by George Moore
‘Miss Charlotte was all for his sitting inside with them, but Miss Ada and Miss Pinkie thought otherwise and the bickering was only brought to an end by Trout pushing his bride inside the phaeton, jumping on the box, and telling the coachman to whip up the horses. After the wedding, of course, the phaeton was waiting at the church door to take the bridal party back to the Red House, and when Trout came out with his bride on his arm Miss Ada and Miss Pinkie whispered to him that they were going to walk home; and they walked on quickly to escape from the gapers and gazers.
The church isn’t more than a couple of hundred yards from the Red House, so Miss Ada and Miss Pinkie arrived not long after the phaeton, which had not yet left the front door. On the steps were Mr and Mrs Trout, with the footman and housemaid, and the other servants looking out of the windows, and the joke that’s been going round ever since is Miss Charlotte’s asking if she was to sleep in the basement with Trout or if Trout was to sleep with her in the bridal chamber.
‘I don’t believe myself that Miss Charlotte could have put such a question to Trout or to the head housemaid, but there’s no saying what a woman without much restraint on her tongue at any time will blurt out in an emergency. If she didn’t say it, it was as well invented as those remarks generally are, for it’s just what she might have said.
‘Hearsay, Sir, hearsay, but there’s sometimes good truth in hearsay, and never has there been such hearsay about a wedding in Kent as there was about this one. Everybody’s tongue was wagging for months; whoever wasn’t a prophet was a prophetess. And all agreed on one thing, that Trout wouldn’t be able to break with the old habit of backing his fancy for some of the big handicaps. And a number came round to the belief that Trout would waste all his wife’s fortune at the George. So long as the marriage was an unhappy one, it didn’t seem to matter to anybody how the unhappiness came about.
‘But the marriage wasn’t unhappy; Trout was loyal to his wife. He never told her to shut up - no disrespectful words of that kind were ever spoken by him. She couldn’t keep her tongue quiet, which is to say that Trout didn’t get his fifteen hundred a year for nothing; but he never complained, and when his wife died the gossip began again, all the prophets and prophetesses agreeing that he would marry a second time. But which of the sisters would he marry?
‘Of course, they all knew that marriage with a deceased wife’s sister wasn’t legal; but, people said, rather than lose Trout, they’ll try again! And nobody will ever know whether it was the unlawfulness of such a marriage or Miss Ada’s ill health that stayed Trout from marrying again into the same family. For him to marry into another family would have been out of the question. Miss Ada and Miss Pinkie couldn’t have borne it, and Trout would have been a hard-hearted man if he had brought a stranger into the Red House.
‘Miss Ada was taken ill soon after her sister’s death; she was an invalid for some years; and Trout continued to serve his sisters-in-law just as he had done when he was their servant, managing everything for them, his conduct never changing during Miss Pinkie’s lifetime, though she outlived Miss Ada by many years. It was not until Trout had buried her that the sportsman that was always in him began to break out again.
‘Trout was then worth something like five thousand a year, and a man with five thousand a year is not satisfied with backing other people’s horses. Though he bet in hundreds, he was not satisfied; he must have a horse of his own. About that time Colonel McAllister’s stud was up for sale, fifteen thoroughbreds, mares, yearlings, platers, and chasers, with one galloper amongst them, and it was a great day indeed for Trout, and a great day for Sandwich, when Lady Olympia won the Canterbury Steeplechase. My belief is, Sir, that when luck once gets hold of a man by the collar, whatever he does will turn up trumps. We cannot put off our luck, whether it be bad or good, no more than a hunchback can put off his hump.’
‘You don’t believe, then, that a man may catch another’s luck?’
‘To answer that question, Sir, I’d have to know whether the young man to whom Trout left all his money was lucky or unlucky before he met Trout.’
‘So Trout is dead?’ said I.
‘Not very long after Lady Olympia’s win at Canterbury, Trout’s heart began to fail him. He consulted all the specialists and went abroad to take the waters, but without getting much benefit from either one or the other, and he returned home having lost three stone in weight. Every morning he began to think of his end, his will, and to whom he should leave his money. His mother was dead and he was without legitimate relations, and having given up all his life to the Miss Pettigues he found himself without intimate friends. A great number of acquaintances there were, but he came to the conclusion that it would be no pleasure whatever to leave his money to any one of these.
‘The only man that he could call his friend was the solicitor Maxwell, of Maxwell and Hurt. But Maxwell, he remembered, was as old a man as himself, perhaps even his senior. All the same, he would like to talk to Maxwell about his will. So Trout told Maxwell of the fix that he found himself in.
‘Maxwell was touched by his friend’s kind thought of him, but he was retiring from business at the end of the year with a very comfortable competence, all of which would at his death go to his wife and to his children. “Of course,” he said, “if you like to leave your money to my children...”
‘But Trout had no care for leaving his money to acquaintances, and he promised to consider the claims of hospitals and endowment of universities, schools, and nine hundred and ninety and nine other institutions in need of money. But the more he turned the subject over in his mind the more sure he became that he would like to leave his money to somebody he liked, and he invited Maxwell to dinner.
‘“Maxwell,” he said, “to whom would you leave your money if you had no wife or children?”
‘“It is odd,” said Maxwell, “that you should ask me that question. I think I should leave my money to young Cather.” ‘“And who may young Cather be?” asked the dying man. ‘“You know I have the fishing of the Bourne,” said Maxwell, “and that for years past I have given it away - a day here, a week there, a fortnight, to different men. All sorts and conditions of men have had licence from me to fish in the Bourne, but not one of them ever left a creel of trout at my office with the exception of Mr Francis Cather, a young man for whom I have done some business, advising him about the placing of money on mortgage and such like. One of the mortgages he holds is on lands down Canterbury way and in speaking about it the Bourne was mentioned, and we got talking about angling. Well, he was the only one who ever brought me a creel of trout. I have taken a liking to the young man, and I think you would like him, too. Trout. It is my turn to ask you to dinner, and I’ll ask Cather to come, too.”
“Now,’ I cried, ‘I see the end of the story, John! Francis Cather inherited all Trout’s money, and continues to fish the Bourne in the belief that his luck is in the river. Three trout brought him sixty thousand pounds, and though the trout sometimes rise when the horses fail to get first past the post, Cather’s belief is not shaken that his destiny is in the Bourne. So that is his fishing-rod, the rod that caught the three golden fishes! I thank you, John, for your story, the only one I know that follows successfully what Henry James used to call “the irregular rhythm of life.”’
The Short Stories
School of Art in the South Kensington Museum — Moore attended this school from 1868 until the death of his father in 1870.
List of Short Stories in Chronological Order
MILDRED LAWSON.
JOHN NORTON
AGNES LAHENS.
IN THE CLAY
SOME PARISHIONERS
THE EXILE
HOME SICKNESS
A LETTER TO ROME
JULIA CAHILL’S CURSE
A PLAYHOUSE IN THE WASTE
THE WEDDING-GOWN
THE CLERK’S QUEST
ALMS-GIVING
SO ON HE FARES
THE WILD GOOSE
THE WAY BAC
K
WILFRID HOLMES
PRISCILLA AND EMILY LOFFT
HUGH MONFERT
HENRIETTA MARR
SARAH GWYNN
ADVERTISEMENT
WILFRID HOLMES
PRISCILLA AND EMILY LOFFT
ALBERT NOBBS
HENRIETTA MARR
SARAH GWYNN
A FLOOD
UNDER THE FAN
A RUSSIAN HUSBAND
DRIED FRUIT
TWO MEN
A STRANGE DEATH
A FAITHFUL HEART
PARTED
AN EPISODE IN BACHELOR LIFE
AN EPISODE IN MARRIED LIFE
EMMA BOVARY
THE VOICE OF THE MOUNTAIN
AT THE TURN OF THE ROAD
THE STRANGE STORY OF THE THREE GOLDEN FISHES
List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order
Please note: to retain the original structure of the short story collections, some stories appear more than once in the list.
A FAITHFUL HEART
A FLOOD
A LETTER TO ROME
A PLAYHOUSE IN THE WASTE
A RUSSIAN HUSBAND
A STRANGE DEATH
ADVERTISEMENT
AGNES LAHENS.
ALBERT NOBBS
ALMS-GIVING
AN EPISODE IN BACHELOR LIFE
AN EPISODE IN MARRIED LIFE
AT THE TURN OF THE ROAD
DRIED FRUIT
EMMA BOVARY
HENRIETTA MARR
HENRIETTA MARR
HOME SICKNESS
HUGH MONFERT
IN THE CLAY
JOHN NORTON
JULIA CAHILL’S CURSE
MILDRED LAWSON.
PARTED
PRISCILLA AND EMILY LOFFT
PRISCILLA AND EMILY LOFFT
SARAH GWYNN
SARAH GWYNN
SO ON HE FARES
SOME PARISHIONERS
THE CLERK’S QUEST
THE EXILE
THE STRANGE STORY OF THE THREE GOLDEN FISHES
THE VOICE OF THE MOUNTAIN
THE WAY BACK
THE WEDDING-GOWN
THE WILD GOOSE
TWO MEN
UNDER THE FAN
WILFRID HOLMES
WILFRID HOLMES
The Plays
La Nouvelle Athènes, a café in the Place Pigalle in Paris. It was a meeting place for Impressionist painters, including Matisse, van Gogh and Degas. La Nouvelle Athènes became Moore’s ‘academy of arts’, when he pursued an art career in Paris and befriended the Impressionists.
The Strike at Arlingford
Published by Walter Scott in 1893, this play adheres to one of Moore’s favourite themes – social issues – and when first performed, Strike at Arlingford was regarded as a drama of modern life. However, Moore claimed that the play was more the development of a “moral idea” than anything else. It was not well received in the popular press, liberal opinion claiming that the play’s focus on the contemporary conflict between labour and capital was the cause of the criticism. According to a review in the Sporting Life of 1 March 1893, a Mr Sims offered Moore £100 towards production costs if he would write a play, thinking that a novelist would have a different “take” on dramatic art than a professional playwright. The first performance was produced by the Independent Theatre Society, with Florence West playing Lady Anne and Charles Fulton was apparently “marvellous” as Baron Steinbach. The reviewer stated that the drama had enough merit for him to hope that Moore wrote another, but also noted that at the end of the performance, “an excuse had to be made for the non-appearance of the author in response to the usual summons; he could not be found.” In other words, true to his mercurial character, Moore had broken convention by failing to support the first night of his play.
In the play, Reid, the unionist, reads one of “his” poems, “The Ballad of the Lost Soul”, which was in fact first written and published by Moore in his collection Flowers of Passion in 1878.
The action takes place during a miner’s strike at Arlingford, a mine owned by wealthy widow, Lady Anne Travers. The strike is part of a campaign by the miners to secure a large wage rise, one which would endanger the viability of the mine if she acceded. Lady Anne is supported in her dispute by Baron Steinbach, her friend and admirer, a man who is implacably opposed to trade unionism. As the plot opens, the miners have been on strike for three weeks, supported and directed by the labour leader, John Reid. Steinbach is scathing about Reid, mocking his volume of poetry, but Lady Anne defends him and admires his verse; many years before, Reid had been her lover, when he worked as manager for her father’s business. She declares that she is no longer attracted to Reid, but her scathing appraisal of his fiancée, Ellen Sand, suggests otherwise.
In his continuing attempts to win the heart of Lady Anne, Steinbach offers to meet a delegation of the miners, led by Reid, on her behalf. It begins formally, but soon descends into acrimony, as Ellen Sands, another activist, quotes the feelings of the miners: “Since you condemn me to starvation, I prefer to be at liberty and not to die of hunger whilst I am filling your pockets,” and sneers at the “sophistries of the capitalists”. Despite this, overawed by the condescension of Lady Anne speaking directly to them, the miners waver in their resolve and seem to be accepting the lower 5% rise in wages on offer. Reid steps in and in a powerful speech, strengthens the resolve of the men to continue with their strike.
Lady Anne invites Reid, as the leader of the strike, to inspect the accounts for the mine, in an effort to prove that she simply cannot afford to pay the men an extra 20% wages. However, most of the conversation is about their past connection, his conversion to socialism and his fiancée Ellen. On the surface, there still seems to be a lingering attraction between them and both parties are in a sensitive situation. Lady Anne fears exposure in the press if the liaison is discovered and Reid’s reputation with the miners will be damaged if it is known he has had a past relationship with the capitalist they are in dispute with. There are certain people in their circle willing to use this knowledge to their advantage…
Apart from the theme of social inequity and the abuses imposed by capitalism on working men, other themes, such as lost love, betrayal and blind adherence to principle are to be found in this play. Contemporary reviewers argued that the play read better than it could be watched and certainly it is entertaining as a written narrative, with sympathy easily aroused for some of the key characters. An interesting by-way of Moore’s talents, The Strike at Arlingford is worth reading to the end for the dramatic twists in the plot.
CONTENTS
NOTE.
CHARACTERS.
ACT I.
ACT II.
ACT III.
NOTE.
IN MY OWN conception of my play the labour dispute is an externality to which I attach little importance. What I applied myself to in the composition of “The Strike at Arlingford” was the development of a moral idea. I leave the play itself to explain this idea.
G. M
CHARACTERS.
JOHN REID.
BARON STEINBACH.
FRED HAMER.
LADY ANNE TRAVERS.
ELLEN SANDS.
FOX, SIMON, FOOTMAN, MINERS: MINERS
ACT I.
SCENE. — DRAWING-ROOM at LADY ANNE TRAVERS’. BOW window opening on lawn at back right. Door back, window left, door right. Writing-table, couch, arm-chairs, rich furniture. When the curtain rises the door at back, middle of stage, is opened by the FOOTMAN.
Mr. HAMER is shown in.
FOOTMAN.
I will give her ladyship your card.
(The door is closed. HAMER looks round, and having assured himself that he is not observed, opens a note-book and begins taking notes of the contents of the room. BARON STEINBACH appears at window opening on to lawn. After watching HAMER a moment he enters; HAMER turns to him with some slight embarrassment.)
HAMER.
I c
ome from the Durham Mercury. Here is my card.
STEINBACH (reads).
“Mr. Fred Hamer, representative of the Durham Mercury.” (Speaks) You want to see Lady Anne?
HAMER.
I should like to. I’ve come from Durham for the purpose of writing some descriptive articles on the state of the town during the strike of colliers. I hope that Lady Anne will be kind enough to grant me an interview.
STEINBACH.
In any case you intend a descriptive article on her drawing-room.
HAMER.
I’m afraid you caught me in the act — just a memorandum of the room. This is her drawingroom, the room she lives in, I suppose?
(HAMER looks at STEINBACH, wondering who he is. STEINBACH speaks with lofty superiority, and yet without vulgarity.)
STEINBACH.
This is Lady Anne’s drawing-room. But I do not think that she will be able to grant you an interview. Lady Anne, you see, has only just returned from abroad. She has a great deal of business to attend to, and I hardly think that the present time is a convenient one. She has not yet got over the fatigue of the journey.
HAMER.
She has been, I believe, about a week in Arlingford?
STEINBACH (looking at him sharply, and answering sharply).
Yes, about a week.
HAMER.
I presume that these labour troubles had something to do with her ladyship’s sudden return?
