Part 106 (1/2)

'Myself!'

'Inestimable boon, doubtless; but what of fortune--position or place in life?'

'The first Napoleon used to say that the ”power of the unknown number was incommensurable”; and so I don't despair of showing her that a man like myself may be anything.'

d.i.c.k shook his head doubtingly, and the other went on: 'In this round game we call life it is all ”brag.” The fellow with the worst card in the pack, if he'll only risk his head on it, keep a bold face to the world and his own counsel, will be sure to win. Bear in mind, d.i.c.k, that for some time back I have been keeping the company of these great swells who sit highest in the Synagogue, and dictate to us small Publicans. I have listened to their hesitating counsels and their uncertain resolves; I have seen the blotted despatches and equivocal messages given, to be disavowed if needful; I have a.s.sisted at those dress rehearsals where speech was to follow speech, and what seemed an incautious avowal by one was to be ”improved” into a bold declaration by another ”in another place”; in fact, my good friend, I have been near enough to measure the mighty intelligences that direct us, and if I were not a believer in Darwin, I should be very much shocked for what humanity was coming to. It is no exaggeration that I say, if you were to be in the Home Office, and I at the Foreign Office, without our names being divulged, there is not a man or woman in England would be the wiser or the worse; though if either of us were to take charge of the engine of the Holyhead line, there would be a smash or an explosion before we reached Rugby.'

'All that will not enable you to make a settlement on Nina Kostalergi.'

'No; but I'll marry her all the same.'

'I don't think so.'

'Will you have a bet on it, d.i.c.k? What will you wager?'

'A thousand--ten, if I had it; but I'll give you ten pounds on it, which is about as much as either of us could pay.'

'Speak for yourself, Master d.i.c.k. As Robert Macaire says, ”_Je viens de toucher mes dividendes_,” and I am in no want of money. The fact is, so long as a man can pay for certain luxuries in life, he is well off: the strictly necessary takes care of itself.'

'Does it? I should like to know how.'

'With your present limited knowledge of life, I doubt if I could explain it to you, but I will try one of these mornings. Meanwhile, let us go into the drawing-room and get mademoiselle to sing for us. She will sing, I take it?'

'Of course--if asked by you.' And there was the very faintest tone of sneer in the words.

And they did go, and mademoiselle did sing all that Atlee could ask her for, and she was charming in every way that grace and beauty and the wish to please could make her. Indeed, to such extent did she carry her fascinations that Joe grew thoughtful at last, and muttered to himself, 'There is vendetta in this. It is only a woman knows how to make a vengeance out of her attractions.'

'Why are you so serious, Mr. Atlee?' asked she at last.

'I was thinking--I mean, I was trying to think--yes, I remember it now,'

muttered he. 'I have had a letter for you all this time in my pocket.'

'A letter from Greece?' asked she impatiently.

'No--at least I suspect not. It was given me as I drove through the bog by a barefooted boy, who had trotted after the car for miles, and at length overtook us by the accident of the horse picking up a stone in his hoof.

He said it was for ”some one at the castle,” and I offered to take charge of it--here it is,' and he produced a square-shaped envelope of common coa.r.s.e-looking paper, sealed with red wax, and a shamrock for impress.

'A begging-letter, I should say, from the outside,' said d.i.c.k.

'Except that there is not one so poor as to ask aid from me,' added Nina, as she took the doc.u.ment, glanced at the writing, and placed it in her pocket.

As they separated for the night, and d.i.c.k trotted up the stairs at Atlee's side, he said, 'I don't think, after all, my ten pounds is so safe as I fancied.'

'Don't you?' replied Joe. 'My impressions are all the other way, d.i.c.k. It is her courtesy that alarms me. The effort to captivate where there is no stake to win, means mischief. She'll make me in love with her whether I will or not.' The bitterness of his tone, and the impatient bang he gave his door as he pa.s.sed in, betrayed more of temper than was usual for him to display, and as d.i.c.k sought his room, he muttered to himself, 'I'm glad to see that these over-cunning fellows are sure to meet their match, and get beaten even at the game of their own invention.'

CHAPTER Lx.x.xI

AN UNLOOKED-FOR CORRESPONDENT

It was no uncommon thing for the tenants to address pet.i.tions and complaints in writing to Kate, and it occurred to Nina as not impossible that some one might have bethought him of entreating her intercession in their favour. The look of the letter, and the coa.r.s.e wax, and the writing, all in a measure strengthened this impression, and it was in the most careless of moods she broke the envelope, scarcely caring to look for the name of the writer, whom she was convinced must be unknown to her.