Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/90

64 64 THE AMBITIONS OF SIR JAMES BARRIE flower-beds instead of sensible feather ones, and lavender and marjoram and rosemary keep tripping the feet of the characters, turning their movements into a mere minuet. The tenant's name is Miss Phcebe, and in one of these absurd rooms she is represented as keeping a school — a further suggestion being that one day, grown aweary of teaching, she pretends to be her own non-existent niece (did any one ever hear of such nonsense now ?) in order to attract an escort to a Ball (immoral too, it will be seen), and succeeds so well in her duplicity (though she merely shakes her curls free from her cap) that the very neighbours are deceived and her bosom friends imposed on, and all the swains who mildly scorned her when she sat sedately in Room I fall transfixed when they meet her in Room II. "A pretty trifle, but unreal. The diction, mock Georgian. The action, as artificial as the dialogue. The famous Barrie-tone of which I have always heard so much would appear in reality to be a simple treble." So might a new surveyor sum it up, and snap his notebook to with brisk decision — smiling indulgently when, on glancing up, he sees the unneces- sarily jealous way we have been watching all his movements. But to us of the old guard — how much more it is than that ! It is a treasure-house of heirlooms, a store of lavendered delights ; and Life flows between the frail walls almost furiously. Every article has its history, memories race from room to room, each word uttered is a bait to bring more scampering ; and the very touches that to alien eyes must seem most artificial affect us like the friendly touches of kind hands. We recognize the very schoolroom, for example : *' the blue- and-white room" where Miss Susan listens with a fearful joy to a friend reading romances from the library and where, if you are a caller, you will certainly be requested timidly to be so obliging as to stand on