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diff --git a/old/fryth10.txt b/old/fryth10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6277f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fryth10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12190 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fortunate Youth, by William J. Locke +#3 in our series by William J. Locke + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +Edited by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com + + + + +THE FORTUNATE YOUTH + + +BY +WILLIAM J. LOCKE + + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PAUL KEGWORTHY lived with his mother, Mrs. Button, his stepfather, +Mr. Button, and six little Buttons, his half brothers and sisters. +His was not an ideal home; it consisted in a bedroom, a kitchen and +a scullery in a grimy little house in a grimy street made up of rows +of exactly similar grimy little houses, and forming one of a hundred +similar streets in a northern manufacturing town. Mr. and Mrs. +Button worked in a factory and took in as lodgers grimy single men +who also worked in factories. They were not a model couple; they +were rather, in fact, the scandal of Budge Street, which did not +itself enjoy, in Bludston, a reputation for holiness. Neither was +good to look upon. Mr. Button, who was Lancashire bred and born, +divided the yearnings of his spirit between strong drink and +dog-fights. Mrs. Button, a viperous Londoner, yearned for noise. +When Mr. Button came home drunk he punched his wife about the head +and kicked her about the body, while they both exhausted the +vocabulary of vituperation of North and South, to the horror and +edification of the neighbourhood. When Mr. Button was sober Mrs. +Button chastised little Paul. She would have done so when Mr. Button +was drunk, but she had not the time. The periods, therefore, of his +mother's martyrdom were those of Paul's enfranchisement. If he saw +his stepfather come down the street with steady gait, he fled in +terror; if he saw him reeling homeward he lingered about with light +and joyous heart. + +The brood of young Buttons was fed spasmodically and clad at random, +but their meals were regular and their raiment well assorted +compared with Paul's. Naturally they came in for clouts and thumps +like all the children in Budge Street; it was only Paul who +underwent organized chastisement. The little Buttons often did +wrong; but in the mother's eyes Paul could never do right. In an +animal way she was fond of the children of Button, and in a way +equally animal she bore a venomous dislike to the child of +Keg-worthy. Who and what Kegworthy had been neither Paul nor any +inhabitant of Bludston knew. Once the boy inquired, and she broke a +worn frying-pan over his head. Kegworthy, whoever he might have +been, was wrapt in mystery. She had appeared in the town when Paul +was a year old, giving herself out as a widow. That she was by no +means destitute was obvious from the fact that she at once rented +the house in Budge Street, took in lodgers, and lived at her ease. +Button, who was one of the lodgers, cast upon her the eyes of desire +and married her. Why she married Button she could never determine. +Perhaps she had a romantic idea--and there is romance even in Budge +Street-that Button would support her. He very soon shattered any +such illusion by appropriating the remainder of her fortune and +kicking her into the factory with hobnailed boots. It would be wrong +to say that Mrs. Button did not complain; she did. She tent the air +of Budge Street with horrible execration; but she went to the +factory, where, save for the intervals of retirement rendered +necessary by the births of the little Buttons, she was contented +enough to stay. + +If Paul Kegworthy had been of the same fibre as the little Buttons, +he would have felt, thought and acted as they, and this history +would never have been written. He would have grown up to man's +estate in the factory and have been merged an indistinguishable unit +in the drab mass of cloth-capped humans who, at certain hours of the +day, flood the streets of Bludston, and swarm on the roofs of +clanging and shrieking tramcars, and on Saturday afternoons gather +in clotted greyness on the football ground. He might have been sober +and industrious-the proletariat of Bludston is not entirely composed +of Buttons-but he would have taken the colour of his environment, +and the world outside Bludston would never have heard of him. Paul, +however, differed greatly from the little Buttons. They, children of +the grey cap and the red shawl, resembled hundreds of thousands of +little human rabbits similarly parented. Only the trained eye could +have identified them among a score or two of their congeners. For +the most part, they were dingily fair, with snub noses, coarse +mouths, and eyes of an indeterminate blue. Of that type, once +blowsily good-looking, was Mrs. Button herself. But Paul wandered a +changeling about the Bludston streets. In the rows of urchins in the +crowded Board School classroom he sat as conspicuous as any little +Martian who might have been bundled down to earth. He had wavy black +hair, of raven black, a dark olive complexion, flushed, in spite of +haphazard nourishment and nights spent on the stone floor of the +reeking scullery, with the warm blood of health, great liquid black +eyes, and the exquisitely delicate features of a young Praxitelean +god. It was this preposterous perfection which, while redeeming him +from ridiculous beauty by giving his childish face a certain +rigidity, differentiated him outwardly from his fellows. Mr. Button, +to whom the unusual was anathema, declared that the sight of the +monstrosity made him sick, and rarely suffered him in his presence; +and one day Mrs. Button, discovering him in front of the cracked +mirror in which Mr. Button shaved, when his hand was steady enough, +on Sunday afternoons, smote him over the face with a pound of rump +steak which she happened to be carrying, instinctively desirous not +only to correct her son for vanity, but also to spoil the comeliness +of which he might be vain. + +Until a wonderful and illuminating happening in his eleventh year, +little Paul Kegworthy had taken existence with the fatalism of a +child. Of his stepfather, who smelt lustily of sour beer, bad +tobacco and incidentally of other things undetected by Paul's +nostrils, and whom he saw rarely, he dwelt in mortal terror. When he +heard of the Devil, at Sunday school, which he attended, to his +stepfather's disgust, he pictured the Prince of Darkness not as a +gentleman, not even as a picturesque personage with horns and tail, +but as Mr. Button. As regards his mother, he had a confused idea +that he was a living blight on her existence. He was not sorry, +because it was not his fault, but in his childish way he coldly +excused her, and, more from a queer consciousness of blighterdom +than from dread of her hand and tongue, he avoided her as much as +possible. In the little Buttons his experience as scapegoat taught +him to take but little interest. From his earliest memories they +were the first to be fed, clothed and bedded; to his own share fell +the exiguous scraps. As they were much younger than himself, he +found no pleasure in their companionship. For society he sought such +of the youth of Budge Street as would admit him into their raucous +fellowship. But, for some reason which his immature mind could not +fathom, he felt a pariah even among his coevals. He could run as +fast as Billy Goodge, the undisputed leader of the gang; he could +dribble the rag football past him any time he desired; once he had +sent him home to his mother with a bleeding nose, and, even in that +hour of triumph, popular sympathy had been with Billy, not with him. +It was the only problem in existence to which his fatalism did not +supply the key. He knew himself to be a better man than Billy +Goodge. There was no doubt about it. At school, where Billy was the +woodenest blockhead, he was top of his class. He knew things about +troy weight and geography and Isaac and the Mariners of England of +which Billy did not dream. To Billy the football news in the +Saturday afternoon edition of The Bludston Herald was a cryptogram; +to him it was an open book. He would stand, acknowledged scholar, at +the street corner and read out from the soiled copy retrieved by +Chunky, the newsboy, the enthralling story of the football day, +never stumbling over a syllable, athrill with the joy of being the +umbilicus of a tense world, and, when the recital was over, he would +have the mortification of seeing the throng pass away from him with +the remorselessness of a cloud scudding from the moon. And he would +hear Billy Goodge say exultantly: + +"Didn't Aw tell yo' the Wolves hadn't a dog's chance?" + +And he would see the admiring gang slap Billy on the back, and hear +"Good owd Billy!" and never a word of thanks to him. Then, knowing +Billy to be a liar, he would tell him so, yelping shrilly, in +Buttonesque vernacular (North and South): + +"This morning tha said it was five to one on Sheffield United." + +"Listen to Susie!" + +The parasitic urchins would yell at the witticism--the eternal +petitio principii of childhood, which Billy, secure in his cohort +from bloody nose, felt justified in making. And Paul Kegworthy, the +rag of a newspaper crumpled tight in his little hand, would watch +them disappear and wonder at the paradox of life. In any sphere of +human effort, so he dimly and childishly realized, he could wipe out +Billy Goodge. He had a soul-reaching contempt for Billy Goodge, a +passionate envy of him. Why did Billy hold his position instead of +crumbling into dust before him? Assuredly he was a better man than +Billy. When, Billy duce et auspice Billy, the gang played at pirates +or Red Indians, it was pitiful to watch their ignorant endeavours. +Paul, deeply read in the subject, gave them chapter and verse for +his suggestions. But they heeded him so little that he would turn +away contemptuously, disdaining the travesty of the noble game, and +dream of a gang of brighter spirits whom he could lead to glory. +Paul had many such dreams wherewith he sought to cheat the realities +of existence: but until the Great Happening the dream was not better +than the drink: after it came the Vision Splendid. + +The wonderful thing happened all because Maisie Shepherd, a slip of +a girl of nineteen, staying at St. Luke's Vicarage, spilled a bottle +of scent over her f rock. + +It was the morning of the St. Luke's annual Sunday-school treat. The +waggonette was at the vicarage door. The vicar and his wife and +daughter waited fussily for Maisie, an unpunctual damsel. The vicar +looked at his watch. They were three minutes late, He tut-tutted +impatiently. The vicar's daughter ran indoors in search of Maisie +and pounced upon her as she sat on the edge of the bed in the act of +perfuming a handkerchief. The shock caused the bottle to slip mouth +downward from her hand and empty the contents into her lap. She +cried out in dismay. + +"Never mind," said the vicar's daughter. "Come along. Dad and mother +are prancing about downstairs." + +"But I must change my dress!" + +"You've no time." + +"I'm wet through. This is the strongest scent known. It's twenty-six +shillings a bottle, and one little drop is enough. I shall be a +walking pestilence." + +The vicar's daughter laughed heartlessly. "You do smell strong. But +you'll disinfect Bludston, and that will be a good thing." Whereupon +she dragged the tearful and redolent damsel from the room. + +In the hard-featured yard of the schoolhouse the children were +assembled-the girls on one side, the boys on the other. Curates and +teachers hovered about the intervening space. Almost every child +wore its Sunday best. Even the shabbiest little girls had a clean +white pinafore to hide deficiencies beneath, and the untidiest +little boy showed a scrubbed face. The majority of the boys wore +clean collars; some grinned over gaudy neckties. The only one who +appeared in his week-day grime and tatterdemalion outfit was little +Paul Kegworthy. He had not changed his clothes, because he had no +others; and he had not washed his face, because it had not occurred +to him to do so. Moreover, Mrs. Button had made no attempt to +improve his forlorn aspect, for the simple reason that she had never +heard of the Sunday-school treat. It was part of Paul's philosophy +to dispense, as far as he could, with parental control. On Sunday +afternoons the little Buttons played in the streets, where Paul, had +he so chosen, might have played also: but he put himself, so to +speak, to Sunday school, where, besides learning lots of queer +things about God and Jesus Christ which interested him keenly, he +could shine above his fellows by recitations of collects and bits of +Catechism, which did not interest him at all. Then he won scores of +good-conduct cards, gaudy treasures, with pictures of Daniel in the +Lions' Den and the Marriage of Cana and such like, which he secreted +preciously beneath a loose slab in the scullery floor. He did not +show them to his mother, knowing that she would tear them up and +bang him over the head; and for similar reasons he refrained from +telling her of the Sunday-school treat. If she came to hear of it, +as possibly she would through one of the little Buttons, who might +pick up the news in the street, he would be soundly beaten. But +there was a chance of her not hearing, and he desired to be no more +of a blight than he could help. So Paul, vagabond and self-reliant +from his babyhood, turned up at the Sunday-school treat, hatless and +coatless, his dirty little toes visible through the holes in his +boots, and his shapeless and tattered breeches secured to his person +by a single brace. The better-dressed urchins moved away from him +and made rude remarks, after the generous manner of their kind; but +Paul did not care. Pariahdom was his accustomed portion. He was +there for his own pleasure. They were going to ride in a train. They +were going to have a wonderful afternoon in a nobleman's park, a +place all grass and trees, elusive to the imagination. There was a +stupefying prospect of wondrous things in profusion to eat and +drink-jam, ginger-beer, cake! So rumour had it; and to +unsophisticated Paul rumour was gospel truth. With all these +unexperienced joys before him, what cared he for the blankety little +blanks who gibed at him? If you imagine that little Paul Kegworthy +formulated his thoughts as would the angel choir-boy in the +pictures, you are mistaken. The baby language of Bludston would +petrify the foc'sle of a tramp, steamer. The North of England is +justly proud of its virility. + +The Sunday school, marshalled by curates and teachers, awaited the +party from the vicarage. The thick and darkened sunshine of Bludston +flooded the asphalt of the yard, which sent up a reek of heat, +causing curates to fan themselves with their black straw hats, and +little boys in clean collars to wriggle in sticky discomfort, while +in the still air above the ignoble town hung the heavy pall of +smoke. Presently there was the sound of wheels and the sight of the +head of the vicar's coachman above the coping of the schoolyard +wall. Then the gates opened and the vicar and his wife and Miss +Merewether, her daughter, and Maisie Shepherd appeared and were +immediately greeted by curates and teachers. + +Maisie Shepherd, a stranger in a strange land, pretty, pink, +blushing, hatefully self-conscious, detached herself, after a minute +or two, from the group and looked with timid curiosity on the +children. She was a London girl, her head still dancing with the +delights of her first season, and she had never been to a +Sunday-school treat in her life. Madge Merewether, her old +schoolfellow, had told her she was to help amuse the little girls. +Heaven knew how she was to do it. Already the unintelligibility of +Lancashire speech had filled her with dismay. The array of +hard-faced little girls daunted her; she turned to the boys, but she +only saw one--the little hatless, coatless scarecrow with the +perfect features And arresting grace, who stood out among his smug +companions with the singularly vivid incongruity of a Greek Hermes +in the central hall of Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition. +Fascinated, she strayed down the line toward him. She halted, looked +for a second or two into a pair of liquid black eyes and then +blushed in agonized shyness. She stared at the beautiful boy, and +the beautiful boy stared at her, and not a word could she find in +her head to speak. She turned abruptly and moved away. The boy broke +rank and slowly followed her. + +For little Paul Kegworthy the heavens had opened and flooded his +senses, till he nearly fainted, with the perfume of celestial lands. +The intoxicating sweetness of it bewildered his young brain. It was +nothing delicate, evanescent, like the smell of a flower. It as +thick, pungent, cloying, compelling. Mouth agape and nostril wide, +he followed the exquisite source of the emanation like one in a +dream, half across the yard. A curate laughingly and unsuspectingly +brought him back to earth by laying hands on him and bundling him +back into his place. There he remained, being a docile urchin; but +his eyes remained fixed on Maisie Shepherd. She was only a rosebud +beauty of an English girl, her beauty heightened by the colour of +distress, but to Paul the radiance of her person almost rivalled the +wonder of her perfume. It was his first meeting of a goddess face to +face, and he surrendered his whole being in adoration. + +In a few minutes the children were marched through the squalid +streets, a strident band, to the dingy railway station, a grimy +proletariat third-class railway station in which the sign "First +Class Waiting Room" glared an outrage and a mockery, and were +marshalled into the waiting train. The wonderful experience of which +Paul had dreamed for weeks--he had never ridden in a train +before--began; and soon the murky environs of the town were left +behind and the train sped through the open country. + +His companions in the railway carriage crowded at the windows, +fighting vigorously for right of place; but Paul sat alone in the +middle of the seat, unmoved by the new sensation and speed, and by +the glimpses of blue sky and waving trees above the others' heads. +The glory of the day was blotted out until he should see and smell +the goddess again. At the wayside station where they descended he +saw her in the distance, and the glory came once more. She caught +his eye, smiled and nodded. He felt a queer thrill run through him. +He had been singled out from among all the boys. He alone knew her. + +Brakes took them from the station down a country road and, after a +mile or so, through stone gates of a stately park, where wonder +after wonder was set out before Paul's unaccustomed eyes. On either +side of this roadway stretched rolling grass with clumps and glades +of great trees in their July bravery--more trees than Paul +imagined could be in the world. There were sunlit upland patches and +cool dells of shade carpeted with golden buttercups, where cattle +fed lazily. Once a herd of fallow deer browsing by the wayside +scuttled away at the noisy approach of the brakes. Only afterward +did Paul learn their name and nature: to him then they were mythical +beasts of fairyland. Once also the long pile-of the Tudor house came +into view, flashing-white in the sunshine. The teacher in charge of +the brake explained that it was the Marquis of Chudley's residence. +It was more beautiful than anything Paul had ever seen; it was +bigger than many churches put together; the word "Palace" came into +his head--it transcended all his preconceived ideas of palaces: +yet in such a palace only could dwell the radiant and sweet-smelling +lady of his dream. The certainty gave him a curious satisfaction. + +They arrived at the spot where the marquees were erected, and at +once began the traditional routine of the school treat-games for the +girls, manlier sports for the boys. Lord Chudley, patron of the +living of St. Luke's, Bludston, and Lord Bountiful of the feast, had +provided swing-boats and a merry-go-round which discoursed infernal +music to enraptured ears. Paul stood aloof for a while from these +delights, his eye on the section of the girls among whom his goddess +moved. As soon as she became detached and he could approach her +without attracting notice, he crept within the magic circle of the +scent and lay down prone, drinking in its intoxication, and, as she +moved, he wriggled toward her on his stomach like a young snake. + +After a time she came near him. "Why aren't you playing with the +other boys?" she asked. + +Paul sat on his heels. "Dunno, miss," he said shyly. + +She glanced at his rapscallion attire, blushed, and blamed herself +for the tactless question. "This is a beautiful place, isn't it?" + +"It's heavenly," said Paul, with his eyes on her. + +"One scarcely wants to do anything but just-just-well, be here." She +smiled. + +He nodded and said, "Ay!" Then he grew bolder. "I like being alone," +he declared defiantly. + +"Then I'll leave you," she laughed. + +The blood flushed deep under his unwashed olive skin, and he leaped +to his feet. "Aw didn't mean that!" he protested hotly. "It wur them +other boys." + +She was touched by his beauty and quick sensitiveness. "I was only +teasing. I'm sure you like being with me." + +Paul had never heard such exquisite tones from human lips. To his +ears, accustomed to the harsh Lancashire burr, her low, accentless +voice was music. So another of his senses was caught in the +enchantment. + +"Yo' speak so pretty," said he. + +At that moment a spruce but perspiring young teacher came up. "We're +going to have some boys' races, miss, and we want the ladies to look +on. His lordship has offered prizes. The first is a boys' race-under +eleven." + +"You can join in that, anyhow," she said to Paul. "Go along and let +me see you win." + +Paul scudded off, his heart aflame, his hand, as he ran, tucking in +the shirt whose evasion from the breeches was beyond the control of +the single brace. Besides, crawling on your stomach is dislocating +even to the most neatly secured attire. But his action was +mechanical. His thoughts were with his goddess. In his inarticulate +mind he knew himself to be her champion. He sped under her +consecration. He knew he could run. He could run like a young deer. +Though despised, could he not outrun any of the youth in Budge +Street? He took his place in the line of competing children. Far +away in the grassy distance were two men holding a stretched string. +On one side of him was a tubby boy with a freckled face and an +amorphous nose on which the perspiration beaded; on the other a +lank, consumptive creature, in Eton collar and red tie and a sprig +of sweet William in his buttonhole, a very superior person. Neither +of them desired his propinquity. They tried to hustle him from the +line. But Paul, born Ishmael, had his hand against them. The fat +boy, smitten beneath the belt, doubled up in pain and the +consumptive person rubbed agonized shins. A curate, walking down +repressing bulges and levelling up concavities, ordained order. The +line stood tense. Away beyond, toward the goal, appeared a white +mass, which Paul knew to be the ladies in their summer dresses; and +among them, though he could not distinguish her, was she in whose +eyes he was to win glory. The prize did not matter. It was for her +that he was running. In his childish mind he felt passionately +identified with her. He was her champion. + +The word was given. The urchins started. Paul, his little elbows +squared behind him and his eyes fixed vacantly in space, ran with +his soul in the toes that protruded through the ragged old boots. He +knew not who was in front or who was behind. It was the madness of +battle. He ran and ran, until somebody put his arms round him and +stopped him. + +"Steady on, my boy-steady on!" + +Paul looked round in a dazed way. "Have A' won th' race?" + +"I'm afraid not, my lad." + +With a great effort he screwed his mind to another question. "Wheer +did A' coom in?" + +"About sixth, but you ran awfully well." + +Sixth! He had come in sixth! Sky and grass and trees and white mass +of ladies (among whom was the goddess) and unconsiderable men and +boys became a shimmering blur. He seemed to stagger away, stagger +miles away, until, finding himself quite alone, he threw himself +down under a beech tree, and, after a few moments' vivid realization +of what had happened, sobbed out the agony of his little soul's +despair. Sixth! He had come in sixth! He had failed miserably in his +championship. How she must despise him--she who had sent him forth to +victory! And yet how 'had it been possible? How had it been possible +that other boys could beat him? He was he. An indomitable personage. +Some hideous injustice guided human affairs. Why shouldn't he have +won? He could not tell. But he had not won. She had sent him forth +to win. He had lost. He had come in a sickening sixth. The disgrace +devastated him. + +Maisie Shepherd, interested in her child champion, sought him out +and easily found him under the beech tree. "Why, what is the +matter?" + +As he did not answer, she knelt by his side and put her hand on his +lean shoulder. "Tell me what has happened." + +Again the celestial fragrance overspread his senses. He checked his +sobs and wiped his eyes with the back of his grubby hand. "Aw didn't +win," he moaned. + +"Poor little chap," she said comfortingly. "Did you want to win so +very much?" + +He got up and stared at her. "Yo' told me to win." + +"So you ran for me?" + +"Ay!" + +She rose to her feet and looked down upon him, somewhat overwhelmed +by her responsibility. So in ancient days might a fair maiden have +regarded her knight who underwent entirely unnecessary batterings +for her sake. "Then for me you've won," she said. "I wish I could +give you a prize." + +But what in the nature of a prize for a gutter imp of eleven does a +pocketless young woman attired for the serious business of a school +treat carry upon her person? She laughed in pretty embarrassment. +"If I gave you something quite useless, what would you do with it?" + +"I 'u'd hide it safe, so 'ut nobody should see it," said Paul, +thinking of his precious cards. + +"Wouldn't you show it to anybody?" + +"By Gum!--" he checked himself suddenly. Such, he had learned, +was not Sunday-school language. "I wouldno' show it to a dog," said +he. + +Maisie Shepherd, aware of romantic foolishness, slipped a cornelian +heart from a thin gold chain round her neck. "It's all I can give +you for a prize, if you will have it." + +If he would have it? The Koh-i-Noor' in his clutch (and a knowledge +of its value) could not have given him more thrilling rapture. He +was speechless with amazement; Maisie, thrilled too, realized that a +word spoken would have rung false. The boy gloated over his +treasure; but she did not know--how could she?--what it meant to +him. To Paul the bauble was a bit of the warm wonder that was she. + +"How are you going to keep it?" she asked. + +He hoicked a bit of his shirt-tail from his breeches and proceeded +to knot the cornelian heart secure therein. Maisie fled rapidly on +the verge of hysterics, After that the school treat had but one +meaning for Paul. He fed, it is true, in Pantagruelian fashion on +luscious viands, transcending his imagination of those which lay +behind Blinks the confectioner's window in Bludston: there he +succumbed to the animal; but the sports, the swing-boats, the +merry-go-round, offered no temptation. He hovered around Maisie +Shepherd like a little dog-quite content to keep her in sight. And +every two or three minutes he fumbled about his breeches to see that +the knotted treasure was safe. + +The day sank into late afternoon. The children had been fed. The +weary elders had their tea. The vicarage party took a few moments' +rest in the shade of a clump of firs some distance away from the +marquee. Behind the screen lay Paul, his eyes on his goddess, his +heels in the air, a buttercup-stalk between his teeth. He felt the +comforting knot beneath his thigh. For the first time, perhaps, in +his life, he knew utter happiness. He heard the talk, but did not +listen. Suddenly, however, the sound of his own name caused him to +prick his ears. Paul Kegworthy! They were talking about him. There +could be no mistake. He slithered a foot or two nearer. + +"No matter whether his people are drunkards or murderers," said the +beloved voice, "he is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in ' +my life. Have you ever spoken to him, Winifred?" + +"No," said the vicar's daughter. "Of course I've noticed him. Every +one does-he is remarkable." + +"I don't believe he's a child of these people at all," Maisie +declared. "He's of a different clay. He's as sensitive as-as a +sensitive plant. You ought to keep your eye on him, Mr. Merewether. +I believe he's a poor little prince in a fairy tale." + +"A freak--a lusus naturae" said the vicar. + +Paul did not know what a lusus naturae was, but it sounded mighty +grand. + +"He's a fairy prince, and one day he'll come into his kingdom." + +"My dear, if you saw his mother!" + +"But I'm sure no one but a princess could be Paul Kegworthy's +mother," laughed Maisie. + +"And his father?" + +"A prince too!" + +And Paul listened and drank in his goddess's words greedily. Truth +clear as crystal fell from her lips. A wild wonder racked his little +soul. She had said that his mother was not his mother, and that his +father was a prince. The tidings capped the glory of an effulgent +day. + +When he sneaked home late Mrs. Button, who had learned how he had +misspent his time, gave him a merciless thrashing. Why should he be +trapesing about with Sunday schools, she asked, with impolite +embroidery, while his poor little brothers and sisters were crying +in the street? She would learn him to Mess about with parsons and +Sunday-school teachers. She was in process of "learning" him when +Mr. Button entered. He swore in a manner which would have turned out +armies in Flanders pallid, and kicked Paul into the scullery. There +the boy remained and went supperless to his bed of sacks, aching and +tearless. Before he slept he put his cornelian heart in his +hiding-hole. What cared he for stripes or kicks or curses with the +Vision Splendid glowing before his eyes? + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOR splenetic reasons which none but the Buttons of this world can +appreciate, Paul was forbidden, under pain of ghastly tortures, to +go near the Sunday school again, and, lest he should defy authority, +he was told off on Sunday afternoons to mind the baby, either in the +street or the scullery, according to the weather, while the other +little Buttons were not allowed to approach him. The defection of +the brilliant scholar having been brought to the vicar's notice, he +ventured to call one Saturday afternoon on the Buttons, but such was +the contumely with which he was received that the good man hastily +retreated. In lung power he was outmatched. In repartee he was +singularly outclassed. He then sent the superintendent of the +school, a man of brawn and zeal, to see what muscular Christianity +could accomplish. But muscular Christianity, losing its head, came +off with a black eye. After that the Buttons were left alone, and no +friendly hand drew Paul within the gates of his Sunday Paradise. He +thought of it with aching wistfulness. The only thing that the +superintendent could do was to give him surreptitiously a +prayer-book, bidding him perfect himself in the Catechism in view of +future Confirmation. But, as emulation of his fellows and not +religious zeal was the mainspring of Paul's enthusiasm, the pious +behest was disregarded. Paul dived into the volume occasionally, +however, for intellectual entertainment. + +As for the fragrant and beautiful goddess, she had disappeared into +thin air. Paul hung for a week or two about the vicarage, in the +hope of seeing her, but in vain. As a matter of fact, Maisie +Shepherd had left for Scotland the morning after the school treat; +people don't come to Bludston for long and happy holidays. So Paul +had to feed his ardent little soul on memories. That she had not +been an impalpable creature of his fancy was proven by the precious +cornelian heart. Her words, too, were written in fine flame across +his childish mind. Paul began to live the life of dreams. + +He longed for books. The fragmentary glimpses of history and +geography in the Board school standard whetted without satisfying +his imagination. There was not a book in the house in Budge Street, +and he had never a penny to buy one. Sometimes Button would bring +home a dirty newspaper, which Paul would steal and read in secret, +but its contents seemed to lack continuity. He thirsted for a story. +Once a generous boy, since dead-he was too good to live had given +him a handful of penny dreadfuls, whence he had derived his +knowledge of pirates and Red Indians. Too careless and confident, he +had left them about the kitchen, and his indignant mother had used +them to light the fire. The burning of his library was an enduring +tragedy. He realized that it must be reconstituted; but how? His +nimble wit hit on a plan. Vagrant as an unowned dog, he could roam +the streets at pleasure. Why should he not sell newspapers-in a +quarter of the town, be it understood, remote from both factory and +Budge Street? He sold newspapers for three weeks before he was found +out. Then he was chastised and forced to go on selling newspapers +with no profit to himself, for his person was rigorously searched +and coppers confiscated as soon as he came home. But during the +three weeks' traffic on his own account he had amassed a sufficient +hoard of pennies for the purchase of several books in gaudy paper +covers exposed for sale in the little stationer's shop round the +corner. Soon he discovered that if he could batik a copper or two on +his way home his mother would be none the wiser. The stationer +became his banker, and when the amount of the deposit equaled the +price of a book, Paul withdrew his money's worth. So a goodly +library of amazing rubbish was stored by degrees under the scullery +slab, until it outgrew safe accommodation; whereupon Paul +transferred the bulk of it to a hole in a bit of waste ground, a +deserted brickfield on the ragged outskirts of the town. At last +misfortune befell him. One dreary afternoon of rain he dropped his +new bundle of papers in the mud of the roadway. To avoid death he +had to spring from the path of a thundering tramcar. A heavy cart +ran over the bundle. While he was ruefully and hastily gathering the +papers together, a band of street children swooped down and kicked +them lustily about the filth. He was battling with one urchin when a +policeman grabbed him. With an elusive twist he escaped and ran like +a terrified hare. Disaster followed, and that was the end of his +career as a newsvendor. + +Greater leisure for reading, however, compensated the loss of the +occasional penny. He read dazzling tales of dukes with palaces (like +Chudley Court), and countesses with ropes of diamonds in their hair, +who all bore a resemblance to the fragrant one. And dukes and +countesses lived the most resplendent lives, and spoke such +beautiful language, and had such a way with them! He felt a curious +pride in being able to enter into all their haughty emotions. Then, +one day, he began a story about a poor little outcast boy in a slum. +At first he did not care for it. His soaring spirit disdained boys +in slums. It had its being on higher planes. But he read on, and, +reading on, grew interested, until interest was intensified into +absorption For the outcast boy in the slums, you must know, was +really the kidnapped child of a prince and a princess, and after the +most romantic adventures was enfolded in his parents' arms, married +a duke's beauteous daughter, whom in his poverty he had worshipped +from afar, and drove away with his bride in a coach-and-six. + +To little Paul Kegworthy the clotted nonsense was a revelation from +on high. He was that outcast boy. The memorable pronouncement of the +goddess received confirmation in some kind of holy writ. The Vision +Splendid, hitherto confused, crystallized into focus. He realized +vividly how he differed in feature and form and intellect and +character from the low crowd with whom he was associated. His +unpopularity was derived from envy. His manifest superiority was +gall to their base natures. Yes, he had got to the heart of the +mystery. Mrs. Button was not his mother. For reasons unknown he had +been kidnapped. Aware of his high lineage, she hated him and beat +him and despitefully used him. She never gushed, it is true, over +her offspring; but the little Buttons flourished under genuine +motherment. They, inconsiderable brats, were her veritable children. +Whereas he, Paul-it was as plain as daylight. Somewhere far away in +the great world, an august and griefstricken pair, at that very +moment, were mourning the loss of their only son. There they were, +in their marble palace, surrounded by flunkeys all crimson and gold +(men servants were always "gorgeously apparelled flunkeys" in Paul's +books), sitting at a table loaded with pineapples on golden dishes, +and eating out their hearts with longing. He could hear their talk. + +"If only our beloved son were with us," said the princess, wiping +away a tear. + +"We must be patient, my sweet Highness," replied the prince, with +lofty resignation stamped on his noble brow. "Let us trust to Heaven +to remove the cankerworm that is gnawing our vitals." + +Paul felt very sorry for them, and he, too, wiped away a tear. + +For many years he remembered that day. He was alone in his +brickfield on a gusty March morning-the Easter holidays had released +him from school-squatting by his hole under the lee of a mass of +earth and rubbish. It was a mean expanse, blackened by soot and +defiled by refuse. Here and there bramble and stunted gorse +struggled for an existence; but the flora mainly consisted in bits +of old boots and foul raiment protruding grotesquely from the soil, +half-buried cans, rusty bits of iron, and broken bottles. On one +side the backs of grimy little houses, their yards full of +fluttering drab underwear' marked the edge of the hopeless town +which rose above them in forbidding buildings, belching chimney +shafts and the spikes of a couple of spires. On the other sides it +was bounded by the brick walls of factories, the municipal gasworks +and the approach to the railway station, indicated by signal-posts +standing out against the sky like gallows, and a tram-line bordered +by a row of skeleton cottages. Golgotha was a grim garden compared +with Paul's brickfield. Sometimes the children of the town scuttled +about it like dingy little rabbits. But more often it was a desolate +solitude. Perhaps all but the lowest of the parents of Bludston had +put the place out of bounds, as gipsies and other dwellers in vans +were allowed to camp there. It also bore an evil name because a +night murder or two had been committed in its murky seclusion. Paul +knew the exact spot, an ugly cavity toward the gasworks end, where a +woman had been "done in," and even he, lord of the brickfield, +preferred to remain at a purifying distance. But it was his own +domain. He felt in it a certain pride of possession. The hollow +under the lee of the rubbish-heap, by the side of the hole where he +kept his paper library, was the most homelike place he knew. + +For many years he remembered that day. The light that never was on +sea or land fell upon the brickfield. He had read the story at one +stretch. He had sat there for hours reading, for hours rapt in his +Vision. At last material darkness began to gather round him, and he +awoke with a start to realization that he had been sitting there +most of the day. With a sigh he replaced his book in the hole, which +he cunningly masked with a lump of hard clay, and, feeling stiff and +cold, ran, childlike, homeward. In the silence of the night he took +out his cornelian heart and fondled it. The day had been curiously +like, yet utterly unlike, the day on which she had taken it from her +neck. In a dim fashion he knew that the two days were of infinite +significance in his life and were complementary. He had been +waiting, as it were, for nine months for this day's revelation, this +day's confirmation. + +Paul rose the next morning, a human being with a fixed idea, an +unquestioned faith in his destiny. His star shone clear. He was born +to great things. In those early years that followed it was not a +matter of an imaginative child's vanity, but the unalterable, serene +conviction of a child's soul. The prince and princess were +realities, his future greatness a magnificent certitude. You must +remember this, if you would understand Paul's after-life. It was +built on this radiant knowledge. In the afternoon he met Billy +Goodge and the gang. They were playing at soldiers, Billy +distinguished by a cocked hat made out of newspaper and a wooden +sword. + +"Coom on, Susie, wi be going to knock hell out of the boys in +Stamford Street." + +Paul folded his arms and looked at him contemptuously, as became one +of his noble blood. "You could no' knock hell out of a bug." + +"What's that tha says?" + +Paul repeated the insult. + +"Say that agen!" blustered the cocked-hatted leader. + +Paul said it again and nothing happened, Billy received vociferous +and sanguinary advice couched in sanguinary terms. + +"Try and hit me!" said Billy. + +The scene was oddly parallel with one in the story of the outcast +boy of the gutter. Paul, conscious of experiment, calmly went up to +him and kicked him. He kicked him hard. The sensation was delicious. +Billy edged away. He knew from past experience that if it came to +blows he was no match for Paul, but hitherto, having shown fight, he +had received the support of the gang. Now, however, there was an +extraordinary quality in Paul's defiance which took the spirit out +of him. Once more he was urged by the ragged brats to deeds of +blood. He did not respond. Paul kicked him again before his +followers. If he could have gone on kicking him for ever and ever +what delirium of joy were eternity! Billy edged farther away. The +mongrel game-cock was beaten. Paul, dramatically conscious of what +the unrecognized prince would do in such a circumstance, advanced, +smacked his face, plucked the cocked hat from his head, the sword +from his hand, and invested himself with these insignia of +leadership, Billy melted silently into the subfusc air of Budge +Street. The ragged regiment looked around and there was no Billy. +Paul Keg worthy, the raggedest of them all, with nothing to +recommend him but his ridiculous exotic beauty and the paper and +wooden spolia opima of the vanquished, stood before them, a tattered +Caesar. The gang hung spellbound. They were ready, small band of +heroes, to follow him against the hordes of Stamford Street. They +only awaited his signal. Paul tasted a joy known but to few of the +sons of men-absolute power over, and supreme contempt for, his +fellows. He stood for a moment or two, in the grey, miserable street +discordant with the wailings of babies and the clamour of futile +little girls, who, after the manner of women, had no idea of +political crisis, and the shrill objurgations of slattern mothers +and the raucous cries of an idealist vendor of hyacinths, and, +cocked hat on head and wooden sword in hand, he looked at his +fawning army. Then came the touch of genius that was often to +characterize his actions in after years. It was mimetic, as he had +read of such a thing in his paper-covered textbooks-but it was none +the less a touch of genius. He frowned on the dirty, ignoble little +boys. What had he in common with them-he, the son of a prince? +Nothing. He snapped his sword across his knee, tore his cocked hat +in two, and, casting the fragments before them, marched proudly +toward the very last place on the face of the earth that he desired +to visit-his own home. The army remained for a few seconds +bewildered by the dramatic and unexpected, and, leaderless, did what +many a real army has done in similar circumstances, straggled into +disintegration. + +Thenceforward, Paul, had he so chosen, could have ruled despotically +in Budge Street. But he did not choose. The games from which he used +to be excluded, or in which he used to be allowed to join on +sufferance, no longer appealed to him. He preferred to let Joey +Meakin lead the gang, vice Billy Goodge deposed, while he himself +remained aloof. Now and then he condescended to arbitrate between +disputants or to kick a little brute of a, bully, but he felt that, +in doing so, he was derogating from his high dignity. It was his joy +to feel himself a dark, majestic power overshadowing the street, a +kind of Grand Llama hidden in mystery. Often he would walk through +the midst of the children, seemingly unconscious of their existence, +acting strenuously to himself his part of a high-born prince. + +This lasted till a dark and awful day when Mr. Button pitched him +into the factory. These were times before kindly Education Acts and +Factory Acts decreed that no boy under twelve years of age should +work in a factory, and that every boy under fourteen should spend +half his time at the factory and half at school. Paul's education +was considered complete, and he had to plunge into full time at the +grim and grinding place. He had joined the great army of workers. A +wide gulf separated him from the gang of Budge Street. It existed +for him no more than did the little girls and babies. Life changed +its aspect entirely. Gone were the days of vagabondage, the lazy, +the delicious even though cold and hungry hours of dreaming and +reading in the brickfield; gone was the happy freedom of the +chartered libertine of the gutter. He was bound, a little slave, +like hundreds of other little slaves and thousands of big ones, to a +relentless machine. He entered the hopeless factory gate at six in +the morning and left it at half-past five in the evening; and, his +rough food swallowed, slunk to his kennel in the scullery like a +little tired dog. And Mr. Button drank, and beat Mrs. Button, and +Mrs. Button beat Paul whenever she felt in the humour and had +anything handy to do it with, and, as a matter of course, +confiscated his wages on Saturday and set him to mind the baby on +Sunday afternoons. In the monotony, weariness and greyness of life +the glory of the Vision began to grow dim. + +In the factory he was not thrown into competition with other boys. +He was the skip, the drudge, the carrier and fetcher, the cleaner +and polisher for a work-bench of men devoid of sentiment and blind +to his princely qualities. He tried, indeed, by nimbleness of hand +and intelligence, to impress them with his superiority to his +predecessors, but they were not impressed. At the most he escaped +curses. His mind began to work in the logic of the real. Entrance +into his kingdom implied as a primary condition release from the +factory. But how could such release come, when every morning a +remorseless and insensate hook-just like a certain hook in the +machinery whose deadly certainty of grip fascinated and terrified +him, caught him from his morning sleep every morning of .his life, +save Sunday, and swung him inexorably into the factory? He looked +around and saw that no one was released, except through death or +illness or incompetence. And the incompetent starved. Any child in +Budge Street with a grain of sense knew that. There was no release. +He, son of a prince, would work for ever and ever in Bludston. His +heart failed him. And there was no one to whom he could tell the +tragic and romantic story of his birth. One or two happy gleams of +brightness, however, lightened his darkness and prevented the Vision +from fading entirely into the greyness of the factory sky. Once the +Owner, an unspeakable god with a bald pink head and a paunch vastly +chained with gold, conducted a party of ladies over the works. One +of the latter, a very grand lady, noticed him at his bench and +came-and spoke kindly to him. Her voice had the same sweet timbre as +his goddess's. After she had left him his quick ears caught her +question to the Owner: "Where did you get your young Apollo? Not out +of Lancashire, surely? He's wonderful." And just before she passed +out of sight she turned and looked at him and smiled. He learned on +inquiry that she was the Marchioness of Chudley. The instant +recognition of him by one of his own aristocratic caste revived his +faith. The day would assuredly come. Suppose it had been his own +mother, instead of the Marchioness? Stranger things happened in the +books. The other gleam proceeded from one of the workmen at his +bench, a serious and socialistic person who occasionally lent him +something to read: Foxe's "Book of Martyrs," "Mill on Liberty," +Bellamy's "Looking Backward," at that time at the height of its +popularity. And sometimes he would talk to Paul about collectivism +and the new era that was coming when there would be no such words as +rich and poor, because there would be no such classes as they +denoted. + +Paul would say: "Then a prince will be no better than a factory +hand?" + +"There won't be any princes, I tell thee," his friend would reply, +and launch out into a denunciation of tyrants. + +But this did not suit Paul. If there were to be no princes, where, +would he come in? So, while grateful to the evangelist for talking +to him and treating him as a human being, he totally rejected his +gospel. It struck at the very foundations of his visionary destiny. +He was afraid to argue, for his friend was vehement. Also confession +of aristocratic prejudices might turn friendship into enmity. But +his passionate antagonism to the communistic theory, all the more +intense through suppression, strengthened his fantastic faith. +Still, the transient smile of a marchioness and the political +economy of a sour-avised operative are not enough to keep alive the +romance of underfed, ill-clad, overdriven childhood. And after a +while he was deprived even of the latter consolation, his friend +being shifted to another end of the factory. In despair he turned to +Ada, the eldest of the little Buttons, who now had reached years of +comparative discretion, and strove to interest her in his dreams, +veiling his identity under a fictitious name; but Ada, an +unimaginative and practical child with a growing family to look +after, either listened stupidly or consigned him, in the local +vernacular, to perdition. + +"But suppose 'it was me that was the unknown prince? Supposing it +was me I've been talking about all the time? Supposing it was me +that went away and came back in a gold coach and six horses, with a +duke's daughter all over diamonds by my side, what would tha say?" + +"I think tha art nowt but a fool," said the elderly child of ten, +"and, if mother heard thee, she'd lamm. the life out of thee." + +Paul had the sickening sensation of the man who has confided the +high secrets of his soul to coarsefibred woman. He turned away, +darkly conscious of having magnanimously given Ada a chance to mount +with him into the upper air, which opportunity she, daughter of +earth, had, in her purblind manner, refused. Thenceforward Ada was +to him an unnoticeable item in the cosmos. + +One hopeless month succeeded another, until a cloud seemed to close +round Paul's brain, rendering him automatic in his actions, merely +animal in his half-satisfied appetites. Fines and curses were his +portion at the factory; curses and beatings--deserved if Justice +held a hurried scale at home. Paul, who had read of suicide in The +Bludston Herald, turned his thoughts morbidly to death. But his +dramatic imagination always carried him beyond' his own demise to +the scene in the household when his waxlike corpse should be +discovered dangling from a rope fixed to the hook in the kitchen +ceiling. He posed cadaverous before a shocked Budge Street, before a +conscience-stricken factory; and he wept on his sack bed in the +scullery because the prince and the princess, his august parents, +would never know that he had died. A whit less gloomy were his +imaginings of the said prince and princess rushing into the house, +in the nick of time, just before life was extinct, and cutting him +down. How they were to find him he did not know. This side-track +exploration of possibilities was a symptom of sanity. + +Yet, Heaven knows what would have happened to Paul, after a year or +so at the factory, if Barney Bill, a grotesque god from the wide and +breezy spaces of the world, had not limped into his life. + +Barney Bill wore the cloth cap and conventional and unpicturesque, +though shapeless and weather-stained, garment of the late nineteenth +century. Neither horns nor goat's feet were visible; nor was the +pipe of reed on which he played. Yet he played, in Paul's ear, the +comforting melody of Pan, and the glory of the Vision once more +flooded Paul's senses, and the factory and Budge Street and the +Buttons and the scullery faded away like an evil dream. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE Fates arranged Barney Bill's entrance late on a Saturday +afternoon in August. It was not dramatic. It was merely casual. They +laid the scene in the brickfield. + +It had rained all day, and now there was sullen clearance. Paul, who +had been bathing with some factory boys in the not very savoury +canal a mile or so distant, had wandered mechanically to his +brickfield library, which, by means of some scavenging process, he +managed to keep meagrely replenished. Here he had settled himself +with a dilapidated book on his knees for an hour's intellectual +enjoyment. It was not a cheerful evening. The ground was sodden, and +rank emanations rose from the refuse. From where he sat he could see +an angry sunset like a black-winged dragon with belly of flame +brooding over the town. The place wore an especial air of +desolation. Paul felt depressed. Bathing in the pouring wet is a +chilly sport, and his midday meal of cold potatoes had not been +invigorating. These he had grabbed, and, having done them up hastily +in newspaper, had bolted with them out of the house. He had been +fined heavily for slackness during the week, and Mr. Button's +inevitable wrath at docked wages he desired to undergo as late as +possible. Then, the sun had blazed furiously during the last six +imprisoned days, and now the long-looked for hours of freedom were +disfigured by rain and blight. He resented the malice of things. He +also resented the invasion of his brickfield by an alien van, a +gaudy vehicle, yellow and red, to the exterior of which clinging +wicker chairs, brooms, brushes and jute mats gave the impression of +a lunatic's idea of decoration. An old horse, hobbled a few feet +away, philosophically cropped the abominable grass. On the front of +the van a man squatted with food and drink. Paul hated him as a +trespasser and a gormandizer. + +Presently the man, shading his eyes with his hand, scrutinized the +small, melancholy figure, and then, hopping from his perch, sped +toward him with a nimble and curiously tortuous gait. + +He approached, a wiry, almost wizened, little man of fifty, tanned +to gipsy brown. He had a shrewd thin face, with an oddly flattened +nose, and little round moist dark eyes that glittered like diamonds. +He wore cloth cap on the back of his head, showing in front a thick +mass of closely cropped hair. His collarless shirt was open at the +neck and his sleeves were rolled up above the elbow. + +"You're Polly Kegworthy's kid, ain't you?" he asked. + +"Ay," said Paul. + +"Seen you afore, haven't I?" Then Paul remembered. Three or four +times during his life, at long, long intervals, the van had passed +down Budge Street, stopping at houses here and there. About two +years ago, coming home, he had met it at his own door. His mother +and the little man were talking together. The man had taken him +under the chin and twisted his face up. "Is that the nipper?" he had +asked. + +His mother had nodded, and, releasing Paul with a clumsy gesture of +simulated affection, had sent him with twopence for a pint of beer +to the public-house at the end of the street. He recalled how the +man had winked his little bright eye at his mother before putting +the jug to his lips. + +"I browt th' beer for yo'," said Paul. + +"You did. It was the worst beer, bar none, I've ever had. I can +taste it now." He made a wry face. Then he cocked his head on one +side. "I suppose you're wondering who I am?" said he. + +"Ay," said Paul. "Who art tha?" + +"I'm Barney Bill," replied the man. "Did you never hear of me? I'm +known on the road from Taunton to Newcastle and from Hereford to +Lowestoft. You can tell yer mother that you seed me." + +A smile curled round Paul's lips at the comic idea of giving his +mother unsolicited information. "Barney Bill?" said he. + +"Yuss," said the man. Then, after a pause, "What are you doing of +there?" + +"Reading," said Paul. + +"Let's have a look at it." + +Paul regarded him suspiciously; but there was kindliness in the +twinkling glance. He handed him the sorry apology for a book. + +Barney Bill turned it over. 'Why, said he, "it ain't got no +beginning and no end. It's all middle. 'Kenilworth.' Do yer like +it?" + +"Ay!" said Paul. "It's foine." + +"Who do yer think wrote it?" + +As both cover and a hundred pages at the beginning, including the +title-page, to say nothing of a hundred pages at the end, were +missing, Paul had no clue to the authorship. + +"Dunno," said he. + +"Sir Walter Scott." + +Paul jumped to his feet. Sir Walter Scott, he knew not why or how, +was one of those bright names that starred in his historical +darkness, like Caesar and Napoleon and Ridley and Latimer and W. G. +Grace. + +"Tha' art sure? Sir Water Scott?" + +The shock of meeting Sir Walter in the flesh could not have been +greater. The man nodded. "Think I'd tell yer a lie? I do a bit of +reading myself in the old 'bus there"-he jerked a thumb--"I've got +some books now. Would yer like to see 'em?" + +Would a mouse like cheese? Paul started off with his new companion. + +"If it wasn't for a book or two, I'd go melancholy mad and bust +myself," the latter remarked. + +Paul's spirit leaped toward a spiritual brother. It was precisely +his own case. + +"You'll find a lot of chaps that don't hold with books. Dessay +you've met 'em?" + +Paul laughed, precipient of irony. + +Barney Bill continued: "I've heard some on 'em say: 'What's the good +of books? Give me nature,' and they goes and asks for it at the +public-'ouse. Most say nothing at all, but just booze." + +"Like father," said Paul. + +"Eh?" cried his friend sharply. + +"Sam Button, what married mother." + +"Ali! so he boozes a lot, does he?" + +Paul drew an impressionistic and lurid picture of Mr. Button. + +"And they fight?" + +"Like billy-o," said Paul. + +They reached the van. Barney Bill, surprisingly agile in spite of +his twisted leg, sprang into the interior. Paul, standing between +the shafts, looked in with curiosity. There was a rough though not +unclean bed running down one side. Beyond, at the stern, so to +speak, was a kind of galley containing cooking stove, kettle and +pot. There were shelves, some filled with stock-in-trade, others +with miscellaneous things, the nature of which he could not +distinguish in the gloom. Barney Bill presently turned and dumped an +armful of books on the footboard an inch or two below Paul's nose. +Paul scanned the title pages. They were: Goldsmith's "Animated +Nature," "Enquire Within Upon Everything," an old bound volume of +"Cassell's Family Reader," "The Remains of Henry Kirke White," and +"Martin Chuzzlewit." The owner looked down upon them proudly. + +"I've got some more, but I can't get at 'em." + +Paul regarded him with envy. This was a man of great possessions. +"How long are yo' going to stay here?" he asked hopefully. + +"Till sunrise to-morrow." + +Paul's face fell. He seemed to have no luck nowadays. + +Barney Bill let himself down to a sitting position on the footboard +and reached to the end for a huge pork pie and a clasp knife which +lay beside a tin can. "I'll go on with my supper," said he; then +noticing a wistful, hungry look in the child's eyes, "Have a bit?" +he asked. + +He cut off a mighty hunk and put it into Paul's ready hand. Paul +perched himself beside him, and they both ate for a long while in +silence, dangling their legs. Now and again the host passed the tin +of tea to wash down the food. The flaming dragon died into a smoky +red above the town. A light or two already appeared in the fringe of +mean houses. Twilight fell rapidly. + +"Oughtn't you to be getting home?" + +Paul, his hunger appeased, grinned. His idea was to sneak into the +scullery just after the public-houses closed, when his mother would +be far too much occupied with Mr. Button to worry about him. +Chastisement would then be postponed till the morning. Artlessly he +laid the situation before his friend, who led him on to relate other +amenities of his domestic life. + +"Well, I'm jiggered!" said Barney Bill. "She must be a she-devil!" + +Paul cordially agreed. He had already imagined the Prince of +Darkness in the guise of Mr. Button; Mrs. Button was in every way +fit to be the latter's diabolical mate. Encouraged by sympathy and +shrewd questions, he sketched in broad detail his short career, +glorifying himself as the prize scholar and the erstwhile Grand +Llama of Budge Street, and drawing a dismal picture of the factory. +Barney Bill listened comprehendingly. Then, smoking a well-blackened +clay, he began to utter maledictions on the suffocating life in +towns and to extol his own manner of living. Having an appreciative +audience, he grew eloquent over his lonely wanderings the length and +breadth of the land; over the joy of country things, the sweetness +of the fields, the wayside flowers, the vaulted highways in the +leafy summer, the quiet, sleepy towns, the fragrant villages, the +peace and cleanness of the open air. + +The night had fallen, and in the cleared sky the stars shone bright. +Paul, his head against the lintel of the van door, looked up at +them, enthralled by the talk of Barney Bill. The vagabond merchant +had the slight drawling inflection of the Home Counties, which gave +a soothing effect to a naturally soft voice. To Paul it was the +pipes of Pan. + +"It mightn't suit everybody," said Barney Bill philosophically. +"Some folks prefer gas to laylock. I don't say that they're wrong. +But I likes laylock." + +"What's laylock?" asked Paul. + +His friend explained. No lilac bloomed in the blighted Springs of +Bludston. + +"Does it smell sweet?" + +"Yuss. So does the may and the syringa and the new-mown hay and the +seaweed. Never smelt any of 'em?" + +"No," sighed Paul, sensuously conscious of new and vague horizons. +"I once smelled summat sweet," he said dreamily. "It wur a lady." + +"D'ye mean a woman?" + +"No. A lady. Like what yo' read of." + +"I've heard as they do smell good; like violets--some on 'em," the +philosopher remarked. + +Drawn magnetically to this spiritual brother, Paul said almost +without volition, "She said I were the son of a prince." + +"Son of a WOT?" cried Barney Bill, sitting up with a jerk that shook +a volume or two onto the ground. + +Paul repeated the startling word. + +"Lor' lumme!" exclaimed the other, "don't yer know who yer father +was?" + +Paul told of his disastrous attempts to pierce the mystery of his +birth. + +"A frying-pan? Did she now? That's a mother for yer." + +Paul disowned her. He disowned her with reprehensible emphasis. + +Barney Bill pulled reflectively at his pipe. Then he laid a bony +hand on the boy's shoulder. "Who do you think yer mother was?" he +asked gravely. "A princess?" + +"Ay, why not?" said Paul. + +"Why not?" echoed Barney Bill. "Why not? You're a blooming lucky +kid. I wish I was a missin' heir. I know what I'd do." + +"What?" asked Paul, the ingenuous. + +"I'd find my 'igh-born parents." + +"How?" asked Paul. + +"I'd go through the whole of England, asking all the princes I met. +You don't meet 'em at every village pump, ye know," he added +quickly, lest the boy, detecting the bantering note, should freeze +into reserve; "but, if you keep yer eyes skinned and yer ears +standing up, you can learn where they are. Lor' lumme! I wouldn't be +a little nigger slave in a factory if I was the missin' heir. Not +much. I wouldn't be starved and beaten by Sam and Polly Button. Not +me. D'ye think yer aforesaid 'igh-born parents are going to dive +down into this stinkin' suburb of hell to find yer out? Not likely. +You've got to find 'em sonny. Yer can find anybody on the 'ighroad +if yer tramps long enough. What d'yer think?" + +"I'll find 'em," said Paul, in dizzy contemplation of possibilities. + +"When are yer going to start?" asked Barney Bill. + +Paul felt his wages jingle in his pocket. He was a capitalist. The +thrill of independence swept him from head to foot. What time like +the present? "I'll start now," said he. + +It was night. Quite dark, save for the stars; the lights already +disappearing in the fringe of mean houses whose outline was merged +against the blackness of the town; the green and red and white disks +along the railway line behind the dim mass of the gasworks; the +occasional streak of conglomerate fireflies that was a tramcar; and +the red, remorseless glow of here and there a furnace that never was +extinct in the memory of man. And, save for the far shriek of +trains, the less remote and more frequent clanging of passing +tramcars along the road edged with the skeleton cottages, and, +startlingly near, the vain munching and dull footfall of the old +horse, all was still. Compared with home and Budge Street, it was +the reposeful quiet of the tomb. Barney Bill smoked for a time in +silence, while Paul sat with clenched fists and a beating heart. The +simplicity of the high adventure dazed him. All he had to do was to +walk away--walk and walk, free as a sparrow. + +Presently Barney Bill slid from the footboard. "You stay here, +sonny, till I come back." + +He limped away across the dim brickfield and sat down at the edge of +the hollow where the woman had been murdered. He had to think; to +decide a nice point of ethics. A vagrant seller of brooms and jute +mats, even though he does carry about with him "Cassell's Family +Reader" and "The Remains of Henry Kirke White," is distracted by few +psychological problems. Sufficient for the day is the physical +thereof. And when a man like Barney Bill is unencumbered by the +continuous feminine, the ordinary solution of life is simple. But +now the man had to switch his mind back to times before Paul was +born, when the eternal feminine had played the very devil with him, +when all sorts of passions and emotions had whirled his untrained +being into dizziness. No passions or emotions now affected him; but +their memory created an atmosphere of puzzledom. He had to adjust +values. He had to deputize for Destiny. He also had to harmonize the +pathetically absurd with the grimly real. He took off his cap and +scratched his cropped head. After a while he damned something +indefinite and hastened in his dot-and-carry-one fashion to the van. + +"Quite made up yer mind to go in search of yer 'ighborn parents?" + +"Ay," said Paul. + +"Like me to give yer a lift, say, as far as London?" + +Paul sprang to the ground and opened his mouth to speak. But his +knees grew weak and he quivered all over like one who beholds the +god. The abstract nebulous romance of his pilgrimage had been +crystallized, in a flash, into the concrete. "Ay," he panted. + +"Ay!" and he steadied himself with his back and elbows against the +shafts. + +"That's all right," said Barney Bill, in a matter-of fact way, calm +and godlike to Paul. "You can make up a bed on the floor of the old +'bus with some of them there mats inside and we'll turn in and have +a sleep, and start at sunrise." + +He clambered into the van, followed by Paul, and lit an oil lamp. In +a few moments Paul's bed was made. He threw himself down. The +resilient surface of the mats was luxury after the sacking on the +scullery stone. Barney Bill performed his summary toilet, blew out +the lamp and went to his couch. + +Presently Paul started up, smitten by a pang straight through his +heart. He sprang to his feet. "Mister," he cried in the darkness, +not knowing how else to address his protector. "I mun go whoam." + +"Wot?" exclaimed the other. "Thought better of it already? Well, go, +then, yer little 'eathen 'ippocrite!" + +"I'll coom back," said Paul. + +"Yer afeared, yer little rat," said Barney Bill, out of the +blackness. + +"I'm not," retorted Paul indignantly. "I'm freeten'd of nowt." + +"Then what d'yer want to go for? If you've made up yer mind to come +along of me, just stay where you are. If you go home they'll nab you +and whack you for staying out late, and lock you up, and you'll not +be able to get out in time in the morning. And I ain't a-going to +wait for yer, I tell yer straight." + +"I'll be back," said Paul. + +"Don't believe it. Good mind not to let yer go." + +The touch of genius suddenly brushed the boy's forehead. He drew +from his pockets the handful of silver and copper that was his +week's wages, and, groping in the darkness, poured it over Barney +Bill. "Then keep that for me till I coom back." + +He fumbled hurriedly for the latch of the van door, found it, and +leaped out into the waste under the stars, just as the owner of the +van rose with a clatter of coins. To pick up money is a deeply +rooted human instinct. Barney Bill lit his lamp, and, uttering juicy +though innocuous flowers of anathema, searched for the scattered +treasure. When he had retrieved three shillings and +sevenpence-halfpenny he peered out. Paul was far away. Barney Bill +put the money on the shelf and looked at it in a puzzled way. Was it +an earnest of the boy's return, or was it a bribe to let him go? The +former hypothesis seemed untenable, for if he got nabbed his +penniless condition would be such an aggravation of his offence as +to call down upon him a more ferocious punishment than he need have +risked. And why in the name of sanity did he want to go home? To +kiss his sainted mother in her sleep? To pack his blankety +portmanteau? Barney Bill's fancy took a satirical turn. On the +latter hypothesis, the boy was in deadly fear, and preferred the +certainty of the ferocious punishment to the terrors of an unknown +future. Barney Bill smoked a reflective pipe, looking at the matter +from the two points of view. Not being able to decide, he put out +his lamp, shut his door and went to sleep. + +Dawn awoke him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Paul was not there. +He did not expect him to be there. He felt sorry. The poor little +kid had funked it. He had hoped for better stuff. He rose and +stretched himself, put on socks and boots, lit his cooking stove, +set a kettle to boil and, opening the door, remained for a while +breathing the misty morning air. Then he let himself down and +proceeded to the back of the van, where stood a pail of water and a +tin basin, his simple washing apparatus. Having sluiced bead and +neck and dried them with something resembling a towel, he hooked up +the pail, stowed the basin in a rack, unslung a nosebag, which he +attached to the head of the old horse, and went indoors to prepare +his own elementary breakfast. That over, he put the horse into the +shafts. Barney Bill was a man of his word. He was not going to wait +for Paul; but lie cast a glance round the limited horizon of the +brickfield, hoping, against reason, to see the little slim figure +emerge from some opening and run toward him. + +"Darn the boy!" said Barney Bill, taking off his cap and scratching +his wet head. + +A low moan broke the dead silence of the Sunday dawn. He started and +looked about him. He listened. There was another. The moans were +those of a sleeper. He bent down and looked under the van. There Jay +Paul, huddled up, fast asleep on the bare ground. + +"Well, I'm jiggered! I'm just jiggered. Here, you--hello!" cried +Barney Bill. + +Paul awakened suddenly, half sat up, grinned, grabbed at something +on the ground beside him and wriggled out between the wheels. + +"How long you been there?" + +"About two hours," said Paul. + +"Why didn't yer wake me?" + +"I didn't like to disturb thee," said Paul. + +"Did yer go home?" + +"Ay," said Paul. + +"Into the house?" + +Paul nodded and smiled. Now, that it was all over, he could smile. +But only afterwards, when he had greater command of language, could +he describe the awful terror that shook his soul when he opened the +front door, crept twice through the darkness of the sleeping kitchen +and noiselessly closed the door again. + +For many months he felt the terror of his dreams. Briefly he told +Barney Bill of his exploit. How he had to lurk in the shadow of the +street during the end of a battle between the Buttons, in which the +lodgers and a policeman had intervened. How he had to wait-- +interminable hours--until the house was quiet. How he had stumbled +over things in the drunken disorder of the kitchen floor, dreading +to arouse the four elder little Buttons who slept in the room. How +narrowly he had missed running into the arms of the policeman who +had passed the door some seconds before he opened it. How he had +crouched on the pavement until the policeman turned the corner, and +how he had fled in the opposite direction. + +"And if yer mother had caught ye, what would she have done to yer?" + +"Half-killed me," said Paul. + +Barney Bill twisted his head on one side and looked at him out of +his twinkling eyes. Paul thought he resembled a grotesque bird. + +"Wot did yer do it for?" he asked. + +"This," said Paul, holding out a grubby palm in which lay the +precious cornelian heart. + +His friend blinked at it. "Wot the blazes is the good of that?" + +"It's a talisman," replied Paul, who, having come across the word in +a book, had at once applied it to his treasure. + +"Lor' lumme!" cried Barney Bill. "And it was for that bit of stuff +yer ran the risk of being flayed alive by yer loving parents?" + +Paul was quick to detect a note of admiration underlying the +superficial contemptuousness of the words. "I'd ha' gone through +fire and water for it," he declared theatrically. + +"Lor' lumme!" said Barney Bill again. + +"I got summat else," said Paul, taking from his pocket his little +pack of Sunday-school cards. + +Barney Bill examined them gravely. "I think you'd better do away +with these." + +"Why?" + +"They establishes yer identity," said Barney Bill. + +"What's that?" + +Barney Bill explained. Paul was running away from home. The police, +informed of the fact, would raise a hue-and-cry. The cards, if +found, would be evidence. Paul laughed. The constabulary was not +popular in Budge Street. + +"Mother ain't going to ha' nowt to do with the police, nor father, +either." + +He hinted that the cards might be useful later. His childish vanity +loved the trivial encomiums inscribed thereon. They would impress +beholders who had not the same reasons for preoccupation as Barney +Bill. + +"You're thinking of your 'igh-born parents," said Barney Bill. "All +right, keep 'em. Only hide 'ern away safe. And now get in and let us +clear out of this place. It smelts like a cheese with an escape of +gas running through it. And you'd better stay inside and not show +your face all day long. I don't want to be had up for kidnapping." + +Paul jumped in. Barney Bill clambered onto the footboard and took +the reins. The old horse started and the van jolted its way to the +road, on which as yet no tramcars clattered. As the van turned, +Paul, craning his neck out of the window, obtained the last glimpse +of Bludston. He had no regrets. As far as such a thought could be +formulated in his young mind, he wished that the place could be +blotted out from his memory, as it was now hidden forever from his +vision. He stood at the little window, facing south, gazing toward +the unknown region at the end of which lay London, city of dreams. +He was not quite fourteen. His destiny was before him, and to the +fulfilment thereof he saw no hindrance. No more would the +remorseless factory hook catch him from his sleep and swing him into +the relentless machine. Never again, would he hear his mother's +shrewish voice or feel her heavy, greasy hand about his ears. He was +free--free to read, free to sleep, free to talk, free to drink in +the beauty of the lazy hours. Vaguely he was conscious that one of +the wonders that would come would be his own expansion. He would +learn many things which he did not know, things that would fit him +for his high estate. He looked down upon the foreshortened figure of +Barney Bill, his cloth cap, his shoulders, his bare brown arms, a +patch of knee. To the boy, at that moment, he was less a man than an +instrument of Destiny guiding him, not knowing why, to the Promised +Land. + +At last on the quiet road Paul saw a bicyclist approaching them. +Mindful of Barney Bill's injunction, he withdrew his head. Presently +he lay down on the couch, and, soothed by the jogging of the van and +the pleasant creaking of the baskets, fell into the deep sleep of +tired and happy childhood. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IT was a day of dust and blaze. Dust lay thick on the ground, it +filled the air, it silvered the lower branches of the wayside trees, +it turned the old brown horse into a dappled grey, it powdered the +black hair of Barney Bill and of Paul until they looked like +vagabond millers. They sat side by side on the footboard while the +old horse jogged on, whisking flies away with a scanty but +persistent tail. + +Paul, barefoot and barelegged, hatless, coatless, absorbed blaze and +dust with the animal content of a young lizard. A month's summer +wandering had baked him to gipsy brown. A month's sufficient food +and happiness had filled gaunt hollows in his face and covered all +too visible ribs with flesh. Since his flight from Bludston his life +had been one sensuous trance. His hungry young soul had been gorged +with beauty--the beauty of fields and trees and rolling country, +of still, quivering moons and starlit nights, of exultant freedom, +of never-failing human sympathy. He had a confused memory of +everything. They had passed through many towns as similar to +Bludston as one factory chimney to another, and had plied their +trade in many a mean street, so much the counterpart of Budge Street +that he had watched a certain window or door with involuntary +trepidation, until he realized that it was not Budge Street, that he +was a happy alien to its squalor, that he was a butterfly, a thing +of woods and hedgerows fluttering for an inconsequent moment in the +gloom. He came among them, none knew whence he was going, none knew +whither. He was conscious of being a creature of mystery. He pitied +the fettered youth of these begrimed and joyless towns--slaves, +Men with Muckrakes (he had fished up ail old "Pilgrim's Progress" +from the lower depths of the van), who obstinately refused to raise +their eyes to the glorious sun in heaven. In his childish arrogance +he would ask Barney Bill, "Why don't they go away and leave it, like +me?" And the wizened little man would reply, with the flicker of an +eyelid unperceived by Paul, "Because they haven't no 'igh-born +parents waiting for 'em. They're born to their low estate, and they +knows it." Which to Paul was a solution of peculiar comfort. + +Even the blackened lands between the towns had their charm for Paul, +in that he had a gleeful sense of being excluded from the wrath of +God, which fell continuously upon them and the inhabitants thereof. +And here and there a belt of leafy country gave promise, or +confirmed Barney Bill's promise, of the Paradise that would come. +Besides, what mattered the perpetuations of Bludston brickfields +when the Land of Beulah shimmered ahead in the blue distance, when +"Martin Chuzzlewit" lay open on his knees, when the smell of the bit +of steak sizzling on the cooking stove stung his young blood? And +now they were in Warwickshire, county of verdant undulations and +deep woods and embowered villages. Every promise that Barney Bill +had made to him of beauty was in process of fulfilment. There were +no more blighted towns, no more factories, no more chimneys belching +forth smoke. This was the Earth, the real broad-bosomed Mother +Earth. What he had left was the Hell upon Earth. What he was going +to might be Paradise, but Paul's imagination rightly boggled at the +conception of a Paradise more perfect. And, as Paul's prescient wit +had conjectured, he was learning many things; the names of trees and +wild flowers, the cries of birds, the habits of wayside beasts; what +was good for a horse to eat and what was bad; which was the Waggon, +and Orion's Belt and the Bunch of Keys in the heavens; how to fry +bacon and sew up rents in his clothing; how to deal with his +fellow-man, or, rather, with his fellow-woman, in a persuasive +manner; how to snare a rabbit or a pheasant and convert it into +food, and how, at the same time, to evade the terrors of the law; +the differences between wheat and oats and barley; the main lines of +cleavage between political parties, hitherto a puzzle to Paul, for +Barney Bill was a politician (on the Conservative side) and read his +newspaper and argued craftily in taverns; and the styles and titles +of great landowners by whose estates they passed; and how to avoid +the nets that were perpetually spread by a predatory sex before the +feet of the incautious male. On the last point Barney Bill was +eloquent; but Paul, with delicious memories sanctifying his young +soul, turned a deaf ear to his misogyny. Barney Bill was very old +and crooked and dried up; what beautiful lady would waste her +blandishments on him? Even the low-born lasses with whom they at +times consorted had scarce an eye for Barney Bill. The grapes were +sour. Paul smiled indulgently on the little foible of his friend. + +They jogged along the highroad on this blazing and dusty day. Their +bower of wicker chairs crackled in the heat. It was too hot for +sustained conversation. Once Barney Bill said: "If Bob"-Bob was the +old horse's unimaginative name--"if Bob doesn't have a drink soon +his darned old hide'll crack." + +Ten minutes later: "Nothing under a quart'll wash down this dust." + +"Have a drink of water," suggested Paul, who had already adopted +this care for drouth, with satisfactory results. + +"A grown man's thirst and a boy's thirst is two entirely different +things," said Barney Bill sententiously. "To spoil this grown-up +thirst of mine with water would be a crime." + +A mile or so farther on the road he stretched out a lean brown arm +and pointed. "See that there clump of trees? Behind that is the +Little Bear Inn. They gives you cool china pots with blue round the +edge. You can only have 'em if you asks for 'em, Jim Blake, the +landlord, being pertickler-like. And if yer breaks em--" + +"What would happen?" asked Paul, who was always very much impressed +by Barney Bill's detailed knowledge of the roads and the inns of +England. + +Barney Bill shook his head. "It would break 'is 'eart. Them pots was +being used when William the Conqueror was a boy." + +"Ten-sixty-six to ten-eighty-seven," said Paul the scholar. "They +mun be nine hundred years old." + +"Not quite," said Barney Bill, with an air of scrupulous desire for +veracity. "But nearly. Lor' lumme!" he exclaimed, after a pause, "it +makes one think, doesn't it? One of them there quart mugs--suppose +it has been filled, say, ten times a day, every day for nine hundred +years--my Gosh! what a Pacific Ocean of beer must have been poured +from it! It makes one come over all of religious-like when one puts +it to one's head." + +Paul did not reply, and reverential emotion kept Barney Bill silent +until they reached the clump of trees and the Little Bear Inn. + +It was set back from the road, in a kind of dusty courtyard masked +off on one side by a gigantic elm and on the other by the fringe of +an orchard with ruddy apples hanging patiently beneath the foliage. +Close by the orchard stood the post bearing the signboard on which +the Little Bear, an engaging beast, was pictured, and presiding in a +ceremonious way over the horse-trough below. In the shade of the elm +stretched a trestle table and two wooden benches. The old inn, +gabled, half-timbered, its upper story overhanging the doorway, bent +and crippled, though serene, with age, mellow in yellow and russet, +spectacled, as befitted its years, with leaded diamond panes, +crowned deep in secular thatch, smiled with the calm and homely +peace of everlasting things. Its old dignity even covered the perky +gilt inscription over the doorway, telling how James Blake was +licensed to sell a variety of alcoholic beverages. One human figure +alone was visible, as the chairs and mat-laden van slowly turned +from the road toward the horse-trough--that of a young man in +straw hat and grey flannels making a water-colour sketch of the inn. + +Barney Bill slid off the footboard, and, looking neither to right +nor left, bolted like a belated crab into the cool recesses of the +bar in search of ambrosia from the blue-and-white china mug. Paul, +also afoot, led Bob to the trough. Bob drank with the lusty +moderation of beasts. When he had assuaged his thirst Paul backed +him into the road and, slinging over his head a comforting nosebag, +left him to his meal. + +The young man, sitting on an upturned wooden case, at the extreme +edge of the elm tree's shade, a slender easel before him, a litter +of paraphernalia on the ground by his side, painted assiduously. +Paul idly crept behind him and watched in amazement the smears of +wet colour, after a second or two of apparent irrelevance, take +their place in the essential structure of the drawing. He stood +absorbed. He knew that there were such things as pictures. He knew, +too, that they were made by hands. But he had never seen one in the +making. After a while the artist threw back his head, looked at the +inn and looked at his sketch. There was a hot bit of thatch at the +corner near the orchard, and, below the eaves, bold shadow. The +shadow had not come right. He put in a touch of burnt umber and +again considered the effect. + +"Confound it! that's all wrong," he muttered. + +"It's blue," said Paul. + +The artist started, twisted his head, and for the first time became +conscious of the ragamuffin's presence. "Oh, you see it blue, do +you?" He smiled ironically. + +"Ay," said Paul, with pointing finger. "Look at it. It's not brown, +anyhow. Yon's black inside and blue outside." + +The young man shaded his brow and gazed intently. Brilliant sunshine +plays the deuce with tones. "My hat!" cried he, "you're right. It +was this confounded yellow of the side of the house." He put in a +few hasty strokes. "That better?" + +"Ay," said Paul. + +The artist laid down his brush, and swung round on his box, clasping +knees. "How the devil did you manage to see that when I didn't?" + +"Dun-no!" said Paul. + +The young man stretched himself and lit a cigarette. + +"What are yo' doing that for, mister?" Paul asked seriously. + +"That?" + +"Ay," said Paul. "You mun have a reason." + +"You're a queer infant," laughed the artist. "Do you really want to +know?" + +"I've asked yo'," said Paul. + +"Well, if you're anxious to know, I'm an architect on a holiday, and +I'm sketching any old thing I come across. I don't pretend to be a +painter, my youthful virtuoso, and that's why I go wrong sometimes +on colour. Do you know what an architect is?" + +"No," said Paul, eagerly. "What is it?" + +He had been baffled by the meaning of the word, which he had seen +all his life, inscribed on a brass plate in the Bludston High +Street: "E. Thomson, Architect & Surveyor." It had seemed to him +odd, cryptically fascinating. + +The young man laughed and explained; Paul listened seriously. +Another mystery was solved. He had often wondered how the +bricklayers knew where to lay the bricks. He grasped the idea that +they were but instruments carrying out the conception of the +architect's brain. "I'd like to be an architect," he said. + +"Would you?" After a pause the young man continued: "Anyhow, you can +earn a shilling. just sit down there and let me make a sketch of +you." + +"What for?" asked Paul. + +"Because you're a picturesque person. Now, I suppose you'll be +asking me what's the meaning of picturesque?" + +"Nay," said Paul. "I know. Yo' see it in books. 'Th' owd grey tower +stood out picturesque against the crimson sky.'" + +"Hullo! you're a literary gent," said the young man. + +"Ay," replied Paul proudly. He was greatly attracted towards this +new acquaintance, whom, by his speech and dress and ease of manner, +he judged to belong to the same caste as his lost but +ever-remembered goddess. + +The young man picked up pencil and sketch-book and posed Paul at the +end of the seat by the trestle table. "Now, then," said he, setting +to work. "Head a little more that way. Capital. Don't move. If +you're very quiet I'll give you a shilling." Presently he asked, +"What are you? If you hadn't been a literary gent I'd have thought +you might be a gipsy." + +Paul flushed and started. "I'm not a gipsy." + +"Steady, steady," exclaimed the artist. "I've just said you couldn't +be one. Italian? You don't look English." + +For the first time the idea of exotic parentage entered Paul's head. +He dallied for a moment or two with the thought. "I dunno what I +am," he said romantically. + +"Oh? What's your father?" The young man motioned with his head +toward the inn. + +"Yon's not my father," said Paul. "It's only Barney Bill." + +"Only Barney Bill?" echoed the other, amused. "Well, who is your +father?" + +"Dunno," said Paul. + +"And your mother?" + +"Dunno, either," said Paul, in a mysterious tone. "I dunno if my +parents are living or dead. I think they're living." + +"That's interesting. What are you doing with what's-his-name Bill?" + +"I'm just travelling wi' him to London." + +"And what are you going to do in London?" + +"I'll see when I get there," said Paul. + +"So you're out for adventure?" + +"Ay," said the boy, a gleam of the Vision dancing before his eyes. +"That's it. I'm going on an adventure." + +"There, keep like that," cried the artist. "Don't stir. I do believe +I'm getting you. Holy Moses, it will be great! If only I could catch +the expression! There's nothing like adventure, is there? The +glorious uncertainty of it! To wake up in the morning and know that +the unexpected is bound to happen during the day. Exciting, isn't +it?" + +"Ay," said Paul, his face aglow. + +The young man worked tense and quick at the luminous eyes. He broke +a long silence by asking, "What's your name?" + +"Paul Kegworthy." + +"Paul? That's odd." In the sphere of life to which the ragged urchin +belonged Toms and Bills and Jims were as thick as blackberries, but +Pauls were rare. + +"What's odd?" said Paul. + +"Your name. How did you get it? It's uncommon." + +"I suppose it is," said Paul. "I never thowt of it. I never knew +anybody of that name afore." + +Here was another sign and token of romantic origin suddenly +revealed. Paul felt the thrill of it. He resisted a temptation to +ask his new friend whether it was an appellation generally reserved +for princes. + +"Look here, joking apart," said the artist, putting in the waves of +the thick black hair, "are you really going to be dumped down in +London to seek your fortune? Don't you know anybody there?" + +"No," said Paul. + +"How are you going to live?" + +Paul dived a hand into his breeches pocket and jingled coins. "I've +got th' brass," said he. + +"How much?" + +"Three shillings and sevenpence-ha'penny," said Paul, with an +opulent air. "And yo'r shilling will make it four and sevenpence- +ha'penny." + +"Good God!" said-the young man. He went on drawing for some time in +silence. Then he said: "My brother is a painter--rather a swell-- +a Royal Academician. He would love to paint you. So would other +fellows. You could easily earn your living as a model--doing as a +business, you know, what you're doing now for fun, more or less." + +"How much could I earn?" + +"It all depends. Say a pound to thirty shillings a week." + +Paul gasped and sat paralyzed. Artist, dusty road, gaudy van, +distant cornfields and uplands were blotted from his senses. The +cool waves of Pactolus lapped his feet. + +"Come and look me up when you get to London," continued the friendly +voice. "My name is Rowlatt-W. W. Rowlatt, 4, Gray's Inn Square. Can +you remember it?" + +"Ay," said Paul. + +"Shall I write it down?" + +"Nay. 'W. W. Rowlatt, 4, Gray's Inn Square.' I'm noan likely to +forget it. I never forget nowt," said Paul, life returning through a +vein of boastfulness. + +"Tell me all you remember," said Mr. Rowlatt, with a laugh. + +"I can say all the Kings of England, with their dates, and the +counties and chief towns of Great Britain and Ireland, and all the +weights and measures, and 'The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the +fold--'" + +"Holy Moses!" cried Rowlatt. "Anything else?" + +"Ay. Lots more," said Paul, anxious to stamp vividly the impression +he saw that he was making. "I know the Plagues of Egypt." + +"I bet you don't." + +"Rivers of Blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Murrain, Boils, Hails, +Locusts, Darkness and Death of Firstborn," said Paul, in a breath. + +"Jehosaphat!" cried Rowlatt. "I suppose now you'd have no +difficulty in reciting the Thirty-nine Articles." + +Paul puckered his forehead in thought. "D'yo' mean," he asked after +a pause, "the Thirty-nine Articles o' Religion, as is in th' +Prayerbuk? I ha' tried to read 'em, but couldno' understand 'em +reet." + +Rowlatt, who had not expected his facetious query to be so answered, +stopped his drawing for a moment. "What in the name of goodness +attracted you to the Thirty-nine Articles?" + +"I wanted to learn about things," said Paul. + +The young man looked at him and smiled. "Self-education is a jolly +good thing," said he. "Learn all you can, and you'll be a famous +fellow one of these days. But you must cultivate a sense of humour." + +Paul was about to seek enlightenment as to this counsel when Barney +Bill appeared, cool and refreshed, from the inn door, and lifted a +cheery voice. "Let's be getting along, sonny." + +Rowlatt held up a detaining hand. "Just a couple of minutes, if you +can spare them. I've nearly finished." + +"All right, sir," said Barney Bill, limping across the yard. "Taking +a picture of him?" + +The artist nodded. Barney Bill looked over his shoulder. "By Gosh!" +he cried in admiration. "By Gosh!" + +"It has come out rather well, hasn't it?" said the artist, +complacently. + +"It's the living image of 'im," said Barney Bill. + +"He tells me he's going up to London to seek his fortune," said +Rowlatt, putting in the finishing touches. + +"And his 'igh-born parents," said Barney Bill, winking at Paul. + +Paul flushed and wriggled uncomfortably. Instinct deprecated crude +revelation of the mystery of his birth to the man of refinement. He +felt that Barney Bill was betraying confidence. Gutter-bred though +he was, he accused his vagrant protector of a lack of good taste. Of +such a breach he himself, son of princes, could not have been +guilty. Luckily, and, as Paul thought, with admirable tact, Mr. +Rowlatt did not demand explanation. + +"A young Japhet in search of a father. Well, I hope he'll find him. +There's nothing like romance. Without it life is flat and dead. It's +what atmosphere is to a picture." + +"And onions to a stew," said Barney Bill. + +"Quite right," said Rowlatt. "Paul, my boy, I think after all you'd +better stick to Mr.--?" + +"Barney Bill, sir, at your service. And, if you want a comfortable +chair, or an elegant mat, or a hearth brush at a ridiculous cheap +price"--he waved toward the van. Rowlatt turned his head and, +laughing, looked into the twinkling black eyes. "I don't for a +moment expect you to buy, sir, but I was only a-satisfying of my +artistic conscience." + +Rowlatt shut his sketch-book with a snap, and rose. "Let us have a +drink," said he. "Artists should be better acquainted." + +He whispered a message to Paul, who sped to the inn and presently +returned with a couple of the famous blue and white mugs frothing +deliciously at the brims. The men, their lips to the bubbles, nodded +to each other. The still beat of the August noon enveloped their +bodies, but a streak of heavenly coolness trickled through their +souls. Paul, looking at them enviously, longed to be grown up. + +Then followed a pleasant half-hour of desultory talk. Although the +men did not make him, save for here and there a casual reference, +the subject of their conversation, Paul, with the Vision shimmering +before his eyes, was sensitive enough to perceive in a dim and +elusive way that he was at the back of each man's thoughts and that, +for his sake, each was trying to obtain the measure of the other. At +last Barney Bill, cocking at the sun the skilled eye of the dweller +in the wilderness, called the time for departure. + +"Could I see th' picture?" asked Paul. + +Rowlatt passed him the sketch-book. The sudden sight of oneself as +one appears in another's eyes is always a shock, even to the most +sophisticated sitter. To Paul it was uncanny. He had often seen his +own reflection and was familiar with his own appearance, but this +was the first time that he had looked at himself impersonally. The +sketch was vivid, the likeness excellent; the motive, the +picturesque and romantic. + +A proud lift of the chin, an eager glance in the eye, a sensitive +curve of the lip attracted his boyish egotism. The portrait was an +ideal, something to live up to. Involuntarily he composed his +features. + +Barney Bill again called time. Paul surrendered the sketch-book +reluctantly. Rowlatt, with a cheery word, handed him the shilling +fee. Paul, than whom none better knew the magic quality of money, +hesitated for a second. The boy in the sketch would have refused. +Paul drew himself up. "Nay, I'll take noan. I liked doing it." + +Rowlatt laughed and pocketed the coin. "All right," said he, with a +playful bow. "I'm exceedingly indebted to your courtesy." + +Barney Bill gave Paul an approving glance. "Good for you, boy. Never +take money you've not earned. Good day to you, sir"--he touched +his cap. "And"--with a motion toward the empty mugs--"thank you +kindly." + +Rowlatt strolled with them to the van, Barney Bill limping a pace or +two ahead. "Remember what I told you, my young friend," said he in a +low voice. "I don't go back upon my word. I'll help you. But if +you're a wise boy and know what's good for you, you'll stick to Mr. +Barney Bill and the freedom of the high-road and the light heart of +the vagabond. You'll have a devilish sight more happiness in the +end." + +But Paul, who already looked upon his gipsy self as dead as his +Bludston self, and these dead selves as stepping-stones to higher +things, turned a deaf ear to his new friend's paradoxical +philosophy. "I'll remember," said he. "Mr. W. W. Rowlatt, 4, Gray's +Inn Square." + +The young architect watched the van with its swinging, creaking +excrescences lumber away down the hot and dusty road, and turned +with a puzzled expression to his easel. Joy in the Little Bear Inn +had for the moment departed. Presently he found himself scribbling a +letter in pencil to his brother, the Royal Academician. + +"So you see, my dear fellow," he wrote toward the end of the +epistle, "I am in a quandary. That the little beggar is of startling +beauty is undeniable. That he has got his bill agape, like a young +bird, for whatever food of beauty and emotion and knowledge comes +his way is obvious to any fool. But whether, in what I propose, I'm +giving a helping hand to a kind of wild genius, or whether I'm +starting a vain boy along the primrose path in the direction of +everlasting bonfire, I'm damned if I know." + +But Paul jogged along by the side of Barney Bill in no such state of +dubiety. God was in His Heaven, arranging everything for his +especial benefit. All was well with the world where dazzling +destinies like his were bound to be fulfilled. + +"I've heard of such things," said Barney Bill with a reflective +twist of his head, when Paul had told him of Mr. Rowlatt's +suggestion. "A cousin of mine married a man who knew a gal who used +to stand in her birthday suit in front of a lot of young painter +chaps-and I'm bound to say he used to declare she was as good a gal +as his own wife, especially seeing as how she supported an old +father what had got a stroke, and a houseful of young brothers and +sisters. So I'm not saying there's any harm in it. And I wouldn't +stand in your way, sonny, seeing as how you want to get to your +'igh-born parents. You might find 'em. on the road, and then again +you mightn't. And thirty bob a week at fourteen-no-it would be +flying in the face of Providence to say 'don't do it! But what licks +me is: what the blazes do they want with a little varmint like you? +Why shouldn't they pay thirty bob a week to paint me?" + +Paul did not reply, being instinctively averse from wounding +susceptibilities. But in his heart rose a high pity for the common +though kindly clay that was Barney Bill. + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHEN they reached London in November, after circuitous wanderings, +Barney Bill said to Paul: "You've seed enough of me, matey, to know +that I wish yer good and not harm. I've fed yer and I've housed +yer-I can't say as how I've done much toward clothing yer-and three +months on the road has knocked corners off the swell toggery yer +came to me in; but I ain't beat yer or cussed yer more than yer +deserved"--whereat Paul grinned-"and I've spent a lot of valuable +time, when I might have been profitably doing nothing, a-larning yer +of things and, so to speak, completing yer eddication. Is that the +truth, or am I a bloomin' liar?" + +Paul, thus challenged, confirmed the absolute veracity of Barney +Bill's statement. The latter continued, bending forward, his lean +brown hand on the boy's shoulder, and looking at him earnestly: "I +took yer away from your 'appy 'ome because, though the 'ome might +have been 'appy in its own sweet way, you wasn't. I wanted to set +yer on the track of yer 'ighborn parents. I wanted to make a man of +yer. I want to do the best for yer now, so I put it to yer straight: +If yer likes to come along of me altogether, I'll pay yer wages on +the next round, and when yer gets a little older I'll take yer into +partnership and leave yer the business when I die. It's a man's life +and a free life, and I think yer likes it, don't yer?" + +"Ay," said Paul, "it's foine." + +"On the other hand, as I said afore, I won't stand in yer way, and +if yer thinks you'll get nearer to your 'igh-born parents by +hitching up with Mr. Architect, well--you're old enough to choose. +I leave it to you." + +But Paul had already chosen. The Road had its magical fascination, +to which he would have surrendered all his boyish soul, had not the +call of his destiny been more insistent. The Road led nowhither. +Princes and princesses were as rare as hips and haws in summer-time. +Their glittering equipages did not stop the van, nor did they stand +at the emblazoned gateways of great parks waiting patiently for +long-lost sons. He knew that he must seek them in their own social +world, and to this he would surely be raised by his phantasmagorial +income of thirty shillings a week. + +"You won't object to my keeping a friendly eye on yer for the next +year or two?" asked Barney Bill, with twisted mouth and a kindly, +satirical glance. + +Paul flushed. He had the consciousness of being a selfish, +self-centered little beast, not half enough grateful to Barney Bill +for delivering him out of the House of Bondage and leading him into +the Land of Milk and Honey. He was as much stung by the delicately +implied rebuke as touched by the solicitude as to his future +welfare. Romantic words, such as he had read in the story-books, +surged vaguely in his head, but he could find none to utter. He kept +silent for a few moments, his hand in his breeches pocket. Presently +he drew it forth rather slowly, and held out the precious cornelian +heart to his benefactor. + +"I 'ud like to give it thee," said Paul. + +Barney Bill took it. "Thank 'ee, sonny. I'll remember that you gave +it to me. But I won't keep yer talisman. 'Ere, see--" he made a +pretence to spit on it--"that's for luck. Barney Bill's luck, and +good wishes." + +So Paul pocketed the heart again, immensely relieved by his friend's +magnanimity, and the little sentimental episode was over. + +A month later, when Barney Bill started on his solitary winter +pilgrimage in the South of England, he left behind him a +transmogrified Paul, a Paul, thanks to his munificence, arrayed in +decent garments, including collar and tie (insignia of caste) and an +overcoat (symbol of luxury), for which Paul was to repay him out of +his future earnings; a Paul lodged in a small but comfortable +third-floor-back, a bedroom all to himself, with a real bed, +mattress, pillow, sheets, and blankets all complete, and a +looking-glass, and a stand with ewer and basin so beautiful that, at +first, Paul did not dare wash for fear of making the water dirty; a +Paul already engaged for a series of sittings by Mr. Cyrus Rowlatt, +R.A., his head swimming with the wonder of the fashionable painter's +studio; a Paul standing in radiant confidence upon the brink of +life. + +"Sonny," said Barney Bill, when he said good-bye, "d'yer see them +there lovely lace-up boots you've got on?" + +"Ay," said Paul, regarding them complacently. + +"Well, they've got to take yer all the way up the hill, like the +young man what's his name?--Excelsure--in the piece of poetry +you recite; but they'll only do it if they continues to fit. Don't +get too big for 'em. At any rate, wait till they're worn out and yer +can buy another pair with yer own money." + +Paul grinned, because he did not know what else to do, so as to show +his intellectual appreciation of the parable; but in his heart, for +all his gratitude, he thought Barney bill rather a prosy moralizer. +It was one of the disabilities of advanced old age. Alas! what can +bridge the gulf between fourteen and fifty? + +"Anyhow, you've got a friend at the back of yer, sonny, and don't +make no mistake about it. If you're in trouble let me know. I can't +say fairer than that, can I?" + +That, for a season, was the end of Barney Bill, and Paul found +himself thrillingly alone in London. At first its labyrinthine +vastness overwhelmed him, causing him to feel an unimportant atom, +which may have been good for his soul, but was not agreeable to his +vanity. By degrees, however, he learned the lay of the great +thoroughfares, especially those leading to the quarters where +artists congregate, and, conscious of purpose and of money jingling +in his pocket, he began to hold his head high in the crowded +streets. In the house in Barn Street, off the Euston Road, where he +lodged, he was called "Mr. Paul" by his landlady, Mrs. Seddon, and +her thirteen-year-old daughter, Jane, which was comforting and +stimulating. Jane, a lanky, fair, blue-eyed girl, who gave promise +of good looks, attended to his modest wants with a zeal somewhat out +of proportion to the payment received. Paul had the novel sensation +of finding some one at his beck and call. He beckoned and called +often, for the sheer pleasure of it. So great was the change in his +life that, in these early days, it seemed a3 if he had already come +into his kingdom. He strutted about, poor child, like the prince in +a fairy tale, and, in spite of Barney Bill's precepts-lie outgrew +his boots immediately. Mrs. Seddon, an old friend of Barney Bill, +whom she addressed and spoke as Mr. William, kept a small shop in +which she sold newspapers and twine and penny bottles of ink. In the +little back-parlour Mrs. Seddon and Tane and Paul had their meals, +while the shop boy, an inconsiderable creature with a perpetual cold +in his head, attended to the unexpected customer. To Paul, this boy, +with whom a few months ago he would have joyously changed places, +was as the dust beneath his feet. He sent him on errands in a lordly +way, treating him as, indeed, he had treated the youth of Budge +Street after his triumph over Billy Goodge, and the boy obeyed +meekly. Paul believed in himself; the boy didn't. Almost from the +beginning he usurped an ascendancy over the little household. For +all their having lived in the great maelstrom of London, he found +his superficial experience of life larger than that of mother and +daughter. They had never seen machinery at work, did not know the +difference between an elm and a beech and had never read Sir Walter +Scott. Mrs. Seddon, thin, careworn and slackly good-natured, ever +lamented the loss of an astonishingly brilliant husband; Jane was +markedly the more competent of the two. She had character, and, even +while slaving for the romantic youth, made it clear to him that for +no other man alive would she so demean herself. Paul resolved to +undertake her education. + +The months slipped by golden with fulfilment. News of the beautiful +boy model went the round of the studios. Those were simpler times +(although not so very long ago) in British art than the present, and +the pretty picture was still in vogue. As Mr. Rowlatt, the young +architect, had foretold, Paul had no difficulty in obtaining work. +Indeed, it was fatally easy. Mr. Cyrus Rowlatt, R.A., had launched +him. Being fabulously paid, he thought his new profession the most +aristocratic calling in the world. In a remarkably short time he was +able to repay Barney Bill. The day when he purchased the postal +order was the proudest in his life. The transaction gave him a +princely feeling. He alone of boys, by special virtue of his origin, +was capable of such a thing. Again, his welcome in the painting +world confirmed him in the belief that he was a personage, born to +great things. Posed on the model throne, the object of the painter's +intense scrutiny, he swelled ingenuously with the conviction of his +supreme importance. The lazy luxury of the model's life appealed to +his sensuous temperament. He loved the warmth, the artistic setting +of the studios; the pictures, the oriental rugs, the bits of armour, +the old brocade, the rich cushions. If he had not been born to it, +why had he not remained, like all 'the youth of Bludston, amid the +filth and clatter of the factory? He loved, too, to hear the studio +talk, though at first he comprehended little of it. The men and +women for whom he sat possessed the same quality as his +never-forgotten goddess and Lady Chudley and the young architect-- +a quality which he recognized keenly, but for which his limited +vocabulary could find no definition. Afterward he realized that it +was refinement in manner and speech and person. This quality he felt +it essential to acquire. Accordingly he played the young ape to +those who aroused his admiration. + +One day when Jane entered the back-parlour he sprang from his seat +and advanced with outstretched hand to meet her: "My dear Lady Jane, +how good of you to come! Do let me clear a chair for you." + +"What are you playing at?" asked Jane. + +"That's the way to receive a lady when she calls on you. + +"Oh!" said Jane. + +He practised on her each newly learned social accomplishment. He +minced his broad Lancashire, when he spoke to her, in such a way as +to be grotesquely unintelligible. By listening to conversations he +learned many amazing social facts; among them that the gentry had a +bath every morning of their lives. This stirred his imagination to +such a pitch that he commanded Jane to bring up the matutinal +washtub to his bedroom. By instinct refined he revelled in the +resultant sensation of cleanliness. He paid great attention to his +attire, modelling himself, as far as he could, on young Rowlatt, the +architect, on whom he occasionally called to report progress. He +bought such neckties and collars as Rowlatt wore and submitted them +for Jane's approval. She thought them vastly genteel. He also +entertained her with whatever jargon of art talk he managed to pick +up. Thus, though the urchin gave himself airs and invested himself +with affectations, which rendered him intolerable to all of his own +social status, except the placid Mrs. Seddon and the adoring Jane, +he was under the continuous influence of a high ambition. It made +him ridiculous, but it preserved him from vicious and vulgar things. +If you are conscious of being a prince in disguise qualifying for +butterfly entrance into your kingdom, it behoves you to behave in a +princely manner, not to consort with lewd fellows and not to neglect +opportunities for education. You owe to yourself all the good that +you can extract from the world. Acting from this point of view, and +guided by the practical advice of young Rowlatt, he attended evening +classes, where he gulped down knowledge hungrily. So, what with +sitting and studying and backward and forward journeying, and +educating Jane, and practising the accomplishments of a prince, and +sleeping the long sound sleep of a tired youngster, Paul had no time +to think of evil. He was far too much absorbed in himself. + +Meanwhile, of Bludston not a sign. For all that he had heard of +search being made for him, he might have been a runaway kitten. +Sometimes he wondered what steps the Buttons had taken in order to +find him. If they bad communicated with the police, surely, at some +stage of their journey, Barney Bill would have been held up and +questioned. But had they even troubled to call in the police? Barney +Bill thought not, and Paul agreed. The police were very unpopular in +Budge Street--almost as unpopular as Paul. In all probability the +Buttons were only too glad to be rid of him. If he found no favour +in the eyes of Mrs. Button, in the eyes of Button he was detestable. +Occasionally he spoke of them to Barney Bill on his rare appearances +in London, but for prudential motives the latter had struck Bludston +out of his itinerary and could give no information. At last Paul +ceased altogether to think of them. They belonged to a far-distant +past already becoming blurred in his memory. + +So Paul lived his queer sedulous life, month after month, year after +year, known among the studios as a quaint oddity, drawn out +indulgently by the men, somewhat petted, monkey-fashion, by the +women, forgotten by both when out of their presence, but developing +imperceptibly day by day along the self-centring line. A kindly +adviser suggested a gymnasium to keep him in condition for +professional purposes. He took the advice, and in the course of time +became a splendid young animal, a being so physically perfect as to +be what the good vicar of Bludston had called him in tired jest--a +lusus naturae. But though proud of his body as any finely formed +human may honorably be, a far higher arrogance saved him from +Narcissus vanity. It was the inner and essential Paul and not the +outer investiture that was born to great things. + +In his eighteenth year he gradually awoke to consciousness of +change. One of his classmates at the Polytechnic institute, with +whom be had picked a slight acquaintance, said one evening as they +were walking homeward together: "I shan't be coming here after next +week. I've got a good clerkship in the city. What are you doing?" + +"I'm an artist's model," said Paul. + +The other, a pale and perky youth, sniffed. His name was Higgins. +"Good Lord! What do you mean?" + +"I'm a model in the life class of the Royal Academy School," said +Paul, proudly. + +"You stand up naked in front of all kinds of people for them to +paint you?" + +"Of course," said Paul. + +"How beastly!" said Higgins. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just that," said Higgins. "It's beastly!" + +A minute or two afterward he jumped on a passing the omnibus, and +thenceforward avoided Paul at the Polytechnic Institute. + +This uncompromising pronouncement on the part of Higgins was a +shock; but together with other incidents, chiefly psychological, +vague, intangible phenomena of his spiritual development, it showed +Paul the possibility of another point of view. He took stock of +himself. From the picturesque boy he had grown into the physically +perfect man. As a model he was no longer sought after for subject +pieces. He was in clamorous demand at Life Schools, where he drew a +higher rate of pay, but where he was as impersonal to the intently +working students as the cast of the Greek torso which other students +were copying in the next room. The intimacy of the studio, the +warmth and the colour and the meretricious luxury were gone from his +life. On the other hand he was making money. He had fifty pounds in +the Savings Bank, the maximum of petty thrift which an +incomprehensive British Government encourages, and a fair, though +unknown, sum in an iron money-box hidden behind his washstand. Up to +now he had had no time to learn how to spend money. When he took to +smoking cigarettes, which he had done quite recently, he regarded +himself as a man. + +Higgins's "How beastly!" rang in his head. Although he could not +quite understand the full meaning of the brutal judgment, it brought +him disquiet and discontent. For one thing, like the high-road, his +profession led nowhither. The thrill of adventure had gone from it. +It was static, and Paul's temperament was dynamic. He had also lost +his boyish sense of importance, of being the central figure in the +little stage. Disillusion began to creep over him. Would he do +nothing else but this all his life? Old Erricone, the patriarchal, +white-bearded Italian, the doyen of the models of London, came +before his mind, a senile posturer, mumbling dreary tales of his +inglorious achievements: how he was the Roman Emperor in this +picture and Father Abraham in the other; how painters could not get +on without him; how once he had been summoned from Rome to London; +how Rossetti had shaken hands with him. Paul shivered at the thought +of himself as the Erricone of a future generation. + +The next day was Saturday, and he had no sitting. The morning he +spent in his small bedroom in the soothing throes of literary +composition. Some time ago he had thought it would be a mighty fine +thing to be a poet, and had tried his hand at verse. Finding he +possessed some facility, he decided that he was a poet, and at once +started an epic poem in rhyme on the Life of Nelson, the material +being supplied by Southey. This morning he did the Battle of the +Baltic. + +He put the glass to his blind eye, +And said "No signals do I spy," + +wrote Paul. Poetry taken at the gallop like this was a very simple +affair, and Paul covered an amazing amount of ground. + +In the afternoon he walked abroad with Jane, who, having lengthened +her skirts and put up her hair, was now a young woman looking older +than her years. She too had developed. Her lank figure had rounded +into pretty curves. Her sharp little Cockney face had filled out. +She had a pleasant smile and a capable brow, and, correcting a +tendency to fluffiness of hair of which she disapproved, and +dressing herself neatly, made herself by no means unattractive. +Constant association with Paul had fired her ambitions. Like him, +she might have a destiny, though not such a majestic one, +Accordingly she had studied stenography and typewriting, with a view +to earning her livelihood away from the little shop, which did not +offer the prospect of a dazzling career. At the back of her girlish +mind was the desire to keep pace with Paul in his upward flight, so +that he should not be ashamed of her when he sat upon the clouds in +glory. In awful secrecy she practised the social accomplishments +which Paul brought home. She loved her Saturday and Sunday +excursions with Paul--of late they had gone far afield: the Tower, +Greenwich, Ricmond--exploring London and making splendid +discoveries such as Westminster Abbey and a fourpenny tea garden at +Putney. She scarcely knew whether she cared for these things for +themselves; but she saw them through Paul coloured by his vivid +personality. Once on Chelsea Bridge he had pointed out a peculiarly +ugly stretch of low-tide mud, and said: "Look at that." She, by +unprecedented chance, mistaking his tone, had replied: "How lovely!" +And she had thought it lovely, until his stare of rebuke and +wonderment brought disillusion and spurting tears, which for the +life of him he could not understand. It is very foolish, and often +suicidal, of men to correct women for going into rapture. over mud +flats. On that occasion, however, the only resultant harm was the +conviction in the girl's heart that the presence of Paul turned mud +flats into beds of asphodel. Then, just as she saw outer things +through his eyes, she felt herself regarded by outer eyes through +him. His rare and absurd beauty made him a cynosure whithersoever he +went. London, vast and seething, could produce no such perfect +Apollo. When she caught the admiring glances of others of her sex, +little Jane drew herself up proudly and threw back insolent glances +of triumph. "You would like to be where I am, wouldn't you?" the +glance would say, with the words almost formulated in her mind. "But +you won't. You never will be. I've got him. He's walking out with me +and not with you. I like to see you squirm, you envious little cat." +Jane was not a princess, she was merely a child of the people; but I +am willing to eat my boots if it can be satisfactorily proved that +there is a princess living on the face of the earth who would not be +delighted at seeing another woman cast covetous eyes on the man she +loved, and would not call her a cat (or its homonym) for doing so. + +On this mild March afternoon Paul and Jane walked in the Euston +Road, he in a loose blue serge suit, floppy black tie, low collar +and black soft felt hat (this was in the last century, please +remember--epoch almost romantic, so fast does time fly), she in +neat black braided jacket and sailor hat. They looked pathetically +young. + +"Where shall we go?" asked Jane. + +Paul, in no mood for high adventure, suggested Regent's Park. "At +least we can breathe there," said he. + +Jane sniffed up the fresh spring air, unconscious of the London +taint, and laughed. "Why, what's the matter with the Euston Road?" + +"It's vulgar," said Paul. "In the Park the hyacinths and the +daffodils will be out." + +What he meant he scarcely knew. When one is very young and out of +tune with life, one is apt to speak discordantly. + +They mounted a westward omnibus. Paul lit a cigarette and smoked +almost in silence until they alighted by the Park gates. As they +entered, he turned to her suddenly. "Look here, Jane, I want to ask +you something. The other night I told a man I was an artist's model, +and he said 'How beastly!' and turned away as if I wasn't fit for +him to associate with. What was he driving at?" + +"He was a nasty cad," said Jane promptly. + +"Of course he was," said Paul. "But why did he say it? Do you think +there's anything beastly in being a model?" + +"Certainly not." She added in modification: "That is if you like +it." + +"Well, supposing I don't like it?" + +She did not reply for a minute or two. Then: "If you really don't +like it, I should be rather glad." + +"Why?" asked Paul. + +She raised a piteous face. + +"Yes, tell me," he insisted. "Tell me why you agree with that cad +Higgins?" + +"I don't agree with him." + +"You must." + +They fenced for a while. At last he pinned her down. + +"Well, if you want to know," she declared, with a flushed cheek, "I +don't think it's a man's job." + +He bit his lip. He had asked for the truth and he had got it. His +own dark suspicions were confirmed. Jane glanced at him fearful of +offence. When they had walked some yards he spoke. "What would you +call a man's job?" + +Jane hesitated for an answer. Her life had been passed in a sphere +where men carpentered or drove horses or sold things in shops. +Deeply impressed by the knowledge of Paul's romantic birth and high +destiny she could not suggest any such lowly avocations, and she did +not know what men's jobs were usually executed by scions of the +nobility. A clerk's work was certainly genteel; but even that would +be lowering to the hero. She glanced at him again, swiftly. No, he +was too beautiful to be penned up in an office from nine to +six-thirty every day of his life. On the other hand her feminine +intuition appreciated keenly the withering criticism of Higgins. +Ever since Paul had first told her of his engagements at the Life +Schools she had shrunk from the idea. It was all very well for the +boy; but for the man--and being younger than he, she regarded him +now as a man--there was something in it that offended her nice +sense of human dignity. + +"Well," he said. "Tell me, what do you call a man's job?" + +"Oh, I don't know," she said in distress; "something you do with +your hands or your brain." + +"You think being a model is undignified." + +"Yes." + +"So do I," said Paul. "But I'm doing things with my brain, too, you +know," he added quickly, anxious to be seen again on his pedestal. +"I am getting on with my epic poem. I've done a lot since you last +heard it. I'll read you the rest when we get home." + +"That will be lovely," said Jane, to whom the faculty of rhyming was +a never-ceasing wonder. She would sit bemused by the jingling lines +and wrapt in awe at the minstrel. + +They sat on a bench by the flower-beds, gay in their spring charm of +belated crocus and hyacinth and daffodil, with here and there a +precocious tulip. Paul, sensitive to beauty, discoursed on flowers. +Max Field had a studio in St. John's Wood opening out into a garden, +which last summer was a dream of delight. He described it. When he +came into his kingdom he intended to have such a garden. + +"You'll let me have a peep at it sometimes, won't you?" said Jane. + +"Of course," said Paul. + +The lack of enthusiasm in his tone chilled the girl's heart. But she +did not protest. In these days, in spite of occasional outspokenness +she was still a humble little girl worshipping her brilliant +companion from afar. + +"How often could I come?" she asked. + +"That," said he, in his boyish pashadom, "would depend on how good +you were." + +Obedient to the thought processes of her sex, she made a bee line to +the particular. + +"Oh, Paul, I hope you're not angry." + +"At what?" + +"At what I said about your being a model." + +"Not a bit," said he. "If I hadn't wanted to know your opinion, I +wouldn't have asked you." + +She brightened. "You really wanted to know what I thought?" + +"Naturally," said Paul. "You're the most commonsense girl I've ever +met." + +Paul walked soberly home. Jane accompanied him--on wings. + +On Monday Paul went to the Life School and stripped with a heavy +heart. Jane was right. It was not a man's job. The fact, too, of his +doing it lowered him in her esteem, and though he had no romantic +thoughts whatever with regard to Jane, he enjoyed being Lord +Paramount in her eyes. He went into the studio and took up his pose; +and as he stood on the model throne, conspicuous, glaring, the one +startling central object, Higgins's "How beastly!" came like a +material echo and smote him in the face. He felt like Adam when he +first proceeded to his primitive tailoring. A wave of shame ran +through him. He looked around the great silent room, at the rows of +students, each in front of an easel, using his naked body for their +purposes. A phrase flashed across his mind--in three years his +reading had brought vocabulary--they were using his physical body +for their spiritual purposes. For the moment he hated them all +fiercely. They were a band of vampires. Habit and discipline alone +saved him from breaking his pose and fleeing headlong. But there he +was fixed, like marble, in an athlete's attitude, showing rippling +muscles of neck and chest and arms and thighs all developed by the +gymnasium into the perfection of Greek beauty, and all useless, more +useless even, as far as the world's work was concerned, than the +muscles of a racehorse. There he was fixed, with outstretched limbs +and strained loins, a human being far more alive than the peering, +measuring throng, far more important, called by a destiny infinitely +higher than theirs. And none of them suspected it. For the first +time he saw himself as they saw him. They admired him as a thing, an +animal trained especially for them, a prize bullock. As a human +being they disregarded him. Nay, in the depth of their hearts they +despised him. Not one of them would have stood where he did. He +would have considered it--rightly--as degrading to his manhood. + +The head of the school snapped his fingers impatiently and fussed up +to the model-stand. "What's the matter? Tired already? Take it easy +for a minute, if you like." + +"No," said Paul, instinctively stiffening himself. "I'm never +tired." + +It was his boast that he could stand longer in a given pose than any +other model, and thereby he had earned reputation. + +"Then don't go to pieces, my boy," said the head of the school, not +unkindly. "You're supposed to be a Greek athlete and not Venus +rising from the sea or a jelly at a children's party." + +Paul flushed all over, and insane anger shook him. How dared the +mar. speak to him like that? He kept the pose, thinking wild +thoughts. Every moment the strain grew less bearable, the +consciousness of his degradation more intense. He longed for +something to happen, something dramatic, something that would show +the vampires what manner of man he was. He was histrionic in his +anguish. + +A fly settled on his back--a damp, sluggish fly that had survived +the winter--and it crawled horribly up his spine. He bore it for a +few moments, and then his over-excited nerves gave way and he dashed +his hand behind him. Somebody laughed. He raised his clenched fists +and glared at the class. + +"Ay, yo' can laugh--you can laugh till yo' bust!" he cried, +falling back into his Lancashire accent. "But yo'll never see me, +here agen. Never, never, never, so help me God!" + +He rushed away. The head of the school followed him and, while he +was dressing, reasoned with him. + +"Nay," said Paul. "Never agen. Aw'm doan wi' th' whole business." + +And as Paul walked home through the hurrying streets, he thought +regretfully of twenty speeches which would have more adequately +signified his indignant retirement from the profession. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PAUL'S model-self being dead, he regarded it with complacency and +set his foot on it, little doubting that it was another +stepping-stone. + +He spoke loftily of his independence. + +"But how are you going to earn your living?" asked Jane, the +practical. + +"I shall follow one of the arts," Paul replied. "I think I am a +poet, but I might be a painter or a musician." + +"You do sing and play lovely," said Jane. + +He had recently purchased from a pawnshop a second-hand mandoline, +which he had mastered by the aid of a sixpenny handbook, and he +would play on it accompaniments to sentimental ballads which he sang +in a high baritone. + +"I'll not choose yet awhile," said Paul, disregarding the tribute. +"Something will happen. The 'moving finger' will point--" + +"What moving finger?" + +"The finger of Destiny," said Paul. + +And, as the superb youth predicted, something did happen a day or +two afterwards. + +They were walking in Regent Street, and stopped, as was their wont, +before a photographer's window where portraits of celebrities were +exposed to view. Paul loved this window, bad loved it from the +moment of discovery, a couple of years before. It was a Temple of +Fame. The fact of your portrait being exhibited, with your style and +title printed below, marked you as one of the great ones of the +earth. Often he had said to Jane: "When I am there you'll be proud, +won't you?" + +And she had looked up to him adoringly and wondered why he was not +there already. + +It was Paul's habit to scrutinize the faces of those who had +achieved greatness, Archbishops, Field-Marshals, Cabinet Ministers, +and to speculate on the quality of mind that had raised them to +their high estate; and often he would shift his position, so as to +obtain a glimpse of his own features in the plate-glass window, and +compare them with those of the famous. Thus he would determine that +he had the brow of the divine, the nose of the statesman and the +firm lips of the soldier. It was a stimulating pastime. He was born +to great things; but to what great things he knew not. The sphere in +which his glory should be fulfilled was as yet hidden in the mists +of time. + +But this morning, instead of roving over the illustrious gallery, +his eye caught and was fascinated by a single portrait. He stood +staring at it for a long time, lost in the thrill of thought. + +At last Jane touched his arm. "What are you looking at?" + +He pointed. "Do you see that?" + +"Yes. It's--" She named an eminent actor, then in the heyday of +his fame, of whom legend hath it that his photographs were bought in +thousands by love-lorn maidens who slept with them beneath their +pillows. + +Paul drew her away from the little knot of idlers clustered round +the window. "There's nothing that man can do that I can't do," said +Paul. + +"You're twenty times better looking," said Jane. + +"I have more intelligence," said Paul. + +"Of course," said Jane. + +"I'm going to be an actor," said Paul. + +"Oh!" cried Jane in sudden rapture. Then her sturdy common-sense +asserted itself. "But can you act?" + +"I'm sure I could, if I tried. You've only got to have the genius to +start with and the rest is easy." + +As she did not dare question his genius, she remained silent. + +"I'm going to be an actor," said he, "and when I'm not acting I +shall be a poet." + +In spite of her adoration Jane could not forbear a shaft of +raillery. "You'll leave yourself some time to be a musician, won't +you?" + +He laughed. His alert and retentive mind had seized, long ago, on +Rowlatt's recommendation at the Little Bear Inn, and he had +developed, perhaps half consciously, a half sense of humour. A whole +sense, however, is not congruous with the fervid beliefs and soaring +ambitions of eighteen. Your sense of humour, that delicate +percipience of proportion, that subrident check on impulse, that +touch of the divine fellowship with human frailty, is a thing of +mellower growth. It is a solvent and not an excitant. It does not +stimulate to sublime effort; but it can cool raging passion. It can +take the salt from tears, the bitterness from judgment, the keenness +from despair; but in its universal manifestation it would +effectually stop a naval engagement. + +Paul laughed. "You mustn't think I brag too much, Jane," said he. +"For anybody else I know what I say would be ridiculous. But for me +it's different. I'm going to be a great man. I know it. If I'm not +going to be a great actor, I shall be a great something else. God +doesn't put such things into people's heads for nothing. He didn't +take me from the factory in Bludston and set me here with you, +walking up Regent Street, like a gentleman, just to throw me back +into the gutter." + +"But who said you were going back to the gutter?" asked Jane. + +"Nobody. I wanted to get right with myself. But--that getting +right with oneself--do you think it egotistic?" + +"I don't quite know what that is." + +He defined the term. + +"No," she said seriously. "I don't think it is. Everybody has got a +self to consider. I don't look on it as ego-what-d'-you-call-it to +strike out for myself instead of going on helping mother to mind the +shop. So why should you?" + +"Besides, I owe a duty to my parents, don't I?" he asked eagerly. + +But here Jane took her own line. "I can't see that you do, +considering that they've done nothing for you." + +"They've done everything for me," he protested vehemently. "They've +made me what I am." + +"They didn't take much trouble about it," said Jane. + +They squabbled for a while after the manner of boy and girl. At last +she cried: "Don't you see I'm proud of you for yourself and not for +your silly old parents? What have they got to do with me? And +besides, you'll never find them." + +"I don't think you know what you're talking about," he said loftily. +"It is time we were getting home." + +He walked on for some time stiffly, his head in the air, not +condescending to speak. She had uttered blasphemy. He would find his +parents, he vowed to himself, if only to spite Jane. Presently his +ear caught a little sniff, and looking down, saw her dabbing her +eyes with her handkerchief. His heart softened at once. "Never +mind," said he. "You didn't mean it." + +"It's only because I love you, Paul," she murmured wretchedly. + +"That's all right," he said. "Let us go in here"--they were +passing a confectioner's--"and we'll have some jam-puffs." + +Paul went to his friend Rowlatt, who had already heard, through one +of his assistants who had a friend in the Life School, of the +dramatic end of the model's career. + +"I quite sympathize with you," Rowlatt laughed. "I've wondered how +you stuck it so long. What are you going to do now?" + +"I'm going on the stage." + +"How are you going to get there?" + +"I don't know," said Paul, "but if I knew an actor, he would be able +to tell me. I thought perhaps you might know an actor." + +"I do--one or two," replied Rowlatt; "but they're just ordinary +actors--not managers; and I shouldn't think they'd be able to do +anything for you." + +"Except what I say," Paul persisted. "They'll tell me how one sets +about being an actor." + +Rowlatt scribbled a couple of introductions on visiting cards, and +Paul went away satisfied. He called on the two actors. The first, in +atrabiliar mood, advised him to sweep crossings, black shoes, break +stones by the roadside, cart manure, sell tripe or stocks and +shares, blow out his brains rather than enter a profession over +whose portals was inscribed the legend, Lasciate ogni speranza--he +snapped his finger and thumb to summon memory as if it were a dog. + +"Voi che intrate," continued Paul, delighted at showing off the one +Italian tag he had picked up from his reading. And filled with one +of the purest joys of the young literary life and therefore +untouched by pessimistic counsel, he left the despairing actor. + +The second, a brighter and more successful man, talked with Paul for +a long time about all manner of things. Having no notion of his +antecedents, he assumed him to be a friend of Rowlatt and met him on +terms of social equality. Paul expanded like a flower to the sun. It +was the first time he had spoken with an educated man on common +ground--a man to whom the great imaginative English writers were +familiar friends, who ran from Chaucer to Lamb and from Dryden to +Browning with amazing facility. The strong wine of allusive talk +mounted to Paul's brain. Tingling with excitement, he brought out +all his small artillery of scholarship and acquitted himself so well +that his host sent him off with a cordial letter to a manager of his +acquaintance. + +The letter opened the difficult door of the theatre. His absurd +beauty of face and figure, a far greater recommendation in the eyes +of the manager who had begun rehearsals for an elaborate romantic +production than a knowledge of The Faerie Queene, obtained for him +an immediate engagement--to walk on as a gilded youth of Italy in +two or three scenes at a salary of thirty shillings a week. Paul +went home and spread himself like a young peacock before Jane, and +said: "I am an actor." + +The girl's eyes glowed. "You are wonderful." + +"No, not I," replied Paul modestly. "It is my star." + +"Have you got a big part?" asked Jane. + +He laughed pityingly, sweeping back his black curls. "No, you silly, +I haven't any lines to speak"--he had at once caught up the phrase-- +"I must begin at the beginning. Every actor has to do it." + +"You'll get mother and me orders to come and see you, won't you?" + +"You shall have a box," declared Paul the magnificent. + +Thus began a new phase in the career of Paul Kegworthy. After the +first few days of bewilderment on the bare, bleak stage, where +oddments of dilapidated furniture served to indicate thrones and +staircases and palace doors and mossy banks; where men and women in +ordinary costume behaved towards one another in the most ridiculous +way and went through unintelligible actions with phantom properties; +where the actor-manager would pause in the breath of an impassioned +utterance and cry out, "Oh, my God! stop that hammering!" where +nothing looked the least bit in the world like the lovely ordered +picture he had been accustomed to delight in from the shilling +gallery--after the first few days he began to focus this strange +world and to suffer its fascination. And he was proud of the silent +part allotted to him, a lazy lute-player in attendance on the great +lady, who lounged about on terrace steps in picturesque attitudes. +He was glad that he was not an unimportant member of the crowd of +courtiers who came on in a bunch and bowed and nodded and pretended +to talk to one another and went off again. He realized that he would +be in sight of the audience all the time. It did not strike him that +the manager was using him merely as a piece of decoration. + +One day, however, at rehearsal the leading lady said: "If my +lute-player could play a few chords here--or the orchestra for +him-it would help me tremendously. I've got all this long cross with +nothing to say." + +Paul seized his opportunity. "I can play the mandoline," said he. + +"Oh, can you?" said the manager, and Paul was handed over to the +musical director, and the next day rehearsed with a real instrument +which he twanged in the manner prescribed. He did not fail to +announce himself to Jane as a musician. + +Gradually he found his feet among the heterogeneous band who walk on +at London theatres. Some were frankly vulgar, some were +pretentiously genteel, a good many were young men of gentle birth +from the public schools and universities. Paul's infallible instinct +drew him into timid companionship with the last. He knew little of +the things they talked about, golf and cricket prospects, and the +then brain-baffling Ibsen, but he listened modestly, hoping to +learn. He reaped the advantage of having played "the sedulous ape" +to his patrons of the studios. His tricks were somewhat exaggerated; +his sweep of the hat when ladies passed him at the stage door +entrance was lower than custom deems necessary; he was quicker in +courteous gesture than the young men from the universities; he bowed +more deferentially to an interlocutor than is customary outside +Court circles; but they were all the tricks of good breeding. More +than one girl asked if he were of foreign extraction. He remembered +Rowlatt's question of years ago, and, as then, he felt curiously +pleased. He confessed to an exotic strain: to Italian origin. Italy +was romantic. When he obtained a line part and he appeared on the +bill, he took the opportunity of changing a name linked with +unpleasant associations which he did not regard as his own. +Kegworthy was cast into the limbo of common things, and he became +Paul Savelli. But this was later. + +He made friends at the theatre. Some of the women, by petting and +flattery, did their best to spoil him; but Paul was too ambitious, +too much absorbed in his dream of greatness and his dilettante +literary and musical pursuits, too much yet of a boy to be greatly +affected. What he prized far more highly than feminine blandishments +was the new comradeship with his own sex. Instinctively he sought +them, as a sick dog seeks grass, unconsciously feeling the need of +them in his mental and moral development. Besides, the attitude of +the women reminded him of that of the women painters in his younger +days. He had no intention of playing the pet monkey again. His +masculinity revolted. The young barbarian clamoured. A hard day on +the river he found much more to his taste than sporting in the shade +of a Kensington flat over tea and sandwiches with no matter how +sentimental an Amaryllis. Jane, who had seen the performance, though +not from a box, a couple of upper-circle seats being all that Paul +could obtain from the acting-manager, and had been vastly impressed +by Paul's dominating position in the stage fairy-world, said to him, +with a sniff that choked a sigh: "Now that you've got all those +pretty girls around you, I suppose you soon won't think of me any +longer?" + +Paul waved the dreaded houris away as though they were midges. "I'm +sick of girls," he replied in a tone of such sincerity that Jane +tossed her head. + +"Oh? Then I suppose you lump me with the rest and are sick of me +too?" + +"Don't worry a fellow," said Paul. "You're not a girl-not in that +sense, I mean. You're a pal." + +"Anyway, they're lots prettier than what I am," she said defiantly. + +He looked at her critically, after the brutal manner of obtuse +boyhood, and beheld an object quite agreeable to the sight. Her +Londoner's ordinarily colourless checks were flushed, her blue eyes +shone bright, her little chin was in the air and her parted lips +showed a flash of white teeth. She wore a neat simple blouse and +skirt and held her slim, half-developed figure taut. Paul shook his +head. "Jolly few of them--without grease-paint on." + +"But you see them all painted up." + +He burst into laughter. "Then they're beastly, near by! You silly +kid, don't you know? We've got to make up, otherwise no one in front +would be able to see our mouths and noses and eyes. From the front +we look lovely; but close to we're horrors." + +"Well, how should I know that?" asked Jane. + +"You couldn't unless you saw us--or were told. But now you know." + +"Do you look beastly too?" + +"Vile," he laughed. + +"I'm glad I didn't think of going on the stage,"' she said, childish +yet very feminine unreason combining with atavistic puritanism. "I +shouldn't like to paint my face." + +"You get used to it," said Paul, the experienced. + +"I think it horrid to paint your face." + +He swung to the door--they were in the little parlour behind the +shop--a flash of anger in his eyes. "If you think everything I do +horrid, I can't talk to you." + +He marched out. Jane suddenly realized that she had behaved badly. +She whipped herself. She had behaved atrociously. Of course she had +been jealous of the theatre girls; but had he not been proving to +her all the time in what small account he held them? And now he had +gone. At seventeen a beloved gone for an hour is a beloved gone for +ever. She rushed to the foot of the stairs on which his ascending +steps still creaked. + +"Paul!" + +"Yes." + +"Come back! Do come back!" + +Paul came back and followed her into the parlour. + +"I'm sorry," she said. + +He graciously forgave her, having already arrived at the mature +conclusion that females were unaccountable folk whose excursions +into unreason should be regarded by man with pitying indulgence. +And, in spite of the seriousness with which he took himself, he was +a sunny-tempered youth. + +Barney Bill, putting into the Port of London, so to speak, in order +to take in cargo, also visited the theatre towards the end of the +run of the piece. He waited, by arrangement, for Paul outside the +stage door, and Paul, coming out, linked arms and took him to a +blazing bar in Piccadilly Circus and ministered to his thirst, with +a princely air. + +"It seems rum," said Bill, wiping his lips with the back of his +hand, after a mighty pull at the pint tankard--"it seems rum that +you should be standing me drinks at a swell place like this. It +seems only yesterday that you was a two-penn'orth of nothing jogging +along o' me in the old 'bus." + +"I've moved a bit since then, haven't I?" said Paul. + +"You have, sonny," said Barney Bill. "But"-he sighed and looked +around the noisy glittering place, at the smart barmaids, the +well-clad throng of loungers, some in evening dress, the half-dozen +gorgeous ladies sitting with men at little tables by the window-- +"I thinks as how you gets more real happiness in a quiet village +pub, and the beer is cheaper, and--gorblimey!" + +He ran his finger between his stringy neck and the frayed stand-up +collar that would have sawn his head off but for the toughness of +his hide. To do Paul honour he had arrayed himself in his best--a +wondrously cut and heavily-braided morning coat and +lavender-coloured trousers of eccentric shape, and a funny little +billycock hat too small for him, and a thunder-and-lightning +necktie, all of which he had purchased nearly twenty years ago to +grace a certain, wedding a. which he had been best man. Since then +he had worn the Nessus shirt of a costume not more than half-a-dozen +times. The twisted, bright-eyed little man, so obviously ill at ease +in his amazing garb, and the beautiful youth, debonair in his +well-fitting blue serge, formed a queer contrast. + +"Don't you never long for the wind of God and the smell of the +rain?" asked Barney Bill. + +"I haven't the time," said Paul. "I'm busy all day long." + +"Well, well," said Barney Bill, "the fellow wasn't far wrong who +said it takes all sorts to make a world. There are some as likes +electric light and some as likes the stars. Gimme the stars." And in +his countryman's way he set the beer in his tankard swirling round +and round before he put it again to his lips. + +Paul sipped his beer reflectively. "You may find happiness and peace +of soul under the stars," said he, sagely, "and if I were a free +agent I'd join you tomorrow. But you can't find fame. You can't rise +to great things. I want to--well, I don't quite know what I want +to do," he laughed, "but it's something big." + +"Yuss, my boy," said Barney Bill. "I understand. You was always like +that. You haven't come any nearer finding your 'igh-born +parents?"--there was a twinkle in his eyes--"'ave yer?" + +"I'm not going to bother any more about them, whoever they are," +said Paul, lighting a cigarette. "When I was a kid I used to dream +that they would find me and do everything for me. Now I'm a man with +experience of life, I find that I've got to do everything for +myself. And by George!"--he thumped the bar and smiled the radiant +smile of the young Apollo--"I'm going to do it." + +Barney Bill took off his Luke's iron crown of a billycock hat and +scratched his cropped and grizzled head. "How old are you, sonny?" + +"Nearly nineteen," said Paul. + +"By Gosh!" said Barney Bill. + +He put on his hat at a comfortable but rakish angle. He looked like +a music-hall humourist. A couple of the gorgeous ladies giggled. + +"Yuss," said he, "you're a man with an experience of life--and +nobody can do nothing for you but yerself. Poor old Barney Bill has +been past helping you this many a year." + +"But I owe everything to you!" cried Paul, boyishly. "If it hadn't +been for you, I should still be working in that factory at +Bludston." + +Bill winked and nodded acquiescence as he finished his tankard. + +"I've often wondered--since I've grown up--what induced you to +take me away. What was it?" + +Bill cocked his head on one side and regarded him queerly. "Now +you're arsking," said he. + +Paul persisted. "You must have had some reason." + +"I suppose I was interested in them parents of yours," said Barney +Bill. + +And that was all he would say on the subject. + +The days went on. The piece had run through the summer and autumn, +and Paul, a favourite with the management, was engaged for the next +production. At rehearsal one day the author put in a couple of +lines, of which he was given one to speak. He now was in very truth +an actor. Jane could no longer taunt him in her naughty moods +(invariably followed by bitter repentance) with playing a dumb part +like a trained dog. He had a real part, typewritten and done up in a +brown-paper cover, which was handed to him, with lack of humour, by +the assistant stage manager. + +In view of his own instantaneous success he tried to persuade Jane +to go on the stage; but Jane had no artistic ambitions, to say +nothing of her disinclination to paint her face. She preferred the +prosaic reality of stenography and typewriting. No sphere could be +too dazzling for Paul; he was born to great things, the +consciousness of his high destiny being at once her glory and her +despair; but, as regards herself, her outlook on life was cool and +sober. Paul was peacock born; it was for him to strut about in +iridescent plumage. She was a humble daw and knew her station. It +must be said that Paul held out the stage as a career more on +account of the social status that it would give to Jane than through +a belief in her histrionic possibilities. He too, fond as he was of +the girl with whom he had grown up, recognized the essential +difference between them. She was as pretty, as sensible, as helpful +a little daw as ever chattered; but the young peacock never for an +instant forgot her daw-dom. + +Jane's profound common-sense reaped its reward the following spring +when she found herself obliged to earn her livelihood. 'Her mother +died, and the shop was sold, and an aunt in Cricklewood offered Jane +a home, on condition that she paid for her keep. This she was soon +able to do when she obtained a situation with a business firm in the +city. The work was hard and the salary small; but Jane had a brave +heart and held her head high. In her simple philosophy life was +work, and dreaming an occasional luxury. Her mother's death grieved +her deeply, for she was a girl of strong affections, and the +breaking up of her life with Paul seemed an irremediable +catastrophe. + +"It's just as well," said her aunt, "that there's an end of it, or +you'd be making a fool of yourself over that young actor chap with +his pretty face. I don't hold with any of them." + +But Jane was too proud to reply. + +On their last night together in the Barn Street house they sat alone +in the little back-parlour as they had done for the last six years--all +their impressionable childish days. It was the only home that +Paul had known, and he felt the tragedy of its dissolution. They sat +on the old horsehair sofa, behind the table, very tearful, very +close together in spirit, holding each other's hands. They talked as +the young talk--and the old, for the matter of that. She trembled +at his wants unministered to in his new lodgings. He waved away +prospective discomfort: what did it matter? He was a man and could +rough it. It was she herself whose loss would be irreparable. She +sighed; he would soon forget her. He vowed undying remembrance by +all his gods. Some beautiful creature of the theatre would carry him +off. He laughed at such an absurdity. Jane would always be his +confidante, his intimate. Even though they lived under different +roofs, they would meet and have their long happy jaunts together. +Jane said dolefully that it could only be on Sundays, as their +respective working hours would never correspond--"And you haven't +given me your Sundays for a year," she added. Paul slid from the +dark theme and, to comfort her, spoke glowingly of the future, when +he should have achieved his greatness. He would give her a beautiful +house with carriages and servants, and she would not have to work. + +"But if you are not there, what's the good of anything?" she said. + +"I'll come to see you, silly dear," he replied ingenuously. + +Before they parted for the night she threw her arms round his neck +impulsively. "Don't quite forget me, Paul. It would break my heart. +I've only you left now poor mother's gone." + +Paul kissed her and vowed again. He did not vow that he would be a +mother to her, though to the girl's heart it seemed as if he did. +The little girl was aching for a note in his voice that never came. +Now, ninety-nine youths in a hundred who held, at such a sentimental +moment, a comely and not uncared-for maiden in their arms, would +have lost their heads (and their hearts) and vowed in the desired +manner. But Paul was different, and Jane knew it, to her sorrow. He +was by no means temperamentally cold; far from it. But, you see, he +lived intensely in his dream, and only on its outer fringe had Jane +her place. In the heart of it, hidden in amethystine mist, from +which only flashed the diadem on her hair, dwelt the exquisite, the +incomparable lady, the princess who should share his kingdom, while +he knelt at her feet and worshipped her and kissed the rosy tips of +her calm fingers. So, as it never entered his head to kiss the +finger tips of poor Jane, it never entered his head to fancy himself +in love with her. Therefore, when she threw herself into his arms, +he hugged her in a very sincere and brotherly way, but kissed her +with a pair of cast lips of Adonis. Of course he would never forget +her. Jane went to bed and sobbed her heart out. Paul slept but +little. The breaking up of the home meant the end of many precious +and gentle things, and without them he knew that his life would be +the poorer. And he vowed once more, to himself, that he would never +prove disloyal to Jane. + +While he remained in London he saw what he could of her, sacrificing +many a Sunday's outing with the theatre folk. Jane, instinctively +aware of this, and finding in his demeanour, after examining it with +femininely jealous, microscopic eyes, nothing perfunctory, was duly +grateful. and gave him of her girlish best. She developed very +quickly after her entrance into the worid of struggle. Very soon it +was the woman and not the child who listened to the marvellous +youth's story of the wonders that would be. She never again threw +herself into his arms, and he never again called her a "little +silly." She was dimly aware of change, though she knew that the +world could hold no other man for her. But Paul was not. + +And then Paul went on tour. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PAUL had been four years on the stage. Save as a memory they had as +little influence on the colour of his after-life as his years at +Bludston or his years in the studios. He was the man born to be +king. The attainment of his kingdom alone mattered. The intermediary +phases were of no account. It had been a period of struggle, +hardship and, as far as the stage itself was concerned, disillusion. +After the first year or so, the goddess Fortune, more fickle in +Theatreland, perhaps, than anywhere else, passed him by. London had +no use for his services, especially when it learned that he aspired +to play parts. It even refused him the privilege of walking on and +understudying. He drifted into the provinces, where, when he +obtained an engagement, he found more scope for his ambitions. Often +he was out, and purchased with his savings the bread of idleness. He +knew the desolation of the agent's dingy stairs; he knew the +heartache of the agent's dingy outer office. + +He was familiar, too, with bleak rehearsals, hours of listless +waiting for his little scenes; with his powerlessness to get into +his simple words the particular intonation required by an overdriven +producer. Familiar, too, with long and hungry Sunday railway +journeys when pious refreshment rooms are shut; with little mean +towns like Bludston, where he and three or four of the company +shared the same mean theatrical lodgings; with the dirty, insanitary +theatres; with the ceaseless petty jealousies and bickerings of the +ill-paid itinerant troupe. The discomforts affected Paul but +little, he had never had experience of luxuries, and the life +itself was silken ease compared with what it would have been but for +Barney Bill's kidnapping. It never occurred to him to complain of +nubbly bed and ill-cooked steak and crowded and unventilated +dressing rooms; but it always struck him as being absurd that such +should continue to be the lot of one predestined to greatness. There +was some flaw in the working of destiny. It puzzled him. + +Once indeed, being out, but having an engagement ahead, and waiting +for rehearsals to begin, he had found himself sufficiently +prosperous to take a third-class ticket to Paris, where he spent a +glorious month. But the prosperity never returned, and he had to +live on his memories of Paris. + +During these years books were, as ever, his joy and his consolation. +He taught himself French and a little German. He read history, +philosophy, a smattering of science, and interested himself in +politics. So aristocratic a personage naturally had passionate Tory +sympathies. Now and again--but not often, for the theatrical +profession is generally Conservative--he came across a furious +Radical in the company and tasted the joy of fierce argument. Now +and again too, he came across a young woman of high modern +cultivation, and once or twice narrowly escaped wrecking his heart +on the Scylline rock of her intellect. It was only when he +discovered that she had lost her head over his romantic looks, and +not over his genius and his inherited right to leadership, that he +began to question her intellectual sincerity. And there is nothing +to send love scuttling away with his quiver between his legs like a +note of interrogation of that sort. The only touch of the morbid in +Paul was his resentment at owing anything to his mere personal +appearance. He could not escape the easy chaff of his fellows on his +"fatal beauty." He dreaded the horrible and hackneyed phrase which +every fresh intimacy either with man or woman would inevitably +evoke, and he hated it beyond reason. There was a tour during which +he longed for small-pox or a broken nose or facial paralysis, so +that no woman should ever look at him again and no man accuse him in +vulgar jest. + +He played small utility parts and understudied the leading man. On +the rare occasions when he played the lead, he made no great hit. +The company did not, after the generous way of theatre folks, +surround him, when the performance was over, with a chorus of +congratulation. The manager would say, "Quite all' right, my boy, as +far as it goes, but still wooden. You must get more life into it." +And Paul, who knew himself to be a better man in every way than the +actor whose part he was playing, just as in his childhood days he +knew himself to be a better man than Billy Goodge, could not +understand the general lack of appreciation. Then he remembered the +early struggles of the great actors: Edmund Kean, who on the eve of +his first appearance at Drury Lane cried, "If I succeed I shall go +mad!"; of Henry Irving (then at his zenith) and the five hundred +parts he had played before he came to London; he recalled also the +failure of Disraeli's first speech in the House of Commons and his +triumphant prophecy. He had dreams of that manager on his bended +knees, imploring him, with prayerful hands and streaming eyes, to +play Hamlet at a salary of a thousand a week and of himself +haughtily snapping his fingers at the paltry fellow. + +Well, which one of us who has ever dreamed at all has not had such +dreams at twenty? Let him cast at Paul the first stone. + +And then, you must remember, Paul's faith in his vague but glorious +destiny was the dynamic force of his young life. Its essential +mystery kept him alert and buoyant. His keen, self-centred mind +realized that his search on the stage for the true expression of his +genius was only empirical. If he failed there, it was for him to try +a hundred other spheres until he found the right one. But just as in +his childish days he could not understand why he was not supreme in +everything, so now he could not appreciate the charge of wooden +inferiority brought against him by theatrical managers. + +He had been on the stage about three years when for the first time +in his emancipated life something like a calamity befell him. He +lost Jane. Like most calamities it happened in a foolishly +accidental manner. He received a letter from Jane during the last +three weeks of a tour--they always kept up an affectionate but +desultory correspondence--giving a new address. The lease of her +aunt's house having fallen in, they were moving to the south side of +London. When he desired to answer the letter, he found he had lost +it and could not remember the suburb, much less the street and +number, whither Jane had migrated. A letter posted to the old +address was returned through the post. The tour over, and he being +again in London, he went on an errand of inquiry to Cricklewood, +found the house empty and the neighbours and tradespeople ignorant. +The poorer classes of London in their migrations seldom leave a +trail behind them. Their correspondence being rare, it is not within +their habits of life to fill up post-office forms with a view to +the forwarding of letters. He could not write to Jane because he did +not in the least know where she was. + +He reflected with dismay that Jane could, for the same reason, no +longer write to him. Ironic chance had so arranged that the landlady +with whom he usually lodged in town, and whose house he used as a +permanent address, had given up letting lodgings at the beginning of +the tour, and had drifted into the limbo of London. Jane's only +guide to his whereabouts had been the tour card which he had sent +her as usual, giving dates and theatres. And the tour was over. On +the chance that Jane, not hearing from him, should address a letter +to the last theatre on the list, he communicated at once with the +local management. But as local managements of provincial theatres +shape their existences so as to avoid responsibilities of any kind +save the maintenance of their bars and the deduction of their +percentages from the box-office receipts, Paul knew that it was +ludicrous to expect it to interest itself in the correspondence of +an obscure member of a fourth-rate company which had once played to +tenth-rate business within its mildewed walls. Being young, he wrote +also to the human envelope containing the essence of stale beer, +tobacco and lethargy that was the stage doorkeeper. But he might +just as well have written to the station master or the municipal +gasworks. As a matter of fact Jane and he were as much lost to one +another as if the whole of England had been primaeval forest. + +It was a calamity which he regarded with dismay. He had many friends +of the easy theatrical sort, who knew him as Paul Savelli, a +romantically visaged, bright-natured, charming, intellectual, and +execrably bad young actor. But there was only one Jane who knew him +as little Paul Kegworthy. No woman he had ever met--and in the +theatrical world one is thrown willy-nilly into close contact with +the whole gamut of the sex--gave him just the same close, intimate, +comforting companionship. From Jane he hid nothing. Before all +the others he was conscious of pose. Jane, with her cockney +common-sense, her shrewdness, her outspoken criticism of follies, +her unfailing sympathy in essentials, was welded into the very +structure of his being. Only when he had lost her did he realize +this. Amidst all the artificialities and pretences and +pseudo-emotionalities of his young actor's life, she was the one +thing that was real. She alone knew of Bludston, of Barney Bill, of +the model days the memory of which made him shiver. She alone (save +Barney Bill) knew of his high destiny--for Paul, quick to +recognize the cynical scepticism of an indifferent world, had not +revealed the Vision Splendid to any of his associates. To her he +could write; to her, when he was in London, he could talk; to her he +could outpour all the jumble of faith, vanity, romance, egotism and +poetry that was his very self, without thought of miscomprehension. +And of late she had mastered the silly splenetics of childhood. He +had an uncomfortable yet comforting impression that latterly she had +developed an odd, calm wisdom, just as she had developed a calm, +generous personality. The last time he had seen her, his quick +sensitiveness had noted the growth from girl to woman. She was +large, full-bosomed, wide-browed, clear-eyed. She had not worried +him about other girls. She had reproved him for confessed follies in +just the way that man loves to be reproved. She had mildly soared +with him into the empyrean of his dreams. She had enjoyed +whole-heartedly, from the back row of the dress-circle, the play to +which he had taken her--as a member of the profession he had, in +Jane's eyes, princely privileges--and on the top of the +Cricklewood omnibus she had eaten, with the laughter and gusto of +her twenty years, the exotic sandwiches he had bought at the +delicatessen shop in Leicester Square. She was the ideal sister. + +And now she was gone, like a snow-flake on a river. For a long while +it seemed absurd, incredible. He went on all sorts of preposterous +adventures to find her. He walked through the city day after day at +the hours when girls and men pour out of their honeycombs of offices +into the streets. She had never told him where she was employed, +thinking the matter of little interest; and he, in his careless way, +had never inquired. Once he had suggested calling for her at her +office, and she had abruptly vetoed the suggestion. Paul was too +remarkable a young man to escape the notice of her associates; her +feelings towards him were too fine to be scratched by jocular +allusion. After a time, having failed to meet her in the human +torrents of Cheapside and Cannon Street, Paul gave up the search. +Jane was lost, absolutely lost--and, with her, Barney Bill. He +went on tour again, heavy-hearted. He felt that, in losing these +two, he had committed an act of base ingratitude. + +He had been four years on the stage and had grown from youth into +manhood. But one day at three-and-twenty he found himself as poor in +pence, though as rich in dreams, as at thirteen. + +Necessity had compelled him to take what he could get. This time it +was a leading part; but a leading part in a crude melodrama in a +fit-up company. They had played in halls and concert rooms, on pier +pavilions, in wretched little towns. It was glorious July Weather +and business was bad--so bad that the manager abruptly closed the +treasury and disappeared, leaving the company stranded a hundred and +fifty miles from London, with a couple of weeks' salary unpaid. + +Paul was packing his clothes in the portmanteau that lay on the +narrow bed in his tiny back bedroom, watched disconsolately by a +sallow, careworn man who sat astride the one cane chair, his hat on +the back of his head, the discoloured end of a cigarette between his +lips. + +"It's all very well for you to take it cheerfully," said the latter. +"You're young. You're strong. You're rich. You've no one but +yourself. You haven't a wife and kids depending on you." + +"I know it makes a devil of a difference," replied Paul, +disregarding the allusion to his wealth. As the leading man, he was +the most highly paid member of the disastrous company, and he had +acquired sufficient worldly wisdom to know that to him who has but a +penny the possessor of a shilling appears arrogantly opulent. "But +still," said he, "what can we do? We must get back to London and try +again." + +"If there was justice in this country that son of a thief would get +fifteen years for it. I never trusted the skunk. A fortnight's +salary gone and no railway fare to London. I wish to God I had never +taken it on. I could have gone with Garbutt in The White Woman-- +he's straight enough--only this was a joint engagement. Oh, the +swine!" + +He rose with a clatter, threw his cigarette on the floor and stamped +on it violently. + +"He's a pretty bad wrong 'un," said Paul. "We hadn't been going a +fortnight before he asked me to accept half salary, swearing he +would make it up, with a rise, as soon as business got better. Like +an idiot, I consented." + +His friend sat down again hopelessly. "I don't know what's going to +become of us. The missus has pawned everything she has got, poor old +girl! Oh, it's damned hard! We had been out six months." + +"Poor old chap!" said Paul, sitting on the bed beside his +portmanteau. "How does Mrs. Wilmer take it?" + +"She's knocked endways. You see," cried Wilmer desperately, "we've +had to send home everything we could scrape together to keep the +kids--there's five of them; and now--and now there's nothing +left. I'm wrong. There's that." He fished three or four coppers from +his pocket and held them out with a harsh laugh. "There's that after +twenty years' work in this profession." + +"Poor old chap!" said Paul again. He liked Wilmer, a sober, earnest, +ineffectual man, and his haggard, kindly-natured wife. They had put +on a brave face all through the tour, letting no one suspect their +straits, and doing both him and other members of the company many +little acts of kindness and simple hospitality. In the lower +submerged world of the theatrical profession in which Paul found +himself he had met with many such instances of awful poverty. He had +brushed elbows with Need himself. That morning he had given, out of +his scanty resources, her railway fare to a tearful and despairing +girl who played the low-comedy part. But he had not yet come across +any position quite so untenable as that of Wilmer. Forty odd years +old, a wife, five children, all his life given honestly to his +calling--and threepence half-penny to his fortune. + +"But, good God I" said he, after a pause, "your kiddies? If you have +nothing--what will happen to them?" + +"Lord knows," groaned Wilmer, staring in front of him, his elbows on +the back of the chair and his head between his fists. + +"And Mrs. Wilmer and yourself have got to get back to London." + +"I've got the dress suit I wear in the last act. It's fairly new. I +can get enough on it." + +"But that's part of your outfit--your line of business; you'll +want it again," said Paul. + +Wilmer had played butlers up and down the land for many years. Now +and again, when the part did not need any special characterization, +he obtained London engagements. He was one of the known stage +butlers. + +"I can hire if I'm pushed," said he. "It's hell, isn't it? Something +told me not to go out with a fit-up. We'd never come down to it +before. And I mistrusted Larkins--but we were out six months. +Paul, my boy, chuck it. You're young; you're clever; you've had a +swell education; you come of gentlefolk--my father kept a small +hardware shop in Leicester--you have"--the smitten and generally +inarticulate man hesitated--it well, you have extraordinary +personal beauty; you have charm; you could do anything you like in +the world, save act--and you can't act for toffee. Why the blazes +do you stick to it?" + +"I've got to earn my living just like you," said Paul, greatly +flattered by the artless tribute to his aristocratic personality and +not offended by the professional censure which he knew to be just. +"I've tried all sorts of other things-music, painting, poetry, +novel-writing--but none of them has come off." + +"Your people don't make you an allowance?" + +"I've no people living," said Paul, with a smile--and when Paul +smiled it was as if Eros's feathers had brushed the cheek of a +Praxitelean Hermes; and then with an outburst half sincere, half +braggart--"I've been on my own ever since I was thirteen." + +Wilmer regarded him wearily. "The missus and I have always thought +you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth." + +"So I was," Paul declared from his innermost conviction. "But," he +laughed, "I lost it before my teeth came and I could get a grip on +it." + +"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Wilmer, "that you're not doing this +for fun?" + +"Fun?" cried Paul. "Fun? Do you call this comic?" He waved his hand +comprehensively, indicating the decayed pink-and-purple wall-paper, +the ragged oil-cloth on the floor, the dingy window with its dingier +outlook, the rickety deal wash-stand with the paint peeling off, a +horrible clothless tray on a horrible splotchy chest of drawers, +containing the horrible scraggy remains of a meal. "Do you think I +would have this if I could command silken sloth? I long like hell, +old chap, for silken sloth, and if I could get it, you wouldn't see +me here." + +Wilmer rose and stretched out his hand. "I'm sorry, dear boy," said +he. "The wife and I thought it didn't very much matter to you. We +always thought you were a kind of young swell doing it for amusement +and experience--and because you never put on side, we liked you." + +Paul rose from the bed and put his hand on Wilmer's shoulder. "And +now you're disappointed?" + +He laughed and his eyes twinkled humorously. His vagabond life had +taught him some worldly wisdom. The sallow and ineffectual man +looked confused. His misery was beyond the relief of smiles. + +"We're all in the same boat, old chap," said Paul, "except that I'm +alone and haven't got wife and kids to look after." + +"Good-bye, my boy," said Wilmer. "Better luck next time. But chuck +it, if you can." + +Paul held his hand for a while. Then his left hand dived into his +waistcoat pocket and, taking the place of his right, thrust three +sovereigns into Wilmer's palm. "For the kiddies," said he. + +Wilmer looked at the coins in his palm, and then at Paul, and the +tears spurted. "I can't, my boy. You must be as broke as any of +us--you--half salary--no, my boy, I can't. I'm old enough to be +your father. It's damned good of you--but it's my one pride +left--the pride of both of us--the missus and me--that we've never +borrowed money--" + +"But it isn't borrowed, you silly ass," cried Paul cheerfully. "It's +just your share of the spoils, such as they are. I wish to God it +was more." With both hands he clasped the thin, ineffectual fingers +over the coins and pushed the man' with his young strength out of +the door. "It's for the kiddies. Give them my love," he cried, and +slammed the door and locked it from the inside. + +"Poor old chap!" said he. + +Then he went through his pockets and laid the contents on the narrow +mantel-piece. These were a gold watch and chain, a cornelian heart +fixed to the free end of the chain, a silver cigarette case, a +couple of keys, one sovereign, four shillings, three pennies and two +half-pennies. A trunk already fastened and filled with books and +clothes, and the portmanteau on the bed, contained the rest of his +possessions. In current coin his whole fortune amounted to one +pound, four shillings and fourpence. Luckily he had paid his +landlady. One pound four and fourpence to begin again at +three-and-twenty the battle of life on which he had entered at +thirteen. He laughed because he was young and strong, and knew that +such reverses were foreordained chapters in the lives of those born +to a glorious destiny. They were also preordained chapters in the +lives of those born to failure, like poor old Wilmer. He was +conscious of the wide difference between Wilmer and himself. Good +Heavens! To face the world at forty-three, with wife and children +and threepence-halfpenny, and the once attendant hope replaced by +black-vestured doom! Poor Wilmer! He felt certain that Wilmer had +not been able to pay his landlady, and he felt that he had been mean +in keeping back the other sovereign. + +The sudden loss, however, of three-fourths of his fortune brought +him up against practical considerations. The more he had in his +pocket when he arrived in London, the longer could he subsist. That +was important, because theatrical engagements are not picked up in a +hurry. Now; the railway fare would swallow a goodly number of +shillings. Obviously it was advisable to save the railway fare; and +the only way to do this was to walk to London. His young blood +thrilled at the notion. It was romantic. It was also inspiring of +health and joy. He had been rather run down lately, and, fearful of +the catastrophe which had in fact occurred, he had lived this last +week very sparingly---chiefly on herrings and tea. A hundred and +fifty miles' tramp along the summer roads, with bread and cheese and +an occasional glass of beer to keep him going, would be just the +thing to set him up again. He looked in the glass. Yes, his face was +a bit pinched and his eyes were rather too bright. A glorious tramp +to London, thirty or forty miles a day in the blazing and beautiful +sunshine, was exactly what he needed. + +Joyously he unpacked his trunk and took from it a Norfolk jacket +suit and stockings, changed, and, leaving his luggage with his +landlady, who was to obey further instructions as to its disposal, +marched buoyantly away through the sun-filled streets of the little +town, stick in hand, gripsack on shoulder, and the unquenchable fire +of youth and hope in his heart. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MISS URSULA WINWOOD, hatless, but with a cotton sunshade swinging +over her shoulder, and with a lean, shiny, mahogany-coloured Sussex +spaniel trailing behind, walked in her calm, deliberate way down the +long carriage drive of Drane's Court. She was stout and florid, and +had no scruples as to the avowal of her age, which was forty-three. +She had clear blue eyes which looked steadily upon a complicated +world of affairs, and a square, heavy chin which showed her capacity +for dealing with it. Miss Ursula Winwood knew herself to be a +notable person, and the knowledge did not make her vain or crotchety +or imperious. She took her notability for granted, as she took her +mature good looks and her independent fortune. For some years she +had kept house for her widowed brother, Colonel Winwood, +Conservative Member for the Division of the county in which they +resided, and helped him efficiently in his political work. The +little township of Morebury--half a mile from the great gates of +Drane's Court--felt Miss Winwood's control in diverse ways. +Another town, a little further off, with five or six millions of +inhabitants, was also, through its newspapers, aware of Miss +Winwood. Many leagues, societies, associations, claimed her as +President, Vice-President, or Member of Council. She had sat on +Royal Commissions. Her name under an appeal for charity guaranteed +the deserts of the beneficiaries. What she did not know about +housing problems, factory acts, female prisons, hospitals, asylums +for the blind, decayed gentlewomen, sweated trades, dogs' homes and +Friendly Societies could not be considered in the light of +knowledge. She sat on platforms with Royal princesses, Archbishops +welcomed her as a colleague, and Cabinet Ministers sought her +counsel. + +For some distance from the porch of the red-brick, creeper-covered +Queen-Anne house the gravel drive between the lawns blazed in the +afternoon sun. For this reason, the sunshade. But after a while came +an avenue of beech and plane and oak casting delectable shade on the +drive and its double edging of grass, and the far-stretching riot of +flowers beneath the trees, foxgloves and canterbury bells and +campanulas and delphiniums, all blues and purples and whites, with +here and there the pink of dog-roses and gorgeous yellow splashes of +celandine. On entering the stately coolness, Miss Winwood closed her +sunshade and looked at her watch, a solid timepiece harboured in her +belt. A knitted brow betrayed mathematical calculation. It would +take her five minutes to reach the lodge gate. The train bringing +her venerable uncle, Archdeacon Winwood, for a week's visit would +not arrive at the station for another three minutes, and the two fat +horses would take ten minutes to drag from the station the landau +which she had sent to meet him. She had, therefore, eight minutes to +spare. A rustic bench invited repose. Graciously she accepted the +invitation. + +Now, it must be observed that it was not Miss Winwood's habit to +waste time. Her appointments were kept to the minute, and her +appointment (self-made on this occasion) was the welcoming of her +uncle, the Archdeacon, on the threshold of Drane's Court. But Miss +Winwood was making holiday and allowed herself certain relaxations. +Her brother's health having broken down, he had paired for the rest +of the session and gone to Contrexeville for a cure. She had +therefore shut up her London house in Portland Place, Colonel +Winwood's home while Parliament sat, and had come to her brother's +house, Drane's Court, her home when her presence was not needed in +London. She was tired; Drane's Court, where she had been born and +had lived all her girlhood's life, was restful; and the seat in the +shade of the great beech was cunningly curved. The shiny, +mahogany-coloured spaniel, prescient of siesta, leaped to her side +and lay down with his chin on her lap and blinked his yellow eyes. + +She lay back on the seat, her hand on the dog's head, looking +contentedly at the opposite wilderness of bloom and the glimpses, +through the screen of trees and shrubs, of the sunlit stretches of +park beyond. She loved Drane's Court. Save for the three years of +her brother's short married life, it had been part of herself. A +Winwood, a very younger son of the Family--the Family being that of +which the Earl of Harpenden is Head (these things can only be +written of in capital letters)--had acquired wealth in the dark +political days of Queen Anne, and had bought the land and built the +house, and the property had never passed into alien hands. As for +the name, he had used that of his wife, Viscountess Drane in her own +right,--a notorious beauty of whom, so History recounts, he was +senilely enamoured and on whose naughty account he was eventually run +through the body by a young Mohawk of a paramour. They fought one +spring dawn in the park--the traditional spot could be seen from +where Ursula Winwood was sitting. + +Ursula and her brother were proud of the romantic episode, and would +relate it to guests and point out the scene of the duel. Happy and +illusory days of Romance now dead and gone! It is not conceivable +that, generations hence, the head of a family will exhibit with +pride the stained newspaper cuttings containing the unsavoury +details of the divorce case of his great-great-grandmother. + +This aspect of family history seldom presented itself to Ursula +Winwood. It did not do so this mellow and contented afternoon. +Starlings mindful of a second brood chattered in the old walnut +trees far away on the lawn; thrushes sang their deep-throated +bugle-calls; finches twittered. A light breeze creeping up the +avenue rustled the full foliage languorously. Ursula Winwood closed +her eyes. A bumble-bee droned between visits to foxglove bells near +by. She loved bumble-bees. They reminded her of a summer long ago +when she sat, not on this seat--as a matter of fact it was in the +old walled garden a quarter of a mile away--with a gallant young +fellow's arms about her and her head on his shoulder. A bumble-bee +had droned round her while they kissed. She could never hear a +bumble-bee without thinking of it. But the gallant young fellow had +been killed in the Soudan in eighteen eighty-five, and Ursula +Winwood's heart had been buried in his sandy grave. That was the +beginning and end of her sentimental history. She had recovered from +the pain of it all and now she .Loved the bumble-bee for invoking +the exquisite memory. The lithe Sussex spaniel crept farther on her +lap and her hand caressed his polished coat. Drowsiness +disintegrated the exquisite memories. Miss Ursula Winwood fell +asleep. + +The sudden plunging of strong young paws into her body and a series +of sharp barks and growls awakened her with a start, and, for a +second, still dazed by the drowsy invocation of the bumble-bee, she +saw approaching her the gallant fellow who had been pierced through +the heart by a Soudanese spear in eighteen eighty-five. He was dark +and handsome, and, by a trick of coincidence, was dressed in loose +knickerbocker suit, just as he was when he had walked up that very +avenue to say his last good-bye. She remained for a moment tense, +passively awaiting co-ordination of her faculties. Then clear awake, +and sending scudding the dear ghosts of the past, she sat up, and +catching the indignant spaniel by the collar, looked with a queer, +sudden interest at the newcomer. He was young, extraordinarily +beautiful; but he staggered and reeled like a drunken man. The +spaniel barked his respectable disapproval. In his long life of +eighteen months he had seen many people, postmen and butcher boys +and casual diggers in kitchen gardens, whose apparent permit to +exist in Drane's Court had been an insoluble puzzle; but never had +he seen so outrageous a trespasser. With unparalleled moral courage +he told him exactly what he thought of him. But the trespasser did +not hear. He kept on advancing. Miss Winwood rose, disgusted, and +drew herself up. The young man threw out his hands towards her, +tripped over the three-inch-high border of grass, and fell in a +sprawling heap at her feet. + +He lay very still. Ursula Winwood looked down upon him. The shiny +brown spaniel took up a strategic position three yards away and +growled, his chin between his paws. But the more Miss Winwood +looked, and her blue eyes were trained to penetrate, the more was +she convinced that both she and the dog were wrong in their +diagnosis. The young man's face was deadly white, his cheeks gaunt. +It was evidently a grave matter. For a moment or so she had a qualm +of fear lest he might be dead. She bent down, took him in her +capable grip and composed his inert body decently, and placed the +knapsack he was wearing beneath his head. The faintly beating heart +proved him to be alive, but her touch on his brow discovered fever. +Kneeling by his side, she wiped his lips with her handkerchief, and +gave herself up to the fraction of a minute's contemplation of the +most beautiful youth she had ever seen. So there he lay, a new +Endymion, while the most modern of Dianas hung over him, stricken +with great wonderment at his perfection. + +In this romantic attitude was she surprised, first by the coachman +of the landau and pair as he swung round the bend of the drive, and +then by the Archdeacon, who leaned over the door of the carriage. +Miss Winwood sprang to her feet; the coachman pulled up, and the +Archdeacon alighted. + +"My dear Uncle Edward"--she wrung his hand--"I'm so glad to see +you. Do help me grapple with an extraordinary situation." + +The Archdeacon smiled humorously. He was a spare man of seventy, +with thin, pointed, clean-shaven face, and clear blue eyes like Miss +Winwood's. "If there's a situation, my dear Ursula, with which you +can't grapple," said he, "it must indeed be extraordinary." + +She narrated what had occurred, and together they bent over the +unconscious youth. "I would suggest," said she, "that we put him +into the carriage, drive him up to the house, and send for Dr. +Fuller." + +"I can only support your suggestion," said the Archdeacon. + +So the coachman came down from his box and helped them to lift the +young man into the landau; and his body swayed helplessly between +Miss Winwood and the Archdeacon, whose breeches and gaiters were +smeared with dust from his heavy boots. A few moments afterwards he +was carried into the library and laid upon a sofa, and Miss Winwood +administered restoratives. The deep stupor seemed to pass, and he +began to moan. + +Miss Winwood and the housekeeper stood by his side. The Archdeacon, +his hands behind his back, paced the noiseless Turkey carpet. "I +hope," said he, "your doctor will not be long in coming." + +"It looks like a sunstroke," the housekeeper remarked, as her +mistress scrutinized the clinical thermometer. + +"It doesn't," said Miss Winwood bluntly. "In sunstroke the face is +either congested or clammy. I know that much. He has a temperature +of 103." + +"Poor fellow!" said the Archdeacon. + +"I wonder who he is," said Miss Winwood. + +"Perhaps this may tell us," said the Archdeacon. + +From the knapsack, carelessly handled by the servant who had brought +it in, had escaped a book, and the servant had laid the book on the +top of the knapsack. The Archdeacon took it up. + +"Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici and Urn Burial. On the flyleaf, +'Paul Savelli.' An undergraduate, I should say, on a walking tour." + +Miss Winwood took the book from his hands--a little cheap reprint. +"I'm glad," she said. + +"Why, my dear Ursula?" + +"I'm very fond of Sir Thomas Browne, myself," she replied. + +Presently the doctor came and made his examination. He shook a grave +head. "Pneumonia. And he has got it bad. Perhaps a touch of the sun +as well." The housekeeper smiled discreetly. "Looks half-starved, +too. I'll send up the ambulance at once and get him to the cottage +hospital." + +Miss Winwood, a practical woman, was aware that the doctor gave wise +counsel. But she looked at Paul and hesitated. Paul's destiny, +though none knew it, hung in the balance. "I disapprove altogether +of the cottage hospital," she said. + +"Eh?" said the doctor. + +The Archdeacon raised his eyebrows. "My dear Ursula, I thought you +had made the Morebury Cottage Hospital the model of its kind." + +"Its kind is not for people who carry about Sir Thomas Browne in +their pocket," retorted the disingenuous lady. "If I turned him out +of my house, doctor, and anything happened to him, I should have to +reckon with his people. He stays here. You'll kindly arrange for +nurses. The red room, Wilkins,--no, the green--the one with the +small oak bed. You can't nurse people properly in four-posters. It +has a south-east aspect"--she turned to the doctor--"and so gets +the sun most of the day. That's quite right, isn't it?" + +"Ideal. But I warn you, Miss Winwood, you may be letting yourself in +for a perfectly avoidable lot of trouble." + +"I like trouble," said Miss Winwood. + +"You're certainly looking for it," replied the doctor glancing at +Paul and stuffing his stethoscope into his pocket. "And in this +case, I can promise you worry beyond dreams of anxiety." + +The word of Ursula Winwood was law for miles around. Dr. Fuller, +rosy, fat and fifty, obeyed, like everyone else; but during the +process of law-making he had often, before now, played the part of +an urbane and gently satirical leader of the opposition. + +She flashed round on him, with a foolish pain through her heart that +caused her to catch her breath. "Is he as bad as that?" she asked +quickly. + +"As bad as that," said the doctor, with grave significance. "How he +managed to get here is a mystery!" Within a quarter-of-an-hour the +unconscious Paul, clad in a suit of Colonel Winwood's silk pyjamas, +lay in a fragrant room, hung with green and furnished in old, black +oak. Never once, in all his life, had Paul Kegworthy lain in such a +room. And for him a great house was in commotion. Messages went +forth for nurses and medicines and the paraphernalia of a luxurious +sick-chamber, and-the lady of the house being absurdly anxious-- +for a great London specialist, whose fee, in Dr. Fuller's quiet +eyes, would be amusingly fantastic. + +"It seems horrible to search the poor boy's pockets," said Miss +Winwood, when, after these excursions and alarms the Archdeacon and +herself had returned to the library; "but we must try to find out +who he is and communicate with his people. Savelli. I've never heard +of them. I wonder who they are." + +"There is an historical Italian family of that name," said the +Archdeacon. + +"I was sure of it," said Miss Winwood. + +"Of what?" + +"That his people--are--well--all right." + +"Why are you sure?" + +Ursula was very fond of her uncle. He represented to her the fine +flower of the Church of England--a gentleman, a scholar, an ideal +physical type of the Anglican dignitary, a man of unquestionable +piety and Christian charity, a personage who would be recognized for +what he was by Hottentots or Esquimaux or attendants of wagon-lits +trains or millionaires of the Middle West of America or Parisian +Apaches. In him the branch of the family tree had burgeoned into the +perfect cleric. Yet sometimes, the play of light beneath the surface +of those blue eyes, so like her own, and the delicately intoned +challenges of his courtly voice, exasperated her beyond measure. +"It's obvious to any idiot, my dear," she replied testily. "Just +look at him. It speaks for itself." + +The Archdeacon put his thin hand on her plump shoulder, and smiled. +The old man had a very sunny smile. "I'm sorry to carry on a +conversation so Socratically," said he. "But what is 'it'?" + +"I've never seen anything so physically beautiful, save the statues +in the Vatican, in all my life. If he's not an aristocrat to the +finger tips, I'll give up all my work, turn Catholic, and go into a +nunnery--which will distress you exceedingly. And then"--she +waved a plump hand--"and then, as I've mentioned before, he reads +the Religio Medici. The commonplace, vulgar young man of to-day no +more reads Sir Thomas Browne than he reads Tertullian or the +Upanishads." + +"He also reads," said the Archdeacon, stuffing his hand into Paul's +knapsack, against whose canvas the stiff outline of a book revealed +itself--"he also reads"--he held up a little fat duodecimo-- +"the Chansons de Beranger." + +"That proves it," cried Miss Winwood. + +"Proves what?" + +His blue eyes twinkled. Having a sense of humour, she laughed and +flung her great arm round his frail shoulders. "It proves, my +venerable and otherwise distinguished dear, that I am right and you +are wrong." + +"My good Ursula," said he, disengaging himself, "I have not advanced +one argument either in favour of, or in opposition to, one single +proposition the whole of this afternoon." + +She shook her head at him pityingly. + +The housekeeper entered carrying a double handful of odds and ends +which she laid on the library table--a watch and chain and +cornelian heart, a cigarette case bearing the initials "P.S.," some +keys, a very soiled handkerchief, a sovereign, a shilling and a +penny. Dr. Fuller had sent them down with his compliments; they were +the entire contents of the young gentleman's pockets. + +"Not a card, not a scrap of paper with a name and address on it?" +cried Miss Winwood. + +"Not a scrap, miss. The doctor and I searched most thoroughly." + +"Perhaps the knapsack will tell us more," said the Archdeacon. + +The knapsack, however, revealed nothing but a few toilet +necessaries, a hunk of stale bread and a depressing morsel of +cheese, and a pair of stockings and a shirt declared by the +housekeeper to be wet through. As the Beranger, like the Sir Thomas +Browne, was inscribed "Paul Savelli," which corresponded with the +initials on the cigarette case, they were fairly certain of the +young man's name. But that was all they could discover regarding +him. + +"We'll have to wait until he can tell us himself," said Miss Winwood +later to the doctor. + +"We'll have to wait a long time," said he. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE London physician arrived, sat up with Paul most of the night, +and went away the next morning saying that he was a dead man. Dr. +Fuller, however, advanced the uncontrovertible opinion that a man +was not dead till he died; and Paul was not dead yet. As a matter of +fact, Paul did not die. If he had done so, there would have been an +end of him and this history would never have been written. He lay +for many days at the gates of Death, and Miss Winwood, terribly +fearful lest they should open and the mysterious, unconscious shape +of beauty and youth should pass through, had all the trouble +promised her by the doctor. But the gates remained shut. When Paul +took a turn for the better, the London physician came down again and +declared that he was living in defiance of all the laws of +pathology, and with a graceful compliment left the case in the hands +of Dr. Fuller. When his life was out of danger, Dr. Fuller +attributed the miracle to the nurses; Ursula Winwood attributed it +to Dr. Fuller; the London physician to Paul's superb constitution; +and Paul himself, perhaps the most wisely, to the pleasant-faced, +masterful lady who had concentrated on his illness all the resources +of womanly tenderness. + +But it was a long time before Paul was capable of formulating such +an opinion. It was a long time before he could formulate any opinion +at all. When not delirious or comatose, he had the devil of pleurisy +tearing at the wall of his lung like a wild cat. Only gradually did +he begin to observe and to question. That noiseless woman in coot +blue and white was a nurse. He knew that. So he must be in hospital. +But the room was much smaller than a hospital ward; and where were +the other patients? The question worried him for a whole morning. +Then there was a pink-faced man in gold spectacles, Obviously the +doctor. Then there was a sort of nurse whom he liked very much, but +she was not in uniform. Who could she be? He realized that he was +ill, as weak as a butterfly; and the pain when he coughed was +agonizing. It was all very odd. How had he come here? He remembered +walking along a dusty road in the blazing sun, his head bursting, +every limb a moving ache. He also vaguely remembered being awakened +at night by a thunder storm as he lay snugly asleep beneath a hedge. +The German Ocean had fallen down upon him. He was quite sure it was +the German Ocean, because he had fixed it in his head by repeating +"the North Sea or German Ocean." Mixing up delirious dream with +fact, he clearly remembered the green waves rearing themselves up +first, an immeasurable wall, then spreading a translucent canopy +beneath the firmament and then descending in awful deluge. He had a +confused memory of morning sunshine, of a cottage, of a +hard-featured woman, of sitting before a fire with a blanket round +his shoulders, of a toddling child smeared to the eyebrows with dirt +and treacle whom he had wanted to wash. Over and over again, lately, +he had wanted to wash that child, but it had always eluded his +efforts. Once he had thought of scraping it with a bit of hoof-iron, +but it had turned into a Stilton cheese. It was all very puzzling. +Then he had gone on tramping along the high road. What was that +about bacon and eggs? The horrible smell offended his nostrils. It +must have been a wayside inn; and a woman twenty feet high with a +face like a cauliflower--or was it spinach?--or Brussels +sprouts?--silly not to remember--one of the three, certainly-- +desired to murder him with a thousand eggs bubbling up against rank +reefs of bacon. He had escaped from her somehow, and he had been +very lucky. His star had saved him. It had also saved him from a +devil on a red-hot bicycle. He had stood quite still, calm and +undismayed, in the awful path of the straddling Apollyon whose head +was girt around with yellow fire, and had seen him swerve madly and +fall off the machine. And when the devil had picked himself up, he +had tried to blast him with the Great Curse of the Underworld; but +Paul had shown him his cornelian heart, his talisman, and the devil +had remounted his glowing vehicle and had ridden away in a spume of +flame. The Father of Lies had tried to pass himself off as a +postman. The memory of the shallow pretence tickled Paul so that he +laughed; and then he half fainted in pleuritic agony. + +After the interlude with the devil he could recollect little. He was +going up to London to make his fortune. A princess was waiting for +him at the golden gate of London, with a fortune piled up in a +coach-and-six. But being very sick and dizzy, he thought he would sit +down and rest in a great green cathedral whose doors stood +invitingly open . . . and now he found himself in the hospital ward. +Sometimes he felt a desire to question the blue-and-white nurse, but +it seemed too much trouble to move his lips. Then in a flash came +the solution of the puzzle, and he chuckled to himself over his +cunning. Of course it was a dream. The nurse was a dream-nurse, who +wanted to make him believe that she was real. But she was not clever +enough. The best way to pay her out for her deception was to take no +notice of her whatsoever. So comforted, he would go to sleep. + +At last one morning he woke, a miserably weak but perfectly sane +man, and he turned his head from side to side and looked wonderingly +at the fresh and exquisite room. A bowl of Morning Glow roses stood +by his bedside, gracious things for fevered eyes to rest upon. A few +large photographs of famous pictures hung on the walls. In front of +him was the Santa Barbara of Palma Vecchio, which he recognized with +a smile. He had read about it, and knew that the original was in +Venice. Knowledge of things like that was comforting. + +The nurse, noticing the change, came up to him and spoke in a +soothing voice. "Are you feeling better?" + +"I think so "said Paul. "I suppose I've been very ill." + +"Very ill," said the nurse. + +"This can't be a hospital?" + +"Oh, no. It's the house of some very kind, good friends. You don't +know them," she added quickly, seeing him knit a perplexed brow. +"You stumbled into their garden and fainted. And they're very +anxious for you to get well and strong." + +"Who are they?" asked Paul. + +"Colonel and Miss Winwood. T hey will be so glad to see you better--at +least Miss Winwood will; the Colonel's not at home." + +She lifted his head gently and smoothed his pillows, and ordained +silence. Presently the doctor came, and spoke kindly. "You've had a +narrow shave, my friend, and you're not out of the wood yet," said +he. "And you'll have to go slow and take things for granted for some +time." + +Then came Miss Winwood, whom he recognized as the puzzling but +pleasant nurse out of uniform. + +"I don't know how to thank you for taking me in, a stranger, like +this," said Paul. + +She smiled. "It's Providence, not me, that you must thank. You might +have been taken ill by the roadside far away from anybody. +Providence guided you here." + +"Providence or Destiny," murmured Paul, closing his eyes. It was +absurd to feel so weak. + +"That's a theological question on which we won't enter," laughed +Miss Winwood. "Anyhow, thank God, you're better." + +A little later she came to him again. "I've been so anxious about +your people--you see, we've had no means of communicating with +them." + +"My people?" asked Paul, surprised. + +"Yes. They must be wondering what has become of you." + +"I have no people," said Paul. + +"No people? What do you mean?" she asked sharply, for the moment +forgetful of the sick room. She herself had hundreds of relations. +The branches of her family tree were common to half the country +families of England. "Have you no parents--brothers or sisters--?" + +"None that I know of," said Paul. "I'm quite alone in the world." + +"Have you no friends to whom I could write about you?" + +He shook his head, and his great eyes, all the greater and more +lustrous through illness, smiled into hers. "No. None that count. At +least--there are two friends, but I've lost sight of them for +years. No--there's nobody who would be in the least interested to +know. Please don't trouble. I shall be all right." + +Miss Winwood put her cool hand on his forehead and bent over him. +"You? You, alone like that? My poor boy!" + +She turned away. It was almost incredible. It was monstrously +pathetic. The phenomenon baffled her. Tears came into her eyes. She +had imagined him the darling of mother and sisters; the gay centre +of troops of friends. And he was alone on the earth. Who was he? She +turned again. + +"Will you tell me your name?" + +"Savelli. Paul Savelli." + +"I thought so. It was in the two books in your knapsack. A +historical Italian name." + +"Yes," said Paul. "Noble. All dead." + +He lay back, exhausted. Suddenly a thought smote him. He beckoned. +She approached. "My heart--is it safe?" he whispered. + +"Your heart?" + +"At the end of my watch-chain." + +"Quite safe." + +"Could I have it near me?" + +"Of course." + +Paul closed his eyes contentedly. With his talisman in his hand, all +would be well. For the present he need take thought of nothing. His +presence in the beautiful room being explained, there was an end of +the perplexity of his semi-delirium. Of payment for evident devoted +service there could be no question. Time enough when he grew well +and able to fare forth again, to consider the immediate future. He +was too weak to lift his head, and something inside him hurt like +the devil when he moved. Why worry about outer and unimportant +matters? The long days of pain and illness slipped gradually away. +Miss Winwood sat by his bedside and talked; but not until he was +much stronger did she question him as to his antecedents. The +Archdeacon had gone away after a week's visit without being able to +hold any converse with Paul; Colonel Winwood was still at +Contrexeville, whence he wrote sceptically of the rare bird whom +Ursula had discovered; and Ursula was alone in the house, save for a +girl friend who had no traffic with the sick-chamber. She had, +therefore, much leisure to devote to Paul. Her brother's scepticism +most naturally strengthened her belief in him. He was her discovery. +He grew almost to be her invention. just consider. Here was a young +Greek god--everyone who had a bowing acquaintance with ancient +sculpture immediately likened Paul to a Greek god, and Ursula was +not so far different from her cultured fellow mortals as to liken +him to anything else--here was a young Phoebus Apollo, all the +more Olympian because of his freedom from earthly ties, fallen +straight from the clouds. He had fallen at her feet. His beauty had +stirred her. His starlike loneliness had touched her heart. His +swift intelligence, growing more manifest each day as he grew +stronger, moved her admiration. He had, too, she realized, a sunny +and sensuous nature, alive to beauty--even the beauty of the +trivial things in his sickroom. He had an odd, poetical trick of +phrase. He was a paragon of young Greek gods. She had discovered +him; and women don't discover even mortal paragons every day in the +week. Also, she was a woman of forty-three, which, after all, is not +wrinkled and withered eld; and she was not a soured woman; she +radiated health and sweetness; she had loved once in her life, very +dearly. Romance touched her with his golden feather and, in the most +sensible and the most unreprehensible way in the world, she fell in +love with Paul. + +"I wonder what made you put that Santa Barbara of Palma Vecchio just +opposite the bed," he said one day. He had advanced so far toward +recovery as to be able to sit up against his pillows. + +"Don't you like it?" She turned in her chair by his bedside. + +"I worship it. Do you know, she has a strange look of you? When I +was half off my head I used to mix you up together. She has such a +generous and holy bigness--the generosity of the All-woman." + +Ursula flushed at the personal tribute, but let it pass without +comment. "It's not a bad photograph; but the original--that is too +lovely." + +"It's in the Church of Santa Maria Formosa in Venice," said Paul +quickly. + +He had passed through a period of wild enthusiasm for Italian +painting, and had haunted the National Gallery, and knew by heart +Sir Charles Eastlake's edition of Kugler's unique textbook. + +"Ah, you know it?" said Ursula. + +"I've never been to Venice," replied Paul, with a sigh. "It's the +dream of my life to go there." + +She straightened herself on her chair. "How do you know the name of +the church?" + +Paul smiled and looked round the walls, and reflected for a moment. +"Yes," said he in answer to his own questioning, "I think I can tell +you where all these pictures are, though I've never seen them, +except one. The two angels by Melozzo da Forli are in St. Peter's at +Rome. The Sposalia of Raphael is in the Breza, Milan. The Andrea del +Sarto is in the Louvre. That's the one I've seen. That little child +of Heaven, playing the lute, is in the predella of an altar-piece by +Vittore Carpaccio in the--in the--please don't tell me--in the +Academia of Venice. Am I right?" + +"Absolutely right," said Miss Winwood. + +He laughed, delighted. At three and twenty, one--thank goodness!-- +is very young. One hungers for recognition of the wonder-inspiring +self that lies hidden beneath the commonplace mask of clay. "And +that," said he--"the Madonna being crowned--the Botticelli--is +in the Uffizi at Florence. Walter Pater talks about it--you know--in +his 'Renaissance'--the pen dropping from her hand--'the +high, cold words that have no meaning for her--the intolerable +honour'! Oh, it's enormous, isn't it?" + +"I'm afraid I've not read my Pater as I ought," said Miss Winwood. + +"But, you must!" cried Paul, with the gloriously audacious faith of +youth which has just discovered a true apostle. "Pater puts you on +to the inner meaning of everything--in art, I mean. He doesn't +wander about in the air like Ruskin, though, of course, if you get +your mental winnowing machine in proper working order you can get +the good grain out of Ruskin. 'The Stones of Venice' and 'The Seven +Lamps' have taught me a lot. But you always have to be saying to +yourself, 'Is this gorgeous nonsense or isn't it?' whereas in Pater +there's no nonsense at all. You're simply carried along on a full +stream of Beauty straight into the open Sea of Truth." + +And Ursula Winwood, to whom Archbishops had been deferential and +Cabinet Ministers had come for, guidance, meekly promised to send at +once for Pater's 'Renaissance' and so fill in a most lamentable gap +in her education. + +"My uncle, the Archdeacon," she said, after a while, "reminded me +that the great Savelli was a Venetian general--of Roman family; +and, strangely enough, his name, too, was Paul. Perhaps that's how +you got the name." + +"That must be how," said Paul dreamily. He had not heard of the +great general. He had seen the name of Savelli somewhere--also +that of Torelli--and had hesitated between the two. Thinking it no +great harm, he wove into words the clamour of his cherished romance. +"My parents died when I was quite young--a baby--and then I was +brought to England. So you see"--he smiled in his winning way-- +"I'm absolutely English." + +"But you've kept your Italian love of beauty." + +"I hope so," said Paul. + +"Then I suppose you were brought up by guardians," said Ursula. + +"A guardian," said Paul, anxious to cut down to a minimum the +mythical personages that might be connected with his career. "But I +seldom saw him. He lived in Paris chiefly. He's dead now." + +"What a poor little uncared-for waif you must have been." + +Paul laughed. "Oh, don't pity me. I've had to think for myself a +good deal, it is true. But it has done me good. Don't you find it's +the things one learns for oneself--whether they are about life or +old china--that are the most valuable?" + +"Of course," said Miss Winwood. But she sighed, womanlike, at the +thought of the little Paul--(how beautiful he must have been as a +child!)--being brought up by servants and hirelings in a lonely +house, his very guardian taking no concern in his welfare. + +Thus it came about that, from the exiguous material supplied by +Paul, Miss Winwood, not doubting his gentle birth and breeding, +constructed for him a wholly fictitious set of antecedents. Paul +invented as little as possible and gratefully accepted her +suggestions. They worked together unconsciously. Paul had to give +some account of himself. He had blotted Bludston and his modeldom +out of his existence. The passionate belief in his high and romantic +birth was part of his being, and Miss Winwood's recognition was a +splendid confirmation of his faith. It was rather the suppressio +veri of which he was guilty than the propositio falsi. So between +them his childhood was invested with a vague semblance of reality in +which the fact of his isolation stood out most prominent. + +They had many talks together, not only on books and art, but on the +social subjects in which Ursula was so deeply interested. She found +him well informed, with a curiously detailed knowledge of the +everyday lives of the poor. It did not occur to her that this +knowledge came from his personal experience. She attributed it to +the many-sided genius of her paragon. + +"When you get well you must help us. There's an infinite amount to +be done." + +"I shall be delighted," said Paul politely. + +"You'll find I'm a terrible person to deal with when once I've laid +my hands on anybody," she said with a smile. "I drag in all kinds of +people, and they can't escape. I sent young Harry Gostling--Lord +Ruthmere's son, you know--to look into a working girls' club in +the Isle of Dogs that was going wrong. He hated it at first, but now +he's as keen as possible. And you'll be keen too." + +It was flattering to be classified with leisured and opulent young +Guardsmen; but what, Paul reflected with a qualm, would the kind +lady say if she learned the real state of his present fortunes? He +thought of the guinea that lay between him and starvation, and was +amused by the irony of her proposition. Miss Winwood evidently took +it for granted that he was in easy circumstances, living on the +patrimony administered during his boyhood by a careless guardian. He +shrank from undeceiving her. His dream was beginning to come true. +He was accepted by one of the high caste as belonging to the world +where princes and princesses dwelt serene. If only he could put the +theatre behind him, as he had put the rest, and make a +stepping-stone of his dead actor self! But that was impossible, or +at least the question would have to be fought out between himself +and fortune after he had left Drane's Court. In the meanwhile he +glowed with the ambition to leave it in his newly acquired +splendour, drums beating, banners flying, the young prince returning +to his romantic and mysterious solitude. + +The time was approaching when he should get up. He sent for his +luggage. The battered trunk and portmanteau plastered with the +labels of queer provincial towns did not betray great wealth. Nor +did the contents, taken out by the man-servant and arranged in +drawers by the nurse. His toilet paraphernalia was of the simplest +and scantiest. His stock of frayed linen and darned underclothes +made rather a poor little heap on the chair. He watched the +unpacking somewhat wistfully from his bed; and, like many another +poor man, inwardly resented his poverty being laid bare to the eyes +of the servants of the rich. + +The only thing that the man seemed to handle respectfully--as a +recognized totem of a superior caste--was a brown canvas case of +golf clubs, which he stood up in a conspicuous corner of the room. +Paul had taken to the Ancient and Royal game when first he went on +tour, and it had been a health-giving resource during the listless +days when there was no rehearsal or no matinee--hundreds of +provincial actors, to say nothing of retired colonels and such-like +derelicts, owe their salvation of body and soul to the absurd but +hygienic pastime--and with a naturally true eye and a harmonious +body trained to all demands on its suppleness in the gymnasium, +proficiency had come with little trouble. He was a born golfer; for +the physically perfect human is a born anything physical you please. +But he had not played for a long time. Half-crowns had been very +scarce on this last disastrous tour, and comrades who included golf +in their horizon of human possibilities had been rarer. When would +he play again? Heaven knew! So he looked wistfully, too, at his set +of golf clubs. He remembered how he had bought them--one by one. + +"Do you want this on the dressing table?" The nurse held up a little +oblong case. + +It was his make-up box, luckily tied round with string. + +"Good heavens, no!" he exclaimed. He wished he could have told her +to burn it. He felt happier when all his belongings were stowed away +out of sight and the old trunk and portmanteau hauled out of the +room. + +Colonel Winwood came home and asked his sister pertinent questions. +He was a bald, sad-looking man with a long grizzling moustache that +drooped despondently. But he had a square, obstinate chin, and his +eyes, though they seldom smiled, were keen and direct, like Miss +Winwood's. Romance had passed him by long since. He did not believe +in paragons. + +"I gather, my dear Ursula," said he in a dry voice, "that our guest +is an orphan, of good Italian family, brought up in England by a +guardian now dead who lived in France. Also that he is of +prepossessing exterior, of agreeable manners, of considerable +cultivation, and apparently of no acquaintance. But what I can't +make out is: what he does for a living, how he came to be half- +starved on his walking tour--the doctor said so, you remember-- +where he was going from and where he is going to when he leaves our +house. In fact, he seems to be a very vague and mysterious person, +of whom, for a woman of your character and peculiar training, you +know singularly little." + +Miss Winwood replied that she could not pry into the lad's private +affairs. Her brother retorted that a youth, in his physically +helpless condition, who was really ingenuous, would have poured out +his life's history into the ears of so sympathetic a woman, and have +bored her to tears with the inner secrets of his soul. + +"He has high aspirations. He has told me of them. But he hasn't +bored me a bit," said Ursula. + +"What does he aspire to?" + +"What does any brilliant young fellow of two or three and twenty +aspire to? Anything, everything. He has only to find his path." + +"Yes, but what is his path?" + +"I wish you weren't so much like Uncle Edward, James," said Ursula. + +"He's a damned clever old man," said Colonel Winwood, "and I wish he +had stayed here long enough to be able to put our young friend +through a searching cross-examination." + +Ursula lifted her finger-bowl an inch from the doiley and carefully +put it down again. It was the evening of Colonel Winwood's arrival, +and they were lingering over coffee in the great, picture-hung and +softly lighted dining room. Having fixed the bowl in the exact +centre of the doiley, she flashed round on her brother. "My dear +James, do you think I'm an idiot?" + +He took his cigar from his lips and looked at her with not +unhumorous dryness. "When the world was very young, my dear," said +he, "I've no doubt I called you so. But not since." + +She stretched out her hand and tapped his. She was very fond of him. +"You can't help being a man, my poor boy, and thinking manly +thoughts of me, a woman. But I'm not an idiot. Our young friend, as +you call him, is as poor as a church mouse. I know it. No, don't +say, 'How?' like Uncle Edward. He hasn't told me, but Nurse has--a +heart-breaking history of socks and things. There's the doctor's +diagnosis, too. I haven't forgotten. But the boy is too proud to cry +poverty among strangers. He keeps his end up like a man. To hear him +talk, one would think he not only hadn't a care in the world, but +that he commanded the earth. How can one help admiring the boy's +pluck and--that's where my reticence comes in--respecting the +boy's reserve?" + +"H'm!" said Colonel Winwood. + +"But, good gracious, Jim, dear, supposing you--or any of us-- +men, I mean--had been in this boy's extraordinary position-- +would you have acted differently? You would have died rather than +give your poverty away to absolute strangers to whom you were +indebted, in the way this boy is indebted to us. Good God, jim"-- +she sent her dessert knife skimming across the table--"don't you +see? Any reference to poverty would be an invitation--a veiled +request for further help. To a gentleman like Paul Savelli, the +thing's unthinkable." + +Colonel Winwood selected a fresh cigar, clipped off the end, and lit +it from a silver spirit lamp by his side. He blew out the first +exquisite puff--the smoker's paradise would be the one first full +and fragrant, virginal puff of an infinite succession of perfect +cigars--looked anxiously at the glowing point to see that it was +exactly lighted, and leaned back in his chair. + +"What you say, dear," said he, "is plausible. Plausible almost to +the point of conviction. But there's a hole somewhere in your +argument, I'm sure, and I'm too tired after my journey to find it." + +Thus, as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera, so did +they fight for Paul; and in both cases they used a woman as their +instrument. + +Colonel Winwood, in spite of a masculine air of superiority, joined +with the Archbishops and Cabinet Ministers above referred to in +their appreciation of his sister's judgment. After all, what +business of his were the private affairs of his involuntary guest? +He paid him a visit the next day, and found him lying on a couch by +the sunny window, clad in dressing gown and slippers. Paul rose +politely, though he winced with pain. + +"Don't get up, please. I'm Colonel Winwood." + +They shook hands. Paul began to wheel an armchair from the bedside, +but Colonel Winwood insisted on his lying down again and drew up the +chair himself. "I'm afraid," said Paul, "I've been a sad trespasser +on your hospitality. Miss Winwood must have told you it has scarcely +been my fault; but I don't know how to express my thanks." + +As Paul made it, the little speech could not have been better. +Colonel Winwood, who (like the seniors of every age) deplored the +lack of manners of the rising generation, was pleased by the ever so +little elaborate courtesy. + +"I'm only too glad we've pulled you round. You've had a bad time, I +hear." + +Paul smiled. "Pretty bad. If it hadn't been for Miss Winwood and all +she has done for me, I should have pegged out." + +"My sister's a notable woman," said the Colonel. "When she sets out +to do a thing she does it thoroughly." + +"I owe her my life," said Paul simply. + +There was a pause. The two men, both bright-eyed, looked at each +other for the fraction of a second. One, the aristocrat secure of +his wealth, of his position, of himself, with no illusion left him +save pride of birth, no dream save that of an England mighty and +prosperous under continuous centuries of Tory rule, no memories but +of stainless honour--he had fought gallantly for his Queen, he had +lived like a noble gentleman, he had done his country disinterested +service--no ambition but to keep himself on the level of the ideal +which he had long since attained; the other the creation of nothing +but of dreams, the child of the gutter, the adventurer, the +vagabond, with no address, not even a back room over a sweetstuff +shop in wide England, the possessor of a few suits of old clothes +and one pound, one shilling and a penny, with nothing in front of +him but the vast blankness of 'life, nothing behind him save +memories of sordid struggle, with nothing to guide him, nothing to +set him on his way with thrilling pulse and quivering fibres save +the Vision Splendid, the glorious Hope, the unconquerable Faith. In +the older man's eyes Paul read the calm, stern certainty of things +both born to and achieved; and Colonel Winwood saw in the young +man's eyes, as in a glass darkly, the reflection of the Vision. + +"And yours is a very young life," said he. "Gad! it must be +wonderful to be twenty. 'Rich in the glory of my rising sun.' You +know your Thackeray?" + +"'Riche de ma jeunesse,'" laughed Paul. "Thackeray went one better +than Beranger, that time." + +"I forgot," said Colonel Winwood. "My sister told me. You go about +with Beranger as a sort of pocket Bible." + +Paul laughed again. "When one is on the tramp one's choice of books +is limited by their cubical content. One couldn't take Gibbon, for +instance, or a complete Balzac." + +Colonel Winwood tugged at his drooping moustache and again +scrutinized the frank and exceedingly attractive youth. His +astonishing perfection of feature was obvious to anybody. Yet any +inconsiderable human--a peasant of the Campagna, a Venetian +gondolier, a swaggering brigand of Macedonia--could be +astonishingly beautiful. And, being astonishingly beautiful, that +was the beginning and end of him. But behind this merely physical +attractiveness of his guest glowed a lambent intelligence, quick as +lightning. There was humorous challenge in those laughing and lucent +dark eyes. + +"Do you know your Balzac?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes," said Paul. + +"I wonder if you do," said Colonel Winwood. "I'm rather a Balzacian +myself." + +"I can't say I've read all Balzac. That's a colossal order," said +Paul, rather excited-for, in his limited acquaintance with +cultivated folk, Colonel Winwood was the only human being who could +claim acquaintance with one of the literary gods of his idolatry-- +"but I know him pretty well. I can't stand his 'Theatre'--that's +footle--but the big things--'Le Pere Goriot,' 'La Cousine Bette,' +'Cesar Birotteau'--what a great book 'Cesar Birotteau' is!--" + +"You're right," said Colonel Winwood, forgetful of any possible +barriers between himself and the young enthusiast. "It's one of the +four or five great books, and very few people recognize it." + +"'Le Lys dans la Vallee,'" said Paul. + +"There's another--" + +And they talked for half an hour of the Baron Nucingen, and +Rastignac, and Hulot, and Bixiou, and Lousteau, and Gobsec, and +Gaudissart, and Vautrin, and many another vivid personage in the +human comedy. + +"That man could have gone on writing for a hundred years," cried +Paul, "and he could have exhausted all the possibilities of human +life." + +Colonel Winwood smiled courteously. "We have a bond in Balzac," said +he. "But I must go. My sister said I mustn't tire you." He rose. +"We're having a lot of people down here this week for the shooting. +There'll be good sport. Pity you're not well enough to join us." + +Paul smiled. He had one of his flashes of tact, "I'm afraid," said +he modestly, "that I've never fired off a gun in my life." + +"What?" cried the Colonel. + +"It's true." + +Colonel Winwood looked at him once more. "It's not many young men," +said he, "who would dare to make such a confession." + +"But what is the good of lying?" asked Paul, with the eyes of a +cherub. + +"None that I know of," replied the Colonel. He returned to his chair +and rested his hand on the back. "You play golf, anyhow," said he, +pointing to the brown canvas bag in the corner. + +"Oh, yes," said Paul. + +"Any good?" + +"Fair to middling." + +"What's your handicap?" asked the Colonel, an enthusiastic though +inglorious practitioner of the game. + +"One," said Paul. + +"The deuce it is!" cried the Colonel. "Mine is fifteen. You must +give me a lesson or two when you pull round. We've a capital course +here." + +"That's very kind of you," said Paul, "but I'm afraid I shall be +well enough for ordinary purposes long before I'm able to handle a +golf club." + +"What do you mean?" + +"This silly pleurisy. It will hang about for ages!" + +"Well?" + +"I'll have to go my ways from here long before I can play." + +"Any great hurry?" + +"I can't go on accepting your wonderful hospitality indefinitely," +said Paul. + +"That's nonsense. Stay as long as ever you like." + +"If I did that," said Paul, "I would stay on forever." + +The Colonel smiled and shook hands with him. In the ordinary way of +social life this was quite an unnecessary thing to do. But he acted +according to the impulses common to a thousand of his type--and a +fine type--in England. Setting aside the mere romantic exterior of +a Macedonian brigand, here was a young man of the period with +astonishingly courteous manners, of--and this was of secondary +consideration--of frank and winning charm, with a free-and-easy +intimacy with Balzac, of fearless truthfulness regarding his +deficiencies, and with a golf handicap of one. The Colonel's hand +and heart went out in instinctive coordination. The Colonel +Winwoods of this country are not gods; they are very humanly +fallible; but of such is the Kingdom of England. + +"At any rate," said he, "you mustn't dream of leaving us yet." + +He went downstairs and met his sister in the hall. + +"Well?" she asked, with just a gleam of quizzicality in her eyes, +for she knew whence he had come. + +"One of these days I'll take him out and teach him to shoot," said +the Colonel. + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE shooting party came, and Paul, able to leave his room and sit in +the sunshine and crawl about the lawn and come down to dinner, +though early retirement was prescribed, went among the strange men +and women of the aristocratic caste like one in a dream of bliss. +Much of their talk, sport and personalities, was unintelligible; +every man seemed to have killed everything everywhere and every +woman seemed to know everybody and everybody's intimate secrets. So +when conversation was general, Paul, who had killed nothing and knew +nobody, listened in silent perplexity. But even the perplexity was a +happiness. It was all so new, so fascinating. For was not this world +of aristocrats--there were lords and ladies and great personages +whose names he had read in the newspapers--his rightful +inheritance, the sphere to which he had been born? And they did not +always talk of things which he did not understand. They received him +among them with kind welcome and courtesy. No one asked him whence +he came and whither he was going. They took him for granted, as a +guest of the Winwoods. Of course if Paul had seen himself on the way +to rival the famous actor whose photograph in the window of the +London Stereoscopic Company had inspired him with histrionic +ambitions, he would have been at no pains to hide his profession. +But between the darling of the London stage and a seedy member of a +fit-up company lies a great gulf. He shrank from being associated +with Mr. Vincent Crummles. One thing, however, of invaluable use he +had brought with him from Theatreland--the dress suit which formed +part of his stage wardrobe. There were other things, too, which he +did not appreciate--ease of manner, victory over the lingering +Lancastrian burr, and a knowledge of what to do with his feet and +hands. + +One day he had a great shock. The house party were assembling in the +drawing-room, when in sailed the great lady, the ever-memorable +great lady, the Marchioness of Chudley, who had spoken to him and +smiled on him in the Bludston factory. Fear laid a cold grip on his +heart. He thought of pleading weakness and running away to the safe +obscurity of his room. But it was too late. The procession was +formed immediately, and he found himself in his place with his +partner on his arm. Dinner was torture. What he said to his +neighbours he knew not. He dared not look up the table where Lady +Chudley sat in full view. Every moment he expected--ridiculous +apprehension of an accusing conscience--Colonel Winwood to come +and tap him on the shoulder and bid him begone. But nothing +happened. Afterwards, in the drawing-room, Fate drove him into a +corner near Lady Chudley, whose eyes he met clear upon him. He +turned away hurriedly and plunged into conversation with a young +soldier standing by. Presently he heard Miss Winwood's voice. + +"Mr. Savelli, I want to introduce you to Lady Chudley." + +The fear gripped him harder and colder. How could he explain that he +was occupying his rightful place in that drawing-room? But he held +himself up and resolved to face the peril like a man. Lady Chudley +smiled on him graciously--how well he remembered her smile!--and +made him sit by her side. She was a dark, stately woman of forty, +giving the impression that she could look confoundedly cold and +majestic when she chose. She wore diamonds in her hair and a broad +diamond clasp to the black velvet round her throat. + +"Miss Winwood has been telling me what an awful time you've had, Mr. +Savelli," she said pleasantly. "Now, whenever I hear of people +having had pneumonia I always want to talk to them and sympathize +with them." + +"That's very kind of you, Lady Chudley," said Paul. + +"Only a fellow-feeling. I nearly died of it once myself. I hope +you're getting strong." + +"I'm feeling my strength returning every day. It's a queer new joy." + +"Isn't it?" + +They discussed the exhilaration of convalescence. It was a +'wonderful springtide. They reverted to the preceding misery. + +"You're far luckier than I was," she remarked. "You've had a comfy +English house to be ill in. I was in a stone-cold palazzo in +Florence--in winter. Ugh! Shall I ever forget it? I don't want to +speak evil of Italy to an Italian--" + +"I'm only Italian by descent," exclaimed Paul, with a laugh, his +first frank laugh during the whole of that gloomy evening. And he +laughed louder than was necessary, for, as it suddenly dawned upon +him that he did not in the least recall to her mind the grimy little +Bludston boy, the cold hand of fear was dissolved in a warm gush of +exultation. "You can abuse Italy or any country but England as much +as you like." + +"Why mustn't I abuse England?" + +"Because it's the noblest country in the world," he cried; and, +seeing approval in her eyes, he yielded to an odd temptation. "If +one could only do something great for her!" + +"What would you like to do?" she asked. + +"Anything. Sing for her. Work for her. Die for her. It makes one so +impatient to sit down and do nothing. If one could only stir her up +to a sense of her nationality!" he went on, less lyrically, though +with the same fine enthusiasm. "She seems to be losing it, letting +the smaller nations assert theirs to such an extent that she is +running the risk of becoming a mere geographical expression. She has +merged herself in the Imperial Ideal. That's magnificent; but the +Empire ought to realize her as the great Motherheart. If England +could only wake up as England again, what a wonderful thing it would +be!" + +"It would," said Lady Chudley. "And you would like to be the +awakener?" + +"Ay!" said Paul--"what a dream!" + +"There was never a dream worth calling a dream that did not come +true." + +"Do you believe that, too?" he asked delightedly. "I've held to it +all my life." + +Colonel Winwood, who had been moving hostwise from group to group in +the great drawing-room, where already a couple of bridge tables had +been arranged, approached slowly. Lady Chudley gave him a laughing +glance of dismissal. Paul's spacious Elizabethan patriotism, rare-- +at least in expression--among the young men of the day, interested +and amused her. + +"Have you dreamed all your life of being the Awakener of England?" + +"I have dreamed of being so many things," he said, anxious not to +commit himself. For, truth to say, this new ambition was but a +couple of minutes old. + +It had sprung into life, however, like Pallas Athene, all armed and +equipped. + +"And they have all come true?" + +His great eyes laughed and his curly head bent ever so slightly. +"Those worth calling dreams," said he. + +A little later in the evening, when on retiring to an early bed he +was wishing Miss Winwood good night, she said, "You're a lucky young +man." + +"I know--but--" He looked smiling inquiry. + +"Lady Chudley's the most valuable woman in England for a young man +to get on the right side of." + +Paul went to bed dazed. The great lady who had recognized the divine +fire in the factory boy had again recognized it in the grown man. +She had all but said that, if he chose, he could be the Awakener of +England. The Awakener of England! The watchword of his new-born +ambition rang in his brain until he fell asleep. + +The time soon came when the prospective Awakener of England awoke to +the fact that he must fare forth into the sleeping land with but a +guinea in his pocket. The future did not dismay him, for he knew now +that his dreams came true. But he was terribly anxious, more anxious +than ever, to leave Drane's Court with all the prestige of the +prospective Awakener. Now, this final scene of the production could +not be worked for a guinea. There were golden tips to servants, +there was the first-class railway fare. Once in London--he could +pawn things to keep him going, and a Bloomsbury landlady with whom +he had lodged, since the loss of Jane, would give him a fortnight or +three weeks' credit. But he had to get to London-to get there +gloriously; so that when the turn of Fortune's wheel enabled him to +seek again these wonderful friends in the aristocratic sphere to +which he belonged, he could come among them untarnished, the +conquering prince. But that miserable guinea! He racked his brains. +There was his gold watch and chain, a symbol, to his young mind, of +high estate. When he had bought it there crossed his mind the silly +thought of its signification of the infinite leagues that lay +between him and Billy Goodge. He could pawn it for ten pounds--it +would be like pawning his heart's blood--but where? Not in +Morebury, even supposing there was a pawnbroker's in the place. He +had many friends in his profession, scattered up and down the land. +But he had created round himself the atmosphere of the young +magnifico. It was he who had lent, others who had borrowed. +Rothschild or Rockefeller inviting any of them to lend him money +would have produced less jaw-dropping amazement. Even if he sent his +pride flying and appealed to the most friendly and generous, he +shrank from the sacrifice he would call upon the poor devil to make. +There was only his beautiful and symbolic watch and chain. The +nearest great town where he could be sure of finding a pawnbroker +was distant an hour's train journey. + +So on the day before that for which, in spite of hospitable +protestations on the part of Colonel and Miss Winwood, he had fixed +his departure, he set forth on the plea of private business, and +returned with a heavier pocket and a heavier heart. He had been so +proud, poor boy, of the gold insignia across his stomach. He had had +a habit of fingering it lovingly. Now it was gone. He felt naked-- +in a curious way dishonoured. There only remained his cornelian +talisman. He got back in time for tea and kept his jacket closely +buttoned. But in the evening he had perforce to appear stark and +ungirt--in those days Fashion had not yet decreed, as it does now, +the absence of watchchain on evening dress--and Paul shambled into +the drawing-room like a guest without a wedding garment. There were +still a few people staying in the house--the shooting party +proper, and Lady Chudley, had long since gone--but enough remained +to be a social microcosm for Paul. Every eye was upon him. In spite +of himself, his accusing hand went fingering the inanity of his +waistcoat front. He also fingered, with a horrible fascination, the +dirty piece of card that took the place of his watch in his pocket. + +One must be twenty to realize the tragedy of it. Dans un grenier +qu'on est bien a vingt ans! To be twenty, in a garret, with the +freedom and the joy of it! Yes; the dear poet was right. In those +"brave days" the poignancy of life comes not in the garret, but in +the palace. + +To-morrow, with his jacket buttoned, he could make his exit from +Drane's Court in the desired splendour--scattering largesse to +menials and showing to hosts the reflected glow of the golden +prospects before him; but for this evening the glory had departed. +Besides, it was his last evening there, and London's welcome +tomorrow would be none too exuberant. + +The little party was breaking up, the ladies retiring for the night, +and the men about to accompany Colonel Winwood to the library for a +final drink and cigarette. Paul shook hands with Miss Winwood. + +"Good night--and good-bye," she said, "if you take the early +train. But must you really go to-morrow?" + +"I must," said Paul. + +"I hope we'll very soon be seeing you again. Give me your address." +She moved to a bridge table and caught up the marking block, which +she brought to him. "Now I've forgotten the pencil." + +"I've got one," said Paul, and impulsively thrusting his fingers +into his waistcoat pocket, flicked them out with the pencil. But he +also flicked out the mean-looking card of which he had been +hatefully conscious all the evening. The Imp of Mischance arranged +that as Miss Winwood stood close by his side, it should fall, +unperceived by him, on the folds of her grey velvet train. He wrote +the Bloomsbury address and handed her the leaf torn from the pad. +She folded it up, moved away, turning back to smile. As she turned +she happened to look downward; then she stooped and picked the card +from her dress. A conjecture of horror smote Paul. He made a step +forward and stretched out his hand; but not before she had +instinctively glanced first at the writing and then at his barren +waistcoat. She repressed a slight gasp, regarding him with steady, +searching eyes. + +His dark face flushed crimson as he took the accursed thing, +desiring no greater boon from Heaven than instant death. He felt +sick with humiliation. The brightly lit room grew black. It was in a +stupor of despair that he heard her say, "Wait a bit here, till I've +got rid of these people." + +He stumbled away and stood on the bearskin rug before the fireplace, +while she joined the lingering group by the door. The two or three +minutes were an eternity of agony to Paul. He had lost his great +game. + +Miss Winwood shut the door and came swiftly to him and laid her hand +on his arm. Paul hung his head and looked into the fire. "My poor +boy!" she said very tenderly. "What are you going to do with +yourself?" + +If it had not been for the diabolical irony of the mishap he would +have answered with his gay flourish. But now he could not so answer. +Boyish, hateful tears stood in his eyes and, in spite of anguished +effort of will, threatened to fall. He continued to look into the +fire, so that she should not see them. "I shall go on as I always +have done," he said as stoutly as he could. + +"Your prospects are not very bright, I fear." + +"I shall keep my head above water," said Paul. "Oh, please don't!" +he cried, shivering. "You have been so good to me. I can't bear you +to have seen that thing. I can't stand it." + +"My dear boy," she said, coming a little nearer, "I don't think the +worse of you for that. On the contrary, I admire your pluck and your +brave attitude towards life. Indeed I do. I respect you for it. Do +you remember the old Italian story of Ser Federigo and his falcon? +How he hid his poverty like a knightly gentleman? You see what I +mean, don't you? You mustn't be angry with me!" + +Her words were Gilead balm of instantaneous healing. + +"Angry?" + +His voice quavered. In a revulsion of emotion he turned blindly, +seized her hand and kissed it. It was all he could do. + +"If I have found it out--not just now," she quickly interjected, +seeing him wince, "but long ago--it was not your fault. You've +made a gallant gentleman's show to the end--until I come, in a +perfectly brutal way, and try to upset it. Tell me--I'm old enough +to be your mother, and you must know by this time that I'm your +friend--have you any resources at all--beyond--?" She made +ever so slight a motion of her hand toward the hidden pawn ticket. + +"No," said Paul, with his sure tact and swiftly working imagination. +"I had just come to an end of them. It's a silly story of losses and +what-not--I needn't bother you with it. I thought I would walk to +London, with the traditional half-crown in my pocket"--he flashed +a wistful smile--"and seek my fortune. But I fell ill at your +gates." + +"And now that you're restored to health, you propose in the same +debonair fashion to--well--to resume the search?" + +"Of course," said Paul, all the fighting and aristocratic instincts +returning. "Why not?" + +There were no tears in his eyes now, and they looked with luminous +fearlessness at Miss Winwood. He drew a chair to the edge of the +bearskin. "Won't you sit down, Miss Winwood?" + +She accepted the seat. He sat down too. Before replying she played +with her fan rather roughly--more or less as a man might have +played with it. "What do you think of doing?" + +"Journalism," said Paul. He had indeed thought of it. + +"Have you any opening?" + +"None," he laughed. "But that's the oyster I'm going to open." + +Miss Winwood took a cigarette from a silver box near by. Paul sprang +to light it. She inhaled in silence half a dozen puffs. "I'm going +to ask you an outrageous question," she said, at last. "In the first +place, I'm a severely business woman, and in the next I've got an +uncle and a brother with cross-examining instincts, and, though I +loathe them--the instincts, I mean--I can't get away from them. +We're down on the bedrock of things, you and I. Will you tell me, +straight, why you went away to-day to--to"--she hesitated--"to +pawn your watch and chain, instead of waiting till you got to +London?" + +Paul threw out his arms in a wide gesture. "Why--your servants--" + +She cast the just lighted cigarette into the fire, rose and clapped +her hands on his shoulders, her face aflame. "Forgive me--I knew +it--there are doubting Thomases everywhere--and I'm a woman who +deals with facts, so that I can use them to the confusion of +enemies. Now I have them. Ser Federigo's watch and chain. Nicht +wahr?" + +Remember, you who judge this sensible woman of forty-three, that she +had fallen in love with Paul in the most unreprehensible way in the +world; and if a woman of that age cannot fall in love with a boy +sweetly motherwise, what is the good of her? She longed to prove +that her polyhedral crystal of a paragon radiated pure light from +every one of his innumerable facets. It was a matter of intense joy +to turn him round and find each facet pure. There was also much pity +in her heart, such as a woman might feel for a wounded bird which +she had picked up and nursed in her bosom and healed. Ursula was +loath to let her bird fly forth into the bleak winter. + +"My brother and I have been talking about you--he is your friend, +too," she said, resuming her seat. "How would it suit you to stay +with us altogether?" + +Paul started bolt upright in his chair. "What do you mean?" he asked +breathlessly, for the heavens had opened with dazzling +unexpectedness. + +"In some such position as confidential secretary--at a decent +salary, of course. We've not been able to find a suitable man since +Mr. Kinghorne left us in the spring. He got into Parliament, you +know, for Reddington at the by-election--and we've been muddling +along with honorary secretaries and typists. I shouldn't suggest it +to you," she went on, so as to give him time to think, for he sat +staring at her, openmouthed, bewildered, his breath coming quickly--"I +shouldn't suggest it to you if there were no chances for you +in it. You would be in the thick of public affairs, and an ambitious +man might find a path in them that would lead him anywhere. I've had +the idea in my head," she smiled, "for-some time. But I've only +spoken to my brother about it this afternoon--he has been so busy, +you see--and I intended to have another talk with him, so as to +crystallize things--duties, money, and so forth--before making +you any proposal. I was going to write to you with everything cut +and dried. But"--she hesitated delicately--"I'm glad I didn't. +It's so much more simple and friendly to talk. Now, what do you +say?" + +Paul rose and gripped his hands together and looked again into the +fire. "What can I say? I could only go on my knees to you--and +that--" + +"That would be beautifully romantic and entirely absurd," she +laughed. "Anyhow, it's settled. Tomorrow we can discuss details." +She rose and put out her hand. "Good night, Paul." + +He bowed low. "My dearest lady," said he in a low voice, and went +and held the door open for her to pass out. + +Then he flung up his arms wildly and laughed aloud and strode about +the room in exultation. All he had hoped for and worked for was an +exit of fantastic and barren glory. After which, the Deluge-- +anything. He had never dreamed of this sudden blaze of Fortune. Now, +indeed, did the Great Things to which he was born lie to his hand. +Queerly but surely Destiny was guiding him upward. In every way +Chance had worked for him. His poverty had been a cloak of honour; +the thrice-blessed pawn ticket a patent of nobility. His kingdom lay +before him, its purple mountains looming through the mists of dawn. +And he would enter into it as the Awakener of England. He stood +thrilled. The ambition was no longer the wild dream of yesterday. +From the heart of the great affairs in which he would have his being +he could pluck his awakening instrument. The world seemed suddenly +to become real. And in the midst of it was this wonderful, +beautiful, dearest lady with her keen insight, her delicate +sympathy, her warm humanity. With some extravagance he consecrated +himself to her service. + +After a while he sat down soberly and took from his pocket the +cornelian heart which his first goddess had given him twelve years +ago. What had become of her? He did not even know her name. But what +happiness, he thought, to meet her in the plenitude of his greatness +and show her the heart, and say, "I owe it all to you!" To her alone +of mortals would he reveal himself. + +And then he thought of Barney Bill, who had helped him on his way; +of Rowlatt, good fellow, who was dead; and of Jane, whom he had +lost. He wished he could write to Jane and tell her the wonderful +news. She would understand. . . . Well, well! It was time for bed. +He rose and switched off the lights and went to his room. But as he +walked through the great, noiseless house, he felt, in spite of +Fortune's bounty, a loneliness of soul; also irritation at having +lost Jane. What a letter he could have written to her! He could not +say the things with which his heart was bursting to anyone on earth +but Jane. Why had he lost Jane? The prospective Awakener of England +wanted Jane. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ONE morning Paul, with a clump of papers in his hand, entered his +pleasant private room at Drane's Court, stepped briskly to the long +Cromwellian table placed in the window bay, and sat down to his +correspondence. + +It was gusty outside, as could be perceived by the shower of yellow +beech leaves that slanted across the view; but indoors a great fire +flaming up the chimney, a Turkey carpet fading into beauty, rich +eighteenth century mezzotints on the walls, reposeful +leather-covered chairs and a comfortable bookcase gave an atmosphere +of warmth and coziness. Paul lit a cigarette and attacked a pile of +unopened letters. At last he came to an envelope, thick and faintly +scented, bearing a crown on the flap. He opened it and read: + +DEAR MR. SAVELLI: + +Will you dine on Saturday and help me entertain an eminent +Egyptologist? I know nothing of Egypt save Shepheard's Hotel, and +that I'm afraid wouldn't interest him. Do come to my rescue. Yours, +SOPHIE ZOBRASKA. + +Paul leaned back in his chair, twiddling the letter between his +fingers, and looked smilingly out or, the grey autumn rack of +clouds. There was a pleasant and flattering intimacy in the +invitation: pleasant because it came from a pretty woman; flattering +because the woman was a princess, widow of a younger son of a Royal +Balkan house. She lived at Chetwood. Park, on the other side of +Morebury, and was one of the great ones of those latitudes. A real +princess. + +Paul's glance, travelling back from the sky, fell upon the brass +date indicator on the table. It marked the 2nd of October. On that +day five years ago he had. entered on his duties at Drane's Court. +He laughed softly. Five years ago be was a homeless wanderer. Now +princesses were begging him to rescue them from Egyptologists. With +glorious sureness all his dreams were coming true. + +Thus we see our Fortunate Youth at eight-and-twenty in the heyday of +success. If he had strutted about under Jane's admiring eyes, like a +peacock among daws, he now walked serene, a peacock among peacocks. +He wore the raiment, frequented the clubs, ate the dinners of the +undeservingly rich and the deservingly great. His charm and his +self-confidence, which a genius of tact saved from self-assertion, +carried him pleasantly through the social world; his sympathetic +intelligence dealt largely and strongly with the public affairs +under his control. He loved organizing, persuading, casting skilful +nets. His appeal for subscriptions was irresistible. He had the +magical gift of wringing a hundred pounds from a plutocrat with the +air of conferring a graceful favour. In aid of the Mission to +Convert the Jews he could have fleeced a synagogue. The societies +and institutions in which the Colonel and Ursula Winwood were +interested flourished amazingly beneath his touch. The Girls' Club +in the Isle of Dogs, long since abandoned in despair by the young +Guardsman, grew into a popular and sweetly mannered nunnery. The +Central London Home" for the Indigent Blind, which had been +languishing for support, in spite of Miss Winwood's efforts, found +itself now in a position to build a much-needed wing. There was +also, most wonderful and, important thing of all, the Young England +League, which was covering him with steadily increasing glory. Of +this much hereafter. But it must be remembered. Ursula complained +that he left her nothing to do save attend dreary committee +meetings; and even for these Paul saved her all the trouble in +hunting up information. She was a mere figurehead. + +"Dearest lady," Paul would say, "if you send me about my business, +you'll write me a character, won't you, saying that you're +dismissing me for incorrigible efficiency?" + +"You know perfectly well," she would sigh, "that I would be a lost, +lone woman without you." + +Whereat Paul would laugh his gay laugh. At this period of his life +he had not a care in the world. + +The game of politics also fascinated him. A year or so after he +joined the Winwoods there was a General Election. The Liberals, +desiring to drive the old Tory from his lair, sent down a strong +candidate to Morebury. There was a fierce battle, into which Paul +threw himself, heart and soul. He discovered he could speak. When he +first found himself holding a couple of hundred villagers in the +grip of his impassioned utterance he felt that the awakening of +England had begun. It was a delicious moment. As a canvasser he +performed prodigies of cajolery. Extensive paper mills, a hotbed of +raging Socialism, according to Colonel Winwood, defaced (in the +Colonel's eyes) the outskirts of the little town. + +"They're wrong 'uns to a man," said the Colonel, despondently. + +Paul came back from among them with a notebook full of promises. + +"How did you manage it?" asked the Colonel. + +"I think I got on to the poetical side of politics," said Paul. + +"What the deuce is that?" + +Paul smiled. "An appeal to the imagination," said he. + +When Colonel Winwood got in by an increased majority, in spite of +the wave of Liberalism that spread over the land, he gave Paul a +gold cigarette case; and thenceforward admitted him into his +political confidence. So Paul became familiar with the Lobby of the +House of Commons and with the subjects before the Committees on +which Colonel Winwood sat, and with the delicate arts of +wire-pulling and intrigue, which appeared to him a monstrously fine +diversion. There was also the matter of Colonel Winwood's speeches, +which the methodical warrior wrote out laboriously beforehand and +learned by heart. They were sound, weighty pronouncements, to which +the House listened with respect; but they lacked the flashes which +lit enthusiasm. One day he threw the bundle of typescript across to +Paul. + +"See what you think of that." + +Paul saw and made daring pencilled amendments, and took it to the +Colonel. + +"It's all very funny," said the latter, tugging his drooping +moustache, "but I can't say things like that in the House." + +"Why not?" asked Paul. + +"If they heard me make an epigram, they would have a fit." + +"Our side wouldn't. The Government might. The Government ought to +have fits all the time until it expires in convulsions." + +"But this is a mere dull agricultural question. The Board of +Agriculture have brought it in, and it's such pernicious nonsense +that I, as a county gentleman, have to speak against it." + +"But couldn't you stick in my little joke about the pigs?" asked +Paul pleadingly. + +"What's that?" Colonel Winwood found the place in the script. "I say +that the danger of swine fever arising from this clause in the Bill +will affect every farmer in England." + +"And I say," cried Paul eagerly, pointing to his note, "if this +clause becomes law, swine fever will rage through the land like a +demoniacal possession. The myriad pigs of Great Britain, possessed +of the, devils of Socialism, will be turned into Gadarene swine +hurtling down to destruction. You can show how they hurtle, like +this--" He flickered his bands. "Do try it." + +"H'm!" said Colonel Winwood. + +Sorely against his will, he tried it. To his astonishment it was a +success. The House of Commons, like Mr. Peter Magnus's friend, is +easily amused. The exaggeration gave a cannon-ball's weight to his +sound argument. The Government dropped the clause--it was only a +trivial part of a wide-reaching measure--the President of the +Board of Agriculture saying gracefully that in the miracle he hoped +to bring about he had unfortunately forgotten the effect it might +have on the pigs. There was "renewed laughter," but Colonel Winwood +remained the hero of the half-hour and received the ecstatic +congratulations of unhumorous friends. He might have defeated the +Government altogether. In the daily round of political life nothing +is so remarkable as the lack of sense of proportion. + +"It was the Gadarene swine that did it," they said. + +"And that," said Colonel Winwood honestly, "was my young devil of a +secretary." + +Thenceforward the young wit and the fresh fancy of Paul played like +a fountain over Colonel Winwood's and speeches. + +"Look here, young man," said he one day, "I don't like it. Sometimes +I take your confounded suggestions, because they happen to fit in; +but I'm actually getting the reputation of a light political +comedian, and it won't do." + +Whereupon Paul, with his swift intuition, saw that in the case of a +proud, earnest gentleman like Colonel Winwood the tempting +emendations of typescript would not do. In what Miss Winwood called +his subtle Italian way, he induced his patron to discuss the +speeches before the process of composition. These discussions, +involving the swift rapier play of intelligences, Colonel Winwood +enjoyed. They stimulated him magically. He sat down and wrote his +speeches, delightfully unconscious of what in them was Paul and what +was himself; and when he delivered them he was proud of the +impression he had made upon the House. + +And so, as the years passed, Paul gained influence not only in the +little circle of Drane's Court and Portland Place, but also in the +outer world. He was a young man of some note. His name appeared +occasionally in the newspapers, both in connection with the Winwood +charities and with the political machine of the Unionist party. He +was welcomed at London dinner tables and in country houses. He was a +young man who would go far. For the rest, he had learned to ride and +shoot, and not to make mistakes about the genealogical relationships +of important families. He had travelled about Europe, sometimes with +the Winwoods, sometimes by himself. He was a young man of +cultivation and accomplishment. + +On this fifth anniversary he sat gazing unseeingly at the autumn +rack, the Princess's letter in his band, and letting his thoughts +wander down the years. He marvelled how valiantly the stars in their +courses had fought for him. Even against recognition his life was +charmed. Once, indeed, he met at the house in Portland Place a +painter to whom he had posed. The painter looked at him keenly. + +"Surely we have met before?" + +"We have," said Paul with daring frankness. "I remember it +gratefully. But if you would forget it I should be still more +grateful." + +The painter shook hands with him and smiled. "You may be sure I +haven't the least idea what you're talking about." + +As for Theatreland, the lower walks in the profession to which Paul +had belonged do not cross the paths of high political society. It +lay behind him far and forgotten. His position was secure. Here and +there an anxious mother may have been worried as to his precise +antecedents; but Paul was too astute to give mothers over-much cause +for anxiety. lie lived under the fascination of the Great Game. When +he came into his kingdom he could choose; not before. His destiny +was drawing him nearer and nearer to it, he thought, with slow and +irresistible force. In a few years there would be Parliament, +office, power, the awaking from stupor of an England hypnotized by +malign influences. He saw himself at the table in the now familiar +House of green benches, thundering out an Empire's salvation. If he +thought more of the awakener than the awakening, it was because be +was the same little Paul Kegworthy to whom the cornelian heart had +brought the Vision Splendid in the scullery of the Bludston slum. +The cornelian heart still lay in his waistcoat pocket at the end of +his watch chain. He also held a real princess's letter in his hand. + +A tap at the door aroused him from his day-dream. + +There entered a self-effacing young woman with pencil and notebook. +"Are you ready for me, sir?" + +"Not quite. Sit down for a minute, Miss Smithers. Or, come up to the +table if you don't mind, and help me open these envelopes." + +Paul, you see, was a great man, who commanded the services of a +shorthand typist. + +To the mass of correspondence then opened and read he added that +which he had brought in from Colonel and Miss Winwood. From this he +sorted the few letters which it would be necessary to answer in his +own handwriting, and laid them aside; then taking the great bulk, he +planted himself on the hearthrug, with his back to the fire, and, +cigarette in mouth, dictated to the self-effacing young woman. She +took down his words with anxious humility, for she looked upon him +as a god sphered on Olympian heights--and what socially insecure +young woman of lower-middle-class England could do otherwise in the +presence of a torturingly beautiful youth, immaculately raimented, +who commanded in the great house with a smile more royal and +debonair than that of the master thereof, Member of Parliament +though he was, and Justice of the Peace and Lord of the Manor? And +Paul, fresh from his retrospect, looked at the girl's thin shoulders +and sharp, intent profile, and wondered a little, somewhat +ironically. He knew that she regarded him as a kind of god, for +reasons of caste. Yet she was the daughter of a Morebury piano +tuner, of unblemished parentage for generations. She had never known +hunger and cold and the real sting of poverty. Miss Winwood herself +knew more of drunken squalor. He saw himself a ragged and unwashed +urchin, his appalling breeches supported by one brace, addressing +her in familiar terms; and he saw her transfigured air of lofty +disgust; whereupon he laughed aloud in the middle of a most +unhumorous sentence, much to Miss Smithers' astonishment. + +When he had finished his dictation he dismissed her and sat down to +his writing. After a while Miss Winwood came in. The five years had +treated her lightly. A whitening of the hair about her brows, which +really enhanced the comeliness of her florid complexion, a few more +lines at corners of eyes and lips, were the only evidences of the +touch of Time's fingers. As she entered Paul swung round from his +writing chair and started to his feet. I "Oh, Paul, I said the 20th +for the Disabled Soldiers and Sailors, didn't I? I made a mistake. +I'm engaged that afternoon." + +"I don't think so, dearest lady," said Paul. + +"I am." + +"Then you've told me nothing about it," said Paul the infallible. + +"I know," she said meekly. "It's all my fault. I never told you. +I've asked the Bishop of Frome to lunch, and I can't turn him out at +a quarter-past two, can I? What date is there free?" + +Together they bent over the engagement book, and after a little +discussion the new date was fixed. + +"I'm rather keen on dates to-day," said Paul, pointing to the brass +calendar. + +"Why?" + +"It's exactly five years since I entered your dear service," said +Paul. + +"We've worked you like a galley slave, and so I love your saying +'dear service,'" she replied gently. + +Paul, half sitting on the edge of the Cromwellian table in the bay +of the window, laughed. "I could say infinitely more, dearest lady, +if I were to let myself go." + +She sat on the arm of a great leathern chair. Their respective +attitudes signified a happy intimacy. "So long as you're contented, +my dear boy---" she said. + +"Contented? Good heavens!" He waved a protesting hand. + +"You're ambitious." + +"Of course," said he. "What Would be the good of me if I wasn't?" + +"One of these days you'll be wanting to leave the nest and--what +shall we say?--soar upwards." + +Paul, too acute to deny the truth of this prophecy said: "I probably +shall. But I'll be the rarissima avis, to whom the abandoned nest +will always be the prime object of his life's consideration." + +"Pretty,"' said Miss Winwood. + +"It's true." + +"I'm sure of it," she said pleasantly. "Besides, if you didn't leave +the nest and make a name for yourself, you wouldn't be able to carry +on our work. My brother and I, you see, are of the older generation--you +of the younger." + +"You're the youngest woman I know," Paul declared. + +"I shan't be in a few years, and my brother is a good deal older +than I." + +"Well, I can't get into Parliament right away," said Paul. "For one +thing, I couldn't afford it." + +"We must find you a nice girl with plenty of money," she said, half +in jest. + +"Oh, please don't. I should detest the sight of her. By the way, +shall you want me on Saturday evening?" + +"No--unless it would be to take Miss Durning in to dinner." + +Now Miss Durning being an elderly, ugly heiress, it pleased Miss +Winwood to be quizzical. He looked at her in mock reproof. "Dearest +lady that you are, I don't feel safe in your hands just now. I shall +dine with the Princess on Saturday." + +An enigmatic smile flitted across Ursula Winwood's clear eyes. "What +does she want you for?" + +"To entertain an Egyptologist," assured Paul. He waved his hand +toward the letter on the table. "There it is in black and white." + +"I suppose for the next few days you'll be cramming hard." + +"It would be the polite thing to do, wouldn't it?" said Paul +blandly. + +Miss Winwood shook her head and went away, and Paul happily resumed +his work. In very truth she was to him the dearest of ladies. + +The Princess Zobraska was standing alone by the fireplace at the end +of the long drawing-room when Paul was announced on Saturday +evening. She was a distinguished-looking woman in the late twenties +brown-haired, fresh-complexioned, strongly and at the same time +delicately featured. Her dark blue eyes, veiled by lashes, smiled on +him lazily as he approached; and lazily, too, her left arm stretched +out, the palm of the hand downward, and she did not move. He kissed +her knuckles, in orthodox fashion. + +"It is very good of you to come, Mr. Savelli," she said in a sweetly +foreign accent, "and leave your interesting company at Drane's +Court." + +"Any company without you, Princess, is chaos," said Paul. + +"Grand flatteur, va,--' said she. + +"C'est que vous Res irresistible, Princesse, surlout dans ce +costume-la." + +She touched his arm with an ostrich feather fan. "When it comes to +massacring languages, Mr. Savelli, let me be the assassin." + +"I laid the tribute of my heart at your feet in the most +irreproachable grammar," said Paul. + +"But with the accent of John Bull. That's the only thing of John +Bull you have about you. For the sake of my ears I must give you +some lessons." + +"You'll find me such a pupil as never teacher had in the world +before. When shall we begin?" + +"Aux Kalendes Grecques." + +"Ah que vous etes femme!" + +She put her hands to her ears. "Listen. Que-vous-etes-femme" she +said. + +"Que-vous-etes-femme," Paul repeated parrotwise. "Is that better?" + +"A little." + +"I see the Greek Kalends have begun," said he. + +"Mechant, you have caught me in a trap," said she. + +And they both laughed. + +From which entirely foolish conversation it may be gathered that +between our Fortunate Youth and the Princess some genial sun had +melted the icy barriers of formality. He had known her for eighteen +months, ever since she had bought Chetwood Park and settled down as +the great personage of the countryside. He had met her many times, +both in London and in Morebury; he had dined in state at her house; +he had shot her partridges; he had danced with her; he had sat out +dances with her, notably on one recent June night, in a London +garden, where they lost themselves for an hour in the discussion of +the relative parts that love played in a woman's life and in a +man's. The Princess was French, ancien regime, of the blood of the +Coligny, and she had married, in the French practical way, the +Prince Zobraska, in whose career the only satisfactory incident +history has to relate is the mere fact of his early demise. The +details are less exhilarating. The poor little Princess, happily +widowed at one-and-twenty, had shivered the idea of love out of her +system for some years. Then, as is the way of woman, she regained +her curiosities. Great lady, of enormous fortune, she could have +satisfied them, had she so chosen, with the large cynicism of a +Catherine of Russia. She could also, had she so chosen, have married +one of a hundred sighing and decorous gentlemen; but with none of +them had she fallen ever so little in love, and without love she +determined to try no more experiments; her determination, however, +did not involve surrender of interest in the subject. Hence the +notable discussion on the June night. Hence, perhaps, after a few +other meetings of a formal character, the prettily intimate +invitation she had sent to Paul. + +They were still laughing at the turn of the foolish conversation +when the other guests began to enter the drawing-room. First came +Edward Doon, the Egyptologist, a good-looking man of forty, having +the air of a spruce don, with a pretty young wife, Lady Angela Doon; +then Count Lavretsky, of the Russian Embassy, and Countess +Lavretsky; Lord Bantry, a young Irish peer with literary ambitions; +and a Mademoiselle de Cressy, a convent intimate of the Princess and +her paid companion, completed the small party. + +Dinner was served at a round table, and Paul found himself between +Lady Angela Doon, whom he took in, and the Countess Lavretsky. Talk +was general and amusing. As Doon did not make, and apparently did +not expect anyone to make any reference to King Qa or Amenhotep or +Rameses--names vaguely floating in Paul's brain--but talked in a +sprightly way about the French stage and the beauty of Norwegian +fiords, Paul perceived that the Princess's alleged reason for her +invitation was but a shallow pretext. Doon did not need any +entertainment at all. Lady Angela, however, spoke of her dismay at +the prospect of another winter in the desert; and drew a graphic +little sketch of the personal discomforts to which Egyptologists +were subjected. + +"I always thought Egyptologists and suchlike learned folk were +stuffy and snuffy with goggles and ragged old beards," laughed Paul. +"Your husband is a revelation." + +"Yes, he's quite human, isn't he?" she said with an affectionate +glance across the table. "He's dead keen on his work, but he +realizes--as many of his stuffy and snuffy confreres don't--that +there's a jolly, vibrating, fascinating, modern world in which one +lives." + +"I'm glad to hear you say that about the modern world," said Paul. + +"What is Lady Angela saying about the modern world?" asked the +Princess, separated from Paul's partner only by Count Lavretsky. + +"Singing paeans in praise of it," said Paul. + +"What is there in it so much to rejoice at?" asked the diplomatist, +in a harsh voice. He was a man prematurely old, and looked at the +world from beneath heavy, lizard-like eyelids. + +"Not only is it the best world we've got, but it's the best world +we've ever had," cried Paul. "I don't know any historical world +which would equal the modern, and as for the prehistoric--well, +Professor Doon can tell us--" + +"As a sphere of amenable existence," said Doon with a smile, "give +me Chetwood Park and Piccadilly." + +"That is mere hedonism," said Count Lavretsky. "You happen, like us +all here, to command the creature comforts of modern wealthy +conditions, which I grant are exceedingly superior to those +commanded by the great Emperors of ancient times. But we are in a +small minority. And even if we were not--is that all?" + +"We have a finer appreciation of our individualities," said the +Princess. "We lead a wider intellectual life. We are in instant +touch, practically, with the thought of the habitable globe." + +"And with the emotive force of mankind," said Paul. + +"What is that?" asked Lady Angela. + +Why Paul, after the first glance of courtesy at the speaker, should +exchange a quick glance with the Princess would be difficult to say. +It was instinctive; as instinctive as the reciprocal flash of mutual +understanding. + +"I think I know, but tell us," she said. + +Paul, challenged, defined it as the swift wave of sympathy that +surged over the earth. A famine in India, a devastating earthquake +in Mexico, a bid for freedom on the part of an oppressed population, +a deed of heroism at sea--each was felt within practically a few +moments, emotionally, in an English, French or German village. Our +hearts were throbbing continuously at the end of telegraph wires. + +"And you call that pleasure?" asked Count Lavretsky. + +"It isn't hedonism, at any rate," said Paul. + +"I call it life," said the Princess. "Don't you?"--she turned to +Doon. + +"I think what Mr. Savelli calls the emotive force of mankind helps +to balance our own personal emotions," said be. + +"Or isn't it rather a wear and tear on the nervous system?" laughed +his wife. + +"It seems so to me," said Count Lavretsky. "Perhaps, being a +Russian, I am more primitive and envy a nobleman of the time of +Pharaoh who never heard of devastations in Mexico, did not feel his +heart called upon to pulsate at anything beyond his own concerns. But +he in his wisdom at his little world was vanity and was depressed. +We moderns, with our infinitely bigger world and our infinitely +greater knowledge, have no more wisdom than the Egyptian, and we see +that the world is all the more vanity and are all the more +overwhelmed with despair." + +"But--" said Paul. + +"But--" cried the Princess. + +Both laughed, and paused. Paul bowed with a slight gesture. + +"I am not overwhelmed with despair," the Princess continued. + +"Neither am I," said Paul. + +"I am keeping my end up wonderfully," said Lady Angela. + +"I am in a nest of optimists," Count Lavretsky groaned. "But was it +not you, Lady Angela, who talked of wear and tear. + +"That was only to contradict my husband." + +"What is all this about?" asked the Countess Lavretsky, who had been +discussing opera with Lord Bantry and Mademoiselle de Cressy. + +Doon scientifically crystallized the argument. It held the octette, +while men-servants in powder and gold-laced livery offered poires +Zobraska, a subtle creation of the chef. Lord Bantry envied the +contemplative calm which unexciting circumstances allowed the +literary ancient. Mademoiselle de Cressy advanced the feminist view +in favour of the modern world. The talk became the light and dancing +interplay of opinion and paradox common to thousands of +twentieth-century dinner-tables. + +"All the same," said Count Lavretsky, "they wear you out, these +emotive forces. Nobody is young nowadays. Youth is a lost art." + +"On the contrary," cried Mademoiselle de Cressy in French. +"Everybody is young to-day. This pulsation of the heart keeps you +young. It is the day of the young woman of forty-five." + +Count Lavretsky, who was fifty-nine, twirled a grey moustache. "I am +one of the few people in the world who do not regret their youth. I +do not regret mine, with its immaturity, its follies and subsequent +headaches. I would sooner be the scornful philosopher of sixty than +the credulous lover of twenty." + +"He always talks like that," said the Countess to Paul; "but when he +met me first he was thirty-five--and"--she laughed--"and now +voila--for him there is no difference between twenty and sixty. +Expliquez-moi ca." + +"It's very simple," declared Paul. "In this century the thirties, +forties, and fifties don't exist. You're either twenty or sixty." + +"I hope I shall always be twenty," said the Princess lightly. + +"Do you find your youth so precious, then?" asked Count Lavretsky. + +"More than I ever did!" She laughed and again met Paul's eyes. + +This time she flushed faintly as she held them for a fraction of a +second. He had time to catch a veiled soft gleam intimate and +disquieting. For some time he did not look again in her direction; +when he did, he met in her eyes only the lazy smile with which she +regarded all and sundry. + +Later in the evening she said to him: "I'm glad you opposed +Lavretsky. He makes me shiver. He was born old and wrinkled. He has +never had a thrill in his life." + +"And if you don't have thrills when you're young, you can't expect +to have them when you're old," said Paul. + +"He would ask what was the good of thrills." + +"You don't expect me to answer, Princess." + +"We know because we're young." + +They stood laughing in the joy of their full youth, a splendid +couple, some distance away from the others, ostensibly inspecting a +luminous little Cima on the wall. The Princess loved it as the +bright jewel of her collection, and Paul, with his sense of beauty +and knowledge of art, loved it too. Yet, instead of talking of the +picture, they talked of Lavretsky, who was looking at them +sardonically from beneath his heavy eyelids. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A FEW days afterwards you might have seen Paul dashing through the +quiet main street Of Morebury in a high dog-cart, on his way to call +on the Princess. A less Fortunate Youth might have had to walk, +risking boots impolitely muddy, or to hire a funereal cab from the +local job-master; but Paul had only to give an order, and the cart +and showy chestnut were brought round to the front door of Drane's +Court. He loved to drive the showy chestnut, whose manifold +depravities were the terror of Miss Winwood's life. Why didn't he +take the cob? It was so much safer. Whereupon he would reply gaily +that in the first place he found no amusement in driving woolly +lambs, and in the second that if he did not take some of the devil +out of the chestnut it would become the flaming terror of the +countryside. So Paul, spruce in hard felt hat and box-cloth +overcoat, clattered joyously through the Morebury streets, returning +the salutations of the little notabilities of the town with the air +of the owner not only of horse and cart, but of half the hearts in +the place. He was proud of his popularity, and it scarcely entered +his head that he was not the proprietor of his equipage. Besides, he +was going to call on the Princess. He hoped that she would be alone: +not that he had anything particular to say to her, or had any +defined idea of love-making; but he was eight-and-twenty, an age at +which desire has not yet failed and there is not the sign of a +burdensome grasshopper anywhere about. + +But the Princess was not alone. He found Mademoiselle de Cressy in +charge of the tea-table and the conversation. Like many Frenchwomen, +she had a high-pitched voice; she also had definite opinions on +matter-of-fact subjects. Now when you have come to talk gossamer +with an attractive and sympathetic woman, it is irritating to have +to discuss Tariff Reform and the position of the working classes in +Germany with somebody else, especially when the attractive and +pretty woman does not give you in any way to understand that she +would prefer gossamer to such arid topics. The Princess was as +gracious as you please. She made him feel that he was welcome in her +cosy boudoir; but there was no further exchange of mutually +understanding glances. If a great lady entertaining a penniless +young man can be demure, then demure was the Princess Sophie +Zobraska. Paul, who prided himself on his knowledge of feminine +subtlety, was at fault; but who was he to appreciate the repressive +influence of a practical-minded convent friend, quickly formative +and loudly assertive of opinions, on an impressionable lady +awakening to curiosities? He was just a dunderhead, like any one of +us--just as much as the most eminent feminine psychologist +alive--which is saying a good deal. So he drove away disappointed, the +sobriety of the chestnut's return trot through Morebury contrasting +oddly with the dashing clatter of the former journey. + +It was some time before he met the Princess again, for an autumn +session of Parliament required migration to Portland Place. The +Princess, indeed, came to London, shortly afterwards, to her great +house in Berkeley Square; but it was not till late November that he +was fortunate enough to see her. Then it was only a kiss of the hand +and a hurried remark or two, at a large dinner-party at the +Winwoods'. You see, there are such forces as rank and precedence at +London dinner-parties, to which even princesses and fortunate youths +have to yield. + +On this occasion, as he bent over her hand, he murmured: "May I say +how beautiful you are to-night, Princess?" + +She wore a costume of silver and deep blue, and the blue intensified +the blue depths of her eyes. "I am delighted to please monsieur," +she said in French. + +And that was their meeting. On parting she said again in French: +"When are you coming to see me, fickle one?" + +"Whenever you ask me. I have called in vain." + +"You have a card for my reception next Tuesday?" + +"I have replied that I do myself the honour of accepting the +Princess's gracious invitation." + +"I don't like London, do you?" she asked, allowing a touch of +wistfulness to inflect her voice. + +"It has its charms. A row on the Serpentine, for instance, or a +bicycle ride in Battersea Park." + +"How lovely it would be," she said, between laugh and sigh, "if only +it could be kept out of the newspapers! I see it from here under the +Fashionable Intelligence. 'The beautiful Princess Zobraska was +observed in a boat on the ornamental water in Regent's Park with the +well-known--tiens--what are you?--politician, say--with the +well-known young politician, Mr. Paul Savelli.' Quel scandale, +hein?" + +"I must content myself with kissing your finger tips at your +reception," said Paul. + +She smiled. "We will find a means," she said. + +At her reception, an assemblage glittering with the diamonds and +orders of the great ones of the earth, she found only time to say: +"Come to-morrow at five. I shall be alone." + +Darkness descended on Paul as he replied: "Impossible, Princess. +Colonel Winwood wants me at the House." + +The next morning, greatly daring, he rang her up; for a telephone +stood on the Fortunate Youth's table in his private sitting-room in +Portland Place. + +"It is I, Princess, Paul Savelli." + +"What have you to say for yourself, Paul Savelli?" + +"I am at your feet." + +"Why can't you come to-day?" + +He explained. + +"But tell Colonel Winwood that I want you"--the voice was +imperious. + +"Would that be wise, Princess?" + +"Wise?" + +"Yes. Don't you see?" + +He waited for an answer. There was blank electric current whirring +faintly on his ear. He thought she had rung off--rung off not only +this conversation, but all converse in the future. At last, after +the waiting of despair, came the voice, curiously meek. "Can you +come Friday?" + +"With joy and delight." The words gushed out tempestuously. + +"Good. At five o'clock. And leave your John Bull wisdoril on the +doorstep." + +She rang off abruptly, and Paul stood ruminating puzzlewise on the +audacious behest. + +On Friday he presented himself at her house in Berkeley Square. He +found her gracious, but ironical in attitude, very much on the +defensive. She received him in the Empire drawing room--very stiff +and stately in its appointments. It had the charm (and the intrinsic +value) of a museum; it was as cosy as a room (under present +arrangements) at Versailles. The great wood fire alone redeemed it +from artistic bleakness. Tea was brought in by portentous, powdered +footmen in scarlet and gold. She was very much the princess; the +princess in her state apartments, a different personage from the +pretty woman in a boudoir. Paul, sensitive as far as it is given man +to be, saw that if he had obeyed her and left his John Bull wisdom +on the doorstep, he would have regretted it. Obviously she was +punishing him; perhaps herself; perhaps both of them. She kept a +wary, appraising eye on him, as they talked their commonplaces. +Paul's attitude had the correctness of a young diplomatist paying a +first formal call. It was only when he rose to go that her glance +softened. She laughed a queer little laugh. + +"I hear that you are going to address a meeting in the North of +London next week." + +"That is so," said Paul; "but how can my unimportant engagements +have come to the ears of Your Highness?" + +"I read my newspapers like everybody else. Did you not know that +there were announcements?" + +Paul laughed. "I put them in myself. You see," he explained, "we +want our Young England League to be as widely known as possible. The +more lambs we can get into the fold, the better." + +"Perhaps if you asked me very prettily," she said, "I might come +and bear you speak." + +"Princess!" His olive cheek flushed with pleasure and his eyes +sparkled. "It would be an undreamed-of honour. It is such things +that angels do." + +"Eh bien, je viendrai. You ought to speak well. Couldn't you +persuade them to give the place a better name? Hickney Heath! It +hurts the roof of one's mouth. Tiens--would it help the Young +England League if you announced my name in the newspapers?" + +"Dear Princess, you overwhelm me. But--" + +"Now, don't ask me if it is wise." She smiled in mockery. "You print +the names of other people who are supporting you. Mr. John Felton, +M.P., who will take the chair, Colonel Winwood, M.P., and Miss +Winwood, the Dean of Halifax and Lady Harbury, et cetera, et cetera. +Why not poor Princess Sophie Zobraska?" + +"You have a good memory, Princess." + +She regarded him lazily. "Sometimes. When does the meeting begin?" + +"At eight. Oh, I forget." His face fell. "How can you manage it? +You'll have to dine at an unearthly hour." + +"What does it matter even if one doesn't dine--in a good cause?" + +"You are everything that is perfect," said Paul fervently. + +She dismissed a blissful youth. The Princess Zobraska cared as much +for the Young England League as for an Anti-Nose-Ring Society in +Central Africa. Would it help the Young England League, indeed! He +laughed aloud on the lamp-lit pavement of decorous Berkeley Square. +For what other man in the world would she dine at six and spend the +evening in a stuffy hall in North London? He felt fired to great +achievement. He would make her proud of him, his Princess, his own +beautiful, stately, royal Princess. The dream had come true. He +loved a Princess; and she--? If she cared naught for him, why +was she cheerfully contemplating a six-o'clock dinner? And why did +she do a thousand other things which crowded on his memory? Was he +loved? The thought thrilled him. Here was no beautiful seductress of +suspect title such as he had heard of during his sojourn in the +Gotha Almanack world, but the lineal descendant of a princely house, +the widow of a genuinely royal, though deboshed personage. Perhaps +you may say that the hero of a fairy-tale never thinks of the mere +rank of his beloved princess. If you do, you are committing all +sorts of fallacies in your premises. For one thing, who said that +Paul was a hero? For another, who said this was a fairy-tale? For +yet another, I am not so sure that the swineherd is not impressed by +the rank of his beloved. You must remember the insistent, lifelong +dream of the ragged urchin. You must also reflect that the heart of +any high-born youth in the land might well have been fluttered by +signs of peculiar favour from Princess Sophie Zobraska. Why' then, +should Paul be blamed for walking on air instead of greasy pavement +on the way from Berkeley Square to Portland Place? Moreover, as +sanity returned to him, his quick sense recognized in his Princess's +offer to support him, a lovely indiscretion. Foreign ladies of high +position must be chary of their public appearances. Between the +row-boat on the Serpentine and the platform in the drill hall, +Hickney Heath, the difference was but one of degree. And for him +alone was this indiscretion about to be committed. His exultation +was tempered by tender solicitude. + +At dinner that evening--he was dining alone with the Winwoods-- +he said: "I've persuaded the Princess to come to our meeting on +Friday. Isn't it good of her?" + +"Very good," replied Colonel Winwood. "But what interest can she +take in the lower walks of English politics?" + +"It isn't English politics," said Paul. "It's world politics. The +Princess is an aristocrat and is tremendously keen on the +Conservative principle. She thinks our scheme for keeping the youth +of the nation free from the taint of Socialism is magnificent." + +"H'm!" said the Colonel. + +"And I thought Miss Winwood would be pleased if I inveigled Her +Highness on to the platform," said Paul. + +"Why, of course it's a good thing," assented the Colonel. "But how +the deuce did you get her?" + +"Yes, how?" asked Miss Winwood, with a smile in her straight blue +eyes. + +"How does one get anything one wants in this world," said Paul, +"except by going at it, hammer and tongs?" + +A little later, when Paul opened the dining-room for her to pass +out, she touched his shoulder affectionately and laughed. "Hammer +and tongs to Sophie Zobraska! Oh, Paul, aren't you a bit of a +humbug?" + +Perhaps he was. But he was ingenuous in his desire to shield his +Princess's action from vain conjecture. It were better that he +should be supposed, in vulgar phrase, to have roped her in, as he +had roped in a hundred other celebrities in his time. For there the +matter ended. On the other hand, if he proclaimed the lady's +spontaneous offer, it might be subjected to heaven knew how many +interpretations. Paul owed much of his success in the world to such +instinctive delicacies. He worked far into the night, composing his +speech on England's greatness to the beautiful eyes of his French +Princess. + +The Young England League was his pet political interest. It had been +inaugurated some years before he joined the Winwoods. Its objects +were the training of the youth, the future electorate of England, in +the doctrines of Imperialism, Constitutionalism and sound civicism, +as understood by the intellectual Conservatives. Its mechanical aims +were to establish lodges throughout the country. Every town and +rural district should have its lodge, in connection wherewith should +be not only addresses on political and social subjects, but also +football and cricket clubs, entertainments for both sexes such as +dances, whist-drives, excursions of archaeological and educational +interest, and lantern (and, later, cinematographic) lectures on the +wide aspects of Imperial Britain. Its appeal was to the young, the +recruit in the battle of life, who in a year or two would qualify +for a vote and, except for blind passion and prejudice, not know +what the deuce to do with it. The octogenarian Earl of Watford was +President; Colonel Winwood was one of a long list of +Vice-Presidents; Miss Winwood was on the Council; a General Hankin, +a fussy, incompetent person past his prime, was Honorary Secretary. + +Paul worked with his employers for a year on the League thinking +little of its effectiveness. One day, when they spoke despairingly +of progress, he said, not in so many words, but in effect: "Don't +you see what's wrong? This thing is run for young people, and you've +got old fossils like Lord Watford and General Hankin running it. Let +me be Assistant Secretary to Hankin' and I'll make things hum." + +And thinking the words of the youth were wise, they used their +influence with the Council, and Paul became Assistant Secretary, and +after a year or two things began to hum so disconcertingly that +General Hankin resigned in order to take the Presidency of the +Wellingtonian Defence Association, and almost automatically Paul +slipped into his place. With the instinct of the man of affairs he +persuaded the Council to change his title. An Honorary Secretary is +but a dilettante, an amateur carrying no weight, whereas an +Organizing Secretary is a devil of a fellow professedly dynamic. So +Paul became Organizing Secretary of the Young England League, and +made things hum all the louder. He put fresh life into local +Committees and local Secretaries by a paternal interest in their +doings, making them feel the pulsations of the throbbing heart of +headquarters. If a local lodge was in need of speakers, he exercised +his arts of persuasion and sent them down in trainloads. He visited +personally as many lodges as his other work permitted. In fact, he +was raising the League from a jejune experiment into a flourishing +organization. To his secret delight, old Lord Watford resigned the +chairmanship owing to the infirmities of old age, and Lord Harbury, +a young and energetic peer whom Paul had recently driven into the +ranks of the Vice-Presidents, was elected in his stead. Paul felt +the future of the League was assured. + +With a real Member of Parliament to preside, a. real dean to propose +the vote of thanks, another Member of Parliament and two ex-mayors +of the borough to add silent dignity to the proceedings, well-known +ladies, including, now, a real Princess to grace the assembly, this +meeting of the Hickney Heath Lodge was the most important occasion +on which Paul had appeared in public. + +"I hope you won't be nervous," said Miss Winwood. on the morning of +the meeting. + +"I nervous?" He laughed. "What is there to be nervous about?" + +"I've had over twenty years' experience of public speaking, and I'm +always nervous when I get UP." + +"It's only because you persistently refuse to realize what a +wonderful woman you are," he said affectionately. + +"And you," she teased, "are you always realizing what a wonderful +man you are?" + +He cried with his sunny boldness: "Why not? It's faith in oneself +and one's destiny that gets things done." + +The drill hall was full. Party feeling ran high in those days at +Hickney Heath, for a Liberal had ousted a Unionist from a safe seat +at the last General Election, and the stalwarts of the defeated +party, thirsting for revenge, supported the new movement. If a child +was not born a Conservative, he should be made one. That was the +watchword of the League. They were also prepared to welcome the new +star that had arisen to guide the younger generation out of the +darkness. When, therefore, the Chairman, Mr. John Felton, M.P., who +had held minor office in the last administration, had concluded his +opening remarks, having sketched briefly the history of the League +and intro duced Mr. Paul Savelli, in the usual eulogistic terms, as +their irresistible Organizing Secretary, and Paul in his radiant +young manhood sprang up before them, the audience greeted him with +enthusiastic applause. They had expected, as an audience does expect +in an unknown speaker, any one of the usual types of ordinary +looking politicians--perhaps bald, perhaps grey headed, perhaps +pink and fat--it did not matter; but they did not expect the +magnetic personality of this young man of astonishing beauty, with +his perfect features, wavy black hair, athletic build and laughing +eyes, who seemed the embodiment of youth and joy and purpose and +victory. + +Before he spoke a word, he knew that he bad them under his control, +and he felt the great thrill of it. Physically he had the +consciousness of a blaze of light, of a bare barn of an ungalleried +place, of thickly-set row upon row of faces, and a vast confused +flutter of beating hands. The applause subsided. He turned with his +"Mr. Chairman, Your Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen," to the circle +behind him, caught Miss Winwood, his dearest lady's smile, caught +and held for a hundredth part of a second the deep blue eyes of the +Princess--she wore a great hat with a grey feather and a +chinchilla coat thrown open, and looked the incarnation of all the +beauty and all the desires of all his dreams--and with a flash of +gladness faced the audience and plunged into his speech. + +It began with a denunciation of the Little Englander. At that period +one heard, perhaps, more of the Little Englander than one does +nowadays--which to some people's way of thinking is a pity. The +Little Englander (according to Paul) was a purblind creature, with +political vision ice-bound by the economic condition of the +labouring classes in Great Britain. The Little Englander had no +sense of patriotism. The Little Englander had no sense of Empire. He +had no sense of India, Australia, Canada. He had no sense of foreign +nations' jealousy of England's secular supremacy. He had a distinct +idea, however, of three nationalities; those of Ireland, Scotland +and Wales. The inhabitants of those three small nations took +peculiar pains to hammer that idea into his head. But of England he +had no conception save as a mere geographical expression, a little +bit of red on a map of Europe, a vague place where certain sections +of the population clamoured for-much pay and little work. His dream +was a parochial Utopia where the Irish peasant, the Welsh farmer and +the Scottish crofter should live in luxury, and when these were +satisfied, the English operative should live in moderate comfort. +The Little Englander, in his insensate altruism, dreamed of these +three nations entirely independent of England, except in the trivial +matter of financial support. He wanted Australia, Canada, South +Africa, to sever their links from him and take up with America, +Germany, Switzerland--anybody so long as they did not interfere +with his gigantic scheme for providing tramps in Cromarty with motor +cars and dissolute Welsh shepherds with champagne. As for India, why +not give it up to a benign native government which would depend upon +the notorious brotherly love between Hindoo and Mussulman? If +Russia, foolish, unawakened Russia, took possession of it, what +would it matter to the miner of Merthyr Tydvil? As for England, +provided such a country existed, she would be perfectly happy. The +rich would provide for the poor--and what did anyone want further? +Paul took up the Little Englander in his arms and tossed him in the +air, threw him on the ground and jumped upon him. He cast his +mutilated fragments with rare picturesqueness upon a Guy Fawkes +bonfire. The audience applauded vociferously. He waited with a gay +smile for silence, scanning them closely for the first time; and +suddenly the smile faded from his face. In the very centre of the +third row sat two people who did not applaud. They were Barney Bill +and Jane. + +He looked at them fascinated. There could be no mistake. Barney +Bill's cropped, shoe-brush hair was white as the driven snow; but +the wry, bright-eyed face was unchanged. And Jane, quietly and +decently dressed, her calm eyes fixed on him, was--Jane. These two +curiously detached themselves against the human background. It was +only the sudden stillness of the exhausted applause that brought him +to consciousness of his environment; that, and a heaven-sent fellow +at the back of the audience who shouted: "Go on, sonny!" + +Whereupon he plucked himself together with a swift toss of the head, +and laughed his gay laugh. "Of course I'm going on, if you will let +me. This is only the beginning of what I've got to tell you of the +Englishman who fouls the nest of England--who fouls the nest of +all that matters in the future history of mankind." + +There was more applause. It was the orator's appeal to the mass. It +set Paul back into the stream of his argument. He forgot Barney Bill +and Jane, and went on with his speech, pointedly addressing the +young, telling them what England was, what England is, what +Englishmen, if they are true to England, shall be. It was for the +young, those who came fresh to life with the glories of England +fresh in their memories, from Crecy to the Armada, from the Armada +to Waterloo, to keep the banner of England flying over their topmost +roofs. + +It was a fighting, enthusiastic, hyperbolic speech, glowing, as did +the young face of the speaker, with the divine fire of youth. It +ended triumphantly. He sat down to an ovation. Smiles and handshakes +and words of praise surrounded him on the platform. Miss Winwood +pressed his hand and said, "Well done." The Princess regarded him +with flushed cheeks and starry eyes. It was only when silence fell +on the opening words of the Dean of Halifax that he searched the +rows in front for Barney Bill and Jane. They were still there. +Impulsively he scribbled a few lines on a scrap of paper torn from +his rough notes: "I must see you. Wait outside the side entrance for +me after the meeting is over. Love to you both. Paul." A glance +round showed him an attendant of the hall lurking at the back of the +platform. He slipped quietly from his seat by the Chairman's side +and gave the man the paper with directions as to its destination. +Then he returned. just before the Dean ended, he saw the note +delivered. Jane read it, whispered its contents to Bill and seemed +to nod acquiescence. It was fitting that these two dear ghosts of +the past should appear for the first time in his hour of triumph. He +longed to have speech with them, The Dean of Halifax was brief, the +concluding ceremonies briefer. The audience gave Paul a parting +cheer and dispersed, while Paul, the hero of the evening, received +the congratulations of his friends. + +"Those are things that needed saying, but we're too cautious to say +them," remarked the Chairman. + +"We've got to be," said Colonel Winwood. + +"The glory of irresponsibility," smiled the Dean. + +"You don't often get this kind of audience," Paul answered with a +laugh. "A political infants' school. One has to treat things in +broad splashes." + +"You almost persuade me to be an Englishwoman," said. the Princess. + +Paul bowed. "But what more beautiful thing can there be than a +Frenchwoman with England in her heart? Je ne demande pas mieux." + +And the Princess did not put her hands to her ears. + +The group passed slowly from the platform through a sort of +committee room at the back, and reached the side entrance, Here they +lingered, exchanging farewells. The light streamed dimly through the +door on the strip of pavement between two hedges of spectators, and +on the panelling and brass-work of an automobile by the curb. A +chauffeur, with rug on arm, stepped forward and touched his cap, as +the Princess appeared, and opened the door of the car. Paul, +bare-headed, accompanied her across the pavement. Halt way she +stopped for a second to adjust a slipping fur. He aided her quickly +and received a bright smile of thanks. She entered the car--held +out her hand for, his kiss. + +"Come and see me soon. I'll write or telephone." + +The car rolled away. The Winwoods' carriage drove up. + +It was a fighting, enthusiastic, hyperbolic speech, glowing with the +divine fire of youth. + +"Can we give you a lift home, Paul?" asked Miss Winwood. + +"No thanks, dearest lady. There are one or two little things I must +do before I go." + +"Good night." + +"Good night, Paul," said Colonel Winwood, shaking hands. "A +thundering good speech." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PAUL looked from side to side at the palely lit faces of the +spectators, trying to distinguish Barney Bill and Jane. But he did +not see them. He was disappointed and depressed, seized with a +curious yearning for his own people. Vehicle after vehicle drew up +and carried away the remainder of the platform group, and Paul was +left in the doorway with the President and Honorary Secretary of the +local lodge. The little crowd began to melt away. Suddenly his heart +leaped and, after a hasty good night to the two officials, he sprang +forward and, to their astonishment, gripped the hand of a bent and +wizened old man. + +"Barney Bill! This is good. Where is Jane?" + +"Close by," said Bill. + +The President and Honorary Secretary waved farewells and marched +away. Out of the gloom came Jane, somewhat shyly. He took both her +hands and looked upon her, and laughed. "My dear Jane! What ages +since we lost each other!" + +"Seven years, Mr. Savelli." + +"'Mr. Savelli I' Rubbish! Paul." + +"Begging your pardon," said Barney Bill, "but I've got a pal 'ere +what I've knowed long before you was born, and he'd like to tell yer +how he enjoyed your speech." + +A tall man, lean and bearded, and apparently very well dressed, came +forward. + +"This is my old pal, Silas Finn," said Bill. + +"Delighted to meet you, Mr. Finn," said Paul, shaking hands. + +"I too," said the man gravely. + +"Silas Finn's a Councillor of the Borough," said Bill proudly. + +"You should have been on the platform," said Paul. + +"I attended in my private capacity," replied Mr. Finn. + +He effaced himself. Paul found himself laughing into Barney Bill's +twinkling eyes. "Dear old Bill," he cried, clapping his old friend +on the shoulder. "How are things going? How's the caravan? I've +looked out for it on so many country roads." + +"I'm thinking of retiring," said Bill. "I can only do a few summer +months now--and things isn't what they was." + +"And Jane?" He turned to her. + +"I'm Mr. Finn's secretary." + +"Oh," said Paul. Mr. Finn, then, was an important person. + +The drill hall attendant shut the door, and save for the street +lamps they were in gloom. There was an embarrassed little silence. +Paul broke it by saying: "We must exchange addresses, and fix up a +meeting for a nice long talk." + +"If you would like to have a talk with your old friends now, my +house is at your disposal," said Mr. Finn, in a soft, melancholy +voice. "It is not far from here." + +"That's very kind of you--but I couldn't trespass on your +hospitality." + +"Gor bless you," exclaimed Barney Bill. "Nothing of the kind. Didn't +I tell yer I've knowed him since we was lads together? And Jane +lives there." + +Paul laughed. "In that case--" + +"You'll be most welcome," said Mr. Finn. "This way." + +He went ahead with Barney Bill, whose queer side limp awoke poignant +memories of the Bludston brickfield. Paul followed with Jane. + +"And what have you been doing?" he asked. + +"Typewriting. Then Bill came across Mr. Finn, whom he hadn't seen +for years, and got me the position of secretary. Otherwise I've been +doing nothing particular." + +"If you knew what a hunt I had years ago to find you," he said, and +began to explain the set of foolish circumstances when they turned +the corner of the drill hall and found a four-wheeled cab waiting. + +"I had already engaged it for my friends and myself," Mr. Finn +explained. "Will you get in?" + +Jane and Paul and Mr. Finn entered the cab. Barney Bill, who liked +air and for whom the raw November night was filled apparently with +balmy zephyrs, clambered in his crablike way next the driver. They +started. + +"What induced you to come to-night?" Paul asked. + +"We saw the announcement in the newspapers," replied Jane. "Barney +Bill said the Mr. Paul Savelli could, be no one else but you. I said +it couldn't." + +"Why?" he asked sharply. + +"There are heaps of people of the same name." + +"But you didn't think I was equal to it?" + +She laughed a short laugh. "That's just how you used to talk. You +haven't changed much." + +"I hope I haven't," replied Paul earnestly. "And I don't think +you've changed either." + +"Very little has happened to change me," said Jane. + +The cab lumbered on through dull, dimly lit, residential roads. Only +by the swinging gleam of an occasional street lamp could Paul +distinguish the faces of his companions. "I hope you're on our side, +Mr. Finn," he said politely to his host, who sat on the small back +seat. + +"I don't disagree with much that you said to-night. But you are on +the side of wealth and aristocracy. I am on the side of the +downtrodden and oppressed." + +"But so am I," cried Paul. "The work of every day of my life tends +to help them." + +"You're a Conservative and I'm a Radical." + +"What do labels matter? We're both attacking the same problem, only +from different angles." + +"Very likely, Mr. Savelli; but you'll pardon me if, according to my +political creed, I regard your angle as an obtuse one." + +Paul wondered greatly who he could be, this grave, intelligent +friend of Barney Bill's, who spoke with such dignity and courtesy. +In his speech was a trace of rough accent; but his words were chosen +with precision. + +"You think we glance off, whereas your attack is more direct," +laughed Paul. + +"That is so. I hope you don't mind my saying it. You were the +challenger." + +"I was. But anyhow we're not going to be enemies." + +"God forbid," said Mr. Finn. + +Presently the cab stopped before a fairly large detached house +standing back from the road. A name which Paul could not decipher +was painted on the top bar of the gate. They trooped through and up +some steps to the front door, which Mr. Finn opened with his +latchkey. The first impression that Paul had on entering a wide +vestibule was a blaze of gilt frames containing masses of bright, +fresh paint. A parlour-maid appeared, and helped with hats and +coats. + +"We are having a very simple supper, Mr. Savelli. Will you join us?" +said Mr. Finn. + +"With the greatest pleasure," said Paul. + +The host threw open the dining-room door on the right. Jane and Paul +entered; were alone for a few moments, during which Paul heard +Barney Bill say in a hoarse whisper: "Let me have my hunk of bread +and beef in the kitchen, Silas. You know as how I hates a fork and I +likes to eat in my shirt sleeves." + +Paul seized Jane by the arms and regarded her luminously. He +murmured: "Did you hear? The dear old chap!" + +She raised clear, calm eyes. "Aren't you shocked?" + +He shook her. "What do you take me for?" + +Jane was rebellious. "For what girls in my position generally call a +'toff.' You---" + +"You're horrid," said Paul. + +"The word's horrid, not me. You're away up above us." + +"'Us' seems to be very prosperous, anyhow," said Paul, looking +round him. Jane watched him jealously and saw his face change. The +dining room, spaciously proportioned, was, like the vestibule, a +mass of gilt frames and staring paint. Not an inch of wall above the +oak dado was visible. Crude landscapes, wooden portraits, sea +studies with waves of corrugated iron, subject pictures of +childishly sentimental appeal, blinded the eyes. It looked as if a +kindergarten had been the selecting committee for an exhibition of +the Royal Academy. It looked also as if the kindergarten had +replaced the hanging committee also. It was a conglomerate massacre. +It was pictorial anarchy. It was individualism baresark, amok, +crazily frantic. And an execrably vile, nerve-destroying +individualism at that. + +Paul released Jane, who kept cool, defiant eyes on him. + +"What do you think of it?" + +He smiled. "A bit disconcerting." + +"The whole house is like this." + +"It's so new," said Paul. + +He looked about him again. The long table was plainly laid for three +at the far end. The fare consisted of a joint of cold beef, a cold +tart suggestive of apple, a bit of Cheshire cheese, and celery in a +glass vase. Of table decoration of any kind there was no sign. A +great walnut monstrosity meagrely equipped performed the functions +of a sideboard. The chairs, ten straight-backed, and two easy by the +fireplace, of which one was armless, were upholstered in saddlebag, +yellow and green. In the bay of the red-curtained window was a huge +terra-cotta bust of an ivy-crowned and inane Austrian female. There +was a great fireplace in which a huge fire blazed cheerily, and on +the broad, deep hearth stood little coloured plaster figures of +stags, of gnomes, of rabbits, one ear dropping, the other ear +cocked, of galloping hounds unknown to the fancy, scenting and +pursuing an invisible foe. + +She watched him as he scanned the room. + +"Who is Mr. Finn?" he asked in a low voice. + +"Many years ago he was 'Finn's Fried Fish.' Now he's 'Fish Palaces, +Limited.' They're all over London. You can't help seeing them even +from a motor car." + +"I've seen them," said Paul. + +The argument outside the door having ended in a victory for the +host, he entered the room, pushing Barney Bill gently in front of +him. For the first time Paul saw him in the full light. He beheld a +man sharply featured, with hair and beard, once raven-black, +irregularly streaked with white--there seemed to be no +intermediary shades of grey--and deep melancholy eyes. There hung +about him the atmosphere of infinite, sorrowful patience that might +mark a Polish patriot. As the runner of a successful fried fish +concern he was an incongruity. As well, thought Paul, picture the +late Cardinal Newman sharpening knife on steel outside a butcher's +shop, and crying, "buy, buy," in lusty invitation. Then Paul noticed +that he was oddly apparelled. He wore the black frock-coat suit of a +Methodist preacher at the same time as the rainbow tie, diamond +tie-pin, heavy gold watch-chain, diamond ring and natty spats of a +professional bookmaker. The latter oddities, however, did not +detract from the quiet, mournful dignity of his face and manner. +Paul felt himself in the presence of an original personality. + +The maid came in and laid a fourth place. Mr. Finn waved Paul to a +seat on his right, Barney Bill to one next Paul; Jane sat on his +left. + +"I will ask a blessing," said Mr. Finn. + +He asked one for two minutes in the old-fashioned Evangelical way, +bringing his guest into his address to the Almighty with an almost +pathetic courtesy. "I am afraid, Mr. Savelli," said he, when he sat +down and began to carve the beef, "I have neither wine nor spirits +to offer you. I am a strict teetotaller; and so is Miss Seddon. But +as I knew my old friend Simmons would be unhappy without his +accustomed glass of beer--" + +"That's me," said Barney Bill, nudging Paul with his elbow. +"Simmons. You never knowed that afore, did yer? Beg pardon, guv'nor, +for interrupting." + +"Well, there's a jug of beer--and that is all at this hour, except +water, that I can put before you." + +Paul declared that beer was delicious and peculiarly acceptable +after public speaking, and demonstrated his appreciation by draining +the glass which the maid poured out. + +"You wanted that badly, sonny," said Barney Bill. "The next thing to +drinking oneself is to see another chap what enjoys swallering it." + +"Bill!" said Jane reprovingly. + +Barney Bill cocked his white poll across the table with the +perkiness of a quaint bird--Paul saw that the years had brought a +striation of tiny red filaments to his weather-beaten face--and +fixed her with his little glittering eyes. "Bill what? You think I'm +'urting his feelings?" He jerked a thumb towards his host. "I ain't. +He thinks good drink's bad because bad has come of it to him--not +that he ever took a drop too much, mind yer--but bad has come of +it to him, and I think good drink's good because nothing but good +has come of it to me. And we've agreed to differ. Ain't we, Silas?" + +"If every man were as moderate as you, and I am sure as Mr. Savelli, +I should have nothing to say against it. Why should I? But the +working man, unhappily, is not moderate." + +"I see," said Paul. "You preach, or advocate--I think you preach--total +abstinence, and so feel it your duty to abstain yourself." + +"That is so," said Mr. Finn, helping himself to mustard. "I don't +wish to bore you with my concerns; but I'm a fairly large employer +of labour. Now I have found that by employing only pledged +abstainers I get extraordinary results. I exact a very high rate of +insurance, towards a fund--I need not go into details--to which +I myself contribute a percentage--a far higher rate than would be +possible if they spent their earnings on drink. I invest the whole +lot in my business--their stoppages from wages and my +contributions. I guarantee them 3 per cent.; I give them, actually, +the dividends that accrue to the holders of ordinary stock in my +company. They also have the general advantages of insurance-- +sickness, burial, maternity, and so forth--that they would get +from an ordinary benefit society." + +"But that's enormous," cried Paul, with keen interest. "On the face +of it, it seems impossible. It seems entirely uneconomic. +Co-operative trading is one thing; private insurance another. But +how can you combine the two?" + +"The whole secret lies in the marvellously increased efficiency of +the employee." He developed his point. + +Paul listened attentively. "But," said he, when his host concluded, +"isn't it rather risky? Supposing, for the sake of argument, your +business failed." + +Mr. Finn held up the lean, brown hand on which the diamond sparkled. +"My business cannot fail." + +Paul started. The assertion had a strange solemnity. "Without +impertinence," said he, "why can't it fail?" + +"Because God is guiding it," said Silas Finn. + +The fanatic spoke. Paul regarded him with renewed interest. The +black hair streaked with white, banging over the temples on the side +away from the parting, the queerly streaked beard, the clear-cut +ascetic features, the deep, mournful eyes in whose depths glowed a +soul on fire, gave him the appearance of a mad but sanctified +apostle. Barney Bill, who profoundly distrusted all professional +drinkers of water, such as Mr. Finn's employees, ate his cold beef +silently, in the happy surmise that no one was paying the least +attention to his misperformances with knife, fork and fingers. Jane +looked steadily from Paul to Silas and from Silas to Paul. + +Paul said: "How do you know God is guiding it?" + +At the back of his mind was an impulse of mirth--there was a touch +of humorous blasphemy in the conception of the Almighty as managing +director of "Fish Palaces, Limited"--but the nominal earthly +managing director saw not the slightest humour in the proposition. + +"Who is guiding you in your brilliant career?" he asked. + +Paul threw out his hands, in the once practised and now natural +foreign gesture. "I'm not an atheist. Of course I believe in God, +and I thank Him for all His mercies--" + +"Yes, yes," said his host. "That I shouldn't question. But a +successful man's thanks to God are most often merely conventional. +Don't think I wish to be offensive. I only want to get at the root +of things. You are a young man, eight-and-twenty--" + +"How do you know that?" laughed Paul. + +"Oh, your friends have told me. You are young. You have a brilliant +position. You have a brilliant future. Were you born to it?" + +There was Jane on the opposite side of the table, entirely +uninterested in her food, looking at him in her calm, clear way. She +was so wholesome, so sane, in her young yet mature English +lower-class beauty. She had broad brows. Her mass of dark brown hair +was rather too flawlessly arranged. He felt a second's irritation at +not catching any playfully straying strand. She was still the Jane +of his boyhood, but a Jane developed, a Jane from whom no secrets +were hid, a searching, questioning and quietly disturbing Jane. + +"A man is born to his destiny, whatever destiny may be," said Paul. + +"That is Mohammedan fatalism," said Mr. Finn, "unless one means by +destiny the guiding hand of the Almighty. Do you believe that you're +under the peculiar care of God?" + +"Do you, Mr. Finn?" + +"I have said so. I ask you. Do you?" + +"In a general way, yes," said Paul. "In your particular sense, no. +You question me frankly and I answer frankly. You would not like me +to answer otherwise." + +"Certainly not," said his host. + +"Then," Paul continued, with a smile, "I must say that from my +childhood I have been fired with a curious certainty that I would +succeed in life. Chance has helped me. How far a divine hand has +been specially responsible, it isn't for me to conjecture. But I +know that if I hadn't believed in myself I shouldn't have had my +small measure of success." + +"You believe in yourself?" + +"Yes. And I believe in making others believe in me." + +"That is strange--very strange." Mr. Finn fixed him with his deep, +sorrowful eyes. "You believe that you're predestined to a great +position. You believe that you have in you all that is needful to +attain it. That has carried you through. Strange!" He put his hand +to his temple, elbow on table, and still regarded Paul. "But there's +God behind it all. Mr. Savelli," he said earnestly, after a slight +pause, "you are twenty-eight; I am fifty-eight; so I'm more than old +enough to be your father. You'll forgive my taking up the attitude +of the older man. I have lived a life such as your friends on the +platform to-night--honorable, clean, sweet people--I've nothing +to say against them--have no conception. I am English, of course--London +born. My father was an Englishman; but my mother was a +Sicilian. She used to go about with a barrel-organ--my father ran +away with her. I have that violent South in my blood, and I've lived +nearly all my days in London. I've had to pay dearly for my blood. +The only compensation it has given me is a passion for art"--he +waved his lean, bediamonded hand towards the horrific walls. "That +is external--in a way--mere money has enabled me to gratify my +tastes; but, as I was saying, I have lived a life of strange +struggle, material, physical, and"--he brought down his free hand +with a bang on the table--"it is only by the grace of God and the +never-ceasing presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ by my side, that-- +that I am able to offer you my modest hospitality this evening." + +Paul felt greatly drawn to the man. He was beyond doubt sincere. He +wore the air of one who had lived fiercely, who had suffered, who +had conquered; but the air of one whose victory was barren, who was +looking into the void for the things unconquerable yet essential to +salvation. Paul made a little gesture of attention. He could find no +words to reply. A man's deep profession of faith is unanswerable. + +"Ah," said Barney Bill, "you ought to have come along o' me, Silas, +years ago in the old 'bus. You mightn't have got all these bright +pictures, but you wouldn't have had these 'ere gloomy ideas. I don't +say as how I don't hold with Gawd," he explained, with uplifted +forefinger and cocked head; "but if ever I thinks of Him, I like to +feel that He's in the wind or in the crickle-crackle of the earth, +just near and friendly like, but not a-worrying of a chap, listening +for every cuss-word as he uses to his old horse, and measuring every +half-pint he pours down his dusty throat. No. That ain't my idea of +Gawd. But then I ain't got religion." + +"Still the same old pagan," laughed Paul. + +"No, not the same, sonny," said Barney Bill, holding up his knife, +which supported a morsel of cheese. "Old. Rheumaticky. Got to live +in a 'ouse when it rains--me who never keered whether I was baked +to a cinder or wet through! I ain't a pagan no more. I'm a crock." + +Jane smiled affectionately at the old man, and her face was lit with +rare sweetness when she smiled. "He really is just the same," she +said. + +"He hasn't changed much in forty years," said Mr. Finn. + +"I was a good Conservative then, as I am now," said Bill. "That's +one thing, anyhow. So was you, Silas. But you had Radical leanings." + +Barney Bill's remark set the talk on political lines. Paul learned +that his host had sat for a year or more as a Progressive on the +Hickney Heath Borough Council and aspired to a seat in Parliament. + +"The Kingdom of Heaven," said he, not unctuously or hypocritically, +but in his grave tone of conviction, "is not adequately represented +in the House." + +Paul pointed out that in the House of Lords one had the whole bench +of Bishops. + +"I'm not a member of the Established Church, Mr. Savelli," replied +Mr. Finn. "I'm a Dissenter--a Free Zion'st." + +"I've heard him conduc' the service," said Barney Bill. "He built +the Meeting House close by, yer know. I goes sometimes to try and +get converted. But I'm too old and stiff in the j'ints. No longer a +pagan, but a crock, sonny. But I likes to listen to him. Gorbli-- +bless me, it's a real bean feast--that's what it is. He talks +straight from the shoulder, he does, just as you talked to-night. +Lets 'em 'ave it bing-bang in the eye. Don't he, Jane?" + +"Bill means," she explained, with the shadow of a smile, for Paul's +benefit, "that Mr. Finn is an eloquent preacher." + +"D'yer suppose he didn't understand what I meant Y' he exclaimed, +setting down the beer glass which he was about to raise to his lips. +"Him, what I discovered reading Sir Walter Scott with the cover off +when he was a nipper with no clothes on? You understood, sonny. + +"Of course I did." He laughed gaily and turned to his host, who had +suffered Barney Bill's queer eulogy with melancholy indulgence. "One +of these days I should like to come and hear you preach." + +"Any Sunday, at ten and six. You would be more than welcome." + +The meal was over. Barney Bill pulled a blackened clay pipe from his +waistcoat pocket and a paper of tobacco. + +"I'm a non-smoker," said Mr. Finn to Paul, "and I'm sorry I've +nothing to offer you--I see little company, so I don't keep cigars +in the house--but if you would care to smoke---" he waved a +courteous and inviting hand. + +Paul whipped out his cigarette case. It was of gold--a present +last Christmas from the Winwood fitting part of the equipment of a +Fortunate Youth. He opened it, offered a cigarette to Barney Bill. + +"Garn!" said the old man. "I smokes terbakker," and he filled his +pipe with shag. + +Mr. Finn rose from the table. "Will you excuse me, Mr. Savelli, if I +leave you? I get up early to attend to my business. I must be at +Billingsgate at half-past five to buy my fish. Besides, I have been +preventing your talk with our friends. So pray don't go. Good-night, +Mr. Savelli." + +As he shook hands Paul met the sorrowful liquid eyes fixed on him +with strange earnestness. "I must thank you for your charming +hospitality. I hope you'll allow me to come and see you again." + +"My house is yours." + +It was a phrase--a phrase of Castilian politeness--oddly out of +place in the mouth of a Free Zionist purveyor of fried fish. But it +seemed to have more than a Castilian, more than a Free Zionist +significance. He was still pondering over it when Mr. Finn, having +bidden Jane and Barney Bill good-night, disappeared. + +"Ah!" said Barney Bill, lifting up the beer jug in order to refill +his glass, and checked whimsically by the fact of its emptiness. +"Ah," said he, setting down the jug and limping round the table, +"let us hear as how you've been getting on, sonny." + +They drew their chairs about the great. hearth, in which the idiotic +little Viennese plaster animals sported in movement eternally +arrested, and talked of the years that had passed. Paul explained +once more his loss of Jane and his fruitless efforts to find her. + +"We didn't know," said Jane. "We thought that either you were dead +or had forgotten us--or had grown too big a man for us." + +"Axing your pardon," said Barney Bill, taking his blackened clay +from his lips and holding it between his gnarled fingers, "you said +so. I didn't. I always held that, if he wasn't dead, the time would +come when, as it was to-night, the three of us would be sitting +round together. I maintained," he added solemnly after a puff or +two, "that his heart was in the right place. I'm a broken-down old +crock, no longer a pagan; but I'm right. Ain't I, sonny?" He thrust +an arm into the ribs of Paul, who was sitting between them. + +Paul looked at Jane. "I think this proves it." + +She returned his look steadily. "I own I was wrong. But a woman only +proves herself to be right by always insisting that she is wrong." + +"My dear Jane," cried Paul. "Since when have you become so +psychological?" + +"Gorblime," said Barney Bill, "what in thunder's that?" + +"I know," said Jane. "You"--to Paul--"were good enough to begin +my education. I've tried since to go on with it." + +"It's nothing to do with edication," said Barney Bill. "It's fac's. +Let's have fac's. Jane and I have been tramping the same old +high-road, but you've been climbing mountains--yer and yer gold +cigarette cases. Let's hear about it." + +So Paul told his story, and as he told it, it seemed to him, in its +improbability, more like a fairy-tale than the sober happenings of +real life. + +"You've said nothing about the princess," Jane remarked, when he had +ended. + +"The princess?" + +"Yes. Where does she come in?" + +"The Princess Zobraska is a friend of my employers." + +"But you and she are great friends," Jane persisted quietly. "That's +obvious to anybody. I was standing quite close when you helped her +into the motor car." + +"I didn't see you." + +"I took care you didn't. She looks charming." + +"Most princesses are charming--when they've no particular reason +to be otherwise," said Paul. "It is their metier--their +profession." + +There was a little silence. Jane, cheek on hand, looked thoughtfully +into the fire. Barney Bill knocked' the ashes out of his pipe and +thrust it in his pocket. "It's getting late, sonny." + +Paul looked at his watch. It was past one o'clock. He jumped up. "I +hope to goodness you haven't to begin work at half-past five," he +said to Jane. + +"No. At eight." She rose as he stretched out his hand. "You don't +know what it is to see you again, Paul. I can't tell you. Some +things are upsetting. But I'm glad. Oh, yes, I'm glad, Paul dear. +Don't think I'm not." + +Her voice broke a little. They were the first gentle words she had +given him all the evening. Paul smiled and kissed her hand as he had +kissed that of the princess, and, still holding it, said: "Don't I +know you of old? And if you suppose I haven't thought of you and +felt the need of you, you're very much mistaken. Now I've found you, +I'm not going to let you go again." + +She turned her head aside and looked down; there was the slightest +movement of her plump shoulders. "What's the good? I can't do +anything for you now, and you can't do anything for me. You're on +the way to becoming a great man. To me, you're a great man already. +Don't you see?" + +"My dear, I was an embryonic Shelley, Raphael, Garrick, and Napoleon +when you first met me," he said jestingly. + +"But then you didn't belong to their--to their sphere. Now you do. +Your friends are lords and ladies and--and princesses--" + +"My friends," cried Paul, "are people with great true hearts--like +the Winwoods--and the princess, if you like--and you, and Barney +Bill." + +"That's a sentiment as does you credit," said the old man. "Great +true hearts! Now if you ain't satisfied, my dear, you're a damn +criss-cross female. And yer ain't, are yer?' She laughed and Paul +laughed. The little spell of intensity was broken. There were +pleasant leave-takings. + +"I'll set you on your road a bit," said Barney Bill. "I live in the +neighbourhood. Good-bye, Jane." + +She went with them to the front door, and stood in the gusty air +watching them until they melted into the darkness. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BETWEEN the young man of immaculate vesture, of impeccable manners, +of undeniable culture, of instinctive sympathy with the great world +where great things are done, of unerring tact, of mythological +beauty and charm, of boundless ambition, of resistless energy, of +incalculable promise, in outer semblance and in avowed creed the +fine flower of aristocratic England, professing the divine right of +the House of Lords and the utilitarian sanctity of the Church of +England--between Paul, that is to say, and the Radical, +progressive councillor of Hickney Heath, the Free Zionist dissenter +(not even Congregationalist or Baptist or Wesleyan, or any +powerfully organized Non-conformist whose conscience archbishops +consult with astute patronage), the purveyor of fried fish, the man +of crude, uncultivated taste, there should have been a gulf fixed as +wide as the Pacific Ocean. As a matter of fact, whatever gulf lay +between them was narrow enough to be bridged comfortably over by +mutual esteem. Paul took to visiting Mr. Finn. Accustomed to the +somewhat tired or conventional creeds of his political world, he +found refreshment in the man's intense faith. He also found pathetic +attraction in the man's efforts towards self-expression. Mr. Finn, +who lived a life of great loneliness--scarcely a soul, said Jane, +crossed his threshold from month's end to month's end--seemed +delighted to have a sympathetic visitor to whom he could display his +painted treasures. When he was among them the haunting pain vanished +from his eyes, as sometimes one has seen it vanish from those of an +unhappy woman among her flowers. He loved to take Paul through his +collection and point out the beauties and claim his admiration. He +had converted a conservatory running along one side of the house +into a picture gallery, and this was filled with his masterpieces of +pictorial villainy. Here Paul was at first astonished at recognizing +replicas of pictures which hung in other rooms. Mr. Finn explained. + +"These," said he, "are the originals." + +Paul pondered over the dark saying for a moment or two until he came +upon a half-finished canvas on an easel. It was the copy of a +landscape on the wall. He turned questioningly to his host. The +latter smiled. + +"I'm a bit of an artist myself," he said. "But as I've never had +time for lessons in painting, I teach myself by copying good +pictures. It's a Saunders"--a name unknown to Paul--"and a very +good example. It's called Noontide. The cow is particularly good, +isn't it? But it's exceedingly difficult. That fore-shortening--I +can't get it quite right yet. But I go on and on till I succeed. The +only way." + +Paul acquiesced and asked him where he had picked up his Saunders. +Indeed, where had he picked up all the others? Not an exhibition in +London would have admitted one of them. This "Saunders" represented +a wooden cow out of drawing lying in the shade of a conventional +tree. It was peculiarly bad. + +"I bought it direct from the artist," replied Mr. Finn. "He's an +unrecognized genius, and now he's getting old, poor fellow. Years +ago he offended the Royal Academy, and they never forgot it. He says +they've kept him under all his life. I have a great many of his +pictures." He looked admiringly at the cow for a while, and added: +"I gave him four pounds ten for this one." + +Paul could not forbear saying, though his tone betrayed no irony: "A +good price." + +"I think so," replied Mr. Finn. "That's what he asked. I could never +haggle with an artist. His work is of the spirit, isn't it?" + +And Paul marvelled at the childlike simplicity of the man, the son +of the Sicilian woman who went about with a barrel-organ, who, +starting in the race on a level with Barney Bill, had made a fortune +in the exploitation of fried fish. To disturb his faith in the +genius of Saunders were a crime--as base a crime as proving to a +child the non-existence of fairies. For Paul saw that Silas Finn +found in this land of artistic illusion a refuge from many things; +not only from the sordid cares of a large business, but perhaps also +from the fierce intensity of his religion, from his driving and +compelling deity. Here God entered gently. + +There was another reason, which Paul scarcely confessed to himself, +for the pleasure he found in the older man's company. The veil which +he had thrown so adroitly over his past history, which needed +continuous adroitness to maintain, was useless in this house. Both +Barney Bill and Jane had spoken of him freely. Silas Finn knew of +Bludston, of his modeldom, of his inglorious career on the stage. He +could talk openly once more, without the never-absent subconscious +sense of reserve. He was still, in his own, eyes, the prince out of +the fairy-tale; but Silas Finn and the two others alone of his +friends shared the knowledge of the days when he herded swine. Now a +prince out of a fairy-tale who has herded swine is a romantic +figure. Paul did not doubt that he was one. Even Jane, in spite of +her direct common sense, admitted it. Barney Bill proclaimed it +openly, slapping him on the back and taking much credit to himself +for helping the prince on the way to his kingdom. And Mr. Finn, even +in the heat of political discussion or theological asseveration, +treated him with a curious and pathetic deference. + +Meanwhile Paul pursued his own career of glory. The occasional +visits to Hickney Heath were, after all, but rare, though distinct, +episodes in his busy life. He had his parliamentary work for Colonel +Winwood, his work for Miss Winwood, his work for the Young England +League. He had his social engagements. He had the Princess Zobraska. +He also began to write, in picturesque advocacy of his views, for +serious weekly and monthly publications. Then Christmas came and lie +found himself at Drane's Court, somewhat gasping for breath. A large +houseparty, however, including Lord Francis Ayres, the chief +Opposition Whip, threatened to keep him busy. + +The Princess drove over from Chetwood Park for dinner on Christmas +Day. He had to worship from afar; for a long spell of the evening to +worship with horrible jealousy. Lord Francis Ayres, a bachelor and a +man of winning charm, as men must be whose function it is to keep +Members of Parliament good and pleased with themselves and +sheeplike, held the Princess captive, in a remote corner, with his +honeyed tongue. She looked at him seductively out of her great, +slumberous blue eyes, even as she had looked, on occasion, at him, +Paul. He hated Lord Francis, set himself up against him, as of old +he had set himself up against Billy Goodge. He was a better man than +Frank Ayres. Frank Ayres was only a popinjay. Beneath the tails of +his coat he snapped his fingers at Frank Ayres, while he listened, +with his own agreeable smile, to Mademoiselle de Cressy's devilled +gossip. + +He was very frigid and courtly when he bade the Princess good night +at the door of her limousine. + +"Ah, que vous etes bete!" she laughed. + +He went to bed very angry. She had told him to his face that he was +a silly fool. And so he was. He thought of all the brilliantly +dignified things he might have said, if the relentless engine had +not whirred her away down the drive. But the next morning Lord +Francis met him in the wintry garden and smiled and held out a +winning hand. Paul hid his hatred beneath the mask of courtesy. They +talked for a few moments of indifferent matters. Then Frank Ayres +suddenly said: "Have you ever thought of standing for Parliament?" + +Paul, who had been sauntering between flowerless beds with his +companion, stood stock still. The Chief Whip of a political party is +a devil of a fellow. To the aspiring young politician he is much +more a devil of a fellow than the Prime Minister or any Secretary of +State. If a Chief Whip breathes the suggestion that a man might +possibly stand for election as a Member of Parliament, it means that +at any suitable vacancy, or at a general election, be will, with +utter certainty, have his chance as a candidate with the whole force +of his party behind him. It is part of the business of Chief Whips +to find candidates. + +"Of course," said Paul, rather stupidly. "Eventually. One of these +days." + +"But soon?" + +"Soon?" + +Paul's head reeled. What did he mean by soon? "Well," Lord Francis +laughed, "not to-morrow. But pretty soon. Look here, Savelli. I'm +going to speak frankly. The party's in for a long period out of +office. That's obvious. Look at the majority against us. We want the +young blood--not the old hacks--so that when we come in again we +shall have a band of trained men in the heyday of their powers. Of +course I know--it's my business to know--what generally you have +done for the Young England League, but I missed your speech at +Flickney Heath in the autumn. You had an immense success, hadn't +you?" + +"They seemed pleased with what I had to say," replied Paul modestly. +"When did you hear about it?" + +"Last night." + +"The Winwoods are the dearest people in the world," said Paul, +walking warily, "but they are prejudiced in my favour." + +"It wasn't the Winwoods." + +The beautiful truth flashed upon Paul. + +"Then it was the Princess Zobraska." + +The other laughed. "Never mind. I know all about it. It isn't often +one has to listen to speeches at second-hand. The question is: Would +you care to stand when the time comes?" + +"I should just think I would," cried Paul boyishly. + +All his jealous resentment had given place to exultation. It was the +Princess who had told Frank Ayres. If she had been laying him under +the spell of her seduction it was on his, Paul's, account. She had +had the splendid audacity to recite his speech to the Chief Whip. +Frank Ayres was suddenly transformed from a popinjay into an +admirable fellow. The Princess herself sat enthroned more adorable +than ever. + +"The only difficulty," said Paul, "is that I have to earn my +living." + +"That might be arranged," said Lord Francis. + +So Paul, as soon as he found an opportunity, danced over to Chetwood +Park and told his Princess all about it, and called her a tutelary +goddess and an angel and all manner of pretty names. And the +Princess, who was alone, poured for him her priceless Russian tea +into egg-shell China tea-cups and fed him on English crumpets, and, +in her French and feminine way, gave him the outer fringe of her +heart to play with--a very dangerous game. She had received him, +not as once before in the state drawing room, but in the intimacy of +her own boudoir, a place all soft lights and cushions and tapestries +and gleaming bits of sculpture. After tea and crumpets had been +consumed, the dangerous game proceeded far enough for Paul to +confess his unjust dislike of Frank Ayres. + +"Gros jaloux," said the Princess. + +"That was why you said que vous etes bete," said he. + +"Partly." + +"What were the other reasons?" + +"Any woman has a thousand reasons for calling any man stupid." + +"Tell me some of them at any rate." + +"Well, isn't it stupid of a man to try to quarrel with his best +friend when he won't be seeing her again for three or four months?" + +"You're not going away soon?" + +"Next week." + +"Ohl" said Paul. + +"Yes. I go to Paris, then to my villa at Mont Boron. I have the +nostalgia of my own country, you see. Then to Venice at Easter." + +I Paul looked at her wistfully, for life seemed suddenly very blank +and dismal. "What shall I do all that time without my best friend?" + +"You will probably find another and forget her." + +She was lying back among cushions, pink and terra-cotta, and a round +black cushion framed her delicate head. + +Paul said in a low voice, bending forward: "Do you think you are a +woman whom men forget?" + +Their eyes met. The game had grown very perilous. "Men may remember +the princess," she replied, "but forget the woman." + +"If it weren't for the woman inside the princess; what reason should +I have for remembering?" he asked. + +She fenced. "But, as it is, you don't see me very often." + +"I know. But you are here--to be seen--not when I want you, for +that would be every hour of the day--but, at least, in times of +emergency. You are here, all the same, in the atmosphere of my +life." + +"And if I go abroad I shall no longer be in that atmosphere? Did I +not say you would forget?" + +She laughed. Then quickly started forward, and, elbow on knee and +chin on palm, regarded him brightly. "We are talking like a couple +of people out of Mademoiselle de Scudery," she said before he had +time to reply. "And we are in the twentieth century, mon pauvre ami. +We must be sensible. I know that you will miss me. And I will miss +you too. Mais que voulez-vous? We have to obey the laws of the world +we live in." + +"Need we?" asked Paul daringly. "Why need we?" + +"We must. I must go away to my own country. You must stay in yours +and work and fulfill your ambitions." She paused. "I want you to be +a great man," she said, with a strange tenderness in her voice. + +"With you by my side," said he, "I feel I could conquer the earth." + +"As your good friend I shall always be by your side. Vous voyez, mon +cher Paul," she went on quickly in French. "I am not quite as people +see me. I am a woman who is lonely and not too happy, who has had +disillusions which have embittered her life. You know my history. It +is public property. But I am young. And my heart is healed--and it +craves faith and tenderness and--and friendship. I have many to +flatter me. I am not too ugly. Many men pay their court to me, but +they do not touch my heart. None of them even interest me. I don't +know why. And then I have my rank, which imposes on me its +obligations. Sometimes I wish I were a little woman of nothing at +all, so that I could do as I like. Mais enfin, I do what I can. You +have come, Paul Savelli, with your youth and your faith and your +genius, and you pay your court to me like the others. Yes, it is +true--and as long as it was amusing, I let it go on. But now that +you interest me, it is different. I want your success. I want it +with all my heart. It is a little something in my life--I confess +it--quelque chose de tres joli--and I will not spoil it. So let +us be good friends, frank and loyal--without any Scudery." She +looked at him with eyes that had lost their languor--a sweet +woman's eyes, a little moist, very true. "And now," she said, "will +you be so kind as to put a log on the fire." + +Paul rose and threw a log on the glowing embers, and stood by her +side. He was deeply moved. Never before had she so spoken. Never +before had she afforded a glimpse of the real woman. Her phrases, so +natural, so sincere, in her own tongue, and so caressive, stirred +the best in him. The glamour passed from the royal lady; only the +sweet and beautiful woman remained. + +"I will be what you will, my Princess," he said. + +At that moment he could not say more. For the first time in his life +he was mute in a woman's presence; and the reason was that for the +first time in his life love for a woman had gripped his heart. + +She rose and smiled at him. "Bons amis, francs et loyaux?" + +"Francs et loyaux." + +She gave him her hand in friendship; but she gave him her eyes in +love. It is the foolish way of women. + +"May a frank and loyal friend write to you sometimes?" he asked. + +"Why, yes. And a frank and loyal friend will answer." + +"And when shall I see you again?" + +"Did I not tell you," she said, moving to the bell, for this was +leave-taking--"that I shall be in Venice at Easter?" + +Paul went out into the frosty air, and the bright wintry stars shone +down on him. Often on such nights he had looked up, wondering which +was his star, the star that guided his destiny. But to-night no such +fancy crossed his mind. He did not think of the stars. He did not +think of his destiny. His mind and soul were drenched in thought of +one woman. It had come at last, the great passion, the infinite +desire. It had come in a moment, wakened into quivering being by the +caressive notes of the dear French voice--"mais je suis jeune, et +mon coeur est gueri, et il lui manque affreusement de la foi, de la +tendresse, de--de"--adorable catch of emotion--"de l'amitie." +Friendship, indeed! For amitie all but her lips said amour. He +walked beneath the wintry stars, a man in a perfect dream. + +Till then she had been but his Princess, the exquisite lady whom it +had amused to wander with him into the pays du tendre. She had been +as far above him as the now disregarded stars. She had come down +with a carnival domino over her sidereal raiment, and had met him on +carnival equality. He beau masque! He, knowing her, had fallen +beneath her starry spell. He was Paul Kegworthy, Paul Savelli, what +you like; Paul the adventurer, Paul the man born to great things. +She was a beautiful woman, bearing the title of Princess, the title +that had haunted his life since first the Vision Splendid dawned +upon him as he lay on his stomach eavesdropping and heard the words +of the divinely-smelling goddess who had given him his talisman, the +cornelian heart. To "rank himself with princes" had been the intense +meaning of his life since ragged and fiercely imaginative childhood. +Odd circumstances had ranked him with Sophie Zobraska. The mere +romance of it had carried him off his feet. She was a princess. She +was charming. She frankly liked his society. She seemed interested +in his adventurous career. She was romantic. He too. She was his +Egeria. He had worshipped her romantically, in a mediaeval, Italian +way, and she had accepted the homage. It had all been deliciously +artificial. It had all been Mademoiselle de Scudery. But to-day the +real woman, casting off her carnival domino, casting off too the +sidereal raiment, had spoken, for the first time, in simple +womanhood, and her betraying eyes had told things that they had told +to no other man living or dead. And all that was artificial, all +that was fantastic, all that was glamour, was stripped away from +Paul in the instant of her self-revelation. He loved her as man +loves woman. He laughed aloud as his young feet struck the frozen +road. She knew and was not angry. She, in her wonder, gave him leave +to love her. It was obvious that she loved him to love her. Dear +God! He could go on loving her like this for the rest of his life. +What more did he want? To the clean man of nine-and-twenty, +sufficient for the day is the beauty thereof. + +An inspired youth took his place at the Winwoods' dinner table that +evening. The elderly, ugly heiress, Miss Durning, concerning whom +Miss Winwood had, with gentle malice, twitted him some months +before, sat by his side. He sang her songs of Araby and tales of far +Cashmere--places which in the commonplace way of travel he had +never visited. What really happened in the drawing room between the +departure of the ladies and the entrance of the men no one knows. +But before the ladies went to bed Miss Winwood took Paul aside. + +"Paul dear," she said, "you're never going to marry an old woman for +money, are you?" + +"Good God, no! Dearest lady, what do you mean?" + +His cry was so sincere that she laughed. + +"Nothing," she said. + +"But you must mean something." He threw out his hands. + +"Are you aware that you've been flirting disgracefully with Lizzle +Durning?" + +"I?" said Paul, clapping a hand to his shirt-front. + +"You." + +He smiled his sunny smile into the clear, direct eyes of his dearest +lady--all the more dear because of the premature white of her +hair. "I would flirt to-night with Xantippe, or Kerenhappuch, or +Queen Victoria," said he. + +"Why?" + +He laughed, and although none of the standing and lingering company +had overheard them, he gently led her to the curtained embrasure of +the drawing-room window. + +"This is perhaps the biggest day of my life. I've not had an +opportunity of telling you. This morning Frank Ayres offered me a +seat in Parliament." + +"I'm glad," said Ursula Winwood; but her eyes hardened. "And so-- +Lizzie Durning--" + +He took both her elbows in his hands--only a Fortunate Youth, with +his laughing charm, would have dared to grip Ursula Winwood's elbows +and cut her short. "Dearest lady," said he, "to-day there are but +two women in the world for me. You are one. The other--well--it +isn't Miss Durning." + +She searched him through and through, "This afternoon?" + +"Yes." + +"Paul!" She withdrew from his grasp. In her voice was a touch of +reproach. + +"Dearest lady," said he, "I would die rather than marry a rich +woman, ugly or beautiful, if I could not bring her something big in +return--something worth living for." + +"You've fold me either too much or too little. Am I not entitled to +know how things stand?" + +"You're entitled to know the innermost secrets of my heart," he +cried; and he told thereof as far as his love for the Princess was +concerned. + +"But, my poor boy," said Ursula tenderly, "how is it all going to +end?" + +"It's never going to end," cried Paul. + +Ursula Winwood smiled on him and sighed a little; for she remembered +the gallant young fellow who had been killed in the Soudan in +eighteen eighty-five. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IT would never end. Why should it? Could a Great Wonder be merely a +transient thrill? Absurd. Dawn followed night, day after day, and +the wonder had not faded. It would never fade. Letter followed +letter, each more precious than the last. + +She began with "Mon cher Paul." Then "Mon cher," then sometimes +"Paul." She set the tone of the frank and loyal friendship in a +style very graceful, very elusive, a word of tenderness melting away +in a laugh; she took the friendship, pulled it to pieces and +reconstructed it in ideal form; then she tied blue ribbon round its +neck, and showed him how beautiful it was. She sat on the veranda of +her villa and looked' out on the moonlit Mediterranean and wanted to +cry--"J'avais enbie de Pleurer"--because she was all alone, +having entertained at dinner a heap of dull and ugly people. She had +spent a day on the yacht of a Russiarr Grand-Duke. "Il m'a fait une +cour effrenee"--Paul thirsted immediately for the blood of this +Grand-Duke, who had dared to make violent love to her. But when, a +few lines farther on, he found that she had guessed his jealousy and +laughed at it, he laughed too. "Don't be afraid. I have had enough +of these people." She wanted une ame sincere et candide; and Paul +laid the flattering unction to his own sincere and candid soul. Then +she spoke prettily of his career. He was to be the flambeau +eveilleur, the awakening torch in the darkness before the daybreak. +But he musn't overwork. His health was precious. There was a blot +and erasure in the sentence. He took the letter to the light, +lover-wise, and looked at it through a magnifying glass--and his +pulses thrilled when it told him that she had originally written, +"Votre sante m'est precieuse," and had scrabbled out the "m." "Your +health is precious to me." That is what her heart had said. Did +lover ever have a dearer mistress? He kissed the blot, and the thick +French ink coming off on his lips was nectar. + +And he began his letters with "My dear Princess;" then it was +"Dearest Princess;" then "My Princess." Then she rallied him on the +matter. It came to "Mais enfin j'ai un petit nom comme tout le +monde." In common with the rest of humanity she had a Christian +name--and she was accustomed to be called by it by her frank and loyal +friends. "And they are so few." Paul heard the delicate little sigh +and saw the delicate rise and fall of the white bosom. And again he +fed on purple ink. So he began his next letter with "Dear Sophie." +But he could not pour the same emotion into "Dear Sophie" as he +could into "My Princess"--and "My Sophie" was a step beyond the +bounds of frank and loyal friendship. So it came to his +apostrophizing her as "Dear" and scattering "Sophies" deliciously +through the text. And so the frank and loyal friendship went on its +appointed course, as every frank and loyal friendship between two +young and ardent souls who love each other has proceeded since the +beginning of a sophisticated world. + +The first three months of that year were a period of enchantment. He +lived supremely. The daily round of work was trivial play. He rose +at seven, went to bed at two, crowded the nineteen hours of +wakefulness with glorious endeavour. He went all over the country +with his flambeau eveilleur, awakening the Youth of England, finding +at last the great artistic gift the gods had given him, the gift of +oratory. One day he reminded Jane of a talk long ago when he had +fled from the studios: "You asked me how I was going to earn my +living. I said I was going to follow one of the Arts." + +"I remember," said Jane, regarding him full-eyed. "You said you +thought you were a poet--but you might be a musician or painter. +Finally you decided you were an actor." + +He laughed his gay laugh. "I was an infernally bad actor," he +acknowledged. + +Then he explained his failure on the stage. He was impatient of +other people's inventions, wanting to play not Hamlet or Tom or Dick +or Romeo or Harry, but himself. Now he could play himself. It was +acting in a way. Anyhow it was an Art; so his boyish prophecy had +come true. He had been struggling from childhood for a means of +self-expression. He had tried most of them save this. Here he had +found it. He loved to play upon a crowd as if they were so many +notes of a vast organ. + +On this occasion Jane said: "And my means of self-expression is to +play on the keys of a typewriter." + +"Your time hasn't come," he replied. "When you have found your means +you will express yourself all the more greatly." + +Which was ingenious on the part of Paul, but ironically consoling to +Jane. + +One week-end during the session he spent at the Marchioness of +Chudley's place in Lancashire. He drove in a luxurious automobile +through the stately park, which once he had traversed in the +brakeful of urchins, the raggedest of them all, and his heart +swelled with pardonable exultation. He had passed through Bludston +and he had caught a glimpse of what had once been his brickfield, +now the site of more rows of mean little houses, and he had seen the +grim factory chimneys still smoking, smoking. . . . The little +Buttons, having grown up into big Buttons, were toiling away their +lives in those factories. And Button himself, the unspeakable +Button? Was he yet alive? And Mrs. Button, who had been Polly +Kegworthy and called herself his mother? It was astonishing how +seldom he thought of her. . . . He had run away a scarecrow boy in a +gipsy van. He came back a formative force in the land, the lover of +a princess, the honoured guest of the great palace of the +countryside. He slipped his hand into his waistcoat pocket and felt +the cornelian heart. + +Yes, in the great palace he found himself an honoured guest. His +name was known independently of his work for the Winwoods. He was +doing good service to his party. The word had gone abroad--perhaps +Frank Ayres had kindly spoken it--that he was the coming man. Lady +Chudley said: "I wonder if you remember what we talked about when I +first met you." + +Paul laughed, for she did not refer to the first meeting of all. +"I'm afraid I was very young and fatuous," said he. "It was years +ago. I hadn't grown up." + +"Never mind. We talked about waking the country from its sleep." + +"And you gave me a phrase, Lady Chudley--'the Awakener of +England.' It stuck. It crystallized all sorts of vague ambitions. +I've never forgotten it for five consecutive minutes. But how can +you remember a casual act of graciousness to an unimportant boy?" + +"No boy who dreams of England's greatness is unimportant," she said. +"You've proved me to be right. Your dreams are coming true--see, I +don't forget!" + +"I owe you far more than you could possibly imagine," said Paul. + +"No, no. Don't. Don't exaggerate. A laughing phrase--that's +nothing." + +"It is something. Even a great deal. But it's not all," said he. + +"What else is there?" + +"You were one of the two or three," he said earnestly, thinking of +the Bludston factory, "who opened new horizons for me." + +"I'm a proud woman," said Lady Chudley. + +The next day, Sunday, old Lord Chudley dragged him into his own +private den. He had a very red, battered, clean-shaven face and very +red hair and side whiskers; and he was a very honest gentleman, +believing implicitly in God and the King and the House of Lords, and +Foxes, and the Dutch School of Painting, and his responsibility as a +great landowner toward the two or three thousand human beings with +whom he had business relations. + +"Look here, Savelli. I've looked into your League. It's a damned +good thing. About the only thing that has been invented which can +stem the tide of Socialism. Catch 'em young. That's the way. But you +want the sinews of war. You get subscriptions, but not enough; I've +seen your last balance sheet. You want a little army of--what the +devil shall we call 'em?" + +"Big Englanders," Paul suggested at a venture. + +"Good. We want an army of 'em to devote their whole time to the +work. Open a special fund. You and Ursula Winwood will know how to +work it. What Ursula Winwood doesn't know in this sort of business +isn't worth knowing--and here's something to head the list with." + +And he handed Paul a cheque, which after a dazed second or two he +realized to be one for five thousand pounds. + +That was the beginning of the financial prosperity and the real +political importance of the Young England League. Paul organized a +great public dinner with the Leader of the Opposition in the chair +and an amazing band of notables around the tables. Speeches were +made, the Marquis of Chudley's patriotism extolled, and subscription +lists filled up and handed to a triumphant organizing secretary. + +A powerful daily newspaper took up the cause and made strong appeal. +The Lodges made simultaneous efforts in their respective districts. +Money flowed into the League's coffers. + +When Parliament rose for the Easter recess Paul, the most tired, yet +the most blissful, youth among the Fortunate, flew straight to +Venice, where a happy-eyed princess welcomed him. She was living in +a Palazzo on the Grand Canal, lent to her--that is the graceful +Italian way of putting it--by some Venetian friends; and there, +with Mademoiselle de Cressy to keep off the importunate, she +received such acquaintance as floated from the ends of the earth +through the enchanted city. + +"I have started by seeing as few people as I can," she said. "That's +all on account of you, monsieur." + +He pressed her hand. "I hope we don't see a single soul we know as +long as I'm here," he declared. + +His hope was gratified, not completely, but enough to remove grounds +for lover's fretfulness. He passed idyllic days in halcyon weather. +Often she would send her gondola to fetch him from the Grand Hotel, +where he was staying. Now and then, most graciously audacious of +princesses, she would come herself. On such occasions he would sit +awaiting her with beating heart, juvenis fortunatus nimium, on the +narrow veranda of the hotel, regardless of the domed white pile of +Santa Maria della Salute opposite, or the ceaseless life on the +water, or the sunshine, or anything else in Venice, his gaze fixed +on the bend of the canal; and then at last would appear the tall +curved prow, and then the white-clad, red-sashed Giacomo bending to +his oar, and then the white tenda with the dear form beneath, +vaguely visible, and then Felipe, clad like Giacomo and bending, +too, rhythmically with the foremost figure. Slowly, all too slowly, +the gondola would near the steps, and beneath the tenda would smile +the dearest face in the world, and the cheeks would be delicately +flushed and the eyes tender and somewhat shy. And Paul would stand, +smiling too, a conquering young figure with green Marienbad hat +tilted with ever so tiny a shade of jauntiness, the object of +frankly admiring and curious glances from a lone woman or two on the +veranda, until the gondola was brought up to the wave-washed steps, +and the hotel porter had fixed the bridge of plank. Then, with +Giacomo supporting his elbow, he would board the black craft and +would creep under the tenda and sink on the low seat by her side +with a sense of daring and delicious intimacy, and the gondola would +glide away into fairyland. + +"Let us be real tourists and do Venice thoroughly," she had said. "I +have never seen it properly." + +"But you've been here many times before." + +"Yes. But--" + +She hesitated. + +"Eh bien?" + +"Je ne peux pas le dire. Il faut deviner." + +"Will you forgive me if I guess right? Our great Shakespeare says: +'Love lends a precious seeing to the eye.'" + +"That--that's very pretty," said the Princess in French. "I love +much your Shakespeare." + +Whereupon Paul recognized her admission of the correctness of his +conjecture; and so, with the precious vision they had borrowed, they +went about tourist-wise to familiar churches and palaces, and +everything they saw was lit with exceeding loveliness. And they saw +the great pictures of the world, and Paul, with his expert +knowledge, pointed out beauties she had not dreamed of hitherto, and +told her tales of the painters and discoursed picturesquely on +Venetian history, and she marvelled at his insight and learning and +thought him the most wonderful man that had ever dropped, +ready-made, from heaven. And he, in the flush of his new love, was +thrilled by her touch and the low tones of her voice when she +plucked him by the sleeve and murmured: "Ah, Paul, regardez-moi ca. +It is so beautiful one wants to weep with joy." + +They spoke now half in French, half in English, and she no longer +protested against his murderous accent, which, however, lie strove +to improve. Love must have lent its precious hearing too, for she +vowed she loved to hear him speak her language. + +In the great Council Chamber of the Ducal Palace they looked at the +seventy-six portraits of the illustrious succession of Doges--with +the one tragic vacant space, the missing portrait of Marino Faliero, +the Rienzi of Venice, the man before his time. + +"It seizes one's heart, doesn't it?" said the Princess, with her +impulsive touch on his sleeve. "All these men were kings-- +sovereigns of a mighty nation. And how like they are to one another--in +this essential quality one would say they were brothers of a +great family." + +"Why, yes," he cried, scanning the rows of severe and subtle faces. +"It's true. Illuminatingly true." + +He slid up his wrist quickly so that his hand met hers; he held it. +"How swift your perception is! And what is that quality--that +quality common to them all--that quality of leadership? Let us try +to find it." + +Unconsciously he gripped her hand, and she returned his pressure; +and they stood, as chance willed it, alone, free from circumambulant +tourists, in the vast chamber, vivid with Paul Veronese's colour on +wall and ceilings, with Tintoretto and Bassano' with the arrogant +splendour of the battles and the pomp and circumstance of victorious +armies of the proud and conquering republic, and their eyes were +drawn from all this painted and riotous wonder by the long arresting +frieze of portraits of serene, masterful and subtle faces. + +"The common factor--that's what we want, isn't it?" + +"Yes," she breathed. + +And as they stood, hand in hand, the unspoken thought vibrating +between them, the memory came to him of a day long ago when he had +stood with another woman--a girl then--before the photographs in +the window of the London Stereoscopic Company in Regent Street, and +he had scanned faces of successful men. He laughed--he could not +help it--and drew his Princess closer to him. Between the +analogous then and the wonderful now, how immense a difference! As +he laughed she looked swiftly up into his face. + +"I know why you laugh." + +"No, my Princess. Impossible." + +"Mais oui. Tell me. All these great princes"--she swept her little +gloved hand toward the frieze. "What is their common factor?" + +Paul, forgetful of his mirth, looked round. "'Indomitable will," +said be seriously. "Unconquerable ambition, illimitable faith. They +all seem to be saying their creed. 'I believe in myself almighty, +and in Venice under my control, and in God who made us both, and in +the inferiority of the remnant of the habitable globe.' Or else: 'In +the beginning God created Venice. Then He created the rest of the +world. Then He created Me. Then He retired and left me to deal with +the situation.' Or else: 'I am an earthly Trinity. I am myself. I am +Venice. I am God.'" + +"It is magnificent!" she cried. "How you understand them! How you +understand the true aristocratic spirit! They are all, what you +call, leaders of men. I did not expect an analysis so swift and so +true. But, Paul"--her voice sank adorably--"all these men lack +something--something that you have. And that is why I thought you +laughed." + +He smiled down on her. "Do you think I was measuring myself with +these men?" + +"Naturally. Why should you not?" she asked proudly. + +"And what have I got that they lack?" + +"Happiness," said the Princess. + +Paul was silent for a while, as they moved slowly away to the +balcony which overlooks the lagoon and San Giorgio Maggiore glowing +warm in the sunshine, and then he said: "Yet most of those men loved +passionately in their time, and were loved by beautiful women." + +"Their love was a thing of the passions, not of the spirit. You +cannot see a woman, that is to say happiness, behind any of their +faces." + +He whispered: "Can you see a woman behind mine." + +"If you look like that," she replied, with a contented little laugh, +"the whole world can see it." And so their talk drifted far away +from Doges, just as their souls were drifting far from the Golden +Calf of the Frank and Loyal Friendship which Sophie the Princess had +set up. + +How could they help it--and in Venice of all places in the world? +If she had determined on maintaining the friendship calm and +austere, why in Minerva's name had she bidden him hither? Sophie +Zobraska passed for a woman of sense. None knew better than she the +perils of moonlit canals and the sensuous splash of water against a +gondola, and the sad and dreamy beauty which sets the lonely heart +aching for love. Why had she done it? Some such questions must +Mademoiselle de Cressy have asked, for the Princess told him that +Stephanie had lectured her severely for going about so much in +public alone with a beau jeune homme. + +"But we don't always want Stephanie with us," she argued, "and she +is not sympathetic in Venice. She likes restaurants and people. +Besides, she is always with her friends at Danielli's, so if it +weren't for you I should be doing nothing all by myself in the +lonely palazzo. Forcement we go about together." + +Which was all sophistical and nonsensical; and she knew it, for +there was a mischievous little gleam in her eye as she spoke. But +none the less, shutting her ears to the unsympathetic Stephanie, did +she continue to show herself alone in public with the beautiful +youth. She had thrown her crown over the windmills for a few happy +days; for a few happy days she was feeding her starved nature, +drinking in her fill of beauty and colour and the joy of life. And +the pair, thus forcibly thrown together, drifted through the narrow +canals beneath the old crumbling palaces, side by side, and hand in +hand while Giacomo and Felipe, disregarded automata, bent to their +oars. + +One afternoon, one mellow and memorable afternoon, they were +returning from Murano. Not a breath of wind ruffled the lagoon. The +islands in their spring verdure slumbered peacefully. Far away the +shipping in the bacino lay still like enchanted craft. Only a +steamer or two, and here and there the black line of a gondola with +its standing, solitary rower, broke the immobility of things. And +Venice, russet and rose and grey, brooded in the sunset, a city of +dreams. They murmured words of wonder and regret. Instinctively they +drew near and their shoulders touched. Their clasp of fingers +tightened and their breath came quickly, and for a long time they +were silent. Then at last he whispered her name, in the old foolish +and inevitable way. And she turned her face to him, and met his eyes +and said "Paul," and her lips as she said it seemed to speak a kiss. +And all the earth was wrapped in glory too overwhelming for speech. + +It was only when they entered the Grand Canal and drew up by the +striped posts of the palazzo that she said: "I have those Roman +people and the Heatherfields coming to dinner. I wish I hadn't." She +sighed. "Would you care to come?" + +He smiled into her eyes. "No, my Princess, not to-night. I should do +silly things. To-night I will go and talk to the moon. To-morrow, +when can I come?" + +"Early. As early as you like." + +And Paul went away and talked to the moon, and the next morning, his +heart tumultuous, presented himself at the palazzo. He was shown +into the stiff Italian drawing-room, with its great Venetian glass +chandelier, its heavy picture-hung walls, its Empire furniture +covered in yellow silk. Presently the door opened and she entered, +girlish in blouse and skirt, fresh as the morning. "Bon jour, Paul. +I've not had time to put on my hat, but--" + +She did not end, for he strode toward her and with a little laugh of +triumph took her in his arms and kissed her. And so what had to be +came to pass. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +I LOVE you too much, my Sophie, to be called the Princess Zobraska's +husband." + +"And I love you too much, dear, to wish to be called anything else +than Paul Savelli's wife." + +That was their position, perfectly defined, perfectly understood. +They had arrived at it after many arguments and kisses and lovers' +protestations. + +"Such as I am I am," cried Paul. "A waif and stray, an unknown +figure coming out of the darkness. I have nothing to give you but my +love." + +"Are there titles or riches on earth of equal value?" + +"But I must give you more. The name Paul Savelli itself must be a +title of honour." + +"It is becoming that," said the Princess. "And we can wait a little, +Paul, can't we? We are so happy like this. Ah!" she sighed. "I have +never been so happy in my life." + +"Nor I," said Paul. + +"And am I really the first?" + +"The first. Believe it or not as you like. But it's a fact. I've +told you my life's dream. I never sank below it; and that is why +perhaps it has come true." + +For once the assertion was not the eternal lie. Paul came +fresh-hearted to his Princess. + +"I wish I were a young girl, Paul." + +"You are a star turned woman. The Star of my Destiny in which I +always believed. The great things will soon come." + +They descended to more commonplace themes. Until the great things +came, what should be their mutual attitude before Society? + +"Until I can claim you, let it be our dear and beautiful secret," +said Paul. "I would not have it vulgarized by the chattering world +for anything in life." + +Then Paul proved himself to be a proud and delicate lover, and when +London with its season and its duties and its pleasures absorbed +them, he had his reward. For it was sweet to see her in great +assemblies, shining like a queen and like a queen surrounded by +homage, and to know that he alone of mortals was enthroned in her +heart. It was sweet to meet her laughing glance, dear +fellow-conspirator. It was sweet every morning and night to have the +intimate little talk through the telephone. And it was sweetest of +all to snatch a precious hour with her alone. Of such vain and +foolish things is made all that is most beautiful in life. + +He took his dearest lady--though Miss Winwood, now disclaimed the +title--into his confidence. So did the Princess. It was very +comforting to range Miss Winwood on their side; and to feel +themselves in close touch with her wisdom and sympathy. And her +sympathy manifested itself in practical ways--those of the woman +confidante of every love affair since the world began. Why should +the Princess Zobraska not interest herself in some of the +philanthropic schemes of which the house in Portland Place was the +headquarters? There was one, a Forlorn Widows' Fund, the presidency +of which she would be willing to resign in favour of the Princess. +The work was trivial: it consisted chiefly in consultation with Mr. +Savelli and in signing letters. The Princess threw her arms round +her neck, laughing and blushing and calling her delicieuse. You see +it was obvious that Mr. Savelli could not be consulted in his +official capacity or official letters signed elsewhere than in +official precincts. + +"I'll do what I can for the pair of you," said Miss Winwood to Paul. +"But it's the most delightfully mad and impossible thing I've ever +put my hand to." + +Accepting the fact of their romance, however, she could not but +approve Paul's attitude. It was the proud attitude of the boy who +nearly six years ago was going, without a word, penniless and +debonair out of her house. All the woman in her glowed over him. + +"I'm not going to be called an adventurer," he had declared. "I +shall not submit Sophie to the indignity of trailing a despised +husband after her. I'm not going to use her rank and wealth as a +stepping-stone to my ambitions. Let me first attain an unassailable +position. I shall have owed it to you, to myself, to anybody you +like--but not to my marriage. I shall be somebody. The rest won't +matter. The marriage will then be a romantic affair, and romantic +affairs are not unpopular dans le monde ou l'on s'ennuie." + +This declaration was all very well; the former part all very noble, +the latter exhibiting a knowledge of the world rather shrewd for one +so young. But when would he be able to attain his unassailable +position? Some years hence. Would Sophie Zobraska, who was only a +few months younger than he, be content to sacrifice these splendid +and irretrievable years of her youth? Ursula Winwood looked into the +immediate future, and did not see it rosy. The first step toward an +unassailable position was flight from the nest. This presupposed an +income. If the party had been in power it would not have been +difficult to find him a post. She worried herself exceedingly, for +in her sweet and unreprehensible way she was more than ever in love +with Paul. Meeting Frank Ayres one night at a large reception, she +sought his advice. + +"Do you mind a wrench?" he asked. "No? Well, then--you and Colonel +Winwood send him about his business and get another secretary. Let +Savelli give all his time to his Young England League. Making him +mug up material for Winwood's speeches and write letters to +constituents about football clubs is using a razor to cut butter. +His League's the thing. It can surely afford to pay him a decent +salary. If it can't I'll see to a guarantee." + +"The last thing we see, my dear Frank," she said after she had +thanked him, "is that which is right under our noses." + +The next day she went to Paul full of the scheme. Had he ever +thought of it? He took her hands and smiled in his gay, irresistible +way. "Of course, dearest lady," he said frankly. "But I would have +cut out my tongue sooner than suggest it." + +"I know that, my dear boy." + +"And yet," said he, "I can't bear the idea of tearing myself away +from you. It seems like black ingratitude." + +"It isn't. You forget that James and I have our little ambitions +too--the ambition of a master for a favourite pupil. If you were a +failure we should both be bitterly disappointed. Don't you see? And +as for leaving us--why need you? We should miss you horribly. +You've never been quite our paid servant. And now you're something +like our son." Tears started in the sweet lady's clear eyes. "Even +if you did go to your own chambers, I shouldn't let our new +secretary have this room"--they were in what the household called +"the office"--really Paul's luxuriously furnished private sitting +room, which contained his own little treasures of books and pictures +and bits of china and glass accumulated during the six years of +easeful life--"He will have the print room, which nobody uses from +one year's end to another, and which is far more convenient for the +street door. And the same at Drane's Court. So when you no longer +work for us, my dear boy, our home will be yours, as long as you're +content to stay, just because we love you." + +Her hand was on his shoulder and his head was bent. "God grant," +said he, "that I may be worthy of your love." + +He looked up and met her eyes. Her hand was still on his shoulder. +Then very simply he bent down and kissed her on the cheek. + +He told his Princess all about it. She listened with dewy eyes. "Ah, +Paul," she said. "That 'precious seeing' of love--I never had it +till you came. I was blind. I never knew that there were such +beautiful souls as Ursula Winwood in the world." + +"Dear, how I love you for saying that!" cried Paul. + +"But it's true." + +"That is why," said he. + +So the happiest young man in London worked and danced through the +season, knowing that the day of emancipation was at hand. His +transference from the Winwoods to the League was fixed for October +i. He made great plans for an extension of the League's, activities, +dreamed of a palace for headquarters with the banner of St. George +flying proudly over it, an object-lesson for the nation. One day in +July while. he was waiting for Colonel Winwood in the lobby of the +House of Commons, Frank Ayres stopped in the middle of a busy rush +and shook hands. + +"Been down to Hickney Heath again? I would if I were you. Rouse 'em +up." + +As the words of a Chief Whip are apt to be significant, Paul +closeted himself with the President of the Hickney Heath Lodge, who +called the Secretary of the local Conservative Association to the +interview. The result was that Paul was invited to speak at an +anti-Budget meeting convened by the Association. He spoke, and +repeated his success. The Conservative newspapers the next morning +gave a resume of his speech. His Sophie, coming to sign letters in +her presidential capacity, brought him the cuttings, a proceeding +which he thought adorable. The season ended triumphantly. + +For a while he lost his Princess. She went to Cowes, then to stay +with French relations in a chateau in the Dordogne. Paul went off +yachting with the Chudleys and returned for the shooting to Drane's +Court. In the middle of September the Winwoods' new secretary +arrived and received instruction in his duties. Then came the +Princess to Morebury Park. "Dearest," she said, in his arms, "I +never want to leave you again. France is no longer France for me +since I have England in my heart." + +"You remember that? My wonderful Princess!" + +He found her more woman, more expansive, more bewitchingly +caressing. Absence had but brought her nearer. When she laid her +head on his shoulder and murmured in the deep and subtle tones of +her own language: "My Paul, it seems such a waste of time to be +apart," it took all his pride and will to withstand the maddening +temptation. He vowed that the time would soon come when he could +claim her, and went away in feverish search for worlds to conquer. + +Then came October and London once more. + +* * * * * * + +Paul was dressing for dinner one evening when a reply-paid telegram +was brought to him. + +"If selected by local committee will you stand for Hickney Heath? +Ayres." + +He sat on his bed, white and trembling, and stared at the simple +question. The man-servant stood imperturbable, silver tray in hand. +Seeing the reply-paid form, he waited for a few moments. + +"Is there an answer, sir?" + +Paul nodded, asked for a pencil, and with a shaky hand wrote the +reply. "Yes," was all he said. + +Then with reaction came the thrill of mighty exultation, and, +throwing on his clothes, he rushed to the telephone in his sitting +room. Who first to hear the wondrous news but his Princess? That +there was a vacancy in Hickney Heath he knew, as all Great Britain +knew; for Ponting, the Radical Member, had died suddenly the day +before. But it had never entered his head that he could be chosen as +a candidate. + +"Mais j'y ai bien pense, moi," came the voice through the telephone. +"Why did Lord Francis tell you to go to Hickney Heath last July?" + +How a woman leaps at things I With all his ambition, his astuteness, +his political intuition, he had not seen the opportunity. But it had +come. Verily the stars in their courses were fighting for him. Other +names, he was aware, were before the Committee of the Local +Association, perhaps a great name suggested by the Central Unionist +Organization; there was also that of the former Tory member, who, +smarting under defeat at the General Election, had taken but a +lukewarm interest in the constituency and was now wandering in the +Far East. But Paul, confident in his destiny, did not doubt that he +would be selected. And then, within the next fortnight--for +bye-elections during a Parliamentary session are matters of sweeping +swiftness--would come the great battle, the great decisive battle +of his life, and he would win. He must win. His kingdom was at stake--the +dream kingdom of his life into which he would enter with his +loved and won Princess on his arm. He poured splendid foolishness +through the telephone into an enraptured ear. + +The lack of a sense of proportion is a charge often brought against +women; but how often do men (as they should) thank God for it? Here +was Sophie Zobraska, reared from childhood in the atmosphere of +great affairs, mixing daily with folk who guided the destiny of +nations, having two years before refused in marriage one of those +who held the peace of Europe in his hands, moved to tense excitement +of heart and brain and soul by the news that an obscure young man +might possibly be chosen to contest a London Borough for election to +the British Parliament, and thrillingly convinced that now Was +imminent the great momentous crisis in the history of mankind. + +With a lack of the same sense of proportion, equal in kind, though +perhaps not so passionate in degree, did Miss Winwood receive the +world-shaking tidings. She wept, and, thinking Paul a phoenix, +called Frank Ayres an angel. Colonel Winwood tugged his long, +drooping moustache and said very little; but he committed the +astounding indiscretion of allowing his glass to be filled with +champagne; whereupon he lifted it, and said, "Here's luck, my dear +boy," and somewhat recklessly gulped down the gout-compelling +liquid. And after dinner, when Miss Winwood had left them together, +he lighted a long Corona instead of his usual stumpy Bock, and +discussed with Paul electioneering ways and means. + +For the next day or two Paul lived in a whirl of telephones, +telegrams, letters, scurryings across London, interviews, brain- +racking questionings and reiterated declarations of political creed. +But his selection was a foregone conclusion. His youth, his absurd +beauty, his fire and eloquence, his unswerving definiteness of aim, +his magic that had inspired so many with a belief in him and had +made him the Fortunate Youth, captivated the imagination of the +essentially unimaginative. Before a committee of wits and poets, +Paul perhaps would not have had a dog's chance. But he appealed to +the hard-headed merchants and professional men who chose him very +much as the hero of melodrama appeals to a pit and gallery audience. +He symbolized to them hope and force and predestined triumph. One or +two at first sniffed suspiciously at his lofty ideals; but as there +was no mistaking his political soundness, they let the ideals pass, +as a natural and evanescent aroma. + +So, in his thirtieth year, Paul was nominated as Unionist candidate +for the Borough of Hickney Heath, and he saw himself on the actual +threshold of the great things to which he was born. He wrote a +little note to Jane telling her the news. He also wrote to Barney +Bill: "You dear old Tory--did you ever dream that ragamuffin +little Paul was going to represent you in Parliament? Get out the +dear old 'bus and paint it blue, with 'Paul Savelli forever' in gold +letters, and, instead of chairs and mats, hang it with literature, +telling what a wonderful fellow P. S. is. And go through the streets +of Hickney Heath with it, and say if you like: 'I knew him when' he +was a nipper--that high.' And if you like to be mysterious and +romantic you can say: 'I, Barney Bill, gave him his first chance,' +as you did, my dear old friend, and Paul's not the man to forget it. +Oh, Barney, it's too wonderful"--his heart went out to the old +man. "If I get in I will tell you something that will knock you +flat. It will be the realization of all the silly rubbish I talked +in the old brickfield at Bludston. But, dear old friend, it was you +and the open road that first set me on the patriotic lay, and +there's not a voter in Hickney Heath who can vote as you can--for +his own private and particular trained candidate." + +Jane, for reasons unconjectured, did not reply. But from Barney +Bill, who, it must be remembered, had leanings toward literature, he +received a postcard with the following inscription: "Paul, Hif I can +help you konker the Beastes of Effesus I will. Bill." + +And then began the furious existence of an electioneering campaign. +His side had a clear start of the Radicals, who found some hitch in +the choice of their candidate. The Young England League leaped into +practical enthusiasm over their champion. Seldom has young candidate +had so glad a welcome. And behind him stood his Sophie, an inspiring +goddess. + +It so happened that for a date a few days hence had been fixed the +Annual General Meeting of the Forlorn Widows' Fund, when Report and +Balance Sheet were presented to the society. The control of this +organization Paul had not allowed to pass into the alien hands of +Townsend, the Winwoods' new secretary. Had not his Princess, for the +most delicious reasons in the world, been made President? He scorned +Ursula Winwood's suggestion that for this year he would allow +Townsend to manage affairs. "What!" cried he, "leave my Princess in +the lurch on her first appearance? Never!" By telephone he arranged +an hour for the next day, when they could all consult together over +this important matter. + +"But, my dear boy," said Miss Winwood, "your time is not your own. +Suppose you're detained at Hickney Heath?" + +"The Conqueror," he cried, with a gay laugh, "belongs to the +Detainers--not the Detained." + +She looked at him out of her clear eyes, and shook an indulgent +head. . + +"I know," said he, meeting her glance shrewdly. "He has got to use +his detaining faculty with discretion. I've made a study of the +little ways of conquerors. Ali! Dearest lady!" he burst out +suddenly, in his impetuous way, "I'm talking nonsense; but I'm so +uncannily happy!" + +"It does me good to look at you," she said. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +PAUL leaned back in his leather writing chair, smoking a cigarette +and focussing the electioneering situation. Beside a sheet of +foolscap on which he had been jotting down notes lay in neat piles +the typewritten Report of the Forlorn Widows' Fund, the account book +and the banker's pass book. He had sat up till three o'clock in the +morning preparing for his Princess. Nothing now remained but the +formal "examined and found correct" report of the auditors. For the +moment the Forlorn Widows stood leagues away from Paul's thoughts. +He had passed a strenuous day at Hickney Heath, lunching in the +committee room on sandwiches and whisky and soda obtained from the +nearest tavern, talking, inventing, dictating, writing, playing upon +dull minds the flashes of his organizing genius. His committee was +held up for the while by a dark rift in the Radical camp. They had +not yet chosen their man. Nothing was known, save that a certain +John Questerhayes, K. C., an eminent Chancery barrister, who had of +late made himself conspicuous in the constituency, had been turned +down on the ground that he was not sufficiently progressive. Now for +comfort to the Radical the term "Progressive" licks the blessed word +Mesopotamia into a cocked hat. Under the Progressive's sad-coloured +cloak he need not wear the red tie of the socialist. Apparently Mr. +Questerhayes objected to the sad-coloured cloak, the mantle of +Elijah, M. P., the late member for Hickney Heath. "Wanted: an +Elisha," seemed to be the cry of the Radical Committee. + +Paul leaned back, his elbows on the arms of his chair, his finger +tips together, a cigarette between his lips, lost in thought. The +early November twilight deepened in the room. He was to address a +meeting that night. In order to get ready for his speech he had not +allowed himself to be detained, and had come home early. His speech +had been prepared; but the Radical delay was a new factor of which +he might take triumphant advantage. Hence the pencil notes on the +sheet of foolscap, before him. + +A man-servant came in, turned on the electric light, pulled the +curtains together and saw to the fire. + +"Tea's in the drawing-room, sir." + +"Bring me some here in a breakfast cup--nothing to eat," said +Paul. + +Even his dearest lady could not help him in his meditated attack on +the enemy whom the Lord was delivering into his hands. + +The man-servant went away. Presently Paul heard him reenter the +room; the door was at his back. He threw out an impatient hand +behind him. "Put it down anywhere, Wilton, I'll have it when I want +it." + +"I beg pardon, sir," said the man, coming forward, "but it's not the +tea. There's a gentleman and a lady and another person would like to +see you. I said that you were busy, sir, but--" + +He put the silver salver, with its card, in front of Paul. Printed +on the card was, "Mr. Silas Finn." In pencil was written: "Miss +Seddon, Mr. William Simmons." + +Paul looked at the card in some bewilderment. What in the name of +politics or friendship were they doing in Portland Place? Not to +receive them, however, was unthinkable. + +"Show them in," said he. + +Silas Finn, Jane and Barney Bill! It was odd. He laughed and took +out his watch. Yes, he could easily give them half an hour or so. +But why had they come? He had found time to call once at the house +in Hickney Heath since his return to town, and then he had seen Jane +and Silas Finn together and they had talked, as far as he could +remember, of the Disestablishment of the Anglican Church and the +elevating influence of landscape painting on the human soul. Why had +they come? It could not be to offer their services during the +election, for Silas Finn in politics was a fanatical enemy. The +visit stirred a lively curiosity. + +They entered: Mr. Finn in his usual black with many-coloured tie and +diamond ring, looking more mournfully grave than ever; Jane wearing +an expression half of anxiety and half of defiance; Barney Bill, +very uncomfortable in his well-preserved best suit, very restless +and nervous. They gave the impression of a deputation coming to +announce the death of a near relative. Paul received them cordially. +But why in the world, thought he, were they all so solemn? He pushed +forward chairs. + +"I got your postcard, Bill. Thanks so much for it." + +Bill grunted and embraced his hard felt hat. + +"I ought to have written to you," said Jane--"but---" + +"She felt restrained by her duty towards me," said Mr. Finn. "I hope +you did not think it was discourteous on her part." + +"My dear sir," Paul laughed, seating himself in his writing chair, +which he twisted away from the table, "Jane and I are too old +friends for that. In her heart I know she wishes me luck. And I hope +you do too, Mr. Finn," he added pleasantly--"although I know +you're on the other side." + +"I'm afraid my principles will not allow me to wish you luck in this +election, Mr. Savelli." + +"Well, well," said Paul. "It doesn't matter. If you vote against me +I'll not bear malice." + +"I am not going to vote against you, Mr. Savelli," said Mr. Finn, +looking at him with melancholy eyes. "I am going to stand against +you." + +Paul sprang forward in his chair. Here was fantastic news indeed! +"Stand against me? You? You're the Radical candidate?" + +"Yes." + +Paul laughed boyishly. "Why, it's capital! I'm awfully glad." + +"I was asked this morning," said Mr. Finn gravely. "I prayed God for +guidance. He answered, and I felt it my duty to come to you at once, +with our two friends." + +Barney Bill cocked his head on one side. "I did my best to persuade +him not to, sonny." + +"But why shouldn't he?" cried Paul courteously--though why he +should puzzled him exceedingly. "It's very good of you, Mr. Finn. +I'm sure your side," he went on, "could not have chosen a better +man. You're well known in the constituency--I am jolly lucky to +have a man like you as an opponent." + +"Mr. Savelli," said Mr. Finn, "it was precisely so that we should +not be opponents that I have taken this unusual step." + +"I don't quite understand," said Paul. + +"Mr. Finn wants you to retire in favour of some other Conservative +candidate," said Jane calmly. + +"Retire? I retire?" + +Paul looked at her, then at Barney Bill, who nodded his white head, +then at Mr. Finn, whose deep eyes met his with a curious tragical +mournfulness. The proposal took his breath away. It was crazily +preposterous. But for their long faces he would have burst into +laughter. "Why on earth do you want me to retire?" he asked +good-humouredly. + +"I will tell you," said Mr. Finn. "Because you will have God against +you." + +Paul saw a gleam of light in the dark mystery of the visit. "You may +believe it, Mr. Finn, but I don't. I believe that my war cry, 'God +for England, Savelli and Saint George,' is quite as acceptable to, +the Almighty as yours." + +Mr. Finn stretched out two hands in earnest deprecation. "Forgive me +if I say it; but you don't know what you're talking about. God has +not revealed Himself to you. He has to me. When my fellow-citizens +asked me to stand as the Liberal candidate, I thought it was because +they knew me to be an upright man, who had worked hard on their +council, an active apostle in the cause of religion, temperance and +the suppression of vice. I thought I had merely deserved well in +their opinion. When I fell on my knees and prayed the glory of the +Lord spread about me and I knew that they had been divinely +inspired. It was revealed to me that this was a Divine Call to +represent the Truth in the Parliament of the nation." + +"I remember your saying, when I first had the pleasure of meeting +you," Paul remarked, with unwonted dryness, "that the Kingdom of +Heaven was not adequately represented in the House of Commons." + +"I have not changed my opinion, Mr Savelli. The hand of God has +guided my business. The hand of God is placing me in the House of +Commons to work His will. You cannot oppose God's purpose, Paul +Savelli--and that is why I beg you not to stand against me." + +"You see, he likes yer," interjected Barney Bill, with anxiety in +his glittering eyes. "That's why he's a-doing of it. He says to +hisself, says he, 'ere's a young chap what I likes with his first +great chance in front of him, with the eyes of the country sot on +him--now if I comes in and smashes him, as I can't help myself +from doing, it'll be all u-p with that young chap's glorious career. +But if I warns him in time, then he can retire--find an honourable +retreat--that's what he wants yer to have--an honourable +retreat. Isn't that it, Silas?" + +"Those are the feelings by which I am actuated," said Mr. Finn. + +Paul stretched himself out in his chair, his ankles crossed, and +surveyed his guests. "What do you think of it, Jane?" said he, not +without a touch of irony. + +She had been looking into the fire, her face in profile. Addressed, +she turned. "Mr. Finn has your interests very deep at heart," she +answered tonelessly. + +Paul jumped to his feet and laughed his fresh laugh. It was all so +comic, so incredible, so mad. Yet none of them appeared to see any +humour in the situation. There sat Jane and Barney Bill cowering +under the influence of their crazy fishmongering apostle; and there, +regarding him with a world of appeal in his sorrowful eyes, sat the +apostle himself, bolt upright in his chair, an odd figure with his +streaked black and white hair, ascetic face and +Methodistico-Tattersall raiment. And they all seemed to expect him +to obey this quaint person's fanatical whimsy. + +"It's very kind indeed of you, Mr. Finn, to consult my interests in +this manner," said he. "And I'm most indebted to you for your +consideration. But, as I said before, I've as much reason for +believing God to be on my side as you have. And I honestly believe +I'm going to win this election. So I certainly won't withdraw." + +"I implore you to do so. I will go on my knees and beseech you," +said Mr. Finn, with hands clasped in front of him. + +Paul looked round. "I'm afraid, Bill," said he, "that this is +getting rather painful." + +"It is painful. It's more than painful. It's horrible! It's +ghastly!" cried Mr. Finn, in sudden shrill crescendo, leaping to his +feet. In an instant the man's demeanour had changed. The mournful +apostle had become a wild, vibrating creature with flashing eyes and +fingers. + +"Easy, now, Silas. Whoa! Steady!" said Barney Bill. + +Silas Finn advanced on Paul and clapped his hands on his shoulders +and shouted hoarsely: "For the love of God--don't thwart me in +this. You can't thwart me. You daren't thwart me. You daren't thwart +God." + +Paul disengaged himself impatiently. The humour had passed from the +situation. The man was a lunatic, a religious maniac. Again he +addressed Barney Bill. "As I can't convince Mr. Finn of the +absurdity of his request, I must ask you to do so for me." + +"Young man," cried Silas, quivering with passion, "do not speak to +God's appointed in your vanity and your arrogance. You--you--of +all human beings--" + +Both Jane and Barney Bill closed round him. Jane clutched his arm. +"Come away. Do come away." + +"Steady now, Silas," implored Barney Bill. "You see it's no use. I +told you so. Come along." + +"Leave me alone," shouted Finn, casting them off. "What have I to do +with you? It is that young man there who defies God and me." + +"Mr. Finn," said Paul, very erect, "if I have hurt your feelings I +am sorry. But I fight this election. That's final. The choice no +longer rests with me. I'm the instrument of my party. I desire to be +courteous in every way, but you must see that it would be useless to +prolong this discussion." And he moved to the door. + +"Come away now, for Heaven's sake. Can't you realize it's no good?" +said Jane, white to the lips. + +Silas Finn again cast her off and railed and raved at her. "I will +not go away," he cried in wild passion. "I will not allow my own son +to raise an impious hand against the Almighty." + +"Lor' lumme!" gasped Barney Bill, dropping his hat. "He's done it." + +There was a silence. Silas Finn stood shaking in the middle of the +room, the sweat streaming down his forehead. + +Paul turned at the door and walked slowly up to him. "Your son? What +do you mean?" + +Jane, with wringing hands and tense, uplifted face, said in a queer +cracked voice: "He promised us not to speak. He has broken his +promise." + +"You broke your sacred word," said Barney Bill. + +The man's face grew haggard. His passion left him as suddenly as it +had seized him. He collapsed, a piteous wreck, looked wide of the +three, and threw out his hands helplessly. "I broke my promise. May +God forgive me!" + +"That's neither here nor there," said Paul, standing over him. "You +must answer my question. What do you mean?" + +Barney Bill limped a step or two toward him and cleared his throat. +"He's quite correct, sonny. Silas Kegworthy's your father right +enough." + +"Kegworthy?" + +"Yes. Changed his name for business--and other reasons." + +"He?" said Paul, half dazed for the moment and pointing at Silas +Finn. "His name is Kegworthy and he is my father?" + +"Yes, sonny. 'Tain't my fault, or Jane's. He took his Bible oath he +wouldn't tell yer. We was afraid, so we come with him." + +"Then?" queried Paul, jerking a thumb toward Lancashire. + +"Polly Kegworthy? Yes. She was yer mother." + +Paul set his teeth and drew a deep breath--not of air, but of a +million sword points, Jane watched him out of frightened eyes. She +alone, with her all but life-long knowledge of him, and with her +woman's intuition, realized the death-blow that he had received. And +when she saw him take it unflinching and stand proud and stern, her +heart leaped toward him, though she knew that the woman in the great +chased silver photograph frame on the mantelpiece, the great and +radiant lady, the high and mighty and beautiful and unapproachable +Princess, was the woman he loved. Paul touched his father on the +wrist, and motioned to a chair. + +"Please sit down. You too, please,"--he waved a hand, and himself +resumed his seat in his writing chair. He turned it so that he could +rest his elbow on his table and his forehead in his palm. "You claim +to be my father," said he. "Barney Bill, in whom I have implicit +confidence, confirms it. He says that Mrs. Button is my mother--" + +"She has been dead these six years," said Barney Bill. + +"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Paul. + +"I didn't think it would interest yer, sonny," replied Barney Bill, +in great distress. "Yer see, we conspirated together for yer never +to know nothing at all about all this. Anyway, she's dead and won't +worry yer any more." + +"She was a bad mother to me. She is a memory of terror. I don't +pretend to be grieved," said Paul; "any more than I pretend to be +overcome by filial emotion at the present moment. But, if you are my +father, I should be glad to know--in fact, I think I'm entitled to +know--why you've taken thirty years to reveal yourself, and why"--a +sudden fury swept him--"why you've come now to play hell with +my life." + +"It is the will of God," said Silas Finn, in deep dejection. + +Paul snapped three or four fingers. "Bah!" he cried. "Talk sense. +Talk facts. Leave God out of the question for a while. It's +blasphemy to connect Him with a sordid business like this. Tell me +about myself--my parentage--let me know where I am." + +"You're with three people as loves yer, sonny," said Barney Bill. +"What passes in this room will never be known to another soul on +earth." + +"That I swear," said Silas Finn. + +"You can publish it broadcast in every newspaper in England," said +Paul. "I'm making no bargains. Good God! I'm asking for nothing but +the truth. What use I make of it is my affair. You can do--the +three of you--what you like. Let the world know. It doesn't +matter. It's I that matter--my life and my conscience and my soul +that matter." + +"Don't be too hard upon me," Silas besought him very humbly. + +"Tell me about myself," said Paul. + +Silas Finn wiped his forehead with his handkerchief and covered his +eyes with his hand. "That can only mean telling you about myself," +he said. "It's raking up a past which I had hoped, with God's help, +to bury. But I have sinned to-night, and it is my punishment to tell +you. And you have a right to know. My father was a porter in Covent +Garden Market. My mother--I've already mentioned--" + +"Yes--the Sicilian and the barrel organ--I remember," said Paul, +with a shiver. + +"I had a hard boyhood. But I rose a little above my class. I +educated myself more or less. At last I became assistant in a +fishmonger's shop. Our friend Simmons here and I were boys together. +We fell in love with the same girl. I married her. Not long +afterward she gave way to drink. I found that in all kinds of ways I +had mistaken her character. I can't describe your own mother to you. +She had a violent temper. So had I. My life was a hell upon earth. +One day she goaded me beyond my endurance and I struck at her with a +knife. I meant at the bloodred instant to kill her. But I didn't. I +nearly killed her. I went to prison for three years. When I came out +she had vanished, taking you with her. In prison I found the Grace +of God and I vowed it should be my guide through life. As soon as I +was free from police supervision I changed my name--I believe it's +a good old Devonshire name; my father came from there--the prison +taint hung about it. Then, when I found I could extend a miserable +little business I had got together, I changed it again to suit my +trade. That's about all." + +There was a spell of dead silence. The shrunken man, stricken with a +sense of his sin of oath-breaking, had Spoken without change of +attitude, his hand over his eyes. Paul, too, sat motionless, and +neither Jane nor Barney Bill spoke. Presently Silas Finn continued: + +"For many years I tried to find my wife and son--but it was not +God's will. I have lived with the stain of murder on my soul"--his +voice sank--"and it has never been washed away. Perhaps it will be +in God's good time. . . . And I had condemned my son to a horrible +existence--for I knew my wife was not capable of bringing you up +in the way of clean living. I was right. Simmons has since told +me--and I was crushed beneath the burden of my sins." + +After a pause he raised a drawn face and went on to tell of his +meeting, the year before, with Barney Bill, of whom he had lost +track when the prison doors had closed behind him. It had been in +one of his Fish Palaces where Bill was eating. They recognized each +other. Barney Bill told his tale: how he had run across Polly +Kegworthy after a dozen years' wandering; how, for love of his old +friend, he had taken Paul, child of astonishing promise, away from +Bludston-- + +"Do you remember, sonny, when I left you alone that night and went +to the other side of the brickfield? It was to think it out," said +Bill. "To think out my duty as a man." + +Paul nodded. He was listening, with death in his heart. The whole +fantastic substructure of his life had been suddenly kicked away, +and his life was an inchoate ruin. Gone was the glamour of romance +in which since the day of the cornelian heart he had had his +essential being. Up to an hour ago he had never doubted his +mysterious birth. No real mother could have pursued an innocent +child with Polly Kegworthy's implacable hatred. His passionate +repudiation of her had been a cardinal article of his faith. On the +other hand, the prince and princess theory he had long ago consigned +to the limbo of childish things; but the romance of his birth, the +romance of his high destiny, remained a vital part of his spiritual +equipment. His looks, his talents, his temperament, his instincts, +his dreams had been irrefutable confirmations. His mere honesty, his +mere integrity, had been based on this fervent and unshakable creed. +And now it had gone. No more romance. No more glamour. No more +Vision Splendid now faded into the light of common and sordid day. +Outwardly listening, his gay, mobile face turned to iron, he lived +in a molten intensity of thought, his acute brain swiftly +coordinating the ironical scraps of history. He was the son of Polly +Kegworthy. So far he was unclean; but hitherto her blood had not +manifested itself in him. He was the son of this violent and +pathetic fanatic, this ex-convict; he had his eyes, his refined +face; perhaps he inherited from him the artistic temperament--he +recalled grimly the daubs on the man's walls, and his purblind +gropings toward artistic self-expression; and all this--the +Southern handsomeness, and Southern love of colour, had come from +his Sicilian grandmother, the nameless drab, with bright yellow +handkerchief over swarthy brows, turning the handle of a barrel +organ in the London streets. Instinct had been right in its +promptings to assume an Italian name; but the irony of it was of the +quality that makes for humour in hell. And his very Christian +name--Paul--the exotic name which Polly Kegworthy would not have +given to a brat of hers--was but a natural one for a Silas to give +his son, a Silas born of generations of evangelical peasants. His +eyes rested on the photograph of his Princess. She, first of all, +was gone with the Vision. An adventurer he had possibly been; but an +adventurer of romance, carried high by his splendid faith, and +regarding his marriage with the Princess but as a crowning of his +romantic destiny. But now he beheld himself only as a base-born +impostor. His Princess was gone from his life. Death was in his +heart. + +He saw his familiar, luxurious room as in a dream, and Jane, +anxious-eyed, looking into the fire, and Barney Bill a little way +off, clutching his hard felt hat against his body; but his eyes were +fixed on the strange, many-passioned, unbalanced man who claimed to +be--nay, who was--his father. + +"When I first met you that night my heart went out to you," he was +saying. "It overflowed in thankfulness to God that He had delivered +you out of the power of the Dog, and in His inscrutable mercy had +condoned that part of my sin as a father and had set you in high +places." + +With the fringe of his brain Paul recognized, for the first time, +how he brought into ordinary talk the habits of speech acquired in +addressing a Free Zionist congregation. + +"It was only the self-restraint," Silas continued, "taught me by +bitter years of agony and a message from God that it was part of my +punishment not to acknowledge you as my son--" + +"And what I told you, and what Jane told you about him," said Barney +Bill. "Remember that, Silas." + +"I remember it--it was these influences that kept me silent. But +we were drawn together, Paul." He bent forward in his chair. "You +liked me. In spite of all our differences of caste and creed--you +liked me." + +"Yes, I was drawn to you," said Paul, and a strange, unknown note in +his voice caused Jane to glance at him swiftly. "You seemed to be a +man of many sorrows and deep enthusiasms--and I admit I was in +close sympathy with you." He paused, not moving from his rigid +attitude, and then went on: "What you have told me of your +sufferings--and I know, with awful knowledge, the woman who was my +mother--has made me sympathize with you all the more. But to +express that sympathy in any way you must give me time. I said you +had played hell with my life. It's true. One of these days I may be +able to explain. Not now. There's no time. We're caught up in the +wheels of an inexorable political machine. I address my party in the +constituency to-night." It was a cold intelligence that spoke, and +once more Jane flashed a half-frightened glance at him. "What I +shall say to them, in view of all this, I don't quite know. I must +have half an hour to think." + +"I know I oughtn't to interfere, Paul," said Jane, "but you mustn't +blame Mr. Finn too much. Although he differs from you in politics +and so on, he loves you and is proud of you--as we all are--and +looks forward to your great career--I know it only too well. And +now he has this deep conviction that he has a call from on High to +ruin your career at the very beginning. Do understand, Paul, that he +feels himself in a very terrible position." + +"I do," said Mr. Finn. "God knows that if it weren't for His +command, I should myself withdraw." + +"I appreciate your position, perfectly," replied Paul, "but that +doesn't relieve me of my responsibilities." + +Silas Finn rose and locked the fingers of both hands together and +stood before Paul, with appealing eyes. "My son, after what I have +said, you are not going to stand against me?" + +Paul rose too. A sudden craze of passion swept him. "My country has +been my country for thirty years. You have been my father for five +minutes. I stand by my country." + +Silas Finn turned away and waved a haphazard hand. "And I must stand +by my God." + +"Very well. That bring; us to our original argument. 'Political +foes. Private friends.'" + +Silas turned again and looked into the young man's eyes. "But father +and son, Paul." + +"All the more honourable. There'll be no mud-throwing. The cleanest +election of the century." + +The elder man again covered his face with both hands, and his black +and white streaked hair fell over his fingers and the great diamond +in his ring flashed oddly, and he rocked his head for a while to and +fro. + +"I had a call," he wailed. "I had a call. I had a call from God. It +was clear. It was absolute. But you don't understand these things. +His will must prevail. It was terrible to think of crushing your +career--my only son's career. I brought these two friends to help +me persuade you not to oppose me. I did my best, Paul. I promised +them not to resort to the last argument. But flesh is weak. For the +first time since--you know--the knife--your mother--I lost +self-control. I shall have to answer for it to my God--" He +stretched out his arms and looked haggardly at Paul. "But it is +God's will. It is God's will that I should voice His message to the +Empire. Paul, Paul, my beloved son--you cannot flout Almighty +God." + +"Your God doesn't happen to be my God," said Paul, once more +suspicious--and now hideously so--of religious mania. "And +possibly the real God is somebody else's God altogether. Anyway, +England's the only God I've got left, and I'm going to fight for +her." + +The door opened and Wilton, the man-servant, appeared. He looked +round. "I beg your pardon, sir." + +Paul crossed the room. "What is it?" + +"Her Highness, sir," he said in his well-trained, low voice, "and +the Colonel and Miss Winwood. I told them you were engaged. But +they've been waiting for over half-an-hour, sir." + +Paul drew himself up. "Why did you not tell me before? Her Highness +is not to be kept waiting. Present my respectful compliments to Her +Highness, and ask her and Colonel and Miss Winwood to have the +kindness to come upstairs." + +"We had better go," cried Jane in sudden fear. + +"No," said lie. "I want you all to stay." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IN the tense silence of the few moments of waiting Paul passed from +the boy to whom the earth had been a fairyland to the man grappling +with great realities. In those few moments he lived through his past +life and faced an adumbration of the future. + +The door was thrown open and the Princess appeared, smiling, happy, +a black ostrich feather in her hat and a sable stole hanging loose +from her shoulders; a great and radiant lady. Behind her came the +Colonel and Ursula Winwood. Paul bent over the Princess's, +outstretched hand. + +"A thousand pardons for keeping you waiting. I did not know you had +come. I was engaged with my friends. May I have the honour of +presenting them? Princess, this is Mr. Silas Finn, the managing +director of Fish Palaces Limited. These are two very dear friends, +Miss Seddon--Mr. Simmons. Miss Winwood--Colonel Winwood, may I?" + +He waved an introductory hand. The Princess: bowed; then, struck by +their unsmiling faces and by Paul's strange manner, turned to him +quickly. + +"'Qu'est ce qu'il y a?" + +"Je vais vous le dire." + +He pushed a chair. She sat down. Ursula Winwood sat in Paul's +writing chair. The others remained standing. + +"Mr. Finn called to inform me that he has been adopted as the +Liberal candidate for Hickney Heath."' "My felicitations," said the +Princess. + +Silas bowed to her gravely and addressed Colonel Winwood. + +"We have been, sir--Mr. Savelli and I--for some time on terms of +personal friendship in the constituency." + +"I see, I see," replied the Colonel, though he was somewhat puzzled. +"Very polite and friendly, I'm sure." + +"Mr. Finn also urges me to withdraw my candidature," said Paul. + +The Princess gave a little incredulous laugh. Ursula Winwood rose +and, with a quick protective step, drew nearer Paul. Colonel Winwood +frowned. + +"Withdraw? In Heaven's name why?" + +Silas Finn tugged at his black-and-white-streaked beard and looked +at his son. + +"Need we go into it again? There are religious reasons, which +perhaps, Madam"--Silas addressed the Princess--"you might +misunderstand. Mr. Savelli possibly thinks I am a fanatic. I can't +help it. I have warned him. That is enough. Good-bye, Mr. Savelli." + +He held out his hand; but Paul did not take it. "You forget, Mr. +Finn, that I asked you to stay." He clutched the sides of his jacket +till his knuckles grew white, and he set his teeth. "Mr. Finn has +another reason for wishing me not to oppose him--" + +"That reason you need never give," cried Silas in a loud voice, and +starting forward. "You know that I make no claims whatsoever." + +"I know that," said Paul, coldly; "but I am going to give it all the +same." He paused, held up his hand and looked at the Princess. "Mr. +Silas Finn happens to be my father." + +"Good God!" gasped the Colonel, after a flash of silence. + +The Princess caught a quick breath and sat erect in her chair. + +"Votre Pere, Paul?" + +"Yes, Princess. Until half an hour ago I did not know it. Never in +my life did I know that I had a father living. My friends there can +bear witness that what I say is true." + +"But, Paul dear," said Miss Winwood, laying her kind fingers on his +arm and searching his face, "you told us that your parents were dead +and that they were Italians." + +"I lied," replied Paul calmly. "But I honestly believed the woman +who was my mother not to be my mother, and I had never heard of my +father. I had to account for myself to you. Your delicacy, Miss +Winwood, enabled me to invent as little as possible." + +"But your name--Savelli?" + +"I took it when I went on the stage--I had a few years' obscure +and unsuccessful struggle. You will remember I came to you starving +and penniless." + +The Princess grew white and her delicate nostrils quivered. + +"Et monsieur votre pere--" she checked herself. "And your +father, what do you say he is?" + +Paul motioned to Silas to speak. + +"I, Madam," said the latter, "am a self-made man, and by the +establishment of fried-fish shops all over London and the great +provincial towns, have, by the grace of God, amassed a considerable +fortune." + +"Fried fish?" said the Princess in a queer voice. + +Silas looked at her out of his melancholy and unhumorous eyes. + +"Yes, Madam." + +"I have also learned," said Paul, "that my grandmother was a +Sicilian who played a street-organ. Hence my Italian blood." + +Jane, standing by the door with Barney Bill, most agonized of old +men, wholly nervous, twisting with gnarled fingers the broken rim of +his hard felt hat, turned aside so that no one but Bill should see a +sudden gush of tears. For she had realized how drab and unimportant +she was in the presence of the great and radiant lady; also how the +great and radiant lady was the God-sent mate for Paul, never so +great a man as now when he was cutting out his heart for truth's +sake. + +"I should like to tell you what my life has been," continued Paul, +"in the presence of those who know it already. That's why I asked +them to stay. Until an hour ago I lived in dreams. In my own fashion +I was an honest man. But now I've got this knowledge of my origin, +the dreams are swept away and I stand naked to myself. If I left +you, Miss Winwood, and Colonel Winwood, who have been so good to +me--and Her Highness, who has deigned to honour me with her +friendship--in a moment's doubt as to my antecedents I should be +an impostor." + +"No, no, my boy," said Colonel Winwood, who was standing with hands +deep in trouser pockets and his head bent, staring at the carpet. +"No words like that in this house. Besides, why should we want to go +into all this?" + +He had the Englishman's detestation of unpleasant explanations. +Ursula Winwood supported him. + +"Yes, why?" she asked. + +"But it would be very interesting," said the Princess slowly, +cutting her words. + +Paul met her eyes, which she had hardened, and saw beneath them pain +and anger and wounded pride and repulsion. For a second he allowed +an agonized appeal to flash through his. He knew that he was +deliberately killing the love in her heart. He felt the monstrous +cruelty of it. A momentary doubt shook him. Was he justified? A +short while ago she had entered the room her face alight with love; +now her face was as stern and cold as his own. . Had he the right to +use the knife like this? Then certainty came. It had to be. The +swifter the better. She of all human beings must no longer be +deceived. Before her, at supreme cost, he must stand clean. + +"It's not very interesting," said he. "And it's soon told. I was a +ragged boy in a slum in a Lancashire town. I slept on sacking in a +scullery, and very seldom had enough to eat. The woman whom I didn't +think was my mother ill-treated me. I gather now that she hated me +because she hated my father. She deserted him when I was a year old +and disappeared; she never spoke of him. I don't know exactly how +old I am. I chose a birthday at random. As a child I worked in a +factory. You know what child-labour in factories was some years ago. +I might have been there still, if my dear old friend there hadn't +helped me when I was thirteen to run away. He used to go through the +country in a van selling mats and chairs. He brought me to London, +and found me a lodging with Miss Seddon's mother. So, Miss Seddon +and I were children together. I became an artist's model. When I +grew too old for that to be a dignified ocupation, I went on the +stage. Then one day, starving and delirious, I stumbled through the +gates of Drane's Court and fell at Miss Winwood's feet. That's all." + +"Since we've begun, we may as well finish and get it over," said +Colonel Winwood, still with bent head, but looking at Paul from +beneath his eyebrows. "When and how did you come across this +gentleman who you say is your father?" + +Paul told the story in a few words. + +"And now that you have heard everything," said he, would you think +me justified in withdrawing my candidature?" + +"Certainly not," said the Colonel. "You've got your duty to the +Party." + +"And you, Miss Winwood?" + +"Can you ask? You have your duty to the country." + +"And you, Princess?" + +She met his challenging eyes and rose in a stately fashion. + +"I am not equal to these complications of English politics, Mr. +Savelli," she said. She held herself very erect, but her lips +trembled and tears were very near her eyes. She turned to Miss +Winwood and held out her hand. "I am afraid we must postpone our +discussion of the Forlorn Widows. It is getting late. Au revoir, +Colonel Winwood--" + +"I will see you to your carriage." + +On the threshold she turned, included Paul in a vague bow to the +company, and passed through the door which Colonel Winwood held +open. Paul watched her until she disappeared--disappeared +haughtily out of his life, taking his living heart with her, leaving +him with a stone very heavy, very cold, dead. And he was smitten as +with a great darkness. He remained quite still for a few moments +after the door had closed, then with a sudden jerk he drew himself +up. + +"Mr. Finn," said he, "as I've told you, I address my first meeting +to-night. I am going to make public the fact that I'm your son." + +Silas put his hand to his head and looked at him wildly. + +"No, no," he muttered hoarsely--"no." + +"I see no reason," said Miss Winwood gently. + +"I see every reason," said Paul. "I must live in the light now. The +truth or nothing." + +"Then obey your conscience, Paul," she answered. + +But Silas came forward with his outstretched hands. + +"You can't do it. You can't do it, I tell you. It's impossible." + +"Why?" + +He replied in an odd voice, and with a glance at Miss Winwood. "I +must tell you afterwards." + +"I will leave you," she said. + +"Mr. Finn"--she shook hands with him--"I hope you're proud of +your son." And then she shook hands with Jane and Barney Bill. "I'm +glad to meet such old friends of Paul." And to Paul, as he held the +door open, she said, her clear kind eyes full on him, "Remember, we +want men in England." + +"Thank God, we've got women," said he' with lips from which he could +not keep a sudden quiver. + +He closed the door and came up to his father standing on the +hearthrug. + +"And now' why shouldn't I speak? Why shouldn't I be an honest man +instead of an impostor?" + +"Out of pity for me, my son." + +"Pity? Why, what harm would it do you? There's nothing dishonourable +in father and son fighting an election." He laughed without much +mirth. "It's what some people would call sporting. As for me, +personally, I don't see why you should be ashamed of owning me. My +record is clean enough." + +"But mine isn't, Paul," said Silas mournfully. + +For the first time Paul bowed his head. "I'm sorry," said he. "I +forgot." Then he raised it again. "But that's all over and buried in +the past." + +"It may be unburied." + +"How?" + +"Don't you see?" cried Jane. "Even I can. If you spring your +relationship upon the public, it will create an enormous sensation--it +will set the place on fire with curiosity. They'll dig up +everything they can about you--everything they can about him. Oh, +Paul, don't you see. + +"It's up agin a man, sonny," said Barney Bill, limping towards them, +"it's up agin a candidate, you understand, him not being a Fenian or +a Irish patriot, that he's been in gaol. Penal servitude ain't a +nice state of life to be reminded of, sonny. Whereas if you leaves +things as they is, nobody's going to ask no questions." + +"That's my point," said Silas Finn. + +Paul looked from one to the other, darkly. In a kind of dull fierce +passion he had made up his mind to clear himself before the world, +to rend to tatters his garments of romance, to snap his fingers at +the stars and destiny and such-like deluding toys, to stand a young +Ajax defying the thunderbolts. Here came the first check. + +"If they found out as how he'd done time, they'd find out for why," +said Bill, cocking his head earnestly. + +As Paul, engaged in sombre thought, made no reply, Silas turned +away, his hands uplifted in supplication, and prayed aloud. He had +sinned in giving way to his anger. He prostrated himself before the +divine vengeance. If this was his apportioned punishment, might God +give him meekness and strength to bear it. The tremulous, crying +voice, the rapt, fanatical face, and the beseeching attitude struck +a bizarre note in the comfortable and worldly room. Supported on +either side by Jane, helpless and anxious, and Barney Bill, crooked, +wrinkled, with his close-cropped white hair and little liquid +diamond eyes, still nervously tearing his hat-brim, he looked almost +grotesque. To Paul he seemed less a man than a creation of another +planet, with unknown and incalculable instincts and impulses, who +had come to earth and with foolish hand had wiped out the meaning of +existence. Yet he felt no resentment, but rather a weary pity for +the stranger blundering through an unsympathetic world. As soon as +there came a pause in the prayer, he said not ungently: + +"The Almighty is not going to use me as an instrument to punish you, +if I can help it. I quite appreciate your point. I'll say nothing." + +Barney Bill jerked his thumb towards the chair where the Princess +had been sitting: + +"She won't give it away?" + +Paul smiled sadly. "No, old man. She'll keep it to herself." + +That marked the end of the interview. Paul accompanied the three +downstairs. + +"I meant to act for the best, Paul," said Silas piteously, on +parting. "Tell me that I haven't made you my enemy." + +"God forbid," said Paul. + +He went slowly up to his room again and threw himself in his writing +chair. His eye fell upon the notes on the sheet of foolscap. The +Radical candidate having been chosen, they were no longer relevant +to his speech. He crumpled up the paper and threw it into the +waste-paper basket. His speech! He held his head in both hands. A +couple of hours hence he would be addressing a vast audience, the +centre of the hopes of thousands of his fellow countrymen. The +thought beat upon his brain. He had had the common nightmare of +standing with conductor's baton in front of a mighty orchestra and +being paralyzed by sense of impotence. No less a nightmare was his +present position. A couple of hours ago he was athrill with +confidence and joy of battle. But then he was a different man. The +morning stars, the stars of his destiny, sang together in the +ever-deepening glamour of the Vision Splendid. He was entering into +the lists of Camelot to fight for his Princess. He was the +Mysterious Knight, parented in fairy-far Avilion, the Fortunate +Youth, the Awakener of England. Now he was but a base-born young man +who had attained a high position by false pretences; an ordinary +adventurer with a glib tongue; a self-educated, self-seeking, +commonplace fellow. At least, so he saw himself in his Princess's +eyes. And he had meant that she should thus behold him. No longer +was he entering lists to fight for her. For what hopeless purpose +was he entering them? To awaken England? The awakener must have his +heart full of dreams and visions and glamour and joy and throbbing +life; and in his heart there was death. + +He drew out the little cornelian talisman at the end of his +watch-chain and looked at it bitterly. It was but a mocking symbol +of illusion. He unhooked it and laid it on the table. He would carry +it about with him no longer. He would throw it away. + +Ursula Winwood quietly entered the room. + +"You must come down and have something to cat before the meeting." + +Paul rose. "I don't want anything, thank you, Miss Winwood." + +"But James and I do. So come and join us." + +"Are you coming to the meeting?" he asked in surprise. + +"Of course." She lifted her eyebrows. "Why not?" + +"After what you have heard?" + +"All the more reason for us to go." She smiled as she had smiled on +that memorable evening six years ago when she had stood with the +horrible pawn-ticket in her hand. "James has to support the Party. I +have to support you. James will do the same as I in a day or two. +Just give him time. His mind doesn't work very quickly, not as +quickly as a woman's. Come," she said. "When we have a breathing +space you can tell me all about it. But in the meantime I'm pretty +sure I understand." + +"How can you?" he asked wearily. "You have other traditions." + +"I don't know about traditions; but I don't give my love and take it +away again. I set rather too much value on it. I understand because +I love you." + +"Others with the same traditions can't understand." + +"I'm not proposing to marry you," she said bluntly. "That makes a +difference." + +"It does," said he, meeting her eyes unflinchingly. + +"If you weren't a brave man, I shouldn't say such a thing to you. +Anyhow I understand you're the last man in the world who should take +me for a fool." + +"My God!" said Paul in a choky voice. "What can I do to thank you?" + +"Win the election." + +"You are still my dearest lady--my very very dearest lady," said +he. + +Her shrewd eyes fell upon the cornelian heart. She picked it tip and +held it out to him on her plump palm. + +"Why have you taken this off your watch-chain?" + +"It's a little false god," said he. + +"It's the first thing yon asked for when you recovered from your +illness. You said you had kept it since you were a tiny boy. See? I +remember. You set great value on it then?" + +"I believed in it," said Paul. + +"And now you don't? But a woman gave it to you." + +"Yes," said Paul, wondering, in his masculine way, how the deuce she +knew that. "I was a brat of eleven." + +"Then keep it. Put it on your chain again. I'm sure it's a true +little god. Take it back to please me." + +As there was nothing, from lapping up Eisel to killing a crocodile, +that Paul would not have done, in the fulness of his wondering +gratitude, for his dearest lady, he meekly attached the heart to his +chain and put it in his pocket. + +"I must tell you," said he, "that the lady--she seemed a goddess +to me then--chose me as her champion in a race, a race of urchins +at a Sunday school treat, and I didn't win. But she gave me the +cornelian heart as a prize." + +"But as my champion you will win," said Miss Winwood. "My dear boy," +she said, and her eyes grew very tender as she laid her hand on the +young man's arm, "believe what an old woman is telling you is true. +Don't throw away any little shred of beauty you've ever had in your +life. The beautiful things are really the true ones, though they may +seem to be illusions. Without the trinket or what it stood for, +would you be here now?" + +"I don't know," replied Paul. "I might have taken a more honest road +to get here." + +"We took you to ourselves as a bright human being, Paul--not for +what you might or might not have been. By the way, what have you +decided as regards making public the fact of your relationship?" + +"My father, for his own reasons, has urged me not to do so." + +Miss Winwood drew a long breath. + +"I'm glad to hear it," she said. + +So Paul, comforted by one woman's amazing loyalty, went out that +evening and addressed his great meeting. But the roar of applause +that welcomed him echoed through void spaces of his being. He felt +neither thrill nor fear. The speech prepared by the Fortunate Youth +was delivered by a stranger to it, glowing and dancing eloquence. +The words came trippingly enough, but the informing Spirit was gone. + +Those in the audience familiar with the magic of his smile were +disappointed. The soundness of his policy satisfied the hard- +headed, but he made no appeal to the imaginative. If his speech did +not fall flat, it was not the clarion voice that his supporters had +anticipated. They whispered together with depressed headshakings. +Their man was not in form. He was nervous. What he said was right +enough, but his utterance lacked fire. It carried conviction to +those already convinced; but it could make no proselytes. Had they +been mistaken in their choice? Too young a man, hadn't lie bitten +off a hunk greater than he could chew? So the inner ring of local +politicians. An election audience, however, brings its own +enthusiasms, and it must be a very dull dog indeed who damps their +ardour. They cheered prodigiously when Paul sat down, and a crowd of +zealots waiting outside the building cheered him again as he drove +off. But Paul knew that he had been a failure. He had delivered +another man's speech. To-morrow and the day after and the day after +that, and ever afterwards, if he held to the political game, he +would have to speak in his own new person. What kind of a person +would the new Paul be? + +He drove back almost in silence with the Colonel and Miss Winwood, +vainly seeking to solve the problem. The foundations of his life had +been swept away. His foot rested on nothing solid save his own +manhood. That no shock should break down. He would fight. He would +win the election. He set his lips in grim determination. If life +held no higher meaning, it at least offered this immediate object +for existence. Besides he owed the most strenuous effort of his soul +to the devoted and loyal woman whose face he saw dimly opposite. +Afterwards come what might. The Truth at any rate. Magna est veritas +et praevalebit. + +These were "prave 'orts" and valorous protestations. + +But when their light supper was over and Colonel Winwood had +retired, Ursula Winwood lingered in the dining room, her heart +aching for the boy who looked so stern and haggard. She came behind +him and touched his hair. + +"Poor boy," she murmured. + +Then Paul--he was very young, barely thirty--broke down, as +perhaps she meant that he should, and, elbows sprawling amid the +disarray of the meal, poured out all the desolation of his soul, and +for the first time cried out in anguish for the woman he had lost. +So, as love lay a-bleeding mortally pierced, Ursula Win wood wept +unaccustomed tears and with tender fingers strove to staunch the +wound. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +DAYS of strain followed: days of a thousand engagements, a thousand +interviews, a thousand journeyings, a thousand speeches; days in +which he was reduced to an unresisting automaton, mechanically +uttering the same formulas; days in which the irresistible force of +the campaign swept him along without volition. And day followed day +and not a sign came from the Princess Zobraska either of condonation +or resentment. It was as though she had gathered her skirts around +her and gone disdainfully out of his life for ever. If speaking were +to be done, it was for her to speak. Paul could not plead. It was he +who, in a way, had cast her off. In effect he had issued the +challenge: "I am a child of the gutter, an adventurer masquerading +under an historical name, and you are a royal princess. Will you +marry me now?" She had given her answer, by walking out of the room, +her proud head in the air. It was final, as far as he was concerned. +He could do nothing--not even beg his dearest lady to plead for +him. Besides, rumour had it that the Princess had cancelled her town +engagements and gone to Morebury. So he walked in cold and darkness, +uninspired, and though he worked with feverish energy, the heart and +purpose of his life were gone. + +As in his first speech, so in his campaign, he failed. He had been +chosen for his youth, his joyousness, his magnetism, his radiant +promise of great things to come. He went about the constituency an, +anxious, haggard man, working himself to death without being able to +awaken a spark of emotion in the heart of anybody. He lost ground +daily. On the other hand, Silas Finn, with his enthusiasms, and his +aspect of an inspired prophet, made alarming progress. He swept the +multitude. Paul Savelli, the young man of the social moment, had an +army of helpers, members of Parliament making speeches, friends on +the Unionist press writing flamboyant leaders, fair ladies in +automobiles hunting for voters through the slums of Hickney Heath. +Silas Finn had scarcely a personal friend. But hope reigned among +his official supporters, whereas depression began to descend over +Paul's brilliant host. + +"They want stirring up a bit," said the Conservative agent +despondently. "I hear old Finn's meetings go with a bang. They +nearly raised the roof off last night. We want some roof-raising on +this side." + +"I do my best," said Paul coldly, but the reproach cut deep. He was +a failure. No nervous or intellectual effort could save him now, +though he spent himself to the last heartbeat. He was the sport of a +mocking Will o' the Wisp which he had taken for Destiny. + +Once on coming out of his headquarters he met Silas, who was walking +up the street with two or three of his committee-men. In accordance +with the ordinary amenities of English political life, the two +candidates shook hands, and withdrew a pace or two aside to chat for +a while. This was the first time they had come together since the +afternoon of revelation, and there was a moment of constraint during +which Silas tugged at his streaked beard and looked with mournful +wistfulness at his son. + +"I wish I were not your opponent, Paul," said he in a low voice, so +as not to be overheard. + +"That doesn't matter a bit," Paul replied courteously. "I see you're +putting up an excellent fight." + +"It's the Lord's battle. If it weren't, do you think I would not let +you win?" + +The same old cry. Through sheer repetition, Paul began almost to +believe in it. He felt very weary. In his father's eyes he +recognized, with a pang, the glow of a faith which he had lost. +Their likeness struck him, and he saw himself, his old self, beneath +the unquestioning though sorrowful eyes. + +"That's the advantage of a belief in the Almighty's personal +interest," he answered, with a touch of irony: "whatever happens, +one is not easily disillusioned." + +"That is true, my son," said Silas. + +"Jane is well?" Paul asked, after an instant's pause, breaking off +the profitless discussion. + +"Very well." + +"And Barney Bill?" + +"He upbraids me bitterly for what I have said." + +Paul smiled at the curiously stilted phrase. + +"Tell him from me not to do it. My love to them both." + +They shook hands again, and Paul drove off in the motor car that had +been placed at his disposal during the election, and Silas continued +his sober walk with his committee-men up the muddy street. Whereupon +Paul conceived a sudden hatred for the car. It was but the final +artistic touch to this comedy of mockery of which he had been the +victim. . . . Perhaps God was on his father's side, after all--on +the side of them who humbly walked and not of them who rode in proud +chariots. But his political creed, his sociological convictions rose +in protest. How could the Almighty be in league with all that was +subversive of social order, all that was destructive to Imperial +cohesion, all that which inevitably tended to England's downfall? + +He turned suddenly to his companion, the Conservative agent. + +"Do you think God has got common sense?" + +The agent, not being versed in speculations regarding the attributes +of the Deity, stared; then, disinclined to commit himself, took +refuge in platitude. + +"God moves in a mysterious way, Mr. Savelli." + +"That's rot," said Paul. "If there's an Almighty, He must move in a +common-sense way; otherwise the whole of this planet would have +busted up long ago. Do you think it's common sense to support the +present Government?" + +"Certainly not," said the agent, fervently. + +"Then if God supported it, it wouldn't be common sense on His part. +It would be merely mysterious?" + +"I see what you're driving at," said the agent. "Our opponent +undoubtedly has been making free with the name of the Almighty in +his speeches. As a matter of fact he's rather crazy on the subject. +I don't think it would be a bad move to make a special reference to +it. It's all damned hypocrisy. There's a chap in the old French +play--what's his name?" + +"Tartuffe." + +"That's it. Well, there you are. That speech of his yesterday--now +why don't you take it and wring religiosity and hypocrisy and +Tartuffism out of it? You know how to do that sort of thing. You can +score tremendously. I never thought of it before. By George! you can +get him in the neck if you like." + +"But I don't like," said Paul. "I happen to know that Mr. Finn is +sincere in his convictions." + +"But, my dear sir, what does his supposed sincerity matter in +political contest?" + +"It's the difference between dirt and cleanliness," said Paul. +"Besides, as I told you at the outset, Mr. Finn and I are close +personal friends, and I have the highest regard for his character. +He has seen that his side has scrupulously refrained from +personalities with regard to me, and I insist on the same observance +with regard to him." + +"With all due deference to you, Mr. Savelli, you were called only +the day before yesterday 'the spoiled darling of Duchesses' +boudoirs.'" + +"It wasn't with Mr. Finn's cognizance. I've found that out." + +"Well," said the agent, leaning back-in the luxurious limousine, "I +don't see why somebody, without your cognizance, shouldn't call Mr. +Finn the spoiled minion of the Almighty's ante-chamber. That's a +devilish good catch-phrase," he added, starting forward in the joy +of his newborn epigram: "Devilish good. 'The spoiled minion of the +Almighty's ante-chamber.' It'll become historical." + +"If it does," said Paul, "it will be associated with the immediate +retirement of the Conservative candidate." + +"Do you really mean that?" + +It was Paul's turn to start forward. "My dear Wilson," said he, "if +you or anybody else thinks I'm a man to talk through his hat, I'll +retire at once. I don't care a damn about myself. Not a little +tuppenny damn. What the devil does it matter to me whether I get +into Parliament or not? Nothing. Not a tuppenny damn. You can't +understand. It's the party and the country. For myself, personally, +the whole thing can go to blazes. I'm in earnest, dead earnest," he +continued, with a vehemence incomprehensible to Wilson. "If anybody +doesn't think so, I'll clear out at once"--he snapped his fingers. +"But while I'm candidate everything I say I mean. I mean it +intensely--with all my soul. And I say that if there's a single +insulting reference to Mr. Finn during this election, you'll be up +against the wreck of your own political career." + +The agent watched the workings of his candidate's dark clear-cut +face. He was very proud of his candidate, and found it difficult to +realize that there were presumably sane people who would not vote +for him on sight. A lingering memory of grammar school days flashed +on him when he told his wife later of the conversation, and he +likened Paul to a wrathful Apollo. Anxious to appease the god, he +said humbly: + +"It was the merest of suggestions, Mr. Savelli. Heaven knows we +don't want to descend to personalities, and your retirement would be +an unqualifiable disaster. But--you'll pardon my mentioning it-- +you began this discussion by asking me whether the Almighty had +common sense." + +"Well, has He or not?" + +"Of course," said Wilson. + +"Then we're going to win this election," said Paul. + +If he could have met enthusiasm with enthusiasm, all would have been +well. The awakener of England could have captivated hearts by +glowing pictures of a great and glorious future. It would have been +a counter-blaze to that lit by his opponent, which flamed in all the +effulgence of a reckless reformer's promise, revealing a Utopia in +which there would be no drunkenness, no crime, no poverty, and in +which the rich, apparently, would have to work very hard in order to +support the poor in comfortable idleness. But beyond proving +fallacies, Paul could do nothing--and even then, has there ever +been a mob since the world began susceptible to logical argument? +So, all through the wintry days of the campaign, Silas Finn carried +his fiery cross through the constituency, winning frenzied +adherents, while Paul found it hard to rally the faithful round the +drooping standard of St. George. + +The days went on. Paul addressed his last meeting on the eve of the +poll. By a supreme effort he regained some of his former fire and +eloquence. He drove home exhausted, and going straight to bed slept +like a dog till morning. + +The servant who woke him brought a newspaper to the bedside. + +"Something to interest you, sir." + +Paul looked at the headline indicated by the man. + +"Hickney Heath Election. Liberal Candidate's Confession. +Extraordinary Scene." + +He glanced hurriedly down the column and read with amazement and +stabbing pain the matter that was of interest. The worst had +happened--the thing which during all his later life Silas Finn had +feared. The spectre of the prison had risen up against him. + +Towards the end of Silas Finn's speech, at his last great meeting, a +man, sitting in the body of the hall near the platform, got up and +interrupted him. "What about your own past life? What about your +three years' penal servitude?" All eyes were turned from the man-- +a common looking, evil man--to the candidate, who staggered as if +he had been shot, caught at the table behind him for support and +stared in greyfaced terror. There was an angry tumult, and the +interrupter would have fared badly, but for Silas Finn holding up +his hand and imploring silence. + +"I challenge the candidate to deny," said the man, as soon as he +could be heard, "that his real name is Silas Kegworthy, and that he +underwent three years' penal servitude for murderously assaulting +his wife." + +Then the candidate braced himself and said: "The bare facts are +true. But I have lived stainlessly in the fear of God and in the +service of humanity for thirty years. I have sought absolution for a +moment of mad anger under awful provocation in unremitting prayer +and in trying to save the souls and raise the fortunes of my +fellow-men. Is that all you have against me?" + +"That's all," said the man. + +"It is for you, electors of Hickney Heath, to judge me." + +He sat down amid tumultuous cheers, and the man who had interrupted +him, after some rough handling, managed to make his escape. The +chairman then put a vote of confidence in the candidate, which was +carried by acclamation, and the meeting broke up. + +Such were the essential facts in the somewhat highly coloured +newspaper story which Paul read in stupefied horror. He dressed +quickly and went to his sitting-room, where he rang tip his father's +house on the telephone. Jane's voice met his ear. + +"It's Paul speaking," he replied. "I've just this moment read of +last night. I'm shaken to my soul. How is my father?" + +"He's greatly upset," came the voice. "He didn't sleep all night, +and he's not at all well this morning. Oh, it was a cruel, cowardly +blow." + +"Dastardly. Do you know who it was?" + +"No. Don't you?" + +"I? Does either of you think that I--?" + +"No, no," came the voice, now curiously tearful. "I didn't mean +that. I forgot you've not had time to find out." + +"Who does he think it was?" + +"Some old fellow prisoner who had a grudge against him." + +"Were you at the meeting?" + +"Yes. Oh, Paul, it was splendid to see him face the audience. He +spoke so simply and with such sorrowful dignity. He had their +sympathy at once. But it has broken him. I'm afraid he'll never be +the same man again. After all these years it's dreadful." + +"It's all that's damnable. It's tragic. Give him my love and tell +him that words can't express my sorrow and indignation." + +He rang off. Almost immediately Wilson was announced. He carne into +the room radiant. + +"You were right about the divine common-sensicality," said he. "The +Lord has delivered our adversary into our hands with a vengeance." + +He was a chubby little man of forty, with coarse black hair and +scrubby moustache, not of the type that readily appreciates the +delicacies of a situation. Paul conceived a sudden loathing for him. + +"I would give anything for it not to have happened," he said. + +Wilson opened his eyes. "Why? It's our salvation. An ex-convict-- +it's enough to damn any candidate. But we want to make sure. Now +I've got an idea." + +Paul turned on him angrily. "I'll have no capital made out of it +whatsoever. It's a foul thing to bring such an accusation up against +a man who has lived a spotless life for thirty years. Everything in +me goes out in sympathy with him, and I'll let it be known all +through the constituency." + +"If you take it that way," said Wilson, "there's no more to be +done." + +"There's nothing to be done, except to find out who put up the man +to make the announcement." + +"He did it on his own," Wilson replied warmly. "None of our people +would resort to a dirty trick like that." + +"And yet you want me to take advantage of it now it's done." + +"That's quite a different matter." + +"I can't see much difference," said Paul. + +So Wilson, seeing that his candidate was more unmanageable than +ever, presently departed, and Paul sat down to breakfast. But he +could not eat. He was both stricken with shame and moved to the +depths by immense pity. Far removed from him as Silas Finn was in +mode of life and ideals, he found much in common with his father. +Each had made his way from the slum, each had been guided by an +inner light--was Silas Finn's fantastic belief less of an ignis +fatuus than his own?--each had sought to get away from a past, +each was a child of Ishmael, each, in his own way, had lived +romantically. Whatever resentment against his father lingered in his +heart now melted away. He was very near him. The shame of the prison +struck him as it had struck the old man. He saw him bowed down under +the blow, and he clenched his hands in a torture of anger and +indignation. And to crown all, came the intolerable conviction, in +the formation of which Wilson's triumphant words had not been +necessary, that if he won the election it would be due to this +public dishonouring of his own father. He walked about the room in +despair, and at last halted before the mantelpiece on which still +stood the photograph of the Princess in its silver frame. Suddenly +he remembered that he had not told her of this incident in his +family history. She too would be reading her newspaper this morning. +He saw her proud lips curl. The son of a gaol-bird! He tore the +photograph from its frame and threw it into the fire and watched it +burn. As the paper writhed under the heat, the lips seemed to twist +into sad reproach. He turned away impatiently. That romantic madness +was over and done with. He had far sterner things to do than shriek +his heart out over a woman in an alien star. He had his life to +reconstruct in the darkness threatening and mocking; but at last he +had truth for a foundation; on that he would build in defiance of +the world. + +In the midst of these fine thoughts it occurred to him that he had +hidden the prison episode in his father's career from the Winwoods +as well as from the Princess. His checks flushed; it was one more +strain on the loyalty of these dear devoted friends. He went +downstairs, and found the Colonel and Miss Winwood in the +dining-room. Their faces were grave. He came to them with +outstretched arms--a familiar gesture, one doubtless inherited +from his Sicilian ancestry. + +"You see what has happened. I knew all the time. I didn't tell you. +You must forgive me." + +"I don't blame you, my boy," said Colonel Winwood. "It was your +father's secret. You had no right to tell us." + +"We're very grieved, dear, for both your sakes," Ursula added. +"James has taken the liberty of sending round a message of +sympathy." + +As ever, these two had gone a point beyond his anticipation of their +loyalty. He thanked them simply. + +"It's hateful," said he, "to think I may win the election on account +of this. It's loathsome." He shuddered. + +"I quite agree with you," said the Colonel. "But in politics one has +often to put up with hateful things in order to serve one's country. +That's the sacrifice a high-minded man is called upon to make." + +"Besides," said Miss Winwood, "let us hope it won't affect votes. +All the papers say that the vote of confidence was passed amid +scenes of enthusiasm." + +Paul smiled. They understood. A little while later they drove off +with him to his committee room in the motor car gay with his +colours. There was still much to be done that day. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +HICKNEY HEATH blazed with excitement. It is not every day that a +thrill runs through a dull London borough, not even every election +day. For a London borough, unlike a country town, has very little +corporate life of its own. You cannot get up as much enthusiasm for +Kilburn, say, as a social or historical entity, as you can for +Winchester or Canterbury. You may perform civic duties, if you are +public-spirited enough, with business-like zeal, and if you are +borough councillor you may be proud of the nice new public baths +which you have been instrumental in presenting to the community. But +the ordinary man in the street no more cares for Kilburn than he +does for Highgate. He would move from one to the other without a +pang. For neither's glory would he shed a drop of his blood. Only at +election times does it occur to him that he is one of a special +brotherhood, isolated from the rest of London; and even then he +regards the constituency as a convention defining. geographical +limits for the momentary range of his political passions. So that +the day when an electric thrill ran through the whole of Hickney +Heath was a rare one in its uninspiring annals. + +The dramatic had happened, touching the most sluggish imaginations. +The Liberal candidate for Parliament, a respected Borough +Councillor, a notorious Evangelical preacher, had publicly confessed +himself an ex-convict. Every newspaper in London--and for the +matter of that, every newspaper in Great Britain--rang with the +story, and every man, woman and child in Hickney Heath read +feverishly every newspaper, morning and evening, they could lay +their hands on. Also, every man, woman and child in Hickney Heath +asked his neighbour for further details. All who could leave desk +and shop or factory poured into the streets to learn the latest, +tidings. Around the various polling stations the crowd was thickest. +Those electors who had been present at Silas Finn's meeting, the +night before, told the story at first-hand to eager groups. Rumours +of every sort spread through the mob. The man who had put the famous +question was an agent of the Tories. It was a smart party move. +Silas Finn had all the time been leading a double life. Depravities +without number were laid to his charge. Even now the police were +inquiring into his connection with certain burglaries that had taken +place in the neighbourhood. And where was he that day? Who had seen +him? He was at home drunk. He had committed suicide. Even if he +hadn't, and was elected, he would not be allowed to take his seat in +Parliament. + +On the other hand, those in whose Radical bosoms burned fierce +hatred for the Tories, spoke loud in condemnation of their cowardly +tactics. There was considerable free-fighting in the ordinarily +dismal and decorous streets of Hickney Heath. Noisy acclamations +hailed the automobiles, carriages and waggonettes bringing voters of +both parties to the polls. Paul, driving in his gaily-decked car +about the constituency, shared all these demonstrations and heard +these rumours. The latter he denied and caused to be denied, as far +as lay in his power. In the broad High Street, thronged with folk, +and dissonant with tram cars and motor 'buses, he came upon a +quarrelsome crowd looking up at a window above a poulterer's shop, +from which hung something white, like a strip of wall paper. + +Approaching, he perceived that it bore a crude drawing of a convict +and "Good old Dartmoor" for legend. White with anger, he stopped the +car, leaped out on to the curb, and pushing his way through the +crowd, entered the shop. He seized one of the white-coated +assistants by the arm. "Show me the way to that first-floor room," +he cried fiercely. + +The assistant, half-dragged, half-leading, and wholly astonished, +took him through the shop and pointed to the staircase. Paul sprang +up and dashed through the door into the room, which appeared to be +some business office. Three or four young men, who turned grinning +from the window, be thrust aside, and plucking the offending strip +from the drawing-pins which secured it to the sill, he tore it +across and across. + +"You cads! You brutes!" he shouted, trampling on the fragments. +"Can't you fight like Englishmen?" + +The young men, realizing the identity of the wrathful apparition, +stared open-mouthed, turned red, and said nothing. Paul strode out, +looking very fierce, and drove off in his car amid the cheers of the +crowd, to which he paid no notice. + +"It makes me sick!" he cried passionately to Wilson, who was with +him. "I hope to God he wins in spite, of it!" + +"What about the party?" asked Wilson. + +Paul damned the party. He was in the overwrought mood in which a man +damns everything. Quagmire and bramble and the derision of +Olympus-that was the end of his vanity of an existence. Suppose he +was elected--what then? He would be a failure-the high gods in +their mirth would see to that--a puppet in Frank Ayres' hands +until the next general election, when be would have ignominiously to +retire. Awakener of England indeed! He could not even awaken Hickney +Heath. As he dashed through the streets in his triumphal car, he +hated Hickney Heath, hated the wild "hoorays" of waggon-loads of his +supporters on their way to the polls, hated the smug smiles of his +committee-men at polling stations. He forgot that he did not hate +England. A little black disk an inch or two in diameter if cunningly +focussed can obscure the sun in heaven from human eye. There was +England still behind the little black disk, though Paul for the +moment saw it not. + +Wilson pulled his scrubby moustache and made no retort to Paul's +anathema. To him Paul was one of the fine flower of the Upper +Classes to which lower middle-class England still, with considerable +justification, believes to be imbued with incomprehensible and +unalterable principles of conduct. The grand old name of gentleman +still has its magic in this country--and is, by the way, not +without its influence in one or two mighty republics wherein the +equality of man is very loudly proclaimed. Wilson, therefore, gladly +suffered Paul's lunatic Quixotry. For himself he approved hugely of +the cartoon. If he could have had his way, Hickney Heath would have +flamed with poster reproductions of it. But he had a dim +appreciation of, and a sneaking admiration for, the aristocrat's +point of view, and, being a practical man, evaded a discussion on +the ethics of the situation. + +The situation was rendered more extraordinary because the Liberal +candidate made no appearance in the constituency. Paul inquired +anxiously. No one had seen him. After lunch he drove alone to his +father's house. The parlour-maid showed him into the hideously +furnished and daub-hung dining-room. The Viennese horrors of plaster +stags, gnomes and rabbits stared fatuously on the hearth. No fire +was in the grate. Very soon Jane entered, tidy, almost matronly in +buxom primness, her hair as faultless as if it had come out of a +convoluted mould, her grave eyes full of light. She gave him her +capable hand. + +"It's like you to come, Paul." + +"It's only decent. My father hasn't shown up. What's the matter with +him?" + +"It's a bit of a nervous breakdown," she said, looking at him +steadily. "Nothing serious. But the doctor--I sent for him--says +he had better rest--and his committee people thought it wiser for +him not to show himself." + +"Can I see him?" + +"Certainly not." A look of alarm came into her face. "You're both +too excited. What would you say to him?" + +"I'd tell him what I feel about the whole matter." + +"Yes. You would fling your arms about, and he would talk about God, +and a precious lot of good it would do to anybody. No, thank you. +I'm in charge of Mr. Finn's health." + +It was the old Jane, so familiar. "I wish," said he, with a smile-- +"I wish I had had your common sense to guide me all these years." + +"If you had, you would now be a clerk in the City earning thirty +shillings a week." + +"And perhaps a happier man." + +"Bosh, my dear Paul!" she said, shaking her head slowly. "Rot! +Rubbish! I know you too well. You adding up figures at thirty +shillings a week, with a common sense wife for I suppose you mean +that--mending your socks and rocking the cradle in a second-floor +back in Hickney Heath! No, my dear"--she paused for a second or +two and her lips twitched oddly--"common sense would have been the +death of you." + +He laughed in spite of himself. It was so true. + +Common sense might have screwed him to a thirty shillings-a-week +desk: the fantastic had brought him to that very house, a candidate +for Parliament, in a thousand-guinea motor car. On the other hand-- +and his laughter faded from his eyes--the fantastic in his life +was dead. Henceforward common sense would hold him in her cold and +unstimulating clasp. He said something of the sort to Jane. Once +more she ejaculated "Rot, rubbish and bosh!" and they quarrelled as +they had done in their childhood. + +"You talk as if I didn't know you inside out, my dear Paul," she +said in her clear, unsmiling way. "Listen. All men are donkeys, +aren't they?" + +"For the sake of argument, I agree." + +"Well--there are two kinds of donkeys. One kind is meek and mild +and will go wherever it is driven. The other, in order to get along, +must always have a bunch of carrots dangling before its eyes. That's +you." + +"But confound it all!" he cried, "I've lost my carrots--can't you +see? I'll never have any carrots again. That's the whole damned +tragedy." + +For the first time she smiled--the smile of the woman wiser in +certain subtle things than the man. "my dear," she said, "carrots +are cheap." She paused for an instant and added, "Thank God!" + +Paul squeezed her arms affectionately and they moved apart. He +sighed. "They're the most precious things in the world," said he. + +"The most precious things in the world are those which you can get +for nothing," said Jane. + +"You're a dear," said he, "and a comfort." + +Presently he left her and returned to his weary round of the +constituency, feeling of stouter heart, with a greater faith in the +decent ordering of mundane things. .A world containing such women as +Jane and Ursula Winwood possessed elements of sanity. Outside one of +the polling stations he found Barney Bill holding forth excitedly to +a knot of working-men. He ceased as the car drove up, and cast back +a broad proud smile at the candidate's warm greeting. + +"I got up the old 'bus so nice and proper, with all your colours and +posters, and it would have been a spectacular Diorama for these 'ere +poor people; but you know for why I didn't bring it out to-day, +don't you, sonny?" + +"I know, dear old friend," said Paul. + +"I 'adn't the 'cart to." + +"What were you speechifying about when I turned up?" + +Barney Bill jerked a backward thumb. "I was telling this pack of +cowardly Radicals that though I've been a Tory born and bred for +sixty odd years, and though I've voted for you, Silas Finn, for all +he was in prison while most of them were sucking wickedness and +Radicalism out of Nature's founts, is just as good a man as what you +are. They was saying, yer see, they was Radicals, but on account of +Silas being blown upon, they was going to vote for you. So I tells +'em, I says, 'Mr. Savelli would scorn your dirty votes. If yer feel +low and Radical, vote Radical. Mr. Savelli wants to play fair. I +know both of 'em,' I says, 'both of 'em intimately.' And they begins +to laugh, as if I was talking through my hat. Anyway, they see now I +know you, sonny." + +Paul laughed and clapped the loyal old man on the shoulder. Then he +turned to the silent but interested group. "Gentlemen," said he, "I +don't want to inquire on which side you are; but you can take it +from me that whatever my old friend Mr. Simmons says about Mr. Finn +and myself is the absolute truth. If you're on Mr. Finn's side in +politics, in God's name vote for him. He's a noble, high-souled man +and I'm proud of his private friendship." + +He drew Barney Bill apart. "You're the only Tory in the place who +can try to persuade people not to vote for me. I wish you would keep +on doing it." + +"I've been a-doing of it ever since the polls opened this morning," +said Barney Bill. Then he cocked his head on one side and his little +eyes twinkled: "It's an upside-down way of fighting an election to +persuade people not to vote for you, isn't it?" + +"Everything is topsy-turvy with me, these days," Paul replied: "so +we've just got to stand on our heads and make the best of it." + +And he drove off in the gathering dusk. + +Night found him in the great chamber of the Town Hall, with his +agent and members of his committee. Present too were the Liberal +Agent and the members of the Liberal Committee. At one end of the +room sat the Mayor of the Borough in robe and chain of office, +presiding over the proceedings. The Returning Officer and his staff +sat behind long tables, on which were deposited the sealed ballot +boxes brought in from the various polling stations; and these were +emptied and the votes were counted, the voting papers for each +candidate being done up in bundles of fifty. Knots of committee-men +of both parties stood chatting in low voices. In an ordinary +election both candidates would have chatted together, in ninety-nine +cases out of a hundred about golf, and would have made an engagement +to meet again in milder conflict that day week. But here Paul was +the only candidate to appear, and he sat in a cane-bottomed chair +apart from the lounging politicians, feeling curiously an interloper +in this vast, solemn and scantily-filled hall. He was very tired, +too tired in body, mind and soul to join in the small-talk of Wilson +and his bodyguard. Besides, they all wore the air of anticipated +victory, and for that he held them in detestation. He had detested +them the whole day long. The faces that yesterday had been long and +anxious to-day had been wreathed in smirks. Wherever he had gone he +had found promise of victory in his father's disgrace. Passionately +the young man, fronting vital issues, longed for his own defeat. + +But for the ironical interposition of the high gods, it might have +been so different. Any other candidate against him, he himself +buoyed up with his own old glorious faith, his Princess, dazzling +meteor illuminating the murky streets--dear God! what would not +have been the joy of battle during the past week, what would not +have been the intense thrill, the living of a thousand lives in +these few hours of suspense now so dull with dreariness and pain! He +sat apart, his legs crossed, a hand over his eyes. Wilson and his +men, puzzled by his apparent apathy, left him alone. It is not much +use addressing a mute and wooden idol, no matter how physically +prepossessing. + +The counting went on slowly, relentlessly, and the bundles of fifty +on each side grew in bulk, and Paul's side bulked larger than Silas +Finn's. + +At last Wilson could stand it no longer. He left the group with +which he was talking, and came to Paul. "We're far ahead already," +he cried excitedly. "I told you last night would do the trick." + +"Last night," said Paul, rising and stuffing his hands in his jacket +pockets, "my opponent's supporters passed a vote of confidence in +him in a scene of tumultuous enthusiasm." + +"Quite so," replied Wilson. "A crowd is generous and easily swayed. +A theatrical audience of scalliwags and thieves will howl applause +at the triumph of virtue and the downfall of the villain; and each +separate member will go out into the street and begin to practise +villainy and say 'to hell with virtue.' If last night's meeting +could have polled on the spot, they would have been as one man. +To-day they're scattered and each individual revises his excited +opinion. Your hard-bitten Radical would sooner have a self-made man +than an aristocrat to represent him in Parliament; but, damn it all, +he'd sooner have an aristocrat than an ex-convict." + +"But who the devil told you I'm an aristocrat?" cried Paul. + +Wilson laughed. "Who wants to be told such an obvious thing? Anyhow, +you've only got to look and you'll see how the votes are piling +tip." + +Paul looked and saw that Wilson spoke truly. Then he reflected that +Wilson and the others who had worked so strenuously for him had no +part in his own personal depression. They deserved a manifestation +of interest, also expressions of gratitude. So Paul pulled himself +together and went amongst them and was responsive to their +prophecies of victory. + +Then just as the last votes were being counted, an official +attendant came in with a letter for Paul. It had been brought by +messenger. The writing on the envelope was Jane's. He tore it open +and read. + +Mr. Finn is dying. He has had a stroke. The doctor says he can't +live through the night. Come as soon as you can. JANE. + +Outside the Town Hall the wide street was packed with people. Men +surged tip to the hollow square of police guarding the approach to +the flight of steps and the great entrance door. Men swarmed about +the electric standards above the heads of their fellows. Men rose in +a long tier with their backs to the shop-fronts on the opposite side +of the road. In spite of the raw night the windows were open and the +arc lights revealed a ghostly array of faces looking down on the +mass below, whose faces in their turn were lit up by the more yellow +glare streaming from the doors and uncurtained windows of the Town +Hall. In the lobby behind the glass doors could be seen a few +figures going and coming, committee-men, journalists, officials. A +fine rain began to fall, but the crowd did not heed it. The +mackintosh capes of the policemen glistened. It was an orderly +crowd, held together by tense excitement: all eyes fixed on the +silent illuminated building whence the news would come. Across one +window on the second floor was a large white patch, blank and +sphinx-like. At right angles to one end of the block ran the High +Street and the tall, blazing trams passed up and down and all eyes +in the trams strained for a transient glimpse of the patch, hoping +that it would flare out into message. + +Presently a man was seen to dash from the interior of the hall into +the lobby, casting words at the waiting figures, who clamoured +eagerly and disappeared within, just as the man broke through the +folding doors and appeared at the top of the steps beneath the +portico. The great crowd surged and groaned, and the word was +quickly passed from rank to rank. + +"Savelli. Thirteen hundred and seventy majority." And then there +burst out wild cheers and the crowd broke into a myriad little waves +like a choppy sea. Men danced and shouted and clapped each other on +the back, and the tall facade of the street opposite the hall was +a-flutter. Suddenly the white patch leaped into an illumination +proclaiming the figures. + +Savelli--6,135. + +Finn--4,765. + +Again the wild cheering rose, and then the great double windows in +the centre of the first floor of the Town Hall were flung open and +Paul, surrounded by the mayor and officials, appeared. + +Paul gripped the iron hand-rail and looked down upon the tumultuous +scene, his ears deafened by the roar, his eyes dazed by the +conflicting lights and the million swift reflections from moving +faces and arms and hats and handkerchiefs. The man is not born who +can receive unmoved a frenzied public ovation. A lump rose in his +throat. After all, this delirium of joy was sincere. He stood for +the moment the idol of the populace. For him this vast concourse of +human beings had waited in rain and mud and now became a deafening, +seething welter of human passion. He gripped the rail tighter and +closed his eyes. He heard as in a dream the voice of the mayor +behind him: "Say a few words. They won't hear you--but that +doesn't matter." + +Then Paul drew himself up, facing the whirling scene. He sought in +his pockets and suddenly shot up his hand, holding a letter, and +awaited a lull in the uproar. He was master of himself now. He had +indeed words to say, deliberately prepared, and he knew that if he +could get a hearing he would say them as deliberately. At last came +comparative calm. + +"Gentlemen," said he, with a motion of the letter, "my opponent is +dying." + +He paused. The words, so unexpected, so strangely different from the +usual exordium, seemed to pass from line to line through the crowd. + +"I am speaking in the presence of death," said Paul, and paused +again. + +And a hush spread like a long wave across the street, and the +thronged windows, last of all, grew still and silent. + +"I will ask you to hear me out, for I have something very grave to +say." And his voice rang loud and clear. "Last night my opponent was +forced to admit that nearly thirty years ago he suffered a term of +penal servitude. The shock, after years of reparation, of spotless +life, spent in the service of God and his fellow-creatures, has +killed him. I desire publicly to proclaim that I, as his opponent, +had no share in the dastardly blow that has struck him down. And I +desire to proclaim the reason. He is my own father; I, Paul Savelli, +am my opponent, Silas Finn's son." + +A great gasp and murmur rose from the wonder-stricken throng, but +only momentarily, for the spell of drama was on them. Paul +continued. + +"I will make public later on the reasons for our respective changes +of name. For the present it is enough to state the fact of our +relationship and of our mutual affection and respect. That I thank +you for electing me goes without saying; and I will do everything in +my power to advance the great cause you have enabled me to +represent. I regret I cannot address you in another place to-night, +as I had intended. I must ask you of your kindness to let me go +quietly where my duty and my heart call me to my father's +death-bed." + +He bowed and waved a dignified gesture of farewell, and turning into +the hall met the assemblage of long, astounded faces. From outside +came the dull rumbling of the dispersing crowd. The mayor, the first +to break the silence, murmured a platitude. + +Paul thanked him gravely. Then he went to Wilson. "Forgive me," said +he, "for all that has been amiss with me to-day. It has been a +strain of a very peculiar kind." + +"I can well imagine it," said Wilson. + +"You see I'm not an aristocrat, after all," said Paul. + +Wilson looked the young man in the face and saw the steel beneath +the dark eyes, and the Proud setting of the lips. With a sudden +impulse he wrung his hand. "I don't care a damn!" said he. "You +are." + +Paul said, unsmiling: "I can face the music. That's all." He drew a +note from his pocket. "Will you do me a final service? Go round to +the Conservative Club at once, and tell the meeting what has +happened, and give this to Colonel Winwood." + +"With pleasure," said Wilson. + +Then Paul shook hands with all his fellow-workers and thanked them +in his courtly way, and, pleading for solitude, went through the +door of the great chamber and, guided by an attendant, reached the +exit in a side street where his car awaited him. A large concourse +of people stood drawn up in line on each side of the street, +marshalled by policemen. A familiar crooked figure limped from the +shadow of the door, holding a hard felt hat, his white poll gleaming +in the shaft of light. "God bless you, sonny," he said in a hoarse +whisper. + +Paul took the old man by the arm and drew him across the pavement to +the car. "Get in," said he. + +Barney Bill hung back. "No, sonny; no." + +"It's not the first time we've driven together. Get in. I want you." + +So Barney Bill allowed himself to be thrust into the luxurious car, +and Paul followed. And perhaps for the first time in the history of +great elections the successful candidate drove away from the place +where the poll was declared in dead silence, attended only by the +humblest of his constituents. But every man in the throng bared his +head. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +"HE had the stroke in the night," said Barney Bill suddenly. + +Paul turned sharply on him. "Why wasn't I told?" + +"Could you have cured him?" + +"Of course not." + +"Could you have done him any good?" + +"I ought to have been told." + +"You had enough of worries before you for one day, sonny." + +"That was my business," said Paul. + +"Jane and I, being as it were responsible parties, took the liberty, +so to speak, of thinking it our business too." + +Paul drummed impatiently on his knees. + +"Yer ain't angry, are you, sonny?" the old man asked plaintively. + +"No--not angry--with you and Jane--certainly not. I know you +acted for the best, out of love for me. But you shouldn't have +deceived me. I thought it was a mere nervous breakdown--the strain +and shock. You never said a word about it, and Jane, when I talked +to her this morning, never gave me to dream there was anything +serious amiss. So I say you two have deceived me." + +"But I'm a telling of yer, sonny--" + +"Yes, yes, I know. I don't reproach you. But don't you see? I'm sick +of lies. Dead sick. I've been up to my neck in a bog of falsehood +ever since I was a child and I'm making a hell of a struggle to get +on to solid ground. The Truth for me now. By God! nothing but the +Truth!" + +Barney Bill, sitting for-ward, hunched up, on the seat of the car, +just as he used to sit on the footboard of his van, twisted his head +round. "I'm not an eddicated person," said he, "although if I hadn't +done a bit of reading in my time I'd have gone dotty all by my lones +in the old 'bus, but I've come to one or two conclusions in my, so +to speak, variegated career, and one is that if you go one in that +'ere mad way for Truth in Parliament, you'll be a bull in a china +shop, and they'll get sticks and dawgs to hustle you out. Sir Robert +Peel, old Gladstone, Dizzy, the whole lot of the old Yuns was up +against it. They had to compromise. It's compromise"--the old man +dwelt lovingly, as usual, on the literary word--"it's compromise +you must have in Parliament." + +"I'll see Parliament damned first!" cried Paul, his nerves on edge. + +"You'll have to wait a long time, sonny," said Barney Bill, wagging +a sage head. "Parliament takes a lot of damning." + +"Anyhow," said Paul, not eager to continue the argument, but +unconsciously caught in the drift of Barney Bill's philosophy, "my +private life isn't politics, and there's not going to be another lie +in my private life as long as I live." + +The old man broke a short silence with a dry chuckle. "How it takes +one back!" he said reflectively. "Lor lumme! I can hear yer speaking +now--just in the same tone--the night what yer run away with me. +Yer hadn't a seat to yer breeches then, and now you've a seat in +Parliament." He chuckled again at his joke. "But"--he gripped the +young man's knee in his bony clasp--"you're just the same Paul, +sonny, God bless yer--and you'll come out straight all right. Here +we are." + +The car drew up before Silas Finn's house. They entered. Jane, +summoned, came down at once and met them in the dreadful +dining-room, where a simple meal was spread. + +"I haven't heard--" she said. + +"I'm in." + +"I'm glad." + +"My father--?" he asked curtly. + +She looked at him wide-eyed for a second or two as he stood, his +fur-lined coat with astrachan collar thrown open, his hand holding a +soft felt hat on his hip, his absurdly beautiful head thrown back, +to casual glance the Fortunate Youth of a month or two ago. But to +Jane's jealous eye he was not even the man she had seen that +afternoon. He looked many years older. She confessed afterwards to +surprise at not finding his hair grey at the temples, thus +manifesting her ordered sense of the harmonious. She confessed, too, +that she was frightened--jane who, for any other reason than the +mere saving of her own skin, would have stolidly faced Hyrcanean +tigers--at the stern eyes beneath the contracted brows. He was a +different Paul altogether. And here we have the divergence between +the masculine and the feminine point of view. Jane saw a new avatar; +Barney Bill the ragged urchin of the Bludston brick-fields. She +shifted her glance to the old man. He, standing crookedly, cocked +his head and nodded. + +"He knows all about it." + +"Yes, yes," said Paul. "How is my father?" + +Jane threw out her hands in the Englishwoman's insignificant +gesture. "He's unconscious--has been for hours--the nurse is up +with him--the end may come any moment. I hid it from you till the +last for your own sake. Would you care to go upstairs?" + +She moved to the door. Paul threw off his overcoat and, followed by +Barney Bill, accompanied her. On the landing they were met by the +nurse. + +"It is all over," she said. + +"I will go in for a moment," said Paul. "I should like to be alone." + +In a room hung like the rest of the house with gaudy pictures he +stood for a short while looking at the marble face of the +strange-souled, passionate being that had been his father. The lids +had closed for ever over the burning, sorrowful eyes; the mobile +lips were for ever mute. In his close sympathy with the man Paul +knew what had struck him down. It was not the blow of the nameless +enemy, but the stunning realization that he was not, after all, the +irresistible nominee of the Almighty. His great faith had not +suffered; for the rigid face was serene, as though he had accepted +this final chastisement and purification before entrance into the +Eternal Kingdom; but his high pride, the mainspring of his fanatical +life, had been broken and the workings of the physical organism had +been arrested. In those few moments of intense feeling, in the +presence of death, it was given to Paul to tread across the +threshold of the mystery of his birth. Here lay stiff and cold no +base clay such as that of which Polly Kegworthy had been formed. It +had been the tenement of a spirit beautiful and swift. No matter to +what things he himself had been born--he had put that foolishness +behind him--at all events his dream bad come partly true. His +father had been one of the great ones, one of the conquerors, one of +the high princes of men. Multitudes of kings had not been so +parented. Outwardly a successful business man and a fanatical +Dissenter--there were thousands like Silas Finn. But Paul knew his +inner greatness, the terrific struggle of his soul, the warrings +between fierce blood and iron will, the fervent purpose, the lofty +aspirations and the unwavering conduct of his life of charity and +sorrow. He stretched out his hand and with his finger tips lightly +touched the dead man's forehead. "I'm proud to be your son," he +murmured. + +Then the nurse came in and Paul went downstairs. Barney Bill waylaid +him in the hall, and led him into the dining-room. "Have a little +food and drink, sonny. You look as if yer need it--especially +drink. 'Ere." He seized a decanter of whisky--since Paul's first +visit, Silas had always kept it in the house for his son's, +comforting--and would have filled the tumbler had not Paul +restrained him. He squirted in the soda. "Drink it down and you'll +feel better." + +Paul swallowed a great gulp. "Yes," he agreed. "There are times when +it does help a man." + +"Liquor is like a dawg," said Bill. "Keep it in subjection, so to +speak, and it's yer faithful friend." + +"Where's Jane?" Paul asked. + +"She's busy. Half the borough seem to be calling, or telephoning"-- +and even at that moment Paul could hear the maid tripping across the +hall and opening the front door--"I've told her what occurred. She +seemed half skeered. She's had a dreadful day, pore gal." + +"She has indeed," said Paul. + +He threw himself into a chair, dead beat, at the end of emotional +strain, and remained talking with the old man of he scarce knew +what. But these two--Jane and the old man--were linked to him by +imperishable ties, and he could not leave them yet awhile in the +house of death. Barney Bill stirred the fire, which blazed up, +making the perky animals on the hearth cast faint and fantastic +shadows. + +"It's funny how he loved those darned little beasts, isn't it now? I +remember of him telling me as how they transported him into magic +something--or the other--medi--he had a word for it--I dunno--" + +"Mediaeval?" + +"That's it, sonny. Mediaeval forests. It means back of old times, +don't it? King Arthur and his Round Table--I done a bit of +reading, yer know." The old man took out pouch and pipe. "That's +what drew us together, sonny, our taste for literature. Remember?" + +"Can I ever forget?" said Paul. + +"Well, he was like that too. He had lots of po'try in him--not the +stuff that rhymes, yer know, like 'The Psalm of Life' and so forth, +but real po'try. I wish I could tell yer what I mean--" His +face was puckered into a thousand wrinkles with the intellectual +effort, and his little diamond eyes gleamed. "He could take a +trumpery common thing like that there mug-faced, lop-eared hare and +make it stand for the medi-what-you-call-it-forest. I've said to +him, 'Come out with me on the old 'bus if you want green and +loneliness and nature.' And he has said--I recollect one talk in +particular--he said, 'I'd love to hear' something about a pipe-- +I'm getting old, sonny--" + +"The Pipes of Pan?" Paul suggested. + +"The very words. Lor lumme! how did you guess it?" He paused, his +fingers holding the lighted match, which went out before he could +apply it to his tobacco. "Yus. 'The Pipes of Pan.' I don't know what +it means. Anyway, he said he'd love to hear them in the real forest, +but duty kept him to bricks and mortar and so he had to hear them in +imagination. He said that all them footling little beasts were +a-listening to 'em, and they told him all about it. I remember he +told me more about the woods than I know myself--and I reckon I +could teach his business to any gamekeeper or poacher in England. I +don't say as how he knew the difference between a stoat and a weasel--he +didn't. A cock-pheasant and a hen-partridge would have been +the same to him. But the spirit of it--the meaning of it--he +fair raised my hair off--he knew it a darned sight better nor I. +And that's what I set out for to say, sonny. He had po'try in him. +And all this"--he swept an all-inclusive hand--"all this meant +to him something that you and I can't tumble to, sonny. It meant +something different to what it looked like--ah!" and impatient at +his impotence to express philosophic thought, he cast another +lighted match angrily into the fire. + +Paul, high product of modern culture, sat in wonder at the common +old fellow's clarity of vision. Tears rolled down his cheek. "I +know, dear old Bill, what you're trying to say. Only one man has +ever been able to say it. A mad poet called Blake. + + 'To see a world in a grain of sand, + And a heaven in a wild flower; + Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, + And eternity in an hour'." + +Barney Bill started forward in his chair and clapped his hand on the +young man's knee. "By gum! you've got it. That's what I was +a-driving at. That's Silas. I call to mind when he was a boy-- +pretty dirty and ragged he was too--as he used to lean over the +parapet of Blackfriars Bridge and watch the current sort of swirling +round the piers, and he used to say as how he could hear what the +river was saying. I used to think him loony. But it was po'try, +sonny, all the time." + +The old man, thus started on reminiscence, continued, somewhat +garrulous, and Paul, sunk in the armchair by the fire, listened +indulgently, waiting for Jane. She, meanwhile, was occupied upstairs +and in the library answering telephone messages and sending word out +to callers by the maid. For, on the heels of Paul, as Barney Bill +had said, many had come on errand of inquiry and condolence and all +the news agencies and newspapers of London seemed to be on the +telephone. Some of the latter tried for speech with the newly elected +candidate whom they understood to be in the house, but Jane denied +them firmly. She had had some training as a politician's private +secretary. At last the clanging bell ceased ringing, and the maid +ceased running to and from the street door, and the doctor had come +and given his certificate and gone, and Jane joined the pair in the +dining-room. She brought in from the hall a tray of visiting cards +and set it on the table. "I suppose it was kind of them all to +come," she said. + +She sat down listlessly in a straight-backed chair, and then, at a +momentary end of her fine strength suddenly broke into tears and +sobs and buried her head on her arms. Paul rose, bent over her and +clasped her shoulders comfortingly. Presently she turned and blindly +sought his embrace. He raised her to her feet, and they stood as +they had done years ago, when, boy and girl, they had come to the +parting of their ways. She cried silently for a while, and then she +said miserably: "I've only you left, dear." + +In this hour of spent effort and lassitude it was a queer physical +comfort, very pure and sweet, to feel the close contact of her +young, strong body. She, too, out of the wreck, was all that he had +left. His clasp tightened, and he murmured soothing words. + +"Oh, my dear, I am so tired," she said, giving herself up, for her +part also, to the foolish solace of his arms. "I wish I could stay +here always, Paul." + +He whispered: "Why not?" + +Indeed, why not? Instinct spoke. His people were her people and her +people his. And she had proved herself a brave, true woman. Before +him no longer gleamed the will-o'-the-wisp leading him a fantastic +dance through life. Before him lay only darkness. Jane and he, hand +in hand, could walk through it fearless and undismayed. And her own +great love, shown unashamed in the abandonment of this moment of +intense emotion' made his pulses throb. He whispered again: "Why +not?" + +For answer she nestled closer. "if only you could love me a little, +little bit?" + +"But I do," said Paul hoarsely. + +She shook her head and sobbed afresh, and they stood in close +embrace at the end of the room by the door, regardless of the +presence of the old man who sat, his back to them, smoking his pipe +and looking, with his birdlike crook of the neck, meditatively into +the fire. "No, no," said Jane, at last. "It's silly of me. Forgive +me. We mustn't talk of such things. Neither of us is fit to--and +to-night it's not becoming. I have lost my father and you are only +my brother, Paul dear." + +Barney Bill broke in suddenly; and at the sound of his voice they +moved apart. "Think over it, sonny. Don't go and do anything rash." + +"Don't you think it would be wise for Jane to marry me?" + +"Ay--for Jane." + +"Not for me?" + +"It's only wise for a man to marry a woman what he loves," said +Barney Bill. + +"Well?" + +"You said, when we was a-driving here, as you are going to live for +the Truth and nothing but the Truth. I only mention it," added the +old man drily. + +Jane recovered herself, with a gulp in the throat, and before Paul +could answer said: "We too had a talk to-day, Paul. Remember," her +voice quavered a little--"about carrots." + +"You were right in essence," said Paul, looking at her gravely. "But +I should have my incentive. I know my own mind. My affection for you +is of the deepest. That is Truth--I needn't tell you. We could +lead a happy and noble life together." + +"We belong to two different social classes, Paul," she said gently, +again sitting in the straight-backed chair by the table. + +"We don't," he replied. "I repudiated my claims to the other class +this evening. I was admitted into what is called high society, +partly because people took it for granted that I was a man of good +birth. Now that I've publicly proclaimed that I'm not--and the +newspapers will pretty soon find out all about me now--I'll drop +out of that same high society. I shan't seek readmittance." + +"People will seek you." + +"You don't know the world," said he. + +"It must be mean and horrid." + +"Oh, no. It's very just and honourable. I shan't blame it a bit for +not wanting me. Why should I? I don't belong to it." + +"But you do, dear Paul," she cried earnestly. "Even if you could get +rid of your training and mode of thought, you can't get rid of your +essential self. You've always been an aristocrat, and I've always +been a small shop-keeper's daughter and shall continue to be one." + +"And I say," Paul retorted, "that we've both sprung from the people, +and are of the people. You've raised yourself above the small +shop-keeping class just as much as I have. Don't let us have any +sham humility about it. Whatever happens you'll always associate +with folk of good-breeding and education. You couldn't go back to +Barn Street. It would be idiotic for me to contemplate such a thing +for my part. But between Barn Street and Mayfair there's a refined +and intellectual land where you and I can meet on equal ground and +make our social position. What do you say?" + +She did not look at him, but fingered idly the cards on the tray. +"To-morrow you will think differently. To-night you're all on the +strain." + +"And, axing yer pardon, sonny, for chipping in," said the old man, +holding up his pipe in his gnarled fingers, "you haven't told her as +how you loves her--not as how a young woman axed in marriage ought +to be told." + +"I've spoken the Truth, dear old friend," said Paul. "I've. got down +to bed-rock to-night. I have a deep and loyal affection for Jane. I +shan't waver in it all my life long. I'll soon find my carrot, as +she calls it--it will be England's greatness. She is the woman +that will help me on my path. I've finished with illusions for ever +and ever. Jane is the bravest and grandest of realities. To-night's +work has taught me that. For me, Jane stands for the Truth. Jane--" + +He turned to her, but she had risen from her chair, staring at a +card which she held in her hand. Her clear eyes met his for an +instant as she threw the card on the table before him. "No, dear. +For you, that's the Truth." + +He took it up and looked at it stupidly. It bore a crown and the +inscription: "The Princess Sophie Zobraska," and a pencilled line, +in her handwriting: "With anxious inquiries." He reeled, as if +someone had dealt him a heavy blow on the head. He recovered to see +Jane regarding him with her serene gravity. "Did you know about +this?" he asked dully. + +"No. I've just seen the card. I found it at the bottom of the pile." + +"How did it come?" + +Jane rang the bell. "I don't know. If Annie's still up, we can find +out. As it was at the bottom, it must have been one of the first." + +"How could the news have travelled so fast?" said Paul. + +The maid came in. Questioned, she said that just after Paul had gone +upstairs, and while Jane was at the telephone, a chauffeur had +presented the card. He belonged to a great lighted limousine in +which sat a lady in hat and dark veil. According to her orders, she +had said that Mr. Finn was dead, and the chauffeur had gone away and +she had shut the door. + +The maid was dismissed. Paul stood on the hearthrug with bent brows, +his hands in his jacket pockets. "I can't understand it," he said. + +"She must ha' come straight from the Town Hall," said Barney Bill. + +"But she wasn't there," cried Paul. + +"Sonny," said the old fellow, "if you're always dead sure of where a +woman is and where a woman isn't, you're a wiser man than Solomon +with all his wives and other domestic afflictions." + +Paul threw the card into the fire. "It doesn't matter where she +was," said he. "It was a very polite--even a gracious act to send +in her card on her way home. But it makes no difference to what I +was talking about. What have I got to do with princesses? They're +out of my sphere. So are Naiads and Dryads and Houris and Valkyrie +and other fabulous ladies. The Princess Zobraska has nothing to do +with the question." + +He made a step towards Jane and, his hand on her shoulder, looked at +her in his new, masterful way. "I come in the most solemn hour and +in the crisis of my life to ask you to marry me. My father, whom +I've only learned to love and revere to-night, is lying dead +upstairs. To-night I have cut away all bridges behind me. I go into +the unknown. We'll have to fight, but we'll fight together. You have +courage, and I at least have that. There's a seat in Parliament +which I'll have to fight for afterwards like a dog for a bone, and +an official position which brings in enough bread and-butter--" + +"And there's a fortune remarked Barney Bill. + +"What do you mean?" Paul swung round sharply. + +"Yer father's fortune, sonny. Who do yer suppose he was a-going to +leave it to? 'Omes for lost 'orses or Free Zionists? I don't know as +'ow I oughter talk of it, him not buried yet--but I seed his will +when he made it a month or two ago, and barring certair legacies to +Free Zionists and such-like lunatic folk, not to speak of Jane ere +being left comfortably off, you're the residuary legatee, sonny-- +with something like a hundred thousand pounds. There's no talk of +earning bread-and-butter, sonny." + +"It never entered my head," said Paul, rather dazed. "I suppose a +father would leave his money to his son. I didn't realize it." He +passed his hand over his eyes. "So many things have happened +to-night. Anyhow," he said, smiling queerly, in his effort to still +a whirling brain, "if there are no anxieties as to ways and means, +so much the better for Jane and me. I am all the more justified in +asking you to marry me. Will you?" + +"Before I answer you, Paul dear," she replied steadily, "you must +answer me. I've known about the will, just like Bill, all the time--" + +"She has that," confirmed the old man. + +"So this isn't news to me, dear, and can't alter anything from me to +you." + +"Why should it?" asked Paul. "But it makes my claim a little +stronger." + +"Oh, no," she replied, shaking her head. "It only--only confuses +issues. Money has nothing to do with what I'm going to ask you. You +said to-night you were going to live for the Truth--the real naked +Truth. Now, Paul dear, I want the real, naked Truth. Do you love +that woman?" + +At her question she seemed to have grown from the common sense, +clear-eyed Jane into a great and commanding presence. She had drawn +herself to her full height. Her chin was in the air, her generous +bust thrown forward, her figure imperious, her eyes intense. And +Paul too drew himself up and looked at her in his new manhood. And +they stood thus for a while, beloved enemies. + +"If you want the Truth--yes, I do love her," said he. + +"Then how dare you ask me to be your wife?" + +"Because the one is nonsensical and illusory and the other is real +and practical." + +She flashed out angrily: "Do you suppose I can live my woman's life +on the real and practical? What kind of woman do you take me for? An +Amelia, a Patient Griselda, a tabby cat?" + +Paul said: "You know very well; I take you for one of the +greatest-hearted of women. I've already said it to-night." + +"Do you think I'm a greater-hearted woman than she? Wait, I've not +finished," she cried in a loud voice. "Your Princess--you cut her +heart into bits the other day, when you proclaimed yourself a +low-born impostor. She thought you a high-born gentleman, and you +told her of the gutter up north and the fried-fish shop and the +Sicilian organ-grinding woman. She, royalty--you of the scum! She +left you. This morning she learned worse. She learned that you were +the son of a convict. What does she do? She comes somehow--I don't +know how--to Hickney Heath and hears you publicly give yourself +away--and she drives straight here with a message for you. It's +for you, the message. Who else?" She stood before Paul, a flashing +Jane unknown. "Would a woman who didn't love you come to this house +to-night? She wouldn't, Paul. You know it! Dear old Bill here, who +hasn't moved in royal circles, knows it. No, my dear man," she said +regally, "I've given you all my love--everything that is in me-- +since I was a child of thirteen. You will always have it. It's my +great joy that you'll always have it. But, by God, Paul, I'm not +going to exchange it for anything less. Can you give me the same?" + +"You know I can't," said Paul. "But I can give you that which would +make our marriage a happy one. I believe the experience of the world +has shown it to be the securest basis." + +She was on the point of breaking out, but turned away, with clenched +hands, and, controlling herself, faced him again. "You're an +honourable and loyal man, Paul, and you're saying this to save your +face. I know that you would marry me. I know that you would be +faithful to me in thought and word and act. I know that you would be +good and kind and never give me a moment's cause for complaint. But +your heart would be with the other woman. Whether she's out of your +sphere or not--what does it matter to me? You love her and she +loves you. I know it. I should always know it. You'd be living in +hell and so should I. I should prefer to remain in purgatory, which, +after all, is quite bearable--I'm used to it--and I love you +enough to wish to see you in paradise." + +She turned away with a wide gesture and an upward inflexion of her +voice. Barney Bill refilled his pipe and fixed Paul with his +twinkling diamond eyes. "It's a pity, sonny--a dodgasted pity!" + +"We're up against the Truth, old man, the unashamed and naked +truth," said Paul, with a sigh. + +Jane caught Paul's fur-lined coat and hat from the chair on which he +had thrown it and came to him. "It's time for you to go and rest, +dear. We're all of us exhausted." + +She helped him on with the heavy coat, and for farewell put both her +hands on his shoulders. "You must forget a lot of things I've said +to-night." + +"I can't help remembering them." + +"No, dear. Forget them." She drew his face down and kissed him on +the lips. Then she led him out to the front door and accompanied him +down the steps to the kerb where the car with its weary chauffeur +was waiting. The night had cleared and the stars shone bright in the +sky. She pointed to one, haphazard. "Your star, Paul. Believe in it +still." + +He drove off. She entered the house, and, flinging herself on the +floor by Barney Bill, buried her head on the old man's knees and +sobbed her brave heart out. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE next morning amazement fluttered over a million breakfast tables +and throbbed in a million railway carriages. For all the fierceness +of political passions, parliamentary elections are but sombre +occurrences to the general public. Rarely are they attended by the +picturesque, the dramatic, the tragic. But already the dramatic had +touched the election of Hickney Heath, stimulating interest in the +result. Thousands, usually apathetic as to political matters, opened +their newspapers to see how the ex-convict candidate had fared. They +read, with a gasp, that he was dead; that his successful opponent +had proclaimed himself to be his son. They had the dramatic value of +cumulative effect. If Paul had ever sought notoriety he had it now. +His name rang through the length and breadth of the land. The early +editions of the London afternoon papers swelled the chorus of amazed +comment and conjecture. Some had even routed out a fact or two, +Heaven knows whence, concerning father and son. According to party +they meted out praise or blame. Some, unversed in the law, declared +the election invalid. The point was discussed in a hundred clubs. + +There was consternation in the social world. The Duchesses' boudoirs +with which Paul had been taunted hummed with indignation. They had +entertained an adventurer unawares. They had entrusted the sacred +ark of their political hopes to a charlatan. Their daughters had +danced with the offspring of gaol and gutter. He must be cast out +from the midst of them. So did those that were foolish furiously +rage together and imagine many a vain thing. The Winwoods came in +for pity. They had been villainously imposed upon. And the Young +England League to which they had all subscribed so handsomely-- +where were its funds? Was it safe to leave them at the disposal of +so unprincipled a fellow? Then germs of stories crept in from the +studios and the stage and grew perversely in the overheated +atmosphere. Paul's reputation began to assume a pretty colour. On +the other hand, there were those who, while deploring the deception, +were impressed by the tragedy and by Paul's attitude. He had his +defenders. Among the latter first sprang forward Lord Francis Ayres, +the Chief Whip, officially bound to protect his own pet candidate. + +He called early at the house in Portland Place, a distressed and +anxious man. The door was besieged by reporters from newspapers, +vainly trying to gain, entrance. His arrival created a sensation. At +any Tate there was a headline "Opposition Whip calls on Savelli." +One or two attempted to interview him on the doorstep. He excused +himself courteously. As-yet he knew as much or as little as they. +The door opened. The butler snatched him in hurriedly. He asked to +see the Winwoods. He found them in the library. + +"Here's an awful mess," said he, throwing up his hands. "I thought +I'd have a word or two with you before I tackle Savelli. Have you +seen him this morning?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"Well, what do you think about it?" + +"I think," said Ursula, "that the best thing I can do is to take him +away with me for a rest as soon as possible. He's at the end of his +tether." + +"You seem to take it pretty calmly." + +"How do you expect us to take it, my dear Frank?" she asked. "We +always expected Paul to do the right thing when the time came, and +we consider that he has done it." + +The Chief Whip smoothed a perplexed brow. "I don't quite follow. +Were you, vulgarly speaking, in the know all the time?" + +"Sit down, and I'll tell you." + +So he sat down and Miss Winwood quietly told him all she knew about +Paul and what had happened during the past few weeks, while the +Colonel sat by his desk and tugged his long moustache and here and +there supplemented her narrative. + +"That's all very interesting," Ayres remarked when she had finished, +"and you two have acted like bricks. I also see that he must have +had a devil of a time of it. But I've got to look at things from an +official point of view." + +"There's no question of invalidity, is there?" asked Colonel +Winwood. + +"No. He was known as Paul Savelli, nominated as Paul Savelli, and +elected as Paul Savelli by the electors of Hickney Heath. So he'll +sit as Paul Savelli. That's all right. But how is the House going to +receive him when he is introduced? How will it take him afterwards? +What use will he be to the party? We only ran him because he seemed +to be the most brilliant of the young outsiders. We hoped great +things of him. Hasn't he smashed up himself socially? Hasn't he +smashed up his career at the very beginning? All that is what I want +to know." + +"So do I," groaned Colonel Winwood. "I didn't have a wink of sleep +last night." + +"I didn't either," said Ursula, "but I don't think it will matter a +row of pins to Paul in his career." + +"It will always be up against him," said Ayres. + +"Because he has acted like a man?" + +"It's the touch of Ruy Blas that I'm afraid of." + +"You must remember that he wasn't aware of his relation to the dead +man until the eve of the election." + +"But he was aware that he wasn't a descendant of a historical +Italian family, which everyone thought him to be. I don't speak for +myself," said Ayres. "I'm fond of the chap. One can't help it. He +has the charm of the great gentleman, confound him, and it's all +natural. The cloven hoof has never appeared, because I personally +believe there's no cloven hoof. The beggar was born well bred, and, +as to performance--well--he has been a young meteor across the +political sky. Until this election. Then he was a disappointment. I +frankly confess it. I didn't know what he was playing at. Now I do. +Poor chap. I personally am sympathetic. But what about the +cold-blooded other people, who don't know what you've told me? To +them he's the son of an ex-convict--a vendor of fried fish--I +put it brutally from their point of view--who has been +masquerading as a young St. George on horseback. Will he ever be +forgiven? Officially, have I any use for him? You see, I'm +responsible to the party." + +"Any party," said Ursula, "would be a congregation of imbeciles who +didn't do their best to develop the genius of Paul Savelli." + +"I'm fond of Paul," said Colonel Winwood, in his tired way, "but I +don't know that I would go as far as that." + +"It's only because you're a limited male, my dear James. I suppose +Caesar was the only man who really crossed the Rubicon. And the fuss +he made about it! Women jump across with the utmost certainty. My +dear Frank, we're behind Paul, whatever happens. He has been +fighting for his own hand ever since he was a child, it is true. But +he has fought gallantly." + +"My dear Miss Winwood," said Frank Ayres, "if there's a man to be +envied, it's the one who has you for his champion!" + +"Anyone, my dear Frank, is to be envied," she retorted, "who is +championed by common-sense." + +"All these fireworks illuminate nothing," said Colonel Winwood. "I +think we had better ask Paul to come down and see Frank. Would you +like to see him alone?" + +"I had rather you stayed," said Frank Ayres. + +A message was sent to Paul, and presently he appeared, very pale and +haggard. + +Frank Ayres met him with outstretched hand, spoke a courteous word +of sympathy, apologized for coming in the hour of tragic +bereavement. + +Paul thanked him with equal courtesy. "I was about to write to you, +Lord Francis," he continued, "a sort of statement in explanation of +what happened last night--" + +"Our friends have told me all, I think, that you may have to say." + +"I shall still write it," said Paul, "so that you can have it in +black and white. At present, I've given the press nothing." + +"Quite right," said Frank Ayres. "For God's sake, let us work +together as far as the press is concerned. That's one of the reasons +why I've forced myself upon you. It's horrible, my dear fellow, to +intrude at such a time. I hate it, as you can well imagine. But it's +my duty." + +"Of course it is," said Paul. There was a span of awkward silence. +"Well," said he, with a wan smile, "we're facing, not a political, +but a very unimportant party situation. Don't suppose I haven't a +sense of proportion. I have. What for me is the end of the world is +the unruffled continuance of the cosmic scheme for the rest of +mankind. But there are relative things to consider. You have to +consider the party. I'm sort of fly-blown. Am I any use? Let us talk +straight. Am I or am I not?" + +"My dear chap," said Frank Ayres, with perplexed knitting of the +brows, "I don't quite know what to say. You yourself have invited me +to talk straight. Well! Forgive me if I do. There may be a +suggestion in political quarters that you have won this election +under false pretences." + +"Do you want me to resign my seat?" + +The two men looked deep into each other's eyes. + +"A Unionist in is a Liberal out," said Frank Ayres, "and counts two +on division. That's one way of looking at it. We want all we can get +from the enemy. On the other hand, you'd come in for a lot of +criticism and hostility. You'd have to start not only from the +beginning, but with a handicap. Are you strong enough to face it?" + +"I'm not going to run away from anything," said Paul. "But I'll tell +you what I'm prepared to do. I'll resign and fight the constituency +again, under my real name of Kegworthy, provided, of course, the +local people are willing to adopt me--on the understanding, +however, that the party support me, or, at least, don't put forward +another candidate. I'm not going to turn berserk." + +"That's a sporting offer, at any rate. But, pardon me--we're +talking business--where is the money for another election to come +from?" + +"My poor father's death makes me a wealthy man," replied Paul. + +Miss Winwood started forward in her chair. "My dear, you never told +us." + +"There were so many other things to talk about this morning," he +said gently; "but of course I would have told you later. I only +mention it now"--he turned to the Chief Whip--"in answer to your +direct and very pertinent question." + +Now between a political free-lance adopting a parliamentary career +in order to fight for his own hand, as all Paul's supporters were +frankly aware that he was doing, and a wealthy, independent and +brilliant young politician lies a wide gulf. The last man on earth, +in his private capacity, to find his estimate of his friends +influenced by their personal possessions was the fine aristocrat +Lord Francis Ayres. But he was a man of the world, the very +responsible head of the executive of a great political party. As +that executive head he was compelled to regard Paul from a different +angle. The millions of South Africa or the Middle West might vainly +knock at his own front door till the crack of doom, while Paul the +penniless sauntered in an honoured guest. But in his official room +in the House of Commons more stern and worldly considerations had to +prevail. + +"Of course I can't give you an answer now," said he. "I'll have to +discuss the whole matter with the powers that be. But a seat's a +seat, and though I appreciate your Quixotic offer, I don't see why +we should risk it. It's up to you to make good. It's more in your +own interest that I'm speaking now. Can you go through with it?" + +Paul, with his unconquerable instinct for the dramatic, hauled out +the little cornelian heart at the end of his watch-chain. "My dear +fellow," said he. "Do you see that? It was given to me for failing +to win a race at a Sunday-school treat, when I was a very little +boy. I didn't possess coat or stockings, and my toes came out +through the ends of my boots, and in order to keep the thing safe I +knotted it up in the tail of my shirt, which waggled out of the seat +of my breeches. It was given to me by a beautiful lady, who, I +remember, smelled like all the perfumes of Araby. She awakened my +aesthetic sense by the divine and intoxicating odour that emanated +from her. Since then I have never met woman so--so like a scented +garden of all the innocences. To me she was a goddess. I overheard +her prophesy things about me. My life began from that moment. I kept +the cornelian heart all my life, as a talisman. It has brought me +through all kinds of things. Once I was going to throw it away and +Miss Winwood would not let me. I kept it, somewhat against my will, +for I thought it was a lying talisman. It had told me, in the +sweet-scented lady's words, that I was the son of a prince. Give me +half an hour to-morrow or the day after," he said, seeing a puzzled +look in Frank Ayres's face, "and I'll tell you a true psychological +fairy tale--the apologia pro vita mea. I say, anyhow, that lately, +until last night, I thought this little cornelian heart was a lying +talisman. Then I knew it didn't lie. I was the son of a prince, a +prince of men, although he had been in gaol and spent his days +afterwards in running emotional Christianity and fried-fish shops. +His name was Silas. Mine is Paul. Something significant about it, +isn't there? Anyhow"--he balanced the heart in the palm of his +hand--"this hasn't lied. It has carried me through all my life. +When I thought it failed, I found it at the purest truth of its +prophecy. It's not going to fail me now. If it's right for me to +take my seat I'll take it--whether I make good politically, or +not, is on the knees of the gods. But you may take it from me that +there's nothing in this wide world that I won't face or go through +with, if I've set my mind to it." + +So the child who had kicked Billy Goodge and taken the spolia opima +of paper cocked hat and wooden sword spoke through the man. As then, +in a queer way, he found himself commanding a situation; and as +then, commanding it rightfully, through sheer personal force. Again, +at a sign, he would have broken the sword across his knee. But the +sign did not come. + +"Speaking quite unofficially," said Frank Ayres, "I think, if you +feel like that, you would be a fool to give up your seat." + +"Very well," said Paul, "I thank you. And now, perhaps, it would be +wise to draw up that statement for the press, if you can spare the +time." + +So Paul made a draft and Frank Ayres revised it, and it was sent +upstairs to be typed. When the typescript came down, Paul signed and +dispatched it and gave the Chief Whip a duplicate. + +"Well," said the latter, shaking hands, "the best of good luck!" + +Whereupon he went home feeling that though there would be the deuce +to pay, Paul Savelli would find himself perfectly solvent; and +meeting the somewhat dubious Leader of the Opposition later in the +day he said: "Anyhow, this 'far too gentlemanly party' has got +someone picturesque, at last, to touch the popular imagination." + +"A new young Disraeli?" + +"Why not?" + +The Leader made a faint gesture of philosophic doubt. "The mould is +broken," said he. + +"We'll see," said Frank Ayres, confidently. + +Meanwhile, Paul returned to his room and wrote a letter, three words +of which he had put on paper--"My dear Princess"--when the +summons to meet the Chief Whip had come. The unblotted ink had dried +hard. He took another sheet. + +"My dear Princess," he began. + +He held his head in his hand. What could he say? Ordinary courtesy +demanded an acknowledgment of the Princess's message of inquiry. But +to write to her whom he had held close in his arms, whose lips had +clung maddeningly to his, in terms of polite convention seemed +impossible. What had she meant by her message? If she had gone +scornfully out of his life, she had gone, and there was an end on't. +Her coming back could bear only one interpretation--that of Jane's +passionate statement. In spite of all, she loved him. But now, +stripped and naked and at war with the world, for all his desire, he +would have none of her love. Not he. . . . At last he wrote: + +PRINCESS,--A thousand grateful thanks for last night's gracious +act--the act of the very great lady that I have the privilege of +knowing you to be. + +PAUL SAVELLI. + +He rang for a servant and ordered the note to be sent by hand, and +then went out to Hickney Heath to see to the burying of his dead. On +his return he found a familiar envelope with the crown on the flap +awaiting him. It contained but few words: + +PAUL, come and see me. I will stay at home all day. + +SOPHIE. + +His pulses throbbed. Her readiness to await his pleasure proved a +humility of spirit rare in Princess Sophie Zobraska. Her hands were +held out towards him. But he hardened his heart. The fairy-tale was +over. Nothing but realities lay before him. The interview was +perilous; but he was not one to shirk danger. He went out, took a +cab and drove to Berkeley Square. + +She rose shyly as he entered and advanced to meet him. He kissed her +hand, but when he sought to release it he found his held in her warm +clasp. "Mon Dieu! How ill you are looking!" she said, and her lips +quivered. + +"I'm only tired." + +"You look so old. Ah!" She moved away from him with a sigh. "Sit +down. I suppose you can guess why I've asked you to come," she +continued after a pause. "But it is a little hard to say. I want you +to forgive me." + +"There is nothing to forgive," said Paul. + +"Don't be ungenerous; you know there is. I left you to bear +everything alone." + +"You were more than justified. You found me an impostor. You were +wounded in everything you held sacred. I wounded you deliberately. +You could do nothing else but go away. Heaven forbid that I should +have thought of blaming you. I didn't. I understood." + +"But it was I who did not understand," she said, looking at the +rings on her fingers. "Yes. You are right. I was wounded--like an +animal, I hid myself in the country, and I hoped you would write, +which was foolish, for I knew you wouldn't. Then I felt that if I +had loved you as I ought, I should never have gone away." + +"I thought it best to kill your love outright," said Paul. + +She lay back on her cushions, very fair, very alluring, very sad. +From where he sat he saw her face in its delicate profile, and he +had a mighty temptation to throw himself on his knees by her side. + +"I thought, too, you had killed it," she said. + +"Still think so," said Paul, in a low voice. + +She raised herself, bent forward, and he met the blue depths of her +gaze. "And you? Your love?" + +"I never did anything to kill it." + +"But I did." + +"No, you couldn't. I shall love you to the hour of my death." He saw +the light leap into her eyes. "I only say it," he added somewhat +coldly, "because I will lie to you no longer. But it's a matter that +concerns me alone." + +"How you alone? Am not I to be considered?" + +He rose and stood on the hearthrug, facing her. "I consider you all +the time," said he. + +"Listen, mon cher ami," she said, looking up at him. "Let us +understand one another. Is there anything about you, your birth or +your life that I still don't know--I mean, anything essential?" + +"Nothing that matters," said Paul. + +"Then let us speak once and for all, soul to soul. You and I are of +those who can do it. Eh bien. I am a woman of old family, princely +rank and fortune--you--" + +"By my father's death," said Paul, for the second time that day, "I +am a rich man. We can leave out the question of fortune--except +that the money I inherit was made out of a fried-fish shop business. +That business was conducted by my father on lines of peculiar +idealism. It will be my duty to carry on his work--at least"--he +inwardly and conscientiously repudiated the idea of buying fish at +Billingsgate at five o'clock in the morning--"as far as the +maintenance of his principles is concerned." + +"Soit," said the Princess, "we leave out the question of fortune. +You are then a man of humble birth, and the rank you have gained for +yourself." + +"I am a man of no name and of tarnished reputation. Good God!" he +blazed out suddenly, losing control. "What is the good of torturing +ourselves like this? If I wouldn't marry you--before--until I +had done something in the front of the world to make you proud of +me, what do you think I'll do now, lying in the gutter for every one +to kick me? Would it be to the happiness of either of us for me to +sneak through society behind your rank? It would be the death of me +and you would come to hate me as a mean hound." + +"You? A mean hound?" Her voice broke and the tears welled up in her +eyes. "You have done nothing for me to be proud of? You? You who did +what you did last night? Yes, I was there. I saw and heard. Listen!" +She rose to her feet and stood opposite to him, her eyes all stars, +her figure trembling and her hands moving in her Frenchwoman's +passionate gestures. "When I saw in the newspapers about your +father, my heart was wrung for you. I knew what it meant. I knew how +you must suffer. I came up straight to town. I wanted to be near +you. I did not know how. I did not want you to see me. I called in +my steward. 'How can I see the election?' We talked a little. He +went and hired a room opposite the Town Hall. I waited there in the +darkness. I thought it would last forever. And then came the result +and the crowd cheered and I thought I should choke. I sobbed, I +sobbed, I sobbed--and then you came. And I heard, and then I held +out my arms to you alone in the dark room--like this--and cried: +'Paul, Paul!"' Woman conquered. Madness surged through him and he +flung his arms about her and they kissed long and passionately. + +"Whether you do me the honour of marrying me or not," she said a +while later' flushed and triumphant, "our lives are joined +together." + +And Paul, still shaken by the intoxication of her lips and hair and +clinging pressure of her body, looked at her intensely with the eyes +of a man's longing. But he said: "Nothing can alter what I said a +few minutes ago--not all the passion and love in the world. You +and I are not of the stuff, thank God, to cut ourselves adrift and +bury ourselves in some romantic island and give up our lives to a +dream. We're young. We're strong. We both know that life is a +different sort of thing altogether from that. We're not of the sort +that shirks its responsibilities. We've got to live in the world, +you and I, and do the world's work." + +"Parfaitement, mon bien aime." She smiled at him serenely. "I would +not bury myself with you in an Ionian island for more than two +months in a year for anything on earth. On my part, it would be the +unforgivable sin. No woman has the right, however much she loves +him, to ruin a man, any more than a man has the right to ruin a +woman. But if you won't marry me, I'm perfectly willing to spend two +months a year in an Ionian island with you," and she looked at him, +very proud and fearless. + +Paul took her by the shoulders and shook her, more roughly than he +realized. "Sophie, don't tempt me to a madness that we should both +regret." + +She laughed, wincing yet thrilled, under the rude handling, and +freed herself. "But what more can a woman offer the man who loves +her--that is to say if he does love her?" + +"I not love you?" He threw up his hands--"Dear God!" + +She waved him away and retreated a step or two, still laughing, as +he advanced. "Then why won't you marry me? You're afraid." + +"Yes," he cried. "It's the only thing on this earth that I'm afraid +of." + +"Why?" + +"The sneers. First you'd hate them. Then you'd hate and despise me." + +She grew serious. "Calme-toi, my dearest. just consider things +practically. Who is going to sneer at a great man?" + +"I the first," replied Paul bitterly, his self-judgment warped by +the new knowledge of the vanities and unsubstantialities on which +his life had been founded. "I a great man, indeed!" + +"A very great man. A brilliant man I knew long ago. A brave man I +have known, in spite of my pride, these last two or three awful +weeks. But last night I knew you were a great man--a very great +man. Ah, mon Paul. La canaille, whether it lives in Whitechapel or +Park Lane, what does it matter to us?" + +"The riff-raff, unfortunately," said Paul, "forms the general +judgment of society." + +The Princess drew herself up in all her aristocratic dignity. "My +Paul well-beloved," said she, "you have still one or two things to +learn. People of greatness and rank march with their peers, and they +can spit upon the canaille. There is canaille in your House of +Lords, upon which, the day after to-morrow, you can spit, and it +will take off its coronet and thank you--and now," she said, +resuming her seat on the sofa, among the cushions, "let us stop +arguing. If there is any more arguing to be done, let us put it off +to another occasion. Let us dismiss the questions of marriage and +Ionian islands altogether, and let us talk pleasantly like dear +friends who are reconciled." + +And with the wit of the woman who loves and the subtlety of the +woman of the world she took Paul in her delicate hands and held him +before her smiling eyes and made him tell her of all the things she +wanted to know. And so Paul told her of all his life, of Bludston, +of Barney Bill, of the model days, of the theatre, of Jane, of his +father; and he showed her the cornelian heart and expounded its +significance; and he talked of his dearest lady, Miss Winwood, and +his work on the Young England League, and his failure to grip in +this disastrous election, and he went back to the brickfield and his +flight from the Life School, and his obsessing dream of romantic +parentage and the pawning of his watch at Drane's Court; and in the +full tide of it all a perturbed butler appeared at the door. + +"Can I speak a word to Your Highness?" + +She rose. The butler spoke the word. She burst out laughing. "My +dear," she cried, "it's past nine o'clock. The household is in a +state of agitation about dinner. We'll have it at once, Wilkins." + +The butler bowed and retired. + +The Princess laughed again. "Of course you'll stay. I left Stephanie +at Morebury." + +And Paul stayed to dinner, and though, observing the flimsy compact, +they dismissed the questions of Ionian islands and marriage, they +talked till midnight of matters exceedingly pleasant. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SO the lovers were reconciled, although the question of marriage was +farther off than ever, and the Princess and Miss Winwood wept on +each other's shoulders after the way of good women, and Paul +declared that he needed no rest, and was eager to grapple with the +world. He had much to do. First, he buried his dead, the Princess +sending a great wreath and her carriage, after having had a queer +interview with Jane, of which neither woman would afterwards speak a +word; but it was evident that they had parted on terms of mutual +respect and admiration. Then Paul went through the task of settling +his father's affairs. Jane having expressed a desire to take over +the management of a certain department of the business, he gladly +entrusted it to her capable hands. He gave her the house at Hickney +Heath, and Barney Bill took up his residence there as a kind of old +watch-dog. Meanwhile, introduced by Frank Ayres and Colonel Winwood, +he faced the ordeal of a chill reception by the House of Commons and +took his seat. After that the nine-days' wonder of the scandal came +to an end; the newspapers ceased talking of it and the general +public forgot all about him. He only had to reckon with his +fellow-members and with social forces. His own house too he had to +put in order. He resigned his salary and position as Organizing +Secretary of the Young England League, but as Honorary Secretary he +retained control. To assure his position he applied for Royal +Letters Patent and legalized his name of Savelli, Finally, he +plunged into the affairs of Fish Palaces Limited, and learned the +many mysteries connected with that outwardly unromantic undertaking. + +These are facts in Paul's career which his chronicler is bound to +mention. But on Paul's development they exercised but little +influence. He walked now, with open eyes, in a world of real things. +The path was difficult, but he was strong. Darkness lay ahead, but +he neither feared it nor dreamed dreams of brightness beyond. The +Vision Splendid had crystallized into an unconquerable purpose of +which he felt the thrill. Without Sophie Zobraska's love he would +have walked on doggedly, obstinately, with set teeth. He had proved +himself fearless, scornful of the world's verdict. But he would have +walked in wintry gloom with a young heart frozen dead. Now his path +was lit by warm sunshine and the burgeon of spring was in his heart. +He could laugh again in his old joyous way; yet the laughter was no +longer that of the boy, but of the man who knew the place that +laughter should hold in a man's life. + +On the day when he, as chairman, had first presided over a meeting +of the Board of Directors of Fish Palaces Limited, he went to the +Princess and said: "If I bring with me 'an ancient and fish-like +smell, a kind of, not of the newest, Poor-John,' send me about my +business." + +She bade him not talk foolishly. + +"I'm talking sense," said he. "I'm going through with it. I'm in +trade. I know to the fraction of a penny how much fat ought to be +used to a pound of hake, and I'm concentrating all my intellect on +that fraction of a penny of fat." + +"Tu as raison," she said. + +"N'est-ce-pas? It's funny, isn't it? I've often told you I once +thought myself the man born to be king. My dreams have come true. +I am a king. The fried-fish king." + +Sophie looked at him from beneath her long lashes. "And I am a +princess. We meet at last on equal terms." + +Paul sprang forward impulsively and seized her hands. "Oh, you dear, +wonderful woman! Doesn't it matter to you that I'm running +fried-fish shops?" + +"I know why you're doing it," she said. "I wouldn't have you do +otherwise. You are you, Paul. I should love to see you at it. Do you +wait at table and hand little dishes to coster-mongers, ancien +regime, en emigre?" + +She laughed deliciously. Suddenly she paused, regarded him +wide-eyed, with a smile on her lips. + +"Tiens! I have an idea. But a wonderful ideal Why should I not be +the fried-fish queen? Issue new shares. I buy them all up. We +establish fish palaces all over the world? But why not? I am in +trade already. Only yesterday my homme d'affaires sent me for +signature a dirty piece of blue paper all covered with execrable +writing and imitation red seals all the way down, and when I signed +it I saw I was interested in Messrs. Jarrods Limited, and was +engaged in selling hams and petticoats and notepaper and furniture +and butter and--remark this--and fish. But raw fish. Now what +the difference is between selling raw fish and fried fish, I do not +know. Moi, je suis deja marchande de poissons, voila!" + +She laughed and Paul laughed too. They postponed, however, to an +indefinite date, consideration of the business proposal. + +As Paul had foreseen, Society manifested no eagerness to receive +him. Invitations no longer fell upon him in embarrassing showers. +Nor did he make any attempt to pass through the once familiar doors. +For one thing, he was proud: for another he was too busy. When the +Christmas recess came he took a holiday, went off by himself to +Algiers. He returned bronzed and strong, to the joy of his Sophie. + +"My dear," said Miss Winwood one day to the curiously patient lady, +"what is to come of it all? You can't go on like this for ever and +ever." + +"We don't intend to," smiled the Princess. "Paul is born to great +things. He cannot help it. It is his destiny, I believe in Paul." + +"So do I," replied Ursula. "But it's obvious that it will take him a +good many years to achieve them. You surely aren't going to wait +until he's a Cabinet Minister." + +The Princess lay back among her cushions and laughed. "Mais non. It +will all come in woman's good time. Laissez-moi faire. He will soon +begin to believe in himself again." + +At last Paul's opportunity arrived. The Whips had given him his +chance to speak. His luck attended him, in so far that when his turn +came he found a full House. It was on a matter of no vital +importance; but he had prepared his speech carefully. He stood up +for the first time in that strangely nerve-shaking assembly in which +he had been received so coldly and in which he was still friendless, +and saw the beginning of the familiar exodus into the lobbies. A +sudden wave of anger swept through him and he tore the notes of his +speech across and across, and again he metaphorically kicked Billy +Goodge. He plunged into his speech, forgetful of what he had +written, with a passion queerly hyperbolic in view of the subject. +At the arresting tones of his voice many of the withdrawing members +stopped at the bar and listened, then as he proceeded they gradually +slipped back into their places. Curiosity gave place to interest. +Paul had found his gift again, and his anger soon lost itself +completely in the joy of the artist. The House is always generous to +performance. There was something novel in the spectacle of this +young man, who had come there under a cloud, standing like a +fearless young Hermes before them, in the ring of his beautiful +voice, in the instinctive picturesqueness of phrase, in the winning +charm of his personality. It was but a little point in a Government +Bill that he had to deal with, and he dealt with it shortly. But he +dealt with it in an unexpected, dramatic way, and he sat down amid +comforting applause and circumambient smiles and nods. The old +government hand who rose to reply complimented him gracefully and +proceeded of course to tear his argument to tatters. Then an +ill-conditioned Socialist Member got up, and, blundering and +unconscious agent of Destiny in a fast-emptying House, began a +personal attack on Paul. Whereupon there were cries of "Shame!" and +"Sit down!" and the Speaker, in caustic tones, counselled relevancy, +and the sympathy of the House went out to the Fortunate Youth; so +that when he went soon afterwards into the outer lobby--it was the +dinner hour--he found himself surrounded by encouraging friends. +He did not wait long among them, for up in the Ladies' Gallery was +his Princess. He tore up the stairs and met her outside. Her face +was pale with anger. + +"The brute!" she whispered. "The cowardly brute!" + +He snapped his fingers. "Canaille, canaille! He counts for nothing. +But I've got them!" he cried exultingly, holding out clenched fists. +"By God, darling, I've got them! They'll listen to me now!" + +She looked at him and the sudden tears came. "Thank God," she said, +"I can hear you talk like that at last." + +He escorted her down the stone stairs and through the lobby to her +car, and they were objects of many admiring eyes. When they reached +it she said, with a humorous curl of the lip, "Veux-tu m'epouser +maintenant?" + +"Wait, only wait," said he. "These are only fireworks. Very soon +we'll get to the real thing." + +"We shall, I promise you," she replied enigmatically; and she drove +off. + +One morning, a fortnight later, she rang him up. "You're coming to +dine with me on Friday, as usual, aren't you?" + +"Of course," said he. "Why do you ask?" + +"Just to make sure. And yes--also--to tell you not to come till +half-past eight." + +She rang off. Paul thought no more of the matter. Ever since he had +taken his seat in the House he had dined with her alone every Friday +evening. It was their undisturbed hour of intimacy and gladness in +the busy week. Otherwise they rarely met, for Paul was a pariah in +her social world. + +On the Friday in question his taxi drew up before an unusual-looking +house in Berkeley Square. An awning projected from the front door +and a strip of carpet ran across the pavement. At the sound of the +taxi, the door opened and revealed the familiar figures of the +Princess's footmen in their state livery. He entered, somewhat +dazed. + +"Her Highness has a party?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir. A very large dinner party." + +Paul passed his hand over his forehead. What did it mean? "This is +Friday, isn't it?" + +"Of course, sir." + +Paul grew angry. It was a woman's trap to force him on society. For +a moment he struggled with the temptation to walk away after telling +the servant that it was a mistake and that he had not been invited. +At once, however, came realization of social outrage. He surrendered +hat and coat and let himself be announced. The noise of thirty +voices struck his ear as he entered the great drawing-room. He was +confusedly aware of a glitter of jewels, and bare arms and shoulders +and the black and white of men. But radiant in the middle of the +room stood his Princess, with a tiara of diamonds on her head, and +beside her stood a youngish man whose face seemed oddly familiar. + +Paul advanced, kissed her hand. + +She laughed gaily. "You are late, Paul." + +"You said half-past, Princess. I am here to the minute." + +"Je te dirai apres," she said, and the daring of the intimate speech +took his breath away. + +"Your Royal Highness," she turned to the young man beside her--and +then Paul suddenly recognized a prince of the blood royal of England-- +"may I present Mr. Savelli." + +"I'm very pleased to meet you," said the Prince graciously. "Your +Young England League has interested me greatly. We must have a talk +about it one of these days, if you can spare the time. And I must +congratulate you on your speech the other night." + +"You are far too kind, sir," said Paul. + +They chatted for a minute or two. Then the Princess said: "You'll +take in the Countess of Danesborough. I don't think you've met her; +but you'll find she's an old friend." + +"Old friend?" echoed Paul. + +She smiled and turned to a pretty and buxom woman of forty standing +near. "My dear Lady Danesborough. Here is Mr. Savelli, whom you are +so anxious to meet." + +Paul bowed politely. His head being full of his Princess, he was +vaguely puzzled as to the reasons for which Lady Danesborough +desired his acquaintance. + +"You don't remember me," she said. + +He looked at her squarely for the first time; then started back. +"Good God!" he cried involuntarily. "Good God! I've been wanting to +find you all my life. I never knew your name. But here's the proof." + +And he whipped out the cornelian heart from his waistcoat pocket. +She took it in her hand, examined it, handed it back to him with a +smile, a very sweet and womanly smile, with just the suspicion of +mist veiling her eyes. + +"I know. The Princess has told me." + +"But how did she find you out--I mean as my first patroness?" + +"She wrote to the vicar, Mr. Merewether--he is still at +Bludston--asking who his visitor was that year and what had become +of her. So she found out it was I. I've known her off and on ever +since my marriage." + +"You were wonderfully good to me," said Paul. "I must have been a +funny little wretch." + +"You've travelled far since then." + +"It was you that gave me my inspiration," said he. + +The announcement of dinner broke the thread of the talk. Paul looked +around him and saw that the room was filled with very great people +indeed. There were chiefs of his party and other exalted personages. +There was Lord Francis Ayres. Also the Winwoods. The procession was +formed. + +"I've often wondered about you," said Lady Danesborough, as they +were walking down the wide staircase. "Several thin happened to mark +that day. For one, I had spilled a bottle of awful scent all over my +dress and I was in a state of odoriferous misery." + +Paul laughed boyishly. "The mystery of my life is solved at last." +He explained, to her frank delight. "You've not changed a bit," said +he. "And oh! I can't tell you how good it is to meet you after all. +these years." + +"I'm very, very glad you feel so," she said significantly. "More +than glad. I was wondering . . . but our dear Princess was right." + +"It seems to me that-the Princess has been playing conspirator," +said Paul. + +They entered the great dining-room, very majestic with its long, +glittering table, its service of plate, its stately pictures, its +double row of powdered and liveried footmen, and Paul learned, to +his amazement, that in violation of protocols and tables of +precedence, his seat was on the right hand of the Princess. +Conspiracy again. Hitherto at her parties he had occupied his proper +place. Never before had she publicly given him especial mark of her +favour. + +"Do you think she's right in doing this?" he murmured to Lady +Danesborough. + +It seemed so natural that he should ask her--as though she were +fully aware of all his secrets. + +"I think so," she smiled--as though she too were in the +conspiracy. + +They halted at their places, and there, at the centre of the long +table, on the right of the young Prince stood the Princess, with +flushed face and shining eyes, looking very beautiful and radiantly +defiant. + +"Mechante," Paul whispered, as they sat down. "This is a trap." + +"Je le sais. Tu est bien prise, petite souris." + +It pleased her to be gay. She confessed unblushingly. Her little +mouse was well caught. The little mouse grew rather stern, and when +the great company had settled down, and the hum of talk arisen, he +deliberately scanned the table. He met some friendly glances--a +Cabinet Minister nodded pleasantly. He also met some that were +hostile. His Sophie had tried a dangerous experiment. In Lady +Danesborough, the Maisie Shepherd of his urchindom, whose name he +had never known, she had assured him a sympathetic and influential +partner. Also, although he had tactfully not taken up that lady's +remark, he felt proud of his Princess's glorious certainty that he +would have no false and contemptible shame in the encounter. She had +known that it would be a joy to him; and it was. The truest of the +man was stirred. They talked and laughed about the far-off day. +Incidents flaming in his mind had faded from hers. He recalled +forgotten things. Now and then she said: "Yes, I know that. The +Princess has told me." Evidently his Sophie was a conspirator of +deepest dye. + +"And now you're the great Paul Savelli," she said. + +"Great?" He laughed. "In what way?" + +"Before this election you were a personage. I've never run across +you because we've been abroad so much, you know--my husband has a +depraved taste for governing places--but a year or two ago we were +asked to the Chudleys, and you were held out as an inducement." + +"Good Lord!" said Paul, astonished. + +"And now, of course, you're the most-discussed young man in London. +Is he damned or isn't he? You know what I refer to." + +"Well, am I?' he asked pleasantly. + +"I'm glad to see you take it like that. It's not the way of the +little people. Personally, I've stuck up for you, not knowing in the +least who you were. I thought you did the big, spacious thing. It +gave me a thrill when I read about it. Your speech in the House has +helped you a lot. Altogether--and now considering our early +acquaintance--I think I'm justified in calling you 'the great Paul +Savelli.'" + +Then came the shifting of talk. The Prince turned to his left-hand +neighbour; Lady Danesborough to her right. Paul and the Princess had +their conventional opportunity for conversation. She spoke in +French, daringly using the intimate "tu"; but of all sorts of +things--books, theatres, picture shows. Then tactfully she drew the +Prince and his neighbour and Lady Danesborough into their circle, +and, pulling the strings, she at last brought Paul and the Prince +into a discussion over the pictures of the Doges in the Ducal Palace +in Venice. The young Prince was gracious. Paul, encouraged to talk +and stimulated by precious memories, grew interesting. The Princess +managed to secure a set of listeners at the opposite side of the +table. Suddenly, as if carrying on the theme, she said in a +deliberately loud voice, compelling attention: "Your Royal Highness, +I am in a dilemma." + +"What is it?" + +She paused, looked round and widened her circle. "For the past year +I have been wanting Mr. Savelli to ask me to marry him, and he +obstinately refuses to do so. Will you tell me, sir, what a poor +woman is to do?" + +She addressed herself exclusively to the young Prince; but her +voice, with its adorable French intonation, rang high and clear. +Paul, suddenly white and rigid, clenched the hand of the Princess +which happened to lie within immediate reach. A wave of curiosity, +arresting talk, spread swiftly down. There was an uncanny, dead +silence, broken only by a raucous voice proceeding from a very fat +Lord of Appeal some distance away: + +"After my bath I always lie flat on my back and bring my knees up to +my chin." + +There was a convulsive, shrill gasp of laughter, which would have +instantly developed into an hysterical roar, had not the young +Prince, with quick, tactful disregard of British convention, sprung +to his feet, and with one hand holding champagne glass, and the +other uplifted, commanded silence. So did the stars in their courses +still fight for Paul. "My lords, ladies and gentlemen," said the +Prince, "I have the pleasure to announce the engagement of Her +Highness the Princess Sophie Zobraska and Mr. Paul Savelli. I ask +you to drink to their health and wish them every happiness." + +He bowed to the couple, lifted his glass, and standing, swept a +quick glance round the company, and at the. royal command the table +rose, dukes and duchesses and Cabinet Ministers, the fine flowers of +England, and drank to Paul and his Princess. + +"Attrape!" she whispered, as they got up together, hand in hand. And +as they stood, in their superb promise of fulfilment, they +conquered. The Princess said: "Mais dis quelque chose, toi." + +And Paul met the flash in her eyes, and he smiled. "Your Royal +Highness, my lords, ladies and gentlemen," said he, while all the +company were racking their brains to recall a precedent for such +proceedings at a more than formal London dinner party; "the Princess +and myself thank you from our hearts. For me this might almost seem +the end of the fairy-tale of my life, in which--when I was eleven +years old--her ladyship the Countess of Danesborough" (he bowed to +the Maisie of years ago), "whom I have not seen from that day to +this, played the part of Fairy Godmother. She gave me a talisman +then to help me in my way through the world. I have it still." He +held up the cornelian heart. "It guided my steps to my dearest lady, +Miss Winwood, in whose beloved service I lived so long. It has +brought me to the feet of my Fairy Princess. But now the fairy-tale +is over. I begin where the fairy-tales end"--he laughed into his +Sophie's eyes--"I begin in the certain promise of living happy +ever afterwards." + +In this supreme hour of his destiny there spoke the old, essential +Paul, the believer in the Vision Splendid. The instinctive appeal to +the romantic ringing so true and so sincere awoke responsive chords +in hearts which, after all, as is the simple way of hearts of men +and women, were very human. + +He sat down a made man, amid pleasant laughter and bowings and +lifting of glasses, the length of the long table. + +Lady Danesborough said gently: "It was charming of you to bring me +in. But I shall be besieged with questions. What on earth shall I +tell them?" + +"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," he replied. +"What do the Princess and I care?" + +Later in the evening he managed to find himself alone for a moment +with the Princess. "My wonderful Sophie, what can I say to you?" + +She smiled victoriously. "Cry quits. Confess that you have not the +monopoly of the grand manner. You have worked in your man's way--I +in my woman's way." + +"You took a great risk," said he. + +Her eyes softened adorably. "Non, mon Paul, cheri. C'etait tout +arrange. It was a certainty." + +And then, Paul's dearest lady came up and pressed both their hands. +"I am so glad. Oh, so glad." The tears started. "But it is something +like a fairy-tale, isn't it?" + +Well, as far as his chronicler can say at present, that is the end +of the Fortunate Youth. But it is really only a beginning. Although +his party is still in opposition, he is still young; his sun is +rising and he is rich in the glory thereof. A worldful of great life +lies before him and his Princess. What limit can we set to their +achievement? Of course he was the Fortunate Youth. Of that there is +no gainsaying. He had his beauty, his charm, his temperament, his +quick southern intelligence--all his Sicilian heritage--and a +freakish chance had favoured him from the day that, vagabond urchin, +he attended his first and only Sunday-school treat. But personal +gifts and favouring chance are not everything in this world. + +On the day before his wedding he had a long talk with Barney Bill. + +"Sonny," said the old man, scratching his white poll, "when yer used +to talk about princes and princesses, I used to larf--larf fit to +bust myself. I never let yer seen me do it, sonny, for all the time +you was so dead serious. And now it has come true. And d'yer know +why it's come true, sonny?" He cocked his head on one side, his +little diamond eyes glittering, and laid a hand on Paul's knee. +"D'yer know why? Because yer believed in it. I ain't had much +religion, not having, so to speak, much time for it, also being an +old crock of a pagan--but I do remember as what Christ said about +faith--just a mustard seed of it moving mountains. That's it, +sonny. I've observed lots of things going round in the old 'bus. +Most folks believe in nothing. What's the good of 'em? Move +mountains? They're paralytic in front of a dunghill. I know what I'm +talking about, bless yer. Now you come along believing in yer +'igh-born parents. I larfed, knowing as who yer parents were. But +you believed, and I had to let you believe. And you believed in your +princes and princesses, and your being born to great things. And I +couldn't sort of help believing in it too." + +Paul laughed. "Things happen to have come out all right, but God +knows why." + +"He does," said Barney Bill very seriously. "That's just what He +does know. He knows you had faith." + +"And you, dear old man?" asked Paul, "what have you believed in?" + +"My honesty, sonny," replied Barney Bill, fixing him with his bright +eyes. "'Tain't much. 'Tain't very ambitious-like. But I've had my +temptations. I never drove a crooked bargain in my life." + +Paul rose and walked a step or two. + +"You're a better man than I am, Bill." + +Barney Bill rose too, rheumatically, and laid both hands on the +young man's shoulders. "Have you ever been false to what you really +believed to be true?" + +"Not essentially," said Paul. + +"Then it's all right, sonny," said the old man very earnestly, his +bent, ill-clad figure, his old face wizened by years of exposure to +suns and frosts, contrasting oddly with the young favourite of +fortune. "It's all right. Your father believed in one thing. I +believe in another. You believe in something else. But it doesn't +matter a tuppenny damn what one believes in, so long as it's worth +believing in. It's faith, sonny, that does it. Faith and purpose." + +"You're right," said Paul. "Faith and purpose." + +"I believed in yer from the very first, when you were sitting down +reading Sir Walter with the bead and tail off. And I believed in yer +when yer used to tell about being 'born to great things!" + +Paul laughed. "That was all childish rubbish," said he. + +"Rubbish?" cried the old man, his head more crooked, his eyes more +bright, his gaunt old figure more twisted than ever. "Haven't yer +got the great things yer believed yer were born to? Ain't yer rich? +Ain't yer famous? Ain't yer a Member of Parliament? Ain't yer going +to marry a Royal Princess? Good God Almighty! what more d'yer want?" + +"Nothing in the wide, wide world!" laughed Paul. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fortunate Youth, by William J. Locke + |