i
strange, inconceivable as it may appear to people of the great world and readers of newspapers, mr. prohack, c.b., had never in his life before been inside the grand babylon hotel. such may be the narrow and mean existence forced by circumstances upon secretly powerful servants of the crown. he arrived late, owing to the intricate preparations of his wife and daughter for charlie's luncheon. these two were unsuccessfully pretending not to be nervous, and their nervousness reacted upon mr. prohack, who perceived with disgust that his gay and mischievous mood of the morning was slipping away from him despite his efforts to retain it. he knew now definitely that his health had taken the right turn, and yet he could not prod the youthful sissie as he had prodded the youthful mimi winstock. moreover mimi was a secret which would have to be divulged, and this secret not only weighed heavy within him, but seemed disturbingly to counterbalance the secrets that charlie was withholding.
on the present occasion he saw little of the grand babylon, for as soon as he mentioned his son's name to the nonchalant official behind the enquiry counter the official changed like lightning into an obsequious courtier, and charles's family was put in charge of a hovering attendant boy, who escorted it in a lift and along a mile of corridors, and charlie's family was kept waiting at a door until the voice of charlie permitted the boy to open the door. a rather large parlour set with a table for five; a magnificent view from the window of a huge white-bricked wall and scores of chimney pots and electric wires, and a moving grey sky above! charlie, too, was unsuccessfully pretending not to be nervous.
"hullo, kid!" he greeted his sister.
"hullo yourself," responded sissie.
they shook hands. (they very rarely kissed. however, charlie kissed his mother. even he would not have dared not to kiss her.)
"mater," said he, "let me introduce you to lady massulam."
lady massulam had been standing in the window. she came forward with a pleasant, restrained smile and made the acquaintance of charlie's family; but she was not talkative. her presence, coming as a terrific surprise to the ladies of the prohack family, and as a fairly powerful surprise to mr. prohack, completed the general constraint. mrs. prohack indeed was somewhat intimidated by it. mrs. prohack's knowledge of lady massulam was derived exclusively from the daily picture, where her portrait was constantly appearing, on all sorts of pretexts, and where she was described as a leader of london society. mr. prohack knew of her as a woman credited with great feats of war-work, and also with a certain real talent for organisation; further, he had heard that she had a gift for high finance, and exercised it not without profit. as she happened to be french by birth, no steady english person was seriously upset by the fact that her matrimonial career was obscure, and as she happened to be very rich everybody raised sceptical eyebrows at the assertion that her husband (a knight) was dead; for the daily picture implanted daily in the minds of millions of readers the grand truth that to the very rich nothing can happen simply. the whole daily picture world was aware that of late she had lived at the grand babylon hotel in permanence. that world would not have recognised her from her published portraits, which were more historical than actual. although conspicuously anti-victorian she had a victorian beauty of the impressive kind; she had it still. her hair was of a dark lustrous brown and showed no grey. in figure she was tall, and rather more than plump and rather less than fat. her perfect and perfectly worn clothes proved that she knew just how to deal with herself. she would look forty in a theatre, fifty in a garden, and sixty to her maid at dawn.
this important person spoke, when she did speak, with a scarcely perceptible french accent in a fine clear voice. but she spoke little and said practically nothing: which was a shock to marian prohack, who had imagined that in the circles graced by lady massulam conversation varied from badinage to profundity and never halted. it was not that lady massulam was tongue-tied, nor that she was impolite; it was merely that with excellent calmness she did not talk. if anybody handed her a subject, she just dropped it; the floor around her was strewn with subjects.
the lunch was dreadful, socially. it might have been better if charlie's family had not been tormented by the tremendous question: what had charlie to do with lady massulam? already charlie's situation was sufficient of a mystery, without this arch-mystery being spread all over it. and inexperienced charlie was a poor host; as a host he was positively pathetic, rivalling lady massulam in taciturnity.
sissie took to chaffing her brother, and after a time charlie said suddenly, with curtness:
"have you dropped that silly dance-scheme of yours, kid?"
sissie was obliged to admit that she had.
"then i tell you what you might do. you might come and live here with me for a bit. i want a hostess, you know."
"i will," said sissie, straight. no consultation of parents!
this brief episode overset mrs. prohack. the lunch worsened, to such a point that mr. prohack began to grow light-hearted, and chaffed charlie in his turn. he found material for chaff in the large number of newly bought books that were lying about the room. there was even the encyclopaedia of religion and ethics in eleven volumes. queer possessions for a youth who at home had never read aught but the periodical literature of automobilism! could this be the influence of lady massulam? then the telephone bell rang, and it was like a signal of salvation. charlie sprang at the instrument.
"for you," he said, indicating lady massulam, who rose.
"oh!" said she. "it's ozzie."
"who's ozzie?" charlie demanded, without thought.
"no doubt oswald morfey," said mr. prohack, scoring over his son.
"he wants to see me. may i ask him to come up for coffee?"
"oh! do!" said sissie, also without thought. she then blushed.
mr. prohack thought suspiciously and apprehensively:
"i bet anything he's found out that my daughter is here."
ozzie transformed the final act of the luncheon. an adept conversationalist, he created conversationalists on every side. mrs. prohack liked him at once. sissie could not keep her eyes off him. charlie was impressed by him. lady massulam treated him with the familiarity of an intimate. mr. prohack alone was sinister in attitude. ozzie brought the great world into the room with him. in his simpering voice he was ready to discuss all the phenomena of the universe; but after ten minutes mr. prohack noticed that the fellow had one sole subject on his mind. namely, a theatrical first-night, fixed for that very evening; a first-night of the highest eminence; one of mr. asprey chown's first-nights, boomed by the marvellous showmanship of mr. asprey chown into a mighty event. the competition for seats was prodigious, but of course lady massulam had obtained her usual stall.
"what a pity we can't go!" said sissie simply.
"will you all come in my box?" astonishingly replied mr. oswald morfey, embracing in his weak glance the entire prohack family.
"the fellow came here on purpose to fix this," said mr. prohack to himself as the matter was being effusively clinched.
"i must go," said he aloud, looking at his watch. "i have a very important appointment."
"but i wanted to have a word with you, dad," said charlie, in quite a new tone across the table.
"possibly," answered the superior ironic father in mr. prohack, who besides being sick of the luncheon party was determined that nothing should interfere with his median and persian programme. "possibly. but that will be for another time."
"well, to-night then," said charlie, dashed somewhat.
"perhaps," said mr. prohack. yet he was burning to hear his son's word.
ii
however, mr. prohack did not succeed in loosing himself from the embraces of the grand babylon hotel for another thirty minutes. he offered to abandon the car, to abandon everything to his wife and daughter, and to reach his next important appointment by the common methods of conveyance employed by common people; but the ladies would permit no such thing; they announced their firm intention of personally escorting him to his destination. the party seemed to be unable to break up. there was a considerable confabulation between eve and lady massulam at the entrance to the lift.
mr. prohack noticed anew that eve's attitude to lady massulam was still a flattering one. indeed eve showed that in her opinion the meeting with so great a personage as lady massulam was not quite an ordinary episode in her simple existence. and lady massulam was now talking with a free flow to eve. as soon as the colloquy had closed and eve had at length joined her simmering husband in the lift, charlie must have a private chat with lady massulam, apart, mysterious, concerning their affairs, whatever their affairs might be! in spite of himself, mr. prohack was impressed by the demeanour of the young man and the mature blossom of womanhood to each other. they exhibited a mutual trust; they understood each other; they liked each other. she was more than old enough to be his mamma, and yet as she talked to him she somehow became a dignified girl. mr. prohack was disturbed in a manner which he would never have admitted,—how absurd to fancy that lady massulam had in her impressive head a notion of marrying the boy! still, such unions had occurred!—but he was pleasantly touched, too.
then oswald morfey and sissie made another couple, very different, more animated, and equally touching. ozzie seemed to grow more likeable, and less despicable, under the honest and frankly ardent gaze of miss prohack; and mr. prohack was again visited by a doubt whether the fellow was after all the perfectly silly ass which he was reputed to be.
in the lift, lady massulam having offered her final adieux, ozzie opened up to mrs. prohack the subject of an organisation called the united league of all the arts. mr. prohack would not listen to this. he hated leagues, and especially leagues of arts. he knew in the marrow of his spine that they were preposterous; but mrs. prohack and sissie listened with unfeigned eagerness to the wonderful tale of the future of the united league of all the arts. and when, emerging from the lift, mr. prohack strolled impatiently on ahead, the three stood calmly moveless to converse, until mr. prohack had to stroll impatiently back again. as for charlie, he stood by himself; there was leisure for the desired word with his father, but mr. prohack had bluntly postponed that, and thus the leisure was wasted.
without consulting mr. prohack's wishes, ozzie drew the ladies towards the great lounge, and mr. prohack at a distance unwillingly after them. in the lounge so abundantly enlarged and enriched since the days of the celebrated felix babylon, the founder of the hotel, post-lunch coffee was merging into afternoon tea. the number of idle persons in the world, and the number of busy persons who ministered to them, and the number of artistic persons who played voluptuous music to their idleness, struck mr. prohack as merely prodigious. he had not dreamed that idleness on so grandiose a scale flourished in the city which to him had always been a city of hard work and limited meal-hours. he saw that he had a great deal to learn before he could hope to be as skilled in idleness as the lowest of these experts in the lounge. he tapped his foot warningly. no effect on his women. he tapped more loudly, as the hatred of being in a hurry took possession of him. eve looked round with a delightful placatory smile which conjured an answering smile into the face of her husband.
he tried to be irritated after smiling, and advancing said in a would-be fierce tone:
"if this lunch lasts much longer i shall barely have time to dress for dinner."
but the effort was a failure—so complete that sissie laughed at him.
he had expected that in the car his women would relate to him the sayings and doings of ozzie morfey in relation to the united league of all the arts. but they said not a syllable on the matter. he knew they were hiding something formidable from him. he might have put a question, but he was too proud to do so. further, he despised them because they essayed to discuss lady massulam impartially, as though she was just a plain body, or nobody at all. a nauseating pretence on their part.
crossing a street, the car was held up by a procession of unemployed, with guardian policemen, a band consisting chiefly of drums, and a number of collarless powerful young men who shook white boxes of coppers menacingly in the faces of passers-by.
"instead of encouraging them, the police ought to forbid these processions of unemployed," said eve gravely. "they're becoming a perfect nuisance."
"why!" said mr. prohack, "this car of yours is a procession of unemployed."
this sardonic pleasantry pleased mr. prohack as much as it displeased mrs. prohack. it seemed to alleviate his various worries, and the process of alleviation went further when he remembered that, though he would be late for his important appointment, he had really lost no time because dr. veiga had forbidden him to keep this particular appointment earlier than two full hours after a meal.
"don't take cold, darling," eve urged with loving solicitude as he left the car to enter the place of rendezvous. sissie grinned at him mockingly. they both knew that he had never kept such an appointment before.
iii
solemnity, and hush, and antique menials stiff with tradition, surrounded him. as soon as he had paid the entrance fee and deposited all his valuables in a drawer of which the key was formally delivered to him, he was motioned through a turnstile and requested to permit his boots to be removed. he consented. white linens were then handed to him.
"see here," he said with singular courage to the attendant. "i've never been into one of these resorts before. where do i go?"
the attendant, who was a bare-footed mild child dressed in the moorish mode, reassuringly charged himself with mr. prohack's well-being, and led the aspirant into a vast mosque with a roof of domes and little glowing windows of coloured glass. in the midst of the mosque was a pale green pool. white figures reclined in alcoves, round the walls. a fountain played—the only orchestra. there was an eastern sound of hands clapped, and another attendant glided across the carpeted warm floor. mr. prohack understood that, in this immense seclusion, when you desired no matter what you clapped your hands and were served. a beautiful peace descended upon him and enveloped him; and he thought: "this is the most wonderful place in the world. i have been waiting for this place for twenty years."
he yielded without reserve to its unique invitation. but some time elapsed before he could recover from the unquestionable fact that he was still within a quarter of a mile of piccadilly circus.
from the explanations of the attendant and from the precise orders which he had received from dr. veiga regarding the right method of conduct in a turkish bath, mr. prohack, being a man of quick mind, soon devised the order of the ceremonial suited to his case, and began to put it into execution. at first he found the ceremonial exacting. to part from all his clothes and to parade through the mosque in attire of which the principal items were a towel and the key of his valuables (adorning his wrist) was ever so slightly an ordeal to one of his temperament and upbringing. to sit unsheltered in blinding steam was not amusing, though it was exciting. but the steam-chapel (as it might be called) of the mosque was a delight compared to the second next chapel further on, where the woodwork of the chairs was too hot to touch and where a gigantic thermometer informed mr. prohack that with only another fifty degrees of heat he would have achieved boiling point.
he remembered that it was in this chamber he must drink iced tonic water in quantity. he clapped his streaming hands clammily, and a tall, thin, old man whose whole life must have been lived near boiling point, immediately brought the draught. short of the melting of the key of his valuables everything possible happened in this extraordinary chamber. but mr. prohack was determined to shrink from naught in the pursuit of idleness.
and at length, after he had sat in a less ardent chapel, and in still another chapel been laid out on a marble slab as for an autopsy and, defenceless, attacked for a quarter of an hour by a prize-fighter, and had jumped desperately into the ice-cold lake and been dragged out and smothered in thick folds of linen, and finally reposed horizontal in his original alcove,—then he was conscious of an inward and profound conviction that true, perfect, complete and supreme idleness had been attained. he had no care in the world; he was cut off from the world; he had no family; he existed beatifically and individually in a sublime and satisfied egotism.
but, such is the insecurity of human organisms and institutions, in less than two minutes he grew aware of a strange sensation within him, which sensation he ultimately diagnosed as hunger. to clap his hands was the work of an instant. the oncoming attendant recited a catalogue of the foods at his disposal; and the phrase "welsh rarebit" caught his attention. he must have a welsh rarebit; he had not had a welsh rarebit since he was at school. it magically arrived, on an oriental tray, set on a low moorish table.
eating the most wonderful food of his life and drinking tea, he looked about and saw that two of the unoccupied sofas in his alcove were strewn with garments; the owners of the garments had doubtlessly arrived during his absence in the chapels and were now in the chapels themselves. he lay back; earthly phenomena lost their hard reality....
when he woke up the mosque was a pit of darkness glimmering with sharp points of electric light. he heard voices, the voices of two men who occupied the neighbouring sofas. they were discoursing to each other upon the difficulties of getting good whiskey in afghanistan and in rio de janeiro respectively. from whiskey they passed to even more interesting matters, and mr. prohack, for the first time, began to learn how the other half lives, to such an extent that he thought he had better turn on the lamp over his head. whereupon the conversation on the neighbouring sofas curved off to the english weather in late autumn.
then mr. prohack noticed a deep snore. he perceived that the snore originated in a considerable figure that, wrapped in white and showing to the mosque only a venerable head, was seated in one of the huge armchairs which were placed near the entrance to every alcove. it seemed to him that he recognised the snore, and he was not mistaken, for he had twice before heard it on sunday afternoons at his chief club. the head was the head of sir paul spinner. mr. prohack recalled that old paul was a devotee of the turkish bath.
now mr. prohack was exceedingly anxious to have speech with old paul, for he had heard very interesting rumours of paul's activities. he arose softly and approached the easy-chair and surveyed sir paul, who in his then state looked less like a high financier and more like something chipped off the roof of a cathedral than anything that mr. prohack had ever seen.
but paul did not waken. a bather plunged into the pool with a tremendous splash, but paul did not waken. and mr. prohack felt that it would be contrary to the spirit of the ritual of the mosque to waken him. but he decided that if he waited all night he would wait until old paul regained consciousness.
at that moment an attendant asked mr. prohack if he desired the attentions of the barber, the chiropodist, or the manicurist. new vistas opened out before mr. prohack. he said yes. after the barber, he padded down the stairs from the barber's chapel (which was in the upper story of the mosque), to observe if there was any change in old paul's condition. paul still slept. mr. prohack did similarly after the chiropodist. paul still slept. then again after the manicurist. paul still slept. then a boyish attendant hurried forward and in a very daring manner shook the monumental paul by the shoulder.
"you told me to wake you at six, sir paul." and paul woke.
"how simple," reflected mr. prohack, "are the problems of existence when they are tackled with decision! here have i been ineffectively trying to waken the fellow for the past hour. but i forgot that he who wishes the end must wish the means, and my regard for the ritual of the mosque was absurd."
he retired into the alcove to dress, keeping a watchful eye upon old paul. he felt himself to be in the highest state of physical efficiency. from head to foot he was beyond criticism. when mr. prohack had got as far as his waistcoat sir paul uprose ponderously from the easy-chair.
"hi, paul!"
the encounter between the two friends was one of those affectionate and ecstatic affairs that can only happen in a turkish bath.
"i've been trying to get you on the 'phone half the day," grunted paul spinner, subsiding on to mr. prohack's sofa.
"i've been out all day. horribly busy," said mr. prohack. "what's wrong? anything wrong?"
"oh, no! only i thought you'd like to know i've finished that deal."
"i did hear some tall stories, but not a word from you, old thing." mr. prohack tried to assume a tranquillity which he certainly did not feel.
"well, i never sing until i'm out of the wood. but this time i'm out sooner than i expected."
"any luck?"
"yes. but i dictated a letter to you before i came here."
"i suppose you can't remember what there was in it."
"i shall get the securities next week."
"what securities?"
"well, you'll receive"—here paul dropped his voice—"three thousand short of a quarter of a million in return for what you put in, my boy."
"then i'm worth over two hundred and fifty thousand pounds!" murmured mr. prohack feebly. and he added, still more feebly: "something will have to be done about this soon." his heart was beating against his waistcoat like an engine.
