"Frighten her? What do you mean?"
"Oh, tell him what I mean, George," laughed Lady Evenswood, turning to Southend. Mr Disney seemed genuinely resentful at the idea that he might frighten anybody.
"Are you a member of the conference too, Southend?"
"Well, yes, I--I"m interested in the family." He telegraphed a glance of caution to the old lady; he meant to convey that the present was not a happy moment to broach the matter that was in their minds.
"I"m sorry I interrupted. Can you give me five minutes in another room, Cousin Sylvia?" He rose and waited for her.
"Oh, but can"t you do anything?" blurted out the Imp suddenly.
"Eh?" His eyes under their heavy brows were fixed on her now. There was a deep-lying twinkle in them, although he still frowned ferociously. "Do what?"
"Why, something for--for Harry Tristram?"
He looked round at each of them. The twinkle was gone; the frown was not.
"Oh, was that the conference?" he asked slowly. "Well, what has the conference decided?" It was Mina whom he questioned, for which Southend at least was profoundly thankful. "He"d have bitten my head off, if the women hadn"t been there," he confided to Iver afterward.
Mr Disney slowly sat down again. Mina did not perceive the significance of this action, but Lady Evenswood did.
"It"s such an extraordinary case, Robert. So very exceptional! Poor Addie Tristram! You remember her?"
"Yes, I remember Addie Tristram," he muttered--"growled," Mina described it afterward. "Well, what do you want?" he asked.
Lady Evenswood was a woman of tact.
"Really," she said, "it can"t be done in this way, of course. If anything is to come before you, it must come before you regularly. I know that, Robert."
The Imp had no tact.
"Oh, no," she cried. "Do listen now, Mr Disney. Do promise to help us now!"
Tact is not always the best thing in the world.
"If you"ll tell me in two words, I"ll listen," said Mr Disney.
"I--I can"t do that. In two words? Oh, but please----"
He had turned away from her to Southend.
"Now then, Southend?"
Lord Southend felt that he must be courageous. After all the women were there.
"In two words? Literally?"
Disney nodded, smiling grimly at Mina"s clasped hands and imploring face.
"Literally--if you can." There was a gratuitous implication that Southend and the rest of the world were apt to be loquacious.
"Well, then," said Southend, "I will. What we want is----" After one glance at Lady Evenswood, he got it out. "What we want is--a viscounty."
For a moment Mr Disney sat still. Then again he rose slowly.
"Have I tumbled into Bedlam?" he asked.
"It was done in the Bearsdale case," suggested Lady Evenswood. "Of course there was a doubt there----"
"Anyhow a barony--but a viscounty would be more convenient," murmured Southend.
Mina was puzzled. These mysteries were beyond her. She had never heard of the Bearsdale case, and she did not understand why--in certain circ.u.mstances--a viscounty would be more convenient. But she knew that something was being urged which might meet the difficulty, and she kept eager eyes on Mr Disney. Perhaps she would have done that anyhow; men who rule heads and hearts can surely draw eyes also. Yet at the moment he was not inspiring. He listened with a smile (was it not rather a grin?) of sardonic ridicule.
"You made me speak, you know," said Southend. "I"d rather have waited till we got the thing into shape."
"And I should like you to see the boy, Robert."
"Bedlam!" said Mr Disney with savage conviction. "I"ll talk to you about what I came to say another day, Cousin Sylvia. Really to-day----!" With a vague awkward wave of his arm he started for the door.
"You will try?" cried the Imp, darting at him.
She heard him say, half under his breath, "d.a.m.ned persistent little woman!" before he vanished through the door. She turned to her companions, her face aghast, her lips quivering, her eyes dim. The magician had come and gone and worked no spell; her disappointment was very bitter.
To her amazement Southend was radiant and Lady Evenswood wore an air of gratified contentment. She stared at them.
"It went off better than I expected," said he.
"It must be one of Robert"s good days," said she.
"But--but----" gasped the Imp.
"He was very civil for him. He must mean to think about it, about something of the sort anyhow," Southend explained. "I shouldn"t wonder if it had been in his mind," he added to Lady Evenswood.
"Neither should I. At any rate he took it splendidly. I almost wish we"d spoken of the marriage."
"Couldn"t you write to him?"
"He wouldn"t read it, George."
"Telegraph then!"
"It would really be worth trying--considering how he took it." Lady Evenswood did not seem able to get over the Prime Minister"s extraordinary affability.
"Well, if he treats you like that--great people like you--and you"re pleased, thank goodness I never met him alone!" Mina was not shy with them any more; she had suffered worse.
They glanced at one another.
"It was you, my dear. He"d have been more difficult with us," said Lady Evenswood.