A Mummer's Wife Part 36

XIX

'Well, what are you going to give her? Do you see anything you like here?'

'Do you think that paper-cutter would do?'

'You can't give anything more suitable, ma'am. Then there are these card-cases; n.o.body could fail to like them.'

'What are you going to give, Annie?'

'Oh, I'm going to give her the pair of earrings we saw yesterday; but if I were you I wouldn't spend more than half a sovereign: it's quite enough.'

'I should think so indeed--a third of a week's screw,' whispered Dolly, 'but she ain't a bad one, and d.i.c.k will like it, and may give me a line or so in _Olivette_. How do you think she'll do in the part?'

'We'll talk about that another time. Are you going to buy the paper-cutter?'

Casting her eyes in despair around the walls of the fancy-goods shop to see if she could find anything she liked better, Dolly decided in favour of the paper-cutter and paid the money after a feeble attempt at bargaining.

In the street they saw Mortimer, who had now allowed his hair to grow in long, snake-like curls completely over his shoulders.

'For goodness' sake come away,' cried Beaumont, 'I do hate speaking to him in the street, everybody stares so.'

The girls turned to fly, but the heavy lead was upon them, and in his most nasal tones said:

'Well, my dear young ladies, engaged in the charming occupation of buying nuptial gifts?'

'How very sharp you are, Mr. Mortimer,' answered Dolly in her pertest manner; 'and what are you going to give? We should so much like to know.'

After a moment's hesitation he said, throwing up his chin after the manner of a model sitting for a head of Christ:

'My dear young lady, you must not exhibit your curiosity in that way; it's not modest.'

'But do tell us, Mr. Mortimer; you're a person of such good taste.'

The comic tragedian considered for a moment what he could say most ill-natured and so get himself out of his difficulty.

'I tell you, young lady, I'm not decided, but I think that a copy of Wesley's hymns bound up with the book of the _Grand d.u.c.h.ess_ might not be inappropriate.'

'But how do you think she'll play the Countess?' asked Beaumont.

'Oh, we mustn't speak of that now she's going to be married,' and, thinking he could not better this last remark, Mortimer bade the ladies good-bye and went off with curls and coat-tails alike swinging in the breeze. Farther up the street Beaumont and Dolly were joined by Leslie, Bret, and Dubois, and the same topics were again discussed. 'What are you going to give?' 'Have you bought your present?' 'Have you seen mine?' 'Do you know who's going to be at the wedding breakfast? They can't ask more than a dozen or so.' 'Have you heard that the chorus have clubbed together to buy d.i.c.k a chain?' 'It's very good of them, but they'll feel hurt at not being asked to the breakfast.' 'What will the Lennoxes do?' These and a hundred other questions of a similar sort had been asked in the dressing-rooms, in the wings, in the streets at every available moment since Morton and c.o.x's _opera bouffe_ company had arrived in Liverpool. Everybody professed to consider the event the happiest and most fortunate that could have happened, but Mortimer's words, 'There's many a slip between the ring and the finger,' recurred to them whenever the conversation came to a pause, and they hoped the marriage might yet be averted, even when they stood one bright summer morning a.s.sembled on the stage, awaiting the arrival of the bride and bridegroom. The name of the church had been kept a secret, and all that was known was that Leslie--who had joined another company in Liverpool--Bret, Montgomery, and Beaumont had gone to attend as witnesses, and that they would be back at the theatre at twelve to run through the third act of _Olivette_ before producing it that night.

Many false alarms were given, but when at last the bridal party walked from the wings on to the stage, d.i.c.k's appearance provoked a little good-natured laughter, so respectable did he look in a spick-and-span new frock-coat and his tall hat. Kate never looked prettier; Mortimer said her own husband wouldn't know her.

She wore a dark green silk pleated down the front, from underneath which a patent-leather boot peeped as she walked; a short jacket showed the drawing of her shoulders, the delicacy of her waist, and the graceful fall of the hips. She carried in her hand a bouquet of yellow and pink roses, a present from Montgomery.

'Now, ladies and gentlemen, I won't detain you long, but do let us run through the third act, so as to have it right for the night. Montgomery, will you oblige me by playing over that sailor-chorus?'

d.i.c.k took the girls in sections and placed them in the positions he desired them to hold.

'Now, then; enter the Countess. Who's in love with the Countess?'

'Well, if you don't know, I don't know who does,' said Mortimer. 'I hear you've been swearing all the morning "till death do us part."'

A good deal of laughter greeted this pleasantry and d.i.c.k himself could not refrain from joining in. At last he said:

'Now, Kate, dear, do leave off laughing and run through your song.'

'I-I-ca-n't--can-'t; you--you--are--t-t-too funny.'

'We shall never get through this act,' said d.i.c.k, who had just caught Miss Leslie walking off with Bret into the green-room. Now, Miss Leslie, can't you wait until this rehearsal is over?'

'They'll be late for church to-day; they may as well wait.'

Another roar of laughter followed this remark, and Kate said:

'You'd better give it up, d.i.c.k, dear; it will be all right at night. I a.s.sure you I shall be perfect in my music and words.'

'I must go through the act. The princ.i.p.als are responsible for themselves, but I must look to the chorus. Where's that d.a.m.ned property-master?'

On the subject of rehearsals d.i.c.k was always firm, and seeing that it could not be shirked, the chorus pulled themselves together, and the act was run through somehow. Then a few more invitations were whispered in the corners on the sly, and the party in couples and groups repaired to the Lennoxes'

lodgings. Mortimer, Beaumont, d.i.c.k, and Kate walked together, talking of the night's show. Dubois crushed his bishop's hat over his eyes, straddled his ostler-like legs, and discussed Wagner's position in music with Montgomery and Dolly G.o.ddard. A baronet's grandson, a chorus singer, told how his ancestor had won the Goodwood Cup half a century ago, to three ladies in the same position in the theatre as himself. Bret and Leslie followed very slowly, apparently more than ever enchanted with each other.

For the wedding breakfast, the obliging landlady had given up her own rooms on the ground-floor. The table extended from the fireplace to the cabinet, the panels of which Mortimer was respectfully requested not to break when he was invited to take the foot of the table and help the cold salmon. The bride and bridegroom took the head, and the soup was placed before them; for this was not, as d.i.c.k explained, a breakfast served by Gunter, but a dinner suitable to people who had been engaged for some time back. At this joke no one knew if they should laugh or not, and Mortimer slyly attracted the attention of the company to Bret and Leslie, who were examining the cake.

Then all spoke at once of the presents. They were of all sorts, and had come from different parts of the country. Mr. c.o.x had given a large diamond ring. Leslie had presented Kate with a handsome inkstand. Bret had bought her a small gold bracelet. Dubois, whose fancies were light, offered a fan; Beaumont, a pair of earrings; Hayes, a cigarette case; Dolly G.o.ddard, a paper-knife; Montgomery, a brooch which must have cost him at least a month's salary. Mortimer exclaimed that his wife had been behaving rather badly lately, and that in consequence he had been unable to obtain from her--what he had not been able to obtain d.i.c.k did not stop to listen to. At that moment the gold chain, the present from the chorus, caught his eye.

The kindness of the girls seemed to affect him deeply, and, interrupting Kate, who was thanking her friends for all their tokens of good-will, he said:

'I must really thank the ladies of the chorus for the very handsome present they made me. How sorry I am that they are not all here to receive my thanks I cannot say; but those who are here will, I hope, explain to their comrades how we were pressed for s.p.a.ce.'

'One would think you were refusing a free admission,' snarled Mortimer.

'What a bore that fellow is!' whispered d.i.c.k to Mr. c.o.x, the proprietor of the company, who had come down from London to arrange some business with his manager.

'I'm sure, Mr. Lennox, we were only too glad to be able to give you something to show you how much we appreciate your kindness,' said a tall girl, speaking in the name of the chorus.

'We must have some fizz after the show to-night on the stage. What do you think. c.o.x?' said d.i.c.k. 'And then I shall be able to express my thanks to everyone.'

'And we must have a dance,' cried Leslie. 'My foot is all right now.'

Chairs had to be fetched in from the bedroom and even from the kitchen to seat the fifteen people who had been invited. The ladies did not like sitting together and the supply of gentlemen was not sufficient--drawbacks that were forgotten when the first few spoonfuls of soup had been eaten and the sherry tasted. The women examined Mr. c.o.x with looks of deep inquiry, but his face told them nothing; it was grave and commercial, and he spoke little to anyone except Kate and her husband. The baronet's son sat in the middle of the table with the three chorus-girls, whom he continued to pester with calculations as to how much he would be worth, but for his ancestor's ambition to win the Derby with Scotch Coast. Leslie and Bret were on the other side of the wedding cake, and they leant towards each other with a thousand little amorous movements. Beaumont spoke of the evening's performance, putting questions to Montgomery with a view to attracting Mr. c.o.x's attention.

'Do you think, Mr. Montgomery, that to take an encore for my song will interfere with the piece?'

'I never heard of a lady putting the piece before herself,' said Montgomery, with a loud laugh, for he, too, was anxious to attract Mr.

c.o.x's attention, and availing himself of Miss Beaumont's question as a 'lead up,' he said, 'I hope that when my opera is produced I shall find artists who will look as carefully after my interests.'

'But when will you have your opera ready?' Kate asked.