Poor Relations

he tiny drawing-room of 83 Camera Square; and it was not until the steam from the tea-pot had materialized into M

ft and deep, was murmuring. "You don't know my mother, do you? Mother, this is

ar the least resemblance to her daughter. At first John was inclined to compare her to a diminutive clown; but presently he caught sight of some golden mandarins marching across a lacquer cupboard and decided that she resembl

ish the flame of the spirit-lamp. "And I'm devoted to the drama. Pouf! I think this is a very dull instrument, dear. What would England be without Shakespeare? Pouf! Pouf! One b

is services as

errant at the gate of an enchanted castle. It was almost too vigorous a blast: besides extinguishing the flame, it blew several

ad to see that it can be done. But didn't you write The Wall

lton put in with a smile, in the curves

ll of Babylon to be sure. Oh, what

ly she began to chuckle to herself, and John, hoping that in his wish to be pleasant

suddenly assuming an intensely serious expression a

laying a game, copied her exp

l income and an ample sense of humor. Yes, for thus one a

of the witticism. But before she could reply, her mother rattled on: "Miss Merritt will not ta

were darting about her forehead lik

declassical observations that I have ever encountered." Like a diver's arms th

eople found it very amusin

ry, instead of which she had taken to book-writing by double-entente. The profi

confessed. "I thought he

s? Her ethical exter

r to Ida. I only wish I

said the old lady, "y

heart

he could not help ejaculat

d vague ideas once of a commercial

hand? If she had learnt the deaf and dumb alphabet I might have put aside half-an-hour every day for con

or of the mother he could detect cross-currents of mutual disapproval; he could have

self. "Yet she knows shorthand-an extraordinary coincidence. What a delightful house you have," he

sinologue," Mrs. H

said John, trying

dy went on. "But we traveled a great deal in China when I was first marrie

e looked lik

lack eyebrows soared like a condor to disappear in the clouds of her snowy hair. "But do not let us

prefer the muffi

t her watch and glancing anxiously at the deepening twilight; she evi

're wanting to go

her mother; and John was aware once again, this time u

to meet Ida in

usion; he might have concluded that after all Mrs. Hamilton was really rather stupid, perhaps even vain and tiresome, had she not

same direction," she said, evoking with

sn't want to be bored with escorti

ed the pitch of his voice to give the impression that he always laughed like that. In the end, after a short argument, Miss Hamilton agree

s hovering in her forehead like a hawk about to strike gave her listen

?" he began

an attitude is ridiculous, because she is a poor relation. To each overture from her uncle she replies with defiance. At one moment she drowns his remarks in a typewriter; at another she flourish

r the old lady's ambition, and wobbled in sil

my opinion there is a limit to anonymous benevolence. Perhaps you've heard of the Home for Epileptic Gentlewomen? They can have their fits in peace and comfort entirely because my daughter refuses to accept one penny from her uncle. To a mother, of course, such behavior is unaccountable. And what is

e was not going to let Mrs. Hamilton m

re you from the stalls instead of from the pit-as now. At present she is pinched. Do not misunderstand me. I speak in metaphors. She is pinched by straitened circumstances just as the women of China are pinched

fanning back her lost breath, "personally, and I am now speaking a

t noun, though it may be a public virtue, is a private vice. Vesuvius lends variety to the Bay of Naples; but a tufted mole on a woman's cheek affects the observer with abhorrence, like a woolly cate

y, and he once more firmly asserte

realized that since my husband died. The widow of a sinologue has much to realize. At first I hoped that Doris would marry. But she has neve

to pay a deep and respectful

he felt that it was not quite chivalrous for him to appraise Miss Hamilton's

general to her own mother in particular she would criticize anybody. Anybody that is

hope of escap

nvulsions while I am compelled to alternate between muffins and scones every day of the week, though I never know which I like better, really I resent our unne

all the fonder of her because of this indepen

Merritt to earn her own living, I have never once encouraged her in such a step. The idea to me has always been painful. A sense of humor has carried me through life; but Doris, alas, is infected with gloom. Whether it is living in London or whether it is reading Nietzsche I don't know, but she is infested with gloom. Therefore when I heard of her meeting you I was glad; I was almost reconciled to the notion of that vulgar descent upon Ameri

e old lady questions about her adventures in China, although it was one of the rules o

But, as I was saying, unless Doris sees her way to be at any rate outwardly gracious ..." and so it went on un

on are empty on Sunday evening, but they are not a Highland

th some friends of hers in Norwood, a

r a Norfolk-jacket-or should I say a Norwood jacket?-

cisms and delighted to leave her to fan herself in the firelig

and, though he was much too shy to raise the topic for a second

oof rug over their knees and felt the wind in his face while they swayed together and apart i

aid in what he hoped was an harmoniou

do

was unable to do so on account of

Square, wouldn't

asked what she might consider an impertinent question John turned away to fast

dismissing the subject with a curt little

oane Square in five minutes, and he might just as well never have called on her. What d

ing hard,

ky y

d himself, "I mean that I have been working hard. J

I sympathiz

so detached that nobody could have guessed it, John thought, and he

re it would be a great pity to let our friendship fad

plea

s? Or no, better say

ks so

lk on a motor-bus, i

talk to somebody whom you

ur evening. You'll reme

cour

atulated himself, he had managed to arrange a lunch for Wednesd

ned him when they had d

at one o'

she would find him waiting for her on Wednesday; but she had shaken him lightly by the hand and cross

," John told his housekeeper after supper that eveni

There's lots of deserving young fello

ed work at fifteen shillings net entitled Fifteen Famous Forgers. When he had read three shillings' worth, he decided that the only crime which possessed a li

e of the 'eighties, that is to say the velvet jacket, the flowered silk waistcoat, and the unknotted tie of deep crimson or old gold kept in place by a prelate's ring; he lunched every day at the Arts Club, and since he was making at least ￡6000 a year, he did not bother to go back to his office in the afternoon. John had met him first soon after his father's death in 1890 somewhere in Northamptonshire where Crutchley was restoring a church-his first big job-and where John was editing temporarily a local paper. In those days John reacting from dog-biscuits was every bit as romantic as he was now; he and the young architect had often talked the sun up and spoken ecstatically of another medieval renaissance, of the nobility of handicrafts and of the glory of the guilds. Later on, when John in the reaction from journalism embarked upon realistic novels, Crutchley was inclined to quarrel with him as a renegade, and even went so far as to send him a volume of Browning's poems with The Lost Lea

the only ones left," the ar

n. I'm not yet forty, and you're not yet forty-five," John had repl

architect, and when soon after this he had agreed to take Hugh into his office John

ascended the winding stone steps that led up to his office in the oldest portion of Staple Inn; nor ap

you went off in rather a bad temper on Saturday night. But you were quite right, Johnnie; that port o

nt to talk about wine

ve done," Hugh went on, serenely. "But don't worry. As soon as you've settled with Stevie, I shall tell you all about it.

n to follow him into Mr. Crutchley's own room, and he

when he saw John looking round him at the timbered rooms with their an

John, coldly. "No doubt he will send f

dows, the noise of the Holborn traffic surging in through which reminded the l

t John. "I believe they would give me the very atmosphere I re

too much of it: the room was austere, not even so full as a Carpaccio interior. Modernity here wore a figleaf; wax candles were burned instead of gas or electric light; and even the telephone was enshrined in a Florentine casket. When the oaken door covered with huge nails and flor

table that had come out of an old Flemish monastery a primitive box painted with scenes

s in this room," John observed. "Even a chu

re. "But cigars are the chief consolation we have for being compelled to exist in thi

n New York. And I'm in the

t the coats right. Theatrical heraldry is shocking. And get the ecclesiastical details right. Theatrical ritual i

ostumes and processions and all that," John suggested

ying to tell me that it doesn't matter if a bishop in the fifteenth century does wear a sixteenth century miter, because it's more eff

ted," John assured him, "that I can

t stared at

effective tableau to show the miserable condition of France before the play begins. The curtain will rise upon the rearguard of an army marching out of a city, heavy snow will fall, and above the silence you will hear the howling of the wolves following in the track of the troops. This is an histor

oom, while Stephen Crutchley managed to exaggerate a slight rou

ured, while the architect continued to express

u this," the architect

ctated by motives of self-interest Hugh has confessed his crime to me, I am come here this morning confident that you

d to find that he had been able owing to his friend's coughing-fit to reproduce nearly all of it. He had so often been robbed of a prepa

osity...."

the architect, "it is

her with an expression of nobility

was perfectly true, though the reference was to w

left an old check book lying about. It was careless-it was, I do not hesitate to say so, criminally

with conviction. "So am I. Money wi

eys nothing to me. What I always say to my clients is that if they want the

tand is that an artist charges a high price when he does not want to d

ur fellows to sustain the dignity of our professions.

d. "It's splendid to find a man who is not spoilt by succes

ared. You understand, don't you, that I intended to say nothing about it and to blame myself in silence for my carelessness? On t

But you will understand them. I believe the shock has aged me. I seem to have lost some of my self

uld have one," the

at an unbusinesslike creature such as I am ought not to put himself in the hands of a

our work much better than a man,

y glad to have yo

ke a long rest when he wanted to take a long rest. His friend's aloofness from money had raised to a higher level what might easily have been a most unpleasant transaction:

ve Hugh in?"

. "But I don't think I have a right to consult my perso

de arrangements about his future; he is going

k, but if ever ..." the architect was beginnin

ever been. In fact, I'm bound to say frankly that I'm glad you do not use mahogany in your work. I'm glad that I've chosen a

lanter whom he had met in the Murmania; but he could get no nearer to it than a vague notion that it

ars would not permit the least abasement; though at least, his brother thought, he might have had the decency not to sit down unt

the fireplace, leaning against the stone hood of which he

t you have already guessed why

ded enco

rt upon the forgery itself. However lightly you embarked upon it, I don't doubt that by now you have sufficiently realized its gravity. What tempted you to commit this crime I do not hop

" Hugh chirped. "I say, I think your trousers are sco

whom we all expect great things and-however I am not going to enlarge upon his obvious qualities. What I do wish to say is that he and I have decided that after this business you must leave me. I don't suppose that you expected to remain; nor, even if you could, do I suppose that you would wish to remain. Perhaps you are not enough in sympathy with my aspirations for the future of English

ose to supplement it with one of his own in which he said the same things about the architect that the architect ha

t. "Good-by, Mr. Crutchley, and jolly good luck. I'll just toddle through the office

discuss Joan of Arc and a new transept that Crutchley was designing. When the culprit put his head round the door and called out to J

ad passed under the arched entry of Staple Inn and were walking along Holborn. "I see you're bent on

anything except your imme

ce to hit on," Hugh grunted in

o Hampshire and if you wish for any more help from me, you will remain there

hat I'm grumbling at is British Honduras. I shall rat

, and Hugh ma

job that Laurence has lost his faith. I shall be spared hi

rt in the middle of the crowded pavement. "Have you

admitting that I backed you up; but when we're alone, do chuck all that. I'm very grateful to you for forking out-by the way, I h

y cynical attitude," John bes

f Stevie's old check book and found he had quite a decent little ac

t want

elf five minutes to catch the train back to town. I was waiting at the station in no end of a funk. But it was all right. The clerk blinked for a minute, but old Aub

to hear

looking at me and-well, he suspected me. The fact of the matter is that Stevie's as keen on his

," John

tevie started questioning me about his ch

hear that," John

through Aubrey whom Stevie knows nothing about. But I don't know. I lost my nerve. Well, thanks

you mean-

u old Pharisee. Look here where are we going to lunc

th him in his present mood of bravado, and

ish for any help from me you are t

one of your characters would say. You haven't uttered a word of congratulation. After all, it took some pluck, you know, and the signature w

a rage and walked up

gany-planter? Was it Raikes or

he following letter that he reco

HURC

tead,

28,

erest of my work I am in hopes that the idea will not be distasteful to you. I should not have dared to ask you if you had not mentioned shorthand yesterday and if Mrs. Hamilton had not said something about your typewriting. This seems to indicate that at any rate you have considered the

were sometimes harassed by family problems and I thought that pe

d without hesitation. My idea was that you would work with me every morning at Hampstead. I have never yet attempted dictation myself, but I feel that I could do it after a little practice. Then I thought you could lunch with me, and that after lunch we could work

and hoping very much that you will set my mind at rest by accepting the post. I think I told you I was working on a play with Joan of Arc as the central figure.

sinc

TOUCH