PAGE 9
The Blue Curtains
by
Sir Eustace himself saw that his brother’s taciturnity had spoilt his little dinner, and his temper was not improved thereby. He was not accustomed to have his dinners spoiled, and felt that, so far as the Under-Secretary was concerned, he had put himself into a false position.
“My dear George,” he said in a tone of bland exasperation when they had got back to the Albany, “I wonder what can be the matter with you? I told Atherleigh that you would be able to post him up thoroughly about all this Bechuana mess, and he could not get a word out of you.”
His brother absently filled his pipe before he answered:
“The Bechuanas? Oh, yes, I know all about them. I lived among them for a year.”
“Then why on earth didn’t you tell him what you knew? You put me in rather a false position.”
“I am very sorry, Eustace,” he answered humbly. “I will go and see him if you like, and explain the thing to him to-morrow. The fact of the matter is, I was thinking of something else.”
Sir Eustace interrogated him with a look.
“I was thinking,” he went on slowly, “about Mad–about Lady Croston.”
“Oh!”
“I went to see her this afternoon, and I think, I hope, that I am going to marry her.”
If Bottles expected that this great news would be received by his elder brother as such news ought to be received–with congratulatory rejoicing–he was destined to be disappointed.
“Good heavens!” ejaculated Sir Eustace shortly, letting his eyeglass drop.
“Why do you say that, Eustace?” Bottles asked uneasily.
“Because–because,” answered his brother in the emphatic tone which was his equivalent for strong language, “you must be mad to think of such a thing.”
“Why must I be mad?”
“Because you, still a young man, with all your life before you, deliberately propose to tie yourself up to a middle-aged and passee woman–she is extremely passee by daylight, let me tell you–who has already treated you like a dog, and is burdened with a couple of children, and who, if she marries again, will bring you very little except her luxurious tastes. But I expected this. I thought she would try to catch you with those languishing black eyes of hers. You are not the first; I know her of old.”
“If,” said his brother, rising in dudgeon, “you are going to abuse Madeline to me, I think I had better say good night, for we shall quarrel–which I would not do for anything.”
Sir Eustace shrugged his shoulders. “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad,” he muttered, as he lit his hand candle. “This is what comes of a course of South Africa.”
But Sir Eustace was an amenable man. His favourite motto was “Live and let live”; and having given the matter his best consideration during the lengthy process of shaving himself on the following morning, he came to the conclusion, reluctantly enough it must be owned, that it was evident that his brother meant to have his own way, and therefore the best thing to be done was to fall in with his views and trust to the chapter of accidents to bring the thing to naught. Sir Eustace, for all his apparent worldliness and cynicism, was a good fellow at heart, and cherished a warm affection for his awkward, taciturn brother. He also cherished a great dislike for Lady Croston, whose character he thoroughly understood. He saw a good deal of her, it is true, because he happened to be one of the executors of her husband’s will; and since he had come into the baronetcy it had struck him that she had developed a considerable partiality for his society.
The idea of a marriage between his brother and his brother’s old flame was in every way distasteful to him. In the first place, under her husband’s will, Madeline would bring, comparatively speaking, relatively little with her should she marry again. That was one objection. Another, and still more forcible one from Sir Eustace’s point of view, was that at her time of life she was not likely to present the house of Peritt with an heir. Now, Sir Eustace had not the slightest intention of marrying. Matrimony was, he considered, an excellent institution, and necessary to the carrying on of the world in a respectable manner, but it was not one with which he was anxious to identify himself. Therefore, if his brother married at all, it was his earnest desire that the union should bring children to inherit the title and estates. Prominent above both these excellent reasons, stood his intense distrust and dislike of the lady.