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If he knew anything of men and their manners, his titled friend would not object to a change of topic. "Lord Chaldon," he said abruptly, "we've talked enough about general matters. While you're here, we might as well go into the subject of the Company. Our annual meeting is pretty nearly due but I think it would be better to have it postponed.
This commands wide views over a remote and seemingly deserted countryside. From this point one may penetrate inland by bridle-ways, in two miles, to the village of Chaldon Herring, situated in a pleasant combe to the North of Chaldon Down. The church is remarkable for the new fittings, all designed by and for the most part the work of, a former incumbent.
It was different with us. Lord Chaldon will tell you that of our own free will my two brothers and I of our own choice we consented to lose a fifth of all our possessions, rather than coin into gold by force the tears and blood of the wretched fellaheen." "Yes I have never known a more honourable or humane action," put in the Marquis, fervently.
Then he looked, with a certain thinly-veiled bluntness of enquiry, past the Marquis to his companion. "You were very kind to give me the appointment," said Lord Chaldon, with a little purring gloss of affability upon the earnestness of his tone. "I wish very much to introduce to you my friend, my old friend I may say, Monsieur Alexandre Fromentin.
That's the Marquis of Chaldon, a tremendous diplomatic swell, you know, Ambassador at Vienna in his time, and Lord Lieutenant and all sorts of things, but willing to gather in his five hundred a year, all the same." "Do you mean that YOU pay HIM five hundred pounds a year?" asked the sister. "Yes, I've got a live Markiss who works for me at ten quid a week, and a few extras.
By the time they reached Chaldon Down, Stockdale, who had been in perplexed thought as to what he should say to her, decided that he would not attempt expostulation now, while she was excited by the adventure, but wait till it was over, and endeavour to keep her from such practices in future.
Lord Chaldon assented by an eloquent nod, at once resigned and hopeful. "Well that is contrary to all my expectations and intentions," Thorpe resumed. "I don't want you to suffer by this unlooked-for change in the shape of things. You hold two thousand shares only by accident they're the wrong kind of shares. Very well: I'll make them the right kind of shares.
"Ah, that is a question which has occurred to me," said Lord Chaldon, "and I shall be glad if it is already answered. The only people likely to 'kick, as you put it so simply, would be, I take it, Directors and other officers of the Company who find themselves holding a class of shares which does not participate in the present rise.
Lord Chaldon apparently proposed to accompany him, but Thorpe begged him to remain, and he put aside his hat once more and resumed his seat. Thorpe walked about a little, with his hands in his pockets, in a restless way. "If it isn't unpleasant to you, I think I'll light a cigar," he said suddenly, and moved over to the cabinet.
He held himself more compactly, as it were; seemed more the master of all his physical expressions. He was dressed like a magnate who was also a person of taste. There was a flower in the lapel of his well-shaped frock-coat, and the rustle of his starched and spotless white waistcoat murmured pleasantly of refined toilets. "The Marquis of Chaldon and a gentleman, with him."
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