2

He slept until nine in the morning and then touched the bell for the valet, who brought him tea and the newspapers, whisked away his purple dinner–jacket and black velvet knee–breeches and departed.

The great carnivore stretched and yawned and stretched again.

New days have a way of beginning afresh, with a clean page, so to speak. He had forgotten most of his nocturnal imaginations and he opened the first paper according to habit to see what space had been given to his Birthday Festival. He was struck at once by the head–line: "Popular Socialism still a Living Force. Remarkable Speech."

What had he said?

"But?" he murmured.

And then in a terrible voice: "My God! what's this?"

The valet answered his furious bell–ringing. He found Lord Horatio sitting up in his black–and–purple–edged pyjamas on the bedside. Even the valet appreciated a sort of frightful handsomeness about him. He was in what valets call "a great state." "Get me every morning paper you can," he said. "Tell my chauffeur to be at the door by half–past nine. Where are my clothes? Have you run my bath? I have to act, and act at once."

"Very good, sir," said the valet.

A note was scribbled to Bonina. "These accursed politics! How wise you are! But this time I have a chance to hit someone and hit him hard. You were splendid. Glorious memories."

The great purple car stormed Londonward. Had people by the roadside cared to look, they might have seen Lord Horatio sitting still and terrible inside, hatless, arms folded, head slightly bent forward, occasionally tapping his teeth in earnest thought, sometimes smiling darkly. But fewer cared to look than Lord Horatio imagined. They were wrapped up in their own mean little affairs.

There had been sufficient in the papers for him to realise the nature of Rud's coup. He despised Rud immeasurably, he feared him about as much, and he hated him desirously. Rud, dressing irritably in his meagre little Bloomsbury bedroom, had completely reciprocal feelings. He despised Lord Horatio without stint, he quivered with fear at the thought of him, and he craved to defeat, overwhelm and humiliate him to the utmost. The two of them were coming together now at an average speed of forty–odd miles per hour.