In full Regent Street he put the haughty girl into Irene’s automobile, which had turned round; he was proud to be seen in the act; he privately enjoyed the glances of common, unsuccessful persons.  As he walked away he smiled to himself, to hide from himself his own nervous excitement.  She was a handful, she was.  Within her life burned and blazed.  He remembered Mr. Prince’s remark:  “You must have made a considerable impression on her,” or words to that effect.  The startling thought visited him:  “I shall marry that woman.”  Then another thought:  “Not if I know it!  I don’t like her.  I do not like her.  I don’t like her eyes.”

She had, however, tremendously intensified in him the desire for success.  He hurried off to work.  The days passed too slowly, and yet they were too short for his task.  He could not wait for the fullness of time.  His life had become a breathless race.  “I shall win.  I can’t possibly win.  The thing’s idiotic.  I might....  Enwright’s rather struck.”  Yes, it was Mr. Enwright’s attitude that inspired him.  To have impressed Mr. Enwright—­by Jove, it was something!

CHAPTER IX

COMPETITION

I

On the face of the door on the third floor of the house in Russell Square the words ‘G.E.  Cannon’ appeared in dirty white paint and the freshly added initials ‘A.R.I.B.A.’ in clean white paint.  The addition of the triumphant initials (indicating that George had kissed the rod of the Royal Institute of British Architects in order to conquer) had put the sign as a whole out of centre, throwing it considerably to the right on the green door-face.  Within the small and bare room, on an evening in earliest spring in 1904, sat George at the customary large flat desk of the architect.  He had just switched on the electric light over his head.  He looked sterner and older; he looked very worried, fretful, exhausted.  He was thin and pale; his eyes burned, and there were dark patches under the eyes; the discipline of the hair had been rather gravely neglected.  In front of George lay a number of large plans, mounted on thick cardboard, whose upper surface had a slight convex curve.  There were plans of the basement of the projected town hall, of the ground floor, of the building at a height of twelve feet from the ground, of the mezzanine floor, of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth floors; these plans were coloured.  Further, in plain black and white, there were a plan of the roof (with tower), a longitudinal section on the central axis, two other sections, three elevations, and a perspective view of the entire edifice.  Seventeen sheets in all.