home more forcibly to us.
'It's not me, old man,' murmured his lordship; 'it's my uncle.'
'Your uncle! Good God!' Jimmy clenched his hands, despairingly. 'Do
you mean to say that you let your uncle order you about in a thing
like this? Do you mean to say you're such a--such a--such a
gelatine--backboneless worm--'
'Old man! I say!' protested his lordship, wounded.
'I'd call you a wretched knock-kneed skunk, only I don't want to be
fulsome. I hate flattering a man to his face.'
Lord Dreever, deeply pained, half-rose from his seat.
'Don't get up,' urged Jimmy, smoothly. 'I couldn't trust myself.'
His lordship subsided hastily. He was feeling alarmed. He had never
seen this side of Jimmy's character. At first, he had been merely
aggrieved and disappointed. He had expected sympathy. How, the
matter had become more serious. Jimmy was pacing the room like a
young and hungry tiger. At present, it was true, there was a
billiard-table between them; but his lordship felt that he could
have done with good, stout bars. He nestled in his seat with the
earnest concentration of a limpet on a rock. It would be deuced bad
form, of course, for Jimmy to assault his host, but could Jimmy be
trusted to remember the niceties of etiquette?
'Why the devil she accepted you, I can't think,' said Jimmy half to
himself, stopping suddenly, and glaring across the table.
Lord Dreever felt relieved. This was not polite, perhaps, but at
least it was not violent.
'That's what beats me, too, old man,' he said.
'Between you and me, it's a jolly rum business. This afternoon--'
'What about this afternoon?'
'Why, she wouldn't have me at any price.'
'You asked her this afternoon?'
'Yes, and it was all right then. She refused me like a bird.
Wouldn't hear of it. Came damn near laughing in my face. And then,
to-night,' he went on, his voice squeaky at the thought of his
wrongs, 'my uncle sends for me, and says she's changed her mind and
is waiting for me in the morning-room. I go there, and she tells me
in about three words that she's been thinking it over and that the
whole fearful thing is on again. I call it jolly rough on a chap. I
felt such a frightful ass, you know. I didn't know what to do,
whether to kiss her, I mean--'
Jimmy snorted violently.
'Eh?' said his lordship, blankly.
'Go on,' said Jimmy, between his teeth.
'I felt a fearful fool, you know. I just said 'Right ho!' or
something--dashed if I know now what I did say--and legged it. It's
a jolly rum business, the whole thing. It isn't as if she wanted me.
I could see that with half an eye. She doesn't care a hang for me.
It's my belief, old man,' he said solemnly, 'that she's been
badgered into it, I believe my uncle's been at her.'
Jimmy laughed shortly.
'My dear man, you seem to think your uncle's persuasive influence is
