Part 67 (1/2)
”Good-evening. If you are as well as you look, you're all right,” he smiled at her.
”I feel like a loaded mine about to blow to pieces,” she answered.
”Hold on for a couple of hours more. Does Jarvis know yet?”
”Not yet.”
He laughed and went on. Bambi returned to the box, where she sat far back in the corner. The house was filling fast now. More than a little interest was evinced in the strange box party of big Jarvis, the Professor, and Ardelia. Richard Strong nodded and smiled from a nearby seat.
”We should have come in late, just as the curtain rose,” whispered Bambi. ”We must not be so green again.”
”Why so, daughter?”
”Then we wouldn't be stared at.”
”Are we stared at? By whom?”
The overture interrupted her reply. The seats were full now as high as the eye could reach the balconies. Bambi scanned the faces eagerly.
Would they like the play? If they only knew what it meant to Jarvis and to her to have them like it!
The curtain rose. For two full moments she could not breathe. The act started off briskly, and little by little her tension relaxed. She laid her hand on Jarvis's knee and it was stiff with nervous concentration.
The first genuine laugh came to both of them like manna from heaven.
”It's all right,” Bambi whispered to Jarvis. He nodded, his eyes glued to the stage. Of all kinds of creative work, dramatic writing can be the most poignant or the most satisfactory. It is the keenest pleasure to see characters whom you have invented given life and personality if the actors are clever. The Jocelyns had the aid of practically a perfect cast. The sense of power that comes with the laughter or the tears of an audience aroused by your thoughts is a very real experience. Bambi ”ate up her sensations,” as Strong had said. As the curtain descended after the first act the applause was instantaneous and long.
”They like it,” Bambi said with a sigh.
”Yes, thank G.o.d!” from Jarvis.
”You told me not to take this seriously, Jarvis,” she reminded him.
”Does anybody know who wrote this book?” the Professor inquired.
”Not yet. We are to know to-night. I wonder where she is?” Jarvis added to Bambi.
”I've thought that fat old one in the opposite box,” she said wickedly.
”Why did you ask, father?”
”It is a diverting idea. The girl is like you, or maybe it is the similarity of the names that suggests it.”
”What do you think about the play, Ardelia?”
”Law, honey, 'tain't no play-actin' to me. It's jes' lak' bein' home wid yo' an' de' Perfessor and Ma.r.s.e Jarvis. Dose folkses is jes' lak yo' all.”
Bambi laughed outright. Ardelia was the only one who guessed.
”I trust you do not compare me to that impractical old fiddling man,”
the Professor protested to Ardelia.
”s.h.!.+ Here's the curtain!” warned Bambi.