May was driving home one afternoon towards the end of June with a sense
of great well-being. The baby was thriving as heartily as the fondest
mother could wish, and Tom was as lovable as ever. He had got rather
tired of going out to dine or dance, and of late had more frequently
spent his evenings alone with May. Two days before he saw her opening a
note which obviously was an invitation, and before she had read it he
said--
“May, if that is for dinner any time in the next week, I am engaged to
dine with you at home.”
His guess had been correct, and they were going to spend this evening
alone at home. There were always certain pieces of ritual connected with
baby cult to be gone through, and though Tom expressed impatience
sometimes at the length of the services, he knew that the sight of May
bending over their first-born was a very pretty one, and often wished he
were a painter as well as a sculptor. Demeter had passed through the
hands of the pointers, and Tom was at work again on her, for he meant to
finish her himself. Day after day he spent, chisel in hand, working down
the whole surface, till he “found” the statue. Various people,
remembering the two statuettes which Tom had exhibited eighteen months
ago, wanted to know if there were any more to be had, for the two had
sold at once for high prices, though Tom had, after his conversion,
expressed an unmercenary intention of throwing the cheques into the
fire. But when they asked whether he was working at anything, and were
shown the Demeter, they became thoughtful and said, “Good morning.”
Altogether May was more than satisfied, and she went quickly up the
steps and into the house, thinking how terrible it was that she had not
set eyes on Tom or the baby since half-past eleven that morning. There
was a note for her on the hall table, and she saw with a sudden spasm of
anxiety that it was from her husband. She tore it open quickly, and
read--
“Father’s business has failed. He heard this morning, and he has had a
stroke. I have gone down there at once. You had better follow me.”
May read the note through twice before she thoroughly grasped its
meaning. She waited only one moment to steady herself, and then went
quickly upstairs to give orders for a small trunk to be packed for her,
and to say good-bye to the baby.
Tom had received the news just after lunch, and was quite unable to
remember where May had gone. She had come in to tell him that she would
not be in till six, and that she was lunching somewhere, and then going
somewhere else, but Tom was finishing a vein on the back of Demeter’s
drooping hand, and had only said, “Yes, dear, yes,” without looking up.
May felt one moment of slight pique, and had not repeated her message,
saying to herself that if he did not care to know she did not care to
tell him.
He had arrived at Applethorpe two hours afterwards, and there learned
that there was probably no hope. His father was lying quite unconscious.
They thought perhaps he might rally for a few minutes before the end,
and so Tom sat and waited. The sun moved slowly round to the west, and
it was not till the golden light had begun to be tinged with red that
his father moved. He opened his eyes, saw Tom sitting by him, and
snapped his fingers in the face of the King of Terrors.
“I’m stone broke, Tom,” he said, “and it’s lucky for you that you
learned to break stones.”
And with a jest on his lips he went out without hope or fear into the
Valley of the Shadow.
The suddenness of what had happened for a time stunned and obliterated
thought in Tom’s mind. Though his father was old, no blurring decay had
touched him with forewarning hand, and it was in a half-dream that Tom
went down from the death chamber into the library. The telegram which
announced the failure had fluttered down on to the floor, and the warm
garden-scented breeze which streamed in through the open window stirred
it every now and then as if it was twitched by some unseen hand. The
book his father had been reading was still standing open on the desk of
his reading-chair, where he had been sitting when the news came.
Everything was pitilessly unchanged. The servants had come in to draw
down the blinds, but Tom stopped them. What was the use of that
unmeaning decorum? Tom had been very fond of his father, but the thought
of May and the baby could not but make a picture in his mind. His
father, like many very rich men, seldom or never spoke of his money, and
Tom wondered vaguely, but with growing anxiety, how complete the smash
was. The delights of poverty, of being out at elbows, and working
passionately for a living at the work he loved, presented themselves in
rather different colours to a man with a wife and infant son, from the
glowing difficulties he had painted for himself as an ardent bachelor of
twenty-two. What if the worst he feared were true--if they were absolute
paupers!
His thoughts went back again to his father lying dead upstairs. Tom
remembered so vividly the last time he had seen him, standing with May
and the baby in the porch when he went up to London. He had taken an
extraordinary interest in the baby, and used to hazard cynical
speculations as to its future. He used to allude to it as Mr. Thomas, in
order to differentiate it from Tom. “Mr. Thomas’s solemnity is
overpowering,” he said once; “he makes me feel as if I was a small boy
talking to a wise old gentleman, or a juvenile offender waiting for an
awful judge to pronounce sentence on me. And he makes me realize what is
meant by rich silences.” Mr. Thomas at the moment broke into his own
rich silence by a very creditable howl, and his grandfather added, “And
mark how opulently he cries.”
Tom met May at the door, and they went together up to the room where his
father lay. He did not tell her what the old man’s last words had been.
They found Mr. Markham waiting for them below when they came down, and
the three talked together till it grew late. He stopped to dinner, and
afterwards, when May had gone to bed, Tom mentioned the subject of the
smash.
Mr. Markham shook his head gravely.
“Do either the London house or Applethorpe belong to you?” he asked.
“No, we rent them both.”
“My poor boy! I am sure I am right in telling you to prepare for the
worst. I remember from a talk I had with your father once, that the
greater part of his money was in this business, and the rest in two
Australian banks which broke last year.”
Tom stood up and frowned.
“He never told me that. He never spoke about money, you know. I had not
an idea of it.”
“He probably thought it was unnecessary, for I believe he had the most
utter confidence in his partners. I have seen the evening papers, and it
appears that there has never been so complete a smash, except perhaps
the Argentines.”
“Have you got the paper?” asked Tom.
“Not with me. But don’t look at the papers about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because there are some very unjust things said about your father. Of
course we all know quite well that he had nothing to do with the
management of the company.”
“What an infernal slander!” said Tom, hotly. “And do you mean you think
I have nothing--literally nothing?”
“It is possible it may mean that.”
“What is to happen to the bills I haven’t paid?” demanded Tom.
“You have a profession,” said Mr. Markham. “Ted told me Wallingthorpe’s
opinion of your work.”
“Ah, those horrors!” said Tom, impatiently. “I shall not earn a penny by
those.”
“But you say you have unpaid bills?”
“Yes, I suppose I have--every one has. Of course they must be paid. The
furniture here belongs to us.”
“That is your father’s. Have you nothing except your income from him?”
“I have £1500 left me by my godmother, and May has £500, has she not?
Eighty pounds a year between us--a ridiculously insignificant sum. But I
have my profession, as you say. I shall work for my living, work for her
and the baby. I long to do that. My God! how I shall work! The Demeter
is nearly finished.”
“Are you doing it for an order?” asked Mr. Markham, tentatively.
“No. Why?”
“My dear Tom, you must be practical. It is a luxury for rich people only
to work six months or a year at a thing if it has no market. I know
nothing about art, but there is a practical point of view, which now you
must take into consideration. Your work is not only the thing you love,
but the thing which has to keep you in bread and cheese.”
“Well, we shall see,” said Tom. “Perhaps we are counting our cobras
before they are hatched. Anyhow, I have now--what I always longed
for--the opportunity to work for May.”
The two stopped at Applethorpe for a fortnight, and before that time was
over they knew exactly how they stood. The smash was complete. A series
of disasters had fallen, and Mr. Carlingford’s fortune of not less than
a quarter of a million had gone. Upwards of £100,000 of this had been in
two Australian banks, in which he held both deposit and shares. These
two banks had failed; he was unable to withdraw his deposit, and there
were heavy calls to be met on his shares. He had known this for some
months, but the money he derived from his £150,000 in the business would
have enabled him to meet these, for he lived considerably below his
income. But for five years or so the business had been managed in a very
different manner from that in which it had been carried on under Mr.
Carlingford. The elder partner had about this time embarked on several
investments, which, though not exactly risky, were not the kind of
venture fit for a steady-going house. These had turned out well; he had
lost his head a little when he saw a six months’ profit safely harvested
in two, and he had been led on--by the prospect of making a fortune by a
few successful _coups_--into speculations which were on the far side of
risky. Luck had been against him, and he had attempted to get back his
losses by even more adventurous means, and it appeared that for two
years Mr. Carlingford’s income had been paid, not out of profits, but
out of capital. Then came the _coup de grâce_. The younger partner had
got into the hands of money-lenders, had sunk deeper and deeper, and
when he found that his own signature was considered valueless, had
signed a note of hand in the name of the house. The father, trying to
shield his son, had speculated wildly in certain South American
securities, and these had failed. Inasmuch as Mr. Carlingford was still
a partner, he was liable for the debts of the house, and it was feared
that even a complete sale of his furniture and stables would hardly
cover his liabilities, even after other stocks and shares which he held
had been disposed of.
To Tom himself nothing remained but the £1500 left him by his godmother,
which could not be touched by his father’s creditors. Against that he
had to set his own outstanding bills, about which he felt unpleasantly
vague. The anxiety he secretly felt he would scarcely confess even to
himself. He had a full belief in his own powers, and it would have been
a faithless thing to doubt them at the very moment when the test was to
be applied. He talked the matter out fully and frankly with May, and if
he had any private anxiety, at any rate she had not.
“We shall be awfully poor, dear,” he said. “I don’t know what there will
be over when our bills are paid, but it won’t be much. Of course we
won’t touch your £500; but we must live on the capital of the other
until I have finished something to sell. I wish to goodness I had paid
all my bills before. But they must be paid now at once. I want to start
fresh.”
“Where shall we live?” asked May.
“Wallingthorpe wrote to me yesterday, and told me of a flat somewhere up
in Bloomsbury, which could be had cheap. It’s up a lot of stairs, but it
has a big room which has a good light for a studio.”
“We had better go at once, hadn’t we?”
“Well, yes. They will be clearing everything out of here in a day or
two, and, of course, we can’t go back to Grosvenor Square.”
May smiled.
“I think it will be rather amusing,” she said, “living in a poky little
house. I suppose it’s healthy, isn’t it?”
“Very, I believe. Manvers said it was rather nice being extraordinarily
poor. I wonder if you will like it. I know I shan’t mind.”
“Tom, I mind nothing with you. You know that, don’t you?”
Tom wrinkled up his nose--a trick he had.
“Well, I didn’t anticipate that you would apply for a separation.”
“Do you know what father suggested? He wanted me to propose to you that
I should bring the baby to the vicarage until things were more settled.”
“Yes. That sounds an excellent plan. I suppose you jumped at it.”
“Tom, you gaby!”
“And what was I to do?”
“You were to make a quantity of little statuettes, and sell them for £80
each. I don’t think he believes in the Demeter.”
Tom went up to London a day or two later to stay with Wallingthorpe, and
superintend the preparations for making the new house habitable, while
May and the baby remained at the vicarage. That artist, it must be
confessed, was in his heart of hearts not at all displeased at Tom’s
sudden change of fortune. He would be driven to do that which he could
not be led to. Wallingthorpe had not a touch of an artist’s proverbial
jealousy. If he saw or suspected talents he did his utmost to foster and
encourage them, and in Tom he suspected something more. The boy’s
persistence in working at his heathen goddess really had filled him with
genuine pain. He ventured to touch on the subject one night when he and
Tom were sitting together after dinner.
“And what will you work at next?” he began. “Your Demeter--that is the
lady’s name, is it not?--is nearly finished, I believe?”
“Yes, she’s ready to be finished. I’m finishing her myself,” said Tom.
“I don’t think you’ve seen her, have you?”
Wallingthorpe closed his eyes piously.
“I’m sure you’ll excuse my saying so, but God forbid! What are you going
to do next?”
“Persephone. She is the daughter who is lost, you know, and Demeter is
looking for her sorrowing. Well, she’ll find her next year, I hope.”
Wallingthorpe made an eloquent gesture expressing despair.
“You wretched boy, you don’t know what you are doing!” he cried. “You
have talents, believe me; you perhaps have genius. You are wasting the
best years of your life and prostituting your gifts. I must force you
to believe it.”
Tom laughed.
“You’d better give it up,” he said. “I am quite hardened.”
“But you’ll starve,” said Wallingthorpe; “you’ve got to think of that.
Life-size blocks of Carrara are not to be had for the asking, and on my
sacred word of honour no one will buy Demeter or her daughter.”
“Well, then, I’ll starve,” said Tom, cheerfully. “But surely it would be
prostituting my gifts if I simply used them to prevent my starving. Eh?”
Wallingthorpe was silent, and Tom continued--
“But, of course, I shan’t starve. Those things ‘don’t happen,’ as Mrs.
Humphry Ward says of miracles. Anyhow, before I starve I shall finish
the Demeter and her daughter, and then my blood will be on the heads of
the British public.”
“You miserable boy!” ejaculated Wallingthorpe again, adjusting the end
of his cigar. “You are an apostate, and in the good old days apostates
were very justly looked down on by Christians and heretics alike. You
have sacrificed to Demeter and Persephone, and all the hierarchy of
Olympus.”
“You may call me apostate on the day I cease to,” said Tom, “and that
will be not just yet.”