"Let me see," said Hilda, a trifle absent-mindedly, "were you here last cold weather--I rather imagine you were, weren't you?"

"I was; I had the pleasure of--"

"To be sure. You got the place in December, when that poor fellow Baker died. Baker was a country-bred, I know, but he always kept his contracts, while you got your polish in Glesca, and your name is Macphairson--isn't it?"

"I was never in Gla.s.scow in my life, and my name is Macandrew," said the manager, putting with some aggressiveness a paper-weight on a pile of bills.

"Never mind," said Hilda, again wrapped in thought, "don't apologise--it's near enough. Well, Mr. Macandrew"--her tone came to a point--"what is the Stanhope Company's advertis.e.m.e.nt worth a month to the _Chronicle_?"

"A hundred rupees, maybe--there or thereabouts," and Mr. Macandrew, with a vast show of indifference, picked up a letter and began to tear at the end of it.

"One hundred and fifty-five, I think, to be precise. That communication will wait, won't it? What is it--Kally Nath Mitter's paper and stores bill? You won't be able to pay it any quicker if we withdraw our advertis.e.m.e.nt."

"Why should ye withdraw it?"

"It was given to you on the understanding that notices should appear of every Wednesday and Sat.u.r.day's performance. For two Wednesdays there has been no notice, and last Sat.u.r.day night you sent a fool."

"So Muster Stanhope thinks o' withdrawin' his advertis.e.m.e.nt?"

"He is very much of that mind."

The manager put his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, leaned back in his chair, and demonstrated the principle that had given him a gold watch chain--"Never be bluffed."

"Ye can withdraw it," he said, with a warily experimental eye upon her.

"How reasonable of you not to make a fuss! We'll have the order to discontinue in writing, please. If you give me a pen and paper--thanks--and I'll keep a copy."

"Stanhope has wanted to transfer it to the _Market Gazette_ for some time," she went on as she wrote.

"That's not a newspaper. You'll get no notices there."

"Cheaper on that account, probably."

"They charge like the very deevil. D'ye know the rates of them?"

"I can't say I do."

"There's a man on our staff that doesn't like your show. We'll be able to send him every night now."

"When we withdraw our advertis.e.m.e.nt?"

"Just then."

"All right," said Hilda. "It will be interesting to point out in the _Indian Empire_ the remarkable growth of independent criticism in the _Chronicle_ since Mr. Stanhope no longer uses the s.p.a.ce at his disposal.

I hope your man will be very nasty indeed. You might as well hand over the permanent pa.s.ses--the gentleman will expect, I suppose, to pay."

"They'll be in the yeditorial department," said Mr. Macandrew, but he did not summon a messenger to go for them. Instead he raised his eyebrows in a manner that expressed the necessity of making the best of it, and humourously scratched his head.

"We have four hundred pounds of new type coming out in the _Almora_--she's due on Thursday," he said. "Entirely for the advertis.e.m.e.nts. We'll have a fine display next week. It's grand type--none of your Calcutta-made stuff."

"Pays to bring it out, does it?" asked Hilda, inattentively, copying her letter.

"Pays the advertisers." There were ingratiating qualities in the managerial smile. Hilda inspected them coldly.

"There's your notice of withdrawal," she said. "Good-morning."

"Think of that new type, and how lovely Jimmy Finnigan's ad. will look in it."

"That's all right. Good-morning." Miss Howe approached the door, the blue glance of Macandrew pursuant.

"No notices for two Wednesdays, eh? We'll have to see about that. I was thinkin' of transferrin' your s.p.a.ce to the third page; it's a more advantageous position--and no extra charge--but ye'll not mention it to Jimmy."

Miss Howe lifted an arrogant chin. "Do I understand you'll do that, and guarantee regular notices, if we leave the advertis.e.m.e.nt with you?"

Mr. Macandrew looked at her expressively and tore, with a gesture of moderated recklessness, the notice of withdrawal in two.

"Rest easy," he said, "I'll see about it. I'd go the len'th of attendin'

myself to-night, if ye could spare three extra places."

"Moderate Macandrew!"

"Moderate enough. I've got some frien's stayin' in the same place with me from Behar--indigo people. I was thinkin' I'd give them a treat, if three places c'd be spared next to the _Chronicle_ seats."

"We do _Lady Whippleton_ to-night and the booking's been heavy. Five is too many, Mr. Macandrew, even if you promise not to write the notice yourself."

"I might pay for one--" Macandrew drew red cartwheels on his blotting-pad.

"Those seats are sure to be gone. I'll send you a box. Stanhope's as bad as he can be with dysentery--you might make a local out of that. Be sure to mention he can't see anybody--it's absurd the way Calcutta people want to be paid."

"A box'll be grand," said Mr. Macandrew. "I'll see ye get plenty of ancores. Can ye manage the door? Good-day, then."

Hilda stepped out on the landing. The heavy, regular thud of the presses came up from below. They were printing the edition that took the world's news to planters' bungalows in the jungle of a.s.sam and the lonely policemen on the edge of Manipore. The smell of the newspaper of to-day and of yesterday and of a year ago stood in the air; through an open door she saw the dusty, uneven piles of them, piled on the floor. Three or four messengers squatted beside the wall, with slumbrous heads between their knees. Occasionally a shout came from the room inside, and one of them, crying "_Hazur!_" with instant alacrity, stretched himself mightily, loafed upon his feet and went in, emerging a moment later carrying written sheets, with which he disappeared into the regions below. The staircase took a lazy curve and went up: under it, through an open window, the sun glistened upon the shifting white and green leaves of a pipal tree and a crow sat on the sill and thrust his grey head in with caws of indignant expostulation. A Government peon in scarlet and gold ascended the stair at his own pace, bearing a packet with an official seal. The place, with its ink-smeared walls and high ceilings, spoke between dusty yawns of the langour and the leisure which might attend the manipulation of the business of life, and Hilda paused for an instant to perceive what it said. Then she walked behind her card into the next room, where a young gentleman, reading proofs in his shirt-sleeves, flung himself upon his coat and struggled into it at her approach. He seemed to have the blackest hair and the softest eyes and the neatest moustache available, all set in a complexion frankly olive, amiable English cut, in amiable Oriental colour, and the whole illumined, when once the coat was on and the collar perfectly turned down, by the liveliest, most engaging smile. Standing with his head slightly on one side and one hand resting on the table while the other saw that nothing was disarranged between collar and top waistcoat b.u.t.ton, he was an interjection-point of imitation and attention.

"The editor of the _Chronicle_?" Hilda asked with diffident dignity, and very well informed to the contrary.

"_Not_ the editor--I am sorry to say." The confession was delightfully vivid--in the plent.i.tude of his candour it was plain that he didn't care who knew that he was sorry he was not the editor. "In journalistic parlance the sub-editor," he added. "Will you be seated, Miss Howe?" and with a tasteful silk pocket handkerchief he whisked the bottom of a chair for her.

"Then you are Mr. Molyneux Sinclair," Hilda declared. "You have been pointed out to me on several first nights. Oh, I know very well where the _Chronicle_ seats are!"

Mr. Sinclair bowed with infinite gratification and tucked the silk handkerchief back so that only a fold was visible. "We members of the Fourth Estate are fairly well known, I'm afraid, in Calcutta," he said.

"Personally, I could sometimes wish it were otherwise. But certainly not in this instance."

Hilda gave him a gay little smile. "I suppose the editor," she said, with a casual glance about the room, "is hammering out his leader for to-morrow's paper. Does he write half and do you write half, or how do you manage?"

A seriousness overspread Mr. Sinclair's countenance, which he nevertheless irradiated, as if he could not help it, with beaming eyes.

"Ah, those are the secrets of the prison-house, Miss Howe.

Unfortunately, it is not etiquette for me to say in what proportion I contribute the leading articles of the _Chronicle_. But I can tell you in confidence that if it were not for the editor's prejudices--rank prejudices--it would be a good deal larger."