The Love Affairs of Pixie | Page 7

when a girl was poor-spirited
enough to persist in her antagonism, off she went with a month's money
in her pocket, for the peace of her little home was the greatest treasure
in the world to Bridgie Victor, and no hireling could be allowed to
disturb it. The service in the little house might not be as mechanically
perfect as in some others, the meals might vary in excellence, but that
was a secondary affair. "If a bad temper is a necessary accompaniment
of a good cook, then--give me herbs!" she would cry, shrugging her
pretty shoulders, and her husband agreed--with reservations!
He was a very happy, a very contented man, and every day of his life
he thanked God afresh for his happy home, for his children, for the
greatest treasure of all, sweet Bridget, his wife!
To-day, however, the disclosure had nothing to do with domestic
revolutions, and Bridgie's tone in making her announcement held an
unusual note of tragedy.
"Dick, guess what! You'll never guess! Pixie's grown-up!"
For a moment Captain Victor looked as was expected of him--utterly
bewildered. He lay back in his chair, his handsome face blank and
expressionless, the while he stared steadily at his wife, and Bridgie
stared back, her distress palpably mingled with complacence. Speak she
would not, until Dick had given expression to his surprise. She sat still,
therefore, shaking her head in a melancholy mandarin fashion, which
had the undesired effect of restoring his complacence.
"My darling, what unnecessary woe! It's astounding, I grant you; one
never expected such a feat of Pixie; but the years will pass--there's no
holding them, unfortunately. How old is she, by the way? Seventeen, I
suppose--eighteen?"

"Twenty--nearly twenty-one!"
Bridgie's tone was tragic, and Dick Victor in his turn looked startled
and grave. He frowned, bit his lip, and stared thoughtfully across the
room.
"Twenty-one? Is it possible? Grown-up, indeed! Bridgie, we should
have realised this before. We have been so content with things as they
were that we've been selfishly blind. If Pixie is over twenty we have not
been treating her fairly. We have treated her too much as a child. We
ought to have entertained for her, taken her about."
Bridgie sighed, and dropped her eyelids to hide the twinkle in her eyes.
Like most husbands Dick preferred a quiet domestic evening at the end
of a day abroad: like most wives Bridgie would have enjoyed a little
diversion at the end of a day at home. Sweetly and silently for nearly
half a dozen years she had subdued her preferences to his, feeling it at
once her pleasure and her duty to do so, but now, if duty suddenly
assumed the guise of a gayer, more sociable life, then most cheerfully
would Irish Bridgie accept the change.
"I think, dear," she said primly, "it would be wise. Esmeralda has said
so many a time, but I took no notice. I never did take any notice of
Esmeralda, but she was right this time, it appears, and I was wrong.
Imagine it! Pixie began bemoaning that she was not pretty, and it was
not herself she was grieving for, or you, or Me!"--Bridgie's voice
sounded a crescendo of amazement over that last pronoun--"but whom
do you suppose? You'll never guess! Her future lovers!"
It was just another instance of the provokingness of man that at this
horrible disclosure Dick threw himself back in his chair in a peal of
laughter; he laughed and laughed till the tears stood in his eyes, and
Bridgie, despite herself, joined in the chorus. The juxtaposition of Pixie
and lovers had proved just as startling to him as to his wife, but while
she had been scandalised, he was frankly, whole-heartedly amused.
"Pixie!" he cried. "Pixie with a lover! It would be about as easy to think
of Patsie. Dear, quaint little Pixie! Who dares to say she isn't pretty?

Her funny little nose, her big, generous mouth are a hundred times
more charming than the ordinary pretty face. I'll tell you what it is,
darling,"--he sobered suddenly;--"Pixie's lover, whoever he may be,
will be an uncommonly lucky fellow!"
Husband and wife sat in silence for some moments after this, hand in
hand, as their custom was in hours of privacy, while the thoughts of
each pursued the same subject--Pixie's opening life and their own duty
towards it.
On both minds was borne the unwilling realisation that their own home
was not the ideal abode to afford the experience of life, the open
intercourse with young people of her own age which it was desirable
that the girl should now enjoy. As a means of adding to his income
Captain Victor had accepted the position of adjutant to a volunteer
corps in a northern city, and, as comparatively new