"Then ask No Questions. Trust me, as I am trusting you." It seemed to me that Mr. Beecher through his pen at the door, and began to pace the bath-house. Owing of course to his being in his bare feet, I was not certain. Jane heard somthing, to, for she clutched my arm.
"Bab," she said, in intence tones, "if you don"t explain I shall lose my mind. I feel now that I am going to shreik."
She looked at me searchingly.
"Sombody is a Prisoner. That"s all."
It was the truth, was it not? And was there any reasons for Jane Raleigh to jump to conclusions as she did, and even to repeat later in Public that I had told her that my lover had come for me, and that father had locked him up to prevent my running away with him, imuring him in the Patten"s bath-house? Certainly not.
Just then I saw the boatman coming who looks after our motor boat, and I tiptoed to him and asked him to go away, and not to come back unless he had quieter boats and would not whistel. He acted very ugly about it, I must say, but he went.
When I came back, Jane was sitting thinking, with her forhead all puckered.
"What I don"t understand, Bab," she said, "is, why no noise?"
"Because he is writing," I explained. "Although his clothing has been taken away, he is writing. I don"t think I told you, Jane, but that is his business. He is a Writer. And if I tell you his name you will faint with surprise."
She looked at me searchingly.
"Locked up--and writing, and his clothing gone! What"s he writing, Bab?
His Will?"
"He is doing his duty to the end, Jane," I said softly. "He is writing the last Act of a Play. The Company is rehearsing the first two Acts, and he has to get this one ready, though the Heavens fall."
But to my surprise, she got up and said to me, in a firm voice:
"Either you are crazy, Barbara Archibald, or you think I am. You"ve been stuffing me for about a week, and I don"t beleive a Word of it. And you"ll apologize to me or I"ll never speak to you again."
She said this loudly, and then went away, And Mr. Beecher said, through the door.
"What the Devil"s the row about?"
Perhaps my nerves were going, or possably it was no luncheon and probably no dinner. But I said, just as if he had been an ordinary person:
"Go on and write and get through. I can"t stew on these steps all day."
"I thought you were an amiable Child."
"I"m not amiable and I"m not a Child."
"Don"t spoil your pretty face with frowns."
"It"s MY face. And you can"t see it anyhow," I replied, venting in femanine fashion, my anger at Jane on the nearest object.
"Look here," he said, through the door, "you"ve been my good Angel. I"m doing more work than I"ve done in two months, although it was a dirty, low-down way to make me do it. You"re not going back on me now, are you?"
Well, I was mollafied, as who would not be? So I said:
"Well?"
"What did Patten do with my clothes?"
"He took them with him." He was silent, except for a muttered word.
"You might throw those Keys back again," he said. "Let me know first, however. You"re the most acurate Thrower I"ve ever seen."
So I through them through the window and I beleive hit the ink bottle.
But no matter. And he tried them, but none availed.
So he gave up, and went back to Work, having saved enough ink to finish with. But a few minutes later he called to me again, and I moved to the Doorstep, where I sat listening, while aparently admiring the sea. He explained that having been thus forced, he had almost finished the last Act, and it was a corker. And he said if he had his clothes and some money, and a key to get out, he"d go right back to Town with it and put it in rehearsle. And at the same time he would give the Pattens something to worry about over night. Because, play or no play, it was a Rotten thing to lock a man in a bath-house and take his clothes away.
"But of course I can"t get my clothes," he said. "They"ll take cussed good care of that. And there"s the Key too. We"re up against it, Little Sister."
Although excited by his calling me thus, I retained my faculties, and said:
"I have a suit of Clothes you can have."
"Thanks awfully," he said. "But from the slight acquaintance we have had, I don"t beleive they would fit me."
"Gentleman"s Clothes," I said fridgidly.
"You have?"
"In my Studio," I said. "I can bring them, if you like. They look quite good, although Creased."
"You know" he said, after a moment"s silence, "I can"t quite beleive this is realy happening to me! Go and bring the suit of clothes, and--you don"t happen to have a cigar, I suppose?"
"I have a large box of Cigarettes."
"It is true," I heard him say through the door. "It is all true. I am here, locked in. The Play is almost done. And a very young lady on the doorstep is offering me a suit of Clothes and Tobaco. I pinch myself. I am awake."
Alas! Mingled with my joy at serving my Ideal there was also greif. My idle had feet of clay. He was a slave, like the rest of us, to his body.
He required clothes and tobaco. I felt that, before long, he might even ask for an apple, or something to stay the pangs of hunger. This I felt I could not bare.
Perhaps I would better pa.s.s over quickly the events of the next hour. I got the suit and the cigarettes, and even Jane"s bath towle, and through them in to him. Also I beleive he took a shower, as I heard the water running, At about seven o"clock he said he had finished the play. He put on the Clothes which he observed almost fitted him, although gayer than he usually wore, and said that if I would give him a hair pin he thought he could pick the Lock. But he did not succeed.
Being now dressed, however, he drew a chair to the window and we talked together. It seemed like a dream that I should be there, on such intimate terms with a great Playwright, who had just, even if under compulsion, finished a last Act, I bared my very soul to him, such as about resembling Julia Marlowe, and no one understanding my craveing to acheive a Place in the World of Art. We were once interupted by Hannah looking for me for dinner. But I hid in a bath-house, and she went away.
What was Food to me compared with such a Conversation?
When Hannah had disappeared, he said suddenly:
"It"s rather unusual, isn"t it, your having a suit of clothes and everything in your--er--studio?"
But I did not explain fully, merely saving that it was a painful story.
At half past seven I saw mother on the veranda looking for me, and I ducked out of sight, I was by this time very hungry, although I did not like to mention the fact, But Mr. Beecher made a suggestion, which was this: that the Pattens were evadently going to let him starve until he got through work, and that he would see them in perdetion before he would be the b.u.t.t for their funny remarks when they freed him. He therfore tried to escape out the window, but stuck fast, and finaly gave it up.
At last he said: