'A noble Spanish family,' said the dowager. 'One can see it every gesture of the child.'
It was plain that the old lady intended Mr. Barnes's hoards to repair the ravages of dissipation on the never very productive estates of Clanmacnalty, and that while Elvira continued in Lady Flora's custody, there was little chance of a meeting between her and Allen. The girl seemed to be submitting passively, and no doubt her new friends could employ tact and flattery enough to avoid exciting her perverseness. No doubt she had been harassed by Allen's exaction of response to his ardent affection, and wearied of his monopoly of her. Maiden coyness and love of liberty might make her as willing to elude his approach as her friends could wish.
Once only, at a garden party, did he touch the tips of her fingers, but no more. She never met his eye, but threw herself into eager flirtation with the men he most disliked, while the lovely carnation was mounting in her cheek, and betraying unusual excitement. It became known that she was going early in July into the country with some gay people who were going to give a series of fetes on some public occasion, and then that she was to go with Lady Clanmacnalty and her unmarried daughter to Scotland, to help them entertain the grouse-shoot- party.
Allen's stay in London was clearly of no further use, as Jock perceived with a sensation of relief, for all his pity could not hinder him from being bored with Allen's continual dejection, and his sighs over each unsuccessful pursuit. He was heartily tired of the part of confidant, which was the more severe, because, whenever Allen had a fit of shame at his own undignified position, he vented it in reproaches to Jock for having called him up to London; and yet as long as there was a chance of seeing Elvira, he could not tear himself away, was wild to get invitations to meet her, and lived at his club in the old style and expense.
Bobus was brief with Allen, and ironical on Jock's folly in having given the summons. For his own part he was much engrossed with his appointment, going backwards and forwards between Oxford and London, with little time for the concerns of any one else; but the evening after this unfortunate garden party, when Jock had accompanied his eldest brother back to his rooms, and was endeavouring, by the help of a pipe, to endure the reiteration of mournful vituperations of destiny in the shape of Lady Flora and Mrs. Gould, the door suddenly opened and Bobus stood before them with his peculiarly brisk, self- satisfied air, in itself an aggravation to any one out of spirits.
'All right,' he said, 'I didn't expect to find you in, but I thought I would leave a note for the chance. I've heard of the very identical thing to suit you, Ali, my boy.'
'Indeed,' said Allen, not prepared with gratitude for his younger brother's patronage.
'I met Bulstrode at Balliol last night, and he asked if I knew of any one (a perfect gentleman he must be, that matters more than scholarship) who would take a tutorship in a Hungarian count's family. Two little boys, who live like princes, tutor the same, salary anything you like to ask. It is somewhere in the mountains, a feudal castle, with capital sport.'
'Wolves and bears,' cried Jock, starting up with his old boyish animation. 'If I wasn't going pig-sticking in India, what wouldn't I give for such a chance. The tutor will teach the young ideas how to shoot, of course.'
'Of course,' said Bobus. 'The Count is a diplomate, and there's not a bad chance of making oneself useful, and getting on in that line. I should have jumped at it, if I hadn't got the Japs on my hands.'
'Yes, you,' said Allen languidly.
'Well, you can do quite as well for a thing like this,' said Bobus, 'or better, as far as looking the gentleman goes. In fact, I suspect as much classics as Mother Carey taught us at home would serve their countships' turn. Here's the address. You had better write by the first post to-morrow, for one or two others are rising at it; but Bulstrode said he would wait to hear from you. Here's the letter with all the details.'
'Thank you. You seem to take a good deal for granted,' said Allen, not moving a finger towards the letter.
'You won't have it?'
'I have neither spirits nor inclination for turning bear-leader, and it is not a position I wish to undertake.'
'What position would you like?' cried Jock. 'You could take that rifle you got for Algeria, and make the Magyars open their eyes. Seriously, Allen, it is the right thing at the right time. You know Miss Ogilvie always said the position was quite different for an English person among these foreigners.'
'Who, like natives, are all the same nation,' quietly observed Allen.
'For that matter,' said Jock, 'wasn't it in Hungarie that the beggar of low degree married the king's daughter? There's precedent for you, Ali!'
Allen had taken up the letter, and after glancing it slightly over, said-
'Thanks, Vice-principal, but I won't stand in the light of your other aspirants.'
'What can you want better than this?' cried Jock. 'By the time the law business is over, one may look in vain for such a chance. It is a new country too, and you always said you wanted to know how those fellows with long- tailed names lived in private life.'
Both brothers talked for an hour, till they hoped they had persuaded him that even for the most miserable and disappointed being on earth the Hungarian castle might prove an interesting variety, and they left him at last with the letter before him, undertaking to write and make further inquiries.
The next day, however, just as Jock was about to set forth, intending, as far as might be, to keep him up to the point, Bobus made his appearance, and scornfully held out an envelope. There was the letter, and therewith these words:-
'On consideration, I recur to my first conclusion, that this situation is out of the question. To say nothing of the injury to my health and nerves from agitation and suspense, rendering me totally unfit for drudgery and annoyance, I cannot feel it right to place myself in a situation equivalent to the abandonment of all hope. It is absurd to act as if we were reduced to abject poverty, and I will never place myself in the condition of a dependent. This season has so entirely knocked me up that I must at once have sea air, and by the time you receive this I shall be on my way to Ryde for a cruise in the Petrel.'
'_His_ health!' cried Bobus, his tone implying three notes, scarcely of admiration.
'Well, poor old Turk, he is rather seedy, ' said Jock. 'Can't sleep, and has headaches! But 'tis a regular case of having put him to flight!'
'Well, I've done with him,' said Bobus, 'since there's a popular prejudice against flogging, especially one's elder brother. This is a delicate form of intimation that he intends doing the dolce at mother's expense.'
'The poor old chap has been an ornamental appendage so long that he can't make up his mind to anything else,' said Jock.
'He is no worse off than the rest of us,' said Bobus.
'In age, if in nothing else. '
'The more reason against throwing away a chance. The yacht, too! I thought there was a Quixotic notion of not dipping into that Elf's money. I'm sure poor mother is pinching herself enough.'
'I don't think Ali knows when he spends money more than when he spends air,' returned Jock. 'The Petrel can hardly cost as much in a month as I have seen him get through in a week, protesting all the while that he was living on absolutely nothing. '
'I know. You may be proud to get him down Oxford Street under thirty shillings, and he never goes out in the evening much under half that.'
'Yes, he told me selling my horses was shocking bad economy.'
'Well, it was your own doing, having him up here,' said Bobus.
'I wonder how he will go on when the money is really not there.'
'Precisely the same,' said Bobus; 'there's no cure for that sort of complaint. The only satisfaction is that we shall be out of sight of it.'
'And a very poor one,' sighed Jock, 'when mother is left to bear the brunt.'
'Mother can manage him much better than we can,' said Bobus; 'besides, she is still a youngish woman, neither helpless nor destitute; and as I always tell you, the greatest kindness we can do her is to look out for ourselves.'
Bobus himself had done so effectually, for he was secure of a handsome salary, and his travelling expenses were to be paid, when, early in the next year, he was to go out with his Principal to confer on the Japanese the highest possible culture in science and literature without any bias in favour of Christianity, Buddhism, or any other sublime religion.
Meantime he was going home to make his preparations, and pack such portions of his museum as he thought would be unexampled in Japan. He had fulfilled his intention of only informing his mother after his application had been accepted; and as it had been done by letter, he had avoided the sight of the pain it gave her and the hearing
