'This is ridiculous,' said Margaret. 'Give it to me!' Lushington had no choice, and besides, he needed his right hand for his
nose, which was getting the better of him again. He let go, and
Margaret lifted the bicycle into the body of the car herself, though
Logotheti tried to help her.
'Now, get in,' she said to Lushington. 'We'll take you as far at the
Chaville station.' 'Thank you,' he answered. 'I am quite able to walk.' He presented such a lamentable appearance that he would have hesitated
to get into the car with Margaret even if they had been on good terms.
He was in that state of mind in which a man wishes that he might vanish
into the earth like Korah and his company, or at least take to his
heels without ceremony and run away. Logotheti had put up his glasses
and shield, over the visor of his cap, and was watching his rival's
discomfiture with a polite smile of pity. Lushington mentally compared
him to Judas Iscariot.
'Let me point out,' said the Greek, that if you won't accept a seat
with us, we, on our part, are much too anxious for your safety to leave
you here in the road. You must have been badly shaken, besides being
cut. If you insist upon walking, we'll keep beside you in the car. Then
if you faint, we can pick you up.' 'Yes,' assented Margaret, with a touch of malice, 'that is very
sensible.' Lushington was almost choking.
'Do let me give you another handkerchief,' said Logotheti,
sympathetically. 'I always carry a supply when I'm motoring--they are
so useful. Yours is quite spoilt.' A forcible expression rose to Lushington's lips, but he checked it, and
at the same time he wondered whether anybody he knew had ever been
caught in such a detestable situation. But Anglo-Saxons generally
perform their greatest feats of arms when they are driven into a corner
or have launched themselves in some perfectly hopeless undertaking. It
takes a Lucknow or a Balaclava to show what they are really made of.
Lushington was in a corner now; his temper rose and he turned upon his
tormentors. At the same time, perhaps under the influence of his
emotion, his nose stopped bleeding. It was scratched and purple from
the fall, but he found another handkerchief of his own and did what he
could to improve his appearance. His shoulders and his jaw squared
themselves as he began to speak and his eyes were rather hard and
bright.
'Look here,' he said, facing Logotheti, 'we don't owe each other
anything, I think, so this sort of thing had better stop. You've been
going about in disguise with Miss Donne, and I have been making myself
look like some one else in order to watch you. We've found each other
out and I don t fancy that we're likely to be very friendly after this.
So the best thing we can do is to part quietly and go in opposite
directions. Don't you think so?' The last question was addressed to Margaret. But instead of answering
at once she looked down and pushed some little lumps of dry mud about
with the toe of her shoe, as if she were trying to place them in a
symmetrical figure. It is a trick some young women have when they are
in doubt. Lushington turned to Logotheti again and waited for an
answer.