THE SELECT CIRCLE
At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the
_Salutation Inn_, High Holborn, contained most of its customary
visitors. They came every evening at eight: and they sat till eleven,
drinking and talking. In former days every tavern of repute kept such a
room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of _habitues_, who
met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all
respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they
were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and
suspicion. Most of the regular visitors knew each other: when thy did
not, it was tavern politeness not to ask; a case is on record of four
cronies, who used the _Cock_ in Meet Street for thirty years, not one
knowing either the name or the trade of the other three. Yet when one
died, the other three pined away. This good old custom is now decayed.
The respectable burgess stays at home, which is much more monotonous.
Yet there may still be found a parlour here and there with a society
meeting every evening all the year round.
The parlour of the _Salutation_ was a good-sized room wainscoted and
provided with a sanded floor. It was furnished with a dozen wooden
chairs, and three small round tables, the chairs disposed in a circle so
as to prevent corners or cliques in conversation. Sacred is the
fraternity, liberty, and equality of the parlour. The room was low, and,
in the evenings, always hot with its two flaming unprotected gas jets;
the window was never opened except in the morning, and there was always
present a rich perfume of tobacco, beer, and spirits, both that
anciently generated and that of the day's creation.
Among the frequenters,--who were, it must be confessed, a somewhat faded
or decayed company--was, to put him first because he was the richest the
great Mr. Robert Hellyer, of Barnard's Inn, usurer or money-lender.
Nobody quite likes the profession--one knows not why. Great fortunes
have been made in it; the same fortunes have been dissipated by the
money-lenders' heirs. Such fortunes do not stick, somehow. Mr. Hellyer,
for instance, was reputed wealthy beyond the dreams of the wildest
desire. It was also said of him, under breath and in whispers and
envious murmurs, that should a man borrow a five-pound note of him, that
borrower would count himself lucky if he escaped with the loss of
seventy-five pounds; and might generally expect to lose the whole of his
household furniture, and the half of his income, for the rest of his
natural life. To be sure, he sometimes had losses, as he said himself,
with a groan; as when an unscrupulous client jumped off the Embankment,
when he had not paid more than fifty pounds on the original five; or
when a wicked man sold off his furniture secretly, in contempt of the
bill of sale, and got clean out of the country with his wife and
children. But on the whole he did pretty well. It was further said, by
old clients, that his heart was a simple piece of round granite, for
which he had no use, and that he made money out of it by letting it out
at so much an hour for a paving mallet.
Mr. Robert Hellyer was not a genial man, or a cheerful or a pleasant man
to look upon; he neither loved nor comprehended a jest; he never smiled;
he kept his mind always employed on the conduct of his business. Every
night--forgive the solitary weakness--he drank as much as he could
carry. In appearance, he was red-faced, thick-necked, and stout; his
voice was thick even in the morning, when he was under no compulsion to
thickness; it was believed by his friends that his education had been
imperfect; perhaps because he never gave anybody reason to suppose that
he had ever received any education at all. To such men as Mr. Hellyer,
who every night take much strong drink, and on no occasion whatever take
any exercise, sixty is the grand climacteric. He was, a year ago, just
fifty-nine. Alas! he has not even reached his grand climacteric. Already
he is gone. He was cut off by pneumonia, or apoplexy, last Christmas.
Those who saw the melancholy _cortege_ filing out of the narrow gates of
Barnard's Inn, mournfully remarked that none of his money was taken with
him, and asked what happiness he could possibly find in the next world,
which he would begin with nothing--nothing at all--not even credit--an
absolute pauper.
Mr. Robert Hellyer sat on one side of the empty fireplace. On the
opposite side, a great contrast to his coarse and vulgar race, sat an
elderly man, tall, thin, dressed in a coat whose sleeves were worn to
shininess. His face was dejected: his features were still fine: he was
evidently a gentleman. This person was a barrister, decayed and
unsuccessful; he lived in a garret in Gray's Inn. There are a good many
wrecks at the Bar, but few quite so forlorn as this poor old man. He
still professed to practise, and picked up a guinea now and then by
defending criminals. On these casual fees he managed to live. His
clothes were threadbare; it was many years since he had had a greatcoat;
on rainy and cold days he had a thin cape which he wore over his
shoulders. Heaven knows how he dined and breakfasted; every evening,
except in the hot days of summer, he came to this place for light and
warmth. Unless he was very poor indeed, he called for a pint of old and
mild and read the day's paper. Sometimes he talked, but not often;
sometimes one or other of the company would offer him a more costly
drink, which he always accepted with all that was left to him of
courtesy. Outside, he had no friends; they had all forgotten him or
died--it is very easy for a poor man to be forgotten; he had no
relations; they had all died, emigrated, and dispersed; the relations of
the unsuccessful are easily lost. When he talked, he sometimes became
animated, and would tell anecdotes of the Bar and of the time when he
was called, nearly fifty years agone, by the Benchers of Gray's Inn.
What had become of the hopes and ambitions with which that young man
entered upon the profession, which was to lead him to the parlour of the
_Salutation_ and the company that gathered there--and to the bare and
miserable garret of Gray's Inn, forgotten and alone?
Another man, also elderly, who sat next to the barrister, was a
gentleman who sold an excellent business and retired, in order to betake
himself more completely to toping. He drank in three taverns during the
day. One was in Fleet Street, where he took his chop at three; one was
near Drury Lane Theatre, where he dallied with a little whisky from five
to nine; and this was the third. He was a quiet, happy, self-respecting,
dignified old man. In the evening, he spoke not at all--for sufficient
reasons; but he benevolently inclined his head if he was addressed.
Next to him sat a younger man, a solicitor, whose practice consisted in
defending prisoners in the Police Courts. He had with him two friends,
and he had a confident swagger, which passed for ability. Next to him
and his friends was a house agent, who had been a member for an Irish
borough: and there was a gentleman, whose wife sang in music halls, so
that this fortunate person could--and did--sit about in taverns all day
long. His appearance was that of a deboshed City clerk, as he was. Not
to mention other members of the company, Checkley was there, occupying a
chair next to the money-lender.
Here he was called Mr. Checkley. He came every evening at nine o'clock,
Sundays included. Like the money-lender, he wanted his little
distractions, and took them in this way. Here, too, he was among those
who respected him, not so much on account of his public and private
virtues, or for his eminence in the law, as his money. It is not often
that a solicitor's clerk becomes a 'warm' man, but then it is not often
that one of the calling deliberately proposes to himself early in life
to save money, and lives till seventy-five steadily carrying out his
object. If you are good at figures, you will understand how Mr. Checkley
succeeded. Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five he had an income
which averaged about seventy-five pounds. He lived upon fifty pounds a
year. From twenty-five to thirty-five he made an average of one hundred
and fifty pounds: he still lived upon fifty pounds a year. At
thirty-five he was induced by prudential considerations to marry: the
lady, considerably his senior, had a thousand pounds. She was even more
miserly than himself, and in a year or so after marriage, she fell into
a decline, owing to insufficient nourishment, and presently expired. On
the whole he calculated that he was the better man for the marriage by a
thousand pounds. From thirty-five to forty-five his income rose to two
hundred pounds: it then for twenty-five years stood at three hundred
pounds a year; at the age of seventy Mr. Dering gave him four hundred
pounds. Therefore, to sum up, he had put by out of his pay the sum of
11,675_l_.--and this without counting the compound interest always
mounting up from his investments, which were all of a careful kind such
as he understood: tenement houses, of which he had a good number: shares
in building societies: money lent on bills of sale or on mortgage. At
home--Mr. Checkley lived on the ground floor of one of his own
houses--he grew more miserly as he grew older. The standard of luxury is
not high when fifty pounds a year covers all; but of late he had been
trying to keep below even that humble amount. He conducted his affairs
in the evening between his office hours and nine at his own house, or
among the people where his property lay. It was in the district, visited
by few, lying east of Gray's Inn Road: his own house was in a certain
small square, a good half of the houses in which belonged to him.
At nine o'clock he arrived at the tavern. Here his drinks cost him
nothing. A custom had grown up in the course of years for the
money-lender to consult him on the many difficult points which arise in
the practice of his profession. He was one of those who like to have one
foot over the wall erected by the law, but not both. In other words, he
was always trying to find out how far the law would allow him to go, and
where it called upon him to stop. With this view he schemed perpetually
to make his clients sign bonds under the delusion that they meant a
hundredth part of what they really did mean. And as, like all ignorant
men, he had the most profound belief in the power and the knowledge and
the chicanery of lawyers, he was pleased to obtain Checkley's advice in
return for Checkley's drinks.
It was a full gathering. The old clerk arrived late: he was gratified at
hearing the ex-M.P. whispering to his friends that the new arrival was
worth his twenty thousand pounds if a penny. He swelled with honourable
pride. Yes. Twenty thousand pounds! And more--more. Who would have
thought, when he began as an office boy, that he could ever achieve so
much?
The money-lender, bursting with a new case, real or supposed, took his
pipe out of his mouth and communicated it in a hoarse whisper.
'Suppose----' it began.
'Then'--Checkley replied when the case was finished--'you would lay
yourself open to a criminal prosecution. Don't you go so much as to
think of it. There was a case twenty-five years ago exactly like it. The
remarks of the judge were most severe, and the sentence was heavy.'
'Ah!' The usurer's red face grew redder. 'Then it can't be thought of.
Pity, too. There's a houseful of furniture and a shopful of stuff. And
a young man as it would do good to him just to start fair again.
Pity.--Put a name to it, Mr. Checkley.'
'Rum. Hot. With lemon,' replied the sage. 'You get more taste in your
mouth, more upliftin' for your heart, as they say, more strengthenin'
for the stomach, better value all round for your money out of rum than
any other drink that I know.'
At this point, and before the waiter could execute the order, voices and
steps were heard outside the room. The voices of two men. That of one
loud, eager, noisy. That of the other quiet, measured, and calm.
Checkley sat upright suddenly and listened.
'That is young Cambridge,' said the old barrister. 'I thought he would
be here--Saturday night and all.' He smiled, as if expectant of
something, and drank off the rest of his beer at a draught.
'Most distinguished Cambridge man,' whispered the ex-M.P. to his
friends. 'Wanst a Fellow of Cambridge College. Great scholar. Ornament
to any circle. Dhrinks likes an oyster. Son of a Bishop too--Son of an
Irish Bishop--Talks Greek like English. He'll come in directly. He's
taking something outside. He's always half dhrunk to begin, and quite
dhrunk to finish. But he only talks the better--being Oirish. Most
remarkable man.'
The voice of this distinguished person Checkley knew. But the other
voice? That he knew as well. And he could not remember whose voice it
was. Very well indeed he remembered the sound of it. Some men never
forget a face: some men never forget a shape or figure: some men never
forget a voice: some men never forget a handwriting. A voice is the
simplest thing, after all, to remember, and the most unchanging. From
eighteen till eighty a man's voice changes not, save that in volume it
decreases during the last decade: the distinguishing quality of the
voice remains the same to the end.
'Have a drink, my dear fellow.' That was the voice of the Pride of
Cambridge.
'Thanks. I don't want a drink.'
Whose voice was it? Checkley sat up eager for the door to be opened, and
that doubt to be resolved.
It was opened. The two men came in first, the Cambridge man leading the
way. He was a good-looking, smooth-faced man of thirty-two or so, with
bright blue eyes--too bright--a fine face, full of delicacy and
mobility, a high, narrow forehead, and quick sensitive lips; a man who
was obviously in want of some one to take him in hand and control him:
one of those men who have no will of their own, and fall naturally
before any temptation which assails them. The chief temptation which
assailed Freddy Carstone--it seems to stamp the man that his friends all
called him Freddy--a Freddy is amiable, weak, beloved, and given to err,
slip, fall, and give way--was the temptation to drink. He was really, as
the ex-M.P. told his friends, a very fine scholar: he had been a Fellow
of his college, but never received any appointment or office of Lecturer
there on account of this weakness of his, which was notorious. When his
Fellowship expired, he came to London, lived in Gray's Inn, and took
pupils. He had the reputation of being an excellent coach if he could be
caught sober. He was generally sober in the morning; often a little
elevated in the afternoon; and always cheerfully--not stupidly--drunk at
night.
'You must have a drink,' Freddy repeated. 'Not want a drink? Hang it,
old man, it isn't what you want, it's what you like. If I only took what
I wanted, I should be--what should I be? Fellow and Tutor of the
college--very likely Master--most probably Archdeacon--certainly Bishop.
Wasn't my father a Bishop? Now, if you take what you like, as well as
what you want--what happens? You go easily and comfortably down
hill--down--down--down--like me. Tobogganing isn't easier: the
switchback railway isn't more pleasant. Always take what you like.'
'No--no, Freddy; thanks.'
'What? You've got ambitions still? You want to be climbing? Man alive!
it's too late. You've stayed away from your friends too long. You can't
get up. Better join us at the _Salutation_ Club. Come in with me. I'll
introduce you. They'll be glad to have you. Intellectual conversation
carried on nightly. Romantic scenery from the back window. Finest
parlour in London. Come in and sample the Scotch.--Not want a drink? Who
ever saw a man who didn't want a drink?'
The other man followed, reluctantly--and at sight of him Checkley jumped
in his chair. Then he snatched the paper from the hands of the ancient
barrister, and buried his head in it. The action was most remarkable and
unmistakable. He hid himself behind the paper; for the man whom the
Cambridge scholar was dragging into the room was none other than
Athelstan Arundel--the very man of whom Mr. Dering had been speaking
that very afternoon: the very man whose loss he had been regretting: the
man accused by himself of forgery. So great was his terror at the sight
of this man that he was fain to hide behind the paper.
Yes: the same man: well dressed, apparently, and prosperous--in a velvet
jacket and a white waistcoat, with a big brown beard--still carrying
himself with that old insolent pride, as if he had never forged
anything: looking not a day older, in spite of the eight years that had
elapsed. What was he doing here?
'Come in, man,' said Freddy again. 'You shall have one drink at least,
and as many more as you like.--Robert, two Scotch and soda. We haven't
met for eight long years. Let us sit down and confess our sins for eight
years. Where have you been?'
'For the most part--abroad.'
'You don't look it. He who goes abroad to make his fortune always comes
home in rags, with a pistol in his coat-tail, and a bowie-knife in his
belt. At least we are taught so. You wear velvet and fine linen. You
haven't been abroad. I don't believe you've been farther than
Camberwell. In fact, Camberwell has been your headquarters. You've been
living in Camberwell--on Camberwell Green, which is a slice of Eden,
with--perhaps--didn't pretty Polly Perkins live on Camberwell
Green?--for eight long years.'
'Let me call upon you in your lodgings, where we can talk.
'I haven't got any lodgings. I am in Chambers--I live all by myself in
Gray's Inn. Come and see me. I am always at home in the mornings--to
pupils only--and generally at home in the afternoon to pupils and topers
and Lushingtons. Here's your whisky. Sit down. Let me introduce you to
the company. This is a highly intellectual society--not what you would
expect of a Holborn Parlour. It is a club which meets here every
evening--a first-class club. Subscription, nothing. Entrance fee,
nothing. Order what you like. Don't pretend not to know your
brother-members.--Gentlemen, this is my old friend, Mr. Athelstan
Arundel, who has been abroad--on Camberwell Green--for the sake of Polly
Perkins--for eight years, and has now returned.'
The ex-M.P. nudged his friends to call their attention to something
good. The rest received the introduction and the remarks which followed
in silence.
'Arundel, the gentleman by the fireplace, he with the pipe--is our
Shylock, sometimes called the Lord Shylock.' The money-lender looked up
with a dull and unintelligent eye: I believe the allusion was entirely
above his comprehension.--'Beside him is Mr. Vulpes--he with his head
buried in the paper--you'll see him presently. Mr. Vulpes is advanced in
years, but well preserved, and knows every letter of the law: he is,
indeed, an ornament of the lower branch. Vulpes will let you a house--he
has many most charming residences--or will advance you money on
mortgage. He knows the law of landlord and tenant, and the law regarding
Bills of Sale. I recommend Vulpes to your friendly consideration.--Here
is Senex Bibulus Benevolens.'--The old gentleman kindly inclined his
head, being too far gone for speech.--'Here is a most learned counsel,
who ought, had merit prevailed, to have been by this time Lord
Chancellor, Chief Justice, Judge or Master of the Rolls, or Queen's
Counsel at least. So far he is still a Junior, but we hope for his
speedy advancement.--Sir, I entreat the honour of offering you a goblet
of more generous drink.--Robert, Irish whisky and a lemon for this
gentleman.--There'--he pointed to the ex-M.P., who again nudged his
friends and grinned--'is our legislator and statesman, the pride of his
constituents, the darling of Ballynacuddery till they turned him
out.--There'--he pointed to the deboshed clerk--'is a member of a great
modern profession, a gentleman with whom it is indeed a pride to sit
down. He is Monsieur le Mari: Monsieur le Mari complaisant et content.'
'I don't know what you mean,' said the gentleman indicated. 'If you want
to talk Greek, talk it outside.'
'I cannot stay,' said Athelstan, looking about the room with scant
respect. 'I will call upon you at your Chambers.'
'Do--do, my dear fellow.' Athelstan shook hands and walked away. 'Now,
there's a man, gentlemen, who might have done anything--anything he
might have done. Rowed stroke to his boat. Threw up everything eight
years ago and went away--nobody knew why. Sad to see so much promise
wasted. Sad--sad. He hasn't even touched his drink. Then I
must--myself.' And he did.
Observe that there is no such lamentation over the failure of a
promising young man as from one who has also failed. For, by a merciful
arrangement, the failure seldom suspects himself of having failed.
'Now, Mr. Checkley,' said the barrister, 'he's gone away and you needn't
hide yourself any longer--and you can let me have my paper again.'
Mr. Checkley spoke no more that evening. He drank up his rum-and-water,
and he went away mightily perturbed. That Athelstan Arundel had come
back portended that something would happen. And like King Cole's
prophet, he could not foretell the nature of the event.