‘You may be right,’ said Chrystal.
‘I haven’t a doubt,’ I said.
‘Have you summed him up right?’ asked Chrystal, still wanting to disbelieve.
‘I’m ready to rely on Eliot’s judgement,’ said Brown.
‘In that case,’ said Chrystal, changing round briskly, ‘we ought to see Jago at once.’
‘Do you want to?’ For once Brown shrank from a task.
‘No. But we can’t leave him in the dark.’
‘I suppose it would be rather tempting providence—’
‘If we don’t tell him tonight,’ said Chrystal, ‘some kind friend will do him the service tomorrow or next day. It’s lamentable, but it will come better from us.’
‘I must say that it’s going to be abominably unpleasant.’
‘I’ll go by myself,’ said Chrystal. ‘If you prefer that.’
‘Thank you.’ Brown smiled at his friend, and hesitated. ‘No, it will be better for him if we all go. It will let him realize that he’s still got most of his party intact.’
Brown and I wanted an excuse for delaying, even if only for ten more minutes, in the combination room. It was Chrystal, buoyed up by action, never despondent when he could get on the move, who forced us out.
20: The Depth of Ambition
As we already knew, Jago was alone. We found him in his study reading. His eyes flashed as soon as he saw us; every nerve was alert; he welcomed us with over-abundant warmth. Chrystal cut him short by saying: ‘We’ve got some bad news for you.’
His face was open in front of us.
‘You must be prepared for changes to happen both ways,’ said Brown, trying to cushion the blow. ‘This isn’t the last disturbance we shall get.’
‘What is it?’ Jago cried. ‘What is it?’
‘Nightingale has gone over,’ said Chrystal.
‘I see.’
‘You mustn’t let it depress you too much,’ Brown said. ‘It was always a surprise to me that you ever attracted Nightingale at all. Put it another way: you can regard Nightingale as being in his natural place now, and you can think of the sides being lined up very much as we might have expected beforehand.’
Jago did not seem to hear the attempt to comfort him.
‘I suppose he’s done it because I didn’t promise him the tutorship. I couldn’t. It was a wretched position to be flung into. It was utterly impossible. I suppose it’s too late to mend matters now. It’s difficult to make a move—’
Brown was looking at him with an anxious glance.
‘Forget Nightingale,’ Brown broke in very quickly. ‘Count him out.’
‘If I’d offered him the tutorship it would have held him.’ There was a passionate appeal in Jago’s voice.
‘I doubt it very much,’ I said.
‘If I could only have made something like a promise.’
‘Jago,’ said Chrystal, ‘if you had promised that man the tutorship, you might have gained one vote — but you would have lost six others. So you can rest easy.’
‘Are we letting him go without an effort?’ cried Jago. ‘Is it utterly impossible to persuade him back?’
‘We think so,’ said Chrystal.
Jago’s whole expression was racked.
‘Shall I see him?’ he said.
‘No,’ said Chrystal.
‘I don’t think it would help much.’ Brown’s tone was as firm as Chrystal’s, though he went on with a friendly explanation: ‘He’s an obstinate man. It might only carry things from bad to worse. There’s no one so bitter as a turncoat, you know. I think it’s very much safer to regard him as an enemy from now on.’
‘If you don’t,’ said Chrystal, ‘I can’t answer for the consequences.’ He and Brown looked solid, earthy men of flesh and bone against Jago, at that moment. Jago’s face seemed only a film in front of the tortured nerves. Yet they were telling him, as each of us in the room perfectly understood without a definite word being spoken, that he must make no attempt — by any suggestion of a promise — to bring Nightingale back.
He had wanted us to encourage him by a hint: he had been appealing for a piece of machiavellian advice ‘you oughtn’t to make Nightingale a promise: but there’s no harm in his thinking you have done so: he’ll be disappointed later, that’s all’. If we had given him the most concealed of hints, he would have rushed to Nightingale, used every charm of which he was capable, safeguarded himself verbally perhaps but in no other way. If he could have made a bargain with Nightingale, whatever it meant letting Nightingale think he had been promised, he would have made it that night. It needed Chrystal’s threat to stop him at last.
Just as he had been more angry than the others at Nightingale’s first approach, now he was tempted to stoop lower than they would ever do. In the garden, on the February morning when Nightingale asked for the tutorship, he thought with disgusted pride — was this how ambition soils one? But that was when his ambition seemed still in his hands. Now it was in danger of being taken away: ashamed, beside himself, tormented, he was tempted to cheat, steal, and lie.
He heard Chrystal’s threat. He looked at the firm, uncompromising face. Then at mine. Then, for a longer time, at Arthur Brown’s, distressed, kindly, but unwavering.
Suddenly Jago’s own face changed. He was thinking of himself without mercy. He was sickened by the temptation.
‘Shall I withdraw from the election?’ he asked with a kind of broken dignity.
Brown smiled in affectionate relief, and showed the depth of his relief by an outburst of scolding.
‘You mustn’t swing from one extreme to the other. We’ve still got an excellent chance. We’ve lost your most unreliable supporter, that’s all. You’re still in the lead. You must keep a sense of proportion.’
‘I agree with Brown,’ said Chrystal. His tone was not so warm as Brown’s, but toughly reassuring. Jago smiled at us, a smile without defence.
‘We shall have to reconsider some of our dispositions,’ said Brown, more contentedly than he had spoken that night. ‘You needn’t worry, you can leave the staff work to us. The other side have got weak spots too, Eliot and Calvert have wanted to tap them, but I think Eliot agrees that it’s still premature. The great thing at present is to take good care not to have any more confounded defections. I don’t know whether you others agree with me, but I should say there was just one more vulnerable spot in our party.’
‘I take it you mean old Eustace Pilbrow,’ said Jago.
‘He’s a weak spot,’ said Chrystal. ‘He’s always being got at by some crank or other.’
‘He turned Winslow and Getliffe down when they spread themselves to persuade him,’ Brown said. ‘I believe we can keep him steady. He’s very fond of you, providentially.’
‘I can never quite believe it,’ Jago replied. ‘But—’
Chrystal broke in: ‘When I look round, he seems to me the only weak spot. The rest are safe.’
Jago said: ‘I believe you three are safe because you know the worst about me. If any of you left me now, I shouldn’t only lose the Mastership. I should lose the confidence you’ve given me.’
Chrystal repeated: ‘The rest are safe. There’s no other weak spot. They’ll never break five of your votes. You can bank on them.’
Jago smiled.
‘Well,’ said Brown, ‘the essential thing for the present is to make sure of Pilbrow. If we hold him, we can’t lose. Six votes for you means that they can’t get a majority, since Crawford is fortunately debarred from voting for himself. Though I confess I feel uncharitable enough to think that he would consider it a reasonable action. And that reminds me that you and Crawford will soon have to settle how you’re going to dispose of your own votes. They may be significant.’