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Adventures of Sally
CHAPTER I
SALLY GIVES A PARTY
1
Sally looked contentedly down the long table. She felt happy at last.
Everybody was talking and laughing now, and her party, rallying after
an uncertain start, was plainly the success she had hoped it would be.
The first atmosphere of uncomfortable restraint, caused, she was only
too well aware, by her brother Fillmore's white evening waistcoat, had
worn off; and the male and female patrons of Mrs. Meecher's select
boarding-house (transient and residential) were themselves again.
At her end of the table the conversation had turned once more to the
great vital topic of Sally's legacy and what she ought to do with it.
The next best thing to having money of one's own, is to dictate the
spending of somebody else's, and Sally's guests were finding a good
deal of satisfaction in arranging a Budget for her. Rumour having put
the sum at their disposal at a high figure, their suggestions had
certain spaciousness.
"Let me tell you," said Augustus Bartlett, briskly, "what I'd do, if I
were you." Augustus Bartlett, who occupied an intensely subordinate
position in the firm of Kahn, Morris and Brown, the Wall Street
brokers, always affected a brisk, incisive style of speech, as
befitted a man in close touch with the great ones of Finance. "I'd
sink a couple of hundred thousand in some good, safe bond-issue--we've
just put one out which you would do well to consider--and play about
with the rest. When I say play about, I mean have a flutter in
anything good that crops up. Multiple Steel's worth looking at. They
tell me it'll be up to a hundred and fifty before next Saturday."
Elsa Doland, the pretty girl with the big eyes who sat on Mr.
Bartlett's left, had other views.
"Buy a theatre. Sally, and put on good stuff."
"And lose every bean you've got," said a mild young man, with a deep
voice across the table. "If I had a few hundred thousand," said the
mild young man, "I'd put every cent of it on Benny Whistler for the
heavyweight championship. I've private information that Battling Tuke
has been got at and means to lie down in the seventh..."
"Say, listen," interrupted another voice, "lemme tell you what I'd do
with four hundred thousand..."
"If I had four hundred thousand," said Elsa Doland, "I know what would
be the first thing I'd do."
"What's that?" asked Sally.
"Pay my bill for last week, due this morning."
Sally got up quickly, and flitting down the table, put her arm round
her friend's shoulder and whispered in her ear:
"Elsa darling, are you really broke? If you are, you know, I'll..."
Elsa Doland laughed.
"You're an angel, Sally. There's no one like you. You'd give your
last cent to anyone. Of course I'm not broke. I've just come back from
the road, and I've saved a fortune. I only said that to draw you."
Sally returned to her seat, relieved, and found that the company had
now divided itself into two schools of thought. The conservative and
prudent element, led by Augustus Bartlett, had definitely decided on
three hundred thousand in Liberty Bonds and the rest in some safe real
estate; while the smaller, more sporting section, impressed by the
mild young man's inside information, had already placed Sally's money
on Benny Whistler, doling it out cautiously in small sums so as not to
spoil the market. And so solid, it seemed, was Mr. Tuke's reputation
with those in the inner circle of knowledge that the mild young man
was confident that, if you went about the matter cannily and without
precipitation, three to one might be obtained. It seemed to Sally that
the time had come to correct certain misapprehensions.
"I don't know where you get your figures," she said, "but I'm afraid
they're wrong. I've just twenty-five thousand dollars."
The statement had a chilling effect. To these jugglers with
half-millions the amount mentioned seemed for the moment almost too
small to bother about. It was the sort of sum which they had been
mentally setting aside for the heiress's car fare. Then they managed
to adjust their minds to it. After all, one could do something even
with a pittance like twenty-five thousand.
"If I'd twenty-five thousand," said Augustus Bartlett, the first to
rally from the shock, "I'd buy Amalgamated..."
"If I had twenty-five thousand..." began Elsa Doland.
"If I'd had twenty-five thousand in the year nineteen hundred,"
observed a gloomy-looking man with spectacles, "I could have started a
revolution in Paraguay."
He brooded sombrely on what might have been.
"Well, I'll tell you exactly what I'm going to do," said Sally. "I'm
going to start with a trip to Europe... France, specially. I've heard
France well spoken of--as soon as I can get my passport; and after
I've loafed there for a few weeks, I'm coming back to look about and
find some nice cosy little business which will let me put money into
it and keep me in luxury. Are there any complaints?"
"Even a couple of thousand on Benny Whistler..." said the mild young
man.
"I don't want your Benny Whistler," said Sally. "I wouldn't have him
if you gave him to me. If I want to lose money, I'll go to Monte Carlo
and do it properly."
"Monte Carlo," said the gloomy man, brightening up at the magic name.
"I was in Monte Carlo in the year '97, and if I'd had another fifty
dollars... just fifty... I'd have..."
At the far end of the table there was a stir, a cough, and the grating
of a chair on the floor; and slowly, with that easy grace which actors
of the old school learned in the days when acting was acting, Mr.
Maxwell Faucitt, the boarding-house's oldest inhabitant, rose to his
feet.
"Ladies," said Mr. Faucitt, bowing courteously, "and..." ceasing to
bow and casting from beneath his white and venerable eyebrows a
quelling glance at certain male members of the boarding-house's
younger set who were showing a disposition towards restiveness, "...
gentlemen. I feel that I cannot allow this occasion to pass without
saying a few words."
His audience did not seem surprised. It was possible that life,
always prolific of incident in a great city like New York, might some
day produce an occasion which Mr. Faucitt would feel that he could
allow to pass without saying a few words; but nothing of the sort had
happened as yet, and they had given up hope. Right from the start of
the meal they had felt that it would be optimism run mad to expect the
old gentleman to abstain from speech on the night of Sally Nicholas'
farewell dinner party; and partly because they had braced themselves
to it, but principally because Miss Nicholas' hospitality had left
them with a genial feeling of repletion, they settled themselves to
listen with something resembling equanimity. A movement on the part of
the Marvellous Murphys--new arrivals, who had been playing the
Bushwick with their equilibristic act during the preceding week--to
form a party of the extreme left and heckle the speaker, broke down
under a cold look from their hostess. Brief though their acquaintance
had been, both of these lissom young gentlemen admired Sally
immensely.
And it should be set on record that this admiration of theirs was not
misplaced. He would have been hard to please who had not been
attracted by Sally. She was a small, trim, wisp of a girl with the
tiniest hands and feet, the friendliest of smiles, and a dimple that
came and went in the curve of her rounded chin. Her eyes, which
disappeared when she laughed, which was often, were a bright hazel;
her hair a soft mass of brown. She had, moreover, a manner, an air of
distinction lacking in the majority of Mrs. Meecher's guests. And she
carried youth like a banner. In approving of Sally, the Marvellous
Murphys had been guilty of no lapse from their high critical standard.
"I have been asked," proceeded Mr. Faucitt, "though I am aware that
there are others here far worthier of such a task--Brutuses compared
with whom I, like Marc Antony, am no orator--I have been asked to
propose the health..."
"Who asked you?" It was the smaller of the Marvellous Murphys who
spoke. He was an unpleasant youth, snub-nosed and spotty. Still, he
could balance himself with one hand on an inverted ginger-ale bottle
while revolving a barrel on the soles of his feet. There is good in
all of us.
"I have been asked," repeated Mr. Faucitt, ignoring the unmannerly
interruption, which, indeed, he would have found it hard to answer,
"to propose the health of our charming hostess (applause), coupled
with the name of her brother, our old friend Fillmore Nicholas."
The gentleman referred to, who sat at the speaker's end of the table,
acknowledged the tribute with a brief nod of the head. It was a nod of
condescension; the nod of one who, conscious of being hedged about by
social inferiors, nevertheless does his best to be not unkindly. And
Sally, seeing it, debated in her mind for an instant the advisability
of throwing an orange at her brother. There was one lying ready to her
hand, and his glistening shirt-front offered an admirable mark; but
she restrained herself. After all, if a hostess yields to her
primitive impulses, what happens? Chaos. She had just frowned down the
exuberance of the rebellious Murphys, and she felt that if, even with
the highest motives, she began throwing fruit, her influence for good
in that quarter would be weakened.
She leaned back with a sigh. The temptation had been hard to resist.
A democratic girl, pomposity was a quality which she thoroughly
disliked; and though she loved him, she could not disguise from
herself that, ever since affluence had descended upon him some months
ago, her brother Fillmore had become insufferably pompous. If there
are any young men whom inherited wealth improves, Fillmore Nicholas
was not one of them. He seemed to regard himself nowadays as a sort of
Man of Destiny. To converse with him was for the ordinary human being
like being received in audience by some more than stand-offish
monarch. It had taken Sally over an hour to persuade him to leave his
apartment on Riverside Drive and revisit the boarding-house for this
special occasion; and, when he had come, he had entered wearing such
faultless evening dress that he had made the rest of the party look
like a gathering of tramp-cyclists. His white waistcoat alone was a
silent reproach to honest poverty, and had caused an awkward
constraint right through the soup and fish courses. Most of those
present had known Fillmore Nicholas as an impecunious young man who
could make a tweed suit last longer than one would have believed
possible; they had called him "Fill" and helped him in more than
usually lean times with small loans: but to-night they had eyed the
waistcoat dumbly and shrank back abashed.
"Speaking," said Mr. Faucitt, "as an Englishman--for though I have
long since taken out what are technically known as my 'papers' it was
as a subject of the island kingdom that I first visited this great
country--I may say that the two factors in American life which have
always made the profoundest impression upon me have been the
lavishness of American hospitality and the charm of the American girl.
To-night we have been privileged to witness the American girl in the
capacity of hostess, and I think I am right in saying, in
asseverating, in committing myself to the statement that his has been
a night which none of us present here will ever forget. Miss Nicholas
has given us, ladies and gentlemen, a banquet. I repeat, a banquet.
There has been alcoholic refreshment. I do not know where it came
from: I do not ask how it was procured, but we have had it. Miss
Nicholas..."
Mr. Faucitt paused to puff at his cigar. Sally's brother Fillmore
suppressed a yawn and glanced at his watch. Sally continued to lean
forward raptly. She knew how happy it made the old gentleman to
deliver a formal speech; and though she wished the subject had been
different, she was prepared to listen indefinitely.
"Miss Nicholas," resumed Mr. Faucitt, lowering his cigar, "... But
why," he demanded abruptly, "do I call her Miss Nicholas?"
"Because it's her name," hazarded the taller Murphy.
Mr. Faucitt eyed him with disfavour. He disapproved of the marvellous
brethren on general grounds because, himself a resident of years
standing, he considered that these transients from the vaudeville
stage lowered the tone of the boarding-house; but particularly because
the one who had just spoken had, on his first evening in the place,
addressed him as "grandpa."
"Yes, sir," he said severely, "it is her name. But she has another
name, sweeter to those who love her, those who worship her, those who
have watched her with the eye of sedulous affection through the three
years she has spent beneath this roof, though that name," said Mr.
Faucitt, lowering the tone of his address and descending to what might
almost be termed personalities, "may not be familiar to a couple of
dud acrobats who have only been in the place a week-end, thank heaven,
and are off to-morrow to infest some other city. That name," said Mr.
Faucitt, soaring once more to a loftier plane, "is Sally. Our Sally.
For three years our Sally has flitted about this establishment like--I
choose the simile advisedly--like a ray of sunshine. For three years
she has made life for us a brighter, sweeter thing. And now a sudden
access of worldly wealth, happily synchronizing with her twenty-first
birthday, is to remove her from our midst. From our midst, ladies and
gentlemen, but not from our hearts. And I think I may venture to hope,
to prognosticate, that, whatever lofty sphere she may adorn in the
future, to whatever heights in the social world she may soar, she will
still continue to hold a corner in her own golden heart for the
comrades of her Bohemian days. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our
hostess, Miss Sally Nicholas, coupled with the name of our old friend,
her brother Fillmore."
Sally, watching her brother heave himself to his feet as the cheers
died away, felt her heart beat a little faster with anticipation.
Fillmore was a fluent young man, once a power in his college debating
society, and it was for that reason that she had insisted on his
coming here tonight.
She had guessed that Mr. Faucitt, the old dear, would say all sorts of
delightful things about her, and she had mistrusted her ability to
make a fitting reply. And it was imperative that a fitting reply
should proceed from someone. She knew Mr. Faucitt so well. He looked
on these occasions rather in the light of scenes from some play; and,
sustaining his own part in them with such polished grace, was certain
to be pained by anything in the nature of an anti-climax after he
should have ceased to take the stage. Eloquent himself, he must be
answered with eloquence, or his whole evening would be spoiled.
Fillmore Nicholas smoothed a wrinkle out of his white waistcoat; and
having rested one podgy hand on the table-cloth and the thumb of the
other in his pocket, glanced down the table with eyes so haughtily
drooping that Sally's fingers closed automatically about her orange,
as she wondered whether even now it might not be a good thing...
It seems to be one of Nature's laws that the most attractive girls
should have the least attractive brothers. Fillmore Nicholas had not
worn well. At the age of seven he had been an extraordinarily
beautiful child, but after that he had gone all to pieces; and now, at
the age of twenty-five, it would be idle to deny that he was something
of a mess. For the three years preceding his twenty-fifth birthday,
restricted means and hard work had kept his figure in check; but with
money there had come an ever-increasing sleekness. He looked as if he
fed too often and too well.
All this, however, Sally was prepared to forgive him, if he would only
make a good speech. She could see Mr. Faucitt leaning back in his
chair, all courteous attention. Rolling periods were meat and drink to
the old gentleman.
Fillmore spoke.
"I'm sure," said Fillmore, "you don't want a speech... Very good of
you to drink our health. Thank you."
He sat down.
The effect of these few simple words on the company was marked, but
not in every case identical. To the majority the emotion which they
brought was one of unmixed relief. There had been something so
menacing, so easy and practised, in Fillmore's attitude as he had
stood there that the gloomier-minded had given him at least twenty
minutes, and even the optimists had reckoned that they would be lucky
if they got off with ten. As far as the bulk of the guests were
concerned, there was no grumbling. Fillmore's, to their thinking, had
been the ideal after-dinner speech.
Far different was it with Mr. Maxwell Faucitt. The poor old man was
wearing such an expression of surprise and dismay as he might have
worn had somebody unexpectedly pulled the chair from under him. He was
feeling the sick shock which comes to those who tread on a
non-existent last stair. And Sally, catching sight of his face,
uttered a sharp wordless exclamation as if she had seen a child fall
down and hurt itself in the street. The next moment she had run round
the table and was standing behind him with her arms round his neck.
She spoke across him with a sob in her voice.
"My brother," she stammered, directing a malevolent look at the
immaculate Fillmore, who, avoiding her gaze, glanced down his nose and
smoothed another wrinkle out of his waistcoat, "has not said
quite--quite all I hoped he was going to say. I can't make a speech,
but..." Sally gulped, "... but, I love you all and of course I shall
never forget you, and... and..."
Here Sally kissed Mr. Faucitt and burst into tears.
"There, there," said Mr. Faucitt, soothingly. The kindest critic
could not have claimed that Sally had been eloquent: nevertheless Mr.
Maxwell Faucitt was conscious of no sense of anti-climax.
2
Sally had just finished telling her brother Fillmore what a pig he
was. The lecture had taken place in the street outside the
boarding-house immediately on the conclusion of the festivities, when
Fillmore, who had furtively collected his hat and overcoat, had stolen
forth into the night, had been overtaken and brought to bay by his
justly indignant sister. Her remarks, punctuated at intervals by
bleating sounds from the accused, had lasted some ten minutes.
As she paused for breath, Fillmore seemed to expand, like an
indiarubber ball which has been sat on. Dignified as he was to the
world, he had never been able to prevent himself being intimidated by
Sally when in one of these moods of hers. He regretted this, for it
hurt his self-esteem, but he did not see how the fact could be
altered. Sally had always been like that. Even the uncle, who after
the deaths of their parents had become their guardian, had never,
though a grim man, been able to cope successfully with Sally. In that
last hectic scene three years ago, which had ended in their going out
into the world, together like a second Adam and Eve, the verbal
victory had been hers. And it had been Sally who had achieved triumph
in the one battle which Mrs. Meecher, apparently as a matter of duty,
always brought about with each of her patrons in the first week of
their stay. A sweet-tempered girl, Sally, like most women of a
generous spirit, had cyclonic potentialities.
As she seemed to have said her say, Fillmore kept on expanding till he
had reached the normal, when he ventured upon a speech for the
defence.
"What have I done?" demanded Fillmore plaintively.
"Do you want to hear all over again?"
"No, no," said Fillmore hastily. "But, listen. Sally, you don't
understand my position. You don't seem to realize that all that sort
of thing, all that boarding-house stuff, is a thing of the past. One's
got beyond it. One wants to drop it. One wants to forget it, darn it!
Be fair. Look at it from my viewpoint. I'm going to be a big man ..."
"You're going to be a fat man," said Sally, coldly.
Fillmore refrained from discussing the point. He was sensitive.
"I'm going to do big things," he substituted. "I've got a deal on at
this very moment which... well, I can't tell you about it, but it's
going to be big. Well, what I'm driving at, is about all this sort of
thing"--he indicated the lighted front of Mrs. Meecher's
home-from-home with a wide gesture--"is that it's over. Finished and
done with. These people were all very well when..."
"... when you'd lost your week's salary at poker and wanted to borrow
a few dollars for the rent."
"I always paid them back," protested Fillmore, defensively.
"I did."
"Well, we did," said Fillmore, accepting the amendment with the air of
a man who has no time for chopping straws. "Anyway, what I mean is, I
don't see why, just because one has known people at a certain period
in one's life when one was practically down and out, one should have
them round one's neck for ever. One can't prevent people forming an
I-knew-him-when club, but, darn it, one needn't attend the meetings."
"One's friends..."
"Oh, friends," said Fillmore. "That's just where all this makes me so
tired. One's in a position where all these people are entitled to call
themselves one's friends, simply because father put it in his will
that I wasn't to get the money till I was twenty-five, instead of
letting me have it at twenty-one like anybody else. I wonder where I
should have been by now if I could have got that money when I was
twenty-one."
"In the poor-house, probably," said Sally.
Fillmore was wounded.
"Ah! you don't believe in me," he sighed.
"Oh, you would be all right if you had one thing," said Sally.
Fillmore passed his qualities in swift review before his mental eye.
Brains? Dash? Spaciousness? Initiative? All present and correct. He
wondered where Sally imagined the hiatus to exist.
"One thing?" he said. "What's that?"
"A nurse."
Fillmore's sense of injury deepened. He supposed that this was always
the way, that those nearest to a man never believed in his ability
till he had proved it so masterfully that it no longer required the
assistance of faith. Still, it was trying; and there was not much
consolation to be derived from the thought that Napoleon had had to go
through this sort of thing in his day. "I shall find my place in the
world," he said sulkily.
"Oh, you'll find your place all right," said Sally. "And I'll come
round and bring you jelly and read to you on the days when visitors
are allowed... Oh, hullo."
The last remark was addressed to a young man who had been swinging
briskly along the sidewalk from the direction of Broadway and who now,
coming abreast of them, stopped.
"Good evening, Mr. Foster."
"Good evening. Miss Nicholas."
"You don't know my brother, do you?"
"I don't believe I do."
"He left the underworld before you came to it," said Sally. "You
wouldn't think it to look at him, but he was once a prune-eater among
the proletariat, even as you and I. Mrs. Meecher looks on him as a
son."
The two men shook hands. Fillmore was not short, but Gerald Foster
with his lean, well-built figure seemed to tower over him. He was an
Englishman, a man in the middle twenties, clean-shaven, keen-eyed, and
very good to look at. Fillmore, who had recently been going in for one
of those sum-up-your-fellow-man-at-a-glance courses, the better to fit
himself for his career of greatness, was rather impressed. It seemed
to him that this Mr. Foster, like himself, was one of those who Get
There. If you are that kind yourself, you get into the knack of
recognizing the others. It is a sort of gift.
There was a few moments of desultory conversation, of the kind that
usually follows an introduction, and then Fillmore, by no means sorry
to get the chance, took advantage of the coming of this new arrival to
remove himself. He had not enjoyed his chat with Sally, and it seemed
probable that he would enjoy a continuation of it even less. He was
glad that Mr. Foster had happened along at this particular juncture.
Excusing himself briefly, he hurried off down the street.
Sally stood for a minute, watching him till he had disappeared round
the corner. She had a slightly regretful feeling that, now it was too
late, she would think of a whole lot more good things which it would
have been agreeable to say to him. And it had become obvious to her
that Fillmore was not getting nearly enough of that kind of thing said
to him nowadays. Then she dismissed him from her mind and turning to
Gerald Foster, slipped her arm through his.
"Well, Jerry, darling," she said. "What a shame you couldn't come to
the party. Tell me all about everything."
3
It was exactly two months since Sally had become engaged to Gerald
Foster; but so rigorously had they kept the secret that nobody at Mrs.
Meecher's so much as suspected it. To Sally, who all her life had
hated concealing things, secrecy of any kind was objectionable: but in
this matter Gerald had shown an odd streak almost of furtiveness in
his character. An announced engagement complicated life. People fussed
about you and bothered you. People either watched you or avoided you.
Such were his arguments, and Sally, who would have glossed over and
found excuses for a disposition on his part towards homicide or arson,
put them down to artistic sensitiveness. There is nobody so sensitive
as your artist, particularly if he be unsuccessful: and when an artist
has so little success that he cannot afford to make a home for the
woman he loves, his sensitiveness presumably becomes great indeed.
Putting herself in his place, Sally could see that a protracted
engagement, known by everybody, would be a standing advertisement of
Gerald's failure to make good: and she acquiesced in the policy of
secrecy, hoping that it would not last long. It seemed absurd to think
of Gerald as an unsuccessful man. He had in him, as the recent
Fillmore had perceived, something dynamic. He was one of those men of
whom one could predict that they would succeed very suddenly and
rapidly--overnight, as it were.
"The party," said Sally, "went off splendidly." They had passed the
boarding-house door, and were walking slowly down the street.
"Everybody enjoyed themselves, I think, even though Fillmore did his
best to spoil things by coming looking like an advertisement of What
The Smart Men Will Wear This Season. You didn't see his waistcoat just
now. He had covered it up. Conscience, I suppose. It was white and
bulgy and gleaming and full up of pearl buttons and everything. I saw
Augustus Bartlett curl up like a burnt feather when he caught sight of
it. Still, time seemed to heal the wound, and everybody relaxed after
a bit. Mr. Faucitt made a speech and I made a speech and cried, and
...oh, it was all very festive. It only needed you."
"I wish I could have come. I had to go to that dinner, though.
Sally..." Gerald paused, and Sally saw that he was electric with
suppressed excitement. "Sally, the play's going to be put on!"
Sally gave a little gasp. She had lived this moment in anticipation
for weeks. She had always known that sooner or later this would
happen. She had read his plays over and over again, and was convinced
that they were wonderful. Of course, hers was a biased view, but then
Elsa Doland also admired them; and Elsa's opinion was one that carried
weight. Elsa was another of those people who were bound to succeed
suddenly. Even old Mr. Faucitt, who was a stern judge of acting and
rather inclined to consider that nowadays there was no such thing,
believed that she was a girl with a future who would do something big
directly she got her chance.
"Jerry!" She gave his arm a hug. "How simply terrific! Then Goble and
Kohn have changed their minds after all and want it? I knew they
would."
A slight cloud seemed to dim the sunniness of the author's mood.
"No, not that one," he said reluctantly. "No hope there, I'm afraid.
I saw Goble this morning about that, and he said it didn't add up
right. The one that's going to be put on is 'The Primrose Way.' You
remember? It's got a big part for a girl in it."
"Of course! The one Elsa liked so much. Well, that's just as good.
Who's going to do it? I thought you hadn't sent it out again."
"Well, it happens..." Gerald hesitated once more. "It seems that this
man I was dining with to-night--a man named Cracknell..."
"Cracknell? Not the Cracknell?"
"The Cracknell?"
"The one people are always talking about. The man they call the
Millionaire Kid."
"Yes. Why, do you know him?"
"He was at Harvard with Fillmore. I never saw him, but he must be
rather a painful person."
"Oh, he's all right. Not much brains, of course, but--well, he's all
right. And, anyway, he wants to put the play on."
"Well, that's splendid," said Sally: but she could not get the right
ring of enthusiasm into her voice. She had had ideals for Gerald. She
had dreamed of him invading Broadway triumphantly under the banner of
one of the big managers whose name carried a prestige, and there
seemed something unworthy in this association with a man whose chief
claim to eminence lay in the fact that he was credited by metropolitan
gossip with possessing the largest private stock of alcohol in
existence.
"I thought you would be pleased," said Gerald.
"Oh, I am," said Sally.
With the buoyant optimism which never deserted her for long, she had
already begun to cast off her momentary depression. After all, did it
matter who financed a play so long as it obtained a production? A
manager was simply a piece of machinery for paying the bills; and if
he had money for that purpose, why demand asceticism and the finer
sensibilities from him? The real thing that mattered was the question
of who was going to play the leading part, that deftly drawn character
which had so excited the admiration of Elsa Doland. She sought
information on this point.
"Who will play Ruth?" she asked. "You must have somebody wonderful.
It needs a tremendously clever woman. Did Mr. Cracknell say anything
about that?"
"Oh, yes, we discussed that, of course."
"Well?"
"Well, it seems..." Again Sally noticed that odd, almost stealthy
embarrassment. Gerald appeared unable to begin a sentence to-night
without feeling his way into it like a man creeping cautiously down a
dark alley. She noticed it the more because it was so different from
his usual direct method. Gerald, as a rule, was not one of those who
apologize for themselves. He was forthright and masterful and inclined
to talk to her from a height. To-night he seemed different.
He broke off, was silent for a moment, and began again with a
question.
"Do you know Mabel Hobson?"
"Mabel Hobson? I've seen her in the 'Follies,' of course."
Sally started. A suspicion had stung her, so monstrous that its
absurdity became manifest the moment it had formed. And yet was it
absurd? Most Broadway gossip filtered eventually into the
boarding-house, chiefly through the medium of that seasoned sport, the
mild young man who thought so highly of the redoubtable Benny
Whistler, and she was aware that the name of Reginald Cracknell, which
was always getting itself linked with somebody, had been coupled with
that of Miss Hobson. It seemed likely that in this instance rumour
spoke truth, for the lady was of that compellingly blonde beauty which
attracts the Cracknells of this world. But even so...
"It seems that Cracknell..." said Gerald. "Apparently this man
Cracknell..." He was finding Sally's bright, horrified gaze somewhat
trying. "Well, the fact is Cracknell believes in Mabel Hobson...and...
well, he thinks this part would suit her."
"Oh, Jerry!"
Could infatuation go to such a length? Could even the spacious heart
of a Reginald Cracknell so dominate that gentleman's small size in
heads as to make him entrust a part like Ruth in "The Primrose Way" to
one who, when desired by the producer of her last revue to carry a
bowl of roses across the stage and place it on a table, had rebelled
on the plea that she had not been engaged as a dancer? Surely even
lovelorn Reginald could perceive that this was not the stuff of which
great emotional actresses are made.
"Oh, Jerry!" she said again.
There was an uncomfortable silence. They turned and walked back in
the direction of the boarding-house. Somehow Gerald's arm had managed
to get itself detached from Sally's. She was conscious of a curious
dull ache that was almost like a physical pain.
"Jerry! Is it worth it?" she burst out vehemently.
The question seemed to sting the young man into something like his
usual decisive speech.
"Worth it? Of course it's worth it. It's a Broadway production.
That's all that matters. Good heavens! I've been trying long enough to
get a play on Broadway, and it isn't likely that I'm going to chuck
away my chance when it comes along just because one might do better in
the way of casting."
"But, Jerry! Mabel Hobson! It's... it's murder! Murder in the first
degree."
"Nonsense. She'll be all right. The part will play itself. Besides,
she has a personality and a following, and Cracknell will spend all
the money in the world to make the thing a success. And it will be a
start, whatever happens. Of course, it's worth it."
Fillmore would have been impressed by this speech. He would have
recognized and respected in it the unmistakable ring which
characterizes even the lightest utterances of those who get there. On
Sally it had not immediately that effect. Nevertheless, her habit of
making the best of things, working together with that primary article
of her creed that the man she loved could do no wrong, succeeded
finally in raising her spirits. Of course Jerry was right. It would
have been foolish to refuse a contract because all its clauses were
not ideal.
"You old darling," she said affectionately attaching herself to the
vacant arm once more and giving it a penitent squeeze, "you're quite
right. Of course you are. I can see it now. I was only a little
startled at first. Everything's going to be wonderful. Let's get all
our chickens out and count 'em. How are you going to spend the money?"
"I know how I'm going to spend a dollar of it," said Gerald completely
restored.
"I mean the big money. What's a dollar?"
"It pays for a marriage-licence."
Sally gave his arm another squeeze.
"Ladies and gentlemen," she said. "Look at this man. Observe him.
My partner!"