Owen told him of the creature of his imagination in Act III.
"But you have lost your ma.n.u.script?"
"Yes; I burnt it."
"Just what one might have expected you to do," said Mr Prosser, unkindly. "Young man, I begin to believe that there may be something in this. You haven"t got a ghost of a proof that would hold water in a court of law, of course; but still, I"m inclined to believe you. For one thing, you haven"t the intelligence to invent such a story."
Owen thanked him.
"In fact, if you can answer me one question I shall be satisfied."
It seemed to Owen that Mr Prosser was tending to get a little above himself. As an intelligent listener he had been of service, but that appeared to be no reason why he should const.i.tute himself a sort of judge and master of the ceremonies.
"That"s very good of you," he said; "but will Edith Butler be satisfied? That"s more to the point."
"I _am_ Edith Butler," said Mr Prosser.
Owen stopped. "You?"
"You need not babble it from the house-tops. You are the only person besides my agent who knows it, and I wouldn"t have told you if I could have helped it. It isn"t a thing I want known. Great Scott, man, don"t goggle at me like a fish! Haven"t you heard of pseudonyms before?"
"Yes, but--"
"Well, never mind. Take it from me that I _am_ Edith Butler. Now listen to me. That ma.n.u.script reached me when I was in the country.
There was no name on it. That in itself points strongly to the fact that you were its author. It was precisely the chuckle-headed sort of thing you would have done, to put no name on the thing."
"I enclosed a letter, anyhow."
"There was a letter enclosed. I opened the parcel out of doors. There was a fresh breeze blowing at the time. It caught the letter, and that was the last I saw of it. I had read as far as "Dear Madam". But one thing I do remember about it, and that was that it was sent from some hotel in Cheltenham, and I could remember it if I heard it. Now, then?"
"I can tell it you. It was Wilbraham"s. I was stopping there."
"You pa.s.s," said Mr Prosser. "It was Wilbraham"s."
Owen"s heart gave a jump. For a moment he walked on air.
"Then do you mean to say that it"s all right--that you believe--"
"I do," said Mr Prosser. "By the way," he said, "the notice of _White Roses_ went up last night."
Owen"s heart turned to lead.
"But--but--" he stammered. "But tonight the house was packed."
"It was. Packed with paper. All the merry dead-heads in London were there. It has been the worst failure this season. And, by George," he cried, with sudden vehemence, "serve "em right. If I told them once it would fail in England, I told them a hundred times. The London public won"t stand that sort of blithering twaddle."
Owen stopped and looked round. A cab was standing across the road. He signalled to it. He felt incapable of walking home. No physical blow could have unmanned him more completely than this hideous disappointment just when, by a miracle, everything seemed to be running his way.
"Sooner ride than walk," said Mr Prosser, pushing his head through the open window. "Laziness--slackness--that"s the curse of the modern young man. Where shall I tell him to drive to?"
Owen mentioned his address. It struck him that he had not thanked his host for his hospitality.
"It was awfully good of you to give me supper, Mr Prosser," he said.
"I"ve enjoyed it tremendously."
"Come again," said Mr Prosser. "I"m afraid you"re disappointed about the play?"
Owen forced a smile.
"Oh, no, that"s all right," he said. "It can"t be helped."
Mr Prosser half turned, then thrust his head through the window again.
"I knew there was something I had forgotten to say," he said. "I ought to have told you that the play was produced in America before it came to London. It ran two seasons in New York and one in Chicago, and there are three companies playing it still on the road. Here"s my card. Come round and see me tomorrow. I can"t tell you the actual figures off-hand, but you"ll be all right. You"ll have pots o" money."
OUT OF SCHOOL
Mark you, I am not defending James Datchett. I hold no brief for James.
On the contrary, I am very decidedly of the opinion that he should not have done it. I merely say that there were extenuating circ.u.mstances.
Just that. Ext. circ. Nothing more.
Let us review the matter calmly and judicially, not condemning James off-hand, but rather probing the whole affair to its core, to see if we can confirm my view that it is possible to find excuses for him.
We will begin at the time when the subject of the Colonies first showed a tendency to creep menacingly into the daily chit-chat of his Uncle Frederick.
James"s Uncle Frederick was always talking more or less about the Colonies, having made a substantial fortune out in Western Australia, but it was only when James came down from Oxford that the thing became really menacing. Up to that time the uncle had merely spoken of the Colonies _as_ Colonies. Now he began to speak of them with sinister reference to his nephew. He starred James. It became a case of "Frederick Knott presents James Datchett in "The Colonies"," and there seemed every prospect that the production would be an early one; for if there was one section of the public which Mr Knott disliked more than another, it was Young Men Who Ought To Be Out Earning Their Livings Instead Of Idling At Home. He expressed his views on the subject with some eloquence whenever he visited his sister"s house. Mrs Datchett was a widow, and since her husband"s death had been in the habit of accepting every utterance of her brother Frederick as a piece of genuine all-wool wisdom; though, as a matter of fact, James"s uncle had just about enough brain to make a jay-bird fly crooked, and no more. He had made his money through keeping sheep. And any fool can keep sheep.
However, he had this reputation for wisdom, and what he said went. It was not long, therefore, before it was evident that the ranks of the Y.M.W.O.T.B.O.E.T.L.I. O.I.A.H. were about to lose a member.
James, for his part, was all against the Colonies. As a setting for his career, that is to say. He was no Little Englander. He had no earthly objection to Great Britain _having Colonies._ By all means have Colonies. They could rely on him for moral support. But when it came to legging it out to West Australia to act as a sort of valet to Uncle Frederick"s beastly sheep--no. Not for James. For him the literary life. Yes, that was James"s dream--to have a stab at the literary life.
At Oxford he had contributed to the _Isis,_ and since coming down had been endeavouring to do the same to the papers of the Metropolis.
He had had no success so far. But some inward voice seemed to tell him--(Read on. Read on. This is no story about the young beginner"s struggles in London. We do not get within fifty miles of Fleet Street.)
A temporary compromise was effected between the two parties by the securing for James of a post as a.s.sistant-master at Harrow House, the private school of one Blatherwick, M.A., the understanding being that if he could hold the job he could remain in England and write, if it pleased him, in his spare time. But if he fell short in any way as a handler of small boys he was to descend a step in the animal kingdom and be matched against the West Australian sheep. There was to be no second chance in the event of failure. From the way Uncle Frederick talked James almost got the idea that he attached a spiritual importance to a connexion with sheep. He seemed to strive with a sort of religious frenzy to convert James to West Australia. So James went to Harrow House with much the same emotions that the Old Guard must have felt on their way up the hill at Waterloo.
Harrow House was a grim mansion on the outskirts of Dover. It is better, of course, to be on the outskirts of Dover than actually in it, but when you have said that you have said everything. James"s impressions of that portion of his life were made up almost entirely of chalk. Chalk in the school-room, chalk all over the country-side, chalk in the milk. In this universe of chalk he taught bored boys the rudiments of Latin, geography, and arithmetic, and in the evenings, after a stately cup of coffee with Mr Blatherwick in his study, went to his room and wrote stories. The life had the advantage of offering few distractions. Except for Mr Blatherwick and a weird freak who came up from Dover on Tuesdays and Fridays to teach French, he saw n.o.body.
It was about five weeks from the beginning of term that the river of life at Harrow House became ruffled for the new a.s.sistant-master.
I want you to follow me very closely here. As far as the excusing of James"s conduct is concerned, it is now or never. If I fail at this point to touch you, I have shot my bolt.
Let us marshal the facts.
In the first place it was a perfectly ripping morning.
Moreover he had received at breakfast a letter from the editor of a monthly magazine accepting a short story.