“I’m sure I don’t know,” I said.
“Why, Frank Leighton, the young play-actor.”
And then he told me that Mrs. Elmore had agreed that the young couple should have an interview in her presence, and that the whole matter should be discussed. I was delighted, and I could talk of nothing else. Harry at last got a bit tired of it, I think, and he said if I talked about the young play-actor any more he should have to go and put some brickdust on his face, and chalk his nose, or else he would be quite cut out.
Harry does say ridiculous things sometimes, and there is no romance about him. Perhaps it is quite as well, because an hotel-keeper, or, in fact, any man in business, doesn’t want to be too romantic. It isn’t the way to get rich.
Harry said it was lucky we didn’t have many love affairs in our house, or my brain would be turned; and he should be very glad when the young lady had got well enough to go away. He didn’t want a lot of play-actors coming and upsetting all the women in the house, from the missus to the kitchenmaid.
I don’t like to confess it; but there is no doubt that Harry is a little jealous. I have told you how disagreeable he was about that dreadful policeman. Of course you know what I mean by jealous. He isn’t absurd or ridiculous, but he turns nasty, and says sharp things, if I take too much interest in anything or anybody but himself. He’s jealous of my “Memoirs,” and I do believe sometimes he is jealous of baby. That’s the sort of jealousy I mean.
The next morning Mrs. Elmore called me upstairs, and said that they expected a visitor (of course she didn’t know that I knew everything), and that dinner was to be laid in the sitting-room for five people. I said to myself, “I know who the five will be—Mrs. Elmore, Miss Elmore, the doctor, the clergyman, and Mr. Frank Leighton.”
When I told Harry, he said, “Oh, that’s it, is it? Well, I’d sooner him than me.”
“What do you mean, Harry?” I said.
“What do I mean? Why, if that young fellow can make love to the young lady before her mother, her doctor, and her clergyman, he’s got more pluck than I give him credit for.”