And just then I remembered to smooth my hair-part.
"Oh, _you_--" With a growl like a bear, he swept both his hands to his head and whirled them through his great yellow pile, leaving each hair standing on end like the quills on the fretful what's-its-name. Then he danced toward me, pausing irregularly to double over with a chuckle.
"Oh, this is _too_ good!" he yelped. "But I can't help it; I jest can't refuse the money, Lizzie! I know they'll send me away for this, but--Oh, mamma!"
Oddest thing, isn't it, how your jolly active mind _will_ wander at the rummest times; and I had a thought then of how, when I was a delicate boy, bully old Doctor Dake and Doctor Madden had prescribed a punching-bag, and later boxing-gloves. And I thought with a pang of what ripping times the governor and I had, scrapping, and of what knocks he gradually began to give me until he forced me to learn to come back harder. Jove, what corking hours we had! And then when Chugsey, the retired English light-weight champion, came to butler--_oh_, what smashing three-handed rounds we used to have! Bully old governor, who was never so busy on his sermons but what he could take a walk or a ride with me; or talk with me, or _fight_ with me! Why, he--
By Jove, my dashed monocle got so cloudy of a sudden, I almost missed the chauffeur's move--_almost_, don't you know!
"I say, you know!" I said disgustedly, as I screwed my monocle at him there, his big yellow mat sticking out of sight through the jolly vines. "Awfully raw thing to strike at a man and leave your guard open like that--I _could_ have put it over your heart, don't you know!"
I heard a little sound behind me and there was she!
"Oh!" I gasped as I slipped into my coat. And now I _was_ miserable, for I remembered how kind this chauffeur, Scoggins, had been to her. And for her to have seen me in this vulgar row!
"Yes, I saw it all," she said, as I moved toward her, murmuring some jolly effort at apology. Her eyes were shining. "I saw it all, sir--and _heard_. And just when I had hunted you up with _these_!"--and then I saw that her arms were burgeoning with roses. "See what I've been doing for you, sir!"
"For me?" By Jove, it was all I could say as I took them!