From his pocket-book he extracted a snapshot of a rather pert-looking young woman showing all her teeth in a cinema smile.
'Pretty,' said Julia.
'And how. We're going to the pictures to-night. She will be surprised when I give her your autograph. The first thing I said to meself when I knew it was you was, I'll get Julia Lambert's autograph for Gwen or die in the attempt. We're going to get married in August, when I 'ave my 'oliday, you know; we're going to the Isle of Wight for the 'oneymoon. I shall 'ave a rare lot of fun with 'er over this. She won't believe me when I tell her you an' me 'ad tea together, she'll think I'm kidding, and then I'll show 'er the autograph, see?'
Julia listened to him politely, but the smile had left her face.
'I'm afraid I shall have to go in a minute,' she said. 'I'm late already.'
'I 'aven't got too much time meself. You see, meeting my young lady, I want to get away from the shop on the tick.'
The check had been put on the table when the girl brought their tea, and when they got up Julia took a shilling out of her bag.
'What are you doing that for? You don't think I'm going to let you pay. I invited you.'
'That's very kind of you.'
'But I'll tell you what you can do, let me bring my young lady to see you in your dressing-room one day. Just shake 'ands with her, see? It would mean a rare lot to her. Why, she'd go on talking about it the rest of her life.'
Julia's manner had been for some minutes growing stiffer and now, though gracious still, it was almost haughty.
'I'm sorry, but we never allow strangers behind.'
'Oh, sorry. You don't mind my asking though, do you? I mean, it's not as if it was for meself.'
'Not at all. I quite understand.'
She signalled to a cab crawling along the curb and gave her hand to the young man.
'Good-bye, Miss Lambert. So long, good luck and all that sort of thing. And thanks for the autograph.'
Julia sat in the corner of the taxi raging.
'Vulgar little beast. Him and his young lady. The nerve of asking if he could bring her to see ME.'
When she got home she went upstairs to her room. She snatched her hat off her head and flung it angrily on the bed. She strode over to the looking-glass and stared at herself.
'Old, old, old,' she muttered. 'There are no two ways about it; I'm entirely devoid of sex appeal. You wouldn't believe it, would you? You'd say it was preposterous. What other explanation is there? I walk from one end of the Edgware Road to the other and God knows I'd dressed the part perfectly, and not a man pays the smallest attention to me except a bloody little shop-assistant who wants my autograph for his young lady. It's absurd. A lot of sexless bastards. I don't know what's coming to the English. The British Empire!'
The last words she said with a scorn that would have withered a whole front bench of cabinet ministers. She began to gesticulate.
'It's ridiculous to suppose that I could have got to my position if I hadn't got sex appeal. What do people come to see an actress for? Because they want to go to bed with her. Do you mean to tell me that I could fill a theatre for three months with a rotten play if I hadn't got sex appeal? What is sex appeal anyway?'
She paused, looking at herself reflectively.
'Surely I can act sex appeal. I can act anything.'
She began to think of the actresses who notoriously had it, of one especially, Lydia Mayne, whom one always engaged when one wanted a vamp. She was not much of an actress, but in certain parts she was wonderfully effective. Julia was a great mimic, and now she began to do an imitation of Lydia Mayne. Her eyelids drooped sensually over her eyes as Lydia's did and her body writhed sinuously in her dress. She got into her eyes the provoking indecency of Lydia's glance and into her serpentine gestures that invitation which was Lydia's speciality. She began to speak in Lydia's voice, with the lazy drawl that made every remark she uttered sound faintly obscene.
'Oh, my dear man, I've heard that sort of thing so often. I don't want to make trouble between you and your wife. Why won't men leave me alone?'
It was a cruel caricature that Julia gave. It was quite ruthless. It amused her so much that she burst out laughing.
'Well, there's one thing, I may not have any sex appeal, but after seeing my imitation there aren't many people who'd think Lydia had either.'
It made her feel much better.
26
Rehearsals began and distracted Julia's troubled mind. The revival that Michael put on when she went abroad had done neither very well nor very badly, but rather than close the theatre he was keeping it in the bill till 'Nowadays' was ready. Because he was acting two matinées a week, and the weather was hot, he determined that they should take rehearsals easy. They had a month before them.
Though Julia had been on the stage so long she had never lost the thrill she got out of rehearsing, and the first rehearsal still made her almost sick with excitement. It was the beginning of a new adventure. She did not feel like a leading lady then, she felt as gay and eager as if she were a girl playing her first small part. But at the same time she had a delicious sense of her own powers. Once more she had the chance to exercise them.
At eleven o'clock she stepped on to the stage. The cast stood about idly. She kissed and shook hands with the artists she knew and Michael with urbanity introduced to her those she did not. She greeted Avice Crichton with cordiality. She told her how pretty she was and how much she liked her hat; she told her about the lovely frocks she had chosen for her in Paris.
'Have you seen Tom lately?' she asked.
'No, I haven't. He's away on his holiday.'
'Oh yes. He's a nice little thing, isn't he?'
'Sweet.'
The two women smiled into one another's eyes. Julia watched her when she read her part and listened to her intonations. She smiled grimly. It was exactly what she had expected. Avice was one of those actresses who were quite sure of themselves from the first rehearsal. She didn't know what was coming to her. Tom meant nothing to Julia any more, but she had a score to settle with Avice and she wasn't going to forget it. The slut!
The play was a modern version of 'The Second Mrs Tanqueray,' but with the change of manners of this generation it had been treated from the standpoint of comedy. Some of the old characters were introduced, and Aubrey Tanqueray, now a very old man, appeared in the second act. After Paula's death he had married for the third time. Mrs Cortelyon had undertaken to compensate him for his unfortunate experience with his second wife, and she was now a cantankerous and insolent old lady. Ellean, his daughter, and Hugh Ardale had agreed to let bygones be bygones, for Paula's tragic death had seemed to wipe out the recollection of his lapse into extra-conjugal relations; and they had married. He was now a retired brigadier-general who played golf and deplored the decline of the British Empire – 'Gad, sir, I'd stand those damned socialists against a wall and shoot 'em if I had my way'; whereas Ellean by this time an elderly woman, after a prudish youth had become gay, modem and plain-spoken. The character that Michael played was called Robert Humphreys, and like the Aubrey of Pinero's play he was a widower with an only daughter; he had been a consul in China for many years, and having come into money had retired and was settling on the estate, near where the Tanquerays still lived, which a cousin had left him. His daughter, Honor (this was the part for which Avice Crich-ton had been engaged), was studying medicine with the intention of practising in India. Alone in London, and friendless after so many years abroad, he had picked up a well-known woman of the town called Mrs Marten. Mrs Marten belonged to the same class as Paula, but she was less exclusive; she 'did' the summer and the winter season at Cannes and in the intervals lived in a flat in Albermarle Street where she entertained the officers of His Majesty's brigade. She played a good game of bridge and an even better game of golf. The part well suited Julia.
The author followed the lines of the old play closely. Honor announced to her father that she was abandoning her medical studies and u
ntil her marriage wished to live with him, for she had just become engaged to Ellean's son, a young guardsman. Somewhat disconcerted, Robert Humphreys broke to her his intention of marrying Mrs Marten. Honor took the information with composure.
'Of course you know she's a tart, don't you?' she said coolly.
He, much embarrassed, spoke of the unhappy life she had led and how he wanted to make up to her for all she had suffered.
'Oh, don't talk such rot,' she answered. 'It's grand work if you can get it.'
Ellean's son had been one of Mrs Marten's numerous lovers just as Ellean's husband had been one of Paula Tanqueray's. When Robert Humphreys brought his wife down to his home in the country and this fact was discovered, they decided that Honor must be informed. To their consternation Honor did not turn a hair. She knew already.
'I was as pleased as Punch when I found out,' she told her step-mother. 'You see, darling, you can tell me if he's all right in bed.'
This was Avice Crichton's best scene, it lasted a full ten minutes, and Michael had realized from the beginning that it was effective and important. Avice's cold, matter-of-fact prettiness had been exactly what he had thought would be so telling in the circumstances. But after half-a-dozen rehearsals he began to think that that was all she had to give. He talked it over with Julia.
'How d'you think Avice is shaping?'
'It's early days to tell yet.'
'I'm not happy about her. You said she could act. I've seen no sign of it yet.'
'It's a cast-iron part. She can't really go wrong in it.'
'You know just as well as I do that there's no such thing as a cast-iron part. However good a part is, it has to be acted for all it's worth. I'm not sure if it wouldn't be better to kick her out and get somebody else.'
'That wouldn't be so easy. I thing you ought to give her a chance.'
'She's so awkward, her gestures are so meaningless.'
Julia reflected. She had her reasons for wishing to keep Avice in the cast. She knew her well enough to be sure that if she were dismissed she would tell Tom that it was because Julia was jealous of her. He loved her and would believe anything she said. He might even think that Julia had put this affront on her in revenge for his desertion. No, no, she must stay. She must play the part, and fail; and Tom must see with his own eyes what a bad actress she was. They both of them thought the play would make her. Fools. It would kill her.
'You know how clever you are, Michael, I'm sure you can train her if you're willing to take a little trouble.'
'But that's just it, she doesn't seem able to take direction. I show her exactly how to say a line and then she goes and says it in her own way. You wouldn't believe it, but sometimes I can hardly help thinking she's under the delusion that she knows better than I do.'
'You make her nervous. When you tell her to do something she's in such a dither she doesn't know what she's up to.'
'Good lord, no one could be more easy than I am. I've never even been sharp with her.'
Julia gave him an affectionate smile.
'Are you going to pretend that you really don't know what's the matter with her?'
'No, what?'
He looked at her with a blank face.
'Come off it, darling. Haven't you noticed that she's madly in love with you?'
'With me? But I thought she was practically engaged to Tom. Nonsense. You're always fancying things like that.'
'But it's quite obvious. After all she isn't the first who's fallen for your fatal beauty, and I don't suppose she'll be the last.'
'Heaven knows, I don't want to queer poor Tom's pitch.'
'It's not your fault, is it?'
'What d'you want me to do about it then?'
'Well, I think you ought to be nice to her. She's very young, you know, poor thing. What she wants is a helping hand. If you took her alone a few times and went through the part with her I believe you could do wonders. Why don't you take her out to lunch one day and have a talk to her?'
She saw the gleam in Michael's eyes as he considered the proposition and the shadow of a smile that was outlined on his lips.
'Of course the great thing is to get the play as well acted as we can.'
'I know it'll be a bore for you, but honestly, for the sake of the play I think it'll be worth while.'
'You know that I would never do anything to upset you, Julia. I mean, I'd much sooner fire the girl and get someone else in her place.'
'I think that would be such a mistake. I'm convinced that if you'll only take enough trouble with her she'll give a very good performance.'
He walked up and down the room once or twice. He seemed to be considering the matter from every side.
'Well, I suppose it's my job to get the best performance I can out of every member of my cast. In every case you have to find out which is the best method of approach.'
He threw out his chin and drew in his belly. He straightened his back. Julia knew that Avice Crichton would hold the part, and next day at rehearsal he took her aside and had a long talk with her. She knew by his manner exactly what he was saying and, watching them out of the corner of her eye, presently she saw Avice nod and smile. He had asked her to lunch with him. With a contented mind Julia went on studying her part.
27
They had been rehearsing for a fortnight when Roger arrived from Austria. He had been spending a few weeks on a Carinthian lake, and after a day or two in London was to go and stay with friends in Scotland. Since Michael had to dine early to go to the theatre Julia went to meet him by herself. When she was dressing, Evie, sniffing as usual, told her that she was taking as much pains to make herself look nice as if she were going to meet a young man. She wanted Roger to be proud of her, and certainly she looked very young and pretty in her summer frock as she strolled down the platform. You would have thought, but wrongly, that she was perfectly unconscious of the attention she attracted. Roger, after a month in the sun, was very brown, but he was still rather spotty and he seemed thinner than when he had left London at the New Year. She hugged him with exuberant affection. He smiled slightly.
They were to dine by themselves. Julia asked him if he would like to go to a play afterwards or to the pictures, but he said he preferred to stay at home.
'That'll be much nicer,' she answered, 'and we'll just talk.'
There was indeed a subject that Michael had invited her to discuss with Roger when the opportunity arose. Now that he was going to Cambridge so soon he ought to make up his mind what he wanted to do. Michael was afraid that he would drift through his time there and then go into a broker's office or even on the stage. Thinking that Julia had more tact than he, and more influence with the boy, he had urged her to put before him the advantages of the Foreign Office and the brilliant possibilities of the Bar. Julia thought it would be strange if in the course of two or three hours' conversation she could not find a way to lead to this important topic. At dinner she tried to get him to talk about Vienna. But he was reticent.
'Oh, I just did the usual things, you know. I saw the sights and worked hard at my German. I knocked about in beer places. I went to the opera a good deal.'
She wondered if he had had any love affairs.
'Anyhow, you haven't come back engaged to a Viennese maiden,' she said, thinking to draw him out.
He gave her a reflective, but faintly amused look. You might almost have thought that he had seen what she was driving at. It was strange; though he was her own son she did not feel quite at home with him.
'No,' he answered, 'I was too busy to bother with that sort of thing.'
'I suppose you went to all the theatres.'
'I went two or three times.'
'Did you see anything that would be any use to me?'
'You know, I never thought about that.'
His answer might have seemed a little ungracious but that it was accompanied by a smile, and his smile was very sweet. Julia wondered again how it was that he had inherited so little of Michael's beauty and of
her charm. His red hair was nice, but his pale lashes gave his face a sort of empty look. Heaven only knew where with such a father and such a mother he had got his rather lumpy figure. He was eighteen now; it was time he fined down. He seemed a trifle apathetic; he had none of her sparkling vitality; she could picture the vividness with which she would have narrated her experiences if she had just spent six months in Vienna. Why, already she had made a story about her stay at St. Malo with Aunt Carrie and her mother that made people roar with laughter. They all said it was as good as a play, and her own impression was that it was much better than most. She told it to Roger now. He listened with his slow, quiet smile; but she had an uneasy feeling that he did not think it quite so funny as she did. She sighed in her heart. Poor lamb, he could have no sense of humour. Then he made some remark that led her to speak of 'Nowadays.' She told him its story, and explained what she was doing with her part; she talked to him of the cast and described the sets. At the end of dinner it suddenly struck her that she had been talking entirely of herself and her own interests. She did not know how she had been led to do this, and the suspicion flashed across her mind that Roger had guided the conversation in that direction so that it should be diverted from him and his affairs. But she put it aside. He really wasn't intelligent enough for that. It was later when they sat in the drawing-room listening to the radio and smoking, that Julia found the chance to slip in, apparently in the most casual fashion, the question she had prepared.
'Have you made up your mind what you're going to be yet?'
'No. Is there any hurry?'
'You know how ignorant I am about everything. Your father says that if you're going to be a barrister you ought to work at law when you go to Cambridge. On the other hand, if you fancy the Foreign Office you should take up modern languages.'
He looked at her for so long, with that queer, reflective air of his, that Julia had some difficulty in holding her light, playful and yet affectionate expression.
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