Jill the Reckless

hadbeen to her all these years a boy in an Eton suit, should now presenthimself as a grown man. But for all that the transformation hadsomething of the effect of a conjuring-trick. It was not only thealteration in his appearance that startled her: it was the amazingchange in his personality. Wally Mason had been the _bete no

the ancient hostility, and in itsplace a soothing sense of comradeship. The direct effect of this wast

m-car, full of home-bound travellers, clattered past over railsthat shone with the peculiarly frostbitten gleam that seems to heralds

thatto the derelicts whose nightly resting-place was a seat on th

ance from the olddays had brought with it a forlornne

said Wal

arliament shone for an instant as ifsuspended in the sky, then vanished as the trees closed in. A distantbarge in the direction of Battersea wailed and was still. It had amournful and foreboding sound. Jill shivered again. It annoyed herthat

e had a habit of headingfor the Embankment in times of mental stress, but perhaps the middleof winter is not quite the moment for communing with the night. TheSavoy is handy, if we

putting up money. Did youreally?""Put up the money for that ghastly play? I did. Every cent. It wasthe only way to get it put on.""But why . . . ? I forget what I was going to say!""Why did I want it put on? Well, it does seem odd, but I give you myhonest word that until tonight I thought the darned thing amasterpiece. I've been writing musical comedies for the last fewyears, and after you've done that for a while your soul rises upwithin you and says, 'Come, come, my lad! You can do better thanthis!' That's what mine said, and I believed it. Subsequent eventshave proved that Sidney the Soul was pulling my leg!""But--then you've lost a great deal of money?""The hoarded wealth, if you don't mind my being melodramatic for amoment

he corner, and proceeded to orderwit

d kidneys ala maitre d'hotel. A man's cross-roads!"Jill smiled happily across the table at him. She could hardly believethat this old friend with whom she had gone through the perils of then

han ever ofa big, friendly dog. "I can feel it now,--all squashy in my pocket,inextricably mingled with a catapult, a couple of marbles, a box ofmatches, and some string. I was quite the human general store inthose days. Which reminds me that we have been some time settlingdown to an exchange of our childhood reminiscences, haven't we?""I've been trying to realise t

as shy. I did it tohide my devotion.""You certainly

bbery. There had been a thunderstorm and . . .""I remember the incident now. A mere misunderstanding. I had donewith the worm, and thought you might be glad to have it.""You were always doing things like that. Once you held me over thepond and threatened to drop me into

rike me as lazy," said Wally thoughtfully. "Dynamicwould express it better. But perhaps I happened to encounter him in amoment of energy.""He doesn't look a day older than he did then.""I'm afraid I don't recall his appearance very distinctly. On theonly occasion on which we ever really foregathered--hobnobbed, so tospeak--he was behind me most of the time. Ah!" The waiter hadreturned with a loaded tray. "The food! Forgive me if I seem a littledistrait for a moment

eadmired. It was nice of him to dismiss from his conversation--andapparently from his thoughts--that night's fiasco and all that it

behavior gallant, and

to take the slings and ar

entedly, and leaned

tion!" he said apologet

h starvation. Awonderful thing, food! I am now ready to converse intelligently onany subject you care to suggest. I have e

ow me over there. This was anew departure, you see. What the critics in those parts expect fromme is something entitled 'Wow! Wow!' or 'The Girl from Yonkers'. Itwould have unsettled their minds to find me breaking out in poeticdrama. They are men of coarse fibre and ribald mind and they wouldhave been very funny about it. I thought it wiser to come over hereamong strangers, little thinking that I should sit in the next seatto somebody I had

e in New York.""My father!""Yes. It was wonderfully good of him to bother about me. I didn'tsuppose he would have known me by sight, and even if he hadremembered me, I shouldn't

hadthe good luck to turn it into a success, and after that it was prettygood going. Managers are just like sheep. They know nothing whateverabout the show business themselves, and they come flocking afteranybody who looks as if he could turn out the right stuff. They neverthink any one any good except the fellow who had the last hit. So,while your luck lasts, you have to keep them o

en you'll put a worm downher back or pull her hair or whatever it is you do when you want toshow your devotion, and .

you, with intervalsfor refreshment, for the last five minutes. You seem to fascinateher.""An old lady?""Yes. With a

ou.""Good Heavens

d quickly r

nt tomeet?""It's Lady Underhill! And Derek's with her!"Wally

ek?" h

n I'm engaged to marry."Th

ughtfully. "The man yo

his glass again, and dra

emoment that she often suffered these temporary lapses of memory. Itoccurred to her now,--too late, as usual,--that the Savoy Hotel wasthe last place in London where she should have come to supper wit

ed at the sound of her voice. He appe

t be worried.""Derek will be awfully cross."Wally's

here's the coffee.""I don't want any, thanks.""Nonsense. Why spoil your meal because of this? Do you smoke?""No, thanks.""Given it up, eh? Daresay you're wise. Stunts the growth andincreases the expenses.""Given it up?""Don't you remember sharing one of your father's cigars with mebehind the haystack in the meadow? We cut it in half. I

le and look your fiancé in the eye and say,'Stop scowling at my back hair! I've a perfec

's a habit that can't be discouraged in ahusband too early. Scowling is the civilized man's substitute forwife-beating."Jill moved uncomfortably in her chair. H

r to have changed. He was once more the boy whom she haddisliked in the old da

beams. Well, I suppose he could hardly be, if that's his motherand there

temper. Shewished she could have recalled the words. Not that it was the actualwords that had torn asunder this gossamer thing, the friendship whichthey had begun to weave like some fragile web: it was her manner, themanner of the princess rebukin

o repair the damage, if thepsychological moment is resolutely seized, by talking rapidly andwith detachment on neutral topics. Words have made the rift, andwords alone

carriage enquired of Jill if she wouldprefer the window up or down. It had the effect of killing herregrets and feeding

ness theyboth rose. Wally scrawled his name across the check which the waiterhad insinuated upon his attention. "I suppose we had better bemoving?"They crossed the roo

oak-room Wa

e say good-night? I'm staying in the hotel."Jill glanced towards the head of the stairs. Der

s hand. His face was stoli

-bye,"

bye," sa

scious of a desire to make amends. She andthis man had been through much together that night

us, won't you?" she s

" said Wally, "but I'm afraid I shall be goingback to America at any momen

"Thanks."He turned into the cloak-room, and Jill went up the stairs to joinDerek. She felt angry and depressed,

ry. It had started with the fog. He hated fog. Then hadcome that meeting with his mother at Charing Cross, which had beenenough to upset him by itself. After that, rising to a crescendo ofunpleasantness, the day had provided that appalling situation at theAlbany, the recollection of which still made him tingle; and therehad followed the silent dinner, the boredom of the early part of theplay, the fire at

throat and started to chokeher. Being what he was, he merely received her with frozen silenceand led her out

e cab. The touch of hisbody against hers always gave her a thrill, half pleasurable, halffrightening. She had never met anybody who affected her in this wayas Derek did.

too perfect, perhaps, a trifle toogracious, possibly, but she had been too deeply in love to noticethat. "Don't be cross!"The English language is the richest in the world, and yet somehow inmoments when words count most we generally ch

n. Lights from lamp-posts

ittle face that they lit u

I said I did not understand." The feeling of having scoreda point made Derek feel a little better. "I admit it. Your behavioris incomprehensible. Where did you meet this fellow?""I met him at the theatre. He was the author of the play.""The man you told me you had been talking to? The fellow who scrapedacquaintance with you between the acts?""But I found out he was an old friend. I mean, I knew him when I wasa child.""You di

eepmutual antipathy which is so much more common than love at first

's mother was by this time not so much a fellowhuman being whom she disliked as a som

tosay the unforgiveable thing. "You see," she said, more quietly, "youhad disappeared. . . .""My mother is an old woman," said Derek stiffly. "Naturally I had tolook after her. I called to you to follow.""O

estage-door."Derek was feeling cheated. He had the uncomfortable sensation thatcomes to men who grandly contemplate mountains and . . . see themdwindle to mole-hills. The a

"The human mind is curiously constituted. It is worthy of record that,despite his mother's obvious disapproval of his engagement, despiteall the occurrences of this dreadful day, it was not till she madethis remark that Derek Underhill first admitted to himself that,intoxicate his senses as she might, there was a possibility that Ji

," thought Jill, "they told you I hadn't, you went off tosupper!"She did not speak the words. If she had an edged tongue, she had alsothe control of it. She had no wish to wound Derek. Whole-he

r his hand again, and this time he allowed it to remainstiffly in her grasp. It was like being g

address for agentleman of his standing. ("In a sense, my dear child I admit, it isBrompton Road, but it opens into Lennox

oo short wholly to restore his equanimity. Then the senseof her nearness, her sweetness, the faint perfume of

with a happy laugh. It had been at

," said Derek

quickly as ithad come. Jill absent always affected him differently from Jillpresent. He was not a man of strong imagination,

d-soda. Oneof the cigars which Parker, the valet, had stamped with the seal ofhis approval was in the corner of his mouth. _The Sporting Times_,with a perusal of which he had been soothing his f

ut to be called on at a moment'snotice to play Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rolled into one,without rehearsal or make-up, is a bit too thick! No, youngfeller-me-lad! If theatre-fires are going to be the fashion thisseason, the Last of the Rookes will sit quietly at home and playsolitaire. Mix yoursel

die hadhad a trying evening. What he wanted just now was merry prattle, andhis friend did not seem disposed to contribute his share. He removedhis feet from the mantelpiece, and wriggled himself sidew

mind, old bean?" he

ality, he and Freddie had known eachother a long time, and that it would be a relief to confide in

s," h

lease the film."Derek drew at his cigar, and

ignified his interest by wrig

reddie nearly rolled out of his chair. This, he too

to get a sort of ideathat if Jill doesn't watch her step, she's apt to sink pretty low inthe betting, what? I know exactly what you mean! You and I know allright that Jill's a topper. But one can see that to your mater shemight seem a bit di

was furious, of course. She did not refer to the matter when wewere alone together, but there was no need to. I knew what she wasthinking."Derek threw aw

ded, "was a bit unfortunate."

im to see things going wrong. "I'lltell you what, old bean. Let me handle this binge for you.""You?""Me! The Final Rooke!" He jumped up, and leaned against themantelpiece. "I'm the lad to do it. I've known Jill for years. She'

do some go

It's a wheeze! You toddleoff to bed and have a