The staff retained its equanimity, but the operations of Mrs. Korner and her bosom friend were retarded rather than assisted by the voice of Mr. Korner, heard every quarter of a minute, roaring out fresh directions.
“I dare not go in alone,” said Mrs. Korner, when all things were in order on the tray. So the bosom friend followed her, and the staff brought up the rear.
“What's this?” frowned Mr. Korner. “I told you chops.”
“I'm so sorry, dear,” faltered Mrs. Korner, “but there weren't any in the house.”
“In a perfectly organizedouse, such as for the future I meanterave,” continued Mr. Korner, helping himself to beer, “there should always be chopanteak. Unnerstanme? chopanteak!”
“I'll try and remember, dear,” said Mrs. Korner.
“Pearsterme,” said Mr. Korner, between mouthfuls, “you're norrer sort of housekeeper I want.”
“I'll try to be, dear,” pleaded Mrs. Korner.
“Where's your books?” Mr. Korner suddenly demanded.
“My books?” repeated Mrs. Korner, in astonishment.
Mr. Korner struck the corner of the table with his fist, which made most things in the room, including Mrs. Korner, jump.
“Don't you defy me, my girl,” said Mr. Korner. “You know whatermean, your housekeepin' books.”
They happened to be in the drawer of the chiffonier. Mrs. Korner produced them, and passed them to her husband with a trembling hand. Mr. Korner, opening one by hazard, bent over it with knitted brows.
“Pearsterme, my girl, you can't add,” said Mr. Korner.
“I–I was always considered rather good at arithmetic, as a girl,” stammered Mrs. Korner.
“What you mayabeen as a girl, and what—twenner-seven and nine?” fiercely questioned Mr. Korner.
“Thirty-eight—seven,” commenced to blunder the terrified Mrs. Korner.
“Know your nine tables or don't you?” thundered Mr. Korner.
“I used to,” sobbed Mrs. Korner.
“Say it,” commanded Mr. Korner.
“Nine times one are nine,” sobbed the poor little woman, “nine times two—”
“Goron,” said Mr. Korner sternly.
She went on steadily, in a low monotone, broken by stifled sobs. The dreary rhythm of the repetition may possibly have assisted. As she mentioned fearfully that nine times eleven were ninety-nine, Miss Greene pointed stealthily toward the table. Mrs. Korner, glancing up fearfully, saw that the eyes of her lord and master were closed; heard the rising snore that issued from his head, resting between the empty beer-jug and the cruet stand.
“He will be all right,” counselled Miss Greene. “You go to bed and lock yourself in. Harriet and I will see to his breakfast in the morning. It will be just as well for you to be out of the way.”
And Mrs. Korner, only too thankful for some one to tell her what to do, obeyed in all things.
Toward seven o'clock the sunlight streaming into the room caused Mr. Korner first to blink, then yawn, then open half an eye.
“Greet the day with a smile,” murmured Mr. Korner, sleepily, “and it will—”
Mr. Korner sat up suddenly and looked about him. This was not bed. The fragments of a jug and glass lay scattered round his feet. To the tablecloth an overturned cruet-stand mingled with egg gave colour. A tingling sensation about his head called for investigation. Mr. Korner was forced to the conclusion that somebody had been trying to make a salad of him—somebody with an exceptionally heavy hand for mustard. A sound directed Mr. Korner's attention to the door.
The face of Miss Greene, portentously grave, was peeping through the jar.
Mr. Korner rose. Miss Greene entered stealthily, and, closing the door, stood with her back against it.
“I suppose you know what—what you've done?” suggested Miss Greene.
She spoke in a sepulchral tone; it chilled poor Mr. Korner to the bone.
“It is beginning to come back to me, but not—not very clearly,” admitted Mr. Korner.
“You came home drunk—very drunk,” Miss Greene informed him, “at two o'clock in the morning. The noise you made must have awakened half the street.”
A groan escaped from his parched lips.
“You insisted upon Aimee cooking you a hot supper.”
“I insisted!” Mr. Korner glanced down upon the table. “And—and she did it!”
“You were very violent,” explained Miss Greene; “we were terrified at you, all three of us.” Regarding the pathetic object in front of her, Miss Greene found it difficult to recollect that a few hours before she really had been frightened of it. Sense of duty alone restrained her present inclination to laugh.
“While you sat there, eating your supper,” continued Miss Greene remorselessly, “you made her bring you her books.”
Mr. Korner had passed the stage when anything could astonish him.
“You lectured her about her housekeeping.” There was a twinkle in the eye of Mrs. Korner's bosom friend. But lightning could have flashed before Mr. Korner's eyes without his noticing it just then.
“You told her that she could not add, and you made her say her tables.”
“I made her—” Mr. Korner spoke in the emotionless tones of one merely desiring information. “I made Aimee say her tables?”
“Her nine times,” nodded Miss Greene.
Mr. Korner sat down upon his chair and stared with stony eyes into the future.
“What's to be done?” said Mr. Korner, “she'll never forgive me; I know her. You are not chaffing me?” he cried with a momentary gleam of hope. “I really did it?”
“You sat in that very chair where you are sitting now and ate poached eggs, while she stood opposite to you and said her nine times table. At the end of it, seeing you had gone to sleep yourself, I persuaded her to go to bed. It was three o'clock, and we thought you would not mind.” Miss Greene drew up a chair, and, with her elbows on the table, looked across at Mr. Korner. Decidedly there was a twinkle in the eyes of Mrs. Korner's bosom friend.
“You'll never do it again,” suggested Miss Greene.
“Do you think it possible,” cried Mr. Korner, “that she may forgive me?”
“No, I don't,” replied Miss Greene. At which Mr. Korner's face fell back to zero. “I think the best way out will be for you to forgive her.”
The idea did not even amuse him. Miss Greene glanced round to satisfy herself that the door was still closed, and listened a moment to assure herself of the silence.
“Don't you remember,” Miss Greene took the extra precaution to whisper it, “the talk we had at breakfast-time the first morning of my visit, when Aimee said you would be all the better for 'going it' occasionally?”
Yes, slowly it came back to Mr. Korner. But she only said “going it,” Mr. Korner recollected to his dismay.
“Well, you've been 'going it,'” persisted Miss Greene. “Besides, she did not mean 'going it.' She meant the real thing, only she did not like to say the word. We talked about it after you had gone. She said she would give anything to see you more like the ordinary man. And that is her idea of the ordinary man.”
Mr. Korner's sluggishness of comprehension irritated Miss Greene. She leaned across the table and shook him. “Don't you understand? You have done it on purpose to teach her a lesson. It is she who has got to ask you to forgive her.”
“You think—?”
“I think, if you manage it properly, it will be the best day's work you have ever done. Get out of the house before she wakes. I shall say nothing to her. Indeed, I shall not have the time; I must catch the ten o'clock from Paddington. When you come home this evening, you talk first; that's what you've got to do.” And Mr. Korner, in his excitement, kissed the bosom friend before he knew what he had done.