THE CHAMPION OF THE GODS.
Harry had gathered that another week would decide the fate of the
H.C.S. & T.S.A., Ltd., and he could not help feeling anxious as that
week drew to its close. Not that he himself had gained much confidence
in the mighty scheme in question, for he found it more and more
impossible to believe very deeply in Gordon Lowndes or any of his
works. Yet he knew now that Lowndes would help him if he could, by fair
means or by foul, and he could say the same of no other man. Lowndes
was not merely his friend, but his only friend in London, and you
cannot afford to be hypercritical of an only friend. He might be
unscrupulous, he might be unreliable, but he stood by himself for
staunchness and the will to help. He might be a straw for sinking
hopes, but there was no spar in sight.
So Harry searched the papers at the Public Library, not only for likely
advertisements (which he would answer to the tune of several stamps a
day), but also for the announcement of the return from Scotland of the
Earl of Banff, K.G. When that announcement appeared, and two or three
days slipped by without a line from Lowndes, though the week was more
than up, then, and not until then, did Harry Ringrose abandon his last
hope of getting anything to do in London. His one friend there had
failed him, and was very likely himself in prison for debt. He had, it
is true, an infinitely better friend at Guildford, whom he was on the
eve of visiting, and who might help him to some junior mastership, but
this was the most that he could hope for now. Such a post would in all
probability separate him from his mother, but even that would be better
than living upon her as he was now doing. And in London he seemed to
stand no chance at all.
To this melancholy conclusion had Harry come on the day before he was
to go to Guildford, when the electric bell began ringing as though it
was never going to stop, and there stood Lowndes himself at ten o'clock
in the morning. Harry instantly demanded to be told the worst or the
best. The other held up his finger and shook his head. His face seemed
wilfully inscrutable, but it was also full of humour and encouragement.
"The fact is, Ringrose," said Lowndes, "I have heard so much of that
blessed Company every day for so many months, that I mean to give
myself one day without thinking or speaking about it at all. Come to me
to-morrow and you shall know everything. Meanwhile you and your mother
must dine with me this evening to celebrate the occasion. Let us say
the Grand Hotel and seven o'clock. Then we can all go to some theatre
afterwards."
Harry ran to tell his mother he felt certain the Company was coming out
at last, and to repeat this invitation word for word; but he had great
difficulty in getting her to accept it. How could she go out again? She
might be seen; it would look so bad; and she did not want to enjoy
herself. Then, said Harry, neither did he; and so gained his point by
rather doubtful means. Lowndes, who was on his way to the City, and
would not come in, whispered to Harry that a little outing would do his
mother all the good in the world; then his eyes fell, and he stood
quizzically contemplating the shiny suit which he still seemed to
prefer to all the new ones he had ordered from Harry's tailors.
"I think, Ringrose," said he, "that you and I had better dress. I keep
some war-paint in the City, so it will be no trouble to either of us.
Tell your mother not to bother, however, as my daughter will not be in
evening dress. I forgot to mention, by the way, that she is coming in
to pay her belated respects to Mrs. Ringrose this afternoon, and I want
you to be so good as to bring her along with you to the Grand Hotel.
Seven o'clock, recollect, and you and I will dress."
With that he ran down the stone stairs, and the swing doors closed
behind him with a thud while Harry Ringrose still loitered on the
landing outside the flat. Delighted as he was at the unwonted prospect
of a little gaiety, and more than thankful for all that it implied,
those emotions were nothing to the sudden satisfaction with which he
found himself looking forward to seeing Miss Lowndes again and at the
flat. It is true that the keener pleasure was also the less perfect. It
was mingled with a personal anxiety which it was annoying to feel, but
which Harry could not shake off. He was unreasonably anxious that his
mother should like Miss Lowndes, and that Miss Lowndes should like his
mother. And yet he told himself it was a natural feeling enough; he
recalled its counterpart in old days when he had taken some
schoolfellow home for the holidays.
As for Mrs. Ringrose, she was not only pleased to hear the girl was
coming, but regarded that unprecedented fact as a happier augury than
any other circumstance.
"I really think you must be right," said she, "and that the ship he has
always talked about is coming in at last. I am sure I hope it is true,
for I know of nobody who would make a better millionaire than Mr.
Lowndes. He is generous with his money when it seems that he has less
than I should have believed possible, so what will he be when he is
really rich! But he never would tell me what his great scheme was; and
I am not sure that I altogether care for it from your description, my
boy. I like Mr. Lowndes immensely, but I am not sure that I want to see
you concerned in a pure speculation. However, let us hope for the best,
and let neither of them suppose that we do not believe the best. Yes,
of course, I shall be glad to see the daughter. Go down, my boy, and
tell the porter's wife to come up and speak to me."
When in the fulness of time Miss Lowndes arrived, the door was opened
by neither Harry nor Mrs. Ringrose, and the flat was brightened by a
few fresh flowers which the former had brought in without exciting his
mother's suspicions. Mrs. Ringrose, indeed, had an inveterate love of
entertaining, which all her troubles had not killed in her, and she
received the visitor in a way that made Harry draw a very long breath.
Palpably and indeed inexplicably nervous as she came in, so genial was
the welcome that the girl recovered herself in a moment, and in another
Harry's anxieties were at an end. Once she had mastered her momentary
embarrassment, it was obvious that Miss Lowndes was in infinitely
better spirits than when he had seen her last at Richmond. She looked
younger; there was a warmer tinge upon her cheek, her eyes were
brighter, her dress less demure. Harry had only to look at her to feel
assured that fortune was smiling after all upon the H.C.S. & T.S.A.;
and he had only to hear the two women talking to know that they would
be friends.
Miss Lowndes explained why she had never been to call before. She said
frankly that they had been terribly poor, and she herself greatly tied
in consequence. She spoke of the poverty in the perfect tense, with the
freedom and nonchalance with which one can afford to treat what is
passed and over. Nothing could have been more reassuring than her tone,
nothing pleasanter than the way in which she and Mrs. Ringrose took to
one another. Harry was so pleased that he was quite contented to sit by
and listen, and to wait upon Miss Lowndes when the tea came in, and
only put in his word here and there. It was his mother who would speak
about the accepted verses, and when Harry fled to dress he left her
ransacking the escritoire for his notorious outrage on Gray's Elegy.
Nor was this the final mark of favour. When they started for Charing
Cross, it was Mrs. Ringrose who insisted that they should take an
omnibus, and Mrs. Ringrose who presently suggested that the young
people would be cooler outside. It was as though Fanny Lowndes had made
a deeper impression on Harry's mother than on Harry himself.
Now, there is no more delightful drive than that from Kensington to the
Strand, at the golden end of a summer's afternoon and on the top of a
Hammersmith omnibus. If you are so fortunate as to get a front seat
where nobody can smoke in your face and the view is unimpeded, it is
just possible that your coppers may buy you as much of colour and
beauty and life and interest as Harry Ringrose obtained for his; but
certainly Harry was very young and much addicted to enthusiasm over
small things; and perhaps nobody else is likely to breast the first
green corner of the Gardens with the thrill it gave him, or to covet a
certain small house in Kensington Gore as he coveted it, or to see with
his eyes through the railings and the thick leaves of the Park, or to
read as much romance upon the crowded flagstones of Piccadilly. Already
he knew and loved every furlong of the route; but Fanny Lowndes was the
first companion who had been with him over the ground; and afterwards,
when he came to know every yard, every yard was associated with her.
The beginning of the Gardens henceforth reminded Harry of his first
direct question about the Company, and her assurances ever afterwards
accompanied him to the Memorial. That maligned monument he never passed
again without thinking of the argument it had led to, without deploring
his companion's views as to gilt and gay colours, without remembering
sadly that it was the one subject on which they disagreed that happy
summer evening. He found her more sympathetic even than he had been
imagining her since their first meeting. They touched a score of topics
on which their spirits jumped as one: in after days he would recall
them in their order when he came that way alone, and see summer
sunshine through the dripping fogs, and green leaves on the black
branches in the Park.
Their last words he remembered oftenest, because even the Underground
leads to Trafalgar Square, and it was there that they were spoken. The
shadows of the column lay sharp and black across the Square; that of
the Admiral was being run over by innumerable wheels in the road
beyond, and the low sun flashed in every window of the Grand Hotel.
"Our future offices!" laughed Harry, pointing to the pile.
"I don't think I want them to be yours," said Fanny Lowndes.
"Why not?"
"I want you to go on with your writing."
"But you see how little good I am. One thing accepted out of seven
written! I should never make bread and butter at it."
"You have not done what I told you to do at Richmond. You should try
prose, and draw on your own experiences."
"Would you be my critic?"
"If I had the qualifications."
"Well, will you read me and say what you think?"
"With all my heart."
"Then I'll set to work as soon as ever I get back from Guildford. You
would put pluck into a mouse, Miss Lowndes, and I'll try to deserve the
interest you take in me."
The omnibus stopped, and their eyes met with a mutual regret as they
rose. Harry could not have believed that a change of fortune would so
change a face; that of Miss Lowndes was always lighted by intelligence
and kindness, but with the light of happiness added it was almost
beautiful. And yet, the fine eyes fell before Harry's, and fell again
as he handed her to the curb with a cordial clasp, so that the boy was
thoughtful as they crossed to the hotel, thinking of her nervousness at
the flat.
A few hours later he could understand the daughter of Gordon Lowndes
feeling nervous in accompanying comparative strangers to public places
under the wing of that extraordinary man.
It was evident from the first that Lowndes was in a highly excitable
state. Harry overheard him telling his daughter she was five minutes
late in a tone which made his young blood boil. But it was the hotel
officials who had the chief benefit of the company-promoter's mood.
Something was wrong with the soup--Harry was talking to Miss Lowndes
and never knew what. All he heard was Lowndes sending for the head
waiter, and the harangue that followed. The head waiter ventured to
answer; he was instantly told to fetch the general manager. A painful
scene seemed inevitable, but the worst was over. In making two
officials miserable, and in greatly embarrassing his daughter and his
guests, it suddenly appeared that Lowndes had quite recovered his own
spirits, and the manager found a boisterous humourist instead of the
swashbuckler for whom he had come prepared. The complaint was waived
with dexterous good-nature; but care seemed to be taken that no
loophole should be given for a second. The remainder of the repast was
unexceptionable (as, indeed, the soup had seemed to Harry), and
Lowndes, who drank a good deal of champagne, continued uproariously
mirthful almost to the end. He told them the name of the piece for
which he had taken stalls. It had only been produced the previous
evening, so none of them could say that they had seen it before.
"I don't know what it's like," added Lowndes. "I never read criticisms.
Have you seen anything about it, Ringrose?"
"Why, yes," said Harry; "I looked in at the library this morning, and I
saw two or three notices. They say it is a good enough play; but there
was a bit of a row last night. The papers are full of it. In fact
that's how I came to read the criticisms."
"A row in the theatre?" said Lowndes. "What about?"
"Fees," said Harry. "You know there are no fees at the Lyceum and the
Savoy, and three or four more of the best theatres, so they want to
abolish them there also."
"Who do?"
"The public."
"But it's a question for the management entirely. The public have
nothing to do with it."
"I don't know about that," argued Harry. "The public pay, and they
think they shouldn't."
"Why?" snapped Lowndes; and it became disagreeably apparent that his
lust for combat had revived.
"Well, they think they pay quite enough for their places without any
extras afterwards, such as a fee for programmes. They say you might as
well be charged for the bill-of-fare when you dine at a restaurant. But
their great point seems to be that if half-a-dozen good theatres can do
without fees all good theatres can. They call them an imposition."
"Rubbish," snorted Lowndes, in so offensive a manner that Harry could
say no more; he was therefore surprised when, after a little general
conversation in which Lowndes had not joined, the latter leant across
to him with all the twinkling symptoms of his liveliest moments.
"I presume," said he, "that all the row last night was kicked up by the
pit and gallery?"
"So I gathered."
"Ah! What they want is a remonstrance from the stalls. There would be
some sense in that."
There were no more disagreeables at the hotel, and none with either of
the cabmen outside the theatre. All at once Lowndes seemed to have
grown unnaturally calm and sedate, Harry could not imagine why. But
only too soon he knew.
They had four stalls in the centre of the third row. Harry sat on the
extreme left of the party, with Fanny Lowndes on his right, to whom he
was talking as he tucked his twelve-shilling "topper" as carefully as
possible under the seat, when his companion suddenly looked round and
up with a startled expression. Harry followed her example, and there
was Gordon Lowndes standing up in his place and laughing in the
reddening face of the pretty white-capped attendant. In his hand were
four programmes.
"Certainly not," he was saying. "The system of fees, in a theatre like
this, is an outrage on the audience, and I don't intend to submit to
it."
"I can't help the system, sir."
"I know you can't, my good girl. I don't blame you. Go about your
business."
"But I must fetch the manager."
"Oh, fetch the police if you like. Not a penny-piece do I pay."
And Gordon Lowndes stood erect in his place, fanning himself with the
unpaid-for programmes, and beaming upon all the house. Already all eyes
were upon him; it was amusing to note with what different glances. The
stalls took care to look suitably contumelious, and the dress-circle
were in proper sympathy with the stalls. But the front row of the pit
were leaning across the barrier, and the gallery was a fringe of
horizontal faces and hats.
"We're behind you," said a deep voice in the pit.
"Good old four-eyes!" piped another from aloft.
The gods had recognised their champion: he gave them a magnificent wave
of the programmes, and stood there with swelling shirt-front, every
inch the demagogue.
"Now, sir, now!"
The manager was a smart-looking man with a pointed beard, and a
crush-hat on the back of his head. He spoke even more sharply than was
necessary.
"Now, sir, to you," replied Lowndes suavely, and with an admirable
inclination of his head.
"Well, what's the matter? Why won't you pay?"
"I never encourage fees," replied Lowndes, shaking his twinkling face
in the most fatherly fashion. He articulated his words with the utmost
deliberation, however, and there was a yell of approval from the gods
above. A ripple of amusement was also going round the house; for Mrs.
Ringrose was holding up half-a-crown and making treacherous signs to
the manager, which, however, he would not see. It seemed he was a
fighting man himself, and his eyes were locked in a tussle with
Lowndes's spectacles.
"You must leave the theatre, that's all."
"Nonsense," retorted Lowndes, with his indulgent smile.
"We shall see about that. May I trouble you, ladies and gentlemen, to
leave your places for one moment?"
Lowndes's incomparable guffaw resounded through the auditorium. It was
receiving a hearty echo in pit and gallery, when he held up his
programmes, and the gods were still. The ladies and gentlemen had kept
their seats.
"My dear sir, why give yourself away?" said Gordon Lowndes, still
chuckling, to the manager. "You daren't touch me, and you know you
daren't. A pretty figure you'd cut at Bow Street to-morrow morning! Now
kindly listen to me--" and he tapped the programmes authoritatively
with his forefinger. "You know as well as I do that there was trouble
last night in this theatre about this very thing; my dear sir, I can
promise you there'll be trouble every night until you discontinue your
present obsolete and short-sighted policy. How I wish you were a
sensible man! Then you would think twice before attempting to force a
barefaced imposition of this sort down the throats of your audience; an
imposition that every theatre of repute has recognised as such and
thrown overboard long and long ago. You don't force it down _my_
throat, I can tell you that. You don't bluff or bully _me_. As if we
didn't pay enough for our seats without any such exorbitant extras!
Why, they might as well charge us for the bill-of-fare at a first-class
restaurant. Besides, what a charge! Sixpence for these--sixpence for
this!" And he spun one of his programmes into the pit, and waved
another towards the gallery.
But that cool quick tongue was no sooner silent than the house was in a
hubbub. Here and there arose a thin, peevish cry of "Turn him out," but
on the whole the sympathy of the house was with Lowndes. The stalls
were no longer visibly ashamed of him; the dress-circle jumped with the
stalls; but the pit clapped its ungloved hands and stamped with its
out-of-door boots, while every species of whistle, cheer and cat-call
came hurtling from the gallery. This went on for some three minutes,
which is a long time thus filled. There was no stopping it. The manager
retreated unheard and impotent. A minute later the curtain went up,
only to give the tumult a new impetus. The hapless actors looked at one
another and at the front of the house. The curtain came down, and the
popular and talented lessee himself stepped in front of it, dressed in
his stage costume. But even him they would not hear. Then arose the
unknown, middle-aged gentleman in the stalls, with the splendid temper
and the gold eye-glasses--and him they would.
"Come, come, ladies and gentlemen," cried he, "haven't we done enough
for one night? We have all paid our money, are we not to see the piece?
As for that other matter, I think it may safely be left in the hands of
yonder wise man who stands before us."
And it was--with a result you may remember. Meantime the curtain was up
for good and the play proceeding after a very short interval indeed,
during which Gordon Lowndes bore himself with startling modesty,
sitting quietly in his place and doing nothing but apologise to Mrs.
Ringrose for having caused such a scene on an occasion when she was his
guest. He should have thought only of his guests; but his sense of
public duty, combined with his bitter and inveterate intolerance of
anything in the shape of an imposition, had run away with him, and on
Mrs. Ringrose's account he was humbly sorry for it. That lady forgave
him, however. Through a perfect agony of shame and indignation she had
come to a new and not unnatural pride in her eccentric friend.
As for Harry, there was no measure to his enthusiasm: the tears had
been in his eyes from sheer excitement.
"A wonderful man, your father!" he whispered again and again to the
pale girl on his right.
"He is," she answered, with a smile and a sigh. And the smile was the
sadder of the two.
Between the acts Harry visited the foyer with Lowndes, who was
complimented by several strangers on his spirited and public-spirited
behaviour.
"But do you know," said Harry, when they were alone, "from the way you
spoke at dinner I fancied you took quite an opposite view of the whole
question of fees?"
"So I did," whispered Lowndes, with his tremulous grin, "but I saw my
way to some sport, and that was enough for me. I was spoiling for some
sport to-night, and a bit of bluff from the stalls was obviously what
was wanted. You must excuse my using your arguments, but the fact is I
very seldom set foot inside a theatre, and they were the only ones I'd
ever heard."
"At dinner you said they were nonsense!"
The other winked as he lowered his voice.
"So they were, my dear Ringrose. That was exactly where the sport came
in."