Davenport Dunn, a Man of Our Day. Volume 1. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ sipping his tea, or now examining some object of art through a magnifier, he dallied over his meal like one who felt the time thus passed a respite from the task of the day. At last he walked out, and, leaning over the balcony, gazed at the glorious landscape at his feet. It was early morning, and the great masses of misty clouds were slowly beginning to move up the Alps, disclosing as they went spots of bright green verdure, dark-sided ravines and cataracts, amid patches of pine forest, or dreary tracts of snow still lying deep in the mountain clefts. Beautiful as was the picture of the lake itself, and the wooded promontories along it, his eyes never turned from the rugged grandeur of the Alpine range, which he continued to gaze at for a long time. So absorbed was he in his contemplation, that he never noticed the approach of another, and Baron Glumthal was already leaning over the balustrade beside him ere he had perceived him.

      “Well, is it more assuring now that you have looked at it?” asked the German, in English, of which there was the very slightest trace of a foreign accent.

      “I see nothing to deter one from the project,” said Dunn, slowly. “These questions resolve themselves purely into two conditions, – time and money. The grand army was only a corporal’s guard, multiplied by hundreds of thousands.”

      “But the difficulties – ”

      “Difficulties!” broke in Dunn; “thank Heaven for them, Baron, or you and I would be no better off in this world than the herd about us. Strong heads and stout hearts are the breaching artillery of mankind, – you can find rank and file any day.”

      “When I said difficulties, I might have used a stronger word.”

      “And yet,” said Dunn, smiling, “I’d rather contract to turn the Alps yonder, than to drive a new idea into the heads of a people. See here, now,” said he, entering the room, and returning with a large plan in his hand, “this is Chiavenna. Well, the levels show that a line drawn from this spot comes out below Andeer, at a place called Mühlen, – the distance something less than twenty-two miles. By Brumall’s contract, you will perceive that if he don’t meet with water – ”

      “But in that lies the whole question,” broke in the other.

      “I know it, and I am not going to blink it. I mean to take the alternatives in turn.”

      “Shall I spare you a deal of trouble, Dunn?” said the German, laying his hand on his arm. “Our house has decided against the enterprise. I have no need to explain the reasons.”

      “And can you be swayed by such counsels?” cried Dunn, eagerly. “Is it possible that you will suffer yourselves to be made the dupes of a Russian intrigue?”

      “Say, rather, the agents of a great policy,” said Glumthal, “and you will be nearer the mark. My dear friend,” added he, in a lower and more confidential tone, “have I to tell you that your whole late policy in England is a mistake, your Crimean war a mistake, your French alliance a mistake, and your present attempt at a reconciliation with Austria the greatest mistake of all?”

      “You would find it a hard task to make the nation believe this,” said Dunn, smiling.

      “So I might; but not to convince your statesmen of it. They see it already. They perceive even now some of the perils of the coarse they have adopted.”

      “The old story. I have heard it at least a hundred times,” broke in Dunn. “We have been overturning the breakwaters that the ocean may swamp us. But I tell you, Baron, that the more democratic we grow in England, the safer we become. We don’t want these alliances we fancied ourselves once in need of. That family compact redounded but little to our advantage.”

      “So it might. But there is another compact now forming, which bodes even less favorably to you. The Church, by her Concordat, is replacing the old Holy Alliance. You ‘ll need the aid of the only power that cannot be drawn into this league, – I mean the only great power, – Russia.”

      “If you will wait till we are so minded, Baron,” said Dunn, laughing, “you have plenty of time to help me with my tunnel here.” And he pointed to his plans.

      “And where will the world be, – I mean your world and mine, – before the pick of the workman reaches so far?” and he placed his finger on the Splugen Alps, – “answer me that. What will be the Government of France, – I don’t ask who? Where will Naples be? What king will be convoking the Hungarian Diet? Who will be the Russian viceroy on the Danube?”

      “Far more to the purpose were it if I could tell you how would the Three per Cents stand,” broke in Dunn.

      “I ‘m coming to that,” said the other, dryly. “No, no,” said he, after a pause; “let us see this unhappy war finished, – let us wait till we know who are to be partners in the-great game of European politics. Lanfranchi tells me that the French and Russians who meet here come together on the best of terms; that intimacies, and even friendships. spring up rapidly between them. This fact, if repeated in Downing Street, might be heard with some misgiving.”

      Though Dunn affected indifference to this remark, he winced, and walked to the window to hide his irritation.

      Immediately beneath where he stood, a trellised vine-walk led down to the lake, where the boats were usually in waiting; and from this alley now a number of voices could be heard, although the speakers were entirely hidden by the foliage. The gay and laughing tones indicated a pleasure-party; and such it was, bent on a picnic to Bellaggio. Some were loud in praises of the morning, and the splendid promise of the day; others discussed how many boats they should want, and how the party was to be divided.

      “The Americans with the Russians,” said Twining, slapping his legs and laughing; “great friends – capital allies – what fun! Ourselves and the O’Reillys. – Spicer, look out, and see if they are coming.”

      “And do you mean to say you’ll not come?” whispered a very soft voice, after the crowd had passed on.

      “Charmante Molly!” said Lord Lackington, in his most dulcet of accents, “I am quite heart-broken at the disappointment; but when I tell you that this man has come some hundreds of miles to meet me here, – that the matter is one of deepest importance – ”

      “And who is he? Could you make him come too?”

      “Impossible, ma belle. He is quite unsuited to this kind of thing, – a mere creature of parchments. The very sight of him would only suggest thoughts of foreclosing mortgages and renewal fines.”

      “How I hate him!”

      “Do, dearest, – hate him to your heart’s content, – and for nothing more than the happiness of which he robs me.”

      “Well, I ‘m sure, I did think – ” And she stopped, and seemed confused.

      “And what, pray, was it that you did think?” said his Lordship, most winningly.

      “I thought two things, then, if you must know,” said she, archly: “first, that a great personage like your Lordship would make a very small one like this Mr. Dunn understand it was his duty to await your convenience; and my second thought was – But perhaps you don’t care to hear it?”

      “Of all things. Pray go on.”

      “Well, then, my second was that if I asked you to come, you’d not refuse me.”

      “What an inexorable charmer it is!” cried he, in stage fashion. “Do you fancy you could СКАЧАТЬ