I talked it over with father that summer after I came down when we went fishing in Norway.
He put it awfully nicely.
Poor old dear, he was very anxious not to hurt my feelings, but I couldn’t help admitting that what he said was true.
I’ve got a natural facility for doing things, I can paint a bit and write a bit and play a bit, perhaps I might have had a chance if I’d only been able to do one thing; but it was only a facility.
Father was quite right when he said that wasn’t enough, and I think he was right too when he said it was better to be a pretty good business man than a second-rate artist.
After all, it’s a bit of luck for me that old Sibert Mason married the cook and started growing vegetables on a bit of land that the growth of London turned into a valuable property.
Don’t you think it’s enough if I do my duty in that state of life in which providence or chance, if you like, has placed me?”
Simon gave him a smile more indulgent than any that had tortured his features that evening.
“I daresay, Charley.
But not for me.
I would sooner be smashed into a mangled pulp by a bus when we cross the street than look forward to a life like yours.”
Charley looked at him calmly.
“You see, Simon, I have a happy nature and you haven’t.”
Simon chuckled.
“We must see if we can’t change that.
Let’s stroll along.
I’ll take you to the Serail.”
iii
THE FRONT DOOR, a discreet door in a house of respectable appearance, was opened for them by a negro in Turkish dress and as they entered a narrow ill-lit passage a woman came out of an ante-room.
She took them in with a quick, cool glance, but then recognizing Simon, immediately assumed an air of geniality.
They shook hands warmly.
“This is Mademoiselle Ernestine,” he said to Charley and then to her: “My friend has arrived from London this evening.
He wishes to see life.”
“You’ve brought him to the right place.”
She gave Charley an appraising look.
Charley saw a woman who might have been in the later thirties, good-looking in a cold, hard way, with a straight nose, thin painted lips and a firm chin; she was neatly dressed in a dark suit of somewhat masculine cut.
She wore a collar and tie and as a pin the crest of a famous English regiment.
“He’s good-looking,” she said.
“These ladies will be pleased to see him.”
“Where is Madame to-night?”
“She’s gone home to spend the holidays with her family.
I am in charge.”
“We’ll go in, shall we?”
“You know your way.”
The two young men passed along the passage and opening a door found themselves in a vast room garishly decorated in the pinchbeck style of a Turkish bath.
There were settees round the walls and in front of them little tables and chairs.
A fair sprinkling of people were sitting about, mostly in day clothes, but a few in dinner-jackets; men in twos and threes; and at one table a mixed party, the women in evening frocks, who had evidently come to see one of the sights of Paris.
Waiters in Turkish dress stood about and attended to orders.
On a platform was an orchestra consisting of a pianist, a fiddler and a man who played the saxophone.
Two benches facing one another jutted out on to the dance floor and on these sat ten or twelve young women.
They wore Turkish slippers, but with high heels, baggy trousers of some shimmering material that reached to their ankles, and small turbans on their heads.
The upper part of their bodies was naked.
Other girls similarly dressed were seated with men who were standing a drink.
Simon and Charley sat down and ordered a bottle of champagne.
The band started up.
Three or four men rose to their feet and going over to the benches chose partners to dance with.
The rest of the girls listlessly danced together.
They talked in a desultory way to one another and threw inquisitive glances at the men who were sitting at the various tables.
It was apparent that the party of sight-seers, with the smart women from a different world, excited their curiosity.
On the face of it, except that the girls were half naked, there was nothing to distinguish the place from any night club but the fact that there was room to dance in comfort.