One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
‘You look troubled, my friend. Any bad City news?’
‘I look troubled?’ Victor said laughing, and bethought him
of what the trouble might be. ‘City news would not cause
the look. Ah, yes;—I was talking in the street to a friend of
mine on horseback the other day, and he kept noticing his
horse’s queer starts. We spied half a dozen children in the
gutter, at the tail of the horse, one of them plucking at a hair.
“Please, sir, may I have a hair out of your horse’s tail?” said
the mite. We patted the poor horse that grew a tail for urchins
to pluck at. Men come to the fathers about their girls.
It’s my belief that mothers more easily say no. If they learn
the word as maids, you’ll say! However, there’s no fear about
my girl. Fredi’s hard to snare. And what brings you Cityward?’
‘I want to know whether I shall do right in selling out of
the Tiddler mine.’
‘You have multiplied your investment by ten.’
‘If it had been thousands!’
‘Clearly, you sell; always jump out of a mounted mine,
unless you’re at the bottom of it.’
‘There are City-articles against the mine this morning—
or I should have been on my way to Whinfold at this moment.
The shares are lower.’
‘The merry boys are at work to bring your balloon to the
ground, that you may quit it for them to ascend. Tiddler has
enemies, like the best of mines: or they may be named lovers,
if you like. And mines that have gone up, go down for a
while before they rise again; it’s an affair of undulations; rocket
mines are not so healthy. The stories are false, for the time. I
had the latest from Dartrey Fenellan yesterday. He’s here next
month; some time in August.’
‘He is married, is he not?’
‘Was.’
Victor’s brevity sounded oddly to Lady Grace.
‘Is he not a soldier?’ she said.
‘Soldiers and parsons!’ Victor interjected.
Now she saw. She understood the portent of Mr. Barmby’s
hovering offer of the choice of songs, and the recent tremulousness
of the welling Bethesda.
But she had come about her own business; and after remarking,
that when there is a prize there must be competition,
or England will have to lower her flag, she declared her
resolve to stick to Tiddler, exclaiming: ‘It’s only in mines
155