CHAPTER IX.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

To explain what had occurred, and how that terrible cry had arisen, it is necessary to describe what had been passing in the large hall whilst the tableaux were going on upstairs.

The stalls of the bazaar were by that time pretty well empty, and made fine seats for the crowd of little people waiting eagerly to watch the antics of the performing dogs. Numbers of grown-up people, unable to get into the “theatre,” as it was dubbed for the nonce, remained to take care of the little ones, and the middle of the floor was left clear for the showman and his troupe.

This, like most other of the entertainments, was an amateur affair, the showman being a young man of fallen fortunes, who, from his love for animals, had taken to the training of performing dogs, sometimes making money by them, but always ready to lend his services for a good cause.

One of the cleverest of his dogs was a black poodle, half clipped and half shaggy, and he did wonderful things, as did also a big fox-terrier, his special friend and comrade. One of their accomplishments was to strike a match and light their pipes, and this feat was so applauded that it was repeated.

Somehow—nobody of course could say how or why—a spark from the match or the pipe settled in the poodle’s glossy coat, and, as it so chanced, his master had lately used a wash for it having some paraffin in its composition.

Instantly the poor dog was in a blaze, and, terrified out of all knowledge, rushed wildly hither and thither to the terror of all, whilst his master, catching up a great heavy cloak which a lady, with great presence of mind, flung across to him, pursued the poor creature, and at last succeeded in throwing this over him, and rolling him over till the flames were extinguished.

Everybody was watching the chase and the capture, and crowding round to know how much the poor dog had been hurt; and meantime a little thread of flame was running up one of the festoons against which the dog had dashed, and this in turn set fire to other festoons, till some burning paper fell upon one of the flimsy draperies of a stall, and in a moment a piercing cry went up from fifty throats—

“Fire! Fire!”

This was the cry which fell upon the ears of the packed assembly in the upper room, and immediately a thrill and a rustle went through the spectators.

North was one of the actors in the picture, but in a moment he sprang to the footlights and said, speaking with an air of authoritative entreaty—

“I beg you, ladies and gentlemen, to keep your seats, and only go out quietly. Remember that that door is the only exit. If it becomes choked nobody behind can escape. Probably whatever has occurred is only trifling. I beg you not to endanger your own safety and that of others by any sort of a rush. Let those on the back rows move first, and in five minutes the place can be cleared.”

So spoke North, and a cheer went up from several amongst the audience, and those in the front remained still, though faces were pale, and heads were anxiously turned towards the door, where the sounds from the great hall below became more and more menacing. Then a puff of smoke darkened the air and a lady shrieked, and the next moment a man’s voice from the stage exclaimed hoarsely:

“I vow the place is on fire! I’m not going to stay to be suffocated like a rabbit in its warren!”

At those words the whole hall rose in a sort of panic, but North had caught hold of the figure, which in its finery was on the verge of leaping into the space below, and in a voice hoarse with passion he cried out:

“Cyril—you coward! You sha’n’t do it! Not if I have to detain you by force. If there is a panic now it will be all your doing!”

For a moment it was touch and go. North held his breath. His voice could not be heard, but his action had been seen. Somebody had thrown back the darkening curtains and let in the bright sunshine, and Oscar instantly turned off the gas of the footlights. The opportune flood of daylight had the effect of restoring momentary confidence; and Miss Adene, who was in the third row, was earnestly entreating those about her not to crowd out before their turn. She had a calm and gentle firmness of manner that had its due effect, and though there was considerable press in the doorway, and often those who got through gave an audible shriek on reaching the vestibule leading into the hall below, still there was no absolute choking of the one exit, and North, who stood holding back the struggling Cyril, his face sternly set towards the door, gave a sigh of infinite relief as he saw that there would not be the dreaded block, which might have meant loss of many lives.

Suddenly his hold on Cyril’s torn finery relaxed, and he half pushed him from him.

“Go now, if you must! I have others to see to, but——”

Cyril waited for nothing more. He was off like an arrow from a bow, pushing and elbowing his way out, even jostling past Miss Adene, who was quietly conducting down the gangway a party of ladies who had instinctively turned to her as to a tower of strength in a terrible moment. He did not recognise her, though she knew him well enough, and a little curve of the lips showed her feelings as he pushed by.

Upon the stage was a frightened group of white-faced girls all clinging together, watching with dilated eyes the melting of the crowd round the door, and the increasing volume of smoke rolling in.

Effie’s father had pushed his way upwards and was on the stage, holding his daughter closely in his arms, whilst Sheila had run to Oscar at the first hint of danger, and the two were standing together, he striving to keep her calm, whilst she was piteously asking if they could not get out by one of the windows. She knew the hall was on fire.

May’s brothers had taken possession of her and another girl-actor who had nobody with her. North had climbed up to see if there was any reasonable chance of rescue from the street. It was very plain that to go out into the larger hall was only to change one peril for another. Lionel Benson came up and said—

“Look here, North, this place is almost clear now. I’ll go and have a look what is happening below. If there’s a crush and panic there and the exits are choked, we’d better shut the doors upon ourselves and attract attention from without. The building is solid enough, that won’t burn easily. It’s the flimsy flummery that’s caught alight. Hark at that screaming below. I’m afraid things are bad there. Don’t let our girls go out into it just yet. We may be safer here. I’ll go and look and report.” And, in fact, as Lionel was speaking, there was a backward recoil into the hall of many who had left it. Miss Adene came in with a pale face, saying to North who eagerly met her—

“They are getting the children out as fast as they can. I trust there will be no lives lost; but it is a terrible sight, with all the draperies in a blaze, and flakes of fire falling down from the burning festoons. The firemen are here. I have seen brass helmets; I think they will stop the choking of the exits, but I would rather be here with May. Is the child very much frightened? Let me go to her.”

May and Sheila both ran forward at sight of Miss Adene. Their faces were white beneath the stage paint; they clasped her hands, and cried out piteously—

“Oh, Miss Adene, oh, Cousin Mary! What is it? What is happening? Is it very bad? Oh, please tell us! Can’t we get out? Must we stay here to be——”

They could not get out the awful word; they were trembling like aspens. Miss Adene took a hand of each and said—

“Nothing can happen to us but what our heavenly Father permits. We will ask Him in our hearts to bring us safely out of this, and I think He will. Brave men are at work to put down the danger. They are getting the hose into the building, and I think they will soon get the fire under. I think we are better here than swelling the number below. See, they have shut out the smoke now! Suppose you come and change your dresses? You will be more comfortable then; and for the next ten minutes I think you may be sure you will not have to move.”

Trembling and terrified, yet half reassured, the girls allowed themselves to be led into the dressing-room beyond, where others had crowded, as though to get as far off as possible from the sounds below and the terrible, choking smoke-wreaths. The windows were open, and here there was little to be heard or seen. They hurried into their own dresses, listening and talking in breathless undertones the while, whilst messengers went to and fro, and Mr. North sat holding Effie in his arms, the shock having been quite too much for her, and culminating in an acute attack of breathlessness which the smoke-laden air seemed to aggravate.

“Let her come to the window,” said Sheila, and room was made for her there. But nobody could keep still or help starting and shuddering at every sound from without. They could hear what a tumult was going on in another street, and it was hard to bear being shut up here; yet every messenger who went out for news came back saying they were safest where they were.

Then a sudden cheer arose from North and the youths about him, and in dashed Oscar, crying out—

“Here comes the fire-escape round the corner, with Lionel Benson to guide it! He has got out all right, and has brought it for us. Now we are as safe as anything! Good old Lionel! Now then, ladies, one at a time! We will have you all safe directly.”

Sheila suddenly went sick and white with the revulsion of feeling, and May, seizing Miss Adene’s hands, sobbed out—

“Oh, Cousin Mary, Cousin Mary, God has heard us, after all! I’m afraid I did not quite believe He would!”

The next minute a helmeted figure was among them, quietly settling matters, and sending one girl after another down the shoot, to be received with cries and cheers by those below.

But it took some little time, and Miss Adene, disengaging her hands from May’s, said quietly—

“I should like to go and have one more look into the hall. I shall have plenty of time before my turn comes.”

“Oh, let me go with you!” cried Sheila eagerly, and May, too, was filled with a sudden, timid, and irresistible curiosity. Oscar, who was standing beside his sister, took her hand at once, and said—

“Come, then, and see! But I think the worst is over now. They have had the hose at work some while now. But the place is like a kiln; you could hardly get through it now.”

And, indeed, when the doors were opened, such a volume of hot, reeking steam came pouring in that it was with difficulty they could see anything. The steady sound of pumping was in their ears, and through the gloom they could still see darting tongues of flame rising up from the charred masses of woodwork and drapery that had once been gaily-decked stalls. The hiss of the water, the moving shapes of the firemen with their shining helmets, the desolation of the scene as compared with what it had been an hour before was something rather terrible to contemplate; and Sheila, clinging to Oscar’s arm, whispered a frightened query—

“Oh, tell me, has anybody been killed?”

“I believe not—I hope not; but some have been hurt and more have been terribly frightened. If the ladies with the children had not behaved splendidly when it broke out, they say there must have been a fearful loss of life; but nobody knows any details yet.”

“I think the only person who has absolutely disgraced himself is my brother Cyril,” said North, coming up to look for the missing ladies, his face still wearing the stern, set look that had characterised it throughout. That he felt Cyril’s behaviour keenly was self-evident. May took the arm he offered her, and said in her gracious way—

“But I suppose sometimes even a brave man may lose his head. I’m sure, if I could have moved hand or foot, I should have made a most frantic rush.”

“You did not do it, at any rate,” said North, with a straight look into May’s charming face that made her colour up to her ears—“and Cyril did. I think I could forgive him better if he were not my brother. And there was no immediate danger where we were. He had not that excuse. To push aside women and girls to effect his own escape——” The young man ceased suddenly, as though realising that in the stress of his feeling he was needlessly vituperating his own brother. But, as he said, it was the very fact of the close relationship that made the disgrace so hard to bear.

It was an easy descent to the street, though a strange experience, and Sheila stood beside May in the midst of the eager crowd, breathless, safe, and more keenly excited than she had ever been in her life before.

“Oh, Sheila,” she cried as, in response to North’s eager invitation, they all moved off together in the direction of River Street, “I have had my wish at last!”

“What wish?”

“Oh, don’t you remember what I said one day about wishing there could sometimes be danger to see what men and women would do? We were in danger to-day, were we not? And how splendidly so many of the people behaved!”

“Didn’t they!” cried Sheila eagerly. “I think North was fine. The way he held back Cyril, and kept all the people quiet! And Miss Adene was just as splendid too.”

“Oh, yes; I do like to see brave things!” cried May impulsively. “I thought your brother and cousin—I mean North, you know—were just what men should be—thinking of things and doing them, and never troubling about themselves.”

“Yes, my other cousin wasn’t much like that,” said Sheila, with a scornful turn of the lip. “I shall never, never care the least bit for Cyril again.”

“I don’t think anybody could,” said May, “who saw him to-day.”

(_To be continued._)

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

⁂ The Editor begs to announce that he cannot undertake to return the MSS. of compositions (literary or musical) sent for criticism in this column.

STUDY AND STUDIO.

SODA.—We think you must refer to the Deppé method of learning the pianoforte. If you apply to Miss Chaplin, 138, Marylebone Road, she will give you full particulars of a class that has been formed, as well as of private instruction. We cannot pronounce on the merits of the system, but believe it is highly esteemed by many authorities.

AILSA.—1. Your lines are decidedly above the average of those submitted to us for criticism. You evidently understand how to write in metre, though your rhymes are not always good, _e.g._, “glories” and “chorus.”—2. You can hardly get your words set to music unless you know some musical composer who will do it. You might apply to a well-known musical firm, but we fear it would be of no use.

“COBO.”—We are quite certain you could not hope to earn money by book-illustration without some instruction in “black and white.” If you gave us your address, we could direct you where to apply for this; but you might inquire of the Secretary, Technical Education Board, St. Martin’s Lane, London, or refer to Mrs. Watson’s articles on “What are the County Councils Doing for Girls?” in THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER for 1897.

DAUGHTER OF A SIXTEEN YEARS’ SUBSCRIBER.—We commend to you the advice of our last answer. There are a great number of scholarships for girls now offered by the County Council, of which you can easily obtain the fullest particulars.

“ALWAYS IN A HURRY.”—We think your writing is very fairly good, and do not consider, especially as you are so busy, that you need use a copy-book. Keep a regular space between the lines of a letter, and do not leave a margin at the end of them; also guard against sudden blacknesses, which spoil the general effect. We are inquiring for your extract, and thank you for your information and kind letter.

SOROR.—The fee for the National Art Training School, South Kensington, is £5 per session of five months, with an entrance fee of 10s. The hours are from 9 A.M. to 3.30 P.M., every day except Saturday. No doubt the lady superintendent could recommend your sister some place where she could board. A great many girl-students of art and music board at Alexandra House, South Kensington. You might apply there also. Do you know of the Crystal Palace Company’s School of Art? There is a board-residentiary house in connection with it, and there are annual scholarships.

CANARY.—1. Your quotation—

“Men must work and women must weep”

is from a short poem by Charles Kingsley, which begins—

“Three fishers went sailing away to the west.”

You will find it in any edition of his works, and it has been set to music.—2. September 28th, 1887, was a Wednesday. Two questions are our limit.

GIRLS’ EMPLOYMENTS.

SOUTH AFRICA (_Agency for Lady Housekeepers_).—A list of respectable employment agencies has been compiled by the Associated Guild of Registries, and may be obtained from the publishers, Messrs. Gardner, Darton & Co., 44, Victoria Street, S.W. You could apply to any of the registries mentioned in that list with entire confidence. But the point to remember is this, that no agency can promise to find situations which are very scarce and desired by a vast number of people, such, for instance, as the post of lady housekeeper you mention. If you would undertake the duties of a working housekeeper or working matron, it is probable you would easily find employment, and would not then have cause to complain that registry-office keepers take fees and do not provide work.

DUM VIVIMUS VIVAMUS (_Employment for Part Time_).—This is always exceedingly difficult to obtain, and, for this reason, employers who only want part of a person’s time usually pay at a higher rate than they otherwise would do, knowing that it is difficult for a girl to fill up the other half. You think of employing the three days of the week that are left free in copying letters and addressing envelopes. But this we cannot counsel, such work being both scarce and miserably paid. But, living as you do tolerably near Norwich, it seems to us that it would be far better for you to engage regularly and for all your time in one of the industries of that city. Some girls are employed at a large circulating library and printing works, and this kind of occupation might suit you. Then there are some electrical organ works in Colegate Street, where girls who have deft fingers and are well educated can sometimes find employment of a superior class to that of the principal factories. But Norwich abounds in occupations for girls in connection with its large manufactories, and it is therefore hardly needful to enumerate the many kinds of business which are carried on in that city.

UNSETTLED (_Emigration_).—From what you tell us of yourself and your circumstances, we are led to believe that emigration might be a desirable course for you. For a young woman standing alone in the world as you do, the life of a cotton-mill hand is apt to become dreary, whereas in Manitoba you might make friends and interests of your own. The climate, too, cannot fail to prove beneficial to you, and the life will altogether be hostile to the bronchitis from which you now occasionally suffer. Possibly the British Women’s Emigration Association, Imperial Institute, Kensington, London, could arrange for you to go out to Canada with a protected party; and you should make a note of the address of the Girls’ Home of Welcome, 272, Assiniboine Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, for you could be received there and boarded free of charge for the first twenty-four hours after arrival, and doubtless the Superintendent could make some suggestions with regard to your finding employment. You should continue to occupy your evening hours in attending some cookery and laundry classes. April is considered the best month for arriving in Canada. The through fare to Winnipeg is about £7 10s.

GERTRUDE (_Painting Cards, etc._).—The manufacturers of Christmas cards only care to receive designs which they can colour and reproduce in great number. They have no use for hand-painted cards. But as you are wise enough not to insist, like so many girls, on doing work only in your own home, it is quite possible you might obtain employment with either a firm of chromo-lithographers or the highest class of manufacturing stationers. You would be well prepared for the chromo-lithographic business by studying for a time at the Royal Female School of Art, Queen Square, Bloomsbury. In the stationery trade girls are employed, but as they are mainly occupied in tinting the spaces which are afterwards embossed with a crest or monogram, there is not much scope for progress beyond a fixed point. The payment, however, is good in the best establishments, and the work is certainly not arduous.

LAEN (_Home Work_).—They must be very clever and exceptional girls indeed who can earn £2 or £3 a week by work done at home. Promises of such amounts are sometimes held out by advertisements; but inquiry often reveals that the girls who reply are expected to spend something first, and then to await payment, which never comes. It is probably some advertisement of this kind that gives rise to your question.

MEDICAL.

NEMO.—The cause of the perspiration having an unpleasant smell has been attributed to many things. Just lately a germ has been discovered which has the power of rendering the perspiration offensive in a very short time. Usually the sweat is perfectly inodorous when exuded, but in some families a condition known as bromhydrosis obtains, in which the perspiration is of an offensive odour. In some diseases, where excessive perspiration occurs, the sweat soon develops an offensive smell, doubtless due to the machinations of the germ mentioned above. The commonest diseases in which excessive sweating occurs are ague, phthisis, and rheumatic fever. We advise you to take a bath every day, and to change your linen as frequently as you can. A lump of borax, or better still, a wineglassful of vinegar added to your bath will help you to rid yourself of this unpleasant annoyance. If this does not succeed, sponge over the parts of the body which perspire the most freely with a mixture of toilet vinegar and water (1 in 6).

PATIENT.—You may be suffering from gall-stones, or you may not. This disease is one of the most difficult of all disorders to detect; indeed, it is but rarely diagnosed with certainty. Gall-stones by no means always give rise to symptoms. Jaundice is sometimes due to gall-stones, but as this is a sign of many diseases, it does not follow that because you are jaundiced you have gall-stones. And the converse is equally fallacious, for gall-stones do not always cause jaundice. You must go to a physician, and he will do his best for you; but as we said before, it is by no means always possible to tell whether gall-stones are present.

EYES.—1. Your eyes become tired because you use them too much. You say you are constantly reading or writing, so your poor eyes are kept constantly at work. You should, if possible, allow your eyes some rest, or more properly recreation, for the eyes cannot rest during the light; but above all things you must be careful not to give your eyes unnecessary labour. Never read small print, or read in a dim or flickering light. Use white paper in preference to blue or cream-colour. If you have reason to believe that your eyes are not quite normal, go to an oculist and have them tested, and obtain spectacles if such are needed. The puffiness under the eyes is only a symptom denoting that the eyes have been over-used. An eye-wash consisting of ten grains of boracic acid, and half a teaspoonful of compound tincture of lavender in a pint of warm water will cause the swelling to subside. Indigestion does affect the eyes in several ways, not the least important of which is to render them less able to resist the effects of over-use.—2. Cure your indigestion and your colour will improve.

NYDIA.—You suffer from flushing caused by indigestion. You have been treated for indigestion, and all your symptoms have disappeared except this flushing—not at all an uncommon history, for flushing is one of the most difficult symptoms of indigestion to quell. You know how to treat dyspepsia, so we need not go over that ground again; but to cure flushing, the most important points to attend to are, to avoid tea and coffee, and to drink very sparingly with meals, to masticate thoroughly, and not to run about after meals.

DESPONDENT.—Yes! girls do suffer from gout. We have seen typical acute gout in girls in their “teens.” It is not, however, very common, and, as far as we have seen, it only occurs in members of a gouty family.

MISCELLANEOUS.

MARGUERITE JAUNE and EVELYN.—It is quite easy to paint on satin with water-colours if a certain amount of body-colour be employed as a foundation, and one drop of Miss Turck’s water-colour fixative or medium be added to each colour. We could not pronounce an opinion on the superiority of one hospital over another in the matter of training nurses. The following are the general rules that obtain in all our hospitals. The age, from 25 to 40, good references as to character, and condition of health. After a test of a few weeks, they enter on a year of probation, during which time their wages are on an average £12, with (or without) partial uniform. They are usually expected to remain in the service of the hospital where they have been trained for a further period of three years, in the course of which their wages rise to £22 or £25.

SPEEDWELL.—The specimen is _Claytonia perfoliata_. It is a native of N.-W. America, Mexico and Cuba, but has now become naturalised in England. Plants should be laid flat between sheets of blotting-paper and a weight placed upon them; some flat irons or large stones will do; or better still, if they can be put in a press they will readily dry and retain their colour to some extent. _Every day_ the sheets of blotting-paper should be thoroughly dried and the plants replaced until they are perfectly dried.

M. A. T.—The French phrase, “Je vous en fais mes compliments empressés,” means, “I present my hearty compliments on” so-and-so, or such an event. Literally rendered (according to French idiom), “I you on it make my compliments earnestly” (or more literally “emphasised”).

RABY.—A Conservative is a medium Tory, one who wishes to preserve the union of Church and State, and not radically to alter the Constitution. The term was first used in 1830, in the January number of the _Quarterly Review_. Liberal was a term first employed in 1815, when Lord Byron and his friends started the periodical called _The Liberal_, to represent their views. A Radical is an ultra-Liberal, verging on republican opinions. The term was first applied in 1818 to those who wished to introduce _radical reform_ into the representative system. The Liberal-Unionists are those Whigs and Radicals who united in 1886 with Lord Salisbury and the Conservative party to oppose Home Rule for Ireland. The present Duke of Devonshire was head of the Whigs, and Mr. Chamberlain head of the Radicals, who seceded. The term Whig appears to be extinct at present. There is a very great change in all opinions, and to quote a recent speech, “the Conservatives have become more liberal, and the Liberals more conservative” than of yore.

LUSITANIA.—The term “stock,” as employed in English cookery books, signifies the foundation of soup, and is made from meat and bones. To make good soup from it, the stock should be in jelly when cold. Pea-flour, vegetables, lentils, and so forth, and whatever flavouring may be desired, should be added to it. The cold which some people suffer in the feet and hands arises from mal-nutrition, an insufficiency of warmth-giving food, as also of suitable clothing; and thirdly, from an insufficient amount of exercise. Tight stays also greatly impede the due circulation of the blood. When you finish taking exercise and sit down to your avocations or recreations, put your feet into a fur slipper or foot-warmer, such as employed in a carriage. The heat-producing foods are those containing starch, sugar, gum, and fat.

IRENE.—“Sir R. Loder,” with no initial letters after his name, is simply a knight, a dignity which is not hereditary, and cannot descend to his son. “Sir Thomas Hesketh, Bart.,” is a baronet, which is a dignity inherited by his eldest son. “Bart.” is an abbreviation—solely restricted to writing—of “baronet.”

FOUR YEARS’ READER.—You had better go to a musical instrument shop, or communicate with the manager by letter, respecting the instrument you name. Without reasonable doubt he will give some addresses of masters for it. You should not spell “entitled” “entiteled,” “whom” “whome,” nor “oblige” “oblidge.”

H. GAMBLE.—There is a hospital for epilepsy at Portland Terrace, Regent’s Park, near St. John’s Wood Road Station, where patients may be received free, or according to the means of the family. There is another, the West End Hospital, 73, Welbeck Street, W.: but whether patients may be received there free you must inquire.

* * * * *

[Transcriber’s Note—The following changes have been made to this text:

Page 562: grevious to grievous—“grievous lies”.

Page 566: rght to rght—“to the right”.

Fennimore to Fenimore—“Fenimore Cooper’s”.

Page 569: removed dittograph “he”—“he would work so hard”.

Page 573: amuteur to amateur—“nurse is an amateur”.

atten- to attention—“her whole attention”.

Page 576: fixitive to fixative—“fixative or medium”.]