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But these things were certainly not the living and central interests of my life. I had to conceal my wider outlook to a certain extent from the masters even more than from the boys. Indeed I only let myself go freely with one boy, Britten, my especial chum, the son of the Agent-General for East Australia.
At half-past one he urged me to have faith and to remember that nothing mattered except the Idea. Then he retired to his room, accompanied by one glass of cold water, and I went into the dawn-lit garden and prayed to any Power that might be off duty for the blood of Mr. Lingnam, Penfentenyou, and the Agent-General.
A breeze of wind springing up, I bore down upon the Success, and went aboard of her; when I gave Captain Clipperton, and Mr Godfrey, our agent-general, the whole history of my voyage, expecting to have been treated by them as belonging to the same interest, but found them unwilling to have any thing to do with me, now that my ship was lost.
After all, that is the way that taxpayers regard most crises. The house-door opened and Penfentenyou and another came out into the now thinning rain. 'Ah! There you both are! Here's Lingnam, he cried. 'He's got a little wet. He's had to change. 'We saw that. I was too sore and weak to begin another laugh, but the Agent-General crumpled up where he stood. The late Mr.
Braddon by which he was able to resign his appointment and proceed to Tasmania, where he entered political life, rising to be Premier and afterwards Agent-General for that Colony in London, and ultimately obtaining, in 1891, his K.C.M.G.
She was an open car, capable of some eighteen miles on the flat, with tetanic gears and a perpetual palsy. 'It won't make the least difference, sighed the Agent-General. 'He'll only raise his voice. He did it all the way coming down. 'I say, said Penfentenyou suspiciously, 'what are you doing all this for? 'Love of the Empire, I answered, as Mr. Lingnam tripped up in dust-coat and binoculars.
There was a dead stillness, then a hiss like that of escaping steam, and a man who had been running towards us ran the other way. 'Why! I think that those must be bees, said Mr. Lingnam. They were four full swarms and the first living objects which he had remarked upon all day. Some one said, 'Oh, God! The Agent-General went out over the back of the car, crying resolutely: 'Stop the traffic!
The Agent-General arrived two hours later, a patient and expostulating person, visibly torn between the pulling Devil of a rampant Colony, and the placid Baker of a largely uninterested England.
"They be blowed!" said Penfentenyou. "What's the good of sentiment towards a Kindergarten?" "Quite so. Ties of common funk are the things that bind us together; and the sooner you new nations realize it the better. What you need is an annual invasion. Then you'd grow up." "Thank you! Thank you!" said the Agent-General. "That's what I am always trying to tell my people."
He advanced across the lawn eloquent as all the tides. The Agent-General was already arranging for drinks with Penfentenyou at the other end of the garden. Mr. Lingnam swept me on to the most remote bench and settled to his theme. We dined at eight. At nine Mr. Lingnam was only drawing abreast of things Imperial. At ten the Agent-General, who earns his salary, was shamelessly dozing on the sofa.
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