Evil in a Mask

At length he said, 'I think I once met the Baron in Paris towards the end of '99. Just before Talleyrand sent me as Envoy Extraordinary to Mr. Pitt in an abortive attempt to agree a peace. If I remember, he was a tall, handsome man of about forty; a cousin of the King of Prussia's First Minister, and had for a while been Ambassador here in London.'

'That is the man,' Droopy agreed. 'When he was here as Ambassador, he was mightily taken with Georgina, but at that time married. On his wife's death, he returned to England and pressed his suit successfully with our vivacious Countess.'

*Dost know what she has done about the children?' asked Roger.

'Her little Earl she took with her; your daughter, Susan, remains at Stillwaters in the good care of her great-aunt Marsham. Not knowing when, if ever, you would return, I have been down on several occasions to see them.'

'That was good of you, Ned. How fares the child?'

'Well enough physically, and she bids fair to become a beauty. But she is sad at heart. How could it be otherwise when, for eleven years she shared nursery and playroom with Georgina's boy; then, by this new marriage, they were reft apart?'

'Eleven years!' Roger gave a heavy sigh. 'She must then now be rising thirteen; and I have spent little more than that number of weeks with her in her whole life.'

'Take that not too much to heart, dear friend; for it was duty that kept you abroad, and few men can have served their country better.'

'Aye, Ned, I've pulled a trick or two on Britain's enemies. But, all the same, I've proved a sorry parent, and I am by way of becoming one again.'

Droopy raised his eyebrows. 'M'seems you've lost no time, since you tell me you married this Brazilian belle only in March.'

Roger had no secrets from his old friend, so he gave him an account of his year-long affair with Lisala, suppressing only the fact that she had slain her father.

When he had finished, Droopy commented, 'All's well that ends well, then. With such a wife you'll be the envy of the town. That Madonna face crowning the body of a Venus; rarely, if ever, have I beheld a female with attractions so calculated to bewitch a man.'

'Bewitch a man! You've said it, Ned. She has indeed put a spell on me, and I still cannot make up my mind whether I am glad or sorry that fate should have thrown me in her path. When I am apart from her for a while, I see her as she really is—-a beautiful mask, behind which lies a mind that lacks all humane qualities. She is utterly selfish and would go to any lengths to gain her ends. At times she displays the temper of a virago; and I have become convinced that for her love means one thing only—the satisfaction of sexual craving. Yet when we are together and her eyes light up, her lips part and she gives me that dazzling smile, I count myself the luckiest man in Christendom.'

Nodding his narrow, bird-like head, with its great beak of a nose, Droopy said, 'What you have told me does not bode well for a happy marriage. But I am inclined to think that you have been too long divorced from civilised society so, from lack of other interests, brooded overmuch on certain episodes which have revealed to you your wife's shortcomings. Maybe they are not so ineradicable as you have come to suppose. Furthermore, when she has her child, that may make a different woman of her. Tis often so.'

He then stood up and added, 'But you have been up all night. Now I am sending you to bed. By this time, doubtless, Madame is sound asleep; so you had best occupy the bed in the dressing room. We'll meet again this evening. My cousins Lady Caroline and Judith Stanley are both here on one of their periodic visits. I'll tell them about Mrs. Brook, and you may be sure they will do everything in their power to make her stay with us a pleasure.'

Lisala had only the sadly-worn clothes she stood up in; but the ladies of the family lent her garments that fitted her well enough for her to be presentable at dinner. The Earl was still in the country, but relatives, friends and hangers-on usually numbered from twelve to twenty at every meal. All of them proved most eager to hear about the royal family's flight from Portugal, and about Brazil; so Roger and Lisala were the centre of attention. But, pleading the fatigue they still felt from their journey, they escaped early to bed.

The following morning Roger went alone to Droopy's apartment, to breakfast with him. Over their mutton chops, washed down with good bordeaux, they discussed the future. Roger's intention was, as soon as practical, to take his bride to the

'Grace and Favour' residence, Thatched House Lodge, in Richmond Park, of which Mr. Pin had given him the tenure for life. But first Lisala had to be provided with an entire new wardrobe, and he wished to spend a couple of nights at Georgia's lovely old home, Stillwaters, in order to see his daughter.

Droopy assured him that Caroline and Judith would be delighted to take Lisala to the best mercers, modistes and milliners and would also introduce her to many of their friends, so she would have plenty to occupy her while Roger was out of London. Roger then said:

'Tell me now, what has been happening in Europe? During my long absence I had little reliable news.'

Heavily buttering a muffin, his friend replied, 'The war goes on, of course, but oh! how drearily. Since Billy Pitt's death, England seems to have lost all power of initiative. The so-called "Ministry of All the Talents" failed lamentably, both in its attempts to agree a peace and to prosecute the war. Since His Grace of Portland became Prime Minister, with Mr. Canning as his Foreign Secretary, we have had hopes that matters would improve. But, so far, the only notable success—of which you must have heard—was the seizing of the Danish Fleet at Copenhagen. The expedition to Egypt proved a fiasco. We took Alexandria but were defeated at Rosena and, in September, had to evacuate our forces. Admiral Collingwood has, alas, become a tired old man. Although he had a fleet of some eighty ships in the Mediterranean, he failed to prevent the French from entering the Adriatic, revictualling Corfu and returning unmolested to Toulon. That apart, we continued to be mistress of the seas. Two sizable squadrons despatched by Bonaparte into the Atlantic to disrupt British commerce did us little damage, and have since become dispersed and impotent.

'But Bonaparte now rules the roost unchallenged on the Continent, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. His alliance with the Czar leaves him nothing to fear in the North. They treat their third partner, Prussia, with contempt and have despoiled her of half her territories. 'Tis said, too, that they plan to divide the Empire of the Great Turk between them. Meanwhile, Alexander's army has overrun Sweden's Finnish lands and Napoleon bullies the states in the south into accepting his "Continental System".

'Portugal, Spain, Etruria and the States of the Church are now all occupied by his troops, and in January he even succeeded in coercing neutral Austria into closing her ports on the Adriatic to British shipping. His policy is inflicting the gravest hardship upon both his own people and all others who have submitted to his will. Our industrial revolution gave us a virtual monopoly in manufactured goods. Europe had become dependent on Lancashire cottons, and Yorkshire woollens. They are, too, starved of the many exotic goods brought by our merchant fleets from the Indies and the East. Sugar is now almost unobtainable on the Continent, and coffee is worth its weight in gold.'

'It surprises me that supplies are as short as that,' Roger put in. 'Although British bottoms carried to the Continent far more than those of any other nation, there remain the neutrals, particularly the United States. The merchants there must be making fortunes out of such a situation. Surely, too, neutral ships could be used to take in our manufactured goods?'

Droopy shook his head. 'On the contrary. The Government is carrying out a counter-blockade. Our merchants are much opposed to it, because by using neutral ships they could continue to export their goods. But that has been forbidden, bringing trade almost to a standstill and threatening many merchants with bankruptcy. Neutral ships sailing from their own countries are also barred from entering Continental ports. You can well imagine the resentment that such a high-handed action by U3 has caused. We are already at war with half the world, and the other half would now like to sec us speedily defeated.'