Part 39 (1/2)
But to consent was one thing: the _how_ another: the mere suspicion of the willingness of Kaiser or Tsar shook their thrones. Whereupon Russia said to Hogarth: ”Recently dispossessed, they cling dyingly now to their lands, so I will _buy_ the land from them, and _you_ will lend me the money”; to which Hogarth virtually replied: ”It is too childish to talk of buying part of a heavenly body from a Russian: have you no sense of humour? You may give the Russian 'n.o.bles' some money, if that pleases you: but without my help. If His Majesty the Tsar is more afraid of them than of me, my only way will be to prove myself more truly terrible than they”.
But high words hurl down no hundred-headed hydra: in France--fast, faster--with dizzy vertigo--millions were forming themselves into secret societies, while in England was One only--but stronger than the many of France.
By the date of Rebekah's pilgrimage Hogarth had so far failed and yielded, as almost to decide that from the _Boodah_ nothing could be done, unless he went to the extent of ruining and starving. The other alternative was the fixing upon one nation, becoming its recognized ruler, and there furnis.h.i.+ng an example both of _modus operandi_, and of a subsequent state of happiness, which others could not long refrain from imitating.
But this modification was still in the air; and, meanwhile, he listened, weighed, revolved: using men, impressing, convincing, extracting for his use the wisdom of their experience, estimating the exact pressure of the Time, the _timbre_ of its roar.
So on the morning after Rebekah's arrival his Gold Stick became his rack from the moment of the bow from the throne till noon: name after name--cordons, orders, gold-lace, sashes, stars, tiaras; till enter the four Jewesses, the bank-manager, the rabbi, Hogarth's pallor showing up his three moles and nose-freckles, adding a glare to his eyes, he suffering from the runaway drumming of his heart.
The ladies stoop through curtseys; the men do reverence; Hogarth bows.
There like a Begum of Bhopal stood Rebekah, floridly reflected in the gla.s.sy floor, sallow under the eyes, smiling at him, he at her; and very quickly now, she once in his sight, he recovered comparative calm, and the strength of his heart.
”Your first visit to the _Boodah_, I think?”--looking at her.
”Yes, my Lord King”--curtseying.
”Do you like her?”
”Why, yes: she is solid, and mighty, and rich. In my own, and the name of my friends, I beg to thank your Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty for your Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty's kind and good hospitality to us”.
”Humbugging little beggar”, thought Hogarth, his mind slowly gathering tone, but rus.h.i.+ng meanwhile into a species of frivolous a.s.surance after those agitations, his hands still cold.
”Well”, he said, ”but you have not seen her! I think I know her fairly well, and I propose to be myself your guide, if that will interest you--”
The Rabbi spoke with trembling voice: ”It is gracious, my Lord King.
We are here, however, humbly to present an urgent pet.i.tion to your Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty. Baruch Frankl, at present a prisoner in the _Boodah_, a man no longer young, and habituated to comfort--”
”Stay”, interrupted Hogarth: ”if you have a pet.i.tion the day and hour must be arranged by negotiation between yourself and my Chamberlain. But surely, meantime, I may consider you my guest? Miss Frankl and I--have met--in the world. Come, ladies--come, sirs--say yes!”
Rebekah, standing averted, flashed a look at him, reading his heart, and Jews and Jewesses laid heads together, whispering a little, until the Rabbi said, bowing: ”We bend to your Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty's most gracious will”.
”Agreed, then, sir. We might now see the _Boodah_, and if you will luncheon with me--Mr. Chamberlain! direct Admiral Quilter-Beckett to meet me at once in the north corridor”.
He rose, master of his limbs now, descended, unrobed in an alcove, and in a corridor above the circular stair came upon Quilter-Beckett, who, acting as guide, Rebekah's hand now resting on Hogarth's arm, led them about the _Boodah_, now walking, now slipping in little trains over eighty-foot rails, rolled in one heat, laid down the vanis.h.i.+ng length of dim-lit corridors floored with white tiles, their frieze of majolica, with rows of ceramics; and they saw the armouries, piles of rifles, cutla.s.ses, pistols; ferneries grown by electric light; great cold-storage rooms that struck a chill, for preserving meats, b.u.t.ter, fruit; the doctors' _environ_, the dispensary, and roomy hospital; watched from a railing the working engines that fixed the _Boodah's_ position, Hogarth here saying: ”There you have a menagerie of gnome-land: observe those two black beetles, sedately nodding; and there is daddy-longlegs, working his legs gymnastically; and the three pairs of gallant grey stallions, galloping grandly neck to neck; and those two ridiculous beings, rubbing their palms together, round and round: each preoccupied, comically solemn, busied about its own quaint affairs--like a varied gnomeland”.
And Rebekah said in a meek tone, like the hen submitting: ”Yes, I see now you say it, my Lord King”.
Up stairs and down, round semicircles, up lifts, through nooks, corridors: saw the guns, and how by hydraulics everything was done--the hoisting of ammunition, loading, training: guns intact, guns wrecked by the Dreadnoughts; and s.h.i.+mmering kitchens, which reeked a smell of heat, and the dairy-maids, and the line of kine, and the row of prison-doors, and the mechanism of ventilation, fans and blowers, the drainage-system, and the dynamos for lighting, for supplying power to motors, for heating, and for s.h.i.+mmering forth rich in the search-lights; and the central ballroom, the clothes store, the original one-ninety-sixth model, the Amba.s.sador-region, the steaming laundry, and the roof, where Rebekah saw her initials on the breeze, and the vertical pop-guns under s.h.i.+elds for dealing with aeroplane attack, and the cream theatre, and the paymaster's suite, and the bunkers, the Government-offices, and the tax-receiving rooms, the telephone system, and the lady-telegraphists--till all were tired, though half had not been seen. They luncheoned together; in the early afternoon there was an Invest.i.ture, and she was there; for ”five-o'clock” there was a Gounod concert in the theatre, and she sat in his box; at night the Bulgarian Amba.s.sador gave a ball, and she danced a gavotte with him.
When they parted a dying wind sighed his name: ”_Hogarth_...”; and when Loveday before sleeping happened to ask: ”When do we set out for London, Richard?” Hogarth with a laugh turned upon him, replying: ”When do we set out for Arcturus and the Pleiades? Do give one time to look round him!”
The next morning Rebekah, led forward from a semicircle of courtiers by a backing Silver Stick, approached within four feet of the Throne, and after the protracted humiliation of her curtsey, said ruefully: ”Our party have failed, my Lord King, to obtain audience for our humble pet.i.tion till after four days”.
”Is that too long?”
”We could not wait beyond to-night. Our good Rabbi, and my father's Manager--both must hurry back, and we others with them. This being so, _I_ appeal to Your Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty ”.
”A _personal_ appeal?”