Part 26 (1/2)

Hu since ceased to surprise ayest thing in London Itof water with the odour and flaated colours of shaoed in the coht an aster from a fine bold, red-cheeked, blowsy, dirty wench with a baby in her are for the baby He was in a very tolerant and charitable mood, and could excuse the sins and the stupidity of all ly that Rose Euclid and her friends had perhaps not displayed an abnor the naot the lease of the site for it Had not he hi even seen the site? The fact was that he had had no leisure in his short royal career for such details as seeing the site He was now about to ood the omission

It is a fact that as he turned northwards froht of the County Fire Office, in order to spy out the land upon which his theatre was to be built, he hesitated, under the delusion that all the passers-by were staring at hied upon some scheme nefarious He even went back and pretended to exa self-consciously about, he discerned--not unnaturally--the words ”Regent Street” on a sign

”There you are!” he murmured, with a thrill ”There you are! There's obviously only one naent Street No other theatre is called 'The Regent' nobody before ever had the idea of 'Regent' as a name for a theatre 'Muses'

indeed! 'Intellectual'!'The Regent Theatre'! Hoell it coreat name! It'll be the finest name of any theatre in London! And it took yours truly to think of it!”

Then he smiled privately at his oeakness He too, like the despised Rose, was baptizing the unborn! Still, he continued to dreaan to picture to himself the ideal theatre

He discovered that he had quite a nu ideas about theatre-construction, based on his own experience as a playgoer

When, with new courage, he directed his feet towards the site, upon which he knew there was an old chapel known as Queen's Glasshouse Chapel, whose ownershi+p had slipped fro sect of dissenters, he could not find the site and he could not see the chapel For an instant he was perturbed by a horrid suspicion that he had been victi as celebrated persons Everything was possible in this world and century! None of the people who had appeared in the transaction had resembled his previous conceptions of such people! And confidence-thieves always operated in the grandest hotels! He immediately decided that if the sequel should prove hiull, he would at any rate be a silent siull He would stoically bear the loss of two hundred pounds and breathe no word of woe

But then he renized both Rose Euclid and Seven Sachs; and also that Mr Bryany, araph of the Chapel and surrounding property The Chapel therefore existed He had a plan in his pocket He now opened this plan and tried to consult it in the itation was such that he could not make out on it which was north and which was south After he had been nearly prostrated by a taxi-cab, a policeman came up to him and said, with all the friendly disdain of a London police a provincial:

”Safer to look at that on the pavelanced up fro to find the Queen's Glasshouse Chapel, officer,” said he ”Have you ever heard of it?”

(In Bursley, members of the Town Council always flatteredthem as ”officer”; and Edward Henry knew exactly the effective intonation)

”It _was there_, sir,” said the police behind which could be seen the back-walls of high buildings in Shaftesbury Avenue ”They've just finished pulling it down”

”Thank you,” said Edward Henry, quietly, with a superb and successful effort to keep as much colour in his face as if the police blow

He then walked towards the hoarding, but could scarcely feel the ground under his feet From a wide aperture in the palisades a cart full of earth was e horse over loose planks into the roadway; a whip-cracking carter hovered on its flank Edward Henry approached the aperture and gazed within An elegant youngand stared at a razed expanse of land in whose furthest corner so a hole

The site!

But what did this sinister destructive activity mean? nobody was entitled to interfere with property on which he, Alderman Machin, held an unexpired option! But was it the site? He perused the plan again with more care Yes, there could be no doubt that it was the site

His eye roved round and he adn displayed at the southern front corner of the theatre would be visible froent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, etc, etc He then observed a large notice-board, raised on posts above the hoardings, and read the following:

SITE

OF THE

FIRST NEW THOUGHT CHURCH

to be opened next Spring

Subscriptions invited

Rollo Wrissell: _Senior Trustee_ Ralph Alloyd: _Architect_

dicks & Pato: _Builders_