Part 6 (1/2)
We drove through Canterbury, I say, and set the car going her best on the fair road after Sturry is pa.s.sed. I know the country hereabouts pretty well, being accustomed to visit fas.h.i.+onable watering-places from time to time, and well acquainted with Ramsgate and Margate, to say nothing of Deal and Dover. My road lay by Monkton, down toward Pegwell Bay, and it was just at the entrance to Minster that Dolly made me stop without much warning, and took me into her confidence for the first time.
”Britten,” says she, ”there is something I didn't tell you, but which I think I ought to tell you now. I'm not asked to Lord Badington's house at all.”
”Not asked,” said I, with a mouth wide enough open to swallow a pint of gear-box ”B.” ”Then what's the good of going there, if you're not invited?”
”Oh,” says she, more sweetly than ever, ”I think they'll be glad to have me if I do get inside, Britten; but we shall have to act our parts very well.”
I laughed at this.
”Seeing that neither of us is in the theatrical line, I don't suppose that anybody is going to take me for Sir Beerbohm Tree, or you for the Merry Widow,” says I, ”but, anyway, I'll do my best.”
This pleased her, and she looked at me out of her pretty eyes, just sweet enough to make a man think himself a beauty.
”You see, Britten,” says she, ”if the car broke down just outside Lord Badington's house, perhaps they would give me shelter for the night; at least, I hope they would, and if they would not, well, it doesn't really matter, and we can go and stop at the hotel at Sandwich. It would have to be a real breakdown, for Lord Badington keeps motor-cars of his own, and his drivers would be sure to be clever at putting anything right----”
”Oh,” says I, quickly enough, ”if they can get this car right when I have done with it, I'll put up statues to 'em in the British Museum.
You say no more, miss. We'll break down right enough, and if you are not breakfasting with his lords.h.i.+p to-morrow morning, don't blame me.”
She nodded her head; and I could swear the excitement of it set her eyes on fire. Lord Badington's house, you must know, stands overlooking Pegwell Bay, not very far from the golf links, while the Ramsgate Road runs right before its doors. There is nothing but a bit of an inn near by, and not a cottage in sight. I saw that the place could not have been better chosen, and fifty yards from the big iron gates I got off my seat and prepared for business.
”You're really sure that you mean this, miss?” I asked her, knowing what women are. ”You won't change your mind afterwards, and blame me because the car isn't going?”
”How can you ask such a thing?” was her answer. ”Doesn't my whole future depend on our success, Britten?”
”Then you won't have long to wait,” I rejoined, and, opening the bonnet, I set to work upon the magneto, and in twenty minutes had done the job as surely as it could have been done by the makers themselves.
”If this car is going on to-night,” said I, ”some one will have to push it. Now will you please tell me what is the next move, miss, for I'm beginning to think I should like my supper?”
She was down on the road herself by this time, and pretty enough she looked in her motor veil, and the beautiful sables which Mr. Sarand had given her last winter. When she told me to go on to the house, and to say that a lady's motor-car had broken down at the gates, I would have laid twenty to one on the success of her scheme, always provided that we weren't left to the menials who bark incivilities at a n.o.bleman's door. Here luck stood by Miss Dolly, for hardly had I pulled the great bell at Lord Badington's gate when his own car came flying up the drive, with his lords.h.i.+p himself sitting in the back of it.
”What do you want, my man?” he asked, in a quick, sharp tone--he's a wonder for fifty-two, and there has been no smarter man in the Guards since he left them. ”Where do you come from?”
”Begging your pardon, sir,” said I, for I didn't want to pretend that I knew him for a lord, ”but my mistress's car has come by a bit of trouble, and she sent me to ask if any one could help her.”
”What, you're broken down----”
”It's just that, sir; magneto gone absolutely wrong. I shall have to be towed if I go any further to-night.”
He stood on the steps beside me, and seemed to hesitate an instant. A word and he would have told his own chauffeur to drive us on to Sandwich; but it was never spoken, and I'll tell you why. Miss Dolly herself had followed me up the drive, and she arrived upon the scene at that very instant.
”Oh, I am so sorry to trouble you,” she cried in her sweetest voice, ”but my car's gone all wrong, and I'm so tired and hungry, I don't know what to do. Will you let me rest here just a little while?”
Talk about actresses; there isn't one of 'em in the West End would have done half so well. There she was, looking the picture of distress, and there was his lords.h.i.+p, twisting his moustache, and eyeing her as one who was at his wits' end to know what to do. If he didn't take long to come to a resolution, put it down to Dolly's blue eyes--he couldn't see the colour of them at that time of night, but he could feel them, I'll be bound; and, jumping, as it were, to a conclusion he turned to his man and gave him an order.
”This lady will stay here to-night,” he said. ”Go and help her driver to get the car in, and see that he is looked after,” and without another word he waited for Miss Dolly to enter the house. Believe me, I never thought Mr. John's stock stood higher--and ”Britten, my boy,”
says I to myself, ”if this isn't worth a cool fifty when the right time comes, don't you never drive a pretty girl no more.”
I had a rare lark that night, partly with Biggs, his lords.h.i.+p's chauffeur, and partly with a motor expert who came along on a bicycle, and said he'd have my Renault going in twenty minutes. I'm not one that can stand a billet in servants' quarters, and I chose rather to put up at the little inn down by the bay and take my luck there. It was here that Biggs came after supper, and he and the motor expert got going on my high-tension magneto.
Bless the pair of them, they might have been a month there, and no better off--for, you must know that I had taken out the armature, and if you take out an armature and don't slip a bit of soft iron in after it, your magnets are done for, and will never be worth anything again until they are re-magnetised. This baffled the pair of them, and they were there until after eleven o'clock, drinking enough beer to float a barge, and confessing that it was a mystery.