Mummery

turning over the account presented by his manager of the last week's business with his

ful notices! Wonderful notices! It's these confounded music-halls and cinemas, lowering the people's taste. Yet the public's loyal, wonde

through his brain, mischief glinted. He was surrounded with portraits of himself in his various successes, and above his head was a bust of himself in the character of Napoleon. Every now and then, when he remembered it, he compr

together, the happy speeches he had made, the banquets he had held after so many first performances-and then he thought of Ivanhoe, a mistake. Worse than a mistake, a strategical blunder, for now had come the time when his crowning ambition should be fulfilled, to have the Imperium unofficially acknowledged as the national theatre, so that when he retired it should be purchased for the nation and make his achievement immortal.... Macready, Irving, all of the great line had perished and were but names, while Henry Butcher would be remembered as the creator of the theatre, the people's theatre,

s memory, and then to the portrait of his wife, who had been so wonderfully skilful in decorating the f

mocking litany floated through Sir Henry's brain, 'One for the front of the hous

g Ivanhoe from a disastrous failure into an apparent success, but no idea

e eyebrows they'll laugh, and it might go. I must

one by his

ribly.... Very well. I'll ri

lung out his legs once more

r here.' But his memory twinged as he thought of the insultin

ome one told me Scott was the next

oments his secretary ushered in Mr Charles Mann. Sir Henry rose, drew hi

the tradition. The public is proud of the old theatrical families.... I'm sorry you wouldn't take that part I offered you. I saw y

g his portfolio and large

t you my desig

r w

comedy by B

Ben J

met people before who had talked

pened his

just completed. You see, c

high,' said Sir Henr

'is what I want, so that

' chuckled Sir Henry, and Charles, who

ike it play

drawings and played with

aw my King L

ehenge would have answered the same purpose. You would have

and fetched up an enormous voi

his voice rumbling in his belly and tapped with hi

' cried

ir Henry, now very

rubbing his thumb along a line

s and drawled, 'Wonderful thing the theatre.' There's life in i

irs to ask you to give me a part. Yo

I offer you a pa

now.... I have had a grea

hink of a nati

ry city, ought to

best theatr

It is one of the finest

ard of its

, seized his hat, crammed it on to his head, and h

u say to Th

n't need

ictures all the way-and the masque.... I want to do The

uy my drawings and to pay

pounds meant no more to him than one and sixpence. He merely menti

as why I offered you that part. The theatre wants something new. The Russian ballet has upset people. They are expecting somethi

t for you will you

think it over. You know we manag

so wonderful had been his life since she came into it, that he accepted the accuracy of her divination of the futility of his procedure through artists and literary persons, who would feed upon his fame and increase it to have more to devour.... He decided then to say no more about his committee for the present, to accept Sir Henry's offer, and to escape as quic

irs to a private door which led to the dress circle. The theatre was in darkness. The s

t possesses you. Art is very like a woman. She on

uarium.... After his years of freedom in delightful countries, where people were in no hurry and were able most charmingly to do nothing in particular for weeks on end, the captivity of so eminent and powerful a person appalled and crushed him.... He had not encountered anything like it in his previous sojourn in London, and he was again possessed with the bewildered rage that had seized him when he saw the rebuilt station on his arrival. He had been out of it all for so long, yet he

the theatre in which he had been born and bred, the rather fatuous, very sentimental theatre which was inhabited by simple kind-hearted vagabonds, isolated from the world of morals and religion, yet passionately proud of their calling, and setting it above both morals and religion. But this theatre, magnificent in this new magnificent London, was empty an

was fastidious and took no interest in chance women. She was a little woman, very alert, and she was rather poorly dressed. She was young, but already he

papers,' she said. 'It's a p

, cast about for some excuse for pretend

t on. 'There's a lot of talk about you in

aid he, 'is that a

ible emotions, without any physical memory to fix them so that he was at their mercy. At last physical memories began to emerge, rather ridiculously, theatrical lodgings, provincial theatres, the arcades at Birmingham. And a

really had forgotten. Well-money will settle it

han his fair share of the comfort of humanity. He had so much to give if only humanity would take-and pay for it. What he had to give was beyond price, wherefore he had no qualms in setting his price high.... From The Tempest boundless wealth would flow. He quickly persuaded himself of that, and by the time he reached his

'and I am to have the whole theat

I was righ

ays. And now we will go out and drink champagne-He

because he was rather rough and cumbrous in his humour, cracked gus

from face to face searching eagerly for-she knew not what; power, perhaps, some power which should justify their costly elegance. This hurt as a lie hurt her, because, as she gazed from person to person, she could not divine the individuality beneath the uniform, and she was still young enough to wish to do so.... Meanwhile, as she gazed, Charles ate and drank lustily, and, it m

good-looking man came and ta

'I'm just back from America. They think a lot o

l. 'What a splendid place this is! Chicken, this is Freelan

said Freeland, 'died in harness

at once to even the memo

o now. Won't you come over and join us for coffee, when you have finished? I am with Miss

ssed glance round the theatre, and he saw himself

th her expansive bosom, her drooping figure, her tinted face and hair and ludicrously long soft eyes. There was room in Miss Wainwright f

de Freeland go over and fetch you...

Clara, 'but I'

e menthe.' The Wainwrights have always been in the profession, but I'

in Italy and Germany and France with my grandfather. My f

, America, but never Canada.... I'm just back from America with Freeland, and we took the first thing that came along-Ivanhoe. It's

the floor of the restauran

o that almost for the first time Clara felt that she really was identified with her great man. Those who worshipped at the shrine of his greatness always regarded her as an adj

n eating an orange, made no

layer, always a player-money or no money, and there's

rved, and, telling Miss Wainwright that it was time to go,

h a magnificent setting of all her sails she moved away from the table, and, taking

s, shaking back his mane. 'Po

the kindest woma

with kindness or burning with jealousy.... T

ose I bec

could

'm goi

it for a week, my d

would

forbi

t stay with you..

that though she had some respect for his

undred yards to the Imperium, where he growled, grunted, muttered, dashed his hands through his hair, and she sat with her eyes glued on the stage, and her brows puckere

e said. 'It is no

the money in that place should sustain beauty, and every ugly thing, every ugly thought should disappear. He touched Clara's hair, and for

nxious thoughts and uneasy emotions, and if everybody had troubles that lurked in the past and might race ahead of them to meet