VIII
That evening, feeling that he had earned a little recreation, he wentto the Empire Theatre--not in Hanbridge, but in Leicester Square,London. The lease, with a prodigious speed hitherto unknown atSlossons', had been drawn up, engrossed and executed. The PiccadillyCircus land was his for sixty-four years.
"And I've got the old Chapel pulled down for nothing," he said tohimself.
He was rather happy as he wandered about amid the brilliance of theEmpire Promenade. But after half an hour of such exercise and of vainefforts to see or hear what was afoot on the stage, he began to feelrather lonely. Then it was that he caught sight of Mr. Alloyd, thearchitect, also lonely.
"Well," said Mr. Alloyd, curtly, with a sardonic smile. "They'vetelephoned me all about it. I've seen Mr. Wrissell. Just my luck! Soyou're the man! He pointed you out to me this morning. My design forthat church would have knocked the West End! Of course Mr. Wrissellwill pay me compensation, but that's not the same thing. I wanted theadvertisement of the building.... Just my luck! Have a drink, willyou?"
Edward Henry ultimately went with the plaintive Mr. Alloyd to hisrooms in Adelphi Terrace. He quitted those rooms at something aftertwo o'clock in the morning. He had practically given Mr. Alloyd adefinite commission to design the Regent Theatre. Already he waspractically the proprietor of a first-class theatre in the West End ofLondon!
"I wonder whether Master Seven Sachs could have bettered my day's workto-day!" he reflected as he got into a taxi-cab. He had dismissedhis electric brougham earlier in the evening. "I doubt if even MasterSeven Sachs himself wouldn't be proud of my little scheme in EatonSquare!" said he.... "Wilkins's Hotel, please, driver."
PART II
CHAPTER VII
CORNER-STONE