CHAPTER NINE
AND LAST
A YEAR later Hugh sat at his desk, reading the following letter:
My Dear Chap:
I wrote to you in Menton, and the letter came back. But the other day a man in the office saw you in Paris and gave me your address. He also gave me a very good account of you; I am glad, for I have often felt anxious about you. I hope now that you have again taken up the burden of the wage-earner, you are not finding it too heavy. I’ve become a professional ink-slinger. You remember me as a dilettante, a trifler. I wrote whimsical essays; I cultivated an urbane humour. Then one day in a fantastic mood I started a burlesque of the German spy novel. I showed it to a bloated publisher who refused to publish it as a burlesque, but suggested that it would go as a serious effort. He thought the public would take it that way. The public did.
So now behold me, a popular author, a six shilling shocker to my credit, another half-done, and many more in my mental incubator.
Of course, on the strength of my success I resigned from Gummage & Meek. We had saved a few thousand pounds, so if literature proves more of a staff than a crutch, we won’t be altogether on the rocks. Better still, a preposterously rich bachelor brother of my wife’s has promised to see the two boys through school and college. In short, I find at last my dream realized. I am free to cultivate my literary cail-yaird.
I want now to find some quiet place where I can live in a leisurely way, polish my gems, and generally lead a pleasant, tolerant, contemplative life. Do you, with your knowledge of the south of France, know of such a place? The exchange rate now is so advantageous.
Please rub a little liniment on your strong right arm, grip your pen with intense determination, and favour me with a few lines.
Sincerely,
Arthur Ainger.
Hugh looked round the shabby but comfortable room he called his den. There was a roll-top desk, crimson-curtained book shelves, a big easy chair by the window, many unframed canvases on the walls. His eyes rested on each article with loving satisfaction.