No More Learning

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LUCIAN THE DREAMER
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' Once,' answered Saxonstowe. ' We were boys at the time. I had no idea that he was the poet of whose work I have heard so much since coming home. '
' He has had an extraordinarily successful career,' said Mr. Robertson, glancing complacently at a little row of thin volumes bound in dark green cloth which figured in a miniature book-case above his desk. * I have pub- lished all his work—he leaped into fame with his first book, which I produced when he was at Oxford, and since then he has held a recognised place. Yes, one may say that Damerel is one of fortune's spoiled dar- lings — everything that he has done has turned out a great success. He has the grand manner in poetry. I don't know whether your lordship has read his great
tragedy, Domitia, which was staged so magnificently' at the Athenaeum, and proved the sensation of the year?
' I am afraid,' replied Saxonstowe, * that I have had few opportunities of reading anything at all for the past five years. I think Mr. Damerel' s first volume had just appeared when I left England, and books, you know, are not easily obtainable in the wilds of Central Asia. Now that I have better chances, I must not neglect them. '
' You have a great treat in store, my lord,' said the publisher. He nodded his head several times, as if to emphasise the remark. ' Yes,' he continued, ' Damerel has certainly been favoured by fortune. Everything has conspired to increase the sum of his fame. His romantic marriage, of course, was a great advertisement. '
* An advertisement ! '
* I mean, of course, from my standpoint,' said Mr. Robertson hastily. ' He ran away with a very beautiful girl who was on the very eve of contracting a most advantageous marriage from a worldly point of view, and the affair was much talked about.
There was a great rush on Damerel's books during the next few weeks—it is wonderful how a little sensation like that
helps the sale of a book. I remember that Lord Pintle- ford pubUshed a novel with me some years ago which
io8 LUCIAN THE DREAMER
we could not sell at all. He shot his coachman in a fit of anger—that sold the book like hot cakes. '
' I trust the unfortunate coachman was not seriously injured,' said Saxonstowe, who was much amused by these revelations. ' It is, I confess, an unusual method of advertising a book, and one which I should not care
to *adopt. ' ' Oh, we can spare your lordship the trouble !
said Mr. Robertson. ' There'll be no need to employ any
unusual methods in making your lordship's book known. I have already subscribed two large edit:<ons of it. '
With this gratifying announcement Mr. Robertson plunged into the business which had brought Lord Saxonstowe to his office, and for that time no more was said of Lucian Damerel and his great fame. But that night Saxonstowe dined with his aunt. Lady Firmanence, a childless widow who lived on past scandals and present gossip, and chancing to remark that he had encountered Lucian and renewed a very small acquaintance with him, was greeted with a sniff which plainly indicated that Lady Firmanence had something to say.
* And where, pray, did you meet Lucian Damerel at any time? ' she inquired. ' He was unknown, or just beginning to be known, when you left England. '
* It is ten years since I met him,' answered Saxon- stowe. * It was when I was staying at Saxonstowe with my uncle. I met Damerel at Simonstower, and the circumstances were rather amusing. '
He gave an account of the duel, which afforded Lady Firmanence much amusement, and he showed her the scar on his hand, and laughed as he related the story of Lucian's terrible earnestness.
' But I have never forgotten,' he concluded, ' how readily and sincerely he asked my forgiveness when he found that he had been in the wrong—it rather knocked me over, you know, because I didn't quite understand that he really felt the thing—we were both such boys, and the girl was a child. '
' Oh, Lucian
Damerel has good feeling,' said Lady
LUCIAN THE DREAMER 109
Firmanence. ' You wouldn't understand the Italian strain in him. But it is amusing that you should have fought over Haidee Brinklow, who is now Mrs. Lucian.
I'm glad he married her, and that you didn't. '
' Considering that I am to dine with Mr. and Mrs.
Lucian Damerel?
to-morrow, ' said Saxonstowe, ' it
Lucian Damerel
bit odd that don't know any more of them than this. She, remember, was some connection of Lord Simons- tower's; but who he? '
Oh, he was the son of Cyprian Damerel, an Italian artist who married the daughter of one of Simonstower's tenants. Simonstower was at all times greatly interested in him, and has always been my firm impression that was he who sent the boy to Oxford. At any rate, when he died, which was just before Lucian Damerel came of age, Simonstower left
him ten thousand pounds. '
That was good,' said Saxonstowe.
don't know,' said Lady Firmanence. has always seemed to me from what have seen of him— and keep my eyes open on most things — that would have been far better for that young man fortune had dealt him few sound kicks instead of so many half-
Saxonstowe, it's bad thing for man, and especially for man of that temperament,
to be pampered too much. Now, Lucian Damerel has been pampered all his life— know good deal about him, because was constantly down at Saxonstowe during the last two or three years of your uncle's Hfe, and Saxonstowe, as you may remember, close to Simonstower. know how Lucian was petted and pampered by his own people, and by the parson and his daughter, and by the old lord. His way has always been made smooth for him— would have done him good to find few rough places here and there. He had far too much flattery poured upon him when his success came, and he has got used to expecting though
indeed,' concluded the old lady, laughing, Heaven knows I'm wrong in saying " got used," for Damerel's
pence. Depend upon
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one of the sort who take all the riches and luxuries of the worid as their just due. '
' He seemed to me to be very simple and unaffected,' said Saxonstowe.
Lady Firmanence nodded the ribbons of her cap.
' Yes,' she said, ' he's sadly too simple, and I wish— for I can't help hking him—that he was as affected as some of those young upstarts who cultivate long hair and velvet coats on the strength of a slim volume printed on one side of the paper only. No—Lucian Damerel hasn't a scrap of affectation about him, and he isn't a I wish he were affected and that he would pose
poseur.
—I do indeed, for his own sake. '
Saxonstowe knew that his aunt was a clever woman. He held his tongue, asking her by his eyes to explain this desire of hers, which seemed so much at variance with her well-known love of humbug and cant.
' Oh, of course I know you're wondering at that! ' she said. * Well, the explanation is simple enough. I wish Lucian Damerel were a poseur, I wish he were
affected, even to the insufferable stage, for the simple reason that if he were these things it would show that he was alive to the practical and business side of the matter. — What is he? A writer. He'll have to live by writing at the rate he and Haidee live they'll soon exhaust their resources — and he ought to be ahve to the £s, d. oi his trade, for it is a trade. As things are, he isn't alive. The difference between Lucian Damerel and some other men of equal eminence in his own craft is just this: they are for ever in an attitude, crying out, " Look at me—is it not wonderful that I am so clever? " Lucian, on the other hand, seems to suggest an attitude and air of " Wouldn't it be curious if I weren't? " '
* I think,' said Saxonstowe, * that there may be some affectation in that. '
' Affectation,' said Lady Firmanence, ' depends upon two things if it is to be successful : the power to deceive cleverly, and the abihty to deceive for ever. Lucian Damerel couldn't deceive anybody—he's a child, the
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
m
child who believes the world to be an illimitable nursery crammed with inexhaustible toys. '
* I mean that he plays in life,' said Lady Firmanence. ' He's still sporting on his mother's breast, and he'll go on sporting until somebody picks him up, smacks him
soundly, and throws him into a comer. Then, of course, he will be vastly surprised to find that such treatment could be meted out to him. '
' Then let us hope that he will be able to live in his world of dreams for ever,' said Saxonstowe.
' So he might, if the State were to estabhsh an asylum for folk of his sort,' said Lady Firmanence. ' But he
' You mean that he plays at life? '
happens to be Brinklow. '
married, and married to Haidee
' My pubHsher, ' remarked Saxonstowe, ' gloated over the romantic circumstances of the marriage, and ap- peared to think that that sort of thing was good for trade —made books sell, you know. '
' I have no doubt that Damerel's marriage made his books sell, and kept Domitia running at the Athenaeum for at least three months longer,' replied Lady Firmanence.
* I dare say they appealed to the sensations, emotions, feelings, and notions of the British public,' said the old lady. ' Haidee Brinklow, after a campaign of two seasons, was about to marry a middle-aged person who had made much money in something or other, and was prepared to execute handsome settlements. It was all arranged when Lucian burst upon the scene, blazing with triumph, youth, and good looks. He was the comet of that season, and Haidee was attracted by the glitter of his tail. I suppose he and she were madly in love with each other for quite a month —unfortunately, during that month they committed the indiscretion of marriage. '
'' A runaway marriage, was it not? '
* Under the very noses of the mamma and the bride- groom-elect. There was one happy result of the affair, '
' Were the circumstances, then, so very romantic? *
112 LUCIAN THE DREAMER
said Lady Firmanence musingly; ' it drove Mrs. Brinklow off to somewhere or other on the Continent, and there she has since remained —she took her defeat badly. Now the jilted gentleman took it in good part— it is said that he is quite a sort of grandpapa in the establishment, and has reahsed that there are compensa-
tions even in being jilted. '
Saxonstowe meditated upon these things in silence.
' Mrs. Damerel was a pretty girl,' he said, after a
time. doll,' said Fir- ' Mrs. Damerel is a nice little Lady
manence, ' a very pretty toy indeed. Give her plenty of pretty things to wear and sweets to eat, and all the honey of life to sip at, and she'll do well and go far; but don't ask her to draw cheques against a mental balance which she never had, or you'll get them back— dishonoured. '
' Are there any children? ' Saxonstowe asked.
' Only themselves,' rephed his aunt, ' and quite plenty too, in one house. If it were not for MiUie Chilverstone, I don't know what they would do—she descends upon them now and then, straightens them up as far as she can, and sets the wheels working once more. She is good to them. '
' And who is she? I have some sort of recollection of ' her name,' said Saxonstowe. —
She is the daughter of the parson at Simonstower the man who tutored Lucian Damerel. '
' Ah, I remember —she was the girl who came with him to the Castle that day, and he called her Sprats. A lively, good-humoured girl, with a heap of freckles in 'a very bright face,' said Saxonstowe.
She is little altered,' remarked Lady Firmanence. ' Now, that was the girl for Lucian Damerel ! She would have taken care of his money, darned his socks, given him plain dinners, seen that the rent was paid,
and made a man of him. '
' Admirable qualifications,' laughed Saxonstowe.
' But one might reasonably suppose that a poet of
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
113
Damerel's quality needs others —some intellectual gifts, for example, in his helpmeet. '
' 'Stuff and nonsense! ' retorted Lady Firmanence.
He wants a good managing housekeeper with a keen eye for the butcher's bill and a genius for economy. As for intellect —pray, Saxonstowe, don't foster the foolish notion that poets are intellectual. Don't you know that all genius is lopsided? Your poet has all his brain- power in one little cell—there may be a gold-mine there, but the rest of him is usually weak even to childishness. And the great need of the weak man is the strong woman. '
Saxonstowe 's silence was a delicate and compliment to Lady Firmanence's perspicacity.
flattering
CHAPTER XIII
Lady Firmanence's observations upon the family
of Mr. and Mrs. Lucian Damerel sent Lord Saxonstowe to their house at seven o'clock the following evening with feelings of pleasant curiosity. He had been out of the world—as that phrase is known by people whose chief idea of life is to hve in social ant-heaps — long enough to enjoy a renewed acquaintance with and since his return to England had found hitherto untasted pleasure in studying the manners and customs of his fellow-subjects. He remembered Httle about them
as they had presented themselves to him before his
for the East, for he was then young and unlicked: the five years of comparative solitude which he had spent in the deserts and waste places of the earth, only enlivened by the doubtful company of Kirghese, Tartars, and children of nature, had lifted him upon an eminence from whence he might view civilised humanity with critical eye. So far everything had amused him— seemed to him that never had life seemed so small and ignoble, so mean and trifling, as here where the men and women were as puppets pulled by strings which fate had attached to most capricious fingers. Like all the men who come back from the deserts and the mountains, he gazed on the whirling life around him with feeling that was half pity, half contempt. The antics of the puppets made him wonder, and in the wonder he found amusement.
Mr. and Mrs. Lucian Damerel, as befitted young people untroubled by considerations of economy, resided in one of those smaller streets in Mayfair wherein one may find house large enough to turn round in without more than an occasional collision with the walls. Such
house not so comfortable as suburban residence at one-tenth the rent, but has the advantage of being
114
history
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LUCIAN THE DREAMER 115
in the middle of the known world, and if its frontage to the street is only one of six yards, its exterior may be made pretty and even taking by a judicious use of
flowering plants, bright paint,
The interior is usually suggestive of playing at doll's house; but the absence of even one baby makes a great difference, and in Lucian's establishment there were no children. Small as it was, the house was a veritable nest of comfort—Lucian and Haidee had the instinct of settling themselves amongst soft things, and surrounding their souls with an atmosphere of aesthetic delight, and one of them at least had the artist's eye for colour, and the true collector's contempt for the cheap and obvious. There was scarcely a chair or table in the rooms sacred to the householders and their friends which had not a history and a distinction : every picture was an education in art; the books were masterpieces of the binder's craft; the old china and old things generally were the despair
and a quaint knocker.
of many people who could have afforded to buy a ware- house full of the like had they only known where to find it. Lucian knew, and when he came into possession of Lord Simonstower's legacy he began to surround himself with the fruits of money and knowledge, and as riches came rolling in from royalties, he went on indulging his tastes until the house was full, and would hold no more examples of anything. But by that time it was a nest of luxury wherein even the light, real and arti- ficial, was graduated to a fine shade, where nothing crude in shape or colour interfered with the delicate suscepti- bilities of a poetic temperament.
When Lord Saxonstowe was shown into the small drawing-room of this small house he marvelled at the cleverness and delicacy of the taste which could make so much use of limited dimensions. It was the daintiest and prettiest room he had ever seen, and though he himself had small inclinations to ease and luxury of any sort, he drank in the pleasantness of his surroundings with a distinct sense of personal gratification. The room was empty of human life when he entered it, but the
ii6 LUCIAN THE DREAMER
was neither masculine nor feminine— was the personahty of neuter thing, and Saxonstowe dimly recognised that meant Art. He began to understand something of Lucian as he looked about him, and to con- ceive him as mind which dominated its enveloping body to love of beauty that might easily degenerate into slavedom to luxury. He began to wonder Lucian study or library, or wherever he worked, were similarly devoted to the worship of form and colour.
He was turning over the leaves of an Italian work, book sumptuous in form and wonderful in its vellum binding and gold scroll-work, when rustle of skirts
aroused him from the first stages of reverie. He turned, expecting to see his hostess—instead he saw young lady whom he instinctively recognised as Miss Chilverstone, the girl of the merry eyes and the innumer- able freckles of ten years earlier. He looked at her
marks of a personality were all over and the person-
ality
closely
as she approached
Good temper and good health appeared to radiate from Miss Chilver-
heart and purposeful temperament.
stone; the active girl of sixteen had developed into splendid woman, and Lord Saxonstowe, as she moved towards him, admired her with sudden recognition of her feminine strength —she was just the woman, he said to himself, who ought to be the mate of strong man,
man of action and purpose and determination.
She held out her hand to him with frank smile.
Do you remember me? ' she said. It quite ten years since that fateful afternoon at Simonstower. '
Yes, remember quite well. In those days you were called Sprats. '
Was fateful? ' he answered.
am still Sprats,' she answered, with laugh.
.
him, and he saw that the merry eyes had lost some of their roguery, but were still frank, clear, and kindly; some of the freckles had gone,
but good many were still there, adding piquancy to face that had no pretensions to beauty, but many to the charms which spring from the possession of kindly
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LUCIAN THE DREAMER
117
shall always be Sprats. I am Sprats to Lucian and Haidee, and even to my children. '
' To your children? ' he said wonderingly.
I have twenty-five,' she replied, smiling at his ques- tioning look. ' But of course you do not know. I have a private orphanage, all of my own, in Bayswater —it is my hobby. If you are interested in babies and children, do come to see me there, and I will introduce
you to all my charges. '
' I will certainly do that/ he said. ' Isn't it hard
work ? '
' Isn't everything hard work that is worth doing? ' she
answered. ' Yes, I suppose it is hard work, but I like
it. I have a natural genius for mothering
things —that is why I occasionally condescend to put on
helpless
fine clothes and dine with children
Haidee when they entertain great travellers who are also peers of the realm. '
' Do they require mothering? ' he asked.
' Very much so sometimes — they are very particular babies. I come to them every now and then to scold them, smack them, straighten them up, and see that they are in no danger of falHng into the fire or upsetting anything. Afterwards I dine with them in order to cheer them up after the rough time they have had. '
Saxonstowe smiled. He had been closely all the time.
watching her
' I see,' he said, ' that you' are still Sprats. Has the time been very rough to-day ?
' Somewhat rough on poor Haidee, perhaps, ' answered Sprats. ' Lucian has wisely kept out of the way until he can find safety in numbers. But please sit down and tell me about your travels until our hostess appears it seems quite funny to see you all in one piece after such adventures. _ Didn't they torture you in some Thibetan town? ' she inquired, with a sudden change from gaiety to ' womanly concern.
They certainly were rather inhospitable,' he answered. ' I shouldn't call it torture, I think—it was
like Lucian and
ii8
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
merely a sort of gentle hint as to what they would do if
I intruded upon them again. '
• But I want to know what they did,' she insisted.
' You look so nice and comfortable sitting there, with no other sign of discomfort about you than the usual
I-want-my-dinner
had gone through hardships. '
look, that one would never dream you
Saxonstowe was not much given to conversation—his nomadic life had communicated the gift of silence to him,
note in Miss Chilver- stone's voice, and he began to tell her about his travels
but he recognised the sympathetic
in a somewhat boyish fashion that amused her. As he talked she examined him closely and decided that he was almost as young as on the afternoon when he occasioned such mad jealousy in Lucian's breast. His method of
himself was simple and direct and school-
boyish in language, but the exuberance of spirits which
she remembered had disappeared and given place to a
expressing
staid, old-fashioned manner.
' I wonder what did it? ' she said, unconsciously utter-
ing her thought.
' Did what? ' he asked.
' I was thinking aloud,' she answered. ' I wondered
what had made you so very staid in a curiously young
sort of boy that Saxonstowe blushed. He had recollections of his
way you were a rough-and-tumble afternoon at Simonstower. '
youthfulness.
' I beUeve I was an irrepressible
sort of youngster,' he said. ' I think that gets knocked out of you though,
when you spend a lot of time alone—you get no end of time for thinking, you know, out in the deserts. '
' I should think so,' she said. ' And I suppose that even this solitude becomes companionable in a way^that only those who have experienced it can understand? '
He looked at her with some surprise and with a new
interest and strange sense of kinship.
' Yes,' he replied. ' That's it—that is it exactly.
How did you know? '
LUCIAN THE DREAMER 119
' It isn't necessary to go into the deserts and steppes to feel a bit lonely now and then, is it? ' she said, with a
surface qualities.
' I suppose most of us get some sort of notion
laugh.
of solitude at some time or other. '
At that juncture Haidee entered, and Saxonstowe turned to her with a good deal of curiosity. He was somewhat surprised to find that ten years of added age had made little difference in her. She was now a woman, it was true, and her girlish prettiness had changed into a somewhat luxurious style of beauty— there was no denying the loveliness of face and figure, of charm and colour, he said to himself, but he was quick to observe that Haidee' s beauty depended entirely upon
She fell, without effort or conscious- ness, into poses which other women vainly tried to emu- late; it was impossible to her to walk across a room,
sit upon an unaccommodating chair, or loll upon a much becushioned sofa in anything but a graceful way; it was equally impossible, so long as nothing occurred to ruffle her, to keep from her lips a perpetual smile, or inviting glances from her dark eyes. She reminded Saxonstowe of a fluffy, silky-coated kitten which he had seen playing
and he was not sur- prised to find, when she began to talk to him, that her voice had something of the feline purr in it. Within five minutes of her entrance he had determined that Mrs. Damerel was a pretty doll. She showed to the greatest
amidst the luxury of her surroundings, but her mouth dropped no pearls, and her pretty face showed no sign of intellect, or of wit, or of any strong mental quality. It was evident that conversation was not Mrs. Damerel's strong point—she indicated in an instinctive fashion that men were expected to amuse and admire her without drawing upon her intellectual resources, and Saxonstowe soon formed the opinion that a judicious use of monosyllables would carry her a long way in un-
congenial company. Her beauty had something of sleepiness about it—there was neither vivacity nor animation in her manner, but she was beautifully
on Lady Firmanence's hearthrug,
advantage
120 LUCIAN THE DREAMER
gowned and daintily perfect, and as a picture deserved worship and recognition.
Saxonstowe was presently presented to another guest, Mrs. Berenson, a lady who had achieved great distinc- tion on the stage, and who claimed a part proprietorship in Lucian Damerel because she had created the part of the heroine in his tragedy, and almost worn herself to skin and bone in playing it in strenuous fashion for nearly three hundred nights. She was now resting from these labours, and employing her leisure in an attempt to induce Lucian to write a play around herself, and the project was so much in her mind that she began to talk volubly of it as soon as she entered his wife's drawing- room. Saxonstowe inspected her with curiosity and amusement. He had seen her described as an embodi- ment of sinuous grace; she seemed to him an angular, scraggy woman, whose joints were too much in evidence, and who would have been the better for some addition to her adipose tissue. From behind the footlights Mrs. Berenson displayed many charms and qualities of beauty —Saxonstowe soon came to the conclusion that
must be largely due to artificial aids and the power of histrionic art, for she presented none of them on the dull stage of private life. Her hair, arranged on the prin- ciple of artful carelessness, was of a washed-out colour; her complexion was mottled and her skin rough; she had an unfortunately prominent nose which evinced a decided partiality to be bulbous, and her mouth, framed in harsh lines and drooping wrinkles, was so large that it seemed to stretch from one corner of an elongated jaw to the other. She was noticeable, but not pleasant to look upon, and in spite of a natural indifference to such things, Saxonstowe wished that her attire had been either less eccentric or better suited to her. Mrs. Berenson,
being very tall and very thin, wore a gown of the eighteenth-century-rustic-maiden style, made very high at the waist, low at the neck, and short in the sleeves — she thus looked like a lamp-post, or a bean-stalk, topped with a mask and a flaxen wig. She was one of those
they
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
121
women who wear innumerable chains, and at least half- a-dozen rings on each hand, and she had an annoying trick of clasping her hands in front of her and twisting the chains round her fingers, which were very long and very white, and apt to get on other people's nerves. It was also to be observed that she never ceased talking, and that her one subject of conversation was herself.
As Saxonstowe was beginning to wish that his host would appear, Mr. Eustace Darlington was announced, and he found himself diverted from Mrs. Berenson by a new object of interest, in the shape of the man whom Mrs. Damerel had jilted in order to run away with Lucian. Mr. Darlington was a man of apparently forty years of age; a clean-shaven, keen-eyed individual, who communicated an immediate impression of shrewd hard- headedness. He was very quiet and very self-possessed in manner, and it required little knowledge of human nature to predict of him that he would never do anything in a hurry or in a perfunctory manner —a single glance of his eye at the clock as eight struck served to indicate at least one principal trait of his character. '
' It is utterly useless to look at the clock, said Haidee, catching Mr. Darlington's glance. ' That won't bring Lucian any sooner—^he has probably quite forgotten that he has guests, and gone off to dine at his club or some- thing of that sort. He gets more erratic every day. I wish you'd talk seriously to him, Sprats. He never pays the least attention to me. Last week he asked two men to dine—utter strangers to me—and at eight o'clock came a wire from Oxford saying he had gone down there to see a friend and was staying the night. '
' I think that must be delightful in the man to whom you are married,' said Mrs. Berenson. ' I should hate to live with a man who always did the right thing at the right moment —so dull, you know. '
' There is much to be said on both sides, ' said Darling- ton dryly. ' In husbands, as in theology, a happy medium would appear to be found in the via media. I presume, Mrs. Berenson, that you would like your hus-
122 LUCIAN THE DREAMER
band to wear his waistcoat outside his coat and dine at five o'clock in the morning? '
' I would prefer even that to a husband who lived on clock-work principles,' Mrs. Berenson replied. ' Eccen- tricity is the surest proof of strong character. '
' I should imagine,' said Sprats, with a glance at Saxonstowe which seemed to convey to him that the actress was amusing. * I should imagine that Lord Saxonstowe and Mr. Darlington are men of clock-work principles. '
Mrs. Berenson put up her pince-nez and favoured the two men with a long, steady stare. She dropped the pince-nez with a deep sigh.
' They do look like don't they? ' she said despair- ingly. There's something in the way they wear their clothes and hold their hands that suggests it. Do you always rise at certain hour? ' she went on, turning to Saxonstowe. My husband had habit of getting up at six in summer and seven in winter— brought on an extraordinary form of nervous disease in me, and the doctors warned him that they would not be responsible for my life he persisted. believe he tried to break
the habit off, poor fellow, but he died, and so of course there was an end of it. '
Ere Saxonstowe could decide whether he was expected to reply to the lady's question as to his own habits, the sound of rapidly driven and sharply pulled-up cab was heard outside, followed by loudly delivered instruc- tions in Lucian's voice. minute later he rushed into the drawing-room. He had evidently come straight out of the cab, for he wore his hat and forgot to take off— excitement and concern were written in large letters all over him. He began to gesticulate, addressing every- body, and talking very quickly and almost breathlessly. He was awfully sorry to have kept them waiting, and even now he must hurry away again immediately. He had heard late that afternoon of an old college friend who had fallen on evil days after an heroic endeavour to make fortime out of literature, and had gone to him
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LUCIAN THE DREAMER 123
to find that the poor fellow, his wife, and two young children were all in the last stages of poverty, and con- fronting a cold and careless world from the insecure bastion of a cheap lodging in an unknown quarter of the town named Ball's Pond. He described their plight and surroundings in a few graphic sentences, looking from one to the other with quick eager glances, as if appealing to them for comprehension, or sympathy, or assent.
' And of course I must see to the poor chap and his family,' he said. ' They want food, and money, and lots of things. And the two children—Sprats, you must come back with me just now. I am keeping the cab— you must come and take those children away to your hospital. And where is Hoskins? I want food and wine for them; he must put it on top of the hansom. '
* Are we all to go without dinner? ' asked Mrs.
Damerel. ' ' By no means, by no means! ' said Lucian.
Pray do not wait longer —indeed I don't know when I shall
return, there will be lots to do, and '
' But Sprats, if she goes with you, will go hungry,'
Mrs. Damerel urged.
Lucian stared at Sprats, and frowned, as if some deep
mental problem had presented itself to him. know,' he ' You can't be very hungry,' Sprats, you
said, with visible impatience. You must have had tea during the afternoon —can't you wait an hour or two and we'll get something later on? Those two children must be brought away—my God! you should see the place —you must come, of course. '
* Oh, I'm going with you ! ' answered Sprats. ' Don't bother about us, you other people — angels of mercy are not very pleasant things at the moment you're starving for dinner—go and dine and leave Lucian to me; I'll put a cloak or something over my one swell gown and go with him. Now, Lucian, quick with your commissariat arrangements. '
' Yes, yes, I'll be quick,' answered Lucian. * You see/ he continued, turning to Saxonstowe with the air
124
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
of a child who has asked another child to play with and at the last moment prefers an alternative amuse- ment; it's an awful pity, isn't it, but you do quite understand? The poor chap's starving and friendless, you know, and don't know when shall get back, but
Please don't bother about me,' said Saxonstowe; quite understand. '
Lucian sighed— sigh of relief. He looked round; Sprats had disappeared, but Hoskins, staid and solemn butler, lingered at the door. Lucian appealed to him with the pathetic insistence of the man who wants very much to do something, and not quite sure how to do it.
Oh, say, Hoskins, and wine, and
Yes, sir,' said Hoskins. given me instructions, sir. '
want—some food, you know, Miss Chilverstone has just exclaimed Lucian. say,
Oh, then we can go
you really mustn't mind —oh! am forgetting that must take some money,' he said, and hurriedly left the room. His wife sighed and looked at Darlington.
suppose we may now go to dinner,' she said. Lucian will sup on sandwich somewhere about mid-
night. '
In the hall they found Sprats enveloped in an ulster
which completely covered her dinner-gown; Lucian was cramming handful of money, obviously taken at random from receptacle where paper-currency and gold and silver coins were all mingled together, into pocket; footman was carrying case of food and wine out to the cab. Mrs. Berenson insisted on seeing the two apostles of charity depart—the entire episode had put her into good temper, and she enlivened the next hour with artless descriptions of her various states of feeling. Her chatter amused Saxonstowe; Darlington and Mrs. Damerel appeared to have heard much of on previous occasions, and received with
equanimity. As soon as dinner was over she announced that Lucian
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LUCIAN THE DREAMER 125
had been at home she had meant to spend the rest of the evening in expounding her ideas on the subject of the wished-for drama to him, but as things were she would go round to the Empire for an hour—she would just be in time, she said, to see a turn in which the per- former, a contortionist, could tie himself into a com- pHcated knot, dislocate every joint in his body, and assume the most grotesque positions, all without break- ing himself in pieces.
' It is the grimmest performance,' she said to Saxon- stowe; ' it makes me dream, and I wake screaming; and the sensation of finding that the dream is a dream, and not a reality, is so exquisite that I treat myself to it at least once a week. I think that all great artists should cultivate sensations —don't you? '
Upon this point Saxonstowe was unable to give a satisfactory answer, but he replied very politely that he trusted Mrs. Berenson would enjoy her treat. Soon after her departure he made his own adieu, leaving Mrs. Damerel to entertain Darlington and two or three other men who had dropped in after dinner, and who seemed in nowise surprised to find Lucian not at home.
CHAPTER XIV
LuciAN swooped down upon the humble dwelling in which his less fortunate fellow resided, like an angel who came to destroy rather than to save. He took everything into his own hands, as soon as the field of operations lay open to him, and it was quite ten minutes before Sprats, by delicate finesse, managed to shut him up in one room with the invalid, while she and the wife talked practical matters in another. At the end of an hour she got him safely away from the house. He was in a pleasurable state of mind; the situation had been full of charm to him, and he walked out into the street gloating over the fact that the sick man and his wife and children were now fed and warmed and made gener- ally comfortable, and had money in the purse where- with to keep the wolf from the door for many days. His imagination had seized upon the misery which the
must have endured before help came in their way: he conjured up the empty pocket, the empty cupboard, the blank despair that comes from lack of help and sympathy, the heart sickness which springs from the powerlessness to hope any longer. He had read of these things but had never seen them: he only realised what they meant when he looked at the
faces of the sick man and his wife as he and Sprats left them. Striding away at Sprats's side, his head drooping towards his chest and his hands plunged in his pockets, Lucian ruminated upon these things and became so keenly impressed by them that he suddenly paused and uttered a sharp exclamation.
unlucky couple
' By George, Sprats! ' he said, standing still and staring at her as if he had never seen her before, ' what an awful thing poverty must be ! Did that ever strike you? '
* Often, answered Sprats, with laconic alacrity, ' as 126
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
127
it might have struck you, too, if you'd kept your eyes open. '
' I am supposed to have excellent powers of observa- tion,' he said musingly, ' but somehow I don't think I ever quite realised what poverty meant until to-night. I wonder what it would be like to try it for a while— to go without money and food and have no hope? — but, of course, one couldn't do it—one would always know that one could go back to one's usual habits, and so on. It would only be playing at being poor. I wonder, now, where the exact line would be drawn between the end of hope and the beginning of despair? — that's an awfully interesting subject, and one that I
'
all night while you moon about abstract questions? Because if you are, I'm not. *
should like to follow up. Don't you think
' Lucian,' said Sprats, interrupting him without cere- mony, ' are we going to stand here at the street comer
Lucian came out of his reverie and examined his surroundings. He had come to a halt at a point where the Essex Road is transected by the New North Road, and he gazed about him with the expression of a traveller who has wandered into strange regions.
' This is a quarter of the town which I do not know,' he said. ' Not very attractive, is it? Let us walk on to those lights — I suppose we can find a hansom
there, and then we can get back to civilisation. ' They walked forward in the direction of Islington High Street: round about the Angel there was life and animation and a plenitude of bright light; Lucian grew
interested, and finally asked a policeman what part of the town he found himself in. On hearing that that was Islington he was immediately reminded of the ' Bailiff's Daughter ' and began to recall lines of it.
But Islington and old ballads were
quite out of his thoughts by an object which had no apparent connection with poetry.
Sprats, keeping her eyes open for a hansom, suddenly
missed Lucian from her side, and turned
to find him
suddenly driven
128 LUCIAN THE DREMIER
gazing at the windows of a little caf6-restaurant \vith an Italian name over its door and a suspicion of Continental cookery about it. She turned back to him: he looked at her as a boy might look whose elder sister catches him gazing into the pastry-cook's window.
' I say, Sprats,' he said coaxingly, ' let's go in there and have supper. It's clean, and I've suddenly turned faint—I've had nothing since lunch. Dinner will be all over now at home, and besides, we're miles away. I've been in these places before —they're all right, really,
like the ristoranti in Italy, you know. ' Sprats was hungry too. She glanced at the little cafe —it appeared to be clean enough to warrant one in
eating, at any rate, a chop in it.
' I think I should like some food,' she said.
' Come on, then,' said Lucian gaily. ' Let's see what
sort of place it is. '
He pushed open the swinging doors and entered. It
was a small place, newly established, and the proprietor and his wife, two Italians, and their Swiss waiter were glad to see customers who looked as if they would need
something
more than a cup of coffee and a roll and butter. The proprietor bowed himself double and ushered them to the most comfortable comer in his establishment : he produced a lengthy menu and handed it to Lucian with great empressement; the waiter stood near, deeply interested; the proprietor's wife, gracious
of figure and round of face, leaned over the counter thinking of the coins which she would eventually deposit in her cash drawer. Lucian addressed the proprietor in Italian and discussed the menu with him; while they talked. Sprats looked about her, wondering at the red plush seats, the great mirrors in their gilded frames,
and the jars of various fruits and conserves arranged on the counter. Every table was adorned with a flowering plant fashioned out of crinkled paper; the ceiling was picked out in white and gold; the Swiss waiter's apron and napkin were very stiffly starched; the proprietor wore a frock coat, which fitted very tightly at the waist,
something
LUCIAN THE DREAMER 129
and his wife's gown was of a great smartness. Sprats decided that they were early customers in the history of the establishment —besides themselves there were only three people in the place: an old gentleman with a napkin tucked into his neckband, who was eating his dinner and reading a newspaper propped up against a bottle, and a pair of obvious lovers who were drinking
of
in a quiet comer to the accompaniment their own murmurs.
cafi-au-lait
' I had no idea that I was so hungry,' said Lucian when he and the proprietor had finally settled upon what was best to eat and drink. * I am glad I saw this place: it reminds me in some ways of Italy. I say, I don't believe those poor people had had much to eat to-day. Sprats —it is a most fortunate thing that I hap- pened to hear of them. My God! I wouldn't like to get down to that stage—it must be dreadful, especially when there are children. '
Sprats leaned her elbows on the Httle table, propped her chin in her hands, and looked at him with a curious
which he did not understand. A half-
expression
dreamy, half-speculative look came into her eyes.
* I wonder what you would do if you did get down to that stage? ' she said, with a rather quizzical smile.
Lucian stared at her.
* I? Why, what do you mean?