IV
A week or two elapsed before I received any acknowledgement from Melton. Then my cousin wrote a letter designed to release both myself and O'Rane from obligations, to convey an invitation for Speech Day and as long afterwards as I could spare for Raney's tried and approved spare room, and finally to impart a great deal of such miscellaneous information as my cousin thought would interest me or seemed suitable for treatment by an epistolary method in which he took considerable pride.
"This is awful news about Jim," he wrote. "Though I really hardly knew him, he seemed an awful good sort—white all through. The Panther says I haven't gone half far enough. It was an awful shock for him, poor chap. I usually roll round after Early School on my way to breakfast, just to read him his letters and the headlines in the paper. I found your fist staring at me, so I told the Panther and read out the letter. If I'd had time to read my own first, I might have let him down easier: as it was, I was frightfully abrupt.
"Well, as you say, there's always hope until they definitely write him off. It does seem rotten luck on Vi, though. She writes a fairly cheery letter in spite of all: I heard from her this morning, asking me to be godfather to the kid.
"I've had a most astonishing time here since last I wrote. I was coming out of the racquet court the other day and haring along through the rain when I bumped up against a girl in Big Archway. I apologized with my usual pretty grace and was hurrying on when she asked me the way to the Panther's rooms. As I happened to be going there myself on the chance of tea, I volunteered to show her the way. With any luck the Panther might be out, and then my theory was to invite her to the 'Raven.' It would have been worth getting sacked just for the fun of it, George. She was some beauty—like the picture of Lady Hamilton dressed as a Bacchante. (If you happen to remember it, and if I'm thinking of the right one, the thing in the dining-room in Dublin.) She'd been walking through the rain and wind and her hair was shining with the wet, and there was little baby diamonds on her eyelashes. (Said he poetically.) I—George, my life is blighted: I fell in love at first sight of her eyes (colour dark brown and an 'out' size) and at the sound of her voice. I feel I could write reams of bad poetry about her. You should have seen me doing the Walter Raleigh stunt and bagging our Mr. Matheson's green brolly from Common Room passage.
"It took us some time to get to the Cloisters, as I led her round Big School by a lucus a non short cut through Chapel and by the Baths. However, we got there eventually, and I knocked at the Panther's door.
"'That you, Oakleigh?' he asked.
"'Yes, sir,' I said.
"'You're just in time to make tea. The water's boiling. Come along in and shut the rain out.'
"'A lady's called to see you, sir,' I said; and waited for him to hand out hush-money.
"The Panther hardly raised an eyebrow. 'Get a move on with the tea, then,' he said. 'What have you done with her?'
"'I'm here, David,' answered My Dream. Curse him! she called by his Christian name!
"The Panther held out his hand. 'I didn't expect you so soon,' he said.
"'I got your letter this morning,' she answered.
"Well, George, the whole thing seemed a put-up job, and I quite made up my mind to warn Burgess how his young men were carrying on. I poured the tea out and handed round the food and was just making for the door when the Panther called me back.
"'Sonia,' he said, 'I want to introduce a young cousin of George's.'
"'George is one of my oldest friends,' she said. (You old devil, you never told me. Never mind, she called me 'Laurie' before we'd finished.)
"'And Miss Dainton is one of my oldest friends,' said the Panther. 'Sit down and continue to preside over the meal. I've not made tea since the days when I was your brother-in-law's fag—eighteen years ago, nearly.'
"We talked a bit, and I poured out more tea and handed more food and then I made another attempt to go.
"'You're in a great hurry, Oakleigh,' said the Panther. 'We've bored you, I'm afraid.'
"'No, sir,' I said, 'but I thought you and Miss Dainton might want to talk.'
"'I should like you to stay,' he said, 'Miss Dainton has called to see these rooms, and I want you to show her round. There is a question whether she would care to live here.'
"You could have counted me out over that, George. He said it in the most matter-of-fact way, standing by the fireplace with his hands in his pockets. I didn't know what to say. I looked at her. She was leaning forward with her hands round her knees and her head bent. Her eyes were full of tears, and I couldn't make out if she was frightfully happy or frightfully miserable.
"'What's your view, Oakleigh?' he asked.
"'I ... I don't know yet, sir,' I stammered. It was a damned unfair question, George.
"'We were engaged when I was sixteen,' said Miss Dainton.
"'Well, what have you been waiting for?' I asked. It was awful cheek, but it slipped out. The Panther simply yelled with laughter.
"'Then—in my place, Oakleigh?' he asked.
"'Rather, sir!' I said. I was warming to the job. I had a look at her, but she didn't seem to mind.
"The Panther thought it over for a minute. Then he sobered down and said very quietly:
"'If you were blind?'
"'It doesn't seem to make any difference to you, sir,' I said.
"George wasn't that a perfectly innocent remark? The Panther's simply amazing, the things he does. However, I seemed to have said the wrong thing. He clapped his hands to his eyes as though he'd been stung, and I could hear him whisper under his breath, 'Oh, my God!'
"I weighed in with the most abject of apologies, and he was all right again in a minute and turned to Miss Dainton.
"'Am I to take this young man as representative of the world at large, Sonia?' he asked.
"She said 'Yes' very quietly.
"'Oakleigh hasn't shown you round the rooms yet,' he said. 'They're nothing very much. I left my money behind in London, and a slice of my youth the far side of the Atlantic, and my sight in Flanders. If you care about what's left Sonia.... I'm not half-way through my life yet.'
"She got up and whispered something that I couldn't hear, then the Panther turned to me and held out his hand. 'Will you be the first to congratulate me, Oakleigh? I shall want you to write a lot of letters to-night. One to George, and another to your sister, and any number more. You can tell George to desert from the Admiralty and come down here for Speech Day—and as long as he can stay afterwards. You can tell the school, too, if you think it'll amuse them.'
"I shook hands with the two of them for about five minutes. They were simply bursting with cheer. I wanted to shout or make a speech or something, but all I could do was to pump-handle their arms up and down and burble 'Best of luck!' and on my honour I slapped the Panther on the back and told him to buck up!
"Never in my life did I feel such a fool as when it was all over. I got away as soon as I could and wandered down to the baths. About an hour later as I was coming up to prep. with Majoribanks we caught sight of the Panther and Miss Dainton starting up the Crowley Road. I mentioned casually that the Panther was getting married and that I'd been having tea with them and that she struck me as being a decent sort of girl. I didn't go into details. It was all such an extraordinary business that I knew that if I didn't quite get the hang of it, it was useless to look to a chuckle-head like Margy for light and leading.
"You know, George, I don't believe they'd have done it if it hadn't been for me.
"And now to the fascinating task of turning Marc Antony's funeral oration into Latin Hexameters for the benefit of our Mr. O'Rane. If he gives me any lip about them, I shall tell him that she called me 'Laurie.'
"The cost of living has gone up again since I thanked you for that fiver."