Part 58 (1/2)

FOUR.

”I'm going this road,” said Darius, when they were safely out of the Bank, pointing towards the Sytch.

”What for?”

”I'm going this road,” he repeated, gloomily obstinate.

”All right,” said Edwin cheerfully. ”I'll trot round with you.”

He did not know whether he could safely leave his father. The old man's eyes resented his a.s.siduity and accepted it.

They pa.s.sed the Old Sytch Pottery, the smoke of whose kilns now no longer darkened the sky. The senior partner of the firm which leased it had died, and his sons had immediately taken advantage of his absence to build a new and efficient works down by the ca.n.a.l-side at Shawport--a marvel of everything save architectural dignity. Times changed. Edwin remarked on the desolation of the place and received no reply. Then the idea occurred to him that his father was bound for the Liberal Club. It was so. They both entered. In the large room two young men were amusing themselves at the billiard-table which formed the chief attraction of the naked interior, and on the ledges of the table were two gla.s.ses. The steward in an ap.r.o.n watched them.

”Aye!” grumbled Darius, eyeing the group. ”That's Rad, that is! That's Rad! Not twelve o'clock yet!”

If Edwin with his father had surprised two young men drinking and playing billiards before noon in the Conservative Club, he would have been grimly pleased. He would have taken it for a further proof of the hollowness of the opposition to the great Home Rule Bill; but the spectacle of a couple of wastrels in the Liberal Club annoyed and shamed him. His vague notion was that at such a moment of high crisis the two wastrels ought to have had the decency to refrain from wasting.

”Well, Mr Clayhanger,” said the steward, in his absurd boniface way, ”you're quite a stranger.”

”I want my name taken off this Club,” said Darius shortly. ”Ye understand me! And I reckon I'm not the only one, these days.”

The steward did in fact understand. He protested in a low, amiable voice, while the billiard-players affected not to hear; but he perfectly understood. The epidemic of resignations had already set in, and there had been talk of a Liberal-Unionist Club. The steward saw that the grand folly of a senile statesman was threatening his own future prospects. He smiled. But at Edwin, as they were leaving, he smiled in a quite peculiar way, and that smile clearly meant: ”Your father goes dotty, and the first thing he does is to change his politics.” This was the steward's justifiable revenge.

”You aren't leaving us?” the steward questioned Edwin in a half-whisper.

Edwin shook his head. But he could have killed the steward for that nauseating suggestive smile. The outer door swung to, cutting off the delicate click of billiard b.a.l.l.s.

At the top of Duck Bank, Darius silently and without warning mounted the steps of the Conservative Club. Doubtless he knew how to lay his hand instantly on a proposer and seconder. Edwin did not follow him.

FIVE.

That evening, conscious of responsibility and of virtue, Edwin walked up Trafalgar Road with a less gawky and more dignified mien than ever he had managed to a.s.sume before. He had not only dismissed programmes of culture, he had forgotten them. After twelve hours as head of a business, they had temporarily ceased to interest him. And when he pa.s.sed, or was overtaken by, other men of affairs, he thought to himself naively in the dark, ”I am the equal of these men.” And the image of Florence Simc.o.x, the clog-dancer, floated through his mind.

He found Darius alone in the drawing-room, in front of an uncustomary fire, garden-clay still on his boots, and ”The Christian News” under his spectacles. The Sunday before the funeral of Mr Shus.h.i.+ons had been so unusual and so distressing that Darius had fallen into arrear with his perusals. True, he had never been known to read ”The Christian News” on any day but Sunday, but now every day was Sunday.

Edwin nodded to him and approached the fire, rubbing his hands.

”What's this as I hear?” Darius began, with melancholy softness.

”Eh?”

”About Albert wanting to borrow a thousand pounds?” Darius gazed at him over his spectacles.

”Albert wanting to borrow a thousand pounds!” Edwin repeated, astounded.

”Aye! Have they said naught to you?”

”No,” said Edwin. ”What is it?”