But--" and he pursed up his lips as if in doubt and looked at Captain Rames with a searching eye. Rames was disconcerted. He had been back in England for some six months, and during those six months he had been much sought after. At this period of his life, doubts of him had been rarely expressed behind his back, and never to his face. Young ladies whom he did not know had clamored for his autograph, young ladies whom he did know had approached him with a winning humility; established beauty had smiled at him; established fame had welcomed him as an equal. The calm scrutiny of Henry Smale was a displeasing splash of cold water.
"Of course," he said, with a diffidence which he did not feel, "I might be a failure."
And Henry Smale replied promptly:
"That"s just it. You might be a failure. Meanwhile you are a great success, and have the chance of standing quite alone in your career.
For what you set out to do is not yet done. You leave the laurel for another to s.n.a.t.c.h."
"That is quite true, Mr. Smale," Harry Rames replied. "But I have considered it. I am not yielding to an impulse. I have counted the risk!"
He spoke with a nice adjustment of firmness and modesty. Henry Smale rose from his chair.
"Very well," he said. "Will you come down to the House at four o"clock to-morrow afternoon? I will introduce you to Hanley, the chief whip."
Captain Rames flushed with pleasure.
"Thank you, I shall be delighted," he cried, rising in his turn; and as the two men shook hands, Mr. Benoliel said gently:
"I was thinking of Ludsey. It has no candidate on your side, Smale."
CHAPTER XI
A MAN ON THE MAKE
A week later, and much about the same hour, Captain Rames was driven along the Mall in St. James"s Park. Friday had come round again, and the light did not burn in the clock-tower at Westminster. But the windows of the admiralty blazed upon the horse-guards" parade, and its great doors stood open for a glittering company. It was the night of official dinners and receptions in honor of the king"s birthday.
Soldiers in scarlet, sailors in blue, ministers and privy councillors in gold, and ladies in their shimmering gowns thronged with the smaller fry in black coats up the shallow steps into a hall decorated with Union Jacks. There was a thrill of expectancy in the air that evening. Rumors were rife that the government was inclined to advise a dissolution. Members" wives were speculating whether they must go back to the const.i.tuencies and tread the ways of deference; their husbands how soon the time would come when they must exchange the erect dignity of the member for the supple curves of the candidate; and curious eyes dwelt, as if in hope of answer upon a st.u.r.dy white-haired man with a blunt, good-humored face, who, wearing a uniform with epaulets, left you in doubt whether he was a fireman or an admiral. He was, however, the Prime-Minister, and he stood in the hall amongst his friends, bearing the world lightly according to his wont. He stepped forward and shook hands with Rames as he pa.s.sed, and so turned again to his friends. He was heard to say, "I have to-day achieved the ambition of my life;" and curious ears eager to glean a hint were inclined toward him.
"To-day?" one of the group exclaimed. "You have been Prime-Minister for three years."
The Prime-Minister laughed.
"That"s nothing," he said. "To become Prime-Minister was merely to take a step on the way. But to-night I wear for the first time the uniform of an Elder Brother of the Trinity, and that means that I need never wear knee-breeches again as long as I live."
The curious ears were disappointed; Harry Rames shook hands with the First Lord of the Admiralty, pa.s.sed on, and in the second room was touched on the elbow by Isaac Benoliel.
"I have been asked by a young friend of mine to bring you to her, and I beg you to come at once, for she is in her most imperious mood,"
said Mr. Benoliel in a voice of whimsical entreaty.
"We will go to her as fast as we can," said Captain Rames.
He had now been three months in England, and the shy warmth of many welcomes had made him thoroughly aware that he was a momentous personage to young ladies. He was human enough to enjoy his importance, and he followed Mr. Benoliel with alacrity toward a side of the room where Cynthia Daventry sat talking to a young man in the office of the Board of Trade. Rames noticed the clear and delicate profile of her face and the distinction which set her apart; he noticed, too, that, although she did not once look his way, the young gentleman in the Civil Service uniform was summarily dismissed.
"Cynthia, this is Captain Rames," said Isaac Benoliel, and however imperious a mood Cynthia might have shown to him, she had reserved none of it for Captain Rames. Her eyes swept over him swiftly with the shy and eager look to which he had grown accustomed: she gave him her hand.
"I am very glad to meet you," she said impulsively, "because--" and she halted suddenly upon the word, with the color like a rose in her cheeks, "I suppose that you are tired of congratulations."
Captain Rames expanded: he laughed genially, a fastidious critic might have said too noisily.
"By no means," he exclaimed. "Indeed, Miss Daventry, you may lay it on with a trowel."
"I am not prepared to do that," answered Cynthia, and though she spoke lightly, her voice was guarded, and even in the eager eyes there was a constant watchfulness.
Eight months had pa.s.sed since Cynthia had sat by the bedside of Robert Daventry and listened to his instructions. She had taken Diana Royle to live with her as he had bidden, though she had taken her reluctantly. She had spent nearly all that time at the white house upon the London road, in spite of Mrs. Royle"s repeated suggestion that Beaulieu, or preferably Cap D"Ail in the south of France would be more satisfactory places for wintering. Diana Royle was glad to be relieved from her genteel penury in Suss.e.x Gardens, Kensington, but she had no liking for the country. Cynthia, however, was deaf to her hints. She lived for a while in solitude, broken only by the companionship of the few neighbors with whom she was most intimate.
The swift deaths of the two old people who had so long lived for her and in her, left her desolate and inclined ever regretfully to search back across her life for occasions in which she had failed of kindness toward them, or hurt them by forgetfulness. She was young, however, and with no taint of morbidness. The sense of desolation pa.s.sed, and Diana Royle began to urge a new plan.
"You ought to take a house in town for the season, Cynthia. I know of one in an excellent position, which would just suit you. It"s in Curzon Street, and the right end of the street, one of those nice, flat-fronted houses, old outside and tiled bath-rooms inside. I happened, I think, to see an advertis.e.m.e.nt of it to-day."
Mrs. Royle handed the newspaper to Cynthia, looked it over.
"We might think of it," she said.
"I am sure neither Mr. nor Mrs. Daventry would have wished you to bury yourself always in the country."
"That"s true," said Cynthia. "My father looked forward to my taking a house in town."
"I don"t think you could do better than this, dear," said Diana Royle.
"I know the house quite well by sight."
"Well, we"ll think of it," said Cynthia.
Mrs. Royle suppressed a shrug of irritation.
"You will find the house will be snapped up, dear, if you take too long thinking of it," she said with asperity.
Cynthia looked at her with innocent eyes.
"But I expect there will be other houses in London, won"t there?" she asked.
She had no wish to be churlish, she understood how deeply her companion longed for the paved roadways and the streets. And in her own heart, too, she was beginning to turn to the unknown world of London with an expectancy of adventure, which drew her and thrilled her, even while she hesitated.
"I don"t understand you, Cynthia," Diana Royle cried in exasperation.
"Are you afraid?"
The question was intended merely as a gibe, but Cynthia turned to her with startled eyes, and Mrs. Royle knew that she had chanced upon a truth.
"Of what are you afraid?" she asked curiously, and Cynthia answered while she looked into the fire:
"I once lay all night staring into a great bright mirror which revealed to me a shut door. I was in terror lest the door should open.
I dreaded what might come through. I seem still to be looking into the great mirror, and with the same kind of fear. Only now the door opens upon the world, and not on the pa.s.sage of a house."
Diana Royle gathered up her embroidery and her book.
"If you are going to talk that sort of nonsense, Cynthia, I shall go to bed," she remarked sternly, and left Cynthia still gazing into the fire.
Cynthia had not been speaking with affectation. The terror with which her father had for so long inspired her had left its mark deep, as Robert Daventry upon his death-bed had understood. He was dead--yes, but she could not rid her thoughts of the dreadful destiny which he had proposed for her. By so little she had escaped it. She would look round the room with its books and its dainty appointments, and feel the arms of her chair to make sure that all was real.