Page:Zangwill-King of schnorrers.djvu/263

249 THE PRINCIPAL BOY. 249

" Is a fiction. Had she been a fact it would have been all the same. I had had enough of mamma. No more leading-strings !"

" Lucy ! And you wept over her so in your letters? "

" Crocodile's tears. Heavens, are women to have no lives of their own? "

"Oh, why did you not write to me of your difficulties?" he groaned. " I would have come over and fetched you — we would have borne poverty together."

"Yes," the Prince said mockingly. " ' 'E was werry good to me, 'e was.' Do you think I could submit to government by a prig?"

He started as if stung. The little tinselled figure, looking taller in its swashbuckling habits, stared at him defiantly.

"Tell me," he said brokenly, "have you made a living?"

" No. If truth must be told, Lucy Gray — docked at the tail, sir — hasn't made enough to keep Lucy Grayling in theatrical costumes. I got plenty of kudos in the Provinces, but two of my managers were bogus."

"Yes?" he said vaguely.

" No treasury, don't you know? Ghost didn't walk. No oof, rhino, shiners, coin, cash, salary ! "

" Do I understand you have travelled about the country by yourself? "

" By myself ! What, in a company ? You've picked up Irish in America. Ha ! ha ! ha ! "

"You know what I mean, Lucy." It seemed strange to call this new person Lucy, but " Miss Grayling " would have sounded just as strange.

" Oh, there was sure to be a married lady — with her husband — in the troupe, poor thing ! " The Prince had a roguish twinkle in the eye. " And surely I am old enough to take care of myself. Still, I felt you wouldn't like it.