CHAPTER X.
MAKING UP WITH ADELA.
Adela’s last letter certainly made me feel a silly ass. Somehow, it upset my usual happy trend of thought. I couldn’t work, and my soul was torn with conflicting emotions. One moment I hated her; the next I loved her. Then the Devil would whisper in my ear, ‘What has she got to do with it, John Brown? Sow your wild oats. Have your fun. Everybody’s doin’ it.’
Privately speaking, Adela was right; but this righteousness annoyed me. She wasn’t my sister or my mater, and yet she was giving me fits for having a bit of fun. Still, Adela was sweet. She had a way with her. The attraction was both physical and spiritual. She had that sort of healthy figure which makes a student of eugenics stop in the street and mutter, ‘Here’s the model girl!’ Adela was also a ripping hockey-player, and one of the best at tennis. When men saw her knocking about with a racquet she seemed irresistible. They wanted to know her—wanted to kiss her. And she liked a bit of fun; but she wasn’t a fool. A girl who can live in a country parish without getting a sticky label on her name must be rather decent.
Somehow, she balanced my emotions. After indulging in sloppy things for a time, she would say, ‘Come on, John; don’t be decadent. Let’s talk.’ Then we separated our chairs, smoked cigarettes, and chatted away about Kipling, Galsworthy, Hardy, Byron, and Shelley.
Adela could talk. In the country she had found time to think. Her observations were so very shrewd and sane that I often said to myself, ‘This girl would make a topping wife and mother.’ I pictured her with rosy-cheeked kiddies playing in a garden. You needn’t say that was silly. The best people do it.
And yet she had dropped me (pro tem.) for these Australians!
However, affection will out. I wanted to see Adela again; and Beefy wanted to see her sister. You see, Beefy was a little bored kissing barmaids, and longed for something more congenial. As a matter of fact, Beefy was commencing to think. This was a revolution.
‘Come on, John. Jump on. We’ll go and see somebody decent to-day,’ he said.