第118章

'She was a pretty thing,too,'he thought;'I was fond of her.

Perhaps Soames didn't suit her--I don't know--I can't tell.We never had any trouble with our wives.'Women had changed everything had changed!And now the Queen was dead--well,there it was!A movement in the crowd brought him to a standstill at the window,his nose touching the pane and whitening from the chill of it.They had got her as far as Hyde Park Corner--they were passing now!Why didn't Emily come up here where she could see,instead of fussing about lunch.He missed her at that moment--missed her!

Through the bare branches of the plane-trees he could just see the procession,could see the hats coming off the people's heads--a lot of them would catch colds,he shouldn't wonder!A voice behind him said:

"You've got a capital view here,James!"

"There you are!"muttered James;"why didn't you come before?You might have missed it!"And he was silent,staring with all his might.

"What's the noise?"he asked suddenly.

"There's no noise,"returned Emily;"what are you thinking of?--they wouldn't cheer."

"I can hear it."

"Nonsense,James!"

No sound came through those double panes;what James heard was the groaning in his own heart at sight of his Age passing.

"Don't you ever tell me where I'm buried,"he said suddenly."Ishan't want to know."And he turned from the window.There she went,the old Queen;she'd had a lot of anxiety--she'd be glad to be out of it,he should think!

Emily took up the hair-brushes.

"There'll be just time to brush your head,"she said,"before they come.You must look your best,James.""Ah!"muttered James;"they say she's pretty."The meeting with his new daughter-in-law took place in the dining-room.James was seated by the fire when she was brought in.

He placed,his hands on the arms of the chair and slowly raised himself.Stooping and immaculate in his frock-coat,thin as a line in Euclid,he received Annette's hand in his;and the anxious eyes of his furrowed face,which had lost its colour now,doubted above her.A little warmth came into them and into his cheeks,refracted from her bloom.

"How are you?"he said."You've been to see the Queen,I suppose?

Did you have a good crossing?"

In this way he greeted her from whom he hoped for a grandson of his name.

Gazing at him,so old,thin,white,and spotless,Annette murmured something in French which James did not understand.

"Yes,yes,"he said,"you want your lunch,I expect.Soames,ring the bell;we won't wait for that chap Dartie."But just then they arrived.Dartie had refused to go out of his way to see 'the old girl.'With an early cocktail beside him,he had taken a 'squint'from the smoking-room of the Iseeum,so that Winifred and Imogen had been obliged to come back from the Park to fetch him thence.

His brown eyes rested on Annette with a stare of almost startled satisfaction.The second beauty that fellow Soames had picked up!

What women could see in him!Well,she would play him the same trick as the other,no doubt;but in the meantime he was a lucky devil!And he brushed up his moustache,having in nine months of Green Street domesticity regained almost all his flesh and his assurance.Despite the comfortable efforts of Emily,Winifred's composure,Imogen's enquiring friendliness,Dartie's showing-off,and James'solicitude about her food,it was not,Soames felt,a successful lunch for his bride.He took her away very soon.

"That Monsieur Dartie,"said Annette in the cab,"je n'aime pas ce type-la!""No,by George!"said Soames.

"Your sister is veree amiable,and the girl is pretty.Your father is veree old.I think your mother has trouble with him;I should not like to be her."Soames nodded at the shrewdness,the clear hard judgment in his young wife;but it disquieted him a little.The thought may have just flashed through him,too:'When I'm eighty she'll be fifty-five,having trouble with me!'

"There's just one other house of my relations I must take you to,"he said;"you'll find it funny,but we must get it over;and then we'll dine and go to the theatre."In this way he prepared her for Timothy's.But Timothy's was different.They were delighted to see dear Soames after this long long time;and so this was Annette!