"Pip" Part 35

This much was retailed in the servants' hall by Howard, whose well-formed ears had missed little or nothing of the dialogue in the library, even in a filtered form. Mr. Briggs opined, amid general approval, that "the Captain and the gal between them could bleed the old toff proper."

After lunch the Honourable emerged from the front door, armed only with a walking-stick, and set out briskly, apparently on a country walk. At the same time word was sent to Pip that the motor would be required at three.

Punctually to time he ran the car up the broad avenue, pa.s.sing the library windows on the way. He was conscious of a group of three round the fire,--it was a chilly day in late September,--and he wondered how the process of bleeding was getting on.

The car and its driver stood before the front door for more than an hour. It was after four when the front door suddenly opened, and Lottie, banging it behind her, hurriedly descended the steps. She slipped up beside Pip.

"Start off," she said--"quick!"

Pip got down and set the engine going.

"Where to?" he inquired.

"Anywhere!" said Lottie in a choking voice, "anywhere! But get started."

Pip sprang up into his place and took the wheel. The great car ceased vibrating and began to creep forward. Suddenly it gave a mighty plunge, and sped down the avenue.

At the same moment Captain Lottingar, looking anything but a country gentleman, and furiously angry, threw open the library window and bawled to Pip to stop. But the louder he bawled and the more thoroughly he blasphemed the faster the car shot down the drive.

Lord Cartavon sat stiffly in a high-backed chair by the fire.

"I shouldn't trouble if I were you, Captain--er--Lottingar," he said.

"She won't come back."

Captain Lottingar banged down the window, and, returning to his favourite position on the hearthrug, summed up his daughter's character in terms which would have been excessive if applied to Jezebel herself.

The Earl stood up.

"Sir," he said, "I am obliged to you for your hospitality. I will walk to the station now, and catch the five-thirty train back to town. I presume, after what has just happened, that we may regard this incident as closed. And let me tell you, Mr. Lottingar," the old gentleman added, turning on his heel as he opened the door, "that Miss Lottingar is a d----d sight too good a daughter for such a shark as yourself."

After he had gone, Captain Lottingar kicked a valuable j.a.panese fire-screen (for which he had not paid) round the room.

IV

On clearing the lodge-gates Pip turned the car to the left, and they spun down the London road. For an hour they travelled, sometimes slowing through a village or changing gear up a hill, but usually running at top speed, rolling up the miles like shavings under a jack-plane. Pip sat gripping his wheel, intent on his work. Lottie, rigid and upright beside him, looked straight before her, with her hands clasped tightly together under the rug. Occasionally she cast a sidelong glance at her silent companion.

At last, when they had covered nearly thirty miles, Lottie spoke.

"Jack, I want to talk to you. Stop this machine in some quiet place.

That beastly engine makes too much noise for me."

Pip, who was getting used to these wayside halts, ran the car up the next opening and stopped.

Then the two turned and regarded each other. A glance apprised Pip of the fact that he was to be big brother again.

"Well?" he said.

"Jack, I've done it this time."

"Done what?"

"Upset the apple-cart. Poor old Dad! But I'd do it again!"

"How did you do it the first time?" said Pip patiently.

"Well, I'll tell you. After lunch, Dad and I and his lords.h.i.+p went into the library. We all sat down, the old gentleman very stiff and upright.

He had hardly given me a glance so far, but now he turned and looked at me. I felt pretty small, Jack. I can hold my own in a staring match with most people, but that proud old man fairly beat me. He simply looked right through me at the cus.h.i.+on my head was leaning against. By the way, you can do that a bit, too, Jack. It's a trick some men have. That's what first made me think that you--where was I?"

"In the library."

"Oh, yes. Well, at last the old man turned to Dad, and looked at _him_.

Dad didn't half like it, I could see. The old man said--

"'I understand that my son proposes to ally himself with--er,--this young lady?'

"'Yes,' said Dad, 'he does.'

"'And you have given your consent to the match?'

"'Yes', says Dad, as solemn as a judge; 'after due consideration, I have.'

"'Then I may as well tell you at once,' says his lords.h.i.+p, quite briskly, 'that I am utterly and entirely opposed to the match, and will never give my consent to it.'

"There was a little silence, and we all three settled down in our chairs as much as to say, 'Now we are really getting to business.' Presently Dad said,--

"'I am afraid, my lord, that solemn agreements of this kind are not so easily broken. Consider my daughter's feelings.'

"'I am perfectly willing to consider her feelings, sir,' says the old gentleman, with a little odd bow. Then he turned to me and said,--

"'May I ask a direct question? Are you genuinely attached to my son?'

"I wished he wouldn't keep on at me like that. However, I had to keep my end up, so I said, in a sort of soft voice, 'Yes.'

"'Ah,' said he, as if he was thinking. Then Dad, evidently considering we were wasting time, put in,--

"'If this match is broken off, my daughter's susceptibilities must be solaced in a very substantial manner.'

"Then the old gentleman turned and looked Dad through and through, and said, 'Ah!' again, as much as to say, 'I thought so.'

"'Well,' he said at last, 'how much do you want?'

"'_I_?' says Dad, still playing the game--'nothing. _I_ am not the injured party. It is for my poor girl to say.'

"The Earl looked at me. I took a big breath, and said, 'A hundred thousand pounds.'

"'You value your heart at rather a high figure, madam,' says he. (Do you remember, those were the very words _you_ used to me, Jack?) Then he swings round to Dad, and says,--

"'Of course this is preposterous. I am willing to pay you five thousand pounds, to extricate my son from the trap, the carefully baited trap'--he looked all round the room, and I _knew_ he knew everything in it had been got on the nod--'into which he has fallen. That is more than you would get out of the most impressionable jury, and I advise you to take it, Mr.--er--Lottingar.'