Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/201

 Just as war broke out her guardian had arranged for Mrs. Crisp, her mother's sister, to become her "dragon." Beresford gathered that there was no very great sympathy between Lola and her aunt.

There was a sadness in her voice when she spoke of her uncle. Apparently he had misogynist tendencies, and had refused to see the niece for whom he had provided. He would neither allow her to go to New Zealand, nor would he himself come to England. He was a man who lived entirely for his work.

In return Beresford told what little there was to tell about himself. How his mother had died when he was born, and his father had been killed in the hunting field a year later. Up to the time of his leaving Oxford, a cousin of his father's had acted as guardian. The fact that neither had known their parents seemed to constitute a bond between them.

"In my case, you see," Beresford remarked with a smile, when he had concluded his little autobiographical sketch, "the fairy uncle was missing."

As they sat in the inn garden, both were thinking of the approaching end of their holiday.

"I must go back to-morrow," she said. "More tea?"

"May I come, too? and yes, please."

For a moment she looked at him with crinkled eyebrows, her fingers on the handle of the teapot. Then she laughed and proceeded to fill his cup.

"You're very literal," she said, as she handed it to him.