"He says the French aristocracy has nothing on him, because his grandfather was one of the original Ten Ikes of New York."
A final crescendo of laughter, a last swishing of silks, a breath of perfume from the doorway and they were gone.
Within the room the two women sat looking at the closed door for a moment. Then Ella Morrissey turned to look at Sophy Gold just as Sophy Gold turned to look at Ella Morrissey.
"Well?" smiled Ella.
Sophy Gold smiled too--a mirthless, one-sided smile.
"I felt just like this once when I was a little girl. I went to a party, and all the other little girls had yellow curls. Maybe some of them had brown ones; but I only remember a maze of golden hair, and pink and blue sashes, and rosy cheeks, and ardent little boys, and the sureness of those little girls--their absolute faith in their power to enthrall, and in the perfection of their curls and sashes. I went home before the ice cream. And I love ice cream!"
Ella Morrissey"s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"Then the next time you"re invited to a party you wait for the ice cream, girlie."
"Maybe I will," said Sophy Gold.
The party came two nights later. It was such a very modest affair that one would hardly call it that--least of all Max Tack, who had spent seventy-five dollars the night before in entertaining an important prospective buyer.
On her way to her room that sultry June night Sophy had encountered the persistent Tack. Ella Morrissey, up in her room, was fathoms deep in work. It was barely eight o"clock and there was a wonderful opal sky--a June twilight sky, of which Paris makes a specialty--all grey and rose and mauve and faint orange.
"Somebody"s looking mighty sweet to-night in her new Paris duds!"
Max Tack"s method of approach never varied in its simplicity.
"They"re not Paris--they"re Chicago."
His soul was in his eyes.
"They certainly don"t look it!" Then, with a little hurt look in those same expressive features: "I suppose, after the way you threw me down hard the other night, you wouldn"t come out and play somewhere, would you--if I sat up and begged and jumped through this?"
"It"s too warm for most things," Sophy faltered.
"Anywhere your little heart dictates," interrupted Max Tack ardently.
"Just name it."
Sophy looked up.
"Well, then, I"d like to take one of those boats and go down the river to St.-Cloud. The station"s just back of the Louvre. We"ve just time to catch the eight-fifteen boat."
"Boat!" echoed Max Tack stupidly. Then, in revolt: "Why, say, girlie, you don"t want to do that! What is there in taking an old tub and flopping down that d.i.n.ky stream? Tell you what we"ll do: we"ll--"
"No, thanks," said Sophy. "And it really doesn"t matter. You simply asked me what I"d like to do and I told you. Thanks. Good-night."
"Now, now!" pleaded Max Tack in a panic. "Of course we"ll go. I just thought you"d rather do something fussier--that"s all. I"ve never gone down the river; but I think that"s a cla.s.sy little idea--yes, I do. Now you run and get your hat and we"ll jump into a taxi and--"
"You don"t need to jump into a taxi; it"s only two blocks. We"ll walk."
There was a little crowd down at the landing station. Max Tack noticed, with immense relief, that they were not half-bad-looking people either.
He had been rather afraid of workmen in red sashes and with lime on their clothes, especially after Sophy had told him that a trip cost twenty centimes each.
"Twenty centimes! That"s about four cents! Well, my gad!"
They got seats in the prow. Sophy took off her hat and turned her face gratefully to the cool breeze as they swung out into the river. The Paris of the rumbling, roaring auto buses, and the honking horns, and the shrill cries, and the mad confusion faded away. There was the palely glowing sky ahead, and on each side the black reflection of the tree-laden banks, mistily mysterious now and very lovely. There was not a ripple on the water and the Pont Alexandre III and the golden glory of the dome of the Hotel des Invalides were ahead.
"Say, this is Venice!" exclaimed Max Tack.
A soft and magic light covered the sh.o.r.e, the river, the sky, and a soft and magic something seemed to steal over the little boat and work its wonders. The shabby student-looking chap and his equally shabby and merry little companion, both Americans, closed the bag of fruit from which they had been munching and sat looking into each other"s eyes.
The long-haired artist, who looked miraculously like pictures of Robert Louis Stevenson, smiled down at his queer, slender-legged little daughter in the curious Cubist frock; and she smiled back and snuggled up and rested her cheek on his arm. There seemed to be a deep and silent understanding between them. You knew, somehow, that the little Cubist daughter had no mother, and that the father"s artist friends made much of her and that she poured tea for them prettily on special days.
The bepowdered French girl who got on at the second station sat frankly and contentedly in the embrace of her sweetheart. The stolid married couple across the way smiled and the man"s arm rested on his wife"s plump shoulder.
So the love boat glided down the river into the night. And the sh.o.r.e faded and became grey, and then black. And the lights came out and cast slender pillars of gold and green and scarlet on the water.
Max Tack"s hand moved restlessly, sought Sophy"s, found it, clasped it.
Sophy"s hand had never been clasped like that before. She did not know what to do with it, so she did nothing--which was just what she should have done.
"Warm enough?" asked Max Tack tenderly.
"Just right," murmured Sophy.
The dream trip ended at St.-Cloud. They learned to their dismay that the boat did not return to Paris. But how to get back? They asked questions, sought direction--always a frantic struggle in Paris. Sophy, in the glare of the street light, looked uglier than ever.
"Just a minute," said Max Tack. "I"ll find a taxi."
"Nonsense! That man said the street car pa.s.sed right here, and that we should get off at the Bois. Here it is now! Come on!"
Max Tack looked about helplessly, shrugged his shoulders and gave it up.
"You certainly make a fellow hump," he said, not without a note of admiration. "And why are you so afraid that I"ll spend some money?" as he handed the conductor the tiny fare.
"I don"t know--unless it"s because I"ve had to work so hard all my life for mine."
At Porte Maillot they took one of the flock of waiting _fiacres_.
"But you don"t want to go home yet!" protested Max Tack.
"I--I think I should like to drive in the Bois Park--if you don"t mind--that is--"
"Mind!" cried the gallant and game Max Tack.
Now Max Tack was no villain; but it never occurred to him that one might drive in the Bois with a girl and not make love to her. If he had driven with Aurora in her chariot he would have held her hand and called her tender names. So, because he was he, and because this was Paris, and because it was so dark that one could not see Sophy"s extreme plainness, he took her unaccustomed hand again in his.
"This little hand was never meant for work," he murmured.
Sophy, the acid, the tart, said nothing. The Bois Park at night is a mystery maze and lovely beyond adjectives. And the horse of that particular _fiacre_ wore a little tinkling bell that somehow added to the charm of the night. A waterfall, unseen, tumbled and frothed near by. A turn in the winding road brought them to an open stretch, and they saw the world bathed in the light of a yellow, mellow, roguish Paris moon. And Max Tack leaned over quietly and kissed Sophy Gold on the lips.
Now Sophy Gold had never been kissed in just that way before. You would have thought she would not know what to do; but the plainest woman, as well as the loveliest, has the centuries back of her. Sophy"s mother, and her mother"s mother, and her mother"s mother"s mother had been kissed before her. So they told her to say: