CHAPTER XII
SHALL A MAN ESCAPE HIS FATE?
On the way to the Danish Legation, Colonel Harris asked Luke what hisplans were for the evening.
"I shall," replied Luke, "call at Grosvenor Square. I may find UncleRad, or Philip, or both at home. I mean to have a good tussle aboutthis wintering abroad. It's really most important."
"I call it criminal," retorted Colonel Harris, "keeping a man inLondon who has been used to go south in the winter for the past twentyyears at least."
"Uncle Rad is still fairly well now, though I do think he looks morefeeble than usual. He ought to go at once."
"But," suggested Louisa, "he oughtn't to go alone."
"No. He certainly ought not."
"Would Mr. de Mountford go with him?"
"I don't think so."
"This new man of his, then?"
"That," said Luke hotly, "would be madness. The man is really adrunkard."
"But somebody ought to go."
"Edie would be only too willing--if she is allowed."
"Edie?" exclaimed Louisa.
And she added with a smile:
"What will Reggie Duggan have to say to that?"
"Nothing," he replied quietly. "Reggie Duggan has cried off."
"You don't mean that."
"He has given up Edie who has little or nothing a year, and becomeengaged to Marian Montagu who has eight thousand pounds a year of herown."
"Poor Edie!" murmured Louisa, whilst Colonel Harris's exclamation wasequally to the point and far more forcible, and more particularlyconcerned the Honourable Reginald Duggan.
"Yes," rejoined Luke, "it has hit her hard, coming on the top of otherthings. There's no gainsaying the fact, is there, Colonel Harris, thatwe four brothers and sister owe something to Uncle Arthur's son?"
"The handle of a riding whip," came from out the depths of ColonelHarris's fur coat. "Stupid way parsons have of saying that to wish aman dead is tantamount to murder. I am committing murder now for amatter of that, for I wish that blackguard were buried in one of hisnative earthquakes."
"Would to God," added Luke, "that wishing alone would do it."
There was so much wrath, such hatred and contempt in those words thatLouisa instinctively whispered:
"Hush, Luke! don't talk like that."
And Colonel Harris somewhat ostentatiously cleared his throat andsaid:
"Don't let us think of that confounded Philip."
Luke took leave of Colonel Harris and of Louisa at the door of theDanish Legation. He waited on the carpeted curb beneath the awninguntil he saw her white evening cloak disappear in the door-way.
The fog had become very dense. Just here where a number of carriagelamps threw light around, one could distinguish faces and formsimmediately close to one, but as Luke turned away from the brilliantlights, he realized how thick was the pall which enveloped Londonto-night. He looked at his watch; it was close upon eight. The nextfew minutes brought him to the door of Lord Radclyffe's house.
He rang but obtained no answer. He rang again and again and finallycame to the conclusion that his uncle and cousin were as usual diningout and that the elderly couple who did perfunctory service in thehouse were either asleep or out of ear-shot or had taken theopportunity of seeking amusement in a neighbouring public house.
But Luke was worried about Lord Radclyffe; moreover he had made up hismind that he would speak to him and to Philip to-night, with regard tothe imperative wintering abroad for the old man.
The Veterans' Club was unknown to Luke, but Shaftesbury Avenue wasnot. He turned into Oxford Street and as taxicabs were now a forbiddenluxury he hailed a passing omnibus and jumped into it, and thus wasrapidly conveyed into the very heart of the fog which had found itshaven around Piccadilly Circus.
The Heart of a Woman Page 12