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Page 103
"I owe you so much," therefore said Scrap earnestly, walking
straight up to Briggs, humbled by these thoughts.
He looked at her in wonder. "You owe me?" he said. "But it's I
who--I who--" he stammered. To see her there in his garden . . .
nothing in it, no white flower, was whiter, more exquisite.
"Please," said Scrap, still more earnestly, "won't you clear your
mid of everything except just truth? You don't owe me anything. How
should you?"
"I don't owe you anything?" echoed Briggs. "Why, I owe you my
first sight of--of--"
"Oh, for goodness sake--for goodness sake," said Scrap
entreatingly, "do, please, be ordinary. Don't be humble. Why should
you be humble? It's ridiculous of you to be humble. You're worth
fifty of me."
"Unwise," thought Mr. Wilkins, who was standing there too, while
Lotty sat on the wall. He was surprised, he was concerned, he was
shocked that Lady Caroline should thus encourage Briggs. "Unwise--
very," thought Mr. Wilkins, shaking his head.
Briggs's condition was so bad already that the only course to
take with him was to repel him utterly, Mr. Wilkins considered. No
half measures were the least use with Briggs, and kindliness and
familiar talk would only be misunderstood by the unhappy youth. The
daughter of the Droitwiches could not really, it was impossible to
suppose it, desire to encourage him. Briggs was all very well, but
Briggs was Briggs; his name alone proved that. Probably Lady Caroline
did not quite appreciate the effect of her voice and face, and how
between them they made otherwise ordinary words seem--well,
encouraging. But these words were not quite ordinary; she had not, he
feared, sufficiently pondered them. Indeed and indeed she needed an
adviser--some sagacious, objective counselor like himself. There she
was, standing before Briggs almost holding out her hand to him. Briggs
of course ought to be thanked, for they were having a most delightful
holiday in his house, but not thanked to excess and not by Lady
Caroline alone. That very evening he had been considering the
presentation to him next day of a round robin of collective gratitude
on his departure; but he should not be thanked like this, in the
moonlight, in the garden, by the lady he was so manifestly infatuated
with.
Mr. Wilkins therefore, desiring to assist Lady Caroline out of
this situation by swiftly applied tact, said with much heartiness: "It
is most proper, Briggs, that you should be thanked. You will please
allow me to add my expressions of indebtedness, and those of my wife,
to Lady Caroline's. We ought to have proposed a vote of thanks to you
at diner. You should have been toasted. There certainly ought to have
been some--"
But Briggs took no notice of him whatever; he simply continued to
look at Lady Caroline as though she were the first woman he had ever
seen. Neither, Mr. Wilkins observed, did Lady Caroline take any notice
of him; she too continued to look at Briggs, and with that odd air of
almost appeal. Most unwise. Most.
Lotty, on the other hand, took too much notice of him, choosing
this moment when Lady Caroline needed special support and protection to
get up off the wall and put her arm through his and draw him away.
"I want to tell you something, Mellersh," said Lotty at this
juncture, getting up.
"Presently," said Mr. Wilkins, waving her aside.
"No--now," said Lotty; and she drew him away.
He went with extreme reluctance. Briggs should be given no rope
at all--not an inch.
"Well--what is it?" he asked impatiently, as she led him towards
the house. Lady Caroline ought not to be left like that, exposed to
annoyance.
"Oh, but she isn't," Lotty assured him, just as if he had said
this aloud, which he certainly had not. "Caroline is perfectly all
right."
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