"But that you, at your age--"
"My age? I am in the prime of life. Indeed, it is time I did something to show that I could have earned my own bread all along."
"I"m glad you look at it in that way," said Will, rather sadly. "Here am I, unable to earn a penny until my arm gets better. You know nothing specially of any business--"
"It is not too late to learn, my lad. There are plenty of things to which I could turn my hand. Imagine what a capital keeper I should be; and how I should overawe the trembling c.o.c.kneys invited down to a grand battue into giving me monstrous tips! Now let us look at the thing in another light."
He straightened himself up, as if throwing some weight off his shoulders. Then he relapsed into his old manner, and there was a sort of sad smile on his face.
"Edmond About," he said, "declares that all men are producers, and have therefore a right to the property they possess, except robbers, beggars, and gamblers. Doubtless the money I possessed was very valuable to the people to whom I lent it, and they paid me for putting its working powers at their disposal. You understand?"
"Yes."
"I was, in that sense, a producer, and had a right to the money on which I lived. M. About tells me that I had. But, in spite of that, I was always bothered by an uneasy conviction that the ancestor of mine who brought the money into the family could not have made it by his own hands. Indeed, I am convinced that my rich progenitor-who, let us say, came over with William-was nothing else than a prodigious thief, who either stole money in the shape of taxes, or the means of making money in the shape of land, from the people who then owned it. I therefore, you see, have no right to the possession of money acquired by robbery."
"You only discover that when the money is gone," said Will, accustomed to his father"s philosophic and easy way of taking things.
"Not at all. I have for some time back been proud to cla.s.s myself amongst the richest and oldest families of England, in regard to the moral shadiness of our right to live on the produce of gigantic thievery. You see--"
"I see, sir, that the moment you lose your money, you become a philosophic Radical."
"Ah, well," said Mr. Anerley, sending a sigh after his vanished riches, "I don"t think the misfortune has touched us much, when we can transfer it into the region of first principles. Perhaps I had better go up to town with you to-morrow, and see what practical issues it must lead to."
"And in the meantime," said Will, "don"t tell either of the women."
CHAPTER XXVI
THE COUNT"S CHANCE.
"Where is Mr. Melton?" asked the Count.
"Up in the "flies," sir, I believe," said the prompter. "Shall I send for him?"
"No, I shall go up to him," said the Count.
It was on the evening of the day on which he had told Will of Miall & Welling"s downfall. After having ascertained the truth of the report, he had gone to spend the remainder of the day at his club, in talking, reading, and dining; and when he did think of going round to the theatre, he found that the piece in which Annie Brunel played would be over, and she gone home. This was as he wished.
So he made his way up the well-worn wooden steps until he reached the "flies," where he found Mr. Melton, seated on the drum which rolled up the drop-scene, in earnest talk with a carpenter. On seeing the Count, the man walked away, and Mr. Melton rose.
"Welcome back to England!" said the manager, rather nervously. "I have been most anxious to see you."
"Ah," said the Count.
"Indeed, the strangest thing has happened-completely floored me-never heard the like," continued Mr. Melton, hurriedly. "Have you seen Miss Brunel?"
"No," said the Count.
"Not since you returned?"
"No."
"You are not acquainted with her resolution?"
"No."
"Then let me tell you what happened not half an hour ago in this very theatre. You see that scenery? It"s all new. The dresses are new-new music, new decorations, a new theatre, and-d--n it all!-it"s enough to make a man mad!"
"But what is it?" asked the Count of the abnormally excited manager.
"A few minutes ago Miss Brunel comes to me and says, "Mr. Melton, a word with you."
""Certainly," said I.
"Then she turned a little pale; and had that curious look in her eyes that she used to wear on the stage, you know; and said, clearly, "I am not going to act any more."
"When I had recovered breath, I said:
""Pardon me, Miss Brunel; you must. Look at the expense I have been put to in getting up this revival--"
"And then she grew excited, as if she were half-mad, and implored me not to compel her to fulfil her engagement. She said her acting was a failure; that everybody knew it was a failure; that she had an invincible repugnance to going on the stage again; and that nothing would tempt her to begin a new piece, either with me or with anybody else. I can a.s.sure you, Count Schonstein, now that I think over it, there never was a finer scene in any play than she acted then-with her despair, and her appeals, and her determination. I thought at first she was bewitched; and then I declare she was so nearly on the point of bewitching me, that I was almost agreeing to everything she asked, only--"
"Only what?"
"Only I remembered that the theatre was not only my own affair, and that I had no business to compromise its interests by-you understand?"
"Quite right-quite right," said the Count, hastily. "And then--?"
"Then she left."
"But what-what is the reason of her wishing to leave the stage?"
"I don"t know."
"Had she heard any-any news, for example?"
"I don"t know."
"Why, Melton, what a fellow you are!" cried the Count, peevishly. "I"m sure you could easily have found out, if you cared, what she meant by it."
"I tell you I was quite dumfoundered-"
"And she said nothing about any news-or her prospects-or a change--?"
"Nothing. From what she said, I gathered that she had come to dislike acting, and that she was convinced her future career would be wretched, both for herself and the house. You have never asked me about the theatre at all. The first two or three nights the curiosity of people to see her in the new part gave us some good business; but now the papers have changed their tune, and the public--"