Part 45 (1/2)

”Jimmy,” he asked, ”what goes on here besides dancing and boxing and gambling?”

”I never heard of any gambling,” Jimmy answered, shaking his head. ”Sir Timothy doesn't care about cards being played here at all.”

”What is the princ.i.p.al entertainment, then?” Francis demanded. ”The boxing?”

The bartender shook his head.

”No one understands very much about this house, sir,” he said, ”except that it offers the most wonderful entertainment in Europe. That is for the guests to find out, though. We servants have to attend to our duties. Will you let me mix you another drink, sir?”

”No, thanks,” Francis answered. ”The last was too good to spoil. But you haven't answered my question, Jimmy. What did you mean when you asked if we were going down?”

Jimmy's face had become wooden.

”I meant nothing, sir,” he said. ”Sorry I spoke.”

The two men turned away. They recognised many acquaintances in the supper-room, and in the long gallery beyond, where many couples were dancing now to the music of a wonderful orchestra. By slow stages they made their way back to the winter-garden, where Lady Cynthia and Margaret were still lost in admiration of their surroundings. They all walked the whole length of the place. Beyond, down a flight of stone steps, was a short, paved way to the river. A large electric launch was moored at the quay. The grounds outside were dimly illuminated with cunningly-hidden electric lights s.h.i.+ning through purple-coloured globes into the cloudy darkness. In the background, enveloping the whole of the house and reaching to the river on either side, the great wall loomed up, unlit, menacing almost in its suggestions. A couple of loiterers stood within a few yards of them, looking at the launch.

”There she is, ready for her errand, whatever it may be,” one said to the other curiously. ”We couldn't play the stowaway, I suppose, could we?”

”d.i.c.ky Bell did that once,” the other answered. ”Sir Timothy has only one way with intruders. He was thrown into the river and jolly nearly drowned.”

The two men pa.s.sed out of hearing.

”I wonder what part the launch plays in the night's entertainment,”

Wilmore observed.

Francis shrugged his shoulders.

”I have given up wondering,” he said. ”Margaret, do you hear that music?”

She laughed.

”Are we really to dance?” she murmured. ”Do you want to make a girl of me again?”

”Well, I shouldn't be a magician, should I?” he answered.

They pa.s.sed into the ballroom and danced for some time. The music was seductive and perfect, without any of the blatant notes of too many of the popular orchestras. The floor seemed to sway under their feet.

”This is a new joy come back into life!” Margaret exclaimed, as they rested for a moment.

”The first of many,” he a.s.sured her.

They stood in the archway between the winter-garden and the dancing-gallery, from which they could command a view of the pa.s.sing crowds. Francis scanned the faces of the men and women with intense interest. Many of them were known to him by sight, others were strangers. There was a judge, a Cabinet Minister, various members of the aristocracy, a sprinkling from the foreign legations, and although the stage was not largely represented, there were one or two well-known actors. The guests seemed to belong to no universal social order, but to Francis, watching them almost eagerly, they all seemed to have something of the same expression, the same slight air of weariness, of restless and unsatisfied desires.

”I can't believe that the place is real, or that these people we see are not supers,” Margaret whispered.

”I feel every moment that a clock will strike and that it will all fade away.”

”I'm afraid I'm too material for such imaginings,” Francis replied, ”but there is a quaintly artificial air about it all. We must go and look for Wilmore and Lady Cynthia.”

They turned back into the enervating atmosphere of the winter-garden, and came suddenly face to face with Sir Timothy, who had escorted a little party of his guests to see the fountain, and was now returning alone.