"What can be keeping her?" she asked Archie, to which that young gentleman replied that he did not know, and, what was more, he did not care. Miss Kendal very properly rebuked this sentiment.
"You ought to care, Archie, for you know that if Mrs. Jasher does not come to dinner, you will have to go away.""Why should I?" he inquired sulkily.
"People will talk."
"Let them. I don't care.
"Neither do I, you stupid boy. But my father will care, and if people talk he will be very angry.""My dear Lucy," and Archie put his arm round her waist to say this, "I don't see why you should be afraid of the Professor.
He is only your step-father, and you aren't so very fond of him as to mind what he says. Besides, we can marry soon, and then he can go hang.""But I don't want him to go hang," she replied, laughing. "After all, the Professor has always been kind to me, and as a step-father has behaved very well, when he could easily have made himself disagreeable. Another thing is that he can be very bad tempered when he likes, and if I let people talk about us - which they will do if they get a chance - he will behave so coldly to me, that I shall have a disagreeable time. As we can't marry for ever so long, I don't want to be uncomfortable.""We can marry whenever you like," said Hope unexpectedly.
"What, with your income so unsettled?"
"It is not unsettled."
"Yes, it is. You will help that horrid spendthrift uncle of yours, and until he and his family are solvent I don't see how we can be sure of our money.""We are sure of it now, dearest. Uncle Simon has turned up trumps after all, and so have his investments.""What do you mean exactly?"
"I mean that yesterday I received a letter from him saying that he was now rich, and would pay back all I had lent him. I went up to London to-day, and had an interview. The result of that is that I am some thousands to the good, that Uncle Simon is well off for the rest of his life and will require no more assistance, and that my three hundred a year is quite clear for ever and ever and ever.""Then we can marry," cried Miss Kendal with a gasp of delight.
"Whenever you choose - next week if you like.""In January then - just after Christmas. "We'll go on a trip to Italy and return to take a flat in London. Oh, Archie, I am sorry I thought so badly of your uncle. He has behaved very well. And what a mercy it is that he will require no more assistance! You are sure he will not.""If he does, he won't get it," said Hope candidly. "While I was a bachelor I could assist him; but when I am married I must look after myself and my wife." He gave Lucy a hug. "It's all right now, dear, and Uncle Simon has behaved excellently - far better than I expected. We shall go to Italy for the honeymoon and need not hurry back until we - well, say until we quarrel.""In that case we shall live in Italy for the rest of our lives,"said Lucy with twinkling eyes; "but we must come back in a year and take a studio in Chelsea.""Why not in Gartley?" Remember, the Professor will be lonely.""No, he won't. Mrs. Jasher, as I told you, intends to marry him.""He might not wish, to marry her" "That doesn't matter," rejoined Lucy, with the cleverness of a woman. "She can manage to bring the marriage about. Besides, Iwant to break with the old life here, and begin quite a new one with you. When I am your wife and Mrs. Jasher is my step-father's, everything will be capitally arranged.""Well, I hope so," said Archie heartily, "for I want you all to myself and have no desire to share you with ,anyone else. But Isay," he glanced at his watch; "it is getting towards nine o'clock, and I am desperately hungry. Can't we go to dinner?""Not until Mrs. Jasher arrives," said Lucy primly.
"Oh, bother -!"
Hope, being quite exasperated with hunger, would have launched out into a speech condemning the widow's unpunctuality, when in the hall below the drawing-room was heard the sound of the door opening and closing. Without doubt this was Mrs. Jasher arriving at last, and Lucy ran out of the room and down the stairs to welcome her in her eagerness to get Archie seated at the dinner table. The young man lingered by the open door of the drawing-room, ready to welcome the widow, when he heard Lucy utter an exclamation of surprise and became aware that she was ascending the stairs along with Professor Braddock. At once he reflected there would be trouble, since he was in the house with Lucy, and lacked the necessary chaperon which Braddock's primitive Anglo-Saxon instincts insisted upon.
"I did not know you were returning to-night," Lucy was saying when she re-entered the drawing-room with her stepfather.
"I arrived by the six o'clock train," explained the Professor, unwinding a large red scarf from his neck, and struggling out of his overcoat with the assistance of his daughter. "Ha, Hope, good evening.""Where have you been since?" asked Lucy, throwing the Professor's coat and wraps on to a chair.
"With Mrs. Jasher," said Braddock, warming his plump hands at the fire. "So you must blame me that she is not here to preside at dinner as the chaperon of you young people."Lucy and her lover glanced at one-another in surprise. This light and airy tone was a new one for the Professor to take.
Instead of being angry, he seemed to be un usually gay, and looked at them in quite a jocular manner for a dry-as-dust scientist.
"We waited dinner for her, father," ventured Lucy timidly.
"Then I am ready to eat it," announced Braddock. "I am extremely hungry, my dear. I can't live on love, you know.""Live on love?" Lucy stared, and Archie laughed quietly.
