“Get in, you Ragamuffin,” said Jim, sternly, “or else you will be left.”
Muffin gave her sister, who was forlornly witnessing these operations, a final hug and received one in return. She was then handed with considerable ceremony into the compartment which contained Mrs. Lascelles.
Jim gave sixpence to the porter, and then had a craving to kiss the Goose Girl, but did not quite know how to manage it, as the down platform at Dwygyfy is such a public place. Therefore he had to be content with squeezing her hand.
“Now remember,” was his parting injunction, “you are a very lucky Goose Girl indeed. And your papa and Polly and Milly and all of them are going to be awfully proud of you. And if you forget the Acacias at Balham, my old mother will never forgive you.”
As Jim came aboard Cheriton shook his hand with real warmth.
“Good-by, Lascelles,” said he. “I hope there will be some entertaining at Cheriton House one of these days. I hope I can count on you and your mother to stand by me. And when the masterpiece is quite finished let me know and I will tell you what to do with it.”
The guard slammed the door and blew his whistle. As the train moved off the window of the third-class compartment was occupied by a wonderful yet substantial vision in mauve, waving affectionate farewells to a group of three persons and a small dog assembled on the platform. They all stood watching it, until the sunlight was cheated suddenly of the daffodil-colored mane gleaming from under the Slocum Magna cucumber basket by the jaws of the tunnel immediately outside Dwygyfy station, which is two miles and a quarter in length.
CHAPTER XXXI
DISINTEGRATION
FROM the moment that train steamed away from Dwygyfy there was no more decent weather. Day after day it thundered and lightened, it hailed and it blew; day after day it poured in torrents. For a whole week Cheriton endured this distemper of the Welsh climate, which according to Borrow is, in the most favorable circumstances, of a very fickle character. His man Johnson then packed up his traps, and the pair of them were spirited away upon an extremely inclement morning by the eleven-o’clock train. Scotland was their destination. In that land of cakes and heather were some old friends who set apart September for playing bridge for moderate stakes and for the shooting of grouse.
Of course before Cheriton went up to Scotland he freely discussed his proposed matrimonial adventure with the sagacious Caroline. She had not hesitated to affirm that the man Lascelles had behaved like a gentleman. It was only in extreme instances that she felt called upon to make a statement of that kind. It was a testimonial she did not give willingly, because in her opinion it was the highest there was to bestow upon the members of the sex to which the man Lascelles belonged.