The spirit of domesticity had indeed so obviously descended
upon the little group in the drawing-room, an hour or
so after dinner, that Thorpe felt it quite the natural
thing to put his arm through that of the Duke and lead
him off to his personal smoking-room. He even published
his intention by audibly bidding the Hon. Balder Plowden
to remain with the ladies.
When the two had seated themselves in soft, low easy-chairs,
and the host had noted with pleasure that his guest had
no effeminate qualms in the matter of large rich cigars,
a brief silence ensued.
"I am very anxious to get your views on a certain subject,"
Thorpe was inspired to begin, bluntly pushing preliminaries
aside. "If a man of fortune wishes to do genuine good
with his money, here in England, how should he best go about it?"
The Duke looked up at his questioner, with a sudden flash
of surprise on his dark, mobile face. He hesitated
a moment, and smiled a little. "You ask of me the sum of
human wisdom," he said. "It is the hardest of all problems;
no one solves it."
Thorpe nodded his big head comprehendingly. "That's all
the more reason why it ought to be solved," he declared,
with slow emphasis.
The other expressed by look and tone an augmented
consciousness of the unexpected. "I did not know,"
he remarked cautiously, "that this was a matter in which you
were specially concerned.
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