"You"re not going?"
"I am, Sir John."
The head of his profession sat up. "How right you are!" said he. "How right you are! Trent, I knew from the first words it wouldn"t do. It lacks colour. I want something more crimson, more like the brighter parts of this jacket, something--" He waved hands in the air. "The Alderman agrees with me. He"s going. Don"t trouble to read any more, Trent. But drop in any time--any time. Chung, what o"clock is it?"
"It is nearly noon," said Edward Henry, in the tone of an old friend.
"Well, I"m sorry you can"t oblige me, Sir John. I"m off to see Sir Gerald Pompey now."
"But who says I can"t oblige you?" protested Sir John. "Who knows what sacrifices I would not make in the highest interests of the profession? Alderman, you jump to conclusions with the agility of an acrobat, but they are false conclusions! Miss Taft, the telephone!
Chung, my coat! Good-bye, Trent, good-bye!"
An hour later Edward Henry met Mr. Marrier at the Grand Babylon Hotel.
"Well, sir," said Mr. Marrier, "you are the greatest man that ever lived!"
"Why?"
Mr. Marrier showed him the stop-press news of a penny evening paper, which read: "Sir John Pilgrim has abandoned his ceremonious departure from Tilbury, in order to lay the corner-stone of the new Regent Theatre on Wednesday week. He and Miss Cora Pryde will join the _Kandahar_ at Ma.r.s.eilles."
"You needn"t do any advertaysing," said Mr. Marrier. "Pilgrim will do all the advertaysing for you."
III
Edward Henry and Mr. Marrier worked together admirably that afternoon on the arrangements for the corner-stone-laying. And--such was the interaction of their separate enthusiasms--it soon became apparent that all London (in the only right sense of the word "all") must and would be at the ceremony. Characteristically, Mr. Marrier happened to have a list or catalogue of all London in his pocket, and Edward Henry appreciated him more than ever. But towards four o"clock Mr. Marrier annoyed and even somewhat alarmed Edward Henry by a mysterious change of mien. His a.s.sured optimism slipped away from him. He grew uneasy, darkly preoccupied, and inefficient. At last, when the clock in the room struck four, and Edward Henry failed to hear it, Mr. Marrier said:
"I"m afraid I shall have to ask you to excuse me now."
"Why?"
"I told you I had an appointment for tea at four."
"Did you? What is it?" Edward Henry demanded, with an employer"s instinctive a.s.sumption that souls as well as brains can be bought for such sums as three pounds a week.
"I have a lady coming to tea here. That is, downstairs."
"In this hotel?"
"Yes."
"Who is it?" Edward Henry pursued lightly, for though he appreciated Mr. Harrier, he also despised him. However, he found the grace to add: "May one ask?"
"It"s Miss Elsie April."
"Do you mean to say, Marrier," complained Edward Henry, "that you"ve known Miss Elsie April all these months and never told me?... There aren"t two, I suppose? It"s the cousin or something of Rose Euclid?"
Mr. Marrier nodded. "The fact is," he said, "she and I are joint honorary organizing secretaries for the annual conference of the Azure Society. You know--it leads the New Thought movement in England."
"You never told me that, either?"
"Didn"t I, sir? I didn"t think it would interest you. Besides, both Miss April and I are comparatively new members."
"Oh," said Edward Henry, with all the canny provincial"s conviction of his own superior shrewdness; and he repeated, so as to intensify this conviction and impress it on others, "Oh!" In the undergrowth of his mind was the thought: "How dare this man whose brains belong to me be the organizing secretary of something that I don"t know anything about and don"t want to know anything about?"
"Yes," said Mr. Marrier, modestly.
"I say," Edward Henry inquired warmly, with an impulsive gesture, "who is she?"
"Who is she?" repeated Mr. Marrier, blankly.
"Yes. What does she do?"
"Doesn"t do anything," said Mr. Marrier. "Very good amateur actress.
Goes about a great deal. Her mother was on the stage. Married a wealthy wholesale corset-maker."
"Who did? Miss April?" Edward Henry had a twinge.
"No. Her mother. Both parents dead, and Miss April has an income--a considerable income."
"What do you call considerable?"
"Five or six thousand a year."
"The deuce!" murmured Edward Henry.
"May have lost a bit of it, of course," Mr. Marrier hedged. "But not much, not much!"
"Well," said Edward Henry, smiling, "what about _my_ tea? Am I to have tea all by myself?"
"Will you come down and meet her?" Mr. Marrier"s expression approached the wistful.
"Well," said Edward Henry, "it"s an idea, isn"t it? Why should I be the only person in London who doesn"t know Miss Elsie April?"
It was ten minutes past four when they descended into the electric publicity of the Grand Babylon. Amid the music and the rattle of crockery and the gliding waiters and the large nodding hats that gathered more and more thickly round the tables, there was no sign of Elsie April.
"She may have been and gone away again," said Edward Henry, apprehensive.
"Oh, no! She wouldn"t go away." Mr. Marrier was positive.
In the tone of a man with an income of two hundred pounds a week he ordered a table to be prepared for three.
At ten minutes to five he said:
"I hope she _hasn"t_ been and gone away again!"
Edward Henry began to be gloomy and resentful. The crowded and fact.i.tious gaiety of the place actually annoyed him. If Elsie April had been and gone away again, he objected to such silly feminine conduct. If she was merely late, he equally objected to such unconscionable inexact.i.tude. He blamed Mr. Marrier. He considered that he had the right to blame Mr. Marrier because he paid him three pounds a week. And he very badly wanted his tea.