The Big Drum Part 65

Yes, I'm aware of it. Madame de Chaumie informed me of the circ.u.mstance.

SIR TIMOTHY.

[_Nodding._] She would; she would. [_Straightening himself._] Well, Mr.

Mackworth, while I was abroad I heard from various sources that you had become a pretty regular visitor at the house of her parents, and that you and she were to be seen together occasionally in the secluded spots of Kensington Gardens; and I naturally inferred that it was yourself she'd had the good taste to single out from among her numerous suitors.

PHILIP.

[_With a smile._] I'd rather you didn't put it in that way, Sir Timothy; but I guessed yesterday that the facts of the case had reached you through some channel or other.

SIR TIMOTHY.

Yesterday?

PHILIP.

When Robbie Roope brought me your kind greetings.

SIR TIMOTHY.

Ah, that's nice of you! [_Constrainedly._] That's--nice of you.

PHILIP.

[_Changing his position and unbending._] But tell me! I don't know yet what you have to say to me about Madame de Chaumie--but why should you find it embarra.s.sing to speak of her to me? [_Gently._] We're men of the world, you and I; and it isn't the rule of life that the prize always goes to the most deserving. [_With animation._]

"And in the world, as in the school, I'd say, how fate may change and shift; The prize be sometimes with the fool, The race not always to the swift.

The strong may yield, the good may fall, The great man be a vulgar clown, The knave be lifted over all, The kind cast pitilessly down."

So sang one of the n.o.blest gentlemen who have ever followed my calling!

[_There is a brief silence, and then_ SIR TIMOTHY _rises abruptly and walks to the fireplace._ PHILIP _looks after him, perplexed._

SIR TIMOTHY.

[_Facing the fire._] Mr. Mackworth----

PHILIP.

Eh?

SIR TIMOTHY.

I saw Bertram Filson last night--her brother.

PHILIP.

[_p.r.i.c.king up his ears._] You did? Where?

SIR TIMOTHY.

At the club--the Junior Somerset. He came in late, looking a bit out of gear, and ate a mouthful of dinner and drank a whole bottle of Pommery; and afterwards he joined me in the smoking-room and--and was exceedingly communicative.

PHILIP.

[_Attentively._] Oh?

SIR TIMOTHY.

I didn't encourage him to babble--[_turning_] 'twas he that insisted on confiding to me what had occurred----

PHILIP.

Occurred?

SIR TIMOTHY.

That you and Madame de Chaumie had had a serious difference, and that there's small prospect of its being bridged over.

PHILIP.

[_Glaring._] Oh, he confided _that_ to you, did he, Sir Timothy?

SIR TIMOTHY.

He did.

PHILIP.

[_Rising and pacing up and down on the left._] And what the devil does Filson mean by gossiping about me at a club--me and my relations with Madame de Chaumie!

SIR TIMOTHY.

[_Advancing a little._] Ah, don't be angry! The champagne he'd drunk had loosened his tongue. And then, I'm a friend of the family----

PHILIP.

Infernal puppy!

SIR TIMOTHY.

Referring to _Filson_?

PHILIP.

Of course.

Sir Timothy.