THE COUSINS.
The hall of a West End hotel on a fine afternoon, even in October, not
to speak of June, is a spectacle of pious consolation in the eyes of
those who like the contemplation of riches. Many there are on whose
souls the sight of wealth in activity, producing its fruits in due
season, pours sweet and balmy soothing. All those lovely costumes
flitting across the hall, the coming and the going of the people in
their carriages, the continual arrival of messengers with parcels, the
driving up to the hotel or the driving off, the hotel porters, the
liveries, the haughty children of pride and show who wear them--these
things in a desert of longing illustrate what wealth can give, and
how much wealth is to be envied; these things make wealth appear
boundless and stable. Surely one may take such wealth as this to the
halls of heaven! Inexhaustible it must be, else how could the hotel
bills be paid? The magnificent person in uniform, with a gold band
round his cap, makes wealth all-powerful as well as beautiful, else
how could he receive a wage at all adequate to his appearance and his
manners? The noble perspective of white tables through the doors on
the right, and of velvet sofas through the doors on the left, proves
the illimitable nature of the modern wealth of the millionaire, else
how could those sumptuous dinners be paid for? The American accent
which everywhere strikes the ear further indicates that the wealth
mostly belongs to another country, which makes the true philanthropist
and the altruist rejoice. "Non nobis, Domine," he chants, "but to our
neighbours and our cousins." So long as there is accumulated wealth,
which enables us to run these big hotels, and to maintain these costly
costumes, and to keep these messengers on the trot, why should we
grumble? All the world desires wealth. It is only at such places as
the entrance-hall of a great hotel that the impecunious can really see
with their own eyes, and properly understand, what great riches can
actually do for their possessor. What can confer happiness more solid,
more satisfying, more abiding, than to buy your wife a costume for two
hundred guineas, and to live in such a hotel as this, with the whole
treasures of London lying at your feet, and waiting for your choice?
About half-past four, when the crush of arrivals was greatest, and the
talk in the hall was loudest, another carriage and pair deposited at
the hotel an elderly couple. The man was tall and thin; his features
were plain, but strongly marked; his hair was grey, and his beard,
which he grew behind his chin, was also grey. You may see men like
him in face and figure, and in the disposition of his beard behind
his chin, in every Yorkshire town--in fact, he was a Yorkshireman by
birth, though he had spent the last forty years of his life in the
Western States. His face was habitually grave; he spoke slowly. This
man, in fact, was one of that most envied and enviable class--the rich
American. In those lists which people like so much to read, the name
of John Haveril was generally placed about halfway down, opposite
the imposing figures 13,000,000 dollars. Reading these figures,
the ordinary average Briton remarked, "Dollars, sir; dollars. Not
pounds sterling. But still, two millions and a half sterling. And
still rolling, still r-r-r-rolling!" The city magnate, reading them,
sighs and says, "He cannot spend a quarter of the income. The rest
fructifies, sir--fr-r-r-ructifies!"
John Haveril arrived at this pinnacle of greatness by methods which I
believe are perfectly well understood by everybody who is interested
in the great mystery of making money. It is a mystery which is
intelligible, easy, and open to everybody. Yet only a very few--say,
one in twenty millions--are able to practise the art successfully. A
vast number try to cross that stormy sea which has no chart by which
they can navigate their barques; rocks strike upon them and overwhelm
them; hurricanes capsize and sink them. Disappointment, bankruptcy,
concealment for life, flight, ruin, cruel misrepresentation, even
open trial, conviction, sentence, and imprisonment are too often the
consequences when persons who, perhaps, possess every quality except
one--or all the qualities but one or two--in imperfection. Corners,
rings, trusts, presidencies, the control of markets, monopolies, the
crushing of competition, the trampling down of the weaker, disregard
of scruple, tenderness, pity, sympathy, belong to the success which
ought to have made John Haveril happy.
The fortunate possessor of thirteen millions--dollars--got out of the
carriage when it stopped. He looked round him. On the steps of the
hotel the people drew back, hushed and awed. "John Haveril!" he heard,
in whispers. He smiled. It is always a pleasure _monstrari digito_.
He marched up the steps and into the hall, leaving his wife to follow
alone.
This lady, whom we have already met in the doctor's consultation-room,
was dressed in the splendour that belonged to her position. It is
useless to have thirteen millions of dollars if you do not spend
some of them in proclaiming the fact by silks and satins, lace and
embroidery, chains of gold and glittering jewels. Mr. Haveril liked to
see his wife in costly array. What wife would not willingly respond
to such a pleasing taste in a husband? On this point, at least,
the married couple's hearts beat as one--in unison. Mrs. Haveril,
therefore, ought to have enjoyed nothing so much as the triumphal
march across the hall, with all the people gazing upon her as the
thrice happy, the four times happy, the pride of her country, the
millionairess.
I do not think that she ever, under any circumstances, got the full
flavour out of her wealth. You have seen her with the doctor; a
constant anxiety weighed her down; she was weak in body and troubled
in mind. She was no happier with the millions than if they had been
hundreds. Moreover, she was always a simple woman, contented with
simple ways--one to whom footmen, waiters, and grand dinners were a
weariness. With her pale, delicate face, and sad soft eyes, she looked
more like a nun in disguise than a woman rolling in gold.
Their rooms were, of course, on the first floor; such rooms, so
furnished, as became such guests. Parcels, opened and unopened,
were lying about on the tables and chairs, for they had only as yet
been two or three days in London, and, therefore, had only begun to
buy things. Tickets for theatres, cards of visitors, invitations to
dinner, had already begun to flow in.
A waiter followed them upstairs, bearing a tray on which were cards,
envelopes with names, and bits of paper with names. Mrs. Haveril
turned them over.
"John," she said, "I do believe these are my cousins. They've found us
out pretty soon."
It was, in fact, only the day after the arrivals were put in the
papers.
John turned over the cards. "Humph!" he said. "Now, Alice, before
these people come, let us make up our minds what we are going to do
for them. What brings them? Is it money, or is it love?"
"I'm afraid it's money. Still, when one has been away for five and
twenty years, it does seem hard not to see one's cousins again.
'Tisn't as if we came back beggars, John."
"That's just it. If we had, we shouldn't have been in this hotel. And
they wouldn't be calling upon us."
"They're all waiting down below."
"Let 'em wait. What are we to do, Alice? They want money. Are you
going to give 'em money?"
"It isn't my money, John. It's yours."
"'Tis thine, lass," the Yorkshireman replied. "If 'tis mine, 'tis
thine. But leave it to me." He turned to the waiter who had been
present, hearing what was said with the inscrutable face of one who
hears nothing, "Send all these chaps and women up," he said. "Make 'em
come up--every one. And, Alice, sit down and never move. I'll do the
talking."
They came up, some twenty in number. One of the blessings which attend
the possession of great wealth is its power in bringing together
and uniting in bonds of affection the various members of a family.
Branches long since obscure and forgotten come to the light again;
members long since supposed--or hoped--to be gone away to the Ewigkeit
appear alive, and with progeny. They rally round the money; the
possessor of the money becomes the head of the family, the object of
their most sincere respect, the source of dignity and pride to the
whole family.
They trooped up the broad staircase, men and women, all together. They
were old, and they were young; they presented, one must acknowledge,
that kind of appearance which is called "common." It is not an
agreeable thing to say of any one, especially of a woman, that he--or
she--has a "common" appearance. Yet of Mrs. Haveril's cousins so
much must be said, if one would preserve any reputation for truth.
The elder women were accompanied by younger ones, their daughters,
whose hats were monumental and their jackets deplorable: the ladies,
both old and young, while waiting below, sniffed when they looked
around them. They sniffed, and they whispered half aloud, "Shameful,
my dear! and she only just come home!"--deploring the motives which
led the others, not themselves, to this universal consent. The men,
for their part, seemed more ashamed of themselves than of their
neighbours. Their appearance betokened the small clerk or the retail
tradesman. Yet there was hostility in their faces, as if, in any
possible slopping over, or in any droppings, from the money-bag, there
were too many of them for the picking up.
They stood at the door, hesitating. The splendour of the room
disconcerted them. They had never seen anything so magnificent.
Mrs. Haveril half rose to greet her cousins. Beside her stood her
husband--of the earth's great ones. At the sight of this god-like
person an awe and hush fell upon all these souls. They were so poor,
all of them; they had all their lives so ardently desired riches--a
modest, a very modest income--as an escape from poverty with its
scourge, that, at the sight of one who had succeeded beyond their
wildest dreams, their cheeks blanched, their knees trembled.
One of them boldly advanced. He was a man of fifty or so, who,
though he was dressed in the black frock which means a certain
social elevation, was more common in appearance, perhaps, than any
of the rest. His close-set eyes, the cunning in his face, the hungry
look, the evident determination which possessed him, the longing and
yearning to get some of the money shown in that look, his arched back
and bending knees, proclaimed the manner of the man, who was by nature
a reptile.
He stepped across the room, and held out his hand. "Cousin Alice," he
said softly, even sadly, as thinking of the long years of separation,
"I am Charles--the Charlie of your happy childhood, when we played
together in Hoxton Square." He continued to hold her hand. "This is,
indeed, a joyful day. I have lost no time in hastening here, though at
the sacrifice of most important business--but what are my interests
compared with the reunion of the family? I say that I have lost no
time, though in the sight of this crowd my action might possibly be
misrepresented."
"You are doing well, Charles?" asked Mrs. Haveril, with some
hesitation, because, though she remembered the cousinship, she could
not remember the happy games in Hoxton Square.
"Pretty well, Alice, thank you. It is like your kind heart to ask.
Pretty well. Mine is a well-known establishment. In Mare Street,
Hackney. I am, at least, respectable--which is more than some can say.
All I want," he stooped and whispered, "is the introduction of more
capital--more capital."
"We cannot talk about that now, Cousin Charles." Mrs. Haveril pushed
him gently aside; but he took up a position at her right hand, and
whispered as each came up in turn.
The next was a man who most certainly, to judge by his appearance, was
run down pretty low. He was dressed in seedy black, his boots down at
heel, his tall hat limp.
He stepped forward, with an affectation of a laugh. "I am your cousin
Alfred, Alice. Alf, you know." She did not remember; but she offered
him her hand. "I had hoped to find you alone. I have much to tell
you."
"A bankrupt, Alice," whispered Charles. "Actually a bankrupt! And in
this company!"
"If I am," said Fortune's battered plaything, "you ought to be, too,
if everybody had his rights."
Cousin Charles made no reply to this charge. Do any of us get our
deserts? The bankrupt stepped aside.
Then a pair of ladies, old and young, stepped forward with a pleasing
smile.
"Cousin Alice," said the elder, "I am Sophy. This is my daughter. She
teaches in a Board school, and is a credit to the family, as much as
if she had a place of business in Mare Street, I'm sure."
"Pew-opener of St. Alphege, Hoxton," whispered Cousin Charles.
And so on.
While the presentation was going on, a young lady appeared in the
door. She saw the crowd, and held back, not presenting herself. She
was none other, in fact, than Molly. Strange that a little difference
in dress and in associates should make so great a difference in a
girl. Molly was but the daughter of a tenth-rate player, yet she was
wholly different from the other girls in the room. She belonged to
another species of humanity. It could not be altogether dress which
caused this difference. She looked on puzzled at first, then she
understood the situation, and she smiled, keeping in the background,
waiting the event.
When they were all presented, Mrs. Haveril turned to her husband.
"John," she said, "these are my cousins. Will you speak to them, and
tell them that we are pleased to see them here?"
John Haveril possessed three manners or aspects. The first was
the latest. It was the air and carriage and voice of one who is
in authority, and willing to exercise it, and ready to receive
recognition. A recently created peer might possess this manner. The
second was the air and carriage and voice of one who is exercising his
trade. You may observe this manner on any afternoon near Capel Court.
The third manner was quite different. It was his earliest and youngest
manner. In this he seemed to lose interest in what went on, his eyes
went out into space, he was for the time lost to the place and people
about him.
On this occasion John Haveril began with the first manner--that of
authority.
"Cousins," he said, "you are welcome. I take it you are all cousins,
else you wouldn't have called. You don't look like interviewers. My
wife is pleased to see you again, after all these years--five and
twenty, I take it."
There was a general murmur.
"Very well, then. Waiter, bring champagne--right away--and for the
whole party. You saw, ladies and gentlemen, a paragraph in the papers
about Mr. and Mrs. John Haveril. Yes, and you have come in consequence
of that notice. Very well."
"That's true," cried Cousin Charles, unable to resist the expression
of his admiration. "To think that we should stand in the presence of
millions!"
"And so you've come, all of you," said John of the thirteen millions,
"to see your cousin again. Out of love and affection?"
"Some of us," said Cousin Charles. "I fear that others," he cast one
eye on the bankrupt and one on the pew-opener, "have come to see what
they can get. Humanity is mixed, Mr. Haveril. You must have learned
that already. Mixed."
"Thank ye, sir. I have learned that lesson."
"To see our cousin Alice once more, to desire, Mr. Haveril, to see
you--to gaze upon you--is with some of us, laudable, sir--laudable."
"Quite so, sir. Highly laudable."
"As for me," said the bankrupt, abashed, "I did hope to find Cousin
Alice alone."
"And if Mr. Charles Pennefather," said the pew-opener, "means that he
wants nothing for himself, let him go, now that he has seen his Cousin
Alice! Let him go on down-trodding them poor girls in his place of
business."
At this point, when it seemed likely that the family would take
sides, the waiter appeared, bearing in his arms--I use the word with
intention--a Jeroboam of champagne. He was followed by two boys,
pages, bearing trays; and on the trays were glasses.
A Jeroboam! The sight of this inexhaustible vessel suggests
hospitality of the more lavish: generosity of the less calculating:
it contains two magnums and a magnum contains two bottles. Can one
go farther than a Jeroboam? There are legends and traditions in one
or two of the older hotels--those which flourished in the glorious
days of the Regent--of a Rehoboam, containing two Jeroboams. But
I have never met in this earthly pilgrimage with a living man who
had gazed upon a Rehoboam. At the sight of the Jeroboam all faces
softened, broadened, expanded, and began to slime with a smile not to
be repressed. Cousin Charles thrust his right hand into his bosom, and
directed his eyes, as if for penance, to the cornice.
"Now," said Mr. Haveril, "you came here to see your cousin again.
You shall drink her health--all of you. Here she is. Not so hale and
hearty as one could wish; but alive, after five and twenty years, or
thereabouts. Now, boys, pass it round."
The glasses went round--the wine gurgled and sparkled. Cousin Charles
gave the word.
"Cousin Alice!" he cried. "All together--after me!" He raised his
glass. "Cousin Alice!" He emptied it at one draught.
"I think," said the pew-opener, in an audible whisper to her daughter,
"that it would have been more becoming to offer port wine. I don't
think much of this fizzy stuff."
"Hush! mother." The daughter had more reading, if less experience.
"This is champagne. It's rich folks' drink, instead of beer."
The waiter and the boys went round again. The second glass vanished,
without any toast. Eyes brightened, cheeks flushed, tongues were
loosened.
"Cousin Alice," said the bankrupt, emboldened. "If I could see you
alone----"
"Don't see him alone," whispered Cousin Charles. "Don't see anybody
alone. They all want your money. They are leeches for sucking and
limpets for sticking. Turn 'em over to me. I'll manage the whole lot
for you. Very lucky for you, Cousin Alice, that I did call, just this
day of all days, to stand between you and them."
But Cousin Alice made no answer. And they all began whispering
together, and the whisper became a murmur, and the murmur a babble,
and in the babble voices were raised and charges were made as of
self-seeking, pretence, hypocrisy, unworthy motives, greed of gain,
deception, past trickeries, known meannesses, sordidness, and so
forth. And there was a general lurch forward, as if the cousins would
one and all fall upon Alice and ravish from her, on the spot, her
husband's millions.
But Cousin Charles, self-elected representative, stepped forward and
held up his hand.
"We cannot part," he said. "It is impossible for you to leave me with
my Cousin Alice----"
"Ho!" cried the pew-opener, "you alone with Cousin Alice!"
"See you alone, Alice," whispered the bankrupt, on whose weak nerves
and ill-nourished brain the champagne was working.
"--without drinking--one more toast. We _must_ drink," he said, "to
our cousin's illustrious, noble, and distinguished husband. Long
may he continue to enjoy the wealth which he so well deserves and
which none of us envy him. No, my friends, humble and otherwise,
none of us envy him. Mr. Haveril, sir, I could have wished that the
family--your wife's family--which is, as you know, one of eminent
respectability--an ancient family, in fact, of Haggerston----"
"Grandmother was a laundress," said the pew-opener. "Everybody knows
that all the Haggerston people were washer-women in the old days."
"--had been better represented on this occasion by a limited
deputation of respectability--say, by myself, without the appearance
of branches, which should not have been presented to you, because we
have no reason to be proud of them." He glanced at the decayed branch.
"Sir, we drink your prolonged health and your perpetual happiness. We
are proud of you, Mr. Haveril. The world is proud of you."
With a murmur, partly of remonstrance with the speaker's arrogance and
his insinuations against their respectability; and partly meant for a
cheer, the family drank the health of Mr. John Haveril.
"Thank ye," he said, with no visible emotion. "Now, take another
glass--send it round, waiter--while I say something. It's just this."
As he spoke his manner insensibly changed. He became the man of
business, hard as nails. "I take it that some of you are here to see
your cousin again, and some of you are here to get what you can, and
some for both reasons. It's natural, and I don't blame anybody. When a
body's poor, he always thinks that a rich man can make him rich, too.
Well, he can't--not unless he makes over half his pile. And I'll tell
you why. A chap is poor because he's foolish or lazy. Either he can't
see the way or he won't stir himself. You can't help a blind man--nor
you can't help a lazy man. If you give either of them what he wants,
he spends it all, and then holds out his hand and asks for more." The
bankrupt dropped his head, and sank into a chair. The champagne helped
him to apply this maxim to his own case. "The best thing that can be
done for any one is to dump him down in a new country where he'll sink
or swim. You, sir," he pointed a minatory finger to Cousin Charles,
"you would like more capital, would you?"
"Not in the presence of this multitude, Mr. Haveril," Cousin Charles
replied.
"Those who want capital, either here or anywhere else, have got to
make it for themselves."
"So true--so true," said Cousin Charles. "Listen to this, all of you."
"Make it for themselves. Same as I did. How much capital had I to
start with? Just nothing. Whatever you want, make it for yourself by
your own smartness. There's nothing else in the world to get a man
along but smartness. In whatever line you are, cast about for the
prizes in that line and look out for opportunities. If you can't see
them, who can help you? As for you, sir," he addressed the bankrupt,
"you want money. Well, if I give you money you will eat it up, and
then come for more. What's the use, I ask any of you?"
He looked round. Nobody answered. Cousin Charles, perspiring at the
nose, murmured faintly, "So true--so true," but not with conviction.
Some of the women wiped away a tear--they had taken four glasses of
champagne, but fortunately a waiter does not quite fill up the glasses.
"Not one of you would be a bit the better off, in the long run, if I
gave him a thousand pounds."
"Not to give, but to advance," said Cousin Charles.
"Not a bit the better off," John Haveril repeated. "Not a bit. We've
got to work in this world--to work, and to think, and to lay low,
and to watch. Those who can do nothing of all this had better sit
down quiet in a retired spot. My friends, there's nothing shameful in
taking a back seat. Most of the seats are in the back. Make up your
mind that such is your lot, and you may be happy, though you've got
no money. I've been poor, and now I'm rich. Seems to me I was just as
happy when I was poor and looking out."
He paused for a moment.
"Alice doesn't want to throw you over. What then? Why--this. Any one
of you who came to ask for something may do it in writing. Let him
send me a letter--and tell me all about it. If it's a thing that will
do you no harm, I'll do it for you. But I don't expect it is, only to
feel that you've got somebody who'll give you what you ask for just
because you ask for it. Why, there can't be in all the world anything
worse for him. Remember that you've got to work for a living, to begin
with; harder if you make your fortune, and harder still if you want to
keep it. That's the dispositions of Providence, and I'm not going to
stand in the way of the Lord. Go home, then. Take example by me, if
you can. But if you came to coax dollars out of Alice, give it up."
The audience looked at each other ruefully. They did not know what
to say in reply. Nor did they know how to get off. Nobody would move
first. Cousin Charles stepped forward.
"Mr. Haveril," he said, "in the name of the family, worthy or
unworthy, as the case may be; greedy or disinterested, as it may be; I
thank you. Whatever words may drop from you, sir, will be treasured.
What you have said are golden words. We shall, I hope, write them down
and engrave them on the marble tombstones of our hearts. They will be
buried with us. My friends," he addressed the family, "you can go."
"Not without you," said the pew-opener--"you and your respectability."
"Some of us will prepare that little note, I dare say--I fear so,
Mr. Haveril," Cousin Charles went on. "In business, as you know,
the introduction of capital is not a gift nor a charity; but I will
explain later on, when these have gone."
"Not without you," said the lady pew-opener, planting her umbrella
firmly on the carpet.
There was so much determination in her face that Cousin Charles
quailed; he bent, he bowed, he submitted.
"On another, a more favourable occasion, then, when we can be
private," he said. "Good-bye, Cousin Alice. You look younger than
ever. Ah, if these friends present could remember you as I can,
in the spring-time of youth and beauty, among the laurels and the
laburnums and the lilacs of Hoxton Square! Love's young dream, cousin;
love's young dream." He grasped her hand, his voice vibrating with
emotion. "Alice," he said, "on Sunday evenings we gather round us a
little circle at South Hackney. Intellect and respectability. Supper
at eight. I shall hope to see you there soon and often."
He then seized Mr. Haveril's hand. "If I may, sir--if I may."
"You may, sir--you may." He held out a hand immovable, like a
sign-post.
"As men of business--men of business--we shall understand each other."
"Very like, very like," said Mr. Haveril, with distressing coldness.
He had fallen into his third manner, and his eyes were far off. He
spoke mechanically.
Cousin Charles clapped his hat on his head and walked out. He was
followed by the lady pew-opener, who called out after him over the
broad balustrade--
"You and your respectability, indeed! Go and sweat your shop-girls!
You and your respectability!"