Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Dynamiter

The superfluous mansion. 131
not two gentlemen of education agree to differ on a
point of politics ? Come, sir : all your hard words have
left me smiling ; judge then, which of us is the philo-
sopher ! '
Somerset was a young man of a very tolerant dis-
position and by nature easily amenable to sophistry.
He threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and
took the seat to which the conspirator invited him.
The meal was excellent ; the host not only affable, but
primed with curious information. He seemed, indeed,
like one who had too long endured the torture of silence,
to exult in the most wholesale disclosures. The interest
of what he had to tell was great ; his character, besides,
developed step by step ; and Somerset, as the time fled,
not only outgrew some of the discomfort of his false
position, but began to regard the conspirator with a
familiarity that verged upon contempt. In any circum-
stances, he had a singular inability to leave the society
in which he found himself ; company, even if distasteful,
held him captive like a limed sparrow ; and on this
occasion, he suffered hour to follow hour, was easily per-
suaded to sit down once more to table, and did not even
attempt to withdraw till, on the approach of evening,
Zero, with many apologies, dismissed his guest. His
fellow-conspirators, the dynamiter handsomely explained,
as they were unacquainted with the sterling qualities of
the young man, would be alarmed at the sight of a
strange face.
As soon as he was alone, Somerset fell back upon
the humour of the morning. He raged at the thought
of his facility ; he paced the dining-room, forming the
sternest resolutions for the future ; he wrung the hand
which had been dishonoured by the touch of an assassin ;
and among all these whirling thoughts, there flashed in
from time to time, and ever with a chill of fear, the
thought of the confounded ingredients Avith which the
house was stored. A powder magazine seemed a secure
smoking-room alongside of the Superfluous Mansion.
He sought refuge in flight, in locomotion, in the flow-
ing bowl. As long as the bars were open, he travelled
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