Poor Caroline (40 page)

'Well, I don't really see the point of that under the circumstances. It seems to come to much the same thing in
the end.'

'I don't agree with you, Mr. Guerdon. It doesn't come
to the same thing really, because in one case Mr. St. Denis
remains our chairman, and in the other he
doesn't.
Of course
you might say that he won't consent to remain as it were a
sleeping partner, but I think we ought to give him the
benefit of the doubt.'

She would not let herself know what the two men wanted
to say. They were rats fleeing from a sinking ship.
Rats. Or mice, rather. The Quaker with his long soft twitching
nose and weak eyes was rather like a large lugubrious
mouse.

'Well, Miss Denton-Smyth, I really think - What do you say, Macafee?'

'It's all one to me.' Hugh Macafee had heard nothing.
He cared nothing. He was thinking about the bichromated glue process used in half-tone reproduction.

'Thank you, Mr. Macafee,' said Caroline. 'Very well
then, I'll write to Mr. St. Denis to that effect.' She did not
say to which effect. She was trembling with the secret ardour of the conflict. She hurried on to her next point.
'And I have another letter of resignation from Mr. Johnson. He just says that business has taken him abroad indefinitely
and that he is very sorry to have to resign. I must tell the Board what a loss that is. He was
most
kind last month in
helping me go through the books. I've missed him very
much. Yes, it was March 26th he wrote that letter. I believe
he left that same evening. I don't know where he has gone.
Probably back to California. I understand that the Anglo-
American School of Scenario Writing is closed. I went
round to Essex Street, but the caretaker told me it was all shut up and some new firm was in possession.'

The two directors made no comment. Mr, Guerdon had his own fears about Mr. Johnson. He did not wish to be
involved in that gentleman's business transactions. The
sooner he escaped completely from his disreputable connec
tion, the better. Hugh Macafee was thinking that if Brooks would not give him a free hand, he could always find someone else in the States who would be interested in his colour
process.

Caroline was aware of their discomfort. She had no
mercy. She was no longer afraid. Facing the worst
brought
her a sense of exhilaration. She was stronger than both of
these stupid men together.

She read other letters. They dealt with the small change
of public business.

There was a request from the Bishop's Council of Public
and Private Morality, asking the company to pass a resolu
tion in favour of a Children's Censor. There was a request from the Sabbatarian League, asking the company to send
two representatives to a protest meeting against the Sunday Cinema. There were several invitations to Trade Shows of
special films. All these signs of activity were reassuring.
They proved to Caroline that the company had taken its
place in society, that it was needed, that it was co-operating
with all those other pioneers who strove to leave the world
a better place than they found it.

Mr. Guerdon listened with impatience.

'Is that all the correspondence?' asked Mr. Guerdon.
'Secretary's report, then, please.'

Caroline gave it. Her reports were always long, detailed
and optimistic. She loved writing them, and was continually surprised by the amount of work that she managed to
achieve between the Board meetings. She had spoken at six drawing-room meetings and three conferences. She had
interviewed eight firms. She had received such and such
letters and attended such and such functions. If no very concrete result had come from all this activity, at least it
proved that useful propaganda was being done.

Her fellow directors failed to be impressed.

'Have you the balance sheet?' snapped Mr. Guerdon.

'Well, I haven't exactly been able to prepare a full balance
sheet,' smiled Caroline. She was not so happy about this
item on the agenda, because she felt that she had fallen
short of her standard of efficiency and helpfulness. But
really one could not attend to everything at once. 'I have
been very busy, as you know, and then Mr. Johnson was in
the middle of helping me to put the books straight, which
was very kind of him, when he went abroad, because as you
know that is the part of the work that I have had
least
previous experience of, though willing to do my best until
we could afford a permanent
trained
accountant. So of
course he found that there were a good many accounts out
standing which he said must be paid off by quarter day. I
expect he knew he might have to go abroad, and wanted
to get everything straight for us, so he helped me to get the
cheques made out, and so far as I
know' -
she brought up her
lorgnettes and bent over the paper - 'our bank balance now
stands at £35 41
s.
7
d.,
which is perhaps not very grand, but
when you think what other similar societies have to do
with, and then we have no salaries to pay out,' she added
proudly.

Mr. Guerdon wanted to ask, 'Where is the £2,500 we had in January?' But his desire was for quiet and speedy escape.
He suspected that Johnson might not be perfectly straight.
He had never been sure of St. Denis. But Isenbaum had not
cared what happened to his original investment and the de
la Roux girl was Miss Denton-Smyth's cousin, and naturally
she might be expected to look after her relative's own interest. The whole thing was a frost, and the sooner it was
allowed to melt away the better.

'Well, we have to accept your statement, Miss Denton-
Smyth,' he said. 'Now I come to the next item on the
agenda, appointment of new directors, and as what I have
to say seems to fit best in here, I have to offer the Board my
resignation. I am very sorry, but these meetings have been
a great tax upon my time, and I, personally, do not see that
I can be of any further use to the company.'

Caroline looked up at him. She had suspected this.
He thought that she would be frightened, did he? She
smiled serenely, though her heart drummed a summons to
battle.

'I am very sorry to hear you feel like that,' she said cheer
fully. 'Well, Mr. Macafee, you and I seem to be the only directors left.'

'What's that? What's that?' asked Hugh, rousing himself.
'Oh, but I'm going to America, you know. I'm done with England, and I'm sure the Christian Cinema Company can do without me. You can make what use of the Tona Per
fecta you like. It's a good film, whatever Brooks says. I'll
have to see this new Hollywood one a good deal more before
I'd believe it's better than mine.'

'You mean to resign too?' asked Caroline in a cold little
voice.

'Well, you can take it as you like. I'm off. And I've
wasted enough time here already. If that's all I'll be
going.'

'So that seems to be the end of our business, I think, Miss
Denton-Smyth,' said Mr. Guerdon. 'Well, it has been a
very pleasant venture, and I am sure I have enjoyed it very
much.' One must get out of these thi
ngs pleasantly, he was
thinking. Caroline could see the thoughts scurrying about
in his brain like mice, Mouse, mouse, mouse, she thought in
scorn. 'I suppose it is really no use going through the other
items in the agenda, because we may take it, I think, that
the company must be voluntarily liquidated. We hope, I think, that our work together has done a little good by demonstrating to the public the need for a clean, decent cinema, and perhaps one day when things are more pro
pitious and the state of trade justifies greater commercial
enterprise, we may hope that something of the kind will be
started again. I take it that the balance of- er - £35 odd will cover outstanding expenses. We shall have, as a matter of
form, I take it, to call a shareholders' meeting. But as Mr. Isenbaum makes no objection to winding up the company,
I suppose that Miss de la Roux will adopt the same attitude.
There are no more shareholders of more than a pound or
two, and I imagine that they will give us no trouble. A
purely formal meeting, just to put everything in order. I
suggest that we fix it for next week and then you can send out the notices, and if Miss de la Roux cares to attend, she
can.'

'I see,' said Caroline. 'You mean that you both want to
resign and then that we can wind up the company?'

'I think that it seems the only sensible thing to do. Of
course -'

Mr. Guerdon hesitated, not because he had any qualifying suggestion to make, but because hesitation was part of
his nature. Caroline took her opportunity.

'But just a minute, please, gentlemen. I want you to
notice that I put down on the agenda that I had some pro
posals to make about the names of new directors I wanted to
put forward for acceptance by the
Board. I quite realize
that we must replace Mr. Johnson and Mr. Isenbaum who
have already resigned, and I was going to suggest the names
of Father Roger Mortimer and Miss Eleanor de la Roux. They have both shown great interest in the company, and
Father Roger Mortimer as a representative of the Church
will be I am sure
most
helpful if we can persuade him to join
us, and Miss de la Roux is as you know our chief shareholder
and I always think that we ought to have the
younger
genera
tion represented on a Board like this which is working for the
future.'

She paused, because she could not for the moment con
tinue. She was perfectly calm. Her brain felt cool and
orderly. Why then did her mouth feel so dry, and her heart race so violently? She was not afraid. The company would
not disappear if she chose to continue it. The half-hearted
might fail her, but she would work alone. She would have
a new Board, a new spirit. She would start again with
spiritual rather than material power. She had been wrong,
perhaps, to look for help among financiers and engineers. The power of the spirit could overcome the power of this
world. Though a thousand fell on her right hand, yet should
destruction not come nigh her.

'Well, Miss Denton-Smyth, if you act, you must act alone.
My resignation is before you. I really am afraid I can't consider going on. It's out of the question, if you come to think
of it.'

Mr. Guerdon began to gather up his papers.

'Would you both mind sending in your resignations in
writing?' asked Caroline. 'We have to do this in order. And
perhaps while you are still directors you would give your
sanction to the co-option of Miss de la Roux and Father
Mortimer, and, naturally, we must have others. Perhaps
Mrs. Dawson Woodley and Mr. Maccullam Scott.'