The Lions Skin | Page 7

a two years' tour of Europe; and on his return, a grown and
cultured man, he had attached him to the court in Rome of the
Pretender, whose agent he was himself in Paris.
He had done his duty by the boy as he understood his duty, always with

that grim purpose of revenge for his horizon. And the result had been a
stranger compound than even Everard knew, for all that he knew the
lad exceedingly well. For he had scarcely reckoned sufficiently upon
Justin's mixed nationality and the circumstance that in soul and mind he
was entirely his mother's child, with nothing - or an imperceptible little
- of his father. As his mother's nature had been, so was Justin's - joyous.
But Everard's training of him had suppressed all inborn vivacity. The
mirth and diablerie that were his birthright had been overlaid with
British phlegm, until in their stead, and through the blend, a certain
sardonic humor had developed, an ironical attitude toward all things
whether sacred or profane. This had been helped on by culture, and - in
a still greater measure - by the odd training in worldliness which he had
from Everard. His illusions were shattered ere he had cut his wisdom
teeth, thanks to the tutelage of Sir Richard, who in giving him the ugly
story of his own existence, taught him the misanthropical lesson that all
men are knaves, all women fools. He developed, as a consequence, that
sardonic outlook upon the world. He sought to take vos non vobis for
his motto, affected to a spectator in the theatre of Life, with the obvious
result that he became the greatest actor of them all.
So we find him even now, his main emotion pity for Sir Richard, who
sat silent for some moments, reviewing that thirty-year dead past, until
the tears scalded his old eyes. The baronet made a queer noise in his
throat, something between a snarl and a sob, and he flung himself
suddenly back in his chair.
Justin sat down, a becoming gravity in his countenance. "Tell me all,"
he begged his adoptive father. "Tell me how matters stand precisely -
how you propose to act."
"With all my heart," the baronet assented. "Lord Ostermore, having
turned his coat once for profit, is ready now to turn it again for the
same end. From the information that reaches me from England, it
would appear that in the rage of speculation that has been toward in
London, his lordship has suffered heavily. How heavily I am not
prepared to say. But heavily enough, I dare swear, to have caused this
offer to return to his king; for he looks, no doubt, to sell his services at

a price that will help him mend the wreckage of his fortunes. A week
ago a gentleman who goes between his majesty's court at Rome and his
friends here in Paris brought me word from his majesty that Ostermore
had signified to him his willingness to rejoin the Stuart cause.
"Together with that information, this messenger brought me letters
from his majesty to several of his friends, which I was to send to
England by a safe hand at the first opportunity. Now, amongst these
letters - delivered to me unsealed - is one to my Lord Ostermore,
making him certain advantageous proposals which he is sure to accept
if his circumstances be as crippled as I am given to understand.
Atterbury and his friends, it seems, have already tampered with my
lord's loyalty to Dutch George to some purpose, and there is little doubt
but that this letter" - and he tapped a document before him - "will do
what else is to be done.
"But, since these letters were left with me, come you with his majesty's
fresh injunctions that I am to suppress them and cross to England at
once myself, to prevail upon Atterbury and his associates to abandon
the undertaking."
Mr. Caryll nodded. "Because, as I have told you," said he, "King James
in Rome has received positive information that in London the plot is
already suspected, little though Atterbury may dream it. But what has
this to do with my Lord Ostermore?"
"This," said Everard slowly, leaning across toward Justin, and laying a
hand upon his sleeve. "I am to counsel the Bishop to stay his hand
against a more favorable opportunity. There is no reason why you
should not do the very opposite with Ostermore."
Mr. Caryll knit his brows, his eyes intent upon the other's face; but he
said no word.
"It is," urged Everard, "an opportunity such as there may never be
another. We destroy Ostermore. By a turn of the hand we bring him to
the gallows." He chuckled over the word with a joy