As we walked away, Edward said contemptuously: "Isn't that just like the race of servants all over? To come back for theirthings! Despicable race of parasitical humbugs! If I were ever so poor I should be ashamed of going out to service. I would sooner be the man who can hardly rise from his chair through over-feeding, than the man who busies himself in seeing that he consumes more than his share. The one is at any rate trying to do his duty, with all the forces of poverty and oppression ranged against him; the other merely wants to live in rich surroundings without undergoing any of the disadvantages."
"I have rather suspected that," I said. "Still, they do live simply, as far asI have observed. They are not like Lord Charles Delagrange, and that sort of person, who likes luxury for its own sake."
"I am not at all sure that some of them don't," said Edward. "But, at any rate, they all enjoy the contrast between their state and that of their masters and mistresses. You have no idea what servants are, Howard, by only knowing them at Magnolia Hall. Would you like to come with me to a few houses where, I think, I may get recruits for this movement? You will see then what the servants of the rich are really like."
It was still early in the morning, and I did not want to call on Mr. Hobson until later, so I accepted Edward's invitation. "But I hope you are not going to run yourself up against the law," I said. "Your father won't like that, nor any of yourfamily."
"My dear Howard," said Edward obstinately, "I am a reformer. Now the opportunity has come I must not be found wanting."
The first house we called at was a smaller one than either Magnolia Hall or Mr. Bolster's palace-prison-fortress. Edward told me that it was the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Slabb, who suffered much under the tyranny of a houseful of female servants. He had strong hopes that they could be worked up to revolt.
As we walked up the garden path, we observed some of the furniture grouped awkwardly round the front door, and had to pick our way through a barricade of chairs before we reached it, and rang the bell.
It was answered by an elderly maid, with her head tied up in a duster, and a broom in her hand. She did not look at all pleased to see us, and said at once: "We can't admit any callers to-day. The downstairs rooms are being turned out."
Then she recognized Edward, and said more amiably: "Oh, it's you, Mr. Perry! If you have come district-visiting, I don't so much mind. They're in bed. We can't have them aboutwhen we are busy. Perhaps you and your friend would like to go up and sit with them for half an hour. Poor things, they'll be glad of a little company. We can't expect them to enjoy these turning-out days as much as we do."
She led the way upstairs, and Edward threw an expressive look at me as we were shown into a large bedroom, where Mr. and Mrs. Slabb were lying side by side in a large bed, with a breakfast tray on a table by their side.
"Here is Mr. Perry come to see you, with a friend," said the maid. "You'll be glad to have a little chat. We're getting on very well downstairs, but I'm afraid you won't be able to get up to-day, as we have decided to have all the carpets beaten, and I'm not certain we shan't have the sweep in to-morrow. But I mustn't stand here talking."
She took the breakfast tray and went out of the room, and the old lady and gentleman brightened up a good deal as Edward sat down and began to talk to them.
"We do so 'ate these days in bed," said Mrs. Slabb pathetically, "and they won't even let us 'ave no books to read, because Augusta likes to arrange them all in colours on the shelves downstairs, and she won't 'ave 'em took out. It do seem rather 'ard, don't it?"
When I heard of this "turning-out" process taking place regularly twice a week—once for the downstairs rooms and once for the upstairs—and that each floor took one whole day, and sometimes more, I thought itwasrather hard. Mr. and Mrs. Slabb kept four maids, all demons for cleanliness and order. Sunday was the only day on which they could count, with certainty, on not being kept in bed or confined to one room downstairs; and even then they were only allowed to sit on certain chairs, and might not amuse themselves in any way, for the four maids were strict Sabbatarians.
But in spite of their much-hampered life neither Mr. nor Mrs. Slabb received with any favour Edward's invitation to them to dismiss the whole of their household and join the revolt of the masters and mistresses. Their faces grew longer and longer as he described the battle already joined.
"They are very good to us on the 'ole," said Mrs. Slabb. "We are more like friends than mistress and servants—not like some. Sometimes they even asks us to sit with them in the kitchen on Sunday evenings and sing 'ymns. I shouldn't like to do nothink to offend them. And Augusta's 'ad trouble, too. Her 'usband took and run off with 'is master's daughter, when they was butler and cook together in a big 'ouse. No, Mr. Perry, I shouldn't like to seem ungrateful to them. And, after all, itisnice to 'ave your 'ouse lookin' as clean as a new pin, always, ain't it? It's worth givin' up somethink for."
"P'raps they'll let us get up for a little this afternoon and 'ave a walk in the garden," said Mr. Slabb hopefully. "The carpets was beat only las' week, and they can't take so long. We'd be careful not to get in the way."
As Edward said afterwards, what could you do with people like that? They hugged their chains.
In one of the houses we visited we came across a man who had suffered a great disappointment. He had seen an advertisement of somebody's self-digesting food, and had ordered in a large supply of it. But his idea that it would digest itself if you left it alone long enough had turned out to be erroneous, and his servants were forcing him to go through the preliminary process of swallowing it.
He joined Edward's league.
It was in the larger houses that Edward gained the few adherents that were the meagre result of the morning's visiting. Most of these houses were so crammed with furniture and foolish and tasteless ornaments that it was almost impossible to move in them, for their owners were compelled to go on buying. I noticed that Edward's mention of Mr. Bolster's glorious breaking of glass had more effect than any of his arguments. I would mark the eyes of the man—it was nearly always a man to whom he was speaking—brighten, as he looked furtively round the room, and fed his imagination on one glorious crowded ten minutes, in which he would demolish every detested article around him. And indeed one gentleman, in a vast saloon containing several hundreds of China and glass ornaments, began then and there. We left him whooping with joy as he made a determined onslaught on them with a poker.
Edward was frankly disappointed at the result of his campaign. "What is the good of trying to help them?" he asked. "They will not help themselves. I sometimes ask myself if most of them really desire to be poor, and to gain all the benefits of character thatcome from poverty."
"Probably not," I replied. "If you were to take away the obligation of over-stuffing themselves with food and their houses with furniture, and give them servants they could order about, I should think they would consider themselves well-off."
"I am afraid you are right," said Edward, with a sigh. "I verily believe that if we had offered to take money from all the people we have visited, instead of asking them to bestir themselves to gain their own freedom, our morning would have been a triumphant success."
"Well, shall we try?" I suggested. "There is still time."
But Edward scoffed at the idea of mere indiscriminate charity. "It would only be tinkering at the disease," he said. "I want to cure it."
Edward now announced his intention of going in to Culbut to call on a Cabinet Minister of advanced Radical views.
"I have great hopes of him," he said. "The poor hate him, because they say he is trying to foist property on to them by removing their taxes one after the other, and piling them on the rich, and that if he goes on in this way much longer he will wreck the Constitution, and that that is really what he wishes to do. They say he is on the side of capital because he has none himself; but, as a matter of fact, he has sprung from the rich, and has a very tender heart for their sufferings; I have often heard him say so. If he will put himself at the head of this movement its success will be assured."
I wished Edward good luck, and when I had seen him safely round the corner set out to find Mr. Hobson's house.
According to Upsidonian ideas, this unfortunate man had certainly been brought to a pass of great misery. He lived in a large and handsome mansion surrounded by some acres of ground, and kept up an imposing establishment.
I was shown into a library very richlyfurnished, but in far better taste than any of the rooms I had been in on my visits that morning. The effect was somewhat spoiled to my eye by a plain deal-topped table and three or four Windsor chairs, which were mixed up with the rest of the furniture; but tears came into my eyes—or should have done—when I reflected that these were probably the few articles that Mr. Hobson had been able to save from the wreck of his fortunes, and must be very dear to him as reminders of his former simple and happy life. Probably they would have to go soon, for he would not be able to take up room with them which might be filled with more expensive articles.
I was sitting in one of the Windsor chairs when Mr. Hobson came into the room. He was a dejected-looking man of middle age, with refined features and courteous manners, and my heart leapt as I thought of the solace I was about to bring to his over-burdened mind.
"Mr. Hobson," I said, coming at once to the point, "I have heard your sad story, and I have come to offer you some small relief. I am prepared to accept from you the sum of twenty thousand pounds, and I hope that with this assistance you will be able to make a fresh start and get free of your difficulties."
His thin face, already beginning to fill out from the course of high feeding to which he had been brought, flushed eagerly, and his eyes brightened, but sank immediately to their previous unhappy dullness.
"You are very kind, Mr. Howard," he said, "but I am beyond help, I fear. I could not hold out any hope of asking you to repay me. My spirit is broken. Nothing goes right with me. A week ago I might have accepted such relief, and promised to take back the money whentimes were brighter. But they will never be brighter for me. I could not even use the interest you would pay me for a sum of twenty thousand pounds."
"But I don't want to pay the money back, and I don't want to pay any interest," I assured him. "I am not a money borrower. I have a good deal less than I know what to do with, and nothing will give me greater pleasure than to receive twenty thousand pounds, or even thirty thousand, as a free gift from you. We should keep the transaction entirely to ourselves, and nobody outside need know anything about it at all."
He stared at me in amazement, and then suddenly broke down altogether, and sobbed. "Oh, it is too much!" he cried. "Who are you, that you come as a messenger of hope, when nothing but ruin and darkness seemed to surround me? And why do you do it?"
These were rather awkward questions. "Never mind that," I said. "Everybody has his own axe to grind, and I assure you that you will oblige me as much as I shall oblige you by presenting me with twenty thousand pounds, or even thirty thousand, as I said. Yes, we willmake it thirty thousand. You shall write me a cheque at once—to bearer—and I will go straight to the bank and get the money."
When I had overcome his resistance, which wasted a lot of time, he told me that he could not write me a cheque as every penny that came in was reinvested at once, in a mad effort to lose it. "But if you are really serious," he said, "I can give you stocks and shares to the amount you so generously mention, and you can realize on them, or keep them on the chance of going down if you like, which they might do for you but will never do for me."
I was a little disappointed, but it made it easier for me in one way, for I could pretend that I hoped the securities would show a downward movement; and it also made it easier for him. Before we had completed our business, Mr. Hobson had almost persuaded himself that he was doing me a good turn in presenting me with the shares, which he said were bound to lose me a large fortune if I could hold on to them long enough; and I encouraged him to believe that Ishouldhold on to them with that end in view.
It ended in my accepting thirty-five thousand one pound shares in the Mount Lebanon goldmine, the purchase of which had been the chief cause of Mr. Hobson's downfall.
"I bought them at a low figure," he said. "I had been told that the reef would peter out immediately. But I had no sooner bought them than they found another still richer one, and they have been paying forty per cent ever since. They now stand at about eighty shillings, but I do believe that the end is in sight, and they may come down with a run any day. If only I could have stuck to them! But, oh, Mr. Howard, how can I ever thank you? With this burden removed, I shall be able to right myself by degrees. I shall be a new man."
He looked it already. His eyes sparkled, and he held his head erect. But when he suggested calling his wife to thank me for all I had done, I rose and said I must be going.
"Now it is understood that nobody knows about this," I said. "And please don't thank me any more. I know what I am doing, and I assure you I am very pleased to have these Mount Lebanons."
I shook hands with him, and got out of the house as quickly as he and the servants would let me.
I was a little frightened by what I had done. After intending to accept only twenty thousand pounds, I had promised to take over shares worth about seven times that amount, if I realised on them at their present figure; and I knew that I should be considered to have committed an act of sheer lunacy if it came to the ears of Mr. Perry or Edward. Besides, I could hardly get used to the idea all at once that I had suddenly become a rich man, and feared some stroke of fate that would, after all, deprive me of my well-gotten wealth.
I had had to give Herman Eppstein's name as the stockbroker who would arrange the transfer, as he was the only one I knew. There was some risk that he would give me away, but I thought I should be able to impose secrecy on him, as he had not struck me as a man of much independence of character. At any rate, I must risk it. I decided to call on him that afternoon, and now made my way back to Magnolia Hall for luncheon.
An unpleasant surprise awaited me. I was informed by Mr. Blother, who came in answer to my ring at the bell, while I waited by the open door,[33]that Lord Potter had called while I was out, with an inspector of police, for the purpose of taking my finger-prints, and would return sometime in the afternoon.
"What infernal impudence!" I said, as Mr. Blother showed me into the morning-room, preparatory to informing Mrs. Perry that I had returned. "I certainly shan't stay in."
"Oh, but you must," he said, "or they can have you up. Potter is dying to get at you. I gave him a piece of my mind this morning, but I can't say that it made much impression on him. I know Potter of old; we were at the university together. He is arrogance personified. He pretended not to know me this morning, and asked me a lot of questions about my master and mistress—as to how they spent their money, and whether there was any difficulty about keeping up the household bills to the proper figure. I told him plainly that if he had taken on the job of an inspector he had no right to come without his uniform, and if he hadn't the accounts of this house were no affair of his. The impudence of his pretending that he thought the Perrys were ordinary rich people whose house he could go in and out of just as it pleased him! I would not even take his name into them, and he went away without having got much change out ofme. You stand up to him when he comes this afternoon. Satisfy the police that you had nothing to do with the burglary, and don't let him see that you are annoyed with him for putting them on to you. You will score off him best if youignore him altogether. Well, I will tell Mrs. Perry that you are here. Mr. Howard, is it not? I don't think you gave me a card."
When the necessary formalities had been gone through, and I had taken my place at the luncheon-table, I asked what right Lord Potter had to accompany the police in their duties, and to make himself obnoxious to anyone whom he happened to dislike.
"None," said Mr. Perry emphatically.
But Mrs. Perry said: "Well, he is a member of the House of Lords. As such, he might consider it his duty to look into anything that he thought was going wrong."
"As a member of the House of Lords," said Mr. Perry didactically, "he has a share in making laws which we all have to obey. It is not part of his duty to administer them."
"I beg your pardon," said Lord Arthur. "I don't like Potter, but I must stand up for him there. Itishis duty as a member of the ruling class to interest himself in public behaviour. The House of Lords has been shorn of much of its powers, but the influence of its members remains."
"As the son of a peer, my dear Arthur," said Mr. Perry, "you are quite right to stand up for your order, and if every peer were like yourfather there would be no objection to their claiming such rights as Lord Potter, for instance, claims—to have free entry into every house, in order that he may satisfy himself that its occupants are behaving themselves as they should do. But we are a democratic country, and, as things stand now, such a claim as that must be resisted, however reasonable it may have been a hundred years ago."
"I don't know that I altogether agree with you there, Perry," said Mr. Blother. "I admit that it is intolerable that such a man as Potter should force an entrance intoyourhouse, however you may choose to live. But you would hardly object to a peer entering the establishment of a man, let us say, like Bolster—an admitted member of the lower classes."
"Edward would," said Tom. "He said the other day that however rich a man was he ought to be free from interference in his own house."
"Oh, but Edward is an advanced Socialist," said Lord Arthur. "He would deny that a peer was any better than anybody else."
"You would not go so far as to say, I suppose," said Mr. Blother, still addressing Mr. Perry, and at the same time handing him a mayonnaise of salmon, "that the House of Lords did not know what was good for the people—the common people, I mean—better than they know themselves?"
"I should deny," said Mr. Perry, "that each member of the peerage knew better than each member of the proletariat what was best for him."
"If that is the case," said Lord Arthur, in some excitement, "I beg to give you a month's notice, Mr. Perry. I can cope with Edward, but ifyouare going to preach revolutionary views it is time I looked out for another situation. I only took service here because my father said that your political views were sound at bottom, although you went farther than he approved of in many ways."
"Oh, dear Lord Arthur!" said Mrs. Perry in her pleasant sensible voice, "you know that you mustn't take everything that my husband says literally. I am sure that he only means that peers who have no official position should be careful how they exercise their rights over other people."
"Quite so," said Mr. Perry, and went on to explain that noblemen like Lord Blueberry,who accepted a post under Government, even if it were not actually one of inspection, were going the right way to work.
"As a postman," he said, "Victor Blueberry gains entrance to all the houses on his round in a way that cannot upset anybody, and none of those whom he visits can object to his making any investigations that he may wish to make, in the course of his duty, on their way of living. And the same is true of Hugh Rumborough, when he takes round their greens, although he is not in so strong a position because he is not an official. I only say that with the onward march of democracy it is no longer wise for a peer to pursue his investigations harshly."
This seemed to satisfy Lord Arthur, who withdrew his notice, and left the room for a time to compose himself.
Later on, when Mr. Blother had also left us to ourselves, Mr. Perry said: "Of course one has to be careful how one expresses one's self before Arthur. He doesn't see that what may be unobjectionable in certain cases would be indefensible if it were acted upon everywhere. At one time a peer of the realm had the right to make his will prevail over everybody beneath his own rank; but the right has fallen into disuse, and is now only exercised in the case of those who are not in a position to resent it. Arthur would, no doubt, admit that it would be an intolerable state of affairs ifanypeer took to interfering withanycommoner, whatever position he might hold; and that if it were done to any extent, the right would have to be taken away. It is only by exercising it carefully, and, as I say, on those who are not in a position to resent it, that the peers can expect to keep it at all."
"Then I understand," I said, "that Lord Potter, as a peer, really has the right to come and interfere with me, although he holds no official position."
"If you refuse to acknowledge his right," said Mr. Perry, "asIcertainly do, if he tries to force himself into this house he will not find any tribunal in the country that will punish you for it."
Miriam and I went into her garden after luncheon. When we had shut the gate and were alone together in that green and shady retreat, I took her sweet face between my hands and kissed it.
"They have been saying all sorts of things about me," I said. "Do you believe them?"
She looked me straight in the eyes, and laughed. "What, that you are not quite right in your head?" she asked.
"Well, that was Edward's idea. Blother inclines to the opinion that I was drunk."
"Mr. Blother is a very silly old man," said Miriam, "and dear old Edward is so taken up with his own affairs that one need never pay much attention to whathesays. But, John—truly now—you are not teasing me about England? Youcanfind your way there and itisas nice as you say it is?"
"Of course I can find my way there. I only wish I could go and find it now, this minute, and take you with me."
She sighed. We were now sitting on the garden-seat. "I almost wish you could," she said. "I should like to get off all the bother of the wedding. I dread that more than anything."
"Why?" I asked, in some surprise. "I thought everything was going to be as simple as possible."
"Well, father says now that he thinks wemusthave a rich wedding, and ask all our friends amongst the lower classes. I should like them to come, of course, because a lot of them are real friends; but I do hate the idea of a regular rich wedding."
"Why does your father think we ought to have one?" I asked. "He seemed to be pleased that I wasn't a man like Eppstein, and that you were marrying into your own class."
"Yes, but he says there will be such a lot of talk if we only have our poor friends. People are always saying that he isn't really in sympathy with the rich at all. Of course it isn't true, but if we had a rich wedding, and invited all the rich people and gave them presents, it would show that he does think more of them than just of pleasing our poor relations."
"Should we have to give them presents—expensive ones?"
"Yes. They are awfully good. Lots of the women in mother's district have promised to take jewels. They are quite excited about my marriage, and would like to see me settled as poorly provided for as possible. Perhaps it wouldn't be fair to disappoint them. But I do hate it so."
"Well, so do I," I said. "And I should hate to give away a lot of presents to people who had never done me any harm."
"Dear old boy!" she said affectionately. "Mother rather hates the idea of it too. But she feels, perhaps, that weoughtto think of our rich friends at a time like this."
"Miriam," I said boldly, "we can't face it. Let us go away together and get married quietly when we get to England."
The idea seemed to strike her as something rather dreadful and rather pleasing at the same time. She blushed, but her eyes were bright.
"Oh, we couldn't," she said.
"Yes, we could. Let us go away in a week's time, before all the fuss begins, and escape it."
"It really would be rather fun!" She was half joking, half in earnest, but, at any rate, she had admitted the idea into her mind, and gradually as I pressed her, making light of all difficulties, she began to waver towards acquiescence, in earnest. What her mother would think was the chief obstacle.
"I am sure she would be just as relieved as we should at escaping all the bother," I said. "You could leave her a letter."
"I could come back and see her after we were married."
"Yes, of course. We would come back to Upsidonia whenever we wanted some more—I mean whenever you wanted to. Oh, Miriam, say yes!"
She did not say yes at once, but she did a little later. She had a great sense of adventure, and became even excited at the prospect, when she had once consented to it. We decided to go away together very early in the morning in a week's time.
As long as I remained in Miriam's garden, I was safe from interruption. If the police had been waiting to arrest me for a crime, they could not have got at me, or even summoned me from outside, but must have waited until I chose to appear.
But when we had made our plans together, I thought I had better go and see if they had called again, and, if they had, give them my finger-prints and get it over.
When Miriam and I left her garden and shut the gate behind us, the first thing we saw was the ragged figure of Lord Potter, who was shuffling about with his shoulders hunched up and his hands in his pockets, looking at theflower-beds. Hovering about at some little distance from him was Mollie, who made excited signs in our direction when she saw us.
Lord Potter saw us at the same time, and came across the lawn with a very disagreeable expression on his dirty face. "The police are waiting for you up at the house, sir," he said. "It is just like you to take refuge in a lady's garden. But if you think you are going to escape me this time you are much mistaken. Off with you at once! I am not in a mood to be kept waiting any longer."
He held out his hand towards the house with a commanding gesture, and I was just about to reply to him, not altogether pacifically, when Miriam's clear young voice broke in.
"Mollie!" she called, and when Mollie came to her, she said: "Run at once and fetch Mr. Hobbs and Sir Herbert. Tell them that there is someone in the garden who has no right to be here."
Mollie ranoff, and Lord Potter's face darkened. "Do you know who I am, Miss Perry?" he asked haughtily. "But of course you do. What is the meaning of this strange behaviour?"
Miriam turned her shoulder to him, and taking my arm led me towards the house.
Lord Potter shuffled after us, and said angrily: "Answer me, please! What do you mean by treating me in this way?"
He was on the other side of Miriam, and his unsavoury presence was nearer to her than I cared for. I let go of her arm, and pushed in between them.
"Keep your distance," I said, and trod by mistake—at least—well, trod will do—on his toe.
My boots were new and strong, and his were in the last stages of consumption. With a cry of rage and agony, he took the damaged foot in his hand, and hopped about on the other, while he vented on me a flood of violent abuse.
At that moment Mr. Hobbs and Sir Herbert appeared on the scene. Miriam stopped and said: "My father has refused to have this man in the house, and we have just found him walking about in the garden. Will you please put him outside the gate?"
Lord Potter faced them. "If you dare lay a finger on me," he began——
But Mr. Hobbs, who thought there was nobody in the world like Miriam, and would have turned an emperor out of the garden if she had asked him, laid a large hand on his shoulder, and said: "I don't know who you are, but you get out of my garden."
Sir Herbert laid his hand on the other shoulder, and between them they shifted Lord Potter towards the drive, faster than was altogether convenient to him.
He was so taken aback by this treatment that at first he could only expostulate violently. But as it continued he began to resist, and then Sir Herbert, who was an athletic young man, took him by the collar with one hand and the seat of his trousers with the other, and ran him forcibly across the lawn.
The sight was so comic that I burst out laughing. Mollie did the same, jumping and clapping her hands with delight, and Miriam was not long in following suit. I was delighted to think that Lord Potter could not possibly help hearing us. The crowning point of the scene was when Tom, who had a half-holiday that afternoon, ran out of the house with a hand camera, and succeeded in taking two snapshots of the progression before it ended at the gate.
Sir Herbert came back grinning, and said: "I have owed his lordship one for a long time. When I was a boy at school, he got me a swishing for pea-shooting at him."
As for Lord Potter, he went off down the Culbut Road, without once turning back; and if ever a man looked like making mischief, he did.
The affair with the police was soon over. I put on a dignified air, and did all that they asked me to do without making any difficulty about it. They were actually apologetic before they left, and I was not surprised when they told me that they had already found and arrested the man who had committed the burglary, and that it was only because Lord Potter had insisted that they had worried me over the matter at all. They had been quite sure all along that I could have had nothing to do with it.
"Lord Potter knew that as well as you did," I said. "I rather wonder—if I may be permitted to say so—that you should have lent yourselves to pay off his scores."
They looked a little foolish at that, and one of them said: "We shall not act on his instructions again. Lord Potteris, no doubt, a very important personage, but he must not think that he can make use of our service for his private ends."
"I have just seen him doing the frog's march out of the garden," I said, "and I expect when you get back you will find him there, wanting to have some arrests made for assault. He looked like that, as far as I could judge from his back. You might tell him that photographs were taken of him, in a position not calculated to add lustre to his name, if they came to be published. It might be worth his while not to take any further steps."
The policemen laughed and went away. Whether they gave Lord Potter the hint or not, neither Mr. Hobbs nor Sir Herbert heard anything further of their treatment of him.
Later in the afternoon I called on Herman Eppstein at his office, and arranged for the transfer of the Mount Lebanon shares. He looked grave when I told him what a large block of them I had taken over, and said that there had been a distinct upward movement in Mount Lebanons during the last few days.
"I'm afraid you have bought at a very bad time," he said. "I wish you had consulted me first. I could 'ave put you on to a better spec than that. You may get badly 'it. And whatever made you take all your eggs out of one basket? Why, you'll make a fortune if these 'ere shares do go up, and what'll the family say to that, eh?"
"I know what I'm doing," I said stiffly.
"And I'll ask you to remember that I'm consulting you professionally, and in confidence. I should naturally not have come to you if I had had any fear that you would so far forget yourself as to blab of business outside your office. No gentleman would allow himself to do such a thing."
That touched him. "Well, I 'ope I know 'ow to be'ave like a gentleman," he said in an injured voice. "Nothing that's said in this room by a client goes outside it."
"Oh, I knew I was safe enough with you, really," I said carelessly. "I have proved that by coming here."
Then I gave him my instructions about selling the shares on a certain date, speaking as if I had information as to some favourable movement likely to take place before then; and impressed him somewhat with my air of inside knowledge. I left him fairly confident that he would not give me away.
The day I had fixed on for selling was the day before Miriam and I had arranged to leave the country together. I should realise my comfortable fortune, and Herman Eppstein might say what he liked about it afterwards.
We sat down to dinner that evening without Edward, but nobody expressed any anxiety about him, as his philanthropic enterprises often detached him from the family circle. I said nothing about our visits of the morning, as I thought that Mr. and Mrs. Perry would be disturbed if they knew that he was taking part in fanning the agitation amongst the masters and mistresses of Culbut.
The evening papers were full of it. Mr. and Mrs. Bolster were still in a state of siege, and it seemed unlikely that they would be dislodged unless the authorities prevailed on their various tradespeople to stop their supplies. Considering Mr. Bolster's treatment of them, I should have thought this would not be difficult, but it was explained to me that if they did not supply a customer with goods ordered by him, they not only had those goods left on their hands, but had to receive payment for them as well. Consequently, they would not consent to starve out Mr. and Mrs. Bolster unless they were indemnified against gain by the police; but probably that would be done in a day or two. In the meantime, Mr. Bolster was having the time of his life, and providing splendid copy for the papers.
I learnt, from the papers that Mr. Perry had brought home, and from his reports of what he had heard, that the movement had gathered a good deal more way than I should have thought possible from my experiences of the morning. Quite a number of rich people had followed Mr. Bolster's example, had turned out their servants, shut themselves up in their houses, and thrown things out of the windows. In some cases the servants had successfully resisted them, and had turned them out of their own houses. But it was doubtful whether this was altogether a wise step on their part, because, in the first place, it was an illegal action, and gave the masters and mistresses a legitimate grievance,and in the second it left them free to go about and stir up further trouble.
Mr. Perry shook his head over the whole business. "It is the result," he said, "of last year's phenomenal harvest. There has been great distress amongst the rich ever since. Food has dropped in price, and many families are feeling the pinch of prosperity who have got along very well so far. Unfortunately, this year seems likely to be an even more prosperous one than last. I much fear that we are at the commencement of a prolonged period of social unrest. But it is a bad look-out if it is going to be met in this way. The people who are taking the law into their own hands will not really better themselves in the long run, and they will get many more into trouble who are innocent of all offence."
"I cannot find it in my heart to blame them much," said Mrs. Perry. "No one who has not gone about amongst them as I have can form any idea of what they have to suffer. One would have to have a hard heart not to wish to help them."
"There are many of us who are trying to help them," said Mr. Perry. "If everybody in the country would live only half as well as we do, there would be no problem of wealth at all."
"And you have proved," I said boldly, "that one can live in easy surroundings without losing anything in character, and without depriving one's self of any legitimate pleasure in life."
But this statement was received well by nobody. Mr. Perry said that I had probably been deceived by the cheerfulness with which he confronted the trials of his life, and asked me if I really thought he enjoyed the luxuries to which he subjected himself. Mrs. Perry said quietly that I did not know how much their way of living cut them off from their friends. Miriam said nothing, but looked at me warningly, as if I were in danger of letting out our secret. Mr. Blother said that I didn't know what I was talking about. And Lord Arthur said pointedly that when people stayed in rich houses, and were always trying to sneak their work from the servants by doing things for themselves, it was only natural that they should hold silly views on the question.
"This preposterous movement," said Mr. Blother, "ought to have been nipped in the bud. I think, before we see the end of it, Perry, you will be rather sorry that you have taken such pains to improve the treatment of prisoners. Give all these lunatics a year or two's dose of such luxury as they have never dreamt of, and they will be glad enough to get back to their own homes, and settle down quietly to do what their servants tell them."
"If you were to shoot a few of them it would be more to the point," said Lord Arthur vindictively. "Brutes!"
Edward did not return until late that night, and came into my room to tell me what had happened. He was so exalted that he could not sleep without unburdening himself, and what he had to tell was interesting enough to keep me awake for as long as he liked to stay talking.
The movement was fairly launched. The Cabinet Minister upon whom he had called had told Edward that he was then and always on the side of the rich, but there were reasons, which he would not waste valuable time by recounting, why he could not put himself at their head in the present revolt. So they had had to do without him, but had been so successful that his leadership would hardly be missed.
"He will come in all right by and by, when he sees how strong the agitation is," said Edward, "but not as leader. He has missedthatchance, and will be sorry for it. We have done an immense amount of work already. We have formed a Masters' and Mistresses' Union, and have already got a surprising number of adherents. To-morrow we expect to more than double our figures, and before the week is out I believe we shall be strong enough to resort to peaceful picketing. Some of the younger men, who have not yet lost their muscle through luxurious living, will be told off for that purpose, and it will be surprising if they cannot induce many to join us who are still timidly holding off."
"Are the servants going to take united action?" I asked.
"They look to the Government to help them," said Edward. "It came in a year ago on the cry of 'Work for All,' and their view is that it is bound to see that they get work. They are at present merely scandalised at finding that their victims are determined to throw off the yoke, and, moreover, are strong enough to do it. They will be more scandalised still, to-morrow, and very soon there will be so many of them without situations that they will be forced to take some steps. But in the meantime we shall organise—organise; and by thetime they wake up to do the same we shall be too strong for them. My dear fellow, you have come to Culbut at a glorious moment. The vile structure of tyranny is tottering to its base, and before you are many days older you will see it topple over and sink into the dust, never more to be revived."
"That will be very interesting," I said. "You don't think that the police will be strong enough to scotch the movement, before it grows?"
"It has grown beyond that already. They can't even get at Bolster. If they had been able to arrest him at the start, they might have intimidated the rest. But there must be some scores of people who have barricaded themselves into their houses to-night, and thrown all their surplus goods out of the window. They can't deal with them all; there aren't enough of them to do it. No; we have already got to the point at which we can make terms. Very soon we shall be strong enough to dictate them. Oh, my dear Howard, I can't tell you what I feel about it. I feel inclined now, at this moment, to throw every article of value in this room out of the window."
"Oh, I shouldn't do that if I were you," Isaid, with an eye on the silver-backed brushes I had acquired at the Universal Stores. "There is nothing to complain of in this house."
"Not much, perhaps, but there is the principle. Still, our servants here are our friends. Blother often spanked me as a child, and Arthur and I played fives together at school. I don't want to make trouble here. I think, considering what we have done to help the rich, nobody can call us disloyal for standing outside."
"I am sure your father would much prefer it."
"Has he talked about it at all?" Edward asked a little anxiously. "What are his views of the movement?"
"I think he feels that it is a little too upsetting altogether. He showed no disposition to throw his dinner out of the window this evening."
"That would, perhaps, be too much to expect of him," said Edward. "Twenty years ago I am sure he would have been the first to do it."
"I am not so sure about that," I said. "He seems to have taken his own quiet line from the beginning. He has forced himself rigidly into a life of luxury, and, as far as I have observed, has never flinched from it."
"No," said Edward. "He has led a noble and beautiful life of self-sacrifice, and it sometimes crosses my mind that it has rewarded him by making him happier living as a rich man than as a poor man."
"The same idea has occasionally crossedmymind," I said. "I shouldn't drag him into it, if I were you."
"I think perhaps you are right. I should not like to distract his mind by trying to persuade him to take a leading part in this great fight for freedom. Let him go on in his quiet unselfish way. He has really been fighting for us, and preparing the way for this all his life."
When Edward had told me all that had happened, and a great deal of what he hoped would happen, he became rather pensive.
"Do you know," he said, "I believe this is the last night I may sleep in my own peaceful home, which, for all its drawbacks of wealth and ease, is still very dear to me. It may beweeks, or even years, before I may come back to it."
"Why do you think that?" I asked.
"To-morrow we demonstrate. We march through the streets of Culbut with banners. I shall be at the head of the procession, with others, of course, but at any rate in a prominent position. I shall be a marked man."
Legitimate pride in the thought of this distinction seemed to be struggling in Edward's mind with the melancholy that was fast stealing over him. He paused, and then added with a sigh: "Very likely I shall be arrested."
"Oh, well," I said, "if you put your head in the lion's mouth you must be prepared for his biting. I wish to goodness you would take it out before it is too late—for the sake of your family, if not for your own."
But Edward would not do that; he said that he must go on with his work, wherever it led him. The only encouragement I could give him was that they would probably treat his as a political offence, for which they would only imprison him in the first division, in which, as he had once assured me, they would give him plenty of manual labour, and feed him chiefly on bread and water.
This cheered him somewhat, and he left me to prepare himself for the morrow.
The parade of the newly formed Masters' and Mistresses' Union duly took place, and was attended by no immediately unpleasant results as far as Edward or the other leaders were concerned.
It was quite an orderly demonstration, and its organisers had been astute enough to disassociate themselves from the anarchical proceedings of Mr. Bolster, and those who had followed his lead. I discovered that Edward had given me an over-coloured account of the importance that these outbreaks had had in the movement, and possibly of his own share in directing it. He carried a banner in the procession, on which had been emblazoned, rather hurriedly, the words: "We Want to Make our own Beds," and marched, surrounded by the mistresses, about halfway down the line. If the police had made any arrests, I doubt if they would have picked him out, or even if they would have noticed him.
All would have gone well if Edward had nowbeen content to work on these safe and constitutional lines. There were stronger heads than his directing affairs, and with such success that they were able to throw over those who had been responsible for quickening the unrest into life. They even encouraged the police to take active steps against those who had put themselves into a stage of siege. The tradespeople were forced to stop their supplies, and they were all starved out within a week. When they got them under lock and key they dealt leniently with them, for public opinion was largely on their side. But Edward was so furious with the cynical way in which his fellow progressives had repudiated these noble-spirited pioneers that there was no holding him, and at last he achieved that crown of martyrdom for which he had thirsted, and was arrested, as he was leaving a meeting of the Super-Assessed Employers' Protest League.
I went to the court to hear him tried, and met one ofthe policemen who had come to take my finger-prints. He told me that I had nearly been arrested too, as I had been seen with Edward in Mr. Bolster's garden when he had been persuading people to throw things out of their own windows, in imitation of that hero, but the authorities had refused to prosecute me. Without actually saying so he gave me to understand that Lord Potter was at the bottom of it, but that the case against Edward was so strong that they could not refuse to take it up when once the information had been laid.
Lord Potter pushed his way into the court as we were speaking together, and when he saw me glared with fury, but said nothing, not even when I asked him politely if he would like any more prints of Tom's photographs.
These had turned out well, and created much amusement in the family circle. Unknown to Mr. Perry, who might have objected, a print of each had been sent to Lord Potter, and had probably pleased him less than the rest of us:
Edward stood up in the dock like a man, acknowledged all that was alleged against him, glorified in it, and made a speech to the effect that a day would come.
The magistrate listened to him indulgently, and said he was sorry to see a young man of his character and parentage in such a position. He would not be doing his duty if he overlooked the offence, but on account of Edward's hitherto blameless record, and the purity of his intentions, would sentence him to a month's imprisonment in the first division. He hoped that this very lenient punishment, for an offence that was graver than he seemed to recognise, would encourage him for the future to confine his efforts for the amelioration of the rich to more legitimate channels.
I shook Edward by the hand as he was led away to undergo his punishment, and he told me to tell his family not to grieve for him. Nothing would daunt his spirit, and, if he survived his punishment, he should come out of prison more determined to carry on his work than when he went in.
Edward's conviction cast a gloom over us at Magnolia Hall. Mr. Perry was particularly cast down by it, and did not seem to be able to take any comfort from the fact that Edward was to be treated as a prisoner of the first class.
"They are sending them to work undergroundin the coal mines now," he said, "and they feed them chiefly on skilly. These were reforms that were long since overdue, and I have perhaps had more to do with them than anybody. But, even with those alleviations, imprisonment is a terrible thing, and it goes to my heart that a son of mine should be treated in this way, after all I have done. I sometimes wonder whether it has been worth it, and whether I should not have done better for those dear to me if I had kept to the life to which I was born."
Mrs. Perry and Miriam both assured him that he would not, and presently managed to assuage the sharpness of his grief.
"You are one and all of you wonderful supports to a man who has taken up a thankless and difficult task," he said. "When I see you so cheerfully ready to bear your share of the burden, I must not shrink from doing my part. I am still whole-hearted in my sympathy with the rich. Blother, old friend, bring up a bottle of champagne—two bottles. I must not falter. I cannot go to prison, but I can and will continue to play my part in the great work."
Blother brought the champagne. He was much moved, and put all the trouble down to the malignity of Lord Potter.
"No one would have taken any notice of Edward's foolish little game if Potter hadn't forced them to," he said. "It is well known that Edward is a quite harmless crank, and for your sake, Perry, they ought to have left him alone. But don't take on about it. You won't find yourself any the less regarded because of this, and when young Edward comes back to us, we must try to keep him in better order."
Mr. Blother was right in saying that no one thought the worse of Mr. Perry for the blow that had been dealt him. He received many tokens of sympathy from both public and private sources, and soon came to regard Edward's imprisonment with complete equanimity.
"I think this trial must have been sent to me for my good," he said to me two days later. "I am experiencing a wonderful calm of spirit in spite of it. I shall use the period of my poor Edward's incarceration as a breathing space, and shall give up as many of my activities as possible for the next month. When he returns to us, I think I shall persuade him to travel for a time, and after that we shall be able to return to our work together with renewed zest."
Two days after Edward's conviction, when we were all getting a little accustomed to his loss, Miriam and I had spent an hour of the afternoon in her garden, laying plans for our now fast-approaching elopement, and had just left it when Mollie came running towards us with the news that Herman and Amelia had come to tea, and wanted to see us both.
I always felt a little uneasy at the thought of Herman Eppstein, and as in two days' time he was to sell my holding in Mount Lebanons, I thought that he might have come to say something to me about them.
I was determined, however, that he should not say it in the drawing-room, if I could possibly help it. Directly we went in, I began to talk about Edward, and about the exciting things that were happening generally, and so infected the rest with my loquacity that they all became loquacious too, and we made an animated party. Mr. Perry was there, which was somewhat unusual, but since Edward's departure he had been about the house a good deal, and seemed to find it restful.
I saw very plainly, though, that Eppstein was dying to bring out some news, and only awaited a lull in the conversation to do so. I was also doubtful whether his wife did not know as much about Mount Lebanons as he did, for her eye was often fixed upon me with a curious expression. She took her full share in the conversation, but I could see that she would make no effort to prolong it if it flagged of its own accord. I tried to make signs to Eppstein, but he either couldn't or wouldn't understand them, and presently I had to resign myself to some ultimate revelation.
Just as I thought, and the Eppsteins must also have thought, that this time had come, there was a diversion. I heard a ring at the front door bell, and heard Blother and Lord Arthur go across the hall to answer it. I exerted myself to give the talk another fillip, until the caller, if there was one, should arrive, and breathed again when the door was flung open and Mr. Blother's sonorous voice announced a name. But when I heard that name my spirit sank again.
The visitor was Mr. Hobson, and he came into the room with a wild and disordered air, which changed to one of menace as, without even greeting Mrs. Perry, he pointed at me and cried: "Deceiver! You are not what you pretend to be!"
Few deceivers are; and my conscience was not wholly clear. But I was, at any rate, unconscious of having done Mr. Hobson any harm, and asked him, in some surprise, what complaint he had against me.
It was Herman Eppstein who took up the question, and dealt with it with a resource which I should hardly have expected of him.
"I know all about it, Mr. 'Obson," he said, "and you 'aven't nothing to grumble at. Mr. 'Oward took over your shares at market price, and did you a very good turn. If you'd a knowed you could do better by 'anging on to them, why did you let 'em go?"
Mr. Hobson sank into a chair, and buried his face in his hands, rocking his body to and fro.
"I might have known it," he said. "Nothing I ever do goes right. If I had kept those shares, I should have been a poor man once more. And Ishouldhave kept them, if he hadn't come and pretended to be doing me a good turn."
He lifted up his head, and hissed the word "Viper!" at me, and then subsided once more into his state of misery.
"What is it all about, Herman? What has happened?" asked Mr. Perry.
I also wanted to know what had happened. I was not feeling at all comfortable, and no longer wished to prevent Eppstein from telling his story.
"Mr. 'Oward took over thirty-five thousand Mount Lebanon shares from Mr. 'Obson. It was all in order, and Mr. 'Obson must 'ave been precious glad to get rid of them. Mr. 'Oward 'olds them now, and I take this opportunity of congratulating him. Still, I do think, as 'e is almost a member of this family and you might say, 'e might 'ave let some of the rest of us into the know, instead of keeping all the good luck to 'imself."
"What has happened?" asked Mr. Perry again.
"Arst 'im. 'E'll tell you," said Eppstein.
"I would rather you did," I said. "You can put it more lucidly."
"Well, they've been rocky for a long time," explained Eppstein, "but they bulled them up, and never let on that they'd come to the end of their lode. But this afternoon the news come that there's been no gold for a long time, and they've been paying interest out of capital. And that ain't all. There's never been more than five shillings a share paid on them. They're calling up another five shillings at the end of a month, and they'll call up the rest at three months' intervals, and then they'll wind up. 'Oward, I don't bear no malice—you've got the bulge on all of us this time—and I should like to shake 'ands with you."
I shook hands with him, my brain in a tumult, then with his wife, and finally with Mr. Perry, who had by this time taken in the full meaning of Eppstein's announcement, which was a good deal more than I had.
It was Hobson who brought home to me the appalling reality.
"He came to me," he said accusingly, "and offered to take twenty or thirty thousand pounds from me as a free gift. He led me up to offering him all my holding in Mount Lebanons. If I had kept them I should have stood to lose over £140,000 now, and should have been entitled to pay up another £26,000 in calls—nearly £170,000 in all. And nowhehas lost all that, and I say it isn't fair. He has swindled me."
There followed an altercation between him and Eppstein and Mr. Perry. Mr. Perry rebuked him for the unfounded accusations he had made against me, and Eppstein told him thathewas the swindler if he expected to lose it both ways. But still, he kept on repeating his reproaches, and finally I took a bold resolution, and generously offered to let him have his shares back again.
But neither Eppstein nor Mr. Perry would hear of this, and I was not in a position to press it. After all, Hobson had already lost the full value of his shares, and could only stand to gain by the amount he would have had to pay up on the calls.
When this was pointed out to him, he acknowledged that he had never been much of a business man, apologised to me for his behaviour, and went away somewhat comforted, leaving me to the congratulations of the family.
I accepted them, I hope, modestly. I was almost paralysed by the blow. Instead of being able to leave Upsidonia with a comfortable fortune, I should leave it under an appalling burden of debt. I had lost a hundred and seventy thousand pounds, and could only comfort myself with the resolution never again as long as I lived to put my finger in the Stock Exchange pie. But it was cold comfort enough, and I broke away as soon as I could from the delight of Mr. Perry, who now saw in me a most eligible son-in-law, and from the ill-concealed jealousy of Mrs. Eppstein. I took Eppstein into the library with me on the plea of business. I wanted time to think before I had another talk with Miriam, who, I could see, had been deeply puzzled by the foregoing conversation, and whose due it was to have all the explanation I could offer.