Winding Paths Part 42

Hal climbed to the top of a bus, and journeyed homewards with a thoughtful air. Of course he would ring her up again the next day, and then what was she to say?

In the meantime, looming big in her immediate horizon was the visit to be paid to Holloway that evening. She was going up without Dudley, having expressed a wish to do so, with which he had willingly complied.

She felt it would be easier not to appear forced without him, and would be fairer on Doris also. Yet she dreaded the visit very much, and longed that it was over.

Ethel opened the door to her, as she happened to be in the little kitchen close beside it, and Hal thought she looked very ill as she grasped her hand with warm friendliness, saying:

"How nice of you to come and see Doris so soon."

"What are you doing in the kitchen?" said Hal. "I want to come and help."

"I'm only making a salad, and shall not be long. You must go to the parlour"; and she laughed at the quaint, old-fas.h.i.+oned word.

"No, I'm coming to help," and Hal walked past her, through the open door. "How's Basil? Dudley spoke as if he was not quite so well just now."

"I'm afraid he isn't," with sudden, hardly veiled anxiety; "but it may only be the foggy weather."

To any one else Ethel would probably have a.s.serted that he was well as usual, and changed the subject; but she liked Hal specially, and showed it by being quite honest with her. She also knew perfectly well that Dudley's engagement must have been a great shock to his only sister, not solely because she had nothing whatever in common with Doris, but because she herself must love him; and her heart felt very tender and friendly over her.

Although Hal had come to see Doris, she did not refrain from following her inclination, and seating herself on the kitchen table to chat to Ethel while she made the salad. Doris would keep, was her rapid mental conclusion, and they two might not get another chance of a few words alone.

Chatting thus, it was interesting to note the similarity that existed between these wielders of the pen, each daily immersed in a City office.

Each had the same clear, frank eyes, the same independent poise of head, the same air of capable energy and self-dependence. Each, too, had the same rather colourless skin, from lack of fresh air, though whereas Ethel looked tired and worn, Hal seemed strong and fresh and wore no air of delicacy.

Then Doris came, with her pink-and-white daintiness, and spoke to them both with a little triumphant air of condescension; for was not she engaged to be married, whereas clever, working women usually became "old maids"?

Hal tried not to seem too offhand, but it was quite impossible for her to gush, and she could not pretend a sudden affection just because of the engagement. So she just said something about Dudley being very happy, and hoped they would have good luck, and then went to the sitting-room to talk to Basil, entertaining him immensely with her account of the day's ceremony, and her haphazard friends.h.i.+p with the "flying man", who was going to take her in his aeroplane.

"Who was he?" Basil asked. "Has he won any prizes?"

"I don't know. He dit not tell me. I did not discover his name either, but he was some relation of the 'Lord-of-the-Manor' person who received the King."

"You don't know his name?" asked Doris in a shocked voice. "Weren't you introduced?"

"Never a bit of it," laughed Hal. "I was left behind when the last fly had gone to the station, and he heard me asking anxiously how soon one would get back again, and immediately offered me a seat in the motor he was going in. Another man was with him, a much be-medalled officer, who was somewhat heavy in hand to talk to, and at the station we gave him the slip."

"How can he take you for a fly if you don't know who he is?"

"Well, I dare say he won't; quite likely he didn't mean it; but if he did, he can easily find me at the office. He knew my name, and what paper I was there for. They bot knew, which probably accounts for the gentleman with the medals being somewhat ponderous - soldiers are usually sn.o.bbish - and he may not have liked having to ride to the station with a newspaper woman."

"But if the other man was the Lord of the Manor's brother?"

"Oh, that wouldn't make any difference. He might very well be less self-important than anything in a bit of scarlet and medals if he had been the Lord of the Manor himself. Why, the Earl of Roxley got tea for me, and was most attentive."

Doris's eyes opened wider. She had always secretly entertained rather a superior att.i.tude towards Hal and her sister, and was glad she was not an office clerk. The big, breezy, working world, where the individual is taken on his or her merits apart from birth, or standing, or occupation, was quite unknown to her; and that Hal's original, attractive personality might open doors for ever shut to her mediocre, pretty young-ladyhood, would never enter her mind.

"I don't think I should care to talk to any one without being introduced," she remarked a little affectedly, to which Hal shrugged her shoulders and commented:

"It's just as well you haven't to knock about in the world, then. Any one with an ounce of common sense and perspicacity knows when it is safe, and when it is sheer folly."

Basil watched her with an amused air.

"I'm sure you do," he said.

"Yes." She smiled infectiously. "I've only once been spoken to unpleasantly in London, after knocking about for seven years, and then I offered the man a sixpence. I said: 'I'm sorry I haven't any more, and I can't spare that, but if you are hungry!...' He looked as if he would like to slay me, and vanished."

Doris still looked slightly disapproving, and when at last Hal rose to go, she half-unconsciously asked Ethel with her eyes to accompany her to get her hat, instead of her prospective sister-in-law. And when they were alone, Ethel looked into Hal's expressive face, and guessing something of what she carefully hid, said sympathetically:

"You and Dudley have always been so much to each other; I am afraid you must feel it a little having to share him already with another."

Suddenly and inexplicably Hal's eyes filled with tears, and she turned away quite unable to answer.

Ethel pretended not to notice, but her heart bled for her, knowing how much worse it was than just the fact of the engagement.

"I'm so wrapped up in Basil," she went on, "that if it had happened to me I should have felt quite heartbroken, however much I told myself I wanted his happiness."

Hal dabbed her eyes a little viciously.

"Of course I want him to be happy," she managed to say; "but it is nice of you to understand."

"There's one thing," Ethel continued, "you will become a sort of relation, and you've no idea how pleased Basil and I will be about that."

"Will you?" Hal smiled through her tears, "I rather wonder at it."

"Of course we shall. Basil and I think you are one of the finest characters we have ever known. You've no idea how proud we are when you come to see us," which proved Ethel's understanding heart, for a little generous praise is a kind healer to a sore spirit.

Hal looked into her eyes, with a pleased light in her own.

"You are too generous, but it's nice to be thought well of by any one like you and Basil. I shall remember it when I am silly enough to be downhearted, and it will cheer me up."

She had to hurry away then to catch a train, and as she went her mind was full of the thought:

"Why, oh why, had Dudley, in his blindness, wooed the younger sister?"

"Well?" he said, as she entered their sitting-room, where he was reading over the fire. "How did you get on?"

"Oh, splendidly" - trying to throw a little enthusiasm into her voice.

"Doris looked amazingly pretty."

She show a soft light in his eyes, and because it rather maddened her, she hastened to add: "But I see a great change in Basil."

"Yes?... I wondered if you would. I was afraid he did not seem so well."

"Dudley" - with sudden seriousness - "when Basil dies, it will just about break Ethel up. She idolises him."

"I know; but she can hardly wish him to live on if he continues to grow worse."

"I suppose not; but it's rather awful to think of what it will mean to her to lose him. And she's so sympathetic and tender-hearted." Hal stood a moment looking gravely at the fire - "you know, I think she's the most splendid person I've ever known."