Besides, to weaker men he had a kind of fascination. He inspired others with his own recklessness, and many almost admired his scorn of conventional beliefs. In a way, moreover, he was liked. While repudiating accepted morality in theory, he was in many respects most punctilious about points of honour. When he gave his word he never broke it. In his political speeches he never pandered to popular cries. He did not say things because they were popular, and even while he declared that all men had their price, he was never known to sell himself.
At the present time many eyes were turned towards him. He had become a great favourite in his constituency. The leader of his party had come to speak at a great gathering, and when, as the accepted candidate, he had also to address the meeting, the great man had been simply carried away by his speech. As he remarked afterwards to his colleagues, it was the speech of a statesman and an orator. It might have been Macaulay, or Burke, who had come to life again.
At times Leicester pretended to despise all this, but at heart he was proud of it. Indeed, as I have said before, ambition was the one thing which kept him from being a wastrel.
No doubt Radford Leicester's story has been repeated many times in many ways; nevertheless, it is necessary to tell it again, in order to understand something of the complex character whom I have introduced to my readers.
The club in which they had met was situated in the region of Pall Mall, and while not in the strict sense political, it was mostly frequented by those who were of Leicester's way of thinking. As I have said, it was not a large club; nevertheless, it provided a limited number of beds. These young men had come up to listen to a debate at the House of Commons, and preferred spending the night at the club to going to an hotel.
"Going to carry this thing through, Leicester?" said Winfield when the others had gone.
"If only to knock the nonsense out of those prigs," replied the other.
"Marriage is a dear price to pay."
"Then why are fellows so eager for it?"
"I don't know. Men are mostly fools, I suppose."
"Yes; but then it was not a question of marriage. It was only a question of being accepted as a possible husband."
"The same thing. No man of honour can win a woman's promise to be his wife and then jilt her."
"A great many do it. Besides, women don't care."
"Don't they? Why do you think so?"
"Because women are women. And it isn't as though this Miss Castlemaine had fears of being placed on the shelf."
"You are very cool about it, old man."
"Quite the reverse. I am quite excited. Just fancy my scheming to be the promised husband of a beautiful heiress, a sort of glorified Quakeress, rich, pious, and high-minded. Winning an election will be a small thing compared with winning her."
"But surely you'll not try and carry the thing through?"
"Why?"
"Because you don't love her."
Leicester gave a significant whistle.
"Love," he said: "does that come in?"
"It's supposed to."
"It's one of the many illusions which still exist among a certain number of people. As for its reality – "
He shrugged his shoulders significantly, and then became quiet.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Winfield presently.
"A man's secret thoughts are sacred," replied Leicester mockingly. "Do you think my pious sentiments are for public utterance?"
Winfield rose and held out his hand.
"Good-night Leicester," he said.
"What, going to bed?"
"Yes, it's past one o'clock."
"Well, what then? You've no wife to regulate your hours."
"No, but I have work to regulate them. A journalist is a slave to the public."
"Stay half an hour longer."
"What's the good?"
"I can't sleep, and it's horrible to go to bed and lie awake. Besides, I believe I've a touch of D.T."
"Nonsense. You who boast that your nerves are steel, and that no whisky can bowl you over."
"That's true, and yet – look here, Winfield, you are not one of these whining sentimentalists, and one can speak to you plainly. I was never drunk in my life; that is, I was never in a condition when I couldn't walk straight, and when I couldn't express my thoughts clearly. Nevertheless, it tells, my son, it tells. I don't get excited, and I don't get maudlin. Perhaps it would be better for me if I did."
"Why?"
"Then I should be afraid. As it is, I am afraid of nothing. And yet, I tell you, I have a bad time when I am alone in the dark. It's hell, man – it's hell!"
"Then give it up."
"I won't. Because it's all the heaven I have. Besides, I can do nothing without it. Without whisky my mind's a blank, my brains won't act. With it – that is, when I take the right quantity – nothing's impossible, man – nothing. Only – "
"What?"
"The right quantity increases – that's all. Good-night. When I come to remember, I shan't have the blues to-night."
"Why?"
"Why? Have I not to make my plans for conquest? I must win my wager!"
"Nonsense. You don't mean that?"
"But I do. Good-night, old man. Let me dream."
Radford Leicester remained only a few minutes after Winfield had left the room. Once he put his hand upon the bell, as if to ring for more whisky, but he checked himself.
"No," he said aloud, "I have had too much to-night already."
He walked with a steady step across the room, and the waiter, who had hovered around, prepared to turn out the lights.
"Good-night, Jenkins," said Leicester, as the man opened the door.
"Good-night, sir."
"Every one gone to bed except you?"
"Nearly every one, sir."
"Then I'll leave it to you to arrange for my bath in the morning. Half-past nine will do."
"Yes, sir. Hot or cold?"
A cold blast of air came along the passage. He was about to say "Cold," but he changed his mind.
"Hot, Jenkins," he said. "Good-night."
When he got to his bedroom and turned on the lights he looked at the mirror, long and steadily.
"Thirty," he said presently, "only thirty, and I'm ordering a hot bath at half-past nine in the morning. It's telling."
He wandered around the room aimlessly, but with a steady step.
"Yes," he said aloud presently, "I'll do it, if only to have the laugh out of those puppies. What's the odds? Blanche Bridgewater or Olive Castlemaine? Women are all alike – mean, selfish, faithless. Well, what then? I'm in the mood for it."
He threw himself in a chair beside the bed and began to think.
"Yes," he said presently, "that plan will work."
CHAPTER III
THE MAN AND THE WOMAN MEET
"Olive," said John Castlemaine, after reading the letters which had come to his house one morning, "I am expecting two men here to dinner to-night."
"All right, father," said the girl, who was intent on a letter of her own, "I'll tell Mrs. Bray."
John Castlemaine went to the sideboard and cut a slice of ham, and then returned to the table again. His daughter was still intent on her letter, although she occasionally took a sip of coffee.
"Letter