Part 20 (1/2)

Sir William turned round, as he came into the room. ”Ah, Norman!” he said. ”Here you are! I've been waiting for you. You come into this little affair, as well as mother and me. You'll want to hear all about it.”

Norman sat himself down, with his hands in his pockets. ”I always want to hear all about everything,” he said.

His father laughed. ”It's rather exciting,” he said. ”I really hadn't been expecting anything of the sort. They've offered me a peerage.”

”Good business!” said Norman warmly.

Sir William laughed again. ”It will come to you some day,” he said.

”That's one reason why I feel pleased about it.”

”When the time comes,” said Norman, ”I shall grow a little tiny chin beard, like the peers in 'Iolanthe.' But I thought you were going to be a Member of Parliament, father.”

”Well, that is being a Member of Parliament--of the Upper House. Oh, it isn't--I've been telling mother--just a mark of honour for what I did during the war. They gave me a knighthood for that, which closed the account. They want me for something else now--a new business altogether.

I won't go into the details of it now, but they want somebody in both Houses for it. It was just a question in which one I should be of most use, and it was decided finally that someone else--I won't mention his name yet--should look after it in the Commons, and I in the Lords. It will mean a lot of work, but I don't mind that. I like work, and I really think I can do something in this job they've given me. I know I did good work in the war, and I've had the feeling sometimes--though I've kept it to myself--that enough notice wasn't taken of it. I don't mean in the way of reward, for I didn't do it for reward; but I thought they might have found me of such use that they would want to give me something else to do, when there's so much that wants doing. Well, it seems that they haven't lost sight of me at all; they have only been waiting for an opportunity. And now it has come. Yes, I'm very well pleased about it.”

”So am I,” said Norman. ”And I'm jolly glad it has come in that way. If they had given you a peerage instead of making you a knight, people might have said you had paid out cash for it. They wouldn't have said it to you, but they might have said it to me. Fellows will say anything to you nowadays; it's the modern technique. I shall be an Honourable, I suppose. I shall have to put up with a lot because of that. But I shall live it down in time. When is it coming off, father?”

Sir William did not smile at this speech. ”There's a lot of nonsense talk about buying peerages,” he said. ”I've been saying to mother, only just now, that I doubt whether there has ever been a single instance of a man putting down so much money and getting a peerage for it, or even a baronetcy. Or, if things were ever done in that way, they're certainly not now. As far as I'm concerned, I'd just as soon have done what I'm going to do in the Commons as in the Lords. For many things I would much rather have been in the Commons. But it would have meant fighting an election, with a lot of time and energy wasted; and _that_ would have cost money. On the whole, I am glad it was settled as it has been.

You're pleased too, Nell, aren't you? I wouldn't have taken it, you know, Norman, without first consulting your mother--and telling you. I haven't yet, as a matter of fact, though I promised to write, either accepting or declining, to-morrow.”

”Oh, I hope you won't decline, father. I didn't gather there was any chance of that. I've got rather keen on it now. Aren't you, Mum?”

She smiled at him and then at her husband, looking up at him. ”I'm very glad,” she said, ”that they want you again. And I know that you will do splendid work, as you did before. It will mean a lot more work for father, you know, Norman; but it will be work that he will do well and enjoy doing.”

”You never were a half-doer, were you, father?” said Norman. ”I should think you would wake up the old Lords a bit. The general idea seems to be that they can do with it. What are you going to call yourself?”

Sir William's face lost its brighter look. ”There's a slight difficulty about that,” he said. ”In the ordinary way I should take the t.i.tle of Hayslope. It would be the natural thing, as we've been here so long, and--and--considering that Hayslope is coming to me some day. The trouble is that it isn't mine yet, and I'm afraid the present owner might object. He'd have no reason to; but....”

Norman's ears were disagreeably affected by that phrase ”the present owner.” The dispute, which he had forgotten until that moment, was serious, then.

Lady Eldridge spoke, in her quiet firm voice. ”I think you ought to know, Norman,” she said, ”that Uncle Edmund is showing himself hostile to your father. Father went to the Hall to tell him, first of all, about what has been happening, but there was a disagreement that had to be cleared out of the way first, and he found it impossible to do it.”

Sir William s.h.i.+fted his position. ”I've done all I can,” he said. ”The dispute was about a twopenny halfpenny affair which I've been trying to put right ever since. I've given way upon all points--more than I ought to have done; but it's of no use. Nothing's of any use. He's determined on quarrelling. I can't do any more.”

”I suppose it's about that garden,” said Norman. ”What does Uncle Edmund want done about it?”

”What does he want done about it? I wish to G.o.d you could find out.

First of all he makes himself offensive because I began it. Very well! I overlook the offence and I stop it. But that doesn't do. I'm told I shall be damaging his position in the place if I don't begin all over again. Very well; I say I will, when he has finished with the men I took on for the work, and he took from me for _his_ work. Then I'm told that before I do anything else I've got to get rid of the man who has been doing it all. Something has come to his ears that Coombe is supposed to have said about him. A wise man would have shut his ears to that sort of gossip; but because of it, I'm to dismiss a man who has served me well, out of hand, and without giving him a chance of defending himself. I said I'd look into it; but he wouldn't have that. To ask questions of anybody would be to doubt his word, though all he has to go on is what somebody told somebody else who told him. It's perfectly childish; but I'm not going to bother about it any more. I've got far too much to do.

If he wants to break with me, he must. _I_ don't want it, and I've gone all lengths to pacify him. But the fact is that he isn't a big enough man to be able to see me going ahead in the world while he's standing still. All his life he has considered himself my superior. He's my elder brother, and I've given in to him. I've given in to him over this, up to the limit. But now he asks too much. I shall just have to go on, and leave him out of account.”

”If we weren't all living at Hayslope,” Lady Eldridge said, ”it would be easy to keep apart for a time, and the friction would die down. What we must do is to make the best of it until Uncle Edmund becomes more reasonable. Neither you nor I, Norman, need take notice of it unless we are forced to. Father wants us to treat it in that way.”

”Oh, yes,” said Sir William. ”He can't visit my sins upon you; and I certainly don't want to visit his upon Cynthia and the girls. You must go on as much as possible as before. He won't come here, and I shan't go to the Hall. That's all the difference it need make, and when we have gone on for some time like that, I dare say he will come round--see he's been making a fool of himself.” He paused for a moment. ”I know you're not used to hearing me talk of him like that, but I really can't help myself. I've been sorry for him lately, and have done my best to help him over the troubles and difficulties he has had. But none of that seems to count for anything. He was so--so coldly and obstinately determined to have his own way this evening that it thoroughly upset me.

He seems to have nothing in him to respond to the feeling I have always had for him--no kindness, no generosity. I'm not used to losing my temper, but I'm afraid I did lose it with him this evening--his arrogance worked me up to such an extent. No doubt that will all be brought up against me. Actually, I came away without telling him what I had gone there to tell him. That will be brought up against me too. I really can't cope with it any longer. It's an infernal nuisance that this place, which would be more than ever a recreation to me now, should only be turned into a worry. But I won't have it so. I'm not coming down here to be plunged into little local bothers, which take more settling than any of the big things I have to deal with. For the present he and I had better keep apart.”

”I'm afraid it's the only way--for the present,” said Lady Eldridge.

”But it is a very unhappy state of things.”