'I think that's silly. Your friends'll get along without you all right. And you'll have a grand time in New York.'
Her gay laugh was very convincing.
'One would think you were terribly anxious to get rid of me.'
'Of course I should miss you like hell. But it would only be for a few months. If I had a chance like that I'd jump at it.'
But when they had finished supper and the commissionaire had called up a taxi for them he gave the address of the flat as if it were an understood thing that they should go back to it. In the taxi he put his arm round her waist and kissed her, and later, when she lay in his arms, in the little single bed, she felt that all the pain she had suffered during that last fortnight was not too great a price to pay for the happy peace that filled her heart.
Julia continued to go to the smart supper places and to night clubs with Tom. If people wanted to think he was her lover, let them; she was past caring. But it happened more than once that he was engaged when she wanted him to go somewhere with her. It had spread around among Julia's grander friends that Tom was very clever at helping one with one's income-tax returns. The Dennor-ants had asked him down to the country for a week-end, and here he had met a number of persons who were glad to take advantage of his technical knowledge. He began to get invitations from people whom Julia did not know. Acquaintances would mention him to her.
'You know Tom Fennell, don't you? He's very clever, isn't he? I hear he's saved the Gillians hundreds of pounds on their income-tax.'
Julia was none too pleased. It was through her that he had got asked to parties that he wanted to go to. It began to look as if in this respect he could do without her. He was pleasant and unassuming, very well-dressed now, and with a fresh, clean look that was engaging; he was able to save people money; Julia knew the world which he was so anxious to get into well enough to realize that he would soon establish himself in it. She had no very high opinion of the morals of the women he would meet there and she could name more than one person of title who would be glad to snap him up. Julia's comfort was that they were all as mean as cat's meat. Dolly had said he was only earning four hundred a year; he certainly couldn't live in those circles on that.
Julia had with decision turned down the American offer before ever she mentioned it to Tom; their play was playing to very good business. But one of those inexplicable slumps that occasionally affect the theatre now swept over London and the takings suddenly dropped. It looked as though they would not be able to carry on long after Easter. They had a new play on which they set great hopes. It was called 'Nowadays,' and the intention had been to produce it early in the autumn. It had a great part for Julia and the advantage of one that well suited Michael. It was the sort of play that might easily run a year. Michael did not much like the idea of producing it in May, with the summer coming on, but there seemed no help for it and he began looking about for a cast.
One afternoon, during the interval at a matinée, Evie brought a note in to Julia. She was surprised to see Roger's handwriting.
DEAR MOTHER,
This is to introduce to you Miss Joan-Denver who I talked to you about. She's awfully keen on getting in the Siddons Theatre and would be quite satisfied with an understudy however small.
Your affectionate son,
ROGER.
Julia smiled at the formal way in which he wrote; she was tickled because he was so grown up as to try to get jobs for his girl friends. Then she suddenly remembered who Joan Denver was. Joan and Jill. She was the girl who had seduced poor Roger. Her face went grim. But she was curious to see her.
'Is George there?' George was the doorkeeper. Evie nodded and opened the door.
'George.'
He came in.
'Is the lady who brought this letter here now?'
'Yes, miss.'
'Tell her I'll see her after the play.'
She wore in the last act an evening dress with a train; it was a very grand dress and showed her beautiful figure to advantage. She wore diamonds in her dark hair and diamond bracelets on her arms. She looked, as indeed the part required, majestic. She received Joan Denver the moment she had taken her last call. Julia could in the twinkling of an eye leap from her part into private life, but now without an effort she continued to play the imperious, aloof, stately and well-bred woman of the play.
'I've kept you waiting so long I thought I wouldn't keep you till I'd got changed.'
Her cordial smile was the smile of a queen; her gracious-ness kept you at a respectful distance. In a glance she had taken in the young girl who entered her dressing-room. She was young, with a pretty little face and a snub nose, a good deal made-up and not very well made-up.
'Her legs are too short,' thought Julia. 'Very second-rate.'
She had evidently put on her best clothes and the same glance had told Julia all about them.
('Shaftesbury Avenue. Off the rail.')
The poor thing was at the moment frightfully nervous. Julia made her sit down and offered her a cigarette.
'There are matches by your side.'
She saw her hands tremble when she tried to strike one. It broke and she rubbed a second three times against the box before she could get it to light.
('If Roger could only see her now! Cheap rouge, cheap lipstick, and scared out of her wits. Gay little thing, he thought she was.')
'Have you been on the stage long, Miss– I'm so sorry I've forgotten your name.'
'Joan Denver.' Her throat was dry and she could hardly speak. Her cigarette went out and she held it helplessly. She answered Julia's question. 'Two years.'
'How old are you?'
'Nineteen.'
('That's a lie. You're twenty-two if you're a day.') 'You know my son, don't you?'
'Yes.'
'He's just let Eton. He's gone to Vienna to learn German. Of course he's very young, but his father and I thought it would be good for him to spend a few months abroad before going up to Cambridge. And what parts have you played? Your cigarette's gone out. Won't you have another?'
'Oh, it's all right, thanks. I've been playing on tour. But I'm frightfully anxious to be in town.' Despair gave her courage and she uttered the speech she had evidently prepared. 'I've got the most tremendous admiration for you, Miss Lambert. I always say you're the greatest actress on the stage. I've learnt more from you than I did all the years I was at the R.A.D.A. My greatest ambition is to be in your theatre, Miss Lambert, and if you could see your way to giving me a little something, I know it would be the most wonderful chance a girl could have.'
'Will you take off your hat?'
Joan Denver took the cheap little hat off her head and with a quick gesture shook out her close-cropped curls.
'What pretty hair you have,' said Julia.
Still with that slightly imperious, but infinitely cordial smile, the smile that a queen in royal procession bestows on her subjects, Julia gazed at her. She did not speak. She remembered Jane Taitbout's maxim: Don't pause unless it's necessary, but then pause as long as you can. She could almost hear the girl's heart beating and she felt her shrinking in her ready-made clothes, shrinking in her skin.
'What made you think of asking my son to give you a letter to me?'
Joan grew red under her make-up and she swallowed before she answered.
'I met him at a friend's house and I told him how much I admired you and he said he thought perhaps you'd have something for me in your next play.'
'I'm just turning over the parts in my mind.'
'I wasn't thinking of a part. If I could have an understudy –I mean, that would give me a chance of attending rehearsals and studying your technique. That's an education in itself. Everyone agrees about that.'
('Silly little fool, trying to flatter me. As if I didn't know that. And why the hell should I educate her?') 'It's very sweet of you to put it like that. I'm only a very ordinary person really. The public is so kind, so very kind. You're a pretty little thing. And young. Youth is so beautiful
. Our policy has always been to give the younger people a chance. After all we can't go on for ever, and we look upon it as a duty we owe the public to train up actors and actresses to take our place when the time comes.'
Julia said these words so simply, in her beautifully modulated voice, that Joan Denver's heart was warmed. She'd got round the old girl and the understudy was as good as hers. Tom Fennell had said that if she played her cards well with Roger it might easily lead to something.
'Oh, that won't be for a long while yet, Miss Lambert,' she said, her eyes, her pretty dark eyes glowing.
('You're right there, my girl, dead right. I bet I could play you off the stage when I was seventy.')
'I must think it over. I hardly know yet what understudies we shall want in our next play.'
'I hear there's some talk of Avice Crichton for the girl's part. I thought perhaps I could understudy her.'
Avice Crichton. No flicker of the eyes showed that the name meant anything to Julia.
'My husband has mentioned her, but nothing is settled yet. I don't know her at all. Is she clever?'
'I think so. I was at the Academy with her.'
'And pretty as a picture, they tell me.' Rising to her feet to show that the audience was at an end, Julia put off her royalty. She changed her tone and became on a sudden the jolly, good-natured actress who would do a good turn to anyone if she could. 'Well, dear, leave me your name and address and if there's anything doing I'll let you know.'
'You won't forget me, Miss Lambert?'
'No, dear, I promise you I won't. It's been so nice to see you. You have a very sweet personality. You'll find your way out, won't you? Good-bye.'
'A fat chance she's got of ever setting foot in this theatre,' said Julia to herself when she was gone. 'Dirty little bitch to seduce my son. Poor lamb. It's a shame, that's what it is; women like that oughtn't to be allowed.'
She looked at herself in the glass as she slipped out of her beautiful gown. Her eyes were hard and her lips had a sardonic curl. She addressed her reflection.
'And I may tell you this, old girl: there's one person who isn't going to play in 'Nowadays' and that's Miss Avice Crichton.'
21
But a week or so later Michael mentioned her.
'I say, have you ever heard of a girl called Avice Crichton?'
'Never.'
'I'm told she's rather good. A lady and all that sort of thing. Her father's in the army. I was wondering if she'd do for Honor.'
'How did you hear about her?'
'Through Tom. He knows her, he says she's clever. She's playing in a Sunday night show. Next Sunday, in point of fact. He says he thinks it might be worth while to go and have a look-see.'
'Well, why don't you?'
'I was going down to Sandwich to play golf. Would it bore you awfully to go? I expect the play's rotten, but you'd be able to tell if it was worth while letting her read the part. Tom'll go with you.'
Julia's heart was beating nineteen to the dozen.
'Of course I'll go.'
She phoned to Tom and asked him to come round and have a snack before they went to the theatre. He arrived before she was ready.
'Am I late or were you early?' she said, when she came into the drawing-room.
She saw that he had been waiting impatiently. He was nervous and eager.
'They're going to ring up sharp at eight,' he said. 'I hate getting to a play after it's begun.'
His agitation told her all she wanted to know. She lingered a little over the cocktails.
'What is the name of this actress we're going to see tonight?' she asked.
'Avice Crichton. I'm awfully anxious to know what you think about her. I think she's a find. She knows you're coming to-night. She's frightfully nervous, but I told her she needn't be. You know what these Sunday night plays are; scratch rehearsals and all that; I said you'd quite understand and you'd make allowances.'
All through dinner he kept looking at his watch. Julia acted the woman of the world. She talked of one thing and another and noticed that he listened with distraction. As soon as he could he brought the conversation back to Avice Crichton.
'Of course I haven't said anything to her about it, but I believe she'd be all right for Honor.' He had read 'Nowadays,' as he read, before they were produced, all Julia's plays. 'She looks the part all right, I'm sure of that. She's had a struggle and of course it would be a wonderful chance for her. She admires you tremendously and she's terribly anxious to get into a play with you.'
'That's understandable. It means the chance of a year's run and a lot of managers seeing her.'
'She's the right colour, she's very fair; she'd be a good contrast to you.'
'What with platinum and peroxide there's no lack of blondes on the stage.'
'But hers is natural.'
'Is it? I had a long letter from Roger this morning. He seems to be having quite a good time in Vienna.'
Tom's interest subsided. He looked at his watch. When the coffee came Julia said it was undrinkable. She said she must have some more made.
'Oh, Julia, it isn't worth while. We shall be awfully late.'
'I don't suppose it matters if we miss the first few minutes.'
His voice was anguished.
'I promised we wouldn't be late. She's got a very good scene almost at the beginning.'
'I'm sorry, but I can't go without my coffee.'
While they waited for it she maintained a bright flow of conversation. He scarcely answered. He looked anxiously at the door. And when the coffee came she drank it with maddening deliberation. By the time they got in the car he was in a state of cold fury and he stared silently in front of him with a sulky pout on his mouth. Julia was not dissatisfied with herself. They reached the theatre two minutes before the curtain rose and as Julia appeared there was burst of clapping from the audience. Julia, apologizing to the people she disturbed, threaded her way to her seat in the middle of the stalls. Her faint smile acknowledged the applause that greeted her beautifully-timed entrance, but her downcast eyes modestly disclaimed that it could have any connection with her.
The curtain went up and after a short scene two girls came in, one very pretty and young, the other much older and plain. In a minute Julia turned to Tom and whispered:
'Which is Avice Crichton, the young one or the old one?'
'The young one.'
'Oh, of course, you said she was fair, didn't you?'
She gave his face a glance. He had lost his sulky look; a happy smile played on his lips. Julia turned her attention to the stage. Avice Crichton was very pretty, no one could deny that, with lovely golden hair, fine blue eyes and a little straight nose; but it was a type that Julia did not care for.
'Insipid,' she said to herself. 'Chorus-girly.'
She watched her performance for a few minutes. She watched intently; then she leant back in her stall with a little sigh.
'She can't act for toffee,' she decided.
When the curtain fell Tom turned to her eagerly. He had completely got over his bad temper.
'What do you think of her?'
'She's as pretty as a picture.'
'I know that. But her acting. Don't you think she's good?'
'Yes, clever.'
'I wish you'd come round and tell her that yourself. It would buck her up tremendously.'
'I?'
He did not realize what he was asking her to do. It was unheard-of that she, Julia Lambert, should go behind and congratulate a small-part actress.
'I promised I'd take you round after the second act. Be a sport Julia. It'll please her so much.'
('The fool. The blasted fool. All right, I'll go through with it.') 'Of course if you think it'll mean anything to her, I'll come with pleasure.'
After the second act they went through the iron door and Tom led her to Avice Crichton's dressing-room. She was sharing it with the plain girl with whom she had made her first entrance. Tom effected the introductions. She held out a limp h
and in a slightly affected manner.
'I'm so glad to meet you, Miss Lambert. Excuse the dressing-room, won't you? But it was no good trying to make it look nice just for one night.'
She was not in the least nervous. Indeed, she seemed self-assured.
('Hard as nails. And with an eye to the main chance. Doing the colonel's daughter on me.')
'It's awfully nice of you to come round. I'm afraid it's not much of a play, but when one's starting like I am one has to put up with what one can get. I was rather doubtful about it when they sent it me to read, but I took a fancy to the part.'
'You play it charmingly,' said Julia.
'It's awfully nice of you to say so. I wish we could have had a few more rehearsals. I particularly wanted to show you what I could do.'
'Well, you know, I've been connected with the profession a good many years. I always think, if one has talent one can't help showing it. Don't you?'
'I know what you mean. Of course I want a lot more experience, I know that, but it's only a chance I want really. I know I can act. If I could only get a part that I could really get my teeth into.'
She waited a little in order to let Julia say that she had in her new play just the part that would suit her, but Julia continued to look at her smilingly. Julia was grimly amused to find herself treated like a curate's wife to whom the squire's lady was being very kind.
'Have you been on the stage long?' she said at last. 'It seems funny I should never have heard of you.'
'Well, I was in revue for a while, but I felt I was just wasting my time. I was out on tour all last season. I don't want to leave London again if I can help it.'
'The theatrical profession's terribly overcrowded,' said Julia.
'Oh, I know. It seems almost hopeless unless you've got influence or something. I hear you're putting a new play on soon.'
'Yes.'
Julia continued to smile with an almost intolerable sweetness.
'If there's a part for me in it, I'd most awfully like to play with you. I'm so sorry Mr Gosselyn couldn't come to-night.'
'I'll tell him about you.'
'D'you really think there's a chance for me?' Through her self-assurance, through the country-house manner she assumed in order to impress Julia, there pierced an anxious eagerness. 'If you'd put in a word for me it would help so much.'
Theatre Page 17