A Laodicean

Chapter 2

A few days after the party at Stancy Castle, Dare was walking

down the High Street of Markton, a cigarette between his lips

and a silver-topped cane in his hand. His eye fell upon a

brass plate on an opposite door, bearing the name of Mr.

Havill, Architect. He crossed over, and rang the office bell.

The clerk who admitted him stated that Mr. Havill was in his

private room, and would be disengaged in a short time. While

Dare waited the clerk affixed to the door a piece of paper

bearing the words 'Back at 2,' and went away to his dinner,

leaving Dare in the room alone.

Dare looked at the different drawings on the boards about the

room. They all represented one subject, which, though

unfinished as yet, and bearing no inscription, was recognized

by the visitor as the design for the enlargement and

restoration of Stancy Castle. When he had glanced it over

Dare sat down.

The doors between the office and private room were double; but

the one towards the office being only ajar Dare could hear a

conversation in progress within. It presently rose to an

altercation, the tenor of which was obvious. Somebody had

come for money.

'Really I can stand it no longer, Mr. Havill--really I will

not!' said the creditor excitedly. 'Now this bill overdue

again--what can you expect? Why, I might have negotiated it;

and where would you have been then? Instead of that, I have

locked it up out of consideration for you; and what do I get

for my considerateness? I shall let the law take its course!'

'You'll do me inexpressible harm, and get nothing whatever,'

said Havill. 'If you would renew for another three months

there would be no difficulty in the matter.'

'You have said so before: I will do no such thing.'

There was a silence; whereupon Dare arose without hesitation,

and walked boldly into the private office. Havill was

standing at one end, as gloomy as a thundercloud, and at the

other was the unfortunate creditor with his hat on. Though

Dare's entry surprised them, both parties seemed relieved.

'I have called in passing to congratulate you, Mr. Havill,'

said Dare gaily. 'Such a commission as has been entrusted to

you will make you famous!'

'How do you do?--I wish it would make me rich,' said Havill

drily.

'It will be a lift in that direction, from what I know of the

profession. What is she going to spend?'

'A hundred thousand.'

'Your commission as architect, five thousand. Not bad, for

making a few sketches. Consider what other great commissions

such a work will lead to.'

'What great work is this?' asked the creditor.

'Stancy Castle,' said Dare, since Havill seemed too agape to

answer. 'You have not heard of it, then? Those are the

drawings, I presume, in the next room?'

Havill replied in the affirmative, beginning to perceive the

manoeuvre. 'Perhaps you would like to see them?' he said to

the creditor.

The latter offered no objection, and all three went into the

drawing-office.

'It will certainly be a magnificent structure,' said the

creditor, after regarding the elevations through his

spectacles. 'Stancy Castle: I had no idea of it! and when do

you begin to build, Mr. Havill?' he inquired in mollified

tones.

'In three months, I think?' said Dare, looking to Havill.

Havill assented.

'Five thousand pounds commission,' murmured the creditor.

'Paid down, I suppose?'

Havill nodded.

'And the works will not linger for lack of money to carry them

out, I imagine,' said Dare. 'Two hundred thousand will

probably be spent before the work is finished.'

'There is not much doubt of it,' said Havill.

'You said nothing to me about this?' whispered the creditor to

Havill, taking him aside, with a look of regret.

'You would not listen!'

'It alters the case greatly.' The creditor retired with

Havill to the door, and after a subdued colloquy in the

passage he went away, Havill returning to the office.

'What the devil do you mean by hoaxing him like this, when the

job is no more mine than Inigo Jones's?'

'Don't be too curious,' said Dare, laughing. 'Rather thank me

for getting rid of him.'

'But it is all a vision!' said Havill, ruefully regarding the

pencilled towers of Stancy Castle. 'If the competition were

really the commission that you have represented it to be there

might be something to laugh at.'

'It must be made a commission, somehow,' returned Dare

carelessly. 'I am come to lend you a little assistance. I

must stay in the neighbourhood, and I have nothing else to

do.'

A carriage slowly passed the window, and Havill recognized the

Power liveries. 'Hullo--she's coming here!' he said under his

breath, as the carriage stopped by the kerb. 'What does she

want, I wonder? Dare, does she know you?'

'I would just as soon be out of the way.'

'Then go into the garden.'

Dare went out through the back office as Paula was shown in at

the front. She wore a grey travelling costume, and seemed to

be in some haste.

'I am on my way to the railway-station,' she said to Havill.

'I shall be absent from home for several weeks, and since you

requested it, I have called to inquire how you are getting on

with the design.'

'Please look it over,' said Havill, placing a seat for her.

'No,' said Paula. 'I think it would be unfair. I have not

looked at Mr.--the other architect's plans since he has begun

to design seriously, and I will not look at yours. Are you

getting on quite well, and do you want to know anything more?

If so, go to the castle, and get anybody to assist you. Why

would you not make use of the room at your disposal in the

castle, as the other architect has done?'

In asking the question her face was towards the window, and

suddenly her cheeks became a rosy red. She instantly looked

another way.

'Having my own office so near, it was not necessary, thank

you,' replied Havill, as, noting her countenance, he allowed

his glance to stray into the street. Somerset was walking

past on the opposite side.

'The time is--the time fixed for sending in the drawings is

the first of November, I believe,' she said confusedly; 'and

the decision will be come to by three gentlemen who are

prominent members of the Institute of Architects.'

Havill then accompanied her to the carriage, and she drove

away.

Havill went to the back window to tell Dare that he need not

stay in the garden; but the garden was empty. The architect

remained alone in his office for some time; at the end of a

quarter of an hour, when the scream of a railway whistle had

echoed down the still street, he beheld Somerset repassing the

window in a direction from the railway, with somewhat of a sad

gait. In another minute Dare entered, humming the latest air

of Offenbach.

''Tis a mere piece of duplicity!' said Havill.

'What is?'

'Her pretending indifference as to which of us comes out

successful in the competition, when she colours carmine the

moment Somerset passes by.' He described Paula's visit, and

the incident.

'It may not mean Cupid's Entire XXX after all,' said Dare

judicially. 'The mere suspicion that a certain man loves her

would make a girl blush at his unexpected appearance. Well,

she's gone from him for a time; the better for you.'

'He has been privileged to see her off at any rate.'

'Not privileged.'

'How do you know that?'

'I went out of your garden by the back gate, and followed her

carriage to the railway. He simply went to the first bridge

outside the station, and waited. When she was in the train,

it moved forward; he was all expectation, and drew out his

handkerchief ready to wave, while she looked out of the window

towards the bridge. The train backed before it reached the

bridge, to attach the box containing her horses, and the

carriage-truck. Then it started for good, and when it reached

the bridge she looked out again, he waving his handkerchief to

her.'

'And she waving hers back?'

'No, she didn't.'

'Ah!'

'She looked at him--nothing more. I wouldn't give much for

his chance.' After a while Dare added musingly: 'You are a

mathematician: did you ever investigate the doctrine of

expectations?'

'Never.'

Dare drew from his pocket his 'Book of Chances,' a volume as

well thumbed as the minister's Bible. 'This is a treatise on

the subject,' he said. 'I will teach it to you some day.'

The same evening Havill asked Dare to dine with him. He was

just at this time living en garcon, his wife and children

being away on a visit. After dinner they sat on till their

faces were rather flushed. The talk turned, as before, on the

castle-competition.

'To know his design is to win,' said Dare. 'And to win is to

send him back to London where he came from.'

Havill inquired if Dare had seen any sketch of the design

while with Somerset?

'Not a line. I was concerned only with the old building.'

'Not to know it is to lose, undoubtedly,' murmured Havill.

'Suppose we go for a walk that way, instead of consulting

here?'

They went down the town, and along the highway. When they

reached the entrance to the park a man driving a basket-

carriage came out from the gate and passed them by in the

gloom.

'That was he,' said Dare. 'He sometimes drives over from the

hotel, and sometimes walks. He has been working late this

evening.'

Strolling on under the trees they met three masculine figures,

laughing and talking loudly.

'Those are the three first-class London draughtsmen, Bowles,

Knowles, and Cockton, whom he has engaged to assist him,

regardless of expense,' continued Dare.

'O Lord!' groaned Havill. 'There's no chance for me.'

The castle now arose before them, endowed by the rayless shade

with a more massive majesty than either sunlight or moonlight

could impart; and Havill sighed again as he thought of what he

was losing by Somerset's rivalry. 'Well, what was the use of

coming here?' he asked.

'I thought it might suggest something--some way of seeing the

design. The servants would let us into his room, I dare say.'

'I don't care to ask. Let us walk through the wards, and then

homeward.'

They sauntered on smoking, Dare leading the way through the

gate-house into a corridor which was not inclosed, a lamp

hanging at the further end.

'We are getting into the inhabited part, I think,' said

Havill.

Dare, however, had gone on, and knowing the tortuous passages

from his few days' experience in measuring them with Somerset,

he came to the butler's pantry. Dare knocked, and nobody

answering he entered, took down a key which hung behind the

door, and rejoined Havill. 'It is all right,' he said. 'The

cat's away; and the mice are at play in consequence.'

Proceeding up a stone staircase he unlocked the door of a room

in the dark, struck a light inside, and returning to the door

called in a whisper to Havill, who had remained behind. 'This

is Mr. Somerset's studio,' he said.

'How did you get permission?' inquired Havill, not knowing

that Dare had seen no one.

'Anyhow,' said Dare carelessly. 'We can examine the plans at

leisure; for if the placid Mrs. Goodman, who is the only one

at home, sees the light, she will only think it is Somerset

still at work.'

Dare uncovered the drawings, and young Somerset's brain-work

for the last six weeks lay under their eyes. To Dare, who was

too cursory to trouble himself by entering into such details,

it had very little meaning; but the design shone into Havill's

head like a light into a dark place. It was original; and it

was fascinating. Its originality lay partly in the

circumstance that Somerset had not attempted to adapt an old

building to the wants of the new civilization. He had placed

his new erection beside it as a slightly attached structure,

harmonizing with the old; heightening and beautifying, rather

than subduing it. His work formed a palace, with a ruinous

castle annexed as a curiosity. To Havill the conception had

more charm than it could have to the most appreciative

outsider; for when a mediocre and jealous mind that has been

cudgelling itself over a problem capable of many solutions,

lights on the solution of a rival, all possibilities in that

kind seem to merge in the one beheld.

Dare was struck by the arrested expression of the architect's

face. 'Is it rather good?' he asked.

'Yes, rather,' said Havill, subduing himself.

'More than rather?'

'Yes, the clever devil!' exclaimed Havill, unable to

depreciate longer.

'How?'

'The riddle that has worried me three weeks he has solved in a

way which is simplicity itself. He has got it, and I am

undone!'

'Nonsense, don't give way. Let's make a tracing.'

'The ground-plan will be sufficient,' said Havill, his courage

reviving. 'The idea is so simple, that if once seen it is not

easily forgotten.'

A rough tracing of Somerset's design was quickly made, and

blowing out the candle with a wave of his hand, the younger

gentleman locked the door, and they went downstairs again.

'I should never have thought of it,' said Havill, as they

walked homeward.

'One man has need of another every ten years: Ogni dieci anni

un uomo ha bisogno dell' altro, as they say in Italy. You'll

help me for this turn if I have need of you?'

'I shall never have the power.'

'O yes, you will. A man who can contrive to get admitted to a

competition by writing a letter abusing another man, has any

amount of power. The stroke was a good one.'

Havill was silent till he said, 'I think these gusts mean that

we are to have a storm of rain.'

Dare looked up. The sky was overcast, the trees shivered, and

a drop or two began to strike into the walkers' coats from the

east. They were not far from the inn at Sleeping-Green, where

Dare had lodgings, occupying the rooms which had been used by

Somerset till he gave them up for more commodious chambers at

Markton; and they decided to turn in there till the rain

should be over.

Having possessed himself of Somerset's brains Havill was

inclined to be jovial, and ordered the best in wines that the

house afforded. Before starting from home they had drunk as

much as was good for them; so that their potations here soon

began to have a marked effect upon their tongues. The rain

beat upon the windows with a dull dogged pertinacity which

seemed to signify boundless reserves of the same and long

continuance. The wind rose, the sign creaked, and the candles

waved. The weather had, in truth, broken up for the season,

and this was the first night of the change.

'Well, here we are,' said Havill, as he poured out another

glass of the brandied liquor called old port at Sleeping-

Green; 'and it seems that here we are to remain for the

present.'

'I am at home anywhere!' cried the lad, whose brow was hot and

eye wild.

Havill, who had not drunk enough to affect his reasoning, held

up his glass to the light and said, 'I never can quite make

out what you are, or what your age is. Are you sixteen, one-

and-twenty, or twenty-seven? And are you an Englishman,

Frenchman, Indian, American, or what? You seem not to have

taken your degrees in these parts.'

'That's a secret, my friend,' said Dare. 'I am a citizen of

the world. I owe no country patriotism, and no king or queen

obedience. A man whose country has no boundary is your only

true gentleman.'

'Well, where were you born--somewhere, I suppose?'

'It would be a fact worth the telling. The secret of my birth

lies here.' And Dare slapped his breast with his right hand.

'Literally, just under your shirt-front; or figuratively, in

your heart?' asked Havill.

'Literally there. It is necessary that it should be recorded,

for one's own memory is a treacherous book of reference,

should verification be required at a time of delirium,

disease, or death.'

Havill asked no further what he meant, and went to the door.

Finding that the rain still continued he returned to Dare, who

was by this time sinking down in a one-sided attitude, as if

hung up by the shoulder. Informing his companion that he was

but little inclined to move far in such a tempestuous night,

he decided to remain in the inn till next morning. On calling

in the landlord, however, they learnt that the house was full

of farmers on their way home from a large sheep-fair in the

neighbourhood, and that several of these, having decided to

stay on account of the same tempestuous weather, had already

engaged the spare beds. If Mr. Dare would give up his room,

and share a double-bedded room with Mr. Havill, the thing

could be done, but not otherwise.

To this the two companions agreed, and presently went upstairs

with as gentlemanly a walk and vertical a candle as they could

exhibit under the circumstances.

The other inmates of the inn soon retired to rest, and the

storm raged on unheeded by all local humanity.