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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philanderers, by A.E.W. Mason
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Philanderers
+
+Author: A.E.W. Mason
+
+Release Date: July 30, 2004 [EBook #13057]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHILANDERERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+                            THE PHILANDERERS
+
+                            BY A.E.W. MASON
+
+              Author of 'The Courtship of Morrice Buckler'
+
+                                 1897
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+
+Five Englishmen were watching a camp fire in the centre of a forest
+clearing in mid-Africa. They did not speak, but sat propped against logs,
+smoking. One of the five knocked out the ashes of his pipe upon the
+ground; a second, roused by the movement, picked up a fresh billet of
+wood with a shiver and threw it on to the fire, and the light for a
+moment flung a steady glow upon faces which were set with anxiety. The
+man who had picked up the billet looked from one to the other of the
+faces, then he turned and gazed behind him into the darkness. The floor
+of the clearing was dotted with the embers of dying fires, but now and
+again he would hear the crackle of a branch and see a little flame spirt
+up and shine upon the barrels of rifles and the black bodies of the
+sleeping troops. Round the edge of the clearing the trees rose massed and
+dark like a cliff's face. He turned his head upwards.
+
+'Look, Drake!' he cried suddenly, and pointed an arm eastwards. The man
+opposite to him took his pipe from his mouth and looked in that
+direction. The purple was fading out of the sky, leaving it livid.
+
+'I see,' said Drake shortly, and, replacing his pipe, he rose to his
+feet. His four companions looked quickly at each other and the eldest of
+them spoke.
+
+'Look here, Drake,' said he, 'I have been thinking about this business
+all night, and the more I think of it the less I like it. Of course, we
+only did what we were bound to do. We couldn't get behind that evidence;
+there was no choice for us; but you're the captain, and there is a
+choice for you.'
+
+'No,' replied Drake quietly. 'I too have been thinking about it all
+night, and there is no choice for me.'
+
+'But you can delay the execution until we get back.'
+
+'I can't even do that. A week ago there was a village here.'
+
+'It's not the man I am thinking of. I haven't lived my years in Africa to
+have any feeling left for scum like that. But also I haven't lived my
+years in Africa without coming to know there's one thing above all others
+necessary for the white man to do, and that's to keep up the prestige of
+the white man. String Gorley up if you like, but not here--not before
+these blacks.'
+
+'But that's just what I am going to do,' answered Drake, 'and just for
+your reason, too--the prestige of the white man. Every day something is
+stolen by these fellows, a rifle, a bayonet, rations--something. When I
+find the theft out I have to punish it, haven't I? Well, how can I punish
+the black when he thieves, and let the white man off when he thieves and
+murders? If I did--well, I don't think I could strike a harder blow at
+the white man's prestige.'
+
+'I don't ask you to let him off. Only take him back to the coast. Let him
+be hanged there privately.'
+
+'And how many of these blacks would believe that he had been hanged?'
+Drake turned away from the group and walked towards a hut which stood
+some fifty yards from the camp fire. Three sentries were guarding the
+door. Drake pushed the door open, entered, and closed it behind him. The
+hut was pitch dark since a board had been nailed across the only opening.
+
+'Gorley!' he said.
+
+There was a rustling of boughs against the opposite wall, and a voice
+answered from close to the ground.
+
+'Damn you, what do you want?'
+
+'Have you anything you wish to say?'
+
+'That depends,' replied Gorley after a short pause, and his voice changed
+to an accent of cunning.
+
+'There's no bargain to be made.'
+
+The words were spoken with a sharp precision, and again there was
+a rustling of leaves as though Gorley had fallen back upon his bed
+of branches.
+
+'But you can undo some of the harm,' continued Drake, and at that Gorley
+laughed. Drake stopped on the instant, and for a while there was silence
+between the pair. A gray beam of light shot through a chink between the
+logs, and then another and another until the darkness of the hut changed
+to a vaporous twilight. Then of a sudden the notes of a bugle sounded the
+reveillé. Gorley raised himself upon his elbows and thrust forward his
+head. Outside he heard the rattle of arms, the chatter of voices, all the
+hum of a camp astir.
+
+'Drake,' he whispered across to the figure standing against the door,
+'there's enough gold dust to make two men rich, but you shall have it all
+if you let me go. You can--easily enough. It wouldn't be difficult for a
+man to slip away into the forest on the march back if you gave the nod to
+the sentries guarding him. All I ask for is a rifle and a belt of
+cartridges. I'd shift for myself then.'
+
+He ended abruptly and crouched, listening to the orders shouted to the
+troops outside. The men were being ranged in their companies. Then the
+companies in succession were marched, halted, wheeled, and halted again.
+Gorley traced a plan of their evolutions with his fingers upon the floor
+of the hut. The companies were formed into a square.
+
+'Drake,' he began again, and he crawled a little way across the hut;
+'Drake, do you hear what I'm saying? There's a fortune for you, mind you,
+all of it; and I am the only one who can tell you where it is. I didn't
+trust those black fellows--no, no,' and he wagged his head with an
+attempt at an insinuating laugh. 'I had it all gathered together, and I
+buried it myself at night. You gave me a chance before with nothing to
+gain. Give me another; you have everything to gain this time. Drake, why
+don't you speak?'
+
+'Because there's no bargain to be made between you and me,' replied
+Drake. 'If you tell me where the gold dust's hid, it will be given back
+to the people it belonged to, or rather to those of them you left
+alive. You can do some good that way by telling me, but you won't save
+your life.'
+
+Steps were heard to approach the hut; there was a rap on the door.
+
+'Well?' asked Drake.
+
+Gorley raised himself from the floor.
+
+'I am not making you rich and letting you kill me too,' he said; and
+then, 'Who cares? I'm ready.'
+
+Drake opened the door and stepped out. Gorley swaggered after him. He
+stood for a moment on the threshold. Here and there a wisp of fog ringed
+a tree-trunk or smoked upon the ground. But for the rest, the clearing,
+littered with the charred debris of a native village, lay bare and
+desolate in a cold morning light.
+
+'It looks a bit untidy,' said Gorley, with a laugh. Two of the troopers
+approached and laid their hands upon his shoulders. At first he made a
+movement to shake them off. Then he checked the impulse and stood
+quietly while they pinioned him. After they had finished he spat on the
+ground, cast a glance at the square and the rope dangling from a branch
+above it, and walked easily towards it. The square opened to receive him
+and closed up again.
+
+On the march back two of the Englishmen sickened of ague and died. Six
+months later a third was killed in a punitive expedition. The fourth was
+drowned off Walfisch Bay before another year had elapsed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Hugh Fielding, while speculating upon certain obscure episodes in the
+history of a life otherwise familiar to an applauding public, and at a
+loss to understand them, caught eagerly at a simile. Now Fielding came
+second to none in his scorn for the simile as an explanation, possibly
+because he was so well acquainted with its convenience. 'A fairy lamp' he
+would describe it, quite conscious of the irony in his method of
+description, 'effective as an ornament upon a table-cloth, but a poor
+light to eat your dinner by.'
+
+Nevertheless Fielding hugged this particular simile, applying it as a
+sort of skeleton key to the problem of Stephen Drake's career.
+
+He compared Drake's career, or at all events that portion of it which was
+closed, to the writing of a book. So many years represent the
+accumulation of material, a deliberate accumulation; at a certain date
+the book is begun with a settled design, _finis_ being clearly foreseen
+from the first word of the preface. But once fairly started the book
+throws the writer on one side and takes the lead, drags him, panting and
+protesting, after it, flings him down by-ways out of sight of his main
+road, tumbles him into people he had no thought of meeting, and finally
+stops him dead, Heaven knows where--in front of a blank wall, most
+likely, at the end of a _cul de sac_. He may sit down then and cry if he
+likes, but to that point he has come in spite of his intentions.
+
+The actual settling down to the work, with the material duly ticketed at
+his elbow, in Drake's case Hugh Fielding dated back to a certain day
+towards the close of October.
+
+Upon that afternoon the _Dunrobin Castle_ from Cape Town steamed into
+Plymouth Harbour, and amongst the passengers one man stepped from the
+tender on to the quay and stood there absolutely alone. No one had gone
+out to the ship to meet him; no one came forward now on the quay-side,
+and it was evident from his indifference to the bystanders that he
+expected no one. The more careless of these would have accounted him a
+complete stranger to the locality, the more observant an absentee who had
+just returned, for while his looks expressed isolation, one significant
+gesture proved familiarity with the environments. As his eyes travelled
+up the tiers of houses and glanced along towards the Hoe, they paused now
+and again and rested upon any prominent object as though upon a
+remembered landmark, and each such recognition he emphasised with a nod
+of the head.
+
+He turned his back towards the town, directing his glance in a circle.
+The afternoon, although toning to dusk, was kept bright by the scouring
+of a keen wind, and he noted the guard-ship on his right at its old
+moorings, the funnels rising like solid yellow columns from within a
+stockade of masts; thence he looked across the water to the yellowing
+woods of Mount Edgcumbe, watched for a moment or so the brown sails of
+the fishing-smacks dancing a _chassez-croisez_ in the Sound, and turned
+back to face the hill-side. A fellow-passenger, hustled past him by
+half a dozen importunate children, extricated a hand to wave, and
+shouted a cheery 'See you in town, Drake.' Drake roused himself with a
+start and took a step in the same direction; he was confronted by a man
+in a Norfolk jacket and tweed knickerbockers, who, standing by, had
+caught the name.
+
+'Captain Stephen Drake?'
+
+'Yes. Why?'
+
+The man mopped a perspiring face.
+
+'I was afraid I had missed you. I should have gone out on the tender,
+only I was late. Can you spare me a moment? You have time.'
+
+'Certainly,' answered Drake, with a look of inquiry.
+
+The man in the knickerbockers led the way along the quay until he came to
+an angle between an unused derrick and a wall.
+
+'We shall not be disturbed here,' he said, and he drew an oblong
+note-book and a cedar-wood pencil from his pocket.
+
+'I begin to understand,' said Drake, with a laugh.
+
+'You can have no objection?'
+
+There was the suavity of the dentist who holds the forceps behind his
+back in the tone of the speaker's voice.
+
+'On the contrary, a little notoriety will be helpful to me too.'
+
+That word 'too' jarred on the reporter, suggesting a flippancy which he
+felt to be entirely out of place. The feeling, however, was quickly
+swallowed up in the satisfaction which he experienced at obtaining so
+easily a result which had threatened the need of diplomacy.
+
+'_O si sic omnes!_' he exclaimed, and made a note of the quotation upon
+the top of the open leaf.
+
+'Surely the quotation is rather hackneyed to begin with?' suggested Drake
+with a perfectly serious inquisitiveness. The reporter looked at him
+suspiciously.
+
+'We have to consider our readers,' he replied with some asperity.
+
+'By the way, what paper do you represent?'
+
+The reporter hesitated a little.
+
+'The _Evening Meteor_,' he admitted reluctantly, keeping a watchful eye
+upon his questioner. He saw the lips join in a hard line, and began to
+wonder whether, after all, the need for diplomacy had passed.
+
+'I begin to appreciate the meaning of journalistic enterprise,' said
+Drake. 'Your editor makes a violent attack upon me, and then sends a
+member of his staff to interview me the moment I set foot in England.'
+
+'You hardly take the correct view, if I may say so. Our chief when he
+made the attacks acted under a sense of responsibility, and he thought it
+only fair that you should have the earliest possible opportunity of
+making your defence.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' replied Drake gravely. 'Your chief is the most
+considerate of men, and I trust that his equity will leave him a margin
+of profit, only I don't seem to feel that I need make any defence. I have
+no objection to be interviewed, as I told you, but you must make it clear
+that I intend nothing in the way of apology. Is that understood?'
+
+The pressman agreed, and made a note of the proviso.
+
+'There is another point. I have seen nothing of the paper necessarily for
+the last few weeks. The _Meteor_ has, I suppose, continued its--crusade,
+shall we call it?--but on what lines exactly I am, of course, ignorant.
+It will be better, consequently, that you should put questions and I
+answer them, upon this condition, however,--that all reference is omitted
+to any point on which I am unwilling to speak.'
+
+The reporter demurred, but, seeing that Drake was obdurate, he was
+compelled to give way.
+
+'The entire responsibility of the expedition rests with me,' Drake
+explained, 'but there were others concerned in it. You might trench upon
+private matters which only affect them.'
+
+He watched the questions with the vigilance of a counsel on behalf of a
+client undergoing cross-examination, but they were directed solely to the
+elucidation of the disputed point whether Drake had or had not, while a
+captain in the service of the Matanga Republic, attacked a settlement of
+Arab slave-dealers within the zone of a British Protectorate. The editor
+of the _Meteor_ believed that he had, and strenuously believed it--in the
+interests of his shareholders. Drake, on the other hand, and the Colonial
+Office, it should be added, were dispassionately indifferent to the
+question, for the very precise reason that they knew it could never be
+decided. There were doubts as to the exact sphere of British influence,
+and the doubts favoured Drake for the most part. Insular prehensiveness,
+at its highest flight, could do no more than claim Boruwimi as its
+uttermost limit, and was aware it would be hard put to it to substantiate
+the claim. The editor, nevertheless, persevered, bombarded its citizen
+readers with warnings about trade fleeing from lethargic empires,
+published a cartoon, and reluctantly took the blackest view of Drake's
+character and aims.
+
+Drake's march with a handful of men six hundred miles through a tangled
+forest had been a handsome exploit, quickening British pride with the
+spectacle of an Englishman at the head of it. Civilian blood tingled in
+office and shop, claiming affinity with Drake's. It needed an Englishman
+to bill-hook a path through that fretwork of branches, and fall upon his
+enemy six weeks before he was expected--the true combination of daring
+and endurance that stamps the race current coin across the world! Economy
+also pleaded for Drake. But for him the country itself must have burned
+out the hornets' nest, and the tax-payer paid, and paid dearly. For there
+would have been talk of the expedition beforehand, the force would have
+found an enemy prepared and fortified. The hornets could sting too!
+Whereas Drake had burned them out before they had time to buzz. He need
+not have said one word in exculpation of himself, and that indeed he
+knew. But he had interests and ambitions of his own to serve; a hint of
+them peeped out.
+
+'As to your future plans?' asked the reporter. 'You mean to go back,
+I presume.'
+
+'No; London for me, if I can find a corner in it. I hold concessions
+in Matanga.'
+
+'The land needs development, of course.'
+
+'Machinery too; capital most of all.'
+
+At the bookstall upon the platform Drake bought a copy of the _Times_,
+and whilst taking his change he was attracted by a grayish-green volume
+prominently displayed upon the white newspapers. The sobriety of the
+binding caught his fancy. He picked it up, and read the gold-lettered
+title on the back--_A Man of Influence_. The stall-keeper recommended the
+novel; he had read it himself; besides, it was having a sale. Drake
+turned to the title-page and glanced at the author's name--Sidney
+Mallinson. He flashed into enthusiasm.
+
+'Selling, eh?'
+
+'Very well indeed.'
+
+'Has it been published long?'
+
+'Less than three months.'
+
+'I will take it, and everything else by the same author.'
+
+'It is his first book.'
+
+The stall-keeper glanced at his enthusiastic customer, and saw a sunburnt
+face, eager as a boy's.
+
+'Oh!' he said doubtfully, 'I don't know whether you will like it. It's
+violently modern. Perhaps this,' and he suggested with an outstretched
+forefinger a crimson volume explained by its ornamentation of a couple of
+assegais bound together with a necklace of teeth. Drake laughed at the
+application of the homoeopathic principle to the sale of books.
+
+'No, I will take this,' he said, and, moving aside from the stall, stood
+for a little turning the book over and over in his hands, feeling its
+weight and looking incessantly at the title-page, wondering, you would
+say, that the author had accomplished so much.
+
+He had grounds for wonder, too. His thoughts went back across the last
+ten years, and he remembered Mallinson's clamouring for a reputation; a
+name--that had been the essential thing, no matter what the career in
+which it was to be won. Work he had classified according to the
+opportunities it afforded of public recognition; and his classification
+varied from day to day. A _cause célèbre_ would suggest the Bar, a
+published sermon the Church, a flaming poster persuade to the stage. In a
+word, he had looked upon a profession as no more than a sounding-board.
+
+It had always seemed to Drake that this fervid desire for fame, as a
+thing apart in itself, not as a symbol of success won in a cherished
+pursuit, argued some quality of weakness in the man, something unstable
+which would make for failure. His surprise was increased by an inability
+to recollect that Mallinson had ever considered literature as a means to
+his end. Long sojourning in the wilderness, moreover, had given Drake an
+exaggerated reverence for the printed page. He was inclined to set
+Mallinson on a pinnacle, and scourge himself at the foot of it for his
+earlier distrust of him. He opened the book again at the beginning, and
+let the pages slip across beneath his thumb from cover to cover; 413 was
+marked on the top corner of the last; 413 pages actually written and
+printed and published; all consecutive too; something new on each page.
+He turned to a porter.
+
+'How long have I before the train starts?'
+
+'Five minutes, sir.'
+
+'Where is the telegraph office?'
+
+The office was pointed out to him, and he telegraphed to Mallinson at the
+address of his publishers. 'Have just reached England. Dine with me at
+eight to-morrow at the Grand Hotel'; and he added after a moment's pause,
+'Bring Conway, if you have not lost sight of him.--DRAKE.'
+
+When the train started Drake settled himself to the study of _A Man of
+Influence_. The commentary of the salesman had prepared him for some
+measure of perplexity. There would be hinted references and suggestions,
+difficult of comprehension to the traveller out of touch with modern
+developments. These, however, would only be the ornaments, but the flesh
+and blood of the story would be perceptible enough. It was just, however,
+this very flesh and blood which eluded him; he could not fix it in a
+definite form. He did not hold the key to the author's intention.
+
+Drake's _vis-à-vis_ in the carriage saw him produce the book with
+considerable surprise, conscious of an incongruity between the reader and
+what he read. His surprise changed to amusement as he noticed Drake's
+face betray his perplexity and observed him turn now and again to the
+title upon the cover as though doubtful whether he had not misread it. He
+gave an audible chuckle.
+
+Drake looked up and across the carriage at a man of about fifty years of
+age with a large red face and a close-cropped pointed beard. The chuckle
+swelled to a laugh.
+
+'You find that a hard nut to crack?' Drake noticed a thickness in the
+articulation.
+
+'I have been some years abroad. I hardly catch its drift,' explained
+Drake, and then with an effort at praise:
+
+'It seems a clever satire.'
+
+'Satire!' guffawed the other. 'Well, that's rich! Satire? Why, it's a
+manifesto. Gad, sir, it's a creed. I believe in my duty to my senses and
+the effectuation of me for ever and ever, Amen. The modern jargon! Topsy
+Turvydom! Run the world on the comic opera principle, but be flaming
+serious about it. Satire, good Lord!'
+
+He flung himself back on his cushions with a snort of contempt.
+
+'Look you, I'm not a pess--' he checked at the word and then took it at a
+run, 'a pessimist, but, as things are going on--well, you have been out
+of the country and--and you can't help it, I suppose. You may laugh!
+P'raps you haven't got daughters--not that I have either, praise glory!
+But nieces, if the father's a fool, wear you out very little less.
+Satire, ho! ho!'
+
+The semi-intoxicated uncle of nieces relapsed vindictively into his
+corner and closed his eyes. Occasionally Drake would hear a muffled
+growl, and, looking in that direction, would see one inflamed eye peering
+from a mountain of rugs.
+
+'Satire!' and a husky voice would address the passengers
+indiscriminately. 'Satire! and the man's not a day under forty either.'
+
+Drake joined in the laugh and lit his pipe. He was not sensitive to
+miscomputations of his years, and felt disinclined to provoke further
+outbursts of family confidences.
+
+Instead, he pursued his acquaintance with _A Man of Influence_, realising
+now that he must take him seriously and regard him stamped with
+Mallinson's approval, a dominating being. He found the task difficult.
+The character insisted upon reminding him of the nursery-maid's ideal,
+the dandified breaker of hearts and bender of wills; an analytical hero
+too, who traced the sentence through the thought to the emotion, which
+originally prompted it; whence his success and influence. But for his
+strength, plainly aimed at by the author, and to be conceded by the
+reader, if the book was to convince? Drake compared him to scree and
+shingle as against solid granite. Lean on him and you slip!
+
+The plot was the time-worn, imperishable story of the married couple and
+the amorous interloper, the Influential Man, of course, figuring as the
+latter, and consequently glorified. The husband was pelted with ridicule
+from the first chapter to the last, though for what particular fault
+Drake could not discover, unless it were for that of being a husband at
+all; so that the interloper in robbing him of his wife was related to
+have secured not merely the _succès d'estime_ which accompanies such
+enviable feats, but the unqualified gratitude of all married women and
+most unmarried men.
+
+There were, no doubt, redeeming qualities; Drake gave them full credit,
+and perhaps more than they deserved. He noticed a glitter in the
+dialogue, whether of foil or gold he refused to consider, and a lively
+imagination in the interweaving of the incidents. But altogether the book
+left with him a feeling of distaste, which was not allayed by the
+perception that he himself was caricatured in the picture of befooled
+husband, while Mallinson figured as the successful deceiver. After all,
+he thought, Mallinson and he were friends, and he disliked the mere
+imagining of such a relationship between them.
+
+Drake summed up his impressions as his hansom turned into the Bayswater
+Road. The day was just beginning to break; the stems of the trees
+bordering the park were black bars against the pure, colourless light,
+and their mingling foliage a frayed black ribbon stretched across the
+sky. One might have conceived the picture the original of a black and
+white drawing by a pre-Raphaelite artist.
+
+Drake drew in a long breath of the keen, clear air.
+
+'I am glad I asked him to bring Conway,' he said to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Waking up six hours later, Drake looked out upon a brown curtain of
+London fog. The lamps were lit at the crossings in Trafalgar
+Square--half-a-mile distant they seemed, opaque haloes about a pin's
+point of flame, and people passing in the light of them loomed and
+vanished like the figures of a galanty-show. From beneath rose the bustle
+of the streets, perceptible only to Drake, upon the fourth floor, as a
+subterranean rumble. 'London,' he said to himself, 'I live here,' and
+laughed unappalled. Listening to the clamour, he remembered a map, seen
+somewhere in a railway guide, a map of England with the foreign cables,
+tiny spider-threads spun to the four quarters and thickening to a solid
+column at Falmouth and Cromer, the world's arteries, he liked to think,
+converging to its heart.
+
+The notion of messages flashing hourly along these wires brought to mind
+the existence of the _Meteor_. He sent out for a copy of each number
+which had appeared since he had begun his voyage, and commencing on the
+task whilst he was still at breakfast, read through every article written
+concerning the Boruwimi expedition. He finished the last in the
+smoking-room shortly after one o'clock, and rose from his investigation
+with every appearance of relief. From the first to the final paragraph,
+not so much as a mention of Gorley's name!
+
+The reason for his relief lay in a promise which he had sent to Gorley's
+father, that he would suppress the trouble as far as he could; and Drake
+liked to keep his promises.
+
+Gorley had come out to Matanga with a cloudy reputation winging close at
+his heels. There were rumours of dishonesty in the office of a private
+bank in Kent; his name became a sign for silence, and you were allowed to
+infer that Gorley's relatives had made good the deficit and so avoided a
+criminal prosecution. It was not surprising, then, that Gorley, on
+hearing of Drake's intended march to Boruwimi, should wish to take
+service under his command. He called upon Drake with that request, was
+confronted with the current story, and invited to disprove it. Gorley
+read his man shrewdly, and confessed the truth of the charge without an
+attempt at mitigation. He asked frankly for a place in the troop, the
+lowest, as his chance of redemption, or rather demanded it as a grace due
+from man to man. Drake was taken by his manner, noticed his build, which
+was tough and wiry, and conceded the request. Nor had he reason to regret
+his decision on the march out. Gorley showed himself alert, and vigilant,
+a favourite with the blacks, and obedient to his officers. He was
+advanced from duty to duty; a week before the force began its homeward
+march from Boruwimi he was sent out with a body of men to forage for
+provisions. Three days later a solitary negro rushed into camp, one of
+the few survivors of his tribe, he said. He told a story of food freely
+given, a village plundered and burned for thanks, of gold-dust stolen and
+the owners murdered that they might the better hold their tongues. He
+signified Gorley as the culprit. Drake, guided by the negro, marched
+towards the spot. He met Gorley and his company half-way between Boruwimi
+and the village, carried him along with him, and proved the story true.
+Against Gorley's troops no charge could be sustained; they had only
+obeyed orders. But Gorley he court-martialled, and the result has been
+described.
+
+This was the incident which Drake was unwilling to commit to the
+discretion of the editor of the _Meteor_. He had discovered Gorley's
+relations in England, and had written to them a full account of the
+affair, despatching with his letter a copy of the evidence given at the
+court-martial. The reply came from the father, a heart-broken admission
+of the justice of Drake's action, and a prayer that, for the sake of
+those of the family who still lived, Gorley's crime should be as far as
+possible kept secret. Drake gave the promise. So far he had kept it, he
+realised, as he tossed aside the last copy of the _Meteor_.
+
+At eight o'clock Sidney Mallinson arrived. He saw Drake at the top of
+the flight of steps in the vestibule, and hesitated, perceiving that he
+was alone.
+
+'Hasn't Conway come?' he asked. 'I sent to him.'
+
+'Not yet. It's barely eight.'
+
+They shook hands limply and searched for topics of conversation.
+
+'You look older than you did,' said Mallinson.
+
+'Ah! Ten years, you know. You haven't changed much.'
+
+Drake was looking at a face distinguished by considerable comeliness. The
+forehead, however, overhung the features beneath it and gave to a mouth
+and chin, which would otherwise have aroused no criticism, an appearance
+of irresolution. The one noticeable difference in Mallinson was the
+addition of an air of constraint. It was due partly to a question which
+had troubled him since he had received the invitation. Had Drake read _A
+Man of Influence_ and recognised himself?
+
+'I got your telegram,' he said at length.
+
+'Naturally, or you wouldn't be here.'
+
+The answer was intended to be jocular; it sounded only _gauche_, as Drake
+recognised, and the laugh which accompanied it positively rude.
+
+'Shall I put my coat in the cloak-room?' suggested Mallinson.
+
+'Oh yes, do!' replied Drake. He was inclined to look upon the proposal as
+an inspiration, and his tone unfortunately betrayed his thought.
+
+When Mallinson returned, he saw Conway entering the hotel. The latter
+looked younger by some years than either of his companions, so that, as
+the three men stood together at this moment, they might have been held to
+represent three separate decades.
+
+'Twenty minutes late, I'm afraid,' said Conway, and he shook Drake's hand
+with a genuine cordiality.
+
+'Five,' said Drake, looking at his watch.
+
+'Twenty,' replied Conway. 'A quarter to, was the time Mallinson
+wired me.'
+
+'Was it?' asked Mallinson, with a show of surprise. 'I must have made
+a mistake.'
+
+It occurred, however, to Drake that the mistake might have been
+purposely made from a prevision of the awkwardness of the meeting. The
+dinner, prefaced inauspiciously, failed to remove the awkwardness, since
+the reticence under which Drake and Mallinson laboured, gradually spread
+and enveloped Conway. A forced conversation of a curiously impersonal
+sort dragged from course to course. Absolute strangers would have
+exhibited less restraint; for the ghost of an old comradeship made the
+fourth at the feast and prated to them in exiguous voice of paths that
+had diverged. Drake noticed, besides, an undercurrent of antagonism
+between Conway and Mallinson. He inquired what each had been doing
+during his absence.
+
+'Mallinson,' interposed Conway, 'has been absorbed in the interesting
+study of his own personality.'
+
+'I am not certain that pursuit is not preferable to revolving
+unsuccessfully through a cycle of professions,' said Mallinson in
+slow sarcasm.
+
+The flush was upon Conway's cheek now. He set his wine glass deliberately
+upon the table and leaned forward on an elbow.
+
+'My dear good Sidney,' he began with elaborate affection, plainly
+intended as the sugar coating of an excessively unpleasant pill. Drake
+hastily interrupted with an anecdote of African experiences. It sounded
+bald and monstrously long, but it served its purpose as peace-maker.
+Literary acquisitiveness drew Mallinson on to ask for more of the same
+kind. Drake mentioned a race of pigmies and described them, speculating
+whether they might be considered the originals of the human race.
+
+'My dear fellow, don't!' said Mallinson; 'I loathe hearing about them.
+It's so degrading to us to think we sprang from them.'
+
+The peculiar sensitiveness of a mind ever searching, burrowing in, and
+feeding upon itself struck a jarring note upon its healthier companion.
+
+'Why, what on earth does it matter?' asked Drake.
+
+'Ah! Perhaps you wouldn't understand.'
+
+Conway gave a shrug of the shoulder and laughed to Drake across the
+table. The latter looked entreaty in reply and courageously started a
+different topic. He spoke of their boyhood in the suburb on the heights
+six miles to the south of London, and in particular of a certain hill,
+Elm-tree Hill they called it, a favourite goal for walks and the spot
+where the three had last met on the night before Drake left England.
+London had lain beneath it roped with lights.
+
+'The enchanted city,' said Conway, catching back some flavour of those
+times. 'It seemed distant as El Dorado, and as desirable.'
+
+Mallinson responded with the gentle smile with which a man recognises and
+pities a childishness he has himself outgrown.
+
+Drake ordered port, having great faith in its qualities, as inducive of a
+cat-like content and consequent good-fellowship. Mallinson, however,
+never touched port; nothing but the lightest of French burgundies after
+dinner for him. The party withdrew to the smoking-room.
+
+'By the way, Drake,' asked Mallinson, 'have you anything to do to-night?'
+
+'No, why?'
+
+'I was asked to take you to a sort of party.'
+
+Conway looked up sharply in surprise.
+
+'You were asked to take me!' exclaimed Drake. 'Who asked you?'
+
+'Oh, nobody whom you know.' He hesitated for a second, then added with
+studied carelessness, 'A Miss Le Mesurier. Her mother's dead,' he
+explained, noticing the look of surprise on Drake's face, 'so she keeps
+house for her father. There's an aunt to act as chaperon, but she doesn't
+count. I got a note from Miss Le Mesurier just before I came here asking
+me to bring you.'
+
+'But what does she know of me?'
+
+'Oh, I may have mentioned your name,' he explained indifferently, and
+Conway smiled.
+
+'Besides,' said Conway, 'the _Meteor_ has transformed you into a public
+character. One knows of your movements.'
+
+'What I don't see is how Miss Le Mesurier could have known that you had
+landed yesterday,' commented Mallinson.
+
+'I was interviewed by the _Meteor_ on Plymouth Quay. You received the
+note, you say, this evening. She may have seen the interview.'
+
+Drake called to a waiter and ordered him to bring a copy of the paper.
+Conway took it and glanced at the first page.
+
+'Yes, here it is.'
+
+He read a few lines to himself, and burst into a laugh.
+
+'Guess how it begins?'
+
+'I know,' said Drake.
+
+'A sovereign you don't.'
+
+Drake laid a sovereign on the table. Conway followed his example.
+
+'It begins,' said Drake, 'with a Latin quotation, _O si sic omnes_!'
+
+'It begins,' corrected Conway, pocketing the money, 'with very downright
+English'; and he read, 'Drake, with the casual indifference of the
+hardened filibuster, readily accorded an interview to our representative
+on landing from the _Dunrobin Castle_ yesterday afternoon!'
+
+Drake snatched the paper out of Conway's hand, and ran his eye down the
+column to see whether his words had been similarly transmuted by the
+editorial alchemy. They were printed, however, as they had been spoken,
+but interspersed with comments. The editor had contented himself with
+stamping his own device upon the coin; he had not tried to change its
+metal. Drake tossed the paper on one side. 'The man goes vitriol-throwing
+with vinegar,' he said.
+
+Conway picked up the _Meteor_.
+
+'You are a captain, aren't you?' he asked. 'The omission of the title
+presumes you a criminal.'
+
+'I don't object to the omission,' replied Drake. 'I suppose the title
+belongs to me by right. But, after all, a captain in Matanga! There are
+more honourable titles.'
+
+Mallinson looked at him suddenly, as though some fresh idea had shot into
+his brain.
+
+'Well, will you come?' he asked carelessly.
+
+'I hardly feel inclined to move.'
+
+'I didn't imagine you would.' There was evidence of distinct relief in
+the brisk tone of Mallinson's voice. He turned to Conway, 'We ought to be
+starting, I fancy.'
+
+'I shall stay with Drake,' Conway answered, despondently to Drake's
+thinking, and he lapsed into silence after Mallinson's departure, broken
+by intervals of ineffective sarcasm concerning women, ineffectively
+accentuated by short jerks of laughter. He roused himself in a while and
+carried Drake off to his club, where he found Hugh Fielding pulling his
+moustache over the _Meteor_. He introduced Drake, and left them together.
+
+'I was reading a list of your sins,' said Fielding, and he waved the
+newspaper.
+
+Drake laughed in reply.
+
+'The vivisectionists,' said Fielding, 'may cite you as proof of the
+painlessness of their work.'
+
+'It is my character that suffers the knife. I fancy the editor would
+prefer to call the operation a _post-mortem_.'
+
+Fielding warmed to his new acquaintance. Whisky and potass helped them to
+discover common friends, about whom Fielding supplied information with a
+flavour of acid in his talk which commended him to Drake; it bit without
+malice. Mallinson's name was mentioned.
+
+'You have read his autobiography?' asked Fielding.
+
+'No; but I have read his novel.'
+
+'That's what I mean. Most men wait till they have achieved a career
+before they write their autobiographies. He anticipates his. It's rather
+characteristic of the man, I think.'
+
+They drove from the club together in a hansom. Opposite to his rooms in
+St. James's Street Fielding got out.
+
+'Good-night,' he said, and took a step towards the door.
+
+A lukewarm curiosity which had been stirring in Drake during the latter
+part of the evening prompted him to a question now that he saw the
+opportunity to satisfy it disappearing.
+
+'You know the Le Mesuriers?' he asked.
+
+Fielding laughed. 'Already?' he said.
+
+'I don't understand.'
+
+'Then you are not acquainted with the lady?'
+
+'No; that's what I'm asking. What is Miss Le Mesurier like?'
+
+'She is more delightfully surprising than even I had imagined. Otherwise
+she's difficult to describe; a bald enumeration of features would be rank
+injustice.'
+
+Drake's curiosity responded to the flick.
+
+'One might fit them together with a little trouble,' he suggested.
+
+'The metaphor of a puzzle is not inapt,' replied Fielding, as he opened
+his door. 'Good-night!' and he went in.
+
+Half-way down Pall Mall Drake was smitten by a sudden impulse. The
+fog had cleared from the streets; he looked up at the sky. The night
+was moonless but starlit, and very clear. He lifted the trap, spoke
+to the cabman, and in a few minutes was driving southwards across
+Westminster Bridge.
+
+It was the chance recollection of a phrase dropped by Conway during
+dinner which sent him in this untimely scurry to Elm-tree Hill. 'As
+distant as El Dorado, and as desirable.' The sentence limned with
+precision the impression which London used to produce upon Drake. The
+sight of it touched upon some single chord of fancy in a nature otherwise
+prosaic, of which the existence was unsuspected by his few companions and
+unrealised by himself.
+
+Working in that tower which you could see from the summit of the Elm-tree
+Hill topping the sky-line to the west, in order to complete his education
+as an engineer before his meagre capital was exhausted, Drake had enjoyed
+little opportunity of acquiring knowledge of London; and those
+acquaintances of his who travelled thither with their shiny black bags
+every morning, seemed to him to know even less than he did. There were
+but two points of view from which the town was regarded in the suburb,
+and the inhabitants chose this view according to their sex. To the men
+London was a counting-house, and certainly some miles of yellow brick
+mansions and flashing glasshouses testified that the view was a
+profitable one. To the women it was the alluringly wicked abode of
+society, and they held their hands before their faces when they mentioned
+it, to hide their yearning. Occasionally they imagined they caught a
+glimpse into it, when a minister from one of the states in the Balkan
+Peninsula strayed down to shed a tallow-candle lustre over a garden
+party. To both these views Drake had listened with the air of a man
+listening to an impertinence, and his attitude towards the former view
+showed particularly the strength of the peculiar impression which London
+made on him, since he always placed the acquisition of a fortune as an
+aim before himself.
+
+He thought of London, in fact, as a countryman might, with all a
+countryman's sense of its mystery and romance, intensified in him by the
+daily sight of its domes and spires. He saw it clothed by the changing
+seasons, now ringed in green, now shrouded in white; on summer mornings,
+when it lay clearly defined like a finished model and the sun sparkled on
+the vanes, set the long lines of windows ablaze in the Houses of
+Parliament, and turned the river into a riband of polished steel; or,
+again, when the cupola of St. Paul's and the Clock Tower at Westminster
+pierced upwards through a level of fog, as though hung in the mid-air; or
+when mists, shredded by a south wind, swirled and writhed about the
+rooftops until the city itself seemed to take fantastic shapes and melt
+to a substance no more solid than the mists themselves.
+
+These pictures, deeply impressed upon him at the moment of actual vision,
+remained with Drake during the whole period of his absence, changing a
+little, no doubt, as his imagination more and more informed them, but
+losing nothing of vividness, rather indeed waxing in it with the gradual
+years. One may think of him as he marched on expeditions against hostile
+tribes, dwelling upon these recollections as upon the portrait of an
+inherited homestead. London, in fact, became to him a living motive, a
+determining factor in any choice of action. Whatsoever ambitions he
+nourished presumed London as their starting-point. It was then after all
+not very singular that on this first night of his return he should make a
+pilgrimage to the spot whence he had drawn such vital impressions. For a
+long time he stood looking down the grass slope ragged with brambles and
+stunted trees, and comprehending the whole lighted city in his glance.
+
+On the way home his mind, which soon tired of a plunge into sentiment,
+reverted to the thought of Miss Le Mesurier, and he speculated
+unsuccessfully on the motive which had prompted her to send him so
+immediate an invitation. The enigmatic interest which she took in him,
+gave to him in fact a very definite interest in her. He wondered again
+what she was like. Fielding's description helped to pique his curiosity.
+All that he knew of her was her surname, and he found it impossible to
+infer a face or even a figure from this grain of knowledge. By the time
+he reached the Grand Hotel, he was regretting that he had not accepted
+her invitation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Drake repeated his question to Fielding two days later, after a dinner
+with Conway at his club, but in a tone of languid interest.
+
+'Why don't you ask Mallinson?' said Fielding. 'He knows her better
+than I do.'
+
+Conway contested the assertion with some heat.
+
+'Besides,' added Drake, 'his imagination may have been at work. About
+women, I prefer the estimate of a man of the world.'
+
+The phrase was distasteful to a gentleman whose ambition it was to live
+and to be recognised as living within view of, but outside the world, say
+just above it in a placid atmosphere of his own creation. Fielding leaned
+back in his chair to mete out punishment, joining the finger-tips with an
+air of ordering a detailed statement.
+
+'The inhabitants of Sark,' he began, 'were from immemorial times notable
+not merely for their predatory instincts, but for the stay-at-home
+fashion in which they gave those instincts play. They did not scour the
+seas for their victims, neither did they till their island. There was no
+need for so much exertion. They lay supine upon their rocks and waited
+until a sail appeared above the horizon. Even then they did not stir till
+nightfall. But after it was dark, they lighted bonfires upon suitable
+promontories, especially towards Brecqhou and the Gouliot channel, where
+snags are numerous, and gathered in their harvest in the morning.
+
+'But,' Drake interrupted, 'what on earth has that to do with--'
+
+'Miss Le Mesurier? A great deal, as you will see if you listen patiently.
+Lloyd's at that time had not been invented, and the Sarkese were
+consequently unpopular with the trading community, and in the reign of
+Henry the--well, the particular Henry is immaterial--an irate band of
+merchants sailed from Winchelsea on a trip. They depopulated Sark in a
+single night, as they thought. But they were mistaken. One family escaped
+their attention,--the Le Mesuriers, who were the custodians of the silver
+mines--' At this point Conway broke in with an impatient laugh. Fielding
+turned a quiet eye upon him and repeated in an even voice, 'Who were the
+custodians of the silver mines, and lived under the shelter of a little
+cliff close by the main shaft. When Helier de Carteret, who, you know,'
+and he inclined suavely towards Conway, 'was Seigneur of somewhere or
+other in Jersey, came a few years later to colonise Sark, he found the Le
+Mesuriers in possession, and while he confiscated the mines, he allowed
+them to retain their ancient dignity of custodians.'
+
+'Fudge!' said Conway rudely. Fielding waved a deprecating hand and
+continued:
+
+'Living where they did, it is not to be wondered at that the Le Mesuriers
+became gradually rich, and the De Carterets gradually poor, so that when
+the latter family was compelled to place the Seigneurie of Sark upon the
+market, the Le Mesuriers were the highest bidders. The Le Mesuriers thus
+became Seigneurs of Sark. But with their position they reversed their
+conduct, and, instead of taking other people's money out of mines, they
+put their own in, with the result that they sustained embarrassing
+losses. I mention these details incidentally to show that Miss Le
+Mesurier of to-day is directly descended from ancestors of predatory
+instincts, who did not go a-hunting for victims, but unobtrusively
+attracted them in a passive, lazy way which was none the less effectual.'
+
+Conway's patience was exhausted at this period of the disquisition.
+
+'I never heard such a hotch-potch of nonsense in my life,' he said.
+
+'I admit,' returned Fielding with unruffled complacency, 'that I aimed at
+an allegory rather than a pedantic narrative of facts. I was endeavouring
+to explain Clarice Le Mesurier on the fashionable principle of heredity.'
+
+It flashed across Drake that if Fielding had described, though with some
+exaggeration, an actual phase of Miss Le Mesurier's character, she must
+have been driven to make the first advance towards his acquaintance by a
+motive of unusual urgency. The notion, however, did but flash and flicker
+out. He had no mental picture of the girl to fix her within his view; he
+knew not, in fact, whether she was girl or woman. She was to him just an
+abstraction, and Drake was seldom inclined for the study of abstractions.
+His curiosity might, perhaps, have been stronger had Mallinson related to
+him the way in which he had been received at the house of the Le
+Mesuriers after his dinner with Drake. When he arrived he found the
+guests staring hard at each other silently, with the vacant expression
+which comes of an effort to understand a recitation in a homely dialect
+from the north of the Tweed. He waited in the doorway and suddenly saw
+Miss Le Mesurier rise from an embrasure in the window and take half a
+step towards him. Then she paused and resumed her seat.
+
+'That's because I come alone,' he thought, and something more than his
+vanity was hurt.
+
+The recitation reached its climax. Darby and Joan, quarrelling through
+nineteen stanzas as to whether they had been disturbed by a rat or a
+mouse, discovered in the twentieth that the animal was a ball of wool.
+The company sighed their relief in a murmur of thanks, and Mallinson
+crossed the room to the window.
+
+'And Captain Drake?' Clarice asked as she gave him her hand. The
+disappointment in her voice irritated him, and he answered with a sharp
+petulance.
+
+'He's not a captain really, you know.'
+
+The girl glanced at him in surprise.
+
+'I mean,' he went on, answering the glance, 'Of course he held the rank
+over there. But a captain in Matanga!' He shrugged his shoulders. 'There
+are more honourable titles.'
+
+'Still I asked you to bring him. You got my note, I suppose?' Her manner
+signified a cold request for an explanation.
+
+'I couldn't,' he replied shortly.
+
+'You mean you did not think it worth while to take enough trouble to
+find him.'
+
+'No; that's not the reason. In fact I dined with him to-night, but I saw
+that I couldn't bring him here.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Well, he's changed.'
+
+'In what way?'
+
+'He has grown so hopelessly bourgeois.'
+
+The epithet was a light to Clarice. She knew it for the superlative in
+Mallinson's grammar of abuse. Bourgeois! The term was the palm of a hand
+squashed upon a lighted candle; it snuffed you out. Convicted of
+bourgeoisie, you ought to tinkle a bell for the rest of your life, or at
+the easiest be confined east of Temple Bar. Applied to Drake the word
+connoted animosity pure and simple, animosity suddenly conceived too, for
+it was not a week since Mallinson had been boasting of his friendship
+with the man. What was the reason of that animosity? Clarice lowered her
+eyelashes demurely and smiled.
+
+'I fancied he was your friend,' she said with inquiring innocence.
+
+'I believe I remarked that he was changed.' Mallinson looked up at a
+corner of the ceiling as he spoke, and the exasperation was more than
+ever pronounced in his voice.
+
+'Mr. Drake,' she went on, and she laid the slightest possible emphasis on
+the prefix, 'Mr. Drake has travelled among the natives a good deal, I
+think you told me?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'It's funny that that should make a man bourgeois.'
+
+Mallinson became flippant.
+
+'I am not so sure,' he said. 'The natives, I should think, are
+essentially bourgeois. They love beads, and that's typical of the class.
+Evil communications, you know,' and he laughed, but awkwardly and without
+merriment.
+
+'Really?' asked Clarice, looking straight at him with grave eyes. She
+seemed to be seriously deliberating the truth of his remark. Mallinson's
+laughter stopped short. 'There's my aunt beckoning to you,' she said.
+
+Later in the evening she relented towards him, salving her disappointment
+with the flattery of his jealousy. She did not, however, relinquish on
+that account her intention to make Stephen Drake's acquaintance. She
+merely postponed it, trusting that the tides of accident would drift them
+together, as indeed they did, though after a longer delay than she had
+anticipated.
+
+The occasion of their meeting was provided by the visit of a French
+actress to one of the London theatres. Drake and Conway edged into their
+stalls just before the curtain rose on a performance of _Frou-Frou_.
+During the first act the theatre gradually filled, and when the lights
+were turned up at its close only one box was empty. It was upon the first
+tier next to the stage. A few minutes after the second act had begun
+Conway nudged Drake and nodded towards the box.
+
+'You asked what Miss Le Mesurier was like. There's your answer.'
+
+Drake glanced in that direction. He saw a girl in a dress of pink silk,
+standing in the front of the box, with her hands upon the ledge and
+leaning her head a little forwards beyond it. The glare striking up from
+the stage beneath her gave a burnish of copper to her hair and a warm
+light to her face. She seemed of a fragile figure and with features
+regular and delicate. Drake received a notion of unimpressive prettiness
+and turned his attention to the stage. When the lights were raised again
+in the auditorium, he noticed that Fielding was in the box talking to a
+gentleman with white hair, and that Mallinson was seated by the side of
+Miss Le Mesurier. The latter couple were gazing about the house and
+apparently discussing the audience,--at all events conversing with
+considerable animation. Drake commented upon their manner and drew the
+conventional inference.
+
+'Oh dear, no!' answered Conway energetically. 'Of course Mallinson's aim
+is apparent enough, poor fellow.' A touch of scorn in the voice, which
+rang false, negatived the pity of the phrase. 'But I don't suppose for an
+instant that she has realised it. She would be the last to do so. No, she
+has a fad in her head about authors just for the moment.'
+
+'Oh!' said Drake, turning with some interest to his companion. 'Does that
+account for _A Man of Influence_?'
+
+'Yes,' replied Conway reluctantly, 'I fancy it does.'
+
+'I wondered what set him to writing.'
+
+'He was at the Bar when he met her. I believe she persuaded him to write
+the book and give up the Law.'
+
+'She is undertaking a pretty heavy responsibility.'
+
+Conway looked at his friend and laughed.
+
+'I'm afraid you won't find that she takes that view, nor indeed do I see
+why she should. Mallinson was doing no good--well, not much anyway--at
+the Bar. He has scored by following her advice. So if she ever had any
+responsibility, which I don't admit, for there was no compulsion on him
+to obey, his luck has already wiped it out.'
+
+'I suppose the white-haired man's her father,' said Drake.
+
+'Yes. There's another sister, but she's at school in Brussels.'
+
+'How did you come across them?'
+
+'Mallinson and I met them one summer when we were taking a holiday at
+Sark.'
+
+Drake caught the eye of a man who was passing the end of his row of
+stalls towards the saloon, and was beckoned out.
+
+'I will join you after the interval,' he said, turning to Conway, and he
+saw that his companion was bowing to Miss Le Mesurier.
+
+Miss Le Mesurier in her box noticed Drake's movement, and she asked
+Mallinson, 'Who is that speaking to Mr. Conway?'
+
+Mallinson put up his glasses and looked. Clarice read recognition in a
+lift of eyebrows, and guessed from his hesitation to answer who it was
+that he recognised.
+
+'Well, who is it?'
+
+'Where?' asked Mallinson, assuming an air of perplexity.
+
+'Where you were looking,' said she quietly.
+
+'It's Stephen Drake,' interposed Fielding, and 'Hulloa!' he added in a
+voice of surprise as he observed the man whom Drake joined.
+
+'Drake! Stephen Drake!' exclaimed Mr. Le Mesurier, leaning forward
+hurriedly. 'Point him out to me, Fielding.'
+
+The latter obeyed, and Mr. Le Mesurier watched Drake until he disappeared
+through the doorway, with what seemed to Mallinson a singular intentness.
+The father's manner waked him to a suspicion that he might possibly have
+mistaken the daughter's motive in seeking Drake's acquaintance. Was it
+merely a whim, a fancy, strengthened to the point of activity by the
+sight of his name in print? Or was it something more? Was there some
+personal connection between Drake and the Le Mesuriers of which the
+former was in some way ignorant? He was still pondering the question when
+Clarice spoke to him.
+
+'So that was the bourgeois, was it?' she said, bending forwards and
+almost whispering the words. Mallinson flushed.
+
+'Was it?' he asked. 'I can't see. I am rather short-sighted.'
+
+'I begin to think you are.'
+
+The sentence was spoken with an ironic sympathy which deepened the flush
+upon Mallinson's cheek. A knock at the door offered him escape; he rose
+and admitted Conway. Conway was received with politeness by Mr. Le
+Mesurier, with cordiality by his daughter.
+
+'I have Drake with me,' said Conway. 'I came to ask permission, since you
+invited him to Beaufort Gardens, to introduce him after the next act.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier started up in his chair.
+
+'Did you ask him to the house?' he asked Clarice abruptly.
+
+'I asked Mr. Mallinson to bring him,' she replied; and then, with all
+the appearance of a penitent anxiety, 'Why? Oughtn't I to have done so?'
+she asked.
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier cast a suspicious glance at his daughter.
+
+'I am so sorry,' she said; 'I didn't know that--'
+
+'Oh well,' interrupted Mr. Le Mesurier hurriedly, 'there's no reason that
+I know of why you shouldn't have asked him, except that it's surely a
+trifle unusual, isn't it? You don't know him from Adam.'
+
+'But I assure you, Mr. Le Mesurier,' interposed Conway, 'there's nothing
+to be said against Drake.'
+
+'Of course!' replied Mr. Le Mesurier, with a testy laugh at the other's
+warmth. 'We know the length of your enthusiasms, my dear Conway. But I'll
+grant all you like about Drake. I only say that my daughter isn't even
+acquainted with the fellow.'
+
+'It is just that drawback which Mr. Conway proposes to remove,' said
+Clarice demurely. 'Of course,' she went on, 'I should never have thought
+of inviting him if Mr. Mallinson had not spoken of him so often as his
+friend.' She directed her sweetest smile to Mallinson. 'You did, didn't
+you? Yes! Mr. Drake had been away from England for so long that I thought
+it would be only kind to ask you to bring him. But if I had known that
+papa had any objection, I should naturally never have done it. I am very
+sorry. Perhaps I am not careful enough.' She ended her speech in a tone
+of self-reproach, which had its effect; for her father was roused by it
+to expostulate.
+
+'My dear,' he said, 'I never hinted that I had an objection to him. You
+are always twisting people's words and imputing wrong meanings to them.'
+
+Mallinson fancied that he detected a note of something more than mere
+remonstrance in Mr. Le Mesurier's voice, a consciousness of some thought
+in his daughter's mind which he would not openly acknowledge her to
+possess. The perception quickened Mallinson's conjecture into a positive
+conviction. There was evidently some fact about Drake, some incident
+perhaps in his life which brought him into relations with the Le
+Mesuriers,--relations ignored by Drake, but known by Mr. Le Mesurier and
+suspected by Clarice. Was this fact to Drake's advantage or discredit?
+The father's manner indicated rather the latter; but Mallinson put that
+aside. It was more than overbalanced by the daughter's--he sought for a
+word and chanced on 'forwardness.' His irritation against her prompted
+him to hug it, to stamp it on his thoughts of her with a jeer of 'I have
+found you out.' On the other hand, all his knowledge of her cried out
+against the word. He looked into the girl's face to resolve his doubts
+upon the point and found that she was watching him with some perplexity.
+A question to Conway explained the reason why she was puzzled.
+
+'How did you know that I asked Mr. Drake to Beaufort Gardens?' she asked.
+
+'I was present when Mallinson asked him to go.'
+
+'Mr. Mallinson asked him!' she exclaimed, dropping her fan in her
+surprise. 'Why, I thought--' She saw the confusion in Mallinson's face
+and checked herself suddenly with a little laugh of pure enjoyment. Her
+companion's jealousy was more heroical than she had given him credit for;
+it had induced him to lie.
+
+To cover his discomfiture Mallinson dived for the fan.
+
+'Oh, don't trouble,' she said, sympathy shaping the words into a
+positive entreaty. 'You are _so_ short-sighted, you know. Then you will
+bring Mr. Drake,' she turned to Conway as he rose and moved towards the
+door. Mr. Le Mesurier had resumed his conversation with Fielding, and
+beyond a slight movement of impatience, he gave no sign that he had
+heard the words.
+
+'After the next act,' said Conway, and he went out.
+
+Mallinson picked up the fan and laid it upon the ledge of the box.
+
+'I lied to you that evening,' he whispered in a low faltering tone. 'I
+have no excuse--Can't you guess why I lied?'
+
+There was a feeling behind the words, genuine by the ring of it, and to
+feeling Clarice was by nature responsive. Mallinson saw the mischief die
+out of her face, the eyelids droop until the lashes touched the cheek.
+Then she raised them again, tenderness flowered in her eyes.
+
+'Perhaps,' she said.
+
+She turned from him and watched Conway making his way along the row of
+stalls. Drake was already in his seat.
+
+'Then why didn't Mr. Drake come if you asked him?' she said with a quick
+change of tone.
+
+'He gave no reason beyond that it was his first night in London.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier looked again at Drake. His indifference irritated her
+and in a measure interested her in spite of herself. She was not used to
+indifference, and felt a need to apologise for it to herself. 'Of
+course,' she reflected, 'he had not seen me then,' and so was reinstated
+in her self-esteem. The explanation, however, failed her the next
+moment. For Drake, at all events, had seen her now; she had caught him
+looking up into the box before Conway left. Yet when Conway communicated
+his news, Drake never so much as moved his head in her direction. The
+three blows of the mallet had just sounded from behind the curtain and
+he sat upright in his seat, his face fixed towards the stage. Clarice
+bit her lips and frowned.
+
+'Don't be alarmed. He is really quite interested in you.' She looked up.
+Fielding was standing just behind her shoulder. 'He asked me quite often
+what you were like.'
+
+'I don't understand you,' said she loftily; and then, 'He might be a
+schoolboy at his first pantomime.'
+
+'He gives that kind of impression, I believe, in everything he does.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier had not made the remark in order to elicit eulogy.
+
+'He looks old, though,' she said, and her voice defied Fielding to
+contradict her.
+
+'Responsibility writes with the cyphers of age,' he quoted solemnly. It
+was his habit to recite sentences from _A Man of Influence_ when
+Mallinson was present, in a tone which never burlesqued but somehow
+belittled the work. Mallinson was never able to take definite offence,
+but he was none the less invariably galled by it.
+
+'As a matter of fact there is hardly a year to choose between the ages of
+Drake, Conway, and you, Mallinson, is there?' asked Fielding.
+
+Mallinson admitted that the statement was correct.
+
+'He has lived a hard life, has anxieties enough now, I don't doubt. You
+will find the explanation in that. The only people who remain young
+nowadays are actors. They keep the child in them.'
+
+The curtain went up as he spoke. As soon as it was lowered again Conway
+hurried Drake out of the stalls and up the staircase to the box.
+Clarice welcomed Drake quietly. Mr. Le Mesurier vouchsafed him the
+curtest of nods.
+
+'Didn't I see you join Israel Biedermann?' asked Fielding. The name
+belonged to a speculator who had lately been raised into prominence by
+the clink of his millions.
+
+'Yes,' replied Drake, with a laugh. 'The city makes one acquainted with
+strange financiers. I have business with him.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier showed symptoms of interest.
+
+'Really?' he said. 'You mean to return to Africa, I suppose.'
+
+'If I can help it, no.'
+
+'You intend to stay in England?' asked Mallinson sharply.
+
+'Yes,' replied Drake. He addressed himself to Miss Le Mesurier. 'You were
+kind enough to invite me to your house on the evening I arrived.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier's eyebrows went up at the mention of the day.
+
+'Mr. Mallinson had talked of you,' she explained. 'We seemed to know you
+already. I saw that you had landed from an interview in the _Meteor_, and
+thought you might have liked to come with your friend.'
+
+The words were spoken indifferently.
+
+'The _Meteor_?' inquired Mr. Le Mesurier. 'Isn't that the paper which
+attacked you, Mr. Drake? You let yourself be interviewed by it? I didn't
+know that.'
+
+He glanced keenly at his daughter, and Mallinson intercepted the look.
+His conviction was proved certain. There was something concealed,
+something maybe worth his knowing.
+
+'The attack was of no importance,' replied Drake, 'but I wanted it to be
+known in some quarters that I had landed without losing time.'
+
+'You replied to the attack?'
+
+'Not so much that. I gave the itinerary of the march to Boruwimi.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier perceived his daughter's eyes quietly resting upon him,
+and checked a movement of impatience, less at the answer than at his own
+folly in provoking it. Drake turned to Clarice and was offered a seat by
+her side. He realised, now that she was near, talking to him, that his
+impression of her, gained from the distance between the box and the
+stalls, did her injustice. She seemed now the vignette of a beautiful
+woman, missing the stateliness, perhaps, too, the distinction, but
+obtaining by very reason of what she missed a counterbalancing charm, to
+be appreciated only at close quarters, a charm of the quiet kind,
+diffused about her like a light; winsome--that was the epithet he
+applied to her, and remained doubtfully content with it, for there was a
+gravity too.
+
+Clarice invited him to speak of Matanga, but Drake was reticent on the
+subject, through sheer disinclination to talk about himself, a
+disinclination which the girl recognised, and gave him credit for,
+shooting a comparing glance at Mallinson.
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier, it should be said, remarked this reticence as well, and
+it gave him an idea. From Matanga Drake led the conversation back to
+London, and they fell to discussing the play.
+
+'You are very interested in it,' she said.
+
+'Yes,' said he, 'I have never seen the play before.'
+
+'I should hardly have thought it would have suited your taste,'
+Conway observed.
+
+'Why? It's French of course, but you can discount the sentiment. There is
+a stratum of truth left, don't you think?'
+
+Mallinson raised pitying shoulders. 'Of the ABC order perhaps,' he
+allowed.
+
+'I am afraid it appeals to me all the more on that account,' Drake
+answered, with a genial laugh. 'But what I meant really was truth to
+those people--truth to the characters presumed. Consistency is perhaps
+the better word. I like to see a play run on simple lines to an end you
+can't but foresee. The taste's barbarian, I don't doubt.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier's lips instinctively pouted a mischievous 'bourgeois'
+towards Mallinson. He remarked hastily that he thought the curtain was on
+the point of rising, and Miss Le Mesurier pushed her opera-glasses
+towards him with a serene 'Not yet, I think.' Mallinson understood the
+suggestion of her movement and relapsed into a sullen silence.
+
+By the time that Conway and Drake rose to leave the box Mr. Le Mesurier
+had thought out his idea. His manner changed of a sudden to one of great
+cordiality; he expressed his pleasure at meeting Drake, and shook him by
+the hand, but destroyed the effect of his action through weakly revealing
+his diplomacy to his daughter by a triumphant glance at her.
+
+At the close of the performance he met Drake in the vestibule of the
+theatre and lingered behind his party. Fielding, Mallinson, and Conway
+meanwhile saw Miss Le Mesurier into her carriage.
+
+'What in the world is papa doing?' asked Clarice.
+
+'Exchanging cards with Drake,' replied Fielding. Mallinson turned his
+head round quickly and beheld the two gentlemen affably shaking hands
+again. Conway bent into the carriage.
+
+'Do you like him?' he asked.
+
+'Oh yes,' she replied indifferently.
+
+'Then I am glad I introduced him to you,' and some emphasis was laid
+upon the 'I.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier came out to the brougham and the coachman drove off.
+
+'I like that young fellow, Drake,' he said, with a wave of the hand. 'I
+have asked him to call.'
+
+Clarice did not inform her diplomatic father that unless she had foreseen
+his intention she would have undertaken the discharge of that act of
+courtesy herself.
+
+Mallinson took a hansom and drove straight from the theatre to his
+chambers in South Kensington, Conway walked off in the opposite
+direction, so that Drake and Fielding were left to stroll away together.
+They walked across Leicester Square towards St. James's Street, each
+occupied with his own thoughts. Fielding's were of an unusually
+stimulating kind; he foresaw the possibility of a very diverting comedy,
+to be played chiefly for his amusement and partly for Miss Le Mesurier's,
+by Clarice herself, Drake, and Mallinson. From the clash of two natures
+so thoroughly different as those of the two men, played off against one
+another with all the delicate manipulation of Miss Le Mesurier's
+experienced hand, there was much enjoyment to be anticipated for the
+purely disinterested spectator which he intended to be. Of the probable
+_dénouement_ he formed no conception, and in fact avoided purposely any
+temptation to do so. He preferred that the play should unroll itself in a
+series of delightful surprises. The one question which he asked himself
+at this time was whether Drake might not decline to act his proper and
+assigned part. He glanced at him as they walked along. Drake looked
+thoughtful, and was certainly silent; both thought and silence were
+propitious signs. On the other hand, Drake had interests in the City, had
+them at heart too, and, worse still, had the City itself at heart.
+
+Fielding recollected an answer he had made to Mallinson. The word 'heart'
+brought it to his mind. Mallinson was jeering at the journalist's
+metaphor of the 'throbbing heart' as applied to London. 'The phrase,'
+Drake had said, 'to me is significant of something more than cheap
+phraseology. I know that half a throb could create an earthquake in
+Matanga.' What if the man's established interest in this direction were
+to suppress his nascent interest in Clarice! Fielding immediately asked
+Drake what he thought of Miss Le Mesurier.
+
+'Oh!' said the latter, palpably waking from reflections of quite another
+order, 'I liked her,' and he spoke of her looks.
+
+'She has the art of dressing well,' corrected Fielding, disappointment
+spurring him to provoke advocacy of the lady. Drake, however, was
+indifferent to the correction.
+
+'I like her eyes,' he said.
+
+'She is skilled in the use of them.'
+
+'I didn't notice that. They seemed of the quiet kind.'
+
+'At need she can swing a wrecker's light behind them.'
+
+'I like her hand too. It has the grip of a friend.'
+
+'A friend! Yes. There's the pitfall.'
+
+Drake only laughed. He was not to be persuaded to any strenuous defence,
+and Fielding felt inclined to harbour a grudge against him as needlessly
+a spoil-sport. Later on, however, when he was in bed it occurred to him
+that the play might still be performed, though upon different lines, and
+with a plot rather different from what he had imagined--his plot
+inverted, in fact. Clarice Le Mesurier, he remembered, had made the first
+advance to Drake. What if she for once in a while were to figure as the
+pursuer! That alternative would, perhaps, be the more diverting of the
+two. He must consult Mrs. Willoughby as to the effect which Drake's
+bearing would produce on women--consult her cautiously, prudence warned
+him. Mrs. Willoughby, a cousin and friend of Miss Le Mesurier's, was not
+of the sort to lend a helping hand in the game if the girl was to provide
+the sport--or indeed in the other event. The one essential thing,
+however, was that there should be a comedy, and he must see to it that
+there was one, with which reflection he drew the bed-clothes comfortably
+about him and went to sleep.
+
+There was, however, one other condition equally essential to his
+enjoyment, but so apparently inevitable that he did not stop to consider
+it, namely, that Hugh Fielding should be a mere spectator. It did not
+occur to him at all that he might be drawn into an unwilling assumption
+of a part in his own play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Mallinson on reaching home unlocked a little oak cabinet which hung
+against the wall beside his writing-table, and searched amongst a litter
+of newspaper cuttings and incomplete manuscripts. He unearthed at last a
+copy of the _Meteor_, bought between the Grand Hotel and Beaufort Gardens
+on the night of Drake's dinner, and, drawing up a chair to the fire, he
+read through the interview again. The something to be known was
+gradually, he felt, shaping into a definite form; it had acquired
+locality this very evening, as he was assured by the recollection of a
+certain repressed movement upon Mr. Le Mesurier's part at the mention of
+Boruwimi. Could he add to the knowledge by the help of the interview? Mr.
+Le Mesurier had not known of its publication until to-night, and so
+clearly had not read it; his knowledge was antedated. But on the other
+hand it was immediately after the perusal of the article that Clarice had
+sent through him her invitation to Drake.
+
+Mallinson studied the article line by line, but without result.
+
+He tossed the newspaper back into the cupboard, changed his coat, and
+sat down to his writing-table with a feverish impulse to work. He was
+unable to conceive it possible that Drake should be unaffected by Miss
+Le Mesurier's attractions. The man was energetic, therefore a dangerous
+rival. Miss Le Mesurier, besides, seemed bent upon pitting Drake and
+himself against each other. Why? he asked. Well, whatever the reason,
+he had a chance of winning--more than a chance, he reflected,
+remembering a passage of tenderness that evening. His future was
+promising, if only he worked. Perhaps Clarice only ranged the two men
+opposite to one another in order to stimulate one of them; he reached
+an answer to his question 'Why?'
+
+The extravagances of a lover's thoughts have often this much value: they
+disclose principles of his nature working at the formation of the man,
+and in Mallinson's case they betrayed his habit of drawing the energy for
+application from externals, and from no sacred fire within.
+
+He shut his door and worked for a month. At the end of the month, lying
+in bed at night and watching a planet visible through his window, he saw
+the ray of light between himself and the star divide into two, and the
+two beams describe outwards segments of a circle. He turned his face away
+for a few moments and then looked at the planet again. The phenomenon was
+repeated. He knew it for a trick of tired eyes and a warning to slacken
+his labours. On the next afternoon he called at Beaufort Gardens, and was
+received warmly by Clarice and her aunt.
+
+There was a suggestion of reproach for his long absence in the former's
+voice, and suggestion of reproach from her kindled him. He explained his
+plunge under surface on the ground of work. Details were immediately
+demanded, the plot of the new novel discussed and praised; there was
+flattery too in the diffident criticism of an incident here and there,
+and the sweetest foretaste of happiness in the joint rearrangement of the
+disputed chapter. Mallinson was lifted on a billow of confidence. He was
+of the type which adjusts itself to the opinions his company may have of
+him. Praise Mallinson and he deserved praises; ignore him and he sank
+like a plummet to depths of insignificance, conscious of insignificance
+and of nothing more except a dull rancour against the person who
+impressed the knowledge on him. That way Drake had offended unwittingly
+at the Grand Hotel; he had recognised no distinction between the
+Mallinson of to-day and the Mallinson of ten years ago.
+
+Mallinson was asked to dinner on Friday of the next week.
+
+'Really,' said the aunt after his departure, 'he is very clever. I didn't
+understand what he said, but he is very clever.'
+
+'Yes,' said Clarice reflectively, 'I suppose--I mean of course he is.'
+
+She spoke in a tone of hesitation which surprised her auditor, for
+hitherto Clarice had been very certain as to her impressions on
+the point.
+
+At dinner on the following Friday Mallinson was confronted by Conway and
+had Mrs. Willoughby upon his right. Mallinson liked Mrs. Willoughby, the
+widow of the black hair and blue eyes, now in the mauve stage of
+widowhood. She drew him out of the secretiveness within which he
+habitually barred himself, and he felt thankful to her for his prisoner's
+hour of mid-day airing. Mrs. Willoughby spoke to Clarice, mentioning a
+private view of an exhibition of pictures at which she had seen Clarice.
+
+'Who was the cavalier?' she added.
+
+'Mr. Drake,' Clarice replied serenely. 'I met him there by accident.'
+Mrs. Willoughby looked puzzled, and repeated the name in an undertone.
+
+'You don't know him, I think,' Clarice went on. 'He comes here. Papa
+asked him to call. Captain Drake, I suppose we ought to call him, but he
+has dropped the Captain.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started and shot a bewildered glance at Mr. Le Mesurier.
+
+'I like the man very much,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, with a touch of
+championship in his voice. 'You should meet him. I am sure you would
+like him too.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby made no answer to the suggestion, and resumed her dinner
+in silence, while Conway sang his usual paean of praise. After a little
+she turned to Mallinson.
+
+'Do you know this Mr. Drake?'
+
+'Yes, we were boys together in the same suburb before he went to Africa.
+It was unfortunately through me that he was asked to this house. I had
+mentioned him as a friend of mine at one time, and Miss Le Mesurier
+invited me to bring him on the day he reached London.'
+
+'So soon as that! It's funny Clarice never mentioned him to me. You, of
+course, told her the date of Mr. Drake's arrival.'
+
+'No, she found that out from an interview in the _Meteor_.'
+
+'I remember.'
+
+'You read it?'
+
+'Yes. So you introduced him to Clarice?'
+
+'No. He did not come that night. Conway brought him up to Mr. Le
+Mesurier's box when _Frou-Frou_ was being played a month ago.'
+
+'Never mind, we will talk of something else.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby had just observed Clarice. She was nodding assent to the
+words of her neighbour, but plainly lending an attentive ear to Mrs.
+Willoughby's conversation. Mrs. Willoughby spoke of indifferent subjects
+until the ladies rose.
+
+When Mallinson, however, entered the drawing-room, he perceived Mrs.
+Willoughby's fan motioning him to attendance, and she took up the thread
+of her talk at the point where she had dropped it.
+
+'You said unfortunately.'
+
+'Well, you have read the _Meteor_.'
+
+'You endorse their view?'
+
+'From what I have seen of Drake since his return, yes.'
+
+'But if there's anything in their charges, why doesn't the Colonial
+Office move?'
+
+'The Colonial Office!' Mallinson shrugged his shoulders. 'You forget only
+natives and Arabs were killed in the Boruwimi expedition, and they don't
+count. If he had killed a white man--What's the matter?'
+
+'Nothing,' said Mrs. Willoughby, recovering from a start; 'an idea
+occurred to me, that's all.'
+
+'Tell me.'
+
+For a moment Mrs. Willoughby seemed at a loss. Then she said, with a
+laugh:
+
+'If you will know, I was wondering whether your explanation covered
+all you meant by "unfortunately."' She lowered her voice. 'You can be
+frank with me.'
+
+Mallinson was diverted by her assurance of sympathy, and launched out
+immediately into an elaborate history of the emotions which the
+friendliness of Miss Le Mesurier to Drake had set bubbling within him.
+Mr. Le Mesurier approached the pair before Mallinson had finished, and
+the latter hurriedly broke off.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, 'will you meet Mr. Drake, Constance, at
+lunch, say on Sunday?'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby stared.
+
+'Do you mean that?'
+
+'Certainly.' Mr. Le Mesurier was defiant. Mrs. Willoughby's stare changed
+to a look of thoughtfulness.
+
+'No,' she said, 'I don't think I could.' She moved away. Mallinson
+followed her.
+
+'You know something about Drake,' he exclaimed, 'something which
+would help me.'
+
+'That is hardly generous rivalry,' she replied.
+
+'Does he deserve generosity?' he asked, with a trace of cunning in his
+expression which Mrs. Willoughby found distasteful.
+
+'If I can help you,' she answered evasively, 'help you honourably, I
+will,' and she turned away. Mallinson put out a hand to stop her.
+
+'I need help,' he whispered. 'There is a conspiracy to praise the man.
+You heard Conway at dinner. It's the same with every one, from Mr. Le
+Mesurier to Fielding.'
+
+'Oh,' she said, her voice kindling to an expression of interest, 'does
+Mr. Fielding like him? He is fastidious too.' She paused for a second in
+deliberation, her eyes searching the floor. Raising them, she perceived
+Mr. Le Mesurier coming towards her.
+
+'I claim our privilege,' she said. 'I will lunch on Sunday, and meet your
+paragon, after all.'
+
+'I am very glad,' he said impressively. 'Lunch at two.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby waited until he was out of ear-shot, and turned again to
+Mallinson.
+
+'It is best that I should see the man, and know something more of him
+than hearsay. Don't you think so?'
+
+A note of apology discounted the explanation. Mallinson understood that
+the reference to Fielding was the cause of her change of mind.
+
+'Do you value Fielding's opinion?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, I don't know. On some subjects I think yes. Don't you?'
+
+Mallinson began to wonder immediately whether Fielding's opinions might
+not be valuable after all, since Mrs. Willoughby valued them. If so, the
+man might be able to throw some light upon other points--for instance,
+the perplexing question of Miss Le Mesurier's inclinations. Mallinson
+made up his mind to call upon Fielding. He called on the Sunday morning,
+and Fielding blandly related to him his history of Sark.
+
+Having worked Mallinson to a sufficiently amusing pitch of indignation,
+and having hinted his moral that the subjugation of Miss Le Mesurier
+would be effected only by the raider, Fielding complacently dismissed him
+and repaired to Beaufort Gardens for lunch. He found Drake upon the
+doorstep with a hand upon the knocker, and the two gentlemen exchanged
+greetings.
+
+'I have just left Mallinson,' said Fielding.
+
+Drake's hand fell from the knocker.
+
+'Tell me!' he said. 'Mallinson perplexes me in many ways. For instance,
+he shows me little good-will now--'
+
+'Does that surprise you?' Fielding interjected, with a laugh.
+
+Drake coloured and replied quickly, 'You didn't let me finish. If he
+dislikes me, what made him talk about me as his friend to--to the Le
+Mesuriers before I returned to England?'
+
+'Your name in print. You verged on--well, notoriety. You may laugh, but
+that's the reason. Mallinson's always on the rack of other people's
+opinions--judges himself by what he imagines to be their standard of him.
+Acquaintanceship with a celebrity lifts him in their eyes, he thinks, so
+really in his own.'
+
+Drake remained doubtfully pondering what credit acquaintanceship with him
+could confer on any one. He was led back to his old view of Mallinson as
+a man tottering on a rickety base.
+
+'Will he do something great?' he asked, his forehead puckered in an
+effort to calculate the qualities which make for greatness.
+
+Fielding chuckled quietly, and answered:
+
+'Unlikely, I think. Clever, of course, the man is, but it is never the
+work he does that pleases him, but the pose after the work's done.
+That's fatal.'
+
+Drake looked at Fielding curiously.
+
+'That's a criticism which would never have occurred to me.' He glanced at
+his watch. 'We have five minutes. Shall we walk round the Gardens?'
+Fielding chuckled again and assented. He saw the curtain rising on his
+comedy. For five minutes they paced up and down the pavement, with an
+interchange of simple questions on Drake's part, and discriminating
+answers on Fielding's--answers not wholly to encourage, but rather to
+promote a state of doubt, so much more interesting to the spectator.
+
+When after the five minutes had elapsed they entered the house, they
+found that Mrs. Willoughby had arrived.
+
+Clarice introduced Stephen Drake to Mrs. Willoughby. He saw a woman
+apparently in the early twenties, tall, with a broad white forehead,
+under masses of unruly black hair, and black eyebrows shadowing eyes of
+the colour of sea-shallows on an August morning. The eyes were hard, he
+noticed, and the lips pressed together; she bowed to him without a word.
+Hostility was evidently to be expected, and Drake wondered at this, for
+he knew Mrs. Willoughby to be Clarice's chief friend and confidante. Mrs.
+Willoughby fired the first shot of the combat as soon as they had sat
+down to lunch. She spoke of unscrupulous cruelty shown by African
+explorers, and appealed to Drake for correction, she said, but her tone
+implied corroboration.
+
+'I have known cases,' he admitted, 'here and there. You can't always
+prevent it. The pioneer in a new country doesn't bring testimonials with
+him invariably. In fact, one case of the kind happened under my own eyes,
+I might almost say.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby seemed put out of countenance by Drake's reply. She had
+plainly expected a strenuous denial of her statement. Drake caught a
+look of reproof which Mr. Le Mesurier directed towards her, and set it
+down to his host's courtesy towards his guest. Clarice, however, noticed
+the look too.
+
+'Indeed,' she said. 'Tell us about it, Mr. Drake. It will be a change
+from our usual frock-coat conversation.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier imposed the interdict of paternal authority.
+
+'I think, my dear, stories of that class are, as a rule, a trifle crude.
+Eh, Drake?'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier on the instant became personified submission.
+
+'Of course, papa,' she said, 'if you have reason for believing the story
+isn't suitable, I wouldn't think of asking Mr. Drake to tell it.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier raised his hands in a gesture of despair, and looked
+again at Mrs. Willoughby. His glance said, unmistakably, 'Now see what
+you've done!' Fielding broke into an open laugh; and Clarice haughtily
+asked him to explain the joke, so that the others present might share in
+his amusement.
+
+'I will,' said Fielding. 'In fact, I meant you to ask me to. I laughed,
+because I notice that whenever you are particularly obedient to Papa,
+then you are particularly resolved to have your own way.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier's foot tapped under the table.
+
+'Of course,' she said, with a withering shrug of her shoulders, 'that's
+wit, Mr. Fielding.' Repartee was not her strong point.
+
+'No,' he replied, 'merely rudeness. And what's the use of being a
+privileged friend of the family if you can't be rude?'
+
+Drake came to the rescue. 'Mr. Le Mesurier is quite right,' said he.
+'Incidents of the kind I mentioned are best left untold.'
+
+'I don't doubt it,' said Fielding. 'A man loses all sight of humanitarian
+principles the moment he's beyond view of a fireside.'
+
+'Oh, does he?' replied Drake. 'The man by the fireside is apt to confuse
+sentiment with humanitarian principles; and sentiment, I admit, you have
+to get rid of when you find yourself surrounded with savages.'
+
+'Exactly! You become assimilated with the savages, and retain only one
+link between yourself and civilisation.'
+
+'And that link?'
+
+'Is a Maxim gun.'
+
+'My dear fellow, that's nonsense,' Drake answered in some heat. 'It's
+easy enough to sit here and discuss humanitarian principles, but you need
+a pretty accurate knowledge of what they are, and what they are not,
+before you begin to apply them recklessly beyond the reach of
+civilisation. When I went first to Africa, I stayed for a time at
+Pretoria, and from Pretoria I went north in a pioneer company. You want
+to have been engaged in an expedition of that kind to quite appreciate
+what it means. We were on short rations a good part of the time, with a
+fair prospect of absolute starvation ahead, and doing forced marches all
+the while. When we camped of an evening, I have seen men who had eaten
+nothing since breakfast, and little enough then, just slip the saddles
+from the horses, and go fast asleep under the nearest tree, without
+bothering about their supper. Then, perhaps, an officer would shake them
+up, and they'd have to go collecting brushwood for fires. That's a pretty
+bad business in the dark, when you're dead tired with the day's tramp.
+You don't much care whether you pick up a snake or a stick of wood. I
+remember, too,' and he gave a laugh at the recollection, 'we used to be
+allowed about a thimbleful of brandy a day. Well, I have noticed men walk
+twenty yards away from the camps to drink their tot, for fear some one
+might jog their elbows. And it was only one mouthful after all--you
+didn't need to water it. Altogether, that kind of expedition would be
+something considerably more than an average strain upon a man's
+endurance, if it was led through a friendly country. But add to your
+difficulties the continual presence of an enemy, outnumbering you
+incalculably, always on the alert for you to slacken discipline for a
+second, and remember you are not marching to safety, but from it. The
+odds against you are increasing all the time, and that not for one or two
+days, but for eighty and a hundred. I can assure you, one would hear a
+great deal less of the harmlessness of the black, if more people had
+experienced that grisly hour before daybreak, when they generally make
+their attacks. Your whole force--it's a mere handful--stands under arms
+at attention in the dark--and it can be dark on the veld, even in the
+open, on a starlight night. The veld seems to drink up and absorb the
+light, as though it was so much water trickling on the parched ground.
+There you stand! You have thrown out scouts to search the country round
+you, but you know for certain that half of them are nodding asleep in
+their saddles. For all you know, you may be surrounded on all sides. The
+strain of that hour of waiting grows so intense that you actually long to
+see the flash of a scout's rifle, and so be certain they are coming, or
+to feel the ground shake under you, as they stamp their war-dance half a
+mile away. Their battle chant, too, makes an uncanny sound, when it
+swells across the veld in the night, but, upon my soul, you almost hear
+it with relief.'
+
+Drake stopped and looked round upon faces fixed intently on his own,
+faces which mirrored his own absorption in his theme. There was one
+exception, however; Mrs. Willoughby sat back in her chair
+constraining herself to an attitude of indifference, and as Drake
+glanced at her, her lips seemed to be moving as though with the
+inward repetition of some word or phrase. Even Fielding was shaken
+out of his supermundane quietism.
+
+For the first time he saw revealed the real quality in Drake; he saw
+visibly active that force of which, although it had lain hitherto latent,
+he had always felt the existence and understood why he had made friends
+so quickly, and compelled those friends so perpetually to count with him
+in their thoughts. It was not so much in the mere words that Drake
+expressed this quality as in the spirit which informed, the voice which
+launched them, and the looks which gave them point. His face flashed into
+mobility, enthusiasm dispelling its set habit of gravity, sloughing it,
+Fielding thought, or better still, burning through it as through a crust
+of lava; his eyes--eyes which listened, Fielding had not inaptly
+described them--now spoke, and spoke vigorously; enthusiasm, too, rode on
+his voice, deepening its tones--not enthusiasm of the febrile kind which
+sends the speech wavering up and down the scale, but enthusiasm with
+sobriety as its dominant note concentrated into a level flow of sound.
+His description had all the freshness of an immediate occurrence.
+Compared with the ordinary style of reminiscence it was the rose upon the
+tree to the dried leaves of a _potpourri_.
+
+'But,' said Fielding, unconsciously resisting the influence which Drake
+exerted, 'I thought you took a whole army of blacks with you on these
+expeditions?'
+
+'Not on the one I speak of. In Matanga a small force of them, yes! But
+even they were difficult to manage, and you could not depend upon them.
+They would desert at the first opportunity, sell their guns, your
+peace-offerings of brass rods, and whatever they could lay their hands
+on, and straggle behind in the dusk until they got lost. It was no use
+sending back for them in the morning. One would only have found their
+bones, and their bones pretty well scoured too. I speak of them as a
+class, of course. There were races loyal enough no doubt, the Zanzibari,
+for instance. But the difficulty with them was to prevent them fighting
+when there was no occasion. In fact the blacks who were loyal made up for
+their loyalty by a lack of common-sense.'
+
+'Cause and effect, I should be inclined to call the combination,'
+remarked Fielding, 'with the lack of common-sense as the cause.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked her gratitude across the table, and again her lips
+moved. Drake chanced to catch her eye, and in spite of herself she
+rippled to a laugh. She had been defending herself by a repetition of the
+editor's comment of "filibuster."
+
+But at the same moment that Drake's glance met hers she had just waked up
+to the humour of her conduct, and recognised it as a veritable child's
+device. She could not but laugh, and, laughing there into the eyes of the
+man, she lost her hostility to him. However, Mrs. Willoughby made an
+effort to recover it.
+
+'Well, I don't see,' she said to Drake, 'what right you have got to
+marching into other people's countries even though they are black.'
+
+'Ah!' Drake answered. 'That's precisely what I call, if I may say so, the
+fireside point of view. We obey a law of nature rather than claim a
+right. One can discuss the merits of a law of nature comfortably by a
+fireside. But out there one realises how academic the discussion is, one
+obeys it. The white man has always spread himself over the country of the
+black man, and we may take it he always will. He has the pioneer's
+hankering after the uttermost corners of the earth, and in addition to
+that the desire to prosper. He obeys both motives; they are of the
+essence of him. Besides, if it comes to a question of abstract right, I
+am not sure we couldn't set up a pretty good case. After all, a nation
+holds its country primarily to benefit itself, no doubt, but also in
+trust for the world; and the two things hang together. It benefits itself
+by observing that trust. Now the black man seals his country up, he
+doesn't develop it. In the first place he doesn't know how to, and in the
+second, if he did, he would forget as soon as he could. I suppose that it
+is impossible to estimate the extent of the good which the opening of
+Africa has done for an overcrowded continent like Europe; and what
+touches Europe touches the world, no doubt of that, is there? But I'm
+preaching,' and he came abruptly to an end.
+
+'What I don't understand,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, and he voiced a question
+the others felt an impulse to ask, 'is, how on earth you are content to
+settle down as a business man in the City?'
+
+Drake retired into himself and replied with some diffidence:
+
+'Oh, the change is not as great perhaps as you think, I have always
+looked forward to returning here. One has ambitions of a kind.'
+
+'You ought to go into Parliament,' Clarice said.
+
+Drake laughed, thanking her with the laugh. 'It's rather too early to
+speak of that.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby observed that he actually blushed. A blushing filibuster!
+There was a contradiction of terms in the phrase, and he undoubtedly
+blushed. A question shot through her mind. Did he blush from modesty, or
+because Clarice made the suggestion?
+
+Mrs. Willoughby asked Fielding for an answer as he stood by the door of
+her brougham, before she drove away from Beaufort Gardens.
+
+'For both reasons, I should say,' he replied.
+
+'You think, then, he's attracted? He hardly showed signs of it, except
+that once, and modesty alone might account for that.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby laid some insistence upon the possibility.
+
+'I should have been inclined to agree with you,' answered Fielding, 'but
+Drake dragged me round the square before lunch to question me about
+Mallinson.'
+
+'That makes for your view, certainly. What did you tell him?'
+
+'I painted the portrait which I thought he wanted, picked out
+Mallinson's vices in clear colours and added a few which occurred to me
+at the moment. However, Drake closed my mouth with--"He's a hard
+worker, though."'
+
+'I like the man for that!' cried Mrs. Willoughby, and checked
+herself suddenly.
+
+'Yes, he's honest certainly.'
+
+'But was he right?'
+
+'Quite! Mallinson works very hard; scents danger, I suppose.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby heaved a sigh of relief.
+
+'There's some chance for him, then. Will he do anything great?'
+
+Fielding laughed.
+
+'That's one of the questions Drake put to me! I think never.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby accepted the dictum without asking for the reason. She
+sat for a moment disconsolately thoughtful. Then she gave a start.
+
+'There's Percy Conway. I had forgotten him!'
+
+'And wisely, I should think. He is just making a back for Drake to jump
+from if he will.'
+
+'Yes, I noticed that,' said Mrs. Willoughby, with a sneer at the folly of
+the creature. 'He seems to look upon Mallinson and himself as the two
+figures which tell the weather in a Swiss clock. When one comes out of
+his box the other goes in. I catch your trick, you see,' and her face
+relaxed to a smile.
+
+'Only to improve on it in the matter of truth. For you imply a comparison
+between Miss Le Mesurier and the weather, and the points of resemblance
+are strong.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby's smile became a laugh. 'I don't hold with you about
+Clarice,' she said. 'You don't know her as I do. She can take things
+seriously.'
+
+'Intensely so--for five minutes. I have never denied it.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby did not display her usual alacrity to engage in the
+oft-repeated combat as to Miss Le Mesurier's merits. Her face grew
+serious again.
+
+'Does Clarice care for him, you think?'
+
+Fielding was admiring Mrs. Willoughby's eyes at the moment, and answered
+absently. 'Conway, you mean?'
+
+'No, no! How wilfully irritating you are! This Mr. Drake, of course. By
+the way, I suppose he will get on?' She spoke in a voice which implied
+regret for the supposition, and almost appealed for a denial of it.
+
+'I should think there's no doubt of it. They tell me he has just sent a
+force up country in Matanga to locate concessions. You hit harder than
+you knew at lunch, for the force carries machine-guns. Oh yes, he'll get
+on. He has been seen arm-in-arm with Israel Biedermann in Throgmorton
+Street. You must tell that to a city man to realise what it means.'
+
+'But do you think Clarice cares for him?'
+
+'Miss Le Mesurier cares for--' he began, and broke off with a question.
+'Do you read Latin?' He was answered with an exasperated shake of the
+head. 'Because Miss Le Mesurier always reminds me of an ode of Horace,
+Finished, exquisite to the finger-tips, but still lacking something.
+Soul, is it? Perhaps that lack makes the perfection. But what's your
+objection to Drake?'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started a little. 'Objection?' she laughed. 'Why? I never
+told you that I had one.'
+
+'You told not only me, but every one at lunch--Drake himself included.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked doubtfully at Fielding. 'Well,' she said, 'there
+is something. I feel inclined to explain it to you. You may be able to
+advise me. Not now!' she went on as Fielding bent forward with a very
+unusual interest. 'Let me see. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday'--she ticked
+off the days upon her fingers. 'Thursday afternoon. Could you come and
+see me then?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Thanks. Good-bye, and don't forget; five o'clock. I shall be in to
+no one else.' And Mrs. Willoughby drove off with the smile again
+upon her face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Whether Fielding was correct in limiting Miss Le Mesurier's capacity
+for continued seriousness, she was undeniably serious when she called
+upon Mrs. Willoughby at half-past one on the following day. There were
+dark shadows under her eyes, and the eyes themselves seemed to look
+pathetic reproaches at a world which had laid upon her unmerited
+distress. Mrs. Willoughby was startled at her appearance, and imagined
+some family disaster.
+
+'Why, Clarice, what has happened?' she exclaimed. 'You look as if you
+hadn't slept all night.'
+
+Clarice kissed her, and for answer sighed wearifully. Mrs. Willoughby was
+immediately relieved. The trouble was due, she realised, to some new
+shuffle of Clarice's facile emotions. She returned the kiss, and
+refrained from further questions; but, being a practical woman, she rang
+the bell and ordered the servant to lay two places for lunch.
+
+Clarice sank despondently into the most comfortable chair in the room.
+
+'Not for me,' she said. 'I am sure I couldn't eat anything.'
+
+'You may as well try, dear,' replied Mrs. Willoughby; and she crossed to
+Clarice and unpinned her hat--a little straw hat, with the daintiest of
+pink ribbons. She held it in her hand for a moment, weighing it with a
+smile which had something of tenderness in it. She laid a light hand upon
+the brown hair, touching with a caress the curls about the forehead. A
+child's face was turned up to hers with a pretty appeal of melancholy.
+Mrs. Willoughby was moved to kiss the girl again. In spite of a
+similarity of years, she had an affection almost maternal for Clarice;
+and, with an intuition, too, which was almost maternal, she was able to
+appreciate the sincerity of the girl's distress, with a doubtful smile at
+the gravity of its cause.
+
+Clarice threw her arms about Mrs. Willoughby's neck. 'Oh, Connie,' she
+quavered, 'you can't guess what has happened!' The voice threatened to
+break into sobs, and there were tears already brimming the eyes.
+
+'Never mind; you shall tell me after lunch.'
+
+At lunch Mrs. Willoughby industriously beguiled her with anecdotes. She
+talked of an uncle of Clarice, a Philistine sea-captain with pronounced
+opinions upon the advance of woman, ludicrously mimicking his efforts to
+adapt a quarter-deck style of denunciation to the gentler atmosphere of a
+drawing-room. To sharpen his diatribes the worthy captain was in the
+habit of straining ineffectually after epigrams. Mrs. Willoughby quoted
+an unsuccessful essay concerning the novels women favoured. 'A woman with
+a slice of intellect likes that sort of garbage for the same reason that
+a girl with a neat pair of ankles likes a little mud in the streets.'
+Clarice was provoked to a reluctant smile by a mental picture of a
+violent rubicund face roaring the words. She was induced to play with a
+fragment of sole; she ended by eating the wing of a chicken.
+
+'Now,' said Mrs. Willoughby when she had set Clarice upon a sofa in front
+of a cosy fire in her boudoir, 'tell me what all the trouble's about.'
+She drew up a low chair and sat down with a hand upon the girl's arm.
+
+'It's about Sid--I mean Mr. Mallinson,' she began. 'He called yesterday
+afternoon after you had left. Papa had gone out for a walk, and aunt was
+lying down with a sick headache. So I saw him alone. He said he was glad
+to get the opportunity of speaking to me by myself, and he--he--well, he
+asked me to marry him. He was quite different from what he usually is,
+else I might have stopped him before. But he made a sort of rush at it. I
+told him that I was very sorry, but I didn't care for him in that kind of
+way--at all events yet. And then it was horrible!' The voice began to
+break again.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby took hold of Clarice's hand, and the latter nestled
+towards her.
+
+'He got angry and violent, and said that I had persuaded him to give up
+his profession, and must have known quite well why he did it, and that no
+woman had a right to interfere with a man's life until she was prepared
+to accept the responsibility of her interference. I hardly understood
+what he said, because he frightened me; but I don't think that was at all
+a nice thing to say, do you, Connie?' and her hand tightened upon her
+friend's. 'But he said other things too, much worse than that,--I can't
+tell you. And at last I felt as if I wanted to scream. I should have
+screamed in a minute or two, I know, so I told him to go away. Then he
+became silent all at once, and just stood looking at me--and--and--I
+think that was worse than being abused. At last he said "Good-bye," so
+sorrowfully, and I knew it would be for ever, and we shook hands, and he
+went out into the hall and closed the door. It seemed to me that the door
+would never open again.'
+
+The threatened tears began to fall; Mrs. Willoughby, however, did not
+interrupt, and Clarice went on.
+
+'So as I heard the front door unlocked to let him out, I opened the door
+of the room and went into the hall. Mr. Mallinson was standing on the
+first step. He never looked back--he was turning up his coat-collar--and
+somehow it all seemed so sad. I felt as if I hadn't a friend left in the
+world. So--I--I--I--'
+
+'Well?' asked Mrs. Willoughby quickly.
+
+'I called him back into the room, and asked him if we couldn't be
+friends.'
+
+'What did he answer?'
+
+'That he didn't see how that was possible since he wanted to marry me.
+But I said that wouldn't matter as long as he didn't tell me so. I think
+men are so inconsiderate, don't you, Connie?' she broke off in a tone of
+reproach. 'I can't understand what there is to laugh at. You wouldn't
+either if you had seen him then, because he just sat down and cried, not
+as you and I do, you know, but with great tears running through his
+fingers and heaves of his shoulders. It was heartbreaking. Then he got up
+and begged my pardon for what he had said, and that was the worst of it
+all. He declared that if he went the rest of his way alone the journey
+would be all the easier for the mile I went along with him, and at that
+somehow I began to cry too, and--and--that's all.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby sat silent for a little. 'So you refused him,' she said
+thoughtfully, and she bent towards Clarice. 'Is it to be Stephen Drake?'
+
+Clarice started up from the sofa, and stood looking into the fire. 'What
+an extraordinary thing that you should ask me that,' she replied slowly,
+'because Mr. Mallinson asked it too.' She paused for a second or so and
+went on. 'I have never thought of him in that way, I am sure. Oh no!' and
+she roused herself from her attitude of deliberation and crossed to the
+window, speaking briskly as she went. 'I had quite a different reason.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked at her sharply but said nothing, and presently
+Clarice turned back into the room as though moved by a sudden impulse.
+'Can I write a note here?' she asked.
+
+'Certainly,' replied Mrs. Willoughby, and she set some envelopes and
+paper on the table. Clarice wrote a few lines and tore them up. She
+repeated the process on four sheets of note-paper, and as she was
+beginning the fifth attempt the door was opened and the servant
+announced that Mr. Conway was waiting in the drawing-room. Clarice tore
+up the fifth sheet and rose from her chair. 'I can write it when I get
+home,' she said.
+
+'Percy Conway!' said Mrs. Willoughby when the door was closed again.
+'What a funny thing! He's not in the habit of visiting me.'
+
+'The fact is,' said Clarice, without the least embarrassment, as
+she pinned on her hat, 'I asked him to call for me here. You don't
+mind, do you?'
+
+'Clarice!' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby. She stared at the girl,
+noticing the traces of tears still visible on her face, and then she
+began to laugh.
+
+'Connie!' said Miss Le Mesurier, and her tone showed that she was hurt.
+'You _are_ unsympathetic.'
+
+'I can't help it,' cried Mrs. Willoughby, and she laughed yet louder. 'I
+can't help it, dear!'
+
+'You can't imagine how lonely I have felt since--'
+
+'Since yesterday,' cried Mrs. Willoughby, and her laughter increased.
+'Clarice, you'll be the death of me.'
+
+Clarice stood gazing at her patiently, her face grave with reproach,
+until Mrs. Willoughby succeeded in composing herself to a fitting
+seriousness. But for all her efforts her mouth worked, and the dimples
+appeared and vanished in her cheeks, and a little ripple of laughter now
+and again escaped from her lips.
+
+'Really,' said Clarice, 'I am disappointed in you, Connie.'
+
+'I know it was out of place, dear,' said Mrs. Willoughby with humility,
+but nevertheless her voice shook as she spoke. Fearing another access she
+began, as a resource, to lecture Clarice upon the impropriety of making
+appointments with young gentlemen at other people's houses. The lecture,
+however, was received with disdain.
+
+'That seems to me still more out of place,' said Clarice.
+
+'Well, we had better go into the drawing-room to Mr. Conway,' said Mrs.
+Willoughby.
+
+Clarice was indeed excessively indignant with Mrs. Willoughby, for she
+was in the habit herself of treating her feelings with a tender
+solicitude, and consequently disliked the want of respect shown to them
+by her friend. She betrayed the extent of her indignation by a
+proportionately excessive friendliness towards Conway that afternoon. He
+was allowed to conduct her to four picture galleries, and a Panopticon
+museum of tortures; his offer to refresh her with tea in Bond Street was
+shyly accepted, and at parting he was thanked with effusion, 'for the
+pleasantest afternoon she had spent for some time.'
+
+On reaching home, however, Miss Le Mesurier immediately wrote out the
+note which she had begun in Mrs. Willoughby's boudoir. She wrote it now
+without hesitation, as though she had composed the form of its message
+while in the company of Conway, and addressed it to Stephen Drake. She
+had a question to ask him, she stated, of some importance to herself.
+Would he call on Thursday afternoon and answer it? Clarice read through
+the note before she sealed up the envelope. The word _importance_ caught
+her eye, and she pondered over it for a moment. She crossed it out
+finally and substituted _interest_. Then she sent her letter to the post.
+At breakfast on the Thursday morning, Clarice casually informed her
+father of Drake's visit. 'I wrote to him, asking him to call,' she added.
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier looked up from the pages of his _Times_. 'Why?' he
+asked quickly.
+
+'I want him to tell me something.'
+
+The _Times_ crackled in his hands and fluttered to the floor. He opened
+his mouth to speak and thought better of it, and repeated the action more
+than once. Then he scratched his head with a helpless air, and picked up
+his newspaper. 'Silly girl!' he said at last; 'silly girl!' and relapsed
+into silence. At the close of breakfast, however, he made an effort at
+expostulation. 'You will make the man believe you're in love with him,'
+he said, and in fact he could have chanced on no happier objection to
+present to her. Clarice flushed to the temples. Sidney Mallinson, Mrs.
+Willoughby, and now her father! All three had made the same suggestion,
+and the repetition of it vexed her pride. There were others they might
+have said it of with more appearance of truth, she thought: Sidney
+Mallinson himself, for instance, or even Percy Conway. But he, Drake! For
+a moment she felt inclined to telegraph to him telling him not to come.
+Then she thought of the motive which had induced her to send for him. No!
+She would ask her question that afternoon, and so have done with him for
+good. Aloud she answered:
+
+'How ridiculous! I should hardly think he has that sort of conceit.
+Anyhow, if he has that impression, I will take care that he does not
+carry it away.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier did not pursue the argument, but he gave certain
+instructions to his butler, and when Drake arrived at the house he was
+shown into the library. Mr. Le Mesurier received him.
+
+'Pull up a chair to the fire,' he said with an uneasy geniality. 'I have
+something to say to you, Drake. It won't take long.'
+
+Drake laid down his hat and seated himself opposite to Mr. Le Mesurier.
+
+'My daughter told me this morning, quite spontaneously, of course, that
+she had asked you to call in order that she might get from you a certain
+answer to a certain question, and I thought that I had better prepare you
+for what that question will be.' He hesitated in his speech, searching
+for the best way to begin his explanation, and he caught sight of a
+cigar-box on the mantelshelf above his head.
+
+'By the way, do you smoke?'
+
+'Yes, but I won't just now, thank you.'
+
+'You had better. You can throw it away when I have done. These are in
+rather a good condition.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier seemed inclined to branch off upon the quality of
+different brands, but Drake gave him no assistance. He lit his cigar and
+patiently waited, his eyes fixed upon his host. Mr. Le Mesurier felt
+driven back upon the actual point of his explanation, and almost
+compelled to fine his words down to just the needful quantity.
+
+'Clarice, I believe,' he said brusquely, 'means to ask you how Gorley
+died. He was engaged to her.'
+
+Drake did not so much as stir a muscle, even his eyes maintained their
+steadiness, and Mr. Le Mesurier drew a breath of relief. 'I am glad you
+take it like this,' he went on. 'I was afraid that what I had to say
+might have been, well, perhaps a blow to you, and if so the fault would
+have been mine; for I encouraged you to come here.'
+
+Drake bent forward and knocked the ash off the end of his cigar.
+
+'Yes,' he asked; 'why did you do that?'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier looked uncomfortable.
+
+'It is only right that I should be frank with you,' he replied. 'The mere
+fact of Gorley's death, apart from its manner, upset Clarice, more, I
+confess, than we expected, and made her quite ill for a time. She is not
+very strong, you know. So it was deemed best, not only by me, but by
+Gorley's family as well, that she should be kept in ignorance of what had
+actually happened. We simply told her that Gorley had died near Boruwimi.
+But I fancy that she suspected we were concealing something. Perhaps our
+avoidance of the subject gave her the hint, or it may have been Mrs.
+Willoughby.'
+
+'Mrs. Willoughby?'
+
+'She is related to the Gorley family as well as to us. It was through her
+Clarice first met Gorley,' he explained, and went on. 'Then you returned
+to England, and were interviewed in the _Meteor_. Clarice read the
+interview; you had described in it your march to Boruwimi, and she sent
+through Mallinson at once an invitation to you. I only found that out the
+night you were introduced to us at the theatre. It made me certain that
+she had suspicions, and I admit that I asked you to call in the hope of
+allaying them. I believed, foolishly as it seems, that if I was cordial,
+she would give up any ideas she might have, that you were connected in
+any way with Gorley's death. Afterwards, Drake, I need hardly tell you, I
+was glad you came here upon other grounds.' Mr. Le Mesurier leaned
+forward in his chair and touched Drake upon the knee. 'It didn't take
+long for me to conceive a genuine liking for you, and, of course, I knew
+all the time that you had only done your duty.'
+
+Drake made no response whatever to Mr. Le Mesurier's sentiment.
+
+'I understand, then,' he said, 'that Miss Le Mesurier was engaged to
+Gorley at the time of his death?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,' exclaimed the other, starting up from his chair. 'You are
+aware, I suppose, why Gorley left England?'
+
+Drake nodded assent.
+
+'The engagement was broken off then and there. And Clarice at that time
+did not seem to take it much to heart. I was inclined to believe that the
+whole affair had been just a girl's whim. Indeed, in spite of her
+illness, I am not certain now that that isn't the truth. She may have had
+some notion of reforming him. I find Clarice rather difficult to
+understand.'
+
+Drake stood up. 'Where is Miss Le Mesurier?' he asked.
+
+'Upstairs in the drawing-room.'
+
+He took a step towards the door, and took the step unsteadily. He
+stopped for a second, bracing his shoulders; then he walked firmly
+across the room. While his hand was on the handle, he heard Mr. Le
+Mesurier speaking.
+
+'What do you mean to tell her?'
+
+'I hardly understand,' he answered, turning round. 'There surely is but
+one thing to say--the truth. She has a right to know that.'
+
+'Has she? The engagement was broken off finally when Gorley left England.
+They had nothing more to do with one another, no common interests, no
+common future. Has she?'
+
+'It seems to me, yes!'
+
+'We have kept the knowledge from her up till now. No one could blame you
+if you kept it from her a little longer.'
+
+The argument smacked of sophistry to Drake. He had an unreasoned
+conviction that the girl had a right to learn the truth from him.
+
+'I think I ought to tell her if she asks me.'
+
+'I might forbid you to do it,' grumbled Mr. Le Mesurier.
+
+'Do you?' asked Drake. The question brought Mr. Le Mesurier up short. It
+was a direct question, inviting a responsible decision, and Mr. Le
+Mesurier was averse by nature to making such decisions out of hand. If
+Drake cared for Clarice, he reflected, it was really in Drake's province
+to decide the point rather than in his own.
+
+'I don't know enough of you,' he replied, 'to either forbid or give you
+permission.'
+
+Drake wondered what the sentence meant.
+
+'In that case I must take my own course,' he said, and he went out of the
+room and mounted the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It was the dusk of a February afternoon. Drake had found the lamps lit in
+Mr. Le Mesurier's library, and the gas was burning in the hall and on the
+stairs. But within the drawing-room all the light there was came from the
+fire leaping upon the hearth and from the two recessed windows which
+faced it. In the farthest of these windows Drake saw Miss Le Mesurier
+standing, the outline of her face relieved, as it were, against a gray
+panel of twilight. As the door closed, she turned and took a step into
+the room. Drake could no longer see more than the shape of her head and
+the soft waves of hair crowning it; he could not distinguish a single
+feature, but none the less, as she stood facing him, he felt of a sudden
+his heart sink within him and his whole strength race out of his body.
+
+Clarice stood still; and he became possessed with a queer longing that
+she would move again, forwards, within the focus of the firelight.
+However, she spoke from where she stood.
+
+'You have seen my father.'
+
+Instinctively Drake walked to the fireplace, but she did not follow.
+
+'I have just left him,' he replied. 'He told me what the question was
+which you wished me to answer.'
+
+'And forbade you to answer it, I suppose?'
+
+'No. He left the choice to me.'
+
+'Well?' she asked.
+
+'I mean to answer it to the full,' he said. 'I was not aware till a
+moment ago that you had been engaged to Gorley.' Then he hesitated.
+Clarice was still standing in the shadow, and his desire that she should
+move out of it and within the circle of light grew upon him until it
+seemed almost as though the sight of her face and the knowledge of how
+she was receiving the history of the incident were necessary conditions
+of its narration.
+
+'I suppose that is the reason,' he went on, 'which made you ask me here
+at first. Why did you never put the question before?'
+
+'Why?' repeated Clarice slowly, as if she was putting the question to
+herself. Then she moved slowly towards the fireplace and seated herself
+by the side of it, bent forwards towards its glow, her elbows upon her
+knees, her hands propping her chin. Drake gave a sigh of relief, and
+Clarice glanced at him in surprise, and turned again to the fire. 'Tell
+me your story,' she said, and left his question unanswered.
+
+Drake began; but now that his wish was accomplished, of a sudden all the
+reality seemed to fade out of the tragic events he was to recount. His
+consciousness became in some queer way centred upon the girl who was
+listening, to the exclusion of the subject she was listening to. He was
+intensely conscious of her face, of its changing expressions, of the ebb
+and flow of the blood from time to time flushing her cheeks and temples,
+and of the vivid play of lights and shadows upon them as the flames
+danced and sank on the hearth. He noticed, too, with an observation new
+to him, and quite involuntary, the details of the room in which he stood,
+the white panelling of the walls, the engravings in their frames, the
+china ranged upon a ledge near to the ceiling. Of these things his mind
+took impressions with the minuteness almost of a camera. They were real
+to him at this moment, because they formed the framework and setting of
+the girl's face and figure.
+
+But Gorley's crime and his expiation of it became by contrast as remote
+to his apprehension in point of all connection with Clarice as they were
+in point of locality. He could not realise them to himself as events
+which had actually happened and in which he had played a part, and he
+spoke in the toneless voice of one who relates a fable of which, through
+frequent repetition, he is tired. Instinctively, in order to make the
+truth of his story palpable, he began to corroborate it with particulars
+which he would otherwise have spared his auditor, but with the same
+impersonal accent. He told Clarice of the condition of the village after
+Gorley's raid, as he first came within view of it: here the body of a
+negro stood pinned upright against the wall of his hut by an assegai
+fixing his neck; there another was lying charred upon still-smouldering
+embers; and as he saw her turn pale and shudder he almost wondered why.
+
+But in spite of his efforts to appreciate its actuality the incident grew
+more unsubstantial the further he progressed in its narration, and he
+ended it abruptly.
+
+'Gorley was properly tried,' he said--'his relations testified to
+the justice of his trial--and he was executed in accordance with
+the verdict.'
+
+Clarice sat motionless after he had ended. Drake watched the flames
+sparkle in her gray eyes. At his elbow the clock ticked upon the
+mantelshelf spacing the seconds, and the fire was hot upon his limbs.
+That dream-world in Africa dissolved to a vapour.
+
+Clarice recalled him to it at last.
+
+'I never imagined,' she said in a low voice, 'that the truth was anything
+like this. I shouldn't have asked you if I had. A long time ago I knew
+that something was being concealed, but I thought it was an accident
+or--well, I couldn't conceive what it was and I grew curious, I suppose.
+When you came back to England I thought you might be able to tell me.
+Lately, however, I began to fancy that you were concerned in it some way.
+You might have sent Mr. ----' she checked herself with the name unspoken
+and went on, 'you might have sent him on some fatal mission or something
+of that sort. But this! Oh, why did you tell me?'
+
+She took her hands from beneath her chin and clenched them with a
+convulsive movement upon her knees. Her memory had gone back to the days
+when she and Gorley had been engaged, to their meetings, their intimate
+conversations. This man, in whose hand her hands had lain, whose lips had
+pressed hers, been pressed by hers, this man had been convicted of a
+double crime--dastardly murder and dastardly theft--and punished for it!
+Her pride cried out against her knowledge, and cried out against the man
+who had vouchsafed the knowledge.
+
+'Why did you tell me?' she repeated, and the words were an accusation.
+
+'You wished to know,' he replied doggedly, 'and it seemed to me that you
+had the right to know.'
+
+'Right!' she exclaimed, 'right! What right had I to know? What right had
+you to tell me?'
+
+She rose to her feet suddenly as she spoke and confronted Drake. He
+looked into her eyes steadily, but with a certain perplexity.
+
+'I felt bound to tell you,' he said simply, and his simplicity appealed
+to her by its frank recognition of an obligation to her.
+
+'Why,' she asked herself, 'why did he feel bound? Merely because I wished
+to know the truth of the matter, or because he himself was implicated in
+it as the instrument of Gorley's punishment?' Either reason was
+sufficient to appease her. She inclined to the latter; there were
+conclusions to be inferred from it which staunched her wounded pride.
+
+Clarice turned away. Drake watched her set a foot upon the rail of the
+fender, lay her hand upon the mantelshelf and support her forehead upon
+it. After a little she raised her head and spoke with an air of
+apologising for him.
+
+'Of course,' she said. 'You could not know that there was anything
+between myself and--and him.'
+
+'No; I could not know that. How should I, for I did not know you? And I
+am glad that I didn't know.'
+
+Drake spoke with some earnestness, and Clarice looked at him in surprise.
+
+'It would have made my duty so much harder to do,' he explained.
+
+With a little cry of irritation Clarice slipped her foot from the fender
+and moved from him back to the couch. She had given him the opportunity
+to escape from his position and he refused to make use of it; he seemed
+indeed unable to perceive it. However, she clung to it obstinately and
+repeated it.
+
+'You could not know there was anything between us'; she emphasised the
+words deliberately. Drake mistook the intention of the emphasis.
+
+'But was there,' he exclaimed, 'at the time? I didn't think of that, Miss
+Le Mesurier--'
+
+'Oh no, no!' she interrupted. 'Not at the time.' The man was
+impracticable, and yet his very impracticability aroused in a measure her
+admiration. 'So you would have shot him just the same, had you known?'
+
+'Shot him?' asked Drake almost absently.
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Didn't I tell you? I beg your pardon. I didn't shoot him at all. I
+hanged him.'
+
+Clarice was stunned by the words, and the more because of the dull,
+seemingly callous accent with which they were spoken.
+
+'You hanged him!' she whispered, dropping the words one by one, as though
+she was striving to weigh them.
+
+'Yes. I have been blamed for it,' he replied with no change of voice.
+'People said I was damaging the prestige of the white man. The
+argument bothered me, I confess, but I think they were wrong. I should
+have damaged that prestige infinitely more if I had punished him
+secretly or--'
+
+'Oh, don't!' she cried, with a sharp interruption, and she stared at him
+with eyes dilating in horror, almost in fear. 'You can discuss it like
+that,--the man I had been engaged to,--you hanged him!'
+
+She ended with a moan of actual pain and covered her face with her hands.
+On the instant Drake woke to a full comprehension of all that he had
+said, and understood something of the humiliation which it meant to her.
+
+Clarice was sitting huddled in her chair, her fingers pressed lightly on
+her eyes, while now and again a shiver shot through her frame.
+
+'Still I was bound to tell her,' Drake thought. He waited for a little,
+wondering whether she would look up, but she made no movement. An emerald
+ring upon her finger caught the light and winked at him maliciously,
+leering at him, he fancied. There was nothing more for him to say, and he
+quietly went out of the room.
+
+The click of the door-handle roused Clarice. She saw that the room was
+empty, and, drawing a breath of relief, started out of her chair.
+Standing thus she heard Drake's footsteps descending the stairs, and
+after a pause the slamming of the hall-door. Then she went to the
+fireplace and knelt down close to it, warming her hands at the blaze.
+
+'The degradation of it!' she whispered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Bit by bit she sought to reconstruct the scene, piecing it together out
+of Drake's words; but somehow that scene would not be reconstructed. She
+gradually found herself considering Drake's words as a light thrown upon
+the man who spoke them, rather than as the description of an actual
+incident. The humiliation which she experienced made her shrink with a
+certain repulsion from her recollections of Gorley and dwell instead upon
+the contrasting tones in Drake's voice, the contrasting expressions upon
+his face when he spoke to her and when he merely narrated his story. In
+the first instance gentleness had been the dominant characteristic, in
+the second indifference; and that very indifference, while it repelled
+her, magnetised her thoughts.
+
+Something indeed of the same process which had caused that appearance of
+indifference in Drake was now repeating itself in Clarice. Drake was
+superseding Gorley in her mind. She struggled against the obsession and
+morbidly strove to picture to herself the actual execution: the black
+troops ranged in a clearing before the smouldering village, looking up at
+one figure--Gorley's--spinning on a rope. But even upon that picture
+Drake's face obtruded. She thrust out her hands to keep it off, as though
+it was living and pressing in upon her; for a moment she tried to conjure
+up Gorley's face, but it was blurred--only his form she could see
+spinning on a rope, and Drake beneath it, his features clear like an
+intaglio and firm-set with that same sense of duty which had forced him
+sternly to recount to her the truth that afternoon. She recurred to her
+recent habit of comparing him with Mallinson. She had a vision of
+Mallinson, with the same experience to relate,--if that were
+imaginable--fidgeting through evasions, grasping at any diversion she
+might throw out for him to play with.
+
+But what if Drake's frankness, outspoken to the point of cruelty, sprang
+from an indifference to her? Clarice had seen a good deal of Drake
+lately. She caught herself almost smiling at the idea, softening at its
+palpable falsity. In a last effort at resistance she fixed her thoughts
+on the cruelty, the callousness, in his method of narration, and began to
+feel herself on solid ground. She was consequently inspired to run over
+all that he had said, in order to make her footing yet firmer, and at the
+outset she was brought to a check. Why had she never questioned him upon
+the matter before? he had asked. Clarice stopped and asked the question
+of herself. At the beginning of their acquaintance certainly there had
+always been others by, but afterwards there had been opportunities
+enough. But by that time, what with her father's and Mrs. Willoughby's
+hostility, she had begun to suspect that Drake was in some way implicated
+in the mystery. Was it because she was afraid to know it for certain that
+she had refrained? She recalled her letter to him written last Monday,
+and how she had crossed out 'importance' and substituted 'interest.' Was
+this knowledge important to her, really important, bearing issues in the
+future? It could only be important, she realised, if she set great store
+upon her acquaintanceship with Drake. Drake, in fact, had achieved
+something of a triumph, though quite unknown to himself, for he had
+compelled Clarice Le Mesurier to abandon the consideration of his
+attitude towards her in favour of a search after the state of her
+feelings towards him.
+
+She was still engaged in the search when the clock struck six, and,
+rousing herself brusquely, she rang the bell for the lamps to be brought.
+
+At that moment Mrs. Willoughby had just finished telling to Fielding the
+story which Drake had told to Clarice.
+
+'So that's what Drake was referring to on Sunday,' said Fielding.
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'What in the world made you attack him in that way, if you didn't want
+Clarice to suspect?'
+
+'The fact was, I was a fool, I suppose. I just put my head down and
+charged. But what I want your advice upon is this, ought Clarice to be
+told now--before things go further?'
+
+'No, no!' said Fielding. He saw the curtain descending precipitately upon
+his comedy before the climax was reached, and he added quite sincerely,
+'I like Drake. I don't see why he shouldn't have a run for her money.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked doubtful for a moment, and then she said, 'Very
+well.' She hesitated for a second: 'I think I like him too.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+This was by no means the last occasion upon which Mrs. Willoughby thought
+it prudent to take counsel with Fielding concerning the affairs of her
+friend. Nor was Fielding in any degree backward to respond with his
+advice. He developed, in fact, an interest in their progress quite
+disproportionate to his professed attitude of the spectator in the
+stalls. Mrs. Willoughby lived at Knightsbridge, in a little house, of
+which the drawing-room overlooked the Park close to the barracks, and he
+found it very pleasant to sit there of an afternoon and discuss in a cosy
+duet the future of Clarice.
+
+The subject, besides, had the advantage of inexhaustibility. On the one
+side Fielding ranged the suitors, or those whom he considered such; on
+the other the vagaries of the girl. Playing these forces off not merely
+against each other, but against themselves as well--for, as he pointed
+out, there was no harmony in the separate camps--he evolved an infinite
+number of endless complications. There was consequently no end to the
+discussion, not even when Clarice was argued through the marriage
+ceremony. For that point Fielding took to represent the one o'clock in
+the morning of a carnival ball; then the fun really begins, though decent
+people have to go away.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was, as ever, staunch in her defence, though a
+recollection of Clarice's tearful visit with Conway's arrival for a
+climax prompted her now and again to laugh in the midst of it.
+
+'You mistake thoughtlessness for tricks,' she said. 'Clarice is only a
+child as yet.'
+
+'She has a child's capacity for emotion, I admit,' corrected Fielding,
+'but a woman's knowledge of its use. The combination is deplorable.'
+
+Fielding inquired about Drake, and was told that he had not been
+seen lately. 'It looks as if he was declining in favour,' Mrs.
+Willoughby added.
+
+'Not necessarily. The man's busy--there's a company coming out.'
+
+'A solid one?'
+
+'Likely to be, since Drake handles it. I am thinking of taking shares.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was surprised. Fielding seemed to her the last man
+calculated by nature for dabbling in stocks.
+
+'You!' she exclaimed. Fielding nodded assent.
+
+'Then don't do it,' Mrs. Willoughby flashed out vigorously. 'Don't think
+of it. Oh, I know those men in the City! Their friends get ruined, and
+they--well, I mustn't say anything against them, because my husband was
+one of them, poor dear,--but they move into larger offices. Mr. Drake has
+been asking you to join him?'
+
+'He hasn't done anything of the sort. I heard of the matter through quite
+an independent channel. However, I am not ruined yet, and the company
+won't be floated for another four months. And, after all, it's my money.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby became quiet.
+
+'Well,' she said, and she derived some satisfaction from the thought, 'at
+all events Clarice has dropped talking about him.'
+
+Fielding laughed.
+
+'That means that it's Mallinson's turn on the roundabout and
+nothing more.'
+
+'Sidney Mallinson has been refused.'
+
+'Refused! When?'
+
+'On the Sunday we lunched at Beaufort Gardens.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+Fielding was silent for a moment. He was thinking that he had met
+Mallinson of late with unusual frequency here at Mrs. Willoughby's house.
+
+'But are you sure?' he asked.
+
+'Certain; he told me so himself. Clarice told me too the day after.' Mrs.
+Willoughby began again to laugh. 'She would have prevented him if she
+could, but apparently he tried to take her by storm.'
+
+'Oh!' exclaimed Fielding. 'On the Sunday afternoons you say? Then I was
+to blame, I am afraid, for I gave him precisely that advice on the Sunday
+morning. Of course, I never thought that he would take it.'
+
+Fielding met Sidney Mallinson again and again at the house in
+Knightsbridge. He was invited to dinner, but so was Mallinson, and the
+latter had confidential talks with Mrs. Willoughby. He dined with some
+friends at the Savoy and went on in a comfortable frame of mind to a
+concert; there Mrs. Willoughby joined them, so did Mallinson, and the
+couple sat side by side and conversed through a song. 'The height of bad
+taste,' commented Fielding in an access of irritation. The fellow was
+spoiling his comedy by relinquishing his part. He drew Mallinson aside as
+they passed through the hall.
+
+'You seem to see a good deal of Mrs. Willoughby?'
+
+'Yes, we generally pair off together.'
+
+Fielding dropped plump among the coarse sensations of the ordinary human.
+He wanted to kick Mallinson, and to kick him hard. He saw with an
+anticipatory satisfaction the glasses flying off the supercilious
+gentleman's nose, and felt the jar at the end of his boot as it dashed
+into the coat-tails. The action would have been too noticeable, however,
+and he only said, 'What a very _bourgeois_ thing to do!'
+
+Mallinson's air of complacency vanished as he heard the offensive term
+levelled against himself. He did not, however, on that account change
+his attitude towards Mrs. Willoughby. Fielding found him at the house a
+few days later, and proceeded to sit him out. The contest drove Fielding
+to the last pitch of exasperation, for, apart from the inherent
+humiliation of the proceeding, Mrs. Willoughby was directly encouraging
+Mallinson to stay.
+
+Mallinson at last was suffered to leave, and Mrs. Willoughby, instead of
+resuming her seat, walked across to the window and scrutinised intently
+the passers-by.
+
+'That creature visits you pretty often, it appears,' said Fielding.
+
+'Does he?' she asked. 'He comes to me for the sake of consolation,
+I suppose.'
+
+'And makes love to you for the sake of contrast. He tells me you
+generally pair off together when you meet. Pair off!' and he grimaced
+the phrase to show how little he minded it. 'It'll be "keeping
+company" next.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby gave a little quiet laugh. Her back was towards him, so
+that he could not catch her expression, but she seemed to him culpably
+indifferent to the complexion which Mallinson had given to their
+friendship.
+
+'It's rather funny,' she said, 'though I can't help feeling sorry for
+him.'
+
+'I saw that you were sorry for him,' Fielding interrupted.
+
+'But he pretends,' Mrs. Willoughby went on, ignoring the interruption
+with complete unconsciousness--'he pretends to himself that I am Clarice.
+He talks to me as if I were. He called me "Clarice" the other day, and
+never noticed the mistake, and that's not my name, is it?' She turned to
+him quite seriously as she put the question.
+
+'No,' replied Fielding, 'your name's Constance,' and he dwelt upon the
+name for a second.
+
+'Yes--Constance,' said Mrs. Willoughby thoughtfully. 'It sounds rather
+prim, don't you think?'
+
+'Constance,' Fielding repeated, weighing it deliberately. 'Constance--no,
+I rather like it.'
+
+'Clarice shortens it to Connie.'
+
+'Does she indeed? Connie--Constance.' Fielding contrasted the two names,
+and again, 'Constance--Connie.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby's mouth began to dimple at the corners.
+
+'Although one laughs,' she proceeded, 'it's really rather serious about
+Mr. Mallinson. He told me once the colour of my eyes was--'
+
+'Do you let him talk to you about the colour of your eyes?' Fielding was
+really indignant at the supposition.
+
+'He didn't ask my permission,' Mrs. Willoughby said penitently. 'But it
+isn't a thing people ought to do. He said they were gray, and they
+aren't, are they?' She turned her face towards him.
+
+'Gray? Of course not,' said Fielding, and starting from his chair, he
+approached Mrs. Willoughby at the window to make sure.
+
+'Clarice's are, I know, but I am certain mine aren't.' She held up her
+face towards the light, and the remark was pitched as a question.
+
+'Yours,' said Fielding, examining them, 'Neptune dipped them in the sea
+at six o'clock on an August morning.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby moved away from the window precipitately. 'So, if Mr.
+Mallinson is so fond of Clarice,' she said, 'that he sees her in
+everybody one can't help pitying him.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby, however, for a short time subsequently was not seen in
+the company of the discarded lover, and Fielding inferred with
+satisfaction that her pity was taking a less active form. He was roused
+to a perception that his inference was false one night at the opera.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was present with Mr. Le Mesurier and Clarice. Percy
+Conway he hardly reckoned, counting him at this time, from his constant
+attendance, rather as an item of Clarice's toilette; and Fielding took
+care to descend the staircase after the performance in close proximity to
+the party.
+
+'And how's Mr. Mallinson?' he asked of Mrs. Willoughby, not without a
+certain complacency in his voice.
+
+'Oh, poor boy!' she replied with the tenderest sympathy, 'he's in
+bed, ill.'
+
+'Ill?' asked Clarice quickly. 'You don't mean that.'
+
+'Yes. I'm so concerned. He wrote to tell me all about it.'
+
+Fielding looked displeased, and much the same expression was to be seen
+on the face of Clarice. Mrs. Willoughby was serenely unconscious of the
+effect of her words.
+
+'I heard that he was in bed,' interposed Conway carelessly. 'But
+apparently he has got something to console himself with.'
+
+'Yes. He wrote to me about that too,' said Mrs. Willoughby. 'Fancy,
+Clarice! He has inherited quite a good income. An uncle or somebody left
+it to him.'
+
+Clarice expressed an acid satisfaction at the news. She dropped behind
+with Fielding.
+
+'You didn't know that Mr. Mallinson was ill?' she asked. 'Did none of his
+friends know except Connie?' and then there was a perceptible accent of
+pique in her voice.
+
+Fielding did not answer the question immediately. He had been brought of
+a sudden to the vexatious conclusion that Mrs. Willoughby was a coquette
+just like the rest of her trivial sex--no better, indeed, than the girl
+at his side, whose first anxiety was not as to whether Mallinson was
+seriously ill, but why he wrote the information to Mrs. Willoughby. He
+felt that Mrs. Willoughby had no right to trifle with Mallinson. The poor
+fellow had already suffered his full share of that kind of experience.
+
+Miss Le Mesurier repeated her question impatiently, and Fielding suddenly
+realised that Miss Le Mesurier's pique might prove useful in setting
+matters right. He determined to encourage it.
+
+'None that I'm aware of,' he replied. 'Mrs. Willoughby, of course, would
+be likely to know first.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Haven't you noticed? They have struck up a great friendship
+lately--always pair off together, you know.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier's lips curled at the despicable phrase, but she blamed
+Mrs. Willoughby for the fact which it described, not Sidney Mallinson.
+His attitude she could understand, and make allowance for; it had been a
+despairing act prompted by an instinct of self-preservation to rid
+himself of the hopeless thought of her. An unsuccessful act too, for the
+poor fellow had broken down. She had no doubts as to the origin of his
+illness, and overflowed promptly with sympathy. Her resentment against
+Mrs. Willoughby none the less remained.
+
+Driving homewards she asked her, 'Why didn't you tell me before that Mr.
+Mallinson was ill?'
+
+'My dear, I never gave a thought to it until I saw Mr. Fielding. The
+illness isn't serious,' and Mrs. Willoughby laughed, with peculiar
+heartlessness thought Clarice. They were, however, not thinking of the
+same individual.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby, Clarice, and Fielding in consequence suffered some such
+change in their relative positions as is apt to take place amongst the
+European Powers. Poor Mrs. Willoughby, in the innocent pursuit of her own
+ideas, had suddenly roused two former friends into a common antagonism.
+These friends, besides, had much the same grounds for resentment as the
+Powers usually have, for Mrs. Willoughby's conduct was a distinct
+infringement of rights which did not exist. Clarice and Fielding drew
+perceptibly nearer to one another; they exchanged diplomatic
+_pourparlers_. Fielding found a great deal to praise in Mallinson, and
+Clarice had a word or two to say upon the score of widows. She was
+doubtful whether they ought ever to re-marry. Fielding kept an open mind
+on the subject, but was willing to discuss it. On the particular point,
+however, whether this widow was to marry Mallinson they were both
+uncompromisingly agreed, and were only hindered from an armed
+demonstration by the suspicion that the sinner to the overawed would
+merely laugh at it. On the whole Fielding deemed it best to address a
+friendly remonstrance to Mrs. Willoughby in the interests of Clarice. He
+suggested that she should see less of Sidney Mallinson.
+
+'But I have no grounds for slamming my door in his face,' she answered
+plaintively. 'You see, Clarice has refused him, and really he's very
+sweet and polite to me.'
+
+Fielding pointed out with the elaborate calmness of intense exasperation
+that there could be no finality in a refusal given by Miss Le Mesurier.
+Mrs. Willoughby replied that they had differed before in their views of
+Clarice, and that the point he mentioned was one upon which Mr. Mallinson
+must be left to judge for himself. 'Exactly,' said Fielding with
+emphasis, 'he should be left to judge for himself,' and was for marching
+off with colours flying. But Mrs. Willoughby could not refrain from
+declaring that the unprecedented interest which Mr. Fielding took in his
+friend Mr. Mallinson had raised that friend to a very different position
+in her esteem from that which he had held before.
+
+The combat was renewed more than once, but with no different result, and
+upon the same lines. Mrs. Willoughby received his attacks with a patient
+humility, and rushed out to catch him a flout as he was retiring.
+Finally, however, she shifted her position, and became the aggressor. She
+suggested that Fielding was really in love with Clarice, and trying to
+gain favour with her by bringing an admirer back to her feet. Fielding
+was furious at the suggestion, and indignantly repudiated it. She ignored
+the repudiation, and quietly insisted in pointing out the meanness of
+such a system of making love. The unfortunate gentleman's dignity
+constrained him to listen in silence, for he felt that he would have
+spluttered had he opened his lips. The only course open to him was a
+retreat with a high head, and he declared that it was no longer possible
+for him to continue a discussion which he had begun as much in her true
+interests as on behalf of justice and her particular friend Miss Le
+Mesurier, and went home. By return of post he received a pen-and-ink
+drawing of himself and Clarice 'pairing off.' He was figured in the
+costermonger's dress, with his arm tucked under the girl's, and her hat
+on his head.
+
+Meanwhile Mallinson was still in bed, completely ignorant of the battle
+which had been waged for the possession of him.
+
+Fielding thought more than once of calling at his flat, since his
+determination had been sharpened rather than overcome by the victories of
+Mrs. Willoughby. He was more than ever convinced that Mallinson ought to
+have a fair chance with Miss Le Mesurier--an equal chance with Drake. The
+name of Drake made him pause. Miss Le Mesurier knew everything there was
+to be known about Mallinson, but there were certain facts in Drake's
+history of which she was ignorant. The question sprang into his mind,
+'Could Mallinson have a fair chance unless she was made acquainted with
+those facts?' Fielding knew Members of Parliament who had been returned
+over the heads of residents in the constituency because they entered it
+too late for the electors to become intimate with their defects. Drake's
+career might provide an analogy unless Clarice was told. He argued to
+convince himself that he felt she ought to be told, but he could not
+bring himself to the point of telling. He decided finally upon an
+alternative which would, he imagined, secure his purpose, while relieving
+him of the responsibility. He would tell Mallinson of the Gorley episode,
+for the rival surely had a right to know. Whether Clarice was to be
+informed or not, Mallinson should be allowed to judge.
+
+Fielding assured himself of the justice of his intention for the space of
+two days without putting it into execution, but on the third he chanced
+to meet Conway, and was given the information that Mallinson's inherited
+income amounted to a thousand pounds. The news decided him. Under these
+circumstances Mallinson certainly ought to know. He jumped into a hansom
+and drove down to South Kensington.
+
+Mallinson was still in bed, but sufficiently recovered to write up his
+diary. The book lay upon the counterpane open, but as Fielding was
+introduced into the room, its author shut it up and tucked it under his
+pillow. It was kept entirely for his own perusal, a voluminous record of
+sensations ranging from a headache to a fit of anger, without the mention
+of an incident from cover to cover.
+
+'I hear you have had a touch of bronchitis,' said Fielding.
+
+'Something more than a touch, I can tell you. I have been rather ill.
+However, I am going to get up to-morrow.'
+
+Fielding found it difficult to come to the point of his visit.
+
+'You must have found it dull.'
+
+'Not very. I can always interest myself. Drake came to see me yesterday.'
+
+'Drake! How did he know? Conway told him, I suppose.'
+
+'No, Miss Le Mesurier told him.'
+
+'Miss Le Mesurier?' he asked.
+
+'Yes. Are you surprised?' The question was put with some resentment.
+
+'That she told him? No, I expect she sent him.' A smirk upon the
+invalid's face showed he shared the thought.
+
+'By the way,' Fielding continued, 'talking of Miss Le Mesurier, did you
+ever meet a man called Gorley?'
+
+'No. There was a Gorley who was engaged to her. Is that the man?'
+
+'Yes. I heard rather a strange story about him. He went out to Africa,
+you know.'
+
+Mallinson lifted himself on his elbow.
+
+'Africa,' he said slowly. 'Yes, I heard that. Why do you mention him?'
+
+'Oh, I thought perhaps you might have known the man, that's all.
+He's dead.'
+
+Fielding spoke with a studied carelessness, looking anywhere except at
+Mallinson.
+
+'Dead,' repeated Mallinson in the same tone, but his heart was beginning
+to race, and he lifted himself higher into a sitting position. 'Gorley
+was a relation of Mrs. Willoughby, I believe.'
+
+'A kind of cousin.'
+
+There was silence between the men for a second or two. Mallinson was
+recalling what Mrs. Willoughby had said that evening at Beaufort Gardens,
+when Mr. Le Mesurier pressed her to meet Stephen Drake at lunch.
+
+'So Gorley died in Africa,' he remarked. 'Where? Do you know?'
+
+'Yes; at Boruwimi.'
+
+Mallinson started. Fielding glanced at him involuntarily, and their
+looks crossed.
+
+'A strange story, you said. Suppose you tell it me. It will while away
+some of my time.'
+
+Fielding lit a cigarette and related the story. At the end of it
+Mallinson lay back on the pillows, staring at the ceiling. Once or twice
+Fielding spoke to him, but he did not hear. He was not thinking: the
+knowledge that the secret to be discovered was his to use was as a sense
+in him. He felt it pulsing through his veins and throbbing at his heart.
+Mrs. Willoughby was forgotten. It had been after all but a fictitious
+fancy which he had conceived for her, a fancy fostered in the main as
+balm for his self-respect after his refusal by Clarice.
+
+As soon as he was sufficiently recovered he called upon Miss Le Mesurier,
+confident that his hour and opportunity had come. Drake, however, had
+reported to Clarice on the condition of Mallinson, and her sympathy had
+in consequence to a great extent evaporated. Bronchitis was not of the
+ailments which spring from a broken heart, and she was inclined to hold
+it as a grievance against him that she had been so wastefully touched
+with pity. Her sympathy disappeared altogether when with little
+circumlocution he broached the subject of the Boruwimi expedition, and
+dropped a mention of Mrs. Willoughby's relative. There was something at
+the back of it, he hinted.
+
+Clarice wondered whence he had got his information, but made no effort to
+check him. She stood looking out of the window while he retold her the
+story of Gorley's death. It became more unreal to her than ever; for
+while his account was correctly given, as Mrs. Willoughby had given it to
+Fielding, it lacked the uncompromising details which Drake himself had
+furnished. Her recollection of these details made the man who had given
+them stand out in her thoughts.
+
+'It was a pitiful affair,' Mallinson concluded, 'but I thought you
+ought to know.'
+
+Clarice drew a finger down the frame of glass in front of her.
+
+'Mr. Drake thought so too,' she said quietly.
+
+'Drake!' exclaimed Mallinson, utterly bewildered. 'Drake! The man
+wouldn't be such a--'
+
+'He was though.'
+
+'Do you mean that he confessed to it?'
+
+'Confess?' she said, turning towards him. 'That is hardly the word. He
+told me of his own accord the moment he knew I had been engaged to--to--'
+She broke off at the name, and continued, 'and he spared himself in the
+telling far less than you have spared him.'
+
+She spoke with a gentle dignity which Mallinson had never known in her
+before, and he felt that it raised a more solid barrier between them than
+even her refusal had done.
+
+Fielding, meanwhile, waited with an uneasy conscience which no casuistry
+would lighten. He threw himself in Mallinson's way time after time in
+order to ascertain whether the latter had spoken. Mallinson let no word
+of the matter slip from him, and for the rest seemed utterly despondent.
+Fielding threw out a feeler at last.
+
+'Of course,' he said, 'you would never repeat what I told you about
+Gorley. I forgot to mention that.'
+
+Mallinson flushed. 'Of course not,' he said awkwardly.
+
+Fielding turned on him quickly. 'Then what made you tell Miss Le
+Mesurier?'
+
+Mallinson was too taken aback to deny the accusation. 'Oh, Miss Le
+Mesurier,' he replied, 'knew already.'
+
+'She knew? Who told her?'
+
+'Drake.'
+
+Fielding drew in his breath and whistled. His first feeling was one of
+distinct relief, that after all he had not been the means by which
+Clarice had come to her knowledge; his second was one of indignation
+against Drake. He realised how a frank admission from Drake would
+outweigh in the girl's susceptible nature the fact admitted. 'What on
+earth induced him to reveal it?'
+
+'I suppose he is a little more cunning than one took him for. No doubt he
+saw the thing would get known sooner or later, and thought the disclosure
+had better come from himself.'
+
+Fielding had been leaning to the same opinion, but the moment he heard it
+stated, and stated by Mallinson, he felt a certain conviction that it was
+wrong. 'I don't believe that,' he said sharply.
+
+He was none the less, however, indignant with Drake. To intermeddle at
+all in other people's concerns was averse to his whole theory of
+existence. But to intermeddle, and not very creditably, and out of the
+most disinterested motives of benevolence and expediency, and then to
+fail! All this was nothing short of degrading. He dined that night at
+his club, to which Drake had been elected, and lay in wait for him.
+Drake, however, did not appear, and at ten o'clock Fielding went round
+to his rooms.
+
+Drake was living in chambers on the Embankment, a little to the west of
+Hungerford Bridge. As he was shown into the room, Fielding could not help
+noticing the plainness of its furniture and adornment. The chairs were
+covered with a cheap red cretonne; there was an armchair or two with the
+high seat and long elbows, which seemed to have gone astray from a
+Peckham drawing-room; an ormolu clock under a glass shade ornamented the
+overmantel, and in the way of literature there was one book in the
+room--Prescott's _Conquest of Peru_--and a copy of the _Times_.
+
+Drake was seated at the table engaged in the study of a map of Matanga.
+'Come in!' he said cordially. Fielding drew up a chair to the fire. 'Have
+a drink? The cigars are on the mantelshelf.'
+
+Drake fetched a syphon and a decanter of whisky and mixed two glasses. He
+handed one to Fielding, and brought his map to the fire.
+
+'Ah!' said Fielding. 'There's likely to be a rising in Matanga, I see.'
+
+'Very possibly.'
+
+'How will that affect you?'
+
+'Not at all, I think. It may delay things, of course, but it won't take
+long, and, besides, it won't touch the interior of the country. There
+will be a certain amount of shouting in the capital and round the coast,
+perhaps a gun or two fired off, and then they'll settle down under a new
+President.'
+
+'But there are a good many Germans there, aren't there? What if they
+invite the German Government to interfere?'
+
+'I don't fancy that's probable. The German colonist isn't over fond of
+German rule. You see the first thing a German official wants to do when
+he catches sight of a black, is to drill him. It's his first and often
+his last idea. He wants to see him holding the palm of his hand against
+the stripe of an invisible trouser, and the system doesn't work, because
+the black clears over the nearest border.'
+
+Fielding laughed and turned to the object of his visit. 'Talking of
+Matanga, what in the world made you tell Miss Le Mesurier about Gorley?'
+
+Drake looked up from his map. 'How did you know anything about
+Gorley?' he asked.
+
+'Mrs. Willoughby told me. I thought it was decided Miss Le Mesurier
+should not be told.'
+
+'Mr. Le Mesurier left the choice to me, and it seemed to me that she had
+a right to know.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+Drake paused for a second in reflection. 'It seemed to me--' he
+began again.
+
+'Well, she hadn't,' snapped Fielding.
+
+'Well, I think she had,' answered Drake quietly, returning to his map.
+
+'Then you were wrong; she hadn't. The engagement was broken off a long
+while ago, and you hadn't a right to tell her unless you want to marry
+her yourself.'
+
+Drake raised his head with a jerk and stared at the wall in front of him
+fixedly. He made no answer, nor could Fielding distinguish upon his face
+any expression which gave a clue to his thoughts. He got up from his
+chair, and Drake turned to him. 'I gather from your tone,' he said in an
+indifferent voice, 'that Mrs. Willoughby resents my action.'
+
+'My dear fellow, no,' exclaimed Fielding energetically. 'For Heaven's
+sake, don't take me for a reflex of Mrs. Willoughby!'
+
+No more plotting for him, he determined. He had planned and calculated
+and interfered, all for other people's good, and this was the thanks he
+got; to be quietly informed that he hadn't an idea of his own.
+
+The next afternoon Mrs. Willoughby stopped her phaeton beside him in Bond
+Street. She looked very well, he thought, with her clear
+complexion,--clear as those clear eyes of hers with just the hint of
+azure in the whites of them--wind-whipped now to a rosy warmth.
+
+'May I congratulate you yet?' she asked pleasantly.
+
+Fielding was not to be provoked to renew the combat, and he put the
+question aside. 'You remember what you told me the other day about
+Gorley,' he said.
+
+'Yes,' she answered, becoming serious.
+
+'Well, Miss Le Mesurier knows.'
+
+'Who told her?' and she leaned forward.
+
+'Guess.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby thought for a moment and then shook her head. 'I can't.
+Her father?'
+
+'No; Drake himself.'
+
+She started back in her seat. Then she said, 'Of course, we might have
+known that he would,' and the 'we' sealed their reconciliation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+When Fielding had gone, Drake opened the window and stepped out on
+the balcony.
+
+'Unless you want to marry her yourself'; the words were stamped upon his
+mind in capitals. They formulated to him for the first time the cause of
+that unreasoned conviction of his, and formulated it too, as he realised,
+with absolute truth. Yes, it was just his desire for Clarice to which he
+owed his belief that she had an unquestionable right to know his
+responsibility for Gorley's death.
+
+He wanted her, and wanting her, was committed to scrupulous frankness.
+
+Drake looked out across the city. At his feet lay the quiet strip of
+garden, lawn and bush; beyond, the lamps burning on the parapets of the
+Embankment, and beyond them, the river shining in the starlight, polished
+and lucent like a slab of black marble, with broad regular rays upon it
+of a still deeper blackness, where the massive columns of Hungerford
+Bridge cast shadows on the water. An engine puffed and snorted into the
+station, leaving its pennant of white smoke in the air. Through the glass
+walls of the signal-box above the bridge Drake could see the men in a
+blaze of light working at the levers, and from the Surrey end there came
+to him a clink, and at that distance a quite musical clink, of truck
+against truck as some freight-train was shunted across the rails. Away to
+his right the light was burning on Westminster clock-tower; on
+Westminster Bridge the lamps of cabs and carriages darted to and fro like
+fire-flies. Drake watched two of them start across in the same direction
+a few yards apart, saw the one behind close up, the one in front spirt
+forward as though each was straining for the lead. They drew level, then
+flashed apart, then again drew level, and so passing and repassing raced
+into the myriad lights upon the opposite bank. That bank was visible to
+him through a tracery of leafless twigs, for a tree grew in front of his
+window on the farther edge of the gardens, and he could see the lights
+upon its roadway dancing, twirling, clashing in the clear night, just as
+they clashed and twirled and danced in the roadway beneath him, sparks
+from a forge, and that forge, London. In their ceaseless motion they
+seemed rivulets of fire, and the black sheet of water between them the
+solid highway. But even while he looked, a ruby light moved on that
+highway out from the pillars of the bridge, and then another and another.
+Everywhere was the glitter of lights; fixed, flashing like a star on the
+curve, or again growing slowly from a pin's point to an orb, and then
+dwindling to a point and vanishing. And on every side, too, Drake heard
+the quick beat of horses, and the rattle of wheels struck out not from
+silence, but from a dull eternal hum like the hum of a mill, sharp
+particular notes emerging incessantly from a monotonous volume of sound.
+
+It was just this aspect and this noise of restless activity which had
+always appealed to Drake, and had satisfied him with an assurance that he
+was on the road to the fulfilment of his aims. He had achieved something
+of his desires, however small. He was in London working at certain
+schemes of which he did not doubt the ultimate success. They were built
+upon a foundation of knowledge arduously gained and tested. The rising in
+Matanga, if it took place, might delay success, but success would surely
+come. He might then look forward with confidence to a seat in that
+Parliament on which the light was burning, to a share perhaps finally in
+its executive.
+
+But to-night he found that there was something wanting in the
+contemplation of these aims, something wanting in the very outlook from
+his window. He needed Clarice here in his balcony by his side, and he
+pictured the shine of her eyes bent towards him in the dark. And the
+perception of that need held him in check, gave him a hint of warning
+that the thought of her might become as a wedge driven into the framework
+of his purposes and splitting them.
+
+He could still draw back, he assured himself. But if he went on and won!
+He felt the blood surging through his veins. He might win; there was just
+a chance. The Gorley incident had made no real difference in Clarice's
+friendliness. When once, indeed, she had grown used to it, she had seemed
+almost to express some queer sort of sympathy with him.
+
+Drake closed the window and sat down to calculate the time at which he
+would be sufficiently established to make known his suit. He fixed that
+time definitely in July. July! The name sounded pleasantly with its
+ripple of liquid syllables. Drake found himself repeating it when he
+should have been at work. It began to rise to his lips the moment a date
+was asked of him, as the only date at all worth mentioning. Fielding came
+down to Drake's office in Old Broad Street, in order to apply for shares
+in 'Matanga Concessions.'
+
+'You had better wait,' said Drake. 'I will let you know before they are
+offered to the public.'
+
+'That will be soon?'
+
+'Not for the moment. There's the possibility of this rising. Let the
+country quiet down first!'
+
+'But when do you propose?'
+
+'July.'
+
+'July? That's a long time to come.'
+
+Drake coloured to the roots of his hair. 'I beg your pardon,' he said
+with evident embarrassment; 'much sooner than that of course. I was
+thinking of some one else.' He made matters worse by a hurried correction
+of 'some one' to 'something.'
+
+Fielding noticed the embarrassment and the correction, and drew
+conclusions. They were conclusions, he thought, of which Mrs. Willoughby
+should be advised, and he drove to her house accordingly. He had ceased
+to feel displeasure at Mrs. Willoughby's conduct, for since he had
+studiously refrained from betraying the slightest irritation at
+Mallinson's visits, those visits had amazingly diminished.
+
+'Did he happen to mention the date of the month and the time of the day?'
+was Mrs. Willoughby's comment.
+
+'It sounds cold-blooded? Hardly, if you knew the man. He looks on life as
+a sort of draughtboard. So many definite moves to be made forward upon
+definite lines. Then you're crowned king and can move as you please,
+backwards if you like, till the end of the game.'
+
+'He will be crowned king in July?'
+
+'So I imagine.'
+
+Meanwhile Drake worked on through March and April, outwardly untroubled,
+but inwardly asking himself ever: 'Shall I win? Shall I win?' The
+question besieged him. Patient he could be, none more so, when the end in
+view was to be gained by present even though gradual endeavour; but this
+passive waiting was a lid shut down on him, forcing his energies inwards
+to prey upon himself. His impatience, moreover, was increased by the
+increasing prospects of his undertaking. Additional reports had been
+received from his engineer appraising at a still higher value the quality
+of the land. He spoke too of a tract of country bordering Drake's
+concession on the north, and advised application for it. Biedermann,
+besides, had taken up the project warmly. The company was to come out
+early in May; there would be few shares open to the public, and the
+revolution had not taken place.
+
+Why should he wait till July after all? Drake felt inclined to argue the
+question one Sunday afternoon in London's lilac time, as he walked
+across the green park towards Beaufort Gardens. He found Miss Le
+Mesurier alone and in a melancholy mood. She was singing weariful
+ballads in an undertone as he entered the room, and she rose
+dispiritedly to welcome him.
+
+'It's seldom one finds you alone,' he said, and his face showed his
+satisfaction.
+
+'I don't know,' she replied. 'It seems to me sometimes that I am always
+alone, even when people are by,' and her eyelids drooped.
+
+'You?'
+
+Clarice's sincerity was of the artist's sort implying a sub-consciousness
+of an audience. She recognised from the accent upon the _you_, that her
+little speech had not failed of its effect. She continued more
+cheerfully: 'Aunt has gone up to Highgate to see some relations, and
+papa's asleep in the library.'
+
+'You were singing. I hope you won't stop.'
+
+'I was only passing the time.'
+
+'You will make me think I intrude.'
+
+'I'll prove to you that you don't,' and she went back to the piano. Drake
+seated himself at the side of it, facing her and facing the open window.
+The window-ledges were ablaze with flowers, and the scent of them poured
+into the room on a flood of sunshine.
+
+Clarice was moved by a sudden whim to a change of humour. She sprang
+from her dejection to the extreme of good spirits. Her singing proved
+it, for she chose a couple of light-hearted French ballads, and sang
+them with a dainty humour which matched the daintiness of the words and
+music. Her shrugs and pouts, the pretty arching of her eyebrows, the
+whimsical note of mockery in her voice, represented her to Drake under a
+new aspect, helped to complete her in his thoughts much as her voice,
+very sweet and clear for all its small compass, completed in some queer
+way the flowers and sunshine. Her manner, however, did more than that;
+it gave to him, conscious of a certain stiffness and inflexibility of
+temperament, an inner sense of completion anticipated from his hope of a
+time when their lives would join. He leaned forward in his chair,
+watching the play of her face, the lights and shadows in the curls of
+her hair, the nimble touch of her fingers on the keys. Clarice stopped
+suddenly. 'You don't sing?'
+
+'I have no accomplishments at all.'
+
+She laughed and began to play one of Chopin's nocturnes. Her fingers
+rattled against the ivory on a run up the piano. She stopped and took a
+ring from her right hand; Drake noticed that it was the emerald ring
+which he had seen winking in the firelight on that evening when she had
+covered her face from him. She dropped the ring on the top of the piano
+at Drake's side. It spun round once or twice, and then settled down with
+a little tinkling whirr upon the rim of its hoop Drake fancied that the
+removal of this particular ring was in some inexplicable way of hopeful
+augury to him.
+
+Clarice resumed her playing, but as she neared the end of the nocturne,
+Drake perceived that there was a growing change, a declension, in her
+style. She seemed to lose the spirit of the nocturne and even her command
+on the instrument; the firm touch faltered into indecision, from
+indecision to absolute unsteadiness; the notes, before clear and
+distinct, now slurred into one another with a tremulous wavering.
+
+'You are fond of music?' she asked at length, with something of an
+effort.
+
+'Very,' he replied, 'though it puzzles me. It's like opening a book
+written in a language you don't understand. You get a glimpse of a
+meaning here and there, but no meaning really. I can't explain what I
+feel,' he added, with a laugh. 'I want Mallinson to help me.'
+
+'You admire Mr. Mallinson?' asked Clarice, stopping suddenly.
+
+'Well, one always admires the class of work one can't do oneself, eh?'
+
+'That's very generous of you.'
+
+'Why generous?' Drake leaned suddenly forward. His habit of putting
+questions abrupt and straight to the point had discomposed Miss Le
+Mesurier upon an occasion before. She answered hurriedly. 'I mean--you
+spoke as if you meant that class of work was above your own.'
+
+'Oh, there's no basis of comparison.'
+
+Clarice seized the opportunity, and inquired after the prospects of his
+work in Matanga.
+
+'The place should do,' said Drake. 'The land's good, there's a river
+running through, and I have got picked men to settle on it; all English,
+that's the point. But you said generous. I don't see.'
+
+Clarice switched him on the subject of English colonisation. 'It's
+necessary to have Englishmen to start it? Why?'
+
+'Oh, well,' said Drake. 'It's easy enough to see, if you can compare
+English with the foreign colonies.' He rose from his chair and launched
+forth, walking about the room. 'Look at the Germans! There are seven
+hundred German colonists, all told, in the German colonies, and each of
+them costs the German tax-payer little short of eight hundred a year. How
+many of them are in the English colonies? And what's the reason? Why,
+they want to have the institutions of the Fatherland ready-made in five
+minutes. They need the colonies made before they can prosper in it. The
+French are better, but they are spoilt by officialdom. The Englishman
+just adapts himself to the conditions, and sets to work to adapt the
+conditions to himself too. He strikes a sort of mean, and the Home
+Government leaves him alone--leaves him too much alone some say, and
+rightly, in cases. There's a distinction to be drawn, and it's difficult
+to draw it so far away. It's this, when the colony's made, then it isn't
+a bad thing for the Government to keep a fairly tight hold on it. But in
+the making it's best left to itself; you can lay a cable between London
+and a colony too soon for the good of that colony. There's no fear of the
+colonist forgetting the mother country--he may forget the Home
+Government, does at times, and then there's a mistake or two. But that's
+the defect of the quality.' He checked himself abruptly. 'But I'm running
+away from what we were talking about. Yes; I think we shall do all right
+in Matanga.'
+
+'You don't mean to go back there yourself?'
+
+'Not to live there. To tell the truth, I think there's a man or two
+wanted in England just now, who has had a practical experience of our
+colonies.' Drake spoke without the least trace of boastfulness, but in a
+tone of quiet self-reliance, and Clarice had a thrill of intuition that
+he would not have said so much as that to any one but herself.
+
+Clarice began to play again, this time a waltz tune. Drake came over to
+the piano, and stood leaning upon the lid of it; he took up the ring and
+turned it over in his fingers. She said thoughtfully:
+
+'I suppose that's true of men as well'; and then, with a hesitating
+correction, 'I mean of men like you.'
+
+'What's true?'
+
+'Well, that they are best without--help from any one--that they stand in
+no need of it.' She spoke quite seriously, with a note almost of regret.
+
+'Oh, I don't know that,' he answered, with a laugh. 'It would be a rash
+thing to say. Of course a man ought to depend upon himself.'
+
+'Oh, of course,' she agreed, and went on playing.
+
+Drake was still holding the ring, and he said slowly:
+
+'You remember that afternoon I told you about'--he hesitated for a
+second--'Gorley?' Clarice looked up in surprise.
+
+'Yes,' she said.
+
+'You were wearing this ring. You hid your face in your hands. It was the
+last thing I saw of you.'
+
+She lowered her eyes from his face, and said, with a certain timidity,
+'He gave it to me.'
+
+Drake started and leaned on the piano.
+
+'And you still wear it?' he asked sharply.
+
+She nodded, but without looking at him. Drake rose upright, straightening
+himself; for a moment or two he stood looking at her, and then he walked
+away towards the window. His hat was lying on a table close by it.
+
+'But I don't think that I shall again,' she murmured. She heard him turn
+quickly round and come back. He stood behind her; she could see his
+shadow thrown across the bar of sunlight on the carpet; but he did not
+speak. Clarice became anxious that he should, and yet afraid too. The
+music began to falter again; once she stopped completely, and let her
+fingers rest upon the keys, as though she had no power to lift them and
+continue. Then she struck a chord with a loud defiance. If only he would
+move, she thought--if only he would come round and stand in front of
+her! It would be so much easier to speak, to divert him. So long as he
+stood silent and motionless behind her, she felt, in a strange manner,
+at his mercy.
+
+She rose from her seat suddenly, and confronted him. There was challenge
+in the movement, but none the less her eyes sought the ground, and, once
+face to face with him, she stood in an attitude of submission.
+
+'What does that mean?' she heard him ask in a low voice. 'You won't wear
+it again.'
+
+She did not answer, but in spite of herself, against her will, she raised
+her eyes until they met his. She heard a cry, hoarse and passionate; she
+felt herself lifted, caught, and held against him. She saw his eyes above
+hers, burning into hers; she felt the pressure of two lips upon hers, and
+her own respond obediently.
+
+'Is it true?' The words were whispered into her ear with an accent of
+wonder, almost of awe.
+
+'Yes,' she whispered back, compelled to the answer, subservient to his
+touch, to his words, and, to the full, conscious of her subservience. She
+felt the big breath he drew in answering her monosyllable. He held her
+unresisting, passive in his arms, watching her cheeks fire. She realised,
+in a kind of detached way, that he was holding her so that the tips of
+her toes only touched the floor, and somehow that seemed of a piece with
+the rest. Then he set her down, and stood apart, keeping her hands. 'It's
+funny,' he said, 'how one goes on year after year, quite satisfied,
+knowing nothing of this, meaning not to know.'
+
+She caught at the phrase and stammered, 'Perhaps that was wise.'
+
+'It was. For so I met you.'
+
+He released her hands, and she sank into the nearest chair. Drake walked
+to the window and stood facing the sunlight, breathing it in. 'Clarice,'
+she heard him murmur, with a shake of his shoulders like a great
+Newfoundland dog; and then the cry of a newspaper boy shouting the
+headlines of a special edition rasped into the room.
+
+Drake leaned out of the window. 'Hi!' he called, and tossed a penny into
+the street.
+
+'Threepence,' shouted the boy from below.
+
+'It's a penny paper,' cried Drake.
+
+'Threepence. There's a corner in 'em.'
+
+Clarice listened to the argument. Most men, she thought helplessly, don't
+buy newspapers the moment they have been accepted, and, at all events, it
+is an occasion when they are disposed to throw their money about. It made
+no difference of any kind to him.
+
+Drake finally got the better of the bargain, and the paper was brought up
+to the room. Clarice saw Drake open it hurriedly, and his face cloud and
+harden as he glanced down the column.
+
+'What's the matter?' she asked in a rising voice.
+
+'A rebellion in Matanga,' he said slowly. 'I thought that danger was
+averted,' and there was a distinct note of self-reproach in his tone.
+
+Clarice felt her heart beat quicker. She rose from her chair. 'What does
+that mean to you?' she asked.
+
+'Delay,' he replied, with the self-reproach yet more accentuated.
+'Nothing more, I am sure; but it does mean that.'
+
+'Nothing more?'
+
+He noticed an expression of disappointment upon the girl's face, and,
+mistaking it, repeated, 'Nothing more than that, Clarice.' He took a step
+towards her. 'Of course I ought not to have spoken to you yet,--not until
+everything was settled. I am sorry--of course it will come out all right,
+only till then it wasn't fair. I didn't mean to,--not even when I came
+this afternoon. But seeing you,--I wasn't strong enough,--I gave in.'
+
+Clarice felt a pulse of satisfaction, and her lips shaped to a smile.
+
+'Ah, you don't regret it,' he exclaimed, and the look of humiliation
+passed from his face. 'Your father's in the library,' he went on; 'I had
+better go and tell him. Shall I go alone, or will you come with me?'
+
+'No, you go; I will wait here.'
+
+She stood alone in the centre of the room while Drake went downstairs,
+staring fixedly in front of her. Once or twice she set her hands to her
+forehead and drew them down her flushed cheeks. Then she walked to the
+window. There was something floating on the edge of her mind, just
+eluding her. A thought was it, or a phrase? If a phrase, who had spoken
+it? She began to remember; it was something Stephen Drake had said, but
+about what? And then, in a flash, her recollection defined it for her. It
+was about moonlight being absorbed into the darkness of an African veld,
+just soaking into it like water into dry ground. She had a vision of the
+wide rolling plain, black from sky's rim to sky's rim, and the moonlight
+pouring a futile splendour into its lap. She moved with a quick and
+almost desperate run to the door, opened it, and leaned over the
+balustrade of the staircase. The hall was empty and no sound of voices
+came from the library. She stepped cautiously down the stairs; as she
+reached the last step the door of the library opened and Drake appeared
+on the threshold.
+
+Clarice leaned against the wall, holding her hand to her heart.
+
+'Why, Clarice!' he cried, and started towards her.
+
+'Hush!' She tried to whisper the word, but her voice rose. She thrust out
+a hand between herself and Drake, and cast a startled glance across his
+shoulder, expecting to see her father come forward smiling
+congratulations at her. Drake caught the outstretched hand, and, setting
+an arm about her waist, drew her into the library.
+
+'I have not seen Mr. Le Mesurier,' he said; 'he's out, I am afraid.'
+
+The room was empty. Clarice looked round it, doubting her eyes, and with
+a sudden revulsion of feeling dropped into a chair by the table and sat
+with her face buried in her arms in a flood of tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Drake bent over her, stroking her hair with a gentle helpless movement of
+his hand and occasionally varying his consolation by a pat on the
+shoulders. The puffed sleeves of silk yielding under his touch gave him a
+queer impression of the girl's fragility.
+
+'Oh don't, child!' he entreated. 'It's my fault for speaking so soon. But
+really there's nothing to fear--nothing. It'll all come out right--not a
+doubt of that. You'll see.'
+
+Consolation of this kind did but make the tears flow yet more freely.
+Drake perceived the fact and stood aside, wondering perplexedly at the
+reason. The sound of each sob jerked at his heart; he began to walk
+restlessly about the room. The storm, from its very violence, however,
+wore itself quickly out; the sobs became less convulsive, less frequent.
+Clarice raised her head from her arms and stared out of the window
+opposite, with just now and then a little shiver and heave of her back.
+
+Drake stopped his walk and advanced to her. She anticipated his speech,
+turning with a start to face him.
+
+'You haven't seen my father?'
+
+'No; the servant told me he had gone out. But I wrote a note saying I
+would call again this evening. It is under your elbow.'
+
+Clarice picked up the crumpled envelope and looked at it absently.
+
+'Stephen,' she said, and she tripped upon the name, 'there's something I
+ought to tell you--now. But it's rather difficult.'
+
+Drake walked to the window and stood with his back towards her. She felt
+grateful to him for the action, and was a little surprised at the tact
+which had prompted it.
+
+'Yes?' he said.
+
+'We are not very well off,' she continued; 'perhaps you know that.'
+
+'Yes,' he interrupted.
+
+'But the position's more complicated than you can know'; she was speaking
+carefully, weighing her words. 'Of course you know that I have a sister
+younger than myself. She's at school in Brussels. Well, by the Sark laws,
+the Seigneurie can't be split up between the members of a family. I think
+it's the same with all land there. It must go--what's the
+word?--unencumbered to the eldest child. So it must come to me--all of
+it. That leaves my sister still to be provided for. Father explained the
+whole thing to me. As it is, he has as much as he can do to keep the
+Seigneurie up. This house we can't really afford, but father thought he
+ought to take it,--well, for my sake, I suppose. So, you see, whatever
+money he has he must leave to my sister, and there's still the Seigneurie
+for me to keep up.'
+
+'Yes, I understand. You are bound by duty, if you marry, to marry some
+one with means. But, Clarice, it won't be long to wait,' and he turned
+back from the window into the room.
+
+'But till then--don't you see? Of course I know you will be successful,'
+and she laid considerable emphasis on the _I_.
+
+Drake reflected for a moment. 'You mean there would be trouble between
+your father and you. The weight of it would fall on you. He might
+distrust me. Yes; after all, why should he not? But still the thing's
+done, isn't it?'
+
+Clarice rose from her chair and walked to the grate. A fire was burning,
+and she still held Drake's letter in her hand. 'We might keep it to
+ourselves,' she said diffidently. She saw Drake's forehead contract.
+'For my sake,' she said softly, laying a hand upon his sleeve. She lifted
+a tear-stained face up to his with the prettiest appeal. 'I know you hate
+it, but it will spare me so much.'
+
+He said nothing, and she dropped the letter into the fire.
+
+As Drake was leaving the house she heard, through the closed door, the
+sound of her father's voice in the hall speaking to him, and felt a
+momentary pang of alarm. The next instant, however, she laughed. He might
+have broken his word to himself; he would not break it to her.
+
+Drake went home, reckoning up the harm he had done with a feeling of
+degradation quite new to him. Not the least part of that harm was the
+compromise finally agreed upon. But for the traces of tears upon the
+girl's cheeks, he would hardly have agreed to it even in the face of
+her appeal. Once alone, however, he saw clearly all--the deception
+that it implied--deception which involved the girl, too, as well as
+himself. He rose the next day in no more equable frame of mind, and
+leaving his office at three o'clock in the afternoon, walked along
+Cheapside, Holborn, and Oxford Street, and turned down Bond Street,
+meaning to pass an hour in the fencing-rooms half-way down St. James
+Street. At the corner of Bruton Street he came face to face with Miss
+Le Mesurier. She coloured for an instant, and then came frankly
+forward and held out her hand.
+
+'It's funny meeting you here,' she said, and laughed without the least
+embarrassment.
+
+Drake turned and walked by her side with a puzzled conjecture at the
+reason of woman's recuperative powers. Clarice's eyes were as clear, her
+forehead as sunny, as though she had clean wiped yesterday from her
+consciousness. The conjecture, however, brought the reality of yesterday
+only yet more home to him. He stopped in the street and said abruptly,
+'Clarice, I can't.'
+
+She stopped in her turn and drew a little pattern on the pavement with
+the point of her umbrella. 'Why?'
+
+A passer-by jostled Drake in the back. Standing there they were blocking
+the way. 'Isn't there anywhere we could go? Tea? One drinks tea at this
+hour, eh?'
+
+'No.'
+
+Clarice felt more mistress of herself in the open street, more able to
+cope with Drake while they walked in a throng. She remembered enough
+of yesterday to avoid even the makeshift solitude of a tea-table in a
+public room. 'Let us walk on,' she said. 'Can't you explain as we go?
+I am late.'
+
+She moved forward as she spoke, and Drake kept pace with her, shortening
+his strides. The need of doing that, trifle though it was, increased his
+sense of responsibility towards her. 'It's so abominably deceitful, and
+it's my doing. I should involve you in the deceit.'
+
+Clarice glanced at him sharply. The distress of his voice was repeated in
+the expression of her face. There was no doubting that he spoke
+sincerely.
+
+'I had better see your father to--day,' he added.
+
+'No,' she replied energetically; and, after a moment's pause, 'There's
+another way.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'Let everything be as it was before yesterday. I shall not change. It
+will be better for you to be free. Come to me when you are ready.'
+
+She signed to a passing hansom, and it drew up by the curb. She got into
+it while Drake stood with brows knitted, revolving the proposal in his
+mind. 'But you see it can't be the same,' he said; 'because I kissed you,
+didn't I?'
+
+'Yes, you did,' she replied.
+
+The tremble of laughter in her voice made him look up to her face. The
+rose deepened in her cheeks, and the laughter rippled out. 'You are
+quaint,' she said. 'I will forget--well--what you said, until you are
+ready. Till then it's to be just as it was before--only not less. You are
+not to stay away'; and without waiting for an answer she lifted the trap,
+gave the cabman his order, and drove off. Drake watched the hansom
+disappear, and absently retraced his steps down the street. He stopped
+once or twice and stared vaguely into the shop-windows. One of these was
+a jeweller's, and he turned sharply away from it and quickened his pace
+towards the fencing-rooms. How could it be the same, he asked himself,
+when the mere sparkle of an emerald ring in a jeweller's shop-window
+aroused in him a feeling of distaste?
+
+Towards the end of this week Clarice called upon Mrs. Willoughby, and
+seemed for the moment put out on finding that Mallinson and Fielding were
+present. Mrs. Willoughby welcomed her all the more warmly because she was
+finding it difficult to keep the peace between her two visitors. She
+understood Clarice's embarrassment when Percy Conway arrived close upon
+her heels. Clarice, however, quietly handed him over to Mrs. Willoughby,
+and seated herself beside Mallinson in one of the windows. 'I see nothing
+of you now,' she said, and she looked the reproach of the hardly-used. 'I
+thought we had agreed to be friends?'
+
+Mallinson sighed wearily. 'I will come and call--some day,' he said
+dejectedly.
+
+'I have not so many friends that I can afford a loss,' she answered
+pathetically; and then, 'Tell me about yourself. What are you doing?'
+
+'Nothing.'
+
+'No work?'
+
+'No.' Mallinson shook his head.
+
+'Why?'
+
+'I have no incentive--nothing to work for.'
+
+'That's cruel.'
+
+They played out their farce of sham sentiment with a luxurious
+earnestness for a little while longer, and then Mallinson went away.
+
+'So he's doing no work?' said Fielding maliciously to Miss Le Mesurier.
+He leaned forward as he spoke from the embrasure of the second window,
+which was in a line with, and but a few feet apart from, that at which
+she was sitting.
+
+Miss Le Mesurier flushed, and asked, 'How did you hear?'
+
+'Both windows are open. Mallinson was leaning out.'
+
+The girl's confusion increased, and with it Fielding's enjoyment. He
+repeated, 'So he's doing no work?'
+
+'A thousand a year, don't you know?' said Conway, with a sneer. 'It would
+make a man like that lazy.'
+
+'It's not laziness,' exclaimed Clarice indignantly. She was filled with
+pity for Mallinson, and experienced, too, a sort of reflex pity for
+herself as the inappropriate instrument of his suffering. She was
+consequently altogether tuned to tenderness for him. 'It's not laziness
+at all. It's--it's--' She cast about for a laudatory explanation.
+
+'Well, what?' Fielding pressed genially.
+
+'It's the artistic temperament,' she exclaimed triumphantly.
+
+Fielding laughed at her vindication, and Miss Le Mesurier walked across
+the room and said good-bye to Mrs. Willoughby. Conway rose at the same
+time, and the pair left the house together.
+
+'What a liar that man is!' said Fielding.
+
+'What man?' asked Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'Why, Mallinson. He said he was doing no work because he had no
+incentive. As a matter of fact, I happen to know that he is working
+rather hard.'
+
+'What did Clarice say?'
+
+'What you might expect. She melted into sympathy.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked puzzled. 'Yet she went off with Percy Conway
+immediately afterwards,' she said, and then laughed at her recollections
+of a previous visit from that gentleman.
+
+'Yes; and absolutely unconscious of the humour of her behaviour,' said
+Fielding. 'That's so delightful about her.' He paused for a second and
+asked, 'Have you ever been inside a camera obscura? You get a picture, an
+impression, very vivid, very accurate, of something that is actually
+happening. Then some one pulls a string and you get a totally different
+picture, equally vivid, equally accurate, of something else which is
+actually happening. There is no trace of the first picture in the second.
+Then they open a shutter and you see nothing but a plain white slab.
+Somehow I always think of Miss Le Mesurier's mind.'
+
+After leaving Mrs. Willoughby's, Conway and Miss Le Mesurier walked
+together in the direction of Beaufort Gardens.
+
+'Do you see much of Mr. Drake?' she asked, after a considerable silence.
+
+'Not as much as one would wish to. He's generally busy.'
+
+'You like him, then?' she asked curiously. 'Why?'
+
+'Don't you? There's an absence of pretension about him. Nothing of the
+born-to-command air, but insensibly you find yourself believing in him,
+following him. I believe even Fielding finds that as well. When Drake
+first came back I used to stand up for him--well, because, perhaps, I had
+a reason of my own. I am not sure that I believed all I said, but I am
+sure now I should say exactly the same and believe every word of it.'
+
+He spoke with a quiet conviction which gave solid weight to his words,
+owing to its contrast with the flighty enthusiasm which was the usual
+characteristic of his eulogies.
+
+'You mentioned Mr. Fielding,' she said.
+
+'Yes; haven't you heard? He's investing in Matanga Concessions, and
+largely for him. He's often seen in Drake's office.'
+
+Clarice walked along in silence for some way further. Then she said, with
+a distinct irritation in her voice, 'I suppose it all comes from the fact
+that Mr. Drake doesn't seem to need any one to rely upon, or--well--any
+particular incentive to work.'
+
+Conway glanced at Miss Le Mesurier with a slight surprise. She was
+generally given to accept facts without inquiry into their causes. 'I
+shouldn't wonder if you are right. Drake, I should think, would find his
+incentive in the work itself. Yes; I believe you _are_ right. It's just
+his single-mindedness which influences one. There are certain ideas fixed
+in his mind, combined into one aim, and he lets nothing interfere to
+obscure that aim.'
+
+So he spoke; so, too, Clarice believed, and that picture of moonlight on
+the veld became yet more vivid, yet more frequent in her thoughts.
+Pondering upon it, her fancy led her to exaggerate Drake into the
+likeness of some Egyptian god, that sits with huge hands resting upon
+massive knees, and works out its own schemes behind indifferent eyes. The
+sight of him, and the sound of commonplace words from his mouth, would at
+times make her laugh at the conception and restore her to her former
+familiarity with him. But the fancy returned to her, and, each time,
+added a fresh layer to the colour of her thoughts. She came now and again
+to betray a positive shrinking from him. Drake noticed it; he noticed
+something else as well: in the first week of July the emerald ring
+reappeared upon her finger.
+
+In the second week Mr. Le Mesurier removed his household gods to Sark. It
+was his habit to spend the summer months upon the island, and to
+entertain there his friends in succession. He invited both Mrs.
+Willoughby and Stephen Drake. The former accepted, the latter, being on
+the eve of floating the Matanga Concessions, declined for the present to
+Clarice's great relief, but promised to come later. The company was
+floated towards the end of the month, and with immediate success. Mr. Le
+Mesurier read out at breakfast a letter which he had received from Drake,
+announcing that every share had been taken up on the very day of
+flotation.
+
+'Then he is coming,' said Clarice. 'When?'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier mistook his daughter's anxiety, and smiled satisfaction
+at her. 'To-morrow,' he replied; 'but only for three days at first.
+There's some new development he speaks of. He will have to leave again on
+Saturday for a fortnight.'
+
+Clarice sat thoughtfully for a minute or two. Then she asked: 'Did you
+invite Mr. Mallinson this summer?'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier shuffled his feet under the table. 'No, my dear,'
+he said. 'I forgot all about it; and now I don't see that we shall
+have room.'
+
+'Oh yes,' replied Clarice quickly. 'He might have Mr. Drake's room during
+that fortnight. I think we ought to ask him. We always have, and it will
+look rather strange if we leave him out this summer. I will get aunt to
+write after breakfast.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier glanced at Mrs. Willoughby, but made no active
+resistance, and Clarice took care that the letter was despatched by that
+day's post. On the next day she organised a picnic in Little Sark, and
+returned to the Seigneurie at an hour which gave her sufficient time to
+dress for dinner, but no margin for welcoming visitors. In consequence
+she only saw Drake at the dinner-table. She saw little of him afterwards,
+for Mr. Le Mesurier pounced upon him after dinner. 'I want to introduce
+you to Burl,' he said. 'He's Parliamentary agent for the Northern
+Counties. There's a constituency in Yorkshire where my brother lives, and
+I rather think Burl wants a candidate.'
+
+Drake was presented to a gentleman six feet three in his socks,
+deep-chested, broad-shouldered, with a square rugged face on the slant
+from the forehead to the chin. Mrs. Willoughby said he looked like a
+pirate, and rumour made of her simile a fact. It was known that, late one
+night in the smoking-room of the Seigneurie, he had owned to
+silver-running on the coast of Mexico. Mr. Burl and Drake passed most of
+that evening smoking together in the garden. Similarly on the next day
+Clarice avoided a private interview with Drake. On the other hand,
+however, he made no visible effort to secure one. Mrs. Willoughby
+wondered at his reticence, and did more than wonder. She had by this time
+espoused his cause, and knowing no half-measures in her enthusiasms, saw
+his chances slipping from him, with considerable irritation. She was
+consequently provoked to hint her advice to him on the evening before he
+was to leave.
+
+Drake shook his head and replied frankly: 'One can be too previous. I
+made that mistake once before, and I don't mean to repeat it.'
+
+He remained silent for a moment or two, and added: 'I think I'll tell you
+about it, Mrs. Willoughby. You have guessed some part of the story, and
+you are Clarice's friend, and mine too, I believe.'
+
+With an impulsiveness rare in him, which however served to rivet him yet
+more firmly in Mrs. Willoughby's esteem, he confided to her the history
+of his proposal and its lame result. 'So you see,' he concluded, 'I am
+not likely to risk a repetition of the incident.'
+
+'But,' said she, 'surely there's no risk now?'
+
+'Very likely, but there is just a little. This next fortnight will, I
+think, make everything secure, but I must wait that fortnight.'
+
+'Well, I believe you are unwise.' Drake turned to her quickly. 'Why?'
+
+'Mr. Mallinson takes your place for the fortnight. Of course I don't
+know. Clarice has given up confiding in me. But I really think you
+are unwise.'
+
+Drake sat staring in front of him. He was considering Mallinson's visit
+in conjunction with the reappearance of the emerald ring upon Miss Le
+Mesurier's finger. 'All the same,' he said at length, 'I shall wait.'
+
+The reason for this hesitation he explained more fully to Clarice herself
+some half an hour afterwards. He found her standing by herself upon the
+terrace. She started nervously as he approached, and it seemed to him
+that her whole figure stiffened to a posture of defence. She said
+nothing, however, and for a while they stood side by side looking
+seawards across the breadth of the island. The ground stretched away
+broken into little hollows and little hills,--downs in vignette. A cheery
+yellow light streamed from the windows of a cottage in a dip of the
+grass; the slates of a roof glistened from a group of sycamores like a
+mirror in a dark frame; the whole island lay bared to the moonlight.
+Towards the edge of it the land rose upwards to a ridge, but there was a
+cleft in the ridge opposite to where they stood, and through the cleft
+they looked downwards to the sea.
+
+Clarice spoke of the moonbeams broken into sparkles by the ripple of
+the water.
+
+'Like a shoal of silver coins,' said Drake.
+
+'Wouldn't you like to hear them clink?' she asked petulantly.
+
+Then he said: 'Miss Le Mesurier'--and the change in his voice made the
+girl turn swiftly to face him--'I leave Sark to-morrow morning by the
+early boat, so I thought I would say good-bye to you to-night.'
+
+'But you are coming back,' she said quickly; 'I shall see you, of course,
+when you come back. What takes you away?'
+
+'There's some land in Matanga which bounds my concession on the north,
+and I want to get hold of it. It's, I believe, quite as good, and may be
+better, than mine, and I know that some people are after it. It wouldn't
+help me if another company was to be started; and as the President of the
+Matanga Republic is on his way to England, I thought that I had better go
+out to Madeira, catch his steamer there, and secure a concession of it
+before he reaches England.'
+
+Clarice gave a laugh. 'Then we are to expect you in a fortnight?'
+
+'Yes, in a fortnight,' and he laid a significance upon the word which
+Clarice did not mistake. It was spoken with an accent of entreaty.
+
+But indeed she needed no emphasis to fix it in her mind. The word
+besieged her; she caught herself uttering it, and while she uttered it
+the time itself seemed to have slipped by. She had but to say 'No' at the
+end of the fortnight, she assured herself, and she knew that she would
+only have to say it once. But the memory of that Sunday afternoon in
+Beaufort Gardens lay upon her like a load crushing all the comfort out of
+her knowledge.
+
+Drake caught his steamer at Southampton, and the President at Madeira. He
+was received warmly as an old acquaintance, warily as a negotiator.
+However, he extracted the concession as the boat passed up Southampton
+Water, and disembarked with a signed memorandum in his pocket. At
+Southampton post-office he received a bundle of letters which had been
+forwarded to him from his chambers in London. He slipped them into his
+coat, and went at once on board the Guernsey steamer. At Guernsey, the
+next morning, he embarked on the little boat which runs between Guernsey
+and Sark. The sun was a golden fire upon the water; the race of the tides
+no more than a ripple. The island stuck out its great knees into the sea
+and lolled in the heat. Half-way across Drake bethought him of the
+letters. He took them out and glanced over the envelopes. One was in
+Clarice's handwriting. It announced to him her engagement with Sidney
+Mallinson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Of Drake's arrival at the Seigneurie Mrs. Willoughby wrote some account
+to Hugh Fielding, who was taking the waters for no ailment whatever at
+Marienbad. 'I was surprised to see him,' she wrote, 'because Clarice told
+me that she had written to him. Clarice was running down the stairs when
+he came into the hall. She stopped suddenly as she caught sight of him,
+clutched at the balustrade, slipped a heel upon the edge of the step, and
+with a cry pitched straight into his arms at the bottom. Mr. Mallinson
+came out of the library while he was holding her. Clarice was not hurt,
+however, and Mr. Drake set her down. "I didn't pass through London," he
+said, and he seemed to be apologising. "My letters were forwarded to
+Southampton, and I only opened them on the Sark steamer." Then he
+congratulated them both. I spoke to Mr. Drake the same evening on the
+terrace here, foolishly hinting the feminine consolation that he was well
+free from a girl of Clarice's fickleness. He was in arms on the instant.
+One gets at truth only by experiment, and through repeated mistakes. Why
+except women's hearts from the same law? I give his opinion, not his
+words. He doesn't talk of "women's hearts." You know his trick of
+suggesting when it comes to talk of the feelings. I slid into a worse
+blunder and sympathised with him. He replied that it didn't make the
+difference to him which I might think. I felt as if a stream of ice-water
+had been turned down my back on Christmas Day. However, he went on in a
+sort of shame-faced style, like a schoolboy caught talking sentiment.
+"One owes her a debt for having cared for her, and the debt remains." He
+stayed out his visit and left this morning. He goes to Switzerland, and
+asked for your address. His is _The Bear, Grindelwald_. Write to him
+there; better, join him. He talks of going out to Matanga later in the
+year for a few months. So there's the end of the business, or rather one
+hopes so. I used to hope that Clarice would wake up some morning into a
+real woman and find herself--isn't that the phrase? I hope the reverse
+now; that she and her husband will philander along to the close of the
+chapter. But I prefer your word,--to the close of the "comedy," say. It
+implies something artificial. Mallinson and Clarice give me that
+impression,--as of Watteau figures mincing a gavotte, and made more
+unreal by the juxtaposition of a man. Let's hope they will never perceive
+the flimsiness of their pretty bows and ribbons! But I think of your one
+o'clock in the morning of the masquerade ball, and frankly I am afraid. I
+look at the three without--well, with as little prejudice as weak woman
+may. Mallinson, you know him--always on the artist's see-saw between
+exaltation and despair. Doesn't that make for shiftiness generally?
+Clarice I don't understand; but I incline to your idea of her as at the
+mercy of every momentary emotion, and the more for what has happened this
+week. Since her engagement she seems to have lost her fear of Stephen
+Drake. She has been all unexpressed sympathy. And Drake? There's the
+danger, I am sure--a danger not of the usual kind. Had he been
+unscrupulous he might have ridden roughshod over Clarice long before now.
+But he's too scrupulous for that. I think that he misses greatness as we
+understand it, through excess of scruple. But there's that saying of his
+about a debt incurred to Clarice by the man caring for her. Well,
+convince him that he can pay it by any sacrifice; won't he pay it?
+Convince him that it would benefit her if he lay in the mud; wouldn't he
+do it? I don't know. I made a little prayer yesterday night, grotesque
+enough, but very sincere, that there might be no fifth act of tragedy to
+make a discord of your comedy.'
+
+Fielding received Mrs. Willoughby's command to join Drake with a grin at
+her conception of him as fit company for a gentleman disappointed in his
+love-affairs. He nevertheless obeyed it, and travelling to Grindelwald
+found Drake waiting him on the platform with the hands of an
+oakum-picker, and a face toned uniformly to the colour of a ripe pippin.
+'You have been climbing mountains, I suppose?' asked Fielding.
+
+'Yes,' nodded Drake.
+
+'Well, don't ask me to join you. It produces a style of conversation I
+don't like.'
+
+Drake laughed, and protested that nothing was further from his intention.
+Certain letters, however, which Fielding wrote to Mrs. Willoughby during
+this period proved that he did join him, and more than once. The two men
+returned to London half-way through September.
+
+On the journey from Dover to Charing Cross Drake asked whether Mrs.
+Willoughby was in town. He was informed that at the moment she was
+visiting in Scotland, but she was expected to pass through London at the
+end of a fortnight. Drake wrote a note to her address asking her to spare
+him a few moments when she came south, and receiving a cordial assent
+with the statement of the most favourable hour, walked across one evening
+to Knightsbridge. Mrs. Willoughby remarked a certain constraint in his
+manner, and awaited tentacle questions concerning Sidney Mallinson and
+Clarice. She said: 'You look well. You have enjoyed your holiday.'
+
+'I had an amusing companion.'
+
+'You have given him some spark of your activity,' and the sentence was
+pitched to convey thanks.
+
+'Then you have seen him?' Drake's embarrassment became more
+pronounced. He paused for a second and then rose and walked across the
+room. 'You know, I suppose,' he resumed, 'that I am going out to
+Matanga in a month.'
+
+'I heard something of that from Mr. Fielding,' she said gently.
+
+'Yes,' he said, with a change in his voice to brisk cheerfulness. 'It
+seemed to me that I ought to go. Our interests there are rather large
+now. I consulted my fellow-directors, and they agreed with me.'
+
+The sudden disappearance of the constraint which had marked him surprised
+Mrs. Willoughby. 'But can you leave London?' she asked.
+
+'Oh yes; I have made arrangements for that,' he replied. 'I have got Burl
+to look after things here.'
+
+'Mr. Burl?'
+
+'Yes; it's rather funny,' said Drake, with a laugh. 'He came to ask
+me whether I was disposed to take up politics. There was a
+constituency in Yorkshire he could arrange for me to stand
+for--Bentbridge. Do you know it?'
+
+'I have been there. Mr. Le Mesurier has a brother just outside the town.
+It was there, I believe, that he became acquainted with Mr. Burl.'
+
+'So I gathered. Well, I wanted the question left open for a bit. Then
+Burl made another proposal. He said they wanted a paper in the district.
+There were some people ready to back the idea, but they didn't have quite
+enough capital. Burl wanted me to provide the rest. He didn't get it, but
+he nearly did, and it struck me that he was just the man I wanted. So
+after he had had his say, I had mine, and he has thrown up politics and
+joined me.' Drake ended his story with a laugh, and added, 'I think I am
+lucky to have got hold of him.'
+
+'Then you don't mean to go away for good?' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'Oh dear no! What on earth made you think that? But I will be away a
+year, I think,--and--and, that's just the point.' His embarrassment
+returned as suddenly as it had left him.
+
+'I don't understand.'
+
+'Well, I had an idea of persuading Fielding to go with me.' He blurted
+the proposal brusquely. 'He's interested, you see, in the success of the
+colony, and--well, altogether, I didn't think it would be a bad thing.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby walked to the window and looked out of it for a few
+seconds. 'What does Mr. Fielding say?' she asked.
+
+'I haven't broached the subject to him yet. I thought I wouldn't
+before--' He stopped and made no effort to finish the sentence.
+
+'It's a year,' she said slowly, lengthening out the word. 'Yes, only a
+year,' said he briskly, and Mrs. Willoughby smiled in spite of herself.
+She thought of the new air of alertness which Fielding had worn since his
+return from Switzerland. She came back to Drake and held out her hand to
+him. 'You think very wisely for your friends,' she said.
+
+'It's an inspiriting business to see a community in the making,'
+he answered; 'especially when there's money to help it to make
+itself quickly.'
+
+He wished her good-bye and moved to the door. As he opened it he said,
+'By the way, is the date of the marriage fixed?' but without turning
+towards her.
+
+She said, 'Yes, the 8th of December,' and she saw his shoulders brace,
+and the weight of his body come backwards from the ball of the foot on
+to the heel.
+
+'Ah! I shall be in Africa by then,' he said.
+
+It was in fact near upon the end of February that the river-steamer
+plying between the settlement and the coast of Matanga brought to Drake
+and Fielding an announcement that the marriage had taken place. There
+were letters for both the men, and they carried them out to a grass knoll
+on the edge of the forest some quarter of a mile away from the little
+village of tin huts which shone in the sunshine like a tidy kitchen, as
+Fielding was used to say. Drake read his through, and said to Fielding,
+'You have a letter from Mrs. Willoughby?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Any news?'
+
+Fielding looked him in the face. 'Yes,' he said slowly, and putting the
+letter in his pocket, buttoned it up. Drake understood alike from his
+tone and action what news the letter conveyed, and made no further
+inquiry. He fell instead to talking of some machinery which the boat had
+brought up along with the letters. The letter, indeed, was written in a
+vein which made it impossible for Fielding to follow the usual habit of
+reading Mrs. Willoughby's letters aloud to his companion. 'The wedding,'
+she wrote, 'lacked nothing but a costumier and a composer. The bride and
+bridegroom should have been in fancy dress, and a new Gounod was needed
+to compose the wedding-march of a marionette. One might have taken the
+ceremony seriously as an artistic whole under those circumstances.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby continued to keep Fielding informed of the progress or
+the married couple, and in May hinted at dissensions. The hint Fielding
+let slip one day to Drake. Drake, however, received the news with
+apparent indifference, and indeed returned to England in September with
+Fielding without having so much as referred to the subject.
+
+During the month which followed his return, he preserved the same
+appearance of indifference, seeming, indeed, thoroughly engrossed in
+working off arrears of business. The fact, however, of this dissension
+was thrust before his notice one evening when he dined with Mr. Le
+Mesurier, and that gentleman dealt out extravagant praise to the French
+for recognising that the marriages of the children are matters which
+solely concern the parents.
+
+'We English,' said he with a shrug of contempt at the fatuity of his
+countrymen, 'men and women, or rather boys and girls, choose for
+ourselves, and what's the result nine times out of ten? Well, it's the
+custom, and it's no use for a man by himself trying to alter it.'
+
+Drake was familiar with Mr. Le Mesurier's habit of shifting
+responsibilities, and while he said nothing at the moment, called upon
+Mrs. Willoughby the next day and questioned her openly. Mrs. Willoughby
+admitted that there were disagreements, but believed them not to be deep.
+
+'The first year,' she said, 'is as a rule a trying time. There are
+illusions to be sloughed. People may come out all the stronger in the
+end.' Mrs. Willoughby generalised to conceal the little hopefulness she
+felt in regard to the particular instance.
+
+'I ask,' continued Drake, 'because I thought money might be at the bottom
+of it. In that case something perhaps might be done. Mrs. Mallinson would
+be troubled, I believe, by a need to economise.'
+
+'Oh no,' she returned. 'There's no trouble of that kind. You see, Mr. Le
+Mesurier sold the Seigneurie, for one thing--'
+
+'Sold it!' exclaimed Drake. 'Why, I was told that it was strictly
+entailed from father to child.'
+
+'In one respect it is. It can't be charged with annuities. But any one
+who owns it can sell it outright. Mr. Le Mesurier always intended to sell
+it if Clarice married a man only moderately well off.'
+
+Drake rose from his chair and walked once or twice quickly across the
+room.
+
+'He should have told his daughter that,' he said slowly.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby glanced at him in surprise.
+
+'Well, of course he did.'
+
+'Oh no, he didn't,' said Drake quickly. 'You remember, I told you at Sark
+why she wanted our engagement to be kept secret.'
+
+'Because your position wasn't altogether assured. You didn't mention the
+Seigneurie.'
+
+'No, I thought you would understand. She believed an engagement between
+us would cause trouble with her father, just because it was necessary for
+her to marry a man who could keep up the Seigneurie.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started. 'Clarice told you that!' she said,
+staring at him.
+
+'Yes,' he replied simply. 'So you see she didn't know.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby sank back into her chair. She had heard Mr. Le Mesurier
+announce his intention more than once in Clarice's presence. However, she
+fancied that no particular good would be done by informing him of the
+girl's deception, and she dropped the subject.
+
+'What about Conway?' asked Drake.
+
+'He still walks up and down London. I fancy he is secretary to
+something.'
+
+Drake hesitated for a second. 'Does he go there very much?'
+
+'A good deal, I fancy,' she replied. 'But you mustn't think the
+disagreement is really serious. There is no cause outside themselves.
+Have you called?'
+
+'No; I go down to Bentbridge to-morrow. I must call when I get back.'
+
+'Then you are going to stand for Parliament?' she exclaimed. 'I am so
+glad.'
+
+'Yes; they expect an election in July, I believe. You see, now that
+Fielding has been made a director and has settled down to work, I have
+got more time. In fact, one feels rather lonely at nights.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was willing to hear more concerning Fielding's merits.
+She promptly set herself to belittle the importance of his position and
+work for the sake of hearing them upheld, and she was not disappointed.
+
+'It's easy enough to laugh at finance, and fashionable into the bargain,'
+he said. 'But here's the truth of the matter. Money does to-day what was
+the work of the sword a century or so ago, and, as far as I can see, does
+it better. To my thinking, it should be held in quite as high esteem. You
+can put it aside and let it rust if you like, but other nations won't
+follow your good example. Then the time comes when you must use it, and
+you find the only men you've got to handle it are the men you can't
+trust--the bandit instead of the trained soldier. No! Put the best men
+you can find to finance, I say,' and with that he said good-bye.
+
+'Why doesn't he drop them altogether?' asked Fielding with considerable
+irritation when Mrs. Willoughby informed him of Drake's intention to
+renew his acquaintance with the Mallinsons.
+
+'It would only make matters worse if he did,' replied she. 'Clarice would
+be certain to count any falling off of her friends as a new grievance
+against her husband.'
+
+'Friends?'
+
+'He is willing to take his place as one.'
+
+'He will find it singularly uninteresting. Friendship between a man
+and a woman!'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders; then he laughed to himself. Mrs.
+Willoughby got up nervously from her chair and walked to the opposite
+end of the room.
+
+'These things,' continued Fielding in a perfectly complacent and
+unconscious tone, 'are best understood by their symbols.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby swung round. 'Symbols?' she asked curiously.
+
+Fielding took a seat and leaned back comfortably. 'The feelings and
+emotions,' he began, 'have symbols in the visible world. Of these symbols
+the greater number are flowers. I won't trouble you with an enumeration
+of them, for in the first place I couldn't give it, and in the second,
+Shakespeare has provided a fairly comprehensive list. And by nature I am
+averse to challenging comparisons. There are, however, feelings of which
+the symbols are not flowers, and amongst them we must reckon friendship
+between man and woman. Passion, we know, has its passion flower, but the
+friendship I am speaking of has its symbol too'--he paused
+impressively--'and that symbol is cold boiled mutton.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby laughed awkwardly. 'What nonsense!' she said.
+
+'A mere _jeu d'esprit_, I admit,' said he, and he waved his hand to
+signify that he could be equally witty every day in the week if he chose.
+His satisfaction, indeed, blinded him to the fact that his speech might
+be construed as uncommonly near to a proposal of marriage. He thought,
+with a cast back to his old dilettante spirit, that it would be amusing
+to repeat it, especially to a woman of the sentimental kind--Clarice
+Mallinson, for instance. He pictured the look of injury in her eyes and
+laughed again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Clarice was indeed even more disappointed than Mrs. Willoughby imagined.
+She had looked forward to her marriage, and had indeed been persuaded to
+look forward to it, as to the smiting of a rock in her husband's nature
+whence a magical spring of inspiration should flow perennially. 'The
+future owes us a great deal,' Mallinson had said. 'It does indeed,'
+Clarice had replied in her most sentimental tones. Only she made the
+mistake of believing that the date of her marriage was the time appointed
+for payment. Instead of that spontaneous flow of inspiration, she had
+beneath her eyes a process of arduous work, which was not limited to a
+special portion of the day, like the work of a business man, and which,
+in the case of a man with Mallinson's temperament, inevitably produced an
+incessant fretfulness with his surroundings. Now, since this work was
+done not in an office but at home, the burden of that fretfulness fell
+altogether upon Clarice.
+
+She took to reading the _Morte d'Arthur_. Fielding found her with the
+book in her hand when he called, and commented on her choice.
+
+'There's no romance in the world nowadays,' she replied.
+
+'But there has been,' he replied cheerfully; 'lots.'
+
+Clarice professed not to understand his meaning. He proceeded to tick off
+upon his ringers those particular instances in which he knew her to have
+had a share, and mentioned the names of the gentlemen. He omitted
+Drake's, however, and Clarice noticed the omission. For the rest she
+listened quite patiently until he came to an end. Then she asked gravely,
+'Do you think that is quite a nice way to talk to a married woman?'
+
+'No,' he admitted frankly, 'I don't.' For a few minutes the
+conversation lagged.
+
+This was, however, Fielding's first visit since his home-coming, and
+Clarice yielded to certain promptings of curiosity.
+
+'I hardly expected you would be persuaded to go out to Africa, even
+by--any one,' she concluded lamely.
+
+'Neither did I,' he replied.
+
+'Did you enjoy it?' she asked.
+
+'I went out a Remus, I return a Romulus.'
+
+There were points in Clarice's behaviour which never failed to excite
+Fielding's admiration. Amongst these was a habit she possessed of staring
+steadily into the speaker's face with all the appearance of complete
+absence of mind whenever an allusion was made which she did not
+understand, and then continuing the conversation as though the allusion
+had never been made. 'Of course you had a companion,' she said.
+
+Fielding agreed that he had.
+
+'I have not seen him,' she added.
+
+'No?'
+
+'No.' Clarice was driven to name the companion. 'You seem to have struck
+up a great friendship with Mr. Drake. I should hardly have thought that
+you would have found much in common.'
+
+'_Arcades ambo_, don't you know?'
+
+Clarice did not know, and being by this time exasperated, she showed that
+she did not. Fielding explained blandly, 'We both drive the same pigs to
+the same market.'
+
+Clarice laughed shortly, and stroked the cover of her _Morte d'Arthur_.
+'I suppose that's just what friendship means nowadays?'
+
+'Between man and man--yes. Between woman and woman it's different, and
+it's, of course, different too between man and woman. But perhaps that's
+best to be understood by means of its symbol,' and he worked up to his
+climax of cold boiled mutton with complete satisfaction.
+
+'I gather, then, that you see nothing of Mrs. Willoughby now,' said
+Clarice quietly as soon as he had stopped. Fielding was for the moment
+taken aback. It seemed to him that the point of view was unfair.
+'Widows,' he replied with great sententiousness,--'widows are different,'
+and he took his leave without explaining wherein the difference lay. He
+wondered, however, if Clarice's point of view had occurred to Mrs.
+Willoughby.
+
+Fielding's visit, and in particular his teasing reticence as to his
+stay in Matanga, had the effect of recalling Clarice's thoughts to the
+subject of Stephen Drake. She recalled her old impression of him as one
+self-centred and self-sufficing, a man to whom nothing outside himself
+would make any tangible difference; but she recalled it without a trace
+of the apprehension with which it had been previously coupled. She
+began indeed to dwell upon that idea of him as upon something restful,
+and the idea was still prominent in her mind when, a little more than a
+week afterwards, Drake galloped up to her one morning as she was
+crossing the Park.
+
+'I have been meaning to call, Mrs. Mallinson,' he said, 'but the fact is,
+I have had no time. I only got back from Bentbridge last night.'
+
+Clarice received a sudden and yet expected impression of freshness from
+him. 'Papa told me you were going to stand,' she replied. 'You stayed
+with my uncle, Captain Le Mesurier, didn't you?'
+
+'Yes. Funnily enough, I have met him before, although I didn't know his
+name. He travelled in the carriage with me from Plymouth to London when I
+first landed in England.'
+
+Clarice wondered what made him pause for a moment in the middle of the
+sentence. 'Your chances are promising?' she asked.
+
+'I can't say yet. I have a Radical lord against me. Burl says there's no
+opponent more dangerous. It will be a close fight, I think.' He threw
+back his head and opened his chest. His voice rang with a vigorous
+enjoyment in the anticipation of a strenuous contest.
+
+'So you are glad to get back to London,' she said.
+
+'Rather. I feel at home here, and only here--even in January.' He looked
+across the Park with a laugh. It stretched away vacant and dull in the
+gray cheerlessness of a winter's morning. 'The place fascinates me; it
+turns me into a child, especially at night. I like the glitter of shops
+and gas-lamps, and the throng of people in the light of them. One
+understands what the Roman citizen felt. I like driving about the streets
+in a hansom. There are some one never gets tired of Oxford Street, for
+instance, and the turn out of Leicester Square into Coventry Street, with
+the blaze of Piccadilly Circus ahead. One hears that poets starve in
+London, and are happy; I can believe it. Well, I am keeping you from the
+shops, and myself from business.'
+
+He shook hands with her and mounted his horse.
+
+'You have not yet seen my husband,' she said, and she felt that she
+forced herself to speak the word.
+
+'Not yet. I must look him up. You live in Regent's Park, don't you?'
+
+'Close by. Will you come some evening and dine?'
+
+The invitation was accepted, and Drake rode off. He rode well, Clarice
+noticed, and his horse was finely limbed and perfectly groomed. The
+perception of these details had its effect. She stood looking after him,
+then she turned slowly and made her way homewards across the Park. Two of
+her acquaintances passed her and lifted their hats, but she took no
+notice of them; she did not see them. A picture was fixed in her mind--a
+picture of a rolling plain, black as midnight, exhaling blackness, so
+that the air itself was black for some feet above the ground; and into
+this cool and quiet darkness the moonbeams plunged out of a fiery sky and
+were lost. They dropped, she fancied, after their long flight, to their
+appointed haven of repose.
+
+The street door of her house gave on to a garden. Clarice walked along
+the pathway in front of the house towards the door of the hall. As she
+passed her husband's study windows she glanced in. He was standing in
+front of the fireplace, tearing across some sheets of manuscript. Clarice
+hurried forwards. He was always tearing up manuscript. While she was
+upstairs taking off her hat she heard his door open and his voice
+complaining to the servants about some papers which had been mislaid. She
+felt inclined to take the servants' part. After all, what was a man doing
+in the house all day? There was a dragging shuffle of his slippers upon
+the floor of the hall. The sound jarred on her. She pinned on her hat
+again, ran downstairs, gave orders that she would not be in for lunch,
+and drove at once to Mrs. Willoughby's. She arrived in a state little
+short of hysterical.
+
+'Connie,' she cried, almost before the servant who announced her was out
+of the room, 'I know you don't like me, but oh, I'm so unhappy!'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby softened at sight of her evident distress. 'Why, what's
+the matter?' she asked, and made her sit down beside her on the sofa.
+
+'It's awful,' she said, and repeated, 'it's awful.'
+
+'Yes, child, but what is?' asked Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'All is--I mean everything is,' sobbed Clarice.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby recognised that though the correction amended the
+grammar, it did not simplify the meaning. She pressed for something
+more precise.
+
+'Don't be irritable, Connie,' quavered Clarice, 'because that's just
+what Sidney is--and always. It's so difficult to make you understand.
+But he's just a lot of wires, and they keep twanging all day. He
+nags--there's no other word for it--he nags about everything--the
+servants, his publishers, the dinner, and--oh!--oh!--why can't he wear
+boots in the morning?'
+
+The point of the question was lost on Mrs. Willoughby. She began to
+expostulate with Clarice for magnifying trifles.
+
+'Of course,' replied Clarice, sitting up suddenly--she had been half
+lying on the sofa in Mrs. Willoughby's arms--'I know they are trifles; I
+know that. But make every day full of them, every day repeat them! Oh,
+it's awful! I wonder I don't break down!' She turned again to Mrs.
+Willoughby, lapsing from vehemence to melancholy as the notion occurred
+to her. 'Connie, I believe I shall--break down altogether. You know I'm
+not very strong.' She put her arms about Mrs. Willoughby, and clung to
+her in the intensity of her self-compassion. 'You can't imagine the
+strain it is. And if that wasn't enough, his mother comes up from Clapham
+and lectures me. I wouldn't mind that, only she's not very safe about her
+h's, and she stops to dinner and talks about the nobility she's had cooks
+from, to impress the servants. It's so humiliating, to be lectured by any
+one like that.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby scented a fact. 'But what does she lecture you about? The
+dinner?' she asked, with an irrelevant recollection of Drake's impression
+of Clarice as one little adapted for housewifely duties, and not rightly
+to be troubled by them.
+
+'Oh no. She says I don't give Sidney the help he expected from me. But
+what more can I do? He has got me. Sidney says the same, too. He told me
+that he had never had so much difficulty to work properly as since we
+were married. And when his work doesn't succeed I know he blames me for
+it. Oh, Connie! _is_ it my fault? I think we had better get divorced--and
+I--I--c-c-can go into a convent, and never do anybody any more harm.'
+
+Clarice glanced as she spoke down the neatest of morning frocks, and the
+mental picture which she straightway had of herself in a white-washed
+cell with iron bars, clad in shapeless black, her chin swathed, her face
+under eaves of starched linen, induced an access of weeping.
+
+For all her sympathy Mrs. Willoughby was forced to bite her lips.
+Clarice, however, was not in the mood to observe the effect which her
+words produced on others. She continued: 'It's much the best thing to do,
+because whatever I did it would always be the same. I could never make
+him content. Connie, if you only knew the strain of it all! He's always
+wanting to be something different. One day a clerk, with a nice quiet
+routine, another a soldier, another a ----' she hesitated, and gave
+Constance an extra squeeze--'a colonist, and fire off Maxim guns. If you
+could only see him! He sits in front of the fire, with his glasses on,
+and talks about the roaring world of things.'
+
+This time Mrs. Willoughby really laughed. She turned the laugh into a
+cough, and cleared her throat emphatically once or twice. Clarice sat up
+and looked at her reproachfully, then she said, 'I know it's absurd. I
+don't know whether to laugh or cry myself, b-b-but I usually cry. And
+then in his books he's--he's always his own hero.' With that Clarice
+reached at once the climax of her distress and the supreme charge of her
+indictment. The rest was but sighs and sobs and disconnected phrases.
+Finally she fell asleep; later she was caressed into eating lunch, taken
+for a drive, and sent home subsequently greatly mollified and relieved.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby refrained from tendering advice that afternoon. There was
+nothing sufficiently tangible in the story which she had heard. In fact
+the only thing really tangible was the girl's distress in telling it, and
+that Mrs. Willoughby attributed to some dispute between her and Sidney
+that morning. She could not know that Clarice's outburst had been
+preceded by that chance meeting in the Park with Stephen Drake, for
+Clarice had made no allusion to it of any kind. She felt, besides, that
+advice in any case would be of little use. The couple had to work out
+their own salvation, and time and experience alone could help them.
+Events seemed to justify Mrs. Willoughby's reticence, for the winter
+blossomed into spring, the spring flowered into summer, and the Mallinson
+household remained to the external view unshaken.
+
+Drake's visits to Bentbridge increased in frequency as the prospect of
+the general election became more real. A snap vote in the House of
+Commons on a minor question of administrative expenditure decided the
+matter suddenly towards the end of June. The Government determined on a
+dissolution. Fielding took Clarice Mallinson into dinner at Mr. Le
+Mesurier's house on the day after the date of the dissolution was fixed.
+He noticed that she looked worn. There were shadows about her eyes, her
+colour had lost its freshness, and there was a melancholy droop about the
+corners of her mouth. Fielding suggested the advisability of a change.
+
+'I'm to have one,' said she. 'I'm going down to stay with my uncle at
+Bentbridge in a week's time.'
+
+'At Bentbridge?' asked Fielding sharply. 'For the election.'
+
+She saw his lips tighten. 'My husband goes with me,' she replied
+quickly and stopped, flushing as she realised that she had meant and
+conveyed an apology.
+
+'I should have thought that the Continent would have been more advisable
+as a change.'
+
+'The Continent! I don't want to travel far. I am so tired.' She spoke in
+a tone of weariness which touched Fielding in spite of himself. He looked
+at her more closely. 'Yes,' he said gently, 'you look very tired. You
+have been doing too much.'
+
+'No, it isn't that,' she replied. 'One thinks of things, that's all.' She
+bent her head and was silent for a little, tracing a pattern on the
+table-cloth with a finger absently. Then she added in a low voice, 'I
+suppose few women ever think at all until after they are married.'
+
+The voice was low, and Fielding was conscious of something new in the
+tone of it, a deeper vibration, a sincerity different in kind from that
+surface frankness which he had always known in her. He wondered whether
+she had struck down from her pinchbeck sentimentality into something that
+rang solid in the depths of her nature. He looked at her again, her eyes
+were turned to his. With the shadows about them, they looked bigger,
+darker, more piteously appealing. She was no less a child to him, the
+child looked out of her eyes, sounded in the commonplace sentiment she
+had spoken, and the air of originality with which she had spoken it. But
+the child seemed beginning to learn the lesson of womanhood, and from the
+one mistress which could teach it her.
+
+'But why think then?' he asked lightly. 'It ruins a complexion no less
+than before. Or does a complexion cease to count? Look!' He leaned
+forward. A pink carnation was in a glass in front of him, already
+withering from the heat. He touched the faded tips of the petals. 'That
+is the colour which conies from thinking.'
+
+Clarice lifted her shoulders with more of sadness than impatience in the
+gesture. 'You believe,' she said, 'no woman at all has a right to dare
+to think.'
+
+'I notice,' he answered with the same levity, 'that the woman who thinks
+generally thinks of what she ought not to.'
+
+Later, in the drawing-room, he looked for her again, and looked
+unsuccessfully. The window, however, was open, and he advanced to
+it. Clarice was on the balcony alone, her elbows on the rail, a hand
+on either side of her cheek. Something in her attitude made him
+almost pity her.
+
+'Mrs. Mallinson,' he said, 'you will probably think me intrusive, but do
+you think your visit really wise?' Clarice turned towards him quickly
+with something of defiance in her manner. 'You are tired,' he went on,
+'you want rest. Well, an election isn't a very restful time, even for the
+onlooker.'
+
+Clarice did not reply for a moment, and when she did she replied with an
+impulsive frankness, to which his friendly tone had prompted her. 'To
+tell you the truth, I am not anxious to go. I don't want to, but Sidney
+wants to.'
+
+'Your husband?'
+
+'You don't believe me.'
+
+'Of course I do.' He left her on the balcony, and went in search of
+Mallinson. 'So you go to Bentbridge for the election,' he said.
+
+'Yes,' replied the other, lighting up. 'I am looking forward to it like a
+schoolboy to a football match. The prospect of activity exhilarates
+me--bodily activity, don't you know--a town humming with excitement.'
+
+Fielding cut him short. 'My dear fellow, you're a damned fool,' he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Stephen Drake had decided to stay during the period of the election at a
+hotel in the centre of the town, rather than to accept an invitation from
+Captain Le Mesurier, who lived some miles beyond the outskirts. He
+travelled down to Bentbridge on the day that the dissolution was
+announced, and during the journey Mr. Burl gave him much sage advice.
+
+'Keep the arguments for buildings; they're in place there. Mass-meetings
+in the open air want something different. Many a good man has lost his
+seat from not observing that rule. In the open air pitch out a fact or
+two--not too many--or a couple of round sums of figures first of all,
+just to give them confidence in you, and then go straight for your
+opponent. No rapier play--it's lost then--but crack him on the top-knot
+with a bludgeon. They'll want to hear his skull ring before they'll
+believe that you have touched him. Phrases! Those are the things to get
+you in, not arguments. Pin a label on his coat-tails. You'll see them
+laugh as he squirms round to pull it off. And, mind you, there'll be no
+walking over, you'll want all you know. The man's a Radical and a Lord!
+The combination satisfies their democratic judgments and their snobbish
+instincts at the same time. People forget to count the snob in the
+democrat, but he's there all the same, as in most Englishmen. A veneer of
+snobbishness over solid independence. That's our characteristic. Lord
+Cranston! Can't you hear their tongues licking it? Luckily, there are
+things against him. He's a carpet-bagger like yourself, and he's been
+more than once separated from his wife. His fault, too--once it was an
+opera dancer. I've got up the facts. He only joined his wife again a few
+months ago--probably for the purpose of this election.'
+
+Mr. Burl pulled out a pocket-book, and began to turn over the leaves in
+search of the damning details, when Drake interrupted him. 'You don't
+expect me to discuss the man's private life?'
+
+'My dear Drake, do be practical. It's no use being finicking. The
+essential thing is to win the seat.'
+
+'Whatever the price?'
+
+'Look here; I am not asking you to do anything so crude as to make
+platform speeches about the man's disgraceful conduct to his wife.' Mr.
+Burl assumed the look of a Rhadamanthus. 'But'--and again he relaxed into
+the tactician--'you might take a strong social line on morals generally,
+and the domestic hearth, and that sort of thing.' He looked critically at
+Drake. 'You're one of the few chaps I know who look as if they could do
+that and make people believe they really mean it.'
+
+He finally discredited his advice by adding impressibly, 'You needn't
+go into the instance at all, you know. They'll understand what you're
+alluding to, never fear'; and Drake flatly refused to dance into
+Parliament to that tune, however persuasively Mr. Burl played upon
+the pipes.
+
+The hotel at which Drake put up was situated in a short broad street
+which ran from the Market Square. From the balcony of his sitting-room on
+the first floor he could see the market sheds at the end of the street to
+his left. The opposite end was closed in by the Town Hall, which was
+built upon an ancient gate of the town. From Drake's windows you got a
+glimpse through the archway of green fields and trees. Almost facing him
+was a second hotel on the opposite side of the street, the 'Yellow Boar.'
+It was tricked out, he noticed, with the colours of his opponent. While
+he was standing at the window an open carriage turned out of the
+market-place, and drove up to the 'Yellow Boar.' Lord Cranston got down
+from it, and a lady. The candidate was of a short and slight build; a
+pencil--line of black moustache crossed a pallid and indecisive face, and
+he seemed a year or two more than thirty. The lady looked the younger,
+and was certainly the taller of the two. Drake was impressed by her face,
+which bore womanly gentleness, stamped on features of a marked
+intellectuality. The couple disappeared into the hall, and appeared again
+in a large room with big windows upon the first floor. From where he
+stood Drake could see every corner of the room. Lord and Lady Cranston,
+the land-lord informed him, were staying at the 'Yellow Boar.' The two
+candidates overlooked each other.
+
+In this street, morning and evening, they met for a moment or two, and
+took a breath of friendly intercourse. Drake was introduced to Lady
+Cranston, but she would have none of the truce. To her he was the enemy,
+and to be treated as such consistently, with a heart-and-soul hostility,
+until he confessed himself beaten. Drake liked her all the better for her
+attitude. Meanwhile he made headway in the constituency. He was in
+earnest, with a big theme to descant upon--the responsibility of the
+constituency to the empire. His fervour brought it home to his audiences
+as a fact; he set the recognition of that responsibility forwards as the
+prime duty of the citizen, sneering at the parochial notion of politics.
+Mr. Burl shook his head over Drake's method of fighting the battle, and
+hinted more than once at the necessity of that lecture upon morals. Drake
+not only refused to reconsider it, but flatly forbade Mr. Burl to allude
+to the subject in any speech which he might make. Burl shrugged his
+shoulders and confided his doubts to Captain Le Mesurier. Said the
+Captain, 'I think he's wise; a speech might offend. What's wanted is an
+epigram--a good stinging epigram. We could set it about, and, if it's
+sharp enough, no need to fear it won't travel.' He paused dubiously.
+'After all, though, it's a bit unfair on Cranston. Hang it, I've been a
+married man myself,' and he chuckled in unregenerate enjoyment. 'However,
+the seat's got to be won. Let's think of an epigram,' and he scratched
+his head and slapped his thigh. It was the Captain's way of thinking. The
+satisfactory epigram would not emerge. He could fashion nothing better as
+a description of Cranston than, 'A refreshment-room sandwich; two great
+chunks of sin and a little slice of repentance between.' Mr. Burl
+condemned it as crude, and for the moment the epigram was dropped.
+
+The Mallinsons arrived a week after the contest had begun. Captain Le
+Mesurier welcomed Clarice with boisterous effusion, and her husband with
+quarter-deck dignity. 'You look ill,' he said to Clarice. 'It's your
+husband worrying you. Ah, I know, I know! Those writing chaps!'
+
+To Mallinson, however, he suddenly showed excessive friendliness, and
+took the opportunity of saying to him loudly in a full room, 'There's
+something I must tell you. I know it'll make you laugh. It does me
+whenever I think of it. You know Drake? Well, we travelled up from
+Plymouth together when he came back from Africa. He bought your book at
+the bookstall, and sat opposite me reading it. What was it called? I
+know, _A Man of Influence_. You should have seen Drake's face. Lord, he
+couldn't make head or tail of it. How should he? I asked him what he
+thought of it, and imagine what he answered! You can't, though. It's the
+funniest thing I ever heard. He said it was a very clever satire. Satire!
+Good Lord, I almost rolled off the seat. It is funny, isn't it?'
+
+Mallinson, with a wry face, agreed that the story was funny.
+
+'I knew you would think so,' pursued the Captain relentlessly.
+'Everybody does I have told it to, and that's everybody I know. Satire!
+Lord help us!' and he shook with laughter and clapped Mallinson in the
+small of the back.
+
+Mallinson felt the fool that he was intended to look, with the result
+that his dormant resentment against Drake sprang again into activity.
+That resentment became intensified, as the date of the election drew
+nearer, by an unconfessed jealousy. They both made speeches, but
+Mallinson chiefly at the smaller meetings. And when they stood upon the
+same platform he was continually forced to compare the difference in the
+acclamation with which their speeches were severally received. As a
+matter of fact, Drake spoke from a fire of conviction, and the conviction
+not merely burnt through his words, but minted them for him, gave him
+spontaneously the short homely phrase which sank his meaning into the
+minds of his hearers. Mallinson took refuge in a criticism of Drake's
+speeches from the standpoint of literary polish. He recast them in his
+thoughts, turning this sentence more deftly, whittling that repartee to a
+finer point. The process consoled him for Drake's misreckoning of his
+purpose in the matter of _A Man of Influence_, since it pointed to a
+certain lack of delicacy, say at once to crassness in the man's
+intellect.
+
+Mallinson began immediately to imagine himself in Drake's position, the
+candidate for whom brass bands played, and hats went spinning into the
+air. And it needed no conscious effort for one so agile in egotistical
+leaps to spring thence to the fancy that Drake was a kind of vicarious
+substitute for himself, doing his work, too, not without blemishes.
+
+Ten days before the polling-day Fielding ran down from town, and attended
+a meeting at the Town Hall, at which both Drake and Mallinson were to
+speak. He sat on the platform by Clarice's side and paid some attention
+to her manner during the evening. He noticed the colour mount in her
+cheeks and her eyes kindle, as on first entering the room she looked down
+upon the crowded floor. The chairs had been removed, and the audience
+stood packed beneath the flaring gas-jets--artificers for the most part,
+their white faces smeared and stained with the grime of their factories.
+The roar of applause as Drake rose by the table swelled up to three
+cheers in consonance, and a subsequent singing of 'For he's a jolly good
+fellow' stirred even Fielding to enthusiasm. He noted that feeling of
+enthusiasm as strange in himself, and had a thought in consequence that
+such scenes were hardly of the kind to help Clarice to the rest she
+needed. The hall for a moment became a sea of tossing handkerchiefs. He
+took a glance at Clarice. She sat bent forward with parted lips and a
+bosom that heaved. Fielding turned on his cold-water tap of flippancy.
+
+'It's a bad omen,' said he, with a nod towards the waving handkerchiefs.
+'They hang out flags of surrender.'
+
+'Hardly,' she replied, with a smile. 'I can't recognise that the flags
+are white'; and she added, 'I should like it less if they were. These men
+are the workers.'
+
+'The workers.' Fielding could hear Drake uttering the word in just the
+same tone, and his compassion for Clarice deepened. Why? he asked
+himself. The girl was undergoing not a jot more punishment than a not
+over-rigid political justice would have meted out to her. The question
+inexplicably raised to view a pair of the clearest blue eyes, laughing
+from between the blackest of eyelashes. He promptly turned his attention
+to the speaker at the table.
+
+Drake commenced that night with an apology. It was necessary that he
+should speak about himself. An utterly baseless story had, within the
+last few days, and doubtless with a view to this election, been revived
+by the London evening paper which originally made it. He regretted also
+to notice that his opponent had accepted the story, and was making use of
+it to prejudice him in the eyes of the electors. Accordingly he felt
+bound to put the facts simply and briefly before his audience, although
+the indifference of the Colonial Office to what, if true, was a crime
+committed by an Englishman on English soil, and against practically
+English subjects, in effect acquitted him of the charge.
+
+Drake thereupon proceeded to describe his march to Boruwimi. The story,
+modestly recited in simple nervous English, did more to forward his
+candidature than all the political speeches he could have made during a
+twelvemonth. It came pat at the right time, when arguments were growing
+stale. His listeners hung upon the words; in the intense silence Fielding
+could feel the sympathy between speaker and audience flowing to and fro
+between them like a current. Drake instinctively lowered his voice; it
+thrilled through the hall the more convincingly. There was a perceptible
+sway of heads forwards, which started at the back and ran from line to
+line towards the platform like a quick ripple across a smooth sea. It was
+as though this crowded pack of men and women was drawn to move towards
+the speaker, where indeed there was no room at all to move.
+
+And in truth the subject was one to stir the blood. Drake prefaced his
+account by a description of the geography of Boruwimi; he instanced
+briefly the iniquities of the Arab slave-dealers whom he was attacking.
+Thereupon he contrasted the numbers of his little force with the horde of
+his enemies, and dwelt for a second upon their skill as marksmen; so that
+his auditors, following him as he hewed his path through the tangle of an
+untrodden forest, felt that each obstacle he stopped at might mean not
+merely failure to the expedition, but death to all who shared in it.
+Success and life were one and the same thing, and the condition of that
+thing was speed. He must fall upon the Arabs unawares, like a bolt from
+the blue. They forgot that he who led that expedition was speaking to
+them now; they were with him in the obscure depths of the undergrowth,
+surging against gigantic barriers of fallen tree-trunks, twenty, thirty
+feet high; they were marching behind him, like him at grips with nature
+in a six-weeks' struggle of life and death; and when finally he burst
+into the clearing on the river's bank the ripple went backwards across
+the hall, and a cheer of relief rang out, as though their lives, too,
+were saved.
+
+Upon Fielding the relation produced a somewhat peculiar effect. He was
+fascinated, not so much by the incident described or by the earnestness
+of the man who described it,--for with both he was familiar,--but by the
+strangeness of the conditions under which it was told--this story of
+Africa, before these serried rows of white eager faces, in this stifling
+hall, where the gaslight struggled with the waning day. From the raised
+platform on which he sat he could see through the open windows away
+across green fields to where the sun was setting in a clear sky behind
+quiet Yorkshire wolds. The combination of circumstances made the episode
+bizarre to him; he was, in fact, paying an unconscious tribute to the
+orator's vividness.
+
+Clarice paid the same tribute, but she phrased it differently, and the
+difference was significant. She said, 'Isn't it strange that he should
+_be here_--in a frock-coat? I half thought the room would dissolve and we
+should find ourselves at Boruwimi.' Fielding started. Coming from her
+lips the name sounded strange; yet she spoke it without the least
+hesitation. For the moment it had plainly one association in her
+thoughts, and only one. It sounded as though every recollection of Gorley
+had vanished from her mind. 'Oh, he must get in!' she whispered, clasping
+her hands upon her knees.
+
+After Drake had concluded, Mallinson moved a resolution. He spoke
+fluently, Fielding remarked, and with a finished phrasing. The very
+finish, however, imparted an academic effect; he was, besides, hampered
+by the speech which had preceded his. The audience began to shuffle
+restlessly; they were capping a rich Burgundy with _vin ordinaire_, and
+found the liquor tasteless to the palate. Fielding perceived from certain
+movements at his side that Clarice shared in the general restlessness.
+She gave an audible sigh of relief and patted her hands with the most
+perfunctory applause when her husband sat down. 'You are staying with Mr.
+Drake at the Three Nuns?' she asked, turning to Fielding.
+
+'Only till to-morrow. I leave by the night-train.'
+
+'Oh, you are going back!'
+
+'Yes. You see Drake and Burl are both here. Somebody must keep the shop
+open, if it's only to politely put the customers off.' He interpreted the
+look of surprise upon Mrs. Mallinson's face. 'Yes, I have been gradually
+sucked into the whirlpool,' and he laughed with a nod towards Drake.
+
+She turned to him with her eyes shining. 'And you are proud of it.'
+
+Fielding smiled indulgently. 'That's a woman's thought.'
+
+'But you don't deny it's truth.'
+
+Clarice said nothing more until the meeting had terminated and the
+party was in the street. They walked from the Town Hall to Drake's
+hotel, Clarice and Fielding a few paces behind the rest. The first
+words which she spoke showed to him that her thoughts had not altered
+their drift. 'Yes, you have changed,' she said, and implied
+unmistakably, 'for the better.'
+
+'You only mean,' laughed Fielding, 'that I have given up provoking you.'
+
+'No, no,' she said. 'Besides, you evidently haven't given that up.'
+
+'Then in what way?'
+
+'I shall offend you.'
+
+'I can hardly think so.'
+
+'Well, you were becoming a kind of--'
+
+'Say it.'
+
+'Paul Pry.'
+
+To a gentleman whose ambition it had been to combine the hermit's
+indifference to social obligations with an indulgence in social
+festivities, the blow was a cruel one; and the more cruel because he
+realised that Clarice's criticism contained a grain of truth. He hit back
+cruelly. 'Drake tells me he thinks of taking a place here. I suppose he
+means to marry.'
+
+'I believe he does,' replied Clarice promptly. 'Mrs. Willoughby.'
+
+Fielding stopped and apostrophised the stars. 'That is perfectly untrue,'
+he said. He walked on again as soon as he perceived that he had stopped,
+adding, with a grumble, 'I pity the woman who marries Drake.'
+
+'Why?' asked Clarice in a tone of complete surprise, as though the idea
+was incomprehensible to her, and she repeated insistently, 'Why?'
+
+'Well,' he said, inventing a reason, 'I think he would never stand in
+actual need of her.' Clarice drew a sharp breath--a sigh of longing, it
+seemed to her companion, as for something desirable beyond all blessings.
+He continued in the tone of argument, 'And she would come to know that.
+Surely she would feel it.'
+
+'Yes, but feel proud of it perhaps,' replied Clarice, 'proud of him just
+for that reason. All her woman's tricks she would know useless to move
+him. Nothing she could do would make him swerve. Oh yes, she would feel
+proud--proud of him and proud of herself because he stooped to choose
+her.' She corrected the ardency of her voice of a sudden; it dropped
+towards indifference. 'At all events I can imagine that possible.'
+
+They were within fifty yards of the hotel, and walked silently the rest
+of the way. At the door, however, she said, turning weary eyes upon
+Fielding, 'And think! The repose of it for her.'
+
+'Ah, here you are!' The robustious voice of Captain Le Mesurier sounded
+from the hall. 'Look here,' to Fielding, 'we are going to take you back
+with us. Drake won't come. He's tired--so we don't miss him.'
+
+Fielding protested vainly that he would crowd the waggonette. Besides, he
+had business matters to discuss with Drake before he left for London.
+
+'Well, you can talk them over to-morrow. You don't go until to-morrow
+night. And as to crowding the waggonette, I have ordered a trap here; so
+you can drive it back again to-night, if you like, from Garples.
+Otherwise we'll be happy to put you up. You must come; we want to talk to
+you particularly. Mallinson will drive his wife in the trap, so there'll
+be plenty of room.'
+
+The party in the waggonette consisted of Captain Le Mesurier, Burl,
+Fielding, and five country gentlemen belonging to the district.
+Clarice, riding some yards behind them through the dark fragrant lanes,
+saw eight glowing cigars draw together in a bunch. The cigars were
+fixed points of red light for a little. Then they danced as though
+heads were wagging, retired this side and that and set to partners. A
+minute more and the figure was repeated: cigars to the centre, dance,
+retire, set to partners. A laugh from the Captain sounded as though he
+laughed from duty, and Mr. Burl was heard to say, 'Not too subtle, old
+man, you know.' At the third repetition the Captain bellowed
+satisfaction from a full heart, and Mr. Burl cried, 'Capital!' The
+country gentlemen could be understood to agree in the commendation.
+Whence it was to be inferred that the dance of the cigars was to have a
+practical result upon the election.
+
+Clarice, however, paid no great attention to the proceedings in the
+waggonette. She was almost oblivious to the husband at her side. The
+night was about her, cool with soft odours, wrapping her in solitude.
+Love at last veritably possessed her, so she believed; it had invaded her
+last citadel to-night. That it sat throned on ruins she had no eyes to
+see. It sat throned in quiescence, and that was enough. Clarice, in fact,
+was in that compressed fever-heat of the mushroom passions which takes on
+the semblance of intense and penetrating calm. And her very consciousness
+of this calm seemed to ally her to Drake, to give to them both something
+in common. She was troubled by no plans for the future; she had no regret
+for anything which had happened in the past. The vague questions which
+had stirred her--why had she been afraid of him?--was the failure of her
+marriage her fault?--for these questions she had no room. She did not
+think at all, she only felt that her heart was anchored to a rock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Given a driver who is at once inexperienced and short-sighted, a fresh
+horse harnessed to a light dog-cart, a dark night and a narrow gateway,
+and the result may be forecast without much rashness. Mallinson upset his
+wife and the cart just within the entrance to Garples. Luckily the drive
+was bordered by thick shrubs of laurel, so that Clarice was only shaken
+and dazed. She sat in the middle of a bush vaguely reflecting that her
+heart was anchored to a rock and yet her husband had spilled her out of a
+dog-cart. Between the incident and her state of mind immediately
+preceding it, she recognised an incongruity which she merely felt to be
+in some way significant. Fielding and Captain Le Mesurier picked her out
+of the bush before she had time to examine into its significance. All she
+said was, 'It's so like him.'
+
+'Yes, hang the fellow!' said the Captain, and under his breath he
+launched imprecations at all 'those writer chaps.'
+
+Mallinson raised himself from a bed of mould upon the opposite side of
+the drive and apologised. Captain Le Mesurier bluntly cut short the
+apology. 'Why didn't you say you couldn't drive? I can't. Who's ashamed
+of it? You might have broken your wife's neck.'
+
+'I might, and my own too,' replied Mallinson in a tone not a whit less
+aggrieved.
+
+Captain Le Mesurier raised his eyes to the heavens with the apoplectic
+look which comes of an intense desire to swear, and the repressive
+presence of ladies. 'Will you kindly sit on the horse's head until you
+are told to get up? I want the groom to help here,' he said, as soon as
+he found words tolerable to feminine ears. A groom was already occupying
+the position designated, but he rose with alacrity and Mallinson silently
+took his place and sat there until the harness was loosed.
+
+Fielding's visit, however, had another consequence beyond the upsetting
+of a gig. A few days later an epigram was circulating through the
+constituency. The squires passed it on with a smack of the tongue; it had
+a flavour, to their thinking, which was of the town. The epigram was
+this: 'Lord Cranston lives a business life of vice, with rare holidays of
+repentance, but being a dutiful husband he always takes his wife with him
+on his holidays.' From the squires it descended through the grades of
+society. Lord Cranston, at the close of a speech, was invited to mention
+the precise date at which he intended to end his holidays. Believing that
+the question sprang out of an objection to a do-nothing aristocracy, he
+answered with emphatic earnestness, 'The moment I am returned for
+Bentbridge.' The shout of laughter which greeted the remark he attributed
+at first to political opposition.
+
+Subsequently, however, a sympathiser explained to him delicately the true
+meaning of the question, and, as a counter-move, Lord Cranston made a
+violent attack upon 'Empire building plus finance.' He drew distinctions
+between governing men and making money.
+
+Drake accepted the distinctions as obvious platitudes, but failed to see
+that the capacity for one could not coexist with the capacity for the
+other. He asserted, on the contrary, that money was not as a rule made
+without the exercise of tact, and some aptitude for the management of
+men. He was, consequently, not disinclined to believe that money-making
+afforded a good preliminary lesson in the art of government. Lord
+Cranston's argument, in fact, did little more then alienate a few of his
+own supporters, who, having raised themselves to affluence, felt quite
+capable of doing the same for the nation.
+
+On the night of the polling-day Captain Le Mesurier brought his
+house-party into Bentbridge to dine with Drake, and after dinner the
+ladies remained in the room overlooking the street, while the gentlemen
+repaired to the Town Hall, where the votes were being counted. It seemed
+to Clarice as she gazed down that all the seven thousand electors had
+gathered to hear the result announced. The street was paved with heads as
+with black cobble-stones. Occasionally some one would look up and direct
+now a cheer, now a shout of derision towards the 'Three Nuns' or the
+'Yellow Boar.' But the rooms of both candidates were darkened, and the
+attention of the crowd was for the most part riveted upon the red blinds
+of the Town Hall.
+
+For Clarice, the time limped by on crutches. She barely heard the
+desultory conversation about her: she felt as if her life was beating
+itself out against those red windows. A clock in the market-place chimed
+the hour of nine: she counted the strokes, with a sense of wonder when
+they stopped. She seemed to have been waiting for a century.
+
+Across the street she could see the glimmer of a light summer dress in
+Lord Cranston's apartment. It moved restlessly backwards and forwards
+from one window to the other: now it shone out in the balcony above the
+street: now it retired into the darkness of the room. Clarice gauged Lady
+Cranston's impatience by her own, and experienced a fellow-feeling of
+sympathy. 'During this suspense,' she thought, 'you and I ought to be
+together.' As the thought flashed into her mind, her husband spoke to
+her. She set a hand before her eyes and did not answer him. She realised
+that she had been thinking of herself as Drake's wife. On the instant
+every force within her seemed to concentrate and fuse into one passionate
+longing. 'If only that were true!' She felt the longing throb through
+every vein: she acknowledged it: she expressed it clearly to herself. If
+only that were true! And then in a second the longing was displaced by an
+equally passionate regret.
+
+'It might have been,' she thought.
+
+Again her husband spoke to her. She turned towards him almost fiercely,
+and saw that he was offering her a shawl. She steadied her voice to
+decline it, and turned back again to the window. But now as she looked
+across the street, she was filled with a new and very bitter envy. The
+woman over there had the right to suffer for her suspense.
+
+At last the clock doled out ten strokes with a grudging deliberation, and
+less than five minutes later the shadow of a man was seen upon one of the
+red blinds. In the street below the people surged forward: there was a
+running flash of white as their heads were thrown back and their faces
+upturned to the Hall; and the shouts and cries swelled to a Babel,
+tearing the air. The blind was withdrawn, the window thrown open: Clarice
+could see people pressing forward in the room. They looked in the glare
+of yellow light like black ninepins. A gleam of bright scarlet shot out
+from amongst them, and the Mayor stepped on to the balcony above the
+archway. The tumult died rapidly to absolute silence, a silence deeper
+than the silence of desolate places, because one saw the crowd and one's
+ears were still tingling with the echo of its shouts. It was as though
+all sound, all motion had been arrested by some enchantment, and in the
+midst of that silence one word was launched down the street.
+
+'Drake!'
+
+The announcement of the numbers was lost in the sudden renewal of
+conflicting shouts. Clarice made no effort to ascertain them. That one
+word 'Drake' filled the world for her. The very noise in the street came
+to her ears with a dull muffled sound as though it had travelled across a
+wide space, and it seemed no more than an undertone to the ringing name.
+
+She saw Stephen Drake come forward and give place to his opponent, and
+after a little the street began to clear. The number thirty-five,
+incessantly repeated by the retiring crowd, penetrated to her mind and
+informed her of the actual majority. In about half an hour a little
+stream of people trickled from the porch of the Town Hall, and, gathering
+in volume, flowed into a narrow passage which led to the Conservative
+Club, a few yards to the right of the hotel. Clarice caught a glimpse of
+Drake's face at the head of the procession as he passed under a gas-lamp
+above the mouth of the passage, and was surprised by its expression of
+despondency. A fear sprang up in her mind that some mistake had been made
+in the announcement, but the fear was dispelled by the tone of her
+uncle's voice as he shouted an invitation to some one across the street
+to join them at the Club. It was a tone of boisterous exultation. There
+could be no doubt that Drake had been elected, and she wondered at the
+cause of his dejection.
+
+A few minutes later a second stream flowed along the opposite pavement
+towards the Liberal Club in the Market Square, and drew most of the
+remaining loiterers into its current. The noise and bustle grew fainter
+and died away: the lights were extinguished in the houses, and only one
+small group, clustering excitedly about the passage, relieved the quarter
+of its native sleepiness.
+
+Clarice turned with a certain reluctance into the room. It was empty, and
+the voices of her companions rose from the hall below. She did not follow
+them, however. There was time enough, for the party could not leave until
+Captain Le Mesurier returned from the Conservative Club. She went back to
+her post. Through the open window opposite to her she perceived the
+glimmer of a light dress in the dark of the room, but it was motionless
+now, a fixed patch of white. Clarice experienced a revulsion of pity for
+Lady Cranston. 'What must be her thoughts?' she asked herself.
+
+She remained at the window until the party from the Club emerged again
+from the passage and turned towards the hotel.
+
+Clarice heard her husband's voice asking where Drake was, and what in
+the world was the matter with him. Captain Le Mesurier replied, and the
+reply rang boisterously. 'He's behind. He's a bit unstrung, I fancy,
+and reason enough too, after all his work, eh? You see, Drake's
+not in the habit of taking holidays,' and the Captain grew hilarious
+over his allusion.
+
+Across the street Clarice saw the light dress flutter and move abruptly.
+It was evident that Lady Cranston had heard and understood the words.
+
+Drake followed some few minutes later, and alone. He walked slowly to the
+hotel with an air of utter weariness, as though the springs of his
+activity had been broken. A moment after, he had entered it; she heard
+him ascending the staircase, and she drew instinctively close within the
+curtains. He pushed open the door, walked forward into the embrasure of
+the window, and stood within a foot of Clarice, apparently gazing into
+the street. A pale light from the gas-lamp over the front door flickered
+upon his face. It was haggard and drawn, the lips were pressed closely
+together, the eyelids shut tightly over the eyes--a white mask of pain.
+Or was this the real face, Clarice wondered, and that which he showed to
+the world the mask?
+
+She was almost afraid to move; she even held her breath.
+
+Suddenly the echoes of the street were reawakened. Drake roused himself
+and opened his eyes. A small group of people strolled out of the
+market-place and stopped in front of the 'Yellow Boar.' There was
+interchange of farewells, a voice said encouragingly, 'Better luck next
+time,' and one man entered the hotel.
+
+In the room opposite a match flared up and Lady Cranston lit the gas. She
+stood for a moment underneath the chandelier, in the full light,
+listening. Then she walked quickly to the mirror above the mantelpiece
+and appeared to dry her eyes and cheeks with her handkerchief. She turned
+to the door almost guiltily, just as it opened. Lord Cranston advanced
+into the room, and his wife moved towards him. The whole scene, every
+movement, every corner of the room was visible to Clarice like a scene on
+the stage of a theatre; it was visible also to Drake.
+
+Clarice could note the disconsolate attitude of Lord Cranston, the smile
+of tenderness upon his wife's face. She saw Lady Cranston set her arms
+gently about his neck, and her lips move, and then a low hoarse cry burst
+from Drake at her side.
+
+It sounded to her articulate with all the anguish and all the suffering
+of which she had ever heard. There was a harsh note of irony in it too,
+which deepened its sadness. It seemed almost an acknowledgment of defeat
+in the actual moment of victory--a recognition that after all his
+opponent had really won.
+
+The cry was a revelation to Clarice; it struck her like a blow, and she
+started under it, so that the rings of the curtain rattled upon the pole.
+
+Drake bent sharply towards her; she caught a gleam of his eyes in the
+darkness. Then with a catch of his breath he started back. Clarice heard
+the click of a match-box, the scraping of a lucifer, and Drake held the
+lighted match above his head.
+
+'You!' he said.
+
+Clarice moved out from the curtain and confronted him. She did not
+answer, and he did not speak again. Clarice was in no doubt as to the
+meaning of his cry. His eyes even in that unsteady light told it to her
+only too clearly.
+
+And this was the man whom she had believed to stand in no need of a
+woman's companionship. The thought at the actual moment of its occurrence
+sent a strange thrill of disappointment through her; she had built up her
+pride in him so confidently upon this notion of his independence. And
+having built up her pride, she had lived in it, using this very notion as
+her excuse and justification. She ran no risk, she had felt.
+
+'Clarice!'
+
+The name was shouted impatiently from the hall, and came to them quite
+audibly through the half-opened door. But neither she nor Drake seemed to
+hear it. They stood looking silently into each other's eyes.
+
+At last she began to speak, and as she spoke, her sense of disappointment
+diminished and died. She became conscious again of the suffering which
+his cry had confessed. The contrast between this one outburst and his
+ordinary self-control enforced its meaning upon her. It seemed still to
+be ringing in her ears, stretched out to a continuous note, and her voice
+gradually took a tone as of one pleading for forgiveness.
+
+'I did not know,' she said. 'I always thought of you as--' and she gave a
+queer little laugh, 'as driving about London in hansoms, and working
+quite contentedly. I never imagined that you cared at all--really, I
+mean, as I know now. Even right at the beginning--that afternoon in
+Beaufort Gardens, I never imagined that. Indeed, I was afraid of you.'
+
+'Afraid!' Drake echoed the word with an accent of wonderment.
+
+'Yes, yes, afraid. I believed that I should mean so little to you, that I
+should be of no use or help to you. And that's why--I--I--married--'
+
+Drake straightened his shoulders with a jerk as Clarice uttered the word.
+He became aware of the tell-tale look in his eyes, and lowered them from
+the girl's face to the ground.
+
+'You mustn't fancy,' he began in a hesitating tone. 'You mustn't
+misunderstand. I was thinking what men owe to women--that's all--that's
+all, indeed--and how vilely they repay it. That way, like Cranston'--he
+nodded in the direction of the house across the street--'or worse--or
+worse,' he clung to the word on a lift of his voice, as though he found
+some protection in it, as though he appealed to Clarice to agree with and
+second him, 'or worse.'
+
+The match burned down to his fingers, and he dropped it on the floor and
+set his foot on it. Once in the darkness he repeated 'or worse,' with a
+note almost of despair, and then he was silent. Clarice simply waited.
+She stood, feeling the darkness throb about her, listening to the sharp
+irregular breathing which told her where Drake stood. In a few moments
+he stirred, and she stretched out her hands towards him. But again she
+heard the click of a match-box, and again the thin flame of light flared
+up in the room.
+
+'Clarice!'
+
+Her name was shouted up a second time. There was a sound of quicker
+footsteps upon the stairs, the door was flung back, and Sidney Mallinson
+entered the room. Drake lighted the gas.
+
+'We have been waiting for you,' said Mallinson to his wife. 'I couldn't
+think where you had got to,' and he glanced from her to Drake.
+
+'I have been here all the time,' she said with a certain defiance.
+
+Mallinson turned and walked down the stairs again, without as much as a
+word to Drake. Clarice followed him, and after her came Drake.
+
+'Ah, here you are!' said Captain Le Mesurier. 'Now we're ready. Drake,
+you are coming back with us?'
+
+Drake hesitated.
+
+'You said you would at the Town Hall. So I have had your bag packed, and
+put in the waggonette.'
+
+'Very well,' he assented; and the party went outside the hotel.
+
+'Now, how shall we go?' asked the Captain. 'Mallinson, you of course in
+the waggonette,' and he chuckled with a cheery maliciousness. 'Clarice,
+will you get in?'
+
+'No!' she said with an involuntary vehemence. The idea of driving back
+wedged in amongst a number of people, listening to their chatter, and
+forced to take her share in it, became suddenly repugnant to her. 'I
+would rather drive in the trap, if I might.'
+
+'Very well! But who is to drive you?' Captain Le Mesurier turned to
+Drake. 'You can drive, of course.'
+
+Drake replied absently. 'I have driven the coach from Johannesburg to
+Pretoria, ten mules and a couple of ponies, and a man beside you swinging
+a sixty-foot lash.'
+
+Captain Le Mesurier laughed out. 'Then there'll be no upset to-night.
+Come along.'
+
+The guests took their seats, while Drake stood on the pavement.
+
+'Come along, Drake,' shouted the Captain from the box seat of the
+waggonette.
+
+Drake roused himself with a start. 'I beg your pardon,' he said, and he
+went to the side of the dog-cart. He drew back when he saw Clarice
+already in it, and looked from cart to waggonette. 'I am so sorry,' he
+said in a low voice. 'I was not listening, I am afraid.'
+
+He mounted beside her, whipped up the horse, and drove ahead of the
+waggonette. They passed out of the town into the open country. Behind
+them the sounds of wheels grew fainter and fainter and died away. In
+front the road gleamed through the night like a white riband; the
+hedgerows flung out a homely scent of honeysuckle and wild roses; above,
+the stars rode in a clear sky. To Clarice this was the perfect hour of
+her life. All her speculations had dropped from her; she had but one
+thought, that this man driving her cared for her, as she cared for him.
+It was, in truth, more than a thought; she felt it as a glory about her.
+Accidentally, as the trap swung round a bend of the road, she leaned her
+weight upon his arm and she felt the muscles brace beneath his sleeve.
+The sensation confirmed her thought, and she repeated her action
+deliberately and more than once. She had but one wish, that this drive
+should never end, that they should go forward always side by side through
+a starlit night, in a stillness unbroken by the sound of voices. And that
+wish was more a belief than a wish.
+
+They ascended the slope and came out upon an open moor. It stretched
+around them, dark with heather as far as they could see. The night
+covered it like a tent. It seemed the platform of the world. Clarice
+suddenly recollected her old image of the veld, and she laughed at the
+recollection as one laughs at some queer fancy one has held in childhood.
+
+Across the moor the wind blew freshly into their faces. Drake quickened
+the horse's paces, and Clarice imagined a lyrical note in the ringing
+beat of its hooves. The road dipped towards a valley. A stream wound
+along the bed of it, and as they reached the crest of the moor they could
+see below them the stars mirrored in the stream. Upon one of the banks a
+factory was built, and its six tiers of windows were so many golden spots
+of light like the flames of candles. Drake stopped the trap and sat
+watching the factory.
+
+'Night and day,' he said, 'night and day. There is no end to it. It
+is the law.'
+
+He spoke not so much dispiritedly, but rather as though he was teaching
+himself a lesson which he must needs surely get by heart. He lifted the
+reins and drove down the hill, past the factory and along the valley to
+the gates of Garples. There he stopped the trap again. For a moment
+Clarice fancied that the gates must be shut, but as she bent forward and
+looked across Drake, she saw that they were open. She turned her eyes to
+her companion. He was sitting bolt upright with an unfamiliar expression
+of irresolution upon his face, and he was doubtfully drawing the lash of
+the whip to and fro across the horse's back.
+
+Clarice felt that her life was in the balance. 'Yes,' she whispered.
+
+'No!' Drake almost shouted the word. He turned the horse through the
+gates and drove in a gallop to the door of the house. Clarice heard him
+draw a deep breath of relief as he jumped to the ground. As he was
+pulling off his gloves in the hall, Clarice brushed past him and ran
+quickly up the stairs. He was roused from his reverie by the arrival of
+the rest of the party.
+
+Clarice sent word downstairs that she was tired and would not appear
+at supper.
+
+But an hour later Sidney Mallinson found her seated by the open window.
+She had not even taken off her hat or gloves. Once or twice he seemed on
+the point of speaking, but she faced him steadily and her manner even
+invited his questions. Mallinson turned away with the questions unasked.
+But he lay long awake that night, thinking; and his resentment against
+Drake gained new fuel from his thoughts. The frankness of his wife's
+admiration for Drake had before this awakened his suspicions, and the
+suspicions had become certain knowledge. He guessed, too, that to some
+degree Drake returned his wife's inclination, and he began immediately on
+that account to set a higher value upon the possession of her than he had
+lately done.
+
+Once Clarice heard him laugh aloud harshly. He was thinking of the
+relationship in which he had set Drake to himself in that first novel
+which he had written. Actually the relationship was reversed. 'No, not
+yet,' he said to himself. But it would be, unless he could hit upon some
+plan. The day was breaking when his plan came to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+The next morning Drake's seat at the breakfast table was empty.
+
+'He caught the early train from Bentbridge,' Captain Le Mesurier
+explained. 'Business, I suppose. He told me last thing yesterday night
+that he had to go.'
+
+Clarice coloured and lowered her eyes to her plate. Mallinson noticed her
+embarrassment, and took it for evidence of some secret understanding
+between her and Drake. He became yet more firmly resolved to put his idea
+into action.
+
+'You are not in a hurry,' said Captain Le Mesurier. 'You had better stay
+the week out.'
+
+Mallinson saw his wife raise her head quickly as though she was about to
+object, and immediately accepted the invitation. Parliament would not
+meet for three weeks, he reckoned, since there were still the county
+members to be elected.
+
+Clarice spent the week in defining the relationship in which she and
+Drake were henceforth to stand towards each other. They were to be
+animated by a stern spirit of duty,--by the same spirit, in fact, which
+had compelled Drake to court-martial Gorley in Africa, and subsequently
+to detail the episode to her. Duty was to keep them apart. She came to
+think of duty as a row of footlights across which they could from time to
+time look into each other's eyes.
+
+Clarice felt that there was something very reassuring and protective in
+this notion of duty. It justified her in buying a copy of _Frou-Frou_,
+which lay upon the bookstall at Bentbridge railway station, and in
+studying it continuously all the way from Bentbridge to London. She was
+impelled to purchase it by a recollection that Drake had first been
+introduced to her at a performance of that play, and his criticisms
+returned to her thoughts as she read the dialogue. The play had seemed
+true to him, the disaster inevitable--given the particular characters,
+and she bore the qualification particularly in mind. There was a
+difference between _Frou-Frou_ and a woman animated by a sense of duty; a
+difference of kind, rather than of degree. Sidney Mallinson remarked the
+book which she was reading, but he made no comment whatsoever.
+
+The next morning he paid a long call upon the editor of the _Meteor_.
+
+Meanwhile, Drake was devoting himself to the business of the Matanga
+Company, with an assiduity unusual even for him. Fielding discovered that
+he seldom left the city before ten at night, and felt it incumbent to
+expostulate with him. 'You can't go on like this for much longer, you
+know. You had better take a rest. There's no need for all this work.'
+
+'There is,' replied Drake. 'I want to clear off arrears, because I am not
+sure that I oughtn't to go out again to Matanga. You see I can do it
+quite easily. Parliament meets in a fortnight to vote supplies. It will
+adjourn, it's thought, three weeks later. I could leave England in
+September, and get back easily in time for the regular sessions.'
+
+'But why should you go at all?' asked Fielding. 'You haven't been back a
+year as it is.'
+
+'I know,' said Drake slowly. 'But it seems to me that it would inspire
+confidence, and that sort of thing, if one of us were out there as much
+as possible. You see, thanks to you and Burl, I can leave everything
+here quite safely,' and he returned to his desk as though the discussion
+was ended.
+
+A week later he received an invitation to dinner from Mr. Le Mesurier,
+and the invitation was so worded that he could find no becoming excuse to
+decline it. The dinner was given, the note stated, in order to celebrate
+his victory at Bentbridge. Fielding and he went together, and when they
+arrived, they found Mallinson taking off his coat in the hall.
+
+'Where have you been all this time?' asked Fielding. 'I haven't seen
+you about.'
+
+'At Clapham,' replied Mallinson.
+
+'I don't know it.'
+
+'It's a suburb to the south-west.'
+
+'That's why.'
+
+'My mother lives there.'
+
+'I am very sorry.'
+
+The words might have been intended to convey either an apology, or an
+expression of sympathy with his mother. Mallinson preferred to take them
+in the former sense. 'I took my wife down there,' he continued. 'She
+wanted more quiet than one can get in London.'
+
+Fielding noticed, however, that Clapham quiet had not materially
+benefited Mrs. Mallinson. He commented on her worn appearance to Mrs.
+Willoughby, when they were seated at the dinner-table.
+
+'She has been staying, she tells me, with her husband's people,' replied
+Mrs. Willoughby. 'I fancy she finds them trying.'
+
+Clarice was placed next to Drake, upon the opposite side to Mrs.
+Willoughby, and out of ear-shot, and was endeavouring to talk to him
+indifferently. 'You never take a holiday, I suppose. Where are you going
+this year?' she asked.
+
+'To Matanga,' said Drake.
+
+'Matanga! Oh no.' The words slipped from her lips before she was able to
+check them.
+
+'I think that my place is there,' returned Drake, 'at all events for the
+moment. I shall go as soon as the House rises.'
+
+'I thought you didn't mean to leave London again.'
+
+'One gets over ideas of that kind. After all, my interests lie in
+Matanga, and one gets a kind of affection for the place which makes
+your fortune.'
+
+The recantation was uttered with sufficient awkwardness. But Clarice was
+too engrossed in her own thoughts to notice his embarrassment. 'Do you
+remember when I first met you?' she asked. 'It was at a performance of
+_Frou-Frou_.'
+
+'I remember quite well,' said he. 'I was rather struck with the play.'
+
+'I have been reading it lately.'
+
+Drake started at the significant tone in which the words were spoken.
+'Really?' he said, with an uneasy laugh. 'What impressed me was that
+scene at Venice, where Gilberte and De Valréas read over the list of
+plays in the Paris newspapers, and realise what they have thrown away,
+and for how little. It seemed to me the saddest scene I had ever
+witnessed.'
+
+'Yes,' interposed Clarice quickly. 'But because Paris and its theatres
+meant so much to them. I remember what you said, that everything in the
+play seemed so true just to those characters, Gilberte and De Valréas.'
+
+She glanced at him as she uttered the last name. Drake understood that
+she was drawing a distinction between him and the fashionable lounger
+of the play.
+
+'Besides,' she went on, dropping her voice, 'Gilberte left a child behind
+her. Her unhappiness turned on that.'
+
+'In a way, no doubt, but the loss of friends, station, home, counts
+for something--for enough to destroy her liking for De Valréas at
+all events.'
+
+'For De Valréas!' insisted Clarice. 'He was not worth the sacrifice.' She
+paused for a moment, and then continued diffidently. 'There's something
+else; I hardly like to tell you it. You wouldn't notice it from seeing
+the play. I didn't; but it came to me when I read the book. I think the
+play's absolutely untrue, yes, even to those characters, in one respect.'
+
+'And what's that?' asked Drake.
+
+Clarice glanced round. Her neighbours, she perceived, were talking.
+Mrs. Willoughby was too far off to hear. She dropped her voice to a yet
+lower key and said, 'They make the husband kill the lover in the duel.
+It's always the end in books and plays; but really the opposite of that
+would happen.'
+
+Drake leant back in his chair and stared at her. 'What do you mean?'
+
+'Hush!' she said warningly, and turning away she spoke for a little
+to the man on the other side of her. Then she turned back. 'I mean,'
+she said, 'if two people really care for one another, their love
+would triumph over everything--everything. De Valréas would have
+killed the husband.' She spoke with an intense conviction of the
+truth of what she said.
+
+'But, my dear child!' replied Drake. 'You--oh, you don't really
+believe that.'
+
+'I do,' she answered. 'You see, there are so few people who really care
+for one another. If you find two who do, I am sure they would conquer,
+whatever stood in the way.'
+
+The conversation was interrupted, to Drake's relief, by Captain Le
+Mesurier. He rose from the corner of the table to propose the health of
+the guest of the evening. He said that he was proud to be represented in
+Parliament by a man of Stephen Drake's calibre. If there was anything of
+which he was prouder, it was the way in which the election had been
+fought at Bentbridge. That election was the triumph not merely of a man
+or a cause, but of a method; and that method was honesty and fair-play.
+'We never indulged in personalities,' he continued, with shameless
+sincerity. 'I have always myself been very strong on that point. Fight of
+course for all you're worth, but never indulge in personalities. It's a
+good rule. It's a rule that helped Stephen Drake to win his seat. We
+followed it. We left the lies for the opponent to tell, and he told them.
+But we never did and never will indulge in contemptible personalities.'
+
+The Captain subsided to a gentle rapping of forks and spoons upon the
+table, while Fielding said pointedly, 'Yes, Captain, you deserve your
+holidays,' and he emphasised the word. The Captain caught the allusion
+and laughed heartily. It was evident that he saw no inconsistency between
+the epigram and his professed method of contesting an election.
+
+Drake replied shortly, and the ladies retired. Mallinson moved round the
+table, and seated himself in the chair which Clarice had left.
+
+'Do you think of speaking at all during this session?' he asked.
+
+'I am not quite sure,' replied Drake; 'but I rather think I shall on the
+colonial vote. You see there's first-class wheat-growing land in Africa,
+quite near to the west coast. We import practically all that we use in
+England. Well, why shouldn't we import it from our own dominions?
+Besides, the route would be so much safer in times of war, unless, of
+course, we were at war with France. Ships could slip up the coast of
+Africa, across the bay and into Plymouth with much less risk than if they
+have to sail from the Argentines or some place like that. I believe, if
+the Colonial Office could be induced to move in the matter, the idea
+might be carried out. What do you think?'
+
+Mallinson carelessly assented and returned to his seat.
+
+For the remainder of the evening Drake avoided Clarice. As he was taking
+his leave, however, she came up to him. He shook her by the hand and she
+whispered one word to him, 'Matanga.' Drake could not mistake the note of
+longing in her voice, and as he drove to his chambers the temptation with
+which he had wrestled at the gates of Garples assailed him again, and
+with double force. He had but to speak, he knew, and she would come. The
+loneliness of his rooms made the struggle yet harder, yet more doubtful.
+He pictured to himself what he had never had, a home, and he located that
+home in Matanga. The arid plain blossomed in his imagination, for he saw
+the weariness die out of Clarice's face.
+
+He tossed restlessly through the night, until one thought emerged from
+the turmoil of his ideas, fashioned itself into a fact, and stood framed
+there before his eyes. He held the future of Clarice in the hollow of his
+hand. Her fate rested upon his decision, and he must decide.
+
+Drake rose and walked out on to the balcony, as the dawn was breaking
+over London. A white mist was crawling above the Thames; he could see
+a glimpse of the water here and there as the mist shredded. He turned
+to the west and looked towards Westminster, recollecting how his name
+and purposes had centred there as though drawn by a magnet. But in
+that clear morning light they seemed unreal and purposeless. One
+immediate responsibility invaded him, and, contrasted with that, his
+ambitions dwindled into vanities. He filled no place, he realised,
+which would be vacant unless he occupied it. He had to decide for
+Clarice and solely for her.
+
+Drake took up his hat and walked out of London to Elm Tree Hill. There,
+gazing down upon its spires asparkle in the early sunlight, while the
+city gradually awoke and the hum of its stirring began to swell through
+the air, he came to his decision. Clarice belonged to London; he did not.
+In Matanga she would be content--for how long? The roughness, the absence
+of her kind and class, the makeshift air of transition, would soon
+destroy its charm of novelty. Every instinct would draw her back to
+London, and the way would be barred, whilst for him Matanga was a
+province in which every capacity he possessed could find employment and
+exercise. He would leave England for Matanga when this short session was
+over; he would resign his seat and settle there for good. For if he
+stayed in London, every step which he took, every advance which he made,
+would only add to Clarice's miseries.
+
+Thus he decided, and walked back with his mind at rest, without regret
+for the loss of his ambitions, without, indeed, any real consciousness of
+the sacrifice which he had it in his thoughts to make.
+
+Thus he decided, but as he left his office on the afternoon of the day
+whereon he was to make his speech in the House of Commons, Fielding
+rushed up to him with a copy of the _Meteor_.
+
+'Look!' he said, and pointed to an article. Drake took the paper and read
+the article through. His face darkened as he read. The article had a
+headline which puzzled Drake for a moment. It was entitled _The Drabious
+Duke_, and it proceeded to set out the episode of Gorley's court-martial
+and execution. The facts, Drake recognised, were not exaggerated, but the
+sting lay in the suggestion with which it concluded.
+
+'We have no doubt,' the leader-writer stated, 'that both the
+court-martial and execution were in accordance with the letter of the
+law, but, since Mr. Stephen Drake is now one of the legislators of this
+country, we feel it our duty to submit two facts for the consideration of
+our readers. In the first place we would call attention to the secrecy in
+which the incident has been carefully shrouded. In the second, Gorley
+undoubtedly secured a considerable quantity of gold-dust. Now, it is
+perfectly well known that the Government of Matanga pays a commission on
+all gold-dust brought down to the coast. We have gone into the matter
+carefully, and we positively assert that no commission whatever was paid
+in any such plunder during the two months which followed Mr. Drake's
+return from Boruwimi. What, then, became of it? We ask our readers to
+weigh these two facts dispassionately, and we feel justified in adding
+that Mr. Drake would have been quite within his rights in showing
+clemency to Gorley, or in bringing him back to undergo a regular trial.
+However, he preferred to execute him on the spot.'
+
+'He makes me out a thief and a murderer,' said Drake. 'I wonder where he
+got the story from?'
+
+Fielding answered slowly, 'I am afraid that I can throw some light on
+that. I told Mallinson some time ago, before he was married.'
+
+'Mallinson!' exclaimed Drake, stopping in the street. 'Oh, you think the
+article comes from him?' Then he turned to Fielding. 'And how did you
+know of it?'
+
+'Well,' said Fielding with some hesitation, 'Mrs. Willoughby told me.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'We neither of us, of course, knew you very well then. Mrs. Willoughby
+had only just met you, and she didn't feel quite certain that Clarice
+ought to be kept in ignorance of the matter, so she asked my advice.'
+
+'Quite so,' answered Drake. 'I understand. You thought Clarice ought to
+be informed, and you were right. I told her of the matter myself.'
+
+'No,' exclaimed Fielding; 'I'll tell you the whole truth while I am about
+it. I advised Mrs. Willoughby to say nothing, but I behaved like a damned
+cad, and told Mallinson myself afterwards. I had quite another reason for
+telling him.'
+
+'Oh, never mind!' broke in Drake. 'The question is, what's to be
+done now?'
+
+'You must sue the paper!'
+
+'Of course. I was thinking whether I couldn't mention the matter to-night
+in the House of Commons. You see it has got into the papers that I mean
+to speak, and perhaps I ought to make use of the opportunity.'
+
+Fielding jumped at the idea. 'By Jove, yes,' he said. 'I should think, in
+fact, the directors of the Company will rather expect it.'
+
+They walked together until they reached the corner of Parliament Street;
+there they stopped.
+
+'I am awfully sorry, Drake,' said Fielding. 'I behaved like a
+blackguard.'
+
+Drake again cut him short. 'Oh, I don't see that. The thing looked fishy,
+I don't doubt, and you weren't bound to me in any way. Good-bye,' and he
+held out his hand with a cordial smile.
+
+'Good-bye,' said Fielding, and they separated.
+
+On reaching his flat Drake was informed that a lady was waiting to see
+him. He crossed the passage and opened the door of his sitting-room. Mrs.
+Mallinson was standing by the window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+She turned quickly as the door closed and took a step towards the centre
+of the room. Drake perceived that she had a copy of the _Meteor_ in her
+hand. 'You have seen this?' she asked.
+
+'Yes.' He remained by the door with his hand on the knob.
+
+'And you guessed who wrote it?'
+
+'I have been told.' He answered her coldly and quietly.
+
+'I know what you think,' she replied. 'But it's not true. I never told
+him the story. He knew it long ago--before you went back to
+Matanga--before I married him.' Her voice took a pleading tone. 'You will
+believe that, won't you?'
+
+'It never occurred to me that you had told him. I know, in fact, who did.
+But even if you had--well, you had the right to tell him.' Clarice gave a
+stamp of impatience. 'He is your husband.'
+
+'My husband!' she interrupted, and she tore the newspaper across and
+dropped it on to the floor. 'My husband! Ah, I wouldn't have believed
+that even he could have done a thing so mean. And, to add to the meanness
+of it, he went away yesterday, for a week. I know why, now; he dared not
+face me.' Then of a sudden her voice softened. 'But it's my fault too, in
+a way,' she went on. 'He knew the story a long time ago, and never used
+it. I don't suppose he would have used it now, if I hadn't--since your
+election--let him see--' She broke off the sentence, and took a step
+nearer to Drake. 'Stephen, I meant to let him see.'
+
+Drake drew himself up against the door. It would be no longer of any
+service to her, he thought, if he left England and returned to Matanga.
+Something more trenchant was needed.
+
+He reflected again that he filled no place which another could not fill,
+and the reflection took a wider meaning than it had done before. 'Yes,'
+he said; 'it's very awkward that it should all come out just now.'
+
+Clarice stared at him in perplexity. 'Awkward that it should all come
+out,' she repeated vaguely; and then, with an accent of relief, 'You mean
+that it will injure the Company?'
+
+'Not so much that. The Company can run without me--quite well now--I am
+certain of it.' He spoke as though he was endeavouring to assure himself
+of what he said.
+
+'But it won't hurt you, really,' she exclaimed. 'You can disprove the
+charges, and of course you must, I know you hesitate--for my sake--to
+bring an action and expose the writer. But you must, and I don't think,'
+she lowered her eyes to the ground, 'you would hurt me by doing that.'
+For a moment she was silent. Drake made no answer, and she raised her
+eyes again to his face. 'You can disprove it--oh, of course,' she said,
+with a little anxious laugh.
+
+'That depends,' he answered slowly, 'upon how much the _Meteor_ knows.'
+
+Clarice drew back and caught at the table to steady herself. Once or
+twice she pressed her hand across her forehead. 'Oh, don't stand like
+that,' she burst out, 'as if it was all true.'
+
+'But they can't prove it's true,' exclaimed Drake, with a trace of
+cunning in his voice. 'No; they can't prove it's true.'
+
+'But is it?' Clarice stood in front of him, her hands clenched. Drake
+dropped his eyes from her face, raised them again, and again lowered
+them. 'Is it?' she repeated, and her voice rose to the tone of a demand.
+
+'Yes,' and he answered her in a whisper.
+
+Clarice recoiled from him with a cry of disgust. She noticed that he drew
+a long breath--of relief, it seemed--like the criminal when his crime is
+at last brought home to him. 'Then all that story,' she began, 'you told
+me at Beaufort Gardens about--about Boruwimi was just meant to deceive
+me. You talked about duty! Duty compelled you! You would have hanged
+Gorley just the same had you known that he had been engaged to me.' She
+began to laugh hysterically. 'It was all duty,--duty from beginning to
+end, and I believed you. Heaven help me, I came to honour you for it. And
+in reality it was a lie!' She lashed the words at him, but he stood
+patiently, and made no rejoinder. 'I always wondered why you told me the
+story,' she continued. 'You felt that I had a right to know, I remember.
+And you felt bound to tell me. It's clear enough now why you felt bound.
+You had found out, I suppose, that my husband knew--' She stopped
+suddenly, as though some new thought had flashed into her mind. 'And I
+came here to give up everything--just for your sake. Oh, suppose that I
+hadn't found you out!'
+
+She stooped and picked up from the floor the torn pages of the _Meteor_.
+She folded them carefully and then moved towards the door. Drake opened
+it and stood aside.
+
+Clarice went out, called a hansom and drove home. When she arrived there
+she ordered tea to be brought to the drawing-room and sat down and again
+read the article in the _Meteor_. When the tea was brought, she ordered
+it to be taken into Sidney's study. She walked restlessly about that
+room, as though she was trying to habituate herself to it. A green shade
+lay upon the writing-table, which her husband was accustomed to wear over
+his eyes. She took it up, looked at it for a little, and then threw it
+down again with an air of weariness and distaste. A few minutes later
+Percy Conway called and was admitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Fielding opened his newspaper the next morning with unusual eagerness,
+and, turning to the Parliamentary reports, glanced down column after
+column in search of Drake's speech. The absence of it threw him into some
+consternation. He tossed the newspaper on to the breakfast-table and rose
+from his seat. As he moved, however, he caught sight of Drake's name at
+the beginning of a leader, and he read the leader through. It dealt with
+the accusation of the _Meteor_, and expressed considerable surprise that
+Drake had not seized the opportunity of denying it in the House of
+Commons. It was mentioned that Drake had not been seen there at any time
+during the course of the evening.
+
+Fielding jumped to the conclusion that he had met with an accident,
+and set out for his chambers on the instant. He found Drake quietly
+eating his breakfast. Only half the table, however, was laid for the
+meal; the other half was littered with papers and correspondence,
+while a pile of stamped letters stood on one corner. 'I was expecting
+you,' said Drake quietly.
+
+'Why, what on earth has happened?' asked Fielding. 'Why didn't you speak
+last night?'
+
+'I thought it would be the wisest plan to leave the matter alone.'
+
+'But you can't,' exclaimed Fielding. 'Read this!' and he handed to him
+the newspaper. 'You can't leave it alone.'
+
+'I can, and shall,' replied Drake, and he returned to his breakfast.
+
+'But, my dear fellow, you can't understand what that means! Read the
+leader, then.' Drake glanced quickly down it. 'Now, do you understand? It
+means utter ruin, utter disgrace, unless you answer this charge, and
+answer it at once. You will have created a false enough impression
+already.' Drake, however, made no response beyond a shrug of his
+shoulders. 'But, good Lord, man,' continued Fielding, 'your name's at
+stake. You can't sit quiet as if this was an irresponsible piece of
+paragraph-writing. You would have to resign your seat in Parliament, your
+connection with the Matanga Company--everything. You couldn't possibly
+live in England.'
+
+'Do you think I haven't counted up precisely what inaction is going to
+cost me?' interrupted Drake. 'Look here!' and he took a couple of letters
+from the pile and handed them to Fielding. One was addressed to the whip
+of his party, and the other to the directors of the Matanga Concessions.
+'And I leave Charing Cross at ten o'clock this morning.'
+
+Fielding looked at his watch; it was half-past nine. 'Then you mean to
+run away?' he gasped. 'But, in Heaven's name, why?'
+
+'For an obvious reason. Yesterday I believed that I could meet the
+charge. But something has happened since then, and I know now that I
+can't.'
+
+Fielding started back. 'Do you mean to tell me, as man to man, that the
+accusation's true.'
+
+'As man to man,' repeated Drake steadily, 'I tell you that it is true.'
+
+Fielding stared at him for a minute. Then he said, 'Drake, you're a
+damned liar.'
+
+'We haven't much time,' said Drake, 'and I would like to say something to
+you about the future of the Matanga settlement. You will take my place, I
+suppose. You can, and ought to'; and he entered at once into details on
+administration.
+
+The advice, however, was lost upon Fielding. Once he interrupted Drake.
+'How many white men were with you on the Boruwimi expedition?' he asked.
+
+'Four,' answered Drake, and he gave the names. 'They are dead, though.
+Two died of fever on the way back; one was killed in a subsequent
+expedition, and the fourth was drowned about eighteen months ago off
+Walfisch Bay.' A noise of portmanteaux being dragged along the passage
+penetrated through the closed door. Drake looked at his watch, and
+started to his feet. 'I must be off,' he said; 'I am late as it is. You
+might do something for me, and that is to post these letters.'
+
+'But, man, you are not really going?'
+
+Drake for answer put on his hat and took up his stick. 'Good-bye,' he
+said.
+
+'But, look here! Do you ask me to believe that you would have been giving
+me all this advice, if you had really done what that infernal paper makes
+you out to have done?'
+
+'I'll give you a final piece of advice too. Give up philandering and
+get married!'
+
+With that he opened the door and went out, and a few seconds later
+Fielding heard the sound of his cab-wheels rattle on the pavement.
+
+Drake, on reaching Charing Cross, found that he had more time to spare
+than he had reckoned. He was walking slowly along the train in search of
+an empty compartment when, from a window a few paces ahead of him, a face
+flashed out, and as suddenly withdrew. The face was Conway's, and Drake
+felt that the sudden withdrawal meant a distinct desire to avoid
+recognition. He set the desire down to the unrepulsed attack of the
+_Meteor_, and since he had no inclination to force his company upon
+Conway, he turned on his heel and moved towards the other end of the
+train. He was just opposite the archway of the booking-office when a
+woman, heavily veiled and of a slight figure, came out of it. At the
+sight of Drake she came to a dead stop, and so attracted his attention.
+Then she quickly turned her back to him, walked to the bookstall, and
+slipped round the side of it into the waiting-room. Drake wheeled about
+again. Conway's head was stretched out of the window; and he was gazing
+towards the bookstall.
+
+Drake was in no doubt as to who the woman was, and he felt his heart turn
+to stone. He walked quickly back until he reached Conway's compartment.
+It was empty save for him, but there was a reserved label in the window.
+
+'Holloa!' said Conway, awkwardly enough. 'Are you going by this train?
+You had better find a seat if you are.'
+
+'But I'm not,' said Drake; 'I thought of going, but I have changed my
+mind.' He leaned against the door of the carriage chatting incessantly to
+Conway, with an eye upon the waiting-room. Once he saw the woman appear
+at the door, but she retired again. Meanwhile Conway's embarrassment
+increased. He said 'Good-bye' to Drake at least half-a-dozen times, but
+on each occasion Drake had something new to say to him. At last the
+whistle sounded and the train began to move. 'I say,' cried Drake,
+running along by the carriage. 'My luggage is in the van. You might bring
+it back with you from Dover, if you will,' and he stood watching the
+train until it disappeared under the shed.
+
+Then he walked into the waiting-room. He saw Clarice seated in a
+corner, and went straight to her. She noticed that his face was white
+and set, and she rose with some instinct of defiance. 'I owe you an
+apology,' he said abruptly. 'The _Meteor_ is untrue from the first word
+to the last. I mean to stay in London, and fight it; yesterday
+afternoon I told you lies.'
+
+'Why?' she asked.
+
+'Sheer lunacy,' said he; and he got into a cab and drove to the offices
+of his solicitor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Meanwhile Fielding picked up the pile of letters from the table in
+Drake's chambers and went down into the street. He paused for a moment or
+two at the pillar-box weighing the letters in his hand. Then he slipped
+them into his pocket and hurried to Mrs. Willoughby's.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was moving restlessly about the drawing-room as he was
+shown in. She turned impulsively towards him, holding out both hands. 'I
+so hoped you would come,' she said. 'Well? You have seen him?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'What does he mean to do?' she asked anxiously, taking from a chair a
+copy of the _Meteor_.
+
+'Nothing,' replied Fielding. 'He resigns his seat; he gives up his
+directorship; he is leaving England.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby's first look was of sheer incredulity. 'It's impossible!'
+she exclaimed.
+
+'I have just returned from his chambers. He has started from Charing
+Cross already.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby sat down in the window-seat, and her look of incredulity
+gradually changed to one of comprehension. 'And he took such delight in
+London,' she said, with a break in her voice; 'just like a schoolboy.'
+
+Fielding nodded gloomily. 'I did my best to dissuade him,' he said. 'I
+practically told him he was a coward to run away. But you know the man.
+He had made up his mind not to face the charge. And yet I can't believe
+it's true.'
+
+'Believe it!' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby, with a hint of something
+dangerously near to scorn in her voice.
+
+'I know, I know,' answered Fielding. 'Still Drake pleads guilty. He
+sacrifices everything, an established position, unusual
+prospects--everything, by pleading guilty. You see, that's the point. He
+has every imaginable inducement to make him face the accusation, even if
+he has only the merest chance of winning, and yet he runs away. He runs
+away--Drake does. There's only one inference--'
+
+'For the world to draw,' interrupted Mrs. Willoughby; 'and doubtless he
+meant the world to draw it. But you and I should know him better.'
+
+'Yes,' Fielding admitted. 'Yes.' He began to walk about the room. 'But
+what's the reason? Drake's action, if this statement is a libel, is the
+action of a madman.'
+
+'A madman? Yes! Don Quixote was mad even in his century,' replied Mrs.
+Willoughby. 'I can give you the reason. Clarice was with him yesterday
+afternoon.'
+
+'Yesterday?' said Fielding. 'Why, I walked home with Drake from the
+City myself.'
+
+'But you didn't go in with him.'
+
+'No; I left him alone to arrange his speech. He meant to mention this
+very charge.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started to her feet. 'Then that settles it,' she said.
+'Clarice was waiting for him in his rooms. Oh, if you had only gone in
+with him! You remember what I wrote to you, that he would lie in the
+mud if he thought it would save her. Well, that is what he has done.
+Clarice came here this very morning and told me what had happened. She
+went to his chambers, determined never to return to her husband,
+prepared to sacrifice--I give you her words, not mine--to sacrifice
+herself, her name, and for his sake. But when she showed him the
+_Meteor_ her suspicions were aroused by his manner, and she forced the
+truth out of him.'
+
+Fielding gave a short, contemptuous laugh. 'Forced the truth out of him!
+She actually told you that?'
+
+'And what's more, she believes it. Oh the waste, the waste of a man like
+that upon a doll like her. I suppose there's nothing to be done?'
+
+'Nothing; if he won't defend himself, our defence won't carry any
+weight,' he went on, with a change of tone. 'But I don't see what real
+good he does, even to her. She goes back to her husband now, but next
+month or next year there'll be somebody else.'
+
+'Yes,' replied Mrs. Willoughby; 'but I hardly fancy Stephen Drake would
+consider that. I believe he would feel that he had no right to speculate
+on what may not happen. He would just see this one clear, definite,
+immediate thing to do, and simply do it.' She spoke the sentence with a
+slow emphasis upon each word, and Fielding moved uneasily. It seemed to
+strike an accusation at him. He braced himself to make the same
+confession to Mrs. Willoughby which he had made that afternoon before to
+Drake. But, before he could speak it, Mrs. Willoughby put to him a
+question. 'Tell me, did he seem to mind much?'
+
+'No,' Fielding answered with an air of relief. His confession was
+deferred, if only for a minute. 'He seemed cheerful enough. The last
+thing he did,' and he paused for a second, 'was to give me advice about
+the management of the Matanga Company.'
+
+'That's so like him,' she said gently. Then she looked up with a start of
+interest. 'You are going to take his place?' she asked.
+
+'He said I ought to. I know more about it than the other directors. Of
+course they mayn't appoint me, but I expect they will.' Mrs. Willoughby
+was silent. She moved away from the window and stood by the fireplace.
+Fielding crossed to her. 'Drake gave me one other piece of advice,' he
+said hesitatingly,--'not about business. It concerned me and just one
+other person.' He pitched the remark in an interrogative key.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby glanced quickly towards him with just the hint of a smile
+dimpling about the corners of her lips. Fielding found it very difficult
+to go on, but there was one clear, definite, immediate thing for him to
+do as well, he said. 'Before I act on it there is something I ought to
+tell you.' He paused for a second, and the trouble in his voice perplexed
+Mrs. Willoughby. 'Whom do you think Mallinson got his knowledge about
+Gorley from?'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby took a step forward. 'Whom? Why,' and she gave a little
+anxious laugh, 'from Clarice, of course.'
+
+'No.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked at him for a moment in silence. Then she drew back
+again. 'You told him?' she asked with a quiet wonder. 'Yes,' Fielding
+nodded. 'But I only told you,' she said, 'because I wanted your advice.
+What made you tell him? There must have been some reason, some good
+reason, some necessity.'
+
+'No; there was no necessity, no good reason, no reason at all,' Fielding
+replied doggedly. 'I told him because--' he stopped abruptly; the reason
+seemed too pitiful for him even to relate.
+
+'Well, because?' asked Mrs. Willoughby. There was a note of hardness
+in the utterance. Fielding raised his eyes and glanced at her face.
+'It comes too late,' he said unconsciously, and he was thinking of
+Drake's advice.
+
+'The reason!' she insisted, taking no notice of the sentence. 'The
+reason!'
+
+'I told Mallinson at the time when I was always meeting him here.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby gave a start. 'And because of that?' she cried.
+
+'Yes,' said he. 'I thought the knowledge might give him a fairer,' he
+changed the word, 'a better, chance with Clarice.'
+
+'Oh, how mean!' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby, not so much in anger as in
+absolute disappointment. She turned away from him, and stood for a little
+looking out of the window. Then she said, 'Good-bye.'
+
+And Fielding took his hat and left the house. He went down to the office,
+and was told that Drake wanted to see him.
+
+'Drake!' he exclaimed. He pushed open the door of Drake's private office,
+and the latter looked up from his papers.
+
+'You called me a damned liar this morning,' he said, 'and you were
+right.'
+
+Fielding dropped into a chair. 'What do you mean?'
+
+'That there's not a word of truth in the _Meteor's_ charges, and I am
+prosecuting the editor. Did you post those letters?'
+
+Fielding pulled them out of his pocket and threw them on to the table.
+'Thanks,' said Drake, 'that's fortunate.'
+
+Fielding did not inquire into the cause of Drake's change of purpose, and
+it was some while before he understood it. For Mrs. Willoughby held no
+further discussions with him in the drawing-room at Knightsbridge.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philanderers, by A.E.W. Mason
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philanderers, by A.E.W. Mason
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Philanderers
+
+Author: A.E.W. Mason
+
+Release Date: July 30, 2004 [EBook #13057]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHILANDERERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+                            THE PHILANDERERS
+
+                            BY A.E.W. MASON
+
+              Author of 'The Courtship of Morrice Buckler'
+
+                                 1897
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+
+Five Englishmen were watching a camp fire in the centre of a forest
+clearing in mid-Africa. They did not speak, but sat propped against logs,
+smoking. One of the five knocked out the ashes of his pipe upon the
+ground; a second, roused by the movement, picked up a fresh billet of
+wood with a shiver and threw it on to the fire, and the light for a
+moment flung a steady glow upon faces which were set with anxiety. The
+man who had picked up the billet looked from one to the other of the
+faces, then he turned and gazed behind him into the darkness. The floor
+of the clearing was dotted with the embers of dying fires, but now and
+again he would hear the crackle of a branch and see a little flame spirt
+up and shine upon the barrels of rifles and the black bodies of the
+sleeping troops. Round the edge of the clearing the trees rose massed and
+dark like a cliff's face. He turned his head upwards.
+
+'Look, Drake!' he cried suddenly, and pointed an arm eastwards. The man
+opposite to him took his pipe from his mouth and looked in that
+direction. The purple was fading out of the sky, leaving it livid.
+
+'I see,' said Drake shortly, and, replacing his pipe, he rose to his
+feet. His four companions looked quickly at each other and the eldest of
+them spoke.
+
+'Look here, Drake,' said he, 'I have been thinking about this business
+all night, and the more I think of it the less I like it. Of course, we
+only did what we were bound to do. We couldn't get behind that evidence;
+there was no choice for us; but you're the captain, and there is a
+choice for you.'
+
+'No,' replied Drake quietly. 'I too have been thinking about it all
+night, and there is no choice for me.'
+
+'But you can delay the execution until we get back.'
+
+'I can't even do that. A week ago there was a village here.'
+
+'It's not the man I am thinking of. I haven't lived my years in Africa to
+have any feeling left for scum like that. But also I haven't lived my
+years in Africa without coming to know there's one thing above all others
+necessary for the white man to do, and that's to keep up the prestige of
+the white man. String Gorley up if you like, but not here--not before
+these blacks.'
+
+'But that's just what I am going to do,' answered Drake, 'and just for
+your reason, too--the prestige of the white man. Every day something is
+stolen by these fellows, a rifle, a bayonet, rations--something. When I
+find the theft out I have to punish it, haven't I? Well, how can I punish
+the black when he thieves, and let the white man off when he thieves and
+murders? If I did--well, I don't think I could strike a harder blow at
+the white man's prestige.'
+
+'I don't ask you to let him off. Only take him back to the coast. Let him
+be hanged there privately.'
+
+'And how many of these blacks would believe that he had been hanged?'
+Drake turned away from the group and walked towards a hut which stood
+some fifty yards from the camp fire. Three sentries were guarding the
+door. Drake pushed the door open, entered, and closed it behind him. The
+hut was pitch dark since a board had been nailed across the only opening.
+
+'Gorley!' he said.
+
+There was a rustling of boughs against the opposite wall, and a voice
+answered from close to the ground.
+
+'Damn you, what do you want?'
+
+'Have you anything you wish to say?'
+
+'That depends,' replied Gorley after a short pause, and his voice changed
+to an accent of cunning.
+
+'There's no bargain to be made.'
+
+The words were spoken with a sharp precision, and again there was
+a rustling of leaves as though Gorley had fallen back upon his bed
+of branches.
+
+'But you can undo some of the harm,' continued Drake, and at that Gorley
+laughed. Drake stopped on the instant, and for a while there was silence
+between the pair. A gray beam of light shot through a chink between the
+logs, and then another and another until the darkness of the hut changed
+to a vaporous twilight. Then of a sudden the notes of a bugle sounded the
+reveille. Gorley raised himself upon his elbows and thrust forward his
+head. Outside he heard the rattle of arms, the chatter of voices, all the
+hum of a camp astir.
+
+'Drake,' he whispered across to the figure standing against the door,
+'there's enough gold dust to make two men rich, but you shall have it all
+if you let me go. You can--easily enough. It wouldn't be difficult for a
+man to slip away into the forest on the march back if you gave the nod to
+the sentries guarding him. All I ask for is a rifle and a belt of
+cartridges. I'd shift for myself then.'
+
+He ended abruptly and crouched, listening to the orders shouted to the
+troops outside. The men were being ranged in their companies. Then the
+companies in succession were marched, halted, wheeled, and halted again.
+Gorley traced a plan of their evolutions with his fingers upon the floor
+of the hut. The companies were formed into a square.
+
+'Drake,' he began again, and he crawled a little way across the hut;
+'Drake, do you hear what I'm saying? There's a fortune for you, mind you,
+all of it; and I am the only one who can tell you where it is. I didn't
+trust those black fellows--no, no,' and he wagged his head with an
+attempt at an insinuating laugh. 'I had it all gathered together, and I
+buried it myself at night. You gave me a chance before with nothing to
+gain. Give me another; you have everything to gain this time. Drake, why
+don't you speak?'
+
+'Because there's no bargain to be made between you and me,' replied
+Drake. 'If you tell me where the gold dust's hid, it will be given back
+to the people it belonged to, or rather to those of them you left
+alive. You can do some good that way by telling me, but you won't save
+your life.'
+
+Steps were heard to approach the hut; there was a rap on the door.
+
+'Well?' asked Drake.
+
+Gorley raised himself from the floor.
+
+'I am not making you rich and letting you kill me too,' he said; and
+then, 'Who cares? I'm ready.'
+
+Drake opened the door and stepped out. Gorley swaggered after him. He
+stood for a moment on the threshold. Here and there a wisp of fog ringed
+a tree-trunk or smoked upon the ground. But for the rest, the clearing,
+littered with the charred debris of a native village, lay bare and
+desolate in a cold morning light.
+
+'It looks a bit untidy,' said Gorley, with a laugh. Two of the troopers
+approached and laid their hands upon his shoulders. At first he made a
+movement to shake them off. Then he checked the impulse and stood
+quietly while they pinioned him. After they had finished he spat on the
+ground, cast a glance at the square and the rope dangling from a branch
+above it, and walked easily towards it. The square opened to receive him
+and closed up again.
+
+On the march back two of the Englishmen sickened of ague and died. Six
+months later a third was killed in a punitive expedition. The fourth was
+drowned off Walfisch Bay before another year had elapsed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Hugh Fielding, while speculating upon certain obscure episodes in the
+history of a life otherwise familiar to an applauding public, and at a
+loss to understand them, caught eagerly at a simile. Now Fielding came
+second to none in his scorn for the simile as an explanation, possibly
+because he was so well acquainted with its convenience. 'A fairy lamp' he
+would describe it, quite conscious of the irony in his method of
+description, 'effective as an ornament upon a table-cloth, but a poor
+light to eat your dinner by.'
+
+Nevertheless Fielding hugged this particular simile, applying it as a
+sort of skeleton key to the problem of Stephen Drake's career.
+
+He compared Drake's career, or at all events that portion of it which was
+closed, to the writing of a book. So many years represent the
+accumulation of material, a deliberate accumulation; at a certain date
+the book is begun with a settled design, _finis_ being clearly foreseen
+from the first word of the preface. But once fairly started the book
+throws the writer on one side and takes the lead, drags him, panting and
+protesting, after it, flings him down by-ways out of sight of his main
+road, tumbles him into people he had no thought of meeting, and finally
+stops him dead, Heaven knows where--in front of a blank wall, most
+likely, at the end of a _cul de sac_. He may sit down then and cry if he
+likes, but to that point he has come in spite of his intentions.
+
+The actual settling down to the work, with the material duly ticketed at
+his elbow, in Drake's case Hugh Fielding dated back to a certain day
+towards the close of October.
+
+Upon that afternoon the _Dunrobin Castle_ from Cape Town steamed into
+Plymouth Harbour, and amongst the passengers one man stepped from the
+tender on to the quay and stood there absolutely alone. No one had gone
+out to the ship to meet him; no one came forward now on the quay-side,
+and it was evident from his indifference to the bystanders that he
+expected no one. The more careless of these would have accounted him a
+complete stranger to the locality, the more observant an absentee who had
+just returned, for while his looks expressed isolation, one significant
+gesture proved familiarity with the environments. As his eyes travelled
+up the tiers of houses and glanced along towards the Hoe, they paused now
+and again and rested upon any prominent object as though upon a
+remembered landmark, and each such recognition he emphasised with a nod
+of the head.
+
+He turned his back towards the town, directing his glance in a circle.
+The afternoon, although toning to dusk, was kept bright by the scouring
+of a keen wind, and he noted the guard-ship on his right at its old
+moorings, the funnels rising like solid yellow columns from within a
+stockade of masts; thence he looked across the water to the yellowing
+woods of Mount Edgcumbe, watched for a moment or so the brown sails of
+the fishing-smacks dancing a _chassez-croisez_ in the Sound, and turned
+back to face the hill-side. A fellow-passenger, hustled past him by
+half a dozen importunate children, extricated a hand to wave, and
+shouted a cheery 'See you in town, Drake.' Drake roused himself with a
+start and took a step in the same direction; he was confronted by a man
+in a Norfolk jacket and tweed knickerbockers, who, standing by, had
+caught the name.
+
+'Captain Stephen Drake?'
+
+'Yes. Why?'
+
+The man mopped a perspiring face.
+
+'I was afraid I had missed you. I should have gone out on the tender,
+only I was late. Can you spare me a moment? You have time.'
+
+'Certainly,' answered Drake, with a look of inquiry.
+
+The man in the knickerbockers led the way along the quay until he came to
+an angle between an unused derrick and a wall.
+
+'We shall not be disturbed here,' he said, and he drew an oblong
+note-book and a cedar-wood pencil from his pocket.
+
+'I begin to understand,' said Drake, with a laugh.
+
+'You can have no objection?'
+
+There was the suavity of the dentist who holds the forceps behind his
+back in the tone of the speaker's voice.
+
+'On the contrary, a little notoriety will be helpful to me too.'
+
+That word 'too' jarred on the reporter, suggesting a flippancy which he
+felt to be entirely out of place. The feeling, however, was quickly
+swallowed up in the satisfaction which he experienced at obtaining so
+easily a result which had threatened the need of diplomacy.
+
+'_O si sic omnes!_' he exclaimed, and made a note of the quotation upon
+the top of the open leaf.
+
+'Surely the quotation is rather hackneyed to begin with?' suggested Drake
+with a perfectly serious inquisitiveness. The reporter looked at him
+suspiciously.
+
+'We have to consider our readers,' he replied with some asperity.
+
+'By the way, what paper do you represent?'
+
+The reporter hesitated a little.
+
+'The _Evening Meteor_,' he admitted reluctantly, keeping a watchful eye
+upon his questioner. He saw the lips join in a hard line, and began to
+wonder whether, after all, the need for diplomacy had passed.
+
+'I begin to appreciate the meaning of journalistic enterprise,' said
+Drake. 'Your editor makes a violent attack upon me, and then sends a
+member of his staff to interview me the moment I set foot in England.'
+
+'You hardly take the correct view, if I may say so. Our chief when he
+made the attacks acted under a sense of responsibility, and he thought it
+only fair that you should have the earliest possible opportunity of
+making your defence.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' replied Drake gravely. 'Your chief is the most
+considerate of men, and I trust that his equity will leave him a margin
+of profit, only I don't seem to feel that I need make any defence. I have
+no objection to be interviewed, as I told you, but you must make it clear
+that I intend nothing in the way of apology. Is that understood?'
+
+The pressman agreed, and made a note of the proviso.
+
+'There is another point. I have seen nothing of the paper necessarily for
+the last few weeks. The _Meteor_ has, I suppose, continued its--crusade,
+shall we call it?--but on what lines exactly I am, of course, ignorant.
+It will be better, consequently, that you should put questions and I
+answer them, upon this condition, however,--that all reference is omitted
+to any point on which I am unwilling to speak.'
+
+The reporter demurred, but, seeing that Drake was obdurate, he was
+compelled to give way.
+
+'The entire responsibility of the expedition rests with me,' Drake
+explained, 'but there were others concerned in it. You might trench upon
+private matters which only affect them.'
+
+He watched the questions with the vigilance of a counsel on behalf of a
+client undergoing cross-examination, but they were directed solely to the
+elucidation of the disputed point whether Drake had or had not, while a
+captain in the service of the Matanga Republic, attacked a settlement of
+Arab slave-dealers within the zone of a British Protectorate. The editor
+of the _Meteor_ believed that he had, and strenuously believed it--in the
+interests of his shareholders. Drake, on the other hand, and the Colonial
+Office, it should be added, were dispassionately indifferent to the
+question, for the very precise reason that they knew it could never be
+decided. There were doubts as to the exact sphere of British influence,
+and the doubts favoured Drake for the most part. Insular prehensiveness,
+at its highest flight, could do no more than claim Boruwimi as its
+uttermost limit, and was aware it would be hard put to it to substantiate
+the claim. The editor, nevertheless, persevered, bombarded its citizen
+readers with warnings about trade fleeing from lethargic empires,
+published a cartoon, and reluctantly took the blackest view of Drake's
+character and aims.
+
+Drake's march with a handful of men six hundred miles through a tangled
+forest had been a handsome exploit, quickening British pride with the
+spectacle of an Englishman at the head of it. Civilian blood tingled in
+office and shop, claiming affinity with Drake's. It needed an Englishman
+to bill-hook a path through that fretwork of branches, and fall upon his
+enemy six weeks before he was expected--the true combination of daring
+and endurance that stamps the race current coin across the world! Economy
+also pleaded for Drake. But for him the country itself must have burned
+out the hornets' nest, and the tax-payer paid, and paid dearly. For there
+would have been talk of the expedition beforehand, the force would have
+found an enemy prepared and fortified. The hornets could sting too!
+Whereas Drake had burned them out before they had time to buzz. He need
+not have said one word in exculpation of himself, and that indeed he
+knew. But he had interests and ambitions of his own to serve; a hint of
+them peeped out.
+
+'As to your future plans?' asked the reporter. 'You mean to go back,
+I presume.'
+
+'No; London for me, if I can find a corner in it. I hold concessions
+in Matanga.'
+
+'The land needs development, of course.'
+
+'Machinery too; capital most of all.'
+
+At the bookstall upon the platform Drake bought a copy of the _Times_,
+and whilst taking his change he was attracted by a grayish-green volume
+prominently displayed upon the white newspapers. The sobriety of the
+binding caught his fancy. He picked it up, and read the gold-lettered
+title on the back--_A Man of Influence_. The stall-keeper recommended the
+novel; he had read it himself; besides, it was having a sale. Drake
+turned to the title-page and glanced at the author's name--Sidney
+Mallinson. He flashed into enthusiasm.
+
+'Selling, eh?'
+
+'Very well indeed.'
+
+'Has it been published long?'
+
+'Less than three months.'
+
+'I will take it, and everything else by the same author.'
+
+'It is his first book.'
+
+The stall-keeper glanced at his enthusiastic customer, and saw a sunburnt
+face, eager as a boy's.
+
+'Oh!' he said doubtfully, 'I don't know whether you will like it. It's
+violently modern. Perhaps this,' and he suggested with an outstretched
+forefinger a crimson volume explained by its ornamentation of a couple of
+assegais bound together with a necklace of teeth. Drake laughed at the
+application of the homoeopathic principle to the sale of books.
+
+'No, I will take this,' he said, and, moving aside from the stall, stood
+for a little turning the book over and over in his hands, feeling its
+weight and looking incessantly at the title-page, wondering, you would
+say, that the author had accomplished so much.
+
+He had grounds for wonder, too. His thoughts went back across the last
+ten years, and he remembered Mallinson's clamouring for a reputation; a
+name--that had been the essential thing, no matter what the career in
+which it was to be won. Work he had classified according to the
+opportunities it afforded of public recognition; and his classification
+varied from day to day. A _cause celebre_ would suggest the Bar, a
+published sermon the Church, a flaming poster persuade to the stage. In a
+word, he had looked upon a profession as no more than a sounding-board.
+
+It had always seemed to Drake that this fervid desire for fame, as a
+thing apart in itself, not as a symbol of success won in a cherished
+pursuit, argued some quality of weakness in the man, something unstable
+which would make for failure. His surprise was increased by an inability
+to recollect that Mallinson had ever considered literature as a means to
+his end. Long sojourning in the wilderness, moreover, had given Drake an
+exaggerated reverence for the printed page. He was inclined to set
+Mallinson on a pinnacle, and scourge himself at the foot of it for his
+earlier distrust of him. He opened the book again at the beginning, and
+let the pages slip across beneath his thumb from cover to cover; 413 was
+marked on the top corner of the last; 413 pages actually written and
+printed and published; all consecutive too; something new on each page.
+He turned to a porter.
+
+'How long have I before the train starts?'
+
+'Five minutes, sir.'
+
+'Where is the telegraph office?'
+
+The office was pointed out to him, and he telegraphed to Mallinson at the
+address of his publishers. 'Have just reached England. Dine with me at
+eight to-morrow at the Grand Hotel'; and he added after a moment's pause,
+'Bring Conway, if you have not lost sight of him.--DRAKE.'
+
+When the train started Drake settled himself to the study of _A Man of
+Influence_. The commentary of the salesman had prepared him for some
+measure of perplexity. There would be hinted references and suggestions,
+difficult of comprehension to the traveller out of touch with modern
+developments. These, however, would only be the ornaments, but the flesh
+and blood of the story would be perceptible enough. It was just, however,
+this very flesh and blood which eluded him; he could not fix it in a
+definite form. He did not hold the key to the author's intention.
+
+Drake's _vis-a-vis_ in the carriage saw him produce the book with
+considerable surprise, conscious of an incongruity between the reader and
+what he read. His surprise changed to amusement as he noticed Drake's
+face betray his perplexity and observed him turn now and again to the
+title upon the cover as though doubtful whether he had not misread it. He
+gave an audible chuckle.
+
+Drake looked up and across the carriage at a man of about fifty years of
+age with a large red face and a close-cropped pointed beard. The chuckle
+swelled to a laugh.
+
+'You find that a hard nut to crack?' Drake noticed a thickness in the
+articulation.
+
+'I have been some years abroad. I hardly catch its drift,' explained
+Drake, and then with an effort at praise:
+
+'It seems a clever satire.'
+
+'Satire!' guffawed the other. 'Well, that's rich! Satire? Why, it's a
+manifesto. Gad, sir, it's a creed. I believe in my duty to my senses and
+the effectuation of me for ever and ever, Amen. The modern jargon! Topsy
+Turvydom! Run the world on the comic opera principle, but be flaming
+serious about it. Satire, good Lord!'
+
+He flung himself back on his cushions with a snort of contempt.
+
+'Look you, I'm not a pess--' he checked at the word and then took it at a
+run, 'a pessimist, but, as things are going on--well, you have been out
+of the country and--and you can't help it, I suppose. You may laugh!
+P'raps you haven't got daughters--not that I have either, praise glory!
+But nieces, if the father's a fool, wear you out very little less.
+Satire, ho! ho!'
+
+The semi-intoxicated uncle of nieces relapsed vindictively into his
+corner and closed his eyes. Occasionally Drake would hear a muffled
+growl, and, looking in that direction, would see one inflamed eye peering
+from a mountain of rugs.
+
+'Satire!' and a husky voice would address the passengers
+indiscriminately. 'Satire! and the man's not a day under forty either.'
+
+Drake joined in the laugh and lit his pipe. He was not sensitive to
+miscomputations of his years, and felt disinclined to provoke further
+outbursts of family confidences.
+
+Instead, he pursued his acquaintance with _A Man of Influence_, realising
+now that he must take him seriously and regard him stamped with
+Mallinson's approval, a dominating being. He found the task difficult.
+The character insisted upon reminding him of the nursery-maid's ideal,
+the dandified breaker of hearts and bender of wills; an analytical hero
+too, who traced the sentence through the thought to the emotion, which
+originally prompted it; whence his success and influence. But for his
+strength, plainly aimed at by the author, and to be conceded by the
+reader, if the book was to convince? Drake compared him to scree and
+shingle as against solid granite. Lean on him and you slip!
+
+The plot was the time-worn, imperishable story of the married couple and
+the amorous interloper, the Influential Man, of course, figuring as the
+latter, and consequently glorified. The husband was pelted with ridicule
+from the first chapter to the last, though for what particular fault
+Drake could not discover, unless it were for that of being a husband at
+all; so that the interloper in robbing him of his wife was related to
+have secured not merely the _succes d'estime_ which accompanies such
+enviable feats, but the unqualified gratitude of all married women and
+most unmarried men.
+
+There were, no doubt, redeeming qualities; Drake gave them full credit,
+and perhaps more than they deserved. He noticed a glitter in the
+dialogue, whether of foil or gold he refused to consider, and a lively
+imagination in the interweaving of the incidents. But altogether the book
+left with him a feeling of distaste, which was not allayed by the
+perception that he himself was caricatured in the picture of befooled
+husband, while Mallinson figured as the successful deceiver. After all,
+he thought, Mallinson and he were friends, and he disliked the mere
+imagining of such a relationship between them.
+
+Drake summed up his impressions as his hansom turned into the Bayswater
+Road. The day was just beginning to break; the stems of the trees
+bordering the park were black bars against the pure, colourless light,
+and their mingling foliage a frayed black ribbon stretched across the
+sky. One might have conceived the picture the original of a black and
+white drawing by a pre-Raphaelite artist.
+
+Drake drew in a long breath of the keen, clear air.
+
+'I am glad I asked him to bring Conway,' he said to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Waking up six hours later, Drake looked out upon a brown curtain of
+London fog. The lamps were lit at the crossings in Trafalgar
+Square--half-a-mile distant they seemed, opaque haloes about a pin's
+point of flame, and people passing in the light of them loomed and
+vanished like the figures of a galanty-show. From beneath rose the bustle
+of the streets, perceptible only to Drake, upon the fourth floor, as a
+subterranean rumble. 'London,' he said to himself, 'I live here,' and
+laughed unappalled. Listening to the clamour, he remembered a map, seen
+somewhere in a railway guide, a map of England with the foreign cables,
+tiny spider-threads spun to the four quarters and thickening to a solid
+column at Falmouth and Cromer, the world's arteries, he liked to think,
+converging to its heart.
+
+The notion of messages flashing hourly along these wires brought to mind
+the existence of the _Meteor_. He sent out for a copy of each number
+which had appeared since he had begun his voyage, and commencing on the
+task whilst he was still at breakfast, read through every article written
+concerning the Boruwimi expedition. He finished the last in the
+smoking-room shortly after one o'clock, and rose from his investigation
+with every appearance of relief. From the first to the final paragraph,
+not so much as a mention of Gorley's name!
+
+The reason for his relief lay in a promise which he had sent to Gorley's
+father, that he would suppress the trouble as far as he could; and Drake
+liked to keep his promises.
+
+Gorley had come out to Matanga with a cloudy reputation winging close at
+his heels. There were rumours of dishonesty in the office of a private
+bank in Kent; his name became a sign for silence, and you were allowed to
+infer that Gorley's relatives had made good the deficit and so avoided a
+criminal prosecution. It was not surprising, then, that Gorley, on
+hearing of Drake's intended march to Boruwimi, should wish to take
+service under his command. He called upon Drake with that request, was
+confronted with the current story, and invited to disprove it. Gorley
+read his man shrewdly, and confessed the truth of the charge without an
+attempt at mitigation. He asked frankly for a place in the troop, the
+lowest, as his chance of redemption, or rather demanded it as a grace due
+from man to man. Drake was taken by his manner, noticed his build, which
+was tough and wiry, and conceded the request. Nor had he reason to regret
+his decision on the march out. Gorley showed himself alert, and vigilant,
+a favourite with the blacks, and obedient to his officers. He was
+advanced from duty to duty; a week before the force began its homeward
+march from Boruwimi he was sent out with a body of men to forage for
+provisions. Three days later a solitary negro rushed into camp, one of
+the few survivors of his tribe, he said. He told a story of food freely
+given, a village plundered and burned for thanks, of gold-dust stolen and
+the owners murdered that they might the better hold their tongues. He
+signified Gorley as the culprit. Drake, guided by the negro, marched
+towards the spot. He met Gorley and his company half-way between Boruwimi
+and the village, carried him along with him, and proved the story true.
+Against Gorley's troops no charge could be sustained; they had only
+obeyed orders. But Gorley he court-martialled, and the result has been
+described.
+
+This was the incident which Drake was unwilling to commit to the
+discretion of the editor of the _Meteor_. He had discovered Gorley's
+relations in England, and had written to them a full account of the
+affair, despatching with his letter a copy of the evidence given at the
+court-martial. The reply came from the father, a heart-broken admission
+of the justice of Drake's action, and a prayer that, for the sake of
+those of the family who still lived, Gorley's crime should be as far as
+possible kept secret. Drake gave the promise. So far he had kept it, he
+realised, as he tossed aside the last copy of the _Meteor_.
+
+At eight o'clock Sidney Mallinson arrived. He saw Drake at the top of
+the flight of steps in the vestibule, and hesitated, perceiving that he
+was alone.
+
+'Hasn't Conway come?' he asked. 'I sent to him.'
+
+'Not yet. It's barely eight.'
+
+They shook hands limply and searched for topics of conversation.
+
+'You look older than you did,' said Mallinson.
+
+'Ah! Ten years, you know. You haven't changed much.'
+
+Drake was looking at a face distinguished by considerable comeliness. The
+forehead, however, overhung the features beneath it and gave to a mouth
+and chin, which would otherwise have aroused no criticism, an appearance
+of irresolution. The one noticeable difference in Mallinson was the
+addition of an air of constraint. It was due partly to a question which
+had troubled him since he had received the invitation. Had Drake read _A
+Man of Influence_ and recognised himself?
+
+'I got your telegram,' he said at length.
+
+'Naturally, or you wouldn't be here.'
+
+The answer was intended to be jocular; it sounded only _gauche_, as Drake
+recognised, and the laugh which accompanied it positively rude.
+
+'Shall I put my coat in the cloak-room?' suggested Mallinson.
+
+'Oh yes, do!' replied Drake. He was inclined to look upon the proposal as
+an inspiration, and his tone unfortunately betrayed his thought.
+
+When Mallinson returned, he saw Conway entering the hotel. The latter
+looked younger by some years than either of his companions, so that, as
+the three men stood together at this moment, they might have been held to
+represent three separate decades.
+
+'Twenty minutes late, I'm afraid,' said Conway, and he shook Drake's hand
+with a genuine cordiality.
+
+'Five,' said Drake, looking at his watch.
+
+'Twenty,' replied Conway. 'A quarter to, was the time Mallinson
+wired me.'
+
+'Was it?' asked Mallinson, with a show of surprise. 'I must have made
+a mistake.'
+
+It occurred, however, to Drake that the mistake might have been
+purposely made from a prevision of the awkwardness of the meeting. The
+dinner, prefaced inauspiciously, failed to remove the awkwardness, since
+the reticence under which Drake and Mallinson laboured, gradually spread
+and enveloped Conway. A forced conversation of a curiously impersonal
+sort dragged from course to course. Absolute strangers would have
+exhibited less restraint; for the ghost of an old comradeship made the
+fourth at the feast and prated to them in exiguous voice of paths that
+had diverged. Drake noticed, besides, an undercurrent of antagonism
+between Conway and Mallinson. He inquired what each had been doing
+during his absence.
+
+'Mallinson,' interposed Conway, 'has been absorbed in the interesting
+study of his own personality.'
+
+'I am not certain that pursuit is not preferable to revolving
+unsuccessfully through a cycle of professions,' said Mallinson in
+slow sarcasm.
+
+The flush was upon Conway's cheek now. He set his wine glass deliberately
+upon the table and leaned forward on an elbow.
+
+'My dear good Sidney,' he began with elaborate affection, plainly
+intended as the sugar coating of an excessively unpleasant pill. Drake
+hastily interrupted with an anecdote of African experiences. It sounded
+bald and monstrously long, but it served its purpose as peace-maker.
+Literary acquisitiveness drew Mallinson on to ask for more of the same
+kind. Drake mentioned a race of pigmies and described them, speculating
+whether they might be considered the originals of the human race.
+
+'My dear fellow, don't!' said Mallinson; 'I loathe hearing about them.
+It's so degrading to us to think we sprang from them.'
+
+The peculiar sensitiveness of a mind ever searching, burrowing in, and
+feeding upon itself struck a jarring note upon its healthier companion.
+
+'Why, what on earth does it matter?' asked Drake.
+
+'Ah! Perhaps you wouldn't understand.'
+
+Conway gave a shrug of the shoulder and laughed to Drake across the
+table. The latter looked entreaty in reply and courageously started a
+different topic. He spoke of their boyhood in the suburb on the heights
+six miles to the south of London, and in particular of a certain hill,
+Elm-tree Hill they called it, a favourite goal for walks and the spot
+where the three had last met on the night before Drake left England.
+London had lain beneath it roped with lights.
+
+'The enchanted city,' said Conway, catching back some flavour of those
+times. 'It seemed distant as El Dorado, and as desirable.'
+
+Mallinson responded with the gentle smile with which a man recognises and
+pities a childishness he has himself outgrown.
+
+Drake ordered port, having great faith in its qualities, as inducive of a
+cat-like content and consequent good-fellowship. Mallinson, however,
+never touched port; nothing but the lightest of French burgundies after
+dinner for him. The party withdrew to the smoking-room.
+
+'By the way, Drake,' asked Mallinson, 'have you anything to do to-night?'
+
+'No, why?'
+
+'I was asked to take you to a sort of party.'
+
+Conway looked up sharply in surprise.
+
+'You were asked to take me!' exclaimed Drake. 'Who asked you?'
+
+'Oh, nobody whom you know.' He hesitated for a second, then added with
+studied carelessness, 'A Miss Le Mesurier. Her mother's dead,' he
+explained, noticing the look of surprise on Drake's face, 'so she keeps
+house for her father. There's an aunt to act as chaperon, but she doesn't
+count. I got a note from Miss Le Mesurier just before I came here asking
+me to bring you.'
+
+'But what does she know of me?'
+
+'Oh, I may have mentioned your name,' he explained indifferently, and
+Conway smiled.
+
+'Besides,' said Conway, 'the _Meteor_ has transformed you into a public
+character. One knows of your movements.'
+
+'What I don't see is how Miss Le Mesurier could have known that you had
+landed yesterday,' commented Mallinson.
+
+'I was interviewed by the _Meteor_ on Plymouth Quay. You received the
+note, you say, this evening. She may have seen the interview.'
+
+Drake called to a waiter and ordered him to bring a copy of the paper.
+Conway took it and glanced at the first page.
+
+'Yes, here it is.'
+
+He read a few lines to himself, and burst into a laugh.
+
+'Guess how it begins?'
+
+'I know,' said Drake.
+
+'A sovereign you don't.'
+
+Drake laid a sovereign on the table. Conway followed his example.
+
+'It begins,' said Drake, 'with a Latin quotation, _O si sic omnes_!'
+
+'It begins,' corrected Conway, pocketing the money, 'with very downright
+English'; and he read, 'Drake, with the casual indifference of the
+hardened filibuster, readily accorded an interview to our representative
+on landing from the _Dunrobin Castle_ yesterday afternoon!'
+
+Drake snatched the paper out of Conway's hand, and ran his eye down the
+column to see whether his words had been similarly transmuted by the
+editorial alchemy. They were printed, however, as they had been spoken,
+but interspersed with comments. The editor had contented himself with
+stamping his own device upon the coin; he had not tried to change its
+metal. Drake tossed the paper on one side. 'The man goes vitriol-throwing
+with vinegar,' he said.
+
+Conway picked up the _Meteor_.
+
+'You are a captain, aren't you?' he asked. 'The omission of the title
+presumes you a criminal.'
+
+'I don't object to the omission,' replied Drake. 'I suppose the title
+belongs to me by right. But, after all, a captain in Matanga! There are
+more honourable titles.'
+
+Mallinson looked at him suddenly, as though some fresh idea had shot into
+his brain.
+
+'Well, will you come?' he asked carelessly.
+
+'I hardly feel inclined to move.'
+
+'I didn't imagine you would.' There was evidence of distinct relief in
+the brisk tone of Mallinson's voice. He turned to Conway, 'We ought to be
+starting, I fancy.'
+
+'I shall stay with Drake,' Conway answered, despondently to Drake's
+thinking, and he lapsed into silence after Mallinson's departure, broken
+by intervals of ineffective sarcasm concerning women, ineffectively
+accentuated by short jerks of laughter. He roused himself in a while and
+carried Drake off to his club, where he found Hugh Fielding pulling his
+moustache over the _Meteor_. He introduced Drake, and left them together.
+
+'I was reading a list of your sins,' said Fielding, and he waved the
+newspaper.
+
+Drake laughed in reply.
+
+'The vivisectionists,' said Fielding, 'may cite you as proof of the
+painlessness of their work.'
+
+'It is my character that suffers the knife. I fancy the editor would
+prefer to call the operation a _post-mortem_.'
+
+Fielding warmed to his new acquaintance. Whisky and potass helped them to
+discover common friends, about whom Fielding supplied information with a
+flavour of acid in his talk which commended him to Drake; it bit without
+malice. Mallinson's name was mentioned.
+
+'You have read his autobiography?' asked Fielding.
+
+'No; but I have read his novel.'
+
+'That's what I mean. Most men wait till they have achieved a career
+before they write their autobiographies. He anticipates his. It's rather
+characteristic of the man, I think.'
+
+They drove from the club together in a hansom. Opposite to his rooms in
+St. James's Street Fielding got out.
+
+'Good-night,' he said, and took a step towards the door.
+
+A lukewarm curiosity which had been stirring in Drake during the latter
+part of the evening prompted him to a question now that he saw the
+opportunity to satisfy it disappearing.
+
+'You know the Le Mesuriers?' he asked.
+
+Fielding laughed. 'Already?' he said.
+
+'I don't understand.'
+
+'Then you are not acquainted with the lady?'
+
+'No; that's what I'm asking. What is Miss Le Mesurier like?'
+
+'She is more delightfully surprising than even I had imagined. Otherwise
+she's difficult to describe; a bald enumeration of features would be rank
+injustice.'
+
+Drake's curiosity responded to the flick.
+
+'One might fit them together with a little trouble,' he suggested.
+
+'The metaphor of a puzzle is not inapt,' replied Fielding, as he opened
+his door. 'Good-night!' and he went in.
+
+Half-way down Pall Mall Drake was smitten by a sudden impulse. The
+fog had cleared from the streets; he looked up at the sky. The night
+was moonless but starlit, and very clear. He lifted the trap, spoke
+to the cabman, and in a few minutes was driving southwards across
+Westminster Bridge.
+
+It was the chance recollection of a phrase dropped by Conway during
+dinner which sent him in this untimely scurry to Elm-tree Hill. 'As
+distant as El Dorado, and as desirable.' The sentence limned with
+precision the impression which London used to produce upon Drake. The
+sight of it touched upon some single chord of fancy in a nature otherwise
+prosaic, of which the existence was unsuspected by his few companions and
+unrealised by himself.
+
+Working in that tower which you could see from the summit of the Elm-tree
+Hill topping the sky-line to the west, in order to complete his education
+as an engineer before his meagre capital was exhausted, Drake had enjoyed
+little opportunity of acquiring knowledge of London; and those
+acquaintances of his who travelled thither with their shiny black bags
+every morning, seemed to him to know even less than he did. There were
+but two points of view from which the town was regarded in the suburb,
+and the inhabitants chose this view according to their sex. To the men
+London was a counting-house, and certainly some miles of yellow brick
+mansions and flashing glasshouses testified that the view was a
+profitable one. To the women it was the alluringly wicked abode of
+society, and they held their hands before their faces when they mentioned
+it, to hide their yearning. Occasionally they imagined they caught a
+glimpse into it, when a minister from one of the states in the Balkan
+Peninsula strayed down to shed a tallow-candle lustre over a garden
+party. To both these views Drake had listened with the air of a man
+listening to an impertinence, and his attitude towards the former view
+showed particularly the strength of the peculiar impression which London
+made on him, since he always placed the acquisition of a fortune as an
+aim before himself.
+
+He thought of London, in fact, as a countryman might, with all a
+countryman's sense of its mystery and romance, intensified in him by the
+daily sight of its domes and spires. He saw it clothed by the changing
+seasons, now ringed in green, now shrouded in white; on summer mornings,
+when it lay clearly defined like a finished model and the sun sparkled on
+the vanes, set the long lines of windows ablaze in the Houses of
+Parliament, and turned the river into a riband of polished steel; or,
+again, when the cupola of St. Paul's and the Clock Tower at Westminster
+pierced upwards through a level of fog, as though hung in the mid-air; or
+when mists, shredded by a south wind, swirled and writhed about the
+rooftops until the city itself seemed to take fantastic shapes and melt
+to a substance no more solid than the mists themselves.
+
+These pictures, deeply impressed upon him at the moment of actual vision,
+remained with Drake during the whole period of his absence, changing a
+little, no doubt, as his imagination more and more informed them, but
+losing nothing of vividness, rather indeed waxing in it with the gradual
+years. One may think of him as he marched on expeditions against hostile
+tribes, dwelling upon these recollections as upon the portrait of an
+inherited homestead. London, in fact, became to him a living motive, a
+determining factor in any choice of action. Whatsoever ambitions he
+nourished presumed London as their starting-point. It was then after all
+not very singular that on this first night of his return he should make a
+pilgrimage to the spot whence he had drawn such vital impressions. For a
+long time he stood looking down the grass slope ragged with brambles and
+stunted trees, and comprehending the whole lighted city in his glance.
+
+On the way home his mind, which soon tired of a plunge into sentiment,
+reverted to the thought of Miss Le Mesurier, and he speculated
+unsuccessfully on the motive which had prompted her to send him so
+immediate an invitation. The enigmatic interest which she took in him,
+gave to him in fact a very definite interest in her. He wondered again
+what she was like. Fielding's description helped to pique his curiosity.
+All that he knew of her was her surname, and he found it impossible to
+infer a face or even a figure from this grain of knowledge. By the time
+he reached the Grand Hotel, he was regretting that he had not accepted
+her invitation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Drake repeated his question to Fielding two days later, after a dinner
+with Conway at his club, but in a tone of languid interest.
+
+'Why don't you ask Mallinson?' said Fielding. 'He knows her better
+than I do.'
+
+Conway contested the assertion with some heat.
+
+'Besides,' added Drake, 'his imagination may have been at work. About
+women, I prefer the estimate of a man of the world.'
+
+The phrase was distasteful to a gentleman whose ambition it was to live
+and to be recognised as living within view of, but outside the world, say
+just above it in a placid atmosphere of his own creation. Fielding leaned
+back in his chair to mete out punishment, joining the finger-tips with an
+air of ordering a detailed statement.
+
+'The inhabitants of Sark,' he began, 'were from immemorial times notable
+not merely for their predatory instincts, but for the stay-at-home
+fashion in which they gave those instincts play. They did not scour the
+seas for their victims, neither did they till their island. There was no
+need for so much exertion. They lay supine upon their rocks and waited
+until a sail appeared above the horizon. Even then they did not stir till
+nightfall. But after it was dark, they lighted bonfires upon suitable
+promontories, especially towards Brecqhou and the Gouliot channel, where
+snags are numerous, and gathered in their harvest in the morning.
+
+'But,' Drake interrupted, 'what on earth has that to do with--'
+
+'Miss Le Mesurier? A great deal, as you will see if you listen patiently.
+Lloyd's at that time had not been invented, and the Sarkese were
+consequently unpopular with the trading community, and in the reign of
+Henry the--well, the particular Henry is immaterial--an irate band of
+merchants sailed from Winchelsea on a trip. They depopulated Sark in a
+single night, as they thought. But they were mistaken. One family escaped
+their attention,--the Le Mesuriers, who were the custodians of the silver
+mines--' At this point Conway broke in with an impatient laugh. Fielding
+turned a quiet eye upon him and repeated in an even voice, 'Who were the
+custodians of the silver mines, and lived under the shelter of a little
+cliff close by the main shaft. When Helier de Carteret, who, you know,'
+and he inclined suavely towards Conway, 'was Seigneur of somewhere or
+other in Jersey, came a few years later to colonise Sark, he found the Le
+Mesuriers in possession, and while he confiscated the mines, he allowed
+them to retain their ancient dignity of custodians.'
+
+'Fudge!' said Conway rudely. Fielding waved a deprecating hand and
+continued:
+
+'Living where they did, it is not to be wondered at that the Le Mesuriers
+became gradually rich, and the De Carterets gradually poor, so that when
+the latter family was compelled to place the Seigneurie of Sark upon the
+market, the Le Mesuriers were the highest bidders. The Le Mesuriers thus
+became Seigneurs of Sark. But with their position they reversed their
+conduct, and, instead of taking other people's money out of mines, they
+put their own in, with the result that they sustained embarrassing
+losses. I mention these details incidentally to show that Miss Le
+Mesurier of to-day is directly descended from ancestors of predatory
+instincts, who did not go a-hunting for victims, but unobtrusively
+attracted them in a passive, lazy way which was none the less effectual.'
+
+Conway's patience was exhausted at this period of the disquisition.
+
+'I never heard such a hotch-potch of nonsense in my life,' he said.
+
+'I admit,' returned Fielding with unruffled complacency, 'that I aimed at
+an allegory rather than a pedantic narrative of facts. I was endeavouring
+to explain Clarice Le Mesurier on the fashionable principle of heredity.'
+
+It flashed across Drake that if Fielding had described, though with some
+exaggeration, an actual phase of Miss Le Mesurier's character, she must
+have been driven to make the first advance towards his acquaintance by a
+motive of unusual urgency. The notion, however, did but flash and flicker
+out. He had no mental picture of the girl to fix her within his view; he
+knew not, in fact, whether she was girl or woman. She was to him just an
+abstraction, and Drake was seldom inclined for the study of abstractions.
+His curiosity might, perhaps, have been stronger had Mallinson related to
+him the way in which he had been received at the house of the Le
+Mesuriers after his dinner with Drake. When he arrived he found the
+guests staring hard at each other silently, with the vacant expression
+which comes of an effort to understand a recitation in a homely dialect
+from the north of the Tweed. He waited in the doorway and suddenly saw
+Miss Le Mesurier rise from an embrasure in the window and take half a
+step towards him. Then she paused and resumed her seat.
+
+'That's because I come alone,' he thought, and something more than his
+vanity was hurt.
+
+The recitation reached its climax. Darby and Joan, quarrelling through
+nineteen stanzas as to whether they had been disturbed by a rat or a
+mouse, discovered in the twentieth that the animal was a ball of wool.
+The company sighed their relief in a murmur of thanks, and Mallinson
+crossed the room to the window.
+
+'And Captain Drake?' Clarice asked as she gave him her hand. The
+disappointment in her voice irritated him, and he answered with a sharp
+petulance.
+
+'He's not a captain really, you know.'
+
+The girl glanced at him in surprise.
+
+'I mean,' he went on, answering the glance, 'Of course he held the rank
+over there. But a captain in Matanga!' He shrugged his shoulders. 'There
+are more honourable titles.'
+
+'Still I asked you to bring him. You got my note, I suppose?' Her manner
+signified a cold request for an explanation.
+
+'I couldn't,' he replied shortly.
+
+'You mean you did not think it worth while to take enough trouble to
+find him.'
+
+'No; that's not the reason. In fact I dined with him to-night, but I saw
+that I couldn't bring him here.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Well, he's changed.'
+
+'In what way?'
+
+'He has grown so hopelessly bourgeois.'
+
+The epithet was a light to Clarice. She knew it for the superlative in
+Mallinson's grammar of abuse. Bourgeois! The term was the palm of a hand
+squashed upon a lighted candle; it snuffed you out. Convicted of
+bourgeoisie, you ought to tinkle a bell for the rest of your life, or at
+the easiest be confined east of Temple Bar. Applied to Drake the word
+connoted animosity pure and simple, animosity suddenly conceived too, for
+it was not a week since Mallinson had been boasting of his friendship
+with the man. What was the reason of that animosity? Clarice lowered her
+eyelashes demurely and smiled.
+
+'I fancied he was your friend,' she said with inquiring innocence.
+
+'I believe I remarked that he was changed.' Mallinson looked up at a
+corner of the ceiling as he spoke, and the exasperation was more than
+ever pronounced in his voice.
+
+'Mr. Drake,' she went on, and she laid the slightest possible emphasis on
+the prefix, 'Mr. Drake has travelled among the natives a good deal, I
+think you told me?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'It's funny that that should make a man bourgeois.'
+
+Mallinson became flippant.
+
+'I am not so sure,' he said. 'The natives, I should think, are
+essentially bourgeois. They love beads, and that's typical of the class.
+Evil communications, you know,' and he laughed, but awkwardly and without
+merriment.
+
+'Really?' asked Clarice, looking straight at him with grave eyes. She
+seemed to be seriously deliberating the truth of his remark. Mallinson's
+laughter stopped short. 'There's my aunt beckoning to you,' she said.
+
+Later in the evening she relented towards him, salving her disappointment
+with the flattery of his jealousy. She did not, however, relinquish on
+that account her intention to make Stephen Drake's acquaintance. She
+merely postponed it, trusting that the tides of accident would drift them
+together, as indeed they did, though after a longer delay than she had
+anticipated.
+
+The occasion of their meeting was provided by the visit of a French
+actress to one of the London theatres. Drake and Conway edged into their
+stalls just before the curtain rose on a performance of _Frou-Frou_.
+During the first act the theatre gradually filled, and when the lights
+were turned up at its close only one box was empty. It was upon the first
+tier next to the stage. A few minutes after the second act had begun
+Conway nudged Drake and nodded towards the box.
+
+'You asked what Miss Le Mesurier was like. There's your answer.'
+
+Drake glanced in that direction. He saw a girl in a dress of pink silk,
+standing in the front of the box, with her hands upon the ledge and
+leaning her head a little forwards beyond it. The glare striking up from
+the stage beneath her gave a burnish of copper to her hair and a warm
+light to her face. She seemed of a fragile figure and with features
+regular and delicate. Drake received a notion of unimpressive prettiness
+and turned his attention to the stage. When the lights were raised again
+in the auditorium, he noticed that Fielding was in the box talking to a
+gentleman with white hair, and that Mallinson was seated by the side of
+Miss Le Mesurier. The latter couple were gazing about the house and
+apparently discussing the audience,--at all events conversing with
+considerable animation. Drake commented upon their manner and drew the
+conventional inference.
+
+'Oh dear, no!' answered Conway energetically. 'Of course Mallinson's aim
+is apparent enough, poor fellow.' A touch of scorn in the voice, which
+rang false, negatived the pity of the phrase. 'But I don't suppose for an
+instant that she has realised it. She would be the last to do so. No, she
+has a fad in her head about authors just for the moment.'
+
+'Oh!' said Drake, turning with some interest to his companion. 'Does that
+account for _A Man of Influence_?'
+
+'Yes,' replied Conway reluctantly, 'I fancy it does.'
+
+'I wondered what set him to writing.'
+
+'He was at the Bar when he met her. I believe she persuaded him to write
+the book and give up the Law.'
+
+'She is undertaking a pretty heavy responsibility.'
+
+Conway looked at his friend and laughed.
+
+'I'm afraid you won't find that she takes that view, nor indeed do I see
+why she should. Mallinson was doing no good--well, not much anyway--at
+the Bar. He has scored by following her advice. So if she ever had any
+responsibility, which I don't admit, for there was no compulsion on him
+to obey, his luck has already wiped it out.'
+
+'I suppose the white-haired man's her father,' said Drake.
+
+'Yes. There's another sister, but she's at school in Brussels.'
+
+'How did you come across them?'
+
+'Mallinson and I met them one summer when we were taking a holiday at
+Sark.'
+
+Drake caught the eye of a man who was passing the end of his row of
+stalls towards the saloon, and was beckoned out.
+
+'I will join you after the interval,' he said, turning to Conway, and he
+saw that his companion was bowing to Miss Le Mesurier.
+
+Miss Le Mesurier in her box noticed Drake's movement, and she asked
+Mallinson, 'Who is that speaking to Mr. Conway?'
+
+Mallinson put up his glasses and looked. Clarice read recognition in a
+lift of eyebrows, and guessed from his hesitation to answer who it was
+that he recognised.
+
+'Well, who is it?'
+
+'Where?' asked Mallinson, assuming an air of perplexity.
+
+'Where you were looking,' said she quietly.
+
+'It's Stephen Drake,' interposed Fielding, and 'Hulloa!' he added in a
+voice of surprise as he observed the man whom Drake joined.
+
+'Drake! Stephen Drake!' exclaimed Mr. Le Mesurier, leaning forward
+hurriedly. 'Point him out to me, Fielding.'
+
+The latter obeyed, and Mr. Le Mesurier watched Drake until he disappeared
+through the doorway, with what seemed to Mallinson a singular intentness.
+The father's manner waked him to a suspicion that he might possibly have
+mistaken the daughter's motive in seeking Drake's acquaintance. Was it
+merely a whim, a fancy, strengthened to the point of activity by the
+sight of his name in print? Or was it something more? Was there some
+personal connection between Drake and the Le Mesuriers of which the
+former was in some way ignorant? He was still pondering the question when
+Clarice spoke to him.
+
+'So that was the bourgeois, was it?' she said, bending forwards and
+almost whispering the words. Mallinson flushed.
+
+'Was it?' he asked. 'I can't see. I am rather short-sighted.'
+
+'I begin to think you are.'
+
+The sentence was spoken with an ironic sympathy which deepened the flush
+upon Mallinson's cheek. A knock at the door offered him escape; he rose
+and admitted Conway. Conway was received with politeness by Mr. Le
+Mesurier, with cordiality by his daughter.
+
+'I have Drake with me,' said Conway. 'I came to ask permission, since you
+invited him to Beaufort Gardens, to introduce him after the next act.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier started up in his chair.
+
+'Did you ask him to the house?' he asked Clarice abruptly.
+
+'I asked Mr. Mallinson to bring him,' she replied; and then, with all
+the appearance of a penitent anxiety, 'Why? Oughtn't I to have done so?'
+she asked.
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier cast a suspicious glance at his daughter.
+
+'I am so sorry,' she said; 'I didn't know that--'
+
+'Oh well,' interrupted Mr. Le Mesurier hurriedly, 'there's no reason that
+I know of why you shouldn't have asked him, except that it's surely a
+trifle unusual, isn't it? You don't know him from Adam.'
+
+'But I assure you, Mr. Le Mesurier,' interposed Conway, 'there's nothing
+to be said against Drake.'
+
+'Of course!' replied Mr. Le Mesurier, with a testy laugh at the other's
+warmth. 'We know the length of your enthusiasms, my dear Conway. But I'll
+grant all you like about Drake. I only say that my daughter isn't even
+acquainted with the fellow.'
+
+'It is just that drawback which Mr. Conway proposes to remove,' said
+Clarice demurely. 'Of course,' she went on, 'I should never have thought
+of inviting him if Mr. Mallinson had not spoken of him so often as his
+friend.' She directed her sweetest smile to Mallinson. 'You did, didn't
+you? Yes! Mr. Drake had been away from England for so long that I thought
+it would be only kind to ask you to bring him. But if I had known that
+papa had any objection, I should naturally never have done it. I am very
+sorry. Perhaps I am not careful enough.' She ended her speech in a tone
+of self-reproach, which had its effect; for her father was roused by it
+to expostulate.
+
+'My dear,' he said, 'I never hinted that I had an objection to him. You
+are always twisting people's words and imputing wrong meanings to them.'
+
+Mallinson fancied that he detected a note of something more than mere
+remonstrance in Mr. Le Mesurier's voice, a consciousness of some thought
+in his daughter's mind which he would not openly acknowledge her to
+possess. The perception quickened Mallinson's conjecture into a positive
+conviction. There was evidently some fact about Drake, some incident
+perhaps in his life which brought him into relations with the Le
+Mesuriers,--relations ignored by Drake, but known by Mr. Le Mesurier and
+suspected by Clarice. Was this fact to Drake's advantage or discredit?
+The father's manner indicated rather the latter; but Mallinson put that
+aside. It was more than overbalanced by the daughter's--he sought for a
+word and chanced on 'forwardness.' His irritation against her prompted
+him to hug it, to stamp it on his thoughts of her with a jeer of 'I have
+found you out.' On the other hand, all his knowledge of her cried out
+against the word. He looked into the girl's face to resolve his doubts
+upon the point and found that she was watching him with some perplexity.
+A question to Conway explained the reason why she was puzzled.
+
+'How did you know that I asked Mr. Drake to Beaufort Gardens?' she asked.
+
+'I was present when Mallinson asked him to go.'
+
+'Mr. Mallinson asked him!' she exclaimed, dropping her fan in her
+surprise. 'Why, I thought--' She saw the confusion in Mallinson's face
+and checked herself suddenly with a little laugh of pure enjoyment. Her
+companion's jealousy was more heroical than she had given him credit for;
+it had induced him to lie.
+
+To cover his discomfiture Mallinson dived for the fan.
+
+'Oh, don't trouble,' she said, sympathy shaping the words into a
+positive entreaty. 'You are _so_ short-sighted, you know. Then you will
+bring Mr. Drake,' she turned to Conway as he rose and moved towards the
+door. Mr. Le Mesurier had resumed his conversation with Fielding, and
+beyond a slight movement of impatience, he gave no sign that he had
+heard the words.
+
+'After the next act,' said Conway, and he went out.
+
+Mallinson picked up the fan and laid it upon the ledge of the box.
+
+'I lied to you that evening,' he whispered in a low faltering tone. 'I
+have no excuse--Can't you guess why I lied?'
+
+There was a feeling behind the words, genuine by the ring of it, and to
+feeling Clarice was by nature responsive. Mallinson saw the mischief die
+out of her face, the eyelids droop until the lashes touched the cheek.
+Then she raised them again, tenderness flowered in her eyes.
+
+'Perhaps,' she said.
+
+She turned from him and watched Conway making his way along the row of
+stalls. Drake was already in his seat.
+
+'Then why didn't Mr. Drake come if you asked him?' she said with a quick
+change of tone.
+
+'He gave no reason beyond that it was his first night in London.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier looked again at Drake. His indifference irritated her
+and in a measure interested her in spite of herself. She was not used to
+indifference, and felt a need to apologise for it to herself. 'Of
+course,' she reflected, 'he had not seen me then,' and so was reinstated
+in her self-esteem. The explanation, however, failed her the next
+moment. For Drake, at all events, had seen her now; she had caught him
+looking up into the box before Conway left. Yet when Conway communicated
+his news, Drake never so much as moved his head in her direction. The
+three blows of the mallet had just sounded from behind the curtain and
+he sat upright in his seat, his face fixed towards the stage. Clarice
+bit her lips and frowned.
+
+'Don't be alarmed. He is really quite interested in you.' She looked up.
+Fielding was standing just behind her shoulder. 'He asked me quite often
+what you were like.'
+
+'I don't understand you,' said she loftily; and then, 'He might be a
+schoolboy at his first pantomime.'
+
+'He gives that kind of impression, I believe, in everything he does.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier had not made the remark in order to elicit eulogy.
+
+'He looks old, though,' she said, and her voice defied Fielding to
+contradict her.
+
+'Responsibility writes with the cyphers of age,' he quoted solemnly. It
+was his habit to recite sentences from _A Man of Influence_ when
+Mallinson was present, in a tone which never burlesqued but somehow
+belittled the work. Mallinson was never able to take definite offence,
+but he was none the less invariably galled by it.
+
+'As a matter of fact there is hardly a year to choose between the ages of
+Drake, Conway, and you, Mallinson, is there?' asked Fielding.
+
+Mallinson admitted that the statement was correct.
+
+'He has lived a hard life, has anxieties enough now, I don't doubt. You
+will find the explanation in that. The only people who remain young
+nowadays are actors. They keep the child in them.'
+
+The curtain went up as he spoke. As soon as it was lowered again Conway
+hurried Drake out of the stalls and up the staircase to the box.
+Clarice welcomed Drake quietly. Mr. Le Mesurier vouchsafed him the
+curtest of nods.
+
+'Didn't I see you join Israel Biedermann?' asked Fielding. The name
+belonged to a speculator who had lately been raised into prominence by
+the clink of his millions.
+
+'Yes,' replied Drake, with a laugh. 'The city makes one acquainted with
+strange financiers. I have business with him.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier showed symptoms of interest.
+
+'Really?' he said. 'You mean to return to Africa, I suppose.'
+
+'If I can help it, no.'
+
+'You intend to stay in England?' asked Mallinson sharply.
+
+'Yes,' replied Drake. He addressed himself to Miss Le Mesurier. 'You were
+kind enough to invite me to your house on the evening I arrived.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier's eyebrows went up at the mention of the day.
+
+'Mr. Mallinson had talked of you,' she explained. 'We seemed to know you
+already. I saw that you had landed from an interview in the _Meteor_, and
+thought you might have liked to come with your friend.'
+
+The words were spoken indifferently.
+
+'The _Meteor_?' inquired Mr. Le Mesurier. 'Isn't that the paper which
+attacked you, Mr. Drake? You let yourself be interviewed by it? I didn't
+know that.'
+
+He glanced keenly at his daughter, and Mallinson intercepted the look.
+His conviction was proved certain. There was something concealed,
+something maybe worth his knowing.
+
+'The attack was of no importance,' replied Drake, 'but I wanted it to be
+known in some quarters that I had landed without losing time.'
+
+'You replied to the attack?'
+
+'Not so much that. I gave the itinerary of the march to Boruwimi.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier perceived his daughter's eyes quietly resting upon him,
+and checked a movement of impatience, less at the answer than at his own
+folly in provoking it. Drake turned to Clarice and was offered a seat by
+her side. He realised, now that she was near, talking to him, that his
+impression of her, gained from the distance between the box and the
+stalls, did her injustice. She seemed now the vignette of a beautiful
+woman, missing the stateliness, perhaps, too, the distinction, but
+obtaining by very reason of what she missed a counterbalancing charm, to
+be appreciated only at close quarters, a charm of the quiet kind,
+diffused about her like a light; winsome--that was the epithet he
+applied to her, and remained doubtfully content with it, for there was a
+gravity too.
+
+Clarice invited him to speak of Matanga, but Drake was reticent on the
+subject, through sheer disinclination to talk about himself, a
+disinclination which the girl recognised, and gave him credit for,
+shooting a comparing glance at Mallinson.
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier, it should be said, remarked this reticence as well, and
+it gave him an idea. From Matanga Drake led the conversation back to
+London, and they fell to discussing the play.
+
+'You are very interested in it,' she said.
+
+'Yes,' said he, 'I have never seen the play before.'
+
+'I should hardly have thought it would have suited your taste,'
+Conway observed.
+
+'Why? It's French of course, but you can discount the sentiment. There is
+a stratum of truth left, don't you think?'
+
+Mallinson raised pitying shoulders. 'Of the ABC order perhaps,' he
+allowed.
+
+'I am afraid it appeals to me all the more on that account,' Drake
+answered, with a genial laugh. 'But what I meant really was truth to
+those people--truth to the characters presumed. Consistency is perhaps
+the better word. I like to see a play run on simple lines to an end you
+can't but foresee. The taste's barbarian, I don't doubt.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier's lips instinctively pouted a mischievous 'bourgeois'
+towards Mallinson. He remarked hastily that he thought the curtain was on
+the point of rising, and Miss Le Mesurier pushed her opera-glasses
+towards him with a serene 'Not yet, I think.' Mallinson understood the
+suggestion of her movement and relapsed into a sullen silence.
+
+By the time that Conway and Drake rose to leave the box Mr. Le Mesurier
+had thought out his idea. His manner changed of a sudden to one of great
+cordiality; he expressed his pleasure at meeting Drake, and shook him by
+the hand, but destroyed the effect of his action through weakly revealing
+his diplomacy to his daughter by a triumphant glance at her.
+
+At the close of the performance he met Drake in the vestibule of the
+theatre and lingered behind his party. Fielding, Mallinson, and Conway
+meanwhile saw Miss Le Mesurier into her carriage.
+
+'What in the world is papa doing?' asked Clarice.
+
+'Exchanging cards with Drake,' replied Fielding. Mallinson turned his
+head round quickly and beheld the two gentlemen affably shaking hands
+again. Conway bent into the carriage.
+
+'Do you like him?' he asked.
+
+'Oh yes,' she replied indifferently.
+
+'Then I am glad I introduced him to you,' and some emphasis was laid
+upon the 'I.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier came out to the brougham and the coachman drove off.
+
+'I like that young fellow, Drake,' he said, with a wave of the hand. 'I
+have asked him to call.'
+
+Clarice did not inform her diplomatic father that unless she had foreseen
+his intention she would have undertaken the discharge of that act of
+courtesy herself.
+
+Mallinson took a hansom and drove straight from the theatre to his
+chambers in South Kensington, Conway walked off in the opposite
+direction, so that Drake and Fielding were left to stroll away together.
+They walked across Leicester Square towards St. James's Street, each
+occupied with his own thoughts. Fielding's were of an unusually
+stimulating kind; he foresaw the possibility of a very diverting comedy,
+to be played chiefly for his amusement and partly for Miss Le Mesurier's,
+by Clarice herself, Drake, and Mallinson. From the clash of two natures
+so thoroughly different as those of the two men, played off against one
+another with all the delicate manipulation of Miss Le Mesurier's
+experienced hand, there was much enjoyment to be anticipated for the
+purely disinterested spectator which he intended to be. Of the probable
+_denouement_ he formed no conception, and in fact avoided purposely any
+temptation to do so. He preferred that the play should unroll itself in a
+series of delightful surprises. The one question which he asked himself
+at this time was whether Drake might not decline to act his proper and
+assigned part. He glanced at him as they walked along. Drake looked
+thoughtful, and was certainly silent; both thought and silence were
+propitious signs. On the other hand, Drake had interests in the City, had
+them at heart too, and, worse still, had the City itself at heart.
+
+Fielding recollected an answer he had made to Mallinson. The word 'heart'
+brought it to his mind. Mallinson was jeering at the journalist's
+metaphor of the 'throbbing heart' as applied to London. 'The phrase,'
+Drake had said, 'to me is significant of something more than cheap
+phraseology. I know that half a throb could create an earthquake in
+Matanga.' What if the man's established interest in this direction were
+to suppress his nascent interest in Clarice! Fielding immediately asked
+Drake what he thought of Miss Le Mesurier.
+
+'Oh!' said the latter, palpably waking from reflections of quite another
+order, 'I liked her,' and he spoke of her looks.
+
+'She has the art of dressing well,' corrected Fielding, disappointment
+spurring him to provoke advocacy of the lady. Drake, however, was
+indifferent to the correction.
+
+'I like her eyes,' he said.
+
+'She is skilled in the use of them.'
+
+'I didn't notice that. They seemed of the quiet kind.'
+
+'At need she can swing a wrecker's light behind them.'
+
+'I like her hand too. It has the grip of a friend.'
+
+'A friend! Yes. There's the pitfall.'
+
+Drake only laughed. He was not to be persuaded to any strenuous defence,
+and Fielding felt inclined to harbour a grudge against him as needlessly
+a spoil-sport. Later on, however, when he was in bed it occurred to him
+that the play might still be performed, though upon different lines, and
+with a plot rather different from what he had imagined--his plot
+inverted, in fact. Clarice Le Mesurier, he remembered, had made the first
+advance to Drake. What if she for once in a while were to figure as the
+pursuer! That alternative would, perhaps, be the more diverting of the
+two. He must consult Mrs. Willoughby as to the effect which Drake's
+bearing would produce on women--consult her cautiously, prudence warned
+him. Mrs. Willoughby, a cousin and friend of Miss Le Mesurier's, was not
+of the sort to lend a helping hand in the game if the girl was to provide
+the sport--or indeed in the other event. The one essential thing,
+however, was that there should be a comedy, and he must see to it that
+there was one, with which reflection he drew the bed-clothes comfortably
+about him and went to sleep.
+
+There was, however, one other condition equally essential to his
+enjoyment, but so apparently inevitable that he did not stop to consider
+it, namely, that Hugh Fielding should be a mere spectator. It did not
+occur to him at all that he might be drawn into an unwilling assumption
+of a part in his own play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Mallinson on reaching home unlocked a little oak cabinet which hung
+against the wall beside his writing-table, and searched amongst a litter
+of newspaper cuttings and incomplete manuscripts. He unearthed at last a
+copy of the _Meteor_, bought between the Grand Hotel and Beaufort Gardens
+on the night of Drake's dinner, and, drawing up a chair to the fire, he
+read through the interview again. The something to be known was
+gradually, he felt, shaping into a definite form; it had acquired
+locality this very evening, as he was assured by the recollection of a
+certain repressed movement upon Mr. Le Mesurier's part at the mention of
+Boruwimi. Could he add to the knowledge by the help of the interview? Mr.
+Le Mesurier had not known of its publication until to-night, and so
+clearly had not read it; his knowledge was antedated. But on the other
+hand it was immediately after the perusal of the article that Clarice had
+sent through him her invitation to Drake.
+
+Mallinson studied the article line by line, but without result.
+
+He tossed the newspaper back into the cupboard, changed his coat, and
+sat down to his writing-table with a feverish impulse to work. He was
+unable to conceive it possible that Drake should be unaffected by Miss
+Le Mesurier's attractions. The man was energetic, therefore a dangerous
+rival. Miss Le Mesurier, besides, seemed bent upon pitting Drake and
+himself against each other. Why? he asked. Well, whatever the reason,
+he had a chance of winning--more than a chance, he reflected,
+remembering a passage of tenderness that evening. His future was
+promising, if only he worked. Perhaps Clarice only ranged the two men
+opposite to one another in order to stimulate one of them; he reached
+an answer to his question 'Why?'
+
+The extravagances of a lover's thoughts have often this much value: they
+disclose principles of his nature working at the formation of the man,
+and in Mallinson's case they betrayed his habit of drawing the energy for
+application from externals, and from no sacred fire within.
+
+He shut his door and worked for a month. At the end of the month, lying
+in bed at night and watching a planet visible through his window, he saw
+the ray of light between himself and the star divide into two, and the
+two beams describe outwards segments of a circle. He turned his face away
+for a few moments and then looked at the planet again. The phenomenon was
+repeated. He knew it for a trick of tired eyes and a warning to slacken
+his labours. On the next afternoon he called at Beaufort Gardens, and was
+received warmly by Clarice and her aunt.
+
+There was a suggestion of reproach for his long absence in the former's
+voice, and suggestion of reproach from her kindled him. He explained his
+plunge under surface on the ground of work. Details were immediately
+demanded, the plot of the new novel discussed and praised; there was
+flattery too in the diffident criticism of an incident here and there,
+and the sweetest foretaste of happiness in the joint rearrangement of the
+disputed chapter. Mallinson was lifted on a billow of confidence. He was
+of the type which adjusts itself to the opinions his company may have of
+him. Praise Mallinson and he deserved praises; ignore him and he sank
+like a plummet to depths of insignificance, conscious of insignificance
+and of nothing more except a dull rancour against the person who
+impressed the knowledge on him. That way Drake had offended unwittingly
+at the Grand Hotel; he had recognised no distinction between the
+Mallinson of to-day and the Mallinson of ten years ago.
+
+Mallinson was asked to dinner on Friday of the next week.
+
+'Really,' said the aunt after his departure, 'he is very clever. I didn't
+understand what he said, but he is very clever.'
+
+'Yes,' said Clarice reflectively, 'I suppose--I mean of course he is.'
+
+She spoke in a tone of hesitation which surprised her auditor, for
+hitherto Clarice had been very certain as to her impressions on
+the point.
+
+At dinner on the following Friday Mallinson was confronted by Conway and
+had Mrs. Willoughby upon his right. Mallinson liked Mrs. Willoughby, the
+widow of the black hair and blue eyes, now in the mauve stage of
+widowhood. She drew him out of the secretiveness within which he
+habitually barred himself, and he felt thankful to her for his prisoner's
+hour of mid-day airing. Mrs. Willoughby spoke to Clarice, mentioning a
+private view of an exhibition of pictures at which she had seen Clarice.
+
+'Who was the cavalier?' she added.
+
+'Mr. Drake,' Clarice replied serenely. 'I met him there by accident.'
+Mrs. Willoughby looked puzzled, and repeated the name in an undertone.
+
+'You don't know him, I think,' Clarice went on. 'He comes here. Papa
+asked him to call. Captain Drake, I suppose we ought to call him, but he
+has dropped the Captain.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started and shot a bewildered glance at Mr. Le Mesurier.
+
+'I like the man very much,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, with a touch of
+championship in his voice. 'You should meet him. I am sure you would
+like him too.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby made no answer to the suggestion, and resumed her dinner
+in silence, while Conway sang his usual paean of praise. After a little
+she turned to Mallinson.
+
+'Do you know this Mr. Drake?'
+
+'Yes, we were boys together in the same suburb before he went to Africa.
+It was unfortunately through me that he was asked to this house. I had
+mentioned him as a friend of mine at one time, and Miss Le Mesurier
+invited me to bring him on the day he reached London.'
+
+'So soon as that! It's funny Clarice never mentioned him to me. You, of
+course, told her the date of Mr. Drake's arrival.'
+
+'No, she found that out from an interview in the _Meteor_.'
+
+'I remember.'
+
+'You read it?'
+
+'Yes. So you introduced him to Clarice?'
+
+'No. He did not come that night. Conway brought him up to Mr. Le
+Mesurier's box when _Frou-Frou_ was being played a month ago.'
+
+'Never mind, we will talk of something else.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby had just observed Clarice. She was nodding assent to the
+words of her neighbour, but plainly lending an attentive ear to Mrs.
+Willoughby's conversation. Mrs. Willoughby spoke of indifferent subjects
+until the ladies rose.
+
+When Mallinson, however, entered the drawing-room, he perceived Mrs.
+Willoughby's fan motioning him to attendance, and she took up the thread
+of her talk at the point where she had dropped it.
+
+'You said unfortunately.'
+
+'Well, you have read the _Meteor_.'
+
+'You endorse their view?'
+
+'From what I have seen of Drake since his return, yes.'
+
+'But if there's anything in their charges, why doesn't the Colonial
+Office move?'
+
+'The Colonial Office!' Mallinson shrugged his shoulders. 'You forget only
+natives and Arabs were killed in the Boruwimi expedition, and they don't
+count. If he had killed a white man--What's the matter?'
+
+'Nothing,' said Mrs. Willoughby, recovering from a start; 'an idea
+occurred to me, that's all.'
+
+'Tell me.'
+
+For a moment Mrs. Willoughby seemed at a loss. Then she said, with a
+laugh:
+
+'If you will know, I was wondering whether your explanation covered
+all you meant by "unfortunately."' She lowered her voice. 'You can be
+frank with me.'
+
+Mallinson was diverted by her assurance of sympathy, and launched out
+immediately into an elaborate history of the emotions which the
+friendliness of Miss Le Mesurier to Drake had set bubbling within him.
+Mr. Le Mesurier approached the pair before Mallinson had finished, and
+the latter hurriedly broke off.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, 'will you meet Mr. Drake, Constance, at
+lunch, say on Sunday?'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby stared.
+
+'Do you mean that?'
+
+'Certainly.' Mr. Le Mesurier was defiant. Mrs. Willoughby's stare changed
+to a look of thoughtfulness.
+
+'No,' she said, 'I don't think I could.' She moved away. Mallinson
+followed her.
+
+'You know something about Drake,' he exclaimed, 'something which
+would help me.'
+
+'That is hardly generous rivalry,' she replied.
+
+'Does he deserve generosity?' he asked, with a trace of cunning in his
+expression which Mrs. Willoughby found distasteful.
+
+'If I can help you,' she answered evasively, 'help you honourably, I
+will,' and she turned away. Mallinson put out a hand to stop her.
+
+'I need help,' he whispered. 'There is a conspiracy to praise the man.
+You heard Conway at dinner. It's the same with every one, from Mr. Le
+Mesurier to Fielding.'
+
+'Oh,' she said, her voice kindling to an expression of interest, 'does
+Mr. Fielding like him? He is fastidious too.' She paused for a second in
+deliberation, her eyes searching the floor. Raising them, she perceived
+Mr. Le Mesurier coming towards her.
+
+'I claim our privilege,' she said. 'I will lunch on Sunday, and meet your
+paragon, after all.'
+
+'I am very glad,' he said impressively. 'Lunch at two.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby waited until he was out of ear-shot, and turned again to
+Mallinson.
+
+'It is best that I should see the man, and know something more of him
+than hearsay. Don't you think so?'
+
+A note of apology discounted the explanation. Mallinson understood that
+the reference to Fielding was the cause of her change of mind.
+
+'Do you value Fielding's opinion?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, I don't know. On some subjects I think yes. Don't you?'
+
+Mallinson began to wonder immediately whether Fielding's opinions might
+not be valuable after all, since Mrs. Willoughby valued them. If so, the
+man might be able to throw some light upon other points--for instance,
+the perplexing question of Miss Le Mesurier's inclinations. Mallinson
+made up his mind to call upon Fielding. He called on the Sunday morning,
+and Fielding blandly related to him his history of Sark.
+
+Having worked Mallinson to a sufficiently amusing pitch of indignation,
+and having hinted his moral that the subjugation of Miss Le Mesurier
+would be effected only by the raider, Fielding complacently dismissed him
+and repaired to Beaufort Gardens for lunch. He found Drake upon the
+doorstep with a hand upon the knocker, and the two gentlemen exchanged
+greetings.
+
+'I have just left Mallinson,' said Fielding.
+
+Drake's hand fell from the knocker.
+
+'Tell me!' he said. 'Mallinson perplexes me in many ways. For instance,
+he shows me little good-will now--'
+
+'Does that surprise you?' Fielding interjected, with a laugh.
+
+Drake coloured and replied quickly, 'You didn't let me finish. If he
+dislikes me, what made him talk about me as his friend to--to the Le
+Mesuriers before I returned to England?'
+
+'Your name in print. You verged on--well, notoriety. You may laugh, but
+that's the reason. Mallinson's always on the rack of other people's
+opinions--judges himself by what he imagines to be their standard of him.
+Acquaintanceship with a celebrity lifts him in their eyes, he thinks, so
+really in his own.'
+
+Drake remained doubtfully pondering what credit acquaintanceship with him
+could confer on any one. He was led back to his old view of Mallinson as
+a man tottering on a rickety base.
+
+'Will he do something great?' he asked, his forehead puckered in an
+effort to calculate the qualities which make for greatness.
+
+Fielding chuckled quietly, and answered:
+
+'Unlikely, I think. Clever, of course, the man is, but it is never the
+work he does that pleases him, but the pose after the work's done.
+That's fatal.'
+
+Drake looked at Fielding curiously.
+
+'That's a criticism which would never have occurred to me.' He glanced at
+his watch. 'We have five minutes. Shall we walk round the Gardens?'
+Fielding chuckled again and assented. He saw the curtain rising on his
+comedy. For five minutes they paced up and down the pavement, with an
+interchange of simple questions on Drake's part, and discriminating
+answers on Fielding's--answers not wholly to encourage, but rather to
+promote a state of doubt, so much more interesting to the spectator.
+
+When after the five minutes had elapsed they entered the house, they
+found that Mrs. Willoughby had arrived.
+
+Clarice introduced Stephen Drake to Mrs. Willoughby. He saw a woman
+apparently in the early twenties, tall, with a broad white forehead,
+under masses of unruly black hair, and black eyebrows shadowing eyes of
+the colour of sea-shallows on an August morning. The eyes were hard, he
+noticed, and the lips pressed together; she bowed to him without a word.
+Hostility was evidently to be expected, and Drake wondered at this, for
+he knew Mrs. Willoughby to be Clarice's chief friend and confidante. Mrs.
+Willoughby fired the first shot of the combat as soon as they had sat
+down to lunch. She spoke of unscrupulous cruelty shown by African
+explorers, and appealed to Drake for correction, she said, but her tone
+implied corroboration.
+
+'I have known cases,' he admitted, 'here and there. You can't always
+prevent it. The pioneer in a new country doesn't bring testimonials with
+him invariably. In fact, one case of the kind happened under my own eyes,
+I might almost say.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby seemed put out of countenance by Drake's reply. She had
+plainly expected a strenuous denial of her statement. Drake caught a
+look of reproof which Mr. Le Mesurier directed towards her, and set it
+down to his host's courtesy towards his guest. Clarice, however, noticed
+the look too.
+
+'Indeed,' she said. 'Tell us about it, Mr. Drake. It will be a change
+from our usual frock-coat conversation.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier imposed the interdict of paternal authority.
+
+'I think, my dear, stories of that class are, as a rule, a trifle crude.
+Eh, Drake?'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier on the instant became personified submission.
+
+'Of course, papa,' she said, 'if you have reason for believing the story
+isn't suitable, I wouldn't think of asking Mr. Drake to tell it.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier raised his hands in a gesture of despair, and looked
+again at Mrs. Willoughby. His glance said, unmistakably, 'Now see what
+you've done!' Fielding broke into an open laugh; and Clarice haughtily
+asked him to explain the joke, so that the others present might share in
+his amusement.
+
+'I will,' said Fielding. 'In fact, I meant you to ask me to. I laughed,
+because I notice that whenever you are particularly obedient to Papa,
+then you are particularly resolved to have your own way.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier's foot tapped under the table.
+
+'Of course,' she said, with a withering shrug of her shoulders, 'that's
+wit, Mr. Fielding.' Repartee was not her strong point.
+
+'No,' he replied, 'merely rudeness. And what's the use of being a
+privileged friend of the family if you can't be rude?'
+
+Drake came to the rescue. 'Mr. Le Mesurier is quite right,' said he.
+'Incidents of the kind I mentioned are best left untold.'
+
+'I don't doubt it,' said Fielding. 'A man loses all sight of humanitarian
+principles the moment he's beyond view of a fireside.'
+
+'Oh, does he?' replied Drake. 'The man by the fireside is apt to confuse
+sentiment with humanitarian principles; and sentiment, I admit, you have
+to get rid of when you find yourself surrounded with savages.'
+
+'Exactly! You become assimilated with the savages, and retain only one
+link between yourself and civilisation.'
+
+'And that link?'
+
+'Is a Maxim gun.'
+
+'My dear fellow, that's nonsense,' Drake answered in some heat. 'It's
+easy enough to sit here and discuss humanitarian principles, but you need
+a pretty accurate knowledge of what they are, and what they are not,
+before you begin to apply them recklessly beyond the reach of
+civilisation. When I went first to Africa, I stayed for a time at
+Pretoria, and from Pretoria I went north in a pioneer company. You want
+to have been engaged in an expedition of that kind to quite appreciate
+what it means. We were on short rations a good part of the time, with a
+fair prospect of absolute starvation ahead, and doing forced marches all
+the while. When we camped of an evening, I have seen men who had eaten
+nothing since breakfast, and little enough then, just slip the saddles
+from the horses, and go fast asleep under the nearest tree, without
+bothering about their supper. Then, perhaps, an officer would shake them
+up, and they'd have to go collecting brushwood for fires. That's a pretty
+bad business in the dark, when you're dead tired with the day's tramp.
+You don't much care whether you pick up a snake or a stick of wood. I
+remember, too,' and he gave a laugh at the recollection, 'we used to be
+allowed about a thimbleful of brandy a day. Well, I have noticed men walk
+twenty yards away from the camps to drink their tot, for fear some one
+might jog their elbows. And it was only one mouthful after all--you
+didn't need to water it. Altogether, that kind of expedition would be
+something considerably more than an average strain upon a man's
+endurance, if it was led through a friendly country. But add to your
+difficulties the continual presence of an enemy, outnumbering you
+incalculably, always on the alert for you to slacken discipline for a
+second, and remember you are not marching to safety, but from it. The
+odds against you are increasing all the time, and that not for one or two
+days, but for eighty and a hundred. I can assure you, one would hear a
+great deal less of the harmlessness of the black, if more people had
+experienced that grisly hour before daybreak, when they generally make
+their attacks. Your whole force--it's a mere handful--stands under arms
+at attention in the dark--and it can be dark on the veld, even in the
+open, on a starlight night. The veld seems to drink up and absorb the
+light, as though it was so much water trickling on the parched ground.
+There you stand! You have thrown out scouts to search the country round
+you, but you know for certain that half of them are nodding asleep in
+their saddles. For all you know, you may be surrounded on all sides. The
+strain of that hour of waiting grows so intense that you actually long to
+see the flash of a scout's rifle, and so be certain they are coming, or
+to feel the ground shake under you, as they stamp their war-dance half a
+mile away. Their battle chant, too, makes an uncanny sound, when it
+swells across the veld in the night, but, upon my soul, you almost hear
+it with relief.'
+
+Drake stopped and looked round upon faces fixed intently on his own,
+faces which mirrored his own absorption in his theme. There was one
+exception, however; Mrs. Willoughby sat back in her chair
+constraining herself to an attitude of indifference, and as Drake
+glanced at her, her lips seemed to be moving as though with the
+inward repetition of some word or phrase. Even Fielding was shaken
+out of his supermundane quietism.
+
+For the first time he saw revealed the real quality in Drake; he saw
+visibly active that force of which, although it had lain hitherto latent,
+he had always felt the existence and understood why he had made friends
+so quickly, and compelled those friends so perpetually to count with him
+in their thoughts. It was not so much in the mere words that Drake
+expressed this quality as in the spirit which informed, the voice which
+launched them, and the looks which gave them point. His face flashed into
+mobility, enthusiasm dispelling its set habit of gravity, sloughing it,
+Fielding thought, or better still, burning through it as through a crust
+of lava; his eyes--eyes which listened, Fielding had not inaptly
+described them--now spoke, and spoke vigorously; enthusiasm, too, rode on
+his voice, deepening its tones--not enthusiasm of the febrile kind which
+sends the speech wavering up and down the scale, but enthusiasm with
+sobriety as its dominant note concentrated into a level flow of sound.
+His description had all the freshness of an immediate occurrence.
+Compared with the ordinary style of reminiscence it was the rose upon the
+tree to the dried leaves of a _potpourri_.
+
+'But,' said Fielding, unconsciously resisting the influence which Drake
+exerted, 'I thought you took a whole army of blacks with you on these
+expeditions?'
+
+'Not on the one I speak of. In Matanga a small force of them, yes! But
+even they were difficult to manage, and you could not depend upon them.
+They would desert at the first opportunity, sell their guns, your
+peace-offerings of brass rods, and whatever they could lay their hands
+on, and straggle behind in the dusk until they got lost. It was no use
+sending back for them in the morning. One would only have found their
+bones, and their bones pretty well scoured too. I speak of them as a
+class, of course. There were races loyal enough no doubt, the Zanzibari,
+for instance. But the difficulty with them was to prevent them fighting
+when there was no occasion. In fact the blacks who were loyal made up for
+their loyalty by a lack of common-sense.'
+
+'Cause and effect, I should be inclined to call the combination,'
+remarked Fielding, 'with the lack of common-sense as the cause.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked her gratitude across the table, and again her lips
+moved. Drake chanced to catch her eye, and in spite of herself she
+rippled to a laugh. She had been defending herself by a repetition of the
+editor's comment of "filibuster."
+
+But at the same moment that Drake's glance met hers she had just waked up
+to the humour of her conduct, and recognised it as a veritable child's
+device. She could not but laugh, and, laughing there into the eyes of the
+man, she lost her hostility to him. However, Mrs. Willoughby made an
+effort to recover it.
+
+'Well, I don't see,' she said to Drake, 'what right you have got to
+marching into other people's countries even though they are black.'
+
+'Ah!' Drake answered. 'That's precisely what I call, if I may say so, the
+fireside point of view. We obey a law of nature rather than claim a
+right. One can discuss the merits of a law of nature comfortably by a
+fireside. But out there one realises how academic the discussion is, one
+obeys it. The white man has always spread himself over the country of the
+black man, and we may take it he always will. He has the pioneer's
+hankering after the uttermost corners of the earth, and in addition to
+that the desire to prosper. He obeys both motives; they are of the
+essence of him. Besides, if it comes to a question of abstract right, I
+am not sure we couldn't set up a pretty good case. After all, a nation
+holds its country primarily to benefit itself, no doubt, but also in
+trust for the world; and the two things hang together. It benefits itself
+by observing that trust. Now the black man seals his country up, he
+doesn't develop it. In the first place he doesn't know how to, and in the
+second, if he did, he would forget as soon as he could. I suppose that it
+is impossible to estimate the extent of the good which the opening of
+Africa has done for an overcrowded continent like Europe; and what
+touches Europe touches the world, no doubt of that, is there? But I'm
+preaching,' and he came abruptly to an end.
+
+'What I don't understand,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, and he voiced a question
+the others felt an impulse to ask, 'is, how on earth you are content to
+settle down as a business man in the City?'
+
+Drake retired into himself and replied with some diffidence:
+
+'Oh, the change is not as great perhaps as you think, I have always
+looked forward to returning here. One has ambitions of a kind.'
+
+'You ought to go into Parliament,' Clarice said.
+
+Drake laughed, thanking her with the laugh. 'It's rather too early to
+speak of that.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby observed that he actually blushed. A blushing filibuster!
+There was a contradiction of terms in the phrase, and he undoubtedly
+blushed. A question shot through her mind. Did he blush from modesty, or
+because Clarice made the suggestion?
+
+Mrs. Willoughby asked Fielding for an answer as he stood by the door of
+her brougham, before she drove away from Beaufort Gardens.
+
+'For both reasons, I should say,' he replied.
+
+'You think, then, he's attracted? He hardly showed signs of it, except
+that once, and modesty alone might account for that.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby laid some insistence upon the possibility.
+
+'I should have been inclined to agree with you,' answered Fielding, 'but
+Drake dragged me round the square before lunch to question me about
+Mallinson.'
+
+'That makes for your view, certainly. What did you tell him?'
+
+'I painted the portrait which I thought he wanted, picked out
+Mallinson's vices in clear colours and added a few which occurred to me
+at the moment. However, Drake closed my mouth with--"He's a hard
+worker, though."'
+
+'I like the man for that!' cried Mrs. Willoughby, and checked
+herself suddenly.
+
+'Yes, he's honest certainly.'
+
+'But was he right?'
+
+'Quite! Mallinson works very hard; scents danger, I suppose.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby heaved a sigh of relief.
+
+'There's some chance for him, then. Will he do anything great?'
+
+Fielding laughed.
+
+'That's one of the questions Drake put to me! I think never.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby accepted the dictum without asking for the reason. She
+sat for a moment disconsolately thoughtful. Then she gave a start.
+
+'There's Percy Conway. I had forgotten him!'
+
+'And wisely, I should think. He is just making a back for Drake to jump
+from if he will.'
+
+'Yes, I noticed that,' said Mrs. Willoughby, with a sneer at the folly of
+the creature. 'He seems to look upon Mallinson and himself as the two
+figures which tell the weather in a Swiss clock. When one comes out of
+his box the other goes in. I catch your trick, you see,' and her face
+relaxed to a smile.
+
+'Only to improve on it in the matter of truth. For you imply a comparison
+between Miss Le Mesurier and the weather, and the points of resemblance
+are strong.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby's smile became a laugh. 'I don't hold with you about
+Clarice,' she said. 'You don't know her as I do. She can take things
+seriously.'
+
+'Intensely so--for five minutes. I have never denied it.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby did not display her usual alacrity to engage in the
+oft-repeated combat as to Miss Le Mesurier's merits. Her face grew
+serious again.
+
+'Does Clarice care for him, you think?'
+
+Fielding was admiring Mrs. Willoughby's eyes at the moment, and answered
+absently. 'Conway, you mean?'
+
+'No, no! How wilfully irritating you are! This Mr. Drake, of course. By
+the way, I suppose he will get on?' She spoke in a voice which implied
+regret for the supposition, and almost appealed for a denial of it.
+
+'I should think there's no doubt of it. They tell me he has just sent a
+force up country in Matanga to locate concessions. You hit harder than
+you knew at lunch, for the force carries machine-guns. Oh yes, he'll get
+on. He has been seen arm-in-arm with Israel Biedermann in Throgmorton
+Street. You must tell that to a city man to realise what it means.'
+
+'But do you think Clarice cares for him?'
+
+'Miss Le Mesurier cares for--' he began, and broke off with a question.
+'Do you read Latin?' He was answered with an exasperated shake of the
+head. 'Because Miss Le Mesurier always reminds me of an ode of Horace,
+Finished, exquisite to the finger-tips, but still lacking something.
+Soul, is it? Perhaps that lack makes the perfection. But what's your
+objection to Drake?'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started a little. 'Objection?' she laughed. 'Why? I never
+told you that I had one.'
+
+'You told not only me, but every one at lunch--Drake himself included.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked doubtfully at Fielding. 'Well,' she said, 'there
+is something. I feel inclined to explain it to you. You may be able to
+advise me. Not now!' she went on as Fielding bent forward with a very
+unusual interest. 'Let me see. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday'--she ticked
+off the days upon her fingers. 'Thursday afternoon. Could you come and
+see me then?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Thanks. Good-bye, and don't forget; five o'clock. I shall be in to
+no one else.' And Mrs. Willoughby drove off with the smile again
+upon her face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Whether Fielding was correct in limiting Miss Le Mesurier's capacity
+for continued seriousness, she was undeniably serious when she called
+upon Mrs. Willoughby at half-past one on the following day. There were
+dark shadows under her eyes, and the eyes themselves seemed to look
+pathetic reproaches at a world which had laid upon her unmerited
+distress. Mrs. Willoughby was startled at her appearance, and imagined
+some family disaster.
+
+'Why, Clarice, what has happened?' she exclaimed. 'You look as if you
+hadn't slept all night.'
+
+Clarice kissed her, and for answer sighed wearifully. Mrs. Willoughby was
+immediately relieved. The trouble was due, she realised, to some new
+shuffle of Clarice's facile emotions. She returned the kiss, and
+refrained from further questions; but, being a practical woman, she rang
+the bell and ordered the servant to lay two places for lunch.
+
+Clarice sank despondently into the most comfortable chair in the room.
+
+'Not for me,' she said. 'I am sure I couldn't eat anything.'
+
+'You may as well try, dear,' replied Mrs. Willoughby; and she crossed to
+Clarice and unpinned her hat--a little straw hat, with the daintiest of
+pink ribbons. She held it in her hand for a moment, weighing it with a
+smile which had something of tenderness in it. She laid a light hand upon
+the brown hair, touching with a caress the curls about the forehead. A
+child's face was turned up to hers with a pretty appeal of melancholy.
+Mrs. Willoughby was moved to kiss the girl again. In spite of a
+similarity of years, she had an affection almost maternal for Clarice;
+and, with an intuition, too, which was almost maternal, she was able to
+appreciate the sincerity of the girl's distress, with a doubtful smile at
+the gravity of its cause.
+
+Clarice threw her arms about Mrs. Willoughby's neck. 'Oh, Connie,' she
+quavered, 'you can't guess what has happened!' The voice threatened to
+break into sobs, and there were tears already brimming the eyes.
+
+'Never mind; you shall tell me after lunch.'
+
+At lunch Mrs. Willoughby industriously beguiled her with anecdotes. She
+talked of an uncle of Clarice, a Philistine sea-captain with pronounced
+opinions upon the advance of woman, ludicrously mimicking his efforts to
+adapt a quarter-deck style of denunciation to the gentler atmosphere of a
+drawing-room. To sharpen his diatribes the worthy captain was in the
+habit of straining ineffectually after epigrams. Mrs. Willoughby quoted
+an unsuccessful essay concerning the novels women favoured. 'A woman with
+a slice of intellect likes that sort of garbage for the same reason that
+a girl with a neat pair of ankles likes a little mud in the streets.'
+Clarice was provoked to a reluctant smile by a mental picture of a
+violent rubicund face roaring the words. She was induced to play with a
+fragment of sole; she ended by eating the wing of a chicken.
+
+'Now,' said Mrs. Willoughby when she had set Clarice upon a sofa in front
+of a cosy fire in her boudoir, 'tell me what all the trouble's about.'
+She drew up a low chair and sat down with a hand upon the girl's arm.
+
+'It's about Sid--I mean Mr. Mallinson,' she began. 'He called yesterday
+afternoon after you had left. Papa had gone out for a walk, and aunt was
+lying down with a sick headache. So I saw him alone. He said he was glad
+to get the opportunity of speaking to me by myself, and he--he--well, he
+asked me to marry him. He was quite different from what he usually is,
+else I might have stopped him before. But he made a sort of rush at it. I
+told him that I was very sorry, but I didn't care for him in that kind of
+way--at all events yet. And then it was horrible!' The voice began to
+break again.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby took hold of Clarice's hand, and the latter nestled
+towards her.
+
+'He got angry and violent, and said that I had persuaded him to give up
+his profession, and must have known quite well why he did it, and that no
+woman had a right to interfere with a man's life until she was prepared
+to accept the responsibility of her interference. I hardly understood
+what he said, because he frightened me; but I don't think that was at all
+a nice thing to say, do you, Connie?' and her hand tightened upon her
+friend's. 'But he said other things too, much worse than that,--I can't
+tell you. And at last I felt as if I wanted to scream. I should have
+screamed in a minute or two, I know, so I told him to go away. Then he
+became silent all at once, and just stood looking at me--and--and--I
+think that was worse than being abused. At last he said "Good-bye," so
+sorrowfully, and I knew it would be for ever, and we shook hands, and he
+went out into the hall and closed the door. It seemed to me that the door
+would never open again.'
+
+The threatened tears began to fall; Mrs. Willoughby, however, did not
+interrupt, and Clarice went on.
+
+'So as I heard the front door unlocked to let him out, I opened the door
+of the room and went into the hall. Mr. Mallinson was standing on the
+first step. He never looked back--he was turning up his coat-collar--and
+somehow it all seemed so sad. I felt as if I hadn't a friend left in the
+world. So--I--I--I--'
+
+'Well?' asked Mrs. Willoughby quickly.
+
+'I called him back into the room, and asked him if we couldn't be
+friends.'
+
+'What did he answer?'
+
+'That he didn't see how that was possible since he wanted to marry me.
+But I said that wouldn't matter as long as he didn't tell me so. I think
+men are so inconsiderate, don't you, Connie?' she broke off in a tone of
+reproach. 'I can't understand what there is to laugh at. You wouldn't
+either if you had seen him then, because he just sat down and cried, not
+as you and I do, you know, but with great tears running through his
+fingers and heaves of his shoulders. It was heartbreaking. Then he got up
+and begged my pardon for what he had said, and that was the worst of it
+all. He declared that if he went the rest of his way alone the journey
+would be all the easier for the mile I went along with him, and at that
+somehow I began to cry too, and--and--that's all.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby sat silent for a little. 'So you refused him,' she said
+thoughtfully, and she bent towards Clarice. 'Is it to be Stephen Drake?'
+
+Clarice started up from the sofa, and stood looking into the fire. 'What
+an extraordinary thing that you should ask me that,' she replied slowly,
+'because Mr. Mallinson asked it too.' She paused for a second or so and
+went on. 'I have never thought of him in that way, I am sure. Oh no!' and
+she roused herself from her attitude of deliberation and crossed to the
+window, speaking briskly as she went. 'I had quite a different reason.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked at her sharply but said nothing, and presently
+Clarice turned back into the room as though moved by a sudden impulse.
+'Can I write a note here?' she asked.
+
+'Certainly,' replied Mrs. Willoughby, and she set some envelopes and
+paper on the table. Clarice wrote a few lines and tore them up. She
+repeated the process on four sheets of note-paper, and as she was
+beginning the fifth attempt the door was opened and the servant
+announced that Mr. Conway was waiting in the drawing-room. Clarice tore
+up the fifth sheet and rose from her chair. 'I can write it when I get
+home,' she said.
+
+'Percy Conway!' said Mrs. Willoughby when the door was closed again.
+'What a funny thing! He's not in the habit of visiting me.'
+
+'The fact is,' said Clarice, without the least embarrassment, as
+she pinned on her hat, 'I asked him to call for me here. You don't
+mind, do you?'
+
+'Clarice!' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby. She stared at the girl,
+noticing the traces of tears still visible on her face, and then she
+began to laugh.
+
+'Connie!' said Miss Le Mesurier, and her tone showed that she was hurt.
+'You _are_ unsympathetic.'
+
+'I can't help it,' cried Mrs. Willoughby, and she laughed yet louder. 'I
+can't help it, dear!'
+
+'You can't imagine how lonely I have felt since--'
+
+'Since yesterday,' cried Mrs. Willoughby, and her laughter increased.
+'Clarice, you'll be the death of me.'
+
+Clarice stood gazing at her patiently, her face grave with reproach,
+until Mrs. Willoughby succeeded in composing herself to a fitting
+seriousness. But for all her efforts her mouth worked, and the dimples
+appeared and vanished in her cheeks, and a little ripple of laughter now
+and again escaped from her lips.
+
+'Really,' said Clarice, 'I am disappointed in you, Connie.'
+
+'I know it was out of place, dear,' said Mrs. Willoughby with humility,
+but nevertheless her voice shook as she spoke. Fearing another access she
+began, as a resource, to lecture Clarice upon the impropriety of making
+appointments with young gentlemen at other people's houses. The lecture,
+however, was received with disdain.
+
+'That seems to me still more out of place,' said Clarice.
+
+'Well, we had better go into the drawing-room to Mr. Conway,' said Mrs.
+Willoughby.
+
+Clarice was indeed excessively indignant with Mrs. Willoughby, for she
+was in the habit herself of treating her feelings with a tender
+solicitude, and consequently disliked the want of respect shown to them
+by her friend. She betrayed the extent of her indignation by a
+proportionately excessive friendliness towards Conway that afternoon. He
+was allowed to conduct her to four picture galleries, and a Panopticon
+museum of tortures; his offer to refresh her with tea in Bond Street was
+shyly accepted, and at parting he was thanked with effusion, 'for the
+pleasantest afternoon she had spent for some time.'
+
+On reaching home, however, Miss Le Mesurier immediately wrote out the
+note which she had begun in Mrs. Willoughby's boudoir. She wrote it now
+without hesitation, as though she had composed the form of its message
+while in the company of Conway, and addressed it to Stephen Drake. She
+had a question to ask him, she stated, of some importance to herself.
+Would he call on Thursday afternoon and answer it? Clarice read through
+the note before she sealed up the envelope. The word _importance_ caught
+her eye, and she pondered over it for a moment. She crossed it out
+finally and substituted _interest_. Then she sent her letter to the post.
+At breakfast on the Thursday morning, Clarice casually informed her
+father of Drake's visit. 'I wrote to him, asking him to call,' she added.
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier looked up from the pages of his _Times_. 'Why?' he
+asked quickly.
+
+'I want him to tell me something.'
+
+The _Times_ crackled in his hands and fluttered to the floor. He opened
+his mouth to speak and thought better of it, and repeated the action more
+than once. Then he scratched his head with a helpless air, and picked up
+his newspaper. 'Silly girl!' he said at last; 'silly girl!' and relapsed
+into silence. At the close of breakfast, however, he made an effort at
+expostulation. 'You will make the man believe you're in love with him,'
+he said, and in fact he could have chanced on no happier objection to
+present to her. Clarice flushed to the temples. Sidney Mallinson, Mrs.
+Willoughby, and now her father! All three had made the same suggestion,
+and the repetition of it vexed her pride. There were others they might
+have said it of with more appearance of truth, she thought: Sidney
+Mallinson himself, for instance, or even Percy Conway. But he, Drake! For
+a moment she felt inclined to telegraph to him telling him not to come.
+Then she thought of the motive which had induced her to send for him. No!
+She would ask her question that afternoon, and so have done with him for
+good. Aloud she answered:
+
+'How ridiculous! I should hardly think he has that sort of conceit.
+Anyhow, if he has that impression, I will take care that he does not
+carry it away.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier did not pursue the argument, but he gave certain
+instructions to his butler, and when Drake arrived at the house he was
+shown into the library. Mr. Le Mesurier received him.
+
+'Pull up a chair to the fire,' he said with an uneasy geniality. 'I have
+something to say to you, Drake. It won't take long.'
+
+Drake laid down his hat and seated himself opposite to Mr. Le Mesurier.
+
+'My daughter told me this morning, quite spontaneously, of course, that
+she had asked you to call in order that she might get from you a certain
+answer to a certain question, and I thought that I had better prepare you
+for what that question will be.' He hesitated in his speech, searching
+for the best way to begin his explanation, and he caught sight of a
+cigar-box on the mantelshelf above his head.
+
+'By the way, do you smoke?'
+
+'Yes, but I won't just now, thank you.'
+
+'You had better. You can throw it away when I have done. These are in
+rather a good condition.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier seemed inclined to branch off upon the quality of
+different brands, but Drake gave him no assistance. He lit his cigar and
+patiently waited, his eyes fixed upon his host. Mr. Le Mesurier felt
+driven back upon the actual point of his explanation, and almost
+compelled to fine his words down to just the needful quantity.
+
+'Clarice, I believe,' he said brusquely, 'means to ask you how Gorley
+died. He was engaged to her.'
+
+Drake did not so much as stir a muscle, even his eyes maintained their
+steadiness, and Mr. Le Mesurier drew a breath of relief. 'I am glad you
+take it like this,' he went on. 'I was afraid that what I had to say
+might have been, well, perhaps a blow to you, and if so the fault would
+have been mine; for I encouraged you to come here.'
+
+Drake bent forward and knocked the ash off the end of his cigar.
+
+'Yes,' he asked; 'why did you do that?'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier looked uncomfortable.
+
+'It is only right that I should be frank with you,' he replied. 'The mere
+fact of Gorley's death, apart from its manner, upset Clarice, more, I
+confess, than we expected, and made her quite ill for a time. She is not
+very strong, you know. So it was deemed best, not only by me, but by
+Gorley's family as well, that she should be kept in ignorance of what had
+actually happened. We simply told her that Gorley had died near Boruwimi.
+But I fancy that she suspected we were concealing something. Perhaps our
+avoidance of the subject gave her the hint, or it may have been Mrs.
+Willoughby.'
+
+'Mrs. Willoughby?'
+
+'She is related to the Gorley family as well as to us. It was through her
+Clarice first met Gorley,' he explained, and went on. 'Then you returned
+to England, and were interviewed in the _Meteor_. Clarice read the
+interview; you had described in it your march to Boruwimi, and she sent
+through Mallinson at once an invitation to you. I only found that out the
+night you were introduced to us at the theatre. It made me certain that
+she had suspicions, and I admit that I asked you to call in the hope of
+allaying them. I believed, foolishly as it seems, that if I was cordial,
+she would give up any ideas she might have, that you were connected in
+any way with Gorley's death. Afterwards, Drake, I need hardly tell you, I
+was glad you came here upon other grounds.' Mr. Le Mesurier leaned
+forward in his chair and touched Drake upon the knee. 'It didn't take
+long for me to conceive a genuine liking for you, and, of course, I knew
+all the time that you had only done your duty.'
+
+Drake made no response whatever to Mr. Le Mesurier's sentiment.
+
+'I understand, then,' he said, 'that Miss Le Mesurier was engaged to
+Gorley at the time of his death?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,' exclaimed the other, starting up from his chair. 'You are
+aware, I suppose, why Gorley left England?'
+
+Drake nodded assent.
+
+'The engagement was broken off then and there. And Clarice at that time
+did not seem to take it much to heart. I was inclined to believe that the
+whole affair had been just a girl's whim. Indeed, in spite of her
+illness, I am not certain now that that isn't the truth. She may have had
+some notion of reforming him. I find Clarice rather difficult to
+understand.'
+
+Drake stood up. 'Where is Miss Le Mesurier?' he asked.
+
+'Upstairs in the drawing-room.'
+
+He took a step towards the door, and took the step unsteadily. He
+stopped for a second, bracing his shoulders; then he walked firmly
+across the room. While his hand was on the handle, he heard Mr. Le
+Mesurier speaking.
+
+'What do you mean to tell her?'
+
+'I hardly understand,' he answered, turning round. 'There surely is but
+one thing to say--the truth. She has a right to know that.'
+
+'Has she? The engagement was broken off finally when Gorley left England.
+They had nothing more to do with one another, no common interests, no
+common future. Has she?'
+
+'It seems to me, yes!'
+
+'We have kept the knowledge from her up till now. No one could blame you
+if you kept it from her a little longer.'
+
+The argument smacked of sophistry to Drake. He had an unreasoned
+conviction that the girl had a right to learn the truth from him.
+
+'I think I ought to tell her if she asks me.'
+
+'I might forbid you to do it,' grumbled Mr. Le Mesurier.
+
+'Do you?' asked Drake. The question brought Mr. Le Mesurier up short. It
+was a direct question, inviting a responsible decision, and Mr. Le
+Mesurier was averse by nature to making such decisions out of hand. If
+Drake cared for Clarice, he reflected, it was really in Drake's province
+to decide the point rather than in his own.
+
+'I don't know enough of you,' he replied, 'to either forbid or give you
+permission.'
+
+Drake wondered what the sentence meant.
+
+'In that case I must take my own course,' he said, and he went out of the
+room and mounted the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It was the dusk of a February afternoon. Drake had found the lamps lit in
+Mr. Le Mesurier's library, and the gas was burning in the hall and on the
+stairs. But within the drawing-room all the light there was came from the
+fire leaping upon the hearth and from the two recessed windows which
+faced it. In the farthest of these windows Drake saw Miss Le Mesurier
+standing, the outline of her face relieved, as it were, against a gray
+panel of twilight. As the door closed, she turned and took a step into
+the room. Drake could no longer see more than the shape of her head and
+the soft waves of hair crowning it; he could not distinguish a single
+feature, but none the less, as she stood facing him, he felt of a sudden
+his heart sink within him and his whole strength race out of his body.
+
+Clarice stood still; and he became possessed with a queer longing that
+she would move again, forwards, within the focus of the firelight.
+However, she spoke from where she stood.
+
+'You have seen my father.'
+
+Instinctively Drake walked to the fireplace, but she did not follow.
+
+'I have just left him,' he replied. 'He told me what the question was
+which you wished me to answer.'
+
+'And forbade you to answer it, I suppose?'
+
+'No. He left the choice to me.'
+
+'Well?' she asked.
+
+'I mean to answer it to the full,' he said. 'I was not aware till a
+moment ago that you had been engaged to Gorley.' Then he hesitated.
+Clarice was still standing in the shadow, and his desire that she should
+move out of it and within the circle of light grew upon him until it
+seemed almost as though the sight of her face and the knowledge of how
+she was receiving the history of the incident were necessary conditions
+of its narration.
+
+'I suppose that is the reason,' he went on, 'which made you ask me here
+at first. Why did you never put the question before?'
+
+'Why?' repeated Clarice slowly, as if she was putting the question to
+herself. Then she moved slowly towards the fireplace and seated herself
+by the side of it, bent forwards towards its glow, her elbows upon her
+knees, her hands propping her chin. Drake gave a sigh of relief, and
+Clarice glanced at him in surprise, and turned again to the fire. 'Tell
+me your story,' she said, and left his question unanswered.
+
+Drake began; but now that his wish was accomplished, of a sudden all the
+reality seemed to fade out of the tragic events he was to recount. His
+consciousness became in some queer way centred upon the girl who was
+listening, to the exclusion of the subject she was listening to. He was
+intensely conscious of her face, of its changing expressions, of the ebb
+and flow of the blood from time to time flushing her cheeks and temples,
+and of the vivid play of lights and shadows upon them as the flames
+danced and sank on the hearth. He noticed, too, with an observation new
+to him, and quite involuntary, the details of the room in which he stood,
+the white panelling of the walls, the engravings in their frames, the
+china ranged upon a ledge near to the ceiling. Of these things his mind
+took impressions with the minuteness almost of a camera. They were real
+to him at this moment, because they formed the framework and setting of
+the girl's face and figure.
+
+But Gorley's crime and his expiation of it became by contrast as remote
+to his apprehension in point of all connection with Clarice as they were
+in point of locality. He could not realise them to himself as events
+which had actually happened and in which he had played a part, and he
+spoke in the toneless voice of one who relates a fable of which, through
+frequent repetition, he is tired. Instinctively, in order to make the
+truth of his story palpable, he began to corroborate it with particulars
+which he would otherwise have spared his auditor, but with the same
+impersonal accent. He told Clarice of the condition of the village after
+Gorley's raid, as he first came within view of it: here the body of a
+negro stood pinned upright against the wall of his hut by an assegai
+fixing his neck; there another was lying charred upon still-smouldering
+embers; and as he saw her turn pale and shudder he almost wondered why.
+
+But in spite of his efforts to appreciate its actuality the incident grew
+more unsubstantial the further he progressed in its narration, and he
+ended it abruptly.
+
+'Gorley was properly tried,' he said--'his relations testified to
+the justice of his trial--and he was executed in accordance with
+the verdict.'
+
+Clarice sat motionless after he had ended. Drake watched the flames
+sparkle in her gray eyes. At his elbow the clock ticked upon the
+mantelshelf spacing the seconds, and the fire was hot upon his limbs.
+That dream-world in Africa dissolved to a vapour.
+
+Clarice recalled him to it at last.
+
+'I never imagined,' she said in a low voice, 'that the truth was anything
+like this. I shouldn't have asked you if I had. A long time ago I knew
+that something was being concealed, but I thought it was an accident
+or--well, I couldn't conceive what it was and I grew curious, I suppose.
+When you came back to England I thought you might be able to tell me.
+Lately, however, I began to fancy that you were concerned in it some way.
+You might have sent Mr. ----' she checked herself with the name unspoken
+and went on, 'you might have sent him on some fatal mission or something
+of that sort. But this! Oh, why did you tell me?'
+
+She took her hands from beneath her chin and clenched them with a
+convulsive movement upon her knees. Her memory had gone back to the days
+when she and Gorley had been engaged, to their meetings, their intimate
+conversations. This man, in whose hand her hands had lain, whose lips had
+pressed hers, been pressed by hers, this man had been convicted of a
+double crime--dastardly murder and dastardly theft--and punished for it!
+Her pride cried out against her knowledge, and cried out against the man
+who had vouchsafed the knowledge.
+
+'Why did you tell me?' she repeated, and the words were an accusation.
+
+'You wished to know,' he replied doggedly, 'and it seemed to me that you
+had the right to know.'
+
+'Right!' she exclaimed, 'right! What right had I to know? What right had
+you to tell me?'
+
+She rose to her feet suddenly as she spoke and confronted Drake. He
+looked into her eyes steadily, but with a certain perplexity.
+
+'I felt bound to tell you,' he said simply, and his simplicity appealed
+to her by its frank recognition of an obligation to her.
+
+'Why,' she asked herself, 'why did he feel bound? Merely because I wished
+to know the truth of the matter, or because he himself was implicated in
+it as the instrument of Gorley's punishment?' Either reason was
+sufficient to appease her. She inclined to the latter; there were
+conclusions to be inferred from it which staunched her wounded pride.
+
+Clarice turned away. Drake watched her set a foot upon the rail of the
+fender, lay her hand upon the mantelshelf and support her forehead upon
+it. After a little she raised her head and spoke with an air of
+apologising for him.
+
+'Of course,' she said. 'You could not know that there was anything
+between myself and--and him.'
+
+'No; I could not know that. How should I, for I did not know you? And I
+am glad that I didn't know.'
+
+Drake spoke with some earnestness, and Clarice looked at him in surprise.
+
+'It would have made my duty so much harder to do,' he explained.
+
+With a little cry of irritation Clarice slipped her foot from the fender
+and moved from him back to the couch. She had given him the opportunity
+to escape from his position and he refused to make use of it; he seemed
+indeed unable to perceive it. However, she clung to it obstinately and
+repeated it.
+
+'You could not know there was anything between us'; she emphasised the
+words deliberately. Drake mistook the intention of the emphasis.
+
+'But was there,' he exclaimed, 'at the time? I didn't think of that, Miss
+Le Mesurier--'
+
+'Oh no, no!' she interrupted. 'Not at the time.' The man was
+impracticable, and yet his very impracticability aroused in a measure her
+admiration. 'So you would have shot him just the same, had you known?'
+
+'Shot him?' asked Drake almost absently.
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Didn't I tell you? I beg your pardon. I didn't shoot him at all. I
+hanged him.'
+
+Clarice was stunned by the words, and the more because of the dull,
+seemingly callous accent with which they were spoken.
+
+'You hanged him!' she whispered, dropping the words one by one, as though
+she was striving to weigh them.
+
+'Yes. I have been blamed for it,' he replied with no change of voice.
+'People said I was damaging the prestige of the white man. The
+argument bothered me, I confess, but I think they were wrong. I should
+have damaged that prestige infinitely more if I had punished him
+secretly or--'
+
+'Oh, don't!' she cried, with a sharp interruption, and she stared at him
+with eyes dilating in horror, almost in fear. 'You can discuss it like
+that,--the man I had been engaged to,--you hanged him!'
+
+She ended with a moan of actual pain and covered her face with her hands.
+On the instant Drake woke to a full comprehension of all that he had
+said, and understood something of the humiliation which it meant to her.
+
+Clarice was sitting huddled in her chair, her fingers pressed lightly on
+her eyes, while now and again a shiver shot through her frame.
+
+'Still I was bound to tell her,' Drake thought. He waited for a little,
+wondering whether she would look up, but she made no movement. An emerald
+ring upon her finger caught the light and winked at him maliciously,
+leering at him, he fancied. There was nothing more for him to say, and he
+quietly went out of the room.
+
+The click of the door-handle roused Clarice. She saw that the room was
+empty, and, drawing a breath of relief, started out of her chair.
+Standing thus she heard Drake's footsteps descending the stairs, and
+after a pause the slamming of the hall-door. Then she went to the
+fireplace and knelt down close to it, warming her hands at the blaze.
+
+'The degradation of it!' she whispered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Bit by bit she sought to reconstruct the scene, piecing it together out
+of Drake's words; but somehow that scene would not be reconstructed. She
+gradually found herself considering Drake's words as a light thrown upon
+the man who spoke them, rather than as the description of an actual
+incident. The humiliation which she experienced made her shrink with a
+certain repulsion from her recollections of Gorley and dwell instead upon
+the contrasting tones in Drake's voice, the contrasting expressions upon
+his face when he spoke to her and when he merely narrated his story. In
+the first instance gentleness had been the dominant characteristic, in
+the second indifference; and that very indifference, while it repelled
+her, magnetised her thoughts.
+
+Something indeed of the same process which had caused that appearance of
+indifference in Drake was now repeating itself in Clarice. Drake was
+superseding Gorley in her mind. She struggled against the obsession and
+morbidly strove to picture to herself the actual execution: the black
+troops ranged in a clearing before the smouldering village, looking up at
+one figure--Gorley's--spinning on a rope. But even upon that picture
+Drake's face obtruded. She thrust out her hands to keep it off, as though
+it was living and pressing in upon her; for a moment she tried to conjure
+up Gorley's face, but it was blurred--only his form she could see
+spinning on a rope, and Drake beneath it, his features clear like an
+intaglio and firm-set with that same sense of duty which had forced him
+sternly to recount to her the truth that afternoon. She recurred to her
+recent habit of comparing him with Mallinson. She had a vision of
+Mallinson, with the same experience to relate,--if that were
+imaginable--fidgeting through evasions, grasping at any diversion she
+might throw out for him to play with.
+
+But what if Drake's frankness, outspoken to the point of cruelty, sprang
+from an indifference to her? Clarice had seen a good deal of Drake
+lately. She caught herself almost smiling at the idea, softening at its
+palpable falsity. In a last effort at resistance she fixed her thoughts
+on the cruelty, the callousness, in his method of narration, and began to
+feel herself on solid ground. She was consequently inspired to run over
+all that he had said, in order to make her footing yet firmer, and at the
+outset she was brought to a check. Why had she never questioned him upon
+the matter before? he had asked. Clarice stopped and asked the question
+of herself. At the beginning of their acquaintance certainly there had
+always been others by, but afterwards there had been opportunities
+enough. But by that time, what with her father's and Mrs. Willoughby's
+hostility, she had begun to suspect that Drake was in some way implicated
+in the mystery. Was it because she was afraid to know it for certain that
+she had refrained? She recalled her letter to him written last Monday,
+and how she had crossed out 'importance' and substituted 'interest.' Was
+this knowledge important to her, really important, bearing issues in the
+future? It could only be important, she realised, if she set great store
+upon her acquaintanceship with Drake. Drake, in fact, had achieved
+something of a triumph, though quite unknown to himself, for he had
+compelled Clarice Le Mesurier to abandon the consideration of his
+attitude towards her in favour of a search after the state of her
+feelings towards him.
+
+She was still engaged in the search when the clock struck six, and,
+rousing herself brusquely, she rang the bell for the lamps to be brought.
+
+At that moment Mrs. Willoughby had just finished telling to Fielding the
+story which Drake had told to Clarice.
+
+'So that's what Drake was referring to on Sunday,' said Fielding.
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'What in the world made you attack him in that way, if you didn't want
+Clarice to suspect?'
+
+'The fact was, I was a fool, I suppose. I just put my head down and
+charged. But what I want your advice upon is this, ought Clarice to be
+told now--before things go further?'
+
+'No, no!' said Fielding. He saw the curtain descending precipitately upon
+his comedy before the climax was reached, and he added quite sincerely,
+'I like Drake. I don't see why he shouldn't have a run for her money.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked doubtful for a moment, and then she said, 'Very
+well.' She hesitated for a second: 'I think I like him too.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+This was by no means the last occasion upon which Mrs. Willoughby thought
+it prudent to take counsel with Fielding concerning the affairs of her
+friend. Nor was Fielding in any degree backward to respond with his
+advice. He developed, in fact, an interest in their progress quite
+disproportionate to his professed attitude of the spectator in the
+stalls. Mrs. Willoughby lived at Knightsbridge, in a little house, of
+which the drawing-room overlooked the Park close to the barracks, and he
+found it very pleasant to sit there of an afternoon and discuss in a cosy
+duet the future of Clarice.
+
+The subject, besides, had the advantage of inexhaustibility. On the one
+side Fielding ranged the suitors, or those whom he considered such; on
+the other the vagaries of the girl. Playing these forces off not merely
+against each other, but against themselves as well--for, as he pointed
+out, there was no harmony in the separate camps--he evolved an infinite
+number of endless complications. There was consequently no end to the
+discussion, not even when Clarice was argued through the marriage
+ceremony. For that point Fielding took to represent the one o'clock in
+the morning of a carnival ball; then the fun really begins, though decent
+people have to go away.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was, as ever, staunch in her defence, though a
+recollection of Clarice's tearful visit with Conway's arrival for a
+climax prompted her now and again to laugh in the midst of it.
+
+'You mistake thoughtlessness for tricks,' she said. 'Clarice is only a
+child as yet.'
+
+'She has a child's capacity for emotion, I admit,' corrected Fielding,
+'but a woman's knowledge of its use. The combination is deplorable.'
+
+Fielding inquired about Drake, and was told that he had not been
+seen lately. 'It looks as if he was declining in favour,' Mrs.
+Willoughby added.
+
+'Not necessarily. The man's busy--there's a company coming out.'
+
+'A solid one?'
+
+'Likely to be, since Drake handles it. I am thinking of taking shares.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was surprised. Fielding seemed to her the last man
+calculated by nature for dabbling in stocks.
+
+'You!' she exclaimed. Fielding nodded assent.
+
+'Then don't do it,' Mrs. Willoughby flashed out vigorously. 'Don't think
+of it. Oh, I know those men in the City! Their friends get ruined, and
+they--well, I mustn't say anything against them, because my husband was
+one of them, poor dear,--but they move into larger offices. Mr. Drake has
+been asking you to join him?'
+
+'He hasn't done anything of the sort. I heard of the matter through quite
+an independent channel. However, I am not ruined yet, and the company
+won't be floated for another four months. And, after all, it's my money.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby became quiet.
+
+'Well,' she said, and she derived some satisfaction from the thought, 'at
+all events Clarice has dropped talking about him.'
+
+Fielding laughed.
+
+'That means that it's Mallinson's turn on the roundabout and
+nothing more.'
+
+'Sidney Mallinson has been refused.'
+
+'Refused! When?'
+
+'On the Sunday we lunched at Beaufort Gardens.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+Fielding was silent for a moment. He was thinking that he had met
+Mallinson of late with unusual frequency here at Mrs. Willoughby's house.
+
+'But are you sure?' he asked.
+
+'Certain; he told me so himself. Clarice told me too the day after.' Mrs.
+Willoughby began again to laugh. 'She would have prevented him if she
+could, but apparently he tried to take her by storm.'
+
+'Oh!' exclaimed Fielding. 'On the Sunday afternoons you say? Then I was
+to blame, I am afraid, for I gave him precisely that advice on the Sunday
+morning. Of course, I never thought that he would take it.'
+
+Fielding met Sidney Mallinson again and again at the house in
+Knightsbridge. He was invited to dinner, but so was Mallinson, and the
+latter had confidential talks with Mrs. Willoughby. He dined with some
+friends at the Savoy and went on in a comfortable frame of mind to a
+concert; there Mrs. Willoughby joined them, so did Mallinson, and the
+couple sat side by side and conversed through a song. 'The height of bad
+taste,' commented Fielding in an access of irritation. The fellow was
+spoiling his comedy by relinquishing his part. He drew Mallinson aside as
+they passed through the hall.
+
+'You seem to see a good deal of Mrs. Willoughby?'
+
+'Yes, we generally pair off together.'
+
+Fielding dropped plump among the coarse sensations of the ordinary human.
+He wanted to kick Mallinson, and to kick him hard. He saw with an
+anticipatory satisfaction the glasses flying off the supercilious
+gentleman's nose, and felt the jar at the end of his boot as it dashed
+into the coat-tails. The action would have been too noticeable, however,
+and he only said, 'What a very _bourgeois_ thing to do!'
+
+Mallinson's air of complacency vanished as he heard the offensive term
+levelled against himself. He did not, however, on that account change
+his attitude towards Mrs. Willoughby. Fielding found him at the house a
+few days later, and proceeded to sit him out. The contest drove Fielding
+to the last pitch of exasperation, for, apart from the inherent
+humiliation of the proceeding, Mrs. Willoughby was directly encouraging
+Mallinson to stay.
+
+Mallinson at last was suffered to leave, and Mrs. Willoughby, instead of
+resuming her seat, walked across to the window and scrutinised intently
+the passers-by.
+
+'That creature visits you pretty often, it appears,' said Fielding.
+
+'Does he?' she asked. 'He comes to me for the sake of consolation,
+I suppose.'
+
+'And makes love to you for the sake of contrast. He tells me you
+generally pair off together when you meet. Pair off!' and he grimaced
+the phrase to show how little he minded it. 'It'll be "keeping
+company" next.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby gave a little quiet laugh. Her back was towards him, so
+that he could not catch her expression, but she seemed to him culpably
+indifferent to the complexion which Mallinson had given to their
+friendship.
+
+'It's rather funny,' she said, 'though I can't help feeling sorry for
+him.'
+
+'I saw that you were sorry for him,' Fielding interrupted.
+
+'But he pretends,' Mrs. Willoughby went on, ignoring the interruption
+with complete unconsciousness--'he pretends to himself that I am Clarice.
+He talks to me as if I were. He called me "Clarice" the other day, and
+never noticed the mistake, and that's not my name, is it?' She turned to
+him quite seriously as she put the question.
+
+'No,' replied Fielding, 'your name's Constance,' and he dwelt upon the
+name for a second.
+
+'Yes--Constance,' said Mrs. Willoughby thoughtfully. 'It sounds rather
+prim, don't you think?'
+
+'Constance,' Fielding repeated, weighing it deliberately. 'Constance--no,
+I rather like it.'
+
+'Clarice shortens it to Connie.'
+
+'Does she indeed? Connie--Constance.' Fielding contrasted the two names,
+and again, 'Constance--Connie.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby's mouth began to dimple at the corners.
+
+'Although one laughs,' she proceeded, 'it's really rather serious about
+Mr. Mallinson. He told me once the colour of my eyes was--'
+
+'Do you let him talk to you about the colour of your eyes?' Fielding was
+really indignant at the supposition.
+
+'He didn't ask my permission,' Mrs. Willoughby said penitently. 'But it
+isn't a thing people ought to do. He said they were gray, and they
+aren't, are they?' She turned her face towards him.
+
+'Gray? Of course not,' said Fielding, and starting from his chair, he
+approached Mrs. Willoughby at the window to make sure.
+
+'Clarice's are, I know, but I am certain mine aren't.' She held up her
+face towards the light, and the remark was pitched as a question.
+
+'Yours,' said Fielding, examining them, 'Neptune dipped them in the sea
+at six o'clock on an August morning.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby moved away from the window precipitately. 'So, if Mr.
+Mallinson is so fond of Clarice,' she said, 'that he sees her in
+everybody one can't help pitying him.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby, however, for a short time subsequently was not seen in
+the company of the discarded lover, and Fielding inferred with
+satisfaction that her pity was taking a less active form. He was roused
+to a perception that his inference was false one night at the opera.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was present with Mr. Le Mesurier and Clarice. Percy
+Conway he hardly reckoned, counting him at this time, from his constant
+attendance, rather as an item of Clarice's toilette; and Fielding took
+care to descend the staircase after the performance in close proximity to
+the party.
+
+'And how's Mr. Mallinson?' he asked of Mrs. Willoughby, not without a
+certain complacency in his voice.
+
+'Oh, poor boy!' she replied with the tenderest sympathy, 'he's in
+bed, ill.'
+
+'Ill?' asked Clarice quickly. 'You don't mean that.'
+
+'Yes. I'm so concerned. He wrote to tell me all about it.'
+
+Fielding looked displeased, and much the same expression was to be seen
+on the face of Clarice. Mrs. Willoughby was serenely unconscious of the
+effect of her words.
+
+'I heard that he was in bed,' interposed Conway carelessly. 'But
+apparently he has got something to console himself with.'
+
+'Yes. He wrote to me about that too,' said Mrs. Willoughby. 'Fancy,
+Clarice! He has inherited quite a good income. An uncle or somebody left
+it to him.'
+
+Clarice expressed an acid satisfaction at the news. She dropped behind
+with Fielding.
+
+'You didn't know that Mr. Mallinson was ill?' she asked. 'Did none of his
+friends know except Connie?' and then there was a perceptible accent of
+pique in her voice.
+
+Fielding did not answer the question immediately. He had been brought of
+a sudden to the vexatious conclusion that Mrs. Willoughby was a coquette
+just like the rest of her trivial sex--no better, indeed, than the girl
+at his side, whose first anxiety was not as to whether Mallinson was
+seriously ill, but why he wrote the information to Mrs. Willoughby. He
+felt that Mrs. Willoughby had no right to trifle with Mallinson. The poor
+fellow had already suffered his full share of that kind of experience.
+
+Miss Le Mesurier repeated her question impatiently, and Fielding suddenly
+realised that Miss Le Mesurier's pique might prove useful in setting
+matters right. He determined to encourage it.
+
+'None that I'm aware of,' he replied. 'Mrs. Willoughby, of course, would
+be likely to know first.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Haven't you noticed? They have struck up a great friendship
+lately--always pair off together, you know.'
+
+Miss Le Mesurier's lips curled at the despicable phrase, but she blamed
+Mrs. Willoughby for the fact which it described, not Sidney Mallinson.
+His attitude she could understand, and make allowance for; it had been a
+despairing act prompted by an instinct of self-preservation to rid
+himself of the hopeless thought of her. An unsuccessful act too, for the
+poor fellow had broken down. She had no doubts as to the origin of his
+illness, and overflowed promptly with sympathy. Her resentment against
+Mrs. Willoughby none the less remained.
+
+Driving homewards she asked her, 'Why didn't you tell me before that Mr.
+Mallinson was ill?'
+
+'My dear, I never gave a thought to it until I saw Mr. Fielding. The
+illness isn't serious,' and Mrs. Willoughby laughed, with peculiar
+heartlessness thought Clarice. They were, however, not thinking of the
+same individual.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby, Clarice, and Fielding in consequence suffered some such
+change in their relative positions as is apt to take place amongst the
+European Powers. Poor Mrs. Willoughby, in the innocent pursuit of her own
+ideas, had suddenly roused two former friends into a common antagonism.
+These friends, besides, had much the same grounds for resentment as the
+Powers usually have, for Mrs. Willoughby's conduct was a distinct
+infringement of rights which did not exist. Clarice and Fielding drew
+perceptibly nearer to one another; they exchanged diplomatic
+_pourparlers_. Fielding found a great deal to praise in Mallinson, and
+Clarice had a word or two to say upon the score of widows. She was
+doubtful whether they ought ever to re-marry. Fielding kept an open mind
+on the subject, but was willing to discuss it. On the particular point,
+however, whether this widow was to marry Mallinson they were both
+uncompromisingly agreed, and were only hindered from an armed
+demonstration by the suspicion that the sinner to the overawed would
+merely laugh at it. On the whole Fielding deemed it best to address a
+friendly remonstrance to Mrs. Willoughby in the interests of Clarice. He
+suggested that she should see less of Sidney Mallinson.
+
+'But I have no grounds for slamming my door in his face,' she answered
+plaintively. 'You see, Clarice has refused him, and really he's very
+sweet and polite to me.'
+
+Fielding pointed out with the elaborate calmness of intense exasperation
+that there could be no finality in a refusal given by Miss Le Mesurier.
+Mrs. Willoughby replied that they had differed before in their views of
+Clarice, and that the point he mentioned was one upon which Mr. Mallinson
+must be left to judge for himself. 'Exactly,' said Fielding with
+emphasis, 'he should be left to judge for himself,' and was for marching
+off with colours flying. But Mrs. Willoughby could not refrain from
+declaring that the unprecedented interest which Mr. Fielding took in his
+friend Mr. Mallinson had raised that friend to a very different position
+in her esteem from that which he had held before.
+
+The combat was renewed more than once, but with no different result, and
+upon the same lines. Mrs. Willoughby received his attacks with a patient
+humility, and rushed out to catch him a flout as he was retiring.
+Finally, however, she shifted her position, and became the aggressor. She
+suggested that Fielding was really in love with Clarice, and trying to
+gain favour with her by bringing an admirer back to her feet. Fielding
+was furious at the suggestion, and indignantly repudiated it. She ignored
+the repudiation, and quietly insisted in pointing out the meanness of
+such a system of making love. The unfortunate gentleman's dignity
+constrained him to listen in silence, for he felt that he would have
+spluttered had he opened his lips. The only course open to him was a
+retreat with a high head, and he declared that it was no longer possible
+for him to continue a discussion which he had begun as much in her true
+interests as on behalf of justice and her particular friend Miss Le
+Mesurier, and went home. By return of post he received a pen-and-ink
+drawing of himself and Clarice 'pairing off.' He was figured in the
+costermonger's dress, with his arm tucked under the girl's, and her hat
+on his head.
+
+Meanwhile Mallinson was still in bed, completely ignorant of the battle
+which had been waged for the possession of him.
+
+Fielding thought more than once of calling at his flat, since his
+determination had been sharpened rather than overcome by the victories of
+Mrs. Willoughby. He was more than ever convinced that Mallinson ought to
+have a fair chance with Miss Le Mesurier--an equal chance with Drake. The
+name of Drake made him pause. Miss Le Mesurier knew everything there was
+to be known about Mallinson, but there were certain facts in Drake's
+history of which she was ignorant. The question sprang into his mind,
+'Could Mallinson have a fair chance unless she was made acquainted with
+those facts?' Fielding knew Members of Parliament who had been returned
+over the heads of residents in the constituency because they entered it
+too late for the electors to become intimate with their defects. Drake's
+career might provide an analogy unless Clarice was told. He argued to
+convince himself that he felt she ought to be told, but he could not
+bring himself to the point of telling. He decided finally upon an
+alternative which would, he imagined, secure his purpose, while relieving
+him of the responsibility. He would tell Mallinson of the Gorley episode,
+for the rival surely had a right to know. Whether Clarice was to be
+informed or not, Mallinson should be allowed to judge.
+
+Fielding assured himself of the justice of his intention for the space of
+two days without putting it into execution, but on the third he chanced
+to meet Conway, and was given the information that Mallinson's inherited
+income amounted to a thousand pounds. The news decided him. Under these
+circumstances Mallinson certainly ought to know. He jumped into a hansom
+and drove down to South Kensington.
+
+Mallinson was still in bed, but sufficiently recovered to write up his
+diary. The book lay upon the counterpane open, but as Fielding was
+introduced into the room, its author shut it up and tucked it under his
+pillow. It was kept entirely for his own perusal, a voluminous record of
+sensations ranging from a headache to a fit of anger, without the mention
+of an incident from cover to cover.
+
+'I hear you have had a touch of bronchitis,' said Fielding.
+
+'Something more than a touch, I can tell you. I have been rather ill.
+However, I am going to get up to-morrow.'
+
+Fielding found it difficult to come to the point of his visit.
+
+'You must have found it dull.'
+
+'Not very. I can always interest myself. Drake came to see me yesterday.'
+
+'Drake! How did he know? Conway told him, I suppose.'
+
+'No, Miss Le Mesurier told him.'
+
+'Miss Le Mesurier?' he asked.
+
+'Yes. Are you surprised?' The question was put with some resentment.
+
+'That she told him? No, I expect she sent him.' A smirk upon the
+invalid's face showed he shared the thought.
+
+'By the way,' Fielding continued, 'talking of Miss Le Mesurier, did you
+ever meet a man called Gorley?'
+
+'No. There was a Gorley who was engaged to her. Is that the man?'
+
+'Yes. I heard rather a strange story about him. He went out to Africa,
+you know.'
+
+Mallinson lifted himself on his elbow.
+
+'Africa,' he said slowly. 'Yes, I heard that. Why do you mention him?'
+
+'Oh, I thought perhaps you might have known the man, that's all.
+He's dead.'
+
+Fielding spoke with a studied carelessness, looking anywhere except at
+Mallinson.
+
+'Dead,' repeated Mallinson in the same tone, but his heart was beginning
+to race, and he lifted himself higher into a sitting position. 'Gorley
+was a relation of Mrs. Willoughby, I believe.'
+
+'A kind of cousin.'
+
+There was silence between the men for a second or two. Mallinson was
+recalling what Mrs. Willoughby had said that evening at Beaufort Gardens,
+when Mr. Le Mesurier pressed her to meet Stephen Drake at lunch.
+
+'So Gorley died in Africa,' he remarked. 'Where? Do you know?'
+
+'Yes; at Boruwimi.'
+
+Mallinson started. Fielding glanced at him involuntarily, and their
+looks crossed.
+
+'A strange story, you said. Suppose you tell it me. It will while away
+some of my time.'
+
+Fielding lit a cigarette and related the story. At the end of it
+Mallinson lay back on the pillows, staring at the ceiling. Once or twice
+Fielding spoke to him, but he did not hear. He was not thinking: the
+knowledge that the secret to be discovered was his to use was as a sense
+in him. He felt it pulsing through his veins and throbbing at his heart.
+Mrs. Willoughby was forgotten. It had been after all but a fictitious
+fancy which he had conceived for her, a fancy fostered in the main as
+balm for his self-respect after his refusal by Clarice.
+
+As soon as he was sufficiently recovered he called upon Miss Le Mesurier,
+confident that his hour and opportunity had come. Drake, however, had
+reported to Clarice on the condition of Mallinson, and her sympathy had
+in consequence to a great extent evaporated. Bronchitis was not of the
+ailments which spring from a broken heart, and she was inclined to hold
+it as a grievance against him that she had been so wastefully touched
+with pity. Her sympathy disappeared altogether when with little
+circumlocution he broached the subject of the Boruwimi expedition, and
+dropped a mention of Mrs. Willoughby's relative. There was something at
+the back of it, he hinted.
+
+Clarice wondered whence he had got his information, but made no effort to
+check him. She stood looking out of the window while he retold her the
+story of Gorley's death. It became more unreal to her than ever; for
+while his account was correctly given, as Mrs. Willoughby had given it to
+Fielding, it lacked the uncompromising details which Drake himself had
+furnished. Her recollection of these details made the man who had given
+them stand out in her thoughts.
+
+'It was a pitiful affair,' Mallinson concluded, 'but I thought you
+ought to know.'
+
+Clarice drew a finger down the frame of glass in front of her.
+
+'Mr. Drake thought so too,' she said quietly.
+
+'Drake!' exclaimed Mallinson, utterly bewildered. 'Drake! The man
+wouldn't be such a--'
+
+'He was though.'
+
+'Do you mean that he confessed to it?'
+
+'Confess?' she said, turning towards him. 'That is hardly the word. He
+told me of his own accord the moment he knew I had been engaged to--to--'
+She broke off at the name, and continued, 'and he spared himself in the
+telling far less than you have spared him.'
+
+She spoke with a gentle dignity which Mallinson had never known in her
+before, and he felt that it raised a more solid barrier between them than
+even her refusal had done.
+
+Fielding, meanwhile, waited with an uneasy conscience which no casuistry
+would lighten. He threw himself in Mallinson's way time after time in
+order to ascertain whether the latter had spoken. Mallinson let no word
+of the matter slip from him, and for the rest seemed utterly despondent.
+Fielding threw out a feeler at last.
+
+'Of course,' he said, 'you would never repeat what I told you about
+Gorley. I forgot to mention that.'
+
+Mallinson flushed. 'Of course not,' he said awkwardly.
+
+Fielding turned on him quickly. 'Then what made you tell Miss Le
+Mesurier?'
+
+Mallinson was too taken aback to deny the accusation. 'Oh, Miss Le
+Mesurier,' he replied, 'knew already.'
+
+'She knew? Who told her?'
+
+'Drake.'
+
+Fielding drew in his breath and whistled. His first feeling was one of
+distinct relief, that after all he had not been the means by which
+Clarice had come to her knowledge; his second was one of indignation
+against Drake. He realised how a frank admission from Drake would
+outweigh in the girl's susceptible nature the fact admitted. 'What on
+earth induced him to reveal it?'
+
+'I suppose he is a little more cunning than one took him for. No doubt he
+saw the thing would get known sooner or later, and thought the disclosure
+had better come from himself.'
+
+Fielding had been leaning to the same opinion, but the moment he heard it
+stated, and stated by Mallinson, he felt a certain conviction that it was
+wrong. 'I don't believe that,' he said sharply.
+
+He was none the less, however, indignant with Drake. To intermeddle at
+all in other people's concerns was averse to his whole theory of
+existence. But to intermeddle, and not very creditably, and out of the
+most disinterested motives of benevolence and expediency, and then to
+fail! All this was nothing short of degrading. He dined that night at
+his club, to which Drake had been elected, and lay in wait for him.
+Drake, however, did not appear, and at ten o'clock Fielding went round
+to his rooms.
+
+Drake was living in chambers on the Embankment, a little to the west of
+Hungerford Bridge. As he was shown into the room, Fielding could not help
+noticing the plainness of its furniture and adornment. The chairs were
+covered with a cheap red cretonne; there was an armchair or two with the
+high seat and long elbows, which seemed to have gone astray from a
+Peckham drawing-room; an ormolu clock under a glass shade ornamented the
+overmantel, and in the way of literature there was one book in the
+room--Prescott's _Conquest of Peru_--and a copy of the _Times_.
+
+Drake was seated at the table engaged in the study of a map of Matanga.
+'Come in!' he said cordially. Fielding drew up a chair to the fire. 'Have
+a drink? The cigars are on the mantelshelf.'
+
+Drake fetched a syphon and a decanter of whisky and mixed two glasses. He
+handed one to Fielding, and brought his map to the fire.
+
+'Ah!' said Fielding. 'There's likely to be a rising in Matanga, I see.'
+
+'Very possibly.'
+
+'How will that affect you?'
+
+'Not at all, I think. It may delay things, of course, but it won't take
+long, and, besides, it won't touch the interior of the country. There
+will be a certain amount of shouting in the capital and round the coast,
+perhaps a gun or two fired off, and then they'll settle down under a new
+President.'
+
+'But there are a good many Germans there, aren't there? What if they
+invite the German Government to interfere?'
+
+'I don't fancy that's probable. The German colonist isn't over fond of
+German rule. You see the first thing a German official wants to do when
+he catches sight of a black, is to drill him. It's his first and often
+his last idea. He wants to see him holding the palm of his hand against
+the stripe of an invisible trouser, and the system doesn't work, because
+the black clears over the nearest border.'
+
+Fielding laughed and turned to the object of his visit. 'Talking of
+Matanga, what in the world made you tell Miss Le Mesurier about Gorley?'
+
+Drake looked up from his map. 'How did you know anything about
+Gorley?' he asked.
+
+'Mrs. Willoughby told me. I thought it was decided Miss Le Mesurier
+should not be told.'
+
+'Mr. Le Mesurier left the choice to me, and it seemed to me that she had
+a right to know.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+Drake paused for a second in reflection. 'It seemed to me--' he
+began again.
+
+'Well, she hadn't,' snapped Fielding.
+
+'Well, I think she had,' answered Drake quietly, returning to his map.
+
+'Then you were wrong; she hadn't. The engagement was broken off a long
+while ago, and you hadn't a right to tell her unless you want to marry
+her yourself.'
+
+Drake raised his head with a jerk and stared at the wall in front of him
+fixedly. He made no answer, nor could Fielding distinguish upon his face
+any expression which gave a clue to his thoughts. He got up from his
+chair, and Drake turned to him. 'I gather from your tone,' he said in an
+indifferent voice, 'that Mrs. Willoughby resents my action.'
+
+'My dear fellow, no,' exclaimed Fielding energetically. 'For Heaven's
+sake, don't take me for a reflex of Mrs. Willoughby!'
+
+No more plotting for him, he determined. He had planned and calculated
+and interfered, all for other people's good, and this was the thanks he
+got; to be quietly informed that he hadn't an idea of his own.
+
+The next afternoon Mrs. Willoughby stopped her phaeton beside him in Bond
+Street. She looked very well, he thought, with her clear
+complexion,--clear as those clear eyes of hers with just the hint of
+azure in the whites of them--wind-whipped now to a rosy warmth.
+
+'May I congratulate you yet?' she asked pleasantly.
+
+Fielding was not to be provoked to renew the combat, and he put the
+question aside. 'You remember what you told me the other day about
+Gorley,' he said.
+
+'Yes,' she answered, becoming serious.
+
+'Well, Miss Le Mesurier knows.'
+
+'Who told her?' and she leaned forward.
+
+'Guess.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby thought for a moment and then shook her head. 'I can't.
+Her father?'
+
+'No; Drake himself.'
+
+She started back in her seat. Then she said, 'Of course, we might have
+known that he would,' and the 'we' sealed their reconciliation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+When Fielding had gone, Drake opened the window and stepped out on
+the balcony.
+
+'Unless you want to marry her yourself'; the words were stamped upon his
+mind in capitals. They formulated to him for the first time the cause of
+that unreasoned conviction of his, and formulated it too, as he realised,
+with absolute truth. Yes, it was just his desire for Clarice to which he
+owed his belief that she had an unquestionable right to know his
+responsibility for Gorley's death.
+
+He wanted her, and wanting her, was committed to scrupulous frankness.
+
+Drake looked out across the city. At his feet lay the quiet strip of
+garden, lawn and bush; beyond, the lamps burning on the parapets of the
+Embankment, and beyond them, the river shining in the starlight, polished
+and lucent like a slab of black marble, with broad regular rays upon it
+of a still deeper blackness, where the massive columns of Hungerford
+Bridge cast shadows on the water. An engine puffed and snorted into the
+station, leaving its pennant of white smoke in the air. Through the glass
+walls of the signal-box above the bridge Drake could see the men in a
+blaze of light working at the levers, and from the Surrey end there came
+to him a clink, and at that distance a quite musical clink, of truck
+against truck as some freight-train was shunted across the rails. Away to
+his right the light was burning on Westminster clock-tower; on
+Westminster Bridge the lamps of cabs and carriages darted to and fro like
+fire-flies. Drake watched two of them start across in the same direction
+a few yards apart, saw the one behind close up, the one in front spirt
+forward as though each was straining for the lead. They drew level, then
+flashed apart, then again drew level, and so passing and repassing raced
+into the myriad lights upon the opposite bank. That bank was visible to
+him through a tracery of leafless twigs, for a tree grew in front of his
+window on the farther edge of the gardens, and he could see the lights
+upon its roadway dancing, twirling, clashing in the clear night, just as
+they clashed and twirled and danced in the roadway beneath him, sparks
+from a forge, and that forge, London. In their ceaseless motion they
+seemed rivulets of fire, and the black sheet of water between them the
+solid highway. But even while he looked, a ruby light moved on that
+highway out from the pillars of the bridge, and then another and another.
+Everywhere was the glitter of lights; fixed, flashing like a star on the
+curve, or again growing slowly from a pin's point to an orb, and then
+dwindling to a point and vanishing. And on every side, too, Drake heard
+the quick beat of horses, and the rattle of wheels struck out not from
+silence, but from a dull eternal hum like the hum of a mill, sharp
+particular notes emerging incessantly from a monotonous volume of sound.
+
+It was just this aspect and this noise of restless activity which had
+always appealed to Drake, and had satisfied him with an assurance that he
+was on the road to the fulfilment of his aims. He had achieved something
+of his desires, however small. He was in London working at certain
+schemes of which he did not doubt the ultimate success. They were built
+upon a foundation of knowledge arduously gained and tested. The rising in
+Matanga, if it took place, might delay success, but success would surely
+come. He might then look forward with confidence to a seat in that
+Parliament on which the light was burning, to a share perhaps finally in
+its executive.
+
+But to-night he found that there was something wanting in the
+contemplation of these aims, something wanting in the very outlook from
+his window. He needed Clarice here in his balcony by his side, and he
+pictured the shine of her eyes bent towards him in the dark. And the
+perception of that need held him in check, gave him a hint of warning
+that the thought of her might become as a wedge driven into the framework
+of his purposes and splitting them.
+
+He could still draw back, he assured himself. But if he went on and won!
+He felt the blood surging through his veins. He might win; there was just
+a chance. The Gorley incident had made no real difference in Clarice's
+friendliness. When once, indeed, she had grown used to it, she had seemed
+almost to express some queer sort of sympathy with him.
+
+Drake closed the window and sat down to calculate the time at which he
+would be sufficiently established to make known his suit. He fixed that
+time definitely in July. July! The name sounded pleasantly with its
+ripple of liquid syllables. Drake found himself repeating it when he
+should have been at work. It began to rise to his lips the moment a date
+was asked of him, as the only date at all worth mentioning. Fielding came
+down to Drake's office in Old Broad Street, in order to apply for shares
+in 'Matanga Concessions.'
+
+'You had better wait,' said Drake. 'I will let you know before they are
+offered to the public.'
+
+'That will be soon?'
+
+'Not for the moment. There's the possibility of this rising. Let the
+country quiet down first!'
+
+'But when do you propose?'
+
+'July.'
+
+'July? That's a long time to come.'
+
+Drake coloured to the roots of his hair. 'I beg your pardon,' he said
+with evident embarrassment; 'much sooner than that of course. I was
+thinking of some one else.' He made matters worse by a hurried correction
+of 'some one' to 'something.'
+
+Fielding noticed the embarrassment and the correction, and drew
+conclusions. They were conclusions, he thought, of which Mrs. Willoughby
+should be advised, and he drove to her house accordingly. He had ceased
+to feel displeasure at Mrs. Willoughby's conduct, for since he had
+studiously refrained from betraying the slightest irritation at
+Mallinson's visits, those visits had amazingly diminished.
+
+'Did he happen to mention the date of the month and the time of the day?'
+was Mrs. Willoughby's comment.
+
+'It sounds cold-blooded? Hardly, if you knew the man. He looks on life as
+a sort of draughtboard. So many definite moves to be made forward upon
+definite lines. Then you're crowned king and can move as you please,
+backwards if you like, till the end of the game.'
+
+'He will be crowned king in July?'
+
+'So I imagine.'
+
+Meanwhile Drake worked on through March and April, outwardly untroubled,
+but inwardly asking himself ever: 'Shall I win? Shall I win?' The
+question besieged him. Patient he could be, none more so, when the end in
+view was to be gained by present even though gradual endeavour; but this
+passive waiting was a lid shut down on him, forcing his energies inwards
+to prey upon himself. His impatience, moreover, was increased by the
+increasing prospects of his undertaking. Additional reports had been
+received from his engineer appraising at a still higher value the quality
+of the land. He spoke too of a tract of country bordering Drake's
+concession on the north, and advised application for it. Biedermann,
+besides, had taken up the project warmly. The company was to come out
+early in May; there would be few shares open to the public, and the
+revolution had not taken place.
+
+Why should he wait till July after all? Drake felt inclined to argue the
+question one Sunday afternoon in London's lilac time, as he walked
+across the green park towards Beaufort Gardens. He found Miss Le
+Mesurier alone and in a melancholy mood. She was singing weariful
+ballads in an undertone as he entered the room, and she rose
+dispiritedly to welcome him.
+
+'It's seldom one finds you alone,' he said, and his face showed his
+satisfaction.
+
+'I don't know,' she replied. 'It seems to me sometimes that I am always
+alone, even when people are by,' and her eyelids drooped.
+
+'You?'
+
+Clarice's sincerity was of the artist's sort implying a sub-consciousness
+of an audience. She recognised from the accent upon the _you_, that her
+little speech had not failed of its effect. She continued more
+cheerfully: 'Aunt has gone up to Highgate to see some relations, and
+papa's asleep in the library.'
+
+'You were singing. I hope you won't stop.'
+
+'I was only passing the time.'
+
+'You will make me think I intrude.'
+
+'I'll prove to you that you don't,' and she went back to the piano. Drake
+seated himself at the side of it, facing her and facing the open window.
+The window-ledges were ablaze with flowers, and the scent of them poured
+into the room on a flood of sunshine.
+
+Clarice was moved by a sudden whim to a change of humour. She sprang
+from her dejection to the extreme of good spirits. Her singing proved
+it, for she chose a couple of light-hearted French ballads, and sang
+them with a dainty humour which matched the daintiness of the words and
+music. Her shrugs and pouts, the pretty arching of her eyebrows, the
+whimsical note of mockery in her voice, represented her to Drake under a
+new aspect, helped to complete her in his thoughts much as her voice,
+very sweet and clear for all its small compass, completed in some queer
+way the flowers and sunshine. Her manner, however, did more than that;
+it gave to him, conscious of a certain stiffness and inflexibility of
+temperament, an inner sense of completion anticipated from his hope of a
+time when their lives would join. He leaned forward in his chair,
+watching the play of her face, the lights and shadows in the curls of
+her hair, the nimble touch of her fingers on the keys. Clarice stopped
+suddenly. 'You don't sing?'
+
+'I have no accomplishments at all.'
+
+She laughed and began to play one of Chopin's nocturnes. Her fingers
+rattled against the ivory on a run up the piano. She stopped and took a
+ring from her right hand; Drake noticed that it was the emerald ring
+which he had seen winking in the firelight on that evening when she had
+covered her face from him. She dropped the ring on the top of the piano
+at Drake's side. It spun round once or twice, and then settled down with
+a little tinkling whirr upon the rim of its hoop Drake fancied that the
+removal of this particular ring was in some inexplicable way of hopeful
+augury to him.
+
+Clarice resumed her playing, but as she neared the end of the nocturne,
+Drake perceived that there was a growing change, a declension, in her
+style. She seemed to lose the spirit of the nocturne and even her command
+on the instrument; the firm touch faltered into indecision, from
+indecision to absolute unsteadiness; the notes, before clear and
+distinct, now slurred into one another with a tremulous wavering.
+
+'You are fond of music?' she asked at length, with something of an
+effort.
+
+'Very,' he replied, 'though it puzzles me. It's like opening a book
+written in a language you don't understand. You get a glimpse of a
+meaning here and there, but no meaning really. I can't explain what I
+feel,' he added, with a laugh. 'I want Mallinson to help me.'
+
+'You admire Mr. Mallinson?' asked Clarice, stopping suddenly.
+
+'Well, one always admires the class of work one can't do oneself, eh?'
+
+'That's very generous of you.'
+
+'Why generous?' Drake leaned suddenly forward. His habit of putting
+questions abrupt and straight to the point had discomposed Miss Le
+Mesurier upon an occasion before. She answered hurriedly. 'I mean--you
+spoke as if you meant that class of work was above your own.'
+
+'Oh, there's no basis of comparison.'
+
+Clarice seized the opportunity, and inquired after the prospects of his
+work in Matanga.
+
+'The place should do,' said Drake. 'The land's good, there's a river
+running through, and I have got picked men to settle on it; all English,
+that's the point. But you said generous. I don't see.'
+
+Clarice switched him on the subject of English colonisation. 'It's
+necessary to have Englishmen to start it? Why?'
+
+'Oh, well,' said Drake. 'It's easy enough to see, if you can compare
+English with the foreign colonies.' He rose from his chair and launched
+forth, walking about the room. 'Look at the Germans! There are seven
+hundred German colonists, all told, in the German colonies, and each of
+them costs the German tax-payer little short of eight hundred a year. How
+many of them are in the English colonies? And what's the reason? Why,
+they want to have the institutions of the Fatherland ready-made in five
+minutes. They need the colonies made before they can prosper in it. The
+French are better, but they are spoilt by officialdom. The Englishman
+just adapts himself to the conditions, and sets to work to adapt the
+conditions to himself too. He strikes a sort of mean, and the Home
+Government leaves him alone--leaves him too much alone some say, and
+rightly, in cases. There's a distinction to be drawn, and it's difficult
+to draw it so far away. It's this, when the colony's made, then it isn't
+a bad thing for the Government to keep a fairly tight hold on it. But in
+the making it's best left to itself; you can lay a cable between London
+and a colony too soon for the good of that colony. There's no fear of the
+colonist forgetting the mother country--he may forget the Home
+Government, does at times, and then there's a mistake or two. But that's
+the defect of the quality.' He checked himself abruptly. 'But I'm running
+away from what we were talking about. Yes; I think we shall do all right
+in Matanga.'
+
+'You don't mean to go back there yourself?'
+
+'Not to live there. To tell the truth, I think there's a man or two
+wanted in England just now, who has had a practical experience of our
+colonies.' Drake spoke without the least trace of boastfulness, but in a
+tone of quiet self-reliance, and Clarice had a thrill of intuition that
+he would not have said so much as that to any one but herself.
+
+Clarice began to play again, this time a waltz tune. Drake came over to
+the piano, and stood leaning upon the lid of it; he took up the ring and
+turned it over in his fingers. She said thoughtfully:
+
+'I suppose that's true of men as well'; and then, with a hesitating
+correction, 'I mean of men like you.'
+
+'What's true?'
+
+'Well, that they are best without--help from any one--that they stand in
+no need of it.' She spoke quite seriously, with a note almost of regret.
+
+'Oh, I don't know that,' he answered, with a laugh. 'It would be a rash
+thing to say. Of course a man ought to depend upon himself.'
+
+'Oh, of course,' she agreed, and went on playing.
+
+Drake was still holding the ring, and he said slowly:
+
+'You remember that afternoon I told you about'--he hesitated for a
+second--'Gorley?' Clarice looked up in surprise.
+
+'Yes,' she said.
+
+'You were wearing this ring. You hid your face in your hands. It was the
+last thing I saw of you.'
+
+She lowered her eyes from his face, and said, with a certain timidity,
+'He gave it to me.'
+
+Drake started and leaned on the piano.
+
+'And you still wear it?' he asked sharply.
+
+She nodded, but without looking at him. Drake rose upright, straightening
+himself; for a moment or two he stood looking at her, and then he walked
+away towards the window. His hat was lying on a table close by it.
+
+'But I don't think that I shall again,' she murmured. She heard him turn
+quickly round and come back. He stood behind her; she could see his
+shadow thrown across the bar of sunlight on the carpet; but he did not
+speak. Clarice became anxious that he should, and yet afraid too. The
+music began to falter again; once she stopped completely, and let her
+fingers rest upon the keys, as though she had no power to lift them and
+continue. Then she struck a chord with a loud defiance. If only he would
+move, she thought--if only he would come round and stand in front of
+her! It would be so much easier to speak, to divert him. So long as he
+stood silent and motionless behind her, she felt, in a strange manner,
+at his mercy.
+
+She rose from her seat suddenly, and confronted him. There was challenge
+in the movement, but none the less her eyes sought the ground, and, once
+face to face with him, she stood in an attitude of submission.
+
+'What does that mean?' she heard him ask in a low voice. 'You won't wear
+it again.'
+
+She did not answer, but in spite of herself, against her will, she raised
+her eyes until they met his. She heard a cry, hoarse and passionate; she
+felt herself lifted, caught, and held against him. She saw his eyes above
+hers, burning into hers; she felt the pressure of two lips upon hers, and
+her own respond obediently.
+
+'Is it true?' The words were whispered into her ear with an accent of
+wonder, almost of awe.
+
+'Yes,' she whispered back, compelled to the answer, subservient to his
+touch, to his words, and, to the full, conscious of her subservience. She
+felt the big breath he drew in answering her monosyllable. He held her
+unresisting, passive in his arms, watching her cheeks fire. She realised,
+in a kind of detached way, that he was holding her so that the tips of
+her toes only touched the floor, and somehow that seemed of a piece with
+the rest. Then he set her down, and stood apart, keeping her hands. 'It's
+funny,' he said, 'how one goes on year after year, quite satisfied,
+knowing nothing of this, meaning not to know.'
+
+She caught at the phrase and stammered, 'Perhaps that was wise.'
+
+'It was. For so I met you.'
+
+He released her hands, and she sank into the nearest chair. Drake walked
+to the window and stood facing the sunlight, breathing it in. 'Clarice,'
+she heard him murmur, with a shake of his shoulders like a great
+Newfoundland dog; and then the cry of a newspaper boy shouting the
+headlines of a special edition rasped into the room.
+
+Drake leaned out of the window. 'Hi!' he called, and tossed a penny into
+the street.
+
+'Threepence,' shouted the boy from below.
+
+'It's a penny paper,' cried Drake.
+
+'Threepence. There's a corner in 'em.'
+
+Clarice listened to the argument. Most men, she thought helplessly, don't
+buy newspapers the moment they have been accepted, and, at all events, it
+is an occasion when they are disposed to throw their money about. It made
+no difference of any kind to him.
+
+Drake finally got the better of the bargain, and the paper was brought up
+to the room. Clarice saw Drake open it hurriedly, and his face cloud and
+harden as he glanced down the column.
+
+'What's the matter?' she asked in a rising voice.
+
+'A rebellion in Matanga,' he said slowly. 'I thought that danger was
+averted,' and there was a distinct note of self-reproach in his tone.
+
+Clarice felt her heart beat quicker. She rose from her chair. 'What does
+that mean to you?' she asked.
+
+'Delay,' he replied, with the self-reproach yet more accentuated.
+'Nothing more, I am sure; but it does mean that.'
+
+'Nothing more?'
+
+He noticed an expression of disappointment upon the girl's face, and,
+mistaking it, repeated, 'Nothing more than that, Clarice.' He took a step
+towards her. 'Of course I ought not to have spoken to you yet,--not until
+everything was settled. I am sorry--of course it will come out all right,
+only till then it wasn't fair. I didn't mean to,--not even when I came
+this afternoon. But seeing you,--I wasn't strong enough,--I gave in.'
+
+Clarice felt a pulse of satisfaction, and her lips shaped to a smile.
+
+'Ah, you don't regret it,' he exclaimed, and the look of humiliation
+passed from his face. 'Your father's in the library,' he went on; 'I had
+better go and tell him. Shall I go alone, or will you come with me?'
+
+'No, you go; I will wait here.'
+
+She stood alone in the centre of the room while Drake went downstairs,
+staring fixedly in front of her. Once or twice she set her hands to her
+forehead and drew them down her flushed cheeks. Then she walked to the
+window. There was something floating on the edge of her mind, just
+eluding her. A thought was it, or a phrase? If a phrase, who had spoken
+it? She began to remember; it was something Stephen Drake had said, but
+about what? And then, in a flash, her recollection defined it for her. It
+was about moonlight being absorbed into the darkness of an African veld,
+just soaking into it like water into dry ground. She had a vision of the
+wide rolling plain, black from sky's rim to sky's rim, and the moonlight
+pouring a futile splendour into its lap. She moved with a quick and
+almost desperate run to the door, opened it, and leaned over the
+balustrade of the staircase. The hall was empty and no sound of voices
+came from the library. She stepped cautiously down the stairs; as she
+reached the last step the door of the library opened and Drake appeared
+on the threshold.
+
+Clarice leaned against the wall, holding her hand to her heart.
+
+'Why, Clarice!' he cried, and started towards her.
+
+'Hush!' She tried to whisper the word, but her voice rose. She thrust out
+a hand between herself and Drake, and cast a startled glance across his
+shoulder, expecting to see her father come forward smiling
+congratulations at her. Drake caught the outstretched hand, and, setting
+an arm about her waist, drew her into the library.
+
+'I have not seen Mr. Le Mesurier,' he said; 'he's out, I am afraid.'
+
+The room was empty. Clarice looked round it, doubting her eyes, and with
+a sudden revulsion of feeling dropped into a chair by the table and sat
+with her face buried in her arms in a flood of tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Drake bent over her, stroking her hair with a gentle helpless movement of
+his hand and occasionally varying his consolation by a pat on the
+shoulders. The puffed sleeves of silk yielding under his touch gave him a
+queer impression of the girl's fragility.
+
+'Oh don't, child!' he entreated. 'It's my fault for speaking so soon. But
+really there's nothing to fear--nothing. It'll all come out right--not a
+doubt of that. You'll see.'
+
+Consolation of this kind did but make the tears flow yet more freely.
+Drake perceived the fact and stood aside, wondering perplexedly at the
+reason. The sound of each sob jerked at his heart; he began to walk
+restlessly about the room. The storm, from its very violence, however,
+wore itself quickly out; the sobs became less convulsive, less frequent.
+Clarice raised her head from her arms and stared out of the window
+opposite, with just now and then a little shiver and heave of her back.
+
+Drake stopped his walk and advanced to her. She anticipated his speech,
+turning with a start to face him.
+
+'You haven't seen my father?'
+
+'No; the servant told me he had gone out. But I wrote a note saying I
+would call again this evening. It is under your elbow.'
+
+Clarice picked up the crumpled envelope and looked at it absently.
+
+'Stephen,' she said, and she tripped upon the name, 'there's something I
+ought to tell you--now. But it's rather difficult.'
+
+Drake walked to the window and stood with his back towards her. She felt
+grateful to him for the action, and was a little surprised at the tact
+which had prompted it.
+
+'Yes?' he said.
+
+'We are not very well off,' she continued; 'perhaps you know that.'
+
+'Yes,' he interrupted.
+
+'But the position's more complicated than you can know'; she was speaking
+carefully, weighing her words. 'Of course you know that I have a sister
+younger than myself. She's at school in Brussels. Well, by the Sark laws,
+the Seigneurie can't be split up between the members of a family. I think
+it's the same with all land there. It must go--what's the
+word?--unencumbered to the eldest child. So it must come to me--all of
+it. That leaves my sister still to be provided for. Father explained the
+whole thing to me. As it is, he has as much as he can do to keep the
+Seigneurie up. This house we can't really afford, but father thought he
+ought to take it,--well, for my sake, I suppose. So, you see, whatever
+money he has he must leave to my sister, and there's still the Seigneurie
+for me to keep up.'
+
+'Yes, I understand. You are bound by duty, if you marry, to marry some
+one with means. But, Clarice, it won't be long to wait,' and he turned
+back from the window into the room.
+
+'But till then--don't you see? Of course I know you will be successful,'
+and she laid considerable emphasis on the _I_.
+
+Drake reflected for a moment. 'You mean there would be trouble between
+your father and you. The weight of it would fall on you. He might
+distrust me. Yes; after all, why should he not? But still the thing's
+done, isn't it?'
+
+Clarice rose from her chair and walked to the grate. A fire was burning,
+and she still held Drake's letter in her hand. 'We might keep it to
+ourselves,' she said diffidently. She saw Drake's forehead contract.
+'For my sake,' she said softly, laying a hand upon his sleeve. She lifted
+a tear-stained face up to his with the prettiest appeal. 'I know you hate
+it, but it will spare me so much.'
+
+He said nothing, and she dropped the letter into the fire.
+
+As Drake was leaving the house she heard, through the closed door, the
+sound of her father's voice in the hall speaking to him, and felt a
+momentary pang of alarm. The next instant, however, she laughed. He might
+have broken his word to himself; he would not break it to her.
+
+Drake went home, reckoning up the harm he had done with a feeling of
+degradation quite new to him. Not the least part of that harm was the
+compromise finally agreed upon. But for the traces of tears upon the
+girl's cheeks, he would hardly have agreed to it even in the face of
+her appeal. Once alone, however, he saw clearly all--the deception
+that it implied--deception which involved the girl, too, as well as
+himself. He rose the next day in no more equable frame of mind, and
+leaving his office at three o'clock in the afternoon, walked along
+Cheapside, Holborn, and Oxford Street, and turned down Bond Street,
+meaning to pass an hour in the fencing-rooms half-way down St. James
+Street. At the corner of Bruton Street he came face to face with Miss
+Le Mesurier. She coloured for an instant, and then came frankly
+forward and held out her hand.
+
+'It's funny meeting you here,' she said, and laughed without the least
+embarrassment.
+
+Drake turned and walked by her side with a puzzled conjecture at the
+reason of woman's recuperative powers. Clarice's eyes were as clear, her
+forehead as sunny, as though she had clean wiped yesterday from her
+consciousness. The conjecture, however, brought the reality of yesterday
+only yet more home to him. He stopped in the street and said abruptly,
+'Clarice, I can't.'
+
+She stopped in her turn and drew a little pattern on the pavement with
+the point of her umbrella. 'Why?'
+
+A passer-by jostled Drake in the back. Standing there they were blocking
+the way. 'Isn't there anywhere we could go? Tea? One drinks tea at this
+hour, eh?'
+
+'No.'
+
+Clarice felt more mistress of herself in the open street, more able to
+cope with Drake while they walked in a throng. She remembered enough
+of yesterday to avoid even the makeshift solitude of a tea-table in a
+public room. 'Let us walk on,' she said. 'Can't you explain as we go?
+I am late.'
+
+She moved forward as she spoke, and Drake kept pace with her, shortening
+his strides. The need of doing that, trifle though it was, increased his
+sense of responsibility towards her. 'It's so abominably deceitful, and
+it's my doing. I should involve you in the deceit.'
+
+Clarice glanced at him sharply. The distress of his voice was repeated in
+the expression of her face. There was no doubting that he spoke
+sincerely.
+
+'I had better see your father to--day,' he added.
+
+'No,' she replied energetically; and, after a moment's pause, 'There's
+another way.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'Let everything be as it was before yesterday. I shall not change. It
+will be better for you to be free. Come to me when you are ready.'
+
+She signed to a passing hansom, and it drew up by the curb. She got into
+it while Drake stood with brows knitted, revolving the proposal in his
+mind. 'But you see it can't be the same,' he said; 'because I kissed you,
+didn't I?'
+
+'Yes, you did,' she replied.
+
+The tremble of laughter in her voice made him look up to her face. The
+rose deepened in her cheeks, and the laughter rippled out. 'You are
+quaint,' she said. 'I will forget--well--what you said, until you are
+ready. Till then it's to be just as it was before--only not less. You are
+not to stay away'; and without waiting for an answer she lifted the trap,
+gave the cabman his order, and drove off. Drake watched the hansom
+disappear, and absently retraced his steps down the street. He stopped
+once or twice and stared vaguely into the shop-windows. One of these was
+a jeweller's, and he turned sharply away from it and quickened his pace
+towards the fencing-rooms. How could it be the same, he asked himself,
+when the mere sparkle of an emerald ring in a jeweller's shop-window
+aroused in him a feeling of distaste?
+
+Towards the end of this week Clarice called upon Mrs. Willoughby, and
+seemed for the moment put out on finding that Mallinson and Fielding were
+present. Mrs. Willoughby welcomed her all the more warmly because she was
+finding it difficult to keep the peace between her two visitors. She
+understood Clarice's embarrassment when Percy Conway arrived close upon
+her heels. Clarice, however, quietly handed him over to Mrs. Willoughby,
+and seated herself beside Mallinson in one of the windows. 'I see nothing
+of you now,' she said, and she looked the reproach of the hardly-used. 'I
+thought we had agreed to be friends?'
+
+Mallinson sighed wearily. 'I will come and call--some day,' he said
+dejectedly.
+
+'I have not so many friends that I can afford a loss,' she answered
+pathetically; and then, 'Tell me about yourself. What are you doing?'
+
+'Nothing.'
+
+'No work?'
+
+'No.' Mallinson shook his head.
+
+'Why?'
+
+'I have no incentive--nothing to work for.'
+
+'That's cruel.'
+
+They played out their farce of sham sentiment with a luxurious
+earnestness for a little while longer, and then Mallinson went away.
+
+'So he's doing no work?' said Fielding maliciously to Miss Le Mesurier.
+He leaned forward as he spoke from the embrasure of the second window,
+which was in a line with, and but a few feet apart from, that at which
+she was sitting.
+
+Miss Le Mesurier flushed, and asked, 'How did you hear?'
+
+'Both windows are open. Mallinson was leaning out.'
+
+The girl's confusion increased, and with it Fielding's enjoyment. He
+repeated, 'So he's doing no work?'
+
+'A thousand a year, don't you know?' said Conway, with a sneer. 'It would
+make a man like that lazy.'
+
+'It's not laziness,' exclaimed Clarice indignantly. She was filled with
+pity for Mallinson, and experienced, too, a sort of reflex pity for
+herself as the inappropriate instrument of his suffering. She was
+consequently altogether tuned to tenderness for him. 'It's not laziness
+at all. It's--it's--' She cast about for a laudatory explanation.
+
+'Well, what?' Fielding pressed genially.
+
+'It's the artistic temperament,' she exclaimed triumphantly.
+
+Fielding laughed at her vindication, and Miss Le Mesurier walked across
+the room and said good-bye to Mrs. Willoughby. Conway rose at the same
+time, and the pair left the house together.
+
+'What a liar that man is!' said Fielding.
+
+'What man?' asked Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'Why, Mallinson. He said he was doing no work because he had no
+incentive. As a matter of fact, I happen to know that he is working
+rather hard.'
+
+'What did Clarice say?'
+
+'What you might expect. She melted into sympathy.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked puzzled. 'Yet she went off with Percy Conway
+immediately afterwards,' she said, and then laughed at her recollections
+of a previous visit from that gentleman.
+
+'Yes; and absolutely unconscious of the humour of her behaviour,' said
+Fielding. 'That's so delightful about her.' He paused for a second and
+asked, 'Have you ever been inside a camera obscura? You get a picture, an
+impression, very vivid, very accurate, of something that is actually
+happening. Then some one pulls a string and you get a totally different
+picture, equally vivid, equally accurate, of something else which is
+actually happening. There is no trace of the first picture in the second.
+Then they open a shutter and you see nothing but a plain white slab.
+Somehow I always think of Miss Le Mesurier's mind.'
+
+After leaving Mrs. Willoughby's, Conway and Miss Le Mesurier walked
+together in the direction of Beaufort Gardens.
+
+'Do you see much of Mr. Drake?' she asked, after a considerable silence.
+
+'Not as much as one would wish to. He's generally busy.'
+
+'You like him, then?' she asked curiously. 'Why?'
+
+'Don't you? There's an absence of pretension about him. Nothing of the
+born-to-command air, but insensibly you find yourself believing in him,
+following him. I believe even Fielding finds that as well. When Drake
+first came back I used to stand up for him--well, because, perhaps, I had
+a reason of my own. I am not sure that I believed all I said, but I am
+sure now I should say exactly the same and believe every word of it.'
+
+He spoke with a quiet conviction which gave solid weight to his words,
+owing to its contrast with the flighty enthusiasm which was the usual
+characteristic of his eulogies.
+
+'You mentioned Mr. Fielding,' she said.
+
+'Yes; haven't you heard? He's investing in Matanga Concessions, and
+largely for him. He's often seen in Drake's office.'
+
+Clarice walked along in silence for some way further. Then she said, with
+a distinct irritation in her voice, 'I suppose it all comes from the fact
+that Mr. Drake doesn't seem to need any one to rely upon, or--well--any
+particular incentive to work.'
+
+Conway glanced at Miss Le Mesurier with a slight surprise. She was
+generally given to accept facts without inquiry into their causes. 'I
+shouldn't wonder if you are right. Drake, I should think, would find his
+incentive in the work itself. Yes; I believe you _are_ right. It's just
+his single-mindedness which influences one. There are certain ideas fixed
+in his mind, combined into one aim, and he lets nothing interfere to
+obscure that aim.'
+
+So he spoke; so, too, Clarice believed, and that picture of moonlight on
+the veld became yet more vivid, yet more frequent in her thoughts.
+Pondering upon it, her fancy led her to exaggerate Drake into the
+likeness of some Egyptian god, that sits with huge hands resting upon
+massive knees, and works out its own schemes behind indifferent eyes. The
+sight of him, and the sound of commonplace words from his mouth, would at
+times make her laugh at the conception and restore her to her former
+familiarity with him. But the fancy returned to her, and, each time,
+added a fresh layer to the colour of her thoughts. She came now and again
+to betray a positive shrinking from him. Drake noticed it; he noticed
+something else as well: in the first week of July the emerald ring
+reappeared upon her finger.
+
+In the second week Mr. Le Mesurier removed his household gods to Sark. It
+was his habit to spend the summer months upon the island, and to
+entertain there his friends in succession. He invited both Mrs.
+Willoughby and Stephen Drake. The former accepted, the latter, being on
+the eve of floating the Matanga Concessions, declined for the present to
+Clarice's great relief, but promised to come later. The company was
+floated towards the end of the month, and with immediate success. Mr. Le
+Mesurier read out at breakfast a letter which he had received from Drake,
+announcing that every share had been taken up on the very day of
+flotation.
+
+'Then he is coming,' said Clarice. 'When?'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier mistook his daughter's anxiety, and smiled satisfaction
+at her. 'To-morrow,' he replied; 'but only for three days at first.
+There's some new development he speaks of. He will have to leave again on
+Saturday for a fortnight.'
+
+Clarice sat thoughtfully for a minute or two. Then she asked: 'Did you
+invite Mr. Mallinson this summer?'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier shuffled his feet under the table. 'No, my dear,'
+he said. 'I forgot all about it; and now I don't see that we shall
+have room.'
+
+'Oh yes,' replied Clarice quickly. 'He might have Mr. Drake's room during
+that fortnight. I think we ought to ask him. We always have, and it will
+look rather strange if we leave him out this summer. I will get aunt to
+write after breakfast.'
+
+Mr. Le Mesurier glanced at Mrs. Willoughby, but made no active
+resistance, and Clarice took care that the letter was despatched by that
+day's post. On the next day she organised a picnic in Little Sark, and
+returned to the Seigneurie at an hour which gave her sufficient time to
+dress for dinner, but no margin for welcoming visitors. In consequence
+she only saw Drake at the dinner-table. She saw little of him afterwards,
+for Mr. Le Mesurier pounced upon him after dinner. 'I want to introduce
+you to Burl,' he said. 'He's Parliamentary agent for the Northern
+Counties. There's a constituency in Yorkshire where my brother lives, and
+I rather think Burl wants a candidate.'
+
+Drake was presented to a gentleman six feet three in his socks,
+deep-chested, broad-shouldered, with a square rugged face on the slant
+from the forehead to the chin. Mrs. Willoughby said he looked like a
+pirate, and rumour made of her simile a fact. It was known that, late one
+night in the smoking-room of the Seigneurie, he had owned to
+silver-running on the coast of Mexico. Mr. Burl and Drake passed most of
+that evening smoking together in the garden. Similarly on the next day
+Clarice avoided a private interview with Drake. On the other hand,
+however, he made no visible effort to secure one. Mrs. Willoughby
+wondered at his reticence, and did more than wonder. She had by this time
+espoused his cause, and knowing no half-measures in her enthusiasms, saw
+his chances slipping from him, with considerable irritation. She was
+consequently provoked to hint her advice to him on the evening before he
+was to leave.
+
+Drake shook his head and replied frankly: 'One can be too previous. I
+made that mistake once before, and I don't mean to repeat it.'
+
+He remained silent for a moment or two, and added: 'I think I'll tell you
+about it, Mrs. Willoughby. You have guessed some part of the story, and
+you are Clarice's friend, and mine too, I believe.'
+
+With an impulsiveness rare in him, which however served to rivet him yet
+more firmly in Mrs. Willoughby's esteem, he confided to her the history
+of his proposal and its lame result. 'So you see,' he concluded, 'I am
+not likely to risk a repetition of the incident.'
+
+'But,' said she, 'surely there's no risk now?'
+
+'Very likely, but there is just a little. This next fortnight will, I
+think, make everything secure, but I must wait that fortnight.'
+
+'Well, I believe you are unwise.' Drake turned to her quickly. 'Why?'
+
+'Mr. Mallinson takes your place for the fortnight. Of course I don't
+know. Clarice has given up confiding in me. But I really think you
+are unwise.'
+
+Drake sat staring in front of him. He was considering Mallinson's visit
+in conjunction with the reappearance of the emerald ring upon Miss Le
+Mesurier's finger. 'All the same,' he said at length, 'I shall wait.'
+
+The reason for this hesitation he explained more fully to Clarice herself
+some half an hour afterwards. He found her standing by herself upon the
+terrace. She started nervously as he approached, and it seemed to him
+that her whole figure stiffened to a posture of defence. She said
+nothing, however, and for a while they stood side by side looking
+seawards across the breadth of the island. The ground stretched away
+broken into little hollows and little hills,--downs in vignette. A cheery
+yellow light streamed from the windows of a cottage in a dip of the
+grass; the slates of a roof glistened from a group of sycamores like a
+mirror in a dark frame; the whole island lay bared to the moonlight.
+Towards the edge of it the land rose upwards to a ridge, but there was a
+cleft in the ridge opposite to where they stood, and through the cleft
+they looked downwards to the sea.
+
+Clarice spoke of the moonbeams broken into sparkles by the ripple of
+the water.
+
+'Like a shoal of silver coins,' said Drake.
+
+'Wouldn't you like to hear them clink?' she asked petulantly.
+
+Then he said: 'Miss Le Mesurier'--and the change in his voice made the
+girl turn swiftly to face him--'I leave Sark to-morrow morning by the
+early boat, so I thought I would say good-bye to you to-night.'
+
+'But you are coming back,' she said quickly; 'I shall see you, of course,
+when you come back. What takes you away?'
+
+'There's some land in Matanga which bounds my concession on the north,
+and I want to get hold of it. It's, I believe, quite as good, and may be
+better, than mine, and I know that some people are after it. It wouldn't
+help me if another company was to be started; and as the President of the
+Matanga Republic is on his way to England, I thought that I had better go
+out to Madeira, catch his steamer there, and secure a concession of it
+before he reaches England.'
+
+Clarice gave a laugh. 'Then we are to expect you in a fortnight?'
+
+'Yes, in a fortnight,' and he laid a significance upon the word which
+Clarice did not mistake. It was spoken with an accent of entreaty.
+
+But indeed she needed no emphasis to fix it in her mind. The word
+besieged her; she caught herself uttering it, and while she uttered it
+the time itself seemed to have slipped by. She had but to say 'No' at the
+end of the fortnight, she assured herself, and she knew that she would
+only have to say it once. But the memory of that Sunday afternoon in
+Beaufort Gardens lay upon her like a load crushing all the comfort out of
+her knowledge.
+
+Drake caught his steamer at Southampton, and the President at Madeira. He
+was received warmly as an old acquaintance, warily as a negotiator.
+However, he extracted the concession as the boat passed up Southampton
+Water, and disembarked with a signed memorandum in his pocket. At
+Southampton post-office he received a bundle of letters which had been
+forwarded to him from his chambers in London. He slipped them into his
+coat, and went at once on board the Guernsey steamer. At Guernsey, the
+next morning, he embarked on the little boat which runs between Guernsey
+and Sark. The sun was a golden fire upon the water; the race of the tides
+no more than a ripple. The island stuck out its great knees into the sea
+and lolled in the heat. Half-way across Drake bethought him of the
+letters. He took them out and glanced over the envelopes. One was in
+Clarice's handwriting. It announced to him her engagement with Sidney
+Mallinson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Of Drake's arrival at the Seigneurie Mrs. Willoughby wrote some account
+to Hugh Fielding, who was taking the waters for no ailment whatever at
+Marienbad. 'I was surprised to see him,' she wrote, 'because Clarice told
+me that she had written to him. Clarice was running down the stairs when
+he came into the hall. She stopped suddenly as she caught sight of him,
+clutched at the balustrade, slipped a heel upon the edge of the step, and
+with a cry pitched straight into his arms at the bottom. Mr. Mallinson
+came out of the library while he was holding her. Clarice was not hurt,
+however, and Mr. Drake set her down. "I didn't pass through London," he
+said, and he seemed to be apologising. "My letters were forwarded to
+Southampton, and I only opened them on the Sark steamer." Then he
+congratulated them both. I spoke to Mr. Drake the same evening on the
+terrace here, foolishly hinting the feminine consolation that he was well
+free from a girl of Clarice's fickleness. He was in arms on the instant.
+One gets at truth only by experiment, and through repeated mistakes. Why
+except women's hearts from the same law? I give his opinion, not his
+words. He doesn't talk of "women's hearts." You know his trick of
+suggesting when it comes to talk of the feelings. I slid into a worse
+blunder and sympathised with him. He replied that it didn't make the
+difference to him which I might think. I felt as if a stream of ice-water
+had been turned down my back on Christmas Day. However, he went on in a
+sort of shame-faced style, like a schoolboy caught talking sentiment.
+"One owes her a debt for having cared for her, and the debt remains." He
+stayed out his visit and left this morning. He goes to Switzerland, and
+asked for your address. His is _The Bear, Grindelwald_. Write to him
+there; better, join him. He talks of going out to Matanga later in the
+year for a few months. So there's the end of the business, or rather one
+hopes so. I used to hope that Clarice would wake up some morning into a
+real woman and find herself--isn't that the phrase? I hope the reverse
+now; that she and her husband will philander along to the close of the
+chapter. But I prefer your word,--to the close of the "comedy," say. It
+implies something artificial. Mallinson and Clarice give me that
+impression,--as of Watteau figures mincing a gavotte, and made more
+unreal by the juxtaposition of a man. Let's hope they will never perceive
+the flimsiness of their pretty bows and ribbons! But I think of your one
+o'clock in the morning of the masquerade ball, and frankly I am afraid. I
+look at the three without--well, with as little prejudice as weak woman
+may. Mallinson, you know him--always on the artist's see-saw between
+exaltation and despair. Doesn't that make for shiftiness generally?
+Clarice I don't understand; but I incline to your idea of her as at the
+mercy of every momentary emotion, and the more for what has happened this
+week. Since her engagement she seems to have lost her fear of Stephen
+Drake. She has been all unexpressed sympathy. And Drake? There's the
+danger, I am sure--a danger not of the usual kind. Had he been
+unscrupulous he might have ridden roughshod over Clarice long before now.
+But he's too scrupulous for that. I think that he misses greatness as we
+understand it, through excess of scruple. But there's that saying of his
+about a debt incurred to Clarice by the man caring for her. Well,
+convince him that he can pay it by any sacrifice; won't he pay it?
+Convince him that it would benefit her if he lay in the mud; wouldn't he
+do it? I don't know. I made a little prayer yesterday night, grotesque
+enough, but very sincere, that there might be no fifth act of tragedy to
+make a discord of your comedy.'
+
+Fielding received Mrs. Willoughby's command to join Drake with a grin at
+her conception of him as fit company for a gentleman disappointed in his
+love-affairs. He nevertheless obeyed it, and travelling to Grindelwald
+found Drake waiting him on the platform with the hands of an
+oakum-picker, and a face toned uniformly to the colour of a ripe pippin.
+'You have been climbing mountains, I suppose?' asked Fielding.
+
+'Yes,' nodded Drake.
+
+'Well, don't ask me to join you. It produces a style of conversation I
+don't like.'
+
+Drake laughed, and protested that nothing was further from his intention.
+Certain letters, however, which Fielding wrote to Mrs. Willoughby during
+this period proved that he did join him, and more than once. The two men
+returned to London half-way through September.
+
+On the journey from Dover to Charing Cross Drake asked whether Mrs.
+Willoughby was in town. He was informed that at the moment she was
+visiting in Scotland, but she was expected to pass through London at the
+end of a fortnight. Drake wrote a note to her address asking her to spare
+him a few moments when she came south, and receiving a cordial assent
+with the statement of the most favourable hour, walked across one evening
+to Knightsbridge. Mrs. Willoughby remarked a certain constraint in his
+manner, and awaited tentacle questions concerning Sidney Mallinson and
+Clarice. She said: 'You look well. You have enjoyed your holiday.'
+
+'I had an amusing companion.'
+
+'You have given him some spark of your activity,' and the sentence was
+pitched to convey thanks.
+
+'Then you have seen him?' Drake's embarrassment became more
+pronounced. He paused for a second and then rose and walked across the
+room. 'You know, I suppose,' he resumed, 'that I am going out to
+Matanga in a month.'
+
+'I heard something of that from Mr. Fielding,' she said gently.
+
+'Yes,' he said, with a change in his voice to brisk cheerfulness. 'It
+seemed to me that I ought to go. Our interests there are rather large
+now. I consulted my fellow-directors, and they agreed with me.'
+
+The sudden disappearance of the constraint which had marked him surprised
+Mrs. Willoughby. 'But can you leave London?' she asked.
+
+'Oh yes; I have made arrangements for that,' he replied. 'I have got Burl
+to look after things here.'
+
+'Mr. Burl?'
+
+'Yes; it's rather funny,' said Drake, with a laugh. 'He came to ask
+me whether I was disposed to take up politics. There was a
+constituency in Yorkshire he could arrange for me to stand
+for--Bentbridge. Do you know it?'
+
+'I have been there. Mr. Le Mesurier has a brother just outside the town.
+It was there, I believe, that he became acquainted with Mr. Burl.'
+
+'So I gathered. Well, I wanted the question left open for a bit. Then
+Burl made another proposal. He said they wanted a paper in the district.
+There were some people ready to back the idea, but they didn't have quite
+enough capital. Burl wanted me to provide the rest. He didn't get it, but
+he nearly did, and it struck me that he was just the man I wanted. So
+after he had had his say, I had mine, and he has thrown up politics and
+joined me.' Drake ended his story with a laugh, and added, 'I think I am
+lucky to have got hold of him.'
+
+'Then you don't mean to go away for good?' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'Oh dear no! What on earth made you think that? But I will be away a
+year, I think,--and--and, that's just the point.' His embarrassment
+returned as suddenly as it had left him.
+
+'I don't understand.'
+
+'Well, I had an idea of persuading Fielding to go with me.' He blurted
+the proposal brusquely. 'He's interested, you see, in the success of the
+colony, and--well, altogether, I didn't think it would be a bad thing.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby walked to the window and looked out of it for a few
+seconds. 'What does Mr. Fielding say?' she asked.
+
+'I haven't broached the subject to him yet. I thought I wouldn't
+before--' He stopped and made no effort to finish the sentence.
+
+'It's a year,' she said slowly, lengthening out the word. 'Yes, only a
+year,' said he briskly, and Mrs. Willoughby smiled in spite of herself.
+She thought of the new air of alertness which Fielding had worn since his
+return from Switzerland. She came back to Drake and held out her hand to
+him. 'You think very wisely for your friends,' she said.
+
+'It's an inspiriting business to see a community in the making,'
+he answered; 'especially when there's money to help it to make
+itself quickly.'
+
+He wished her good-bye and moved to the door. As he opened it he said,
+'By the way, is the date of the marriage fixed?' but without turning
+towards her.
+
+She said, 'Yes, the 8th of December,' and she saw his shoulders brace,
+and the weight of his body come backwards from the ball of the foot on
+to the heel.
+
+'Ah! I shall be in Africa by then,' he said.
+
+It was in fact near upon the end of February that the river-steamer
+plying between the settlement and the coast of Matanga brought to Drake
+and Fielding an announcement that the marriage had taken place. There
+were letters for both the men, and they carried them out to a grass knoll
+on the edge of the forest some quarter of a mile away from the little
+village of tin huts which shone in the sunshine like a tidy kitchen, as
+Fielding was used to say. Drake read his through, and said to Fielding,
+'You have a letter from Mrs. Willoughby?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Any news?'
+
+Fielding looked him in the face. 'Yes,' he said slowly, and putting the
+letter in his pocket, buttoned it up. Drake understood alike from his
+tone and action what news the letter conveyed, and made no further
+inquiry. He fell instead to talking of some machinery which the boat had
+brought up along with the letters. The letter, indeed, was written in a
+vein which made it impossible for Fielding to follow the usual habit of
+reading Mrs. Willoughby's letters aloud to his companion. 'The wedding,'
+she wrote, 'lacked nothing but a costumier and a composer. The bride and
+bridegroom should have been in fancy dress, and a new Gounod was needed
+to compose the wedding-march of a marionette. One might have taken the
+ceremony seriously as an artistic whole under those circumstances.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby continued to keep Fielding informed of the progress or
+the married couple, and in May hinted at dissensions. The hint Fielding
+let slip one day to Drake. Drake, however, received the news with
+apparent indifference, and indeed returned to England in September with
+Fielding without having so much as referred to the subject.
+
+During the month which followed his return, he preserved the same
+appearance of indifference, seeming, indeed, thoroughly engrossed in
+working off arrears of business. The fact, however, of this dissension
+was thrust before his notice one evening when he dined with Mr. Le
+Mesurier, and that gentleman dealt out extravagant praise to the French
+for recognising that the marriages of the children are matters which
+solely concern the parents.
+
+'We English,' said he with a shrug of contempt at the fatuity of his
+countrymen, 'men and women, or rather boys and girls, choose for
+ourselves, and what's the result nine times out of ten? Well, it's the
+custom, and it's no use for a man by himself trying to alter it.'
+
+Drake was familiar with Mr. Le Mesurier's habit of shifting
+responsibilities, and while he said nothing at the moment, called upon
+Mrs. Willoughby the next day and questioned her openly. Mrs. Willoughby
+admitted that there were disagreements, but believed them not to be deep.
+
+'The first year,' she said, 'is as a rule a trying time. There are
+illusions to be sloughed. People may come out all the stronger in the
+end.' Mrs. Willoughby generalised to conceal the little hopefulness she
+felt in regard to the particular instance.
+
+'I ask,' continued Drake, 'because I thought money might be at the bottom
+of it. In that case something perhaps might be done. Mrs. Mallinson would
+be troubled, I believe, by a need to economise.'
+
+'Oh no,' she returned. 'There's no trouble of that kind. You see, Mr. Le
+Mesurier sold the Seigneurie, for one thing--'
+
+'Sold it!' exclaimed Drake. 'Why, I was told that it was strictly
+entailed from father to child.'
+
+'In one respect it is. It can't be charged with annuities. But any one
+who owns it can sell it outright. Mr. Le Mesurier always intended to sell
+it if Clarice married a man only moderately well off.'
+
+Drake rose from his chair and walked once or twice quickly across the
+room.
+
+'He should have told his daughter that,' he said slowly.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby glanced at him in surprise.
+
+'Well, of course he did.'
+
+'Oh no, he didn't,' said Drake quickly. 'You remember, I told you at Sark
+why she wanted our engagement to be kept secret.'
+
+'Because your position wasn't altogether assured. You didn't mention the
+Seigneurie.'
+
+'No, I thought you would understand. She believed an engagement between
+us would cause trouble with her father, just because it was necessary for
+her to marry a man who could keep up the Seigneurie.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started. 'Clarice told you that!' she said,
+staring at him.
+
+'Yes,' he replied simply. 'So you see she didn't know.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby sank back into her chair. She had heard Mr. Le Mesurier
+announce his intention more than once in Clarice's presence. However, she
+fancied that no particular good would be done by informing him of the
+girl's deception, and she dropped the subject.
+
+'What about Conway?' asked Drake.
+
+'He still walks up and down London. I fancy he is secretary to
+something.'
+
+Drake hesitated for a second. 'Does he go there very much?'
+
+'A good deal, I fancy,' she replied. 'But you mustn't think the
+disagreement is really serious. There is no cause outside themselves.
+Have you called?'
+
+'No; I go down to Bentbridge to-morrow. I must call when I get back.'
+
+'Then you are going to stand for Parliament?' she exclaimed. 'I am so
+glad.'
+
+'Yes; they expect an election in July, I believe. You see, now that
+Fielding has been made a director and has settled down to work, I have
+got more time. In fact, one feels rather lonely at nights.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was willing to hear more concerning Fielding's merits.
+She promptly set herself to belittle the importance of his position and
+work for the sake of hearing them upheld, and she was not disappointed.
+
+'It's easy enough to laugh at finance, and fashionable into the bargain,'
+he said. 'But here's the truth of the matter. Money does to-day what was
+the work of the sword a century or so ago, and, as far as I can see, does
+it better. To my thinking, it should be held in quite as high esteem. You
+can put it aside and let it rust if you like, but other nations won't
+follow your good example. Then the time comes when you must use it, and
+you find the only men you've got to handle it are the men you can't
+trust--the bandit instead of the trained soldier. No! Put the best men
+you can find to finance, I say,' and with that he said good-bye.
+
+'Why doesn't he drop them altogether?' asked Fielding with considerable
+irritation when Mrs. Willoughby informed him of Drake's intention to
+renew his acquaintance with the Mallinsons.
+
+'It would only make matters worse if he did,' replied she. 'Clarice would
+be certain to count any falling off of her friends as a new grievance
+against her husband.'
+
+'Friends?'
+
+'He is willing to take his place as one.'
+
+'He will find it singularly uninteresting. Friendship between a man
+and a woman!'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders; then he laughed to himself. Mrs.
+Willoughby got up nervously from her chair and walked to the opposite
+end of the room.
+
+'These things,' continued Fielding in a perfectly complacent and
+unconscious tone, 'are best understood by their symbols.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby swung round. 'Symbols?' she asked curiously.
+
+Fielding took a seat and leaned back comfortably. 'The feelings and
+emotions,' he began, 'have symbols in the visible world. Of these symbols
+the greater number are flowers. I won't trouble you with an enumeration
+of them, for in the first place I couldn't give it, and in the second,
+Shakespeare has provided a fairly comprehensive list. And by nature I am
+averse to challenging comparisons. There are, however, feelings of which
+the symbols are not flowers, and amongst them we must reckon friendship
+between man and woman. Passion, we know, has its passion flower, but the
+friendship I am speaking of has its symbol too'--he paused
+impressively--'and that symbol is cold boiled mutton.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby laughed awkwardly. 'What nonsense!' she said.
+
+'A mere _jeu d'esprit_, I admit,' said he, and he waved his hand to
+signify that he could be equally witty every day in the week if he chose.
+His satisfaction, indeed, blinded him to the fact that his speech might
+be construed as uncommonly near to a proposal of marriage. He thought,
+with a cast back to his old dilettante spirit, that it would be amusing
+to repeat it, especially to a woman of the sentimental kind--Clarice
+Mallinson, for instance. He pictured the look of injury in her eyes and
+laughed again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Clarice was indeed even more disappointed than Mrs. Willoughby imagined.
+She had looked forward to her marriage, and had indeed been persuaded to
+look forward to it, as to the smiting of a rock in her husband's nature
+whence a magical spring of inspiration should flow perennially. 'The
+future owes us a great deal,' Mallinson had said. 'It does indeed,'
+Clarice had replied in her most sentimental tones. Only she made the
+mistake of believing that the date of her marriage was the time appointed
+for payment. Instead of that spontaneous flow of inspiration, she had
+beneath her eyes a process of arduous work, which was not limited to a
+special portion of the day, like the work of a business man, and which,
+in the case of a man with Mallinson's temperament, inevitably produced an
+incessant fretfulness with his surroundings. Now, since this work was
+done not in an office but at home, the burden of that fretfulness fell
+altogether upon Clarice.
+
+She took to reading the _Morte d'Arthur_. Fielding found her with the
+book in her hand when he called, and commented on her choice.
+
+'There's no romance in the world nowadays,' she replied.
+
+'But there has been,' he replied cheerfully; 'lots.'
+
+Clarice professed not to understand his meaning. He proceeded to tick off
+upon his ringers those particular instances in which he knew her to have
+had a share, and mentioned the names of the gentlemen. He omitted
+Drake's, however, and Clarice noticed the omission. For the rest she
+listened quite patiently until he came to an end. Then she asked gravely,
+'Do you think that is quite a nice way to talk to a married woman?'
+
+'No,' he admitted frankly, 'I don't.' For a few minutes the
+conversation lagged.
+
+This was, however, Fielding's first visit since his home-coming, and
+Clarice yielded to certain promptings of curiosity.
+
+'I hardly expected you would be persuaded to go out to Africa, even
+by--any one,' she concluded lamely.
+
+'Neither did I,' he replied.
+
+'Did you enjoy it?' she asked.
+
+'I went out a Remus, I return a Romulus.'
+
+There were points in Clarice's behaviour which never failed to excite
+Fielding's admiration. Amongst these was a habit she possessed of staring
+steadily into the speaker's face with all the appearance of complete
+absence of mind whenever an allusion was made which she did not
+understand, and then continuing the conversation as though the allusion
+had never been made. 'Of course you had a companion,' she said.
+
+Fielding agreed that he had.
+
+'I have not seen him,' she added.
+
+'No?'
+
+'No.' Clarice was driven to name the companion. 'You seem to have struck
+up a great friendship with Mr. Drake. I should hardly have thought that
+you would have found much in common.'
+
+'_Arcades ambo_, don't you know?'
+
+Clarice did not know, and being by this time exasperated, she showed that
+she did not. Fielding explained blandly, 'We both drive the same pigs to
+the same market.'
+
+Clarice laughed shortly, and stroked the cover of her _Morte d'Arthur_.
+'I suppose that's just what friendship means nowadays?'
+
+'Between man and man--yes. Between woman and woman it's different, and
+it's, of course, different too between man and woman. But perhaps that's
+best to be understood by means of its symbol,' and he worked up to his
+climax of cold boiled mutton with complete satisfaction.
+
+'I gather, then, that you see nothing of Mrs. Willoughby now,' said
+Clarice quietly as soon as he had stopped. Fielding was for the moment
+taken aback. It seemed to him that the point of view was unfair.
+'Widows,' he replied with great sententiousness,--'widows are different,'
+and he took his leave without explaining wherein the difference lay. He
+wondered, however, if Clarice's point of view had occurred to Mrs.
+Willoughby.
+
+Fielding's visit, and in particular his teasing reticence as to his
+stay in Matanga, had the effect of recalling Clarice's thoughts to the
+subject of Stephen Drake. She recalled her old impression of him as one
+self-centred and self-sufficing, a man to whom nothing outside himself
+would make any tangible difference; but she recalled it without a trace
+of the apprehension with which it had been previously coupled. She
+began indeed to dwell upon that idea of him as upon something restful,
+and the idea was still prominent in her mind when, a little more than a
+week afterwards, Drake galloped up to her one morning as she was
+crossing the Park.
+
+'I have been meaning to call, Mrs. Mallinson,' he said, 'but the fact is,
+I have had no time. I only got back from Bentbridge last night.'
+
+Clarice received a sudden and yet expected impression of freshness from
+him. 'Papa told me you were going to stand,' she replied. 'You stayed
+with my uncle, Captain Le Mesurier, didn't you?'
+
+'Yes. Funnily enough, I have met him before, although I didn't know his
+name. He travelled in the carriage with me from Plymouth to London when I
+first landed in England.'
+
+Clarice wondered what made him pause for a moment in the middle of the
+sentence. 'Your chances are promising?' she asked.
+
+'I can't say yet. I have a Radical lord against me. Burl says there's no
+opponent more dangerous. It will be a close fight, I think.' He threw
+back his head and opened his chest. His voice rang with a vigorous
+enjoyment in the anticipation of a strenuous contest.
+
+'So you are glad to get back to London,' she said.
+
+'Rather. I feel at home here, and only here--even in January.' He looked
+across the Park with a laugh. It stretched away vacant and dull in the
+gray cheerlessness of a winter's morning. 'The place fascinates me; it
+turns me into a child, especially at night. I like the glitter of shops
+and gas-lamps, and the throng of people in the light of them. One
+understands what the Roman citizen felt. I like driving about the streets
+in a hansom. There are some one never gets tired of Oxford Street, for
+instance, and the turn out of Leicester Square into Coventry Street, with
+the blaze of Piccadilly Circus ahead. One hears that poets starve in
+London, and are happy; I can believe it. Well, I am keeping you from the
+shops, and myself from business.'
+
+He shook hands with her and mounted his horse.
+
+'You have not yet seen my husband,' she said, and she felt that she
+forced herself to speak the word.
+
+'Not yet. I must look him up. You live in Regent's Park, don't you?'
+
+'Close by. Will you come some evening and dine?'
+
+The invitation was accepted, and Drake rode off. He rode well, Clarice
+noticed, and his horse was finely limbed and perfectly groomed. The
+perception of these details had its effect. She stood looking after him,
+then she turned slowly and made her way homewards across the Park. Two of
+her acquaintances passed her and lifted their hats, but she took no
+notice of them; she did not see them. A picture was fixed in her mind--a
+picture of a rolling plain, black as midnight, exhaling blackness, so
+that the air itself was black for some feet above the ground; and into
+this cool and quiet darkness the moonbeams plunged out of a fiery sky and
+were lost. They dropped, she fancied, after their long flight, to their
+appointed haven of repose.
+
+The street door of her house gave on to a garden. Clarice walked along
+the pathway in front of the house towards the door of the hall. As she
+passed her husband's study windows she glanced in. He was standing in
+front of the fireplace, tearing across some sheets of manuscript. Clarice
+hurried forwards. He was always tearing up manuscript. While she was
+upstairs taking off her hat she heard his door open and his voice
+complaining to the servants about some papers which had been mislaid. She
+felt inclined to take the servants' part. After all, what was a man doing
+in the house all day? There was a dragging shuffle of his slippers upon
+the floor of the hall. The sound jarred on her. She pinned on her hat
+again, ran downstairs, gave orders that she would not be in for lunch,
+and drove at once to Mrs. Willoughby's. She arrived in a state little
+short of hysterical.
+
+'Connie,' she cried, almost before the servant who announced her was out
+of the room, 'I know you don't like me, but oh, I'm so unhappy!'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby softened at sight of her evident distress. 'Why, what's
+the matter?' she asked, and made her sit down beside her on the sofa.
+
+'It's awful,' she said, and repeated, 'it's awful.'
+
+'Yes, child, but what is?' asked Mrs. Willoughby.
+
+'All is--I mean everything is,' sobbed Clarice.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby recognised that though the correction amended the
+grammar, it did not simplify the meaning. She pressed for something
+more precise.
+
+'Don't be irritable, Connie,' quavered Clarice, 'because that's just
+what Sidney is--and always. It's so difficult to make you understand.
+But he's just a lot of wires, and they keep twanging all day. He
+nags--there's no other word for it--he nags about everything--the
+servants, his publishers, the dinner, and--oh!--oh!--why can't he wear
+boots in the morning?'
+
+The point of the question was lost on Mrs. Willoughby. She began to
+expostulate with Clarice for magnifying trifles.
+
+'Of course,' replied Clarice, sitting up suddenly--she had been half
+lying on the sofa in Mrs. Willoughby's arms--'I know they are trifles; I
+know that. But make every day full of them, every day repeat them! Oh,
+it's awful! I wonder I don't break down!' She turned again to Mrs.
+Willoughby, lapsing from vehemence to melancholy as the notion occurred
+to her. 'Connie, I believe I shall--break down altogether. You know I'm
+not very strong.' She put her arms about Mrs. Willoughby, and clung to
+her in the intensity of her self-compassion. 'You can't imagine the
+strain it is. And if that wasn't enough, his mother comes up from Clapham
+and lectures me. I wouldn't mind that, only she's not very safe about her
+h's, and she stops to dinner and talks about the nobility she's had cooks
+from, to impress the servants. It's so humiliating, to be lectured by any
+one like that.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby scented a fact. 'But what does she lecture you about? The
+dinner?' she asked, with an irrelevant recollection of Drake's impression
+of Clarice as one little adapted for housewifely duties, and not rightly
+to be troubled by them.
+
+'Oh no. She says I don't give Sidney the help he expected from me. But
+what more can I do? He has got me. Sidney says the same, too. He told me
+that he had never had so much difficulty to work properly as since we
+were married. And when his work doesn't succeed I know he blames me for
+it. Oh, Connie! _is_ it my fault? I think we had better get divorced--and
+I--I--c-c-can go into a convent, and never do anybody any more harm.'
+
+Clarice glanced as she spoke down the neatest of morning frocks, and the
+mental picture which she straightway had of herself in a white-washed
+cell with iron bars, clad in shapeless black, her chin swathed, her face
+under eaves of starched linen, induced an access of weeping.
+
+For all her sympathy Mrs. Willoughby was forced to bite her lips.
+Clarice, however, was not in the mood to observe the effect which her
+words produced on others. She continued: 'It's much the best thing to do,
+because whatever I did it would always be the same. I could never make
+him content. Connie, if you only knew the strain of it all! He's always
+wanting to be something different. One day a clerk, with a nice quiet
+routine, another a soldier, another a ----' she hesitated, and gave
+Constance an extra squeeze--'a colonist, and fire off Maxim guns. If you
+could only see him! He sits in front of the fire, with his glasses on,
+and talks about the roaring world of things.'
+
+This time Mrs. Willoughby really laughed. She turned the laugh into a
+cough, and cleared her throat emphatically once or twice. Clarice sat up
+and looked at her reproachfully, then she said, 'I know it's absurd. I
+don't know whether to laugh or cry myself, b-b-but I usually cry. And
+then in his books he's--he's always his own hero.' With that Clarice
+reached at once the climax of her distress and the supreme charge of her
+indictment. The rest was but sighs and sobs and disconnected phrases.
+Finally she fell asleep; later she was caressed into eating lunch, taken
+for a drive, and sent home subsequently greatly mollified and relieved.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby refrained from tendering advice that afternoon. There was
+nothing sufficiently tangible in the story which she had heard. In fact
+the only thing really tangible was the girl's distress in telling it, and
+that Mrs. Willoughby attributed to some dispute between her and Sidney
+that morning. She could not know that Clarice's outburst had been
+preceded by that chance meeting in the Park with Stephen Drake, for
+Clarice had made no allusion to it of any kind. She felt, besides, that
+advice in any case would be of little use. The couple had to work out
+their own salvation, and time and experience alone could help them.
+Events seemed to justify Mrs. Willoughby's reticence, for the winter
+blossomed into spring, the spring flowered into summer, and the Mallinson
+household remained to the external view unshaken.
+
+Drake's visits to Bentbridge increased in frequency as the prospect of
+the general election became more real. A snap vote in the House of
+Commons on a minor question of administrative expenditure decided the
+matter suddenly towards the end of June. The Government determined on a
+dissolution. Fielding took Clarice Mallinson into dinner at Mr. Le
+Mesurier's house on the day after the date of the dissolution was fixed.
+He noticed that she looked worn. There were shadows about her eyes, her
+colour had lost its freshness, and there was a melancholy droop about the
+corners of her mouth. Fielding suggested the advisability of a change.
+
+'I'm to have one,' said she. 'I'm going down to stay with my uncle at
+Bentbridge in a week's time.'
+
+'At Bentbridge?' asked Fielding sharply. 'For the election.'
+
+She saw his lips tighten. 'My husband goes with me,' she replied
+quickly and stopped, flushing as she realised that she had meant and
+conveyed an apology.
+
+'I should have thought that the Continent would have been more advisable
+as a change.'
+
+'The Continent! I don't want to travel far. I am so tired.' She spoke in
+a tone of weariness which touched Fielding in spite of himself. He looked
+at her more closely. 'Yes,' he said gently, 'you look very tired. You
+have been doing too much.'
+
+'No, it isn't that,' she replied. 'One thinks of things, that's all.' She
+bent her head and was silent for a little, tracing a pattern on the
+table-cloth with a finger absently. Then she added in a low voice, 'I
+suppose few women ever think at all until after they are married.'
+
+The voice was low, and Fielding was conscious of something new in the
+tone of it, a deeper vibration, a sincerity different in kind from that
+surface frankness which he had always known in her. He wondered whether
+she had struck down from her pinchbeck sentimentality into something that
+rang solid in the depths of her nature. He looked at her again, her eyes
+were turned to his. With the shadows about them, they looked bigger,
+darker, more piteously appealing. She was no less a child to him, the
+child looked out of her eyes, sounded in the commonplace sentiment she
+had spoken, and the air of originality with which she had spoken it. But
+the child seemed beginning to learn the lesson of womanhood, and from the
+one mistress which could teach it her.
+
+'But why think then?' he asked lightly. 'It ruins a complexion no less
+than before. Or does a complexion cease to count? Look!' He leaned
+forward. A pink carnation was in a glass in front of him, already
+withering from the heat. He touched the faded tips of the petals. 'That
+is the colour which conies from thinking.'
+
+Clarice lifted her shoulders with more of sadness than impatience in the
+gesture. 'You believe,' she said, 'no woman at all has a right to dare
+to think.'
+
+'I notice,' he answered with the same levity, 'that the woman who thinks
+generally thinks of what she ought not to.'
+
+Later, in the drawing-room, he looked for her again, and looked
+unsuccessfully. The window, however, was open, and he advanced to
+it. Clarice was on the balcony alone, her elbows on the rail, a hand
+on either side of her cheek. Something in her attitude made him
+almost pity her.
+
+'Mrs. Mallinson,' he said, 'you will probably think me intrusive, but do
+you think your visit really wise?' Clarice turned towards him quickly
+with something of defiance in her manner. 'You are tired,' he went on,
+'you want rest. Well, an election isn't a very restful time, even for the
+onlooker.'
+
+Clarice did not reply for a moment, and when she did she replied with an
+impulsive frankness, to which his friendly tone had prompted her. 'To
+tell you the truth, I am not anxious to go. I don't want to, but Sidney
+wants to.'
+
+'Your husband?'
+
+'You don't believe me.'
+
+'Of course I do.' He left her on the balcony, and went in search of
+Mallinson. 'So you go to Bentbridge for the election,' he said.
+
+'Yes,' replied the other, lighting up. 'I am looking forward to it like a
+schoolboy to a football match. The prospect of activity exhilarates
+me--bodily activity, don't you know--a town humming with excitement.'
+
+Fielding cut him short. 'My dear fellow, you're a damned fool,' he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Stephen Drake had decided to stay during the period of the election at a
+hotel in the centre of the town, rather than to accept an invitation from
+Captain Le Mesurier, who lived some miles beyond the outskirts. He
+travelled down to Bentbridge on the day that the dissolution was
+announced, and during the journey Mr. Burl gave him much sage advice.
+
+'Keep the arguments for buildings; they're in place there. Mass-meetings
+in the open air want something different. Many a good man has lost his
+seat from not observing that rule. In the open air pitch out a fact or
+two--not too many--or a couple of round sums of figures first of all,
+just to give them confidence in you, and then go straight for your
+opponent. No rapier play--it's lost then--but crack him on the top-knot
+with a bludgeon. They'll want to hear his skull ring before they'll
+believe that you have touched him. Phrases! Those are the things to get
+you in, not arguments. Pin a label on his coat-tails. You'll see them
+laugh as he squirms round to pull it off. And, mind you, there'll be no
+walking over, you'll want all you know. The man's a Radical and a Lord!
+The combination satisfies their democratic judgments and their snobbish
+instincts at the same time. People forget to count the snob in the
+democrat, but he's there all the same, as in most Englishmen. A veneer of
+snobbishness over solid independence. That's our characteristic. Lord
+Cranston! Can't you hear their tongues licking it? Luckily, there are
+things against him. He's a carpet-bagger like yourself, and he's been
+more than once separated from his wife. His fault, too--once it was an
+opera dancer. I've got up the facts. He only joined his wife again a few
+months ago--probably for the purpose of this election.'
+
+Mr. Burl pulled out a pocket-book, and began to turn over the leaves in
+search of the damning details, when Drake interrupted him. 'You don't
+expect me to discuss the man's private life?'
+
+'My dear Drake, do be practical. It's no use being finicking. The
+essential thing is to win the seat.'
+
+'Whatever the price?'
+
+'Look here; I am not asking you to do anything so crude as to make
+platform speeches about the man's disgraceful conduct to his wife.' Mr.
+Burl assumed the look of a Rhadamanthus. 'But'--and again he relaxed into
+the tactician--'you might take a strong social line on morals generally,
+and the domestic hearth, and that sort of thing.' He looked critically at
+Drake. 'You're one of the few chaps I know who look as if they could do
+that and make people believe they really mean it.'
+
+He finally discredited his advice by adding impressibly, 'You needn't
+go into the instance at all, you know. They'll understand what you're
+alluding to, never fear'; and Drake flatly refused to dance into
+Parliament to that tune, however persuasively Mr. Burl played upon
+the pipes.
+
+The hotel at which Drake put up was situated in a short broad street
+which ran from the Market Square. From the balcony of his sitting-room on
+the first floor he could see the market sheds at the end of the street to
+his left. The opposite end was closed in by the Town Hall, which was
+built upon an ancient gate of the town. From Drake's windows you got a
+glimpse through the archway of green fields and trees. Almost facing him
+was a second hotel on the opposite side of the street, the 'Yellow Boar.'
+It was tricked out, he noticed, with the colours of his opponent. While
+he was standing at the window an open carriage turned out of the
+market-place, and drove up to the 'Yellow Boar.' Lord Cranston got down
+from it, and a lady. The candidate was of a short and slight build; a
+pencil--line of black moustache crossed a pallid and indecisive face, and
+he seemed a year or two more than thirty. The lady looked the younger,
+and was certainly the taller of the two. Drake was impressed by her face,
+which bore womanly gentleness, stamped on features of a marked
+intellectuality. The couple disappeared into the hall, and appeared again
+in a large room with big windows upon the first floor. From where he
+stood Drake could see every corner of the room. Lord and Lady Cranston,
+the land-lord informed him, were staying at the 'Yellow Boar.' The two
+candidates overlooked each other.
+
+In this street, morning and evening, they met for a moment or two, and
+took a breath of friendly intercourse. Drake was introduced to Lady
+Cranston, but she would have none of the truce. To her he was the enemy,
+and to be treated as such consistently, with a heart-and-soul hostility,
+until he confessed himself beaten. Drake liked her all the better for her
+attitude. Meanwhile he made headway in the constituency. He was in
+earnest, with a big theme to descant upon--the responsibility of the
+constituency to the empire. His fervour brought it home to his audiences
+as a fact; he set the recognition of that responsibility forwards as the
+prime duty of the citizen, sneering at the parochial notion of politics.
+Mr. Burl shook his head over Drake's method of fighting the battle, and
+hinted more than once at the necessity of that lecture upon morals. Drake
+not only refused to reconsider it, but flatly forbade Mr. Burl to allude
+to the subject in any speech which he might make. Burl shrugged his
+shoulders and confided his doubts to Captain Le Mesurier. Said the
+Captain, 'I think he's wise; a speech might offend. What's wanted is an
+epigram--a good stinging epigram. We could set it about, and, if it's
+sharp enough, no need to fear it won't travel.' He paused dubiously.
+'After all, though, it's a bit unfair on Cranston. Hang it, I've been a
+married man myself,' and he chuckled in unregenerate enjoyment. 'However,
+the seat's got to be won. Let's think of an epigram,' and he scratched
+his head and slapped his thigh. It was the Captain's way of thinking. The
+satisfactory epigram would not emerge. He could fashion nothing better as
+a description of Cranston than, 'A refreshment-room sandwich; two great
+chunks of sin and a little slice of repentance between.' Mr. Burl
+condemned it as crude, and for the moment the epigram was dropped.
+
+The Mallinsons arrived a week after the contest had begun. Captain Le
+Mesurier welcomed Clarice with boisterous effusion, and her husband with
+quarter-deck dignity. 'You look ill,' he said to Clarice. 'It's your
+husband worrying you. Ah, I know, I know! Those writing chaps!'
+
+To Mallinson, however, he suddenly showed excessive friendliness, and
+took the opportunity of saying to him loudly in a full room, 'There's
+something I must tell you. I know it'll make you laugh. It does me
+whenever I think of it. You know Drake? Well, we travelled up from
+Plymouth together when he came back from Africa. He bought your book at
+the bookstall, and sat opposite me reading it. What was it called? I
+know, _A Man of Influence_. You should have seen Drake's face. Lord, he
+couldn't make head or tail of it. How should he? I asked him what he
+thought of it, and imagine what he answered! You can't, though. It's the
+funniest thing I ever heard. He said it was a very clever satire. Satire!
+Good Lord, I almost rolled off the seat. It is funny, isn't it?'
+
+Mallinson, with a wry face, agreed that the story was funny.
+
+'I knew you would think so,' pursued the Captain relentlessly.
+'Everybody does I have told it to, and that's everybody I know. Satire!
+Lord help us!' and he shook with laughter and clapped Mallinson in the
+small of the back.
+
+Mallinson felt the fool that he was intended to look, with the result
+that his dormant resentment against Drake sprang again into activity.
+That resentment became intensified, as the date of the election drew
+nearer, by an unconfessed jealousy. They both made speeches, but
+Mallinson chiefly at the smaller meetings. And when they stood upon the
+same platform he was continually forced to compare the difference in the
+acclamation with which their speeches were severally received. As a
+matter of fact, Drake spoke from a fire of conviction, and the conviction
+not merely burnt through his words, but minted them for him, gave him
+spontaneously the short homely phrase which sank his meaning into the
+minds of his hearers. Mallinson took refuge in a criticism of Drake's
+speeches from the standpoint of literary polish. He recast them in his
+thoughts, turning this sentence more deftly, whittling that repartee to a
+finer point. The process consoled him for Drake's misreckoning of his
+purpose in the matter of _A Man of Influence_, since it pointed to a
+certain lack of delicacy, say at once to crassness in the man's
+intellect.
+
+Mallinson began immediately to imagine himself in Drake's position, the
+candidate for whom brass bands played, and hats went spinning into the
+air. And it needed no conscious effort for one so agile in egotistical
+leaps to spring thence to the fancy that Drake was a kind of vicarious
+substitute for himself, doing his work, too, not without blemishes.
+
+Ten days before the polling-day Fielding ran down from town, and attended
+a meeting at the Town Hall, at which both Drake and Mallinson were to
+speak. He sat on the platform by Clarice's side and paid some attention
+to her manner during the evening. He noticed the colour mount in her
+cheeks and her eyes kindle, as on first entering the room she looked down
+upon the crowded floor. The chairs had been removed, and the audience
+stood packed beneath the flaring gas-jets--artificers for the most part,
+their white faces smeared and stained with the grime of their factories.
+The roar of applause as Drake rose by the table swelled up to three
+cheers in consonance, and a subsequent singing of 'For he's a jolly good
+fellow' stirred even Fielding to enthusiasm. He noted that feeling of
+enthusiasm as strange in himself, and had a thought in consequence that
+such scenes were hardly of the kind to help Clarice to the rest she
+needed. The hall for a moment became a sea of tossing handkerchiefs. He
+took a glance at Clarice. She sat bent forward with parted lips and a
+bosom that heaved. Fielding turned on his cold-water tap of flippancy.
+
+'It's a bad omen,' said he, with a nod towards the waving handkerchiefs.
+'They hang out flags of surrender.'
+
+'Hardly,' she replied, with a smile. 'I can't recognise that the flags
+are white'; and she added, 'I should like it less if they were. These men
+are the workers.'
+
+'The workers.' Fielding could hear Drake uttering the word in just the
+same tone, and his compassion for Clarice deepened. Why? he asked
+himself. The girl was undergoing not a jot more punishment than a not
+over-rigid political justice would have meted out to her. The question
+inexplicably raised to view a pair of the clearest blue eyes, laughing
+from between the blackest of eyelashes. He promptly turned his attention
+to the speaker at the table.
+
+Drake commenced that night with an apology. It was necessary that he
+should speak about himself. An utterly baseless story had, within the
+last few days, and doubtless with a view to this election, been revived
+by the London evening paper which originally made it. He regretted also
+to notice that his opponent had accepted the story, and was making use of
+it to prejudice him in the eyes of the electors. Accordingly he felt
+bound to put the facts simply and briefly before his audience, although
+the indifference of the Colonial Office to what, if true, was a crime
+committed by an Englishman on English soil, and against practically
+English subjects, in effect acquitted him of the charge.
+
+Drake thereupon proceeded to describe his march to Boruwimi. The story,
+modestly recited in simple nervous English, did more to forward his
+candidature than all the political speeches he could have made during a
+twelvemonth. It came pat at the right time, when arguments were growing
+stale. His listeners hung upon the words; in the intense silence Fielding
+could feel the sympathy between speaker and audience flowing to and fro
+between them like a current. Drake instinctively lowered his voice; it
+thrilled through the hall the more convincingly. There was a perceptible
+sway of heads forwards, which started at the back and ran from line to
+line towards the platform like a quick ripple across a smooth sea. It was
+as though this crowded pack of men and women was drawn to move towards
+the speaker, where indeed there was no room at all to move.
+
+And in truth the subject was one to stir the blood. Drake prefaced his
+account by a description of the geography of Boruwimi; he instanced
+briefly the iniquities of the Arab slave-dealers whom he was attacking.
+Thereupon he contrasted the numbers of his little force with the horde of
+his enemies, and dwelt for a second upon their skill as marksmen; so that
+his auditors, following him as he hewed his path through the tangle of an
+untrodden forest, felt that each obstacle he stopped at might mean not
+merely failure to the expedition, but death to all who shared in it.
+Success and life were one and the same thing, and the condition of that
+thing was speed. He must fall upon the Arabs unawares, like a bolt from
+the blue. They forgot that he who led that expedition was speaking to
+them now; they were with him in the obscure depths of the undergrowth,
+surging against gigantic barriers of fallen tree-trunks, twenty, thirty
+feet high; they were marching behind him, like him at grips with nature
+in a six-weeks' struggle of life and death; and when finally he burst
+into the clearing on the river's bank the ripple went backwards across
+the hall, and a cheer of relief rang out, as though their lives, too,
+were saved.
+
+Upon Fielding the relation produced a somewhat peculiar effect. He was
+fascinated, not so much by the incident described or by the earnestness
+of the man who described it,--for with both he was familiar,--but by the
+strangeness of the conditions under which it was told--this story of
+Africa, before these serried rows of white eager faces, in this stifling
+hall, where the gaslight struggled with the waning day. From the raised
+platform on which he sat he could see through the open windows away
+across green fields to where the sun was setting in a clear sky behind
+quiet Yorkshire wolds. The combination of circumstances made the episode
+bizarre to him; he was, in fact, paying an unconscious tribute to the
+orator's vividness.
+
+Clarice paid the same tribute, but she phrased it differently, and the
+difference was significant. She said, 'Isn't it strange that he should
+_be here_--in a frock-coat? I half thought the room would dissolve and we
+should find ourselves at Boruwimi.' Fielding started. Coming from her
+lips the name sounded strange; yet she spoke it without the least
+hesitation. For the moment it had plainly one association in her
+thoughts, and only one. It sounded as though every recollection of Gorley
+had vanished from her mind. 'Oh, he must get in!' she whispered, clasping
+her hands upon her knees.
+
+After Drake had concluded, Mallinson moved a resolution. He spoke
+fluently, Fielding remarked, and with a finished phrasing. The very
+finish, however, imparted an academic effect; he was, besides, hampered
+by the speech which had preceded his. The audience began to shuffle
+restlessly; they were capping a rich Burgundy with _vin ordinaire_, and
+found the liquor tasteless to the palate. Fielding perceived from certain
+movements at his side that Clarice shared in the general restlessness.
+She gave an audible sigh of relief and patted her hands with the most
+perfunctory applause when her husband sat down. 'You are staying with Mr.
+Drake at the Three Nuns?' she asked, turning to Fielding.
+
+'Only till to-morrow. I leave by the night-train.'
+
+'Oh, you are going back!'
+
+'Yes. You see Drake and Burl are both here. Somebody must keep the shop
+open, if it's only to politely put the customers off.' He interpreted the
+look of surprise upon Mrs. Mallinson's face. 'Yes, I have been gradually
+sucked into the whirlpool,' and he laughed with a nod towards Drake.
+
+She turned to him with her eyes shining. 'And you are proud of it.'
+
+Fielding smiled indulgently. 'That's a woman's thought.'
+
+'But you don't deny it's truth.'
+
+Clarice said nothing more until the meeting had terminated and the
+party was in the street. They walked from the Town Hall to Drake's
+hotel, Clarice and Fielding a few paces behind the rest. The first
+words which she spoke showed to him that her thoughts had not altered
+their drift. 'Yes, you have changed,' she said, and implied
+unmistakably, 'for the better.'
+
+'You only mean,' laughed Fielding, 'that I have given up provoking you.'
+
+'No, no,' she said. 'Besides, you evidently haven't given that up.'
+
+'Then in what way?'
+
+'I shall offend you.'
+
+'I can hardly think so.'
+
+'Well, you were becoming a kind of--'
+
+'Say it.'
+
+'Paul Pry.'
+
+To a gentleman whose ambition it had been to combine the hermit's
+indifference to social obligations with an indulgence in social
+festivities, the blow was a cruel one; and the more cruel because he
+realised that Clarice's criticism contained a grain of truth. He hit back
+cruelly. 'Drake tells me he thinks of taking a place here. I suppose he
+means to marry.'
+
+'I believe he does,' replied Clarice promptly. 'Mrs. Willoughby.'
+
+Fielding stopped and apostrophised the stars. 'That is perfectly untrue,'
+he said. He walked on again as soon as he perceived that he had stopped,
+adding, with a grumble, 'I pity the woman who marries Drake.'
+
+'Why?' asked Clarice in a tone of complete surprise, as though the idea
+was incomprehensible to her, and she repeated insistently, 'Why?'
+
+'Well,' he said, inventing a reason, 'I think he would never stand in
+actual need of her.' Clarice drew a sharp breath--a sigh of longing, it
+seemed to her companion, as for something desirable beyond all blessings.
+He continued in the tone of argument, 'And she would come to know that.
+Surely she would feel it.'
+
+'Yes, but feel proud of it perhaps,' replied Clarice, 'proud of him just
+for that reason. All her woman's tricks she would know useless to move
+him. Nothing she could do would make him swerve. Oh yes, she would feel
+proud--proud of him and proud of herself because he stooped to choose
+her.' She corrected the ardency of her voice of a sudden; it dropped
+towards indifference. 'At all events I can imagine that possible.'
+
+They were within fifty yards of the hotel, and walked silently the rest
+of the way. At the door, however, she said, turning weary eyes upon
+Fielding, 'And think! The repose of it for her.'
+
+'Ah, here you are!' The robustious voice of Captain Le Mesurier sounded
+from the hall. 'Look here,' to Fielding, 'we are going to take you back
+with us. Drake won't come. He's tired--so we don't miss him.'
+
+Fielding protested vainly that he would crowd the waggonette. Besides, he
+had business matters to discuss with Drake before he left for London.
+
+'Well, you can talk them over to-morrow. You don't go until to-morrow
+night. And as to crowding the waggonette, I have ordered a trap here; so
+you can drive it back again to-night, if you like, from Garples.
+Otherwise we'll be happy to put you up. You must come; we want to talk to
+you particularly. Mallinson will drive his wife in the trap, so there'll
+be plenty of room.'
+
+The party in the waggonette consisted of Captain Le Mesurier, Burl,
+Fielding, and five country gentlemen belonging to the district.
+Clarice, riding some yards behind them through the dark fragrant lanes,
+saw eight glowing cigars draw together in a bunch. The cigars were
+fixed points of red light for a little. Then they danced as though
+heads were wagging, retired this side and that and set to partners. A
+minute more and the figure was repeated: cigars to the centre, dance,
+retire, set to partners. A laugh from the Captain sounded as though he
+laughed from duty, and Mr. Burl was heard to say, 'Not too subtle, old
+man, you know.' At the third repetition the Captain bellowed
+satisfaction from a full heart, and Mr. Burl cried, 'Capital!' The
+country gentlemen could be understood to agree in the commendation.
+Whence it was to be inferred that the dance of the cigars was to have a
+practical result upon the election.
+
+Clarice, however, paid no great attention to the proceedings in the
+waggonette. She was almost oblivious to the husband at her side. The
+night was about her, cool with soft odours, wrapping her in solitude.
+Love at last veritably possessed her, so she believed; it had invaded her
+last citadel to-night. That it sat throned on ruins she had no eyes to
+see. It sat throned in quiescence, and that was enough. Clarice, in fact,
+was in that compressed fever-heat of the mushroom passions which takes on
+the semblance of intense and penetrating calm. And her very consciousness
+of this calm seemed to ally her to Drake, to give to them both something
+in common. She was troubled by no plans for the future; she had no regret
+for anything which had happened in the past. The vague questions which
+had stirred her--why had she been afraid of him?--was the failure of her
+marriage her fault?--for these questions she had no room. She did not
+think at all, she only felt that her heart was anchored to a rock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Given a driver who is at once inexperienced and short-sighted, a fresh
+horse harnessed to a light dog-cart, a dark night and a narrow gateway,
+and the result may be forecast without much rashness. Mallinson upset his
+wife and the cart just within the entrance to Garples. Luckily the drive
+was bordered by thick shrubs of laurel, so that Clarice was only shaken
+and dazed. She sat in the middle of a bush vaguely reflecting that her
+heart was anchored to a rock and yet her husband had spilled her out of a
+dog-cart. Between the incident and her state of mind immediately
+preceding it, she recognised an incongruity which she merely felt to be
+in some way significant. Fielding and Captain Le Mesurier picked her out
+of the bush before she had time to examine into its significance. All she
+said was, 'It's so like him.'
+
+'Yes, hang the fellow!' said the Captain, and under his breath he
+launched imprecations at all 'those writer chaps.'
+
+Mallinson raised himself from a bed of mould upon the opposite side of
+the drive and apologised. Captain Le Mesurier bluntly cut short the
+apology. 'Why didn't you say you couldn't drive? I can't. Who's ashamed
+of it? You might have broken your wife's neck.'
+
+'I might, and my own too,' replied Mallinson in a tone not a whit less
+aggrieved.
+
+Captain Le Mesurier raised his eyes to the heavens with the apoplectic
+look which comes of an intense desire to swear, and the repressive
+presence of ladies. 'Will you kindly sit on the horse's head until you
+are told to get up? I want the groom to help here,' he said, as soon as
+he found words tolerable to feminine ears. A groom was already occupying
+the position designated, but he rose with alacrity and Mallinson silently
+took his place and sat there until the harness was loosed.
+
+Fielding's visit, however, had another consequence beyond the upsetting
+of a gig. A few days later an epigram was circulating through the
+constituency. The squires passed it on with a smack of the tongue; it had
+a flavour, to their thinking, which was of the town. The epigram was
+this: 'Lord Cranston lives a business life of vice, with rare holidays of
+repentance, but being a dutiful husband he always takes his wife with him
+on his holidays.' From the squires it descended through the grades of
+society. Lord Cranston, at the close of a speech, was invited to mention
+the precise date at which he intended to end his holidays. Believing that
+the question sprang out of an objection to a do-nothing aristocracy, he
+answered with emphatic earnestness, 'The moment I am returned for
+Bentbridge.' The shout of laughter which greeted the remark he attributed
+at first to political opposition.
+
+Subsequently, however, a sympathiser explained to him delicately the true
+meaning of the question, and, as a counter-move, Lord Cranston made a
+violent attack upon 'Empire building plus finance.' He drew distinctions
+between governing men and making money.
+
+Drake accepted the distinctions as obvious platitudes, but failed to see
+that the capacity for one could not coexist with the capacity for the
+other. He asserted, on the contrary, that money was not as a rule made
+without the exercise of tact, and some aptitude for the management of
+men. He was, consequently, not disinclined to believe that money-making
+afforded a good preliminary lesson in the art of government. Lord
+Cranston's argument, in fact, did little more then alienate a few of his
+own supporters, who, having raised themselves to affluence, felt quite
+capable of doing the same for the nation.
+
+On the night of the polling-day Captain Le Mesurier brought his
+house-party into Bentbridge to dine with Drake, and after dinner the
+ladies remained in the room overlooking the street, while the gentlemen
+repaired to the Town Hall, where the votes were being counted. It seemed
+to Clarice as she gazed down that all the seven thousand electors had
+gathered to hear the result announced. The street was paved with heads as
+with black cobble-stones. Occasionally some one would look up and direct
+now a cheer, now a shout of derision towards the 'Three Nuns' or the
+'Yellow Boar.' But the rooms of both candidates were darkened, and the
+attention of the crowd was for the most part riveted upon the red blinds
+of the Town Hall.
+
+For Clarice, the time limped by on crutches. She barely heard the
+desultory conversation about her: she felt as if her life was beating
+itself out against those red windows. A clock in the market-place chimed
+the hour of nine: she counted the strokes, with a sense of wonder when
+they stopped. She seemed to have been waiting for a century.
+
+Across the street she could see the glimmer of a light summer dress in
+Lord Cranston's apartment. It moved restlessly backwards and forwards
+from one window to the other: now it shone out in the balcony above the
+street: now it retired into the darkness of the room. Clarice gauged Lady
+Cranston's impatience by her own, and experienced a fellow-feeling of
+sympathy. 'During this suspense,' she thought, 'you and I ought to be
+together.' As the thought flashed into her mind, her husband spoke to
+her. She set a hand before her eyes and did not answer him. She realised
+that she had been thinking of herself as Drake's wife. On the instant
+every force within her seemed to concentrate and fuse into one passionate
+longing. 'If only that were true!' She felt the longing throb through
+every vein: she acknowledged it: she expressed it clearly to herself. If
+only that were true! And then in a second the longing was displaced by an
+equally passionate regret.
+
+'It might have been,' she thought.
+
+Again her husband spoke to her. She turned towards him almost fiercely,
+and saw that he was offering her a shawl. She steadied her voice to
+decline it, and turned back again to the window. But now as she looked
+across the street, she was filled with a new and very bitter envy. The
+woman over there had the right to suffer for her suspense.
+
+At last the clock doled out ten strokes with a grudging deliberation, and
+less than five minutes later the shadow of a man was seen upon one of the
+red blinds. In the street below the people surged forward: there was a
+running flash of white as their heads were thrown back and their faces
+upturned to the Hall; and the shouts and cries swelled to a Babel,
+tearing the air. The blind was withdrawn, the window thrown open: Clarice
+could see people pressing forward in the room. They looked in the glare
+of yellow light like black ninepins. A gleam of bright scarlet shot out
+from amongst them, and the Mayor stepped on to the balcony above the
+archway. The tumult died rapidly to absolute silence, a silence deeper
+than the silence of desolate places, because one saw the crowd and one's
+ears were still tingling with the echo of its shouts. It was as though
+all sound, all motion had been arrested by some enchantment, and in the
+midst of that silence one word was launched down the street.
+
+'Drake!'
+
+The announcement of the numbers was lost in the sudden renewal of
+conflicting shouts. Clarice made no effort to ascertain them. That one
+word 'Drake' filled the world for her. The very noise in the street came
+to her ears with a dull muffled sound as though it had travelled across a
+wide space, and it seemed no more than an undertone to the ringing name.
+
+She saw Stephen Drake come forward and give place to his opponent, and
+after a little the street began to clear. The number thirty-five,
+incessantly repeated by the retiring crowd, penetrated to her mind and
+informed her of the actual majority. In about half an hour a little
+stream of people trickled from the porch of the Town Hall, and, gathering
+in volume, flowed into a narrow passage which led to the Conservative
+Club, a few yards to the right of the hotel. Clarice caught a glimpse of
+Drake's face at the head of the procession as he passed under a gas-lamp
+above the mouth of the passage, and was surprised by its expression of
+despondency. A fear sprang up in her mind that some mistake had been made
+in the announcement, but the fear was dispelled by the tone of her
+uncle's voice as he shouted an invitation to some one across the street
+to join them at the Club. It was a tone of boisterous exultation. There
+could be no doubt that Drake had been elected, and she wondered at the
+cause of his dejection.
+
+A few minutes later a second stream flowed along the opposite pavement
+towards the Liberal Club in the Market Square, and drew most of the
+remaining loiterers into its current. The noise and bustle grew fainter
+and died away: the lights were extinguished in the houses, and only one
+small group, clustering excitedly about the passage, relieved the quarter
+of its native sleepiness.
+
+Clarice turned with a certain reluctance into the room. It was empty, and
+the voices of her companions rose from the hall below. She did not follow
+them, however. There was time enough, for the party could not leave until
+Captain Le Mesurier returned from the Conservative Club. She went back to
+her post. Through the open window opposite to her she perceived the
+glimmer of a light dress in the dark of the room, but it was motionless
+now, a fixed patch of white. Clarice experienced a revulsion of pity for
+Lady Cranston. 'What must be her thoughts?' she asked herself.
+
+She remained at the window until the party from the Club emerged again
+from the passage and turned towards the hotel.
+
+Clarice heard her husband's voice asking where Drake was, and what in
+the world was the matter with him. Captain Le Mesurier replied, and the
+reply rang boisterously. 'He's behind. He's a bit unstrung, I fancy,
+and reason enough too, after all his work, eh? You see, Drake's
+not in the habit of taking holidays,' and the Captain grew hilarious
+over his allusion.
+
+Across the street Clarice saw the light dress flutter and move abruptly.
+It was evident that Lady Cranston had heard and understood the words.
+
+Drake followed some few minutes later, and alone. He walked slowly to the
+hotel with an air of utter weariness, as though the springs of his
+activity had been broken. A moment after, he had entered it; she heard
+him ascending the staircase, and she drew instinctively close within the
+curtains. He pushed open the door, walked forward into the embrasure of
+the window, and stood within a foot of Clarice, apparently gazing into
+the street. A pale light from the gas-lamp over the front door flickered
+upon his face. It was haggard and drawn, the lips were pressed closely
+together, the eyelids shut tightly over the eyes--a white mask of pain.
+Or was this the real face, Clarice wondered, and that which he showed to
+the world the mask?
+
+She was almost afraid to move; she even held her breath.
+
+Suddenly the echoes of the street were reawakened. Drake roused himself
+and opened his eyes. A small group of people strolled out of the
+market-place and stopped in front of the 'Yellow Boar.' There was
+interchange of farewells, a voice said encouragingly, 'Better luck next
+time,' and one man entered the hotel.
+
+In the room opposite a match flared up and Lady Cranston lit the gas. She
+stood for a moment underneath the chandelier, in the full light,
+listening. Then she walked quickly to the mirror above the mantelpiece
+and appeared to dry her eyes and cheeks with her handkerchief. She turned
+to the door almost guiltily, just as it opened. Lord Cranston advanced
+into the room, and his wife moved towards him. The whole scene, every
+movement, every corner of the room was visible to Clarice like a scene on
+the stage of a theatre; it was visible also to Drake.
+
+Clarice could note the disconsolate attitude of Lord Cranston, the smile
+of tenderness upon his wife's face. She saw Lady Cranston set her arms
+gently about his neck, and her lips move, and then a low hoarse cry burst
+from Drake at her side.
+
+It sounded to her articulate with all the anguish and all the suffering
+of which she had ever heard. There was a harsh note of irony in it too,
+which deepened its sadness. It seemed almost an acknowledgment of defeat
+in the actual moment of victory--a recognition that after all his
+opponent had really won.
+
+The cry was a revelation to Clarice; it struck her like a blow, and she
+started under it, so that the rings of the curtain rattled upon the pole.
+
+Drake bent sharply towards her; she caught a gleam of his eyes in the
+darkness. Then with a catch of his breath he started back. Clarice heard
+the click of a match-box, the scraping of a lucifer, and Drake held the
+lighted match above his head.
+
+'You!' he said.
+
+Clarice moved out from the curtain and confronted him. She did not
+answer, and he did not speak again. Clarice was in no doubt as to the
+meaning of his cry. His eyes even in that unsteady light told it to her
+only too clearly.
+
+And this was the man whom she had believed to stand in no need of a
+woman's companionship. The thought at the actual moment of its occurrence
+sent a strange thrill of disappointment through her; she had built up her
+pride in him so confidently upon this notion of his independence. And
+having built up her pride, she had lived in it, using this very notion as
+her excuse and justification. She ran no risk, she had felt.
+
+'Clarice!'
+
+The name was shouted impatiently from the hall, and came to them quite
+audibly through the half-opened door. But neither she nor Drake seemed to
+hear it. They stood looking silently into each other's eyes.
+
+At last she began to speak, and as she spoke, her sense of disappointment
+diminished and died. She became conscious again of the suffering which
+his cry had confessed. The contrast between this one outburst and his
+ordinary self-control enforced its meaning upon her. It seemed still to
+be ringing in her ears, stretched out to a continuous note, and her voice
+gradually took a tone as of one pleading for forgiveness.
+
+'I did not know,' she said. 'I always thought of you as--' and she gave a
+queer little laugh, 'as driving about London in hansoms, and working
+quite contentedly. I never imagined that you cared at all--really, I
+mean, as I know now. Even right at the beginning--that afternoon in
+Beaufort Gardens, I never imagined that. Indeed, I was afraid of you.'
+
+'Afraid!' Drake echoed the word with an accent of wonderment.
+
+'Yes, yes, afraid. I believed that I should mean so little to you, that I
+should be of no use or help to you. And that's why--I--I--married--'
+
+Drake straightened his shoulders with a jerk as Clarice uttered the word.
+He became aware of the tell-tale look in his eyes, and lowered them from
+the girl's face to the ground.
+
+'You mustn't fancy,' he began in a hesitating tone. 'You mustn't
+misunderstand. I was thinking what men owe to women--that's all--that's
+all, indeed--and how vilely they repay it. That way, like Cranston'--he
+nodded in the direction of the house across the street--'or worse--or
+worse,' he clung to the word on a lift of his voice, as though he found
+some protection in it, as though he appealed to Clarice to agree with and
+second him, 'or worse.'
+
+The match burned down to his fingers, and he dropped it on the floor and
+set his foot on it. Once in the darkness he repeated 'or worse,' with a
+note almost of despair, and then he was silent. Clarice simply waited.
+She stood, feeling the darkness throb about her, listening to the sharp
+irregular breathing which told her where Drake stood. In a few moments
+he stirred, and she stretched out her hands towards him. But again she
+heard the click of a match-box, and again the thin flame of light flared
+up in the room.
+
+'Clarice!'
+
+Her name was shouted up a second time. There was a sound of quicker
+footsteps upon the stairs, the door was flung back, and Sidney Mallinson
+entered the room. Drake lighted the gas.
+
+'We have been waiting for you,' said Mallinson to his wife. 'I couldn't
+think where you had got to,' and he glanced from her to Drake.
+
+'I have been here all the time,' she said with a certain defiance.
+
+Mallinson turned and walked down the stairs again, without as much as a
+word to Drake. Clarice followed him, and after her came Drake.
+
+'Ah, here you are!' said Captain Le Mesurier. 'Now we're ready. Drake,
+you are coming back with us?'
+
+Drake hesitated.
+
+'You said you would at the Town Hall. So I have had your bag packed, and
+put in the waggonette.'
+
+'Very well,' he assented; and the party went outside the hotel.
+
+'Now, how shall we go?' asked the Captain. 'Mallinson, you of course in
+the waggonette,' and he chuckled with a cheery maliciousness. 'Clarice,
+will you get in?'
+
+'No!' she said with an involuntary vehemence. The idea of driving back
+wedged in amongst a number of people, listening to their chatter, and
+forced to take her share in it, became suddenly repugnant to her. 'I
+would rather drive in the trap, if I might.'
+
+'Very well! But who is to drive you?' Captain Le Mesurier turned to
+Drake. 'You can drive, of course.'
+
+Drake replied absently. 'I have driven the coach from Johannesburg to
+Pretoria, ten mules and a couple of ponies, and a man beside you swinging
+a sixty-foot lash.'
+
+Captain Le Mesurier laughed out. 'Then there'll be no upset to-night.
+Come along.'
+
+The guests took their seats, while Drake stood on the pavement.
+
+'Come along, Drake,' shouted the Captain from the box seat of the
+waggonette.
+
+Drake roused himself with a start. 'I beg your pardon,' he said, and he
+went to the side of the dog-cart. He drew back when he saw Clarice
+already in it, and looked from cart to waggonette. 'I am so sorry,' he
+said in a low voice. 'I was not listening, I am afraid.'
+
+He mounted beside her, whipped up the horse, and drove ahead of the
+waggonette. They passed out of the town into the open country. Behind
+them the sounds of wheels grew fainter and fainter and died away. In
+front the road gleamed through the night like a white riband; the
+hedgerows flung out a homely scent of honeysuckle and wild roses; above,
+the stars rode in a clear sky. To Clarice this was the perfect hour of
+her life. All her speculations had dropped from her; she had but one
+thought, that this man driving her cared for her, as she cared for him.
+It was, in truth, more than a thought; she felt it as a glory about her.
+Accidentally, as the trap swung round a bend of the road, she leaned her
+weight upon his arm and she felt the muscles brace beneath his sleeve.
+The sensation confirmed her thought, and she repeated her action
+deliberately and more than once. She had but one wish, that this drive
+should never end, that they should go forward always side by side through
+a starlit night, in a stillness unbroken by the sound of voices. And that
+wish was more a belief than a wish.
+
+They ascended the slope and came out upon an open moor. It stretched
+around them, dark with heather as far as they could see. The night
+covered it like a tent. It seemed the platform of the world. Clarice
+suddenly recollected her old image of the veld, and she laughed at the
+recollection as one laughs at some queer fancy one has held in childhood.
+
+Across the moor the wind blew freshly into their faces. Drake quickened
+the horse's paces, and Clarice imagined a lyrical note in the ringing
+beat of its hooves. The road dipped towards a valley. A stream wound
+along the bed of it, and as they reached the crest of the moor they could
+see below them the stars mirrored in the stream. Upon one of the banks a
+factory was built, and its six tiers of windows were so many golden spots
+of light like the flames of candles. Drake stopped the trap and sat
+watching the factory.
+
+'Night and day,' he said, 'night and day. There is no end to it. It
+is the law.'
+
+He spoke not so much dispiritedly, but rather as though he was teaching
+himself a lesson which he must needs surely get by heart. He lifted the
+reins and drove down the hill, past the factory and along the valley to
+the gates of Garples. There he stopped the trap again. For a moment
+Clarice fancied that the gates must be shut, but as she bent forward and
+looked across Drake, she saw that they were open. She turned her eyes to
+her companion. He was sitting bolt upright with an unfamiliar expression
+of irresolution upon his face, and he was doubtfully drawing the lash of
+the whip to and fro across the horse's back.
+
+Clarice felt that her life was in the balance. 'Yes,' she whispered.
+
+'No!' Drake almost shouted the word. He turned the horse through the
+gates and drove in a gallop to the door of the house. Clarice heard him
+draw a deep breath of relief as he jumped to the ground. As he was
+pulling off his gloves in the hall, Clarice brushed past him and ran
+quickly up the stairs. He was roused from his reverie by the arrival of
+the rest of the party.
+
+Clarice sent word downstairs that she was tired and would not appear
+at supper.
+
+But an hour later Sidney Mallinson found her seated by the open window.
+She had not even taken off her hat or gloves. Once or twice he seemed on
+the point of speaking, but she faced him steadily and her manner even
+invited his questions. Mallinson turned away with the questions unasked.
+But he lay long awake that night, thinking; and his resentment against
+Drake gained new fuel from his thoughts. The frankness of his wife's
+admiration for Drake had before this awakened his suspicions, and the
+suspicions had become certain knowledge. He guessed, too, that to some
+degree Drake returned his wife's inclination, and he began immediately on
+that account to set a higher value upon the possession of her than he had
+lately done.
+
+Once Clarice heard him laugh aloud harshly. He was thinking of the
+relationship in which he had set Drake to himself in that first novel
+which he had written. Actually the relationship was reversed. 'No, not
+yet,' he said to himself. But it would be, unless he could hit upon some
+plan. The day was breaking when his plan came to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+The next morning Drake's seat at the breakfast table was empty.
+
+'He caught the early train from Bentbridge,' Captain Le Mesurier
+explained. 'Business, I suppose. He told me last thing yesterday night
+that he had to go.'
+
+Clarice coloured and lowered her eyes to her plate. Mallinson noticed her
+embarrassment, and took it for evidence of some secret understanding
+between her and Drake. He became yet more firmly resolved to put his idea
+into action.
+
+'You are not in a hurry,' said Captain Le Mesurier. 'You had better stay
+the week out.'
+
+Mallinson saw his wife raise her head quickly as though she was about to
+object, and immediately accepted the invitation. Parliament would not
+meet for three weeks, he reckoned, since there were still the county
+members to be elected.
+
+Clarice spent the week in defining the relationship in which she and
+Drake were henceforth to stand towards each other. They were to be
+animated by a stern spirit of duty,--by the same spirit, in fact, which
+had compelled Drake to court-martial Gorley in Africa, and subsequently
+to detail the episode to her. Duty was to keep them apart. She came to
+think of duty as a row of footlights across which they could from time to
+time look into each other's eyes.
+
+Clarice felt that there was something very reassuring and protective in
+this notion of duty. It justified her in buying a copy of _Frou-Frou_,
+which lay upon the bookstall at Bentbridge railway station, and in
+studying it continuously all the way from Bentbridge to London. She was
+impelled to purchase it by a recollection that Drake had first been
+introduced to her at a performance of that play, and his criticisms
+returned to her thoughts as she read the dialogue. The play had seemed
+true to him, the disaster inevitable--given the particular characters,
+and she bore the qualification particularly in mind. There was a
+difference between _Frou-Frou_ and a woman animated by a sense of duty; a
+difference of kind, rather than of degree. Sidney Mallinson remarked the
+book which she was reading, but he made no comment whatsoever.
+
+The next morning he paid a long call upon the editor of the _Meteor_.
+
+Meanwhile, Drake was devoting himself to the business of the Matanga
+Company, with an assiduity unusual even for him. Fielding discovered that
+he seldom left the city before ten at night, and felt it incumbent to
+expostulate with him. 'You can't go on like this for much longer, you
+know. You had better take a rest. There's no need for all this work.'
+
+'There is,' replied Drake. 'I want to clear off arrears, because I am not
+sure that I oughtn't to go out again to Matanga. You see I can do it
+quite easily. Parliament meets in a fortnight to vote supplies. It will
+adjourn, it's thought, three weeks later. I could leave England in
+September, and get back easily in time for the regular sessions.'
+
+'But why should you go at all?' asked Fielding. 'You haven't been back a
+year as it is.'
+
+'I know,' said Drake slowly. 'But it seems to me that it would inspire
+confidence, and that sort of thing, if one of us were out there as much
+as possible. You see, thanks to you and Burl, I can leave everything
+here quite safely,' and he returned to his desk as though the discussion
+was ended.
+
+A week later he received an invitation to dinner from Mr. Le Mesurier,
+and the invitation was so worded that he could find no becoming excuse to
+decline it. The dinner was given, the note stated, in order to celebrate
+his victory at Bentbridge. Fielding and he went together, and when they
+arrived, they found Mallinson taking off his coat in the hall.
+
+'Where have you been all this time?' asked Fielding. 'I haven't seen
+you about.'
+
+'At Clapham,' replied Mallinson.
+
+'I don't know it.'
+
+'It's a suburb to the south-west.'
+
+'That's why.'
+
+'My mother lives there.'
+
+'I am very sorry.'
+
+The words might have been intended to convey either an apology, or an
+expression of sympathy with his mother. Mallinson preferred to take them
+in the former sense. 'I took my wife down there,' he continued. 'She
+wanted more quiet than one can get in London.'
+
+Fielding noticed, however, that Clapham quiet had not materially
+benefited Mrs. Mallinson. He commented on her worn appearance to Mrs.
+Willoughby, when they were seated at the dinner-table.
+
+'She has been staying, she tells me, with her husband's people,' replied
+Mrs. Willoughby. 'I fancy she finds them trying.'
+
+Clarice was placed next to Drake, upon the opposite side to Mrs.
+Willoughby, and out of ear-shot, and was endeavouring to talk to him
+indifferently. 'You never take a holiday, I suppose. Where are you going
+this year?' she asked.
+
+'To Matanga,' said Drake.
+
+'Matanga! Oh no.' The words slipped from her lips before she was able to
+check them.
+
+'I think that my place is there,' returned Drake, 'at all events for the
+moment. I shall go as soon as the House rises.'
+
+'I thought you didn't mean to leave London again.'
+
+'One gets over ideas of that kind. After all, my interests lie in
+Matanga, and one gets a kind of affection for the place which makes
+your fortune.'
+
+The recantation was uttered with sufficient awkwardness. But Clarice was
+too engrossed in her own thoughts to notice his embarrassment. 'Do you
+remember when I first met you?' she asked. 'It was at a performance of
+_Frou-Frou_.'
+
+'I remember quite well,' said he. 'I was rather struck with the play.'
+
+'I have been reading it lately.'
+
+Drake started at the significant tone in which the words were spoken.
+'Really?' he said, with an uneasy laugh. 'What impressed me was that
+scene at Venice, where Gilberte and De Valreas read over the list of
+plays in the Paris newspapers, and realise what they have thrown away,
+and for how little. It seemed to me the saddest scene I had ever
+witnessed.'
+
+'Yes,' interposed Clarice quickly. 'But because Paris and its theatres
+meant so much to them. I remember what you said, that everything in the
+play seemed so true just to those characters, Gilberte and De Valreas.'
+
+She glanced at him as she uttered the last name. Drake understood that
+she was drawing a distinction between him and the fashionable lounger
+of the play.
+
+'Besides,' she went on, dropping her voice, 'Gilberte left a child behind
+her. Her unhappiness turned on that.'
+
+'In a way, no doubt, but the loss of friends, station, home, counts
+for something--for enough to destroy her liking for De Valreas at
+all events.'
+
+'For De Valreas!' insisted Clarice. 'He was not worth the sacrifice.' She
+paused for a moment, and then continued diffidently. 'There's something
+else; I hardly like to tell you it. You wouldn't notice it from seeing
+the play. I didn't; but it came to me when I read the book. I think the
+play's absolutely untrue, yes, even to those characters, in one respect.'
+
+'And what's that?' asked Drake.
+
+Clarice glanced round. Her neighbours, she perceived, were talking.
+Mrs. Willoughby was too far off to hear. She dropped her voice to a yet
+lower key and said, 'They make the husband kill the lover in the duel.
+It's always the end in books and plays; but really the opposite of that
+would happen.'
+
+Drake leant back in his chair and stared at her. 'What do you mean?'
+
+'Hush!' she said warningly, and turning away she spoke for a little
+to the man on the other side of her. Then she turned back. 'I mean,'
+she said, 'if two people really care for one another, their love
+would triumph over everything--everything. De Valreas would have
+killed the husband.' She spoke with an intense conviction of the
+truth of what she said.
+
+'But, my dear child!' replied Drake. 'You--oh, you don't really
+believe that.'
+
+'I do,' she answered. 'You see, there are so few people who really care
+for one another. If you find two who do, I am sure they would conquer,
+whatever stood in the way.'
+
+The conversation was interrupted, to Drake's relief, by Captain Le
+Mesurier. He rose from the corner of the table to propose the health of
+the guest of the evening. He said that he was proud to be represented in
+Parliament by a man of Stephen Drake's calibre. If there was anything of
+which he was prouder, it was the way in which the election had been
+fought at Bentbridge. That election was the triumph not merely of a man
+or a cause, but of a method; and that method was honesty and fair-play.
+'We never indulged in personalities,' he continued, with shameless
+sincerity. 'I have always myself been very strong on that point. Fight of
+course for all you're worth, but never indulge in personalities. It's a
+good rule. It's a rule that helped Stephen Drake to win his seat. We
+followed it. We left the lies for the opponent to tell, and he told them.
+But we never did and never will indulge in contemptible personalities.'
+
+The Captain subsided to a gentle rapping of forks and spoons upon the
+table, while Fielding said pointedly, 'Yes, Captain, you deserve your
+holidays,' and he emphasised the word. The Captain caught the allusion
+and laughed heartily. It was evident that he saw no inconsistency between
+the epigram and his professed method of contesting an election.
+
+Drake replied shortly, and the ladies retired. Mallinson moved round the
+table, and seated himself in the chair which Clarice had left.
+
+'Do you think of speaking at all during this session?' he asked.
+
+'I am not quite sure,' replied Drake; 'but I rather think I shall on the
+colonial vote. You see there's first-class wheat-growing land in Africa,
+quite near to the west coast. We import practically all that we use in
+England. Well, why shouldn't we import it from our own dominions?
+Besides, the route would be so much safer in times of war, unless, of
+course, we were at war with France. Ships could slip up the coast of
+Africa, across the bay and into Plymouth with much less risk than if they
+have to sail from the Argentines or some place like that. I believe, if
+the Colonial Office could be induced to move in the matter, the idea
+might be carried out. What do you think?'
+
+Mallinson carelessly assented and returned to his seat.
+
+For the remainder of the evening Drake avoided Clarice. As he was taking
+his leave, however, she came up to him. He shook her by the hand and she
+whispered one word to him, 'Matanga.' Drake could not mistake the note of
+longing in her voice, and as he drove to his chambers the temptation with
+which he had wrestled at the gates of Garples assailed him again, and
+with double force. He had but to speak, he knew, and she would come. The
+loneliness of his rooms made the struggle yet harder, yet more doubtful.
+He pictured to himself what he had never had, a home, and he located that
+home in Matanga. The arid plain blossomed in his imagination, for he saw
+the weariness die out of Clarice's face.
+
+He tossed restlessly through the night, until one thought emerged from
+the turmoil of his ideas, fashioned itself into a fact, and stood framed
+there before his eyes. He held the future of Clarice in the hollow of his
+hand. Her fate rested upon his decision, and he must decide.
+
+Drake rose and walked out on to the balcony, as the dawn was breaking
+over London. A white mist was crawling above the Thames; he could see
+a glimpse of the water here and there as the mist shredded. He turned
+to the west and looked towards Westminster, recollecting how his name
+and purposes had centred there as though drawn by a magnet. But in
+that clear morning light they seemed unreal and purposeless. One
+immediate responsibility invaded him, and, contrasted with that, his
+ambitions dwindled into vanities. He filled no place, he realised,
+which would be vacant unless he occupied it. He had to decide for
+Clarice and solely for her.
+
+Drake took up his hat and walked out of London to Elm Tree Hill. There,
+gazing down upon its spires asparkle in the early sunlight, while the
+city gradually awoke and the hum of its stirring began to swell through
+the air, he came to his decision. Clarice belonged to London; he did not.
+In Matanga she would be content--for how long? The roughness, the absence
+of her kind and class, the makeshift air of transition, would soon
+destroy its charm of novelty. Every instinct would draw her back to
+London, and the way would be barred, whilst for him Matanga was a
+province in which every capacity he possessed could find employment and
+exercise. He would leave England for Matanga when this short session was
+over; he would resign his seat and settle there for good. For if he
+stayed in London, every step which he took, every advance which he made,
+would only add to Clarice's miseries.
+
+Thus he decided, and walked back with his mind at rest, without regret
+for the loss of his ambitions, without, indeed, any real consciousness of
+the sacrifice which he had it in his thoughts to make.
+
+Thus he decided, but as he left his office on the afternoon of the day
+whereon he was to make his speech in the House of Commons, Fielding
+rushed up to him with a copy of the _Meteor_.
+
+'Look!' he said, and pointed to an article. Drake took the paper and read
+the article through. His face darkened as he read. The article had a
+headline which puzzled Drake for a moment. It was entitled _The Drabious
+Duke_, and it proceeded to set out the episode of Gorley's court-martial
+and execution. The facts, Drake recognised, were not exaggerated, but the
+sting lay in the suggestion with which it concluded.
+
+'We have no doubt,' the leader-writer stated, 'that both the
+court-martial and execution were in accordance with the letter of the
+law, but, since Mr. Stephen Drake is now one of the legislators of this
+country, we feel it our duty to submit two facts for the consideration of
+our readers. In the first place we would call attention to the secrecy in
+which the incident has been carefully shrouded. In the second, Gorley
+undoubtedly secured a considerable quantity of gold-dust. Now, it is
+perfectly well known that the Government of Matanga pays a commission on
+all gold-dust brought down to the coast. We have gone into the matter
+carefully, and we positively assert that no commission whatever was paid
+in any such plunder during the two months which followed Mr. Drake's
+return from Boruwimi. What, then, became of it? We ask our readers to
+weigh these two facts dispassionately, and we feel justified in adding
+that Mr. Drake would have been quite within his rights in showing
+clemency to Gorley, or in bringing him back to undergo a regular trial.
+However, he preferred to execute him on the spot.'
+
+'He makes me out a thief and a murderer,' said Drake. 'I wonder where he
+got the story from?'
+
+Fielding answered slowly, 'I am afraid that I can throw some light on
+that. I told Mallinson some time ago, before he was married.'
+
+'Mallinson!' exclaimed Drake, stopping in the street. 'Oh, you think the
+article comes from him?' Then he turned to Fielding. 'And how did you
+know of it?'
+
+'Well,' said Fielding with some hesitation, 'Mrs. Willoughby told me.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'We neither of us, of course, knew you very well then. Mrs. Willoughby
+had only just met you, and she didn't feel quite certain that Clarice
+ought to be kept in ignorance of the matter, so she asked my advice.'
+
+'Quite so,' answered Drake. 'I understand. You thought Clarice ought to
+be informed, and you were right. I told her of the matter myself.'
+
+'No,' exclaimed Fielding; 'I'll tell you the whole truth while I am about
+it. I advised Mrs. Willoughby to say nothing, but I behaved like a damned
+cad, and told Mallinson myself afterwards. I had quite another reason for
+telling him.'
+
+'Oh, never mind!' broke in Drake. 'The question is, what's to be
+done now?'
+
+'You must sue the paper!'
+
+'Of course. I was thinking whether I couldn't mention the matter to-night
+in the House of Commons. You see it has got into the papers that I mean
+to speak, and perhaps I ought to make use of the opportunity.'
+
+Fielding jumped at the idea. 'By Jove, yes,' he said. 'I should think, in
+fact, the directors of the Company will rather expect it.'
+
+They walked together until they reached the corner of Parliament Street;
+there they stopped.
+
+'I am awfully sorry, Drake,' said Fielding. 'I behaved like a
+blackguard.'
+
+Drake again cut him short. 'Oh, I don't see that. The thing looked fishy,
+I don't doubt, and you weren't bound to me in any way. Good-bye,' and he
+held out his hand with a cordial smile.
+
+'Good-bye,' said Fielding, and they separated.
+
+On reaching his flat Drake was informed that a lady was waiting to see
+him. He crossed the passage and opened the door of his sitting-room. Mrs.
+Mallinson was standing by the window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+She turned quickly as the door closed and took a step towards the centre
+of the room. Drake perceived that she had a copy of the _Meteor_ in her
+hand. 'You have seen this?' she asked.
+
+'Yes.' He remained by the door with his hand on the knob.
+
+'And you guessed who wrote it?'
+
+'I have been told.' He answered her coldly and quietly.
+
+'I know what you think,' she replied. 'But it's not true. I never told
+him the story. He knew it long ago--before you went back to
+Matanga--before I married him.' Her voice took a pleading tone. 'You will
+believe that, won't you?'
+
+'It never occurred to me that you had told him. I know, in fact, who did.
+But even if you had--well, you had the right to tell him.' Clarice gave a
+stamp of impatience. 'He is your husband.'
+
+'My husband!' she interrupted, and she tore the newspaper across and
+dropped it on to the floor. 'My husband! Ah, I wouldn't have believed
+that even he could have done a thing so mean. And, to add to the meanness
+of it, he went away yesterday, for a week. I know why, now; he dared not
+face me.' Then of a sudden her voice softened. 'But it's my fault too, in
+a way,' she went on. 'He knew the story a long time ago, and never used
+it. I don't suppose he would have used it now, if I hadn't--since your
+election--let him see--' She broke off the sentence, and took a step
+nearer to Drake. 'Stephen, I meant to let him see.'
+
+Drake drew himself up against the door. It would be no longer of any
+service to her, he thought, if he left England and returned to Matanga.
+Something more trenchant was needed.
+
+He reflected again that he filled no place which another could not fill,
+and the reflection took a wider meaning than it had done before. 'Yes,'
+he said; 'it's very awkward that it should all come out just now.'
+
+Clarice stared at him in perplexity. 'Awkward that it should all come
+out,' she repeated vaguely; and then, with an accent of relief, 'You mean
+that it will injure the Company?'
+
+'Not so much that. The Company can run without me--quite well now--I am
+certain of it.' He spoke as though he was endeavouring to assure himself
+of what he said.
+
+'But it won't hurt you, really,' she exclaimed. 'You can disprove the
+charges, and of course you must, I know you hesitate--for my sake--to
+bring an action and expose the writer. But you must, and I don't think,'
+she lowered her eyes to the ground, 'you would hurt me by doing that.'
+For a moment she was silent. Drake made no answer, and she raised her
+eyes again to his face. 'You can disprove it--oh, of course,' she said,
+with a little anxious laugh.
+
+'That depends,' he answered slowly, 'upon how much the _Meteor_ knows.'
+
+Clarice drew back and caught at the table to steady herself. Once or
+twice she pressed her hand across her forehead. 'Oh, don't stand like
+that,' she burst out, 'as if it was all true.'
+
+'But they can't prove it's true,' exclaimed Drake, with a trace of
+cunning in his voice. 'No; they can't prove it's true.'
+
+'But is it?' Clarice stood in front of him, her hands clenched. Drake
+dropped his eyes from her face, raised them again, and again lowered
+them. 'Is it?' she repeated, and her voice rose to the tone of a demand.
+
+'Yes,' and he answered her in a whisper.
+
+Clarice recoiled from him with a cry of disgust. She noticed that he drew
+a long breath--of relief, it seemed--like the criminal when his crime is
+at last brought home to him. 'Then all that story,' she began, 'you told
+me at Beaufort Gardens about--about Boruwimi was just meant to deceive
+me. You talked about duty! Duty compelled you! You would have hanged
+Gorley just the same had you known that he had been engaged to me.' She
+began to laugh hysterically. 'It was all duty,--duty from beginning to
+end, and I believed you. Heaven help me, I came to honour you for it. And
+in reality it was a lie!' She lashed the words at him, but he stood
+patiently, and made no rejoinder. 'I always wondered why you told me the
+story,' she continued. 'You felt that I had a right to know, I remember.
+And you felt bound to tell me. It's clear enough now why you felt bound.
+You had found out, I suppose, that my husband knew--' She stopped
+suddenly, as though some new thought had flashed into her mind. 'And I
+came here to give up everything--just for your sake. Oh, suppose that I
+hadn't found you out!'
+
+She stooped and picked up from the floor the torn pages of the _Meteor_.
+She folded them carefully and then moved towards the door. Drake opened
+it and stood aside.
+
+Clarice went out, called a hansom and drove home. When she arrived there
+she ordered tea to be brought to the drawing-room and sat down and again
+read the article in the _Meteor_. When the tea was brought, she ordered
+it to be taken into Sidney's study. She walked restlessly about that
+room, as though she was trying to habituate herself to it. A green shade
+lay upon the writing-table, which her husband was accustomed to wear over
+his eyes. She took it up, looked at it for a little, and then threw it
+down again with an air of weariness and distaste. A few minutes later
+Percy Conway called and was admitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Fielding opened his newspaper the next morning with unusual eagerness,
+and, turning to the Parliamentary reports, glanced down column after
+column in search of Drake's speech. The absence of it threw him into some
+consternation. He tossed the newspaper on to the breakfast-table and rose
+from his seat. As he moved, however, he caught sight of Drake's name at
+the beginning of a leader, and he read the leader through. It dealt with
+the accusation of the _Meteor_, and expressed considerable surprise that
+Drake had not seized the opportunity of denying it in the House of
+Commons. It was mentioned that Drake had not been seen there at any time
+during the course of the evening.
+
+Fielding jumped to the conclusion that he had met with an accident,
+and set out for his chambers on the instant. He found Drake quietly
+eating his breakfast. Only half the table, however, was laid for the
+meal; the other half was littered with papers and correspondence,
+while a pile of stamped letters stood on one corner. 'I was expecting
+you,' said Drake quietly.
+
+'Why, what on earth has happened?' asked Fielding. 'Why didn't you speak
+last night?'
+
+'I thought it would be the wisest plan to leave the matter alone.'
+
+'But you can't,' exclaimed Fielding. 'Read this!' and he handed to him
+the newspaper. 'You can't leave it alone.'
+
+'I can, and shall,' replied Drake, and he returned to his breakfast.
+
+'But, my dear fellow, you can't understand what that means! Read the
+leader, then.' Drake glanced quickly down it. 'Now, do you understand? It
+means utter ruin, utter disgrace, unless you answer this charge, and
+answer it at once. You will have created a false enough impression
+already.' Drake, however, made no response beyond a shrug of his
+shoulders. 'But, good Lord, man,' continued Fielding, 'your name's at
+stake. You can't sit quiet as if this was an irresponsible piece of
+paragraph-writing. You would have to resign your seat in Parliament, your
+connection with the Matanga Company--everything. You couldn't possibly
+live in England.'
+
+'Do you think I haven't counted up precisely what inaction is going to
+cost me?' interrupted Drake. 'Look here!' and he took a couple of letters
+from the pile and handed them to Fielding. One was addressed to the whip
+of his party, and the other to the directors of the Matanga Concessions.
+'And I leave Charing Cross at ten o'clock this morning.'
+
+Fielding looked at his watch; it was half-past nine. 'Then you mean to
+run away?' he gasped. 'But, in Heaven's name, why?'
+
+'For an obvious reason. Yesterday I believed that I could meet the
+charge. But something has happened since then, and I know now that I
+can't.'
+
+Fielding started back. 'Do you mean to tell me, as man to man, that the
+accusation's true.'
+
+'As man to man,' repeated Drake steadily, 'I tell you that it is true.'
+
+Fielding stared at him for a minute. Then he said, 'Drake, you're a
+damned liar.'
+
+'We haven't much time,' said Drake, 'and I would like to say something to
+you about the future of the Matanga settlement. You will take my place, I
+suppose. You can, and ought to'; and he entered at once into details on
+administration.
+
+The advice, however, was lost upon Fielding. Once he interrupted Drake.
+'How many white men were with you on the Boruwimi expedition?' he asked.
+
+'Four,' answered Drake, and he gave the names. 'They are dead, though.
+Two died of fever on the way back; one was killed in a subsequent
+expedition, and the fourth was drowned about eighteen months ago off
+Walfisch Bay.' A noise of portmanteaux being dragged along the passage
+penetrated through the closed door. Drake looked at his watch, and
+started to his feet. 'I must be off,' he said; 'I am late as it is. You
+might do something for me, and that is to post these letters.'
+
+'But, man, you are not really going?'
+
+Drake for answer put on his hat and took up his stick. 'Good-bye,' he
+said.
+
+'But, look here! Do you ask me to believe that you would have been giving
+me all this advice, if you had really done what that infernal paper makes
+you out to have done?'
+
+'I'll give you a final piece of advice too. Give up philandering and
+get married!'
+
+With that he opened the door and went out, and a few seconds later
+Fielding heard the sound of his cab-wheels rattle on the pavement.
+
+Drake, on reaching Charing Cross, found that he had more time to spare
+than he had reckoned. He was walking slowly along the train in search of
+an empty compartment when, from a window a few paces ahead of him, a face
+flashed out, and as suddenly withdrew. The face was Conway's, and Drake
+felt that the sudden withdrawal meant a distinct desire to avoid
+recognition. He set the desire down to the unrepulsed attack of the
+_Meteor_, and since he had no inclination to force his company upon
+Conway, he turned on his heel and moved towards the other end of the
+train. He was just opposite the archway of the booking-office when a
+woman, heavily veiled and of a slight figure, came out of it. At the
+sight of Drake she came to a dead stop, and so attracted his attention.
+Then she quickly turned her back to him, walked to the bookstall, and
+slipped round the side of it into the waiting-room. Drake wheeled about
+again. Conway's head was stretched out of the window; and he was gazing
+towards the bookstall.
+
+Drake was in no doubt as to who the woman was, and he felt his heart turn
+to stone. He walked quickly back until he reached Conway's compartment.
+It was empty save for him, but there was a reserved label in the window.
+
+'Holloa!' said Conway, awkwardly enough. 'Are you going by this train?
+You had better find a seat if you are.'
+
+'But I'm not,' said Drake; 'I thought of going, but I have changed my
+mind.' He leaned against the door of the carriage chatting incessantly to
+Conway, with an eye upon the waiting-room. Once he saw the woman appear
+at the door, but she retired again. Meanwhile Conway's embarrassment
+increased. He said 'Good-bye' to Drake at least half-a-dozen times, but
+on each occasion Drake had something new to say to him. At last the
+whistle sounded and the train began to move. 'I say,' cried Drake,
+running along by the carriage. 'My luggage is in the van. You might bring
+it back with you from Dover, if you will,' and he stood watching the
+train until it disappeared under the shed.
+
+Then he walked into the waiting-room. He saw Clarice seated in a
+corner, and went straight to her. She noticed that his face was white
+and set, and she rose with some instinct of defiance. 'I owe you an
+apology,' he said abruptly. 'The _Meteor_ is untrue from the first word
+to the last. I mean to stay in London, and fight it; yesterday
+afternoon I told you lies.'
+
+'Why?' she asked.
+
+'Sheer lunacy,' said he; and he got into a cab and drove to the offices
+of his solicitor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Meanwhile Fielding picked up the pile of letters from the table in
+Drake's chambers and went down into the street. He paused for a moment or
+two at the pillar-box weighing the letters in his hand. Then he slipped
+them into his pocket and hurried to Mrs. Willoughby's.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby was moving restlessly about the drawing-room as he was
+shown in. She turned impulsively towards him, holding out both hands. 'I
+so hoped you would come,' she said. 'Well? You have seen him?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'What does he mean to do?' she asked anxiously, taking from a chair a
+copy of the _Meteor_.
+
+'Nothing,' replied Fielding. 'He resigns his seat; he gives up his
+directorship; he is leaving England.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby's first look was of sheer incredulity. 'It's impossible!'
+she exclaimed.
+
+'I have just returned from his chambers. He has started from Charing
+Cross already.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby sat down in the window-seat, and her look of incredulity
+gradually changed to one of comprehension. 'And he took such delight in
+London,' she said, with a break in her voice; 'just like a schoolboy.'
+
+Fielding nodded gloomily. 'I did my best to dissuade him,' he said. 'I
+practically told him he was a coward to run away. But you know the man.
+He had made up his mind not to face the charge. And yet I can't believe
+it's true.'
+
+'Believe it!' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby, with a hint of something
+dangerously near to scorn in her voice.
+
+'I know, I know,' answered Fielding. 'Still Drake pleads guilty. He
+sacrifices everything, an established position, unusual
+prospects--everything, by pleading guilty. You see, that's the point. He
+has every imaginable inducement to make him face the accusation, even if
+he has only the merest chance of winning, and yet he runs away. He runs
+away--Drake does. There's only one inference--'
+
+'For the world to draw,' interrupted Mrs. Willoughby; 'and doubtless he
+meant the world to draw it. But you and I should know him better.'
+
+'Yes,' Fielding admitted. 'Yes.' He began to walk about the room. 'But
+what's the reason? Drake's action, if this statement is a libel, is the
+action of a madman.'
+
+'A madman? Yes! Don Quixote was mad even in his century,' replied Mrs.
+Willoughby. 'I can give you the reason. Clarice was with him yesterday
+afternoon.'
+
+'Yesterday?' said Fielding. 'Why, I walked home with Drake from the
+City myself.'
+
+'But you didn't go in with him.'
+
+'No; I left him alone to arrange his speech. He meant to mention this
+very charge.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby started to her feet. 'Then that settles it,' she said.
+'Clarice was waiting for him in his rooms. Oh, if you had only gone in
+with him! You remember what I wrote to you, that he would lie in the
+mud if he thought it would save her. Well, that is what he has done.
+Clarice came here this very morning and told me what had happened. She
+went to his chambers, determined never to return to her husband,
+prepared to sacrifice--I give you her words, not mine--to sacrifice
+herself, her name, and for his sake. But when she showed him the
+_Meteor_ her suspicions were aroused by his manner, and she forced the
+truth out of him.'
+
+Fielding gave a short, contemptuous laugh. 'Forced the truth out of him!
+She actually told you that?'
+
+'And what's more, she believes it. Oh the waste, the waste of a man like
+that upon a doll like her. I suppose there's nothing to be done?'
+
+'Nothing; if he won't defend himself, our defence won't carry any
+weight,' he went on, with a change of tone. 'But I don't see what real
+good he does, even to her. She goes back to her husband now, but next
+month or next year there'll be somebody else.'
+
+'Yes,' replied Mrs. Willoughby; 'but I hardly fancy Stephen Drake would
+consider that. I believe he would feel that he had no right to speculate
+on what may not happen. He would just see this one clear, definite,
+immediate thing to do, and simply do it.' She spoke the sentence with a
+slow emphasis upon each word, and Fielding moved uneasily. It seemed to
+strike an accusation at him. He braced himself to make the same
+confession to Mrs. Willoughby which he had made that afternoon before to
+Drake. But, before he could speak it, Mrs. Willoughby put to him a
+question. 'Tell me, did he seem to mind much?'
+
+'No,' Fielding answered with an air of relief. His confession was
+deferred, if only for a minute. 'He seemed cheerful enough. The last
+thing he did,' and he paused for a second, 'was to give me advice about
+the management of the Matanga Company.'
+
+'That's so like him,' she said gently. Then she looked up with a start of
+interest. 'You are going to take his place?' she asked.
+
+'He said I ought to. I know more about it than the other directors. Of
+course they mayn't appoint me, but I expect they will.' Mrs. Willoughby
+was silent. She moved away from the window and stood by the fireplace.
+Fielding crossed to her. 'Drake gave me one other piece of advice,' he
+said hesitatingly,--'not about business. It concerned me and just one
+other person.' He pitched the remark in an interrogative key.
+
+Mrs. Willoughby glanced quickly towards him with just the hint of a smile
+dimpling about the corners of her lips. Fielding found it very difficult
+to go on, but there was one clear, definite, immediate thing for him to
+do as well, he said. 'Before I act on it there is something I ought to
+tell you.' He paused for a second, and the trouble in his voice perplexed
+Mrs. Willoughby. 'Whom do you think Mallinson got his knowledge about
+Gorley from?'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby took a step forward. 'Whom? Why,' and she gave a little
+anxious laugh, 'from Clarice, of course.'
+
+'No.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby looked at him for a moment in silence. Then she drew back
+again. 'You told him?' she asked with a quiet wonder. 'Yes,' Fielding
+nodded. 'But I only told you,' she said, 'because I wanted your advice.
+What made you tell him? There must have been some reason, some good
+reason, some necessity.'
+
+'No; there was no necessity, no good reason, no reason at all,' Fielding
+replied doggedly. 'I told him because--' he stopped abruptly; the reason
+seemed too pitiful for him even to relate.
+
+'Well, because?' asked Mrs. Willoughby. There was a note of hardness
+in the utterance. Fielding raised his eyes and glanced at her face.
+'It comes too late,' he said unconsciously, and he was thinking of
+Drake's advice.
+
+'The reason!' she insisted, taking no notice of the sentence. 'The
+reason!'
+
+'I told Mallinson at the time when I was always meeting him here.'
+
+Mrs. Willoughby gave a start. 'And because of that?' she cried.
+
+'Yes,' said he. 'I thought the knowledge might give him a fairer,' he
+changed the word, 'a better, chance with Clarice.'
+
+'Oh, how mean!' exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby, not so much in anger as in
+absolute disappointment. She turned away from him, and stood for a little
+looking out of the window. Then she said, 'Good-bye.'
+
+And Fielding took his hat and left the house. He went down to the office,
+and was told that Drake wanted to see him.
+
+'Drake!' he exclaimed. He pushed open the door of Drake's private office,
+and the latter looked up from his papers.
+
+'You called me a damned liar this morning,' he said, 'and you were
+right.'
+
+Fielding dropped into a chair. 'What do you mean?'
+
+'That there's not a word of truth in the _Meteor's_ charges, and I am
+prosecuting the editor. Did you post those letters?'
+
+Fielding pulled them out of his pocket and threw them on to the table.
+'Thanks,' said Drake, 'that's fortunate.'
+
+Fielding did not inquire into the cause of Drake's change of purpose, and
+it was some while before he understood it. For Mrs. Willoughby held no
+further discussions with him in the drawing-room at Knightsbridge.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philanderers, by A.E.W. Mason
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