lucian’s tragedy ran for precisely seventeen nights. the ‘attempt to revive tragedy on the lines of pure greek art’ was a failure. everybody thought the poetry very beautiful, but there were too many long speeches and too few opportunities for action and movement to satisfy a modern audience, and harcourt quickly discovered that not even magnificent scenery and crowds of supernumeraries arrayed in garments of white and gold and purple and green will carry a play through. he was in despair from the second night onwards, for it became evident that a great deal of cutting was necessary, and on that point he had much trouble with lucian, who, having revised his work to the final degree, was not disposed to dock it in order to please the gods in the gallery. the three weeks during which the tragedy ran were indeed weeks of storm and stress. the critics praised the poetry of the play, the staging, the scenery, the beauty and charm of everything connected with it, but the public yawned. in lucian’s previous play there had been a warm, somewhat primitive human interest—it took those who saw it into the market-place of life, and appealed to everyday passions; in the new tragedy people were requested to spend some considerable time with the gods in olympus amidst non-human characteristics and qualities. no one, save a few armchair critics like mr. chilverstone, wished to breathe this diviner air; the earlier audiences left the theatre cold and untouched. ‘it makes you feel,’ said somebody, ‘as if you had been sitting amongst a lot of marble statues all night and could do with something warming to the blood.’ in this way the inevitable end came. all the people who really wanted to see the tragedy had seen it within a fortnight; during the next few nights the audiences thinned and the advance bookings represented small future business, and{183} before the end of the third week harcourt had withdrawn the attempt to revive tragedy on the lines of pure greek art, and announced a revival of an adaptation from a famous french novel which had more than once proved its money-earning powers.
lucian said little of this reverse of fortune—he was to all appearance unmoved by it; but sprats, who could read his face as easily as she could read an open book, saw new lines write themselves there which told of surprise, disappointment, and anxiety, and she knew from his subdued manner and the unwonted reticence which he observed at this stage that he was thinking deeply of more things than one. in this she was right. lucian by sheer force of circumstances had been dragged to a certain point of vantage whereat he was compelled to stand and look closely at the prospect which confronted him. when it became evident that the tragedy was a failure as a money-making concern, he remembered, with a sudden shock that subdued his temperamental buoyancy in an unpleasant fashion, that he had not foreseen such a contingency, and that he had confidently expected a success as great as the failure was complete. he sat down in his study and put the whole matter to himself in commendably brief fashion: for several months he and haidee had been living and spending money on anticipation; it was now clear that the anticipation was not to be realised. the new volume was selling very slowly; the tragedy was a financial failure; very little in the way of solid cash would go from either to the right side of lucian’s account at darlington’s. and on the wrong side there must be an array of figures which he felt afraid to think of. he hurriedly cast up in his mind a vague account of those figures which memory presented to him; when he added the total to an equally vague guess of what haidee might have spent, he recognised that he must be in debt to the bank to a considerable amount. he had never had the least doubt that the tragedy would prove a gold-mine—everybody had predicted it. darlington had predicted it a hundred{184} times, and darlington was a keen, hard-headed business man. well, the tragedy was a failure—to use the expressive term of the man in the street, ‘there was no money in it.’ it was to have replenished lucian’s coffers—it left them yawning.
easy-going and thoughtless though he was, lucian had a constitutional dislike of owing money to any one, and the thought that he was now in debt to his bankers irritated and annoyed him. analysed to a fine degree, it was not that he was annoyed because he owed money, but because he was not in a position to cancel the debt with a few scratches of his pen, and so relieve himself of the disagreeable necessity of recognising his indebtedness to any one. he had a temperamental dislike of unpleasant things, and especially of things which did not interest him—his inherited view of life had caused him to regard it as a walk through a beautiful garden under perpetual sunshine, with full liberty to pluck whatever flower appealed to his eye, eat whatever fruit tempted his palate, and turn into whatever side-walk took his fancy. now that he was beginning to realise that it is possible to wander out of such a garden into a brake full of thorns and tangles, and to find some difficulty in escaping therefrom, his dislike of the unpleasant was accentuated and his irritation increased. but there was a certain vein of method and of order in him, and when he really recognised that he had got somewhere where he never expected to be, he developed a sincere desire to find out at once just where he was. the present situation had some intellectual charm for him: he had never in all his life known what it was to want money; it had always come to his hand as manna came to the israelites in the desert—he wondered, as these unwonted considerations for the present and the future filled him, what would develop from it.
‘it will be best to know just where one really is,’ he thought, and he went off to find his wife and consult with her. it was seldom that he ever conversed with her on any matter of a practical nature; he had long since{185} discovered that haidee was bored by any topic that did not interest her, or that she did not understand. she scarcely grasped the meaning of the words which lucian now addressed to her, simple though they were, and she stared at him with puzzled eyes.
‘you see,’ he said, feeling that his explanation was inept and crude, ‘i’d fully expected to have an awful lot of money out of the book and the play, and now, it seems, there won’t be so much as i had anticipated. of course there will be robertson’s royalties, and so on, but i don’t think they will amount to very much for the half-year, and——’
haidee interrupted him.
‘does it mean that you have spent all the money?’ she asked. ‘there was such a lot, yours and mine, together.’
lucian felt powerless in the face of this apparently childish remark.
‘not such a lot,’ he said. ‘and you know we had heavy expenses at first—we had to spend a lot on the house, hadn’t we?’
‘but will there be no more to spend?’ she asked. ‘i mean, has it all been spent? because i want a lot of things, if we are to winter in egypt as you proposed.’
lucian laughed.
‘i’m afraid we shall not go to egypt this winter,’ he said. ‘but don’t be alarmed; i think there will be money for new gowns and so on. no; what i just wished to know was—have you any idea of what you have spent since i transferred our accounts to darlington’s bank?’
haidee shrugged her shoulders. as a matter of fact she had used her cheque-book as she pleased, and had no idea of anything relating to her account except that she had drawn on it whenever she wished to do so.
‘i haven’t,’ she answered. ‘you told me i was to have a separate account, and, of course, i took you at your word.’
‘well, it will be all right,’ said lucian soothingly. ‘i’ll see about everything.’{186}
he was going away, desirous of closing any discussion of the subject, but haidee stopped him.
‘of course it makes a big difference if your books don’t sell and people won’t go to your plays,’ she said. ‘that doesn’t bring money, does it?’
‘my dear child!’ exclaimed lucian, ‘how terribly perturbed you look! one must expect an occasional dose of bad luck. the next book will probably sell by the tens of thousands, and the next play run for a hundred years!’
‘they were saying at lady firmanence’s the other afternoon that you had had your day,’ she said, looking inquiringly at him. ‘do you think you have?’
‘i hope i have quite a big day to come yet,’ he answered quietly. ‘you shouldn’t listen to that sort of thing—about me.’
then he left her and went back to his study and thought matters over once more. ‘i’ll find out exactly where i am,’ he thought at last, and he went out and got into a hansom and was driven to lombard street—he meant to ascertain his exact position at the bank. when he entered, with a request for an interview with mr. eustace darlington, he found that the latter was out of town, and for a moment he thought of postponing his inquiries. then he reflected that others could probably give him the information he sought, and he asked to see the manager. five minutes after entering the manager’s private room he knew exactly how he stood with messrs. darlington and darlington. he owed them close upon nine thousand pounds.
lucian, bending over the slip of paper upon which the manager had jotted down a memorandum of the figures, trusted that the surprise which he felt was not being displayed in his features. he folded the paper, placed it in his pocket, thanked the manager for his courtesy, and left the bank. once outside he looked at the paper again: the manager had made a distinction between mr. damerel’s account and his wife’s. mr. damerel’s was about eighteen hundred pounds in debt; mrs. damerel’s{187} separate account had been drawn against to the extent of nearly seven thousand pounds. lucian knew what had become of the money which he had spent, but he was puzzled beyond measure to account for the sums which haidee had gone through within a few months.
whenever he was in any doubt or perplexity as to practical matters lucian invariably turned to sprats, and he now called a hansom and bade the man drive to bayswater. he knew, from long experience of her, that he could tell sprats anything and everything, and that she would never once say ‘i told you so!’ or ‘i knew how it would turn out!’ or ‘didn’t i warn you?’ she might scold him; she would almost certainly tell him that he was a fool; but she wouldn’t pose as a superior person, or howl over the milk which he had spilled—instead, she would tell him quietly what was the best thing to do.
he found her alone, and he approached her with the old boyish formula which she had heard a hundred times since he had discovered that she knew a great deal more about many things than he knew himself.
‘i say, sprats, i’m in a bit of a hole!’ he began.
‘and, of course, you want me to pull you out. well, what is it?’ she asked, gazing steadily at him and making a shrewd guess at the sort of hole into which he had fallen. ‘do the usual, lucian, tell everything.’
when he liked to be so, lucian was the most candid of men. he laid bare his soul to sprats on occasions like these in a fashion which would greatly have edified a confessor. he kept nothing back; he made no excuses; he added no coat of paint or touch of white-wash. he set forth a plain, unvarnished statement, without comment or explanation; it was a brutally clear and lucid account of facts which would have honoured an old bailey lawyer. it was one of his gifts, and sprats never had an instance of it presented to her notice without wondering how it was that a man who could marshal facts so well and put them before others in such{188} a crisp and concise fashion should be so unpractical in the stern business of life.
‘and that’s just how things are,’ concluded lucian, ‘what do you advise me to do?’
‘there is one thing to be done at once,’ she answered, without hesitation. ‘you must get out of debt to darlington; you must pay him every penny that you owe him as quickly as possible. you say you owe him nearly nine thousand pounds: very good. how much have you got towards paying that off?’
lucian sighed deeply.
‘that’s just it!’ he exclaimed. ‘i don’t exactly know. let me see, now; well, look here, sprats—you won’t tell, of course—mr. pepperdine owes me a thousand—at least i mean to say i lent him a thousand, but then, don’t you know, he has always been so good to me, that——’
‘i think you had better chuck sentiment,’ she said. ‘mr. pepperdine has a thousand of yours. very well—go on.’
‘i’ve been thinking,’ he continued, ‘that i might now ask him for the money which my father left me. he has had full charge of that, you know. i’ve never known what it was. i dare say it was rather heavily dipped into during the time i was at oxford, but there may be something left.’
‘has he never told you anything about it?’ asked sprats.
‘very little. indeed, i have never asked him anything—i could trust him with everything. it’s quite possible there may not be a penny; he may have spent it all on me before i came of age,’ said lucian. ‘still, if there is anything, it would go towards making up the nine thousand, wouldn’t it?’
‘well, leave it out of the question at present,’ she answered. ‘what else have you coming in soon?’
‘harcourt has two hundred of mine, and robertson about three hundred.’
‘that’s another five hundred. well, and the rest?’{189}
‘i think that’s the lot,’ he said.
‘there are people who owe you money,’ she said. ‘come, now, lucian, you know there are.’
lucian began to wriggle and to study the pattern of the hearthrug.
‘oh! ah! well!’ he said, ‘i—i dare say i have lent other men a little now and then.’
‘better say given,’ she interrupted. ‘i was only wondering if there was any considerable sum that you could get in.’
‘no, really,’ he answered.
‘very well; then you’ve got fifteen hundred towards your nine thousand. that’s all, eh?’ she asked.
‘all that i know of,’ he said.
‘well, there are other things,’ she remarked, with some emphasis. ‘there are your copyrights and your furniture, pictures, books, and curiosities.’
lucian’s mouth opened and he uttered a sort of groan.
‘you don’t mean that i should—sell any of these?’ he said, looking at her entreatingly.
‘i’d sell the very clothes off my back before i’d owe a penny to darlington!’ she replied. ‘don’t be a sentimental ass, lucian; books in vellum bindings, and pictures by old masters, and unique pots and pans and platters, don’t make life! sell every blessed thing you’ve got rather than owe darlington money. pay him off, get out of that house, live in simpler fashion, and you’ll be a happier man.’
lucian sat for some moments in silence, staring at the hearthrug. at last he looked up. sprats saw something new in his face—or was it something old? something that she had not seen there for years? he looked at her for an instant, and then he looked away.
‘i should be very glad to live a simpler life,’ he said. ‘i dare say it seems rather sentimental and all that, you know, but of late i’ve had an awfully strong desire—sort of home-sickness, you know—for simonstower. i’ve caught myself thinking of the old days, and—’ he paused, laughed in rather a forced way, and sitting{190} straight up in the easy-chair in which he had been lounging, began to drum on its arms with his fingers. ‘what you say,’ he continued presently, ‘is quite right. i must not be in debt to darlington—it has been a most kind and generous thing on his part to act as one’s banker in this fashion, but one mustn’t trespass on a friend’s kindness.’
sprats flashed a swift, half-puzzled look upon him—he was looking another way, and did not see her.
‘yes,’ he went on meditatively, ‘i’m sure you are right, sprats, quite right. i’ll act on your advice. i’ll go down to simonstower to-morrow and see if uncle pepperdine can let me have that thousand, and if there is any money of my own, and when i come back i’ll see if robertson will buy my copyrights—i may be able to clear the debt off with all that. if not, i shall sell the furniture, books, pictures, everything, and haidee and i will go to italy, to florence, and live cheaply. ah! i know the loveliest palazzo on the lung’ arno—i wish we were there already. i’m sick of england.’
‘it will make a difference to haidee, lucian,’ said sprats. ‘she likes england—and english society.’
‘yes,’ he answered thoughtfully, ‘it will make a great difference. but she gave up a great deal for me when we married, and she’ll give up a great deal now. a woman will do anything for the man she loves,’ he added, with the air of a wiseacre. ‘it’s a sort of fixed law.’
then he went away, and sprats, after spending five minutes in deep thought, remembered her other children and hastened to them, wondering whether the most juvenile of the whole brood were quite so childish as lucian. ‘it will go hard with him if his disillusion comes suddenly,’ she thought, and for the rest of the day she felt inclined to sadness.
lucian went home in a good humour and a brighter flow of spirits. he was always thus when a new course of action suggested itself to him, and on this occasion he felt impelled to cheerfulness because he was meditating{191} a virtuous deed. he wrote some letters, and then went to his club, and knowing that his wife had an engagement of her own that night, he dined with an old college friend whom he happened to meet in the smoking-room, and to whom before and after dinner he talked in lively fashion. it was late when he reached home, and he was then more cheerful than ever; the picture of the old palazzo on the lung’ arno had fastened itself upon the wall of his consciousness and compelled him to look at it. haidee had just come in; he persuaded her to go with him into his study while he smoked a final cigarette, and there, full of his new projects, he told her what he intended to do. haidee listened without saying a word in reply. lucian took no notice of her silence: he was one of those people who imagine that they are addressing other people when they are in reality talking to themselves and require neither yea nor nay; he went on expatiating upon his scheme, and the final cigarette was succeeded by others, and haidee still listened in silence.
‘you mean to do all that?’ she said at last. ‘to sell everything and go to florence? and to live there?’
‘certainly,’ he replied tranquilly; ‘it will be so cheap.’
‘cheap?’ she exclaimed. ‘yes—and dull! besides, why this sudden fuss about owing darlington money? it’s been owing for months, and you didn’t say anything.’
‘i expected to be able to put the account straight out of the money coming from the book and the play,’ he replied. ‘as they are not exactly gold-mines, i must do what i can. i can’t remain in darlington’s debt in that way—it wouldn’t be fair to him.’
‘i don’t see that you need upset everything just for that,’ she said. ‘he has not asked you to put the account straight, has he?’
‘of course not!’ exclaimed lucian. ‘he never would; he’s much too good a fellow to do that sort of thing. but that’s just why i must get out of his debt—{192}it’s taking a mean advantage of his kindness. i’m quite certain nobody else would have been so very generous.’
haidee glanced at her husband out of the corners of her eyes: the glance was something like that with which sprats had regarded him in the afternoon. he had not caught sprats’s glance, and he did not catch his wife’s.
‘by the bye, haidee,’ he said, after a short silence, ‘i called at darlington’s to-day to find out just how we stand there, and the manager gave me the exact figures. you’ve rather gone it, you know, during the past half-year. you’ve gone through seven thousand pounds.’
haidee looked at him wonderingly.
‘but i paid for the diamonds out of that, you know,’ she said. ‘they cost over six thousand.’
‘good heavens!—did they?’ said lucian. ‘i thought it was an affair of fifty pounds or so.’
‘how ridiculous!’ she exclaimed. ‘diamonds—like these—for fifty pounds! you are the simplest child i ever knew.’
lucian was endeavouring to recall the episode of the buying of the diamonds. he remembered at last that haidee had told him that she had the opportunity of buying some diamonds for a much less sum than they were worth. he had thought it some small transaction, and had bidden her to consult somebody who knew something about that sort of thing.
‘i remember now,’ he said. ‘i told you to ask advice of some one who knew something about diamonds.’
‘and so i did,’ she answered. ‘i asked darlington’s advice—he’s an authority—and he said i should be foolish to miss the chance. and then i said i didn’t know whether i dare draw a cheque for such an amount, and he laughed and said of course i might, and that he would arrange it with you.’
‘there you are!’ said lucian triumphantly; ‘that’s just another proof of what i’ve been saying all along.{193} darlington’s such a kind-hearted sort of chap that he never said anything about it to me. well, there’s no harm done there, any way, haidee; in fact, it’s rather a relief to know that you’ve locked up six thousand in that way, because you can sell the diamonds and the money will go towards putting the account straight.’
haidee looked at him narrowly: lucian’s eyes were fixed on the curling smoke of his cigarette.
‘sell my diamonds?’ she said in a low voice.
‘yes, of course,’ said lucian; ‘it’ll be rather jolly if there’s a profit on them. oh yes, we must sell them. i can’t afford to lock up six thousand in precious stones, you know, and of course we can’t let darlington pay for them. i wonder what they really are worth? what a lark if we got, say, ten thousand for them!’
then he wandered into an account of how a friend of his had once picked up a ring at one of the stalls on the ponte vecchio in florence, and had subsequently sold it for just ten times as much as he had given for it. he laughed very much in telling his wife this story, for it had certain amusing points in it, and haidee laughed too, but if lucian had been endowed with a better understanding of women he would have known that she was neither amused nor edified.