Presently the squad of retainers returned, the butler leading.
"His Majesty will receive Mr. Bleke."
Roland followed him with tottering knees.
His Majesty, King Alejandro the Thirteenth, on the retired list, was a genial-looking man of middle age, comfortably stout about the middle and a little bald as to the forehead. He might have been a prosperous stock-broker. Roland felt more at his ease at the very sight of him.
"Sit down, Mr. Bleke," said His Majesty, as the door closed. "I have been wanting to see you for some time."
Roland had nothing to say. He was regaining his composure, but he had a long way to go yet before he could feel thoroughly at home.
King Alejandro produced a cigaret-case, and offered it to Roland, who shook his head speechlessly. The King lit a cigaret and smoked thoughtfully for a while.
"You know, Mr. Bleke," he said at last, "this must stop. It really must.
I mean your devoted efforts on my behalf."
Roland gaped at him.
"You are a very young man. I had expected to see some one much older.
Your youth gives me the impression that you have gone into this affair from a spirit of adventure. I can a.s.sure you that you have nothing to gain commercially by interfering with my late kingdom. I hope, before we part, that I can persuade you to abandon your idea of financing this movement to restore me to the throne.
"I don"t understand--er--your majesty."
"I will explain. Please treat what I shall say as strictly confidential.
You must know, Mr. Bleke, that these attempts to re-establish me as a reigning monarch in Paranoya are, frankly, the curse of an otherwise very pleasant existence. You look surprized? My dear sir, do you know Paranoya? Have you ever been there? Have you the remotest idea what sort of life a King of Paranoya leads? I have tried it, and I can a.s.sure you that a coal-heaver is happy by comparison. In the first place, the climate of the country is abominable. I always had a cold in the head.
Secondly, there is a small but energetic section of the populace whose sole recreation it seems to be to use their monarch as a target for bombs. They are not very good bombs, it is true, but one in, say, ten explodes, and even an occasional bomb is unpleasant if you are the target.
"Finally, I am much too fond of your delightful country to wish to leave it. I was educated in England--I am a Magdalene College man--and I have the greatest horror of ever being compelled to leave it. My present life suits me exactly. That is all I wished to say, Mr. Bleke. For both our sakes, for the sake of my comfort and your purse, abandon this scheme of yours."
Roland walked home thoughtfully. Maraquita had left the royal residence long before he had finished the whisky-and-soda which the genial monarch had pressed upon him. As he walked, the futility of his situation came home to him more and more. Whatever he did, he was bound to displease somebody; and these Paranoyans were so confoundedly impulsive when they were vexed.
For two days he avoided Maraquita. On the third, with something of the instinct which draws the murderer to the spot where he has buried the body, he called at her house.
She was not present, but otherwise there was a full gathering. There were the marquises; there were the counts; there was Bombito.
He looked unhappily round the crowd.
Somebody gave him a gla.s.s of champagne. He raised it.
"To the revolution," he said mechanically.
There was a silence--it seemed to Roland an awkward silence. As if he had said something improper, the marquises and counts began to drift from the room, till only Bombito was left. Roland regarded him with some apprehension. He was looking larger and more unusual than ever.
But to-night, apparently, Bombito was in genial mood. He came forward and slapped Roland on the shoulder. And then the remarkable fact came to light that Bombito spoke English, or a sort of English.
"My old chap," he said. "I would have a speech with you."
He slapped Roland again on the shoulder.
"The others they say, "Break it with Senor Bleke gently." Maraquita say "Break it with Senor Bleke gently." So I break it with you gently."
He dealt Roland a third stupendous punch. Whatever was to be broken gently, it was plain to Roland that it was not himself. And suddenly there came to him a sort of intuition that told him that Bombito was nervous.
"After all you have done for us, Senor Bleke, we shall seem to you ungrateful bounders, but what is it? Yes? No? I shouldn"t wonder, perhaps. The whole fact is that there has been political crisis in Paranoya. Upset. Apple-cart. Yes? You follow? No? The Ministry have been--what do you say?--put through it. Expelled. Broken up. No more ministry. New ministry wanted. To conciliate royalist party, that is the cry. So deputation of leading persons, mighty good chaps, prominent merchants and that sort of bounder, call upon us. They offer me to be President. See? No? Yes? That"s right. I am ambitious blighter, Senor Bleke. What about it, no? I accept. I am new President of Paranoya. So no need for your kind a.s.sistance. Royalist revolution up the spout. No more royalist revolution."
The wave of relief which swept over Roland ebbed sufficiently after an interval to enable him to think of some one but himself. He was not fond of Maraquita, but he had a tender heart, and this, he felt, would kill the poor girl.
"But Maraquita----?"
"That"s all right, splendid old chap. No need to worry about Maraquita, stout old boy. Where the husband goes, so does the wife go. As you say, whither thou goes will I follow. No?"
"But I don"t understand. Maraquita is not your wife?"
"Why, certainly, good old heart. What else?"
"Have you been married to her all the time?"
"Why, certainly, good, dear boy."
The room swam before Roland"s eyes. There was no room in his mind for meditations on the perfidy of woman. He groped forward and found Bombito"s hand.
"By Jove," he said thickly, as he wrung it again and again, "I knew you were a good sort the first time I saw you. Have a drink or something.
Have a cigar or something. Have something, anyway, and sit down and tell me all about it."
THE EPISODE OF THE HIRED PAST
Final Story of the Series [First published in _Pictorial Review_, October 1916]
"What do you mean--you can"t marry him after all? After all what? Why can"t you marry him? You are perfectly childish."
Lord Evenwood"s gentle voice, which had in its time lulled the House of Peers to slumber more often than any voice ever heard in the Gilded Chamber, had in it a note of unwonted, but quite justifiable, irritation. If there was one thing more than another that Lord Evenwood disliked, it was any interference with arrangements already made.
"The man," he continued, "is not unsightly. The man is not conspicuously vulgar. The man does not eat peas with his knife. The man p.r.o.nounces his aitches with meticulous care and accuracy. The man, moreover, is worth rather more than a quarter of a million pounds. I repeat, you are childish!"
"Yes, I know he"s a very decent little chap, Father," said Lady Eva.
"It"s not that at all."
"I should be gratified, then, to hear what, in your opinion, it is."
"Well, do you think I could be happy with him?"