LE PREMIER PAS
HAVING disposed of the Reverend Aubrey Buck's correspondence,--it was
not so bulky as on previous occasions, for evidently the paragraph in
the "Searchlight" had dealt its originator a mortal blow,--uncle and
nephew sat down to an excellent luncheon, cooked and served by James
Nimmo. No woman ever crossed the threshold of the house in Hampstead.
James Nimmo had originally been a ship's steward, and his conversion to
misogynistic principles had been effected comparatively late in life.
Always a man of thrifty disposition, he had shirked the responsibility
and expense of matrimony until he had attained the ripe age of forty.
Then he fell a sudden and abject captive to the charms of a damsel of
Carnoustie, half his age. The match was struck, but it was stipulated by
the girl's parents that the wedding should not take place until after
James Nimmo's next voyage.
Before sailing, the prospective bridegroom handed over to his beloved
the greater part of his savings, to be expended in the purchase and
outfitting of a suitable establishment,--to wit, a _bijou_ villa in
Broughty Ferry,--in order that the honeymoon might commence without
unavoidable delay upon his return.
Eight weeks later James Nimmo sailed into the Tay, to find his
turtle-dove flown. Alarmed possibly by the unrest produced in the real
property market by recent legislation, the lady had forborne to purchase
the _bijou_ villa. Having no house, to spend money upon furniture was
obviously a work of supererogation. Lastly, inspired possibly by a
yearning for a wider field in which to exercise her undoubted talents,
the affianced of James Nimmo had decided to emigrate to Canada. This
decision she promptly put into execution, departing without due
ostentation in the steerage of an Allan liner, and taking with her her
parents, James Nimmo's savings, and a young carpenter of steady habits
and good wage-earning capacity whom she had married three days
previously.
Six months later James Nimmo made the acquaintance of Uncle Joseph on
board a P. & O. liner, homeward bound from Bombay. James was
deck-steward on that voyage, and Uncle Joseph's attention was first
attracted to him by the extreme coldness, not to say _hauteur_, with
which he attended to the wants of seasick lady passengers. James Nimmo
on his part noted with grim approval the whole-hearted fashion in which
Uncle Joseph, who was a presentable bachelor of thirty-six in those
days, boycotted the long row of chairs in the lee of the deckhouses, and
confined himself to the smoking-room or the windward side of the ship.
One hot night in the Red Sea a chance remark of Uncle Joseph's unlocked
the heart and loosed the tongue of James Nimmo, and before dawn the
whole of the tale of the fickle beauty of Carnoustie had been told, for
the first and last time, to mortal man.
At Tilbury James Nimmo resigned his post and abandoned the service of
the sea, in order to follow Uncle Joseph. Since that day they had never
been parted. All this had happened more than ten years ago.
Philip had been added to the household at Hampstead a few days after
Uncle Joseph had landed at Tilbury,--in fact, it was on Philip's account
that Uncle Joseph had come home,--and from that moment he had lived and
breathed in a society exclusively masculine. He still retained
recollections of the period when petticoats ruled him, but they were
very faint, for his nursery days had ended abruptly at the tender age of
four.
Sometimes, though, he had visions. He saw dimly a stout, autocratic, but
on the whole good-tempered being whom he called Nanny. He saw more dimly
a big silent man, who occasionally took him on his knee and fed him
furtively with the tops of eggs, and made laborious conversation. And
most dimly of all he saw a lady, very dainty and sweet-smelling, who
always appeared to be talking. When she talked to a group of other
ladies and gentlemen, she seemed to smile and sparkle like some pretty
jewel. But when she was alone with the big silent man she neither smiled
nor sparkled, and her voice sounded shrill and hard. Philip had a vague
recollection that on these occasions the room always seemed to grow
darker.
The pretty lady took little notice of Philip, but Philip took sufficient
notice of her to be able to realize, one day, that she was gone. Nothing
else about the house seemed changed except that. Philip still played in
the nursery, and went out walking with his Nanny: he even received the
tops of eggs from the big silent man, who seemed to grow more silent and
less big as the days went by. But the pretty lady never came back. Once
Philip ventured to enquire of the Man what had become of her, but the
question was not answered, and the Man seemed to grow even smaller than
before; so Philip, fearing lest he should fade away altogether,
refrained from further investigations.
Not long after this Philip was taken to see the Man in bed, and he noted
with concern that the Man had shrunk away almost to nothing. Philip was
lifted up, and the Man kissed him, which he had never done before, and
said something which Philip did not understand, but which made Nanny
cry. Philip cried, too, when he was taken back to the nursery, and Nanny
endeavoured to comfort him by giving him an egg with his tea. But Philip
would only eat the top. The Man would have been pleased if he had known
this, and perhaps he did; for during the hour of Philip's tea-time he
passed on to a place where people know everything, and--which is far
better--the reason of everything.
* * * * *
After that came a period when the windows were darkened and people came
and went in great numbers throughout the house. Philip had a new black
velvet suit, and rather enjoyed the stir and bustle. But when this
_emeute_ was over the days grew very dull, for Nanny and Philip and one
or two maids seemed to have the house to themselves. Everybody appeared
to be waiting for something. Even the glories of the black velvet suit
began to pall, and Philip was genuinely relieved when one day a carriage
drove up to the door and a gentleman stepped out and rang the bell with
an authoritative peal. Most gratifying of all, the gentleman was shown
straight up to the nursery, where he shook hands with Philip and
directed him to address him as Uncle Joseph. The gentleman strongly
resembled the Man, except that his back was stiffer, and he held his
head more proudly, and spoke in a staccato and commanding voice.
It was Philip's last day in the nursery, for Uncle Joseph took him away
that very afternoon. _Non sine pulvere_, however. For a most unexpected
and memorable conflict arose between Uncle Joseph and Nanny. Philip, who
sat on the window-seat an interested witness, never forgot that
spectacle. He had seen Nanny cross and he had seen Nanny cry; but he had
never before seen Nanny cross and crying at the same time. Her voice
rose higher and higher, and then broke. Philip heard her say "That
lamb!" several times, and Uncle Joseph replied, in a very steady
resolute voice: "Never again! Never again to one of your sex!"
After that events moved rapidly, and Philip remembered little more
except a hurricane of tearful farewells from Nanny and the maids, and a
long journey in the carriage to the house in Hampstead. Here he was
introduced to James Nimmo, who provided him with an excellent tea, and
then washed him (with surprising skill) and put him to bed. After a few
days Philip, with the happy adaptability of extreme youth, grew so
accustomed to his new surroundings that it would have embarrassed him
extremely to have had his face washed by a lady.
Now, after ten years, the visions of his nursery days came but rarely.
The pretty lady he had almost forgotten. Once a whiff of scent,
emanating from an _houri_ who passed him in the Finchley Road, brought
her memory back to him, but only for a moment. Poor, cross, faithful
Nanny was a mere shadow. The Man dwelt most strongly in his
recollection, but he was becoming inextricably merged with Uncle Joseph.
James Nimmo and Uncle Joseph divided Philip's upbringing between them.
Uncle Joseph taught him to read and write, while James Nimmo instructed
him in the arts of cookery and needlework. By the time he was ten Philip
could make an omelette, repair a rent in his own garments, or "sort"--to
use James Nimmo's expression--a faulty electric bell.
Uncle Joseph broke to him the news that the world was round, and
initiated him into the mysteries of latitude and longitude and the
geography of continents and oceans. James Nimmo's discourses had a more
human and personal touch. He spoke of far-reaching steamer-tracks as if
they had been London thoroughfares, alluding to mighty liners with no
more emphasis than if they had been so many motor omnibuses--as, indeed,
they are. He criticised New York, Colombo, or Melbourne in no mere
scientific spirit, but from the point of view of a thrifty Scot ashore
for a few hours' pleasure.
Neither was Philip's literary education neglected. Uncle Joseph
cultivated his intellect, while James Nimmo enriched his vocabulary.
From Uncle Joseph he learned to enjoy the masterpieces of his native
tongue, and to express himself in direct and cogent English; but it was
from James Nimmo that he picked up such colloquial _patois_ as "ashet"
and "gigot" and "besom." He also referred at times to "the morn's morn,"
and was accustomed to enquire of his uncle, "Are you not for another cup
of tea?" or, "Will I open the window?"
It was to James Nimmo, too, that Philip owed his first introduction to
poetry. James was in the habit of referring constantly to a friend of
his, apparently deceased, whose full name Philip never rightly
ascertained, but whose invariable appellation was "Rabbie." "Rabbie," it
appeared, was the only real poet who had ever existed. His soul was the
soul of Scotland. Rabbie had never penned a line which did not get home
to his countrymen: conversely, no Scot could ever be overtaken by a
great thought, or conceive a moving sentiment, without finding that
thought or sentiment already expressed, in perfection, in some work of
Rabbie's.
James Nimmo could quote whole stanzas of him, and kept a store of
apposite tags and passages from his works upon the tip of his tongue. He
was addicted to the recital of lengthy selections from an intensely
respectable poem entitled, "The Cotter's Saturday Night"; and would
throw off shorter masterpieces--"The Twa Dogs," "Scots Wha Hae," and
"Auld Lang Syne"--in their entirety. Most of these performances Philip
secretly considered rather dull, but he made an exception in favour of a
curious little poem about a mouse, which James Nimmo used to recite with
great tenderness and a certain pathetic effect. Our affections must have
an outlet somewhere. Old maids cherish pug-dogs: perhaps it was the same
instinct which softened the sere and yellow heart of James Nimmo towards
the "wee sleekit, cowerin', timorous beastie," whose schemes had gone
agley too, and whose efforts to found a home for itself had met with no
better success than his own.
The fact that Rabbie was subject to human weaknesses of any description,
or had ever experienced any other passions than those arising from
patriotic fervour or political animus, was concealed from Philip for
many a year. Once only did James Nimmo lift a corner of the curtain.
"He went tae his grave at seven-and-thirty," he mentioned one day.
"Why?" enquired the ingenuous Philip.
"Because _they_ had drained the life oot o' him," replied James Nimmo,
his face hardening. "I mind a vairse he yince wrote. It micht ha' been
his ain epitaph:--
"_As father Adam firrst was fooled--
A case that's still too common--
Here lies a man that wumman ruled,
The deevil ruled the wumman!_"
--A summary of the life and character of Scotland's national bard which
his most ardent admirer will admit errs a little on the side of leniency
towards Rabbie and ingratitude towards a sex which, all things
considered, had no special cause to bless him.
After luncheon Uncle Joseph disposed himself to slumber for half an
hour, while Philip, who in common with his kind always felt particularly
energetic when distended with food, practised high-jumping in the
garden.
At two the pair went out for a walk. If it happened to be a Thursday--as
it was to-day--they repaired to a large bank in Finchley Road, where the
notes and gold which had come out of the morning's envelopes were handed
over to a polite cashier. Uncle Joseph was a well-known figure here.
When he strode in on Thursday afternoons the cashier always sent a
hurried message to the manager; and that financial Janus would emerge
smiling from his temple behind the glass screens and come round to the
front of the counter and shake hands with Uncle Joseph and engage him in
agreeable conversation, while Philip watched the cashier licking his
thumb and counting bank-notes with incredible rapidity. After entering
the numbers of the notes in a big book the cashier would seize the bag
containing the gold and silver--quite a number of Uncle Joseph's
subscribers used to send actual coin in registered envelopes: they were
of the type which does not understand postal orders and mistrusts
cheques--and pour it in a jingling cascade upon the counter. Then,
having counted it by playing lightning _arpeggios_ upon it with his
fingers, he would sweep it up in a brass coal-shovel and fling it
contemptuously into a drawer already half-full, hopelessly mixing it
with other people's money from the start. To Philip, like most of us,
banking was a mystery.
The manager and Uncle Joseph then shook hands, and the proceedings
terminated with a vote of want of confidence in the weather. After that
Uncle Joseph and Philip walked to Swiss Cottage Station, where Uncle
Joseph departed alone by the Underground--to another bank, in the
Edgeware Road this time. Here he deposited a bundle of cheques and
crossed postal orders. The majority of these were drawn to the order of
the Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Kind Young Hearts,
though a fair proportion bore the names of Master T. Smith and the
Reverend Aubrey Buck.
Out of consideration for the manager of the bank at Hampstead, who, had
he been asked to place sums of money intended for such a diversity of
people to the credit of a single individual, would undoubtedly have
become greatly confused,--and deeply interested,--Uncle Joseph kept a
separate account at the Edgeware Road Bank for all contributions to his
benefactions which did not arrive in the form of notes or cash. These he
invariably endorsed, "Everard James, Secretary." The same name was
inscribed upon his pass-book. It was understood in the Edgeware Road
Bank that Mr. James was general director of a large philanthropic
institution, and the fact that he paid in so many cheques endorsed by
other people was doubtless due to the circumstance that these were minor
officials of the same organization--as, indeed, they were.
Philip usually devoted his solitary walk home from Swiss Cottage Station
to a minute inspection of the shop-windows in Finchley Road. On this
particular Thursday afternoon, though, he began to run. The soundness of
his physical condition may be gauged from the fact that he ran up
Netherhall Gardens, a declivity much in favour with prospective
purchasers of motor-cars, out on trial trips, and in corresponding
unfavour with would-be vendors of the same--to say nothing of the
inhabitants of the Gardens.
He ran on past the newly built Tube Station, up Frognal, and presently
reached the outskirts of Hampstead Heath. It was half-past three, and
the red wintry sun was sinking low.
Suddenly he paused, and then stopped dead. He was conscious, deep down
within him, of a recurrence of the sensation which had stirred him on
the previous Sunday, as he walked over this part of the Heath with Uncle
Joseph. On that occasion he had noticed a little girl sitting on a gate.
She had smiled at Philip as he passed--a wide and friendly smile. Philip
had not returned it, for Uncle Joseph had noted the smile and improved
the occasion at once.
"You see, Philip?" he said. "The hunting instinct already! That child
has never seen you before; she will never see you again; she would not
care if you went to perdition to-morrow, though she would feel intensely
gratified if she could be certain that you had gone there on her
account. She is nothing to you, or you to her. But you are a man and she
is a woman. So she smiles at you. It is the first and most primitive of
the arts of attraction. There is nothing behind the smile--nothing but
an undeveloped predatory instinct. And that is what Man has to struggle
against all the days of his life, to the detriment of his own and the
world's progress."
Long before Uncle Joseph had concluded these timely observations the
little girl was out of sight. "Predatory" was a new word to Philip. He
made a mental note of it, and resolved to question Uncle Joseph as to
its meaning on a more suitable occasion. Meanwhile he felt that he had
had an escape--an escape and a warning.
Still--here he was, four days later, back on the same dangerous spot.
And there, sitting on the same gate, with the setting sun glinting on
her long, honey-coloured pigtail, sat the little girl.
"Hallo, boy!" she said, and smiled again.
Philip gave her a severe look.