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@@ -0,0 +1,12675 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Market-Place, by Harold Frederic + +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 Market-Place + +Author: Harold Frederic + +Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #298] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARKET-PLACE *** + + + + +Produced by John Hamm + + + + + +THE MARKET-PLACE + +by Harold Frederic + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +THE battle was over, and the victor remained on the field--sitting alone +with the hurly-burly of his thoughts. + +His triumph was so sweeping and comprehensive as to be somewhat +shapeless to the view. He had a sense of fascinated pain when he tried +to define to himself what its limits would probably be. Vistas of +unchecked, expanding conquest stretched away in every direction. He held +at his mercy everything within sight. Indeed, it rested entirely with +him to say whether there should be any such thing as mercy at all--and +until he chose to utter the restraining word the rout of the vanquished +would go on with multiplying terrors and ruin. He could crush and +torture and despoil his enemies until he was tired. The responsibility +of having to decide when he would stop grinding their faces might come +to weigh upon him later on, but he would not give it room in his mind +to-night. + +A picture of these faces of his victims shaped itself out of the flames +in the grate. They were moulded in a family likeness, these phantom +visages: they were all Jewish, all malignant, all distorted with fright. +They implored him with eyes in which panic asserted itself above rage +and cunning. Only here and there did he recall a name with which to +label one of these countenances; very few of them raised a memory of +individual rancour. The faces were those of men he had seen, no doubt, +but their persecution of him had been impersonal; his great revenge was +equally so. As he looked, in truth, there was only one face--a composite +mask of what he had done battle with, and overthrown, and would trample +implacably under foot. He stared with a conqueror's cold frown at it, +and gave an abrupt laugh which started harsh echoes in the stillness of +the Board Room. Then he shook off the reverie, and got to his feet. He +shivered a little at the sudden touch of a chill. + +A bottle of brandy, surrounded by glasses, stood on the table where the +two least-considered of his lieutenants, the dummy Directors, had left +it. He poured a small quantity and sipped it. During the whole eventful +day it had not occurred to him before to drink; the taste of the neat +liquor seemed on the instant to calm and refresh his brain. With more +deliberation, he took a cigar from the broad, floridly-decorated +open box beside the bottle, lit it, and blew a long draught of smoke +thoughtfully through his nostrils. Then he put his hands in his pockets, +looked again into the fire, and sighed a wondering smile. God in heaven! +it was actually true! + +This man of forty found himself fluttering with a novel exhilaration, +which yet was not novel. Upon reflection, he perceived that he felt as +if he were a boy again--a boy excited by pleasure. It surprised as much +as it delighted him to experience this frank and direct joy of a +child. He caught the inkling of an idea that perhaps his years were an +illusion. He had latterly been thinking of himself as middle-aged; the +grey hairs thickening at his temples had vaguely depressed him. Now all +at once he saw that he was not old at all. The buoyancy of veritable +youth bubbled in his veins. He began walking up and down the room, +regarding new halcyon visions with a sparkling eye. He was no longer +conscious of the hated foe beneath his feet; they trod instead elastic +upon the clouds. + +The sound of someone moving about in the hallway outside, and of trying +a door near by, suddenly caught his attention. He stood still and +listened with alertness for a surprised instant, then shrugged his +shoulders and began moving again. It must be nearly seven o'clock; +although the allotment work had kept the clerks later than usual that +day, everybody connected with the offices had certainly gone home. He +realized that his nerves had played him a trick in giving that alarmed +momentary start--and smiled almost tenderly as he remembered how notable +and even glorious a warrant those nerves had for their unsettled state. +They would be all right after a night's real rest. He would know how to +sleep NOW, thank God! + +But yes--there was somebody outside--and this time knocking with +assurance at the right door, the entrance to the outer office. After a +second's consideration, he went into this unlighted outer office, and +called out through the opaque glass an enquiry. The sound of his voice, +as it analyzed itself in his own ears, seemed unduly peremptory. The +answer which came back brought a flash of wonderment to his eyes. He +hurriedly unlocked and opened the door. + +"I saw the lights in what I made out to be the Board Room," said +the newcomer, as he entered. "I assumed it must be you. Hope I don't +interrupt anything." + +"Nothing could have given me greater pleasure, Lord Plowden," replied +the other, leading the way back to the inner apartment. "In fact, I +couldn't have asked anything better." + +The tone of his voice had a certain anxious note in it not quite +in harmony with this declaration. He turned, under the drop-light +overhanging the Board-table, and shook hands with his guest, as if to +atone for this doubtful accent. "I shake hands with you again," he +said, speaking rapidly, "because this afternoon it was what you may call +formal; it didn't count. And--my God!--you're the man I owe it all to." + +"Oh, you mustn't go as far as that--even in the absence of witnesses," +replied Lord Plowden, lightly. "I'll take off my coat for a few +minutes," he went on, very much at his ease. "It's hot in here. It's by +the merest chance I happened to be detained in the City--and I saw your +lights, and this afternoon we had no opportunity whatever for a quiet +talk. No--I won't drink anything before dinner, but I'll light a cigar. +I want to say to you, Thorpe," he concluded, as he seated himself +"that I think what you've done is very wonderful. The Marquis thinks so +too--but I shouldn't like to swear that he understands much about it." + +The implication that the speaker did understand remained in the air +like a tangible object. Thorpe took a chair, and the two men exchanged a +silent, intent look. Their faces, dusky red on the side of the glow from +the fire, pallid where the electric light fell slantwise upon them +from above, had for a moment a mysterious something in common. Then +the tension of the glance was relaxed--and on the instant no two men in +London looked less alike. + +Lord Plowden was familiarly spoken of as a handsome man. Thorpe had even +heard him called the handsomest man in England--though this seemed in +all likelihood an exaggeration. But handsome he undoubtedly was--tall +without suggesting the thought of height to the observer, erect yet +graceful, powerfully built, while preserving the effect of +slenderness. His face in repose had the outline of the more youthful +guardsman-type--regular, finely-cut, impassive to hardness. When he +talked, or followed with interest the talk of others, it revealed almost +an excess of animation. Then one noted the flashing subtlety of his +glance, the swift facility of his smile and comprehending brows, and saw +that it was not the guardsman face at all. His skin was fresh-hued, and +there was a shade of warm brown in his small, well-ordered moustasche, +but his hair, wavy and worn longer than the fashion, seemed black. There +were perceptible veins of grey in it, though he had only entered his +thirty-fifth year. He was dressed habitually with the utmost possible +care. + +The contrast between this personage and the older man confronting him +was abrupt. Thorpe was also tall, but of a burly and slouching figure. +His face, shrouded in a high-growing, dust-coloured beard, invited no +attention. One seemed always to have known this face--thick-featured, +immobile, undistinguished. Its accessories for the time being were even +more than ordinarily unimpressive. Both hair and beard were ragged with +neglect. His commonplace, dark clothes looked as if he had slept in +them. The hands resting on his big knees were coarse in shape, and +roughened, and ill-kept. + +"I couldn't have asked anything better than your dropping in," he +repeated now, speaking with a drag, as of caution, on his words. +"Witnesses or no witnesses, I'm anxious to have you understand that I +realize what I owe to you." + +"I only wish it were a great deal more than it is," replied the other, +with a frank smile. + +"Oh, it'll mount up to considerable, as it stands," said Thorpe. + +He could hear that there was a kind of reservation in his voice; the +suspicion that his companion detected it embarrassed him. He found +himself in the position of fencing with a man to whom all his feelings +impelled him to be perfectly open. He paused, and was awkwardly +conscious of constraint in the silence which ensued. "You are very kind +to put it in that way," said Lord Plowden, at last. He seemed also to be +finding words for his thoughts with a certain difficulty. He turned +his cigar round in his white fingers meditatively. "I gather that +your success has been complete--as complete as you yourself could have +desired. I congratulate you with all my heart." + +"No--don't say my success--say our success," put in Thorpe. + +"But, my dear man," the other corrected him, "my interest, compared with +yours, is hardly more than nominal. I'm a Director, of course, and I'm +not displeased that my few shares should be worth something instead of +nothing, but----" + +Thorpe lifted one of his heavy hands. "That isn't my view of the thing +at all. To be frank, I was turning over in my mind, just awhile ago, +before you came in, some way of arranging all that on a different +footing. If you'll trust it to me, I think you'll find it's all right." + +Something in the form of this remark seemed to restore to Lord Plowden +his accustomed fluency of speech. + +"I came here to say precisely that thing," he began--"that I do trust +it to you. We have never had any very definite talk on the subject--and +pray don't think that I want to go into details now. I'd much rather +not, in fact. But what I do want to say to you is this: I believe in +you. I feel sure that you are going to go far, as the saying is. Well, +I want to tie myself to your star. Do you see what I mean? You are going +to be a power in finance. You are going to be able to make and unmake +men as you choose. I should be very much obliged indeed if you would +make me." + +Thorpe regarded the handsome and titled man of fashion with what seemed +to the other a lethargic gaze. In truth, his mind was toiling with +strenuous activity to master, in all its bearings, the significance of +what had been said. This habit of the abstracted and lack-lustre eye, +the while he was hard at work thinking, was a fortuitous asset which he +had never up to that time learned that he possessed. Unconsciously, he +dampened the spirits of his companion. + +"Don't imagine I'm trying to force myself upon you," Lord Plowden said, +growing cool in the face of this slow stare. "I'm asking nothing at all. +I had the impulse to come and say to you that you are a great man, and +that you've done a great thing--and done it, moreover, in a very great +way." + +"You know how it was done!" The wondering exclamation forced itself from +Thorpe's unready lips. He bent forward a little, and took a new visual +hold, as it were, of his companion's countenance. + +Lord Plowden smiled. "Did you think I was such a hopeless duffer, then?" +he rejoined. + +For answer, Thorpe leant back in his chair, crossed his legs, and patted +his knee contentedly. All at once his face had lightened; a genial +speculation returned to his grey eyes. + +"Well, I was in a curious position about you, you see," he began to +explain. The relief with which he spoke was palpable. "I could not for +the life of me make up my mind whether to tell you about it or not. +Let's see--this is Thursday; did I see you Tuesday? At any rate, the +scheme didn't dawn on me myself until toward evening Tuesday. +But yesterday, of course, I could have told you--and again this +afternoon--but, as I say, I couldn't make up my mind. Once I had it on +the tip of my tongue--but somehow I didn't. And you--you never gave me a +hint that you saw what was going on." + +Again Lord Plowden smiled. "I voted with you," he put in softly. + +Thorpe laughed, and relit his cigar. "Well, I couldn't have asked +anything better than this," he declared once again. "It beats all the +rest put together, to my mind." + +"Perhaps I don't quite follow your meaning," commented the other +tentatively. + +"Why man," Thorpe explained, hesitating a little in his choice of words, +but speaking with evident fervour; "I was more anxious about you--and +the way you'd take it--than about anything else. I give you my word I +was. I couldn't tell at all how you'd feel about the thing. You might +think that it was all right, and then again you might round on me--or +no, I don't mean quite that--but you might say it wasn't good enough for +you, and wash your hands of the whole affair. And I can't tell you what +a relief it is to find that you--that you're satisfied. Now I can go +ahead." + +"Ah, yes--ahead," said the younger man, thoughtfully. "Do you mind +telling me--you see I'm quite in the dark as to details--how much +further ahead we are likely to go? I comprehend the general nature of +our advance--but how far off is the goal you have in sight?" + +"God knows!" answered Thorpe, with a rising thrill of excitement in his +voice. "I don't give it any limit. I don't see why we should stop at +all. We've got them in such a position that--why, good heavens! we can +squeeze them to death, crush them like quartz." He chuckled grimly at +the suggestion of his simile. "We'll get more ounces to the ton out of +our crushings than they ever heard of on the Rand, too." + +"Might I ask," interposed the other, "who may 'they' be?" + +Thorpe hesitated, and knitted his brows in the effort to remember names. +"Oh, there are a lot of them," he said, vaguely. "I think I told you +of the way that Kaffir crowd pretended to think well of me, and let me +believe they were going to take me up, and then, because I wouldn't give +them everything--the very shirt off my back--turned and put their knife +into me. I don't know them apart, hardly--they've all got names like +Rhine wines--but I know the gang as a whole, and if I don't lift the +roof clean off their particular synagogue, then my name is mud." + +Lord Plowden smiled. "I've always the greatest difficulty to remember +that you are an Englishman--a Londoner born," he declared pleasantly. +"You don't talk in the least like one. On shipboard I made sure you +were an American--a very characteristic one, I thought--of some curious +Western variety, you know. I never was more surprised in my life than +when you told me, the other day, that you only left England a few years +ago." + +"Oh, hardly a 'few years'; more like fifteen," Thorpe corrected him. He +studied his companion's face with slow deliberation. + +"I'm going to say something that you mustn't take amiss," he remarked, +after a little pause. "If you'd known that I was an Englishman, when +we first met, there on the steamer, I kind o' suspect that you and I'd +never have got much beyond a nodding acquaintance--and even that mostly +on my side. I don't mean that I intended to conceal anything--that is, +not specially--but I've often thought since that it was a mighty good +thing I did. Now isn't that true--that if you had taken me for one of +your own countrymen you'd have given me the cold shoulder?" + +"I dare say there's a good deal in what you say," the other admitted, +gently enough, but without contrition. "Things naturally shape +themselves that way, rather, you know. If they didn't, why then the +whole position would become difficult. But you are an American, to all +intents and purposes." + +"Oh, no--I never took any step towards getting naturalized," Thorpe +protested. "I always intended to come back here. Or no, I won't say +that--because most of the time I was dog-poor--and this isn't the place +for a poor man. But I always said to myself that if ever I pulled it +off--if I ever found my self a rich man--THEN I'd come piking across the +Atlantic as fast as triple-expansion engines would carry me." + +The young man smiled again, with a whimsical gleam in his eye. "And you +ARE a rich man, now," he observed, after a momentary pause. + +"We are both rich men," replied Thorpe, gravely. + +He held up a dissuading hand, as the other would have spoken. "This is +how it seems to me the thing figures itself out: It can't be said that +your name on the Board, or the Marquis's either, was of much use so far +as the public were concerned. To tell the truth, I saw some time ago +that they wouldn't be. Titles on prospectuses are played out in London. +I've rather a notion, indeed, that they're apt to do more harm than +good--just at present, at least. But all that aside--you are the man who +was civil to me at the start, when you knew nothing whatever about my +scheme, and you are the man who was good to me later on, when I didn't +know where to turn for a friendly word. Very well; here I am! I've made +my coup! And I'd be a sweep, wouldn't I? to forget to-day what I was so +glad to remember a week ago. But you see, I don't forget! The capital +of the Company is 500,000 pounds, all in pound shares. We offered the +public only a fifth of them. The other four hundred thousand shares are +mine as vendor--and I have ear-marked in my mind one hundred thousand of +them to be yours." + +Lord Plowden's face paled at the significance of these words. "It is +too much--you don't reflect what it is you are saying," he murmured +confusedly. "Not a bit of it," the other reassured him. "Everything that +I've said goes." + +The peer, trembling a little, rose to his feet. "It is a preposterously +big reward for the merest act of courtesy," he insisted. "Of course it +takes my breath away for joy--and yet I feel I oughtn't to be consenting +to it at all. And it has its unpleasant side--it buries me under a +mountain of obligation. I don't know what to do or what to say." + +"Well, leave the saying and doing to me, then," replied Thorpe, with a +gesture before which the other resumed his seat. "Just a word more--and +then I suppose we'd better be going. Look at it in this way. Your +grandfather was Lord Chancellor of England, and your father was +a General in the Crimea. My grandfather kept a small second-hand +book-shop, and my father followed him in the business. In one sense, +that puts us ten thousand miles apart. But in another sense, we'll say +that we like each other, and that there are ways in which we can be of +immense use to each other, and that brings us close together. You need +money--and here it is for you. I need--what shall I say?--a kind of +friendly lead in the matter of establishing myself on the right footing, +among the right people--and that's what you can do for me. Mind--I'd +prefer to put it all in quite another way; I'd like to say it was +all niceness on your part, all gratitude on mine. But if you want to +consider it on a business basis--why there you have it also--perfectly +plain and clear." + +He got up as he finished, and Lord Plowden rose as well. The two men +shook hands in silence. + +When the latter spoke, it was to say: "Do you know how to open one of +those soda-water bottles? I've tried, but I can never get the trick. I +think I should like to have a drink--after this." + +When they had put down their glasses, and the younger man was getting +into his great-coat, Thorpe bestowed the brandy and cigars within a +cabinet at the corner of the room, and carefully turned a key upon them. + +"If you're going West, let me give you a lift," said Lord Plowden, hat +in hand. "I can set you down wherever you like. Unfortunately I've to go +out to dinner, and I must race, as it is, to get dressed." + +Thorpe shook his head. "No, go along," he bade him. "I've some odds and +ends of things to do on the way." + +"Then when shall I see you?"--began the other, and halted suddenly +with a new thought in his glance. "But what are you doing Saturday?" +he asked, in a brisker tone. "It's a dies non here. Come down with me +to-morrow evening, to my place in Kent. We will shoot on Saturday, +and drive about on Sunday, if you like--and there we can talk at our +leisure. Yes, that is what you must do. I have a gun for you. Shall we +say, then--Charing Cross at 9:55? Or better still, say 5:15, and we will +dine at home." + +The elder man pondered his answer--frowning at the problem before him +with visible anxiety. "I'm afraid I'd better not come--it's very good of +you all the same." + +"Nonsense," retorted the other. "My mother will be very glad indeed to +see you. There is no one else there--unless, perhaps, my sister has some +friend down. We shall make a purely family party." + +Thorpe hesitated for only a further second. "All right. Charing Cross, +5:15," he said then, with the grave brevity of one who announces a +momentous decision. + +He stood still, looking into the fire, for a few moments after his +companion had gone. Then, going to a closet at the end of the room, he +brought forth his coat and hat; something prompted him to hold them up, +and scrutinize them under the bright light of the electric globe. He put +them on, then, with a smile, half-scornful, half-amused, playing in his +beard. + +The touch of a button precipitated darkness upon the Board Room. He made +his way out, and downstairs to the street. It was a rainy, windy October +night, sloppy underfoot, dripping overhead. At the corner before him, a +cabman, motionless under his unshapely covered hat and glistening rubber +cape, sat perched aloft on his seat, apparently asleep. Thorpe hailed +him, with a peremptory tone, and gave the brusque order, "Strand!" as he +clambered into the hansom. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"LOUISA, the long and short of it is this," said Thorpe, half an hour +later: "you never did believe in me, as a sister should do." + +He was seated alone with this sister, in a small, low, rather +dismally-appointed room, half-heartedly lighted by two flickering +gasjets. They sat somewhat apart, confronting a fireplace, where only +the laid materials for a fire disclosed themselves in the cold grate. +Above the mantel hung an enlarged photograph of a scowling old man. +Thorpe's gaze recurred automatically at brief intervals to this +portrait--which somehow produced the effect upon him of responsibility +for the cheerlessness of the room. There were other pictures on the +walls of which he was dimly conscious--small, faded, old prints about +Dido and AEneas and Agamemnon, which seemed to be coming back to him out +of the mists of his childhood. + +Vagrant impressions and associations of this childhood strayed with +quaint inconsequence across the field of his preoccupied mind. The +peculiar odour of the ancient book-shop on the floor below remained like +snuff in his nostrils. Somewhere underneath, or in the wainscoting at +the side, he could hear the assiduous gnawing of a rat. Was it the same +rat, he wondered with a mental grin, that used to keep him awake nights, +in one of the rooms next to this, with that same foolish noise, when he +was a boy? + +"I know you always say that," replied Louisa, impassively. + +She was years older than her brother, but, without a trace of artifice +or intention, contrived to look the younger of the two. Her thick hair, +drawn simply from her temples into a knot behind, was of that palest +brown which assimilates grey. Her face, long, plain, masculine in +contour and spirit, conveyed no message as to years. Long and spare of +figure, she sat upright in her straight-backed chair, with her large, +capable hands on her knees. + +"I believed in you as much as you'd let me," she went on, indifferently, +almost wearily. "But I don't see that it mattered to you whether I did +or didn't. You went your own way: you did what you wanted to do. What +had I to do with it? I don't suppose I even knew what part of the world +you were in more than once in two or three years. How should I know +whether you were going to succeed, when I didn't even know what it +was you were at? Certainly you hadn't succeeded here in London--but +elsewhere you might or you might not--how could I tell? And moreover, I +don't feel that I know you very well; you've grown into something very +different from the boy Joel that left the shop--it must be twenty years +ago. I can only know about you and your affairs what you tell me." + +"But my point is," pursued Thorpe, watching her face with a curiously +intent glance, "you never said to yourself: 'I KNOW he's going to +succeed. I KNOW he'll be a rich man before he dies.'" + +She shook her head dispassionately. Her manner expressed fatigued +failure to comprehend why he was making so much of this purposeless +point. + +"No--I don't remember ever having said that to myself," she admitted, +listlessly. Then a comment upon his words occurred to her, and she spoke +with more animation: "You don't seem to understand, Joel, that what was +very important to you, didn't occupy me at all. You were always talking +about getting rich; you kept the idea before you of sometime, at a +stroke, finding yourself a millionaire. That's been the idea of your +life. But what do I know about all that? My work has been to keep a roof +over my head--to keep the little business from disappearing altogether. +It's been hard enough, I can tell you, these last few years, with the +big jobbers cutting the hearts out of the small traders. I had the +invalid husband to support for between three and four years--a dead +weight on me every week--and then the children to look after, to clothe +and educate." + +At the last word she hesitated suddenly, and looked at him. "Don't think +I'm ungrateful"--she went on, with a troubled effort at a smile--"but I +almost wish you'd never sent me that four hundred pounds at all. What +it means is that they've had two years at schools where now I shan't +be able to keep them any longer. They'll be spoiled for my kind of +life--and they won't have a fair chance for any other. I don't know what +will become of them." + +The profound apprehension in the mother's voice did not dull the gleam +in Thorpe's eyes. He even began a smile in the shadows of his unkempt +moustache. + +"But when I sent that money, for example, two years ago, and over," he +persisted, doggedly--"and I told you there'd be more where that came +from, and that I stood to pull off the great event--even then, now, you +didn't believe in your innermost heart that I knew what I was talking +about, did you?" + +She frowned with impatience as she turned toward him. "For heaven's +sake, Joel," she said, sharply--"you become a bore with that stupid +nonsense. I want to be patient with you--I do indeed sympathize with you +in your misfortunes--you know that well enough--but you're very tiresome +with that eternal harping on what I believed and what I didn't believe. +Now, are you going to stop to supper or not?--because if you are I must +send the maid out. And there's another thing--would it be of any help to +you to bring your things here from the hotel? You can have Alfred's room +as well as not--till Christmas, at least." + +"Supposing I couldn't get my luggage out of the hotel till I'd settled +my bill," suggested Thorpe tentatively, in a muffled voice. + +The practical woman reflected for an instant. "I was thinking," she +confessed then, "that it might be cheaper to leave your things there, +and buy what little you want--I don't imagine, from what I've seen, that +your wardrobe is so very valuable--but no, I suppose the bill ought to +be paid. Perhaps it can be managed; how much will it be?" + +Thorpe musingly rose to his feet, and strolled over to her chair. With +his thick hands on his sister's shoulders he stooped and kissed her on +the forehead. + +"You believe in me now, anyway, eh, Lou?" he said, as he straightened +himself behind her. + +The unaccustomed caress--so different in character from the perfunctory +salute with which he had greeted her on his arrival from foreign parts, +six months before--brought a flush of pleased surprise to her plain +face. Then a kind of bewilderment crept into the abstracted gaze she was +bending upon the fireless grate. Something extraordinary, unaccountable, +was in the manner of her brother. She recalled that, in truth, he was +more than half a stranger to her. How could she tell what wild, +uncanny second nature had not grown up in him under those +outlandish tropical skies? He had just told her that his ruin was +absolute--overwhelming--yet there had been a covert smile in the +recesses of his glance. Even now, she half felt, half heard, a chuckle +from him, there as he stood behind her! + +The swift thought that disaster had shaken his brain loomed up and +possessed her. She flung herself out of the chair, and, wheeling, seized +its back and drew it between them as she faced him. It was with a stare +of frank dismay that she beheld him grinning at her. + +"What"--she began, stammering--"What is the matter, Joel?" + +He permitted himself the luxury of smiling blankly at her for a further +moment. Then he tossed his head, and laughed abruptly. + +"Sit down, old girl," he adjured her. "Try and hold yourself together, +now--to hear some different kind of news. I've been playing it rather +low down on you, for a fact. Instead of my being smashed, it's the other +way about." + +She continued to confront him, with a nervous clasp upon the chair-back. +Her breathing troubled her as she regarded him, and tried to take in the +meaning of his words. + +"Do you mean--you've been lying to me about--about your Company?" she +asked, confusedly. + +"No--no--not at all," he replied, now all genial heartiness. "No--what +I told you was gospel truth--but I was taking a rise out of you all the +same." He seemed so unaffectedly pleased by his achievement in kindly +duplicity that she forced an awkward smile to her lips. + +"I don't understand in the least," she said, striving to remember what +he had told her. "What you said was that the public had entirely failed +to come in--that there weren't enough applications for shares to pay +flotation expenses--those were your own words. Of course, I don't +pretend to understand these City matters--but it IS the case, isn't it, +that if people don't subscribe for the shares of a new company, then the +company is a failure?" + +"Yes, that may be said to be the case--as a general rule," he nodded at +her, still beaming. + +"Well, then--of course--I don't understand," she owned. + +"I don't know as you'll understand it much more when I've explained it +to you," he said, seating himself, and motioning her to the other chair. +"But yes, of course you will. You're a business woman. You know what +figures mean. And really the whole thing is as simple as A B C. You +remember that I told you----" + +"But are you going to stop to supper? I must send Annie out before the +shops close." + +"Supper? No--I couldn't eat anything. I'm too worked up for that. I'll +get something at the hotel before I go to bed, if I feel like it. But +say!"--the thought suddenly struck him--"if you want to come out with +me, I'll blow you off to the swaggerest dinner in London. What d'ye +say?" + +She shook her head. "I shall have some bread and cheese and beer at +nine. That's my rule, you know. I don't like to break it. I'm always +queer next day if I do. But now make haste and tell me--you're really +not broken then? You have really come out well?" + +For answer he rose, and drew himself to his full height, and spread his +bulky shoulders backward. His grey-blue eyes looked down upon her with a +triumphant glow. + +"Broken?" he echoed her word, with emphasis. "My dear Louisa, I'm not +the sort that gets broken. I break other people. Oh, God, how I shall +break them!" + +He began pacing up and down on the narrow rug before the fender, +excitedly telling his story to her. Sometimes he threw the words over +his shoulder; again he held her absorbed gaze with his. He took his +hands often from his pockets, to illustrate or enforce by gestures the +meaning of his speech--and then she found it peculiarly difficult to +realize that he was her brother. + +Much of the narrative, rambling and disconnected, with which he prefaced +this story of the day, was vaguely familiar to her. He sketched now for +her in summary, and with the sonorous voice of one deeply impressed with +the dramatic values of his declamation, the chronicle of his wanderings +in strange lands--and these he had frequently told her about before. +Soon she perceived, however, that he was stringing them together on a +new thread. One after another, these experiences of his, as he related +them, turned upon the obstacles and fatal pitfalls which treachery and +malice had put in his path. He seemed, by his account, to have been a +hundred times almost within touch of the goal. In China, in the Dutch +Indies, in those remoter parts of Australia which were a waterless +waste when he knew them and might have owned them, and now were +yielding fabulous millions to fellows who had tricked and swindled +him--everywhere he had missed by just a hair's breadth the golden +consummation. In the Western hemisphere the tale repeated itself. There +had been times in the Argentine, in Brazil just before the Empire fell, +in Colorado when the Silver boom was on, in British Columbia when the +first rumours of rich ore were whispered about--many times when fortune +seemed veritably within his grasp. But someone had always played him +false. There was never a friendship for him which could withstand the +temptation of profitable treason. + +But he had hung dauntlessly on. He had seen one concession slipping +through his fingers, only to strain and tighten them for a clutch at +another. It did not surprise his hearer--nor indeed did it particularly +attract her attention--that there was nowhere in this rapid and +comprehensive narrative any allusion to industry of the wage-earning +sort. Apparently, he had done no work at all, in the bread-winner's +sense of the word. This was so like Joel that it was taken for granted +in his sister's mind. All his voyages and adventures and painful +enterprises had been informed by the desire of the buccaneer--the +passion to reap where others had sown, or, at the worst, to get +something for nothing. + +The discursive story began to narrow and concentrate itself when at last +it reached Mexico. The sister changed her position in her chair, and +crossed her knees when Tehuantepec was mentioned. It was from that +place that Joel had sent her the amazing remittance over two years ago. +Curiously enough, though, it was at this point in his narrative that he +now became vague as to details. There were concessions of rubber forests +mentioned, and the barter of these for other concessions with money +to boot, and varying phases of a chronic trouble about where the true +boundary of Guatemala ran--but she failed clearly to understand much +about it all. His other schemes and mishaps she had followed readily +enough. Somehow when they came to Mexico, however, she saw everything +jumbled and distorted, as through a haze. Once or twice she interrupted +him to ask questions, but he seemed to attach such slight importance to +her comprehending these details that she forbore. Only one fact was +it necessary to grasp about the Mexican episode, apparently. When +he quitted Tehuantepec, to make his way straight to London, at the +beginning of the year, he left behind him a rubber plantation which he +desired to sell, and brought with him between six and seven thousand +pounds, with which to pay the expenses of selling it. How he had +obtained either the plantation or the money did not seem to have made +itself understood. No doubt, as his manner indicated when she ventured +her enquiries, it was quite irrelevant to the narrative. + +In Mexico, his experience had been unique, apparently, in that no +villain had appeared on the scene to frustrate his plans. He at least +mentioned no one who had wronged him there. When he came to London, +however, there were villains and to spare. He moved to the mantel, when +he arrived at this stage of the story, and made clear a space for his +elbow to rest among the little trinkets and photographs with which it +was burdened. He stood still thereafter, looking down at her; his voice +took on a harsher note. + +Much of this story, also, she knew by heart. This strange, bearded, +greyish-haired brother of hers had come very often during the past +half-year to the little book-shop, and the widow's home above it, his +misshapen handbag full of papers, his heart full of rage, hope, grief, +ambition, disgust, confidence--everything but despair. It was true, it +had never been quite real to her. He was right in his suggestion that +she had never wholly believed in him. She had not been able to take +altogether seriously this clumsy, careworn, shabbily-dressed man who +talked about millions. It was true that he had sent her four hundred +pounds for the education of her son and daughter; it was equally true +that he had brought with him to London a sum which any of his ancestors, +so far as she knew about them, would have deemed a fortune, and which he +treated as merely so much oil, with which to lubricate the machinery of +his great enterprise. She had heard, at various times, the embittered +details of the disappearance of this money, little by little. Nearly a +quarter of it, all told, had been appropriated by a sleek old braggart +of a company-promoter, who had cozened Joel into the belief that London +could be best approached through him. When at last this wretch was +kicked downstairs, the effect had been only to make room for a fresh +lot of bloodsuckers. There were so-called advertising agents, so-called +journalists, so-called "men of influence in the City,"--a swarm of +relentless and voracious harpies, who dragged from him in blackmail +nearly the half of what he had left, before he summoned the courage and +decision to shut them out. + +Worse still, in some ways, were the men into whose hands he stumbled +next--a group of City men concerned in the South African market, who +impressed him very favourably at the outset. He got to know them by +accident, and at the time when he began to comprehend the necessity of +securing influential support for his scheme. Everything that he heard +and could learn about them testified to the strength of their position +in the City. Because they displayed a certain amiability of manner +toward him and his project, he allowed himself to make sure of their +support. It grew to be a certainty in his mind that they would see him +through. He spent a good deal of money in dinners and suppers in their +honour, after they had let him understand that this form of propitiation +was not unpleasant to them. They chaffed him about some newspaper +paragraphs, in which he was described as the "Rubber King," with +an affable assumption of amusement, under which he believed that he +detected a genuine respect for his abilities. + +Finally, when he had danced attendance upon them for the better part +of two months, he laid before them, at the coffee-and-cigars stage of a +dinner in a private room of the Savoy, the details of his proposition. +They were to form a Syndicate to take over his property, and place it +upon the market; in consideration of their finding the ready money for +this exploitation, they were to have for themselves two-fifths of the +shares in the Company ultimately to be floated. They listened to these +details, and to his enthusiastic remarks about the project itself, with +rather perfunctory patience, but committed themselves that evening to +nothing definite. It took him nearly a week thereafter to get an answer +from any of them. Then he learned that, if they took the matter up at +all, it would be upon the basis of the Syndicate receiving nine-tenths +of the shares. + +He conceived the idea, after he had mastered his original amazement, +that they named these preposterous terms merely because they expected +to be beaten down, and he summoned all his good nature and tact for +the task of haggling with them. He misunderstood their first show of +impatience at this, and persevered in the face of their tacit rebuffs. +Then, one day, a couple of them treated him with overt rudeness, and +he, astonished out of his caution, replied to them in kind. Suddenly, he +could hardly tell why or how, they were all enemies of his. They +closed their office doors to him; even their clerks treated him with +contemptuous incivility. + +This blow to his pride enraged and humiliated him, curiously enough, as +no other misadventure of his life had done. + +Louisa remembered vividly the description he had given to her, at the +time, of this affair. She had hardly understood why it should disturb +him so profoundly: to her mind, these men had done nothing so monstrous +after all. But to him, their offense swallowed up all the other +indignities suffered during the years of his Ishmaelitish wanderings. A +sombre lust for vengeance upon them took root in his very soul. He hated +nobody else as he hated them. How often she had heard him swear, in +solemn vibrating tones, that to the day of his death his most sacred +ambition should be their punishment, their abasement in the dust and +mire! + +And now, all at once, as she looked up at him, where he leant against +the mantel, these vagabond memories of hers took point and shape. It was +about these very men that he was talking. + +"And think of it!" he was saying, impressively. "It's magnificent enough +for me to make this great hit--but I don't count it as anything at +all by comparison with the fact that I make it at their expense. You +remember the fellows I told you about?" he asked abruptly, deferring to +the confused look on her face. + +"Yes--you make it out of them," she repeated, in an uncertain voice. It +occurred to her that she must have been almost asleep. "But did I miss +anything? Have you been telling what it is that you have made?" + +"No--that you shall have in good time. You don't seem to realize it, +Louisa. I can hardly realize it myself. I am actually a very rich man. +I can't tell how much I've got--in fact, it can be almost as much as I +like--half a million pounds, I suppose, at the start, if I want to make +it that much. Yes--it takes the breath away, doesn't it? But best of +all--a thousand times best of all--practically every dollar of it comes +out of those Kaffir swine--the very men that tried to rob me, and +that have been trying to ruin me ever since. I tell you what I wish, +Louise--I wish to God there could only be time enough, and I'd take it +all in half-sovereigns--two millions of them, or three millions--and +just untwist every coin, one by one, out from among their heart-strings. +Oh--but it'll be all right as it is. It's enough to make a man feel +religious--to think how those thieves are going to suffer." + +"Well" she said, slowly after reflection, "it all rather frightens me." + +As if the chill in the air of the cheerless room had suddenly +accentuated itself, she arose, took a match-box from the mantel, and, +stooping, lit the fire. + +He looked down at the tall, black-clad figure, bent in stiff awkwardness +over the smoking grate, and his eyes softened. Then he took fresh note +of the room--the faded, threadbare carpet, the sparse old furniture that +had seemed ugly to even his uninformed boyish taste, the dingy walls and +begrimed low ceiling--all pathetic symbols of the bleak life to which +she had been condemned. + +"Frightens you?" he queried, with a kind of jovial tenderness, as she +got to her feet; "frightens you, eh? Why, within a month's time, old +lady, you'll be riding in the Park in your own carriage, with niggers +folding their arms up behind, and you'll be taking it all as easy and as +natural as if you'd been born in a barouche." + +He added, in response to the enquiry of her lifted brows: "Barouche? +That's what we'd call in England a landau." + +She stood with a foot upon the fender, her tired, passive face inclined +meditatively, her rusty old black gown drawn back by one hand from the +snapping sparks. "No," she said, slowly, joyless resignation mingling +with pride in her voice. "I was born here over the shop." + +"Well, good God! so was I," he commented, lustily. "But that's no reason +why I shouldn't wind up in Park Lane--or you either." + +She had nothing to say to this, apparently. After a little, she seated +herself again, drawing her chair closer to the hearth. "It's years since +I've lit this fire before the first of November," she remarked, with the +air of defending the action to herself. + +"Oh, we're celebrating," he said, rubbing his hands over the reluctant +blaze. "Everything goes, tonight!" + +Her face, as she looked up at him, betrayed the bewilderment of her +mind. "You set out to tell me what it was all about," she reminded him. +"You see I'm completely in the dark. I only hear you say that you've +made a great fortune. That's all I know. Or perhaps you've told me as +much as you care to." + +"Why, not at all," he reassured her, pulling his own chair toward him +with his foot, and sprawling into it with a grunt of relief. "If you'll +draw me a glass of that beer of yours, I'll tell you all about it. It's +not a thing for everybody to know, not to be breathed to a human being, +for that matter--but you'll enjoy it, and it'll be safe enough with +you." + +As she rose, and moved toward a door, he called merrily after her: "No +more beer when that keg runs dry, you know. Nothing but champagne!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +THORPE took a long, thoughtful pull at the beer his sister brought him. + +"Ah, I didn't know I was so thirsty," he said, when he put the glass +down. "Truth is--I've lost track of myself altogether since--since the +big thing happened. I seem to be somebody else--a comparative stranger, +so to speak. I've got to get acquainted with myself, all over again. You +can't imagine what an extraordinary feeling it is--this being hit every +few minutes with the recollection that you're worth half a million. +It's like being struck over the head. It knocks you down. There are such +thousands of things to do--you dance about, all of a flutter. You don't +know where to begin." + +"Begin where you left off," suggested Louisa. "You were going to tell me +how--how 'the big thing' happened. You're always coming to it--and never +getting any further." + +Nodding comprehension of the rebuke's justification, he plunged +forthwith into the tale. + +"You remember my telling you at the time how I got my Board together. +I'm speaking now of the present Company--after I'd decided to be my own +promoter, and have at least some kind of 'a look-in' for my money. There +wasn't much money left, by the way; it was considerably under three +thousand. But I come to that later. First there was the Board. Here was +where that Lord Plowden that I told you about--the man that came over on +the ship with me--came in. I went to him. I--God! I was desperate--but I +hadn't much of an idea he'd consent. But he did! He listened to me, and +I told him how I'd been robbed, and how the Syndicate would have cut my +throat if I hadn't pulled away,--and he said, 'Why, yes, I'll go on your +Board.' Then I told him more about it, and presently he said he'd get me +another man of title--a sky-scraper of a title too--to be my Chairman. +That's the Marquis of Chaldon, a tremendous diplomatic swell, you know, +Ambassador at Vienna in his time, and Lord Lieutenant and all sorts of +things, but willing to gather in his five hundred a year, all the same." + +"Do you mean that YOU pay HIM five hundred pounds a year?" asked the +sister. + +"Yes, I've got a live Markiss who works for me at ten quid a week, and a +few extras. The other Directors get three hundred. This Lord Plowden +is one of them--but I'll tell you more about him later on. Then there's +Watkin, he's a small accountant Finsbury way; and Davidson, he's a +wine-merchant who used to belong to a big firm in Dundee, but gets along +the best way he can on a very dicky business here in London, now. And +then there's General Kervick, awfully well-connected old chap, they say, +but I guess he needs all he can get. He's started wearing his fur-coat +already. Well, that's my Board. I couldn't join it, of course, till +after allotment--that's because I'm the vendor, as they call it--but +that hasn't interfered at all with my running the whole show. The Board +doesn't really count, you know. It only does what I want it to do. It's +just a form that costs me seventeen hundred a year, that's all." + +"Seventeen hundred a year," she repeated, mechanically. + +"Well, then we got out the prospectus, d'ye see. Or first, there were +other things to be done. I saw that a good broker's name counted for +a lot on a prospectus. I picked out one that I'd heard was +reasonable--it'd been a splendid name if I could have got it--but he +calmly said his price was two thousand pounds, all cash down--and I came +away. Finally I got a fellow who hadn't done much of anything yet, and +so wasn't so stiff about his figure. He agreed to take 500 pounds cash, +and 2,000 in shares. It was God's luck that I hit on him, for he turned +out, at the pinch, to be the one man in a million for me. But I'll tell +you about him later. He's the Broker, mind; you mustn't forget him. +Well, then, he and I got a Solicitor--he took 200 pounds cash, but he +had to have 2,000 shares--and the firm of Auditors--they were 100 pounds +cash and 1,000 shares. Every company has to have these people pasted on +to it, by law. Oh yes, and then you must have your Bankers. You +don't pay them anything, though, thank God! Well, then, there was +the machinery complete, all ready to start. I took a handsome set of +offices, and furnished them up to the nines--but that I was able to do +pretty well on credit. You see, ready money was getting short. + +"And now came the biggest pull of all. There was the press to be +worked." + +He spoke as if there were no other papers in London but the financial +journals. + +"I didn't sleep much while that was being fixed up. You've got no more +idea of what the press means, Louisa, than you have of--of a coil of +snakes thawing out hungry in the spring. Why, if one blackmailer came +to me, I swear a hundred did. They scared the life out of me, the first +month or so. And then there's a swarm of advertising agents, who say +they can keep these blackmailers off, if you'll make it worth their +while. But they all wanted too much money for me--and for a while I was +at my wits' ends. At last I got a fellow--he's not behaved so badly, all +things considered--who had some sporting blood in his veins, and he was +willing to do the whole thing for 5,000 pounds, if I could pay 1,500 +pounds down, and the rest in shares. But that was just what I couldn't +do, you see, so finally he took 1,000 pounds down and 5,000 in +shares--and as I say he's done it tolerably well. There was one editor +that I had to square personally--that is to say, 100 pounds cash--it +had to be in sovereigns, for notes could be traced--and a call of 2,000 +shares at par,--he's the boss pirate that everybody has to square--and +of course there were odd ten-pound notes here and there, but as a rule +I just opened the door and fired the black-mailers out. The moment a +fellow came in, and handed me his card, and said he had proofs of two +kinds of articles in his pocket, one praising me, one damning me, I told +him to go and see my advertising agent, and if he wouldn't do that, then +to go to hell. That's the way you've got to talk in the City," he added, +as if in apologetic explanation. + +Louisa looked impassively at her brother. "Oh, I've heard the expression +as far west as the Strand," she remarked. + +"Well, then came the issue. That was last Saturday. You saw the +prospectus in Saturday morning's papers, and in the weeklies. The +list was to be kept open, it said, till Wednesday morning--that was +yesterday. That is to say, during all that time, people could apply for +shares." + +"Which they didn't do--according to your account," the sister suggested, +dryly. + +Thorpe passed his fingers through his roughened hair, and eyed her with +a momentary quizzical gleam in his eye. Then he became serious again. +The recollection of what he was now to narrate brought a frown to his +brows. + +"On Tuesday afternoon," he began, with portentous deliberation--"Or no, +first I must explain something. You see, in bringing out a company, you +can't put up too stout a bluff. I mean, you've got to behave as if +you were rolling in wealth--as if everything was coming your way, and +fortunes were to be made by fastening to you. I don't know that it often +fools anybody very much, but it's part of the game, and you must play +it. Well, accordingly, my Broker goes on 'change Saturday morning, and +has his jobber shout out that he'll buy 'Rubber Consols'--that's what +our shares are called on the street--at an eighth premium; that is to +say, he offered to buy for twenty-two-and-six what we were offering to +the public for twenty shillings. Of course, you see, the object of that +was to create the impression that there was a regular God-almighty +rush for our shares. As I say, I don't know whether that ever fooled +anybody--but at least there was the chance that it might start up some +dealing in the shares--and all those things help. Besides, you got the +sales noticed in the papers, and that might start up applications from +the public. Well, the Broker bought 1,000 shares this way on Saturday. +On Monday, when it might still be possible to change the luck, he bought +3,500 more, still at that premium of an eighth. He bought some Tuesday +morning too--say 4,000. Well, now, keep those figures in your head, and +keep an eye on the Broker. He's worth watching--as you'll see." + +"What's his name?" asked the sister, with an accession of alertness in +her face. "You call him 'Broker'--and that doesn't mean anything to me. +They're all brokers, aren't they?" + +"Semple--Colin Semple, that's his name. He's a young Scotchman--father's +a Presbyterian minister. He's a little, insignificant runt of a chap to +look at--but I learned a long time ago not to judge a singed cat by his +looks. However--where was I?" + +"You were going to tell about Tuesday afternoon, weren't you?" + +He nodded gravely, and straightened himself, drawing a long breath in +preparation for the dramatic recital before him. "On Tuesday afternoon," +he began again, with impressive slowness, "I was walking on Throgmorton +Street, about four o'clock. It was raining a little--it had been raining +on and off all day--a miserable, rotten sort of a day, with greasy mud +everywhere, and everybody poking umbrellas into you. I was out walking +because I'd 'a' cut my throat if I'd tried to stay in the office another +ten minutes. All that day I hadn't eaten anything. I hadn't slept worth +speaking of for three nights. The whole game was up for me. I was worse +than ruined. I had half a crown in my pocket. I had ten or twelve pounds +in the bank--and they wouldn't let me overdraw a farthing. I tell you, I +was just plumb busted. + +"There came along in the gutter a sandwich-man. I'd seen the cuss before +during the day, walking up and down near my offices. I took notice +of him, because he was the raggedest, dirtiest, most forlorn-looking +cripple you ever saw in your life. Now I read what was on his boards. It +was the bill of a paper that I had refused to be bled by, and there +it was in big letters: 'The Rubber Bubble Burst!' 'Thorpe's Audacity +Punished!' Those were the words. I can see them with my eyes shut. I +stood there, looking at the fellow, and I suppose there was something in +the way I looked, for he stopped too. Of course, he didn't know me from +Adam, but all the same, I'm damned if he didn't wink his eye at me--as +if we two had a joke between us. And at that I burst out laughing--I +simply roared with laughter, like a boy at a pantomime--and I took that +last half-crown out of my pocket, and I gave it to the sandwich-man. +God! you should have seen his face." + +"I don't particularly mind, Joel," said his sister, "but I never heard +you swear so much before." + +"Oh, what the--what the deuce!" he protested, impatiently. "Don't +interrupt me now! Well, I went on down the street. The members of the +Stock Exchange were coming out of 'the house,' and making up little +groups on the pavement. They do business inside, you know, until closing +time--this day it happened to be four o'clock--and then they come out +and deal in the street with one another, with the kerb-stone mob, who +are not allowed inside, standing round to watch the thing. I came along +into the thick of these fellows; they were yelling out all sorts of +things--'East Rands,' 'Oroyas,' 'Lake View Centrals,' and what not, but +these went in one ear and out the other. If there ever was a man with no +stomach for the market it was me. But then someone roared out: + +"'At seven-eighths, sell Rubber Consols! Sell five hundred Rubber at +seven-eighths! Sell five hundred at three-quarters! At three-quarters +you have 'em! Rubber Consols! Sell a thou. at three-quarters!' + +"This thing went into my brain like a live coal. I stopped and looked +up at the fellow--and by God, it was one of the men I've been +talking about--one of those Kaffir scoundrels. I wish I was better at +remembering names--but I knew his face. There were some of the others +around him, and they laughed at me, and he laughed at me. Oh, they had +a heap of fun out of me--for a minute or two. Pretty good fun, too! I +guess they'll remember it quite a while." + +"Go on!" Louisa adjured him. The obvious proximity of the dramatic +climax drew her forward in her chair, and brought a glow of expectation +to her eyes. + +"I got myself away from that crowd somehow--I think I was afraid if I +stayed I'd strangle the one who was shouting on the steps--and I went +toward my office. But when I got to the door, I didn't have the courage +to go in. I'd furnished it better, I suppose, than any other office +in Austin Friars, and I had a kind of feeling that the sight of those +carpets, and oak-tables and desks, and brass-railings and so on would +make me sick. I owed for 'em all, bear in mind----" + +"But--Joel," the sister interposed. "One thing I don't understand. How +many people had applied for shares? You haven't mentioned that." + +A fleeting smile lighted up the saturnine gloom of his present mood. "It +was hardly worth mentioning," he answered, with bitter mirth. "Between +five and six thousand shares were subscribed, all told. I think the +withdrawals by telegraph brought it down to practically five thousand. +We offered a hundred thousand, you know.--But let me go on with my +story. I stood there, in front of our street-door, in a kind of trance. +The words of that Jew--'Sell Rubber Consols at three-quarters!'--buzzed +inside my head as if they would burst it open. I turned--and I happened +to see my Broker--the Scotchman, Semple, you know--coming along toward +me. Right at that minute, like a flash, something dawned on me. In less +than a second, I saw the whole damned rotten outfit turned upside down, +with me on top. I made a jump, and ran to meet Semple. + +"'How many shares of ours have you bought?' I asked him, with a grip +tight on his arm. + +"The little chap was looking mighty sick. He figured up in his mind. +'I'm afraid it's eight thousand five hundred, all told,' he said, in a +sort of Presbyterian whimper. + +"'Well--how would these gentlemen go about it to deliver their +goods--that is, supposing we got a settlement?' + +"I asked him this, and kept my eye on his face. He looked puzzled for a +minute. Then he put out his lip. Then he shot me a glance as sharp as a +razor, and we looked into one another's eyes. + +"'They were shouting them out to me at three-quarters, a minute ago,' I +told him. + +"He was onto the game like lightning. 'Wait for me in the office,' he +whispered. 'We'll go nap on this!' + +"With that he was off like a streak. He stopped running just before he +got to the corner, though, and began walking slowly, sauntering along, +you know, as if his mind was on nothing but second-hand books. I watched +him out of sight--and then I went back, and up to the offices. The +furniture didn't scare me a bit this time. Why, I stopped and felt +of the brass-railing just outside the Board Room, and I said to +myself--'Pshaw! We could have you of solid gold, if we wanted to.'" + +He paused here, and regarded his sister with what she felt was intended +to be a significant look. She shrank from the confession that its +meaning was Greek to her. "Well--and what next?" she asked, guardedly. + +"Semple came back in twenty minutes or so--and the next morning he was +at it again--and what with him and his jobber, by George, on the quiet, +they picked up nearly eighteen thousand of our shares. Some they paid +fifteen shillings for, some they got at twelve-and-six and even ten. +That doesn't matter; it's of no more importance than the coppers you +give to crossing-sweepers. The thing was to get the shares--and by God +we've got them! Twenty-six thousand two hundred shares, that's what +we've got. Now, do you see what that means?" + +"Why yes," she answered, with a faint-hearted assumption of confidence. +"Of course, you know the property is so good that you'll make a profit +on the shares you've bought far below their value. But I don't think I +quite see----" + +He interrupted her with an outburst of loud laughter. "Don't think you +quite see?" he gurgled at her, with tears of pleasure in his eye. "Why, +you dummy, you haven't got the faintest glimmer of a notion of what it's +all about. The value of the property's got nothing in the world to +do with it. That's neither here nor there. If there wasn't any such +property in existence, it would be just the same." + +He had compassion upon her blank countenance, at this, and explained +more gently: "Why, don't you see, Lou, it's this way. This is what has +happened. We've got what's called a corner on the bears. They're caught +short, and we can squeeze them to our hearts' content. What--you don't +understand now? Why, see here! These fellows who've sold twenty-six +thousand of our shares--they haven't got them to sell, and they +can't get them. That is the point--they can't get them for love nor +money--they must pay me my own price for them, or be ruined men. The +moment they realize the situation, they will begin offering a premium +for Rubber Consols. The price of a one-pound share will be two pounds, +then four--six--ten--twenty--thirty--whatever I want to drive it to." + +Louisa stared up at him with wide open eyes. It seemed to her that she +understood now. It was very exciting. + +"You see," he went on, taking approving note of the new light of +comprehension in her glance, "we did something that Tuesday afternoon +beside buy up these shares. Semple rushed off to his office, and he and +his clerks got up a lot of dummy applications for shares, made out in +all the different names they could be safe in using, and they put these +into the bank with the application money--Semple found that--and next +day he went and saw the advertising agent and the solicitor and the +auditors--and got them to pool the shares that I've promised to give +them. A pool? That means they agree to transfer their shares to me +as trustee, and let me deal with them as I like--of course to their +advantage. In any case, their shares are vendor's shares, and couldn't +be dealt with in this transaction. So you see the thing is hermetically +sealed. Nobody can get a share except from me, and at my price. But +these fellows that have sold them--they've got to have them, don't you +see. They had their little temporary joke with me on the street that +afternoon--and now they must walk up to the captain's office and settle. +They've got to pay me at least half a million pounds for that few +minutes' fun of theirs. I may make it a good deal more; I don't know +yet." + +"Oh, Joel!" she groaned at him, in awed stupefaction. His rather +languid indecision as to whether half a million was going to be enough, +impressed her more powerfully than had any detail of his narrative. + +In a few comprehensive sentences he finished up for her what there was +to tell. "This afternoon my Board met to allot the shares. They saw the +applications, amounting in all to over ninety thousand shares. It took +their breath away--they had heard that things were going quite the +other way with us. They were so tickled that they asked no questions The +allotment went through like a greased pig. About 5,000 shares went to +those who had actually applied for them, and 88,000 were solemnly given +to the dummy applicants. Of course, there wasn't a whisper about these +dummies. Nobody winked so much as an eyelash. But I've found since that +one of the directors--that Lord Plowden I told you about--was onto +the thing all the while. But he's all right. Everybody's all right. Of +course the dummies' shares still stand in their names--on paper--but in +reality I've got them all in my safe--in my pocket you might say. They +are really mine, you understand. So now there's nothing for us to do +but to apply to the Stock Exchange for a special settlement date, and +meanwhile lie quiet and watch the Jews stew in their own juice. Or fry +in their own fat, eh? That's better." + +"But," she commented slowly, "you say there are no shares to be +bought--and yet as I understand it, there are those five thousand that +were sent out to the people who really applied." + +"Bravo, Lou!" he answered her jovially. "You actually do understand the +thing. You've put your finger straight on the point. It is true that +those shares are out against us--or might be turned against us if they +could be bought up. But in reality, they don't count at all. In the +first place, you see, they're scattered about among small holders, +country clergymen and old maids on an annuity and so on--all over the +country. Even if these people were all traced, and hunted up, suppose +it was worth the trouble and expense, they wouldn't sell. The bigger the +price they were offered, the more mulish they would be about holding. +That's always the way with them. But even if they did all sell, their +five thousand would be a mere drop in the bucket. There would be over +twenty thousand others to be accounted for. That would be quite enough +for my purposes. Oh, I figured all that out very carefully. My own first +notion was to have the dummies apply for the whole hundred thousand, and +even a little over. Then, you see, we might have allotted everything +to the dummies, and sent back the money and applications of the genuine +ones. But that would have been rather hard to manage with the Board. The +Markiss would have said that the returns ought to be made pro rata--that +is, giving everybody a part of what they applied for--and that would +have mixed everything up. And then, too, if anybody suspected +anything, why the Stock Exchange Committee would refuse us a special +settlement--and, of course, without that the whole transaction is +moonshine. It was far too risky, and we didn't send back a penny." + +"It's all pretty risky, I should think," she declared as she rose. "I +should think you'd lie awake more than ever now--now that you've built +your hopes so high and it'd be so awful to have them come to nothing." + +He smilingly shook his head. "No, it can no more fail than that gas +can fail to burn when you put a light to it. It's all absolute. My +half-million is as right as if it were lying to my credit in the Bank of +England. Oh, that reminds me," he went on in a slightly altered +tone--"it's damned comical, but I've got to ask you for a little money. +I've only got about seven pounds at my bank, and just at the minute it +would give me away fearfully to let Semple know I was hard up. Of course +he'd let me have anything I wanted--but, you can see--I don't like to +ask him just at the moment." + +She hesitated visibly, and scanned his face with a wistful gaze. "You're +quite sure, Joel?"--she began--"and you haven't told me--how long will +it be before you come into some of this money?" + +"Well,"--he in turn paused over his words--"well, I suppose that by next +week things will be in such shape that my bank will see I'm good for an +overdraft. Oh heavens, yes! there'll be a hundred ways of touching some +ready. But if you've got twenty or thirty pounds handy just now--I tell +you what I'll do, Lou. I'll give you a three months bill, paying one +hundred pounds for every sovereign you let me have now. Come, old lady: +you don't get such interest every day, I'll bet." + +"I don't want any interest from you, Joel," she replied, simply. "If +you're sure I can have it back before Christmas, I think I can manage +thirty pounds. It will do in the morning, I suppose?" + +He nodded an amused affirmative. "Why--you don't imagine, do you," +he said, "that all this gold is to rain down, and none of it hit you? +Interest? Why of course you'll get interest--and capital thrown in. What +did you suppose?" + +"I don't ask anything for myself," she made answer, with a note of +resolution in her voice. "Of course if you like to do things for the +children, it won't be me who'll stand in their light. They've been +spoiled for my kind of life as it is." + +"I'll do things for everybody," he affirmed roundly. "Let's see--how old +is Alfred?" + +"He'll be twenty in May--and Julia is fourteen months older than he is." + +"Gad!" was Thorpe's meditative comment. "How they shoot up! Why I was +thinking she was a little girl." "She never will be tall, I'm afraid," +said the literal mother. "She favours her father's family. But Alfred is +more of a Thorpe. I'm sorry you missed seeing them last summer--but of +course they didn't stop long with me. This was no place for them--and +they had a good many invitations to visit schoolfellows and friends in +the country. Alfred reminds me very much of what you were at his age: +he's got the same good opinion of himself, too--and he's not a bit +fonder of hard work." + +"There's one mighty big difference between us, though," remarked Thorpe. +"He won't start with his nose held down to the grindstone by an old +father hard as nails. He'll start like a gentleman--the nephew of a rich +man." + +"I'm almost afraid to have such notions put in his head," she replied, +with visible apprehension. "You mustn't encourage him to build too high +hopes, Joel. It's speculation, you know--and anything might happen to +you. And then--you may marry, and have sons of your own." + +He lifted his brows swiftly--as if the thought were new to his mind. A +slow smile stole into the little wrinkles about his eyes. He opened his +lips as if to speak, and then closed them again. + +"Well," he said at last, abruptly straightening himself, and casting an +eye about for his coat and hat. "I'll be round in the morning--on my way +to the City. Good-bye till then." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +IN Charing Cross station, the next afternoon, Mr. Thorpe discovered by +the big clock overhead that he had arrived fully ten minutes too soon. +This deviation from his deeply-rooted habit of catching trains at the +last possible moment did not take him by surprise. He smiled dryly, aud +nodded to the illuminated dial, as if they shared the secret of some +quaint novelty. This getting to the station ahead of time was of a +piece with what had been happening all day--merely one more token of the +general upheaval in the routine of his life. + +From early morning he had been acutely conscious of the feeling that +his old manners and usages and methods of thought--the thousand familiar +things that made up the Thorpe he had been--were becoming strange to +him. They fitted him no longer; they began to fall away from him. Now, +as he stood here on the bustling platform, it was as if they had all +disappeared--been left somewhere behind him outside the station. With +the two large bags which the porter was looking after--both of a quite +disconcerting freshness of aspect--and the new overcoat and shining +hat, he seemed to himself a new kind of being, embarked upon a voyage of +discovery in the unknown. + +Even his face was new. A sudden and irresistible impulse had led him to +the barber-shop in his hotel at the outset; he could not wait till after +breakfast to have his beard removed. The result, when he beheld it in +the mirror, had not been altogether reassuring. The over-long, thin, +tawny moustasche which survived the razor assumed an undue prominence; +the jaw and chin, revealed now for the first time in perhaps a dozen +years, seemed of a sickly colour, and, in some inexplicable way, +misshapen. Many times during the day, at his office, at the restaurant +where he lunched, at various outfitters' shops which he had visited, he +had pursued the task of getting reconciled to this novel visage in the +looking-glass. The little mirrors in the hansom cabs had helped him most +in this endeavour. Each returned to him an image so different from all +the others--some cadaverous, some bloated, but each with a spontaneous +distortion of its own--that it had become possible for him to strike an +average tolerable to himself, and to believe in it. + +His sister had recognized him upon the instant, when he entered the old +book-shop to get the money promised overnight, but in the City his +own clerks had not known him at first. There was in this an inspiring +implication that he had not so much changed his appearance as revived +his youth. The consciousness that he was in reality still a young man +spread over his mind afresh, and this time he felt that it was effacing +all earlier impressions. Why, when he thought of it, the delight he +had had during the day in buying new shirts and handkerchiefs and +embroidered braces, in looking over the various stocks of razors, +toilet articles, studs and sleeve-links, and the like, and telling the +gratified tradesmen to give him the best of everything--this delight had +been distinctively boyish. He doubted, indeed, if any mere youth could +have risen to the heights of tender satisfaction from which he reflected +upon the contents of his portmanteaus. To apprehend their full value one +must have been without them for such a weary time! He had this wonderful +advantage--that he supplemented the fresh-hearted joy of the youth in +nice things, with the adult man's knowledge of how bald existence could +be without them. It was worth having lived all those forty obscure and +mostly unpleasant years, for this one privilege now of being able to +appreciate to the uttermost the touch of double-silk underwear. + +It was an undoubted pity that there had not been time to go to a good +tailor. The suit he had on was right enough for ordinary purposes, and +his evening-clothes were as good as new, but the thought of a costume +for shooting harassed his mind. He had brought along with him, for +this eventful visit, an old Mexican outfit of yellowish-grey cloth and +leather, much the worse for rough wear, but saved from the disreputable +by its suggestion of picturesque experiences in a strange and romantic +country. At least it had seemed to him, in the morning, when he had +packed it, to be secure in this salvation. Uneasy doubts on the subject +had soon risen, however, and they had increased in volume and poignancy +as his conceptions of a wardrobe expanded in the course of the day's +investigations and purchases. He had reached the point now of hoping +that it would rain bitterly on the morrow. + +It was doubly important to keep a close look-out for Lord Plowden, since +he did not know the name of the station they were to book for, and time +was getting short. He dwelt with some annoyance upon his oversight in +this matter, as his watchful glance ranged from one entrance to another. +He would have liked to buy the tickets himself, and have everything in +readiness on the arrival of his host. As it was, he could not even tell +the porter how his luggage was to be labelled, and there was now +less than two minutes! He moved forward briskly, with the thought of +intercepting his friend at the front of the station; then halted, and +went back, upon the recollection that while he was going out one way, +Plowden might come in by the other. The seconds, as they passed now, +became severally painful to his nerves. The ringing of a bell somewhere +beyond the barrier provoked within him an impulse to tearful profanity. + +Then suddenly everything was all right. A smooth-faced, civilly-spoken +young man came up, touched his hat, and asked: "Will you kindly show me +which is your luggage, sir?" + +Thorpe, even while wondering what business of his it was, indicated the +glaringly new bags--and then only half repressed a cry of pleasure at +discovering that Lord Plowden stood beside him. + +"It's all right; my man will look out for your things," said the latter, +as they shook hands. "We will go and get our places." + +The fat policeman at the gate touched his helmet. A lean, elderly man +in a sort of guard's uniform hobbled obsequiously before them down the +platform, opened to them a first-class compartment with a low bow and a +deprecatory wave of the hand, and then impressively locked the door upon +them. "The engine will be the other way, my Lord, after you leave Cannon +Street," he remarked through the open window, with earnest deference. +"Are there any of your bags that you want in the compartment with you?" + +Plowden had nodded to the first remark. He shook his head at the second. +The elderly man at this, with still another bow, flapped out a green +flag which he had been holding furled behind his back, and extended it +at arm's length. The train began slowly to move. Mr. Thorpe reflected to +himself that the peerage was by no means so played-out an institution as +some people imagined. + +"Ho-ho!" the younger man sighed a yawn, as he tossed his hat into the +rack above his head. "We shall both be the better for some pure air. +London quite does me up. And you--you've been sticking at it months +on end, haven't you? You look rather fagged--or at all events you did +yesterday. You've smartened yourself so--without your beard--that I +can't say I'd notice it to-day. But I take it every sensible person is +glad to get away from London." + +"Except for an odd Sunday, now and then, I haven't put my nose outside +London since I landed here." Thorpe rose as he spoke, to deposit his hat +also in the rack. He noted with a kind of chagrin that his companion's +was an ordinary low black bowler. "I can tell you, I SHALL be glad of +the change. I would have bought the tickets," he went on, giving words +at random to the thought which he found fixed on the surface of his +mind, "if I'd only known what our station was." + +Plowden waved his hand, and the gesture seemed to dismiss the subject. +He took a cigar case from his pocket, and offered it to Thorpe. + +"It was lucky, my not missing the train altogether," he said, as they +lighted their cigars. "I was up late last night--turned out late this +morning, been late all day, somehow--couldn't catch up with the clock +for the life of me. Your statement to me last night--you know it rather +upset me." + +The other smiled. "Well, I guess I know something about that feeling +myself. Why, I've been buzzing about today like a hen with her head cut +off. But it's fun, though, aint it, eh? Just to happen to remember every +once in a while, you know, that it's all true! But of course it means a +thousand times more to me than it does to you." + +The train had come to a stop inside the gloomy, domed cavern of Cannon +Street. Many men in silk hats crowded to and fro on the platform, and a +number of them shook the handle of the locked door. There was an effect +of curses in the sound of their remarks which came through the closed +window. Mr. Thorpe could not quite restrain the impulse to grin at them. + +"Ah, that's where you mistake," said Plowden, contemplating the mouthful +of smoke he slowly blew forth. "My dear man, you can't imagine anybody +to whom it would mean more than it does to me--I hope none of those +fellows have a key. They're an awful bore on this train. I almost +never go by it, for that reason. Ah, thank God we're off!--But as I was +saying, this thing makes a greater difference to me than you can think +of. I couldn't sleep last night--I give you my word--the thing upset me +so. I take it you--you have never had much money before; that is, you +know from experience what poverty is?" + +Thorpe nodded with eloquent gravity. + +"Well--but you"--the other began, and then paused. "What I mean is," +he resumed, "you were never, at any rate, responsible to anybody but +yourself. If you had only a sovereign a day, or a sovereign a week, for +that matter, you could accommodate yourself to the requirements of +the situation. I don't mean that you would enjoy it any more than I +should--but at least it was open to you to do it, without attracting +much attention. But with me placed in my ridiculous position--poverty +has been the most unbearable torture one can imagine. You see, there is +no way in which I can earn a penny. I had to leave the Army when I was +twenty-three--the other fellows all had plenty of money to spend, and it +was impossible for me to drag along with a title and an empty pocket. I +daresay that I ought to have stuck to it, because it isn't nearly so bad +now, but twelve years ago it was too cruel for any youngster who had any +pride about him--and, of course, my father having made rather a name in +the Army, that made it so much harder for me. And after that, what was +there? Of course, the bar and medicine and engineering and those things +were out of the question, in those days at least. The Church?--that was +more so still. I had a try at politics--but you need money there as +much as anywhere else--money or big family connections. I voted in +practically every division for four years, and I made the rottenest +speeches you ever heard of at Primrose League meetings in small places, +and after all that the best thing the whips could offer me was a billet +in India at four hundred a year, and even that you took in depreciated +rupees. When I tried to talk about something at home, they practically +laughed in my face. I had no leverage upon them whatever. They didn't +care in the least whether I came up and voted or stopped at home. Their +majority was ten to one just the same--yes, twenty to one. So that door +was shut in my face. I've never been inside the House since--except once +to show it to an American lady last summer--but when I do go again I +rather fancy"--he stopped for an instant, and nodded his handsome head +significantly--"I rather fancy I shall turn up on the other side." + +"I'm a Liberal myself, in English politics," interposed Thorpe. + +Plowden seemed not to perceive the connection. They had left London +Bridge behind, and he put his feet up on the cushions, and leant back +comfortably. "Of course there was the City," he went on, speaking +diagonally across to his companion, between leisurely intervals of +absorption in his cigar. "There have been some directors' fees, no +doubt, and once or twice I've come very near to what promised to be a +big thing--but I never quite pulled it off. Really, without capital what +can one do?--I'm curious to know--did you bring much ready money with +you to England?" + +"Between six and seven thousand pounds." + +"And if it's a fair question--how much of it have you got left?" + +Thorpe had some momentary doubts as to whether this was a fair question, +but he smothered them under the smile with which he felt impelled to +answer the twinkle in Plowden's eyes. "Oh, less than a hundred," he +said, and laughed aloud. + +Plowden also laughed. "By George, that's fine!" he cried. "It's +splendid. There's drama in it. I felt it was like that, you know. +Something told me it was your last cartridge that rang the bell. It was +that that made me come to you as I did--and tell you that you were +a great man, and that I wanted to enlist under you. Ah, that kind of +courage is so rare! When a man has it, he can stand the world on +its head." "But I was plumb scared, all the while, myself," Thorpe +protested, genially. "Courage? I could feel it running out of my boots." + +"Ah, yes, but that's the great thing," insisted the other. "You didn't +look as if you were frightened. From all one could see, your nerve was +sublime. And nothing else matters--it was sublime." + +"Curious--that thing happened to me once before," commented Thorpe, with +ruminating slowness. "It was out on the plains, years ago, and I was +in pretty hard luck, and was making my way alone from Tucson north, and +some cowboys held me up, and were going to make kindling wood of me, +they being under the impression that I was a horse-thief they were +looking after. There was five or six minutes there when my life +wasn't worth a last year's bird's-nest--and I tell you, sir, I was the +scaredest man that ever drew the breath of life. And then something +happened to be said that put the matter right--they saw I was the wrong +man--and then--why then they couldn't be polite enough to me. They half +emptied their flasks down my throat, and they rode with me all the way +to the next town, and there they wanted to buy everything liquid in the +place for me. But what I was speaking of--do you know, those fellows got +a tremendous notion of my nerve. It wasn't so much that they told me +so, but they told others about it. They really thought I was game to the +core--when in reality, as I tell you, I was in the deadliest funk you +ever heard of." + +"That's just it," said Plowden, "the part of you which was engaged in +making mental notes of the occasion thought you were frightened; we will +say that it was itself frightened. But the other part of you, the part +that was transacting business, so to speak--that wasn't in the least +alarmed. I fancy all born commanders are built like that. Did you ever +see General Grant?" + +Thorpe shook his head. + +"What reminded me of him--there is an account in his Memoirs of how he +felt when he first was given a command, at the beginning of the Civil +War. He was looking about for the enemy, who was known to be in the +vicinity, and the nearer he got to where this enemy probably was, the +more he got timid and unnerved, he says, until it seemed as if cowardice +were getting complete mastery of him. And then suddenly it occurred to +him that very likely the enemy was just as afraid of him as he was of +the enemy, and that moment his bravery all returned to him. He went in +and gave the other man a terrible thrashing. It doesn't apply to your +case, particularly--but I fancy that all really brave men have those +inner convictions of weakness, even while they are behaving like +lions. Those must have been extraordinarily interesting experiences of +yours--on the plains. I wish I could have seen something of that part +of America when I was there last year. Unfortunately, it didn't come my +way." + +"I thought I remembered your saying you'd been West." + +Plowden smiled. "I'm afraid I did think it was West at the time. But +since my return I've been warned that I mustn't call Chicago West. That +was as far as I went. I had some business there, or thought I had. When +my father died, that was in 1884, we found among his papers a lot of +bonds of some corporation purporting to be chartered by the State of +Illinois. Our solicitors wrote several letters, but they could find out +nothing about them, and there the matter rested. Finally, last year, +when I decided to make the trip, I recollected these old bonds, and +took them with me. I thought they might at least pay my expenses. But +it wasn't the least good. Nobody knew anything about them. It seems they +related to something that was burned up in the Great Fire--either that, +or had disappeared before that time. That fire seems to have operated +like the Deluge--it cancelled everything that had happened previously. +My unhappy father had a genius for that kind of investment. I shall +have great pleasure in showing you tomorrow, a very picturesque and +comprehensive collection of Confederate Bonds. Their face value is, as I +remember it, eighty thousand dollars--that is, sixteen thousand pounds. +I would entertain with joy an offer of sixteen shillings for the lot. +My dear father bought them--I should not be surprised to learn that he +bought them at a premium. If they ever touched a premium for a day, that +is certainly the day that he would have hit upon to buy. Oh, it was too +rare! Too inspired! He left nearly a hundred thousand pounds' worth of +paper--that is, on its face--upon which the solicitors realized, I +think it was thirteen hundred pounds. It's hard to imagine how he got +them--but there were actually bonds among them issued by Kossuth's +Hungarian Republic in 1848. Well--now you can see the kind of +inheritance I came into, and I have a brother and sister more or less to +look after, too." + +Thorpe had been listening to these details with an almost exaggerated +expression of sympathy upon his face. The voice in which he spoke now +betrayed, however, a certain note of incredulity. + +"Yes, I see that well enough," he remarked. "But what I don't perhaps +quite understand--well, this is it. You have this place of yours in the +country, and preserve game and so on--but of course I see what you mean. +It's what you've been saying. What another man would think a comfortable +living, is poverty to a man in your position." + +"Oh, the place," said Plowden. "It isn't mine at all. I could never have +kept it up. It belongs to my mother. It was her father's place; it has +been in their family for hundreds of years. Her father, I daresay you +know, was the last Earl of Hever. The title died with him. He left three +daughters, who inherited his estates, and my mother, being the eldest, +got the Kentish properties. Of course Hadlow House will come to me +eventually, but it is hers during her lifetime. I may speak of it as +my place, but that is merely a facon de parler; it isn't necessary to +explain to everybody that it's my mother's. It's my home, and that's +enough. It's a dear old place. I can't tell you how glad I am that +you're going to see it." + +"I'm very glad, too," said the other, with unaffected sincerity. + +"All the ambitions I have in the world," the nobleman went on, sitting +upright now, and speaking with a confidential seriousness, "centre round +Hadlow. That is the part of me that I'm keen about. The Plowdens are +things of yesterday. My grandfather, the Chancellor, began in a very +small way, and was never anything more than a clever lawyer, with a loud +voice and a hard heart, and a talent for money-making and politics. +He got a peerage and he left a fortune. My father, for all he was a +soldier, had a mild voice and a soft heart. He gave a certain military +distinction to the peerage, but he played hell-and-tommy with the +fortune. And then I come: I can't be either a Chancellor or a General, +and I haven't a penny to bless myself with. You can't think of a more +idiotic box for a man to be in. But now--thanks to you--there comes +this prospect of an immense change. If I have money at my back--at once +everything is different with me. People will remember then promptly +enough that I am a Hadlow, as well as a Plowden. I will make the party +whips remember it, too. It won't be a Secretary's billet in India at +four hundred a year that they'll offer me, but a Governorship at six +thousand--that is, if I wish to leave England at all. And we'll see +which set of whips are to have the honour of offering me anything. But +all that is in the air. It's enough, for the moment, to realize that +things have really come my way. And about that--about the success of the +affair--I suppose there can be no question whatever?" + +"Not the slightest," Thorpe assured him. "Rubber Consols can go up to +any figure we choose to name." + +Lord Plowden proffered the cigar case again, and once more helped +himself after he had given his companion a light. Then he threw himself +back against the cushions, with a long sigh of content. "I'm not going +to say another word about myself," he announced, pleasantly. "I've had +more than my legitimate innings. You mustn't think that I forget for a +moment the reverse of the medal. You're doing wonderful things for me. I +only wish it were clearer to me what the wonderful things are that I can +do for you." + +"Oh, that'll be all right," said the other, rather vaguely. + +"Perhaps it's a little early for you to have mapped out in your mind +just what you want to do," Plowden reflected aloud. "Of course it has +come suddenly upon you--just as it has upon me. There are things in +plenty that we've dreamed of doing, while the power to do them was a +long way off. It doesn't at all follow that these are the things we +shall proceed to do, when the power is actually in our hands. But have +you any plans at all? Do you fancy going into Parliament, for example?" + +"Yes," answered Thorpe, meditatively. "I think I should like to go into +Parliament. But that would be some way ahead. I guess I've got my plans +worked out a trifle more than you think. They may not be very definite, +as regards details, but their main direction I know well enough. I'm +going to be an English country gentleman." + +Lord Plowden visibly winced a little at this announcement. He seemed +annoyed at the consciousness that he had done so, turning abruptly first +to stare out of the window, then shifting his position on the seat, and +at last stealing an uneasy glance toward his companion. Apparently his +tongue was at a loss for an appropriate comment. + +Thorpe had lost none of these unwilling tokens of embarrassment. Plowden +saw that at once, but it relieved even more than it surprised him to see +also that Thorpe appeared not to mind. The older man, indeed, smiled in +good-natured if somewhat ironical comprehension of the dumb-show. + +"Oh, that'll be all right, too," he said, with the evident intention +of reassurance. "I can do it right enough, so far as the big things are +concerned. It'll be in the little things that I'll want some steering." + +"I've already told you--you may command me to the utmost of my power," +the other declared. Upon reflection, he was disposed to be ashamed +of himself. His nerves and facial muscles had been guilty of an +unpardonable lapse into snobbishness--and toward a man, too, who +had been capable of behaviour more distinguished in its courtesy and +generosity than any he had encountered in all the "upper circles" put +together. He recalled all at once, moreover, that Thorpe's "h's" were +perfect--aud, for some occult reason, this completed his confusion. + +"My dear fellow"--he began again, confronting with verbal awkwardness +the other's quizzical smile--"don't think I doubt anything about you. I +know well enough that you can do anything--be anything--you like." + +Thorpe laughed softly. + +"I don't think you know, though, that I'm a public-school man," he said. + +Plowden lifted his brows in unfeigned surprise. "No--I didn't know +that," he admitted, frankly. + +"Yes, I'm a Paul's Pigeon," Thorpe went on, "as they called them in +my day. That's gone out now, I'm told, since they've moved to the big +buildings in Hammersmith. I did very well at school, too; came out in +the first fourteen. But my father wouldn't carry the thing any further. +He insisted on my going into the shop when I left St. Paul's and +learning the book-business. He had precisely the same kind of dynastic +idea, you know, that you fellows have. His father and his grand-father +had been booksellers, and he was going to hand on the tradition to me, +and my son after me. That was his idea. And he thought that Paul's would +help this--but that Oxford would kill it. + +"Of course, he was right there--but he was wrong in supposing there was +a bookseller in me. I liked the books well enough, mind you--but damn +the people that came to buy them, I couldn't stand it. You stood two +hours watching to see that men didn't put volumes in their pockets, and +at the end of that time you'd made a profit of ninepence. While you +were doing up the parcel, some fellow walked off with a book worth +eighteen-pence. It was too slow for me. I didn't hit it off with the old +man, either. We didn't precisely quarrel, but I went off on my own hook. +I hung about London for some years, trying this thing and that. Once I +started a book-shop of my own--but I did no good here. Finally I turned +it up altogether, and went to Australia. That was in 1882. I've been in +almost every quarter of the globe since; I've known what it was to be +shipwrecked in a monsoon, and I've lain down in a desert not expecting +to get up again, with my belt tightened to its last hole for hunger--but +I can't remember that I ever wished myself back in my father's +book-shop." + +Plowden's fine eyes sparkled his appreciation of the other's mood. +He was silent for a moment, then lifted his head as if something had +occurred to him. "You were speaking of the plan that you should succeed +to your father's business--and your son after you--you're not married, +are you?" + +Thorpe slowly shook his head. + +"Our station is the next," said the younger man. "It's a drive of +something under two miles. You'd better light another cigar." He added, +as if upon a casual afterthought: "We can both of us think of marrying +now." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +FOR the next two hours, Thorpe's thoughts were almost wholly occupied +with various phases of the large subject of domestic service. He seemed +suddenly to have been transported to some region populated exclusively +by clean-shaven men in brown livery. One of these was holding a spirited +horse outside the station, and when Lord Plowden had taken the reins, +and Thorpe had gathered the rugs about his knees and feet, this menial +silently associated himself with the young man who had accompanied them +from town, on the back seat of the trap. With these people so close +behind him, Thorpe felt that any intimate conversation was out of the +question. Indeed, talk of any sort was not invited; the big horse burst +forth with high, sprawling strides upon a career through the twilight, +once the main road was reached, which it taxed all Plowden's energies +to regulate. He kept up a continual murmuring monologue to the +animal--"So--so--quiet, my pet,--so--so--easy, my beauty---so--so"--and +his wrists and gloved hands were visibly under a tremendous tension of +strain, as they held their own against the rigid arched neck and mouth +of steel. Thorpe kept a grip on the side of the trap, and had only a +modified pleasure in the drive. The road along which they sped seemed, +in the gathering dusk, uncomfortably narrow, and he speculated a good +deal as to how frightened the two mutes behind him must be. But silence +was such a law of their life that, though he strained his ears, he could +not so much as hear them sigh or gasp. + +It seemed but a very few minutes before they turned off, with but the +most fleeting diminution of pace, upon a private road, which speedily +developed into an avenue of trees, quite dark and apparently narrower +than ever. Down this they raced precipitately, and then, coming out all +at once upon an open space, swung smartly round the crescent of a gravel +road, and halted before what seemed to be the door of a greenhouse. +Thorpe, as he stood up in the trap, got an uncertain, general idea of a +low, pale-coloured mansion in the background, with lights showing behind +curtains in several widely separated windows; what he had taken to be a +conservatory revealed itself now to be a glass gallery, built along the +front of the central portion of this house. + +A profusion of hospitable lights--tall wax-candles in brackets among the +vines against the trellised wall--gave to this outlying entrance what +the stranger felt to be a delightful effect. Its smooth tiled floor, +comfortably bestrewn with rugs, was on a level with the path outside. +There were low easy-chairs here, and a little wicker table bearing books +and a lady's work-basket. Further on, giant chrysanthemum blooms were +massed beneath the clusters of pale plumbago-flowers on the trellis. +Directly in front, across the dozen feet of this glazed vestibule, the +broad doorway of the house proper stood open--with warm lights glowing +richly upon dark woods in the luxurious obscurity within. + +What Thorpe noted most of all, however, was the servants who seemed to +swarm everywhere. The two who had alighted from the trap had contrived +somehow mysteriously to multiply themselves in the darkness. All at once +there were a number of young men--at the horse's head, at the back +and sides of the trap, at the first doorway, and the second, and +beyond--each presenting such a smooth-faced, pallid, brown-clad replica +of all the others that Thorpe knew he should never be able to tell them +apart. + +Lord Plowden paused for a moment under the candle-light to look at +his watch. "We did it in a bit over eight minutes," he remarked, with +obvious satisfaction. "With four people and heavy roads that's not so +bad--not so bad. But come inside." + +They moved forward through the wide doorway into an apartment the like +of which Thorpe had not seen before. It was a large, square room, with +a big staircase at the end, which separated and went off to right and +left, half-way up its visible course. Its floor was of inlaid woods, old +and uneven from long use, and carpeted here and there by the skins of +tigers and leopards. There were many other suggestions of the chase +about the room: riding boots, whips, spurs, and some stands of archaic +weapons caught the eye at various points; the heads of foxes and deer +peeped out on the blackened panels of the walls, from among clusters of +hooks crowded with coats, hats, and mackintoshes. At the right, where a +fire glowed and blazed under a huge open chimney-place, there were low +chairs and divans drawn up to mark off a space for orderly domestic +occupation. The irregularity of every thing outside--the great table in +the centre of the hall strewn with an incongruous litter of caps, books, +flasks, newspapers, gloves, tobacco-pouches; the shoes, slippers, +and leggings scattered under the benches at the sides--all this +self-renewing disorder of a careless household struck Thorpe with a +profound surprise. It was like nothing so much as a Mexican ranch--and +to find it in the ancestral home of an English nobleman, filled to +overflowing with servants, amazed him. + +The glances that he cast about him, however, were impassive enough. His +mind was charged with the ceaseless responsibility of being astonished +at nothing. A man took his hat, and helped him off with his coat. +Another moved toward the staircase with his two bags. + +"If you will follow Pangbourn," said his host, indicating this second +domestic, "he will look after you. You would like to go up and change +now, wouldn't you? There's a fire in your room." + +Thus dismissed, he went up the stairs in the wake of his portmanteaus, +taking the turning to the left, and then proceeding by a long, low +passage, round more than one corner, to what he conceived to be a wing +of the house. The servant ushered him into a room--and, in despite of +himself, he sighed with pleasure at the sight of it. The prettiest and +most charming of rooms it seemed to him to be--spacious and quaintly +rambling in shape, with a delicately-figured chintz repeating the dainty +effects of the walls upon the curtains and carpet and bed-hangings and +chair-covers, and with a bright fire in the grate throwing its warm, +cozy glow over everything. He looked at the pictures on the walls, at +the photographs and little ornaments on the writing desk, and the high +posts and silken coverlet of the big bed, and, secure in the averted +face of the servant, smiled richly to himself. + +This servant, kneeling, had unstrapped and opened the new bags. Thorpe +looked to see him quit the room, this task accomplished, and was +conscious of something like dismay at the discovery that he intended to +unpack them as well. Pangbourn began gravely to unwrap one paper parcel +after another and to assort their contents in little heaps on the sofa +beside him. He did it deftly, imperturbably, as if all the gentlemen he +had ever seen carried their belongings in packages done up by tradesmen. + +Thorpe's impulse to bid him desist framed itself in words on the tip of +his tongue--but he did not utter these words. After circling idly, hands +in pockets, about the man and the bags for a little time, he invented +something which it seemed better for him to say. + +"I don't know what you'll be able to make of those things," he remarked, +casually. "My man has been buying them today--and I don't know what he +mayn't have forgotten. My whole outfit of that sort of thing went astray +or was stolen at some station or other--the first part of the week--I +think it must have been Leeds." + +"Yes, sir," said Pangbourn, without emotion. "They're very careless, +sir." + +He went on impassively, shaking out the black garments and spreading +them on the bed, laying out a shirt and tie beside them, and arranging +the razors, strop, and brushes on the dressing-table. He seemed to +foresee everything--for there was not an instant's hesitation in the +clock-like assiduity of his movements, as he bestowed handkerchiefs, in +one drawer, socks in another, hung pyjamas before the fire, and set +the patent-leather pumps against the fender. Even the old Mexican +shooting-suit seemed in no way to disconcert him. He drew forth its +constituent elements as with a practised hand; when he had hung them up, +sombrero and all, in the wardrobe against the wall, they had the +trick of making that venerable oaken receptacle look as if it had been +fashioned expressly for them. + +Thorpe's earlier uneasiness quite lost itself in his admiration for +Pangbourn's resourceful dexterity. The delighted thought that now +he would be needing a man like this for himself crossed his mind. +Conceivably he might even get this identical Pangbourn--treasure though +he were. Money could command everything on this broad globe--and why not +Pangbourn? He tentatively felt of the coins in his pocket, as it became +apparent that the man's task was nearing completion--and then frowned +at himself for forgetting that these things were always reserved for the +end of a visit. + +"Will you dress now, sir?" asked Pangbourn. His soft, distinct +enunciation conveyed the suggestion of centuries of training. + +"Eh?" said Thorpe, finding himself for the moment behind the other's +thought. + +"Shall you require me any further, sir?" the man reframed the question, +deferentially. + +"Oh! Oh--no," replied Thorpe. "No--I'll get along all right." + +Left to himself, he began hurriedly the task of shaving and dressing. +The candles on either side of the thick, bevelled swinging mirror +presented a somewhat embarrassing contrast to the electric light he +was used to--but upon second thought he preferred this restrained +aristocratic glimmer. + +He had completed his toilet, and was standing at the bay-window, with +his shoulder holding back the edge of the curtain, looking out upon the +darkened lawn and wondering whether he ought to go downstairs or wait +for someone to summon him, when he heard a knock at his door. Before +he could answer, the door opened, and he made out in the candle-and +firelight that it was Lord Plowden who had come in. He stepped forward +to meet his host who, clad now in evening-clothes, was smoking a +cigarette. + +"Have they looked after you all right?" said Plowden, nonchalantly. +"Have a cigarette before we go down? Light it by the candle. They never +will keep matches in a bedroom." + +He seated himself in an easy-chair before the fire, as he spoke, and +stretched out his shining slippers toward the grate. "I thought I'd tell +you before we went down"--he went on, as Thorpe, with an elbow on the +mantel, looked down at his handsome head--"my sister has a couple of +ladies visiting her. One of them I think you know. Do you remember on +shipboard a Miss Madden--an American, you know--very tall and fine, with +bright red hair--rather remarkable hair it was?" + +"I remember the lady," said Thorpe, upon reflection, "but we didn't +meet." He could not wholly divest his tone of the hint that in those +days it by no means followed that because he saw ladies it was open to +him to know them. + +Lord Plowden smiled a little. "Oh, you'll like her. She's great fun--if +she's in the mood. My mother and sister--I had them call on her in +London last spring--and they took a great fancy to her. She's got no +end of money, you know--at least a million and a half--dollars, +unfortunately. Her parents were Irish--her father made his pile in the +waggon business, I believe--but she's as American as if they'd crossed +over in--what was it, the 'Sunflower'?--no, the 'Mayflower.' Marvelous +country for assimilation, that America is! You remember what I told +you--it's put such a mark on you that I should never have dreamt you +were English." + +Thorpe observed his companion, through a blue haze of smoke, in silence. +This insistence upon the un-English nature of the effect he produced was +not altogether grateful to his ears. + +"The other one," continued Plowden, "is Lady Cressage. You'll be +interested in her--because a few years ago she was supposed to be the +most beautiful woman in London. She married a shocking bounder--he +would have been Duke of Glastonbury, though, if he had lived--but he was +drowned, and she was left poor as a church mouse. Oh! by the way!" he +started up, with a gleam of aroused interest on his face--"it didn't in +the least occur to me. Why, she's a daughter of our General Kervick. How +did he get on the Board, by the way? Where did you pick him up?" + +Thorpe bent his brows in puzzled lines. "Why, you introduced me to him +yourself, didn't you?" he asked, slowly. + +Plowden seemed unaffectedly surprised at the suggestion, as he turned it +over in his mind. "By George! I think you're right," he said. "I'd quite +forgotten it. Of course I did. Let me see--oh yes, I reconstruct it +readily enough now. Poor old chappie--he needs all he can get. He was +bothering her about money--that was it, I remember now--but what an +idiot I was to forget it. But what I was saying--there's no one else but +my mother and sister, and my brother Balder. He's a youngster--twenty or +thereabouts--and he purports to be reading for his exams for the Army. +If they opened his head, though, I doubt if they'd find anything but +cricket and football, unless it might be a bit of golf. Well--that's the +party. I thought you might like to have a notion of them in advance. If +you've finished your cigarette"--he threw his own into the grate, and +rose as he spoke--"we may as well be moving along. By the way," he +concluded, as they walked toward the door, "I've an idea that we won't +say anything, just at the moment, about our great coup. I should like to +keep it as a little surprise--for my mother and sister, you know." + +Some two hours later, Thorpe found the leisure and the restored +equanimity needful for a dispassionate survey of his surroundings. He +had become temporarily detached from the group over by the fireplace in +the big drawing-room and was for the first time that evening very much +at his ease. It was all much simpler, upon experiment, than he had +feared. He stood now in a corner of the ornate apartment, whither he had +wandered in examining the pictures on the walls, and contemplated with +serenity the five people whom he had left behind him. He was conscious +of the conviction that when he rejoined them, it would be on a +new footing of assured equality. He knew now the exact measure of +everything. + +The Hon. Balder Plowden--a tall, heavily-built youth, with enormous +shoulders and thick, hard hands, and pale straw-coloured hair and brows +and eyelashes--had amiably sauntered beside him, and was elucidating for +his benefit now, in slow, halting undertones, some unfathomable mystery +connected with the varying attitude of two distinct breeds of terriers +toward rats. Across the room, just within reach of the flickering ruddy +firelight from the hearth, the American guest, Miss Madden, was seated +at the piano, playing some low and rather doleful music. Thorpe bent +his head, and assumed an air of attention, but in truth he listened +to neither the Honourable Balder nor the piano. His thoughts were +concentrated jealously upon his own position in this novel setting. He +said to himself that it was all right. Old Lady Plowden had seemed +to like him from the start. The genial, if somewhat abstracted, +motherliness of her welcome had been, indeed, his sheet anchor +throughout the evening. She had not once failed to nod her head and +smile and twinkle her little kind eyes through their spectacles at him, +whenever by word or look he had addressed her. Nor did his original +half-suspicion, that this was her manner to people in general, justify +itself upon observation. She was civil, even excessively civil, to the +other two guests, but these ladies did not get the same eager and intent +smile that he could command. He reasoned it out that Plowden must have +said something pleasant to his mother about him--perhaps even to +the point of explaining that he was to be the architect of their +fortunes--but he did not like to ascribe all her hospitable warmth +to that. It was dear to him to believe that she liked him on his own +merits--and he did believe it, as his softened glance rested upon her +where she sat almost facing him in her padded, wicker chair--small, +white-haired, rosy-cheeked, her intelligent face radiating a kind of +alert placidity which somehow made him feel at home. + +He had not been as much at home with the others. The Honourable Balder, +of course, didn't count; nobody paid attention to him, and least of all +a busy Rubber King. He gave not much more heed to the American--the tall +young woman with the red hair and the million and a half of dollars. She +was plainly a visitor like himself, not at all identified with the inner +life of the household. He fancied, moreover, that she in no way desired +to be thus identified. She seemed to carry herself with a deliberate +aloofness underlying her surface amiability. Then he had spoken his few +words with her, once or twice, he had got this effect of stony reserve +close beneath her smile and smooth words. True, this might mean only +that she felt herself out of her element, just as he did--but to him, +really it did not matter what she felt. A year ago--why, yes, even a +fortnight ago--the golden rumour of millions would have shone round +her auburn hair in his eyes like a halo. But all that was changed. +Calculated in a solidified currency, her reported fortune shrank to a +mere three hundred thousand pounds. It was a respectable sum for a woman +to have, no doubt, but it did nothing to quicken the cool indifference +with which he considered her. + +The two other young women were different. They were seated together on a +sofa, so placed as regarded his point of view, that he saw only in +part the shadowed profiles of the faces they turned toward the piano. +Although it was not visible to him, the posture of their shoulders told +him that they were listening to the music each holding the other's +hand. This tacit embrace was typical in his mind of the way they hung +together, these two young women. It had been forced upon his perceptions +all the evening, that this fair-haired, beautiful, rather stately Lady +Cressage, and the small, swarthy, round-shouldered daughter of the +house, peering through her pince-nez from under unduly thick black +brows, formed a party of their own. Their politeness toward him had been +as identical in all its little shades of distance and reservation as if +they had been governed from a single brain-centre. It would be unfair +to them to assume from their manner that they disliked him, or were even +unfavourably impressed by him. The finesse of that manner was far too +delicate a thing to call into use such rough characterizations. It was +rather their action as a unit which piqued his interest. He thought he +could see that they united upon a common demeanour toward the American +girl, although of course they knew her much better than they knew +him. It was not even clear to him that there were not traces of this +combination in their tone toward Plowden and the Honourable Balder. The +bond between them had twisted in it strands of social exclusiveness, and +strands of sex sympathy. + +He did not analyze all this with much closeness in his thoughts, but the +impressions of it were distinct enough to him. He rather enjoyed +these impressions than otherwise. Women had not often interested him +consecutively to any large degree, either in detail or as a whole. He +had formulated, among other loose general notions of them, however, the +idea that their failure to stand by one another was one of their gravest +weaknesses. This proposition rose suddenly now in his mind, and claimed +his attention. It became apparent to him, all at once, that his opinions +about women would be henceforth invested with a new importance. He had +scarcely before in his life worn evening dress in a domestic circle +which included ladies--certainly never in the presence of such +certificated and hall-marked ladies as these. His future, however, +was to be filled with experiences of this nature. Already, after this +briefest of ventures into the new life, he found fresh conceptions of +the great subject springing up in his thoughts. In this matter of women +sticking together, for example--here before his eyes was one of the +prettiest instances of it imaginable. As he looked again at the two +figures on the sofa, so markedly unlike in outward aspect, yet knit +to each other in such a sisterly bond, he found the spectacle really +touching. + +Lady Cressage had inclined her classic profile even more toward the +piano. Thorpe was not stirred at all by the music, but the spirit of +it as it was reflected upon this beautiful facial outline--sensitive, +high-spirited, somewhat sad withal--appealed to something in him. He +moved forward cautiously, noiselessly, a dozen restricted paces, +and halted again at the corner of a table. It was a relief that the +Honourable Balder, though he followed along, respected now his obvious +wish for silence. But neither Balder nor anyone else could guess that +the music said less than nothing to his ears--that it was the face that +had beckoned him to advance. + +Covertly, with momentary assurances that no one observed him, he studied +this face and mused upon it. The white candle-light on the shining wall +beyond threw everything into a soft, uniform shadow, this side of the +thread of dark tracery which outlined forehead and nose and lips and +chin. It seemed to him that the eyes were closed, as in reverie; he +could not be sure. + +So she would have been a Duchess if her husband had lived! He said +to himself that he had never seen before, or imagined, a face which +belonged so indubitably beneath a tiara of strawberry leaves in +diamonds. The pride and grace and composure, yes, and melancholy, of +the great lady--they were all there in their supreme expression. And +yet--why, she was no great lady at all. She was the daughter of his +old General Kervick--the necessitous and haughtily-humble old military +gentleman, with the grey moustache and the premature fur coat, who did +what he was told on the Board without a question, for a pitiful three +hundred a year. Yes--she was his daughter, and she also was poor. +Plowden had said so. + +Why had Plowden, by the way, been so keen about relieving her from her +father's importunities? He must have had it very much at heart, to +have invented the roundabout plan of getting the old gentleman a +directorship. But no--there was nothing in that. Why, Plowden had even +forgotten that it was he who suggested Kervick's name. It would have +been his sister, of course, who was evidently such chums with Lady +Cressage, who gave him the hint to help the General to something if he +could. And when you came to think of it, these aristocrats and +military men and so on, had no other notion of making money save by +directorships. Clearly, that was the way of it. Plowden had remembered +Kervick's name, when the chance arose to give the old boy a leg up, and +then had clean forgotten the circumstance. The episode rather increased +his liking for Plowden. + +He glanced briefly, under the impulse of his thought, to where the peer +sat, or rather sprawled, in a big low chair before the fire. He was so +nearly recumbent in it, indeed, that there was nothing to be seen of +him but an elbow, and two very trim legs extended to the brass fender. +Thorpe's gaze reverted automatically to the face of General Kervick's +daughter. He wondered if she knew about the Company, and about him, +and about his ability to solidify to any extent her father's financial +position. Even more, upon reflection, he wondered whether she was very +fond of her father; would she be extremely grateful to one who should +render him securely comfortable for life? Miss Madden rose from the +piano before Thorpe noted that the music had ceased. There came from +the others a soft but fervent chorus of exclamations, the sincerity and +enthusiasm of which made him a little ashamed. He had evidently been +deaf to something that deeply moved the rest. Even Balder made remarks +which seemed to be regarded as apposite. + +"What IS it?" asked Lady Cressage, with obvious feeling. "I don't know +when anything has touched me so much." + +"Old Danish songs that I picked up on the quai in Paris for a franc or +two," replied Miss Madden. "I arranged and harmonized them--and, oddly +enough, the result is rather Keltic, don't you think?" + +"We are all of us Kelts in our welcome to music--and musicians--like +this," affirmed Lord Plowden, who had scrambled to his feet. + +With sudden resolution, Thorpe moved forward and joined the +conversation. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +THORPE'S life-long habit of early rising brought him downstairs next +morning before anybody else in the house, apparently, was astir. At all +events, he saw no one in either the hall or the glass vestibule, as he +wandered about. Both doors were wide open, however, to the mild, +damp morning air. He found on one of the racks a cap that was less +uncomfortable than the others, and sauntered forth to look about him. + +His nerves were by no means in so serene a state as his reason told him +they ought to be. The disquieting impression of bad dreams hung about +him. The waking hour--always an evil time for him in these latter days +of anxiety--had been this morning a peculiarly depressing affair. It had +seemed to him, in the first minutes of reviving consciousness, that he +was a hopelessly ruined and discredited man; the illusion of disaster +had been, indeed, so complete and vivid that, even now, more than an +hour later, he had not shaken off its effects. + +He applied his mental energies, as he strolled along the gravel paths, +to the task of reassuring himself. There were still elements of chance +in the game, of course, but it was easy enough, here in the daylight, +to demonstrate that they had been cut down to a minimum--that it was +nonsense to borrow trouble about them. He reviewed the situation in +painstaking detail, and at every point it was all right, or as nearly +all right as any human business could be. He scolded himself sharply for +this foolish susceptibility to the intimidation of nightmares. "Look at +Plowden!" he bade his dolorous spirit. "See how easy he takes things." + +It was undeniable that Lord Plowden took things very easily indeed. +He had talked with eloquence and feeling about the miseries and +humiliations of a peerage inadequately endowed with money, but no traces +of his sufferings were visible to Thorpe's observant eye. The nobleman +himself looked the very image of contented prosperity--handsome, +buoyant, light-hearted, and, withal, the best-groomed man in London. +And this ancestral home of his--or of his mother's, since he seemed to +insist upon the distinction--where were its signs of a stinted income? +The place was overrun with servants. There was a horse which covered a +distance of something like two miles in eight minutes. Inside and out, +Hadlow House suggested nothing but assured plenty. Yet its master told +the most unvarying tales of poverty, and no doubt they were in one sense +true. What he wished to fix his mind upon, and to draw strength for +himself from, was the gay courage with which these Plowdens behaved as +if they were rich. + +The grounds at the front of the house, hemmed in by high hedges and +trees from what seemed to be a public road beyond, were fairly spacious, +but the sleek decorum of their arrangement, while it pleased him, was +scarcely interesting. He liked better to study the house itself, which +in the daylight revealed itself as his ideal of what a historic English +country-house of the minor class should be. + +There had been a period in his youth when architecture had attracted him +greatly as offering a congenial and lucrative career. Not much remained +to him now of the classifications and phraseology which he had gone to +the trouble of memorizing, in that far-off time, but he still looked at +buildings with a kind of professional consciousness. Hadlow House +said intelligible things to him, and he was pleased with himself for +understanding them. It was not new in any part, apparently, but there +was nothing pretentious in its antiquity. It had never been a castle, +or a fortified residence. No violent alteration in habits or needs +distinguished its present occupants from its original builders. It +had been planned and reared as a home for gentle people, at some +not-too-remote date when it was already possible for gentle people to +have homes, without fighting to defend them. One could fancy that its +calm and infinitely comfortable history had never been ruffled from that +day to this. He recalled having heard it mentioned the previous evening +that the house stood upon the site of an old monastery. No doubt that +accounted for its being built in a hollow, with the ground-floor on the +absolute level of the earth outside. The monks had always chosen these +low-lying sheltered spots for their cloisters. Why should they have done +so? he wondered--and then came to a sudden mental stop, absorbed in a +somewhat surprised contemplation of a new version of himself. He was +becoming literary, historical, bookish! His mind had begun to throw open +again, to abstract thoughts and musings, its long-closed doors. He had +read and dreamed so much as a lad, in the old book-shop! For many years +that boyhood of eager concern in the printed page had seemed to him to +belong to somebody else. Now, all at once, it came back to him as his +own possession; he felt that he could take up books again where he had +dropped them, perhaps even with the old rapt, intent zest. + +Visions rose before him of the magnificent library he would gather for +himself. And it should be in no wise for show--the gross ostentation of +the unlettered parvenu--but a genuine library, which should minister +to his own individual culture. The thought took instant hold upon his +interest. By that road, his progress to the goal of gentility would be +smooth and simple. He seemed not to have reasoned it out to himself in +detail before, but now, at all events, he saw his way clearly enough. +Why should he be tormented with doubts and misgivings about himself, as +if he had come out of the gutter? + +Why indeed? He had passed through--and with credit, too--one of the +great public schools of England. He had been there on a footing of +perfect equality, so far as he saw, with the sons of aristocratic +families or of great City potentates. And as to birth, he had behind him +three generations at least of scholarly men, men who knew the contents, +as well as the commercial value, of the books they handled. + +His grandfather had been a man of note in his calling. The tradition of +Lord Althorp's confidence in him, and of how he requited it by +securing Caxton's "Golden Legend" for the library of that distinguished +collector, under the very nose of his hot rival, the Duke of +Marlborough, was tenderly cherished as an heirloom in the old shop. +And Thorpe's father, too, though no such single achievement crowned his +memory, had been the adviser and, as one might say, the friend of many +notable writers and patrons of literature. The son of such forbears +needed only money to be recognized by everybody as a gentleman. + +On his mother's side, now that he thought of it, there was something +perhaps better still than a heritage of librarians' craft and tastes. +His mother's maiden name was Stormont, and he remembered well enough the +solemnity with which she had always alluded to the fact, in the course +of domestic discussions. Who the Stormonts were he could not recall that +he had ever learned, but his mother had been very clear indeed about +their superiority to the usual ruck of people. He would ask his sister +whether she knew anything about them. In the meantime there was no +denying that Stormont was a fine-sounding name. He reflected that it +was his own middle name--and, on the instant, fancy engraved for him a +card-plate on which appeared the legend--"Mr. Stormont Thorpe." + +It was an inspiration! "Joel" he had not used for so many years that now, +after six months' familiarity with it on his sister's lips, he could not +get accustomed to it. The colourless and non-committal style of "J. S. +Thorpe," under which he had lived so long, had been well enough for the +term of his exile--the weary time of obscure toil and suspense. But now, +in this sunburst of smiling fortune, when he had achieved the right to a +name of distinction--here it was ready to his hand. A fleeting question +as to whether he should carry the "J" along as an initial put itself +to his mind. He decided vigorously against it. He had always had a +prejudice against men who, in the transatlantic phrase, parted either +their hair or their names in the middle. + +He had made his unheeding way past the house to the beginning of the +avenue of trees, which he remembered from the previous evening's drive. +To his right, an open space of roadway led off in the direction of the +stables. As he hesitated, in momentary doubt which course to take, the +sound of hoofs in the avenue caught his ear, and he stood still. In a +moment there came into view, round a curve in the leafy distance, two +horses with riders, advancing at a brisk canter. Soon he perceived that +the riders were ladies; they drew rein as they approached him, and then +it was to be seen that they were the pair he had judged to be such close +friends last night--Lady Cressage and the daughter of the house. + +They smiled and nodded down at him, as he lifted his cap and bowed. +Their cheeks were glowing and their eyes sparkling with the exhilaration +of their ride. Even the Hon. Winifred looked comely and distinguished +in his eyes, under the charm of this heightened vivacity. She seemed to +carry herself better in the saddle than she did out of it; the sweep of +her habit below the stirrup lent dignity to her figure. + +But her companion, whose big chestnut mount was pacing slowly toward the +stepping-block--how should he bring within the compass of thought the +impressions he had had of her as she passed? There seemed to have been +no memory in his mind to prepare him for the beauty of the picture she +had made. Slender, erect, exquisitely-tailored, she had gone by like +some queen in a pageant, gracious yet unapproachable. He stared after +her, mutely bewildered at the effect she produced upon him--until he saw +that a groom had run from the stable-yard, and was helping the divinity +to dismount. The angry thought that he might have done this himself rose +within him--but there followed swiftly enough the answering conviction +that he lacked the courage. He did not even advance to proffer his +services to the other young lady, while there was still time. The truth +was, he admitted ruefully to himself, they unnerved him. + +He had talked freely enough to them, or rather to the company of which +they made part, the previous evening. There had been an hour or more, +indeed, before the party broke up, in which he had borne the lion's +share of the talk--and they had appeared as frankly entertained as the +others. In fact, when he recalled the circle of faces to which he +had addressed his monologue of reminiscences--curious experiences and +adventures in Java and the Argentine, in Brazil and the Antilles and +Mexico and the far West--it was in the face of Lady Cressage that he +seemed to discern the most genuine interest. + +Why should she frighten him, then, by daylight? The whimsical theory +that the wine at dinner had given him a spurious courage occurred +to him. He shrugged his shoulders at it, and, with his hands in his +pockets, turned toward the stables. + +The stable-yard is, from some points of view, the prettiest thing about +Hadlow. There is a big, uneven, grass-grown space, in the centre of +which, from a slight mound, springs an aged oak of tremendous girth +and height. All around this enclosure are buildings of the same pale +yellowish brick as the mansion itself, but quaintly differing one +from another in design and size. Stables, carriage-houses, kennels, a +laundry, a brewery, and half a dozen structures the intention of which +is now somewhat uncertain--some flat-topped, some gabled, others with +turrets, or massive grouped chimneys, or overhanging timbered upper +stories--form round this unkempt, shadowed green a sort of village, with +a communal individuality of its own. + +A glance shows its feudal relation to, and dependence upon, the great +house behind which it nestles; some of the back-kitchens and offices +of this great house, indeed, straggle out till they meet and merge +themselves into this quadrangle. None the less, it presents to the +enquiring gaze a specific character, of as old a growth, one might +think, as the oak itself. Here servants have lived, it may be, since +man first learned the trick of setting his foot on his brother's neck. +Plainly enough, the monks' servants lived and worked here; half the +buildings on the side nearest the house belong to their time, and one +of them still bears a partially-defaced coat of arms that must have +belonged to an Abbot. And when lay lord succeeded cleric, only the garb +and vocabulary of servitude were altered in this square. Its population +crossed themselves less, and worked much harder, but they remained in a +world of their own, adjacent aud subject to the world of their masters, +yet separated from it by oh! such countless and unthinkable distances. + +Thorpe sauntered along the side of the stables. He counted three men +and a boy who visibly belonged to this department. The dog-cart of the +previous evening had been run out upon the brick-pavement which drained +the stables, and glistened with expensive smartness now beneath the +sponge of one of the hostlers. Under cover, he discerned two other +carriages, and there seemed to be at least half a dozen horses. The +men who, in the half gloom of the loose-boxes, were busy grooming these +animals made a curious whistling noise as they worked. Everybody in the +yard touched a forelock to him as he passed. + +From this quaint, old-world enclosure he wandered at his leisure, +through an open gate in the wall at the back, into the gardens behind +the house. There was not much in the way of flowers to look at, but +he moved about quite unconscious of any deprivation. A cluster of +greenhouses, massed against the southern side of the mansion, attracted +his listless fancy, and he walked toward what appeared to be an entrance +to them. The door was locked, but he found another further on which +opened to his hand. The air was very hot and moist inside, and the place +was so filled with broad-leaved, umbrageous tropical plants that he had +to stoop to make his way through to the end. The next house had a more +tolerable atmosphere, and contained some blossoms to which he gave +momentary attention. In the third house, through the glass-door, he +could see a man--evidently a gardener--lifting some pots to a shelf +overhead. + +The thought occurred to him that by entering into conversation with this +man, he might indirectly obtain a hint as to the usual breakfast-hour at +Hadlow. It was now nearly ten o'clock, and he was getting very hungry. +Would they not ring a bell, or sound a gong, or something? he wondered. +Perhaps there had been some such summons, and he had not heard it. It +might be the intelligent thing for him to return to the house, at all +events, and sit in the hall where the servants could see him, in case +the meal was in progress. + +Looking idly through the glass at the gardener, meanwhile, it suddenly +dawned upon him that the face and figure were familiar. He stared more +intently at the man, casting about in his memory for a clue to his +identity. It came to him that the person he had in mind was a fellow +named Gafferson, who had kept an impoverished and down-at-the-heels +sort of hotel and general store on the road from Belize to Boon Town, in +British Honduras. Yes, it undoubtedly was Gafferson. What on earth was +he doing here? Thorpe gave but brief consideration to this problem. +It was of more immediate importance to recall the circumstances of his +contact with the man. He had made Gafferson's poor shanty of an hotel +his headquarters for the better part of a month--the base of supplies +from which he made numerous prospecting tours into the mountains of the +interior. Had he paid his bill on leaving? Yes, there was no doubt about +that. He could even recall a certain pity for the unbusiness-like +scale of charges, and the lack of perception of opportunity, which +characterized the bill in question. He remembered now his impression +that Gafferson would never do any good. It would be interesting to know +what kind of an impression he, in turn, had produced on his thriftless +host. At any rate, there was no good reason why he should not find out. +He opened the door and went in. + +The gardener barely looked up from his occupation, and drew aside to +let the newcomer pass with no sign of a gesture toward his cap. Thorpe +halted, and tried to look at the pots on the staging as if he knew about +such things. + +"What are you doing?" he asked, in the tentative tone of one who is in +no need of information, but desires to be affable. + +"Drying off the first lot of gloxinias," answered the other. "Some +people put 'em on their sides, but I like 'em upright, close to the +glass. It stands to reason, if you think about it." + +"Why, certainly," said Thorpe, with conviction. In his mind he +contrasted the independence of Gafferson's manner with the practised +servility of the stable-yard--and thought that he liked it--and then +was not so sure. He perceived that there was no recognition of him. The +gardener, as further desultory conversation about his work progressed, +looked his interlocutor full in the face, but with a placid, sheep-like +gaze which seemed to be entirely insensible to variations in the human +species. + +"How did you ever get back here to England?" Thorpe was emboldened to +ask at last. In comment upon the other's stare of puzzled enquiry, he +went on: "You're Gafferson, aren't you? I thought so. When I last saw +you, you were running a sort of half-way house, t'other side of Belize. +That was in '90." + +Gafferson--a thick-set, squat man of middle age, with a straggling +reddish beard--turned upon him a tranquil but uninformed eye. "I suppose +you would have been stopping at Government House," he remarked. "That +was in Sir Roger Goldsworthy's time. They used to come out often to see +my flowers. And so you remembered my name. I suppose it was because of +the Gaffersoniana hybrids. There was a good bit in the papers about them +last spring." Thorpe nodded an assent which it seemed better not to put +into words. "Well, it beats all," he mused aloud. "Why, man, there's +gold in those mountains! You had an inside track on prospecting, placed +as you were. And there's cocoa--and some day they'll coin money in +rubber, too. All that country's waiting for is better communications. +And you were on the spot, and knew all the lay of the land--and yet here +you are back in England, getting so much a month for messing about in +the mud." + +He saw swiftly that his reflections had carried him beyond his earlier +limit, and with rapidity decided upon frankness. "No, I wasn't in the +Governor's outfit at all. I was looking for gold then--with occasionally +an eye on rubber. I stopped at your place. Don't you remember me? My +name's Thorpe. I had a beard then. Why, man, you and one of your niggers +were with me three or four days once, up on the ridge beyond the Burnt +Hills--why, you remember, the nigger was from San Domingo, and he was +forever bragging about the San Domingo peppers, and saying those on the +mainland hadn't enough strength to make a baby wrinkle his nose, and you +found a pepper coming through the swamp, and you tipped me the wink, +and you handed that pepper to the nigger, and it damned near killed him. +Hell! You must remember that!" + +"That would have been the Chavica pertusum," said Gafferson, +thoughtfully. He seemed to rouse himself to an interest in the story +itself with some difficulty. "Yes--I remember it," he admitted, finally. +"I shouldn't have known you though. I'm the worst in the world about +remembering people. It seems to be growing on me. I notice that when I +go up to London to the shows, I don't remember the men that I had the +longest talks with the time before. Once you get wrapped up in your +flowers, you've got no room in your head for anything else--that's the +way of it." + +Thorpe considered him with a ruminating eye. "So this is the sort of +thing you really like, eh? You'd rather be doing this, eh? than making +your pile in logwood and mahogany out there, or floating a gold mine?" +Gafferson answered quite simply: "I wasn't the kind to ever make a pile. +I got led into going out there when I was a youngster, and there didn't +seem to be any good in trying to get back, but I wasn't making more than +a bare living when you were there, and after that I didn't even do that +much. It took me a good many years to find out what my real fancy was. I +hated my hotel and my store, but I was crazy about my garden. Finally an +American gentleman came along one day, and he put up at my place, and +he saw that I was as near ruined as they make 'em, and he says to me, +'You're no good to run a hotel, nor yet a store, and this aint your +country for a cent. What you're born for is to grow flowers. You can't +afford to do it here, because nobody'll pay you for it, but you gather +up your seeds and roots and so on, and come along with me to Atlanta, +Georgia, and I'll put fat on your bones.' + +"That's what he said to me, and I took him at his word, and I was with +him two years, and then I thought I'd like to come to England, and since +then I've worked my way up here, till now I take a Royal Horticultural +medal regular, and there's a clematis with salmon-coloured bars that'll +be in the market next spring that's named after my master. And what +could I ask more 'n that?" + +"Quite right," said Thorpe. "What time do they have breakfast here?" + +The gardener's round, phlegmatic, florid countenance had taken on a mild +glow of animation during his narrative. It relapsed into lethargy at the +advent of this new topic. + +"It seems to me they eat at all hours," he said. "But if you want to see +his Lordship," he went on, considering, "about noon would be your best +time." + +"See his Lordship!" repeated Thorpe, with an impatient grin. "Why I'm a +guest here in the house. All I want is something to eat." + +"A guest," Gafferson repeated in turn, slowly. There was nothing +unpleasant in the intonation, and Thorpe's sharp glance failed to detect +any trace of offensive intention in his companion's fatuous visage. Yet +it seemed to pass between the two men that Gafferson was surprised, and +that there were abundant grounds for his surprise. + +"Why, yes," said Thorpe, with as much nonchalance as he could summon, +"your master is one of my directors. I've taken a fancy to him, and I'm +going to make a rich man of him. He was keen about my seeing his place +here, and kept urging me to come, and so finally I've got away over +Sunday to oblige him. By the way--I shall buy an estate in the country +as soon as the right thing offers, and I shall want to set up no end of +gardens and greenhouses and all that. I see that I couldn't come to a +better man than you for advice. I daresay I'll put the whole arrangement +of it in your hands. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" + +"Whatever his Lordship agrees to," the gardener replied, sententiously. +He turned to the staging, and took up one of the pots. + +Thorpe swung on his heel, and moved briskly toward the further door, +which he could see opened upon the lawn. He was conscious of annoyance +with this moon-faced, dawdling Gafferson, who had been afforded such a +splendid chance of profiting by an old acquaintanceship--it might even +be called, as things went in Honduras, a friendship--and who had so +clumsily failed to rise to the situation. The bitter thought of going +back and giving him a half-crown rose in Thorpe's inventive mind, and he +paused for an instant, his hand on the door-knob, to think it over. The +gratuity would certainly put Gafferson in his place, but then the spirit +in which it was offered would be wholly lost on his dull brain. And +moreover, was it so certain that he would take it? He had not said "sir" +once, and he had talked about medals with the pride of a scientist. The +rules were overwhelmingly against a gardener rejecting a tip, of course, +but if there was no more than one chance in twenty of it, Thorpe decided +that he could not afford the risk. + +He quitted the greenhouse with resolution, and directed his steps toward +the front of the mansion. As he entered the hall, a remarkably tuneful +and resonant chime filled his ears with novel music. He looked and saw +that a white-capped, neatly-clad domestic, standing with her back to him +beside the newel-post of the stairs, was beating out the tune with two +padded sticks upon some strips of metal ranged on a stand of Indian +workmanship. The sound was delightful, but even more so was the +implication that it betokened breakfast. + +With inspiration, he drew forth the half-crown which he had been +fingering in his pocket, and gave it to the girl as she turned. "That's +the kind of concert I like," he declared, bestowing the patronage of a +jovial smile upon her pleased and comely face. "Show me the way to this +breakfast that you've been serenading about." + +Out in the greenhouse, meanwhile, Gafferson continued to regard blankly +the shrivelled, fatty leaves of the plant he had taken up. "Thorpe," +he said aloud, as if addressing the tabid gloxinia--"Thorpe--yes--I +remember his initials--J. S. Thorpe. Now, who's the man that told me +about him? and what was it he told me?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE experiences of the breakfast room were very agreeable indeed. Thorpe +found himself the only man present, and, after the first few minutes of +embarrassment at this discovery, it filled him with surprised delight +to note how perfectly he was at his ease. He could never have imagined +himself seated with four ladies at a table--three of them, moreover, +ladies of title--and doing it all so well. + +For one thing, the ladies themselves had a morning manner, so to +speak, which differed widely from the impressions he had had of their +deportment the previous evening. They seemed now to be as simple and +fresh and natural as the unadorned frocks they wore. They listened with +an air of good-fellowship to him when he spoke; they smiled at the right +places; they acted as if they liked him, and were glad of his company. + +The satisfied conviction that he was talking well, and behaving well, +accompanied him in his progress through the meal. His confession at the +outset of his great hunger, and of the sinister apprehensions which +had assailed him in his loitering walk about the place, proved a most +fortuitous beginning; after that, they were ready to regard everything +he said as amusing. + +"Oh, when we're by ourselves," the kindly little old hostess explained +to him, "my daughter and I breakfast always at nine. That was our hour +yesterday morning, for example. But when my son is here, then it's +farewell to regularity. We put breakfast back till ten, then, as a kind +of compromise between our own early habits and his lack of any sort of +habits. Why we do it I couldn't say--because he never comes down in any +event. He sleeps so well at Hadlow--and you know in town he sleeps +very ill indeed--and so we don't dream of complaining. We're only too +glad--for his sake." + +"And Balder," commented the sister, "he's as bad the other way. He +gets up at some unearthly hour, and has his tea and a sandwich from the +still-room, and goes off with his rod or his gun or the dogs, and we +never see him till luncheon." + +"I've been on the point of asking so many times," Miss Madden +interposed--"is Balder a family name, or is it after the Viking in +Matthew Arnold's poem?" + +"It was his father's choice," Lady Plowden made answer. "I think the +Viking explanation is the right one--it certainly isn't in either +family. I can't say that it attracted me much--at first, you know." + +"Oh, but it fits him so splendidly," said Lady Cressage. "He looks the +part, as they say. I always thought it was the best of all the soldier +names--and you have only to look at him to see that he was predestined +for a soldier from his cradle." + +"I wish the Sandhurst people would have a good long look at him, then," +put in the mother with earnestness underlying the jest of her tone. "The +poor boy will never pass those exams in the world. It IS ridiculous, +as his father always said. If there ever was a man who was made for a +soldier, it's Balder. He's a gentleman, and he's connected by tradition +with the Army, and he's mad about everything military--and surely he's +as clever as anybody else at everything except that wretched matter +of books, and even there it's only a defect of memory--and yet that +suffices to prevent his serving his Queen. And all over England there +are young gentlemen like that--the very pick of the hunting-fields, +strong and brave as lions, fit to lead men anywhere, the very men +England wants to have fighting her battles--and they can't get places +in the Army because--what was it Balder came to grief over last +time?--because they can't remember whether it's Ispahan or Teheran +that's the capital of Persia. + +"They are the fine old sort that would go and capture both places at the +point of the bayonet--and find out their names afterward--but it seems +that's not what the Army wants nowadays. What is desired now is superior +clerks, and secretaries and professors of languages--and much good they +will do us when the time of trouble comes!" + +"Then you think the purchase-system was better?" asked the American +lady. "It always seemed to me that that must have worked so curiously." + +"Prefer it?" said Lady Plowden. "A thousand times yes! My husband made +one of the best speeches in the debate on it--one do I say?--first and +last he must have made a dozen of them. If anything could have kept +the House of Lords firm, in the face of the wretched Radical outcry, it +would have been those speeches. He pointed out all the evils that +would follow the change. You might have called it prophetic--the way +he foresaw what would happen to Balder--or not Balder in particular, of +course, but that whole class of young gentlemen. + +"As he said, you have only to ask yourself what kind of people the lower +classes naturally look up to and obey and follow. Will they be ordered +about by a man simply because he knows Greek and Latin and Hebrew? Do +they respect the village schoolmaster, for example, on account of his +learning? Not in the very slightest! On the contrary, they regard him +with the greatest contempt. The man they will serve is the man whose +birth gives him the right to command them, or else the man with money in +his pockets to make it worth their while. These two are the only leaders +they understand. And if that's true here in England, in times of peace, +among our own people, how much truer must it be of our soldiers, away +from England, in a time of war?" + +"But, mamma," the Hon. Winifred intervened, "don't you see how badly +that might work nowadays? now that the good families have so little +money, and all the fortunes are in the hands of stockjobbing people--and +so on? It would be THEIR sons who would buy all the commissions--and I'm +sure Balder wouldn't get on at all with that lot." + +Lady Plowden answered with decision and great promptness. "You see so +little of the world, Winnie dear, that you don't get very clear ideas of +its movements. The people who make fortunes in England are every whit +as important to its welfare as those who inherit names, and individually +I'm sure they are often much more deserving. Every generation sniffs +at its nouveaux riches, but by the next they have become merged in the +aristocracy. It isn't a new thing in England at all. It has always been +that way. Two-thirds of the peerage have their start from a wealthy +merchant, or some other person who made a fortune. They are really the +back-bone of England. You should keep that always in mind." + +"Of course--I see what you mean"--Winnie replied, her dark cheek +flushing faintly under the tacit reproof. She had passed her +twenty-fifth birthday, but her voice had in it the docile +self-repression of a school-girl. She spoke with diffident slowness, +her gaze fastened upon her plate. "Of course--my grandfather was +a lawyer--and your point is that merchants--and others who make +fortunes--would be the same." + +"Precisely," said Lady Plowden. "And do tell us, Mr. Thorpe"--she turned +toward where he sat at her right and beamed at him over her spectacles, +with the air of having been wearied with a conversation in which he +bore no part--"is it really true that social discontent is becoming more +marked in America, even, than it is with us in England?" + +"I'm not an American, you know," he reminded her. "I only know one or +two sections of the country--and those only as a stranger. You should +ask Miss Madden." + +"Me?" said Celia. "Oh, I haven't come up for my examinations yet. I'm +like Balder--I'm preparing." + +"What I should like Mr. Thorpe to tell us," suggested Lady Cressage, +mildly, "is about the flowers in the tropics--in Java, for example, or +some of the West Indies. One hears such marvelous tales about them." + +"Speaking of flowers," Thorpe suddenly decided to mention the fact; "I +met out in one of the greenhouses here this morning, an old acquaintance +of mine, the gardener, Gafferson. The last time I saw him, he was +running the worst hotel in the world in the worst country in the +world--out in British Honduras." + +"But he's a wonderful gardener," said Lady Cressage. "He's a magician; +he can do what he likes with plants. It's rather a hobby of mine--or +used to be--and I never saw his equal." + +Thorpe told them about Gafferson, in that forlorn environment on the +Belize road, and his success in making them laugh drew him on to other +pictures of the droll side of life among the misfits of adventure. The +ladies visibly dallied over their tea-cups to listen to him; the +charm of having them all to himself, and of holding them in interested +entertainment by his discourse--these ladies of supremely refined +associations and position--seemed to provide an inspiration of its own. +He could hear that his voice was automatically modulating itself to +their critical ears. His language was producing itself with as much +delicacy of selection as if it came out of a book--and yet preserving +the savour of quaint, outlandish idiom which his listeners clearly +liked. Upon the instant when Lady Plowden's gathering of skirts, and +glance across the table, warned him that they were to rise, he said +deliberately to himself that this had been the most enjoyable episode of +his whole life. + +There were cigar boxes on the fine old oak mantel, out in the hall, and +Winnie indicated them to him with the obvious suggestion that he was +expected to smoke. He looked her over as he lit his cigar--where she +stood spreading her hands above the blaze of the logs, and concluded +that she was much nicer upon acquaintance than he had thought. Her +slight figure might not be beautiful, but beyond doubt its lines were +ladylike. The same extenuating word applied itself in his mind to her +thin and swarthy, though distinguished, features. They bore the stamp +of caste, and so did the way she looked at one through her eye-glasses, +from under those over-heavy black eyebrows, holding her head a little +to one side. Though it was easy enough to guess that she had a spirit of +her own, her gentle, almost anxious, deference to her mother had shown +that she had it under admirable control. + +He had read about her in a peerage at his sister's book-shop the +previous day. Unfortunately it did not give her age, but that was not so +important, after all. She was styled Honourable. She was the daughter +of one Viscount and the sister of another. Her grandfather had been +an Earl, and the book had shown her to possess a bewildering number +of relationships among titled folks. All this was very interesting to +him--and somewhat suggestive. Vague, shapeless hints at projects rose in +his brain as he looked at her. + +"I'm afraid you think my brother has odd notions of entertaining his +guests," she remarked to him, over her shoulder. The other ladies had +not joined them. + +"Oh, I'm all right," he protested cordially. "I should hate to have +him put himself out in the slightest." Upon consideration he added: "I +suppose he has given up the idea of shooting to-day." + +"I think not," she answered." The keeper was about this morning, that +is--and he doesn't often come unless they are to go out with the guns. I +suppose you are very fond of shooting." + +"Well--I've done some--in my time," Thorpe replied, cautiously. It did +not seem necessary to explain that he had yet to fire his first gun on +English soil. "It's a good many years," he went on, "since I had the +time and opportunity to do much at it. I think the last shooting I did +was alligators. You hit 'em in the eye, you know. But what kind of a +hand I shall make of it with a shot-gun, I haven't the least idea. Is +the shooting round I here pretty good?" + +"I don't think it's anything remarkable. Plowden says my brother +Balder kills all the birds off every season. Balder's by way of being +a crack-shot, you know. There are some pheasants, though. We saw them +flying when we were out this morning." + +Thorpe wondered if it would be possible to consult her upon the question +of apparel. Clearly, he ought to make some difference in his garb, yet +the mental vision of him-self in those old Mexican clothes revealed +itself now as ridiculously impossible. He must have been out of his mind +to have conceived anything so preposterous as rigging himself out, among +these polished people, like a cow-puncher down on his luck. + +"I wonder when your brother will expect to start," he began, uneasily. +"Perhaps I ought to go and get ready." + +"Ah, here comes his man," remarked the sister. A round-faced, +smooth-mannered youngster--whom Thorpe discovered to be wearing +cord-breeches and leather leggings as he descended the stairs--advanced +toward him and prefaced his message by the invariable salutation. "His +Lordship will be down, sir, in ten minutes--and he hopes you'll be +ready, sir," the valet said. + +"Send Pangbourn to this gentleman's room," Miss Winnie bade him, and +with a gesture of comprehensive submission he went away. + +The calm readiness with which she had provided a solution for his +difficulties impressed Thorpe greatly. It would never have occurred to +him that Pangbourn was the answer to the problem of his clothes, yet how +obvious it had been to her. These old families did something more than +fill their houses with servants; they mastered the art of making these +servants an integral part of the machinery of existence. Fancy having a +man to do all your thinking about clothes for you, and then dress you, +into the bargain. Oh, it was all splendid. + +"It seems that we're going shooting," Thorpe found himself explaining, a +few moments later in his bedroom, to the attentive Pangbourn. He +decided to throw himself with frankness upon the domestic's resourceful +good-feeling. "I haven't brought anything for shooting at all. Somehow I +got the idea we were going to do rough riding instead--and so I fetched +along some old Mexican riding-clothes that make me feel more at home +in the saddle than anything else would. You know how fond a man gets of +old, loose things like that. But about this shooting--I want you to fix +me out. What do I need? Just some breeches and leggings, eh? You can +manage them for me, can't you?" + +Pangbourn could and did--and it was upon his advice that the Mexican +jacket was utilized to complete the out-fit. Its shape was beyond doubt +uncommon, but it had big pockets, and it looked like business. Thorpe, +as he glanced up and down his image in the tall mirror of the wardrobe, +felt that he must kill a large number of birds to justify the effect of +pitiless proficiency which this jacket lent to his appearance. + +"We will find a cap below, sir," Pangbourn announced, with serenity, and +Thorpe, who had been tentatively fingering the big, flaring sombrero, +thrust it back upon its peg as if it had proved too hot to handle. + +Downstairs in the hall there was more waiting to be done, and there was +nobody now to bear him company. He lit another cigar, tried on various +caps till he found a leathern one to suit him, and then dawdled about +the room and the adjoining conservatory for what seemed to him more than +half an hour. This phase of the aristocratic routine, he felt, did not +commend itself so warmly to him as did some others. Everybody else, +however, seemed to regard it as so wholly a matter of course that +Plowden should do as he liked, that he forbore formulating a complaint +even to himself. + +At last, this nobleman's valet descended the stairs once more. "His +Lordship will be down very shortly now, sir," he declared--"and will you +be good enough to come into the gun-room, sir, and see the keeper?" + +Thorpe followed him through a doorway under the staircase--the existence +of which he had not suspected--into a bare-looking apartment fitted like +a pantry with shelves. After the semi-gloom of the hall, it was almost +glaringly lighted. The windows and another door opened, he saw, upon a +court connected with the stable-yard. By this entrance, no doubt, had +come the keeper, a small, brown-faced, brown-clothed man of mature +years, with the strap of a pouch over his shoulder, who stood looking at +the contents of the shelves. He mechanically saluted Thorpe in turn, and +then resumed his occupation. There were numerous gun cases on the lower +shelf, and many boxes and bags above. + +"Did his Lordship say what gun?" the keeper demanded of the valet. He +had a bright-eyed, intent glance, and his tone conveyed a sense of some +broad, impersonal, out-of-doors disdain for liveried house-men. + +The valet, standing behind Thorpe, shrugged his shoulders and eloquently +shook his head. + +"Do you like an 'ammerless, sir?" the keeper turned to Thorpe. + +To his intense humiliation, Thorpe could not make out the meaning of the +query. "Oh, anything'll do for me," he said, awkwardly smiling. "It's +years since I've shot--I daresay one gun'll be quite the same as another +to me." + +He felt the knowing bright eyes of the keeper taking all his +measurements as a sportsman. "You'd do best with 'B,' sir, I fancy," the +functionary decided at last, and his way of saying it gave Thorpe the +notion that "B" must be the weapon that was reserved for school-boys. He +watched the operation of putting the gun together, and then took it, and +laid it over his arm, and followed the valet out into the hall again, in +dignified silence. To the keeper's remark--"Mr. Balder has its mate with +him today, sir," he gave only a restrained nod. + +There were even now whole minutes to wait before Lord Plowden appeared. +He came down the stairs then with the brisk, rather impatient air of a +busy man whose plans are embarrassed by the unpunctuality of others. +He was fully attired, hob-nailed shoes, leggings, leather coat and cap, +gloves, scarf round his throat and all--and he behaved as if there was +not a minute to lose. He had barely time to shake perfunctorily the +hand Thorpe offered him, and utter an absent-minded "How are you this +morning?" + +To the valet, who hurried forward to open the outer door, bearing his +master's gun and a camp-stool, he said reproachfully, "We are very late +today, Barnes." They went out, and began striding down the avenue of +trees at such a pace that the keeper and his following of small boys and +dogs, who joined them near the road, were forced into a trot to keep up +with it. + +Thorpe had fancied, somehow, that a day's shooting would afford +exceptional opportunities for quiet and intimate talk with his host, +but he perceived very soon that this was not to be the case. They walked +together for half a mile, it is true, along a rural bye-road first and +then across some fields, but the party was close at their heels, and +Plowden walked so fast that conversation of any sort, save an occasional +remark about the birds and the covers between him and the keeper, was +impracticable. The Hon. Balder suddenly turned up in the landscape, +leaning against a gate set in a hedgerow, and their course was deflected +toward him, but even when they came up to him, the expedition seemed +to gain nothing of a social character. The few curt words that were +exchanged, as they halted here to distribute cartridges and hold brief +consultation, bore exclusively upon the subject in hand. + +The keeper assumed now an authority which Thorpe, breathing heavily over +the unwonted exercise and hoping for nothing so much as that they would +henceforth take things easy, thought intolerable. He was amazed that +the two brothers should take without cavil the arbitrary orders of this +elderly peasant. He bade Lord Plowden proceed to a certain point in one +direction, and that nobleman, followed by his valet with the gun and +the stool, set meekly off without a word. Balder, with equal docility, +vaulted the gate, and moved away down the lane at the bidding of the +keeper. Neither of them had intervened to mitigate the destiny of their +guest, or displayed any interest as to what was going to become of him. + +Thorpe said to himself that he did not like this--and though afterward, +when he had also climbed the gate and taken up his station under a +clump of trees at the autocrat's behest, he strove to soothe his ruffled +feelings by the argument that it was probably the absolutely correct +deportment for a shooting party, his mind remained unconvinced. +Moreover, in parting from him, the keeper had dropped a blunt injunction +about firing up or down the lane, the tone even more than the matter of +which nettled him. + +To cap all, when he presently ventured to stroll about a little from +the spot on which he had been planted, he caught a glimpse against the +skyline of the distant Lord Plowden, comfortably seated on the stool +which his valet had been carrying. It seemed to Thorpe at that moment +that he had never wanted to sit down so much before in his life--and he +turned on his heel in the wet grass with a grunt of displeasure. + +This mood vanished utterly a few moments later. The remote sounds had +begun to come to him, of boys shouting and dogs barking, in the recesses +of the strip of woodland which the lane skirted, and at these he +hastened back to his post. It did not seem to him a good place, and when +he heard the reports of guns to right and left of him, and nothing came +his way, he liked it less than ever; it had become a matter of offended +pride with him, however, to relieve the keeper of no atom of the +responsibility he had taken upon himself. If Lord Plowden's guest had +no sport, the blame for it should rest upon Lord Plowden's over-arrogant +keeper. Then a noise of a different character assailed his ears, +punctuated as it were by distant boyish cries of "mark!" These cries, +and the buzzing sound as of clockwork gone wrong which they accompanied +and heralded, became all at once a most urgent affair of his own. +He strained his eyes upon the horizon of the thicket--and, as if by +instinct, the gun sprang up to adjust its sight to this eager gaze, and +followed automatically the thundering course of the big bird, and then, +taking thought to itself, leaped ahead of it and fired. Thorpe's first +pheasant reeled in the air, described a somersault, and fell like a +plummet. + +He stirred not a step, but reloaded the barrel with a hand shaking for +joy. From where he stood he could see the dead bird; there could never +have been a cleaner "kill." In the warming glow of his satisfaction in +himself, there kindled a new liking of a different sort for Plowden +and Balder. He owed to them, at this belated hour of his life, a novel +delight of indescribable charm. There came to him, from the woods, the +shrill bucolic voice of the keeper, admonishing a wayward dog. He was +conscious of even a certain tenderness for this keeper--and again the +cry of "mark!" rose, strenuously addressed to him. + +Half an hour later the wood had been cleared, and Thorpe saw the rest +of the party assembling by the gate. He did not hurry to join them, but +when Lord Plowden appeared he sauntered slowly over, gun over arm, with +as indifferent an air as he could simulate. It pleased him tremendously +that no one had thought it worth while to approach the rendezvous by +way of the spot he had covered. His eye took instant stock of the game +carried by two of the boys; their combined prizes were eight birds and a +rabbit, and his heart leaped within him at the count. + +"Well, Thorpe?" asked Plowden, pleasantly. The smell of gunpowder and +the sight of stained feathers had co-operated to brighten and cheer his +mood. "I heard you blazing away in great form. Did you get anything?" + +Thorpe strove hard to give his voice a careless note. "Let some of the +boys run over," he said slowly. "There are nine birds within sight, and +there are two or three in the bushes--but they may have got away." + +"Gad!" said Balder. + +"Magnificent!" was his brother's comment--and Thorpe permitted himself +the luxury of a long-drawn, beaming sigh of triumph. + +The roseate colouring of this triumph seemed really to tint everything +that remained of Thorpe's visit. He set down to it without hesitation +the visible augmentation of deference to him among the servants. The +temptation was very great to believe that it had affected the ladies of +the house as well. He could not say that they were more gracious to him, +but certainly they appeared to take him more for granted. In a hundred +little ways, he seemed to perceive that he was no longer held mentally +at arm's length as a stranger to their caste. Of course, his own +restored self-confidence could account for much of this, but he clung to +the whimsical conceit that much was also due to the fact that he was the +man of the pheasants. + +Sunday was bleak and stormy, and no one stirred out of the house. He was +alone again with the ladies at breakfast, and during the long day he was +much in their company. It was like no other day he had ever imagined to +himself. + +On the morrow, in the morning train by which he returned alone to town, +his mind roved luxuriously among the fragrant memories of that day. +He had been so perfectly at home--and in such a home! There were some +things which came uppermost again and again--but of them all he dwelt +most fixedly upon the recollection of moving about in the greenhouses +and conservatories, with that tall, stately, fair Lady Cressage for his +guide, and watching her instead of the flowers that she pointed out. Of +what she had told him, not a syllable stuck in his mind, but the music +of the voice lingered in his ears. + +"And she is old Kervick's daughter!" he said to himself more than once. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +IT may be that every other passenger in that morning train to London +nursed either a silent rage, or declaimed aloud to fellow-sufferers in +indignation, at the time consumed in making what, by the map, should be +so brief a journey. In Thorpe's own compartment, men spoke with savage +irony of cyclists alleged to be passing them on the road, and exchanged +dark prophecies as to the novelties in imbecility and helplessness which +the line would be preparing for the Christmas holidays. The old joke +about people who had gone travelling years before, and were believed +to be still lost somewhere in the recesses of Kent, revived itself amid +gloomy approbation. The still older discussion as to whether the South +Eastern or the Brighton was really the worst followed naturally in its +wake, and occupied its accustomed half-hour--complicated, however, upon +this occasion, by the chance presence of a loquacious stranger who said +he lived on the Chatham-and-Dover, and who rejected boisterously the +idea that any other railway could be half so bad. + +The intrusion of this outsider aroused instant resentment, and the +champions of the South Eastern and the Brighton, having piled up +additional defenses in the shape of personal recollections of delay +and mismanagement quite beyond belief, made a combined attack upon the +newcomer. He was evidently incapable, their remarks implied, of knowing +a bad railway when he saw one. To suggest that the characterless and +inoffensive Chatham-and-Dover, so commonplace in its tame virtues, +was to be mentioned in the same breath with the daringly inventive +and resourceful malefactors whose rendezvous was London Bridge, showed +either a weak mind or a corrupt heart. Did this man really live on the +Dover line at all? Angry countenances plainly reflected the doubt. + +But to Thorpe the journey seemed short enough--almost too short. +The conversation interested him not at all; if he had ever known the +Southern lines apart, they were all one to him now. He looked out of the +window, and could have sworn that he thought of nothing but the visit +from which he was returning. + +When he alighted at Cannon Street, however, it was to discover that his +mind was full of a large, new, carefully-prepared project. It came to +him, ready-made and practically complete, as he stood on the platform, +superintending the porter's efforts to find his bags. He turned it over +and over in his thoughts, in the hansom, more to familiarize himself +with its details than to add to them. He left the cab to wait for him at +the mouth of a little alley which delves its way into Old Broad Street +through towering walls of commercial buildings, old and new. + +Colin Semple was happily in his office--a congeries of small, huddled +rooms, dry and dirty with age, which had a doorway of its own in a +corner of the court--and Thorpe pushed on to his room at the end like +one who is assured of both his way and his welcome. + +The broker was standing beside a desk, dictating a letter to a clerk +who sat at it, and with only a nod to Thorpe he proceeded to finish +this task. He looked more than once at his visitor as he did so, in +a preoccupied, impersonal way. To the other's notion, he seemed the +personification of business--without an ounce of distracting superfluous +flesh upon his wiry, tough little frame, without a trace of unnecessary +politeness, or humour, or sensibility of any sort. He was the machine +perfected and fined down to absolute essentials. He could understand a +joke if it was useful to him to do so. He could drink, and even smoke +cigarettes, with a natural air, if these exercises seemed properly to +belong to the task he had in hand. Thorpe did not conceive him doing +anything for the mere human reason that he liked to do it. There was +more than a touch of what the rustic calls "ginger" in his hair and +closely-cropped, pointed beard, and he had the complementary florid +skin. His eyes--notably direct, confident eyes--were of a grey which had +in it more brown than blue. He wore a black frock-coat, buttoned close, +and his linen produced the effect of a conspicuous whiteness. + +He turned as the clerk left the room, and let his serious, thin +lips relax for an instant as a deferred greeting. "Well?" he asked, +impassively. + +"Have you got a quarter-of-an-hour?" asked Thorpe in turn. "I want a +talk with you." + +For answer, Semple left the room. Returning after a minute or two, +he remarked, "Go ahead till we're stopped," and seated himself on the +corner of the desk with the light inconsequence of a bird on a twig. +Thorpe unbuttoned his overcoat, laid aside his hat, and seated himself. + +"I've worked out the whole scheme," he began, as if introducing the +product of many sleepless nights' cogitations. "I'm going to leave +England almost immediately--go on the Continent and loaf about--I've +never seen the Continent." + +Semple regarded him in silence. "Well?" he observed at last. + +"You see the idea, don't you?" Thorpe demanded. + +The broker twitched his shoulders slightly. "Go on," he said. + +"But the idea is everything," protested the other. "We've been thinking +of beginning the campaign straight away--but the true game now is to lie +low--silent as the grave. I go away now, d'ye see? Nothing particular +is said about it, of course, but in a month or two somebody notices that +I'm not about, and he happens to mention it to somebody else--and so +there gets to be the impression that things haven't gone well with me, +d'ye see? On the same plan, I let all the clerks at my office go. The +Secretary'll come round every once in a while to get letters, of +course, and perhaps he'll keep a boy in the front office for show, +but practically the place'll be shut up. That'll help out the general +impression that I've gone to pieces. Now d'ye see?" + +"It's the Special Settlement you're thinking of," commented Semple. + +"Of course. The fellows that we're going to squeeze would move heaven +and hell to prevent our getting that Settlement, if they got wind +of what was going on. The only weak point in our game is just there. +Absolutely everything hangs on the Settlement being granted. Naturally, +then, our play is to concentrate everything on getting it granted. We +don't want to raise the remotest shadow of a suspicion of what we're +up to, till after we're safe past that rock. So we go on in the way +to attract the least possible attention. You or your jobber makes the +ordinary application for a Special Settlement, with your six signatures +and so on; and I go abroad quietly, and the office is as good as shut +up, and nobody makes a peep about Rubber Consols--and the thing works +itself. You do see it, don't you?" + +"I see well enough the things that are to be seen," replied Semple, with +a certain brevity of manner. "There was a sermon of my father's that I +remember, and it had for its text, 'We look not at the things which are +seen, but at the things which are not seen.'" + +Thorpe, pondering this for a moment, nodded his head. "Semple," he said, +bringing his chair forward to the desk, "that's what I've come for. I +want to spread my cards on the table for you. I know the sum you've laid +out already, in working this thing. We'll say that that is to be paid +back to you, as a separate transaction, and we'll put that to one side. +Now then, leaving that out of consideration, what do you think you ought +to have out of the winnings, when we pull the thing off? Mind, I'm not +thinking of your 2,000 vendor's shares----" + +"No--I'm not thinking much of them, either," interposed Semple, with a +kind of dry significance. + +"Oh, they'll be all right," Thorpe affirmed. He laughed unconsciously as +he did so. "No, what I want to get at is your idea of what should come +to you, as a bonus, when I scoop the board." + +"Twenty thousand pounds," said Semple, readily. + +Thorpe's slow glance brightened a trifle. "I had thought thirty would be +a fairer figure," he remarked, with an effort at simplicity. + +The broker put out his under-lip. "You will find people rather disposed +to distrust a man who promises more than he's asked," he remarked +coldly. + +"Yes--I know what you mean," Thorpe hurried to say, flushing awkwardly, +even though the remark was so undeserved; "but it's in my nature. I'm +full of the notion of doing things for people that have done things +for me. That's the way I'm built. Why"--he halted to consider the +advisability of disclosing what he had promised to do for Lord Plowden, +and decided against it--"why, without you, what would the whole +thing have been worth to me? Take one thing alone--the money for the +applications--I could have no more got at it than I could at the Crown +Jewels in the Tower. I've wondered since, more than once--if you don't +mind the question--how did you happen to have so much ready money lying +about." + +"There are some Glasgow and Aberdeen folk who trust me to invest for +them," the broker explained. "If they get five per cent. for the four +months, they'll be very pleased. And so I shall be very pleased to take +thirty thousand instead of twenty--if it presents itself to your mind in +that way. You will give me a letter to that effect, of course." + +"Of course," assented Thorpe. "Write it now, if you like." He pushed his +chair forward, closer to the desk, and dipped a pen in the ink. "What +I want to do is this," he said, looking up. "I'll make the promise for +thirty-two thousand, and I'll get you to let me have two thousand in +cash now--a personal advance. I shall need it, if I'm to hang about on +the Continent for four months. I judge you think it'll be four months +before things materialize, eh?" + +"The Special Settlement, in the natural order of events, would come +shortly after the Christmas holidays. That is nearly three months. Then +the work of taking fort-nightly profits will begin--and it is for you to +say how long you allow that to go on." + +"But about the two thousand pounds now," Thorpe reminded him. + +"I think I will do that in this way," said Semple, kicking his small +legs nonchalantly. "I will buy two thousand fully-paid shares of you, +for cash down, NOT vendor's shares, you observe--and then I will take +your acknowledgment that you hold them for me in trust up to a given +date. In that way, I would not at all weaken your market, and I would +have a stake in the game." "Your stake's pretty big, already," commented +Thorpe, tentatively. + +"It's just a fancy of mine," said the other, with his first smile. "I +like to hold shares that are making sensational advances. It is very +exciting." + +"All right," said Thorpe, in accents of resignation. He wrote out two +letters, accepting the wording which Semple suggested from his perch on +the desk, and then the latter, hopping down, took the chair in turn and +wrote a cheque. + +"Do you want it open?" he asked over his shoulder. "Are you going to get +it cashed at once?" + +"No--cross it," said the other. "I want it to go through my bankers. +It'll warm their hearts toward me. I shan't be going till the end of the +week, in any event. I suppose you know the Continent by heart." + +"On the contrary, very little indeed. I've had business in Frankfort +once, and in Rotterdam once, and in Paris twice. That is all." + +"But don't you ever do anything for pleasure?" Thorpe asked him, as he +folded the cheque in his pocket-book. + +"Oh yes--many things," responded the broker, lightly. "It's a pleasure, +for example, to buy Rubber Consols at par." + +"Oh, if you call it buying," said Thorpe, and then softened his words +with an apologetic laugh. "I didn't tell you, did I? I've been spending +Saturday and Sunday with Plowden--you know, the Lord Plowden on my +Board." + +"I know of him very well," observed the Scotchman. + +"Has he a place that he asks people down to, then? That isn't the usual +form with guinea-pigs." + +"Ah, but, he isn't the guinea-pig variety at all," Thorpe asserted, +warmly. "He's really a splendid fellow--with his little oddities, like +the rest of us, of course, but a decent chap all through. Place? +I should think he HAD got a place! It's one of the swellest old +country-houses you ever saw--older than hell, you know--and it's kept +up as if they had fifty thousand a year. Do you happen to know what his +real income is supposed to be?" + +Semple shook his head. He had taken his hat, and was smoothing it deftly +with the palm of his hand. + +"I asked," Thorpe went on, "because he had so much to say about his +poverty. To hear him talk, you'd think the bailiffs were sitting on his +doorstep. That doesn't prevent his having fast horses, and servants all +over the place, and about the best shooting I've seen in the South of +England. As luck would have it, I was in wonderful form. God! how I +knocked the pheasants!" A clerk showed his head at the door, with a +meaning gesture. "I must go now," said Semple, briskly, and led the way +out to another room. He halted here, and dismissed his caller with the +brief injunction, "Don't go away without seeing me." + +It was the noon-hour, and the least-considered grades of the City's +slaves were in the streets on the quest for cheap luncheons. Thorpe +noted the manner in which some of them studied the large bill of +fare placarded beside a restaurant door; the spectacle prompted him +luxuriously to rattle the gold coins remaining in his pocket. He had +been as anxious about pence as the hungriest of those poor devils, only +a week before. And now! He thrust up the door in the roof of the cab, +and bade the driver stop at his bank. Thence, after some brief but very +agreeable business, and a hurried inspection of the "Court" section of +a London Directory, he drove to a telegraph station and despatched two +messages. They were identical in terms. One sought General Kervick +at his residence--he was in lodgings somewhere in the Hanover Square +country--and the other looked for him at his club. Both begged him to +lunch at the Savoy at two o'clock. + +There was time and to spare, now. Thorpe dismissed the cab at his +hotel--an unpretentious house in Craven Street, and sent his luggage to +his rooms. There were no letters for him on the board in the hallway, +and he sauntered up to the Strand. As by force of habit, he turned +presently into a side-street, and stopped opposite the ancient book-shop +of his family. + +In the bright yet mellow light of the sunny autumn noontide, the blacks +and roans and smoked drabs of the low old brick front looked more dingy +to his eye than ever. It spoke of antiquity, no doubt, but it was a +dismal and graceless antiquity of narrow purposes and niggling thrift. +It was so little like the antiquity, for example, of Hadlow House, that +the two might have computed their age by the chronological systems of +different planets. Although his sister's married name was Dabney, and +she had been sole proprietor for nearly a dozen years, the sign over the +doorway bore still its century-old legend, "Thorpe, Bookseller." + +He crossed the street, and paused for a moment to run an eye over the +books and placards exposed on either side of the entrance. A small boy +guarded these wares, and Thorpe considered him briefly, with curious +recollections of how much of his own boyhood had been spent on that +very spot. The lad under observation had a loutish and sullen face; its +expression could not have been more devoid of intellectual suggestions +if he had been posted in a Wiltshire field to frighten crows with +a rattle, instead of being set here in the highway of the world's +brain-movement, an agent of students and philosophers. Thorpe wondered +if in his time he could have looked such a vacant and sour young +fool. No--no. That could not be. Boys were different in his day--and +especially boys in book-shops. They read something and knew something of +what they handled. They had some sort of aspirations, fitful and vague +as these might be, to become in their time bookmen also. And in those +days there still were bookmen--widely-informed, observant, devoted old +bookmen--who loved their trade, and adorned it. + +Thorpe reflected that, as he grew older, he was the better able to +apprehend the admirable qualities of that departed race of literature's +servants. Indeed, it seemed that he had never adequately realized before +how proud a man might well be of descending from a line of such men. +The thought struck him that very likely at this identical doorway, two +generations back, a poor, out-at-the-elbows, young law-student named +Plowden had stood and turned over pages of books he could not dream of +buying. Perhaps, even, he had ventured inside, and deferentially picked +acquaintance with the Thorpe of the period, and got bookish advice and +friendly counsel for nothing. It was of no real significance that the +law-student grew to be Lord Chancellor, and the bookseller remained a +book-seller; in the realm of actual values, the Thorpes were as good as +the Plowdens. + +A customer came out of the shop, and Thorpe went in, squeezing his way +along the narrow passage between the tall rows of books, to the small +open space at the end. His sister stood here, momentarily occupied at a +high desk. She did not look up. + +"Well--I visited his Lordship all right." He announced his presence thus +genially. + +"I hope you're the better for it," she remarked, turning to him, after a +pause, her emotionless, plain face. + +"Oh, immensely," he affirmed, with robust jocularity. "You should have +seen the way they took to me. It was 'Mr. Thorpe' here and 'Mr. Thorpe' +there, all over the place. Ladies of title, mind you--all to myself at +breakfast two days running. And such ladies--finer than silk. Oh, it's +clear as daylight--I was intended for a fashionable career." + +She smiled in a faint, passive way. "Well--they say 'better late +than never,' you know." "And after all, IS it so very late?" he said, +adopting her phrase as an expression of his thought. "I'm just turned +forty, and I feel like a boy. I was looking at that 'Peerage' there, +the other day--and do you know, I'm sixteen years younger than the first +Lord Plowden was when they made him a peer? Why he didn't even get into +the House of Commons until he was seven-and-forty." + +"You seem to have the Plowden family on the brain," she commented. + +"I might have worse things. You've no idea, Lou, how nice it all is. The +mother, Lady Plowden--why she made me feel as if I was at the very +least a nephew of hers. And so simple and natural! She smiled at me, +and listened to me, and said friendly things to me--why, just as anybody +might have done. You'll just love her, when you know her." + +Louisa laughed in his face. "Don't be a fool, Joel," she adjured him, +with a flash of scornful mirth. He mingled a certain frowning impatience +with the buoyancy of his smile. "Why, of course, you'll know her," he +protested. "What nonsense you're thinking of! Do you suppose I'm going +to allow you to mess about here with second-hand almanacs, and a sign in +your window of 'threepence in the shilling discount for cash,' while I'm +a millionaire? It's too foolish, Lou. You annoy me by supposing such a +thing!" + +"There's no good talking about it at all," she observed, after a little +pause. "It hasn't come off yet, for one thing. And as I said the other +night, if you want to do things for the children, that's another matter. +They're of an age when they can learn whatever anybody chooses to teach +them." + +"Where are they now?" he asked. Upon the instant another plan began to +unfold itself in the background of his mind. + +"They're both at Cheltenham, though they're at different places, of +course. I was recommended to send Julia there--one of our old customers +is a Governor, or whatever it's called--and he got special terms for +her. She was rather old, you know, to go to school, but he arranged it +very nicely for her--and there is such a good boys' college there, +it seemed the wisest thing to send Alfred too. Julia is to finish at +Christmas-time--and what I'm going to do with her afterward is more than +I know." + +"Is she pretty?" the uncle of Julia enquired. + +"She's very nice," the mother answered, with vague extenuation in her +tone. "I don't know about her looks--she varies so much. Sometimes I +think she's pretty--and then again I can't think it. She's got +good features, and she holds herself well, and she's very much the +lady--rather too much, I think, sometimes--but it all depends upon what +you call pretty. She's not tall, you know. She takes after her father's +family. The Dabneys are all little people." + +Thorpe seemed not to care about the Dabneys. "And what's Alfred like?" +he asked. + +"He wants to be an artist!" There was a perceptible note of apprehension +in the mother's confession. + +"Well--why shouldn't he--if he's got a bent that way?" demanded Thorpe, +with reproof in his tone. "Did you want him to be a shop-keeper?" + +"I should like to see him a doctor," she replied with dignity. "It was +always my idea for him." + +"Well, it's no good--even as an idea," he told her. "Doctors are like +parsons--they can't keep up with the times. The age is outgrowing them. +Only the fakirs in either profession get anything out of it, nowadays. +It's all mystery and sleight-of-hand and the confidence trick--medicine +is--and if you haven't got just the right twist of the wrist, you're not +in it. But an artist stands on his merits. There is his work--done by +his own hands. It speaks for itself. There's no deception--it's easy +enough to tell whether it's good or bad. If the pictures are good, +people buy them. If they're bad, people don't buy them. Of course, it +won't matter to Alfred, financially speaking, whether his pictures sell +well or not. But probably he'd give it up, if he didn't make a hit of +it. + +"I don't know that there's any crying need that he should do anything. +My own idea for him, perhaps, would be the Army, but I wouldn't dream of +forcing it on him against his will. I had a bitter enough dose of that, +myself, with father. I'd try to guide a youngster, yes, and perhaps +argue with him, if I thought he was making a jack of himself--but I +wouldn't dictate. If Alfred thinks he wants to be an artist, in God's +name let him go ahead. It can be made a gentlemanly trade--and the main +thing is that he should be a gentleman." + +Louisa had listened to this discourse with apathetic patience. "If you +don't mind, I don't know that I do," she said when it was finished. +"Perhaps he wouldn't have made a good doctor; he's got a very quick +temper. He reminds me of father--oh, ever so much more than you do. He +contradicts everything everybody says. He quite knows it all." + +"But he's a good fellow, isn't he?" urged Thorpe. "I mean, he's got his +likable points? I'm going to be able to get along with him?" + +"I didn't get along with him very well," the mother admitted, +reluctantly, "but I daresay with a man it would be different. You see, +his father was ill all those four years, and Alfred hated the shop as +bad as you did, and perhaps in my worry I blamed him more than was fair. +I want to be fair to him, you know." + +"But is he a gentleman? That puts it in a word," Thorpe insisted. + +"Oh, mercy yes," Louisa made ready answer. "My only fear is--whether you +won't find him too much of a gentleman." + +Thorpe knitted his brows. "I only hope we're talking about the same +thing," he said, in a doubtful tone. Before she could speak, he lifted +his hand. "Never mind--I can see for myself in ten minutes more than you +could tell me in a lifetime. I've got a plan. I'm going on the Continent +in a few days' time, to stay for three or four months. I've got nothing +special to do--just to travel about and see things and kill time--I +shall probably go to Italy and Switzerland and Paris and the Rhine +and all sorts of places--and it occurred to me that I'd take the two +youngsters with me. I could get acquainted with them, that way, and +they'd be company for me. I've been lonesome so long, it would feel good +to have some of my own flesh and blood about me--and I suppose they'd be +tickled to death to go." + +"Their schooling and board are paid for up to Christmas," Mrs. Dabney +objected, blankly. + +"Bah!" Thorpe prolonged the emphatic exclamation into something +good-natured, and ended it with an abrupt laugh. "What on earth +difference does that make? I could go and buy their damned colleges, and +let the kids wear them for breastpins if I wanted to. You said the girl +was going to quit at Christmas in any case. Won't she learn more in four +months travelling about on the Continent, than she would trotting around +in her own tracks there at Cheltenham? + +"And it's even more important for the boy. He's of an age when he ought +to see something of the world, and I ought to see something of him. +Whatever he's going to do, it's time that he began getting his special +start for it." He added, upon a luminous afterthought: "Perhaps his +seeing the old Italian picture galleries and so on will cure him of +wanting to be an artist." + +The mother's air displayed resigned acquiescence rather than conviction. +"Well--if you really think it's best," she began, "I don't know that +I ought to object. Goodness knows, I don't want to stand in their way. +Ever since you sent that four hundred pounds, it hasn't seemed as if +they were my children at all. They've scarcely listened to me. And now +you come, and propose to take them out of my hands altogether--and all +I can say is--I hope you feel entirely justified. And so, shall I write +them to come home? When do you think of starting? Julia ought to have +some travelling clothes." + +"I can wait till you get her ready--only you must hurry up about it." + +Remembering something, he took out his cheque-book, and spread it on +the desk. "I will give you back that thirty," he said, as he wrote, "and +here's a hundred to get the youngsters ready. You won't waste any time, +will you? and if you want more tell me." + +A customer had entered the shop, and Thorpe made it the occasion for +leaving. + +His sister, looking after her brother with the cheque in her hand, +was conscious of a thought which seemed to spell itself out in visible +letters before her mental vision. "Even now I don't believe in him," the +impalpable legend ran. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +GENERAL KERVICK was by habit a punctual man, and Thorpe found him +hovering, carefully gloved and fur-coated, in the neighbourhood of the +luncheon-room when he arrived. It indeed still lacked a few minutes of +the appointed hour when they thus met and went in together. They were +fortunate enough to find a small table out on the balcony, sufficiently +removed from any other to give privacy to their conversation. + +By tacit agreement, the General ordered the luncheon, speaking French to +the waiter throughout. Divested of his imposing great-coat, he was seen +to be a gentleman of meagre flesh as well as of small stature. He had +the Roman nose, narrow forehead, bushing brows, and sharply-cut mouth +and chin of a soldier grown old in the contemplation of portraits of the +Duke of Wellington. His face and neck were of a dull reddish tint, which +seemed at first sight uniformly distributed: one saw afterward that +it approached pallor at the veined temples, and ripened into purple in +minute patches on the cheeks and the tip of the pointed nose. Against +this flushed skin, the closely-cropped hair and small, neatly-waxed +moustache were very white indeed. It was a thin, lined, care-worn face, +withal, which in repose, and particularly in profile, produced an effect +of dignified and philosophical melancholy. The General's over-prominent +light blue eyes upon occasion marred this effect, however, by glances +of a bold, harsh character, which seemed to disclose unpleasant depths +below the correct surface. His manner with the waiters was abrupt and +sharp, but undoubtedly they served him very well--much better, in truth, +than Thorpe had ever seen them serve anybody before. + +Thorpe observed his guest a good deal during the repast, and formed +numerous conclusions about him. He ate with palpable relish of every +dish, and he emptied his glass as promptly as his host could fill +it. There was hardly a word of explanation as to the purpose of their +meeting, until the coffee was brought, and they pushed back their +chairs, crossed their legs, and lighted cigars. + +"I was lucky to catch you with my wire, at such short notice," Thorpe +said then. "I sent two, you know--to your chambers and your club. Which +of them found you?" + +"Chambers," said the General. "I rarely dress till luncheon time. I read +in bed. There's really nothing else to do. Idleness is the curse of my +life." + +"I've been wondering if you'd like a little occupation--of a well-paid +sort," said Thorpe slowly. He realized that it was high time to invent +some pretext for his hurried summons of the General. + +"My dear sir," responded the other, "I should like anything that had +money in it. And I should very much like occupation, too--if it were, of +course, something that was--was suitable to me." + +"Yes," said Thorpe, meditatively. "I've something in my mind--not at all +definite yet--in fact, I don't think I can even outline it to you +yet. But I'm sure it will suit you--that is, if I decide to go on with +it--and there ought to be seven or eight hundred a year for you in +it--for life, mind you." + +The General's gaze, fastened strenuously upon Thorpe, shook a little. +"That will suit me very well," he declared, with feeling. "Whatever +I can do for it"--he let the sentence end itself with a significant +gesture. + +"I thought so," commented the other, trifling with the spoon in his cup. +"But I want you to be open with me. I'm interested in you, and I want to +be of use to you. All that I've said, I can do for you. But first, +I'm curious to know everything that you can tell me about your +circumstances. I'm right in assuming, I suppose, that you're--that +you're not any too well-fixed." + +The General helped himself to another little glass of brandy. His mood +seemed to absorb the spirit of the liqueur. "Fixed!" he repeated with a +peevish snap in his tone. "I'm not 'fixed' at all, as you call it. Good +God, sir! They no more care what becomes of me than they do about +their old gloves. I gave them name and breeding and position--and +everything--and they round on me like--like cuckoos." His pale, bulging +eyes lifted their passionless veil for an instant as he spoke, and +flashed with the predatory fierceness of a hawk. + +Intuition helped Thorpe to guess whom "they" might mean. The temper +visibly rising in the old man's mind was what he had hoped for. He +proceeded with an informed caution. "Don't be annoyed if I touch upon +family matters," he said. "It's a part of what I must know, in order to +help you. I believe you're a widower, aren't you, General?" + +The other, after a quick upward glance, shook his head resentfully. +"Mrs. Kervick lives in Italy with HER son-in-law--and her daughter. +He is a man of property--and also, apparently, a man of remarkable +credulity and patience." He paused, to scan his companion's face. +"They divide him between them," he said then, from clenched teeth--"and +I--mind you--I made the match! He was a young fellow that I found--and I +brought him home and introduced him--and I haven't so much as an Italian +postage-stamp to show for it. But what interest can you possibly take +in all this?" The unamiable glance of his eyes was on the instant +surcharged with suspicion. + +"How many daughters have you?" Thorpe ventured the enquiry with inward +doubts as to its sagacity. + +"Three," answered the General, briefly. It was evident that he was also +busy thinking. + +"I ask because I met one of them in the country over Sunday," Thorpe +decided to explain. + +The old soldier's eyes asked many questions in the moment of silence. +"Which one--Edith?--that is, Lady Cressage?" he enquired. "Of course--it +would have been her." + +Thorpe nodded. "She made a tremendous impression upon me," he observed, +watching the father with intentness as he let the slow words fall. + +"Well she might," the other replied, simply. "She's supposed to be the +most beautiful woman in England." + +"Well--I guess she is," Thorpe assented, while the two men eyed each +other. + +"Is the third sister unmarried?" it occurred to him to ask. The tone of +the question revealed its perfunctory character. + +"Oh--Beatrice--she's of no importance," the father replied. "She goes in +for writing, and all that--she's not a beauty, you know--she lives with +an old lady in Scotland. The oldest daughter--Blanche--she has some good +looks of her own, but she's a cat. And so you met Edith! May I ask where +it was?" + +"At Hadlow House--Lord Plowden's place, you know." + +The General's surprise at the announcement was undoubted. "At +Plowden's!" he repeated, and added, as if half to himself, "I thought +that was all over with, long ago." + +"I wish you'd tell me about it," said Thorpe, daringly. "I've made it +plain to you, haven't I? I'm going to look out for you. And I want you +to post me up, here, on some of the things that I don't understand. You +remember that it was Plowden who introduced you to me, don't you? It was +through him that you got on the Board. Well, certain things that +I've seen lead me to suppose that he did that in order to please your +daughter. Did you understand it that way?" + +"It's quite likely, in one sense," returned the General. He spoke with +much deliberation now, weighing all his words. "He may have thought +it would please her; he may not have known how little my poor affairs +concerned her." + +"Well, then," pursued Thorpe, argumentatively, "he had an object in +pleasing her. Let me ask the question--did he want to marry her?" + +"Most men want to marry her," was the father's non-committal response. +His moustache lifted itself in the semblance of a smile, but the blue +eyes above remained coldly vigilant. + +"Well--I guess that's so too," Thorpe remarked. He made a fleeting +mental note that there was something about the General which impelled +him to think and talk more like an American than ever. "But was HE +specially affected that way?" + +"I think," said Kervick, judicially, "I think it was understood that +if he had been free to marry a penniless wife, he would have wished to +marry her." + +"Do you know," Thorpe began again, with a kind of diffident +hesitation--"do you happen to have formed an idea--supposing that had +been the case--would she have accepted him?" "Ah, there you have me," +replied the other. "Who can tell what women will accept, and what +they will refuse? My daughter refused Lord Lingfield--and he is an +Under-Secretary, and will be Earl Chobham, and a Cabinet Minister, and a +rich man. After that, what are you to say?" + +"You speak of her as penniless," Thorpe remarked, with a casual air. + +"Six hundred a year," the father answered. "We could have rubbed along +after a fashion on it, if she had had any notions at all of taking my +advice. I'm a man of the world, and I could have managed her affairs for +her to her advantage, but she insisted upon going off by herself. She +showed not the slightest consideration for me--but then I am accustomed +to that." + +Thorpe smiled reflectively, and the old gentleman read in this an +encouragement to expand his grievances. + +"In my position," he continued, helping himself to still another +tiny glass, "I naturally say very little. It is not my form to make +complaints and advertise my misfortunes. I daresay it's a fault. I +know it kept me back in India--while ever so many whipper-snappers were +promoted over my head--because I was of the proud and silent sort. It +was a mistake, but it was my nature. I might have put by a comfortable +provision for my old age, in those days, if I had been willing to push +my claims, and worry the Staff into giving me what was my due. But that +I declined to do--and when I was retired, there was nothing for me but +the ration of bread and salt which they serve out to the old soldier +who has been too modest. I served my Queen, sir, for forty years--and I +should be ashamed to tell you the allowance she makes me in my old age. +But I do not complain. My mouth is closed. I am an English gentleman and +one of Her Majesty's soldiers. That's enough said, eh? Do you follow me? +And about my family affairs, I'm not likely to talk to the first comer, +eh? But to you I say it frankly--they've behaved badly, damned badly, +sir. + +"Mrs. Kervick lives in Italy, at the cost of HER son-in-law. He has +large estates in one of the healthiest and most beautiful parts; he has +a palace, and more money than he knows what to do with--but it seems +that he's not my son-in-law. I could do with Italy very well--but that +doesn't enter into anyone's calculations. No! let the worn-out old +soldier sell boot-laces on the kerb! That's the spirit of woman-kind. +And my daughter Edith--does she care what becomes of me? Listen to me--I +secured for her the very greatest marriage in England. She would have +been Duchess of Glastonbury today if her husband had not played the fool +and drowned himself." + +"What's that you say?" put in Thorpe, swiftly. + +"It was as good as suicide," insisted the General, with doggedness. His +face had become a deeper red. "They didn't hit it off together, and +he left in a huff, and went yachting with his father, who was his own +sailing-master--and, as might be expected, they were both drowned. The +title would have gone to her son--but no, of course, she had no son--and +so it passed to a stranger--an outsider that had been an usher in a +school, or something of that sort. You can fancy what a blow this was to +me. Instead of being the grandfather of a Duke, I have a childless widow +thrust back upon my hands! Fine luck, eh? And then, to cap all, she +takes her six hundred a year and goes off by herself, and gives me the +cold shoulder completely. What is it Shakespeare says? 'How sharper than +a serpent's teeth'----" + +Thorpe brought his fist down upon the table with an emphasis which +abruptly broke the quotation in half. He had been frowning moodily +at his guest for some minutes, relighting his cigar more than once +meanwhile. He had made a mental calculation of what the old man had had +to drink, and had reassured himself as to his condition. His garrulity +might have an alcoholic basis, but his wits were clear enough. It was +time to take a new line with him. + +"I don't want to hear you abuse your daughter," he admonished him now, +with a purpose glowing steadily in his firm glance. "Damn it all, why +shouldn't she go off by herself, and take care of her own money her +own way? It's little enough, God knows, for such a lady as she is. Why +should you expect her to support you out of it? No--sit still! Listen to +me!"--he stretched out his hand, and laid it with restraining heaviness +upon the General's arm--"you don't want to have any row with me. +You can't afford it. Just think that over to yourself--you--can't +afford--it." + +Major-General Kervick's prominent blue eyes had bulged forth in rage +till their appearance had disconcerted the other's gaze. They remained +still too much in the foreground, as it were, and the angry scarlets +and violets of the cheeks beneath them carried an unabated threat of +apoplexy--but their owner, after a moment's silence, made a sign with +his stiff white brows that the crisis was over. "You must remember +that--that I have a father's feelings," he gasped then, huskily. + +Thorpe nodded, with a nonchalance which was not wholly affected. He had +learned what he wanted to know about this veteran. If he had the fierce +meannesses of a famished old dog, he had also a dog's awe of a stick. It +was almost too easy to terrorize him. + +"Oh, I make allowances for all that," Thorpe began, vaguely. "But +it's important that you should understand me. I'm this sort of a man: +whatever I set out to do, and put my strength into it, that I do! I kill +every pheasant I fire at; Plowden will tell you that! It's a way I have. +To those that help me, and are loyal to me, I'm the best friend in +the world. To those that get in my way, or try to trip me up, I'm the +devil--just plain devil. Now then--you're getting three hundred a year +from my Company, that is to say from me, simply to oblige my friend +Plowden. You don't do anything to earn this money; you're of no earthly +use on the Board. If I chose, I could put you off at the end of the year +as easily as I can blow out this match. But I propose not only to keep +you on, but to make you independent. Why do I do that? You should ask +yourself that question. It can't be on account of anything you can do +for the Company. What else then? Why, first and foremost, because you +are the father of your daughter." + +"Let me tell you the kind of man I am," said the General, inflating his +chest, and speaking with solemnity. + +"Oh, I know the kind of man you are," Thorpe interrupted him, coolly. "I +want to talk now." + +"It was merely," Kervick ventured, in an injured tone, "that I can be as +loyal as any man alive to a true friend." + +"Well, I'll be the true friend, then," said Thorpe, with impatient +finality. "And now this is what I want to say. I'm going to be a very +rich man. You're not to say so to anybody, mind you, until the thing +speaks for itself. We're keeping dark for a few months, d'ye see?--lying +low. Then, as I say, I shall be a very rich man. Well now, I wouldn't +give a damn to be rich, unless I did with my money the things that I +wanted to do, and got the things with it that I wanted to get. Whatever +takes my fancy, that's what I'll do." + +He paused for a moment, mentally to scrutinize a brand-new project which +seemed, by some surreptitious agency, to have already taken his fancy. +It was a curious project; there were attractive things about it, and +objections to it suggested themselves as well. + +"I may decide," he began speaking again, still revolving this +hypothetical scheme in his thoughts--"I may want to--well, here's what +occurs to me as an off-chance. I take an interest in your daughter, d'ye +see? and it seems a low-down sort of thing to me that she should be so +poor. Well, then--I might say to you, here's two thousand a year, say, +made over to you in your name, on the understanding that you turn over +half of it, say, to her. She could take it from you, of course, as her +father. You could say you made it out of the Company. Of course it might +happen, later on, that I might like to have a gentle hint dropped to +her, d'ye see, as to where it really came from. Mind, I don't say this +is what is going to be done. It merely occurred to me." + +After waiting for a moment for some comment, he added a second thought: +"You'd have to set about making friends with her, you know. In any case, +you'd better begin at that at once." + +The General remained buried in reflection. He lighted a cigarette, and +poured out for himself still another petit verre. His pursed lips and +knitted brows were eloquent of intense mental activity. + +"Well, do you see any objections to it?" demanded Thorpe, at last. + +"I do not quite see the reasons for it," answered the other, slowly. +"What would you gain by it?" + +"How do you mean--gain?" put in the other, with peremptory intolerance +of tone. + +General Kervick spread his hands in a quick little gesture. These hands +were withered, but remarkably well-kept. "I suppose one doesn't do +something for nothing," he said. "I see what I would gain, and what she +would gain, but I confess I don't see what advantage you would get out +of it." + +"No-o, I daresay you don't," assented Thorpe, with sneering serenity. +"But what does that matter? You admit that you see what you would gain. +That's enough, isn't it?" + +The older man's veined temples twitched for an instant. He straightened +himself in his chair, and looked hard at his companion. There was a +glistening of moisture about his staring eyes. + +"It surely isn't necessary--among gentlemen"--he began, cautiously +picking his phrases--"to have quite so much that's unpleasant, is it?" + +"No--you're right--I didn't mean to be so rough," Thorpe declared, with +spontaneous contrition. Upon the instant, however, he perceived +the danger that advantage might be taken of his softness. "I'm a +plain-spoken man," he went on, with a hardening voice, "and people must +take me as they find me. All I said was, in substance, that I intended +to be of service to you--and that that ought to interest you." + +The General seemed to have digested his pique. "And what I was trying +to say," he commented deferentially, "was that I thought I saw ways of +being of service to you. But that did not seem to interest you at all." + +"How--service?" Thorpe, upon consideration, consented to ask. + +"I know my daughter so much better than you do," explained the other; "I +know Plowden so much better; I am so much more familiar with the whole +situation than you can possibly be--I wonder that you won't listen to +my opinion. I don't suggest that you should be guided by it, but I think +you should hear it." + +"I think so, too," Thorpe declared, readily enough. "What IS your +opinion?" + +General Kervick sipped daintily at his glass, and then gave an +embarrassed little laugh. "But I can't form what you might call an +opinion," he protested, apologetically, "till I understand a bit more +clearly what it is you propose to yourself. You mustn't be annoyed if I +return to that--'still harping on my daughter,' you know. If I MUST ask +the question--is it your wish to marry her?" + +Thorpe looked blankly at his companion, as if he were thinking of +something else. When he spoke, it was with no trace of consciousness +that the question had been unduly intimate. + +"I can't in the least be sure that I shall ever marry," he replied, +thoughtfully. "I may, and I may not. But--starting with that proviso--I +suppose I haven't seen any other woman that I'd rather think about +marrying than--than the lady we're speaking of. However, you see it's +all in the air, so far as my plans go." + +"In the air be it," the soldier acquiesced, plausibly. "Let us consider +it as if it were in the air--a possible contingency. This is what +I would say--My--'the lady we are speaking of' is by way of being a +difficult lady--'uncertain, coy, and hard to please' as Scott says, you +know--and it must be a very skilfully-dressed fly indeed which brings +her to the surface. She's been hooked once, mind, and she has a horror +of it. Her husband was the most frightful brute and ruffian, you know. I +was strongly opposed to the marriage, but her mother carried it through. +But--yes--about her--I think she is afraid to marry again. If she does +ever consent, it will be because poverty has broken her nerve. If she is +kept on six hundred a year, she may be starved, so to speak, into taking +a husband. If she had sixteen hundred--either she would never marry at +all, or she would be free to marry some handsome young pauper who caught +her fancy. That would be particularly like her. You would be simply +endowing some needy fellow, beside losing her for yourself. D'ye +follow me? If you'll leave it to me, I can find a much better way than +that--better for all of us." + +"Hm!" said Thorpe, and pondered the paternal statement. "I see what you +mean," he remarked at last. "Yes--I see." + +The General preserved silence for what seemed a long time, deferring +to the reverie of his host. When finally he offered a diversion, in +the form of a remark about the hour, Thorpe shook himself, and then +ponderously rose to his feet. He took his hat and coat from the waiter, +and made his way out without a word. + +At the street door, confronting the waning foliage of the Embankment +garden, Kervick was emboldened to recall to him the fact of his +presence. "Which way are you going?" he asked. + +"I don't know," Thorpe answered absently. "I think--I think I'll take a +walk on the Embankment--by myself." + +The General could not repress all symptoms of uneasiness. "But when am I +to see you again?" he enquired, with an effect of solicitude that defied +control. + +"See me?" Thorpe spoke as if the suggestion took him by surprise. + +"There are things to be settled, are there not?" the other faltered, in +distressed doubt as to the judicious tone to take. "You spoke, you know, +of--of some employment that--that would suit me." + +Thorpe shook himself again, and seemed by an effort to recall his +wandering attention. "Oh yes," he said, with lethargic vagueness--"I +haven't thought it out yet. I'll let you know--within the week, +probably." + +With the briefest of nods, he turned and crossed the road. Walking +heavily, with rounded shoulders and hands plunged deep in his overcoat +pockets, he went through the gateway, and chose a path at random. To the +idlers on the garden benches who took note of him as he passed, he +gave the impression of one struggling with nausea. To his own blurred +consciousness, he could not say which stirred most vehemently within +him, his loathing for the creature he had fed and bought, or his bitter +self-disgust. + +The General, standing with exaggerated exactness upon the doorstep, +had followed with his bulging eyes the receding figure. He stood still +regarding the gateway, mentally summarizing the events of the day, after +the other had vanished. At last, nestling his chin comfortably into the +fur of his collar, he smiled with self-satisfaction. "After all," he +said to himself, "there are always ways of making a cad feel that he is +a cad, in the presence of a gentleman." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +ON a Sunday afternoon, early in February, Thorpe journeyed with his +niece and nephew from Bern to Montreux. + +The young people, with maps and a guide-book open, sat close together at +the left side of the compartment. The girl from time to time rubbed the +steam from the window with a napkin out of the lunch-basket. They both +stared a good deal through this window, with frequent exclamations of +petulance. + +"Isn't it too provoking!" cried the girl, turning to her uncle at last. +"This is where we are now--according to Baedeker: 'As the train proceeds +we enjoy a view of the Simmen-Thal and Freiburg mountains to the left, +the Moleson being conspicuous.' And look at it! For all one can see, we +might as well be at Redhill." + +"It is pretty hard luck," Thorpe assented, passively glancing past her +at the pale, neutral-tinted wall of mist which obscured the view. "But +hang it all--it must clear up some time. Just you have patience, and +you'll see some Alps yet." + +"Where we're going," the young man interposed, "the head-porter told me +it was always cloudier than anywhere else." + +"I don't think that can be so," Thorpe reasoned, languidly, from his +corner. "It's a great winter resort, I'm told, and it rather stands to +reason, doesn't it? that people wouldn't flock there if it was so bad as +all that." + +"The kind of people we've seen travelling in Switzerland," said the +girl--"they would do anything." + +Thorpe smiled, with tolerant good humour. "Well, you can comfort +yourself with the notion that you'll be coming again. The mountains'll +stay here, all right," he assured her. The young people smiled back +at him, and with this he rearranged his feet in a new posture on the +opposite seat, lighted another cigar, and pillowed his head once more +against the hard, red-plush cushion. Personally, he did not in the least +resent the failure of the scenery. + +For something more than three months, this purposeless pleasure-tour had +been dragging him about from point to point, sleeping in strange beds, +eating extraordinarily strange food, transacting the affairs of a +sight-seer among people who spoke strange languages, until he was +surfeited with the unusual. It had all been extremely interesting, of +course, and deeply improving--but he was getting tired of talking to +nobody but waiters, and still more so of having nothing to do which he +could not as well leave undone if he chose. After a few days more +of Switzerland--for they had already gazed with blank faces at this +universal curtain of mist from such different points of view as Lucerne, +Interlaken, and Thun--it was clear to him that they would, as he +phrased it, to himself, make a break for home. Unless, indeed, something +happened at Montreux. Ah, would anything happen at Montreux? For four +days his mind had been automatically reverting to that question; it +lurked continually in the background of his thoughts, now, as he smoked +and idly ruminated, on his way southward through the fog. + +All the rest of the prolonged trip had been without any specific motive, +so far as he was concerned. The youngsters had planned all its routes +and halts and details of time and connections, and he had gone along, +with cheerful placidity, to look at the things they bade him observe, +and to pay the bills. Perhaps in all things their tastes had not been +his tastes. He would have liked more of Paris, he fancied, and less of +the small Dutch and North German towns which they seemed to fancy +so much. Still, the beer was good--and really their happiness, as a +spectacle, had given him more satisfaction than a thousand miles of +boulevards could have done. + +He liked this niece and nephew of his more than he could ever have +imagined himself liking any young people. They had been shy with him at +the outset--and for the first week his experiment had been darkened by +the belief that, between themselves, they did not deem him quite good +enough. He had been wise enough, then, to have it out with the girl--she +was the one to whom he felt it easiest to talk frankly--and had +discovered, to his immense relief, that they conceived him to be +regarding them as encumbrances. At breakfast next morning, with tactful +geniality, he set everything right, and thereafter they were all +extremely happy together. + +So far as he could judge, they were very superior young people, both +intellectually and spiritually. The girl spoke French, and her brother +German, with what seemed to him remarkable proficiency. Their young +minds were the repositories of an astounding amount of information: +they knew who Charles the Bold was; they pointed out to their uncle the +distinction between Gothic and Romanesque arches; they explained what +was the matter with the Anabaptists; they told him that the story of +the Bishop and the rats at Bingen was a baseless myth, and that probably +there had never been any such man as William Tell. Nor did they get all +this out of the guide-books which they pored over with such zest. It was +impossible not to see that they were familiar with large numbers of the +subjects that these books discussed, and that the itinerary which +they marked out had reference to desires and interests that they had +cultivated for themselves. + +Julia, upon even first sight, made a much pleasanter impression than her +mother's hesitating description had prepared him for. As he came to know +her well, he ceased to remember that there was a question in any mind +as to her being a pretty girl. There was less colour in her face than he +could have wished. Her smooth, pallid skin, almost waxen in texture, had +a suggestion of delicate health which sometimes troubled him a little, +but which appealed to the tenderness in his nature all the time. The +face was unduly thin, perhaps, but this, and the wistful glance of the +large grey eyes in repose, made up an effect that Thorpe found touched +him a good deal. Even when she was in visibly high spirits, the look in +these eyes seemed to him to be laying claim to his protection. She +could be merry upon occasion, in a gentle and tranquil way, and as her +self-confidence expanded under the shelter of their growing intimacy, +she disclosed to her uncle plenty of initiative and individuality--but +what he felt in her most was a peculiarly sweet and girlish +trustfulness, which made him like himself more than he had ever +done before. He could feel that he was at his very best--a hitherto +unsuspected best--when Julia was about. He wanted to buy for her +everything in the windows upon which she bestowed the most casual +approving glance. It was a delight merely to look at her, and to +meditate upon the felicity of being able to do things for so charming a +girl. + +Alfred made a less direct demand upon his uncle's admiration, but he +was a very good fellow all round. He was big and fair and muscular, +and nothing about him but his spectacles seemed in Thorpe's mind to be +related to his choice of art as a profession. That so robust and hearty +a young fellow should wish to put paint on a canvas with small brushes, +was to the uncle an unaccountable thing. It was almost as if he had +wanted to knit, or do embroidery. Of the idleness and impatience of +discipline which his mother had seemed to allege against him, Thorpe +failed to detect any signs. The young man was never very late in the +morning, and, beside his tireless devotion to the task of hunting up old +pictures in out-of-the-way places, did most of the steward's work of +the party with intelligence and precision. He studied the time-tables, +audited the hotel-bills, looked after the luggage, got up the +street-maps of towns and the like, to such good purpose that they never +lost a train, or a bag, or themselves. Truly, an excellent young man. +Thorpe noted with especial satisfaction his fine, kindly big-brother +attitude toward his sister Julia--and it was impossible for him to +avoid the conviction that Louisa was a simpleton not to appreciate such +children. They did not often allude to their mother; when they did, it +was in language the terms of which seemed more affectionate than the +tone--and Thorpe said often to himself that he did not blame them. It +was not so much that they had outgrown their mother's point of view. +They had never occupied it. + +The journey, so far as Thorpe comprehended its character, had been +shaped with about equal regard for Julia's interest in the romance of +history, and Alfred's more technical and practical interest in art. +Each had sufficient sympathy with the tastes of the other, however, to +prevent any tendency to separation. They took their uncle one day to see +where William the Silent was assassinated, and the next to observe how +Rembrandt's theory of guild portrait-painting differed from Van der +Helst's, with a common enthusiasm. He scrutinized with patient loyalty +everything that they indicated to him, and not infrequently they +appeared to like very much the comments he offered. These were chiefly +of a sprightly nature, and when Julia laughed over them he felt that she +was very near to him indeed. + +Thus they saw Paris together--where Thorpe did relinquish some of the +multiplied glories of the Louvre to sit in front of a cafe by the +Opera House and see the funny people go past--and thence, by Bruges and +Antwerp, to Holland, where nobody could have imagined there were as many +pictures as Thorpe saw with his own weary eyes. There were wonderful old +buildings at Lubeck for Julia's eyes to glisten over, and pictures at +Berlin, Dresden, and Dusseldorf for Alfred. + +The assumption existed that the excursion into the Thuringenwald to see +the memorials of Luther was especially for the uncle's benefit, and he +tried solicitously to say or look nothing which might invalidate it. +There were other places in Germany, from Mainz to Munich, which he +remembered best by their different beers. They spent Christmas at +Vienna, where Julia had heard that its observance was peculiarly +insisted upon, and then they saw the Tyrol in its heaviest vesture of +winter snows, and beautiful old Basle, where Alfred was crazier about +Holbein than he had been at Munich over Brouwer. Thorpe looked very +carefully at the paintings of both men, and felt strengthened in his +hopes that when Alfred got a little older he would see that this picture +business was not the thing for a young gentleman with prospects to go +into. + +It was at Basle that Thorpe received a letter from London which directly +altered the plans of the party. He had had several other letters +from London which had produced no such effect. Through Semple, he +had followed in outline the unobtrusive campaign to secure a Special +Settlement, and had learned that the Stock Exchange Committee, +apparently without opposition, had granted one for the first week in +February. + +Even this news, tremendously important as it was, did not prompt Thorpe +to interfere with the children's projects. There was no longer any point +in remaining away from London; there were, indeed, numerous reasons +for a prompt return. But he was loth to deprive the youngsters of that +descent into smiling, sunlit Italy upon which they had so fondly dwelt +in fancy, and after all Semple could do all that was needful to be done +for another month. + +So they went to Basle, and here it was that another kind of letter came. +It was in a strange hand, at once cramped and fluttering, which puzzled +the recipient a good deal; it was a long time before even the signature +unravelled itself. Then he forced himself to decipher it, sentence by +sentence, with a fierce avidity. It was from General Kervick. + +The next morning Thorpe astonished his young companions by suggesting +an alteration in their route. In a roundabout and tentative fashion--in +which more suspicious observers must have detected something +shamefaced--he mentioned that he had always heard a great deal about +Montreux as a winter-resort. The fact that he called it Montroox raised +in Julia's mind a fleeting wonder from whom it could be that he had +heard so much about it, but it occurred to neither her nor her brother +to question his entire good faith. Their uncle had displayed, hitherto, +a most comforting freedom from discrimination among European towns; he +had, indeed, assured them many times that they were all one to him. That +he should suddenly turn up now with a favourite winter-resort of his +own selection surprised them considerably, but, upon reflection, it also +pleased them. He had humoured all their wishes with such unfailing +and bountiful kindness, that it was a delight to learn that there was +something he wanted to do. They could not finish their breakfast till +the guide-book had been brought to the table. + +"Oh! How splendid!" Julia had cried then. "The Castle of Chillon is +there!" + +"Why of course!" said Thorpe, complacently. + +They laughed gayly at him for pretending that he had known this, and he +as good-humouredly accepted their banter. He drew a serious long breath +of relief, however, when their backs were turned. It had gone off much +better than he had feared. + +Now, on this Sunday afternoon, as the train made its sure-footed way +across the mountains, the thought that he was actually to alight at +Montreux at once fascinated and depressed him. He was annoyed with +himself for suffering it to get such a hold upon his mind. What was +there in it, anyway? There was a big hotel there, and he and his +youngsters were to stop at it, and if he accidentally encountered a +certain lady who was also stopping there--and of course the meeting +would bear upon its face the stamp of pure chance--what of it? + +And if he did meet her, thus fortuitously--what would happen then? No +doubt a lady of her social position met abroad great numbers of people +that she had met at home. It would not in any way surprise her--this +chance encounter of which he thought so much. Were there sufficient +grounds for imagining that it would even interest her? He forced his +mind up to this question, as it were, many times, and invariably it +shied and evaded the leap. + +There had been times, at Hadlow House, when Lady Cressage had seemed +supremely indifferent to the fact of his existence, and there had +been other times when it had appeared manifest that he pleased her--or +better, perhaps, that she was willing to take note of how much she +pleased him. It must have been apparent to her--this fact that +she produced such an impression upon him. He reasoned this out +satisfactorily to himself. These beautiful women, trained from +childhood for the conquest of a rich husband, must have cultivated an +extraordinary delicacy of consciousness, in such matters. They must have +developed for themselves what might be called a sixth sense--a power of +feeling in the air what the men about were thinking of them. More than +once he had caught a glimmer of what he felt to be the operation of this +sense, in the company of Lady Cressage. He could not say that it had +been discernible in her glance, or her voice, or her manner, precisely, +but he was sure that he had seen it, somehow. + +But even assuming all this--admitting that in October, on a wet Sunday, +in the tedium of a small country-house party, she had shown some +momentary satisfaction in the idea that he was profoundly impressed by +her--did it at all follow that in February, amid the distractions of a +fashionable winter-resort, and probably surrounded by hosts of friends, +she would pay any attention to him whatever? The abject fear that she +might not even remember him--might not know him from Adam when he stood +before her--skulked about in the labyrinths of his mind, but he drove it +back whenever it showed itself. That would be too ignominious. + +The young people at the other side of the compartment, forever wiping +the window with the napkin, and straining their eyes to see the +invisible, diverted his unsettled attention. A new perception of how +much he liked them and enjoyed having them with him, took hold of his +thoughts. It had not occurred to him before, with any definiteness, that +he would be insupportably lonely when the time came to part with them. + +Now, when he dwelt upon it, it made him feel sad and old. + +He said to himself at once, with decision, that there need be no parting +at all. He would take a house without delay, and they should live with +him. He could not doubt that this would be agreeable to them; it would +solve every problem for him. + +His fancy sketched out the natural and legitimate extensions of this +project. There would be, first of all, a house in town--a furnished +house of a modest sort, having no pretension save to provide a cheerful +temporary shelter for three people who liked one another. Here the +new household would take shape, and get its right note of character. +Apparently Louisa would not be urged to form part of this household. He +said to himself with frankness that he didn't want her, and there had +been nothing to indicate that her children would pine for her. She +showed good sense when she said that her place was in the shop, and +in her ancestral home over the shop. No doubt there would be a certain +awkwardness, visible to others if not to themselves, about her living in +one part of London and her children in another. But here also her good +sense would come on;--and, besides, this furnished house in town would +be a mere brief overture to the real thing--the noble country mansion +he was going to have, with gardens and horses and hounds and artificial +lakes and deer parks and everything. Quite within the year he would be +able to realize this consummation of his dreams. + +How these nice young people would revel in such a place--and how they +would worship him for having given it to them for a home! His heart +warmed within him as he thought of this. He smiled affectionately at the +picture Julia made, polishing the glass with vehement circular movements +of her slight arm, and then grimacing in comic vexation at the deadly +absence of landscape outside. Was there ever a sweeter or more lovable +girl in this world? Would there have to be some older woman to manage +the house, at the beginning? he wondered. He should like it immensely if +that could be avoided. Julia looked fragile and inexperienced--but she +would be twenty-one next month. Surely that was a mature enough age for +the slight responsibility of presiding over servants who should be the +best that money could buy. Many girls were married, and given households +of their own to manage, when they were even younger. + +This reflection raised an obstacle against the smooth-flowing current +of his thoughts. Supposing that Julia got the notion of marrying--how +miserable that would make everything. Very likely she would never do any +such thing; he had observed in her no shadow of a sign that a thought of +matrimony had ever crossed her brain. Yet that was a subject upon which, +of course, she could not be asked to give pledges, even to herself. + +Thorpe tried to take a liberal view of this matter. He argued to himself +that there would be no objection at all to incorporating Julia's husband +into the household, assuming that she went to the length of taking one, +and that he was a good fellow. On this latter point, it was only the +barest justice to Julia's tastes and judgment to take it for granted +that he would be a good fellow. Yet the uncle felt uneasily that +this would alter things for the worse. The family party, with that +hypothetical young man in it, could never be quite so innocently and +completely happy as--for instance--the family party in this compartment +had been during these wonderful three months. + +Mechanically he rubbed the window beside him, and turned to look out +with a certain fixedness--as if he might chance to catch a glimpse of +the bridegroom with whom Julia would have it in her power to disturb +the serenity of their prospective home. A steep white cliff, receding +sullenly against the dim grey skyline; a farmhouse grotesquely low for +its size, crouching under big shelving galleries heaped with snow; +an opening in front, to the right, where vaguely there seemed to be a +valley into which they would descend--he saw these things. They remained +in his mind afterward as a part of something else that he saw, with +his mental vision, at the same moment--a strikingly real and vivid +presentment of Lady Cressage, attired as he had seen her in the saddle, +her light hair blown about a little under her hat, a spot of colour +in the exquisite cheek, the cold, impersonal dignity of a queen in the +beautiful profile. + +The picture was so actual for the instant that he uttered an involuntary +exclamation--and then looked hastily round to see whether his companions +had heard it. Seemingly they had not; he lolled again upon the +comfortless cushion, and strove to conjure up once more the apparition. +Nothing satisfactory came of the effort. Upon consideration, he grew +uncertain as to whether he had seen anything at all. At the most it was +a kind of half-dream which had visited him. He yawned at the thought, +and lighted a fresh cigar. All at once, his mind had become too indolent +to do any more thinking. A shapeless impression that there would be a +good many things to think over later on flitted into his brain and out +again. + +"Well, how are the mountains using you, now?" he called out to his +niece. + +"Oh, I could shake them!" she declared. "Listen to this: 'A view of +singular beauty, embracing the greater part of the Lake of Geneva, and +the surrounding mountains, is suddenly disclosed.' That's where we are +now--or were a minute ago. You can see that there is some sort of valley +in front of us--but that is all. If I could only see one mountain with +snow on it----" + +"Why, it's all mountains and all snow, when you come to that," Thorpe +insisted, with jocose perversity. "You're on mountains yourself, all the +time." + +"You know what I mean," she retorted. "I want to see something like the +coloured pictures in the hotels." + +"Oh, probably it will be bright sunlight tomorrow," he said, for perhaps +the twentieth time that day. + +"There--that looks like water!" said Alfred. "See? just beyond the +village. Yes, it is water. There's your Lake of Geneva, at all events." + +"But it isn't the right colour," protested Julia, peering through the +glass. "It's precisely like everything else: it's of no colour at all. +And they always paint it such a lovely blue! Really, uncle, the Swiss +Government ought to return you your money." + +"You wait till you see it tomorrow--or next day," said the uncle, +vaguely. He closed his eyes, and welcomed a drowsy mood. As he went off +to sleep, the jolting racket of the train mellowed itself into a murmur +of "tomorrow or next day, tomorrow or next day," in his ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +FROM their windows, high up and at the front of the big hotel, Julia +looked down upon the Lake of Geneva. She was in such haste to behold +it that she had not so much as unbuttoned her gloves; she held her +muff still in her hand. After one brief glance, she groaned aloud with +vexation. + +Beyond the roadway, and the deserted miniature pier of Territet, both +dishevelled under melting and mud-stained snow, there lay a patch of +water--motionless, inconspicuous, of a faded drab colour--which at some +small distance out vaguely ceased to look like water and, yet a little +further out, became part and parcel of the dull grey mist. Save for the +forlorn masts of a couple of fishing boats, beached under the shelter +of the pier, there was no proof in sight that this was a lake at all. It +was as uninspiring to the eye as a pool of drippings from umbrellas in a +porch. + +While her uncle and brother occupied themselves with the luggage being +brought up by the porters, she opened a window and stepped out upon +the tiny balcony. A flaring sign on the inner framework of this balcony +besought her in Swiss-French, in the interests of order, not to feed +the birds. The injunction seemed meaningless to her until she perceived, +over by the water, several gulls lazily wheeling about. They were almost +as grey as the fog they circled in. Suddenly they seemed to perceive +her in turn, and, swerving sharply, came floating toward the hotel, with +harsh, almost menacing cries. She hurried in, and shut the window with +decision. It seemed to her that the smile with which, as she turned, she +was able to meet her uncle's look, was a product of true heroism. + +Apparently this smile did not altogether delude him. "Oh, now, you +mustn't get down on your luck," he adjured her. "We're going to be +awfully cozy here. Have you seen your room? It's just there, in a little +alley to the right of the door. They say it has an even finer view +than these windows. Oh, you needn't laugh--this is the best view in the +world, I'm told by those who know. And as a winter-resort, why----" + +"I say, look here!" The interruption came from Alfred, who, having gone +out on one of the balconies, put in his head now to summon them. "Come +here! Here's some fun." + +He pointed out to Thorpe the meaning of the inscription on the sign, and +then pulled him forward to observe its practical defiance. A score of +big gulls were flapping and dodging in excited confusion close before +them, filling their ears with a painful clamour. Every now and again, +one of the birds, recovering its senses in the hurly-burly, would make a +curving swoop downward past the rows of windows below, and triumphantly +catch in its beak something that had been thrown into the air. + +Thorpe, leaning over his railing, saw that a lady on a balcony one floor +below, and some yards to the left, was feeding the birds. She laughed +aloud as she did so, and said something over her shoulder to a companion +who was not visible. + +"Well, that's pretty cool," he remarked to his niece, who had come to +stand beside him. "She's got the same sign down there that we've got. I +can see it from here. Or perhaps she can't read French." + +"Or perhaps she isn't frightened of the hotel people," suggested the +girl. She added, after a little, "I think I'll feed them myself in +the morning. I certainly shall if the sun comes out--as a sort of +Thanksgiving festival, you know." + +Her uncle seemed not to hear her. He had been struck by the exceptional +grace of the gestures with which the pieces of bread were flung forth. +The hands and wrists of this lady were very white and shapely. The +movements which she made with them, all unaware of observation as she +was, and viewed as he viewed them from above, were singularly beautiful +in their unconstraint. It was in its way like watching some remarkable +fine dancing, he thought. He could not see much of her face, from his +perch, but she was tall and fashionably clad. There was a loose covering +of black lace thrown over her head, but once, as she turned, he could +see that her hair was red. Even in this fleeting glimpse, the unusual +tint attracted his attention: there was a brilliancy as of fire in it. +Somehow it seemed to make a claim upon his memory. He continued to stare +down at the stranger with an indefinable sense that he knew something +about her. + +Suddenly another figure appeared upon the balcony--and in a flash he +comprehended everything. These idiotic, fighting gluttons of gulls +had actually pointed out to him the object of his search. It was +Lady Cressage who stood in the doorway, there just below him--and her +companion, the red-haired lady who laughed hotel-rules to scorn, was the +American heiress who had crossed the ocean in his ship, and whom he +had met later on at Hadlow. What was her name--Martin? No--Madden. He +confronted the swift impression that there was something odd about these +two women being together. At Hadlow he had imagined that they did not +like each other. Then he reflected as swiftly that women probably had +their own rules about such matters. He seemed to have heard, or read, +perhaps, that females liked and disliked each other with the most +capricious alternations and on the least tangible of grounds. At all +events, here they were together now. That was quite enough. + +The two ladies had gone in, and closed their window. The sophisticated +birds, with a few ungrateful croaks of remonstrance, had drifted away +again to the water. His niece had disappeared from his elbow. Still +Thorpe remained with his arms folded on the railing, his eyes fixed on +the vacant balcony, below to the left. + +When at last he went inside, the young people were waiting for him with +the project of a stroll before dinner. The light was failing, but there +was plenty of time. They had ascertained the direction in which Chillon +lay; a servant had assured them that it was only a few minutes' walk, +and Alfred was almost certain that he had seen it from the window. + +Thorpe assented with a certain listlessness, which they had never noted +in his manner before, but when Julia begged him not to stir if he were +in the slightest degree tired, he replied honestly enough that he would +do anything rather than be left alone. Then, of course, they said, there +should be no walk, but to this he would not listen. The party trooped +downstairs, accordingly, and out into the street. The walking was vile, +but, as Julia had long ago said, if they were to be deterred by slush +they would never get anywhere or see anything. + +It proved to be too late and too dark to either enter the castle or get +much of an idea of its exterior. Returning, they paused again to look +into the lighted window of the nice little book-shop. The numerous +photographs of what they were entitled to behold from the windows of +their hotel seemed more convincing than photographs usually were. As the +young people inspected them, they became reassured. It was not credible +that such a noble vista would forever deny itself to such earnest +pilgrims. When their uncle introduced this time his ancient formula +about the certainty of brilliant sunshine in the morning, they somehow +felt like believing him. + +"Yes--I really think it must change," Julia declared, with her +fascinated glance upon the photographs. + +Alfred looked at his watch. "We'd better get along to the hotel, hadn't +we?" he suggested. + +"By the way"--Thorpe began, with a certain uneasiness of +manner--"speaking of dinner, wouldn't you like to dine at the big table +d'hote, instead of up in our sitting-room?" + +"If you're tired of our dining alone--by all means," answered Julia, +readily. There was obvious surprise, however, in both her look and tone. + +"Tired nothing!" he assured her. "I like it better than anything else in +the world. But what I mean is--I was thinking, seeing that this is +such a great winter-resort, and all the swagger people of Europe come +here--that probably you youngsters would enjoy seeing the crowd." + +Julia's glance, full of affectionate appreciation, showed how wholly she +divined his spirit of self-sacrifice. "We wouldn't care in the least +for it," she declared. "We enjoy being a little party by ourselves every +whit as much as you do--and we both hate the people you get at table +d'hotes--and besides, for that matter, if there are any real swells +here, you may be sure they dine in their own rooms." + +"Why, of course!" Thorpe exclaimed swiftly, in palpable self-rebuke. "I +don't know what I could have been thinking of. Of course they would dine +in their rooms." + +Next morning, Thorpe rose earlier than ever--with the impression of a +peculiarly restless and uncomfortable night behind him. It was not until +he had shaved and dressed that he noted the altered character of the +air outside. Although it was not fully daylight yet, he could see the +outlines of the trees and vinerows on the big, snow-clad hill, which +monopolized the prospect from his window, all sharp and clear cut, as if +he were looking at them through an opera-glass. He went at once to the +sitting-room, and thrust the curtains aside from one of the windows. + +A miracle had been wrought in the night. The sky overhead was serenely +cloudless; the lake beneath, stirring softly under some faint passing +breeze, revealed its full breadth with crystalline distinctness. Between +sky and water there stretched across the picture a broad, looming, +dimly-defined band of shadow, marked here and there at the top by +little slanting patches of an intensely glowing white. He looked at this +darkling middle distance for a moment or two without comprehension. Then +he turned and hurriedly moved to the door of Julia's room and beat upon +it. + +"Get up!" he called through the panels. "Here's your sunrise--here's +your Alpine view. Go to your window and see it!" + +A clear voice, not unmirthful, replied: "I've been watching it for half +an hour, thanks. Isn't it glorious?" + +He was more fortunate at the opposite door, for Alfred was still +asleep. The young man, upon hearing the news, however, made a toilet of +unexampled brevity, and came breathlessly forth. Thorpe followed him +to the balcony, where he stood collarless and uncombed, with the fresh +morning breeze blowing his hair awry, his lips parted, his eyes staring +with what the uncle felt to be a painful fixedness before him. + +Thorpe had seen many mountains in many lands. They did not interest him +very much. He thought, however, that he could see now why people who +had no mountains of their own should get excited about Switzerland. He +understood a number of these sentimental things now, for that matter, +which had been Greek to him three months before. Unreceptive as his +philistinism may have seemed to these delightful youngsters, it was +apparent enough to him that they had taught him a great deal. If he +could not hope to share their ever-bubbling raptures and enthusiasms, +at least he had come to comprehend them after a fashion, and even to +discern sometimes what it was that stirred them. + +He watched his nephew now--having first assured himself by a +comprehensive downward glance that no other windows of the hotel-front +were open. The young man seemed tremendously moved, far too much so to +talk. Thorpe ventured once some remarks about the Mexican mountains, +which were ever so much bigger, as he remembered them, but Alfred paid +no heed. He continued to gaze across the lake, watching in rapt silence +one facet after another catch the light, and stand out from the murky +gloom, radiantly white, till at last the whole horizon was a mass of +shining minarets and domes, and the sun fell full on his face. Then, +with a long-drawn sigh, he turned, re-entered the room, and threw +himself into a chair. + +"It's too good!" he declared, with a half-groan. "I didn't know it would +be like that." + +"Why nothing's too good for us, man," his uncle told him. + +"THAT is," said the boy, simply, and Thorpe, after staring for a moment, +smiled and rang the bell for breakfast. + +When Julia made her appearance, a few minutes later, the table was +already laid, and the waiter was coming in with the coffee. + +"I thought we'd hurry up breakfast," her uncle explained, after she +had kissed him and thanked him for the sunrise he had so successfully +predicted--"because I knew you'd both be crazy to get out." + +He had not over-estimated their eagerness, which was so great, indeed, +that they failed to note the excessive tranquility of his own demeanour. +He ate with such unusual deliberation, on this exciting morning, that +they found themselves at the end of their repast when, apparently, he +had but made a beginning. + +"Now you mustn't wait for me at all," he announced to them then. "I'm a +little tired this morning--and I think I'd just like to lie around and +smoke, and perhaps read one of your novels. But you two must get your +things on and lose no time in getting out. This is the very best time of +day, you know--for Alpine scenery. I'd hate to have you miss any of it." + +Under his kindly if somewhat strenuous insistence, they went to their +rooms to prepare for an immediate excursion. He was so anxious to have +them see all there was to be seen that, when Julia returned, properly +cloaked and befurred, and stood waiting at the window, he scolded a +little. + +"What on earth is that boy doing?" he exclaimed, with a latent snarl in +his tone which was novel to her ear. "He'll keep you here till noon!" + +"He's shaving, I think. He won't be long," she replied, with great +gentleness. After a moment's pause, she turned from the window and came +gayly forward. + +"Oh, I forgot: I was going to feed the birds. There are several of them +out there now." As she spoke, she busily broke up some of the rolls on +the table. Her face was bright with the pleasure of the thought. + +"If you don't much mind, Julia," her uncle began, with almost pleading +intonations, "I rather think I wouldn't feed those birds. The rule is +there before our eyes, you know--and it's always been my idea that if +you're at a hotel it's the correct thing to abide by its rules. It's +just an idea of mine--and I daresay, if you think about it, you'll feel +the same way." + +The girl freed the last remaining bread-crumb from her gloves. "Why, of +course, uncle," she said, with promptitude. + +Although there was no hint of protest in her tone or manner, he felt +impelled to soften still further this solitary demonstration of his +authority. "You see I've been all round the world, my little girl," he +explained, haltingly, "and when a man's done that, and knocked about +everywhere, he's apt to get finicking and notional about trifles every +once in a while." + +"You're less so than anybody I ever knew," she generously interposed. + +"Oh, no I'm not. You don't know me well enough yet; that's what's the +matter. And you see, Julia--another thing just because you saw that lady +throwing out bread, that aint a very good reason why you should do it. +You don't know what kind of a person she may be. Girls have got to be so +frightfully careful about all that sort of thing." + +Julia offered a constrained little laugh in comment. "Oh, you don't know +how careful I can be," she said. + +"But you're not annoyed?" he entreated her--and for answer she came +behind him, and rested an arm on his shoulder, and patted it. He stroked +her hand with his own. "That's something like the nicest niece in the +world!" he exclaimed, with fervour. + +When at last she and her brother had gone, he made short work of his +breakfast, and drank his coffee at a gulp. A restless activity suddenly +informed his movements. He lit a cigar, and began pacing up and down the +room, biting his lips in preoccupation as he went. After a little, he +opened a window, and ventured cautiously as far out on the balcony +as was necessary to obtain a view of the street below. Eventually, he +identified his nephew and niece among the pedestrians beneath him, and +he kept them in sight till, after more than one tiresome halt at a shop +window, they disappeared round a bend in the road. Then he turned and +came back into the room with the buoyant air of a man whose affairs are +prospering. + +He smiled genially to himself as he gathered from the table in one +capacious hand all the pieces of bread his beloved niece had broken +up, and advanced again to the open window. Waiting here till one of the +dingy gulls moving aimlessly about was headed toward him, he tossed out +a fragment. The bird dashed at it with a scream, and on the instant the +whole squawking flock were on wing. He suffered the hubbub to proceed +unappeased for a little while he kept a watchful though furtive eye +on that balcony to the left, below. Unhappily he could not get out far +enough to see whether the inner curtains of its window were drawn. He +threw another bit of bread, and then looked at his watch. It was a few +minutes past nine. Surely people travelling to see scenery would be up +by this hour. + +The strategy of issuing just enough bread to keep the feathered +concourse in motion commended itself to his mind. As a precautionary +measure, he took all the rolls remaining on the table, and put them in +the drawer of a desk by the window. It even occurred to him to ring for +more bread, but upon consideration that seemed too daring. The waiter +would be sufficiently surprised at the party's appetites as it was. + +Half an hour later, his plan of campaign suddenly yielded a victory. +Lady Cressage appeared on her balcony, clad in some charming sort of +morning gown, and bareheaded. She had nothing in her hands, and seemed +indifferent to the birds, but when Thorpe flung forth a handful of +fragments into the centre of their whirling flock, she looked up at him. +It was the anxious instant, and he ventured upon what he hoped was a +decorous compromise between a bow and a look of recognition. + +She was in no haste to answer either. He could see rather than hear +that she said something to her invisible companion within, the while she +glanced serenely in the general direction of his balcony. It seemed to +him that the answer to her remark, whatever it was, must have exerted +a direct influence upon his destiny, for Lady Cressage all at once +focussed her vague regard upon him, and nodded with a reasonably +gracious smile. + +"It's wonderful luck to find you here," he called down to her. Having +played their part, he wished now that the birds were at Jericho. Their +obstreperous racket made conversation very difficult. Apparently she +made him an answer, but he could catch nothing of it. + +"I'm here with my niece and nephew," he shouted down. "I don't hear what +you say. May I come down and pay my respects--later on? What is your +number, and when may I come?" + +These questions, as he flashed them in review through his mind, seemed +to be all right from the most exacting social point of view. Doubtless +it was equally all right that, before replying, she should consult her +companion, as she did at some length. Then she replied--and he had no +difficulty now in hearing her above the birds--that it would be +very nice of him to come, say, in an hour's time. She told him the +number--and then almost abruptly went in. + +Thorpe, during this hour that ensued, smoked with volcanic energy. He +tried to interest himself in one after another of half a dozen Tauchnitz +novels his niece carried about, with a preposterous absence of success. +He strove to arrange in some kind of sequence the things that he should +say, when this momentous interview should begin, but he could think of +nothing which did not sound silly. It would be all right, he argued to +himself in the face of this present mental barrenness; he always talked +well enough on the spur of the moment, when the time came--and still was +not reassured. + +He wondered if both ladies would be there to receive him, and +decided that they would probably regard that as indispensable to the +proprieties. In that case, their conversation would necessarily be of +the most casual and general character. He would tell them a good deal +about his niece, he foresaw. A man travelling about with a niece--and +such a delightfully lady-like and engaging little niece--would take on +some added interest and dignity, he perceived, in the eyes of ladies +travelling alone. He essayed to estimate just how much they would +probably like Julia. Of course he would say nothing about her mother and +the book-shop; a vague allusion to a widowed sister would be ample on +that head. But there could be confident references to Cheltenham; he +knew from what Julia had said that it suggested the most satisfactory +social guarantees, if taken strictly by itself. And then so much would +depend upon Julia herself! If she succeeded in striking up a friendship +with them--ah, then everything would be all right. Perhaps they would +take a fancy to Alfred too! He was a boy, of course, but conceivably the +fact that he wanted to paint, and knew about pictures, would appeal to +them. He seemed to have heard somewhere that artists were the very devil +among women. + +At last the weary time of waiting had worn itself out, somehow, and, +after a final polishing before his glass, he went down, and found his +right corridor, and knocked at the door. A pleasant voice bade him +enter, and, hat and gloves in hand, he went in. + +As he had imagined, both ladies were present. He had not been prepared, +however, for the fact that it was the American who played the part of +hostess. It was she who received him, and invited him to sit down, and +generally made him free of the apartment. When he shook hands with Lady +Cressage, there was somehow an effect of the incidental in the ceremony, +as if she were also a guest. + +Nothing could have been simpler or more pleasing than the little visit +turned out to be. Miss Madden had suddenly grown tired of the snowless +and dripping English winter, and had as promptly decided to come to +Switzerland, where the drifts ought to be high enough, and the frosts +searching enough, in all conscience. They had selected Territet, because +it was familiar to her, and because it was on the way to Martigny and +Brieg, and she had had a notion of crossing either the Simplon or the +St. Bernard in winter. As she found now, the St. Bernard was quite +impracticable, but admittedly a post road was kept open over the +Simplon. It was said now that she would not be allowed to proceed by +this, but it often happened that she did the things that she was not +allowed to do. The hotel-people at both Brieg and Berisal had written +refusing to let their horses attempt the Simplon journey, and they were +of course quite within their rights, but there were other horses in +Switzerland. One surely could buy horses--and so on. + +Thorpe also had his turn at autobiography. He told rather whimsically +of his three months' experiences at the tail of the juvenile whirligigs, +and his auditors listened to them with mild smiles. He ventured upon +numerous glowing parentheses about Julia, and they at least did not say +that they did not want to know her. They heard with politeness, too, +what he could contrive to drag in about his artist-nephew, and said it +must be very pleasant for him to have such nice company. At least Miss +Madden said this: her companion, as he thought it over afterward, seemed +hardly to have said anything at all. She answered the few remarks which +he found it possible to direct to her, but the responses took no hold +upon his memory. He fancied that she was bored, or unhappy, or both. + +Finally, in the midst of commonplaces which, to his apprehension, were +verging upon flatness, a bold inspiration disclosed itself--as +splendid as the Dent du Midi revealing its glaciers above the mounting +sunrise--in his brain. + +"We should all be charmed if you would come up and dine with us +tonight," he said, under the abrupt impulsion of this idea. "It's been +such an age since we wanderers have had the privilege of company at our +table!" + +The felicity of these phrases from his lips attracted his admiring +attention, even while he waited in suspense for an answer to them. + +The ladies exchanged a look. "Yes," said Miss Madden, after the +slightest of pauses, "we shall be very happy." + +Shortly thereafter Thorpe took his leave, and went downstairs and out. +He wandered about till luncheon time, observing the mountains across the +lake from various standpoints, and, as it were, with new eyes. He was +interested in them in a curious new fashion; they seemed to say things +to him. His lip curled once at the conceit that he was one of the Alps +himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +IT did not happen until three days later that Thorpe's opportunity to +speak alone with Lady Cressage came. + +In this brief period, the two parties seemed to have become fused in a +remarkable intimacy. This was clearly due to the presence of the young +people, and Thorpe congratulated himself many times each day upon the +striking prescience he had shown in bringing them. + +Both the ladies unaffectedly liked Julia; so much so that they seemed +unwilling to make any plans which did not include her. Then it was only +a matter of course that where she went her brother should go--and a +further logical step quite naturally brought in their willing uncle. If +he had planned everything, and now was ordering everything, it could not +have gone more to his liking. + +Certain side speculations lent a savour to the satisfaction with which +he viewed this state of affairs. He found many little signs to confirm +the suspicion that the two ladies had been the readier to make much of +Julia because they were not overkeen about each other's society. The +bright, sweet-natured girl had come as a welcome diversion to a couple +who in seclusion did battle with tendencies to yawn. He was not quite +convinced, for that matter, that the American lady always went to that +trouble. She seemed to his observation a wilful sort of person, who +would not be restrained by small ordinary considerations from doing the +things she wanted to do. Her relations with her companion afforded him +food for much thought. Without any overt demonstrations, she produced +the effect of ordering Lady Cressage about. This, so far as it went, +tended to prejudice him against her. On the other hand, however, she was +so good to Julia, in a peculiarly frank and buoyant way which fascinated +the girl, that he could not but like her. And she was very good to +Alfred too. + +There was, indeed, he perceived, a great deal of individuality about the +friendship which had sprung up between Miss Madden and his nephew. She +was years his senior--he settled it with himself that the American could +not be less than seven-and-twenty,--yet Alfred stole covert glances of +admiration at her, and seemed to think of nothing but opportunities for +being in her company as if--as if--Thorpe hardly liked to complete the +comparison in his own thoughts. Alfred, of course, said it was all on +account of her wonderful hair; he rather went out of his way to +dilate upon the enthusiasm her "colour scheme"--whatever that might +mean--excited in him as an artist. The uncle had moments of profound +skepticism about this--moments when he uneasily wondered whether it was +not going to be his duty to speak to the young man. For the most part, +however, he extracted reassurance from Miss Madden's demeanour toward +the lad. She knew, it seemed, a vast deal about pictures; at least she +was able to talk a vast deal about them, and she did it in such a calmly +dogmatic fashion, laying down the law always, that she put Alfred in the +position of listening as a pupil might listen to a master. The humility +with which his nephew accepted this position annoyed Thorpe upon +occasion, but he reasoned that it was a fault on the right side. Very +likely it would help to keep the fact of the lady's seniority more +clearly before the youngster's mind, and that would be so much gained. + +And these apprehensions, after all, were scarcely to be counted in the +balance against the sense of achieved happiness with which these halcyon +days kept Thorpe filled. The initiatory dinner had gone off perfectly. +He could have wished, indeed, that Julia had a smarter frock, and more +rings, when he saw the imposing costumes and jewelled throats and hands +of his guests--but she was a young girl, by comparison, he reflected, +and there could be no doubt that they found her charming. As for Alfred, +he was notably fine-looking in his evening-clothes--infinitely more like +the son of a nobleman, the gratified uncle kept saying to himself, +than that big dullard, the Honourable Balder. It filled him with a new +pleasure to remember that Alfred had visiting cards presenting his name +as D'Aubigny, which everybody of education knew was what the degenerate +Dabney really stood for. The lad and his sister had united upon this +excellent change long ago at Cheltenham, and oddly enough they had +confessed it to their uncle, at the beginning of the trip, with a show +of trepidation, as if they feared his anger. With radiant gayety he +had relieved their minds by showing them his card, with "Mr. Stormont +Thorpe" alone upon it. At the dinner table, in the proudest moment +of his life, he had made himself prouder still by thinking how +distinguished an appearance his and Alfred's cards would make together +in the apartment below next day. + +But next day, the relations between the two parties had already become +too informal for cards. Julia went down to see them; they came up to see +Julia. Then they all went for a long walk, with luncheon at Vevey, and +before evening Alfred was talking confidently of painting Miss Madden. +Next day they went by train to St. Maurice, and, returning after dark, +dined without ceremony together. This third day--the weather still +remaining bright--they had ascended by the funicular road to Glion, and +walked on among the swarming luegers, up to Caux. Here, after luncheon, +they had wandered about for a time, regarding the panorama of lake and +mountains. Now, as the homeward descent began, chance led the two young +people and Miss Madden on ahead. + +Thorpe found himself walking beside Lady Cressage. He had upon his arm +her outer wrap, which she said she would put on presently. To look at +the view he must glance past her face: the profile, under the graceful +fur cap, was so enriched by glowing colour that it was, to his thought, +as if she were blushing. + +"How little I thought, a few months ago," he said, "that we should be +mountaineering together!" + +"Oh, no one knows a day ahead," she responded, vaguely. "I had probably +less notion of coming to Switzerland then than you had." + +"Then you don't come regularly?" + +"I have never seen either Germany or Switzerland before. I have scarcely +been out of England before." + +"Why now"--he paused, to think briefly upon his words--"I took it for +granted you were showing Miss Madden around." + +"It 's quite the other way about," she answered, with a cold little +laugh. "It is she who is showing me around. It is her tour. I am the +chaperone." Thorpe dwelt upon the word in his mind. He understood what +it meant only in a way, but he was luminously clear as to the bitterness +of the tone in which it had been uttered. + +"No--it didn't seem as if it were altogether--what I might call--YOUR +tour," he ventured. They had seen much of each other these past few +days, but it was still hard for him to make sure whether their freedom +of intercourse had been enlarged. + +The slight shrug of the shoulders with which, in silence, she commented +upon his remark, embarrassed him. For a moment he said nothing. He went +on then with a renewed consciousness of risk. + +"You mustn't be annoyed with me," he urged. "I've been travelling with +that dear little niece of mine and her brother, so long, that I've +got into a habit of watching to notice if the faces I see round me are +happy. And when they're not, then I have a kind of fatherly notion of +interfering, and seeing what's wrong." + +She smiled faintly at this, but when he added, upon doubtful +inspiration--"By the way, speaking of fathers, I didn't know at Hadlow +that you were the daughter of one of my Directors"--this smile froze +upon the instant. + +"The Dent du Midi is more impressive from the hotel, don't you think?" +she remarked, "than it is from here." + +Upon consideration, he resolved to go forward. "I have taken a great +interest in General Kervick," he said, almost defiantly. "I am seeing to +it that he has a comfortable income--an income suitable to a gentleman +of his position--for the rest of his life." + +"He will be very glad of it," she remarked. + +"But I hoped that you would be glad of it too," he told her, bluntly. A +curious sense of reliance upon his superiority in years had come to him. +If he could make his air elderly and paternal enough, it seemed likely +that she would defer to it. "I'm talking to you as I would to my niece, +you know," he added, plausibly. + +She turned her head to make a fleeting survey of his face, as if the +point of view took her by surprise. "I don't understand," she said. "You +are providing an income for my father, because you wish to speak to me +like an uncle. Is that it?" + +He laughed, somewhat disconsolately. "No--that isn't it," he said, and +laughed again. "I couldn't tell, you know, that you wouldn't want to +talk about your father." "Why, there's no reason in the world for not +talking of him," she made haste to declare. "And if he's got something +good in the City, I'm sure I'm as glad as anyone. He is the sort that +ought always to have a good deal of money. I mean, it will bring out his +more amiable qualities. He does not shine much in adversity--any more +than I do." + +Thorpe felt keenly that there were fine things to be said here--but he +had confidence in nothing that came to his tongue. "I've been a poor man +all my life--till now," was his eventual remark. + +"Please don't tell me that you have been very happy in your poverty," +she adjured him, with the dim flicker of a returning smile. "Very likely +there are people who are so constituted, but they are not my kind. I +don't want to hear them tell about it. To me poverty is the horror--the +unmentionable horror!" + +"There never was a day that I didn't feel THAT!" Thorpe put fervour into +his voice. "I was never reconciled to it for a minute. I never ceased +swearing to myself that I'd pull myself out of it. And that's what +makes me sort of soft-hearted now toward those--toward those who haven't +pulled themselves out of it." + +"Your niece says you are soft-hearted beyond example," remarked Lady +Cressage. + +"Who could help being, to such a sweet little girl as she is?" demanded +the uncle, fondly. + +"She is very nice," said the other. "If one may say such a thing, I +fancy these three months with her have had an appreciable effect upon +you. I'm sure I note a difference." + +"That's just what I've been saying to myself!" he told her. He was +visibly delighted with this corroboration. "I've been alone practically +all my life. I had no friends to speak of--I had no fit company--I +hadn't anything but the determination to climb out of the hole. Well, +I've done that--and I've got among the kind of people that I naturally +like. But then there came the question of whether they would like me. I +tell you frankly, that was what was worrying the heart out of me when I +first met you. I like to be confessing it to you now--but you frightened +me within an inch of my life. Well now, you see, I'm not scared of you +at all. And of course it's because Julia's been putting me through a +course of sprouts." + +The figure was lost upon Lady Cressage, but the spirit of the remarks +seemed not unpleasant to her. "I'm sure you're full of kindness," +she said. "You must forget that I snapped at you--about papa." "All I +remember about that is," he began, his eye lighting up with the thought +that this time the opportunity should not pass unimproved, "that you +said he didn't shine much in adversity---any more than you did. Now on +that last point I disagree with you, straight. There wouldn't be any +place in which you wouldn't shine." + +"Is that the way one talks to one's niece?" she asked him, almost +listlessly. "Such flattery must surely be bad for the young." Her words +were sprightly enough, but her face had clouded over. She had no heart +for the banter. + +"Ah"--he half-groaned. "I only wish I knew what was the right way to +talk to you. The real thing is that I see you're unhappy--and that gets +on my nerve--and I should like to ask you if there wasn't something +I could do--and ask it in such a way that you'd have to admit there +was--and I don't know enough to do it." + +He had a wan smile for thanks. "But of course there is nothing," she +replied, gently. + +"Oh, there must be!" he insisted. He had no longer any clear notions as +to where his tongue might not lead him. "There must be! You said I might +talk to you as I would to Julia." + +"Did I?" + +"Well, I'm going to, anyway," he went on stoutly, ignoring the note of +definite dissent in her interruption. "You ARE unhappy! You spoke about +being a chaperone. Well now, to speak plainly, if it isn't entirely +pleasant for you with Miss Madden--why wouldn't you be a chaperone for +Julia? I must be going to London very soon--but she can stay here, or go +to Egypt, or wherever she likes--and of course you would do everything, +and have everything--whatever you liked, too." + +"The conversation is getting upon rather impossible grounds, I'm +afraid," she said, and then bit her lips together. Halting, she frowned +a little in the effort of considering her further words, but there was +nothing severe in the glance which she lifted to him as she began +to speak. "Let us walk on. I must tell you that you misconceive the +situation entirely. Nobody could possibly be kinder or more considerate +than Miss Madden. Of course she is American--or rather Irish-American, +and I'm English, and our notions and ways are not always alike. But +that has nothing to do with it. And it is not so much that she has +many thousands a year, and I only a few hundreds. That in itself would +signify nothing--and if I must take help from somebody I would rather +take it from Celia Madden than anybody else I know--but this is the +point, Mr. Thorpe. I do not eat the bread of dependence gracefully. I +pull wry faces over it, and I don't try very much to disguise them. That +is my fault. Yes--oh yes, I know it is a fault--but I am as I am. And +if Miss Madden doesn't mind--why"--she concluded with a mirthless, +uncertain laugh--"why on earth should you?" + +"Ah, why should I?" he echoed, reflectively. "I should like desperately +to tell you why. Sometime I will tell you." + +They walked on in silence for a brief space. Then she put out her hand +for her wrap, and as she paused, he spread it over her shoulders. + +"I am amazed to think what we have been saying to each other," she said, +buttoning the fur as they moved on again. "I am vexed with myself." + +"And more still with me," he suggested. + +"No-o--but I ought to be. You've made me talk the most shocking +rubbish." + +"There we disagree again, you know. Everything you've said's been +perfect. What you're thinking of now is that I'm not an old enough +friend to have been allowed to hear it. But if I'm not as old a friend +as some, I wish I could make you feel that I'm as solid a friend as +any--as solid and as staunch and as true. I wish I could hear you say +you believed that." + +"But you talk of 'friends,'" she said, in a tone not at all +responsive--"what is meant by 'friends'? We've chanced to meet +twice--and once we barely exchanged civilities, and this time we've been +hotel acquaintances--hardly more, is it?--and you and your young people +have been very polite to me--and I in a silly moment have talked to +you more about my affairs than I should--I suppose it was because you +mentioned my father. But 'friends' is rather a big word for that, isn't +it?" + +Thorpe pouted for a dubious moment. "I can think of a bigger word +still," he said, daringly. "It's been on the tip of my tongue more than +once." + +She quickened her pace. The air had grown perceptibly colder. The +distant mountains, visible ever and again through the bare branches, +were of a dark and cheerless blue, and sharply defined against the sky. +It was not yet the sunset hour, and there were no mists, but the light +of day seemed to be going out of the heavens. He hurried on beside her +in depressed silence. + +Their companions were hidden from view in a convolution of the winding +road, but they were so near that their voices could be heard as they +talked. Frequently the sound of laughter came backward from them. + +"They're jolly enough down there," he commented at last, moodily. + +"That's a good reason for our joining them, isn't it?" Her tone was at +once casual and pointed. + +"But I don't want to join them!" he protested. "Why don't you stay with +me--and talk?" "But you bully me so," she offered in explanation. + +The phrase caught his attention. Could it be that it expressed her +real feeling? She had said, he recalled, that he had made her talk. Her +complaint was like an admission that he could overpower her will. If +that were true--then he had resources of masterfulness still in reserve +sufficient to win any victory. + +"No--not bully you," he said slowly, as if objecting to the word rather +than the idea. "That wouldn't be possible to me. But you don't know me +well enough to understand me. I am the kind of man who gets the things +he wants. Let me tell you something: When I was at Hadlow, I had never +shot a pheasant in my life. I used to do tolerably well with a rifle, +but I hardly knew anything about a shot-gun, and I don't suppose I'd +ever killed more than two or three birds on the wing--and that was ages +ago. But I took the notion that I would shoot better than anybody else +there. I made up my mind to it--and I simply did it, that's all. I don't +know if you remember--but I killed a good deal more than both the others +put together. I give you that as an example. I wanted you to think that +I was a crack shot--and so I made myself be a crack shot." + +"That is very interesting," she murmured. They did not seem to be +walking quite so fast. + +"Don't think I want to brag about myself," he went on. "I don't fancy +myself--in that way. I'm not specially proud of doing things--it's the +things themselves that I care for. If some men had made a great fortune, +they would be conceited about it. Well, I'm not. What I'm keen about is +the way to use that fortune so that I will get the most out of it--the +most happiness, I mean. The thing to do is to make up your mind +carefully what it is that you want, and to put all your power and +resolution into getting it--and the rest is easy enough. I don't think +there's anything beyond a strong man's reach, if he only believes enough +in himself." + +"But aren't you confusing two things?" she queried. The subject +apparently interested her. "To win one's objects by sheer personal force +is one thing. To merely secure them because one's purse is longer than +other people's--that's quite another matter." + +He smiled grimly at her. "Well, I'll combine the two," he said. + +"Then I suppose you will be altogether irresistible," she said, lightly. +"There will be no pheasants left for other people at all." + +"I don't mind being chaffed," he told her, with gravity. "So long as +you're good-natured, you can make game of me all you like. But I'm in +earnest, all the same. I'm not going to play the fool with my money and +my power. I have great projects. Sometime I'll tell you about them. They +will all be put through--every one of them. And you wouldn't object to +talking them over with me--would you?" + +"My opinion on 'projects' is of no earthly value--to myself or anyone +else." + +"But still you'd give me your advice if I asked it?" he persisted. +"Especially if it was a project in which you were concerned?" + +After a moment's constrained silence she said to him, "You must have +no projects, Mr. Thorpe, in which I am concerned. This talk is all very +wide of the mark. You are not entitled to speak as if I were mixed up +with your affairs. There is nothing whatever to warrant it." + +"But how can you help being in my projects if I put you there, and keep +you there?" he asked her, with gleeful boldness. "And just ask yourself +whether you do really want to help it. Why should you? You've seen +enough of me to know that I can be a good friend. And I'm the kind of +friend who amounts to something--who can and will do things for those he +likes. What obligation are you under to turn away that kind of a friend, +when he offers himself to you? Put that question plainly to yourself." + +"But you are not in a position to nominate the questions that I am to +put to myself," she said. The effort to import decision into her tone +and manner was apparent. "That is what I desire you to understand. We +must not talk any more about me. I am not the topic of conversation." + +"But first let me finish what I wanted to say," he insisted. "My talk +won't break any bones. You'd be wrong not to listen to it--because +it's meant to help you--to be of use to you. This is the thing, Lady +Cressage: You're in a particularly hard and unpleasant position. Like my +friend Plowden"--he watched her face narrowly but in vain, in the dull +light, for any change at mention of the name--"like my friend Plowden +you have a position and title to keep up, and next to nothing to keep +it up on. But he can go down into the City and make money--or try to. He +can accept Directorships and tips about the market and so on, from men +who are disposed to be good to him, and who see how he can be of use to +them--and in that way he can do something for himself. But there is the +difference: you can't do these things, or you think you can't, which +is the same thing. You're all fenced in; you're surrounded by +notice-boards, telling you that you mustn't walk this way or look that +way; that you mustn't say this thing or do the other. Now your +friend down ahead there--Miss Madden--she doesn't take much stock +in notice-boards. In fact, she feeds the gulls, simply because she's +forbidden to do it. But you--you don't feed any gulls, and yet you're +annoyed with yourself that you don't. Isn't that the case? Haven't I +read you right?" + +She seemed to have submitted to his choice of a topic. There was no +touch of expostulation in the voice with which she answered him. "I see +what you think you mean," she said. + +"Think!" he responded, with self-confident emphasis. "I'm not +'thinking.' I'm reading an open book. As I say, you're not +contented--you're not happy; you don't try to pretend that you are. +But all the same, though you hate it, you accept it. You think that you +really must obey your notice-boards. Now what I tell you you ought to do +is to take a different view. Why should you put up all this barbed +wire between yourself and your friends? It doesn't do anybody else any +good--and it does you harm. Why, for example, should Plowden be free to +take things from me, and you not?" + +She glanced at him, with a cold half-smile in her eye. "Unfortunately I +was not asked to join your Board." + +He pressed his lips tightly together, and regarded her meditatively as +he turned these words over in his mind. "What I'm doing for Plowden," +he said with slow vagueness meanwhile, "it isn't so much because he's on +the Board. He's of no special use to me there. But he was nice to me at +a time when that meant everything in the world to me--and I don't forget +things of that sort. Besides, I like him--and it pleases me to let him +in for a share of my good fortune. See? It's my way of enjoying myself. +Well now, I like you too, and why shouldn't I be allowed to let you in +also for a share of that good fortune? You think there's a difference, +but I tell you it's imaginary--pure moonshine. Why, the very people +whose opinion you're afraid of--what did they do themselves when the +South African craze was on? I'm told that the scum of the earth had +only to own some Chartered shares, and pretend to be 'in the know' about +them--and they could dine with as many duchesses as they liked. I knew +one or two of the men who were in that deal--I wouldn't have them in my +house--but it seems there wasn't any other house they couldn't go to in +London." + +"Oh yes, there were many houses," she interposed. "It wasn't a nice +exhibition that society made of itself--one admits that,--but it was +only one set that quite lost their heads. There are all kinds of sets, +you know. And--I don't think I see your application, in any event. The +craze, as you call it, was all on a business basis. People ran after +those who could tell them which shares were going up, and they gambled +in those shares. That was all, wasn't it?" + +Still looking intently at her, he dismissed her query with a little +shake of the head. "'On a business basis,'" he repeated, as if talking +to himself. "They like to have things 'on a business basis.'" + +He halted, with a hand held out over her arm, and she paused as well, +in a reluctant, tentative way. "I don't understand you," she remarked, +blankly. + +"Let me put it in this way," he began, knitting his brows, and +marshalling the thoughts and phrases with which his mind had been busy. +"This is the question. You were saying that you weren't asked to join my +Board. You explained in that way how I could do things for Plowden, +and couldn't do them for you. Oh, I know it was a joke--but it had its +meaning--at least to me. Now I want to ask you--if I decide to form +another Company, a very small and particular Company--if I should decide +to form it, I say--could I come to you and ask you to join THAT Board? +Of course I could ask--but what I mean is--well, I guess you know what I +mean." + +The metaphor had seemed to him a most ingenious and satisfactory vehicle +for his purpose, and it had broken down under him amid evidences of +confusion which he could not account for. All at once his sense of +physical ascendancy had melted away--disappeared. He looked at Lady +Cressage for an instant, and knew there was something shuffling and +nerveless in the way his glance then shifted to the dim mountain chain +beyond. His heart fluttered surprisingly inside his breast, during the +silence which ensued. + +"Surely you must have said everything now that you wished to say," she +observed at last. She had been studying intently the trodden snow at her +feet, and did not even now look up. The constraint of her manner, and a +certain pleading hesitation in her words, began at once to restore his +self-command. "Do not talk of it any further, I beg of you," she went +on. "We--we have been lagging behind unconscionably. If you wish to +please me, let us hurry forward now. And please!--no more talk at all!" + +"But just a word--you're not angry?" + +She shook her head very slightly. + +"And you do know that I'm your friend--your solid, twenty-four-carat +friend?" + +After a moment's pause, she made answer, almost in a whisper--"Yes--be +my friend--if it amuses you,"--and led the way with precipitate steps +down the winding road. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +TWO days later, Thorpe and his young people took an early morning train +for Geneva--homeward bound. + +It was entirely easy to accept their uncle's declaration that urgent +business summoned him to London, yet Julia and Alfred, when they chanced +to exchange glances after the announcement, read in each other's eyes +the formless impression that there were other things beside business. +Their uncle, they realized, must be concerned in large and probably +venturesome enterprises; but it did not fit with their conception of his +character that commercial anxieties should possess the power to upset +him. And upset he undeniably was. + +They traced his disturbance, in a general way, to the morning following +the excursion up to Glion and Caux. He told them then that he had slept +very badly, and that they must "count him out" of their plans for the +day. He continued to be counted out of what remained of their stay +at Territet. He professed not to be ill, but he was restless and +preoccupied. He ate little, but smoked continuously, and drank spirits +a good deal, which they had not seen him do before. Nothing would induce +him to go out either day. + +Strangely enough, this disturbance of their uncle's equanimity +synchronized with an apparent change in the attitude of their new +friends on the floor below. This change was, indeed, more apparent +than definable. The ladies were, to the nicest scrutiny, as kindly and +affable as ever, but the sense of comradeship had somehow vanished. +Insensibly, the two parties had ceased to have impulses and tastes in +common. There were no more trips together--no more fortuitous luncheons +or formal dinners as a group. + +The young people looked up at the front of the big hotel on this +morning of departure, after they had clambered over the drifts into the +snow-bedecked train, and opened the window of their compartment. They +made sure that they could identify the windows of Miss Madden's suite, +and that the curtains were drawn aside--but there was no other token +of occupancy discernible. They had said good-bye to the two ladies the +previous evening, of course--it lingered in their minds as a rather +perfunctory ceremony--but this had not prevented their hoping for +another farewell glimpse of their friends. No one came to wave a hand +from the balcony, however, and the youngsters looked somewhat dubiously +at each other as the train moved. Then intuitively they glanced toward +their uncle--and perceived that he had his hat pulled over his eyes, and +was staring with a kind of moody scowl at the lake opposite. + +"Fortunately, it is a clear day," said Julia. "We shall see Mont Blanc." + +Her voice seemed to have a hollow and unnatural sound in her own ears. +Neither her uncle nor her brother answered her. + + +At breakfast, meanwhile, in the apartment toward which the young people +had turned their farewell gaze in vain, Miss Madden sipped her coffee +thoughtfully while she read a letter spread upon the table beside her. + +"It's as they said," she observed. "You are not allowed to drive in the +mountains with your own horses and carriage. That seems rather quaint +for a model Republic--doesn't it?" + +"I daresay they're quite right," Lady Cressage replied, listlessly. +"It's in the interest of safety. People who do not know the mountains +would simply go and get killed in avalanches and hurricanes--and all +that. I suppose that is what the Government wishes to prevent." + +"And you're on the side of the Government," said the other, with a +twinkle in her brown eyes. "Truly now--you hated the whole idea of +driving over the Simplon." + +Lady Cressage lifted her brows in whimsical assent as she nodded. + +"But do you like this Russian plan any better?" demanded Celia. "I wish +for once you would be absolutely candid and open with me--and let me +know to the uttermost just what you think." "'For once'?" queried the +other. Her tone was placid enough, but she allowed the significance of +the quotation to be marked. + +"Oh, I never wholly know what you're thinking," Miss Madden declared. +She put on a smile to alleviate the force of her remarks. "It is not +you alone--Edith. Don't think that! But it is ingrained in your +country-women. You can't help it. It's in your blood to keep things +back. I've met numbers of English ladies who, I'm ready to believe, +would be incapable of telling an untruth. But I've never met one of whom +I could be sure that she would tell me the whole truth. Don't you see +this case in point," she pursued, with a little laugh, "I could not drag +it out of you that you disliked the Simplon idea, so long as there was +a chance of our going. Immediately we find that we can't go, you admit +that you hated it." + +"But you wanted to go," objected Lady Cressage, quietly. "That was the +important thing. What I wanted or did not want had nothing to do with +the matter." + +Celia's face clouded momentarily. "Those are not the kind of things I +like to hear you say," she exclaimed, with a certain vigour. "They put +everything in quite a false light. I am every whit as anxious that you +should be pleased as that I should. You know that well enough. I've said +it a thousand times--and have I ever done anything to disprove it? But +I never can find out what you do want--what really will please you! You +never will propose anything; you never will be entirely frank about the +things I propose. It's only by watching you out of the corner of my eye +that I can ever guess whether anything is altogether to your liking or +not." + +The discussion seemed to be following lines familiar to them both. "That +is only another way of saying what you discovered long ago," said +Lady Cressage, passively--"that I am deficient in the enthusiasms. But +originally you were of the opinion that you had enthusiasms enough for +two, and that my lack of them would redress the balance, so to speak. +I thought it was a very logical opinion then, and, from my own point of +view, I think so now. But if it does not work in practice, at least the +responsibility of defending it is not mine." + +"Delightful!" cried Celia, smiling gayly as she put down her cup again. +"You are the only woman I've ever known who was worth arguing with. +The mere operation makes me feel as if I were going through Oxford--or +passing the final Jesuit examinations. Heaven knows, I would get up +arguments with you every day, for the pure enjoyment of the thing--if +I weren't eternally afraid of saying something that would hurt your +feelings, and then you wouldn't tell me, but would nurse the wound in +silence in the dark, and I should know that something was wrong, and +have to watch you for weeks to make out what it was--and it would all +be too unhappy. But it comes back, you see, to what I said before. You +don't tell me things!" + +Edith smiled in turn, affectionately enough, but with a wistful reserve. +"It is a constitutional defect--even national, according to you. How +shall I hope to change, at this late day? But what is it you want me to +tell you?--I forget." + +"The Russian thing. To go to Vienna, where we get our passports, and +then to Cracow, and through to Kief, which they say is awfully well +worth while--and next Moscow--and so on to St. Petersburg, in time +to see the ice break up. It is only in winter that you see the +characteristic Russia: that one has always heard. With the furs and the +sledges, and the three horses galloping over the snow--it seems to me it +must be the best thing in Europe--if you can call Russia Europe. +That's the way it presents itself to me--but then I was brought up in +a half-Arctic climate, and I love that sort of thing--in its proper +season. It is different with you. In England you don't know what a real +winter is. And so I have to make quite sure that you think you would +like the Russian experiment." + +The other laughed gently. "But if I don't know what a real winter is, +how can I tell whether I will like it or not? All I do know is that I am +perfectly willing to go and find out. Oh yes--truly--I should like very +much to go." + +Miss Madden sighed briefly. "All right," she said, but with a notable +absence of conviction in her tone. + +A space of silence ensued, as she opened and glanced through another +note, the envelope of which had borne no postmark. She pouted her lips +over the contents of this missive, and raised her eyebrows in token of +surprise, but as she laid it down she looked with a frank smile at her +companion. + +"It's from our young friend," she explained, genially--"the +painter-boy--Mr. D'Aubigny. It is to remind me of a promise he says I +made--that when I came to London he should paint my portrait. I don't +think I promised anything of the kind--but I suppose that is a detail. +It's all my unfortunate hair. They must have gone by this time--they +were to go very early, weren't they?" + +Lady Cressage glanced at the clock. "It was 8:40, I think--fully half an +hour ago," she answered, with a painstaking effect of indifference. + +"Curious conglomeration"--mused the other. "The boy and girl are so +civilized, and their uncle is so rudimentary. I'm afraid they are +spoiling him just as the missionaries spoil the noble savage. They +ought to go away and leave him alone. As a barbarian he was rather +effective--but they will whitewash him and gild him and make a tame +monstrosity of him. But I suppose it's inevitable. Having made his +fortune, it is the rule that he must set up as a gentleman. We do it +more simply in America. One generation makes the fortune, and leaves +it to the next generation to put on the frills. My father, for example, +never altered in the slightest degree the habits he formed when he was a +poor workman. To the day of his death, blessed old man, he remained what +he had always been--simple, pious, modest, hard-working, kindly, and +thrifty--a model peasant. Nothing ever tempted him a hair's-breadth out +of the path he had been bred to walk in. But such nobility of mind and +temper with it all! He never dreamed of suggesting that I should walk +in the same path. From my earliest childhood I cannot remember his ever +putting a limitation upon me that wasn't entirely sensible and generous. +I must have been an extremely trying daughter, but he never said so; +he never looked or acted as if he thought so.--But I never stop when I +begin talking of my father." + +"It's always very sweet to me to hear you talk of him," Lady Cressage +put in. "One knows so few people who feel that way about their fathers!" + +Celia nodded gravely, as if in benevolent comment upon something that +had been left unsaid. The sight of the young artist's note recalled her +earlier subject. "Of course there is a certain difference," she went +on, carelessly,--"this Mr. Thorpe is not at all a peasant, as the phrase +goes. He strikes one, sometimes, as having been educated." + +"Oh, he was at a public school, Lord Plowden tells me," said the other, +with interest. "And his people were booksellers--somewhere in London--so +that he got a good smattering of literature and all that. He certainly +has more right to set up as a gentleman than nine out of ten of the +nouveaux riches one sees flaunting about nowadays. And he can talk very +well indeed--in a direct, practical sort of way. I don't quite follow +you about his niece and nephew spoiling him. Of course one can see that +they have had a great effect upon him. He sees it himself--and he's very +proud of it. He told me so, quite frankly. But why shouldn't it be a +nice effect?" + +"Oh, I don't know," Celia replied, idly. "It seemed to me that he was +the kind of piratical buccaneer who oughtn't to be shaved and polished +and taught drawing-room tricks--I feel that merely in the interest +of the fitness of things. Have you looked into his eyes--I mean when +they've got that lack-lustre expression? You can see a hundred thousand +dead men in them." + +"I know the look you mean," said Lady Cressage, in a low voice. + +"Not that I assume he is going to kill anybody," pursued Miss Madden, +with ostensible indifference, but fixing a glance of aroused attention +upon her companion's face, "or that he has any criminal intentions +whatever. He behaves very civilly indeed, and apparently his niece and +nephew idolize him. He seems to be the soul of kindness to them. It may +be that I'm altogether wrong about him--only I know I had the instinct +of alarm when I caught that sort of dull glaze in his eye. I met an +African explorer a year ago, or so, about whose expeditions dark stories +were told, and he had precisely that kind of eye. Perhaps it was this +that put it into my head--but I have a feeling that this Thorpe is an +exceptional sort of man, who would have the capacity in him for terrible +things, if the necessity arose for them." + +"I see what you mean," the other repeated. She toyed with the +bread-crumbs about her plate, and reflectively watched their +manipulation into squares and triangles as she went on. "But may that +not be merely the visible sign of an exceptionally strong and masterful +character? And isn't it, after all, the result of circumstances whether +such a character makes, as you put it, a hundred thousand dead men, or +enriches a hundred thousand lives instead? We agree, let us say, that +this Mr. Thorpe impresses us both as a powerful sort of personality. The +question arises, How will he use his power? On that point, we look +for evidence. You see a dull glaze in his eye, and you draw hostile +conclusions from it. I reply that it may mean no more than that he is +sleepy. But, on the other hand, I bring proofs that are actively in +his favour. He is, as you say, idolized by the only two members of his +family that we have seen--persons, moreover, who have been brought up +in ways different to his own, and who would not start, therefore, with +prejudices in his favour. Beyond that, I know of two cases in which +he has behaved, or rather undertaken to behave, with really lavish +generosity--and in neither case was there any claim upon him of a +substantial nature. He seems to me, in fact, quite too much disposed +to share his fortune with Tom, Dick, and Harry--anybody who excites +his sympathy or gets into his affections." Having said this much, Lady +Cressage swept the crumbs aside and looked up. "So now," she added, with +a flushed smile, "since you love arguments so much, how do you answer +that?" + +Celia smiled back. "Oh, I don't answer it at all," she said, and her +voice carried a kind of quizzical implication. "Your proofs overwhelm +me. I know nothing of him--and you know so much!" + +Lady Cressage regarded her companion with a novel earnestness and +directness of gaze. "I had a long, long talk with him--the afternoon we +came down from Glion." + +Miss Madden rose, and going to the mantel lighted a cigarette. She +did not return to the table, but after a brief pause came and took an +easy-chair beside her friend, who turned to face her. "My dear Edith," +she said, with gravity, "I think you want to tell me about that +talk--and so I beg you to do so. But if I'm mistaken--why then I beg you +to do nothing of the kind." + +The other threw out her hands with a gesture of wearied impatience, and +then clasped them upon her knee. "I seem not to know what I want! What +is the good of talking about it? What is the good of anything?" + +"Now--now!" Celia's assumption of a monitor's tone had reference, +apparently, to something understood between the two, for Lady Cressage +deferred to it, and even summoned the ghost of a smile. + +"There is really nothing to tell,"--she faltered, hesitatingly--"that +is, nothing happened. I don't know how to say it--the talk left my mind +in a whirl. I couldn't tell you why. It was no particular thing that was +said--it seemed to be more the things that I thought of while something +else was being talked about--but the whole experience made a most +tremendous impression upon me. I've tried to straighten it out in my own +mind, but I can make nothing of it. That is what disturbs me, Celia. No +man has ever confused me in this silly fashion before. Nothing could be +more idiotic. I'm supposed to hold my own in conversation with people +of--well, with people of a certain intellectual rank,--but this man, who +is of hardly any intellectual rank at all, and who rambled on without +any special aim that one could see--he reduced my brain to a sort of +porridge. I said the most extraordinary things to him--babbling rubbish +which a school-girl would be ashamed of. How is that to be accounted +for? I try to reason it out, but I can't. Can you?" + +"Nerves," said Miss Madden, judicially. + +"Oh, that is meaningless," the other declared. "Anybody can say +'nerves.' Of course, all human thought and action is 'nerves.'" + +"But yours is a special case of nerves," Celia pursued, with gentle +imperturbability. "I think I can make my meaning clear to you--though +the parallel isn't precisely an elegant one. The finest thoroughbred +dog in the world, if it is beaten viciously and cowed in its youth, will +always have a latent taint of nervousness, apprehension, timidity--call +it what you like. Well, it seems to me there's something like that in +your case, Edith. They hurt you too cruelly, poor girl. I won't say +it broke your nerve--but it made a flaw in it. Just as a soldier's old +wound aches when there's a storm in the air--so your old hurt distracts +and upsets you under certain psychological conditions. It's a rather +clumsy explanation, but I think it does explain." + +"Perhaps--I don't know," Edith replied, in a tone of melancholy reverie. +"It makes a very poor creature out of me, whatever it is." + +"I rather lose patience, Edith," her companion admonished her, gravely. +"Nobody has a right to be so deficient in courage as you allow yourself +to be." + +"But I'm not a coward," the other protested. "I could be as brave as +anybody--as brave as you are--if a chance were given me. But of what use +is bravery against a wall twenty feet high? I can't get over it. I only +wound and cripple myself by trying to tear it down, or break through +it.--Oh yes, I know what you say! You say there is no wall--that it is +all an illusion of mine. But unfortunately I'm unable to take that view. +I've battered myself against it too long--too sorely, Celia!" + +Celia shrugged her shoulders in comment. "Oh, we women all have our +walls--our limitations--if it comes to that," she said, with a kind +of compassionate impatience in her tone. "We are all ridiculous +together--from the point of view of human liberty. The free woman is a +fraud--a myth. She is as empty an abstraction as the 'Liberty, Equality, +Fraternity' that the French put on their public buildings. I used to +have the most wonderful visions of what independence would mean. I +thought that when I was absolutely my own master, with my money and my +courage and my free mind, I would do things to astonish all mankind. But +really the most I achieve is the occasional mild surprise of a +German waiter. Even that palls on one after a time. And if you were +independent, Edith--if you had any amount of money--what difference do +you think it would make to you? What could you do that you don't do, or +couldn't do, now?" + +"Ah, now"--said the other, looking up with a thin smile--"now is an +interval--an oasis." + +Miss Madden's large, handsome, clear-hued face, habitually serene in its +expression, lost something in composure as she regarded her companion. +"I don't know why you should say that," she observed, gently enough, but +with an effect of reproof in her tone. "I have never put limits to the +connection, in my own mind--and it hadn't occurred to me that you were +doing so in yours." + +"But I'm not," interposed Lady Cressage. + +"Then I understand you less than ever. Why do you talk about an +'interval'? What was the other word?--'oasis'--as if this were a brief +halt for refreshments and a breathing-spell, and that presently you must +wander forth into the desert again. That suggestion is none of mine. We +agreed that we would live together--'pool our issues,' as they say in +America. I wanted a companion; so did you. I have never for an instant +regretted the arrangement. Some of my own shortcomings in the matter I +have regretted. You were the most beautiful young woman I had ever seen, +and you were talented, and you seemed to like me--and I promised myself +that I would add cheerfulness and a gay spirit to your other gifts--and +in that I have failed wofully. You're not happy. I see that only too +clearly." + +"I know--I'm a weariness and a bore to you," broke in the other, +despondingly. + +"That is precisely what you're not," Celia went on. "We mustn't use +words of that sort. They don't describe anything in our life at all. But +I should be better pleased with myself if I could really put my finger +on what it is that is worrying you. Even if we decided to break up our +establishment, I have told you that you should not go back to what you +regard as poverty. Upon that score, I had hoped that your mind was easy. +As I say, I think you attach more importance to money than those who +have tested its powers would agree to--but that's neither here nor +there. You did not get on well on 600 pounds a year--and that is enough. +You shall never have less than twice that amount, whether we keep +together or not--and if it ought to be three times the amount, that +doesn't matter. + +"You don't seem to realize, Edith"--she spoke with increased +animation--"that you are my caprice. You are the possession that I am +proudest of and fondest of. There is nothing else that appeals to me a +hundredth part as much as you do. Since I became independent, the one +real satisfaction I have had is in being able to do things for you--to +have you with me, and make you share in the best that the world can +offer. And if with it all you remain unhappy, why then you see I don't +know what to do." + +"Oh, I know--I behave very badly!" Lady Cressage had risen, and with +visible agitation began now to pace the room. "I deserve to be thrown +into the lake--I know it well enough! But Celia--truly--I'm as incapable +of understanding it as you are. It must be that I am possessed by +devils--like the people in the New Testament. Perhaps someone will come +along who can cast them out. I don't seem able to do it myself. I can't +rule myself at all. It needs a strength I haven't got!" + +"Ah!" said Celia, thoughtfully. The excited sentences which Edith threw +over her shoulder as she walked appeared, upon examination, to contain a +suggestion. + +"My dear child," she asked abruptly, after a moment's silence, "do you +want to marry?" + +Lady Cressage paused at the mantel, and exchanged a long steadfast +glance with her friend. Then she came slowly forward. "Ah, that is what +I don't know," she answered. Apparently the reply was candid. + +Miss Madden pursed her lips, and frowned a little in thought. Then, at +some passing reflection, she smiled in a puzzled fashion. At last she +also rose, and went to the mantel for another cigarette. "Now I am +going to talk plainly," she said, with decision. "Since the subject is +mentioned, less harm will be done by speaking out than by keeping still. +There is a debate in your mind on the matter, isn't there?" + +The other lady, tall, slender, gently ruminative once more, stood at the +window and with bowed head looked down at the lake. "Yes--I suppose it +might be called that," she replied, in a low voice. + +"And you hesitate to tell me about it? You would rather not?" Celia, +after an instant's pause, went on without waiting for an answer. "I beg +that you won't assume my hostility to the idea, Edith. In fact, I'm not +sure I don't think it would be the best thing for you to do. Marriage, +a home, children--these are great things to a woman. We can say that she +pays the price of bondage for them--but to know what that signifies, we +must ask what her freedom has been worth to her." + +"Yes," interposed the other, from the window. "What have I done with my +freedom that has been worth while?" + +"Not much," murmured Celia, under her breath. She moved forward, and +stood beside Edith, with an arm round her waist. They looked together at +the lake. + +"It is Lord Plowden, is it not?" asked the American, as the silence grew +constrained. + +Lady Cressage looked up alertly, and then hesitated over her reply. +"No," she said at last. Upon reflection, and with a dim smile flickering +in her side-long glance at Celia, she added, "He wants to marry you, you +know." + +"Leave that out of consideration," said Celia, composedly. "He has never +said so. I think it was more his mother's idea than his, if it existed +at all. Of course I am not marrying him, or anybody else. But I saw at +Hadlow that you and he were--what shall I say?--old friends." + +"He must marry money," the other replied. In an unexpected burst of +candour she went on: "He would have asked me to marry him if I had +had money. There is no harm in telling you that. It was quite +understood--oh, two years ago. And I think I wished I had the +money--then." + +"And you don't wish it now?" + +A slight shake of Edith's small, shapely head served for answer. After +a little, she spoke in a musing tone: "He is going to have money of his +own, very soon, but I don't think it would attract me now. I like him +personally, of course, but--there is no career, no ambition, no future." + +"A Viscount has future enough behind him," observed Celia. + +"It doesn't attract me," the other repeated, vaguely. "He is handsome, +and clever, and kind and all that--but he would never appeal to any of +the great emotions--nor be capable of them himself He is too smooth, too +well-balanced, too much the gentleman. That expresses it badly--but do +you see what I mean?" + +Celia turned, and studied the beautiful profile beside her, in a steady, +comprehending look. + +"Yes, I think I see what you mean," she said, with significance in her +tone. + +Lady Cressage flushed, and released herself from her companion's arm. +"But I don't know myself what I mean!" she exclaimed, despairingly, as +she moved away. "I don't know!--I don't know!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +ON the last day of February, Mrs. Dabney was surprised if not +exhilarated by a visit from her two children in the little book-shop. + +"It's the last day in the world that I should have thought you'd 'a' +come out on," she told them, in salutation--and for comment they all +glanced along the dark narrow alley of shelves to the street window. A +gloomy spectacle it was indeed, with a cold rain slanting through the +discredited remnants of a fog, which the east wind had broken up, but +could not drive away, and with only now and again a passer-by moving +across the dim vista, masked beneath an umbrella, or bent forward with +chin buried in turned-up collar. In the doorway outside the sulky boy +stamped his feet and slapped his sides with his arms in pantomimic +mutiny against the task of guarding the book-stalls' dripping covers, +which nobody would be mad enough to pause over, much less to lift. + +"I don't know but I'd ought to let the boy bring in the books and go +home," she said, as their vague gaze was attracted by his gestures. "But +it isn't three yet--it seems ridiculous to close up. Still, if you'd be +more comfortable upstairs--" + +"Why, mamma! The idea of making strangers of us," protested Julia. +She strove to make her tone cheerful, but its effect of rebuke was +unmistakable. + +The mother, leaning against the tall desk, looked blankly at her +daughter. The pallid flicker of the gas-jet overhead made her long, +listless face seem more devoid of colour than ever. + +"But you are as good as strangers, aren't you?" she observed, coldly. +"You've been back in town ten days and more, and I've scarcely laid eyes +upon either of you. But don't you want to sit down? You can put those +parcels on the floor anywhere. Or shall I do it for you?" + +Alfred had been lounging in the shadowed corner against a heap of old +magazines tied in bundles. He sprang up now and cleared the chair, but +his sister declined it with a gesture. Her small figure had straightened +itself into a kind of haughty rigidity. + +"There has been so much to do, mamma," she explained, in a clear, cool +voice. "We have had hundreds of things to buy and to arrange about. All +the responsibility for the housekeeping rests upon me--and Alfred +has his studio to do. But of course we should have looked in upon you +sooner--and much oftener--if we had thought you wanted us. But really, +when we came to you, the very day after our return, it was impossible +for us to pretend that you were glad to see us." + +"Oh, I was glad enough," Mrs. Dabney made answer, mechanically. "Why +shouldn't I be glad? And why should you think I wasn't glad? Did you +expect me to shout and dance?" + +"But you said you wouldn't come to see us in Ovington Square," Alfred +reminded her. + +"That's different," she declared. "What would I be doing in Ovington +Square? It's all right for you to be there. I hope you'll be happy +there. But it wouldn't add anything to your happiness to have me there; +it would be quite the other way about. I know that, if you DON'T. This +is my place, here, and I intend to stick to it!" + +Julia's bright eyes, scanning the apathetic, stubborn maternal +countenance, hardened beyond their wont. "You talk as if there had been +some class war declared," she said, with obvious annoyance. "You know +that Uncle Stormont would like nothing better than to be as nice to you +as he is to us." + +"Uncle Stormont!" Mrs. Dabney's repetition of the words was surcharged +with hostile sarcasm. "But his name was Stormont as much as it was Joel," +broke in Alfred, from his dark corner. "He has a perfect right to use +the one he likes best." + +"Oh, I don't dispute his right," she replied, once more in her +passionless monotone. "Everybody can call themselves whatever they +please. It's no affair of mine. You and your sister spell your father's +name in a way to suit yourselves: I never interfered, did I? You have +your own ideas and your own tastes. They are quite beyond me--but +they're all right for you. I don't criticize them at all. What I say is +that it is a great mercy your uncle came along, with his pockets full +of money to enable you to make the most of them. If I were religious I +should call that providential." + +"And that's what we DO call it," put in Julia, with vivacity. "And why +should you shut your doors against this Providence, mamma? Just think of +it! We don't insist upon your coming to live at Ovington Square at all. +Probably, as you say, you would be happier by yourself--at least for +the present. But when Uncle St--when uncle says there's more than enough +money for us all, and is only too anxious for you to let him do things +for you--why, he's your own brother! It's as if I should refuse to allow +Alfred to do things for me." + +"That you never did," interposed the young man, gayly. "I'll say that +for you, Jule." + +"And never will," she assured him, with cheerful decision. "But +no--mamma--can't you see what we mean? We have done what you wanted us +to do. You sent us both to much better schools than you could afford, +from the time we were of no age at all--and when uncle's money came you +sent us to Cheltenham. We did you no discredit. We worked very well; we +behaved ourselves properly. We came back to you at last with fair reason +to suppose that you would be--I won't say proud, but at least well +satisfied with us--and then it turned out that you didn't like us at +all." + +"I never said anything of the sort," the mother declared, with a touch +of animation. + +"Oh no--you never said it," Julia admitted, "but what else can we think +you mean? Our uncle sends for us to go abroad with him, and you busy +yourself getting me ready, and having new frocks made and all that--and +I never hear a suggestion that you don't want me to go----" + +"But I did want you to go," Mrs. Dabney affirmed. + +"Well, then, when I come back--when we come back, and tell you what +splendid and generous plans uncle has made for us, and how he has taken +a beautiful furnished house and made it our home, and so on,--why, you +won't even come and look at the house!" + +"But I don't want to see it," the mother retorted; obstinately. + +"Well, then, you needn't!" said Alfred, rising. "Nobody will ask you +again." "Oh yes they will," urged Julia, glancing meaningly from one +to the other. All her life, as it seemed, she had been accustomed to +mediate between these two unpliable and stubborn temperaments. From her +earliest childhood she had understood, somehow, that there was a Dabney +habit of mind, which was by comparison soft and if not yielding, then +politic: and set over against it there was a Thorpe temper full of +gnarled and twisted hardnesses, and tenacious as death. In the days +of her grandfather Thorpe, whom she remembered with an alarmed +distinctness, there had existed a kind of tacit idea that his name alone +accounted for and justified the most persistent and stormy bad temper. +That old man with the scowling brows bullied everybody, suspected +everybody, apparently disliked everybody, vehemently demanded his own +will of everybody--and it was all to be explained, seemingly, by the +fact that he was a Thorpe. + +After his disappearance from the scene--unlamented, to the best of +Julia's juvenile perceptions--there had been relatively peaceful times +in the book-shop and the home overhead, yet there had existed always a +recognized line of demarcation running through the household. Julia and +her father--a small, hollow-chested, round-shouldered young man, with a +pale, anxious face and ingratiating manner, who had entered the shop as +an assistant, and remained as a son-in-law, and was now the thinnest of +unsubstantial memories--Julia and this father had stood upon one side +of this impalpable line as Dabneys, otherwise as meek and tractable +persons, who would not expect to have their own way. + +Alfred and his mother were Thorpes--that is to say, people who +necessarily had their own way. Their domination was stained by none +of the excesses which had rendered the grandfather intolerable. Their +surface temper was in truth almost sluggishly pacific. Underneath, +however, ugly currents and sharp rocks were well known to have a +potential existence--and it was the mission of the Dabneys to see that +no wind of provocation unduly stirred these depths. Worse even than +these possibilities of violence, however, so far as every-day life was +concerned, was the strain of obstinacy which belonged to the Thorpe +temper. A sort of passive mulishness it was, impervious to argument, +immovable under the most sympathetic pressure, which particularly tried +the Dabney patience. It seemed to Julia now, as she interposed her +soothing influence between these jarring forces, that she had spent +whole years of her life in personal interventions of this sort. + +"Oh yes they will," she repeated, and warned her brother into the +background with a gesture half-pleading half-peremptory. "We are your +children, and we're not bad or undutiful children at all, and I'm sure +that when you think it all over, mamma, you'll see that it would be +absurd to let anything come between you and us." + +"How could I help letting it come?" demanded the mother, listlessly +argumentative. "You had outgrown me and my ways altogether. It was +nonsense to suppose that you would have been satisfied to come back and +live here again, over the shop. I couldn't think for the life of me what +I was going to do with you. But now your uncle has taken all that into +his own hands. He can give you the kind of home that goes with your +education and your ideas--and what more do you want? Why should you come +bothering me?" + +"How unjust you are, mamma!" cried Julia, with a glaze of tears upon her +bright glance. + +The widow took her elbow from the desk, and, slowly straightening +herself, looked down upon her daughter. Her long plain face, habitually +grave in expression, conveyed no hint of exceptional emotion, but the +fingers of the large, capable hands she clasped before her writhed +restlessly against one another, and there was a husky-threat of collapse +in her voice as she spoke: + +"If you ever have children of your own," she said, "and you slave your +life out to bring them up so that they'll think themselves your +betters, and they act accordingly--then you'll understand. But you don't +understand now--and there's no good our talking any more about it. Come +in whenever it's convenient--and you feel like it. I must go back to my +books now." + +She took up a pen at this, and opened the cash-book upon the blotter. +Her children, surveying her blankly, found speech difficult. With some +murmured words, after a little pause, they bestowed a perfunctory kiss +upon her unresponsive cheek, and filed out into the rain. + +Mrs. Dabney watched them put up their umbrella, and move off Strandward +beneath it. She continued to look for a long time, in an aimless, +ruminating way, at the dismal prospect revealed by the window and the +glass of the door. The premature night was closing in miserably, with +increasing rain, and a doleful whistle of rising wind round the corner. +At last she shut up the unconsidered cash-book, lighted another gas-jet, +and striding to the door, rapped sharply on the glass. + +"Bring everything in!" she called to the boy, and helped out his +apprehension by a comprehensive gesture. + +Later, when he had completed his task, and one of the two narrow outlets +from the shop in front was satisfactorily blocked with the wares from +without, and all the floor about reeked with the grimy drippings of the +oilskins, Mrs. Dabney summoned him to the desk in the rear. + +"I think you may go home now," she said to him, with the laconic +abruptness to which he was so well accustomed. "You have a home, haven't +you?" + +Remembering the exhaustive enquiries which the Mission people had made +about him and his belongings, as a preliminary to his getting this job, +he could not but be surprised at the mistress's question. In confusion +he nodded assent, and jerked his finger toward his cap. + +"Got a mother?" she pursued. Again he nodded, with augmented confidence. + +"And do you think yourself better than she is?" + +The urchin's dirty and unpleasant face screwed itself up in anxious +perplexity over this strange query. Then it cleared as he thought he +grasped the idea, and the rat-eyes he lifted to her gleamed with the +fell acuteness of the Dials. "I sh'd be sorry if I wasn't," he answered, +in swift, rasping accents. "She's a rare old boozer, she is! It's a +fair curse to an honest boy like me, to 'ave--" "Go home!" she bade him, +peremptorily--and frowned after him as he ducked and scuttled from the +shop. + +Left to herself, Mrs. Dabney did not reopen the cash-book--the wretched +day, indeed, had been practically a blank in its history--but loitered +about in the waning light among the shelves near the desk, altering the +position of books here and there, and glancing cursorily through others. +Once or twice she went to the door and looked out upon the rain-soaked +street. A tradesman's assistant, opposite, was rolling the iron shutters +down for the night. If business in hats was over for the day, how much +more so in books! Her shop had never been fitted with shutters--for what +reason she could not guess. The opened pages of numerous volumes were +displayed close against the window, but no one had ever broken a pane +to get at them. Apparently literature raised no desires in the criminal +breast. To close the shop there was nothing to do but lock and bolt the +door and turn out the lights. At last, as the conviction of nightfall +forced itself upon her from the drenched darkness outside, she bent +to put her hand to the key. Then, with a little start of surprise, +she stood erect. Someone was shutting an umbrella in the doorway, +preparatory to entering the shop. + +It was her brother, splashed and wet to the knees, but with a glowing +face, who pushed his way in, and confronted her with a broad grin. There +was such a masterful air about him, that when he jovially threw an arm +round her gaunt waist, and gathered her up against his moist shoulder, +she surprised herself by a half-laughing submission. + +Her vocabulary was not rich in phrases for this kind of emergency. "Do +mind what you're about!" she told him, flushing not unpleasurably. + +"Shut up the place!" he answered, with lordly geniality. "I've walked +all the way from the City in the rain. I wanted the exertion--I couldn't +have sat in a cab. Come back and build up the fire, and let's have a +talk. God! What things I've got to tell you!" + +"There isn't any fire down here," she said, apologetically, as they +edged their way through the restricted alley to the rear. "The old +fireplace took up too much room. Sometimes, in very sharp weather, I +have an oil-stove in. Usually the gas warms it enough. You don't find +it too cold--do you?--with your coat on? Or would you rather come +upstairs?" + +"Never mind the cold," he replied, throwing a leg over the stool before +the desk. "I can't stay more 'n a minute or two. What do you think we've +done today?" + +Louisa had never in her life seen her brother look so well as he did +now, sprawling triumphantly upon the stool under the yellow gas-light. +His strong, heavily-featured face had somehow ceased to be commonplace. +It had acquired an individual distinction of its own. He looked up at +her with a clear, bold eye, in which, despite its gloss of good-humour, +she discerned a new authority. + +The nervous and apprehensive lines had somehow vanished from the +countenance, and with them, oddly enough, that lethargic, heavy +expression which had been their complement. He was all vigour, +readiness, confidence, now. She deemed him almost handsome, this +curious, changeable brother of hers, as he beat with his fist in a +measured way upon the desk-top to emphasize his words, and fastened his +commanding gaze upon her. + +"We took very nearly twenty thousand pounds to-day," he went on. "This +is the twenty-eighth of February. A fortnight ago today was the first +settlement. I wasn't here, but Semple was--and the working of it is all +in his hands. He kept as still as a mouse that first day. They had to +deliver to us 26,000 shares, and they hadn't got one, but we didn't make +any fuss. The point was, you see, not to let them dream that they were +caught in a trap. We didn't even put the price up to par. They had to +come to Semple, and say there didn't seem to be any shares obtainable +just at the moment, and what would he carry them over at? That means, +to let them postpone delivery for another fortnight. He was as smooth +as sweet-oil with them, and agreed to carry them over till today without +any charge at all. But today it was a little different. The price was up +ten shillings above par. That is to say, Semple arranged with a jobber, +on the quiet, d'ye see? to offer thirty shillings for our one-pound +shares. That offer fixed the making-up price. So then, when they were +still without shares to-day, and had to be carried over again, they had +to pay ten shillings' difference on each of twenty-six thousand shares, +plus the difference between par and the prices they'd sold at. That +makes within a few hundreds of 20,000 pounds in cash, for one day's +haul. D'ye see?" + +She nodded at him, expressively. Through previous talks she had really +obtained an insight into the operation, and it interested her more than +she would have cared to confess. + +"Well, then, we put that 20,000 pounds in our pockets," he proceeded +with a steady glow in his eyes. "A fortnight hence, that is March 14th, +we ring the bell on them again, and they march up to the captain's +office and settle a second time. Now what happens on the 14th? A jobber +makes the price for Semple again, and that settles the new sum they have +to pay us in differences. It is for us to say what that price shall be. +We'll decide on that when the time comes. We most probably will just put +it up another ten shillings, and so take in just a simple 13,000 pounds. +It's best in the long run, I suppose, to go slow, with small rises like +that, in order not to frighten anybody. So Semple says, at any rate." + +"But why not frighten them?" Louisa asked. "I thought you wanted to +frighten them. You were full of that idea a while ago." + +He smiled genially. "I've learned some new wrinkles since then. We'll +frighten 'em stiff enough, before we're through with them. But at the +start we just go easy. If they got word that there was a 'corner,' there +would be a dead scare among the jobbers. They'd be afraid to sell or +name a price for Rubber Consols unless they had the shares in hand. And +there are other ways in which that would be a nuisance. Presently, of +course, we shall liberate some few shares, so that there may be some +actual dealings. Probably a certain number of the 5,000 which went to +the general public will come into the market too. But of course you see +that all such shares will simply go through one operation before they +come back to us. Some one of the fourteen men we are squeezing will +snap them up and bring them straight to Semple, to get free from the +fortnightly tax we are levying on them. In that way we shall eventually +let out say half of these fourteen 'shorts,' or perhaps more than half." + +"What do you want to do that for?" The sister's grey eyes had caught a +metallic gleam, as if from the talk about gold. "Why let anybody out? +Why can't you go on taking their money for ever?" + +Thorpe nodded complacently. "Yes--that's what I asked too. It seemed to +me the most natural thing, when you'd got 'em in the vise, to keep them +there. But when you come to reflect--you can't get more out of a man +than there is in him. If you press him too hard, he can always go +bankrupt--and then he's out of your reach altogether, and you lose +everything that you counted on making out of him. So, after a certain +point, each one of the fourteen men whom we're squeezing must be dealt +with on a different footing. We shall have to watch them all, and study +their resources, as tipsters watch horses in the paddock. + +"You see, some of them can stand a loss of a hundred thousand pounds +better than others could lose ten thousand. All that we have to know. We +can take it as a principle that none of them will go bankrupt and lose +his place on the exchange unless he is pressed tight to the wall. Well, +our business is to learn how far each fellow is from the wall to start +with. Then we keep track of him, one turn of the screw after another, +till we see he's got just enough left to buy himself out. Then we'll let +him out. See?" + +"It's cruel, isn't it?" she commented, calmly meditative, after a little +pause. + +"Everything in the City is cruel," he assured her with a light tone. +"All speculative business is cruel. Take our case, for example. I +estimate in a rough way that these fourteen men will have to pay over +to us, in differences and in final sales, say seven hundred thousand +pounds--maybe eight hundred. Well, now, not one of those fellows ever +earned a single sovereign of that money. They've taken the whole of +it from others, and these others took it from others still, and so on +almost indefinitely. There isn't a sovereign of it that hasn't been +through twenty hands, or fifty for that matter, since the last man who +had done some honest work for it parted company with it. Well--money +like that belongs to those who are in possession of it, only so long +as they are strong enough to hold on to it. When someone stronger still +comes along, he takes it away from them. They don't complain: they don't +cry and say it's cruel. They know it's the rule of the game. They accept +it--and begin at once looking out for a new set of fools and weaklings +to recoup themselves on. That's the way the City goes." + +Thorpe had concluded his philosophical remarks with ruminative slowness. +As he lapsed into silence now, he fell to studying his own hands on +the desk-top before him. He stretched out the fingers, curved them +in different degrees, then closed them tight and turned the bulky +hard-looking fists round for inspection in varying aspects. + +"That's the kind of hand," he began again, thoughtfully, "that breaks +the Jew in the long run, if there's only grit enough behind it. I used +to watch those Jews' hands, a year ago, when I was dining and wining +them. They're all thin and wiry and full of veins. Their fingers +are never still; they twist round and keep stirring like a lobster's +feelers. But there aint any real strength in 'em. They get hold of most +of the things that are going, because they're eternally on the move. +It's their hellish industry and activity that gives them such a pull, +and makes most people afraid of them. But when a hand like that takes +them by the throat"--he held up his right hand as he spoke, with the +thick uncouth fingers and massive thumb arched menacingly in a powerful +muscular tension--"when THAT tightens round their neck, and they feel +that the grip means business--my God! what good are they?" + +He laughed contemptuously, and slapped the relaxed palm on the desk with +a noise which made his sister start. Apparently the diversion recalled +something to her mind. + +"There was a man in here asking about you today," she remarked, in a +casual fashion. "Said he was an old friend of yours." + +"Oh, yes, everybody's my 'old friend' now," he observed with beaming +indifference. "I'm already getting heaps of invitations to dinners and +dances and all that. One fellow insisted on booking me for Easter +for some salmon fishing he's got way down in Cumberland. I told him I +couldn't come, but he put my name down all the same. Says his wife will +write to remind me. Damn his wife! Semple tells me that when our squeeze +really begins and they realize the desperate kind of trap they're in, +they'll simply shower attentions of that sort on me. He says the +social pressure they can command, for a game of this kind, is something +tremendous. But I'm not to be taken in by it for a single pennyworth, +d'ye see? I dine with nobody! I fish and shoot and go yachting with +nobody! Julia and Alfred and our own home in Ovington Square--that'll +be good enough for me. By the way--you haven't been out to see us yet. +We're all settled now. You must come at once--why not with me, now?" + +Louisa paid no heed to this suggestion. She had been rummaging among +some loose papers on the top of the desk, and she stepped round now to +lift the lid and search about for something inside. + +"He left a card for you," she said, as she groped among the desk's +contents. "I don't know what I did with it. He wrote something on it." + +"Oh, damn him, and his card too," Thorpe protested easily. "I don't want +to see either of them." + +"He said he knew you in Mexico. He said you'd had dealings together. He +seemed to act as if you'd want to see him--but I didn't know. I didn't +tell him your address." + +Thorpe had listened to these apathetic sentences without much interest, +but the sum of their message appeared suddenly to catch his attention. +He sat upright, and after a moment's frowning brown study, looked +sharply up at his sister. + +"What was his name?" he asked with abruptness. + +"I don't in the least remember," she made answer, holding the desk-top +up, but temporarily suspending her search. "He was a little man, +five-and-fifty, I should think. He had long grey hair--a kind of +Quaker-looking man. He said he saw the name over the door, and he +remembered your telling him your people were booksellers. He only got +back here in England yesterday or the day before. He said he didn't know +what you'd been doing since you left Mexico. He didn't even know whether +you were in England or not!" + +Thorpe had been looking with abstracted intentness at a set of +green-bound cheap British poets just at one side of his sister's head. +"You must find that card!" he told her now, with a vague severity in +his voice. "I know the name well enough, but I want to see what he's +written. Was it his address, do you remember? The name itself was +Tavender, wasn't it? Good God! Why is it a woman never knows where +she's put anything? Even Julia spends hours looking for button-hooks or +corkscrews or something of that sort, every day of her life! They've +got nothing in the world to do except know where things are, right under +their nose, and yet that's just what they don't know at all!" + +"Oh, I have a good few other things to do," she reminded him, as she +fumbled again inside the obscurity of the desk. "I can put my hand on +any one of four thousand books in stock," she mildly boasted over her +shoulder, "and that's something you never learned to do. And I can tell +if a single book is missing--and I wouldn't trust any shopman I ever +knew to do that." + +"Oh of course, you're an exception," he admitted, under a sense of +justice. "But I wish you'd find the card." + +"I know where it is," she suddenly announced, and forthwith closed the +desk. Moving off into the remoter recesses of the crowded interior, she +returned to the light with the bit of pasteboard in her hand. "I'd stuck +it in the little mirror over the washstand," she explained. + +He almost snatched it from her, and stood up the better to examine it +under the gas-light. "Where is Montague Street?" he asked, with rough +directness. + +"In Bloomsbury--alongside the Museum. That's one Montague Street--I +don't know how many others there may be." + +Thorpe had already taken up his umbrella and was buttoning his coat. +"Yes--Bloomsbury," he said hurriedly. "That would be his form. And you +say he knew nothing about my movements or whereabouts--nothing about the +Company, eh?" He looked at his watch as he spoke. Evidently the presence +of this stranger had excited him a good deal. + +"No," she assured him, reflectively; "no, I'm sure he didn't. From what +he said, he doesn't know his way about London very well, or anywhere +else, for that matter, I should say." + +Thorpe nodded, and put his finger to his forehead with a meaning look. +"No--he's a shade off in the upper story," he told her in a confidential +tone. "Still, it's important that I should see him,"--and with only a +hasty hand-shake he bustled out of the shop. + +By the light of the street lamp opposite, she could see him on the +pavement, in the pelting rain, vehemently signalling with his umbrella +for a cab. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +"We've got a spare room here, haven't we?" Thorpe asked his niece, when +she came out to greet him in the hall of their new home in Ovington +Square. He spoke with palpable eagerness before even unbuttoning his +damp great-coat, or putting off his hat. "I mean it's all in working +order ready for use?" + +"Why yes, uncle," Julia answered, after a moment's thought. "Is someone +coming?" + +"I think so," he replied, with a grunt of relief. He seemed increasingly +pleased with the project he had in mind, as she helped him off with his +things. The smile he gave her, when she playfully took his arm to lead +him into the adjoining library, was clearly but a part of the satisfied +grin with which he was considering some development in his own affairs. + +He got into his slippers and into the easy-chair before the bright fire +and lit a cigar with a contented air. + +"Well, my little girl?" he said, with genial inconsequence, and smiled +again at her, where she stood beside the mantel. + +"It will be such a lark to play the hostess to a stranger!" she +exclaimed. "When is he coming?--I suppose it is a 'he,'" she added, less +buoyantly. + +"Oh--that fellow," Thorpe said, as if he had been thinking of something +else. "Well--I can't tell just when he will turn up. I only learned he +was in town--or in England--a couple of hours ago. I haven't seen him +yet at all. I drove round to his lodgings, near the British Museum, +but he wasn't there. He only comes there to sleep, but they told me he +turned in early--by nine o'clock or so. Then I went round to a hotel and +wrote a note for him, and took it back to his lodgings, and left it for +him. I told him to pack up his things as soon as he got it, and drive +here, and make this his home--for the time being at least." + +"Then it's some old friend of yours?" said the girl. "I know I shall +like him." + +Thorpe laughed somewhat uneasily. "Well--yes--he's a kind of a friend of +mine," he said, with a note of hesitation in his voice. "I don't know, +though, that you'll think much of him. He aint what you'd call a ladies' +man." + +He laughed again at some thought the words conjured up. "He's a curious, +simple old party, who'd just like a comfortable corner somewhere by +himself, and wouldn't expect to be talked to or entertained at all. +If he does come, he'll keep to himself pretty well. He wouldn't be +any company for you. I mean,--for you or Alfred either. I think he's +a Canadian or West Indian,--British subject, at all events,--but he's +lived all his life in the West, and he wouldn't know what to do in +a drawing-room, or that sort of thing. You'd better just not pay any +attention to him. Pass the time of day, of course, but that's all." + +Julia's alert, small-featured face expressed some vague disappointment +at what she heard, but her words were cheerful enough. "Oh of +course--whatever he likes best," she said. "I will tell Potter to make +everything ready. I suppose there's no chance of his being here in time +for dinner?" + +Thorpe shook his head, and then lifted his brows over some new +perplexity. "I guess he'd want to eat his meals out, anyway," he said, +after some thought. "I don't seem to remember much about him in +that respect--of course, everything was so different in camp out in +Mexico--but I daresay he wouldn't be much of an ornament at the table. +However, that'll be all right. He's as easy to manage as a rabbit. If I +told him to eat on the roof, he'd do it without a murmur. You see it's +this way, Julia: he's a scientific man--a kind of geologist, and mining +expert and rubber expert--and chemical expert and all sort of things. I +suppose he must have gone through college--very likely he'll turn out to +have better manners than I was giving him credit for. I've only seen him +in the rough, so to speak. We weren't at all intimate then,--but we had +dealings together, and there are certain important reasons why I should +keep close in touch with him while he's here in London. But I'll try and +do that without letting you be bothered." "What an idea!" cried Julia. +"As if that wasn't what we had the house for--to see the people you want +to see." + +Her uncle smiled rather ruefully, and looked in a rather dubious way at +his cigar. "Between you and me and the lamp-post, Jule," he said, with a +slow, whimsical drawl, "there isn't a fellow in the world that I wanted +to see less than I did him. But since he's here--why, we've got to make +the best of it." + +After dinner, Thorpe suffered the youngsters to go up to the +drawing-room in the tacit understanding that he should probably not see +them again that night. He betook himself then once more to the library, +as it was called--the little, cozy, dark-panelled room off the hall, +where the owner of the house had left two locked bookcases, and where +Thorpe himself had installed a writing-desk and a diminutive safe for +his papers. The chief purpose of the small apartment, however, was +indicated by the two big, round, low-seated easy-chairs before the +hearth, and by the cigar boxes and spirit-stand and tumblers visible +behind the glass of the cabinet against the wall. Thorpe himself +called the room his "snuggery," and spent many hours there in slippered +comfort, smoking and gazing contentedly into the fire. Sometimes Julia +read to him, as he sat thus at his ease, but then he almost invariably +went to sleep. + +Now, when he had poured out some whiskey and water and lit a cigar, the +lounging chairs somehow did not attract him. He moved about aimlessly in +the circumscribed space, his hands in his pockets, his burly shoulders +rounded, his face dulled and heavy as with a depression of doubt. The +sound of the piano upstairs came intermittently to his ears. Often he +ascended to the drawing-room to hear Julia play--and more often still, +with all the doors open, he enjoyed the mellowed murmur of her music +here at his ease in the big chair. But tonight he had no joy in the +noise. More than once, as he slouched restlessly round the room, the +notion of asking her to stop suggested itself, but he forbore to put it +into action. Once he busied himself for a time in kneeling before his +safe, and scrutinizing in detail the papers in one of the bundles it +contained. + +At last--it was after ten o'clock, and the music above had ceased--the +welcome sounds of cab-wheels without, and then of the door-bell, came to +dispel his fidgeting suspense. On the instant he straightened himself, +and his face rearranged its expression. He fastened upon the door of the +room the controlled, calm glance of one who is easily confident about +what is to happen. + +"Quaker-looking" was not an inapt phrase for the person whom the maid +ushered into the room through this door. He was a small, thin, elderly +man, bowed of figure and shuffling in gait. His coat and large, +low-crowned hat, though worn almost to shabbiness, conveyed an +indefinable sense of some theological standard, or pretence to such +a standard. His meagre face, too, with its infinity of anxious yet +meaningless lines, and its dim spectacled eyes, so plainly overtaxed by +the effort to discern anything clearly, might have belonged to any old +village priest grown childish and blear-eyed in the solitude of stupid +books. Even the blotches of tell-tale colour on his long nose were not +altogether unclerical in their suggestion. A poor old man he seemed, +as he stood blinking in the electric light of the strange, warm +apartment--a helpless, worn old creature, inured through long years to +bleak adverse winds, hoping now for nothing better in this world than +present shelter. + +"How do you do, Mr. Thorpe," he said, after a moment, with nervous +formality. "This is unexpectedly kind of you, sir." + +"Why--not at all!" said Thorpe, shaking him cordially by the hand. "What +have we got houses for, but to put up our old friends? And how are you, +anyway? You've brought your belongings, have you? That's right!" He +glanced into the hall, to make sure that they were being taken upstairs, +and then closed the door. "I suppose you've dined. Take off your hat and +coat! Make yourself at home. That's it--take the big chair, there--so! +And now let's have a look at you. Well, Tavender, my man, you haven't +grown any younger. But I suppose none of us do. And what'll you have to +drink? I take plain water in mine, but there's soda if you prefer it. +And which shall it be--Irish or Scotch?" + +Mr. Tavender's countenance revealed the extremity of his surprise and +confusion at the warmth of this welcome. It apparently awed him as well, +for though he shrank into a corner of the huge chair, he painstakingly +abstained from resting his head against its back. Uncovered, this head +gained a certain dignity of effect from the fashion in which the +thin, iron-grey hair, parted in the middle, fell away from the full, +intellectual temples, and curled in meek locks upon his collar. A vague +resemblance to the type of Wesley--or was it Froebel?--might have hinted +itself to the observer's mind. + +Thorpe's thoughts, however, were not upon types. "Well"--he said, from +the opposite chair, in his roundest, heartiest voice, when the other +had with diffidence suffered himself to be served, and had deferentially +lighted on one side the big cigar pressed upon him--"Well--and how's the +world been using you?" + +"Not very handsomely, Mr. Thorpe," the other responded, in a hushed, +constrained tone. + +"Oh, chuck the Misters!" Thorpe bade him. "Aren't we old pals, man? +You're plain Tavender, and I'm plain Thorpe." + +"You're very kind," murmured Tavender, still abashed. For some +minutes he continued to reply dolefully, and with a kind of shamefaced +reluctance, to the questions piled upon him. He was in evil luck: +nothing had gone well with him; it had been with the greatest difficulty +that he had scraped together enough to get back to London on the chance +of obtaining some expert commission; practically he possessed nothing +in the world beyond the clothes on his back, and the contents of two old +carpet-bags--these admissions, by degrees, were wormed from him. + +"But have you parted with the concession, then, that you bought from +me?" Thorpe suddenly asked him. "Help yourself to some more whiskey!" + +Tavender sighed as he tipped the decanter. "It isn't any good," he +answered, sadly. "The Government repudiates it--that is, the Central +Government at Mexico. Of course, I never blamed you. I bought it with my +eyes open, and you sold it in perfect good faith. I never doubted that +at all. But it's not worth the paper it's written on--that's certain. +It's that that busted me--that, and some other things." + +"Well--well!" said Thorpe, blankly. His astonishment was obviously +genuine, and for a little it kept him silent, while he pondered the +novel aspects of the situation thus disclosed. Then his eyes brightened, +as a new path outlined itself. + +"I suppose you've got the papers?--the concession and my transfer to you +and all that?" he asked, casually. + +"Oh, yes," replied Tavender. He added, with a gleam of returning +self-command--"That's all I have got." + +"Let's see--what was it you paid me?--Three thousand eight hundred +pounds, wasn't it?" + +Tavender made a calculation in mental arithmetic. "Yes, something like +that. Just under nineteen thousand dollars," he said. + +"Well," remarked Thorpe, with slow emphasis, "I won't allow you to +suffer that way by me. I'll buy it back from you at the same price you +paid for it." + +Tavender, beginning to tremble, jerked himself upright in his chair, +and stared through his spectacles at his astounding host. "You say"--he +gasped--"you say you'll buy it back!" + +"Certainly," said Thorpe. "That's what I said." + +"I--I never heard of such a thing!" the other faltered with increasing +agitation. "No--you can't mean it. It isn't common sense!" + +"It's common decency," replied the big man, in his most commanding +manner. "It's life and death to you--and it doesn't matter a flea-bite +to me. So, since you came to grief through me, why shouldn't I do the +fair thing, and put you back on your legs again?" + +Tavender, staring now at those shrunken legs of his, breathed heavily. +The thing overwhelmed him. Once or twice he lifted his head and essayed +to speak, but no speech came to his thin lips. He moistened them +eventually with a long deliberate pull at his glass. + +"This much ought to be understood, however," Thorpe resumed, reflecting +upon his words as he went along. "If I'm to buy back a dead horse, like +that, it's only reasonable that there should be conditions. I suppose +you've seen by this time that even if this concession of ours was +recognized by the Government there wouldn't be any money in it to speak +of. I didn't realize that two years ago, any more than you did, but it's +plain enough now. The trade has proved it. A property of rubber trees +has no real value--so long as there's a wilderness of rubber trees all +round that's everybody's property. How can a man pay even the interest +on his purchase money, supposing he's bought a rubber plantation, when +he has to compete with people who've paid no purchase money at all, but +just get out as much as they like from the free forest? You must know +that that is so." + +Tavender nodded eloquently. "Oh yes, I know that is so. You can prove it +by me." + +Thorpe grinned a little. "As it happens, that aint what I need to have +you prove," he said, dryly. "Now WE know that a rubber property is no +good--but London doesn't know it. Everybody here thinks that it's a +great business to own rubber trees. Why, man alive, do you know"--the +audacity of the example it had occurred to him to cite brought a +gratified twinkle to his eyes as he went on--"do you know that a man +here last year actually sold a rubber plantation for four hundred +thousand pounds--two millions of dollars! Not in cash, of course, but +in shares that he could do something with--and before he's done with +it, I'm told, he's going to make twice that amount of money out of it. +That'll show you what London is like." + +"Yes--I suppose they do those things," remarked Tavender, vaguely. + +"Well--my point is that perhaps I can do something or other with this +concession of yours here. I may even be able to get my money back on it. +At any rate I'll take my chances on it--so that at least you shan't lose +anything by it. Of course, if you'd rather try and put it on the market +yourself, why go ahead!" There was a wistful pathos in the way Tavender +shook his head. "Big money doesn't mean anything to me any more," he +said, wearily. "I'm too old and I'm too tired. Why--four--five--yes, +half a dozen times I've had enough money to last me comfortably all my +life--and every time I've used it as bait to catch bigger money with, +and lost it all. I don't do that any more! I've got something the matter +with me internally that takes the nerve all out of me. The doctors don't +agree about it, but whatever its name is I've got it for keeps. Probably +I shan't live very long"--Thorpe recalled that the old man had always +taken a gloomy view of his health after the third glass--"and if you +want to pay me the nineteen thousand dollars, or whatever it is, why I +shall say 'God bless you,' and be more than contented." + +"Oh, there's something more to it than that," observed Thorpe, with an +added element of business-like briskness in his tone. "If I let you out +in this way--something, of course, you could never have dreamed would +happen--you must do some things for me. I should want you, for example, +to go back to Mexico at once. Of course, I'd pay your expenses out. Or +say, I'd give you a round four thousand pounds to cover that and some +other things too. You wouldn't object to that, would you?" + +The man who, two hours before, had confronted existence with the change +of his last five-pound note in his pocket, did not hesitate now. "Oh +no, that would be all right," with reviving animation, he declared. He +helped himself again from the cut-glass decanter. "What would you want +me to do there?" + +"Oh, a report on the concession for a starter," Thorpe answered, +with careful indifference. "I suppose they still know your name as an +authority. I could make that all right anyway. But one thing I ought +to speak of--it might be rather important--I wouldn't like to have you +mention to anybody that the concession has at any time been yours. That +might tend to weaken the value of your report, don't you see? Let it be +supposed that the concession has been my property from the start. You +catch my point, don't you? There never was any such thing as a transfer +of it to you. It's always been mine!" + +Tavender gave his benefactor a purblind sort of wink. "Always belonged +to you? Why of course it did," he said cheerfully. + +The other breathed a cautious prolonged sigh of relief "You'd better +light a fresh one, hadn't you?" he asked, observing with a kind of +contemptuous tolerance the old man's efforts to ignite a cigar which had +more than once unrolled like a carpenter's shaving in his unaccustomed +fingers, and was now shapelessly defiant of both draught and suction. +Tavender laughed to himself silently as he took a new cigar, and +puffed at the match held by his companion. The air of innocence and +long-suffering meekness was falling rapidly away from him. He put his +shabby boots out confidently to the fender and made gestures with his +glass as he talked. + +"My mistake," he declared, in insistent tones, "was in not turning down +science thirty years ago and going in bodily for business. Then I should +have made my pile as you seem to have done. But I tried to do something +of both. Half the year I was assaying crushings, or running a level, or +analyzing sugars, for a salary, and the other half I was trying to do a +gamble with that salary on the strength of what I'd learned. You can't +ring the bell that way. You've got to be either a pig or a pup. You +can't do both. Now, for instance, if I'd come to London when you did, +and brought my money with me instead of buying your concession with +it----" + +"Why, what good do you suppose you would have done?" Thorpe interrupted +him with good-natured brusqueness. "You'd have had it taken from you +in a fortnight! Why, man, do you know what London is? You'd have had no +more chance here than a naked nigger in a swamp-full of alligators." + +"You seem to have hit it off," the other objected. "This is as fine a +house as I was ever in." + +"With me it's different," Thorpe replied, carelessly. "I have the talent +for money-making. I'm a man in armour. The 'gators can't bite me, nor +yet the rattle-snakes." + +"Yes--men are made up differently," Tavender assented, with +philosophical gravity. Then he lurched gently in the over-large chair, +and fixed an intent gaze upon his host. "What did you make your money +in?" he demanded, not with entire distinctness of enunciation. "It +wasn't rubber, was it?" + +Thorpe shook his head. "There's no money in rubber. I'm entirely in +finance--on the Stock Exchange--dealing in differences," he replied, +with a serious face. + +The explanation seemed wholly acceptable to Tavender. He mused upon it +placidly for a time, with his reverend head pillowed askew against the +corner of the chair. Then he let his cigar drop, and closed his eyes. + +The master of the house bent forward, and noiselessly helped himself to +another glass of whiskey and water. Then, sinking back again, he eyed +his odd guest meditatively as he sipped the drink. He said to himself +that in all the miraculous run of luck which the year had brought him, +this was the most extraordinary manifestation of the lot. It had been +so easy to ignore the existence of this tiresome and fatuous old man, so +long as he was in remote Mexico, that he had practically forgotten him. +But he should not soon forget the frightened shock with which he had +learned of his presence in London, that afternoon. For a minute or two, +there in his sister's book-shop, it had seemed as if he were falling +through the air--as if the substantial earth had crumbled away from +under him. But then his nerve had returned to him, his resourceful brain +had reasserted itself. With ready shrewdness he had gone out, and met +the emergency, and made it the servant of his own purposes. + +He could be glad now, unreservedly glad, that Tavender had come to +London, that things had turned out as they had. In truth, he stood now +for the first time on solid ground. When he thought of it, now, the risk +he had been running all these months gave him a little sinking of the +heart. Upon reflection, the performance of having sold the same property +first to Tavender in Mexico and then to the Rubber Consols Company in +London might be subject to injurious comment, or worse. The fact that it +was not a real property to begin with had no place in his thoughts. +It was a concession--and concessions were immemorially worth what they +would fetch. But the other thing might have been so awkward--and now it +was all right! + +For an hour and more, till the fire burnt itself out and the guest's +snoring became too active a nuisance, Thorpe sat lost in this +congratulatory reverie. Then he rose, and sharply shaking Tavender into +a semblance of consciousness, led him upstairs and put him to bed. + +Three days later he personally saw Tavender off at Waterloo station by +the steamer-train, en route for Southampton and New York. The old man +was in childlike good spirits, looking more ecclesiastical than ever +in the new clothes he had been enabled to buy. He visibly purred with +content whenever his dim eyes caught sight of the new valise and steamer +trunk, which belonged to him, on the busy platform. + +"You've been very kind to me, Thorpe," he said more than once, as they +stood together beside the open door of the compartment. "I was never +so hospitably treated before in my life. Your attention to me has been +wonderful. I call you a true friend." + +"Oh, that's all right! Glad to do it," replied the other, lightly. In +truth he had not let Tavender stray once out of his sight during those +three days. He had dragged him tirelessly about London, showing him the +sights from South Kensington Museum to the Tower, shopping with him, +resting in old taverns with him, breakfasting, lunching, aud dining +with him--in the indefatigable resolution that he should strike up +no dangerous gossiping acquaintance with strangers. The task had been +tiresome in the extreme--but it had been very well worth while. + +"One thing I'm rather sorry about," Tavender remarked, in apologetic +parenthesis--"I ought to have gone down and seen that brother-in-law of +mine in Kent. He's been very good to me, and I'm not treating him very +well. I wrote to tell him I was coming--but since then I haven't had +a minute to myself. However, I can write to him and explain how it +happened. And probably I'll be over again sometime." + +"Why, of course," said Thorpe, absently. The allusion to the +brother-in-law in Kent had escaped his notice, so intent was he upon a +new congeries of projects taking vague shape in his mind. + +"Think of yourself as my man out there," he said now, slowly, following +the clue of his thoughts. "There may be big things to do. Write to me as +often as you can. Tell me everything that's going on. Money will be no +object to me--you can have as much as you like--if things turn up out +there that are worth taking up. But mind you say nothing about me--or +any connection you've ever had with me. You'll get a letter from the +Secretary of a Company and the Chairman asking for a report on a certain +property, and naming a fee. You simply make a good report--on its +merits. You say nothing about anything else--about me, or the history of +the concession, or its validity, or anything. I mustn't be alluded to in +any way. You quite understand that?" + +"Trust me!" said the old man, and wrung his benefactor's hand. + +It was indeed with a trustful eye that Thorpe watched the train draw out +of the station. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE week following the August Bank Holiday is very rarely indeed a busy +or anxious time in the City. In the ordinary course of things, it +serves as the easy-going prelude--with but casual and inattentive visits +eastward, and with only the most careless glances through the financial +papers--to the halcyon period of the real vacation. Men come to the City +during this week, it is true, but their thoughts are elsewhere--on the +moors, on the blue sea, on the glacier or the fiord, or the pleasant +German pine forests. + +To the great mass of City people; this August in question began in a +normal enough fashion. To one little group of operators, however, and to +the widening circle of brokers, bankers, and other men of affairs whose +interests were more or less involved with those of this group, it was a +season of keen perturbation. A combat of an extraordinary character was +going on--a combat which threatened to develop into a massacre. Even +to the operators who, unhappily for themselves, were principals in this +fight, it was a struggle in the dark. They knew little about it, beyond +the grimly-patent fact that they were battling for their very lives. +The outer ring of their friends and supporters and dependents knew still +less, though their rage and fears were perhaps greater. The "press" +seemed to know nothing at all. This unnatural silence of the City's +mouthpieces, usually so resoundingly clamorous upon the one side and the +other when a duel is in progress, gave a sinister aspect to the thing. +The papers had been gagged and blindfolded for the occasion. This in +itself was of baleful significance. It was not a duel which they had +been bribed to ignore. It was an assassination. + +Outwardly there was nothing to see, save the unofficial, bald statement +that on August 1st, the latest of twelve fortnightly settlements in this +stock, Rubber Consols had been bid for, and carried over, at 15 pounds +for one-pound shares. The information concerned the public at large not +at all. Nobody knew of any friend or neighbour who was fortunate enough +to possess some of these shares. Readers here and there, noting the +figures, must have said to themselves that certain lucky people were +coining money, but very little happened to be printed as to the identity +of these people. Stray notes were beginning to appear in the personal +columns of the afternoon papers about a "Rubber King" of the name of +Thorpe, but the modern exploitation of the world's four corners makes so +many "kings" that the name had not, as yet, familiarized itself to the +popular eye. + +City men, who hear more than they read, knew in a general way about this +"Rubber King." He was an outsider who had come in, and was obviously +filling his pockets; but it was a comforting rule that outsiders who did +this always got their pockets emptied for them again in the long run. +There seemed nothing about Thorpe to suggest that he would prove an +exception to the rule. He was investing his winnings with great freedom, +so the City understood, and his office was besieged daily by promoters +and touts. They could clean out his strong-box faster than the profits +of his Rubber corner could fill it. To know such a man, however, could +not but be useful, and they made furtive notes of his number in Austin +Friars on their cuffs, after conversation had drifted from him to other +topics. + +As to the Rubber corner itself, the Stock Exchange as a whole was +apathetic. When some of the sufferers ventured cautious hints about the +possibility of official intervention on their behalf, they were laughed +at by those who did not turn away in cold silence. Of the fourteen men +who had originally been caught in the net drawn tight by Thorpe and +Semple, all the conspicuous ones belonged to the class of "wreckers," a +class which does not endear itself to Capel Court. + +Both Rostocker and Aronson, who, it was said, were worst hit, were men +of great wealth, but they had systematically amassed these fortunes by +strangling in their cradles weak enterprises, and by undermining and +toppling over other enterprises which would not have been weak if they +had been given a legitimate chance to live. Their system was legal +enough, in the eyes alike of the law and of the Stock Exchange rules. +They had an undoubted right to mark out their prey and pursue it, and +bring it down, and feed to the bone upon it. But the exercise of this +right did not make them beloved by the begetters and sponsors of their +victims. When word first went round, on the last day of February, that +a lamb had unexpectedly turned upon these two practised and confident +wolves, and had torn an ear from each of them, and driven them pell-mell +into a "corner," it was received on all sides with a gratified smile. + +Later, by fortnightly stages, the story grew at once more tragic and +more satisfactory. Not only Rostocker and Aronson, but a dozen others +were in the cul de sac guarded by this surprising and bloody-minded +lamb. Most of the names were well-known as those of "wreckers." In this +category belonged Blaustein, Ganz, Rothfoere, Lewis, Ascher, and +Mendel, and if Harding, Carpenter, and Vesey could not be so confidently +classified, at least their misfortune excited no particular sympathy. +Two other names mentioned, those of Norfell and Pinney, were practically +unknown. + +There was some surprise, however, at the statement that the old and +respected and extremely conservative firm of Fromentin Bros. was +entangled in the thing. Egyptian bonds, minor Levantine loans, discounts +in the Arabian and Persian trades--these had been specialties of the +Fromentins for many years. Who could have expected to find them caught +among the "shorts" in Mexican rubber? It was Mexico, wasn't it, that +these Rubber Consols purported to be connected with? + +Thorpe's Company, upon its commercial merits, had not been considered +at all by the gentlemen of the Stock Exchange, at the time of its +flotation. Men vaguely and with difficulty recalled the fact of its +prospectus, when the "corner" in its shares was first talked about. +They looked it up in their lists and files, later on, but its terms said +nothing to them. Nobody discussed the value of the assets owned by this +Company, or the probability of its paying a dividend--even when the +price bid for its shares was making the most sensational upward leaps. +How Thorpe stood with his shareholders, or whether he had any genuine +shareholders behind him at all, was seen by the keen eyes of Capel Court +to be beside the question. Very likely it was a queer affair, if the +truth were known--but at least it had substance enough in it to be +giving the "wreckers" a lively time. + +By the end of July it was understood that the fight was better worth +watching than anything that had been seen in a long time. The only +trouble was that there was so little to see. The papers said nothing. +The sufferers were the reverse of garrulous. The little red Scotchman, +Semple, who was the visible avenging sword of the "corner," was more +imperturbably silent than anybody else. His fellow-members in the +"House" watched him now, however, with a new respect. They discovered +unsuspected elements of power in his thin, tight mouth, in the direct, +cold glances of his brown-grey eyes, in the very way he carried his head +and wore his hat. He came to be pointed out, and nodded about behind his +back, more than anyone else in the "House," and important men sought his +acquaintance, with an awkward show of civility, who were notorious for +their rude exclusiveness. + +It might be, of course, that his "corner" would break under him at any +fortnightly settlement, but already he had carried it much further than +such things often went, and the planning of the coup had been beyond +doubt Napoleonic. + +Had this small sandy Scot planned it, or was he merely the weapon in +Thorpe's hand? Both views had their supporters on the Exchange, but +after the wrench of August 1st, when with an abrupt eighty-shilling +rise the price of Rubber Consols stood at 15 pounds, and it was to +be computed that Semple had received on that single day nearly 75,000 +pounds in differences and "backwardation," a story was set afloat which +gave Thorpe the undivided credit of the invention. It was related as +coming from his own lips that he had schemed it all out to be revenged +upon a group of Jewish operators, against whom he had a grievance. In +confirmation of this tale, it was pointed out that, of the seven men +still held pinned in the fatal "corner," six were Jews--and this did, +upon first glance, look significant. But then it was objected, upon +reflection, that Blaustein and Ascher had both been permitted to make +their escape, and this hardly justified the theory of an implacable +anti-Semitic vendetta. The objection seemed reasonable, but it was met +in turn by the point that Blaustein and Ascher had been bled white, +as Bismarck's phrase went, before they were released, whereas the five +Christians had been liberated with relatively moderate fines. Upon the +whole, a certain odour of the Judenhetze clung thereafter about the +"corner" in Rubber Consols. + +On an afternoon of the following week, Mr. Stormont Thorpe was alone in +the Board Room of the offices in Austin Friars. He had risen from the +great roller-topped desk over between the windows, and walked now with +a lethargic, tired step to and fro before the empty fireplace, yawning +more than once, and stretching out his arms in the supreme gesture of +fatigue. After a dozen listless rounds, something occurred to him. He +moved with a certain directness of purpose to the cabinet in the corner, +unlocked it, and poured out for himself a tumbler of brandy and soda. +He drank it without a pause, then turned again, and began pacing up and +down as before, his hands clasped behind him, his head bent in thought. + +The intervening six months had effected visible changes in the outer +man. One noted most readily that the face had grown fuller in its +lower parts, and was far less browned than formerly. The large, heavy +countenance, with its square jaws masked now under increased flesh, its +beginnings of a double-chin, and its slightly flabby effect of pallor, +was no longer lacking in individual distinction. It was palpably the +visage of a dictator. The moustache had been cut down to military +brevity, and the line of mouth below it was eloquent of rough power. The +steady grey eyes, seemingly smaller yet more conspicuous than before, +revealed in their glance new elements of secretiveness, of strategy +supported by abundant and confident personal force. + +The man himself seemed scarcely to have grown stouter. He held himself +more compactly, as it were; seemed more the master of all his physical +expressions. He was dressed like a magnate who was also a person of +taste. There was a flower in the lapel of his well-shaped frock-coat, +and the rustle of his starched and spotless white waistcoat murmured +pleasantly of refined toilets. + +"The Marquis of Chaldon--and a gentleman, with him." + +The announcement, from a clerk who had noiselessly opened the door, +imposed itself with decorum upon Thorpe's reverie. + +"Who is the gentleman with him?" Thorpe began austerely to ask, after +an instant's hesitation. But this briefest of delays had brought the +callers into plain view behind the clerk, and with a slight gesture the +master assented to their entrance. + +This large apartment was no longer called the Board Room by anybody. By +tacit processes, it had become Mr. Thorpe's room. Not even the titular +Chairman of the Company, the renowned and eminent Lord Chaldon, +ex-Ambassador and ex-Viceroy, entered this chamber now with any +assumption of proprietorship in it. No hint of a recollection that there +were such things as the Company and the Board, or that he was nominally +the head of both, expressed itself in his Lordship's demeanour as he +advanced, his hand a little extended. + +The noble Chairman was white of beard and hair, and extremely courteous +of manner--a small, carefully-clad, gracious old gentleman, whose +mild pink countenance had, with years of anxiety about ways and +means, disposed itself in lines which produced a chronic expression of +solicitude. A nervous affection of the eyelids lent to this look, at +intervals, a beseeching quality which embarrassed the beholder. All +men had liked him, and spoken well of him throughout his long and +hard-worked career. Thorpe was very fond of him indeed, and put a +respectful cordiality into his grasp of the proffered hand. Then he +looked, with a certain thinly-veiled bluntness of enquiry, past the +Marquis to his companion. + +"You were very kind to give me the appointment," said Lord Chaldon, with +a little purring gloss of affability upon the earnestness of his tone. +"I wish very much to introduce to you my friend, my old friend I may +say, Monsieur Alexandre Fromentin. We slept together under the same +tent, in the Persian country beyond Bagdad--oh, it must have been quite +forty years ago. We were youngsters looking to win our first spurs +then--I in my line, he in his. And often since we have renewed that old +friendship--at many different places--India, and Constantinople, and +Egypt. I wish heartily to commend him to your--your kindness." + +Thorpe had perfunctorily shaken hands with the stranger--a tall, +slender, sharp-faced, clean-shaven, narrow-shouldered man, who by these +accounts of his years ought not to have such excessively black hair. He +bowed in a foreign fashion, and uttered some words which Thorpe, though +he recognized them as English in intent, failed to follow. The voice +was that of an elderly man, and at a second glance there were plenty +of proofs that he might have been older than the Marquis, out there in +Persia, forty years ago. But Thorpe did not like old men who dyed their +hair, and he offered his visitors chairs, drawn up from the table toward +his desk, with a certain reserve of manner. Seating himself in the +revolving chair at the desk itself, he put the tips of his fingers +together, and looked this gentleman with the Continental name and +experience in the face. + +"Is there something you wish me to do?" he asked, passively facilitating +the opening of conversation. + +"Ah, my God! 'Something'!"--repeated the other, with a fluttering +gesture of his hands over his thin, pointed knees--"everything, Mr. +Thorpe!" + +"That's a tolerably large order, isn't it?" Thorpe asked, calmly, moving +a slow, inscrutable glance from one to the other of his callers. + +"I could ask for nothing that would be a greater personal favour--and +kindness"--Lord Chaldon interposed. His tone bore the stress of +sincerity. + +"That means a great deal to me, as you know, my Lord," replied Thorpe, +"but I don't in the least understand--what is it that your friend +wants?" + +"Only that I shall not be buried in a bankrupt's grave," the suppliant +answered, with a kind of embittered eagerness of utterance. "That I +shall not see disgraced the honoured name that my father and his father +bequeathed to my care!" + +Thorpe's large, composed countenance betrayed a certain perplexity. +"There must be a mistake," he observed. "I don't even know this name of +yours. I never heard it before." + +The other's mobile face twisted itself in a grimace of incredulity. He +had a conspicuously wide mouth, and its trick of sidelong extension at +this moment was very unpleasant. "Ah, Herr Je! He never heard it," he +ejaculated, turning nervously to the Marquis. "Would to the good God you +never had!" he told Thorpe, with suppressed excitement. + +Lord Chaldon, his own voice shaken a little, interposed with an +explanation. "My friend is the head--the respected head--of the firm of +Fromentin Brothers. I think you have--have dealings with them." + +Thorpe, after a furtive instant of bewilderment, opened his mouth. +"Oh! I see," he said. "I know what you mean now. With the French +pronunciation, I didn't recognize the name. I've always heard it called +'Fromen'-tin' here in London. Oh, yes, of course--Fromen'tin Brothers." + +His lips shut tight again at this. The listeners had caught no helpful +clue from the tone of his words. They exchanged a glance, and then M. +Fromentin spoke. + +"Mr. Thorpe," he began, slowly, with an obvious effort at +self-repression. "It is a very simple story. Our house is an old one. +My father's grandfather organized the finance of the commissariat of +General Bonaparte in Egypt. He created the small beginnings of the +carpet and rug importation from Asia Minor. His son, and in turn his +son, followed him. They became bankers as well as importers. They +helped very greatly to develop the trade of the Levant. They were not +avaricious men, or usurers. It is not in our blood. Your Chairman, Lord +Chaldon, who honours me so highly by calling me his friend--he will +assure you that we have a good name in the East. Our banks have +befriended the people, and never oppressed or injured them. For that +reason--I will say perhaps for that reason--we have never become a very +rich house. It is possible to name bankers who have made large fortunes +out of Egypt. It was different with us. Lord Chaldon will tell you +that of our own free will--my two brothers and I--of our own choice we +consented to lose a fifth of all our possessions, rather than coin into +gold by force the tears and blood of the wretched fellaheen." + +"Yes--I have never known a more honourable or humane action," put in the +Marquis, fervently. + +"And then my brothers die--Polydor, who lived mostly at Smyrna, and +whose estate was withdrawn from the business by his widow, and Augustin, +who lived here in London after 1870, and died--it is now six years ago. +He left a son, Robert, who is my nephew, and my partner. He is now of +an age--perhaps thirty years. He was a small child when he came to +London--he has become more English than the English themselves. His +activity and industry are very great; he forms plans of such magnitude +and numbers that they would compel his grandfather to turn in his +coffin. I am in indifferent health. I live much at Homburg and Marienbad +and at Cairo. Practically speaking, I have retired from business. There +remain branches of our house--in several places--but the London house +has become the centre of all things--and Robert has become the London +house. This I make plain to your mind, do I, Mr. Thorpe?" + +The other, with his chin sunk within the collar of his white waistcoat, +and scrutinizing the narrator with a steadfast though impassive glance, +made the faintest possible nod of assent. + +"I had great confidence in Robert," the old man went on. His eyes were +dimming with tears, and his voice quavered uncertainly. "His plans +seemed wise, even if they risked more than formerly. The conditions of +business are wholly altered since my youth--and it was best, I thought, +to make Robert free to act under these conditions, which he understood +much better than I could pretend to do. Thus it was that when he said it +was necessary for Fromentin Brothers to belong to the Stock Exchange, +I did not object. He was active and bold and clever, and he was in the +thick of the fight. Therefore he should be the judge in all things. And +that is our ruin. In the time of the South African excitement, he won a +great deal of money. Then he lost it all and more. Then gambling began, +and his fortunes went now up, now down, but always, as his books show to +me now--sinking a little on the average. He grew more adventurous--more +careless. He put many small counters upon different numbers on the +table. You know what I mean? And in an accursed moment, because other +gamblers were doing the same, he sold two thousand of your shares, +without having them in his hands. Voila! He wishes now to put a bullet +through his brain. He proposes that as the fitting end of Fromentin +Freres." + +Thorpe, his chin on his breast, continued to regard the melancholy +figure opposite with a moody eye. It seemed a long minute before he +broke the tense silence by a sigh of discomfort. "I do not discuss these +things with anybody," he said then, coldly. "If I had known who you +were, I don't think you'd have got in." + +The Marquis of Chaldon intuitively straightened himself in his chair, +and turned toward the speaker a glance of distressed surprise. + +"Or no--I beg your pardon," Thorpe hastened to add, upon the instant +hint of this look--"that doesn't convey my meaning. Of course, our +Chairman brings whom he pleases. His friends--as a matter of course--are +our friends. What I should have said was that if this had been mentioned +beforehand to me, I should have explained that it wasn't possible to +discuss that particular business." + +"But--pardon me"--said Lord Chaldon, in a quiet, very gentle, yet +insistent voice, which seemed now to recall to its listeners the fact +that sovereigns and chancellors had in their day had attentive ears for +its tones--"pardon me, but why should it not be possible?" + +Thorpe frowned doubtfully, and shifted his position in his chair. "What +could I say, if it were discussed?" he made vague retort. "I'm merely +one of the Directors. You are our Chairman, but you see he hasn't found +it of any use to discuss it with you. There are hard and fast rules +about these things. They run their natural course. You are not a +business man, my Lord----" + +"Oh, I think I may be called a 'business man,'" interposed the nobleman, +suavely. "They would tell you so in Calcutta, I think, and in Cairo too. +When one considers it, I have transacted a great deal of business--on +the behalf of other people. And if you will permit me--I do not impute +indirection, of course--but your remark seems to require a footnote. It +is true that I am Chairman of the Board on which you are a Director--but +it is not quite the whole truth. I as Chairman know absolutely nothing +about this matter. As I understand the situation, it is not in your +capacity as a Director that you know anything about it either. Yet----" + +He paused, as if suddenly conscious of some impropriety in this +domestic frankness before a third party, and Thorpe pounced through his +well-mannered hesitation with the swiftness of a bird of prey. + +"Let me suggest," he said roundly, lifting his head and poising a +hand to hold attention, while he thought upon what it was he should +suggest--"this is what I would say. It seems rather irregular, doesn't +it? to debate the matter in the presence of an outsider. You see it +yourself. That is partly what I meant. Now I have met Mr. Fromentin," he +gave the name its English vowels with an obstinate emphasis, "and I have +heard his statement. You have heard it too. If he wishes to lay more +facts before us, why, well and good. But then I would suggest that +he leave the matter in our hands, to discuss and look into between +ourselves. That seems to you the proper course, doesn't it, Lord +Chaldon?" + +The French banker had been studying with strained acuteness the big +lymphatic mask of the Director, with sundry sharp glances aside at the +Chairman. The nervous changes on his alert, meagre old face showed +how intently he followed every phase of their talk. A certain sardonic +perception of evil in the air curled on his lip when he saw the Marquis +accede with a bow and wave of the hand to Thorpe's proposition. Then he +made his bow in turn, and put the best face possible upon the matter. + +"Naturally I consult your convenience--and the proprieties," he said, +with an effect of proud humility. "There are but a few other facts to +submit. My nephew has already paid, in differences upon those accursed +two thousand shares, a sum of nearly 30,000 pounds. I have the figures +in my pocket--but they are fixed in my head as well. Twenty-eight +thousand five hundred, those differences already amount to, not to speak +of interest. At the last settlement, August 1st, the price per share was +15 pounds. That would make 30,000 pounds more, if we bought now--or a +total of practically 60,000 pounds. Eh bien! I beg for the privilege of +being allowed to buy these shares now. It is an unpleasant confession +to make, but the firm of Fromentin Freres will be made very poor by this +loss of 60,000 pounds. It was not always so, but it is so now. My nephew +Robert has brought it into that condition. You see my shame at this +admission. With all my own means, and with his sister's marriage +portion, we can make up this sum of 30,000 pounds, and still enable +the firm to remain in existence. I have gone over the books very +painstakingly, since I arrived in London. It can be kept afloat, and +it can be brought back to safe and moderately profitable courses--if +nothing worse happens. With another six weeks like the last, this +will not be at all possible. We shall have the cup of dishonour thrust +between our teeth. That will be the end of everything." + +M. Fromentin finished in tremulous, grave tones. After looking with +blurred eyes for a moment into Thorpe's face, he bowed his head, and +softly swayed the knees upon which his thin, dark hands maintained their +clutch. Not even the revelation of hair quite white at the roots, unduly +widening the track of parting on the top of his dyed head, could rob +this movement of its mournful dignity. + +Thorpe, after a moment's pause, took a pencil and paper from the desk, +and made a calculation. He bit his lips and frowned at the sight of +these figures, and set down some others, which seemed to please him no +more. Then, with a sudden gesture as of impatience, he rose to his feet. + +"How much is that sister's marriage portion you spoke of?" he asked, +rather brusquely. + +The French gentleman had also risen. He looked with an air of +astonishment at his questioner, and then hardened his face. "I apologize +for mentioning it," he said, with brevity. "One does not speak of family +affairs." + +"I asked you how much it was," pursued Thorpe, in a masterful tone. "A +man doesn't want to rob a girl of her marriage portion." + +"I think I must not answer you," the other replied, hesitatingly. "It +was the fault of my emotion to introduce the subject. Pray leave the +young lady out of account." + +"Then I've nothing more to say," Thorpe declared, and seated himself +again with superfluous energy. He scowled for a little at the disorder +of his desk, and then flung forth an angry explanation. "If you evade +fair questions like that, how can you expect that I will go out of my +way to help you?" + +"Oh, permit me, Mr. Thorpe"--the Marquis intervened soothingly--"I think +you misapprehend. My friend, I am sure, wished to evade nothing. He +had the idea that he was at fault in--in alluding to a purely domestic +matter as--as a--what shall I say?--as a plea for your consideration." +He turned to the old banker. "You will not refuse to mention the sum to +me, will you, my friend?" + +M. Fromentin shrugged his shoulders. "It is ten thousand pounds," he +replied, almost curtly. + +Thorpe was seemingly mollified. "Very well, then," he said. "I will sell +you 2,000 shares at ten pounds." + +The others exchanged a wondering look. + +"Monsieur," the banker stammered--"I see your meaning. You will forgive +me--it is very well meant indeed by you--but it was not my proposition. +The market-price is fifteen pounds--and we were prepared to pay it." +Thorpe laughed in a peremptory, gusty way. "But you can't pay more than +I ask!" he told him, with rough geniality. "Come, if I let you and your +nephew in out of the cold, what kind of men-folk would you be to insist +that your niece should be left outside? As I said, I don't want her +money. I don't want any woman's money. If I'm going to be nice to the +rest of the family, what's the objection to my being nice to her?" + +"Monsieur," said the Frenchman, after an instant's reflection, "I offer +none. I did not at the moment perceive the spirit of your words, but +I recognize now that it was delicacy itself. I tender you the most +profound thanks--for ALL the family." + +After some further conversation the elder Fromentin took his departure. +Lord Chaldon apparently proposed to accompany him, but Thorpe begged him +to remain, and he put aside his hat once more and resumed his seat. + +Thorpe walked about a little, with his hands in his pockets, in a +restless way. "If it isn't unpleasant to you, I think I'll light a +cigar," he said suddenly, and moved over to the cabinet. He poured out a +drink of neat brandy, as well, and furtively swallowed it. Then he came +back, preceded by a cloud of smoke. + +"It went terribly against the grain," he said, with a rueful laugh. "I'd +sworn to let no Jew off with an inch of hide left on him--and here three +of them have been wheedled out of my grip already." + +"Jews?" exclaimed the Marquis, much puzzled. "Did you--did you think +Fromentin was a Jew? God bless me! he's no more one than I am! Why, not +even so much, for there IS a Herschell in my pedigree. Why, dear man, +they were Crusaders!" + +Thorpe smiled somewhat sheepishly. "I never noticed much," he said. "It +was a foreign-looking name. I took it for granted." + +Lord Chaldon bent his brows a little. "Yes-s"--he murmured, +meditatively. "I've heard it mentioned that your enterprise was +suspected of an anti-Semitic twist. Do you mind my talking a little with +you about that?" + +"Oh, not at all," the other answered with languid acquiescence, as he +seated himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +LORD CHALDON'S instructive little monologue on the subject of the +Hebrew in finance afforded Thorpe a certain pleasure, which was in its +character, perhaps, more social than intellectual. + +It was both a flattering and striking experience to have so eminent a +man at the side of one's desk, revealing for one's guidance the secrets +of sovereigns and cabinets. Great names were mentioned in the course +of this dissertation--mentioned with the authoritative ease of one who +dined with princes and prime ministers--and Thorpe felt that he shared +in the distinction of this familiarity with the august. He was in the +position of paying a salary to this courtly old nobleman and statesman, +who could tell him of his own intimate knowledge how Emperors conversed +with one another; how the Pope fidgeted in his ornate-carved chair when +the visitor talked on unwelcome topics; how a Queen and an opera-bouffe +dancer waged an obscure and envenomed battle for the possession of a +counting-house strong box, and in the outcome a nation was armed with +inferior old muskets instead of modern weapons, and the girl got the +difference expressed in black pearls. + +These reminiscences seemed to alter the atmosphere, and even the +appearance, of the Board Room. It was almost as if the apartment itself +was becoming historic, like those chambers they pointed out to the +tourist wherein crowned heads had slept. The manner of the Marquis lent +itself charmingly to this illusion. He spoke in a facile, mellifluous +voice, and as fluently as if he had been at work for a long time +preparing a dissertation on this subject, instead of taking it up now by +chance. In his tone, in his gestures, in the sustained friendliness +of his facial expressions, there was a palpable desire to please his +auditor--and Thorpe gave more heed to this than to the thread of the +discourse. The facts that he heard now about the Jewish masters of +international finance were doubtless surprising and suggestive to a +degree, but somehow they failed to stimulate his imagination. Lord +Chaldon's statesmanlike discussion of the uses to which they put +this vast power of theirs; his conviction that on the whole they were +beneficent; his dread of the consequences of any organized attempt to +take this power away from them, and put it into other and less capable +hands--no doubt it was all very clever and wise, but Thorpe did not care +for it. + +At the end he nodded, and, with a lumbering movement, altered his +position in his chair. The fixed idea of despoiling Rostocker, Aronson, +Ganz, Rothfoere, Lewis, and Mendel of their last sixpence had been in no +wise affected by this entertaining homily. There appeared to be no need +of pretending that it had been. If he knew anything of men and their +manners, his titled friend would not object to a change of topic. + +"Lord Chaldon," he said abruptly, "we've talked enough about general +matters. While you're here, we might as well go into the subject of the +Company. Our annual meeting is pretty nearly due--but I think it would +be better to have it postponed. You see, this extraordinary development +of dealing in our shares on the Stock Exchange has occupied my entire +attention. There has been no time for arranging the machinery of +operations on our property in Mexico. It's still there; it's all right. +But for the time being, the operations in London are so much more +important. We should have nothing to tell our shareholders, if we +brought them together, except that their one-pound shares are worth +fifteen pounds, and they know that already." + +The Marquis had listened with a shrewdly attentive eye upon the +speaker's face. The nervous affection of his eyelids gave him now a +minute of blinking leisure in which to frame his comment. "I have not +heard that my shares are worth fifteen pounds," he said then, with a +direct, meaning little smile. + +"No," Thorpe laughed, leaning comfortably back in his chair. "That's +what I want to talk to you about. You see, when the Company was started, +it was impossible to foresee that this dealing in our ordinary shares +would swamp everything else. If things had taken their usual course, +and we had paid our attention to Mexico instead of to the London Stock +Exchange, my deferred vendor's shares, two thousand of which you hold, +would by this time be worth a good bit. As it is, unfortunately, they +are outside of the deal. They have nothing to do with the movement of +the ordinary shares. But of course you understand all that." + +Lord Chaldon assented by an eloquent nod, at once resigned and hopeful. + +"Well--that is contrary to all my expectations--and intentions," Thorpe +resumed. "I don't want you to suffer by this unlooked-for change in the +shape of things. You hold two thousand shares--only by accident they're +the wrong kind of shares. Very well: I'll make them the right kind +of shares. I'll have a transfer sent to you tomorrow, so that you can +return those vendor's shares to me, and in exchange for them I'll give +you two thousand fully-paid ordinary shares. You can sell these at once, +if you like, or you can hold them on over one more settlement, whichever +you please." + +"This is very munificent," remarked Lord Chaldon, after an instant's +self-communion. His tone was extremely gracious, but he displayed none +of the enthusiastic excitement which Thorpe perceived now that he had +looked for. The equanimity of Marquises, who were also ex-Ambassadors, +was evidently a deeper-rooted affair than he had supposed. This elderly +and urbane diplomat took a gift of thirty thousand pounds as he might +have accepted a superior cigar. + +A brief pause ensued, and was ended by another remark from the nobleman: +"I thought for the moment of asking your advice--on this question of +selling," he continued. "But it will be put more appropriately, perhaps, +in this way: Let me leave it entirely in your hands. Whatever you do +will be right. I know so little of these things--and you know so much." + +Thorpe put out his lips a trifle, and looked away for an instant in +frowning abstraction. "If it were put in that way--I think I should +sell," he said. "It's all right for me to take long chances--it's my +game--but there's no reason why you should risk things. But let me put +it in still another way," he added, with the passing gleam of a new +thought over the dull surface of his eye. "What do you say to our making +the transaction strictly between ourselves? Here are shares to bearer, +in the safe there. I say that two thousand of them are yours: that makes +them yours. I give you my cheque for thirty thousand pounds--here, now, +if you like--and that makes them mine again. The business is finished +and done with--inside this room. Neither of us is to say anything about +it to a soul. Does that meet your views?" + +The diplomat pondered the proposition--again with a lengthened +perturbation of the eyelids. "It would be possible to suggest a variety +of objections, if one were of a sophistical turn of mind," he said at +last, smilingly reflective. "Yet I see no really insuperable obstacle +in the path." He thought upon it further, and went on with an enquiring +upward glance directed suddenly at Thorpe: "Is there likely to be any +very unpleasant hubbub in the press--when it is known that the annual +meeting has been postponed?" + +Thorpe shook his head with confidence. "No--you need have no fear of +that. The press is all right. It's the talk of the City, I'm told--the +way I've managed the press. It isn't often that a man has all three of +the papers walking the same chalk-line." + +The Marquis considered these remarks with a puzzled air. Then he smiled +faintly. "I'm afraid we're speaking of different things," he suggested. +"Apparently you refer to the financial papers. I had scarcely given them +a thought. It does not seem to me that I should mind particularly what +they said about me--but I should care a great deal about the other +press--the great public press." + +"Oh, what do they know about these things?" said Thorpe, lightly. "So +far as I can see, they don't know about anything, unless it gets into +the police court, or the divorce court, or a court of some kind. They're +the funniest sort of papers I ever saw. Seems as if they didn't think +anything was safe to be printed until it had been sworn to. Why anybody +should be afraid of them is more than I can see." + +"Nevertheless," persisted his Lordship, blandly, "I should greatly +dislike any public discussion of our Company's affairs. I hope it is +quite clear that that can be avoided." + +"Absolutely!" Thorpe told him, with reassuring energy. "Why, discussions +don't make themselves. Somebody has to kick before anything gets +discussed. And who is to kick here? The public who hold the shares are +not likely to complain because they've gone up fifteen hundred or two +thousand per cent. And who else has any interest in what the Company, as +a Company, does?" + +"Ah, that is a question which has occurred to me," said Lord Chaldon, +"and I shall be glad if it is already answered. The only people likely +to 'kick,' as you put it so simply, would be, I take it, Directors and +other officers of the Company who find themselves holding a class of +shares which does not participate in the present rise. I speak with some +confidence--because I was in that position myself until a few +minutes ago--and I don't mind confessing that I had brought myself to +contemplate the contingency of ultimately being compelled to--to 'kick' +a little. Of course, so far as I am concerned, events have put me in a +diametrically different frame of mind. If I came prepared--I won't say +to curse, but to--to criticize--I certainly remain to bless. But you +see my point. I of course do not know what you have done as regards the +other members of the Board." + +"I don't care about them," said Thorpe, carelessly. "You are the one +that I wished to bring in on the ground-floor. The others don't matter. +Of course, I shall do something for them; they shan't be allowed to make +trouble--even supposing that it would be in their power to make trouble, +which isn't the case. But it won't be done by any means on the same +scale that--" he paused abruptly, and the two men tacitly completed his +sentence in the glance they exchanged. + +The Marquis of Chaldon rose, and took up his hat and stick. "If you +will post it to me--in a registered letter--my town house--please," he +remarked, with a charmingly delicate hesitation over the phrases. Then +he put out his hand: "I need not say how fully I appreciate your great +kindness to my old friend Fromentin. It was a noble action--one I shall +always reflect upon with admiration." + +"I hope you won't mention it, though," said Thorpe, as they shook hands; +"either that or--or anything else." + +"I shall preserve the most guarded--the most diplomatic secrecy," his +Lordship assured him, as they walked toward the door. + +Thorpe opened this door, and stepped aside, with a half bow, to +facilitate the exit of the Marquis, who bent gracious acknowledgment +of the courtesy. Then, with an abrupt start of surprise, the two men +straightened themselves. Directly in front of them, leaning lightly +against the brass-rail which guarded the entrance to the Board Room, +stood Lord Plowden. + +A certain sense of confusion, unwelcome but inevitable, visibly +enveloped this chance meeting. The Marquis blinked very hard as he +exchanged a fleeting hand-shake with the younger nobleman, and murmured +some indistinguishable commonplaces. Then, with a graceful celerity, +which was more than diplomatic, he disappeared. Thorpe, with more +difficulty, recovered a sort of stolidity of expression that might pass +for composure. He in turn gave his hand to the newcomer, and nodded to +him, and achieved a doubtful smile. + +"Come in!" he said, haltingly. "Where did you drop from? Glad to see +you! How are all your people?" + +A moment later the young Viscount was seated in the chair which the +elderly Marquis had vacated. He presented therein a figure which, in +its way, was perhaps as courtly as the other had been--but the way was +widely different. Lord Plowden's fine, lithe form expressed no deference +in its easy postures. His handsome face was at no pains to assume +conciliatory or ingratiating aspects. His brilliant brown eyes sparkled +a confident, buoyant gaze full into the heavy, lethargic countenance of +the big man at the desk. + +"I haven't bothered you before," he said, tossing his gloves into his +hat, and spreading his frock-coat out by its silk lapels. He crossed his +legs, and sat back with a comfortable smile. "I knew you were awfully +busy--and I kept away as long as I could. But now--well, the truth +is--I'm in rather of a hole. I hope you don't mind my coming." + +"Why not at all," said Thorpe, laconically. After a momentary pause he +added: "The Marquis has just been consulting me about the postponement +of the annual meeting. I suppose you agree with us--that it would be +better to put it off. There's really nothing to report. Of course, +you know more about the situation than he does--between ourselves. +The shareholders don't want a meeting; it's enough for them that their +shares are worth fifteen or twenty times what they paid for them. And +certainly WE don't need a meeting, as things stand now." + +"Ah yes--how do things stand now?" asked Lord Plowden, briskly. + +"Well,"--Thorpe eyed his visitor with a moody blankness of gaze, his +chin once more buried in his collar--"well, everything is going all +right, as far as I can see. But, of course, these dealings in our shares +in the City have taken up all my time--so that I haven't been able to +give any attention to starting up work in Mexico. That being the case, I +shall arrange to foot all the bills for this year's expenses--the rent, +the Directors' fees and clerk-hire and so on--out of my own pocket. It +comes, all told, to about 2,700 pounds--without counting my extra 1,000 +pounds as Managing Director. I don't propose to ask for a penny of that, +under the circumstances--and I'll even pay the other expenses. So that +the Company isn't losing a penny by our not getting to work at the +development of the property. No one could ask anything fairer than +that.--And are your mother and sister quite well?" + +"Oh, very well indeed, thanks," replied the other. He relapsed abruptly +into a silence which was plainly preoccupied. Something of the radiant +cheerfulness with which his face had beamed seemed to have faded away. + +"I'm in treaty for a house and a moor in the Highlands"--Thorpe went on, +in a casual tone--"in fact, I'm hesitating between three or four places +that all seem to be pretty good--but I don't know whether I can get away +much before the twentieth. I hope you can contrive to come while I'm +there. I should like it very much if you would bring your mother and +sister--and your brother too. I have a nephew about his age--a fine +young fellow--who'd be company for him. Why can't you say now that +you'll all come?" + +Lord Plowden emerged from his brown study with the gleam of some new +idea on his face. "I might bring my sister," he said. "My mother hates +Scotland. She doesn't go about, either, even in England. But I daresay +Winnie would enjoy it immensely. She has a great opinion of you, you +know." + +"I only saw her that once," Thorpe remarked. Some thought behind his +words lent a musing effect to the tone in which they were uttered. The +brother's contemplative smile seemed a comment upon this tone. + +"Women are curious creatures," he said. "They take fancies and dislikes +as swiftly and irresponsibly as cloud-shadows shift and change on a +mountain-side in April. But I happen to know that my sister does like +you immensely. So does my mother," he added, with another little smile. +He continued to regard Thorpe's face, but there was an increasing +uncertainty in his glance. "You've put on flesh, haven't you?" he +ventured, after a brief pause. There was the implication in his voice +and manner that he observed changes which disconcerted him. + +"Not much, I guess," replied the other, carelessly. "I've been +sticking to the City pretty closely. That's all. There's nothing that +a fortnight's rest won't put right. I should like it first-rate to have +you and your sister come. I'll let you know which place I decide upon. +Very likely you can manage to bring her at the same time that some other +ladies will be there. I expect Lady Cressage and Miss Madden, you know." + +Lord Plowden stared at his friend. "Are they back? Have they returned to +England?" he asked, confusedly. + +"Oh, didn't you know?" Thorpe pursued, with an accession of amiability. +He visibly had pleasure in the disclosure of the other's ignorance. +"They've been in London for two or three weeks. That is, Miss Madden has +been taking flying trips to see cathedrals and so on, but Lady Cressage +has stayed in town. Their long journeyings have rather done her up." +He looked Plowden straight in the eye, and added with an air of +deliberation: "I'm rather anxious about her health." + +The nobleman frankly abandoned his efforts to maintain an undisturbed +front. "You--are--anxious," he repeated, frowning in displeased +wonderment. + +"Why yes--why not?" demanded Thorpe, with a sudden growl in his voice. +As he covered the handsome Viscount with his heavy, intent gaze, +impulses of wrath stirred within him. Why should this fop of a lordling +put on this air of contemptuous incredulity? "What is there so amazing +about that? Why shouldn't I be anxious?" + +The peremptory harshness of his manner, and the scowl on his big, +lowering face, brought a sort of self-control back to the other. +He shrugged his shoulders, with an attempt at nonchalance. "Why not +indeed!" he said, as lightly as he could. With hands on knees, he bent +forward as if to rise. "But perhaps I'd better come in another day," he +suggested, tentatively. "I'm interrupting you." + +"No--sit still," Thorpe bade him, and then, with chin settled more +determinedly than ever in his cravat, sat eyeing him in a long, dour +silence. + +Lord Plowden found it impossible to obtain from this massive, apathetic +visage any clue to the thoughts working behind it. He chanced to recall +the time when he had discussed with Thorpe the meaning and values of +this inscrutable expression which the latter's countenance could assume. +It had seemed interesting and even admirable to him then--but then he +had not foreseen the possibility that he himself might some day confront +its adamantine barrier with a sinking heart. All at once he could bear +this implacable sphinx-gaze no longer. + +"I'm sure some other day would be better," he urged, with an open +overture to propitiation in his tone. "You're not in the mood to be +bothered with my affairs today." + +"As much today as any other," Thorpe answered him, slowly. + +The other sat suddenly upright--and then upon a moment's reflection rose +to his feet. "I don't in the least know what to make of all this," he +said, with nervous precipitancy. "If I've offended you in any way, say +so, and I will apologize at once. But treatment of this sort passes my +comprehension." + +Thorpe in truth did not himself comprehend it much more clearly. Some +strange freak of wilfulness impelled him to pursue this unintelligible +persecution. "I've said nothing about any offense," he declared, in a +hard, deliberate voice. "It is your own word. All the same--I mention +the name of a lady--a lady, mind you, whom I met under your own +roof--and you strike attitudes and put on airs as if--as if I wasn't +good enough!" + +"Oh, upon my word, that's all rubbish!" the other broke in. "Nothing +could have been further from my thoughts, I assure you. Quite naturally +I was surprised for the moment at a bit of unexpected news--but that was +all. I give you my word that was all." + +"Very well, then," Thorpe consented grudgingly to mutter. + +He continued his sullen scrutiny of the man standing before him, noting +how the vivacity of his bearing had deteriorated in these few minutes. +He had cut such a gallant figure when he entered the room, with his +sparkling eye and smile, his almost jaunty manner, his superior tailor's +plumage--and now he was such a crestfallen and wilted thing! Remembering +their last conversation together--remembering indeed how full of liking +for this young nobleman he had been when they last met--Thorpe paused +to wonder at the fact that he felt no atom of pity for him now. What was +his grievance? What had Plowden done to provoke this savage hostility? +Thorpe could not tell. He knew only that unnamed forces dragged him +forward to hurt and humiliate his former friend. Obscurely, no doubt, +there was something about a woman in it. Plowden had been an admirer of +Lady Cressage. There was her father's word for it that if there had been +money enough he would have wished to marry her. There had been, as well, +the General's hint that if the difficulty of Plowden's poverty +were removed, he might still wish to marry her--a hint which Thorpe +discovered to be rankling with a sudden new soreness in his mind. Was +that why he hated Plowden? No--he said to himself that it was not. +He was going to marry Lady Cressage himself. Her letter, signifying +delicately her assent to his proposal, had come to him that very +morning--was in his pocket now. What did he care about the bye-gone +aspirations of other would-be suitors? And, as for Plowden, he had +not even known of her return to London. Clearly there remained no +communications of any sort between them. It was not at all on her +account, he assured himself, that he had turned against Plowden. But +what other reason could there be? He observed his visitor's perturbed +and dejected mien with a grim kind of satisfaction--but still he could +not tell why. + +"This is all terribly important to me," the nobleman said, breaking +the unpleasant silence. His voice was surcharged with earnestness. +"Apparently you are annoyed with something--what it may be I can't for +the life of me make out. All I can say is"--and he broke off with a +helpless gesture which seemed to imply that he feared to say anything. + +Thorpe put out his lips. "I don't know what you mean," he said, +brusquely. + +"What I mean"--the other echoed, with bewildered vagueness of glance. +"I'm all at sea. I don't in the least grasp the meaning of anything. You +yourself volunteered the declaration that you would do great things for +me. 'We are rich men together'--those were your own words. I urged you +at the time to go slowly--to consider carefully whether you weren't +being too generous. I myself said to you that you were ridiculously +exaggerating what you called your obligation to me. It was you who +insisted upon presenting me with 100,000 shares." + +"Well, they are here ready for you," said Thorpe, with calculated +coldness. "You can have them whenever you please. I promised them to +you, and set them aside for you. You can take them away with you now, +if you like. What are you kicking up this fuss for, then? Upon my +word!--you come here and suggest to me that I made promises to you which +I've broken!" + +Plowden looked hard at him, as he turned over in his mind the purport of +these words. "I see what you are doing," he said then. "You turn over +to me 100,000 vendor's deferred shares. Thanks! I have already 1,000 of +them. I keep them in the same box with my father's Confederate bonds." + +"What the hell do you mean?" Thorpe broke in with explosive warmth, +lifting himself in his chair. + +"Oh, come now, Thorpe," Plowden retorted, "let's get this talk on an +intelligent, common-sense footing." He had regained something of his +self-control, and keenly put forward now to help him all his persuasive +graces of eye and speech. He seated himself once more. "I'm convinced +that you want to be good to me. Of course you do! If I've seemed here +for a minute or two to think otherwise, it was because I misunderstood +things. Don't let there be any further misunderstandings! I apologize +for doing you the momentary injustice of suspecting that you were going +to play off the vendor's shares on me. Of course you said it--but it was +a joke." + +"There seems to be a joke somewhere, sure enough," said Thorpe, in dryly +metallic tones--"but it isn't me who's the joker. I told you you should +have 100,000 of my 400,000 shares, didn't I? I told you that in so many +words. Very well, what more do you want? Here they are for you! I keep +my promise to the letter. But you--you seem to think you're entitled to +make a row. What do you mean by it?" + +"Just a little word"--interposed Plowden, with strenuous calmness of +utterance--"what you say may be true enough--yes, I admit it is true as +far as it goes. But was that what either of us had in our minds at +the time? You know it wasn't! You had just planned a coup on the Stock +Exchange which promised you immense rewards. I helped you to pass a +bogus allotment through our Board--without which your coup wouldn't have +been worth a farthing. You were enthusiastically grateful to me then. In +the excitement of the moment you promised me a quarter of all you should +make. 'WE ARE BOTH RICH MEN!' I remember those very words of yours. They +have never been out of my mind. We discussed the things that we would +each do, when we came into this wealth. It was taken for granted in all +our talk that your making money meant also my making money. That was the +complete understanding--here in London, and while you were at my house. +You know it as well as I do. And I refuse to suppose that you seriously +intend to sit there and pretend that you meant to give me nothing but an +armful of waste paper. It would be too monstrous!" + +Thorpe rapped with his nails on the desk, to point the force of his +rejoinder: "How do you account for the fact, my Lord"--he gave his +words a chillingly scornful precision of utterance--"that I distinctly +mentioned 400,000 vendor's shares of mine, 100,000 of which I promised +to turn over to you? Those were the specific terms, were they not? You +don't deny it? Then what are you talking about?" + +"I account for it in this way"--said Plowden, after a moment's baffled +reflection: "at that time you yourself hadn't grasped the difference +between the two classes of shares. You thought the vendor's shares would +play a part in the game. Ah! I see I've hit the mark! That was the way +of it!--And now here, Thorpe! Let all that's been said be bye-gones! I +don't want any verbal triumph over you. You don't want to wrong me--and +yourself too--by sticking to this quibble about vendor's shares. You +intended to be deuced good to me--and what have I done that you should +round on me now? I haven't bothered you before. I came today only +because things are particularly rotten, financially, just now. And I +don't even want to hold you to a quarter--I leave that entirely to you. +But after all that's been said and done--I put it to you as one man to +another--you are morally bound to help me out." + +"How do you mean?--'all that's been said and done'?" Thorpe asked the +question in some confusion of moods. Perhaps it was the ethical force +of Lord Plowden's appeal, perhaps only a recurring sense of his earlier +affection for the man--but for the moment he wavered in his purpose. + +The peer flushed a little, as he looked at the floor, revolving possible +answers to this query. His ear had been quick to seize the note of +hesitation in Thorpe's tone. He strove anxiously to get together +considerations which should tip the fluttering balance definitely his +way. + +"Well," he began slowly, "I hardly know how to put it. Of course there +was, in the first place, the immense expectation of fortune which you +gave me, and which I'm afraid I've more than lived up to. And then, of +course, others shared my expectations. It wasn't a thing one could +very well keep to oneself. My mother and my sister--especially my +sister--they were wonderfully excited about it. You are quite the hero +in their eyes. And then--you remember that talk we had, in which you +said I could help you--socially, you know. I did it a little, just as a +start, but of course there's no end to what could be done. You've been +too busy heretofore, but we can begin now whenever you like. I don't +mind telling you--I've had some thoughts of a possible marriage for you. +In point of blood and connections it would be such a match as a commoner +hasn't made before in my memory--a highly-cultivated and highly-bred +young lady of rank--and settlements could be made so that a considerable +quantity of land would eventually come to your son. I needn't tell you +that land stands for much more than money, if you happen to set your +mind on a baronetcy or a peerage. Of course--I need scarcely say--I +mention this marriage only as something which may or may not attract +you,--it is quite open to you to prefer another,--but there is hardly +anything of that sort in which I and my connections could not be of use +to you." + +Even more by the tone and inflection of these words than by the phrases +themselves, Thorpe divined that he was being offered the hand of the +Hon. Winifred Plowden in marriage. He recalled vividly the fact that +once the shadow of some such thought had floated through his own +brain; there had been a moment--it seemed curiously remote, like a +dream-phantom from some previous state of existence--when he had dwelt +with personal interest upon her inheritance from long lines of noblemen, +and her relation to half the peerage. Then, swiftly, illogically, he +disliked the brother of this lady more than ever. + +"All that is talking in the air," he said, with abrupt decision. "I +see nothing in it. You shall have your vendor's shares, precisely as I +promised you. I don't see how you can possibly ask for anything more." +He looked at the other's darkling face for a moment, and then rose with +unwieldy deliberation. "If you're so hard up though," he continued, +coldly, "I don't mind doing this much for you. I'll exchange the +thousand vendor's shares you already hold the ones I gave you to qualify +you at the beginning--for ordinary shares. You can sell those for +fifteen thousand pounds cash. In fact, I'll buy them of you now. I'll +give you a cheque for the amount. Do you want it?" + +Lord Plowden, red-faced and frowning, hesitated for a fraction of time. +Then in constrained silence he nodded, and Thorpe, leaning ponderously +over the desk, wrote out the cheque. His Lordship took it, folded it up, +and put it in his pocket without immediate comment. + +"Then this is the end of things, is it?" he asked, after an awkward +silence, in a voice he strove in vain to keep from shaking. + +"What things?" said the other. + +Plowden shrugged his shoulders, framed his lips to utter something which +he decided not to say, and at last turned on his heel. "Good day," he +called out over his shoulder, and left the room with a flagrant air of +hostility. + +Thorpe, wandering about the apartment, stopped after a time at the +cabinet, and helped himself to a drink. The thing most apparent to him +was that of set purpose he had converted a friend into an enemy. Why had +he done this? He asked himself the question in varying forms, over his +brandy and soda, but no convincing answer came. He had done it because +he had felt like doing it. It was impossible to trace motives further +than that. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +"EDITH will be down in a very few moments," Miss Madden assured Thorpe +that evening, when he entered the drawing-room of the house she had +taken in Grafton Street. + +He looked into her eyes and smiled, as he bowed over the hand she +extended to him. His glance expressed with forceful directness his +thought: "Ah, then she has told you!" + +The complacent consciousness of producing a fine effect in +evening-clothes had given to Mr. Stormont Thorpe habitually now a +mildness of manner, after the dressing hour, which was lacking to his +deportment in the day-time. The conventional attire of ceremony, juggled +in the hands of an inspired tailor, had been brought to lend to his +ponderous figure a dignity, and even something of a grace, which the +man within assimilated and made his own. It was an equable and rather +amiable Thorpe whom people encountered after nightfall--a gentleman who +looked impressive enough to have powerful performances believed of him, +yet seemed withal an approachable and easy-going person. Men who saw +him at midnight or later spoke of him to their womenkind with a certain +significant reserve, in which trained womankind read the suggestion that +the "Rubber King" drank a good deal, and was probably not wholly nice in +his cups. + +This, however, could not be said to render him less interesting in any +eyes. There was indeed about it the implication of a generous nature, or +at the least of a blind side--and it is not unpleasant to discover these +attributes in a new man who has made his half-million, and has, or may +have, countless favours to bestow. + +It was as if his tongue instead of his eyes had uttered the +exclamation--"Ah, then she has told you!"--for Miss Madden took it as +having been spoken. "I'm not disposed to pretend that I'm overjoyed +about it, you know," she said to him bluntly, as their hands dropped, +and they stood facing each other. "If I said I congratulated you, it +would be only the emptiest form. And I hate empty forms." + +"Why should you think that I won't make a good husband?" Thorpe asked +the question with a good-natured if peremptory frankness which came +most readily to him in the presence of this American lady, herself so +outspoken and masterful. + +"I don't know that I specially doubt it," she replied. "I suppose any +man has in him the makings of what is called a good husband--if the +conditions are sufficiently propitious." + +"Well then--what's the matter with the conditions?" he demanded, +jocosely. + +Miss Madden shrugged her shoulders slightly. Thorpe noted the somewhat +luxuriant curves of these splendid shoulders, and the creamy whiteness +of the skin, upon which, round the full throat, a chain of diamonds lay +as upon satin--and recalled that he had not seen her before in what he +phrased to himself as so much low-necked dress. The deep fire-gleam in +her broad plaits of hair gave a wonderful brilliancy to this colouring +of brow and throat and bosom. He marvelled at himself for discovering +only now that she also was beautiful--and then thrilled with pride at +the thought that henceforth his life might be passed altogether among +beautiful women, radiant in gems and costly fabrics, who would smile +upon him at his command. + +"Oh, I have no wish to be a kill-joy," she protested. "I'm sure I hope +all manner of good results from the--the experiment." + +"I suppose that's what it comes to," he said, meditatively. "It's all an +experiment. Every marriage in the world must be that--neither more nor +less." + +"With all the experience of the ages against its coming out right." She +had turned to move toward a chair, but looked now over her shoulder at +him. "Have you ever seen what seemed to you an absolutely happy marriage +in your life?" + +Upon reflection he shook his head. "I don't recall one on the spur of +the minute," he confessed. "Not the kind, I mean, that you read about +in books. But I've seen plenty where the couple got along together in +a good, easy, comfortable sort of way, without a notion of any sort +of unpleasantness. It's people who marry too young who do most of the +fighting, I imagine. After people have got to a sensible age, and know +what they want and what they can get along without, why then there's +no reason for any trouble. We don't start out with any school-boy and +school-girl moonshine." + +"Oh, there's a good deal to be said for the moonshine," she interrupted +him, as she sank upon the sofa. + +"Why certainly," he assented, amiably, as he stood looking down at her. +"The more there is of it, the better--if it comes naturally, and people +know enough to understand that it is moonshine, and isn't the be-all and +end-all of everything." + +"There's a lover for you!" Miss Madden cried, with mirth and derision +mingled in her laugh. + +"Don't you worry about me," he told her. "I'm a good enough lover, +all right. And when you come to that, if Edith is satisfied, I don't +precisely see what----" + +"What business it is of mine?" she finished the sentence for him. +"You're entirely right. As you say, IF she's satisfied, no one else has +anything to do with it." + +"But have you got any right to assume that she isn't satisfied?" he +asked her with swift directness--"or any reason for supposing it?" + +Miss Madden shook her head, but the negation seemed qualified by the +whimsical smile she gave him. "None whatever," she said--and on the +instant the talk was extinguished by the entrance of Lady Cressage. + +Thorpe's vision was flooded with the perception of his rare fortune as +he went to meet her. He took the hand she offered, and looked into the +smile of her greeting, and could say nothing. Her beauty had gathered to +it new forces in his eyes--forces which dazzled and troubled his glance. +The thought that this exquisite being--this ineffable compound +of feeling and fine nerves and sweet wisdom and wit and +loveliness--belonged to him seemed too vast for the capacity of his +mind. He could not keep himself from trembling a little, and from +diverting to a screen beyond her shoulder a gaze which he felt to be +overtly dimmed and embarrassed. + +"I have kept you waiting," she murmured. + +The soft sound of her voice came to his ears as from a distance. It +bore an unfamiliar note, upon the strangeness of which he dwelt for a +detached instant. Then its meaning broke in upon his consciousness from +all sides, and lighted up his heavy face with the glow of a conqueror's +self-centred smile. He bent his eyes upon her, and noted with a +controlled exaltation how her glance in turn deferred to his, and +fluttered beneath it, and shrank away. He squared his big shoulders and +lifted his head. Still holding her jewelled hand in his, he turned +and led her toward the sofa. Halting, he bowed with an exaggerated +genuflection and flourish of his free hand to Miss Madden, the while he +flashed at her a glance at once of challenge and of deprecation. Through +the sensitized contact of the other hand, he felt that the woman he held +bowed also, and in his own spirit of confused defiance and entreaty. +The laugh he gave then seemed to dispel the awkwardness which had +momentarily hung over the mocking salutation. + +Miss Madden laughed too. "Oh, I surrender," she said. "You drag +congratulations from me." + +Some quality in the tone of this ungracious speech had the effect of +putting the party at its ease. Lady Cressage seated herself beside her +friend on the sofa, and gently, abstractedly, patted one of her hands. +Thorpe remained on his feet, looking down at the pair with satisfied +cheerfulness. He tool, a slip of paper from his pocket, to support a +statement he was making. + +"I'm forever telling you what a strain the City is on a man in my +position," he said--"and today I had the curiosity to keep an account of +what happened. Here it is. I had thirty callers. Of those, how many do +you suppose came to see me on my own business? Just eight. That is to +say, their errands were about investments of mine, but most of them +managed to get in some word about axes of their own to grind. All the +rest made no pretence at all of thinking about anybody but themselves. +I've classified them, one by one, here. + +"First, there were six men who wanted me to take shares of one sort or +another, and I had to more or less listen to what they tried to make +out their companies were like. They were none of them any good. Eight +different fellows came to me with schemes that haven't reached the +company stage. One had a scheme for getting possession of a nigger +republic in the West Indies by raising a loan, and then repudiating all +the previous loans. Another wanted me to buy a paper for him, in which +he was to support all my enterprises. Another wanted to start a bank--I +apparently to find the money, and he the brains. One chap wanted me to +finance a theatrical syndicate--he had a bag full of photographs of an +actress all eyes and teeth and hair,--and another chap had a scheme all +worked out for getting a concession from Spain for one of the Caroline +Islands, and putting up a factory there for making porpoise-hide +leather. + +"Then there were three inventors--let's see, here they are--one with a +coiled wire spring for scissors inside a pocket-knife, and one with +a bottle, the whole top of which unscrews instead of having a cork or +stopper, and one with an electrical fish-line, a fine wire inside the +silk, you know, which connects with some battery when a fish bites, and +rings a bell, and throws out hooks in various directions, and does all +sorts of things. + +"Well then, there was a man who wanted me to take the chairmanship of +a company, and one who wanted me to guarantee an overdraft at his bank, +and two who wanted to borrow money on stock, and one parson-fellow who +tried to stick me for a subscription to some Home or other he said he +had for children in the country. He was the worst bounder of the lot. + +"Well, there's twenty-seven people--and twenty of them strangers to +me, and not worth a penny to me, and all trying to get money out of me. +Isn't that a dog's life for one?" + +"I don't know," said Miss Madden, contemplatively. "A lady may have +twice that number of callers in an afternoon--quite as great strangers +to all intents and purposes--and not even have the satisfaction of +discovering that they had any object whatever in calling. At least your +people had some motive: the grey matter in their brain was working. And +besides, one of them might have had something to say which you would +value. I don't think that ever happens among a lady's callers; does it, +Edith?" + +Edith smiled, pleasantly and yet a little wistfully, but said nothing. + +"At any rate," Thorpe went on, with a kind of purpose gathering in his +eyes, "none of those fellows cost me anything, except in time. But then +I had three callers, almost in a bunch, and one of them took out of me +thirty thousand pounds, and another fifteen thousand pounds, and the +third--an utter stranger he was--he got an absolute gratuity of ten +thousand pounds, besides my consent to a sale which, if I had refused +it, would have stood me in perhaps forty or fifty thousand pounds more. +You ladies may thank your stars you don't have that kind of callers!" + +The sound of these figures in the air brought a constrained look to the +faces of the women. Seemingly they confronted a subject which was not to +their liking. The American, however, after a moment's pause, took it up +in an indifferent manner. + +"You speak of an 'absolute gratuity.' I know nothing of London City +methods--but isn't ten thousand pounds a gratuity on a rather large +scale?" + +Thorpe hesitated briefly, then smiled, and, with slow deliberation, drew +up a chair and seated himself before them. "Perhaps I don't mind telling +you about it," he began, and paused again. "I had a letter in my mail +this morning," he went on at last, giving a sentimental significance to +both tone and glance--"a letter which changed everything in the world +for me, and made me the proudest and happiest man above ground. And +I put that letter in my pocket, right here on the left side--and it's +there now, for that matter"--he put his hand to his breast, as if under +the impulse to verify his words by the production of the missive, and +then stopped and flushed. + +The ladies, watching him, seemed by their eyes to condone the +mawkishness of the demonstration which had tempted him. There was indeed +a kind of approving interest in their joint regard, which he had not +experienced before. + +"I had it in my pocket," he resumed, with an accession of mellow emotion +in his voice, "and none of the callers ever got my thoughts very far +from that letter. And one of these was an old man--a French banker who +must be seventy years old, but dyes his hair a kind of purple black--and +it seems that his nephew had got the firm into a terrible kind of +scrape, selling 2,000 of my shares when he hadn't got them to sell and +couldn't get them--and the old man came to beg me to let him out at +present market figures. He got Lord Chaldon--he's my Chairman, you +know--to bring him, and introduce him as his friend, and plead for +him--but I don't think all that, by itself, would have budged me an +atom. But then the old man told how he was just able to scrape together +money enough to buy the shares he needed, at the ruling price, and he +happened to mention that his niece's marriage portion would have to +be sacrificed. Well, then, do you know, that letter in my pocket said +something to me....And--well, that's the story. The girl' s portion, I +wormed it out of him, was ten thousand...and I struck that much off +the figure that I allowed him to buy his shares, and save his firm, +for....It was all the letter that did it, mind you!" + +He concluded the halting narrative amid a marked silence. The ladies +looked at him and at each other, but they seemed surprised out of their +facility of comment. In this kind of flustered hush, the door was opened +and dinner was announced. + +Miss Madden welcomed the diversion by rising with ostentatious vigour. +"I will take myself out," she declared, with cheerful promptness leading +the way. Lady Cressage took the arm Thorpe offered her, and gave no +token of comprehending that her wrist was being caressingly pressed +against his side as they moved along. + +At the little table shining in the centre of the dark, cool dining-room, +talk moved idly about among general topics. A thunderstorm broke over +the town, at an early stage of the dinner, and the sound of the rushing +downpour through the open windows, and the breath of freshness which +stirred the jaded air, were pleasanter than any speech. Thoughts roved +intuitively country-ward, where the long-needed rain would be dowering +the landscape with new life--where the earth at sunrise would be green +again, and buoyant in reawakened energy, and redolent with the perfumes +of sweetest summer. They spoke of the fields and the moors with the +longing of tired town-folk in August. + +"Oh, when I get away"--said Thorpe, fervently, "it seems to me that I +don't want ever to come back. These last few weeks have got terribly on +my nerve. And really--why should I come back? I've been asking myself +the question--more today than ever before. Of course everything has +been different today. But if I'm to get any genuine good out of my--my +fortune--I must pull away from the City altogether sometime--and why not +now? Of course, some important things are still open--and they have to +be watched night and day--but after all, Semple--that's my Broker--he +could do it for me. At the most, it won't last more than another six +weeks. There is a settlement-day next week, the 15th, and another a +fortnight after, on the 29th, and another on September 12th. Well, those +three days, if they're worked as I intend they shall be, and nothing +unforeseen happens, will bring in over four hundred thousand pounds, and +close the 'corner' in Rubber Consols for good. Then I need never see the +City again, thank God! And for that matter--why, what is six weeks? +It's like tomorrow. I'm going to act as if I were free already. The rain +fills me full of the country. Will you both come with me tomorrow +or next day, and see the Pellesley place in Hertfordshire? By the +photographs it's the best thing in the market. The newest parts of it +are Tudor--and that's what I've always wanted." + +"How unexpected you are!" commented Miss Madden. "You are almost +the last person I should have looked to for a sentiment about Tudor +foundations." + +Thorpe put out his lips a trifle. "Ah, you don't know me," he replied, +in a voice milder than his look had promised. "Because I'm rough and +practical, you mustn't think I don't know good things when I see them. +Why, all the world is going to have living proof very soon"--he paused, +and sent a smile surcharged with meaning toward the silent member of the +trio--"living proof that I'm the greatest judge of perfection in beauty +of my time." + +He lifted his glass as he spoke, and the ladies accepted with an +inclination of the head, and a touch of the wine at their lips, his +tacit toast. "Oh, I think I do know you," said Celia Madden, calmly +discursive. "Up to a certain point, you are not so unlike other men. If +people appeal to your imagination, and do not contradict you, or bore +you, or get in your way, you are capable of being very nice indeed +to them. But that isn't a very uncommon quality. What is uncommon +in you--at least that is my reading--is something which according +to circumstances may be nice, or very much the other way about. It's +something which stands quite apart from standards of morals or ethics or +the ordinary emotions. But I don't know, whether it is desirable for me +to enter into this extremely personal analysis." + +"Oh yes, go on," Thorpe urged her. He watched her face with an almost +excited interest. + +"Well--I should say that you possessed a capacity for sudden and +capricious action in large matters, equally impatient of reasoning +and indifferent to consequences, which might be very awkward, and even +tragic, to people who happened to annoy you, or stand in your road. You +have the kind of organization in which, within a second, without any +warning or reason, a passing whim may have worked itself up into an +imperative law--something you must obey." + +The man smiled and nodded approvingly: "You've got me down fine," he +said. + +"I talk with a good deal of confidence," she went on, with a cheerless, +ruminative little laugh, "because it is my own organization that I am +describing, too. The difference is that I was allowed to exploit my +capacity for mischief very early. I had my own way in my teens--my own +money, my own power--of course only of a certain sort, and in a very +small place. But I know what I did with that power. I spread trouble +and misery about me--always of course on a small scale. Then a group of +things happened in a kind of climax--a very painful climax--and it +shook the nonsense out of me. My brother and my father died--some other +sobering things happened...and luckily I was still young enough to stop +short, and take stock of myself, and say that there were certain paths +I would never set foot on again--and stick to it. But with you--do you +see?--power only comes to you when you are a mature man. Experiences, no +matter how unpleasant they are, will not change you now. You will not +be moved by this occurrence or that to distrust yourself, or reconsider +your methods, or form new resolutions. Oh no! Power will be terrible +in your hands, if people whom you can injure provoke you to cruel +courses----" + +"Oh, dear--dear!" broke in Lady Cressage. "What a distressing Mrs. +Gummidge-Cassandra you are, Celia! Pray stop it!" + +"No--she's right enough," said Thorpe, gravely. "That's the kind of man +I am." + +He seemed so profoundly interested in the contemplation of this portrait +which had been drawn of him, that the others respected his reflective +silence. He sat for some moments, idly fingering a fork on the table, +and staring at a blotch of vivid red projected through a decanter upon +the cloth. + +"It seems to me that's the only kind of man it's worth while to be," +he added at last, still speaking with thoughtful deliberation. "There's +nothing else in the world so big as power--strength. If you have that, +you can get everything else. But if you have it, and don't use it, then +it rusts and decays on your hands. It's like a thoroughbred horse. You +can't keep it idle in the stable. If you don't exercise it, you lose +it." + +He appeared to be commenting upon some illustration which had occurred +to his own mind, but was not visible to his auditors. While they +regarded him, he was prompted to admit them to his confidence. + +"There was a case of it today," he said, and then paused. + +"Precisely," put in Miss Madden. "The fact that some Frenchwoman, of +whom you had never heard before, was going to lose her marriage portion +caught your attention, and on the instant you presented her with +$10,000, an exercise of power which happens to be on the generous +side--but still entirely unreasoning, and not deserving of any +intellectual respect. And here's the point: if it had happened that +somebody else chanced to produce an opposite impression upon you, you +would have been capable of taking $50,000 away from him with just as +light a heart." + +Thorpe's face beamed with repressed amusement. "As a matter of fact it +was that kind of case I was going to mention. I wasn't referring to the +girl and her marriage portion. A young man came to me today--came into +my room all cock-a-whoop, smiling to himself with the notion that he had +only to name what he wanted, and I would give it to him--and----" + +He stopped abruptly, with a confused little laugh. He had been upon the +brink of telling about Lord Plowden's discomfiture, and even now the +story itched upon his tongue. It cost him an effort to put the narrative +aside, the while he pondered the arguments which had suddenly reared +themselves against publicity. When at last he spoke, it was with a +glance of conscious magnanimity toward the lady who had consented to be +his wife. + +"Never mind," he said, lightly. "There wasn't much to it. The man +annoyed me, somehow--and he didn't get what he came for--that's all." + +"But he was entitled to get it?" asked Celia Madden. Thorpe's lips +pouted over a reply. "Well--no," he said, with a kind of reluctance. +"He got strictly what he was entitled to--precisely what I had promised +him--and he wrung up his nose at that--and then I actually gave him +15,000 pounds he wasn't entitled to at all." + +"I hardly see what it proves, then," Edith Cressage remarked, and the +subject was dropped. + +Some two hours later, Thorpe took his departure. It was not until he +was getting into the hansom which had been summoned, that it all at +once occurred to him that he had not for a moment been alone with his +betrothed. Upon reflection, as the cab sped smoothly forward, this +seemed odd to him. He decided finally that there was probably some +social rule about such things which he didn't understand. + +***** + +In the drawing-room of the house in Grafton Street which he had quitted, +the two ladies sat with faces averted from each other, in constrained +silence. + +Edith Cressage rose at last, and took a few aimless steps, with her +hands at her hair. "Well--I'm embarked--fairly under way!" she said, in +clear-cut, almost provocative tones. + +"I don't at all know what to say," her companion replied, slowly. "I +fancy that you exaggerate my disapproval. Perhaps it ought not even to +be called disapproval at all. It is only that I am puzzled--and a little +frightened." + +"Oh, I am frightened too," said the other, but with eagerness rather +than trepidation in her voice. "That is why I did not give you the +signal to leave us alone. I couldn't quite get up the nerve for it. But +would you believe it?--that is one of the charms of the thing. There +is an excitement about it that exhilarates me. To get happiness through +terror--you can't understand that, can you?" + +"I'm trying. I think I'm beginning to understand," said Miss Madden, +vaguely. + +"Did you ever set yourself to comprehending why Marie Stuart married +Bothwell?" asked Edith, looking down upon the other with illuminating +fixity. "You have it all--all there. Marie got tired of the smooth +people, the usual people. There was the promise of adventure, and risk, +and peril, and the grand emotions with the big, dark brute." + +"It isn't a happy story--this parallel that you pick out," commented +Celia, absently. + +"Happy! Pah!" retorted Edith, with spirit. "Who knows if it wasn't the +only really happy thing in her life? The snobs and prigs all scold +her and preach sermons at her--they did it in her lifetime: they do it +now----" "Oh come, I'm neither a snob nor a prig," put in Celia, looking +up in her turn, and tempering with a smile the energy of her tone--"I +don't blame her for her Bothwell; I don't criticize her. I never was +even able to mind about her killing Darnley. You see I take an extremely +liberal view. One might almost call it broad. But if I had been one of +her ladies--her bosom friends--say Catherine Seton--and she had +talked with me about it--I think I should have confessed to some +forebodings--some little misgivings." + +"And do you know what she would have said?" Edith's swift question, put +with a glowing face and a confident voice, had in it the ring of assured +triumph. "She would have answered you: 'My dearest girl, all my life I +have done what other people told me to do. In my childhood I was +given in marriage to a criminal idiot. In my premature widowhood I +was governed by a committee of scoundrels of both sexes until another +criminal idiot was imposed upon me as a second husband. My own +personality has never had the gleam of a chance. I have never yet +done any single thing because I wanted to do it. Between first my +politician-mother and her band of tonsured swindlers, and then my +cantankerous brother and his crew of snarling and sour-minded preachers, +and all the court liars and parasites and spies that both sides +surrounded me with, I have lived an existence that isn't life at all. I +purport to be a woman, but I have never been suffered to see a genuine +man. And now here is one--or what I think to be one--and I'm given to +understand that he is a pirate and a murderer and an unspeakable ruffian +generally--but he takes my fancy, and he has beckoned to me to come to +him, and so you will kindly get me my hat and jacket and gloves.' That's +what she would have said to you, my dear." + +"And I"--said Celia, rising after a moment's pause, and putting her hand +upon Edith's arm--"I would have answered, 'Dearest lady, in whatever +befalls, I pray you never to forget that I am to the end your fond and +devoted and loyal servant.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +AUGUST wore itself out in parched tedium, and a September began which +seemed even more unbearable in town,--and still Thorpe did not get away +from London. + +So far as the payment of an exorbitant rent in advance, and the receipt +of innumerable letters from a restless and fussy steward whom he had +not yet seen, went as evidence, he knew himself to be the tenant in +possession of a great shooting in Morayshire. He had several photographs +of what was called the lodge, but looked like something between a +mansion and a baronial castle, on the mantel of the Board Room. The +reflection that this sumptuous residence had been his for a month, and +that it daily stood waiting for him, furnished and swept and provisioned +for his coming, did nothing to help the passing of time in the hot, +fagged City. More than once he had said resolutely that, on the morrow, +or at the worst the next day, he would go--but in the event he had +not gone. In the last week of August he had proceeded to the length of +sending his niece and nephew Northward, and shutting up the house in +Ovington Square, and betaking himself to the Savoy Hotel. This had +appeared at the time to be almost equivalent to his getting away +himself,--to be at least a first stage in the progress of his own +journey. But at the hotel he had stuck fast,--and now, on the tenth of +September, was no nearer the moors and the deer-forest than he had been +a month before. + +A novel sense of loneliness,--of the fatuity of present +existence,--weighed grievously upon him. The ladies of Grafton Street +had left town upon a comprehensive itinerary of visits which included +the Malvern country, and a ducal castle in Shropshire, and a place in +Westmoreland. There was nothing very definite about the date of their +coming to him in Scotland. The lady who had consented to marry him had, +somehow, omitted to promise that she would write to him. An arrangement +existed, instead, by which she and his niece Julia were to correspond, +and to fix between themselves the details of the visit to Morayshire. + +Thorpe hardly went to the point of annoyance with this arrangement. +He was conscious of no deep impulse to write love-letters himself, and +there was nothing in the situation which made his failure to receive +love-letters seem unnatural. The absence of moonshine, at least during +this preliminary season, had been quite taken for granted between them, +and he did not complain even to himself. There was even a kind of +proud satisfaction for him in the thought that, though he had all but +completed the purchase of the noble Pellesley estate for Edith Cressage, +he had never yet kissed her. The reserve he imposed upon himself gave +him a certain aristocratic fineness in his own eyes. It was the means by +which he could feel himself to be most nearly her equal. But he remained +very lonely in London, none the less. + +It is true that a great deal of society was continually offered to him, +and even thrust upon him. In the popular phrase, London was empty, +but there seemed to be more people than ever who desired Mr. Stormont +Thorpe' s presence at their dinner-tables, or their little theatre or +card or river parties. He clung sullenly to his rule of going +nowhere, but it was not so simple a matter to evade the civilities and +importunities of those who were stopping at the hotel, or who came there +to waylay him at the entrance, or to encounter him in the restaurant. He +could not always refuse to sit down at tables when attractively-dressed +and vivacious women made room for him, or to linger over cigars and wine +with their husbands and escorts later on. + +An incessant and spirited court was paid to him by many different groups +of interested people who were rarely at the pains to dissemble their +aims. He formed a manner for the reception of these advances, compounded +of joviality, cynicism, and frank brutality, which nobody, to his face +at least, resented. If women winced under his mocking rudenesses of +speech and smile, if men longed to kill him for the cold insolence of +his refusal to let them inside his guard, they sedulously kept it from +him. The consciousness that everybody was afraid of him,--that everybody +would kneel to him, and meekly take insult and ignominy from him, if +only hope remained to them of getting something out of him,--hardened +like a crust upon his mind. + +It was impossible to get a sense of companionship from people who +cringed to him, and swallowed his affronts and cackled at his jokes +with equal docility. Sometimes he had a passing amusement in the rough +pleasantries and cruelties which they drew from him. There were two or +three bright Jewish women, more gayly clever and impudent, perhaps, than +beautiful, with whom he found it genuine fun to talk, and concerning +whom he was perpetually conceiving projects which could not have been +discussed with their husbands, and as perpetually doing nothing to +test their feasibility. But these diversions were in their essence +unsubstantial. There was not even the semblance of a real friendship +among them,--and loneliness became an increasing burden. + +His sister at the old book-shop exasperated him nowadays to a degree +which often provoked within him the resolution to have done with her. +He had a score of projects for her betterment, each capable of as many +variations and eager adaptations to suit her fancy, but to them all and +sundry she opposed a barrier of stupidly passive negation. There was +nothing she wanted done for her. She would not exchange the work she had +been brought up in for a life of idleness. She did not want, and would +not know what to do with, a bigger shop than she had. An augmentation of +her capital would be of no use, because there was no room in the crowded +little shop for a larger stock than it contained. She was entirely +satisfied with the dingy home overhead, and declined to think even of +moving elsewhere. Over and over again she met his propositions with a +saying which he could recall having particularly hated on their father's +lips,--"It's ill teaching an old dog new tricks." + +"You ought to have them taught you with a stick," he had told her +roundly, on the last occasion. + +She had merely shrugged her gaunt shoulders at him. "You think you can +bully everybody and make them crawl to you,--but there's no good your +trying it on with me," she had told him, and he had pushed his way out +of the shop almost stamping his feet. It was clear to him at that moment +that he would never darken her door again. + +Yet now, on this afternoon of the tenth, as he lounged with a cigar and +a City paper in his apartment at the hotel after luncheon, wondering +whether it were too hot to issue forth for a walk to the Park, the +irrelevant idea of going round to see his sister kept coming into his +mind. He seated himself and fastened his attention upon the paper,--but +off it slipped again to the old book-shop, and to that curious, +cross-grained figure, its mistress. He abandoned himself to thinking +about her--and discovered that a certain unique quality in her +challenged his admiration. She was the only absolutely disinterested +person he knew--the only creature in the world, apparently, who did not +desire to make something out of him. She was not at all well-off,--was +indeed rather poor than otherwise,--and here was her only brother a +millionaire, and in her dumb way she had a sisterly affection for him, +and yet she could not be argued or cajoled into touching a penny of his +money. Surely there could be no other woman like her. + +Thorpe realized that it was a distinction to have such a sister,--and +behind this thought rose obscurely the suggestion that there must be +wonderful blood in a race which had produced such a daughter. And for +that matter, such a son too! He lifted his head, and looked abstractedly +before him, as if he were gazing at some apotheosis of himself in a +mirror. + +He beheld all at once something concrete and personal, obtruded into the +heart of his reverie, the sight of which dimly astounded him. For the +moment, with opened lips he stared at it,--then slowly brought himself +to comprehend what had happened. An old man had by some oversight of +the hotel servants been allowed to enter the room unannounced. He had +wandered in noiselessly, and had moved in a purblind fashion to the +centre of the apartment. The vagueness of the expression on his face and +of his movements hinted at a vacant mind or too much drink,--but Thorpe +gave no thought to either hypothesis. The face itself--no--yes--it was +the face of old Tavender. + +"In the name of God! What are you doing here?" Thorpe gasped at this +extraordinary apparition. Still staring, he began to push back his chair +and put his weight upon his feet. + +"Well--Thorpe"--the other began, thrusting forward his head to look +through his spectacles--"so it is you, after all. I didn't know whether +I was going to find you or not. This place has got so many turns and +twists to it----" + +"But good heavens!" interposed the bewildered Thorpe. He had risen to +his feet. He mechanically took the hand which the other had extended to +him. "What in hell"--he began, and broke off again. The aroma of alcohol +on the air caught his sense, and his mind stopped at the perception that +Tavender was more or less drunk. He strove to spur it forward, to compel +it to encompass the meanings of this new crisis, but almost in vain. + +"Thought I'd look you up," said the old man, buoyantly. "Nobody in +London I'd rather see than you. How are you, anyway?" + +"What did you come over for? When did you get here?" Thorpe put the +questions automatically. His self-control was returning to him; his +capable brain pushed forward now under something like disciplined +direction. + +"Why I guess I owe it all to you," replied Tavender. Traces of the old +Quaker effect which had been so characteristic of him still hung about +his garb and mien, but there shone a new assurance on his benignant, +rubicund face. Prosperity had visibly liberalized and enheartened him. +He shook Thorpe's hand again. "Yes, sir--it must have been all through +you!" he repeated. "I got my cable three weeks ago--'Hasten to +London, urgent business, expenses and liberal fee guaranteed, Rubber +Consols'--that's what the cable said, that is, the first one and of +course you're the man that introduced me to those rubber people. And so +don't you see I owe it all to you?" + +His insistence upon his obligation was suddenly almost tearful. Thorpe +thought hard as he replied: "Oh--that's all right. I'm very glad indeed +to have helped you along. And so you came over for the Rubber Consols +people, eh? Well--that's good. Seen 'em yet? You haven't told me when +you landed." + +"Came up from Southampton this morning. My brother-in-law was down +there to meet me. We came up to London together." "Your brother-in-law," +observed Thorpe, meditatively. Some shadowy, remote impression of +having forgotten something troubled his mind for an instant. "Is your +brother-in-law in the rubber business?" + +"Extraor'nary thing," explained Tavender, beamingly, "he don't know +no more about the whole affair than the man 'n the moon. I asked him +today--but he couldn't tell me anything about the business--what it was +I'd been sent for, or anything." + +"But he--he knew you'd been sent for," Thorpe commented upon brief +reflection. + +"Why, he sent the second cable himself----" + +"What second cable?" + +"Why it was the next day,--or maybe it was sent that same night, and +not delivered till morning,--I got another cable, this time from my +brother-in-law, telling me to cable him what ship I sailed on and when. +So of course he knew all about it--but now he says he don't. He's a +curious sort of fellow, anyway." + +"But how is he mixed up in it?" demanded Thorpe, impatiently. + +"Well, as nearly as I can figure it out, he works for one of the men +that's at the head of this rubber company. It appears that he happened +to show this man--he's a man of title, by the way--a letter I wrote to +him last spring, when I got back to Mexico--and so in that way this man, +when he wanted me to come over, just told Gafferson to cable to me." + +"Gafferson," Thorpe repeated, very slowly, and with almost an effect +of listlessness. He was conscious of no surprise; it was as if he +had divined all along the sinister shadows of Lord Plowden and Lord +Plowden's gardener, lurking in the obscurity behind this egregious old +ass of a Tavender. + +"He's a tremendous horticultural sharp," said the other. "Probably +you've heard tell of him. He's taken medals for new flowers and things +till you can't rest. He's over at--what do you call it?--the Royal +Aquarium, now, to see the Dahlia Show. I went over there with him, but +it didn't seem to be my kind of a show, and so I left him there, and +I'm to look in again for him at 5:30. I'm going down to his place in the +country with him tonight, to meet his boss--the nobleman I spoke of." + +"That's nice," Thorpe commented, slowly. "I envy anybody who can get +into the country these days. But how did you know I was here?" "The +woman in the book-store told me--I went there the first thing. You might +be sure I'd look you up. Nobody was ever a better friend than you've +been to me, Thorpe. And do you know what I want you to do? I want you to +come right bang out, now, and have a drink with me." + +"I was thinking of something of the sort myself," the big man replied. +"I'll get my hat, and be with you in a minute." + +In the next room he relinquished his countenance to a frown of fierce +perplexity. More than a minute passed in this scowling preoccupation. +Then his face lightened with the relief of an idea, and he stepped +confidently back into the parlour. + +"Come along," he said, jovially. "We'll have a drink downstairs, and +then we'll drive up to Hanover Square and see if we can't find a friend +of mine at his club." + +In the office below he stopped long enough to secure a considerable +roll of bank-notes in exchange for a cheque. A little later, a hansom +deposited the couple at the door of the Asian Club, and Thorpe, in the +outer hallway of this institution, clicked his teeth in satisfaction at +the news that General Kervick was on the premises. + +The General, having been found by a boy and brought down, extended +to his guests a hospitality which was none the less urbane for the +evidences of surprise with which it was seasoned. He concealed so +indifferently his inability to account for Tavender, that the anxious +Thorpe grew annoyed with him, but happily Tavender's perceptions were +less subtle. He gazed about him in his dim-eyed way with childlike +interest, and babbled cheerfully over his liquor. He had not been +inside a London club before, and his glimpse of the reading-room, where, +isolated, purple-faced, retired old Empire-makers sat snorting in the +silence, their gouty feet propped up on foot-rests, their white brows +scowling over the pages of French novels, particularly impressed him. It +was a new and halcyon vision of the way to spend one's declining years. +And the big smoking-room--where the leather cushions were so low and +so soft, and the connection between the bells and the waiters was so +efficient--that was even better. + +Thorpe presently made an excuse for taking Kervick apart. "I brought +this old jackass here for a purpose," he said in low, gravely mandatory +tones. "He thinks he's got an appointment at 5:30 this afternoon--but +he's wrong. He hasn't. He's not going to have any appointment at +all--for a long time yet. I want you to get him drunk, there where he +sits, and then take him away with you, and get him drunker still, and +then take a train with him somewhere--any station but Charing Cross or +that line--and I don't care where you land with him--Scotland or Ireland +or France--whatever you like. Here's some money for you--and you can +write to me for more. I don't care what you say to him--make up any yarn +you like--only keep him pacified, and keep him away from London, and +don't let a living soul talk to him--till I give you the word. You'll +let me know where you are. I'll get away now--and mind, General, a good +deal depends on the way you please me in this thing." + +The soldier's richly-florid face and intent, bulging blue eyes expressed +vivid comprehension. He nodded with eloquence as he slipped the notes +into his trousers pocket. "Absolutely," he murmured with martial +brevity, from under his white, tight moustache. + +With only a vague word or two of meaningless explanation to Tavender, +Thorpe took his departure, and walked back to the hotel. From what he +had learned and surmised, it was not difficult to put the pieces of +the puzzle together. This ridiculous old fool, he remembered now, had +reproached himself, when he was in England before, for his uncivil +neglect of his brother-in-law. By some absurd chance, this damned +brother-in-law happened to be Gafferson. It was clear enough that, when +he returned to Mexico, Tavender had written to Gafferson, explaining +the unexpected pressure of business which had taken up all his time in +England. Probably he had been idiot enough to relate what he of course +regarded as the most wonderful piece of good news--how the worthless +concession he had been deluded into buying had been bought back from +him. As likely as not he had even identified the concession, and given +Thorpe's name as that of the man who had first impoverished and then +mysteriously enriched him. At all events, he had clearly mentioned that +he had a commission to report upon the Rubber Consols property, and +had said enough else to create the impression that there were criminal +secrets connected with its sale to the London Company. The rest was +easy. Gafferson, knowing Lord Plowden's relation to the Company, had +shown him Tavender's letter. Lord Plowden, meditating upon it, had seen +a way to be nasty--and had vindictively plunged into it. He had brought +Tavender from Mexico to London, to use him as a weapon. All this was as +obvious as the nose on one's face. + +But a weapon for what? Thorpe, as this question put itself in his mind, +halted before a shop-window full of soft-hued silk fabrics, to muse upon +an answer. The delicate tints and surfaces of what was before his eyes +seemed somehow to connect themselves with the subject. Plowden himself +was delicately-tinted and refined of texture. Vindictiveness was too +plain and coarse an emotion to sway such a complicated and polished +organism. He reasoned it out, as he stood with lack-lustre gaze before +the plate-glass front, aloof among a throng of eager and talkative women +who pressed around him--that Plowden would not have spent his money on +a mere impulse of mischief-making. He would be counting upon something +more tangible than revenge--something that could be counted and weighed +and converted into a bank-balance. He smiled when he reached this +conclusion--greatly surprising and confusing a matronly lady into +whose correct face he chanced to be looking at the instant--and turning +slowly, continued his walk. + +At the office of the hotel, he much regretted not having driven instead, +for he learned that Semple had twice telephoned from the City for him. +It was late in the afternoon--he noted with satisfaction that the +clock showed it to be already past the hour of the Tavender-Gafferson +appointment,--but he had Semple's office called up, upon the chance that +someone might be there. The clerk had not consumed more than ten minutes +in the preliminaries of finding out that no one was there--Thorpe +meanwhile passing savage comments to the other clerks about the British +official conception of the telephone as an instrument of discipline and +humiliation--when Semple himself appeared in the doorway. + +The Broker gave an exclamation of relief at seeing Thorpe, and then, +apparently indifferent to the display of excitement he was exhibiting, +drew him aside. + +"Come somewhere where we can talk," he whispered nervously. + +Thorpe had never seen the little Scotchman in such a flurry. "We'll go +up to my rooms," he said, and led the way to the lift. + +Upstairs, Semple bolted the door of the sitting-room behind them, and +satisfied himself that there was no one in the adjoining bedroom. Then, +unburdening himself with another sigh, he tossed aside his hat, and +looked keenly up at the big man. "There's the devil to pay," he said +briefly. + +Thorpe had a fleeting pride in the lethargic, composed front he was able +to present. "All right," he said with forced placidity. "If he's got to +be paid, we'll pay him." He continued to smile a little. + +"It's nah joke," the other hastened to warn him. "I have it from two +different quarters. An application has been made to the Stock Exchange +Committee, this afternoon, to intervene and stop our business, on the +ground of fraud. It comes verra straight to me." + +Thorpe regarded his Broker contemplatively. The news fitted with +precision into what he had previously known; it was rendered altogether +harmless by the precautions he had already taken. "Well, keep your hair +on," he said, quietly. "If there were fifty applications, they wouldn't +matter the worth of that soda-water cork. Won't you have a drink?" + +Semple, upon reflection, said he would. The unmoved equipoise of the big +man visibly reassured him. He sipped at his bubbling tumbler and smacked +his thin lips. "Man, I've had an awful fright," he said at last, in the +tone of one whose ease of mind is returning. + +"I gave you credit for more nerve," observed the other, eyeing him in +not unkindly fashion over his glass. "You've been so plumb full of sand +all the while--I didn't think you'd weaken now. Why, we're within two +days of home, now--and for you to get rattled at this late hour--you +ought to be ashamed of yourself." + +The Scotchman looked into the bottom of his glass, as he turned it +thoughtfully round. "I'm relieved to see the way you take it," he said, +after a pause. With increased hesitation he went dryly on: "I've never +enquired minutely into the circumstances of the flotation. It has not +seemed to be my business to do so, and upon advice I may say that the +Committee would not hold that such was my business. My position is quite +clear, upon that point." + +"Oh, perfectly," Thorpe assented. "It couldn't possibly be any of your +business--either then, or now." He gave a significant touch of emphasis +to these last two words. + +"Precisely," said Semple, with a glance of swift comprehension. "You +must not think I am asking any intrusive questions. If you tell me +that--that there is no ground for uneasiness--I am verra pleased indeed +to accept the assurance. That is ample information for my purposes." + +"You can take it from me," Thorpe told him. He picked up a red book from +a side table, and turned over its pages with his thick thumb. "This +is what Rule 59 says," he went on: "'NO APPLICATION WHICH HAS FOR ITS +OBJECT TO ANNUL ANY BARGAIN IN THE STOCK EXCHANGE SHALL BE ENTERTAINED +BY THE COMMITTEE, UNLESS UPON A SPECIFIC ALLEGATION OF FRAUD OR WILFUL +MISREPRESENTATION.' Shall be entertained, d'ye see? They can't even +consider anything of the sort, because it says 'specific,' and I tell +you plainly that anything 'specific' is entirely out of the question." + +The Broker lifted his sandy brows in momentary apprehension. "If it +turns upon the precise definition of a word," he remarked, doubtingly. + +"Ah, yes,--but it doesn't," Thorpe reassured him. "See here--I'll tell +you something. You're not asking any questions. That's as it should be. +And I'm not forcing information upon you which you don't need in your +business. That's as it should be, too. But in between these two, there's +a certain margin of facts that there's no harm in your knowing. A scheme +to blackmail me is on foot. It's rather a fool-scheme, if you ask me, +but it might have been a nuisance if it had been sprung on us unawares. +It happened, however, that I twigged this scheme about two hours ago. It +was the damnedest bit of luck you ever heard of----" + +"You don't have luck," put in Semple, appreciatively. "Other men have +luck. You have something else--I don't give it a name." + +Thorpe smiled upon him, and went on. "I twigged it, anyway. I went out, +and I drove the biggest kind of spike through that fool-scheme--plumb +through its heart. Tomorrow a certain man will come to me--oh, I could +almost tell you the kind of neck-tie he'll wear--and he'll put up his +bluff to me, and I'll hear him out--and then--then I'll let the floor +drop out from under him." + +"Aye!" said Semple, with relish. + +"Stay and dine with me tonight," Thorpe impulsively suggested, "and +we'll go to some Music Hall afterward. There's a knock-about pantomime +outfit at the Canterbury--Martinetti I think the name is--that's damned +good. You get plenty of laugh, and no tiresome blab to listen to. The +older I get, the more I think of people that keep their mouths shut." + +"Aye," observed Semple again. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +IN the Board Room, next day, Thorpe awaited the coming of Lord Plowden +with the serene confidence of a prophet who not only knows that he +is inspired, but has had an illicit glimpse into the workings of the +machinery of events. + +He sat motionless at his desk, like a big spider for who time has +no meaning. Before him lay two newspapers, folded so as to expose +paragraphs heavily indicated by blue pencil-marks. They were not +financial journals, and for that reason it was improbable that he would +have seen these paragraphs, if the Secretary of the Company had not +marked them, and brought them to him. That official had been vastly more +fluttered by them than he found it possible to be. In slightly-varying +language, these two items embedded in so-called money articles reported +the rumour that a charge of fraud had arisen in connection with the +Rubber Consols corner, and that sensational disclosures were believed to +be impending. + +Thorpe looked with a dulled, abstracted eye at these papers, lying +on the desk, and especially at the blue pencil-lines upon them, as he +pondered many things. Their statement, thus scattered broadcast to the +public, seemed at once to introduce a new element into the situation, +and to leave it unchanged. That influence of some sort had been exerted +to get this story into these papers, it did not occur to him for an +instant to doubt. To his view, all things that were put into papers +were put there for a purpose--it would express his notion more clearly, +perhaps, to say for a price. Of the methods of Fleet Street, he was +profoundly ignorant, but his impressions of them were all cynical. Upon +reflection, however, it seemed unlikely to him that Lord Plowden had +secured the insertion of these rumours. So far as Thorpe could fathom +that nobleman's game, its aims would not be served by premature +publicity of this kind. + +Gradually, the outlines of a more probable combination took shape in +his thoughts. There were left in the grip of the "corner" now only +two victims,--Rostocker and Aronson. They owed this invidious +differentiation to a number of causes: they had been the chief sellers +of stock, being between them responsible for the delivery of 8,500 +Rubber Consols shares, which they could not get; they were men of larger +fortune than the other "shorts," and therefore could with safety be +squeezed longest; what was fortunate for him under the circumstances, +they were the two men against whom Thorpe's personal grudge seemed able +to maintain itself most easily. + +For these reasons, they had already been mulcted in differences to the +extent of, in round numbers, 165,000 pounds. On the morrow, the twelfth +of September, it was Thorpe's plan to allow them to buy in the shares +they needed, at 22 or 23 pounds per share--which would take from them +nearly 200,000 pounds more. He had satisfied himself that they could, +and would if necessary, pay this enormous ransom for their final escape +from the "corner." Partly because it was not so certain that they could +pay more, partly because he was satiated with spoils and tired of the +strain of the business, he had decided to permit this escape. + +He realized now, however, that they on their side had planned to escape +without paying any final ransom at all. + +That was clearly the meaning of these paragraphs, and of the +representations which had yesterday been made to the Stock Exchange +Committee. He had additional knowledge today of the character of these +representations. Nothing definite had been alleged, but some of the +members of the Committee had been informally notified, so Semple had +this morning learned, that a specific charge of fraud, supported +by unanswerable proof, was to be brought against the Rubber Consols +management on the morrow. Thorpe reasoned out now, step by step, what +that meant. Lord Plowden had sought out Rostocker and Aronson, and +had told them that he had it in his power ignominiously to break the +"corner." He could hardly have told them the exact nature of his power, +because until he should have seen Tavender he did not himself know what +it was. But he had given them to understand that he could prove fraud, +and they, scenting in this the chance of saving 200,000 pounds, and +seeing that time was so terribly short, had hastened to the Committeemen +with this vague declaration that, on the morrow, they could prove--they +did not precisely know what. Yes--plainly enough--that was what had +happened. And it would be these two Jew "wreckers," eager to invest +their speculative notification to the Committee with as much of an +air of formality as possible, who had caused the allusions to it to be +published in these papers. + +Thorpe's lustreless eye suddenly twinkled with mirth as he reached this +conclusion; his heavy face brightened into a grin of delight. A vision +of Lord Plowden's absurd predicament rose vividly before him, and he +chuckled aloud at it. + +It seemed only the most natural thing in the world that, at this +instant, a clerk should open the door and nod with meaning to the +master. The visitor whom he had warned the people in the outer office +he expected, had arrived. Thorpe was still laughing to himself when Lord +Plowden entered. + +"Hallo! How d'ye do!" he called out to him from where he sat at his +desk. + +The hilarity of the manner into which he had been betrayed, upon the +instant surprised and rather confused him. He had not been altogether +clear as to how he should receive Plowden, but certainly a warm +joviality had not occurred to him as appropriate. + +The nobleman was even more taken aback. He stared momentarily at the +big man's beaming mask, and then, with nervous awkwardness, executed a +series of changes in his own facial expression and demeanour. He flushed +red, opened his lips to say "Ah!" and then twisted them into a doubting +and seemingly painful smile. He looked with very bright-eyed intentness +at Thorpe, as he advanced, and somewhat spasmodically put out his hand. + +It occurred to Thorpe not to see this hand. "How are you!" he repeated +in a more mechanical voice, and withdrew his smile. Lord Plowden +fidgeted on his feet for a brief, embarrassed interval before the desk, +and then dropped into a chair at its side. With a deliberate effort at +nonchalance, he crossed his legs, and caressed the ankle on his knee +with a careless hand. "Anything new?" he asked. + +Thorpe lolled back in his arm-chair. "I'm going to be able to get away +in a few days' time," he said, indifferently. "I expect to finally wind +up the business on the Stock Exchange tomorrow." + +"Ah--yes," commented Plowden, vacantly. He seemed to be searching after +thoughts which had wandered astray. "Yes--of course." + +"Yes--of course," Thorpe said after him, with a latent touch of +significance. + +The other looked up quickly, then glanced away again. "It's all going as +you expected, is it?" he asked. + +"Better than I expected," Thorpe told him, energetically. "Much better +than anybody expected." + +"Hah!" said Plowden. After a moment's reflection he went on +hesitatingly: "I didn't know. I saw something in one of the papers this +morning,--one of the money articles,--which spoke as if there were some +doubt about the result. That's why I called." + +"Well--it's damned good of you to come round, and show such a friendly +interest." Thorpe's voice seemed candid enough, but there was an +enigmatic something in his glance which aroused the other's distrust. + +"I'm afraid you don't take very much stock in the 'friendly interest,'" +he said, with a constrained little laugh. + +"I'm not taking stock in anything new just now," replied Thorpe, lending +himself lazily to the other's metaphor. "I'm loaded up to the gunnels +already." + +A minute of rather oppressive silence ensued. Then Plowden ventured upon +an opening. "All the same, it WAS with an idea of,--perhaps being of use +to you,--that I came here," he affirmed. "In what way?" Thorpe put the +query almost listlessly. + +Lord Plowden turned his hands and let his dark eyes sparkle in a gesture +of amiable uncertainty. "That depended upon what was needed. I got the +impression that you were in trouble--the paper spoke as if there were +no doubt of it--and I imagined that quite probably you would be glad to +talk with me about it." + +"Quite right," said Thorpe. "So I should." + +This comprehensive assurance seemed not, however, to facilitate +conversation. The nobleman looked at the pattern of the sock on the +ankle he was nursing, and knitted his brows in perplexity. "What if the +Committee of the Stock Exchange decide to interfere?" he asked at last. + +"Oh, that would knock me sky-high," Thorpe admitted. + +"Approximately, how much may one take 'sky-high' to mean?" + +Thorpe appeared to calculate. "Almost anything up to a quarter of a +million," he answered. + +"Hah!" said Lord Plowden again. "Well--I understand--I'm given to +understand--that very likely that is what the Committee will decide." + +"Does it say that in the papers?" asked Thorpe. He essayed an effect of +concern. "Where did you see that?" + +"I didn't see it," the other explained. "It--it came to me." + +"God!" said Thorpe. "That'll be awful! But are you really in earnest? Is +that what you hear? And does it come at all straight?" + +Lord Plowden nodded portentously. "Absolutely straight," he said, with +gravity. + +Thorpe, after a momentary stare of what looked like bewilderment, +was seen to clutch at a straw. "But what was it you were saying?" he +demanded, with eagerness. "You talked about help--a minute ago. Did you +mean it? Have you got a plan? Is there something that you can do?" + +Plowden weighed his words. "It would be necessary to have a very +complete understanding," he remarked. + +"Whatever you like," exclaimed the other. + +"Pardon me--it would have to be a good deal more definite than that," +Plowden declared. "A 'burnt child'--you know." + +The big man tapped musingly with his finger-nails on the desk. "We won't +quarrel about that," he said. "But what I'd like to know first,--you +needn't give anything away that you don't want to,--but what's your +plan? You say that they've got me in a hole, and that you can get me +out." "In effect--yes." + +"But how do you know that I can't get myself out? What do you know about +the whole thing anyway? Supposing I tell you that I laugh at it--that +there's no more ground for raising the suspicion of fraud than there is +for--for suspecting that you've got wings and can fly." + +"I--I don't think you'll tell me that," said Plowden, placidly. + +"Well then, supposing I don't tell you that," the other resumed, +argumentatively. "Supposing I say instead that it can't be proved. If +the Committee doesn't have proof NOW,--within twenty-one or twenty-two +hours,--they can't do anything at all. Tomorrow is settling day. All +along, I've said I would wind up the thing tomorrow. The market-price +has been made for me by the jobbers yesterday and today. I'm all ready +to end the whole business tomorrow--close it all out. And after that's +done, what do I care about the Stock Exchange Committee? They can +investigate and be damned! What could they do to me?" + +"I think a man can always be arrested and indicted, and sent to penal +servitude," said Lord Plowden, with a certain solemnity of tone. "There +are even well-known instances of extradition." + +Thorpe buried his chin deep in his collar, and regarded his companion +with a fixed gaze, in which the latter detected signs of trepidation. +"But about the Committee--and tomorrow," he said slowly. "What do you +say about that? How can they act in that lightning fashion? And even if +proofs could be got, how do you suppose they are to be got on the drop +of the hat, at a minute's notice?" + +"The case is of sufficient importance to warrant a special meeting +tomorrow morning," the other rejoined. "One hour's notice, posted in the +House, is sufficient, I believe. Any three members of the Committee can +call such a meeting, and I understand that seven make a quorum. You will +see that a meeting could be held at noon tomorrow, and within half an +hour could make you a ruined man." + +"I don't know--would you call it quite ruined?" commented Thorpe. "I +should still have a few sovereigns to go on with." + +"A criminal prosecution would be practically inevitable--after such a +disclosure," Plowden reminded him, with augmented severity of tone. + +"Don't mix the two things up," the other urged. There seemed to the +listener to be supplication in the voice. "It's the action of the +Committee that you said you could influence. That's what we were talking +about. You say there will be a special meeting at noon tomorrow---- + +"I said there could be one," Plowden corrected him. + +"All right. There CAN be one. And do you say that there can be +proof,--proof against me of fraud,--produced at that meeting?" + +"Yes--I say that," the nobleman affirmed, quietly. + +"And further still--do you say that it rests with you whether that proof +shall be produced or not?" + +Lord Plowden looked into the impassive, deep-eyed gaze which covered +him, and looked away from it again. "I haven't put it in just that +form," he said, hesitatingly. "But in essentials--yes, that may be taken +as true." + +"And what is your figure? How much do you want for holding this proof +of yours back, and letting me finish scooping the money of your Hebrew +friends Aronson and Rostocker?" + +The peer raised his head, and shot a keenly enquiring glance at the +other. "Are they my friends?" he asked, with challenging insolence. + +"I'm bound to assume that you have been dealing with them, just as you +are dealing with me." Thorpe explained his meaning dispassionately, as +if the transaction were entirely commonplace. "You tell them that you're +in a position to produce proof against me, and ask them what they'll +give for it. Then naturally enough you come to me, and ask what I'll be +willing to pay to have the proof suppressed. I quite understand that I +must bid against these men--and of course I take it for granted that, +since you know their figure, you've arranged in your mind what mine is +to be. I quite understand, too, that I am to pay more than they have +offered. That is on account of 'friendly interest.'" + +"Since you allude to it," Lord Plowden observed, with a certain calm +loftiness of tone, "there is no harm in saying that you WILL pay +something on that old score. Once you thrust the promise of something +like a hundred thousand pounds positively upon me. You insisted on my +believing it, and I did so, like a fool. I came to you to redeem the +promise, and you laughed in my face. Very well. It is my turn now. I +hold the whip-hand, and I should be an ass not to remember things. I +shall want that entire one hundred thousand pounds from you, and fifty +thousand added to it 'on account of the 'friendly interest,' as you so +intelligently expressed it." + +Thorpe's chin burrowed still deeper upon his breast. "It's an outrage," +he said with feeling. Then he added, in tones of dejected resignation: +"When will you want it?" + +"At the moment when the payments of Rostocker and Aronson are made to +you, or to your bankers or agents," Lord Plowden replied, with prepared +facility. He had evidently given much thought to this part of the +proceedings. "And of course I shall expect you to draw up now an +agreement to that effect. I happen to have a stamped paper with me this +time. And if you don't mind, we will have it properly witnessed--this +time." + +Thorpe looked at him with a disconcertingly leaden stare, the while he +thought over what had been proposed. "That's right enough," he announced +at last, "but I shall expect you to do some writing too. Since we're +dealing on this basis, there must be no doubt about the guarantee that +you will perform your part of the contract." + +"The performance itself, since payment is conditional upon it--" began +Plowden, but the other interrupted him. + +"No, I want something better than that. Here--give me your stamped +paper." He took the bluish sheet, and, without hesitation, wrote several +lines rapidly. "Here--this is my promise," he said, "to pay you 150,000 +pounds, upon your satisfactory performance of a certain undertaking to +be separately nominated in a document called 'A,' which we will jointly +draw up and agree to and sign, and deposit wherever you like--for +safe keeping. Now, if you'll sit here, and write out for me a similar +thing--that in consideration of my promise of 150,000 pounds, you +covenant to perform the undertaking to be nominated in the document +'A'--and so on." + +Lord Plowden treated as a matter of course the ready and business-like +suggestion of the other. Taking his place at the desk in turn, he wrote +out what had been suggested. Thorpe touched a bell, and the clerk who +came in perfunctorily attested the signatures upon both papers. Each +principal folded and pocketed the pledge of the other. + +"Now," said Thorpe, when he had seated himself again at the desk, "we +are all right so far as protection against each other goes. If you don't +mind, I will draw up a suggestion of what the separate document 'A' +should set forth. If you don't like it, you can write one." + +He took more time to this task, frowning laboriously over the fresh +sheet of foolscap, and screening from observation with his hand what he +was writing. Finally, the task seemed finished to his mind. He took up +the paper, glanced through it once more, and handed it in silence to the +other. + +In silence also, and with an expression of arrested attention, Lord +Plowden read these lines: + +"The undertaking referred to in the two documents of even date, signed +respectively by Lord Plowden and Stormont Thorpe, is to the effect +that at some hour between eleven A.M. and three P.M. of September 12th, +instant, Lord Plowden shall produce before a special meeting of the +Committee of the Stock Exchange, the person of one Jerome P. Tavender, +to explain to said Committee his share in the blackmailing scheme of +which Lord Plowden, over his own signature, has furnished documentary +evidence." + +The nobleman continued to look down at the paper, after the power to +hold it without shaking had left his hand. There came into his face, +mingling with and vitiating its rich natural hues of health, a kind of +grey shadow. It was as if clay was revealing itself beneath faded paint. +He did not lift his eyes. + +Thorpe had been prepared to hail this consummation of his trick with +boisterous and scornful mirth. Even while the victim was deciphering the +fatal paper, he had restrained with impatience the desire to burst +out into bitter laughter. But now there was something in the aspect of +Plowden's collapse which seemed to forbid triumphant derision. He was +taking his blow so like a gentleman,--ashen-pale and quivering, but +clinging to a high-bred dignity of silence,--that the impulse to exhibit +equally good manners possessed Thorpe upon the instant. + +"Well--you see how little business you've got, setting yourself to buck +against a grown-up man." + +He offered the observation in the tone of the school-teacher, affectedly +philosophical but secretly jubilant, who harangues a defeated and +humiliated urchin upon his folly. + +"Oh, chuck it!" growled Lord Plowden, staring still at the calamitous +paper. + +Thorpe accepted in good part the intimation that silence was after all +most decorous. He put his feet up on the corner of the desk, and tipping +back his chair, surveyed the discomfited Viscount impassively. He +forbore even to smile. + +"So this swine of a Tavender came straight to you!" Lord Plowden had +found words at last. As he spoke, he lifted his face, and made a show of +looking the other in the eye. + +"Oh, there are a hundred things in your own game, even, that you haven't +an inkling of," Thorpe told him, lightly. "I've been watching every move +you've made, seeing further ahead in your own game than you did. Why, it +was too easy! It was like playing draughts with a girl. I knew you would +come today, for example. I told the people out there that I expected +you." + +"Yes-s," said the other, with rueful bewilderment. "You seem to have +been rather on the spot--I confess." + +"On the spot? All over the place!" Thorpe lifted himself slightly in his +chair, and put more animation into his voice. + +"It's the mistake you people make!" he declared oracularly. "You think +that a man can come into the City without a penny, and form great +combinations and carry through a great scheme, and wage a fight with the +smartest set of scoundrels on the London Stock Exchange and beat 'em, +and make for himself a big fortune--and still be a fool! You imagine +that a man like that can be played with, and hoodwinked by amateurs like +yourself. It's too ridiculous!" + +The perception that apparently Thorpe bore little or no malice had begun +to spread through Plowden's consciousness. It was almost more surprising +to him than the revelation of his failure had been. He accustomed +himself to the thought gradually, and as he did so the courage crept +back into his glance. He breathed more easily. + +"You are right!" he admitted. It cost him nothing to give a maximum of +fervid conviction to the tone of his words. The big brute's pride in his +own brains and power was still his weakest point. "You are right! I did +play the fool. And it was all the more stupid, because I was the first +man in London to recognize the immense forces in you. I said to you at +the very outset, 'You are going to go far. You are going to be a great +man.' You remember that, don't you?" + +Thorpe nodded. "Yes--I remember it." + +The nobleman, upon reflection, drew a little silver box from his pocket, +and extracted a match. "Do you mind?" he asked, and scarcely waiting for +a token of reply, struck a flame upon the sole of his shoe, and applied +it to the sheet of foolscap he still held in his hand. The two men +watched it curl and blacken after it had been tossed in the grate, +without a word. + +This incident had the effect of recalling to Thorpe the essentials of +the situation. He had allowed the talk to drift to a point where it +became almost affable. He sat upright with a sudden determination, and +put his feet firmly on the floor, and knitted his brows in austerity. + +"It was not only a dirty trick that you tried to play me," he said, in +an altered, harsh tone, "but it was a fool-trick. That drunken old bum +of a Tavender writes some lunatic nonsense or other to Gafferson, and +he's a worse idiot even than Tavender is, and on the strength of what +one of these clowns thinks he surmises the other clown means, you go and +spend your money,--money I gave you, by the way,--in bringing Tavender +over here. You do this on the double chance, we'll say, of using him +against me for revenge and profit combined, or of peddling him to me for +a still bigger profit. You see it's all at my fingers' ends." + +Lord Plowden nodded an unqualified assent. + +"Well then--Tavender arrives. What do you do? Are you at the wharf to +meet him? Have you said to yourself: 'I've set out to fight one of the +smartest and strongest men in England, and I've got to keep every atom +of wits about me, and strain every nerve to the utmost, and watch every +point of the game as a tiger watches a snake'? Not a bit of it! You +snooze in bed, and you send Gafferson--Gafferson!--the mud-head of the +earth! to meet your Tavender, and loaf about with him in London, and +bring him down by a slow train to your place in the evening. My God! +You've only got two clear days left to do the whole thing in--and +you don't even come up to town to get ready for them! You send +Gafferson--and he goes off to see a flower-show--Mother of Moses! think +of it! a FLOWER-show!--and your Tavender aud I are left to take a stroll +together, and talk over old times and arrange about new times, and so +on, to our hearts' content. Really, it's too easy! You make me tired!" + +The nobleman offered a wan, appealing shadow of a smile. "I confess to a +certain degree of weariness myself," he said, humbly. + +Thorpe looked at him in his old apathetic, leaden fashion for a little. +"I may tell you that if you HAD got hold of Tavender," he decided to +tell him, "he shouldn't have been of the faintest use to you. I know +what it was that he wrote to Gafferson,--I couldn't understand it when +he first told me, but afterwards I saw through it,--and it was merely a +maudlin misapprehension of his. He'd got three or four things all mixed +up together. You've never met your friend Tavender, I believe? You'd +enjoy him at Hadlow House. He smells of rum a hundred yards off. What +little brain he's got left is soaked in it. The first time I was ever +camping with him, I had to lick him for drinking the methylated spirits +we were using with our tin stove. Oh, you'd have liked him!" + +"Evidently," said Lord Plowden, upon reflection, "it was all a most +unfortunate and--ah--most deplorable mistake." With inspiration, he made +bold to add: "The most amazing thing, though--to my mind--is that you +don't seem--what shall I say?--particularly enraged with me about it." + +"Yes--that surprises me, too," Thorpe meditatively admitted. "I was +entitled to kill you--crush you to jelly. Any other man I would. But +you,--I don't know,--I do funny things with you." + +"I wish you would give me a drink, now--as one of them," Plowden +ventured to suggest, with uneasy pleasantry. + +Thorpe smiled a little as he rose, and heavily moved across the room. +He set out upon the big official table in the middle, that mockingly +pretentious reminder of a Board which never met, a decanter and two +glasses and some recumbent, round-bottomed bottles. He handed one of +these last to Plowden, as the latter strolled toward the table. + +"You know how to open these, don't you?" he said, languidly. "Somehow I +never could manage it." + +The nobleman submissively took the bottle, and picked with awkwardness +at its wire and cork, and all at once achieved a premature and not +over-successful explosion. He wiped his dripping cuff in silence, when +the tumblers were supplied. + +"Well--here's better luck to you next time," Thorpe said, lifting his +glass. The audacious irony of his words filled Plowden with an instant +purpose. + +"What on earth did you round on me in that way for, Thorpe--when I was +here last?" He put the question with bravery enough, but at sight of the +other's unresponsive face grew suddenly timorous aud explanatory. "No +man was ever more astounded in the world than I was. To this day I'm as +unable to account for it as a babe unborn. What conceivable thing had I +done to you?" + +Thorpe slowly thought of something that had not occurred to him before, +and seized upon it with a certain satisfaction. + +"That day that you took me shooting," he said, with the tone of one +finally exposing a long-nursed grievance, "you stayed in bed for hours +after you knew I was up and waiting for you--and when we went out, you +had a servant to carry a chair for you, but I--by God!--I had to stand +up." + +"Heavens above!" ejaculated Plowden, in unfeigned amazement. + +"These are little things--mere trifles," continued Thorpe, dogmatically, +"but with men of my temper and make-up those are just the things that +aggravate and rankle and hurt. Maybe it's foolish, but that's the kind +of man I am. You ought to have had the intelligence to see that--and not +let these stupid little things happen to annoy me. Why just think what +you did. I was going to do God knows what for you--make your fortune and +everything else,--and you didn't show consideration enough for me to get +out of bed at a decent hour--much less see to it that I had a chair if +you were going to have one." + +"Upon my word, I can't tell how ashamed and sorry I am," Lord Plowden +assured him, with fervent contrition in his voice. + +"Well, those are the things to guard against," said Thorpe, approaching +a dismissal of the subject. "People who show consideration for me; +people who take pains to do the little pleasant things for me, and see +that I'm not annoyed and worried by trifles--they're the people that +I, on my side, do the big things for. I can be the best friend in the +world, but only to those who show that they care for me, and do what +they know I'll like. I don't want toadies about me, but I do want people +who feel bound to me, and are as keen about me and my feelings and +interests as they are about their own." + +"It is delightfully feudal--all this," commented the nobleman, smilingly +addressing the remark to nobody in particular. Then he looked at Thorpe. +"Let me be one of them--one of the people you speak of," he said, with +directness. + +Thorpe returned his look with the good-natured beginnings of a grin. +"But what would you be good for?" he queried, in a bantering tone. +"People I have about me have to be of some use. They require to have +heads on their shoulders. Why--just think what you've done. I don't mean +so much about your letting Tavender slip through your fingers--although +that was about the worst I ever heard of. But here in this room, at +that desk there, you allowed me to bounce you into writing and signing +a paper which you ought to have had your hand cut off rather than write, +much less sign. You come here trying to work the most difficult and +dangerous kind of a bluff,--knowing all the while that the witness you +depended entirely upon had disappeared, you hadn't the remotest idea +where,--and you actually let me lead you into giving me your signature +to your own declaration that you are blackmailing me! Thinking it all +over--you know--I can't see that you would be of much help to me in the +City." + +Lord Plowden joined perforce in the laughter with which the big man +enjoyed his own pleasantry. His mirth had some superficial signs of +shamefacedness, but it was hopeful underneath. "The City!" he echoed, +with meaning. "That's the curse of it. What do I know about the City? +What business have I in the City? As you said, I'm the amateur. A strong +man like you can make me seem any kind of a ridiculous fool he likes, +with the turn of his hand. I see that right enough. But what am I to do? +I have to make a shot at something. I'm so rotten poor!" + +Thorpe had retired again behind the barrier of dull-eyed abstraction. He +seemed not to have heard this appealing explanation. + +The other preserved silence in turn, and even made a pretence of looking +at some pamphlets on the table, as a token of his boundless deference to +the master's mood. + +"I don't know. I'll see," the big man muttered at last, doubtfully. + +Lord Plowden felt warranted in taking an optimistic view of these vague +words. "It's awfully good of you"--he began, lamely, and then paused. +"I wonder,"--he took up a new thought with a more solicitous tone,--"I +wonder if you would mind returning to me that idiotic paper I signed." + +Thorpe shook his head. "Not just now, at any rate," he said, still +musingly. With his head bowed, he took a few restless steps. + +"But you are going to--to help me!" the other remarked, with an air of +confidence. He had taken up his hat, in response to the tacit warning of +his companion's manner. + +Thorpe looked at him curiously, and hesitated over his answer. It was a +surprising and almost unaccountable conclusion for the interview to +have reached. He was in some vague way ashamed of himself, but he was +explicitly and contemptuously ashamed for Plowden, and the impulse to +say so was strong within him. This handsome young gentleman of title +ought not to be escaping with this restored buoyancy of mien, and this +complacency of spirit. He had deserved to be punished with a heavy hand, +and here he was blithely making certain of new benefits instead. + +"I don't know--I'll see," Thorpe moodily repeated--and there was no more +to be said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +IN the noon hour of the following day was enacted the brief final scene +in the drama of the "Rubber Consols corner." + +For long weeks, Mr. Stormont Thorpe had given much thought to this +approaching climax of his great adventure--looking forward to it both +as the crowning event of his life, and as the dawn of a new existence in +some novel, enchanted world. It was to bring his triumph, and even more, +his release. It was at once to crown him as a hero and chieftain among +City men, and transfigure him into a being for whom all City things were +an abomination. In his waking hours, the conflict between these aims did +not specially force itself upon his attention: he mused upon, and spun +fancies about, either one indifferently, and they seemed not at all +irreconcilable. But his dreams were full of warfare,--wearily saturated +with strife, and endless endeavour to do things which could not be +done, and panic-stricken terrors before the shadow of shapeless +calamities,--until he dreaded to go to sleep. Then he discovered that +an extra two glasses of whiskey-and-water would solve that particular +difficulty, and send him into prompt, leaden slumber--but the early +mornings remained as torturing as ever. In the twilight he awoke +oppressed and sick at heart with gloom--and then dozed at intervals +through fantastic new ordeals of anguish and shame and fear, till it was +decently possible to get up. + +Then, indeed, the big cold sponge on his head and spine scattered these +foolish troubles like chaff, and restored to him his citizenship among +the realities. He dressed with returning equanimity, and was almost +cheerful by the time he thrust his razor into the hot water. Yet +increasingly he was conscious of the wear and strain of it all, and +increasingly the date, September twelfth, loomed before him with a +portentous individuality of its own. + +This day grew to mean so much more to him than had all the other days +of the dead years together that he woke in the darkness of its opening +hours, and did not get satisfactorily to sleep again. His vigil, +however, was for the once free from grief. He drowsily awaited the +morning in vague mental comfort; he had recurring haphazard indolent +glimpses of a protecting fact standing guard just outside the portals +of consciousness--the fact that the great day was here. He rose early, +breakfasted well, and walked by the Embankment to the City, where at +ten he had a few words with Semple, and afterward caused himself to be +denied to ordinary callers. He paced up and down the Board Room for the +better part of the ensuing two hours, luxuriating in the general sense +of satisfaction in the proximity of the climax, rather than pretending +to himself that he was thinking out its details. He had provided in his +plans of the day for a visit from Messrs. Rostocker and Aronson, which +should constitute the dramatic finale of the "corner," and he looked +forward to this meeting with a certain eagerness of expectation. Yet +even here he thought broadly of the scene as a whole, and asked himself +no questions about words and phrases. It seemed to be taken for granted +in his mind that the scene itself would be theatrically impressive, even +spectacular. + +In the event, this long-awaited culmination proved to be disappointingly +flat and commonplace. It was over before Thorpe had said any +considerable proportion of the things he saw afterward that he had +intended to say. The two men came as he had expected they would--and +they bought their way out of the tragic "corner" at precisely the price +he had nominated in his mind. But hardly anything else went as he had +dimly prefigured it. + +Mr. Rostocker was a yellow-haired man, and Mr. Aronson was as dark as a +Moor, and no physical resemblance of features or form suggested itself +to the comparing eye, yet Thorpe even now, when they stood brusquely +silent before him, with their carefully-brushed hats pulled down over +their eyes, stuck to it in his own mind that it was hard to tell them +apart. To the end, there was something impersonal in his feeling toward +them. They, for their part, coldly abstained from exhibiting a sign of +feeling about him, good, bad, or indifferent. + +It was the man with the fair hair and little curly flaxen beard who +spoke: "How do you do! I understand that we can buy eight thousand five +hundred Rubber Consols from you at 'twenty-three.'" + +"No--twenty-five," replied Thorpe. + +The dark man spoke: "The jobbers' price is twenty-three." + +"To carry over--yes," Thorpe answered. "But to buy it is twenty-five." + +The two sons of the race which invented mental arithmetic exchanged an +alert glance, and looked at the floor for an engrossed instant. + +"I don't mind telling you," Thorpe interposed upon their silence, "I put +on that extra two pounds because you got up that story about applying to +the Stock Exchange Committee on a charge of fraud." + +"We didn't get up any story," said Rostocker, curtly. + +"You tried to plant it on us," Aronson declared. + +"One of your own Directors put it about. I thought it was a fake at the +time." + +This view of the episode took Thorpe by surprise. As it seemed, in +passing, to involve a compliment to his own strategic powers, he +accepted it without comment. "Well--it is twenty-five, anyway," he told +them, with firmness. + +"Twenty-four," suggested Aronson, after another momentary pause. + +"Not a shilling less than twenty-five," Thorpe insisted, with quiet +doggedness. + +"We can always pay our creditors and let you whistle," Rostocker +reminded him, laconically. + +"You can do anything you like," was the reply, "except buy Rubber +Consols under twenty-five. It doesn't matter a fig to me whether you go +bankrupt or not. It would suit me as well to have you two 'hammered' as +to take your money." Upon the spur of a sudden thought he drew out his +watch. "In just two minutes' time to a tick, the price will be thirty." + +"Let's be 'hammered' then!" said Aronson to his companion, with +simulated impulsiveness. + +Rostocker was the older and stronger man, and when at last he spoke it +was with the decision of one in authority. "It is your game," he +said, with grave imperturbability. "Eight thousand five hundred at +twenty-five. Will you deliver at the Credit Lyonnais in half an hour?" + +Thorpe nodded, impassively. Then a roving idea of genial impertinence +brought a gleam to his eye. "If you should happen to want more Rubber +Consols at any time," he said, with a tentative chuckle, "I could +probably let you have them at a reduced price." + +The two received the pleasantry without a smile, but to Thorpe's +astonishment one of them seemed to discern something in it beside +banter. It was Rostocker who said: "Perhaps we may make a deal with +you," and apparently meant it. + +They went out at this, ignoring ceremony upon their exit as stolidly as +they had done upon their entrance, and a moment later Thorpe called in +the Secretary, and despatched a messenger to bring Semple from Capel +Court. The formalities of this final transfer of shares had been +dictated to the former, and he had gone off on the business, before the +Broker arrived. + +Thorpe stood waiting near the door, and held out his hand with a +dramatically significant gesture when the little Scotchman entered. "Put +her there!" he exclaimed heartily, with an exuberant reversion to the +slang of remote transatlantic bonhomie. + +"Yeh've done it, then!" said Semple, his sharp face softening with +pleasure at the news. "Yeh've pulled it off at twenty-three!" + +The other's big countenance yielded itself to a boyish grin. +"Twenty-FIVE!" he said, and laughed aloud. "After you left this morning, +it kind o' occurred to me that I'd raise it a couple of pounds. I found +I was madder about those pieces in the newspapers than I thought I was, +and so I took an extra seventeen thousand pounds on that account." + +"God above!" Semple ejaculated, with a satisfaction through which signs +of an earlier fright were visible. "It was touch-and-go if you didn't +lose it all by doing that! You risked everything, man!" + +Thorpe ponderously shrugged his shoulders. "Well--I did it, anyhow, and +it came off," was his comment. Then, straightening himself, he drew a +long, long breath, and beamed down at the little man. "Think of it! God! +It's actually all over! And NOW perhaps we won't have a drink! Hell! +Let's send out for some champagne!" His finger was hovering over the +bell, when the Broker's dissuading voice arrested it. "No, no!" Semple +urged. "I wouldn't touch it. It's no fit drink for the daytime--and it's +a scandal in an office. Your clerks will aye blab it about hither and +yon, and nothing harms a man's reputation more in the City." + +"Oh, to hell with the City!" cried Thorpe, joyously. "I'm never going to +set foot in it again. Think of that! I mean it!" + +None the less, he abandoned the idea of sending out for wine, and +contented himself with the resources of the cabinet instead. After some +friendly pressure, Semple consented to join him in a brandy-and-soda, +though he continued to protest between sips that at such an hour it was +an indecent practice. + +"It's the ruin of many a strong man," he moralized, looking rather +pointedly at Thorpe over his glass. "It's the principal danger that +besets the verra successful man. He's too busily occupied to take +exercise, and he's too anxious and worried to get his proper sleep--but +he can always drink! In one sense, I'm not sorry to think that you're +leaving the City." + +"Oh, it never hurts me," Thorpe said, indifferently accepting the +direction of the homily. "I'm as strong as an ox. But all the same, I +shall be better in every way for getting out of this hole. Thank God, I +can get off to Scotland tomorrow. But I say, Semple, what's the matter +with your visiting me at my place there? I'll give you the greatest +shooting and fishing you ever heard of." + +The Broker was thinking of something else. "What is to be the precise +position of the Company, in the immediate future?" he asked. + +"Company? What Company?" + +Semple smiled grimly. "Have you already forgotten that there is such a +thing?" he queried, with irony. "Why, man, this Company that paid for +this verra fine Board-table," he explained, with his knuckles on its red +baize centre. + +Thorpe laughed amusedly. "I paid for that out of my own pocket," he +said. "For that matter everything about the Company has come out of my +pocket----" + +"Or gone into it," suggested the other, and they chuckled together. + +"But no--you're right," Thorpe declared. "Some thing ought to be settled +about the Company, I suppose. Of course I wash my hands of it--but would +anybody else want to go on with it? You see its annual working expenses, +merely for the office and the Board, foot up nearly 3,000 pounds. I've +paid these for this year, but naturally I won't do it again. And would +it be worth anybody else's while to do it? Yours, for example?" + +"Have you had any explanations with the other Directors?" the Broker +asked, thoughtfully. + +"Explanations--no," Thorpe told him. "But that's all right. The Marquis +has been taken care of, and so has Plowden. They're game to agree to +anything. And let's see--Kervick is entirely my man. That leaves Watkin +and Davidson--and they don't matter. They're mere guinea-pigs. A few +hundreds apiece would shut them up, if you thought it was worth while to +give them anything at all." + +"And about the property,--the rubber plantation,--that the Company +was formed to acquire and develop. I suppose there really is such a +plantation?" + +"Oh, yes, it's all there right enough," Thorpe said, briefly. + +"It's no good, though, is it?" the Broker asked, with affable +directness. + +"Between ourselves, it isn't worth a damn," the other blithely assured +him. + +The Scotchman mused with bent brows. "There ought still to be money in +it," he said, with an air of conviction. + +"By the way," it occurred to Thorpe to mention, "here's something I +didn't understand. I told Rostocker here, just as a cheeky kind of joke, +that after he and Aronson had got their eight thousand five hundred, if +they thought they'd like still more shares, I'd let 'em have 'em at a +bargain--and he seemed to take it seriously. He did for a fact. Said +perhaps he could make a deal with me." + +"Hm-m!" said Semple, reflectively. "I'll see if he says anything to +me. Very likely he's spotted some way of taking the thing over, and +reorganizing it, and giving it another run over the course. I'll think +it out. And now I must be off. Aren't you lunching?" + +"No--I'll have the boy bring in some sandwiches," Thorpe decided. "I +want my next meal west of Temple Bar when I get round to it. I've soured +on the City for keeps." + +"I wouldn't say that it had been so bad to you, either," Semple +smilingly suggested, as he turned to the door. + +Thorpe grinned in satisfied comment. "Hurry back as soon as you've +finally settled with Rostocker and the other fellow," he called after +him, and began pacing the floor again. + +It was nearly four o'clock when these two men, again together in the +Board Room, and having finished the inspection of some papers on the +desk, sat upright and looked at each other in tacit recognition that +final words were to be spoken. + +"Well, Semple," Thorpe began, after that significant little pause, "I +want to say that I'm damned glad you've done so well for yourself in +this affair. You've been as straight as a die to me,--I owe it as much +to you as I do to myself,--and if you don't think you've got enough even +now, I want you to say so." + +He had spoken in tones of sincere liking, and the other answered him in +kind. "I have more than I ever dreamed of making in a lifetime when I +came to London," he declared. "If my father were alive, and heard me +tell him that in one year, out of a single transaction, I had cleared +over sixty-five thousand pounds, he'd be fit to doubt the existence of a +Supreme Being. I'm obliged to you for your good words, Thorpe. It's not +only been profitable to work with you, but it has been a great education +and a great pleasure as well." + +Thorpe nodded his appreciation. "I'm going to ask a favour of you," he +said. "I want to leave the general run of my investments and interests +here in your hands, to keep track of I don't want to speculate at all, +in the ordinary meaning of the word. Even after I bury a pot of money in +non-productive real estate, I shall have an income of 50,000 pounds at +the very least, and perhaps twice as much. There's no fun in gambling +when you've got such a bank as that behind you. But if there are good, +wise changes to be made in investments, or if things turn up in the way +of chances that I ought to know about, I want to feel that you're on the +spot watching things and doing things in my interest. And as it won't +be regular broker's work, I shall want to pay you a stated sum--whatever +you think is right." + +"That will arrange itself easily enough," said Semple. "I shall have +the greatest pleasure in caring for whatever you put in my hands. And I +think I can promise that it will be none the worse for the keeping." + +"I don't need any assurance on that score," Thorpe declared, cordially. +"You're the one sterling, honest man I've known in the City." + +It was the Broker's turn to make a little acknowledging bow. His eyes +gleamed frank satisfaction at being so well understood. "I think I +see the way that more money can be made out of the Company," he said, +abruptly changing the subject. "I've had but a few words with Rostocker +about it--but it's clear to me that he has a plan. He will be coming to +you with a proposition." + +"Well, he won't find me, then," interposed Thorpe, with a comfortable +smile. "I leave all that to you." + +"I suspect that his plan," continued Semple, "is to make a sub-rosa +offer of a few shillings for the majority of the shares, and +reconstitute the Board, and then form another Company to buy the +property and good-will of the old one at a handsome price. Now if that +would be a good thing for him to do, it would be a good thing for me +to do. I shall go over it all carefully, in detail, this evening. And I +suppose, if I see my way clear before me, than I may rely upon your good +feeling in the matter. I would do all the work and assume all the risk, +and, let us say, divide any profits equally--you in turn giving me a +free hand with all your shares, and your influence with the Directors." + +"I'll do better still," Thorpe told him, upon brief reflection. +"Reconstitute the Board and make Lord Plowden Chairman,--I don't imagine +the Marquis would have the nerve to go on with it,--and I'll make a free +gift of my shares to you two--half and half. You'll find him all right +to work with,--if you can only get him up in the morning,--and I've kind +o' promised him something of the sort. Does that suit you?" Semple's +countenance was thoughtful rather than enthusiastic. "I'm more skeptical +about Lords than you are," he observed, "but if he's amenable, and +understands that his part is to do what I tell him to do, I've no doubt +we shall hit it off together." + +"Oh, absolutely!" said Thorpe, with confidence. "I'll see to it that he +behaves like a lamb. You're to have an absolutely free hand. You're to +do what you like,--wind the Company up, or sell it out, or rig it up +under a new name and catch a new set of gudgeons with it,--whatever you +damned please. When I trust a man, I trust him." + +The two friends, their faces brightened and their voices mellowed by +this serene consciousness of their mutual trust in each other's loyalty +and integrity, dwelt no further upon these halcyon beginnings of a +fresh plan for plundering the public. They spoke instead on personal +topics--of the possibility of Semple's coming to Scotland during the +autumn, and of the chance of Thorpe's wintering abroad. All at once +Thorpe found himself disclosing the fact of his forthcoming marriage, +though he did not mention the name of the lady's father, and under +the gracious stress of this announcement they drank again, and clinked +glasses fervently. When Semple at last took his leave, they shook hands +with the deep-eyed earnestness of comrades who have been through battle +and faced death together. + +It was not until Thorpe stood alone that the full realizing sense of +what the day meant seemed to come to him. Fruition was finally complete: +the last winnowing of the great harvest had been added to the pile. +Positively nothing remained for him but to enter and enjoy! + +He found it curiously difficult to grasp the thought in its entirety. He +stood the master of unlimited leisure for the rest of his life, and of +power to enrich that life with everything that money could buy,--but +there was an odd inability to feel about it as he knew he ought to feel. + +Somehow, for some unaccountable reason, an absurd depression hovered +about over his mind, darkening it with formless shadows. It was as if he +were sorry that the work was all finished--that there was nothing more +for him to do. But that was too foolish, and he tried to thrust it from +him. He said with angry decision to himself that he had never liked the +work; that it had all been unpleasant and grinding drudgery, tolerable +only as a means to an end; that now this end had been reached, he wanted +never to lay eyes on the City again. + +Let him dwell instead upon the things he did want to lay eyes upon. Some +travel no doubt he would like, but not too much; certainly no more than +his wife would cheerfully accept as a minimum. He desired rather to rest +among his own possessions. To be lord of the manor at Pellesley Court, +with his own retinue of servants and dependents and tenants, his own +thousands of rich acres, his own splendid old timber, his own fat stock +and fleet horses and abundant covers and prize kennels--THAT was what +most truly appealed to him. It was not at all certain that he would +hunt; break-neck adventure in the saddle scarcely attracted him. But +there was no reason in the world why he should not breed racing horses, +and create for himself a distinguished and even lofty position on the +Turf. He had never cared much about races or racing folk himself, but +when the Prince and Lord Rosebery and people like that went in for +winning the Derby, there clearly must be something fascinating in it. + +Then Parliament, of course; he did not waver at all from his old if +vague conception of a seat in Parliament as a natural part of the outfit +of a powerful country magnate. And in a hundred other ways men should +think of him as powerful, and look up to him. He would go to church +every Sunday, and sit in the big Squire's pew. He would be a magistrate +as a matter of course, and he would make himself felt on the County +Council. He would astonish the county by his charities, and in bad years +by the munificence of his reductions in rents. Perhaps if there were a +particularly bad harvest, he would decline all over his estate to exact +any rent whatever. Fancy what a noble sensation that would make! A Duke +could do no more. + +It was very clear to him now that he desired to have children of his +own,--say two at least, a son and a daughter, or perhaps a son and +two daughters: two little girls would be company for each other. As he +prefigured these new beings, the son was to exist chiefly for purposes +of distinction and the dignity of heirship, and the paternal relations +with him would be always somewhat formal, and, though affectionate, +unexpansive. But the little girls--they would put their arms round their +father's neck, and walk out with him to see the pigs and the dogs, and +be the darlings of his heart. He would be an old man by the time they +grew up. + +A beatific vision of himself took form in his mind--of himself growing +grey and pleasurably tired, surrounded by opulence and the demonstrative +respect of everybody, smiling with virtuous content as he strolled along +between his two daughters, miracles of beauty and tenderness, holding +each by a hand. + +The entrance of a clerk broke abruptly upon this daydream. He had a +telegram in his hand, and Thorpe, rousing himself with an effort, +took the liver-coloured envelope, and looked blankly at it. Some weird +apprehension seized upon him, as if he belonged to the peasant class +which instinctively yokes telegrams and calamities together. He deferred +to this feeling enough to nod dismissal to the clerk, and then, when he +was again alone, slowly opened the message, and read it: + +"Newcastle-on-Tyne, September 12. Our friend died at Edinboro this +morning. See you at hotel this evening.--Kervick." + + +What Thorpe felt at first was that his two daughters had shrunk from him +with swift, terrible aversion: they vanished, along with every phase of +the bright vision, under a pall of unearthly blackness. He stood in the +centre of a chill solitude, staring stupidly at the coarse, soft paper. + +The premonition, then, had justified itself! Something had told him that +the telegram was an evil thing. A vaguely superstitious consciousness +of being in the presence of Fate laid hold upon him. His great day of +triumph had its blood-stain. A victim had been needful--and to that +end poor simple, silly old Tavender was a dead man. Thorpe could see +him,--an embarrassing cadaver eyed by strangers who did not know what to +do with it,--fatuous even in death. + +A sudden rage at Kervick flamed up. He clearly had played the +fool--clumsily over-plying the simpleton with drink till he had killed +him. The shadow of murder indubitably hung over the thing. And then--the +crass witlessness of telegraphing! Already, doubtless, the police of +Edinborough were talking over the wires with Scotland Yard. A reference +to a death in Edinborough, in a telegram from Newcastle--it was +incredible that this should escape the eye of the authorities. Any +minute might bring a detective through that door there--following into +the Board Room with his implacable scent the clue of blood. Thorpe's +fancy pictured this detective as a momentarily actual presence--tall, +lean, cold-eyed, mysteriously calm and fatally wise, the omniscient +terror of the magazine short-stories. + +He turned faint and sick under a spasm of fright. The menace of enquiry +became something more than a threat: he felt it, like the grip of a +constable upon his arm. Everything would be mercilessly unravelled. The +telegram of the idiot Kervick would bring the police down upon him like +a pack of beagles. The beliefs and surmises of the idiot Gafferson would +furnish them with the key to everything. He would have his letter from +Tavender to show to the detectives--and the Government's smart lawyers +would ferret out the rest. The death of Tavender--they could hardly make +him responsible for that; but it was the dramatic feature of this death +which would inspire them all to dig up everything about the fraud. It +was this same sensational added element of the death, too, which would +count with a jury. They were always gross, sentimental fools, these +juries. They would mix up the death and the deal in Rubber Consols, +and in their fat-headed confusion would say "Penal Servitude--fourteen +years." Or no, it was the Judge who fixed that. But the Judges were +fools, too; they were too conceited, too puffed up with vanity, to +take the trouble to understand. He groaned aloud in a nightmare of +helplessness. + +The sound of his own voice, moaning in his ears, had a magical effect +upon him. He lifted his head, gazed about him, and then flushed deeply. +His nerveless cowardice had all at once become unbelievable to himself. +With a shamed frown he straightened himself, and stood thus for a long +minute, engrossed in the definite task of chasing these phantoms from +his mind. Once a manly front was displayed to them, they slunk away with +miraculous facility. He poured out some brandy, and sipped it neat, and +laughed scornfully, defiantly, aloud. + +He had over half a million--with power and force and courage enough to +do with it what he liked. He had fought luck undauntedly, unwearyingly, +during all those years when his hands were empty. Was he to tremble +and turn tail now, when his hands were full, when he was armoured and +weaponed at every point? He was amazed and hurt, and still more enraged, +at that fit of girlish weakness which had possessed him. He could +have beaten himself with stripes for it. But it could never happen +again--never, never! + +He told himself that with proud, resolute reiteration, as he got his hat +and stick, and put in his pockets one or two papers from the desk, and +then glanced about the Board Room for what was, most likely, the last +time. Here he had won his great victory over Fate, here he had put his +enemies under his feet, and if innocent simpletons had wandered into the +company of these foes, it mattered not a whit to him that they also had +been crushed. Figuratively, he turned his back upon them now; he left +them, slain and trampled, in the Board Room behind him. They no longer +concerned him. + +Figuratively, too, as he walked with firmness to the door, he stepped +over the body of old Tavender, upon the threshold, and bestowed upon +it a downward mental glance, and passed on. By the time he reached the +street, the memory of Tavender had become the merest shred of a myth. As +he strode on, it seemed to him that his daughters came again, and +took his hands, and moved lovingly beside him--lovingly and still more +admiringly than before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +BY the autumn of the following year, a certain small proportion of the +people inhabiting the district in Hertfordshire which set its clocks +by the dial over the stable-tower of Pellesley Court had accustomed +themselves to give the place its new name of High Thorpe. These were +for the most part the folk of peculiarly facile wits and ready powers +of adaptation, like pushing small tradesmen, and the upper servants in +county houses. An indolent and hazy compromise upon Pellesley Thorpe had +drifted into use by perhaps a larger number. To the puzzled conservatism +of the abiding huge majority nearest to the soil--the round-backed, +lumpish men who tie strings round their corduroys under the knee, and +the strong, cow-faced women who look at passers-by on the road from +the doors of dark little cottages, over radiant patches of blossoming +garden--it seemed safest to drop family names altogether, and call it +merely the Court. + +It stood proudly upon what was rather a notable elevation for those flat +parts--a massive mansion of simple form, built of a grey stone which +seemed at a distance almost white against the deep background of yews +and Italian pines behind it. For many miles seaward this pale front +was a landmark. From the terrace-walk at its base, one beheld a great +expanse of soft green country, sloping gently away for a long distance, +then stretching out upon a level which on misty days was interminable. +In bright weather, the remote, low-lying horizon had a defining line of +brownish-blue--and this stood for what was left of a primitive forest, +containing trees much older than the Norman name it bore. It was a +forest which at some time, no doubt, had extended without a break till +it merged into that of Epping--leagues away to the south. The modern +clearance and tillage, however, which separated it now from Epping had +served as a curiously effective barrier--more baffling than the Romans +and Angles in their turn had found the original wildwood. No stranger +seemed ever to find his way into that broad, minutely-cultivated fertile +plain which High Thorpe looked down upon. No railway had pushed its +cheapening course across it. Silent, embowered old country roads and +lanes netted its expanse with hedgerows; red points of tiled roofs, +distinguishable here and there in clusters among the darker greens of +orchards, identified the scattered hamlets--all named in Domesday Book, +all seemingly unchanged since. A grey square church-tower emerging from +the rooks' nests; an ordered mass of foliage sheltering the distant +gables and chimneys of some isolated house; the dim perception on +occasion that a rustic waggon was in motion on some highway, crawling +patiently like an insect--of this placid, inductive nature were all the +added proofs of human occupation that the landscape offered. + +Mr. Stormont Thorpe, on an afternoon of early October, yawned in the +face of this landscape--and then idly wondered a little at the mood +which had impelled him to do so. At the outset of his proprietorship he +had bound himself, as by a point of honour, to regard this as the finest +view from any gentleman's house in England. During the first few months +his fidelity had been taxed a good deal, but these temptations and +struggles lay now all happily behind him. He had satisfactorily +assimilated the spirit of the vista, and blended it with his own. Its +inertia, when one came to comprehend it, was undeniably magnificent, +and long ago he had perceived within himself the growth of an answering +repose, a responsive lethargy, which in its full development was +also going to be very fine. Practically all the land this side of the +impalpable line where trees and houses began to fade into the background +belonged to him; there were whole villages nestling half-concealed +under its shrubberies which were his property. As an investment, these +possessions were extremely unremunerative. Indeed, if one added the cost +of the improvements which ought to be made, to the expenditure already +laid out in renovations, it was questionable if for the next twenty +years they would not represent a deficit on the income-sheet. But, now +that he had laid hold of the local character, it pleased him that it +should be so. He would not for the world have his gentle, woolly-minded, +unprofitable cottagers transformed into "hustlers"; it would wound +his eye to see the smoke of any commercial chimney, the smudge of +any dividend-paying factory, staining the pure tints of the sylvan +landscape. He had truly learned to love it. + +Yet now, as he strolled on the terrace with his first after-luncheon +cigar, he unaccountably yawned at the thing he loved. Upon reflection, +he had gone to bed rather earlier the previous evening than usual. +He had not been drinking out of the ordinary; his liver seemed right +enough. He was not conscious of being either tired or drowsy. He looked +again at the view with some fixity, and said to himself convincingly +that nothing else in England could compare with it. It was the finest +thing there was anywhere. Then he surprised himself in the middle of +another yawn--and halted abruptly. It occurred to him that he wanted to +travel. + +Since his home-coming to this splendid new home in the previous January, +at the conclusion of a honeymoon spent in Algiers and Egypt, he had not +been out of England. There had been a considerable sojourn in London, it +is true, at what was described to him as the height of the Season, but +looking back upon it, he could not think of it as a diversion. It had +been a restless, over-worked, mystifying experience, full of dinners +to people whom he had never seen before, and laborious encounters with +other people whom he did not particularly want to see again. There +had been no physical comfort in it for him, and little more mental +satisfaction, for Londoners, or rather people in London, seemed all to +be making an invidious distinction in their minds between him and his +wife. The fact that she continued to be called Lady Cressage was not +of itself important to him. But in the incessant going about in +London, their names were called out together so often that his ear grew +sensitive and sore to the touch of the footmen's reverberations. The +meaning differentiation which the voices of the servants insisted +upon, seemed inevitably reflected in the glance and manner of their +mistresses. More than anything else, that made him hate London, and +barred the doors of his mind to all thoughts of buying a town-house. + +His newly-made wife, it is true, had not cared much for London, +either, and had agreed to his decision against a town-house almost +with animation. The occasion of their return from the hot bustle of the +metropolis to these cool home shades--in particular the minute in which, +at a bend in the winding carriage-way down below, they had silently +regarded together the spectacle uplifted before them, with the big, +welcoming house, and the servants on the terrace--had a place of its own +in his memory. Edith had pressed his arm, as they sat side by side in +the landau, on the instant compulsion of a feeling they had in common. +He had never, before or since, had quite the same assurance that she +shared an emotion with him. + +He was very far, however, from finding fault with his wife. It was in +the nature of the life he chose to lead that he should see a great +deal of her, and think a great deal about her, and she bore both tests +admirably. If there was a fault to be found, it was with himself for +his inability to altogether understand her. She played the part she had +undertaken to play with abundant skill and discretion and grace, and +even with an air of nice good-fellowship which had some of the aspects +of affection. He was vaguely annoyed with himself for having insight +enough to perceive that it was a part she was playing, and yet lacking +the added shrewdness to divine what her own personal attitude to her +role was like. He had noticed sometimes the way good women looked at +their husbands when the latter were talking over their heads--with the +eager, intent, non-comprehending admiration of an affectionate dog. This +was a look which he could not imagine himself discovering in his wife's +eves. It was not conceivable to him that he should talk over her head. +Her glance not only revealed an ample understanding of all he said, but +suggested unused reserves of comprehension which he might not fathom. It +was as if, intellectually no less than socially, she possessed a title +and he remained an undistinguished plebeian. + +He made no grievance, however, even in his own thoughts, of either +inequality. She had been charmingly frank and fair about the question of +the names, when it first arose. The usage had latterly come to be, she +explained, for a widow bearing even a courtesy title derived from her +late husband, to retain it on marrying again. It was always the easiest +course to fall in with usage, but if he had any feelings on the subject, +and preferred to have her insist on being called Mrs. Thorpe, she would +meet his wishes with entire willingness. It had seemed to him, as to +her, that it was wisest to allow usage to settle the matter. Some months +after their marriage there appeared in the papers what purported to be +an authoritative announcement that the Queen objected to the practice +among ladies who married a second time, of retaining titles acquired by +the earlier marriages, and that the lists of precedency at Buckingham +Palace would henceforth take this into account. Lady Cressage showed +this to her husband, and talked again with candour on the subject. She +said she had always rather regretted the decision they originally came +to, and even now could wish that it might be altered, but that to effect +a change in the face of this newspaper paragraph would seem servile--and +in this as in most other things he agreed with her. As she said, they +wanted nothing of Buckingham Palace. + +She wanted equally little, it seemed, of the society which the +neighbouring district might afford. There was a meagre routine of formal +calls kept in languid operation, Thorpe knew, but it was so much in the +background that he never came in contact with it. His own notions of +the part he ought to take in County affairs had undergone a silent and +unnoted, yet almost sweeping, change. What little he saw of the gentry +and strong local men with whom he would have to work, quietly undermined +and dismantled all his ambitions in that direction. They were not his +sort; their standards for the measurement of things were unintelligible +to him. He did not doubt that, if he set himself about it, he could +impose his dominion upon them, any more than he doubted that, if he +mastered the Chinese language, he could lift himself to be a Mandarin, +but the one would be as unnatural and unattractive an enterprise as +the other. He came to be upon nodding terms with most of the +"carriage-people" round about; some few he exchanged meaningless words +with upon occasion, and understood that his wife also talked with, when +it was unavoidable, but there his relationship to the County ended, +and he was well pleased that it should be so. It gave him a deep +satisfaction to see that his wife seemed also well pleased. + +He used the word "seemed" in his inmost musings, for it was never quite +certain what really did please and displease her. It was always puzzling +to him to reconcile her undoubted intellectual activity with the +practical emptiness of the existence she professed to enjoy. In one +direction, she had indeed a genuine outlet for her energies, which he +could understand her regarding in the light of an occupation. She was +crazier about flowers and plants than anybody he had ever heard of, +and it had delighted him to make over to her, labelled jocosely as the +bouquet-fund, a sum of money which, it seemed to him, might have paid +for the hanging-gardens of Babylon. It yielded in time--emerging slowly +but steadily from a prodigious litter of cement and bricks and mortar +and putty, under the hands of innumerable masons, carpenters, glaziers, +plumbers, and nondescript subordinates, all of whom talked unwearyingly +about nothing at all, and suffered no man to perform any part of his +allotted task without suspending their own labours to watch him--an +imposing long line of new greenhouses, more than twenty in number. The +mail-bag was filled meanwhile with nurserymen's catalogues, and the cart +made incessant journeys to and from Punsey station, bringing back vast +straw-enwrapped baskets and bundles and boxes beyond counting, the +arrival and unpacking of which was with Edith the event of the day. +About the reality of her engrossed interest in all the stages of +progress by which these greenhouses became crowded museums of the +unusual and abnormal in plant-life, it was impossible to have any +suspicion. And even after they were filled to overflowing, Thorpe noted +with joy that this interest seemed in no wise to flag. She spent hours +every day under the glass, exchanging comments and theories with her +gardeners, and even pulling things about with her own hands, and other +hours she devoted almost as regularly to supervising the wholesale +alterations that had been begun in the gardens outside. There were to +be new paths, new walls with a southern exposure, new potting sheds, new +forcing pits, new everything--and in the evenings she often worked late +over the maps and plans she drew for all this. Thorpe's mind found it +difficult to grasp the idea that a lady of such notable qualities could +be entirely satisfied by a career among seeds and bulbs and composts, +but at least time brought no evidences of a decline in her horticultural +zeal. Who knew? Perhaps it might go on indefinitely. + +As for himself, he had got on very well without any special inclination +or hobby. He had not done any of the great things that a year ago it +had seemed to him he would forthwith do--but his mind was serenely +undisturbed by regrets. He did not even remember with any distinctness +what these things were that he had been going to do. The routine of +life--as arranged and borne along by the wise and tactful experts who +wore the livery of High Thorpe--was abundantly sufficient in itself. He +slept well now in the morning hours, and though he remained still, by +comparison, an early riser, the bath and the shaving and slow dressing +under the hands of a valet consumed comfortably a good deal of time. +Throughout the day he was under the almost constant observation of +people who were calling him "master" in their minds, and watching to see +how, in the smallest details of deportment, a "master" carried himself, +and the consciousness of this alone amounted to a kind of vocation. The +house itself made demands upon him nearly as definite as those of the +servants. It was a house of huge rooms, high ceilings, and grandiose +fireplaces and stairways, which had seemed to him like a royal palace +when he first beheld it, and still produced upon him an effect of +undigestible largeness and strangeness. It was as a whole not so old as +the agents had represented it, by some centuries, but it adapted itself +as little to his preconceived notions of domesticity as if it had been +built by Druids. The task of seeming to be at home in it had as many +sides to it as there were minutes in the day--and oddly enough, Thorpe +found in their study and observance a congenial occupation. Whether he +was reading in the library--where there was an admirable collection of +books of worth--or walking over the home-farms, or driving in his smart +stanhope with the coachman behind, or sitting in formal costume and +dignity opposite his beautiful wife at the dinner-table, the sense of +what was expected of him was there, steadying and restraining, like an +atmospheric pressure. + +Thus far they had had few visitors, and had accepted no invitations to +join house-parties elsewhere. They agreed without speaking about it that +it was more their form to entertain than to be entertained, and certain +people were coming to them later in the month. These were quite wholly +of Edith's set and selection, for Thorpe had no friends or acquaintances +outside her circle for whose presence he had any desire--and among these +prospective guests were a Duke and a Duchess. Once, such a fact would +have excited Thorpe's imagination. He regarded it now as something +appropriate under the circumstances, and gave it little further thought. +His placid, satisfied life was not dependent upon the stir of guests +coming and going, even though they were the great of the earth. +He walked on his spacious terrace after luncheon--a tall, portly, +well-groomed figure of a man, of relaxed, easy aspect, with his big +cigar, and his panama hat, and his loose clothes of choice fabrics and +exquisite tailoring--and said to himself that it was the finest view +in England--and then, to his own surprise, caught himself in the act of +yawning. + +From under the silk curtains and awning of a window-doorway at the end +of the terrace, his wife issued and came toward him. Her head was bare, +and she had the grace and fresh beauty of a young girl in her simple +light gown of some summery figured stuff. + +"What do you say to going off somewhere--tomorrow if you +like--travelling abroad?" he called out, as she approached him. The +idea, only a moment old in his mind, had grown to great proportions. +"How can we?" she asked, upon the briefest thought. "THEY are coming at +the end of the week. This is Monday, and they arrive on the 12th--that's +this Saturday." + +"So soon as that!" he exclaimed. "I thought it was later. H-m! I don't +know--I think perhaps I'll go up to London this evening. I'm by way of +feeling restless all at once. Will you come up with me?" + +She shook her head. "I can't think of anything in London that would be +tolerable." + +He gave a vague little laugh. "I shall probably hate it myself when I +get there," he speculated. "There isn't anybody I want to see--there +isn't anything I want to do. I don' t know--perhaps it might liven me +up." + +Her face took on a look of enquiring gravity. "Are you getting tired of +it, then?" She put the question gently, almost cautiously. + +He reflected a little. "Why--no," he answered, as if reasoning to +himself. "Of course I'm not. This is what I've always wanted. It's my +idea of life to a 't.' Only--I suppose everything needs a break in it +now and then--if only for the comfort of getting back into the old rut +again." + +"The rut--yes," she commented, musingly. "Apparently there's always a +rut." + +Thorpe gave her the mystified yet uncomplaining glance she knew so well +in his eyes. For once, the impulse to throw hidden things up into his +range of view prevailed with her. + +"Do you know," she said, with a confused half-smile at the novelty of +her mood for elucidation, "I fancied a rut was the one thing there could +be no question about with you. I had the notion that you were incapable +of ruts--and conventional grooves. I thought you--as Carlyle puts it--I +thought you were a man who had swallowed all the formulas." + +Thorpe looked down at his stomach doubtfully. "I see what you mean," he +said at last, but in a tone without any note of conviction. + +"I doubt it," she told him, with light readiness--"for I don't see +myself what I mean. I forget indeed what it was I said. And so you think +you'll go up to town tonight?" + +A sudden comprehension of what was slipping away from his grasp aroused +him. "No--no," he urged her, "don't forget what it was you said! I wish +you'd talk more with me about that. It was what I wanted to hear. You +never tell me what you're really thinking about." She received the +reproach with a mildly incredulous smile in her eyes. "Yes--I know--who +was it used to scold me about that? Oh"--she seemed suddenly reminded of +something--"I was forgetting to mention it. I have a letter from Celia +Madden. She is back in England; she is coming to us Saturday, too." + +He put out his lips a trifle. "That's all right," he objected, "but what +has it got to do with what we were talking about?" + +"Talking about?" she queried, with a momentarily blank countenance. "Oh, +she used to bully me about my deceit, and treachery, and similar crimes. +But I shall be immensely glad to see her. I always fight with her, but I +think I like her better than any other woman alive." + +"I like her too," Thorpe was impelled to say, with a kind of solemnity. +"She reminds me of some of the happiest hours in my life." + +His wife, after a brief glance into his face, laughed pleasantly, if +with a trace of flippancy. "You say nice things," she observed, slightly +inclining her head. "But now that Celia is coming, it would be as well +to have another man. It's such dreadfully short notice, though." + +"I daresay your father could come, all right," Thorpe suggested. "I'd +rather have him than almost anyone else. Would you mind asking him--or +shall I?" + +An abrupt silence marked this introduction of a subject upon which the +couple had differed openly. Thorpe, through processes unaccountable to +himself, had passed from a vivid dislike of General Kervick to a habit +of mind in which he thoroughly enjoyed having him about. The General +had been twice to High Thorpe, and on each occasion had so prolonged +his stay that, in retrospect, the period of his absence seemed +inconsiderable. The master now, thinking upon it in this minute of +silence, was conscious of having missed him greatly. He would not have +been bored to the extremity of threatening to go to London, if Kervick +had been here. The General was a gentleman, and yet had the flexible +adaptability of a retainer; he had been trained in discipline, and hence +knew how to defer without becoming fulsome or familiar; he was a man of +the world and knew an unlimited number of racy stories, and even if he +repeated some of them unduly, they were better than no stories at all. +And then, there was his matchless, unfailing patience in playing chess +or backgammon or draughts or bezique, whatever he perceived that the +master desired. + +"If you really wish it," Edith said at last, coldly. + +"But that's what I don't understand," Thorpe urged upon her with some +vigour. "If I like him, I don't see why his own daughter----" + +"Oh, need we discuss it?" she broke in, impatiently. "If I'm an +unnatural child, why then I am one, and may it not be allowed to pass +at that?" A stormy kind of smile played upon her beautifully-cut lips +as she added: "Surely one's filial emotions are things to be taken for +granted--relieved from the necessity of explanation." + +Thorpe grinned faintly at the hint of pleasantry, but he did not +relinquish his point. "Well--unless you really veto the thing--I think +I'd like to tell him to come," he said, with composed obstinacy. Upon +an afterthought he added: "There's no reason why he shouldn't meet the +Duke, is there?" + +"No specific reason," she returned, with calm coolness of tone and +manner. "And certainly I do not see myself in the part of Madame Veto." + +"All right then--I'll send him a wire," said Thorpe. His victory made +him uneasy, yet he saw no way of abandoning it with decorum. + +As the two, standing in a silence full of tacit constraint, looked +aimlessly away from the terrace, they saw at the same instant a vehicle +with a single horse coming rather briskly up the driveway, some hundreds +of yards below. It was recognizable at once as the local trap from +Punsey station, and as usual it was driven by a boy from the village. +Seated beside this lad was a burly, red-bearded man in respectable +clothes, who, to judge from the tin-box and travelling-bags fastened on +behind, seemed coming to High Thorpe to stay. + +"Who on earth is that?" asked Thorpe, wonderingly. The man was obviously +of the lower class, yet there seemed something about him which invited +recognition. + +"Presumably it's the new head-gardener," she replied with brevity. + +Her accent recalled to Thorpe the fact that there had been something +disagreeable in their conversation, and the thought of it was unpleasant +to him. "Why, I didn't know you had a new man coming," he said, turning +to her with an overture of smiling interest. + +"Yes," she answered, and then, as if weighing the proffered propitiation +and rejecting it, turned slowly and went into the house. + +The trap apparently ended its course at some back entrance: he did not +see it again. He strolled indoors, after a little, and told his man to +pack a bag for London, and order the stanhope to take him to the train. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +IN the early morning, long before any of the hotel people had made +themselves heard moving about, Thorpe got up. + +It was a long time since he had liked himself and his surroundings so +little. The bed seemed all right to the eye, and even to the touch, but +he had slept very badly in it, none the less. The room was luxuriously +furnished, as was the entire suite, but it was all strange and +uncomfortable to his senses. The operation of shaving and dressing in +solitude produced an oppression of loneliness. He regretted not having +brought his man with him for this reason, and then, upon meditation, for +other reasons. A person of his position ought always to have a servant +with him. The hotel people must have been surprised at his travelling +unattended--and the people at High Thorpe must also have thought it +strange. It flashed across his mind that no doubt his wife had most of +all thought it strange. How would she explain to herself his sudden, +precipitate journey to London alone? Might she not quite naturally +put an unpleasant construction upon it? It was bad enough to have to +remember that they had parted in something like a tiff; he found it much +worse to be fancying the suspicions with which she would be turning over +his mysterious absence in her mind. + +He went downstairs as speedily as possible and, discovering no overt +signs of breakfast in the vicinity of the restaurant, passed out and +made his way to the Embankment. This had been a favourite walk of his +in the old days--but he considered it now with an unsympathetic eye. It +seemed a dry and haggard and desolate-looking place by comparison with +his former impressions of it. The morning was grey-skied, but full of a +hard quality of light, which brought out to the uncompromising uttermost +the dilapidated squalor of the Surrey side. The water was low, and +from the mud and ooze of the ugly opposite shore, or perhaps from the +discoloured stream itself, there proceeded a smell which offended his +unaccustomed nostril. A fitful, gusty wind was blowing from the east, +and ever and again it gathered dust in eddying swoops from the roadway, +and flung it in his face. + +He walked on toward the City, without any conscious purpose, and with +no very definite reflections. It occurred to him that if his wife did +impute to him some unworthy motive in stealing off to London, and +made herself unhappy in doing so--that would at least provide the +compensation of showing that she cared. The thought, however, upon +examination, contained very meagre elements of solace. He could not in +the least be sure about any of the workings of her mind. There might be +more or less annoyance mixed up this morning with the secret thoughts +she had concerning him--or she might not be bothering her head about him +at all. This latter contingency had never presented itself so frankly to +him before. He looked hard at it, and saw more semblances of probability +about it than he liked. It might very well be that she was not thinking +about him one way or the other. + +A depressing consciousness that practically nobody need think about him +pervaded his soul. Who cared what he said or did or felt? The City had +forgotten his very existence. In the West End, only here and there some +person might chance to remember his name as that of some rich bounder +who had married Lady Cressage. Nowhere else in England, save one dull +strip of agricultural blankness in a backward home county, was there +a human being who knew anything whatever about him. And this was his +career! It was for this that he had planned that memorable campaign, and +waged that amazing series of fortnightly battles, never missing victory, +never failing at any point of the complicated strategy, and crowning it +all with a culminating triumph which had been the wonder and admiration +of the whole financial world! A few score of menials or interested +inferiors bowed to him; he drove some good horses, and was attentively +waited upon, and had a never-failing abundance of good things to eat and +drink aud smoke. Hardly anything more than that, when you came to think +of it--and the passing usufruct of all these things could be enjoyed by +any fool who had a ten-pound note in his pocket! + +What gross trick had the fates played on him? He had achieved power--and +where was that power? What had he done with it? What COULD he do with +it? He had an excess of wealth, it was true, but in what way could it +command an excess of enjoyment? The very phrase was a paradox, as he +dimly perceived. There existed only a narrow margin of advantage in +favour of the rich man. He could eat and drink a little more and a +little better than the poor man; he could have better clothes, and lie +abed later in the morning, and take life easier all round--but only +within hard and fast bounds. There was an ascertained limit beyond which +the millionaire could no more stuff himself with food and wine than +could the beggar. It might be pleasant to take an added hour or two in +bed in the morning, but to lie in bed all day would be an infliction. So +it ran indefinitely--this thin selvedge of advantage which money +could buy--with deprivation on the one side, and surfeit on the other. +Candidly, was it not true that more happiness lay in winning the way out +of deprivation, than in inventing safeguards against satiety? The +poor man succeeding in making himself rich--at numerous stages of the +operation there might be made a moral snap-shot of the truly happy man. +But not after he had reached the top. Then disintegration began at once. +The contrast between what he supposed he could do, and what he finds it +possible to do, is too vast to be accepted with equanimity. + +It must be said that after breakfast--a meal which he found in an +Italian restaurant of no great cleanliness or opulence of pretension, +and ate with an almost novel relish--Thorpe took somewhat less gloomy +views of his position. He still walked eastward, wandering into +warehouse and shipping quarters skirting the river, hitherto quite +unknown to him, and pursuing in an idle, inconsequent fashion his +meditations. He established in his mind the proposition that since an +excess of enjoyment was impossible--since one could not derive a great +block of happiness from the satisfaction of the ordinary appetites, but +at the most could only gather a little from each--the desirable thing +was to multiply as much as might be those tastes and whims and fancies +which passed for appetites, and thus expand the area of possible +gratification. + +This seemed very logical indeed, but it did not apply itself to his +individual needs with much facility. What did he want to do that he had +not done? It was difficult for him to say. Perhaps it was chandlers' +signs and windows about him, and the indefinable seafaring preoccupation +suggested by the high-walled, narrow streets, which raised the question +of a yacht in his mind. Did he want a yacht? He could recall having once +dwelt with great fondness upon such a project: doubtless it would still +be full of attractions for him. He liked the water, and the water +liked him--and he was better able now than formerly to understand how +luxurious existence can be made in modern private ships. He decided that +he would have a yacht--and then perceived that the decision brought no +exhilaration. He was no happier than before. He could decide that he +would have anything he chose to name--and it would in no whit lighten +his mood. The yacht might be as grand as High Thorpe, and relatively as +spacious and well ordered, but would he not grow as tired of the one as +he had of the other? + +He stopped short at this blunt self-expression of something he had never +admitted to himself. Was he indeed tired of High Thorpe? He had assured +his wife to the contrary yesterday. He reiterated the assurance to his +own mind now. It was instead that he was tired of himself. He carried +a weariness about with him, which looked at everything with apathetic +eyes, and cared for nothing. Some nameless paralysis had settled upon +his capacity for amusement and enjoyment, and atrophied it. He had +had the power to expand his life to the farthest boundaries of rich +experience and sensation, and he had deliberately shrunk into a sort of +herbaceous nonentity, whom nobody knew or cared about. He might have had +London at his beck and call, and yet of all that the metropolis might +mean to a millionaire, he had been able to think of nothing better than +that it should send old Kervick to him, to help beguile his boredom with +dominoes and mess-room stories! Pah! He was disgusted with himself. + +Striking out a new course, with the Monument as his guide, he presently +came into a part of the City which had a certain familiarity for him. +He walked up St. Swithin's Lane, looking at the strange forms of foreign +fruit exposed at the shop-doors, and finding in them some fleeting +recurrence of the hint that travel was what he needed. Then he stopped, +to look through the railings and open gateway at an enclosure on the +left, and the substantial, heavily-respectable group of early Victorian +buildings beyond. Some well-dressed men were standing talking in one of +the porches. The stiff yellowish-stucco pilasters of this entrance, and +the tall uniformed figure of the porter in the shadow, came into the +picture as he observed it; they gave forth a suggestion of satisfied +smugness--of orderly but altogether unillumined routine. Nothing could +be more commonplace to the eye. + +Yet to his imagination, eighteen months before, what mysterious marvels +of power had lurked hidden behind those conventional portals! Within +those doors, in some inner chamber, sat men whose task it was to direct +the movements of the greatest force the world had ever known. They and +their cousins in Paris and Frankfort, or wherever they lived, between +them wielded a vaster authority than all the Parliaments of the earth. +They could change a government, or crush the aspirations of a whole +people, or decide a question of peace or war, by the silent dictum of +their little family council. He remembered now how he had stood on this +same spot, and stared with fascinated gaze at this quadrangle of dull +houses, and pondered upon what it must feel like to be a Rothschild--and +that was only a little over a year ago! + +There was no sense of fascination whatever in his present gaze. He found +himself regarding instead, with a kind of detached curiosity, the +little knot of men in frock-coats and silk-hats who stood talking in the +doorway. It was barely ten o'clock, yet clearly business was proceeding +within. One of these persons whom he beheld might be a Rothschild, for +aught he knew; at any rate, it was presumable that some of them were +on the premises. He had heard it said that the very head of the house +listened to quotations from the tape while he ate his luncheon, and +interrupted his conversations with the most important of non-commercial +callers, to make or refuse bargains in shares offered by brokers who +came in. What impulse lay behind this extraordinary devotion to labour? +Toward what conceivable goal could it be striving? + +To work hard and risk great things for the possession of a fortune, in +order to enjoy it afterward--he could understand how that attracted +men. But to possess already the biggest of human fortunes, and still +work--that baffled him. He wished he knew some of those men in there, +especially if they belonged to the place. It would be wonderfully +interesting to get at the inner point of view of New Court. + +A little later, in Colin Semple's office, he sat down to await the +coming of that gentleman. "Then he doesn't get here so early nowadays?" +he suggested to the head-clerk who, with instant recognition and +exaggerated deference, had ushered him into this furthermost private +room. It pleased him to assume that prosperity had relaxed the +Scotchman's vigilance. + +"Oh yes, sir," the clerk replied. "A bit earlier if anything, as a rule. +But I think he is stopping at his solicitors on his way to the City. I +hope you are very well, sir." + +"Yes--I'm very fit--thanks," Thorpe said, listlessly, and the other left +him. + +Mr. Semple, when at last he arrived, bustled into the room with +unaffected gratification at the news he had heard without. "Well, well, +Thorpe man!" he cried, and shook hands cordially. "This is fine! If +I'd only known you were in town! Why wouldn't you have told me you were +coming? I'd never have kept you waiting." + +Thorpe laughed wearily. "I hardly knew I was in town myself. I only ran +up last night. I thought it would amuse me to have a look round--but +things seem as dull as ditchwater." + +"Oh no," said Semple, "the autumn is opening verra well indeed. There +are more new companies, and a better public subscription all round, than +for any first week of October I remember. Westralians appear bad on +the face of things, it's true--but don't believe all you hear of them. +There's more than the suspicion of a 'rig' there. Besides, you haven't a +penny in them." + +"I wasn't thinking of that," Thorpe told him, with comprehensive +vagueness. "Well, I suppose you're still coining money," he observed, +after a pause. + +"Keeping along--keeping along," the broker replied, cheerfully. "I canna +complain." Thorpe looked at him with a meditative frown. "Well, what are +you going to do with it, after you've got it?" he demanded, almost with +sharpness. + +The Scotchman, after a surprised instant, smiled. "Oh, I'll just keep my +hands on it," he assured him, lightly. + +"That isn't what I mean," Thorpe said, groping after what he did +mean, with sullen tenacity, among his thoughts. His large, heavy face +exhibited a depressed gravity which attracted the other's attention. + +"What's the matter?" Semple asked quickly. "Has anything gone wrong with +you?" + +Thorpe slowly shook his head. "What better off do you think you'll be +with six figures than you are with five?" he pursued, with dogmatic +insistence. + +Semple shrugged his shoulders. He seemed to have grown much brighter +and gayer of mood in this past twelvemonth. Apparently he was somewhat +stouter, and certainly there was a mellowed softening of his sharp +glance and shrewd smile. It was evident that his friend's mood somewhat +nonplussed him, but his good-humour was unflagging. + +"It's the way we're taught at school," he hazarded, genially. "In all +the arithmetics six beats five, and seven beats six." + +"They're wrong," Thorpe declared, and then consented to laugh in a +grudging, dogged way at his friend's facial confession of puzzlement. +"What I mean is--what's the good of piling up money, while you can't +pile up the enjoyments it will buy? What will a million give you, that +the fifth of it, or the tenth of it, won't give you just as well?" + +"Aye," said Semple, with a gleam of comprehension in his glance. "So +you've come to that frame of mind, have you? Why does a man go on and +shoot five hundred pheasants, when he can eat only one?" + +"Oh, if you like the mere making of money, I've nothing more to say," +Thorpe responded, with a touch of resentment. "I've always thought of +you as a man like myself, who wanted to make his pile and then enjoy +himself." + +The Scotchman laughed joyously. "Enjoy myself! Like you!" he cried. +"Man, you're as doleful as a mute at a laird's funeral! What's come over +you? I know what it is. You go and take a course of German waters----" + +"Oh, that be damned!" Thorpe objected, gloomily. "I tell you I'm all +right. Only--only--God! I've a great notion to go and get drunk." + +Colin Semple viewed his companion with a more sympathetic expression. +"I'm sorry you're so hipped," he said, in gentle tones. "It can't be +more than some passing whimsy. You're in no real trouble, are you?--no +family trouble?" + +Thorpe shook his head. "The whole thing is rot!" he affirmed, +enigmatically. + +"What whole thing?" The broker perched on the edge of his desk, and with +patient philosophy took him up. "Do you mean eighty thousand a year is +rot? That depends upon the man who has it." + +"I know that well enough," broke in the other, heavily. "That's what I'm +kicking about. I'm no good!" + +Semple, looking attentively down upon him, pursed his lips in +reflection. "That's not the case," he observed with argumentative +calmness. "You're a great deal of good. I'm not so sure that what you've +been trying to do is any good, though. Come!--I read you like large +print. You've set out to live the life of a rich country squire--and it +hasn't come off. It couldn't come off! I never believed it would. You +haven't the taste for it inbred in your bones. You haven't the thousand +little habits and interests that they take in with their mother's milk, +and that make such a life possible. When you look at a hedge, you don't +think of it as something to worry live animals out of. When you see one +of your labourers, you don't care who his father was, or which dairymaid +his uncle ought to have married, if he had wanted to get a certain +cottage. You don't want to know the name of everybody whose roof you can +see; much less could you remember them, and talk about them, and listen +to gossip about them, year after year. It isn't a passion in your blood +to ride to hounds, and to shoot, and all that. It doesn't come to you +by tradition--and you haven't the vacancy of mind which might be a +substitute for tradition. What are you doing in the country, then? Just +eating too much, and sitting about, and getting fat and stupid. If you +want the truth, there it is for you." + +Thorpe, putting out his lips judicially, inclined upon reflection to the +view that this was the truth. "That's all right, as far as it goes," he +assented, with hesitation. "But what the hell else is there?" + +The little Scotchman had grown too interested in his diagnosis to drop +it in an incomplete state. "A year ago," he went on, "you had won your +victories like a veritable Napoleon. You had everything in your own +hands; Napoleon himself was not more the master of what he saw about +him than you were. And then what did you do? You voluntarily retired +yourself to your Elba. It wasn't that you were beaten and driven there +by others; you went of your own accord. Have you ever thought, Thorpe, +of this? Napoleon was the greatest man of his age--one of the greatest +men of all ages--not only in war but in a hundred other ways. He spent +the last six years of his life at St. Helena--in excellent health and +with companions that he talked freely to--and in all the extraordinarily +copious reports of his conversations there, we don't get a single +sentence worth repeating. If you read it, you'll see he talked like a +dull, ordinary body. The greatness had entirely evaporated from him, the +moment he was put on an island where he had nothing to do." + +"Yes-s," said Thorpe, thoughtfully. He accepted the application without +any qualms about the splendour of the comparison it rested upon. He had +done the great things, just as Semple said, and there was no room for +false modesty about them in his mind. "The trouble is," he began, "that +I did what I had always thought I wanted to do most. I was quite certain +in my mind that that was what I wanted. And if we say now that I was +wrong--if we admit that that wasn't what I really wanted--why then, God +knows what it is I DO want. I'll be hanged if I do!" + +"Come back to the City," Semple told him. "That's where you belong." + +"No--no!" Thorpe spoke with emphasis. "That's where you're all off. I +don't belong in the City at all. I hate the whole outfit. What the devil +amusement would it be to me to take other men's money away from them? +I'd be wanting all the while to give it back to them. And certainly I +wouldn't get any fun out of their taking my money away from me. Besides, +it doesn't entertain me. I've no taste at all for it. I never look at a +financial paper now. I could no more interest myself in all that stuff +again than I could fly. That's the hell of it--to be interested in +anything." + +"Go in for politics," the other suggested, with less warmth. + +"Yes, I know," Thorpe commented, with a lingering tone. "Perhaps I ought +to think more about that. By the way, what's Plowden doing? I've lost +all track of him." + +"Abroad somewhere, I fancy," Semple replied. His manner exhibited a +profound indifference. "When his mother died he came into something--I +don't know how much. I don't think I've seen him since--and that must +have been six months and more ago." + +"Yes. I heard about it at the time," the other said. "It must be about +that. His sister and brother--the young Plowdens--they're coming to us +at the end of the week, I believe. You didn't hit it off particularly +with Plowden, eh?" + +Semple emitted a contemptuous little laugh. "I did not quarrel with +him--if you mean that," he said, "but even to please you, Thorpe, I +couldn't bring myself to put my back into the job of making money for +him. He was treated fairly--even generously, d'ye mind. I should think, +all told, he had some thirty thousand pounds for his shares, and that's +a hundred times as much as I had a pleasure in seeing him get. Each man +can wear his own parasites, but it's a task for him to stand another +man's. I shook your Lord Plowden off, when the chance came." + +"THAT'S all right," Thorpe assured him, easily. "I never told you that +he was any good. I merely felt like giving him a leg up--because really +at the start he was of use to me. I did owe him something....It was at +his house that I met my wife." + +"Aye," said Semple, with dispassionate brevity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +WHEN he had parted with Semple, at a corner where the busy broker, who +had walked out with him, obviously fidgeted to get away, Thorpe could +think of no one else in the City whom he desired to see. A call upon +his bankers would, he knew, be made an occasion of extremely pleasant +courtesy by those affable people, but upon reflection it seemed scarcely +worth the trouble. + +He was in a mood for indolent sauntering, and he made the long stretch +of the Holborn thoroughfare in a leisurely fashion, turning off when +the whim seized him into odd courts and alley-ways to see what they were +like. After luncheon, he continued his ramble, passing at last from +St. Giles, through avenues which had not existed in the London of his +boyhood, to the neighbourhood of the Dials. Here also the landmarks +seemed all changed, but there was still enough ostentatious squalor and +disorder to identify the district. He observed it and its inhabitants +with a certain new curiosity. A notable alteration for the better had +come over his spirits. It might be the champagne at luncheon, or it +might be the mere operation of a frank talk with Semple, that had +dissipated his gloom. At all events it was gone--and he strolled along +in quite placid contentment, taking in the panorama of London's more +intimate life with the interest of a Londoner who has obtained a fresh +country eye. + +He who had seen most of the world, and not cared much about the +spectacle, found himself now consciously enjoying observation as he had +not supposed it possible to do. He surrendered himself to the experience +with a novel sense of having found something worth while--and found it, +moreover, under his very nose. In some dull, meaningless fashion he had +always known this part of London, and been familiar with its external +aspects. Now suddenly he perceived that the power had come to him of +seeing it all in a different way. The objects he beheld, inanimate +and otherwise, had specific new meanings for him. His mind was stirred +pleasurably by the things they said to him. + +He looked at all the contents of the windows as he passed; at the +barrows of the costers and hawkers crowding up the side-streets; at +the coarse-haired, bare-headed girls and women standing about in their +shawls and big white aprons; at the weakling babies in their arms or +about the thick, clumsy folds of their stained skirts; at the grimy, +shuffling figures of their men-folk, against the accustomed background +of the public-house corner, with its half-open door, and its fly-blown +theatre-bills in the windows; at the drivers of the vans and carts, +sleepily overlooking the huge horses, gigantic to the near view as some +survival from the age of mammoths, which pushed gingerly, ploddingly, +their tufted feet over the greasy stones; at foul interiors where +through the blackness one discerned bent old hags picking over refuse; +at the faces which, as he passed, made some special human appeal to +him--faces blurred with drink, faces pallid with under-feeding, +faces worn into masks by the tension of trouble, faces sweetened by +resignation, faces aglow with devil-may-care glee...he looked, as it +were, into the pulsing heart of something which had scarcely seemed +alive to him before. + +Eventually, he found himself halting at the door of his sister's +book-shop. A new boy stood guard over the stock exposed on the shelf and +stands outside, and he looked stonily at the great man; it was evident +that he was as far from suspecting his greatness as his relationship. +It pleased Thorpe for a little to take up one book after another, and +pretend to read from it, and force the boy to watch him hard. He had +almost the temptation to covertly slip a volume into his pocket, and +see what the lad would do. It was remarkable, he reflected with +satisfaction--this new capacity within him to find drama in trifles. + +There floated into his mind the recollection of some absurd squabble he +had had with his sister about the sign overhead. He stepped back a +few paces and looked up at it. There were the old words--"Thorpe, +Bookseller"--right enough, but they seemed to stand forth with a +novel prominence. Upon a second glance, he saw that the board had been +repainted. At this he laughed aloud. The details of the episode came +back to him now. For some reason, or no reason at all--he could not now +imagine what on earth could have prompted him--he had last spring caused +his sister to be informed of his wish that her own name, Dabney, should +be substituted for that of Thorpe on her sign. It was to Julia that he +had confided this mission, and it was Julia who, in a round-about +way, had disclosed to him presently her mother's deep resolution to do +nothing of the sort. He laughed again at the added defiance that this +refurbishing of the old sign expressed, and still was grinning broadly +as he entered the shop and pushed his way along to the rear. + +She stood beside her desk as she seemed to have stood ever since he +could remember her--tall, placid, dull-eyed, self-sufficient, exhaling +as it were a kind of stubborn yet competent listlessness. Her long, +mannish countenance expressed an undoubted interest in his presence, +when she recognized him, but he had no clear perception whether it was +pleased or otherwise. In their infrequent latter-day encounters he had +dropped the habit of kissing her, and there was certainly no hint in +her manner of expecting, much less inviting, its renewal now--but upon +a sudden impulse he drew her to him with an arm flung round her gaunt +waist, smacked his lips with effusion upon her cheek. + +Her surprise, as she withdrew herself somewhat forcefully from his +embrace, was plain enough. "Well!" she exclaimed vaguely, and then +looked at him. "You're getting fatter." + +"No I'm not," he rejoined, with the earnestness belonging to an +important topic. "People think I am--but it's merely the looseness of +these clothes. There's really no difference since I was here last." + +The glance they exchanged was so full of the tacit comment that this +last visit was a long time ago, that Thorpe put it into words. "Let's +see--that was just before Christmas, wasn't it?" he said. + +"Something like that," she responded. "You were going to get married +in a week or two, I remember, and THAT was in January, wasn't it? I was +taking stock, I know." + +He nodded in turn. The thought that his only sister recalled his +marriage merely as a date, like a royal anniversary or a bank-holiday, +and held herself implacably aloof from all contact with his domestic +life, annoyed him afresh. "You're an awful goat, not to come near us," +he felt impelled, in brotherly frankness, to tell her. + +She put out her lips, and wagged her head a little, in a gesture which +it flashed across him his own mirror might often have recorded. "I +thought that was all settled and done with long ago," she said, moodily. + +"Oh, I won't worry you with it, Lou," he observed, with reassuring +kindness of tone. "I never felt so much like being nice to you in my +life." + +She seemed surprised at this, too, and regarded him with a heavy new +fixity of gaze. No verbal comment, apparently, occurred to her. + +"Julia and Alfred all right?" he queried, cheerfully. + +"I daresay," she made brief answer. + +"But they write to you, don't they?" + +"SHE does--sometimes. They seem to be doing themselves very well, from +what she says." + +"She'd write oftener, if you'd answer her letters," he told her, in +tones of confidential reproach. + +"Oh, I don't write letters unless I've got something to say," she +answered, as if the explanation were ample. + +The young people were domiciled for the time being at Dusseldorf, +where Alfred had thought he would most like to begin his Continental +student-career, and where Julia, upon the more or less colourable +pretext of learning the language, might enjoy the mingled freedom and +occupation of a home of her own. They had taken a house for the summer +and autumn, and would do the same in Dresden or Munich, later on, for +the winter. + +"What I would really have liked," Thorpe confided to his sister now, +"was to have had them both live with me. They would have been as welcome +as the day is long. I could see, of course, in Alfred's case, that if +he's set on being an artist, he ought to study abroad. Even the best +English artists, he says, do that at the beginning. So it was all right +for him to go. But Julia--it was different with her--I was rather keen +about her staying. My wife was just as keen as I was. She took the +greatest fancy to Julia from the very start--and so far as I could +see, Julia liked her all right. In fact, I thought Julia would want to +stay--but somehow she didn't." + +"She always spoke very highly of your wife," Mrs. Dabney affirmed with +judicial fairness. "I think she does like her very much." + +"Well then what did she want to hyke off to live among those Dutchmen +for, when one of the best houses in England was open to her?" Thorpe +demanded. + +"You mustn't ask me," her mother responded. Her tone seemed to carry +the suggestion that by silence she could best protect her daughter's +interests. + +"I don't believe you know any more about it than I do," was his +impulsive comment. + +"I daresay not," she replied, with indifference. "Probably she didn't +fancy living in so big a house--although heaven knows her ideas are big +enough about most things." + +"Did she say so?" Thorpe asked abruptly. + +The widow shook her head with dispassionate candour. "She didn't +say anything to me about it, one way or the other. I formed my own +impressions--that's all. It's a free country. Everybody can form their +impressions." + +"I wish you'd tell me what you really think," Thorpe urged her, mildly +persuasive. "You know how fond I am of Julia, and how little I want to +do her an injustice." + +"Oh, she wouldn't feel THAT way," Louisa observed, vaguely. "If you ask +me plain, I think it was dull for her." + +"Well," said Thorpe, upon reflection, "I shouldn't be surprised if it +was. I hadn't thought of that. But still--why she and my wife could be +company for each other." + +"You talk as if life was merely a long railway journey," she told him, +in an unexpected flight of metaphor. "Two women cooped up in a lonesome +country house may be a little less lonely than one of them by herself +would be--but not much. It's none of my business--but how your wife must +hate it!" + +He laughed easily. "Ah, that's where you're wrong," he said. "She +doesn't care about anything but gardening. That's her hobby. She's crazy +about it. We've laid out more in new greenhouses alone, not counting +the plants, than would rebuild this building. I'm not sure the heating +apparatus wouldn't come to that, alone. And then the plants! What do +you think of six and eight guineas for a single root? Those are the +amaryllises--and if you come to orchids, you can pay hundreds if you +like. Well, that's her passion. That's what she really loves." + +"That's what she seizes upon to keep her from just dying of loneliness," +Louisa retorted, obstinately, and at a sign of dissent from her brother +she went on. "Oh, I know what I'm talking about. I have three or four +customers--ladies in the country, and one of them is a lady of title, +too--and they order gardening books and other books through me, and when +they get up to town, once a year or so, they come here and they talk to +me about it. And there isn't one of them that at the bottom of her heart +doesn't hate it. They'd rather dodge busses at Charing Cross corner all +day long, than raise flowers as big as cheeses, if they had their own +way. But they don't have their own way, and they must have something to +occupy themselves with--and they take to gardening. I daresay I'd even +do it myself if I had to live in the country, which thank God I don't!" + +"That's because you don't know anything about the country," he told her, +but the retort, even while it justified itself, had a hollow sound in +his own ears. "All you know outside of London is Margate." + +"I went to Yarmouth and Lowestoft this summer," she informed him, +crushingly. + +Somehow he lacked the heart to laugh. "I know what you mean, Lou," he +said, with an affectionate attempt at placation. "I suppose there's a +good deal in what you say. It is dull, out there at my place, if you +have too much of it. Perhaps that's a good hint about my wife. It never +occurred to me, but it may be so. But the deuce of it is, what else is +there to do? We tried a house in London, during the Season----" + +"Yes, I saw in the papers you were here," she said impassively, in +comment upon his embarrassed pause. + +"I didn't look you up, because I didn't think you wanted much to see +me"--he explained with a certain awkwardness--"but bye-gones are all +bye-gones. We took a town house, but we didn't like it. It was one +endless procession of stupid and tiresome calls and dinners and parties; +we got awfully sick of it, and swore we wouldn't try it again. Well +there you are, don't you see? It's stupid in Hertfordshire, and it's +stupid here. Of course one can travel abroad, but that's no good +for more than a few months. Of course it would be different if I had +something to do. I tell you God's truth, Lou--sometimes I feel as if I +was really happier when I was a poor man. I know it's all rot--I really +wasn't--but sometimes it SEEMS as if I was." + +She contemplated him with a leaden kind of gaze. "Didn't it ever occur +to you to do some good with your money?" she said, with slow bluntness. +Then, as if fearing a possible misconception, she added more rapidly: "I +don't mean among your own family. We're a clannish people, we Thorpes; +we'd always help our own flesh and blood, even if we kicked them while +we were doing it--but I mean outside, in the world at large." + +"What have I got to do with the world at large? I didn't make it; I'm +not responsible for it." He muttered the phrases lightly enough, but a +certain fatuity in them seemed to attract his attention when he heard +their sound. "I've given between five and six thousand pounds to London +hospitals within the present year," he added, straightening himself. "I +wonder you didn't see it. It was in all the papers." + +"Hospitals!" + +It was impossible to exaggerate the scorn which her voice imported into +the word. He looked at her with unfeigned surprise, and then took in the +impression that she was upon a subject which exceptionally interested +her. Certainly the display of something approaching animation in her +glance and manner was abnormal. + +"I said 'do some GOOD with your money,'" she reminded him, still with a +vibration of feeling in her tone. "You must live in the country, if +you think London hospitals are deserving objects. They couldn't fool +Londoners on that point, not if they had got the Prince to go on his +hands and knees. And you give a few big cheques to them," she went on, +meditatively, "and you never ask how they're managed, or what rings are +running them for their own benefit, or how your money is spent--and you +think you've done a noble, philanthropic thing! Oh no--I wasn't talking +about humbug charity. I was talking about doing some genuine good in the +world." + +He put his leg over the high stool, and pushed his hat back with a +smile. "All right," he said, genially. "What do you propose?" + +"I don't propose anything," she told him, after a moment's hesitation. +"You must work that out for yourself. What might seem important to +me might not interest you at all--and if you weren't interested you +wouldn't do anything. But this I do say to you, Joel--and I've said it +to myself every day for this last year or more, and had you in mind all +the time, too--if I had made a great fortune, and I sat about in +purple and fine linen doing nothing but amuse myself in idleness and +selfishness, letting my riches accumulate and multiply themselves +without being of use to anybody, I should be ASHAMED to look my +fellow-creatures in the face! You were born here. You know what London +slums are like. You know what Clare Market was like--it's bad enough +still--and what the Seven Dials and Drury Lane and a dozen other places +round here are like to this day. That's only within a stone's throw. +Have you seen Charles Booth's figures about the London poor? Of course +you haven't--and it doesn't matter. You KNOW what they are like. But you +don't care. The misery and ignorance and filth and hopelessness of two +or three hundred thousand people doesn't interest you. You sit upon your +money-bags and smile. If you want the truth, I'm ashamed to have you for +a brother!" + +"Well, I'm damned!" was Thorpe's delayed and puzzled comment upon this +outburst. He looked long at his sister, in blank astonishment. "Since +when have you been taken this way?" he asked at last, mechanically +jocular. + +"That's all right," she declared with defensive inconsequence. "It's the +way I feel. It's the way I've felt from the beginning." + +He was plainly surprised out of his equanimity by this unlooked-for +demonstration on his sister's part. He got off the stool and walked +about in the little cleared space round the desk. When he spoke, it was +to utter something which he could trace to no mental process of which he +had been conscious. + +"How do you know that that isn't what I've felt too--from the +beginning?" he demanded of her, almost with truculence. "You say I sit +on my money-bags and smile--you abuse me with doing no good with my +money--how do you know I haven't been studying the subject all this +while, and making my plans, and getting ready to act? You never did +believe in me!" + +She sniffed at him. "I don't believe in you now, at all events," she +said, bluntly. + +He assumed the expression of a misunderstood man. "Why, this very +day"--he began, and again was aware that thoughts were coming +up, ready-shaped to his tongue, which were quite strangers to his +brain--"this whole day I've been going inch by inch over the very ground +you mention; I've been on foot since morning, seeing all the corners and +alleys of that whole district for myself, watching the people and the +things they buy and the way they live--and thinking out my plans for +doing something. I don't claim any credit for it. It seems to me no more +than what a man in my position ought to do. But I own that to come in, +actually tired out from a tramp like that, and get blown-up by one's +own sister for selfishness and heartlessness and miserliness and all the +rest of it--I must say, that's a bit rum." + +Louisa did not wince under this reproach as she might have been expected +to do, nor was there any perceptible amelioration in the heavy frown +with which she continued to regard him. But her words, uttered after +some consideration, came in a tone of voice which revealed a desire to +avoid offense. "It won't matter to you, your getting blown-up by me, if +you're really occupying your mind with that sort of thing. You're too +used to it for that." + +He would have liked a less cautious acceptance of his assurances than +this--but after all, one did not look to Louisa for enthusiasms. The +depth of feeling she had disclosed on this subject of London's poor +still astonished him, but principally now because of its unlikely +source. If she had been notoriously of an altruistic and free-handed +disposition, he could have understood it. But she had been always the +hard, dry, unemotional one; by comparison with her, he felt himself +to be a volatile and even sentimental person. If she had such views +as these, it became clear to him that his own views were even much +advanced. + +"It's a tremendous subject," he said, with loose largeness of manner. +"Only a man who works hard at it can realize how complicated it is. The +only way is to start with the understanding that something is going +to be done. No matter how many difficulties there are in the way, +SOMETHING'S GOING TO BE DONE! If a strong man starts out with that, why +then he can fight his way through, and push the difficulties aside or +bend them to suit his purpose, and accomplish something." + +Mrs. Dabney, listening to this, found nothing in it to quarrel with--yet +somehow remained, if not skeptical, then passively unconvinced. "What +are your plans?" she asked him. + +"Oh, it's too soon to formulate anything," he told her, with prepared +readiness. "It isn't a thing to rush into in a hurry, with half baked +theories and limited information. Great results, permanent results, are +never obtained that way." + +"I hope it isn't any Peabody model-dwelling thing." + +"Oh, nothing like it in the least," he assured her, and made a mental +note to find out what it was she had referred to. + +"The Lord-Rowton houses are better, they say," she went on, "but it +seems to me that the real thing is that there shouldn't be all this +immense number of people with only fourpence or fivepence in their +pocket. That's where the real mischief lies." + +He nodded comprehendingly, but hesitated over further words. Then +something occurred to him. "Look here!" he said. "If you're as keen +about all this, are you game to give up this footling old shop, and +devote your time to carrying out my plans, when I've licked 'em into +shape?" + +She began shaking her head, but then something seemed also to occur to +her. "It'll be time enough to settle that when we get to it, won't it?" +she observed. + +"No--you've got to promise me now," he told her. + +"Well that I won't!" she answered, roundly. + +"You'd see the whole--the whole scheme come to nothing, would you?"--he +scolded at her--"rather than abate a jot of your confounded mulishness." + +"Aha!" she commented, with a certain alertness of perception shining +through the stolidity of her mien. "I knew you were humbugging! If +you'd meant what you said, you wouldn't talk about its coming to nothing +because I won't do this or that. I ought to have known better. I'm +always a goose when I believe what you tell me." + +A certain abstract justice in her reproach impressed him. "No you're +not, Lou," he replied, coaxingly. "I really mean it all--every word of +it--and more. It only occurred to me that it would all go better, if you +helped. Can't you understand how I should feel that?" + +She seemed in a grudging way to accept anew his professions of +sincerity, but she resisted all attempts to extract any promise. "I +don't believe in crossing a bridge till I get to it," she declared, +when, on the point of his departure, he last raised the question, and it +had to be left at that. He took with him some small books she had tied +in a parcel, and told him to read. She had spoken so confidently of +their illuminating value, that he found himself quite committed to their +perusal--and almost to their endorsement. He had thought during the day +of running down to Newmarket, for the Cesarewitch was to be run on the +morrow, and someone had told him that that was worth seeing. By the time +he reached his hotel, however, an entirely new project had possessed his +mind. He packed his bag, and took the next train for home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +"I DIDN'T ask your father, after all," was one of the things that +Thorpe said to his wife next day. He had the manner of one announcing +a concession, albeit in an affable spirit, and she received the remark +with a scant, silent nod. + +Two days later he recurred to the subject. They were again upon the +terrace, where he had been lounging in an easy-chair most of the day, +with the books his sister had bid him read on a table beside him. He had +glanced through some of them in a desultory fashion, cutting pages at +random here and there, but for the most part he had looked straight +before him at the broad landscape, mellowing now into soft browns and +yellows under the mild, vague October sun. He had not thought much of +the books, but he had a certain new sense of enjoyment in the fruits +of this placid, abstracted rumination which perhaps they had helped to +induce. + +"About your father," he said now, as his wife, who had come out to speak +with him on some other matter, was turning to go away again: "I'm afraid +I annoyed you the other day by what I said." + +"I have no recollection of it," she told him, with tranquil politeness, +over her shoulder. + +He found himself all at once keenly desirous of a conversation on this +topic. "But I want you to recollect," he said, as he rose to his +feet. There was a suggestion of urgency in his tone which arrested her +attention. She moved slowly toward the chair, and after a little perched +herself upon one of its big arms, and looked up at him where he leant +against the parapet. + +"I've thought of it a good deal," he went on, in halting explanation. +His purpose seemed clearer to him than were the right phrases in which +to define it. "I persisted in saying that I'd do something you didn't +want me to do--something that was a good deal more your affair than +mine--and I've blamed myself for it. That isn't at all what I want to +do." + +Her face as well as her silence showed her to be at a loss for +an appropriate comment. She was plainly surprised, and seemingly +embarrassed as well. "I'm sure you always wish to be nice," she said at +last. The words and tone were alike gracious, but he detected in them +somewhere a perfunctory note. + +"Oh--nice!" he echoed, in a sudden stress of impatience with the word. +"Damn being 'nice'! Anybody can be 'nice.' I'm thinking of something ten +thousand times bigger than being 'nice.'" + +"I withdraw the word immediately--unreservedly," she put in, with a +smile in which he read that genial mockery he knew so well. + +"You laugh at me--whenever I try to talk seriously," he objected. + +"I laugh?" she queried, with an upward glance of demurely simulated +amazement. "Impossible! I assure you I've forgotten how." + +"Ah, now we get to it!" he broke out, with energy. "You're really +feeling about it just as I am. You're not satisfied with what we're +doing--with the life we're leading--any more than I am. I see that, +plain enough, now. I didn't dream of it before. Somehow I got the idea +that you were enjoying it immensely--the greenhouses and gardens and all +that sort of thing. And do you know who it was that put me right--that +told me you hated it?" + +"Oh, don't let us talk of him!" Edith exclaimed, swiftly. + +Thorpe laughed. "You're wrong. It wasn't your father. I didn't see him. +No--it was my sister. She's never seen you, but all the same she knew +enough to give me points. She told me I was a fool to suppose you were +happy here." + +"How clever of her!" A certain bantering smile accompanied the words, +but on the instant it faded away. She went on with a musing gravity. +"I'm sorry I don't get to know your sister. She seems an extremely real +sort of person. I can understand that she might be difficult to live +with--I daresay all genuine characters are--but she's very real. +Although, apparently, conversation isn't her strong point, still I enjoy +talking with her." + +"How do you mean?" Thorpe asked, knitting his brows in puzzlement. + +"Oh, I often go to her shop--or did when I was in town. I went almost +immediately after our--our return to England. I was half afraid +she would recognize me--the portraits in the papers, you know--but +apparently she didn't. And it's splendid--the way she says absolutely +nothing more than it's necessary to say. And her candour! If she thinks +books are bad she says so. Fancy that!" + +He still frowned uneasily as he looked down at her. "You never mentioned +to me that you had gone there," he told her, as if in reproach. + +"Ah, it was complicated," Edith explained. "She objects to knowing me--I +think secretly I respect her a great deal for that--and therefore there +is something clandestine about my getting to know her--and I could not +be sure how it would impress you, and really it seemed simplest not to +mention it." + +"It isn't that alone," he declared, grave-faced still, but with a softer +voice. "Do you remember what I said the other day? It would make all the +difference in the world to me, if--if you were really--actually my other +half!" + +The phrase which he had caught at seemed, as it fell upon the air, to +impregnate it with some benumbing quality. The husband and wife looked +dumbly, almost vacantly at one another, for what appeared a long time. + +"I mean"--all at once Thorpe found tongue, and even a sort of fluency as +he progressed--"I mean, if you shared things really with me! Oh, I'm +not complaining; you mustn't think that. The agreement we made at the +start--you've kept your part of it perfectly. You've done better than +that: you've kept still about the fact that it made you unhappy." + +"Oh no," she interposed, gently. "It is not the fact that it has made me +unhappy." + +"Well--discontented, then," he resumed, without pause. "Here we are. We +do the thing we want to do--we make the kind of home for ourselves +that we've agreed we would like--and then it turns out that somehow it +doesn't come up to expectations. You get tired of it. I suppose, if the +truth were known, I'm by way of being tired of it too. Well, if you look +at it, that fact is the most important thing in the world for both of +us. It's the one thing that we ought to be most anxious to discuss, and +examine frankly in all its bearings--in order to see if we can't better +it--but that's precisely the thing that doesn't get talked about between +us. You would never have told me that you were unhappy----" + +"You use the word again," she reminded him, a wan smile softening her +protest. + +Thorpe stood up, and took a slow step toward the chair. He held her +glance with his own, as he stood then, his head bent, gravely regarding +her. + +"Do you tell me that you are happy?" he asked, with sober directness. + +She fluttered her hands in a little restrained gesture of comment. "You +consider only the extremes," she told him. "Between black and white +there are so many colours and shades and half-tones! The whole spectrum, +in fact. Hardly anybody, I should think, gets over the edge into the +true black or the true white. There are always tints, modifications. +People are always inside the colour-scheme, so to speak. The worst that +can be said of me is that I may be in the blues--in the light-blues--but +it is fair to remember that they photograph white." + +Though there was an impulse within him to resent this as trifling, +he resisted it, and judicially considered her allegory. "That is to +say"--he began hesitatingly. + +"To the observer I am happy. To myself I am not unhappy." + +"Why won't you tell me, Edith, just where you are?" + +The sound of her name was somewhat unfamiliar to their discourse. The +intonation which his voice gave to it now caused her to look up quickly. + +"If I could tell myself," she answered him, after an instant's thought, +"pray believe that I would tell you." + +The way seemed for the moment blocked before him, and he sighed heavily. +"I want to get nearer to you," he said, with gloom, "and I don't!" + +It occurred to her to remark: "You take exception to my phraseology when +I say you always try to be 'nice,' but I'm sure you know what I mean." +She offered him this assurance with a tentative smile, into which he +gazed moodily. + +"You didn't think I was 'nice' when you consented to marry me," he was +suddenly inspired to say. "I can't imagine your applying that word to me +then in your mind. God knows what it was you did say to yourself about +me, but you never said I was 'nice.' That was the last word that would +have fitted me then--and now it's the only one you can think of." +The hint that somehow he had stumbled upon a clue to the mysteries +enveloping him rose to prominence in his mind as he spoke. The year had +wrought a baffling difference in him. He lacked something now that then +he had possessed, but he was powerless to define it. + +He seated himself again in the chair, and put his hand through her arm +to keep her where she lightly rested beside him. "Will you tell me," he +said, with a kind of sombre gentleness, "what the word is that you would +have used then? I know you wouldn't--couldn't--have called me 'nice.' +What would you have called me?" + +She paused in silence for a little, then slipped from the chair and +stood erect, still leaving her wrist within the restraining curve of his +fingers. "I suppose," she said, musingly--"I suppose I should have said +'powerful' or 'strong.'" Then she released her arm, and in turn moved to +the parapet. + +"And I am weak now--I am 'nice,'" he reflected, mechanically. + +In the profile he saw, as she looked away at the vast distant horizon, +there was something pensive, even sad. She did not speak at once, and as +he gazed at her more narrowly it seemed as if her lips were quivering. +A new sense of her great beauty came to him--and with it a hint that +for the instant at least her guard was down. He sprang to his feet, and +stood beside her. + +"You ARE going to be open with me--Edith!" he pleaded, softly. + +She turned from him a little, as if to hide the signs of her agitation. +"Oh, what is there to say?" she demanded, in a tone which was almost a +wail. "It is not your fault. I'm not blaming you." + +"WHAT is not my fault?" he persisted with patient gentleness. + +Suddenly she confronted him. There were the traces of tears upon +her lashes, and serenity had fled from her face. "It is a mistake--a +blunder," she began, hurriedly. "I take it all upon my own shoulders. +I was the one who did it. I should have had more judgment--more good +sense!" + +"You are not telling me, are you," he asked with gravity, "that you are +sorry you married me?" + +"Is either of us glad?" she retorted, breathlessly. "What is there to be +glad about? You are bored to death--you confess it. And I--well, it is +not what I thought it would be. I deceived myself. I do not reproach +you." + +"No, you keep saying that," he observed, with gloomy slowness of +utterance. "But what is it you reproach yourself with, then? We might as +well have it out." + +"Yes," she assented, with a swift reversion to calm. Her eyes met his +with a glance which had in it an implacable frankness. "I married one +man because he would be able to make me a Duchess. I married another +because he had eighty thousand a year. That is the kind of beast I am. +There is bad blood in me. You know my father; that is quite enough. I am +his daughter; that explains everything." + +The exaggeration of her tone and words produced a curious effect +upon him. He stared at her for a little, perceiving slowly that a new +personage was being revealed to him. The mask of delicately-balanced +cynicism, of amiably polite indifference, had been lifted; there was a +woman of flesh and blood beneath it, after all--a woman to whom he could +talk on terms of intimacy. + +"Rubbish!" he said, and his big face lightened into a genial, paternal +smile. "You didn't marry me for my money at all! What nonsense! I simply +came along and carried you off. You couldn't help yourself. It would +have been the same if I hadn't had sixpence." + +To his sharp scrutiny there seemed to flicker in her eyes a kind of +answering gleam. Then she hastily averted her glance, and in this action +too there was a warrant for his mounting confidence. + +"The trouble has been," he declared, "that I've been too much afraid of +you. I've thought that you were made of so much finer stuff than I am, +that you mustn't be touched. That was all a mistake. I see it right +enough now. You ARE finer than I am--God knows there's no dispute about +that--but that's no reason why I should have hung up signs of 'Hands +off!' all around you, and been frightened by them myself. I had the +cheek to capture you and carry you off--and I ought to have had the +pluck to make you love me afterward, and keep it up. And that's what I'm +going to do!" + +To this declaration she offered no immediate reply, but continued to +gaze with a vaguely meditative air upon the expanse of landscape spread +below them. He threw a hasty glance over the windows behind him, and +then with assurance passed his arm round her waist. He could not say +that there was any responsive yielding to his embrace, but he did affirm +to himself with new conviction, as he looked down upon the fair small +head at his shoulder, with its lovely pale-brown hair drawn softly +over the temples, and its glimpse of the matchless profile inclined +beneath--that it was all right. + +He waited for a long time, with a joyous patience, for her to speak. The +mere fact that she stood beneath his engirdling arm, and gave no thought +to the potential servants'-eyes behind them, was enough for present +happiness. He regarded the illimitable picture commanded from his +terrace with refreshed eyes; it was once again the finest view in +England--and something much more than that beside. + +At last, abruptly, she laughed aloud--a silvery, amused little laugh +under her breath. "How comedy and tragedy tread forever on each other's +heels!" she remarked. Her tone was philosophically gay, but upon +reflection he did not wholly like her words. + +"There wasn't any tragedy," he said, "and there isn't any comedy." + +She laughed again. "Oh, don't say that this doesn't appeal to your sense +of humour!" she urged, with mock fervour. + +Thorpe sighed in such unaffected depression at this, that she seemed +touched by his mood. Without stirring from his hold, she lifted her +face. "Don't think I'm hateful," she bade him, and her eyes were very +kind. "There's more truth in what you've been saying than even you +imagine. It really wasn't the money--or I mean it might easily have been +the same if there had been no money. But how shall I explain it? I am +attracted by a big, bold, strong pirate, let us say, but as soon as +he has carried me off--that is the phrase for it--then he straightway +renounces crime and becomes a law-abiding, peaceful citizen. My +buccaneer transforms himself, under my very eyes, into an alderman! Do +you say there is no comedy in that--and tragedy too?" + +"Oh, put it that way and it's all right," he declared, after a moment's +consideration. "I've got as much fun in me as anybody else," he went +on, "only your jokes have a way of raising blisters on me, somehow. +But that's all done with now. That's because I didn't know you--was +frightened of you. But I aint scared any more. Everything is different!" + +With a certain graciousness of lingering movement, she withdrew herself +from his clasp, and faced him with a doubtful smile. "Ah, don't be too +sure," she murmured. + +"Everything is different!" he repeated, with confident emphasis. "Don't +you see yourself it is?" + +"You say it is," she replied, hesitatingly, "but that alone doesn't make +it so. The assertion that life isn't empty doesn't fill it." + +"Ah, but NOW you will talk with me about all that," he broke in +triumphantly. "We've been standing off with one another. We've been +of no help to each other. But we'll change that, now. We'll talk over +everything together. We'll make up our minds exactly what we want to do, +and then I'll tuck you under my arm and we'll set out and do it." + +She smiled with kindly tolerance for his new-born enthusiasm. "Don't +count on me for too much wisdom or invention," she warned him. "If +things are to be done, you are still the one who will have to do them. +But undoubtedly you are at your best when you are doing things. This +really has been no sort of life for you, here." + +He gathered her arm into his. "Come and show me your greenhouses," he +said, and began walking toward the end of the terrace. "It'll turn +out to have been all right for me, this year that I've spent here," he +continued, as they strolled along. There was a delightful consciousness +of new intimacy conveyed by the very touch of her arm, which filled his +tone with buoyancy. "I've been learning all sorts of tricks here, and +getting myself into your ways of life. It's all been good training. In +every way I'm a better man than I was." + +They had descended from the terrace to a garden path, and approached +now a long glass structure, through the panes of which masses of soft +colour--whites, yellows, pinks, mauves, and strange dull reds--were +dimly perceptible. + +"The chrysanthemums are not up to much this year," Edith observed, +as they drew near to the door of this house. "Collins did them very +badly--as he did most other things. But next year it will be very +different. Gafferson is the best chrysanthemum man in England. That is +he in there now, I think." + +Thorpe stopped short, and stared at her, the while the suggestions +stirred by the sound of this name slowly shaped themselves. + +"Gafferson?" he asked her, with a blank countenance. + +"My new head-gardener," she explained. "He was at Hadlow, and after poor +old Lady Plowden died--why, surely you remember him there. You spoke +about him--you'd known him somewhere--in the West Indies, wasn't it?" + +He looked into vacancy with the aspect of one stupefied. "Did I?" he +mumbled automatically. + +Then, with sudden decision, he swung round on the gravel. "I've got a +kind of headache coming on," he said. "If you don't mind, we won't go +inside among the flowers." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +THORPE walked along, in the remoter out-of-the-way parts of the great +gardens, as the first shadows of evening began to dull the daylight. +For a long time he moved aimlessly about, sick at heart and benumbed of +mind, in the stupid oppression of a bad dream. + +There ran through all his confused thoughts the exasperating +consciousness that it was nonsense to be frightened, or even disturbed; +that, in truth, nothing whatever had happened. But he could not lay hold +of it to any comforting purpose. Some perverse force within him insisted +on raising new phantoms in his path, and directing his reluctant gaze +to their unpleasant shapes. Forgotten terrors pushed themselves upon his +recollection. It was as if he stood again in the Board Room, with the +telegram telling of old Tavender's death in his hands, waiting to hear +the knock of Scotland Yard upon the door. + +The coming of Gafferson took on a kind of supernatural aspect, when +Thorpe recalled its circumstances. His own curious mental ferment, which +had made this present week a period apart in his life, had begun in the +very hour of this man's approach to the house. His memory reconstructed +a vivid picture of that approach--of the old ramshackle village trap, +and the boy and the bags and the yellow tin trunk, and that decent, +red-bearded, plebeian figure, so commonplace and yet so elusively +suggestive of something out of the ordinary. It seemed to him now +that he had at the time discerned a certain fateful quality in the +apparition. And he and his wife had actually been talking of old Kervick +at the moment! It was their disagreement over him which had prevented +her explaining about the new head-gardener. There was an effect of the +uncanny in all this. + +And what did Gafferson want? How much did he know? The idea that perhaps +old Kervick had found him out, and patched up with him a scheme of +blackmail, occurred to him, and in the unreal atmosphere of his mood, +became a thing of substance. With blackmail, however, one could always +deal; it was almost a relief to see the complication assume that guise. +But if Gafferson was intent upon revenge and exposure instead? With such +a slug-like, patient, tenacious fool, was that not more likely? + +Reasonable arguments presented themselves to his mind ever and again: +his wife had known of Gafferson's work, and thought highly of it, and +had been in a position to learn of his leaving Hadlow. What more natural +than that she should hasten to employ him? And what was it, after all, +that Gafferson could possibly know or prove? His brother-in-law had gone +off, and got too drunk to live, and had died. What in the name of all +that was sensible had this to do with Thorpe? Why should it even +be supposed that Gafferson associated Thorpe with any phase of the +business? And if he had any notion of a hostile movement, why should he +have delayed action so long? Why indeed! + +Reassurance did not come to him, but at last an impulse to definite +action turned his footsteps toward the cluster of greenhouses in the +deepening shadow of the mansion. He would find Gafferson, and probe this +business to the uttermost. If there was discoverable in the man's manner +or glance the least evidence of a malevolent intention--he would know +what to do. Ah, what was it that he would do? He could not say, beyond +that it would be bad for Gafferson. He instinctively clenched the +fists in the pockets of his jacket as he quickened his pace. Inside the +congeries of glazed houses he was somewhat at sea. It was still light +enough to make one's way about in the passages between the stagings, but +he had no idea of the general plan of the buildings, and it seemed to +him that he frequently got back to places he had traversed before. There +were two or three subordinate gardeners in or about the houses, but +upon reflection he forbore to question them. He tried to assume an +idly indifferent air as he sauntered past, nodding almost imperceptible +acknowledgment of the forefingers they jerked upward in salutation. + +He came at last upon a locked door, the key of which had been removed. +The fact vaguely surprised him, and he looked with awakened interest +through the panes of this door. The air inside seemed slightly +thickened--and then his eye caught the flicker of a flame, straight +ahead. It was nothing but the fumigation of a house; the burning spirits +in the lamp underneath the brazier were filling the structure with +vapours fatal to all insect life. In two or three hours the men would +come and open the doors and windows and ventilate the place. The +operation was quite familiar to him; it had indeed interested him more +when he first saw it done than had anything else connected with the +greenhouses. + +His abstracted gaze happened to take note of the fact that the door-key +was hanging on a nail overhead, and then suddenly this seemed to be +related to something else in his thoughts--some obscure impression +or memory which evaded him. Continuing to look at the key, a certain +recollection all at once assumed great definiteness in his mind: it came +to him that the labels on this patent fumigator they were using warned +people against exposing themselves to its fumes more than was absolutely +necessary. That meant, of course, that their full force would kill a +human being. It was very interesting. He looked through the glass again, +but could not see that the air was any thicker. The lamp still burned +brightly. + +He turned away, and beheld a man, in an old cap and apron, at the +further end of the palm-house he was in, doing something to a plant. +Thorpe noted the fact that he felt no surprise in seeing that it was +Gafferson. Somehow the sight of the key, and of the poison-spreading +flame inside the locked door, seemed to have prepared him for the +spectacle of Gafferson close at hand. He moved forward slowly toward the +head-gardener, and luminous plans rose in his mind, ready-made at +each step. He could strangle this annoying fool, or smother him, into +non-resisting insensibility, and then put him inside that death-house, +and let it be supposed that he had been asphyxiated by accident. The men +when they came back would find him there. But ah! they would know that +they had not left him there; they would have seen him outside, no doubt, +after the fire had been lighted. Well, the key could be left in the +unlocked door. Then it could be supposed that he had rashly entered, and +been overcome by the vapours. He approached the man silently, his brain +arranging the details of the deed with calm celerity. + +Then some objections to the plan rose up before him: they dealt almost +exclusively with the social nuisance the thing would entail. There was +to be a house-party, with that Duke and Duchess in it, of whom his +wife talked so much, and it would be a miserable kind of bore to have +a suffocated gardener forced upon them as a principal topic of +conversation. Of course, too, it would more or less throw the whole +household into confusion. And its effect upon his wife!--the progress +of his thoughts was checked abruptly by this suggestion. A vision of the +shock such a catastrophe might involve to her--or at the best, of the +gross unpleasantness she would find in it--flashed over his mind, and +then yielded to a softening, radiant consciousness of how much this +meant to him. It seemed to efface everything else upon the instant. A +profoundly tender desire for her happiness was in complete possession. +Already the notion of doing anything to wound or grieve her appeared +incredible to him. + +"Well, Gafferson," he heard himself saying, in one of the more reserved +tones of his patriarchal manner. He had halted close to the inattentive +man, and stood looking down upon him. His glance was at once tolerant +and watchful. + +Gafferson slowly rose from his slouching posture, surveyed the other +while his faculties in leisurely fashion worked out the problem of +recognition, aud then raised his finger to his cap-brim. "Good-evening, +sir," he said. + +This gesture of deference was eloquently convincing. Thorpe, after an +instant's alert scrutiny, smiled upon him. "I was glad to hear that you +had come to us," he said with benevolent affability. "We shall expect +great things of a man of your reputation." + +"It'll be a fair comfort, sir," the other replied, "to be in a place +where what one does is appreciated. What use is it to succeed in +hybridizing a Hippeastrum procera with a Pancratium Amancaes, after +over six hundred attempts in ten years, and then spend three years +a-hand-nursing the seedlings, and then your master won't take enough +interest in the thing to pay your fare up to London to the exhibition +with 'em? That's what 'ud break any man's heart." + +"Quite true," Thorpe assented, with patrician kindliness. "You need fear +nothing of that sort here, Gafferson. We give you a free hand. Whatever +you want, you have only to let us know. And you can't do things too well +to please us." "Thank you, sir," said Gafferson, and really, as Thorpe +thought about it, the interview seemed at an end. + +The master turned upon his heel, with a brief, oblique nod over his +shoulder, and made his way out into the open air. Here, as he walked, +he drew a succession of long consolatory breaths. It was almost as if +he had emerged from the lethal presence of the fumigator itself. He took +the largest cigar from his case, lighted it, and sighed smoke-laden new +relief as he strolled back toward the terrace. + +But a few minutes before he had been struggling helplessly in the coils +of an evil nightmare. These terrors seemed infinitely far behind him +now. He gave an indifferent parting glance backward at them, as one +might over his after-breakfast cigar at the confused alarms of an early +awakening hours before. There was nothing worth remembering--only the +shapeless and foolish burden of a bad dream. + +The assurance rose within him that he was not to have any more such +trouble. With a singular clearness of mental vision he perceived that +the part of him which brought bad dreams had been sloughed off, like a +serpent's skin. There had been two Thorpes, and one of them--the Thorpe +who had always been willing to profit by knavery, and at last in a +splendid coup as a master thief had stolen nearly a million, and would +have shrunk not at all from adding murder to the rest, to protect that +plunder--this vicious Thorpe had gone away altogether. There was no +longer a place for him in life; he would never be seen again by +mortal eye....There remained only the good Thorpe, the pleasant, +well-intentioned opulent gentleman; the excellent citizen; the +beneficent master, to whom, even Gafferson like the others, touched a +respectful forelock. + +It passed in the procession of his reverie as a kind of triumph of +virtue that the good Thorpe retained the fortune which the bad Thorpe +had stolen. It was in all senses a fortunate fact, because now it would +be put to worthy uses. Considering that he had but dimly drifted +about heretofore on the outskirts of the altruistic impulse, it was +surprisingly plain to him now that he intended to be a philanthropist. +Even as he mentioned the word to himself, the possibilities suggested +by it expanded in his thoughts. His old dormant, formless lust for power +stirred again in his pulses. What other phase of power carried with it +such rewards, such gratitudes, such humble subservience on all sides +as far as the eye could reach--as that exercised by the intelligently +munificent philanthropist? + +Intelligence! that was the note of it all. Many rich people dabbled at +the giving of money, but they did it so stupidly, in such a slip-shod +fashion, that they got no credit for it. Even millionaires more or less +in public life, great newspaper-owners, great brewer-peers, and the +like, men who should know how to do things well, gave huge sums in bulk +for public charities, such as the housing of the poor, and yet contrived +somehow to let the kudos that should have been theirs evaporate. He +would make no such mistake as that. + +It was easy enough to see wherein they erred. They gave superciliously, +handing down their alms from a top lofty altitude of Tory superiority, +and the Radicals down below sniffed or growled even while they +grudgingly took these gifts--that was all nonsense. These aristocratic +or tuft-hunting philanthropists were the veriest duffers. They laid out +millions of pounds in the vain attempt to secure what might easily +be had for mere thousands, if they went sensibly to work. Their vast +benefactions yielded them at the most bare thanks, or more often no +thanks at all, because they lacked the wit to lay aside certain little +trivial but annoying pretensions, and waive a few empty prejudices. +They went on, year after year, tossing their fortunes into a sink of +contemptuous ingratitude, wondering feebly why they were not beloved in +return. It was because they were fools. They could not, or they would +not, understand the people they sought to manipulate. + +What could not a man of real brain, of real breadth and energy and force +of character, do in London with two hundred thousand pounds? Why, he +could make himself master of the town! He could break into fragments the +political ascendency of the snob, "semi-detached" villa classes, in half +the Parliamentary divisions they now controlled. He could reverse +the partisan complexion of the Metropolitan delegation, and lead to +Westminster a party of his own, a solid phalanx of disciplined men, +standing for the implacable Democracy of reawakened London. With such a +backing, he could coerce ministries at will, and remake the politics of +England. The role of Great Oliver himself was not too hopelessly beyond +the scope of such a vision. + +Thorpe threw his cigar-end aside, and then noted that it was almost +dark. He strode up to the terrace two steps at a time, and swung along +its length with a vigour and exhilaration of movement he had not known, +it seemed to him, for years. He felt the excitement of a new incentive +bubbling in his veins. + +"Her Ladyship is in her sitting-room, sir," a domestic replied to his +enquiry in the hall. The title arrested his attention from some +fresh point of view, and he pondered it, as he made his way along the +corridor, and knocked at a door. At the sound of a voice he pushed open +the door, and went in. + +Lady Cressage, looking up, noted, with aroused interest, a marked change +in his carriage. He stood aggressively erect, his big shoulders squared, +and his head held high. On his massive face there was the smile, at once +buoyant and contained, of a strong man satisfied with himself. + +Something impelled her to rise, and to put a certain wistfulness of +enquiry into her answering smile. + +"Your headache is better then?" she asked him. + +He looked puzzled for a moment, then laughed lightly. "Oh--yes," he +answered. Advancing, he caught her suddenly, almost vehemently, in his +arms, aud covered the face that was perforce upturned with kisses. When +she was released from this overwhelming embrace, and stood panting +and flushed, regarding him with narrowed, intent eyes, in which +mystification was mellowed by the gleam of not-displeased curiosity, he +preferred a request which completed her bewilderment. + +"Mrs. Thorpe," he began, with significant deliberation, but smiling with +his eyes to show the tenderness underlying his words--"would you mind if +we didn't dress for dinner this evening, and if we dined in the little +breakfast-room--or here, for that matter--instead of the big place?" + +"Why, not at all, if you wish it," she answered readily enough, but +viewing him still with a puzzled glance. + +"I'm full of new ideas," he explained, impulsively impatient of the +necessity to arrange a sequence among his thoughts. "I see great things +ahead. It's all come to me in a minute, but I couldn't see it clearer if +I'd thought it out for a year. Perhaps I was thinking of it all the time +and didn't know it. But anyhow, I see my way straight ahead. You don't +know what it means to me to have something to do. It makes another man +of me, just to think about it. Another man?--yes, twenty men! It's a +thing that can be done, and by God! I'm going to do it!" + +She beheld in his face, as she scrutinized it, a stormy glow of the +man's native, coarse, imperious virility, reasserting itself through +the mask of torpor which this vacuous year had superimposed. The large +features were somehow grown larger still; they dominated the countenance +as rough bold headlands dominate a shore. It was the visage of a +conqueror--of a man gathering within himself, to expend upon his +fellows, the appetites, energies, insensibilities, audacities of a beast +of prey. Her glance fluttered a little, and almost quailed, before the +frank barbarism of power in the look he bent upon her. Then it came to +her that something more was to be read in this look; there was in it a +reservation of magnanimity, of protection, of entreating invitation, for +her special self. He might tear down with his claws, and pull to pieces +and devour others; but his mate he would shelter and defend and love +with all his strength. An involuntary trembling thrill ran through +her--and then she smiled up at him. + +"What is it you're going to do?" she asked him, mechanically. Her mind +roved far afield. + +"Rule England!" he told her with gravity. + +For the moment there seemed to her nothing positively incongruous in +the statement. To look at him, as he loomed before her, uplifted by his +refreshed and soaring self-confidence, it appeared not easy to say what +would be impossible to him. + +She laughed, after a fleeting pause, with a plainer note of +good-fellowship than he had ever heard in her voice before. +"Delightful," she said gayly. "But I'm not sure that I quite understand +the--the precise connection of morning-dress and dinner in a small room +with the project." He nodded pleased comprehension of the spirit in +which she took him. "Just a whim," he explained. "The things I've got +in mind don't fit at all with ceremony, and that big barn of a room, and +men standing about. What I want more than anything else is a quiet snug +little evening with you alone, where I can talk to you and--and we can +be together by ourselves. You'd like it, wouldn't you?" + +She hesitated, and there was a novel confession of embarrassment in her +mantling colour and down-spread lashes. It had always to his eyes been, +from the moment he first beheld it, the most beautiful face in the +world--exquisitely matchless in its form and delicacy of line and serene +yet sensitive grace. But he had not seen in it before, or guessed that +there could come to it, this crowning added loveliness of feminine +confusion. + +"You would like it, wouldn't you?" he repeated in a lower, more +strenuous tone. + +She lifted her eyes slowly, and looked, not into his, but over his +shoulder, as in a reverie, half meditation, half languorous dreaming. +She swayed rather than stepped toward him. + +"I think," she answered, in a musing murmur,--"I think I shall +like--everything." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +THORPE found the Duke of Glastonbury a much more interesting person +to watch and to talk with, both during the dinner Saturday evening and +later, than he had anticipated. + +He was young, and slight of frame, and not at all imposing in stature, +but he bore himself with a certain shy courtliness of carriage which had +a distinction of its own. His face, with its little black moustache +and large dark eyes, was fine upon examination, but in some elusively +foreign way. There lingered a foreign note, too, in the way he talked. +His speech was English enough to the ear, it was true, but it was the +considered English of a book, and its phrases had a deftness which was +hardly native. He looked, if not a sad young man, then one conscious +always of sufficient reasons for sadness, but one came, after a time, to +see that the mood beneath was not melancholy. It had even its sprightly +side, which shone out irregularly in his glance and talk, from a sober +mean of amiable weariness. + +Thorpe knew his extraordinary story--that of a poor tutor, earning his +living in ignorance of the fact that he had a birthright of any sort, +who had been miraculously translated into the heir, not only to an +ancient title but to vast collateral wealth. He had been born and reared +in France, and it was there that the heralds of this stupendous change +in his affairs had found him out. There was a good deal more to the +story, including numerous unsavoury legends about people now many years +dead, and it was impossible to observe the young Duke and not seem to +perceive signs that he was still nervously conscious of these legends. +The story of his wife--a serene, grey-eyed, rather silent young person, +with a pale face of some beauty, and with much purity and intellect--was +strange enough to match. She also had earned her own living, as a +private secretary or type-writing girl, or something of the sort, and +her husband had deliberately chosen her after he had come into his +title. One might study her very closely, however, and catch no hint that +these facts in any degree disconcerted her. + +Thorpe studied her a good deal, in a furtive way, with a curiosity born +of his knowledge that the Duke had preferred her, when he might have +married his widowed cousin, who was now Thorpe's own wife. How he had +come to know this, he could never have told. He had breathed it in, +somehow, with the gossip-laden atmosphere of that one London season of +his. It was patent enough, too, that his wife--his Edith--had not only +liked this ducal youngster very much, but still entertained toward him +a considerable affection. She had never dissembled this feeling, and it +visibly informed her glance and manner now, at her own table, when she +turned to speak with him, where he sat at her right hand. Thorpe had +never dreamed of thinking ill of his wife's friendship, even when her +indifference to what he thought had been most taken for granted. Now +that this was all changed, and the amazing new glory of a lover had +enveloped him, he had a distinct delight in watching the myriad charming +phases of her kind manner, half-sisterly, half-motherly, toward the +grave-faced young man. It was all a part of the delicious change which +these past few days had wrought in her, this warm and supple softness of +mien, of eye and smile and voice. + +But how the Duke, if really he had had a chance to marry Edith, could +have taken the type-writer instead, baffled speculation. Thorpe gave +more attention to this problem, during dinner, than he did to the +conversation of the table. His exchange of sporadic remarks with the +young Duchess beside him was indeed an openly perfunctory affair, which +left him abundant leisure to contemplate her profile in silence, while +she turned to listen to the general talk, of which Miss Madden and the +Hon. Winifred Plowden bore the chief burden. The talk of these ladies +interested him but indifferently, though the frequent laughter suggested +that it was amusing. He looked from his wife to the Duchess and back +again, in ever-recurring surprise that the coronet had been carried +past Edith. And once he looked a long time at his wife and the Duke, and +formulated the theory that she must have refused him. No doubt that was +why she had been sympathetically fond of him ever since, and was being +so nice to him now. Yes--clearly that was it. He felt upon this that he +also liked the Duke very much. + +It was by no means so apparent that the Duke liked him. Both he and his +Duchess, indeed, were scrupulously and even deferentially polite, but +there was a painstaking effect about it, which, seemingly, they lacked +the art altogether to conceal. It seemed to Thorpe that the other guests +unconsciously took their cue from this august couple, and all exposed +somewhat the effort their civility to him involved. At another time the +suspicion of this would have stung him. He had only to glance across the +table to where his wife sat now, and it was all right. What other +people thought of him--how other people liked or disliked him--was of no +earthly importance. Whenever he chose to exert himself, he could compel +from them the behaviour that he desired. It was their dull inability +to read character which prompted them to regard him as merely a rich +outsider who had married Edith Cressage. He viewed with a comfortable +tolerance this infirmity of theirs. When the time came, if he wanted to +do so, he could awaken them to their delusion as by forked lightning and +the burst of thunder. + +The whim came to him, and expanded swiftly into a determination, to +contrive some intimate talk forthwith with the Duke. The young man +seemed both clever and sensible, and in a way impressionable as well. +Thorpe thought that he would probably have some interesting things to +say, but still more he thought of him as a likely listener. It would be +the easier to detach him from the company, since the occasion was one +of studied informality. The Duke did not go about in society, in the +ordinary sense of the word, and he would not have come to High Thorpe to +meet a large party. He was here as a kinsman and friend of his hostess +for a quiet week; and the few other guests fitted readily enough into +the picture of a family gathering. The spirit of domesticity had indeed +so obviously descended upon the little group in the drawing-room, an +hour or so after dinner, that Thorpe felt it quite the natural thing to +put his arm through that of the Duke and lead him off to his personal +smoking-room. He even published his intention by audibly bidding the +Hon. Balder Plowden to remain with the ladies. + +When the two had seated themselves in soft, low easy-chairs, and the +host had noted with pleasure that his guest had no effeminate qualms in +the matter of large rich cigars, a brief silence ensued. + +"I am very anxious to get your views on a certain subject," Thorpe was +inspired to begin, bluntly pushing preliminaries aside. "If a man of +fortune wishes to do genuine good with his money, here in England, how +should he best go about it?" + +The Duke looked up at his questioner, with a sudden flash of surprise on +his dark, mobile face. He hesitated a moment, and smiled a little. "You +ask of me the sum of human wisdom," he said. "It is the hardest of all +problems; no one solves it." + +Thorpe nodded his big head comprehendingly. "That's all the more reason +why it ought to be solved," he declared, with slow emphasis. + +The other expressed by look and tone an augmented consciousness of the +unexpected. "I did not know," he remarked cautiously, "that this was a +matter in which you were specially concerned. It pleases me very much to +hear it. Even if the solution does not come, it is well to have as many +as possible turning the problem over in their minds." + +"Oh, but I'm going to solve it!" Thorpe told him, with round confidence. + +The Duke pulled contemplatively at his cigar for a little. "Do not think +me a cynic," he began at last. "You are a man of affairs; you have made +your own way; you should be even more free from illusions than I am. +If you tell me that these good things can be done, I am the last one +to dispute you. But I have seen near at hand experiments of exceptional +importance, on a very grand scale, and the result does not encourage me. +I come to doubt indeed if money has any such power in these affairs +as we think it has--for that matter, if it has any power at all. +The shifting of money can always disorganize what is going on at the +moment--change it about and alter it in many ways--but its effect is +only temporary. As soon as the pressure is released, the human atoms +rearrange themselves as they were before, and the old conditions return. +I think the only force which really makes any permanent difference is +character--and yet about even that I am not sure. The best man I have +ever known--and in many respects the ablest--devoted untold energy and +labour, and much money, too, to the service of a few thousand people in +Somerset, on land of his own, upon a theory wonderfully elaborated and +worked out. Perhaps you have heard of Emanuel Torr and his colony, his +System?" + +Thorpe shook his head. + +"He had worked tremendously for years at it. He fell ill and went +away--and in a day all the results of his labours and outlay were flat +on the ground. The property is mine now, and it is farmed and managed +again in the ordinary way, and really the people there seem already +to have forgotten that they had a prophet among them. The marvelous +character of the man--you look in vain for any sign of an impress that +it left upon them. I never go there. I cannot bear those people. I have +sometimes the feeling that if it were feasible I should like to oppress +them in some way--to hurt them." + +"Oh! 'the people' are hogs, right enough," Thorpe commented genially, +"but they ARE 'the people,' and they're the only tools we've got to work +with to make the world go round." + +"But if you leave the world alone," objected the Duke, "it goes round +of itself. And if you don't leave it alone, it goes round just the +same, without any reference whatever to your exertions. Some few men are +always cleverer or noisier or more restless than the others, and +their activity produces certain deviations and peculiarities in their +generation. The record of these--generally a very faulty and foolish +record--we call history. We say of these movements in the past that some +of them were good and some were bad. Our sons very likely will differ +totally from us about which were good and which were bad; quite +possibly, in turn, their sons may agree with us. I do not see that it +matters. We cannot treat anything as final--except that the world goes +round. We appear out of the darkness at one edge of it; we are carried +across and pitched off into the darkness at the other edge of it. We are +certain about nothing else." + +"Except that some of us have to pay for our ride, and others don't," put +in Thorpe. The tone in which he spoke made his meaning so clear that his +Grace sat up. + +"Ah, you think we do not pay?" he queried, his countenance brightening +with the animation of debate. "My dear sir, we pay more than anyone +else. Our fares are graduated, just as our death-duties are. No doubt +there are some idle and stupid, thick-skinned rich fellows, who escape +the ticket-collector. But for each of them there are a thousand idle +poor fellows who do the same. You, for example, are a man of large +wealth. I, for my sins, carry upon my back the burden of a prodigious +fortune. Could we not go out now, and walk down the road to your nearest +village, and find in the pub, there a dozen day-labourers happier than +we are? Why--it is Saturday night. Then I will not say a dozen, but +as many as the tap will hold. It is not the beer alone that makes them +happy. Do not think that. It is the ability to rest untroubled, +the sense that till Monday they have no more responsibility than a +tree-toad. Does the coming of Sunday make that difference to you or to +me? When night comes, does it mean to us that we are to sleep off into +oblivion all we have done that day, and begin life afresh next morning? +No-o! We are the tired people; the load is never lifted from our backs. +Ah, do we not pay indeed!" + +"Oh-ho!" ejaculated Thorpe. He had been listening with growing +astonishment to the other's confession. He was still surprised as he +spoke, but a note of satisfaction mounted into his voice as he went on. +"You are unhappy, too! You are a young man, in excellent health; you +have the wife you want; you understand good tobacco; you have a son. +That is a great deal--but my God! think what else you've got. You're the +Duke of Glastonbury--one of the oldest titles in England. You're one of +the richest men in the country--the richest in the old peerage, at any +rate, I'm told. And YOU'RE not happy!" + +The other smiled. "Ah, the terms and forms survive," he said, with a +kind of pedagogic affability, "after the substance has disappeared. +The nobleman, the prince, was a great person in the times when he +monopolized wealth. It enabled him to monopolize almost everything +else that was pleasant or superb. He had the arts and the books and the +musicians and the silks and velvets, and the bath-tubs--everything that +made existence gorgeous--all to himself. He had war to amuse himself +with, and the seven deadly sins. The barriers are down now. Everything +which used to be exclusively the nobleman's is now within everybody's +reach, including the sins. And it is not only that others have levelled +up to him; they have levelled him down. He cannot dress now more +expensively than other people. Gambling used to be recognized as one of +his normal relaxations, but now, the higher his rank, the more sharply +he is scolded for it. Naturally he does not know what to do with +himself. As an institution, he descends from a period when the only +imaginable use for wealth was to be magnificent with it. But now in this +business age, where the recognized use of wealth is to make more +wealth, he is so much out of place that he has even forgotten how to +be magnificent. There are some illustrated articles in one of the +magazines, giving photographs of the great historic country-houses of +England. You should see the pictures of the interiors. The furniture and +decorations are precisely what a Brixton dressmaker would buy, if she +suddenly came into some money." + +"All the same," Thorpe stuck to his point, "you are not happy." + +The Duke frowned faintly, as if at the other's persistency. Then he +shrugged his shoulders and answered in a lighter tone. "It hardly +amounts to that, I think. I confess that there are alleviations to +my lot. In the opinion of the world I am one of its most fortunate +citizens--and it is not for me to say that the world is altogether +wrong. The chief point is--I don't know if you will quite follow +me--there are limits to what position and fortune can give a man. And so +easily they may deprive him of pleasures which poorer men enjoy! I may +be wrong, but it seems impossible to me that any rich man who has acres +of gardens and vineries and glass can get up the same affection for +it all that the cottager will have for his little flower-plot, that he +tends with his own hands. One seems outside the realities of life--a +mere spectator at the show." + +"Ah, but why not DO things?" Thorpe demanded of him. "Why merely stand, +as you say, and look on?" + +The other leant his head back again. "Pray what do you recommend?" he +asked almost listlessly. + +"Why--politics, for example." + +The Duke nodded, with an air of according to the suggestion a certain +respect. "Unhappily I am too much of a foreigner," he commented. "I know +Englishmen and their affairs too imperfectly. Sometime--perhaps." + +"And philanthropic work--you don't care about that," pursued the other. + +"Oh--we go not so far as that," said his Grace, with a deprecatory wave +of the hands. "My wife finds many interests in it, only she would not +like to have you call it philanthropical. She is London-born, and it +is a great pleasure to her to be of assistance to poorer young women in +London, who have so little done for them by the community, and can do +so little for themselves. I am much less skeptical about that particular +work, I may tell you, than about philanthropy in general. In fact, I am +quite clear that it is doing good. At least it is doing a kindness, and +that is a pleasant occupation. We are really not so idle as one might +think. We work at it a good deal, my wife and I." + +"So am I London-born," Thorpe remarked, with a certain irrelevancy. +After a moment's pause he turned a sharply enquiring glance upon his +guest. "This thing that you're doing in London--does it give you any +'pull' there?" "Pull?" repeated the other helplessly. + +"If there was something you wanted the people of London to do, would +they do it for you because of what you've been doing for them--or for +their girls?" + +The Duke looked puzzled for a moment. "But it isn't conceivable that I +should want London to do anything--unless it might be to consume its own +smoke," he observed. + +"Quite so!" said Thorpe, rising bulkily to his feet, but signifying by a +gesture that his companion was to remain seated. He puffed at his cigar +till its tip gleamed angrily through the smoke about him, and moved a +few steps with his hands in his pockets. "That is what I wanted to get +at. Now I'm London-born, I've got the town in my blood. The Thorpes have +been booksellers there for generations. The old name is over the old +shop still. I think I know what Londoners are like; I ought to. It's my +belief that they don't want gifts. They'll take 'em, but it isn't what +they want. They're a trading people--one of the oldest in the world. +Commercial traditions, the merchant's pride--these are bred in their +bones. They don't want something for nothing. They like an honest +bargain--fair on both sides. 'You help me and I'll help you.' And it's +the only way you can do anything worth doing." + +"Well," said the Duke, passively. + +Thorpe halted, and still with the cigar between his teeth, looked down +at him. + +"I can go into London, and study out the things that are to be +done--that need to be done--and divide these into two parts, those that +belong to private enterprise and those that ought to be done publicly. +And I can say to Londoners--not in so many words, mind you, but in a way +the sharper ones will understand: 'Here, you fellows. I'll begin doing +out of my own pocket one set of these things, and you in turn must put +yourselves at my back, and stand by me, and put me in a position where +I can make the Government do this other set of things.' That will appeal +to them. A poor man couldn't lead them any distance, because he could +always be killed by the cry that he was filling his pockets. They will +believe in a man whose ambition is to win an earldom and five thousand +a year out of politics, but they will stone to death the man who merely +tries to get a few hundreds a year out of it for his wife and children. +And a man like you can't do anything in London, because they can't see +that there's anything you want in return--and besides, in their hearts, +they don't like your class. Don't forget it! This is the city that +chopped off the king's head!" + +"Ah, but this is also the city," retorted the other, with placid +pleasure in his argument, "which decked itself in banners and ribbons to +welcome back the son of that same king. And if you think of it, he was +rather a quaint thing in sons, too." + +"It was the women did that," Thorpe affirmed with readiness. "They get +their own way once in a while, when the men are tired out, and they have +their little spell of nonsense and monkey-shines, but it never lasts +long. Charles II. doesn't matter at all--but take my word for it, his +father matters a great deal. There was a Thorpe among the judges who +voted to behead him. I am descended in a straight line from him." + +His Grace shrugged his slight shoulders again. "It happens that my +ancestors had extremely large facilities for doing unpleasant things, +and, God knows, they did them--but I don't quite see what that goes to +prove, now." + +"No, you don't grasp the idea," said Thorpe, resignedly. After a +moment's pause he took the cigar from his lips, and straightened himself +"All the same," he declared roundly, "I am going to do the trick. London +has been waiting for an organizer--a leader--for a hundred years. The +right kind of a man, going the right way to work, can stand London on +its head, as surely as I can burn this cigar. And I'm going to have a +try at it." + +"It is very interesting," remarked the Duke, with vagueness. "But--are +the ladies waiting for us? And if so, aren't we keeping them up +unconscionably?" + +As if in comment upon his words, there was the sound of a faint rap at +the door. Then it opened, and through the dense blue haze of the room +they saw some shadowed forms softly indistinct save where the light from +the ceiling outside shone down upon a group of coiffured heads. A +noise of mingled coughing and laughter specifically completed the +introduction. + +"Oh, I'm--it's unendurable in there," spoke the voice of the hostess. +"We WERE coming in to smoke with you," she called out through the cloud, +"since you wouldn't stop with us." + +"Come along!" answered Thorpe, cheerily. He strode to the end of the +room and raised a window. From the same corner he turned on some added +lights. + +Under this more effective illumination, the lady of the house advanced, +with Miss Madden and the Hon. Winifred close behind her. "Frank has gone +to bed," she explained to the Duke, who had risen. Then she turned to +her husband a bright-eyed glance: "You don't mind--our coming?" she +asked. + +"Mind!" he called out, with robust impressiveness. "Mind!" As if to +complete the expression of his meaning, he threw his arm loosely +about her, where she stood, and brought her to his side. They remained +standing thus, before the fireplace, after the others were all seated. + +"Mr. Thorpe has been outlining to me the most wonderful plans," said the +Duke, looking from one face to another, with a reserved smile. "It +seems that philanthropy fails unless it is combined with very advanced +politics. It is a new idea to me--but he certainly states it with +vigour. Do you understand it, Edith?" + +"Oh, perfectly," replied the wife, smilingly. "I am his first convert. +Behold in me the original disciple." + +"The worst of that is," commented Thorpe, with radiant joviality, "she +would subscribe to any other new doctrine of mine just as readily." He +tightened the arm encircling her by a perceptible trifle. "Wouldn't you, +sweetheart?" he demanded. + +She seemed in nowise embarrassed by these overt endearments. +There was indeed the dimmest suggestion in her face and voice of a +responsive mood. "Really," she began, with a soft glance, +half-deprecation, half-pride, bent upon the others, and with thoughtful +deliberation,--"really the important thing is that he should pursue some +object--have in view something that he is determined to master. Without +that, he is not contented--not at his best. He should have been a +soldier. He has a passion for battle in his blood. And now that he sees +something he is eager to do--I am very glad. It makes it none the less +acceptable that good is to come from it." + +"I still maintain," said Miss Madden, interpolating her words through +the task of lighting a cigarette, and contriving for them an effect of +drollery which appealed to Thorpe most of all--"I shall always insist, +just the same, that crime was his true vocation." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Market-Place, by Harold Frederic + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARKET-PLACE *** + +***** This file should be named 298.txt or 298.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/298/ + +Produced by John Hamm + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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