III
Just a line to let you know where I am and to say I am feeling better than I have done for the last year or two, and to wish you the Compliments of the Season. And I mean it too‚ÅÝ‚Äîa Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year‚ÅÝ‚Äîso don‚Äôt you go sniffing about it. We can be friends in our own way even if we can‚Äôt settle down together any more. I think kindly of you, Carrie, honestly I do, and I wish you to do the same for me. I know you don‚Äôt want to come round the country with me and don‚Äôt want to have anything to do with the Boards any more, and you know very well I can‚Äôt spend the rest of my life sitting in the back of that shop of yours, doing up a parcel now and again. If we are both happy in our own way there‚Äôs nothing to grumble at, I say. If Alice had lived, it might have been different. Never you mind what people say‚ÅÝ‚Äîtell them to mind their own business. Or say it‚Äôs by doctor‚Äôs orders I am still on the move.
I am glad to say you‚Äôre wrong about this Show. Seeing it that night at Tewborough, when everybody and everything was all of a doodah, gave you a wrong idea of it, I can tell you. It‚Äôs got going properly now and they are eating it here, and before long we shall be making money out of it and good money too. And what you say about the boss, Miss Trant, is all wrong too. She‚Äôs one of the very best. And who do you think I ran into the other day in Leeds‚ÅÝ‚Äîold Tuppy Tanner‚ÅÝ‚Äîhe‚Äôs opening at the Royal panto there tomorrow as Baron Hard-up. Just the same only fatter than ever‚ÅÝ‚Äîand he was telling me his daughter Mona is playing principal girl at Birmingham this year‚ÅÝ‚Äîmakes you think a bit, doesn‚Äôt it‚ÅÝ‚Äîtime flies. It doesn‚Äôt seem more than a year or two since we all had that season together in Douglas‚ÅÝ‚Äîdo you remember‚ÅÝ‚Äîwhen Tuppy fell into the sea and you nursed his little girl through the measles or something‚ÅÝ‚Äîand now she‚Äôs getting her twenty a week at Birmingham and engaged to be married, Tupp tells me. Wasn‚Äôt that the time poor Jack Dean kept getting so tight and got into trouble with that little Italian woman who was at the Palace and we had to keep hiding him? Little Susie here is always asking me about him‚ÅÝ‚Äîand, my word, I could tell her some tales if I wanted to‚ÅÝ‚Äîmake her hair curl even though she has knocked about a bit herself‚ÅÝ‚Äîbut of course I draw it mild. I don‚Äôt suppose you want to know about her because you never liked poor Jack and he never liked you, but Susie is coming on fast and the first time a big man who knows a winner when he sees one happens to look at her act‚ÅÝ‚Äîit‚Äôs goodbye to the Concert Party for little Susie. And I shan‚Äôt try to stop her‚ÅÝ‚Äîlet her have a chance, I say. I wouldn‚Äôt know what to do with it, if I had a big chance now‚ÅÝ‚ÄîI‚Äôm getting on and lazy‚ÅÝ‚Äîand the old round is good enough for me. If you ever wanted to see my name up in electric lights, you shouldn‚Äôt have kept me back that time when old Wurlstein came round at Glasgow with the contract in his pocket. You didn‚Äôt want to risk it but I did‚ÅÝ‚Äîbut there‚ÅÝ‚Äîthat‚Äôs all done with‚ÅÝ‚ÄîI‚Äôm up here and you‚Äôre there with your shop, and we‚Äôre both comfortable.
What about this for a letter! I’ll be writing the Story of My Life next, after this. Now Carrie, no harm done between you and me, what do you say, and all the best for the New Year. If you see that young doctor, tell him I’m still taking that stuff and he’s a marvel.