W. Pett Ridge

“ There is much to be done in the way of eradicating errors in your speech.”
The reliable lady pupil due at eight-thirty spoilt her record by arriving half an hour late. Thus, when Erb's lesson was finished and the clock on the mantelpiece gave the hour in a hurried asthmatic way, there was still time for polite conversation on a variety of topics; the house, Erb discovered, was not theirs, they only occupied furnished apartments; they had lived in many parts of London, because, said Rosalind cautiously, the Professor liked a change now and again. ”

“ He looked about him as he walked up the crowded pavement towards the Elephant and Castle, because it was always one of his duties to recognise the railway vans. Disappointment clouded his eyes: he blamed himself for so far forgetting the principal duty of his life as to waste time on unremunerative investments. This was why he missed a Brighton goods van standing with its pair of horses near a large shop in Newington Causeway ”

“ A part of the road had undergone the process of being shopped, which is to say that the long useless front gardens had been utilised, and anxious, empty, unsuccessful young establishments came out to the pavement, expending all their profits on gas, and making determined efforts either by placard or minatory signs to persuade the passers-by that business was enormous, and that it was with difficulty that customers could be checked in their fierce desire to patronise. ”

“ It was natural when Erb had looked through these notices that he should find in his pocket two or three copies of a small poster advertising a lecture by him on the forthcoming Sunday evening, at a hall in Walworth Road. “Mr. Herbert Barnes,” said the poster loudly, adding in a lower voice, “Organising Secretary Railway Carmen's Union, will speak on 'The Working Man: What Will Become of Him?' No collection. Discussion invited.” Erb gave Miss Rosalind one of these as a present, and then said, “Well now, I must be off,” as though he had been detained greatly against his will. ”

“ That “Miss R. Danks, as our advertisement column shows, is to give An Evening with the Poets and Humorists at our Town Hall on Thursday evening. We wish her a bumper.” That “Miss Rosalind Danks's naïveté of manner and general chic enabled her in an American contribution to score a terrific 'succés d'estime.' She narrowly escaped an enthusiastic encore.” ”

“ But that,” he went on rather hurriedly, “that was at a time when real acting, sir, was appreciated. Nowadays they walk in from the streets. Ee-locution is a lost art; acting, real acting, is not to be seen on the London boards. If you have a cigarette about you, I can get a light from the fireplace.”
Erb acted upon this hint, and listened for the girl's voice. ”

“ And we go out into Society a great deal (there's two parties on at New Cross only next month that we're asked to) , and what I thought was that it would be so nice any time when an evening began to go a bit slow for me to say casually, ye know, 'Albert, what about that piece you made up yourself?' Then for him to get up and recite it in a gentlemanly way. ”