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I can't expect Geof to be as irresistible to other people as he is to me." She smiled, as if she were half in jest, yet there was real anxiety in her tone as she asked: "What do you think about it, Colonel Steele?" "Why; I'm sure I don't know. It's something of a shock, that sort of thing always is, you know. Young people do go into it so easily. Of course Geof's a fine fellow.
Yes, he thought to himself, half-an-hour later, as they sailed before a light wind under the gay Chioggia canvas, out toward the open sea, yes, he had been venturing upon deep waters, and it was time to come about. It was, of course, sheer nonsense to suppose that Geof's taking May's defection so easily was an indication of any real indifference on his part.
"Miss Beverly looks like you." At this simple statement of fact, the face of Geof's listener underwent one of those subtle changes of expression which the Colonel, in an inspired moment, had likened to the play of light upon the waters of the lagoon. For, being gifted with intuition, unhampered by the more laborious processes of the manly intellect, Mrs.
"Geof and I are very grateful to you," she was saying, "for bringing those charming girls of yours to Venice." "You like them!" he exclaimed. "I knew you would. Nice girls, both of them. It has been a great thing for them, having you here, and Geof. Geof's a capital fellow." She turned upon her companion a questioning, yet on the whole a pretty confident look.
Pauline was no matchmaker, but, as she told herself, it was the sort of thing that was always happening in the family, and Geof's liking for May was as obvious as it was natural. "Do you think, Vittorio, that we can really go out on the Adriatic?" May asked. Vittorio had been at the forward oar for a day or two, and to-morrow his brother was to be dismissed and he was to return to his post.
The more unsuspicious he was, the more it behooved Kenwick to guard his interests. Yes; he would withdraw in Geof's favour, he would be hanged if he wouldn't! And so it came about that by the time they were returning northward again in the Venice steamer, Kenwick had worked himself up to a really lofty pitch of self-sacrifice.
If, impelled by a spirit of rivalry, if, goaded to something approaching rashness by the contemplation of Geof's quiet, masterful way of taking possession of the things he coveted, he resolved to retaliate where retaliation was peculiarly palatable, this indicated no change whatever in his ultimate intentions.
It had evidently never once occurred to him to consider, in this connection, how often he had declared that he should never lose his heart until he had found a girl who was like his mother. For a moment she was tempted to remind him of it, but only for a moment. For Geof's mother was not the woman to take unfair advantage of a defenceless position, even where her own son was concerned.
His soft, dark hair was brushed well off his face so that not a lock escaped from beneath the wig, and when he put on a pair of Uncle Geof's spectacles, which lay conveniently near, the boys were convulsed with laughter at his appearance. "Good-day, your 'ludship," said Rex, with a mocking bow; "will your 'ludship' hold court to-day?"
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