An Experiment in Respectability

Front matter

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Chapter I

In the vicinity of Ludgate Circus, in one of those Italian cafes which seem to flourish so hardily in our metropolitan soil, two men sat at lunch together, some few years ago, on a dull and heavy day in the month of April. Their meal had been frugal enough ; but as converse and not conviviality was their object, they had prolonged it by a liberal indulgence in those familiar aids to discussion — black coffee, cigars, and cognac. They were fast friends ; and not the less so, perhaps, because in physique, temperament, and even in tastes, they were widely opposed to each other. Andrew Dalling, who was slightly the elder of the two, was of medium height, rather heavy build, rugged features, and reddish hair. He was entirely unattrac tive in appearance ; but he had a certain force in his manner, and an intelligent flash in his eye, that betrayed the keen virility of his nature.

B His companion, Philip Grazebrook, was of taller stature, and distinctly handsome. Features well cnt — eyes wide apart — a face of power and of character — with a figure distinguished by half-a-dozen of those inde finable traits which affect and cling to the memory of a woman — something about the curve of the shoulders, the poise of the head, a/e ne sais qitoi of grace in the limbs, that harmonized well with a manner which was polished without being effeminate. " No, Grazebrook, the game's about up. Some men are born to go under; and I am one of the fraternity. It isn't necessary to believe in a God and a hereafter to realize the fact ; physical laws and one's daily life teach it without looking beyond." '■'Things look black, I admit," was the response. " But they are not hopeless yet. You saved my life once, when that infernal fever looked like conducting me to the grave ; and in return I have succeeded in pulling you out of some rather awkward predicaments — one or two quite as awkward as this — so I don't feel, and I won't allow, that you are going to sink now.

Besides, I am an optimist in everyone's affairs but my own." A ray of light shot across Andrew Dalling's face as he listened to these words. "There is only one possible way by which I cotdd be saved," he pursued, with that tension of thought which begets precision. " And that ? " Grazebrook inquired, with an interest which was qualified by a slight contempt for his friend's crude methods of dealing with critical situa tions. " Why, by marrying a woman with a few thousands in ready cash," returned Dalling. " Actual marriage would settle the ' Nellie ' question once and for all (though, of course, if she behaved herself I would never let her starve), and with the cash in band I could easily square up with the few sharks who still take an interest in my existence — and buy myself a practice. By God, Grazebrook," he broke off suddenly, "do you think you could manage it for me ?

It would mean salvation ! " He asked the question with an eagerness that was almost painful in its intensity. The answer was not propitious. It came from the sky, which for some time past had been growing darker and darker, and now broke forth into a terrify ing crash that caused the glass roof and frail iron rafters of the saloon to vibrate with ominous in stability. It was far past lunch time ; the long benches, covered with red plush, had grown emptier and emptier, till finally the two friends were the only guests left in the hitherto busy restaurant. The idle but curious waiters had gathered together in a little knot near the glass door that opened on to the street, and above the frozen panel of which they could just catch sight of the hurrying umbrellas and the de vastating downpour. The two girls who served behind the narrow bar near the window, timidly cling ing to each other, had huddled themselves together into the farthest corner of their glass barricade, intent only on the rival possibilities of sheet and forked lightning.

Outside things looked black indeed ; and B Grazebrook, who had noted the omen, charitably desired to neutralize its full emphasis. " This is certainly something like your life at the present moment," he said, looking up at the stream ing panes, and smiling rather grimly ; " but you'll see — it will clear by-and-by." Then, after a pause, during which the downfall had indeed thinned to something like a steady patter, and reverting to his friend's still unanswered query, — "Andrew," he said, "though I have the greatest respect for you as a doctor, I've none for you as a diplomat. And yet, hang me if I don't think you've stumbled on the true solution of the problem at last. I do know a woman with a little money who, I believe, would take you, if you would take her. But mind you, old chap, it would have to be a genuine straight forward business, — no concurrent dove-cots, no ex posures, scandals, or flaxen hair.

You would have to make a clean sweep of the old life, of the duns, the betting, the Nellies, and especially of those crisp Saxon oaths that decorate your vocabulary. I'm not overparticular myself, but really your language is too awful sometimes, and no decent woman will stand being sworn at. Cursing and kissing may work very well together in Fulham, but they don't do for a country practice. No. The Andrew Dalling of the future must attend church, pay his bills weekly, eschew the sporting papers, and discourse in Latinized English. Under these circumstances I think the thing is possible. Of course," pursued the speaker, with a saturnine twinkle in his eye, " when you run up town to see the London consultants, matters would be different. You would then stay with me, and we could have a good laugh over the whole comedy, and perhaps take a peep at the skirts and the ankles that inflamed us as tyros.

For I shouldn't allow you to play off your d d respectability upon your old pal, just as if you had worn it all your life, and he was the submerged sinner. No, no. I should always amuse myself by reminding you that you were an infernal hypocrite ; and should never let you quite shuffle off the old Adam or adapt yourself to the new." Dalling laughed heartily. He enjoyed his friend's laconic scourges, for he knew that they were always administered in good part. "No fear of that," he replied. "Respectability to me is like the frock coat that I assume for the benefit of the five-shilling patient ; it never did, and never will fit me. I always long to be back in my shirt sleeves, hacking at the limbs of the indigent poor, and beguiling the operation hy terse remarks upon life and manners. But one enjoys the occasional feel of the frock coat for all that, for somehow it confers a Wonderful capability of being shocked at the vices of other people.

But let's come to business, Philip. Tell me all about this beneficent fairy. Is she young ? " " Not particularly — unless you count backwards." " All the better ; she'll have the fewer illusions. Good-looking, of course, she couldn't be, consistently with having tin — but decent faced — can she run to that ? I'd like something that didn't suggest its opposite all day long." " Fairish," Philip replied, pursing up his lips. " Well, ' fairish ' to an epicure like yourself would probably mean a Hebe to an outcast like me. What Ax Experiment in Respectability. colour? Black or dun, of course, is safest ia a wife. Yellow simply clears off the patients like an epidemic." And he gave a short, inscrutable laugh. " Oh, the colour's right." " Good. And now about the serious part of the business — the coin ?

" " I believe it is six or seven thousand, but I won't be sure. However, we could easily ascertain by going to Somerset House. But, Dalling, look here. You are no longer a child, and you've had enough experi ence to sail a dozen careers — do you really and honestly believe, if you had this money, and a wife whom you could — well, pull along decently with, I won't put it higher than that — that you could make a fresh start and carve out a successful future for your self ? If, all things considered, you feel you could, conscientiously, why, then I'll go into the business heart and soul, and if it's practicable to pull it off, we'll pull it off. But if not, let's give up the idea at once, and not wait till we are half way through. You must decide, I can't." Dalling paused a moment or two, and then said meditatively, — " Yes, Philip, I honestly believe I could.

And you know me well enough to feel that I'm not the sort to play it low down on a pal. If I take thed d thing in hand, I'll go through with it. And if you find me the woman, I will go through with it; and, by God, if the combination of your Machiavelian brain and my brute force can't do the business, it'll be a wonder." "All right. That's settled. Call for me in the morning, and we'll drive down together to Somerset House."

Chapter II

Andrew Dalling had, as he himself felt, just about reached the end of his tether. He was one of those men upon whom the hand of fate always seems to rest heavily — partly, perhaps, because they deserve, but chiefly because they provoke, their misfortunes. He might have been a good man, a prosperous man, a happy man, but for a few adverse circumstances, and one or two unfortunate characteristics. He began life, so far as these pages are concerned, as a medical student, with considerable mental acumen a tenacious memory, and more than average powers of work. He got through his professional curriculum, therefore, with something just short of distinction. Above all, he was gifted with that quite priceless qualification for a medical career, the instinct for his craft — without which all the book-lore and hospital practice in the world are but as barren and lifeless possessions.

He didn't care two straws for a case as a case — the magic words secundum artem had no charm for his eyes, his one and only object was to cure the individual. And this end, it is only fair to say, he accomplished with really extraordinary intuition and success. Rough and brusque in manner he certainly was — the outcome of a direct, logical, and unsophisti- Ax Experiment in Respectability. cated mind ; but when a tender chord in his nature was touched, he could be as quixotic and soft-hearted as a woman ; and it was touched, perhaps, more often than people supposed. Nowhere was this so exemplified as in his treatment of the poor — they appealed to him in a curious way — that is to say the genuine poor, whether in fustian or shiny black. But he could be equally merciless to the opposite article, the article that left its carriage round the corner and sent its baby for gratuitous aid to the wards ; or masqueraded as a starving artisan upon the comfortable wage of three pounds a week.

It was amongst the latter species that his experience chiefly lay. " A young practitioner in the East End soon gets the philanthropy knocked out of him," he used to say bitterly. " The average dock labourer is simply an unqualified ruffian, without a spark of humanity in his carcase. There are excep tions, of course, but not so many as you would imagine ; and when I meet them I can no more help sitting up all night with a bad case, and paying for the drugs out of my own pocket, than I can help punch ing the head of a navvy whom I see kicking his own dog. The whole class, however, with their wives and children, are past-masters in the art of simulation. They invariably take me in by their whinings the first time, and sometimes they catch me asleep twice — but after that, of course, I begin to have a look in."

As a sample of the "look in," he related how an interesting family, earning excellent wages, had for months beguiled him, under the plea of destitution, into supplying medicine and attendance gratis — together with divers bottles of invalid port which he bought out of his slender savings as a dispensary assis tant. At last he discovered the fraud; and when a strapping member of the gang appeared again to ask for aid, he administered it in the drastic form of nitrate of silver, which sent the offender howling forth into the street, vowing vengeance upon that " blank, blank of a doctor who had set his blooming body on fire." " And so I did," commented Dalling, with grim delectation — " and it was quite worth my half-dozen of old crusted port to hear the music of the ruffian's yells. But it nearly cost me my niche in the Medical Register."

When to these eccentricities it is added that Dalling had a quick temper, a sensitive aptness for taking offence, and a rooted objection to pay deference to his professional superiors, one can see how it was that he was never destined to soar very high in the ranks of his craft. Two further traits militated still more against an upward trend in his career. He had the curious fond ness of many an honest man for the companionship of rogues. It didn't with him take the common form of a refusal to believe anything against his clay idols until too late ; it was rather an acknowledged homage to superior smartness for its own sake. Successful villainy, even when he was himself the victim, always extorted his admiration. The price he paid for this amiable weakness was not insignificant ; for very soon his name became embalmed in the desks of half the money-lenders in London, although he himself never realized a penny-piece by the transactions.

And now comes the last and most fatal failing of all ; it may be summed up in a single phrase — yellow hair. Yellow hair had entwined itself with, and precipitated, most of his misfortunes ; yellow hair had reduced him to the condition described by himself at the opening of this tale ; and he had an uncomfortable presentiment that sooner or later filaments of the same hue would conduct his career to a dramatic close. Ere his teens were well passed, indeed, this chro matic weakness had already wedded him to a woman of a nameless class. It was the outcome of a midnight brawl in Aberdeen — a conflict between half-a-dozen medical students and some officers stationed in the town. One of the latter, with the easy gallantry of his calling, had pressed his bacchanalian attentions upon a Hebe of the pavement, who, as will sometimes happen even with the most abandoned, had strongly resented his overtures.

The incident fired Dalling's chivalry ; he sprang at the oppressor's throat, and but for the intervention of the bystanders, would probably have strangled his opponent. That night those sunny braids sheltered themselves beneath Dalling's roof. The next day they had fanned a momentary caprice into a tempestuous passion ; and later on their influence had caused the presence of their owner to be sanctioned by the law of Scotland. At first things went well enough. Dalling read, perhaps, all the more steadily for his examinations. He was comparatively happy at home — his things were kept in some sort of order — and he had a companion who was pretty to look at, and whose want of culture was rather piquante. His pals, too, came and smoked their pipes with him in the evenings, and helped to entertain his wife.

As for the girl, it amused her to be respectable, to receive a certain amount of feminine deference, to be envied by others of her class, and to be able to use the word "husband" without a wink and a leer. Moreover she now got regular meals, and was able to dress better than before. By-and-by, however, she got used to the respect ability, and it ceased to interest. The evenings when friends dropped in were well enough ; but on the off nights when they were alone — he immersed in his books, fidgety when disturbed, and weary when work was done — she, pretending to sew, or, what was worse, laboriously spelling through the books he gave her to read, — on these nights things might be described as decidedly dull. She missed the theatres and the music halls, the suppers, and the variety of her former life.

Even its uncertainties had been exciting. They never went out now. Night after night brought the same unending, prosaic routine. The tea-things (she never cared for tea) ; the lamp ; the figure of her husband leaning over his books ; the long silences, broken only by a curt order or a testy complaint. She could almost tell when they were coming ; " Get my slippers" — " Poke up the fire ! can't you see it's going out ? " — " Reach me that dictionary " — " Damn it, this lamp has no oil, ring the bell " — " What are you at, dear, can't you read ? " — as if literature, to the illiterate, were a perpetual and all-satisfying fairyland. Then, later on (it seemed hours and hours later — far, far into the night), she could hear, without the need of looking up, the first symptom of relaxation — the weary yawn ; feel that he had pushed away his books and was leaning back in his chair, and with his hands crossed be hind his head was looking at her silently, intently, critically.

She hated to be looked at like that — loathed those unspoken comments, which instinct told her were always carping and always adverse. Indeed, when they found voice, they were ever pitched in the same key of querulous criticism, " I don't like your hair crimped like that over the ear." " Are those the only boots you've got ? " It was maddening. In the early weeks of their married life she had had a vague yearning to know something of the arts that keep a man; now she was callous whether she kept him or not, and began to regret the freedom, and to sigh for the diversity of the olden days. She com menced to compromise herself recklessly with his friends ; and only laughed impishly when his jealousy was aroused. Then petty quarrels ensued, marked by bitter and spiteful taunts on her part, and oaths and threats on his.

At last a mutual friend intervened, and peace was restored for a time. Then one day his eye lighted on an advertisement; several letters passed between him and an unknown correspondent; and in the result he grew more re served in manner, but withal more kindly and self restrained. At last he broke the announcement to her that she was to go south — to England. Whereabouts ? Near London, was the reply ; to some kind friends of his who would be very good and considerate and teach her things. In fact, it was a Home, with a skilfully devised name suggestive of re clamation. He was very nervous when he first broached the subject ; but finding that she didn't in the least resent the idea, he became more communicative. It was so dull and wretched for her now, he said ; but it was imperative, in the nature of things, until he could pass his examinations and provide her with a suitable home.

"While she was away he would study hard — much harder than he could well do at present — so as to make certain of passing, and as quickly as possible. As the day of leave-taking drew near, he grew more affectionate — would look at her less critically — and an unaccustomed softness stole into his eyes. In truth he loved the woman. And so his endearments increased, until his touch became insupportable, and she would have welcomed a blow or a curse. All this time, in his wife's mind there was but one dominant, overmastering idea, taking visible, tangible shape with time and repetition — London. It was like a breath of the sea, the scent of new mown hay — full of a nameless elation. London ! what a world of width and freedom and boundless possibility lay in those two resounding syllables. Yes, she would go — go gladly, even to a prison in London — anything to get there.

But she would never come back. And so they parted — not to meet again until as petitioner in the Divorce Division he applied for a dissolution of marriage upon the usual grounds. She did not defend the suit ; indeed, she was heartily sick of ber one and only experience in conventionality. And when she left the precincts of the Court (for she felt that she must see him once again, just to remind herself of what he was actually like), after hearing the brief details of their married life elicited by counsel, she muttered half aloud, " Yes, it is all quite true ; but he has left out the principal part — the little things that made me hate him." And so the first page in Dalling's career was closed, and he turned from the Court a free man. But it was the hollow freedom of bereavement ; and when, a little later, he went to a neighbouring bar to stifle reflection in drink, accompanied by the obsequious little attorney's clerk who ventured to congratulate him upon his success, he turned upon him like a savage animal.

" Success, damn you ! why, I'd take her back to morrow, if she'd come ! " And so he would, if she had but thrown her arms about his neck, and nestled those golden braids once more upon his breast. Yes, taken her back, and told her with choking accents that he loved her just as well as ever, spite of the past and all its stains. It has a curious fascination for some men, the physical lapse of the woman they love ; a subtle and sensuous cruelty, that haunts and disturbs, and excites and maddens. Just as with others it extinguishes all romance and all passion ; and makes ice of her image and a nullity of her power for ever.

Chapter III

Fob a time Dalling conceived a disgust for medicine and all its belongings — the very sight of a chemist's shop made him sick. He gravitated towards the Turf ; and knowing something of horse-flesh, and more of stable-touts, he acquired a precarious livelihood by backing horses for small amounts, and with the sinister luck that always welcomes the beginner. In this connection he picked up one or two patients, chiefly bookmakers, who never paid him less than a guinea for a prescription — wanted no attendance — but if the cure came off would sometimes place a "tenner" to his account on settling-days, and send bim a curt, phonetic letter of gratitude. His direct speech and brusque manner went down with the professional racing fraternity, who hated rot, took short views, and only believed in figures.

But they could be lavish enough when business was over; and they never forgot a kindness or forgave a wrong 'un. By-and-by, as things became more prosperous, he grew more daring ; got elected to a betting club ; and by means of careful manipulation, and an occasional good thing from an old patient " in the know " — he amassed a small pile. Then he began to dress more smartly, in the racing sense ; and acquired a wonderful diamond ring, cheapish, through the inter vention of a pal in Hatton Garden. Then came dinners, and suppers, and theatres, all with recent acquaintances — Sundays at the Star and Garter, boxing bouts, and a terrier with ears cut miraculously short. And then one night, alas ! came also a supper at the Cavour and a sudden vision of yellow tresses — only a back view at first — sitting opposite to a dull, heavy, Jewish-looking companion, who drank his champagne from a tumbler, said very little, but had an exasperating air of ownership.

Presently she turned her head, aud Dalling's fate was sealed. A little later the man left for a few minutes to speak to a friend whom he had caught sight of at the other end of the crowded saloon. In an instant Dalling was by her side. She was excited, flattered, subdued, as much by his patent admiration as his reckless assurance. He was quite ready to remain there and see it out with her friend, he remarked, with a sinister smile. " I have no fear of the result. I mean you to be mine, and all the men in London won't prevent me." In deference to her entreaties, however, he at last returned to his seat, whence he continued to openly devour her with his eyes. But an appoint ment had been made; and three days later, leaving a hurried note of farewell for her Jewish protector, she joined Dalling in a furnished flat that he had provided for her in a quiet part of the town.

As long as circumstances went well, Nellie behaved herself faultlessly. Always sweet-tempered, never extravagant, quite content with an occasional outburst of festivity, she suited the man and his methods admirably. She could sit quiet for a whole evening, while he was absorbed in his sporting papers, or made hieroglyphic calculations in his pocket-book. With a phlegmatic temperament, a limited intellect, a figure inclining to embonpoint and a dazzling skin, her charms lay in the eloquence of the flesh and the sedative of a silent tongue. Her only excitements were those connected with the variations in his fortune. When he won, she was all honey and devo tion — her eyes sparkled, her kisses cloyed, and it was never long before she appeared in a new diamond half-hoop, or added another bank-note to her already respectable collection.

When he lost— if it was in small sums, she only grudgingly admitted that one cannot always win ; if, however, it was in serious amounts, she was distinctly irritated, began to doubt his infallibility, and to mistrust his cleverness. He soon discovered that the only thing that ap pealed to her was success — persistent, uninterrupted, and of the kind that is readily convertible into notes and gold. A sub-acute crisis occurred when he began to borrow a note or two from her sacred store ; and later, the crisis intensified when the half-hoops were drawn upon for avuncular purposes. The serenity of her temper disappeared ; her language attained to a force and an asperity hitherto undreamt of; and singular to relate, Dalling, the audacious, began to be cowed and to lose his nerve. She upbraided him for his ill-luck, his inexplicable fatuity, even taunted him with following a disreputable occupation.