Dorothea Deakin

“ Georgie said, "calling itself a theatre, and on the wall there was a bill—a flaming thing all scarlet and black; caught the eye like anything, don't you know. But it wasn't only the bill that caught mine. There was some one reading it."
"Ah!" said I.
"What was she like?" Drusilla asked gently.
Georgie flushed.
"She was crying. I could see the tears rolling down her poor little face, and her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying all night. It makes me feel furious to see a woman cry. ”

“ Drusilla rubbed her eyes.
"Oh," said she, "you don't know what love is, Georgie. Money is nothing, nothing, compared with love. If she loves you, she'll be glad to have you back and glad to help you to bear your troubles. She'll be glad you've lost your money, to have the chance of showing you that she loves you for yourself alone. You don't understand how a nice girl feels, the least little bit." ”

“ To say my son will never be a sportsman! What will his mother say to him when she sees that cross little boy? And Phillida—what will she say?"
"Drusilla," said I gravely, "is there any rift in that lute? Is there anything wrong between those two? Why did they let the Goddess Girl go rushing off to visit all those dull people?"
Drusilla was silent.
"Georgie's mother is a darling," she said at last, "but she has ideas about a wife's duties. She thinks a woman ought to be able to cook the dinner she orders, and get up her own muslins and lace and things, even if she never has to do it." ”

“ You find yourself telling her things before you know where you are, and she'll listen for hours without getting bored. She's been frightfully interested in Violet ever since I can remember."
"Violet? Georgie, you don't mean to say that you told Anne about Violet?"
"Yes, I did. From the beginning. She's a plain little thing, but chock full of sympathy and goodness. I never knew a kinder heart than Anne's."
"I wonder," said I slowly, "that she hasn't told Drusilla the truth. One would think her only sister—"
"Anne never breaks a promise," cried he hastily. ”

“ Anne laughed. "I've known you long enough and well enough, to discuss anything with you, and I was at school with Diana. The question is, does she know you?"
He stared at her uneasily.
"She has been very well brought up, Georgie. She always says and does the proper thing, you know, and she likes her friends to say and do the proper things. She lives in a high moral atmosphere all the time. When I think of what she must expect of the man she is to marry I—well, of course you know all this?" ”

“ I surveyed her with some amusement.
"Well," said I at last, "there are two ways of looking at it, and I can't help thinking that it would have been rather a mistake to upset the poor lady on the verge of a dinner-party. Georgie isn't often wise, but in this case I fancy that a short delay was, to say the least of it, expedient."
"Oh!" cried Diana. Expedient is a hateful word. I hate expediency. People ought to do right whatever happens. There are only right and wrong, you see. There are no lights and shades where duty is concerned." ”

“ I might have guessed. What more can a girl want than she finds in Georgie. Curse everything!"
"Come in," cried Georgie happily. "I'm getting my bat ready for the match to-morrow, and the weather's a dream. I'm nearly off my head with joy. It's a ripping world."
"I'm glad you find it so," said I shortly. "I don't agree with you, and I should like to have a few words with you when you've finished with that beastly bat."
He looked up with a good-tempered surprise.
"Hallo!" he said, "something's put you out. What's wrong, old chap?" ”

“ Georgie's face grew crimson.
"On the contrary," said he, "she's absolutely wrapped up in me. And I've not changed my mind. I love her every bit as much as I did when I proposed to her."
"Be a man," said I softly, "and get it over. Break it off."
"Thank you," said he loftily, "I prefer to behave like a gentleman and keep it on."
"With both of them?" I suggested mildly.
He collapsed.
"Oh, Lord! You might help a chap, Martin, instead of jeering. I can't give Violet up. I can't."
"Then tell the truth to Drusilla instead. Explain about the rose-colored dance, and the rest of it." ”

“ Don't call him Taffy. Taffy was a thief, you know."
"People never grow up to fit their names," Georgie said gloomily. "Look at me. There's nothing solid and British and conventional about me, you know. I'm not narrow, or conservative, or obstinate. George is a very John Bull kind of name."
I thought of a possible Georgie, twenty years ahead, and smiled to myself.
But Drusilla looked gravely from the stern young face to the little boy, and back again, and I was amazed to find tears in her absurd eyes. ”

“ Phillida collapsed suddenly on to a chair, and I could see her lips tremble. I tried to slip out of the room, but Georgie stopped me with a quick gesture of appeal.
"I guess I'd better make tracks," said the poor Goddess Girl with limp despair.
"Yes," said Georgie grimly, "and thank you very much for your—kind charity."
She rose without a word and left the room. I followed her meekly, and at the hall door she turned her charming face to me, with pleading eyes;—eyes as full of tears as Anne's had been, and oh, so much more beautiful.
"Say," she whispered with a sob, "you're his friend. ”

“ There are some things a decent chap can't do. This is one of 'em."
Drusilla grew crimson, but she kept back the torrent of words on her tongue's end, and let the matter rest where it was.
"He would never see my point of view," she said sadly to me afterward. "He would spoil a girl's life with a light heart for the sake of his precious self-respect. It isn't self-respect. It's fear of what people will say."
"Drusilla," replied I thoughtfully, "isn't all this fuss a bit unnecessary. Even if Georgie and his mother have nothing else, the estate will bring them in fifteen hundred a year or so. ”

“ Georgie turned and faced her grimly.
"Di," he said, "you are simply absurd. You aren't consistent. The percentage of people who are hurt in football is tiny—tiny—compared with—with hunting, for instance—or motoring."
The Scarlet Runner snorted indignant dissent and Diana shook her head.
"I don't believe there's any danger to you from the motor now," she said. "You understand it too well, and when you hunt, I'm there too. Danger isn't like danger when one can see what's going on, do you think?" ”

“ Even a friendship with Diana has its disadvantages. She expects so much of one that it is difficult to live up to her ideals, don't you think? It's rather a strain sometimes to reach the high-water mark of her approval. But of course you never feel like that."
"We needn't rake up the past like this," he said hastily. "And I would rather you didn't say anything more against Di. She's altered my whole life. A man must have some one to reverence; to idealize; to put on a pedestal, don't you know. She's changed me from a lazy, good-for-nothing beggar into—" he hesitated.
"Into what, Georgie?" ”

“ But I don't think you ought to let yourself get so deeply interested in all kinds of girls, now that you are more than half engaged to Phillida. And how can I influence a girl I've never spoken to in my life, even if she is genuine?" She laughed helplessly. "Oh, Georgie, you know they always say they're clergymen's daughters, don't they, even in novels?"
"Upon my word," said I at last, "I think you must be mad. To bring us all this way on a wild goose—"
"Georgie's goose is a swan." Drusilla gave another queer little cough. "It always is. And he generally cooks it; don't you, Georgie?" ”

“ Georgie gazed at the open windows, with hunted eyes.
"It must be delightful," Anne pursued, "to be engaged to a girl like Diana. A girl who always defers so charmingly to the opinion of the world at large. She is so sweetly conventional, isn't she?" ”

“ The next day but one, however, he came again, and this time wildly exultant.
"A determined strong-willed chap can do anything in the world if he makes up his mind and goes straight for what he wants."
"Very often," said I mildly. "What have you done?"
"What I meant to do," said Georgie. "Your discouragement was all I wanted to buck me up to the point. There's nothing like a little cold water to pull one together if one feels slack, and for the real genuine article straight from the crystal spring, I've only got to come to you. There's never any reflection for the want of it here." ”

“ She says you never know how people will take things, and Georgie will be twenty-one in August. Georgie thinks a secret engagement is more exciting and romantic. He says all the gilt is off the ginger-bread directly the thing is made official. It is a little too exciting for me. I almost think sometimes that I should prefer my ginger-bread plain."
"I should think so," said I sternly. "I suppose, confound him, that you are fond of him?"
Her cheeks flamed.
"Am I the sort of girl to promise to marry a man I don't love?" she cried quickly. ”

“ I'm sorry for her, but I am disappointed in her too, and I shall show her that a man's idea of honor isn't a woman's. I wrote her a kind, unselfish letter. I put myself entirely on one side. I told her that she must forget me at once, and that I should never be quite easy in my mind until I saw her happily married to someone else. ”

“ You're always chock full of advice, Martin. A man may be sure of getting that from you if he gets nothing else."
"In this case," said I coldly, "it is all I have to offer you."
"Thanks. Drusilla—" he turned to Drusilla and looked sternly into her rosy, anxious face. "Some day," he said tragically, "you will be sorry that you've turned this poor little beggar out in the cold. Wake up, Taffy, old man. We've got to go. They don't want us here."
"Oh," said Drusilla uncomfortably, "I can't bear you to think me horrid, Georgie! I really should be glad to do anything—anything in reason for you. ”

“ Georgie got his own back brutally. "When a man meets a girl like Diana, he naturally feels that he wants to settle down and leave all his careless habits behind him."
"With the other things he has forgotten to care about—betting, for instance, and poker, and bridge, and—and me. Have you mentioned your many engagements to Diana, by the way? If you haven't, don't! I don't fancy somehow
"I liked you better before you grew wise, Georgie"
that it would be as amusing to her as it is to the rest of us. ”

“ When a chap's a bit worried with something really important, they all come and chuck themselves at his head. As if you could fight the world any better with a silly woman hanging round your neck. Blithering sentimental rot!"
"Upon my word!" His sentiments appalled me.
"Yes," said he firmly. "I've done with girls."
And for the present I really think he has, for a few days ago I had a letter from him, post-marked Lisbon and written from the Royal Mail steamer "Danube." Here it is:
Dear Martin, I am going out to the Argentine, ranching, and may come in for a revolution with a bit of luck. ”

“ The child's black hair was ruffled, his cheeks rose pink from his sudden awakening, and his beautiful eyes wide open, bewildered. The girls in their pretty bright gowns crowded around us, and their brothers watched with surprised, amused faces over their shoulders. Georgie faced his mother in pale silence, and I waited. Little Diana peeped from behind Drusilla with a pleased, excited face. It was the Goddess Girl who broke the silence. If I remember right, it generally was.
"Say!" she cried. "Isn't he just too cute for anything? Whose little piccaninny's this, Georgie? Do tell." ”

“ I wondered at Georgie's methods of persuasion.
"I'm sorry," said I grimly, "and it may seem heartless; but we can't adopt your protégé, Georgie. We shall find it as much as we can manage to provide for Matthew Arnold's future, I am afraid. And it will take all the earnings of my piffling pen to keep the Little Mansion over our three heads in modest comfort. And as you say, I am not a sportsman, therefore not qualified to develop his young promise in football. You had better leave him to the Welsh parish. And seriously, my dear boy, do think of the risk. ”

“ Anne dropped her program, and he picked it up, to hold it unthinkingly in his hand.
"I was with Diana when she got your absurd note, Georgie. She let me read it."
"No?" His face reddened.
"Yes. You don't mind, do you? It's a pity you wrote it, because Diana didn't understand. She never does understand very well, you know; not backsliding. She is so good herself; her pedestal is such a very high one. She can't make allowances for us sinners, my poor Georgie."
"What did she say?"
"Say?" Anne arranged her pansies. "Oh, she said a lot of things. ”

“ Georgie says if his mother keeps even a pony cart he will have to sell the Scarlet Runner, and he means her to keep one. He hates selfishness, and she'll never be able to economize, Martin. She's a darling, but she never could see the point of being careful in little things. She's nearly as extravagant as she's generous. Can you imagine her riding in a tram to save a cab fare, or going to town second class? I don't know what's to become of them now."
"The poor lady must be very much upset," said I thoughtfully.
"Oh, of course—what a brute I am!" Drusilla jumped up. ”

“ He was the leanest beggar I ever saw, and directly the Linnet came into the pavilion he edged up to him and began to talk. The poor devil seemed to fascinate him, and I'm sure I don't know why, for he looked just like anyone else. Kept on asking him rotten questions. You'd have thought he was madder than Linwood. I tried to keep him off, but it was no go. And then the Linnet began to get angry and lie to him. I'd have done the same myself. Beastly cheek! Fancy asking a chap when he was dressing for an important match if he was fond of music!"
Georgie ruffled Matthew Arnold's hair indignantly. ”