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"Damn you, you're funking it!" "I must tell him myself," he went on. "I must stand up to some one. I can't go on funking things forever...." It was odd, he thought, that he had no feeling for Jimphy. He had not any sense of shame because he had made love to Jimphy's wife. Jimphy appeared to him only in a comic light. Yet Jimphy had professed friendship for him.
When I die, they'll put on my tombstone, 'He was born in debt, he lived in debt, he died in debt, and he didn't care a damn. So be it! He extended his invitation to Jimphy and Lady Cecily. "You didn't come to Jimphy's birthday party," she objected. "Didn't I?" he replied. "Well, both of you come to my party ... that'll make up for it!" Gilbert did not appear to be affected by Cecily's presence.
Henry did not wish to go and have a drink, and he paused irresolutely until Lady Cecily suddenly leant forward and said with a laugh, "Yes, do go with Jimphy, Mr. Quinn. Gilbert and I have such a lot to say to each other, and Jimphy's not in a good temper. Are you, Jimphy, dear? You see," she went on, "he wanted to go to the Empire, but I made him bring me here!... Do cheer up, Jimphy, dear!
Jimphy's very morose this evening. He's thirty-one to-day, and he thinks that old age is creeping over him!" "All right," said Gilbert gloomily, and then he and Henry went to their seats. "Who is Jimphy?" said Henry, as they walked down the stairs into the auditorium. "Her husband. Didn't you notice something hanging around in the vestibule while we were talking to her?" "No.
His dream still held his mind, and as he looked into the darkness and saw the bending branches yielding and rebounding, it seemed to him that he saw the soldiers rushing forward and heard their cries, hoarse with war lust or stifled by the blood that gushed from their mouths as they staggered and fell ... and as he had seen him in his dream, so he saw Jimphy again, running forward and shouting as he ran, until suddenly with a queer wrinkled look of amazement on his face, he stopped, and then, clasping his hands to his head, tumbled in a shapeless heap on the ground ... but now it seemed to him that as Jimphy fell, his face changed: it was no longer Jimphy's face, but his own.
"I'll come even if he doesn't. I've enjoyed to-night tremendously...." "Have you, Mr. Quinn?" "Yes...." "I say, come along," Lord Jasper shouted to them. "Poor Jimphy's getting fractious. You can tell me how much you've enjoyed to-night when we meet again!" He took her to the car, and watched her as she gathered her skirts about her and climbed inside.
Oh, but what of that? Poor Jimphy! He had not wished for much from life ... and sometimes it had seemed that he had got much more than he needed.... "The best of us can't do more than he did," Henry thought as he walked home. "A man can't give more than he's got, and Jimphy's given everything!"
Jimphy thinks it's his duty to show himself to the tenants now and again. It's the only return he can make, poor dear, for all that rent they pay!" Gilbert said "Hm!" and then turned to go to the stalls. "It's Jimphy's birthday to-day," she said, and he turned to her again. "That's why we're here to-night. Together, I mean. He's treating me to a box.
"I can't make you believe that I'm not cross at all," he said. "No, you can't. Paddy!" Her voice had a coaxing note as she said his name. "Yes." "Come to lunch with me. Jimphy's gone off for the day somewhere...." "I'm sorry!..." "Do come, Paddy. I want you to come. I do, really!" He paused for a second or two before he replied. After all why should he not go?...
Lady Cecily saw him coming, and she beckoned to him. "Who is that nice girl in the box?" she asked, as he sat down in Jimphy's seat. "She sat beside you...." "Oh, Ninian's sister," he replied. "Mary Graham." "She's very pretty, isn't she?" "Yes...."
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