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How it all came about he could not tell, what she said or he said he could never remember, only the one thing which stood out was that as the time for the nurse's return arrived, he knew that Cecilia Cricklander was kissing him with apparent passion, which he felt in some measure he was returning, and that she was murmuring: "And we shall be married, darling John, as soon as you are well."
John Derringham watched her disappear with a strange feeling of ruffled disquietude in his heart. It was so warm and charming an April day that Mrs. Cricklander and some of her friends were out of doors before luncheon, walking up and down the broad terrace walk that flanked Wendover's southern side. It was a Georgian house, spacious and comfortable, but not especially beautiful. Mrs.
But when he got there, he found Cheiron very taciturn contributing little more than a growl now and then, while he smoked his long pipe and played with his beard. So at last he got up to go. "I have made up my mind to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he said. "I supposed so," the Professor replied dryly.
And if his voice in his honest excitement would have sounded a little cockney in Arabella's cultured ears, Cecilia Cricklander did not notice it. On the contrary, she thought the whole thing was the finest-sounding harangue she had ever heard in her life. He went on to say that he could not live without her, and implored her to throw over John Derringham and promise to be his wife.
But the charm was growing, and he felt he would allow himself to be caught in her net. "Mrs. Cricklander would be very much amused could she hear this verdict of the county," he said with a certain tone in his voice which did not escape Halcyone. "In London we do not occupy ourselves with such unimportant things but I dare say she will get over it. And now I really must be going back.
The paper appeared to regard the accident as safely over, and the patient as returning to health. For Mrs. Cricklander, well-skilled in the manipulating of reporters in her own country, knew exactly what impression she wished to give to the press.
Cricklander, Master," he announced after a while. "I am very glad to hear it," Cheiron said heartily. "I never like to see a fine ship going upon the rocks. All your vitality would have been drawn out of you by those octopus arms." "I do not agree with you in the least about any of those points," John Derringham said stiffly. "I have the highest respect for Mrs. Cricklander but I can't do it."
Cricklander got back to her own favorite long seat out on the terrace, she sat down, and settling the pillows under her head, she let her thoughts ticket her advantages gained, in her usual concrete fashion. "He is absolutely mine, body and soul.
"I should make a capital cook," said John Derringham, with smiling eyes, "but I should certainly refuse to cook for anyone but myself; and you, Mr. Green, who may be an indifferent artist in that respect, would have perhaps a bad dinner." "I never understand," interrupted Mrs. Cricklander "when everything is socialistic, shall we not be able to live in these nice houses?"
John Derringham meanwhile had gone with his hostess and some of the rest of the party, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, to inspect the small golf links Mrs. Cricklander was having constructed in the park. Her country-house must be complete with suitable amusements. She had taken all the Wendover shooting, too, and what she could get of Lord Graceworth's beyond. "You cannot drag people into the wilds and then bore them to death," she said. What she most enjoyed was to scintillate to a company of two or three, and fascinate them all into a desire for a tête-
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