These were three good reasons for

Jimmy's excitement. He had been seen by many of his friends that

day in the company of these Continentals. At the control Segouin

had presented him to one of the French competitors and, in answer

to his confused murmur of compliment, the swarthy face of the

driver had disclosed a line of shining white teeth. It was pleasant

after that honour to return to the profane world of spectators amid

nudges and significant looks. Then as to money--he really had a

great sum under his control. Segouin, perhaps, would not think it a

great sum but Jimmy who, in spite of temporary errors, was at

heart the inheritor of solid instincts knew well with what difficulty

it had been got together. This knowledge had previously kept his

bills within the limits of reasonable recklessness, and if he had

been so conscious of the labour latent in money when there had

been question merely of some freak of the higher intelligence, how

much more so now when he was about to stake the greater part of

his substance! It was a serious thing for him.


Of course, the investment was a good one and Segouin had

managed to give the impression that it was by a favour of

friendship the mite of Irish money was to be included in the capital

of the concern. Jimmy had a respect for his father's shrewdness in

business matters and in this case it had been his father who had

first suggested the investment; money to be made in the motor

business, pots of money. Moreover Segouin had the unmistakable

air of wealth. Jimmy set out to translate into days' work that lordly

car in which he sat. How smoothly it ran. In what style they had

come careering along the country roads! The journey laid a

magical finger on the genuine pulse of life and gallantly the

machinery of human nerves strove to answer the bounding courses

of the swift blue animal.

They drove down Dame Street. The street was busy with unusual

traffic, loud with the horns of motorists and the gongs of impatient

tram-drivers. Near the Bank Segouin drew up and Jimmy and his

friend alighted. A little knot of people collected on the footpath to

pay homage to the snorting motor. The party was to dine together

that evening in Segouin's hotel and, meanwhile, Jimmy and his

friend, who was staying with him, were to go home to dress. The

car steered out slowly for Grafton Street while the two young men

pushed their way through the knot of gazers. They walked

northward with a curious feeling of disappointment in the exercise,

while the city hung its pale globes of light above them in a haze of

summer evening.


In Jimmy's house this dinner had been pronounced an occasion. A

certain pride mingled with his parents' trepidation, a certain

eagerness, also, to play fast and loose for the names of great

foreign cities have at least this virtue. Jimmy, too, looked very

well when he was dressed and, as he stood in the hall giving a last

equation to the bows of his dress tie, his father may have felt even

commercially satisfied at having secured for his son qualities often

unpurchaseable. His father, therefore, was unusually friendly with

Villona and his manner expressed a real respect for foreign

accomplishments; but this subtlety of his host was probably lost

upon the Hungarian, who was beginning to have a sharp desire for

his dinner.


The dinner was excellent, exquisite. Segouin, Jimmy decided, had

a very refined taste. The party was increased by a young

Englishman named Routh whom Jimmy had seen with Segouin at

Cambridge. The young men supped in a snug room lit by electric

candle lamps. They talked volubly and with little reserve. Jimmy,

whose imagination was kindling, conceived the lively youth of the

Frenchmen twined elegantly upon the firm framework of the

Englishman's manner. A graceful image of his, he thought, and a

just one. He admired the dexterity with which their host directed

the conversation. The five young men had various tastes and their

tongues had been loosened. Villona, with immense respect, began

to discover to the mildly surprised Englishman the beauties of the

English madrigal, deploring the loss of old instruments.