It turned out, however, that Rollo could not accomplish the object, which he had aimed at with so much eagerness and hope, in the only legitimate way. He could not get his Manager invited to the Deanery. “I don’t think your aunt would like it; I don’t think I could sanction it,” the Dean said, whom he met at his club. Unfortunately the Dean had somewhere encountered the partner by whose aid Rollo expected to make his fortune, and he made it the subject of a little discourse, which Rollo received with impatience. “I would have nothing to do with him if I were you,” his Reverence said; “he is not a kind of man to be any credit to his associates. You can’t touch pitch without being defiled. I would not have anything to say to him if I were you.”
“Nor should I, uncle, if I were you,” said Rollo, with a rueful smile. He was not aware that this was not original; he was not thinking, indeed, of originality, but of the emergency, which he felt was very difficult to deal with.
“Nonsense!” said the Dean; “don’t tell me there are not a great many better occupations going than that of managing a theatre——”
“Opera—opera. Give us our due at least——”
“What difference is there?” said the Dean sternly. “The opera has ruined just as many men as the theatre. Talk of making your fortune? Did you ever hear of the lessee of a theatre making a fortune? Plenty have been ruined by it, and never one made rich that I ever heard of. Why can’t you go into diplomacy or to a public office, or get your Uncle Urban to give you something? You ought not to have anything to do with such a venture as this.”
“My dear uncle,” said Rollo, “you know well enough how many things I have tried. Uncles are very kind (as in your case), but they can’t take all their relations upon their shoulders; and you knew this was what I was doing, and Aunt Caroline knew——”
“Ah! yes; I recollect that was what all the singing was about; but she could not stand that Manager fellow. I could not stand him myself; as for your aunt, you could not expect it. She is very good-natured, but you could not ask her to go so far as that.”
“He is a man who goes everywhere,” said Rollo; “he is a man who can behave himself perfectly well wherever he is.”
“Oh, bless you, she would see through him at a glance!” cried the Dean. “I don’t mean to say your aunt is clever, Rollo, but instinct goes a long way. She would see through him. Miss Despard was quite different; she was perfectly comme il faut. Girls are wonderful sometimes in that way. Though they may have no advantages, they seem to pick up and look just as good as any one: whereas a man like that—— By the way, I am very sorry for the poor thing. They say her father, a disreputable sort of gay man who never should have got the appointment, is going to marry some low woman. It will be hard upon the girl.”