SIR Within, accompanied by Grenfell, who was now become an
“indispensable” to him, left Dalradern for the Continent. The old man
neither knew nor cared what direction he should take. The consciousness
that any avowal of his love for Kate would but expose him to bitter
raillery and ridicule, debarred him from all the sympathy he so much
needed. Such a passion at his age was exactly one of those follies that
all concur to laugh at, and it is precisely in the class that this
old man pertained to, these dowagers of the world of statecraft, that
ridicule is most powerful. The man who deems a witty “mot” a triumph, is
just as ready to accept a severe epigram as a death-wound.
One would not have believed how a few days of sorrow could have aged
him. It was not alone that a stern melancholy sat on his features, but
that even his erect carriage and firm step had left him, and he walked
now with bent-down head feebly and uncertainly. Arrived at Paris,
Grenfell endeavoured to interest him by some of the pleasures of that
marvellous capital. He induced him to dine at the “Rocher,” and to drive
in the Bois; he narrated all the passing gossip of the day; told him the
scandals in vogue, and showed him the actors in them as they drove by on
the Boulevards; but it seemed as though all the world of these vanities
had closed for him, and he neither smiled nor vouchsafed a word as he
listened.
Once only did he betray the slightest animation of voice or manner;
it was when Grenfell pointed out to him in a carriage one of the great
beauties of the time. The old man looked fixedly for an instant at her,
and then, turning away his head, muttered, “_She_ is infinitely more
beautiful.”
Paris he soon discovered to be too noisy and too bustling. For
Switzerland, the season was already late, and the climate was severe.
Spain or Italy remained, and he was yet hesitating which to take, when
Grenfell mentioned that he saw Mr. M’Kinlay’s name amongst the arrivals
at the hotel, and, on inquiry, learned that he was on his way out to
Italy to see Vyner, and was to leave Paris that night.
“I think I should like to see Vyner too; that is, if he would receive
me,” said Sir Within, feebly. “Could you manage to catch this Mr.
M’Kinlay?”
“Shall we have him to dinner to-day?”
“No; I think not. I’m not equal to it.”
“Suppose you were to try. He’s not a person to make much ceremony with.
If he bores you, pretend indisposition, and leave him.”
The old man smiled--a strange, dubious sort of smile it was; perhaps it
amused him to receive a lesson in social craft or address from “a Mr.
George Grenfell.” At all events, Grenfell read the smile as a partial
concurrence with his suggestion, and went on:
“M’Kinlay would be flattered by the invitation; and, if you should want
him in any other way, he will be all the more tractable.”
“_That_ is certainly something,” replied he, musing.
“Not to say,” added Grenfell, laughing, “that we run no great risk in
being tired of him, since the mail leaves at ten, and he’ll scarcely
remain after nine!”
“That is also something,” said Sir Within again.
“Here goes, then, for a note; or stay, I’ll just see if he be in the
house. We shall say six o’clock dinner, and alone; these men abhor the
idea of dressing, if they can help it.”
Sir Within merely raised his eyebrows, half pitifully, that there were
such people; and Grenfell hastened away on his mission. He was back in
a moment. “Just caught him getting into a cab; he’ll be delighted--he
_was_ delighted when I gave him your message. He goes off to-night, as
the waiter said, and apparently full of important news. Vyner, it would
seem, has come all right. All he told me was: ‘Sir Gervais will be on
his legs again;’ but we’ll have it all after dinner.”
Sir Within heard the tidings with far less interest than Grenfell looked
for. He smiled benignly, indeed; he muttered something about being
“charmed to hear it;” and then heaved a heavy sigh and sat down with
his back to the light. How heartless and unfeeling did it seem to him
to have so much compassion for loss of mere fortune, and not one word
of sympathy for a broken and bereaved heart! What a world it was! What a
world of perverted feeling and misapplied generosity!
Grenfell said something about the epicurism of the lawyer class, and
went off to give special directions about the dinner; and the old man
dozed, and woke, and wandered on in thought over the past, and dozed
again, till his servant came to apprise him it was time to dress.
It was the first time he was to encounter the presence of a stranger
after some months of seclusion, and he shrank from the effort, and
would have retreated altogether if he could only have found a pretext.
Conventionalities are, however, the tyrants of such men as himself, and
the bare idea of anything unseemly in politeness was unendurable. He
suffered his valet, therefore, to restore him to something of his former
appearance. His eyebrows were newly tinted and well arched; his furrowed
cheeks were skilfully smoothed over and suffused with a soft, permanent
blush; and his whiskers were ingeniously brought into keeping with the
vigorous darkness of his raven wig, imparting to him altogether a sort
of surcharged vitality, that, to an acute observer, might have imparted
a sense little short of horror. The very brilliants of his rings caught
a twinkling lustre from his tremulous hands, as though to impress the
beholder with the contrast between splendour and decay.
Nor was his manner less unreal than his appearance. With his darkened
eyebrows and his diamond studs he had put on his old tone of soft
insinuation, and all that was natural in the Man was merged in the
crafty devices of the Minister. No wonder was it M’Kinlay was charmed
with a tone and address that had done service in Courts. Sir Within thus
“warmed to his work,” and actually at last began to feel pleasure in the
success he achieved; and even Grenfell, long trained to the habits of
the world, was astonished at conversational resources for which he had
never given him credit.
Thus happily did the dinner proceed; and when the servants retired,
M’Kinlay had arrived at that point of beatitude in which he regarded the
company as something superlatively high, and himself fully worthy of it.
“You are on your way to my old friend Vyner, I think?” said Sir Within,
with a heartiness that ignored all estrangement between them.
“Yes, Sir; on a pleasanter mission, I rejoice to say, than when I last
travelled the same road.”
“He is all right again, I hear,” said Grenfell, who meant, by an abrupt
declaration, to disarm all the conventional reserve of the lawyer.
“Well, that would be saying too much, perhaps--too much; but I hope, Mr.
Grenfell, he is on the way to it.”
“With M’Kinlay for his pilot, he’ll make the harbour, I have no doubt
whatever,” said Sir Within, smiling graciously.
“I shall certainly do my best, Sir,” said the other, bowing. “Not alone
because it is my duty, but that Sir Gervais has been good enough to
regard me, for many years back, in the light of his friend as well as
his lawyer.”
“Of that I am well aware,” said Sir Within, lifting his glass and
appearing to be quietly pledging Mr. M’Kinlay to himself as a toast.
“Has the scoundrel who ran away with his securities been caught?” asked
Grenfell, impatiently.
“No, Sir; he is beyond being caught--he is dead.” After a pause, which
Sir Within and Grenfell saw all the importance of not breaking but
leaving to M’Kinlay the task of continuing his narrative, that gentleman
went on: “It is quite a romance--positively a romance in real life. I’m
afraid,” said he, looking at his watch, “I shall not have time to tell
you the story in all its details. I must start by the ten-twenty train
for Lyons.”
“We are only a few minutes after eight now,” said Grenfell. “Let us
hear the story.”
“Even in outline,” chimed in Sir Within, blandly. “Pray help yourself to
the wine--it is beside you.”
“I can give you but a sketch--a mere sketch, Sir. It would seem, Sir,
that ever since the French conquest of Algeria, a French company has
been engaged in the supply of munitions of war to the Arabs, and to this
end had established agents at Tripoli, Tunis, and Morocco, who were thus
enabled to transport these supplies into the interior of Africa. The
director of this company was La Harpe, the Parisian banker, with whom
Sir Gervais became acquainted through Mr. Gennet, himself the owner of
many shares in the undertaking.”
Grenfell sighed drearily at the long-windedness which he saw awaited
them; but Sir Within looked intensely interested, and M’Kinlay went on,
and, with a prolixity that I have no desire to imitate, entered upon
the nature of this company, its operations, and its gains. With a
painstaking minuteness he described the false trade-marks used to
prevent discovery, and how the weapons, which were forged in France,
bore the stamp of Sheffield or Birmingham.
“Giving ‘La perfide Albion’ all the credit of the treachery,” said Sir
Within, smiling.
“Precisely, Sir,” said M’Kinlay, delighted at the attention so
graciously vouchsafed him. “I see you understand it all. Indeed, I may
remark here, that a very sharp interchange of notes took place between
the two Governments on the subject, the French alleging, and with
apparent reason----”
“Get on, in Heaven’s name, to what concerns Vyner,” cried Grenfell,
“or it only wants a quarter to nine, otherwise you’ll have to leave us
without the catastrophe.”
“I obey, Sir,” said M’Kinlay, with a certain irritation of voice at the
same time. “I must observe, you will find it very difficult to fill up
for yourselves the gaps you insist on my passing over. Mr. Gennet, then,
for it is of him you wish me to speak, very soon perceiving that Sir
Gervais Vyner was not a man to be drawn into such an illicit traffic,
assumed to have obtained from the Bey of Tunis and others most valuable
concessions to mines of various kinds, and by specimens of ore, reports
of scientific mineralogists, and such-like, imposed on him so far as to
induce him to enter largely into the speculation, not at all aware that
every shilling he advanced was directed to the great enterprise of La
Harpe and Company. It was not a very difficult task for an accomplished
swindler like Gennet to show that the mines, which had no existence, had
proved a failure. Indeed, the disastrous issue of the enterprise was so
plausibly described, and the affairs were wound up with such apparent
fairness, that it was no wonder if poor Sir Gervais actually pitied
Gennet, and went so far as to beg he might not be molested. I assure
you, Sir, I have a letter in my desk that says----”
“Nine o’clock!” solemnly ejaculated Grenfell, as the hour rang out from
a neighbouring steeple.
“I hear it, Sir, and regret much that my time should be so limited;
but to resume. So soon as Gennet had established the fact of the mock
bankruptcy, he fled from Europe, and it was believed took refuge in
America, where he had lived many years as partner in a mercantile
house--the firm of Reay, Pate, and Brothers, Forty-sixth-street, New
York, large shipowners, and importers on their own account. I feel I am
prolix, Mr. Grenfell, even without the admonition of that painful sigh.
But really, gentlemen, I am merely selecting the salient points of a
very complicated incident, and not entering upon any but the strictly
essential details.”
Sir Within assured him he felt an unbounded confidence in his
discretion, and he resumed:
“There chanced to be in the employ of that firm a merchant captain named
Dodge, a man of remarkable energy of character and great daring; and
here I may mention, as a curious circumstance, that I once happened by a
singular coincidence to meet with this man, and be his fellow-traveller,
under no common circumstances.”
“I believe I can recal them,” said Sir Within. “I was the guest of my
friend Sir Gervais on the night you told a very remarkable story, in
which this man’s name occurred. The name was a strange one, and it held
a place in my memory. If I mistake not, you crossed over to the Arran
Islands in his company?”
“I am much flattered to find, Sir Within, that you remember the
incident, though I see how trying it proves to Mr. Grenfell’s patience.”
“Not in the least, if you will only consent to start by the morning’s
train instead of to-night’s. Do that, and you will find you never had a
more patient nor more interested listener.”
“Perfectly impossible, Sir. I have timed the whole journey by Bradshaw;
and to catch the mail-boat--the _Queen Hortense_--at Marseilles, on
Saturday, I must arrive by the early train, and there is the half-hour
now chiming. I trust Sir Within Wardle will forgive my abrupt
leave-taking. One more glass of this excellent claret, and I am off.”
“Pray give my very kindest regards to Sir Gervais, and my most
respectful homage to the ladies. Though I am not permitted to learn
how the good fortune came, let me, I beg, be associated with every
congratulation the event inspires.” And with this Frenchified expression
of his satisfaction, the old diplomatist drew himself up like one who
felt that he stood once more on his native heath.
So wrapt up was he, indeed, in this revival of an old part he had so
long played with success, that he never noticed how Grenfell had left
the room along with M’Kinlay, and he sat gazing at the fire and thinking
over bygones. Nor was he aware how time flitted past, when Grenfell
returned and took his place opposite him.
“I was determined to have all I could get out of him,” said Grenfell.
“I jumped into the cab with him, and went to the railroad station. What
between his dreary tiresomeness and the street noises as we rattled
along, I gained very little; but this much I have learned: That the man
Gennet, who had once, as the lawyers call it, ‘compassed’ the life of
Dodge, by sending him to sea in a rotten vessel, immensely insured, and
predestined to shipwreck, was recognised by this same skipper in the
street at Tripoli. Dodge, it seems, had just been landed with one other
survivor of his crew, having blown up his vessel to prevent its falling
into the hands of some Riff pirates, and after unheard-of peril and
sufferings was picked up at sea with his companion, both badly wounded
by the explosion, though they had thrown themselves into the sea before
the vessel blew up. All I could do would not hurry M’Kinlay over this
part of the story, which I believe he imagined he told effectively, and
I had only got him to Tripoli as we drove into the yard of the station.
While higgling with the cabman and the porters, he stammered out
something about Dodge standing at his Consul’s door as Gennet rode past
with a large suite of Arab followers; that the skipper sprang upon him
like a tiger and tore him from his horse. A dreadful struggle must have
ensued, for Gennet died of his wounds that night, and Dodge was nearly
cut to pieces by the guard, his life being saved by the desperate
bravery of his friend, who was at last rescued by the members of the
Consulate. The bell rang as we arrived at this critical moment, but I
followed him to his compartment, and, at the risk of being carried off,
sat down beside him. The miserable proser wanted to involve me in an
account of the criminal law of Tripoli when any one holding office under
the Bey should have been the victim of attack, but I swore I knew it
perfectly, and asked what about Gennet? He then began to narrate how
the French Consul, having intervened to defend the interests of his
countryman, discovered the whole plot against France, found all
the details of the purchase of war materials, bills of lading, and
such-like: and, besides these, masses of Vyner’s acceptances, which had
never been negotiated. Another--the last--bell now rang out, and as I
sprang from my seat he leaned out of the window, and said: ‘Dodge, it is
thought, will recover; his friend is now with Sir Gervais, at Chiavari,
and turns out to be Luttrell, the young fellow whom we picked up----’
When, where, or how, I cannot say, for the train now moved on, and the
tiresome old dog was carried off at a very different pace from that of
his narrative.”
Sir Within listened with all the semblance of interest and attention.
Once or twice he interjected an “Ah!” or, “How strange!” But it is only
truthful to own that he paid very little real attention to the story,
and could not well have said at the end whether Dodge was not the
villain of the piece, and young Luttrell his guilty accomplice.
Very grateful was he, however, when it ended, and when Grenfell said, “I
suppose Vyner has had enough of speculation now to last his lifetime.”
“I trust so sincerely,” said Sir Within, with a smile.
“It is such rank folly for a man to adventure into a career of which he
knows nothing, and take up as his associates a set of men totally unlike
any he has ever lived with.”
“I perfectly agree with you,” said the other, with an urbane bow. “You
have admirably expressed the sentiment I experience at this moment; and
even with my brief opportunity of arriving at a judgment, I am free
to confess that I thought this gentleman who has just left us, Mr.
M’Kinlay, I think he is called--a very dangerous man--a most dangerous
man.”
Grenfell looked at him, and fortunate was it that Sir Within did not
note that look, so full was it of pitiless contempt; and then rising, he
said, “It is later than I thought. You said something about Versailles
for to-morrow, didn’t you?”
“I have not heard whether his Majesty will receive me.”
Grenfell started, and stared at him. Had it come to this already? Was
the mind gone and the intellect shattered?
“You spoke of a day in the country somewhere,” reiterated Grenfell “St.
Germains, or Versailles.”
“Very true. I am most grateful for your reminder. It will be charming. I
am quite in the humour for a few pleasant people, and I hope the weather
will favour us.”
“Good-night,” said Grenfell abruptly, and left the room.