"That"s a promise," said Lola Brandt.
"What"s a promise?" asked Dale, when I joined him in the hall.
"That I will do myself the pleasure of calling on Madame again."
The porter whistled for a cab. A hansom drove up. As my destination was the Albany, and as I knew Dale was going home to Eccleston Square, I held out my hand.
"Good-bye, Dale. I"ll see you to-morrow."
"But aren"t you going to tell me what you think of her?" he cried in great dismay.
The pavement was muddy, the evening dark, and a gusty wind blew the drizzle into our faces. It is only the preposterously young who expect a man to rhapsodise over somebody else"s inamorata at such a moment. I turned up the fur collar of my coat.
"She is good-looking," said I.
"Any idiot can see that!" he burst out impatiently. "I want to know what opinion you formed of her."
I reflected. If I could have labelled her as the Scarlet Woman, the Martyred Saint, the Jolly Bohemian, or the Bold Adventuress, my task would have been easy. But I had an uncomfortable feeling that Lola Brandt was not to be cla.s.sified in so simple a fashion. I took refuge in a negative.
"She would hardly be a success," said I, "in serious political circles."
With that I made my escape.
CHAPTER V
I wish I had not called on Lola Brandt. She disturbs me to the point of nightmare. In a fit of dream paralysis last night I fancied myself stalked by a panther, which in the act of springing turned into Lola Brandt. What she would have done I know not, for I awoke; but I have a haunting sensation that she was about to devour me. Now, a woman who would devour a sleeping Member of Parliament is not a fit consort for a youth about to enter on a political career.
The woman worries me. I find myself speculating on her character while I ought to be minding my affairs; and this I do on her own account, without any reference to my undertaking to rescue Dale from her clutches. Her obvious attributes are lazy good nature and swift intuition, which are as contrary as her tastes in tobacco and tea; but beyond the obvious lurks a mysterious animal power which repels and attracts. Were not her expressions rather melancholy than sensuous, rather benevolent than cruel, one might take her as a model for Queen Berenice or the estimable lady monarchs who yielded themselves adorably to a gentleman"s kisses in the evening and saw to it that his head was nicely chopped off in the morning. I can quite understand Dale"s infatuation. She may be as worthless as you please, but she is by no means the vulgar syren I was led to expect. I wish she were. My task would be easier. Why hasn"t he fallen in love with one of the chorus whom his congeners take out to supper? He is an aggravating fellow.
I have declined to discuss her merits or demerits with him. I could scarcely do that with dignity, said I; a remark which seemed to impress him with a sense of my honesty. I asked what were his intentions regarding her. I discovered that they were still indefinite. In his exalted moments he talked of marriage.
"But what has become of her husband?" I inquired, drawing a bow at a venture.
"I suppose he"s dead," said Dale.
"But suppose he isn"t?"
He informed me in his young magnificence that Lola and himself would be above foolish moral conventions.
"Indeed?" said I.
"Don"t pretend to be a Puritan," said he.
"I don"t pretend to like the idea, anyhow," I remarked.
He shrugged his shoulders. It was not the time for a lecture on morality.
"How do you know that the lady returns your pa.s.sion?" I asked, watching him narrowly.
He grew red. "Is that a fair question?"
"Yes," said I. "You invited me to call on her and judge the affair for myself. I"m doing it. How far have things gone up to now?"
He flashed round on me. Did I mean to insinuate that there was anything wrong? There wasn"t. How could I dream of such a thing? He was vastly indignant.
"Well, my dear boy," said I, "you"ve just this minute been scoffing at foolish moral conventions. If you want to know my opinion," I continued, after a pause, "it is this--she doesn"t care a sc.r.a.p for you."
Of course I was talking nonsense.
I did not condescend to argue. Neither did I dwell upon the fact that her affection had not reached the point of informing him whether she had a husband, and if so, whether he was alive or dead. This gives me an idea. Suppose I can prove to him beyond a shadow of doubt that the lady, although flattered by the devotion of a handsome young fellow of birth and breeding, does not, as I remarked, care a sc.r.a.p for him. Suppose I exhibit her to him in the arms, figuratively speaking, of her husband (providing one is lurking in some back-alley of the world), Mr.
Anastasius Papadopoulos, a curate, or a champion wrestler. He would do desperate things for a month or two; but then he would wake up sane one fine morning and seek out Maisie Ellerton in a salutary state of penitence. I wish I knew a curate who combined a pa.s.sion for bears and a yearning for ladylike tea-parties. I would take him forthwith to Cadogan Gardens. Lola Brandt and himself would have tastes in common and would fall in love with each other on the spot.
Of course there is the other time-honoured plan which I have not yet tried--to arm myself with diplomacy, call on Madame Brandt, and, working on her feelings, persuade her in the name of the boy"s mother and sweetheart to make a n.o.ble sacrifice in the good, old-fashioned way. But this seems such an unhumourous proceeding. If I am to achieve eumoiriety I may as well do it with some distinction.
"Who doth Time gallop withal?" asks Orlando.
"With a thief to the gallows," says Rosalind. It is true. The days have an uncanny way of racing by. I see my little allotted span of life shrinking visibly, like the _peau de chagrin_. I must bestir myself, or my last day will come before I have accomplished anything.
When I jotted down the above not very original memorandum I had pa.s.sed a perfectly uneumoirous week among my friends and social acquaintances.
I had stood G.o.dfather to my sister Agatha"s fifth child, taking upon myself obligations which I shall never be able to perform; I had dined amusingly at my sister Jane"s; I had shot pheasants at Farfax Glenn"s place in Hampshire; and I had paid a long-promised charming country-house visit to old Lady Blackadder.
When I came back to town, however, I consulted my calendar with some anxiety, and set out to clear my path.
I have now practically withdrawn from political life. Letters have pa.s.sed; complimentary and sympathetic gentlemen have interviewed me and tried to weaken my decision. The great Raggles has even called, and dangled the seals of office before my eyes. I said they were very pretty. He thought he had tempted me.
"Hang on as long as you can, for the sake of the Party."
I spoke playfully of the Party (a man in my position, with one eye on Time and the other on Eternity, develops an acute sense of values) and Raggles held up horrified hands. To Raggles the Party is the Alpha and Omega of things human and divine. It is the guiding principle of the Cosmos. I could have spoken disrespectfully of the British Empire, of which he has a confused notion; I could have dismissed the Trinity, on which his ideas are vaguer, with an airy jest; in the expression of my views concerning the Creator, whom he believes to be under the Party"s protection, I could have out-Pained Tom Paine, out-Taxiled Leo Taxil, and he would not have winced. But to blaspheme against the Party was the sin for which there was no redemption.
"I always thought you a serious politician!" he gasped.
"Good G.o.d!" I cried. "In my public utterances have I been as dull as that? Ill-health or no, it is time for me to quit the stage."
He laughed politely, because he conjectured I was speaking humourously--he is astute in some things--and begged me to explain.
I replied that I did not regard mustard poultices as panaceas, the _vox populi_ as the _Vox Dei_, or the policy of the other side as the machinations of the Devil; that politics was all a game of guess-work and muddle and compromise at the best; that, at the worst, as during a General Election, it was as ign.o.ble a pastime as the wit of man had devised. To take it seriously would be the course of a fanatic, a man devoid of the sense of proportion. Were such a man, I asked, fitted to govern the country?
He did not stop to argue, but went away leaving me the conviction that he thanked his stars on the Government"s providential escape from so maniacal a minister. I hope I did not treat him with any discourtesy; but, oh! it was good to speak the truth after all the dismal lies I have been forced to tell at the bidding of Raggle"s Party. Now that I am no longer bound by the rules of the game, it is good to feel a free, honest man.
Never again shall I stretch forth my arms and thunder invectives against well-meaning people with whom in my heart I secretly sympathise.
Never again shall I plead pa.s.sionately for principles which a horrible instinct tells me are fundamentally futile. Never again shall I attempt to make mountains out of mole-hills or bricks without straw or sunbeams out of cuc.u.mbers.
I shall conduct no more inquiries into pauper lunacy, thank Heaven! And as for the public engagements which Dale Kynnersley made for me during my Thebaid existence on Murglebed-on-Sea, the deuce can take them all--I am free.