Beyond the City - Page 23/92

It was the habit of the Doctor and the Admiral to accompany each other

upon a morning ramble between breakfast and lunch. The dwellers in those

quiet tree-lined roads were accustomed to see the two figures, the long,

thin, austere seaman, and the short, bustling, tweed-clad physician,

pass and repass with such regularity that a stopped clock has been reset

by them. The Admiral took two steps to his companion's three, but the

younger man was the quicker, and both were equal to a good four and a

half miles an hour.

It was a lovely summer day which followed the events which have been

described. The sky was of the deepest blue, with a few white, fleecy

clouds drifting lazily across it, and the air was filled with the low

drone of insects or with a sudden sharper note as bee or bluefly shot

past with its quivering, long-drawn hum, like an insect tuning-fork. As

the friends topped each rise which leads up to the Crystal Palace,

they could see the dun clouds of London stretching along the northern

skyline, with spire or dome breaking through the low-lying haze. The

Admiral was in high spirits, for the morning post had brought good news

to his son.

"It is wonderful, Walker," he was saying, "positively wonderful, the way

that boy of mine has gone ahead during the last three years. We heard

from Pearson to-day. Pearson is the senior partner, you know, and my boy

the junior--Pearson and Denver the firm. Cunning old dog is Pearson,

as cute and as greedy as a Rio shark. Yet he goes off for a fortnight's

leave, and puts my boy in full charge, with all that immense business

in his hands, and a freehand to do what he likes with it. How's that for

confidence, and he only three years upon 'Change?"

"Any one would confide in him. His face is a surety," said the Doctor.

"Go on, Walker!" The Admiral dug his elbow at him. "You know my weak

side. Still it's truth all the same. I've been blessed with a good wife

and a good son, and maybe I relish them the more for having been cut off

from them so long. I have much to be thankful for!"

"And so have I. The best two girls that ever stepped. There's Clara, who

has learned up as much medicine as would give her the L.S.A., simply

in order that she may sympathize with me in my work. But hullo, what is

this coming along?"

"All drawing and the wind astern!" cried the Admiral. "Fourteen knots if

it's one. Why, by George, it is that woman!"

A rolling cloud of yellow dust had streamed round the curve of the road,

and from the heart of it had emerged a high tandem tricycle flying along

at a breakneck pace. In front sat Mrs. Westmacott clad in a heather

tweed pea-jacket, a skirt which just{?} passed her knees and a pair of

thick gaiters of the same material. She had a great bundle of red papers

under her arm, while Charles, who sat behind her clad in Norfolk jacket

and knickerbockers, bore a similar roll protruding from either pocket.

Even as they watched, the pair eased up, the lady sprang off, impaled

one of her bills upon the garden railing of an empty house, and then

jumping on to her seat again was about to hurry onwards when her nephew

drew her attention to the two gentlemen upon the footpath.