Crazy Pavements

by Beverley Nichols

  ‘One of the keenest walkers of Society is the exquisite Lady Julia Cressey. She may be observed almost every morning in Hyde Park accompanied by her little white Sealyham, to which she has whimsically given the name of “Bubbles.”’

  The ‘Bubbles’ touch was an invention, but the white Sealyham was not. Nor, to tell the truth, was it a Sealyham. But Brian did not know that. Nor did he know that the Lady Julia, when she arrived at her destination had ‘whimsically’ given a vicious kick to the stray dog which, in the manner of many other stray dogs, both animal and human, had followed her home.

  He took up his pencil. If only he had been a poet in the court of a former Lady Julia, that he might write her Silver Sonnets to be sung beneath a medieval moon! But he was not a poet. He was a modern ‘Gossip’ writer. He would never meet his Lady Julia. She had too many lovers already. The very last time he had seen her she had been coming out of a first night, leaning in all her loveliness on the noble arm of Lord William Motley. He swallowed his love. He swallowed his pride. And, quite carelessly, he wrote the following paragraph, which was to change his whole life . . .

  ‘Curious, isn’t it, the way that we are always giving away the secrets of our friends’ engagements? Quite a little crop of rumours has been sown in the West End lately, linking together the names of many famous personages. Most of these rumours (as you probably know) are without any foundation whatever. But there is perhaps a teeny little bit of justification for the way in which we are all link­ing together the names of Lady Julia Cressey and Lord William Motley. . . .’

  He laid his head on his hands. He felt tired and sick at heart. Consider him – the hero of this story – and you may for a moment feel troubled that modern civili­zation should twist the souls of men to such ignoble purposes.

  He is twenty. His hair is of that truly golden colour which so often produces high blood-pressure when brought to the notice of old women. He is strong, slim, arduous. In a properly organized Society he would have been something both intelligent and decorative. But in Modern England, where we know exactly how human beings are made and not at all what they are made for, he was a ‘Gossip’ writer.

  To you, perhaps, the ‘Gossip’ writer is something mean, and slightly comic. To me, he is one of the world’s great tragedies. I am sick at heart for these lingerers in the outer courts of Society, with their brave gentility, their ears pricked for some wearisome trifle about some wearisome woman. There are exceptions, of course – the lordly ones who stroll into a night club, drink wine with a Cabinet Minister, and syndicate their secrets throughout the world on the morrow, for a consideration. But they are the exceptions. The major­ity consist of young men like Brian, with a single dress-shirt, and a crying hunger to get out of the whole thing.

  Why, then, did Brian adopt this ignoble profession? For the same reason as any other mental or physical prostitute. He had to live. His parents had died in his infancy, and he had never known what it was to possess a home. Of his father he knew nothing. Of his mother he recalled only a dim, simple figure who, on her death, had left him with a few broken tags of wisdom, which had obstinately refused to be forgotten throughout the years. They were strange tenets on which to base a philosophy, such as:

  1. Patent leather ‘draws’ the feet.

  2. Eating flies makes cats thin.

  3. October is the prettiest time of the year.

  4. Cauliflower is good for growing bones.

  5. Work at a table with the sun shining over your right shoulder.

  6. Eat a little bread before going to church to stop rumbling during the sermon.

  7. Finger-nails should be cut round, and toe-nails square.

  He clung to these memories, because they had a vaguely comforting influence on him, at his school, and during his holidays at the house of a dreary aunt. But they were poor weapons with which to fight the world when he had been thrown penniless upon London. He had a dream of writing. By chance he had drifted into The Lady’s Mail. They learnt there that an acquaint­ance of his, a certain speckly faced peer whom he had frequently kicked at school, had just made a secret marriage. In other words, he had provided The Lady’s Mail with a ‘scoop,’ and on the strength of this he was engaged as a ‘Gossip’ writer. They imagined him to possess an extensive aristocratic connection. Alas! The speckly faced one was his sole acquaintance in the peerage. But hunger had prompted him to lie, and to invent, as we have already observed. He had been inventing for nearly two years.

  Such was Brian’s past.

  He gathered together his copy, and walked across to a door marked ‘Editress.’ He knocked.

  ‘Come in.’

  These two words were uttered in a descending third. That was a good sign. It was only when the ‘come’ was uttered on the note C and the ‘in’ was pitched on a rather acrid ‘E’ that Mrs. Gossett was going to be really tiresome.

  He entered. A thin, bunched-up woman of about thirty-eight, with very tousled hair, large horn-rimmed glasses and bare arms, held out a skittish hand for his copy.

  ‘Naughty,’ she said. ‘You’re ten whole minutes late.’

  ‘I’m awfully sorry. But I think the stuff’s all right.’

  Instead of answering, she bent her head almost on to her shoulder, and leered at him sideways, showing a great deal of white of eye. The look was of that alarming suggestiveness which only a thoroughly innocent woman can attain.

  Mrs. Gossett was a thoroughly innocent woman. Her married life had lasted exactly eight hours. A bride at two o’clock, she had been a widow at ten, her husband having fallen after dinner, from the top-story window of the hotel in which they were to pass their first night. One often wondered if there was something suspicious in the insistence of the late Mr. Gossett upon a top-story room.

  ‘I’m sure the copy is all wight,’ said Mrs. Gossett.

  Brian sighed. When Mrs. Gossett left her r’s behind her it meant that spring was rising in her heart. It meant more eye-rolling, more giggling, and more sud­den bitings of the underlip, followed by ‘I haven’t said anything I shouldn’t, have I?’ He therefore prepared for the worst.

  ‘How’s the competition going?’ He glanced at a vast pile of dusty sheets of paper.

  ‘The ideal love letters?’ She lowered her eyes coquettishly. ‘Of course, I don’t know anything about the quality of them . . .’ She paused, and looked up sud­denly. ‘I haven’t said anything dweadful, have I?’ She giggled. ‘What do you mean?’

  Brian assured her that having said nothing, he had meant nothing either.

  Slightly disappointed, she pouted, and informed him that the competition was due to finish in a week’s time. Then, spring once more welled up inside her.

  ‘I must have your opinion of my new competition. It came to me in the night. I think it’s wather a duck.’

  With tremendous girlishness she hopped up on to her desk, and sat on it, swinging her legs. She arched her eyebrows and pursed her lips to such an extent, that a stranger might have imagined her to be making a ‘rude face.’ Brian, however, knew the symptoms, and by judiciously avoiding both legs and eyes, kept his gaze firmly fixed upon her brooch. It was one of those brilliant blue brooches fashioned from the wings of South American butterflies, which are worn for the apparent purpose of reminding us how many natural horrors we are spared by reason of our temperate cli­mate. Mrs. Gossett fingered the necklace, then, with a little giggle, she said:

  ‘It’s going to be called the “Peeresses Puzzle Pic­ture.” ’

  ‘Good God!’

  Upon hearing this masculine exclamation a sound came from Mrs. Gossett’s throat not unlike a horse’s neigh. It seemed to have an aphrodisiac effect upon her, and her eyes opened very wide. She continued breathlessly, forgetting all about her r’s:

  ‘You see – we should get all the photographs of all the peeresses and cut them up into three pieces, and arrange them in separate piles. One pile – (don’t laugh! You are howid) – one pile would be all fore­heads and eyes,
one pile would be all noses and mouths, and the other pile would be all chins.’ She achieved a real blush. ‘What have I said now? I can’t say any­thing without you looking like that.’ She tossed her head, hoping that she had indeed hit unwittingly upon some lurking impropriety.

  Brian pondered the idea. The prospect of young ladies in the suburbs gravely affixing the nose of the Countess of Oxford and Asquith to the chin of Lady Ancaster, crowning it with the forehead of the Duchess of Rutland, and calling the composite result ‘Lady Astor,’ seemed to him one of those indoor sports which deserved the warmest encouragement. He did not, however, betray his irreverence to Mrs. Gossett. She would have resented an attack upon the peerage as strongly as she would have resented an attack upon her own virginity. Quite as strongly, he thought, as he observed the quivering mass of inhibitions before him.

  ‘It’s a marvellous idea,’ he said. ‘Did you think of that all by yourself?’

  Mrs. Gossett, who had just ‘lifted’ the idea from an American magazine, nodded innocently. ‘Yes. It came to me in the night. Everything comes to me in the night. Oh! – what have I said now?’

  Brian giggled. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘I think men’s minds . . .’

  ‘Honestly, I wasn’t laughing . . .’ The end of the sentence was a gurgle which belied his words.

  She pursed her lips with appalling ingenuousness. Then, with what she imagined to be a happy laugh, she dismissed the subject, wagging an ink-stained finger at him.

  ‘Well – I’ll forgive you this once. But I think you’re a terrible young man. Good night.’

  The last words were again pitched on a descending third. Mrs. Gossett always indulged in these abrupt adieux. They gave her a feeling of power, as though she were a haughty courtesan summarily dismissing a too-ardent swain. Brian took advantage of it, mur­mured ‘good night,’ and left the room.

  The scene switches to the top of a bus. Forgive the democratic element of these early pages. Soon the last bus will have wound its way out of our story and we shall be breathing that atmosphere of rich limousines in which we all feel so at home.

  But even the top of a bus can be exciting, especially when one possesses an uncomfortable inside seat, and is filled with a fierce determination to obtain a seat next to the railing. Brian, as he clambered to the top of this particular bus, which was whirling past Temple Bar, rounding the corner by the old church of St. Mary-le-Strand and snorting down the broad expanse that fronts Australia House, was filled with such a determination. He therefore took a quick glance at the occupants, saw two women holding penny tickets in their hands, and a single empty seat in front of them. Realizing that the penny tickets implied descent at Trafalgar Square, he occupied the empty seat, preparing to spring into the place behind as soon as the occasion demanded.

  On the other side of the gangway sat a young man with a hungry look. He, too, was perched on the inside edge of his seat, and he appeared to be exceedingly un­comfortable, for his partner was a woman with a quite Chaucerian behind. In his hand was a fivepenny ticket (pink), in the woman’s hand was a sixpenny ticket (green). So that, unless he changed his place, he would have a depressing journey.

  The bus was roaring down the Strand. In a moment Nelson would appear against the sky. Past the tall pile of the Savoy Hotel, past the Vaudeville Theatre – here was Charing Cross. Brian rose to his feet. So did the young man with the hungry look. So did the women with the penny tickets. Brian advanced his arm. The women, slightly indignantly, brushed past him, and tottered down the steps. With a look of studied inno­cence (very difficult in view of the fact that his rival was standing on his foot) Brian propelled himself into the outside seat. He sank into it with a sigh. The young man sank, too, with a sharp dig of the elbow, which Brian ignored. He could now enjoy his journey in peace.

  Really, it was a lovely evening. A sky of red, white and blue was being painted by unseen hands behind Nelson. The sky above the National Gallery was bruised with the browns and golds of a tired, wintry sun. As the bus swept up the Haymarket, Brian looked over the edge at the crowds that were whirling down from Piccadilly. Like masses of insects. Like – oh Lord, like anything on earth! He was too tired to search for similes.

  The bus careered across Piccadilly, and growled along up Regent Street. Brian wondered what Nelson would have said could he have seen the destruction that was taking place here. Only a few of Nash’s exquisite buildings remained, like gentlemen jostled by a crowd of vulgarians. The modern English taste – consisting of an artless blend of Gothic, Byzantine and ancient Egyptian – reigned supreme. Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar. Still, he was vulgar himself. A gossip writer. He made a grimace, which the young man with the hungry look took as a personal affront, indicating as much by a dig of the elbow.

  As they capered down Oxford Street, Brian reviewed his position. Six pounds a week. Three suits. Thirty-eight pounds in the Bank. A rather cracked piano. An absurdly healthy constitution.

  Here was the Marble Arch. He got off. ‘Good even­ing,’ he whispered sweetly to the hungry young man.

  He paused outside the door of his flat. A very odd noise made itself heard from the interior. He frowned, puzzled, and put his head against the door.

  ‘Ho! to be in England

  Now that Hapril’s there,

  And ’ooever wikes in England

  Sees, some mornin’, hunaware,

  That the lowest boughs and the . . .’

  The voice, which was slightly beery, paused.

  ‘What’s this bit, Mr. Moore?’

  Brian opened the door.

  ‘Brian, old thing.’

  A young man, as dark as Brian was fair, sprang out of his chair. He put his pipe on the mantelpiece and held out his hand.

  ‘Hullo, Walter. What is Mrs. Pleat doing?’

  Mrs. Pleat closed The Oxford Book of English Verse indignantly. ‘It’s Mr. Moore’s idea, Mr. Elme,’ she said. ‘It’s a waste of time, I call it. Makin’ me read stuff like that.’

  The two young men looked at each other. In Brian’s eyes there was an expression of amused amazement. One never knew what Walter was going to do next. In Walter’s eyes was a look merely of affectionate inquiry. One never knew how Brian was going to take things.

  ‘She’s going to be a wonderful elocutionist,’ he said, with a note of apology in his voice. ‘Aren’t you, Mrs. Pleat?’

  ‘’E’s crazy, Mr. Elme.’

  ‘What’s that bit you did so beautifully?’ Walter began to chant . . .

  ‘And after April, when May follows

  And the white throat builds, and all the swallows . . .’

  ‘I don’t know anythink about white throats, Mr. Moore, nor anythink about swallows, but I do know that Mr. Elme looks tired out, and with your leave, I shall go ’ome while he ’as ’is tea, which will be cold if ’e waits any longer.’

  She poured out a cup of tea and placed it before Brian, who had sat down in the only spare chair. Then, after sundry bustlings, Mrs. Pleat left the room.

  But before she leaves our story, there is one thing that you must learn about her. Mrs. Pleat had a hus­band. That husband was a bigamist. How, why, or where he was a bigamist, one does not know. The important fact is that Mrs. Pleat only saw him on Tues­days when he called for his midday dinner. The rest of his week was consecrated to the unhallowed woman who had stolen him away.

  Mrs. Pleat lived for her Tuesdays. And so, every Tuesday morning, Brian and Walter were bustled out of bed with a deadly punctuality, breakfast was thrust under their noses, shoes were cleaned, and the flat was dusted, while an air of apprehension hung over the world. If by any chance they should forget, or delay, Mrs. Pleat would hang about, looking at them with a watery and reproachful eye, reiterating the obvious fact that ‘It’s Toosday.’ Sometimes out of sheer irritation, Brian would be half inclined to dawdle over his dress­ing, as a protest against these methods, but the sight of that watery eye, the memory that Mrs. Pleat was long­ing to go back to prepare an unde
servedly succulent dinner for her ex-husband, and, perhaps, the reflection that he might one day be a bigamist himself, caused him to relent. And so he always gobbled his breakfast, shaving hurriedly, digging Walter in the ribs from time to time, reminding him of the day of the week.

  You have met the hero, the hero’s employer, and his employee. It now remains only to say a few words about the hero’s friend and the drama may proceed.

  Walter Moore was an ex-naval officer, with two passions in the world – the first a passion for free­dom. The second an almost absurd hero-worship of Brian.

  The passion for freedom had caused him to leave the navy, swearing that never again should anybody tell him that he ‘must’ do anything. He did not care what happened to him, provided that he had a few shillings in his pocket, and provided that the open world was before him. In spirit he was curiously like a bird, unstable, reckless, lovable, singing a song on occasions when other men would have been cursing fate.

  The second influence in his life, his hero-worship of Brian, dated from about two years before, when the two had casually come across each other, and had struck up an acquaintance which had ripened into one of those rare friendships which are among the few things which make one feel that life is not an uncommonly feeble joke by a vulgar and untidy spirit.

  Brian—not only for Walter, but for everybody else, had a quite exceptional charm. It is a facile word, largely applied by obsequious journalists to those foreign royalties who cannot be described as either handsome, useful, or intelligent. One cannot analyse charm, one can only describe its symptoms upon other people. As far as Brian was concerned, it meant that the old flower-women at Piccadilly put in an extra car­nation for him on those rare occasions when he was able to buy them, that the notoriously dishonest green­grocer at the corner of the street always picked out the reddest and juiciest strawberries for him when he bought sixpennyworth on hot August evenings, and that Mrs. Pleat, when the pressure of life allowed her to be senti­mental, mournfully lamented the fact that her own sons were not of the same entrancing qualities.