They went on.
And now the houses seemed to grow closer together, the foetid atmosphere became more difficult for unaccustomed lungs to breathe, the roads became more difficult to walk upon, the faces which watched and gibbered round their progress were menacing, more awful, more hopeless.
They walked in a compact body, and then suddenly Inspector Brown turned round to his little battalion.
He addressed Fabian Rose.
"Sir," he said, "I think we have arrived at the starting point. Shall we begin now?"
Mary heard the words, and turned to Fabian Rose.
"Oh, Mr. Rose!" she said, "what terrible places, what dreadful places these are! I had no idea, though I have lived in London all my life, that such places existed. Why, I--oh, I don"t know what I mean exactly--but why should such places be?"
"Because, my dear Miss Marriott," Rose answered--and she saw that his face was lit up with excitement and interest--"because of the curse of capitalism, because of the curse of modern life which we are endeavouring to remove."
Mary stamped her little foot upon the ground.
"I see," she said. "Why, I would hang the man who was responsible for all this! Who is he? Tell me!"
Rose looked gravely at her.
"My dear," he answered, "the man who is responsible for all this that immediately surrounds us is the man whom we hope to hold up to the whole of England as a type of menace and danger to the Commonwealth. It is the Duke of Paddington!"
CHAPTER X
NEWS ARRIVES AT OXFORD
On the afternoon when the Bishop of Carlton, Lord Hayle and Lady Constance Camborne had left the Duke of Paddington"s rooms in St. Paul"s College, Oxford, they went back to the _Randolph Hotel_, where the bishop and his daughter were staying.
Lord Hayle accompanied them, and the father, his son and daughter, went up to the private sitting-room which the bishop occupied.
The fog--the nasty, damp river mist, rather, which takes the place of fog in Oxford--was now thicker than ever, but a bright fire burnt upon the hearth of the comfortable sitting-room in the hotel, and one of the servants had drawn down the blinds and made the place cheery and home-like.
The Cambornes had only been three days in Oxford, but Lady Constance had already transformed the somewhat bare sitting-room into something of wont and use; the place was full of flowers, all the little personalia that a cultured and wealthy girl carries about with her, showed it. A piano had been brought in, photographs of friends stood about, and the huge writing-table, specially put there for the use of the bishop, stood near the fireplace covered with papers.
The three sat down and some tea was brought.
"Well, Connie dear," Lord Hayle said, "and what do you think of John?
You have often heard me talk about him. He is the best friend I have got in the world, and he is one of the finest chaps I know. What do you think of him, Connie?"
"I thought he was charming, Gerald," Lady Constance answered, "far more charming than I had expected. Of course, I have known that you and he have been friends all the time you have been up, but I confess I did not expect to see anybody quite so pleasant and sympathetic."
"My dear girl," Lord Hayle answered, "you don"t suppose I should be intimate friends with anybody who was not pleasant and sympathetic?"
"Oh, no, I don"t mean that, Gerald," the girl replied; "but, after all, the duke is in quite a special position, isn"t he?"
"How do you mean?" said Lord Hayle.
"Well, Gerald, he is not quite like all the other young men one meets of our own cla.s.s. Of course he is, in a way, but what I mean is that one expected a boy who was so stupendously rich and important to be a little more conscious of it than the duke was. He seemed quite nice and natural."
The bishop, who was sipping his tea and stretching out his shapely, gaitered feet to the fire, gave a little chuckle of satisfaction.
"My dear Constance," he said, "the duke is all you say, of course, in the way of importance and so on, but at the same time, he is just the simple gentleman that one would expect to meet. I also thought him a charming fellow, and I congratulate Gerald upon his friendship."
The bishop sipped his tea and said nothing more. He was gazing dreamily into the fire, while his son and daughter talked together. All was going very well. There was no doubt that the two young people had been mutually pleased with each other. Rich as the Earl of Camborne and Bishop of Carlton was, celebrated as he was, sure as he was of the Archbishopric when dear old Doctor Arbuthnot--now very shaky--should be translated to heaven, Lord Camborne was, nevertheless, not insensible of the fact that a marriage between his daughter and the Duke of Paddington would crown a long and distinguished career with a befitting _finis_.
His own earldom was as old as the duke"s t.i.tle. There would be nothing incongruous in the match. Yet at the same time it would be a very fine thing indeed. All was well with the world, with the bishop, and the world was still a very pleasant place.
It was now about half-past five.
The bishop, Lady Constance, and Lord Hayle were to dine with Sir Andrew Anderson, a Scotch baronet, who had a seat some eight miles away from Oxford.
The bishop"s motor-car was to be ready at half-past six, and they would reach Packington Grange by seven.
"What a blessing it is," the bishop said, breaking in upon the conversation of his son and daughter, "that the automobile has been invented. Here we are, sitting comfortably by the fire at half-past five. There is time to change without hurry or disturbance, and by dinner time we shall be at Packington. In my days, my dear Gerald, if one wanted to dine so far away from Oxford one had to get permission from the dean to stay all night. It would have been impossible for me, as an undergraduate, to go back before college gates were finally shut.
You are far more fortunate."
"I don"t know about that, father," Lord Hayle replied. "As a matter of fact, I should much prefer to stay the night at Packington, as you and Connie may possibly do so. In fact, I know the dean would give me permission at once, especially as I am with you. However, I quite agree with you about the joys of motoring, as I propose to drive the car back to Oxford myself whether you two return or not."
The bishop smiled. He was proud of his bright, handsome son, who had done him so much credit in his University career, and was already becoming a p.r.o.nounced favourite of society.
"Well, Gerald," he said, "we look at things from a different point of view. Has the duke any motors, by the way?"
"He has lots of motors," Lord Hayle answered, "but only one up here, which he does not often use. In fact, I use it as much as he does. He is a riding man, you know. He sticks to the horses. Now then, father, I must run back to college and change. I will be back in time to start."
"We had all better change, I think," said the bishop, and smiling at his son he took his daughter by the arm, pinching it playfully, and they left the sitting-room for their respective bedrooms.
As his valet a.s.sisted him the bishop thought with a pleasant glow that his daughter had never looked more beautiful.
There was something changed about her. Of that he felt quite certain, and once more he thanked G.o.d for all the blessings of his life.
It is a blessed thing, indeed, to be an earl of old lineage, and the bishop of a famous cathedral city, a handsome and portly man, with a beautiful son and daughter, the friend of princes, and designate to the archiepiscopal chair.
Constance, as the maid brushed out that hair like ripe corn, that wonderful hair that so many men had eulogised, so many poets sung of, that hair which was often referred to by the society papers as if it was a national possession, sat thinking over the events of the afternoon.
How charming Gerald"s friend was! He seemed so strong and self-contained, yet so simple and so natural. Despite his great position and the enormous figure he made and was to make in the public eye, he was yet the pleasantest of boys. He was unspoiled yet, she reflected, by the whirl and artificial _va et vient_ of society. He had not yet taken up his sceptre, as it were, and had none of the manners of princedom.
The whole scene had etched itself upon her memory. The rich and the sober old college-rooms, the quiet, happy meal, the talk, the music, and then the dramatic telegram announcing the anarchistic outrage to Paddington House in Piccadilly.
How well the duke had taken it all. He had heard that the famous Florentine vase had been destroyed beyond hope of repair, that a picture which the nation would gladly have purchased for a fabulous sum had shown its painted glories to the eyes of the world for the last time.
Yet he had not seemed unduly worried. He had taken the whole thing calmly, and Lady Constance thought it imperative that well-bred people should take everything calmly.
And then, and then--well! he had certainly seemed very pleased to see her. He had been extremely attentive and nice. There had been something in his eyes. She smiled a little to herself, and a faint blush crept into her cheeks. She saw the colour as she looked into the gla.s.s and heard the soft swish of the ivory brush as it pa.s.sed over her tresses.