III
Whenthe taxi, for which Ray had ’phoned, came rushing up, they all met again at the front gate to give him their various God-speeds on his gallant errand.
Mrs Dare handed him the note she had hastily penned to Lois, with a warm, “We are very grateful to you, Ray, for your thought of her. Bring her safe home to us.”
The Colonel handed him a small buff paper bag which chinked, saying, “If you haven’t enough there, my boy, you will let me know. God bless you both!”
Vic said enviously, “Just wish I was going! Wouldn’t it be ripping, Nor, to be stranded out there and have someone come out from England to rescue you?”
“Ripping! Let’s try it! Where could we get to?”
“Little girls are better at home,” said Noel, with his golf-clubs slung over his shoulder so that not a moment of this last precious holiday should be missed. “Good-luck, old man! If you get into any boggle wire for me and I’ll come and get you out of the mud. Jawohl! Hein! Nicht wahr!”
“I shall hope to find you all in the best of health about Tuesday or Wednesday,” said Ray, with a final wave of the hand, and the taxi whirled away round the corner.
“See you two later,” cried Noel, as he swung away towards the links. “I’ll feed up yonder and meet you at the courts at three.”
The girls sauntered away, arm in arm, up the Oakdene path, to talk it all over. The Colonel wrung Mrs Dare’s hand again, and said, with warm feeling that subdued his voice to some extent, “We will congratulate one another again, ma’am. Nothing could have pleased mebetter. Lois is one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met, and Ray will do us all credit.”
“He’s a fine boy. I’m sure they will be very happy. I am thankful it has fallen out so. I was a little afraid, at times, lastsummer——”
“You mean that spick-and-span, cut-and-dried, starched and stuck-up German dandy? Pooh, ma’am! I knew better than that myself.”
“He was a good-looking lad, you know, and his music was quite exceptional.”
“Always strikes me as rather namby-pamby in a man. But—a word in your ear, ma’am!”—in a portentous whisper induced by the discharge of his feelings,—“D’you know, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we came on another link in the chain before long.”
“Another link?” echoed Mrs Dare, and stared at him in great surprise.
“Yes,” with a twinkle of beaming eyes. “What doyousuppose made my eldest girl take to that nursing business? You know she’d no needto——”
“You mean Con?”
“Why, of course! Who else? I’ve a great belief in Con. He’ll go far before he’s through. And I know Alma. And it’s only in the light of Con that I can explain her.”
“You’re just an incorrigible old match-maker,” laughed Mrs Dare, more amused than convinced.
“When you’re out of the game yourself there’s nothing like watching the young ones at it. If it had been my luck now to meet yourself before Dare camealong——”
“You’d have found me in my cradle,” she laughed again, as she went up the path towards the front door.
“No,—in short frocks,” said the Colonel emphatically. “But I’d have waited all right.”
It was a standing joke among them that the Colonel had fallen in love with his neighbour’s wife, and he confessed to it like a man, to John Dare’s very face.
“Duty calls,” said Mrs Dare. “I’ve got two rooms to turn out this morning, because my charlady couldn’tcome yesterday. And there she is going in at the back gate. Good-bye, Colonel! I’m half hoping Con may come over to-day. It’s three weeks since he was here and he sometimes manages it on a Saturday. I’ll send you word if he comes and perhaps you’ll come round for a cup of tea.”
“I will. And bring Alma with me,” he twinkled.
“Is she to be here? I didn’t know.”
“Neither do I, but they generally manage to hit on the same day somehow. Curious, isn’t it?” and he lifted his hat and marched away, chuckling to himself like a plump little turkey-cock.