The Project Gutenberg EBook of At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker

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Title: At The Sign Of The Eagle

Author: Gilbert Parker

Last Updated: March 13, 2009
Release Date: October 18, 2006 [EBook #6218]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE ***

Produced by David Widger

AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE

By Gilbert Parker

"Life in her creaking shoes
Goes, and more formal grows,
A round of calls and cues:
Love blows as the wind blows.
Blows!..."

"Well, what do you think of them, Molly?" said Sir Duke Lawless to his
wife, his eyes resting with some amusement on a big man and a little one
talking to Lord Hampstead.

"The little man is affected, gauche, and servile. The big one
picturesque and superior in a raw kind of way. He wishes to be rude
to some one, and is disappointed because, just at the moment, Lord
Hampstead is too polite to give him his cue. A dangerous person in a
drawing-room, I should think; but interesting. You are a bold man to
bring them here, Duke. Is it not awkward for our host?"

"Hampstead did it with his eyes open. Besides, there is business behind
it--railways, mines, and all that; and Hampstead's nephew is going to
the States fortune-hunting. Do you see?"

Lady Lawless lifted her eyebrows. "'To what base uses are we come,
Horatio!' You invite me to dinner and--'I'll fix things up right.' That
is the proper phrase, for I have heard you use it. Status for dollars.
Isn't it low? I know you do not mean what you say, Duke."

Sir Duke's eyes were playing on the men with a puzzled expression, as
though trying to read the subject of their conversation; and he did not
reply immediately. Soon, however, he turned and looked down at his wife
genially, and said: "Well, that's about it, I suppose. But really there
is nothing unusual in this, so far as Mr. John Vandewaters is concerned,
for in his own country he travels 'the parlours of the Four Hundred,'
and is considered 'a very elegant gentleman.' We must respect a man
according to the place he holds in his own community. Besides, as you
suggest