"Now, Tom," he said, pouring himself out a mighty drink--for his head was cast-steel, "you go and make yourself look pretty and then come back here, 'cos I have something to tell you."
I went obediently away, bathed, shaved, was assisted by Preston into evening clothes and returned to the dining-room about a quarter to ten.
He thought for a moment. I believe that he always had to summon his words out of some cupboard in his brain--"Tom, I've seen the most beautiful girl in the world."
"Then leg it, Pat, hare away from temptation, or she'll have you!"--Pat had ten thousand a year and had been a dead mark for all sorts of schemes for the last two years.
"Don't be a silly ass, Tom, you don't know what you're talking about. This is serious."
"I don't know who _you're_ talking about."
He was heaving himself out of his chair to explain, when the door opened and Preston announced "Lord Arthur Winstanley."
"Thought I'd come in for a drink. Saw you were going to mother's to-night, Tom, thought we might as well be going together. Hallo, Pat. You coming along too?"
"Thought of doin' so," said Captain Moore.
Arthur threw himself into a chair--slim, clean shaved, with curly black hair and dark blue eyes, his clean-cut, clever face alive with youth and vitality.
"Tom," he said to me, "to-night you are going to see the most beautiful girl in the world."
"Hallo!" Pat shouted, "you've seen her too?"
"Seen her? Of course I have. Mother's giving the dance for her to-night."
"Jooaneeta!" said Pat in his rich, Irish voice.
"Generally pronounced 'Whanita' soft--like tropic moonlight, my old geranium," said Arthur.
"Sure, your pronunciation won't do at all, at all."
Pat twirled the end of his huge mustache, then he heaved a cushion. "You and your talk!" he said.
"Well, I've not seen her," I remarked, "but I'm quite willing to take the word of two experts. Isn't it about time we went?"
Winstanley produced a platinum watch no thicker than a half-crown from the pocket of his white waistcoat.
"Well, perhaps it might be," he said. "We can take up strategic positions, and get there before the crush. Although I don't live at home, I've got a snug little couple of rooms they keep for me, and mother will see that--"