The General Election had been definitely fixed to begin in the second
week in July, and consequently soon after Ascot politicians of all sorts
and shades of opinion were sedulously flying about the country, busy
recounting to the wondering provinces how grossly their opponents had
misrepresented their aims and tactics, and proving in an array of terms
which beggared the dictionary, that the country could only be saved by
the united voice of the people declaring that they would record a firm
and combined vote. South Africa was, of course, the chosen battlefield
of both parties; here each was determined to fight the matter out (this
was the only matter on which they were agreed), and the speed with which
the opposing armies mobilized out there was as remarkable as their
manoeuvres when arrived. Some charged through the country already
peopled in their minds with the families of reservists, and dotted with
happy homesteads, over which waved the fair golden corn, while on the
hills of the Witwatersrand the great mills poured out their millions,
and those who had been in arms were already spending happy Sunday
evenings with their brother Boers, singing hymns to the accompaniment of
the vrow's harmonium, and zealously marrying her buxom daughters. Gold
paved the streets of Johannesburg, and the curbstones thereof were
diamonds, and Paul Kruger and Mr. Leyds fell on their bended knees and,
with tears of gratitude in their grateful eyes, blessed the names of Mr.
Rhodes and the Colonial Secretary. The Union Jack waved on all the winds
of heaven, and every Englishman in that happy land beat his rifle into a
pea-shooter for his infant children--half Boer, half British--and ate
his roast beef under his fig-tree.
But oddly enough exactly the same data furnished the Opposition with a
picture by no means identical. These gentlemen went mournfully through
the land, which was, it appeared, a desert. Cemeteries and ruined
homesteads were the only features that they, for their part, could
discern in that desolate landscape, and the cemeteries, they sadly
declared, marked, not only the graves of the young British soldier,
martyred to gorge the capitalist with gold, but were, to the thoughtful
eye, none else than the place where the British Empire died and was
buried. Along the ridge of the Witwatersrand rose the grass-grown
engines of the mines; the rusty fly-wheels hung cableless in that
miasmic air, tainted with rotting corpses. No sound was heard, no sign
of life was visible; only from time to time there came from the bowels
of the earth the sobbing of those who had once been gorged capitalists.
The country was drained of its resources, sir--emptied of its
inhabitants. That garden of the Lord was barren and desolate. Who, they
asked, with rising passion, had done this? The late Government. Why had
they done this? Because they were under the thumb of the capitalists.
They had piles and masses of documentary evidence to prove every word
they said. And awe fell on the assemblies.
After this first plain statement of the case delivered in duet by the
leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition, there
followed what may be described as a fugual chorus. Everybody else, that
is to say, joined in and shouted the same thing over and over again at
the top of his voice. There were two conductors, no other than the
executants of the opening duet, who, standing back to back, beat away at
the chorus for all they were worth, and in the more delirious moments
turned round and hit savagely at each other with their batons. The
audience comprised nearly all the inhabitants of the round world, and
this remarkable chorus lasted day and night without intermission for
three weeks. Then they all sang "Britons never, never, never will be
slaves," but with totally different expression, and meaning utterly
different things, so that the effect of unanimity, which otherwise would
no doubt have been extremely striking, was spoiled, and rude things were
said in the French journals. That, it is true, for a moment produced a
defensive alliance among themselves, and they roared out across the
Channel. "How about Dreyfus?" But almost immediately the more ardent
spirits--sober politicians they called themselves--began again, and
mixed with the renewed chorus-singing were bonfires and other things,
and most prominent people were burned in effigy and appeared not to mind
it.
Then, when every one was exhausted and out of breath, they put on their
coats again, and sat down for a while to see what the result had been.
Europe generally was smiling, and went on much as usual; but in England
itself it appeared that certain groups of people were not listening to
the beautiful music at all, but puzzling and frowning over some papers
of statistics. Also it was observed that some men, who ought to have
been singing as hard as anybody, were not singing at all, but talking
quietly to those portions of the audience who were willing to listen. Of
these, two were immediately concerned with this story, and these were
Lord Alston and Jim Spencer. And, although they belonged to opposite
parties, they were both saying precisely the same thing.
This particular evening Jack had returned to London somewhat
unexpectedly, having found himself able to catch a late train up, after
the meeting he had been addressing in Southampton on behalf of a young
Conservative, standing for the first time, who, because he had been
nearly all the way to Pretoria, was therefore apparently qualified to
say the last word on every measure, from seats for shop girls to seats
for Bishops in the Upper House. Marie had just come home from a party
when he arrived, and the two talked while Jack had supper.
"I don't suppose I shouted and screamed enough to please him," he said;
"but the fact is, I do not think he is necessarily omniscient, nor that
he will be Prime Minister at the age of twenty-four. However, I preached
the gospel."
Marie threw back her cloak.
"Talk to me while you eat," she said. "I am getting swept into the
vortex, too; this evening we talked about nothing but politics."
"Won't it bore you?"
"I shall enjoy it. I think people believe in you, Jack."
Jack shrugged his shoulders.
"The point is that they should believe what I say. It doesn't matter
about me."
"Indeed it does. It is you who make them believe it. Besides--well, go
on."
"Well, I told them that I thought both Conservatives and Liberals were
doing quite wrong in making the South African affair, except in so far
as it was a test of our efficiency, the cry of the election. It has been
the fashion to speak of it as a great war. It is nothing of the kind,
though it is perfectly true that, owing to our own hopeless mistakes, we
brought it very near to being a most disastrous war, if not a war fatal
to the Empire. Young Campbell's face fell rapidly as I spoke."
"I can imagine that," said Marie.
"The audience were not too pleased, either; but somehow, Marie, and for
the first time, I did not care a rap. You have often told me that I
speak without conviction. It is quite true; I believe what I say without
feeling it. But to-night I felt it, and I knew I could make them feel
it. I had them in my hand, and at first I carefully rubbed them up the
wrong way. I went through the disasters of December, 1899--Stormberg,
Magersfontein, Colenso. I pointed out that most of these could have been
saved, if we had only been decently prepared, instead of going into the
war in a blind and idiotic manner, as if the fact of our being the
British Empire made it impious and profane for any one to attempt to
withstand or, even worse, check us. I touched every sore place that I
could put my finger on. Once I thought I had gone too far, for a man
shouted out: 'Turn the--well, horrid Radical out!' And having, as well
as I could, pulled our policy to bits, I proceeded to pluck the army
itself. I assure you there was hardly a feather left on it. Doesn't all
this bore you?"
Jack got up, having finished his meal, and stood beside her.
"You know it doesn't," said she.
"And then quite suddenly I assured them that the Empire was far the
soundest concern in the world. Well, it may seem conceited, Marie, but
it is the fact, that I had them so much in hand by then that a huge sigh
of relief went round the hall. I never felt so flattered. But short of
that I said everything was about as wrong as it could be. What is wanted
is not amiable and excellent noblemen, who talk a great deal and are
excessively polite, but people who just work, do things and not say
them, pay no attention to party politics whatever--that can be done by
the rank and file, all those who get into Parliament simply in order to
talk--and buckle to, guided entirely by experts, and insist on having
men and officers, mind you, properly trained, given proper guns to
handle, and made to use their heads. We have, I believe, the best
material in the world out of which to make the army we need. But it is
raw, it is untrained; it is no more an army than sheep's wool is a coat.
And it was their first duty, I told them, to vote for the Government
which they thought would best put the House in order. This was a
Conservative meeting, I reminded them, but I would sooner that every man
in it voted Liberal than that he should, merely because he was
accustomed to call himself a Conservative, vote Conservative, if he
believed that the Liberals would be more likely to put these necessary
reforms into effect. Then I came down hammer and tongs with Rule,
Britannia; there should be only one party in our great, our happy and
glorious island, the Party of Efficiency. Efficiency is our first need.
I concluded with some amiable remarks about Campbell."
Marie got up, her eye flashing.
"Well, you've done it now, Jack," she said.
"I know I have. I couldn't help it. And to-morrow I shall find out
exactly what I have done."
Marie got up and walked up and down the room for a few moments without
replying. Jack's highly original line of conduct for a man whose aim was
to get into the Cabinet was extraordinarily attractive to her sense of
picturesqueness. He had certainly played a very bold game, but she could
not feel satisfied in her own mind whether he had over-stepped the
dividing-line between boldness and sheer audacity.
"Also I said that, if the Conservatives got in, it was to be hoped they
would clear out the old gang," remarked Jack, in parenthesis to her
thoughts.
Marie frowned.
"Ah, that was not wise, was it?" she said. "Didn't it savour too much of
an application for a vacant post?"
"It was meant to," said Jack. "After the rest of my speech, it could not
be supposed that I hoped--as I do hope--to get the War Office by
ingratiating myself with the old gang. If I get it, I shall get it
because I am popularly supposed to be wanted. I do apply for the post. I
gave them this afternoon my idea of my duties if I get it. But I apply
to the people. Lord, what a treat the morning papers will be!"
Marie's eyes kindled again as she continued to walk up and down the
dusky dining-room, her long dress whispering on the carpet.
"I am excited, exhilarated," she said. "It is like getting out of stuffy
rooms into the open air to hear you talk, Jack. I can't make up my mind
as to whether I think you have done altogether wisely, but you have gone
on a big scale. I admire that."
Jack got up. Marie's words thrilled him with a warmth he had not felt
for her for years. Already he was beginning to look on the conduct of
his married life with a wonder that rose now into a disgusted
incredulity. Her splendid contempt for him had begun it; he had been
stung into seeing her as she was, and her generosity to him had fostered
it. No after-word of reproach had passed her lips for that which now
made his ears burn to think of. She had seen with her woman's instinct
his deepening contrition for that ugly scene, and, seeing it, did not
need or desire a spoken assurance. But what Jack did not know was that
his reawakened passion roused in her no answering spark whatever.
Passion for him was dead in her. In a moment she went on:
"I am immensely interested in your aims, Jack, and your method of
working for them. If one is not sure of one's self, tact and diplomacy
help one to feel one's way; but there is a higher gift than these, and I
believe you have it--it is strength."
He turned round, facing the fireplace, feeling suddenly chilled. In the
hall a clock struck two, and a weary-faced footman looked suggestively
in.
"Good gracious! is it already two?" she said, picking up her unopened
post; "and I have not read these yet. They must wait; I know by the feel
of them they are uninteresting."
She turned and faced him, standing in the full blaze of the electric
light, her face brilliantly illuminated. She had thrown back her cloak,
her white bosom moved slowly and gently to her breathing, and his eyes
were dazzled at her incomparable beauty. And all this, the perfect bloom
of womanhood, this lily in a leper settlement, had been his. Instead he
had preferred outwardly the rouge and the dye, inwardly the vulgar
flashiness and tawdry wit of her who had so long been his mistress. At
the moment he felt he loathed Mildred. Once he tried to speak and could
not, and she had turned again.
"Good-night, Jack," she said over her shoulder. "You must be tired. I
shall be excited to see what the unofficial Government organs make of
you. Will you tell them to put the lights out when you go upstairs?"
He stood where he was listening to the diminuendo whisper of her dress.
Then, after a moment, he heard the door of her bedroom shut behind her.
Quite a quantity of unknown, though probably not obscure, leader-writers
bestowed their distinguished attention on Jack next day. The Daily
Chronicle and Daily News announced that they had had the sagacity months
before to foresee this split in the Conservative party, and hailed Jack
as a prodigal son returning to the depleted homesteads of Liberalism.
The Standard, on the other hand, grabbed him as the _homme nécessaire_
of the Conservative party; the Times, gently trimming, admitted that to
a certain extent, and subject to various conditions, there was something
in what he said; the Daily Telegraph clearly did not know what to think,
and fell back on generalities about 9.7 guns; while a few hours later
the Westminster Gazette had a cartoon entitled "Jack the Ripper," in
which he was represented with an impassive face methodically
disembowelling the present Cabinet--a signpost indicated Hatfield. The
effect on the press, in fact, was very satisfactory; opinions were
widely divergent and extremely violent. In fact, as Jack said to Marie
when he saw her next morning, he seemed to have "caught on."
"And what do you suppose they will think?" asked Marie.
"Who? Oh, they! I don't know. But I soon shall, as I'm going down to
headquarters now. I think, perhaps, as the papers have taken me up, it
may incline them to give me office. Not that they ever read the papers.
But office is regarded as a muzzling order, as far as I can make out.
They may think me worth muzzling. If so, I see no reason for not taking
my muzzle off. I may not be back for lunch; I rather want to see Lady
Ardingly."
"General bureau; central office," said she.
"Precisely. You have the habit of putting things well. Good-bye, Marie."
He bent over the low chair where she was sitting and gently kissed her
on the forehead. She looked up in genuine astonishment, then flushed
slightly, for they had long been strangers to that sort of spontaneous
caress, and it seemed to her to come from a stranger. He saw her
astonishment and winced at it. "I--I beg your pardon!" he said
hurriedly, knowing the moment he spoke that he was ill-inspired.
The bewildered moment of surprise passed, leaving Marie, however, with a
glimpse of what might be even more bewildering. She laughed lightly
enough, but with a certain nervousness.
"How original, for a husband to apologize to his wife for kissing her!"
she said.
But she got up and did not offer to return the caress.
* * * * *
Marie required a few moments in which to steady herself after he had
left her. She had been utterly taken by surprise. If Jack had emptied
the contents of the waste-paper-basket over her, he would not have
astonished her more. For days now she had had the impression that some
change had come over Jack. At first she had put it all down to his
regret for his telling her that her name was coupled with Jim Spencer's,
but by degrees it had seemed to her that there must be something more.
But this possibility she had only glanced at to reject. It could not be.
Then he had kissed her.
Suddenly it seemed to her that the place where his lips had been burned
her; she felt as if she had been insulted; a fine state of mind for a
wife, she told herself angrily. Then, with a remorseless frankness, her
conscience told her why she felt thus. It was because she had made
herself a stranger to him; her heart was not here, it was with another.
And Jack was her husband. Anyhow, she would face it honestly. She had
despised and shown her scorn for him when he told her what people said,
thinking she was honest in her indignation. But what if he had told her
what nobody said, but what she knew, and what she was perfectly well
aware Jim Spencer knew? Had she been so faithful, then, as to warrant
her cold and burning words to Jack! She had scorned and then ignored the
actual falsehood of his words, but what of that which was true, which he
did not know--the real essential truth of that which lay behind the
falsehood?
She gave a little frightened gasp as these intimate discoveries, cape
after cape, bay after bay, came into vision. And what complaint had she
of her husband, but that they had long been at discord? No breath of
scandal, even from the gutter, had ever reached her ears about him. She
had no reason, absolutely none, for supposing that he had not been far
more faithful to her than she to him. But when he kissed her she had
shrunk away from him.
Now, since her drive in the Park a few days before, and the discovery
attendant thereon that efforts were necessary, a militant spirit had
possessed Mildred. She was seen everywhere, at her loudest and most
characteristic; she had simply summoned Maud from the retirement at
Windsor, she had secured a record party for next Sunday, and for the
sake of general completeness she had determined, in spite of Lady
Ardingly, to ask Jack and Marie. The notice was very short, and, instead
of writing a note, she drove round this morning to Park Lane to deliver
her invitation verbatim; she likewise wished, in case Marie was in, to
air a few poisonous nothings, scouts, as it were, of her advancing
armies. And arriving at this moment, she was admitted and shown
upstairs.
"Dearest Marie, it is ages, simply ages!" she began. "I have come to
supplicate. Do come down to Windsor from Saturday till Monday. You shall
not be bored; there is Guardina to sing to you, and the place really
looks too lovely. Maud has been describing it to me; she came up
yesterday. And there are half the Front Bench coming on Sunday. It might
be useful for Jack to be there. My dear, what do you think of Jack's
speech? However, about Saturday first."
"I don't think we can," said Marie. "We have already refused two
Saturday parties on the plea of-- If I only could remember the plea it
might be more hopeful. Political plea, I think."
"That's just right, then," said Mildred. "Jack will have a quiet talk
with the old gang. Besides, Marie, if one only saw you on the days when
you had not refused an invitation, I should not know you by sight in a
year. So you'll come."
"Well, I think 'political' covers it," she said. "I shall be charmed if
Jack has made no other arrangement. And his speech. What do you think of
it?"
Mildred held up her hands in despairing deprecation.
"I thought I should have died," she said. "It is too sad when you see a
clever man industriously digging his own grave. One always does it
eventually by mistake, but on purpose like that, and with his eyes
open!"
"Did it strike you so?"
"Surely, and the ridiculous point is that Jim said almost precisely the
same things down at Freshfield."
"That surely, then, is, as far as it goes, as the Times would say, in
favour of both of them," remarked Marie. "To my mind, there is a new
party in birth. You may call it Imperial, I suppose. It is far from
Jingo. Jack's speech is the antithesis of Jingoism; it is also
not--well, Northamptonish. It is beginning to roar as every
well-conducted baby should."
Mildred's appetite for politics was at all times bird-like. She pecked
and hopped away. On this occasion she hopped away to a considerable
distance.
"I have seen a good deal of Jim lately," she said. "In fact, I am afraid
I have been seeing a little too much."
"You mean you are getting tired of him?" asked Marie, who, from having
been rather absent, was now intent and alert.
"Dear me, no! not that at all. I delight in him," said Mildred, rapidly
adding wings and new courtyards to the structure Lady Ardingly had
indicated. "But people talk so easily and without foundation. You know
what I mean."
She leaned back a little in the shadow as she spoke, feeling that she
was really a very gifted woman, for her speech had many edges. In the
first place, it was dramatically amusing to blood her second invention
with the life of her first; a sharp edge was that she more than half
believed that there was something between Marie and Jim, and what she
had said was therefore of the nature of a test question; and, thirdly,
granting this, how would Marie meet the claim on her property?
The paper she had been reading slid rustling to the ground off Marie's
lap. It seemed to her as if some dark room familiar to her, though she
could not tell how or when she had seen it, had been suddenly
illuminated.
"Oh, my dear Mildred," she said, "if one pauses to pick scraps of paper
out of the gutter to see what is written on them, one would spend all
one's life in the same slum. I should have thought you, of all people,
would not have cared an atom what people said, so long, of course, as
there was no earthly truth in it."
Mildred settled herself in her chair. There was plenty more, she felt,
where this came from.
"But has your experience of the world taught you that?" she asked.
"Taught me not to care what people say?" said Marie--"yes, I may
certainly assure you of that. For instance--" and she paused.
Mildred rustled suggestively.
"There is no reason I should not tell you," said Marie. "It is this.
Oddly enough, some fortnight or three weeks ago exactly the same thing
was said about me as you are afraid will be said about you. I was
supposed, in fact, to be much attached to Jim. So I am; we are the
greatest friends. But this charming world uses 'friend' in two senses.
Probably some cook of a woman, finding nothing to say to some valet of a
man, said so. And the kitchen section of London society, I have been
told, talked about it. But any perfectly inane piece of fabrication like
that soon dies of--of its own inanition."
"But who on earth started anything so absurd?" asked Mildred.
"I have no idea; I did not even want to know. I was angry, I will allow,
for a day or two. Then other things came and swallowed it up. It became
merely dull. It simply did not interest me. I assure you I had almost
forgotten it. I suppose one has lots of enemies one does not know of.
Probably I had made some cook of a woman, as I said, angry without
intending it. I--yes, something of that sort."
It was not till these words were on her lips that a sudden idea, wild
and preposterous as it might be, occurred to her. It came into her mind
quite unbidden, and was wholly unaccountable. Mildred laughed quite
naturally.
"Ah, you are the Snowflake," she said--"our one unsmirchable. It is all
very well for you to shrug your shoulders at what the world says!"
"That is exactly what I am told was said of me," said she quietly. "I
was supposed to have melted. Did the story, then, reach you?"
"Some sort of a story did," said she. "It seemed to me not even worth
repeating to you."
"Quite right. It wasn't."
Mildred rose.
"I must fly," she said. "Too delightful of you to come on Saturday,
Marie! I always think nothing is complete without you."
She went gracefully out, leaving the air heavy with some languid scent,
and went down the stairs rather quicker than she had come up. There was
something closely resembling a flea in her ear. And everything had
looked so well on paper. Unfortunately, Marie did not in the least
remind one of paper.
But, leaving out all that was not to her taste in this last interview,
her clouds were showing the traditional silver lining. It was, for
instance, quite evident to her that Maud's golden lover had not in the
least finished with her. She, when questioned on the subject, cultivated
a strong reserve, which, as her mother concluded, implied in itself
something which admitted of reservation. It was certain, on Maud's own
authority, that Anthony had been to Windsor, but with that her nose went
into the air quite like Marie's, and it was impossible to talk
familiarly with such an icicle. And her mother thanked God that she
herself was not of such a temperament.
Altogether, then, the solid ground had not failed beneath her feet. But
it was best to make efforts; either she had been on the verge of a
precipice or her nerves had led her to believe that she was. In either
case, there was no such tonic as a good dose of the world--that combined
soporific to the conscience and astringent to the energies. She had, it
is true, applied herself to the wrong bottle when she went to see Marie,
but that was easily set right, and by way of antidote she drove on to
Lady Ardingly's, who, it appeared, was "up," but about whom there hung
at this hour of the morning a veil of mystery, not to be dispelled
without further inquiries. These inquiries were favourable, and Mildred
was conducted, still by the footman, to her dressing-room.
Lady Ardingly was seated in a costume that it would be impossible to
specify without being prolix, and possibly indelicate, writing notes. An
uneasy shadow of a maid hovered near her, to whom she paid no attention.
The footman, in obvious perturbation, opened the door and waited, in
obedience, it would seem, to a command.
"Ah, my dear, how are you?" said Lady Ardingly, addressing her last
note. "One moment, if you will be so kind. Walter, take these, and have
them sent at once by hand. They must all wait for answers. In case any
are not in, let them be brought back. Do you understand?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Say it, then."
"All to be delivered, and if"--and he glanced at the two letters--"if
their lordships isn't in, the notes not to be left."
And he cast a glance of awe and astonishment at his mistress and fled.
Lady Ardingly was, in truth, an astonishing object. Nothing had been
done to her; she was, with the exception of certain linen garments, as
her Maker had willed she should be. Short and scant gray hair
imperfectly covered her head; her face, of a curious gray hue, was
arbitrarily intersected by a hundred wrinkles and crow's-feet.
"I am in dishabille," she said, rather unnecessarily; "but every old
woman is in dishabille. You will get used to it, my dear, some day. So
you have come to tell me what every one is saying about Jack's speech.
Yes, I am ready for you," she threw over her shoulder to her maid.
That functionary took her stand by her mistress and handed the weapons.
A powder-puff began the work, followed by an impressionist dusting on of
rouge. Lady Ardingly grew beneath the work of her hands. Then a thick
crayon of charcoal traced the approximate line where her eyebrows had
once been, and a luxuriant auburn wig framed the picture. Mildred, who
locked up even from the eyes of her maid such aids as she was accustomed
to use, looked on with a sort of shamefacedness. Just as Marie had just
now given almost a shock to her instinct of covering up and doing in
secret the processes of thought, of showing to the world only the
finished and diplomatic product, so Lady Ardingly gave a shock to her
body. Each of them--differing by the distance of miles--was alike in
this. And the frankness of both was inconceivable to her. Yet both, in
their way, possessed calmly and fully what it cost her long effort to
catch a semblance of. Neither minded being natural, and both naturally
were so. Mildred's naturalness--a rare phenomenon--was the outcome of
intense artificiality.
"And what is every one saying of Jack's speech?" repeated Lady Ardingly,
with one eye closed, regarding with some favour a brilliant patch of
rouge on her left cheek. "Or what do you say? You can scarcely yet have
heard what people think of it."
"Surely he has almost declared himself a Liberal," suggested Mildred.
"So the Daily Chronicle said," remarked Lady Ardingly. "What else?"
"But, on the other hand, the Cabinet would sooner have such a critic on
their side than against them."
"Ah, my dear, you have read the Standard too. So have I. Have you not
any opinion of your own?"
"Yes; he is on the edge of a precipice."
Lady Ardingly's decorative hand paused.
"And what is the precipice?" she asked. "You have not forgotten our
talk, I see."
Mildred lost patience a little.
"Your advice, you mean," she said.
"My advice, if you prefer. I am so glad you have been behaving with such
good sense. And as for Jack's speech, I tell you frankly I was
astonished with delight. He seems to me to have hit exactly the right
note, and he is in the middle of the right note, like Guardina when she
sings. I consider him as having the ball at his feet. He has sprung to
the front at a bound. Now his supporters will push him along. He has
only got to keep greatly _en évidence_, and he need do nothing more till
the first meeting of the Cabinet."
"Has his speech done all that for him?" asked Mildred.
"Yes, certainly, for it is the speech of a man of action, of whom there
are fewer in England than the fingers on my hand. He told his audience
that speeches are not in his line. That is immensely taking, when at the
time he was making a really magnificent one. Yes, Jack is assured, if
only you are careful," she added in French, which, if considered a
precautionary measure against her maid's comprehension, was not a very
tactful move, since the latter was a Frenchwoman.
Mildred's eye brightened; at the same time she thought she would not
tell Lady Ardingly that Marie and he were probably coming to Windsor the
next Sunday.
"Dear Jack!" she said, "I have always had an immense belief in him. And
now his time has come."
"I feel certain of it, provided he makes no _faux pas_. And what of your
other friend, Jim Spencer? He also spoke last night, I see. I have not
read his speech yet."
"There is no need. He said what Jack said," replied Mildred.
"Indeed. I am glad, then, you took measures to kill that absurd gossip
we spoke of the other day. Otherwise people would say that he had been
inspired by Marie."
"You think of everything, I believe," said Mildred.
"I have a great deal of time on my hands. But now you must go, my dear.
To-day I happen to be busy."
Lady Ardingly held out a rather knuckly hand. She clearly did not wish
that her face, new every morning, should be disturbed just yet.
"Ah, by the way," she added, "please let me drive down to see you on
Sunday afternoon, according to your invitation. I am afraid I forgot to
answer it."
Now, no such invitation had ever been given, and Mildred knew it; so, no
doubt, did Lady Ardingly. She paused a moment before answering.
"Of course, we shall be charmed!" she said.
"She has asked Jack, and does not want me to come," thought Lady
Ardingly. Then aloud: "So sweet of you! Your garden must be looking
lovely now. Good-bye, my dear."