The Girl on the Boat | Page 3

would
have to give him five minutes. She went into the sitting-room, and
found there a young man who looked more or less like all other young
men, though perhaps rather fitter than most. He had grown a good deal
since she had last met him, as men so often do between the ages of
fifteen and twenty-five, and was now about six feet in height, about
forty inches round the chest, and in weight about thirteen stone. He had
a brown and amiable face, marred at the moment by an expression of
discomfort somewhat akin to that of a cat in a strange alley.
"Hullo, Aunt Adeline!" he said awkwardly.
"Well, Samuel!" said Mrs. Hignett.
There was a pause. Mrs. Hignett, who was not fond of young men and
disliked having her mornings broken into, was thinking that he had not
improved in the slightest degree since their last meeting; and Sam, who
imagined that he had long since grown to man's estate and put off
childish things, was embarrassed to discover that his aunt still affected
him as of old. That is to say, she made him feel as if he had omitted to
shave and, in addition to that, had swallowed some drug which had
caused him to swell unpleasantly, particularly about the hands and feet.
"Jolly morning," said Sam, perseveringly.
"So I imagine. I have not yet been out."
"Thought I'd look in and see how you were."
"That was very kind of you. The morning is my busy time, but ... yes,
that was very kind of you!"
There was another pause.

"How do you like America?" said Sam.
"I dislike it exceedingly."
"Yes? Well, of course, some people do. Prohibition and all that.
Personally, it doesn't affect me. I can take it or leave it alone. I like
America myself," said Sam. "I've had a wonderful time. Everybody's
treated me like a rich uncle. I've been in Detroit, you know, and they
practically gave me the city and asked me if I'd like another to take
home in my pocket. Never saw anything like it. I might have been the
missing heir! I think America's the greatest invention on record."
"And what brought you to America?" said Mrs. Hignett, unmoved by
this rhapsody.
"Oh, I came over to play golf. In a tournament, you know."
"Surely at your age," said Mrs. Hignett, disapprovingly, "you could be
better occupied. Do you spend your whole time playing golf?"
"Oh, no! I play cricket a bit and shoot a bit and I swim a good lot and I
still play football occasionally."
"I wonder your father does not insist on your doing some useful work."
"He is beginning to harp on the subject rather. I suppose I shall take a
stab at it sooner or later. Father says I ought to get married, too."
"He is perfectly right."
"I suppose old Eustace will be getting hitched up one of these days?"
said Sam.
Mrs. Hignett started violently.
"Why do you say that?"
"Eh?"

"What makes you say that?"
"Oh, well, he's a romantic sort of fellow. Writes poetry, and all that."
"There is no likelihood at all of Eustace marrying. He is of a shy and
retiring temperament, and sees few women. He is almost a recluse."
Sam was aware of this, and had frequently regretted it. He had always
been fond of his cousin in that half-amused and rather patronising way
in which men of thews and sinews are fond of the weaker brethren who
run more to pallor and intellect; and he had always felt that if Eustace
had not had to retire to Windles to spend his life with a woman whom
from his earliest years he had always considered the Empress of the
Washouts, much might have been made of him. Both at school and at
Oxford, Eustace had been--if not a sport--at least a decidedly cheery
old bean. Sam remembered Eustace at school, breaking gas globes with
a slipper in a positively rollicking manner. He remembered him at
Oxford playing up to him manfully at the piano on the occasion when
he had done that imitation of Frank Tinney which had been such a hit at
the Trinity smoker. Yes, Eustace had had the makings of a pretty sound
egg, and it was too bad that he had allowed his mother to coop him up
down in the country, miles away from anywhere.
"Eustace is returning to England on Saturday," said Mrs. Hignett. She
spoke a little wistfully. She had not been parted from her son since he
had come down from Oxford; and she would have liked to keep him
with her till the end of her lecturing tour. That, however, was out of the
question. It was imperative that, while she was