“The very thing!” exclaimed Wooden’s mother. “I should never have thought of that if I had tried for a week.”
They had no time to settle anything further, for at that moment the key was heard turning in the lock outside. Colonel Jim had just time to put on his long cloak again before Mr. Emma came into the room.
He seemed not to be in quite such a good temper as before. Directly he came in, he said to Colonel Jim, “Now, then, my man, you’ve been here quite long enough. Pot-plants or no pot-plants, it’s time you cleared out.”
Colonel Jim hesitated. Peggy was afraid for the moment that he had forgotten the words he had learned so carefully. But they seemed to come to him all of a sudden. He straightened himself up, and said in a firm voice, but rather as if he were repeating a lesson, “I should like to go up to the top story and look at the view.”
Peggy heard Wooden say, “With pleasure,” under her breath, as if she were helping Mr. Emma to remember his part.
But unfortunately Mr. Emma had not learnt his part. What he did say was, “Oh, you would, would you? Well, I’m afraid I can’t oblige you. I’m almost run off my legs with work as it is. Now you come along down with me.”
X
PEGGY TALKS TO A ROYAL PRISONER
Colonel Jim threw a despairing look at Peggy; she could just see it under the hood that he had put over his head. His carefully arranged plan had gone wrong at the very beginning, and he hadn’t the least idea what to do next. Of course, he might just as well have thrown his cloak over Mr. Emma’s head there and then, as done it on the top of the House of Cards, after pointing to a bird which might not have been there. But perhaps he did not like to exercise violence before ladies, or perhaps it never occurred to him to alter the plan so as to suit the circumstances. At any rate, he prepared to follow Mr. Emma downstairs without any further ado. If Peggy had not suddenly thought of something, there would have been an end of any good he had done by making his way in to them.
As they were going out, Peggy said to Mr. Emma, “If you and Mrs. Emma have got so much work to do, couldn’t I come down and help you?”