Bambi Part 37

"Delightfully you," he corrected her. "Has the Professor or your husband read any of your stories?"

"No. They never read magazines. Jarvis saw the announcement of the prize story, and commented on the use of my name, but I threw him off the scent easily."

"I don't see why you don't 'fess' up, now that the thing is an established success."

"No, not yet. It's such a lovely secret. I want to wait for just the moment to spring it on them."

"Couldn't you invite me in when that moment comes?"

"We'll see. I may invite the neighbours in, and crown myself with a laurel wreath."

"I'd rely on your doing it in a novel way."

"The surest way of being considered eccentric is just to be yourself. So few of us have the nerve."

They talked late. He told her his plans and hopes for the magazine. He spoke of his people, of his past life, of his preparation for his work, and when the clock finally interrupted with twelve strokes, they arose, nearer friends than ever.

After Strong's departure Bambi wrote Jarvis to prepare him for the friendly visit:

"You'll remember Richard Strong, the brother of Maryland and the thirteen sisters? He came to spend the weekend with us, and expressed such disappointment at your absence that I gave him your address so he could look you up. Do be nice to him. I am sure you will like him when you get to know him. He is a fine, sensible fellow. He might find something for you to do on a magazine, if you wanted it. I did not speak to him about it, thinking you could do it best yourself, if you chose to. We had a pleasant two days' visit--much talk, tennis, drives, and more talk. It seemed to please and rest him, and we enjoyed him greatly.

The Professor has taken a great liking to him.

"By the time this reaches you, you will have read the new third act to your leading lady. I feel so confident that she is going to like it.

Wire me when she accepts. I can't wait for a letter. Good luck and congratulations, from both of us.

"BAMBI."

"P.S. Will you come home after the contract is signed?"

She tripped down to the corner in the moonlight to mail the letter, congratulating herself that she had handled the report of Mr. Strong's visit with great tact. She recalled Jarvis's unexpected jealousy with a smile. Where was he at this moment? Tossing in a hot bedroom, or prowling the streets, as he seemed p.r.o.ne to do these nights?

She pondered the processes which made success so easy for some people--hers, for instance, a happy accident--while others, Jarvis-like, had to be tied to the wheel before the fickle G.o.ddess released them and crowned them. Was it all chance? Or was there some big plan back of it all? Was she spared this incarnation that she might strive harder in the next? Was Jarvis expiating for past immunity? It was all a tangle, surely, to our mortal eyes.

She gave it up, snapped off her light, and went to bed. A shaft of silver, like a prayer rug, lay across the floor.

"Lady Moon, shine softly on my Knight of the Broken Lance," she whispered, as she closed her eyes.

XVI

There was a faint idea in Jarvis's mind, as he staggered out of the all-night lunch, of swimming after the Mauretania to overtake the Parkes. Then his wandering senses collected themselves. He realized that the vessel did not sail until eleven, or thereabouts; that there were still several hours before that.

He hurried back to his room, dressed carefully, took the ma.n.u.script, and started out. It never occurred to him to telephone. Arrived at the house, the butler informed him that the Parkes had left in the motor at 8:30. No word had been left for Mr. Jocelyn.

Jarvis's jaw was set as he started downtown. He went to the wharf where the steamer lay, but there was only fifteen minutes left before her sailing. It was impossible to find out anything from anybody. So, with a sardonic calm, he watched the steamer slowly loosing from the wharf and making her stately exit.

On the way uptown he made up his mind as to the next move. He would begin action to-day on the Charles Frohman forces. He must also try to find a job. His resources were about exhausted.

At the Empire Theatre, where the king of managers rules, there was actually an elevator to carry one up to the throne room and its antechambers. At a window, in a sort of cashier's booth, a boy received Jarvis's ma.n.u.script, numbered and entered it on the file.

"How soon will it be read?" Jarvis asked.

"Oh, six weeks or so," said the youth.

"No possible chance of seeing Mr. Frohman?"

"Only by appointment. He is in Europe now."

Jarvis relinquished his precious bundle and departed. It occurred to him, when he reached the street, that part of his depression was from hunger. He bought a sandwich and coffee at a Childs restaurant. Later, he went into a drug store and looked up magazine offices in the telephone book. Then he set out. From _Collier's_ to the _Cosmopolitan_ is many a weary mile. And Jarvis walked it, visiting all the intervening offices.

In only one case did he get to the editor. Mr. Davis, of _Munsey's_, let him come in, and was decent to him, promised to read anything he sent in at once, took his address, and made him feel like a human being. Many a young writer besides Jarvis has to thank Mr. Bob Davis for just such a bit of encouragement. For the most part, he saw clerks or secretaries who made excuses for the editor, took his name and address with the same old "Come in again." Out in the hot sun the pavement wavered and melted into hillocks before his dizzy eyes. So he went back to the hot bedroom, which seemed, all at once, a haven of rest.

He threw himself on the hard bed and was asleep in a second. It seemed aeons later that he was dragged up from the depths of slumber by continued pounding on his door. The slattern chambermaid announced that a gentleman wished to see him. He called to her it must be a mistake. He didn't know any gentlemen.

"'E h'ast for Jarvis Jocelyn. 'Ere's 'is card," she retorted, opening the door and marching to the bed with it.

"Richard Strong. Tell him I'm out."

"Hi've already said you was in. Hi see you come hup."

"The devil! Where is he?"

"Coolin' 'is 'eels in the 'all."

"Say I'll be down in a minute. Ask him to wait."

"Hi get you," said she, and clomped out.

Then Jarvis's eye fell on Bambi's letter on his table, unopened. It must have come the day before, when he was lost in his play. He glanced through it. At the mention of Strong's visit he frowned. He read that part twice. There was no doubt of it. Strong had the only chance with her. He made no secret of his devotion to her, and the probabilities were that now that he, Jarvis, was out of the way, she would realize how much she cared for Strong.

"Well, what is, is," he muttered. He'd have no favours from Strong, though, that was sure.

Twenty minutes later, shaved and dressed, he descended upon his guest, who sat in torment, on a hall-tree shelf, in Stygian darkness.

"How do you do?" said Jarvis, stiffly. "Sorry to keep you waiting in this hole of Calcutta."

"How are you, Jocelyn?" said Strong, cordially. "Your wife gave me your address, and I thought you might save me from a deadly evening by dining with me at Claremont."

"Thank you, I have dined," replied Jarvis.

"So early? Well, come with me while I get a bite somewhere, and we will go to a show, or hear some music."

"Much obliged. I am engaged for the evening."

"Oh, that's a pity. Your wife told me you were a friendless stranger in a foreign land, so I lost no time in coming to look you up."

"Very kind of you."