It was not difficult for Davenant to ascribe his lightness of heart, on
leaving Tory Hill, to satisfaction in getting rid of his superfluous
money, since he had some reason to fear that the possession of it was no
great blessing. To a man with little instinct for luxury and no spending
tastes, twenty or thirty thousand dollars a year was an income far
outstripping his needs. It was not, however, in excess of his desires,
for he would gladly have set up an establishment and cut a dash if he
had known how. He admired the grand style in living, not so much as a
matter of display, because presumably it stood for all sorts of
mysterious refinements for which he possessed the yearning without the
initiation. The highest flight he could take by his own unaided efforts
was in engaging the best suite of rooms in the best hotel, when he was
quite content with his dingy old lodgings; in driving in taxicabs, when
the tram-car would have suited him just as well, and ordering champagne,
when he would have preferred some commoner beverage. Fully aware of the
insufficiency of this method of reaching a higher standard, he practised
it only because it offered the readiest means he could find of
straining upward. He was sure that with a wife who knew the arts of
elegance to lead the way his scent for following would be keen enough;
but between him and the acquisition of this treasure there lay the
memory of the haughty young creature who had, in the metaphor with which
he was most familiar, "turned him down."
But it was not the fact that he had more money than he needed of which
he was afraid; it was rather the perception that the possibility of
indulging himself--coupled with what he conceived to be a kind of duty
in doing it--was sapping his vigor. All through the second year of his
holiday he had noticed in himself the tendency of the big,
strong-fibered animal to be indolent and overfed. On the principle laid
down by Emerson that every man is as lazy as he dares to be he got into
the way of sleeping late, of lounging in the public places of hotels,
and smoking too many cigars. With a little encouragement he could have
contracted the incessant cocktail and Scotch-and-soda habits of some of
his traveling compatriots.
He excused these weaknesses on the ground that when he had returned to
Boston, and got back to his ordinary round of work and exercise, they
would vanish, without having to be overcome; and yet the nearer he drew
to his old home, the less impulse he felt for exertion. He found himself
asking the question, "Why should I try to make more money when I've got
enough already?" to which the only reply was in that vague hope of
"doing a little good," inspired by his visit to the scene of his
parents' work at Hankow. In this direction, however, his aptitudes were
no more spontaneous than they were for the life of cultivated taste.
Henry Guion's need struck him, therefore, as an opportunity. If he took
other views of it besides, if it made to him an appeal totally different
from the altruistic, he was able to conceal the fact--from himself, at
any rate--in the depths of a soul where much that was vital to the man
was always held in subliminal darkness. It disturbed him, then, to have
Drusilla Fane rifle this sanctuary with irreverent persistency, dragging
to light what he had kept scrupulously hidden away.
Having found her alone in the drawing-room drinking her tea, he told her
at once what he had accomplished in the way of averting the worst phase
of the danger hanging over the master of Tory Hill. He told her, too,
with some amount of elation, which he explained as his glee in getting
himself down to "hard-pan." Drusilla allowed the explanation to pass
till she had thanked him ecstatically for what he had done.
"Really, Peter, men are fine! The minute I heard Cousin Henry's wretched
story I knew the worst couldn't come to the worst, with you here. I only
wish you could realize what it means to have a big, strong man like you
to lean on."
Davenant looked pleased; he was in the mood to be pleased with anything.
He had had so little of women's appreciation in his life that Drusilla's
enthusiasm was not only agreeable but new. He noticed, too, that in
speaking Drusilla herself was at her best. She had never been pretty.
Her mouth was too large, her cheek-bones too high, and her skin too
sallow for that; but she had the charm of frankness and intelligence.
Davenant said what was necessary in depreciation of his act, going on to
explain the benefit he would reap by being obliged to go to work again.
He enlarged on his plans for taking his old rooms and his old office,
and informed her that he knew a fellow, an old pal, who had already let
him into a good thing in the way of a copper-mine in the region of Lake
Superior. Drusilla listened with interest till she found an opportunity
to say:
"I'm so glad that _is_ your reason for helping Cousin Henry, Peter;
because I was afraid there might be--another."
He stopped abruptly, looking dashed. Unaccustomed to light methods of
attack and defense, it took him a few seconds to see Drusilla's move.
"You thought I might be--in love?"
She nodded.
"That's queer," he went on, "because I'd got the same impression about
you."
It was Drusilla's turn to be aghast. She was a little surprised at not
being offended, too.
"What made you think that?" she managed to ask, after getting command of
herself.
"What makes one think anything? However," he conceded, "I dare say I'm
wrong."
"That's a very good conclusion to come to. I advise you to keep to it."
"I will if you'll do the same about me."
She seized the opening to carry the attack back in his direction.
"I can't make a bargain of that kind, Peter. The scientific mind bases
its conclusions on--observed phenomena."
"Which I guess is the reason why the scientific mind is so often wrong.
I've had a good deal to do with it in the copper-mine business. It's
always barking up the wrong tree. I've often heard it said that the
clever scientist is generally a poor reasoner."
"Well, perhaps he is. But I wasn't reasoning. I was merely going by
instinct when I thought you might have a special motive for helping
Cousin Henry. If you had, you know, it wouldn't be any harm."
"It mightn't be any harm; but would it be any good?"
"Well, that might depend a good deal--on you."
"On me? How so? I don't know what you're driving at."
"I'm not driving at anything. I'm only speculating. I'm wondering what I
should do if I were in your place--with all your advantages."
"Rot, Drusilla!"
"If I were a man and had a rival," Drusilla persisted, "I should be
awfully honorable in the stand I'd take toward him--just like you. But
if anything miscarried--"
"You don't _expect_ anything to miscarry?"
She shook her head. "No; I don't expect it. But it might be a fortunate
thing if it did."
"You don't mean to infer that this man Ashley mightn't come up to the
scratch?"
"Colonel Ashley has come up to a good many scratches in his time. He's
not likely to fail in this one."
"Well, then, what more is there to it?"
"There's a good deal more. There are things I can't explain, and which
you wouldn't understand if I did. Coming up to the scratch isn't
everything. Charles the First came up to the scratch when he walked up
and had his head cut off; but there was more to be said."
"And you mean that your Colonel Ashley would be brave enough to walk up
and have _his_ head cut off?"
"I know he'd be brave enough. It's no question of courage. He had the
Victoria Cross before he was thirty. But it's a noble head; and it might
be a pity it should have to fall."
"But I don't understand why it should."
"No, you wouldn't unless you'd lived among them. They'd all admit he had
done the right thing. They'd say that, having come out here to marry
her, he could do no less than go through with it. That part of it would
be all right. Even in the Rangers it might make comparatively little
difference--except that now and then Olivia would feel uncomfortable.
Only when he was mentioned at the Horse Guards for some important
command they'd remember that there was something queer--something
shady--about his wife's family, and his name would be passed over."