Charles Rex - Ethel May Dell (i love reading .TXT) 📗

for granted that she was going. We both did. But just at the last moment she absolutely refused, told him quite frankly that she was--an atheist."
Saltash's laugh had a sound half-mocking, half-exultant. "What said the worthy Jake to that? Stop! I know what he said. He said. 'You can call yourself by any fool name you please, but you've got to go to Church like a respectable citizen if I say so.' Wasn't that it?"
"Something like it," Maud admitted. "How did you know?"
"Oh, I know Jake," said Saltash dryly. "And what happened then? She refused?"
"Yes, she refused. She was frightened, but she refused. She looked as if she were going to run away, but in the end Jake went off with her to the stables saying they would go to-night. They were quite friends when I saw them again, but she had been crying, poor little thing. I wish I could help her, but somehow I can't get near enough. Jake seems to understand her best."
"Wonder if she will give in?" said Saltash.
They were passing through a shrubbery that led to the training-field, and there came the quick thud of hoofs galloping on short turf as they approached.
"I don't think there is much doubt about that," Maud said.
Saltash laughed again mockingly. "Oh, we all know Jake is invincible, virtuous rectitude incarnate. But you can't hammer a girl into submission like a boy and I rather fancy that Toby is not wholly ignorant of the art of getting her own way."
"Jake never hammered Bunny," Maud said quietly, "But he manages him notwithstanding."
They rounded a curve and came upon the gate that led into the field. The galloping hoofs were close to them. As they reached the corner two riders flashed past at full speed. One of them--Bunny--lay on his horse's neck, yelling wild encouragement to his mount. The other,--a slight, childish figure--was kneeling on the saddle like a small, crouching creature, perfectly poised and wholly unafraid. As the horse that carried her dropped to a canter on the hill, she got to her feet with absolute ease, and stood, arms out and swaying to the animal's motion, till, as they rounded another curve, she dropped to the saddle again, and passed from sight, following in Bunny's tracks.
"Quite a pretty exhibition!" remarked Saltash. "Where is Jake?"
Jake himself appeared at the moment riding soberly, mounted on his favourite horse, The Hundredth Chance. He greeted Saltash with a smile and jumped to the ground to join them at the gate.
"They'll be round again directly. Just riding off their spirits," he explained in his easy drawl. "You motored over, my lord?"
Saltash nodded with a touch of impatience. He was watching with restless eyes for the reappearance of the girl on horseback. She had not seen him at the gate, yet somehow his arrogance rebelled at the fact that she had passed him by.
Jake stood with The Hundredth Chance nuzzling against him. He did not trouble himself to make conversation; that was not his way. He also waited for the reappearance of the riders.
They came, riding side by side and jesting with careless _camaraderie_. Toby's face was delicately flushed. The fair head had no covering. She was dressed and looked exactly like a boy.
At sight of Saltash standing by the gate her whole attitude changed. She uttered a queer sound, half-whoop, half-sob, and flung herself out of the saddle. In a moment she had reached him, was hanging to his arm in mute greeting, everything else in the world forgotten. It was pathetically like the re-union of a lost dog to its master.
Saltash's ugly face softened miraculously at her action. The jest died on his lips. "Why, Nonette!" he said. "Nonette!"
She strangled another sob. Her face was burning, quivering, appealing, no longer the face of a boy. "I thought you'd forgotten to come," she said.
"What? Was I expected to lunch?" said Saltash. "Ah! Was that why you wouldn't go to church?"
Toby looked up, desperately smiling. "It may have been--partly. But I never do go. Do you?"
"Not often," said Saltash. "I might if I stayed here. There's no knowing. You'll be pleased to hear your daddy is better. He's coming down to the Castle to convalesce. And when he's done that, I'm going to have a party--a coming-out party--for you."
"For me!" Toby gasped, staring at him with scared blue eyes. "I hope you won't, sir," she said.
He laughed back at her, his brows working mischievously. "_Mais pourquoi pas, mignonne?_ You are old enough. Maud will come and be hostess, won't you, Maud? You shall have Jake too for a watch-dog, if you want him. After that, you shall be presented at Court, when you've learnt to curtsey prettily instead of turning somersaults. You must let your hair grow, Nonette, and leave off wearing breeks. You've got to be a credit to me."
"Oh, damn!" said Toby in dismay. "I mean--oh, bother!"
"Yes, it's a good thing you mean only that, isn't it?" laughed Saltash. "If you go on wearing those masculine things much longer, you'll have Jake punching your head for little slips of that kind. He's getting mighty particular, I'm told."
"Not afraid of Jake!" said Toby, casting a swift look at her host.
Jake was lighting his pipe. His face wore a faint smile. He was holding Toby's animal as well as his own. "Aren't you going to ride again?" he said.
"No," said Toby.
"Oh, come on!" Bunny pushed his horse forward without dismounting. "Glad to see you, Charlie, but we must have one more gallop. Come on, Toby! Be a sport!"
But Toby, still holding Saltash's sleeve, would not so much as look at him. "Not coming," she said tersely.
Saltash laughed. Bunny coloured suddenly and hotly. "Oh, all right!" he said, and, wheeling his horse, rode away.
"Now you've hurt his little feelings," observed Saltash.
"Who cares?" said Toby, and nestled closer, till with his sudden reckless grin he thrust an arm about her shoulders.
"I'll tell you what it is, Nonette. You're getting spoilt all round. Something will have to be done. Shall I take her away, Jake?"
"And bring me back when I'm good?" put in Toby eagerly.
He laughed and pinched her ear. "I shall want to keep you myself--when you're good. I haven't yet found anyone to sew on buttons like you do. No, _ma chere_, you'll have to stay and be caned for your sins. Jake is a better schoolmaster than I am, being so eminently virtuous himself. I hope you do cane her, Jake. I'm sure she needs it."
"No," Jake said, preparing to mount again. "I haven't tried that at present."
Toby watched him a little wistfully as he moved away, leading her horse. "I am trying to be good," she said. "He knows that."
"Yes, she's trying hard," Maud said very kindly. "Jake and I are going to be proud of her some day."
Saltash's brows twisted humorously. "I wonder," he said. And then again lightly he laughed. "Don't get too good, Nonette! I can't rise to it."
She turned swiftly, looking up into the derisive face above her with open adoration in her own. "You!" she said. "You!"
"Well, what about me?" he said.
She coloured very deeply. "Nothing, sir, nothing! Only--you're so great!"
He flicked her cheek, grimacing hideously. "Is that your pretty way of telling me I'm the biggest rotter you ever met?"
"Oh, no!" said Toby quickly and earnestly. "Oh no! I think you are--a king. If--if anyone could make me believe in God, you could."
She spoke with a sincerity that held a hint of passion. The grimace flicked out of Saltash's face like a picture from a screen. For a moment he had the blank look of a man who has been hit, he knows not where. Then with lightning swiftness, his eyes went to Maud. "You hear that?" he said, almost on a note of challenge. "Why don't you laugh?"
She met his look with absolute steadfastness. There was a certain pity in her own. "Because," she said with great gentleness, "I believe that it is true."
In the silence that followed she waited for his own laugh of mockery and did not hear it. The odd eyes comprehended her, and passed her by, fell abruptly to Toby and dwelt upon her with a whimsical tenderness.
"I always said you were a little ass, didn't I, Toby?" he said.
And Toby turned with an apologetic murmur and softly kissed his hand.


CHAPTER X
RESOLUTIONS

Toby went to church that Sunday evening with great propriety, Saltash having departed, taking Bunny with him to spend the evening at Burchester. Her behaviour was a model of decorum throughout, but returning she begged Jake for a cigarette as a reward of virtue.
"It'll keep me good for hours," she assured him.
And Jake, who yearned for a smoke himself, could not find it in his heart to refuse.
"Don't overdo it, that's all!" he said. "Young Bunny is always at it, and it's very bad for him."
"Oh, I've got heaps more sense than Bunny," said Toby, with lofty assurance.
She smoked the cigarette with delicate appreciation though Jake's tobacco was by no means suited to a feminine palate, and they returned at peace with all the world.
Maud, who had been watching for them somewhat anxiously, saw with relief that her fears were groundless. Toby's serene countenance told her that all was well. No, she had not hated it so very badly after all. It was nothing to make a fuss about anyhow. She would go again if Jake liked.
She seemed in fact mildly amused by the idea that he could be so easily pleased, and asked him later with her chin in the air if there were any other odd jobs he would like her to perform.
But when Maud presently went to the piano, she came and sat on a low chair near her and listened in absolute stillness while she played. They were alone, and Maud played on and on, almost forgetful of her silent companion, suffering her fingers to wander in unison with her thoughts. All her life music had been her great joy and solace. She was not a brilliant musician as was Saltash, but she had the gift of so steeping herself in music that she could at times thereby express that which otherwise would have been unutterable--the hidden emotions of her soul.
Nearly an hour had passed thus before she remembered the silent little figure behind her, and then it was with a swift sense of compunction that she took her hands from the keys and turned.
"Toby dear, how boring this must be for you! Are you asleep? Why, child, what is it?"
With a start she saw that Toby's fair head was bowed upon her arms in an attitude of the most hopeless, the most bitter, despair.
She made a convulsive movement at the sound of Maud's voice, and in a moment lifted a white, strained face. "I am just a little tired, that's all," she said in a voice that quivered in spite of her. "Please go on playing! I like it."
Maud got up with quiet decision and went to her, but Toby was on her feet before she reached her. She stood with that look of a small, frightened animal so characteristic of her, her two hands nervously locked together.
Maud took her gently by the arm. "Shall we sit down and talk?" she said.
Toby yielded as it were involuntarily to the quiet touch. In her plain white blouse with the sailor collar she looked a mere child--a piteous, shy child.
Maud drew her down upon the sofa. All the mother in her went out to the forlorn little creature, yet for the moment she hesitated, as one