The next thing that happened was that he was cut by Maddox at the Junior Journalists. (It was on a Sat.u.r.day, and _Metropolis_, _the_ number, had appeared the night before). Cut unmistakably, with a thrust from the blue eyes and an expressive turning of the enormous shoulders. A number once issued from his hands Rickman never looked at it again if he could help it, and he never troubled to look at it now.
He simply regarded Maddox"s behaviour as unaccountable. In the hope of lighting on some explanation he called at Tavistock Place one Sunday afternoon, at a time when he was pretty sure of finding Miss Roots alone. He wanted to know, he said, what was the matter with Maddy.
Apparently Miss Roots had something the matter with her too, for her only answer was to hand him stiffly a copy of _Metropolis_ with the pages scored in blue pencil at his own article. He took it with a radiant and confiding smile, a smile that a.s.sumed such a thoroughly delightful understanding between him and Miss Roots that the little lady, who had evidently counted on a very different effect, was put to some intellectual confusion. She noticed that as he read the smile vanished and gave place, first to an expression of absolute bewilderment, and then to a furious flush, whether of shame or indignation she could not tell, but it looked (again to her confusion) uncommonly like both.
"I see," he said quietly, and laid the paper aside.
What he had seen was that, save for a few ingenious transpositions, the two reviews stood very much as he had written them. The only striking alteration was that Mr. Fulcher had got the article and young Paterson the paragraph.
"Oh, you see, do you?" said Miss Roots bitterly. "That"s more than I do."
"I see there"s been some astonishing mistake." For one moment he exonerated Jewdwine and embraced the wild hypothesis of a printer"s error. He took back the accursed journal; as he held it his hand trembled uncontrollably. He glanced over the notices again. No. It was not after this fashion that the printers of the _Metropolis_ were wont to err. He recognized the familiar hand of the censor, though it had never before accomplished such an incredible piece of editing as this.
And yet it was in strict accordance with the old tradition. The staff of _Metropolis_ knew that before a line of theirs was printed it had to pa.s.s under their editor"s reforming hand; that was the understood condition on which they wrote for him at all; it was the method by which Jewdwine maintained the unity of his empire. But in the case of Rickman he either forbore to exercise his privilege, or exercised it in such a manner as preserved the individuality of the poet"s style.
Like some imperial conqueror Jewdwine had absorbed the literary spirit of the man he conquered, and _Metropolis_ bore the stamp of Rickman for all time. So now the style of the articles remained intact; they might have pa.s.sed equally for the work of Rickman or of Jewdwine.
"I suppose," he said helplessly, "it is a little short."
"Short? You weren"t bound to make it long; but there was no occasion to be so contemptuous."
"Contemptuous? Good G.o.d!"
"That"s what it amounts to when you"re so insufferably polite."
Oh yes he recognized it, the diabolical urbanity that had seemed the very choicest method of dealing with Mr. Fulcher.
"Politeness was not exactly all you led us to expect from you."
He pa.s.sed his hand wearily over his forehead and his eyes. Miss Roots had a moment of compunction. She thought of all that he had done for her. He had delivered her from her labours in the Museum; he had introduced her to the young men of _The Planet_, and had made Maddox send her many books to review; he had lifted her from the obscurity that threatened to engulf her. And he had done more for her than this.
He had given her back her youth and intellect; he had made her life a joy instead of a terror to her. But Miss Roots was just. The agony on his face would have melted her heart, but for another agony that she saw.
"If the poor boy knew that _you_ had written that paragraph--"
"He needn"t know unless some kind friend goes and tells him. It isn"t signed."
"No. I don"t wonder that you were ashamed to put your name to it."
He rose to go. She looked up at him with a queer little look, half penetrating and half pleading, and held out her hand.
"Well," she said, "what am I to say if he asks me if you wrote it? Can you deny it?"
"No," he said curtly, "I can"t deny it."
"And you can"t explain it?"
"No, and I can"t explain it. Surely," he said with a horrible attempt at laughter, "it speaks for itself."
"It does indeed, Keith."
And Maddox, to whom Miss Roots related the substance of that interview, echoed her sentiment.
"It does indeed."
Of all that brilliant band of young men lured by journalism to ruin they looked on their Rickman as the most splendid, the most tragic.
CHAPTER LXVIII
Up till now it had never occurred to Rickman that his connection with _Metropolis_ could directly damage him, still less that Jewdwine could personally inflict a blow. But the injury now done to him was monstrous and intolerable; Jewdwine had hurt him in a peculiarly delicate and shrinking place. Because his nature was not originally magnificent in virtue of another sort, it was before all things necessary that he should perserve his intellectual chast.i.ty. That quality went deeper than the intellect; it was one with a sense of honour so fine that a touch, impalpable to ordinary men, was felt by it as a laceration and a stain. He walked up to Hampstead that Sunday evening, taking the hill at a round swinging pace. Not all the ardour and enthusiasm of his youth had ever carried him there with such an impetus as did his burning indignation against Jewdwine. And as he went the spirit of youth, the spirit of young Paterson, went beside him and breathed upon the flame.
And yet he was the same man who only an hour ago had been defending Jewdwine"s honour at the expense of his own; without a thought that in so defending it he was doing anything in the least quixotic or remarkable. He had done nothing. He had simply refrained at a critical moment from giving him away. Maddox was Jewdwine"s enemy; and to have given Jewdwine away at that moment would have meant delivering him over to Maddox to destroy.
No; when he thought of it he could hardly say he had defended his friend"s honour at the expense of his own; for Jewdwine"s honour was Lucia"s, and Lucia"s was not Jewdwine"s but his, indistinguishably, inseparably his.
But though he was not going to give Jewdwine up to Maddox, he was going to give him up. It might come to the same thing. He could imagine that, to anybody who chose to put two and two together, an open rupture would give him away as completely as if he had accused him in so many words. That, of course he could not help. There was a point beyond which his honour refused to identify itself with Jewdwine"s. He had never felt a moment"s hesitation upon that point.
For in his heart he condemned his friend far more severely than Maddox could have condemned anybody. He had a greater capacity for disgust than Maddox. He would draw up, writhing at trifles over which Maddox would merely shrug his shoulders and pa.s.s on. In this instance Maddox, whose Celtic soul grew wanton at the prospect of a fight, would have fallen upon Jewdwine with an infernal joy, but he would have been the first to deprecate Rickman"s decision as absurd. As for Rankin of Stables, instead of flying into a pa.s.sion they would, in similar circ.u.mstances, have sat still and smiled.
If it had not been for young Paterson, Rickman would have smiled too, even if he had been unable to sit still; for his vision of Fulcher pocketing the carefully selected praise intended for Paterson was purely and supremely comic; so delightful in fact, that he could have embraced Jewdwine for providing it. But Paterson, who had looked to him as to the giver of life or death, Paterson on his death-bed taking Fulcher"s paragraph to himself and wondering whether it were indeed Rickman who had done this thing, the thought of Paterson was too painful to be borne. Honour or no honour, it would be impossible for him to work for Jewdwine after that.
He had got to make that clear to Jewdwine; and anything more unpleasant than the coming interview he could not well conceive.
Unpleasantness you would have said, was far from Jewdwine"s mind that Sunday evening. He himself suggested nothing of the sort. He was in his study, sitting in an armchair with a shawl over his knees, smoking a cigarette and looking more pathetically refined than ever after his influenza, when Rickman burst in upon his peace. He was so frankly glad to see him that his greeting alone was enough to disarm prejudice. It seemed likely that he would carry off the honours of the discussion by remaining severely polite while Rickman grew more and more perturbed and heated. Rickman, however, gained at the outset by making straight for his point. As Jewdwine gave him no opening he had to make one and make it as early as possible, before the great man"s amenities had time to lure him from the track.
"I wish," said he abruptly, "you"d tell me what was wrong with those reviews of mine, that you found it necessary to alter them?"
"The reviews? Oh, the reviews were all right--excellent material--they only wanted a little editing."
"Do you mind telling me what you mean by editing?"
"_That_ is the last point an editor is competent to explain."
"All the same I"d like to hear what you"ve got to say. I think you"ll admit that you owe me some explanation."
"My dear fellow--sit down, won"t you?--I admit nothing of the sort."
Jewdwine no longer stood on his dignity, he lay back on it, lounged on it, stretched all his graceful length upon it, infinitely at ease.
Time had mellowed his manners and made them incomparably gentle and humane.
"You seem to think I took a liberty with your articles. I didn"t. I merely exercised an ancient editorial right. I couldn"t possibly have let them be printed as they stood. Conceive my feelings if I"d had to sit next to Mr. Fulcher at dinner that evening. It might easily have happened. It"s all very well for you, Rickman; you"re young and irresponsible, and you haven"t got to sit next to Mr. Fulcher at dinner; but you"ll own that it would have been rather an awkward situation for me?"
"I can forgive you Fulcher, but I can"t forgive you Paterson."
"And I could have forgiven you Paterson, but I couldn"t forgive you Fulcher. Do you see?"
He allowed a few moments for reflection, and continued.
"Of course, I understand your feelings. In fact I sympathize profoundly. As a rule I never dream of touching anything with your signature; I"ve far too great a reverence for style."