"Nothing, sir, except to remind you that you have to speak at the charitable meeting tomorrow night."
"Ah, yes, thank you, very good, Slummers. Be good enough to hand me the last charitable reports. Good-night."
Happy! If ever two young people were happy, Una and Jack were. To Una the days passed like a happy dream time. Her sky was without a cloud; it almost seemed as if the world had been made for her, so entirely did everything lend itself to her enjoyment.
Every morning, soon after breakfast, Jack's quick, buoyant step was heard ascending the stone steps of the house in Walmington Square, and he would come marching into the breakfast room with some palpable excuse about his just happening to pass, and Mrs. Davenant would smile her gentle welcome, and Una--well, Una's eyes were eloquent, if her tongue was mute, and would speak volumes.
And Jack would lounge about for an hour, telling them all the news, and perhaps smoking a cigarette, just inside the conservatory; and Una was sure to find an excuse for being near him.
Indeed, if that young lady could be within touching distance of her god and hero, she seemed passing content. He was the very light of her life, soul of her soul; every day seemed to increase the passionate devotion of her first, her maiden love, for the wild, young ne'er-do-well.
And she was repaid. Jack thought that there never had been, since Eve began the sex, such a marvel of beauty and grace and virtue as Una. He would sit for half-an-hour smoking and watching her in silence.
"Didn't one of those clever fellows say of a certain woman that to know her was a liberal education?" he said to Mrs. Davenant. "Well, I say, that to be in Una's presence, to watch her moving about in that quiet, graceful way of hers, and then to catch a smile now and again, is like reading a first-class poem; better, indeed, for me, because I don't go in for poetry."
Not that these young lovers spent all their time in silently watching each other. Every day Jack arrived with some plan for their amusement and enjoyment. Sometimes it would be:
"Well, what are you going to do today? What do you say to taking the coach to Guildford, getting a snack there, and back in the evening?"