Part 2 (1/2)
”Ya.s.sum,” said the handmaiden, and withdrew.
”Now, go on.”
”I was full of my big act, so I walked and walked for hours. Then I lay down in the summer-house, and I must have gone to sleep.”
”Go up and take a bath, and come down to some breakfast. I will send Ardelia to get some of father's things for you if you need them.”
”All right, but don't delay with breakfast. If I don't get this act down, I may lose it. That fiend, in female guise, held my paper.”
”Go on! Get ready!”
He plunged out, and Bambi went to send Ardelia to him, while she cooked his eggs and fried his bacon. As she worked, she smiled, out of sheer amus.e.m.e.nt.
In due course of time, he appeared, freshened up, and with renewed eagerness to be at work. He scarcely noticed Bambina as she served his breakfast. He ate as if he were starved.
”I suppose the landlady held your clothes?”
”I don't know. I didn't ask. It was unimportant.”
”How much do you owe her?”
He looked at her in surprise.
”I have no idea.”
”Have you any money at all?”
”Certainly not. I'd have given it to her if I had, so she wouldn't interrupt me.”
”What are you going to do?”
”Oh, I don't know. I can't think about it now. I am full of this big idea. It's a dramatization of the Brotherhood of Man, of a sublime, socialistic world----”
”Has it occurred to you, ever, Jarvis, that the world isn't ready for the Brotherhood of Man yet? It's just out of the tent stage, where War is the whole duty of Man.”
”But it must be ready,” he urged, seriously, ”for I am here with my message.”
She smiled at him as one would at a conceited child.
”Poor old Jarvis, strayed out of Elysian fields! Were you thinking of sleeping in the summer-house permanently?”
”Oh, it doesn't matter; only the play matters. Give me some paper, Bambi, and let me get to work.”
She rose and went to stand before him.
”Would you mind looking at me?”
He turned his eyes on her.
”Not just your eyes, Jarvis. Look at me with your mind.”