Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/144

 services," he began, "I suppose I should have to"

"Need for your services, I should want coffee every fifteen minutes of the day and night. No, by Jove! like the Emperor Charles and his chickens, I'd have it prepared every five minutes. You regard marriage far too lightly, Hoskins."

"I hope not, my lord," this with something approaching feeling in his voice.

"That's better, that sounds more human. Now, suppose there were a Lady Drewitt in this flat. She would be sure to want you to do her hair or something at the very moment I required you."

"Do her hair, my lord!" he exclaimed anxiously.

"Yes, thin ginger hair, it would be, or else manicure her spatulated finger nails, or lace her stays, or clean her shoes. You don't seem to understand. There's a terrible destiny brooding over this flat."

Instinctively Hoskins looked up at the ceiling.

"You and I rub along very well together, Hoskins, thanks to your coffee and my equable temper; but a Lady Drewitt would play the very devil with us. Don't you realise that?"

"Now that you come to mention it, my lord, I'm afraid that it might be—might be a little difficult."

"A little difficult," Lord Drewitt sighed. "It's a deadly menace. Now I want you to do something for me."

"Yes, my lord."

"If at any time you hear that I have become engaged to be married," Lord Drewitt spoke slowly