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Page 84
"Mrs. and Miss Portheris and Mr. Mafferton will leave the Hotel Colomba
for parts unknown, by the earliest train to-morrow morning."
"But Mrs. Portheris declares that we're to be a happy family for the
rest of the trip."
"Under the impression that you are disposed of, an impression that
_might_ be allowed to----"
"My heart," said Dicky impulsively, "may be otherwise engaged, but my
alleged mind is yours for ever. Mamie, you have a great head."
"Thanks," I said. "I would certainly tell the truth to Isabel, as a
secret, but----"
"Mamie, we cut our teeth on the same----"
"Horrid of you to refer to it."
"It's such a tremendous favour!"
"It is."
"But since you're in it, you know, already--and it's so very
temporary--and I'll be as good as gold----"
"You'd better!" I exclaimed. And so it was settled that the fiction of
Dicky's and my engagement should be permitted to continue to any extent
that seemed necessary until Mr. Dod should be able to persuade Miss
Portheris to fly with him across the Channel and be married at a Dover
registry office. We arranged everything with great precision, and, if
necessary, I was to fly too, to make it a little more proper. We were
both somewhat doubtful about the necessity of a bridesmaid in a registry
office, but we agreed that such a thing would go a long way towards
persuading Isabel to enter it.
When we arrived at the hotel we found Mrs. Portheris and Mr. Mafferton
affectionately having tea with my parents. Isabel had gone to bed with a
headache, but Dicky, notwithstanding, displayed the most unfeeling
spirits. He drove us all finally to see the tomb of Juliet in the Vicolo
Franceschini, and it was before that uninspiring stone trough full of
visiting cards, behind a bowling green of suburban patronage, that I
heard him, on general grounds of expediency, make contrite advances to
Mrs. Portheris.
"I think I ought to tell you," he said, "that my views have undergone a
change since I saw you."
Mrs. Portheris fixed her _pince nez_ upon him in suspicious inquiry.
"I can even swallow the whale now," he faltered, "like Jonah."
CHAPTER XXII.
After two days of the most humid civility Mrs. Portheris had brought
momma round. It was not an easy process, momma had such a way of fanning
herself and regarding distant objects; and Dicky and I observed its
difficulties with great satisfaction, for a family matter would be the
last thing anybody would venture to discuss with momma under such
circumstances, and we very much preferred that Mrs. Portheris's
overflowing congratulations should be chilled off as long as possible.
Dicky was for taking my parents into our confidence as a measure of
preparation, but with poppa's commands upon me with regard to Arthur, I
felt a delicacy as to the subject of engagements generally. Besides, one
never can tell whether one's poppa and momma would back one up in a
thing like that.
I never could quite understand Mrs. Portheris's increasingly good
opinion of us at this point. The Senator declared that it was because
some American shares of hers had gone up in the market, but that struck
momma and me as somewhat too general in its application. I preferred to
attribute it to the Senator's Tariff Bill. Mr. Mafferton brought us the
_Times_ one evening in Verona, and pointed out with solemn
congratulation that the name of J.P. Wick was mentioned four times in
the course of its leading article. That journal even said in effect
that, if it were not for the faithfully sustained anti-humorous
character which had established it for so many generations in the
approbation of the British public, it would go so far as to call the
contemplated measure "Wicked legislation." Mr. Mafferton could not
understand why poppa had no desire to cut out the article. He said there
was something so interesting about seeing one's name in print--he always
did it. I was very curious to see instances of Mr. Mafferton's name in
print, and finally induced him to show them to me. They were mainly
advertisements for lost dogs--"Apply to the Hon. Charles Mafferton," and
the reward was very considerable.
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