The Keepers of the People

82“They sound pretty big,” said Lord Lisdor. “Let’s go and look at them.”

83They walked round the house, and at the back of it they found Jackson returned with Ralph Falcon’s luggage and servants. A footman was unloading a cart of some portmanteaus, and a big brown man was helping him. Another big brown man stood by, holding in a leash two great tawny dogs, and guarding a curious chest of an Eastern look, carved and bound with brass. At the sight of their master the dogs crouched flat on their bellies, the two brown men bent low, till a short word from him, in a strange tongue, brought them upright.

84“By Jove, you train your dogs well!” said Lord Lisdor.

85“And your servants,” muttered Prince Melinsky.

86“Oh, what lovely dogs!” cried Althea, stepping forward to pat them. They growled, and bared great fangs.

87“Be careful!” cried Lord Lisdor, springing forward to catch her back.

88But Ralph Falcon was before him, and as his light hand rested on the child’s shoulder, their savageness fell from them; and at another strange word from him, they crawled forward, and let her pat them. They were tawny brutes of the bloodhound kind, but bigger than a bloodhound by far; and Lord Lisdor and the Russian plied their master with questions about them.

89“All the same, my wolfhound would kill one of them,” said Prince Melinsky.

90“I think not,” said Ralph Falcon.

91As they went to dress for dinner, Althea said to Lady Lisdor, “I think that Ralph is exactly the man to bring letters for people who have been dead twenty years; don’t you?”

92After dinner they drank their coffee in a sheltered corner of the river terrace, lighted by two electric globes. Lord Lisdor had no great liking for the twilight; he said justly that the sight of such beautiful creatures as Lady Lisdor and Althea was worth all the charm of all the twilights of a summer. The two of them were side by side, at once complements and foils to one another; the richer colouring of Lady Lisdor’s hair and eyes blending with Althea’s frail delicacy in such a fashion as to invest it with a warmth strange to it, and at the same time draw to itself from the contrast a warmer glow. The Russian alone was talking, boasting of what he had done, or what he would do, as was his custom after dinner, and watching Lady Lisdor. Althea said a word now and again to Lord Lisdor; Lady Lisdor was thoughtful, gazing at the glimmering stream; Ralph Falcon watched her.