第26章

I don't like it, for people begin to talk, and Charlie won't see how disagreeable it is to me.""Tell him so," was Mac's blunt advice.

"I have, but he only laughs and promises to behave, and then he does it again when I am so placed that I can't say anything.You will never understand, and I cannot explain, for it is only a look, or a word, or some little thing­but I won't have it, and the best way to cure him is to put it out of his power to annoy me so.""He is a great flirt and wants to teach you how, I suppose.I'll speak to him if you like and tell him you don't want to learn.Shall I?" asked Mac, finding the case rather an interesting one.

"No, thank you­that would only make trouble.If you will kindly play escort a few times, it will show Charlie that I am in earnest without more words and put a stop to the gossip," said Rose, coloring like a poppy at the recollection of what she heard one young man whisper to another as Charlie led her through a crowded supper room with his most devoted air, "Lucky dog! He is sure to get the heiress, and we are nowhere.""There's no danger of people gossiping about us, is there?" And Mac looked up with the oddest of all his odd expressions.

"Of course not­you're only a boy."

"I'm twenty-one, thank you, and Prince is but a couple of years older,"said Mac, promptly resenting the slight put upon his manhood.

"Yes, but he is like other young men, while you are a dear old bookworm.

No one would ever mind what you did, so you may go to parties with me every night and not a word would be said­or, if there was, I shouldn't mind since it is 'only Mac,' " answered Rose, smiling as she quoted a household phrase often used to excuse his vagaries.

"Then I am nobody?" he said, lifting his brows as if the discovery surprised and rather nettled him.

"Nobody in society as yet, but my very best cousin in private, and I've just proved my regard by making you my confidant and choosing you for my knight," said Rose, hastening to soothe the feelings her careless words seemed to have ruffled slightly.

"Much good that is likely to do me," grumbled Mac.

"You ungrateful boy, not to appreciate the honor I've conferred upon you! I know a dozen who would be proud of the place, but you only care for compound fractures, so I won't detain you any longer, except to ask if I may consider myself provided with an escort for tomorrow night?" said Rose, a trifle hurt at his indifference, for she was not used to refusals.

"If I may hope for the honor." And, rising, he made her a bow which was such a capital imitation of Charlie's grand manner that she forgave him at once, exclaiming with amused surprise: "Why, Mac! I didn't know you could be so elegant!""A fellow can be almost anything he likes if he tries hard enough,"he answered, standing very straight and looking so tall and dignified that Rose was quite impressed, and with a stately courtesy she retired, saying graciously: "I accept with thanks.Good morning, Dr.Alexander Mackenzie Campbell."When Friday evening came and word was sent up that her escort had arrived, Rose ran down, devoutly hoping that he had not come in a velveteen jacket, top-boots, black gloves, or made any trifling mistake of that sort.A young gentleman was standing before the long mirror, apparently intent upon the arrangement of his hair, and Rose paused suddenly as her eye went from the glossy broadcloth to the white-gloved hands, busy with an unruly lock that would not stay in place.

"Why, Charlie, I thought­" she began with an accent of surprise in her voice, but got no further, for the gentleman turned and she beheld Mac in immaculate evening costume, with his hair parted sweetly on his brow, a superior posy at his buttonhole, and the expression of a martyr on his face.

"Ah, don't you wish it was? No one but yourself to thank that it isn't he.Am I right? Dandy got me up, and he ought to know what is what," demanded Mac, folding his hands and standing as stiff as a ramrod.

"You are so regularly splendid that I don't know you.""Neither do I."

"I really had no idea you could look so like a gentleman," added Rose, surveying him with great approval.

"Nor that I could feel so like a fool."

"Poor boy! He does look rather miserable.What can I do to cheer him up in return for the sacrifice he is making?""Stop calling me a boy.It will soothe my agony immensely and give me courage to appear in a low-necked coat and curl on my forehead, for I'm not used to such elegancies and I find them no end of a trial."Mac spoke in such a pathetic tone, and gave such a gloomy glare at the aforesaid curl, that Rose laughed in his face and added to his woe by handing him her cloak.He surveyed it gravely for a minute, then carefully put it on wrong side out and gave the swan's-down hood a good pull over the head, to the utter destruction of all smoothness to the curls inside.

Rose uttered a cry and cast off the cloak, bidding him learn to do it properly, which he meekly did and then led her down the hall without walking on her skirts more than three times on the way.But at the door she discovered that she had forgotten her furred overshoes and bade Mac get them.

"Never mind­it's not wet," he said, pulling his cap over his eyes and plunging into his coat, regardless of the "elegancies" that afflicted him.

"But I can't walk on cold stones with thin slippers, can I?" began Rose, showing him a little white foot.

"You needn't, for­there you are, my lady." And, unceremoniously picking her up, Mac landed her in the carriage before she could say a word.

"What an escort!" she exclaimed in comic dismay, as she rescued her delicate dress from a rug in which he was about to tuck her up like a mummy.

"It's 'only Mac,' so don't mind," and he cast himself into an opposite corner with the air of a man who had nerved himself to the accomplishment of many painful duties and was bound to do them or die.