The Cruise of the Make-Believes

d that hidden away in that corner of Islington are bowers of beauty, or that you may stroll at eventide

the sole reason that it is earth, and in the mad hope to raise from it something that no other London garden has yet accomplished. The moon that looks down on each slip of ground at night knows differently; she has seen

house have been tossed from time to time, and left to ruin. You will see creepers that started well, and intended great things, and clung quite bravely to walls; until the London atmosphere and neglect and one thing and another put an end to them. And you may see rows and rows of pots, wherein no

d heard so much from his friend Gilbert Byfield. The house itself, poor and shabby though it was, was neat and scrupulously clean; but the real triumph of it lay in the garden. Not, perhaps, in the artis

and there seemed to do so not because they liked it, but because they had a desperate desire to show what they could do, even against adverse fate, when they were put to it. Half a dozen things that could not have been named even by the most careful studen

the centre of it; and on either side of this table a chair, long since set aside as being too deplorable even for use in that house. It was a very mockery of a table, and the ch

it a box; it had a dingy rug upon it, and that dingy rug made it, of course, a species of settle or ottoman-an easy lounging place on summer nights. You had to sit down carefully upon it, because it had a defective board, which gave way unexpectedly a

ith trousers much too long for him lapping over carpet slippers frayed and worn, and with an old velvet smoking-cap, with three strands of frayed silk to represent a tassel, stuck on one side of his head. A melancholy-looking little man, with a certain fierce sullenness

his temper. He glared savagely about him, and gave his head a fierce rub with his cap before seating himself gingerly on

claimed the little man. "It's an infernal

who had come to the back door of the house, and looked out upon him, hesitated for a moment, and then stepped quickly out towards him. A young girl with a bright, eager,

arly," she said. "Will you

Bessie? A man wants something stronger than coffee. Besides-what's the good of making a fuss about my b

me, father," she said timidly. "And you know I always like to think of us sitting out in the garden-un

y anyone might drink the stuff after a good dinner-just to oblige a friend. But what is anyone to do-in what condition of mind d

to someone within; came out again, and sat down at the further side of the table, foldi

t the question he suddenly turned upon her, and o

sense, been the very prop and stay of that place-its chief ornament-the one being who in an impoverished and sordi

member, father," whispered th

ke out, of course; they're bound to do that in time. The Arcadia Arms without me degenerates into a mere low public-house-a pot-house; I had succeeded in raising the place. I was a feature-almost an instit

to this account, and so much to that. The man in the shabby frock-coat seemed to shrink and dwindle-to fall away from what he would have appeared in her eyes,

own always and everywhere as 'Mr. Meggison's place'; and only once in all the years has it been usurped-and then the man was drunk. He was very properly turned out at once, of course, and made to understand the enormity of his offence. And now

s certain shillings, this might never have happened; he might still have held up his head at the Arcadia Arms-still have filled

. "People don't come and take the lodgings as they used to do; the things are getting so poor and shabby that perh

away his head. "Time was when Fortune smiled upon me, and I was able to do work that brought in money; that time is l

se not," responded

oud to be able to assist my declining years. It is not much that I wan

rms, father,"

her modest glass; in the evening a few more people gather there, and we are almost convivial. That's my programme; that's my day. For the rest, as you're aware, I occupy the cheapest bed in the house-and I don't eat

here directly, fat

ously. "There's nothing soothing or helpful or restful about coffee-and I'm t

it looks quite good. If you shut your eyes the least little bit, so that you can only just see out of them, you seem to be looking down

have been inclined to forget at times who I really am, and the position I should have occupie

ng," said the girl quickly. "He like

concerning the neighbourhood, and even the nation, with Aubrey. Oh dear, no; the knocking about of billiard balls is more in his line. Aubrey will never cut a figure i

rown," said the girl

over London, and his poor old father is shown the door in a pot-house, because he

the girl wistfully. "And he likes al

ow half-crowns; why doesn't he earn 'em instead? Things have come to a pretty pass when I-Daniel M

t me," said a voice from the doorw

ailed to carry himself so well as the older man. He stooped at the shoulders, and his mean and narrow face was thrust forward, and bore an expression of knowingness, as though he asserted that there was precious lit

want to know when you are going to take your pro

ays provided, mind you," he added as an afterthought, "always provided that the work suits me, and is of a s

ney far in advance of your needs or your deserts," said old Meggiso

oon as I get any myself," pleaded the girl in a lo

Daniel Meggison, shaking his arm free of her touch. "But I trust that

t see for the life of me what you're upset about. You've had your

is justly due to me as the head of

tten family. I'm not saying, mind you, that she does what she might, or that she looks up the lodgers for what's due with that business instinct she should; I'm only

ho thinks of my wants-my simple ordinary little wants? Who deems it necessary even

er," said Aubrey, with a chuckle. "

precise and prim little maid, who, having come from some institution but a little time before, had felt ever since that she was seeing life as she had never hoped to see it; to her, indeed, the sorry g

ent an' a lidy-name o' Stocke

ed over the coffee-pot. "How many times, Bessie, have I told you that the dome

e mildly. She turned to her father, and spoke wistfully. "Perhaps Aunt J

see anyone; I should probably insult my sister, to begin wit

wall. "Aunt Julia always asks a chap what he's doin'-as though earnin' yo

Bessie; then to her father she added slyly-"It will be s

m on your account, my child," said Mr. M

y, shifting his cigarette to the other corner of his mouth. "But on Bes

able, the better to preside over that pouring out of coffee. She bravely shut her eyes to the fact that the cups did not match, and that the saucers were either too large or too

t. Life was a simple and a respectable thing with her; a serious matter, that could but lead in due course to a very proper and becomingly elaborate funeral. Women had been known to do remarkable things, and to get their names into books and newspapers; not so Julia Stocker. "From the moment Edward Stocker claimed my hand, I knew exactly what was going

e bare and shabby yard, touched the girl's cheek for a moment with lips that had no softness about them; performed the same ceremony with her brother D

on, furtively rubbing the place on his cheek where her lips h

anything. In my opinion the woman should always be dependent upon the man, and guided by him. Consequently, if Edward tells me that he

nterest. He saw Bessie's hand, and after looking at it for a moment or two, as though not quite certain what it was, or how it concerned him, decided t

e you loitering

e, and still looking about him as though marvelling at t

ir. "A mere back-yard-with nothing in it but rags and rubbish and draughts.

t; it's very pleasant then," said Bessie.

he added, noting a tendency on the part of that gentleman to reach for one of the cups; "it always disagrees with him. Not,

y attends such men, discovered the loose board and almost went through; he was frantically readjusting his balance when Daniel

e upon Mrs. Stocker the while, and lowering his voice suddenly and dramat

gan in a whisper; and then discovered, something to his amazement, that by a species of conjuring trick the co

r," said Meggison. "You shall have it back-cert

peak my mind. I come here, and I find you all drifting on in exactly the same way that you have always done-in a shabby and shiftless manner, that seems to belong to you and A

ping some of the half-cold stuff known to Amelia as coffee. "Father

all his life," snapped Mrs. Stocker. "In

his pocket. "I may be said to say to the world-'Give me work; help me to discover work; give me some hard task, with appropriate

eak of it often, fat

" demanded Mrs. Stocker, turning suddenl

the garden-"he's goin' out. And the prospects, as far as you're concerned, are that you won'

a fashion, sir!" he cried. "Above all, how dare you suggest that you will waste money upon such a pursuit. Your aunt is right; you should

id before, I'm ready for anything in the way of work, if I can only see it before

en the door, and called after him down the narrow alley which ran at the back of the houses-"Underst

king a fist in the direction of the retreating youth

" he said, while his fingers lovingly caressed that small g

r, we won't detain you; so soon as I know that Edward commands me

n of the Arcadia Arms, having exchanged his smoking-cap for a grimy grey felt that was stuck jauntily on the side of his head. Mrs. Stocker, having brought Mr. St

ody wants. Come out of your dreams, and wake up to the realities of life. Don't forget, whenever you feel inclined to think that you are any better off than you really are, or have anything to be grateful for, that you're a mere ordinary commonplace

k from the doorway, and called to him; he departed hurriedly and obediently. The girl looked at the sorry array of cups and saucers, and then at the poor wilderness a

the Princess next door, as Gilbert Byfield h