Paul returned to the Common Room with the Doctor's message.
'Hell! said Grimes. 'I still hoped it might fall through.
'What d'you want for a wedding present? Paul asked.
Grimes brightened. 'What about that binge you promised me and Prendy?
'All right! said Paul. 'We'll have it tomorrow.
The Hotel Metropole, Cympryddyg, is by far the grandest hotel in the north of Wales. It is situated on a high and healthy eminence overlooking the strip of water that railway companies have gallantly compared to the Bay of Naples. It was built in the ample days preceding the war, with a lavish expenditure on looking‑glass and marble. To‑day it shows signs of wear, for it has never been quite as popular as its pioneers hoped. There are cracks in the cement on the main terrace, the winter garden is draughty, and one comes disconcertingly upon derelict bathchairs in the Moorish Court. Besides this, none of the fountains ever play, the string band that used to perform nightly in the ballroom has given place to a very expensive wireless set which one of the waiters knows how to operate, there is never any notepaper in the writing‑room, and the sheets are not long enough for the beds. Philbrick pointed out these defects to Paul as he sat with Grimes and Mr Prendergast drinking cocktails in the Palm Court before dinner.
'And it isn't as though it was really cheap, he said. Philbrick had become quite genial during the last few days. 'Still, one can't expect much in Wales, and it is something. I can't live without some kind of luxury for long. I'm not staying this evening, or I'd ask you fellows to dine with me.
'Philbrick, old boy, said Grimes, 'me and my pals here have been wanting a word with you for some time. How about those yarns you spun about your being a ship-owner and a novelist and a burglar?
'Since you mention it, said Philbrick with dignity, 'they were untrue. One day you shall know my full story. It is stranger than any fiction. Meanwhile I have to be back at the Castle. Good night.
'He certainly seems quite a swell here, said Grimes as they watched him disappear into the night escorted with every obsequy by the manager and the head‑waiter. 'I daresay he could tell a story if he wanted to.
'I believe it's their keys, said Mr Prendergast suddenly. It was the first time that he had spoken. For twenty minutes he had been sitting very upright in his gilt chair and very alert, his eyes unusually bright, darting this way and that in his eagerness to miss nothing of the gay scene about him.
'What's their keys, Prendy?
'Why, the things they get given at the counter. I thought for a long time it was money.
'Is that what's been worrying you? Bless your heart, I thought it was the young lady in the office you were after.
'Oh, Grimes! said Mr Prendergast, and he blushed warmly and gave a little giggle.
Paul led his guests into the dining‑room.
'I haven't taught French for nothing all these years, said Grimes, studying the menu. 'I'll start with some jolly old huîtres.
Mr Prendergast ate a grape‑fruit with some difficulty. 'What a big orange! he said when he had finished it. 'They do things on a large scale here.
The soup came in little aluminium bowls. 'What price the ancestral silver? said Grimes. The Manchester merchants on the spree who sat all round them began to look a little askance at Paul's table.
'Someone's doing himself well on bubbly, said Grimes as a waiter advanced staggering under the weight of an ice‑pail from which emerged a Jeroboam of champagne. 'Good egg! It's coming to us.
'With Sir Solomon Philbrick's compliments to Captain Grimes and congratulations on his approaching marriage, sir.
Grimes took the waiter by the sleeve. 'See here, old boy, this Sir Solomon Philbrick ‑ know him well?
'He's here quite frequently, sir.
'Spends a lot of money, eh?
'He doesn't entertain at all, but he always has the best of everything himself, sir.
'Does he pay his bill?
'I really couldn't say, I'm afraid, sir. Would you be requiring anything else?
'All right, old boy! Don't get sniffy. Only he's a pal of mine, see?
'Really, Grimes, said Mr Prendergast, 'I am afraid you made him quite annoyed with your questions, and that stout man over there is staring at us in the most marked way.
'I've got a toast to propose. Prendy, fill up your glass. Here's to Trumpington, whoever he is, who gave us the money for this binge!
'And here's to Philbrick, said Paul, 'whoever he is!
'And here's to Miss Fagan, said Mr Prendergast, 'with our warmest hopes for her future happiness!
'Amen, said Grimes.
After the soup the worst sort of sole. Mr Prendergast made a little joke about soles and souls. Clearly the dinner‑party was being a great success.
'You know, said Grimes, 'look at it how you will, marriage is rather a grim thought.
'The three reasons for it given in the Prayer‑book have always seemed to me quite inadequate, agreed Mr Prendergast. 'I have never had the smallest difficulty about the avoidance of fornication, and the other two advantages seem to me nothing sort of disastrous.
'My first marriage, said Grimes, 'didn't make much odds either way. It was in Ireland. I was tight at the time, and so was everyone else. God knows what became of Mrs Grimes. It seems to me, though, that with Flossie I'm in for a pretty solemn solemnization. It's not what I should have chosen for myself, not by a long chalk. Still, as things are, I suppose it's the best thing that could have happened. I think I've about run through the schoolmastering profession. I don't mind telling you I might have found it pretty hard to get another job. There are limits. Now I'm set up for life, and no more worry about testimonials. That's something. In fact, that's all there is to be said. But there have been moments in the last twenty‑four hours, I don't mind telling you, when I've gone cold all over at the thought of what I was in for.
'I don't want to say anything discouraging, said Mr Prendergast, 'but I've known Flossie for nearly ten years now, and ‑
'There isn't anything you can tell me about Flossie that I don't know already. I almost wish it was Dingy. I suppose it's too late now to change. Oh dear! sait Grimes despondently, gazing into his glass. 'Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! That I should come to this!
'Cheer up, Grimes. It isn't like you to be as depressed as this, said Paul.
'Old friends, said Grimes ‑ and his voice was charged with emotion ‑ 'you see a man standing face to face with retribution. Respect him even if you cannot understand. Those that live by the flesh shall perish by the flesh. I am a very sinful man, and I am past my first youth. Who shall pity me in that dark declivity to which my steps inevitably seem to tend? I have boasted in my youth and held my head high and gone on my way careless of consequence, but ever behind me, unseen, stood stark Justice with his two‑edged sword.
More food was brought them. Mr Prendergast ate with a hearty appetite.
'Oh, why did nobody warn me? cried Grimes in his agony. 'I should have been told. They should have told me in so many words. They should have warned me about Flossie, not about the fires of hell. I've risked them, and I don't mind risking them again, but they should have told me about marriage. They should have told me that at the end of that gay journey and flower‑strewn path were the hideous lights of home and the voices of children. I should have been warned of the great lavender‑scented bed that was laid out for me, of the wistaria at the windows, of all the intimacy and confidence of family life. But I daresay I shouldn't have listened. Our life is lived between two homes. We emerge for a little into the light, and then the front door closes. The chintz curtains shut out the sun, and the hearth glows with the fire of home, while upstairs, above our heads, are enacted again the awful accidents of adolescence. There's a home and family waiting for every one of us. We can't escape, try how we may. It's the seed of life we carry about with us like our skeletons, each one of us unconsciously pregnant with desirable villa residences. There's no escape. As individuals we simply do not exist. We are just potential home‑builders, beavers, and ants. How do we come into being? What is birth?