"Oh!" said George, depositing his hat and gloves and strolling into the principals' room. "Good morning, Mr. Orgreave. Got the conditions there?" For a moment his attitude of interest was a pose, but very quickly it became sincere. Astonishing how at sight of a drawing-board and a problem he could forget all that lay beyond them! He was genuinely and extremely disturbed by the course of affairs at Chelsea; nevertheless he now approached Mr. Orgreave and Lucas with eagerness, and Chelsea slipped away into another dimension.
"No," said John Orgreave, "the conditions aren't out yet. But it's all right this time. I know for a fact."
The offices of all the regular architectural competitors in London were excited that morning. For the conception of the northern town hall was a vast one. Indeed, journalists had announced, from their mysterious founts of information, that the town hall would be the largest public building erected4 in England during half a century. The scheme had been the sport of municipal politics for many months, for years. Apparently5 it could not get itself definitely born. And now the Town Clerk's wife had brought about the august parturition6. It is true that her agency was unintentional. The Town Clerk had belonged to a powerful provincial7 dynasty of town clerks. He had the illusion that without him a great town would cease to exist. There was nothing uncommon8 in this illusion, which indeed is rife9 among town clerks; but the Town Clerk in question had the precious faculty10 of being able to communicate it to mayors, aldermen, and councillors. He was a force in the municipal council. Voteless, he exercised a moral influence over votes. And he happened to be opposed to the scheme for the new town hall. He gave various admirable reasons for the postponement11 of the scheme, but he never gave the true reasons, even to himself. The true reasons were, first, that he hated and detested12 the idea of moving office, and, second, that he wanted acutely to be able to say in the fullness of years that he had completed half a century of municipal work in one and the same room. If the pro-scheme party had had the wit to invent a pretext13 for allowing the Town Clerk to remain in the old municipal buildings, the scheme would instantly have taken life. The Town Clerk, being widowed, had consoled himself with a young second wife. This girl adored dancing; the Town Clerk adored her; and therefore where she danced he deemed it prudent14 to attend. Driving home from a January ball at 4 a.m. the Town Clerk had caught pneumonia15. In a week he was dead, and his dynasty with him. In a couple of months the pro-scheme party had carried the council off its feet. Such are the realities, never printed in newspapers, of municipal politics in the grim north.
Sketches16 of the site had appeared in the architectural press. John Orgreave and Lucas were pencilling in turn upon one of these, a page torn out of a weekly. George inserted himself between them, roughly towards Lucas and deferentially17 towards Mr. John.
"How, wrong?" John Orgreave demanded.
"See here—give me the pencil, Looc."
George felt with a little thrill of satisfaction the respect for him which underlay19 John Orgreave's curt20 tone of a principal—and a principal from the Midlands. He did not miss, either, Lucas's quick, obedient, expectant gesture in surrendering the pencil. Ideas for the plan of the building sprang up multitudinously in his mind. He called; they came. He snatched towards him a blank sheet of tracing-paper, and scrawled21 it over with significant lines.
"That's my notion. I thought of it long ago," he said. "Or if you prefer—"
The other two were impressed. He himself was impressed. His notion, which he was modifying and improving every moment, seemed to him perfect and ever more perfect. He was intensely and happily stimulated22 in the act of creation; and they were all three absorbed.
"Why hasn't my desk been arranged?" said a discontented voice behind them. Mr. Enwright had arrived by the farther door from the corridor.
Lucas glanced up.
"Why hasn't he come?"
"I hear his wife's very ill," said George.
"Who told you?"
"I happened to be round that way this morning."
"Oh! I thought all was over between you two."
George flushed. Nothing had ever been said in the office as to his relations with Haim, though it was of course known that George no longer lodged25 with the factotum. Mr. Enwright, however, often had disconcerting intuitions concerning matters to which Mr. Orgreave and Lucas were utterly26 insensible.
"Oh no!" George haltingly murmured.
"Well, this is all very well, this is——!" Mr. Enwright ruthlessly proceeded, beginning to marshal the instruments on his desk.
He had been a somewhat spectacular martyr27 for some time past. A mysterious facial neuralgia had harried28 his nights and days. For the greater part of a week he had dozed29 in an arm-chair in the office under the spell of eight tabloids30 of aspirin31 per diem. Then a specialist had decided32 that seven of his side teeth, already studded with gold, must leave him. Those teeth were not like any other person's teeth, and in Mr. Enwright's mind the extracting of them had become a major operation, as, for example, the taking off of a limb. He had [pg 104] spent three days in a nursing home in Welbeck Street. His life was now saved, and he was a convalescent, and passed several hours daily in giving to friends tragi-farcical accounts of existence in a nursing home. Mr. Enwright's career was one unending romance.
"I was just looking at that town hall affair," said John Orgreave.
"What town hall?" his partner snapped.
" The town hall," answered the imperturbable33 John. "George here has got an idea."
"I suppose you know Sir Hugh Corver, Bart., is to be the assessor," said Mr. Enwright in a devastating34 tone.
Sir Hugh Corver, formerly35 a mere36 knight37, had received a baronetcy, to Mr. Enwright's deep disgust. Mr. Enwright had remarked that any decent-minded man who had been a husband and childless for twenty-four years would have regarded the supplementary38 honour as an insult, but that Sir Hugh was not decent-minded and, moreover, was not capable of knowing an insult when he got one. This theory of Mr. Enwright's, however, did not a bit lessen39 his disgust.
"I for one am not going in for any more competitions with Corver as assessor," said Mr. Enwright. "I won't do it."
Faces fell. Mr. Enwright had previously41 published this resolve, but it had not been taken quite seriously. It was entirely42 serious. Neuralgia and a baronetcy had given it the consistency43 of steel.
"It isn't as if we hadn't got plenty of work in the office," said Mr. Enwright.
This was true. The firm was exceedingly prosperous.
"What can you expect from a fellow like Corver?" Mr. Enwright cried, with a special glance at George. "He's the upas-tree of decent architecture."
George's mood changed immediately. Profound discouragement succeeded to his creative stimulation45. Mr. Enwright had reason on his side. What could you expect from a fellow like Corver? With all the ardour of a disciple46 George dismissed the town hall scheme, and simultaneously47 his private woes48 surged up and took full possession of him. He walked silently out of the room, and Lucas followed. As a fact, Mr. Enwright ought not to have talked in such a way before the pupils. A question of general policy should [pg 105] first have been discussed in private between the partners, and the result then formally announced to the staff. Mr. Enwright was not treating his partner with proper consideration. But Mr. Enwright, as every one said at intervals49, was 'like that'; and his partner did not seem to care greatly.
Lucas shut the door between the principals' room and the pupils' room.
"I say," said Lucas importantly. "I've got a show on to-night. Women. Café Royal. I want a fourth. You must come."
The Final was due to begin on Thursday.
"That's all right," Lucas answered, with tact51. "That's all right. I'd thought of the exam., of course. You'll have to-morrow to recover. It'll do you all the good in the world. And you know you're more than ready for the thing. You don't want to be overtrained, my son. Besides, you'll sail through it. As for 'can't,' 'can't' be damned. You've got to."
A telegraph boy, after hesitating at the empty cubicle, came straight into the room.
George nodded, trembling.
The telegram read:
"Impossible to-day.—MARGUERITE."
It was an incredible telegram, as much by what it said as by what it didn't say. It overthrew53 George.
"Seven forty-five, and I'll drive you round," said Lucas.
"Tis well," said George.
Immediately afterwards Mr. Enwright summoned Lucas.
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1
cubicle
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| n.大房间中隔出的小室 | |
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factotum
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| n.杂役；听差 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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parturition
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| n.生产，分娩 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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postponement
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| n.推迟 | |
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detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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underlay
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| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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scrawled
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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urbanely
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| adv.都市化地，彬彬有礼地，温文尔雅地 | |
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placatingly
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tabloids
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| n.小报，通俗小报（版面通常比大报小一半，文章短，图片多，经常报道名人佚事）( tabloid的名词复数 )；药片 | |
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aspirin
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| n.阿司匹林 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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supplementary
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| adj.补充的，附加的 | |
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lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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44
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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48
woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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49
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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50
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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52
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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53
overthrew
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| overthrow的过去式 | |
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