Upsidonia Part 25

"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.

CHAPTER XXVII

We sat down to dinner that evening without Edward, but n.o.body 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 n.o.body. 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 missed _that_ chance, 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 the time 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," I said, 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, n.o.body 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 n.o.ble 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 crossed _my_ mind," 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 be weeks, 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 a.s.sured 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.

CHAPTER XXVIII

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.