Taking everything into consideration, I could not but feel that it would require more than a little persuasion to make the professor bestow his blessing with that genial warmth which we like to see in our fathers-in-law’s elect.
“You don’t think,” I said, “that time, the Great Healer, and so on—? He won’t feel kindlier disposed towards me—say in a month’s time?”
“Of course he /might/,” said Phyllis; but she spoke doubtfully.
“He strikes me from what I have seen of him as a man of moods. I might do something one of these days which would completely alter his views. We will hope for the best.”
“About telling father—?”
“Need we, do you think?” I said.
“Yes, we must. I couldn’t bear to think that I was keeping it from him. I don’t think I’ve ever kept anything from him in my life. Nothing bad, I mean.”
“You count this among your darker crimes, then?”
“I was looking at it from father’s point of view. He will be awfully angry. I don’t know how I shall begin telling him.”
“Good heavens!” I cried, “you surely don’t think I’m going to let you do that! Keep safely out of the way while you tell him! Not much. I’m coming back with you now, and we’ll break the bad news together.”
“No, not to-night. He may be tired and rather cross. We had better wait till to-morrow. You might speak to him in the morning.”
“Where shall I find him?”
“He is certain to go to the beach before breakfast for a swim.”
“Good. I’ll be there.”
“Ukridge,” I said, when I got back, “I want your advice.”
It stirred him like a trumpet blast. I suppose, when a man is in the habit of giving unsolicited counsel to everyone he meets, it is as invigorating as an electric shock to him to be asked for it spontaneously.
“Bring it out, laddie!” he replied cordially. “I’m with you. Here, come along into the garden, and state your case.”
This suited me. It is always easier to talk intimately in the dark, and I did not wish to be interrupted by the sudden entrance of the Hired Man or Mrs. Beale, of which there was always a danger indoors. We walked down to the paddock. Ukridge lit a cigar.
“Ukridge,” I said, “I’m engaged!”
“What!” A huge hand whistled through the darkness and smote me heavily between the shoulder-blades. “By Jove, old boy, I wish you luck. ‘Pon my Sam I do! Best thing in the world for you. Bachelors are mere excrescences. Never knew what happiness was till I married. When’s the wedding to be?”
“That’s where I want your advice. What you might call a difficulty has arisen about the wedding. It’s like this. I’m engaged to Phyllis Derrick.”
“Derrick? Derrick?”
“You can’t have forgotten her! Good Lord, what eyes some men have! Why, if I’d only seen her once, I should have remembered her all my life.”
“I know, now. Rather a pretty girl, with blue eyes.”
I stared at him blankly. It was not much good, as he could not see my face, but it relieved me. “Rather a pretty girl!” What a description!
“Of course, yes,” continued Ukridge. “She came to dinner here one night with her father, that fat little buffer.”
“As you were careful to call him to his face at the time, confound you! It was that that started all the trouble.”
“Trouble? What trouble?”
“Why, her father….”
“By Jove, I remember now! So worried lately, old boy, that my memory’s gone groggy. Of course! Her father fell into the sea, and you fished him out. Why, damme, it’s like the stories you read.”
“It’s also very like the stories I used to write. But they had one point about them which this story hasn’t. They invariably ended happily, with the father joining the hero’s and heroine’s hands and giving his blessing. Unfortunately, in the present case, that doesn’t seem likely to happen.”
“The old man won’t give his consent?”
“I’m afraid not. I haven’t asked him yet, but the chances are against it.”
“But why? What’s the matter with you? You’re an excellent chap, sound in wind and limb, and didn’t you once tell me that, if you married, you came into a pretty sizeable bit of money?”
“Yes, I do. That part of it is all right.”
Ukridge’s voice betrayed perplexity.
“I don’t understand this thing, old horse,” he said. “I should have thought the old boy would have been all over you. Why, damme, I never heard of anything like it. You saved his life! You fished him out of the water.”
“After chucking him in. That’s the trouble.”
“You chucked him in?”
“By proxy.”
I explained. Ukridge, I regret to say, laughed in a way that must have been heard miles away in distant villages in Devonshire.
“You devil!” he bellowed. “‘Pon my Sam, old horse, to look at you one would never have thought you’d have had it in you.”
“I can’t help looking respectable.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“That’s where I wanted your advice. You’re a man of resource. What would you do in my place?”
Ukridge tapped me impressively on the shoulder.
“Laddie,” he said, “there’s one thing that’ll carry you through any mess.”
“And that is—?”
“Cheek, my boy, cheek. Gall. Nerve. Why, take my case. I never told you how I came to marry, did I. I thought not. Well, it was this way. It’ll do you a bit of good, perhaps, to hear the story, for, mark you, blessings weren’t going cheap in my case either. You know Millie’s Aunt Elizabeth, the female who wrote that letter? Well, when I tell you that she was Millie’s nearest relative and that it was her consent I had to snaffle, you’ll see that I was faced with a bit of a problem.”
“Let’s have it,” I said.
“Well, the first time I ever saw Millie was in a first-class carriage on the underground. I’d got a third-class ticket, by the way. The carriage was full, and I got up and gave her my seat, and, as I hung suspended over her by a strap, damme, I fell in love with her then and there. You’ve no conception, laddie, how indescribably ripping she looked, in a sort of blue dress with a bit of red in it and a hat with thingummies. Well, we both got out at South Kensington. By that time I was gasping for air and saw that the thing wanted looking into. I’d never had much time to bother about women, but I realised that this must not be missed. I was in love, old horse. It comes over you quite suddenly, like a tidal wave….”
“I know! I know! Good Heavens, you can’t tell me anything about that.”
“Well, I followed her. She went to a house in Thurloe Square. I waited outside and thought it over. I had got to get into that shanty and make her acquaintance, if they threw me out on my ear. So I rang the bell. ‘Is Lady Lichenhall at home?’ I asked. You spot the devilish cunning of the ruse, what? My asking for a female with a title was to make ‘em think I was one of the Upper Ten.”
“How were you dressed?” I could not help asking.
“Oh, it was one of my frock-coat days. I’d been to see a man about tutoring his son, and by a merciful dispensation of Providence there was a fellow living in the same boarding-house with me who was about my build and had a frock-coat, and he had lent it to me. At least, he hadn’t exactly lent it to me, but I knew where he kept it and he was out at the time. There was nothing the matter with my appearance. Quite the young duke, I assure you, laddie, down to the last button. ‘Is Lady Lichenhall at home?’ I asked. ‘No,’ said the maid, ‘nobody of that name here. This is Lady Lakenheath’s house.’ So, you see, I had a bit of luck at the start, because the names were a bit alike. Well, I got the maid to show me in somehow, and, once in you can bet I talked for all I was worth. Kept up a flow of conversation about being misdirected and coming to the wrong house. Went away, and called a few days later. Gradually wormed my way in. Called regularly. Spied on their movements, met ‘em at every theatre they went to, and bowed, and finally got away with Millie before her aunt knew what was happening or who I was or what I was doing or anything.”