CHAPTER XVI
FOR some time we did not speak, but my thoughts moved more quickly than the beating of the engine. At last I said meekly, "Of course, I may as well consider myself discharged, too. And even if I were n't, I should go."
"I 've been thinking about that," Mr. Dane answered. "It was the first thought that came into my head when the row began. It is n't likely she 'll want you to leave, because she won't like getting on without a maid. I think, in the circumstances, unless she is brutal, you 'd better stay with her till your friends can receive you. Someone must come forward and help you now."
"I wouldn't ask anyone but Pamela, who's gone to America," I protested. "Besides, I can't stand Lady Turnour after what 's happened—with you gone."
(As I said this, I remembered again how I had dreaded to associate with the chauffeur, and planned to avoid him. It was rather funny, as it had turned out; but somehow I did n't feel like laughing.)
"Of course you won't mind," I went on. "It's different for a man. If you were left and I going, it would n't matter, because you 'd have the car. But I 've nothing—except Lady Turnour's 'transformation.' Luckily, she won't want me to stop."
"I think she will," he said, "because your only fault was in having an accident. You were n't impudent, as she thinks I was in refusing to drive the car. Also in letting her see that I thought her willingness to leave a young girl in a place like this, alone for hours (she did propose to let me drive back for you) was the most brutal thing I 'd ever heard of."
"Oh, how good you were, to sacrifice yourself like that for me!" I exclaimed.
"It wasn't entirely for you," he said. "One owes some things to oneself. But when we get to Avignon, and it 's settled between you and Lady Turnour, promise to let me know what you mean to do and give me a chance to advise you."
I promised. But I was so melancholy as to the future and so ashamed of myself for the trouble brought upon my only friend, that his efforts to cheer me were hopeless as an attempt to let off wet fireworks. Mine were soaked; and instead of admiring the moonlight, which soon flooded the wild landscape, it made me the more dismal.
The drive by day had seemed short, but now it was long, for I was in haste to begin the expected battle.
"Courage! and be wise," said Mr. Dane, as he helped me out of the car in front of the Hotel de l'Europe. "I shall bring up your dinner again—it 's no use saying you don't want anything—and we'll exchange news."
When lions have to be faced, my theory is that the best thing is to open the cage door and walk in boldly, not crawl in on your knees, saying: "Please don't eat me."
I expected Lady Turnour to have a fine appetite for any martyrs lying about loose, but to my surprise a faint "Come in!" answered my dauntless knock, and I beheld her prostrate in bed.
She said that I had nearly killed her, and that she would probably not be able to move for a week; but the story of my adventures with the gipsy interested her somewhat, and she brightened when she heard of the old coins found in a hole in the rock. There was not a word about sending me away, and I suspected that a scene with Sir Samuel had crushed the lady. Even a worm will turn, and Sir Samuel may be one of those mild men who, when once roused, are capable of surprising those who know them best. Quite meekly she desired that I would show her the coins, and having seen them, she said that she would buy them of me. Not that they were of any intrinsic value, but they might be "lucky," and she would give me a sovereign for the three.
Then an idea came and whispered in my ear. I thanked Lady Turnour politely, but said I thought I had better keep the coins and show them to an antiquary. They might be more valuable than we supposed, and I should need all the money, as well as all the luck possible, now that I was leaving her ladyship's service.
"Leaving!" she echoed. "But as you had an accident I 've made up my mind to excuse you this time, and not discharge you as I intended. You don't know your business too well, but any maid is better than no maid on a tour like this, as Sir Samuel pointed out to me."
"But, begging your ladyship's pardon," I ventured, "I understand that the chauffeur is to go because he stopped at Les Baux to look for me. As he very likely saved my life, I could n't be so ungrateful as to stay on in my situation when he is losing his for my sake."
"What nonsense!" snapped her ladyship. "As if that had anything to do with you, and if it has, it ought n't. Besides, if he will apologize, he can stop. Sir Samuel says so."
"He does n't seem to think he was in the wrong, my lady," said I. "As your ladyship will probably be at Avignon some time before finding another chauffeur, it will be easy to look for a maid at the same time."
"Be here some time!" she cried. "I won't! We want to get on to a château where my stepson 's visiting."
"I should be delighted to offer your ladyship two of the lucky coins for nothing," said I, my impertinence wrapped in honey, "if she would persuade Sir Samuel to ask the chauffeur to stay."
"Why, that's just what Sir Samuel wants to do, if I would hear of it!" The words popped out before she had stopped to think.
"It might be too late after this evening," I suggested. "The chauffeur will perhaps take steps at once to secure some other engagement; and I fear that a good man is always in great demand. I hope that your ladyship will kindly understand that it would be nothing to me, if he had n't got into trouble for my sake."
"You can leave the coins, and call Sir Samuel, who is in his room next door," remarked Lady Turnour with dignity. "I will talk with him."
The greedy creature was delighted to have the coins without paying for them, and delighted with the excuse to do what she would have liked to do without an excuse, if obstinacy had not forbidden. I kept one coin for my own luck; I called Sir Samuel, who was sulking in his den, was dismissed with an order for her ladyship's dinner, which she would have in bed, and told to return with the menu.
A few minutes later, coming back, I met Mr. Jack Dane in the corridor.
"Have you seen Sir Samuel yet?" I inquired.
"No. He 's sent for me, and I 'm on my way to him now."
"He 's going to ask you to stay," I said.
"I think you 're mistaken there," replied the chauffeur. "The old boy himself has a strong sense of justice, and would like to make everything all right, no doubt, but his wife would give him no peace if he did."
"If he does, though, what shall you do?" I inquired anxiously.
Mr. Dane looked into space. "I think I 'd better go in any case."
"Why?"
If he 'd been a woman, I think he would have answered "Because," but being a man he reflected a few seconds, and said he thought it would be better for him in the end.
"Do you want to go?" I asked, drearily.
"No. But I ought to want to."
"Please stay," I begged. "Please—brother."
"Sir Samuel mayn't ask me; and you would n't have me crawl to him?"
"But if he does ask you."
"I'll stay," he said.
Impulsively, I held out my hand. He took it, and pressed it so hard that it hurt, then dropped it suddenly. His manner is certainly very odd sometimes. I suppose he does n't want me to flatter myself that I am of any importance in his scheme of existence. But he need n't worry. He has shown me very plainly that he is one of those typical, unsusceptible Englishmen French writers put in their books, men with hearts whose every compartment is warranted love-tight.