f.a.n.n.y sat silent. She was twisting the fingers of one hand in the grip of the other, as she had since childhood, when deeply disturbed. And suddenly she began to cry--silently, harrowingly, as a man cries, her shoulders shaking, her face buried in her furs.
"f.a.n.n.y! f.a.n.n.y girl!" He was horribly disturbed and contrite. He patted her arm, awkwardly. She shook free of his hand, childishly. "Don"t cry, dear. I"m sorry. It"s just that I care so much. It"s just----"
She raised an angry, tear-stained face. "It"s just that you have an exalted idea of your own perceptions. It"s just that you"ve grown up from what they used to call a bright little boy to a bright young man, and you"re just as tiresome now as you were then. I"m happy enough, except when I see you. I"m getting the things I starved for all those years. Why, I"ll never get over being thrilled at the idea of being able to go to the theater, or to a concert, whenever I like. Actually whenever I want to. And to be able to buy a jabot, or a smart hat, or a book. You don"t know how I wanted things, and how tired I got of never having them. I"m happy! I"m happy! Leave me alone!"
"It"s an awful price to pay for a hat, and a jabot, and a book and a theater ticket, Fan."
Ella Monahan had taken the tube, and was standing in the great shed, watching arrivals with interest, long before they b.u.mped over the cobblestones of Hoboken. The three descended to f.a.n.n.y"s cabin. Ella had sent champagne--six cosy pints in a wicker basket.
"They say it"s good for seasickness," she announced, cheerfully, "but it"s a lie. Nothing"s good for seasickness, except death, or dry land.
But even if you do feel miserable--and you probably will--there"s something about being able to lie in your berth and drink champagne alone, by the spoonful, that"s sort of soothing."
Heyl had fallen silent. f.a.n.n.y was radiant again, and exclamatory over her books and flowers.
"Of course it"s my first trip," she explained, "and an event in my life, but I didn"t suppose that anybody else would care. What"s this? Candy?
Glace fruit." She glanced around the luxurious little cabin, then up at Heyl, impudently. "I may be a coa.r.s.e commercial person, Clancy, but I must say I like this very, very much. Sorry."
They went up on deck. Ella, a seasoned traveler, was full of parting instructions. "And be sure to eat at Kempinski"s, in Berlin. Twenty cents for lobster. And caviar! Big as hen"s eggs, and as cheap as codfish. And don"t forget to order mai-bowle. It tastes like champagne, but isn"t, and it has the most delicious dwarf strawberries floating on top. This is just the season for it. You"re lucky. If you tip the waiter one mark he"s yours for life. Oh, and remember the plum compote. You"ll be disappointed in their Wertheim"s that they"re always bragging about.
After all, Field"s makes "em all look like country stores."
"Wertheim"s? Is that something to eat, too?"
"No, idiot. It"s their big department store." Ella turned to Heyl, for whom she felt mingled awe and liking. "If this trip of hers is successful, the firm will probably send her over three or four times a year. It"s a wonderful chance for a kid like her."
"Then I hope," said Heyl, quietly, "that this trip may be a failure."
Ella smiled, uncertainly.
"Don"t laugh," said f.a.n.n.y, sharply. "He means it."
Ella, sensing an unpleasant something in which she had no part, covered the situation with another rush of conversation.
"You"ll get the jolt of your life when you come to Paris and find that you"re expected to pay for the lunches, and all the cab fares, and everything, of those shrimpy little commissionaires. Polite little fellows, they are, in frock coats, and mustaches, and they just stand aside, as courtly as you please, while you pay for everything. Their house expects it. I almost pa.s.sed away, the first time, but you get used to it. Say, imagine one of our traveling men letting you pay for his lunch and taxi."
She rattled on, genially. Heyl listened with unfeigned delight. Ella found herself suddenly abashed before those clear, far-seeing eyes. "You think I"m a gabby old girl, don"t you?"
"I think you"re a wonderful woman," said Heyl. "Very wise, and very kind."
"Why--thanks," faltered Ella. "Why--thanks."
They said their good-bys. Ella hugged f.a.n.n.y warm-heartedly. Then she turned away, awkwardly. Heyl put his two hands on f.a.n.n.y"s shoulders and looked down at her. For a breathless second she thought he was about to kiss her. She was amazed to find herself hoping that he would. But he didn"t. "Good-by," he said, simply. And took her hand in his steel grip a moment, and dropped it. And turned away. A messenger boy, very much out of breath, came running up to her, a telegram in his hand.
"For me?" f.a.n.n.y opened it, frowned, smiled. "It"s from Mr. Fenger. Good wishes. As if all those flowers weren"t enough."
"Mm," said Ella. She and Heyl descended the gang-way, and stood at the dock"s edge, looking rather foolish and uncertain, as people do at such times. There followed a few moments of scramble, of absurdly shouted last messages, of bells, and frantic waving of handkerchiefs. f.a.n.n.y, at the rail, found her two among the crowd, and smiled down upon them, mistily. Ella was waving energetically. Heyl was standing quite still, looking up. The ship swung clear, crept away from the dock. The good-bys swelled to a roar. f.a.n.n.y leaned far over the rail and waved too, a sob in her throat. Then she saw that she was waving with the hand that held the yellow telegram. She crumpled it in the other hand, and subst.i.tuted her handkerchief. Heyl still stood, hat in hand, motionless.
"Why don"t you wave good-by?" she called, though he could not possibly hear. "Wave good-by!" And then the hand with the handkerchief went to her face, and she was weeping. I think it was that old drama-thrill in her, dormant for so long. But at that Heyl swung his hat above his head, three times, like a schoolboy, and, grasping Ella"s plump and resisting arm, marched abruptly away.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The first week in June found her back in New York. That month of absence had worked a subtle change. The two weeks spent in crossing and recrossing had provided her with a let-down that had been almost jarring in its completeness. Everything compet.i.tive had seemed to fade away with the receding sh.o.r.e, and to loom up again only when the skyline became a thing of smoke-banks, spires, and shafts. She had had only two weeks for the actual transaction of her business. She must have been something of a revelation to those Paris and Berlin manufacturers, accustomed though they were to the brisk and irresistible methods of the American business woman. She was, after all, absurdly young to be talking in terms of millions, and she was amazingly well dressed. This last pa.s.sed unnoticed, or was taken for granted in Paris, but in Berlin, home of the frump and the flour-sack figure, she was stared at, appreciatively. Her business, except for one or two unimportant side lines, had to do with two factories on whose product the Haynes-Cooper company had long had a covetous eye. Quant.i.ty, as usual, was the keynote of their demand, and f.a.n.n.y"s task was that of talking in six-figure terms to these conservative and over-wary foreign manufacturers. That she had successfully accomplished this, and that she had managed to impress them also with the important part that time and promptness in delivery played in a swift-moving machine like the Haynes-Cooper concern, was due to many things beside her natural business ability. Self-confidence was there, and physical vigor, and diplomacy. But above all there was that sheer love of the game; the dramatic sense that enabled her to see herself in the part. That alone precluded the possibility of failure.
She knew how youthful she looked, and how glowing. She antic.i.p.ated the look that came into their faces when she left polite small-talk behind and soared up into the cold, rarefied atmosphere of business. She delighted in seeing the admiring and tolerant smirk vanish and give way to a startled and defensive attentiveness.
It might be mentioned that she managed, somehow, to spend almost half a day in Petticoat Lane, and its squalid surroundings, while in London.
She actually prowled, alone, at night, in the evil-smelling, narrow streets of the poorer quarter of Paris, and how she escaped unharmed is a mystery that never bothered her, because she had never known fear of streets. She had always walked on the streets of Winnebago, Wisconsin, alone. It never occurred to her not to do the same in the streets of Chicago, or New York, or London, or Paris. She found Berlin, with its Adlon, its appalling cleanliness, its overfed populace, and its omnipresent Kaiser forever scudding up and down Unter den Linden in his chocolate-colored car, incredibly dull, and unpicturesque. Something she had temporarily lost there in the busy atmosphere of the Haynes-Cooper plant, seemed to have returned, miraculously.
New York, on her return, was something of a shock. She remembered how vividly fresh it had looked to her on the day of that first visit, months before. Now, to eyes fresh from the crisp immaculateness of Paris and Berlin, Fifth avenue looked almost grimy, and certainly shabby in spots.
Ella Monahan, cheerful, congratulatory, beaming, met her at the pier, and f.a.n.n.y was startled at her own sensation of happiness as she saw that pink, good-natured face looking up at her from the crowd below. The month that had gone by since last she saw Ella standing just so, seemed to slip away and fade into nothingness.
"I waited over a day," said Ella, "just to see you. My, you look grand!
I know where you got that hat. Galeries Lafayette. How much?"
"I don"t expect you to believe it. Thirty-five francs. Seven dollars. I couldn"t get it for twenty-five here."
They were soon clear of the customs. Ella had engaged a room for her at the hotel they always used. As they rode uptown together, happily, Ella opened her bag and laid a little packet of telegrams and letters in f.a.n.n.y"s lap.
"I guess Fenger"s pleased, all right, if telegrams mean anything. Not that I know they"re from him. But he said--"
But f.a.n.n.y was looking up from one of them with a startled expression.
"He"s here. Fenger"s here."
"In New York?" asked Ella, rather dully.
"Yes." She ripped open another letter. It was from Theodore. He was coming to New York in August. The Russian tour had been a brilliant success. They had arranged a series of concerts for him in the United States. He could give his concerto there. It was impossible in Russia, Munich, even Berlin, because it was distinctly Jewish in theme--as Jewish as the Kol Nidre, and as somber. They would have none of it in Europe. Prejudice was too strong. But in America! He was happier than he had been in years. Olga objected to coming to America, but she would get over that. The little one was well, and she was learning to talk.
Actually! They were teaching her to say Tante f.a.n.n.y.
"Well!" exclaimed f.a.n.n.y, her eyes shining. She read bits of the letter aloud to Ella. Ella was such a satisfactory sort of person to whom to read a letter aloud. She exclaimed in all the right places. Her face was as radiant as f.a.n.n.y"s. They both had forgotten all about Fenger, their Chief. But they had been in their hotel scarcely a half hour, and Ella had not done exclaiming over the bag that f.a.n.n.y had brought her from Paris, when his telephone call came.
He wasted very little time on preliminaries.
"I"ll call for you at four. We"ll drive through the park, and out by the river, and have tea somewhere."
"That would be wonderful. That is, if Ella"s free. I"ll ask her."
"Ella?"
"Yes. She"s right here. Hold the wire, will you?" She turned away from the telephone to face Ella. "It"s Mr. Fenger. He wants to take us both driving this afternoon. You can go, can"t you?"
"I certainly CAN," replied Miss Monahan, with what might have appeared to be undue force.
f.a.n.n.y turned back to the telephone. "Yes, thanks. We can both go. We"ll be ready at four."
f.a.n.n.y decided that Fenger"s muttered reply couldn"t have been what she thought it was.