Davenport Dunn, a Man of Our Day. Volume 1

“How was that? Who asked her? What did she say?”

“It was the Baron von Glum that asked; and her answer was, ‘Expecting a disappointment.’”

“Very gratifying intelligence, I must say. Did you hear that, my Lord?”

“Yes, I heard it, and I have placed it in my mind in the same category as her Crimean news.”

“Can she inform us when we are to get away?” asked her Ladyship.

“She mentioned to-morrow evening as the time, my Lady,” said the doctor, calmly.

A faint laugh of derisive meaning was Lady Lackington’s only reply; and the doctor gravely remarked: “There is more in these things than we like to credit; perhaps our very sense of inferiority in presence of such prediction is a bar to our belief. We do not willingly lend ourselves to a theory which at once excludes us from the elect of prophecy.”

“Could she tell us who’ll win the Derby?” said Spicer, joining the colloquy. But a glance from her Ladyship at once recalled him from the indiscreet familiarity.

“Do you think she could pronounce whose is the arrival that makes such a clatter outside?” said Lord Lackington, as a tremendous chorus of whip-cracking announced the advent of something very important; and the doctor hurried off to receive the visitor. Already a large travelling-carriage, drawn by eight horses, and followed by a “fourgon” with four, had drawn up before the great entrance, and a courier, gold-banded and whiskered, and carrying a most imposingly swollen money-bag, was ringing stoutly for admittance. When Dr. Lanfranchi had exchanged a few words with the courier, he approached the window of the carriage, and, bowing courteously, proceeded to welcome the traveller.

“Your apartments have been ready since the sixteenth, sir; and we hoped each day to have seen you arrive.”

“Have your visitors all gone?” asked the stranger, in a low quiet tone.

“No, sir; the fine weather has induced many to prolong their stay. We have the Princess Labanoff, Lord Lackington, the Countess Grembinski, the Duke of Terra di Monte, the Lady Grace – ”

The traveller, however, paid little attention to the Catalogue, but with the aid of the courier on one side and his-valet on the other, slowly descended from the carriage. If he availed himself of their assistance, there was little in his appearance that seemed to warrant its necessity. He was a large, powerfully built man, something beyond the prime of life, but whose build announced considerable vigor. Slightly stooped in the shoulders, the defect seemed to add to the fixity of his look, for the head was thus thrown more forward, and the expression of the deep-set eyes, overshadowed by shaggy gray eyebrows, rendered more piercing and direct His features were massive and regular, their character that of solemnity and gravity; and as he removed his cap, he displayed a high, bold forehead with what phrenologists would have called an extravagant development of the organs of locality. Indeed, these overhanging masses almost imparted an air of retreating to a head that was singularly straight.

“A number of letters have arrived for you, and you will find them in your room, sir,” continued Lanfranchi, as he escorted him towards the stairs. A quiet bow acknowledged this speech, and the doctor went on: “I was charged with a message from Lord Lackington, too, who desired me to say that he hoped to see you as soon as possible after your arrival. May I inform him when you could receive him?”

“Not to-night; some time to-morrow, about twelve o’clock, or half-past, if that will suit him,” said the stranger, coldly. “Is Baron Glumthal here? Well, tell him to come up to me, and let them send me some tea.”

“May I mention your arrival to his Lordship, for I know his great anxiety?”

“Just as you please,” said the other, in the same quiet tone; while he bowed in a fashion to dismiss his visitor.

Having glanced casually at the addresses of a number of letters, he only opened one or two, and looked cursorily over their contents; and then opening a window which looked over the lake, he placed a chair on the balcony and sat down, as if to rest and reflect in the fresh and still night air. It was a calm and quiet atmosphere, – not a leaf stirred, not a ripple moved the glassy surface of the lake; so that, as he sat, he could overhear Dr. Lanfranchi’s voice beneath announcing his arrival to Lord Lackington.

“If he can receive Glumthal, why can’t he see me?” asked the Viscount, testily. “You must go back and tell him that I desire particularly to meet him this evening.”

“If you wish, my Lord – ”

“I do, sir,” repeated he, more peremptorily. “Lady Lackington and myself have been sojourning here the last three weeks, awaiting this arrival, and I am at a loss to see why our patience is to be pushed further. Pray take him my message, therefore.”

The doctor, without speaking, left the room at once.

Lanfranchi was some minutes in the apartment before he discovered where the stranger was sitting, and then approaching him softly he communicated his Lordship’s request.

“I am afraid you must allow me to take my own way. I have contracted an unfortunate habit in that respect,” said the stranger, with a quiet smile. “Give my compliments to his Lordship, and say that at twelve to-morrow I am at his orders; and tell Baron Glumthal that I expect him now.”

Lanfranchi withdrew; and having whispered the message to the Baron, proceeded to make his communication to the Viscount.

“Very well, sir,” said Lord Lackington, haughtily interrupting; “something like an apology. Men of this sort have a business-like standard even for their politeness, and there is no necessity for me to teach them something better;” and then, turning to Twining, he added, “That was Dunn’s arrival we heard awhile ago.”

“Oh, indeed! Very glad, – quite rejoiced on your account more than my own. Dunn – Dunn; remarkable man – very,” said Twining, hurriedly.

“Thank Heaven! we may be able to get away from this place to-morrow or next day,” said Lord Lackington, sighing drearily.

“Yes, of course; very slow for your Lordship – no society – nothing to do.”

“And the weather beginning to break?” said Lord Lackington, peevishly.

“Just so, as your Lordship most justly observes, – the weather beginning to break.”

“Look at that troop of horses,” said the Viscount, as the postilions passed beneath the window in a long file with the cattle just released from the travelling-carriages. “There goes ten – no, but twelve posters. He travels right royally, doesn’t he?”

“Very handsomely, indeed; quite a pleasure to see it,” said Twining, gleefully.

“These fellows have little tact, with all their worldly shrewdness, or they ‘d not make such ostentatious display of their wealth.”

“Quite true, my Lord. It is indiscreet of them.”

“It is so like saying, ‘This is our day! ‘” said the Viscount.

“So it is, my Lord; and a very pleasant day they have of it, I must say; clever men – shrewd men – know the world thoroughly.”

“I ‘m not so very sure of that, Twining,” said his Lordship, smiling half superciliously. “If they really had all the worldly knowledge you attribute to them, they ‘d scarcely venture to shock the feelings of society by assumptions of this sort They would have more patience, Twining, – more patience.”

“So they would, my Lord. Capital thing, – excellent thing, patience; always rewarded in the end; great fun.” And he rubbed his hands and laughed away pleasantly.

“And they’ll defeat themselves, that’s what will come of it, sir,” said Lord Lackington, not heeding the other’s remark.

“I quite agree with your Lordship,” chimed in Twining.

“And shall I tell you why they ‘ll defeat themselves, sir?”

“Like it of all things; take it as a great favor on your Lordship’s part.”

“For this reason, Twining, that they have no ‘prestige,’ – no, Twining, they have no prestige. Now, sir, wealth unassociated with prestige is just like – what shall I say? – it is, as it were, a sort of local rank, – a kind of thing like being brigadier in the Bombay Army, but only a lieutenant when you ‘re at home; so long, therefore, as these fellows are rich, they have their influence. Let them suffer a reverse of fortune, however, and where will they be, sir?”

“Can’t possibly say; but quite certain your Lordship knows, – perfectly sure of it,” rattled out Twining.

“I do, sir. It is a subject on which I have bestowed considerable thought. I may go further, and say, one which I have reduced to a sort of theory. These men are signs of the times, – emblems of our era; just like the cholera, the electric telegraph, or the gold-fields of Australia. We must not accept them as normal, do you perceive? They are the abnormal incidents of our age.”

“Quite true, most just, very like the electric telegraph!” muttered Twining.

“And by that very condition only exercising a passing influence on our society, sir,” said his Lordship, pursuing his own train of thought.

“Perfectly correct, rapid as lightning.”

“And when they do pass away, sir,” continued the Viscount, “they leave no trace of their existence behind them. The bubble buret, the surface of the stream remains without a ripple. I myself may live to see; you, in all probability, will live to see.”