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RARE & SECONDHAND GAY RARE & SECONDHAND
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Fiction of Gay Interest
Plot / Content: Rating: G SPOILER ALERT: THIS IS THE COMPLETE PLOT OF THE STORY, SUMMARISED CHAPTER BY CHAPTER Chapter I: 22-year-old Julian Ferrers, the only son of a domineering, conservative, factory-owner in an English Midlands town, confesses to his widowed father that he has made his girlfriend Alice pregnant - a woman that he now knows is much older than him and very free with her affections. His father, furious, tells him to get out of the house. Chapter II: With no more than £20 to his name, quietly packs and leaves home for London, first staying in a bed-and-breakfast near Victoria. He gets to know the city by walking everywhere, noticing the homeless and unemployed and wondering about their lives. On impulse he decides to spend the night as a homeless person. That evening in Leicester Square he sees a beautiful woman wink at him. He is amazed and notes that he doesn't have an ostentatious handbag or any other indication that she might be a prostitute. Confused, he turns away, but when he regains control of himself, she has gone. Chapter III: By the Adelphi Arches, he finds a tunnel to spend the night in. A tramp smelling of dirt, tobacco and alcohol approaches him; they talk and the man suggests how Julian could make a lot of money. "There's rich old gels down West - old widders, old spinsters - as 'ud give quids to have a night wi' you." Julian is disgusted and when the tramp moves away to urinate, he runs back into the Strand. He spends the rest of the night awake and the next day sleeping in Hyde Park. Partly he is shocked by how quickly time passes and already he must find somewhere to sleep, and partly he enjoys the freedom and novelty of London. Then he sees the girl from Leicester Square and they talk shyly. Her name is Olive Denwent and she is one year younger than Julian. When Olive learns what happened to him last night, she warns him that he has no idea what he is exposing himself to in London, and advises him to get a bed in Rowton House, a cheap dormitory. When Julian asks what Olive does for a living, she colours, neither admitting nor denying that she is a prostitute. Both embarrassed, they part, but Olive gives him her address, saying that he should come to her only if he is in real difficulty. Chapter IV: Julian moves into a Rowton House near King's Cross, keeping himself apart from the other men who live there. In the evening, he walks to Olive's address in Chelsea and rings the bell. There is no answer. He hangs around and is annoyed when a smartly dressed man smiles at him, thinking that the man knows about Olive and sees Julian as one of her customers. He walks off and notices the man following him. At that point a car stops in front of Olive's door. An older man gets out with Olive, who is now beautifully dressed. She sees Julian but ignores him and the two step into her building. He waits, looks up and sees her close the curtains, looking at him as she does so and putting a finger to her lips. Chapter V: The next morning Julian meets Samuel Grent, who asks if he has work and says that he needs an assistant at the market that day. Grent takes him to Aldgate where they load old clothes into a van and drive to Caledonian Market. Julian spends the day holding up the clothes as Grent sells them, quickly and cheaply. One of the customers is "Muster Don", a man in his thirties who looks at Julian as much as at the clothes he is buying. Julian is embarrassed but also attracted, wanting to speak to Don but unable to do so. He realises he is attracted to the man, as he is attracted to Olive, but in a very different way. Don walks off, Grent pays Julian ten shillings, much more than he had expected, and asks Julian if he is free to work on the same day the following week. The idea of a regular income elates him. Chapter VI: Back at Rowton House, he changes quickly and goes to Olive's home. She is there and lets him in to her bed-sitting room, a large attractive space that he does not recognise is not really a home. They talk politely and she makes him a meal. He tells her about his day and wants to ask about her life but can't. He tells her he is in love with her and detects she likes him, despite her cold manner. She bursts into tears, says she has an appointment and he must leave. He does so, but says he will come back. Chapter VII: For the next few days, Julian is depressed. He starts looking for an office job but discovers he will not get one without references and with his address as Rowton House. The idea strikes him of becoming Sam Grent's partner. But on market day Grent does not turn up. Depressed, he takes the tube to Hyde Park, where he lies on the grass among the "tattered and jaded outcasts" of society. He goes back to Digby Street, hesitating before ringing Olive's bell. He sees she is at home, but is angered when she does not answer his ring at the bell. He walks away, dejected, and is stopped at the end of the street by a middle-aged man asking for a light for a cigarette. Julian offers him a matche and accepts the offer of a cigarette. They walk on together and the man, Gerald, suggests a drink. Julian, a lifelong abstainer is amazed and excited by the idea of this transgression. A short bus ride away, the "Royal Oak" is crowded. There are only a few women, as well as Guardsmen, bank clerks and sailors. Julian is shocked by the language he hears. He gets quickly drunk and at that point Gerald asks if he will spend the night with him. Julian likes the idea of comfort but before he can answer, a young man winks at Gerald, who says that he has to speak to him briefly and then the two can leave. Gerald and the youth disappear into the gentlemen's toilet. Alone, Julian begins to feel uneasy but then "Muster Don" from Caledonian Market appears and asks if he has known Gerald long, adding that he is one of the worst characters in London. They should leave before Gerald comes back. Frightened, Julian leaves his drink and follows Don into the street. Chapter VIII: Julian's head begins to clear and he realises they are near Hyde Park. They enter and lie on a quiet patch of grass staring up at the sky. Don's presence comforts Julian and he realises he feels something that he does not experience even with Olive. Don reveals that he had eavesdropped on Julian's conversation with Gerald and was appalled by the older man's behaviour. He tells Julian that Sam Grent has broken his leg, which was why he could not meet Julian. He warns the younger man that London is full of iniquity. Julian tells Don about his past, but does not mention Olive. Don says that Julian can go back to Rowton or stay the night with him. Julian leaps at the chance to go with Don and they go to his attic rooms in South Kensington. It's full of charm and books and there is access to the roof where they can lie and stare at the stars and not be seen. Chapter IX: The next morning Julian wakes late and over breakfast Don explains that he owns the whole house and lets out the lower rooms. He tells Julian that he has done a variety of jobs, such as shoe-blacking and selling matches in the streets. He admits to being thirty-five and says that his lifestyle, working when he wants, is the best he could have. He says that Julian did not get Alice into trouble; it was the other way round. Talking about Alice, Julian lets slip that he has met another girl in London, a comment which angers Don. As Don learns more, he says that Olive is only one of thousands who live off older men. Then Don goes on an errand and leaves Julian alone. Chapter X: Alone, Julian realises how happy he is and how much he prefers Don's home to Olive's. Looking around, he comes across three copies of a book entitled "A Soul Awry", about which there had been some bad publicity a few years before. The author is Donald Mackness - Don. Before he can read it, Don comes back and says that it was the worst stroke of bad luck he ever had, but says no more about it. Over breakfast, Don says that he once had another friend live with him, who "played me false in a - a particularly dastardly way" and now he is not sure if he wants Julian to stay or go. Julian confesses that his feelings for Don are like they were made for each other and Don tells him he can stay until he tires of the situation. Chapter XI: That evening Don takes Julian down to meet his woman tenant, Laura, a gifted pianist. Julian finds it difficult to imagine Don having a woman friend - or the idea of Don meeting Olive - and finds Laura very different from the girl he had imagined. She is about 45, six feet tall, with a deep masculine voice and severely dressed. Also there is Mr Swayne, a middle-aged widower who also rents rooms from Don and who has a supercilious air. It is clear to Julian that neither Laura nor Don like Mr Swayne, but the latter does not appear to notice this. He is, however, an excellent singer to Laura's accompaniment. Later, one of Laura's pupils, a twenty-year-old called Marie, arrives. At one point Julian and Swayne are left alone together and Swayne reveals an unpleasant attitude towards Don's relationship with Laura. But Julian still enjoys the long evening of company and music. At the end of the evening he plays some tunes. Laura says little, but it is obvious to Don she is impressed by Julian's talent. Chapter XII: Don hides "A Soul Awry" and says he would prefer that Julian did not read it. Weeks go by in which Julian learns how to shop and takes over the housecleaning, giving Don the time to write his new novel. Twice more they spend a musical evening with Laura, where Julian sees the Laura is very possessive of Marie. It occurs to Julian that if Laura and Marie seemed like lovers, so, surely, must he and Don, even married, but it is extraordinary to think of himself in that way. At the same, Julian wonders whether Don is engaged to Laura, but is reassured when Don bursts into laughter at the suggestion. As Christmas approaches, Don says it is time for them to earn money and proposes borrowing a piano from Sam Grent and playing in public. Julian is shocked by the idea of begging, as he thinks of it, but agrees. Chapter XIII: Wearing domino masks, they set out and play in different streets, moving on regularly. After the initial discomfort, Julian begins to relax and money starts coming in. In one street Julian sees a maid cleaning the front steps and is shocked to see that it is Olive. Behind his mask, she does not recognise him and when Don asks him why he has stopped, he says that his shoelace has become undone. The next day it rains and they cannot go busking. Julian makes an excuse to go out and heads for Digby Street, where her name on the door has gone. He then rushes to Bright Street, where he saw Olive, and rings the doorbell and Olive herself appears. She asks him to meet her at the end of the street in an hour's time, and when she turns up, she takes him to ner new room in the Waterloo Road. Chapter XIV: The room is much smaller than Digby Street. Olive says it is the first time she has brought a man back there. She will not talk about what has happened to her and says her new job is the best she has ever had. He tells her about living with Don and how they make money. Olive tells Julian that she learnt at eighteen how she could make money. She is damaged goods, but when she first saw him, he seemed to her to be be young, innocent and pure and beyond her reach. When Don met her, an old man was in love with her who promised to marry her as soon as his sick wife died, paying for Digby Street and giving her an allowance. But when Don came, she fell in love and realised she could never live with the old man. So she left him and found her new room and job. She knows she is clean, she has no baby and she thinks that one day she will marry a baker or milkman, but she is not good enough for Julian. Julian says he is no better because he got a woman into trouble back home. Olive then wonders about Don and when Julian says he can be married and stay friends with Don, Olive is not convinced. She knows Don's type, she says, and says it would be better if Julian left him as soon as possible. Julian feels caught in a dilemma, but it is time to leave and he does so, promising to come back, at least one more time. Chapter XV: Disturbed, Julian rushes home. He confesses where he has been and Don reacts angrily, accusing him of playing a double game. Julian should choose, Don says, between the two of them; if he tries to keep both, he will lose both. In the end, Don says it is Julian's decision. Chapter XVI: A week passes. No mention is made of Olive's name. When they add up their takings they have thirty pounds, enough to tide them over Christmas. They go to see Sam Grent, who is still convalescing. As they pass through Leicester Square, Julian is reminded of Olive and Don makes hurtful remarks about her. Grent is pleased to see them and offers Julian his job back when he returns to the market in a week or two. Julian is delighted. Even better, when Don is not paying attention, Sam tells Julian about a friend who runs a pub in the Elephant and Castle who is looking for a piano player on Saturday nights. Tell him Sam Grent sent you, he says. Chapter XVII: The next morning, Julian tells Don he is coming shopping but goes to the Bull, where Grent's friend, Bill Brody, is the landlord. Brody and his wife and daughter are impressed by his playing and offer him a pound for the night's work. Back home, he tells Don, who is unimpressed by Julian's need to have a regular income. Later, he meets Olive, who keeps him at a distance, but says that he can come and see her after his first night at the Bull. Chapter XVIII: Don decides to stay home and write when Julian leaves for his first night. At first he feels like a fish out of water in the pub, but with the help of a couple of drinks he soon relaxes. The pub regulars are impressed by his playing and take him under their wing. In the middle of the evening Don notices a good-looking man with silver earrings watching him. The stranger, Jacob, introduces himself and tells Julian he is a sailor come back from the Far East. Attracted to him, Julian discovers he is staying in the Waterloo Road and asks if they can walk that way together at the end of the evening. After closing time, they meet and Julian tells Jacob he has an appointment with a young lady. Jacob is surprised and disappointed, but Julian asks him to come back next Saturday to meet his friend Don. Chapter XIX: The encounter with Jacob has affected Julian's mood. He has drunk and in Olive's room he drinks more. All he wants now is to have her, and when he does so, his mood gets worse. He leaves and walks home and gradually sobers up. Not far from Don's house he sees Marie and Swayne in the street, waiting in evening clothes, like lovers or a married couple, for a taxi. Marie, it seems, is playing a double game. Back home, Don is asleep. The next morning Julian tells Don about the Bull and Jacob, but not Olive. Don warns Julian about sailors, who always have tricks and schemes, and Julian feels deflated, but Don says he will come next Saturday. He wonders whether to say something about Marie, but forgets when Don tells him that Laura has agreed to take him on as a pupil. Chapter XX: That evening is spent with Laura, Marie and Swayne, but the latter two give no impression of any closeness. Next Saturday at the Bull, Jacob meets Don, but has to leave early. Don goes shortly afterwards. Julian thinks about Olive but decides to go home, where he finds their rooms open but dark and empty. Then there is a creaking on the ladder that leads to the roof and Jacob and Don descend. The two had apparently met in the Waterloo Road and Don had invited Jacob back to their flat. They all sit and talk, Jacob fascinating them with his stories of distant lands. He leaves, but comes back from time to time, even to Laura's musical evenings. Julian sometimes wonders at the affinity between Jacob and Don, but the three of them get on so well together that he feels no jealousy. Julian continues to visit Olive in secret, but tells Don when he gets letters from her. Don maintains a frosty silence on the subject. Julian, meanwhile, wonders how much he loves her, particularly in those moments of depression after they consummate their passion. Chapter XXI: A fortnight before Christmas Jacob leaves for South America. Don says that he will have finished his book in March and then they can travel too. On 23rd December, Don goes on an errand, Marie stays at home with a cold and Julian helps Laura with the decorations. He meets Olive to give her a present and promises to see her on Boxing Day. Walking back, a handsome negro asks him for money and then says "Don't mind earning a bit, you know sir, do anything you like". Julian, not understanding the man's meaning, but sees a sinister fascination in his eyes, which both attracts and repels him. Walking away, he bumps into Gerald, who obviously knows the negro. Gerald is rude about Don then half-apologises by offering to take Julian for a drink. But Julian is repelled by the man's make-up and scent and walks away angrily. The encounter troubles him; Gerald and Don obviously know each other, so what is there is in Don's past that Julian does not know about? Walking on, near Selfridge's he sees Don in a domino mask selling matches and this act of begging infuriates Julian. He goes home, depressed. Chapter XXII: Laura is unexpectedly absent and her piano, locked, which it never has been before. There is a sealed envelope for Don with a key inside it. Suddenly worried, Julian rushes back to Selfridge's to find his friend. They hurry home. Laura's letter reveals that Marie and Swayne have secretly married and Laura has left for good. Although the affair is unfortunate, Julian does not understand why Don is so concerned. All it means for the two of them is that they will have to rearrange their Christmas plans. Julian is jealous that Don seems to think much more of Laura than he has admitted. At one time he had thought of himself with Olive and Don with Laura, but now Laura has gone, Julian realises that he only wants Don for himself. When they talk about Laura and Marie, Don tells him that he doesn't understand. Julian hugs Don, wondering why he wants to hug him as much as hugs Olive, but, as usual, Don rebuffs this demonstration of affection, saying "You mustn't. You must keep that sort of thing for - well, for your girlfriend." They go to bed, and on Christmas morning wake deflated. They walk over to Sam Grent's house and spend a pleasant time. The morning, Don is still in a good mood and does not complain when Julian says he is going to meet Olive. Chapter XXIII: After an evening out, Julian and Olive are outside a tearoom near Soho. Some tearooms have become notorious, being raided by the police. Julian wants to go in but Olive does not. He insists and they sit and have coffee. Julian soon realises how different this place is. The women wear little and the men are made-up and in outlandish clothes, enough to make one feel sick. He hears some conversation that he does not understand and other that is appallingly double-meaninged. When two tenth-rate stage Adonises greet each other with blatant indecency, Julian stands up, saying that the place stinks. Others have heard and Olive is afraid of a scene. They are on their way out when Julian sees Don, drunk, talking to a youth of eighteen or nineteen, dressedly outlandishly and with an affected manner. He goes over, followed by Don, who sees Olive and, recognising her from the past, laughs. She denies knowing him. As tension rises, Don rushes out, followed by Julian and Olive. Don has disappeared. Julian and Olive get in a taxi and Olive admits that she knew Don a little before. Julian feels that he is responsible for Don's presence in the tearoom, because he had been so unfeeling about Laura. He tries to make love to Olive but she refuses, saying that she will meet him on Saturday as usual after The Bull. Chapter XXIV: When Julian gets home he finds that Don has not returned. Out in the street, he looks up and sees a figure balanced on the roof edge. He rushes back in and up and sees that Don has fallen onto the roof, in a faint. The next morning Don tells Julian that Laura has killed herself, taking barbiturates in Embankment Gardens on Christmas Eve. As Julian makes a fire, Don says that they cannot go on like this and Julian should give him up and go to Olive. But Julian says he cannot go; the two of them are equally important to him. For two weeks, Don is ill and Julian looks after him. Sam Grent turns up and offers them money and Laura's solicitor tells Don he has inherited all her possessions and money. Chapter XXV: Don's book is published in April and he becomes his old self again. Julian continues working for Sam Grent and at the Bull. He continues to meet Olive, although she no longer has her room in the Waterloo Road and she won't accept Julian's offer of financial support. One afternoon, Julian drops into the Lyons' Corner House in Coventry Street and sees his Aunt Sarah. She tells him his father was devastated by his leaving home and that Alice, after he left, accused another man of being the father of his child and then married a seventy-year-old widower. Now Julian's father is dying. Julian returns home and says he has to go and see his father and is disappointed by Don's indifference to his situation. Within a week of returning to the family home, Julian's father is dead and buried. Chapter XXVI: Julian inherits his father's business but decides to sell it as quickly as possible. To do this he has to spend most of his time in his home town, only occasionally coming to London. Don continues to be indifferent to his plans. Secretly, Julian plans to give Don an independent income, and he is dumbfounded when Don tells him he must now marry Olive. Then Julian admits that Olive has left domestic service and is now living with Aunt Sarah, where she has adapted very quickly to provincial middle-class life. A date is fixed for their marriage. During this time Julian comes to the conclusion that he loves both Olive and Don, the only difference being lust for Olive. What Julian does not understand is what Don sees in him. It does not matter, when he is married, he will see Don as often as he likes. Chapter XXVII: A month before his marriage, Julian tells Don about the money he will give him, but Don flatly refuses. Julian tries to make Don understand that nothing will change after he is married, and adds that it would be easier if he were marrying Don. At this, Don almost bursts into tears. Back in Welby, he writes Don, asking him to be best man, but gets no reply. As the wedding comes closer, he rushes back to London to find strangers living in Don's house. He rushes across London to see Sam Grent, who gives him a letter Don gave him a fortnight ago. In it Don says that he has left the country to find Jacob. Julian realises that he cannot return to his home town, or to Olive. All he can do is follow Don, try to find him. "As he waved his hand in farewell to England's fading shores, flushed with the delight of this new taste of freedom, he felt stirring somewhere deeply within him a sadness, a doubt, and almost unconsciously and with a touch of his old vascillation he murmured: 'Have I done the right thing? Have I made a mistake? Olive . . . Don . . . ?'" Background / Biography: for more information, click here Reviews: Arbery Books also sells secondhand and rare non-gay fiction and non-fiction. Click here for our full list. |
"'Then you are quite free to do as you like?' Gerald supposed, with an emphasis as if he had at last come to the main point. 'Rather,' said Julian. 'That's good, because I was going to ask you to come and stay the night with me. I have a nice little flat. There'll be nobody to interfere with us. What do you say?' Gerald laid his arm affectionately upon Julian's shoulder. Julian leaned a little towards him with a maudlin smile. 'Do you really mean it?' he inquired, feeling for moment - superficially at any rate - that he could fling his arms around this sudden friend in need. The tought of spending the night in civilized comforta away from the depressing inconveniences of Rowton House . . . At that moment Gerald chanced to look toward the farther end of the bar, where he caught the eye of a dandified young male, who slowly and significantly winked. Gerald's attitude abruptly changed. He glanced at Julian, who had noticed nothing, and said, 'Excuse me a moment; there's a chap over there I want to speak to. I won't be a minute; then we'll get out of here. He threaded his way through the crowd and joined his acquaintance. Apparently they had something particularly private to discuss, for they passed together through a door over which the word GENTLEMEN was prominently displayed." pp 64 - 65, ellipsis in original Secondhand booksellers |
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