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HAPPY DAYS
A.A. MILNE
HAPPY DAYS
BY
A.A. MILNE
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
FOREWORD
This book is made up from my contributions to _Punch_--a casual
selection from the four hundred or so which have appeared in the last
nine years. It is offered to the American public as a sample of that
_Punch_ humour (and perhaps, therefore, British humour) which Americans
so often profess not to understand. According to whether they like it or
do not like it, I hope they will consider it a representative or an
unrepresentative sample.
A.A.M.
CONTENTS
MARGERY
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ~Her Sock~ 13
II. ~How We Play the Pianola~ 20
III. ~The Knight of the Chimney-Piece~ 27
IV. ~The Art of Conversation~ 32
V. ~Afternoon Sleep~ 38
VI. ~A Twice Told Tale~ 44
VII. ~The Literary Art~ 50
VIII. ~My Secretary~ 56
IX. ~The Truth About Home Rails~ 62
LIFE'S LITTLE TRAGEDIES
X. ~A Crown of Sorrows~ 71
XI. ~The Lucky Month~ 76
XII. ~The Rescue~ 83
XIII. ~The Portuguese Cigar~ 90
XIV. ~A Cold World~ 96
XV. ~A Breath of Life~ 103
XVI. ~The Doctor~ 113
XVII. ~The Financier~ 120
XVIII. ~The Things That Matter~ 126
THREE STORIES
XIX. ~The Making of a Christmas Story~ 135
XX. ~A Matter-of-Fact Fairy Tale~ 151
XXI. ~The Seaside Novelette~ 166
OUT-OF-DOORS
XXII. ~The First of Spring~ 181
XXIII. ~The Coming of the Crocus~ 188
XXIV. ~The Landscape Gardener~ 195
XXV. ~Pat-Ball~ 202
XXVI. ~Ten and Eight~ 208
XXVII. ~An Inland Voyage~ 214
XXVIII. ~One of Our Sufferers~ 221
XXIX. ~Chum~ 228
XXX. ~"Under Entirely New Management"~ 234
XXXI. ~A Farewell Tour~ 241
INDOORS
XXXII. ~Physical Culture~ 251
XXXIII. ~An Insurance Act~ 258
XXXIV. ~Getting the Needle~ 264
XXXV. ~Dressing Up~ 270
XXXVI. ~The Complete Kitchen~ 276
XXXVII. ~An Informal Evening~ 283
XXXVIII. ~A Billiard Lesson~ 290
XXXIX. ~Bachelor Relics~ 297
LITTLE PLAYS FOR AMATEURS
XL. ~"Fair Mistress Dorothy"~ 305
XLI. ~"A Slight Misunderstanding"~ 312
XLII. ~"Miss Prendergast"~ 319
XLIII. ~"At Dead of Night"~ 326
XLIV. ~"The Lost Heiress"~ 335
XLV. ~"The Literary Life"~ 340
SUCCESSFUL MEN
XLVI. ~The Solicitor~ 349
XLVII. ~The Painter~ 356
XLVIII. ~The Barrister~ 363
XLIX. ~The Civil Servant~ 370
L. ~The Actor~ 377
LI. ~The Collector~ 384
LII. ~The Statesman~ 391
LIII. ~The Magnate~ 400
LIV. ~The Adventurer~ 407
LV. ~The Explorer~ 414
LVI. ~The Newspaper Proprietor~ 421
MARGERY
I. HER SOCK
I
When Margery was three months old I wrote a letter to her mother:
_Dear Madam_,--If you have a copy in Class D at 1/10d. net, I shall
be glad to hear from you.
I am,
~The Baby's Uncle.~
On Tuesday I got an answer by the morning post:
_Dear Sir_,--In reply to yours: How dare you insult my child? She is
in Class A1, priceless and bought in by the owner. Four months old
(and two days) on Christmas Day. Fancy!
I am,
~The Baby's Mother.~
Margery had been getting into an expensive way of celebrating her
birthday every week. Hitherto I had ignored it. But now I wrote:
_Dear Madam_,--Automatically your baby should be in Class D by now.
I cannot understand why it is not so. Perhaps I shall hear from you
later on with regard to this. Meanwhile I think that the
extraordinary coincidence (all but two days) of the baby's birthday
with Christmas Day calls for some recognition on my part. What would
Margery like? You, who are in constant communication with her,
should be able to tell me. I hear coral necklaces well spoken of.
What do you think? I remember reading once of a robber who "killed a
little baby for the coral on its neck"--which shows at any rate that
they are worn. Do you know how coral reefs are made? It is a most
fascinating business.
Then there is a silver mug to be considered. The only thing you can
drink out of a mug is beer; yet it is a popular present. Perhaps
you, with your (supposed) greater knowledge of babies, will explain
this.
Meanwhile, I am,
~The Baby's Uncle.~
P.S.--Which is a much finer thing than a mother.
To which her mother:
_My Dear Boy_,--It is too sweet of you to say you would like to get
Baby something. No, I don't know how coral reefs are made, and don't
want to. I think it is wicked of you to talk like that; I'm sure I
shan't dare let her wear anything valuable now. And I don't think
she really wants a mug.
I'm sure I don't know what she does want, except to see her uncle
(There!) but it ought to be something that she'll value when she
grows up. And of course we could keep it for her in the meantime.
Her Father has smoked his last cigar to-day. Isn't it awful? I have
forbidden him to waste his money on any more, but he says he must
give me 500 for a Christmas present. If he does, I shall give him
that sideboard that I want so badly, and then we shall both go to
prison together. You will look after Baby, won't you?
I am,
~The Baby's Mother.~
P.S.--Which she isn't proud, but does think it's a little bit
classier than an uncle.
And so finally, I:
_Dear Child_,--I've thought of the very thing.
I am,
~The Baby's Uncle.~
That ends Chapter I. Here we go on to
II
Chapter II finds me in the Toy Department of the Stores. "I want," I
said, "a present for a child."
"Yes, sir. About how old?"
"It must be quite new," I said sternly. "Don't be silly. Oh, I see;
well, the child is only a baby."
"Ah, yes. Now here--if it's at all fond of animals----"
"I say, you mustn't call it 'IT.' I get in an awful row if I do. Of
course, I suppose it's all right for you, only--well, be careful, won't
you?"
The attendant promised, and asked whether the child was a boy or girl.
"And had you thought of anything for the little girl?"
"Well, yes. I had rather thought of a sideboard."
"I beg your pardon?"
"A sideboard."
"The Sideboard Department is upstairs. Was there anything else for the
little girl?"
"Well, a box of cigars. Rather full, and if you have any----"
"The Cigar Department is on the ground floor."
"But your Lord Chamberlain told me I was to come here if I wanted a
present for a child."
"If you require anything in the toy line----"
"Yes, but what good are toys to a baby of four months? Do be
reasonable."
"What was it you suggested? A sideboard and a cigar?"
"That was my idea. It may not be the best possible, but at least it is
better than perfectly useless toys. You can always blow smoke in its
face, or bump its head against the sideboard. _Experto crede_, if you
have the Latin."
Whereupon with great dignity I made my way to the lift.
In the Sideboard Department I said: "I want a sideboard for a little
girl of four months, and please don't call her 'IT.' I nearly had a row
with one of your downstairs staff about that."
"I will try to be careful about that, Sir," he replied. "What sort of a
one?"
"Blue eyes and not much hair, and really rather a sweet smile.... Was
that what you wanted to know?"
"Thank you, Sir. But I meant, what sort of a sideboard?"
I took him confidentially by the arm.
"Look here," I said, "you know how, when one is carrying a baby about,
one bumps its head at all the corners? Well, not too much of that. The
mothers don't really like it, you know. They smile at the time, but....
Well, not too many corners.... Yes, I like that very much. No, I won't
take it with me."
The attendant wrote out the bill.
"Number, Sir?"
"She's the first. That's why I'm so nervous. I've never bought a
sideboard for a child before.
"Your Stores number, I mean, Sir."
"I haven't got one. Is it necessary?"
"Must have a number, Sir."
"Then I'll think of a nice one for you.... Let's see--12345, how does
that strike you?"
"And the name?"
"Oh, I can't tell you that. You must look that up for yourself.
Good-day."
Downstairs I bought some cigars.
"For a little girl of four months," I said, "and she likes them rather
full. Please don't argue with me. All your men chatter so."
"I must," said the attendant. "It's like this. If she is only four
months, she is obviously little. Your observation is therefore
tautological."
"As a matter of fact," I said hotly, "she is rather big for four
months."
"Then it was a lie."
"Look here, you give me those cigars, and don't talk so much. I've
already had words with your Master of the Sideboards and your
Under-Secretary for the Toy Department.... Thank you. If you would
kindly send them."
III
So there it is. I have given the spirit rather than the actual letter,
of what happened at the Stores. But that the things have been ordered
there is no doubt. And when Margery wakes up on Christmas Day to find a
sideboard and a box of cigars in her sock I hope she will remember that
she has chiefly her mother to thank for it.
II. HOW WE PLAY THE PIANOLA
[FOREWORD. Margery wishes me to publish the following
correspondence, which has recently passed between us. It occurs to
me that the name under which I appear in it may perhaps need
explanation. I hate explanations, but here it is.
When Margery was eight months old, she was taught to call me
"Uncle." I must suppose that at this time I was always giving her
things--things she really wanted, such as boot-laces, the best
china, evening papers and so on--which had been withheld by those
in authority. Later on, these persons came round to my way of
thinking, and gave her, if not the best china, at any rate cake and
bread-and-butter. Naturally their offerings, being appreciated at
last, were greeted with the familiar cry of "Uncle," "No, dear, not
'Uncle,' 'Thank-you,'" came the correction.]
I
_Dear Thankyou_,--I've some wonderful news for you! Guess what it is;
but no, you never will. Well, I'll tell you. I can walk! Really and
really.
It is most awfully interesting. You put one foot out to the right, and
then you bring the left after it. That's one walk, and I have done seven
altogether. You have to keep your hands out in front of you, so as to
balance properly. That's all the rules--the rest is just knack. I got it
quite suddenly. It is such fun; I wake up about five every morning now,
thinking of it.
Of course I fall down now and then. You see, I'm only beginning. When I
fall, Mother comes and picks me up. That reminds me, I don't want you to
call me "Baby" any more now I can walk. Babies can't walk, they just get
carried about and put in perambulators. I was given a lot of names a
long time ago, but I forget what they were. I think one was rather
silly, like Margery, but I have never had it used lately. Mother always
calls me O.D. now.
Good-bye. Write directly you get this.
Your loving.
O.D.
II
_My Dear O.D._,--I was so glad to get your letter, because I was just
going to write to you. What do you think? No, you'll never guess--shall
I tell you?--no--yes--no; well, I've bought a pianola!
It's really rather difficult to play it properly. I know people like
Paderewski and--I can only think of Paderewski for the moment, I know
that sort of person doesn't think much of the pianola artist; but they
are quite wrong about it all. The mechanical agility with the fingers is
nothing, the soul is everything. Now you can get the soul, the _con
molto expressione_ feeling, just as well in the pianola as in the piano.
Of course you have to keep a sharp eye on the music. Some people roll it
off just like a barrel-organ; but when I see _Allegro_ or _Andante_ or
anything of that kind on the score, I'm on it like a bird.
No time for more now, as I've just got a new lot of music in.
Your loving,
~Thankyou.~
P.S.--When are you coming to hear me play? I did "Mumbling Mose" just
now, with one hand and lots of soul.
(Signed) ~Paderewski.~
P.P.S.--I am glad you can walk.
III
_Dear Thankyou_,--I am rather upset about my walking. You remember I
told you I had done seven in my last? Well, this morning I couldn't do a
single one! Well, I did do one, as a matter of fact, but I suppose some
people would say it didn't count, because I fell down directly after,
though I don't see that that matters,--do you, Thankyou? But even with
that one it was only one, and yet I know I did seven the day before. I
wonder why it is. I do it the right way, I'm sure, and I keep my hands
out so as to balance, so perhaps it's the shoes that are wrong. I must
ask Mother to get me a new pair, and tell the man they're for walks.
Now do write me a nice long letter, Thankyou, because I feel very
miserable about this. It is right, isn't it, when you have the right leg
out, only to bring the left one just up to it, and not beyond? And does
it matter which foot you start with? Let me know quickly, because Father
is coming home to-morrow and I want to show him.
Your loving.
O.D.
P.S.--I am glad you like your pianola
IV
_Dear O.D._,--Very glad to get yours. If you really want a long letter,
you shall have one; only I warn you that if once I begin nothing less
than any earthquake can stop me. Well, first, then, I played the Merry
Widow Waltz yesterday to Mrs. Polacca, who is a great authority on
music, and in with all the Queen's Hall set, and she said that my touch
reminded her of--I've forgotten the man's name now, which is rather
sickening, because it spoils the story a bit, but he was one of the real
tiptoppers who makes hundreds a week, and well, that was the sort of man
I reminded her of. If I can do that with a waltz, it stands to reason
that with something classic there'd be no holding me. I think I shall
give a recital. Tickets 10/6d. No free seats. No emergency exit. It is a
great mistake to have an emergency exit at a recital.
(_Three pages omitted._)
Really, O.D., you must hear me doing the double F in the Boston Cake
Walk to get me at my best. You've heard Kubelik on the violin? Well,
it's not a bit like that, and yet there's just the something which links
great artists together, no matter what their medium of expression.
Your loving,
~Thankyou.~
P.S.--Glad you're getting on so well with your walking.
V
_Dearest Thankyou_,--Hooray, hooray, hooray--I did twenty-five walks
to-day! Father counted. He says my style reminds him of "_Cancer
Vulgaris_" rather. How many times can he do it? Not twenty-five on the
third day, I'm sure.
Isn't it splendid of me? I see now where I was wrong yesterday. I got
the knack again suddenly this morning, and I'm all right now. To-morrow
I shall walk round the table. It is a longish way and there are four
turns, which I am not sure about. How do you turn? I suppose you put the
right hand out?
Your very loving.
O.D.
VI
_Dear O.D._,--I am rather hurt by your letters. I have written several
times to tell you all about my new pianola, and you don't seem to take
any interest at all. I was going to have told you this time that the man
in the flat below had sent me a note, just as if it had been a real
piano. He says he doesn't mind my playing all day, so long as I don't
start before eight in the morning, as he is in his bath then, and in
listening to the music quite forgets to come out sometimes, which I can
see might be very awkward.
Write to yours affectionately,
~Thankyou.~
VII
_Darling Thankyou_,--I am so sorry, dear, and I will come and hear your
pianola to-morrow, and I think it lovely, and you must be clever to play
it so well; but you musn't be angry with me because I am so taken up
with my walking. You see, it is all so new to me. I feel as though I
want everybody to know all about it.
Your pianola must be lovely, Thankyou. Dear Thankyou, could you, do you
think, put all the letters we wrote to each other about my walking in
some book, so that other people would know how to do it the way I do?
You might call it "Letters on Walking," or "How to Walk," or--but you
could get a better title than I could. Do!
Your very loving,
O.D.
P.S.--I'm so glad about the pianola and do you mind if I just tell you
that I did walk round the table, corners and all?
VIII
_Dearest O.D._,--Right you are. I will think of a good title.
Your loving,
~Thankyou.~
III. THE KNIGHT OF THE CHIMNEY-PIECE
We don't know his real name, but we have decided to call him "Arthur"
("Sir Arthur," I suppose he would be). He stands in bronze upon the
chimney-piece, and in his right hand is a javelin; this makes him a very
dangerous person. Opposite him, but behind the clock (Coward!), stands
the other fellow, similarly armed. Most people imagine that the two are
fighting for the hand of the lady on the clock, and they aver that they
can hear her heart beating with the excitement of it; but, to let you
into the secret, the other fellow doesn't come into the story at all.
Only Margery and I know the true story. I think I told it to her one
night when she wouldn't go to sleep--or perhaps she told it to me.
The best of this tale (I say it as the possible author) is that it is
modern. It were easy to have invented something more in keeping with the
knight's armour, but we had to remember that this was the twentieth
century, and that here in this twentieth century was Sir Arthur on the
chimney-piece, with his javelin drawn back. For whom is he waiting?
"It all began," I said, "a year ago, when Sir Arthur became a member of
the South African Chartered Incorporated Co-operative Stores Society
Limited Ten per cents at Par (Men only). He wasn't exactly a real
member, having been elected under Rule Two for meritorious performances,
Rule One being that this club shall be called what I said just now; but
for nearly a year he enjoyed all the privileges of membership, including
those of paying a large entrance fee and a still larger subscription. At
the end of a year, however, a dreadful thing happened. They made a Third
Rule; to wit, that no member should go to sleep on the billiard table.
"Of course, Sir Arthur having only got in under Rule Two, had to resign.
He had, as I have said, paid his entrance fee, and (as it happened) his
second year's subscription in advance. Naturally he was annoyed....
"And that, in fact, is why he stands on the chimney-piece with his
javelin drawn back. He is waiting for the Secretary. Sir Arthur is
considered to be a good shot, and the Secretary wants all the flowers
to be white."
At this point Margery said her best word, "Gorky," which means, "A
thousand thanks for the verisimilitude of your charming and interesting
story, but is not the love element a trifle weak?" (Margery is a true
woman.)
"We must leave something to the imagination," I pleaded. "The Secretary
no doubt had a delightful niece, and Sir Arthur's hopeless passion for
her, after he had hit her uncle in a vital spot, would be the basis of a
most powerful situation."
Margery said "Gorky" again, which, as I have explained, means, "Are such
distressing situations within the province of the Highest Art?"
When Margery says "Gorky" twice in one night, it is useless to argue. I
gave in at once. "Butter," I said, "placed upon the haft of the javelin,
would make it slip, and put him off his shot. He would miss the
Secretary and marry the niece." So we put a good deal of butter on Sir
Arthur, and for the moment the Secretary is safe. I don't know if we
shall be able to keep it there; but in case jam does as well, Margery
has promised to stroke him every day.
However, I anticipate. As soon as the secretarial life was saved,
Margery said "Agga," which is as it were, "_Encore_," or "_Bis_," so
that I have her permission to tell you that story all over again.
Instead I will give you the tragedy of George, the other fellow (no
knight he), as she told it to me afterwards.
"George was quite a different man from Sir Arthur. So far from being
elected to anything under Rule Two, he got blackballed for the North
London Toilet Club. Opinions differed as to why this happened; some said
that it was his personal unpopularity (he had previously been up,
without success, for the membership of the local Ratepayers Association)
others (among them the Proprietor), that his hair grew too quickly.
Anyhow, it was a great shock to George, and they had to have a man in to
break it to him. (It's always the way when you have a man in.)
"George was stricken to the heart. This last blow was too much for what
had always been a proud nature. He decided to emigrate. Accordingly he
left home, and moved to Islington. Whether he is still there or not I
cannot say; but a card with that postmark reached his niece only this
week. It was unsigned, and bore on the space reserved for inland
communications these words: 'The old, old wish--A Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year.'"
"But what about the javelin?" I asked Margery. (This fellow had a
javelin too, you remember.)
"Gorky," said Margery for the third time, which means----
Well, upon my word, I don't know what it means. But it would explain it
all.
Meanwhile Sir Arthur (he was in my story, you know) is still waiting for
the Secretary. In case the butter gives out, have I mentioned that the
Secretary wants _all_ the flowers to be white?
IV. THE ART OF CONVERSATION
"In conversation," said somebody (I think it was my grandfather), "there
should always be a give and take. The ball must be kept rolling." If he
had ever had a niece two years old, I don't think he would have
bothered.
"What's 'at?" said Margery, pointing suddenly.
"That," I said, stroking it, "is dear uncle's nose."
"What's 'at?"
"Take your finger away. Ah, yes, that is dear uncle's eye. The left
one."
"Dear uncle's left one," said Margery thoughtfully. "What's it doing?"
"Thinking."
"What's finking?"
"What dear uncle does every afternoon after lunch."
"What's lunch?"
"Eggs, sardines, macaroons--everything."
With a great effort Margery resisted the temptation to ask what
"everything" was (a difficult question), and made a statement of her
own.
"Santa Claus bring Margie a balloon from Daddy," she announced.
"A balloon! How jolly!" I said with interest. "What sort are you having?
One of those semi-detached ones with the gas laid on, or the pink ones
with a velvet collar?"
"Down chimney," said Margery.
"Oh, that kind. Do you think--I mean, isn't it rather----"
"Tell Margie a story about a balloon."
"Bother," I murmured.
"What's bovver?"
"Bother is what you say when relations ask you to tell them a story
about a balloon. It means, 'But for the fact that we both have the
Montmorency blood in our veins, I should be compelled to decline your
kind invitation, all the stories I know about balloons being stiff
'uns.' It also means, 'Instead of talking about balloons, won't you sing
me a little song?'"
"Nope," said Margery.
"Bother, she's forgotten her music."
"What did you say, uncle dear; what did you say?"
I sighed and began.
"Once upon a time there was a balloon, a dear little toy balloon,
and--and----"
"What's 'at?" asked Margery, making a dab at my chest. "What's 'at,
uncle dear?"
"That," I said, "is a button. More particularly a red waistcoat button.
More particularly still, my top red waistcoat button."
"What's 'at?" she asked, going down one.
"That is a button. Description: second red waistcoat. Parents living:
both. Infectious diseases: scarlet fever slightly once."
"What's 'at?"
"That's a--ah, yes, a button. The third. A good little chap, but not so
chubby as his brothers. He couldn't go down to Margate with them last
year, and so, of course--Well, as I was saying, there was once a
balloon, and----"
"What's a-a-'at?" said Margery, bending forward suddenly and kissing it.
"Look here, you've jolly well got to enclose a stamped addressed
envelope with the next question. As a matter of fact, though you won't
believe me, that again is a button."
"What's 'at?" asked Margery, digging at the fifth button.
"Owing to extreme pressure on space," I began.... "Thank you. That also
is a button. Its responsibility is greater than that of its brethren.
The crash may come at any moment. Luckily it has booked its passage to
the--where was I? Oh yes--well, this balloon----"
"What's 'at?" said Margery, pointing to the last one.
"I must have written notice of that question. I can't tell you offhand."
"What's 'at, uncle dear?"
"Well, I don't know, Margie. It looks something like a collar stud, only
somehow you wouldn't expect to find a collar stud there. Of course it
may have slipped.... Or could it be one of those red beads, do you
think?... N-no--no, it isn't a bead.... And it isn't a raspberry,
because this is the wrong week for raspberries. Of course it might be
a--By Jove, I've got it! It's a button."
I gave the sort of war-whoop with which one announces these discoveries,
and Margery whooped too.
"A button," she cried. "A dear little button!" She thought for a moment.
"What's a button?"
This was ridiculous.
"You don't mean to say," I reproached her, "that I've got to tell you
now what a button is. That," I added severely, pointing to the top of my
waistcoat, "is a button."
"What's 'at?" said Margery, pointing to the next one.
I looked at her in horror. Then I began to talk very quickly. "There was
once a balloon," I said rapidly, "a dear little boy balloon--I mean toy
balloon, and this balloon was a jolly little balloon just two minutes
old, and he wasn't always asking silly questions, and when he fell down
and exploded himself they used to wring him out and say, 'Come, come
now, be a little airship about it,' and so----"
"What's 'at?" asked Margery, pointing to the top button.
There was only one way out of it. I began to sing a carol in a very
shrill voice.
All the artist rose in Margery.
"Don't sing," she said hurriedly; "Margie sing. What shall Margie sing,
uncle?"
Before I could suggest anything she was off. It was a scandalous song.
She began by announcing that she wanted to be among the boys, and
(anticipating my objections) assured me that it was no good kicking up a
noise, because it was no fun going out when there weren't any boys
about, you were so lonely-onely-onely....
Here the tune became undecided; and, a chance word recalling another
context to her mind, she drifted suddenly into a hymn, and sang it with
the same religious fervour as she had sung the other, her fair head
flung back, and her hazel eyes gazing into Heaven....
I listened carefully. This was a bit I didn't recognise.... The tune
wavered for a moment ... and out of it these words emerged triumphant--
"Talk of me to the boys you meet.
Remember me kindly to Regent Street.
And give them my love in the----"
"What's 'at, uncle?"
"That," I said, stroking it, "is dear uncle's nose."
"What's----"
By the way, would you like it all over again? No? Oh, very well.
V. AFTERNOON SLEEP
["_In the afternoon they came unto a land
In which it seemed always afternoon._"]
I am like Napoleon in that I can go to sleep at any moment; I am unlike
him (I believe) in that I am always doing so. One makes no apology for
doing so on Sunday afternoon; the apology indeed should come from the
others, the wakeful parties....
"Uncle!"
"Margery."
"Will you come and play wiv me?"
"I'm rather busy just now," I said with closed eyes. "After tea."
"Why are you raver busy just now? My baby's only raver busy sometimes."
"Well then, you know what it's like; how important it is that one
shouldn't be disturbed."
"But you _must_ be beturbed when I ask you to come and play wiv me."
"Oh, well ... what shall we play at?"
"Trains," said Margery eagerly.
When we play at trains I have to be a tunnel. I don't know if you have
ever been a tunnel? No; well, it's an over-rated profession.
"We won't play trains," I announced firmly, "because it's Sunday."
"Why not because it's Sunday?"
(Oh, you little pagan!)
"Hasn't Mummy told you about Sunday?"
"Oh, yes, Maud did tell me," said Margery casually. Then she gave an
innocent little smile. "Oh, I called Mummy Maud," she said in pretended
surprise. "I quite _fought_ I was upstairs!"
I hope you follow. The manners and customs of good society must be
observed on the ground floor where visitors may happen; upstairs one
relaxes a little.
"Do you know," Margery went on with the air of a discoverer, "you
mustn't say 'prayers' downstairs. Or 'corsets.'"
"I never do," I affirmed. "Well, anyhow I never will again."
"Why mayn't you?"
"I don't know," I said sleepily.
"Say prehaps."
"Well--_prehaps_ it's because your mother tells you not to."
"Well, 'at's a _silly_ fing to say," said Margery scornfully.
"It is. I'm thoroughly ashamed of it. I apologise. Good night." And I
closed my eyes again....
"I fought you were going to play wiv me, Mr. Bingle," sighed Margery to
herself.
"My name is not Bingle," I said, opening one eye.
"Why isn't it Bingle?"
"The story is a very long and sad one. When I wake up I will tell it to
you. Good night."
"Tell it to me now."
There was no help for it.
"Once upon a time," I said rapidly, "there was a man called Bingle,
Oliver Bingle, and he married a lady called Pringle. And his brother
married a lady called Jingle; and his other brother married a Miss
Wingle. And his cousin remained single.... That is all."
"Oh, I see," said Margery doubtfully. "Now will you play wiv me?"
How can one resist the pleading of a young child?
"All right," I said. "We'll pretend I'm a little girl, and you're my
mummy, and you've just put me to bed.... Good night, mummy dear."
"Oh, but I must cover you up." She fetched a table-cloth, and a
pram-cover, and _The Times_, and a handkerchief, and the cat, and a
doll's what-I-mustn't-say-downstairs, and a cushion; and she covered me
up and tucked me in. "'Ere, 'ere, now go to sleep, my darling," she
said, and kissed me lovingly.
"Oh, Margie, you dear," I whispered.
"You called me 'Margie'!" she cried in horror.
"I meant 'Mummy.' Good night."
One, two, three seconds passed rapidly.
"It's morning," said a bright voice in my ear. "Get up."
"I'm very ill," I pleaded; "I want to stay in bed all day."
"But your dear uncle," said Margery, inventing hastily, "came last night
after you were in bed, and stayed 'e night. Do you see? And he wants you
to sit on him in bed and talk to him."
"Where is he? Show me the bounder."
"'Ere he is," said Margery, pointing at me.
"But look here, I can't sit on my own chest and talk to myself. I'll
take the two parts if you insist, Sir Herbert, but I can't play them
simultaneously. Not even Irving----"
"Why can't you play them simrulaleously?"
"Well, I can't. Margie, will you let me go to sleep?"
"Nope," said Margery, shaking her head.
"You should say, 'No thank you, revered and highly respected Uncle.'"
"No _hank_ you, Mr. Cann."
"I have already informed you that my name is not Bingle and I have now
to add that neither is it Cann."
"Why neiver is it Cann?"
"That isn't grammar. You should say, 'Why can it not either?'"
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Say prehaps."
"No, I can't even say prehaps."
"Well, say I shall understand when I'm a big girl."
"You'll understand when you're a big girl, Margery," I said solemnly.
"Oh, I see."
"That's right. Now then, what about going to sleep?"
She was silent for a moment, and I thought I was safe. Then.
"Uncle, just tell me--why was 'at little boy crying vis morning?"
"Which little boy?"
"Ve one in 'e road."
"Oh, that one. Well, he was crying because his Uncle hadn't had any
sleep all night, and when he tried to go to sleep in the afternoon----"
"Say prehaps again."
My first rejected contribution! I sighed and had another shot. "Well,
then," I said gallantly, "it must have been because he hadn't got a
sweet little girl of three to play with him."
"Yes," said Margery, nodding her head thoughtfully, "'at was it."
VI. A TWICE TOLD TALE
"Is that you, uncle?" said a voice from the nursery, as I hung my coat
up in the hall. "I've only got my skin on, but you can come up."
However, she was sitting up in bed with her nightgown on when I found
her.
"I was having my bath when you came," she explained. "Have you come all
the way from London?"
"All the way."
"Then will you tell me a story?"
"I can't; I'm going to have my dinner. I only came up to say good
night."
Margery leant forward and whispered coaxingly, "Will you just tell me
about Beauty and 'e Beast?"
"But I've told you that such heaps of times. And it's much too long for
to-night."
"Tell me _half_ of it. As much as _that_." She held her hands about nine
inches apart.
"That's too much."
"As much as _that_." The hands came a little nearer together.
"Oh! Well, I'll tell you up to where the Beast died."
"_Fought_ he died," she corrected eagerly.
"Yes. Well----"
"How much will that be? As much as I said?"
I nodded. The preliminary business settled, she gave a little sigh of
happiness, put her arms round her knees, and waited breathlessly for the
story she had heard twenty times before.
"Once upon a time there was a man who had three daughters. And one
day----"
"What was the man's name?"
"Margery," I said reproachfully, annoyed at the interruption, "you know
I _never_ tell you the man's name."
"Tell me now."
"Oswald," I said after a moment's thought.
"I told Daddy it was Thomas," said Margery casually.
"Well, as a matter of fact he had two names, Oswald _and_ Thomas."
"Why did he have two names?"
"In case he lost one. Well, one day this man, who was very poor, heard
that a lot of money was waiting for him in a ship which had come over
the sea to a town some miles off. So he----"
"Was it waiting at Weymouf?"
"Somewhere like that."
"I spex it must have been Weymouf, because there's lots of sea there."
"Yes, I'm sure it was. Well, he thought he'd go to Weymouth and get the
money."
"How much monies was it?"
"Oh, lots and lots."
"As much as five pennies?"
"Yes, about that. Well, he said good-bye to his daughters and asked them
what they'd like him to bring back for a present. And the first asked
for some lovely jewels and diamonds and----"
"Like Mummy's locket--is that jewels?"
"That sort of idea. Well, she wanted a lot of things like that. And the
second wanted some beautiful clothes."
"What sort of clothes?"
"Oh, frocks and--well, frocks and all sorts of--er frocks."
"Did she want any lovely new stockings?"
"Yes, she wanted three pairs of those."
"And did she want any lovely----"
"Yes," I said hastily, "she wanted lots of those, too. Lots of
_everything_."
Margery gave a little sob of happiness. "Go on telling me," she said
under her breath.
"Well, the third daughter was called Beauty. And she thought to herself,
'Poor Father won't have any money left at all, if we all go on like
this!' So she didn't ask for anything very expensive, like her selfish
sisters, she only asked for a rose. A simple red rose."
Margery moved uneasily.
"I hope," she said wistfully, "this bit isn't going to be about--_you_
know. It never did before."
"About what?"
"Good little girls and bad little girls, and fings like that."
"My darling, no, of course not. I told it wrong. Beauty asked for a rose
because she loved roses so. And it was a very particular kind of red
rose that she wanted--a sort that they simply _couldn't_ get to grow in
their own garden because of the soil."
"Go on telling me," said Margery, with a deep sigh of content.
"Well, he started off to Weymouth."
"What day did he start?"
"It was Monday. And when----"
"Oh, well, anyhow, I told Daddy it was Tuesday."
"Tuesday--now let me think. Yes, I believe you're right. Because on
Monday he went to a meeting of the Vegetable Gardeners, and proposed the
health of the Chairman. Yes, well he started off on Tuesday, and when he
got there he found that there was no money for him at all!"
"I spex somebody had taken it," said Margery breathlessly.
"Well, it had all gone _somehow_."
"Prehaps somebody had swallowed it," said Margery, a little carried away
by the subject, "by mistake."
"Anyhow, it was gone. And he had to come home again without any money.
He hadn't gone far----"
"How far?" asked Margery. "As far as _that_?" and she measured nine
inches in the air.
"About forty-four miles--when he came to a beautiful garden."
"Was it a really lovely big garden? Bigger than ours?"
"Oh, much bigger."
"Bigger than yours?"
"I haven't got a garden."
Margery looked at me wonderingly. She opened her mouth to speak, and
then stopped and rested her head upon her hands and thought out this new
situation. At last, her face flushed with happiness, she announced her
decision.
"Go on telling me about Beauty and the Beast now," she said
breathlessly, "and _then_ tell me why you haven't got a garden."
My average time for Beauty and the Beast is ten minutes, and, if we stop
at the place where the Beast thought he was dead, six minutes
twenty-five seconds. But, with the aid of seemingly innocent questions,
a determined character can make even the craftiest uncle spin the story
out to half-an-hour.
"Next time," said Margery, when we had reached the appointed place and
she was being tucked up in bed, "will you tell me _all_ the story?"
Was there the shadow of a smile in her eyes? I don't know. But I'm sure
it will be wisest next time to promise her the whole thing. We must make
that point clear at the very start, and then we shall get along.
VII. THE LITERARY ART
Margery has a passion for writing just now. I can see nothing in it
myself, but if people _will_ write I suppose you can't stop them.
"Will you just lend me your pencil?" she asked.
"Remind me to give you a hundred pencils some time," I said as I took it
out, "and then you'll always have one. You simply eat pencils."
"Oo, I gave it you back last time."
"Only just. You inveigle me down here----"
"What do I do?"
"I'm not going to say that again for anybody."
"Well, may I have the pencil?"
I gave her the pencil and a sheet of paper, and settled her in a chair.
"B-a-b-y," said Margery to herself, planning out her weekly article for
the Reviews. "B-a-b-y, baby." She squared her elbows and began to
write....
"There!" she said, after five minutes' composition.
The manuscript was brought over to the critic, and the author stood
proudly by to point out subtleties that might have been overlooked at a
first reading.
"B-a-b-y," explained the author. "Baby."
"Yes, that's very good; very neatly expressed. 'Baby'--I like that."
"Shall I write some more?" said Margery eagerly.
"Yes, do write some more. This is good, but it's not long enough."
The author retired again, and in five minutes produced this:
B A B Y
"That's 'baby,'" explained Margery.
"Yes, I like that baby better than the other one. It's more spread out.
And it's bigger--it's one of the biggest babies I've seen."
"Shall I write some more?"
"Don't you write anything else ever?"
"I like writing 'baby,'" said Margery carelessly. "B-a-b-y."
"Yes, but you can't do much with just that one word. Suppose you wanted
to write to a man at a shop--'Dear Sir, You never sent me my boots.
Please send them at once as I want to go out this afternoon. I am yours
faithfully, Margery'--it would be no good simply putting 'B-a-b-y,'
because he wouldn't know what you meant."
"Well, what _would_ it be good putting?"
"Ah, that's the whole art of writing--to know what it would be any good
putting. You want to learn lots and lots of new words, so as to be
ready. Now here's a jolly little one that you ought to meet." I took the
pencil and wrote G O T. "Got. G-o-t, got."
Margery, her elbows on my knee and her chin resting on her hands,
studied the position.
"Yes, that's old 'got,'" she said.
"He's always coming in. When you want to say, 'I've got a bad pain, so I
can't accept your kind invitation'; or when you want to say, 'Excuse
more, as I've got to go to bed now'; or quite simply, 'You've got my
pencil.'"
"G-o-t, got," said Margery. "G-o-t, got. G-o-t, got."
"With appropriate action it makes a very nice recitation."
"Is that a 'g'?" said Margery, busy with the pencil, which she had
snatched from me.
"The gentleman with the tail. You haven't made his tail quite long
enough.... That's better."
Margery retired to her study charged with an entirely new inspiration,
and wrote her second manifesto. It was this:
G O T
"Got," she pointed out.
I inspected it carefully. Coming fresh to the idea Margery had treated
it more spontaneously than the other. But it was distinctly a "got." One
of the gots.
"Have you any more words?" she asked, holding tight to the pencil.
"You've about exhausted me, Margery."
"What was that one you said just now? The one you said you wouldn't say
again?"
"Oh, you mean 'inveigle'?" I said, pronouncing it differently this time.
"Yes; write that for me."
"It hardly ever comes in. Only when you are writing to your solicitor."
"What's 'solicitor'?"
"He's the gentleman who takes the money. He's _always_ coming in."
"Then write 'solicitor.'"
I took the pencil (it was my turn for it) and wrote SOLICITOR. Then I
read it out slowly to Margery, spelt it to her three times very
carefully, and wrote SOLICITOR again. Then I said it thoughtfully to
myself half-a-dozen times--"Solicitor." Then I looked at it wonderingly.
"I am not sure now," I said, "that there is such a word."
"Why?"
"I thought there was when I began, but now I don't think there can be.
'Solicitor'--it seems so silly."
"Let me write it," said Margery, eagerly taking the paper and pencil,
"and see if it looks silly."
She retired, and--as well as she could for her excitement--copied the
word down underneath. The combined effort then read as follows:
SOLICITOR
SOLICITOR
SOLCTOR
"Yes, you've done it a lot of good," I said. "You've taken some of the
creases out. I like that much better."
"Do you think there is such a word now?"
"I'm beginning to feel more easy about it. I'm not certain, but I hope."
"So do I," said Margery. With the pencil in one hand and the various
scraps of paper in the other, she climbed on to the writing desk and
gave herself up to literature....
And it seems to me that she is well equipped for the task. For besides
having my pencil still (of which I say nothing for the moment) she has
now three separate themes upon which to ring the changes--a range wide
enough for any writer. These are, "Baby got solicitor" (supposing that
there is such a word), "Solicitor got baby," and "Got baby solicitor."
Indeed, there are really four themes here, for the last one can have two
interpretations. It might mean that you had obtained an ordinary
solicitor for Baby or it might mean that you had got a specially small
one for yourself. It lacks, therefore, the lucidity of the best authors,
but in a woman writer this may be forgiven.
VIII. MY SECRETARY
When, five years ago, I used to write long letters to Margery, for some
reason or other she never wrote back. To save her face I had to answer
the letters myself--a tedious business. Still, I must admit that the
warmth and geniality of the replies gave me a certain standing with my
friends, who had not looked for me to be so popular. After some months,
however, pride stepped in. One cannot pour out letter after letter to a
lady without any acknowledgment save from oneself. And when even my own
acknowledgments began to lose their first warmth--when, for instance, I
answered four pages about my new pianola with the curt reminder that I
was learning to walk and couldn't be bothered with music, why, then at
last I saw that a correspondence so one-sided would have to come to an
end. I wrote a farewell letter and replied to it with tears....
But, bless you, that was nearly five years ago. Each morning now, among
the usual pile of notes on my plate from duchesses, publishers,
moneylenders, actor-managers and what-not, I find, likely enough, an
envelope in Margery's own handwriting.
Not only is my address printed upon it legibly, but there are also such
extra directions to the postman as "England" and "Important" for its
more speedy arrival. And inside--well, I give you the last but seven.
"MY DEAR UNCLE I thot you wher coming to see me to night but you didnt
why didnt you baby has p t o hurt her knee isnt that a pity I have some
new toys isnt that jolly we didnt have our five minutes so will you
krite to me and tell me all about p t o your work from your loving
little MARGIE."
I always think that footnotes to a letter are a mistake, but there are
one or two things I should like to explain.
(a) Just as some journalists feel that without the word "economic" a
leading article lacks tone, so Margery feels, and I agree with her, that
a certain _cachet_ is lent to a letter by a p. t. o. at the bottom of
each page.
(b) There are lots of grown-up people who think that "write" is spelt
"rite." Margery knows that this is not so. She knows that there is a
silent letter in front of the "r," which doesn't do anything, but likes
to be there. Obviously, if nobody is going to take any notice of this
extra letter, it doesn't much matter what it is. Margery happened to
want to make a "k" just then; at a pinch it could be as silent as a "w."
You will please, therefore, regard the "k" in "Krite" as absolutely
noiseless.
(c) Years ago I claimed the privilege to monopolise on the occasional
evenings when I was there, Margery's last ten minutes before she goes
back to some heaven of her own each night. This privilege was granted;
it being felt, no doubt, that she owed me some compensation for my early
secretarial work on her behalf. We used to spend the ten minutes in
listening to my telling a fairy story, always the same one. One day the
authorities stepped in and announced that in future the ten minutes
would be reduced to five. The procedure seemed to me absolutely illegal
(and I should like to bring an action against somebody) but it certainly
did put the lid on my fairy story, of which I was getting more than a
little tired.
"Tell me about Beauty and the Beast," said Margery as usual, that
evening.
"There's not time," I said. "We've only five minutes to-night."
"Oh! Then tell me all the work you've done to-day."
(A little unkind, you'll agree, but you know what relations are.)
And so now I have to cram the record of my day's work into five
breathless minutes. You will understand what bare justice I can do it in
the time.
I am sorry that these footnotes have grown so big; let us leave them and
return to the letter. There are many ways of answering such a letter.
One might say, "MY DEAR MARGERY,--It was jolly to get a real letter from
you at last----" but the "at last" would seem rather tactless
considering what had passed years before. Or one might say, "MY DEAR
MARGERY,--Thank you for your jolly letter. I am so sorry about baby's
knee and so glad about your toys. Perhaps if you gave one of the toys to
baby, then her knee----" But I feel sure that Margery would expect me to
do better than that.
In the particular case of this last letter but seven I wrote:
"DEAREST MARGERY,--Thank you for your sweet letter. I had a very busy
day at the office or I would have come to see you. P.T.O.
[Transcriber's note: Page break in original.]
--I hope to be down next week and then I will tell you all about my
work; but I have a lot more to do now, and so I must say good-bye. Your
loving UNCLE."
There is perhaps nothing in that which demands an immediate answer, but
with business-like promptitude Margery replied:
"MY DEAR UNCLE thank you for your letter I am glad you are coming next
week baby is quite well now are you p t o coming on Thursday next week
or not say yes if you are I am p t o sorry you are working so hard from
your loving MARGIE."
I said "Yes," and that I was her loving uncle. It seemed to be then too
late for a "P.T.O.," but I got one in and put on the back, "Love to
Baby." The answer came by return of post:
"MY DEAR UNCLE thank you for your letter come erly on p t o Thursday
come at half past nothing baby sends her love and so do p t o I my
roking horse has a sirrup broken isnt that a pity say yes or no good-bye
from your loving MARGIE."
Of course I thanked Baby for her love and gave my decision that it _was_
a pity about the rocking-horse. I did it in large capitals, which (as I
ought to have said before) is the means of communication between
Margery and her friends. For some reason or other I find printing
capitals to be more tiring than the ordinary method of writing.
"MY DEAR UNCLE," wrote Margery--
But we need not go into that. What I want to say is this: I love to get
letters, particularly these, but I hate writing them, particularly in
capitals. Years ago I used to answer Margery's letter for her. It is now
her turn to answer mine for me.
IX. THE TRUTH ABOUT HOME RAILS
Imagine us, if you can, sitting one on each side of the fire, I with my
feet on the mantelpiece, Margery curled up in the blue arm-chair, both
of us intent on the morning paper. To me, by good chance, has fallen the
sporting page; to Margery, the foreign, political and financial
intelligence of the day.
"What," said Margery, "does it mean when it says----" she stopped and
spelt it over to herself again.
I put down my piece of the paper and prepared to explain. The desire for
knowledge in the young cannot be too strongly encouraged, and I have
always flattered myself that I can explain in perfectly simple language
anything which a child wants to know. For instance, I once told Margery
what "Miniature Rifle Shooting" meant; it was a head-line which she had
come across in her paper. The explanation took some time, owing to
Margery's pre-conceived idea that a bird entered into it somewhere;
several times, when I thought the lesson was over, she said, "Well, what
about the bird?" But I think I made it plain to her in the end, though
maybe she has forgotten about it now.
"What," said Margery, "does it mean when it says 'Home Rails Firm'?"
I took up my paper again. The Cambridge fifteen I was glad to see, were
rapidly developing into a first-class team, and----
"'Home Rails Firm,'" repeated Margery, and looked up at me.
My mind worked rapidly, as it always does in a crisis.
"What did you say?" I asked in surprise.
"What does 'Home Rails Firm' mean?"
"Where does it say that?" I went on, still thinking at lightning speed.
"There. It said it yesterday too."
"Ah, yes." I made up my mind. "Well, that," I said--"I think that is
something you must ask your father."
"I did ask him yesterday."
"Well, then----"
"He told me to ask Mummy."
Coward!
"You can be sure," I said firmly, "that what Mummy told you would be
right," and I returned to my paper.
"Mummy told me to wait till _you_ came."
Really, these parents! The way they shirk their responsibilities
nowadays is disgusting.
"'Home Rails Firm.'" said Margery, and settled herself to listen.
It is good that children should be encouraged to take an interest in the
affairs of the day, but I do think that a little girl might be taught by
its father (or if more convenient, mother) which part of a newspaper to
read. Had Margery asked me the difference between a bunker and a banker,
had she demanded an explanation of "ultimatum" or "guillotine," I could
have done something with it; but to let a child of six fill her head
with ideas as to the firmness or otherwise of Home Rails is hardly nice.
However, an explanation had to be given.
"Well, it's like this, Margery," I said at last. "Supposing--well--you
see, supposing,--that is to say, if I----" and then I stopped. I had a
sort of feeling--intuition, they call it--that I was beginning in the
wrong way.
"Go on," said Margery.
"Perhaps, I had better put it this way. Supposing you were to--Well,
we'd better begin further back than that. You know what--No, I don't
suppose you do know that. Well, if I--that is to say, when a man--you
know, it's rather difficult to explain this, Margery."
"Are you explaining it now?"
"I'm just going to begin."
"Thank you, uncle."
I lit my pipe slowly, while I considered again how best to approach the
matter.
"'Home Rails Firm,'" said Margery. "Isn't it a _funny_ thing to say?"
It was. It was a very silly thing to say. Whoever said it first might
have known what it would lead to.
"Perhaps I can explain it best like this, Margery," I said, beginning on
a new tack. "I suppose you know what 'firm' means?"
"What does it mean?"
"Ah, well, if you don't know that," I said, rather pleased, "perhaps I
had better explain that first. 'Firm' means that--that is to say, you
call a thing firm if it--well, if it doesn't--that is to say, a thing is
firm if it can't move."
"Like a house."
"Well, something like that. This chair for instance," and I put my hand
on her chair, "is firm because you can't shake it. You see, it's
quite--Hallo, what's that?"
"Oh, you bad uncle, you've knocked the castor off again," cried Margery,
greatly excited at the incident.
"This is too much," I said bitterly. "Even the furniture is against me."
"Go on explaining," said Margery, rocking herself in the now wobbly
chair.
I decided to leave "firm." It is not an easy word to explain at the best
of times, and when everything you touch goes and breaks itself it
becomes perfectly impossible.
"Well, so much for that," I said. "And now we come to 'rails.' You know
what rails are?"
"Like I've got in the nursery?"
This was splendid. I had forgotten these for the moment.
"Exactly. The rails your train goes on. Well, then, 'Home Rails' would
be rails at home."
"Well, I've got them at home," said Margery in surprise. "I couldn't
have them anywhere else."
"Quite so. Then 'Home Rails Firm' would mean that--er--home rails
were--er--firm."
"But mine aren't, because they wobble. You know they do."
"Yes, but----"
"Well, why do they say 'Home Rails Firm' when they mean 'Home Rails
Wobble'?"
"Ah, that's just it. The point is that when they say 'Home Rails Firm,'
they don't mean that the rails themselves are firm. In fact they don't
mean at all what you think they mean. They mean something quite
different."
"What do they mean?"
"I am just going to explain," I said stiffly.
* * * * *
"Or perhaps I had better put it this way," I said ten minutes later.
"Supposing--Oh, Margery, it is difficult to explain."
"I must know," said Margery.
"Why do you want to know so badly?"
"I want to know a million million times more than anything else in the
whole world."
"Why?"
"So as I can tell Angela," said Margery.
I plunged into my explanation again. Angela is three, and I can quite
see how important it is that she should be sound on the question.
LIFE'S LITTLE TRAGEDIES
X. A CROWN OF SORROWS
There is something on my mind, of which I must relieve myself. If I am
ever to face the world again with a smile I must share my trouble with
others. I cannot bear my burden alone.
Friends, I have lost my hat. Will the gentleman who took it by mistake,
and forgot to leave his own in its place, kindly return my hat to me at
once?
I am very miserable without my hat. It was one of those nice soft ones
with a dent down the middle to collect the rain; one of those soft hats
which wrap themselves so lovingly round the cranium that they ultimately
absorb the personality of the wearer underneath, responding to his every
emotion. When people said nice things about me my hat would swell in
sympathy; when they said nasty things, or when I had had my hair cut, it
would adapt itself automatically to my lesser requirements. In a word,
it fitted--and that is more than can be said for your hard, unyielding
bowler.
My hat and I dropped into a hall of music one night last week. I placed
it under the seat, put a coat on it to keep it warm, and settled down to
enjoy myself. My hat could see nothing, but it knew that it would hear
all about the entertainment on the way home. When the last moving
picture had moved away, my hat and I prepared to depart together. I drew
out the coat and felt around for my--Where on earth....
I was calm at first.
"Excuse me," I said politely to the man next to me, "but have you got
two hats?"
"Several," he replied, mistaking my meaning.
I dived under the seat again, and came up with some more dust.
"Some one," I said to the programme girl, "has taken my hat."
"Have you looked under the seat for it?" she asked.
It was such a sound suggestion that I went under the seat for the third
time.
"It may have been kicked further along," suggested another attendant.
She walked up and down the row looking for it; and, in case somebody
had kicked it into the row above, walked up and down that one too; and,
in case somebody had kicked it on to the other side of the house, many
other girls spread themselves in pursuit; and soon we had the whole pack
hunting for it.
Then the fireman came up, suspecting the worst. I told him it was even
worse than that--my hat had been stolen.
He had a flash of inspiration.
"Are you sure you brought it with you?" he asked.
The programme girls seemed to think that it would solve the whole
mystery if I hadn't brought it with me.
"Are you sure you are the fireman?" I said coldly.
He thought for a moment, and then unburdened himself of another idea.
"Perhaps it's just been kicked under the seat," he said.
I left him under the seat and went downstairs with a heavy heart. At the
door I said to the hall porter, "Have you seen anybody going out with
two hats by mistake?"
"What's the matter?" he said. "Lost your hat?"
"It has been stolen."
"Have you looked under the seats? It may have been kicked along a bit."
"Perhaps I'd better see the manager," I said. "Is it any good looking
under the seats for _him_?"
"I expect it's just been kicked along a bit," the hall porter repeated
confidently. "I'll come up with you and look for it."
"If there's any more talk about being kicked along a bit," I said
bitterly, "somebody _will_ be. I want the manager."
I was led to the manager's room, and there I explained the matter to
him. He was very pleasant about it.
"I expect you haven't looked for it properly," he said, with a charming
smile. "Just take this gentleman up," he added to the hall porter, "and
find his hat for him. It has probably been kicked under one of the other
seats."
We were smiled irresistibly out, and I was dragged up to the grand
circle again. The seats by this time were laid out in white draperies;
the house looked very desolate; I knew that my poor hat was dead.
With an air of cheery confidence the hall porter turned into the first
row of seats....
"It may have been kicked on to the stage," I said, as he began to slow
down. "It may have jumped into one of the boxes. It may have turned into
a rabbit. You know, I expect you aren't looking for it properly."
The manager was extremely sympathetic when we came back to him. He said.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Just like that--"Oh, I'm sorry."
"My hat," I said firmly, "has been stolen."
"I'm sorry," he repeated with a bored smile, and turned to look at
himself in the glass.
Then I became angry with him and his attendants and his whole blessed
theatre.
"My hat," I said bitingly, "has been stolen from me--while I slept."
* * * * *
You must have seen me wearing it in the dear old days. Greeny brown it
was in colour; but it wasn't the colour that drew your eyes to it--no,
nor yet the shape, nor the angle at which it sat. It was just the
essential rightness of it. If you have ever seen a hat which you felt
instinctively was a clever hat, an alive hat, a profound hat, then that
was my hat--and that was myself underneath it.
XI. THE LUCKY MONTH
"Know thyself," said the old Greek motto. (In Greek--but this is an
English book.) So I bought a little red volume called, tersely enough,
_Were you born in January?_ I was; and, reassured on this point, the
author told me all about myself.
For the most part he told me nothing new. "You are," he said in effect,
"good-tempered, courageous, ambitious, loyal, quick to resent wrong, an
excellent _raconteur_, and a leader of men." True. "Generous to a
fault"--(Yes, I was overdoing that rather)--"you have a ready sympathy
with the distressed. People born in this month will always keep their
promises." And so on. There was no doubt that the author had the idea
all right. Even when he went on to warn me of my weaknesses he
maintained the correct note. "People born in January," he said, "must be
on their guard against working too strenuously. Their extraordinarily
active brains----" Well, you see what he means. It _is_ a fault
perhaps, and I shall be more careful in future. Mind, I do not take
offence with him for calling my attention to it. In fact, my only
objection to the book is its surface application to _all_ the people who
were born in January. There should have been more distinction made
between me and the rabble.
I have said that he told me little that was new. In one matter, however,
he did open my eyes. He introduced me to an aspect of myself entirely
unsuspected.
"They," he said--meaning me, "have unusual business capacity, and are
destined to be leaders in great commercial enterprises."
One gets at times these flashes of self-revelation. In an instant I
realised how wasted my life had been; in an instant I resolved that here
and now I would put my great gifts to their proper uses. I would be a
leader in an immense commercial enterprise.
One cannot start commercial enterprises without capital. The first thing
was to determine the exact nature of my balance at the bank. This was a
matter for the bank to arrange, and I drove there rapidly.
"Good morning," I said to the cashier, "I am in rather a hurry. May I
have my pass-book?"
He assented and retired. After an interminable wait, during which many
psychological moments for commercial enterprise must have lapsed, he
returned.
"I think _you_ have it," he said shortly.
"Thank you," I replied, and drove rapidly home again.
A lengthy search followed; but after an hour of it one of those
white-hot flashes of thought, such as only occur to the natural business
genius, seared my mind and sent me post-haste to the bank again.
"After all," I said to the cashier, "I only want to know my balance.
What is it?"
He withdrew and gave himself up to calculation. I paced the floor
impatiently. Opportunities were slipping by. At last he pushed a slip of
paper across at me. My balance!
It was in four figures. Unfortunately two of them were shillings and
pence. Still, there was a matter of fifty pounds odd as well, and
fortunes have been built up on less.
Out in the street I had a moment's pause. Hitherto I had regarded my
commercial enterprise in the bulk, as a finished monument of industry;
the little niggling preliminary details had not come up for
consideration. Just for a second I wondered how to begin.
Only for a second. An unsuspected talent which has long lain dormant
needs, when waked, a second or so to turn round in. At the end of that
time I had made up my mind. I knew exactly what I would do. I would ring
up my solicitor.
"Hallo, is that you? Yes, this is me. What? Yes, awfully, thanks. How
are you? Good. Look here, come and lunch with me. What? No, at once.
Good-bye."
Business, particularly that sort of commercial enterprise to which I had
now decided to lend my genius, can only be discussed properly over a
cigar. During the meal itself my solicitor and I indulged in the
ordinary small-talk of the pleasure-loving world.
"You're looking very fit," said my solicitor. "No, not fat, _fit_."
"You don't think I'm looking thin?" I asked anxiously. "People are
warning me that I may be overdoing it rather. They tell me that I must
be seriously on my guard against brain strain."
"I suppose they think you oughtn't to strain it too suddenly," said my
solicitor. Though he is now a solicitor he was once just an ordinary
boy like the rest of us, and it was in those days that he acquired the
habit of being rude to me, a habit he has never quite forgotten.
"What is an onyx?" I said, changing the conversation.
"Why?" asked my solicitor, with his usual business acumen.
"Well, I was practically certain that I had seen one in the Zoo, in the
reptile house, but I have just learnt that it is my lucky month stone.
Naturally I want to get one."
The coffee came and we settled down to commerce.
"I was just going to ask you," said my solicitor--"have you any money
lying idle at the bank? Because if so----"
"Whatever else it is doing, it isn't lying idle," I protested. "I was at
the bank to-day, and there were men chivying it about with shovels all
the time."
"Well, how much have you got?"
"About fifty pounds."
"It ought to be more than that."
"That's what I say, but you know what those banks are. Actual merit
counts for nothing with them."
"Well, what did you want to do with it?"
"Exactly. That was why I rang you up. I--er----" This was really my
moment, but somehow I was not quite ready to seize it. My vast
commercial enterprise still lacked a few trifling details. "Er--I--well,
it's like that."
"I might get you a few ground rents."
"Don't. I shouldn't know where to put them."
"But if you really have fifty pounds simply lying idle I wish you'd lend
it to me for a bit. I'm confoundedly hard up."
("_Generous to a fault, you have a ready sympathy with the distressed._"
Dash it, what could I do?)
"Is it quite etiquette for clients to lend solicitors money?" I asked.
"I thought it was always solicitors who had to lend it to clients. If I
must, I'd rather lend it to you--I mean I'd dislike it less--as to the
old friend of my childhood."
"Yes, that's how I wanted to pay it back."
"Bother. Then I'll send you a cheque to-night," I sighed.
And that's where we are at the moment. "_People born in this month
always keep their promises._" The money has got to go to-night. If I
hadn't been born in January, I shouldn't be sending it; I certainly
shouldn't have promised it; I shouldn't even have known that I had it.
Sometimes I almost wish that I had been born in one of the decent
months. March, say.
XII. THE RESCUE
William Bales--as nice a young man as ever wore a cummerbund on an
esplanade--was in despair. For half-an-hour he and Miss Spratt had been
sitting in silence on the pier, and it was still William's turn to say
something. Miss Spratt's last remark had been, "Oh, Mr. Bales, you do
say things!" and William felt that his next observation must at all
costs live up to the standard set for it. Three or four times he had
opened his mouth to speak, and then on second thoughts had rejected the
intended utterance as unworthy. At the end of half-an-hour his mind was
still working fruitlessly. He knew that the longer he waited the more
brilliant he would have to be, and he told himself that even Bernard
Shaw or one of those clever writing fellows would have been hard put to
it now.
William was at odds with the world. He was a romantic young man who had
once been told that he nearly looked like Lewis Waller when he frowned,
and he had resolved that his holiday this year should be a very dashing
affair indeed. He had chosen the sea in the hopes that some old
gentleman would fall off the pier and let himself be saved by--and,
later on, photographed with--William Bales, who in a subsequent
interview would modestly refuse to take any credit for the gallant
rescue. As his holiday had progressed he had felt the need for some such
old gentleman more and more; for only thus, he realised, could he
capture the heart of the wayward Miss Spratt. But so far it had been a
dull season; in a whole fortnight nobody had gone out of his way to
oblige William, and to-morrow he must return to the City as unknown and
as unloved as when he left it.
"Got to go back to-morrow," he said at last. As an impromptu it would
have served, but as the result of half-an-hour's earnest thought he felt
that it did not do him justice.
"So you said before," remarked Miss Spratt.
"Well, it's still true."
"Talking about it won't help it," said Miss Spratt.
William sighed and looked round the pier. There was an old gentleman
fishing at the end of it, his back turned invitingly to William. In
half-an-hour he had caught one small fish (which he had had to return as
under the age limit) and a bunch of seaweed. William felt that here was
a wasted life; a life, however, which a sudden kick and a heroic rescue
by W. Bales might yet do something to justify. At the Paddington Baths,
a month ago, he had won a plate-diving competition; and, though there is
a difference between diving for plates and diving for old gentlemen, he
was prepared to waive it. One kick and then ... Fame! And, not only
Fame, but the admiration of Angelina Spratt.
It was perhaps as well for the old gentleman--who was really quite
worthy, and an hour later caught a full-sized whiting--that Miss Spratt
spoke at this moment.
"Well, you're good company, I must say," she observed to William.
"It's so hot," said William.
"You can't say I asked to come here."
"Let's go on the beach," said William desperately. "We can find a shady
cave or something." Fate was against him; there was to be no rescue that
day.
"I'm sure I'm agreeable," said Miss Spratt.
They walked in silence along the beach, and, rounding a corner of the
cliffs, they came presently to a cave. In earlier days W. Bales could
have done desperate deeds against smugglers there, with Miss Spratt
looking on. Alas for this unromantic age! It was now a place for
picnics, and a crumpled sheet of newspaper on the sand showed that there
had been one there that very afternoon.
They sat in a corner of the cave, out of the sun, out of sight of the
sea, and William prepared to renew his efforts as a conversationalist.
In the hope of collecting a few ideas as to what the London clubs were
talking about he picked up the discarded newspaper, and saw with disgust
that it was the local _Herald_. But just as he threw it down, a line in
it caught his eye and remained in his mind----
"_High tide to-day--3.30._"
William's heart leapt. He looked at his watch; it was 2.30. In one hour
the waves would be dashing remorselessly into the cave, would be leaping
up the cliff, what time he and Miss Spratt----
Suppose they were caught by the tide....
Meanwhile the lady, despairing of entertainment, had removed her hat.
"Really," she said, "I'm that sleepy--I suppose the tide's safe, Mr.
Bales?"
It was William's chance.
"Quite, quite safe," he said earnestly. "It's going down hard."
"Well, then, I almost think----" She closed her eyes. "Wake me up when
you've thought of something really funny, Mr. Bales."
William was left alone with Romance.
He went out of the cave and looked round. The sea was still some way
out, but it came up quickly on this coast. In an hour ... in an hour....
He scanned the cliffs, and saw the ledge whither he would drag her. She
would cling to him crying, calling him her rescuer....
What should he do then? Should he leave her and swim for help? Or should
he scale the mighty cliff?
He returned to the cave and, gazing romantically at the sleeping Miss
Spratt, conjured up the scene. It would go like this, he thought.
_Miss Spratt (wakened by the spray dashing over her face)._ Oh, Mr.
Bales! We're cut off by the tide! Save me!
_W. Bales (lightly)._ Tut-tut, there's no danger. It's nothing.
(_Aside_) Great Heavens! Death stares us in the face!
_Miss Spratt (throwing her arms around his neck)._ William, save me; I
cannot swim!
_W. Bales (with Waller face)._ Trust me, Angelina. I will fight my way
round yon point and obtain help. (_Aside_) An Englishman can only die
once.
_Miss Spratt._ Don't leave me!
_W. Bales._ Fear not, sweetheart. See, there is a ledge where you will
be beyond the reach of the hungry tide. I will carry you thither in my
arms and will then----
At this point in his day-dream William took another look at the sleeping
Miss Spratt, felt his biceps doubtfully, and went on--
_W. Bales._ I will assist you to climb thither, and will then swim for
help.
_Miss Spratt._ My hero!
Again and again William reviewed the scene to himself. It was perfect.
His photograph would be in the papers; Miss Spratt would worship him; he
would be a hero in his City office. The actual danger was slight, for at
the worst she could shelter in the far end of the cave; but he would not
let her know this. He would do the thing heroically--drag her to the
ledge on the cliff, and then swim round the point to obtain help.
The thought struck him that he could conduct the scene better in his
shirt sleeves. He removed his coat, and then went out of the cave to
reconnoitre the ledge.
* * * * *
Miss Spratt awoke with a start and looked at her watch. It was 4.15. The
cave was empty save for a crumpled page of newspaper. She glanced at
this idly and saw that it was the local _Herald_ ... eight days old.
Far away on the horizon William Bales was throwing stones bitterly at
the still retreating sea.
XIII. THE PORTUGUESE CIGAR
Everything promised well for my week-end with Charles. The weather was
warm and sunny, I was bringing my golf clubs down with me, and I had
just discovered (and meant to put into practice) an entirely new stance
which made it impossible to miss the object ball. It was this that I was
explaining to Charles and his wife at dinner on Friday, when the
interruption occurred.
"By the way," said Charles, as I took out a cigarette, "I've got a cigar
for you. Don't smoke that thing."
"You haven't let him go in for cigars?" I said reproachfully to Mrs.
Charles. I can be very firm about other people's extravagances.
"This is one I picked up in Portugal," explained Charles. "You can get
them absurdly cheap out there. Let's see, dear; where did I put it?"
"I saw it on your dressing-table last week," said his wife, getting up
to leave us. He followed her out and went in search of it, while I
waited with an interest which I made no effort to conceal. I had never
heard before of a man going all the way to Portugal to buy one cigar for
a friend.
"Here it is," said Charles, coming in again. He put down in front of me
an ash-tray, the matches and a--and a--well, a cigar. I examined it
slowly. Half of it looked very tired.
"Well," said Charles, "what do you think of it?"
"When you say you--er--_picked it up_ in Portugal," I began carefully.
"I suppose you don't mean----" I stopped and tried to bite the end off.
"Have a knife," said Charles.
I had another bite, and then I decided to be frank.
"_Why_ did you pick it up?" I asked.
"The fact was," said Charles, "I found myself one day in Lisbon without
my pipe, and so I bought that thing; I never smoke them in the ordinary
way."
"Did you smoke this?" I asked. It was obvious that _something_ had
happened to it.
"No, you see, I found some cigarettes at the last moment, and so,
knowing that you liked cigars, I thought I'd bring it home for you."
"It's very nice of you, Charles. Of course I can see that it has
travelled. Well, we must do what we can with it."
I took the knife and started chipping away at the mahogany end. The
other end--the brown-paper end, which had come ungummed--I intended to
reserve for the match. When everything was ready I applied a light,
leant back in my chair, and pulled.
"That's all right, isn't it?" said Charles. "You'd be surprised if I
told you what I paid for it."
"No, no, you mustn't think that," I protested. "Probably things are
dearer in Portugal." I put it down by my plate for a moment's rest. "All
I've got against it at present is that its pores don't act as freely as
they should."
"I've got a cigar-cutter somewhere, if----"
"No, don't bother, I think I can do it with the nut-crackers. There's no
doubt it was a good cigar once, but it hasn't wintered well."
I squeezed it as hard as I could, lit it again, pressed my feet against
the table and pulled.
"Now it's going," said Charles.
"I'm afraid it keeps very reticent at my end. The follow-through is
poor. Is your end alight still?"
"Burning beautifully."
"It's a pity that I should be missing all that. How would it be if we
were to make a knitting-needle red-hot and bore a tunnel from this end?
We might establish a draught that way. Only there's always the danger,
of course, of coming out at the side."
I took the cigar up and put it to my ear.
"I can't hear anything wrong," I said. "I expect what it really wants is
massage."
Charles filled his pipe again and got up. "Let's go for a stroll," he
said. "It's a beautiful night. Bring your cigar with you."
"It may prefer the open air," I said. "There's always that. You know we
mustn't lose sight of the fact that the Portuguese climate is different
from ours. The thing's pores may have acted more readily in the South.
On the other hand, the unfastened end may have been more adhesive. I
gather that though you have never actually met anybody who has smoked a
cigar like this, yet you understand that the experiment is a practicable
one. As far as you know this had no brothers. No, no, Charles, I'm going
on with it, but I should like to know all that you can tell me of its
parentage. It had a Portuguese father and an American mother, I should
say, and there has been a good deal of trouble in the family. One
moment"--and as we went outside I stopped and cracked it in the door.
It was an inspiration. At the very next application of the match I found
that I had established a connection with the lighted end. Not a long and
steady connection, but one that came in gusts. After two gusts I decided
that it was perhaps safer to blow from my end, and for a little while we
had in this way as much smoke around us as the most fastidious
cigar-smoker could want. Then I accidentally dropped it; something in
the middle of it shifted, I suppose--and for the rest of my stay behind
it only one end was at work.
"Well," said Charles, when we were back in the smoking-room and I was
giving the cigar a short breather, "it's not a bad one, is it?"
"I have enjoyed it," I said truthfully, for I like trying to get the
mastery over a thing that defies me.
"You'll never guess what it cost," he chuckled.
"Tell me," I said. "I daren't guess."
"Well, in English money it works out at exactly three farthings."
I looked at him for a long time and then shook my head sadly.
"Charles, old friend," I said, "you've been done."
XIV. A COLD WORLD
Herbert is a man who knows all about railway tickets, and packing, and
being in time for trains, and things like that. But I fancy I have
taught him a lesson at last. He won't talk quite so much about tickets
in future.
I was just thinking about getting up when he came into my room. He
looked at me in horror.
"My dear fellow!" he said. "And you haven't even packed! You'll be late.
Here, get up, and I'll pack for you while you dress."
"Do," I said briefly.
"First of all, what clothes are you going to travel in?"
There was no help for it. I sat up in bed and directed operations.
"Right," said Herbert. "Now what about your return ticket? You mustn't
forget that."
"You remind me of a little story," I said. "I'll tell it you while you
pack--that will be nice for you. Once upon a time I lost my return
ticket, and I had to pay two pounds for another. And a month afterwards
I met a man--a man like you who knows all about tickets--and he said,
'You could have got the money back if you had applied at once.' So I
said, 'Give me a cigarette now, and I'll transfer all my rights in the
business to you.' And he gave me a cigarette; but unfortunately----"
"It was too late?"
"No. Unfortunately it wasn't. He got the two pounds. The most expensive
cigarette I've ever smoked."
"Well, that just shows you," said Herbert. "Here's your ticket. Put it
in your waistcoat pocket now."
"But I haven't got a waistcoat on, silly."
"Which one are you going to put on?"
"I don't know yet. This is a matter which requires thought. Give me
time, give me air."
"Well, I shall put the ticket here on the dressing-table, and then you
can't miss it." He looked at his watch. "And the trap starts in half an
hour."
"Help!" I cried, and I leapt out of bed.
Half an hour later I was saying good-bye to Herbert.
"I've had an awfully jolly time," I said, "and I'll come again."
"You've got the ticket all right?"
"Rather!" and I drove away amidst cheers. Cheers of sorrow.
It was half-an-hour's drive to the station. For the first five minutes I
thought how sickening it was to be leaving the country; then I had a
slight shock; and for the next twenty-five minutes I tried to remember
how much a third single to the nearest part of London cost. Because I
had left my ticket on the dressing-table after all.
I gave my luggage to a porter and went off to the station-master.
"I wonder if you can help me," I said. "I've left my ticket on the
dress---- Well, we needn't worry about that, I've left it at home."
He didn't seem intensely excited.
"What did you think of doing?" he asked.
"I had rather hoped that _you_ would do something."
"You can buy another ticket, and get the money back afterwards."
"Yes, yes; but can I? I've only got about one pound six."
"The fare to London is one pound five and tenpence ha'penny."
"Ah; well, that leaves a penny ha'penny to be divided between the porter
this end, lunch, tea, the porter the other end, and the cab. I don't
believe it's enough. Even if I gave it all to the porter here, think how
reproachfully he would look at you ever afterwards. It would haunt you."
The station-master was evidently moved. He thought for a moment, and
then asked if I knew anybody who would vouch for me. I mentioned Herbert
confidently. He had never even heard of Herbert.
"I've got a tie-pin," I said (station-masters have a weakness for
tie-pins), "and a watch and a cigarette case. I shall be happy to lend
you any of those."
The idea didn't appeal to him.
"The best thing you can do," he said, "is to take a ticket to the next
station and talk to them there. This is only a branch line, and I have
no power to give you a pass."
So that was what I had to do. I began to see myself taking a ticket at
every stop and appealing to the station-master at the next. Well, the
money would last longer that way, but unless I could overcome quickly
the distrust which I seemed to inspire in station-masters there would
not be much left for lunch. I gave the porter all I could afford--a
ha'penny, mentioned apologetically that I was coming back, and stepped
into the train.
At the junction I jumped out quickly and dived into the sacred office.
"I've left my ticket on the dressing--that is to say, I forgot---- Well,
anyhow, I haven't got it," I began, and we plunged into explanations
once more. This station-master was even more unemotional than the last.
He asked me if I knew anybody who could vouch for me. I mentioned
Herbert diffidently. He had never even heard of Herbert. I showed him my
gold watch, my silver cigarette case, and my emerald and diamond
tie-pin--that was the sort of man I was.
"The best thing you can do," he said, walking with me to the door, "is
to take a ticket to Plymouth, and speak to the station-master there----"
"This is a most interesting game," I said bitterly. "What is 'home'?
When you speak to the station-master at London, I suppose? I've a good
mind to say 'snap'!"
Extremely annoyed I strode out, and bumped into--you'll never
guess--Herbert!
"Ah, here you are," he panted; "I rode after you--the train was just
going--jumped into it--been looking all over the station for you."
"It's awfully nice of you, Herbert. Didn't I say good-bye?"
"Your ticket." He produced it. "Left it on the dressing-table." He took
a deep breath. "I told you you would."
"Bless you," I said, as I got happily into my train. "You've saved my
life. I've had an awful time. I say, do you know, I've met two
station-masters already this morning who've never even heard of you. You
must enquire into it."
At that moment a porter came up.
"Did you give up your ticket, Sir?" he asked Herbert.
"I hadn't time to get one," said Herbert, quite at his ease. "I'll pay
now," and he began to feel in his pockets.... The train moved out of the
station.
A look of horror came over Herbert's face. I knew what it meant. He
hadn't any money on him. "Hi!" he shouted to me, and then we swung round
a bend out of sight....
Well, well, he'll have to get home somehow. His watch is only nickel and
his cigarette case leather, but luckily that sort of thing doesn't weigh
much with station-masters. What they want is a well-known name as a
reference. Herbert is better off than I was: he can give them _my_ name.
It will be idle for them to pretend that they have never heard of _me_.
XV. A BREATH OF LIFE
This is the story of a comedy which nearly became a tragedy. In its way
it is rather a pathetic story.
The comedy was called "The Wooing of Winifred." It was written by an
author whose name I forget; produced by the well-known and (as his press
agent has often told us) popular actor-manager, Mr. Levinski; and played
by (among others) that very charming young man, Prosper Vane--known
locally as Alfred Briggs until he took to the stage. Prosper played the
young hero, _Dick Seaton_, who was actually wooing _Winifred_. Mr.
Levinski himself took the part of a middle-aged man of the world with a
slight embonpoint; down in the programme as _Sir Geoffrey Throssell_,
but fortunately still Mr. Levinski. His opening words, as he came on,
were, "Ah, Dick, I have a note for you somewhere," which gave the
audience an interval in which to welcome him, while he felt in all his
pockets for the letter. One can bow quite easily while feeling in one's
pockets, and it is much more natural than stopping in the middle of an
important speech in order to acknowledge any cheers. The realisation of
this, by a dramatist, is what is called "stagecraft." In this case the
audience could tell at once that the "technique" of the author (whose
name unfortunately I forget) was going to be all right.
But perhaps I had better describe the whole play as shortly as possible.
The theme--as one guessed from the title, even before the curtain
rose--was the wooing of _Winifred_. In the First Act _Dick_ proposed to
_Winifred_ and was refused by her, not from lack of love, but for fear
lest she might spoil his career, he being one of those big-hearted men
with a hip-pocket to whom the open spaces of the world call loudly.
Whereupon Mr. Levinski took _Winifred_ on one side and told the audience
how, when he had been a young man, some good woman had refused him for a
similar reason and had been miserable ever since. Accordingly in the
Second Act _Winifred_ withdrew her refusal and offered to marry _Dick_,
who declined to take advantage of her offer for fear that she was
willing to marry him from pity rather than from love; whereupon Mr.
Levinski took _Dick_ on one side and told the audience how, when _he_
had been a young man, he had refused to marry some good woman (a
different one) for a similar reason, and had been broken-hearted ever
afterwards. In the Third Act it really seemed as though they were coming
together at last; for at the beginning of it Mr. Levinski took them both
aside and told the audience a parable about a butterfly and a
snap-dragon, which was both pretty and helpful, and caused several
middle-aged ladies in the first and second rows of the upper circle to
say, "What a nice man Mr. Levinski must be at home, dear!"--the purport
of the allegory being to show that both _Dick_ and _Winifred_ were being
very silly, as indeed by this time everybody but the author was aware.
Unfortunately at that moment a footman entered with a telegram for _Miss
Winifred_, which announced that she had been left fifty thousand pounds
by a dead uncle in Australia; and although Mr. Levinski seized this
fresh opportunity to tell the audience how in similar circumstances
Pride, to his lasting remorse, had kept him and some good woman (a third
one) apart, nevertheless _Dick_ held back once more, for fear lest he
should be thought to be marrying her for her money. The curtain comes
down as he says, "Good-bye.... Good-ber-eye." But there is a Fourth
Act, and in the Fourth Act Mr. Levinski has a splendid time. He tells
the audience two parables--one about a dahlia and a sheep, which I
couldn't quite follow--and three reminiscences of life in India; he
brings together finally and for ever these hesitating lovers; and, best
of all, he has a magnificent love-scene of his own with a pretty widow,
in which we see, for the first time in the play, how love should really
be made--not boy-and-girl pretty-pretty love, but the deep emotion felt
(and with occasional lapses of memory explained) by a middle-aged man
with a slight embonpoint who has knocked about the world a bit and knows
life. Mr. Levinski, I need hardly say, was at his best in this Act.
* * * * *
I met Prosper Vane at the club some ten days before the first night, and
asked him how rehearsals were going.
"Oh, all right," he said. "But it's a rotten play. I've got such a
dashed silly part."
"From what you told me," I said, "it sounded rather good."
"It's so dashed unnatural. For three whole Acts this girl and I are in
love with each other, and we know we're in love with each other, and
yet we simply fool about. She's a dashed pretty girl too, my boy. In
real life I'd jolly soon----"
"My dear Alfred," I protested, "you're not going to fall in love with
the girl you have to fall in love with on the stage? I thought actors
never did that."
"They do sometimes; it's a dashed good advertisement. Anyway, it's a
silly part, and I'm fed up with it."
"Yes, but do be reasonable. If _Dick_ got engaged at once to _Winifred_
what would happen to Levinski? He'd have nothing to do."
Prosper Vane grunted. As he seemed disinclined for further conversation,
I left him.
* * * * *
The opening night came, and the usual distinguished and fashionable
audience (including myself) such as habitually attends Mr. Levinski's
first nights, settled down to enjoy itself. Two Acts went well. At the
end of each Mr. Levinski came before the curtain and bowed to us, and we
had the honour of clapping him loud and long. Then the Third Act
began....
Now this is how the Third Act ends:
_Exit_ Sir Geoffrey.
_Winifred (breaking the silence)._ Dick, you heard what he said. Don't
let this silly money come between us. I have told you I love you, dear.
Won't you--won't you speak to me?
_Dick._ Winifred, I---- _(He gets up and walks round the room, his brow
knotted, his right fist occasionally striking his left palm. Finally, he
comes to a stand in front of her.)_ Winifred, I---- _(He raises his arms
slowly at right angles to his body and lets them fall heavily down
again.)_ I can't. _(In a low hoarse voice)_ I--can't! _(He stands for a
moment with bent head; then with a jerk he pulls himself together.)_
Good-bye! _(His hands go out to her, but he draws them back as if
frightened to touch her. Nobly.)_ Good-ber-eye.
_He squares his shoulders and stands looking at the audience with his
chin in the air; then with a shrug of utter despair, which would bring
tears into the eyes of any young thing in the pit, he turns and with
bent head walks slowly out._
_CURTAIN._
That is how the Third Act ends. I went to the dress rehearsal, and so I
know.
How the accident happened I do not know. I suppose Prosper was nervous.
I am sure he was very much in love. Anyhow, this is how, on that famous
first night, the Third Act ended:
_Exit_ Sir Geoffrey.
_Winifred (breaking the silence)._ Dick, you heard what he said. Don't
let this silly money come between us. I have told you I love you, dear.
Won't you--won't you speak to me?
_Dick (jumping up)._ Winifred I---- _(with a great gulp)_ I LOVE YOU!!!
Whereupon he picked her up in his arms and carried her triumphantly off
the stage ... and after a little natural hesitation the curtain came
down.
* * * * *
Behind the scenes all was consternation. Mr. Levinski (absolutely
furious) had a hasty consultation with the author (also furious), in the
course of which they both saw that the Fourth Act as written was now an
impossibility. Poor Prosper, who had almost immediately recovered his
sanity, tremblingly suggested that Mr. Levinski should announce that,
owing to the sudden illness of Mr. Vane the Fourth Act could not be
given. Mr. Levinski was kind enough to consider this suggestion not
entirely stupid; his own idea having been (very regretfully) to leave
out the two parables and three reminiscences from India, and concentrate
on the love-scene with the widow.
"Yes, yes," he said. "Your plan is better. I will say you are ill. It is
true; you are mad. To-morrow we will play it as it was written."
"You can't," said the author gloomily. "The critics won't come till the
Fourth Act and they'll assume that the Third Act ended as it did
to-night. The Fourth Act will seem all nonsense to them."
"True. And I was so good, so much myself in that Act." He turned to
Prosper. "You--fool!"
"Or there's another way," began the author. "We might----"
And then a gentleman in the gallery settled it from the front of the
curtain. There was nothing in the programme to show that the play was in
four Acts. "The Time is the present-day and the Scene is in Sir Geoffrey
Throssell's town-house," was all it said. And the gentleman in the
gallery, thinking it was all over, and being pleased with the play and
particularly with the realism of the last moment of it, shouted.
"Author." And suddenly everybody else cried, "Author! Author." The Play
was ended.
* * * * *
I said that this was the story of a comedy which nearly became a
tragedy. But it turned out to be no tragedy at all. In the three Acts to
which Prosper Vane had condemned it the play appealed to both critics
and public, for the Fourth Act (as he recognised so clearly) was
unnecessary, and would have spoilt the balance of it entirely. Best of
all, the shortening of the play demanded that some entertainment should
be provided in front of it, and this enabled Mr. Levinski to introduce
to the public Professor Wollabollacolla and Princess Collabollawolla,
the famous exponents of the Bongo-Bongo, that fascinating Central
African war dance, which was soon to be the rage of society. But though,
as a result, the takings of the Box Office surpassed all Mr. Levinski's
previous records, our friend Prosper Vane received no practical
acknowledgment of his services. He had to be content with the hand and
heart of the lady who played _Winifred_, and the fact that Mr. Levinski
was good enough to attend the wedding. There was, in fact, a photograph
in all the papers of Mr. Levinski doing it.
XVI. THE DOCTOR
"May I look at my watch?" I asked my partner, breaking a silence which
had lasted from the beginning of the waltz.
"Oh, _have_ you got a watch?" she drawled. "How exciting!"
"I wasn't going to show it to you," I said. "But I always think it looks
so bad for a man to remove his arm from a lady's waist in order to look
at his watch--I mean without some sort of apology or explanation. As
though he were wondering if he could possibly stick another five minutes
of it."
"Let me know when the apology is beginning," said Miss White. Perhaps,
after all, her name wasn't White, but, anyhow, she was dressed in White,
and it's her own fault if wrong impressions arise.
"It begins at once. I've got to catch a train home. There's one at
12.45, I believe. If I started now I could just miss it."
"You don't live in these Northern Heights, then?"
"No. Do you?"
"Yes."
I looked at my watch again.
"I should love to discuss with you the relative advantages of London and
Greater London," I said; "the flats and cats of one and the big gardens
of the other. But just at the moment the only thing I can think of is
whether I shall like the walk home. Are there any dangerous passes to
cross?"
"It's a nice wet night for a walk," said Miss White reflectively.
"If only I had brought my bicycle."
"A watch _and_ a bicycle! You _are_ lucky!"
"Look here, it may be a joke to you, but I don't fancy myself coming
down the mountains at night."
"The last train goes at one o'clock, if that's any good to you."
"All the good in the world," I said joyfully. "Then I needn't walk." I
looked at my watch. "That gives us five minutes more. I could almost
tell you all about myself in that time."
"It generally takes longer than that," said Miss White. "At least it
seems to." She sighed and added, "My partners have been very
autobiographical to-night."
I looked at her severely.
"I'm afraid you're a Suffragette," I said.
As soon as the next dance began I hurried off to find my hostess. I had
just caught sight of her when----
"Our dance, isn't it?" said a voice.
I turned and recognised a girl in blue.
"Ah," I said, coldly cheerful, "I was just looking for you. Come along."
We broke into a gay and happy step, suggestive of twin hearts utterly
free from care.
"Why do you look so thoughtful?" asked the girl in blue after ten
minutes of it.
"I've just heard some good news," I said.
"Oh, do tell me!"
"I don't know if it would really interest you."
"I'm sure it would."
"Well, several miles from here there may be a tram, if one can find it,
which goes nobody quite knows where up till one-thirty in the morning
probably. It is now," I added, looking at my watch (I was getting quite
good at this), "just on one o'clock and raining hard. All is well."
The dance over, I searched in vain for my hostess. Every minute I took
out my watch and seemed to feel that another tram was just starting off
to some unknown destination. At last I could bear it no longer and,
deciding to write a letter of explanation on the morrow, I dashed off.
My instructions from Miss White with regard to the habitat of trams
(thrown in by her at the last moment in case the train failed me) were
vague. Five minutes' walk convinced me that I had completely lost any
good that they might ever have been to me. Instinct and common sense
were the only guides left. I must settle down to some heavy detective
work.
The steady rain had washed out any footprints that might have been of
assistance, and I was unable to follow up the slot of a tram conductor
of which I had discovered traces in Two-hundred-and-fifty-first Street.
In Three-thousand-eight-hundred-and-ninety-seventh Street I lay with my
ear to the ground and listened intently, for I seemed to hear the
ting-ting of the electric car, but nothing came of it; and in
Four-millionth Street I made a new resolution. I decided to give up
looking for trams and to search instead for London--the London that I
knew.
I felt pretty certain that I was still in one of the Home Counties, and
I did not seem to remember having crossed the Thames, so that if only I
could find a star which pointed to the south I was in a fair way to get
home. I set out to look for a star; with the natural result that, having
abandoned all hope of finding a man, I immediately ran into him.
"Now then," he said good-naturedly.
"Could you tell me the way to"--I tried to think of some place near my
London--"to Westminster Abbey?"
He looked at me in astonishment. His feeling seemed to be that I was too
late for the Coronation and too early for the morning service.
"Or--or anywhere," I said hurriedly. "Trams, for instance."
He pointed nervously to the right and disappeared.
Imagine my joy; there were tramlines, and better still, a tram
approaching. I tumbled in, gave the conductor a penny, and got a
workman's ticket in exchange. Ten minutes later we reached the terminus.
I had wondered where we should arrive, but didn't much mind so long as I
was again within reach of a cab. However, as soon as I stepped out of
the tram, I knew at once where I was.
"Tell me," I said to the conductor, "do you now go back again?"
"In ten minutes. There's a tram from here every half-hour."
"When is the last?"
"There's no last. Backwards and forwards all night."
I should have liked to stop and sympathise, but it was getting late. I
walked a hundred yards up the hill and turned to the right.... As I
entered the gates I could hear the sound of music.
"Isn't this our dance?" I said to Miss White, who was taking a breather
at the hall door. "One moment," I added and I got out of my coat and
umbrella.
"Is it? I thought you'd gone."
"Oh, no, I decided to stay, after all. I found out that the trams go all
night."
We walked in together.
"I won't be more autobiographical than I can help," I said, "but I must
say it's hard life, a doctor's. One is called away in the middle of a
dance to a difficult case of--of mumps or something, and--well, there
you are. A delightful evening spoilt. If one is lucky one may get back
in time for a waltz or two at the end.
"Indeed," I said, as we began to dance, "at one time to-night I quite
thought I wasn't going to get back here at all."
XVII. THE FINANCIER
This is how I became a West African mining magnate with a stake in the
Empire.
During February I grew suddenly tired of waiting for the summer to
begin. London in the summer is a pleasant place, and chiefly so because
you can keep on buying evening papers to read the cricket news. In
February life has no such excitements to offer. So I wrote to my
solicitor about it.
"I want you," I wrote, "to buy me fifty rubber shares, so that I can
watch them go up and down." And I added, "Brokerage one-eighth," to show
that I knew what I was talking about.
He replied tersely as follows:
"Don't be a fool. If you have any money to invest I can get you a safe
mortgage at five per cent. Let me know."
It's a funny thing how the minds of solicitors run upon mortgages. If
they would only stop to think for a moment they would see that you
couldn't possibly watch a safe mortgage go up and down. I left my
solicitor alone and consulted Henry on the subject. In the intervals
between golf and golf Henry dabbles in finance.
"You don't want anything gilt-edged, I gather," he said. It's wonderful
how they talk.
"I want it to go up and down," I explained patiently, and I indicated
the required movement with my umbrella.
"What about a little flutter in oil?" he went on, just like a financier
in a novel.
"I'll have a little flutter in raspberry jam if you like. Anything as
long as I can rush every night for the last edition of the evening
papers and say now and then, 'Good heavens, I'm ruined!'"
"Then you'd better try a gold mine," said Henry bitterly, in the voice
of one who has tried. "Take your choice," and he threw the paper over to
me.
"I don't want a whole mine--only a vein or two. Yes, this is very
interesting," I went on, as I got among the West Africans. "The scoring
seems to be pretty low; I suppose it must have been a wet wicket. 'H.E.
Reef, 1-3/4, 2'--he did a little better in the second innings. '1/2.
Boffin River, 5/16, 7/16,--they followed on, you see, but they saved the
innings defeat. By the way, which figure do I really keep my eye on
when I want to watch them go up and down?"
"Both. One eye on each. And don't talk about Boffin River to _me_."
"Is it like that, Henry? I am sorry. I suppose it's too late now to
offer you a safe mortgage at five per cent.? I know a man who has some.
Well, perhaps you're right."
On the next day I became a magnate. The Jaguar Mine was the one I fixed
upon--for two reasons. First, the figure immediately after it was 1,
which struck me as a good point from which to watch it go up and down.
Secondly, I met a man at lunch who knew somebody who had actually seen
the Jaguar Mine.
"He says that there's no doubt about there being lots there."
"Lots of what? Jaguars or gold?"
"Ah, he didn't say. Perhaps he meant Jaguars."
Anyhow, it was an even chance, and I decided to risk it. In a week's
time I was the owner of what we call in the City a "block" of
Jaguars--bought from one Herbert Bellingham, who, I suppose, had been
got at by his solicitor and compelled to return to something safe. I was
a West African magnate.
My first two months as a magnate were a great success. With my heart in
my mouth I would tear open the financial editions of the evening papers,
to find one day that Jaguars had soared like a rocket to 1-1/16, the
next that they had dropped like a stone to 1-1/32. There was one
terrible afternoon when for some reason which will never be properly
explained we sank to 15/16. I think the European situation had something
to do with it, though this naturally is not admitted. Lord Rothschild, I
fancy, suddenly threw all his Jaguars on the market; he sold and sold
and sold, and only held his hand when, in desperation, the Tsar granted
the concession for his new Southend to Siberia railway. Something like
that. But he never recked how the private investor would suffer; and
there was I, sitting at home and sending out madly for all the papers,
until my rooms were littered with copies of _The Times_, _The Financial
News_, _Answers_, _The Feathered World_ and _Home Chat_. Next day we
were up to 31/32, and I breathed again.
But I had other pleasures than these. Previously I had regarded the City
with awe, but now I felt a glow of possession come over me whenever I
approached it. Often in those first two months I used to lean against
the Mansion House in a familiar sort of way; once I struck a match
against the Royal Exchange. And what an impression of financial acumen I
could make in a drawing-room by a careless reference to my "block of
Jaguars!" Even those who misunderstood me and thought I spoke of my
"flock of Jaguars" were startled. Indeed life was very good just then.
But lately things have not been going well. At the beginning of April
Jaguars settled down at 1-1/16. Though I stood for hours at the club
tape, my hair standing up on end and my eyeballs starting from their
sockets, Jaguars still came through steadily at 1-1/16. To give them a
chance of doing something, I left them alone for a whole week--with what
agony you can imagine. Then I looked again; a whole week and anything
might have happened. Pauper or millionaire? No, still 1-1/16.
Worse was to follow. Editors actually took to leaving out Jaguars
altogether. I suppose they were sick of putting 1-1/16 in every edition.
But how ridiculous it made my idea seem of watching them go up and down!
How blank life became again!
And now what I dreaded most of all has happened. I have received a
"Progress Report" from the mine. It gives the "total footage" for the
month, special reference being made to "cross-cutting, winzing and
sinking." The amount of "tons crushed" is announced. There is serious
talk of "ore" being "extracted"; indeed there has already been a most
alarming "yield in fine gold." In short, it can no longer be hushed up
that the property may at any moment be "placed on a dividend-paying
basis."
Probably I shall be getting a safe five per cent.!
"Dash it all," as I said to my solicitor this morning, "I might just as
well have bought a rotten mortgage."
XVIII. THE THINGS THAT MATTER
Ronald, surveying the world from his taxi--that pleasant corner of the
world, St. James's Park--gave a sigh of happiness. The blue sky, the
lawn of daffodils, the mist of green upon the trees, were but a promise
of the better things which the country held for him. Beautiful as he
thought the daffodils, he found for the moment an even greater beauty in
the Gladstone bags at his feet. His eyes wandered from one to the other,
and his heart sang to him, "I'm going away, I'm going away, I'm going
away."
The train was advertised to go at 2.22, and at 2.20 Ronald joined the
Easter holiday crowd upon the platform. A porter put down his luggage
and was then swallowed up in a sea of perambulators and flustered
parents. Ronald never saw him again. At 2.40, amidst some applause, the
train came in.
Ronald seized a lost porter.
"Just put these in for me," he said. "A first smoker."
"All this lot yours, Sir?"
"The three bags--not the milk-cans," said Ronald.
It had been a beautiful day before, but when a family of sixteen which
joined Ronald in his carriage was ruthlessly hauled out by the guard,
the sun seemed to shine with a warmth more caressing than ever. Even
when the train moved out of the station and the children who had been
mislaid emerged from their hiding-places and were bundled in anywhere by
the married porters, Ronald still remained splendidly alone. And the sky
took on yet a deeper shade of blue.
He lay back in his corner, thinking. For a time his mind was occupied
with the thoughts common to most of us when we go away--thoughts of all
the things we have forgotten to pack. I don't think you could fairly
have called Ronald over-anxious about clothes. He recognised that it was
the inner virtues which counted; that a well-dressed exterior was
nothing without some graces of mind or body. But at the same time he did
feel strongly that, if you are going to stay at a house where you have
never visited before, and if you are particularly anxious to make a
good impression, it _is_ a pity that an accident of packing should force
you to appear at dinner in green knickerbockers and somebody else's
velvet smoking-jacket.
Ronald couldn't help feeling that he had forgotten something. It wasn't
the spare sponge; it wasn't the extra shaving-brush; it wasn't the
second pair of bedroom slippers. Just for a moment the sun went behind a
cloud as he wondered if he had included the reserve razor-strop; but no,
he distinctly remembered packing that.
The reason for his vague feeling of unrest was this. He had been
interrupted while getting ready that afternoon; and, as he left whatever
he had been doing in order to speak to his housekeeper, he had said to
himself, "If you're not careful, you'll forget about that when you come
back." And now he could not remember what it was he had been doing, nor
whether he _had_ in the end forgotten to go on with it. Was he selecting
his ties, or brushing his hair, or----
The country was appearing field by field; the train rushed through
cuttings gay with spring flowers; blue was the sky between the baby
clouds ... but it all missed Ronald. What _could_ he have forgotten?
He went over the days that were coming; he went through all the changes
of toilet that the hours might bring. He had packed this and this and
this and this--he was all right for the evening. Supposing they played
golf?... He was all right for golf. He might want to ride.... He would
be able to ride. It was too early for lawn tennis, but ... well, anyhow,
he had put in flannels.
As he considered all the possible clothes that he might want, it really
seemed that he had provided for everything. If he liked he could go to
church on Friday morning; hunt otters from twelve to one on Saturday;
toboggan or dig for badgers on Monday. He had the different suits
necessary for those who attend a water-polo meeting, who play chess, or
who go out after moths with a pot of treacle. And even, in the last
resort, he could go to bed.
Yes, he was all right. He had packed _everything_; moreover, his hair
was brushed and he had no smut upon his face. With a sigh of relief he
lowered the window and his soul drank in the beautiful afternoon. "We
are going away--we are going away--we are going away," sang the train.
At the prettiest of wayside stations the train stopped and Ronald got
out. There were horses to meet him. "Better than a car," thought
Ronald, "on an afternoon like this." The luggage was collected. "Nothing
left out," he chuckled to himself, and was seized with an insane desire
to tell the coachman so; and then they drove off through the fresh green
hedgerows, Ronald trying hard not to cheer.
His host was at the door as they arrived. Ronald, as happy as a child,
jumped out and shook him warmly by the hand, and told him what a
heavenly day it was; receiving with smiles of pleasure the news in
return that it was almost like summer.
"You're just in time for tea. Really, we might have it in the garden."
"By Jove, we might," said Ronald, beaming.
However, they had it in the hall, with the doors wide open. Ronald,
sitting lazily with his legs stretched out and a cup of tea in his
hands, and feeling already on the friendliest terms with everybody,
wondered again at the difference which the weather could make to one's
happiness.
"You know," he said to the girl on his right, "on a day like this,
_nothing_ seems to matter."
And then suddenly he knew that he was wrong, for he had discovered what
it was which he had told himself not to forget ... what it was which he
had indeed forgotten.
And suddenly the birds stopped singing and there was a bitter chill in
the air.
And the sun went violently out.
* * * * *
He was wearing only half-a-pair of spats.
THREE STORIES
XIX. THE MAKING OF A CHRISTMAS STORY
Yuletide!
London at Yuletide!
A mantle of white lay upon the Embankment, where our story opens,
gleaming and glistening as it caught the rays of the cold December sun;
an embroidery of white fringed the trees; and under a canopy of white
the proud palaces of Savoy and Cecil reared their silent heads. The
mighty river in front was motionless, for the finger of Death had laid
its icy hand upon it. Above--the hard blue sky stretching to eternity;
below--the white purity of innocence. London in the grip of winter!
(~Editor.~ _Come, I like this. This is going to be good. A cold day was
it not?_
~Author.~ _Very._)
All at once the quiet of the morning was disturbed. In the distance a
bell rang out, sending a joyous pæan to the heavens. Another took up the
word, and then another, and another. Westminster caught the message
from Bartholomew the son of Thunder, and flung it to Giles Without, who
gave it gently to Andrew by the Wardrobe. Suddenly the air was filled
with bells, all chanting together of peace and happiness, mirth and
jollity--a frenzy of bells.
The Duke, father of four fine children, waking in his Highland castle,
heard and smiled as he thought of his little ones....
The Merchant Prince, turning over in his magnificent residence, heard,
and turned again to sleep, with love for all mankind in his heart....
The Pauper in his workhouse, up betimes, heard, and chuckled at the
prospect of his Christmas dinner....
And, on the Embankment, Robert Hardrow, with a cynical smile on his
lips, listened to the splendid irony of it.
(~Editor.~ _We really are getting to the story now, are we not?_
~Author.~ _That was all local colour. I want to make it quite clear that
it was Christmas._
~Editor.~ _Yes, yes, quite so. This is certainly a Christmas story. I
think I shall like Robert, do you know?_)
It was Christmas day, so much at least was clear to him. With that same
cynical smile on his lips, he pulled his shivering rags about him, and
half unconsciously felt at the growth of beard about his chin. Nobody
would recognise him now. His friends (as he had thought them) would pass
by without a glance for the poor outcast near them. The women that he
had known would draw their skirts away from him in horror. Even Lady
Alice----
Lady Alice! The cause of it all!
His thoughts flew back to that last scene, but twenty-four hours ago,
when they had parted for ever. As he had entered the hall he had half
wondered to himself if there could be anybody in the world that day
happier than himself. Tall, well-connected, a vice-president of the
Tariff Reform League, and engaged to the sweetest girl in England, he
had been the envy of all. Little did he think that that very night he
was to receive his _congé!_
What mattered it now how or why they had quarrelled? A few hasty words,
a bitter taunt, tears, and then the end.
A last cry from her, "Go, and let me never see your face again!"
A last sneer from him, "I will go, but first give me back the presents
I have promised you!"
Then a slammed door and--silence.
What use, without her guidance, to try to keep straight any more? Bereft
of her love, Robert had sunk steadily. Gambling, drink, morphia,
billiards, and cigars--he had taken to them all; until now in the
wretched figure of the outcast on the Embankment you would never have
recognised the once spruce figure of Handsome Hardrow.
(~Editor.~ _It all seems to have happened rather rapidly, does it not?
Twenty-four hours ago he had been_----
~Author.~ _You forget that this is a_ ~SHORT~ _story._)
Handsome Hardrow! How absurd it sounded now! He had let his beard grow,
his clothes were in rags, a scar over one eye testified----
(~Editor.~ _Yes, yes. Of course, I quite admit that a man might go to
the bad in twenty-four hours, but would his beard grow as---- _
~Author.~ _Look here, you've heard of a man going grey with trouble in a
single night, haven't you?_
~Editor.~ Certainly.
~Author.~ _Well, it's the same idea as that._
~Editor.~ _Ah, quite so, quite so._
~Author.~ _Where was I?_
~Editor.~ _A scar over one eye was just testifying---- I suppose he had
two eyes in the ordinary way?_)
--testified to a drunken frolic of an hour or two ago. Never before,
thought the policeman, as he passed upon his beat, had such a pitiful
figure cowered upon the Embankment, and prayed for the night to cover
him.
The----
He was----
Er--the----
(~Editor.~ _Yes?_
~Author.~ _To tell the truth, I am rather stuck for the moment._
~Editor.~ _What is the trouble?_
~Author.~ _I don't quite know what to do with Robert for ten hours or
so._
~Editor.~ _Couldn't he go somewhere by a local line?_
~Author.~ _This is not a humorous story. The point is that I want him to
be outside a certain house some twenty miles from town at eight o'clock
that evening._
~Editor.~ _If I were Robert I should certainly start at once._
~Author.~ _No, I have it._)
As he sat there, his thoughts flew over the bridge of years, and he was
wafted on the wings of memory to other and happier Yuletides. That
Christmas when he had received his first bicycle....
That Christmas abroad....
The merry house-party at the place of his Cambridge friend....
Yuletide at the Towers, where he had first met Alice!
Ah!
Ten hours passed rapidly thus....
* * * * *
(~Author.~ _I put stars to denote the flight of years._
~Editor.~ _Besides, it will give the reader time for a sandwich._)
Robert got up and shook himself.
(~Editor.~ _One moment. This is a Christmas story. When are you coming
to the robin?_
~Author.~ _I really can't be bothered about robins just now. I assure
you all the best Christmas stories begin like this nowadays. We may get
to a robin later; I cannot say._
~Editor.~ _We must. My readers expect a robin, and they shall have it.
And a wassail-bowl, and a turkey, and a Christmas-tree, and a---- _
~Author.~ _Yes, yes; but wait. We shall come to little Elsie soon, and
then perhaps it will be all right._
~Editor.~ _Little Elsie. Good!_)
Robert got up and shook himself. Then he shivered miserably, as the cold
wind cut through him like a knife. For a moment he stood motionless,
gazing over the stone parapet into the dark river beyond, and as he
gazed a thought came into his mind. Why not end it all--here and now? He
had nothing to live for. One swift plunge, and----
(~Editor.~ _You forget. The river was frozen._
~Author.~ _Dash it, I was just going to say that._)
But no! Even in this Fate was against him. _The river was frozen over!_
He turned away with a curse....
What happened afterwards Robert never quite understood. Almost
unconsciously he must have crossed one of the numerous bridges which
span the river and join North London to South. Once on the other side,
he seems to have set his face steadily before him, and to have dragged
his weary limbs on and on, regardless of time and place. He walked like
one in a dream, his mind drugged by the dull narcotic of physical pain.
Suddenly he realised that he had left London behind him, and was in the
more open spaces of the country. The houses were more scattered; the
recurring villa of the clerk had given place to the isolated mansion of
the stockbroker. Each residence stood in its own splendid grounds,
surrounded by fine old forest trees and approached by a long carriage
sweep. Electric----
(~Editor.~ _Quite so. The whole forming a magnificent estate for a
retired gentleman. Never mind that._)
Robert stood at the entrance to one of these houses, and the iron
entered into his soul. How different was this man's position from his
own! What right had this man--a perfect stranger--to be happy and
contented in the heart of his family, while he, Robert, stood, a
homeless wanderer, alone in the cold?
Almost unconsciously he wandered down the drive, hardly realising what
he was doing until he was brought up by the gay lights of the windows.
Still without thinking, he stooped down and peered into the brilliantly
lit room above him. Within all was jollity; beautiful women moved to and
fro, and the happy laughter of children came to him. "Elsie," he heard
some one call, and a childish treble responded.
(~Editor.~ _Now for the robin._
~Author.~ _I am very sorry. I have just remembered something rather sad.
The fact is that, two days before, Elsie had forgotten to feed the
robin, and in consequence it had died before this story opens._
~Editor.~ _That is really very awkward. I have already arranged with an
artist to do some pictures, and I remember I particularly ordered a
robin and a wassail. What about the wassail?_
~Author.~ _Elsie always had her porridge_ ~UPSTAIRS~.)
A terrible thought had come into Robert's head. It was nearly twelve
o'clock. The house-party was retiring to bed. He heard the "Good-nights"
wafted through the open window; the lights went out, to reappear
upstairs. Presently they too went out, and Robert was alone with the
darkened house.
The temptation was too much for a conscience already sodden with
billiards, golf and cigars. He flung a leg over the sill and drew
himself gently into the room. At least he would have one good meal, he
too would have his Christmas dinner before the end came. He switched the
light on and turned eagerly to the table. His eyes ravenously scanned
the contents. Turkey, mince-pies, plum-pudding--all was there as in the
days of his youth.
(~Editor.~ _This is better. I ordered a turkey, I remember. What about
the mistletoe and holly? I rather think I asked for some of them._
~Author.~ _We must let the readers take something for granted._
~Editor.~ _I am not so sure. Couldn't you say something like this:
"Holly and mistletoe hung in festoons upon the wall?"_)
Indeed, even holly and mistletoe hung in festoons upon the wall.
(~Editor.~ _Thank you._)
With a sigh of content Hardrow flung himself into a chair, and seized a
knife and fork. Soon a plate liberally heaped with good things was
before him. Greedily he set to work, with the appetite of a man who had
not tasted food for several hours....
"Dood evening," said a voice. "Are you Father Kwistmas?"
Robert turned suddenly, and gazed in amazement at the white-robed
figure in the doorway.
"Elsie," he murmured huskily.
(~Editor.~ _How did he know? And why "huskily"?_
~Author.~ _He didn't know, he guessed. And his mouth was full._)
"Are you Father Kwistmas?" repeated Elsie.
Robert felt at his chin, and thanked Heaven again that he had let his
beard grow. Almost mechanically he decided to wear the mask--in short,
to dissemble.
"Yes, my dear," he said. "I just looked in to know what you would like
me to bring you."
"You're late, aren't oo? Oughtn't oo to have come this morning?"
(~Editor.~ _This is splendid. This quite reconciles me to the absence of
the robin. But what was Elsie doing downstairs?_
~Author.~ _I am making Robert ask her that question directly._
~Editor.~ Yes, but just tell me now--between friends.
~Author.~ _She had left her golliwog in the room, and couldn't sleep
without it._
~Editor.~ _I knew that was it._)
"If I'm late, dear," said Robert, with a smile, "why, so are you."
The good food and wine in his veins were doing their work, and a
pleasant warmth was stealing over Hardrow. He found to his surprise that
airy banter still came easy to him.
"To what," he continued, "do I owe the honour of this meeting?"
"I came downstairs for my dolly," said Elsie. "The one you sent me this
morning, do you remember?"
"Of course I do, my dear."
"And what have you bwought me now, Father Kwistmas?"
Robert started. If he was to play the rôle successfully he must find
something to give her now. The remains of the turkey, a pair of
finger-bowls, his old hat--all these came hastily into his mind, and
were dismissed. He had nothing of value on him. All had been pawned long
ago.
Stay! The gold locket studded with diamonds and rubies, which contained
Alice's photograph. The one memento of her that he had kept, even when
the pangs of starvation were upon him. He brought it from its
resting-place next his heart.
"A little something to wear round your neck, child," he said. "See!"
"Thank oo," said Elsie. "Why, it opens!"
"Yes, it opens," said Robert moodily.
"Why, it's Alith! Sister Alith."
(~Editor.~ _Ha!_
~Author.~ _I thought you'd like that._)
Robert leapt to his feet as if he had been shot.
"Who?" he cried.
"My sister Alith. Does oo know her too?"
Alice's sister! Heavens! He covered his face with his hands.
The door opened.
(~Editor.~ _Ha again!_)
"What are you doing here, Elsie?" said a voice. "Go to bed, child. Why,
who is this?"
"Father Kwithmath, thithter."
(~Editor.~ _How exactly do you work the lisping?_
~Author.~ _What do you mean? Don't children of Elsie's tender years lisp
sometimes?_
~Editor.~ _Yes, but just now she said "Kwistmas" quite correctly_----
~Author.~ _I am glad you noticed that. That was an effect which I
intended to produce. Lisping is brought about by placing the tongue upon
the hard surface of the palate, and in cases where the subject is unduly
excited or influenced by emotion the lisp becomes more pronounced. In
this case---- _
~Editor.~ _Yeth, I thee._)
"Send her away," cried Robert, without raising his head.
The door opened, and closed again. "Well," said Alice calmly, "and who
are you? You may have lied to this poor child, but you cannot deceive
me. You are _not_ Father Christmas."
The miserable man raised his shamefaced head and looked haggardly at
her.
"Alice!" he muttered, "don't you remember me?"
She gazed at him earnestly.
"Robert! But how changed!"
"Since we parted, Alice, much has happened."
"Yet it seems only yesterday that I saw you!"
(~Editor.~ _It_ ~WAS~ _only yesterday._
~Author.~ _Yes, yes. Don't interrupt now, please._)
"To me it has seemed years."
"But what are you doing here?" said Alice.
"Rather, what are _you_ doing here?" answered Robert.
(~Editor.~ _I think Alice's question was the more reasonable one._)
"I live here."
Robert gave a sudden cry.
"Your house! Then I have broken into your house! Alice, send me away!
Put me in prison! Do what you will to me! I can never hold up my head
again."
Lady Alice looked gently at the wretched figure in front of her.
"I am glad to see you again," she said. "Because I wanted to say that it
was _my_ fault!"
"Alice!"
"Can you forgive me?"
"Forgive you? If you knew what my life has been since I left you! If you
knew into what paths of wickedness I have sunk! How only this evening,
unnerved by excess, I have deliberately broken into this house--_your_
house--in order to obtain food. Already I have eaten more than half a
turkey and the best part of a plum pudding. I----"
With a gesture of infinite compassion she stopped him.
"Then let us forgive each other," she said with a smile. "A new year is
beginning, Robert!"
He took her in his arms.
"Listen," he said.
In the distance the bells began to ring in the New Year. A message of
hope to all weary travellers on life's highway. It was New Year's Day!
(~Editor.~ _I thought Christmas Day had started on the Embankment. This
would be Boxing Day._
~Author.~ _I'm sorry, but it must end like that. I must have my bells._
~Editor.~ _That's all very well. I have a good deal to explain as it is.
Some of your story doesn't fit the pictures at all, and it is too late
now to get new ones done._
~Author.~ _I am afraid I cannot work to order._
~Editor.~ _Yes, I know. The artist said the same thing. Well, I must
manage somehow, I suppose. Good-bye. Rotten weather for August, isn't
it?_)
XX. A MATTER-OF-FACT FAIRY TALE
Once upon a time there was a King who had three sons. The two eldest
were lazy good-for-nothing young men, but the third son, whose name was
Charming, was a delightful youth, who was loved by everybody (outside
his family) who knew him. Whenever he rode through the town the people
used to stop whatever work they were engaged upon and wave their caps
and cry, "Hurrah for Prince Charming!"--and even after he had passed
they would continue to stop work, in case he might be coming back the
same way, when they would wave their caps and cry, "Hurrah for Prince
Charming!" again. It was wonderful how fond of him they were.
But alas! his father the King was not so fond. He preferred his eldest
son; which was funny of him, because he must have known that only the
third and youngest son is ever any good in a family. Indeed, the King
himself had been a third son, so he had really no excuse for ignorance
on the point. I am afraid the truth was that he was jealous of Charming,
because the latter was so popular outside his family.
Now there lived in the Palace an old woman called Countess Caramel, who
had been governess to Charming when he was young. When the Queen lay
dying, the Countess had promised her that she would look after her
youngest boy for her, and Charming had often confided in Caramel since.
One morning, when his family had been particularly rude to him at
breakfast, Charming said to her:
"Countess, I have made up my mind, and I am going into the world to seek
my fortune."
"I have been waiting for this," said the Countess. "Here is a magic
ring. Wear it always on your little finger, and whenever you want help,
turn it round once and help will come."
Charming thanked her and put the ring on his finger. Then he turned it
round once just to make sure that it worked. Immediately the oddest
little dwarf appeared in front of him.
"Speak and I will obey," said the dwarf.
Now Charming didn't want anything at all just then, so after thinking
for a moment, he said, "Go away!"
The dwarf, a little surprised, disappeared.
"This is splendid," thought Charming, and he started on his travels with
a light heart.
The sun was at its highest as he came to a thick wood, and in its shade
he lay down to rest. He was awakened by the sound of weeping. Rising
hastily to his feet he peered through the trees, and there, fifty yards
away from him, by the side of a stream sat the most beautiful damsel he
had ever seen, wringing her hands and sobbing bitterly. Prince Charming,
grieving at the sight of beauty in such distress, coughed and came
nearer.
"Princess," he said tenderly, for he knew she must be a Princess, "you
are in trouble. How can I help you?"
"Fair Sir," she answered, "I had thought to be alone. But, since you are
here, you can help me if you will. I have a--a brother----"
But Charming did not want to talk about brothers. He sat down on a
fallen log beside her, and looked at her entranced.
"I think you are the most lovely lady in all the world," he said.
"Am I?" said the Princess, whose name, by the way, was Beauty.
She looked away from him and there was silence between them. Charming,
a little at a loss, fidgeted nervously with his ring, and began to speak
again.
"Ever since I have known you----"
"You are in need of help?" said the dwarf, appearing suddenly.
"Certainly not," said Charming angrily. "Not in the least. I can manage
this quite well by myself."
"Speak, and I will obey."
"Then go away," said Charming; and the dwarf, who was beginning to lose
his grip of things, again disappeared.
The Princess, having politely pretended to be looking for something
while this was going on, turned to him again.
"Come with me," she said, "and I will show you how you can help me."
She took him by the hand and led him down a narrow glade to a little
clearing in the middle of the wood. Then she made him sit down beside
her on the grass, and there she told him her tale.
"There is a giant called Blunderbus," she said, "who lives in a great
castle ten miles from here. He is a terrible magician, and years ago
because I would not marry him he turned my--my brother into a--I don't
know how to tell you--into a--a tortoise." She put her hands to her face
and sobbed again.
"Why a tortoise?" said Charming, knowing that sympathy was useless, but
feeling that he ought to say _something_.
"I don't know. He just thought of it. It--it isn't a very nice thing to
be."
"And why should he turn your _brother_ into it? I mean, if he had turned
_you_ into a tortoise--Of course," he went on hurriedly, "I'm very glad
he didn't."
"Thank you," said Beauty.
"But I don't understand why----"
"He knew he could hurt me more by making my brother a tortoise than by
making me one," she explained, and looked at him anxiously.
This was a new idea to Charming, who had two brothers of his own; and he
looked at her in some surprise.
"Oh, what does it matter _why_ he did it?" she cried, as he was about to
speak. "Why do giants do things? _I_ don't know."
"Princess," said Charming remorsefully, and kissed her hand, "tell me
how I can help you."
"My brother," said Beauty, "was to have met me here. He is late again."
She sighed and added, "He used to be _so_ punctual."
"But how can I help him?" asked Charming.
"It is like this. The only way in which the enchantment can be taken off
him is for some one to kill the Giant. But, if once the enchantment has
stayed on for seven years, then it stays on for ever."
Here she looked down and burst into tears.
"The seven years," she sobbed, "are over at sundown this afternoon."
"I see," said Charming thoughtfully.
"Here is my brother," cried Beauty.
An enormous tortoise came slowly into view. Beauty rushed up to him and,
having explained the situation rapidly, made the necessary introduction.
"Charmed," said the tortoise. "You can't miss the castle; it's the only
one near here, and Blunderbus is sure to be at home. I need not tell you
how grateful I shall be if you kill him. Though I must say," he added,
"it puzzles me to think how you are going to do it."
"I have a friend who will help me," said Charming, fingering his ring.
"Well, I only hope you'll be luckier than the others."
"The others?" cried Charming in surprise.
"Yes; didn't she tell you about the others who tried?"
"I forgot to," said Beauty, frowning at him.
"Ah, well, perhaps in that case we'd better not go into it now," said
the Tortoise. "But before you start I should like to talk to you
privately for a moment." He took Charming on one side and whispered, "I
say, do _you_ know anything about tortoises?"
"Very little," said Charming. "In fact----"
"Then you don't happen to know what they eat?"
"I'm afraid I don't."
"Dash it, why doesn't _anybody_ know? The others all made the most
ridiculous suggestions. Steak and kidney puddings--shrimp
sandwiches--and buttered toast. Dear me! The nights we had after the
shrimp sandwiches! And the fool swore he had kept tortoises all his
life!"
"If I may say so," said Charming, "I should have thought that _you_
would have known best."
"The same silly idea they all have," said the Tortoise testily. "When
Blunderbus put this enchantment on me, do you suppose he got a
blackboard and a piece of chalk and gave me a lecture on the diet and
habits of the common tortoise, before showing me out of the front gate?
No, he simply turned me into the form of a tortoise and left my mind and
soul as it was before. I've got the anatomy of a tortoise, I've got the
very delicate inside of a tortoise, but I don't _think_ like one,
stupid. Else I shouldn't mind being one."
"I never thought of that."
"No one does, except me. And I can think of nothing else." He paused and
added confidently. "We're trying rum omelettes just now. Somehow I don't
think tortoises _really_ like them. However, we shall see. I suppose
you've never heard anything definite against them?"
"You needn't bother about that," said Charming briskly. "By to-night you
will be a man again." And he patted him encouragingly on the shell and
returned to take an affectionate farewell of the Princess.
As soon as he was alone, Charming turned the ring round his finger, and
the dwarf appeared before him.
"The same as usual?" said the dwarf, preparing to vanish at the word. He
was just beginning to get into the swing of it.
"No, no," said Charming hastily. "I really want you this time." He
thought for a moment. "I want," he said at last, "a sword. One that will
kill giants."
Instantly a gleaming sword was at his feet. He picked it up and examined
it.
"Is this really a magic sword?"
"It has but to inflict one scratch," said the dwarf, "and the result is
death."
Charming, who had been feeling the blade, took his thumb away hastily.
"Then I shall want a cloak of darkness," he said.
"Behold, here it is. Beneath this cloak the wearer is invisible to the
eyes of his enemies."
"One thing more," said Charming. "A pair of seven-league boots.... Thank
you. That is all to-day."
Directly the dwarf was gone, Charming kicked off his shoes and stepped
into the magic boots; then he seized the sword and the cloak and darted
off on his lady's behest. He had barely gone a hundred paces before a
sudden idea came to him, and he pulled himself up short.
"Let me see," he reflected; "the castle was ten miles away. These are
seven-league boots--so that I have come about two thousand miles. I
shall have to go back." He took some hasty steps back, and found
himself in the wood from which he had started.
"Well?" said Princess Beauty, "have you killed him?"
"No, n-no," stammered Charming, "not exactly killed him. I was
just--just practising something. The fact is," he added confidently.
"I've got a pair of new boots on, and----" He saw the look of cold
surprise in her face and went on quickly, "I swear, Princess, that I
will not return to you again without his head." He took a quick step in
the direction of the castle and found himself soaring over it; turned
eleven miles off and stepped back a pace; overshot it again, and arrived
at the very feet of the Princess.
"His head?" said Beauty eagerly.
"I--I must have dropped it," said Charming, hastily pretending to feel
for it. "I'll just go and----" He stepped off in confusion.
Eleven miles the wrong side of the castle, Charming sat down to think it
out. It was but two hours to sundown. Without his magic boots he would
get to the castle too late. Of course, what he really wanted to do was
to erect an isosceles triangle on a base of eleven miles, having two
sides of twenty-one miles each. But this was before Euclid's time.
However, by taking one step to the north and another to the southwest,
he found himself close enough. A short but painful walk, with his boots
in his hand, brought him to his destination. He had a moment's
hesitation about making a first call at the castle in his stockinged
feet, but consoled himself with the thought that in life-and-death
matters one cannot bother about little points of etiquette, and that,
anyhow, the giant would not be able to see them. Then, donning the magic
cloak, and with the magic sword in his hand, he entered the castle
gates. For an instant his heart seemed to stop beating, but the thought
of the Princess gave him new courage....
The Giant was sitting in front of the fire, his great spiked club
between his knees. At Charming's entry he turned round, gave a start of
surprise, bent forward eagerly a moment, and then leant back chuckling.
Like most over-grown men he was naturally kind-hearted and had a simple
humour, but he could be stubborn when he liked. The original affair of
the tortoise seems to have shown him both at his best and at his worst.
"Why do you walk like that?" he said pleasantly to Charming. "The baby
is not asleep."
Charming stopped short.
"You see me?" he cried furiously.
"Of course I do! Really, you mustn't expect to come into a house without
anything on your feet and not be a little noticeable. Even in a crowd I
should have picked you out."
"That miserable dwarf," said Charming savagely, "swore solemnly to me
that beneath this cloak I was invisible to the eyes of my enemies!"
"But then we aren't enemies," smiled the Giant sweetly. "I like you
immensely. There's something about you--directly you came in.... I think
it must be love at first sight."
"So _that's_ how he tricked me!"
"Oh no, it wasn't really like that. The fact is you are invisible
_beneath_ that cloak, only--you'll excuse my pointing it out--there are
such funny bits of you that aren't beneath the cloak. You've no idea how
odd you look; just a head and two legs, and a couple of arms....
Waists," he murmured to himself, "are not being worn this year."
But Charming had had enough of talk. Griping his sword firmly, he threw
aside his useless cloak, dashed forward, and with a beautiful lunge
pricked his enemy in the ankle.
"Victory!" he cried, waving his magic sword above his head. "Thus is
Beauty's brother delivered!"
The Giant stared at him for a full minute. Then he put his hands to his
sides and fell back shaking in his chair.
"Her brother!" he roared. "Well, of all the--Her _brother!_" He rolled
on the floor in a paroxysm of mirth. "Her brother! Oh you--You'll kill
me! Her b-b-b-b-brother! Her b-b-b-b--her b-b-b--her b-b----"
The world suddenly seemed very cold to Charming. He turned the ring on
his finger.
"Well?" said the Dwarf.
"I want," said Charming curtly, "to be back at home, riding through the
streets on my cream palfrey, amidst the cheers of the populace.... At
once."
* * * * *
An hour later Princess Beauty and Prince Udo, who was not her brother,
gazed into each other's eyes; and Beauty's last illusion went.
"You've altered," she said slowly.
"Yes, I'm not really much like a tortoise," said Udo humorously.
"I meant since seven years ago. You're much stouter than I thought."
"Time hasn't exactly stood still with you, you know, Beauty."
"Yet you saw me every day, and went on loving me."
"Well,--er----" He shuffled his feet and looked away.
"_Didn't_ you?"
"Well, you see--of course I wanted to get back, you see--and as long as
you--I mean if we--if you thought we were in love with each other, then,
of course, you were ready to help me. And so----"
"You're quite old and bald. I can't think why I didn't notice it
before."
"Well, you wouldn't when I was a tortoise," said Udo pleasantly. "As
tortoises go I was really quite a youngster. Besides, anyhow one never
notices baldness in a tortoise."
"I think," said Beauty, weighing her words carefully, "I think you've
gone off a good deal in looks the last day or two."
* * * * *
Charming was home in time for dinner, and the next morning he was more
popular than ever outside his family as he rode through the streets of
the city. But Blunderbus lay dead in his Castle. You and I know that he
was killed by the magic sword; yet somehow a strange legend grew up
around his death. And ever afterwards in that country, when one man told
his neighbour a more than ordinarily humorous anecdote, the latter would
cry, in between the gusts of merriment, "Don't! You'll make me die of
laughter!" And then he would pull himself together, and add with a sigh.
"Like Blunderbus."
XXI. THE SEASIDE NOVELETTE
[MAY BE READ ON THE PIER]
NO. XCVIII.--A SIMPLE ENGLISH GIRL
CHAPTER I
PRIMROSE FARM
Primrose Farm stood slumbering in the sunlight of an early summer morn.
Save for the gentle breeze which played in the tops of the two tall elms
all Nature seemed at rest. Chanticleer had ceased his song; the pigs
were asleep; in the barn the cow lay thinking. A deep peace brooded over
the rural scene, the peace of centuries. Terrible to think that in a few
short hours ... but perhaps it won't. The truth is I have not quite
decided whether to have the murder in this story or in No. XCIX.--The
Severed Thumb. We shall see.
As her alarum clock (a birthday present) struck five, Gwendolen French
sprang out of bed and plunged her face into the clump of nettles which
grew outside her lattice window. For some minutes she stood there,
breathing in the incense of the day; then dressing quickly she went down
into the great oak-beamed kitchen to prepare breakfast for her father
and the pigs. As she went about her simple duties she sang softly to
herself, a song of love and knightly deeds. Little did she think that a
lover, even at that moment, stood outside her door.
"Heigh-ho!" sighed Gwendolen, and she poured the bran-mash into a bowl
and took it up to her father's room.
For eighteen years Gwendolen French had been the daughter of John French
of Primrose Farm. Endowed by Nature with a beauty that is seldom seen
outside this sort of story, she was yet as modest and as good a girl as
was to be found in the county. Many a fine lady would have given all her
Parisian diamonds for the peach-like complexion which bloomed on the
fair face of Gwendolen. But the gifts of Nature are not to be bought and
sold.
There was a sudden knock at the door.
"Come in," cried Gwendolen in surprise. Unless it was the cow, it was an
entirely unexpected visitor.
A tall and handsome young man entered, striking his head violently
against a beam as he stepped into the low-ceilinged kitchen.
"Good morning," he said, repressing the remark which came more readily
to his lips. "Pray forgive this intrusion. The fact is I have lost my
way, and I wondered whether you would be kind enough to inform me as to
my whereabouts."
Gwendolen curtsied.
"This is Primrose Farm, Sir," she said.
"I fear," he replied with a smile, "it has been my misfortune never to
have heard so charming a name before. I am Lord Beltravers of Beltravers
Castle, Beltravers. Having returned last night from India I came out for
an early stroll this morning, and I fear that I have wandered out of my
direction."
"Why," cried Gwendolen, "your lordship is miles from Beltravers Castle.
How tired and hungry you must be." She removed a lettuce from the
kitchen-chair, dusted it, and offered it to him. (That is to say, the
chair.) "Let me get you some milk," she added. Picking up a pail she
went out to inspect the cow.
"Gad," said Lord Beltravers, as soon as he was alone. He paced rapidly
up and down the tiled kitchen. "Deuce take it," he added recklessly,
"she's a lovely girl." The Beltraverses were noted in two continents for
their hard swearing.
"Here you are, Sir," said Gwendolen, returning with the precious liquid.
Lord Beltravers seized the pail and drained it at a draught.
"Heavens, but that was good!" he said. "What was it?"
"Milk," said Gwendolen.
"Milk, I must remember. And now may I trespass on your hospitality still
further by trespassing on your assistance so far as to solicit your help
in putting me far enough on my path to discover my way back to
Beltravers Castle?" (When he was alone he said that sentence again to
himself, and wondered what had happened to it.)
"I will show you," she said simply.
They passed out into the sunlit orchard. In an apple-tree a thrush was
singing; the gooseberries were overripe; beet-roots were flowering
everywhere.
"You are very beautiful," he said.
"Yes," said Gwendolen.
"I must see you again. Listen! To-night my mother, Lady Beltravers, is
giving a ball. Do you dance?"
"Alas, not the Tango," she said sadly.
"The Beltraverses do not tang," he announced with simple dignity. "You
valse? Good. Then will you come?"
"Thank you, my lord. Oh, I should love to!"
"That is excellent. And now I must bid you good-bye. But first, will you
not tell me your name?"
"Gwendolen French, my lord."
"Ah! One 'f' or two?"
"Three," said Gwendolen simply.