Demos

CHAPTER IX

Richard Mutimer had strong domestic affections. The English artisan is not demonstrative in such matters, and throughout his life Richard had probably exchanged no word of endearment with any one of his kin, whereas language of the tempestuous kind was common enough from him to one and all of them; for all that he clung closely to the hearth, and nothing in truth concerned him so nearly as the well-being of his mother, his sister, and his brother. For them he had rejoiced as much as for himself in the blessing of fortune. Now that the excitement of change had had time to subside, Richard found himself realising the fact that capital creates cares as well as removes them, and just now the centre of his anxieties lay in the house at Highbury to which his family had removed from Wilton Square.

He believed that as yet both the Princess and ‘Arry were ignorant of the true state of affairs. It had been represented to them that he had ‘come in for’ a handsome legacy from his relative in the Midlands, together with certain business responsibilities which would keep him much away from home; they were given to understand that the change in their own position and prospects was entirely of their brother’s making. If Alice Maud was allowed to give up her work, to wear more expensive gowns, even to receive lessons on the pianoforte, she had to thank Dick for it. And when ‘Arry was told that his clerkship at the drain-pipe manufactory was about to terminate, that he might enter upon a career likely to be more fruitful of distinction, again it was Dick’s brotherly kindness. Mrs. Mutimer did her best to keep up this deception.

But Richard was well aware that the deception could not be lasting, and had the Princess alone been concerned he would probably never have commenced it. It was about his brother that he was really anxious. ‘Arry might hear the truth any day, and Richard gravely feared the result of such a discovery. Had he been destined to future statesmanship, he could not have gone through a more profitable course of experience and reasoning than that into which he was led by brotherly solicitude. For ‘Arry represented a very large section of Demos, alike in his natural characteristics and in the circumstances of his position; ‘Arry, being ‘Arry, was on the threshold of emancipation, and without the smallest likelihood that the event would change his nature. Hence the nut to crack: Given ‘Arry, by what rapid process of discipline can he be prepared for a state in which the ‘Arrian characteristics will surely prove ruinous not only to himself but to all with whom he has dealings?

Richard saw reason to deeply regret that the youth had been put to clerking in the first instance, and not rather trained for some handicraft, clerkships being about the least hopeful of positions for a working-class lad of small parts and pronounced blackguard tendencies. He came to the conclusion that even now it was not too late to remedy this error. ‘Arry must be taught what work meant, and, before he came into possession of his means, he must, if possible, be led to devote his poor washy brains to some pursuit quite compatible with the standing of a capitalist, to acquire knowledge of a kind which he could afterwards use for the benefit of his own pocket. Deficient bodily vigour had had something to do with his elevation to the office of the drain-pipe factory, but that he appeared to have outgrown. Much pondering enabled Richard to hit at length on what he considered a hopeful scheme; he would apprentice ‘Arry to engineering, and send him in the evenings to follow the courses of lectures given to working men at the School of Mines. In this way the lad would be kept constantly occupied, he would learn the meaning of work and study, and when he became of age would be in a position to take up some capitalist enterprise. Thus he might float clear of the shoals of black-guardism and develop into a tolerable member of society, at all events using his wealth in the direct employment of labour.

We have seen Richard engaged in asthetic speculation; now we behold him busied in the training of a representative capitalist. But the world would be a terrible place if the men of individual energy were at all times consistent. Richard knew well enough that in planning thus for his brother’s future he was inconsistency itself; but then the matter at issue concerned someone in whom he had a strong personal interest, and consequently he took counsel of facts. When it was only the world at large that he was bent on benefiting, too shrewd a sifting of arguments was not called for, and might seriously have interfered with his oratorical effects. In regulating private interests one cares singularly little for anything but hard demonstration and the logic of cause and effect.

It was now more than a month since ‘Arry had been removed from the drain-pipes and set going on his new course, and Richard was watching the experiment gravely. Connected with it was his exceptional stay at Wanley over the Sunday; he designed to go up to London quite unexpectedly about the middle of the ensuing week, that he might see how things worked in his absence. It is true there had been another inducement to remain in the village, for Richard had troubles of his own in addition to those imposed upon him by his family. The Manor was now at his disposal; as soon as he had furnished it there was no longer a reason for delaying his marriage. In appearance, that is to say; inwardly there had been growing for some weeks reasons manifold. They tormented him. For the first time in his life he had begun to sleep indifferently; when he had resolutely put from his mind thought of Alice and ‘Arry, and seemed ready for repose, there crept out of less obvious lurking-places subtle temptations and suggestions which fevered his blood and only allured the more, the more they disquieted him. This Sunday night was the worst he had yet known. When he left the Walthams, he occupied himself for an hour or two in writing letters, resolutely subduing his thoughts to the subjects of his correspondence. Then he ate supper, and after that walked to the top of Stanbury Hill, hoping to tire himself. But he returned as little prepared for sleep as he had set out. Now he endeavoured to think of Emma Vine; by way of help, he sat down and began a letter to her. But composition had never been so difficult; he positively had nothing to say. Still he must think of her. When he went up to town on Tuesday or Wednesday one of his first duties would be to appoint a day for his marriage. And he felt that it would be a duty harder to perform than any he had ever known. She seemed to have drifted so far from him, or he from her. It was difficult even to see her face in imagination; another face always came instead, and indeed needed no summoning.

He rose next morning with a stern determination to marry Emma Vine in less than a month from that date.

On Tuesday he went to London. A hansom put him down before the house in Highbury about six o’clock. It was a semidetached villa, stuccoed, bow-windowed, of two storeys, standing pleasantly on a wide road skirted by similar dwellings, and with a row of acacias in front. He admitted himself with a latch-key and walked at once into the front room; it was vacant. He went to the dining-room and there found his mother at tea with Alice and ‘Arry.

Mrs. Mutimer and her younger son were in appearance very much what they had been in their former state. The mother’s dress was of better material, but she was not otherwise outwardly changed. ‘Arry was attired nearly as when we saw him in a festive condition on the evening of Easter Sunday; the elegance then reserved for high days and holidays now distinguished him every evening when the guise of the workshop was thrown off. He still wore a waistcoat of pronounced cut, a striking collar, a necktie of remarkable hue. It was not necessary to approach him closely to be aware that his person was sprinkled with perfumes. A recent acquisition was a heavy-looking ring on the little finger of his right hand. Had you been of his intimates, ‘Arry would have explained to you the double advantage of this ring; not only did it serve as an adornment, but, as playful demonstration might indicate, it would prove of singular efficacy in pugilistic conflict.

At the sight of his elder brother, ‘Arry hastily put his hands beneath the table, drew off the ornament, and consigned it furtively to his waistcoat pocket.

But Alice Maud was by no means what she had been. In all that concerned his sister, Mutimer was weak; he could quarrel with her, and abuse her roundly for frailties, but none the less was it one of his keenest pleasures to see her contented, even in ways that went quite against his conscience. He might rail against the vanity of dress, but if Alice needed a new gown, Richard was the first to notice it. The neat little silver watch she carried was a gift from himself of some years back; with difficulty he had resisted the temptation to replace it with a gold one now that it was in his power to do so. Tolerable taste and handiness with her needle had always kept Alice rather more ladylike in appearance than the girls of her class are wont to be, but such comparative distinction no longer sufficed. After certain struggles with himself, Richard had told his mother that Alice must in future dress ‘as a lady’; he authorised her to procure the services of a competent dressmaker, and, within the bounds of moderation, to expend freely. And the result was on the whole satisfactory. A girl of good figure, pretty face, and moderate wit, who has spent some years in a City showroom, does not need much instruction in the art of wearing fashionable attire becomingly. Alice wore this evening a gown which would not have been out of place at five o’clock in a West-end drawing-room; the sleeves were rather short, sufficiently so to exhibit a very shapely lower arm. She had discovered new ways of doing her hair; at present it was braided on either side of the forehead—a style which gave almost a thoughtful air to her face. When her brother entered she was eating a piece of sponge-cake, which she held to her lips with peculiar delicacy, as if rehearsing graces.

‘Why, there now!’ cried Mrs. Mutimer, pleased to see her son. ‘If I wasn’t saying not five minutes ago as Dick was likely to come some day in the week! Wasn’t I, Alice? What’ll you have for your tea? There’s some chops all ready in the ‘ouse, if you’d care for them.’

Richard was not in a cheerful mood. He made no reply immediately, but went and stood before the fireplace, as he had been accustomed to do in the old kitchen.

‘Will you have a chop?’ repeated his mother.

‘No; I won’t eat just yet. But you can give me a cup of tea.’

Mrs. Mutimer and Alice exchanged a glance, as the former bent over the teapot. Richard was regarding his brother askance, and it resulted in a question, rather sharply put—

‘Have you been to work to-day?’

‘Arry would have lied had he dared; as it was, he made his plate revolve, and murmured, ‘No; he ‘adn’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘I didn’t feel well,’ replied the youth, struggling for self-confidence and doing his best to put on an air of patient suffering.

Richard tapped his tea-cup and looked the look of one who reserves discussion for a more seasonable time.

‘Daniel called last night,’ remarked Mrs. Mutimer. ‘He says he wants to see you. I think it’s something particular; he seemed disappointed you weren’t at the meeting on Sunday.’

‘Did he? I’ll see if I can get round to-night. If you like to have something cooked for me about eight o’clock, mother,’ he added, consulting his watch, ‘I shall be ready for it then.’

He turned to his brother again.

‘Is there a class to-night? No? Very well, when they’ve cleared away, get your books out and show me what you’ve been doing. What are you going to do with yourself, Alice?’

The two addressed, as well as their mother, appeared to have some special cause for embarrassment. Instead of immediately replying, Alice played with crumbs and stole glances on either side.

‘Me and ‘Arry are going out,’ she said at length, with a rather timid smile and a poise of the head in pretty wilfulness.

‘Not ‘Arry,’ Richard observed significantly.

‘Why not?’ came from the younger Mutimer, with access of boldness.

‘If you’re not well enough to go to work you certainly don’t go out at night for your pleasure.’

‘But it’s a particular occasion,’ explained Mice, leaning back with crossed arms, evidently prepared to do battle. ‘A friend of ‘Arry’s is going to call and take us to the theatre.’

‘Oh, indeed! And what friend is that?’

Mrs. Mutimer, who had been talked over to compliance with a project she felt Richard would not approve—she had no longer the old authority, and spent her days in trying to piece on the present life to the former—found refuge in a habit more suitable to the kitchen than the dining-room; she had collected all the teaspoons within reach and was pouring hot-water upon them in the slop-basin, the familiar preliminary to washing up.

‘A gen’leman as lives near here,’ responded ‘Arry. ‘He writes for the newspapers. His name’s Keene.’

‘Oh? And how came you to know him?’

‘Met him,’ was the airy reply.

‘And you’ve brought him here?’

‘Well, he’s been here once.’

‘He said as he wanted to know you, Dick,’ put in Mrs. Mutimer. ‘He was really a civil-spoken man, and he gave ‘Arry a lot of help with his books.’

‘When was he here?’

‘Last Friday.’

‘And to-night he wants to take you to the theatre?’

The question was addressed to Alice.

‘It won’t cost him anything,’ she replied. ‘He says he can always get free passes.’

‘No doubt. Is he coming here to fetch you? I shall be glad to see him.’

Richard’s tone was ambiguous. He put down his cup, and said to Alice—

‘Come and let me hear how you get on with your playing.’ Alice followed into the drawing-room. For the furnishing of the new house Richard had not trusted to his own instincts, but had taken counsel with a firm that he knew from advertisements. The result was commonplace, but not intolerable. His front room was regarded as the Princess’s peculiar domain; she alone dared to use it freely—declined, indeed, to sit elsewhere. Her mother only came a few feet within the door now and then; if obliged by Alice to sit down, she did so on the edge of a chair as near to the door as possible. Most of her time Mrs. Mutimer still spent in the kitchen. She had resolutely refused to keep more than one servant, and everything that servant did she all Alice’s objections she opposed an obstinate silence. What herself performed over again, even to the making of beds. To was the poor woman to do? She had never in her life read more than an occasional paragraph of police news, and could not be expected to take up literature at her age. Though she made no complaint, signs were not wanting that she had begun to suffer in health. She fretted through the nights, and was never really at peace save when she anticipated the servant in rising early, and had an honest scrub at saucepans or fireirons before breakfast. Her main discomfort came of the feeling that she no longer had a house of her own; nothing about her seemed to be her property with the exception of her old kitchen clock, and one or two articles she could not have borne to part with. From being a rather talkative woman she had become very reticent; she went about uneasily, with a look of suspicion or of fear. Her children she no longer ventured to command; the secret of their wealth weighed upon her, she was in constant dread on their behalf. It is a bad thing for one such as Mrs. Mutimer to be thrown back upon herself in novel circumstances, and practically debarred from the only relief which will avail her—free discussion with her own kind. The result is a species of shock to the system, sure to manifest itself before long in one or other form of debility.

Alice seated herself at the piano, and began a finger exercise, laboriously, imperfectly. For the first week or two it had given her vast satisfaction to be learning the piano; what more certain sign of having achieved ladyhood? It pleased her to assume airs with her teacher—a very deferential lady—to put off a lesson for a fit of languidness; to let it be understood how entirely time was at her command. Now she was growing rather weary of flats and sharps, and much preferred to read of persons to whom the same nomenclature was very applicable in the books she obtained from a circulating library. Her reading had hitherto been confined to the fiction of the penny papers; to procure her pleasure in three gaily-bound volumes was another evidence of rise in the social scale; it was like ordering your wine by the dozen after being accustomed to a poor chance bottle now and then. At present Alice spent the greater part of her day floating on the gentle milky stream of English romance. Her brother was made a little uneasy by this taste; he had not studied the literature in question.

At half-past six a loud knock at the front door announced the expected visitor. Alice turned from the piano, and looked at her brother apprehensively. Richard rose, and established himself on the hearthrug, his hands behind him.

‘What are you going to say to him, Dick?’ Alice asked hurriedly.

‘He says he wants to know me. I shall say, “Here I am.”’

There were voices outside. ‘Arry had opened the door himself, and now he ushered his acquaintance into the drawing-room. Mr. Keene proved to be a man of uncertain age—he might be eight-and-twenty, but was more probably ten years older. He was meagre, and of shrewd visage; he wore a black frock coat—rather shiny at the back—and his collar was obviously of paper. Incipient baldness endowed him in appearance with a noble forehead; he carried eye-glasses.

Whilst ‘Arry mumbled a form of introduction, the journalist—so Mr. Keene described himself—stood in a bowing attitude, one hand to his glasses, seeming to inspect Richard with extreme yet respectful interest. When he spoke, it was in a rather mincing way, with interjected murmurs—the involuntary overflow, as it were, of his deep satisfaction.

‘There are few persons in England whose acquaintance I desire more than that of Mr. Richard Mutimer; indeed, I may leave the statement unqualified and say at once that there is no one. I have heard you speak in public, Mr. Mutimer. My profession has necessarily led me to hear most of our platform orators, and in one respect you distance them all—in the quality of sincerity. No speaker ever moved me as you did. I had long been interested in your cause; I had long wished for time and opportunity to examine into it thoroughly. Your address—I speak seriously—removed the necessity of further study. I am of your party, Mr. Mutimer. There is nothing I desire so much as to give and take the hand of brotherhood.’

He jerked his hand forward, still preserving his respectful attitude. Richard gave his own hand carelessly, smiling as a man does who cannot but enjoy flattery yet has a strong desire to kick the flatterer out of the room.

‘Are you a member of the Union?’ he inquired.

‘With pride I profess myself a member. Some day—and that at no remote date—I may have it in my power to serve the cause materially.’ He smiled meaningly. ‘The press—you understand?’ He spread his fingers to represent wide dominion. ‘An ally to whom the columns of the bourgeois press are open—you perceive? It is the task of my life.’

‘What papers do you write for?’ asked Mutimer bluntly.

‘Several, several. Not as yet in a leading capacity. In fact, I am feeling my way. With ends such as I propose to myself it won’t do to stand committed to any formal creed in politics. Politics, indeed! Ha, ha!’

He laughed scornfully. Then, turning to Alice—

‘You will forgive me, I am sure, Miss Mutimer, that I address myself first to your brother—I had almost said your illustrious brother. To be confessed illustrious some day, depend upon it. I trust you are well?’

‘Thanks, I’m very well indeed,’ murmured Alice, rather disconcerted by such politeness.

‘And Mrs. Mutimer? That is well. By-the-by,’ he proceeded to Richard, ‘I have a piece of work in hand that will deeply interest you. I am translating the great treatise of Marx, “Das capital.” It occurs to me that a chapter now and then might see the light in the “Fiery Cross.” How do you view that suggestion?’

Richard did not care to hide his suspicion, and even such an announcement as this failed to move him to cordiality.

‘You might drop a line about it to Mr. Westlake,’ he said.

‘Mr. Westlake? Oh! but I quite understood that you had practically the conduct of the paper.’

Richard again smiled.

‘Mr. Westlake edits it,’ he said.

Mr. Keene waved his hand in sign of friendly intelligence. Then he changed the subject.

‘I ventured to put at Miss Mutimer’s disposal certain tickets I hold—professionally—for the Regent’s Theatre to-night—the dress circle. I have five seats in all. May I have the pleasure of your company, Mr. Mutimer?’

‘I’m only in town for a night,’ Richard replied; ‘and I can’t very well spare the time.’

‘To be sure, to be sure; I was inconsiderate. Then Miss Mutimer and my friend Harry—’

‘I’m sorry they’re not at liberty,’ was Richard’s answer to the murmured interrogation. ‘If they had accepted your invitation be’ so good as to excuse them. I happen to want them particularly this evening.’

‘In that case, I have of course not a word to say, save to express my deep regret at losing the pleasure of their company. But another time, I trust. I—I feel presumptuous, but it is my earnest hope to be allowed to stand on the footing not only of a comrade in the cause, but of a neighbour; I live quite near. Forgive me if I seem a little precipitate. The privilege is so inestimable.’

Richard made no answer, and Mr. Keene forthwith took his leave, suave to the last. When he was gone, Richard went to the dining-room, where his mother was sitting. Mrs. Mutimer would have given much to be allowed to sit in the kitchen; she had a room of her own upstairs, but there she felt too remote from the centre of domestic operations, and the dining-room was a compromise. Her chair was always placed in a rather dusky corner; she generally had sewing on her lap, but the consciousness that her needle was not really in demand, and that she might just as well have sat idle, troubled her habits of mind. She often had the face of one growing prematurely aged.

‘I hope you won’t let them bring anyone they like,’ Richard said to her. ‘I’ve sent that fellow about his business; he’s here for no good. He mustn’t come again.’

‘They won’t heed me,’ replied Mrs. Mutimer, using the tone of little interest with which she was accustomed to speak of details of the new order.

‘Well, then, they’ve got to heed you, and I’ll have that understood.—Why didn’t ‘Arry go to work to-day?’

‘Didn’t want to, I s’pose.’

‘Has he stayed at home often lately?’

‘Not at ‘ome, but I expect he doesn’t always go to work.’

‘Will you go and sit with Alice in the front room? I’ll have a talk with him.’

‘Arry came whistling at the summons. There was a nasty look on his face, the look which in his character corresponded to Richard’s resoluteness. His brother eyed him.

‘Look here, ‘Arry,’ the elder began, ‘I want this explaining. What do you mean by shirking your work?’

There was no reply. ‘Arry strode to the window and leaned against the side of it, in the attitude of a Sunday loafer waiting for the dram-shop to open.

‘If this goes on,’ Richard pursued, ‘you’ll find yourself in your old position again. I’ve gone to a good deal of trouble to give you a start, and it seems to me you ought to show a better spirit. We’d better have an understanding; do you mean to learn engineering, or don’t you?’

‘I don’t see the use of it,’ said the other.

‘What do you mean? I suppose you must make your living somehow?’

‘Arry laughed, and in such a way that Richard looked at him keenly, his brow gathering darkness.

‘What are you laughing at?’

‘Why, at you. There’s no more need for me to work for a living than there is for you. As if I didn’t know that!’

‘Who’s been putting that into your head?’

No scruple prevented the lad from breaking a promise he had made to Mr. Keene, the journalist, when the latter explained to him the disposition of the deceased Richard Mutimer’s estate; it was only that he preferred to get himself credit for acuteness.

‘Why, you don’t think I was to be kept in the dark about a thing like that? It’s just like you to want to make a fellow sweat the flesh off his bones when all the time there’s a fortune waiting for him. What have I got to work for, I’d like to know? I don’t just see the fun of it, and you wouldn’t neither, in my case. You’ve took jolly good care you don’t work yourself, trust you! I ain’t a-going to work no more, so there it is, plain and flat.’

Richard was not prepared for this; he could not hit at once on a new course of procedure, and probably it was the uncertainty revealed in his countenance that brought ‘Arry to a pitch of boldness not altogether premeditated. The lad came from the window, thrust his hands more firmly into his pockets and stood prepared to do battle for his freeman’s rights It is not every day that a youth of his stamp finds himself gloriously capable of renouncing work. There was something like a glow of conscious virtue on his face.

‘You’re not going to work any more, eh?’ said his brother, half to himself. ‘And who’s going to support you?’ he asked, with rather forced indignation.

‘There’s interest per cent. coming out of my money.’

‘Arry must not be credited with conscious accuracy in his use of terms; he merely jumbled together two words which had stuck in his memory.

‘Oh? And what are you going to do with your time?’

‘That’s my business. How do other men spend their time?’

The reply was obvious, but Richard felt the full seriousness of the situation and restrained his scornful impulses.

‘Sit down, will you?’ he said quietly, pointing to a chair.

His tone availed more than anger would have done.

‘You tell me I take good care not to do any work myself? There you’re wrong. I’m working hard every day.’

‘Oh, we know what kind of work that is!’

‘No, I don’t think you do. Perhaps it would be as well if you were to see. I think you’d better go to Wanley with me.’

‘What for?’

‘I dare say I can give you a job for awhile.’

‘I tell you I don’t want a job.’

Richard’s eye wandered rather vacantly. From the first it had been a question with him whether it would not be best to employ ‘Arry at Wanley, but on the whole the scheme adopted seemed more fruitful. Had the works been fully established it would have been a different thing. Even now he could keep the lad at work at Wanley, though not exactly in the way he desired. But if it came to a choice between a life of idleness in London and such employment as could be found for him at the works, ‘Arry must clearly leave town at once. In a few days the Manor would be furnished; in a few weeks Emma would be there to keep house.

There was the difficulty of leaving his mother and sister alone. It looked as if all would have to quit London. Yet there would be awkwardness in housing the whole family at the Manor; and besides—

What the ‘besides’ implied Richard did not make formal even in his own thoughts. It stood for a vague objection to having all his relatives dwelling at Wanley. Alice he would not mind; it was not impossible to picture Alice in conversation with Mrs. and Miss Waltham; indeed, he desired that for her. And yet—

Richard was at an awkward pass. Whithersoever he looked he saw stumbling-blocks, the more disagreeable in that they rather loomed in a sort of mist than declared themselves for what they were. He had not the courage to approach and examine them one by one; he had not the audacity to imagine leaps over them; yet somehow they had to be surmounted. At this moment, whilst ‘Arry was waiting for the rejoinder to his last reply, Richard found himself wrestling again with the troubles which had kept him wakeful for the last two nights. He had believed them finally thrown and got rid of. Behold, they were more stubborn than ever.

He kept silence so long that his brother spoke.

‘What sort of a job is it?’

To his surprise, Richard displayed sudden anger.

‘If you weren’t such a young fool you’d see what’s best for you, and go on as I meant you to! What do you mean by saying you won’t work? If you weren’t such a thickhead you might go to school and be taught how to behave yourself, and how a man ought to live; but it’s no use sending you to any such place. Can’t you understand that a man with money has to find some sort of position in the world? I suppose you’d like to spend the rest of your life in public-houses and music-halls?’

Richard was well aware that to give way to his temper was worse than useless, and could only defeat every end; but something within him just now gnawed so intolerably that there was nothing for it but an outbreak. The difficulties of life were hedging him in—difficulties he could not have conceived till they became matter of practical experience. And unfortunately a great many of them were not of an honest kind; they would not bear exposing. For a man of decision, Mutimer was getting strangely remote from practical roads.

‘I shall live as I like,’ observed ‘Arry, thrusting out his legs and bending his body forward, a combination of movements which, I know not why, especially suggests dissoluteness.

Richard gave up the contest for the present, and went in silence from the room. As he joined his mother and sister they suddenly ceased talking.

‘Don’t cook anything for me,’ he said, remaining near the door. ‘I’m going out.’

‘But you must have something to eat,’ protested his mother. ‘See’—she rose hastily—‘I’ll get a chop done at once.’

‘I couldn’t eat it if you did. I dare say you’ve got some cold meat. Leave it out for me; I don’t know what time I shall get back.’