Big Game. Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
This year—next year—sometime—never;—I’m going to be married next year! Just what I had decided myself … I must begin to pick up bargains at the sales.”
Margot rose from her seat, flicking the crumbs off her lap with a fine disregard of the flower-wreathed carpet, and came over to a seat beside her sister.
“Now, shall I change briefs, and expatiate on the other side of the question? … Why, Edie, every bit of this trouble depends on your attitude towards it, and on nothing else. You are all well; you are young; you adore each other; you have done nothing dishonourable; you have been able to pay your debts—what does the rest matter? Jack has had a big disappointment. Very well, but what’s the use of crying over spilt milk? Get a fresh jug, and try for cream next time! The children are too young to suffer, and think it’s fine fun to have no nursery, and live near Edgware Road. If you and Jack could just manage to think the same, you might turn it all into a picnic and a joke. Jack is strong and clever and industrious, and you have a rich father; humanly speaking, you will never want. Take it with a smile, dear! If you will smile, so will Jack. If you push things to the end, it rests with you, for he won’t fret if he sees you happy. He does love you, Edie! I’m not sentimental, but I think it must be just the most beautiful thing in the world to be loved like that. I should like some one to look at me as he does at you, with his eyes lighting up with that deep, bright glow. I’d live in an attic with my Jack, and ask for nothing more!”
The elder woman smiled—a smile eloquent of a sadder, maturer wisdom. She adored her husband, and gloried in the knowledge of his love of herself, but she knew that attics are not conducive to the continuance of devotion. Love is a delicate plant, which needs care and nourishment and discreet sheltering, if it is to remain perennially in bloom. The smile lingered on her lips, however; she rested her head against the cushions of her chair and cried gratefully—
“Oh, Margot, you do comfort me! You are so nice and human. Do you really, truly think I am taking things too seriously? Do you think I am depressing Jack? Wouldn’t he think me heartless if I seemed bright and happy?”
“Try it and see! You can decide according to the effect produced, but first you must have a tonic, to brace you for the effort. I’ve a new prescription, and we are going to Edgware Road to get it this very hour.”
“Quinine, I suppose. Esther and the boys can get it at the chemist’s, but really it will do roe no good.”
“I’m sure it wouldn’t. Mine is a hundred times more powerful.”
“Iron? I can’t take it. It gives me headaches.”
“It isn’t iron. Mine won’t give you a headache, unless the pins get twisted. It’s a finer specific for low spirits feminine, than any stupid drugs. A new hat!”
Edith stared, and laughed, and laughed again.
“You silly girl! What nonsense! I don’t need a hat.”
“That’s nonsense if you like! It depresses me to see you going about in that dowdy thing, and it must be a martyrdom for you to wear it every day. Come out and buy a straw shape for something and ‘eleven-three’,” (it’s always “eleven-three” in Edgware Road), “and I’ll trim it with some of your scraps. You have such nice scraps. Then we’ll have tea, and you shall walk part of the way home with me, and meet Jack, and smile at him and look pretty, and watch him perk up to match. What do you say?”
Edith lifted her eyes with a smile which brought back the youth and beauty to her face.
“I say, thank you!” she said simply. “You are a regular missionary, Margot. You spend your life making other people happy.”
“Goodness!” cried Margot, aghast. “Do I? How proper it sounds! You just repeat that to Agnes, and see what she says. You’ll hear a different story, I can tell you!”
Chapter Four.
Margot’s Scheme.
The sisters repaired to Edgware Road, and after much searching finally ran to earth a desirable hat for at least the odd farthing less than it would have cost round the corner in Oxford Street. This saving would have existed only in imagination to the ordinary customer, who is presented with a paper of nail-like pins, a rusty bodkin, or a highly-superfluous button-hook as a substitute for lawful change; but Margot took a mischievous delight in collecting farthings and paying down the exact sum in establishments devoted to eleven-threes, to the disgust of the young ladies who supplied her demands.
The hat was carried home in true Bohemian fashion, encased in a huge paper bag, and a happy hour ensued, when the contents of the scrap-box were scattered over the bed, and a dozen different effects studied in turn. Edith sat on a chair before the glass with the skeleton frame perched on her head at the accepted fashionable angle, criticising fresh draperies and arrangement of flowers, and from time to time uttering sharp exclamations of pain as Margot’s actions led to an injudicious use of the dagger-like pins. Her delicate finely-cut face and misty hair made her a delightful model, and she smiled back at the face in the mirror, reflecting that if you happened to be a pauper, it was at least satisfactory to be a pretty one, and that to possess long, curling eyelashes was a distinct compensation in life. Margot draped an old lace veil over the hard brim, caught it together at the back with a paste button, and pinned a cluster of brown roses beneath the brim, with just one pink one among the number, to give the cachet to the whole.
“There’s Bond Street for you!” she cried triumphantly; and Edith flushed with pleasure, and wriggled round and round to admire herself from different points of view.
“It is a tonic!” she declared gratefully. “You are a born milliner, Margot. It will be a pleasure to go out in this hat, and I shall feel quite nice and conceited again. It’s so long since I’ve felt conceited! I’m ever and ever so much obliged. Can you stay on a little longer, dear, or are you in a hurry to get back?”
“No! I shall get a scolding anyway, so I might as well have all the fling I can get. I’ll have tea with you and the boys, and a little private chat with Jack afterwards. You won’t mind leaving us alone for a few minutes? It’s something about Ron, but I won’t promise not to get in a little flirtation on my own account.”
Jack’s wife laughed happily.
“Flirt away—it will cheer him up! I’ll put the boys to bed, and give you a fine opportunity. Here they come, back from their walk. I must hurry, dear, and cut bread and butter. I’ll carry down the hat, and put it on when Jack comes in.”
Aunt Margot’s appearance at tea was hailed with a somewhat qualified approval.
“You must talk to us, mother,” Jim said sternly; “talk properly, not only, ‘Yes, dear,’ ‘No, dear,’ like you do sometimes, and then go on speaking to her about what we can’t understand. She’s had you all afternoon!”
“So I have, Jim. It’s your turn now. What do you want to say?”
Jim immediately lapsed into silence. Having gained his point, he had no remark to offer, but Pat lifted his curly head and asked eagerly—
“Muzzer, shall I ever grow up to be a king?”
“No, my son; little boys like you are never kings.”
“Not if I’m very good, and do what I’m told?”
“No, dear, not even then. No one can be a king unless his father is a king, too, or some very, very great man. What has put that in your head, I wonder? Why do you want to be a king?”
Pat widened his clear grey eyes; the afternoon sunshine shone on his ruffled head, turning his curls to gold, until he looked like some exquisite cherub, too good and beautiful for this wicked world.
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