Part 1 (2/2)
Ventimore laughed. ”I can manage to do nothing without a clerk to help me. Your necessity is greater than mine. Here are the plans.”
”I'm rather pleased with 'em myself, you know,” said Beevor; ”that roof ought to look well, eh? Good idea of mine lightening the slate with that ornamental tile-work along the top. You saw I put in one of your windows with just a trifling addition. I was almost inclined to keep both gables alike, as you suggested, but it struck me a little variety--one red brick and the other 'parged'--would be more out-of-the-way.”
”Oh, much,” agreed Ventimore, knowing that to disagree was useless.
”Not, mind you,” continued Beevor, ”that I believe in going in for too much originality in domestic architecture. The average client no more wants an original house than he wants an original hat; he wants something he won't feel a fool in. I've often thought, old man, that perhaps the reason why you haven't got on----you don't mind my speaking candidly, do you?”
”Not a bit,” said Ventimore, cheerfully. ”Candour's the cement of friends.h.i.+p. Dab it on.”
”Well, I was only going to say that you do yourself no good by all those confoundedly unconventional ideas of yours. If you had your chance to-morrow, it's my belief you'd throw it away by insisting on some fantastic fad or other.”
”These speculations are a trifle premature, considering that there doesn't seem the remotest prospect of my ever getting a chance at all.”
”I got mine before I'd set up six months,” said Beevor. ”The great thing, however,” he went on, with a flavour of personal application, ”is to know how to use it when it _does_ come. Well, I must be off if I mean to catch that one o'clock from Waterloo. You'll see to anything that may come in for me while I'm away, won't you, and let me know? Oh, by the way, the quant.i.ty surveyor has just sent in the quant.i.ties for that schoolroom at Woodford--do you mind running through them and seeing they're right? And there's the specification for the new wing at Tusculum Lodge--you might draft that some time when you've nothing else to do. You'll find all the papers on my desk. Thanks awfully, old chap.”
And Beevor hurried back to his own room, where for the next few minutes he could be heard bustling Harrison, the clerk, to make haste; then a hansom was whistled for, there were footsteps down the old stairs, the sounds of a departing vehicle on the uneven stones, and after that silence and solitude.
It was not in Nature to avoid feeling a little envious. Beevor had work to do in the world: even if it chiefly consisted in profaning sylvan retreats by smug or pretentious villas, it was still work which ent.i.tled him to consideration and respect in the eyes of all right-minded persons.
And n.o.body believed in Horace; as yet he had never known the satisfaction of seeing the work of his brain realised in stone and brick and mortar; no building stood anywhere to bear testimony to his existence and capability long after he himself should have pa.s.sed away.
It was not a profitable train of thought, and, to escape from it, he went into Beevor's room and fetched the doc.u.ments he had mentioned--at least they would keep him occupied until it was time to go to his club and lunch. He had no sooner settled down to his calculations, however, when he heard a shuffling step on the landing, followed by a knock at Beevor's office-door. ”More work for Beevor,” he thought; ”what luck the fellow has! I'd better go in and explain that he's just left town on business.”
But on entering the adjoining room he heard the knocking repeated--this time at his own door; and hastening back to put an end to this somewhat undignified form of hide-and-seek, he discovered that this visitor at least was legitimately his, and was, in fact, no other than Professor Anthony Futvoye himself.
The Professor was standing in the doorway peering short-sightedly through his convex gla.s.ses, his head protruded from his loosely-fitting great-coat with an irresistible suggestion of an inquiring tortoise. To Horace his appearance was more welcome than that of the wealthiest client--for why should Sylvia's father take the trouble to pay him this visit unless he still wished to continue the acquaintances.h.i.+p? It might even be that he was the bearer of some message or invitation.
So, although to an impartial eye the Professor might not seem the kind of elderly gentleman whose society would produce any wild degree of exhilaration, Horace was unfeignedly delighted to see him.
”Extremely kind of you to come and see me like this, sir,” he said warmly, after establis.h.i.+ng him in the solitary armchair reserved for hypothetical clients.
”Not at all. I'm afraid your visit to Cottesmore Gardens some time ago was somewhat of a disappointment.”
”A disappointment?” echoed Horace, at a loss to know what was coming next.
”I refer to the fact--which possibly, however, escaped your notice”--explained the Professor, scratching his scanty patch of grizzled whisker with a touch of irascibility, ”that I myself was not at home on that occasion.”
”Indeed, I was greatly disappointed,” said Horace, ”though of course I know how much you are engaged. It's all the more good of you to spare time to drop in for a chat just now.”
”I've not come to chat, Mr. Ventimore. I never chat. I wanted to see you about a matter which I thought you might be so obliging as to---- But I observe you are busy--probably too busy to attend to such a small affair.”
It was clear enough now; the Professor was going to build, and had decided--could it be at Sylvia's suggestion?--to entrust the work to him! But he contrived to subdue any self-betraying eagerness, and reply (as he could with perfect truth) that he had nothing on hand just then which he could not lay aside, and that if the Professor would let him know what he required, he would take it up at once.
”So much the better,” said the Professor; ”so much the better. Both my wife and daughter declared that it was making far too great a demand upon your good nature; but, as I told them, 'I am much mistaken,' I said, 'if Mr. Ventimore's practice is so extensive that he cannot leave it for one afternoon----'”
Evidently it was not a house. Could he be needed to escort them somewhere that afternoon? Even that was more than he had hoped for a few minutes since. He hastened to repeat that he was perfectly free that afternoon.
<script>