CHAPTER I.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 79, 6 December 1884, Page 5

CHAPTER I.

It was a cold, drizzly evening in February, the streets were a sea of mud, and the weather was of the sort known in Scotland as " saft." However, Charlton's chambers looked snug enough ; the fire was bright, the curtains drawn close. The occupant of the sittingroom was ensconced in a big armchair, smoking a very deeply coloured meershaum : he looked as comfortable as possible. It was a perfect haven of refuge to one coming from the miserable streets ; at least it looked so to Welby as he pushed the door open and came in. " Don't move, Jack," was the visitor's greeting ; " you look too comfortable." •'Don't interrupt me for half a minute," was the inhospitable rejoinder. " You'll find tobacco about somewhere. " The speaker kept his eyes on a page of manuscript which he was pursuing with eagerness. In a few minutes he threw it down, and jumping up, shook hands heartily with his visitor. " Same old game ?" inquired Welby. "Yes ; but I've nearly mastered it, and it's about time ; we've a rehearsal to-morrow at 12." " Shall I hear you go through it ?" " Thanks ; there is one scene I'm rather afraid of ; I know the words right enough, but it's a very different thing to say them when your cutting about the stage with a lot of furniture to tumble over, and two or three people about who don't know what you are going to do, and get in your way. There you are. lam going to start from the tenth line. Give me my cue." Welby took the manuscript and read. " ' Loved each other from childhood.' Who says that?" •'I do, to Digby, my rival," exclaimed Charlton. "He leans toward me and whispers, ' But you are sure she loves you still ? Look at that !' He hands me a letter from which I learn that she has been deceiving me." "I see," remarked Welby. Tranquilly reading the next cue : " ' Until you die.' " Charlton gave, with energy, the next speech, in which he had to bew ail the crushing of his hopes, the death of his aspirations and to declare his irrevocable intention of obtaining revenge on the villain who had supplanted him in the cffcctions of the girl he loved. Welby listened attentively, checking him from the manuscript. When he had finished, Welby remarked: "Yes, you know that all right, but are you going to say it like that ?" " I don't know," replied the young actor disconsolately. "How ought Ito say it?" "It strikes me that when a fellow hears that the girl he loves has thrown him over for another man, he should show his emotion in his countenance to some extent. " "Don't I?" demanded Charlton, sharply. " You show emotion enough, but it's the wrong sort. I thought you had a violent cramp, and were trying to ease it by contortions. Now, my dear boy, you know people don't behave like that in real life; a man restrains himself even in the crises of his existence." "Nonsense !" returned Charlton ; "how can you show the difference between an ordinary event and a crisis except by gesture and voice ?" " You ought to be true to nature," persisted his critic. "That's all very well, but how can I be? It's my own desire to act as people do in real life ; how can I tell how a man would behave who learnt he had been jilted ? For the matter of that, I don't believe you know either." "I can't say I do from experience," assented Welby, " but if I had to stuely a part — which, thank goodness, Ihaven't — I'dmanagc somehow to know how the thing was really done. Though it's true the public won't know if your right or wrong." "Yes, they will," interrupted Charlton eagerly : "all the parts I've studied from life have been succes=es My only failures have been in situations where I had to rely on my imagination. Oh, if I could only see a fellow thrown over by a girl, I would make the whole theatre rise at me." Welby puffed a big cloud out of his thickstemmed briar. "It that case, my dear boy, your duty is clear. Make love to some girl who is engaged ; with your alluring manners you are bound to succeed ; then study the poor fellow who was thrown over." " Don't be a fool," retorted Charlton. Welby laughed. " ' Pon my word I don't see how you're going to manage it unless you do that. I almost wish that I were engaged, so that you might have a chance of cutting me out. By-the-by, have you heard that Brown has become engaged to Miss Harding V "No ; has he ?" exclaimed Charlton. " I thought that Figgis was the favoured individual." "So did most people, but it seems they were wrong. I know Brown himself used to fancy that Miss Harding would never have him till he had shot his rival or got him married to someone else." " He's coming here to-night," said Charlton, rising and pulling aside the curtains. " What an atrocious evening ! I scarcely expect he'll care about turning out in such wretched weather." Welby also rose and stretched himself. "Rum chap, that Brown," he remarked, as he knocked out the ashes of his pipe. " Not a favourite of mine. You mustn't mind my running down a guest of yours — he isn't one yet, though." " Oh, I don't care two straws about him," replied Charlton ; " beseems to have an idea that the whole fun of existence depends on the number of practical jokes he can play off on fellows — jokes of the good old type, like putting a jug of water on top of a door to fall on your head when you come into his room. He would have made his fortune fifty years ago as a writer of broad farces." " Has he ever played any tricks on you ?" asked Welby, laughing. " Yes ; only two nights ago he asked me to his rooms. I knocked at the door of his sitting-room, and getting no reply, walked in. The place was empty, so, fancying he must be out for five minutes, I walked in, took a cigar from his box, and sat down in his big armchair. Half a minute afterward my cigar disappeared suddenly. Of course he had been hiding behind the chair, but you won't believe what a turn it gave me. I jumped up as if I had been shot, and he laughed till I hoped he was going to have a fit, That's his idea of a joke. I should like to let him see one from the other side." Welby laughed in a very unsympathetic way, and Charlton couldn't help joining. " He'll sober down now he's got engaged," remarked the former. " Let's hope so, or his wife will have a strange sort of existence. Look here, he'll be here in five minutes if he's coming at all; just let me run through that scene again." Welby complied after various protestations, hoping, he remarked, that the public would derive more enjoyment from the performance than he was obtaining from the rehearsal. But in the middle of the scene he suddenly threw the papers down, exclaiming :

" I have it, my boy ; you shall have the scene in real life before you are many minutes older." "How?" " Thi*ough Brown. You tell him that Figgis has cut him out." " But he knows that he hasn't." " No, he doson't. Listen. I happen to know that Miss Harding is going to-morrow to visit some friends at Liverpool ; now it is at Liverpool that Figgis lives." "Yes, I know.'. " Well, Brown hasn't been to see his fiancde to-day, because Imet him this morning, and he told me he was going to Woolwich for the day. What you must do is this : Give him to understand that you have heard that Miss Harding, at the Day's dance two nights ago, was seen in the arms of Figgis, and was heard to promise that she would go down to Liverpool a day earlior than arranged, so as to be able to meet him." 11 Yes, but you know, all this is drawing rather too much on one's imagination." " It's in a good cause ; you will be able to study his conduct. Besides, it's only a joke, and one of his own played back on him. Of course, we will disabuse him in a minute or so, when you've had time to see how he acts. By Jove ! here he comes. " Mind you back me up," said Charlton ! hurriedly. " All right ; be careful to observe him closely. You'll electrify London if you can reproduce the scene afterward !" There was no time to make further arrangements, for Brown's knock was heard at the door, and a moment afterward he entered. "Hullo, you fellows," he cried, "hero's a sweet night to ask a man out in. It's raining cats and dogs." "Very sorry," said Charlton, "but we haven't the superintendence of the weather, or we would have managed it better for you. Take off your coatand sit down." " Thanks," said Brown, throwing himself into a chair without taking off his coat. Bang ! went something with a loud report, which made the others start. " Don't bo alarmed," said Brown, laughing hugely; "it isn't dynamite; it's only this." He pulled out the remains of a paper bag that he had blown out and concealed under his coat. "By Jove ! how you fellows did start," and he went off into another fit of laughter. Welby looked at Charlton, and gave an expressive look which was ment to convey that they would be even with him before long. However, they were careful not to betray their intentions, and Charlton hastened to make his fresh visitor comfortable, They began talking on indifferent subjects, till the conversation gradually veered round to Brown's recent engagement. "Yes,' replied that gentleman, "I'm done for at last. The days of my liberty are over ; the lark is imprisoned in its cage, content with its lump of sugar, instead of soaring over the fields, seeking its prey from the hedges." "That's not bad," remarked Welby, "though a little mixed. You must look upon yourself as a sort of conquering hero." "Well, yes, to some extent," acquiesced Brown tranqnilly. "I can't say I thought she would have me till the very moment came ; I'm not one of your handsome men with Greek profile and all that sort of thing. I suppose it is my intellectual powers that carry weight." " Figgis has a Greek profile," remarked Welby casually. " Figgis !" exclaimed Brown, contemptuously , "I could be angry with that fellow if I were not able to pity him. Poor old Figgis, he would given something to be in my shoes.'' Here Charlton and Welbv looked at each other, and somewhat otsentatiously heaved a sigh. Brown heard it, and turned round sharply. " What are you groaning like that for ?' he inquired. " Ask Welby," said Charlton. " Ask Charlton," said Welby. "I ask both of you," exclaimed Brown. However, neither of them answered for a minute or two, but puffed away in silence. Then Welby remarked : "Miss Harding is going to visit some people at Liverpool, is she not ?" "Yes; what of it?" " That's where Figgis lives, isn't it ?" " Yes, confound him ! He met her there first. She goes down to-morrow, and I run down next day." "Have you seen her to-day?" asked Charlton. " No, I've been to Woolwich ; besides, she's spending the day at Bays water." Another sigh from both of the conspirators. This was more than Brown could stand. " Look here, you pair of mysterious beings," he said, rising and putting on hia hat, "If you don't tell me what all this signing and mystic signaling mean, I declare I'll go straight home and leave you to heave sighs at each other." "Now for it," whispered Welby, while Charlton put on his most sympathetic look and began : " You know, my dear Brown, you are insisting on our telling you, so don't blame us afterward." " Fire away !" was his reply. Thus encouraged, Charlton repeated the story agreed on, Welby every now and then putting in an explanatory word. " Watch him closely," whispered the latter to the actor. The crisis came. Charlton explained to Brown how Miss Harding had deceived him, observing narrowly his movements. There was little to observe. Almost before he had told, his story Brown leaped for the door, leaving his coat behind him. Before the others knew what was happening, he was downstairs and out of sight. The two friends looked at each other in dismay. "Here's a mess we're in," said Oharlton. "What shall we do?" " The question is what will he do?" returned Welby. "We have no time to lose ; we must follow him. Quick !" Charlton pulled on his boots, seized his hat and coat, and they ran down the stairs together. Not a soul was in sight, the little street was deserted, but in the distance they heard the sound of the wheels of a cab rapidly becoming fainter and fainter. "This is getting past a joke," said Welby ruefully. "It's your fault, at any rate," retorted Charlton; "if you hadn't suggested it, I should never have thought of it." " It's no use disputing whose fault it is ; the question is how can we remedy it ? What do you propose 1 " Let's find a cab first ; we can talk over what we shall do when we have found one." " Come along, then," assented Welby. " What a beast of a night it is ; I shall catch my death with cold." "Serve you right," growled his companion, turning up the collar of his coat. " We shan't get a crawler, I'm afraid, till we reach the Strand. We'd better go to the stand." " What do you mean to do then?" " One of us had better drive to Brown's rooms, and sec if he can find him there ; the other must go to Miss Harding's house on the chance of his having gone there." . " And suppose wo find him at neither ?" i asked Welby.

"Then we must go to Liverpool, I suppose, unless we have the good luck to catch him at the station." Welby gave a whistle. He had not expected to be let in for a journey to the north by the night express. " Let's see, Liverpool is on the Northwestern line, isn't it ? " Yes ; Euston is the station." " All right, I'll meet you there as soon as I can. You drive to Miss Harding's " " No," interrupted Charlton, "you go there ; you know her better than I do." "I don't think 1 do/ •* You've always said so till now," protested Charlton. " But I don't know her well enough to make an afternoon call at half -past ten." " You needn't go in. Just ask the servant if Mr Brown Has been there, that's all. Here's the stand, and, thank heaven ! a couple of cab?." " Four-wheelers !" remarked Welby ruefully. "We must make them do. Now, in you get ; be at Euston as soon as you can in any case, and I'll do the same." The anticipations of the ride were far from pleasant. The cabs looked wet and musty, the horses worn out and miserable, while the drivers had evidently been trying to keep the wet out by copious potations. But thero was no help for it, so Welby got into one and Charlton into the other, both regretting the cosy room they had so recently left.