65 Short Stories (34 page)

The tank was on the far left of the terrace, and behind it, supported by stays, was an immensely tall ladder at the top of which was a tiny platform. After two or three dances more, when Eva Barrett’s party were eating asparagus, the music stopped and the lights were lowered. A spot was turned on the tank. Cotman was visible in the brilliance. He ascended half a dozen steps so that he was on a level with the top of the tank.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he cried out, in a loud clear voice, ‘you are now going to see the most marvellous feat of the century. Madam Stella, the greatest diver in the world, is about to dive from a height of sixty feet into a lake of flames five foot deep. This is a feat that has never been performed before, and Madam Stella is prepared to give one hundred pounds to anyone who will attempt it. Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honour to present Madam Stella.’

A little figure appeared at the top of the steps that led on to the terrace, ran quickly up to the tank, and bowed to the applauding audience. She wore a man’s silk dressing-gown and on her head a bathing-cap. Her thin face was made up as if for the stage. The Italian countess looked at her through her 
face-a-main.

Not pretty,’ she said.

‘Good figure,’ said Eva Barrett. ‘You’ll see.’

Stella slipped out of her dressing-gown and gave it to Cotman. He went down the steps. She stood for a moment and looked at the crowd. They were in darkness and she could only see vague white faces and white shirt-fronts. She was small, beautifully made, with legs long for her body and slim hips. Her bathing costume was very scanty.

‘You’re quite right about the figure, Eva,’ said the Colonel. ‘Bit undeveloped, of course, but I know you girls think that’s quite the thing.’

Stella began to climb the ladder and the spot-light followed her. It seemed an incredible height. An attendant poured petrol on the surface of the water. Cotman was handed a flaming torch. He watched Stella reach the top of the ladder and settle herself on the platform.

‘Ready?’ he cried.

‘Yes.’

‘Go,’ he shouted.

And as he shouted he seemed to plunge the burning torch into the water. The flames sprang up, leaping high, and really terrifying to look at. At the same moment Stella dived. She came down like a streak of lightning and plunged through the flames, which subsided a moment after she had reached the water. A second later she was at the surface and jumped out to a roar, a storm of applause. Cotman wrapped the dressing-gown round her. She bowed and bowed. The applause went on. Music struck up. With a final wave of the hand she ran down the steps and between the tables to the door. The lights went up and the waiters hurried along with their neglected service.

Sandy Westcott gave a sigh. He did not know whether he was disappointed or relieved.

‘Top hole,’ said the English peer.

‘It’s a bally fake,’ said the Colonel, with his British pertinacity. ‘I bet you anything you like.’

‘It’s over so quickly,’ said her English ladyship. ‘I mean, you don’t get your money’s worth really.’

Anyhow it wasn’t her money. That it never was. The Italian countess leaned forward. She spoke fluent English, but with a strong accent.

Eva, my darling, who are those extraordinary people at the table near the door under the balcony?’

‘Packet of fun, aren’t they?’ said Sandy. ‘I simply haven’t been able to take my eyes off them.’

Eva Barrett glanced at the table the Countess indicated, and the Prince, who sat with his back to it, turned round to look.

‘They can’t be true,’ cried Eva. ‘I must ask Angelo who they are.’

Mrs Barrett was the sort of woman who knew the head waiters of all the principal restaurants in Europe by their first names. She told the waiter who was at that moment filling her glass to send Angelo to her.

It was certainly an odd pair. They were sitting by themselves at a small table. They were very old. The man was big and stout, with a mass of white hair, great bushy white eyebrows, and an enormous white moustache. He looked like the late King Humbert of Italy, but much more like a king. He sat bolt upright. He wore full evening dress, with a white tie and a collar that has been out of fashion for hard on thirty years. His companion was a little old lady in a black satin ball dress, cut very low, and tight at the waist. Round her neck were several chains of coloured beads. She wore what was obviously a wig, and a very ill-fitting one at that; it was very elaborate, all curls and sausages, and raven black. She was outrageously made-up, bright blue under the eyes and on the eyelids, the eyebrows heavily black, a great patch of very pink rouge on each cheek, and the lips a livid scarlet. The skin hung loosely on her face in deep wrinkles. She had large bold eyes and they darted eagerly from table to table. She was taking everything in, and every other minute called the old man’s attention to someone or other. The appearance of the couple was so fantastic in that fashionable crowd, the men in dinner jackets, the women in thin, pale-coloured frocks, that many eyes were turned on them. The staring did not seem to incommode the old lady. When she felt certain persons were looking at her she raised her eyebrows archly, smiled and rolled her eyes. She seemed on the point of acknowledging applause.

Angelo hurried up to the good customer that Eva Barrett was.

‘You wished to see me, my lady?’

‘Oh, Angelo, we’re simply dying to know who those absolutely marvellous people are at the next table to the door.’

Angelo gave a look and then assumed a deprecating air. The expression of his face, the movement of his shoulders, the turn of his spine, the gesture of his hands, probably even the twiddle of his toes, all indicated a half-humorous apology.

‘You must overlook them, my lady.’ He knew of course that Mrs Barrett had no right to be thus addressed, just as he knew that the Italian countess was neither Italian nor a countess and that the English lord never paid for a drink if anyone else would pay for it, but he also knew that to be thus addressed did not displease her. ‘They begged me to give them a table because they wanted to see Madam Stella do her dive. They were in the profession themselves once. I know they’re not the sort of people one expects to see dining here, but they made such a point of it I simply hadn’t the heart to refuse.’

‘But I think they’re a perfect scream. I adore them.’

‘I’ve known them for many years. The man indeed is a compatriot of mine.’ The head waiter gave a condescending little laugh. ‘I told them I’d give them a table on the condition that they didn’t dance. I wasn’t taking any risks, my lady.’

‘Oh, but I should have loved to see them dance.’

‘One has to draw the line somewhere, my lady,’ said Angelo gravely. He smiled, bowed again and withdrew.

‘Look,’ cried Sandy, ‘they’re going.’

The funny old couple were paying their bill. The old man got up and put round his wife’s neck a large white, but not too clean, feather boa. She rose. He gave her his arm, holding himself very erect, and she, small in comparison, tripped out beside him. Her black satin dress had a long train, and Eva Barrett (who was well over fifty) screamed with joy.

‘Look, I remember my mother wearing a dress like that when I was in the schoolroom.’

The comic pair walked, still arm in arm, through the spacious rooms of the Casino till they came to the door. The old man addressed a commissionaire.

‘Be so good as to direct me to the artistes’ dressing-rooms. We wish to pay our respects to Madam Stella.’

The commissionaire gave them a look and summed them up. They were not people with whom it was necessary to be very polite.

‘You won’t find her there.’

‘She has not gone? I thought she gave a second performance at two?’

‘That’s true. They might be in the bar.’

‘It won’t ’urt us just to go an’

’ave a look, Carlo,’ said the old lady. Right-o, my love,’ he answered with a great roll of the R

They walked slowly up the great stairs and entered the bar. It was empty but for the deputy-barman and a couple sitting in two arm-chairs in the corner. The old lady released her husband’s arm and tripped up with outstretched hands.

“Ow are you, dear? I felt I just ’ad to come and congratulate you, bein’ English same as you are. And in the profession meself. It’s a grand turn, my dear, it deserves to be a success.’ She turned to Cotman. ‘And this is your ‘usband?’

Stella got out of her arm-chair and a shy smile broke on her lips as she listened with some confusion to the voluble old lady.

‘Yes, that’s Syd.’

‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said.

‘And this is mine,’ said the old lady, with a little dig of the elbow in the direction of the tall white-haired man. ‘Mr Penezzi. ’E’s a count really, and I’m the Countess Penezzi by rights, but when we retired from the profession we dropped the title.’

Will you have a drink?’ said Cotman.

‘No, you ’ave one with us,’ said Mrs Penezzi, sinking into an arm-chair. ‘Carlo, you order.’

The barman came, and after some discussion three bottles of beer were ordered. Stella would not have anything.

‘She never has anything till after the second show,’ explained Cotman.

Stella was slight and small, about twenty-six, with light brown hair, cut short and waved, and grey eyes. She had reddened her lips, but wore little rouge on her face. Her skin was pale. She was not very pretty, but she had a neat little face. She wore a very simple evening frock of white silk. The beer was brought and Mr Penezzi, evidently not very talkative, took a long swig.

‘What was your line?’ asked Syd Cotman, politely.

Mrs Penezzi gave him a rolling glance of her flashing, made-up eyes and turned to her husband.

‘Tell ’em who I am, Carlo,’ she said.

‘The ‘uman cannon-ball,’ he announced.

Mrs Penezzi smiled brightly and with a quick, birdlike glance looked from one to the other. They stared at her in dismay.

‘Flora,’ she said. ‘The ‘uman cannon-ball.’

She so obviously expected them to be impressed that they did not quite know what to do. Stella gave her Syd a puzzled look. He came to the rescue. ‘It must have been before our time.’

‘Naturally it was before your time. Why, we retired from the profession definitely the year poor Queen Victoria died. It made quite a sensation when we did too. But you’ve ’eard of me, of course.’ She saw the blank look on their faces; her tone changed a little. ‘But I was the biggest draw in London. At the Old Aquarium, that was. All the swells came to see me. The Prince of Wales and I don’t know who all. I was the talk of the town. Isn’t that true, Carlo?’

‘She crowded the Aquarium for a year.’

‘It was the most spectacular turn they’d ever ’ad there. Why, only a few years ago I went up and introduced meself to Lady de Bathe. Lily Langtry, you know. She used to live down ’ere. She remembered me perfectly. She told me she’d seen me ten times.’

‘What did you do?’ asked Stella.

‘I was fired out of a cannon. Believe me, it was a sensation. And after London I went all over the world with it. Yes, my dear, I’m an old woman now and I won’t deny it. Seventy-eight Mr Penezzi is and I shall never see seventy again, but I’ve ’ad me portrait on every ‘oardin’ in London. Lady de Bathe said to me: My dear, you was as celebrated as I was. But you know what the public is, give ’em a good thing and they go mad over it, only they want change; ‘owever good it is, they get sick of it and then they won’t go and see it any more. It’ll ’appen to you, my dear, same as it ’appened to me. It comes to all of us. But Mr Penezzi always ’ad ’is ’ead screwed on ’is shoulders the right way. Been in the business since ’e was so ’igh. Circus, you know. Ringmaster. That’s ’ow I first knew ’im. I was in a troupe of acrobacks. Trapeze act, you know ’E’s a fine-lookin’ man now, but you should ’ave seen ’im then, in ’is Russian boots, and ridin’ breeches, and a tight-fittin’ coat with frogs all down the front of it crackin”is long whip as ’is ‘orses galloped round the ring, the ‘andsomest man I ever see in my life.’

Mr Penezzi did not make any remark, but thoughtfully twisted his immense white moustache.

‘Well, as I was tellin’ you, ’e was never one to throw money about and when the agents couldn’t get us bookin’s any more ’e said, let’s retire. An ’e was quite right, after ‘avin’ been the biggest star in London, we couldn’t go back to circus work any more, I mean, Mr Penezzi bein’ a count really, ’e ’ad ’is dignity to think of, so we come down ’ere and we bought a ’ouse and started a pension. It always ’ad been Mr Penezzi’s ambition to do something like that. Thirty-five years we been ’ere now We ’aven’t done so badly not until the last two or three years, and the slump came, though visitors are very different from what they was when we first started, the things they want, electric-light and runnin’ water in their bedrooms and I don’t know what all. Give them a card, Carlo. Mr Penezzi does the cookin”imself, and if ever you want a real ’ome from ’ome, you’ll know where to find it. I like professional people and we’d ’ave a rare lot to talk about, you and me, dearie. Once a professional always a professional, I say.’