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Miss Tippet, on the very first note of alarm, bounced out of bed with an emphatic "There!" which was meant to announce the triumphant fulfilment of an old prophecy which she had been in the habit of making for some time past; namely, that Matty Merryon would certainly set the house on fire if she did not take care!
He made his way to the table set in the shade of the cluster-roses, and sat down to await her. She remained invisible, but her voice at once accosted him. "Good-morning, Billikins! Tell the khit you're ready! I shall be out in two shakes." None but she would have dreamed of bestowing so frivolous an appellation upon the sober Merryon.
On that particular morning in March he had gone to an early parade without seeing her, for there had been a regimental ball the night before, and she had danced every dance. Dancing seemed her one passion, and to Merryon, who did not dance, the ball had been an unmitigated weariness.
Merryon had given a great start. He looked like a man stabbed suddenly from a dream to full consciousness. "A European at the dâk-bungalow dead, did you say?" His words tumbled over each other; he gripped Macfarlane's shoulder and shook it with fierce impatience. "So I heard. I don't know any details. How should I? Merryon, are you mad?"
She caught his hand in both her own, pressing it hard over her face, writhing in mute shame before him. "Yes, I do understand," Merryon said, and his voice was very quiet, full of a latent force that thrilled her magnetically. "I understand that when you were still a child this brute took possession of you, broke you to his will, did as he pleased with you.
For she was strangely captivating, and perhaps it was hardly to be expected that she should be quite unconscious of the fact. "Much too taking to be good, dear," had been the verdict of the Commissioner's wife when she had first seen little Puck Merryon, the major's bride. But then the Commissioner's wife, Mrs. She had never flirted with any one, and could not know the joys thereof. Young Mrs.
The colonel looked round sharply at their approach, looked and swore under his breath. "Yes, all right, major, you'd better go," he said. "Good-bye." Merryon essayed a grim smile, but his ashen face only twisted convulsively, showing his set teeth. He hung on Macfarlane's shoulder while the first black cloud of agony possessed him and slowly passed. Then, white and shaking, he stood up.
"Ah, sure an' he is a dacent boy now," said Matty Merryon, who entered the room just then; "the way he lifted you an' Miss Emma up an' flung ye over his showlder, as aisy as if ye was two bolsters, was beautiful to look at; indade it was. Shure it remimbered me o' the purty pottery ye was readin' just the other night, as was writ by O'Dood or O'Hood " "Hood," suggested Miss Tippet.
But Ned had no occasion to be ashamed of himself, for his face and appearance showed clearly that he had indeed been enabled to resist temptation, and that he had risen to a higher position in the social scale than a vendor of ginger-beer. In the background might have been seen Hopkins tall and dignified as ever, with Matty Merryon at his side.
But from her it came so naturally that Merryon scarcely noticed it. He had been "Billikins" to her throughout the brief three months that had elapsed since their marriage. Of course, Mrs. She disapproved of everything young and gay. Merryon gave the required order, and then sat in stolid patience to await his wife's coming. She did not keep him long.
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