LILIAN. Arnold Bennet

      Arnold Bennet

      LILIAN

      Published by

      Books

      - Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -

       [email protected]

      2017 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-272-1869-1

      TO

      BERTIE SULLIVAN

      AND

      AMARYLLIS

      WITH AFFECTION AND GRATITUDE

      Table of Contents

       PART I

       I: The Girl Alone

       II: Early Years

       III: Advice to the Young Beauty

       IV: The Clubman

       V: The Devotee

       VI: The Telephone

       PART II

       I: The Suicide

       II: The Malady

       III: Shut

       IV: The Vizier

       V: The Martyr

       VI: The Invitation

       VII: The Avowal

       VIII: Philosophy of the Grey-haired

       PART III

       I: In the Hotel

       II: The Big Yacht

       III: The Casino

       IV: Chemin de Fer

       V: In the Hills

       VI: The Benefactress

       VII: The Doctor

       VIII: Marriage

       IX: The Widow

       X: The Wreath

       PART IV

       I: The Return

       II: Miss Grig

       III: The Lieutenant

       IV: The New Employer

       V: Layette

      PART I

       Table of Contents

      I: The Girl Alone

       Table of Contents

      Lilian, in dark blue office frock with an embroidered red line round the neck and detachable black wristlets that preserved the ends of the sleeves from dust and friction, sat idle at her flat desk in what was called "the small room" at Felix Grig's establishment in Clifford Street, off Bond Street. There were three desks, three typewriting machines and three green-shaded lamps. Only Lilian's lamp was lighted, and she sat alone, with darkness above her chestnut hair and about her, and a circle of radiance below. She was twenty-three. Through the drawn blind of the window could just be discerned the backs of the letters of words painted on the glass: "Felix Grig. Typewriting Office. Open day and night." Seen from the street the legend stood out black and clear against the faintly glowing blind. It was 11 P.M.

      That a beautiful young girl, created for pleasure and affection and expensive flattery, should be sitting by herself at 11 P.M. in a gloomy office in Clifford Street, in the centre of the luxurious, pleasure-mad, love-mad West End of London seemed shocking and contrary to nature, and Lilian certainly so regarded it. She pictured the shut shops, and shops and yet again shops, filled with elegance and costliness--robes, hats, stockings, shoes, gloves, incredibly fine lingerie, furs, jewels, perfumes--designed and confected for the setting-off of just such young attractiveness as hers. She pictured herself rifling those deserted and silent shops by some magic means and emerging safe, undetected, in batiste so rare that her skin blushed through it, in a frock that was priceless and yet nothing at all, and in warm marvellous sables that no blast of wind or misfortune could ever penetrate--and diamonds in her hair. She pictured thousands of smart women, with imperious command over rich, attendant males, who at that very moment were moving quickly in automobiles from theatres towards the dancing-clubs that clustered round Felix Grig's typewriting office. At that very moment she herself ought to have been dancing. Not in a smart club; no! Only in the basement of a house where an acquaintance of hers lodged; and only with clerks and things like that; and only to a gramophone. But still a dance, a respite from the immense ennui and solitude called existence!

      She had been kept late at the office because of Miss Grig's failure to arrive. Miss Grig, sister of Felix, was the mainspring of the establishment, which, except financially, belonged much more to her than