Part 81 (1/2)

Alston's boyish eyes twinkled with appreciation.

”Well, we came here--we wanted to be quiet.”

”You've got out of sight of Broadway, that's certain.”

Tea and iced drinks were brought out. They talked of casual matters.

The softness of late afternoon, warm, scented, exotic, dreamed in the radiant air. And Crayford said:

”It's cute! It's cute!”

He had removed his hat now and almost lay back in his chair. Presently he said:

”Seems to me years since I've rested like this, Alston!”

”I believe it is many years,” said Lake, with a little satisfied laugh.

”I've never seen you do it before.”

”'Cepting the cure. And that don't amount to anything.”

”Stay and dine, won't you?” said Charmian. ”If you're not bored.”

”Bored!” said Crayford.

”We'll dine just as we are. I'll go in and see the cook about it.”

”Very good of you I'm sure,” said Crayford. ”But I don't want to put you out.”

”Where are you staying?”

”The Excelsior,” said Lake.

”Right down in the town. You must stay. It is cooler here.”

She got up and went slowly into the house.

”Stunning figure she's got and no mistake!” observed Crayford, following her with his eyes. ”But I say, Alston, what about this fellow Heath? Now I'm over here I ought to have a look at what he's up to. She seemed to want to avoid the subject, I thought. D'you think he's writing on commission? Or perhaps someone's seen the music. The Metropolitan crowd--”

They fell into a long discussion on opera prospects, during which Alston Lake succeeded in giving Crayford an impression that there might be some secret in connection with Claude Heath's opera. This set the impresario bristling. He was like a terrier at the opening of a rat-hole.

Charmian's little dinner that night was perfect. Crayford fell into a seraphic mood. Beneath his hard enterprise, his fierce energies, his armor of business equipment, there was a strain of romance of which he was half-ashamed, and which he scarcely understood or was at ease with.

That night it came rather near to the surface of him. As he stepped out into the court to take coffee, with an excellent Havana in his mouth, as he saw the deep and limpid sky glittering with strong, almost fierce stars, and farther fainter stars, he heaved a long sigh.

”Bully!” he breathed. ”Bully, and no mistake!”

Exactly how it all came about Charmian did not remember afterward; Alston, she thought, must have prepared the way with masterly ingenuity.

Or perhaps she--no, she was not conscious of having brought it about deliberately. The fact was this. At ten o'clock that night, sitting with a light behind her, Charmian began to read the libretto of the opera to the two men who were smoking near the fountain.

It had seemed inevitable. The hour was propitious. They were all ”worked up.” The night, perhaps, played upon them after ”La Grande Jeanne” had done her part. Crayford was obviously in his softest, most receptive mood. Alston was expansive, was in a gloriously hopeful condition. The opera was mentioned again. By whom? Surely by the hour or the night! It had to be mentioned, and inevitably was. Crayford was sympathetic, spoke almost with emotion--a liqueur-gla.s.s of excellent old brandy in his hand--of the young talented ones who must bear the banner of art bravely before the coming generations.