It may be said of Mr. Willings that his happy smile always walks in front of him. This smile makes music of his life, it means that once again he has been chosen, in his opinion, as the central figure in romance. No one can well have led a more drab existence, but he will never know it; he will always think of himself, humbly though elatedly, as the chosen of the G.o.ds. Of him must it have been originally written that adventures are for the adventurous. He meets them at every street corner. For instance, he a.s.sists an old lady off a bus, and asks her if he can be of any further help. She tells him that she wants to know the way to Maddox the butcher"s. Then comes the kind, triumphant smile; it always comes first, followed by its explanation, "I was there yesterday!" This is the merest sample of the adventures that keep Mr.
Willings up to the mark.
Since the war broke out, his zest for life has become almost terrible.
He can scarcely lift a newspaper and read of a hero without remembering that he knows some one of the name. The Soldiers" Rest he is connected with was once a china emporium, and (mark my words), he had bought his tea service at it. Such is life when you are in the thick of it.
Sometimes he feels that he is part of a gigantic spy drama. In the course of his extraordinary comings and goings he meets with Great Personages, of course, and is the confidential recipient of secret news.
Before imparting the news he does not, as you might expect, first smile expansively; on the contrary, there comes over his face an awful solemnity, which, however, means the same thing. When divulging the names of the personages, he first looks around to make sure that no suspicious character is about, and then, lowering his voice, tells you, "I had that from Mr. Farthing himself--he is the secretary of the Bethnal Green Branch,--h"sh!"
There is a commotion about finding a worthy chair for the reverent, and there is also some furtive pulling down of sleeves, but he stands surveying the ladies through his triumphant smile. This amazing man knows that he is about to score again.
MR. WILLINGS, waving aside the chairs, "I thank you. But not at all.
Friends, I have news."
MRS. MICKLEHAM. "News?"
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. "From the Front?"
MRS. TWYMLEY. "My Alfred, sir?"
They are all grown suddenly anxious--all except the hostess, who knows that there can never be any news from the Front for her.
MR. WILLINGS. "I tell you at once that all is well. The news is for Mrs.
Dowey."
She stares.
MRS. DOWEY. "News for me?"
MR. WILLINGS. "Your son, Mrs. Dowey--he has got five days" leave." She shakes her head slightly, or perhaps it only trembles a little on its stem. "Now, now, good news doesn"t kill."
MRS. TWYMLEY. "We"re glad, Mrs. Dowey."
MRS. DOWEY. "You"re sure?"
MR. WILLINGS. "Quite sure. He has arrived."
MRS. DOWEY. "He is in London?"
MR. WILLINGS. "He is. I have spoken to him."
MRS. MICKLEHAM. "You lucky woman."
They might see that she is not looking lucky, but experience has told them how differently these things take people.
MR. WILLINGS, marvelling more and more as he unfolds his tale, "Ladies, it is quite a romance, I was in the----" he looks around cautiously, but he knows that they are all to be trusted--"in the Church Army quarters in Central Street, trying to get on the track of one or two of our missing men. Suddenly my eyes--I can"t account for it--but suddenly my eyes alighted on a Highlander seated rather drearily on a bench, with his kit at his feet."
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. "A big man?"
MR. WILLINGS. "A great brawny fellow." The Haggerty Woman groans. ""My friend," I said at once, "welcome back to Blighty." I make a point of calling it Blighty. "I wonder," I said, "if there is anything I can do for you?" He shook his head. "What regiment?" I asked." Here Mr.
Willings very properly lowers his voice to a whisper. ""Black Watch, 5th Battalion," he said. "Name?" I asked. "Dowey," he said."
MRS. MICKLEHAM. "I declare. I do declare."
MR. WILLINGS, showing how the thing was done, with the help of a chair, "I put my hand on his shoulder as it might be thus. "Kenneth Dowey," I said, "I know your mother.""
MRS. DOWEY, wetting her lips, "What did he say to that?"
MR. WILLINGS. "He was incredulous. Indeed, he seemed to think I was balmy. But I offered to bring him straight to you. I told him how much you had talked to me about him."
MRS. DOWEY. "Bring him here!"
MRS. MICKLEHAM. "I wonder he needed to be brought."
MR. WILLINGS. "He had just arrived, and was bewildered by the great city. He listened to me in the taciturn Scotch way, and then he gave a curious laugh."
MRS. TWYMLEY. "Laugh?"
MR. WILLINGS, whose wild life has brought him into contact with the strangest people, "The Scotch, Mrs. Twymley, express their emotions differently from us. With them tears signify a rollicking mood, while merriment denotes that they are plunged in gloom. When I had finished he said at once, "Let us go and see the old lady.""
MRS. DOWEY, backing, which is the first movement she has made since he began his tale, "Is he--coming?"
MR. WILLINGS, gloriously, "He has come. He is up there. I told him I thought I had better break the joyful news to you."
Three women rush to the window. Mrs. Dowey looks at her pantry door, but perhaps she remembers that it does not lock on the inside. She stands rigid, though her face has gone very grey.
MRS. DOWEY. "Kindly get them to go away."
MR. WILLINGS. "Ladies, I think this happy occasion scarcely requires you." He is not the man to ask of woman a sacrifice that he is not prepared to make himself. "I also am going instantly." They all survey Mrs. Dowey, and understand--or think they understand.
MRS. TWYMLEY, pail and mop in hand, "I would thank none for their company if my Alfred was at the door."
MRS. MICKLEHAM, similarly burdened, "The same from me. Shall I send him down, Mrs. Dowey?" The old lady does not hear her. She is listening, terrified, for a step on the stairs. "Look at the poor, joyous thing, sir. She has his letters in her hand."
The three women go. Mr. Willings puts a kind hand on Mrs. Dowey"s shoulder. He thinks he so thoroughly understands the situation.
MR. WILLINGS. "A good son, Mrs. Dowey, to have written to you so often."
Our old criminal quakes, but she grips the letters more tightly. Private Dowey descends.
"Dowey, my friend, there she is, waiting for you, with your letters in her hand."
DOWEY, grimly, "That"s great."
Mr. Willings ascends the stair without one backward glance, like the good gentleman he is; and the Doweys are left together, with nearly the whole room between them. He is a great rough chunk of Scotland, howked out of her not so much neatly as liberally; and in his Black Watch uniform, all caked with mud, his kit and nearly all his worldly possessions on his back, he is an apparition scarcely less fearsome (but so much less ragged) than those ancestors of his who trotted with Prince Charlie to Derby. He stands silent, scowling at the old lady, daring her to raise her head; and she would like very much to do it, for she longs to have a first glimpse of her son. When he does speak, it is to jeer at her.
"Do you recognise your loving son, missis?" ("Oh, the fine Scotch tang of him," she thinks.) "I"m pleased I wrote so often." ("Oh, but he"s _raized_," she thinks.) He strides towards her, and seizes the letters roughly, "Let"s see them."
There is a string round the package, and he unties it, and examines the letters at his leisure with much curiosity. The envelopes are in order, all addressed in pencil to Mrs. Dowey, with the proud words "Opened by Censor" on them. But the letter paper inside contains not a word of writing.
"Nothing but blank paper! Is this your writing in pencil on the envelope?" She nods, and he gives the matter further consideration.