If Only etc. | Page 6

where have you dropped from?" he
exclaimed, grasping the outstretched hand.
"Where have you hidden yourself? is more to the purpose. No one ever
sees you nowadays."
Dr. Chetwynd smiled.

"Perhaps you do not know I am a married man," he said. "Which
accounts for a good deal of my time, and as a matter of fact I have but
little leisure, for my practice keeps me always at the grindstone."
"Doing pretty well?"
"Yes, I think I may say I am. Uphill work, of course, but still--"
"And where are you living?"
Chetwynd hesitated.
"Close by here," he replied the next moment. "Come home with me
now, if you have nothing better to do, and allow me to present my wife
to you."
And they walked on side by side.
"You have dined? I am afraid--"
"My dear fellow, I have this moment left the club."
Dr. Chetwynd put his latch-key into the lock and ushered his friend
upstairs to his wife's pretty drawing-room.
But Bella was not there; and finding that she was not in her bedroom,
or in fact in the house at all, he rang the bell and questioned the maid as
to when her mistress had gone out and if she knew when she would be
likely to return.
"No, sir, that I'm sure I don't. My mistress never said anything to me."
"Well, she is not likely to be away long," remarked the doctor
philosophically. "Have a cigar, Meynell."
"Thanks, no. Your wife spoils you, Jack, if she allows you to smoke in
her pretty little room."
"Oh, she will not mind; but we will go down to my den shortly. You

see, Meynell, I'm a bit of a Bohemian, although I like to preserve the
customs of the civilised world all the same, to a certain extent. But my
little wife--well--she--she--I daresay you may have heard she was on
the stage before I married her."
"No, indeed I hadn't." Gus Meynell looked a good deal surprised.
"Well, I mention it because perhaps she is not quite like the ordinary
run of women."
Meynell could no longer be blind to the want of ease in his host's
manner, and in his turn became proportionately uncomfortable.
"Hang it all! A man marries to please himself," he said awkwardly.
"She is just the dearest girl in the world," continued Jack Chetwynd,
with warmth. "I'm not only fond of her, but proud of her too, but you
know--"
"I perfectly understand what you mean. To my idea unconventionality
is the most charming thing a woman can have. I hate the bride
manufactured out of the schoolgirl. The oppressive resemblance
between most of our friends' wives is one of the safe-guards of
society."
"What is that?" Chetwynd broke in upon his friend's speech with a
nervous start and exclamation. The hall door opened with a loud bang
and a woman's noisy laugh could be heard as a pelter of high-heeled
shoes came along the tesselated hall and then the vision of a pretty girl
at the doorway, accompanied by a man and two women.
"Hallo, Jack! You are home before me, then."
"Bella, my dear, I must introduce you to an old friend of mine: Meynell,
my wife."
Bella bowed a little coldly.
"My sister, Mr. Meynell," she said, seeing that the doctor was looking

straight over Saidie's head. "My sister, Miss Saidie Blackall; daresay
you have seen her from the front before." Then, looking towards the
open door, "Come in, come in. Jack, I think you have already met Mr.
and Mrs. Doss."
Chetwynd looked terribly annoyed; but there was no choice left for him
but to extend his hand and mutter something to the effect that he had
not had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of his wife's friends
before.
"Glad to know you, sir--not one of us--not in the profession, I think?"
"No--er--no," responded Chetwynd feebly.
"And the 'appier you, take my tip for it. The wear and tear of the 'alls,
sir, no one but a pro can estimate."
Here his wife, an over-dressed, showy individual a shade more of a
cockney than himself, interposed with a coarse laugh.
"Get along, you jolly old humbug, you! You couldn't live away from
them--could he, dear?" addressing Saidie, who was maliciously
enjoying the effect that their sudden entrance had produced upon her
brother-in-law and his friend.
"Ah; you think so, d'ye? that's all you know about it. Give me a nice
quiet 'public' with a hold-established trade and me and the missis
cosy-like in the private bar; that's the life for yours truly when he can
take the farewell ben."
"How soon are your friends going to take their leave, Bella?" asked
Chetwynd in an undertone to his wife.
But Bella turned her back upon him without deigning