"The figure," said his n.o.ble host--speaking thus, under pressure, commercially--"is beyond what you see your way to?"
But Lord John had jumped at the truth. "The matter with Mr. Bender is that he sees his way much further."
"Further?" their companion echoed.
"The matter with Mr. Bender is that he wants to give millions."
Lord Theign sounded this abyss with a smile. "Well, there would be no difficulty about _that_, I think!"
"Ah," said his guest, "you know the basis, sir, on which I"m ready to pay."
"On the basis then of the Sir Joshua," Lord John inquired, "how far would you go?"
Mr. Bender indicated by a gesture that on a question reduced to a moiety by its conditional form he could give but semi-satisfaction. "Well, I"d go all the way."
"He wants, you see," Lord John elucidated, "an _ideally_ expensive thing."
Lord Theign appeared to decide after a moment to enter into the pleasant spirit of this; which he did by addressing his younger friend. "Then why shouldn"t I make even the Moretto as expensive as he desires?"
"Because you can"t do violence to _that_ master"s natural modesty," Mr.
Bender declared before Lord John had time to speak. And conscious at this moment of the reappearance of his fellow-explorer, he at once supplied a further light. "I guess this gentleman at any rate can tell you."
VIII
Hugh Crimble had come back from his voyage of discovery, and it was visible as he stood there flushed and quite radiant that he had caught in his approach Lord Theign"s last inquiry and Mr. Bender"s reply to it.
You would have imputed to him on the spot the lively possession of a new idea, the sustaining sense of a message important enough to justify his irruption. He looked from one to the other of the three men, scattered a little by the sight of him, but attached eyes of recognition then to Lord Theign"s, whom he remained an instant longer communicatively smiling at. After which, as you might have gathered, he all confidently plunged, taking up the talk where the others had left it. "I should say, Lord Theign, if you"ll allow me, in regard to what you appear to have been discussing, that it depends a good deal on just that question--of what your Moretto, at any rate, may be presumed or proved to "be." Let me thank you," he cheerfully went on, "for your kind leave to go over your treasures."
The personage he so addressed was, as we know, nothing if not generally affable; yet if that was just then apparent it was through a shade of coolness for the slightly heated familiarity of so plain, or at least so free, a young man in eye-gla.s.ses, now for the first time definitely apprehended. "Oh, I"ve scarcely "treasures"--but I"ve some things of interest."
Hugh, however, entering the opulent circle, as it were, clearly took account of no breath of a chill. "I think possible, my lord, that you"ve a great treasure--if you"ve really so high a rarity as a splendid Manto-vano."
"A "Mantovano"?" You wouldn"t have been sure that his lordship didn"t p.r.o.nounce the word for the first time in his life.
"There have been supposed to be only _seven_ real examples about the world; so that if by an extraordinary chance you find yourself the possessor of a magnificent eighth----"
But Lord John had already broken in. "Why, there you _are_, Mr. Bender!"
"Oh, Mr. Bender, with whom I"ve made acquaintance," Hugh returned, "was there as it began to work in me--"
"That your Moretto, Lord Theign"--Mr. Bender took their informant up--"isn"t, after all, a Moretto at all." And he continued amusedly to Hugh: "It began to work in you, sir, like very strong drink!"
"Do I understand you to suggest," Lord Theign asked of the startling young man, "that my precious picture isn"t genuine?"
Well, Hugh knew exactly what he suggested. "As a picture, Lord Theign, as a great portrait, one of the most genuine things in Europe. But it strikes me as probable that from far back--for reasons!--there has been a wrong attribution; that the work has been, in other words, traditionally, obstinately miscalled. It has pa.s.sed for a Moretto, and at first I quite took it for one; but I suddenly, as I looked and looked and saw and saw, began to doubt, and now I know _why_ I doubted."
Lord Theign had during this speech kept his eyes on the ground; but he raised them to Mr. Crimble"s almost palpitating presence for the remark: "I"m bound to say that I hope you"ve some very good grounds!"
"I"ve three or four, Lord Theign; they seem to me of the best--as yet.
They made me wonder and wonder--and then light splendidly broke."
His lordship didn"t stint his attention. "Reflected, you mean, from _other_ Mantovanos--that I don"t know?"
"I mean from those I know myself," said Hugh; "and I mean from fine a.n.a.logies with one in particular."
"a.n.a.logies that in all these years, these centuries, have so remarkably not been noticed?"
"Well," Hugh competently explained, "they"re a sort of thing the very sense of, the value and meaning of, are a highly modern--in fact a quite recent growth."
Lord John at this professed with cordiality that he at least quite understood. "Oh, we know a lot more about our pictures and things than ever our ancestors did!"
"Well, I guess it"s enough for _me_," Mr. Bender contributed, "that your ancestors knew enough to get "em!"
"Ah, that doesn"t go so far," cried Hugh, "unless we ourselves know enough to keep "em!"
The words appeared to quicken in a manner Lord Theign"s view of the speaker. "Were _your_ ancestors, Mr. Crimble, great collectors?"
Arrested, it might be, in his general a.s.surance, Hugh wondered and smiled. "Mine--collectors? Oh, I"m afraid I haven"t any--to speak of.
Only it has seemed to me for a long time," he added, "that on that head we should all feel together."
Lord Theign looked for a moment as if these were rather large presumptions; then he put them in their place a little curtly. "It"s one thing to keep our possessions for ourselves--it"s another to keep them for other people."
"Well," Hugh good-humouredly returned, "I"m perhaps not so absolutely sure of myself, if you press me, as that I sha"n"t be glad of a higher and wiser opinion--I mean than my own. It would be awfully interesting, if you"ll allow me to say so, to have the judgment of one or two of the great men."
"You"re not yourself, Mr. Crimble, one of the great men?" his host asked with tempered irony.
"Well, I guess he"s going to be, anyhow," Mr. Bender cordially struck in; "and this remarkable exhibition of intelligence may just let him loose on the world, mayn"t it?"
"Thank you, Mr. Bender!"--and Hugh obviously tried to look neither elated nor snubbed. "I"ve too much still to learn, but I"m learning every day, and I shall have learnt immensely this afternoon."
"Pretty well at my expense, however," Lord Theign laughed, "if you demolish a name we"ve held for generations so dear."
"You may have held the name dear, my lord," his young critic answered; "but my whole point is that, if I"m right, you"ve held the picture itself cheap."
"Because a Mantovano," said Lord John, "is so much greater a value?"
Hugh met his eyes a moment "Are you talking of values pecuniary?"
"What values are _not_ pecuniary?"
Hugh might, during his hesitation, have been imagined to stand off a little from the question. "Well, some things have in a higher degree that one, and some have the a.s.sociational or the fact.i.tious, and some the clear artistic."
"And some," Mr. Bender opined, "have them _all_--in the highest degree.
But what you mean," he went on, "is that a Mantovano would come higher under the hammer than a Moretto?"
"Why, sir," the young man returned, "there aren"t any, as I"ve just stated, _to_ "come." I account--or I easily can--for every one of the very small number."