Also I observed that flesh-mountains when exposed to heat do not stand up of their own consistency, but have a tendency to melt and flatten; it was necessary that this bulk should be supported, so there were three attendants, one securely braced under each armpit, and the third with a more precarious grip under the mountain"s chin.
Every thirty seconds or so the heaving, sliding ma.s.s would emit one of those explosive groans: "O-o-o-o-o-oh!" Then it would collapse, an avalanche would threaten to slide, and the living caryatids would shove and struggle.
Said Madame Planchet, in her stage-whisper: "The serveece of the young G.o.d of beautee!" And my fancy took flight. I saw proud vestals tending sacred flames on temple-clad islands in blue Grecian seas; I saw acolytes waving censers, and grave, bearded priests walking in processions crowned with myrtle-wreaths. I wondered if ever since the world began, the young G.o.d of beautee looking down from his crystal throne had beheld a stranger ritual of adoration!
Silently we drew back from the door-way, and Madame closed the door, reducing the promethean groans and the strong ammoniacal odors. I did not see the face of Carpenter, because he had turned it from us.
Rosythe favored me with a smile, and whispered, "Your friend doesn"t care for beautee!" Then he added, "What do you suppose he meant by that stuff about "the price of life" and "the choice of G.o.d?""
"Didn"t you really get it?" I asked.
"I"m d.a.m.ned if I did."
"My dear fellow," I said, "you didn"t tell us what sort of place this was; and Carpenter thought it must be a maternity-ward."
The moving picture critic of the Western City "Times" gave me one wild look; then from his throat there came a sound like the sudden bleat of a young sheep in pain. It caused Carpenter to start, and Madame Planchet to start, and for the first time since we entered the place, the birds of paradise gave signs of life elsewhere than in the eye-muscles. The sheep gave a second bleat, and then a third, and Rosythe, red in the face and apparently choking, turned and fled to the corridor.
Madame Planchet drew me apart and said: "Meester Billee, tell me something. Ees eet true that thees gentleman ees a healer? He takes away the pains?"
"He did it for me," I answered.
"He ees vairy handsome, eh, Meester Billee?"
"Yes, that is true."
"I have an idea; eet ees a wondair." She turned to my friend.
"Meester Carpentair, they tell me that you heal the pains. I think eet would be a vairy fine thing eef you would come to my parlor and attend the ladies while I give them the permanent wave, and while I skeen them, and make them the dimples and the sweet smiles. They suffer so, the poor dears, and eef you would seet and hold their hands, they would love eet, they would come every day for eet, and you would be famous, and you would be reech. You would meet--oh, such lovely ladies! The best people in the ceety come to my beauty parlors, and they would adore you, Meester Carpentair--what do you say to eet?"
It struck me as curious, as I looked back upon it; Madame Planchet so far had not heard the sound of Carpenter"s voice. Now she forced him to speak, but she did not force him to look at her. His gaze went over her head, as if he were seeing a vision; he recited:
"Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts."
"Oh, mon Dieu!" cried Madame Planchet.
"In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their twinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the m.u.f.flers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the gla.s.ses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.
And it shall come to pa.s.s that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth: and burning instead of beauty."
And at that moment the door from the corridor was flung open, and Mary Magna came in.
XI
"My G.o.d, will you look who"s here! Billy, wretched creature, I haven"t laid eyes on you for two months! Do you have to desert me entirely, just because you"ve fallen in love with a society girl with the face of a j.a.panese doll-baby? What"s the matter with me, that I lose my lovers faster than I get them? Edgerton Rosythe, come in here--you"ve got a good excuse, I admit--I"m almost as much scared of your wife as you are yourself. But still, I"d like a chance to get tired of some man first. h.e.l.lo, Planchet, how"s my old grannie making out in your scalping-shop? Say, would you think it would take three days labor for half a dozen Sioux squaws to pull the skin off one old lady"s back? And a week to tie up the corners of her mouth and give her a permanent smile! "Why, grannie," I said, "good G.o.d, it would be cheaper to hire Charlie Chaplin to walk round in front of you all the rest of your life!" And--why, what"s this?
For the love of Peter, somebody introduce me to this gentleman. Is he a friend of yours, Billy? Carpenter? Excuse me, Mr. Carpenter, but we picture people learn to talk about our faces and our styles, and it isn"t every day I come on a million dollars walking round on two legs. Who does the gentleman work for?"
The storm of Mary Magna stopped long enough for her to stare from one to another of us. "What? You mean n.o.body"s got him? And you all standing round here, not signing any contracts? You, Edgerton--you haven"t run to the telephone to call up Eternal City? Well, as it happens, T-S is going to be here in five minutes--his wife is being made beautiful once again somewhere in this scalping-shop. Take my advice, Mr. Carpenter, and don"t sign today--the price will go up several hundred per week as long as you hold off."
Mary stopped again; and this was most unusual, for as a general rule she never stopped until somebody or something stopped her. But she was fascinated by the spectacle of Carpenter. "My good G.o.d! Where did he come from? Why, it seems like--I"m trying to think--yes, it"s the very man! Listen, Billy; you may not believe it, but I was in a church a couple of weeks ago. I went to see Roxanna Riddle marry that grand duke fellow. It was in a big church over by the park--St. Bartholomew"s, they call it. I sat looking at a stained gla.s.s window over the altar, and Billy, I swear I believe this Mr.
Carpenter came down from that window!"
"Maybe he did, Mary," I put in.
"But I"m not joking! I tell you he"s the living, speaking image of that figure. Come to think of it, he isn"t speaking, he hasn"t said a word! Tell me, Mr. Carpenter, have you got a voice, or are you only a close up from "The Servant in the House" or "Ben Hur"? Say something, so I can get a line on you!"
Again I stood wondering; how would Carpenter take this? Would he bow his head and run before a hail-storm of feminine impertinence? Would she "vamp" him, as she did every man who came near her? Or would this man do what no man alive had yet been able to do--reduce her to silence?
He smiled gently; and I saw that she had vamped him this much, at least--he was going to be polite! "Mary," he said, "I think you are carrying everything but the nose jewels."
"Nose jewels? What a horrid idea! Where did you get that?"
"When you came in, I was quoting the prophet Isaiah. Some eighty generations of ladies have lived on earth since his day, Mary; they have won the ballot, but apparently they haven"t discovered anything new in the way of ornaments. Some of the prophet"s words may be strange to you, but if you study them you will see that you"ve got everything he lists: "their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the m.u.f.flers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the gla.s.ses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.""
As Carpenter recited this list, his eyes roamed from one part to another of the wondrous "get up" of Mary Magna. You can imagine her facing him--that bold and vivid figure which you have seen as "Cleopatra" and "Salome," as "Dubarry" and "Anne Boleyn," and I know not how many other of the famous courtesans and queens of history.
In daily life her style and manner is every bit as staggering; she is a gorgeous brunette, and wears all the colors there are--when she goes down the street it is like a whole procession with flags. I"ll wager that, apart from her jewels, which may or may not have been real, she was carrying not less than five thousand dollars worth of stuff that fall afternoon. A big black picture hat, with a flower garden and parts of an aviary on top--but what"s the use of going over Isaiah"s list?
"Everything but the nose jewels," said Carpenter, "and they may be in fashion next week."
"How about the gla.s.ses?" put in Rosythe, entering into the fun.
"Oh, shucks!" said I, protecting my friend. "Turn out the contents of your vanity-bag, Mary."
"And the crisping-pins?" laughed the critic.
"Hasn"t Madame Planchet just shown us those?"
All this while Mary had not taken her eyes off Carpenter. "So you are really one of those religious fellows!" she exclaimed. "You"ll know exactly what to do without any directing! How perfectly incredible!" And at that appropriate moment T-S pushed open the door and waddled in!
XII
You know the screen stars, of course; but maybe you do not know those larger celestial bodies, the dark and silent and invisible stars from which the shining ones derive their energies. So, permit me to introduce you to T-S, the trade abbreviation for a name which n.o.body can remember, which even his secretaries have to keep typed on a slip of paper just above their machine--Tszchniczklefritszch.
He came a few years ago from Ruthenia, or Rumelia, or Roumania--one of those countries where the consonants are so greatly in excess of the vowels. If you are as rich as he, you call him Abey, which is easy; otherwise, you call him Mr. T-S, which he accepts as a part of his Americanization.
He is shorter than you or I, and has found that he can"t grow upward, but can grow without limit in all lateral directions. There is always a little more of him than his clothing can hold, and it spreads out in rolls about his collar. He has a yellowish face, which turns red easily. He has small, shiny eyes, he speaks atrocious English, he is as devoid of culture as a hairy Ainu, and he smells money and goes after it like a hog into a swill-trough.
"h.e.l.lo, everybody! Madame, vere"s de old voman?
"She ees being dressed--"
"Vell, speed her up! I got no time. I got--Jesus Christ!"
"Yes, exactly," said Mary Magna.
The great man of the pictures stood rooted to the spot. "Vot"s dis?
Some joke you people playin" on me?" He shot a suspicious glance from one to another of us.