Lord Kilgobbin Part 82

'I should like to know him. Is he here--at Athens?'

'Of course he is. He is waiting till he hears the Sultan will receive him.'

'I should like to know him,' said Atlee, more seriously.

'Nothing easier. He comes here every day. Will you meet him at dinner to-morrow?'

'Delighted! but then I should like a little conversation with him in the morning. Perhaps you would kindly make me known to him?'

'With sincere pleasure. I'll write and ask him to dine--and I'll say that you will wait on him. I'll say, "My distinguished friend Mr. Atlee, of whom you have heard, will wait on you about eleven or twelve." Will that do?'

'Perfectly. So then I may make my visit on the presumption of being expected?'

'Certainly. Not that Kostalergi wants much preparation. He plays baccarat all night, but he is at his desk at six.'

'Is he rich?'

'Hasn't a sixpence--but plays all the same. And what people are more surprised at, pays when he loses. If I had not already pa.s.sed an evening in your company, I should be bold enough to hint to you the need of caution--great caution--in talking with him.'

'I know--I am aware,' said Atlee, with a meaning smile.

'You will not be misled by his cunning, Mr. Atlee, but beware of his candour.'

'I will be on my guard. Many thanks for the caution. Good-night!--once more, good-night!'

CHAPTER LXIV

GREEK MEETS GREEK

So excited did Atlee feel about meeting the father of Nina Kostalergi--of whose strange doings and adventurous life he had heard much--that he scarcely slept the entire night. It puzzled him greatly to determine in what character he should present himself to this crafty Greek. Political amateurs.h.i.+p was now so popular in England, that he might easily enough pa.s.s off for one of those 'Bulls' desirous to make himself up on the Greek question. This was a part that offered no difficulty. 'Give me five minutes of any man--a little longer with a woman--and I'll know where his sympathies incline to.' This was a constant boast of his, and not altogether a vain one. He might be an archaeological traveller eager about new-discovered relics and curious about ruined temples. He might be a yachting man, who only cared for Salamis as good anchorage, nor thought of the Acropolis, except as a point of departure; or he might be one of those myriads who travel without knowing where, or caring why: airing their ennui now at Thebes, now at Trolhatten; a weariful, dispirited race, who rarely look so thoroughly alive as when choosing a cigar or changing their money.

There was no reason why the 'distinguished Mr. Atlee' might not be one of these--he was accredited, too, by his Minister, and his 'solidarity,' as the French call it, was beyond question.

While yet revolving these points, a kava.s.s--with much gold in his jacket, and a voluminous petticoat of white calico--came to inform him that his Excellency the Prince hope to see him at breakfast at eleven o'clock; and it now only wanted a few minutes of that hour. Atlee detained the messenger to show him the road, and at last set out.

Traversing one dreary, ill-built street after another, they arrived at last at what seemed a little lane, the entrance to which carriages were denied by a line of stone posts, at the extremity of which a small green gate appeared in a wall. Pus.h.i.+ng this wide open, the kava.s.s stood respectfully, while Atlee pa.s.sed in, and found himself in what for Greece was a garden.

There were two fine palm-trees, and a small scrub of oleanders and dwarf cedars that grew around a little fish-pond, where a small Triton in the middle, with distended cheeks, should have poured forth a refres.h.i.+ng jet of water, but his lips were dry, and his conch-sh.e.l.l empty, and the muddy tank at his feet a mere surface of broad water-lilies convulsively shaken by bull-frogs. A short shady path led to the house, a two-storeyed edifice, with the external stair of wood that seemed to crawl round it on every side.

In a good-sized room of the ground-floor Atlee found the prince awaiting him. He was confined to a sofa by a slight sprain, he called it, and apologised for his not being able to rise.

The prince, though advanced in years, was still handsome: his features had all the splendid regularity of their Greek origin; but in the enormous...o...b..ts, of which the tint was nearly black, and the indented temples, traversed by veins of immense size, and the firm compression of his lips, might be read the signs of a man who carried the gambling spirit into every incident of life, one ready 'to back his luck,' and show a bold front to fortune when fate proved adverse.

The Greek's manner was perfect. There was all the ease of a man used to society, with a sort of half-sly courtesy, as he said, 'This is kindness, Mr. Atlee--this is real kindness. I scarcely thought an Englishman would have the courage to call upon anything so unpopular as I am.'

'I have come to see you and the Parthenon, Prince, and I have begun with you.'

'And you will tell them, when you get home, that I am not the terrible revolutionist they think me: that I am neither Danton nor Felix Pyat, but a very mild and rather tiresome old man, whose extreme violence goes no further than believing that people ought to be masters in their own house, and that when any one disputes the right, the best thing is to throw him out of the window.'

'If he will not go by the door,' remarked Atlee.

'No, I would not give him the chance of the door. Otherwise you make no distinction between your friends and your enemies. It is by the mild methods--what you call "milk-and-water methods"--men spoil all their efforts for freedom. You always want to cut off somebody's head and spill no blood. There's the mistake of those Irish rebels: they tell me they have courage, but I find it hard to believe them.'

'Do believe them then, and know for certain that there is not a braver people in Europe.'

'How do you keep them down, then?'

'You must not ask _me_ that, for I am one of them.'

'You Irish?'

'Yes, Irish--very Irish.'

'Ah! I see. Irish in an English sense? Just as there are Greeks here who believe in Kulbash Pasha, and would say, Stay at home and till your currant-fields and mind your coasting trade. Don't try to be civilised, for civilisation goes badly with brigandage, and scarcely suits trickery. And you are aware, Mr. Atlee, that trickery and brigandage are more to Greece than olives or dried figs?'

There was that of mockery in the way he said this, and the little smile that played about his mouth when he finished, that left Atlee in considerable doubt how to read him.

'I study your newspapers, Mr. Atlee,' resumed he. 'I never omit to read your _Times_, and I see how my old acquaintance, Lord Danesbury, has been making Turkey out of Ireland! It is so hard to persuade an old amba.s.sador that you cannot do everything by corruption!'

'I scarcely think you do him justice.'

'Poor Danesbury,' e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed he sorrowfully.

'You opine that his policy is a mistake?'

'Poor Danesbury!' said he again.

'He is one of our ablest men, notwithstanding. At this moment we have not his superior in anything.'

'I was going to say, Poor Danesbury, but I now say, Poor England.'

Atlee bit his lips with anger at the sarcasm, but went on, 'I infer you are not aware of the exact share subordinates have had in what you call Lord Danesbury's Irish blunders--'

'Pardon my interrupting you, but a really able man has no subordinates. His inferior agents are so thoroughly absorbed by his own individuality that they have no wills--no instincts--and, therefore, they can do no indiscretions They are the simple emanations of himself in action.'

'In Turkey, perhaps,' said Atlee, with a smile.

'If in Turkey, why not in England, or, at least, in Ireland? If you are well served--and mind, you must be well served, or you are powerless--you can always in political life see the adversary's hand. That he sees yours, is of course true: the great question then is, how much you mean to mislead him by the showing it? I give you an instance: Lord Danesbury's cleverest stroke in policy here, the one hit probably he made in the East, was to have a private correspondence with the Khedive made known to the Russian emba.s.sy, and induce Gortschakoff to believe that he could not trust the Pasha! All the Russian preparations to move down on the Provinces were countermanded. The stores of grain that were being made on the Pruth were arrested, and three, nearly four weeks elapsed before the mistake was discovered, and in that interval England had reinforced the squadron at Malta, and taken steps to encourage Turkey--always to be done by money, or promise of money.'

'It was a _coup_ of great adroitness,' said Atlee.

'It was more,' cried the Greek, with elation. 'It was a move of such subtlety as smacks of something higher than the Saxon! The men who do these things have the instinct of their craft. It is theirs to understand that chemistry of human motives by which a certain combination results in effects totally remote from the agents that produce it. Can you follow me?'

'I believe I can.'

'I would rather say, Is my attempt at an explanation sufficiently clear to be intelligible?'