Life in London Part 5

A hundred topics were discoursed upon during the evening, in which Ashton generally took the lead, and showed himself to be very well informed on all ordinary subjects. Incidentally the theatre was mentioned.

"Have you seen that new piece at the Lyceum?" said Ashton. "It is really a very capital thing."

"No," said George. "I have never been to a theatre."

"Nor I," said Hardy.

"Nor I," said Mrs. Weston.

"Well, that is really very extraordinary," said Ashton; "I thought almost everybody went to a theatre at some time or other. But perhaps you have some objection?"

"I have," said Mrs. Weston. "I think there is a great deal of evil learnt there, and very little good, if any. It is expensive; and it leads into other bad habits."

"Those last objections cannot be gainsaid," said Ashton; "but they equally apply to all amus.e.m.e.nts, and therefore, by that rule, all amus.e.m.e.nts are bad."

"But not in an equal degree with that of the theatre," George remarked; "because other amus.e.m.e.nts do not possess such an infatuation. For my own part, I should not mind going to a concert; but I very much disapprove of the theatre, and should never hesitate to decline going there."

"Yours is not a good argument, George. You have never been to the theatre, you say, and yet you disapprove of it. Are you right in p.r.o.nouncing such an opinion, which cannot be the result of your own investigation?"

"I think I am," replied George; "I can adopt the opinions of those whom experience has instructed in the matter, and in whom I can rely with implicit confidence. If a man goes through a dangerous track, and falls into a bog, I should be willing to admit the track was dangerous, and avoid the bog, without going in to prove the former traveller was right; and this applies to going to theatres."

"No, George; there is your error. There would be no two opinions about the bog; but suppose you go for a tour to the Pyrenees, and, from prejudice or some other cause, come back disgusted. You warn me not to go, telling me I shall be wasting my time, and find nothing interesting to reward my trouble in the journey. But Hardy goes the same tour, comes home delighted, and says, 'Go to the Pyrenees by all means; it is a glorious place, the most pleasant in the whole world for a tour.' To decide the question, I read two books; one agrees with you, and the other with Hardy. How can I arrive at an opinion unless I go myself, and see what it is like? So it is with the theatre: some say it is the great teacher of morals, others that it is the most wicked and hurtful place.

Therefore I think every one should form his own opinion from his own experience."

"You may be right," said George, waveringly. "I am not clear upon the subject; but I do not think, even if I were to form an opinion in the way you prescribe, that I should ever choose the theatre as a place of amus.e.m.e.nt."

"Then what is your favourite amus.e.m.e.nt?" asked Ashton.

"To come home and read, or spend a social evening with a friend," George answered.

"Then I know what will suit you all to pieces," said Ashton; "and your friend Hardy too. I am a member of a literary inst.i.tution. It is a first-rate place--the best in London. There are lectures and cla.s.ses, and soirees, a debating society, a good library, and rooms for chess-playing and that sort of thing. Now, you really must join it; it will be so very nice for us to have a regular place of meeting; and, besides that, we can combine study with amus.e.m.e.nt. What do you say, Mrs.

Weston?"

"I cannot see any objection to literary inst.i.tutions," said Mrs. Weston; "but I have always considered them better suited to young men who are away from home, than for those who have comfortable homes in which to spend their evenings. You speak about having a regular place of meeting.

I shall always be very pleased to see you and Mr. Hardy here, as often as ever you can manage to spend an evening with us."

"Many thanks for your kindness, Mrs. Weston," returned Ashton; "but it would not be right for us to trespa.s.s on your good nature. Now I will give you and your friend a challenge, George," he continued. "Next Monday, the first debate of the season comes off; will you allow me to introduce you to the inst.i.tution on that evening?--it is a member's privilege."

"I shall be very pleased to join you, then," said George. "What say you, Hardy?"

"I accept the invitation, with thanks," replied Hardy.

On Monday night, as George and Hardy journeyed towards the place of meeting, they discussed the question of joining the inst.i.tution.

"If you will, I will," said Hardy. "My parents do not much like the idea; but, as you said the other evening, 'we must not allow ourselves to be controlled like mere children.'"

"I do think we really require a little recreation after business hours; and we can obtain none better than that of an intellectual kind, such as is found at literary inst.i.tutions. The new term has only just commenced; so we may as well be enrolled as members at once."

"I wish the inst.i.tution was a little nearer home," said Hardy, "for it will be so late of an evening for us to be out. However, we need not always attend, nor is it necessary we should very often be late. Have you had any difficulty in obtaining Mrs. Weston's consent to your joining?"

"None at all; she prefers my attending an inst.i.tution of this kind to any other, although probably she would be better pleased if I did not join one at all. But, as Ashton says, we really must live up to the times, and know something of what is going on in the world around us.

Did you not notice, the other evening, how Ashton could speak upon every subject brought on the carpet? My mother said, 'What a remarkably agreeable young man he is! he has evidently seen a good deal of society;' and I think the two things are inseparable--to be agreeable in society, one must mix more with it."

Ashton was punctual to his appointment; and all were at the inst.i.tution just as the members were a.s.sembling for the debate. George was surprised to find how many of the young men knew Ashton, and he admired the ease and elegance of his friend in acknowledging the greetings which met him on every hand.

"I won't bore you with introductions to-night," he said, "except to just half-a-dozen fellows in particular, who, I am sure, you will like to know; and we can all sit together and compare opinions during the debate."

The friends were accordingly introduced; and as the proceedings of the evening went on, and all waxed warm upon the subject under discussion, the party which Ashton had drawn together soon became known to one another, and were on terms of conversational acquaintance.

The meeting separated at ten o'clock, and then George and Hardy essayed to bid good-night to their friends, and make their way at once towards Islington.

"Nonsense," said Ashton; "I want you to come with me to a nice quiet place I know, close by, and have a bit of supper and a chat over all that has been said, and then I will walk part of the way home with you."

"No, not to-night, Ashton; it is quite late enough already; and it will be past eleven o'clock before we get home as it is."

"What say you, Hardy? Can you persuade our sage old friend to abandon his ten o'clock habits for one night?" asked Ashton.

"I do not like to establish a bad precedent," said Hardy; "and as we have to-night joined the inst.i.tution, I think we should make a rule to start off home as soon as we leave the meetings, because we have some distance to go, and bad hours, you know, interfere with business."

"I did not expect you to make a rule to keep bad hours," said Ashton;"

but every rule has an exception--"

"And therefore it will not do to commence with the exception; so good-bye, till we meet again on Wednesday."

Three nights a-week there was something going on at the inst.i.tution sufficiently attractive to draw George and Hardy there. One evening a lecture, another the discussion cla.s.s, and the third an elocution cla.s.s, or more frequently that was resigned in favour of chess. From meeting the same young men, night after night, a great number of new acquaintanceships were formed, and George would never have spent an evening at home, had he accepted the invitations which were frequently being given him; but he had made a compact with himself, that he would never be out more than three evenings a week, and would devote the remainder to the society of his mother. A certain little voice did sometimes say to him, "Is it quite right and kind of you, George, to leave your mother so often? Do you not think it must be rather lonely for her, sometimes, without you?" And George would answer to the voice, "Mother would never wish to stand between me and my improvement.

Besides, she has many friends who visit her, and with whom she visits; and few young men of my age give their mothers more than three evenings of their society a week."

One evening, as George and Hardy were entering the inst.i.tution, Harry Ashton came up to them, and said,--

"I have just had some tickets sent me for the Adelphi. There is nothing going on here worth staying for, so I shall go. Dixon will make one, and you and Hardy must make up the quartette."

"Dixon going?" asked George; "why, I thought he was such a sedate fellow, and never went to anything of the sort!"

"Neither does he, as a rule; but he has never been to the Adelphi, and he wants to go. Will you accompany us?"

"No, thank you," said George; "I told you once I did not like theatres; perhaps you recollect we discussed the point one evening?"

"We did, and you said you had never been to a theatre: you disapproved of them, without ever having had an opportunity of judging whether they were good or bad places. Now, take the opportunity."

"I am not anxious to form a judgment; and I so dislike all the a.s.sociations of a theatre that it would be no pleasure for me to go."

"Complimentary, certainly!" laughed Ashton. "But I will grant you this much--there are bad a.s.sociations connected with the theatres, and this is the stronghold of objectors; but we are four staid sober fellows, we shall go to our box without any bother, sit and see the play without exchanging a word with anybody beyond our own party, and then leave as soon as the performance is over. You had better say you will go, eh?"

"No, it would be very late before I got home," said George: "and I do not like keeping my mother up, more particularly as I was so very late the other evening. But what do you say, Hardy?"

"I don't know what to say," said Hardy. "I did once say to myself I would never go to a theatre; but I am not sure that there is any moral obligation why I should keep my word, when the compact rests only with myself. I have not time to consult Paley, and so I put the question to you--Can I go, seeing I have said to myself I will not?"

"Arrange it in this way," said Ashton; "both of you go, and when you get there, if you decide you have done wrong, then leave at once; or if you find that your consciences are in durance vile, and you have not patience or sufficient interest to stay and see the play out, go, and I will excuse you then with all my heart; but I won't excuse your not going. Now is your time to decide; for here comes Dixon, true to his appointment."