SILK hatted men were hurrying to and fro in the lobby, each with an air
of bearing the responsibilities of the Empire on his shoulders; cards
were being sent in by the attendants: a few country visitors stood about
near to the statue of Mr. Gladstone waiting awkwardly for the arrival of
their member. Swing-doors moved unceasingly: now and again two members
would encounter each other and consult furtively with wrinkled foreheads,
and visitors stood back from the round space at the centre with awe and
respect, giving them room. Erb, in a morning coat and a necktie of such
gaiety, that alone it betrayed the fact of his wedding-day, was an event
not yet forgotten, strolled about, less appalled by the surroundings than
most, so that provincials came to him now and again and made inquiries.
Whenever he had been to the House before he had always felt wistful, and
had looked through corridor to the inner lobby with anticipation; this
evening the feeling was absent.
"Haven't kept you waiting I hope, Barnes?" The white-haired Labour
member bustling out was conspicuous by reason of his bowler hat. "Rather
a lot of things to do one way and another. When you get here you'll
find--I can't see him now," answering a messenger. "Tell him I'm going
down to Bermondsey to put something straight that has got crooked, and I
shall not be back till ten. Tell him that!"
"Cab or 'bus?" inquired Erb, as they went down the broad steps.
"'Bus," said the Labour member, promptly. "Somebody might see us if we
took a hansom. You'll find that you can't be too careful. And there's
another thing, too. Flower in your coat, you know--"
With axiom and words of counsel, the white-haired member shortened the
journey from Westminster to the rooms in Grange Road; Erb listening with
a proper deference, and refraining from all but appropriate and
well-chosen interruptions. The member appeared stimulated by the task
before him, and Erb felt quite mature in remembering the time when he,
too, would have found his blood run quicker at the prospect of argument.
His companion hurried up the corkscrew staircase of the coffee-house, Erb
following slowly, nodding to a few of the men who, with anxious
expression of countenance stood about on the landing. He went into a
room at the side, where he hoped to be alone. Spanswick, however, had
seen him, and Spanswick, following in, took a wooden chair on the
opposite side of the table. But Erb's old van boy interposed, big with a
message. The chief had sent him (said William Henry) to mention in
confidence that, if Erb cared to come back to his former
position--"Extraordinary thing," said Erb, "how much the world wants you
when you show that you don't want the world. No answer, William Henry,
only thanks."
"I've been telling a lot of 'em," said Spanswick, jerking his hand in the
direction of the other room as the young diplomatist went, "that if they
take my advice, Erb, they'll ask you to come back."
"I see!"
"I've pointed out to 'em that they've blundered all along. That matter
of the cheque, for instance--it's proved that it's never been cashed and,
therefore, as I say, the money could never have come into your pocket.
On the top of that," said Spanswick, with something like indignation,
"they go and select a bounder like old Doubleday. Why I could see what
the man was like from the very start. I took his measure the first time
I came across him. A talkative, interfering, muddle-headed gas-bag--I
told some of 'em that it was a wonder they got men to take the trouble to
lead them at all."
"It _is_ a wonder!"
"And here they are now," said Spanswick, rising to go and join in the
deliberations of the next room, "here they are now down on their 'ands
and knees without a single penny in the cash-box, worse off than they've
ever been ever since the Society started, and not one amongst 'em capable
of taking what you may call the reins of government in hand. It all
comes," concluded Spanswick, tapping at his nose with his forefinger, "it
all comes through people not listening to the advice of the few of us,"
here he struck his waistcoat impressively, "the few of us, either me and
you, that know."
Through the partition Erb could hear the voice of the Labour member.
Impossible to distinguish the words, but clearly there was reproof in the
tones at first; this gave place later to the quieter key of counsel. The
men who had hitherto been silent began to applaud; fists struck the table
with approval, and presently there came the sound of emphatic cheering
that had often made Erb warm with pleasure.
"You're wanted, old man," said Payne, opening the door importantly.
"Foller me into the next room, will you?"
The old scent of gas and cheap tobacco and corduroys. The old faces
looking round as he entered, elbows resting on the table, some of the men
with tumblers before them, others, wearing the stern look of sobriety,
had been making notes of the speech to which they had just listened.
Circular stains on the long wooden T-shaped tables; the impaled
advertisements on the wall awry as though affected by the perfumes coming
up from the bar downstairs. The dulled mirrors at the end reflected the
room mistily with its frame protected eternally by tissue paper. The
barman waiting for orders at the doorway gave Erb a tap of encouragement
as he went in.
"Bravo! vo! vo! vo!" murmured the room.
"Order! order!" said the Chairman. "I call on our old and trusted
friend--I forget his blessed name--from Paddington Parcels, at any rate,
to address the meeting."
The Paddington Parcels member cleared his throat and rose. He had been
one of the first to go over, and this he frankly admitted. "Gives me all
the more title," said Paddington Parcels determinedly, "to undertake what
I'm undertaking of now."
Paddington Parcels handsomely offered to cut a long story short, and the
room gave encouragement to this proposal, whereupon he proceeded to speak
at intolerable length with ever, "Just one word and I've done," and "Let
me add a couple of words more," and "Finally, I should like to remark,"
and other phrases all suggesting an immediate finish, anticipation not
justified by results.
Summarised, the argument was that the society had made a grievous
blunder; that when a chap made a mistake he should apologise for it and
set it right; that a society was like a chap, and should behave as a chap
would, and that in the present deplorable state of the society there was
only one thing they could do, namely, to ask Erb Barnes to let byegones
be byegones, and to come back and resume the secretaryship. When, after
many feints of sitting down, thus arousing the oratorical desires of
those anxious to second the resolution, and always thinking of more words
that retained him in a standing position, Paddington Parcels did
unexpectedly resume his seat, there was great competition for the honour
of speaking next, and twenty faces looked gloomy and disappointed when
Payne was selected. Payne spoke briefly. Every society had its ups and
downs: this society was just now all in the downs, as the song had it.
But it was well worth while to have such an experience, if only to see
his old chum, his good old chum Erb, righted in the eyes of everybody and
restored to a position that he ought never to have quitted.
The Labour member begged leave (his tones intimating nothing of humility)
to say a few words before this was put to the vote. The society had been
compared to a man, but the society, as a society, was, so to speak, a
mere child, and it had recently behaved in the impulsive wrong-headed
manner of a child. That might be overlooked once; it would not be
overlooked a second time. Mind that! Brains had been served out to one
and all, but some hadn't quite got their proper share with the result
that others had more than the average supply, and if the man who had come
out rather short in the matter had not sufficient sense, when in a
position of difficulty, to ask advice from those fully equipped, why the
men with the short supply would have to put up with the consequences of
their own blundering. And there was another thing. The success of the
labour movement as a whole depended on the loyalty of the men to those
who were doing brain work on their behalf; let that loyalty once exhibit
anything of doubt and the whole scheme, the whole business, the whole
movement--the Labour member struck the wooden table emphatically at each
variant of the phrase--the whole show would go to pot. All the same, he
congratulated them on the wise decision at which they were about to
arrive, and he strongly urged his friend Erb Barnes, "in consideration of
certain prospective events," said the white-haired member, lowering his
voice mysteriously, "of which _he_ is aware, but cannot at the present
time be made public," to accept good-temperedly the invitation of the
men.
The men had kept silent whilst receiving criticism; at these last words
they rose from the Windsor chairs and shouted approval. The shirt
sleeved waiter went up and down the tables, culling empty glasses and
making them into a bouquet. Erb went to the mantelpiece, and resting one
hand there, spoke quietly. Every face turned in his direction. "I
think," said the Chairman importantly, "I think I may say carried _per
se_--I mean _nem. con._"
"I'm not going to occupy your time for long," said Erb from the fireplace
when the renewed cheering had ceased. "You'll have other business to
do--(No, no)--and, contrary to my usual practice I'm going to be very
brief indeed. There have been times when you've heard me speak at a
considerable length, and for all your kindness to me under those
circumstances I give you my thanks. I shan't ever trouble you again to
that extent. A month or so ago you met here--you, just the same men that
you are now--and you gave me the sack. You never gave me a chance of
defending myself or explaining my actions; you just pushed me off."
The room murmured an unintelligible protest.
"You just pushed me off. You jilted me. You broke off the engagement.
Chaps, that broken engagement can't be mended. We're all constituted
differently, I suppose, but I'm like this: if anybody's faithful to me I
should be glad of the opportunity of going through fire and water for
them, if they're not, then fire and water are things they can go through
for themselves. I reckon I've been in love with this society for the
last year, and I've been loyal to it; now I'm in love with somebody
else."
"Who?" demanded the room.
"I'm in love," said Erb, turning to glance at himself contentedly in the
clouded mirror, "in love with my wife."
"In love with his _wife_!" said the members to each other amazedly.
"Some people possess a stock of enthusiasm that's got no limits; mine all
vanished, I find, directly you treated me unfairly. My friend who's
kindly come down from Westminster to talk to you knows that I'm giving up
prospects that would tempt a good many; it's only honest to tell you that
those prospects, which a month since would have made my head swell, at
this moment don't allure me in the slightest degree. I think--I don't
know, mind--I think I'm seeing things clearer than I did. I thought all
the right and all the justice and all the everything was on our side;
I've come to see that, as a matter of fact, it's about fairly divided.
I'm going to take up a little business on my own account down in
Wandsworth as a master carman, and I should be very glad, chaps, if you
could manage to--to wish me luck. I'm going now. I'm going to leave you
to go on with the business of appointing a secretary. There's plenty of
capable men in the world, and the opportunity always finds them. So I
wish you every prosperity, and I wish we may always keep friends, because
some day we might find ourselves shoulder to shoulder again. And I wish
you--" Erb hesitated for a moment in order to steady his voice, "I wish
you good-bye."
The men crowded towards the doorway as Erb went in that direction.
"Come back to us, old man," they cried. "We want you. Can't you see
that--"
On the opposite side of the roadway below, warmly jacketed in view of the
coolness of an autumn evening, a pleasant figure walked to and fro.
Regardless of the circumstances that faces looked down from the windows,
Erb hurried across and kissed her.
Up the street they walked, arm-in-arm with each other, and arm-in-arm
with happiness.
* * * * *
THE END
* * * * *