“Of course, as a convinced Socialist in the matter of landed property, I——” The elderly white-whiskered gentlemen were thrilled. “Not Marxian, I need scarcely add,” resumed George placidly, and the conviction grew that George Trant was a very strange young man.
The Disraelian Conservative and un-Marxian Socialist acquired the reputation of being somewhat bewilderingly clever.... The Bockley Advertiser reported in full his secondings of votes of thanks. The Arts Club were proud to hear his exposition of “Ibsen: the Man and the Prophet.” It was in the days when to read Ibsen was to be modern. And the Conservative Club were never more conscious of their brazen Philistinism than when he talked to them easily of Scriabin and Ravel and César Franck.
“And of course one must not forget the Spanish School. There is a great tendency to ignore the Spanish School nowadays. But it’s wholly unfair. Such men as ... for instance.”
Even in politics he could be mystifyingly erudite. A reference to Jeremy Bentham or Ricardo or Huskisson would floor them absolutely...
“Queer chap,” was their verdict. “Must read a lot, I suppose....” And, content with that explanation, they resumed their billiards or their whisky or their Pink ’Un....
§ 7
It happened that upon a certain bright morning in August a smart motor-cycle with side-car attachment went teuf-teufing along the high road in the direction of the Forest. The side-car was occupied by a girl with violently red hair, and the whole installation was manœuvred by an individual in mackintosh overalls, who was (although you might never have guessed it by looking at him) a Disraelian Conservative and an un-Marxian Socialist....
Catherine, incidentally, was riding in a side-car for the first time in her life.
George, incidentally, was driving a motor-cycle, if not for the first time, at any rate for the third or fourth time in his life. The machine was brand-new. One or two lessons on a friend’s motor-bike (to which there was no side-car) had convinced George that he was capable of taking a young lady for a hundred miles’ spin in the country without undue risks. Accordingly, he had purchased a machine out of the accumulated savings of several years, and had written to Catherine the following note:
DEAR CATHIE,