CHAPTER V
IT is no fun for George now, when everybody knows he is a married man. Lady Scilly took care of that, and told everybody as a good joke, and all her friends at the Go-ahead Club told their friends how George Vero-Taylors little girl had burst into the middle of his lecture there and given him awaysuch fun, dont you know! It wasnt fun for me, for I had nothing but the consciousness of a bad action to support me in Coventry, where they all put me for a month. It wouldnt have mattered so much if George hadnt been at home a good deal about that time. I think I prefer George as a visitor, and so does Elizabeth Cawthorne, though she says it is more natural perhaps for a gentleman to stop with his family, though wearing to the servants.
George is a philosopher. He has been forced to own up to a family, and thus has lost a certain amount of prestige, but he is now trying a new line. At any rate, he has been a good deal talked about, and got into the newspapers, and that will sell an edition, I should think. He has a volume on the stocks. Misfortunes never come single-handed, luckily. He settled to build a housea house that should express him and shelter his family as well. Mother didnt want to build. If we had to move, she wanted a dear little house on the river at Datchet, or even at Surbiton, and she and I used to go down for the day third-class to see if there were any to let. We used to take a packet of sandwiches and a soda-water bottle full of milk for us both. Mother never hardly touches spirits. In this way we looked over heaps of little earwiggeries trimmed with clematises and pots of geraniums hanging from the balconies, with their poor roots higher than their heads, and manicured lawns right down to the waters edge. George didnt stop our doing this and taking so much trouble; I believe he thought it amused us and did him no harm. But all the time, he was hansoming it backwards and forwards to St. Johns Wood, where he meant to settle. He quietly chose a site, and bought it, and was his own architect, though a little Mr. Jortin he discovered, made the plans from his dictation. He got no credit, except for the blunders. George, being a man of the widest culture, wanted to show the world that he can do other things than write books. In Whos Who, he doesnt mention writing as one of his occupations, not even as one of his amusements. These are Riding, Driving, Shooting, Fishing, Fencing, Polo, Rotting and Log-rolling, or at least, thats what his friend Mr. Aix read out to us one afternoon he came to see us, out of the very newest edition, and George was in the room too, and laughed.
All this time Ariadne and I were kept hard at it copying things. George talked of nothing but atriums and tricliniums and environments. I only interrupted once, when I said that they had never mentioned a main staircase, and was it going to be outside, like those wooden ones you see in the country, with the fowls stepping up to bed on them? They thanked me, and added an inside stairs to the plan at once.
As soon as we get into the new house, George intends to raise his prices. He expects to get ten pounds per thou. He told Middleman, his literary agent, so. Up to now his price was four pound ten per thou. for articles, and the royalties on his last book are going to pay for the new house. Middleman says George will be quite right to charge establishment charges. Middleman is supposed to have a faint, very faint sense of humour, and thats the only way people get at him. Mr. Aix says Middleman can run up an authors sales twenty per cent. in no time, if he fancies you personally, or thinks theres money in you.
Georges new book is going to be not mediæval this time; people have imitated him and The Adventures of Sir Bore and Sir Weariful was brought out just to plague him, so he is going to quit that for a time. He thinks that the Isles of Greece would be a good place to dump a few English aristocrats and tell their adventures on. He will go abroad soon, but is waiting for some of the aristocrats to make up a party and pay his expenses.
Meanwhile Cinque Cento House, as it is to be called, rose like a thief in the night, and as it grew higher and higher Mothers face grew longer and longer. She refused to go near it, and it was Lady Scilly who helped George to arrange the furniture.
Aunt Gerty, however, is practical, and tried to get Mother to take some interest in her own mansion.
I do, Mother said, but at a distance. I couldnt be of any use advising, and whatever I advised, George would still take his own way. That odious woman, whom I thank God I have never set eyes on, is always about, and would put my back up if I met her there, and I should say things I should be sorry for after. No, Gerty, let them arrange it as they like, and buy furniture and set it up. It is Georges own money. He earned it.
Not by the sweat of his brow, at all events! sneered my aunt.
I came to him without a penny, and I havent the right to dictate so much as the position of a wardrobe.
Youre the mans lawful wife, said Aunt Gerty, as she always did. One got tired of the expression.
Yes, unfortunately, said Mother. Or Id have a better chance! But I am not going to fight over George with that minx!
How Mother did hate Lady Scilly, to be sure, a person she had never seen! I once told her she neednt be cross with Lady Scilly, and how harmless she was, and how very little she really thought of Papasnubbed him even, and treated him like dirt; and then she was cross with me, and said George was a man of whom any woman might be proud.
Ariadne and I went over to the new house often, to get measurements for blinds and curtains and things at home. Mother made them, and then we took them round. Lady Scilly was always there, from twelve to two, and George generally met her and they shut themselves into first one room and then another, discussing it. Vanloads of furniture kept coming in, and all Georges furniture from his old rooms in Mayfair. She kept saying
Oh, that dear old marquetry cabinet! How I remember it in Chapel Street, and how the firelight caught it in the evenings! or elseThat sweet little pair of Flemish bellows? Do you remember when you and Isomething or other?
She marched about and settled everything. George took it quite mildly, and made jokes, at least I suppose they were jokes, for he made her laugh consumedly, so she said. Its extraordinary how he can make people laughpeople out of his own family!
She is very friendly to me and Ariadne, and has promised to present Ariadne at the next Court. Its to please George, if she does remember to do it. But if I were Ariadne I should refuse till my own mother had been presented first, so that she could introduce me herself. George ought to insist on it, but he always says Let them rave! and that means, Do as you like, but dont bother me. What he wont like will be forking out forty pounds for Ariadnes dress, and it will end by her staying at home. Ariadne wants to be presented badly; she is practising curtseys already, and longing for the season to begin. I would not condescend to owe even a pleasure to Lady Scilly, but Ariadne is so poor-spirited, and Aunt Gerty continually advises her to take what she can get, and make what she can out of Georges mash, when well disposed.
About Easter, George got his chance. Lady Scilly proposed a months yachting trip in the Mediterranean in somebodys yacht that they were willing to lend her, on condition she invited her own party and included them. If I had a yacht, I would ask my own party, that is all I can say. She asked George to go with themWe shant see more of Mr. Pawky (i.e. the owner) than we can help, and you can have a study on board and write a yachting novel, like William Blacks, and put old Pawky in. He is quite a character, you know, with a gilded liver, as they saydyspeptic and all that. I cant stand him, but you might bear with him a little in the interests of Art! George had no objection to visiting the scene of his new book at Mr. Pawkys expense, in the company of his own pals, and accepted at once. I wonder if they will batten down the hatches on Mr. Pawky as soon as they get out to sea, and keep him there for the rest of the voyage? It would be just like them.
George proposed to Mother that she should move in while he was away. He said somebody must go in to get the painters out. Then he would come home fresh and full of material, and find his study organized and everything ready for him to begin. He said there would be ructions, inseparable from a first installation, and that would put him off work abominably, and spoil the whole brewing!
Dear, said Mother, I fear we shall do badly without youyou are a man, at leastbut Ill be good, and spare you cheerfully!
So he went. Then Mother set to work, and was perfectly happy. There was to be a sale in this house, because the furniture in it would not go with what George and Lady Scilly had chosen for Cinque Cento House, but there were some old pieces Mother could not do without. Her nice brass bedstead, and the old nursery fender that Ariadne nearly hanged herself on once in a fit of naughtiness, and of course all the bedding and linen and kitchen utensils from The Magnoliasone could hardly suppose Lady Scilly had troubled herself about that sort of thing? The greengrocer moved us for two pounds. Mother and Aunt Gerty and the cook saw the things off at Isleworth, and Ariadne and I and KateSarah had gone, and I never got any better reason than that she had toreceived them at Cinque Cento House. Mother had stuck to it, that she would not go near the place till she went in for good, so it was to be all quite new to her and Aunt Gerty. Ariadne and I, who had been in and out for months, wondered how they would like it, and expected some sport when their eyes first fell on it.
We had a long delightful day of anticipation, and putting things where they had to go, and in the evening Mother and Aunt Gerty came. They had got out of the train at Swiss Cottage, and asked their way to their own house. Aunt Gerty had her mouth wide open; Mother had hers tight shut. She was not intending to carp or pass opinions, but the front-door knocker was a regular slap in the face, and took her breath away.
She tried to talk of something else, and whispered to Aunt Gerty, Rather an inconvenient place for a coal-shoot, isnt it! Right alongside the front-door!
I hastened to explain that that was the larder-window she saw, to prevent unpleasantness.
Mother shivered when she got into the hall, which is vast and flagged with marble like a church. It strikes very cold to the feet! she said to Aunt Gerty. Mine are like so much ice.
Oh, come along, and well brew you a glass of hot toddy! Aunt Gerty said cheerfully. Its a bit chilly, I think, myself, but ansom, like the big all where Amlet as the players!
Aunt Gerty is generally most careful, but she is apt to drop a little h or so when she is excited. She could hardly contain herself, as Ariadne and I had hoped, when she saw the gilt stairs leading up into the study.
What price broken legs? Why, I shall have to get roller-skates or take off my shoes and stockings to go up them!
So you will, Aunt Gerty, said Ariadne. It is one of Georges rules. He made Lady Scilly even leave off her high heels before she used them.
Took em off for her himself with his lily hands, I suppose? snorted my aunt. Well, I dont expect you will find me treading those golden stairs very often. I aint one of Georges elect.
Such wretched things to keep clean, Mother complained. The servants are sure to object to the extra work, and give up their places, and I am sure one cant blame them, and such good ones as weve got, too, in these awful times, when looking for a cook is like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay. Heavens, is the girl there all the time listening to me?
Kate was, luckily, down-stairs, showing Elizabeth Cawthorne the way about her kitchen, or else it would have been very imprudent to tell a servant how valuable she is. Mother was cowed by the danger she had escaped, but Aunt Gerty went on flouncing about, pricing everything and tinkling her nails against pots and jugs, till she stopped suddenly and put her muff before her face
Well, of all the improper objects to meet a ladys eye coming into a gentlemans house! Whos that mouldy old statue of?
I told her that was Autolycus.
Cover yourself, Tollie, I would, Aunt Gerty said, going past him affectedly. Oh, look, Lucy, at all those dragons and cockroaches doing splits on the fire-place! Brass, too, trimmed copper. My God!
I shall just have to clean that brass fire-place myself, said Mother. I shall never have the face to ask Kate to do it.
And no proper grate, only the bare bricks left showing! Aunt Gerty wailed. How could one get up any proper fireside feeling over a contraption like that! The Lyceum scenery is nothing to it. It makes me think of Shakespeare all the timeso painfully meretricious
Lady Castlewood in a basket under Mothers arm, suddenly began to mew very sadly. Aunt Gerty had put Robert the Devil down on the floor, in his hamper, and I suppose a draught got to him, for he spat loudly. Ariadne and I let out the poor things and they bounced straight out on to the parquet floor, and their feet slid from under them. I never saw two cats look so silly!
Well, if a cat cant keep his feet on those wooden tiles, said Mother, I dont suppose I can, and she jumped, just to try, right into the middle of a little square of blue carpet, which, true enough, slid along with her.
You can give a nice hop here, at any rate, cried Aunt Gerty, catching her round the waist, and waltzing all over the room, till both their picture hats fell off, and hung down their backs by the pins. Ask me and all the boys, and give a nice sit-down supper, and do us as well as the old villain will allow you.
She was quite happy. That is just like an actress! Ariadne and I danced too, and the cats mewed loudly for strangeness. Cats hate newness of any kind, and they werent easy till I got some newspaper, crackled it, and let them sit on it, and then they were all right. Then Mother and Aunt Gerty rang the queer-shaped bell, as if it would sting them, and got up some coals which Mother had had the forethought to order in, and lit a modest little fire in a great cave with brass images in front of it under the kind of copper hood. It wouldnt draw at first, being used to logs, and when it smoked we threw water on it, lest we dirtied the beautiful silk hangings. At last we fetched Elizabeth Cawthorne.
Hout! she said. Id like to see the fire thats going to get the better of me!
She made it burn, sulkily, and Ariadne and I went to a shop we knew of round the corner, and bought tea and sugar and condensed milk, to make ourselves tea with the spirit-lamp Aunt Gerty had brought. We had no butter or bread, only biscuits luckily, so we couldnt stain the Cinque Cento chairs, whose gold trimmings were simply peeling off them. Sit on them we dared not, they would have let us down on the floor for a certainty. Mother and Aunt Gerty had a high old time blaming Lady Scilly for all her foolish arrangements, and then we all went down to the so-called kitchen to see how Elizabeth Cawthorne was getting on there. She was in a rage, but trying to pass it off, like a good soul as she is.
Well, I never! Heres a gold handle to my coal-cellar door! I shall have to wipe my lily hands before I dare use it. And a fine lady of a dresser that I shall be shy to set a plain dish on. Beetles here, do you ask, woman? (To Kate.) Theyd be ashamed to show their faces in such a smart place as this, Im thinking. And whats this couple of drucken little candlesticks for the kitchen? Our Katell soon rive the fond bit handles from off them, or shes not the girl I take her for!