Upsidonia Part 26

It was quite an orderly demonstration, and its organisers had been astute enough to disa.s.sociate themselves from the anarchical proceedings of Mr. Bolster, and those who had followed his lead. I discovered that Edward had given me an over-coloured account of the importance that these outbreaks had had in the movement, and possibly of his own share in directing it. He carried a banner in the procession, on which had been emblazoned, rather hurriedly, the words: "We Want to Make our own Beds," and marched, surrounded by the mistresses, about halfway down the line. If the police had made any arrests, I doubt if they would have picked him out, or even if they would have noticed him.

All would have gone well if Edward had now been content to work on these safe and const.i.tutional lines. There were stronger heads than his directing affairs, and with such success that they were able to throw over those who had been responsible for quickening the unrest into life.

They even encouraged the police to take active steps against those who had put themselves into a stage of siege. The tradespeople were forced to stop their supplies, and they were all starved out within a week.

When they got them under lock and key they dealt leniently with them, for public opinion was largely on their side. But Edward was so furious with the cynical way in which his fellow progressives had repudiated these n.o.ble-spirited pioneers that there was no holding him, and at last he achieved that crown of martyrdom for which he had thirsted, and was arrested, as he was leaving a meeting of the Super-a.s.sessed Employers'

Protest League.

I went to the court to hear him tried, and met one of the policemen who had come to take my finger-prints. He told me that I had nearly been arrested too, as I had been seen with Edward in Mr. Bolster's garden when he had been persuading people to throw things out of their own windows, in imitation of that hero, but the authorities had refused to prosecute me. Without actually saying so he gave me to understand that Lord Potter was at the bottom of it, but that the case against Edward was so strong that they could not refuse to take it up when once the information had been laid.

Lord Potter pushed his way into the court as we were speaking together, and when he saw me glared with fury, but said nothing, not even when I asked him politely if he would like any more prints of Tom's photographs.

These had turned out well, and created much amus.e.m.e.nt in the family circle. Unknown to Mr. Perry, who might have objected, a print of each had been sent to Lord Potter, and had probably pleased him less than the rest of us:

Edward stood up in the dock like a man, acknowledged all that was alleged against him, glorified in it, and made a speech to the effect that a day would come.

The magistrate listened to him indulgently, and said he was sorry to see a young man of his character and parentage in such a position. He would not be doing his duty if he overlooked the offence, but on account of Edward's. .h.i.therto blameless record, and the purity of his intentions, would sentence him to a month's imprisonment in the first division. He hoped that this very lenient punishment, for an offence that was graver than he seemed to recognise, would encourage him for the future to confine his efforts for the amelioration of the rich to more legitimate channels.

I shook Edward by the hand as he was led away to undergo his punishment, and he told me to tell his family not to grieve for him. Nothing would daunt his spirit, and, if he survived his punishment, he should come out of prison more determined to carry on his work than when he went in.

Edward's conviction cast a gloom over us at Magnolia Hall. Mr. Perry was particularly cast down by it, and did not seem to be able to take any comfort from the fact that Edward was to be treated as a prisoner of the first cla.s.s.

"They are sending them to work underground in the coal mines now," he said, "and they feed them chiefly on skilly. These were reforms that were long since overdue, and I have perhaps had more to do with them than anybody. But, even with those alleviations, imprisonment is a terrible thing, and it goes to my heart that a son of mine should be treated in this way, after all I have done. I sometimes wonder whether it has been worth it, and whether I should not have done better for those dear to me if I had kept to the life to which I was born."

Mrs. Perry and Miriam both a.s.sured him that he would not, and presently managed to a.s.suage the sharpness of his grief.

"You are one and all of you wonderful supports to a man who has taken up a thankless and difficult task," he said. "When I see you so cheerfully ready to bear your share of the burden, I must not shrink from doing my part. I am still whole-hearted in my sympathy with the rich. Blother, old friend, bring up a bottle of champagne--two bottles. I must not falter. I cannot go to prison, but I can and will continue to play my part in the great work."

Blother brought the champagne. He was much moved, and put all the trouble down to the malignity of Lord Potter.

"No one would have taken any notice of Edward's foolish little game if Potter hadn't forced them to," he said. "It is well known that Edward is a quite harmless crank, and for your sake, Perry, they ought to have left him alone. But don't take on about it. You won't find yourself any the less regarded because of this, and when young Edward comes back to us, we must try to keep him in better order."

Mr. Blother was right in saying that no one thought the worse of Mr.

Perry for the blow that had been dealt him. He received many tokens of sympathy from both public and private sources, and soon came to regard Edward's imprisonment with complete equanimity.

"I think this trial must have been sent to me for my good," he said to me two days later. "I am experiencing a wonderful calm of spirit in spite of it. I shall use the period of my poor Edward's incarceration as a breathing s.p.a.ce, and shall give up as many of my activities as possible for the next month. When he returns to us, I think I shall persuade him to travel for a time, and after that we shall be able to return to our work together with renewed zest."

CHAPTER XXIX

Two days after Edward's conviction, when we were all getting a little accustomed to his loss, Miriam and I had spent an hour of the afternoon in her garden, laying plans for our now fast-approaching elopement, and had just left it when Mollie came running towards us with the news that Herman and Amelia had come to tea, and wanted to see us both.

I always felt a little uneasy at the thought of Herman Eppstein, and as in two days' time he was to sell my holding in Mount Lebanons, I thought that he might have come to say something to me about them.

I was determined, however, that he should not say it in the drawing-room, if I could possibly help it. Directly we went in, I began to talk about Edward, and about the exciting things that were happening generally, and so infected the rest with my loquacity that they all became loquacious too, and we made an animated party. Mr. Perry was there, which was somewhat unusual, but since Edward's departure he had been about the house a good deal, and seemed to find it restful.

I saw very plainly, though, that Eppstein was dying to bring out some news, and only awaited a lull in the conversation to do so. I was also doubtful whether his wife did not know as much about Mount Lebanons as he did, for her eye was often fixed upon me with a curious expression.

She took her full share in the conversation, but I could see that she would make no effort to prolong it if it flagged of its own accord. I tried to make signs to Eppstein, but he either couldn't or wouldn't understand them, and presently I had to resign myself to some ultimate revelation.

Just as I thought, and the Eppsteins must also have thought, that this time had come, there was a diversion. I heard a ring at the front door bell, and heard Blother and Lord Arthur go across the hall to answer it.

I exerted myself to give the talk another fillip, until the caller, if there was one, should arrive, and breathed again when the door was flung open and Mr. Blother's sonorous voice announced a name. But when I heard that name my spirit sank again.

The visitor was Mr. Hobson, and he came into the room with a wild and disordered air, which changed to one of menace as, without even greeting Mrs. Perry, he pointed at me and cried: "Deceiver! You are not what you pretend to be!"

Few deceivers are; and my conscience was not wholly clear. But I was, at any rate, unconscious of having done Mr. Hobson any harm, and asked him, in some surprise, what complaint he had against me.

It was Herman Eppstein who took up the question, and dealt with it with a resource which I should hardly have expected of him.

"I know all about it, Mr. 'Obson," he said, "and you 'aven't nothing to grumble at. Mr. 'Oward took over your shares at market price, and did you a very good turn. If you'd a knowed you could do better by 'anging on to them, why did you let 'em go?"

Mr. Hobson sank into a chair, and buried his face in his hands, rocking his body to and fro.

"I might have known it," he said. "Nothing I ever do goes right. If I had kept those shares, I should have been a poor man once more. And I _should_ have kept them, if he hadn't come and pretended to be doing me a good turn."

He lifted up his head, and hissed the word "Viper!" at me, and then subsided once more into his state of misery.

"What is it all about, Herman? What has happened?" asked Mr. Perry.

I also wanted to know what had happened. I was not feeling at all comfortable, and no longer wished to prevent Eppstein from telling his story.

"Mr. 'Oward took over thirty-five thousand Mount Lebanon shares from Mr.

'Obson. It was all in order, and Mr. 'Obson must 'ave been precious glad to get rid of them. Mr. 'Oward 'olds them now, and I take this opportunity of congratulating him. Still, I do think, as 'e is almost a member of this family and you might say, 'e might 'ave let some of the rest of us into the know, instead of keeping all the good luck to 'imself."

"What has happened?" asked Mr. Perry again.

"Arst 'im. 'E'll tell you," said Eppstein.

"I would rather you did," I said. "You can put it more lucidly."

"Well, they've been rocky for a long time," explained Eppstein, "but they bulled them up, and never let on that they'd come to the end of their lode. But this afternoon the news come that there's been no gold for a long time, and they've been paying interest out of capital. And that ain't all. There's never been more than five s.h.i.+llings a share paid on them. They're calling up another five s.h.i.+llings at the end of a month, and they'll call up the rest at three months' intervals, and then they'll wind up. 'Oward, I don't bear no malice--you've got the bulge on all of us this time--and I should like to shake 'ands with you."

I shook hands with him, my brain in a tumult, then with his wife, and finally with Mr. Perry, who had by this time taken in the full meaning of Eppstein's announcement, which was a good deal more than I had.

It was Hobson who brought home to me the appalling reality.

"He came to me," he said accusingly, "and offered to take twenty or thirty thousand pounds from me as a free gift. He led me up to offering him all my holding in Mount Lebanons. If I had kept them I should have stood to lose over 140,000 now, and should have been ent.i.tled to pay up another 26,000 in calls--nearly 170,000 in all. And now _he_ has lost all that, and I say it isn't fair. He has swindled me."

There followed an altercation between him and Eppstein and Mr. Perry.

Mr. Perry rebuked him for the unfounded accusations he had made against me, and Eppstein told him that _he_ was the swindler if he expected to lose it both ways. But still, he kept on repeating his reproaches, and finally I took a bold resolution, and generously offered to let him have his shares back again.

But neither Eppstein nor Mr. Perry would hear of this, and I was not in a position to press it. After all, Hobson had already lost the full value of his shares, and could only stand to gain by the amount he would have had to pay up on the calls.

When this was pointed out to him, he acknowledged that he had never been much of a business man, apologised to me for his behaviour, and went away somewhat comforted, leaving me to the congratulations of the family.

I accepted them, I hope, modestly. I was almost paralysed by the blow.

Instead of being able to leave Upsidonia with a comfortable fortune, I should leave it under an appalling burden of debt. I had lost a hundred and seventy thousand pounds, and could only comfort myself with the resolution never again as long as I lived to put my finger in the Stock Exchange pie. But it was cold comfort enough, and I broke away as soon as I could from the delight of Mr. Perry, who now saw in me a most eligible son-in-law, and from the ill-concealed jealousy of Mrs.

Eppstein. I took Eppstein into the library with me on the plea of business. I wanted time to think before I had another talk with Miriam, who, I could see, had been deeply puzzled by the foregoing conversation, and whose due it was to have all the explanation I could offer.