GERTRUDE IS ANXIOUS.
_Lady, do you know the tune?
Ah, we all of us have hummed it!
I've an old guitar has thrummed it
Under many a changing moon._
THACKERAY.
When Frank next saw Sidney Darrell, the latter told him that he had
abandoned the idea of the "Cressida," and was painting Phyllis Lorimer
in her own character.
"Grey gown; Parma violets; grey and purplish background. Shall let Sir
Coutts have it, I think," he added; "it will show up better at his place
than amid the _profanum vulgus_ of Burlington House."
"Mr. Darrell doesn't often paint portraits, does he?" Lucy said, when
Jermyn was discussing the matter one evening in Baker Street.
"Not often; but those that he has done are among his finest work. That
one of poor Lady Watergate for instance--it is Carolus Duran at his very
best."
"By the bye, what an incongruous friendship it always seems to me--Lord
Watergate and Mr. Darrell," said Lucy.
"Oh, I don't know that it's much of a friendship," answered Frank.
"Lord Watergate often drops in at The Sycamores," put in Phyllis,
helping herself from a smart _bonbonniere_ from Charbonnel and Walker's;
for Sidney found many indirect means of paying his pretty model; "I
think he is such a nice old person."
"Old," cried Fanny; "he is not old at all. I looked him out in Mr.
Darrell's Peerage. He is thirty-seven, and his name is Ralph."
"'I love my love with an R..' You said it just in that way, Fan,"
laughed Phyllis. "Yes, it is an odd friendship, if one comes to think of
it--that big, kind, simple, Lord Watergate, and my elaborate friend,
Sidney."
"Mr. Darrell is a perfect gentleman," interposed Fan, with dignity.
The occasional mornings at The Sycamores, afforded a pleasant break in
the monotony of her existence. Darrell treated her with a careful, if
ironical politeness, which she accepted in all good faith.
"Fan, as they call her, is a fool, but none the worse for that," had
been his brief summing up of the poor lady, whom, indeed, he rather
liked than otherwise.
It was the end of May, and the sittings had been going on in a
spasmodic, irregular fashion, throughout the month. Both the girls
enjoyed them. Darrell, like the rest of the world, treated Phyllis as a
spoilt child; gave her sweets and flowers galore; and what was better,
tickets for concerts, galleries, and theatres, of which her sisters also
reaped the benefit.
Gertrude secretly disliked the whole proceeding, but, aware that she had
no reasonable objection to offer, wisely held her peace; telling herself
that if one person did not turn her little sister's head, another was
sure to do so; and perhaps the sooner she was accustomed to the process
the better.
"Why won't you come up and see my portrait?" Phyllis had pleaded; "I am
going next Sunday, so you can have no excuse."
"I shall see it when it is finished," Gertrude had answered.
"Oh, but you can get a good idea of what it will look like, already. It
is a great thing, life-size, and ends at about the knees. I am standing
up and looking over my shoulder, so. I suppose Mr. Darrell has found out
how nicely my head turns round on my neck."
Gertrude had laughed, and even attempted a pun in her reply, but she did
not accompany her sister to The Sycamores. Indeed, more subtle reasons
apart, she had little time to spare for unnecessary outings.
The business, as businesses will, had taken a turn for the better, and
the two members of the partnership had their hands full. Rumours of the
Photographic Studio had somehow got abroad, and various branches of the
public were waking up to an interest in it.
People who had theories about woman's work; people whose friends had
theories; people who were curious and fond of novelty; individuals from
each of these sections began to find their way to Upper Baker Street.
Gertrude, as we know, had refused at an early stage of their career to
be interviewed by _The Waterloo Place Gazette_; but, later on, some
unauthorised person wrote a little account of the Lorimers' studio in
one of the society papers, of which, if the taste was questionable, the
results were not to be questioned at all.
Moreover, it had got about in certain sets that all the sisters were
extremely beautiful, and that Sidney Darrell was painting them in a
group for next year's Academy, a _canard_ certainly not to deprecated
from a business point of view.
Such things as these, do not, of course, make the solid basis of
success, but in a very overcrowded world, they are apt to be the most
frequent openings to it. In these days, the aspirant to fame is inclined
to over-value them, forgetting that there is after all something to be
said for making one's performance such as will stand the test of so much
publicity.
The Lorimers knew little of the world, and of the workings of the
complicated machinery necessary for getting on in it; and while chance
favoured them in the matter of gratuitous advertisement, devoted their
energies to keeping up their work to as high a standard as possible.
Life, indeed, was opening up for them in more ways than one. The calling
which they pursued brought them into contact with all sorts and
conditions of men, among them, people in many ways more congenial to
them than the mass of their former acquaintance; intercourse with the
latter having come about in most cases through "juxtaposition" rather
than "affinity."
They began to get glimpses of a world more varied and interesting than
their own, of that world of cultivated, middle-class London, which
approached more nearly, perhaps, than any other to Gertrude's ideal
society of picked individuals.
And it was Gertrude, more than any of them, who appreciated the new
state of things. She was beginning, for the first time, to find her own
level; to taste the sweets of genuine work and genuine social
intercourse. Fastidious and sensitive as she was, she had yet a great
fund of enjoyment of life within her; of that impersonal, objective
enjoyment which is so often denied to her sex. Relieved of the pressing
anxieties which had attended the beginning of their enterprise, the
natural elasticity of her spirits asserted itself. A common atmosphere
of hope and cheerfulness pervaded the little household at Upper Baker
Street.
The evening of which I write was one of the last of May, and Frank had
come in to bid them farewell, before setting out the next morning for a
short holiday in Cornwall; "the old folks," as he called his parents,
growing impatient of their only son's prolonged absence.
"The country will be looking its very best," cried Frank, who loved his
beautiful home; "the sea a mass of sapphire with the great downs rolling
towards it. I mean to have a big swim the very first thing. No one knows
what the sea is like, till they have been to Cornwall. And St. Colomb--I
wish you could see St. Colomb! Why, the whole place is smaller than
Baker Street. The little bleak, grey street, with the sou'wester blowing
through it at all times and seasons--there are scarcely two houses on
the same level. And then--
"'The little grey church on the windy hill,'
and beyond, the great green vicarage garden, and the vicarage, and the
dear old folks looking out at the gate."
He rose reluctantly to go. "One day I hope you will see it for
yourselves--all of you."
With which impersonal statement, delivered in a voice which rather
belied its impersonal nature, Frank dropped Lucy's hand, which he had
been holding with unnecessary firmness, and departed abruptly from the
room.
Gertrude looked rather anxiously towards her sister, who sat quietly
sewing, with a little smile on her lips. How far, she wondered, had
matters gone between Lucy and Frank? Was the happiness of either or both
irrevocably engaged in the pretty game which they were playing? Heaven
forbid that her sisterly solicitude should lead her to question the
"intentions" of every man who came near them; a hideous feminine
practice abhorrent to her very soul. Yet, their own position, Gertrude
felt, was a peculiar one, and she could not but be aware of the dangers
inseparable from the freedom which they enjoyed; dangers which are the
price to be paid for all close intimacy between young men and women.
After all, what do women know about a man, even when they live opposite
him? And do not men, the very best of them, allow themselves immense
license in the matter of loving and riding away?
As for Frank, he never made the slightest pretence that the Lorimers
enjoyed a monopoly of his regard. He talked freely of the charms of
Nellie and Carry and Emily; there was a certain Ethel, of South
Kensington, whose praises he was never weary of sounding. Moreover,
there could be no doubt that at one time or other he had displayed a
good deal of interest in Constance Devonshire; dancing with her half the
night, as Fred had expressed it; a mutual fitness in waltz-steps
scarcely being enough to account for his attentions. And even supposing
a more serious element to have entered into his regard for Lucy, was he
not as poor as themselves, and was it not the last contingency for a
prudent sister to desire?
"What a calculating crone I am growing," thought Gertrude; then
observing the tranquil and busy object of her fears, laughed at herself,
half ashamed.
The next day Mr. Russel came to see them, and entered on a careful
examination of their accounts: compared the business of the last three
months with that of the first; praised the improved quality of their
work, and strongly advised them, if it were possible, to hold on for
another year. This they were able to do. Although, of course, the money
invested in the business had returned anything but a high rate of
interest, their economy had been so strict that there would be enough of
their original funds to enable them to carry on the struggle for the
next twelve months, by which time, if matters progressed at their
present rate, they might consider themselves permanently established in
business.
Before he went Mr. Russel said something to Lucy which disturbed her
considerably, though it made her smile. He had been for many years a
widower, living with his mother, but the old lady had died in the course
of the year, and now he suggested, modestly enough, that Lucy should
return as mistress to the home where she had once been a welcome guest.
The girl found it difficult to put her refusal into words; this kind
friend had hitherto given everything and asked nothing; but there was a
delicate soul under the brusque exterior, and directly he divined how
matters stood, he did his best to save her compunction.
"It really doesn't matter, you know. Please don't give it another
thought." He had observed in an off-hand manner, which had amused while
it touched her.
Lucy was magnanimous enough to keep this little episode to herself,
though Gertrude had her suspicions as to what had occurred.
[Illustration: Decoration]
[Illustration: Decoration]