Neither Lord Tancred nor Francis Markrute was late at the appointment in
the city restaurant where they were to lunch, and they were soon seated
at a table in a corner where they could talk without being interrupted.
They spoke of ordinary things for a moment. Then Lord Tancred's
impatience to get at the matter which interested him became too great to
wait longer, so he said laconically:
"Well?"
"I saw her this morning and had a talk"--the financier said, as he
placed some caviare on his toast. "You must not overlook the fact, which
I have already stated to you, that she is a most difficult problem. You
will have an interesting time taming her. For a man of nerve, I cannot
imagine a more thrilling task. She is a woman who has restricted all her
emotion for men, and could lavish it all upon _the_ man, I imagine. In
any case that is 'up to you,' as our friends, the Americans, say--"
Lord Tancred thrilled as he answered:
"Yes, it shall be 'up to me.' But I want to find out all about her for
myself. I just want to know when I may see her, and what is the
programme?"
"The programme is that she will receive you this afternoon, about
tea-time, I should say; that you must explain to her you realize you are
engaged. You need not ask her to marry you; she will not care for
details like that--she knows it is already settled. Be as businesslike
as you can--and come away. She has made it a condition that she sees you
as little as possible until the wedding. The English idea of engaged
couples shocks her, for, remember, it is, on her side, not a love-match.
If you wish to have the slightest success with her afterwards be careful
_now_. She is going to Paris, immediately, for her trousseau. She will
return about a week before the wedding, when you can present her to your
family."
Tristram smiled grimly and then the two men's eyes met and they both
laughed.
"Jove! Francis!" Lord Tancred exclaimed, "isn't it a wonderful affair! A
real dramatic romance, here in the twentieth century. Would not every
one think I was mad, if they knew!"
"It is that sort of madmen who are often the sanest," Francis Markrute
answered. "The world is full of apparently sane fools." Then he passed
on to a further subject. "You will re-open Wrayth, of course," he said.
"I wish my niece to be a Queen of Society, and to have her whole life
arranged with due state. I wish your family to understand that I
appreciate the honor of the connection with them, and consider it a
privilege, and a perfectly natural thing--since we are foreigners of
whom you know nothing--that we should provide the necessary money for
what we wish."
Lord Tancred listened; he thought of his mother's similar argument at
breakfast.
"You see," the financier went on reflectively, "in life, the wise man
always pays willingly for what he really wants, as you are doing, for
instance, in your blind taking of my niece. Your old nobility in England
is the only one of any consequence left in the world. The other
countries' system of the titles descending to all the younger sons, _ad
infinitum_, makes the whole thing a farce after a while. A Prince in the
Caucasus is as common as a Colonel in Kentucky, and in Austria and
Germany there are poor Barons in the streets. There was a time in my
life when I could have had a foreign title, but I found it ridiculous,
and so refused it. But in England, in spite of your amusing radicalism
the real thing still counts. It is a valid asset--a tangible security
for one's money--from a business point of view. And Americans or
foreigners like myself and my niece, for instance, are securing
substantial property and equal return, when we bring large fortunes in
our marriage settlements to this country. What satisfaction comparable
to the glory of her English position as Marchioness of Darrowood could
Miss Clara D. Woggenheimer have got out of her millions, if she had
married one of her own countrymen, or an Italian count? Yet she gives
herself the airs of a benefactress to poor Darrowood and throws her
money in his teeth, whereas Darrowood is the benefactor, if there is a
case of it either way. But to me, a sensible business man, the bargain
is equal. You don't go to an art dealer's and buy a very valuable
Rembrandt for its marketable value, and then, afterwards, jibe at the
picture and reproach the art dealer. Money is no good without position,
and here in England you have had such hundreds of years of freedom from
invasion, that you have had time, which no other country has had, to
perfect your social system. Let the Radicals and the uninformed of other
lands rail as they will, your English aristocracy is the finest body of
thinkers and livers in the world. One hears ever of the black sheep, the
few luridly glaring failures, but never of the hundreds of great and
noble lives which are England's strength."
"By Jove!" said Lord Tancred, "you ought to be in the House of Lords,
Francis! You'd wake them up!"
The financier looked down at his plate; he always lowered his eyes when
he felt things. No one must ever read what was really passing in his
soul, and when he felt, it was the more difficult to conceal, he
reasoned.
"I am not a snob, my friend," he said, after a mouthful of salad. "I
have no worship for aristocracy in the abstract; I am a student, a
rather careful student of systems and their results, and, incidentally,
a breeder of thoroughbred live stock, too, which helps one's
conclusions: and above all I am an interested watcher of the progress of
evolution."
"You are abominably clever," said Lord Tancred.
"Think of your uncle, the Duke of Glastonbury," the financier went on.
"He fulfills his duties in every way, a munificent landlord, and a
sound, level-headed politician: what other country or class could
produce such as he?"
"Oh, the Duke's all right," his nephew agreed. "He is a bit hard up like
a number of us at times, but he keeps the thing going splendidly, and my
cousin Ethelrida helps him. She is a brick. But you know her, of course,
don't you think so?"
"The Lady Ethelrida seems to me a very perfect young woman," Francis
Markrute said, examining his claret through the light. "I wish I knew
her better. We have few occasions of meeting; she does not go out very
much into general society, as you know."
"Oh, I'll arrange that, if it would interest you. I thought you were
perfectly cynical about and even rather bored with women," Lord Tancred
said.
"I think I told you--was it only yesterday?--that I understood it might
be possible for a woman to count--I have not time for the ordinary
parrot-chatterers one meets. There are three classes of the species
female: those for the body, those for the brain, and those for both. The
last are dangerous. The other two merely occupy certain moods in man.
Fortunately for us the double combination is rare."
Lord Tancred longed to ask under which head Francis Markrute placed his
niece, but, of course, he restrained himself. He, personally, felt sure
she would be of the combination; that was her charm. Yes, as he thought
over things, that was the only really dangerous kind, and he had so
seldom met it! Then his imagination suddenly pictured Laura Highford
with her tiny mouth and pointed teeth. She had a showy little brain,
absolutely no heart, and the senses of a cat or a ferret. What part of
him had she appealed to? Well, thank God, that was over and done with,
and he was perfectly free to make his discoveries in regard to Zara, his
future wife!
"I tell you what, Francis," he said presently, after the conversation
had drifted from these topics and cigars and liqueurs had come, "I would
like my cousin Ethelrida to meet Countess Shulski pretty soon. I don't
know why, but I believe the two would get on."
"There is no use suggesting any meetings until my niece returns from
Paris," the financier said. "She will be in a different mood by then.
She had not, when she came to England, quite put off her mourning; she
will then have beautiful clothes, and be more acquiescent in every way.
Now she would be antagonistic. See her this afternoon and be sensible;
make up your mind to postpone things, until her return. And even then be
careful until she is your wife!"
Lord Tancred looked disappointed. "It is a long time," he said.
"Let me arrange to give a dinner at my house, at which perhaps the Duke
and Lady Ethelrida would honor me by being present, and your mother and
sisters and any other member of your family you wish, let us say, on the
night of my niece's return" (he drew a small calendar notebook from his
pocket). "That will be Wednesday, the 18th, and we will fix the wedding
for Wednesday the 25th, a week later. That gets you back from your
honeymoon on the 1st of November; you can stay with me that night, and
if your uncle is good enough to include me in the invitation to his
shoot we can all three go down to Montfitchet on the following day. Is
all this well? If so I will write it down."
"Perfectly well," agreed the prospective bridegroom--and having no
notebook or calendar, he scribbled the reminder for himself on his cuff.
Higgins, his superb valet, knew a good deal of his lordship's history
from his lordship's cuffs!
"I don't think I shall wait for tea-time, Francis," he said, when they
got out of the restaurant, into the hall. "I think I'll go now, and get
it over, if she will be in. Could I telephone and ask?"
He did so and received the reply from Turner that Countess Shulski was
at home, but could not receive his lordship until half-past four
o'clock.
"Damn!" said that gentleman as he put the receiver down, and Francis
Markrute turned away to hide his smile.
"You had better go and buy an engagement ring, hadn't you?" he said. "It
won't do to forget that."
"Good Lord, I had forgotten!" gasped Tristram.
"Well, I have lots of time to do it now, so I'll go to the family
jewelers, they are called old-fashioned, but the stones are so good."
So they said good-bye, the young man speeding westwards in a taxi, the
lion hunter's excitement thrilling in his veins.
The financier returned to his stately office and passed through his
obsequious rows of clerks to his inner sanctum. Then he lit another
cigar and gave orders that he was not to be disturbed for a quarter of
an hour. He reposed in a comfortable chair and allowed himself to dream.
All his plans were working; there must be no rush. Great emergencies
required rush, but to build to the summit of one's ambitions, one must
use calm and watchful care.