“But—but—excuse me,” stammered Mopius. “One moment, I beg. I had always understood that the Baron van Trossart was a Liberal—”
“A Liberal? Oh, dear, no. He would be a Conservative if there were any Conservatives left. As it is, he would never espouse the cause of an extremist. He sympathizes with the Clericals in many things. And now I must really go up-stairs. I will send my husband in to amuse you. Don’t talk politics to him, Mynheer Mopius. He knows no more about them than I.”[J]
Mynheer Mopius, left alone, wiped his blotchy, perspiring forehead. It was a master-stroke to have insinuated himself thus into the graces of this great lady whom he had been lucky enough to meet at the Horst. He felt very friendly towards Ursula.
“Ah, Jacóbus,” he said to himself in the glass, “you will be ‘high and mighty’[K] yet.” And he smiled at the vanity of women.
Willie came lounging in obediently, and carried off the worshipful town-councillor to the smoking-room.
“A fine house, Mynheer van Troyen,” said the conciliatory Mopius. “Exceedingly tasteful.”
“Oh, it’s well enough,” assented loose-tongued Willie. “But the money’s my wife’s, you know. And, by Jove! don’t she keep it under lock and key!”
Having reached the tether of his conversation, the young officer fell a-yawning, and soon suggested a little quiet écarté.
“There’s half an hour more, at least,” he said.
Did Mynheer Mopius know the game? Yes, Mynheer Mopius had played it twenty years ago in India. Ah, indeed; they play for high stakes there! Willie suggested fifty florins. He played better than Mynheer Mopius. Twenty years is a long time. When Baron van Trossart joined the two gentlemen, Mynheer Mopius had lost five hundred florins, but he found himself on quite familiar terms with Willie, and in the same room with Baron van Trossart. He bowed pompously, patronizing the man who had just plucked him. “His wife would have accompanied him,” he said, “but that interesting circumstances—” and he smiled knowingly to the great noble before him, on whose haughty features the look of chronic moroseness sat so well.