2.
By the time the two halves of the company, ensemble and principals,
melted into one complete whole, the novelty of her new surroundings
had worn off, and Jill was feeling that there had never been a time
when she had not been one of a theatrical troupe, rehearsing. The
pleasant social gatherings round Mr Saltzburg's piano gave way after
a few days to something far less agreeable and infinitely more
strenuous, the breaking-in of the dances under the supervision of the
famous Johnson Miller. Johnson Miller was a little man with
snow-white hair and the india-rubber physique of a juvenile acrobat.
Nobody knew actually how old he was, but he certainly looked much too
advanced in years to be capable of the feats of endurance which he
performed daily. He had the untiring enthusiasm of a fox-terrier, and
had bullied and scolded more companies along the rocky road that
leads to success than any half-dozen dance-directors in the country,
in spite of his handicap in being almost completely deaf. He had an
almost miraculous gift of picking up the melodies for which it was
his business to design dances, without apparently hearing them. He
seemed to absorb them through the pores. He had a blunt and arbitrary
manner, and invariably spoke his mind frankly and honestly--a habit
which made him strangely popular in a profession where the language
of equivoque is cultivated almost as sedulously as in the circles of
international diplomacy. What Johnson Miller said to your face was
official, not subject to revision as soon as your back was turned:
and people appreciated this.
Izzy's willowy friend summed him up one evening when the ladies of
the ensemble were changing their practise-clothes after a
particularly strenuous rehearsal, defending him against the Southern
girl, who complained that he made her tired.
"You bet he makes you tired," she said. "So he does me. I'm losing my
girlish curves, and I'm so stiff I can't lace my shoes. But he knows
his business and he's on the level, which is more than you can say of
most of these guys in the show business."
"That's right," agreed the Southern girl's blonde friend. "He does
know his business. He's put over any amount of shows which would have
flopped like dogs without him to stage the numbers."
The duchess yawned. Rehearsing always bored her, and she had not been
greatly impressed by what she had seen of "The Rose of America."
"One will be greatly surprised if he can make a success of _this_
show! I confess I find it perfectly ridiculous."
"Ithn't it the limit, honetht!" said the cherub, arranging her golden
hair at the mirror. "It maketh me thick! Why on earth is Ike putting
it on?"
The girl who knew everything--there is always one in every
company--hastened to explain.
"I heard all about that. Ike hasn't any of his own money in the
thing. He's getting twenty-five per cent of the show for running it.
The angel is the long fellow you see jumping around. Pilkington his
name is."
"Well, it'll need to be Rockefeller later on," said the blonde.
"Oh, they'll get thomebody down to fixth it after we've out on the
road a couple of days," said the cherub, optimistically. "They
alwayth do. I've seen worse shows than this turned into hits. All it
wants ith a new book and lyrics and a different thcore."
"And a new set of principals," said the red-headed Babe. "Did you
ever see such a bunch?"
The duchess, with another tired sigh, arched her well-shaped eyebrows
and studied the effect in the mirror.
"One wonders where they pick these persons up," she assented
languidly. "They remind me of a headline I saw in the paper this
morning--'Tons of Hams Unfit for Human Consumption.' Are any of you
girls coming my way? I can give two or three of you a lift in my
limousine."
"Thorry, old dear, and thanks ever so much," said the cherub, "but I
instructed Clarence, my man, to have the street-car waiting on the
corner, and he'll be tho upset if I'm not there."
Nelly had an engagement to go and help one of the other girls buy a
Spring suit, a solemn rite which it is impossible to conduct by
oneself: and Jill and the cherub walked to the corner together. Jill
had become very fond of the little thing since rehearsals began. She
reminded her of a London sparrow. She was so small and perky and so
absurdly able to take care of herself.
"Limouthine!" snorted the cherub. The duchess' concluding speech
evidently still rankled. "She gives me a pain in the gizthard!"
"Hasn't she got a limousine?" asked Jill.
"Of course she hasn't. She's engaged to be married to a demonstrator
in the Speedwell Auto Company, and he thneaks off when he can get
away and gives her joy-rides. That's all the limousine she's got. It
beats me why girls in the show business are alwayth tho crazy to make
themselves out vamps with a dozen millionaires on a string. If Mae
wouldn't four-flush and act like the Belle of the Moulin Rouge, she'd
be the nithest girl you ever met. She's mad about the fellow she's
engaged to, and wouldn't look at all the millionaires in New York if
you brought 'em to her on a tray. She's going to marry him as thoon
as he's thaved enough to buy the furniture, and then she'll thettle
down in Harlem thomewhere and cook and mind the baby and regularly be
one of the lower middle classes. All that's wrong with Mae ith that
she's read Gingery Stories and thinkth that's the way a girl has to
act when she'th in the chorus."
"That's funny," said Jill. "I should never have thought it. I
swallowed the limousine whole."
The cherub looked at her curiously. Jill puzzled her. Jill had,
indeed, been the subject of much private speculation among her
colleagues.
"This is your first show, ithn't it?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Thay, what are you doing in the chorus, anyway?"
"Getting scolded by Mr Miller mostly, it seems to me."
"Thcolded by Mr Miller! Why didn't you say 'bawled out by Johnny?'
That'th what any of the retht of us would have said."
"Well, I've lived most of my life in England. You can't expect me to
talk the language yet."
"I thought you were English. You've got an acthent like the fellow
who plays the dude in thith show. Thay, why did you ever get into the
show business?"
"Well . . . well, why did you? Why does anybody?"
"Why did I? Oh, I belong there. I'm a regular Broadway rat. I
wouldn't be happy anywhere elthe. I was born in the show business.
I've got two thithters in the two-a-day and a brother in thtock out
in California and dad's one of the betht comedians on the burlethque
wheel. But any one can thee you're different. There's no reathon why
you should be bumming around in the chorus."
"But there is. I've no money, and I can't do anything to make it."
"Honetht?"
"Honest."
"That's tough." The cherub pondered, her round eyes searching Jill's
face. "Why don't you get married?"
Jill laughed.
"Nobody's asked me."
"Somebody thoon will. At least, if he's on the level, and I think he
is. You can generally tell by the look of a guy, and, if you ask me,
friend Pilkington's got the license in hith pocket and the ring all
ordered and everything."
"Pilkington!" cried Jill, aghast.
She remembered certain occasions during rehearsals, when, while the
chorus idled in the body of the theatre and listened to the
principals working at their scenes, the elongated Pilkington had
suddenly appeared in the next seat and conversed sheepishly in a low
voice. Could this be love? If so, it was a terrible nuisance. Jill
had had her experience in London of enamoured young men who, running
true to national form, declined to know when they were beaten, and
she had not enjoyed the process of cooling their ardor. She had a
kind heart, and it distressed her to give pain. It also got on her
nerves to be dogged by stricken males who tried to catch her eye in
order that she might observe their broken condition. She recalled one
house-party in Wales where it rained all the time and she had been
cooped up with a victim who kept popping out from obscure corners and
beginning all his pleas with the words "I say, you know . . . !" She
trusted that Otis Pilkington was not proposing to conduct a wooing on
those lines. Yet he had certainly developed a sinister habit of
popping out at the theatre. On several occasions he had startled her
by appearing at her side as if he had come up out of a trap.
"Oh, no!" cried Jill.
"Oh, yeth!" insisted the cherub, waving imperiously to an approaching
street-car. "Well, I must be getting uptown. I've got a date. Thee
you later."
"I'm sure you're mistaken."
"I'm not."
"But what makes you think so?"
The cherub placed a hand on the rail of the car, preparatory to
swinging herself on board.
"Well, for one thing," she said, "he'th been stalking you like an
Indian ever since we left the theatre! Look behind you. Good-bye,
honey. Thend me a piece of the cake!"
The street-car bore her away. The last that Jill saw of her was a
wide and amiable grin. Then, turning, she beheld the snake-like form
of Otis Pilkington towering at her side.
Mr Pilkington seemed nervous but determined. His face was half hidden
by the silk scarf that muffled his throat, for he was careful of his
health and had a fancied tendency to bronchial trouble. Above the
scarf a pair of mild eyes gazed down at Jill through their
tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles. It was hopeless for Jill to try to
tell herself that the tender gleam behind the glass was not the
love-light in Otis Pilkington's eyes. The truth was too obvious.
"Good evening, Miss Mariner," said Mr Pilkington, his voice sounding
muffled and far away through the scarf. "Are you going up-town?"
"No, down-town," said Jill quickly.
"So am I," said Mr Pilkington.
Jill felt annoyed, but helpless. It is difficult to bid a tactful
farewell to a man who has stated his intention of going in the same
direction as yourself. There was nothing for it but to accept the
unspoken offer of Otis Pilkington's escort. They began to walk down
Broadway together.
"I suppose you are tired after the rehearsal?" enquired Mr Pilkington
in his precise voice. He always spoke as if he were weighing each
word and clipping it off a reel.
"A little. Mr Miller is very enthusiastic."
"About the piece?" Her companion spoke eagerly.
"No; I meant hard-working."
"Has he said anything about the piece?"
"Well, no. You see, he doesn't confide in us a great deal, except to
tell us his opinion of the way we do the steps. I don't think we
impress him very much, to judge from what he says. But the girls say
he always tells every chorus he rehearses that it is the worst he
ever had anything to do with."
"And the chor--the--er--ladies of the ensemble? What do they think of
the piece?"
"Well, I don't suppose they are very good judges, are they?" said
Jill diplomatically.
"You mean they do not like it?"
"Some of them don't seem quite to understand it."
Mr Pilkington was silent for a moment.
"I am beginning to wonder myself whether it may not be a little over
the heads of the public," he said ruefully. "When it was first
performed . . ."
"Oh, has it been done before?"
"By amateurs, yes, at the house of my aunt, Mrs Waddesleigh Peagrim,
at Newport, last Summer. In aid of the Armenian orphans. It was
extraordinarily well received on that occasion. We nearly made our
expenses. It was such a success that--I feel I can confide in you. I
should not like this repeated to your--your--the other ladies--it was
such a success that, against my aunt's advice, I decided to give it a
Broadway production. Between ourselves, I am shouldering practically
all the expenses of the undertaking. Mr Goble has nothing to do with
the financial arrangements of 'The Rose of America.' Those are
entirely in my hands. Mr Goble, in return for a share in the profits,
is giving us the benefit of his experience as regards the management
and booking of the piece. I have always had the greatest faith in it.
Trevis and I wrote it when we were in college together, and all our
friends thought it exceptionally brilliant. My aunt, as I say, was
opposed to the venture. She holds the view that I am not a good man
of business. In a sense, perhaps, she is right. Temperamentally, no
doubt, I am more the artist. But I was determined to show the public
something superior to the so-called Broadway successes, which are so
terribly trashy. Unfortunately, I am beginning to wonder whether it
is possible, with the crude type of actor at one's disposal in this
country, to give a really adequate performance of such a play as 'The
Rose of America.' These people seem to miss the spirit of the piece,
its subtle topsy-turvy humor, its delicate whimsicality. This
afternoon," Mr Pilkington choked. "This afternoon I happened to
overhear two of the principals, who were not aware that I was within
earshot, discussing the play. One of them--these people express
themselves curiously--one of them said that he thought it a quince:
and the other described it as a piece of gorgonzola cheese! That is
not the spirit that wins success!"
Jill was feeling immensely relieved. After all, it seemed, this poor
young man merely wanted sympathy, not romance. She had been mistaken,
she felt, about that gleam in his eyes. It was not the love-light: it
was the light of panic. He was the author of the play. He had sunk a
large sum of money in its production, he had heard people criticizing
it harshly, and he was suffering from what her colleagues in the
chorus would have called cold feet. It was such a human emotion and
he seemed so like an overgrown child pleading to be comforted that
her heart warmed to him. Relief melted her defences. And when, on
their arrival at Thirty-fourth Street Mr Pilkington suggested that
she partake of a cup of tea at his apartment, which was only a couple
of blocks away off Madison Avenue, she accepted the invitation
without hesitating.
On the way to his apartment Mr Pilkington continued in the minor key.
He was a great deal more communicative than she herself would have
been to such a comparative stranger as she was, but she knew that men
were often like this. Over in London, she had frequently been made
the recipient of the most intimate confidences by young men whom she
had met for the first time the same evening at a dance. She had been
forced to believe that there was something about her personality that
acted on a certain type of man like the crack in the dam, setting
loose the surging flood of their eloquence. To this class Otis
Pilkington evidently belonged: for, once started, he withheld
nothing.
"It isn't that I'm dependent on Aunt Olive or anything like that," he
vouchsafed, as he stirred the tea in his Japanese-print hung studio.
"But you know how it is. Aunt Olive is in a position to make it very
unpleasant for me if I do anything foolish. At present, I have reason
to know that she intends to leave me practically all that she
possesses. Millions!" said Mr Pilkington, handing Jill a cup. "I
assure you, millions! But there is a hard commercial strain in her.
It would have the most prejudicial effect upon her if, especially
after she had expressly warned me against it, I were to lose a great
deal of money over this production. She is always complaining that I
am not a business man like my late uncle. Mr Waddesleigh Peagrim made
a fortune in smoked hams." Mr Pilkington looked at the Japanese
prints, and shuddered slightly. "Right up to the time of his death he
was urging me to go into the business. I could not have endured it.
But, when I heard those two men discussing the play, I almost wished
that I had done so."
Jill was now completely disarmed. She would almost have patted this
unfortunate young man's head, if she could have reached it.
"I shouldn't worry about the piece," she said. "I've read somewhere
or heard somewhere that it's the surest sign of a success when actors
don't like a play."
Mr Pilkington drew his chair an imperceptible inch nearer.
"How sympathetic you are!"
Jill perceived with chagrin that she had been mistaken after all. It
_was_ the love-light. The tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles sprayed it
all over her like a couple of searchlights. Otis Pilkington was
looking exactly like a sheep, and she knew from past experience that
that was the infallible sign. When young men looked like that, it was
time to go.
"I'm afraid I must be off," she said. "Thank you so much for giving
me tea. I shouldn't be a bit afraid about the play. I'm sure it's
going to be splendid. Good-bye."
"You aren't going already?"
"I must. I'm very late as it is. I promised . . ."
Whatever fiction Jill might have invented to the detriment of her
soul was interrupted by a ring at the bell. The steps of Mr
Pilkington's Japanese servant crossing the hall came faintly to the
sitting-room.
"Mr Pilkington in?"
Otis Pilkington motioned pleadingly to Jill.
"Don't go!" he urged. "It's only a man I know. He has probably come
to remind me that I am dining with him tonight. He won't stay a
minute. Please don't go."
Jill sat down. She had no intention of going now. The cheery voice at
the front door had been the cheery voice of her long-lost uncle,
Major Christopher Selby.
