Toilers of Babylon: A Novel. Farjeon Benjamin Leopold

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СКАЧАТЬ day previous to that upon which Kingsley entered his father's house, with the intention of making a clean breast of it with respect to Nansie, Mr. Manners himself had returned from Russia where he had been for five months superintending a railway contract for the Russian government, which he had brought to a successful conclusion.

      CHAPTER V

      Father and son greeted each other cordially, but after the undemonstrative manner of Englishmen.

      "Well, father?"

      "Well, Kingsley?"

      Then they shook hands, and smiled and nodded at each other.

      "Has everything gone off well, father?"

      "Everything. The balance on the right side will be larger than I expected."

      "That is better than being the other way."

      "Perhaps; but I prefer matters to come out exactly as I planned them. It is altogether more satisfactory. I will tell you all about it to-night, when we must have a long talk. I have a lot of letters to attend to now."

      Kingsley took the hint, and, after seeing his mother, went to his room. The first thing he did there was to take out Nansie's portrait and gaze fondly on it and kiss it. He had parted from her and her father in the morning, and had promised to write to her before he went to bed. As he had an hour now to spare, he thought he could not better employ it than in covering four sheets of paper to the girl he loved, so he sat down and enjoyed himself to his heart's content. His letter was full of the usual lover's rhapsodies, and need not here be transcribed. There was in it something better than rhapsodies, the evidence of an earnest, faithful spirit, which made it the sweetest of reading to Nansie when she received it on the following day. Kingsley mentioned that he and his father were to have a long talk together that night, and that, if he found a favorable opportunity, he would take advantage of it to make confession to his father; also if he had any good news to communicate, he might write again before he went to bed. And then, with fond and constant love and untold kisses, he was forever and ever her faithful lover, and so on, and so on. Very precious and comforting are these lovers' sweet trivialities.

      Dinner over, Kingsley and his father sat together in the contractor's study, at a table upon which were wine and cigars. Mr. Manners drank always in great moderation, and did not smoke. Kingsley's habits were after a freer fashion, and his father did not disapprove. The first hour was occupied in a description by Mr. Manners of the operations in which he had been engaged in Russia, and of the difficulties which he had to surmount. He made light of these, but he was proud of his last success.

      "There were mountains to cut through, Kingsley," he said, "and Russian prejudices to overcome; I hardly know which of the two was the more difficult job."

      "There were dangers, father, as well as difficulties," observed Kingsley.

      "Yes, there were dangers; you have heard something of them?"

      "I have seen accounts in the papers from time to time. You see, father, the railway you have laid down is a step nearer to India."

      "I am pleased to hear you say that, Kingsley."

      "Why?" asked Kingsley, rather surprised.

      "Because it shows you take an interest in politics."

      "I have done that for some time past, as you know, father."

      "Yes, and it pleases me. A step nearer to India. That is so, but it is no business of mine. It may," with a light touch of his finger on his son's breast, "by and by be business of yours, when you are a statesman. About the dangers? What did you read?"

      "There were pestilent morasses to be bridged over or cut through, and there was great loss of life."

      "Quite correct; the mortality was serious; fortunately I employed native labor."

      "But it was human life, father, whether Russian or English."

      "Quite true again, Kingsley."

      "Holding views as I do, father," said Kingsley, "there appears to me something anomalous-that is putting it very mildly-in this last operation of yours."

      Mr. Manners smiled good-humoredly, and nodded his head in pleasant approval.

      "Go on, Kingsley."

      "For instance, the matter of Russia's nearer approach to India being facilitated by an Englishman. Is not that anomalous?"

      "No more anomalous than selling Russia a few millions of our best rifles and a few hundred millions of our best bullets."

      "Would you do that?"

      "I should like to get the contract."

      Kingsley shifted uneasily in his chair.

      "It is either right or wrong," he said.

      "Being at peace with Russia, Kingsley, it is right. Of course, it would be wrong if we were at war with the country."

      "But we provide it with rifles and bullets and railways beforehand."

      "Quite so-in the way of business. I like a conversation such as this, Kingsley, in which there is no need for anything to be settled. As to the future before you, it doesn't matter to me which side you take, so long as you become what I hope you will be. Men like myself, sprung from the ranks and making such fortunes as I have made, generally become Conservatives. I am neither one thing nor another, and shall not attempt to dictate to you. But into this question of bullets and rifles and railways let us import a little common-sense. If that sort of trading is wrong in times of peace, every country would have to cut itself aloof from every other country, and to live as if it were shut up in a box. I can't express myself as well as you, but I dare say you understand me."

      "You can always make people understand you, father," said Kingsley.

      "Yes, I have always been able to do that. They respect you all the more for it." Here he laughed quite gayly. "Even in Russia, where I did not know one word of the language, I made myself understood. I saw some great people there, Kingsley, and had interviews with them. Of course, I had a man to interpret for me, but I think I could have managed even without him. Some of the great men spoke English, but not a laborer I employed did. It was no more necessary for them to know our language, than for me to know theirs. The point was that there was work to do, and that it must be done within the stipulated time. With a stern master over him the Russian is a good workman, and values his life less than an Englishman. Take the pestilential ground we had to work over. No English workman would remain there a day; the Russian shrugged his shoulders and took the risk. Now, Kingsley, we will proceed to matters more immediately concerning ourselves."

      "With pleasure, father."

      "As between father and son there should be as few secrets as possible. You have some knowledge of my career; it is one I have no need to be ashamed of, and I propose to commence with the story of my life, and to make you fully acquainted with the secret of my rise in the world."

      Upon that Mr. Manners entered unreservedly upon his relation, and spoke of matters in respect of his successful struggles with which the reader is already familiar. It was not all new to Kingsley, but he listened patiently and admiringly.

      "I think I have made it plain to you, Kingsley," said Mr. Manners, when he had finished the recital, "that I owe everything to myself. I make no boast of it, and I СКАЧАТЬ