One Maid's Mischief Part 40

"Oh! Mr Chumbley," cried Grey, "the Miss Twettenhams were the sweetest, most amiable of ladies, and Helen Perowne made them really very anxious--"

She checked herself suddenly, as if annoyed at having spoken against her friend, at whom she glanced now, to see that she seemed to be really the queen of the feast.

"Yes," said Chumbley, drily, "you're right. They must have been nice old ladies; but about Hilton," he continued. "You see it's like this; a fellow gets caught before he knows where he is, and then he thinks he has arrived at the happiest time of his life; then, a few days later, he sees some other fellow coming to the happiest point of _his_ life; and then, after a flush or two of fever, the first fellow begins to feel much better. I say, Miss Stuart, I was awfully in love with Helen Perowne."

"Yes, I think you were," she replied, with a sad little smile.

"Awfully," he said again. "It was all over with me. I fell in love in five minutes, and I thought her quite a G.o.ddess; while now--"

"Yes," said Grey, smiling; and her face looked very bright and ingenuous. "While now?"

"Well now--I don't," he said, slowly. "Master Hilton won't by-and-by.

I say, Miss Grey," he whispered, laughing merrily, "do you feel as if you were going to die?"

"To die?" she said, opening her eyes very widely in her surprise; and as they met those of Chumbley he could not help thinking what sweet, earnest eyes they were.

"Just like those of that girl tying the handkerchief round the fellow's arm in Millais' picture of _The Huguenot_," he said to himself. "Hah!

he'll be a lucky fellow who wins her for his own!"

"Yes," he said aloud, after a pause, during which he had looked so earnestly at her that she had cast down her eyes and blushed; "yes, of the poisoned cup. No; out here in this land of romance, and living as we are amongst sultans, and princes, and slaves, just as if the Arabian nights had been brought into private life--I ought to say poisoned chalice or envenomed goblet, but I won't; I'll say cup, with a dose in it. I say, Miss Stuart," he drawled, "it was too bad of you to be so suspicious."

"Are you two lovers?" said a deep, rich voice, close by them; and they both turned suddenly, to see that the Princess was watching them with a peculiar smile upon her lip.

"Why do you ask that?" said Chumbley, laughing.

"Because you look like it," said the Princess. "I am glad: I like you both. You are a very wise man," she added, tapping Chumbley on the shoulder with her fan.

"As you are wrong about the engagement, my dear Princess," said Chumbley, laughing, "so it is natural that you should be wrong about my wisdom, for Miss Stuart and I are only the best of friends."

The Princess looked at him very sharply, and then turned her eyes upon Grey Stuart, who, though her colour was slightly heightened, felt amused at their host's frank, bold questioning, and met the Princess's eyes with so ingenuous a look that the latter's suspicions were half disarmed.

"Well," said the Inche Maida, smiling, "what do you say?"

"That Mr Chumbley is my very good friend; that is all."

"Well, I don't know," said the Princess, smiling. "I don't see why you two should not be more than friends; and sometimes I feel half glad, sometimes half sorry. What strange people you English are!"

She took Grey's hand and held it, patting it affectionately as she spoke.

"Why are we so strange?" said Grey, smiling.

"Because it is your nature; you seem so cold and hard to touch, while a spark will set us on fire. I thought when I went to your head chief, Mr Harley, and told him and his officers of my troubles--how I, a weak woman, was oppressed by cruel neighbours--that it would have been enough to make him send fighting men to drive my enemies away. But no; it is talk, talk, talk. You are cold and distant, and you love your friends!"

"But when we make friends we are very faithful and sincere," said Grey, earnestly.

"Some of you, my child--some of you," said the Princess, nodding her head, and looking intently at the fair, sweet face before her. "Some of you can be very true and sincere as you call it; some of you I would not trust. And you think," with a quick look of her dark eyes, "that you could not trust some of us. Well, perhaps you are right; but we shall see--we shall see."

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

LATER ON.

Seeing how earnestly the Princess was talking to Grey Stuart, Chumbley looked around for another companion amongst the busy, chatting throng, and found him in the person of Doctor Bolter, who was coming that way.

"Well?" said the latter.

"Well?" replied Chumbley.

"It's all right."

"Right? Oh, yes, I think so; but, I say, doctor, the next time you are lunching with a native, and you think the cups are poisoned, don't show it quite so plainly."

"Did I show it, my dear boy?"

"Horribly," said Chumbley, coolly. "Here are you, a man who pa.s.ses his time in giving other people numbers of poisonous doses, and yet you make so much fuss about taking one yourself!"

"Tut--tut, man! Tut--tut!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the doctor. "Hold your whisht, as old Stuart says. I couldn't help the thought; but it was a very unjust one I must say."

"So purposeless," said Chumbley. "Why should the Princess want to poison us?"

"Out of spite perhaps," said the doctor. "I don't think we have behaved very generously to her in reply to her appeal."

"On the head of the Colonial Secretary be it," said Chumbley, relapsing into his slow drawl.

"But unfortunately it does not fall upon his head," retorted the doctor, grimly. "The Princess, disappointed in her appeal, could not reach the Colonial Secretary in London, but she could reach us."

"And she won't do anything of the kind, doctor," said Chumbley, warmly.

"She's a very good sort of woman, in spite of her skin, and her party is a great success. It will be our turn to do something next."

"What, in the shape of a feed?"

"Yes, I think so; only this hot climate seems to take all the energy out of a fellow."

For the Princess's party was undoubtedly a grand success, the fairy-like aspect of the scene adding immensely to the effect. The conduct of the Sultan was simply perfect; and his efforts to supplement the hostess in her endeavour to give pleasure won the encomiums of all.

As evening approached there was a little nervousness displayed by the ladies at the idea of staying late; and one and all appealed to Mrs Bolter, who immediately began metaphorically to play the part of hen, and displayed a desire to gather the whole of the ladies beneath her wings.

"I promise you there is no occasion for fear," said the Princess, earnestly; "and besides, if you depart so soon, the preparations my people have made to illuminate the jungle will be all in vain."

"What do you say, Mr Harley?" said little Mrs Bolter, rather petulantly, for she was growing tired. "Dr Bolter is not near for me to appeal to him. Don't you think we ought to go?"

"You will miss the moonlight ride down the river if you go so soon,"

said the Princess, "and that will be far more beautiful than anything here."

"I think," said the Resident, quietly, "that when our friend and ally--"

"Ally, Mr Harley?" said the Princess, in a low voice.