It must be admitted that Mrs. Hedderwick behaved well. There was every excuse for a scene, and no possible excuse (unless one know his dull life) for Robert. Mrs. Hedderwick merely looked coldly at Beatrice and said, "We have, but I prefer not to remember it." Then she turned to her husband, "Come, Robert!"
Mr. Hedderwick was pale, but determined. Tony's reassuring and stimulating words, together with a short breathing-space, had put courage into him. Besides, during the last minute he had conceived an idea. So, though he trembled internally, his voice was calm enough as he replied, "Alicia, I am not coming just yet."
Tony took Beatrice by the arm. "This isn't our scene," he whispered. She obeyed the hint; and she, Lionel, Tony and Billing retired a few yards to the aeroplane, out of ear-shot. "Is it fair to leave him?" asked Beatrice; "he looked very frightened, poor little man!"
"Yes--yes!" said Tony decidedly; "he must do this on his own--sink or swim. I think he'll be all right, now that I've stiffened him. Let him alone."
Mrs. Hedderwick appreciated the withdrawal, but it did not soften her mood. "What do you mean, Robert?" she said coldly. "You are my husband, though you did desert me cruelly. You must come."
"I come on conditions," said Robert stoutly, though his knees were quaking. "I mean to be master of the house in future--to do exactly what I like and when I like--to go to Brighton, if I choose----"
"I mean what I say," he reiterated. "I'm--I'm still very fond of you, Alicia, but I must be master----"
"Don't be absurd," said Mrs. Hedderwick, still unmoved. "You will come home with me to-night."
She advanced and took his arm in a wifely grasp. Robert, feeling the chains imminent, resolved to play his last card. It was his sole remaining hope of freedom. Bruskly he freed his arm. Then with incredible agility he ran to the aeroplane and scrambled into the pilot's seat. "Now, then!" he said grimly; "you admit that _I_ am to be head, and I'll come down. Otherwise I'll start this infernal machine. I don't much care what happens."
"Robert!" screamed his wife, shaken out of her composure. "Oh, Robert! come down!"
"Not till you promise!" he said, fumbling at unaccustomed levers. "Here, sir! how do you start it?"