In the Quarter. Chambers Robert William
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silent as a stuffed owl!''
``He has been walking his legs off after you,'' began Clifford, but Braith cut him short with a brusque –
``Where were you, Rex?''
Gethryn winced. ``I'd rather – I think'' – he began, slowly –
``Excuse me – it's not my business,'' growled Braith, throwing himself into a seat and beginning to rub Mrs Gummidge the wrong way. ``Confound the cat!'' he added, examining some red parallel lines which suddenly decorated the back of his hand.
``She won't stand rubbing the wrong way,'' said Rex, smiling uneasily.
``Like the rest of us,'' said Elliott.
``More fool he who tries it,'' said Braith, and looked at Gethryn with an affectionate smile that made him turn redder than before.
``Rex,'' began Clifford again, with that fine tact for which he was celebrated, ``own up! You spent last night warbling under the windows of Lisette.''
``Or Frisette,'' said Elliott, ``or Cosette.''
``Or Babette, Lisette, Frisette, Cosette, Babette!'' chanted the two young men in a sort of catch.
Braith so seldom swore, that the round oath with which he broke into their vocal exercises stopped them through sheer astonishment. But Clifford, determined on self-assertion and loving an argument, especially out of season, turned on Braith and began:
``Why should not Youth love?''
``Love! Bah!'' said Braith.
``Why Bah?'' he persisted, stimulated by the disgust of Braith. ``Now if a man – take Elliott, for example – ''
``Take yourself,'' cried the other.
``Well – myself, for example. Suppose when my hours of weary toil are over – returning to my lonely cell, I encounter the blue eyes of Ninette on the way, or the brown eyes of Cosette, or perhaps the black eyes of – ''
Braith stamped impatiently.
``Lisette,'' said Clifford, sweetly. ``Why should I not refresh my drooping spirits by adoring Lisette – Cos– ''
``Oh, come, you said that before,'' said Gethryn. ``You're getting to be a bore, Clifford.''
``You at least can no longer reproach me,'' said the other, with a quick look that increased Gethryn's embarrassment.
``Let him talk his talk of bewitching grisettes, and gay students,'' said Braith, more angry than Rex had ever seen him. ``He's never content except when he's dangling after some fool worse than himself. Damn this `Bohemian love' rot! I've been here longer than you have, Clifford,'' he said, suddenly softening and turning half apologetically to the latter, who nodded to intimate that he hadn't taken offense. ``I've seen all that shabby romance turn into such reality as you wouldn't like to face. I've seen promising lives go out in ruin and disgrace – here in this very street – in this very house – lives that started exactly on the lines that you are finding so mighty pleasant just now.''
Clifford was in danger of being silenced. That would never do.
``Papa Braith,'' he smiled, ``is it that you too have been through the mill? Shall I present your compliments to the miller? I'm going. Come, Elliott.''
Elliott took up his hat and followed.
``Braith,'' he said, ``we'll drink your health as we go through the mill.''
``Remember that the mill grinds slowly but surely,'' said Braith.
``He speaks in parables,'' laughed Clifford, halfway downstairs, and the two took up the catch they had improvised, singing, ``Lisette – Cosette – Ninette – '' in thirds more or less out of tune, until Gethryn shut the door on the last echoes that came up from the hall below.
Gethryn came back and sat down, and Braith took a seat beside him, but neither spoke. Braith had his pipe and Rex his cigarette.
When the former was ready, he began to speak. He could not conceal the effort it cost him, but that wore away after he had been talking a while.
``Rex,'' he began, ``when I say that we are friends, I mean, for my own part, that you are more to me than any man alive; and now I am going to tell you my story. Don't interrupt me. I have only just courage enough; if any of it oozes out, I may not be able to go on. Well, I have been through the mill. Clifford was right. They say it is a phase through which all men must pass. I say, must or not, if you pass through it you don't come out without a stain. You're never the same man after. Don't imagine I mean that I was brutally dissolute. I don't want you to think worse of me than I deserve. I kept a clean tongue in my head – always. So do you. I never got drunk – neither do you. I kept a distance between myself and the women whom those fellows were celebrating in song just now – so do you. How much is due in both of us to principle, and how much to fastidiousness, Rex? I found out for myself at last, and perhaps your turn will not be long in coming. After avoiding entanglements for just three years – '' He looked at Rex, who dropped his head – ``I gave in to a temptation as coarse, vulgar and silly as any I had ever despised. Why? Heaven knows. She was as vulgar a leech as ever fastened on a calf like myself. But I didn't think so then. I was wildly in love with her. She said she was madly in love with me.'' Braith made a grimace of such disgust that Rex would have laughed, only he saw in time that it was self-disgust which made Braith's mouth look so set and hard.
``I wanted to marry her. She wouldn't marry me. I was not rich, but what she said was: `One hates one's husband.' When I say vulgar, I don't mean she had vulgar manners. She was as pretty and trim and clever – as the rest of them. An artist, if he sees all that really exists, sometimes also sees things which have no existence at all. Of these were the qualities with which I invested her – the moral and mental correspondencies to her blonde skin and supple figure. She justified my perspicacity one day by leaving me for a loathsome little Jew. The last time I heard of her she had been turned out of a gambling hell in his company. His name is Emanuel Pick. Is not this a shabby romance? Is it not enough to make a self-respecting man hang his head – to know that he has once found pleasure in the society of the mistress of Mr Emanuel Pick?''
A long silence followed, during which the two men smoked, looking in opposite directions. At last Braith reached over and shook the ashes out of his pipe. Rex lighted a fresh cigarette at the same time, and their eyes met with a look of mutual confidence and goodwill. Braith spoke again, firmly this time.
``God keep you out of the mire, Rex; you're all right thus far. But it is my solemn belief that an affair of that kind would be your ruin as an artist; as a man.''
``The Quarter doesn't regard things in that light,'' said Gethryn, trying hard to laugh off the weight that oppressed him.
``The Quarter is a law unto itself. Be a law unto yourself, Rex – Good night, old chap.''
``Good night, Braith,'' said Gethryn slowly.
Five
Thirion's at six pm. Madame Thirion, neat and demure, sat behind her desk; her husband, in white linen apron and cap, scuttled back and forth shouting, ``Bon! Bon!'' to the orders that came down the call trumpet. The waiters flew crazily about, and cries went up for ``Pierre'' and ``Jean'' and ``green peas and fillet.''
The noise, smoke, laughter, shouting, rattle of dishes, the penetrating odor of burnt paper and French tobacco, all proclaimed the place a Latin Quarter restaurant. The English and Americans ate like civilized beings and howled like barbarians. The Germans, when they had napkins, tucked them under their chins. The Frenchmen – well! they often agreed with the hated Teuton in at least one thing; that knives were made to eat with. But which of the four nationalities exceeded the others in turbulence and bad language would be hard to say.
Clifford was eating his chop and staring at the blonde adjunct of a dapper little Frenchman.
``Clifford,'' said Carleton, ``stop that.''
``I'm mesmerizing her,'' said Clifford. ``It's a case of hypnotism.''
The girl, who had been staring back at Clifford, suddenly shrugged her shoulders, and turning to her companion, said aloud:
``How like a monkey, that