Page:The Soft Side (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1900).djvu/185

Rh II

Pickenham, on the Saturday night, it came round somehow to Philip Mackern that Barton Reeve was to have been of the party, and that Mrs. Despard's turning up without him—so it was expressed—had somewhat disconcerted their hostess. This, in the smoking-room, made him silent more to think than to listen—he knew whom he had 'turned up' without. The next morning, among so many, there were some who went to church; Mackern always went now because Miss Hamer had told him she wished it. He liked it, moreover, for the time: it was an agreeable symbol to him of the way his situation made him good. Besides, he had a plan; he knew what Mrs. Despard would do; her situation made her good too. The morning, late in May, was bright, and the walk, though short, charming; they all straggled, in vivid twos and threes, across the few fields—passing stiles and gates, drawing out, scattering their colour over the green, as if they had the 'tip' for some new sport. Mrs. Despard, with two companions, was one of the first; Mackern himself, as it happened, quitted the house by the side of Lady Orville, who, before they had gone many steps, completed the information given him the night before.

'That's just the sort of thing Kate Despard's always up to. I'm too tired of her!'

Phil Mackern wondered. 'But do you mean she prevented him?'

'I asked her only to make him come—it was him I wanted. But she's a goose: she hasn't the courage'

'Of her reckless passion?' Mackern asked, as his companion's candour rather comically dropped.

'Of her ridiculous flirtation. She doesn't know what she wants—she's in and out of her hole like a frightened mouse. On knowing she's invited he immediately accepts, and she encourages him in the fond thought of the charming time