"It did, and the figure of the Grand Monarque, who, like me, was not over tall, instead of receiving homage from the figure of William III., fell down before the effigy of William and grovelled. Bah! there was no difficulty or merit in producing that effect."
"I was thinking of some effect wrought by that public exhibition and eccentricity on the part of the clock."
"You mean getting Burdeau thrown into the Bastille by the Grand Monarque?"
"Yes. Do you think an effect of that kind could be produced in our day by a clock?"
"Upon a clock maker?"
"Suppose so."
"Hah! You would, no doubt, like me to try it?"
"Well, you boasted you could produce any effect."
"Hah! If they did take me and throw me into the Bastille to-day, now, at this moment, I should not mind it, nor would my clock mind it either. It is not in the power of any king or potentate of earth to divorce me from my clock!" He swelled out his chest and flung his shoulders and head back.
"What! Even if he put you in the Bastille? Ha-ha-ha!" laughed Hanbury derisively. "That is too much indeed. Why, it is not clock making, but necromancy."
The little man stepped back a pace, looked at Hanbury contemptuously from head to foot, and said:
"It is true, although you may not be able to understand it." Then turned to Mrs. Ashton. "A clock cannot be made to go for ever quite independent of man. But I think I have invented a new means of dealing with clocks; indeed, I am quite sure my plan is absolutely new. If a constitutional tyrant were to lock me up in any bastile this instant, my clock, I mean what of it is now completed and in working order, would be wound up to-night between twelve and one o'clock, just as if I were there. I admit no stranger into my workshop."
"That is very extraordinary," said Miss Ashton, speaking for the first time.
Leigh made a gesture deprecating extraordinariness.
"I am not going in for any nonsense about perpetual motion. There will be thousands of figures in my clock, thousands of automaton Figures of Time to move in one endless procession. These figures will differ from all others to be found in horloges. They will be designed wholly to please and educate the eye by their artistic virtues and graces. The mechanical movements will be wholly subject to naturalness and beauty. I have been in great difficulty to find a worthy model for my Pallas-Athena. Until to-day I was in despair."
There appeared nothing unpleasantly marked or emphatic in Leigh's manner; but Hanbury knew he meant the model for the donor of the olive had been found in Dora. Good Heavens! this creature had dared to select as model for some imperfectly draped figure in this raree-show of charlatan mechanism the girl to whom he, John Hanbury, was engaged!
Mrs. Ashton understood the implication in the speech by an almost imperceptible reverence of the poor blighted deformed body to her beautiful, shapely, well-born daughter. A look of amusement and tenderness came into her thin, mobile, sympathetic face. "And you have been so fortunate as to find a model for your goddess?"
"Yes, and no. I did not find so much a model for my goddess as a goddess who had strayed down from the heights of Greek myth."
"This must be a lucky day with you, Mr. Leigh," Mrs. Ashton said pleasantly, and speaking as though his words referred to no one in whom she took interest. She was curious to see how he would extricate himself from a direct question. That would test his adroitness. "And when did you meet your divinity?"
"In the afternoon. I saw her in the afternoon." He looked angrily at Hanbury. The latter thought, "He is under obligation not to say anything of the Welbeck Place event; he, the traitorous wretch, will content himself with referring to it, so that Dora and I may know what he means. The false sneak!" He felt his face burn and blaze.
Other people came in, and Hanbury moved off a little and looked at Leigh and swayed his head slightly, beckoning him away.
Dora turned pale. She knew nothing of what had passed between the two men since she saw them last, and felt faint when she thought of John Hanbury's rage if the little man referred to their earlier meeting. Yet she could not believe he was going to speak of that. Why had John brought him here? She had no need to guess who the goddess was. She herself was the deity meant by him. That was plain enough.
"Mr. Hanbury was with me at the time," said Leigh, disregarding the signal made by the other.
Hanbury fixed his eyes on the mechanist with threatening deliberateness. Dora grew cold and paler and faint. She felt there was certain to be a scene, a most unpleasant scene. Mrs. Ashton saw nothing, understood nothing.
"Had we not better move aside, Mr. Leigh? I am afraid we are blocking the way." He thought: "This beast has saved up his poison till now. He will strike here."
"No, no," said Mrs. Ashton energetically. "I shall hear of nothing better all day than a goddess-it is not to be expected I can hear of anything better. Where did you meet this Pallas-Athena?"
"In Grimsby Street," answered Leigh with a bow to Miss Ashton and a look of malignant triumph at Hanbury.
The latter started and looked round him with as much surprise as if he suddenly found himself unexpectedly in a strange place. This man was too subtle and lithe for him. Who could have expected this wriggle?
Dora glanced up with an expression of relief. The colour came back quickly to her face, and the aspect of alarmed expectancy vanished.
Mrs. Ashton turned from one to another with quick, enquiring, puzzled eyes. She saw now there was something unusual beneath the surface in all this. "What is the mystery? You will tell me, Mr. Leigh?"
"No mystery at all," answered Leigh, in a quick, light, off-hand way. "I happened to come across Mr. Hanbury accidentally and we met the lady of whom I speak."
"Oh, then she is a lady. She is not a professional model."
"Hah! No. She is not a professional model. She is a lady, of a Derbyshire family."
"I wonder do I know her. May I hear her name?"
"Mr. Hanbury will, I have no doubt tell you," said Leigh, moving off with a smile. "He was introduced to her at the meeting, I was not. He was as much struck by the likeness as I."
"The likeness! The likeness to Pallas-Athena?" said Mrs. Ashton in perplexity.
"Yes," said the dwarf with another smile, as he made room for two men who were coming up the room to Mrs. Ashton.