Part 9 (1/2)

It was a little past mid-day, and Archibald Druce, who had returned an hour before from an early morning professional appointment with Medhurst, was feeling restless and lonely. Morgan was not due till half-past one, and so the old man wandered disconsolately about the hotel, seeking some congenial spirit with whom to hold converse. At length, peering into the smoking-room, he discovered a white-haired, stately gentleman, with a somewhat military air, whose grave appearance was encouraging. With him Archibald began an exchange of civilities, and very soon launched out into an account of his interview of that morning.

”I a.s.sure you, my dear sir,” said the banker, though the other had not questioned the fact in any way, ”I can see absolutely nothing. The room is a perfect blur, and I fear I dare not venture out into these crowded London thoroughfares for the rest of the day. The worst of it is that the introduction of the cocaine into my eyes has been of no avail. Of course my eminent friend could not know I was possessed of such remarkable eyes, and as it was necessary for him to see into them, no blame attaches to him for having adopted the usual means of causing my extremely small pupils to expand. Now the curious point is that my pupils were totally unaffected by the cocaine, and I fear my eminent friend had to work on me under difficulties. The couple of hours I spent with him in his wonderful workroom have, however, proved exceedingly profitable to me. I a.s.sure you, my dear sir, they have been most instructive.”

”No doubt,” said the military person, his fingers fidgetting uneasily with his newspaper.

”Between ourselves,” continued Archibald confidentially, ”I rather imagine that my friend enjoyed the time I spent with him. It is not often he gets a really intelligent patient to work on--in fact, he found me so appreciative that he exhibited especially some profoundly interesting experiments. Amongst other things, he threw a gigantic representation of my retinal system of blood vessels on to a white screen merely by turning a strong light sideways into my eye. And the explanation of it was quite simple. The retinal vessels stand out slightly in relief, and thus a perfect shadow of the system is cast on the retina. It was this shadow I saw, and the white screen was merely a convenient background for it. I don't know if I make myself clear.”

”Perfectly clear, perfectly,” said the military person.

”Indeed, John Medhurst seemed quite loth to part with me. I quite believe he enjoyed the experiments as much as I did. He brought out his books and very kindly allowed me to inspect the plates--and extraordinarily fine plates they are!--and thus acquire some idea of the inner mechanism of the human eye. What a truly wonderful place the universe is--wonderful!”

”That no intelligent man can deny,” said the military person.

”My friend holds a most distinguished position in his profession, and I esteem it a great honour and privilege to be on such intimate terms with him,” said Archibald, offering a cigar to the other and lighting one himself. ”Now you know,” he went on, in a somewhat softened and more intimate tone; ”there's quite a little bit of a romance in the story of our friends.h.i.+p.”

”Indeed,” said the military person more genially, his palate savouring the exquisite aroma of the cigar.

Archibald smiled tenderly.

”His wife's an old flame of mine,” he explained, veiling his emotion with jocular phraseology. ”An old flame, did I say? I'm still over head and heels in love with her. But I was too late--she and John had already made their little arrangements. And very soon after John and I became friends, and friends we've remained to this day. Kate has two of the loveliest girls, and I'm hanged if I'm not head over heels in love with them as well. The younger one is a regular little she-devil!”

”Ha! ha! ha!” guffawed the military person.

”Upon my honour she is,” insisted Archibald. ”Why, she flirts outrageously with me. I'm sure I don't know how many heads the little witch is going to turn when she grows up. And her sister, Margaret--I couldn't tell you which of the two I like the better--has quite an extraordinary talent for plastic art. I mean to give her a commission before I return to my place. I'd like for one thing to have a bust of her mother in my study--that would be so inspiring. And long ago I took a fancy to have a nice sphinx. A thing of that kind, you know, is good to remind one of man's intellectual limitations.”

”I suppose so,” said the military person, vaguely.

”Her figures are extremely lifelike. Just imagine, a thing cast in dead bronze to have all the reality of life so that you would almost expect it to move.”

”She must be a highly-gifted young lady.”

”You will scarcely credit it, my dear sir, but she is only nineteen--on my word of honour,” said Archibald with growing enthusiasm. ”Only the other day she sold two of her things for twenty-five pounds apiece. Twenty-five pounds apiece!” he repeated slowly, as if that represented to him a gigantic amount. ”The examples are to be strictly limited to sixty of each, after which the moulds are to be destroyed. They are both magnificent pieces of work. Why, you fancy you almost hear Chiron's voice and the tw.a.n.ging of his harp.”

”Indeed,” said the military person.

”She is perfectly sweet and beautiful as well as clever,” went on Archibald. ”Now my dog of a boy, between ourselves--ha! ha! ha!----”

”He's a bit smitten?” suggested the military person.

Archibald laughed gleefully. ”And I fancy that a certain clever young lady of nineteen who knows how to model is also a bit smitten. Only my boy doesn't seem to come to the point. But then he's a poet.”

”A what?” inquired the military person, startled.

”A poet,” stoutly repeated Archibald. ”And a very great poet, I venture to a.s.sert, he will be one of these fine days. Naturally he is not a man of action--he is a dreamer. But when I wanted Kate I wasn't satisfied just to go on dreaming about her--ha! ha! Now if my boy would only stop dreaming and just get married instead, I'd settle as much on them as ever they'd want. You see, a genius like my son,” he went on, lowering his voice almost to a whisper, ”must be exempt from the sordid cares of money-earning, and my eminent friend, though his position in life is an extremely honourable one, is not a man of means. He may have put by a bit out of his hard-earned income, but, as I always say to him, he wants that against a rainy day. But it's no use my talking to him--he will keep on worrying about his girls having no fortunes. 'And suppose they don't marry,' says he; and I have positively to laugh him into a more cheerful mood. 'Don't be a fool, John,' I say to him, 'those two girls are worth all the fortunes in the world, and the man who didn't think as much wouldn't be worth marrying.'”

”Your views are extremely generous,” said the military person. ”They do you credit.”