Part 17 (1/2)

”Rather!” s a fiver that Mr

Machin's dressing-gown ca ”Old” he said ”Ehoold”

”It did,” Edward Henry admitted

Mr Marrier beamed with satisfaction

”Drook's, you say,” murmured Carlo Trent ”Old Bond Street,” and wrote down the information on his shi+rt cuff

Rose Euclid watched him write

”Yes, Carlo,” said she ”But don't you think we'd better begin to talk about the theatre? You haven't told ay on the 'phone”

”Of course we got hold of hirees with me that 'The Intellectual' is a better name for it”

Rose Euclid clapped her hands

”I'lad!” she cried ”Nohat do _you_ think of it as a name, Mr Machin--'The Intellectual Theatre'? You see it's most important we should settle on the naeration to say that Edward Henry felt a wave of cold in the s away of the nevertheless quite solid chair on which he sat He had lishman's sane distrust of that morbid word 'Intellectual' His attitude towards it amounted to active dislike If ever he used it, he would on no account use it alone; he would say, ”Intellectual and all that sort of thing!” with an air of pushi+ng violently away fro that the phrase i a theatre with the fearsome word horrified him Still, he had to ne, and smiled nonchalantly as the i examined

”Well--” he murmured

”You see,” Marrier broke in, with the s on his chair ”There's no use in compromise Compromise is and always has been the curse of this country The unintellectual drahma is dead--dead Naoobody can deny that All the box-offices in the West are proclai it--”

”Should you call your play intellectual, Mr Sachs?” Edward Henry inquired across the table

”I scarcely know,” said Mr Seven Sachs, calmly ”I know I've played itnothing of my three subsidiary companies on the road”

”What _is_ Mr Sachs's play?” asked Carlo Trent, fretfully

”Don't you know, Carlo?” Rose Euclid patted him ”'Overheard'”

”Oh! I've never seen it”

”But it was on all the hoardings!”

”I never read the hoardings,” said Carlo ”Is it in verse?”

”No, it isn't,” Mr Seven Sachs briefly responded ”But I've made over six hundred thousand dollars out of it”

”Then of course it's intellectual!” asserted Mr Marrier, positively

”That proves it I'm very sorry I've not seen it either; but it must be intellectual The day of the unintellectual drahma is over The people won't have it We must have faith in the people, and we can't show our faith better than by calling our theatre by its proper naht Edward Henry ”What's he got to do with it?”)

”I don't know that I'm so much in love with your 'Intellectual,'”