Volume Ii Part 58 (2/2)
A couple of weeks pa.s.sed while the decorators worked hard; and Michael returned from an unwilling visit to Scotland to find them ready for him.
He got together a certain amount of furniture, and toward the end of August he moved into Leppard Street.
Barnes on account of the prosperity which had come to him through Michael's money had managed to dress himself in a series of outrageously new and fas.h.i.+onable suits, and on the afternoon of his patron's arrival he strutted about the apartments.
”Very nice,” he said. ”Very nice, indeed. I reckon old Ma Cleghorne ought to be very pleased with herself. Some of these pictures are a bit too religious for me just at present, but everyone to their own taste, that's what I always say. To their own taste,” he repeated. ”Otherwise, what's the good in being given an opinion of your own?”
Michael felt it was time to explain to Barnes more particularly his quest of Lily.
”You don't know a girl called Lily Haden?” he asked.
”Lily Haden,” said Barnes thoughtfully. ”Lily Hopkins. A great fat girl with red....”
”No, no,” Michael interrupted. ”Lily Haden. Tall. Slim. Very fair hair.
Of course she may have another name now.”
”That's it, you see,” said Barnes wisely.
”Wherever she is, whatever she's doing, I must find her,” Michael went on.
”Well, if you go about it in that spirit, you'll soon find her,” Barnes prophesied.
Michael looked at him sharply. He thought he noticed in Barnes' manner a suggestion of humoring him. He rather resented the way in which Barnes seemed to encourage him as one might encourage a child.
”You understand I want to marry her?” Michael asked fiercely.
”That's all right, old chap. I'm not trying to stop you, am I?”
”But why are you talking as if I weren't in earnest?” Michael demanded.
”When I first told you about it you were evidently very pleased, and now you've got a sneer which frankly I tell you I find extraordinarily objectionable.”
Barnes looked much alarmed by Michael's sudden attack, and explained that he meant nothing by his remarks beyond a bit of fun.
”Is it funny to marry somebody?” Michael demanded.
”Sometimes it's very funny to marry a tart,” said Barnes.
Michael flushed. This was a directness of speech for which he was not prepared.
”But when I first told you,” Michael said, ”you seemed very pleased.”
”I was very pleased to find I'd evidently struck a nice-mannered lunatic,” said Barnes. ”You offered me five quid a week, didn't you?
Well, you didn't offer me that to give you good advice, now did you?”
Michael tried to conceal the mortification that was being inflicted upon him. He had been very near to making a fool of himself by supposing that his announcement had aroused admiration. Instead of admiring him, Barnes evidently regarded him as an idiot whom it were politic to encourage on account of the money this idiot could provide. It was an humiliating discovery. The chivalry on which he congratulated himself had not touched a single chord in Barnes. Was it likely that in Lily herself he would find someone more responsive to what he still obstinately maintained to himself was really rather a fine impulse?
Michael began to feel half sorry for Barnes because he could not appreciate n.o.bility of motive. It began to seem worth while trying to impose upon him the appreciation which he felt he owed. Michael was sorry for his uncultivated ideals, and he took a certain amount of pleasure in the thought of how much Barnes might benefit from a close a.s.sociation with himself. He did not regret the whim which had brought them to Leppard Street. Whatever else might happen, it would always be consoling to think that he would be helping Barnes. In half a dream Michael began to build up the vision of a newer and a finer Barnes, a Barnes with sensitiveness and decent instincts, a Barnes who would forsake very willingly the sordid existence he had hitherto led in order to rise under Michael's guidance and help to a wider and better life.
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