Amanda was a tall girl with a fine figure, slightly frizzy auburn hair and the beautiful skin that often goes with it She had good teeth and her mouth was so formed that it was always a little open, as though she was about to smile. Now it opened in a laugh, as she replied:
"We have guests coming, and to stay."
Seeing his face darken she came over to him, pushed him firmly back and closed the kitchen door behind her.
"M'dear," he expostulated, "you must know that I am in no mood for company."
"Now Roger," she chided him gently, "you must be sensible. Nearly all day yesterday you sat looking a picture of misery in the garden. You brightened a little while Georgjna was here, and I know you did your best to respond each time I tried to cheer you; but drunkenness has never been a vice of yours and you punished the port after dinner so heavily that you spoilt our evening."
He gave a rueful smile. "I'm truly sorry for that, and for my general moroseness. Tis no fault of yours, and I beg you to be patient with me."
"I will, my sweet; but to contend with your unhappy state is too much for me alone. I'd soon become as miserable as yourself and contemplate throwing myself out of a window. Help to make you your own cheerful self again I had to have; so soon after you left this morning I had Dan drive me in the gig to London. Georgina at once said yes to my appeal that she and Charles should come to stay for a while, and as they are lying in Bedford Square at her father's, I asked him to come out with them for dinner. Georgina, too, will try to collect dear Droopy Ned; so that this evening your best friends may begin the re-enlivening of your mind with a proper party."
Leaning forward, he kissed her, and said: "It was a sweet thought my pet and maybe you're right that the necessity to play host will take me out of myself. In any case I'm glad the St. Ermins are to stay, as it will give us ample opportunity to discuss going with them to Jamaica."
"Roger!" Her eyes widened with delight. "And you had led me to believe there was no hope of that! Oh, never again will I say aught against Mr. Pitt after his generosity in releasing you for long enough to make this voyage."
"Providing it be only to myself, you may now say what you will about him and I'll not contradict you; for he no longer is my master."
"What! Do you mean that you have quarrelled with him?"
"Not that; but he treated me most scurvily. I have, of course, been paid for what I've done, but no more than I would have received had I been working in comfort and some degree of security. Even so, I asked him for nothing, except that in the new year he should give me a mission to some place where life would be endurable. I had a right to expect that, but he refused it, and did not even offer me a continuance of my salary until I recovered my health. I told him flatly that I'd go no more to France, and that has put an end to matters between us."
"Then he has cut off his nose to spite his face," said Amanda quickly. "I've long felt his ruthless exploitation of others for his own selfish ends to be intolerable. He will never be able to replace you, and when he finds that out it should be just the lesson that he needs to make him a trifle more human in his dealings."
Roger shrugged. "Do not deceive yourself, m'dear. Were I the last servant he had, he would never admit to himself that he had been in error to dispense with me. But we must give him his due. He exploits people only from the highest motives; never for his own ends, out for the nation's, and 'tis that which has formed the basis of my attachment to him."
Amanda's face showed concern, as she asked: "Are you greatly distressed by this breach that has occurred?"
"I could be," he admitted, "but I have determined not to be. Tis a matter that I can put out of my mind more readily than some others, and while riding home I vowed I'd let the future take care of itself."
She nodded, and he added with a sudden smile: "In fact I will go further. From now on I mean to do my utmost to think of nothing but your dear self enjoying with me the sunshine of the Indies."
"Oh Roger, how happy you make me!" she cried, throwing her arms round his neck. For a few moments they remained tightly embraced, then she went back into the kitchen and he hurried away to get wines up from the cellar.
An hour later their guests arrived: Georgina, whose dark rich beauty and tempestuous vitality made her an admirable foil for the magnolia-skinned, quiet-natured Amanda; Charles, a youngish brown-faced man of slight build, whose features, apart from his small Roman nose, had a distinct resemblance to those of his great great grandfather, Charles II; Colonel Thursby, Georgina's father, who by his fine brain had made a great fortune out of the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, and whom Roger had regarded from boyhood almost as a second father to himself. Droopy Ned, too, was with them, as they had learned that he was staying at Sion House with the Northumberland's; so they had come by way of Isleworth to pick him up there. His proper style was Lord Edward Fitz-Deverel, and he owed his nickname to a chronic stoop brought about by his being short-sighted. He was a fop of the first order, but under his elegant posturing concealed an extremely shrewd mind which he devoted largely to antiquarian interests, and he had been Roger's close friend since their school-days.
Amanda delighted the St. Ermins by telling them at once of the decision to accompany them to Jamaica, then Roger took the whole party across the lawn to the summer-house, and there refreshed them after their journey with a Moselle Wine Cup that he had just made.
As the ice tinkled in the tall glasses they plied him with a hail of questions about the state of things in France, and he replied by giving them a broad outline of what he had said to Mr. Pitt.
"You think, then," said Colonel Thursby, "that despite the overthrow of Robespierre there is little hope of our making an accommodation with the French?"
"None whatever," Roger declared. "Even if the Thermidorians, who have newly seized the whip in Paris, wished for peace, they dare not make it. In France there are now a million men under arms. Peace would mean the disbandment of those serving on the frontiers and they would return to the cities as a vast armed rabble. No government could hope to prevent the excesses they would commit, soon reducing the whole country to a state of anarchy. Mr. Pitt's hopes of peace brought about by a change of heart are as chimerical as those he places in a speedy allied victory. Of that I am convinced."
"Does he then visualize the Austrians and His Boneheadedness of York marching upon Paris this autumn?" Georgina enquired.
"He does; and that despite the hopeless incompetence they have so far displayed."
"Tis not so much incompetence as neither the Austrians nor the Prussians having their hearts in the war," Droopy Ned remarked. "Both are looking over their shoulders on account of the projected partitioning of Poland, and holding back forces lest Catherine of Russia attempts to seize more than her agreed share."
St. Ermins nodded. "That is the rub; and 'tis aggravated by their divided councils. Each General is placing the interests of the allied cause second to the particular interests of his own government, and using his troops to besiege coveted cities instead of pooling them in one grand manoeuvre to crush the French."
"Both are contributory factors to our ill-success," Roger agreed. "But the root of the trouble lies in Mr. Pitt's mismanagement."
"Hark at that now!" Georgina exclaimed with a laugh. "Whoever would have thought to hear Roger make so disparaging a remark about his master. Time was when he never tired of preaching to us of Billy Pitt's greatness."
Realizing that his words had given an impression he was far from intending, Roger retorted swiftly: "You misunderstand me. He is great. His obstinacy and conceit are at times infuriating, but he has qualities that make him the greatest man in England; and on occasion one catches a glimpse of his true nature, which is most lovable. I meant only that he knows nothing of military matters, and so is entirely at sea when considering the steps we should take to defeat our enemies."