The Little Warrior - Penn State University

Mr Rooke. “Tell him to come and talk to me. Where’s
the nearest fire? I want to get right over it and huddle.”
“The fire’s burning nicely in the sitting-room, miss.”
Jill hurried into the sitting-room, and increased her
hold on Parker’s esteem by exclaiming rapturously at
the sight that greeted her. Parker had expended time
and trouble over the sitting-room. There was no dust,
no untidiness. The pictures all hung straight; the cushions
were smooth and unrumpled; and a fire of exactly
the right dimensions burned cheerfully in the
grate, flickering cosily on the small piano by the couch,
on the deep leather arm-chairs which Freddie had
brought with him from Oxford, that home of comfortable
chairs, and on the photographs that studded the
walls. In the center of the mantelpiece, the place of
honor, was the photograph of herself which she had
given Derek a week ago.
“You’re simply wonderful, Parker! I don’t see how
you manage to make a room so cosy!” Jill sat down on
the club-fender that guarded the fireplace, and held
her hands over the blaze. “I can’t understand why men
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ever marry. Fancy having to give up all this!”
“I am gratified that you appreciate it, miss. I did my
best to make it comfortable for you. I fancy I hear Mr
Rooke coming now.”
“I hope the others won’t be long. I’m starving. Has
Mrs Parker got something very good for dinner?”
“She has strained every nerve, miss.”
“Then I’m sure it’s worth waiting for. Hullo, Freddie.”
Freddie Rooke, resplendent in evening dress, bustled
in, patting his tie with solicitous fingers. It had been
right when he had looked in the glass in his bedroom,
but you never know about ties. Sometimes they stay
right, sometimes they wiggle up sideways. Life is full
of these anxieties.
“I shouldn’t touch it,” said Jill. “It looks beautiful,
and, if I may say so in confidence, is having a most
disturbing effect on my emotional nature. I’m not at
all sure I shall be able to resist it right through the
evening. It isn’t fair of you to try to alienate the affections
of an engaged young person like this.”
Freddie squinted down, and became calmer.