"That I'm just going to ask you to excuse me from lunching with you--know you'll understand, my boy!--so infernally busy, you see!"

I _didn't_ see, though he had been _saying_ this all morning. But as he seemed to think he was busy, I wasn't going to make any dashed break contradicting him, you know. So I pretended I _did_ see.

"Thank you--thank you, my boy!" He patted me on the back. "And as you'll have an opportunity of seeing a little more of that charming girl, Miss Kirkland--" Charming girl, indeed! I wondered what he would think, if he knew of her designs on poor Jack! "I want you to go in for her a bit--cultivate her a little; you may change your opinion--eh?" He laughed softly and paused in our progress through the library to dig me sharply in the side. "Go ahead--_flirt_ with her, my boy! She will like it--all girls do--and it will do you good; do both of you good!" The old boy beamed at me over his gla.s.ses as he vented a horrible chuckle; didn't seem to notice how painfully shocked I was.

A flirtation, indeed! And with the frump, of all others! Of course he was just having his little joke, and didn't seem to realize what devilish poor taste he exhibited as the father of my darling.

"Thank you," I said rather coldly, "but I don't think that--er--sort of thing would show much consideration for Frances and--"

"Rubbish!" And, by Jove, how he laughed! "Do you think Francis would show any consideration for _you_?"--he snapped his fingers. "I think you're a bit too quixotic, young man!"

I didn't know--don't know now; never was up on any of those legal terms. _He_ knew what he meant!

"Pshaw, now!" he went on, "if _that's_ what's restraining you, you must drop it! I want you to have a pleasant time while you are here with Miss Kirkland--get along with you!"--then he pulled me back again--"You needn't be thinking about the slightest obligation so far as Francis is concerned. Why should you when the affair is all one-sided?"

"One--one-sided?" I repeated falteringly.

"Why, yes; the girl doesn't care for anybody in the whole word except her old father--and he idolizes her!"

Oh, _did_ he!

"So you go on in there and loosen up--have a good time--and make her have one; and keep it up this afternoon. I'm so anxious for you to find something to interest and _occupy_ you--" His glance dropped an instant to the papers and law books as though wishing he had something better with which to occupy himself. "Besides," he added carelessly, "Francis won't be here to see what you do--gone off with Scoggins up somewhere in the hills--big dog-fight up there and Francis took four curs, Scoggins two--they won't be back till night--so go ahead!"

But I had caught the back of a chair.

"Dog-fight?" I said faintly. "Frances up in the hills--and--and with Scoggins?" And she had only left me a half-hour ago!

"Why, _certainly_!" he said wearily, almost testily. "What of it? I tell you you've got to get your ideas all readjusted about Francis. What's the matter with the dog-fight?"

"So--so surprised," I faltered; "so unexpected, you know!"

"Poof!"--and he pushed me out through the doorway--"I never face anything unexpected in that quarter!"

But I think he would have, if he had followed me across into the dining-room and had faced, as I did--

Frances!

"_So_ glad you didn't go to the dog-fight!" I said presently, beaming across at her delightedly.

Her sweet lips glowed at me as her dainty fingers poised the tiny trident before her lips. Jove, how I envied that jolly oyster! Then she smiled witchingly, teasingly.

"It wasn't because I didn't have an invitation," she responded archly.

_I_ knew! That beast, Scoggins!

"Umph;" grunted the frump, seated on the curve between us. "I verily believe Francis would go to anything!"

I scowled--couldn't help it, dash it! And Frances saw, and ducked her head, biting her lip and blushing. I could have choked the frump for so embarra.s.sing her!

Yet the woman _did_ try to be pleasant to me.

"Did you ever find a pearl in an oyster, Mr. Lightnut?" she asked.

"By Jove, no!" I said, staring at her for the fool question. For _who_ could ever lose a pearl in a jolly oyster, don't you know? And yet, the next instant:

"_I_ have!" said my darling, glancing up at me the oddest way.

"Have you, Frances?"--the frump faced her interestedly. "You should examine with a microscope the interstratifications of calcareous matter and animal membrane."

My beauty looked down at her plate.

"I _am_ examining it," she said gravely, "and microscopically. Probably shall this afternoon."

But she _didn't_! No, by Jove, we were together almost all the afternoon, though we never could get away from the frump--dash it, she just took charge of us. And it was the same again in the evening. By Jove, it was disgusting--really, that's the only word to use--the way that woman a.s.sumed toward everybody the air of expect-to-be-mistress-here-some-day-and-might-as-well-begin-now!

Once she did break away from us for fifteen minutes while she went up to see how Jack was. She came back much relieved.

"He was _so_ glad to see me," she said, "and he kissed me twice. We had such an interesting discussion about the _amoeba_."

"The _what_?" asked Frances.

"The _amoeba_--tiny animalcules, don't you know, that have the power of changing their form and appearance. Jacky thinks that perhaps man, too, in the process of time and evolution might scientifically acquire this--"

"How silly!" laughed my darling. And I thought so too. Of course if a man looked like himself once, he would _always_ look like himself. Any fool knew that!

Later, the judge came to my room, accompanied by Wilkes with some Heidelberg punch, _frappe_.

"Couldn't leave you out of this," he said genially; "besides, wanted to toast your first night under the roof of Wolhurst!

"Hope they're making you comfortable," he went on. "Infernal shame, Lightnut, that I've had to neglect you so; so absurdly busy, you know--_you_ understand?"

I pretended to, for I knew he wanted me to _think_ that, but I had heard the butler tell the frump that the judge was _reading_.

"Don't expect to retire at all," he continued; "and then there's my promise to my poor boy--I _must_ keep that somehow; never failed on a promise in my life--I mean, you know, about wearing his new pajamas." He shook his head sadly.

"T' be sure!"--and I swallowed hard--Jove, but the very word, "pajamas,"

gave me cold marrows!

"And, my boy, I haven't forgotten my promise to _you_, either," he continued, smiling kindly and replenishing my gla.s.s to the brim. "I'm still going to have a word with Francis to-night--that is, if they ever get back from that infernal dog-fight--I want to pave the way for you, you know."

"Thanks awfully!" I murmured nervously.

Somehow, I felt mean--always hate to feel mean, dash it--felt almost like a jolly cad, in fact. _Couldn't_ tell him how far Frances and I had progressed already; he might take it out on her, you know. And _then_, to find out that he didn't know she hadn't gone to the dog-fight after all!

"Well," he sighed, "I will manage it all somehow, even about the pajamas. Perhaps, when the house is quiet, I may--_here_, have another--oh, yes, you must!--won't hurt you; only a pint or so of rum in the whole mixture. Fine, isn't it? Yes, I think Wilkes is certainly an artist when it comes to a nightcap. Now, let me fill yours again--_oh_, yes!"--and he did it--"Won't hurt a baby--make you sleep tight, you know!"

And, by Jove, I had to go it!

"Well--" he shifted as if to go, and sent me a smile over his gla.s.s's rim, "pleasant dreams!"