Enter Bridget Part 8

"Oh yes, she's still with old Lady Ramsbottom--enjoying herself to the top of her bent, no doubt! You may be certain Sybil's having a rattling good time! She always revels in illness. Goodness knows when I shall see her again. Where are you bound for?" asked Jimmy, as Carrissima showed signs of impatience.

"For home and tea," was the answer.

"Let me give you some," he urged, walking on by her side.

"No, thank you, Jimmy!"

"Carrissima," he said, with a glance at her profile, "what in the world's the matter?"

"Why, nothing, of course!"

"Oh yes, there's something," he insisted. "I flatter myself I'm good at reading faces, you know, and yours is always interesting--one never has to read between the lines."

"Does that mean I wear my heart on my sleeve?" she demanded.

"Naturally you fancy you're inscrutable," said Jimmy, with a laugh.

"We all do. Come now, suppose you tell me what it is!"

"What would be the use--if there were anything?"

"You might enable me to do you a good turn! If I couldn't cure your woe I could possibly make you forget it. Besides, people do tell me things. You would be astonished to hear what confidences are poured into my ears."

"Is that because you're sympathetic, or simply because you're rich?"

suggested Carrissima.

"What's that you're carrying?" he asked, with a shrug.

"A card-case," she replied.

"May I look?" he said, holding out his hand. After a momentary hesitation she let him take it, whereupon he had no scruple about opening the box. "Hullo! who is B. R.?" he demanded.

"n.o.body you know, Jimmy!"

"Bridget Rosser!" he exclaimed. "You see what a memory I have. Is to-day any special occasion?"

"Her birthday," said Carrissima.

"How old is she?"

"Twenty-three!"

"What a delectable age! The same as your own. But if you're taking Miss Rosser a present," he added, "how is it you are on the way home?"

"Jimmy, you make me tired," said Carrissima. "I wish you wouldn't ask so many questions."

"I can't help it," he replied. "An inquiring turn of mind, you know.

I haven't forgotten that Sybil is to pay your friend a visit directly she gets back."

"Indeed, there is not the slightest necessity," said Carrissima.

"Hullo! so you've changed your mind?"

"I suppose that is allowable."

"Where does she live?" Jimmy persisted.

"Wild horses wouldn't drag her address from me!" cried Carrissima, laughing quite cheerfully, "and kindly give me back the card-case."

He came to a standstill close to Colonel Faversham's house as he put it back in her hand.

"Now, I'm off," he said. "That's all I was waiting for."

"What?" asked Carrissima.

"To hear you laugh again."

"Jimmy," she said, "I sometimes wonder whether your inveterate cheerfulness is the sign of a shallow mind!"

"Oh well, you see, it's one of the few useful things I can do," he answered. "To swing a light about."

"Still, it isn't always safe to go full speed ahead," she suggested.

"Oh dear, no," said Jimmy. "We all have to put the brakes hard on now and then; but the fact remains that a coward dies a hundred deaths, you know."

Carrissima entered the house a moment after he walked away, and going to the drawing-room sat down to tea just as she was in her hat and jacket.

Could it be possible that her father seriously thought of marriage? In that event, the whole course of her life would be altered! She could never consent to stay at home if Bridget ruled the roast! Looking at her watch, presently, Carrissima saw that it was about the time when Lawrence could usually be found in the bosom of his family, and going down-stairs again she let herself out of the house. On reaching Charteris Street she saw him with Victor on his knees, whilst Phoebe on hers looked at the boy with anxious eyes.

He looked pale and fretful in consequence of yesterday's party, and when his nurse had carried him out of the room to an accompaniment of noisy expostulations, Carrissima turned to her brother--

"Lawrence," she said, "I am really in the most dreadful state of mind.

I am beginning to wonder whether you could possibly have been right, after all."

"Thank you," answered Lawrence stiffly. "But, of course, a prophet is not without honour----"

"Yes, I know," Carrissima interrupted. "It's about Bridget."

"What has she been doing?" asked Phoebe.

"You remember she told us that to-day would be her birthday?"

"The most barefaced hint I ever heard in my life," said Lawrence.

"Well, I thought I would take her a small present----"

"A pity you can't hold yourself in a little more," was the answer.

"You must gus.h.!.+"

"Anyhow," Carrissima continued quite humbly, "I went to Donaldson's--Phoebe, I saw the duckiest little opal brooch. I was half tempted----"