“On the head of an escaped convict,”
I answered.
“Do you mean - “
“The ‘bye Jarge,’” I nodded.
“Oh, Dick!”
“Yes, Lisbeth; it was a ridiculous piece of sentiment I admit. Your 1aw abiding, level-headed citizen would doubtless be highly shocked, not to say scandalised; likewise the Law might get up on its hind legs and kick - quite unpleasantly; but all the same, I did it”
“You were never what one might call - very ‘level-headed,’ were you, Dick?”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“And, do you know, I think that is the very reason why I - good gracious! - what is that?” She pointed toward the shadow of the hedge.
“Merely the Imp,” I answered; “but never mind that - tell me what you were going to say - ‘the very reason why you’ - what?”
“Reginald!” said Lisbeth, unheeding my question, “come here, sir!” Very sheepishly the Imp crept forth from the ditch, and coming up beside me, stole his hand into mine, and I put it in my pocket.
“Reginald?” she repeated, looking from one to the other of us with that expression which always renews within me the memory of my boyish misdeeds, “why are you not asleep in bed?”
“‘Cause I had to go an’ feed my outlaw, Auntie Lisbeth.”
“And,” I put in to create a diversion, “incidentally I’ve discovered the secret of his ‘enormous appetite.’ It is explained in three words, to wit, ‘the bye Jarge.”
“Do you mean to say - ” began Lisbeth.
“Fed him regularly twice a day,” I went on, “and nearly famished himself in the doing of it - you remember the dry-bread incident?”
“Imp!” cried Lisbeth; “Imp!” And she had him next moment in her arms.
“But Uncle Dick gave him a whole sovereign, you know,” he began; “an’ - “
“I sent him to a certain house, Lisbeth,” I said, as her eyes met mine; “an old house that stands not far from the village of Down, in Kent, to prune the roses and things. I should like it to be looking its best when we get there; and - “
“An’ my outlaw kissed Uncle Dick’s hand,” pursued the Imp. “Don’t you think he must love him an awful lot?”
“I gave him a month to do it in,” I went on; “but a month seems much too long when one comes to consider - what do you think, Lisbeth?”
“I think that I hear the wheels of the dog-cart!” she cried. Sure enough, a moment later Peter hove in view, and great was his astonishment at sight of “Master Reginald.”
“Peter,” I said, “Miss Elizabeth has changed her mind, and will walk back with us; and - er - by the way, I understand that Master Reginald purchased a coat, a shirt, and a pair of trousers of you, for which he has already paid a deposit of sixpence. Now, if you will let me know their value - “
“That’s hall right, Mr. Brent, sir. Betwixt you and me, sir, they wasn’t up to much, nohow, the coat being tightish, sir - tightish - and the trousis uncommon short in the leg for a man o’ my hinches, sir.”
“Nevertheless,” said I, “a coat’s a coat, and a pair of trousers are indubitably a pair of trousers, and nothing can alter the fact; so if you will send me in a bill some time I shall be glad.”
“Very good, Mr. Brent, sir.” Saying which Peter touched his hat and turning, drove away.
“Now,” I said as I rejoined Lisbeth and the Imp, “I shall be glad if you will tell me how long it should take for my garden to look fair enough to welcome you?”
“Oh, well, it depends upon the gardener, and the weather, and - and heaps of things,” she answered, flashing her dimple at me,
“On the contrary,” I retorted, shaking my head, “it depends altogether upon the whim of the most beautiful, tempting - “
“Supposing,” sighed Lisbeth, “supposing we talk of fish!”
“You haven’t been fishing lately, Uncle Dick,” put in the Imp.
“I’ve had no cause to,” I answered; “you see, I am guilty of such things only when life assumes a grey monotony of hue and everything is a flat, dreary desolation. Do you understand, Imp?”
“Not ‘zackly - but it sounds fine! Auntie Lisbeth,” he said suddenly, as we paused at the Shrubbery gate, “don’t you think my outlaw must be very, very fond of Uncle Dick to kiss his hand?”
“Why, of course he must,” nodded Lisbeth.
“If,” he went on thoughtfully, “if you loved somebody - very much - would you kiss their hand, Auntie Lisbeth ?”
“I don’t know - of course not!”
“But why not - s’posing their hand was nice an’ clean ?”
“Oh, well - really I don’t know. Imp, run along to bed; do.”
“You know now that I wasn’t such a pig as to eat all that food, don’t you?” Lisbeth kissed him.
“Now be off to bed with you.”
“You’ll come an’ tuck me up, an’ kiss me good-night, won’t you?”
“To be sure I will,” nodded Lisbeth,
“Why, then, I’ll go,” said the Imp; and with a wave of the hand to me he went.
“Dick,” said Lisbeth, staring up at the moon, “it was very unwise of you, to say the least of it, to set a desperate criminal at large.”
“I’m afraid it was, Lisbeth; but then I saw there was good in the fellow, you know, and - er - “
“Dick,” she said again, and then laughed suddenly, with the dimple in full evidence; “you foolish old Dick - you know you would have done it anyway for the sake of that dying old soldier.”
“Poor old Jasper!” I said; “I’m really afraid I should.” Then a wonderful thing happened; for as I reached out my hand to her, she caught it suddenly in hers, and before I knew had pressed her lips upon it - and so was gone.
VII
THE BLASTED OAK
I had quarrelled with Lisbeth; had quarrelled beyond all hope of redemption and forgiveness, desperately, irrevocably, and it had all come about through a handkerchief - Mr. Selwyn’s handkerchief.
At a casual glance this may appear all very absurd, not to say petty; but then I have frequently noticed that insignificant things very often serve for the foundation of great; and incidentally quite a surprising number of lives have been ruined by a handkerchief.
The circumstances were briefly these: In the first place, I had received the following letter from the Duchess, which had perturbed me not a little:
MY DEAR DICK: I hear that that Agatha Warburton creature has written threatening to cut off our dear Lisbeth with the proverbial shilling unless she complies with her wish and marries Mr. Selwyn within the year. Did you ever know of anything so disgusting?
If I were Lisbeth, and possessed such a ‘creature” for an aunt, I’d see her in Timbuctoo first - I would! But then I forget the poor child has nothing in the world, and you little more, and “love in a cottage” is all very well, Dick, up to a certain time. Of course, it is all right in novels but you are neither of you in a novel, and that is the worst of it. If Providence had seen fit to make me Lisbeth’s aunt, now, things might have been very different; hut alas! it was not to be. Under the circumstances, the best thing you can do, for her sake and your own, is to turn your back upon Arcadia and try to forget it all as soon as possible in the swirl of London and everyday life. Yours, CHARLOTTE C.
P.S. Of course, “Romance is dead ages and ages ago; still, it really would be nice if you could manage to run off with her some fine night!
Thus the fiat had gone forth, the time of waiting was accomplished; to-day Lisbeth must choose between Selwyn and myself.
This thought was in my mind as I strode along the river path, filling me with that strange exhilaration which comes, I suppose, to most of us when we face some climax in our lives. But now the great question, How would she decide? leaped up and began to haunt me. Because a woman smiles upon a man, he is surely a most prodigious fool to flatter himself that she loves him, therefore. How would she decide? Nay, indeed; what choice had she between affluence and penury? Selwyn was wealthy and favoured by her aunt, Lady Warburton, while as for me, my case was altogether the reverse. And now I called to mind how Lisbeth had always avoided coming to any understanding with me, putting me off on one pretence or another, but always with infinite tact. So Fear came to me, and Doubt began to rear its head; my step grew slower and slower, till, reaching the Shrubbery gate, I leaned there in doubt whether to proceed or not. Summoning up my resolution, however, I went on, turning in the direction of the orchard, where I knew she often sat of a morning to read or make a pretence of sewing.