烟囱山庄之谜30

“If you will go on, gentlemen, I will follow you in a minute,
” said Anthony.,He waited whilst the others filed out, and then turned to where Superintendent Battle was standing apparently absorbed in examining the panelling.,“Well, Battle? Want to ask me something, don’t you?”,“Well, I do, sir, though I don’t know how you knew I did. But I always marked you out as being specially quick in the uptake. I take it that the lady who is dead was the late Queen Varaga? ”,“Quite right, Battle. It’ll be hushed up, I hope. You can understand what I feel about family skeletons.
”,“Trust Mr. Lomax for that, sir. No one will ever know. That is, a lot of people will know, but it won’t get about.”,“No, sir—that was only in passing. I was curious to know just what made you drop your own name—if I’m not taking too much of a liberty? ”,“Not a bit. I’ll tell you. I killed myself from the purest motives, Battle. My mother was English, I’d been educated in England, and I was far more interested in England than in Herzoslovakia. And I felt an absolute fool knocking about the world with a comic opera title tacked on to me. You see, when I was very young, I had democratic ideas. Believed in the purity of ideals, and the equality of all men. I especially disbelieved in Kings and Princes.
”,“And since then?” asked Battle shrewdly.,[Pg 265],“Oh, since then, I’ve travelled and seen the world. There’s damned little equality going about. Mind you, I still believe in democracy. But you’ve got to force it on people with a strong hand—ram it down their throats. Men don’t want to be brothers—they may some day, but they don’t now. My final belief in the Brotherhood of Man died the day I arrived in London last week, when I observed the people standing in a Tube train resolutely refuse to move up and make room for those who entered. You won’t turn people into angels by appealing to their better natures just yet awhile—but by judicious force you can coerce them into behaving more or less decently to one another to go on with. I still believe in the Brotherhood of Man, but it’s not coming yet awhile. Say another ten thousand years or so. It’s no good being impatient. Evolution is a slow process. ”,