II
And with the rising of the curtain began Edward Henry's torture andbewilderment. The scene disclosed a cloth upon which was painted, tothe right, a vast writhing purple cuttle-fish whose finer tentacleswere lost above the proscenium arch, and to the left an enormouscrimson oblong patch with a hole in it. He referred to the programme,which said: "Act II. or A castle in a forest"; and also, "Scenery andcostumes designed by Saracen Givington, A.R.A." The cuttle-fish, then,was the purple forest, or perhaps one tree in the forest, and theoblong patch was the crimson castle. The stage remained empty, andEdward Henry had time to perceive that the footlights were unlit andthat rays came only from the flies and from the wings.
He glanced round. Nobody had blenched. Quite confused, he referredagain to the programme and deciphered in the increasing gloom:"Lighting by Cosmo Clark," in very large letters.
Two yellow-clad figures of no particular sex glided into view, andat the first words which they uttered Edward Henry's heart seemed inapprehension to cease to beat. A fear seized him. A few more words andthe fear became a positive assurance and realization of evil. "The NewDon Juan" was simply a pseudonym for Carlo Trent's "Orient Pearl"!...He had always known that it would be. Ever since deciding to acceptthe invitation he had lived under just that menace. "The Orient Pearl"seemed to be pursuing him like a sinister destiny.
Weakly he consulted yet again the programme. Only one character borea name familiar to the Don Juan story, to wit "Haidee," and oppositethat name was the name of Elsie April. He waited for her--he had noother interest in the evening--and he waited in resignation; a youngfemale troubadour (styled in the programme "the messenger") emergedfrom the unseen depths of the forest in the wings and ejaculated tothe hero and his friend, "The Woman appears." But it was not Elsiethat appeared. Six times that troubadour-messenger emerged andejaculated, "The Woman appears," and each time Edward Henry wasdisappointed. But at the seventh heralding--the heralding of theseventh and highest heroine of this drama in hexameters--Elsie did atlength appear.
And Edward Henry became happy. He understood little more of the playthan at the historic breakfast-party of Sir John Pilgrim; he was wellconfirmed in his belief that the play was exactly as preposterous asa play in verse must necessarily be; his manly contempt for verse wasmore firmly established than ever--but Elsie April made an exquisitefigure between the castle and the forest; her voice did really set upphysical vibrations in his spine. He was deliciously convinced thatif she remained on the stage from everlasting to everlasting, just solong could he gaze thereat without surfeit and without other desire.The mischief was that she did not remain on the stage. With despair hesaw her depart, and the close of the act was ashes in his mouth.
The applause was tremendous. It was not as tremendous as that whichhad greeted the plate-smashing comedy at the Hanbridge Empire, butit was far more than sufficiently enthusiastic to startle and shockEdward Henry. In fact, his cold indifference was so conspicuous amidthat fever that in order to save his face he had to clap and to smile.
And the dreadful thought crossed his mind, traversing it like theshudder of a distant earthquake that presages complete destruction:
"Are the ideas of the Five Towns all wrong? Am I a provincial afterall?"
For hitherto, though he had often admitted to himself that he wasa provincial, he had never done so with sincerity: but always in amanner of playful and rather condescending badinage.
The Regent Page 37
