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"Then she's young!" cried Lowther, who was lolling near the window. "'Her name is Mavis Keeves; she is the only daughter of the late Colonel Keeves, who, I believe, before he was overtaken by misfortune, occupied a position of some importance in the vicinity of Melkbridge," read Mrs Devitt from Miss Annie Mee's letter. "Keeves! Keeves!" echoed her husband. "Do you remember him?" asked his wife.
"Of course," he replied. "His was Sir Henry Ockendon's place." The prospects of Mavis Keeves securing employment with the Devitts had, suddenly, increased. "How was it he came 'down'?" asked the agreeable rattle, keenly interested in anything having to do with the local aristocracy, past or present. "The old story: speculatin' solicitors," replied Montague, who made a point of dropping his "g's."
"That Hunter girl who split on Mavis Keeves havin' been at Polperro with Perigal." "She knows everything; we shall be disgraced," wailed Mrs Devitt. "Not at all. I'll see to that," replied her husband grimly. "What will you do?" "Give her a good job in some place as far from here as possible, and tell her that, if her tongue wags on a certain subject, she'll get the sack."
A gentleman brought me these to-night." Mavis somewhat reluctantly took and lit a cigarette. The woman did likewise, sipped her grog, and then brought a chair in order that she might sit by Mavis. "What might your name be?" "Keeves," answered Mavis shortly. "Mine's Ewer 'Tilda Ewer. Miss, thank Gawd." "You wear a wedding ring." "Eh! That's business.
When she rose to go, she came over to Mavis and said: "Forgive me, my dear, but your hair looks wonderful against that imitation oak." "Does it? But it isn't imitation too," replied Mavis. "Forgive me, won't you?" "Of course." "May I ask your name?" "Keeves. Mavis Keeves." "A good name," muttered the old lady. "Good-bye." "Good-bye."
Then he himself and his journeymen and apprentices stripped themselves, and in huge keeves of water filled by their slaves they washed from them the smoke and sweat of their labour and put on clean clothes. The mirrors at which they dressed themselves were the darkened waters of their enormous tubs.
Goss was the person who was behindhand with his account; he supplied Miss Annie Mee with the theatre and concert tickets which were the joy of her life. "There's Miss Keeves!" cried Bella, at which her father raised his hat. Bella, looking as if she wished to speak to Mavis, the latter stopped; she shook hands with the child and bowed to Mr. Goss.
The following Friday morning, Mavis Keeves sprang from bed on waking. She had fallen asleep laughing to herself at the many things which had appealed to her sense of humour during the day, and it was the recollection of some of these which made her smile directly she was awake.
"It's nice to see good old Keeves again," remarked Miss Toombs, as she thrust a list of appetising foods under Mavis's nose. "I'm really not a bit hungry," declared Mavis, who avoided looking at the toothsome-looking bread-rolls as far as her ravening hunger would permit. She grasped the tablecloth to stop herself from attacking these.
She regretted her sudden tenderness in the matter of his unbuttoned overcoat; she reproached herself for not leaving him directly she had got away from Mrs Hamilton's; she knew she would never forgive him for having insulted her; the fact of his having kissed her lips seemed in some mysterious way to bind them together; she hated herself for having denied that she was Mavis Keeves.
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