, between him and the duchess. The Ashcrofts had heard that +Lady Marion Ricksborough had been present at the garden party at +Ilkeston Towers the day before. They were surprised by the news and +more than a little hurt that the duchess had not at once informed them +that the duke had recovered her. Also they were feeling that the duke +had brought Pollyooly to show her off to them as his triumph. +Therefore Lord Ashcroft, a strong, silent, bearded man, was a trifle +stiff with him, Lady Ashcroft a trifle cold; but they made up for it by +giving Pollyooly the warmest welcome possible; their friendliness was +almost overwhelming. After tea (to Pollyooly's regret there were no +ices) Lady Ashcroft took her up to the nurseries where she found a +little girl of eight and a little boy of six, and enjoyed herself +thoroughly. They were better than ices. + +Lord Ashcroft and the duke smoked their cigarettes in silence for a +while after Lady Ashcroft and Pollyooly had left them. Lord Ashcroft +looked rather gloomy; the duke looked at peace with the world. Then +Lord Ashcroft said gloomily: + +"How did you get hold of Marion?" + +"Oh, money--just money," said the duke airily but with perfect +truthfulness. + +Lord Ashcroft frowned; and they were silent again. + +The duke, with the same air of content, lighted another cigarette. + +Presently Lord Ashcroft said: + +"She's very much improved both in looks and intelligence." + +The duke sat bolt upright and said quickly and with heat: + +"She's nothing of the kind!" + +"Oh, yes; she is. You know she is," said Lord Ashcroft firmly. "It's +being with her mother." + +"It's nothing of the kind!" said the duke, still with heat. It seemed +to him absurd to suggest that Pollyooly was superior to his daughter. + +"It is; and I shall write and tell Caroline so," said Lord Ashcroft +with the same firmness. + +"I never knew such an obstinate--wrong-headed--" the duke broke out. +He broke off short, paused, began to laugh, and laughed heartily. Then +he said: "Oh, well; have it your own way. Write and tell her so." + +"I shall," said Lord Ashcroft in the tone of one bent on performing a +sacred duty. "I don't see anything to laugh at." + +The duke again remained silent; but twice he laughed sudden, short +laughs. Lord Ashcroft looked at him suspiciously. + +"I don't know quite what's happening to you, Osterley," he said +presently in a tone hardly meant to be pleasant. "You're changing." + +"Yes: getting brighter," said the duke easily. + +"It may be that and again it may not," said Lord Ashcroft coldly; and +he tugged at his beard. + +After that conversation seemed hard to make; and soon the duke said +that he must be going. Lady Ashcroft kept him waiting nearly twenty +minutes before she brought Pollyooly down from the nurseries. Then she +said that Pollyooly must come to spend the whole day with her children; +and Pollyooly said that she would like to come very much. The duke +looked a little doubtful: he was not sure that Pollyooly could stand +the test of hours of intimacy. + +On the way home he talked for a while cheerfully; and since there was +no intellectual gulf between them, they could talk to one another with +perfect ease and understanding. Then he fell into a sudden panic. + +"By Jove!" he cried, clutching at his moustache and missing it. "I'd +forgotten all about it! My sister--Lady Salkeld's coming home +to-morrow!" + +Pollyooly said nothing. She looked at him with enquiring eyes. + +"Suppose she goes and recognises that you aren't Marion?" + +"I don't see why she should any more than any one else," said Pollyooly +in a reassuring tone. + +"Oh, but, hang it! She's seen a lot of Marion. She's known her ever +since she was a baby," said the duke with a harassed air. + +Pollyooly could have set his mind at rest by assuring him that during +her last stay at the court Lady Salkeld had not shown the slightest +tendency to recognise that she was not Lady Marion Ricksborough; but +she did not. She only said: + +"I don't suppose that she'll take much notice of me." + +"There is that. She pretty well thinks of nothing but her own +affairs," said the duke more hopefully. + +"Anyhow, it's no use worrying about it. I expect it'll be all right," +said Pollyooly in a comforting tone. + +The duke was so far reassured by her careless serenity as presently to +resume his easy conversation with her. That evening, since he was +dining alone, he sent for her to come to him at dessert, and talked to +her again. His was a sociable nature; and in view of the presence of +her and the Lump he had not invited any friends to relieve the +loneliness of his stay at the court. + +Lady Salkeld arrived in time for lunch next day; and at lunch Pollyooly +and the Lump met her. The duke was on tenterhooks, needlessly, for she +bestowed a tepid kiss on Pollyooly, tapped the cheek of the Lump even +more tepidly, and addressed herself peaceably to her lunch. + +But after a while she began to give her attention to the Lump, looking +at him earnestly now and again, and blinking. Then she said: + +"That child reminds me of somebody, Osterley. Where did you pick him +up?" + +"These red Deepings are all alike," said the duke carelessly. + +"Oh? He's a red Deeping, is he? Who's his father?" said Lady Salkeld +almost briskly. + +"It's a secret," said the duke with perfect truthfulness, for he did +not know. + +Lady Salkeld looked at him, sniffed, and said with some tartness: + +"Well, I never expected you to be mysterious, Osterley." + +The duke bore the reproach with patient meekness, and said nothing. It +suited him very well that his sister should be giving her attention to +the Lump. From the Lump nothing was to be learned. + +Lady Salkeld's coming made no difference to their lives. Pollyooly +went on her early morning rambles with the Lump; from breakfast to noon +she did her lessons and then went for a sedate walk with Miss Belthorp. +After lunch she played with the Lump till it was time to drive out to +tea with the duke. Naturally she met the same people again and again, +and was now on very friendly terms with some of them. The duke, +regarding her with something of the feeling of an impresario, and +finding that she was everywhere welcomed as an authentic angel child, +began to take pride in displaying her. Also he began to take greater +pleasure in her society. Frequently, when the morning lessons were +over, he would come up to the schoolroom and take her out for a walk +with him. He liked to stroll about his estate and thrill with the +feelings of a landed proprietor. + +Pollyooly enjoyed these walks. The duke never tried to improve her +mind with botany. But she learned much country lore from him, the +names and habits of many birds and small animals. In spite of his +exalted station, he was a simple soul; and he had retained his boyish +interest in the furred and feathered world of the woods and meadows +round the court. Also he enjoyed telling Pollyooly things. +Unconsciously, but quite accurately, he regarded her as his +intellectual equal; and it pleased him very much to tell her things she +did not know. It gave him a sense of passing, but genuine superiority, +a feeling his fellow creatures seldom inspired into him. + +Sometimes he wondered why he had never thought of making a companion of +Marion. He made up his mind that when, presently, he was reconciled +with the duchess (he had no doubt ever that presently they would be +reconciled) he would make a companion of her. It never entered his +mind that there would be any difficulty about doing so. + +The Honourable John Ruffin came down for a week-end and was pleased to +find the duke and Pollyooly on such excellent terms. So pleased was he +that he forebore, by a considerable effort, to tease the duke. At +least he did not tease him more than was good for him. Also, to his +great surprise, he found himself suffering from a twinge of jealousy +now and again at Pollyooly's frank display of friendliness for the +duke. He told himself that it was wholly absurd. But there it was: +with his money and influence the duke could do so much more for her +than he could. He consoled himself with the thought that after all the +duke would be only carrying on his work. + +On the Saturday afternoon they went, as was their wont, for a stroll +through the woods; and the Honourable John Ruffin, who had so carefully +gratified his great inborn interest in the human race that now he +missed very little, observed that once or twice the duke paused and +looked about him as if he missed something. + +The next afternoon as they were starting, the duke said in a voice +which was not as easy as it tried to be, and with an air that was +distinctly shame-faced: + +"I say: we may as well take Pollyooly with us." + +The Honourable John Ruffin raised his eyebrows a little and said: + +"Oh, well--little pitchers have long ears, don't you know." + +"Oh, that's all right--that's all right, we needn't talk secrets," said +the duke quickly; and he ran lightly up the stairs to fetch her. + +It was a pleasant walk; and the Honourable John Ruffin was alive to the +fact that the company of Pollyooly greatly improved it. But at times +to his astonishment he was no less distinctly conscious of the fact +that two were company and three were none; and he was the third. + +At dinner that night he said somewhat gloomily: + +"I wish Caroline would hurry up and start firmly to come back to you. +I miss Pollyooly." + +"Give her time--give her time," said the duke quickly. "Besides the +country is doing the child a lot of good." + +"Oh, it's all very well for you. You've got a chef; but I've got no +one to grill my bacon, and that after training Pollyooly to be the +finest griller of bacon in England," said the Honourable John Ruffin in +a bitterly aggrieved tone. + +"Don't you think you're a bit selfish? You ought to think of the good +the country's doing the child," said the duke in a somewhat lofty tone. + +The Honourable John Ruffin snarled quietly. + +The next afternoon, as he was getting into the car to go to the +station, he paused and said in his most amiable tone: + +"Well, all I can say is: it's a jolly good thing for everybody that +Pollyooly isn't six years older." + +"Oh, get out!" said the duke. + +"Especially for Pollyooly," said the Honourable John Ruffin; and he +stepped into the car. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +LORD RONALD RICKSBOROUGH COMES TO THE COURT + +On the Wednesday morning, in the middle of lessons, a footman came from +the duke to ask Pollyooly to go to him at once. She went wondering, +and found him in the smoking-room in a panic. + +As she entered he waved a telegram at her and said: + +"Here's a new mess. Lord Ronald Ricksborough--you know him--he's my +heir, you know--always spends his holidays at the court. He's been +visiting friends, but his visit's at an end; and he wires to say that +he's coming here--arriving this evening." + +"Oh, that will be nice!" cried Pollyooly. + +"Oh, will it? Suppose he finds out you're not Lady Marion?" cried the +duke. + +"But he knows I'm not; and he knows I'm here," said Pollyooly. + +"The deuce he does!" cried the duke. + +"Yes. I wrote and told him so," said Pollyooly. + +"You did?" cried the duke; and he clutched at his moustache. + +"Yes. We often write to one another--just short letters. You know +we're engaged to be married, when we grow up. He gave me this ring," +said Pollyooly in a tone of quiet explanation, holding out her hand. + +The duke gasped heavily. + +"I don't know what the world's coming to! Children of your age!" he +cried. + +"Oh, it'll be quite all right," said Pollyooly cheerfully. "I'm going +on the stage. I've been on it already--dancing with the Esmeralda--not +really dancing of course, but just filling in the picture (that's what +the Esmeralda called it) in 'Titania's Awakening'--" + +"What? You were the child in 'Titania's Awakening'?" said the duke +heavily. + +"Yes. But when I grow up I'm going on the stage again--in musical +comedy--so that it will be quite all right for Ronald to marry me. The +heirs of peers generally marry girls in musical comedy. Ronald says +they do; and Mr. Ruffin said that he was quite right." + +The duke's eyes were larger than usual, and bulging out. He ground his +teeth and looked as if he could well have torn out some of his hair. + +"I can't think why John Ruffin will talk such silly nonsense!" he +growled in a tone of the last exasperation. + +"Oh, but it isn't, your Grace," said Pollyooly reproachfully. "Lots of +them have done it. Ronald sent me a list of them he made out with two +school-fellows. Only it's at the Temple. It'll be quite all right for +us to get married." + +The duke gnashed his teeth for a change. But he regained some control +of himself and said with moderate calmness: + +"Well, of course it's only children's nonsense. But you may as well +bear in mind that Ronald's going to marry Lady Marion." + +"I don't think you'll get him to," said Pollyooly quickly but +dispassionately. "He says she's such a little duff--" Her natural +politeness stopped the word on her tongue. "They--they don't get on +well together." + +"They'll have to!" said the duke stormily. + +Pollyooly said nothing; but she did not look hopeful. + +The duke waited for a word of encouragement. It did not come. He +crumpled up the telegram, threw it into the grate, and said: + +"But the real question is: will Ronald keep the secret? Will he be +able to?" + +"Oh, yes: he'll keep it quite easily," said Pollyooly confidently. +"He's splendid at keeping secrets." + +The duke gazed at her gloomily and said gloomily: + +"I can't conceive how on earth you and Ronald got to know one another +so well." + +Pollyooly's eyes opened wider and grew uncommonly limpid. She said: + +"Oh, I've been out to lunch with him and to the Varolium--from the +Temple." + +"You have, have you?" said the duke bitterly. "I'm hanged if I know +what the world's coming to!" + +Pollyooly said nothing. She looked at him solemnly as if impressed by +his difficulty. He gazed at her gloomily. Then he said firmly: + +"Look here: I'm not going to have his coming interfere with our walks; +and he's not coming with us to call on people." + +Pollyooly knitted her brow and after a thoughtful pause said: + +"I shouldn't think he'll want to." + +"He won't, if he does," said the duke firmly. "And mind you keep him +up to the mark and see that he doesn't let out that you're not Marion." + +"Oh, I will," said Pollyooly. + +"Well, run away and get your lessons done. I hope to goodness he +doesn't let it out!" + +That evening, while they were at tea, Lord Ronald Ricksborough arrived, +and came straight to the schoolroom. His attitude was admirable. He +greeted Pollyooly with the words, "Hullo, Marion!" in the perfectly +perfunctory manner of a cousin. She greeted him with a like +perfunctoriness and introduced him to Miss Belthorp. He greeted her +politely; then he looked at the Lump with a very good air of surprise +and said: + +"Who's the kid?" + +This display of ignorance was unwarranted by the fact that more than +once, in moments of chivalry, he had carried the Lump up the stairs of +Seventy-five, the King's Bench Walk, after the three of them had been +taking their pleasures in London. + +"He's a little boy his grace has adopted," said Miss Belthorp, smiling +affectionately at the Lump. + +"Adopted? Well, that's a rum go," said Ronald; and he sat down at the +table. + +Over his tea he told them, or, to be exact, he told Pollyooly, for it +was to her that he addressed himself, of his doings at school and +during the time he had spent on the visit which had just come to an +end. After tea he and Pollyooly went out into the gardens together. +When they were out of hearing he said: + +"This is tophole, having you here, old girl!" + +Then as they passed out of sight in a shrubbery, he put his arm, +somewhat clumsily for one in most things uncommonly deft, round her +neck and kissed her. Pollyooly returned the kiss in a matter-of-fact, +almost careless fashion. She was not addicted to kissing, though she +kissed the Lump often enough and with fervour; but this kiss was part +of the business of being engaged to be married. Since Ronald heaved a +sigh of relief at having performed the required feat, it is to be +presumed that his feelings in the matter were very like her own. Then +they went on briskly through the gardens and into the wood, the best +companions in the world. + +With Ronald at the court the days grew pleasanter than ever. He begged +Pollyooly to demand that she too should have a holiday. But this she +would not do. She had seen the world at too close quarters to throw +away things idly; and she was learning French. Indeed, the lessons had +been reduced to French because Pollyooly had heard the Esmeralda say +that she found her knowledge of French a perfect blessing; and agreeing +with her, the Honourable John Ruffin had said that to an artist who +danced on the continent and in the Americas, French must be worth +hundreds a year. + +Pollyooly had the firmest intention of dancing herself on the continent +and in the Americas, and she applied herself to learning the French +tongue with the vigour and tenacity with which she worked at her +dancing. Miss Belthorp was astonished at the quickness with which she +learnt; and she talked with enthusiasm to the duke of his daughter's +gift for languages. + +"She has: has she?" said the duke; and he looked at her somewhat +queerly. + +"It's perfectly wonderful!" said Miss Belthorp. + +"Oh, well: it's a very good thing. I dare say it will come in useful +one of these days," said the duke. + +On their walk that morning he told Pollyooly that Miss Belthorp had +said that she was a marvel at languages; and Pollyooly was very pleased +to hear it. She told the duke her reason for working so hard at her +French. + +He frowned for the next hundred yards, or so; then he said irritably: + +"I can't see why on earth you want to go in for this dancing and all +this stage business at all." + +"Oh, but if you can dance--really dance, they pay you ever so well," +cried Pollyooly. + +"I tell you what it is: you're a jolly sight too keen on money--for a +child of your age--it's--it's mercenary--yes: mercenary," said the duke +severely. + +Pollyooly flushed, and looked at him with her eyes bright either with +tears, or a sparkle of anger. + +"But I _have_ to get money," she said with some heat. "When Mr. +Ruffin's creditors hale him away to the deepest dungeon in Holloway +(he's said they will lots of times) you don't suppose I'm going to let +the Lump go to the workhouse! And where should I get another place +like Mr. Ruffin's? I should only have Mr. Gedge-Tomkins." + +"Oh, well--of course--if it's like that," said the duke in a tone of +awkward apology. + +Pollyooly said nothing for a while; she walked on with knitted brow. +Then she said: + +"And anyhow when the Lump gets bigger, I shall want a lot of money. +There'll be his clothes, and his schooling. I don't want him to go to +a board school--not in London. Such children go there--Aunt Hannah +said so, and so does Mrs. Brown. But there must be schools where they +wouldn't charge very much." + +"Oh--ah--of course, you'll want money for that," said the duke heavily. + +Pollyooly gave a little skip as of one removing an unpleasant matter +from her mind, and said cheerfully: + +"And anyhow I should have to go on the stage. Ronald and I couldn't +get married if I didn't." + +"I keep telling you that he's going to marry Marion," said the duke +very firmly indeed. + +His insistence on this fact did not seem to impair Pollyooly's cheerful +serenity, for after a thoughtful pause she skipped again and said: + +"Oh, well: if I'm actually on the stage, I expect it would be all +right. There must be other heirs of peers." + +The duke looked down on her and said bitterly: + +"I'm hanged if _I_ know what the world's coming to!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE DUKE WINS + +Pollyooly had been at Ricksborough Court rather more than a month when +the Honourable John Ruffin arrived, uninvited and without notice, on +the Friday evening. He found the duke in the garden with the three +children. + +"The kicking has begun," he said to the duke briefly, by way of +explanation. + +The duke seemed taken aback by the suddenness of the news, but soon he +recovered and showed himself in very good spirits. + +That night after dinner, after Pollyooly and Ronald had been dismissed +from dessert to bed, the Honourable John Ruffin said: + +"I got a letter from Caroline, pitching into me like one o'clock for +being a party to a disgraceful plot to rob Marion of her name and +birthright." + +"Where is it?" said the duke quickly. + +"I didn't bring it with me. The home-truths about me on it were +nothing to the home-truths about you. It would sear your soul to read +them," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a very grave voice. + +"Would it?" said the duke. + +"It would. But I thought I would come down, in case she made a descent +and you wanted some one to stand by and stiffen you." + +"Do you know, I don't think I do," said the duke. "I really believe I +can stick it out on my own." + +"Good," said the Honourable John Ruffin. + +"All the same I'm glad you came. If we get beyond having a tremendous +row, we shall very likely want some one to arrange things for us," said +the duke. + +"I shouldn't think a tremendous row was quite your game," said the +Honourable John Ruffin thoughtfully. + +"Oh, _I'm_ not going to row. But you know what Caroline is: she can +have all the row there is to have, without any help from any one," said +the duke. "I'm just going to sit tight as wax and let her wear herself +out, if she does start rowing." + +"That is undoubtedly the course for a man of sense to pursue," said the +Honourable John Ruffin in a tone of approval. + +The duke was on tenterhooks the next day, for though he was braced for +the struggle with the duchess, he found the uncertainty when that +struggle would begin trying. Then he was taking his afternoon tea with +the Honourable John Ruffin on the cedar lawn; Ronald and Pollyooly +mindful of the cakes, had sociably joined them; and they were laughing +at a story the Honourable John Ruffin was telling them, when he stopped +short, staring at the entrance to the lawn. They turned to see the +duchess standing in it, and surveying them with the eyes of an avenging +angel. + +[Illustration: They turned to see the Duchess] + +They all rose; and the Honourable John Ruffin said calmly: + +"How are you, Caroline? I suppose you motored down. Charming weather +for motoring." + +"Very," said the duchess in a terrible voice. "And a charming +gathering I find at the end of it." + +"Yes; sit down and have some tea. You must be thirsty," said the +Honourable John Ruffin. + +"How are you, Caroline? Sit down and have some tea," said the duke, +seizing on the opening, in rather uncertain tones. + +"Tea!" said the duchess, in a yet more terrible voice. + +"And bread and butter," said the duke hastily. + +"Do you think I came here to drink _tea_?" said the duchess in the tone +of one who had come to drink blood. + +"A lemon squash then," said the duke hastily. + +"I haven't come here to drink tea, or lemon squashes," said the +duchess. "I've come to learn what this means--to put an end to this +ridiculous farce?" + +"Eh? What? What farce?" said the duke. + +"This farcical substitution of this wicked child, Mary Bride, for +Marion," said the duchess, glaring at Pollyooly. + +"But you're not going to do any substituting. I won't have it," said +the duke firmly. + +"Me? It's you! You've done it already!" cried the duchess, with a +sudden note of astonishment in her voice. + +The duke shook his head, and with a smile of superior knowledge said +firmly: + +"It won't do, Caroline. It's no good your trying it on." + +The duchess gasped: "What do you mean? What _do_ you mean?" she cried; +and her tone was now all astonishment. + +The Honourable John Ruffin created a diversion by saying: + +"As far as I can make out this is a private matter; and little pitchers +have long ears. Come along, little pitchers." And he was sweeping +Pollyooly and Ronald off the lawn. + +The duchess glared at him, and stopped them for a moment with the words: + +"Is this your doing, John?" + +"Heavens, no! Osterley is the originator, and organiser, and +perpetrator of the whole arrangement," he cried over his shoulder in a +tone which carried conviction; and he vanished with the children. + +The duchess turned and glared again at the duke, as if she could not +believe her eyes; she looked almost as if she saw him for the first +time. + +"Sit down and have some tea. You must be wanting it," said the duke +firmly; and he began to pour it out. + +The duchess sat down, with a somewhat helpless air, still staring at +him. Matters seemed to be going differently from what she had +expected. Her fine brown eyes looked very big. + +"You did this all yourself?" she said, in a somewhat breathless voice. + +"Did what? Two lumps, isn't it?" said the duke, putting two lumps into +the cup and handing it to her. + +"Deliberately substituted a strange child for your own," said the +duchess solemnly. + +"Oh, that," said the duke carelessly. "That's all right. You needn't +worry about that. I've quite taken to Mary Bride. She's so--so +companionable--and--and as clever as they make 'em, and as pretty as a +picture. She makes a ripping Lady Marion Ricksborough. Why, when she +comes into a room, or on to a lawn, it's beginning to make as much +sensation as if it were yourself. I was awfully lucky to get hold of +her." His tone had grown truly enthusiastic. + +The duchess ground her teeth and cried: + +"And do you think I'm going to stand it?" + +"Stand it? I thought you'd like it," said the duke in a perplexed +tone. "Of course I'm not going to bother you about Marion any more; +you can keep her. And it's all so deucedly comfortable; you've got the +Marion you want, and I've got the Marion I want. And so we're both +happy." And he smiled amiably. + +"Happy! Happy when a strange child is usurping the place of my child?" +cried the duchess furiously. + +"Oh, that's all right. Marion's got _you_," said the duke. "Besides, +I'm not going to go all my life without any family. It wouldn't be +fair; and you've no right to expect it. I say, how jolly you're +looking!" + +"Jolly!" said the duchess thickly. + +"Well, pretty then. And your figure is better than ever--perfectly +ripping," said the duke with enthusiasm. + +"You can leave me out of it!" cried the duchess in a tone of the last +exasperation. "And if you think I'm going to stand this, I'm not!" + +"But what are you going to do about it?" said the duke mildly. + +"Stop it!" said the duchess through her set teeth. + +"But you can't stop it," said the duke in his most amiable tone. "I'm +getting domesticated, and I'm bent on having something in the way of a +family. Set on it. Of course you can say that your Marion is Lady +Marion Ricksborough; and I shall say that mine is. And some people +will believe you, but most people will believe me. And of course I +shall settle a good lump sum on Mary Bride when she marries, and leave +her all the unentailed property." + +"Oh, but it's impossible!" cried the duchess writhing in her chair. +"Leaving your child out in the cold for a perfect stranger!" + +"But she isn't. I tell you, she and I get on like a house on fire," +said the duke with some impatience. "And it's perfectly all right; you +stick to your Marion; and I'll stick to mine." + +The duchess rose and cried: + +"It's abominable! The most cold-blooded thing I ever heard of! And if +you think you're going to get rid of us like this, you're wrong! I +stay here till this matter has been put right." + +"Oh, I don't want to get rid of _you_," said the duke amiably. + +The duchess ground her teeth and walked across the lawn with the air of +a Boadicea saving her country. The duke watched her graceful figure +till it disappeared through a long window into the pink drawing-room, +with admiring eyes. Then he smiled a Machiavellian smile. + +The duchess went to her rooms in a mood of seething, but somewhat +helpless, fury. She was softened a little by finding them just as she +had left them two years before. Plainly some one had taken care of the +clothes she had left behind her; and her anxiety about a dress to dine +in was lulled to rest. She thought for a while that she would go and +berate Pollyooly; but she came to the conclusion that it would be +absurd to blame her for the action of the duke. It was much more +annoying to find that she could not reasonably blame the duke. She was +forced to admit that he had a right to the domestic life, if he wished +for it. She was also annoyed to feel an uncommonly pleasant sense of +home-coming. She resented it, but she could not rid herself of it. + +She came to dinner very dignified and stern; but the Honourable John +Ruffin saw to it that the meal was unconstrained. He spared no effort +to keep the talk in a light vein; and the duke, after his talk with the +duchess that afternoon, was sufficiently at his ease to second him to +the best of his not very great ability. He won the Honourable John +Ruffin's golden opinions by remembering the other two occasions on +which the duchess had worn the gown she was wearing to-night. + +Little by little, against her will, she thawed. The sense of +home-coming grew stronger. The easy, reminiscent talk--reminiscent of +pleasant days--the familiar room, and, perhaps, her favourite brand of +champagne, softened her till her smiles came easily. Moreover it was +delightful to be amused again; and it was borne suddenly in upon her +that the months she had been living in hiding had been tiresome, boring +months, from the point of view of life, utterly wasted months. Again +and again she looked at the duke as if she saw him for the first time. +Plainly she was amending her opinion of him. + +She yielded readily to the entreaties of the two men to stop and drink +her coffee and smoke her cigarette with them. The Honourable John +Ruffin talked on; she laughed several times. Then, having finished his +cigarette, and lighted a cigar, he said: + +"I have a sonnet to write to the eyebrow of a lady--no, Caroline: you +do not know her--and I must have perfect solitude, by the side of still +water, in the moonlight. So I am going down to the long pool; and I +must on no account be interrupted. So long." + +And he went quickly through the long window. + +He spoke quickly and went quickly, before the duchess could suggest +that he should wait a while. She felt unequal to a tete-a-tete with +her husband, and nervously she half rose. + +"Oh, don't you rush away too," said the duke somewhat plaintively. + +She sank back into her chair. + +The duke looked at her for a while in silence with eyes full of an +admiration at once gratifying and discomfiting; then he said: + +"I say, Caroline, can you remember what it was we first quarrelled +about?" + +The duchess knitted her brow in the effort to recall it, and said: + +"No, I can't. Oh, yes! You grumbled at the way my hair was done." +Then she added in a tone of triumph, "And I've done it exactly the same +ever since; it's done like it now!" + +"Something must have upset me, for it looks perfectly ripping," said +the duke with warm conviction. + +The duchess felt herself blushing under his admiring eyes, and disliked +herself very much for doing so. + +She rose hastily and said: + +"I think I'll go into the garden." + +This time the duke let her go. He finished his cigar before he +followed her. He found her walking up and down the cedar lawn; and +when the moonlight fell on her face, he saw that it was troubled. + +He fell into step beside her and said with enthusiasm: + +"It's a ripping night." + +She said nothing; and they crossed the lawn and turned. + +He said, again with enthusiasm: + +"I do like this lawn. I first kissed you under that old tree." + +The duchess started to leave the lawn with some speed. + +The duke kept pace with her. + +Half-way across the lawn he said in an affectionate tone: + +"There's no need for you to fret about Marion, old girl. You can +arrange it just as you like." + +Then deftly, he slipped his arm round her waist. + +"How dare you, Archie?" she cried, and made to thrust him away with +some vigour. + +It was not enough vigour. The duke's arm did not slip; indeed he +tightened his clasp as he said: + +"I could do much better with a complete family--a wife and a daughter." + +"After the way you've behaved!" cried the duchess. + +"Oh, well, one doesn't always behave the same. One changes," said the +duke. + + +Three days later Pollyooly and Ronald stood by a gate at the end of the +home wood, awaiting the coming of the motor car, in which the +Honourable John Ruffin was bringing the real Lady Marion Ricksborough +to slip quietly into the place which Pollyooly had occupied with such +signal success. The Lump, in the care of Emily Gibbs, was already +speeding in the train to London, to be met at Waterloo and conveyed to +the Temple by Mrs. Brown. + +Ronald looked gloomy; and an air of sadness marred Pollyooly's serenity. + +"It's perfectly rotten your going off like this--before we've done half +the things we were going to. Why on earth couldn't uncle have waited +till the end of the holidays to make the change?" said Ronald in a +bitterly aggrieved tone. + +"Well, you'll have Marion to go about with you," said Pollyooly. + +"Nothing doing!" snapped Ronald. + +His vehemence pleased her. + +"It's a pity," she said sadly. "It's been splendid; and I'm awfully +sorry to have to go." + +Then her face cleared and brightened into an angel smile; she crinkled +in her pocket the five ten-pound notes which the grateful duke had +given her; and added: + +"But it's splendid to think that with what I've got in the Savings Bank +and this, I can keep the Lump out of the workhouse for years and years!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY POLLYOOLY*** + + +******* This file should be named 19310.txt or 19310.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19310 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/19310.zip b/19310.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b718ce4 --- /dev/null +++ b/19310.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db53bbe --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #19310 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19310) |
