i
louis fores was late at his grand-aunt's because he had by a certain preoccupation, during a period of about an hour, been rendered oblivious of the passage of time. the real origin of the affair went back nearly sixty years, to an indecorous episode in the history of the maldon family.
at that date—before mrs. maldon had even met austin maldon, her future husband—austin's elder brother athelstan, who was well established as an earthenware broker in london, had a conjugal misfortune, which reached its climax in the matrimonial court, and left the injured and stately athelstan with an incomplete household, a spoiled home, and the sole care of two children, a boy and a girl. these children were, almost of necessity, clumsily brought up. the girl married the half-brother of a lieutenant-general fores, and louis fores was their son. the boy married an american girl, and had issue, julian maldon and some daughters.
at the age of eighteen, louis fores, amiable, personable, and an orphan, was looking for a career. he had lived in the london suburb of barnes, and under the influence of a father whose career had chiefly been to be the stepbrother of lieutenant-general fores. he was in full possession of the conventionally snobbish ideals of the suburb, reinforced by more than a tincture of the stupendous and unsurpassed snobbishness of the british army. he had no money, and therefore the liberal professions and the higher division of the civil service were closed to him. he had the choice of two activities: he might tout for wine, motor-cars, or mineral-waters on commission (like his father), or he might enter a bank; his friends were agreed that nothing else was conceivable. he chose the living grave. it is not easy to enter the living grave, but, august influences aiding, he entered it with éclat at a salary of seventy pounds a year, and it closed over him. he would have been secure till his second death had he not defiled the bier. the day of judgment occurred, the grave opened, and he was thrown out with ignominy, but ignominy unpublished. the august influences, by simple cash, and for their own sakes, had saved him from exposure and a jury.
in order to get rid of him his protectors spoke well of him, emphasizing his many good qualities, and he was deported to the five towns (properly enough, since his grandfather had come thence) and there joined the staff of batchgrew & sons, thanks to the kind intervention of mrs. maldon. at the end of a year john batchgrew told him to go, and told mrs. maldon that her grand-nephew had a fault. mrs. maldon was very sorry. at this juncture louis fores, without intending to do so, would certainly have turned mrs. maldon's last years into a tragedy, had he not in the very nick of time inherited about a thousand pounds. he was rehabilitated. he "had money" now. he had a fortune; he had ten thousand pounds; he had any sum you like, according to the caprice of rumour. he lived on his means for a little time, frequenting the municipal school of art at the wedgwood institution at bursley, and then old batchgrew had casually suggested to mrs. maldon that there ought to be an opening for him with jim horrocleave, who was understood to be succeeding with his patent special processes for earthenware manufacture. mr. horrocleave, a man with a chin, would not accept him for a partner, having no desire to share profits with anybody; but on the faith of his artistic tendency and mrs. maldon's correct yet highly misleading catalogue of his virtues, he took him at a salary, in return for which louis was to be the confidential employee who could and would do anything, including design.
and now louis was the step-nephew of a lieutenant-general, a man of private means and of talent, and a trusted employee with a fine wage—all under one skin! he shone in bursley, and no wonder! he was very active at horrocleave's. he not only designed shapes for vases, and talked intimately with jim horrocleave about fresh projects, but he controlled the petty cash. the expenditure of petty cash grew, as was natural in a growing business. mr. horrocleave soon got accustomed to that, and apparently gave it no thought, signing cheques instantly upon request. but on the very day of mrs. maldon's party, after signing a cheque and before handing it to louis, he had somewhat lengthily consulted his private cash-book, and, as he handed over the cheque, had said: "let's have a squint at the petty-cash book to-morrow morning, louis." he said it gruffly, but he was a gruff man. he left early. he might have meant anything or nothing. louis could not decide which; or rather, from five o'clock to seven he had come to alternating decisions every five minutes.
ii
it was just about at the time when louis ought to have been removing his paper cuff-shields in order to start for mrs. maldon's that he discovered the full extent of his debt to the petty-cash box. he sat alone at a rough and dirty desk in the inner room of the works "office," surrounded by dust-covered sample vases and other vessels of all shapes, sizes, and tints—specimens of horrocleave's "art lustre ware," a melancholy array of ingenious ugliness that nevertheless filled with pride its creators. he looked through a dirt-obscured window and with unseeing gaze surveyed a muddy, littered quadrangle whose twilight was reddened by gleams from the engine-house. in this yard lay flat a sign that had been blown down from the façade of the manufactory six months before: "horrocleave. art lustre ware." within the room was another sign, itself fashioned in lustre-ware: "horrocleave. art lustre ware." and the envelopes and paper and bill-heads on the desk all bore the same legend: "horrocleave. art lustre ware."
he owed seventy-three pounds to the petty-cash box, and he was startled and shocked. he was startled because for weeks past he had refrained from adding up the columns of the cash-book—partly from idleness and partly from a desire to remain in ignorance of his own doings. he had hoped for the best. he had faintly hoped that the deficit would not exceed ten pounds, or twelve; he had been prepared for a deficit of twenty-five, or even thirty. but seventy-three really shocked. nay, it staggered. it meant that in addition to his salary, some thirty shillings a week had been mysteriously trickling through the incurable hole in his pocket. not to mention other debts! he well knew that to shillitoe alone (his admirable tailor) he owed eighteen pounds.
it may be asked how a young bachelor, with private means and a fine salary, living in a district where prices are low and social conventions not costly, could have come to such a pass. the answer is that louis had no private means, and that his salary was not fine. the thousand pounds had gradually vanished, as a thousand pounds will, in the refinements of material existence and in the pursuit of happiness. his bank-account had long been in abeyance. his salary was three pounds a week. many a member of the liberal professions—many a solicitor, for example—brings up a family on three pounds a week in the provinces. but for a lieutenant-general's nephew, who had once had a thousand pounds in one lump, three pounds a week was inadequate. as a fact, louis conceived himself "art director" of horrocleave's, and sincerely thought that as such he was ill-paid. herein was one of his private excuses for eccentricity with the petty cash. it may also be asked what louis had to show for his superb expenditure. the answer is, nothing.
with the seventy-three pounds desolatingly clear in his mind, he quitted his desk in order to reconnoitre the outer and larger portion of the counting-house. he went as far as the archway, and saw black smoke being blown downwards from heaven into friendly street. a policeman was placidly regarding the smoke as he strolled by. and louis, though absolutely sure that the officer would not carry out his plain duty of summoning horrocleave's for committing a smoke-nuisance, did not care for the spectacle of the policeman. he returned to the inner office, and locked the door. the "staff" and the "hands" had all gone, save one or two piece-workers in the painting-shop across the yard.
the night watchman, fresh from bed, was moving fussily about the yard. he nodded with respect to louis through the grimy window. louis lit the gas, and spread a newspaper in front of the window by way of blind. and then he began a series of acts on the petty-cash book. the office clock indicated twenty past six. he knew that time was short, but he had a natural gift for the invention and execution of these acts, and he calculated that under half an hour would suffice for them. but when he next looked at the clock, the acts being accomplished, one hour had elapsed; it had seemed to him more like a quarter of an hour. yet as blotting-paper cannot safely be employed in such delicate calligraphic feats as those of louis', even an hour was not excessive for what he had done. an operator clumsier, less cool, less cursory, more cautious than himself might well have spent half a night over the job. he locked up the book, washed his hands and face with remarkable celerity in a filthy lavatory basin, brushed his hair, removed his cuff-shields, changed his coat, and fled at speed, leaving the key of the office with the watchman.
iii
"i suppose the old lady was getting anxious?" said he brightly (but in a low tone so that the old lady should not hear), as he shook hands with rachel in the lobby. he had recognized her in front of him up the lane—had, in fact, nearly overtaken her; and she was standing at the open door when he mounted the steps. she had had just time to prove to mrs. maldon, by a "he's coming" thrown through the sitting-room doorway, that she had not waited for louis fores and walked up with him.
"yes," rachel replied in the same tone, most deceitfully leaving him under the false impression that it was the old lady's anxiety that had sent her out. she had, then, emerged scathless in reputation from the indiscreet adventure!
the house was animated by the arrival of louis; at once it seemed to live more keenly when he had crossed the threshold. and louis found pleasure in the house—in the welcoming aspect of its interior, in rachel's evident excited gladness at seeing him, in her honest and agreeable features, and in her sheer girlishness. a few minutes earlier he had been in the sordid and dreadful office. now he was in another and a cleaner, prettier world. he yielded instantly and fully to its invitation, for he had the singular faculty of being able to cast off care like a garment. he felt sympathetic towards women, and eager to employ for their contentment all the charm which he knew he possessed. he gave himself, generously, in every gesture and intonation.
"office, auntie, office!" he exclaimed, elegantly entering the parlour. "sack-cloth! ashes! hallo! where's julian? is he late too?"
when he had received the news about julian maldon he asked to see the telegram, and searched out its place of origin, and drew forth a pocket time-table, and remarked in a wise way that he hoped julian would "make the connection" at derby. lastly he predicted the precise minute at which julian "ought" to be knocking at the front door. and both women felt their ignorant, puzzled inferiority in these recondite matters of travel, and the comfort of having an omniscient male in the house.
then slightly drawing up his dark blue trousers with an accustomed movement, he carefully sat down on the chesterfield, and stroked his soft black moustache (which was estimably long for a fellow of twenty-three) and patted his black hair.
"rachel, you didn't fasten that landing window, after all!" said mrs. maldon, looking over louis' head at the lady companion, who hesitated modestly near the door. "i've tried, but i couldn't."
"neither could i, mrs. maldon," said rachel. "i was thinking perhaps mr. fores wouldn't mind—"
she did not explain that her failure to fasten the window had been more or less deliberate, since, while actually tugging at the window, she had been visited by the sudden delicious thought: "how nice it would be to ask louis fores to do this hard thing for me!"
and now she had asked him.
"certainly!" louis jumped to his feet, and off he went upstairs. most probably, if the sudden delicious thought had not skipped into rachel's brain, he would never have made that critical ascent to the first floor.
a gas-jet burned low on the landing.
"let's have a little light on the subject," he cheerfully muttered to himself, as he turned on the gas to the full.
then in the noisy blaze of yellow and blue light he went to the window and with a single fierce wrench he succeeded in pulling the catch into position. he was proud of his strength. it pleased him to think of the weakness of women; it pleased him to anticipate the impressed thanks of the weak women for this exertion of his power on their behalf. "have you managed it so soon?" his aunt would exclaim, and he would answer in a carefully offhand way, "of course. why not?"
he was about to descend, but he remembered that he must not leave the gas at full. with his hand on the tap, he glanced perfunctorily around the little landing. the door of mrs. maldon's bedroom was in front of him, at right angles to the window. by the door, which was ajar, stood a cane-seated chair. underneath the chair he perceived a whitish package or roll that seemed to be out of place there on the floor. he stooped and picked it up. and as the paper rustled peculiarly in his hand, he could feel his heart give a swift bound. he opened the roll. it consisted of nothing whatever but bank-notes. he listened intently, with ear cocked and rigid limbs, and he could just catch the soothing murmur of women's voices in the parlour beneath the reverberating, solemn pulse of the lobby clock.
