It was to some extent a new phase of London life, even with my small
experience of it, to which I was introduced at Granville Square. The
Paynes were open, as Lady Bretton had said, to a mild charge of
"old-fashionedness" perhaps. Of this, save for my time with my
godmother, I might scarcely have been conscious, but as things were, it
added a certain interest, almost charm, to my days with them.
From the first I felt thoroughly at home; the whole atmosphere was in
many ways home-like to me. For, to begin with, there was no daughter of
the house, and the two sons at home on my first arrival were, or at
least seemed to me, decidedly my juniors. The younger of them was very
distinctly so, for he was the baby of the family, still at a day-school
in London, and Rupert, my old acquaintance, though literally about my
own age, I looked upon as much younger. In those days I think the
feeling was more marked than at present, of girls arriving at maturity
more quickly than their young men contemporaries.
There was no other guest at dinner that first night, as my host had
taken places at the theatre for Mrs Payne, Rupert and myself. It was
part of the _role_ in their kindly minds to give me all the
entertainment possible, and I fully appreciated it, especially as I had
not been often to the play while with the Brettons. The piece they had
chosen, I need scarcely say, was unexceptionable in every way, something
of a tragedy, as far as I remember, of good if not classical standing,
and Mr Payne himself had selected it for my benefit. He was an elderly
man, a good deal older than my father, in appearance and bearing at
least, but I did not find him nearly as awe-inspiring as Mr Wynyard had
seemed to me at first, very probably because in the present case my host
was entirely without self-consciousness, or the touch of shyness which
is almost inseparable from the kind of life which Isabel's father had
led for so many years.
"If I had to go to law about anything," I remember thinking to myself,
"which I devoutly hope will never be the case, Mr Payne is just the
sort of man in whose hands I should feel perfectly safe!"
In his heart, I think Rupert was rather pleased than otherwise to be my
only cavalier, though he impressed upon me dutifully, and no doubt
sincerely, his regret that the elder brother, Clarence, of whom I could
see that the whole family was immensely proud, had not been there to
meet me.
"Is he out of London?" I asked, half carelessly, as we were sitting
waiting for the curtain to rise, one of the unwritten laws of the Payne
household being "always to be in good time at a theatre or a railway
station"--or "is he only very busy?"
"He is very busy," Rupert replied. "I believe he is getting on
splendidly, but to-day he is actually in the country on some very
pressing affairs. He will be back to-morrow, though; he doesn't often
stay away more than a night at a time; my father can't spare him."
"And how are you getting on yourself?" I was beginning; "how about--"
at that moment I was interrupted by the rising of the curtain; but when
it fell again I repeated my question, and in the intervals I was able to
talk to Rupert without seeming to neglect his mother, who was happily
engaged on her other side by her neighbour there, proving to be a
pleasant acquaintance.
"How about your novels? Have you got any more good plots on hand?"
The form of my question was partly affected by the nature of the drama
before us, which foreshadowed, even in the first act, a mysterious
secret, handed on through more than one generation of an ancient family.
Rupert coloured a little.
"Good plots!" he repeated. "I have just scores of them. It is not that
part of it I am at a loss about. It is my style I am unhappy and
dissatisfied with. There is something--I don't know how to define it--
stilted and priggish, I am afraid, that I am painfully conscious of and
yet cannot throw off. I have often thought how it would help me to talk
my work over with you, if it would not bore you dreadfully. Even to
read some of my MS. _Could_ you make up your mind to such a thing?"