"Oh! of course," said Wharton, indifferently. "That is in the game."
"Why should it be--always? If you are a leader of the people, why don"t you educate them? My father says that bringing feeling into politics is like making rhymes in one"s account book."
"Well, when you have taught the ma.s.ses how _not_ to feel," said Wharton, laughing, "we will follow your advice. Meanwhile it is our brains and their feelings that do the trick. And by the way, Lady Selina, are _you_ always so cool? If you saw the Revolution coming to-morrow into the garden of Alresford House, would you go to the balcony and argue?"
"I devoutly hope there would be somebody ready to do something more to the point," said Lady Selina, hastily. "But of course _we_ have enthusiasms too."
"What, the Flag--and the Throne--that kind of thing?"
The ironical attention which Wharton began at this moment to devote to the selection of an olive annoyed his companion.
"Yes," she repeated emphatically, "the Flag and the Throne--all that has made England great in the past. But we know very well that they are not _your_ enthusiasms."
Wharton"s upper lip twitched a little.
"And you are quite sure that Busbridge Towers has nothing to do with it?" he said suddenly, looking round upon her.
Busbridge Towers was the fine ancestral seat which belonged to Lady Selina"s father, that very respectable and ancient peer, Lord Alresford, whom an ungrateful party had unaccountably omitted--for the first time--from the latest Conservative administration.
"Of course we perfectly understand," replied Lady Selina, scornfully, "that your side--and especially your Socialist friends, put down all that _we_ do and say to greed and selfishness. It is our misfortune--hardly our fault."
"Not at all," said Wharton, quietly, "I was only trying to convince you that it is a little difficult to drive feeling out of politics. Do you suppose our host succeeds? You perceive?--this is a Radical house--and a Radical banquet?"
He pushed the _menu_ towards her significantly. Then his eye travelled with its usual keen rapidity over the room, over the splendid dinner-table, with its display of flowers and plate, and over the a.s.sembled guests. He and Lady Selina were dining at the hospitable board of a certain rich manufacturer, who drew enormous revenues from the west, had formed part of the Radical contingent of the last Liberal ministry, and had especially distinguished himself by a series of uncompromising attacks on the ground landlords of London.
Lady Selina sighed.
"It is all a horrible tangle," she said, "and what the next twenty years will bring forth who can tell? Oh! one moment, Mr. Wharton, before I forget. Are you engaged for Sat.u.r.day week?"
He drew a little note-book out of his pocket and consulted it. It appeared that he was not engaged.
"Then will you dine with us?" She lightly mentioned the names of four or five distinguished guests, including the Conservative Premier of the day. Wharton made her a little ceremonious bow.
"I shall be delighted. Can you trust me to behave?"
Lady Selina"s smile made her his match for the moment.
"Oh! we can defend ourselves!" she said. "By the way I think you told me that Mr. Raeburn was not a friend of yours."
"No," said Wharton, facing her look with coolness. "If you have asked Mr. Raeburn for the 23rd, let me crave your leave to cancel that note in my pocket-book. Not for my sake, you understand, at all."
She had difficulty in concealing her curiosity. But his face betrayed nothing. It always seemed to her that his very dark and straight eyebrows, so obtrusive and unusual as compared with the delicacy of the features, of the fair skin and light brown curls, made it easy for him to wear any mask he pleased. By their mere physical emphasis they drew attention away from the subtler and more revealing things of expression.
"They say," she went on, "that he is sure to do well in the House, if only he can be made to take interest enough in the party. But one of his admirers told me that he was not at all anxious to accept this post they have just given him. He only did it to please his grandfather. My father thinks Lord Maxwell much aged this year. He is laid up now, with a chill of some sort I believe. Mr. Raeburn will have to make haste if he is to have any career in the Commons. But you can see he cares very little about it. All his friends tell me they find him changed since that unlucky affair last year. By the way, did you ever see that girl?"
"Certainly. I was staying in her father"s house while the engagement was going on."
"Were you!" said Lady Selina, eagerly, "and what did you think of her?"
"Well, in the first place," said Wharton, slowly, "she is beautiful--you knew that?"
Lady Selina nodded.
"Yes. Miss Raeburn, who has told me most of what I know, always throws in a shrug and a "but" when you ask about her looks. However, I have seen a photograph of her, so I can judge for myself. It seemed to me a beauty that men perhaps would admire more than women."
Wharton devoted himself to his green peas, and made no reply. Lady Selina glanced at him sharply. She herself was by no means a beauty. But neither was she plain. She had a long, rather distinguished face, with a marked nose and a wide thin-lipped mouth. Her plentiful fair hair, a little dull and ashy in colour, was heaped up above her forehead in infinitesimal curls and rolls which did great credit to her maid, and gave additional height to the head and length to a thin white neck. Her light blue eyes were very direct and observant. Their expression implied both considerable knowledge of the world and a natural inquisitiveness.
Many persons indeed were of opinion that Lady Selina wished to know too much about you and were on their guard when she approached.
"You admired her very much, I see," she resumed, as Wharton still remained silent.
"Oh, yes. We talked Socialism, and then I defended her poacher for her."
"Oh, I remember. And it is really true, as Miss Raeburn says, that she broke it off because she could not get Lord Maxwell and Mr. Raeburn to sign the pet.i.tion for the poacher?"
"Somewhere about true," said Wharton, carelessly.
"Miss Raeburn always gives the same account; you can never get anything else out of her. But I sometimes wonder whether it is the _whole_ truth.
_You_ think she was sincere?"
"Well, she gave up Maxwell Court and thirty thousand a year," he replied drily. "I should say she had at least earned the benefit of the doubt."
"I mean," said Lady Selina, "was she in love with anybody else, and was the poacher an excuse?"
She turned upon him as she spoke--a smiling, self-possessed person--a little spoilt by those hard, inquisitive eyes.
"No, I think not," said Wharton, throwing his head back to meet her scrutiny. "If so, nothing has been heard of him yet. Miss Boyce has been at St. Edward"s Hospital for the last year."
"To learn nursing? It is what all the women do nowadays, they tell me, who can"t get on with their relations or their lovers. Do you suppose it is such a very hard life?"
"I don"t want to try!" said Wharton. "Do you?"
She evaded his smile.
"What is she going to do when she has done her training?"
"Settle down and nurse among the poor, I believe."
"Magnificent, no doubt, but hardly business, from her point of view. How much more she might have done for the poor with thirty thousand a year!
And any woman could put up with Aldous Raeburn."
Wharton shrugged his shoulders.
"We come back to those feelings, Lady Selina, you think so badly of."
She laughed.
"Well, but feelings must be intelligible. And this seems so small a cause. However, were you there when it was broken off?"