Hugo- a fantasia on Modern Themes

CHAPTER VIII
ORANGE-BLOSSOM
Some two hours later Hugo was in one of the common rooms devoted to the
leisure and diversion of the legions in the upper basement: a large and bright
apartment, ornamented with bookcases, wicker chairs, and reproductions of all
that was most uplifting in graphic art. It was the domain of the ladies engaged
in Departments 30 to 45, and was managed by an elected committee of their

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number. Affixed to the walls, in and out among the specimens of graphic art,
were quite a lot of little red diamond squares, containing in white the words,
'Do it now,' in excessively readable letters. A staff notice about the early
closing of the previous day had been pinned up near the door, and printed
information relating to a trip to the Isle of Man, balloting for the use of motor-
cars on Sundays, and a gratis book entitled 'Human Nature in Shoppers,' were
also prominent. Above the fireplace was a fine mirror, and Hugo was
personally engaged in pasting on the mirror a fine and effective poster, which
ran as follows:
'Interesting. Last year the sales of the Children's Boot and Shoe Department
surpassed the sales of the Ladies' Ditto by £558. In the first half of this year,
on the contrary, the sales of the Ladies' Boot and Shoe Department have
surpassed the sales of the Children's Ditto by £25. Great credit is due to the
staff of the L.B. and S.D. But will the staff of the C.B. and S.D. allow
themselves to be thus wiped out? That is the question, and Mr. Hugo will
watch for the answer. Managers' Council, July 10th.'
Hugo, as the supreme head of Hugo's, had organized his establishment in such
a manner as to leave no regular duties for himself, conformably to the maxim
that a well-managed business is a business which runs smoothly and
efficiently when the manager is not managing, and to that other maxim that the
highest aim of the competent manager should be to make himself unnecessary.
Hence he was perfectly at liberty to be wayward and freakish in his activities
from time to time. And this happened to be one of his wayward and freakish
mornings. There were, however, few young women in the common room to
behold his aberration, for the hour was within two minutes of nine, and at nine
o'clock the latest of the legionaries was supposed to be at her post. Three girls
who were being hastily served with glasses of milk by a pink-aproned waitress
politely feigned not to see him. Then another girl ran in, and she, too, had to
pretend that the spectacle of Hugo pasting posters on mirrors was one of the
most ordinary in life. Hugo glanced at this last comer in the mirror, and sighed
a secret disappointment.
The interview with Louis Ravengar had left him less perturbed than might be
imagined—at any rate, as regards Ravengar's own share in what had occurred
and what was to occur. He was inclined to leave Ravengar out of the account,
and to put the greater part of his hysterical appeals and threats down to the
effect of a sleepless and highly unusual night. That Ravengar was absolutely
sincere in his desire to marry Camilla he did not doubt, and he fully shared the
frenzied man's determination that Camilla should not marry Francis Tudor. But
beyond this Hugo did not go. He certainly did not go so far as to believe that
Camilla had ever formally engaged herself to Ravengar. He thought it just
possible that Ravengar might have committed a crime, or several crimes, and

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that Camilla might have knowledge of them, but the question whether
Ravengar was or was not a criminal appeared to him to be a little off the point.
The unique point was his own prospects with Camilla. It may be said that he
felt capable of shielding her from forty Ravengars.
He had torn prudence to shreds, and stamped on it, that morning, and had gone
down boldly and directly to Department 42 at a quarter to nine, in order to
meet Camilla. And she had not then arrived. He had then conceived the idea
of, and the excuse for, a visit to the common room, through which every
assistant was obliged to pass on her way to the receipt of custom. In the whole
history of Hugo's a poster had never before been known to be posted on a
mirror, which is utterly the wrong place for a poster, but Hugo had chosen the
mirror as the field of his labours solely that he might surreptitiously observe
every soul that entered the room.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck nine, and the last assistant had fled, and
Hugo was left alone with the pink-aproned waitress, who was collecting
glasses on a tray.
'Has Miss Payne come this morning?' he asked casually of the girl, patting the
poster like an artist absorbed in his work.
It was a reckless question. He well knew that in half an hour the whole
basement would be aware that Mr. Hugo had asked after Miss Payne, but he
scorned the whole basement.
'Miss who, sir?'
'Miss Payne, of the millinery department.'
'A tall young lady, sir?'
'Yes.'
'With chestnut hair?'
'Now you have me,' he lied.
'I fancy I know who you mean, sir; and now I come to think of it, I don't think
she has.'
The waitress spoke in an apologetic tone, and looked at the clock with an
apologetic look. She was no fool, that waitress.
'Thank you.'
As he left the room Albert Shawn entered by the other door, and, perceiving
nobody but the waitress, kissed the waitress, and was kissed by her heartily.
Hugo's deportment was debonnair, but his heart had seriously sunk. Just as he
had before been quite sure that Camilla would come as usual, now he was
quite sure that she would not come as usual. Ever since he had learnt from

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Ravengar that Tudor had been ignorant of Ravengar's presence in the flat, and
that Ravengar had had to 'dispose of' the housekeeper, a horrid suspicion had
lurked at the back of his mind, and now this suspicion sprang out upon his
hopes of Camilla's arrival, and fairly strangled them. And the suspicion was
that Camilla had misjudged Francis Tudor, that his intentions had throughout
been perfectly honourable, and that on her return to the flat he had quickly
convinced Camilla of this.
In which case, where did he, Hugo, come in?
As for the terms of the note, he perceived that he had interpreted them in a