第48章

`Well, suppose we put it like this: I'll draw the design at home in the evenings - in my own time.If it's accepted, I'll charge you for the time I've spent upon it.If it's not suitable, I won't charge the time at all.'

Rushton brightened up considerably.`All right.You can do so,' he said with an affectation of good nature, `but you mustn't pile it on too thick, in any case, you know, because, as I said before, 'e don't want to spend too much money on it.In fact, if it's going to cost a great deal 'e simply won't 'ave it done at all.'

Rushton knew Owen well enough to be sure that no consideration of time or pains would prevent him from putting the very best that was in him into this work.He knew that if the man did the room at all there was no likelihood of his scamping it for the sake of getting it done quickly; and for that matter Rushton did not wish him to hurry over it.All that he wanted to do was to impress upon Owen from the very first that he must not charge too much time.Any profit that it was possible to make out of the work, Rushton meant to secure for himself.

He was a smart man, this Rushton, he possessed the ideal character:

the kind of character that is necessary for any man who wishes to succeed in business - to get on in life.In other words, his disposition was very similar to that of a pig - he was intensely selfish.

No one had any right to condemn him for this, because all who live under the present system practise selfishness, more or less.We must be selfish: the System demands it.We must be selfish or we shall be hungry and ragged and finally die in the gutter.The more selfish we are the better off we shall be.In the `Battle of Life' only the selfish and cunning are able to survive: all others are beaten down and trampled under foot.No one can justly be blamed for acting selfishly - it is a matter of self-preservation - we must either injure or be injured.It is the system that deserves to be blamed.

What those who wish to perpetuate the system deserve is another question.

`When do you think you'll have the drawings ready?' inquired Rushton.

`Can you get them done tonight?'

`I'm afraid not,' replied Owen, feeling inclined to laugh at the absurdity of the question.`It will need a little thinking about.'

`When can you have them ready then? This is Monday.Wednesday morning?'

Owen hesitated.

`We don't want to keep 'im waiting too long, you know, or 'e may give up the idear altogether.'

`Well, sat Friday morning, then,' said Owen, resolving that he would stay up all night if necessary to get it done.

Rushton shook his head.

`Can't you get it done before that? I'm afraid that if we keeps 'im waiting all that time we may lose the job altogether.'

`I can't get them done any quicker in my spare time,' returned Owen, flushing.`If you like to let me stay home tomorrow and charge the time the same as if I had gone to work at the house, I could go to my ordinary work on Wednesday and let you have the drawings on Thursday morning.'

`Oh, all right,' said Rushton as he returned to the perusal of his letters.

That night, long after his wife and Frankie were asleep, Owen worked in the sitting-room, searching through old numbers of the Decorators'

Journal and through the illustrations in other books of designs for examples of Moorish work, and making rough sketches in pencil.

He did not attempt to finish anything yet: it was necessary to think first; but he roughed out the general plan, and when at last he did go to bed he could not sleep for a long time.He almost fancied he was in the drawing-room at the `Cave'.First of all it would be necessary to take down the ugly plaster centre flower with its crevices all filled up with old whitewash.The cornice was all right; it was fortunately a very simple one, with a deep cove and without many enrichments.Then, when the walls and the ceiling had been properly prepared, the ornamentation would be proceeded with.The walls, divided into panels and arches containing painted designs and lattice-work; the panels of the door decorated in a similar manner.

The mouldings of the door and window frames picked out with colours and gold so as to be in character with the other work; the cove of the cornice, a dull yellow with a bold ornament in colour - gold was not advisable in the hollow because of the unequal distribution of the light, but some of the smaller mouldings of the cornice should be gold.On the ceiling there would be one large panel covered with an appropriate design in gold and colours and surrounded by a wide margin or border.To separate this margin from the centre panel there would be a narrow border, and another border - but wider - round the outer edge of the margin, where the ceiling met the cornice.Both these borders and the margin would be covered with ornamentation in colour and gold.Great care would be necessary when deciding what parts were to be gilded because - whilst large masses of gilding are apt to look garish and in bad taste - a lot of fine gold lines are ineffective, especially on a flat surface, where they do not always catch the light.Process by process he traced the work, and saw it advancing stage by stage until, finally, the large apartment was transformed and glorified.And then in the midst of the pleasure he experienced in the planning of the work there came the fear that perhaps they would not have it done at all.

The question, what personal advantage would he gain never once occurred to Owen.He simply wanted to do the work; and he saw so fully occupied with thinking and planning how it was to be done that the question of profit was crowded out.

But although this question of what profit could be made out of the work never occurred to Owen, it would in due course by fully considered by Mr Rushton.In fact, it was the only thing about the work that Mr Rushton would think of at all: how much money could be made out of it.This is what is meant by the oft-quoted saying, `The men work with their hands - the master works with his brains.'