The Fortunes Of Glencore Part 34

"No, not a word of it!" rejoined the other.

"You 're a Neapolitan, I think I heard him say."

"So my pa.s.sport states."

"Ah, he won't say that he is one, though," interposed his Lords.h.i.+p, in English. "Do you mind that, Baynton?"

"Yes, I remarked it," was the reply.

"And how came you here originally?" asked Selby, turning towards the youth.

"I came here to study and to work. There is always enough to be had to do in this place, copying the works of great masters; and at one's spare moments there is time to try something of one's own."

"And have you done anything of that kind?"

"Yes, I have begun. I have attempted two or three."

"We should like to see them,--eh, Baynton?"

"Of course, when we 've finished our wine. It's not far off, is it?"

"A few minutes' walk; but not worth even that, when the place is full of things really worth seeing. There's Danneker's 'Bathing Nymph,' and Canova's 'Dead Cupid,' and Rauch's 'Antigone,' all within reach."

"Mind that, Baynton; we must see all these to-morrow. Could you come about with us, and show us what we ought to see?"

"Who knows if I shall not be on the road to-morrow?" said the youth, smiling faintly.

"Oh, I think not, if there's really nothing against you; if it's only mere suspicion."

"Just so!" said the other, and drank off his wine.

"And you are able to make a good thing of it here,--by copying, I mean?"

asked his Lords.h.i.+p, languidly.

"I can live," said the youth; "and as I labor very little and idle a great deal, that is saying enough, perhaps."

"I 'm not sure the police are not right about him, after all, Baynton,"

said his Lords.h.i.+p; "he doesn't seem to care much about his trade;" and Ma.s.sy was unable to repress a smile at the remark.

"You don't understand English, do you?" asked Selby, with a degree of eagerness very unusual to him.

"Yes, I am English by birth," was the answer.

"Englis.h.!.+ and how came you to call yourself a Neapolitan? What was the object of that?"

"I wished to excite less notice and less observation here, and, if possible, to escape the jealousy with which Englishmen are regarded by the authorities; for this I obtained a pa.s.sport at Naples."

Baynton eyed him suspiciously as he spoke, and as he sipped his wine continued to regard him with a keen glance.

"And how did you manage to get a Neapolitan pa.s.sport?"

"Our Minister, Sir Horace Upton, managed that for me."

"Oh, you are known to Sir Horace, then?"

"Yes."

A quick interchange of looks between my lord and his friend showed that they were by no means satisfied that the young sculptor was simply a worker in marble and a fas.h.i.+oner in modelling-clay.

"Have you heard from Sir Horace lately?" asked Lord Selby.

"I received this letter to-day, but I have not read it;" and he showed the unopened letter as he spoke.

"The police may, then, have some reasonable suspicions about your residence here," said his Lords.h.i.+p, slowly.

"My Lord," said Ma.s.sy, rising, "I have had enough of this kind of examination from the Podesta himself this morning, not to care to pa.s.s my evening in a repet.i.tion of it. Who I am, what I am, and with what object here, are scarcely matters in which you have any interest, and a.s.suredly were not the subjects on which I expected you should address me. I beg now to take my leave." He moved towards the garden as he spoke, bowing respectfully to each.

"Wait a moment; pray don't go,--sit down again,--I never meant,--of course I could n't mean so,--eh, Baynton?" said his Lords.h.i.+p, stammering in great confusion.

"Of course not," broke in Baynton; "his Lords.h.i.+p's inquiries were really prompted by a sincere desire to serve you."

"Just so,--a sincere desire to serve you."

"In fact, seeing you, as I may say, in the toils."

"Exactly so,--in the toils."

"He thought very naturally that his influence and his position might,--you understand,--for these fellows know perfectly well what an English peer is,--they take a proper estimate of the power of Great Britain."

His Lords.h.i.+p nodded a.s.sentingly, as though any stronger corroboration might not be exactly graceful on his part, and Baynton went on:--

"Now you perfectly comprehend why,--you see at once the whole thing; and I 'm sure, instead of feeling any soreness or irritation at my lord's interference, that in point of fact--"

"Just so," broke in his Lords.h.i.+p, pressing Ma.s.sy into a seat at his side,--"just so; that's it!"

It requires no ordinary tact for any man to reseat himself at a table from which he has risen in anger or irritation, and Ma.s.sy had far too little knowledge of life to overcome this difficulty gracefully. He tried, indeed, to seem at ease, he endeavored even to be cheerful; but the efforts were all unsuccessful. My lord was no very acute observer at any time; he was, besides, so const.i.tutionally indolent that the company which exacted least was ever the most palatable to him. As for Baynton, he was only too happy whenever least reference was made to his opinion, and so they sat and sipped their wine with wonderfully little converse between them.

"You have a statue, or a group, or something or other, have n't you?"

said my lord, after a very long interval.

"I have a half-finished model," said the youth, not without a certain irritation at the indifference of his questioner.

"Scarcely light enough to look at it to-night,--eh, Baynton?"

"Scarcely!" was the dry answer.

"We can go in the morning though, eh?"