"Try him, dear," said Mabel.
Dolly looked obstinate and said nothing just then, and Mabel did not think it well to refer to the matter again. But the next week, from certain little affectations of tremendous mystery on Dolly"s part, and the absence of the library copy of "Illusion" from the morning-room during one whole afternoon, after which it reappeared in a state of preternatural inkiness, Mabel had a suspicion that her suggestion was not so disregarded as it had seemed.
And a few days afterwards Mark found on his breakfast table an envelope from his publisher, which proved to contain a letter directed to "Mr. Ciril Ernstone," at the office. The letter was written in a round childish hand, with sc.r.a.pings here and there to record the fall of a vanquished blot.
"Dear Mr. Ciril Ernstone," it ran, "I want you to tell me how you knew that I ate that sugar prince in your story, and if you meant me really. Perhaps you made that part of it up, or else it was some other girl, but please write and tell me who it was and all about it, because I do so hate to think I"ve eaten up a real fairy without knowing it.--DOROTHY MARGARET LANGTON."
This poor little letter made Mark very angry; if he had written the story he would, of course, have been amused if not pleased by the nave testimony to his power; but, as it was, it annoyed him to a quite unreasonable extent.
He threw Dolly"s note pettishly across the table; "I wish I had cut that sugar prince story out; _I_ can"t tell the child anything about it. Langton, too--wonder if it"s any relation to my Langton--sister of his, perhaps--_he_ lives at Notting Hill somewhere. Well, I won"t write; if I do I shall put my foot in it somehow.... It"s quite likely that Vincent knew this child. She can"t be seriously unhappy about such a piece of nonsense, and if she is, it"s not _my_ fault."
Mark had never quite lost the memory of that morning in the fog, his brief meeting with Mabel, and the untimely parting by the hedge.
Subsequent events had naturally done something to efface the impression which her charm and grace had made upon him then; but even yet he saw her face at times as clearly as ever, and suffered once more the dull pain he had felt when he first knew that she had gone from him without leaving him the faintest hope of being ever privileged to know her more intimately or even see her again.
Sometimes, when he dreamed most wildly of the brilliant future that was to come to him, he saw himself, as the author of several famous and successful works (amongst which "Illusion" was entirely obscured), meeting her once more, and marking his sense of her past ingrat.i.tude by a studied coldness. But this was a possibility that never, even in his most sanguine moments, was other than remote.
If he had but known it, there had long been close at hand--in the shape of young Langton--a means which, judiciously managed, might have brought that part of his dream to pa.s.s immediately, and now he had that which would realise it even more surely and effectually.
But he did not know, and let the appeal lie unanswered that was due to Mabel"s suggestion--"the moral of which," as Alice"s d.u.c.h.ess might say, is that one should never neglect a child"s letter.
CHAPTER XIII.
A "THORN AND FLOWER PIECE."
"Illusion" had not been very long published before Mark began to have uncomfortable antic.i.p.ations that it might be on the way to achieve an unexpected success, and he was nearer the truth in this than he himself believed as yet. It might not become popular in the wider and coa.r.s.er sense of the word, being somewhat over the heads of the large cla.s.s who read fiction for the "story;" it might never find its way to railway bookstalls (though even this, as will appear, befell it in time,) or be considered a profitable subject for Transatlantic piracy; but it was already gaining recognition as a book that people of any culture should, for their own sakes, at least a.s.sume to have read and appreciated.
Mark was hailed by many judges of such things as a new and powerful thinker, who had chosen to veil his theories under the garb of romance, and if the theory was dissented from in some quarters, the power and charm of the book were universally admitted. At dinner parties, and in all circles where literature is discussed at all, "Illusion" was becoming a standard topic; friendships were cemented and intimacies dissolved over it; it became a kind of "shibboleth."
At first Mark had little opportunity of realising this to the full extent, for he went out seldom if at all. There had been a time in his life--before he had left Cambridge, that is--when he had mixed more in society; his undergraduate friends had been proud to present to their family circle a man with his reputation for general brilliancy, and so his engagements in the vacations had been frequent. But this did not last; from a feeling that his own domestic surroundings would scarcely bear out a vaguely magnificent way he had of alluding to his "place"
and his "people"--a way which was not so much deliberate imposition as a habit caught from a.s.sociates richer and higher up in the social scale--from this feeling, he never offered to return any of these hospitalities, and though this was not rigorously expected of him, it did serve to prevent any one of his numerous acquaintanceships from ripening into something more. When the crash came, and it was generally discovered that the reputed brilliant man of his year was a very ordinary failure, Mark found himself speedily forgotten, and in the first soreness of disappointment was not sorry to remain in obscurity for a season.
But now a reaction in his favour was setting in; his publishers were already talking of a second edition of "Illusion," and he received, under his name of "Cyril Ernstone," countless letters of congratulation and kindly criticism, all so pleasantly and cordially worded, that each successive note made him angrier, the only one that consoled him at all being a communication in a female hand which abused the book and its writer in the most unmeasured terms. For his correspondent"s estimate of the work was the one which he had a secret wish to see more prevalent (so long, of course, as it did not interfere with the success of his scheme), and he could almost have written to thank her--had she not, by some unfortunate oversight, forgotten to append her name and address.
The next stage in the career of the book was a discovery on someone"s part that the name of its author was an a.s.sumed one, and although there are many who would as little think of looking for the name of the man who wrote the play they see or the book they read as they would for that of the locomotive behind which they travel, there are still circles for whom the first two matters at least possess an interest.
And so several set out to run the actual author to earth, well a.s.sured that, as is fabled of the fox, he himself would enjoy the sport as much as his pursuers; and it is the fact that Mark might have given them a much longer run had he been anxious to do so, but, though he regretted it afterwards, the fruits of popularity were too desirable to be foregone.
There were some false cries at first. A "London correspondent" knew for a fact that the book was written by an old lady at a lunatic asylum in her lucid intervals; while a ladies" journal had heard that the author was a common carpenter and entirely self-educated; and there were other similar discoveries. But before they had time to circulate widely, it became somehow common knowledge that the author was a young schoolmaster, and that his real name was Mark Ashburn.
And Mark at once began to reap the benefit. His old friends sought him out once more; men who had pa.s.sed him in the streets with a careless nod that was almost as bad as a cut direct, or without even the smallest acknowledgment that a time had been when they were inseparables, now found time to stop him and ask if the rumours of his _debut_ in literature were really true.
By-and-by cards began to line his mantelpiece as in the old days; he went out once more, and met everywhere the kindness and courtesy that the world of London, whatever may be said against it, is never chary of showing towards the most insignificant person who has once had the good fortune to arouse its interest.
Mark liked it all at first, but as he saw the book growing more and more in favour, and the honours paid to himself increasing, he began to be uneasy at his own success.
He would not have objected to the book"s securing a moderate degree of attention, so as to prepare the public mind for the blaze of intellect he had in reserve for it--that he had expected, or at least hoped for--but the mischief of this ridiculous enthusiasm which everyone he met seemed to be affecting over this book of Holroyd"s was that it made an anticlimax only too possible when his own should see the light.
Mark heard compliments and thanks with much the annoyance a practised _raconteur_ must feel with the feeble listener who laughs heartily, while the point of the story he is being told is still in perspective.
And soon he wished heartily that the halo he felt was burning round his undeserving head could be moderated or put out, like a lamp--it was such an inconvenience. He could never escape from Holroyd"s book; people _would_ talk to him about it.
Sooner or later, while talking to the most charming persons, just when he was feeling himself conversationally at his very best, he would see the symptoms he dreaded warning him that the one fatal topic was about to be introduced, which seemed to have the effect of paralysing his brain. He would struggle hard against it, making frantic efforts to turn the subject, and doubling with infinite dexterity; but generally his interlocutor was not to be put off, "running cunning," as it were, like a greyhound dead to sporting instincts, and fixing him at once with a "Now, Mr. Ashburn, you really must allow me to express to you some of the pleasure and instruction I have received from your book,"
and so on; and then Mark found himself forced to listen with ghastly smiles of sham gratification to the praises of his rival, as he now felt Holroyd was after all becoming, and had to discuss with the air of a creator this book which he had never cared to understand, and soon came cordially to detest.
If he had been the real author, all this would of course have been delightful to him; it was all so kind and so evidently sincere for the most part, that only a very priggish or cynical person could have affected to undervalue it, and any other, even if he felt it overstrained now and then, would have enjoyed it frankly while it lasted, remembering that, in the nature of things, it could not last very long.
But unfortunately, Mark had not written "Illusion," which made all the difference. No author could have shrunk more sensitively in his inmost soul than he did from the praise of his fellow-men, and his modesty would have been more generally remarked had he not been wise enough to perceive that modesty, in a man, is a virtue with a dangerous streak of the ridiculous about it.
And so he braced himself to go through with it and play out his part.
It would not be for long; soon he would have his own book to be complimented upon and to explain. Meanwhile he worked hard at "Illusion," until he came to have a considerable surface acquaintance with it; he knew the names of all the more important characters in it now, and hardly ever mixed them up; he worked out most of the allusions, and made a careful a.n.a.lysis of the plot and pedigrees of some of the families. It was much harder work than reading law, and quite as distasteful; but then it had to be done if he meant to preserve appearances at all.
His fame had penetrated to St. Peter"s, where his fellow-masters treated him with an unaccustomed deference, only partially veiled by mild _badinage_ on the part of the younger men; while even the boys were vaguely aware that he had distinguished himself in the outer world, and Mark found his authority much easier to maintain.
"How"s that young rascal--what"s his name? Langton?--the little scamp who said he called me "Prawn," but not "Sh.e.l.lfish," the impident fellow! How"s _he_ getting on, hey?" said Mr. Shelford to Mark one day about this time.
Mark replied that the boy had left his form now, but that he heard he was doing well, and had begun to acquire the graceful art of verse-making. "Verse-making? ay, ay; is he indeed? You know, Ashburn, I often think it"s a good thing there are none of the old Romans alive now. They weren"t a yumorous nation, taken as a whole; but I fancy some of our prize Latin verses would set the stiffest of "em sn.i.g.g.e.ring. And we laugh at "Baboo English," as they call it! But you tell Langton from me, when you see him, that if he likes to try his hand at a set of elegiacs on a poor old cat of mine that died the other day, I"ll look "em over if he brings them to me after school some day, and if they"re what I consider worthy of the deceased"s many virtues, I"ll find some way of rewarding him. She was a black Persian and her name was "Jinks," but he"ll find it Latinise well as "Jinxia,"
tell him. And now I think of it," he added, "I never congratulated you on the effort of _your_ muse. It"s not often I read these things now, but I took your book up, and--maybe I"m too candid in telling you so--but it fairly surprised me. I"d no idea you had it in you."
Mark found it difficult to hit the right expression of countenance at such a compliment, but he did it. "There are some very fine things in that book, sir," continued Mr. Shelford, "some very n.o.ble words; remarkable for so young a man as you must be. You have lived, Ashburn, it"s easy to see that!"
"Oh, well," said Mark, "I--I"ve knocked about, you know."
"Ah, and you"ve knocked something into you, too, which is more to the purpose. I"d like to know now when you found time to construct your theories of life and conduct."
Mark began to find this embarra.s.sing; he said he had hit upon them at odd times ("_very_ odd times," he could not help remembering), and shifted his ground a little uneasily, but he was held fast by the b.u.t.tonhole. "They"re remarkably sound and striking, I must say that, and your story is interesting, too. I found myself looking at the end, sir, ha, ha! to see what became of your characters. Ah, I _knew_ there was something I wanted to ask you. There"s a heading you"ve got for one of your chapters, a quotation from some Latin author, which I can"t place to my satisfaction; I mean that one beginning "_Non terret principes_.""
"Oh, _that_ one?" repeated Mark blankly.
"Yes, it reads to me like later Latin; where did you take it from? One of the Fathers?"
"One of them, I forget which," said Mark quickly, wishing he had cut the quotations out.
"That _aegritudo_, now, "aegritudo superveniens," you know--how do you understand that?"
Mark had never troubled himself to understand it at all, so he stared at his interrogator in rather a lost way.
"I mean, do you take it as of the mind or body (that"s what made me fancy it must be later Latin). And then there"s the _correxit_?"
Mark admitted that there was the "correxit." "It"s mind," he said quickly. "Oh, decidedly the mind, _not_ body, and--er--I think that"s my "bus pa.s.sing. I"ll say good-bye;" and he escaped with a weary conviction that he must devote yet more study to the detested "Illusion."
This is only a sample of the petty vexations to which he had exposed himself. He had taken over a business which he did not understand, and naturally found the technicalities troublesome, for though, as has been seen, his own tendencies were literary, he had not soared so high as a philosophical romance, while his scholarship, more brilliant than profound, was not always equal to the "unseen pa.s.sages" from out-of-the-way authors with which Holroyd had embellished his chapters.
But a little more care made him feel easier on this score, and then there were many compensations; for one unexpected piece of good fortune, which will be recorded presently, he had mainly to thank his friend"s book.