Part 22 (1/2)

”Well, don't you see how wrong and wicked that was?”

”I've heard of worse things.”

”Oh, don't say so, dearest! It was living a lie, don't you see. And I've been living a lie ever since, and now I'm justly punished for not telling you long ago.”

She told him of the visit she had just had, and who the man was, and whom he wanted the play for; and now a strange thing happened with her.

She did not beseech him not to give his play to that woman; on the contrary she said: ”And now, Brice, I want you to let her have it. I know she will play Salome magnificently, and that will make the fortune of the piece, and it will give you such a name that anything you write after this will get accepted; and you can satisfy your utmost ambition, and you needn't mind me--no--or think of me at all any more than if I were the dust of the earth; and I am! Will you?”

He got up from the lounge and began to walk the floor, as he always did when he was perplexed; and she let him walk up and down in silence as long as she could bear it. At last she said: ”I am in earnest, Brice, I am indeed, and if you don't do it, if you let me or my feelings stand in your way, in the slightest degree, I will never forgive you. Will you go straight down to the Coleman House, as soon as you've had your dinner, and tell that man he can have your play for that woman?”

”No,” said Maxwell, stopping in his walk, and looking at her in a dazed way.

Her heart seemed to leap into her throat. ”Why?” she choked.

”Because G.o.dolphin is here.”

”G.o.do--” she began; and she cast herself on the lounge that Maxwell had vacated, and plunged her face in the pillow and sobbed, ”Oh, cruel, cruel, _cruel_! Oh, _cruel_, cruel, cruel, cruel!”

XX.

Maxwell stood looking at his wife with the cold disgust which hysterics are apt to inspire in men after they have seen them more than once. ”I suppose that when you are ready you will tell me what is the matter with you.”

”To let me suffer so, when you knew all the time that G.o.dolphin was here, and you needn't give your play to that creature at all,” wailed Louise.

”How did _I_ know you were suffering?” he retorted. ”And how do I know that I can do anything with G.o.dolphin?”

”Oh, I _know_ you can!” She sprang up with the greatest energy, and ran into the bedroom to put in order her tumbled hair; she kept talking to him from there. ”I want you to go down and see him the instant you have had dinner; and don't let him escape you. Tell him he can have the play on any terms. I believe he is the only one who can make it go. He was the first to appreciate the idea, and--Frida!” she called into the hall towards the kitchen, ”we will have dinner at once, now, please--he always talked so intelligently about it; and now if he's where you can superintend the rehearsals, it will be the greatest success. How in the world did you find out he was here?”

She came out of her room, in surprising repair, with this question, and the rest of their talk went on through dinner.

It appeared that Maxwell had heard of G.o.dolphin's presence from Grayson, whom he met in the street, and who told him that G.o.dolphin had made a complete failure of his venture. His combination had gone to pieces at Cleveland, and his company were straggling back to New York as they could. G.o.dolphin was deeply in debt to them all, and to everybody else; and yet the manager spoke cordially of him, and with no sort of disrespect, as if his insolvency were only an affair of the moment, which he would put right. Louise took the same view of it, and she urged Maxwell to consider how G.o.dolphin had promptly paid him, and would always do so.

”Probably I got the pay of some poor devil who needed it worse,” said Maxwell.

She said, ”Nonsense! The other actors will take care of all that. They are so good to each other,” and she blamed Maxwell for not going to see G.o.dolphin at once.

”That was what I did,” he answered, ”but he wasn't at home. He was to be at home after dinner.”

”Well, that makes it all the more providential,” said Louise; her piety always awoke in view of favorable chances. ”You mustn't lose any time.

Better not wait for the coffee.”

”I think I'll wait for the coffee,” said Maxwell. ”It's no use going there before eight.”

”No,” she consented. ”Where is he stopping?”

”At the Coleman House.”

”The Coleman House? Then if that wretch should see you?” She meant the manager of Mrs. Harley.