I
The thing which surprised me most about the unseen hand which seemed to
be always with us was the way in which it disposed of the ladies'
orchestra in the Crown Hotel at Bath. I met the pianiste in the street
while I was waiting for instructions, and it was she who made the matter
plain to me.
"I suppose you have heard that we have finished at the Crown for the
present?" she asked.
I had been genuinely surprised to hear that this was the case, and I
told her so. After a moment's hesitation, she unburdened herself of a
secret.
"Please don't tell a soul," she begged, "except Miss Mindel and Mr.
Cotton, if you want to. The fact of it is, the most extraordinary thing
is taking us away. We have been offered, without a word of explanation,
a hundred pounds between the four of us to go away for a month."
"Nonsense!" I exclaimed.
"It is perfectly true," she repeated. "A lawyer in the city brought the
notes and an agreement, absolutely refusing a single word of
explanation. We didn't worry very much, I can tell you. Twenty-five
pounds isn't picked up every day, but I don't mind confessing that when
I think about it, I get so curious it makes me positively ill. Miss
Brown's theory is that it's one of these old cranks in the hotel, with
more money than he knows what to do with, who hates music. On the other
hand, the management has received no complaints, and there's nothing to
prevent another orchestra taking our place next Monday."
I made my way to the lounge of the hotel where Leonard, Rose and I had
arranged to meet for afternoon tea. We were having rather a quiet time,
having already performed for a week at the local music hall with some
success, and were now obeying instructions by staying on at our rooms
and waiting for orders. There were too many people about for me to
impart the news to them at that moment, so we fell to criticising the
passers-by, an uninteresting crowd with one or two exceptions. There was
a large but not unwieldly man, carefully dressed, with a walrus-like
beard and moustache, heavy eyebrows and a surly manner, who was
generally muttering to himself. His name was Grant, he was reputed to be
over eighty, to be without a friend in the hotel, and to growl at every
one who spoke to him. Every afternoon at half-past four he came in from
a turn in his bath chair, and stumped past the orchestra with his finger
to his ear. Then there was a frail, olive-skinned man, tall and gaunt,
with wonderful black eyes, escorted every day to the baths and brought
back again by a manservant who looked like a Cossack. His name was
Kinlosti, and he was reported to have been an official at the Court of
the late Tsar, and even to have accompanied him to Siberia. The third
person, who interested us because we all detested her, was an enormously
fat old lady, with false teeth, false grey ringlets, a profusion of
jewellery, and a voice which Leonard said reminded him of the hissing of
a rattlesnake. Her name was Mrs. Cotesham, she was stone deaf, and
between her and Mr. Grant there was a deadly feud. They never spoke, but
if glances could kill both would have been in their coffins many times a
day. They both wanted the same chair in front of the fire, they both
struggled for the _Times_ after lunch, they ordered their coffee at the
same moment, and whichever was served last bullied the waiter. They
provided plenty of amusement for lookers-on and to the guests generally,
but I think that the management, and certainly the waiters, were
prepared to welcome the day they left the hotel. When the people had
thinned out a little, and there was no one in our immediate vicinity, I
told my two companions of the strange thing which had happened to the
ladies' orchestra.
"It must have been Mr. Grant," Rose declared.
"I put my money on the old lady," Leonard decided.
But I knew that it was neither, for even while they were speaking the
hall porter, who knew me by sight, had brought me a typewritten note,
which he said had been left by hand. I tore it open and read. There was
no address nor any signature. Neither was needed:
Apply at office of Crown Hotel for permission to give
entertainments, commencing soon as possible.