"Over there," He pointed eastward through the fog. "And you?"
"Oh, I'm in the north,—the black north, across all the Park. I am very busy."
"What do you do?"
"I paint a great deal. That's all I have to do."
"Why, what's happened? You had three hundred a year."
"I have that still. I am painting; that's all."
"Are you alone, then?"
"There's a girl living with me. Don't walk so fast, Dick; you're out of step."
"Then you noticed it too?"
"Of course I did. You're always out of step."
"So I am. I'm sorry. You went on with the painting?"
"Of course. I said I should. I was at the Slade, then at Merton's in St. John's Wood, the big studio, then I pepper-potted,—I mean I went to the National,—and now I'm working under Kami."
"But Kami is in Paris surely?"
"No; he has his teaching studio in Vitry-sur-Marne. I work with him in the summer, and I live in London in the winter. I'm a householder."
"Do you sell much?"
"Now and again, but not often. There is my 'bus. I must take it or lose half an hour. Goodbye, Dick."
"Goodbye, Maisie. Won't you tell me where you live? I must see you again; and perhaps I could help you. I—I paint a little myself."
"I may be in the Park tomorrow, if there is no working light. I walk from the Marble Arch down and back again; that is my little excursion. But of course I shall see you again." She stepped into the omnibus and was swallowed up by the fog.
"Well—I—am—damned!" exclaimed Dick, and returned to the chambers.
Torpenhow and the Nilghai found him sitting on the steps to the studio door, repeating the phrase with an awful gravity.
"You'll be more damned when I'm done with you," said the Nilghai, upheaving his bulk from behind Torpenhow's shoulder and waving a sheaf of half-dry manuscript. "Dick, it is of common report that you are suffering from swelled head."
"Halloo, Nilghai. Back again? How are the Balkans and all the little Balkans? One side of your face is out of drawing, as usual."
"Never mind that. I am commissioned to smite you in print. Torpenhow refuses from false delicacy. I've been overhauling the pot-boilers in your studio. They are simply disgraceful."
"Oho! that's it, is it? If you think you can slate me, you're wrong. You can only describe, and you need as much room to turn in, on paper, as a P. and O. cargo-boat. But continue, and be swift. I'm going to bed."
"H'm! h'm! h'm! The first part only deals with your pictures. Here's the peroration: 'For work done without conviction, for power wasted on trivialities, for labour expended with levity for the deliberate purpose of winning the easy applause of a fashion-driven public——"
"That's 'His Last Shot,' second edition. Go on."
"——'public, there remains but one end,—the oblivion that is preceded by toleration and cenotaphed with contempt. From that fate Mr. Heldar has yet to prove himself out of danger."
"Wow—wow—wow—wow—wow!" said Dick, profanely. "It's a clumsy ending and vile journalese, but it's quite true. And yet,"—he sprang to his feet and snatched at the manuscript,—"you scarred, deboshed, battered old gladiator! you're sent out when a war begins, to minister to the blind, brutal, British public's bestial thirst for blood. They have no arenas now, but they must have special correspondents. You're a fat gladiator who comes up through a trap-door and talks of what he's seen. You stand on precisely the same level as an energetic bishop, an affable actress, a devastating cyclone, or—mine own sweet self. And you presume to lecture me about my work! Nilghai, if it were worth while I'd caricature you in four papers!"
The Nilghai winced. He had not thought of this.
"As it is, I shall take this stuff and tear it small—so!" The manuscript fluttered in slips down the dark well of the staircase. "Go home, Nilghai," said Dick; "go home to your lonely little bed, and leave me in peace. I am about to turn in till to morrow."
"Why, it isn't seven yet!" said Torpenhow, with amazement.
"It shall be two in the morning, if I choose," said Dick, backing to the studio door. "I go to grapple with a serious crisis, and I shan't want any dinner."
The door shut and was locked.
"What can you do with a man like that?" said the Nilghai.
"Leave him alone. He's as mad as a hatter."
At eleven there was a kicking on the studio door. "Is the Nilghai with you still?" said a voice from within. "Then tell him he might have condensed the whole of his lumbering nonsense into an epigram: 'Only the free are bond, and only the bond are free.' Tell him he's an idiot, Torp, and tell him I'm another."
"All right. Come out and have supper. You're smoking on an empty stomach."
There was no answer.
Chapter V
"I have a thousand men," said he,
"To wait upon my will,
And towers nine upon the Tyne,
And three upon the Till."
"And what care I for you men," said she,
"Or towers from Tyne to Till,
"Sith you must go with me," she said,
"To wait upon my will?"
—Sir Hoggie and the Fairies
Next morning Torpenhow found Dick sunk in deepest repose of tobacco.
"Well, madman, how d'you feel?"
"I don't know. I'm trying to find out."
"You had much better do some work."
"Maybe; but I'm in no hurry. I've made a discovery. Torp, there's too much Ego in my Cosmos."
"Not really! Is this revelation due to my lectures, or the Nilghai's?"
"It came to me suddenly, all on my own account. Much too much Ego; and now I'm going to work."
He turned over a few half-finished sketches, drummed on a new canvas, cleaned three brushes, set Binkie to bite the toes of the lay figure, rattled through his collection of arms and accoutrements, and then went out abruptly, declaring that he had done enough for the day.
"This is positively indecent," said Torpenhow, "and the first time that Dick has ever broken up a light morning. Perhaps he has found out that he has a soul, or an artistic temperament, or something equally valuable. That comes of leaving him alone for a month. Perhaps he has been going out of evenings. I must look to this." He rang for the bald-headed old housekeeper, whom nothing could astonish or annoy.
"Beeton, did Mr. Heldar dine out at all while I was out of town?"
"Never laid 'is dress-clothes out once, sir, all the time. Mostly 'e dined in; but 'e brought some most remarkable young gentlemen up 'ere after theatres once or twice. Remarkable fancy they was. You gentlemen on the top floor does very much as you likes, but it do seem to me, sir, droppin' a walkin'-stick down five flights o' stairs an' then goin' down four abreast to pick it up again at half-past two in the mornin', singin' 'Bring back the whiskey, Willie darlin','—not once or twice, but scores o' times,—isn't charity to the other tenants. What I say is, 'Do as you would be done by.' That's my motto."
"Of course! of course! I'm afraid the