Chapter 5

Mr. Merton was a good deal distressed at the second postponement of
the marriage, and Lady Julia, who had already ordered her dress for
the wedding, did all in her power to make Sybil break off the match.
Dearly, however, as Sybil loved her mother, she had given her whole
life into Lord Arthur's hands, and nothing that Lady Julia could say
could make her waver in her faith. As for Lord Arthur himself, it
took him days to get over his terrible disappointment, and for a
time his nerves were completely unstrung. His excellent common
sense, however, soon asserted itself, and his sound, practical mind
did not leave him long in doubt about what to do. Poison having
proved a complete failure, dynamite, or some other form of
explosive, was obviously the proper thing to try.

He accordingly looked again over the list of his friends and
relatives, and, after careful consideration, determined to blow up
his uncle, the Dean of Chichester. The Dean, who was a man of great
culture and learning, was extremely fond of clocks, and had a
wonderful collection of timepieces, ranging from the fifteenth
century to the present day, and it seemed to Lord Arthur that this
hobby of the good Dean's offered him an excellent opportunity for
carrying out his scheme. Where to procure an explosive machine was,
of course, quite another matter. The London Directory gave him no
information on the point, and he felt that there was very little use
in going to Scotland Yard about it, as they never seemed to know
anything about the movements of the dynamite faction till after an
explosion had taken place, and not much even then.

Suddenly he thought of his friend Rouvaloff, a young Russian of very
revolutionary tendencies, whom he had met at Lady Windermere's in
the winter. Count Rouvaloff was supposed to be writing a life of
Peter the Great, and to have come over to England for the purpose of
studying the documents relating to that Tsar's residence in this
country as a ship carpenter; but it was generally suspected that he
was a Nihilist agent, and there was no doubt that the Russian
Embassy did not look with any favour upon his presence in London.
Lord Arthur felt that he was just the man for his purpose, and drove
down one morning to his lodgings in Bloomsbury, to ask his advice
and assistance.

'So you are taking up politics seriously?' said Count Rouvaloff,
when Lord Arthur had told him the object of his mission; but Lord
Arthur, who hated swagger of any kind, felt bound to admit to him
that he had not the slightest interest in social questions, and
simply wanted the explosive machine for a purely family matter, in
which no one was concerned but himself.

Count Rouvaloff looked at him for some moments in amazement,