The Transvaal from Within: A Private Record of Public Affairs
of her hair. The third woman was doing nothing. In a chair by the theatrical hamper labelled "Miss Olive Westland's Tour: 'The Foibles of Fashion' Co.," she sat regarding the others,
r, it seemed such a perfect thing that there should be a low white brow, and hair to shade it; it seemed such an exquisite and consummate thing that there should be lips where the Maker put lips, and a chin where the chin is modelle
ront, Mrs. Carew?"
round at the end. It was a very goo
r skirt, "you must know every line of the piece, the times
ow you people manage to get dressed in some of the theatres puzzles me; I look at you from the front, remembering wher
as never wanted y
e woman
dea! No; Tony has a very flattering opinion of his wife's abilities,
now of, at any rate. Nobody could be much worse
s" sharply, "don't quarrel
s and give shops to us pros. She queers the best line I've got in the piece every night because she won't speak up and nobody knows what it's an an
id Mrs. Carew, "when she has had more exper
ed by her own, and at the "aristocratic mother" period of her career no longer c
f her own in London. Money, influence, or talent, you must have one of the three in the profession, and for a short-cut give me either of the first two. Sweet dreams, b
to us afterwards, a
I reminded him. It's such a bother having to keep an account of how we sta
ht to be ready by now. Y
in
posite th
in the T-piece only one gas-jet flared bluely between the bare expanse of boards and the blackness of the empty auditorium. In the passage, a man, hastenin
t you changed? How's that?
"There was something she wanted to see me about. Don't wait
ed a moment
important?
it later on; I want to have a talk wi
nto the Leicester streets a shade disconsolately. The gas was already lighted when she reached the house, and a fire-for the month was March-burnt clearly in the grate. The accommodation was not extensive: a small ground-floor parlour, and a bedroom at the back. On the parlour man
These books were abominated by Carew, for he never knew what to write; and, perusing the comments in this one, she mentally agreed with him that it was not easy to find a medium between curtness and exaggeration. Some she recognised, kno
e week. The landlady had not effected the happiness certainly, but her lodger was quite willing to give her some of the benefit of it. She dipped the pen in the ink, and wr
n said that she was going to bed, but that Mrs. Carew would find more glas
. Presently she stopped and listened. A whistle had reached her from outside-the whistle of eight notes that is the actor's call. She surmised tha
d down the road," he said, agg
ughed. "Why don't you remember
s soon as I go in. In Jarrow, one Monday, I had to wander all over the place for three' mortal hours i
rectly," she sa
ome so early," he exclaimed; "wh
h a cheery flow of chatter, an
arly. Do sit down, there's a good child, and don't stand fiddling
aturday? Wasn't it swagger? 'The r?le finds an ideal exponent in Mr. Seaton Carew,
by a provincial correspondent! I
Telegraph! No more will he, I fancy. He's red-hot on success, is
xclaimed. "Why,
myself born to dodder. But if it comes to choice-to the secret tendency of the sacred fire-I am lead, I am romantic, I have centre-entrances in the limelight. Look here: 'A deep vale, shut out by Alpine--' No, wait a minute; you do the Langtry business an
he sideboard, and push
he said; "finger 'em lovingly;
e so rid
ty; "I really want to hear your view
lake margin'd b
myrtles; glassi
e with rare and r
ld have
ers, and a kid in the pit. Then I meet the eyes of the fair Pauline, and conclude with 'As I would h
nt," and was still expatiating on it when
as worn a trifle longer than the hair of most men. Now that he was seen in a good light, it was
pper? You must be
gry," she admitt
e to the table." She had looked disappoin
. Oh! a glass of beer-I
squietude even damped the garrulity of the boy. It was not until the Bowmans arrived and a
e had become an institution in "The Foibles of Fashion" company, and it was seldom that anyone found them expensive. Mary's capital, coppers included, was half a sovereign, and to have won or lost such a sum as that at a sitting would have been
take to win early in the evening," said
aid the "
three, and
nd, Mrs. Carew?
what a shame, Dolliver!-thanks! Fill up your own, won't you?-He's a perfect martyr, th
I cleared it beautifully. Ut
? I thought
ned scarlet. "Don't give me away!...
umps, and led
ected "little one" from Dolliver. His "fo
ss" prepar
ess for the next t
you wri
after we get in. We've -pass!-always stayed in the same house, and-everybody to put in the kitty again!-and now the w
arew, don't
itfully he was almost himself again, and only
ou everything for twenty-five bob the week; for two people there'd be a reduction, t
body passed again, and the k
e travel Sunday
any years' experience in the profession, but I never in my life was in a company where they did so
fellow much the-two, I call two-and then, at the end of the t
Presentations in the profes
said the
a member of the crowd will hav
an actor who had,
flushed e
he ex
h! Dollive
Very well, fire ahe
the youngster smacked down his las
you threw it away; if you'
n't help it. She h
bly at the explanation-"I had to foll
right again,
r, piling up the pennies. "Six, seven, eight! Look at the sil
thing,'" quoted Carew. "Dolliver, you've r
e at all.' This disposed of the breaking-up question for half an hour. Then Bowman began to talk of concluding the game after a couple of rounds. When two such arrangements had been made and set at
as Mary. She had won more than six shillings, and the "Duchess,"
all, Mrs. Carew," laughe
made something between me and th
heard him shut it behind them, and heard their steps growing fainter on the pavement. He was slow returning, qu
" she
her almost a
he said huskily; "I've
it?" sh
oductory phrase. The agitation that he had b
at last," he answer
ea
ith dilated eyes, the col
daresay! Anyhow, she's gone; the mistake is fini
ghts that she had been unable to escape, the woman who had paid for his mistake more dearly still had sometimes imagined such a moment as this-had sometimes foreseen h
lways a shock, the news of death." But she felt that the burden of speech s
She had walked Liverpool; I never saw her from the day I found it out. She
s. Opposite each other, both reviewed the past. She waited for him to come to
it?" she
some wee
lo
morning that he had avowed this marriage-of the agony that had wept to her for pity-of the clasp that would not let her go. S
t difference!" h
ak. It should not be by her that the sanctification of her sacrifice was broache
the dampness from his mouth and chin. "If-if my reputat
nd the floor lurched. In the next, she was still fronting the fireplace; she was staring at it
e-I don't forget-I know very well! But, as it is, it'd be madness-it'd be putting a rope round
t ... mak
I'm not my
part! We can't remain together a
ng to." He went back to the mantelpiece, and leant his elbows on
ss-its its-stillness frightened him. Intensified by the riotous ticking of the clock, through
e. "Mary, it's my chance in life! She cares for me, don't you see? You think me a scoundrel-don't you see what a chance it is? What
to ... marry M
t," he
e struggled to understand. Then she th
love was, then-a li
real! I cared for you-I did
ou went down on your knees and vowed you hadn't had the courage to tell me before, but your wife was living-some awful woman you couldn't divorce. I gave myself to you, I became the thing you can turn
ar
ally. "I am, you know; you have made me one-
th; if I had been f
ews of the death? Answer
rence," he mutter
away from me, don't co
mlessly around. Once or twice he glanced across at her, but she paid no heed. His
first to
dinary course of events, I should never get any higher than I am, never play in London in my life. You know I've gone as far as I can ever expect to go without influence to back me, that in ten years' time I should be exactly what I am now, a leading-man for second-rate tours; and that ten years later I should be playing heavy fathers, or Lord knows what, still on the road, and done for-the fire all spent, wasted and worn out in the provinces. That's what it would be; you've heard me say it again and again; and I should go on seeing Miss Somebody's son, and Mr. Somebody-else's-daughter, with their parents' names to get them the engagements, playing prominent business in London theatres before
w easily you could have taken the luck if your prayers to me had failed. And you're ang
is was true. Her words described a mea
ll Miss Westland
ll
hat I'm not--
s for you; I mean, she won't speak of it to
that I shall be gone, they may as well know to-morrow as later. Oh, how they wi
e to-morrow-wh
u supp
ry, listen: by-and-by, when something is settled, in-in a month or more-I
value of a penny, if I were dying. I wouldn't, as Chri
d at her
, "at once? In the m
in the middle
expostulation-"wait till day, at any rate. You're beside yourself,
l in a moment the lowness of it! I've tried to feel that we were married; I always believed it was your trouble that I had to be what I was. If you had ever heard-as soon as
did so, her eyes fell on the wedding-ring that she wore. Painful at all times, the sight of it now was horrible. She strangled a sob, and, lifting the candlestick, peered stupidly around. By the parlour grate she could hear Tony knocking his pipe out on the bars. Above the washhand-stand a holland "tidy" contained her brushes; she rolled it up and crammed the bundle among the linen. In
he had cast them when she came in from th
our ring!
ion had been insults, her loss and her aversion served to display the growth of a certain attachment to her of which her possession and her constancy had left him unaware. Twice a plea to her to remain rose to his lips
" he g
aint paling of the sky the pavements gleamed co
, don
oat fell about her loosely in thick folds. He put out nervous hands to touch her, a
mmered; "stay-forg
e would regret it if she listened, knew that he knew he would regret it. And yet, knowing
tler; "there can never be anything betwe
gure was distinct-uncertain-merged in gloom