The same evening Havill asked Dare to dine with him. He was just atthis time living en garcon, his wife and children being away on a visit.After dinner they sat on till their faces were rather flushed. The talkturned, as before, on the castle-competition.
'To know his design is to win,' said Dare. 'And to win is to send himback to London where he came from.'
Havill inquired if Dare had seen any sketch of the design while withSomerset?
'Not a line. I was concerned only with the old building.'
'Not to know it is to lose, undoubtedly,' murmured Havill.
'Suppose we go for a walk that way, instead of consulting here?'
They went down the town, and along the highway. When they reached theentrance to the park a man driving a basket-carriage came out from thegate and passed them by in the gloom.
'That was he,' said Dare. 'He sometimes drives over from the hotel, andsometimes walks. He has been working late this evening.'
Strolling on under the trees they met three masculine figures, laughingand talking loudly.
'Those are the three first-class London draughtsmen, Bowles, Knowles,and Cockton, whom he has engaged to assist him, regardless of expense,'continued Dare.
'O Lord!' groaned Havill. 'There's no chance for me.'
The castle now arose before them, endowed by the rayless shade with amore massive majesty than either sunlight or moonlight could impart; andHavill sighed again as he thought of what he was losing by Somerset'srivalry. 'Well, what was the use of coming here?' he asked.
'I thought it might suggest something--some way of seeing the design.The servants would let us into his room, I dare say.'
'I don't care to ask. Let us walk through the wards, and then homeward.'
They sauntered on smoking, Dare leading the way through the gate-houseinto a corridor which was not inclosed, a lamp hanging at the furtherend.
'We are getting into the inhabited part, I think,' said Havill.
Dare, however, had gone on, and knowing the tortuous passages from hisfew days' experience in measuring them with Somerset, he came to thebutler's pantry. Dare knocked, and nobody answering he entered, tookdown a key which hung behind the door, and rejoined Havill. 'It isall right,' he said. 'The cat's away; and the mice are at play inconsequence.'
Proceeding up a stone staircase he unlocked the door of a room in thedark, struck a light inside, and returning to the door called in awhisper to Havill, who had remained behind. 'This is Mr. Somerset'sstudio,' he said.
'How did you get permission?' inquired Havill, not knowing that Dare hadseen no one.
'Anyhow,' said Dare carelessly. 'We can examine the plans at leisure;for if the placid Mrs. Goodman, who is the only one at home, sees thelight, she will only think it is Somerset still at work.'
Dare uncovered the drawings, and young Somerset's brain-work for thelast six weeks lay under their eyes. To Dare, who was too cursoryto trouble himself by entering into such details, it had very littlemeaning; but the design shone into Havill's head like a light into adark place. It was original; and it was fascinating. Its originality laypartly in the circumstance that Somerset had not attempted to adapt anold building to the wants of the new civilization. He had placed his newerection beside it as a slightly attached structure, harmonizing withthe old; heightening and beautifying, rather than subduing it. His workformed a palace, with a ruinous castle annexed as a curiosity. ToHavill the conception had more charm than it could have to the mostappreciative outsider; for when a mediocre and jealous mind that hasbeen cudgelling itself over a problem capable of many solutions, lightson the solution of a rival, all possibilities in that kind seem to mergein the one beheld.
Dare was struck by the arrested expression of the architect's face. 'Isit rather good?' he asked.
'Yes, rather,' said Havill, subduing himself.
'More than rather?'
'Yes, the clever devil!' exclaimed Havill, unable to depreciate longer.
'How?'
'The riddle that has worried me three weeks he has solved in a way whichis simplicity itself. He has got it, and I am undone!'
'Nonsense, don't give way. Let's make a tracing.'
'The ground-plan will be sufficient,' said Havill, his courage reviving.'The idea is so simple, that if once seen it is not easily forgotten.'
A rough tracing of Somerset's design was quickly made, and blowing outthe candle with a wave of his hand, the younger gentleman locked thedoor, and they went downstairs again.
'I should never have thought of it,' said Havill, as they walkedhomeward.
'One man has need of another every ten years: Ogni dieci anni un uomo habisogno dell' altro, as they say in Italy. You'll help me for this turnif I have need of you?'
'I shall never have the power.'
'O yes, you will. A man who can contrive to get admitted to acompetition by writing a letter abusing another man, has any amount ofpower. The stroke was a good one.'
Havill was silent till he said, 'I think these gusts mean that we are tohave a storm of rain.'
Dare looked up. The sky was overcast, the trees shivered, and a drop ortwo began to strike into the walkers' coats from the east. They were notfar from the inn at Sleeping-Green, where Dare had lodgings, occupyingthe rooms which had been used by Somerset till he gave them up for morecommodious chambers at Markton; and they decided to turn in there tillthe rain should be over.
Having possessed himself of Somerset's brains Havill was inclined to bejovial, and ordered the best in wines that the house afforded. Beforestarting from home they had drunk as much as was good for them; sothat their potations here soon began to have a marked effect upon theirtongues. The rain beat upon the windows with a dull dogged pertinacitywhich seemed to signify boundless reserves of the same and longcontinuance. The wind rose, the sign creaked, and the candles waved. Theweather had, in truth, broken up for the season, and this was the firstnight of the change.
'Well, here we are,' said Havill, as he poured out another glass of thebrandied liquor called old port at Sleeping-Green; 'and it seems thathere we are to remain for the present.'
'I am at home anywhere!' cried the lad, whose brow was hot and eye wild.
Havill, who had not drunk enough to affect his reasoning, held up hisglass to the light and said, 'I never can quite make out what you are,or what your age is. Are you sixteen, one-and-twenty, or twenty-seven?And are you an Englishman, Frenchman, Indian, American, or what? Youseem not to have taken your degrees in these parts.'
'That's a secret, my friend,' said Dare. 'I am a citizen of the world.I owe no country patriotism, and no king or queen obedience. A man whosecountry has no boundary is your only true gentleman.'
'Well, where were you born--somewhere, I suppose?'
'It would be a fact worth the telling. The secret of my birth lieshere.' And Dare slapped his breast with his right hand.
'Literally, just under your shirt-front; or figuratively, in yourheart?' asked Havill.
'Literally there. It is necessary that it should be recorded, for one'sown memory is a treacherous book of reference, should verification berequired at a time of delirium, disease, or death.'
Havill asked no further what he meant, and went to the door. Findingthat the rain still continued he returned to Dare, who was by this timesinking down in a one-sided attitude, as if hung up by the shoulder.Informing his companion that he was but little inclined to move farin such a tempestuous night, he decided to remain in the inn till nextmorning. On calling in the landlord, however, they learnt that the housewas full of farmers on their way home from a large sheep-fair in theneighbourhood, and that several of these, having decided to stay onaccount of the same tempestuous weather, had already engaged the sparebeds. If Mr. Dare would give up his room, and share a double-bedded roomwith Mr. Havill, the thing could be done, but not otherwise.
To this the two companions agreed, and presently went upstairs with asgentlemanly a walk and vertical a candle as they could exhibit under thecircumstances.
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The other inmates of the inn soon retired to rest, and the storm ragedon unheeded by all local humanity.