"See here, Lucio, you are very fond of alluding to 'this' planet as if
you knew anything about other planets"--I said impatiently. "_This_
planet, as you somewhat contemptuously call it, is the only one _we_
have any business with."
He bent his piercing looks so ardently upon me that for the moment I was
startled.
"If that is so," he answered, "why in Heaven's name do you not let the
other planets alone? Why do you strive to fathom their mysteries and
movements? If men, as you say, have no business with any planet save
this one why are they ever on the alert to discover the secret of
mightier worlds,--a secret which haply it may some day terrify them to
know!"
The solemnity of his voice and the inspired expression of his face awed
me. I had no reply ready, and he went on--
"Do not let us talk, my friend, of planets, not even of this particular
pin's point among them known as Earth. Let us return to a better
subject--the Lady Sibyl. As I have already said, there are no obstacles
in the way of your wooing and winning her, if such is your desire.
Geoffrey Tempest, as mere author of books would indeed be insolent to
aspire to the hand of an earl's daughter, but Geoffrey Tempest,
millionaire, will be a welcome suitor. Poor Lord Elton's affairs are in
a bad way--he is almost out-at-elbows;--the American woman who is
boarding with him----"
"Boarding with him!" I exclaimed--"Surely he does not keep a
boarding-house?"
Lucio laughed heartily.
"No, no!--you must not put it so coarsely, Geoffrey. It is simply this,
that the Earl and Countess of Elton give the prestige of their home and
protection to Miss Diana Chesney (the American aforesaid) for the
trifling sum of two thousand guineas per annum. The Countess being
paralyzed, is obliged to hand over her duties of chaperonage to her
sister Miss Charlotte Fitzroy,--but the halo of the coronet still hovers
over Miss Chesney's brow. She has her own suite of rooms in the house,
and goes wherever it is proper for her to go, under Miss Fitzroy's care.
Lady Sibyl does not like the arrangement, and is therefore never seen
anywhere except with her father. She will not join in companionship with
Miss Chesney, and has said so pretty plainly."
"I admire her for it!" I said warmly--"I really am surprised that Lord
Elton should condescend----"
"Condescend to what?" inquired Lucio--"Condescend to take two thousand
guineas a year? Good heavens man, there are no end of lords and ladies
who will readily agree to perform such an act of condescension. 'Blue'
blood is getting thin and poor, and only money can thicken it. Diana
Chesney is worth over a million dollars and if Lady Elton were to die
conveniently soon, I should not be surprised to see that 'little
American' step triumphantly into her vacant place."
"What a state of topsy-turveydom!" I said, half angrily.
"Geoffrey, my friend, you are really amazingly inconsistent! Is there a
more flagrant example of topsy-turveydom than yourself for instance? Six
weeks ago, what were you? A mere scribbler, with flutterings of the
wings of genius in your soul, but many uncertainties as to whether those
wings would ever be strong enough to lift you out of the rut of
obscurity in which you floundered, struggling and grumbling at adverse
fate. Now, as millionaire, you think contemptuously of an Earl, because
he ventures quite legitimately to add a little to his income by boarding
an American heiress and launching her into society where she would never
get without him. And you aspire, or probably mean to aspire to the hand
of the Earl's daughter, as if you yourself were a descendant of kings.
Nothing can be more topsy-turvey than _your_ condition!"
"My father was a gentleman," I said, with a touch of hauteur, "and a
descendant of gentlemen. We were never common folk,--our family was one
of the most highly esteemed in the counties."
Lucio smiled.
"I do not doubt it, my dear fellow,--I do not in the least doubt it. But
a simple 'gentleman' is a long way below--or above--an Earl. Have it
which side you choose!--because it really doesn't matter nowadays. We
have come to a period of history when rank and lineage count as nothing
at all, owing to the profoundly obtuse stupidity of those who happen to
possess it. So it chances, that as no resistance is made, brewers are
created peers of the realm, and ordinary tradesmen are knighted, and the
very old families are so poor that they have to sell their estates and
jewels to the highest bidder, who is frequently a vulgar 'railway-king'
or the introducer of some new manure. You occupy a better position than
such, since you inherit your money with the farther satisfaction that
you do not know how it was made."
"True!" I answered meditatively,--then, with a sudden flash of
recollection I added--"By the way I never told you that my deceased
relative imagined that he had sold his soul to the devil, and that this
vast fortune of his was the material result!"
Lucio burst into a violent fit of laughter.
"No! Not possible!" he exclaimed derisively--"What an idea! I suppose he
had a screw loose somewhere! Imagine any sane man believing in a devil!
Ha, ha, ha! And in these advanced days too! Well, well! The folly of
human imaginations will never end! Here we are!"--and he sprang lightly
out as the brougham stopped at the Grand Hotel--"I will say good-night
to you, Tempest. I've promised to go and have a gamble."
"A gamble? Where?"
"At one of the select private clubs. There are any amount of them in
this eminently moral metropolis--no occasion to go to Monte Carlo! Will
you come?"
I hesitated. The fair face of Lady Sibyl haunted my mind,--and I felt,
with a no doubt foolish sentimentality, that I would rather keep my
thoughts of her sacred, and unpolluted by contact with things of lower
tone.
"Not to-night;"--I said,--then half smiling, I added--"It must be rather
a one-sided affair for other men to gamble with you, Lucio! You can
afford to lose,--and perhaps they can't."
"If they can't, they shouldn't play,"--he answered--"A man should at
least know his own mind and his own capacity; if he doesn't, he is no
man at all. As far as I have learned by long experience, those who
gamble like it, and when _they_ like it, _I_ like it. I'll take you with
me to-morrow if you care to see the fun,--one or two very eminent men
are members of the club, though of course they wouldn't have it known
for worlds. You shan't lose much--I'll see to that."
"All right,--to-morrow it shall be!"--I responded, for I did not wish to
appear as though I grudged losing a few pounds at play--"But to-night I
think I'll write some letters before going to bed."
"Yes--and dream of Lady Sibyl!" said Lucio laughing--"If she fascinates
you as much when you see her again on Thursday you had better begin the
siege!"
He waved his hand gaily, and re-entering his carriage, was driven off at
a furious pace through the drifting fog and rain.