"I"ve no engagement."
"Then let"s have Martinis--and I"ll go get a table and order dinner while the waiter"s bringing them."
When Susan was alone, she gazed round the crowded cafe, at the scores of interesting faces--thrillingly interesting to her after her long sojourn among countenances merely expressing crude elemental appet.i.tes if anything at all beyond toil, anxiety, privation, and bad health. These were the faces of the triumphant cla.s.s--of those who had wealth or were getting it, fame or were striving for it, of those born to or acquiring position of some sort among the few thousands who lord it over the millions. These were the people among whom she belonged.
Why was she having such a savage struggle to attain it? Then, all in an instant the truth she had been so long groping for in vain flung itself at her. None of these women, none of the women of the prosperous cla.s.ses would be there but for the a.s.sistance and protection of the men. She marveled at her stupidity in not having seen the obvious thing clearly long ago. The successful women won their success by disposing of their persons to advantage--by getting the favor of some man of ability. Therefore, she, a woman, must adopt that same policy if she was to have a chance at the things worth while in life.
She must make the best bargain--or series of bargains--she could. And as her necessities were pressing she must lose no time. She understood now the instinct that had forced her to fly from South Fifth Avenue, that had overruled her hesitation and had compelled her to accept the good-natured, prosperous man"s invitation. . . . There was no other way open to her.
She must not evade that fact; she must accept it. Other ways there might be--for other women. But not for her, the outcast without friends or family, the woman alone, with no one to lean upon or to give her anything except in exchange for what she had to offer that was marketable. She must make the bargain she could, not waste time in the folly of awaiting a bargain to her liking. Since she was living in the world and wished to continue to live there, she must accept the world"s terms. To be sad or angry either one because the world did not offer her as attractive terms as it apparently offered many other women--the happy and respected wives and mothers of the prosperous cla.s.ses, for instance--to rail against that was silly and stupid, was unworthy of her intelligence. She would do as best she could, and move along, keeping her eyes open; and perhaps some day a chance for much better terms might offer--for the best--for such terms as that famous actress there had got. She looked at Mary Rigsdall. An expression in her interesting face--the latent rather than the surface expression--set Susan to wondering whether, if she knew Rigsdall"s _whole_ story--or any woman"s whole story--she might not see that the world was not bargaining so hardly with her, after all. Or any man"s whole story. There her eyes shifted to Rigsdall"s companion, the famous playwright of whom she had so often heard Rod and his friends talk.
She was startled to find that his gaze was upon her--an all-seeing look that penetrated to the very core of her being.
He either did not note or cared nothing about her color of embarra.s.sment. He regarded her steadily until, so she felt, he had seen precisely what she was, had become intimately acquainted with her. Then he looked away. It chagrined her that his eyes did not again turn in her direction; she felt that he had catalogued her as not worth while. She listened to the conversation of the two. The woman did the talking, and her subject was herself--her ability as an actress, her conception of some part she either was about to play or was hoping to play. Susan, too young to have acquired more than the rudiments of the difficult art of character study, even had she had especial talent for it--which she had not--Susan decided that the famous Rigsdall was as shallow and vain as Rod had said all stage people were.
The waiter brought the c.o.c.ktails and her stout young companion came back, beaming at the thought of the dinner he had painstakingly ordered. As he reached the table he jerked his head in self-approval. "It"ll be a good one," said he.
"Sat.u.r.day night dinner--and after--means a lot to me. I work hard all week. Sat.u.r.day nights I cut loose. Sundays I sleep and get ready to scramble again on Monday for the dollars." He seated himself, leaned toward her with elevated gla.s.s. "What name?" inquired he.
"Susan."
"That"s a good old-fashioned name. Makes me see the hollyhocks, and the hens scratching for worms. Mine"s Howland.
Billy Howland. I came from Maryland . . . and I"m mighty glad I did. I wouldn"t be from anywhere else for worlds, and I wouldn"t be there for worlds. Where do you hail from?"
"The West," said Susan.
"Well, the men in your particular corner out yonder must be a pretty poor lot to have let you leave. I spotted you for mine the minute I saw you--Susan. I hope you"re not as quiet as your name. Another c.o.c.ktail?"
"Thanks."
"Like to drink?"
"I"m going to do more of it hereafter."
"Been laying low for a while--eh?"
"Very low," said Susan. Her eyes were sparkling now; the c.o.c.ktail had begun to stir her long languid blood.
"Live with your family?"
"I haven"t any. I"m free."
"On the stage?"
"I"m thinking of going on."
"And meanwhile?"
"Meanwhile--whatever comes."
Billy Howland"s face was radiant. "I had a date tonight and the lady threw me down. One of those drummer"s wives that take in washing to add to the family income while hubby"s flirting round the country. This hubby came home unexpectedly. I"m glad he did."
He beamed with such whole-souled good-nature that Susan laughed. "Thanks. Same to you," said she.
"Hope you"re going to do a lot of that laughing," said he.
"It"s the best I"ve heard--such a quiet, gay sound. I sure do have the best luck. Until five years ago there was nothing doing for Billy--hall bedroom--Wheeling stogies--one shirt and two pairs of cuffs a week--not enough to buy a lady an ice-cream soda. All at once--bang! The hoodoo busted, and everything that arrived was for William C. Howland. Better get aboard."
"Here I am."
"Hold on tight. I pay no attention to the speed laws, and round the corners on two wheels. Do you like good things to eat?"
"I haven"t eaten for six months."
"You must have been out home. Ah!--There"s the man to tell us dinner"s ready."
They finished the second c.o.c.ktail. Susan was pleased to note that Brent was again looking at her; and she thought--though she suspected it might be the c.o.c.ktail--that there was a question in his look--a question about her which he had been unable to answer to his satisfaction. When she and Howland were at one of the small tables against the wall in the restaurant, she said to him:
"You know Mr. Brent?"
"The play man? Lord, no. I"m a plain business dub. He wouldn"t bother with me. You like that sort of man?"
"I want to get on the stage, if I can," was Susan"s diplomatic reply.
"Well--let"s have dinner first. I"ve ordered champagne, but if you prefer something else----"
"Champagne is what I want. I hope it"s very dry."
Howland"s eyes gazed tenderly at her. "I do like a woman who knows the difference between champagne and carbonated sirup.
I think you and I"ve got a lot of tastes in common. I like eating--so do you. I like drinking--so do you. I like a good time--so do you. You"re a little bit thin for my taste, but you"ll fatten up. I wonder what makes your lips so pale."
"I"d hate to remind myself by telling you," said Susan.
The restaurant was filling. Most of the men and women were in evening dress. Each arriving woman brought with her a new exhibition of extravagance in costume, diffused a new variety of powerful perfume. The orchestra in the balcony was playing waltzes and the liveliest Hungarian music and the most sensuous strains from Italy and France and Spain. And before her was food!--food again!--not horrible stuff unfit for beasts, worse than was fed to beasts, but human food--good things, well cooked and well served. To have seen her, to have seen the expression of her eyes, without knowing her history and without having lived as she had lived, would have been to think her a glutton. Her spirits giddied toward the ecstatic. She began to talk--commenting on the people about her--the one subject she could venture with her companion. As she talked and drank, he ate and drank, stuffing and gorging himself, but with a frankness of gluttony that delighted her. She found she could not eat much, but she liked to see eating; she who had so long been seeing only poverty, bolting wretched food and drinking the vilest kinds of whiskey and beer, of alleged coffee and tea--she reveled in Howland"s exhibition. She must learn to live altogether in her senses, never to think except about an appet.i.te. Where could she find a better teacher? . . .
They drank two quarts of champagne, and with the coffee she took _creme de menthe_ and he brandy. And as the sensuous temperament that springs from intense vitality rea.s.serted itself, the opportunity before her lost all its repellent features, became the bright, vivid countenance of l.u.s.ty youth, irradiating the joy of living.
"I hear there"s a lively ball up at Terrace Garden," said he.
"Want to go?"
"That"ll be fine!" cried she.
She saw it would have taken nearly all the money she possessed to have paid that bill. About four weeks" wages for one dinner! Thousands of families living for two weeks on what she and he had consumed in two hours! She reached for her half empty champagne gla.s.s, emptied it. She must forget all those things! "I"ve played the fool once. I"ve learned my lesson.
Surely I"ll never do it again." As she drank, her eyes chanced upon the clock. Half-past ten. Mrs. Tucker had probably just fallen asleep. And Mrs. Reardon was going out to scrub--going out limping and groaning with rheumatism. No, Mrs. Reardon was lying up at the morgue dead, her one chance to live lost forever. Dead! Yet better off than Mrs. Tucker lying alive.
Susan could see her--the seamed and broken and dirty old remnant of a face--could see the vermin--and the mice could hear the snoring--the angry grunt and turning over as the insects----
"I want another drink--right away," she cried.
"Sure!" said Howland. "I need one more, too."
They drove in a taxi to Terrace Garden, he holding her in his arms and kissing her with an intoxicated man"s enthusiasm.
"You certainly are sweet," said he. "The wine on your breath is like flowers. Gosh, but I"m glad that husband came home!
Like me a little?"
"I"m so happy, I feel like standing up and screaming," declared she.