The Eldest Son Part 37

He turned on her a reproachful eye. "What, you on his side, against me!" he exclaimed.

"As long as there was a chance of your having your way," she said, "I would not act in any way against you. But now I say that I have seen for myself, and I do not believe that you have anything to fear. d.i.c.k has chosen for himself, and we ought now to respect his choice."

d.i.c.k put out his hand and pressed his mother's. The Squire, faced with decision, almost with authority, from a quarter in which he had hitherto expected and obtained nothing but submission, showed neither surprise nor resentment. He sat looking on to the ground, his frown of displeasure now once again changed into a frown of perplexity.

In a moment or two he looked up and spoke, but without indignation.

"You want me, now, after all I've said and done," he said, "to give in altogether and receive this Lady George Dubec as my daughter-in-law?"

"I think," said Mrs. Clinton, "that the time has come when you must."

"Oh, for G.o.d's sake, let's have an end of it, father," said d.i.c.k.

"Give her a chance. It's all I ask of you. Let me bring her here. If you haven't changed your mind after her visit--then both of us will have done what we can for each other--and you need never see her again as long as you live."

The Squire sat without replying for a long time. Then he got up and turned to leave the room. "Very well, d.i.c.k," he said, "you may bring her here."

CHAPTER XXIII

HUMPHREY COUNTS HIS CHICKENS

Humphrey went from Kencote to Thatchover, where Lady Aldeburgh was for the time being residing with her numerous family. This did not include her husband, who preferred to play a Box and c.o.x game with her in respect of his two houses; but on his way through London Humphrey called on his prospective father-in-law to gain formal authorisation of his suit.

Lord Aldeburgh had fitted himself up a suite of bachelor chambers on the top floor of his great house in Manchester Square, and had installed a lift, which no one was allowed to use without his permission, as its rumbling disturbed him in his chosen occupations.

The chief of these was the collection of portraits of people and pictures of places, which he cut out of ill.u.s.trated papers and magazines and pasted into large alb.u.ms, indexing them up very thoroughly as he went on. He was also an ardent attender of plays and concerts and a persistent but indifferent bridge-player. He had found a club where the stakes were half a crown a hundred, and there was always a rubber to be had in the afternoon. So in the winter, which he spent mostly in London, his days were fully occupied. Early in the year he went to the Riviera or to Egypt, and about the time that his family came up to London for the season he installed himself at Thatchover and enjoyed his garden. In the autumn he went abroad again or travelled about England. He was not a rich man, but he was an entirely happy and contented one.

"His lordship is very busy this morning and I don't think he would like to be disturbed," said the servant who opened the door.

"Well, take up my name and say I won't keep him long," said Humphrey.

"I'll come up with you."

"I don't think his lordship will see you, sir," said the man; but Humphrey climbed the four flights of stairs after him and waited in the hall of Lord Aldeburgh's self-contained flat until he was admitted to the presence.

Lord Aldeburgh was in what he called his work-room. It was a large light room furnished chiefly with deal tables, each devoted to a particular pursuit. One had paste-pots and scissors and knives and rulers and a sheet of gla.s.s and a pile of papers and alb.u.ms. Another was for the making of jig-saw puzzles, a third for their elucidation, a fourth was for typewriting; and there was a reduplicating apparatus, and another table with materials for illuminating. The walls were covered with rubbings of monumental bra.s.ses, all ingeniously overlaid with colour and gilding. Lord Aldeburgh had hundreds more of these rubbings rolled up and put away in labelled drawers, and hoped before he died to have acquired one of every bra.s.s in England.

He was standing by his scissors-and-paste table when Humphrey went in, and there was a slight frown of annoyance on his otherwise amiable face. He was a big man, clean-shaven except for the rudiments of a pair of whiskers, and looked like an intelligent family solicitor, preoccupied with affairs of moment. His appearance had sometimes caused him to be taken for a serious politician and had caused him some annoyance. "I'm all for the const.i.tution and that sort of thing," he was accustomed to say, "and my vote's safe enough when it's wanted.

But I will _not_ take the chair at political meetings. It interferes with my work. Besides, if they interrupt I don't know what to say."

He had on a voluminous ap.r.o.n with bib and pockets over his tweed suit, which rather detracted from his habitual air of weight; but paste was sticky, and Lord Aldeburgh was careful of his clothes, which it was his custom to wear until they were hardly worth pa.s.sing on to his valet.

"Always pleased to see you," he said, shaking hands, his habitual courtesy struggling with his annoyance at being disturbed. "But if you hadn't come straight up I should have asked you to call again to-morrow. Friday is a very busy day with me. I have all these papers to get through, and there are so many of them now that if I don't clear them up at once the next week's are on me before I know where I am."

"I'm sorry," said Humphrey, looking with interest at the pile of cut-out pictures on the table and the pile of disjointed papers on the floor. "But I'm going down to Thatchover this afternoon and I had to see you first."

"Oh, you're going down to Thatchover!" repeated Lord Aldeburgh. "I wish I could get down. There's a good deal of replanting being done, and my gardener is such a fool that if I'm not on the spot something's bound to go wrong, though I type him out the most detailed instructions. But I really can't get away at present. I'll tell you what you might do. Just see whether he's put gla.s.s over the Androsaces and things in the rock-garden, will you? My wife's no good at that sort of thing; she don't care about it. I don't believe she knows the difference between a saxifrage and a sedum; and you can't trust to servants. If you'll do that, like a good fellow, I shall be very much obliged to you."

"Certainly I will," said Humphrey, taking out his pocketbook. "Better give me the name of the things."

"I'll type out a list from my garden book and send it down to you,"

said Lord Aldeburgh. "They're all properly labelled, and if you'll just go through them---- Thanks very much; you've relieved me of an anxiety. I very nearly threw everything up to go down for a day. But I'm glad I didn't now. Well, if you don't mind I'll get on with my work now that's settled."

He held out his hand with an engaging smile, but Humphrey said, "I haven't told you what I came about yet. I want to marry Susan. She's game, and Lady Aldeburgh doesn't object. But I wanted to know what you thought about it before we went ahead."

A frown of perplexity showed itself on Lord Aldeburgh's face. "Marry Susan!" he repeated. "Well, I don't see any objection, if you think she's old enough. But----"

"She's twenty-four," interpolated Humphrey.

"Twenty-four! Is she really? Well, it shows what I've always said, that time flies quicker than you think it does. Twenty-four! My goodness! Well, then, of course she's old enough, and I rather wonder my wife hasn't seen to it before. And what I was going to say was that my wife looks after all that sort of thing, and I'm much too busy a man to be worried about details. If I give my consent, which you're quite right in coming to ask for, I hope I shan't have any more bother about it. That's all I meant."

"I don't see why you should be bothered," said Humphrey. "There'll be questions of settlements, I suppose. But the lawyers will fix up all that."

"Oh, my goodness, yes!" said Lord Aldeburgh. "Thank heaven all that sort of thing was fixed up when I was married myself. I don't want ever to go through it again. It was sign, sign, sign from morning to night. I've forgotten what the girls were to have when they married, but I know it wasn't much, and I'm not in a position to increase it.

The rock-garden cost me an infernal lot of money last year, and I'm going to enlarge it. I suppose you don't know where I can get good blocks of limestone fairly cheap, do you? I don't care much about the sandstone I've got. At least, I don't want any more of it."

"No, I don't know," said Humphrey. "You had better give me the name of your solicitors, and we can get on to them. I suppose I can settle all the other points with Lady Aldeburgh."

"Oh, my goodness, yes!" said Lord Aldeburgh. "I'm much too busy to attend to it. Look here, I'll show you an interesting thing. It just proves what we were talking about just now, how time flies. You see this picture of Miss Enid Brown, of Laurel Lodge, Reigate, who is going to marry this fellow, Mr. Bertie Pearson, of the Cromwell Road?"

"Yes, I see," said Humphrey. "I don't particularly envy Mr. Bertie Pearson."

"Oh, I think she's a very nice-looking girl," said Lord Aldeburgh.

"But that isn't the point. Now twenty-two years ago, when I first began to make my collection, one of the first photographs I got was of a Mr. Horace Brown, of Petersfield House, Reigate, who married--here he is--I was just looking it up when you came in--see?--Miss Mary Carter, of Croydon--turn to the C book for her--it's all carefully cross-indexed--here she is. Now you've only got to compare these two faces--Miss Enid Brown and Mrs. Horace Brown--Miss Carter that was--taking Reigate into consideration--to make it quite plain that they are mother and daughter. You see it at once, don't you?"

"Yes," said Humphrey. "Same silly sort of simper."

"Oh, well, I don't know about that. But that isn't the point. The point is that this particular work of mine, which I just took up five-and-twenty years or so ago to amuse myself with, is developing into something that will be of the greatest importance to the nation by and by. When I die I've a jolly good mind to leave it to the British Museum; or if I could get some fellow to leave some money and have it carried on--why, there's no telling what it wouldn't come to. Here you're beginning to have an ill.u.s.trated register of every single soul in the country that amounts to anything. If you're good enough to have your portrait in some paper you're good enough to go down to posterity in my collection. I tell you, it's monumental. Already I've got thousands and thousands of portraits--not only of people like ourselves that you can look up in a book, but of thousands of others--quite respectable people--and at all stages. Why, if I were to begin to publish the whole thing in parts I should make a fortune, and I've a jolly good mind to see some publisher and get it done. There isn't a soul whose name was represented who wouldn't buy it. I can tell you it's turning into a jolly big thing."

"Well, it is rather interesting," said Humphrey. "What have you got about the Clintons?"

"Oh, of course, I've got a separate book about the Clintons. Like to see it? You'll find some pictures of your little lot there."

"Well, if I may, some other time," said Humphrey. "My train goes in half an hour, and I must be getting off. Then you've no objection to my urging my suit? I believe that's the correct expression."

"Not a bit in the world, my dear fellow," replied Lord Aldeburgh. "I'm not much of a family man. I'm too busy. But from what I've seen of her I should say Susan would make you a good wife, and I'm sure you'll make her a good husband. So I wish you every sort of good luck. And now I must get to work again."

So, blessed with Lord Aldeburgh's approval, Humphrey went down to Thatchover, and found a party of considerable size a.s.sembled there, all bent on extracting as much amus.e.m.e.nt as possible out of the pa.s.sing hours.

He arrived at dusk and found the family and its guests a.s.sembled in the big hall of the house. The men had been shooting, the women playing bridge, for the weather was too raw for them to care about leaving the warmth of the house. Humphrey received a somewhat vociferous welcome, for there was no one in the house with whom he was not on terms of intimacy, and felt cheered by the warmth of social intercourse into which he was plunged. "This really is rather jolly," he said to Susan Clinton, with whom he found himself presently sitting a little apart from the noisy central group. "I don't know that I ever want anything better than a big house in the country and to have it filled with jolly people."

"I shouldn't like to live in the country all the year round," said Susan. "You'd soon get out of touch."

"Oh, lor', yes," said Humphrey. "I didn't mean that. Look at my people at Kencote. It's jolly enough there every now and then in the winter when there's something to do, although it isn't exactly gay.

But to settle down there year in and year out for ever--I'd just as soon emigrate. And that's what I want to talk to you about. Things are going all right for us. We shall have enough to get along on. I tell you, I'm in high favour. But the idea is that we shall set up in the dower-house, and----"

"Oh, but that will be delightful!" Susan interrupted him. "With all those jolly old things! And the presents we shall have! Humphrey, how ripping! And there's plenty of room to have people there. If we can afford to do things well----"

"Yes, that'll be all right," said Humphrey. "But the idea is that we shall cut all the rest. I'm to give up my job, which I don't care about either one way or the other, except that it keeps me about where I want to be, and I'm to be sort of head bailiff. That's the scheme, as it's shaping itself out. Question is whether it's good enough."