The play was "Julius Caesar," at Her Majesty's. He had seen it several
times, but to-night it appealed to him as it had never done before. He
hardly noticed the other actors. His whole interest centred in the awful
figure of Cassius, splendid in its unswerving deathless passion of a
great hate and a great love. His eyes never left the ruthless figure as
it stood in silence with its unflinching eyes upon its victim. Had not
Lord Newhaven thus watched him, Hugh, ready to strike when the hour
came.
The moment of the murder was approaching. Hugh held his breath. Cassius
knelt with the rest before Caesar. Hugh saw his hand seek the handle of
his sword, saw the end of the sheath tilt upwards under his robe as the
blade slipped out of it. Then came the sudden outburst of animal
ferocity long held in leash, of stab on stab, the self-recovery, the
cold stare at the dead figure with Cassius's foot upon its breast.
For a moment the scene vanished. Hugh saw again the quiet study with its
electric reading-lamp, the pistols over the mantel-piece, the tiger
glint in Lord Newhaven's eyes. He was like Cassius. He, too, had been
ready to risk life, everything in the prosecution of his hate.
"He shall never stand looking down on my body," said Hugh to himself,
"with his cursed foot upon me." And he realized that if he had been a
worthier antagonist, that also might have been. The play dealt with men.
Cassius and Lord Newhaven were men. But what was he?
The fear of death leading the love of life by the hand took with shame a
lower seat. Hugh saw them at last in their proper places. If he could
have died then he would have died cheerfully, gladly, as he saw Cassius
die by his own hand, counting death the little thing it is. Afterwards,
as he stood in the crowd near the door, where the rain was delaying the
egress, he saw suddenly Lord Newhaven's face watching him. His heart
leaped. "He has come to make me keep my word," he said to himself, the
exaltation of the play still upon him. "I will not avoid him. Let him do
it," and he pressed forward towards him.
Lord Newhaven looked fixedly at him for a moment, and then disappeared.
"He will follow me and stab me in the back," said Hugh. "I will walk
home by the street where the pavement is up, and let him do it."
He walked slowly, steadily on, looking neither to right nor left.
Presently he came to a barrier across a long deserted street, with a red
lamp keeping guard over it. He walked deliberately up it. He had no
fear. In the middle he stopped, and fumbled in his pocket for a
cigarette.
A soft step was coming up behind him.
"It will be quickly over," he said to himself. "Wait. Don't look round."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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