Part 49 (1/2)

IN

”THE ORIENT PEARL”

The figure crossed the Circus, and stared at the sign fro Coventry Street, and stared at the sign from yet another point of view Then it reached Shaftesbury Avenue and stared again Then it returned to its original station It was the figure of Edward Henry Machin, savouring the glorious electric sign of which he had drea at the name of Seven Sachs in fire on the facade of a Broadway Theatre in New York Was not this London phenoent Theatre existed--there it stood!

(What a name for a theatre!) Its ere all illuht, and in this radiance stood the commissionaires in theirautoan a couple of yards to the north of the main doors and continued round all sorts of dark corners and up all manner of back streets towards Golden Square itself

Marrier had had the automobiles counted and had told him the nuotten A row of boards reared on the paveainst the walls of the facade said: ”Stalls Full,” ”Private Boxes Full,” ”Dress Circle Full,” ”Upper Circle Full,” ”Pit Full,” ”Gallery Full” And attached to the ironwork of the glazed entrance canopy was a long board which gave the saent had indeed been obliged to refuse quite a lot of uration of a new theatre was soes had actually begged the privilege of buying seats at nores--such as those whose boast in the universe was that they had never ht in the West End for twenty, thirty, or even fifty years--had tried to buy seats at abnoredy Edward Henry at the final moment had yielded his wife's stall to the instances of a Minister of the Crown, and at Lady Woldo's urgent request had put her into Lady Woldo's private landowner's-box, where also was Miss Elsie April, who ”had already had the pleasure of ht was an event of nitude And he alone was responsible for it

His volition alone had brought into being that grand edifice whose light yelloalls now gleamed in nocturnal mystery under the shi+h forty thousand pounds of my money!” he reflected excitedly

And he reflected:

”After all, I'ent Street and saw Sir John Pilgrier theatre, now sub-let to a tenant as also lavish with displays of radiance And he reflected that on first nights Sir John Pilgri all that he hie throughout the evening And he ad, and adly:

”He's so just now!”

Edward Henry did not deny to his soul that he was extremely nervous

He would not and could not face even the bare possibility that the first play presented at the new theatre ht be a failure He hadthe crowd in the pit or in the gallery But, after visiting the pit a few moments before the curtain went up, he had been appalled by the hard-hearted levity of the pit's reeneral The pit did not seem to be in any way chastened or softened by the fact that a fortune, that reputations, that careers were at stake He had fled froallery, he decided that he had already had enough of the gallery) He had wandered about corridors, and to and fro in his own roos, and even in the basement, as nervous as a lost cat or an author, and as self-conscious as a crie of discovery It was a fact that he could not look people in the eyes The reception of the first act had been fairly amiable, and he had suffered horribly as he listened for the applause Catching sight of Carlo Trent in the distance of a passage, he had positively run away from Carlo Trent The first _entr'acte_ had seeth had driven him almost to lunacy The ”feel” of the second act--so far as it mystically communicated itself to him in his place of concealment--had been better And at the second fall of the curtain the applause had been enthusiastic Yes, enthusiastic! Curiously, it was the revulsion caused by this new birth of hope that, while the third act was being played, had driven him out of the theatre His wild hope needed ozone His breast had to expand in the boundless prairie of Piccadilly Circus His legs had to walk His arain to his own paveer at his own posters On several of the, was the sole name of Rose Euclid--iend, ”EH Machin, Sole Proprietor”) He asked himself impartially, as his eyes uneasily left the poster and slipped round the Circus--deserted save by a few sinister and idle figures at that hour--”Should I have sent that interview to the papers, or shouldn't I? I wonder I expect some folks would say that on the whole I've been rather hard on Rose since I first ht!” He laughed shortly

A newsboy floated up fro a poster with the naht:

”Be blowed to Isabel Joy!”

He did not care a fig for Isabel Joy's competition now

And then a sant cloaked woman came out on to the pave to the private box of Lord Woldo, owner of the ground upon which the Regent Theatre was built The wonized with confusion as Elsie April, whoht

”What are you doing out here, Mr Machin?” she greeted hi,” said he

”It's going splendidly,” she ree-door to htful woman your wife is! So pretty, and so sensible!”

She disappeared round the corner before he could compose a suitable husband's reply to this laudation of a wife

Then the commissionaires at the entrance seemed to start into life

And then suddenly several preoccupiedtheir coats, and vanished phantom-like

Critics, on their way to destruction!

The perfor Hastily he followed in the direction taken by Elsie April