Part 26 (2/2)
Maxwell did not say anything; he looked at Louise again, and it seemed to her that he meant her to speak. She said, ”Oh, we understood that we couldn't have all kinds of a Salome in one creation of the part; and I'm sure no one can see Mrs. Harley in it without feeling her intensity.”
”She's a force,” said G.o.dolphin. ”And if, as we all decided,” he continued, to Maxwell, ”when we talked it over with Grayson, that a powerful Salome would heighten the effect of Haxard, she is going to make the success of the piece.”
”_You_ are going to make the success of the piece!” cried Louise.
”Ah, I sha'n't care if they forget me altogether,” said the actor; ”I shall forget myself.” He laughed his mellow, hollow laugh, and gave his hand to Louise and then to Maxwell. ”I'm so glad you feel as you do about it, and I don't wish you to lose your faith in our Salome for a moment. You've quite confirmed mine.” He wrung the hands of each with a fervor of grat.i.tude that left them with a disquiet which their eyes expressed to each other when he was gone.
”What does it mean?” asked Louise.
Maxwell shook his head. ”It's beyond me.”
”Brice,” she appealed, after a moment, ”do you think I had been saying anything to set him against her?”
”No,” he returned, instantly. ”Why should I suspect you of anything so base?”
Her throat was full, but she made out to say, ”No, you are too generous, too good for such a thing;” and now she went on to eat humble-pie with a self-devotion which few women could practise. ”I know that if I don't like having her I have no one but myself to thank for it. If I had never written to that miserable Mr. Sterne, or answered his advertis.e.m.e.nt, he would never have heard of your play, and nothing that has happened would have happened.”
”No, you don't know that at all,” said Maxwell; and it seemed to her that she must sink to her knees under his magnanimity. ”The thing might have happened in a dozen different ways.”
”No matter. I am to blame for it when it did happen; and now you will never hear another word from me. Would you like me to swear it?”
”That would be rather unpleasant,” said Maxwell.
They both felt a great physical fatigue, and they neither had the wish to prolong the evening after dinner. Maxwell was going to lock the door of the apartment at nine o'clock, and then go to bed, when there came a ring at it. He opened it, and stood confronted with Grayson, looking very hot and excited.
”Can I come in a moment?” the manager asked. ”Are you alone? Can I speak with you?”
”There's no one here but Mrs. Maxwell,” said her husband, and he led the way into the parlor.
”And if you don't like,” Louise confessed to have overheard him, ”you needn't speak before her even.”
”No, no,” said the manager, ”don't go! We may want your wisdom. We certainly want all the wisdom we can get on the question. It's about G.o.dolphin.”
”G.o.dolphin?” they both echoed.
”Yes. He's given up the piece.”
The manager drew out a letter, which he handed to Maxwell, and which Louise read with her husband, over his shoulder. It was addressed to Grayson, and began very formally.
”DEAR SIR:
”I wish to resign to you all claim I may have to a joint interest in Mr. Maxwell's piece, and to withdraw from the company formed for its representation. I feel that my part in it has been made secondary to another, and I have finally decided to relinquish it altogether. I trust that you will be able to supply my place, and I offer you my best wishes for the success of your enterprise.
”Yours very truly, ”L. G.o.dOLPHIN.”
The Maxwells did not look at each other; they both looked at the manager, and neither spoke.
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