Winding Paths Part 47

"But that might be defying some of the precious conventions," put in Hal with a touch of scorn - "making women too important, don't you know; and encouraging them to be something more than household ornaments. We can't have that, even for the sake of the future. It would be too alarming. No; England will continue in her cast-iron rut of prejudice, until most of her soul-power is dried up, and only the husk of a great nation is left, to follow in the way of other husks."

"Then I will go to the new, young, strong nation, and watch her splendid rise," quoth d.i.c.k.

"Traitor!" they threw at him, but he was quite imperturbed. "Strength and vigour are better than old traditions and an enfeebled race; and sombebody, somewhere on the globe, had got to listen to what I am bound to teach."

"You dear old Juggins," said Hal, "when England has pa.s.sed her zenith, and gone under to the new, strong race, you will be found sitting meditating among cabbages and green peas, like Omar Khayyam in his rose garden. The rest of us will have died in the fighting-line - except Baby, and they will put him under a gla.s.s case, and preserve him as one of the few fine specimens left of a decadent race - in spite of his brainlessness."

"Are we a decadent race?" asked Lorraine thoughtfully.

"Only the House of Lords and a few leading Conservatives," said Lord Denton with flippancy. "The workingman who has the courage to refuse to work, and the Liberal members who have the grit to demand salaries for upsetting the Const.i.tution, led by a few eminent Ministers who delight to remove their neighbour's landmark, and relieve his pocket, are the splendid fellows of the grand new opening era of prosperity and greatness."

"Still," put in Quin hopefully, "it is very fas.h.i.+onable to go big-game shooting nowadays, and an African lion may yet chew up a few of them."

"Poor lion!" quoth Lorraine; "but what a fine finale for the king of beasts, to chew up the despoilers of kings. Shall we go to the drawing-room?" And she rose to lead the way.

A Bridge table was arranged in an alcove for Hal and three of the men, and Lorraine and Hermon sat over the fire for preference. They were far enough away from the players to be able to speak of them unheard, and Hermon, in the course of their conversation, mentioned that he saw something different in Hal to-night to what he had noticed before.

Lorraine thought she was only very lively, but Hermon looked doubtful.

He could not express what he seemed to see, but in some way her liveliness held a new note. He thought she had more tone and a new kind of a.s.surance, and he tried to explain it to Lorraine.

"I expect she's had a jolly afternoon," was all Lorraine said, with a smile. "She has been to the Zoo with Sir Edwin Crathie."

"Has she?" significantly, and Hermon raised his eyebrows. "Are they still friends, then? I thought she only knew him slightly."

"Thas was at the beginning," and Lorraine glanced at him with the smile deepening in her eyes. "There always has to be a beginning - doesn't there?"

But no answering smile shone in Alymer Hermon's face, rather a slight shade of anxiety as he glanced across the room at Hal. "I should not like a sister of mine to have much to do with Sir Edwin Crathie," he said gravely.

"Perhaps not, you dear old Solemn-acre," giving his arm a gentle pat; "but a sister of yours would not have learned early to battle with the world as Hal has."

"But surely if she is less protected than a sister of mine would have been, there is the greater cause for caution."

"There is no comparision. A sister of yours would always have known protection, and always rely on it, and if it failed her she might find herself in difficulties and dangers she hardly knew how to cope with.

Hal faced the difficulties and the dangers early, and learnt to be her own defence and protector. Some women have to, you see. It is necessary for them to wield weapons and armour out of their own strength, and be prepared to be buffeted by a heartless world, and not be afraid. If you had a sister, you would want to keep her in cotton-wool, and never let any rough, enlightening experience come near her. If I had a daughter, I should like her to have the enlightening experience early, and learn to be strong and self-dependent like Hal; then I shouldn't be afraid of her future."

She was silent a few moments, then added thoughtfully: "I think it would be better for society in general if the girls of the leisured cla.s.ses knew more about the world, and were better able to take car of themselves; meaning, of course, with a pride like Hal's in going straight because it's the game."

Hermon's eyes again strayed to Hal's pretty head, with its glossy brown hair, and Lorraine continued after a pause:

"If I'm afraid of anything with Hal, it is that she might let herself get to care for some one who isn't worth her little finger, or some one who is out of her reach, or something generally impossible. She wouldn't care lightly; and she'd get dreadfully hurt."

"But surely she couldn't actually fall in love with a man like Edwin Crathie?" he remonstrated.

"I wasn't thinking of Sir Edwin specially. She goed about a great deal, you know, and meets many people. She has a strong vein of romance too. I always feel I shall be very glad when she is safely anch.o.r.ed, if only it is to the right man."

They were interrupted then by the Bridge players, who had finished their first rubber, and Lord Denton persuaded Hermon to change places with him for a time, and came to sit over the fire with Lorraine.

Presently he too mentioned Hal.

"She is the best woman Bridge player I have ever met," he said. "She seems to be developing into something rather out of the ordinary.

Hasn't she grown much better-looking?"

Lorraine smiled, a slow, sweet smile.

"Alymer Hermon has just been praising Hal too," she said; "I like to hear you men admire her; it shows you can appreciate sterling worth as well - well - shall we call it daring impropriety?"

"You are a little severe."

"Am I? Well, you see, I know a good many men pretty intimately; and I have gleaned from various confiding moments that it is not the working woman chiefly, relying only on her own protection, who strays into the murky byways and muddy corners of life. It is surprisingly often the direction of the idle, home-guarded, bored young lady. Flip, if it came to a choice, I believe I would put my money on the worker. It's such a splendid, healthy, steadying thing to have a real purpose and a real occupation; instead of just days and weeks of idle enjoyment. And as for temptations! Well, they abound pretty fully in both cases; it isn't the amount of temptation likely to be encountered that matters, so much as the quality of the individual armour to meet it with."

"Still, when it comes to being hungry and cold and having no money?" he argued.

"It doesn't make much difference in the long run, except that one hopes The Man Above will surely find a wider forgiveness for the woman who was hungry and cold than for the woman who was just bored, but hadn't the grit to find an aim and purpose to renew and invigorate a purposeless life. All the same, I'd like to see Hal safely anch.o.r.ed to a real good fellow. Flip, if you could persuade her to try, she'd make you a splendid wife."

"And what in the world should I do with a splendid wife?" laughing frankly into her face - "what an appalling possession! Lorry, old girl, I've got a splendid woman pal, and that's good enough for me. If I ever want a wife you shall have the privilege of finding me one: but it won't be until I am old and gouty, and then she had better be a hospital nurse, inured to irritability."

"You are quite hopeless," shaking her head at him, "but I don't particularly want to lose you as a friend, unless it is for Hal; so we'll say no more."

"Sensible woman! And now I must really be off. I like your friends, Lorry. They're very fresh. And of course Hermon is tremendous. You haven't overdrawn him at all. Only to be careful. Remember the burnt child. A man like that ought to be made to wear a mask and hideous garments, for the protection of susceptible females."

"He would need to speak through a grating trumpet as well."

"Yes, I suppose he would. Even I can hear the attraction in his voice.

It will be splendid when he begins to feel his feet in the law courts.

We'll make a celebrity of him, shall we - just for the interest of it.

But it's to be only a hobby, Lorraine, no entanglements, mind" - and he laughed his low, pleasant laught.

"Very well, call it a hobby, or what you like - only keep him in mind now, Flip. I've got him into an ambitious spirit that means everything, if there is enough fuel at the beginning to keep it alight until it is a glowing pile quite capable of burning gaily alone."

"Right you are. I like him. You fan the flame, and I'll rake up the fuel. I'll speak to Hodson about him to-morrow. He's always ready to lend a hand to a promising junior."

When they had all gone, Lorraine lingered a few moments by her fireside.

"A hobby!" she breathed; "yes, why not? Man-making is almost equal to man-bearing. I have no son to spur up the Olympian heights; but what might I not do for Alymer, if... if - "

She placed her hands on the mantelshelf, and leaned her forehead down on them.

"Alymer," she whispered, a little brokenly, "I wonder if I ought to be ready to give you all, and ask nothing? Perhaps make you all the splendid man you might be, just for some one else, and get nothing myself but a heart-ache?"

CHAPTER XXV

The winter months pa.s.sed more or less uneventfully and pleasantly. The case in which Hermon had held his first brief, though in only a very secondary position, was rather splendidly won. An unlooked-for development in it roused public interest, and filled the Hall with spectators. Lord Denton went out of curiosity, and was present when Hermon, as an unknown junior, made his first public appearance.

He was not the only man specially interested either; seniour councel on both sides had its grandiloquent eye on the new-comer, so to speak - interested to know how he would acquit himself. Afterwards they congratulated him very warmly, and Denton went to tell Lorraine he had made a hit.