“You know I don’t,” said Charlie, and the conversation after this point became somewhat personal and lacking in coherence, until Charlie tore himself away to go and visit his patients. But Cecil was still anxious and uneasy, and at afternoon tea, finding that Charlie was still absent, she moved boldly across to Sir Dugald, determined to learn the worst.
“To what am I indebted for this unwonted honour?” was the question asked by Sir Dugald’s eyebrows as he rose and gave her his chair, but in words he only inquired whether she found the spot shady enough.
“I wanted to speak to you about Dr Egerton,” she said, breathlessly, too anxious about Charlie to answer his question politely. Sir Dugald’s eyebrows went up.
“Would it be rude to say that I have already heard rather too much about Dr Egerton lately?” he asked.
“That was just the reason why I wanted to talk to you about him,” said Cecil. “Were you in earnest in what you said to him last night?”
“I am not in the habit of playing practical jokes on the officials of this Consulate,” said Sir Dugald, rather stiffly. “If you mean to inquire whether Egerton has really endangered his prospects, I can only say that I fully believe he has.”
“But it seems such a little thing,” urged Cecil, “merely akin to talking politics in society at home.”
“Certainly,” said Sir Dugald, “in one way. It is as if a member of the Government, at some very important crisis, should take the opportunity of declaring, at a dinner-party of opponents, that he differed from his party as to the policy to be pursued, and meant to thwart it in every way he could.”
“But Charlie never meant that,” said Cecil, aghast.
“Probably not,” said Sir Dugald, grimly. “It was a momentary indiscretion, but such indiscretions are unpardonable. Support your agents through thick and thin, to the brink of war if necessary, so long as they obey orders and act with common-sense; but you must get rid of them and disavow their actions the moment you find they are swayed by enthusiasm, or fanaticism, or too much zeal, or anything of the kind.”