was to be another toast. And Henry said: 'Mother, Fanny, Bill, Johnnie and Edward, I have another announcement to make. Today I am the happiest of men because Katherine has promised to marry me. And the wedding is to be in Slane, in two months' time.'
Everyone was smiling, everyone was talking at once, and there was Edward patting Henry on the back, and Fanny leaning across to Katherine Eyre and kissing her, and his mother saying, 'But Katherine, my dear, how very delightful,' and Bill apologising for two Eyres in their family all within twelve months. Johnnie heard his own voice loud and hearty, saying, 'Congratulations, old boy; you deserve to be happy, God bless you,' and suddenly the atmosphere became unbearable-the pleasure on all their faces, the quick discussion of plans, the women, all excited and eager, talking about wedding-dresses and bridesmaids and God knows what, and Henry looking across with confidence and pride at this Katherine who was to be his bride, his comfort, his loved one…
'You'll be my best man, old fellow, won't you?' said Henry, and Johnnie pushed back his chair and got to his feet.
'Not on your life,' he said rudely. 'I don't know how to behave in church; you'd better get Edward, or summon Herbie down from Liverpool, then there'll be two chaps there in dog-collars.
No, I'll stand in the street outside, and throw an old slipper at your carriage as you drive away.'
He saw the sudden hurt expression in his brother's eyes, and the inevitable flicker of a question, 'What's wrong with Johnnie now?' that he had seen so often before, as a child, as a boy, as a man. It's no good, thought Johnnie; I always hurt people, I always make them unhappy; I spoil every party; it would be much better if I went. I don't belong to this sort of happy family atmosphere anyway.
Let Henry marry his Katherine. He is the right sort of fellow for her. They will make one another happy. And she will give him peace and understanding. As for me, I can make my own peace, in my own way, and if it's black oblivion from a bottle or a tart, what the hell does it matter to anyone?
'Sorry to break the evening,' he said, 'but the fact is I've just remembered I promised to see someone at nine. And anyway, you'll all enjoy yourselves far better without me.' He drew a couple of sovereigns from his pocket and dropped them on his brother's plate. 'My dinner,' he said.
'Goodnight, mother.'
And he walked slowly out of the dining-room, conscious that people were turning to stare at him and one or two were smiling, were raising their eyebrows, and one of them lifted a glass significantly. God damn them, he thought, God damn and blast the whole bloody lot of them.
Mechanically he took his hat and his coat and his cane from the attendant in the vestibule. The rain had ceased and there was a wind now, cutting and cold. He walked down the street; here came three fellows arm-in- arm, walking up the pavement towards him.
He expected them to break apart and give him passage, but either they did not see him or they did not choose to do so, and without hesitation he walked into the midst of them, throwing one into the gutter, and the other against the wall, and the third he elbowed into a lamppost.
'Now go and learn manners, will you?' he cried, and the three, too astonished to retaliate, shouted after him, and one man bellowed out for a policeman, but by the time his call was answered, and a crowd had collected, Johnnie was away down the middle of the road.
'Where am I supposed to be going?' he said to himself, and then he remembered his excuse to the family, the engagement at nine o'clock. Well, it was true, now he came to think of it: his colonel was giving a reception at his house in Grosvenor Street. The same pompous old fool who had hummed and hawed that morning, and said that under the circumstances, and it was very painful for him to have to say so, but he hoped Johnnie would realise '
'They shall have the pleasure of my company, if they so desire it,' he said. He rocked unsteadily on the pavement, smiling to himself, and on the opposite side of the street a cab rumbled by. He summoned it with a flourish of his cane. 'No.11 Grosvenor Street,' said Johnnie.
It was rather pleasant leaning back in the cab, with his head against the cushion, and it seemed to him that the cab arrived in Grosvenor Street far too soon.
He climbed carefully from his seat, and paid his fare.
The lights shone brightly from the house, and there was a red carpet down from the front door to the pavement. A crowd of people had collected outside in the street to watch the arrival of the guests. The door opened for a moment to admit one of Johnnie's brother officers and his wife, and then closed again, '
'Ere, ain't you got a wife, mister?' said a girl at Johnnie's elbow.
He took off his hat and bowed.
'Unfortunately not,' he said, 'but would you be good enough to accompany me instead?'
The girl screamed with laughter. She was a little painted prostitute who had walked up from Piccadilly to see the fun.
'What would they say to me if I went inside?' she chaffed.
'That's exactly what I would like to know,' said Johnnie. 'Will you come with me? Or are you afraid? I'll give you five pounds if you do.'
The girl laughed nervously, and another woman, her companion, pulled at her arm.
'Come away,' she said. 'Don't you see the gentleman's tipsy?'
'Tipsy be damned,' said Johnnie. 'I'm roaring drunk if you want to know. Here, what about this 8? And he shook five sovereigns in his hand.
'All right, I'll do it,' said the girl boldly. 'Let go, Annie, will you?'
Johnnie offered her his arm, and rang the bell.
Once more the door opened, and a powdered footman stood within the entrance. A hum of voices greeted Johnnie and his companion. Men in uniform and women in evening dress thronged the stairs. At the head of the stairs on the landing, Johnnie caught a glimpse of his white-haired colonel and his stately wife.
'What's your name, sweetheart?' said Johnnie to the girl beside him.
'Vera,' said the girl, hanging back, 'Vera Potts… You're not going to take me up there, are you, mister?'
'I most certainly am,' said Johnnie. He handed his hat and coat with a bow to the second footman, who was whispering to his colleague in great agitation. 'Have the goodness to announce us,' said Johnnie, moving forward to the stairs. 'Captain Brodrick and Miss Vera Potts. Hullo, my dear Robin, how are you?
And your wife? Delighted to meet you. I don't think you have met Miss Potts. Miss Potts, Captain Sir Robert and Lady Frazer. This way, Vera my dear?
People were falling back against the stairway as Johnnie elbowed his way forward, the girl still clinging to his arm. Johnnie himself could see with difficulty, but he was aware of many heads turned towards him, of several blank expressions, of someone calling to him from the hall below in a voice of extreme urgency, but he felt himself possessed of great power and self-confidence. Now his colonel's head was turned towards him, and the conventional smile of greeting froze on the lips of the colonel's wife, as her outstretched hand, in its long white glove, fell before the grubby paw extended to her by her uninvited guest.
'Good evening, Mrs. Greville,' said Johnnie, 'good evening, sir. May I present Miss Vera Potts, of the old firm of Potts, Piccadilly?'
'Please to meet you, I'm sure,' said his companion.
Mrs. Greville had the distant, far-away expression of one who has received a blow between the eyes, and for one moment Johnnie thought she might faint. But she recovered magnificently, she bowed, she murmured.
The colonel was unmoved. He greeted Johnnie with courtesy, and shook hands with Johnnie's companion. Only the little pulse beating in his forehead betrayed his inner feelings.
'Morton,' he said, to a crimson-faced young subaltern at his elbow, 'I think Miss Potts would be happier outside. Would you have the goodness to see her to the door? There is another staircase, through the landing there, on the left. Thank you. And will you, Frazer, and somebody else, hail a cab and take Brodrick home? I am afraid he is not very well. '?
'On the contrary,' said Johnnie, 'I am exceedingly well. And I myself will conduct Miss Potts to her friends. Good evening, sir.'
He bowed, he offered his arm once more to his companion, and together they sailed down the staircase and into the hall, stared at by a hundred faces; and so his hat and his coat and his stick again, and out on to the red carpet with the door slamming behind them…
