CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
1.
Up on the roof of his apartment, far above the bustle and clamor of
the busy city, Wally Mason, at eleven o'clock on the morning after
Mrs Peagrim's bohemian party, was greeting the new day, as was his
custom, by going through his ante-breakfast exercises. Mankind is
divided into two classes, those who do setting-up exercises before
breakfast and those who know they ought to but don't. To the former
and more praiseworthy class Wally had belonged since boyhood. Life
might be vain and the world a void, but still he touched his toes the
prescribed number of times and twisted his muscular body about
according to the ritual. He did so this morning a little more
vigorously than usual, partly because he had sat up too late the
night before and thought too much and smoked too much, with the
result that he had risen heavy-eyed, at the present disgraceful hour,
and partly because he hoped by wearying the flesh to still the
restlessness of the spirit. Spring generally made Wally restless, but
never previously had it brought him this distracted feverishness. So
he lay on his back and waved his legs in the air, and it was only
when he had risen and was about to go still further into the matter
that he perceived Jill standing beside him.
"Good Lord!!" said Wally.
"Don't stop," said Jill. "I'm enjoying it."
"How long have you been here?"
"Oh, I only just arrived. I rang the bell, and the nice old lady who
is cooking your lunch told me you were out here."
"Not lunch. Breakfast."
"Breakfast! At this hour?"
"Won't you join me?"
"I'll join you. But I had my breakfast long ago."
Wally found his despondency magically dispelled. It was extraordinary
how the mere sight of Jill could make the world a different place. It
was true the sun had been shining before her arrival, but in a
flabby, weak-minded way, not with the brilliance it had acquired
immediately he heard her voice.
"If you don't mind waiting for about three minutes while I have a
shower and dress . . ."
"Oh, is the entertainment over?" asked Jill, disappointed. "I always
arrive too late for everything."
"One of these days you shall see me go through the whole programme,
including shadow-boxing and the goose-step. Bring your friends! But
at the moment I think it would be more of a treat for you to watch me
eat an egg. Go and look at the view. From over there you can see
Hoboken."
"I've seen it. I don't think much of it."
"Well, then, on this side we have Brooklyn. There is no stint. Wander
to and fro and enjoy yourself. The rendezvous is in the sitting-room
in about four moments."
Wally vaulted through the passage-window, and disappeared. Then he
returned and put his head out.
"I say!"
"Yes?"
"Just occurred to me. Your uncle won't be wanting this place for half
an hour or so, will he? I mean, there will be time for me to have a
bite of breakfast?"
"I don't suppose he will require your little home till some time in
the evening."
"Fine!"
Wally disappeared again, and a few moments later Jill heard the faint
splashing of water. She walked to the parapet and looked down. On the
windows of the nearer buildings the sun cast glittering beams, but
further away a faint, translucent mist hid the city. There was Spring
humidity in the air. In the street she had found it oppressive: but
on the breezy summit of this steel-and-granite cliff the air was cool
and exhilarating. Peace stole into Jill's heart as she watched the
boats dropping slowly down the East River, which gleamed like dull
steel through the haze. She had come to Journey's End, and she was
happy. Trouble and heart-ache seemed as distant as those hurrying
black ants down on the streets. She felt far away from the world on
an enduring mountain of rest. She gave a little sigh of contentment,
and turned to go in as Wally called.
In the sitting-room her feeling of security deepened. Here, the world
was farther away than ever. Even the faint noises which had risen to
the roof were inaudible, and only the cosy tick-tock of the
grandfather's clock punctuated the stillness.
She looked at Wally with a quickening sense of affection. He had the
divine gift of silence at the right time. Yes, this was home. This
was where she belonged.
"It didn't take me in, you know," said Jill at length, resting her
arms on the table and regarding him severely.
Wally looked up.
"What didn't take you in?"
"That bath of yours. Yes, I know you turned on the cold shower, but
you stood at a safe distance and watched it _show!_"
Wally waved his fork.
"As Heaven is my witness. . . . Look at my hair! Still damp! And I
can show you the towel."
"Well, then, I'll bet it was the hot water. Why weren't you at Mrs
Peagrim's party last night?"
"It would take too long to explain all my reasons, but one of them
was that I wasn't invited. How did it go off?" "Splendidly. Freddie's
engaged!" Wally lowered his coffee cup. "Engaged! You don't mean what
is sometimes slangily called bethrothed?"
"I do. He's engaged to Nelly Bryant. Nelly told me all about it when
she got home last night. It seems that Freddie said to her 'What ho!'
and she said 'You bet!' and Freddie said 'Pip pip!' and the thing was
settled." Jill bubbled. "Freddie wants to go into vaudeville with
her!"
"No! The Juggling Rookes? Or Rooke and Bryant, the cross-talk team, a
thoroughly refined act, swell dressers on and off?"
"I don't know. But it doesn't matter. Nelly is domestic. She's going
to have a little home in the country, where she can grow chickens and
pigs."
"'Father's in the pigstye, you can tell him by his hat,' eh?"
"Yes. They will be very happy. Freddie will be a father to her
parrot."
Wally's cheerfulness diminished a trifle. The contemplation of
Freddie's enviable lot brought with it the inevitable contrast with
his own. A little home in the country . . . Oh, well.
