WE MEET OLD FRIENDS
Alban had returned some two months from Poland, when, upon a drear
October evening, the Archbishop of Bloomsbury, my Lady Sarah, the flower
girl, and "Betty," the half-witted boy, made their way about half-past
nine o'clock to the deserted stage of the Regent Theatre, and there by
the courtesy of the watchman, distantly related to Sarah, began their
preparations for a homely evening meal.
To be quite candid, this was altogether a more respectable company than
that which had assembled in the Caves at the springtime of the year. The
Lady Sarah wore a spruce black silk dress which had adorned the back of
a Duchess more than three years ago; the Archbishop boasted a coat that
would have done no discredit to a Canon of St. Paul's; the boy they
would call "Betty" had a flower at the button-hole of a neat gray suit,
and carried himself as though all the world belonged to him. This purple
and fine linen, to be sure, were rather lost upon the empty stage of
that dismal theatre, nor did the watchman's lantern and two proud
wax-candles which the Lady Sarah carried do much for their reputation;
but, as the Archbishop wisely said, "We know that they are there, and
Sarah has the satisfaction of rustling for us."
Now to be plainer, this was the occasion of a letter just received from
"the Panorama," who had gone to America since June, and of joyful news
from that incurable optimism.
"I gather," the Archbishop had said, as he passed the document round,
"that our young friend, er--hem--having exhibited the American nation in
wax, a symbol of its pliability, surely is now proceeding to melt it
down and to return to England. That is a wise undertaking. Syrus, the
philosopher, has told us that Fortune is like glass, when she shines too
much she is broken. Let our friend take the tide at the flood and not
complain afterwards that his ship was too frail. The Panorama has
achieved reputation, and who is of the world does not know the pecuniary
worth of that? Consider my own case and bear with me. I have the
misfortune to prick myself with a needle and to suffer certain personal
inconveniences thereby. The world calls me a villain. Other men,
differently situated, kill thousands of their fellow-creatures and look
forward to the day when they will be buried in Westminster Abbey. We
envy them at the height and the depth of it. This the Panorama should
remember. A successful showman is here to-day and--er--hem--melted down
to-morrow. It is something to have left no debts behind him; it is much
more to have remembered his old friends in these small tokens which we
shall consume in all thankfulness, according to our happiness and our
digestions."
He had seated himself upon a stage chair, gilt and anciently splendid,
to deliver himself of this fine harangue. The lady Sarah, in her turn,
hastened to take up a commanding position upon the throne that had
served for a very modern Cleopatra, while the boy "Betty," accustomed to
hard beds, squatted upon the bare boards and was the happier for his
liberty. For inward satisfaction, the menu declared a monstrous pie from
a shop near by; a plentiful supply of fried fish; three dozen oysters in
a puny barrel, and a half a dozen bottles of stout, three of which
protruded from the Archbishop's capacious pockets. The occasion was a
great one, indeed, the memory of their old friend, the Panorama, at its
zenith.
"I always did say as he'd make a noise in the world, and that's the
truth, God knows," Sarah took an early occasion to remark. "Not if he
were my own brother could I wish him more than I do this night. 'Tisn't
all of us would care to go 'crost the ocean among the cannibals and take
the King of Hingerland in a 'amper. I saw him myself, wrapped up in a
piper box and lookin' beautiful, God's truth, with the crown done up in
tissue beside him. That was before the Panorama left us. 'Be a good
boy,' says I, 'and don't fall in love with any of them darkies as you'll
find in' Mericky. So help me lucky, I'd a good mind ter come after you,'
says I, 'and marry their Ole Man jess ter set 'em a good example.'"
By which it will be perceived that the Lady Sarah's knowledge of the
great and mighty Republic beyond the seas was clearly limited. Such
ignorance had often provoked the Archbishop of Bloomsbury to
exasperation, it annoyed him not a little to-night.
"My dear child," he protested, "you are laboring under a very great
delusion. Be assured that America is a very great country,
where--er--hem--they may eat each other, but not as you imagine. I
believe that the American ladies are very beautiful. I have met some of
them--er--in the old days, when--hem--the Bishops showed their
confidence in me by drinking my claret and finding it to their liking.
All that we have in England they have in America--prisons, paupers,
policemen, palaces. You are thinking of Africa, Sarah, darkest Africa,
that used to be, but is fast disappearing. Led me add--"
Sarah, however, was already busy upon her dozen of oysters and had no
patience to hear the good man out.
"Don't you take on so, Bishop," she intervened, "'Mericky ain't done
much for me and precious little it's going ter do for you. What I says
is, let those as have got a good 'ome stop there and be thankful. Yer
may talk about your oshun wave, but I ain't taking any, no, not though
there was diamonds on the sea beach the other side and 'ot-'arse roses
fer nothink. Who ever sees their ole friends as is swallered up by the
sea? Who ever heard of Alb Kennedy since he went ter Berling as he told
us for to mike his fortune? Ho, a life on the oshun wave if yer like,
but not for them as has bread and cheese ashore and a good bed to go to
arterwards; that's what I shall say as long as I've breath in my body."
"Betty," the boy, answered to this earnest lamentation with a sound word
of good common sense.
"You're a-goin' to sleep in one o' them boxes to-night, ain't you,
Sarah?" he asked, and she admitted the truth of his conclusions.
"And sweeter dreams I would have if I knew where the Dook was a-layin'
his 'ed this night," she added.
The Archbishop ate a succulent morsel and drank a long draught from the
unadorned black bottle.
"Nothing is known of Kennedy at Hampstead," he interposed, "I have made
diligent inquiries of the gardener there, and he assures me that our
dear friend never returned from Poland and that no one knows anything of
him, not even Mr. Gessner. Anna, the daughter, I understand, is married
to an old acquaintance of ours and has taken a little house in Curzon
Street. She liked to go the--er--hem--pace, as the people say; and she
is mated to one who will not be afraid of exceeding the legal limits.
Mr. Gessner himself is on his yacht, and is supposed to be cruising off
the coast of Norway. That is what they tell me. I have no reason to
doubt the truth of their information. Would to heaven I had. Kennedy was
a friend, a true friend, while he was in England. I have known many a
bitter night since he left us."
He sighed, but valiantly, and applied himself once more to the pewter
pot. It was a terrible night outside, raining heavily and blowing a
bitter wind. Even here on the stage of the deserted theatre a chilling
draught sported with their candles and made fine ghosts for them upon
the faded canvas. Talk of Alban Kennedy seemed to have depressed them
all. They uttered no word for many minutes, not indeed until one of the
iron doors suddenly swung open and Alban himself came in among them. He
was drenched to the skin, for he had carried no umbrella, and wore but a
light travelling suit, the identical one in which he had returned from
Poland. Very pale and worn and thin, this, they said, was the ghost of
the Alban who had left them in the early summer. And his manner was as
odd as his appearance. You might almost have said that he had thrown the
last shred of the aristocratic rags to the winds and put on old habits
so long discarded that they were almost forgotten. When he crossed the
stage to them, it was with his former air of dogged indifference and
cynical self-content. Explanations were neither offered nor asked. He
flung his hat aside and sat upon the corner of a crazy sofa despised by
the rest of the company. A hungry look, cast upon the inviting
delicacies, betrayed the fact that he was hungry. Be sure it was not
lost upon the watchful Sarah.
"Good Gawd, to see him walk in amongst us like that. Why, Mr. Kennedy,
whatever's up, whatever brings you here a night like this?"
Alban had always admired the Lady Sarah, he admired her more than ever
to-night.
"Wind and rain, Sarah," he said shortly, "they brought me here, to say
nothing of Master Betty cutting across the street as though the cops
were at his heels. How are you all? How's his reverence? Speak up, my
lord, how are the affairs of your extensive diocese?"
"My affairs," said the Archbishop, slowly, "are what might be called in
_nubibus_--cloudy, my dear boy, distinctly cloudy. I am, to adopt a
homely simile, at present under a neighbor's umbrella, which is not as
sound as it might be. Behold me, none the less, in that state of content
to which the poet Horace has happily referred--_nec vixit male qui natus
moriensque fefellit_. At this moment you discover me upon a pleasant
bridge which spans an unknown abyss. I eat, drink and am merry. What
more shall I desire?"
"And Betty here, does Betty keep out of mischief?"
Sarah answered this.
"I got him a job at Covent Garden, and he's there regular at four
o'clock every morning sure as the sun's in heaven. Don't you go thinking
nothink about Betty, Mr. Kennedy, and so I tell you straight."
"And what have you done with the Panorama, Sarah?"
She laughed loudly.
"Panorama's among the black men, them's his oysters as we're eatin' now.
Try one, Mr. Kennedy. You look as if a drop of summat would do you good,
so help me you do. Take a sup o' stout and rest yourself awhile. It is a
surprise to see you, I must say."
"A very pleasant surprise, indeed," added the Archbishop, emphatically.
"There has been no event in my life for many months which has given me
so much satisfaction. We have not so many friends that we can spare even
one of them to those higher spheres, which, I must say, he has adorned
with such conspicuous lustre."
"Oh, spare me, reverence, don't talk nonsense to-night. I am tired as
you see, tired and hungry. And I'm going to beg food and drink from old
friends who have loved me. Now, Sarah, what's it to be?"
He drew the sofa nearer to the bare table and began to eat with them.
Sarah's motherly protestations induced him to take off his coat and hang
it up in the watchman's office to dry. The same tender care served out
to him the most delicate morsels, from a generous if uncouth table, and
insisted upon their acceptance. If his old friends were hot with
curiosity to know whence he came and what he had been doing, they, as
the poor alone can do successfully, asked no questions nor even hinted
at their desire. Not until the supper was over and the Archbishop had
produced a little packet of cigars, did any general conversation
interrupt that serious business of eating and drinking, so rarely
indulged in, so sacred when opportunity offered.
This amiable truce to curiosity, dictated by nature, was first broken by
the Archbishop, who did not possess my Lady Sarah's robust powers of
self-command. Passing Alban a cigar, he asked him a question which had
been upon his lips from the beginning.
"You are just returned from Poland, Kennedy?"
"I have been in England two months, reverence."
"But not at Hampstead, my dear boy, not at Hampstead, surely?"
"As you say, not at Hampstead, at least not at "Five Gables." Mr.
Gessner is away yachting; I read it in the newspapers."
"You read it in the newspapers. God bless me! do you mean to say that he
did not tell you himself?"
"He told me nothing. How could he? He hasn't got my address."
They all stared, open-eyed in wonder. Even the Lady Sarah had a question
to ask now.
"You're not back in Whitechapel again."
"True as gold. I am living in Union Street, and going to be married."
"To be married; who's the lidy?"
"That's what I want to know; perhaps it would be little red-haired Chris
Denholm. I can't exactly tell you, Sarah."
"Here none of that--you're pullin'--"
Sarah caught the Archbishop's frown, and corrected herself adroitly.
"It ain't true, Mr. Kennedy, is it now?"
"God knows, Sarah, I don't. I'm earning two pounds a week in a motor
shop and living in the old ken by Union Street. Mr. Gessner has left the
country and his daughter is married to Willy Forrest. I hope she'll like
him. They'll make a pretty pair in a crow's nest. Pass the stout and
let's drink to 'em. I must be off directly; if I don't walk home, it'll
be pneumonia or something equally pleasant. But I'm glad to see you all,
you know it, and I wish you luck from the bottom of my heart."
He took a long drink from a newly opened bottle and claiming his coat
passed out as mysteriously as he had come. The watchman said that a man
waited for him upon the pavement, but his information seemed vague. The
others continued to discuss him until weariness overtook them and they
slept where they lay. His going had taken a friend away from them, and
their friends were few enough, God knows!