‘Because of that,’ put in Jean.
‘I say it’s too chancey altogether; and not fair to her. But we agreed to put it to you, and abide by your judgement.’
‘Thank you,’ murmured Hilary; ‘and why to me?’
‘Because,’ said Dinny, ‘you have to make more decisions-while-they-wait than anybody, except police magistrates.’
Hilary grimaced. ‘With your knowledge of Scripture, Dinny, you might have remembered the camel and the last straw. However –!’ And he looked from Jean to Hubert and back again.
‘Nothing can possibly be gained by waiting,’ said Jean; ‘because if they took him I should go out too, anyway.’
‘You would?’
‘Of course.’
‘Could you prevent that, Hubert?’
‘No, I don’t suppose I could.’
‘Am I dealing, young people, with a case of love at first sight?’
Neither of them answered, but Dinny said:
‘Very much so; I could see it from the croquet lawn at Lippinghall.’
Hilary nodded. ‘Well, that’s not against you; it happened to me and I’ve never regretted it. Is your extradition really likely, Hubert?’
‘No,’ said Jean.
‘Hubert?’
‘I don’t know; Father’s worried, but various people are doing their best. I’ve got this scar, you know,’ and he drew up his sleeve.
Hilary nodded. ‘That’s a mercy.’
Hubert grinned. ‘It wasn’t at the time, in that climate, I can tell you.’
‘Have you got the licence?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Get it then. I’ll turn you off.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, I may be wrong, but I don’t think so.’
‘You aren’t.’ And Jean seized his hand. ‘Will tomorrow at two o’clock be all right for you, Mr Cherrell?’
‘Let me look at my book.’ He looked at it and nodded.
‘Splendid!’ cried Jean. ‘Now Hubert, you and I will go and get it.’
‘I’m frightfully obliged to you, Uncle,’ said Hubert; ‘if you really think it’s not rotten of me.’
‘My dear boy,’ said Hilary, ‘when you take up with a young woman like Jean here, you must expect this sort of thing. Au revoir, and God bless you both!’
When they had gone out, he turned to Dinny: ‘I’m much touched, Dinny. That was a charming compliment. Who thought of it?’
‘Jean.’
‘Then she’s either a very good or a very bad judge of character. I wonder which. That was quick work. It was ten five when you came in, it’s now ten fourteen; I don’t know when I’ve disposed of two lives in a shorter time. There’s nothing wrong about the Tasburghs, is there?’
‘No, they seem rather sudden, that’s all.’
‘On the whole,’ said Hilary, ‘I like them sudden. It generally means sand.’
‘The Zeebrugge touch.’
‘Ah! Yes, there’s a sailor brother, isn’t there?’
Dinny’s eyelids fluttered.
‘Has he laid himself alongside yet?’
‘Several times.’
‘And?’
‘I’m not sudden, Uncle.’
‘Backer and filler?’
‘Especially backer.’
Hilary smiled affectionately at his favourite niece: ‘Blue eye true eye. I’ll marry you off yet, Dinny. Excuse me now, I have to see a man who’s in trouble with the hire-purchase system. He’s got in and he can’t get out – goes swimming about like a dog in a pond with a high bank. By the way, the girl you saw in Court the other day is in there with your Aunt. Like another look at her? She is, I fear, what we call an insoluble problem, which being interpreted means a bit of human nature. Have a shot at solving her.’
‘I should love to, but she wouldn’t.’
‘I don’t know that. As young woman to young woman you might get quite a lot of change out of her, and most of it bad, I shouldn’t wonder. That,’ he added, ‘is cynical. Cynicism’s a relief.’
‘It must be, Uncle.’
‘It’s where the Roman Catholics have a pull over us. Well, good-bye, my dear. See you tomorrow at the execution.’
Locking up his accounts, Hilary followed her into the hall; opening the door of the dining-room, he said: ‘My Love, here’s Dinny! I’ll be back to lunch,’ and went out, hatless.
Chapter Twenty
TOWARDS South Square, where Fleur was to be asked to give another reference, the girls left the Vicarage together.
‘I’m afraid,’ said Dinny, overcoming her shyness, ‘that I should want to take it out of somebody, if I were you. I can’t see why you should have lost your place.’ She could see the girl scrutinizing her askance, as if trying to make up her mind whether or no to say what was in it.