“Have some jelly, Miss Ruan?” said Wilby junior’s voice at her ear, through the babel of laughter and clattering of plates. “You’ll have some to please me now, won’t you?” he murmured in wheedling tones.
“Harry’s quite a lady’s man, isn’t he, ducky?” said Carrie, in an audible whisper on the other side. “You’ve mashed him too, I declare.”
“She’s quite right, though she needn’t shout so loud,” Mr. Wilby murmured, reluctantly removing the plate of jelly. “I shall take the first waltz after supper,” he added fiercely, with a Corsair-like change of tone.
“Now, my dear,” said Mr. Jenkins heartily, bustling round to Bridget. “You’re eating nothin’, I can see. Bless these young fellers, they ain’t ’arf up to the mark, not a patch on the young men forty years ago. They’d ’ave looked after you fast enough. You’ve got some footin’ on the light fantastic before you, remember, and young girls ain’t kep’ up on nothing, though they do try to make us believe it, eh?
“No puddin’? Nonsense!” He cut a huge slice of tipsy cake, and bundled it unceremoniously on to her plate. “There! you won’t taste anythin’ much better nor that in a ’urry. My missus’s make. Ain’t it, missus?”
The Ruans’ cab came at twelve o’clock. Bridget followed her mother downstairs with a white fleecy shawl over her head. She looked pale and tired.
Mr. Jenkins was in the passage leading to the front door, shaking hands heartily with the departing guests, and shouting last words to them as they drove away.
“Good-night, Mary, my dear,” he cried, pinching Mary’s red cheek. “When are you goin’ to git married, eh? Must look sharp about it, you know. Keep the young men up to the mark. They’re cautious nowadays,—they’re cautious,” he repeated gleefully, rubbing his hands. “’Ullo, Ruan! You off? Glad to have seen you, old boy, and your missus, and the young lady,” he added, with a mock serious bow to Bridget. “She’s a bit quiet, Tom. Ain’t you, miss?—but none the worse for that, p’raps. You know what they say about the quiet ones, my dear? Ha! ha! Eh, Tom? Eh? You’ll have her flying away from the nest before you know where you are, p’raps, eh?”
Mrs. Jenkins shook hands a little stiffly with the mother and daughter, but Carrie made up for her lack of cordiality by kissing Bridget effusively on both cheeks.