Evening star., 1938-12-31
BY HI. G. WELLS,
CHAPTER XXI,
MAGNIFICENT MALE.

MAGNIFICENT MALE.
Lord Horatio, too, had not slept
well that night, although he had
occupied Lady Garbees' pet visitors
bedroom. He was in a state of un-
usual discomfort with himself. He
was asking himself whether he had
not missed his way in life alto
gether.
Bonina Gady Garbees) had al
most said as much. IT hated this
; evening. Never have I felt before
how uncongenial this English at
mOsphere can be to all we are and
all we care for. On that platform,
standing up before that dismal
crowd of C.3 clerks and errand
boys, I pitied you. You may be
English through and through, but
all the same, you are alien here.
You would be alien in any of these
dismal democratic countries. You
are-arbitrary. my dear. You are
like one of those great Florentine
princes. You are a born grandee."
"Ye-e-s," he said, wanting more
, Of 1t. For some time have been
teeling-out of touch'
"We American aristocrats feel the
same thing" (She was American
born,) 1T is the mean, puritanical,
English tradition. Always-politics
without shred of dignity. Over
there in spite of everything-it
clingS to us still. New England has
always been just England and
>flittle more so, but we down in the
= South went back to the sun and
to power over our fellow creatures"
Bonina's purpose may have been
to console him for the particular
fatness of the great birthday meet
Ing in the smaller Saltbag Hall, but
her words carried further than that.
Contemptuous Irony.
He had made his speech, his
usual speech, to scanty audience,
too thick-headed to realize that
now he was no longer making that
speech with his former pleading,
winning conviction, but in a spirit
Of contemptuous irony.
The subtle change in his intona-
tion had been completely lost upon
them. -.
After he had left Bonina in the
small hours. he had slept for
time and then grown wakeful again.
His mind passed through a series
of alterations between uneasy
dreaming and dreamy wakefulness,
IN which the one continuing idea
was his complete failure to grip
the popular Imagination or realize
in,
upon which he had launched him
self so hopefully and so rashly.
1t had been going on for Is years.
Fifteen years of leadership-with
practically nobody falling in be-
hind. His friends laughed at him.
A lot of young fools in the West
End were making joke of the
Popular Socialist salute They did
1t to him in fashionable restaurants
where politics should have rest;
they did it at race meetings in
Enclosures and places where he did
not want 1t done, where he was
ready to waive it and be just gen.
tleman among gentlemen. Things
had come to that A joke. And
this was his 45th birthday ami
versary.
He was bored. He had to admit
to himself that he was bored by
the whole Popular Socialist move
ment. Bonina had been very near
VGhe truth of the business in their
Wong and penetrating talk, very near,
indeed. That woman had fire in
her imagination. She had a way
of Illuminating reality with strange
ly colored lights. She had cruelty
In her nature and she was not
ashamed. She liked things to hurt.
She wanted to hurt and be hurt.
She bit. She had left her mark.
She was all for lovers biting-hard.
She wanted an intensity in life
that ordinary everyday living did
mot give.
: How wise she was! Every one
had queer impulses, she insisted,
but the common sort suppressed
them. The essence of aristocracy
was the ruthless refusal to suppress
oneself. How had she put it? She
wanted to wiring life. That put ex-
actly what he had always wanted
to do. Once or twice he had wrung
life a bit; when they expelled him
from Eton and during his cadet
days, when the chaps chased and
hazed him for tying up young Dar-
-Angton. After that he had been
almost criminally subservient to the
mild appearances of an essentially
middfe-class society. He had sinned
against his own rich nature. Could
there be anything better in the
whole of being than having ones
grip on a weakly, resisting, over
powered, living creature, and doing
!, ones will, exhausting the grossest
2fantasy, upon that painting life? All
the noble carnivores exist for that,
and are they not the lords of crea-
ton?
He found himself wide awake in
sadistic reverie. He had a pleas
ing idea of going back to Bonina
and strangling her. -.
One never knew. She might ob-
ject and make a row and bring in
the servants. She was capable of
the greatest inconsistency. Her tall
was wilder. than her spirit. Perhane
10oo oeet PoSlllg at MIN,
After all-she was American.
He dozed and then woke into the
problem OF getting away from Popu-
liar Socialism. In any other country
IN the world it would have given
him ample scope for terrorism, phv-
sical intimidation, lurid events. As
1t was, except for one little bit of
discipline. And there even he
had been weak. He had feared
blackmail.
"RuthlessneSs," he muttered
"Strange lusts. Quiverinp fesb
-. The tiger is an aristocrat
Nietzsche :. Strength Bleat-
ing multitude Bleating fools
TAu OF them out of tune"
He sank down again into oblivion,