"Then ring the bell, please—and don't light that cigar till I've gone. I shall be ill if you do."
And Lord Moone himself had ordered the carriage in which she had turned her back on Trant.
Burnett Minor, when Mrs. Lovenant-Smith had surprised the rebellion in the box-room, had not made herself more inconspicuous than had Captain Chaffinger during this scene. Indeed, probably considering that Lord Moone, his sister and Louie herself formed a quorum, he had presently been discovered to be not there. But it seemed to be the Captain's lot to receive and despatch Louie in her comings and goings, and before the carriage had reached the lodge he had stopped it and climbed in. Ordinarily, the whites of the Captain's eyes had yellowish marblings; the yellow had now deepened to the hue of cayenne. He had blown his nose repeatedly and violently, and Louie, glancing covertly at him, had suddenly had a pang. All at once he had shown his age. Somehow Louie resented his doing so. People and things you have never taken quite seriously have no right to come near the tragic. It was as if some puppet strutting within a proscenium should suddenly bleed.
"Mops," he had said by-and-by, blowing his nose again, "that was a lie you told them, wasn't it?"
Louie had tried to shut her eyes to Chaff's bleeding. Her hand had sought his.
"The name I told them? Of course it was, you clever old Chaff, to see that."
"You don't tell me that, do you, Mops?"
"You?! No, poor old boy, it isn't worth while telling lies to you."
"I'm glad of that, Mops——"
So, for his private comfort, she had invented for Chaff quite a new lie, name, station in life and all.