Part 41 (1/2)

”I know perfectly what all that means,” Lord Evelyn said. ”You are anxious to get away from Lind. You believe in your work, but you don't like to be a.s.sociated with him.”

”Perhaps I know a little more than you, Evelyn,” said Brand, gently, ”of Lind's relation to the society. He does not represent it to me at all.

He is only one of its servants, like ourselves. But don't let us talk about him.”

”You _must_ talk about him,” Lord Evelyn said, as he pulled out his watch. ”It is now seven. At eight you go to the initiation of Molyneux, and you have promised to give Lind his answer to-night. Well?”

Brand was playing idly with a pocket-pencil. After a minute or two, he said,

”I promised Natalie to consider this thing without any reference to her whatever--that I would decide just as if there was no possibility of her becoming my wife. I promised that; but it is hard to do, Evelyn. I have tried to imagine my never having seen her, and that I had been led into this affair solely through you. Then I do think that if you had come to me and said that my giving up every penny I possess would forward a good work--would do indirect benefit to a large number of people, and so forth--I do think I could have said, 'All right, Evelyn; take it.' I never cared much for money; I fancy I could get on pretty well on a sovereign a week. I say that if you had come to me with this request--”

”Precisely,” Lord Evelyn said, quickly. ”You would have said yes, if I had come to you. But because it is Lind, whom you distrust, you fall away from the height of self-sacrifice, and regard the proposal from the point of view of the Waldegrave Club. Mind you, I am not counselling you one way or the other. I am only pointing out to you that it is your dislike of Lind that prevents your doing what you otherwise would have done.”

”Very well,” said the other, boldly. ”Have I not reason to distrust him?

How can I explain his conduct and his implied threats except on the supposition that he has been merely playing with me, as far as his daughter is concerned; and that as soon as I had handed over this property I should find it out? Oh, it is a very pretty scheme altogether! This heap of English money transferred to the treasury; Lind at length achieving his ambition of being put on the Council; Natalie carried off to Italy; and myself granted the honor of stepping into Lind's shoes in Lisle Street. On the other hand: 'Refuse, and we pack you off to America.' Now, you know, Evelyn, one does not like to be threatened into anything!”

”Then you have decided to say, No?”

He did not answer for a second or two; when he did, his manner was quite changed.

”I rather think I know what both you and Natalie would have me do, although you won't say so explicitly. And if you and she had come to me with this proposal, do you think there would have been any difficulty? I should have been satisfied if she had put her hand in mine, and said, 'Thank you.' Then I should have reminded her that she was sacrificing something too.”

He relapsed into silence again; Lord Evelyn was vaguely conscious that the minutes were pa.s.sing by, and that his friend seemed as far off as ever from any decision.

”You remember the old-fas.h.i.+oned rose-garden, Evelyn?”

”At the beeches? Yes.”

”Don't you think Natalie would like the view from that side of the house? And if she chose that side, I was thinking of having a conservatory built all the length of the rooms, with steps opening out into the rose-garden. She could go out there for a stroll of a morning.”

So these had been his dreams.

”If I go to America,” he said presently, ”I should expect you to look after the old place a little bit. You might take your sisters there occasionally, and turn them loose; it wants a woman's hand here and there. Mrs. Alleyne would put you all right; and of course I should send Waters down, and give up those rooms in Buckingham Street.”

”But I cannot imagine your going to America, somehow,” Lord Evelyn said. ”Surely there is plenty for you to do here.”

”I will say this of Lind, that he is not an idle talker. What he says he means. Besides, Molyneux can take up my work in the North; he is the very man.”

Again silence. It was now half-past seven.

”I wish, though, it had been something more exciting,” Brand said. ”I should not have minded having a turn at the Syrian business; I am not much afraid of risking my neck. There is not much danger in Philadelphia.”

”But look here, Brand,” said Lord Evelyn, regarding him attentively.

”You are speaking with great equanimity about your going to America; possibly you might like the change well enough; but do I understand you that you are prepared to go alone?”

Brand looked up; he understood what was meant.

”If I am ordered--yes.”

He held out his right hand; on the third finger there was a ma.s.sive gold ring--a plain hoop, without motto or design whatever.