Enter Bridget Part 5

"Oh, I remember you perfectly," she replied. "As well as if it were yesterday."

"Come this way, come this way," he insisted, replacing his hat on the table as she entered the hall. "Carrissima would never forgive me.

She was talking about you before I had been in the house ten minutes----"

"But you were just going out," she expostulated. "You mustn't let me take you up-stairs again."

"Stairs are nothing to me," he said. "I could climb a mountain. I have climbed many a one before to-day, and I hope I shall again. What delightful weather!" he continued, as they reached the drawing-room.

"It makes one feel quite--quite capable of anything."

She sat down, while the colonel talked about Crowborough and David Rosser; remembering whose vocation, he realized the desirability of giving the conversation a bookish turn. While he was remarking upon some of the most recent publications--quoted from advertis.e.m.e.nts, for he seldom opened a book--Knight and a small footman brought in the tea equipage. Colonel Faversham invited Bridget to officiate, and told himself how delectable she looked as, half-shyly, she pa.s.sed his cup and saucer.

"You know, Colonel Faversham," she said, "I cannot help feeling immensely guilty."

"A libel," he protested. "I have never seen a more transparently innocent face in the whole course of my life."

"Still, I am certain I have kept you from going to your club or somewhere. Of course I am duly grateful. Carrissima said I might come here whenever I felt too lonely."

"My dear Miss Rosser," said Colonel Faversham, "I am afraid it must be a rather dull life you're leading. But it will be entirely your own fault if ever you find yourself bored in future. Carrissima has no end of friends, and hers shall be yours. Then there's my daughter-in-law!

As for books, my library was left to me by an uncle who had nothing better to do than to read from morning till night. You must allow me to send you a suitable selection."

When Carrissima came home, a little later, she raised her eyebrows on seeing Bridget Rosser presiding at the tea-table, with Colonel Faversham seated rather close by her side. As he began to explain his good fortune in meeting the visitor at the door, Carrissima told herself that she knew exactly how things would turn out!

The truth was that Colonel Faversham had always been somewhat dangerously susceptible. Lawrence could never feel certain that his father was too old to think of marrying again. Carrissima knew that for the next few days he would talk of n.o.body but Bridget; that he would lend her books, and perhaps even express a wish to invite her to dine. He would on every opportunity pay her extravagant compliments and make himself generally ridiculous; then he would begin to forget her existence and fall back into his ordinary routine of bridge and golf until another attractive face arrested his attention.

Although he sang Miss Rosser's praises loudly that Sat.u.r.day afternoon, and spoke of her frequently on Sunday and during the next few evenings, Carrissima scarcely suspected that the colonel had met Bridget since her visit to Grandison Square. She was certainly astounded when, going to see her small nephew one afternoon a week or so later, she found that she had run her head into a hornets' nest.

"You have done a fine thing!" said Lawrence. "That is the worst of you."

"Oh, do please tell me what is the best, or at least the medium, for a change," was the answer.

"My dear Carrie----"

"If you call me Carrie you will drive me mad," said Carrissima.

"I fancy you must be," exclaimed her brother, standing on the hearthrug and looking as solemn as the judge he hoped some day to become. One hand was thrust between the b.u.t.tons of his morning coat, the other clasped its lapelle, his head was flung back, and one foot rested on the fender. "An immense pity," he added, "that you can never mind your own business."

Carrissima skilfully mimicked his att.i.tude.

"May it please you, m'lud, and gentlemen of the jury," she said, causing Lawrence hastily to change his pose, and Phoebe to look a little scandalized.

"There's a time for everything," he insisted, with a blush. "Let me tell you this is no laughing matter."

"You should not make yourself look so ridiculous," said Carrissima.

"Why should you everlastingly be retained for the prosecution?"

"You would certainly require a clever defence," returned Lawrence. "A fine thing you have done by your unnecessary interference."

"But what am I accused of?" she demanded. "What is all the fuss about?"

"As I was walking home on Sat.u.r.day," he explained, "I turned up the Haymarket. The people were just going in to the matinee----"

"I mustn't forget I want to go to the Haymarket," said Carrissima.

"Do, for goodness' sake," he expostulated, "try to fix your mind on one thing at a time."

"It depends on its nature," said Carrissima.

"Whom should I see getting out of a taxi," cried Lawrence, "but the colonel and some woman."

"My dear Lawrence," was the answer, "knowing father as well as you pretend to know everybody, surely you cannot imagine there's anything very unusual about that."

"Carrissima," interposed Phoebe, "I really think from Lawrence's description that she must have been Bridget Rosser."

"Oh, but surely not!"

"I think it was," Phoebe insisted.

"He has only seen her once," said Carrissima. "That was on Sat.u.r.day week. She would scarcely----"

"Let me ask you one question!" cried Lawrence.

"Oh, a dozen," said Carrissima.

"How do you know that was the only time he saw the woman?"

"Of course, I can't say that I know for certain," she admitted.

"There you are! You don't know. You don't even believe. You simply jump to a conclusion. You have no means of knowing. Depend upon it, he has been at Golfney Place over and over again. We shall be fortunate if he doesn't end by marrying her."

"Who is jumping to a conclusion now?" said Carrissima.

"Lawrence dear," suggested Phoebe, quite humbly, "I understood you were afraid she might marry Mark. After all, she can't very well make victims of both him and your father."

"No, but she may like to have two strings to her bow. She may prefer a bird in the hand, and if he should escape, there's Mark to fall back upon."

"After all," said Carrissima, "you have not even seen Bridget. You don't know she has the slightest desire to marry anybody."

"She is simply an adventuress," was the answer. "A pretty woman on the make."

Although Carrissima had little reason to be prejudiced in Miss Rosser's favour, she was the possessor of an elementary sense of justice, and, moreover, it was always a satisfaction to contradict her brother.

"I don't admit you have any right to say that," she protested. "I saw a great deal of her at Crowborough----"

"Five years ago!"

"From what I have seen since," Carrissima continued, "I believe you have found a mare's nest. You seem to forget that father is sixty-five."

"Ah, yes, but he doesn't begin to realize the fact," said Lawrence.