Part 89 (2/2)
He tried to do me an ill turn, and he has got the worst of it; that is all. On the other hand, I bear him no malice: you don't want to hurt a man when he is down. I can guess that it isn't the death-penalty that he is thinking most of now. I can even make some excuse for him, now that I see the story plain. The temptation was great; always on the understanding that he was against my marrying his daughter; and that I had been sure of it for some time. To punish me for not giving up my property, to keep Natalie to himself, and to get this difficult duty securely undertaken all at once--it was worth while trying for. But his way of going about it was shabby. It was a mean trick. Well, there is nothing more to be said on that point: he has played--played a foul game--and lost.”
He added, directly afterward,
”So you think you can go to Naples?”
”Certainly,” said Evelyn, with promptness. ”You don't know how glad I am about this, Brand. If you had come to grief over your relations with this Society, it would have been like a mill-stone hanging on my conscience all my life. And I shall be delighted to go to Italy for you.
I should like to see the look on Natalie's face.”
”You will probably find her in great trouble,” Brand said, gravely.
”In trouble?”
”Naturally. Don't you see, Evelyn, she could not have foreseen that the result of her appeal would involve the destruction of her father. It is impossible to believe that she could have foreseen that. I know her; she would not have stirred hand or foot. And now that this has been discovered, it is not her father's guilt she will be thinking of; it is his fate, brought about indirectly by herself. You may be sure, Evelyn, she will not be overjoyed at the present moment. All the more reason why one who knows her should be near her. I have no idea what sort of people are about her; I should be more satisfied if I knew you were there.”
”I am ready to go; I am ready to start this afternoon, as I say,” Evelyn repeated; but then he added, with some hesitation: ”But I am not going to play the part of a hypocrite, Brand. I could not pretend to sympathize with her, if that is the cause of her trouble; I should tell her it served her father right.”
”You could not be so brutal if you tried, Evelyn,” Brand said; ”you might think so: you could not tell her so. But I have no fear: you will be discreet enough, and delicate enough, when you see her.”
”And what am I to say from you?”
”From me?” he said. ”Oh, you can say I thank her for having saved my life. That will be enough, I think; she will understand the rest.”
”I mean, what do you advise her to do? Ought they to return to England?”
”I think so, certainly. Most likely she will be waiting there, trying to get the Council to reverse the sentence. Having been successful in the one case, the poor child may think she ought to succeed in the other. I fear that is too much to expect. However, if she is anxious, she may try. I should like to know there was somebody near her she could rely on--don't you understand, Evelyn?--to see that she is situated and treated as you would like one of your own sisters to be.”
”I see what it is, Brand,” Lord Evelyn said, laughing, ”you are jealous of the foreigners. You think they will be using tooth-picks in her presence, and that kind of thing.”
”I wish to know that she and her mother are in a good hotel,” said Brand, simply, ”with proper rooms, and attendance, and--and a carriage: women can't go walking through these beastly streets of Naples. The long and short of it is, Evelyn,” he added, with some embarra.s.sment, as he took out from his pocket-book two blank checks, and sat down at the table and signed them, ”I want you to play the part of big brother to them, don't you know? And you will have to exercise skill as well as force. Don't you see, Calabressa is the best of fellows; but he would think nothing of taking them to stay in some vile restaurant, if the proprietor were politically inclined--”
”Yes, yes; I see: garlic; cigarettes during breakfast, right opposite the ladies; wine-gla.s.ses used as finger-gla.s.ses: well, you are a thorough Englishman, Brand!”
”I suppose, when your sisters go abroad, you see that they are directed to a proper hotel?” said Brand, somewhat angrily.
”I know this,” said Evelyn, laughing, ”that my sisters, and you, and Calabressa, and myself, all boiled together, wouldn't make half as good a traveller as Natalie Lind is. Don't you believe she has been led away into any slummy place, for the sake of politics or anything else. I will bet she knows the best hotels in Naples as well as you do the Waldegrave Club.”
”At any rate, you've got to play the big brother, Evelyn; and it is my affair, of course: I will not allow you to be out of pocket by it. Here are two checks; you can fill them in over there when you see how matters stand: ----, at Rome, will cash them.”
”Do you mean to say I have to pay their hotel-bills?”
”If they have plenty of money, certainly not; but you must find out. You must take the bull by the horns. It is far more likely that they have so little money that they may be becoming anxious. Then you must use a firm hand--I mean with Natalie. Her mother will acquiesce. And you can tell Natalie that if she would buy something--some dress, or something--for the mother of old Calabressa, who is still living--at Spezia, I think--she would make the old chap glad. And that would be a mark of my grat.i.tude also; you see, I have never had even the chance of thanking him as yet.”
Lord Evelyn rose.
”Very well,” said he, ”I will send you a report of my mission. How am I to find them?”
”You must find them through Calabressa,” he said, ”for I have not got their address. So you can start this evening?”
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