The Cruise of the Make-Believes

ust at the cabman. A man lounging against the corner public-house, as though to keep that British institution from falling, and leaving him without refreshment,

sked the young man in the glossy hat. He had a thin

r think I should want to drop yer in the wrong place for?" He was a cross driver, for he had already been driving about in the wilds o

lic-house. "You take it from me; I've bin 'ere, man an' boy, sin

n to a man to whom a shilling or two seemed to mean nothing at all; a few bedraggled staring children had sprung up, as if by magic, and were also lending assistance, by the simple expedient of

Moreover, silk hats are not generally seen there, save on a Monday morning, when a gentleman of sad countenance goes round with a small book and a pencil, in the somewhat cheerless endeavour to collect rents; and his silk hat is one tha

now Arcadia Street at all, you will understand that in order to search the windows he had but to keep his head turned in one direction; for the habitable part of the street lies only on the left-hand side, the other being formed by a high blank wa

presented one part of one window of a house, and at the moment the young man turned his gaze in that direction, she was setting up against the glass a card which bore the modest inscription-"Board and Residence." And she was so unlike Arcadia Street generally

looking for-" So she began;

his precise voice. "Name of Byfield-M

t seemed to the young man that for a moment, although she was evide

the bell at the adjoining house. By this time his guide, seeing that he was about to escape, began rapidly to urge his claims, the

f a dozen times. I says to meself, w'en I sees yer gettin' out of the cab-I says to meself-''E's a gent-that's wot 'e is-'e's one of the

d seemed on the point of expressing his opinion concerning it and its inhabitants publicly; deemed that a waste of breath apparently; and drifted away, to take up his old p

he incident was closed, and the mystery of the young man's appearance had been transferred to the house itself. For his inquiry for Mr. Byfield had led to his being directed up c

use there was a largeness about his actions and his gestures-a certain impulsive eagerness in all he did, as though each day was all too short for what he wanted to crowd into it. He was in his shirt-sleeves (for it seems always to

he ejaculated-"how

the centre that was strewn with books and papers. "My dear Byfield," he said, in his thin voice, "I might almos

No question of hiding," he said. "I came here for a change o

demanded t

emptuously, half whimsically. "The world I've left behind me," he said,

said the othe

ey in the pockets of their respectable clothes; and they always got up at exactly the same hour every morning, and they lived their dear little Tant-like lives, until the time came for them to be turned, in due course, into little Tan

to me that you were living in a place called Arcadia Street, Islington; and as I wondered a little what reason you could possibly have for leaving your own natural surroundings, I decided to look you up. As for the Tant-like people of whom you speak so scornfully, I would remind you that they belong properly to that sphere to which you also belong, when you are not in your present revolutionary spirit. You are forgetti

includes the use of the furniture,"

ers in the West End; where is your place in the country-your yacht-every

as mine. I had read in books of people who had a difficulty in making both ends meet-and quite nice people at that; I had dreamed of a world outside my own very ordinary one, where romance was to be found-and beauty-and love and tenderness. I was sick to death of the high voices and the gracious airs and the raised eyebrows of most of the women I knew-the time-killers, with nothing in the world to occupy them; I wanted to take off my coat, and get back to w

riend. "Oh, I know what you're going to say," he added rapidly as he raised his hand-"that that

at you really have news-of a sort. Come-a bargain with you: you shall give me your news

els rested on the front wooden rail of it-"in the first place, Miss Enid wonders what has become of you, and is naturally some

et through the time before tea is announced. To match that, my item of news is of a certain little lady who has a habit of tucking up her sleeves, the better to get through hours that are all too short for the work that mus

Tant, nodding his head like a smooth-plumaged yo

ir children, and they tell their husbands exactly what their opinion is concerning the characters of those husbands whenever the unfortunate

Jordan Tant. "Rather pretty,

for Sundays to see the best frock; and then you have to pretend that it

ings," said Mr. Tant. "I think she thought there was some chance

, dreadfully afraid that those who owe her money have run away in the night; I believe she goes to bed at night, wondering if by any possibility she can squeeze another bedstead in somewhere to accommodate a fresh one. She would

ordan Tant, opening his eyes very wide, and sta

I tell you I've seen more life in a week in Arcadia Street than ever I saw in years before. Look out into the streets; you'll see a dozen sights that shock you-you'll see a dozen things that are unlovely. And yet I tell you that I have stepped in this

urself?" demanded Mr. Tant.

treet you mustn't pay more than a certain amount, or you bring down suspicion upon yourself. No-my method is a more subtle one: I am the mysterious man w

h her, I suppose?"

ly you're in love with her. Doesn't it occur to you that it may be possible that I, from the distance of my thirty-five years, may look

take a deep interest in a very pretty girl of seventeen, who lives next door to you in a slum, and with whom yo

her," exclaimed Gil

unt. I state facts." Thus Mr. Jordan Tant, very virtuously,

deeply interested in Miss Enid Ewart-Crane, this will be a splendid oppo

Tant. "She's a glorious creature-a wonderful woman, and in you

ll boy being offered anything-if he is good; he begins to loathe the idea of it at once. Enid is all that you say-and I like he

by Fairyland?" ask

't mean to hurt your feelings; you're not really a bad sort, if you'd come out of your shell sometimes, and let the real wind of the rea

t," almost sn

ommonplace people at that. Then I saw this girl-this mere child, that even a hard world and a hard and sordid life had not changed, struggling on day by day to make a living-not

. What else was she doi

had fallen upon the place; the sounds outside were subdued, as though even Arcadia Street might be inclined for

o gild the commonplace bricks and mortar of Arcadia Street so that the mean houses became palaces-the mean back gardens places of beauty, wherein one might stroll beneath the light of the moon, and listen even unto nightingales. Think of it, Tant; this child who had never known anything but the

nventional things; and now, with this new unconventional thing to face, he had no words either of reproof or admonition. Very slowly he lifted

in Fairyland in her spare moments has a scheming mind, and a money-grubbing soul; you'd find she thought more of the pr

" he said, "that I shall come and see her very soon

room, and laid his hand upon the handle. "It'll be all right for you-and you'll give up t

little hastily. "She thinks no more of me than she mi

od or kind to her, you see," Mr. Tan

this child as well as I do, you'd look at the matter in a different light. At the same time, as people are so apt to misunderstand even our best m

ermined that he would if possible see that little Princess next door that very evening-if only to assure