_ CHAPTER III
"Idling again! That's the third time I've had to speak to you this morning."
Miss Dell's harsh voice woke Faith from the day-dream, into which she had fallen over her machine, and set her hurriedly working again.
That the events of yesterday were unreal she was still convinced. A hundred times since she parted from Nicholas Forrester she had put her hand into the little bag containing the money he had given her, which she wore hidden under her frock. That was real enough, at all events. She was too awed by its possession to think of spending it. It seemed to her ignorance that all the wealth of the world was hers.
"If I have to speak to you again I shall report you to the manager," Miss Dell went on. "We've no time for idlers here, you understand."
Faith said "Yes" meekly enough, but she did not feel meek. Only two more days and she would be free of this place for ever. She would never have to trudge to and fro in the heat of the day any more. She could ride in a taxi or the Beggar Man's car to the end of her life.
She cast a swift glance to the table at which Peg generally worked. It was empty to-day, and her machine covered up.
Peg was ill--so the other girls had told her. Peg was not coming back that week.
Faith felt a little chill of apprehension. She missed Peg sorely, and yet she was glad of her absence. She could not easily forget the strange way in which her friend had behaved last night in the teashop--how she had turned and walked away.
After all, what did it matter? And yet ... she wished she could have taken Peg into her confidence. It was terrible to have nobody in whom she could confide, terrible to have to keep all these wonderful secrets locked up in her own heart.
Last night she had almost told her mother. Mrs. Ledley had looked at her again and again in a puzzled sort of manner, and once she had asked, hesitatingly:
"Is anything the matter, Faith, dear?"
Faith had laughed.
"No; what could be the matter?" and Mrs. Ledley said, slowly: "I only wondered----"
This day seemed interminable. Faith did her work slowly and badly. She knew that Miss Dell had real cause for her frequent complaints. She was thankful when at last it was time to go.
She snatched up her hat and was first out of the factory; she reached the end of the road hot and breathless with her haste.
The Beggar Man was not there.
Faith looked eagerly up and down the road, but there was no sign of him, and a thrill of apprehension touched her heart.
Had it after all been a dream, and was she never to see him again? She walked on slowly.
Perhaps she was too soon--perhaps something had happened to detain him. She looked up and down the street for a clock, but there was not one to be seen. She retraced her steps slowly; he would come! Of course he would come! In a moment she would see him turn the corner--in a moment she would hear his voice....
She tried to think of something else, so that the time would pass more quickly, but she could not concentrate her thoughts.
Supposing he had not been serious! Supposing all her wonderful dreams were never to come to anything after all! Supposing she had still to go on, week in and week out, in Heeler's noisy, stifling factory. A feeling of desperation seized her--she could not bear it--she would die if she never saw him again. She remembered in a panic that she did not know where to find him, that he had never told her where he lived, or given her any address.
She lifted a trembling hand to the notes hidden beneath her frock; they were real enough--and then came another and more cruel thought. Supposing he had given them to her by way of farewell--her heart almost stopped beating.
Such things did happen she knew in novelettes, if not out of them! Peg had told her one lurid story, in which....
"Good afternoon," said the Beggar Man beside her.
Tears of relief started to her eyes. She was so glad to see him she could hardly speak; she stammered out:
"I thought you were not coming any more--I thought you had gone away."
He looked faintly surprised.
"Am I late? I'm sorry. I would have been earlier if I had known you would be here."
Faith smiled, and brushed the tears from her eyes.
"It doesn't matter a bit now you've come," she said. She was quite happy again.
"But I've got something to tell you," said the Beggar Man reluctantly. He looked up and down the street.
"Not a taxi to be seen, of course! Well, we must walk a little way."
But he walked so quickly that Faith had almost to run to keep up with him.
A great many people in the street seemed to know him, she noticed, and a policeman at the corner saluted smartly as they passed.
She felt tremendously proud of the Beggar Man. She wished everyone could know that on Saturday he was going to marry her.
"We'll go in here," Nicholas said suddenly, and led the way into the same teashop where they had sat last night.
He chose the same table and ordered tea. Faith looked round her with excited eyes. There was the same girl in the desk, staring at them curiously, and over there was the table where Peg had sat--empty now! And Faith turned her eyes away with a little thrill of foreboding.
The Beggar Man was speaking.
"It's just this--I've got to go away----"
Faith's eyes dilated. In an instant everything else was forgotten.
"Go away!" she echoed blankly.
"Yes--only on business--to America. I shall be gone seventeen days, and I go to-morrow."
"To-morrow!" Faith felt as if she was drowning. She did not know that she had turned pale to the lips.
He went on speaking quickly.
"I can't take you--I wish I could. You'd want lots of clothes for one thing, and it would take too long to get them, and to explain things to your mother and the rest of the world. But"--he leaned a little nearer to her over the table--"I've got a special licence in my pocket," he said. "Will you marry me before I go?"
Faith put out both hands blindly and grasped the edge of the table before her. For a moment she felt as if she were blind and deaf; then she drew a long breath.
"Marry you--before you go!" she gasped. "To-day?"
The Beggar Man smiled. "Well, there's hardly time to-day, is there? I thought to-morrow morning--early--about nine, if that is not too early for you."
"I have to be at the factory at half-past seven." She uttered the excuse tremblingly, knowing full well that it was no excuse at all.
He made an impatient movement.
"There is no need to consider the factory. You were to have left, anyway. I'll make it right with them."
Faith had been conscious of a feeble sense of resistance, but now, as she met his eyes, all will power seemed to desert her.
"Very well," she said, in a whisper.
The Beggar Man gripped her hand. "Thank you. I hope you will never regret it," he said.
The tears swam into Faith's eyes.
"And--mother?" she faltered.
"You can tell her to-morrow as soon as we're married, if you like," he answered. "Or leave it till I come back, and I'll tell her myself. I shall only be gone a little while, after all. Seventeen days will quickly pass."
"Will they?" She smiled wistfully. To her ignorance, America sounded as if it must be in another world.
"Don't you want any more tea? Very well, then, we'll get along."
They went out into the street together.
"I haven't bought any new clothes," she said timidly. He glanced down at her.
"Never mind--get them while I'm away. What does it matter what clothes you are married in? There will only be me to see you."
He meant the words kindly, but they gave her a little thrill of apprehension. Only him! That was what it would be for the rest of her life--only this man, who, after all, was almost a stranger to her.
She wanted to put her thoughts into words, but glancing up at his grave face she was suddenly afraid, and he went on talking, quite unconscious of her agitation.
"Do you know Victoria Station? But of course you do! Well, if you'll meet me there to-morrow.... No, I'll come and meet you and we'll drive down together. I'll be at the end of your road at half-past eight. Will that do?"
"Yes." Her heart was beating so fast she thought it would choke her.
Yesterday she had been all happiness and excitement at the thought of her marriage. This morning it had still seemed some wonderful dream, but now ... the suddenness of it all made her feel as if someone had asked her to jump off the edge of the world.
"If you don't mind," the Beggar Man said suddenly, "I must leave you now. I've a lot to do this evening. You must let me send you home in a taxi."
"Oh, no, no."
He looked surprised. "Why not? You don't want to walk all that way."
"I'd rather go on a bus if you don't mind."
She felt that she must cling to her old life with might and main for this last evening. After to-morrow--well, she could not help what happened after to-morrow.
The Beggar Man's face softened. She looked so young and appealing, and perhaps he understood better than she imagined what she was feeling.
"Very well," he said gently. "I'll say good-night, then. Half-past eight at the end of your road, and ... thank you!"
Faith looked up quickly.
"Oh, it's for me to say thank you," she said. "You've been so good to me. Nobody could have been so kind."
The Beggar Man flushed.
"I hope you'll always be able to say that," he said awkwardly as he raised his hat and turned away.
Faith went home on top of an omnibus. For the first time that evening she felt that she could breathe freely. The sense of unreality was leaving her, and she began to see things more in their true perspective.
She was taking a rash step! Young and ignorant of the world as she was, she knew this, and realized that all she knew of the man whom she was to marry was the little he had chosen to tell her. He might be anything--anyone!
That he had money she was sure, and Peg had often said that with money one could do anything! Money was the golden key to the world; and Faith knew that it would be a golden key, not only for herself, but for her mother and the twins.
They could have everything they wanted! Wonderful visions began to unfurl before her eyes.
It was as if she wilfully held rose-tinted glasses before her eyes excluding the vague shadows that haunted her. She would not look at the dark side of what might be. She would keep her face turned towards the sun.
But when she got home her spirits fell once more. She began to remember that this was the last night of her old life. That after to-morrow she would be quite, quite different. She would be the Beggar Man's wife! She would be Mrs. Nicholas Forrester!
She could hardly eat any supper for the choking lump that would rise in her throat. She knew that from time to time her mother glanced at her with anxious eyes.
"Is anything the matter, Faith?" she asked at last, just as she had asked last night, and Faith answered desperately that her head ached and that she would like to go to bed.
When she was in bed the tears came. This was the first time she had ever had a secret from her mother, and even the thought of the wonderfully happy surprise it would be could not comfort her. She felt like a lost child as she hid her face in the pillow and sobbed. _