Part 19 (1/2)

”Of course you have, father,” said Marion.

”If not,” I said, ”it'll be very embarra.s.sing for all of us when I tell you what my guess is.”

”Marion and I--” said Bob.

”Have spent the morning,” I said, ”in finding out that you want to marry each other?”

”Of course we have,” said Marion.

”Of course,” said Bob.

The discovery that they both wanted the same thing made them ridiculously happy. Marion kissed me with effusive ardour, putting her left arm tight round my neck, but still holding on to Bob with her right hand. Bob, after our first raptures had subsided a little, insisted on going down to G.o.dfrey's lodgings, and apologizing for breaking his ribs. I told him that an apology delivered in that spirit would merely intensify G.o.dfrey's wish to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But nothing I said moved Bob in the least. He was so happy that he wanted to abase himself before some one.

CHAPTER XV

Babberly is in some ways a singularly unlucky man. A place for him, and that a high one, ought to have been quite secure in the next Unionist Cabinet. Now he will never hold office under any government, and yet no one can say that his collapse was in any way his own fault.

On the very day on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer received G.o.dfrey's letter, Babberly announced his intention of holding another Unionist demonstration in Belfast. He did not mean any harm by this.

He intended nothing worse than another eloquent speech and expected nothing more serious than the usual cheers. He regards demonstrations very much as my nephew G.o.dfrey does garden-parties. They are troublesome functions, requiring a good deal of labour and care for their successful accomplishment, but they are necessary. People expect something of the kind from time to time; and--if I do not give garden-parties, I should not, so G.o.dfrey says, keep up my position in the county. If Babberly did not, so to speak, give demonstrations he would lose his position in the political world. Babberly's position is, of course, vastly more important than mine.

Moyne, goaded on I suppose by Lady Moyne, wrote a letter to the papers--perhaps I should say published a manifesto--urging the extreme importance of Babberly's demonstration. This was necessary because McNeice and O'Donovan, in _The Loyalist_, had lately adopted a sneering tone about demonstrations. And _The Loyalist_ was becoming an effective force in the guidance of Ulster opinion. Thanks to the exertions of Crossan, Malcolmson and some others the paper was very widely circulated and wherever it went it was read. Lady Moyne, I knew, disliked _The Loyalist_ and was uneasy about the tone of its articles. She felt it necessary to stimulate the popular taste for demonstrations, and wrote Moyne's manifesto for him. It was a very good manifesto, full of weighty words about the present crisis and the necessity of standing shoulder to shoulder against the iniquitous plot of the Government for the dismemberment of the Empire.

Very much to my surprise, and I am sure to Lady Moyne's, _The Loyalist_ printed a strong article in support of the proposed demonstration. Nothing could have been more flattering than its reference to Babberly and Lord Moyne; nothing better calculated to insure the success of the performance than the way in which it urged all Unionists to attend it. ”a.s.semble in your Thousands” was the phrase used four times over in the course of the article. There was only one sentence in it which could cause any one the slightest uneasiness.

”Previous demonstrations,” so the article concluded, ”have served their purpose as expressions of our unalterable convictions. This one must do something more. _It must convince the world that we mean what we say._”

That, of course, was nothing more than Babberly had proclaimed a dozen times in far more eloquent language. Nor was the fact that McNeice printed the last sentence in italics particularly startling. Babberly had emphasized the same statement with all the violence possible. But, so tense was the public mind at this time, everybody was vaguely anxious and excited. We felt that McNeice attached more meaning to the words than Babberly did.

A member of the Cabinet happened to be speaking two days later at a large public meeting in Croydon. He was supposed to be explaining the advantages of the new Insurance Act to the mistresses and servants of the smaller middle-cla.s.s households. There were, I believe, very few people with sufficient faith in his power of apology to go to hear him; but, of course, there were plenty of newspaper reporters. The Cabinet Minister addressed them, and, ignoring for the time the grievances of the British house-and-parlourmaid, he announced that the Government was going to stand no nonsense from Ulster.

”The leaders,” he said, ”of the unfortunate dupes who are to a.s.semble next week in Belfast, must understand once for all that in a democratically governed country the will of the majority must prevail, and His Majesty's Government is fully determined to see that it does prevail, at any cost.”

This, again, was nothing more than the usual thing. Only the last three words conveyed anything in the nature of a threat, and many papers did not report the last three words. Babberly, I think, was quite justified in supposing that the Cabinet Minister was saying no more than, according to the rules of the game, he was bound to say; that he was, in fact, giving a garden-party of his own to keep up his position in the county. At all events Babberly replied to the Government's p.r.o.nouncement with a defiance of the boldest possible kind. _The Loyalist_, in a special number, published in the middle of the week, patted Babberly on the back, and said that the men of Ulster would, if necessary, a.s.sert their right of public meeting with rifles in their hands.

This was not going much further than Babberly himself had often gone in earlier stages of the controversy. It is true that he had always spoken of ”arms” which is a vague word and might mean nothing worse than the familiar paving stones. _The Loyalist_ specified the kind of arms, mentioned rifles, which are very lethal weapons. Still, viewed from a reasonable standpoint, there was nothing very alarming in the word rifles.

Two days later Moyne motored over to my house. He seemed greatly disturbed, so I took him into my study and gave him tea. While we were drinking it he told me what was the matter with him.

”Look here, Kilmore,” he said, ”do you know anything about a rumour that's flying about?”

”There are so many,” I said.

”About the importation of arms into this country.”

I had my suspicions, rather more than suspicions, for I had been thinking over the somewhat remarkable performances of Bob Power and the _Finola_. I did not, however, want to say anything definite until I knew how much information Moyne had. After all Bob Power had now arranged to be my son-in-law. I do not know what the law does to people who import arms into a peaceful country; but the penalty is sure to be severe, and I did not want Marion's wedding-day to be blighted by the arrest of the bridegroom.

”They say,” said Moyne, ”that some of the cargoes have been landed here under your windows.”

”I can only a.s.sure you,” I said, ”that I have never in my life imported so much as a pocket pistol.”