XX
In the afternoon Alec arrived. Julia"s tender heart was touched by the change wrought in him during the three months of his absence from town.
At the first glance there was little difference in him. He was still cool and collected, with that air of expecting people to do his bidding which had always impressed her; and there was still about him a sensation of strength, which was very comfortable to weaker vessels. But her sharp eyes saw that he held himself together by an effort of will, and it was singularly painful to the onlooker. The strain had told on him, and there was in his haggard eyes, in the deliberate firmness of his mouth, a tension which suggested that he was almost at the end of his tether. He was sterner than before and more silent. Julia could see how deeply he had suffered, and his suffering had been greater because of his determination to conquer it at all costs. She longed to go to him and beg him not to be too hard upon himself. Things would have gone more easily with him, if he had allowed himself a little weakness. But he was softer too, and she no longer felt the slight awe which to her till then had often made intercourse difficult. His first words were full of an unexpected kindness.
"I"m so glad to be able to congratulate you," he said, holding her hand and smiling with that rare, sweet smile of his. "I was a little unhappy at leaving d.i.c.k; but now I leave him in your hands I"m perfectly content. He"s the dearest, kindest old chap I"ve ever known."
"Shut up, Alec," cried d.i.c.k promptly. "Don"t play the heavy father, or Julia will burst into tears. She loves having a good cry."
But Alec ignored the interruption.
"He"ll be an admirable husband because he"s been an admirable friend."
For the first time Julia thought Alec altogether wise and charming.
"I know he will," she answered happily. "And I"m only prevented from saying all I think of him by the fear that he"ll become perfectly unmanageable."
"Spare me the chaste blushes which mantle my youthful brow, and pour out the tea, Julia," said d.i.c.k.
She laughed and proceeded to do as he requested.
"And are you really starting for Africa so soon?" Julia asked, when they were settled around the tea-table.
Alec threw back his head, and his face lit up.
"I am. Everything is fixed up; the bother of collecting supplies and getting porters has been taken off my shoulders, and all I have to do is to get along as quickly as possible."
"I wish to goodness you"d give up these horrible explorations," cried d.i.c.k. "They make the rest of us feel so abominably unadventurous."
"But they"re the very breath of my nostrils," answered Alec. "You don"t know the exhilaration of the daily dangers, the joy of treading where only the wild beasts have trodden before."
"I freely confess that I don"t want to," said d.i.c.k.
Alec sprang up and stretched his legs. As he spoke all signs of la.s.situde disappeared, and he was seized with an excitement that was rarely seen in him.
"Already I can hardly bear my impatience when I think of the boundless country and the enchanting freedom. Here one grows so small, so mean; but in Africa everything is built to a n.o.bler standard. There the man is really a man. There one knows what are will and strength and courage.
You don"t know what it is to stand on the edge of some great plain and breathe the pure keen air after the terrors of the forest."
"The boundless plain of Hyde Park is enough for me," said d.i.c.k. "And the aspect of Piccadilly on a fine day in June gives me quite as many emotions as I want."
But Julia was moved by Alec"s unaccustomed rhetoric, and she looked at him earnestly.
"But what will you gain by it now that your work is over--by all the danger and all the hardships?"
He turned his dark, solemn eyes upon her.
"Nothing. I want to gain nothing. Perhaps I shall discover some new species of antelope or some unknown plant. I may be fortunate enough to find a new waterway. That is all the reward I want. I love the sense of power and the mastery. What do you think I care for the tinsel rewards of kings and peoples!"
"I always said you were melodramatic," said d.i.c.k. "I never heard anything so transpontine."
"And the end of it?" asked Julia, almost in a whisper. "What will be the end?"
A faint smile played for an instant upon Alec"s lips. He shrugged his shoulders.
"The end is death. But I shall die standing up. I shall go the last journey as I have gone every other."
He stopped, for he would not add the last two words. Julia said them for him.
"Without fear."
"For all the world like the wicked baronet," cried the mocking d.i.c.k.
"Once aboard the lugger, and the gurl is mine."
Julia reflected for a little while. She did not want to resist the admiration with which Alec filled her. But she shuddered. He did not seem to fit in with the generality of men.
"Don"t you want people to remember you?" she asked.
"Perhaps they will," he answered slowly. "Perhaps in a hundred years, in some flourishing town where I discovered nothing but wilderness, they will commission a second-rate sculptor to make a fancy statue of me. And I shall stand in front of the Stock Exchange, a convenient perch for birds, to look eternally upon the shabby deeds of human kind."
He gave a short, abrupt laugh, and his words were followed by silence.
Julia gave d.i.c.k a glance which he took to be a signal that she wished to be alone with Alec.
"Forgive me if I leave you for one minute," he said.
He got up and left the room. The silence still continued, and Alec seemed immersed in thought. At last Julia answered him.
"And is that really all? I can"t help thinking that at the bottom of your heart there is something that you"ve never told to a living soul."
He looked at her, and their eyes met. He felt suddenly her extraordinary sympathy and her pa.s.sionate desire to help him. And as though the bonds of the flesh were loosened, it seemed to him that their very souls faced one another. The reserve which was his dearest habit fell away from him, and he felt an urgent desire to say that which a curious delicacy had prevented him from every betraying to callous ears.
"I daresay I shall never see you again, and perhaps it doesn"t much matter what I say to you. You"ll think me very silly, but I"m afraid I"m rather--patriotic. It"s only we who live away from England who really love it. I"m so proud of my country, and I wanted so much to do something for it. Often in Africa I"ve thought of this dear England and longed not to die till I had done my work."
His voice shook a little, and he paused. It seemed to Julia that she saw the man for the first time, and she wished pa.s.sionately that Lucy could hear those words of his which he spoke so shyly, and yet with such a pa.s.sionate earnestness.
"Behind all the soldiers and the statesmen whose fame is imperishable there is a long line of men who"ve built up the empire piece by piece.
Their names are forgotten, and only students know their history, but each one of them gave a province to his country. And I too have my place among them. Year after year I toiled, night and day, and at last I was able to hand over to the commissioner a broad tract of land, rich and fertile. After my death England will forget my faults and my mistakes; and I care nothing for the flouts and gibes with which she has repaid all my pain, for I have added another fair jewel to her crown. I don"t want rewards; I only want the honour of serving this dear land of ours."
Julia went up to him and laid her hand gently on his arm.
"Why is it, when you"re so nice really, that you do all you can to make people think you utterly horrid?"
"Don"t laugh at me because you"ve found out that at bottom I"m nothing more than a sentimental old woman."
"I don"t want to laugh at you. But if I didn"t think it would embarra.s.s you so dreadfully, I should certainly kiss you."
He smiled and lifting her hand to his lips, lightly kissed it.