Free Ever After by Elswyth Thane Page B

severe eagle’s glance.
    “Quite willing,” Bracken said at once. “If you’re sure it will be convenient to you.”
    “That’s settled, then,” said the Major with relief. “I’ll write Mrs. Poole at once to engage some maids and have things ready for us. My aunt had a very poor opinion of men, and the indoor staff has always been entirely female. By the way, when is Easter this year?”
    “Round about the nineteenth, I think,” said Bracken. “Will that give you enough time?”
    “Too much time,” said the Major with another look at Sue. “I shan’t know what to do with myself till then. I say, couldn’t we take in a theatre together or something like that in the meanwhile?”
    “Aunt Sue would go to the theatre every night of her life if she could,” Virginia said, a little patronizingly.
    “Splendid! Let’s go and see Mrs. Pat!”
    “As Lady Hamilton?” Bracken raised his eyebrows and flicked a glance at his charges. “Do you think they’re old enough for that sort of thing?”
    “Oh, possibly not,” said the Major, taking him quite seriously.“Well, then, what would you like to see?” he inquired of Sue.
    “Rosemary,” she replied with a note of defiance.
    “But, darling, you saw that last Tuesday evening!” Virginia objected, and Sue’s dimple showed.
    “I liked it. I want to see it again.”
    “ Rosemary it is!” said the Major, without asking anyone else’s preference. “We’ll dine at Gatti’s, what, and go on to the play. I’ll see about the tickets tomorrow. Which night would suit you best?”
    Sue looked appealingly at Bracken. It was one of the times when she felt her inadequacy as Eden’s substitute, for she was sure that Eden would have been able to keep all their engagements in her head, whereas she herself had to write them all down in a little book which was never to hand when she needed it. But Bracken took out his own engagement book and consulted it and said not before next Wednesday.
    “Wednesday, as ever is!” cried the Major, who apparently had no need to consult his own engagements. And— Five days to go, he thought. Five days too many. Good Lord, what’s the matter with me, I’m thinking like a subaltern in love! His hooded, eagle’s eyes went back to Sue. In love. But that’s impossible. My leave is up in July.
3
    S UE , all unconscious, went on serenely if a little bewilderedly through her fascinating days as Virginia’s chaperone. On the Wednesday morning at breakfast as they laid their plans for the day, before Bracken set off for Fleet Street, he said:
    “Isn’t it tonight that Aunt Sue’s conquest is taking us to see Rosemary ?”
    Virginia laughed, and Sue looked uncomprehending.
    “Why, Bracken , what do you mean?” Bracken demanded of himself, in exaggerated tones. “Look at her, Ginny! Pretending she doesn’t know she has the Major hog-tied!”
    “What nonsense,” said Sue firmly. “It’s Virginia he wants to see, and you know it.”
    “Virginia, my neck!” said Bracken inelegantly. “Virginia never worked harder in her sweet life and got nowhere! It’s you he’s after, Aunt Susannah, and I’ve got my eye on him, I don’t trust the Army as far as I can kick it!”
    “Now, Bracken, you’ve made her blush!” cried Virginia,accepting her own defeat with entire good nature, and at that Sue got really pink.
    “I don’t think it’s nice of you to make fun of an old lady,” she objected, not quite sure how to take them, even now.
    “Fun!” shouted Bracken. “I don’t call that fun to have two giddy enchantresses on my hands at the same time! We brought you along to lend respectability to Virginia, if possible, and what happens? You go and hook the Army!”
    “But that’s not true , Bracken, I—”
    “Did he ask me what I wanted to see tonight? Did Virginia get any say-so? Not at all! You said Rosemary , and to Rosemary we go!
    “Well, I’m s-sorry, I never meant—”
    “Now, Bracken, stop teasing her!”