Robert Pateley was a journalist, and a successful man. Some people
succeed in life because they have certain qualities which enlist the
sympathy and co-operation of their fellow-creatures; others, without
such qualities, yet succeed by having a dogged determination and power
of push which make them independent of that sympathy and co-operation.
Robert Pateley was one of the latter. When he was discussed by two
people who felt they ought to like him, they said to one another, "What
is it about Pateley that puts people off, I wonder? Why can't one like
him more?" and then they would think it over and come to no conclusion.
Perhaps it was that his journalism was of the very newest kind. He was
certainly extremely able, although his somewhat boisterous personality
and entirely non-committal conversation did not give at the first
meeting with him the impression of his being the sagacious and
keen-witted politician that he really was. Was it his laugh that people
disliked? Was it his voice? It could not have been his intelligence,
which was excellent, nor yet his moral character, which was blameless.
In fact, in a quiet way, Pateley had been a hero, for he had been left,
through his father's mismanagement of the family affairs, with two
sisters absolutely on his hands, and he had never, since undertaking the
whole charge of them, for one instant put his own welfare, advancement
or interest before theirs. Absorbed in his resolute purpose, he had
coolness of head and determination enough to govern his ambitions
instead of letting himself be governed by them. The son of a solicitor
in a country town, he had made up his mind that, as he put it to
himself, he would be "somebody" some day. He had got to the top of the
local grammar school, and tasted the delights of success, and he
determined that he would continue them in a larger sphere. It is not
always easy to draw the line between conspicuousness and distinction.
Pateley, who went along the path of life like a metaphorical
fire-engine, had very early become conspicuous; he had gone steadily on,
calling to his fellow-creatures to get out of his way, until now, as
steerer of the _Arbiter_, a dashing little paper that under his guidance
had made a sudden leap into fame and influence, he was a personage to be
reckoned with, and it was evident enough in his bearing that he was
conscious of the fact.
Such was the person who, almost as his name was on Sir William Gore's
lips, came cheerfully, loudly, briskly into the room, including
everybody in the heartiest of greetings, stepping at once into the
foreground of the picture, and filling it up.
"Did I hear you say that you would like to see my face, Gore? How very
polite of you! most gratifying!" he said with a loud laugh, which seemed
to correspond to his big and burly person.
"You did," said Sir William. "Wentworth says you know everything about
photography."
"Ah! now, that," said Pateley, galvanised into real eagerness and
interest as he turned round after shaking hands with Lady Gore, "I
really do know at this moment, as I have just come from the Photographic
Exhibition."
"Oh!" said Miss Tarlton with an irrepressible cry, the ordinary
conventions of society abrogated by the enormous importance of the
information which she felt was coming.
"Let me introduce you to Miss Tarlton," said Sir William. Miss Tarlton
bowed quickly, and then proceeded at once to business.
"Do you know the name of a quite tiny camera?" she said; "the very
newest?"
"I do," said Pateley. "It is the 'Viator,' and I have just seen it." A
sort of audible murmur of relief ran through the company at this burning
question having been answered at last. "And it is only by a special
grace of Providence," Pateley went on, "assisted by my high principles,
that that machine is not in my pocket at this moment."
"Oh! I wish it were!" said Miss Tarlton.
"I'm afraid it may be before many days are over," said Pateley. "I
never saw anything so perfect. And do you know, it takes a snapshot in a
room even just as well as in the open air. If I had it in my hand I
could snap any one of you here, at this moment, almost without your
knowing anything about it."
"I am so glad you haven't," Lady Gore couldn't help ejaculating.
"The man who was showing it took one of me as I turned to look at it. It
is perfectly wonderful."
"And that in a room?" Miss Tarlton said, more and more awestruck. "And
simply a snapshot, not a time exposure at all?"
"Precisely," Pateley said.
"I shall go and see it," Miss Tarlton said, and, notebook in hand, she
continued with a businesslike air to write down the particulars
communicated by Pateley.
"I am quite out of my depth," Lady Gore said to Wentworth. "What does a
'time exposure' mean?"
"Heaven knows," said Wentworth. "Something about seconds and things, I
suppose."
"I can never judge of how many seconds a thing takes," said Lady Gore.
"I'm sure I can't," Wentworth replied. "The other day I thought we had
been three-quarters of an hour in a tunnel and we had only been two
minutes and a half."
"Now then," Pateley said with a satisfied air, turning to Sir William,
"I have cheered Miss Tarlton on to a piece of extravagance." Sir
William felt a distinct sense of pleasure. "I have persuaded her to buy
a new machine."
"The thing that amuses me," said Sir William with some scorn, having
apparently forgotten which of his pet aversions had been the subject of
the conversation, "is people's theory that when once you have bought a
bicycle it costs you nothing afterwards."
"It is not a bicycle, Sir William, it is a camera," said Miss Tarlton,
with some asperity.
"Oh, well, it is the same thing," Sir William said.
"_The same thing?_" Miss Tarlton repeated, with the accent of one who
feels an immeasurable mental gulf between herself and her interlocutor.
"As to results, I mean," he said. Arrived at this point Miss Tarlton
felt she need no longer listen, she simply noted with pitying tolerance
the random utterance. "A camera costs very nearly as much to keep as a
horse, what with films and bottles of stuff, and all the other
accessories. And as for a bicycle, I am quite sure that you have to
count as much for mending it as you do for a horse's keep."
"The really expensive thing, though, is a motor," said Wentworth. "Lots
of men nowadays don't marry because they can't afford to keep a wife as
well as a motor."
Rendel, who was standing by Rachel's side at the tea-table, caught this
sentence. He looked up at her with a smile. She blushed.
"I have no intention of keeping a motor," he said. Rachel said nothing.
"Are you very angry with me?" Rendel said.
"I am not sure," she answered. "I think I am."
"You mustn't be--after saving my life, too, this morning, in the boat."
"Saving your life?" said Rachel, surprised.
"Yes," Rendel said. "By not steering me into any of the things we met on
the Thames."
"Oh!" said Rachel, smiling, "I am afraid even that was more your doing
than mine, as you kept calling out to me which string to pull."
"Perhaps. But the extraordinary thing was that when you were told you
did pull it," said Rendel.
"Oh, any one can do that," replied Rachel.
"I beg your pardon, it is not so simple," Rendel answered, thinking to
himself, though he had the good sense at that moment not to formulate
it, what an adorable quality it would be in a wife that she should
always pull exactly the string she was told to pull.
"I've been asking Sir William if I may come and speak to him...." he
said in a lower tone. "He said I might." Rachel was silent. "You don't
mind, do you?" he said, looking at her anxiously.
"I--I--don't know," Rachel said. "I feel as if I were not sure about
anything--you have done it all so quickly--I can't realise----"
"Yes," he said penitently, "I have done it all very quickly, I know, but
I won't hurry you to give me any answer. My chief's going away
to-morrow for ten days, and I am afraid I must go too, but may I come as
soon as I am back again?"
"Yes," said Rachel shyly.
"And perhaps by that time," he said, "you will know the answer. Do you
think you will?" Rachel looked at him as her hand lay in his.
"Yes, by that time I shall know," she said.
As Rendel went out a few minutes later he was dimly conscious of meeting
an agitated little figure which hurried past him into the room. Miss
Judd was a lady who contrived to reduce as many of her fellow-creatures
to a state of mild exasperation during the day as any female enthusiast
in London, by her constant haste to overtake her manifold duties towards
the human race. Those duties were still further complicated by the fact
that she had a special gift for forgetting more things in one afternoon
than most people are capable of remembering in a week.
"My dear Jane, how do you do?" said Lady Gore. "We have not seen you for
an age."
"No, Cousin Elinor, no," said Miss Judd, who always spoke in little
gasps as if she had run all the way from her last stopping-place. "I
have been so frightfully busy. Oh, thank you, William, thank you; but do
you know, that tea looks dreadfully strong. In fact, I think I had
really better not have any. I wonder if I might have some hot water
instead? Thank you so much. Thank you, dear Rachel--simply water,
nothing else."
"That doesn't sound a very reviving beverage," said Lady Gore.
"Oh, but it is, I assure you," said Miss Judd. "It is wonderful. And,
you see, I had tea for luncheon, and I don't like to have it too often."
"Tea for luncheon?" said Sir William.
"Yes, at an Aerated Bread place," she replied, "near Victoria. I have
been leaving the canvassing papers for the School Board election, and I
had not time to go home."
"What it is to be such a pillar of the country!" said Lady Gore
laughing.
"You may laugh, Cousin Elinor," Miss Judd said, drinking her hot water
in quick, hurried sips, "but I assure you it is very hard work. You see,
whatever the question is that I am canvassing for, I always feel bound
to explain it to the voters at every place I go to, for fear they should
vote the wrong way: and sometimes that is very hard work. At the last
General Election, for instance, I lunched off buns and tea for a
fortnight."
"Good Lord!" said Sir William to Pateley as they stood a little apart.
"Imagine public opinion being expounded by people who lunch off buns!"
"And the awful thing, do you know," said Pateley laughing, "is that I
believe those people do make a difference."
"It is horrible to reflect upon," said Sir William.
"By the way," said Pateley, with a laugh, "your side is going in for the
sex too, I see. Is it true that you are going to have a Women's Peace
Crusade?"
"Yes," said Sir William with an expression of disgust, "I believe that
it is so. _My_ womenkind are not going to have anything to do with it, I
am thankful to say."
"Oh, yes, I saw about that Crusade," said Wentworth, joining them, "in
the _Torch_."
"Don't believe too firmly what the _Torch_ says--or indeed any
newspaper--ha, ha!" said Pateley.
"I should be glad not to believe all that I see in the _Arbiter_, this
morning," Sir William said. "Upon my word, Pateley, that paper of yours
is becoming incendiary."
"I don't know that we are being particularly incendiary," said Pateley,
with the comfortable air of one disposing of the subject. "It is only
that the world is rather inflammable at this moment."
"Well, we have had conflagrations enough at the present," said Sir
William. "We want the country to quiet down a bit."
"Oh! it will do that all in good time," said Pateley. "I am bound to say
things are rather jumpy just now. By the way, Sir William, I wonder if
you know of any investment you could recommend?"
Wentworth discreetly turned away and strolled back to Lady Gore's sofa.
"I rather want to know of a good thing for my two sisters who are living
together at Lowbridge. I have got a modest sum to invest that my father
left them, and I should like to put it into something that is pretty
certain, but, if possible, that will give them more than 2-1/2 per
cent."
"Why," said Sir William, "I believe I may know of the very thing. Only
it is a dead secret as yet."
"Hullo!" said Pateley, pricking up his ears. "That sounds promising. For
how long?"
"Just for the moment," said Sir William. "But of necessity the whole
world must know of it before very long."
"Well, if it really is a good thing let us have a day or two's start,"
said Pateley laughing.
"All right, you shall," said Sir William. "You shall hear from me in a
day or two."