Part 121 (1/2)

”Oh, he'll stop in it. Glad, too. It won't answer for him to be doing nothing, when they can hardly keep themselves at home with the little money screwed out from what's put aside for the Chisholms.”

Reginald never meant to hurt her. He only spoke so in his thoughtlessness. He rattled on.

”I saw George G.o.dolphin last week. It was on the Monday, the day that swindling board first turned me back. I flung the books anywhere, and went out miles, to walk my pa.s.sion off. I got into the Park, to Rotten Row. It's precious empty at this season, not more than a dozen horses in it; but who should be coming along but George G.o.dolphin and Mrs. Pain with a groom behind them. She was riding that beautiful horse of hers that she used to cut a dash with here in the summer; the one that folks said George gave----” Incautious Reginald coughed down the conclusion of his sentence, whistled a bar or two of a sea-song, and then resumed:

”George was well mounted, too.”

”Did you speak to them?” asked Maria.

”Of course I did,” replied Reginald, with some surprise. ”And Mrs. Pain began scolding me for not having been to see her and the Verralls. She made me promise to go the next evening. They live at a pretty place on the banks of the Thames. You take the rail at Waterloo Station.”

”Did you go?”

”Well, I did, as I had promised. But I didn't care much about it. I had been at my books all day again, and in the evening, quite late, I started. When I got there I found it was a tea-fight.”

”A tea-fight!” echoed Maria, rather uncertain what the expression might mean.

”A regular tea-fight,” repeated Reginald. ”A dozen folks, mostly ladies, dressed up to the nines: and there was I in my worn-out sailor's jacket.

Charlotte began blowing me up for not coming to dinner, and she made me go into the dining-room and had it brought up for me. Lots of good things! I haven't tasted such a dinner since I've been on sh.o.r.e. Verrall gave me some champagne.”

”Was George there?” inquired Maria, putting the question with apparent indifference.

”No, George wasn't there. Charlotte said if she had thought of it she'd have invited Isaac to meet me: but Isaac was shy of them, she added, and had never been down once, though she asked him several times. She's a good-natured one, Maria, is that Charlotte Pain.”

”Yes,” quietly responded Maria.

”She told me she knew how young sailors get out of money in London, and she shouldn't think of my standing the cost of responding to her invitation; and she gave me a sovereign.”

Maria's cheeks burnt. ”You did not take it, Reginald?”

”Didn't I! it was quite a G.o.dsend. You don't know how scarce money has been with me. Things have altered, you know, Maria. And Mrs. Pain knows it too, and she has no stuck-up nonsense about her. She made me promise to go and see them when I had pa.s.sed.--But I have not pa.s.sed,” added Reginald, by way of parenthesis. ”And she said if I was at fault for a home the next time I was looking out for a s.h.i.+p, she'd give me one, and be happy to see me. And I thought it was very kind of her; for I am sure she meant it. Oh--by the way--she said she thought you'd let her have Meta up for a few weeks.”

Maria involuntarily stretched out her hand--as if Meta were there, and she would clasp her and withhold her from some threatened danger.

Reginald rose.

”You are not going yet, Regy?”

”I must. I only ran in for a few minutes. There's Grace to see and fifty more folks, and they'll expect me home to dinner. I'll say good-bye to Meta as I go through the garden. I saw she was there; but she did not see me.”

He bent to kiss her. Maria held his hand in hers. ”I shall be thinking of you always, Reginald. If you were only going under happier circ.u.mstances!”

”Never mind me, Maria. It will be uphill work with most of us, I suppose, for a time. I thought it the best thing I could do. I couldn't bear to come upon them for more money at home.”

”Yours will be a hard life.”

”A sailor's is that, at best. Don't worry about me. I shall make it out somehow. You make haste, Maria, and get strong. I'm sure you look ill enough to frighten people.”

She pressed his hands between hers, and the tears were filling her eyes as she raised them--their expression one wild yearning. ”Reginald, try and do your duty,” she whispered in an imploring tone. ”Think always of heaven, and try and work for it. It may be very near. I have learned to think of it a great deal now.”

”It's all right, Maria,” was the careless and characteristic answer.

”It's a religious s.h.i.+p I'm going in this time. We have had to sign articles for divine service on board at half-past ten every Sunday morning.”