The Evil Shepherd eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 281 pages of information about The Evil Shepherd.

The Evil Shepherd eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 281 pages of information about The Evil Shepherd.

“I am not quite sure,” she said deliberately.  “I have always looked upon you as a kind of amateur criminal, a man who loved black things and dark ways.  You know how weary one gets of the ordinary code of morals in these days.  You were such a delightful antidote.  And now, I am not sure that you have not shaken my faith in you.”

“In what way?”

“You really seem to have been engaged to-night in a very sporting and philanthropic enterprise.  I imagined you visiting some den of vice and mixing as an equal with these terrible people who never seem to cross the bridges.  I was perfectly thrilled when I put on your chauffeur’s coat and hat and followed you.”

“The story of my little adventure is a simple one,” Sir Timothy said.  “I do not think it greatly affects my character.  I believe, as a matter of fact, that I am just as wicked as you would have me be, but I have friends in every walk of life, and, as you know, I like to peer into the unexpected places.  I had heard of this man Billy the Tanner.  He beats women, and has established a perfect reign of terror in the court and neighbourhood where he lives.  I fear I must agree with you that there were some elements of morality—­of conforming, at any rate, to the recognised standards of justice—­in what I did.  You know, of course, that I am a great patron of every form of boxing, fencing, and the various arts of self-defence and attack.  I just took along one of the men from my gymnasium who I knew was equal to the job, to give this fellow a lesson.”

“He did it all right,” Lady Cynthia murmured.

“But this is where I think I re-establish myself,” Sir Timothy continued, the peculiar nature of his smile reasserting itself.  “I did not do this for the sake of the neighbourhood.  I did not do it from any sense of justice at all.  I did it to provide for myself an enjoyable and delectable spectacle.”

She smiled lazily.

“That does rather let you out,” she admitted.  “However, on the whole I am disappointed.  I am afraid that you are not so bad as people think.”

“People?” he repeated.  “Francis Ledsam, for instance—­my son-in-law in posse?”

“Francis Ledsam is one of those few rather brilliant persons who have contrived to keep sane without becoming a prig,” she remarked.

“You know why?” he reminded her.  “Francis Ledsam has been a tremendous worker.  It is work which keeps a man sane.  Brilliancy without the capacity for work drives people to the madhouse.”

“Where we are all going, I suppose,” she sighed.

“Not you,” he answered.  “You have just enough—­I don’t know what we moderns call it—­soul, shall I say?—­to keep you from the muddy ways.”

She rose to her feet and leaned over the rails.  Sir Timothy watched her thoughtfully.  Her figure, notwithstanding its suggestions of delicate maturity, was still as slim as a young girl’s.  She was looking across the tree-tops towards an angry bank of clouds—­long, pencil-like streaks of black on a purple background.  Below, in the street, a taxi passed with grinding of brakes and noisy horn.  The rail against which she leaned looked very flimsy.  Sir Timothy stretched out his hand and held her arm.

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Project Gutenberg
The Evil Shepherd from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.