But her mission was not yet complete. She thought of his inadequate
resources, of the uncertainty of the future, if his exhibition pictures
were not successful with the Press and the public. She wished to see him
embarked on the full tide of success before she retired, so that all joy
should flow to him at once. Her retirement must cause him some little
emotion, but the intoxication of success would soon thrust that aside,
and the lapse of a day would find him in full appreciation of his
freedom. The projected period of their engagement had of itself three
full months to run; there was time to withdraw at any moment she chose.
And these months that remained should be devoted to her finding more
work for him, so that he should be left with a substantial balance at
his bankers.
She thus attached some importance to his not yet suspecting any change;
so she decided to go across to Tite Street at tea-time, and see him, and
do things below stairs just as on a normal day. But she feared to face
the experience alone; she did not trust her own sangfroid. As the
afternoon proved a fine one, she pressed her mother to join her in the
journey across town, throwing out the inducement that they would look at
the shops in town _en route_.
They found Wyndham putting his brushes in order after his long day. He
had risen early, he explained, and had started work with the light. A
month was not too long to finish off this great picture; he really saw a
year's work yet to be done on it! So therefore he was making a
tremendous effort and giving himself up to it, body and soul.
"And I'm afraid I must claim your indulgence. If I appear neglectful,
you will really understand, and put up with me. I shall make it up to
you afterwards," he added, smiling.
Alice was surprised at her calm, once she had mastered the first tremor
at the moment of arrival. It gave her confidence, too, for the future,
since it was good to know she could trust herself.
And this strange, almost inhuman, calm which had succeeded to the
tempests that had swept through her of late did not desert her. She knew
that the storms had worn themselves out, and that she had found a
strange, an almost baffling peace.
Wyndham, for his part, only rejoiced that she seemed so contented and
happy; so ready to overlook his shortcomings in the role of affianced
husband. Poor child, how good and devoted she was! If only out of his
brotherly tenderness for her, and appreciation and gratitude for all she
had planned and done to smoothe his life, he would take care that his
promise to Lady Betty should be carried out, not grudgingly and
according to the letter, but in a generously full and human way.
Perhaps now, in this last critical month, when every stroke of the brush
seemed a stroke of fate, he threw more frenzy into his work than ever
before. His mind struck deep roots in it, so that the passion of it was
ever in him. Yet a sense of suffering and defeat stirred sometimes in
him, so that he dared not be alone with himself. He spent some of his
evenings in coteries where art and other things were hotly debated, and
this, too, helped him, furnishing food for reflection and sending him to
books as an interested reader in search of enlightenment and suggestion.
Thus the month flew away with almost unprecedented rapidity. Show Sunday
arrived, and the great picture (on which he had worked till the last
moment) was revealed to the world at large. The house was thrown open,
the empty dining-room improvised into a commodious buffet, and the great
studio arranged as a gallery, with the new portraits and the best of the
old work all brilliantly framed and lining the walls. Alice's portrait,
which had been brought across for the occasion, occupied a central place
of honour immediately facing the masterpiece.
The function was eminently successful, and a great many people of the
very pink of fashion came to lend it the light of their countenances.
The Robinsons had worked hard the previous fortnight preparing for it,
and had arranged the house and buffet, and had seen to the framing of
the pictures, and attended to the catering arrangements, without taking
a moment of the precious time away from Wyndham. Everybody said the
house was charming and the pictures works of genius. People could be
overheard asking each other, "Well, what do you think of it all?" and
then eyes would be turned up in ecstasy, and faces would glow with
enthusiasm, and the long-drawn "Beautiful," full of conviction, was the
epithet most largely utilised. There was in the air the dominant note of
triumph, the unmistakable feeling of Success. Alice, who flitted about
quietly, showing herself as much as good taste demanded, yet by no means
in the centre of the world's eye, was keenly sensitive to the prevailing
spirit of the afternoon, feeling closely the pulse of the assembly, and
she knew at last that Wyndham's barque was to sail in full career.
Mary, too, was there, immensely important as the host's sister,
conducting special friends of her own round the walls, and talking
ubiquitously in an unusual glow of zest and animation. If for Alice the
occasion happily revealed the future, for Mary that future had
emphatically arrived already!
And in the midst of all the crush Sadler arrived, extraordinarily smart
in an immaculate frock-coat and a beautifully embroidered tie, his big
powerful face shining with friendliness. "Gee! What a swell affair
you've got on!" he shouted in Wyndham's ear. "I thought there'd be
something of the kind, you old brute, so I rigged myself out."
"You are certainly fascinating," smiled Wyndham.
"Yes, it's a jolly good coat!" declared Sadler, glancing down at
himself. "I gave the tailor hell over it. Gee! you've fetched them this
time! We shan't be able to squeeze past your damned picture at the
Academy!"
The crowd still kept surging up the stairs, and Sadler was swept aside.
But Wyndham was not only receiving his visitors; with great address he
was here and there, pointing out his Exhibition pictures, explaining his
ideas and motives, accepting choruses of laudation. He had good reason
to be elated with this afternoon of tribute and foreshadowing!
In the last two or three weeks, moreover, Mr. Robinson had been drumming
up the further commission for which his daughter had enlisted his good
services. He had heard that one of the great joint-stock banks meditated
presenting their retiring general manager with his portrait; the gift to
be made with full ceremonial at the next meeting of the shareholders.
Mr. Robinson was himself an important shareholder, and two of the
directors were his personal friends, but although they worked strongly
on his side, he had a far more difficult task than usual in achieving
his purpose. He was forced to expend his choicest diplomacy and pull
enough strings for a piece of international politics, but the majority
of the directors, who knew what was appropriate to the dignity of the
bank, wanted a full-blown Royal Academician, and were strongly in favour
of following the lead of another great institution, which, under the
like circumstances, had approached one of the most learned of the body
Academic, and had honoured him and themselves with their command. There
were dissensions at several board meetings, but the opposition,
sedulously fanned by Mr. Robinson, could not be beaten down.
Academicians, they argued, sometimes went down wofully in the sale-room
only a few years after their demise. Surely it was better to choose a
genius, the connection with whom would be everlastingly honourable to
the bank, whose insight might become historic. In the end a small
sub-committee was appointed to investigate and report on the matter. The
members of this sub-committee were invited to Tite Street for Show
Sunday, arrived together, were received by Wyndham with charming
urbanity, had every attention showered on them, and were greatly
impressed by this society gathering. They were enchanted at their
reception, and, being kept and marshalled together, stimulated each
other's enthusiasm. This great display of Wyndham's work astonished and
dazzled them. Above all, the amazing _piece de resistance_ of the
afternoon won their obeisance to the genius. They stared at the vast
canvas in wonder, at once conquered by this crowd of tattered labour
intermingled with the silk hats and frock-coats of Bond Street, the
smart brougham rolling along with its aristocratic occupant and her
poodle, the pillared structure in the background, the vista of roadway,
the trees and the foliage. At the buffet they talked it over among
themselves, and presently Wyndham himself appeared again, and with a
discreet introduction here and there to people of social importance, he
quietly and swiftly sealed his victory. Such civility indeed was the
only part that had fallen on him in the matter, and the commission was
well obtained at that outlay of trouble, he told himself, since, with so
fairly an expensive place on his hands, he could not yet despise so
solid a piece of business. But with the new little heap of guineas to
accrue from the month's work or thereabouts that would be involved, he
felt he could face marriage and the beginnings of housekeeping with
dignity, and yet carry out any artistic schemes he might next conceive.
And he welcomed the work, too, as likely to keep him busily occupied
during the time his great picture was in the balance at the Academy.
When Alice reached home after the reception, with the full confidence of
his success in her heart, she realised the end was now fast approaching.
The afternoon had excited and unnerved her again, and she had once more
to reassure herself that she had the strength to go through with the
coming breach. Since her memorable secret visit to the studio she had
borne up with firm strength, but to-night she felt frail and broken! A
storm of sobbing shook her, but when at last she had controlled herself
she knew that she would never weep again for her lost dream of
happiness.
And now all things began to go incredibly well with Wyndham. No sooner
was he flourishing and doing work that was well paid for, than every
other horizon opened out before him. The Academy received both his
portrait of Miss Robinson and his great piece of allegory; and a couple
of the other paid portraits found a niche in the New Gallery. The Salon,
too, presently notified him of their acceptance of Lady Betty's
portrait, but that he had really been counting on with an almost
fatalistic confidence.
On varnishing day he was delighted that both his Academy exhibits were
hung on the line. His Press, too, was unmistakably good; the critics
seemed all to conspire to hail him as the man of the year. At the clubs
those who knew him accosted him enthusiastically, came thronging round
and pressing hospitality upon him. There were so many anxious to "get"
him for this and that occasion, to take possession of him, and have the
honour of dragging him here and there. New names and faces bombarded
him, and even his own special coterie were anxious to intensify their
various degrees of intimacy with him, contending for the privilege of
entertaining him, of being able to boast of an almost proprietorial
friendship. In Society, too, he felt himself the object of a curious
_empressement_; on all sides he was courted and flattered, and rival
dealers were inquiring the price he set on his wares. It was the
stampede of the world to acclaim Success!
Well might his eyes be dazzled by all this glare of sunshine! Was not
this success as persistent as the failure that had been his lot
previously? It made him think of the run of red that sometimes followed
a run of black at roulette. He was indeed a public personage now! And
rolling in prosperity to boot!
A touch of worldly bitterness indeed lingered with him; there was the
remembrance of the lean years behind him. But his nature was too
mercurial, too affable and genial, to dwell on that aspect of his career
for long. He took all this homage very seriously, and thought
tremendously well of himself as an artist, walking through the world
with elastic step and as one of the elect of the earth.
Yet in the still moments when he sat alone at night with his lamp for
sole company, he would lose himself in reverie; and then he would feel
saddened ineffably by the ironic side of the case, since the more
brilliant the success that came to him, the deeper his sense of the
mockery of things! How splendid if the woman he loved were by his side
to share it all with him! How near too he had come to attainment, yet
destiny had played him this shameful, this merciless trick!
And just as his absorption in work had helped him hitherto in the
situation, so now this new excitement of business and the world coloured
his everyday demeanour and conversation; wrapped the Robinsons, too, in
the whirl of busy interests, and carried him safely towards the
inevitable time when he must seriously discuss the date of the wedding.