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Bab: A Sub-Deb, a novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart |
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Chapter 3. Her Diary (cont.) |
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_ CHAPTER III (CONT.)
I am both terrafied and happy, dear Dairy, as I lie here in bed with a hot water bottle at my feet. I have helped the Play by buying a box, and tonight I shall sit in it alone, and he will percieve me there, and consider that I must be at least twenty, or I would not be there at the theater alone. Hannah has just come in and offered to lend me three dollars. I refused hautily, but at last rang for her and took two. I might as well have a taxi tonight.
I had my dinner in bed, on account of my cold, and was let severly alone by the Familey. At seven I rose and with palpatating fingers dressed myself in my best evening Frock, which is a pale yellow. I put my hair up, and was just finished, when mother nocked. It was terrable. I had to duck back into bed and crush everything. But she only looked in and said to try and behave for the next three hours, and went away. At a quarter to eight I left the house in a clandestine manner by means of the cellar and the area steps, and on the pavment drew a long breath. I was free, and I had twelve dollars. Act One went well, and no disturbence. Although Adrian started when he saw me. The yellow looked very well. I had expected to sit back, sheltered by the curtains, and only visable from the stage. I have often read of this method. But there were no curtains. I therfore sat, turning a stoney profile to the Audiance, and ignoreing it, as though it were not present, trusting to luck that no one I knew was there. He saw me. More than that, he hardly took his eyes from the box wherein I sat. I am sure to that he had mentioned me to the Company, for one and all they stared at me until I think they will know me the next time they see me. I still think I would not have been recognized by the Familey had I not, in a very quiet seen, commenced to sneaze. I did this several times, and a lot of people looked anoyed, as though I sneazed because I liked to sneaze. And I looked back at them defiantly, and in so doing, encountered the gaze of my Maternal Parent. Oh, Dear Dairy, that I could have died at that moment, and thus, when streched out a pathetic figure, with tubroses and other flowers, have compeled their pity. But alas, no. I sneazed again! Mother was weged in, and I saw that my only hope was flight. I had not had more than between three and four dollars worth of the evening, but I glansed again and Sis was boring holes into me with her eyes. Only Beresford knew nothing, and was trying to hold Sis's hand under her opera cloak. Any fool could tell that. But, as I was about to rise and stand poized, as one may say, for departure, I caught Adrian's eyes, with a gleam in their deep depths. He was, at the moment, toying with the bowl of roses. He took one out, and while the Leading Lady was talking, he eged his way toward my box. There, standing very close, aparently by accident, he droped the rose into my lap. Oh Dairy! Dairy! I picked it up, and holding it close to me, I flew. I am now in bed and rather chilley. Mother banged at the door some time ago, and at last went away, mutering. I am afraid she is going to be petish.
"Well, chicken, so you're at it again!" I had to smile, although my chin shook. "You'd better turn me out and forget me," I said. "I was born for Trouble. My advice to the Familey is to get out from under. That's all." "Oh, I don't know," he said. "It's pretty conveniant to have a Familey to drop on when the slump comes." He thumped himself on the chest. "A hundred and eighty pounds," he observed, "just intended for little daughters to fall back on when other things fail." "Father," I inquired, putting my hand in his, because I had been bearing my burdens alone, and my strength was failing: "do you beleive in Love?" "DO I!" "But I mean, not the ordinery atachment between two married people. I mean Love--the reel thing." "I see! Why, of course I do." "Did you ever read Pope, father?" "Pope? Why I--probably, chicken. Why?" "Then you know what he says: 'Curse on all laws but those which Love has made.'" "Look here," he said, sudenly laying a hand on my brow. "I beleive you are feverish." "Not feverish, but in trouble," I explained. And so I told him the story, not saying much of my deep Passion for Adrian, but merely that I had formed an atachment for him which would persist during Life. Although I had never yet exchanged a word with him. Father listened and said it was indeed a sad story, and that he knew my deep nature, and that I would be true to the End. But he refused to give me any money, except enough to pay back Hannah and Carter Brooks, saying: "Your mother does not wish you to go to the Theater again, and who are we to go against her wishes? And anyhow, maybe if you met this fellow and talked to him, you would find him a disapointment. Many a pretty girl I have seen in my time, who didn't pan out acording to specifications when I finaly met her." At this revalation of my beloved father's true self, I was almost stuned. It is evadent that I do not inherit my being true as steal from him. Nor from my mother, who is like steal in hardness but not in being true to anything but Social Position. As I record this awfull day, dear Dairy, there comes again into my mind the thought that I DO NOT BELONG HERE. I am not like them. I do not even resemble them in features. And, if I belonged to them, would they not treat me with more consideration and less disipline? Who, in the Familey, has my noze? It is all well enough for Hannah to observe that I was a pretty baby with fat cheaks. May not Hannah herself, for some hiden reason, have brought me here, taking away the real I to perhaps languish unseen and "waste my sweetness on the dessert air"? But that way lies madness. Life must be made the best of as it is, and not as it might be or indeed ought to be. Father promised before he left that I was not to be scolded, as I felt far from well, and was drinking water about every minute. "I just want to lie here and think about things," I said, when he was going. "I seem to have so many thoughts. And father----" "Yes, chicken." "If I need any help to carry out a plan I have, will you give it to me, or will I have to go to totle strangers?" "Good gracious, Bab!" he exclaimed. "Come to me, of course." "And you'll do what you're told?" He looked out into the hall to see if mother was near. Then, dear Dairy, he turned to me and said: "I always have, Bab. I guess I'll run true to form."
Beresford on edge of proposeing. Sis very jumpy.
I have met him at last. Nay, more. I have been in his dressing room, conversing as though acustomed to such things all my life. I have conceled under the mattress a real photograph of him, beneath which he has written, "Yours always, Adrian Egleston." I am writing in bed, as the room is chilley--or I am--and by putting out my hand I can touch His pictured likeness. Jane came around for me this afternoon, and mother consented to a walk. I did not have a chance to take Sis's pink hat, as she keeps her door locked now when not in her room. Which is rediculous, because I am not her tipe, and her things do not suit me very well anyhow. And I have never borowed anything but gloves and handkercheifs, except Maidie's dress and the hat. She had, however, not locked her bathroom, and finding a bunch of violets in the washbowl I put them on. It does not hurt violets to wear them, and anyhow I knew Carter Brooks had sent them and she ought to wear only Beresford's flowers if she means to marry him. Jane at once remarked that I looked changed. "Naturaly," I said, in a BLASE maner. "If I didn't know you, Bab," she observed, "I would say that you are rouged." I became very stiff and distant at that. For Jane, although my best friend, had no right to be suspicous of me. "How do I look changed?" I demanded. "I don't know. You--Bab, I beleive you are up to some mischeif!" "Mischeif?" "You don't need to pretend to me," she went on, looking into my very soul. "I have eyes. You're not decked out this way for ME." I had meant to tell her nothing, but spying just then a man ahead who walked like Adrian, I was startled. I cluched her arm and closed my eyes. "Bab!" she said. The man turned, and I saw it was not he. I breathed again. But Jane was watching me, and I spoke out of an overflowing Heart. "For a moment I thought--Jane, I have met THE ONE at last." "Barbara!" she said, and stopped dead. "Is it any one I know?" "He is an Actor." "Ye gods!" said Jane, in a tence voice. "What a tradgedy!" "Tradgedy indeed," I was compeled to admit. "Jane, my Heart is breaking. I am not alowed to see him. It is all off, forever." "Darling!" said Jane. "You are trembling all over. Hold on to me. Do they disaprove?" "I am never to see him again. Never." The bitterness of it all overcame me. My eyes sufused with tears. But I told her, in broken accents, of my determination to stick to him, no matter what. "I might never be Mrs. Adrian Egleston, but----" "Adrian Egleston!" she cried, in amazement. "Why BARBARA, you lucky Thing!" So, finding her fuller of simpathy than usual, I violated my Vow of Silence and told her all. And, to prove the truth of what I said, I showed her the sachet over my heart containing his rose. "It's perfectly wonderfull," Jane said, in an awed tone. "You beat anything I've ever known for Adventures. You are the tipe men like, for one thing. But there is one thing I could not stand, in your place--having to know that he is making love to the heroine every evening and twice on Wednesdays and--Bab, this is WEDNESDAY!" I glansed at my wrist watch. It was but to o'clock. Instantly, dear Dairy, I became conscious of a dual going on within me, between love and duty. Should I do as instructed and see him no more, thus crushing my inclination under the iron heal of Resolution? Or should I cast my Parents to the winds, and go? Which? At last I desided to leave it to Jane. I observed: "I'm forbiden to try to see him. But I darsay, if you bought some theater tickets and did not say what the play was, and we went and it happened to be his, it would not be my fault, would it?" I cannot recall her reply, or much more, except that I waited in a Pharmasy, and Jane went out, and came back and took me by the arm. "We're going to the matinee, Bab," she said. "I'll not tell you which one, because it's to be a surprize." She squeazed my arm. "First row," she whispered. I shall draw a Veil over my feelings. Jane bought some chocolates to take along, but I could eat none. I was thirsty, but not hungry. And my cold was pretty bad, to. So we went in, and the curtain went up. When Adrian saw me, in the front row, he smiled although in the midst of a serious speach about the world oweing him a living. And Jane was terrably excited. "Isn't he the handsomest Thing!" she said. "And oh, Bab, I can see that he adores you. He is acting for you. All the rest of the people mean nothing to him. He sees but you." Well, I had not told her that we had not yet met, and she said I could do nothing less than send him a note. "You ought to tell him that you are true, in spite of everything," she said. If I had not decieved Jane things would be better. But she was set on my sending the note. So at last I wrote one on my visiting card, holding it so she could not read it. Jane is my best friend and I am devoted to her, but she has no scruples about reading what is not meant for her. I said:
"(Signed) The girl of the rose."
I was shaking so much that I could not give it to the usher. But Jane did. However, I had sealed it up in an envelope. Now comes the real surprize, dear Dairy. For the usher came down and said Mr. Egleston hoped I would go back and see him after the act was over. I think a paller must have come over me, and Jane said: "Bab! Do you dare?" I said yes, I dared, but that I would like a glass of water. I seemed to be thirsty all the time. So she got it, and I recovered my SAVOIR FAIR, and stopped shaking. I suppose Jane expected to go along, but I refrained from asking her. She then said: "Try to remember everything he says, Bab. I am just crazy about it." Ah, dear Dairy, how can I write how I felt when being led to him. The entire seen is engraved on my Soul. I, with my very heart in my eyes, in spite of my eforts to seem cool and collected. He, in front of his mirror, drawing in the lines of starvation around his mouth for the next seen, while on his poor feet a valet put the raged shoes of Act II! He rose when I entered, and took me by the hand. "Well!" he said. "At last!" He did not seem to mind the VALET, whom he treated like a chair or table. And he held my hand and looked deep into my eyes. Ah, dear Dairy, Men may come and Men may go in my life, but never again will I know such ecstacy as at that moment. "Sit down," he said. "Little Lady of the rose--but it's violets today, isn't it? And so you like the Play?" I was by that time somwhat calmer, but glad to sit down, owing to my knees feeling queer. "I think it is magnifacent," I said. "I wish there were more like you," he observed. "Just a moment, I have to make a change here. No need to go out. There's a screan for that very purpose." He went behind the screan, and the man handed him a raged shirt over the top of it, while I sat in a chair and dreamed. What I reflected, would the School say if it but knew! I felt no remorce. I was there, and beyond the screan, changing into the garments of penury, was the only member of the Other Sex I had ever felt I could truly care for. Dear Dairy, I am tired and my head aches. I cannot write it all. He was perfectly respectfull, and only his eyes showed his true feelings. The woman who is the Adventuress in the play came to the Door, but he motioned her away with a waive of the hand. And at last it was over, and he was asking me to come again soon, and if I would care to have one of his pictures. I am very sleepy tonight, but I cannot close this record of a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l d-a-y----
Not hearing from Carter Brooks I telephoned him just now. He is sore about Beresford and said he would not come to the house. So I have asked him to meet me in the Park, and said that there were only to more days, this being Thursday.
He says the Theme is that the world owes Adrian a living, and that the way to do is to put that strongly before the people. "Suppose," he said, "that this fellow would go to some big factery, and demand work. Not ask for it. Demand it. He could pretend to be starving and say: 'The world owes me a living, and I intend to have it.'" "But supose they were sorry for him and gave it to him?" I observed. "Tut, child," he said. "That would have to be all fixed up first. It ought to be aranged that he not only be refused, but what's more, that he'll be thrown out. He'll have to cut up a lot, d'you see, so they'll throw him out. And we'll have Reporters there, so the story can get around. You get it, don't you? Your friend, in order to prove that the idea of the Play is right, goes out for a job, and proves that he cannot demand Laber and get it." He stopped and spoke with excitement: "Is he a real sport? Would he stand being arested? Because that would cinch it." But here I drew a line. I would not subject him to such humiliation. I would not have him arested. And at last Carter gave in. "But you get the Idea," he said. "There'll be the deuce of a Row, and it's good for a half collumn on the first page of the evening papers. Result, a jamb that night at the performence, and a new lease of life for the Play. Egleston comes on, bruized and battered, and perhaps with a limp. The Labor Unions take up the matter--it's a knock out. I'd charge a thousand dollars for that idea if I were selling it." "Bruized!" I exclaimed. "Realy bruized or painted on?" He glared at me impatiently. "Now see here, Bab," he said. "I'm doing this for you. You've got to play up. And if your young man won't stand a bang in the eye, for instanse, to earn his Bread and Butter, he's not worth saving." "Who are you going to get to--to throw him out?" I asked, in a faltering tone. He stopped and stared at me. "I like that!" he said. "It's not my Play that's failing, is it? Go and tell him the Skeme, and then let his manager work it out. And tell him who I am, and that I have a lot of Ideas, but this is the only one I'm giving away." We had arived at the house by that time and I invited him to come in. But he only glansed bitterly at the Windows and observed that they had taken in the mat with Welcome on it, as far as he was concerned. And went away. Although we have never had a mat with Welcome on it. Dear Dairy, I wonder if father would do it? He is gentle and kind-hearted, and it would be painfull to him. But to who else can I turn in my extremity? I have but one hope. My father is like me. He can be coaxed and if kindly treated will do anything. But if aproached in the wrong way, or asked to do somthing against his principals, he becomes a Roaring Lion. He would never be bully-ed into giving a Man work, even so touching a Personallity as Adrian's.
"He could probably run a bus, and releace some one who can fight," he shouted. "Or he could at least do an honest day's work with his hands. Don't let me see him, that's all." "Do I understand that you forbid him the house?" Leila asked, in a cold furey. "Just keep him out of my sight," father snaped. "I supose I can't keep him from swilling tea while I am away doing my part to help the Allies." "Oh, rot!" said Sis, in a scornfull maner. "While you help your bank account, you mean. I don't object to that, father, but for Heaven's sake don't put it on altruistic grounds." She went upstairs then and banged her door, and mother merely set her lips and said nothing. But when Beresford called, later, Tanney had to tell him the Familey was out. Were it not for our afections, and the necessity for getting married, so there would be an increase in the Population, how happy we could all be!
It was a painfull evening, with Sis shut away in her room, and father cuting the ends off cigars in a viscious maner. Mother was NON EST, and had I not had my memories, it would have been a Sickning Time. I sat very still and waited until father softened, which he usualy does, like ice cream, all at once and all over. I sat perfectly still in a large chair, and except for an ocasional sneaze, was quiet. Only once did my parent adress me in an hour, when he said: "What the devil's making you sneaze so?" "My noze, I think, sir," I said meekly. "Humph!" he said. "It's rather a small noze to be making such a racket." I was cut to the heart, dear Dairy. One of my dearest dreams has always been a delicate noze, slightly arched and long enough to be truly aristocratic. Not realy acqualine but on the verge. I HATE my little noze--hate it--hate it--HATE IT. "Father" I said, rising and on the point of tears. "How can you! To taunt me with what is not my own fault, but partly heredatary and partly carelessness. For if you had pinched it in infansy it would have been a good noze, and not a pug. And----" "Good gracious!" he exclaimed. "Why, Bab, I never meant to insult your noze. As a matter of fact, it's a good noze. It's exactly the sort of noze you ought to have. Why, what in the world would YOU do with a Roman noze?" I have not been feeling very well, dear Dairy, and so I sudenly began to weap. "Why, chicken!" said my father. And made me sit down on his knee. "Don't tell me that my bit of sunshine is behind a cloud!" "Behind a noze," I said, feebly. So he said he liked my noze, even although somwhat swolen, and he kissed it, and told me I was a little fool, and at last I saw he was about ready to be tackeled. So I observed: "Father, will you do me a faver?" "Sure," he said. "How much do you need? Busness is pretty good now, and I've about landed the new order for shells for the English War Department. I--supose we make it fifty! Although, we'd better keep it a Secret between the to of us." I drew myself up, although tempted. But what was fifty dollars to doing somthing for Adrian? A mere bagatelle. "Father," I said, "do you know Miss Everett, my English teacher?" He remembered the name. "Would you be willing to do her a great favor?" I demanded intencely. "What sort of a favor?" "Her couzin has written a play. She is very fond of her couzin, and anxious to have him suceed. And it is a lovely play." He held me off and stared at me. "So THAT is what you were doing in that box alone!" he exclaimed. "You incomprehensable child! Why didn't you tell your mother?" "Mother does not always understand," I said, in a low voice. "I thought, by buying a Box, I would do my part to help Miss Everett's couzin's play suceed. And as a result I was draged home, and shamefully treated in the most mortafying maner. But I am acustomed to brutalaty." "Oh, come now," he said. "I wouldn't go as far as that, chicken. Well, I won't finanse the play, but short of that I'll do what I can." However he was not so agreable when I told him Carter Brooks' plan. He delivered a firm no. "Although," he said, "sombody ought to do it, and show the falasy of the Play. In the first place, the world doesn't owe the fellow a living, unless he will hustel around and make it. In the second place an employer has a right to turn away a man he doesn't want. No one can force Capitle to employ Labor." "Well," I said, "as long as Labor talks and makes a lot of noise, and Capitle is to dignafied to say anything, most people are going to side with Labor." He gazed at me. "Right!" he said. "You've put your finger on it, in true femanine fashion." "Then why won't you throw out this man when he comes to you for Work? He intends to force you to employ him." "Oh, he does, does he?" said father, in a feirce voice. "Well, let him come. I can stand up for my Principals, to. I'll throw him out, all right." Dear Dairy, the battle is over and I have won. I am very happy. How true it is that strategy will do more than violance! We have aranged it all. Adrian is to go to the mill, dressed like a decayed Gentleman, and father will refuse to give him work. I have said nothing about violance, leaving that to arange itself. I must see Adrian and his manager. Carter has promised to tell some reporters that there may be a story at the mill on Saturday morning. I am to excited to sleep. Feel horid. Forbiden to go out this morning.
"Well," Leila said, "I can hardly wait to tell father and see him curl up." "No, no," said Beresford, hastily. "Realy you must allow me I must inform him myself. I am sure you can see why. This is a thing for men to settle. Besides, it is a delacate matter. Mr. Archibald is trying to get the Order, and our New York office, if I am willing, is ready to place it with him." "Well!" said Leila, in a thunderstruck tone. "If you British don't beat anything for keeping your own Counsel!" I could see that he had her hand under the table. It was sickning. Jane came to see me after lunch. The wedding was that night, and I had to sit through silver vegatable dishes, and after-dinner coffee sets and plates and a grand piano and a set of gold vazes and a cabushon saphire and the bridesmaid's clothes and the wedding supper and heaven knows what. But at last she said: "You dear thing--how weary and wan you look!" I closed my eyes. "But you don't intend to give him up, do you?" "Look at me!" I said, in imperious tones. "Do I look like one who would give him up, because of Familey objections?" "How brave you are!" she observed. "Bab, I am green with envy. When I think of the way he looked at you, and the tones of his voice when he made love to that--that creature, I am posatively SHAKEN." We sat in somber silence. Then she said: "I darsay he detests the Heroine, doesn't he?" "He tolarates her," I said, with a shrug. More silense. I rang for Hannah to bring some ice water. We were in my BOUDOIR. "I saw him yesterday," said Jane, when Hannah had gone. "Jane!" "In the park. He was with the woman that plays the Adventuress. Ugly old thing." I drew a long breath of relief. For I knew that the Adventuress was at least thirty and perhaps more. Besides being both wicked and cruel, and not at all femanine. Hannah brought the ice-water and then came in the most madening way and put her hand on my Forehead. "I've done nothing but bring you ice-water for to days," she said. "Your head's hot. I think you need a musterd foot bath and to go to bed." "Hannah," Jane said, in her loftyest fashion, "Miss Barbara is woried, not ill. And please close the door when you go out." Which was her way of telling Hannah to go. Hannah glared at her. "If you take my advice, Miss Jane," she said. "You'll keep away from Miss Barbara." And she went out, slaming the door. "Well!" gasped Jane. "Such impertanence. Old servant or not, she ought to have her mouth slaped." Well, I told Jane the plan and she was perfectly crazy about it. I had a headache, but she helped me into my street things, and got Sis's rose hat for me while Sis was at the telephone. Then we went out. First we telephoned Carter Brooks, and he said tomorrow morning would do, and he'd give a couple of reporters the word to hang around father's office at the mill. He said to have Adrian there at ten o'clock. "Are you sure your father will do it?" he asked. "We don't want a flivver, you know." "He's making a principal of it," I said. "When he makes a principal of a thing, he does it." "Good for father!" Carter said. "Tell him not to be to gentle. And tell your Actor-friend to make a lot of fuss. The more the better. I'll see the Policeman at the mill, and he'll probably take him up. But we'll get him out for the matinee. And watch the evening papers." It was then that a terrable thought struck me. What if Adrian considered it beneath his profession to advertize, even if indirectly? What if he prefered the failure of Miss Everett's couzin's play to a bruize on the eye? What, in short, if he refused? Dear Dairy, I was stupafied. I knew not which way to turn. For Men are not like Women, who are dependible and anxious to get along, and will sacrifise anything for Success. No, men are likely to turn on the ones they love best, if the smallest Things do not suit them, such as cold soup, or sleaves to long from the shirt-maker, or plans made which they have not been consulted about beforhand. "Darling!" said Jane, as I turned away, "you look STRICKEN!" "My head aches," I said, with a weary gesture toward my forehead. It did ache, for that matter. It is acheing now, dear Dairy. However, I had begun my task and must go through with it. Abandoning Jane at a corner, in spite of her calling me cruel and even sneeking, I went to Adrian's hotel, which I had learned of during my SEANCE in his room while he was changing his garments behind a screan, as it was marked on a dressing case. It was then five o'clock. How nervous I felt as I sent up my name to his chamber. Oh, dear Dairy, to think that it was but five hours ago that I sat and waited, while people who guessed not the inner trepadation of my heart past and repast, and glansed at me and at Leila's pink hat above. At last he came. My heart beat thunderously, as he aproached, strideing along in that familiar walk, swinging his strong and tender arms. And I! I beheld him coming and could think of not a word to say. "Well!" he said, pausing in front of me. "I knew I was going to be lucky today. Friday is my best day." "I was born on Friday," I said. I could think of nothing else. "Didn't I say it was my lucky day? But you mustn't sit here. What do you say to a cup of tea in the restarant?" How grown up and like a DEBUTANTE I felt, dear Dairy, going to have tea as if I had it every day at School, with a handsome actor across! Although somwhat uneasy also, owing to the posibility of the Familey coming in. But it did not and I had a truly happy hour, not at all spoiled by looking out the window and seeing Jane going by, with her eyes popping out, and walking very slowly so I would invite her to come in. WHICH I DID NOT. Dear Dairy, HE WILL DO IT. At first he did not understand, and looked astounded. But when I told him of Carter being in the advertizing busness, and father owning a large mill, and that there would be reporters and so on, he became thoughtfull. "It's realy incredably clever," he said. "And if it's pulled off right it ought to be a Stampede. But I'd like to see Mr. Brooks. We can't have it fail, you know." He leaned over the table. "It's straight goods, is it, Miss er--Barbara? There's nothing foney about it?" "Foney!" I said, drawing back. "Certainly not." He kept on leaning over the table. "I wonder," he said, "what makes you so interested in the Play?" Oh, Dairy, Dairy! And just then I looked up, and the Adventuress was staring in the door at me with the MEANEST look on her face. I draw a Veil over the remainder of our happy hour. Suffice it to say that he considers me exactly the tipe he finds most atractive, and that he does not consider my noze to short. We had a long dispute about this. He thinks I am wrong and says I am not an acquiline tipe. He says I am romantic and of a loving disposition. Also somwhat reckless, and he gave me good advice about doing what my Familey consider for my good, at least until I come out. But our talk was all to short, for a fat man with three rings on came in, and sat down with us, and ordered a whiskey and soda. My blood turned cold, for fear some one I knew would come in and see me sitting there in a drinking party. And my blood was right to turn cold. For, just as he had told the manager about the arangement I had made, and the manager said "Bully" and raised his glass to drink to me I looked across and there was mother's aunt, old Susan Paget, sitting near, with the most awfull face I ever saw! I colapsed in my chair. Dear Dairy, I only remember saying, "Well, remember, ten o'clock. And dress up like a Gentleman in hard luck," and his saying: "Well, I hope I'm a Gentleman, and the hard luck's no joke," and then I went away. And now, dear Dairy, I am in bed, and every time the telephone rings I have a chill. And in between times I drink ice-water and sneaze. How terrable a thing is Love.
Beresford went at ten o'clock to ask for Leila, and did not send in his card for fear father would refuse to see him. And father thought, from his saying that he had come to ask for somthing, and so on, that it was Adrian, and threw him out. He ordered him out first, and Beresford refused to go, and they had words, and then there was a fight. The Reporters got it, and it is in all the papers. Hannah has just brought one in. It is headed "Manufacturer assaults Peer." Leila is in bed, and the doctor is with her.
It is in vain I protest that he has not eloped with me. It is almost time now for the Matinee and no Adrian. What shall I do?
What is a sickness to a broken heart? And to a heart broken while trying to help another who did not deserve to be helped. But if he decieved me, he has paid for it, and did until he was rescued at ten o'clock tonight. I have been given a sleeping medacine, and until it takes affect I shall write out the tradgedy of this day, omiting nothing. The trained nurse is asleep on a cot, and her cap is hanging on the foot of the bed. I have tried it on, dear Dairy, and it is very becoming. If they insist on Switzerland I think I shall run away and be a trained nurse. It is easy work, although sleeping on a cot is not always comfortible. But at least a trained nurse leads her own Life and is not bully-ed by her Familey. And more, she does good constantly. I feel tonight that I should like to do good, and help the sick, and perhaps go to the Front. I know a lot of college men in the American Ambulence. I shall never go on the stage, dear Dairy. I know now its decietfullness and visisitudes. My heart has bled until it can bleed no more, as a result of a theatricle Adonis. I am through with the theater forever. I shall begin at the beginning. I left off where Adrian had disapeared. Although feeling very strange, and looking a queer red color in my mirror, I rose and dressed myself. I felt that somthing had slipped, and I must find Adrian. (It is strange with what coldness I write that once beloved name.) While dressing I percieved that my chest and arms were covered with small red dots, but I had no time to think of myself. I sliped downstairs and outside the drawing room I heard mother conversing in a loud and angry tone with a visitor. I glansed in, and ye gods! It was the Adventuress. Drawing somwhat back, I listened. Oh, Dairy, what a revalation! "But I MUST see her," she was saying. "Time is flying. In a half hour the performance begins, and--he cannot be found." "I can't understand," mother said, in a stiff maner. "What can my daughter Barbara know about him?" The Adventuress snifed. "Humph!" she said. "She knows, all right. And I'd like to see her in a hurry, if she is in the house." "Certainly she is in the house," said mother. "ARE YOU SURE OF THAT? Because I have every reason to beleive she has run away with him. She has been hanging around him all week, and only yesterday afternoon I found them together. She had some sort of a Skeme, he said afterwards, and he wrinkled a coat under his mattress last night. He said it was to look as if he had slept in it. I know nothing further of your daughter's Skeme. But I know he went out to meet her. He has not been seen since. His manager has hunted for to hours." "Just a moment," said mother, in a fridgid tone. "Am I to understand that this--this Mr. Egleston is----" "He is my Husband." Ah, dear Dairy, that I might then and there have passed away. But I did not. I stood there, with my heart crushed, until I felt strong enough to escape. Then I fled, like a Gilty Soul. It was gastly. On the doorstep I met Jane. She gazed at me strangely when she saw my face, and then cluched me by the arm. "Bab!" she cried. "What on the earth is the matter with your complexion?" But I was desparate. "Let me go!" I said. "Only lend me two dollars for a taxi and let me go. Somthing horible has happened." She gave me ninety cents, which was all she had, and I rushed down the street, followed by her peircing gaze. Although realizing that my Life, at least the part of it pertaining to sentament, was over, I knew that, single or married, I must find him. I could not bare to think that I, in my desire to help, had ruined Miss Everett's couzin's play. Luckaly I got a taxi at the corner, and I ordered it to drive to the mill. I sank back, bathed in hot persparation, and on consulting my bracelet watch found I had but twenty five minutes until the curtain went up. I must find him, but where and how! I confess for a moment that I doubted my own father, who can be very feirce on ocasion. What if, madened by his mistake about Beresford, he had, on being aproached by Adrian, been driven to violance? What if, in my endeaver to help one who was unworthy, I had led my poor paternal parent into crime? Hell is paved with good intentions. SAMUEL JOHNSTON.
I got out, and paid the man. I felt very dizzy and queer, and was very thirsty, so I went to the hydrent in the yard and got a drink of water. I did not as yet suspect meazles, but laid it all to my agony of mind. Haveing thus refreshed myself, I looked about, and saw the yard Policeman, a new one who did not know me, as I am away at school most of the time, and the Familey is not expected to visit the mill, because of dirt and possable accidents. I aproached him, however, and he stood still and stared at me. "Officer" I said, in my most dignafied tones. "I am looking for a--for a Gentleman who came here this morning to look for work." "There was about two hundred lined up here this morning, Miss," he said. "Which one would it be, now?" How my heart sank! "About what time would he be coming?" he said. "Things have been kind of mixed-up around here today, owing to a little trouble this morning. But perhaps I'll remember him." But, although Adrian is of an unusual tipe, I felt that I could not describe him, besides having a terrable headache. So I asked if he would lend me carfare, which he did with a strange look. "You're not feeling sick, Miss, are you?" he said. But I could not stay to converce, as it was then time for the curtain to go up, and still no Adrian. I had but one refuge in mind, Carter Brooks, and to him I fled on the wings of misery in the street car. I burst into his advertizing office like a furey. "Where is he?" I demanded. "Where have you and your plotting hidden him?" "Who? Beresford?" he asked in a placid maner. "He is at his hotel, I beleive, putting beefstake on a bad eye. Beleive me, Bab----" "Beresford!" I cried, in scorn and wrechedness. "What is he to me? Or his eye either? I refer to Mr. Egleston. It is time for the curtain to go up now, and unless he has by this time returned, there can be no performence." "Look here," Carter said sudenly, "you look awfuly queer, Bab. Your face----" I stamped my foot. "What does my face matter?" I demanded. "I no longer care for him, but I have ruined Miss Everett's couzin's play unless he turns up. Am I to be sent to Switzerland with that on my Soul?" "Switzerland!" he said slowly. "Why, Bab, they're not going to do that, are they? I--I don't want you so far away." Dear Dairy, I am unsuspisious by nature, beleiving all mankind to be my friends until proven otherwise. But there was a gloating look in Carter Brooks' eyes as they turned on me. "Carter!" I said, "you know where he is and you will not tell me. You WISH to ruin him." I was about to put my hand on his arm, but he drew away. "Look here," he said. "I'll tell you somthing, but please keep back. Because you look like smallpox to me. I was at the mill this morning. I do not know anything about your Actor-friend. He's probably only been run over or somthing. But I saw Beresford going in, and I--well, I sugested that he'd better walk in on your father or he wouldn't get in. It worked, Bab. HOW IT DID WORK! He went in and said he had come to ask your father for somthing, and your father blew up by saying that he knew about it, but that the world only owed a living to the man who would hustle for it, and that he would not be forced to take any one he did not want. "And in to minutes Beresford hit him, and got a responce. It was a Million dollars worth." So he babbled on. But what were his words to me? Dear Dairy, I gave no thought to the smallpox he had mentioned, although fatle to the complexion. Or to the fight at the mill. I heard only Adrian's possable tradgic fate. Sudenly I colapsed, and asked for a drink of water, feeling horible, very wobbley and unable to keep my knees from bending. And the next thing I remember is father taking me home, and Adrian's fate still a deep mystery, and remaining such, while I had a warm sponge to bring out the rest of the rash, folowed by a sleep--it being meazles and not smallpox. Oh, dear Dairy, what a story I learned when haveing wakened and feeling better, my father came tonight and talked to me from the doorway, not being allowed in. Adrian had gone to the mill, and father, haveing thrown Beresford out and asserted his principals, had not thrown him out, BUT HAD GIVEN HIM A JOB IN THE MILL. And the Policeman had given him no chance to escape, which he atempted. He was dragged to the shell plant and there locked in, because of spies. The plant is under Milatary Guard. AND THERE HE HAD BEEN COMPELED TO DRAG A WHEELBARROW BACK AND FORTH, CONTAINING CHARCOAL FOR A SMALL FURNASE, FOR HOURS! Even when Carter found him he could not be releaced, as father was in hiding from Reporters, and would not go to the telephone or see callers. HE LABORED UNTIL TEN P. M., while the theater remained dark, and people got their money back. I have ruined him. I have also ruined Miss Everett's couzin. * * * * * The nurse is still asleep. I think I will enter a hospitle. My career is ended, my Life is blasted. I reach under the mattress and draw out the picture of him who today I have ruined, compeling him to do manual labor for hours, although unacustomed to it. He is a great actor, and I beleive has a future. But my love for him is dead. Dear Dairy, he decieved me, and that is one thing I cannot forgive. So now I sit here among my pillows, while the nurse sleeps, and I reflect about many Things. But one speach rings in my ears over and over. Carter Brooks, on learning about Switzerland, said it in a strange maner, looking at me with inscrutible eyes. "Switzerland! Why, Bab--I don't want you to go so far away." WHAT DID HE MEAN BY IT? * * * * * Dear Dairy, you will have to be burned, I darsay. Perhaps it is as well. I have p o r e d out my H-e-a-r-t---- _ |
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