MY SON TIMOTHY
PHILIP and Miss Jennings resumed business faces next morning; and
although they subsequently indulged in other jaunts, one of which--a
Saturday-afternoon excursion to Earl's Court--included sister May, no
cloud of sentimentality ever arose between them to obscure the simple
clarity of their relations. Miss Jennings was much too matter-of-fact a
young person to cherish any romantic yearnings after her employer. She
was not of the breed which battens upon that inexpensive brand of
literature which converts kitchenmaids into duchesses. She recognised
Philip for what he was--a very kind, rather shy, and entirely
trustworthy gentleman--and accepted such attentions as he offered her
with freedom and confidence. Nor did Miss Jennings herself, beyond
arousing in him a dim realisation of the fact that the elixir of life is
not exclusively composed of petrol, make any direct impression upon
Philip's peace of mind. At present his heart was too full of applied
mechanics to have room for tenderer preoccupations--a very fortunate
condition for a heart to be in when it belongs to a young man who has
yet to establish a position for himself.
So life in the London offices went on for two years. It contained a
great deal of hard work and a great deal of responsibility and a great
deal of drudgery; but it had its compensations. Philip still played
Rugby football in the winter and suffered upon a sliding-seat for the
honour of the Thames Rowing Club in the summer. There were visits to
Cheltenham to see Uncle Joseph, and to Red Gables to see the
Mablethorpes. There was the ever-enthralling pageant of London itself.
And there was the rapturous day upon which a high official of the
Company arrived upon a visitation and announced, after compliments, that
the merits of the Meldrum Automatic Lubricator (recently patented) had
so favourably impressed the directors that they had decided to adopt the
same as the standard pattern upon all the Company's cars. Would Mr.
Meldrum enter into a further agreement with the directors to give them
the first refusal of any further inventions of his? Those were days.
Then, finally, with a hilarious splash, came Timothy.
He arrived one morning to take possession of a six-cylinder Britannia
touring-car which had just been completed to his order--or rather, to
the order of an indulgent parent. He was a hare-brained but entirely
charming youth of twenty-two, and Philip, who encountered far too few of
his own caste in those days, hailed him as a godsend. Each happened to
be wearing an Old Studleian tie, so common ground was established at
once.
Philip enquired after Mr. Brett, and learned that that "septic blighter"
(Timothy's description) had retired from the position of Housemaster and
had been relegated to a post of comparative harmlessness; but the old
House was going strong.
All this time they were examining the new car. It soon became apparent
that the technical knowledge of Mr. Rendle (Timothy) was not of a
far-reaching nature, but his anxiety to improve it was so genuine that
Philip sent to the workshop for a mechanic to come and lay bare various
portions of the car's anatomy. Presently that fire-eating revolutionary,
Mr. Brand, appeared.
"If you are not in a hurry," said Philip to him, "we will take the top
off the cylinders, and then I can give you a demonstration."
No, Mr. Rendle was in no hurry. He was a young man of leisure, it
appeared.
"Only too glad to spend such a profitable morning," he said. "Usually in
bed at this time of day."
Mr. Brand, whose views upon the subject of the idle rich were of a
decided nature, looked up from a contest with a refractory nut, and
regarded Timothy severely. Then, returning to his task, and having
exposed the internal secrets of the engine, he plunged into an elaborate
lecture, in his most oppressive and industrious-apprentice manner, upon
big-ends and timing-gears. Philip did not interrupt. Mr. Brand was fond
of the sound of his own voice, and was obviously enjoying his present
unique opportunity of laying down the law to a wealthy and ignorant
member of the despised upper classes. He employed all the long words he
could think of. Timothy positively gaped with admiration.
"I say," he said, "you ought to go into Parliament."
"P'raps I shall," replied the Industrious Apprentice haughtily.
Evidently with the intention of resuming his interrupted discourse, he
cleared his throat and took a deep breath. Then, suddenly, his mouth
closed with a jerk, he turned a dusky red, and assumed an ostrich-like
posture over the cylinders of the car.
"There's a trunk-call coming through for you, Mr. Meldrum," said a clear
voice.
Philip turned round, to find Miss Jennings.
"I shall be back directly, Mr. Rendle," he said to Timothy, and
accompanied the typist to the office.
"Brand is a great orator, Miss Jennings," he remarked, as he sat down to
the telephone.
Miss Jennings sniffed.
"That hot-air artist?" she replied witheringly. "He's the laughing-stock
of the place. Not that I know him. We on the office-staff keep ourselves
to ourselves. We don't--"
At this moment the trunk-call came through, and the conversation
terminated.
When Philip returned to the show-room, Mr. Brand had completed his task
and departed to his own place.
"Our chatty friend," announced Timothy, "has put me up to most of the
tips. I shall be a prize chauffeur in no time." He surveyed the gleaming
car admiringly. "She's a beauty. What should I be able to knock out of
her? Sixty?"
"Quite that."
"Wow-_wow_!" observed Mr. Rendle contentedly. "I don't mind laying a
thousand to thirty that I get my licence endorsed inside three weeks."
Philip, who regarded new machinery much as a young mother regards a new
baby, turned appealingly to the cheerful young savage beside him.
"Don't push her too much at first," he said. "Give the bearings a chance
for a hundred miles or two. And--I wouldn't go road-hogging if I were
you."
Timothy turned to him in simple wonder.
"But what on earth is the use of my getting a forty-horse-power car," he
enquired almost pathetically, "if I can't let her rip?"
"There are too many towns and villages round London to give you much of
a chance," said Philip tactfully. "You will be able to find some good
open stretches, though, if you get right out west or north," he added,
as Timothy's face continued to express disappointment. "Or, I'll tell
you what. Take the car to Brooklands, and see what she can do in the
level hour."
The face of the car's owner--whose conscience upon the subject of
road-racing was evidently at war with his instincts--brightened
wonderfully.
"That is some notion," he cried. "You're right. Road-hogging is rotten
bad form. We'll run this little lad down to Brooklands--oh, so
gently!--and then go round the track all out. Will you come with me?"
"Rather," replied the primeval Philip with great heartiness.
"And come and dine at the Club afterwards," added Timothy, in a final
burst of friendliness.
Within the exaggerated saucer constructed for the purpose at Brooklands
they succeeded in covering seventy-three miles in sixty minutes, Timothy
deliriously clinging to the wheel and Philip sitting watchfully beside
him to see that centrifugal force did not send the new car flying over
the rim into the conveniently adjacent cemetery of Brookwood.
Thereafter they dined together at the Royal Automobile Club, which
seemed to Philip to contain several thousand members. Members swarmed in
the great central hall, upon the staircase, and in all the lofty
apartments opening therefrom. There appeared to be at least six
hall-porters, and there were page-boys innumerable, who drifted about in
all directions wearing worried expressions and chanting a mysterious
dirge which sounded like "Mr. Hah-Hah, please!" There was a real
post-office in one corner, and a theatre ticket-office in another. There
were racquet courts, and a swimming-bath, and a shooting-gallery, and a
gymnasium, and a bowling-alley, and a fencing-school. Timothy
confidently announced that there was a golf links somewhere, but that he
had not yet found time to play a round owing to the excessive length of
the holes.
Eschewing what Philip's host described as the "cock-and-hen" dining-room
(where the two sexes could be seen convivially intermingled, partaking
of nourishment to the sound of music), they ascended in a lift to the
first floor, where they sat down in a vast refectory of a more monastic
type. Here one gentleman greeted them at the door, while a second took
Timothy's order for dinner, and passed it on to a third. The dishes were
served by a fourth and cleared away by a fifth. The same ceremony was
observed in the ordering of wine.
"Less fuss up here than downstairs," explained Timothy.
Philip enjoyed his meal immensely, though he wondered,
characteristically, if all these ministers to his comfort--especially
the page-boys--had partaken, or would partake, of an adequate meal
themselves. Timothy, who contracted friendships almost as impulsively as
he purchased motors, chattered to him with all the splendid buoyancy and
frankness of youth. His vocation in life, it appeared, was that of
Assistant Private Secretary to a prominent member of His Majesty's
Opposition. The post was unpaid, and the duties apparently nominal. But
Timothy was quite a mine of totally unreliable information upon the
secret political history of the day. He told Philip some surprising
stories of the private lives of Cabinet Ministers, and foretold the date
of the next general election with great assurance and exactitude.
Later in the evening, as they drank coffee and liqueurs in an
apartment which reminded Philip of Victoria Station (as recently
rebuilt), Mr. Rendle conducted his guest through a resume of several
love-affairs--highly innocuous intrigues, most of them--and added the
information that "that sort of thing" was now "cut out" owing to the
gracious and elevating influence of a being only recently encountered,
whom he described as "the best little girl that ever stepped."
"I don't know her very well yet," he concluded, in a burst of candour.
"In fact, I don't even know what her name is. I met her at a dance. All
I could find on my programme next morning was 'tight pink head-band.'
But I will find her again."
"I am sure you will," said Philip, who had yet to learn that these final
reformations of Timothy's were of a recurrent character.
"Thanks, old friend, for your kind words," replied the love-lorn youth.
"Tell me, how much does a man require to marry on?"
"Thirty-five shillings a week," said Philip. "At least, so some of my
colleagues tell me."
"I have two thousand a year," said Timothy doubtfully. "I don't know how
much that is a week, but I'll work it out some day in shillings and see.
Anyhow, when I meet her, I shall take her out in the new car. Are you
married?"
"No," said Philip.
"That's a pity. If you had been, your wife might have chaperoned us. But
if you get married, let me know."
He looked at his watch.
"Ten o'clock," he announced. "Now, what shall we do next? The resources
of the Club are at your entire disposal. Would you like to have a dry
shampoo, or fight a duel, or buy a postal order, or what? Or shall we go
to a theatre?"
Philip mildly pointed out that most of the theatres opened at eight.
"Then we will go to a music-hall," said the resourceful Timothy.
"Waiter, is there a Tube Station in the Club? I always forget."
"No, sir," said the waiter compassionately. "But there is a cold
plunge-bath," he suggested.
"No good, I'm afraid; but thanks all the same," said the polite Timothy.
"Get a taxi."