“But I should know something of it, too, for I am an artist myself.”
“And do you get eight hundred pounds for a small picture?” Mackenzie asked severely.
“Well, no,” said Johnny, with a laugh. “But then I am a duffer.”
After dinner Sheila left the room: Johnny fancied he knew where she was going. He pulled in a chair to the fire, lit his pipe, and said he would have but one glass of toddy, which Mackenzie proceeded to make for him. And then he said to the old King of Borva, “I beg your pardon, sir, but will you allow me to suggest that that young girl who was in here before dinner should not call your daughter Miss Sheila before strangers!”
“Oh, it is very foolish,” said Mackenzie, “but it is an old habit, and they will not stop it. And Duncan, he is worse than any one.”
“Duncan, I suppose, is the tall fellow who waited at dinner?”
“Oh, ay, that is Duncan.”
Johnny’s ingenious bit of stratagem had failed. He wanted to have old Mackenzie call his daughter Mrs. Lavender, so that he might have had occasion to open the question and plead for his friend. But the old man resolutely ignored the relationship between Lavender and his daughter so far as this stranger was concerned, and so Johnny had to go away partly disappointed.
But another opportunity might occur, and in the meantime was not he carrying rare news down to the Phœbe? He had lingered too long in the house, but now he made up for lost time, and once or twice nearly missed his footing in running down the steep path. He had to find the small boat for himself, and go out on the slippery stones and seaweed to get into her. Then he pulled away from the shore, his oars striking white fire into the dark water, the water gurgling at the bow. Then he got into the shadow of the black hull of the yacht, and Pate was there to lower the little gangway.
When Johnny stepped on deck, he paused, in considerable doubt as to what he should do. He wished to have a word with Lavender alone; how could he go down with such a message as he had to deliver to a couple of fellows probably smoking and playing chess?