Take us all, for that matter, just as we are. What do you say?"
"I say it"s perfectly d.a.m.n" splendid!" Jean Sedley declared. "We"d all love it. When can you arrange it?"
"Any time you like--this afternoon, if that suits everybody. Only have to telephone, and in half an hour they"ll be all ready for us. Shall I?"
Lontaine got out of his chair. "Do say yes, all of you. Mrs. Druce? I know the others will if you do?"
"I don"t mind...."
"Right-O! Give me five minutes...."
VII
Lontaine brought back a gratified countenance from the telephone booths.
As he had promised, so had he performed. This cinema chap he knew, Culp, had professed himself only too delighted. Rum name, what? A rum customer, if you asked Lontaine, diamond in the rough and all that sort of thing, one of the biggest guns in the American cinema to boot.
Dobbin wanted to know if Mr. Culp wasn"t the husband of Alma Daley, the motion-picture actress. Lontaine said he was. Extraordinary pair.
Married a few years ago when they were both stoney, absolutely. Now look at them; Culp a millionaire and better, Miss Daley one of the most popular stars. You might say he"d made her and she"d made him. Showed the value of team-work in marriage, what? You pulled together, and nothing could stop you. You pulled in opposite directions, and what happened? You stood still! What?
(Lucinda remarked the patient smile with which f.a.n.n.y listened. But repet.i.tion is, after all, a notorious idiosyncrasy of the married male.)
Charming little woman, Miss Daley. As it happened, she was working in a picture at the studio now. Rare luck; they"d get a look in at practical producing methods in addition to getting shot for their tests. Not bad, what?
Somebody echoed "shot" with a puzzled inflection. But that term, it appeared, was studio slang; one was shot when one was photographed by a motion-picture camera. No doubt because they first aimed the camera at one, then turned the crank--like a machine-gun, Lontaine meant to say.
Lucinda discovered that it was already three o"clock, and wondered how long they would need to get properly shot. Lontaine protested it would take no time at all. Astonishing chaps, these American cinema people, absolutely full of push and bounce, did everything in jig-time, if you knew what he meant.
With two cars at its disposal, the party split up into threes, Mrs.
Sedley, Mrs. Guest, and Lontaine leading the way. On the point of entering her own car after f.a.n.n.y, however, Lucinda recalled her promise to look in at the bridge-tea for the Italian Milk Fund, and bidding Dobbin keep f.a.n.n.y amused while they waited for her, turned back into the hotel to telephone Mrs. Wade that she would be a little late.
Having seen no more of Bellamy since their encounter near the cloak-room, she had a.s.sumed that he had taken her at her word, and had dismissed from her calculations the possibility of his returning. The surprise was so much the more unwelcome, consequently, when on leaving the telephone booth she saw her husband with his hat on the back of his head and his arms full of lavender orchids, wavering irresolutely in the entrance to the Palm Room, surveying with a dashed expression its now all but deserted s.p.a.ces; a festive spectacle that left no room for surmise as to what he had been up to. And with sickening contempt added to the bitterness already rankling in her heart, Lucinda made hastily for the revolving door.
Simultaneously Bel caught sight of her and, with a blurred travesty of his really charming smile, and a faltering parody of that air of gallant alacrity which she had once thought so engaging, moved to intercept Lucinda. And finding her escape cut off, she paused and awaited him with a stony countenance.
"Ah! there you are, eh, Linda! "Fraid I"d missed you. Sorry couldn"t get back sooner, but----"
"I"m not," Lucinda interrupted.
"Had to go over to Thorley"s to find these orchids...." Bel extended his burden as if to transfer it to Lucinda"s arms and, when she prevented this by falling back a pace, looked both pained and puzzled. "Ah--what say? What"s matter?"
"I said," Lucinda replied icily, "I"m not sorry you couldn"t get here sooner. Surely you can"t imagine I"d care to have my friends see you as you are, in the middle of the afternoon. It"s bad enough to have them know you get in this condition nearly every night."
"But--look here, Linda: be reasonable----"
"I think I have been--what you call reasonable--long enough--too long!"
Bellamy hesitated, nervously moistening his lips, glancing sidelong this way and that. But there was n.o.body in the foyer at the moment but themselves; even the coatroom girls had retired to their office and were well out of ear-shot of the quiet conversational key which, for all her indignation, Lucinda had adopted. For all of which the man should have been abjectly grateful. Instead of which (such is the wicked way of drink) Bellamy took heart of these circ.u.mstances, their temporary isolation and Lucinda"s calculated quietness, and offered to bl.u.s.ter it out.
"Here--take these flowers, won"t you? Plenty for you and all your friends. Tha"s what kept me so long--had to go all over to find enough."
Again Lucinda defeated his attempt to disburden himself. "Oh, Bel!" she cried sadly--"how can you be such a fool?"
"How"m I a fool? Like flowers, don"t you? Thought I was going to please you.... And this is what I get!"
"You know all the orchids in New York couldn"t make up for your drinking."
"Why cut up so nasty about a little drink or two? Way you talk, anyone"d think I was reeling."
"You will be before night, if you keep this up."
"Well, I"m not going to keep it up. I"ve made arrangements to have the afternoon free, just to be with you. We"ll go somewhere--do something----"
"Thank you: I"d rather not."
"Don"t talk rot." Most unwisely, Bellamy essayed the masterful method.
"Of course we"ll go some place----"
"We will not," Lucinda told him inflexibly. "My afternoon is booked full up already, and----"
"Where you going? I don"t mind tagging along----"
"Sorry, but I don"t want you."
Injudiciously again, Bellamy elected to show his teeth, stepped closer to Lucinda and with ugly deliberation demanded: "See here: where you going? I"ve got a right to know----"
"Have you, Bel? Think again. I never ask you such questions. If I did, you"d either lose your temper or lie to me, and justify yourself by a.s.serting that no man ought to be asked to stand prying into his affairs. So--I leave you to your affairs--and only ask that you leave me to mine."
"Meaning you won"t tell me where you"re going?"
Lucinda shrugged and turned away; but Bellamy swung in between her and the exit.
"See here, Linda! there are limits to my patience."
"And to mine--and you have found them. Let me go."
She didn"t move, but her face had lost colour, her eyes had grown dangerous. Neither spoke in that clash of wills until Bellamy"s weakened, his eyes shifted, and he stepped aside, slightly sobered.
"Please!" he begged in a turn of penitence. "Didn"t mean.... Frightfully sorry if I"ve been an a.s.s; but--you know--pretty well shot to pieces last night--had to pull myself together somehow to talk business at luncheon----"
"Oh! it was a business luncheon, then?" asked Lucinda sweetly, pausing.
"Of course."
With an ominous smile she commented: "It has come to that already, has it?"
"Ah--what d"you mean?"