第33章

In spite of all this his little measure of success made him more contemptuous than before of its scene and its elements.He declared that he had a poorer idea than ever of society now that he saw the pattern from the smart side.That his convictions on this head survived one of the best Simla tailors shows that they must always have been strong.I think he believed that he was doing all that he did do to make himself socially possible with the purpose of pleasing Dora Harris.I would not now venture to say how far Dora inspired and controlled him in this direction, and how far the impulse was his own.The measure of appreciation that began to seek his pictures, poor and small though it was, gave him, on the other hand, the most unalloyed delight.He talked of the advice of Sir William Lamb as if it were anything but that of a pompous old ass, and he made a feast with champagne for Blum that must have cost him quite as much as Blum paid for the Breton sketch.He confirmed my guess that he had never in his life until he came to Simla sold anything, so that even these small transactions were great things to him, and the earnest of a future upon which he covered his eyes not to gaze too raptly.He mentioned to me that Kauffer had been asked for his address--who could it possibly be?--and looked so damped by my humourous suggestion that it was a friend of Kauffer's in some other line who wanted a bill paid, that I felt I had been guilty of brutality.And all the while the quality of his wonderful output never changed or abated.Pure and firm and prismatic it remained.

I found him one day at the very end of October, with shining eyes and fingers blue with cold, putting the last of the afternoon light on the snows into one of the most dramatic hill pictures I ever knew him to do.He seemed intoxicated with his skill, and hummed the 'Marseillaise,' I remember, all the way to Amy Villa whither Iaccompanied him.

It was the last day of Kauffer's contract; and besides, all the world, secretaries, establishments, hill captains, grass widows, shops, and sundries, was trundling down the hill.I came to ask my young friend what he meant to do.

'Do?' he cried.'Why, eat, drink, and be merry! Kauffer has paid up, and his yoke is at the bottom of the sea.Come back and dine with me!'

The hour we spent together in his little inner room before dinner was served stands out among my strangest, loveliest memories of Armour.He was divinely caught up, and absurd as it is to write, he seemed to carry me with him.We drank each a glass of vermouth before dinner sitting over a scented fire of deodar branches, while outside the little window in front of me the lifted lines of the great empty Himalayan landscape faded and fell into a blur.Iremembered the solitary scarlet dahlia that stood between us and the vast cold hills and held its colour when all was grey but that.The hill world waited for the winter; down a far valley we could hear a barking deer.Armour talked slowly, often hesitating for a word, of the joy there was in beauty and the divinity in the man who saw it with his own eyes.I have read notable pages that brought conviction pale beside that which stole about the room from what he said.The comment may seem fantastic, but it is a comment--Icaressed the dog.The servant clattered in with the plates, and at a shout outside Armour left me.He came in radiant with Signor Strobo, also radiant and carrying a violin, for hotel-keeping was not the Signor's only accomplishment.I knew Strobo well; many a special dish had he ordered for my little parties; and we met at Armour's fireside like the genial old acquaintances we were.

Another voice without and presently I was nodding to Rosario and vaguely wondering why he looked uncomfortable.

'I'm sorry,' said Armour, as we sat down, 'I've got nothing but beer.If I had known you were all coming, no vintage that crawls up the hill would have been good enough for me.' He threw the bond of his wonderful smile round us as we swallowed his stuff, and our hearts were lightened.'You fellows,' he went on nodding at the other two, 'might happen any day, but my friend John Philips comes to me across aerial spaces; he is a star I've trapped--you don't do that often.Pilsener, John Philips, or Black?' He was helping his only servant by pouring out the beer himself, and as I declared for Black he slapped me affectionately on the back and said my choice was good.

The last person who had slapped me on the back was Lord Dufferin, and I smiled softly and privately at the remembrance, and what a difference there was.I had resented Dufferin's slap.

We had spiced hump and jungle-fowl and a Normandy cheese, everybody will understand that; but how shall I make plain with what exultation and simplicity we ate and drank, how the four candid selves of us sat around the table in a cloud of tobacco and cheered each other on, Armour always far in front turning handsprings as he went.Scraps come back to me, but the whole queer night has receded and taken its place among those dreams that insist at times upon having been realities.Rosario told us stories Kipling might have coveted of the under life of Port Said.Strobo talked with glorious gusto of his uncle the brigand.They were liberated men; we were all liberated men.'Let the direction go,' cried Armour, 'and give the senses flight, taking the image as it comes, beating the air with happy pinions.' He must have been talking of his work, but Ican not now remember.And what made Strobo say, of life and art, 'Ihave waited for ten years and five thousand pounds--now my old violin says, "Go, handle the ladle! Go, add up the account!"' And did we really discuss the chances of ultimate salvation for souls in the Secretariat? I know I lifted my glass once and cried, 'I, a slave, drink to freedom!' and Rosario clinked with me.And Strobo played wailing Hungarian airs with sudden little shakes of hopeless laughter in them.I can not even now hear Naches without being filled with the recollection of how certain bare branches in me that night blossomed.

I walked alone down the hill and along the three miles to the Club, and at every step the tide sank in me till it cast me on my threshold at three in the morning, just the middle-aged shell of a Secretary to the Government of India that I was when I set forth.

Next day when my head clerk brought me the files we avoided one another's glances; and it was quite three weeks before I could bring myself to address him with the dignity and distance prescribed for his station as 'Mr.' Rosario.