CHAPTER X

There was method in my madness, tho', ye'll ken. Here was I, nearer farto London, in Birkenhead than I sometimes was in Glasga. Gi'en I sometimes was gae'inthere some time, I could save my siller by going then. So off I went--resolved to go and look for opportunity where opportunity lived.

Ye'll ken I could look at London was no comin' after me--didna like thelong journey by train, maybe. So I was like Mahomet when the mountainwouldna gang to him. I needed London mair then than London needed me,and 'twas no for me to be prood and sit twiddlin' my thumbs till timeschanged.

I was nervous, I'll admit, when I reached the great toon. I was wrongto lash mysel', maybe, but it means a great deal to an artist to ha'the stamp o' London's approval upon him. 'Tis like the hall mark on abit o' siller plate. Still and a' I could no see hoo they made oot Iwas sae foolish to be tryin' for London. Mebbe they were richt whosaid I could get no opening in a London hall. Mebbe the ithers werericht, too, who said that if I did the audience would howl me down andthey'd ring doon the curtain on me. I didna believe that last, though,I'm tellin' ye--I was sure that I'd be as well received in London as Ihad been in Birkenhead, could I but mak' a manager risk giving me aturn.

Still I was nervous. The way it lookit to me, I had a' to gain andnothin' much tae lose. If I succeeded--ah, then there were no boundsto the future I saw before me! Success in London is like no successin the provinces. It means far more. I'd ha' sung for nothin'--'deed,and I'd ha' paid oot ma own good siller to get a turn at one of thebig halls.

I had a London agent by that time, a mannie who booked engagements forme in the provinces. That was his specialty; he did little business inLondon itself. He always was a decent body; he'd got me the week inBirkenhead, and I liked him fine. When I went to his office he jumpedup and shook arms with me.