The Far Horizon | Page 8

part.
"You have the redress in your own hands," Sir Abel went on, not
without a hint of annoyance. "If you need amusement, leisure, rest, they
are all within your reach."
Still Iglesias did not speak.
"See now, my good friend, consider. To be practical"--Sir Abel raised
his finger and wagged it, with a heavy attempt at bonhomie. "You have
no family to provide for?"
"No," said Mr. Iglesias.
"You are, in short, not married?"
"No, Sir Abel," he said again.

"Well, then, no obstacle presents itself. But let us pause a moment, for I
must guard myself against misconception. In the interests of both
public and private morality I am a staunch advocate of marriage."
Again he cleared his throat. The platform was conspicuous by its
presence--in idea. "I hold matrimony to be among the primary duties,
nay, to be the primary duty of the Christian and the citizen. We owe it
to the race, we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the opposite sex. Let us
be quite clear on this point. Yet, since I deprecate all bigotry, I admit
that there may be exceptional cases in which absence of the marital
relation, though arguing some emotional callousness, may prove
advantageous to the individual."
A queer light had come into Dominic Iglesias' eyes. The corners of his
mouth worked a little. He stood quite still and rather noticeably erect.
"I do not deny this," Sir Abel continued. "I repeat, I do not deny it. And
yours, my good friend, may be, I am prepared to acknowledge, a case
in point. I take for granted, by the way, that you have saved, since your
salary has been a liberal one?"
Iglesias inclined his head.
"Clearly we need discuss this matter no further then." The speaker
became impressive, admonitory. "Indeed, it appears to me that your lot
is a most favoured one. You are free of all encumbrances. You can
retire in comfort--retire, moreover, with the assurance that your
departure will cause no inconvenience to myself and my colleagues,
since you make room for men younger and more in touch with modern
methods than yourself."
Mr. Iglesias permitted himself to smile.
"Ah, yes!" he said. "Possibly I had not taken that fact sufficiently into
account."
"Yet, clearly, it should augment your satisfaction," Sir Abel Barking
observed, with a touch of severity. "And, by the by, you can draw your
pension. You were entitled, strictly speaking, to do so some years ago--

four, I believe, to be accurate. This was pointed out to you at the time
by my nephew Reginald. He was not at all unwilling that you should
retire then; but you preferred to remain. I had some conversation, at the
time, with my nephew on the subject. I insisted upon the fact that your
service had been exemplary. I finally succeeded in overruling his
objection to your retaining your post."
"I am evidently under a heavy obligation to you, Sir Abel," said
Iglesias.
"Don't mention it--don't mention it," the great man answered nobly.
"Those in power should try to exercise it to the benefit of their
subordinates. It has always been my effort not only to be just, but to be
considerate of the interests and feelings of persons in my employment."
And with that he again fixed his eyes upon the ironical portrait
adorning the opposite wall, wholly blind to the fact that it at once
revealed his weaknesses and mocked at them, conscious only of an
agreeable conviction that he had treated his head clerk with generosity
and spoken to him with the utmost good-feeling and tact.
With the proud it is ever a question whether to spoil the Egyptians, or
to fling back even the best-earned wages, payable by Egyptians, full in
the said Egyptians' face. For the firm of Barking Brothers & Barking, in
the abstract, Iglesias had the loyalty of long-established habit. It had
been as the rising tide, setting the ship of his fate and fortune
honourably afloat in the dismal days of that early stranding. Its service
had eaten up the best years of his life, it is true. But, even in so doing,
by mere force of constant association, the interests of the great banking
house had come to be his own, its schemes and secrets his excitement,
its successes his satisfaction. Fortunately the human mind is so
constituted that it is possible to have an esteem, amounting to
enthusiasm, for a body corporate, while entertaining but scanty
admiration for the individuals of whom that body is
composed--fortunately indeed, since otherwise what government,
secular or sacred, would long continue to subsist? Hence, to Iglesias,
this matter of the pension was decidedly difficult. Pride said, "This man,
Abel Barking has been offensive; both he and his nephew have been

ungrateful; reject it