United States or Pitcairn Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"And be very careful, sir," thundered the old Earl of Ellesmere, veteran member of the club, "that you never show your face inside these doors again, or, egad, I'm an old man, but I'll kick you out myself." Thorndyke left the room amidst a chilling and unsympathetic silence. As soon as he could get away, Matravers followed him.
"Will you forgive me now," he said, "if I hurry away? I will come and see you again, and we will talk this over more thoroughly." And still John Drage said nothing, but he held out his hand. Matravers pressed the thin fingers between his own. "You must see Freddy," he said eagerly. "I promised him that he should come in before you went." But Matravers shook his head.
"I will go," Ellison said, "and find the director. He knows me well, and he will find me a table." He elbowed his way up to the further end of the apartment. Matravers remained a somewhat conspicuous figure in the doorway looking from one to another of the little parties with a smile, half amused, half interested. Suddenly his face became grave, his heart gave an unaccustomed leap!
No man was possessed of a smaller share of curiosity in the ordinary sense of the word than Matravers; but the thought that this might be the same man come again to witness a play which had appealed to him before with such peculiar potency, interested him curiously.
Matravers began to find himself, for the first time in his life, seriously attracted by a woman.
Besides, I knew that you were in London. I saw you at the New Theatre." There was a short silence. Matravers glanced around the room with an inward shiver. The usual horrors of a suburban parlour were augmented by a general slovenliness, and an obvious disregard for any sort of order. "I am afraid, Drage," he said gently, "that things have not gone well with you."
A situation improbable enough, but dramatic, had occurred at the very beginning of the second act. She had risen to the opportunity, triumphed over it, electrified her audience, delighted Ellison, moved Matravers to silent wonder. Her personality seemed to have dilated with the flash of genius which Matravers himself had been amongst the first to recognize.
"So much depends," Ellison remarked, "upon the point of view. I am afraid that you are the last man in the world to have any sympathy with the decadent." "I do not properly understand the use of the word 'decadent," Matravers said. "But you need not be alarmed as to my attitude. Whatever my own gods may be, I am no slave to them.
The same night, as the greatest of critics, speaking through the columns of the principal daily paper, had said, which had presented to them a new writer for the stage, had given them also a new actress. She had surprised Matravers, she had amazed Fergusson, who found himself compelled to look closely to his own laurels.
Lately, I can't bear to be alone with Freddy. He's so damned like his mother, you know. It brings a lump in my throat. I wouldn't mind so much if it were only myself. I've had my cake! But it's rough on the boy!" "It is rough on the boy, and it is rough on you," Matravers said kindly. "I wonder you have never thought of sending him to his mother! She would surely like to have him!"
Word Of The Day