Page:Quartette - Kipling (1885).djvu/44

 in my life—except once at the front. Then he brought his hand down on the table in a way that made the dessert plates jump, and almost howled:—"I tell you I proposed to her, and she accepted me. Do you hear? She accepted me!"

Well, that didn't strike us as anything particularly awful. I've been accepted once or twice myself; but it didn't turn me into more than an average lunatic for the time being. Tick dropped his voice somewhere into his boots—at least it sounded awfully hollow and unearthly:—"Then as the extra stopped she got up to go away from the sofa we'd been sitting on, and I asked her to stay. She told me that she was going to her next partner. I said: 'Look here, darling, who is your next partner if it isn't me, for ever and ever? Sit down and let us wait till your chaperone is ready.' 'My chaperone is ready, dear,' said she; 'and I must go to her. But remember that you are my next partner for ever and ever. Amen. Good-bye.'

"Before I could say anything she had run out of the verandah and into the ball-room. I stopped to look at the moon and to thank my stars I was so lucky as to win her. Presently a man I knew hurried by me with a rug out of one of the dandies. My heart was so full I just pulled him up where he stood and said: 'Congratulate me, old boy! She's accepted me. I'm the happiest fellow on earth!' Now everyone in Mussoorie knew pretty well that I meant business with the girl; but instead of congratulating me the man just let the rug drop and said: 'O my God!'

"'What's the matter?' said I. 'Were you sweet on her yourself, then? All right, I'll forgive you. But you'll congratulate me, won't you?'

"He caught me by the arm, and led me quietly into the ball-room and then left me. Everybody was clustered in a mob round the cloak-room door; and some of the women folk were crying. A couple of 'em had fainted. There was a sort of subdued hum going out, and everyone was saying: 'How ghastly! How shocking! How terrible!' I leant up against a door-post and felt sick and faint, though I didn't know why. Then the fellow who had taken the dandy rug came out of the cloak-room and spoke to one of the women.

Tick had nearly emptied the decanter by this time; and as I looked up and down the Mess I could see two or three of the men looking awfully white and uncomfortable. My hair began to feel