“The outlook is very bad,” continued De Burg. “The tide of democracy is setting in. It will sweep us all away and break down every barrier raised by civilization. And we may play at Canute, if we like, but—” and De Burg shook his head and was silent in that hopeless fashion that represents circumstances perfectly desperate.
Leyland took De Burg’s prophetic gloom quite cheerfully. He had a verse ready for it and he gave it with apparent pleasure—
“Yet men will still be ruled by men,
And talk will have its day,
And other men will come again
To chase the rogues away.”
“That seems to be the way things are ordered, sir.”
After Leyland’s poetic interval, Lady Jane glanced at her husband and said: “Let us forget politics awhile. If we go to the drawing-room, perhaps Miss Annis or Mr. Bradley will give us a song.”
Everyone gladly accepted the proposal and followed Lady Jane to the beautiful, light warm room.
It was so gay with flowers and color, it was so softly lit by wax candles and the glow of the fire, it was so comfortably warmed by the little blaze on the white marble hearth, that the spirits of all experienced a sudden happy uplift. De Burg went at once to the fireside. “Oh!” he exclaimed, “how good is the fire! How cheerful, how homelike! Every day in the year, I have fires in some rooms in the castle.”