Delphi Works of Ford Madox Ford (Illustrated) (458 page)

Lady Aldington said: “I’m not in the least thinking of denying that all Count Macdonald’s actions are very fine.’’” No I no I
no!
” Mr. Pett said in tones of positive exasperation. “None of Macdonald’s actions are fine. They are just Macdonald. He doesn’t deserve any credit.

I — should, if I did what he did. But he can’t help himself.” Kintyre slowly strolled up to them, and, addressing his cousin, remarked softly:

“Don’t you see, Emily, this gentleman won’t allow anyone else to praise his friend, just as he won’t allow anyone else to blame him? But if I may be allowed to interrupt the discussion, I should like to say that I think that our friend only acts along the lines of the traditions of a gentleman of good breeding and lineage.”

Mr. Pett, who intensely disliked that anyone other than himself should lecture an assembly in which he was present, remarked:

“Well, a blind hen
has
found a pea!”

“But if our friend,” the Duke continued amiably, “will let me finish my speech, I should like to say that it’s very fine of Count Macdonald to act so well up to his traditions. For we all of us have fine traditions, but there are precious few of us who are much guided by them.”

Whilst the Duke had been speaking, Lady Aldington had summoned her footman and was whispering into his ear. She found one of her cards, wrote two words on it with a little silver pencil, and sent the man away along the corridor of the train, which was running along the Rhine where it broadens out just before Rudesheim. And then suddenly little Mrs. Pett spoke so that they were all startled.

“That’s really the reason,” she said, “why our friend Macdonald has started out on his new wild goose chase.”

Mr. Pett said good-humouredly: “Shut up, Anne!” But his wife continued speaking composedly:

“It was that night that gave Herbert his new idea, and it’s his new idea that Macdonald is going on. That’s why Count Macdonald went back into the Russian Imperial service.”

“I don’t in the least understand you,” Lady Aldington said.

“Oh, be quiet, Anne!” Mr. Pett ejaculated.

But Mrs. Pett replied: “It’s not the least use
your
trying to explain, Herbert. Nobody ever understands your explanations. They’re too long.”

She looked then at Lady Aldington. “It struck Herbert,” she said,’ on the top of that bus that if you’ve already got a stratum of society that does its duty automatically and efficiently, we Socialists were on the wrong track. We were trying to pull down when we ought to have been trying to lift up. What struck Herbert was that
he
ought to have been trained to act as Macdonald acted, not that Macdonald ought to have been levelled down to act like Herbert, or rather not to act at all.”

“That seems quite reasonable,” Kintyre once more came near them to say.

Mrs. Pett looked him in the eyes. “But don’t you make any mistakes,” she said. “You aren’t going to sit on your pedestals alone. We’re going to climb up and sit beside you.”

“I should think that would be rather pleasant for us,” the Duke said amiably.

But Mrs. Pett went on with her remarks. “What struck Herbert,” she said again, ‘was that it was downright waste to have to have Macdonald running about in the mud of socialist meetings. It struck him that humanity had spent millions of pounds and millions of lives to train him to be the chivalrous and self-sacrificing creature that he is. Then what was the good of our spending just about as many efforts to undo what humanity has unconsciously been doing for ages? What we’ve got to do, Herbert said — I remember his coming home on the night after the bus accident, and — What we’ve got to do, he said, is to level up, not to level down. ‘For,’ he said, ‘if a system of society can breed an animal as finely adapted to the needs of society as Macdonald is, then that type of society is what we want to preserve, not to destroy.’”

Kintyre came near her for long enough to say: “It’s very gratifying to hear you talk like this.”

“Ah! but wait a minute,” Mrs. Pett commanded, and the Duke stood still. “Don’t you make any mistakes. We aren’t going to give carte blanche to all aristocrats. Those of you who don’t act up to your standards will be weeded out. It will be like breeding prize animals. Those that don’t come up to standard will be fattened off and killed at once. They won’t be used for breeding from.”

“Well, I’m not married, you know,” the Duke said. Mrs. Pett paid no more attention to him. She turned once more upon Lady Aldington.

“Of course,” she said, “Herbert in the book he’s writing backs up his theory with innumerable instances after the manner of Weissmann. But that’s what it amounts to, and that’s why we sent Macdonald back into the service of the Grand Duke. And that’s why Macdonald is going to restore that king to the throne.”

“What king?” Lady Aldington asked innocently.

“Oh, I thought you’d be sure to know,” Mrs. Pett said.

“Oh, you silly ass, Anne!” Mr. Pett said. “Now you
have
let the cat out of the bag.”

Mrs. Pett pulled her gloves on a little further. “I don’t suppose I’ve done any harm,” she said composedly. “I dare say I’ve done good. And I’m quite sure that none of the parties here will let the matter go any further because I’ve let it out by a slip.”..

“I knew all about it already,” Kintyre exclaimed amiably. “The Grand Duke told me about it in Count Macdonald’s presence yesterday afternoon.”

“Then we can rely upon you,” Mrs. Pett said.

“As for me,” Aldington grunted suddenly, “I can’t make head or tail of what you are all talking about.”

“Then we can rely on
you,”
Mrs. Pett said pleasantly, as if she were talking to a large schoolboy.

“Then it’s only me,” Lady Aldington said, “that you can’t rely on.”

“Oh, I’d rely on you if I had to answer for it with my head,” Mrs. Pett answered Emily, and Emily said:

“Now, that’s very kind of you, my dear.”

“
And why I think I’ve done some good is this,” Mrs. Pett continued. “Count Macdonald is so shy of asking favours of his particular friends — of his really close friends — that I dare say he would never have asked you to help him at all. Now I think you’ll ask him yourself how you can help him. And you can be of the very greatest help.”

“I can’t be called, you know,” Lady Aldington said softly, “a really close friend of Count Macdonald’s. I hardly know him.”

Mrs. Pett looked at her gloves. “You’re kindred natures,” she said.

“Oh, come,” Lady Aldington laughed. “I can’t be called chivalrous and self-sacrificing. I never acted nobly on top of an omnibus. I was never on top of an omnibus in my life.”

Mrs. Pett continued to look at her gloves. Lord Aldington grinned suddenly.

“I shouldn’t wonder,” Mrs. Pett said, “supposing we could get to the bottom of your heart, if you weren’t leading a life of intense self-sacrifice all the time. I don’t know about that. But I do know that you will behave nobly one of these days.”

Lord Aldington suddenly burst into a guffaw. But Lady Aldington said: “I hope I shall.”

CHAPTER I
I

THE Grand Duke had accompanied the Macdonalds down to the train at Wiesbaden. Dressed in a heavy tweed and with an immense panama hat, he stood, swinging his walking- stick behind his back and looking up with his enigmatic, heavy smile at Countess Macdonald. All around him, behind his back, was the half-circle of detectives who unobtrusively permitted no one that they did not know to pass between themselves and their imperial ward. The Macdonalds were already in their carriage.

“Supposing,” the Countess said to her husband, “that you let the window down? I want to talk to Nicholas Alexandrovitch.”

Sergius Mihailovitch smiled his perpetual light smile that she found so irritating because she could never understand whether he was or wasn’t finding her ridiculous.

“Nicholas Alexandrovitch wants to talk to me, too,” she said.

And then she perceived, passing unconsciously between the ring of detectives, the rather tall figure of a quite English-looking, fair woman. By a minute stiffening of the lines of Macdonald’s eyes, she became instantly aware that Sergius Mihailovitch knew this woman and that he admired her.

“Who’s that?” she said.

Macdonald was engaged in struggling with the strap of the large plate-glass window.

“That?’’ he said.” Oh, that’s Lady Aldington.” Countess Macdonald just said: “Oh !”

And then behind Lady Aldington she perceived the knickerbockered form of Mr. Pett, whom the detectives regarded with suspicion; Mrs. Pett, in her ill-fitting costume of white canvas; Kintyre, long, tall, and sallow; and the shapeless figure of Aldington himself, who had a certain resemblance to the Grand Duke.

“What are the Petts doing with that atrocious woman?” Countess Macdonald said.

“I introduced them, you know,” Sergius Mihailovitch answered.

And again his wife said, “Oh!”

The Grand Duke evidently did want to talk to Macdonald’s wife, for he was making signs with his heavily gloved hands.

“Oh, get the window down,” the Countess said angrily. “You’re unbearably clumsy.”

And just then the large window fell like a guillotine.

“I wanted to tell you,” the Grand Duke said immediately, “that you’ve left something precious behind you. Not as precious, of course, as Your Excellency’s remembrances...”

“What’s all this about?” the Countess said.

The chief of the station marched up to His Imperial Highness and, holding his hand stiffly to the brim of his cap, desired to say that it was time for the Nord Express to continue on its way. The Grand Duke, gazing hard at him, did not perceive him. He turned half round instead and beckoned, and a man in a chauffeur’s uniform came towards him, bearing a substantial-looking book, like a brick bound in curtain chintz. The Duke balanced it in his large hands.

“I should present it, you know,” he said, “to the British Museum Library.”

“But, of course, they’ve got a copy,” the Countess said.

“Oh — but put a label on it: ‘This volume was expounded by Her Excellency Countess Macdonald to’ — to me, in fact.”

“But I never had time to expound it to you,” the Countess said.

“Couldn’t you,” His Imperial Highness uttered, “get Macdonald to leave you behind to go on with the exposition?”

The Countess looked hard into the great man’s eyes.
“
Of course I could,” she said slowly.

Behind her back Sergius Mihailovitch grinned suddenly at his master.

“You’ve got it now, Imperial Highness,” he motioned with his lips in Russian; and the Grand Duke said sharply to the station-master:

“The train may proceed.”

The station-master bowed nearly to the ground.

The Duke looked seriously into Sergius Mihailovitch’s eyes. “I wish you,” he said, “entire success in both your enterprises. In both.”

“Oh, come! Imperial Highness,” Macdonald said gaily, “why not make it all three? Remember the motor car business.”

The faint flicker of a smile showed in the Duke’s square beard.

“
I’m
interested in the lampreys of the Don,” he said. “I haven’t forgotten that you’re to write and telegraph if you can or if you can’t get them.”

“Imperial Highness has a good memory this morning,” Macdonald said.

“Oh, I’m a regular Bourbon sometimes,” the Duke answered. “But the point is that I’m interested in lampreys. And you’re interested in — what was it Kintyre said? — the owner of tin and cobalt. But I don’t see who’s interested in motor cars.”

Macdonald looked gaily at his wife. “Oh, it’s Her Excellency who’s interested in motor cars,” he said. “It’s
she
who wants me to be of use in. the world.”

The Countess looked hard at the Grand Duke. “I do wish you’d sometimes be in earnest, Nicholas Alexandrovitch,” she said.

The Duke slapped his thick leg with his walking-stick. “Excellency,” he said, “I’m tremendously in earnest about the lampreys of the Don — and as for that excellent fellow your husband, I fancy you’ll find him tremendously in earnest about tin and cobalt. So you will probably have to look after the motor cars.”

The train, with its imperceptible movement, was gliding away, and the Grand Duke raised his voice to call again to Sergius Mihailovitch:

“Good luck, my good fellow, in all your enterprises!” Sergius Mihailovitch pulled up the window.

“You might just as well have left it down,” the Countess said.

Sergius Mihailovitch answered pleasantly: “If you look at the inscription, you can see that this window is only allowed to be opened in the case of pressing danger.”

“You’re the most irritating man I’ve ever met!” his wife said. “You know perfectly well I shall stifle.” Macdonald stood up and surveyed the luggage rack. “What books are you going to read?” he said.

The Countess looked down at the chintz-covered volume in her lap.

“I shall read this,” she announced.

Macdonald sank into his own comer with a gay satisfaction. “Then that’s all right,” he said.

“It certainly isn’t,” his wife answered. “I want all this explained.”

“Well, I’m always here,” Macdonald said.

“I want explained,” the Countess uttered slowly, “how you came to know that atrocious woman.”

“Lady Aldington?” Macdonald raised his eyebrows to ask. “What’s she done?”

“I was hearing about her from Miss Sutton,’’ the Countess said determinedly.” She was the abandoned woman who lived at Harpurhey. She did..

“But, my dear,” Macdonald said, “it was Lady Blagdon who lived at Harpurhey.’’

“Of course,” his wife answered, “you know all about these hateful creatures. They’re the very worst set in England.”

“But really, you know,” Macdonald said, “Lady Aldington isn’t in any set at all that I know of, She holds the receptions for the Liberal Minister of the Fine Arts, The Aldingtons are a great Whig family.”

“I suppose I know more about English families than you do,” the Countess answered. “What are we going to England in such a hurry for?”

And then, with his splendid imprudence, Macdonald made the mistake of his life. He had never really learnt that the truth is a dangerous thing.

“I’m not any longer, you know,” he said, “in the Grand Duke’s service.”

A great rush of colour ran all over the Countess’s cheeks. For a moment her chest heaved in the speechless struggle for words. Then:

“What are we to live on?” she said.

Macdonald laughed. “I’m on my own, as you would say,” he answered. “I’m going to be of some use in the world. You’ve been telling me that that was my duty for the last fifteen years.”

“You were getting on so splendidly with Nicholas Alexandrovitch,” the lady answered.

“But you,” he encountered her, “were perpetually telling me that I was an idle parasite who did nothing but carry bouquets to Madame Sassonoff.”

“It’s useless,” his wife said, “to make you understand anything. How did you come to meet Lady Aldington?”

“I’ve met her twice at the opera,” Macdonald answered, “and once at the Baroness’s.”

“You know perfectly well,” his wife answered, “that I never wanted you to go to the opera. You know perfectly well that I have to be in bed by ten every night. It’s part of the general unfeelingness of your general conduct.”

“But, bless my soul,” Macdonald said, “I was in attendance. I had my duties.”

“Pack of nonsense!” the Countess answered. “You could have got out of it perfectly well if you’d wanted to. And it shows the sort of woman that that Lady Aldington is, that you should have met her at the Grand Duke’s mistresses.”

Macdonald laughed once more. “If only,” he said,
“
you wouldn’t think all the while in terms of Putney, S.W.”

“Everyone knows,” his wife answered, “that she’s his mistress.”

“Everyone knows,” Macdonald said, “that fire is the mistress of water. Don’t you understand that Madam Sassonoff is the most dangerous of Nicholas Alexandrovitch’s enemies? Don’t you understand that Nicholas Alexandrovitch has got all the vices in the world, but that the chief agent of the secret... Well, it’s no use talking.”

“No, it’s no use talking,” his wife answered. “If Lady Aldington were a respectable woman she wouldn’t call upon the Baroness.”

And just at that moment a gentleman with a blue- shaven face, black eyebrows and a black bow, swayed into the compartment from the corridor and placed a card in the Countess’s hand. He did his best to bow, but the shaking of the train threw him almost on to the seat.

“Her ladyship’s compliments,” he exclaimed, “and will your ladyship and his lordship come to lunch with her ladyship in her saloon at one o’clock. The train will stop at Rudesheim at five to one, so that it will be steady for your ladyship to walk along the corridors.”

The Countess glared at her husband. Macdonald smiled at the servant.

“Of course we’ll come,” he said. “Thank Lady Aldington.”

“
I’ll come and warn your lordship,” the servant answered, “ten minutes before we come to Rudesheim.” The servant went away, and immediately the lady threw the card almost into Macdonald’s face.

“I shall certainly not go,” she said. “Look what’s written on that card.”

The card fluttered under the opposite seat.

“Oh, you needn’t go on your knees to it,” the Countess exclaimed. “She’s written ‘Do come,’ and underlined the ‘Do.’ That’s what she’s written.”

“Well, I suppose she wants to make your acquaintance,” Macdonald said.

“But, don’t you see,” his wife exclaimed, “that it’s an atrocious impertinence? It’s my business to call upon her, not hers to visit me.”

“Oh, come!...” Macdonald said.

“Mine is the higher title,” his wife exclaimed.

“It’s quite a nice point,” Macdonald laughed. “Abroad it’s perfectly true that English calling rules are reversed, so that you would call on her if yours was the higher title. But then she’s the Duchess of Batalha.”

“Who cares?” the Countess said, “for these potty foreign titles?”

“Well, who does?” Macdonald answered.