'IF I WERE TO ASK YOU?'
It is needless to say that Hamilton had never sent any telegram asking
the Dictator to meet him on the bridge in St. James's Park or anywhere
else at eleven o'clock at night. Hamilton at first was disposed to find
fault with the letting loose of the supposed assassin, and was at all
events much in favour of giving information at Scotland Yard and putting
the police authorities on the look-out for some plot. But the opinion of
the Dictator was clear and fixed, and Hamilton naturally yielded to it.
Ericson was quite prepared to believe that some plot was expanding, but
he was convinced that it would be better to allow it to expand. The one
great thing was to find out who were the movers in the plot. If the
London Sicilian really were a hired assassin, it was clear that he was
thrown out merely as a skirmisher in the hope that he might succeed in
doing the work at once, and the secure conviction that if he failed he
could be abandoned to his fate. It was the crude form of an attempt at
political assassination. A wild outcry on the part of the Dictator's
friends would, he felt convinced, have no better effect than to put his
enemies prematurely on their guard, and inspire them to plan something
very subtle and dangerous. Or if, then, their hate did not take so
serious a form, the Dictator reasoned that they were not particularly
dangerous. So he insisted on lying low, and quietly seeing what would
come of it. He was not now disposed to underrate the danger, but he felt
convinced that the worst possible course for him would be to proclaim
the danger too soon.
Therefore, Ericson insisted that the story of the bridge and the
Sicilian knife must be kept an absolute secret for the present at least,
and the help of Scotland Yard must not be invoked. Of course, it was
clear even to Hamilton that there was no evidence against the supposed
Sicilian which would warrant any magistrate in committing him for trial
on a charge of attempted assassination. There was conjectural
probability enough; but men are not sent for trial in this country on
charges of conjectural probability. The fact of the false telegram
having been sent was the only thing which made it clear that behind the
Sicilian there were conspirators of a more educated and formidable
character. The Sicilian never could have sent that telegram; would not
be likely to know anything about Hamilton. Hamilton in the end became
satisfied that the Dictator was right, and that it would be better to
keep a keen look-out and let the plot develop itself. The most absolute
reliance could be put on the silence of the Sarrasins; and better
look-out could hardly be kept than the look-out of that brave and
quick-witted pair of watchers. Therefore Ericson told Hamilton he meant
to sleep in spite of thunder.
The very day after the scene on the bridge the Dictator got an imperious
little note from Helena asking him to come to see her at once, as she
had something to say to him. He had been thinking of her--he had been
occupying himself in an odd sort of way with the conviction, the memory,
that if the supposed assassin had only been equal to his work, the last
thought on earth of the Dictator would have been given to Helena
Langley. It did not occur to the Dictator, in his quiet, unegotistic
nature, to think of what Helena Langley would have given to know that
her name in such a crisis would have been on his dying lips.
Ericson himself did not think of the matter in that sentimental and
impassioned way. He was only studying in his mind the curious fact that
he certainly was thinking about Helena Langley as he stood on the bridge
and looked on the water; and that, if the knife of the ladies'
slipper-maker had done its business promptly, the last thought in his
mind, the last feeling in his heart, would have been given not to Gloria
but to Helena Langley.
He was welcomed and ushered by To-to. When the footman had announced
him, Helena sprang up from her sofa and ran to meet him.
'I sent for you,' she said, almost breathlessly, 'because I have a
favour to ask of you! Will you promise me, as all gallants did in the
old days--will you promise me before I ask it, that you will grant it?'
'The knights in the old days had wonderful auxiliaries. They had magical
spells, and sorceresses, and wizards--and we have only our poor selves.
Suppose I were not able to grant the favour you ask of me?'
'Oh, but, if that were so, I never should ask it. It is entirely and
absolutely in your power to say yes or no.'
'To say--and then to do.'
'Yes, of course--to say and then to do.'
'Well, then, of course,' he said, with a smile, 'I shall say yes.'
'Thank you,' she replied fervently; 'it's only this--that you will take
some care of yourself--take,' and she hesitated, and almost shuddered,
'some care of your--life.'
For a moment he thought that she had heard of the adventure in St.
James's Park, and he was displeased.
'Is my life threatened?' he asked.
'My father thinks it is. He has had some information. There are people
in Gloria who hate you--bad and corrupt and wicked people. My father
thinks you ought to take some care of yourself, for the sake of the
cause that is so dear to you, and for the sake of some friends who care
for you, and who, I hope, are dear to you too.' Her voice trembled, but
she bore up splendidly.
'I love my friends,' the Dictator said quietly, 'and I would do much for
their sake--or merely to please them. But tell me, what can I do?'
'Be on the look-out for enemies, don't go about alone--at all events at
night--don't go about unarmed. My father is sure attempts will be made.'
These words were a relief to Ericson. They showed at least that she did
not suppose any attempt had yet been, made. This was satisfactory. The
secret to which he attached so much importance had been kept.
'It is of no use,' the Dictator said. 'In this sort of business a man
has got to take his life in his hand. Precautions are pretty well
useless. In nine cases out of ten the assassin--I mean the fellow who
wants to be an assassin and tries to be an assassin--is a mere
mountebank, who might be safely allowed to shoot at you or stab at you
as long as he likes and no harm done. Why? Because the creature is
nervous, and afraid to risk his own life. Get the man who wants to kill
you, and does not care about his own life--is willing and ready to die
the instant after he has killed you--and from a man like that you can't
preserve your life.'
Helena shuddered. 'It is terrible,' she said.
'Dear Miss Langley, it is not more terrible than a score of chances in
life which young ladies run without the slightest sense of alarm. Why
you, in your working among the poor, run the danger of scarlet fever and
small-pox every other day in your life, and you never think about it.
How many public men have died by the assassin's hand in my days? Abraham
Lincoln, Marshal Prim, President Garfield, Lord Frederick Cavendish--two
or three more; and how many young ladies have died of scarlet fever?'
'But one can't take any precautions against scarlet fever--except to
keep away from where it may be, and not to do what one must feel to be a
duty.'
'Exactly,' he said eagerly; 'there is where it is.'
'You can't,' she urged, 'have police protection against typhus or
small-pox.'
'Nor against assassination,' he said gravely. 'At least, not against the
only sort of assassins who are in the least degree dangerous. I want you
to understand this quite clearly,' he said, turning to her suddenly with
an earnestness which had something tender in it. 'I want you to know
that I am not rash or foolhardy or careless about my own life. I have
only too much reason for wanting to live--aye, even for clinging to
life! But, as a matter of calculation, there is no precaution to be
taken in such a case which can be of the slightest value as a genuine
protection. An enemy determined enough will get at you in your bedroom
as you sleep some night--you can't have a cordon of police around your
door. Even if you did have a police cordon round you when you took your
walks abroad, it wouldn't be of the slightest use against the bullet of
the assassin firing from the garret window.'
'This is appalling,' Helena said, turning pale. 'I now understand why
some women have such a horror of anything like political strife. I
wonder if I should lose courage if someone in whom I was interested were
in serious danger?'
'You would never lose your courage,' the Dictator said firmly. 'You
would fear nothing so much as that those you cared for should not prove
themselves equal to the duty imposed upon them.'
'I used to think so once,' she said. 'I begin to be afraid about myself
now.'
'Well, in this case,' he interposed quickly, 'there does not seem to be
any real apprehension of danger. I am afraid,' he added, with a certain
bitterness, 'my enemies in Gloria do not regard me as so very formidable
a personage as to make it worth their while to pay for the cost of my
assassination. I don't fancy they are looking out for my speedy return
to Gloria.'
'My father's news is different. He hears that your party is growing in
Gloria every day, and that the people in power are making themselves
every day more and more odious to the country.'
'That they are likely enough to do,' he said, with a bright look coming
into his eyes, 'and that is one reason why I am quite determined not to
precipitate matters. We can't afford to have revolution after
revolution in a poor and struggling place like Gloria, and so I want
these people to give the full measure of their incapacity and their
baseness so that when they fall they may fall like Lucifer! Hamilton
would be rather for rushing things--I am not.'
'Do you keep in touch with Gloria?' Helena asked almost timidly. She had
lately grown rather shy of asking him questions on political matters, or
of seeming to assume any right to be in his confidence. All the
impulsive courage which she used to have in the days when their
acquaintanceship was but new and slight seemed to have deserted her now
that they were such close and recognised friends, and that random report
occasionally gave them out as engaged lovers.
'Oh, yes,' he answered; 'I thought you knew--I fancied I had told you. I
have constant information from friends on whom I can absolutely rely--in
Gloria.'
'Do they know what your enemies are doing?'
'Yes, I should think they would get to know,' he said with a smile, 'as
far as anything can be known.'
'Would they be likely to know,' she asked again in a timid tone, 'if any
plot were being got up against you?'
'Any plot for my murder?'
'Yes!' Her voice sank to a whisper--she hardly dared to put the
possibility into words. The fear which we allow to occupy our thoughts
seems sometimes too fearful to be put into words. It appears as if by
spoken utterance we conjure up the danger.
'Some hint of the kind might be got,' he said hesitatingly. 'Our enemies
are very crafty, but these things often leak out. Someone loses courage
and asks for advice--or confides to his wife, and she takes fright and
goes for counsel to somebody else. Then two words of a telegram across
the ocean would put me on my guard.'
'If you should get such a message, will you--tell _me_?'
'Oh, yes, certainly,' he said carelessly, 'I can promise you that.'
'And will you promise me one thing more--will you promise to be
careful?'
'What _is_ being careful? How can one take care, not knowing where or
whence the danger threatens?'
'But you need not go out alone, at night.'
'You have no idea how great a delight it is for me to go about London at
night. Then I am quite free--of politicians, interviewers, gossiping
people, society ladies, and all the rest. I am master of myself, and I
am myself again.'
'Still, if your friends ask you----'
'Some of my friends have asked me.'
'And you did not comply?'
'No; I did not think there was any necessity for complying.'
'But if _I_ were to ask you?' She laid her hand gently, lightly,
timidly, on his.
'Ah, well, if _you_ were to ask me, that would be quite a different
thing.'
'Then I do ask you,' she exclaimed, almost joyously.
He smiled a bright, half-sad smile upon the kindly, eager girl.
'Well, I promise not to go out alone at night in London until you
release me from my vow. It is not much to do this to please you, Miss
Langley--you have been so kind to me. I am really glad to have it in my
power to do anything to please you.'
'You have pleased me much, yet I feel penitent too.'
'Penitent for what?'
'For having deprived you of these lonely midnight walks which you seem
to love so much.'
'I shall love still more the thought of giving anything up to please
you.'
'Thank you,' she said gravely--and that was all she said. She began to
be afraid that she had shown her hand too much. She began to wonder what
he was thinking of her--whether he thought her too free spoken--too
forward--whether he had any suspicion of her feelings towards him. His
manner, too, had always been friendly, gentle, tender even; but it was
the manner of a man who apparently considered all suspicion of
love-making to be wholly out of the question. This very fact had made
her incautious, she thought. If any serious personal danger ever should
threaten him, how should she be able to keep her real feelings a secret
from him? Were they, she asked herself in pain and with flushing face, a
secret even now? After to-day could he fail to know--could he at all
events fail to guess?
Did the Dictator know--did he guess--that the girl was in love with him?
The Dictator did not know and did not guess. The frankness of her
manners had completely led him astray. The way in which she rendered him
open homage deceived him wholly as to her feelings. He knew that she
liked his companionship--of that he could have no doubt--he knew that
she was by nature a hero-worshipper and that he was just now her hero.
But he never for a moment imagined that the girl was in love with him.
After a little while he would go away--to Gloria, most likely--and she
would soon find some other hero, and one day he would read in the papers
that the daughter of Sir Rupert Langley was married. Then he would write
her a letter of congratulation, and in due course he would receive from
her a friendly answer--and there an end.
Perhaps just now he was more concerned about his own feelings than about
hers--much more, indeed, because he had not the remotest suspicion that
her feelings were in any wise disturbed. But his own? He began to think
it time that he should grow acquainted with his heart, and search what
stirred it so. He could not conceal from himself the fact that he was
growing more and more attached to the companionship of this beautiful,
clever, and romantic girl. He found that she disputed Gloria in his
mind. He found that, mingling imperceptibly with his hope of a
triumphant return to Gloria, was the thought that _she_ would feel the
triumph too, or the painful thought that if it came she would not be
near him to hear the story. He found that one of the delights of his
lonely midnight walks was the quiet thought of her. It used to be a
gladness to him to recall, in those moments of solitude, some word that
she had spoken--some kindly touch of her hand.
He began to grow afraid of his position and his feelings. What had he to
do with falling in love? That was no part of the work of his life. What
could it be to him but a misfortune if he were to fall in love with this
girl who was so much younger than he? Supposing it possible that a girl
of that age could love him, what had he to offer her? A share in a
career that might well prove desperate--a career to be brought to a
sudden and swift close, very probably by his own death at the hands of
his successful enemies in Gloria! Think of the bright home in which he
found that girl--of the tender, almost passionate, love she bore to her
father, and which her father returned with such love for her--think of
the brilliant future that seemed to await her, and then think of the
possibility of her ever being prevailed upon to share his dark and
doubtful fortunes. The Dictator was not a rich man. Much of what he once
had was flung away--or at all events given away--in his efforts to set
up reform and constitutionalism in Gloria. The plain truth of the
position was that even if Helena Langley were at all likely to fall in
love with him it would be his clear duty, as a man of honour and one who
wished her well, to discourage any such feeling and to keep away from
her. But the Dictator honestly believed that he was entitled to put any
such thought as that out of his mind. The very frankness--the childlike
frankness--with which she had approached him made it clear that she had
no thought of any love-making being possible between them. 'She thinks
of me as a man almost old enough to be her father,' he said to himself.
So the Dictator reconciled his conscience, and still kept on seeing her.