Elizabeths Campaign | Page 9

Mrs. Humphrey Ward
time he comes. And as for
my daughters, they think me a lunatic--a stingy lunatic
besides--because I won't give to their Red Cross shows and bazaars.
I've nothing to give. The income tax gentlemen have taken care of that.'
'Yet you spend on this kind of thing!' Sir Henry pointed to the vases.
He had grown a little white.
'Of course I can. That's permanent. That's something to mend the holes
that the soldiers and the politicians are making. When the war's become
a nightmare that nobody wants to remember, those little things'--he
pointed to a group of Greek bronzes and terra-cottas on a table
near--'will still be the treasures of the world!'
In the yeasty deep of Sir Henry's honest mind emotions were rising
which he knew now he should not long be able to control. He took up
his hat and stick.
'I'm sorry, Mannering, that I have not been able to convince you. I'm

sorry for your point of view--and I'm sorry for your sons.'
The words slipped out of his mouth before he knew.
The Squire bounded.
'My sons! The one's a fire-eater, with whom you can't argue. The
other's a child--a babe--whom the Government proposes to murder
before he has begun to live.'
Sir Henry looked at the speaker, who had been violently flushed a
minute earlier, and was now as pale as himself, and then at the sketch
of Desmond, just behind the Squire. His eyes dropped; the hurry in his
blood subsided.
'Well, good-bye, Mannering. I'll--I'll do what I can to make things easy
for you.'
The Squire laughed angrily.
'You'll put on the screws politely? Thank you? But still it will be you
who'll be putting the screw on, who'll be turning out my farmers, and
ploughing up my land, and cutting down my trees. Doesn't it strike you
that--well, that--under the circumstances--it will be rather difficult for
Aubrey and Beryl to keep up their engagement?'
The Squire was sitting on the edge of the table, his thin legs crossed,
his thumbs in his waistcoat pockets. Sir Henry coloured hotly.
'You gave your consent to their engagement, Mannering.'
'Yes, but I propose to withdraw it,' said the Squire coolly.
Sir Henry's indignation kept him cool also.
'You can't play ducks and drakes with young people's lives like that.
Even you can't do that.'
'I can. I can withdraw my consent.'

'Because you mean to fight the County War Committee, of which I am
Chairman?'
'Precisely. The situation is too difficult,' said the Squire with sparkling
eyes. 'The young people will no doubt see it for themselves.'
'Pshaw! Nonsense!' cried Sir Henry, finally losing his temper. 'Aubrey
is long since of age and his own master.'
'Perhaps, but he is an extravagant fellow, who likes money and spends
it. And if he is his own master, I am the master of the estate; there is no
entail.'
Chicksands laughed aloud.
'So because I come on a mission to try and save you friction and trouble,
you are going to avenge yourself on your son and my daughter?'
'I merely point out the properties,' said the Squire provokingly, his legs
dangling.
There was a pause. Sir Henry broke it with dignity, as he turned away.
'I think we had better break off this discussion. I cannot--I do
not--believe you will carry out what you say. But if you do, I shall
stand by the young people.'
'No doubt!' said the Squire, who seemed to bristle from head to foot.
'Well, good-bye, Sir Henry. Sorry your visit has not been more
agreeable. Forest will look after you.' And ringing the bell vehemently
as he passed the fireplace, the Squire walked rapidly to the door and
threw it open.
Chicksands passed through it, speechless with indignation and, if the
truth were told, bewilderment.
* * * * *
The Squire shut the door upon his adversary, and then, with his hands

on his sides, exploded in a fit of laughter.
'I always knew I must be rude to the old boy some time,' he said, with
the glee of a mischievous child. 'But, ye gods, how his feathers drooped!
He looked like a plucked cockatoo as he went out.'
He stood thinking a moment, and then with a look of sudden
determination he went to his writing-table and sat down to it. Drawing
a writing-pad towards him, he wrote as follows:
'MY DEAR AUBREY--Your future father-in-law has just been
insulting and harrying me in ways which no civilized State had ever
heard of before the war. He is the Chairman of a ridiculous body that
calls itself the County War Agricultural Committee, that lays absurd
eggs in the shape of sub-Committees to vex landlords. They have been
going about among my farmers and want me to turn out three
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