I found John. He was quite pleased with the idea, and promised to return the pianola when he got sick of it.
So on Wednesday it went. I was not sorry, because in its silence it was far from beautiful, and we wanted another book-case badly. But on Tuesday evening--its last hours with us--I had to confess to a certain melancholy. It is sad to part with an old and well-tried friend, particularly when that friend is almost entirely responsible for your marriage. I looked at the pianola and then I said to Celia, "I must play it once again."
"Please," said Celia.
"The old masterpiece, I suppose?" I said, as I got it out.
"Do you think you ought to--now? I don"t think I want to hear a charge of the Uhlans--beasts; I want a charge of our own men."
"Art," I said grandly, "knows no frontiers." I suppose this has been said by several people several times already, but for the moment both Celia and I thought it was rather clever.
So I placed the roll in the pianola, sat down and began to play....
Ah, the dear old tune....
Dash it all!
"What"s happened?" said Celia, breaking a silence which had become alarming.
"I must have put it in wrong," I said.
I wound the roll off, put it in again, and tried a second time, pedalling vigorously.
Dead silence....
Hush! A note ... another silence ... and then another note....
I pedalled through to the end. About five notes sounded.
"Celia," I said, "this is wonderful."
It really was wonderful. For the first time in its life my pianola refused to play "The Charge of the Uhlans." It had played it a hundred times before the War, but now--no!
We had to have a farewell piece. I put in a waltz, and it played it perfectly. Then we said good-bye to our pianola, feeling a reverence for it which we had never felt before.
You don"t believe this? Yet you promised you would ... and I still a.s.sure you that it is true. But I admit that the truth is sometimes hard to believe, and the first six persons to whom I told the story a.s.sured me frankly that I was a liar. If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name. I made an effort, therefore, with the seventh person.
"I put in "The Charge of the Uhlans,"" I said, "and it played "G.o.d Save the King.""
Unfortunately he was a very patriotic man, and he believed it. So that is how the story is now going about. But you who read this know the real truth of the matter.
A QUESTION OF LIGHT
As soon as Celia had got a cheque-book of her own (and I had explained the mysteries of "---- & Co." to her), she looked round for a safe investment of her balance, which amounted to several pounds. My offers, first of an old stocking and afterwards of mines, mortgages and aerated breads, were rejected at once.
"I"ll leave a little in the bank in case of accidents," she said, "and the rest must go somewhere absolutely safe and earn me five per cent.
Otherwise they shan"t have it."
We did what we could for her; we offered the money to archdeacons and other men of p.r.o.nounced probity; and finally we invested it in the Blanktown Electric Light Company. Blanktown is not its real name, of course; but I do not like to let out any information which may be of value to Celia"s enemies--the wicked ones who are trying to s.n.a.t.c.h her little fortune from her. The world, we feel, is a dangerous place for a young woman with money.
"Can"t I _possibly_ lose it now?" she asked.
"Only in two ways," I said. "Blanktown might disappear in the night, or the inhabitants might give up using electric light."
It seemed safe enough. At the same time we watched the newspapers anxiously for details of the latest inventions; and anybody who happened to mention when dining with us that he was experimenting with a new and powerful illuminant was handed his hat at once.
You have Blanktown, then, as the depository of Celia"s fortune. Now it comes on the scene in another guise. I made the announcement with some pride at breakfast yesterday.
"My dear," I said, "I have been asked to deliver a lecture."
"Whatever on?" asked Celia.
"Anything I like. The last person lectured on "The Minor Satellites of Jupiter," and the one who comes after me is doing "The Architecture of the Byzantine Period," so I can take something in between."
"Like "Frostbites,"" said Celia helpfully. "But I don"t quite understand.
Where is it, and why?"
"The Blanktown Literary and Philosophical Society ask me to lecture to them at Blanktown. The man who was coming is ill."
"But why _you_ particularly?"
"One comes down to me in the end," I said modestly.
"I expect it"s because of my electric lights. Do they give you any money for it?"
"They ask me to name my fee."
"Then say a thousand pounds, and lecture on the need for more electric light. Fancy if I got six per cent!"
"This is a very sordid conversation," I said. "If I agree to lecture at all, it will be simply because I feel that I have a message to deliver ... I will now retire into the library and consider what that message is to be."
I placed the encyclopaedia handy and sat down at my desk. I had already grasped the fact that the t.i.tle of my discourse was the important thing.
In the list of the Society"s lectures sent to me there was hardly one whose t.i.tle did not impress the imagination in advance. I must be equally impressive ...
After a little thought I began to write.
"WASPS AND THEIR YOUNG
"_Lecture delivered before the Blanktown Literary and Philosophical Society, Tuesday, December 8th._
"_Ladies and Gentlemen_--"
"Well," said Celia, drifting in, "how"s it going?"