  Produced by Al Haines. QUINNEYS' HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL JOHN MURRAY FIRST EDITION . . . May 1914 TO CONTENTS BOOK I CHAPTER I. BOOK II X. QUINNEYS' BOOK I CHAPTER I THE SIGN I "Good-evening, Mr. Quinney!" "Good-evening!" Quinney replied, as he passed a stout red-faced fellow-townsman. With his back to the man, Quinney smiled. He could remember the day, not so long ago, when Pinker, the grocer, called him "My lad." Then his whimsical face grew solemn, as he remembered that a smile might be misinterpreted by others whose eyes were fixed upon him with sympathy and interest. He walked more slowly, as befitted a chief mourner returning from his father's funeral, but he was queerly sensible of a desire to run and shout and laugh. He wanted to run from a drab past into a rosy future; he wanted to shout aloud that he was free—free! He wanted to laugh, because it seemed so utterly absurd to pull a long face because a tyrant was dead and buried. The fact that the old man was buried made a vast difference. Suddenly he was confronted by a burly foot-passenger, who held out a huge hand and spoke in a deep, muffled voice. "So, Old Joe is dead, and Young Joe reigns in his stead?" "Right you are," replied Quinney. Despite his efforts, a note of triumph escaped him. "Left you everything?" continued the burly man. Quinney nodded, and after a pause the other continued huskily: "Old Joe had something snug to leave—hey?" "Right again," replied Young Joe. "More'n you thought for, I'll be bound?" "Maybe." "Well, my boy, hold on to it—as he did. It's a damned sight easier to make money than to keep it." "I made some of it," said Quinney. "Not much." Quinney shrugged his shoulders and passed on, slightly exasperated because a butcher had stopped him in Mel Street, Melchester, with the obvious intention of pumping details out of him. The butcher walked on, chuckling to himself. "Young Joe," he reflected, "is a-goin' to be like Old Joe. Rare old skinflint he was, to be sure!" Quinney, meantime, had reached the dingy shop known to all Melchester as "Quinney's." The shutters were up—stout oak boards sadly in need of a coat of paint. Quinney opened a side door, and entered his own house—his—his! He could think of nothing else. Quinney's, and all it contained, belonged to him. Immediately after the funeral, when the house was full of people, the young man was dazed. And when the will was opened, and he learned that Old Joe had saved nearly ten thousand pounds, he felt positively giddy, replying vaguely to discreet whispers of congratulation with jerky sentences such as "By Gum, this is a surprise!" or, with nervous twitchings of the mouth and eyes, "Rum go, isn't it, that I should be rich?" Later, Young Joe had gone for a walk alone, seeking the high downs above the ancient town. The keen air blew the fog out of his brain, and presently he exclaimed aloud: "Yes; I am Quinney's." After a pause he burst out again, speaking with such vehemence that a fat sheep who was staring at him ran away. "Gosh! I'm jolly glad that I gave him a tip-top funeral. He'd have pinched something awful over mine." After this explosion—silence, broken intermittently by whistling. II Upon entering the house, Quinney went into the shop, and disdainfully surveyed the stock-in-trade. Everything lay higgledy-piggledy. The big window was full of faked brass-work which seemed to gleam derisively at a dirty card upon which was inscribed the legend, "Genuine Antiques." Among the brass-work were bits of pottery and some framed mezzo-tints. Inside the shop, upon an unswept floor, old furniture was piled ceiling high. Some of it was really good, for mahogany was just then coming into fashion again, but in such matters Old Joe had always been behind his times. He preferred oak, the more solid the better, buying everything at country sales that happened to go cheap; assorted lots allured him irresistibly. He was incapable of arranging his wares, laughing scornfully at his son's suggestions. In the same spirit he refused to remove dust and dirt, being of the opinion that they lent a tone to antiques which were not quite genuine. He had never bought really good stuff to sell to customers outside the trade. When, as frequently happened, he came across a valuable piece of furniture or a bit of fine china, he would communicate at once with a dealer, and in particular with a certain Thomas Tomlin, who invariably paid ten per cent advance on the bargain, which might be regarded as a handsome profit. To the visitors, especially Americans, who dropped in to Quinney's on their way to and from the Cathedral, Old Joe would sell at a huge profit what he contemptuously stigmatized as rubbish. A few of his regular customers were well aware that Old Joe knew nothing of the real value of some of his wares. He bought engravings and prints in colour, and these he sold at a price about double of what he had paid, chuckling as he did so. Porcelain he understood, but not pottery; and even in porcelain he refused obstinately to pay a high price, unless he was quite sure of his turnover. Young Joe had always despised these primitive methods, and nothing pleased him so much as when he was able to rub well into his sire the mortifying fact that ignorance and funk had prevented him from securing a prize. As the young man gazed derisively at his possessions, the roustabout boy told him that Mr. Tomlin had called, promising to return after the funeral; and half an hour later the dealer arrived, to find Young Joe staring devoutly at two figures of Bow and a plate of Early Worcester. Tomlin greeted the young man with a certain deference never exhibited before. "Sorry to disturb you, Joe, on such a sad occasion." "'Tain't sad!" snapped joe. "You know as well as I do that the old man gave me a hell of a time. Now he's gone, and that's all there is about it." "I came about them," Tomlin indicated the china. "Last thing your pore father wrote to me about." "Nice bits, eh?" Tomlin examined them. As he did so, a keen observer might have noticed that Young Joe's eyes were sparkling with what might have been excitement or resentment, but not gratification. "How much?" said Tomlin. "They're not for sale." "What?" "I should say that I'm keepin' 'em for a party I know." "Anything else to show me?" grunted Tomlin, caressing the Bow glaze with a dirty but loving finger. "Your father mentioned a mirror-black jar, K'ang He period." "Keepin' that too," replied Quinney quietly. "Sold it?" "Not yet." Quinney smiled mysteriously. "Then what's up? Ain't my money as good as the next man's?" "If you want a plain answer, Mr. Tomlin, it ain't—to me." "Ho! What d'ye mean?" "Just that. It don't pay to deal with the trade. If I pick up a good thing, you get the credit; you claim all the credit. Our name is never mentioned, not a line. In this town we have the reputation of selling rubbish. I'm going to change all that." "Are you?" Tomlin was visibly impressed and distressed. "Well, look ye here, take my advice, and walk in the old man's footsteps. He done well." "I shall do better." Tomlin stared at the speaker, who spoke with an odd air of conviction. Quinney continued in the same quiet drawl, "If you want to buy any of this," he waved a contemptuous hand, "it's yours—cheap!" "Rubbish!" "Just so." Tomlin sat down and wiped his forehead. He was feeling warm, and the sight of young Quinney so exasperatingly cool and smug in his black clothes made him warmer. "Ho! That's the game, is it?" As Quinney nodded, he continued: "Me and you can do business together." "Together?" "I say—together. How would a trip abroad suit you?" Quinney lifted his eyebrows; the first indication of interest in his visitor. "A trip—abroad?" "To France. I've heard of a man in Brittany—a wonder. His line is old oak; mostly copies of famous pieces. He's the greatest faker in the world, and an artist. No blunders! Would you like to go into a deal with me? You know old oak when you see it?" "I think so." "You go over there and buy five hundred pounds' worth and put it into this shop, after you've cleared out the rubbish. I'll go halves. It's a dead cert, and this is the right place for the stuff. My pitch wouldn't do, and I haven't the room. I'll send you customers." "It's a go," said Quinney. "You mean to make things hum? And I can help you. Never gave you credit for being so sharp." Details were then discussed, not worth recording; but during this memorable interview, which led to so much, Quinney was sensible of an ever-increasing exaltation and powers of speech which amazed him as much as the older man. He announced curtly his intention of getting rid of the rubbish, repainting and redecorating the premises, and dealing for the future in the best, whether fakes or genuine antiques. "Never could persuade the old man that the 'Genuine Antiques' card was a dead give-away." Fired with enthusiasm, he seized the card and tore it up there and then, while Tomlin applauded generously. "You're yer father without any moss on you," he remarked, as he took his leave, promising to return on the morrow. Upon the threshold he asked, "Doin' anything particular this evening?" "Yes," said Quinney. Tomlin went out, but returned immediately. "You ought to have a sign." "I mean to." "Thought of that already?" "Thousands and thousands o' times. It'll be a hangin' sign of wrought-iron; the best; painted black, with 'Quinney's' in gold. It'll cost twenty pounds." "That's going it." "I mean to go it." III Quinney supped simply at seven, and then he walked across the Cathedral Close, down a small street, known as Laburnum Row, and knocked at the door of a genteel, semi-detached cottage. The very respectable woman who opened the door drew down the corners of a pleasant mouth when she beheld the visitor. A note of melancholy informed her voice as she greeted him, but her sharp, brown eyes sparkled joyously as she said: "Never expected to see you this evening, Mr. Quinney." "I'm tired of doing the things that are expected," was the surprising reply. Then, with a flush, he blurted out, "Susan in?" "Yes," said Mrs. Biddlecombe, leading the way into the parlour. "The child's upstairs." Mother and daughter had seen Quinney approaching, whereupon Mrs. Biddlecombe had remarked, "It's all right. You smooth your hair, dear, and slip on your blue gown." Meanwhile, Quinney took the most comfortable chair, and stared with appraising eye at the furniture. Above the mantelpiece hung the portrait in water-colour of a handsome woman, obviously a lady, as the word was interpreted by the grandmothers of the present generation. This was Mrs. Biddlecombe's mother, the wife of a doctor, who had been bear-leader to a sprig of nobility, accomplishing with him the Grand Tour. In her turn, Mrs. Biddlecombe had married a medical gentleman (her word), who, unhappily, was called from the exercise of his profession in a promising suburb to a place invariably designated by Mrs. Biddlecombe as his last home. Later, the widow, left in very humble circumstances, had married beneath her rightful station in life a certain George Biddlecombe, a small builder and contractor, of Melchester, who, failing in business when Susan was some five years old, had died of disgust. Since this second bereavement, Mrs. Biddlecombe supported herself and her daughter by taking in lodgers, cleaning lace and fancy work. She was a stout, energetic creature, not much the worse for the wear and tear of a never-ending struggle to raise herself to the position which she had adorned before her second disastrous marriage. "The funeral was well attended," she remarked. "The old man was hardly what one might call popular," replied Quinney. "He'll be missed in Melchester." "Missed, but not regretted," the son replied grimly. "Ah!" murmured Mrs. Biddlecombe, thinking of the builder and contractor. Quinney pulled himself together, sitting upright in the arm-chair and speaking firmly. "I ain't here to talk about him. Less said on that subject the better. I'm my own master now, ma'am, able to please myself. Lord! How he hated my coming here!" "I know, I know!" "Never appreciated Susan, neither. Dessay you think I ought to be at home, mourning. Well, he knocked all that out o' me long ago. Plain talk is best. As a matter of business, with an eye on some of our customers in this stoopid old town, I shall do what is expected in the way of a tombstone, and I shall try not to sing and dance in High Street, but between you and me it's a riddance." Mrs. Biddlecombe smiled uneasily, but she said honestly: "I've been through it, Mr. Quinney." "You've had the doose of a time, ma'am—and a born lady, too." Mrs. Biddlecombe put her handkerchief to her eyes, and dabbed them gently. She did not quite understand her visitor, who was presenting himself in a new and startling light, but she was comfortably aware that his own inclination and nothing else had brought him to Laburnum Row. For a moment her mind was a welter of confused excitements and speculations. Would her Susie rise to this momentous occasion? Would she clasp opportunity to her pretty bosom? And if so, what might not be done with such clay as Quinney, plastic to the hand of an experienced potter. Nevertheless, the young man's too brutal declaration of independence shocked cherished conventions. She beheld him shrinkingly as an iconoclast, a shatterer of the sacred Fifth Commandment. "Are you thinking of leaving Melchester?" she asked. "Not yet, although I am goin' abroad." "Abroad?" "To France, ma'am."; Mrs. Biddlecombe frowned. France was a godless country, where tempestuous petticoats abounded. She hoped that Susan was arraying herself in the blue gown. Blue suited the child's milk and roses complexion. In blue she might provoke comparison with the audacious hussies across the Channel. She was clever enough to murmur sympathetically, "You need a holiday, to be sure." At this Quinney laughed. "It's business. I'm after old oak. Want to work up a connection—hey?" "Do you speak French?" "Me? Do I speak Chocktaw? Do I speak English properly? Do I, now? O' course you parleyvoo like a native?" "Not quite, Mr. Quinney." "And Susie—you learned her French, and the pi-anner?" "I did my best." "Angels can do no more," said Quinney admiringly. "Upset yer neighbours, too." He smiled maliciously, having suffered long and patiently at the hands of neighbours. Mrs. Biddlecombe feigned ignorance of his meaning, when Quinney laughed again, almost indecorously. "Lord bless you, I know all about that. You pinched to get that piano," he indicated an ancient instrument, "because it was the only one in the row. And French! By Gum! Is there a girl except Susie who parleyvoos in this part of the town? Not one! The whole row gnashes its teeth over that." His pride in Susan's accomplishments touched the mother's heart. Her voice rang out clearly and triumphantly: "It's perfectly true." At this moment Susan Biddlecombe entered the parlour, and Quinney sprang to his feet to greet her. She was just eighteen, and very pretty and refined, with small hands and feet, and delicately-cut features. The mother boasted that she looked a gentlewoman, and for the purposes of this narrative, it is far more important to add that she was innately gentle and womanly, with no tainting tincture of the ogling, smirking, provincial coquette. Quinney kissed her! Mrs. Biddlecombe blushed scarlet. Susan smiled, hesitated, and then kissed Quinney. Mrs. Biddlecombe ejaculated "Gracious!" "Give us yer blessin'," said Quinney, quite riotously. Then, masterfully, he kissed the girl again, turning to confront the astonished mother. "Settled between us three months ago," he explained fluently. "We dassen't tell a soul, not even you, because of the old man. He was capable of leavin' every bob to an orsepital for dogs. He said to me once, 'Don't let me hear anything of goings on between you and that there Biddlecombe girl!' By Gum, I obeyed him! He never did hear anything. Me and Susie took jolly good care o' that. I only hope as he knows now." At this Susan murmured: "Joe, dear, please don't!" Then mother and daughter solemnly embraced. "I hated not to tell you," whispered Susan, "but Joe would have his way." "The old 'un told me I might look high with my prospects, but he never did know quality. Quantity was what he'd go for. Lord! How he fairly wallowed in job lots! Well, all that's over." He began to walk up and down the small room, telling the two women his plans for the future. They listened with shadows of perplexity in their brown eyes, and presently Mrs. Biddlecombe carefully cleaned and put on her spectacles, peering at her future son-in-law with eyes just dimmed by happy tears. Presently he spoke of the sign, making a rough drawing. Mrs. Biddlecombe laughed slily as she pointed out the apostrophe in "Quinney's." "Isn't Susie going to help?" she asked. "Why not 'Quinneys'?" "By Gum, you're right. Of course she's going to help. Make a rare saleswoman, too." "I should love to help!" said Susan eagerly. "You'd soon teach me, Joe." "All the tricks in the trade, Susie, and perhaps one or two of our own." The girl opened wider her honest eyes. "Must there be tricks?" she asked, and a finer ear than Quinney's might have detected a note of anxiety. "Bless your innocent heart—yes! Dessay I shall learn a bit from you. Course o' Shakespeare now, to improve one's powers o' speech." He laughed so hilariously that Mrs. Biddlecombe held up a restraining finger. "We're semi-detached, you know." "I'm rich enough not to care what Laburnum Row thinks or says," he declared. "What day will suit you to get married, Susie?" "Oh, Joe—this is sudden." "Sudden? I was tellin' your mother that I had to go to France on biz, but I want you to come along, too, to do the parleyvooin'. Can you get ready in a month?" Mrs. Biddlecombe frowned, shaking her head. "You must wait longer than that." "Why?" "It's customary." "Blow that! I want Susie, and while we're in France the shop can be overhauled. You'll keep an eye on it—hey?" "I wash my hands of any marriage entered upon in undue haste." Finally, he agreed to wait two months, not a moment longer. "But I shall order the sign to-morrow—'Quinneys''—with letters cuddling up against each other. It'll be made in London, quite regardless. Next Sunday and you, Susie, will take a little walk in and about Melchester. I shan't ask you to pig it over the shop." "I shouldn't mind that a bit." "But I should. I'm marrying a lady, one of the best, and I'll start the thing in style, just bang up." "A semi-detached?" "Lord, no! Wouldn't hurt your mother's feelin's for worlds, but a semi-detached ain't private enough for me. The neighbours might hear me yellin' when Susie pulls my hair." Mrs. Biddlecombe rose majestically. "I'm going to open a bottle of my ginger cordial," she said solemnly. As the door closed behind her, Quinney exclaimed, "Now, Susie, you jump on my knee. I want to tell you that I'm the happiest man on earth." He spoke in a tone of absolute conviction. CHAPTER II THE DREAM COTTAGE I Melchester, although urban in the strict sense of the word, was sweetly fragrant of the country. Mel Street, except on Sundays, was always more or less blocked with country wagons and carts loaded with Melshire cheeses and butter and cream and eggs. Melshire bacon is famous the world over. There were no factories; and admittedly the town depended upon the surrounding country, which included wind-swept downs, and pleasant valleys, and many woods full of pheasants, and languid streams full of coarse fish. Essentially a country town which had fallen asleep in the Middle Ages, and went on slumbering, like a hale old man who has dined well. The curates and minor canons struggled against this somnolence. Vice might be found in many of the back streets, vice half-drunk, passive, Laodicean, hardly ever rampageous, save on such rare occasions as when the military were camping just outside the moss-grown walls. The townfolk, generally, were content with themselves and the conditions under which they strolled from the cradle to the grave. Susan Biddlecombe, for instance, thanked God morning and evening because her lines were cast in pleasant places. Till she met Quinney, her mind had dwelt placidly in the immediate present. He hurled it into the future with a breathless phrase adumbrating incredible possibilities. But that was later, after the death of his father, who might have lived another twenty years. Before that great piece of good fortune Joe indulged in talk that was very small indeed; and the one excitement incidental to her engagement was its secrecy. Being a pretty girl, and half a lady, she had visualized marriage as a tremendous change, possibly for the better, quite possibly for the worse. But during these dreams she beheld herself as herself, never reckoning that her ideas and ideals might make another woman of her under conditions and conventions other than what she so thoroughly understood. She was romantic; but who dares to define romance. What does it mean to a girl like Susan Biddlecombe? Adventure? Yes. She was thrilled to the core when Quinney kissed her for the first time behind the parlour door; and her heart beat delightfully fast whenever she approached their trysting-place in a secluded corner of the Close. Romance inspired her with the happy thought of corresponding with her lover in cypher. The engagement ring became a treasure indeed, because she dared not wear it except at night. From the first she had gallantly faced the fact that her Joe did not look romantic, but there was a flavour of the bold buccaneer about his speech, and a sparkle in his eye quite captivating. His firm, masterful grip of a girl's waist was most satisfying, although it provoked protest. She had murmured, "Please—don't!" And to this he replied tempestuously, "Sue, darling, you like it; you know you like it. What's the use of trying to flimflam me?" He was not to be silenced till she whispered blushing that she did like it. Awfully? Yes—awfully. The man pressed the point, asking astounding questions. What ought to be the tale of kisses, for example? Could a maid stand five hundred of 'em? Why not try the experiment at the first opportunity? In this primitive fashion he captured her. On the following Sunday the lovers found a cottage which seemed to be the real, right thing. It was set in a small garden, surrounded by a small holly hedge, and flanked on the north-east by a row of tall elms. Behind the cottage was a plot of ground, which included a superb chestnut tree, with low branches, upon which, as Susan observed, hammocks could be swung. "Hammocks?" repeated Quinney. "On Sunday," said Susan, "in the summer, we can lie in hammocks and think of how hard we work during the week. It will be heavenly." "By Gum! You have ideas, Sue." "Mother always said I was too romantic." The cottage was roofed with big red tiles encrusted with mosses and lichen; and about its walls in summer-time clambered roses and clematis. "I love it already," Miss Biddlecombe declared with fervour. "More than you love me?" For answer she made a grimace. Quinney, with a broad grin upon his lips, encircled her waist with his arm. But a pin pierced his finger, which began to bleed, whereupon the young woman seized the finger and put her lips to it. "I've drunk my Joe's blood," she said, with a charming blush. "Oh, you jolly cannibal!" exclaimed Quinney. They kissed each other tenderly, and almost forgot the cottage. Presently Quinney said, "I believe this'll do?" and she answered ecstatically, "It's exactly right." Quinney qualified this. "There may be others better still; it's only the best we've seen so far." "I dare say you think there's a better girl than I am somewhere or other?" "No, I don't!" "How awful it would be if I caught you looking for her." "No fear o' that!" he affirmed solemnly. Next morning early they went together to the agent, derisively scornful of the gossips, who, to do them justice, refrained from unpleasant remarks. Laburnum Row knew by this time that young Joe Quinney had ten thousand pounds, and the rosy-fingered fact that he had found a wife in a semi-detached cottage was tremendously acclaimed. The agent smiled discreetly when he saw them, and may have wished, poor fellow, that he, too, was young again and shamelessly in love. "Bird-nestin', we are," said Quinney. "Just so. Did you like the nest you saw yesterday?" The sly fellow glanced at the girl, who answered eagerly, "It's too sweet for anything!" Obviously, she wished to clinch the bargain on the nail, but, much to her exasperation, the more cautious male began to ask questions, listening attentively to the answers, and displaying a shrewd understanding. Susan decided that her Joe was wasting valuable time, because she wanted to discuss wallpapers. She sniffed when Quinney said, "Is there anything else on your books prettier than this cottage?" She shuffled impatiently, when the agent answered impassively, "Oh yes!" While the men had been talking she had decided that an ugly pigsty must be pulled down, that the kitchen must be refloored, and that the big water barrel should be painted apple-green and white. "Where is this other cottage?" "On the Mel, five minutes' walk from your place. It belongs to the widow of an artist, and it's a real bargain. You ought to see it." "We will see it," said Quinney. Susan shrugged her small shoulders. All this talk was lamentably foolish. Men were great sillies. While they were staring at cottage number two, some enterprising stranger might snap up cottage number one. A nice sell that would be! "Come on, Sue," said Quinney. Miss Biddlecombe "came on" reluctantly holding her tongue because she dared not speak her mind before the agent, and very cross by reason of this abstention. "You ain't tired?" asked Quinney, reading her face wrongly. The tenderness in his voice brought back a brace of dimples. "Tired? Not a bit, but I'm sure that our cottage is the prettier." "Please suspend judgment," said the agent formally. How could he divine that the pretty maid, who smiled at him so sweetly, would have suspended him from the nearest tree for being a bore and a nuisance. She smiled upon him with rage in her heart. And, behold, the second cottage was infinitely prettier than the first. Susan gasped when she beheld it, and she was quite furious with Quinney when he said drawlingly, "This looks all right, but what's wrong with it? Why hasn't it been gobbled up long ago?" "There is something wrong with it—the price." "I guessed as much." The agent explained glibly, for he, too, had learned of young Joe's great inheritance. "It's not big enough for well-to-do folk; and it's much too expensive for poor people. It cost quite a lot of money. There's a boathouse, and fishing rights and everything is in tip-top order. So it's not surprising that the price is tip-top also. But it's a genuine bargain." "How much?" The agent mentioned a sum which made Quinney whistle. Susan groaned. She had quite forgotten cottage number one. It had grown common in her brown eyes, which dwelt with rapture upon a tiny lawn sloping to the sleepy Mel, upon the veranda where in summer-time Joe and she could eat their meals, upon the lilac and laburnum soon to bloom, upon the placid stream so plainly loath to leave such delightful banks. No neighbours other than the owners of big gardens would disturb their peace. Over everything hung a veil of romance and beauty. Furtively, she wiped two tears from her eyes. "Let us go," she said quietly. She turned, and the men followed her in silence. |
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