"Never see such a man in my life." "Nor me, my dear!" "And yet they call this 'ere a decent 'otel!"
Claude had no doubt in his own mind as to whom they were talking about. Already the Duke inspired him with a sort of second-self-consciousness. Prepared for anything, he hastened to the room and nervously knocked at the door.
"Come in!" cried Jack's voice.
The door was unlocked; as Claude opened it the heat of the room fairly staggered him. It was a sufficiently warm summer night, yet an enormous fire was burning in the grate.
"My dear fellow!" panted Claude.
Jack was in his trousers and shirt; the sleeves were rolled up over his brawny arms; the open front revealed an estuary of hairy chest; and it was plain at a glance that the Duke was perspiring at every pore.
"It's all right," he said. "It's for the cats."
"The cats!" said Claude. They were lying round about the fire.
"Yes, poor devils! They had a fire every day in the hut, summer and winter. They never had a single one at sea. They like to sleep by it—they always did—all but Livingstone. He sleeps with me when he isn't on the loose."
"But you'll never be able to sleep in an atmosphere like this!"
Jack was cutting up a pipeful of his black tobacco.
"Well, it is warm," he admitted. "And now you mention it, I may find it a job to get asleep; but the cats like it, anyhow!" And he swore at them affectionately as he lit his pipe.
"Did you forget you'd left me downstairs?" asked Claude.
"Clean! I apologise. I took this idea into my head, and I could think of nothing else."
"May we have another window open? Thank you. I'll smoke one cigarette; then I must be off."
"Where to?"
"My chambers—to dress."
"To undress, you mean!"
"No, to dress. I've got to go out to a—to a party. I had almost forgotten about it. The truth is, I want to see Lady Caroline Sellwood, who, although not a near relation, is about the only woman in London with our blood in her veins. She will want to see you. What's the matter?"
Jack's pipe had gone out in his hand; and there he stood, a pillar of perspiring bewilderment.
"A party!" he murmured. "At this time o' night!"
Claude laughed.
"It's not ten o'clock yet; if I'm there before half-past eleven I shall be too early."
"I give you best," said Jack, shaking his head, and putting another light to his pipe. "It licks me! Who's the madman who gives parties in the middle of the night?"
"My dear fellow, everybody does! In this case it's a woman: the Countess of Darlingford."
"A live Countess!"
"Well, but you're a live Duke."
"But—I'm—a live—Dook!"
Jack repeated the words as though the fact had momentarily escaped him. His pipe went out again. This time he made no attempt to relight it, but stood staring at Claude with his bare brown arms akimbo, and much trouble in his rugged, honest face.
"You can't get out of it," laughed Claude.
"I can!" he cried. "I mean to get out of it! I'm not the man for the billet. I wasn't dragged up to it. And I don't want it! I shall only make a darned ass of myself and everybody else mixed up with me. I may be the man by birth, but I'm not the man by anything else; and look here, I want to back out of it while there's time; and you're the very man to help me. I wasn't dragged up to it—but you were. I'm not the man for the billet—but you are. The very man! You go to parties in the middle of the night, and you think nothing of 'em. They'd be the death of Happy Jack! The whole thing turns me sick with funk—the life, the money, the responsibility. I never got a sight of it till to-day; and now I don't want it at any price. You'd have got it if it hadn't been for me; so take it now—for God's sake, take it now! If it's mine, it's mine to give. I give it to you! Claude, old toucher, be the Dook yourself. Let me and the cats clear back to the bush!"
The poet had listened with amazement, with amusement, with compassion and concern. He now shook his head.
"You ask an impossibility. Without going into the thing, take my word for it that what you propose is utterly and hopelessly out of the question."
"Couldn't I disappear?" said Jack eagerly. "Couldn't I do a bolt in the night? It's a big chance for you; surely you won't lose it by refusing to help me clear out?"
Claude again shook his head.
"In a week's time you will be laughing at what you are saying now. You are one of the richest men in England; everything that money can buy you can have. You own some of the loveliest seats in the whole country; wait till I have shown you Maske Towers! You won't want to clear out then. You won't ask me to be the Duke again!"
He had purposely dwelt upon those material allurements which the bushman's mind would most readily grasp. And it was obvious that his arguments had hit the target, although not, perhaps, the bull's-eye.
"Anyhow," said Jack doggedly, "it's an offer! And I repeat it. What's more, I mean it too!"
"Then I decline it," returned Claude, to humour him; "and there's an end of the matter. Look here, though. One thing I promise. If you like, I'll see you through!"
"You will?"
"I will with all my heart."
"And you're quite sure you won't take on the whole show yourself?"
"Quite sure," said Claude, smiling.
"Still, you'll tell me what to do? You'll tell me what not to do? You'll show me the ropes? You'll have hold of my sleeve?"
"I'll do all that; at least, I'll do all I can. It may not be much. Still I'll do it."
Jack held out a hot, damp hand; yet, just then, he seemed to be perspiring most freely under the eyes.
"You're a good sort, Claudy!" said he hoarsely.
"Good-night, old fellow," said Claude Lafont.
CHAPTER IV
NOT IN THE PROGRAMME
Lady Caroline Sellwood's incomparable Wednesdays were so salient a feature of those seasons during which her husband was in office, and her town house in St. James's Square, that their standard is still quoted as the ideal of its kind. These afternoons were never dull. Lady Caroline cast a broad net, and her average draught included representatives of every decent section of the community. But she also possessed some secret recipe, the envy and the despair of other professional hostesses, and in her rooms there was never an undue preponderance of any one social ingredient. Every class—above a certain line, not drawn too high—was represented; none was over done; nor was the mistake made of "packing" the assembly with interesting people. The very necessary complement of the merely interested was never wanting. One met beauty as well as brains; wealth as well as wit; and quite as many colourless nonentities as notorieties of every hue. The proportion was always perfect, but not more so than the general good-temper of the guests. They foregathered like long-lost brothers and sisters: the demagogue and the divine; the judge and the junior; the oldest lady and the newest woman; the amateur playwright and the actor-manager who had lost his play; the minor novelist