Half a Hero | Page 3

in vain sought particulars of Mr.
Medland's misdeeds, and the aides-de-camp speculated curiously on
the composition of the Cabinet, Captain Heseltine betting Mr. Flemyng
five to two that it would include Mr. Giles, the leading tailor of Kirton,
to whose services the captain had once been driven to resort with
immense trepidation and disastrous results. As a fact, the captain lost
his bet; the Cabinet did not include Mr. Giles, because that gentleman,
albeit an able speaker, and a man of much greater intellect than most of
his customers, was suspected of paying low wages to his employés,
though, according to the captain, it was impossible that he should pay
them as little as their skill deserved.
"I don't think I ever saw Mr. Medland," said Alicia, who had come out
from England only a few months before.
"I have seen him," said Eleanor Scaife. "In fact, I had a little talk with
him at the Jubilee Banquet."
"Was he sober?" Lady Eynesford, in her bitterness of spirit, allowed
herself to ask.

"Mary! Of course he was. He was also rather interesting. He was then
in mourning for Mrs. Medland, and he told me he only came because
his absence would have been put down to disloyalty."
The mention of Mrs. Medland increased the downward curve of Lady
Eynesford's mouth, and she was about to speak, when Dick Derosne
exclaimed,
"Well, you can see him now, Al. He's walking up the drive."
The party and their tea-table were screened by trees, and they were able,
themselves unseen, to watch Mr. Medland, as, in obedience to the
Governor's summons, he walked slowly up to Government House. A
girl of about seventeen or eighteen accompanied him to the gate, and
left him there with a merry wave of her hand, and he strode on alone,
his hands in his trousers pockets and a soft felt hat on the back of his
head.
James--or, as his followers called him, "Jimmy"--Medland was
forty-one years of age, once an engineer, now a politician, by
profession, a tall, loose-limbed, slouching man, with stiff black hair and
a shaven face. His features were large and had been clear-cut, but by
now they had grown coarser, and his deep-set eyes, under heavy lids
and bushy eyebrows, alone survived unimpaired by time and life. Deep
lines ran either side from nose to mouth, and the like across his
forehead. He had cut himself while shaving that morning, and a large
patch of black plaster showed in the centre of his long, prominent chin:
as he walked, he now and then lifted a hand to pluck nervously at it;
save in this unconscious gesture, he betrayed no sign of excitement or
preoccupation, for, as he walked, he looked about him and once, for a
minute, he whistled.
"Awful!" said Lady Eynesford in a whisper.
"He wants a new coat," said Captain Heseltine.
"He looks rather interesting, I think," said Alicia.

At this moment a rare and beautiful butterfly fluttered close over Mr.
Medland's head. He paused and watched it for a moment. Then he
looked carefully round him: no one was in sight: the butterfly settled
for a moment on a flowerbed. Mr. Medland looked round again. Then
he cautiously lifted his soft hat from his head, wistfully eyed the
butterfly, looked round again, suddenly pounced down on his knees,
and pressed the hat to the ground. He was very close to the hidden
tea-party now, so close that Alicia's suppressed scream of laughter
almost betrayed its presence. Mr. Medland put his head down and,
raising one corner of the hat, peered under it. Alicia laughed outright,
for the butterfly was fluttering in the air above him. Medland did not
hear her; he looked up, saw the butterfly, rose to his feet, put on his hat,
and exclaimed, in a voice audible by all the listeners----
"Missed it, by heaven!"
"You see the sort of man he is," observed Lady Eynesford.
"An entomologist, I suppose," suggested Miss Scaife.
"He chases butterflies in the Governor's garden, and swears when he
doesn't catch them!"
"He fears not God, neither regards the Governor," remarked Dick, with
a solemn shake of his head.
"Don't be flippant, Dick," said Lady Eynesford sharply.
"He might at least brush the knees of his trousers," moaned Captain
Heseltine.
Meanwhile Mr. Medland walked up to the door and rang the bell. He
was received by Jackson, the butler; and Jackson was flanked by two
footmen. Jackson politely concealed his surprise at not seeing a
carriage and pair, and stated that his Excellency would receive Mr.
Medland at once.
"I hope I haven't kept him waiting," answered Medland. "The pony's

lame, and I had to walk."
The footmen, who were young, raw, and English, almost smiled. A
Premier dependent on one pony! Jackson