IX
He found out, on the morning after the highly complex transactionof getting his family from Bursley to London, that London held moreproblems for him than ever. He was now not merely the proprietor of atheatre approaching completion, but really a theatrical manager with aplay to produce, artistes to engage, and the public to attract. He hadmade two appointments for that morning at the Majestic--(he was notat the Grand Babylon, because his wife had once stayed with him at theMajestic, and he did not want to add to his anxieties the business ofaccustoming her to a new and costlier luxury)--one appointment at ninewith Marrier, and the other at ten with Nellie, family and nurse. Hehad expected to get rid of Marrier before ten.
Among the exciting mail which Marrier had collected for him from theGrand Babylon and elsewhere, was the following letter:
"BUCKINGHAM PALACE HOTEL.
"DEAR FRIEND,--We are all so proud of you. I should like some time tofinish our interrupted conversation. Will you come and have lunch withme one day here at 1.30? You needn't write. I know how busy you are.Just telephone you are coming. But don't telephone between 12 and 1,because at that time I _always_ take my constitutional in St. James'sPark.--Yours sincerely, E.A."
"Well," he thought, "that's a bit thick, that is! She's stuck me upwith a dramatist I don't believe in, and a play I don't believe in,and an actress I don't believe in--and now she--"
Nevertheless, to a certain extent he was bluffing himself. For, as hepretended to put Elsie April back into her place, he had disturbingand delightful visions of her. A clever creature! Uncannily clever!Wealthy! Under thirty! Broad-minded! No provincial prejudices!... Hervoice, that always affected his spine! Her delicious flattery!... Shewas no mean actress either! And the multifariousness of her seductivecharm! In fact, she was a regular woman of the world, such as youwould read about--if you did read!... He was sitting with her againin the obscurity of the discussion-room at the Azure Society'sestablishment. His heart was beating again.
Pooh!...
A single wrench and he ripped up the letter, and cast it into one ofthe red-lined waste-paper baskets with which the immense and rathershabby writing-room of the Majestic was dotted.
Before he had finished dealing with Mr. Marrier's queries andsuggestions--some ten thousand in all--the clock struck, and Nellietripped into the room. She was in black silk, with hints here andthere of gold chains. As she had explained, she had nothing to wear,and was therefore obliged to fall back on the final resource of everywoman in her state. For in this connection "nothing to wear" signified"nothing except my black silk"--at any rate in the Five Towns.
"Mr. Marrier--my wife. Nellie, this is Mr. Marrier."
Mr. Marrier was profuse: no other word would describe his demeanour.Nellie had the timidity of a young girl. Indeed she looked quiteyouthful, despite the ageing influences of black silk.
"So that's your Mr. Marrier! I understood from you he was a clerk!"said Nellie, tartly, suddenly retransformed into the shrewd matron, assoon as Mr. Marrier had profusely gone. She had conceived Marrier as asort of Penkethman! Edward Henry had hoped to avoid this interview.
He shrugged his shoulders in answer to his wife's remark.
"Well," he said, "where are the kids?"
"Waiting in the lounge with nurse, as you said to be." Her miendelicately informed him that while in London his caprices would be herlaw, which she would obey without seeking to comprehend.
"Well," he went on, "I expect they'd like the parks as well asanything. Suppose we take 'em and show 'em one of the parks? Shall we?Besides, they must have fresh air."
"All right," Nellie agreed. "But how far will it be?"
"Oh!" said Edward Henry, "we'll crowd into a taxi."
They crowded into a taxi, and the children found their father inhigh spirits. Maisie mentioned the doll.... In a minute the taxi hadstopped in front of a toy-shop surpassing dreams, and they invadedthe toy-shop like an army. When they emerged, after a considerableinterval, nurse was carrying an enormous doll, and Nellie was carryingMaisie, and Ralph was lovingly stroking the doll's real shoes. Robertkept a profound silence--a silence which had begun in the train.
"You haven't got much to say, Robert," his father remarked, when thetaxi set off again.
"I know," said Robert, gruffly. Among other things, he resented hisbest clothes on a week-day.
"What do you think of London?"
"I don't know," said Robert.
His eyes never left the window of the taxi.
Then they visited the theatre--a very fatiguing enterprise, and also,for Edward Henry, a very nervous one. He was as awkward in displayingthat inchoate theatre as a newly-made father with his first-born.Pride and shame fought for dominion over him. Nellie was full oflaudations. Ralph enjoyed the ladders.
"I say," said Nellie, apprehensive for Maisie, on the pavement, "thischild's exhausted already. How big's this park of yours? Becauseneither nurse nor I can carry her very far."
"We'll buy a pram," said Edward Henry. He was staring at a newspaperplacard which said: "Isabel Joy on the war-path again. Will she win?"
"But--"
"Oh, yes. We'll buy a pram! Driver--"
"A pram isn't enough. You'll want coverings for her--in this wind."
"Well, we'll buy the necessary number of eider-downs and blankets,then," said Edward Henry. "Driver--"
A tremendous business! For in addition to making the purchases hehad to feed his flock in an A.B.C. shop, where among the unoccupiedwaitresses Maisie and her talkative, winking doll enjoyed a triumph.Still there was plenty of time.
At a quarter past twelve he was displaying the varied landscapebeauties of the park to his family. Ralph insisted on going to thebridge over the lake, and Robert silently backed him. And thereforethe entire party went. But Maisie was afraid of the water and cried.Now the worst thing about Maisie was that when once she had begun tocry it was very difficult to stop her. Even the most remarkable dollswere powerless to appease her distress.
"Give me the confounded pram, nurse," said Edward Henry. "I'll cureher."
But he did not cure her. However, he had to stick grimly to theperambulator. Nellie tripped primly in black silk on one side of it.Nurse had the wayward Ralph by the hand. And Robert, taciturn, stalkedalone, adding up London and making a very small total of it.
Suddenly Edward Henry halted the perambulator, and, stepping awayfrom it, raised his hat. An excessively elegant young woman leading aPekinese by a silver chain stopped as if smitten by a magic dart andheld spellbound.
"How do you do, Miss April?" said Edward Henry, loudly. "I was hopingto meet you. This is my wife. Nellie--this is Miss April." Nelliebowed stiffly in her black silk. (Naught of the fresh maiden abouther now!) And it has to be said that Elsie April in all her young andradiant splendour and woman-of-the-worldliness was equally stiff. "Andthere are my two boys. And this is my little girl--in the pram."
Maisie screamed, and pushed an expensive doll out of the perambulator.Edward Henry saved it by its boot as it fell.
"And this is her doll. And this is nurse," he finished. "Fine breezymorning, isn't it?"
In due course the processions moved on.
"Well, that's done!" Edward Henry muttered to himself. And sighed.
CHAPTER IX
THE FIRST NIGHT