Part 3 (1/2)
”What under the sun did you find to talk about?”
”Oh, anything--nothing I say, she's char
”You find her so?”
”Rather”
”She seerew red
”Hardly,” he said; but there was hope in the word
”She is hardly your kind, Harry You know that You aren't going in for this sort of thing?”
”This sort--I don't knohat you mean”
”Yes, you do, Hal You know exactly what I erous woman--none more so in all the world; and, Harry boy, be sure you keep your head and watch your step”
He stood for a ry frown, then opened his h to speak, and finally turned, without a word, and started for the door There he turned again uncertainly, hesitating
”I a,” said he, and the next one
”Desiree!”
He called her Desiree!
I think I sh my reflections were not free from apprehension, I really felt but little anxiety Not that I underrated Le Mire's fascination and power; to confess the truth, my ease of mind was the result of my own vanity Le Mire had flattered me into the belief that she waswhich I saw little of Harry and Le Mire not at all At the time, I remember, I was interested in some chemical experiments--I am a dabbler with the tubes--and went out but little Then--this was on Friday--Harry soughtaway In answer towill you be gone?”
”Oh, a week--perhaps aIt would have done no good to force hi he departed, with three trunks, and with no further word to one than I started for the telephone to call up Le Mire; but thought better of it and with a shrug of the shoulders returned to the laboratory
It was the following Monday that was to see the first appearance of Le Mire at the Stuyvesant I had not thought of going, but on Monday afternoon Billy Du Mont telephoned me that he had an extra ticket and would like to have me join him I was really a little curious to see Le Mire perform and accepted
We dined at the club and arrived at the theater rather late The audience was brilliant; indeed, though I had been an ardent first-nighter for a year or two in my callow youth, I think I have never seen such a representation of fashi+on and genius in America, except at the opera
Billy and I sat in the orchestra--about the twelfth row--and half the faces in sight ell known to me Whether Le Mire could dance or not, she ent We were soon to receive an exemplification of at least a portion of the reputation that had preceded her
Many were the angry adjectives heaped on the head of the dancer on thatMrs Frederick Marston, I remember, called her an insolent hussy; but then Mrs Frederick Marston was never original
Others: rash, impudent, saucy, impertinent; in each instance accompanied by threats
Indeed, it is little wonder if those people of fashi+on and wealth and position were indignant and sore For they had dressed and dined hastily and come all the way don to see Le Mire; they waited for her for two hours and a half in stuffy theater seats, and Le Mire did not appear
The announceer of the theater at a little before eleven-o'clock He could not understand, he said--the poor felloas on the point of wringing his hands with agitation and despair--he could not understand why the dancer did not arrive