Leonie of the Jungle

by Joan Conquest

  CHAPTER XIV

  "Surely I am more brutish than any man!"--_The Bible_.

  And just about midsummer Fate tweaked the string to which was hobbledSusan Hetth.

  A vulgar but resplendent bachelor middle-aged millionaire, sterling,not dollars, in order to set his gastronomic house in order, had takena notion for the simple life for just as long as the notion shouldlast, and a perfect bijou of a thatched cottage t'other side ofClovelly for a year.

  With a notion of buying the cottage at Lee in which had dwelt the threehistoric maids, he had swept one day through the village in the latestthing in cars.

  Baulked in his intent, and with time upon his podgy hands, he hadrolled, minus the car, along the village path over the strippet ofwater and the sunbaked grass to the harbour.

  There he had bent, with ardour and misgivings, to pick up Leonie'stowel, just as the soft wind caught her bathing cloak as she stretchedout her hand with a smile of thanks.

  She had grabbed at the cloak and missed it by a bit, so that it hadswept behind her, hanging from one shoulder like some Grecian drapery,and the rotund little man had trotted round her draped side, picked upthe cloak by the big button, and completed his trot, covering her up ashe moved.

  And as he trotted his little porcine eyes had glistened as theylingered upon the perfect figure, from the slim ankles to the confusedface, and Leonie had blushed, though you could not have discerned itthrough the tan, pulled the cloak tighter and hurried across the roadto the cottage gate.

  But with the clumsy swiftness of the elephantine, the man had run afterher and opened the cottage gate just as Susan Hetth opened the cottagedoor with the welcoming announcement that tea was ready.

  "Ha!" he had snorted as he almost ran up the path, leaving Leonie tostand still and stare in amazement at the little scene. "And I'll havesome tea, too, Lady Susan Hetth, and how d'you do. Long time since wemet, eh?"

  Diamonds sparkled in the sun as the man stretched out an effusive hand,and a flame of anger sparkled in the small eyes as Lady Susan drew backfrigidly.

  Not being of them herself she set all the greater store on knowingthose she considered exactly the right people.

  "I don't think I have----" she commenced in her most primpsy voice,when she was interrupted with a perfectly odious familiarity.

  "Now you're not going to say that you don't remember our littlemeetings in Earls Court _and_ Fleet Street and"--the man spoke with anextreme slowness as though keeping guard over each letter of eachword--"_and_ our little correspondence, come now."

  Leonie frowned and moved a step forward protectingly as her aunt caughtsuddenly at the door handle, and then jerked herself forward withoutstretched hand.

  "Auntie, dear----"

  But her aunt was speaking in the falsetto of forced levity, and Leonieheld her peace and waited for an opportunity to slip past and into thehouse.

  "Why, I do believe," said Susan Hetth, suddenly metamorphosed by acertain tone in the man's voice into the terrified woman of years ago,"Yes! I do believe it is Mr. Walter Hickle----"

  "_Sir_ Walter, _if_ you please."

  "Indeed, in-deed--how _very_ delightful, and after _all_ these years!Leonie, this is--is--er----"

  "I'm one of your aunt's friends, Miss Leonie, bobbed up out of thepast. Glad to meet you, hope we shall be friends, too."

  Leonie, who had gained the door, looked back over her aunt's shoulderand spoke with a gentle courtesy very much her own.

  "I always like to meet Auntie's friends!"

  Not knowing the man from Adam she spoke no untruth, but in spite ofreiterated calls to come down to tea she remained in her bedroom untilthe loud-voiced guest had taken his departure.

  While the two women were having yet another cup of tea Sir WalterHickle, millionaire, tradesman, and knight, sat down gingerly upon arock and made his plans.

  He had made his plans as a bull-necked, offensive youth the first dayhe had pulled out from Covent Garden with a barrow piled with walnutsbought out of two rustlers, value of ten pun each.

  "I'll _get there_!" he had informed the nuts as he tweaked his cap overone eye, and his red neckerchief into place; and had sworn a mighty andquite unprintable oath as he struck a huge fist into a horny palm atthe corner of Ludgate Circus and New Bridge Street.

  "I'll _get there_!" he informed the seaweed as he lifted the soft greyhat from his bald head and adjusted the enormous pearl pin in the palepink satin tie; and he sighed stertorously as he complacently pattedhis knee with a podgy hand, upon the manicured plebeian fingers ofwhich shone two magnificent diamond rings.

  And if you cannot penetrate the strongholds of Devon county, it is notdifficult to make acquaintance with her visitors, especially if yourvisiting card is a gilt edge security for future excursions anddiversions done in top-hole style.

  Unsuspecting Leonie, who never kept a grudge, after a week or so ofastonishment and aversion, thinking in her innocence of heart that sheperceived the trend of events, made up her mind to meet the rotund oldknight with the simple graciousness due to her aunt's would-be husband.

  True, the elasticity of her graciousness did not stretch enough toallow her to accept the never-ending invitations which poured into thecottage; but she would tuck her remonstrating aunt into the car whichwas ever at the gate, and smile delightfully upon the infatuated oldfellow who put her aloofness down to mere girlish waywardness.

  Although the corporeal part of the old vulgarian grated on hersusceptibilities, she was quite willing to believe that if one chose todig deep enough it would prove to be only the rough earth covering apositive mine of rare temperamental gems; and in her blindness whistledcheerily as she thought of the joy her aunt would feel at not having todrop her title when she changed her name, and at being able to retainthe same initials for her monogram.