human
I'm so glad that _is_ your reason for helping Cousin Henry, Peter; because I was afraid there might be--another.
gpt
You thought I might be--in love?
human
That's queer, he went on,
gpt
What made you think that?
human
What makes one think anything? However, he conceded,
gpt
I dare say I'm wrong.
human
That's a very good conclusion to come to. I advise you to keep to it.
gpt
I will if you'll do the same about me.
human
I can't make a bargain of that kind, Peter. The scientific mind bases its conclusions on--observed phenomena.
gpt
Which I guess is the reason why the scientific mind is so often wrong. I've had a good deal to do with it in the copper-mine business. It's always barking up the wrong tree. I've often heard it said that the clever scientist is generally a poor reasoner.
human
Well, perhaps he is. But I wasn't reasoning. I was merely going by instinct when I thought you might have a special motive for helping Cousin Henry. If you had, you know, it wouldn't be any harm.
gpt
It mightn't be any harm; but would it be any good?
human
Well, that might depend a good deal--on you.
gpt
On me? How so? I don't know what you're driving at.
human
I'm not driving at anything. I'm only speculating. I'm wondering what I should do if I were in your place--with all your advantages.
gpt
Rot, Drusilla!
human
If I were a man and had a rival, Drusilla persisted,
gpt
I should be awfully honorable in the stand I'd take toward him--just like you. But if anything miscarried--
human
You don't _expect_ anything to miscarry?
gpt
No; I don't expect it. But it might be a fortunate thing if it did.
human
You don't mean to infer that this man Ashley mightn't come up to the scratch?
gpt
Colonel Ashley has come up to a good many scratches in his time. He's not likely to fail in this one.
human
Well, then, what more is there to it?
gpt
There's a good deal more. There are things I can't explain, and which you wouldn't understand if I did. Coming up to the scratch isn't everything. Charles the First came up to the scratch when he walked up and had his head cut off; but there was more to be said.
human
And you mean that your Colonel Ashley would be brave enough to walk up and have _his_ head cut off?
gpt
I know he'd be brave enough. It's no question of courage. He had the Victoria Cross before he was thirty. But it's a noble head; and it might be a pity it should have to fall.
human
But I don't understand why it should.
gpt
No, you wouldn't unless you'd lived among them. They'd all admit he had done the right thing. They'd say that, having come out here to marry her, he could do no less than go through with it. That part of it would be all right. Even in the Rangers it might make comparatively little difference--except that now and then Olivia would feel uncomfortable. Only when he was mentioned at the Horse Guards for some important command they'd remember that there was something queer--something shady--about his wife's family, and his name would be passed over.
human
I see.
gpt
Oh no, you don't. It's much too intricate for you to see. You couldn't begin to understand how poignant it might become, especially for her, without knowing their ways and traditions--
human
Their ways and traditions be--!
gpt
Yes; that's all very fine. But they're very good ways, Peter. They've got to keep the honor of the Service up to a very high standard. Their ways are all right. But that doesn't keep them from being terrible forces to come up against, especially for a proud thing like her. And now that the postponing of the wedding has got into the papers--
human
Yes; I've seen 'em. Got it pretty straight, too, all things considered.
gpt
And that sort of thing simply flies. It will be in the New York papers to-morrow, and in the London ones the day after. We always get those things cabled over there. We know about the elopements and the queer things that happen in America when we don't hear of anything else. Within forty-eight hours they'll be talking of it at the Rangers' dépôt in Sussex--and at Heneage--and all through his county--and at the Horse Guards. You see if they aren't! You've no idea how people have their eye on him. And when they hear the wedding has been put off for a scandal they'll have at their heels all the men who've hated him--and all the women who've envied her--
human
Pooh! That sort of dog can only bark.
gpt
No; that's where you're wrong, Peter. In England it can bite. It can raise a to-do around their name that will put a dead stop to his promotion--that is, the best kind of promotion, such as he's on the way to.
human
The deuce take his promotion! Let's think of--_her_.
gpt
That's just what I thought you'd do, Peter; and with all your advantages--
human
Drop that, Drusilla, he commanded.
gpt
You know you don't mean it. You know as well as I do that I haven't a chance--even if I wanted one--which I don't. You're not thinking of me--or of her. You're thinking of him--and how to get him out of a match that won't tend to his advancement.
human
I'm thinking of every one, Peter--of every one but myself, that is. I'm thinking of him, and her, and you--
gpt
Then you'll do me a favor if you leave me out.
human
I can't leave you out, Peter, when you're the Hamlet of the piece. That's nonsense. I'm not plotting or planning on any one's behalf. It isn't my temperament. I only say that if this--this affair--didn't come off--though I suppose it will--I feel sure it will--yet if it didn't--then, with all your advantages--and after what you've done for her--
gpt
Look here, Drusilla. You may as well understand me once for all. I wouldn't marry a girl who took me because of what I'd done for her, not if she was the last woman in the world.
human
But you would if she was the first, Peter. And I'm convinced that for you she _is_ the first--
gpt
Now, now! he warned her,
human
You're all first with me, she protested.
gpt
I don't know which of you I'm the most sorry for.
human
Don't waste your pity on me. I'm perfectly happy. There's only one of the lot who needs any consideration whatever. And, by God! if he's not true to her, I'll--
gpt
Your intervention won't be called for, Peter, she assured him, making her way toward the door.
human
You're greatly mistaken if you think I've asked for it.
gpt
Then for Heaven's sake what _have_ you asked for? _I_ don't see.
human
I've only asked you not to be an idiot. I merely beg, for all our sakes, that if something precious is flung down at your feet you'll have the common sense to stoop and pick it up.
gpt
I'll consider that, he called after her, as she sped up the stairs,
human
Lucky Ashley, by which he was often spoken of in the Rangers, had been justified by more than one spectacular success. He had fulfilled so many special missions to uncivilized and half-civilized and queerly civilized tribes that he had come to feel as if he habitually went on his way with the might of the British Empire to back him. It was he who in South Africa brought the M'popos to order without shedding a drop of blood; it was he who in the eastern Soudan induced the followers of the Black Prophet to throw in their lot with the English, securing by this move the safety of Upper Egypt; it was he who in the Malay Peninsula intimidated the Sultan of Surak into accepting the British protectorate, thus removing a menace to the peace of the Straits Settlements. Even if he had had no other exploits to his credit, these alone would have assured his favor with the home authorities. It had become something like a habit, at the Colonial Office or the War Officer or the Foreign Office, as the case might be, whenever there was trouble on one of the Empire's vague outer frontiers, to ask,
gpt
Where's Ashley?