To the Theatre he went,and reached it just in time to witness the first meeting of his father and his friend.Sir Thomas had been a good deal surprised to find candles burning in his room;and on casting his eye round it,to see other symptoms of recent habitation,and a general air of confusion in the furniture.The removal of the bookcase from before the billiard room door struck him especially,but he had scarcely more than time to feel astonished at all this,before there were sounds from the billiard room to astonish him still further.Some one was talking there in a very loud accent-he did not know the voice-more than talking-almost hallooing.He stepped to the door,rejoicing at that moment in having the means of immediate communication,and opening it,found himself on the stage of a theatre,and opposed to a ranting young man,who appeared likely to knock him down backwards.At the very moment of Yates perceiving Sir Thomas,and giving perhaps the very best start he had ever given in the whole course of his rehearsals,Tom Bertram entered at the other end of the room;and never had he found greater difficulty in keeping his countenance.His father's looks of solemnity and amazement on this his first appearance on any stage,and the gradual metamorphosis of the impassioned Baron Wildenhaim into the well-bred and easy Mr Yates,making his bow and apology to Sir Thomas Bertram,was such an exhibition,such a piece of true acting as he would not have lost upon any account.It would be the last-in all probability the last scene on that stage;but he was sure there could not be a finer.The house would close with the greatest eclat.
There was little time,however,for the indulgence of any images of merriment.It was necessary for him to step forward too and assist the introduction,and with many awkward sensations he did his best.Sir Thomas received Mr Yates with all the appearance of cordiality which was due to his own character,but was really as far from pleased with the necessity of the acquaintance as with the manner of its commencement.Mr Yates's family and connections were sufficiently known to him,to render his introduction as the ‘particular friend,’another of the hundred particular friends of his son,exceedingly unwelcome;and it needed all the felicity of being again at home,and all the forbearance it could supply,to save Sir Thomas from anger on finding himself thus bewildered in his own house,making part of a ridiculous exhibition in the midst of theatrical nonsense,and forced in so untoward a moment to admit the acquaintance of a young man whom he felt sure of disapproving,and whose easy indifference and volubility in the course of the first five minutes seemed to mark him the most at home of the two.
Tom understood his father's thoughts,and heartily wishing he might be always as well disposed to give them but partial expression,began to see more clearly than he had ever done before that there might be some ground of offence-that there might be some reason for the glance his father gave towards the ceiling and stucco of the room;and that when he inquired with mild gravity after the fate of the billiard table,he was not proceeding beyond a very allowable curiosity.A few minutes were enough for such unsatisfactory sensations on each side;and Sir Thomas,having exerted himself so far as to speak a few words of calm approbation in reply to an eager appeal of Mr Yates,as to the happiness of the arrangement,the three gentlemen returned to the drawing-room together,Sir Thomas with an increase of gravity which was not lost on all.
‘I come from your theatre,’said he composedly,as he sat down;‘I found myself in it rather unexpectedly.Its vicinity to my own room-but in every respect indeed it took me by surprise,as I had not the smallest suspicion of your acting having assumed so serious a character.It appears a neat job,however,as far as I could judge by candlelight,and does my friend Christopher Jackson credit.’And then he would have changed the subject,and sipped his coffee in peace over domestic matters of a calmer hue;but Mr Yates,without discernment to catch Sir Thomas's meaning,or diffidence,or delicacy,or discretion enough to allow him to lead the discourse while he mingled among the others with the least obtrusiveness himself,would keep him on the topic of the theatre,would torment him with questions and remarks relative to it,and finally would make him hear the whole history of his disappointment at Ecclesford.Sir Thomas listened most politely,but found much to offend his ideas of decorum and confirm his ill opinion of Mr Yates's habits of thinking from the beginning to the end of the story;and when it was over,could give him no other assurance of sympathy than what a slight bow conveyed.
‘This was in fact the origin of our acting,’said Tom after a moment's thought.‘My friend Yates brought the infection from Ecclesford,and it spread as those things always spread you know,sir-the faster probably from your having so often encouraged the sort of thing in us formerly.It was like treading old ground again.’
