making hieroglyphics on a sheet of paper before him while he dictated rapidly to Harding, his private secretary, who manipulated a typewriter close by. He looked up, nodded to me, indicated a chair, and a table on which were whiskey and soda and an open box of cigarettes, and invited me to help myself, all with one sweep of the hand, and without an instant’s interruption of his discourse,—an impassioned denunciation of some British statesman who dared to differ from him—Southbourne—on some burning question of the day, Tariff Reform, I think; but I did not listen. I was thinking of Anne; and was only subconsciously [Pg 21]aware of the hard monotonous voice until it ceased. [Pg 21] “That’s all, Harding. Thanks. Good night,” said Southbourne, abruptly. He rose, yawned, stretched himself, sauntered towards me, subsided into an easy-chair, and lighted a cigarette. Harding gathered up his typed slips, exchanged a friendly nod with me, and quietly took himself off. I knew Southbourne’s peculiarities fairly well, and therefore waited for him to speak. We smoked in silence for a time, till he remarked abruptly: “Carson’s dead.” “Dead!” I ejaculated, in genuine consternation. I had known and liked Carson; one of the cleverest and most promising of Southbourne’s “young men.” He blew out a cloud of smoke, watched a ring form and float away as if it were the only interesting thing in the world. Then he fired another word off at me. “Murdered!” He blew another smoke ring, and there was a spell of silence. I do not even now know whether his callousness was real or feigned. I hope it was feigned, though he affected to regard all who served him, in whatever capacity, as mere pieces in the ambitious game he played, to be used or discarded with equal skill and ruthlessness, and if an unlucky pawn fell from the board,—why it was lost to the game, and there was an end of it. Murdered! It seemed incredible. I thought of Carson as I last saw him, the day before I started for South Africa, when we dined together and made a night of it. If I had been available when the situation became acute in
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