Empire of Ivory Page 0,22

her wineglass and was fanning herself. When he had stood there a moment she made a visible effort and engaged him. "So you had to shift from the Navy to the Aerial Corps - It must have been very hard. I suppose you went to sea when you were older?"

"At the age of twelve, ma'am," Laurence said.

"Oh! - but then you came home again, from time to time, surely? And twelve is not seven; no one can say there is no difference. I am sure your mother must never have thought of sending you from home at such an age."

Laurence hesitated, conscious that Lady Catherine and indeed most of the other company, which had not already dozed off, were now listening to their conversation. "I was fortunate to secure a berth more often than not, so I was not much at home myself," he said, as neutrally as he could. "I am sure it must be hard, for a mother, in either case."

"Hard! of course it is hard," Lady Catherine said, interjecting here. "What of it? We ought to have the courage to send our sons, if we expect them to have the courage to go, and not this sort of half-hearted grudging sacrifice, to send them so late they are too old to properly take to the life."

"I suppose," Lady Seymour said, with an angry smile, "that we might also starve our children, to accustom them to privation, and send them to sleep in a pigsty, so they might learn to endure filth and cold - if we cared very little for them."

What little other conversation had gone forward, now was extinguished quite; spots of color stood high in Lady Catherine's cheeks, and Lord Seymour was snoring prudently by the fire, his eyes shut; poor Lieutenant Ferris had retreated into the opposite corner of the room and was staring fixedly out the window into the pitch-dark grounds, where nothing was to be seen.

Laurence, sorry to have so blundered into an existing quarrel, by way of making peace said, "I hope you will permit me to say, I find the Corps as an occupation has been given a character which it does not deserve, being no more dangerous or distasteful, in daily use, than any other branch; I can at least say from my own experience that our sailors face as much hard duty, and I am sure Captain Ferris and Colonel Prayle will attest to the privations of their own respective services." He raised his glass to those gentlemen.

"Hear, hear," Prayle said, coming to his aid, jovially, "it is not aviators only who have all the hard luck, but we fellows, too, who deserve our fair share of your sympathy; and at least you may be sure they have all the latest news at any moment: you must know better than any of us, Captain Laurence, what is going forward on the Continent now; is Bonaparte setting up for invasion again, now he has packed the Russians off home?"

"Oh, pray do not speak of that monster," Mrs. Brantham spoke up. "I am sure I have never heard anything half so dreadful as what he has done to the poor Queen of Prussia: taken both her sons away to Paris!"

At this, Lady Seymour, still high-colored, burst out, "I am sure she must be in agony. What mother's heart could bear it! Mine would break to pieces, I know."

"I am sorry to hear it," Laurence said, to Mrs. Brantham, into the awkward silence. "They were very brave children."

"Henry tells me you have had the honor to meet them, Captain Laurence, and the Queen, during your service," Lady Catherine said. "I am sure you must agree, that however much her heart should break, she would never ask her sons to be cowards, and hide behind her skirts."

He could say nothing, but only gave her a bow; Lady Seymour was looking out the window and fanning herself with short jerking strokes. The conversation limped on a very little longer, until he felt he could in politeness excuse himself, on the grounds of the necessity of an early departure.

He was shown to a handsome room, with signs of having been hastily rearranged, and someone's comb left by the washbasin suggested it had been otherwise occupied until perhaps that evening. Laurence shook his head at this fresh sign of over-solicitousness, and was sorry any of the guests should have been shifted on his account.

Lieutenant Ferris knocked timidly on his door, before a quarter-of-an-hour had passed,