He changed his att.i.tude, suddenly realising the volcanic sensitiveness of her att.i.tude towards him and life in general. Instinctively he felt that at a single ill-considered word she would even then, in her moment of weakness, have left him, have pushed him on one side, and walked out to whatever she might have to face.
"What a fool you are!" he exclaimed, a little brusquely.
"Am I!" she replied belligerently.
"Of course you are! You call yourself a daughter of New York, a city whose motto seems to be pretty well every one for himself. You know you did my typing all right, you know my play was a success, you know that I shall have to write another. What made you take it for granted that I shouldn"t want to employ you, and go and hide yourself? Lock the door when I came to see you, because it was past eight o"clock, and not answer my letters?"
"Can"t have men callers now dad"s away," she told him, a little brusquely. "It"s not allowed."
"Oh, rubbish!" he answered irritably. "That isn"t the point. You"ve kept away from me. You"ve deliberately avoided me. You knew that I was just as lonely as you were."
Then she blazed out. The sallowness of her cheeks, the little dip under her cheekbones--she had grown thinner during the last week or so--made her eyes seem larger and more brilliant than ever.
"You lonely! Rubbish! Why, they"re all running after you everywhere.
Quite a social success, according to the papers! I say, ain"t you afraid?"
"Horribly," he admitted, "and about the one person I could have talked to about it chucks me."
"I don"t know anything about you, or what you"ve done," she said. "I only know that the tecs--"
He laid his hand upon her fingers. She s.n.a.t.c.hed them away but accepted his warning. They were served then with their meal, and their conversation drifted into other channels.
"Well," he continued presently, in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone, "I"ve found you now, and you"ve got to be sensible. It"s true I"ve had a stroke of luck, but that might fall away at any moment. I"ve typing waiting for you, or I can get you a post at the New York Theatre. You"d better first do my typing. I"ll have it in your rooms to-morrow morning by nine o"clock. And would you like something in advance?"
"No!" she replied grudgingly. "I"ll have what I"ve earned, when I"ve earned it."
He sipped his claret and studied her meditatively.
"You"re not much of a pal, are you?"
She scoffed at him, looked him up and down, at his well-fitting clothes, his general air of prosperity.
"Pal!" she jeered. "Look at you--Merton Ware, the great dramatist, and me--a shabby, ugly, bad-tempered, indifferent typewriter. Bad-tempered,"
she repeated. "Yes, I am that. I didn"t start out to be. I just haven"t had any luck."
"It will all come some day," he a.s.sured her cheerfully.
"I think if you"d stayed different," she went on thoughtfully, "if you hadn"t slipped away into the clouds ... shows what a selfish little beast I am! Can"t imagine why you bother about me."
"Shall I tell you why, really?" he asked. "Because you saved me--I don"t know what from. The night we went out I was suffering from a loneliness which was the worst torture I have ever felt. It was there in my throat and dragging down my heart, and I just felt as though any way of ending it all would be a joy. All these millions of hard-faced people, intent on their own prosperity or their own petty troubles, goaded me, I think, into a sort of silent fury. Just that one night I craved like a madman for a single human being to talk to--well, I shall never forget it, Martha--"
"Miss Grimes!" she interrupted under her breath.
He laughed.
"That doesn"t really matter, does it?" he asked. "You"ve never been afraid that I should want to make love to you, have you?"
She glanced round into the mirror by their side, looked at her wan face, the shabby little hat, the none too tidily arranged hair which drooped over her ears; down at her shapeless jacket, her patched skirt, the shoes which were in open rebellion. Then she laughed, curiously enough without any note of bitterness.
"Seems queer, doesn"t it, even to think of such a thing! I"ve been up against it pretty hard, though. A man who gives a meal to a girl, even if she is as plain as I am, generally seems to think he"s bought her, in this city. Even the men who are earning money don"t give much for nothing. But you are different," she admitted. "I"ll be fair about it--you"re different."
"You"ll be waiting for the work at nine o"clock to-morrow morning?" he asked, as indifferently as possible.
"I will," she promised.
He leaned back and told her little anecdotes about the play, things that had happened to him during the last few weeks, speaking often of Elizabeth Dalstan. By degrees the nervous unrest seemed to pa.s.s away from her. When they had finished their meal and drunk their coffee, she was almost normal. She smoked a cigarette and even accepted the box which he thrust into her hand. When he had paid the bill, she rose a little abruptly.
"Well," she said, "you"ve had your way, and a kind, nice way it was. Now I"ll have mine. I don"t want any politeness. When we leave this place I am going to walk home, and I am going to walk home alone."
"That"s lucky," he replied, "because I have to be at the theatre in ten minutes to meet a cinema man. b.u.t.ton up your coat and have a good night"s sleep."
They left the place together. She turned away with a farewell nod and walked rapidly eastwards. He watched her cross the road. A poor little waif, she seemed, except that something had gone from her face which had almost terrified him. She carried herself, he fancied, with more buoyancy, with infinitely more confidence, and he drew a sigh of relief as he called for a taxi.
CHAPTER IV
Elizabeth paused for breath at the top of the third flight of stairs. She leaned against the iron bal.u.s.trade.
"You poor dear!" she exclaimed. "How many times a day did you have to do this?"
"I didn"t go out very often," he reminded her, "and it wasn"t every day that the lift was out of order. It"s only one more flight."
She looked up the stairs, sighed, and raised her smart, grey, tailor-made skirt a little higher over her shoes.
"Well," she announced heroically, "lead on. If they would sometimes dust these steps--but, after all, it doesn"t matter to you now, does it? Fancy that poor girl, though."
He smiled a little grimly.
"A few flights of stairs aren"t the worst things she has had to face, I"m afraid," he said.
"I am rather terrified of her," Elizabeth confided, supporting herself by her companion"s shoulder. "I think I know that ultra-independent type.
Kick me if I put my foot in it. Is this the door?"
Philip nodded and knocked softly. There was a sharp "Come in!"
"Put the key down, please," the figure at the typewriter said, as they entered.
The words had scarcely left Martha"s lips before she turned around, conscious of some other influence in the room. Philip stepped forward.
"Miss Grimes," he said, "I have brought Miss Dalstan in to see you. She wants--"
He paused. Something in the stony expression of the girl who had risen to her feet and stood now facing them, her ashen paleness unrelieved by any note of colour, her hands hanging in front of her patched and shabby frock, seemed to check the words upon his lips. Her voice was low but not soft. It seemed to create at once an atmosphere of anger and resentment.
"What do you want?" she demanded.
"I hope you don"t mind--I am so anxious that you should do some work for me," Elizabeth explained. "When Mr. Ware first brought me in his play, I noticed how nicely it was typewritten. You must have been glad to find it turn out such a success."