She dabbed her eyes, stopped weeping, and then turned on me!
"Of course you stick up for him--being a man!" she cried.
I mumbled something implying humility, and she relented a little.
"Oh! He does make me lose my temper, George! . . . I'm sorry I was horrid to you as well."
"It's very foolish," she said. "We ought to know better at our age. . . . Anyway, I shall certainly return to England this week--if only you and Molly will back me up and come as well. _Please_, George!"
It was nice to think that someone relied on me. It was still nicer to think of home--comfort--and Nanny's efficient guardianship, after so much strife and worry. I was tired of Africa, its old men, and its monkeys.
So I gave Sally my promise of active support.
"I feel happier than I've been for weeks," she confessed, with a blush. "It's very good of you, George. If only your Gran'pa followed your example, he would have much better manners."
I wished he had been there to hear it. At the same time, I could not help wondering whether Sally had been a flirt in her younger days. Even now, she was certainly very promising in this respect. Or was she merely testing the powers of her new-found youth?
The same afternoon I told Gran'pa that I, too, was returning home with Sally.
"It's a conspiracy!" he barked. "You're a nice sort of great-grandson, George! What the devil . . . ?"
"Come, now," I said, quietly. "Don't lose your temper. I'm fed up with this monkey-gland business and I want to get back to civilization. You can come later, if you prefer. What point is there in my remaining here any longer?"
"None. . . . I don't even know why you came."
"That's merely spiteful! I caught three times as many monkeys as you. . . ."
"They were not monkeys. They were gorillas--_apes_! Don't be so supercilious! Can't you find anything better to do than keep up this thin trickle of sneers at the old people?"
"Not if I stay here!" I replied. "They get on my nerves--with their chest smacking and all their other feeble imitations of youth."
Gran'pa glanced at me, spluttered, and then strode furiously away.
But I knew already that Sally was winning. Gran'pa's bark was always worse immediately before he--didn't bite. . . .
"You're right, George! You always are, confound you! We're wasting time out here and the sooner we go home the better!"