she whispered.
I shall draw a Veil over my feelings. Jane bought some chocolates to take along, but I could eat none. I was thirsty, but not hungry. And my cold was pretty bad, to.
So we went in, and the curtain went up. When Adrian saw me, in the front row, he smiled although in the midst of a serious speach about the world oweing him a living. And Jane was terrably excited.
"Isn"t he the handsomest Thing!" she said. "And oh, Bab, I can see that he adores you. He is acting for you. All the rest of the people mean nothing to him. He sees but you."
Well, I had not told her that we had not yet met, and she said I could do nothing less than send him a note.
"You ought to tell him that you are true, in spite of everything," she said.
If I had not decieved Jane things would be better. But she was set on my sending the note. So at last I wrote one on my visiting card, holding it so she could not read it. Jane is my best friend and I am devoted to her, but she has no scruples about reading what is not meant for her. I said:
"Dear Mr. Egleston: I think the Play is perfectly wonderfull. And you are perfectly splendid in it. It is perfectly terrable that it is going to stop.
"(Signed) The girl of the rose."
I know that this seems bold. But I did not feel bold, dear Dairy. It was such a letter as any one might read, and contained nothing compromizing.
Still, I darsay I should not have written it. But "out of the fulness of the Heart the mouth speaketh."
I was shaking so much that I could not give it to the usher. But Jane did. However, I had sealed it up in an envelope.
Now comes the real surprize, dear Dairy. For the usher came down and said Mr. Egleston hoped I would go back and see him after the act was over. I think a paller must have come over me, and Jane said:
"Bab! Do you dare?"
I said yes, I dared, but that I would like a gla.s.s of water. I seemed to be thirsty all the time. So she got it, and I recovered my SAVOIR FAIR, and stopped shaking.
I suppose Jane expected to go along, but I refrained from asking her.
She then said:
"Try to remember everything he says, Bab. I am just crazy about it."
Ah, dear Dairy, how can I write how I felt when being led to him. The entire seen is engraved on my Soul. I, with my very heart in my eyes, in spite of my eforts to seem cool and collected. He, in front of his mirror, drawing in the lines of starvation around his mouth for the next seen, while on his poor feet a valet put the raged shoes of Act II!
He rose when I entered, and took me by the hand.
"Well!" he said. "At last!"
He did not seem to mind the VALET, whom he treated like a chair or table. And he held my hand and looked deep into my eyes.
Ah, dear Dairy, Men may come and Men may go in my life, but never again will I know such ecstacy as at that moment.
"Sit down," he said. "Little Lady of the rose--but it"s violets today, isn"t it? And so you like the Play?"
I was by that time somwhat calmer, but glad to sit down, owing to my knees feeling queer.
"I think it is magnifacent," I said.
"I wish there were more like you," he observed. "Just a moment, I have to make a change here. No need to go out. There"s a screan for that very purpose."
He went behind the screan, and the man handed him a raged shirt over the top of it, while I sat in a chair and dreamed. What I reflected, would the School say if it but knew! I felt no remorce. I was there, and beyond the screan, changing into the garments of penury, was the only member of the Other s.e.x I had ever felt I could truly care for.
Dear Dairy, I am tired and my head aches. I cannot write it all. He was perfectly respectfull, and only his eyes showed his true feelings.
The woman who is the Adventuress in the play came to the Door, but he motioned her away with a waive of the hand. And at last it was over, and he was asking me to come again soon, and if I would care to have one of his pictures.
I am very sleepy tonight, but I cannot close this record of a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l d-a-y----
JANUARY 24TH. Cold worse.
Not hearing from Carter Brooks I telephoned him just now. He is sore about Beresford and said he would not come to the house. So I have asked him to meet me in the Park, and said that there were only to more days, this being Thursday.
LATER: I have seen Carter, and he has a fine plan. If only father will do it.
He says the Theme is that the world owes Adrian a living, and that the way to do is to put that strongly before the people.
"Suppose," he said, "that this fellow would go to some big factery, and demand work. Not ask for it. Demand it. He could pretend to be starving and say: "The world owes me a living, and I intend to have it.""
"But supose they were sorry for him and gave it to him?" I observed.
"Tut, child," he said. "That would have to be all fixed up first. It ought to be aranged that he not only be refused, but what"s more, that he"ll be thrown out. He"ll have to cut up a lot, d"you see, so they"ll throw him out. And we"ll have Reporters there, so the story can get around. You get it, don"t you? Your friend, in order to prove that the idea of the Play is right, goes out for a job, and proves that he cannot demand Laber and get it." He stopped and spoke with excitement: "Is he a real sport? Would he stand being arested? Because that would cinch it."
But here I drew a line. I would not subject him to such humiliation. I would not have him arested. And at last Carter gave in.
"But you get the Idea," he said. "There"ll be the deuce of a Row, and it"s good for a half collumn on the first page of the evening papers.
Result, a jamb that night at the performence, and a new lease of life for the Play. Egleston comes on, bruized and battered, and perhaps with a limp. The Labor Unions take up the matter--it"s a knock out. I"d charge a thousand dollars for that idea if I were selling it."
"Bruized!" I exclaimed. "Realy bruized or painted on?"
He glared at me impatiently.
"Now see here, Bab," he said. "I"m doing this for you. You"ve got to play up. And if your young man won"t stand a bang in the eye, for instanse, to earn his Bread and b.u.t.ter, he"s not worth saving."
"Who are you going to get to--to throw him out?" I asked, in a faltering tone.
He stopped and stared at me.
"I like that!" he said. "It"s not my Play that"s failing, is it? Go and tell him the Skeme, and then let his manager work it out. And tell him who I am, and that I have a lot of Ideas, but this is the only one I"m giving away."
We had arived at the house by that time and I invited him to come in.
But he only glansed bitterly at the Windows and observed that they had taken in the mat with Welcome on it, as far as he was concerned. And went away.
Although we have never had a mat with Welcome on it.
Dear Dairy, I wonder if father would do it? He is gentle and kind-hearted, and it would be painfull to him. But to who else can I turn in my extremity?