Part 36 (1/2)

”I am going to try you out in 'Phantom Love.' You remember you said if I wrote a part especially for you that nothing in heaven or earth could prevent your taking it.”

”And _have_ you written a part especially for me?”

”I certainly have. A young Southern girl who moves through the play like a strain of exquisite music. The only trouble is that the role promises to be more appealing than the star's.”

”That's the loveliest thing I ever heard of anybody doing!” cried Eleanor, breathless with grat.i.tude. ”Does Papa Claude know?”

”Of course he knows. We worked it out together. I am going to find him a small apartment, so he can be ready for you when you come. It shouldn't be later than November the first.”

Eleanor wore such a look as Joan of Arc must have worn when she first heard the heavenly voices. Her shapely bare arms hung limp at her sides, and her white face, with its contrasting black hair, shone like a delicate cameo against the darkness.

Harold, leaning forward with elbows on his knees, kept lightly touching and retouching his mustache.

”In the first act,” he continued softly, ”I've put you in the Red Cross Uniform--the little blue and white one, you know, that you used to break hearts in out at the camp hospital. In the second act you are to be in riding togs, smart in every detail, something very chic, that will show your figure to advantage; in the last act I want you exactly as you are this minute--this soft clingy gold gown, and the gold slippers, and your hair high and plain like that, with the band of dull gold around it. I wouldn't change an inch of you, not from your head to your blessed little feet!”

As he talked Eleanor forgot him completely. She was busy visualizing the different costumes, even going so far as to see herself slipping through folds of crimson velvet to take insistent curtain calls. Already in imagination she was rich and famous, dispensing munificent bounty to the entire Martel family. Then a disturbing thought p.r.i.c.ked her dream and brought her rudely back to the present. As long as her grandmother regarded her going to New York as a foolish whim, a pa.s.sing craze, she might be wheedled into yielding; but at the first suggestion of a professional engagement, her opposition would become active and violent, Eleanor sighed helplessly and looked at Harold.

”What shall I do if grandmother refuses to send me?” she asked desperately.

”You can let me send you,” he said quietly. ”It's folly to keep up this pretense any longer, Eleanor. You love me, don't you?”

”I--I like you,” faltered Eleanor, ”better than almost anybody. But I am never going to marry; I don't think I shall ever care for anybody--that way.”

He watched her with an amused practised glance. ”We won't talk about it now,” he said lightly. ”We will talk instead of your career. You remember that night at Ran's when you recited for me? I can hear you now saying those lines:

'Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won I'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay.'

For days I was haunted by the beauty and subtlety of your voice, the unconscious grace of your poses, your little tricks of coquetry, and the play of your eyebrows.”

”Did you really see all that in me the first night?”

”I saw more. I saw that, if taken in time, you were destined to be a great actress. I swore then and there that you should have your chance, and that I should be the one to give it to you.”

”But----”

”No. Don't answer me now. You are like a little bud that's afraid to open its petals. Once you get out of this chilling atmosphere of criticism and opposition, you will burst into glorious bloom.”

”But it would mean a terrible break with the family. I don't believe I can----”

”Yes, you can. I know you better than you know yourself. If Madam Bartlett persists in refusing to send you to New York, you are going to be big enough to let me do it.”

He was holding her hand now, and talking with unusual earnestness.

Eleanor thought she had never seen a greater exhibition of magnanimity.

That he was willing to give all and ask for nothing, to be patient with her vacillations, and understand and sympathize with what everybody else condemned in her, touched her greatly. She turned to him impulsively.

”I'll do whatever you say,” she said. ”You and Papa Claude go ahead and make the arrangements, and I promise you I'll come.”