The duke talked on. Outwardly he was calm enough, within his brain was in a turmoil entirely fresh to it, entirely new and unexpected. He heard his own voice mechanically relating the incident of Proctor"s rebellion, but he gave hardly a thought to what he said. For all he knew he might have been talking the most absolute nonsense.
He was lost in wonder that one living, moving human being could be so fair!
He felt a sort of unreasoning anger with his friend, Lord Hayle. Why hadn"t Gerald introduced him to his sister before? Why had all this time been wasted?--quite forgetting the repeated invitations he had received to stay with the Cambornes.
"Well, what did you do in the end, John?" said Lord Hayle. "Did you kick the fellow out? I should have pitched him down the staircase, by Jove!"
"As a matter of fact, I did nothing at all," said the duke. "I was too surprised. I just sat still and let him talk; I was quite tongue-tied."
"More"s the pity," said the young viscount, a lean, sinewy lad, who rowed three in the "Varsity boat. "I should have made very short work of him."
"Don"t be such a savage, Gerald," Lady Constance answered. "It was very rude, of course; but from what the duke says, the man was not exactly what you would call impudent, and he apologised at the end. And nowadays every one has a right to his own opinions. We don"t live in the middle ages any longer."
Her voice was like a silver bell, the duke thought, as the girl voiced these somewhat republican sentiments. A silver bell, was it? No, it was like water falling into water, like a flute playing in a wood at a great distance.
"My daughter is quite a Radical, Paddington," said Lord Camborne, with a smile. "She"ll grow out of it when she gets a little older. But I found her reading the _Fabian Essays_ the other day; actually the _Fabian Essays_!"--the bishop said it with a shudder. "And she met John Burns at a ministerial reception, and said he was charming!"
"It"s all very well for Constance," said Lord Hayle; "a girl plays at that sort of thing, and if it amuses her it hurts n.o.body else. However much Connie talks about equality, and all that, she"d never sit down to dinner with the butler. But it"s quite another thing when all these chaps are getting elected to Parliament and making all these new laws.
If it isn"t stopped, no one will be safe. It"s getting quite alarming.
For my part, I wish a chap like Lord Kitchener could be made Dictator of England for a month. He"d have all the Socialists up against a wall and shoot them in no time. Then things would be right again."
Lord Hayle concluded in his best college debating society manner, and drank a gla.s.s of hock and seltzer in a bloodthirsty and determined manner.
The bishop, a tall, portly man, with a singularly fine face and extreme graciousness of manner--he was most popular at Court, and it was said would certainly go to Canterbury when Dr. ---- died,--laughed a little at his son"s vehemence.
"That would hardly solve the problem," he said. "But it will solve itself. I am quite sure that there is no real reason for alarm. The country is beginning to wake up to the real character of the Socialist leaders. It will no longer listen to them. Men of sense are beginning to perceive that the great fact of inequality as between man and man is everywhere stamped in ineffaceable characters. Men are not equal, and they never will be while talent, and talent alone, produces wealth.
Democracy is nothing but a piece of humbug from beginning to end--a transparent attempt to flatter a ma.s.s of stupid mediocrity which is too dull to appreciate the language of its hypocritical and time-serving admirers. These contemptible courtiers of the mob no more believe in equality than the ruin-bringing demagogues of ancient Athens did. One only has to watch them to see how eager they are to feather their nests at the expense of all the geese that will stand plucking. Observe how they scheme and contrive to secure official positions so that they may lord it over the general herd of common workers. They have their own little game to play, and beyond their own self-interest they do not care a straw. Knowing that they are unfit to succeed either in commercial or industrial pursuits, they try to extend the sphere of governmental regulation. What for? To supply themselves with congenial jobs where they won"t be subject to the keen test of industrial and commercial compet.i.tion, and will be less likely to be found out for the worthless wind-bags that they are!"
The bishop paused. He had spoken as one having authority; quite in the grand manner, bland, serene, and a little pompous. He half-opened his mouth to continue, looked round to recognise that his audience was a young one, and thought better of it. He drank half a gla.s.s of port instead.
The conversation changed to less serious matters, and in another minute or so Gardener entered to say that coffee was ready in the other room.
The "sitter," to use the Oxford slang word, was very large. It was, indeed, one of the finest rooms in the whole of Paul"s. Three tall oriel windows lighted it, it was panelled in dark oak, and there was a large open fire-place. It was a man"s room. Luxurious as it was in all its furniture appointments and colouring, all was nevertheless strongly masculine. The rows of briar pipes, in their racks, a pile of hunting crops and riding switches in one corner, a tandem horn, the pictures of dogs and horses upon the walls, and three or four gun-cases behind the little black Bord piano, spoke eloquently of male tastes.
Though it is often said, it is generally quite untrue to say, that a man"s rooms are an index to his personality. Few people can express themselves in their furniture. The conscious attempt to do so results in over-emphasis and strain. The ideal is either canonised or vulgarised, and the vision within is distorted and lost. At Oxford, especially, very few men succeed in doing more than attaining a convention.
But the duke"s rooms really did reflect himself to some extent. They showed a certain freshness of idea and a liking for what was considered and choice. But there was no effeminacy, no over-refinement. They showed simplicity of temperament, and were not complex. Nor was the duke complex.
Lady Constance was peculiarly susceptible to the influences of material and external things. She was extremely quick to gather and weigh impressions--the room interested her, her brother"s friend interested her already. She found something in his personality which was attractive.
The whole atmosphere of these ancient Oxford rooms pleased and stimulated her, and she talked brightly and well, revealing a mind with real originality and a gentle and sympathetic wit most rare in girls of her age.
"And what are you going to do in the vacation?" the bishop asked the duke.
"For the first three or four weeks I shall be in town; then I"m going down to Norfolk. I sha"n"t stay at Fakenham, Lord Leicester is putting me up; but we are going to shoot over Fakenham. I can"t stay all alone in that great place, you know, though I did think of having some men down. However, that was before the Leicesters asked me. Then I am to be at Sandringham for three days for the theatricals. It is the first time I have been there, you know."
"You"ll find it delightful," said the bishop. "The King is the best host in England. On the three occasions when I have had the honour of an invitation I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. Where are you staying when you are in town--at Paddington House?"
"Oh, no! That would be worse than Fakenham! Paddington House was let, always, during my minority, but for two years now there have just been a few servants there, but no one living in the house. My agent looks after all that. No, I am engaging some rooms at the _Carlton_. It"s near everywhere. I have a lot of parties to go to, and Claridge"s is always so full of German grand dukes!"
"But why not come to us in Grosvenor Street?" said the bishop. "You"ve never been able to accept any of Gerald"s invitations yet. Here is an opportunity. I have to be in town for three or four weeks, at the House of Lords and the Westminster conference of the bishops. You"d much better come to us. We"ll do our best to make you comfortable."
"Oh, do come, John!" said Lord Hayle.
"Yes, please come, duke," said Lady Constance.
"It"s awfully good of you, Lord Camborne," said the duke; "I shall be delighted to come."
It was a dark and gloomy afternoon--indeed, the electric bulbs in their silver candelabra were all turned on. But suddenly it seemed to the duke that the sun was shining and there was bird music in the air. He looked at Lady Constance. "I shall be delighted to come," he said again.
They chatted on, and presently the duke found himself standing by one of the tall windows talking to his friend"s sister. Lord Hayle, himself an enthusiastic amateur of art, was showing his father some of the treasures upon the walls.
"How dreary it is to-day--the weather, I mean,"--said the girl. "There has been a dense fog in town for the last three days, I see by the papers. And through it all the poor unemployed men have been tramping and holding demonstrations without anything to eat. I can"t help thinking of the poor things."
The duke had not thought about the unemployed before, but now he made a mental vow to send a big cheque to the Lord Mayor"s fund.
"It must be very hard for them," he said vaguely. "I remember meeting one of their processions once when I was walking down Piccadilly."
"The street of your palace!" she answered more brightly. "Devonshire House, Paddington House, and Apsley House, and all the clubs in between!
It must be interesting to have a palace in London. I suppose Paddington House is very splendid inside, isn"t it? I have never seen more of it than the upper windows and the huge wall in front."
"Well, it is rather gorgeous," he said; "though I never go there, or, at least, hardly ever. But I have a book of photographs here. I will show them to you, Lady Constance, if I may. So far we"ve succeeded in keeping them out of the ill.u.s.trated magazines."
"Oh, please do!" she said. "Father, the duke is going to show me some pictures of the rooms of his mysterious great place in Piccadilly."
As she spoke there was a knock upon the door, and the scout came in with a telegram upon a tray.
"I thought I had better bring it at once, sir," he said; "it"s marked "urgent" upon the envelope."
With an apology, the duke opened the flimsy orange-coloured wrapping.
Then he started, his face grew rather paler, and he gave a sudden exclamation. "Good heavens!" he said, "listen to this:
""Large portion front west wing Paddington House destroyed by explosion an hour ago. Bomb filled with picric acid discovered intact near gateway. The smaller Gainsborough and the Florence vase destroyed. Please come up town immediately.
""SIMPSON.""
There was a dead silence in the room.
CHAPTER III
A MOST SURPRISING DAY