Half a Hero. Anthony Hope

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СКАЧАТЬ lips, and she saw a little quiver run through his limbs.

      "By Jove!" said Dick Derosne.

      Medland turned to Eleanor, and pointed to the crowd.

      "Yes, I see," she said.

      He held out his hand to bid them farewell, and walked on towards the gate. They stood and watched his progress. Suddenly a different cry rose.

      "Let her pass! Let her pass! Let her through to him!"

      The crowd slowly parted, and down the middle of the road, amid the raising of hats and pretty rough compliments, a young girl came walking swiftly and proudly, with a smile on her lips.

      "It's his daughter," whispered Alicia. "Oh!"

      Medland opened the gate and went out. The girl, her fair hair blowing out behind her and her cheeks glowing red, ran to meet him, and, as he stooped and kissed her, the crowd, having, as a crowd, but one way to tell its feelings, roared and cheered again. Medland, with one hand on his daughter's shoulder and the other holding his hat, walked down the lane between human walls, and was lost to sight as the walls found motion and closed in behind him.

      After some moments' silence Dick Derosne recovered himself, and remarked with a cynical air,

      "Neat bit of acting—kissing the girl and all that."

      But Alicia would not have it. With a tremulous laugh, she said,

      "I should like to have kissed him too. Oh, Eleanor, I didn't know it was like that!"

      Perhaps Eleanor did not either, but she would not admit it. What was it but a lot of ignorant people cheering they knew not what? If anything, it was degrading. Yet, in spite of these most reasonable reflections, she knew that her cheeks had flushed and her heart beat at the sight and the sound.

      They were still standing and watching the crowd as it retreated towards Kirton, when the Governor, who had come out to get some fresh air after his arduous labour, joined them.

      "Extraordinary the popularity of the man in Kirton," he observed, in answer to Alicia's eager description of Mr. Medland's triumph.

      "What has he done for them?" asked Eleanor.

      "Done? Oh, I don't know. He's done something, I suppose; but it's what he's going to do that they're so keen about."

      "Is he a Socialist?" inquired Alicia.

      "I can't tell you," replied Lord Eynesford. "I don't know what he is—and I'm not sure I know what a Socialist is. Ask Eleanor."

      "A Socialist," began Eleanor, in an authoritative tone, "is——"

      But this much-desired definition was unhappily lost, for a footman came up and told Lord Eynesford that his wife would like to see him if he were disengaged.

      The Governor smiled grimly, winked imperceptibly, and departed.

      "It's been quite an entertaining day," said Miss Scaife. "But I'm very sorry for Sir Robert."

      "What was Mr. Medland talking to you about, Dick?" asked Alicia.

      "Oh, a new sort of drink. You take a long glass, and some pounded ice and some gin—only you must be careful to get——"

      "I don't want to hear about it."

      "Well, you asked, you know," retorted Dick, with the air of a man who suffers under the perpetual illogicality of woman.

CHAPTER III.

       Table of Contents

HOSPITALITY EX OFFICIO.

       Table of Contents

      "I confess to being very much alarmed," said Mr. Kilshaw, "and I think Capital generally shares the feeling."

      "If I thought he could last, I should share it myself," said Sir Robert Perry.

      "He may easily last long enough to half ruin my business. Large concerns are delicate concerns."

      "Come, Kilshaw, Puttock's a capitalist; he'll see Capital isn't wronged."

      "Puttock is all very well in his way; but what do you say to Jewell and Norburn?"

      "Jewell's an old-style Radical: he won't do you much harm. You hit the nail on the head when you mention Norburn. Norburn would be very pleased to run your factory as a State work-shop for two pound a week."

      "And pickings," added Mr. Kilshaw, with scornful emphasis.

      A third gentleman, who was sitting near in the large bow-window of the Central Club, an elderly man, with short-clipped white hair and a pleasant face, joined in the talk.

      "Norburn? Why, is that the fellow I tried? Is he in Medland's government?"

      "That's the man, Sir John," answered Kilshaw; and Sir Robert added,

      "You gave him three months for inciting to riot in the strike at the Collieries two years ago. He's made Minister of Public Works; I hear the Governor held out for a long while, but Medland insisted."

      "And my works are to be Public Works, I suppose," grumbled Kilshaw, finding some comfort in this epigrammatic statement of the unwelcome prospect before him.

      "Red-hot, isn't he?" asked Sir John Oakapple, who, as Chief Justice of the colony, had sent the new Minister to gaol.

      Kilshaw nodded.

      "Will he and Puttock pull together?" continued the Chief Justice.

      "The hopeful part of the situation is," said Sir Robert, "that Puttock is almost bound to fall out with somebody, either with Norburn, for the reason you name, or with Coxon, because Coxon will try to rule the roast, or with Medland himself."

      "Why should he quarrel with Medland?"

      "Why does the heir quarrel with the king? Besides, there's the Prohibition Question. I doubt if Medland will satisfy Puttock and his people over that."

      "Oh, I expect he will," said the Chief Justice. "I asked him once—this is in confidence, you know—if he didn't think it a monstrous proposal, and he only shrugged those slouched shoulders of his, and said, 'We've got Sunday Closing, and we go in the back way: if we have Prohibition the drink'll go in the back way—same principle, my dear Chief Justice'": and that High Officer finished his anecdote with a laugh.

      "The odd thing about Medland is," remarked Sir Robert, "that he's utterly indifferent about everything except what he's utterly mad about. He has no moderate sympathies or antipathies."

      "Therefore he's a most dangerous man," said Kilshaw.

      "Oh, I think he sympathises, in moderation, with СКАЧАТЬ