I. A. R. Wylie

“ As to answering truthfully, it appeared that truth was not the simple, straightforward business that the Sunday School would have us imagine. "What is truth?" Alfred questioned in his own language. Was patriotism or Jenny Adams at the bottom of his resolution? Did he want to set forth to satisfy his conscience or Jenny Adams's predilection for khaki? What was the nation's most pressing need—a great tailor or a small fighter?
"Think!" repeated Mr. Solomon even more dramatically. ”

“ Unfortunately—I speak to you, Tinker, as one man to another—we are not a wealthy regiment. Our officers cannot afford to procure themselves uniforms from the best men. You have no doubt observed the result. Beside Guardsmen we cut a poor figure. This is not as it should be. It lies with you, Tinker, whether things remain as they are or whether the Redmonthshires become the smartest, as well as the finest, regiment in the British Army. ”

“ The saying was judiciously brought to Alfred Tinker's notice and did little to increase his cheerfulness.
He spent his money on food he never ate. He would sit for an hour over a meat-pie, apparently purposeless, in reality waiting for the moment when Cissie Edwards would come his way. Or he would lean against the canteen counter, sipping an interminable cup of cocoa, watching her. And, though Cissie Edwards had never time for more than a nod and a smile, she knew. ”

“ Could anything be done?"
"If I were alone with that tunic for half an hour," Alfred Tinker began, and then dropped into a stricken silence.
Colonel MacHamish resumed his pacing.
"Yesterday you disgraced the regiment, Tinker," he said. "You realise that, don't you?"
The easy tears were in Alfred's eyes.
"Yes, sir—I do—only——"
"And you'd do anything in your power to make reparation?"
"Yes, sir?" said Alfred sadly and hopelessly.
"It lies in your power. The fact is, Tinker, you're a poor soldier. You always will be a poor soldier. I don't see that you have a single soldierly quality. ”

“ As to the cherry stones, the mere thought of them sent an uncanny thrill through his nerves. Without having made Shakespeare's acquaintance, young Alfred Tinker agreed with him that there were more things in heaven and earth than an ordinary fellow could make head or tail of, and the cherry-stone episode was one of them. Because that very afternoon Jenny Adams had said to him quite plainly:
"The fact is I've got to marry a soldier, Alf. I don't like being seen walking about with a civvy. It isn't respectable. It makes me ashamed, and my friends talk. ”

“ If a man tries to curb his nature——" He broke off with a start. "Good gracious—what was that?"
They stared at each other. The sound had been explosive—agonised—was followed by a low yet passionate outburst, in which they recognised the Hebraic accents of Mr. Samuel Solomon. Once Alfred Tinker's clearer voice intervened, but it was swept away like a straw on a flood.
"It's come at last," said Mr. Simpson significantly. "He's going. And what can you expect? I know for a fact that Eversham offered him a cool thousand just to start with. A man can't afford to sneeze at that sort of thing." ”

“ You stick to it and be thankful."
"You mustn't stop me, sir," said Alfred Tinker in a stifled voice of hysterical despair, "it's—it's ruining my life, sir—you mustn't do it. After all I'm a man, sir, even if I am a damned tailor—I must go. I 'listed for a soldier, and I'm going to be a soldier. I don't care if I'm shot for it. Every one's been against me—right from the very first—but I've had enough this time, I'm off—and no one's going to stop me either——"
Now, men going into action are subject to various moods. ”

“ We old people have a duty to perform towards hot-headed youth, gentlemen, and I felt it my duty to point out that a man with a poor physique but an inimitable talent is of more use to his country in his workshop than in the trenches. Mr. Tinker had to admit the force of my argument and gave his word that he would hold back until his country called him directly. The decision is now in your hands, and I am sure my partner will abide by it. Won't you, Alfred?"
"Oh, damn!" said Alfred Tinker bitterly. ”

“ And he prepared to shoot himself. He had made up his mind to shoot himself. But then his eye caught sight of the Adjutant's tunic spread out in all its shameful imperfection. He perceived the remedy. Art waged war against despair and triumphed. Very well. He would do his duty as a tailor and a soldier to the end. And his last work should be a masterpiece.
With tears of rage and grief running down his cheeks, Alfred Tinker took up the scissors. ”

“ The English answered to a man. The dogged soul in them that loathed retreat seized avariciously on the frail chance that this strange Cockney apparition offered them. They caught the joke of it all. Laughing, jesting, drunk with the sudden revulsion of feeling, they poured up the steps of the Mairie—as many as their new commander asked for. The rest, no longer stragglers, but men imbued with grim purpose, hurried on to join whatever force was coming to the rescue. ”

“ It followed also that only determined, if impecunious, soldiers sought admission to its ranks, and that there was no body of men in the British Army more passionately athirst for glory. Their attitude towards all facetiousness was one of grim reticence touched with acerbity. They became fanatics with one thought, one hope, one purpose, and, like most fanatics, they were not popular.
It cannot be said that the advent of Alfred Tinker—alias Alfred Taylor at this period—added substantially to the Redmonthshires' chances of renown. ”

“ According to custom, Alfred Tinker was arranged carefully where his insignificant stature and mental aberrations were least likely to excite attention.
"And if you so much as blink an eyelid when the General passes," remarked Sergeant Nobbins unpleasantly, "I'll make you wish you'd never seen the light".
Alfred had no intention of blinking. If ever a man was filled with martial ardour, with the determination to bring glory upon his company and himself, that man was Alfred as the inspecting General, with Colonel MacHamish, bore down the line. ”

“ Do you want our fine young men to face the Germans with their breeches cut by that poor doddering Simpson? Don't you realise how it takes the heart out of the bravest to know that his tunic rucks at the back? Haven't you ever heard of the wonderful courage and confidence of a man in a perfect fit? Tinker, do you know what Captain Hodge said to me only this morning? 'Solomon, old bean,' he said, 'there's many a German 'll rue the day when I go over the top in these jolly old togs.' Those were his very words, Tinker. ”

“ Better be getting on with them. A nice quiet job for you, Tinker. And, look here, there's this blessed tunic that Peters made for me. I don't know whether you can do anything to it. Have a try anyhow; there's a good fellow. It's awful, and I shall want it when I come out. Bound to get fearfully messed up in the best of cases."
The expected "Yes, sir," failed, and the Adjutant looked up. He saw then an Alfred Tinker whom he hardly recognised—a small, warlike figure, muffled to the eyes in a greatcoat, a haversack on its shoulders, a rifle in its hand. ”

“ Alfred Tinker has gone back to Solomon's. He has now thirty assistants under him who worship the ground he walks on. For a tailor who is at once a genius and a V.C. with five bayonet scars on his body is a leader to be proud of.
And, of course, everyone who cares for his personal appearance and a chat about the old fighting days, goes to Solomon's.
Mr. Samuel Solomon has moved his private residence from Pimlico to Mayfair. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Tinker (née Edwards) , whose tastes are of a less ostentatious nature, have a house in Hampstead.
It is understood that they are ridiculously happy. ”

“ It is our duty to see that each man is fixed in the place in which he can use his faculties to the utmost, and it is quite clear to me that for the present, at any rate, you are doing the most good where you are. We therefore grant you six months' exemption, at the end of which time you can appeal again——"
"But it may all be over by then!" Alfred Tinker protested hoarsely.
"Let us hope so," The chairman indulged in a mild facetiousness. "I'm afraid we shan't want to continue the war even to oblige you, Mr. Tinker."
Mr. Solomon took Alfred by the elbow. ”

“ Yes, I do. I get an idea—I see something in my mind's eye—and I just puts my scissors to the cloth and cuts out something that you couldn't better in Conduit Street—without measuring—hardly knowing what I'm doing. That's an artist all over, Jenny. And old Solomon knows—oh, he knows all right. 'E's got 'is eye on me. If I threatened to leave 'e'd double my salary. But I'm not going to leave. I'm going to stick to the old firm and put life into it. One of these days it'll be 'Solomon and Tinker, Bond Street,' you see. ”

“ Simpson admirably phrased it, perfect, but uninspired.
III
That night, at the corner of Oxford Circus, Jenny Adams decided briefly, but firmly, "that it wouldn't do," and that "it wasn't good enough". Her manner was distrait, and it was quite evident even to Alfred's blurred and aching perceptions that she had an appointment elsewhere. He was thankful for her indifference and the darkness which hid something of his abject misery.
"If you'd only wait a bit, Jenny," he pleaded, but without hope. "After all, it isn't always easy to do the right thing." ”

“ But I'll be shot if I don't finish this tunic——"
"What's the good of the tunic if the Germans get it?"
"Don't know. Never had any orders——"
"Oh, come on, for Heaven's sake, man!"
"Do you want to make me a deserter?" Alfred demanded, waving his scissors indignantly. "Get out!" On second thoughts, however, he followed his would-be rescuer to the top of the stairs. "You look after the W.A.A.C.'s, he shouted, "especially the one with the curly hair."
Then he went back and shut the door.
A man who is done with life is like a general. ”

“ Some are jocular, some irritable, some strung up to snapping points, some merely apathetic. The Adjutant's mood at that moment was one of peevish obtuseness. He saw nothing of the tragedy which underlay this extraordinary burst of insubordination, and the insubordination itself hardly affected him. ”

“ All this damn shilly-shallying! Why don't they get on with things—rake us all in? What the blazes are they waiting for? There's some blasted Germans behind all this mucking about, I know. Ought to call up every man in the country—they ought——"
Mr. Simpson, though slightly shocked at the display of language, was nervously conciliatory.
"Well—it's a good thing for Solomon & Co. that they don't," he said. "Supposing they got you, Mr. Tinker?"
Alfred Tinker glared at him in awful silence. ”

“ I tell you what, Jenny—you won't have to be ashamed of me one of these days. I'm an artist—yes, I am—a sort of artist; any man wot's got 'is 'eart in 'is job like I 'ave is an artist. And sometimes, Jenny, sometimes I feel sort of—sort of inspired. ”

“ A young upstanding fellow like him! Now there are cases of real 'ardship. Take a man like myself with a wife and child and a varicose vein."
Outside, Mr. Solomon had hailed a taxi. It was an unusual extravagance, but he felt that the occasion and Alfred Tinker's appearance warranted it. He had the tact to withhold congratulations, and even the twenty-five assistants welcomed their rescued hero in awed silence. ”

“ The chairman smiled at him.
"As the military representative himself recommends your exemption," he said, "we shall of course, raise no objection, and you will be——"
"If you know wot I'd gone through with this damn business?" Alfred Tinker interrupted violently, "worrying and fussing, eating my 'eart out over the 'ole thing, dyin' to 'ave a go on my own and be able to look the girls—the other chaps—in the face—and now when I think my time's come at last——"
"The fact is," said Mr. Solomon, interposing himself with unexpected grace, "my partner's position is a very painful one. ”