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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Market-Place, by Harold Frederic + + + +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--l 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 ail. 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 bad 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 Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Market-Place + + + |