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"Yes, it's mighty pretty; a picture worth looking at all of it," he said, and there was a faint smile on Helen's lips as she recognized that the general tribute to the picturesque was as far as Bransome dared venture in the direction of a compliment. He was not a diffident person, but he felt a wholesome respect for Helen Savine.
The secretary nodded. "Shall I ring up Mr. Haviland, sir?" he asked. "Not yet," Bransome answered. "It is just possible that this person requires an immediate reply, in which case it may be convenient for me not to be able to get at the Prime Minister. Bring him along into my private room, Sidney."
Now that I was aware of his failing, I was very sorry for the old sailor; for on such a coast and in such a climate there was only one end to it; and although I could not actually prevent him from taking the liquor, I resolved to watch him, and if such symptoms as I had seen before again appeared, to tell Mr. Bransome of them at all hazards.
"I suppose Haviland explained the matter to you." The Duke nodded. "You are going to help me entertain my other distinguished visitor," he remarked. "I fancy we shall be quite an interesting party." Bransome glanced around. "I hope most earnestly," he said, "that we shall induce our young friend to be a little more candid with us than he has been.
Bransome leaned forward in his chair. "I can disprove it," he declared firmly. "Come with me to Aldershot next week, and I will show you that those who say that we have no army are ignorant alarmists. The Secretary for War shall show you our new scheme for defensive forces. You have gone to the wrong authorities for information on these matters, Prince. You have been entirely and totally misled."
In the other car, too, silence reigned. Somerfield was the only one who struggled against the general air of depression. "After all," he remarked to Bransome, "I don't see what we're all so blue about. If Scotland Yard are right, and the Prince is really the guilty person they imagine him, I cannot see what sympathy he deserves.
Harvey have been sent by hand. It seems as though they had some objection to committing important documents to the post." Bransome walked through the crowded rooms by the side of his secretary, stopping for a moment to exchange greetings here and there with his friends. His wife was giving her third reception of the session to the diplomatic world.
Bransome as the thief who had stolen them, and that he was tied to the flogging-post in the middle of the yard, and sentenced to receive fifty lashes with the cat that was kept for such a purpose, and all without any inquiry being made. In vain did the unfortunate man protest his innocence.
When Bransome drove away Thurston rolled himself in the thick brown blanket, and sank into slumber under the lee of the dead man's dwelling, through which a maple tree had grown from the inside, wrenching off the shingle roof. An owl that circled about the crumbling house, stooped now and then on muffled wing to inspect the sleeper.
All at once he started, looked at the new agent, advanced a step or two toward him, muttering, "Bransome, Bransome," then stopped and asked him in a strange constrained voice, "Is your name Bransome?" "Yes," replied the latter, astonished at the old man's question. "I knew a Bransome once," said Jackson, steadily, "and he was a scoundrel."
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