as george mulross demaine drifted down river in his cell that tuesday afternoon the 2nd of june, dolly sat blankly in downing street with the waters of despair at his lips.
evil breeds evil.
as he considered the gloomy prospect, new aspects of it rose before him. not only was he privately between these two fires, the sudden madness of the outgoing warden, the disappearance of his successor, but the retirement of charles repton had been publicly announced and dimmy’s nomination had appeared alongside with it in the morning papers. the double news was all over england.
yet another torturing thought suggested itself. how and when should he fill the vacancy? what was he to do?
repton was impossible. his disaster was not in the papers, thank god, and could not be, under the decent rules which govern our press. but it was already the chief tittle-tattle of every house that counted in london. there could be no interregnum with repton still nominally filling the place. he[170] might wait as long as he dared, give it to a third man, and then have demaine turn up smiling and hungry: and if that happened the prime minister would earn what he dreaded most on earth, the enmity of those who had been his friends; perhaps a breach with mary smith herself.
he was not fit to do more than survey the misfortune of the moment: he was still in his perplexity, when he heard the bell ringing in the next room, and was told that he himself was personally and urgently wanted upon the telephone.
he put up his hand but the secretary would take no denial; it was something absolutely personal. who was it from? it was from lady repton.
if it can be said of any wealthy and powerful man that he ever betrays in his features or gait a purely mental anxiety, then that might be said in some degree of the unfortunate prime minister at that moment. he suffered so acutely that his left lung, the sense of which never wholly left him, seemed to oppress him with actual physical pain.
he took the telephone, dreading what he might hear.
it was a trifle less of a blow than he had expected. all he heard was the agitated voice of lady repton assuring him that she had waited as long as possible before troubling him, but that she was now really anxious, because charles had not come home. had he gone in a taxi or a hansom, or how? it was more[171] than half an hour since the prime minister had telephoned her, and charles was always so regular.
it was perhaps weariness or perhaps a sense that he could do nothing which made the prime minister merely answer that he was sure to come in a moment.
“repton has been very busy to-day,” he said, “and has had a great deal on his mind. he has become a little unhinged: that is the whole truth, lady repton: nothing more. but i think he should be carefully nursed. pray do not be anxious.”
the words faltered a little, for he himself was more than anxious. heaven only knew what repton might not be capable of, until they had got him safe behind the four walls of his home.... and after that the doctors.
he stopped the conversation a little rudely, by taking advantage of a long pause to ring off. while he was in the act of doing so a servant asked him in the most natural manner in the world whether he would not see sir charles repton who was waiting below.
i grieve to record that the young and popular prime minister gave vent to the exclamation “good god!” for a moment he thought of refusing to see him; then he heard coming up through the distances of the official house a cheery voice saying:
“yes, it’s all very well for you, you’re a butler with a regular place; when the government goes out you[172] don’t. you’re a sort of permanent official. but we...!”
“show him up,” said the prime minister in a qualm, “show him up at once. at once!” he repeated, losing all dignity in his haste, and tempted to push the solemn form of the domestic who stalked upon his mission of doom as majestically as though he were about to announce a foreign ambassador, or to give notice.
in a moment charles repton had entered.
he had bought, during his brief odyssey, a gigantic easter lily in a bond street shop which sells such ornaments. this blossom flourished in the lapel of his coat and pervaded the whole room with its perfume.
“my dear fellow,” he shouted, running up to the horrified prime minister and taking him by both hands, “my dear fellow! come, no pride; you know as well as i do it’s all bunkum. why, i could buy and sell you any day of the week. it’s true,” he mused, “there’s birth of course, but it’s a fair bargain. birth gives you your place and brains give me mine. do you mind smoking?”
“yes,” said the prime minister, after which he said, “no,—i don’t know ... i don’t care. why didn’t you go home?”
“i didn’t go home,” said sir charles solemnly, and thinking what the reason was ... “didn’t ... go ... home, because—oh, i know, because i wanted to talk to you about that peerage.”
[173]“for god’s sake don’t talk so loud,” said dolly with real venom in his voice.
“all right then i won’t,” shouted sir charles, “though i really don’t see what there is to be ashamed of. you’re going to give me a peerage and i’m going to take one. you know as well as i do that you didn’t think i’d take one and i wasn’t quite sure myself. mind you, it’s free,” he added coarsely, “gratis, and for nothing.”
“my dear fellow,” said the unhappy premier,—
“oh yes, i know, that’s the double-ruff dodge. you won’t ask for anything, but old pottle will. and then when i come to you and complain you will say you know nothing about it. of course i shan’t pay! it’ll be no good asking me; but what i want is not to be pestered.”
the prime minister almost forced him down into the chair from which he had risen, and said again:
“do talk lower, repton. do remember for a moment where you are. no, certainly you shan’t be bothered.”
“what else was there?” continued sir charles genially, interrogating the ceiling and twiddling his thumbs. “there was something, i know,” he continued, looking sideways at the carpet.
he got up, walking slowly towards the door, and still murmuring: “there was something else, i know.” he touched his forehead with his hand, stood still a moment as if attempting to remember, then shook his head and said: “no, it’s no use. it[174] was something to do with some concession or other, but i’m not fit for business to-day.”
“repton,” said dolly in a tone which he rarely used and had never found ineffectual, “don’t say anything as you go out, don’t say anything to anybody. do get into a cab and go straight home. you promised me you would.”
“i’ll keep my promise,” said sir charles with fine candour, “i always do. see if i don’t. look here, to please you i’ll make him drive across the parade here under your windows. there!”
and he was true to his word. he did indeed dig the servant in the ribs as that functionary handed him his hat, his malacca cane and his gloves, he also wished to see if the butler could wrestle, and he winked a great wink at one of the footmen, but he said no word. he jumped into the cab that was waiting for him, and told the driver to go round by delahaye street onto the parade.
the prime minister was cautiously watching from a window to make sure that the new incubus upon his life was on its way to incarceration, when he found himself only too effectually assured: for he saw, leaning out of a hansom which was going at a great pace towards the mall, a distant figure waving its hat wildly and calling in tones that could be heard over the whole space of the parade:
“i’m keeping my word, dolly, i’m keeping my word!”
so went sir charles repton homeward, and a[175] settled darkness gathered and fell upon the premier’s heart.
sir charles did keep his word.
he drove straight to his house, enlivening the way by occasional whoops and shouting bits of secret information very valuable to investors, to sundry acquaintances whom he recognised upon the way. at one point (it was during a block at the top of st. james’s street) he insisted on getting out for a moment, seizing by the hand the dignified lord string who had advised the highest personages in matters of finance, and telling him with a comical grin that if he had bought meccas that day on behalf of the great he had been most imprudent, for there was an arab rising and the big viaduct was cut—the first misfortune that hitherto prosperous line had suffered.
near the marble arch a change came over him. he felt a sudden and violent pain behind the ears, and clapped his hands to the place. he did more: when the spasm was over he put up the little door and told the cabby; he made him a confidant; he told him the pain had been very severe.
the driver, who was not sympathetic, replied in an unsuitable manner, and they were in the midst of a violent quarrel when two or three minutes later the cabman, who was handicapped by having to conduct his vehicle through heavy traffic, drove up to the house.
lady repton was waiting near the door; she sent[176] out no servant, she came out to the cab herself, silenced the rising vocabulary of the driver with a most unexpected piece of gold, and tripped up again into the house.
sir charles was philosophising aloud upon the gold band round his umbrella, letting his domestics thoroughly understand the precise advantages and disadvantages of such an ornament, when she took him by the arm quite gently and began leading him upstairs.
meanwhile in downing street an indispensable secretary of the name of edward was hearing what he had to do.
edward had been at king’s, for his father had sent him there. from the treasury which he adorned he had been assumed by the prime minister, his father’s chief college friend, and given the position of private secretary; admirably did he fill its functions.
he was a silent welshman, descended from a short line of small squires, and he comprehended, in a manner not wholly natural to a man under thirty, the frailties of the human heart. the instructions he received from his chief, however, were of the simplest possible type, and called for the moment upon none of his exceptional powers.
there was to be no writing and no telephoning: he was to call upon bowker, because bowker had the largest specialist experience of nervous diseases in london, and therefore in the world.
[177]he was to come as from the reptons, and to give an appointment at repton’s house, telling the doctor that he should there find sir anthony poole. he was to go at once to sir anthony poole, whose general reputation stood higher than any other medical man’s, to approach him as from the reptons, to give him a similar appointment and to inform him that he would meet there dr. bowker. he was to tell them the whole sad truth, and beg for a certificate. the unfortunate gentleman could then be given the advantages of a complete rest cure.
he was next to go to lady repton’s at once, and ask her leave to call upon dr. bowker and sir anthony poole. she would give it: the prime minister had no doubt of that. he was to suggest to her the hour he had already named to those eminent men. that very evening sir charles would be certified a lunatic, and one load at least would be off the premier’s mind; and a load off his mind, remember, was a load off his lung, and consequently an extension of lease granted to a life invaluable to the state.
within three-quarters of an hour edward evans had done all these things. he had even cut matters so fine that the physicians were to call at seven, and lady repton would telephone the result—she dared trust no other agency.
so far as a man in acute anxiety can be satisfied, the young and popular prime minister was satisfied, but his left lung was at least one-half of his being as he went back again on his weary round to the house[178] of commons, and the other half of his being was fixed upon a contemplation of his fifty-fifth year.
at the door of sir charles repton’s house was drawn up an exceedingly neat brougham, and dr. bowker had entered.
a few moments later there walked up to it the tall strong frame of a man a trifle over-dressed but redeeming such extravagances by a splendidly strong old face, and he was sir anthony poole.
two things dominated the conceptions of sir anthony: the first the antiquity of his family, which was considerable; the second a healthy contempt for the vagaries of the modern physical science.
he was himself as learned in his profession as any man would care to be, but his common sense, he flattered himself, was far superior to his learning,—and he flattered himself with justice. he was a devout christian of some anglican persuasion; his family numbered thirteen sons and one daughter. his income was enormous. i should add that a knowledge of the world had taught him what real value lay behind men like sir charles repton, who had stood the strain of public life and had found it possible to do such great service to their country.
the mind of dr. bowker was dominated also by two considerations: the first a permanent irritation against the survival of those social forms which permitted men an advantage purely hereditary; the second a conviction, or rather a certitude, drawn[179] from clear thinking, that organisation and method could deal with the cloudy blunders of mere general knowledge as a machine can deal with dead matter, or as an army can deal with civilians.
dr. bowker’s birth was reputable and sound; his father had been a doctor before him in a country town, and an earnest preacher in the local chapel; his grandfather a sturdy miner, his great-grandfather a turnkey in nottingham gaol.
he was therefore of the middle rank of society; but after all, his social gospel such as it was weighed upon him less than his scientific creed. he did not think: he knew. what he did not know he did not pretend to know. for the rest he was always a little nervous and awkward in society, and preferred the communion of his books and an occasional spin upon a bicycle to the conversation of the rich.
i should add that he revered sir charles repton not only as all men of the world must revere a great statesman who has found it possible for many years of the strain of public life to be of service to his country, but also as a man of inestimable value in proving that the solid nonconformist stock could do in administration, when it chose to enter that sphere, what it had so triumphantly shown it could do in commerce.
the two men were shown into an enormous room on the ground floor where it was the custom of sir charles (in happier days!) to receive those whom he[180] feared or would inveigle. lady repton at once joined them.
she was agitated; it was even distressing to watch her agitation. she described to them the violent pain which her husband had suffered twice, first the yesterday evening just before dinner, next at this moment on driving up to his house in a cab. she described as best she could the situation of these spasms of suffering, and she more than hinted that she connected with them a novel and very astonishing demeanour on her husband’s part which (here she almost broke down) she hoped would justify them in ordering him if necessary with their fullest authority, to take a rest cure. she warned them that she had told him nothing; she had always heard it was wise in such cases. he thought they had come merely as advisers upon the pains he had felt behind the ear, but a few words of his conversation would be enough to convince them of that much graver matter.
she left them for a moment together, and went to prepare her husband. she was a woman of heroic endurance. her father had been in his time a god-fearing man, and had accumulated a small competence in the jute line.
dr. bowker, let it be remembered, was a specialist in nervous diseases. sir anthony poole, let it also be remembered, was not, but he was something infinitely better in his own estimation: he was a man[181] who had attended more distinguished people and with greater success than any other physician in london. dr. bowker’s word as a specialist could not be doubted. sir anthony poole had only to express an opinion upon a man’s health in any particular and that opinion became positive gospel to all who heard it.
the medical judgment of no two men given concurrently could carry greater weight. by an accident not infrequent in all professions, these two great men, though their rivalry was not strictly in the same field, each undervalued the scientific aptitude of the other. each would have gone to the stake for the corporate value of that small ring to which both belonged, but neither would admit the claim of the other to a special if undefined precedence.
on the rare occasions when they met, however, they observed all the courtesies of life, and on this occasion in the large ground-floor room of sir charles repton’s house, they sat, when lady repton had gone out, exchanging platitudes of a very attenuated, refined sort, in a tone worthy of their correct grooming and distinguished appearance. by a singular inadvertence they were summoned together.
“sir anthony,” said dr. bowker, bowing, smiling and making a motion with his hand towards the door.
“dr. bowker,” said sir anthony, copying the courteous inclination, and thus it was that sir[182] anthony poole had precedence, and first interrogated sir charles repton alone.
the conversation was brief. when sir charles had answered the first questions very simply, that he had two or three times in the last twenty-four hours felt shooting pains behind the ear, he began to speak in an animated way upon a number of things, and described a humorous incident he had recently witnessed in the strand with a vigour highly suspicious to so experienced a physician as sir anthony poole.
sir anthony asked him what he ate and drank, received very commonplace answers, and was twice assured by the baronet, whose wife had used that simple method to deceive him, that he had not for weeks felt any return of his old complaint, and that he only regretted that lady repton should have put sir anthony to the trouble of calling. he understood also that dr. bowker had been sent for.
“yes,” said sir anthony a little uneasily. “i really imagined that the matter would be rather worse than it seems to be. you know it is our custom sometimes to call in another....”
“yes i know,” said repton, with a slight smile, “it’s a pity you called in old bowker. i know he’s very good at nerves or aches or something, but he’s such an intolerable old stick. the fact is, sir anthony,” he said, fixing that eminent scientist with a keen look and slightly lowering his voice, “the fact is, dr. bowker isn’t quite a gentleman.”
[183]“you’re a little severe,” said sir anthony, smiling, “you’re a little severe, sir charles!”
“mind you,” added repton, “i don’t say anything against him in his professional capacity.”
“certainly not,” said sir anthony.
“but there are cases when a man’s manners do make a difference,—especially in your profession.”
sir anthony beamed. “well, sir charles,” he said, “i’m very glad to hear it’s no worse,”—and as sir anthony went out he muttered to himself: “no more mad than i am; but he mustn’t go talking like that about other people.” and the physician chuckled heartily.
dr. bowker’s introduction to, and private stay with, the patient was briefer even than had been sir anthony’s. he chose for his gambit the remark: “sir anthony poole has just seen you i believe, sir charles?”
“yes he has,” answered charles repton in a pleasant and genial tone, “yes he has, dr. bowker, though why,” he added, with a happy laugh, “i can’t conceive. after all, if i wanted a doctor for any reason i should naturally send to a specialist.”
when sir charles had answered the next few questions very simply, that he had two or three times in the last twenty-four hours felt shooting pains behind the ear, he then reverted to his praise of the specialist.
“if i had any nervous trouble, for instance, dr. bowker, i should send for you. if i had trouble with my tibia, i should send for felton.”
[184]dr. bowker nodded the most vigorous approval. it was evident that sir charles repton’s considerable if superficial learning was standing him in good stead.
“if i had trouble with my aural ducts i should send for durand, or,” he continued, in the tone of one who continues to illustrate a little pompously, “if my greater lymphatics were giving me trouble, pigge is the first name that would suggest itself.”
dr. bowker’s enthusiasm knew no bounds. “you are quite right, sir charles,” he said, “you are quite right.” he almost took the baronet’s hand in the warmth of his agreement. “if more men—i will not say of your distinction and position, but if more people—er—of what i may call the—er—directing brain of the nation, were of your opinion, it would be a good day for medicine.”
“now a man like poole,” went on charles repton nonchalantly, “what does he know, what can he know, about any particular trouble? and mind you, an educated man always knows in more or less general terms what his particular trouble is. why poole—well....” here sir charles ended with a pitying little smile.
“at any rate,” said dr. bowker, bursting with assent, “i understand the old trouble has not returned. and if it had, as you very well said, it would be felton’s job rather than mine. of course it has a nervous aspect; everything has, but every specialist has his own field.”
[185]and dr. bowker went out, communing with himself and deciding that the foolish anxiety of wives might be an excellent thing for the profession, but was hardly fair upon the purses of their husbands.
“well, sir anthony?” said dr. bowker as he entered the ground-floor room.
“well, dr. bowker?” said sir anthony with a responsive smile.
“i really don’t see why they sent for us,” said dr. bowker.
“i thoroughly agree,” said sir anthony poole.
“there’s nothing more to be done, i think?” said dr. bowker.
“nothing,” said sir anthony poole.
“shall we speak to lady repton?” said dr. bowker.
“we’ll write her,” said sir anthony poole.
they took leave of lady repton in a solemn and sympathetic manner, assuring her that it was better to give their impression in writing, and that she should receive it in the course of that evening. and having so fulfilled their mission, these two eminent men went off together with a better feeling between them than either would have thought possible an hour before.
“he is a singularly intelligent man,” said sir anthony poole as they parted at the door of dr. bowker’s club, “a singularly intelligent man. of course one would have expected it from his position,[186] but i did not know until to-day how really remarkably intelligent and cultivated he was.”
“i thoroughly agree with you,” said dr. bowker, taking his leave, “he is what i call....” he sought a moment for a word.... “he is what i call a really cultivated and intelligent man.”
that evening lady repton received a short but perfectly clear opinion signed by both these first-class authorities, that her husband was in the full possession of his faculties, and that it would be the height of imprudence to set down any extravagance of temper or momentary zeal upon any particular question to mental derangement or to connect it with a slight accidental headache.
lady repton in her grievous anxiety (for at the very moment she read the message she heard sir charles talking to a policeman out of a window, and telling him that it was ridiculous to try and look dignified in such a uniform), lady repton i say, at her wits’ end for advice, was bold enough to ring up the prime minister whom she hardly knew, and to tell him all: there was no chance of a certificate; what, oh what should she do?
the prime minister was not sympathetic. he did not desire further acquaintance with the lady.
the premier’s cup was full. his warden of the court of dowry had resigned: the new warden was appointed. the warden who had resigned had gone mad; the warden whom he had appointed had fled. at least—at least he might have been[187] spared the madman! but no, he was not granted even this! the madman was still loose over london like a roaring lion, capable of doing infinite things within the next twenty-four hours. what was a peerage to a madman? what was a wardenship of the court of dowry to a man who was not? the crumb of comfort that would have been afforded him by locking up the wretched lunatic who was the root of half his troubles was snatched from him.
it was enough to make a man cut his throat.
so ended that dreadful tuesday in downing street, and all night long between his fits of tortured and horror-stricken sleep wherein his left lung and his fifty-fifth year were the baleful demons of his dreams, the young and popular prime minister would wake in a cold sweat and imagine some new horror proceeding from repton let loose.
the summer night is short. wednesday most gloriously dawned, and after two hours of attempted slumber under the newly risen light, the prime minister arose, a haggard man.
the lines on either side of the young prime minister’s mouth had grown heavier during the suffering of the night.
had he been married and had his wife felt for him that affection which his character would surely have called forth she would have been anxious to observe the change. but such is the strain of political life and such the ambitions it arouses, that his suffering[188] passed unnoticed with the majority, and with the rest was a subject for secret congratulation.
he was down very early. before he had eaten he went rapidly and nervously into his secretary’s room and said:
“any news, edward?”
“yes,” said his secretary, looking if possible more nervous than his chief, “i’m sorry to say there is. the herald is advertising an interview with repton.”
“the herald!” said the prime minister between his set teeth.
“yes, the herald,” answered the secretary, “it really doesn’t much matter,” he continued wearily, (he had been up most of the night) “if it wasn’t the herald it would be somebody else.”
“we must pot ’em as they come,” answered the premier grimly, “and the herald won’t publish that interview at any rate.”
“yes, let them publish it,” said the secretary.... “i’ll write it if you like.”
“that’s what i mean,” said the prime minister. “i mean they won’t publish what people think they will.”
“no,” said evans, “they won’t.... he’s been shouting out of a window,” the secretary went on by way of news.
the prime minister groaned.
“what has he been shouting?” he breathed hoarsely.
“oh just insults, nothing important, but the police[189] have complained. and late last night he pointed out betswick, who was a little buffy, stumbling down the pavement—sitting down, some say—. he shouted from his window to a lot of people in the street that it was betswick. and now betswick is afraid of going to open the nurses’ home this afternoon.... it’s a damned shame!” ended the secretary, exploding. “what the devil are you to do with a man ... it’s like—it’s like—it’s like an anarchist with little packets of dynamite.”
“have you looked at the papers yet, edward?” asked the prime minister.
“some of ’em,” answered his secretary gloomily.
“nothing in the times?”
“oh no,” said edward, “nothing in any of the eleven london papers on the official list.”
“do you think the others count?”
“well,” answered the secretary thoughtfully, “there are the two evening papers that have been making such a fuss about the concessions in burmah.”
“edward,” said the prime minister, “it’s a desperate remedy, but take the paper you have here, write out a note and get them to lunch. not with me—with you. they’ll come.”
“lunch is no good,” said edward.
“why not?”
“evening papers go to press in the morning.”
“do they indeed?” said the prime minister, with the first lively glance he had delivered since the beginning of this terrible debacle. “that’s really[190] worth knowing! i never knew that.” he gazed into space, then suddenly waking up he said: “why then, edward, there’s no time to lose! go and see them at once. go and see them yourself, edward.”
“it isn’t much good,” said edward. “i know one of them, and the other’s dotty.”
“never mind,” said the prime minister, “never mind. do it somehow. kill ’em if you must,” he added jocosely, and his secretary went.
the premier left his secretary’s room and mournfully approached his breakfast.
upon his table a time-honoured device constructed of brass and wood was designed to hold the newspaper while the tenant of that historic house might be at meals. upon this was propped up, open at the leading page, a copy of the times. the leaders were discreet. he found no word from beginning to end, save a little note in small type to the effect that sir charles repton would be unable to speak at the great wycliffite congress, he was confined to the house with influenza; a similar note he was assured had appeared in all the eleven newspapers upon the official list, and through them would be distributed to the provincial press; the only thing left to the discretion of their editorial departments being the disease from which the distinguished patient might be suffering, which appeared in one as phlebitis, in another as tracheotomy, and in a third as a severe cold.
of demaine not a word.
[191]dolly thanked heaven for the discipline which makes the press of london the most powerful instrument of government in the world.
his thanks were premature; and the gentle, somewhat mournful atheism which was his only creed received excellent support when he saw among certain items of news which were laid upon his table every morning, two cuttings from foreign papers which told at great length and in the plainest details the whole story of the dreadful episode in the city, and connected it in so many words with the scandalous scene in the house of commons. he could only comfort himself by reflecting that news which leaked out abroad was rarely if ever permitted to enter the island. he reflected that time is a remedy for all evils, and he made ready for the duties of the day.
meanwhile his secretary, edward,—to give him his full title, teddy evans—had come to the first of the two offices which it was his business to visit. it was not yet nine o’clock and there was still time to cut on the machine.
at the treasury evans had written regularly for a large evening paper,—he knew his way about such an organism. he betrayed no undue haste, well knowing the subtle delight the menials would have before such a display of retarding his every effort, and when the fat man, mr. cerberus, who keeps the door of the capon offices, had pushed to him a dirty scrap of paper on which he was to write his name and[192] business, he quietly asked for an envelope as well. it was given him with some grumbling.
he wrote his message: “if you have begun machining, stop. i’ve been sent up here urgently.—e. e.”
he closed it, gummed it down, and waited. he had not ten seconds to wait. a young man who looked and was underfed, a gaunt tall young man with hair as long and as dank as the waving weeds of the sea, received him with immense solemnity. it was not often that affairs of state came his way. one such had come earlier in that very year. it had been the occasion of his lunching with the exalted individual who now sat before him, and he had never forgotten it.
“mr. evans,” he said rather pompously, lifting his left hand and fixing two large burning, feverish eyes upon the secretary, “this place is the confessional. anything you say shall be sacred ... absolutely sacred!”
but evans was cheery enough.
“it’s nothing of any importance,” he said, “but, well, i’m a great friend of the reptons.”
“i know,” said the editor sympathetically, which was odd, for evans only just knew the reptons’ address from having to write them letters, and the reptons only just knew the look of evans’ face from having once had to ask him to a dinner of an official sort.
“well,” went on evans unblushingly (how valuable are men of this kind!), “i am a great friend, especially[193] of dear old lady repton—through my mother,” he added in an explanatory tone, “but i won’t go into that. the point is this: the whole family are really dreadfully concerned.”
“i know, i know,” said the editor of the capon, still most sympathetic, and most grave.
“well,” said evans with affected ill-ease, “the fact is we don’t want anything said about it at all—nothing. that’s the simplest way, after all. it’s a great trouble. you really would do me a personal service, and they would be so grateful.”
“by all means,” said the editor of the capon. he turned to a speaking-tube upon his right and was about to pull out the whistle, when a violent blast blew that instrument at the end of its chain into his face. the editor expressed disgust, and when this expression was over, asked for the statement. the statement was brought.
“they’re waiting for the machine, sir.”
the editor ran his blue pencil down the list, made a little x against one item, and said: “bring me a proof of that, will you?”
a slip of proof came up: it was to the effect that sir charles repton was to speak at the wycliffite congress and from his candid and vigorous action of the day before, both in the house and outside it, it was hoped that his address would act as a clarion call in the present crisis of religion. (“and it would!” thought edward, all goose-flesh at the thought).
[194]“there’s no harm in that,” he said. then with sudden thought: “what’s the leader about?”
“the concessions,” said the editor of the capon, smiling.
“well,” said evans, “we don’t agree about that, do we?” and he smiled back.
“shall i leave general orders about repton items during the day?” said the editor.
“why yes,” said evans, and then remembering his little subterfuge he added: “don’t print anything unless it’s directly from the family. you understand me?”
“i understand,” said the editor. “riggles, the sub-editor will be in charge after this. i’m going home.”
he wrote in a large hand upon a large sheet of paper: “no repton items, not even press agency, except from the house itself. f. d.”—for his name was francis davis. “take that to mr. riggles,” he said to the devil, and the two men went out together.
well knowing that davis’ house lay in the extreme of the suburbs, and that he himself was going into the heart of fleet street, evans offered to give his companion a lift. to his disgust it was accepted, and he was constrained to drive the editor of the capon to st. paul’s station; it lost him ten minutes, and those ten minutes were nearly fatal. for when he had got back at full speed to the offices of the moon, the paper had gone to press. the machines[195] were shaking and thundering away in the basement, and mile after mile of diffused culture was pouring out in a cataract to feed the divine thirst for knowledge.
it seemed too late, but evans went boldly through it all the same. the editor was gone, but to the sub-editor he sent in his card and wrote upon it “from the prime minister.” it was a time needing heroic measures.
he asked to see an advance copy. the leader was repton—repton—repton, nothing but repton.... repton had given away the wickedness of modern finance; repton for purposes of his own was prepared to expose the mockery of our politics; repton would tell them the truth about the concessions; they had a promise of an interview with repton. what motives might have caused repton to act as he had done they could not determine. it was sufficient for them that repton, etc....
the leader had a title, and the title of the leader was repton. it had coined a new word: the word was “to reptonise,” upon the model of “to peptonise.” the moon threatened to reptonise the whole of our public life.
evans spent about thirty seconds looking at the floor.
“can they stop the machines, mr. price?” he asked, for price was the sub-editor’s name.
“yes,” said the sub-editor, “why?”
evans walked to the window and looked out[196] into the city street and said without showing his face:
“mr. price, your proprietor is a very valued member of our party.”
at the word “proprietor,” mr. price changed colour. yet evans had not meant the proprietor of mr. price, he had merely meant the proprietor of the moon.
“mr. price, i will tell you all” (and he told him more than all!). “your proprietor left for canada during the easter recess; he was taken ill in montreal; he is on his way back, and he will be home next week.”
mr. price nodded and at the same time inwardly admired the omniscience of the government.
“now, mr. price,” continued edward, still gazing at the street opposite, “there is the promise of a peerage. these things are hardly ever mentioned, and i tell it to you quite frankly. if that leader appears,”—turning round sharply—“the peerage will not be conferred, and your proprietor shall be told that that leader was the cause of it.”
“but, mr. evans,” began the sub-editor blankly.
evans was suddenly determined. it was astonishing to see the change in the man. his conduct and attitude would have seemed remarkable to the most indifferent observer: to one who knew that the proprietor of the moon had never been, until that moment, within five hundred miles of a peerage, it would have seemed amazing.
[197]“mr. price,” said evans rapidly and very clearly, “you are in a cleft stick. if you don’t print your present issue, if you must delay it, it will cost your proprietor a heavy sum directly and indirectly. i know that. but if you do print it will cost him no money, but....”
mr. price thought of the little home at peckham; of the three young prices, of mrs. price and of sundry affections that grow up in the most arid and most unexpected soils: he was in an agony as to which course would least destroy him: he made one last appeal:
“may i have it in writing?”
“certainly not!” said evans.
“very well, mr. evans,” said the sub-editor humbly, “i’ll stop the machines,” and with a heavy heart he rang the bell.
thus it was that the moon came out an hour later than usual, and that the leader dealt at so singular a moment with the pestilent vices of the king of bohemia, and with his gross maladministration of spitzbergen which it summoned to the bar of european opinion.
those who have wondered why edward, without previous training so soon after this incident was made a partner of the great bank he now adorns, would wonder less if they had been present at that interview.
the press was safe.
that the agencies were safe went of course without[198] saying. block a (as a group of eight papers owned by one man is familiarly called by permanent officials) had been squared, the day before. block b, another group of six owned by a friend of his, was for private reasons unable to publish news of this kind. the evening german wouldn’t dare, and the bird of freedom wouldn’t know. the press was safe so far as repton was concerned.
but what about demaine?
the herald had been informed pretty sharply that it was compelled for unavoidable reasons to postpone its interview with sir charles repton. the very paragraph had been written out by edward, and the herald had swallowed the pill.
but what about demaine?
that had got ahead of them, and there was nothing to do but to wait until demaine should be found. the very moment that he was found they could act and an explanation should be given that would soon cause the mystery to be forgotten. but a silence still surrounded that unlucky name.
nothing had been heard in the lobbies, nothing from scotland yard. finally, and more important, mary smith herself could tell dolly nothing, and if she could not, certainly no one else in london could.
she was really fond of her cousin, and for his sake she comforted, and, what was more important, restrained the imprudent sudie.
as for ole man benson, beyond a natural regret[199] that such an asset as a son-in-law in the cabinet was still held over as a contingent and that he could not for the moment close upon the option, he took the matter in a calm and philosophical spirit.
