“Something hup,” he said to his immortal soul as he moved upstairs. “Been a fair old, rare old row, seems to me.”
He reserved his more polished periods for use in public. In conversation with his immortal soul he was wont to unbend somewhat.
★ 24 ★
The Treasure-Seeker
Gloom wrapped his lordship about during dinner as with a garment. He owed twenty pounds; his assets amounted to seven shillings and fourpence. He thought, and thought again. Quite an intellectual pallor began to appear on his normally pink cheeks. Saunders silently sympathetic—he hated Sir Thomas as an interloper, and entertained for his lordship, under whose father also he had served, a sort of paternal fondness—was ever at his elbow with the magic bottle; and to Spennie, emptying and re-emptying his glass almost mechanically, wine, the healer, brought an idea. To obtain twenty pounds from any one person of his acquaintance was impossible; to divide the twenty by four and persuade a generous quartet to contribute five pounds apiece was more feasible.
Hope began to stir within him again.
Immediately after dinner he began to flit about the castle like a family spectre of active habits. The first person he met was Charteris.
“Halloa, Spennie!” said Charteris. “I wanted to see you. It is currently reported that you are in love. At dinner you looked as if you had influenza. What’s your trouble? For goodness’ sake bear up until the show’s over. Don’t go swooning on the stage, or anything. Do you know your lines?”
“The fact is,” said his lordship eagerly, “it’s this way. I happen to want—— Can you lend me a fiver?”
“All I have in the world at this moment,” said Charteris, “is eleven shillings and a postage-stamp. If the stamp would be of any use to you as a start——No? You know, it’s from small beginnings like that great fortunes are amassed. However——”
Two minutes later Lord Dreever had resumed his hunt.