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diff --git a/26242-8.txt b/26242-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2aab2d --- /dev/null +++ b/26242-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12270 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bill-Toppers, by Andre Castaigne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Bill-Toppers + +Author: Andre Castaigne + +Release Date: August 9, 2008 [EBook #26242] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BILL-TOPPERS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Poland, the Parisienne. Page 123. Frontispiece.] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE BILL-TOPPERS + +By +ANDRÉ CASTAIGNE + +With Illustrations +BY THE AUTHOR + +A. L. BURT COMPANY +Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright, 1909 +The Bobbs-Merrill Company + +August + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS +THE STARS! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE BILL-TOPPERS + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE BILL-TOPPERS + +OVERTURE + +All around stretched the great blue sky and the blue sea of the Gulf of +Bengal. + +Mrs. Clifton lay dozing at full length on a pillowed bench and her husband +sat near her and followed his Lily, his daughter, with his eyes: his Lily, +eight years old, "that high," waving among the passengers the white coral +necklace which Pa had bought her on leaving Australia; his Lily, his star, +his New Zealander on Wheels! His Lily who had had such successes at +Melbourne, at Sidney: bouquets, tons and cart-loads of bouquets! And the +past would be nothing compared with the future, with the astounding tricks +which he was inventing for his Lily. The mere sight of her raised his +enthusiasm to boiling-point. And he was going to show them, in Calcutta +and elsewhere, if they knew how to make stars in New Zealand or if they +were only fit for raising mutton. + +Clifton was an artist, an "artiste," a born artiste: starting as a mere +clerk in an office, he had become an amateur cyclist and then a +professional on the track. He married an Englishwoman at Wellington and, +at Lily's birth, decided upon a career: the stage, with Lily for a star +later on! And he set to work, with vim and vigor, learned a few tricks on +his bike, taught his wife the business in less than no time; and Lily's +first memories as a four-year-old were: + +"I was sitting on Ma's shoulders, Ma on Pa's and Pa on the bike." + +And Lily zigzagged through New Zealand, from east to west and north to +south, and Australia after, where she received plenty of applause for her +tricks, childish in themselves, but well presented. Her triumphant path +wound among tinseled bottles containing paper flowers, with a faultless +standstill for the climax, one hand on the handle-bar, the other blowing +kisses to the audience. This procured Pa an engagement for India. He +ordered a beautiful colored poster, "The Clifton Family, Trick Cyclists," +with a portrait in the corner of his own strong face and bristling +mustache--"P. T. Clifton, Manager"--one more rung in the ladder of life +mounted, thanks to his Lily. + +And Pa smiled to his daughter and, as she ran past him, lifted her on his +knee and stroked her fair curls; and the child cuddled up to her Pa, +opened her lips to ask questions, but was silent, with her eyes lost in +space, puckering her little forehead, in which were heaped so many mingled +memories of the stage and the great world outside: the Boxing Kangaroo; +tall cliffs; green islands; the bike; Batavia among the trees; Singapore, +with its noise and dust. And Lily, wearily, dreamed and murmured things, +while the steamer sped on, thud, thud, thud, flat as a stage in its blue +"set." + +Lily's impressions of India were months of jolting and bumping, stops in +the dead of night while the tent was pitched, rains, strong smells, +oppressive heats--months and months of it, Ma on Pa, Pa on the wheel and +she on top, waving flags. Yellow faces on the benches, red flowers and, +somewhere, on a river-bank, two eyes glittering in the dark: a tiger, +somebody said! And every night the artistes, carrying lanterns, walked in +file between the circus and the hotel, with the ladies in the center and +Lily clinging to Ma's skirt. + +She did more now, in addition to the bike: a song-and-dance turn. In a +piping falsetto, she quavered: + +"Star light! Star bright!" + +She was spoiled by the ladies, the wives of the officers stationed in +those out-of-the-way holes. She played with smart children, was taken for +drives, had her social successes! Chocolates, sweets, kisses. And a lady +gave her such a pretty dress: his Lily! Pa burst with delighted pride to +see her treated like that; and Ma scolded her a bit, for the little flirt +that she was, while fondly tying the two satin bows over her ears. + +Lily was a regular tomboy, with pranks invented by herself, from ideas +which she picked up in traveling: for instance, she would choose her +moment and chuck a piece of bacon among the Mohammedans sitting under her +window; and she would revel in her own fright at those furious faces +suddenly glaring up at her from below! And she would stand with drooping +head, one finger in her mouth: + +"Oh, _so_ sorry!" + +What fun! And as an artiste she was spoiled and petted everywhere. Goa, +Bangalore, Tanjore and then Colombo, and a ship with elephants, tigers, +camels, children, men, women, wagons, one great mix-up, a circus and +menagerie in one, steaming toward South Africa; and Miss Lily of the +Clifton Troupe paraded her well-brushed, neatly-parted curls in the midst +of it all, gazed open-mouthed at the blue expanse of water until, her eyes +drunk and dazed with light, she went and lay in her cabin.... And more and +more blue water. And thud, thud, thud. And Cape Town in the mountains. +Africa behind it: a country all yellow, where the trains wound in and out +of the rocks; villages, up, up, up, or else right low down, on the yellow +veldt; and, at night, on the benches, crowds and crowds. Immediately after +the show came sleep, troubled by the jolting of the train; and the circus +was always there next day, on the right or on the left, with its Chinamen +and its niggers driving stakes or tugging at ropes. A bell for dinner, a +whistle for the show; and, as soon as the show was over, to bed,--and off +again. + +Pa made her practice harder now, wanted to make a great artiste of her. +And there was a class, too, kept by a "marm" who traveled with the circus +and taught spelling and arithmetic and the art of letter-writing, from +"Yours to hand with thanks" down to "Believe me to be." Lily would have +been bored to death but for the accidents of travel: sometimes the engine +broke down, bringing the train to a dead stop amid the great African +silence, near a field of Indian corn, in which the children played +hide-and-seek. Or else there were locusts, locusts "that thick," right +inside the carriages. Lily would tie them by the leg and: + +"Flip! Flap! Lively now! Jump!" + +But funniest of all was the caravan--she couldn't remember where, in Natal +or thereabouts--wagons with ten yoke of oxen. They climbed up endless +winding roads. The men shot at birds and prospected for diamonds along the +wayside; and at night they took the hay from the mattresses to give to the +cattle. Lolling indolence was in the air and plenty in the larder: big +fruits, strange game, which they cooked in a makeshift oven consisting of +a few stones. Then they rolled themselves up in a blanket, near the +elephants tugging at their chains, and slept under the tent in the cool, +bright, starry night. + +[Illustration: LILY IN INDIA] + +Months and months passed. Lily was becoming very clever: the New Zealander +on Wheels! She was cleverer than Pa, who no longer performed, nor Ma +either. On their return to Australia, Lily appeared by herself in the +music-halls, and P. T. Clifton, Manager, watched her from the wings, in +growing admiration: his Lily was a star now, too good for a circus! And +Australia, pooh! Sidney, Melbourne, pooh! What Lily wanted was New York, +London, the Hippodromes, the Palaces! He'd show them a star that was a +star! And Clifton clenched his fists and pretended not to see when Lily +made a blunder on the stage: his Lily missing a trick! Disgracing her Pa +like that! He blushed to the eyes at the thought of it! And, when she +returned to the wings, he twitted her proudly: + +"What next, Lily! An artiste like you!" + +And Ma adopted a sarcastic air and congratulated "mademoiselle" as she +threw the white wrapper over "mademoiselle's" shoulders. + +Ma detested the stage. She did not think it a nice place for herself; but +for a brat like Lily, Lord, it was quite different! And she ought to have +tried to please her Pa and Ma. Mrs. Clifton, though she never voiced the +wish, had visions of a trip to London, to stagger some relations, a +sister-in-law she had there, and sneer at the old country, in the usual +colonial fashion, and show them what the new countries can do, countries +where you make a fortune in less than no time! And, little by little, +smitten with Mr. Clifton's enthusiasm, she came to believe that, in Lily, +they really possessed the infant prodigy, the treasure-child upon whom +their fortune depended. And Ma, too, was vexed when Lily missed a trick on +the stage. + +Lily laughed at their anger. Ma had never raised a hand to her; and, as +for Pa, when he scolded, Lily had such a way of looking at him, with +lowered head--"Oh, _so_ sorry!"--that Pa simmered down again at once. +Lily, a regular "tenter," shot up freely, grew up a real tomboy, went a +bit too far, in fact, Ma said: at Honolulu, for instance, on the road to +'Frisco and New York, where Pa had resolved to go, at all costs, come what +might--it was one step nearer London!--at Honolulu--ten days there and +such a success!--the child played truant in the gardens teeming with birds +and fruit, climbed apple-trees, was caught one day and scampered off at +full speed, pursued by Ma, who threatened to give her a sound smacking +this time, the little thief! But Pa thought it ridiculous, for the sake of +an apple.... + +"And suppose Lily had broken her leg with her nonsense?" asked Ma +indignantly. "Where would your New York be?" + +Pa felt himself a conquering hero when they steamed through the Golden +Gate: the States at last! And no sooner was his foot on the wharf at +'Frisco than off to the agents at once, with his photographs, his +contracts, his posters! But it was her birth-certificate they asked to +see. And no babes and sucklings allowed on the stage here. It was all +right down yonder, but the law prevented it here. + +"Damn your laws!" snapped Pa furiously. "Do you think we make stars to +hide them under bushels?" + +And whoosh! Off for Mexico, where children are allowed to perform. + +Now, in Arizona, near Phoenix, where the train stopped for some hours, +owing to an accident to the Rio Gila bridge, Pa happened upon a +merrymaking which reminded him of West Australia. Cow-boys, galloping +horses, a pretense at fighting, lassoing, revolvers, a track for amateur +cyclists and--yes, there, in the desert!--on a platform, right in the +middle, what should Pa see but an amazing artiste, riding on the +back-wheel, with the other in the air! And such twirls! And the boys +shouted to him: + +"Hullo, Trampy! Have a drink, Trampy!" + +And Trampy accepted: + +"With you, my lord! As soon as I've done, my lord!" + +And off he wheeled, head on the saddle, feet in the air, whistling _Yankee +Doodle_! + +It was impossible! Pa rubbed his eyes: what! Was this what they did in the +States in the desert? And he who had hoped, with Lily ... why, damn it, +Lily knew nothing! He himself, her manager, knew less than nothing! He, +who thought he had formed a star! Pa was red with shame. And, suddenly, he +had a happy thought: he, too, offered Trampy a drink, something to propose +to him.... + +"All right." + +They shook hands, went to the bar, lit a cigar, like men, by Jove! Clifton +loved to talk business, to pull out notebooks, quick, and jot things down +with a knowing air. Trampy, a mere boy, easy-going, genial, without a red +cent for the time being, didn't care a hang about business and was soon +telling Clifton the story of his life: drummer, reporter, racer; his +descent,--"Two whiskies, boy!"--what was he saying? Oh, yes, his descent +of a staircase on the bike, yes, siree, with a red-hot stove under his +arm--a stove painted to look red-hot--pursued by a policeman, leaping over +obstacles on the bike; great success at Duluth and Denver as a tramp +cyclist: hence his name of Trampy Wheel-Pad. But those girls, by Jove! +Well, he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. Still, a +rolling stone doesn't climb hills. Here he was, stranded. Go to Mexico? So +much a week? Such and such a turn? Teach the child? Cert! + +Lily never alluded to Mexico afterward without shaking with anger. My, to +listen to her, how badly they treated her in Mexico! Worse than a Dago! To +tell the truth, it was hot; and Lily, already tired by those long journeys +in varying climates, Lily would have preferred to do nothing and to +continue to lead her careless life as a playful filly. But no, poor Lily +was caught by the hind-leg in Mexico! Ambition had seized upon Pa, body +and soul, and life became a more serious matter for the child. + +"Look here!" said Pa, pointing to Trampy. "What he, a man, does, you can +do! I'll see to that!" + +Pa arranged for a place in which to practise at their ease. In the +evening, on the stage, he watched and studied Trampy's tricks and, in the +morning, quick, out of bed, look alive, the bike! Pa no longer had his +open-mouthed admiration for Lily, as in South Africa and Asia: his Lily +knew nothing at all! But in three months, six months, if necessary, if it +cost him every penny he possessed. And it was: + +"Come along, Lily ... to work! Show what you can do!" + +Trampy, in this country of _mañolas_--"Grand, by Jove!"--came round about +eleven; and Pa, all out of breath, passed Lily on to him: + +"You have a go at her, Trampy! I give up, she won't do what I say!" + +And Trampy put down his cigar, took off his collar and cuffs and it was, +"Come along, Lily!" till lunch-time. The child, her eyes blinking with +fatigue, fell fast asleep before the end of the meal. + +Pa was delighted. + +And he confided her to Trampy more and more, with orders not to spare +smackings in case of need: + +"Eh, Lily? Eh?" + +As for him, he had business to do, letters to write, great schemes in his +head! for instance, he must try to get permission for Lily to appear in +the States. + +"Time for a cigar, I guess," said Trampy, as soon as Clifton was gone. + +Work stopped abruptly; a tumbler's carpet rolled up in a corner formed an +inviting lounge; and Lily, panting from her practice, would stretch +herself beside him and enjoy a few happy moments, the only really happy +moments of the day; for there were matinées in the afternoon and the +evening performance at night, till she was ready to drop with weariness. +Trampy treated Lily nicely, like a grown-up person, called her by the name +of a fruit, or a flower, or a bird, jollied her, called her "little +wifie:" it was all one to her. He made her laugh with his funny stories, +his fairy tales about himself, his terrible struggle with a snake in the +streets of 'Frisco, after a champagne supper: girls, by Jove! He toned +down his anecdotes and dished them up for Lily's entertainment; told her +absurd yarns enlivened with mimicry, in which he excelled, like the real +mummer that he was, and Lily shrieked with laughter, head thrown back, +full-throated. + +And there was a spice of fear in it all: was that Pa coming back? No, a +carpenter or scene-shifter, perhaps, or else the Martellos, brother and +sister, going to practise slack-wire, head and hand balancing. Their +father, old Martello, a famous name, lived in London, it appeared, alone +with his Bambinis, mere babes still. His other children and his +apprentices had all run away, to escape his horsewhip, and the brother in +Mexico was continuing the tradition. His brutality, in fact, got him into +trouble wherever he went, so much so that the big music-halls were closed +to him, for fear of scandal. And he terrorized his sister, Ave Maria, a +girl of sixteen, a dark girl with great dark eyes. Ave Maria never spoke +to anybody; when she passed through the room where Lily was having fun +with Trampy, she fixed a fiery glance upon them, even ventured on a smile, +for Trampy in particular, whose lively stories reached her through the +partition behind which she dressed. Oh, how she envied Lily! But she +passed very quickly, because of her brother. + +And this time it was Pa! Lily jumped on to the saddle like mad, played her +part to perfection, puffed and panted, as if the last drop of strength +were oozing out of her, and Trampy joined in the little comedy of fibbing +and dissembling: + +"There, like that, Lily, or I'll smack you!" + +"That's right," said Pa. "Make her work!" + +And, just to show Lily what work meant and that her Pa was not so unkind +after all--"It's for your good, Lily! You'll thank me one of these +days!"--he took her to the stage, where Ave Maria was practising. Now, of +course, in the circuses, Lily, occasionally, had seen children knocked and +cut about with blows and trained to say, "It was the cat," when any one +asked them about the marks. They were ordinary children; she had rolled +about in the sawdust with them, played hide-and-seek with them in the +fields of Indian corn; they were children who romped and ran about and +laughed. Ave Maria was different. The brother, a savage, scowling brute, +was always after her, harrying her with muttered threats. She was in a +constant, visible tremble of fear; and, if she slipped on her wire, the +fellow snarled as if to bite her in the foot, pinched her black and blue, +restored her balance with a blow of the belt, shook the supports to make +her fall just to see!... + +"Oh, Pa, he'll kill her!" whispered Lily, when she saw Ave Maria +practising. + +"It's none of our damned business," replied Pa curtly. + +Martello's evil example ended by catching hold of Pa: that's how artistes +were formed, damn it! And, at the thought of the time wasted, he clenched +his fists. To have a Lily of his own, all his own, and to have made +nothing out of her yet! Still, it was not Lily's fault. Yes, though, it +was her fault, she was so stubborn, so wilful! When he told her to do a +thing, why not do it? Instead of bleating: + +"Pa, I can't! Pa, I can't!" + +A brief struggle, in a way, followed between Lily and her Pa. Lily was not +built for passive obedience, wasn't used to it. She no longer knew her Pa. +When he came at her with his hand lifted to strike, when he spoke of +unbuckling his belt--"Damn those blasted brats!"--Lily eyed him with a +look of anguish: + +"But Pa, I'm not Ave Maria!" she said. "I'm not a Dago." + +And she raised her little rebellious face to him. He humbled her with a +smack on the cheek: + +"On the saddle! Up! Quick!" + +The child, mastered by her Pa's strength and energy, ceased to be the +spoiled child, became an artiste.... Head on the saddle, back-wheel: just +like Trampy! Pooh, Trampy, after a few months of this life, was nowhere, +Clifton admired him less and less, Lily was doing all that he did, more +than he did; and without a fault, without a hitch, unerring and exact! Pa +swelled with pride at the mere sight of his Lily, his four stone ten of +flesh and bones fitted to the machine, his Lily, the Lily of his dreams! + +"I'll dress you in velvet and satin!" he said, in his enthusiasm. "I'll +cover you with diamonds." + +Pa, thanks to his indomitable energy, had made something of his Lily, a +real artiste, at last! And business was moving, too! He had a contract in +his pocket for the States, where Lily would no doubt get permission to do +her "childish tricks," seeing that she was traveling with her Pa and Ma. +As for Trampy, Pa had no use for Trampy, made no bones about sacking him +on some pretext or other: + +"Run away and play with your girls, by Jove! Or whatever you please! +Good-by! Ta-ta!" + +And off for Denver, whence they were to continue the journey up to +Chicago. + + * * * * * + +It was the dive for good and all into the stuffy atmosphere behind the +scenes, which Lily was never again to leave, brick walls, where she waited +her turn on the elaborate program of the "continuous performances," amid +the thunder of the orchestra and the lightning of the reflectors. No time +to go out, meals consumed in your dressing-room on the top of the basket +trunk. In the mornings, new tricks to practise on the stage, in the midst +of a herd of girls whom gentlemen in their shirtsleeves were training to +sing in chorus and to keep step to the strum of the piano. And ever and +ever so many new faces, a tumult of tongues which Lily heard on the stage, +in the dressing-room, and even in her room at the hotel, through the thin +partition walls: a lingo made up of coarse remarks and thick stories, +punctuated with spitting and oaths strong enough to carry a tower of +Babel. Lily opened her eyes and ears, heaping it all up, storing it all +away behind her stubborn forehead.... + +And new people, new people: "families," "brothers," "sisters," troupes, +troupes, troupes! Or else stars by themselves, "bests," "uniques:" a +female-impersonator, a green-eyed boy who wagged his hips like the very +devil and took off the girls; Poland, a Warsaw Jewess, a redheaded, +overscented beauty, who did the "Parisienne," and ever and ever so many +others. And Lily, so slender and frail, was the pet of them all. They +called her their pretty baby, their _petit chéri_, and, with their painted +mugs, kissed her full on the lips. + +Pa detested this "rotten lot" and Pa was not always in a good temper. Lily +"under age,"--again! Why, there were even managers who informed the +police, so as to be on the safe side; "traveling with her parents; +childish tricks; nothing difficult."... Ma's indignation knew no bounds: +what nonsense to prevent a great big girl of fifteen from earning her +living! For she aged Lily as much as she could, to obtain the permission, +when no papers were asked for; and she had trained Lily to reply to the +indiscreet questions of the officials: was her trick hard? Was she forced +into doing it? Lily answered mechanically that she liked the bike very +much. And then they allowed her to perform. + +As for practising, permission or none, that was nobody's damned business. +And if some old sheep took to bleating--"Poor child, you'll be the death +of her!"--Pa sent the old sheep to eat coke; and it was: + +"Up, Lily! Get on your bike! Look alive!" + +And the bloomers that Lily wore out! Ma was kept busy in the dressing-room +mending the rents at the knees and patching the seats: + +"What a tomboy!" Ma cried. + +And this went on for months and months. And then came Chicago; a visit of +Pa's to the agents; and a contract with the New York Olympians, a +variety-show coming from the West and returning to New York by Columbus +and Pittsburg. And new people, new people; stars of every kind: the Para +woman, a rheumatic juggler, who was obliged to change her turn and become +an exhibitor of performing parrots, a ragged, molting troupe, picked up +cheap at second-hand; an infant prodigy who topped the bill, a +boy-violinist, leading an orchestra, too, at fourteen, a pretentious +little humbug trained to make a few movements, while others did the work. +Lily thought him so good-looking she simply couldn't take her eyes off +him. And then she had some big girl-friends who had had love affairs! They +were the Three Graces, gymnasts endowed with bodies like so many Apollos, +honest German faces and a bewildering amount of strength, pluck and +precision.... + +"What smackings that must have taken!" thought Pa. + +But no, their uncle and manager, Mr. Fuchs--a name as famous in its way as +Martello's--was known for his gentleness and adored and coddled and +pampered by the Three Graces, who, at a sign from "Nunkie," as they called +him, joyously rushed to practice, taking a pride in pleasing their dear +Nunkie. + +"The old rogue!" said Pa enviously. "He has an easy time of it; whereas I, +with my skinny kitten, damn it ...!" + +Well, well, he mustn't complain, as he himself admitted: one more rung +which he had mounted, thanks to his Lily, that engagement with the best +variety-show in the States; nothing but big theaters: Orpheums! Dominions! +And New York next! And then London! Things were moving, moving! And Pa +looked lovingly at his Lily, as she played at being grown up with the +Three Graces, in the train on Sunday, traveling from town to town, while +Ma was knitting things for her tomboy. He talked to Mr. Fuchs as between +equals, as between man and man, as between the manager of a star and the +owner of a troupe; and the train rushed on, rushed on, with an indistinct +sound of the engine-bell, now and again, when they crossed a street. Mr. +Fuchs, heavy-jawed, slow of speech, said that he had had enough of +traveling, at his age, if it were not for his dear nieces. He would like +to retire to the country, to his little home, and grow his roses, as soon +as he had married off his dear nieces, which would not be long, no doubt. +As it was, one of them, Thea, the one who did five pullings-up with her +left hand, had his permission to receive letters from her sweetheart, a +young man at St. Louis, quite well-off. The idyl made good Mr. Fuchs +blossom into a genial smile: family life! Simple joys! The only true ones! +Worth more than the stage! And Nunkie talked and talked: the Parisienne, a +perpetual scandal! And wait a bit: what was that he heard at an agent's +the other day? Yes, the daughter of his old friend Martello, Ave Maria her +name was, had left her brother, and run away from Mexico with a man! Tut, +tut, the things one saw nowadays! + +Pa hardly listened to the old crock, preferred to dream of New York and +the success his Lily would achieve there! And Lily, sitting close by, +listened with all her ears, puckered her little forehead: love, love.... +And Ave Maria, who had run away with a man.... Why with a man? And she +squeezed up against Thea, the Grace who was in love ... put question after +question.... She talked of her boy-violinist, of Trampy. And they all +laughed boisterously, with heads thrown back, full-throated, and Nunkie, +very paternally, congratulated Mr. Clifton on his daughter's niceness. + +"For goodness' sake, don't go putting it into her head that she's pretty, +the little devil!" protested Ma. "That would be the last straw!" + + * * * * * + +The arrival in New York was a disappointment to Pa. The authorities +insisted on seeing the papers this time. Lily was under age; just as at +'Frisco. What! Why? Because of former scandals, it appeared: Martello and +Ave Maria. What had he, a British subject, to do with those Dagoes who +spoil the profession? growled Pa. He ended by rebelling against the +injustice of it, thought of the Three Graces hard at work rehearsing under +Nunkie's eye, while he, Clifton, had not even the right to set foot on a +stage and let Lily practise there. To work, to work, damn it! And he +locked her up all day in her room doing her balancings, the boomerang on +the front wheel, the standstill on the back-wheel, or the bike upside +down, with Lily standing on the pedals, like a convict on the tread-mill. +The pack of fools! Because a Dago had whipped his sister, wasn't a Pa to +have the right to bring his own daughter up? To work, to work! And he kept +her at it for hours and hours, watched and knit his brows, like a sage +pondering for hours over the solution of a problem. + +Lily, breathless, would turn a look of entreaty upon her Ma, but Mrs. +Clifton, with her nose bent over her work, pretended not to see, +obstinately went on cutting out, patching, sewing her tomboy's bloomers. +Lily longed for Trampy.... + +At night, Pa ran from theater to theater: from Fourteenth Street, where +they lodged, to Twenty-third Street; took the elevated to Fifty-eighth +Street, to Hundred and-twenty-fifth Street! All theaters at which Lily +would have triumphed but for those dirty Dagoes! And the things that were +served up to the public, pooh! Clifton laughed with scorn. Troupes of +English dancing-girls--the famous Roofers--with movements like stuffed +dolls; and cyclists, pooh! Hauptmanns, fat freaks turned out in Berlin: if +that was the best they could do, pooh! Oh, if he had only had the right to +send his New Zealander on Wheels scooting in among their legs, just to +show the public what a star really was! And all the morning he ran about +the town talking of "childish tricks--a big girl" to the police and +"wonderful tricks--the only girl of her age who can do them" to the agents +in the St. James' Building. Oh, if he could have London! He longed to +measure his strength against all those famous names--Marjutti, Laurence, +the Pawnees--just to show them his Lily! + + * * * * * + +And now it was the last stage. All around stretched the dark sea; and the +liner sped--thud, thud, thud--through a gloomy set. Three days more and +then Liverpool; and London at last! Pa was about to realize his dream. He +had signed, at last, for the Castle, in London! It was all right, it was +all right! Prospects fine! And Harrasford was on board; it seemed a sign +of good luck! He was traveling with his architect. Harrasford, the great +English manager--Pa knew them all by name--Harrasford, the man for whom a +whole nation of "artistes" toiled and moiled nightly. Pa had caught a +glimpse of him.... He would have liked to introduce his Lily to him; no +matter, he would know her one day, when she was starring in his halls! And +on the Bill and Boom Tour! And elsewhere! She would soon be famous. + +Ma, who remained lying in her bunk sucking lemons, would have liked to +have her Lily by her, within call, to keep her mother company, that great +big girl spoiled by her Pa, even when she was not performing, as in New +York; ... a new cloak and boots and gewgaws ... a couple of fools +together, that's what Ma called them! And she needed watching, that +tomboy, who would break her leg one of these days, tumbling up and down +the companion-way. But Lily preferred to enjoy herself and expended on +running about the energies which she no longer had to devote to her +practising. Her accumulated weariness disappeared under the influence of +the sleep and the good meals, which she had not the boredom of having to +get ready, as in Fourteenth Street, where Lily, big girl that she was, had +to help her Ma. + +She flitted all over the deck, munching candies, showed everybody her new +boots and her red cloak, held her head high, was very proud of being +looked at. Lily dreamed of the Three Graces; of the boy-violinist; of +Trampy. She made conquest upon conquest, down to the electrician of the +ship, quite a young lad, who looked as cold as ice. + +She sometimes stopped at his door, watched him handling levers, pressing +buttons. It was like the switchboard of a theater. She pointed to this and +to that. The lad smiled, told the New Zealander on Wheels all about his +little world.... + +As for Lily, she was going to star in London, where her Pa would cover her +with diamonds! And she went on to tell him stories, like a little +school-girl who has read a book or two: India, two eyes glittering in the +dark, gee! And elephants she had known, little birds which she had kept in +a cage in Natal, and kangaroos. The lion, who stands up on his hind legs +when he's angry; and the tiger, who lies down flat. And parrots. And +starry nights in Africa: stars "that big." And storms: waves "miles high!" +And successes at Gangpur; and in Chicago, where she shared a dressing-room +with three girls who, when they were undressed, were all over muscles, +just like men. She liked the bike well enough, but those falls: oh, damn +it! + +"That little monkey has seen everything in her time," thought Jimmy, the +electrician. + +And he mused upon the numberless things which she had seen, the countries, +the cities, and all that she would yet see, in her life as a wandering +star, while he would remain walled up in his cabin, with his nose to the +switchboard. + +And the steamer sped--thud, thud, thud--over the dark sea, where the noise +of the waves sounded like the roar of multitudes of men. Huge clouds in +the east were tinged with red, as though London were about to loom above +the horizon in all its glory, filling the vast expanse with its rumors and +its lights.... + + + + +CURTAIN RISES + +I + + +"Lily ... who's Lily? A New Zealander: really? Ah well, we will look into +the matter; it will be settled later on ..." + +Clifton, when he returned home that evening, gnawed his mustache and +clenched his fists with rage. Ah, he would not soon forget his arrival in +London! To get there and be chucked! Was that what he had come from New +York for? To see Lily's place at the Castle filled by another troupe of +the Hauptmanns--the Hauptmanns again, those fat freaks!--and nothing to be +said or done? + +"Engagement not valid. Ought at least to have waited for the London +agency's signed contract before leaving!" + +Intent upon his vexations of the moment, he described his day to Mrs. +Clifton. What had staggered him, done for him, was his visit to the agent, +where they hadn't seemed to know Lily! + +He had rushed at once to others, just to show them who Miss Lily was! But +he got the same reply wherever he went: + +"Lily? Who's Lily? A Maori? Let's see the photograph." + +And would Mrs. Clifton ever believe, asked the indignant Pa, what they +said when they handed him back the photograph? Yes, to him, the father, to +his face, they said: + +"She's too thin, that Lily of yours!" "If that's the way they welcome +British subjects returning to the mother-country, it's jolly encouraging, +on my word it is!" concluded Clifton. + +Ma, among the open boxes, listened and said nothing; she was exasperated. +Their entry into the metropolis struck her, too, as anything but +triumphal. For all her dislike of those breakneck trades, for all her +contempt for the bike, she displayed even more anxiety than Pa. With those +fat freaks at the Castle and if engagements continued scarce, how would +they manage, later on, lost in that huge London, with no money, and a +child to feed? Her vanity was wounded as well. She had dreamed of dazzling +her sister-in-law, making them all burst with jealousy over the splendid +engagement at the Castle; and now everything was slipping from their +hands, on the very day of their arrival, and there was nothing for them +but to sit at home and keep quiet. + +But Pa, the next day, tore through London like one possessed, grinding his +teeth and clenching his fists, railing at everybody, himself included. He +thought of Lily, who had lost a week on the voyage and who was now messing +about in the house, instead of practising her bike. This idea pursued him, +clung to him; but his perseverance was indomitable, his courage ready to +face anything or anybody. Lily should perform at the Castle! She had come +to perform there and perform there she should! There were more visits to +the agents, to this one and that one, to one and all, indefatigable +visits. Clifton insisted on his Lily's merits, pulled out his pocket-book, +bursting with press-cuttings, offered to prove his statements. The agent, +on his side, had made inquiries. Lily was very clever for her age: a +little thin, it was true, but very graceful; and the New Zealander on +Wheels ought to get on. Clifton would work up her turn, no doubt. And, at +last, Pa obtained a promise in writing--and signed--of an engagement in +eight months' time ... at the Castle, damn it! + +An engagement in eight months was better than nothing; but what to do in +the meanwhile? It wasn't the money question that bothered him; Pa had +money; but Lily worried him: he wanted work for Lily, bike all the time +and hard at it. Now, London was closed to him; he couldn't let her perform +in London before appearing at the Castle; that was in the contract; and +there was nothing for the provinces. + +His tenacity continued to do him good service. He got a few offers, in the +London suburbs; that could do him no harm, he knew, though his Lily did +appear at Dulwich, Deptford or West Ham: who would think of going there to +discover that shrimp?... damn their impudence! And meantime the shrimp +would work and her day would come, you pack of fat freaks, you! + +Pa, on the whole, was satisfied. To show Lily, that was all he asked for! +He was quieter, now that she could practise. And Lily, also, was delighted +and relieved. At first it was jolly, doing nothing; but to be always at +home with Ma had its drawbacks; only the other day, because she had asked +for a tam-o'-shanter with a feather in it, like those she saw the little +girls wear in the street, she had nearly had a box on the ear, the +extravagant little beast, who would bring them all to the workhouse! + +Better biking with Pa, from morning till night, and only coming home after +the show. Besides, away from the work, Pa was nice to her: a packet of +sweets here, a bunch of violets there; and then there were the train +journeys out of London and back, over the roofs: all those little yellow +houses, with white curtains, and those little back yards, no bigger than +that--real dolls' houses, all alike--and such lots of little chimneys, +such lots and lots of little chimneys; and those gorgeous posters: +Hippodrome, Olympia, Bovril, mustard, elephants, the Hauptmanns. Pa +wouldn't look at them, those fat freaks; but, oh, if he had them here--and +a whip--just for five minutes ... and the chance of saying a word or two! +To think that they were working at the Castle, while he was puffing out to +the suburbs! And he racked his brain, as he traveled over the town--that +town which he had to conquer and which was veiled from him between-whiles +by the curtain of posters in the railway-stations, on the hoardings, +everywhere--again, again; and imperial troupes and royal troupes, endless +troupes, arrays of pink tights, lines of legs uplifted amid a flight of +scarlet skirts, alternating with Sunlight and Van Houten and national and +colonial troupes, loud as a trumpet-blare and with nothing behind them, he +dared say.... + +Those "troupes," those "families"--he turned it all over in his mind--yes, +they judged talent by weight; the public wanted a lot for its money: well, +why shouldn't he have a troupe? Why not? Lily--he had noticed it in the +few shows she had given--Lily didn't cut much of a figure in London: five +stone of flesh and bones, a mite, a minnow, a nothing. Well, if Lily +wasn't enough by herself, he'd give them more: a whole troupe, if need be! +Why, he'd set about it at once! + +With his customary determination, yielding to a fixed idea, he devoted +himself to it. And, in the halls, at the agents', in the bars, at the +Internationale Artisten-Klause in Lisle Street, that universal +meeting-place, Pa, ever on the watch, strove to make people talk, listened +with all his ears, took notes. It was very difficult to get at the real +facts; one had to ferret them out; the owners of the troupes jealously +concealed their methods, endeavored to put you off, talked of apprentices +at five or six shillings a day, plus food and expenses. Pa saw through +these tricks and, to arrive at the truth, discounted the six shillings +down to sixpence. Lily, her Pa's own daughter, easily obtained information +from the apprentices themselves which she afterward repeated to him. He +studied _The Era_, the paper of the Profession, got the names by heart: +the managers, the "Pas", the "bosses", the "profs." He got acquainted with +some of them personally. Old Martello, for instance, the father of Ave +Maria and the "Bambinis." Martello could have given Pa hints; but he no +longer interested himself in anything except his Bambinis, whom the poor +man, grown calm with age and overwork, was now spoiling. The rest left him +indifferent; he hardly listened, spoke in short sentences, like a man too +old to care: + +"Train apprentices? What's the good? Run a troupe? Pooh, madness!" + +Pa thought this exclusive admiration very touching, but it wasn't what he +wanted and, madness or not, damn it, he was resolved to carry out his idea +to the end! + +There were imperial and royal troupes, "Risleys," carpet acrobats, +pyramids of tumblers, some of them undergoing an apprenticeship of cuffs +and thumps. Pa was not interested in these methods, did not approve of +them; he had never knocked Lily about, never let her fall on +purpose--"Have I, Lily?"--whereas in the imperial and royal they sent the +apprentice sprawling on his back, just to teach him, when he started +wrong. + +Still, all these were boys; and it was the little girls that interested +him, for he meant to have only girls among his apprentices. The rest +wasn't his damned business; but the different troupes of Roofer girls, for +instance, affected him directly: where did old Roofer fish those girls +out? That's what Pa wanted to know. He had even, in order to visit the +school, pretended to bring Lily as a pupil. He had seen the place in Broad +Street, where they turned out "sisters" by the gross; had watched the +squads in knickerbockers, scattered over the immense room, like recruits +drilling in a barrack-yard: groups engaged in club-swinging, juggling, +clog-dancing, all together, a tangle of different movements timed "one, +two, three!" Roofer chose among the heap, sorted out the sizes, called +this lot the Merry Wives, that lot the Crazy Things, christened them after +an insect or a flower, packed them up in lots of ten or twelve girls, with +snub-noses or Greek profiles, as preferred, despatched them, +carriage-paid, C. O. D., with words, music and muslin skirts complete, and +received every day a detailed account of his Honeysuckles and Bees, +scattered all over the world, from the Klondike to Calcutta. + +This superlative organization produced upon Pa the effect of a state +affair; it was something beyond him, above him; it interested him +especially from the recruiting point of view; and what stimulated him +above all was the troupes of trick cyclists. He had seen plenty of them in +America, but then, wholly occupied as he was with his Lily, they did not +interest him, whereas now he was seeking to fathom their lives, so that he +might know. Some of them, who went cheap, slept three in a bed, niggers +and whites all mixed; others, who were well paid, lived easily and +comfortably and put themselves forward with less work and for more money +than Lily, Lily who possessed artistic talent, and who had toiled harder +than all the rest of them put together! Patience, his turn would come ... +when she was a bit less thin. And he would have the troupe of troupes, +he'd show them, jolly soon! + +Mrs. Clifton was terrified at her husband's boldness, but dared not +protest; however, she observed that it was a big undertaking. + +"We shall have five apprentices," interrupted Clifton, "six including +Lily. We must find lodgings." + +"But, dear...!" + +"Don't you think...?" + +"Yes, dear." + +As for the apprentices, he would see to that to-morrow. Ma suggested that +her sister-in-law's daughter might do, but Pa wouldn't have relatives at +any price--blubbering for a smacking bestowed upon their daughters--he +knew all about them, thank you. Let such sheep bleat elsewhere. No, give +him strangers. He could be freer with them and get as many as he wished. +An advertisement in _The Daily Mail_--"Wanted, young girls for trick +cycling," followed by the address--fetched them the same day. The pavement +before the house was blocked with white aprons, sailor-hats and +tam-o'-shanters. There were consumptive-looking girls, long hanks of +girls, chunky girls, all crowding outside the door, until the landlady +drove them away with her broom and threatened to do as much for Pa and Ma +if all the street-arabs of London were to go on soiling her nice white +steps. + +Pa, for that matter, found nothing in the bunch, not one in twenty that +was any good; or else they made exhorbitant demands--two shillings a day +those guttersnipes expected--as though shillings were to be had for the +asking! But why look so far? There were girls, sometimes, at the back +entrances of the theaters: stage-struck kids who devoured Lily with their +eyes and looked at Pa as though to say, "Take me, take me!" That's what he +wanted, damn it, girls who had the business in their blood and who +wouldn't go whining over a professional slap or two, which he dared say +he'd have to distribute to make up for lost time. + +[Illustration: "TAKE ME, TAKE ME!"] + +The first girl whom he engaged he had already seen gazing ecstatically at +Lily, as they left the theater, far away down the Mile End Road, and he +saw her again, one morning, in front of his house in the very heart of +London! He could not believe his eyes. She must have followed his scent, +slept on the threshold like a lost dog. Her Pa? Gone away. Her Ma? Dead. +Her name? Maud. Her age? Didn't know. Born somewhere in the immensity of +Whitechapel, towheaded, round-faced. Nothing to eat for two days. She'd +do! He would go to the police-court, get the license later; meantime, he +netted her and that was one! + +As regards the others, he had to make a selection. He chose them by +preference in families which were overstocked with brats, so that one more +or less, in the heap, made no difference. He got one this way; that made +two! Next, a "local girl," seized with ambition, came and offered herself. +Three! He found two others: a little Beak Street shop-girl and a +Shoreditch Jewess. That made five. It did not take him long to judge the +girls. He gave them a few days' trial before signing a contract; and what +an anxiety for them, Mr. Clifton's final decision! If one trembled too +much, was caught holding Pa's shoulder for no reason, for fear of falling, +or blubbered because of a scratch on the skin, her fate was settled. + +"Pack up, my lady," Pa would say quite calmly. + +There was no getting out of it: off she had to go, before dinner, and home +she went, through the gloomy streets, after a brief glimpse of paradise. + +He had to replace some of them: they were slack; or else, independent at +times, they looked at him for the least push, as if they would fly at his +throat. He asked himself whether he wouldn't be compelled to get some over +from Germany or else to pick up on the highroads, in the Gipsies' +caravans, children with skins tanned like donkeys', a troupe of +blackamoors on wheels, who, perched up on the handle-bars of the bikes, +would have looked like cockroaches mounted as brooches, damn it! + +However, by dint of selection, he ended by having only good ones left; and +then he made a contract in due form with the parents for three years, or +even five, such was his faith in the future. A few pence a week to the +family, a few pence to the baggage herself: he to dress, lodge and board +her and engage to make an artiste of her. Everything was provided for: +during the training, just the board and the rest; when she began to work, +a shilling a day in addition. Over and above, she would be looked after by +a lady, Mrs. Clifton. Was that all right? Both parties signed; the girl +was an artiste, became a New Zealander. + +They brought their little wardrobe: one spare chemise, on the average, one +pair of stockings; their only protection against the weather was the dress +they had on, a factory-girl's ulster and a tam-o'-shanter. Later on, when +performing, they would be entitled to a celluloid collar, satinette +knickers and pumps. + +Pa, though at first he took one extra room and then two in the same house +and though he also made his apprentices sleep three in a bed, Pa soon +found himself cramped. It would have been nice to have a little house +somewhere in good air, next door to the country. But there was one thing +which made Pa decide to remain in the West Central district. Jimmy, the +young electrician with whom Lily used to chat on shipboard, had given up +traveling. Harrasford and his architect had noticed him on board and the +great man had engaged him to manage the electric installation of his +theaters. Jimmy had taken possession of a lodging in Gresse Street, +Tottenham Court Road. He slept over the shop, which, for the rest, served +him rather as a place in which to keep the tools for his outside work. Pa +often ran upon him in the neighborhood and had a nodding acquaintance with +him which turned out to be useful, as Jimmy, being in Harrasford's +employment, was more or less at home in the variety-theaters and nothing +was easier than for him to obtain leave for Clifton to practise on the +stage. This it was that persuaded Clifton to settle in the west end. In +any case, it would be cheaper than dragging the six girls and himself +daily from one end of London to the other. The house in which he took up +his quarters, in Rathbone Place, quite close to Jimmy, was small and dark, +but not dear. The upper story was occupied by people who were out all day +and the basement served as a lumber room. They would feel quite at home +here ... with no old sheep to listen at the keyholes. + +[Illustration: TOM, THE SHOEBLACK] + +And then he would have slept in the parks, if necessary, anywhere, rather +than waste more precious time! His Lily, his troupe, before everything. +What he had to do was to get a move on. He went so far as to engage a boy, +a shoeblack at the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road for +the rest of the time, to attend to the bikes and the girls at practice. + +Pa gave his mind to the gear, the expenses, the general business. Ma saw +to good order, to domestic discipline. It was no longer the quiet life of +a Pa and Ma trotting round the world in the company of their one and only +bread-winning star. As for Lily, the daughter of the boss and manager, she +owed a good example to one and all. In the morning, with Maud, she went +down to the kitchen, lit the stove, made the coffee. Next, she carried up +the breakfast to Pa and Ma in bed, then distributed their rations to the +famished girls. And off they went, all six of them, with Pa following at +their heels. + +The stage-door gave the apprentices a thrill the first day they entered. +The passage, gently sloping, tall and wide, because of the scenery, +smelt of elephants and cheap scent. It was blocked with properties, with +queer-shaped cases, flat as a slab or round as a ball. There were long, +narrow boxes, for the horizontal bars; sometimes a row of wicker +coffins, with a ventriloquist's figures inside. And labels from +everywhere--Melbourne, Chicago, Berlin, Lisbon--and "Rlys." and "S. S." +that made you feel in the hold of a liner, off to foreign ports. + +At the end, beyond an iron door, was the stage, very dark, pricked here +and there with electric lamps. There were things that glittered with +spangles. To the girls it seemed like the Kingdom of Puss-in-Boots or +Blue-Beard; but to Lily it was an old story. She was a little like the +school-girl in the good days long past, for whom the master was always +waiting, cane in hand. The rest she didn't care about. + +Nevertheless, huge as the stage was, there was not always room to +practise: ponies or elephants would monopolize it for hours at a time. Or +else, when Roofer was supplying a ballet, he took up the whole stage, all +day long: Lily, secretly delighted, sat down modestly in a corner, so as +to be in no one's way. Roofer made his collection of calves and ankles +flutter about, followed the new dances with an expert eye, throwing his +hat back on his head, mopping his forehead, grumbling, finding fault: + +"Don't eat chocolates while you're dancing, you, Eva! Hi, you, +Gwendolen!" + +And, to emphasize his remarks, he threw his felt hat at them. + +"Silly old ass!" thought Pa, with a grin. "To think you can train artistes +like that. You'll use up fifty hats, you old fool, while my belt remains +as good as new!" + +For that was now Pa's system, the strap--"à la Mexico!"--not that he used +it often nor very hard; but he terrorized Lily with it and the other girls +were afraid of it, too, though they never got more than the threat, seeing +that they were apprentices, who might have run away if he had struck out. + +All this did not prevent them from working with a will--trot, trot, +trot--when there was no Roofer on the stage and no elephants or ponies: +yoop, on to the bikes and the fun began! The sight of Pa training his star +made the apprentices shake in their knickers. Lily was to do everything +and to do it very well: Pa ran after her, in a never-ending circle, and, +from the corner of his eye, watched Tom, who held the girls and made them +work, upon his instructions; and when they got off their bikes to wipe +their foreheads: + +"Bravo, Miss Woolly-legs!" said Pa sarcastically. "Tired, eh? Dead, eh? +Suppose you tried to get up again ... and be quick about it! And as for +you, Tom, don't let them fall, or I'll catch you one on the side of the +head!" + +For Pa already knew by experience that their little ladyships shirked +work; that they shook with fright; that they lost confidence after a bad +fall; and that then it was finished, nothing to be done with them: they'd +let themselves be killed sooner. + +Maud, for instance, that Jonah, ever after one day she had seen her blood +flow, trembled before her bike like a sheep that scents the +slaughter-house. It was no use Pa's threatening her with his belt: she +wouldn't let herself go, on the contrary, held on to everything, no matter +what, for fear of falling. He ought to have sent her away long ago; he +would pack her off that very night ... and made no bones about telling her +so, that Jonah! + +Then Pa, giving Lily a rest, occupied himself with the girls: taught them +the principle of the standstill, of side-riding, of the "swan," of the +"frog." And,--quickly!--the indefatigable Pa went back to Lily, made her +begin a trick ten times, twenty times over, so great was his rage at the +lost time, the elephants, the Hauptmanns, Roofer. He pulled faces, +clenched his fists: + +"Why don't you do as I say when I tell you, damn it!" + +"But, Pa, I can't!" protested Lily. + +"You can, if you like," said Pa, exasperated this time and unbuckling his +belt. + +Crash! A heap behind him, a medley of limbs and steel fittings! Maud, who +was still trying, on her bike, startled by Pa's threatening movement, had +fallen flat down. + +"Maud again! That damned Jonah!" cried Pa, going up to her. "Well, Miss +Woolly-legs, do you mean to stay there all night?" + +But she did not move; and, when they had disentangled her from the bike, +Pa saw an eye that was quite red and a little stream of blood trickling +down her cheek. + +"Let's look!" said Pa anxiously. + +A spoke sprung from the felly had scratched her eye. + +It was a serious accident. Sprained wrists, barked shins didn't count; but +a spoke in the eye.... Luckily, Maud had no relations; there was no claim +to be feared: not a vestige of old sheep on the mother's side. Pa said all +this to himself as he ran to the chemist, and Lily consoled poor Maud as +best she could, said that, after all, it was part of the game: she'd know +better another time, eh? She'd be a great star yet, eh, Maud? + +The poor maimed thing lifted her face to Lily, stammered through her tears +that it was nothing ... all right again now ... Pa's fault, with his +belt. + +"For a little thing like that!" said Lily, laughing. "Fancy falling from +your bike for that! Why, I'd rather have twenty 'contracts on the back' +than lose an eye." + +For that was what it amounted to. Pa realized it, after he had dressed the +wound. Clifton's mind was not at ease: a glass eye was not a very +difficult matter ... but, who knows, some callous person might inform +Harrasford, who stood no nonsense on that subject. Fortunately the +artistes present had not paid much attention ... had hardly noticed +anything, in the dim light of the stage.... + +And soon after the New Zealanders were walking back to Rathbone place with +Maud in their midst, her head a roll of bandages, leaning on Lily's arm. + +It was a pathetic home-coming. Ma had told them what would happen! That +would teach them to take in vagabonds from the streets. Mrs. Clifton +thought that, in a respectable house.... + +"That'll do," said Pa, dropping into the easy-chair in the dining-room. +"I'm worn out. If you'd been like me, Mrs. Clifton, running after those +Woolly-legs all the morning"--and he pointed to the apprentices standing +round the table--"gee, you wouldn't talk so much! I'll take Maud to the +hospital this afternoon; it's only a trifle. Is dinner ready?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"Come along, then, all of you Woolly-legs," said Pa jovially. + +Pa was sorry for poor Maud, as a rule, but he felt a need to shed a little +gaiety, to extenuate the accident as far as possible, to turn it into a +joke, so as to prevent his girls from being panic-stricken. He talked of +heads smashed to a jelly, of legs in smithereens, of a bicyclist who had +had not one, but both eyes caught in the chain. As for himself, when he +was a small boy--that was in the time when they brought up artistes, real +ones, mind you; not, as nowadays, on sugar and sweets; no, real ones, on +the whip and the stick, damn it!--why, the accidents which he'd seen! Yes, +he himself, to go no farther, he could have shown them, here, there, +there, here, damn it, all over his body, scars deep enough to put your +finger in! + +"Eh? Frightens you, does it? Never fear," added Pa, in a good-humored +voice, "that sort of thing won't happen to any of you Woolley-legs; a good +Irish stew is better than a kick of the pedal, eh?" + +And Pa, after a last cup of strong tea, dismissed the girls, lit his pipe, +threw himself into the easy-chair, with his legs long out in front of him; +but soon: + +"Well, Maud, what is it? What are you crying for now? I tell you, I'll buy +you a glass one," said Pa, at the sight of Maud, who blubbered silently +and sat glued to her chair instead of getting up to go. + +Poor lost dog! Clifton, at the theater, had threatened to send her away. +She knew what that meant: leaving Miss Lily, losing those good meals.... + +Maud faltered something about packing up; pain in her eye; not her fault. + +"So what you want is to stay with us?" asked Pa. + +"Oh!" gasped Maud. + +"Well, then, stay! But no more bike; you shall be Lily's lady's maid," +said Pa, puffing at his pipe. + +It went down so well, as an effort of dry humor, that Ma could not help +laughing. But Mr. Clifton was talking seriously. Then Ma, amazed, +protested: what, a servant in her house! A lady's maid for Lily! He would +end by giving her the moon! And what would Lily do all day? She'd sit +twiddling her thumbs! Had Mr. Clifton thought of that? + +Yes, Mr. Clifton had thought of it. He was too tired to explain his +reasons; but take it from him, it was best like that. Pa, in fact, feared +lest that smashed eye might prove a worry to him: the papers weren't in +order. He had made no declaration to the police; there was the Workmen's +Compensation Act.... Much better keep Maud safe in the house, for a while +... + +"Lily won't sit twiddling her thumbs for all that, will you, Lily?" +continued Pa, smiling to his star. + +A touch of the brush and comb, a stroll through the streets with the +girls, by leave of Pa, who wished Lily to take the air, then home again, +more housework.... The apprentices, who did not yet perform in public, +were sent to bed early, while Lily, escorted by Pa, went off to East, +West, South or North London. An hour to get there; then undress, dress, +appear on the stage under Pa's eye, undress and dress again; another hour +to get back; a morsel of cold Irish stew, a cup of tea; and drowsily up to +her room and bed.... + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"Lily!" + +Ma's voice woke her with a start in the morning. Lily dressed quickly and +quickly ran down-stairs to the kitchen, where Maud had gone before her; +and it was the same thing every day, except on tour, when discipline was +less strict. It had gone on for months and months, for two years, ever +since they came to London. Pa, with his iron will, had overcome +everything. He felt at home in the old country, at last. After his +engagements in the London suburbs, he had obtained a triumph at the +Castle, a Bill and Boom tour of forty weeks, a season at Blackpool, the +Harrasford tour now, successes everywhere. Before his boyish little girls, +before his own particular troupe, the fat freaks trembled in their +knickers! For Clifton, the new-comer, but yesterday unknown, it was an +unhoped-for success and fame and fortune. + +Ma nearly always remained in London with Maud. Lily was not big enough yet +to need the supervision of a Ma. Therefore, on tour,--when she was not +practising with her Pa,--Lily did the catering, saw to the porridge and +the Irish stew; Pa was not hard to please. Provided Lily was "great" on +the stage, he asked for nothing more. Dishes burned for want of butter, +salad mixed in the wash-hand basin: he swallowed everything with an +appetite, ate standing, with his plate on the trunk, or else seated with +the girls round a little table hardly large enough for three. This +Bohemian life pleased him. He loved youth, gaiety and good fellowship. He +was fond of a laugh, took Lily on his knee after dinner, played with her, +praised her home-made cakes, her tough chops, and then began talking bike +to Lily ... who hated bikes, and who got something different from a hat +flung at her, when she missed a trick. + +No matter, hard as it was, she preferred touring to staying in London. The +work was the same, but, at least, it was a change. She was spoiled by +every one, down to that landlady who cried when she left.... After all +there were many worse off than she, everlastingly set about by "profs," +confined to their rooms all day to practise their balancing; she had had a +taste of it in New York; no, thank you! She preferred having good times +with the girls, practical jokes, boxing-matches even, scrimmages, +pillow-fights. In the boarding-houses, they flirted with the boys; they +kept pet pigeons, white mice, a lizard; they exchanged secrets, stories of +every country, professionals all! Sometimes, they consoled one another; +promised to send kisses--x x x--on post-cards. And then there were new +faces, always; a week in each town, no longer; a real life of adventure +from one end of England to the other. Now it wasn't like that in London; +she felt less free there. Ma was particular and hard to please; there were +no pillow-fights, no romps; Ma hated those ways. The stage, yes, she put +up with that because it was Lily's profession; but one came in contact +with all sorts there; and that little devil of a Lily was wicked enough +already! It took all the home influence to thwart the bad examples which +she received outside; and it was Ma's business to see to it. + +The house in Rathbone Place had been smartened up. There was a dining-room +which was used only for meals and which never had a bed put into it at +night. There were things on what-nots: little photograph-frames, loose +photographs, lucky charms, china cups; all shining and bright, thanks to +the adjunction of a lady's maid, as Pa called Maud, in his funny way. At +first, after the accident, it was terrible. Her natural awkwardness was +made worse by a glass eye; she could not tell one side from the other, +spilt the tea on the cloth, broke the crockery. Maud did the heavy work, +washed and scrubbed all day long. When the girls were in London, she went +with them to the theater, as dresser. Maud stood in the wings and admired +the New Zealanders whirling about in the light. She stretched out her face +in ecstasy toward Lily: that Lily who had traveled everywhere, who was +born so far away, in a land full of monkeys and parrots. She followed Lily +to her dressing-room, trotted after her like a dog, worshiped her +open-mouthed. + +Lily had ripened out, was becoming more beautiful, more of a woman daily, +despite the fact that her Pa still treated her like a kid. She no longer +looked at things from the point of view of the child-girl who had been +delighted with a satin hair-ribbon in India; now her pride was not +appeased with such trifles. Ma, according to Lily, seemed ashamed of her, +dressed her badly: an odd skirt here, an odd frock there, of a cheap make. +That was not what Lily wanted. She was an artiste: she wanted a hat with +big feathers and a gown with gold braid to it; but, when she showed Ma a +dress which she liked in the shop windows, Ma would exclaim: + +"What do you want with that? My poor Lily, you must be mad! That's for +rich little girls, girls who have time to be pretty; it wouldn't suit you +at all. Why, if we listened to you, we'd soon be in the workhouse!" + +[Illustration: P.T. CLIFTON, MANAGER] + +Ma always said no, pretending that she had no money; whereas Lily knew to +the contrary. She knew that the troupe earned a great deal and that the +troupe was herself. The other day, at the theater, she had heard her aunt, +who felt bitter that Mr. Clifton had not accepted her daughter Daisy--who +could have learned the business and later on have starred by herself!--she +had heard that "old sheep" say, speaking of her: + +"What a shame to dress her like that! A girl who brings them in capital to +invest!" + +So Pa was investing capital. She didn't exactly know what investing +capital meant; no doubt it meant making a lot of money. She asked for none +of it! Children belong to their parents! But she would have liked to be +treated with more consideration, to be spoiled; to get presents, nice +things. She had plenty from her Pa, true enough: presents, my! But they +were cheap gifts, for all that.... She was always having promises made her +of more important things; and the promises were never kept: that big gold +watch, for instance. She had a thirsting for luxury. It seemed to her that +she was being treated like a performing dog, not a bit better. Ma, without +exactly knowing, but with an infallible instinct, saw all this budding +under that obstinate brow. Mr. Clifton might see nothing in it; but it was +not so easy to take in a mother! Was there a love affair beneath it all, +Ma asked herself. No, not yet; it might come later on, as with that +apprentice who had run away, or that other one whom she had had to send +packing for being too free with men. But Lily would not leave them like +that. + +She did not let her go out. "Glass-eye Maud" ran the errands and Lily +stayed at home, like a good little girl of whom her mother wished to make +a lady. When she did happen to go out, she must not be long, or else it +was, "Where have you been? Tell me at once!" At the theater, when Pa lost +his temper, she could reckon on a mighty fillip, and then it was over: Pa +was sorry, rather than otherwise. Ma, on the contrary, would nag for +hours; muttered inarticulate phrases about "devil," "wild bull," and +"taming her;" there was no end to it. Lily champed the bit! A star, +indeed! Was that being a star? She thought differently! She had seen +others drive up to the theater in their motors, accompanied by gentlemen +carrying flowers, like that famous "M'dlle" at the Palace. Yes, those were +stars: they dined at the Horse Shoe and did not spend their time in +useless housework. Oh, she was quite sick and tired of that life! She'd +had enough of it. Meanwhile, the days passed and the weeks and it was +always the same thing: housework and stage-work; work, work, work.... + +It was late that morning; they were not practising. Pa had run down on the +previous day to see a troupe of cyclists, the famous Pawnees, who were +back from the Continent, on their way to New York, and performing that +week at the Brighton Hippodrome. Lily was in her room later than usual, as +Ma was not awake. Maud had gone down to the kitchen. The apprentices were +getting up, joking with one another, like tom-boys used to sharing the +same bed at home, the same room at the theater, to dressing, undressing, +splashing about naked in the same bath-tub. + +"Get up, Lily," said one of them, laughing and raising her sturdy little +hand. "Get up, or...." + +"No," said Lily, "let me alone, I'm dead." + +As it happened, on the day before there had been a general tumble, six in +a row, on the back-wheel; one of them, losing her balance, had dragged the +others with her and the lot had fallen flat in a tangle of steel and +flesh. Bucking Horse, Old Jigger, Street Donkey--the nicknames they gave +their bikes--had kicked them to the raw. They showed one another the +bruises on their limbs: "Oh, don't it hurt, just!" "What about mine?" +"Look here!" like young recruits bragging of their wounds after the +skirmish. + +"Lily!" + +"Yes, Ma!" + +And Lily washed quickly, put on her frock and ran down-stairs to prepare +the coffee, but her Ma stopped her on her way. + +"Lily, you light the fire." + +"What about Maud?" said Lily. "Why can't Maud do it?" + +"You young impudence," ... said Ma; "Maud has gone to Jimmy's to take the +bike which Tom couldn't get to him yesterday; he was shut. It's the bike +you spoiled, you little bedlamite!" + +Lily had to laugh at the thought of Maud struggling with Old Jigger: Maud, +who couldn't lead the machine by the handle-bar, or even walk beside it, +without barking her shins. + +"Why!" cried Lily. "She'll explain everything wrong to Jimmy, and the bike +will be no use!" + +"Well, then, go yourself," said Ma, after a pause. "And mind you, come +back quickly; don't go loitering in the street; and don't stay long with +that drunkard." + +"Yes, Ma." + +Gresse Street, where Jimmy lived, was quite as dreary as Rathbone Place: +here and there, a few posters on the walls; some low-fronted shops, +displaying sweets and candies, or else a dazzling case of oranges on the +muddy pavement; alleys, stables, cab-yards.... + +It was here that Jimmy had his workshop, or rather his tool-store, for he +did not do much work there. The time which his occupation at the theater +left him he devoted to improving himself. Electricity and its manifold +uses held his interest. There was no doubt that, had he given all his time +to it, he would have become very clever, for he had an inventor's brain +and, moreover, possessed an astonishing manual skill for altering and +perfecting things. He worked in copper and steel, was glad to make and +repair bikes for a few customers, the New Zealanders, among others. While +working, he brewed all manner of plans in his brain. They all revealed a +practical intelligence. Saddle-supports which reduced the shaking on a +bike, improved carriage-springs and so on; and, on the stage, inventions +to dispense with men in the flies and wings; to work everything--scenery, +curtain, lime-light--by means of the switchboard; and ever so many other +things.... + +Since joining the theater, Jimmy had naturally undergone the influence of +the stage. It had affected his ideas, with all its new-fangled "turns," +which owed their success to a maximum of daring--or bluff--coupled with a +minimum of scientific knowledge: illusionists basing their effects upon +the reflections of invisible mirrors and the cunning use of combined +lights; "looping the loop," "circles of death," in which sheer weight did +the cyclist's work for him, his arrival at a given point depending upon +his accelerated and calculated speed. From seeing so many of this sort +scouring the world--erstwhile acrobats, former laboratory-students, who +now, venturing all and risking all, topped the bills at the +music-halls--Jimmy, greatly interested in this scientific side, had +himself made researches in that direction. _Engineering_ and other +journals had printed some of his schemes, including that of an apparatus +based upon the notion of exterior ballistics: the resistance of the air +proportional to the square of the velocity and, according to this +velocity, the exact proportion of the angle of incidence to the angle of +projection. Theoretically, it was perfect; in reality there might be some +unexpected hitch. It was a question for the venturesome performer, who +allowed himself to be projected by a series of powerful springs, to fall +accurately from pedestal to pedestal, preserving a faultless balance; in a +word, to risk his life six times in as many seconds. The daring of a +Laurence and the agility of a Lily combined would not have been enough for +the task; and so Jimmy had prudently contented himself with pinning his +diagrams on the walls of the workshop and dismissing the idea from his +mind. Not that he was afraid, rather not; but simply because it appeared +impossible to him. + +Other plans had interested him, besides; flying machines, for instance, +etc. He was a real enthusiast about flying machines! One day, perhaps, +when he knew more ... to say nothing of the theater, which did not leave +him much leisure; yet he managed, somehow, for he took but little sleep +and the rest of the time he devoted to study. + +This was the Jimmy of whom Ma made a bugbear to Lily--in Lily's +interest--for he was one of the few men whom she saw often; and you can +never tell ... with those devils of the stage.... + +Meanwhile, Lily, as soon as she had turned the corner of the street, drew +herself up and, with a light step, went down Percy Street and Tottenham +Court Road, instead of keeping straight on. It took her only five minutes +longer and it suggested luxury, fine shops, handsome furniture, +patent-leather shoes. She adored shopping, even if it was only with the +eyes, through the plate-glass windows. + +She loved to pass in front of the Horse Shoe, where stars lived, real +ones, not performing dogs. And then, round a piece of waste land, there +was a hoarding covered with advertisements that interested her: the +Hippodrome, the Kingdom, the Castle were displayed between extract of beef +and mustard; and there were always new programs; always new names; and +elephants, horses, lions; and tights.... + +Lily looked at this for a few seconds. And, suddenly, she felt a thrill; +on a scarlet poster, dazzling as the sun, she read: + +"Great success! Trampy Wheel-Pad!! At the Kingdom!!!" Trampy in London! + +Not that Lily was astonished: it seemed to her quite simple that he should +be there, as simple as for her to be in Chicago, Bombay or Capetown; +people do sometimes meet on tour, it all depends: you can be separated for +years and then perform at the same theater for months. No, she was not in +the least astonished: a little excited, that was all, without exactly +knowing why.... + +"But, if I should meet him," she thought, "what shall I say to him? What +will he say to me? Will he think me grown prettier or uglier?" + +Lily came to herself again and continued on her errand; crossed Tottenham +Court Road, plunged into a labyrinth of blocked alleys, of dark courts, +and, suddenly, was at Jimmy's. + +Lily did not like him much; she considered him good-looking, for a man, +but too shy. He never paid her a compliment. He seemed to think her ugly, +whereas many others admired her and made no bones about telling her so, +especially since the last few months; but he was ashamed of himself, no +doubt: a drunkard, as Ma said. + +Poor Lily had no luck. She would have been so happy to be courted, to +relieve her boredom. But nothing disgusted her so much as drink. And yet +it didn't show in Jimmy. He always walked straight, never fell, like that +head-balancer who, the other night, had come tumbling down from his perch. +Besides, that one had an excuse; he drank because he was crossed in love; +to forget, they said. Lily forgave everything the moment there was love in +it; but an icicle like Jimmy, who loved nobody and who drank for the sake +of drinking ... ugh! + +Jimmy was at work when Lily entered. The small, dark shop, crammed with +things in steel, with loose wheels, queer-shaped objects, reminded Lily of +a property store, only it was dirtier. There were tools everywhere; +designs for machinery pinned on the walls; it was all very ugly. + +And Jimmy's greeting was none too engaging either. A curt smile--"Glad to +see you, Miss Lily"--and, as for the bike, he hadn't understood a word of +what the one-eyed creature who had just left had tried to say. + +"I thought as much," said Lily, laughing. "That's why I came." + +And, in a few words, she explained what she wanted. First, repair the +twisted frame; next, a slight alteration for a new trick; a step here, +another there. + +"Always fresh tricks, Lily?" + +"Always, Jimmy. No end of bruises, I tell you!" + +"It's part of the game," said Jimmy. + +"I should like to see you try it," retorted Lily contemptuously, +"squeezing through the frame while it's going, with that pedal barking +your back," and she rubbed herself as she spoke. "Only yesterday I got a +kick; gee! It's like those new tricks in which I don't feel safe: riding +with one foot on the saddle and the other on the bar and playing a banjo; +it makes me shiver as I go past the footlights; and Pa watching me, you +know; and, if I lose my balance, I get black and blue somewhere." + +"Pooh!" said Jimmy. "One can't expect a white skin at the game." + +Lily didn't care for this. If she couldn't be courted, at least she liked +to be pitied: that flattered her pride.... It was all very well for Pa to +say, "It's part of the game, my little lady." But that josser of a Jimmy, +talking like that at his ease! + +"I'm glad I'm not your daughter!" she said. "My! You'd be harder than +Pa." + +"Your Pa is hard, sometimes; but he's very fond of you, for all that." + +"Of course," said Lily, "he wouldn't like me to break my neck; I bring him +in too much for that, eh?" + +"Come," interrupted Jimmy, "don't talk nonsense. It's not right to speak +as you're doing. You'll be sorry for it, I'm sure. Tell me, rather: you +were saying you wanted a step here, another there; do you mean like +this?" + +And he rummaged among his tools, looked for loose pieces, showed them to +Lily, while thinking of other things: + +"Look here," he went on, "do you think you're the only one that's got to +work? Suppose you were shut up all day in a factory? Have you ever been to +a factory? Do you know the life of a metal-buffer girl at Sheffield, +standing in front of her wheel, from morning till night, and work, work, +work?" + +"But I'm not a work-girl, you great silly! You know I'm an artiste! And, +now, shall I tell you what I think of you, Jimmy?" said Lily, pouting. +"You're a bad man, that's what you are!" + +And thereupon she put out her tongue, turned her back on him and began to +look at the walls, the diagrams, the drawings, an illustration out of +_Engineering_. + +There was a pause. + +Jimmy, while handling the bike, gazed at Lily. There was no sentimentality +about Jimmy, but his lively imagination made him see things through and +through; and, whatever he might be, Jimmy was not bad. That little Lily: +to think that, among all the girls of her own age, she was the only one to +do that trick! He pitied her and all child prodigies. To his mind, there +was something unsportsmanlike about it; something like a race won by a +one-year-old, with jockey, whip and spurs. He did not believe all he +heard, of course. He knew, he lived with them, he was one of them. He knew +the peculiar mania of the music-hall, the instinctive lie, uttered as if +to discourage competition by giving it a fright at the start. To listen to +them, it meant the horsewhip, the belt, all day long; going "through the +mill," all the time. Among the people with the painted faces, it was a +shot at martyrdom, a chance for professional boasting. The most +commonplace, the most coddled lives were made more interesting by means of +imaginary wounds and scars, like those explorers, in the books, who cross +Africa without food or drink, barefooted, with a crocodile snapping at +their heels. + +He took good care not to exaggerate. Life in the halls was no worse than +anywhere else, thank God! It had its good side and its bad side and its +professional risks. The "pros," taking them all round, were as good as the +"jossers." He wanted to be just. He had seen many who were very happy; one +could get anything done by firm kindness. He could also understand, in the +terrible struggle for bread, that a man went on toiling hard in the trade +in which he was born. A pro could not make a blue-stocking of his +daughter; some were born duchesses, on satin; others artistes on the +boards. One trade was as good as another; but dangerous practicings, +bruised flesh, seamed skins: no, he didn't approve of that. He had seen +the Laurences, mad with ambition, beginning all over again, in spite of +falls calculated to stave in the stage; had seen girls who "do knots" +lying in the dressing-rooms, gasping, exhausted. Even when professional +vanity alone prompted such excesses, Jimmy protested within himself; and +then there were so many abuses.... Besides, the stage so often spoiled a +woman: every branch of the stage, from the highest to the lowest. All that +coaxing familiarity! What he said was, if Lily had been his daughter, she +should not be on the stage; but there she was and he couldn't help it; +and, as it was her natural place to be there, he would not be guilty of +the meanness of disgusting a poor girl with the profession which she had +been at pains to learn. He preferred to let her call him "a bad man." And +that required a certain courage; for it was no longer a child talking to +him, but an exquisitely pretty girl. Jimmy could not believe his eyes. +What a change! Was it possible? Having been away from London, on +Harrasford's service, he had not seen her for many months, except the day +before, just in time to shake hands behind the scenes, in the dusk; but +here, in his shop, he hardly recognized her, he could not exactly say why. +One thing was certain: he had left her a child and he now found her a +beautiful girl. + +"Tush!" he said to himself. "She's a child for all that. Only, if she +keeps on like this, what a handsome woman she will be!" + +That familiarity on the stage: he reproached himself for thinking of it; +it seemed to him an insult to Lily. And he began to talk to her of +different things, kindly and pleasantly, changing from subject to subject. +He explained his drawings on the wall, his ideas: exterior ballistics; the +resistance of the air; risking his life six times in as many seconds.... + +"He's drunk," thought Lily. + +And, to stop this flow of words, as though talking to herself, Lily said +she did not complain; no, she would quite like the bike, if she hadn't got +to practise so hard; she only complained that they didn't treat her "fair" +at home: + +"And look how I'm dressed! I've had the same toque two years. And what do +you think of this frock? The material cost four-three a yard. I look like +a tenter in it." + +Jimmy did not share Lily's indignation. He thought her neatly and nicely +dressed, in spite of her performing-dog's toque, as she said. It all +suited her so well. But, on examining that clear-cut little face, lifted +toward him with a rebellious air, he felt that the fatigue, even the blows +didn't count; that the hardest thing, for Lily, was to be "badly dressed;" +that she would never swallow that. + +"But, look here," said Jimmy, "all this isn't worth making a fuss for; you +get cross about nothing at all; when you came, you were all smiles; and +now ..." + +"That's because," Lily began, with a sly laugh--oh, she was exasperated +with Jimmy's coldness! She'd show him, the icicle, and have a bit of fun +with him--"on my way here, Jimmy, I met ... now you won't give me away, +Jimmy? ... I met my ... sweetheart." + +"A sweetheart? You? Lily?" + +"Yes, yes, yes," said Lily, nodding her head and looking at him archly, +for she could see, by Jimmy's expression, that he was caught. + +"And your father and mother know nothing about it?" insisted Jimmy, +nonplussed. + +"No, no; it doesn't concern them: at my age, a girl earns a living for her +Pa and Ma; I have as much right to a sweetheart as any one else, I +suppose." + +And, greatly amused, she fixed Jimmy with her mocking eyes. + +Jimmy stared at her in amazement. + +Then she understood that it was not a thing to joke about and that what +she had just said was terrible. And, suddenly: + +"No, it's not true, Jimmy! I was only laughing! Oh, Jimmy, you're going to +give me away!" cried Lily, squeezing Jimmy's arm with a convulsive little +hand. "Oh, Jimmy, don't tell Ma, please, please, Jimmy!" + +And there was something so sincere in her voice that Jimmy saw that she +was speaking the truth, that it was only the jest of a flapper used to the +manners of the stage. + +"No," he said briskly, "I shan't tell; don't be afraid, Lily; only ..." + +"Ah, that's nice of you," said Lily, much relieved. "Marriage! If you only +knew! And what would become of the troupe? I shall never marry. I +think...." + +"Still, some day, it's bound to come," said Jimmy, interrupting her. "You +won't spend all your life on a bike. You are sure to marry some day...." + +"Don't talk to me about marriage! No, not that. Gee!" + +"But--" + +"Love stories! With men! I! And you believed it," said Lily, drawing back +her shoulder and raising her hand. "I could smack you, you great silly!" +And, all of a sudden, "I must go," she cried, "I've stayed too long; Ma +will be waiting for me with her broom!" + +And Lily rushed outside, without giving Jimmy time to answer. He could +just see her turn the corner of the street. + +Jimmy went back to his work, silently, wrapped up in his thoughts. That +nice little Lily! She could be easy in her mind. No, he would never be a +cause of worry to her.... + +Meanwhile, Lily ran home as fast as she could and, on entering, saw that +it was no use; her Ma was waiting for her, furious. + +"Where have you been?" + +"Why, I've come straight from Jimmy's, Ma." + +"That's a lie! The butcher's boy, who has just left, saw you outside the +Horse Shoe. Who were you waiting for?" + +"I wasn't waiting for any one!" cried Lily, her eyes blazing with anger. + +"You devil!" said Ma, looking round for a stick, an umbrella.... + +And, when she saw nothing within reach, her anger increased. Then she +stiffened her arm and made for Lily, who sprang behind the table.... + +But Ma, tripping on the carpet, fell at full length, dragging down with +her the table-cloth and two cups that were on it. + +"My two china cups! You viper!" she yelled. + +At that moment, the door opened; Clifton entered. He seemed preoccupied; +looked at his watch: + +"Nine o'clock. We ought to be at the theater! Where are the girls? And +what ... what's all this?" he asked, on seeing the disorder, Mrs. Clifton +scrambling up from the floor, Lily scowling in a corner. + +Ma grunted an explanation. Two cups broken, Lily a gadabout who would +bring them to the grave with shame! + +"But, Pa, I was only looking at the posters." + +"Posters?" repeated Clifton. "Which posters? What's all this nonsense?" + +And, when Ma had told him, interrupted by despairing "But, Pas," and "No, +Pas," from Lily, he very calmly asked, was he going to have peace in his +own house, or was he not? All this fuss about two broken cups; beating +Lily for nothing! + +Never, in any circumstances, would Clifton have snubbed Mrs. Clifton like +this before Lily. He would have waited until she had gone. But to come +upon all this rot when there were so many serious things to discuss! The +sisters Pawnee whom he had seen last night: Polly, Edith, Lillian. Yes, +that Lillian, damn it, a winged rose! And the things they did on their +bike without seeming to touch it! + +"My poor Lily," Pa went on, going up to his daughter and stroking her +hair. "I'm not saying it to vex you; but you're not in it with the +Pawnees! Come on! Beg your Ma's pardon; and let's be off to the theater. +I'm in form this morning. We shall have a great practice." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +A few minutes later, Pa was hustling his herd before him: + +"Quicker, my Woolly-legs! No time to lose!" + +He thought of the tricks which he had jotted down the evening before in +his note-book. Lily would learn them quick enough: she was as clever as +the Pawnees, when all was said, only less graceful. She had the balancing +power all right; but grace, grace, damn it, to do a thing like that as +though it were child's play: that's what she hadn't got! You saw the +effort. And the apprentices had no precision in their groupings. Now the +fat freaks had. To combine German discipline with English gracefulness, +that was the question; to have the troupe of troupes; to have a Lily who +would be worth more by herself than Polly, Edith and Lillian put together. +But that meant work and going through the mill! This last made Pa think of +the old sheep and their bleatings. He gave a nervous little laugh and his +hand had a convulsive movement, as though to strangle those pests. + +Pa had recovered his good humor and was grinning by the time they reached +the theater. Merely by his way of taking the key of his dressing-room from +the stage-doorkeeper one recognized the owner of a troupe, the man with a +"permanent address," the manager, the boss, the prof, the Pa. On entering +the lobby, he, with his six girls, took possession of the theater. He +nodded to the staff; growled a "Lazybones!" as the Roofers passed out two +by two, always two by two: a fair one with made-up eyes, a dark one with +kiss-me-quick lips; sniffed their cheap perfumes amid the tarry smell of +the packages marked Sidney, New York, Paris.... + +[Illustration: "QUICKER, MY WOOLLY-LEGS!"] + +On reaching the stage, Pa first gave a glance to make sure that there were +no elephants, or ponies, or Merry Wives, that they could practise at their +ease, without having to burrow in a corner, like rats. The stage was +almost empty. After the live street, it was a pallid light, in which +ghosts moved. The New Zealanders, it need not be said, no longer fancied +themselves in the cavern of Bluebeard or Puss-in-Boots; they had seen too +many stages during the past two years. The slant of the floor, the +roughness or smoothness of the boards was what interested them, for fear +of falls and barked shins. Pa hurried them to their dressing-room to get +into their knickers, while he took off his jacket and turned up his +trousers, so as to run better. No more time to lose, with his Lily! He was +still in a fever from seeing those Pawnees last night. As for the stage +and the boards, a lot he cared, slanting or straight, rough or smooth! To +work! to work! And he got ready the bikes, which Tom had brought down, +without a glance around him. + +To a poet, to a painter, that glance would have been worth the taking. The +iron curtain was raised, the house loomed vaguely; the balconies, covered +with cloth, stood out like cliffs; the pit, with its seats under a gray +drugget, because of the dust, lifted toward the stage its rows of +motionless waves. The stage itself was strange: a sort of huge cave, with +strips of scenery hanging like stalactites; near the wall, a metal +pedestal, with a red velvet platform, looked like a blood-stained +scaffold; one suspected the presence of properties: wheels, iron +implements, tangled ropes, like so many instruments of torture. At the New +Zealanders' feet, half-naked bodies, suggesting the souls of the damned, +were tumbling, practising falls; a woman in a white wrap hovered round; +and, near the proscenium, a pack of trained seals, lying in their moist +boxes, raised their frightened heads, as who should say corpses cast up on +the shores of hell by the silent waves of the pit. + +But three slender forms, spinning on their trapeze almost above Pa's head, +sprang lightly to the stage, near an old fellow in spectacles. + +"Why, Mr. Fuchs and the Three Graces! Here's a surprise!" said Pa, who had +not seen them since the New York Olympians. "When did you get here? +Yesterday?" + +There was a general shaking of hands. Fuchs congratulated Pa on his +success, said he had followed his progress in the papers. Pa owned a +troupe now and had a name. + +"So this is your Lily," said Fuchs, tapping her on the cheek as she joined +the group. "A real lady! And good, eh?" + +The Three Graces also congratulated Pa ... kissed Lily: + +"How sweet you've grown! Why, Lily, how pretty you are!" + +Lily was so surprised, so pleased; and her Pa was very proud. He thanked +Mr. Fuchs, complimented the Three Graces in his turn, to their delight: + +"What arms! What muscles!" Then, "Excuse us, eh? Lily must get ready. We +shall meet again presently, after practice." + +The Graces had gone back to it already. Pa tested the bikes; took a +hurried turn at the pumps; and, when the apprentices and Lily returned: + +"Yoop, up with you!" + +The round began. Tom looked to the girls, constantly; ran after them; kept +an eye on their falls. Pa, constantly, hung on to Lily. Nothing else +existed when he was handling his star. His wish to do well, his love of +art for art's sake worked him up, stimulated him, made him hit out but not +in anger: it was the spark of enthusiasm, of which the apprentices caught +the reflection. + +"Hi, you there, Mary! I'll pull your ear! Birdie, if I take my belt to +you!" + +But his Lily above all; his Lily! his seven stone of flesh and bones! Pa +was an artiste; he had thought of a thousand things since his trip to +Brighton. New and astounding tricks; and easy at that ... if Lily only +would! Oh, he'd soon make her graceful! But, for that, she would have to +obey, to let go the handle-bar at a sign, instead of endlessly seeking her +balance. For instance, Pa held her rein to prevent falls--there was +nothing spiteful about Pa, he never let you fall on purpose--and +Lily--"One! Two!--Count together, Lily!"--put one foot on the saddle, the +other on the handle-bar: "Three!" That's where she had to let go her +hands, smartly, and stand erect as she rode. The machine slipped under +her. Lily, shaking with fear, stooped to seize the handle-bar. + +"Stand up, Lily! Show pluck, Lily!" said Pa. + +Lily, accustomed to obeying blindly, drew herself up again. But, +sometimes, crash! The whole came tumbling down. Notwithstanding the rein, +Lily fell to the ground; and the bike, in addition, caught her a kick in +passing. + +"Nothing broken? A tiny scratch; it's nothing. Tom, the white stuff!" + +Tom left his Woolley-legs, brought a bottle of embrocation; a few drops of +that on the skin, a bit of sticking-plaster; there, that was all right. + +"You see, Lily, you're not dead yet! Nothing to be frightened about. Come, +try again!" + +The great thing was to hustle. Pa displayed so much enthusiasm--"Those +Pawnees, damn it!"--that Lily, for all her fears, was smitten in her turn, +ended by becoming exasperated against those Pawnees, felt a longing to +wring their necks! + +She obeyed her Pa like an automaton, in her anxiety to do well. + +"More graceful! That's it! Not so stiff!" said Pa. + +"But, Pa, I can't!" protested Lily, soaked in perspiration. + +"But you've got to, my little lady!" + +They passed from one practice to another, almost without resting. Lily was +worn out, Pa seemed indefatigable. + +Sometimes, practising was marked by interruptions. Maud's gouged eye +remained the typical accident. Another time, a girl lay fainting for ten +minutes after falling on her head; or else the stage was invaded by a +ballet. There was no end to it. On this particular day, they had a visit +from Harrasford himself, Harrasford the chief and master, who came along +with Jimmy; a visit which was the more sensational for being quite rare. +Pa, now that he was the owner of a troupe and sure of his position, would +not have been sorry to be noticed by Harrasford, just to impress Mr. Fuchs +and show him what they thought of Lily in London. + +"Do your best, my Lily," said Pa. "He's watching us." + +But bill-toppers, New Zealanders though they might be, were nobodies to +"him;" Lily--one of a thousand, among all those of both sexes who +performed in his theaters. There might have been ten cycling rhinoceroses +on the boards; he might have seen Lily swallow her bike, and change into a +butterfly: he would have paid no attention. Those were details that +concerned the stage-manager. He hurried across the stage to the +fly-ladder, made Jimmy explain things, took notes as he went, wanted to +see for himself, pointed to the first batten, to the electric switches. + +"How much for so many lamps? And that? What does that come to, roughly?" + +And he stopped for a second in his course, his ear stretched toward Jimmy +to catch his answer flying; then both of them went on again, quickly. + +Jimmy was now following Harrasford along the bridges, with the whole stage +below him, in the ruddy semi-darkness; at one side, the half-naked bodies +fell with a heavy thud after their somersaults; or else it was the sharp +sound of a bike skidding; and distant voices rose up to him: + +"But, Pa, I can't!" + +"But you've got to, my little lady!" + +"Poor little thing!" thought Jimmy, disappearing in the flies, toward the +side-rails, at Harrasford's heels. And Lily went on riding and Pa running +after her, round and round and round. She seemed to be fleeing madly, +pursued by a devil. Suddenly, Pa stopped, having exhausted his strength, +and Lily fell rather than sat upon a hamper by the wall. + +"Here, Lily, put this over your shoulders," said Pa, giving her his +jacket. "You'll catch cold, darling. Oof, let's take breath a bit!" + +But a glad voice burst through the silence: it came from the Three Graces, +who always worked on stubbornly, even during the absence of Nunkie, who +had been out for a smoke. Thea greeted his return with a cry of triumph: + +"Ten pullings-up with one arm, Nunkie! Ten without stopping!" + +"Well done! I'm very pleased with you," said Mr. Fuchs; and he crowned +their excitement by declaring that, as a reward, he would that very day +buy Thea the sleeve-links which he had promised her ever since last year. + +"Dear Nunkie!" + +A spasm of vanity made them rush back to their work; and soon the three of +them formed, in mid-air, an involved group of ropes, bars and hardened +limbs. + +Lily, in spite of her fatigue, was amused at those mad girls. To take all +that trouble for the sake of a pair of sleeve-links! Her shoulders shook +with nervous laughter, in spite of Pa's presence. He quieted her with a +gesture, scolded her under his breath, kindly: + +"Shut up, Lily!... Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Lily?" + +And he looked at Nunkie with an air of saying: + +"You old rogue!" + +As for the Three Graces, it was a pleasure to watch them: their pluck was +infectious. + +"To work!" said Pa. "Let's have a somersault, eh?" + +And, at a sign from him, two of the apprentices, assisted by Tom, fixed a +little steel-legged table in the middle of the stage, bore down upon it +with all their weight. The bike, set at full speed, stopped short as it +struck the table; and Lily, carried on by the impulse, continued her +whirl, full on her back, and, carrying the machine with her, came to the +ground on the other side of the table and went on riding. But that shook +her, in her stomach, her heart, everywhere. Each time, she was nearly +succeeding, but it wasn't quite right. + +"I can see," said Pa, "you want to make me lose my temper!" + +"But, Pa, it hurts!" + +"Oh, those blasted little brats!" shouted Pa angrily. "Rickety machines, +every one of them: no more energy than a sparrow and lazy into the +bargain!" + +Then, suddenly, Lily succeeded magnificently. + +"You see you can do it when you like, you obstinate little wretch!" said +Pa. "Now try not to miss it again, next time! That will do for to-day," he +added, seeing Lily out of breath. "Go and get dressed, my Lily." + +The Three Graces were finishing also. Good old Nunkie wiped the +perspiration from their foreheads with his big checked handkerchief, +invited Clifton to come with Lily and choose the sleeve-links and +suggested that they could have a chat at the restaurant. + +"Would you like to, Lily?" asked Pa. + +"Yes, Pa." + +"Very well, then." + +The girls would go back alone. Tom, having carried up the bikes, was told +to run home and fetch Miss Lily's new dress and boots, Mrs. Clifton's +brooch and big hat. And, half an hour later, Lily, who had crawled up to +her dressing-room stiff-legged, exhausted, feeling sixty, came tripping +down the stairs all freshly dressed, wearing the great hat of her mother, +and a pair of creaking boots. She soon recovered when she was dressed out. +She drew up her dainty figure, so as to be level with the imposing group +of Pa, Nunkie and the Three Graces. + +Lily, very proud of herself, spun out the pleasure of drawing on her +gloves to go shopping with those big girls, who had had love stories. Then +they discussed what restaurant.... Nunkie, long ago--"Zæo's year at the +Aquarium:--that doesn't make me any younger, eh?"--had discovered a little +German place.... + +Lily would have liked to propose the Horse Shoe, to walk in there with her +big hat and creaking boots as though the place belonged to her. But they +decided upon a "Lyons" in Wardour Street. At the table, it was touching to +watch the attentions which the Three Graces lavished upon their Nunkie, +the respect they showed him. Pa was not sorry that Lily should see that, +but Lily took no notice at all: she just removed her gloves, held her +knife and fork with the tips of her fingers, let Pa help her, thanked him +with a pretty "'K you." From the corner of her eye, she watched other +groups, to pick up good manners. She seemed to have frequented smart +restaurants all her life: beside her, Nunkie and the Three Graces, who cut +their bread with their knives and made a noise when eating, looked like a +family of small farmers on a visit to London town. Pa was greatly amused, +enjoyed his daughter's aristocratic ways, admired her refined air. When +they went out, in obedience to a look from Lily, he bought her a bunch of +violets, which he pinned to her bodice himself: + +"Well, Lily, are you happy? Do you love your Pa? Tell me you love your +Pa," and he looked at her gently as if in regret at having been so harsh +at practice. + +"It's for your good, my Lily, you'll thank me one of these days. I'll give +you lovely dresses, I'll cover you with diamonds!" + +"Why not to-day?" asked Lily, with a comic pout. + +Then both of them laughed and Lily forgot everything, even the blow with +the fist, at being treated so like a lady. + +"If I was married," she said to the Three Graces, "I should like to go +shopping all day long and have fine dresses, a gold watch and no bike!" + +The Three Graces, with their heroic strength, had no thought of such +luxuries. Thea told Lily of her successes in America: + +"Five pullings-up with one arm at Boston. Six at 'Frisco. Eight when we +got back to New York! Eight, Lily! And to-day...." + +"And your lover in America, tell me about your lover ..." interrupted +Lily, pressing Thea's arm. + +"Talk low," said Thea, looking back at Nunkie, who was walking behind with +Pa. "Nunkie is furious with him. If he ever meets him! He says it's +disgraceful, not writing to me, after asking leave to. It's an insult that +ought to disgust me with men for good and all, Nunkie says." + +She told Lily everything, her unhappiness at first, for she loved him. +Lily, with her little nose in the air, sniffed those love stories, gulped +them down, so to speak, with an instinctive movement of the lips. + +"And did you write to him?" + +"I wrote to him, but he never answered. Oh, if Nunkie knew! He forbids us +to write, because writing, you know, Lily, puts out the muscles of the +arms, interferes with the pullings-up, Nunkie says...." + +[Illustration: NUNKIE] + +But they turned into Regent Street: to Lily it was the entrance to the +paradise of shops. The huge curve displayed its window fronts; and ladies +and gentlemen and little girls: not dressed in their Ma's leavings, these +last, but a superior branch of mankind, similar to that in the front +boxes. + +Nunkie blinked his eyes behind his spectacles: all this luxury terrified +him; he had almost forgotten the sleeve-links, talking with Clifton of +people they had known: + +"The boy-violinist? Not up to much. Ave Maria? A disgrace: married, +deserted, I don't know what. Poland, the Parisienne? A scandal!" As for +him, he had but one wish, after getting his girls married: to retire to +his home, grow his roses, look after his pigeons; simple joys, the only +ones.... + +"Look, Thea!" Lily broke in, pointing through the plate-glass to a heap of +imitation jewelry, lying, among watches, on red and black velvet. + +"Come on!" said Mr. Fuchs. + +But, when Thea saw the prices--ten shillings, twelve shilling's--she +refused to go in, saying she could have it just as pretty in Wardour +Street and ever so much cheaper. + +"Just as you please, my darling. I'll do whatever you like. I don't know +anything about it!" + +Clifton felt something rise in revolt within him, he was unable to resist +it; a case of showing that old curmudgeon what a Pa was and that his +little girl, too, did pullings-up in her way and that he knew how to treat +her as a Pa should: + +"Your watch, Lily," he said, opening the door and pushing her in. "Now's +the chance to get it. Come, choose for yourself!" + +"Oh, Pa! Do you really mean it, Pa?" she said incredulously. + +"Now look here, I'll smack you, Lily! When your Pa tells you a thing!" + +Lily seemed a princess, with her way of saying, "'K you," of touching the +ornaments, the watches, like a little creature thirsting for luxury and +yielding to her inclination at the first opportunity. There was so great a +look of happiness in her eyes; and Clifton was so proud of his Lily, that +he offered her a chain as well, to go with the watch. Lily refused at +first, for form's sake, and then took courage--like a poor little martyr +who did not like to disoblige her Pa--and chose a very pretty watch-chain, +to the great wonderment of the Three Graces and of Nunkie, who thought, as +they left the shop, that the children of to-day ... upon his word ... the +parents of to-day ... it was all very different in his time.... + +Clifton laughed to himself at that old curmudgeon as he left him to go +home, with his star. Lily hung heavily on her father's arm, passed the +draper's shops with a serious air. + +"No, another time!" said Pa, who felt what she was after. + +And he hurried his daughter off, for he might have yielded, she was so +nice. + +Lily set her watch in Piccadilly, as they passed; then at the Café de +l'Europe, by the big clock at the back; and again, twenty steps farther, +at the bar of the Crown. Lily looked at the time and Pa showed his Lily +off. He was proud to be seen with her in the neighborhood of Lisle Street, +where everybody knew him. True, he seemed to have the name of being hard +with Lily. But, come, was he hard? Did she look like a martyr? It was +preposterous, all those stories. And he redoubled his attentions to his +daughter, who talked a heap of nonsense, asked funny questions: + +"Why should writing a letter interfere with the trapeze, when a girl has +arms harder than a horse's hocks?" + +"What? What?" asked Pa, taken aback, and when he understood, he would have +held his sides for laughing, if he had been at home: + +"Oh, the old rogue!" he said admiringly. "He loves his dear girls, does +Nunkie!" + +He was still laughing when they reached Tottenham Court Road; and, as they +passed the Horse Shoe, a voice, which Lily seemed to remember, called to +them from behind: + +"Hullo, Clifton!" + +Pa turned his head in surprise: + +"Hullo, Trampy!" + +For he recognized him at once, though he was much changed. Besides, he +knew him to be in London. But it was a prosperous and gorgeous Trampy, +quite unlike the old days; and forthwith Trampy explained: a champagne +supper last night, just come from the bar; glass of Vichy water, you know. +Huge success in London. Girls, by Jove! And then, pretending not to know +Lily: + +"I congratulate you, Clifton; what a dear little wife!" + +Pa, greatly amused, protested: not his wife, no, his Lily! Then Trampy +went into ecstasies: how pretty she had grown, one of the handsomest girls +in London, sure! And in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland! +And in all the British dominions beyond the seas, by Jove! And what a +change since Mexico! She was a woman now, a peach, a regular peach! + +Lily seemed fascinated by Trampy, examined him, his shiny hat, his gold +rings, his patent-leather shoes. A swell, Trampy, a toff, a gentleman like +those in the front boxes. + +"Yes, Lily," said Trampy, guessing her thoughts, "yes, that's the way it +is; one's not always hard up. I've struck oil since leaving America. Heaps +of money! Eh, what!" he continued, offering Clifton an expensive cigar. +"You wouldn't have thought it, would you, when you left me stranded in +Mexico? That was a nice dirty trick you played me! Come and have a drain, +old man, to drink Miss Lily's health and show there's no ill feeling!" + +"No, another time," said Clifton, vexed at this recollection of Mexico, +now that he was the established owner of a troupe, a man whose word was as +good as gold. "I'm in a hurry to get home: a very nice home, Trampy, a +real good one. Come and see us some day. _Au revoir_." + +But Trampy was so pleased at meeting them, he never stopped shaking them +by the hand. Lily had to accept a bag of cakes to share with the troupe +when they had their tea. Then, at last: + +"_Au revoir_, old man; _au revoir_, my love, my little peach!" + +Lily's head was quite turned by this jolly day: it made her forget six +months of worries. To think that, for some people, every day was like +that! However, she mustn't complain: a watch, a chain as well, the +somersault pulled off, compliments from Trampy.... + +Ma's reception of them, when they got home, was icy. Pa looked a little +like a school-boy caught at fault; and Lily, none too easy in her mind, +put the cakes on the sideboard, and hastened to take off her mother's big +hat. Ma grumbled, under her breath: it was nothing but going out, now. Old +Cinderella could stay at home, bareheaded, while my lady went shopping! A +fine thing, my word, for a great sensible girl to abuse her Pa's weakness! +There was nothing to do at home, of course! Well, if it pleased Mr. +Clifton, she had no more to say!... And, while she grumbled, Ma prepared +the tea and shot glances at Lily, a Lily with red cheeks and bright eyes +and looking so pretty that Ma, full of mixed pride and anxiety, felt +sudden longings to eat her up with kisses, "ugly" that she was! + +Pa did his best to calm Mrs. Clifton, tried to amuse her with the story of +the sleeve-links, of the horse's hocks, and Pa laughed, my! + +"He laughs best who laughs last," growled Ma. + +"Just think, Ma," said Lily, taking courage from Pa's merriment. "That old +rogue forbids his daughter to write, he pretends that...." + +"And quite right too!" said Ma. "What do girls want with writing? And who +do you mean? What old rogue? You don't mean Mr. Fuchs, I suppose?" + +"Why, yes, Ma, old Fuchs." + +"Old Fuchs! You chit, to talk like that of respectable people! Go to your +room, impudence! Dry bread for you!" + +"But, Ma...!" said Lily rebelliously. + +"That's what comes of it," said Mrs. Clifton, addressing her husband, +"when a mother no longer has the right to correct her daughter." + +And she pointed to Lily, who persisted in remaining, who was even +beginning an explanation: + +"But, Pa ... but...." + +"Obey your mother first," said Clifton. + +"Yes, Pa." + +And Lily went out, very anxious at the turn which things had taken. + +Clifton realized that he had perhaps been wrong that morning to blame Mrs. +Clifton in Lily's presence. He was wrong also to laugh at old Fuchs before +Lily. But, all the same, that old rogue ... and they had believed it, +those Graces! That wouldn't go down with Lily! + +"It's an example you ought to follow, instead of laughing at it, Mr. +Clifton!" + +"Upon my word, I'm very proud of my Lily; she works well, she really +does," said Pa, stretching himself in the easy-chair. "I'm pleased with +her; you know as well as I do, a girl is not a boy. She can do with a +little spoiling. And only just now I made Lily a present of a gold watch +and chain." + +"Then I give up!" said Ma, in a voice of exasperation. "Then I give up! +Why should I take all this trouble bringing up your daughter? A little +spendthrift who will bring us all to the workhouse! And a good thing when +she does!" + +But Pa wanted peace in his own house. That was enough of it! Peace was +what he wanted, damn it, and not a monkey-and-parrot life! + +And, jumping up from his chair, he opened the door and shouted up the +staircase: + +"Come down, my Lily! Your Ma says you may! The cakes are on the table." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Pa would have covered his Lily with diamonds, if he had the money ... and +if Ma had allowed it! But, on this special point, she ventured to oppose +him. She had been Lily's age herself, had Ma, and she enlarged upon the +necessity of keeping a tight rein on Lily. + +Ma enumerated the fugitives: Ave Maria, and this one, and that one, and +ever so many others who had bolted; and troupes ruined by the flight,--or +the marriage,--of the star.... + +"Lily has changed a good deal lately, dear, are you sure she hasn't a man +in her mind?" + +"There we are again!" said Pa. "Always the same old story! But just tell +me, who does she see? Who does she know? Jimmy? You don't mean him, I +suppose? Very well! Trampy, then? A married man, divorced, married again, +goodness knows what! and then ... and then ... Oh, well, let's have peace +at home, at any rate! Damn it, Lily may be a bit of a flirt: why shouldn't +she be, a pretty girl like that? Beauty, in the profession, is half the +battle." + +And Pa entered into details, comforted Ma with good news: a fresh contract +signed with Bill and Boom, after that, the Harrasford tour: big salaries +now.... + +"No, dear, this isn't the time to worry Lily about trifles. And I don't +want her to be bothered with useless work, either." + +"Call home work useless! A woman's greatest charm!" exclaimed Ma. + +Lily was a subject of friendly discussion to them. Both adored her +equally: both were proud of her at heart. For Lily was growing very +beautiful; everybody said so at the theater: the stage-manager; the acting +manager, down to Jimmy, who stammered things. It was an endless series of +compliments; Harrasford's friend, the architect, who had not seen her for +a long time, fell into raptures when he met her on the stage: + +"Magneeficent!" he exclaimed, in his Franco-Belgian accent. "How old is +she: sixteen? seventeen?" + +"Fourteen," said Ma, with a mincing air, for to that damned "parley-voo" +she was as anxious to make Lily out a child now, in order to keep a firmer +hold of her, as she had been to increase her age in America, so as to make +her work. + +"What, fourteen, Ma!" protested Lily. + +"Yes, fourteen, of course; do you think you know better than your mother, +you little fool? Can't you see everybody's laughing at you?" + +Ma dreaded those irresponsible jossers, who filled Lily's head with a pack +of false notions, and kept a good watch, in her growing anxiety. + +Ma, in the early days of their arrival in London, had been terribly +obsessed by the dread of being left without means in the huge city. Lily +had got them out of that difficulty. And now she was earning such a lot of +money: one day, who knows, they would have made enough to assure their +independence for good and all! When she thought of this possibility, Ma's +eyes lit up with yellow gleams; she felt like catching hold of Lily and +locking her up in a safe. + +Pa was less eager for gain, less ant-like in his economies; he was an +artiste, above all; he knew how to make allowances; there was a time for +work and a time for play. He often treated himself to the pleasure of +taking Lily out; and, each time, as usual, she got a nice little +present--he liked to pass for a Pa who spoiled his daughter, loved to hear +himself so described, and took a wicked delight in repeating it all to +Mrs. Clifton. + +Lily was the gainer by the difference in opinion; she felt herself a +little freer. When she went out in the morning, she considered herself at +liberty to walk less fast, and no longer trembled on returning. She loved +to loiter in the Tottenham Court Road; her little person assumed an air of +importance; if, after practice, some artiste passed her in the street and +gave her a smile, she believed that he was waiting for her; a "comic +quartet," the Out-of-Tune Musicals, happening to come out of a bar and +blow a kiss to her, were there on her account, she thought--four lovers at +a swoop! + +It was almost impossible that she should not meet Trampy, who was always +prowling about from bar to bar, between Oxford Street and Leicester +Square. She did meet him, in fact. Trampy, that day, wore a felt hat, a +blue suit, a red tie, with a sixpenny Murias cocked in the corner of his +mouth, and he greeted her with a triumphant "Hullo, peach!" as she passed. +Lily was quite excited, stopped just long enough to refuse a drink and +then left him very quickly. She was afraid it showed on her face, when she +got home, and his words still rang in her ears, that she was awfully +pretty, the prettiest girl on the stage, a peach, a duck, a pearl, a +daisy, a bird. + +All that she had seen and heard in her jostled existence, now came back to +her, grew and sprouted in her ... now that Lily was being made love to by +gentlemen, not the monkey-faces or the blue-chins, but men like Trampy, +her craving for admiration oozed out of her at every pore.... + +Trampy! Lily did not care for Trampy; but she thought him amiable, polite +with the girls.... She was grateful to him for being there to say pretty +things to her when she passed. She preferred that type to men like Jimmy, +for instance, savages who always seemed on the point of speaking and never +opened their mouths; with them, she thought, a wife would be bored to +death. Besides, Jimmy, pooh, a common workman, a josser! While Trampy was +an artiste, a bill-topper and rich, no doubt. You had only to listen to +Trampy to see that he was very well off! Chocolates, sweets, jewelry, +ostrich-feathers, patent-leather boots, everything! He would have loaded +her with presents, if she had let him, but she had never accepted anything +except a little gold ring, which she hid in her pocket when she came in, +for, if Ma had caught sight of it, gee, what a smacking! + +Trampy often met her; he seemed almost to do so on purpose; he found +pretty speeches, compliments which he had already uttered a score of times +to ever so many girls, on ever so many stages, like a real Don Juan who +had been all over the world and everywhere picked up love-speeches and +jokes to "fetch" the ladies with. He tickled her vanity, told her that a +dear little girl like her was cut out for dress, that a big hat with +ostrich feathers would go well with her fair hair and that men, by Jove, +ought to go on their knees whenever they spoke to her! + +All this hummed and buzzed in her head. At night, when she fell asleep in +Maud's arms, she dreamed of big hats and fine dresses and referred to it +during the day. Pa hardly knew what to think; if she did as well as last +night--three encores--Lily could have half a sovereign, to buy a new hat +in the Tottenham Court Road with, said Pa. + +"Oh, Pa, I shall do all right, you'll see. Will you be very nice? Then get +me that one at two guineas, you know, in Regent Street." + +"But you're mad, Lily!" said Pa, without attaching too much importance to +it, for he had other cares: agents to see, letters to write, business, +damn it! + +That took down Lily's cheek a bit; but her luxurious ideas returned, +nevertheless. For instance, from admiring the Three Graces or the Gilson +girl, who looked like Venuses in their silk tights and whose entrance on +the stage caused every opera-glass to glint upon them, the wish to appear +in tights began to grow on Lily. Oh, not the plain tights of living +statues; no, but with flowers and leaves embroidered here and there and +jet braid laced about the right arm. She was tired of bloomers and told Pa +so, straight out, when the apprentices had left the room and Pa, stretched +in his easy-chair, seemed in a good temper. Pa thought this notion about +tights, silly: + +"They're very nice, those bloomers; those little shirts. Ask your +mother." + +"Oh, yes," said Ma sarcastically, "but bloomers are made at home, in the +afternoon; you have to stitch them yourself, dear. Tights, which you buy +ready-made and which cost just ten times as much and last only half as +long, are much more convenient, aren't they, Lily? To say nothing of the +absurdity of an ugly girl like you showing yourself in tights!" + +"And the troupe," said Pa. "What would the troupe look like? Might as well +not have a troupe; there'd be no one but you!" + +"Well, what harm would that do? I _am_ the troupe!" said Lily, tossing her +obstinate forehead. "And all the money you give them you could give me!" + +"Lily," said Pa, alarmed, "you deserve to be smacked for that!" + +"Oh, Pa, what an idea!" said Lily, who was just arranging her fringe +before the glass. "A Pa to beat his Lily for a little thing like that, +away from work!" And, darting a bright smile at Pa, "You never would, Pa, +would you?" she ventured. + +Clifton, taken aback, looked at his Lily, as if to say that she was right, +damn it! But Ma, in her fury, cried: + +"Wait a bit! You shall see if _I_ would!" + +Bang! A box on the ears, followed by an order to go to her room, on dry +bread and water, impudence! And practise her banjo till the evening! + +The blow itself was nothing, but what an humiliation for Lily, who, only +yesterday, had been told that she had the sweetest nose in the world, +cheeks to cover with kisses, eyes, lovely eyes: there wasn't a girl in a +hundred with eyes like that, by Jove! And those lovely eyes were only fit +to cry with! And those pretty cheeks Ma had covered with smacks! When she +thought of it, she felt inclined to kick over the traces. Did they think +her such a kid, then, her Pa and Ma? She'd show Ma if she was fourteen! +She'd be off like the others. Lily, at this idea, felt her heart come into +her mouth: no, no; she would never dare; she never would. She swore it to +herself; took the great oath of the stage: three fingers of her right hand +uplifted, the left hand on her lucky charm. And yet, one day, she would +marry. She didn't lack chances, if she wanted them. And a gentleman, too! +And her Pa and Ma, to disgust her, of course, pretended that he was +married! They must take her for an idiot: how could Trampy be married, +considering that he had suggested ... suggested different things to +her?... + +Lily brooded like this, reviewing the tiny events of which her life was +made up. Then a gleam of sunshine came to change her thoughts. She amused +herself by breathing on the window-pane, making a circle ... wrote a name +with her finger and quickly licked it out with her tongue ... and Lily +brooded ... brooded.... + +But Ma's voice made her jump: + +"What are you doing there, you good-for-nothing? I told you to take your +banjo!" + +"Yes, Ma," Lily replied mechanically, with her nose glued to the window. + +"Do you hear, Mr. Clifton?" said Ma furiously. "That's the way she +obeys!" + +Mrs. Clifton had no doubt whatever that there was a man at the bottom of +it ... a flirtation ... something or other. It was useless for Ma to +provide for everything, to do her best to oppose Mr. Clifton's weakness. +There was Lily now, taking up an independent attitude. She thought herself +pretty, no doubt; some booby must have been stuffing her up, making love +to her, to laugh at her later on! If she, Mrs. Clifton, had been a man, +she would certainly never look at that ill-mannered baggage; but the +London jossers liked that brazen type! And to think that time was passing +... passing!... Oh, Ma would have liked to get hold of the man who +invented the law about girls coming of age ... and love ... and marriage! +A fierce jealousy seized upon her at the thought. Lily would have +bouquets, champagne suppers; Lily would be loved by gentlemen! Tell Lily +that she was pretty and, in less than six months the little hussy would +think herself a fine lady! And, on that day, Mrs. Clifton would wash her +hands of her! + +These continued attacks ended by shaking Pa. He didn't quite know what to +say; there was a certain amount of truth in it: + +"But," he persisted, "why should she go? She has everything she wants +here?" + +But he was more and more annoyed; yes, he admitted, he was wrong to laugh +at Mr. Fuchs: you must never set children a bad example. And, from that +moment, once his attention had been called to the matter, he daily +discovered fresh causes for uneasiness: where the devil did she get that +love of dress from? And who sent her that bouquet behind the scenes the +other night? Why, Lily wanted to have it handed to her across the +footlights, like a singer! + +And Pa and Ma watched Lily like a bag of money on which one keeps one's +hand, for fear of pickpockets. Ma doubled her precautions. + +The gentlemen in the front boxes, especially, alarmed her, even more than +the Jim Crows: creatures apart, devilish creatures, the gentlemen in the +front boxes! She fancied she saw a reflection of hell in the eye-glass of +every one of them. If ever Lily dared to smile to them, she knew what +awaited her! Ma would get angry for nothing at all; she even scolded Lily +for allowing herself to be approached on the stage by a contributor to +_The Piccadilly Magazine_, which was publishing articles on _The Little +Favorites of the Public_. + +"I am sure you only told him a lot of nonsense," said Ma. "A girl should +call her mother in a case like that. What have you to do with the public? +Aren't you ashamed?" + +No, Lily was not ashamed. She was exasperated rather. And she had not told +the journalist any lies: just the plain truth, in her own little way. +Sweat and blood! Broken legs! Broken arms! And here, there, there, all +over her body, scars deep enough to put your finger in! That would revenge +her a bit for the way in which she was treated. She knew that, when the +article appeared, she would catch it at Pa's hands; but never mind! She +had told everything, everything, in revenge; just as she might have flung +her bike at their heads in a fit of anger! + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +There had been a terrible scene at home that day. Ma had searched Lily's +trunk and had not, it is true, discovered the love letters which she +believed to be hidden there, but she had found a ring! It was Trampy's +ring, which Lily, who usually concealed it about her person, had left by +accident in the trunk among her things. Ma's face was a sight, when she +came down to the dining-room. She was so upset that Pa asked her: + +"Are you ill, dear?" + +Ma, without answering the question, pushed the ring under his nose and +screamed that she had told him so: + +"An engagement ring, dear; an engagement ring! Perhaps you'll believe me +now!" + +Pa and Ma, when they had recovered from their surprise, had time to lay +their heads together and replace the ring, pretending to know nothing, to +be watching more closely than ever ... and then Pa had gone out; for, if +Lily, who was walking with the apprentices, had come home just then, he +could not have resisted the temptation to smack her face. It was better to +go out and postpone the explanation until later. He had, indeed, resolved +never to beat his daughter again ... but still! And he clenched his fists +and ground his teeth when he reached the theater. + +On the stage, he looked round for Tom, who should have been there to mend +a tire. He saw nothing at first: only a few electric lamps studding the +darkness; a faint glimmer lighting up a number of properties; farther on, +the dull gleam of stacked-up bikes; and, lastly, Tom, with his cap cocked +back and trousers turned up, trying--brrr!--to do a clog-dance! + +"Bravo, Tom!" shouted Clifton, the moment he saw him. "Just you wait a +bit. I'll teach you to dance: with the clogs on your hands and your head +downwards, damn it! Here, take this to go on with!" continued Pa, fetching +him a clout on the shoulder. "And get to the bikes and hurry up, or I'll +smash your jaw in!" + +Meanwhile, Jimmy had also come, unseen by Pa. And the great batten lit up: +the stage came to life again. Right up above, in the galleries from which +the ropes were worked, mysterious forms moved to and fro. The iron curtain +rose ... there was a clash of orchestra ... Jimmy, with his back against +the drop-scene and his face to the stage, gave sharp orders.... + +Pa watched the scene vaguely from the wings. He gnawed his mustache: the +apprentices would be there soon, with his Lily. And he had something to +say to the stage-manager; something of a delicate character. + +But Clifton was surprised to see Jimmy instead of the usual +stage-manager: + +"Hullo! So it's you now," he couldn't help saying. + +"Why, yes, Mr. Clifton; since this morning. The other chap's ill, you +know. Harrasford asked me to take his place ... for a few days, I suppose +... or perhaps longer. Do you want to speak to me, Mr. Clifton?" added +Jimmy, observing Pa's look of embarrassment. "Just a minute and I am +yours." + +Two tall footmen, caparisoned in velvet and gold, disappeared behind the +curtain with the number of the next turn. They came back in a few seconds. +Jimmy pressed a button. The stage filled with light and noise, the turn +marked on the program entered and, suddenly, under the dazzling light, it +was a series of somersaults, of flights from shoulder to shoulder, and the +muffled fall of feet on the thick carpet. + +"There will be eight minutes of this," said Jimmy, taking out his watch. +"What have you to say to me, Mr. Clifton?" + +Oh, what he had to say was very simple; he wouldn't have mentioned it +himself, but Mrs. Clifton had asked him to. To cut a long story short, +wasn't it a shame that gentlemen should throw bouquets on the stage when +Lily was giving her show? Like last night, for instance: why, it was +making game of a child, putting ideas into her head! Lily, of course, paid +no attention to it. However, was it or was it not allowed to throw or send +bouquets on the stage? + +"Why, you know it is!" said Jimmy. "How would you have me prevent it?" + +If he could have prevented it, he would. To begin with, Jimmy realized the +bothers which it brought down upon Lily. Moreover, Jimmy, who was vaguely +uneasy himself, wondered who that ardent admirer could be. Some of +Roofer's girls thought they had recognized Trampy, from the stage, in the +front seats. What Jimmy had heard of Trampy did not inspire him with +confidence. And Trampy, it appeared, was making love to Lily. Mr. Fuchs +had met them at the corner of Oxford Street and Newman Street. The story +was quite definite. + +Jimmy was astonished at the audacity of a Trampy: what could he say to +her? he asked himself, what could he propose to her? Marriage? He was +married, they said, in America. To run away with him? His scandalous life, +his habit of easy conquest made this very likely. Jimmy had seen plenty of +others, big ones who topped the bill and who did not despise a girl's +companionship--on the contrary--and six months later, a year, two years +later, left the girl in a hole, stranded, undone; mustard and game for Jim +Crow. And he grew more and more anxious on Lily's behalf: not that Lily +would come to that! Yet he had seen plenty of them, since he had +frequented the stage, plenty of Lilies who had taken to flight for +injuries often less serious than hers. He could have mentioned names: his +head was full of those who let their anger, or their folly, get the better +of them and escaped at random, and who went back to every-day +life--through the door of scandal--sometimes to meet with worse: martyrdom +of the heart, base exploitation in the name of love. Oh, he pitied them +from the bottom of his soul! No, Lily shouldn't run away: it was +impossible! But what a pity, all the same, that he could think of it! And +what chance, what meeting would settle her fate and make her--who could +say?--the companion of a loving heart, or a prey to some footy rotter? Oh, +how he would have liked to go for Trampy, to break his jaw for him, to +teach him to mind his business and leave Lily alone! And what Jimmy wanted +to do he was never far from doing! And, then, oh, if he could procure a +good position for Clifton, as an equivalent for his star and make Lily +love him, marry him: that would be better still! + +This idea, perhaps, without his knowing it, dominated his present life, +doubled his power of work: to invent something! To get himself talked +about! To make money, plenty of money, become somebody! Others before him +had risen from nothing. Harrasford, to go no farther ... a chap who had +climbed every rung of the ladder: a small music-hall first; then two; then +a big one; then two; then ten. And a whole army now toiling and moiling +for him every night, for him the chief and master. + +"Oh!" thought Jimmy. "If I could only climb the ladder too!" + +First of all, he must choose his line, for his efforts to tell. And, since +chance had given him a start at the theater, why not go on? Here his +scientific luggage would be of use to him. It was only a question of +adding pluck to it. He was the man to do so and now more than ever. Things +which used to seem impossible to him, such as his invention published in +_Engineering_, appeared quite feasible, now that he had watched Lily do +her wonderful feats of balancing on the stage. It was only a question of +courage and hard practice. Another line suggested itself: to find capital +and start a theater. As regards the stage itself, by this time he +understood the management of it from grid to cellar. He seemed to take in +at a glance that huge entirety, from the flies with their windlasses, +their bridges, the labyrinth of stairs, the maze of passages, down to the +dressing-rooms and the painted faces that filled them: here, a Lily; +there, a buck nigger; farther on, a living-picture girl. He felt all this +rustle round him, carried it all in his head: he knew it all, from the +porter's box at the stage-door to the glittering front of the house, with +its palm-trees and its liveried chuckers-out. Jimmy knew what to think of +the enchantments of the stage, those luminous visions which the audience +admired to the tune of the orchestra: jealousies, vanities, hatreds to +knock up against and calm down; recruits to put through their paces; and +the whole day of it--and the whole night, too--for a few pounds a week, +including the tips received from the artistes, twenty-five to forty +shillings a month. + +But Jimmy had his idea: he was determined to obtain a thorough grasp of +the business; he had already taken possession of the stage-manager's room +and of his desk with the many compartments: photographs, programs, +contracts, electric light, staff, scenery. A whole small people depended +upon him, and asked his advice, bragged of its successes or told him of +its misfortunes. And here again was Clifton continuing his jeremiads: they +would drive his daughter silly by making game of her, pretending to be in +love with her, at her age! Jimmy listened attentively, with one eye on the +stage and the other on his watch: + +"Tut!" he said, trying to arrange things. "There's no great harm in +receiving bouquets on the stage. However, as you object, if any more of +them come, they shall be handed to you, to dispose of as you please. +That's all that I can do." + +It was gradually filling up behind Clifton and Jimmy; the iron door was +constantly slamming upon the passage; knowing-looking Roofer girls passed, +two by two, always two by two, joked for a moment with the scene shifters, +shook hands here and there, disappeared up the dressing-room staircase. +There was life, swarming life, everywhere, in the corners, behind the +back-cloth. The New Zealanders arrived, with Lily and her Ma, for Ma never +left her now, for fear of the gentlemen who prowled around like famished +hyenas: villains who did not hesitate to throw bouquets on the stage to +make ugly girls think they were pretty! + +Lily seemed sad. She stopped for a moment. A haunting serenade droned +across the stage, a Spanish melody sung by soft tremolo voices, with +tapping of tambourines. It reminded her of Mexico: everything reminded her +of that time now. She compared herself with Ave Maria. Oh, she would have +liked to tell the whole world how she was treated, just the plain +truth!--in her own little way. But no one cared, not even that rotten +josser of a journalist, with his article published in _The Piccadilly +Magazine_. It made her out a spoiled child, who had learned to ride in the +country-lanes, with her French governess, and who had surprised her father +and mother by coming home one day with her head on the saddle of her +bicycle and her feet in the air, thereby causing an unparalleled scandal +in that old Yorkshire family. Since then, they had been obliged to yield +to her fancies and allow her to go on the stage with her little troupe of +friends. Her salary? Ten pounds a night. Her recreation? The banjo.... + +"Rotten josser of a journalist!" thought Lily. + +Nevertheless, she was flattered at heart because of the ten pounds a night +and the governess. + +But things happened to distract her thoughts: the Three Graces entered in +their turn, followed by Nunkie; they stood talking for a few moments, +while the apprentices went and dressed; and Lily soon followed them, after +a last glance at a little woman and her "partner," who were getting things +ready for their performance---some little hoops, two cardboard bottles, +gilt balls--and then waited humbly in the shadow. + +Lily recognized Para, who used to exhibit a troupe of parrots; somebody +had put her "in his show," no doubt, the Para-Paras, a new turn. + +"How poor she looks!" Lily could not help whispering to Ma. + +"You'll be worse off yourself, some day," said Ma, "if you go on as you're +doing! Don't laugh at other people." + +Lily had dressed quickly and had come down to the stage with the Three +Graces and they had ten minutes of joking behind the scenes, while Ma was +still up-stairs, busy with the girls. Thea walked on tip-toe to restore +the circulation to her legs; Kala practised back-bendings: Lily applauded +with the tip of her thumbnail, flung back her head and laughed and, from +time to time, looked round over her shoulder to see if Ma was coming +down. + +She amused herself also by feeling Thea's arms, all those little muscles +which stood out, man's arms: she would have liked to nestle in them, to +feel herself squeezed till she cried out. And everything around them +savored of love: there were lots of Roofers; little intrigues were +embarked upon; there were stifled fits of laughter and cries of "Hands +off!" and "Stop!" Amorous speeches and stories of romantic adventures were +exchanged in whispers; the flight of the Gilson girl, the other day, at +Liverpool, was told in full detail; a Roofer, it seemed, giving a high +kick the day before, had sent her slipper flying into the audience; it was +returned to her filled with chocolate creams; and to-day there was a +boquet with a letter in it. + +Ting! The curtain, the light; and, on the stage, the Roofers were +glittering with gold and silver and their boyish voices came in gusts, +punctuated by the jerky flights of their short skirts. + +"Your old sweetheart, eh, Lily?" said Thea, pointing to the boy-violinist, +who had just arrived. + +Lily had only a careless glance for the boy-violinist, who was wiping his +eye-glasses and pulling at his cuffs, while a call-boy was adjusting the +false seat into which two bulldogs would presently dig their teeth. All +the fascination was gone for Lily: it was no longer the child prodigy; a +grotesque Orpheus, in a laurel and parsley crown, he now introduced his +music-hating dogs, who interrupted his performance with plaintive and +angry howls and ended by leaping at the seat of his trousers in a mad rush +across the stage. + +Lily, who had "gone through the mill," looked upon him as a mere josser, +had for him the instinctive contempt entertained by the real artiste for +those fiddlers, those singers, those dancers and other drones brought up +with blows of the hat. + +"Pooh! I have some one better than that," exclaimed Lily, excited by the +proximity of the Roofers. + +"If you have any one better than that and he loves you," said Thea, in a +dreamy voice, "love him, Lily, keep him; as for me, I no longer risk +having to do with men." + +"I do!" Lily whispered, with a frightened glance around her. "As much as I +can! I love talking to men! Why, Thea, and don't you like love letters and +p.-c.'s?" + +Ting! Ting! Orpheus left the stage, with his bulldogs hanging to him. + +Ting! It was dark again; ropes, plated rings were let down from the flies; +the Three Graces, like quivering marble statues, took one another by the +hand to make their entrance. + +Ting! From their perches on either side, two electricians sent the +lime-light beating down on an involved group of ropes, bars and hardened +limbs. + +Ting! A crescendo in the orchestra and, bowing to the audience across the +footlights, the Three Graces made their exit, their smiles suddenly +hollowed out into tired wrinkles, but cheerful nevertheless. And Nunkie +wiped their foreheads with his checked handkerchief, helped them on with +their big cloaks; and the three goddesses were now just a wrapped-up +group, limping off to the staircase, like gouty patients at a spa. + +Ting! A forest scene is let down, the wings are shifted. A click of +chains, a flash of steel. The bikes in the shadow, the apprentices +mounted, Lily leading. + +"And try to do your best, my Lily." + +"Yes, Pa." + +"And try to behave." + +"Yes, Ma." + +Ting! + +Lily gave a nervous smile. She always felt a little thrill before going +on. Then, quick, in Indian file, two and two, three and three, the New +Zealanders whirled round in the light, to the roar of a triumphal air. + +Pa ground his teeth and clenched his fists the moment he heard his music: +at the mere sight of his Lily, his seven stone of flesh and bones adapted +to the machine, unerring and exact, an immense intoxication exalted his +pride, gladness dilated his heart. At last! He was there now: German +discipline! English gracefulness! Everything! He, too, would have his +London home, with a lawn behind the house and a plot of rose-trees. He +would learn the meaning of family joys, as Nunkie understood them, with +texts along the staircase: "Welcome!" and "God bless our home!" And, more +and more excited, he built up his dream; his imagination gave itself scope +amid the unreal scenery, the forest depths, the green and gold sky and his +Lily, his faultless Lily, haloed in light! Every hope was permissible when +he looked at his Lily, his joy, his handiwork! His New Zealander on +Wheels! That india-rubber suppleness, those little nerves of iron, his +Lily, his glory, his star, his own star! He romanced about her, dreamed of +an imperial tour, a steamer of his own, a floating Barnum's show, with +Roofers, elephants, rhinoceroses, Ave Marias, dogs, monkeys, the whole +boiling; and Lily starring on her bike, stopping in every port, from +Liverpool to Suez, from Suez to Yokohama: down to the desert, damn it, to +show the whole world what an artiste he, Clifton, he, the father, had made +of his Lily! And he looked at her with loving eyes, applauded her with a +smile, restored her self-possession with a twitch of the eyebrow and +counted her twirls on the back-wheel--O pride unspeakable!--a dozen! + +[Illustration: SHE NEVER LOST SIGHT OF LILY] + +Ma, standing by him, interested herself less in the show and, neglecting +the artiste, watched the daughter and the faces she made at the gentlemen: +the brazen flapper, whose sole attraction lay in the wickedness in her +blood! She never lost sight of Lily and watched her closely, for Ma seemed +always to catch her throwing an appealing glance to the seducers in the +front boxes, to some St. George in full dress who would dart across the +footlights to carry off her daughter. + +Thus caught between Pa and Ma, Lily's situation was hard indeed. As for +the audience, she never troubled about it, from custom, like a true +professional, who gives her performance mechanically, without minding +about the rest. The audience, to Lily, was, behind a streak of flame, in +the semi-darkness, a confused mass of black and gray. All this had no +existence for Lily or the apprentices. The audience didn't pay them! The +audience wouldn't give her a whacking if the show went badly! Pa, in the +wings, frightened her much more than all the audiences in the world; and +Ma was worse still, when a gentleman smiled at her from a box. Then Lily +would stare at her Ma with the terrified eye of a parrot contemplating +Para's whip. She even exaggerated, pinched her lips, like a school-girl +applying herself to her book for fear of the ferule. Ma did not ask so +much as that. Sometimes, when Lily, after a successful trick, threw out +her chest to draw breath more easily and rode round the stage with a +pretty smile on her lips, Ma saw no harm in it, even rejoiced within +herself at her daughter's beauty. Ma knew how to be just and not to be +angry for nothing. But what she could not forgive, what exasperated her +was, just that very evening, with her own eyes, to see Lily smile at some +person unknown and shoot fiery glances at the front boxes, the little +devil, who would bring them to the grave with shame! + +For Lily, it must be confessed, flung prudence to the winds that night. +Her head was turned with all those love stories. They sang in her ears, +they distended her nostrils. Oppressed on every side, she escaped in +imagination toward that spacious house, toward the confused mass in which +her lover sat hidden. And, in spite of Pa and in spite of Ma, who stood +watching her in the wings, Lily searched the audience with her eyes. Was +it really Trampy? Had he come back? She had not met him for some time. She +wanted to know and he would surely reveal himself. Ma might say what she +pleased. Even in the final pyramid, she looked, while, with one apprentice +on her shoulders, another forked before her, another standing behind, two +others on either side, she twice went round the stage, with flags waving, +to the hurricane of the orchestra. And then ting! And darkness anew, the +stage suddenly invaded by scene-shifters dragging heavy sets along; and +Lily, passing out, was seized by her Ma, who said: + +"Who were you laughing at?" + +"I wasn't laughing, Ma!" + +"I'll teach you to make eyes at gentlemen, you baggage you! I saw you this +time! I saw you!" grumbled Ma, who had the engagement ring still upon her +mind. "You shall pay for this, Lily; we'll see if I can drive the devil +out of you or not!" + +And Ma squeezed Lily's arm as if she meant to break it, but all this +noiselessly, in the shadow, behind the scenery, for fear of the stage +manager. Besides, it was nobody's business what a mother thought fit to +say to her daughter, and Lily, when people passed, pluckily tried to +smile, so as to put them off, not to let them know that she was being +beaten, a big girl like her; but, as soon as they were gone, she resumed +her rebellious face. + +"I wasn't laughing, I wasn't laughing, Ma!" + +"That's to teach you to lie!" said Ma, catching her a blow in the back of +the neck. + +The door of the staircase had swung to behind them; and, in the empty +passage, the thumps continued all the way to the dressing-room, which the +apprentices had not yet reached. Then, once inside, Ma pushed the bolt and +made a rush at Lily. And Lily raised her elbow in vain: accompanied by a +furious series of grunts--"Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!"--Ma's diligent fist "signed a +contract on her back": + +"And don't you dare to cry out, or I'll give it you twice as hard!" + +Lily, bruised all over, felt inclined to scratch her mother, like a +wildcat; but the apprentices were coming. So she cooled her head in a +basin of cold water and dressed with all speed, assisted by Ma, who +perhaps regretted having been so hasty; but you had to be, with devils +like that! And Ma's anger returned when, on reaching the stage again, she +was herself, in accordance with Jimmy's orders, handed a bouquet intended +for Miss Lily. What, another! Lily, following her down the stairs with the +New Zealanders, saw Ma take the bouquet and toss it through the open +door. + +"Come along," said Ma. "Give me your arm, Lily." + +And the New Zealanders walked away from the brightly lit-up music-hall, +plunged through the drifting crowd, crossed the eddy of cabs, motors, +'buses and, on the pavements, through the windows, had visions of elegant +couples at sumptuous tables. Then they all went through the dark streets; +and Lily, escorted by Pa and Ma, followed the herd of girls. Her face was +hard and, from an angry brow, she shot glances askance at flight. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Now Trampy--even if he had to marry her for it, by Jove!--had set his mind +on having Lily, at any cost; and that not only because of her prettiness, +but also that he might play Clifton a damned good trick and teach him that +he must smart for treating a gentleman as he had treated him in Mexico. It +would be paying him out with interest to take his Lily from him. Besides, +think of the credit it would give Trampy in the profession to have for his +wife the prettiest, the cleverest girl on the boards, each of whose shows, +when she performed alone, would be worth at least three pounds, as much as +a whole troupe! He suspected in her the ripe fruit that was bound to drop; +and he shook the tree to hasten the fall. He considered his reputation at +stake: he, the man with the thirty-six girls, as he was called at the +music-hall. He got caught in his own toils and wanted Lily madly, out of +revenge and pride ... and jealousy too, for he suspected that Jimmy was +courting her; and the idea that he had a rival inflamed his ardor. + +In the evening, pen in hand, in his dressing-room, or else at a table in a +café, after a second and a third glass of old port, he prepared his +batteries: letters, post-cards, he excelled in everything, was careful +about his phrases, with the vanity of an author whose writings are widely +quoted. Lily was "fascinating" and "bewildering;" he compared her to +"those strange Indian poppies whose scent intoxicates a man and sometimes +gives him death." Gee, but that set Lily dreaming! Fancy having all that +in her! Who on earth would have thought it? Never mind, it was very nice. + +And the way in which she received her correspondence amused her as much as +the rest. Trampy, it goes without saying, did not write direct: a few +pence to Tom, who hated Clifton, and Lily received the cards in secret, +devoured them when she was alone and then quickly tore them into little +pieces and sent them flying through the window. + +Her trouble was how to answer. She really did not know what to say: + + "Pa was so angry with the girls yesterday. I got a kick of the pedal + on my shin. Otherwise I am quite well. Excuse more for the present. I + must now conclude. + + "Lily." + +By return of post, she received "a thousand kisses on her rosy cheeks, on +her fair tresses, everywhere," kisses without end. + +"He's mad," thought Lily. + +But she was greatly flattered by Trampy's attentions. He treated her as a +woman, not as a child, as Pa and Ma went out of their way to do. Her life, +after all, would be more agreeable if she was Trampy's wife; and he was +delivering the attack in person, since his return from Lancashire, where +he had traveled about with his property red-hot stove. He overwhelmed her +with bouquets, even as a general bombards a bastion before the final +assault, and he managed to meet her now. He dazzled Lily with his big gold +watch-chain and the diamond in his tie. When he was able to whisper a word +to her, it was always the same thing--"Motor-cars! Paris gowns! Jewels! +Flowers!"--until Lily thought she saw all the shop-windows in Regent +Street poured out at her feet. + +Jimmy made but a sorry lover, compared with Trampy. He never promised +anything, silk dresses, diamonds or jewels. "The husband at work, the wife +at home." Gee, there were no ostrich-feathers in that! But he adored her +all the same, as Lily was well able to see; and she had many occasions to +talk to both of them. Not that Lily was less closely watched. She never +went out alone, but it was not always Ma who was at her heels: it was +sometimes Glass-Eye. With faithful Glass-Eye, things took their own course +and the interviews with Trampy became easy. As for Jimmy, he saw her every +day at practice and he took that opportunity to tell her of his ideas, his +plans for the future. + +"I shall succeed, you will see, Lily," he said. "I shall do something some +day. I'm a bit of a mechanic, a bit of an electrician, that is to say, a +bit of a wizard. Others have started lower down and climbed very high." + +"Yes," replied Lily, "I know. It's like Pa. He wasn't much before he got +me into shape; and look at him now!" + +This was said with an artless candor that enraptured Jimmy. + +"What a dear little girlie you are!" he said. "What an adorable kid!" + +"That's right," retorted Lily. "Why not a baby, while you're about it, a +school-girl in the biking-class and so on? Some people treat me as a +woman, Jimmy, and propose to marry me!" + +"What's that?" + +"What I say, Jimmy." + +"And this man making up to you is worthy of you, I suppose? And do you +love him?" asked Jimmy, greatly upset. + +"Pooh!" said Lily. "I'm not quite sure." + +"But you wouldn't marry him unless you loved him?" + +"I should marry him to change my life." + +"A change, Lily," said Jimmy, with feeling, "is not always a change for +the better! And your life is a little pleasanter now, you told me so +yourself. Your mother is sorry. You're getting pocket-money; ten shillings +a week, eh? Why, Lily, that's splendid!" + +"Well; and I earn it, I suppose," said Lily. "And Ma isn't a bit sorry. Pa +said he wouldn't have it, that's all. They were afraid of my running away +if it went on. I am no longer a child!" + +"No," said Jimmy, taking her hands, "an adorable girl; that's what you +are. Oh, a man whom you would love should do great things! He would love +you with all his heart! And your life would be different then! No, you +would not be a performing dog, as you call it; you would be a darling +little wife. It's all very well to rove about the world, from theater to +theater, riding round and round on your bike...." + +"I adore the stage, for all that!" interrupted Lily. + +"But that can't go on for ever," continued Jimmy. "You're entitled to have +a nicer life: a home of your own, Lily; you have the making of a lady in +you, if you were taught. In a year or two, Lily, you would be the equal of +any lady in the land." + +"Learning, more learning, always learning! I've had enough of it in my +life!" muttered Lily, affected, nevertheless, by Jimmy's intense +excitement, and lowering her eyes under his glance. + +"Why, yes, Lily, always learning, that's life!" said Jimmy. "But the other +chap, of course, promises you the earth! Some millionaire, I suppose: an +admirer in the front boxes?" + +"He's an artiste," said Lily. + +"Why," said Jimmy, stepping back, without letting go of her. "But, no, +it's impossible; you're not thinking of Trampy!" + +"Why not?" said Lily angrily, trying to release herself from Jimmy's +passionate grasp. + +"Why, because ... because he's a drunkard ... a ... The other day I saw +him at the bar of the Crown, as I was passing. He was blind-drunk." + +"What's the good of talking?" said Lily. "He's miserable. He worships me. +He drinks to forget. He told me so himself!" + +"But they say he's married," said Jimmy. "Why ..." + +"It's mean and jealous of you to say that," said Lily, suddenly +withdrawing her hands. "You deserve a smacking! How can he be married, +when he wants to marry me?" + +And with that she left him and went up to the dressing-room. + +Jimmy was heartbroken. + +"It's a joke of Lily's ... as in my shop, some months ago, when she +pretended to have a sweetheart, though she hadn't!" + +But, argue as he would, Jimmy thought with terror of Trampy's habits of +conquest, of his reputation in the profession as a Don Juan. He bitterly +regretted waiting so long to speak to Lily. He had thought that he was +pleasing her by keeping in the background, for fear of causing her +annoyance at home: was his sole offense now that of coming too late? + +Oh, if he had only had evidence to hand! But Trampy's marriage was one of +those vague rumors. One could say nothing for certain. However, the +danger, no doubt, was not yet imminent. And Jimmy had a friend who was +doing America in the theaters of the Eastern and Western Trust: he +resolved to write to him; the friend would receive his letter at the +Majestic, Houston, Texas, or at the Denver Orpheum. The thing had happened +over there; they would probably remember it in the theaters he passed +through; he could make inquiries, perhaps even obtain proofs. That +exquisite Lily, that masterpiece of grace: what a darling wife she would +make! And all for Trampy! Jimmy was determined to do everything to prevent +it. + +He did not despair of supplying Lily, before long, with the proof that +Trampy was married; he would give the name, the date; he would compel +Trampy to admit it. But he was not sure enough yet to accuse him openly: +Lily would have seen nothing in it but a ridiculous jealousy and would +never have forgiven him. + +Then Jimmy was worried: people came to him for this, for that, for the +thousand details of the stage. + +Lily, on her side, left the theater. That day, she was accompanied by +Maud, who fixed her with her glass eye, while the other was engaged in +watching the flies. Of course, Trampy was prowling round the theater to +see her part of the way home; for he, too, had decided to carry things +with a high hand. And he set to work at a quicker pace than ever. + +He had none of Jimmy's scruples; he was not afraid of exaggerating: far +from it. Lily always left him under the impression of a glimpse of +paradise. This time, however, she failed to smile when Trampy vowed that +she was "the sweetest little thing that one could lay eyes on, by Jove!" +For a long time, but especially since that morning, she had been burning +to put a question to him. Possibly she had no intention of marrying him, +but she wouldn't allow him to make a fool of her; and she interrupted him +in his compliments to ask if what they said was true. + +"Who says so? It's a lie!" Trampy hastened to answer. + +"I mean your marriage," replied Lily. + +"I thought as much," said Trampy. + +"Tell me the truth," persisted Lily innocently, looking him straight in +the eyes. + +"If I was married, Lily, would I want to marry you?" + +"Of course not," said Lily, already shaken. + +"Who's been talking to you about that?" asked Trampy. "Your Pa, eh? And +Jimmy: I'll bet that Jimmy ...?" + +"Jimmy too." + +"If I don't box that fellow's ears!" shouted Trampy. "Can't you see that +he's jealous? Why? He didn't even give you my bouquets! He handed them to +your Ma! And so I've been married, eh? Whereabouts? In America, I'll +wager?" + +"Yes, somewhere on the Western Tour." + +"Of course," said Trampy. "That's what I've heard myself. Still, it seems +to me that, if I had a wife, I ought to be the first to know it; don't you +think so, Lily?" + +This was proof positive. Lily could find nothing to answer. + +"Come and have a drink, Lily?" + +"They're waiting for me at home," said Lily. + +Trampy went into the bar alone, in a desperate state of love which made +him call for a port and another, by Jove! Then he sat down at a table in a +corner, lit a cigar and examined his glass, as though truth lay at the +bottom. For he could not tell for certain. Was he married or was he not? +That's what he himself would like to know! According to him, upon his soul +and conscience, he was not a married man; he did himself that justice. +Opportunities, certainly, had not been wanting ... with all the girls he +had known ... enough to fill a dozen beauty-shows. Sometimes even he had +had a narrow escape, as in that damned town in the West, in one of those +states where you can't so much as take a girl to supper without finding +yourself married to her in the morning, all for entering yourself in the +hotel book as "Mr. and Mrs. Trampy," in other words, as man and wife. And +yet he couldn't ask the girl who adored him to sleep on the mat! Yes, a +poor girl who had found glowing words in which to tell him her love, one +night in Mexico, words which had set Trampy quivering with longing +compassion: was he to be reproached with that? He had made her happy, +after all; and, on the whole, this lark was one of his pleasantest +memories; it hadn't lasted too long: a matter of a few weeks at most. He +had left Mexico, taking the girl with him, and played Trampy Wheel-Pad in +the Western States, with any amount of success, by Jove! Encores, packets +of tobacco, a new suit of clothes! And, by way of _entr'acte_, the +girl--"Tramp Wheel-Pad's Jumping Flea," as she was called--turned +somersaults and flip-flaps. But she would have killed him, this dark girl +with great dark eyes,--this girl with a boy's figure, all muscle and +sinew, keeping him awake all night and talking of nothing but smackings, +as though she had never learned anything else. And so much in love that +she would bite and scratch: a very tigress. Any one but himself would have +wearied of it. And then, one fine morning, for coupling their names in the +visitors' book, they found themselves married, in the name of the law! And +that was what people called a marriage! So little married were they, +according to him, that he had given her the slip then and there, leaving +her all the money he possessed, however: he was not the man to look at +fifteen dollars, when honor demanded it. Trampy had had more stories of +this kind in his life; they left as much impression on his mind as the +recollection of a "schooner" swallowed at a bar on a summer night. + +It was dishonest, he considered, to pretend that he was married. Not that +he was perfect: far from it! He did not set up as a model. He had had +scandals in his life: he admitted it humbly; and, if some jealous person, +some Jimmy, for instance, wanted to do him harm, all he had to do was to +dig in the heap, instead of hawking round that story of an imaginary +marriage. + +His differences with Poland, the Parisienne, for instance: a regular Mrs. +Potiphar, that one. He had found it a hard job to get away from her. And +ever and ever so many others! He couldn't remember. People were always +talking ill of him. There was more than that, however: he, too, was +capable of manly ambition; he, too, had taken a breakneck risk. He had +perfected and patented at Washington an invention of which he had seen a +drawing, by accident, in a scientific journal--_Engineering_, or +another--a purely theoretical invention. The inventor himself, a young +London electrician, declared it to be unrealizable. Well, he, +Trampy--Poland had helped him with her purse; she was very nice about +it--he, Trampy, had had the thing made. He had deposited the models at the +Patent Office; and the apparatus itself was now in a London storage. He +would get it out, some day, and show them all what he was capable of. + +Now he was wrong, perhaps, in abandoning Poland, after accepting her +services; but, after all, those were matters which concerned nobody but +himself. It was not fair play to tell Lily about them: she, he felt, would +always be the girl of his heart, the thirty-seventh and last, and it would +take a better man than Jimmy to snatch her from him! + +Already, it was much to have pacified Lily on that incident of the +marriage: Lily believed him. One thing, however, disquieted Trampy: +bigamy, all the same, meant doing time. Now, if some jealous person +produced the proof of that marriage, contracted under the Western law ... +suppose it were valid ... really valid? H'm! Was he going to lose Lily for +that? And his liberty into the bargain? That Lily who was worth her weight +in gold, love and fortune in one! + +Trampy resolved to broach this delicate subject: + +"Suppose I was married," he hinted, one day, "that wouldn't matter. +Couldn't we ... live together ... eh?" + +"I like your style!" said Lily, feeling slightly indignant at such a +proposal. "What do you take me for?" + +"I was only joking," Trampy hastened to say. "If you want to be married, +I'm quite agreeable." + +"I insist upon it!" + +"So then you prefer to take strangers into our confidence?" + +"What strangers?" asked Lily, in surprise. + +"Why, the quill-drivers at Somerset House and those damned fire-escapes." + +Lily had enough religion to know that the fire-escape was the clergyman: + +"As for that," she said, "we shall see later; but I want the registrar's +office. If I'm to be your little wife, I want to be so for good and all: +marriage or nothing!" + +"I shall be delighted, Lily!" + +"And I'm determined!" + +Lily was the more bent upon it, because marriage made her free: that was +the essential point. If she were not married, her parents could make her +come back, she thought ... keep her with them ... gee! It gave her cold +shivers down the back! Once married, she was protected by law; Pa and Ma +had nothing to say; and so she was very keen upon marriage. + +"What a dear little wife she'll make!" thought Trampy. "And how she loves +me!" + +That, however, did not advance matters. It was all very well for him to +put his arm round her waist, to talk softly to her, to whisper those words +which had already won him so many conquests:--one day, even, he had kissed +her on the lips,--Lily thought that very nice; it was all very well for +him to cut a dash at the bar, to stand her a claret and a biscuit; it was +all very well for him to sing his love-litany: all this did not help him; +at the rate at which he was going, he wouldn't get anywhere in six +months. + +Lily, between those two jossers, amused herself immensely. How lucky she +was! Two men, at her age! They irritated her, sometimes; when they went +too far--Trampy, especially, who got excited at the game--anyhow, it was a +homage paid to her beauty. Between that and going away with him there was +all the difference in the world! To leave home was quite another matter. +Why, goodness, if things went on as they were, she could do without +marriage at all! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Lily, come down!" Pa's voice thundered from below. + +Lily was out of bed in a bound. She could hardly tie her skirt-strings for +trembling. Why was Pa in such a rage? + +The moment Lily entered her parents' room, she realized what it was. Pa +was holding a letter in his hand and scowling at her. + +"These are nice stories I hear!" he cried. "You let men kiss you? You've +got a love affair? Come, Lily, is this true?" + +"It's Jimmy's doing," thought Lily. "The mean cur! He's given me away!" + +Pa went on hotly: + +"And you're going to marry, are you? To marry Trampy? Here, read that!" + +Lily felt hopeless. She took the letter, but did not attempt to read it. +White with fear, could she have sprung through the window and fled, she +would have done so. + +"Well," Pa went on apace, growing more and more excited, "is all this +true? All that they tell me: about your receiving letters, post-cards, +jewelry ... and that ring! I've seen it! You're going to marry Trampy, are +you? Oh, the man who writes to me knows all about it, saw you with him at +the corner of Oxford Street and Newman Street. Is that true, miss? What +did you have to tell him, pray? Speak out!" + +Lily, terror-stricken, could only droop her head. + +"It's true then that you want to get married, you baggage!" + +"Pa!" cried Lily. + +But he, with an "Ah!" of rage, sprang upon her, clutched her mass of hair, +banged her head against the wall: + +"On your knees! Say, 'I--beg--your--par--don--'" + +And, Bang! Bang! Bang! The phrase was punctuated with thumps. + +"Oh, Clifton," implored Ma, "stop! Not so hard!" + +"Beg--par--don! Beg--par--don!" continued Pa, without relenting. + +Lily was half-stunned, the world throbbed before her eyes, and, delirious +with wrath, she hissed: + +"Never!" + +"But I say, I say you shall not marry him! I'll kill you first!" + +"Yes, I will marry him, yes, yes, I will marry him! kill me, if you like! +God is my witness that I had not thought of getting married, but, as you +say so, I will!" + +His fist closed her mouth. She clasped her arms about her head, to protect +herself as best she could, but soon sank to the floor, fainting.... + +For three days she was in bed, broken, dazed--then, no sooner on her feet, +than off to the theater, guarded by Pa and Ma. If they could, they would +have padlocked a chain to her ankle and a collar about her neck. Ma +chilled Lily with her scornful pity, or racked her with repeated insults: + +"A disgrace to the family! You'll be the death of us!" + +She would shower cuffs upon Lily, throw books at her head, or whatever +came readiest to hand. Lily hid the books, the umbrellas, shrank into +corners, longing to cry; but the tears refused to come. She was too angry. +And, with head down, but eyes alert, she crouched like a dog rebelling +under blows, with lips drawn back above her teeth, ready to bite. + +"I'm going out, or I'll kill her!" growled Pa, slamming the door behind +him. + +Pa was thoroughly upset: for Lily to leave him! Just when Hauptmann was +starting a fifth troupe; when Pawnee was drawing full houses with his +three stars; when competition was increasing and threatening: it meant +disaster, certain ruin, the disbanding of his troupe, his contracts +canceled. He seethed with indignation; or else, in despair, felt like +taking Lily in his arms, seating her on his knee, begging her to tell him +that it was all a nightmare, that she would never marry, never marry that +Trampy: his good little Lily ... whom her Pa would cover with diamonds! +She should have all she wished, and everything, if only she would assure +him that it was not true that Trampy, that ungrateful cur, whom he, Pa, +had picked out of the gutter, was going to steal his Lily! That damned Jim +Crow! Pa, in his fury, bought a revolver to scatter the footy rotter's +brains with, but Trampy received the tip from Tom and vanished, hey, +presto, leaving no trace, allowing no sign of himself to crop up anywhere. +Pa's rage was vented on his daughter. + +Happily for her, Lily now was a model of conduct. She felt thoroughly +calm. Peace seemed to reign in the house. Lily was such a gentle little +thing! One day--the very day on which Tom passed her a note from Trampy +and she made a package of her new dress and of her photographs, and +souvenirs--that evening, as she kissed her father and mother, tears came +to her eyes. Then, instead of going to the kitchen, she fetched her +bundle, stealthily opened the street-door and ran to the corner, where +Trampy was waiting in a hansom, and hi, off for the holidays, the +champagne, the long-dreamed-of Paradise! + + + + +PLAYING 'EM IN + +I + + +They were seated on the basket trunk marked, "Trampy Wheel-Pad," in big +black letters. The steamer had left Harwich and was making for Holland. +The English coast was disappearing in the mist. On the deck, a heap of +luggage and parcels made a sort of nest for them. Trampy, with his dear +little wife by his side, was thinking of the future ... so many things +which he had flashed before Lily's eyes and which he could not give her +... not directly, at least ... but, pooh, she'd get used to it by degrees. +The great thing, to Trampy, was that he had his Lily! He was going to +stuff himself to the throat with love and, first of all, to seek a shelter +for his sweet wife and himself. England was no place for them. Pa was +prowling round and Jimmy, too. Once their anger was over and they found +themselves face to face with the irreparable, everything would calm down; +meantime, the wisest thing for Trampy and Lily was to be prudent and run +away as fast as they could. Trampy had his plan, he had seen the agents: +Holland and Belgium first; then a performance at Ludwig's Concert House, +in Hamburg, and a brilliant first appearance before a hall filled with +managers. Already he saw himself in the famous little room of the Café +Grüber, where so many contracts were signed during the few days that the +hearing-season lasted, and then he would have the whole continent, from +St. Petersburg to Lisbon, make heaps of money, treat Lily like the little +peach she was and cover her with diamonds, by Jove! Trampy, meanwhile, was +none too easy in his mind: funds were low; the two pounds paid at the +registrar's office had lightened his purse still more. Fortunately, the +fire-escape had not had his seven-and-six-pence: that was so much saved. + +"A poor consolation," thought Trampy. "The price of a dog-license." + +But he was gay, nevertheless, in his wife's company. He forgot his +thirty-six girls. He told Lily stories, made her squirm with laughter, +played with her, dazzled her with the champagne suppers ... which they +would have later on. Or else, like the consummate mummer that he was, he +put on the gloomy countenance of a man about to reveal the secret of his +heart: + +"I'm a wretch," he muttered, while Lily, in her innocence--Lily, who had +been living on tenter-hooks since her flight from home a few days +before--turned her frightened eyes upon him. "A miserable wretch ... +married. Yes, it's true; I'm married, Lily." + +"It's true what they said? You're married?" + +"Yes, I am." + +"Oh, I knew it!" said Lily, in despair. "But then ... if you are ... I'm +not!" + +"You silly little thing!" said Trampy, kissing her and taking her on his +knee. "Yes, I'm married; yes; and no one shall separate us. Haven't I the +prettiest little wife--here, on my knee--my little Lily?" + +"Oh, how you frightened me!" said Lily, nestling against him. "Oh, don't +ever let us part!" + +With a wife like that, said Trampy to himself, a little discomfort more or +less made no difference. As long as she had her dear husband, she would be +happy. She would have eyes for nothing but him and would not care a fig +for all the rest. + +Now she loved him: there was no doubt about that. She had left everything +for him! He could even have had her without marriage, by Jove, and saved +two pounds, if he had insisted! So he thought, at least, and he put a +conquering arm round Lily's waist, while she, with her head on his +shoulder, dreamed and dreamed, her eyes fixed upon the horizon. She was +married! She had dared! She would be, at last, the little lady she had +always been by instinct! And Lily went on building her castles in Spain +until, after the smooth crossing, arriving at the Hook of Holland, she +would not have been surprised to find her own motor-car and servants +waiting for her on the quay. But no, she had to carry her bag herself, +under the fine drizzle, upon the slippery pavement, to the train ... and +third-class to Rotterdam. It was all very well for Trampy to adopt a +triumphant air, but Lily was greatly vexed at the idea of going with her +husband to a little hotel frequented by artistes, bill-toppers though they +were. She would have liked something different. + +Trampy observed that, with her Pa.... + +"With Pa," said Lily, "it was not the same thing ... and I'm not with Pa +now." + +Trampy showed himself accommodating. That evening, Lily had the proud +satisfaction of walking into a smart hotel, with waiters in the hall, as +at the Horse Shoe. She carried her head high, conscious of being looked +at. She would have liked always to shine like that--to sit down to meals +amid the rustling of silk dresses ... but she felt uneasy in her modest +attire. Trampy would be only too pleased to give her a new outfit, later +on, yes; but as he explained to Lily, he had had so many expenses +recently, wouldn't it be better to take rooms somewhere, in a sort of +place like Lisle Street, or St. Pauli, at Hamburg? Lily yielded to these +arguments, she had to; but it was a bitter grief for her to leave that +fine hotel, where everybody saw her as a lady ... perhaps because of her +big hat, on which a bird, flat-spread, opened wide its wings and held in +its beak a diamond the size of an egg. + +And, thenceforth, the mean life returned: Lily relapsed among the potatoes +and the wash-hand-basin salads. There were occasional revolts, tart words, +sudden disputes, which, at times, wrinkled her forehead with anger.... + +Nevertheless, she had her good moments: she enjoyed the sensation of being +a lady who does no work, of wearing gloves and a big hat and of looking at +the time on her fine gold watch while her husband is on the stage. It +seemed pleasant to her no longer to appear before the audience doing her +performing-dog tricks, with Pa scrutinizing her from the wings. It was her +turn now to make one of the small nation: pas, mas, profs, bosses, +brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, all watching their bread-winners on +the boards. She mingled with them, or else sat down prettily in a corner, +talked to the artistes: other Martellos, other Nunkies; new faces every +week, according to the theaters they were at: owners of troupes; sketch +comedians, serio-comics; dancers of the Roofer class; laced-up, glittering +"Mdlles.;" or else, from time to time, some josser, a friend of the +manager's or an agent, prowling around among the flesh-colored tights. +Lily had seen all this a hundred times, a thousand times before, when she +was with her parents; and the mere thought of Ma made her talk nicely, +from bravado, to all of them, though she was married now. Lily bore Pa no +malice, in spite of the buckled belt. Pa was a man, with hair on his chest +and harsh like all of them ... no, not all ... and not so bad, perhaps ... +not always ... no; however, a man.... But her Ma, a lady, ought to have +stood up for her! If Ma could see her now, gee! Lily felt a lump in her +throat at the notion. And it was their fault that she had run away! It +served them right! She was much happier, now, when she was a lady in her +turn. Her talent and her beauty received the homage due to them. Lily +Clifton, the New Zealander, what ho! A famous name in the profession! She +was one of those whom the stage people point out to one another: + +"Gee!" she sometimes heard a voice say behind her. "Fancy owning a girl +like that and not having the sense to keep her!" + +Lily was flattered to the core at hearing her parents blamed; she felt +inclined to rise and say, "'K you," with the great stage bow: her right +hand on her heart, the other raising her dress, her body bent forward in a +sweeping curtsey. + +She took part in the conversations: she knew a little Spanish, which she +had learned in Mexico, and a little German, which she had picked up in +America from the Three Graces; and besides they all jabbered English, they +were all "families," "misses," "the's," with impossible accents, +suggesting some of those cosmopolitan towns beyond the "Rockies." In this +medley, she was at her ease; but she did not at all like being called +Lily, now that she was a lady: + +"Call me Mrs. Trampy," she said. + +After the show, she would sit in the restaurant with Trampy. There, amid +clouds of tobacco-smoke, they all supped in a crowd. There were separate +tables, at which silent little parties gobbled down their cutlets and +compote in ten minutes and then slipped away quietly. Sometimes, a whole +band of girls would swoop down at once, like a flight of thrushes, or +exchange funny remarks over other people's heads and blow volleys of +kisses in every direction. + +Trampy, always full of good stuff, amused the company. He lorded it in the +select corner, the corner of the stage-manager and the pretty girls. After +supper, he cocked a cigar between his teeth and told thick stories in the +midst of an admiring throng. Lily followed with her lips, so as not to +lose a word, but, when the final point was at hand, she blushed in +advance, turned away her head, as though tired of listening without +understanding, and talked to her neighbor, like a lady who respects +herself. Or, sometimes, it was more than she could help and Lily would +laugh and laugh: + +"Oh, dear! Oh, my!" + +Then they would "talk shop" among pros, they passed one another the +papers: _Der Artist, The Era, Das Program_, they discussed engagements, +quoted personal anecdotes: the Ma who made her star go down to the +kitchen, lest the landlady, when peeling the potatoes, should slip one +into her pocket. Yes, her own daughter, a star who brought her in a +hundred marks a day! + +"That's just like it!" thought Lily. + +They made fun of that prof who pinched his apprentices till the blood +came, while pretending to smile, or clawed them like a monkey. And the +company laughed and laughed, especially when Trampy put out his hand to +Lily to show her how the monkeys ... Lily would jump back and the crowd +roared with laughter. And the glasses of beer and Moselwein accumulated on +the table; and round backs were bent over interminable games of cards.... + +And then, gradually, the room emptied; the girls went away and Lily, +waiting for her husband, sank into her chair and yawned as though her jaws +would drop. As they left, she reproached Trampy for his coarseness: those +horrid stories which made her blush before everybody's eyes. Her Pa would +never have permitted himself ... She was not accustomed ... + +"That didn't keep you from splitting your sides with laughter," said +Trampy. + +"What an idea!" replied Lily, in a vexed tone. "Do you think I'm going to +play the goody goody 'lalerperlooser'? One has to do as others do and not +make one's self conspicuous." + +"Quite right!" said Trampy. + +But she turned crimson with rage when Trampy, some other night, forgot +himself so far as to monkey-claw the girls. There were short violent +scenes when they returned home, chairs upset, angry words. Trampy could +not understand this jealousy. When he was confronted with these outbursts, +he was greatly surprised, sought for a reason, muttered Jimmy's name--that +was his sensitive point: he thought of it in spite of himself--ironically +inquired of Lily if it was Jimmy who had put all that nonsense into her +head. Lily was sorry to see the conversation take this turn. She flung her +arms round her husband's neck, loved him, kissed him prettily, the great +silly: he knew better; he knew she never thought of Jimmy: + +"Kiss me, darling! I wish you would make me happy," said Lily, moved to +pity for herself. "I want to be a good little wife!" + +Thereupon they made it up. Lily did not feel, with her husband, that +thrill which she had often noticed in other women: but she wanted to love +him, stubbornly pursued the idea, fagged away at her love like a little +school-girl only too anxious to learn. Trampy, on his side, could be +amiable when he liked. He became the old Trampy again at times and treated +Lily like a little playfellow. They would both run about in the +_Biergarten_, in the morning, at practice-time, larking like children, +hiding behind the tables, and their laughter enlivened the empty place, +still soiled with the remnants of last night's meal and littered with +programs and cigar-stumps. + +And time passed like this for weeks ... it was months now ... an existence +like another, with good in it and bad ... and monotonous and common.... + +"I should have been better off, perhaps, at home," she thought. "If this +is marriage, it's not much." + +For, she saw it quite clearly, _that_ wasn't love; Trampy didn't +understand her. A "girl" and a wife were all the same to Trampy: a mere +pastime, both of them. He spoke of it lightly, through the smoke of his +cigar. She learned to know him, heard him boast of his prowess, caught +passing words: + +"Girls, girls, my!" + +She would have laughed, she would even have felt flattered at being chosen +among so many, if he had put an end to his conquests. But he continued to +prowl round the stage-girls, as he used to do before he was married. If +even he had shone upon the stage, she would have understood that he had +got "swelled head," that he was yielding to temptation; but his success +was only middling. He had not made a hit at Hamburg. The manager of +Ludwig's had told him flatly that he would do well to practise and +practise a great deal. Trampy posed as a victim of jealousy, spoke of +showing them--all of them, if once he put his back to it!--a new turn, a +discovery that would show what he was made of! Meanwhile he had a new +idea, as a sketch comedian, with a make-up of his own invention, the face +painted white on one side and red on the other, with wrinkles cunningly +drawn--a laughing Johnny and a crying Johnny, two men in one. He pestered +Lily with his plans, made her cut out dresses for him, came back from the +old-clothes shop laden with uniforms in rags, into which Lily had to put +patches. And shoes, in particular, ran in his head; shoes of which the +soles and the uppers yawned like lips; talking shoes, which said, "Papa!" +and "Mamma!" This last suggestion made Lily laugh. + +Trampy haunted the bazaars, bought children's toys, took the stomachs out +of the cardboard dogs and rabbits to make his quackers, sought about for +his right note, pursued inspiration to the bottom of the glasses. + +Lily was sometimes driven to exasperation. This tramp-cyclist, this +sketch-comedian was making her, Lily Clifton, patch up his dresses! And +her husband rewarded her for it by making love to the girls, poor idiot! +Oh, if Pa and Ma had not been so harsh with her! Lily always harked back +to that, stiffened herself with the thought, remembered the Marjutti girl, +in whom love of art produced wonders and whose Pa and Ma were so gentle +and kind. + +"They should have treated me like that," she concluded, "and I should have +been at home still!" + +She regretted her marriage. And there were some who pitied her for +belonging to Trampy: they looked upon him as not worthy of her, blamed him +for openly carrying on with girls. Others asked, as though it did not +matter, was she really married or were they just "living together?" + +"What? Am I married? Is that what they think about me?" she said, a little +annoyed. "Of course I am! At the Kennington registry-office!" + +And yet a doubt entered her mind too. Was she really married, after all? +Lily did not know much about it. Had the banns been published? And those +two witnesses picked up in the street ... a ceremony that took just five +minutes ... like a conjuring trick. If it was true that they were "living +together" without her knowing it, she would not stay with him. She would +go back home at once. Marriage, certainly, was never intended for her. +This she realized now. When she thought of the Gilson girl, mad on her +man, and of others whom she sometimes caught in the dressing-rooms and +passages eating each other up with kisses, she was at a loss to +understand. How could they make so much fuss about it? + +Poor little wife, with so little love for her husband and no admiration at +all! As an artiste she thought him lamentable. Trampy, who had seemed so +great to her in Mexico ... why, she had shot miles ahead of him since! She +felt that he was getting second-rate. He himself was well aware of it, for +that matter; blamed everybody: suspected a hoodoo somewhere: some son of a +gun bringing him ill-luck. And he was always casting about for an easy +means of success ... another new plan ... always something new ... a +high-sounding title: "Rusty Bike," an old jigger which, at each turn of +the wheel, would grate like a cart, "Crrrra! Crrrra!" and bring the house +down with laughter, while Lily, in the wings, was to sound an +accompaniment on a grating rattle: + +"Crrrra! Crrrra!" + +"All that set-out for nothing!" said Lily to herself. "It would be much +simpler to have a little talent." + +She felt herself overcome with contempt for her husband: what a sorry +bread-winner he made! Why take a wife, when you had only that to keep her +on? Lily did not know whether to laugh or to cry when she saw Trampy come +down from his dressing-room, proud as a peacock, his chest swelling at the +sight of so many girls at a time, a treat of which he never wearied. He +was magnificent, was Trampy, against that background of shoulders, thighs +and calves: in his element as a fish in water. Nor did he make any bones +about smiling to them or monkey-clawing them as they came off the stage. +The presence of his wife did not hinder him. He was sure of her love: he +knew she must adore him, as all the others did. And, leaving Lily in a +corner, in the shade of a pillar, with his eyes he devoured all that +powdered flesh, all those coarse wigs. + +Lily hated him at such times. She could have boxed his ears. She had +enough of it, at last. One evening, she caught hold of his arm to take him +away, furious that a gentleman could find a pleasure in making his wife +look so ridiculous! And Trampy, more or less flattered at what he +considered a fond wife's jealousy, was turning to go, when a lady with +plumes on her head and a woolly dog under her arm greeted him with: + +"Hullo, old boy! Glad to see you, Trampy!" + +Lily--it was a distant memory, but no matter--recognized Poland, the +Parisienne, with the painted face and the violent scent. Trampy took a +step backward. He expected a scene, though he owed her nothing, after all; +but she did not seem angry, no. On the contrary, she looked at him with a +roguish eye. She knew of Trampy's marriage, no doubt, as she knew of his +conquests, having been his victim herself. + +"Hullo, old boy!" repeated Poland, sizing up Lily with an appraising +glance and then fixing her eyes upon Trampy. "Still having your successes, +old boy? Is this your number thirty? Thirty-six? Thirty-eight, eh?" + +"What!" Lily broke in, astounded at these manners. "What number +thirty-six, thirty-eight?" + +"Ugh! A number in a lottery," said Trampy, looking quite vain between +those two women in love with him. "Yes, a number ... with which I drew a +prize!... Why, by Jove," he continued, addressing Poland, "this is my +wife!... Lily Clifton! ... the New Zealander on Wheels." + +"Oh, yes," said Poland to Lily. "I did hear that you ran away: tired of +this, eh?" + +And, tapping the back of her left hand with the palm of her right, she +made the professional gesture that denotes a whipping. + +"Yes, I was a bit," said Lily, feeling rather proud than otherwise. "I've +been through the mill, I have!" + +"You've had your fair share, eh?" insisted Poland. "You're not the first +that has left her family to escape being whipped. You did quite right," +she concluded. + +Trampy was dumfounded and utterly floored by the revelation. What! He! He! +Lily had married him because of that! Because ... And people said it! And +talked about it! + +"Come along, Lily," said Trampy. "Let's go home." + +And, giving no further heed to Poland, who followed him with a mocking +smile, he took Lily by the arm and went out with her. + +Lily felt her arm shake. Trampy was furious, evidently. She saw her +mistake, too late. There would be a stormy scene when they got in. Well, +who cared? She was resolved, under that obstinate forehead of hers, to +face the facts. She had had enough of this husband. And she meant to know, +that very moment, if she was married or not ... because with him one never +knew. When she admitted that she had married him because of "that," +Trampy, in his humiliation would put her out of doors at once; if the +marriage wasn't valid, he would get rid of her. There was no doubt about +it. + +And she did not have to wait, for Trampy, even before they were out of the +theater, in the passage, among the trunks and properties, Trampy, unable +to restrain himself any longer, seized her by the wrists and looked her +straight in the face: + +"Is it true?" he asked, in a voice trembling with rage. + +Lily, without replying, lowered her eyes as though to say yes, like a good +little wife, oh, _so_ sorry to offend her husband! + +"And," said Trampy, choking with shame, "you married me for 'that:' me, +Trampy!" + +"Yes," said Lily confusedly. + +"Damn you!" cried Trampy. "Oh, if we weren't married for good, wouldn't I +just make you sleep out to-night!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Poor Lily! She was Trampy's little wife, his little wife for ever! And +life, monotonous and common, followed its usual course: a week here, a +week there; and the theater every night at the fixed time, according +to the scene-plot which they went and consulted on reaching the stage: +"X, Corridor, 9.5; Z, Wood, 10.17; Y, Palace, 11.10," and so on. And +for Trampy it was an everlasting grumbling at his ill-luck, a dull anger +at "playing 'em in," so sure was he of seeing his name first, +always--"Garden, 8.30, Trampy Wheel-Pad"--he who had had such a success +in England with his red-hot stove. It was no use his saying to himself +that it wouldn't last, that it would be better next week. It was just as +though done on purpose. He played 'em in, always, from Bremen to +Brunswick, from Leipzig to Madgeburg: + +"I wish I knew the son of a gun who has his knife into me!" growled +Trampy, persuaded that he was the victim of an agent's jealousy, or else +the stage-managers didn't understand their business. + +"If you had more talent," thought Lily to herself, "that sort of thing +wouldn't happen. I'd like to see you with Pa: _he'd_ show you, _he'd_ make +you stir your stumps, you rusty biker!" + +However, she was careful not to say so to him, for fear of blows; and Lily +knew that, if ever she received them once, twice, without returning them, +it was all up with her, she would lapse under the yoke again, it would +become a habit: there would be nothing for it but to leave her husband, if +she wished to avoid slaps, just as she had left her family, to avoid +whippings. + +That would have been too grotesque. She did not want to give Pa and Ma the +satisfaction of seeing her unhappily married. Lily armed herself with +patience; and she needed it! Trampy was in a frightful temper, said that +he would have been the ideal husband, if she had been the little wife he +had dreamed of: but to think that she had married him for "that!" + +Now it was the constant allusion to "that" which made him die with shame. +Everywhere, on the stages of the different music-halls, people had for +Lily that sort of sympathetic pity which they feel for a performing dog: +they approved of her running away; everybody seemed to know about it. +Poland, it must be said, scored a fine revenge against Trampy, without +counting the artistes who had seen Lily practising and who knew what harsh +treatment meant, the Munich Roofers, among others, real ones, with their +blows of the hat, gee! + +Among them, it became the fashion, when they saw Lily, to tap the back of +their hands, and then to applaud with the tip of the nail, as though to +approve her flight. Lily at first was annoyed at the reputation for +cruelty which they were giving her Pa. He was right to hit her, she +thought, sometimes. She was also annoyed on her own account. She was an +artiste, damn it! It was not only a question of smackings! Why, if she +hadn't had it in her...! It was a gift! But, on the other hand, to excuse +the folly of her marriage, she let them talk, without protesting, like a +poor little thing who would still be with her Pa and Ma if she had been +treated "fair." + +And there were always angry disputes between her and Trampy. They were +seen to disappear through the stage-entrance, Lily with an arrogant air, +Trampy drooping his head, his lips distorted with stinging replies. Lily, +though she was not performing at the theater, sometimes received a letter +there. When there was one for her in the heap of envelopes, bearing the +stamps of all countries, which had been round the world prior to "waiting +arrival" in the doorkeeper's pigeonholes, Trampy looked at her furiously, +wanted to know. Lily refused. Forthwith, in the passages, or on the stage, +endless disputes went on between them ... oh, not in the least tragic in +appearance and interlarded with "Hullo, boys!" and "Hullo, girls!" to left +and right, whenever they passed any acquaintances. And in a low voice, +abruptly: + +"Show it to me, you wench!" + +"Shut up, you footy rotter!" + +Trampy could not forgive Lily for marrying him on that account. He, who +had only to choose among the crowd that walks the boards or flutters about +in muslin skirts, suffered from Lily's scorn, looked upon himself as a +sultan dethroned before the eyes of his harem. In order to infuriate Lily, +though he did not feel in the least like laughing, he exaggerated his +conquering ways. It ended by affecting his work. Only the night before, he +had got drunk with two "sisters" out of ten: the fourth and seventh from +the right. Result: he was still in bed when the matinée began. And his +performance went so badly that they had to drop the curtain on him. That +would pass for once: an illness was allowable; but it couldn't go on at +that rate. He was becoming worse than the head-balancer who tumbled off +his perch, without having his excuse of sorrow, the loss of a beloved +wife, seeing that he, Trampy, had a dear little wife and very much alive, +this one! + +Lily, in her calmer moments, foresaw that they would soon have to face +hard times, flat poverty. She felt her contempt for Trampy increase. Those +sketch-comedians, those tramp cyclists, pooh, they were less than nothing, +bluff, that's all, as old Martello said! + +She saw her dreams flung to the ground. At first, it had been charming for +her, so full of novelty, but, after all, she had only changed masters. She +ended by considering herself more unhappy than she had been with Pa and +Ma. To begin with, Pa always had money. She brought them in a lot. She +lived much less comfortably with Trampy. She used to think that being a +married woman would change everything, whereas--not a bit of it!--there +was no change at all: potatoes, coal, all sorts of dirty, messy things; +and no Maud to help her. And it was always as in the old days: damp +sheets, dirty glasses, rickety tables, beds with worn-out mattresses; and +the nights were dull as ditch-water. Trampy had hoped for something +different, expected to find a whole harem in Lily, his thirty-six girls in +one, including Ave Maria, with her body like a wildcat's. Alas, it was far +from that! + +Lily loathed those nights. Love, yes, but not that, not that! Sacred love, +not profane love (Lily had seen paintings of it in museums and remembered +the title). Love, that is to say, to lie ever so nicely on the breast of +the dear one, yes, as with Glass-Eye, and dream of hats and diamonds. No +doubt, it was ambitious to want so much. She, who had seen everything, had +never come across that; but it was what she wanted, what she had been +promised, damn it! Things were going from bad to worse. Memories of her +childhood moved her almost to tears, when she thought of it: those happy +times in Africa, on the straw beside the horses, the stars seen through +the tent and the smell of the elephants. When she was there, perhaps that +had seemed less sweet to her: the hard ground, the noise of the chains; +but everything was made more poetic by remembrance: it was the past, what! +Nights sweet as milk, far from a man reeking of tobacco. And not only her +early childhood, but her life of yesterday returned to her: touring with +the troupe, the oatmeal porridge and the cakes she made--bricks!--but Pa +laughed at them, took them good-humoredly, whereas Trampy lost his temper. +In those days, it is true, she wasn't a lady, she used to work; but they +had good fun, all the same, in the dressing-rooms; they had tea at the +theater, romps in the passages, or else did crochet-work, to pass the +time; and all those practical jokes, intensified by distance: hustling +Glass-Eye into the hamper; coaxing the black cat into the dressing-room, +for luck; or making the pantomime lady speak her tag; or going in to the +Roofers, on some pretext, and giving a whistle which made them all rush +out, dressed or undressed or half-dressed, never mind, and spin round +three times to ward off the ill omen: all those memories touched her till +she felt inclined to cry. Oh, if she had been with her Pa now, she would +have sat down on his knee and begged his pardon! + +At such times, if Trampy became affectionate and tried to kiss his little +wife, Lily would simply turn her back on him. Poor Trampy! And he could +not play the master! For, call on the agents as he might and write as many +fine letters as he pleased--an art in which he excelled--work was becoming +scarce. He no longer had any money. One pay-day, Trampy was obliged to +confess that he had had his salary in advance and spent it; a money-lender +held his contract and kept back three-quarters of his pay. Trampy, +tormented by urgent needs, had let himself in with a Brixton "financier," +a specialist in "loans from five pounds upward, music-hall artistes +treated with the strictest confidence," who pocketed nearly the whole. Now +Lily just happened to want a new dress, a new petticoat and a tiny +mother-of-pearl lucky charm. Trampy had to own that he couldn't afford +these fancies and Lily had a fit of temper! But then why promise so many +things to a poor little wife who deserved better than that? + +"A poor little wife," said Trampy, "should marry her husband for love and +not to escape whippings! There are ups and downs in the profession. It was +your own lookout; you shouldn't have married a star!" + +"A star!" cried Lily, with a nervous laugh. "You a star! A damned +comedian! A nice sort of star, indeed! A music-hall could have twenty +black cats in it and you'd turn them into a white elephant!" + +In other words, Trampy, according to her, was a Jonah, good only for +playing the people in, if that! + +"A wife has no right to speak to her husband as you do!" exclaimed Trampy, +leaping up under the insult. "You deserve a good thrashing!" + +"None of that!" said Lily angrily, ready to fly at his throat. + +"A wife," resumed Trampy, with great dignity, "helps her husband, instead +of insulting him." + +"We're in for it, I suppose!" said Lily. + +"Certainly, we're in for it! I have no engagement now, but that's no +reason why you shouldn't find one. Look for one and work!" + +Lily was in for it, knee-deep, as she said. She was not excessively +astonished: it was the inevitable end! Not that she disliked to work: her +idleness, on the contrary, was beginning to pall upon her; but it was the +humiliation of going back to it after putting on so much side and posing +as the lady. She had worked for Pa; now she would work for Trampy; it was +natural and proper. There were exceptions--the wife at home, as Jimmy +said, that josser!--but they were rare. + +"Take up your bike again," said Trampy, after a pause. "Be a good little +wife, help me out of this. I have something in my mind, a scheme which +will make us rich; you'll see later on." + +"But," said Lily, "I haven't a stage bike, and yours is really too ugly." + +"I know of one for sale." + +"Very well, I'll work," said Lily. "I'll make them give me this tour which +they promised you and didn't sign for; and to-morrow you shall see!" + +At heart, Lily was not sorry to show her husband how people got out of a +scrape, when they had talent; and, the next day, she went to an agent, +accompanied by Trampy, looking very dignified. Her cheeky feather was made +to dance attendance for a moment; and then she was shown into the office. +Lily Clifton? The New Zealander on Wheels? Straight away a contract, +signed in duplicate! A week in each town; later on, perhaps, a month in +Berlin, at the Kolossal. Lily displayed wonderful tact, did not triumph +too openly over Trampy. She acted to perfection the part of the little +lady who takes up the bike again just for fun--as in the time of her +"French governess"--or rather of a dear little thing wholly wrapped up now +in her wifely duty: her poor husband ill, she herself needing exercise, +just for fun, you know. + +On leaving the agent's, she bought some material, then ran home, cut out +stage dresses. In the evening, Lily was still hemming and stitching, +indefatigably, seized once more with professional pride after her +excursions into private life. And, all night, under the lamp, she +contrived, cut out and sewed. Then came practice, without Pa. In an hour, +in spite of the new machine, which put her out, she had picked up her +"times" again. She felt as if she had been spinning round the night +before, under Pa's eye, so absolutely at her ease was she, with her head +on the saddle or twirling on the back-wheel. + +And, on the following Monday, her first appearance, her name on the walls: +"Miss Lily" in big letters, right at the top of the posters, "Miss Lily," +not "Mrs." or "Madame." Had she had ten children, two husbands and three +divorces, she would still have been "Miss," everywhere and always, as a +further attraction for the swells in the front boxes and as a certificate +of youth. Mighty few husbands, on the continent especially; not more men +of any kind than could be helped, on the stage, except a few noted +"profs," standing by the perches of velvet and steel or under the +trapezes, displaying, beside the pink-silk tights, against the "palace" +back-drop, the faultless correctness of their full-dress suits. But, for +the rest, people preferred to ignore husbands, brothers and "friends;" +Lily had known some who never showed themselves at all, who remained +squatting at home, so as not to stand in their wives' way. + +Trampy, for that matter, knew better than to parade himself with Lily. And +he preferred it so. He could have wished one thing to the exclusion of all +others: that people should not know of his marriage, that they should +cease to speak of it. Unfortunately, this was not to be. The story of the +whippings was enlivening Lisle Street, exaggerated, as usual. The Bill and +Boom tour, the Harrasford tour were beginning to spread it on every stage +in England; before six months were over, it would have made the round of +the world from the Klondike to Calcutta. What a disgrace for Trampy! Yet +no sooner had he put his New Zealander on her wheels again than Trampy +blossomed out once more. After all, who cared if people were seen to smack +the back of their hands? He wasn't to be put out by a little thing like +that: + +"Just so," he seemed to say. "We are married, whippings or no whippings, +and I am the master; I have set her to work again; and there you are!" + +Trampy's reputation, so far from suffering, increased; all his compeers +now envied him from the bottom of their hearts; the bosses, the profs, the +managers, the Pas, the Mas treated him, in their own minds, as a lucky +dog, all the more inasmuch as Trampy was not uppish and gladly stood +drinks, while his wife, "Miss Lily," made money for him with her breakneck +tricks. It was much smarter than doing it for one's self: the great thing +was to have a "girl" like that! Trampy was having his revenge: he had been +laughed at; he now had the laugh on them! and Trampy knew glorious times, +in the _Biergarten_, or lounging at street-corners, near the stage-door, +chaffing the girls, hat cocked back, hands deep in his pockets, a cigar +stuck between his teeth. He told the story of his life, not without pride; +said that he must write it one day, sell it to _The New York Standard_ for +a thousand dollars. The girls _he'd_ had: whew! His love adventures: all +over the world, by Jove! And his marriage with Lily Clifton, the New +Zealander on Wheels, a dear little wife, so gentle, so obedient. No, he +had no reason to complain of his life. He would write it, mark his words! +To say nothing of a scheme he had in mind: + +"Just you wait and see! It's a trick to make a millionaire of you or break +your neck." + +"Will you make Miss Lily do it?" + +"I'll see, I'll think it over," said Trampy, in a lordly tone. + +The directors, the stage-managers took no notice of him; but, among the +artistes, Trampy Wheel-Pad was some one, he enjoyed his leisure, recovered +his self-assurance: if, in addition, he could have destroyed the legend of +the whippings, he would have been perfectly happy. He would turn the +conversation on the subject of smackings in the music-hall generally, in +the hope of hearing them contradicted or made little of; but it was no +use; every one believed in them: all, boys and girls, even the most +spoiled, quoted facts: blows which they had received! my! blows hard +enough to split the front of a music-hall from top to bottom! The nation +with the painted faces, the blue-chins seemed to vie with one another as +to who had been most through the mill. + +"You're exaggerating," said Trampy. "It may be true, to a certain extent, +in your case. But, Miss Lily, for instance: do you mean to say you believe +all she tells?" + +"Oh, quite!" said two Roofer girls who were there. + +They had seen Lily practising. And they knew what it meant. They had had +their share, too: old Roofer, gee! And Lily had done quite right to run +away from her whippings. + +"There you go again!" said Trampy. "Can't you see she's humbugging you?" + +[Illustration: TRAMPY ENJOYED HIS LEISURE] + +But he pulled himself up suddenly, if Lily arrived, for, in spite of his +big airs, he was all submission in her presence. + +"Oh, really! Glass-Eye caught it instead of me, I suppose," said Lily, +drawing back her shoulder as though threatening to smack him, "when Pa +went for me with his leather belt. And I have witnesses. I've been through +the mill, if anybody has: that much I _can_ say!" + +Lily, after this burst of pride, would lower her head, a trifle +embarrassed, like a dear little thing, all wrapped up in her duties as a +wife, a wife whom her husband would cause to break her back one of these +days, perhaps. + +This created a circle of admirers around her: all, besides, agreed in +saying that you had to have the business "rubbed into your skin" to be as +clever as she was. + +"'K you!" said Lily, with a stage bow. + +It was certain that she made a hit. They wanted her everywhere. She was +asked to appear in tights. The engagements grew better and better. "Miss +Lily" was more and more talked about. It was no longer a Trampy Wheel-Pad +on a rusty bike: it was grace, youth ... and stage-smiles fit to turn the +heads in the front boxes. When Lily appeared on the stage, she transfixed +every white shirt-front, every opera-glass. She took a real delight in it +all. Her beauty captivated the audience. In her pink tights, Lily turned +and turned and turned, to the hum of the orchestra, against the "wood" +back-drop of purple and gold. Then she returned to the wings, all excited +by her show, received bouquets, chatted freely with the comrades. She met +old friends: the green-eyed female-impersonator, for instance, pressed her +closely. He, too, was touring Germany: a week here, a week there. Chance +brought them together again. He was enraptured by Lily: how lovely she had +grown! He would have liked to adopt her.... Lily threw her head back, +laughed and repelled him with a thump in the ribs when he tried to kiss +her. + +Another time, she saw the Bambinis, who were playing, by a lucky accident, +at matinées only and by special permission, because of their age. She +larked with them like a child. Elsewhere, it was Nunkie Fuchs, on his way +to Vienna, where he was going to see to the building of his pigeon-house, +leaving the Three Graces for a few weeks on the Harrasford tour. He had +seen Lily's name on the posters and had come to say, "How do you do?" to +her. + +And, amid the thunder of the band or the lull of the _entr'actes_, Lily +received tidings of her Pa and Ma and details of what happened after her +flight, as reported by Glass-Eye Maud. After Lily's departure, they had +hunted everywhere. Then Ma thought of looking in the trunk: the pretty +dress was gone. Then they had rushed to the theater: no Lily. Then they +had guessed: Lily had run away. Ma fell on her knees and cried and cried. +Pa seized his revolver and spoke of going to shoot the man who had robbed +him of his child! His little Lily gone! And the contracts had to be +canceled and Pa did not go out for a week and the house remained still and +silent for a month. Pa, thoroughly upset, cried whenever Lily's name was +mentioned and was near dying of shame when he felt himself blamed, even by +those who used to congratulate him on his way of turning out an artiste. +And Nunkie himself maintained that one must know how to handle young +girls: gentleness above all. + +Lily bit her lips when she heard that. Her little nose tingled. She +hardened her features, wrinkled her obstinate forehead, lest she also +should cry: + +"If I had to do it again, I would!" she said quickly, just like that, +without reflecting, in the way one says a thing to one's self which one +knows to be untrue. + +They also told her things that made her laugh. Glass-Eye Maud no longer +left her hole, cried like a tap, so much so that one day, Ma, noticing an +insipid taste in the porridge, threatened her with the sack if that sort +of thing went on. + +As for business, people did not know exactly. Pa, they said, had written +to a Hauptmann's "fat freak" to take Lily's place. The reply ran: + +"No, thanks, I'm all right where I am. + + "Fat Freak." + +The signature was underlined, for people had ended by knowing about Pa's +disrespectful remarks. Lily laughed when she heard this: my! + +"I will come ... when you take to wearing braces!" another had answered. + +This was an allusion to the blows with the belt; and Lily, with head +thrown back, full-throated, her hand on her heart, laughed ... laughed ... +laughed: + +"Bravo, girls!" she said, applauding with her thumbnail. + +And Tom? Tom had had the boot, with a bang on the nose, for carrying +letters to Lily. For Pa ended by learning all: some one had told him. + +"Jimmy, that son of a gun!" said Lily. + +And Jimmy himself, what had become of that josser? Jimmy was no longer +stage-manager. He had left everything after Lily's flight. He, too, had +flown into a terrible rage when he heard about it ... spoke of Trampy as a +thief in the night ... would have killed him, if he had met him ... and he +was going to star in his turn. + +"Singing?" asked Lily. + +"No, something to do with the bike." + +"What a fool!" thought Lily. "Fancies himself an artiste because he used +to mend my bike for me!" + +Jimmy, it seemed, had hired a huge shed and there, all alone, fitted up +some apparatus of a complicated kind. He never went out by day. He worked +and worked. A trick to break your neck at, it appeared, or make your +fortune. + +"Those jossers!" exclaimed Lily scornfully. + +And what was he going to do on his bike? Nobody knew. There was something +published in the papers, they said. It was something on the back-wheel. + +"What rot!" + +Lily laughed open-mouthed, laughed with all her muscles, twisting her +hips, splitting her sides, smacking her thighs. What! Jimmy on the +back-wheel! He! He! He cutting twirls, that josser! + +"And the troupe?" + +The troupe nobody knew about: dispersed, most likely; the troupe, after +all, was Lily. When she went, everything was bound to fall to pieces. Pa +didn't care either; told any one who would listen to him that he was going +to retire to Kennington, that he was well off now ... thousands of pounds +in the bank ... made his fortune ... meant to live on his dividends. + +"I knew it," said Lily; "I knew I had made his fortune! Thousands of +pounds, damn it!" + +"Lily, don't swear like that!" said Nunkie Fuchs. "It's not right!" + +Lily lowered her head, taken aback; excused herself, like a lady who knows +her manners: + +"And yet," she said to herself, "if he had had my troubles, that old +rogue, perhaps he would have sworn, too!" + +For Trampy was becoming terrible: life was impossible with him. All the +money which Lily earned went on champagne ... and on girls, probably; and +the more she earned the greedier he grew. He wanted money, heaps of money; +Lily had nothing left for herself. Trampy sought out new tricks, invented +balancing-feats, made her practise them, in the morning, on the stage, +with his sleeves turned back and his trousers turned up, absolutely like a +Pa. Lily, accustomed to yield obedience, relapsed under the yoke. Bike in +the morning, bike at the matinée, bike in the evening; and, with that, the +cooking, the washing-up ... and not a farthing in her pocket, though she +had made a fortune for her Pa, damn it! Pa living on his income at +Kennington, while she continued her life of slavery! Wasn't it enough to +make her send everybody to the devil, and Nunkie, that old rogue, with the +rest? A pack of nigger drivers, that's what they were, every one of them! +And what an idiot she was, to keep on barking her shins for other people! +Would she go on doing it until she was fifty? And if she didn't begin now +to put money by, who would do it for her later? Not that worthless +husband, surely! He, who, that very morning, had dared, the loafer, to +tell her of a scheme--a sort of a risky trick which she was to perform, a +thing calculated to break your head or make a millionaire of you--for him, +of course, just as for Pa! It had come to this, that her turn wasn't good +enough, that it had to be more sensational; and she was expected to make +it so for a man she didn't love! Oh, she had put him nicely in his place! +Rather! Thank you for nothing: none of that for her! In the evening Lily +was still trembling, with her two elbows on the table, as she sat facing +her glass in her dressing-room; angrily she crushed the grease-paint on to +her cheeks, which were pale with rage. + +Ting! Straight on to the stage, turning round and round, fifty rounds from +habit, mechanically, without any "go" in them: an indolent performance, +which would have earned her a good smacking in Pa's time. + +"You were shockingly bad!" said Trampy, who was waiting for her in the +bar, after watching her from the front. "What's the matter with you? Are +you ill?" + +Lily did not even answer. + +"I'm speaking to you," said Trampy crossly. "You did nothing right +to-night." + +"Yes, I know; that'll do," said Lily. + +"It's not a question of 'Yes, I know,' but of doing better next time," +said Trampy. + +"I'm not taking any orders to-night," said Lily. + +"No, darling, but there was an agent in the house. He must have thought +you bad." + +"That's none of your business!" + +"And, if you don't get engagements, what's to become of us?" + +"I don't care a hang," said Lily. "_I_ can always manage." + +"You ... you ... and what about me? We're married, aren't we?" + +"But the money I earn's mine," said Lily. "I mean to buy dresses and +whatever I want to, with _my_ money. You'll be wanting to come on the +stage next, in evening-dress, to stand over me while I do my turn, and +getting out your belt. Do you take me for your daughter, tell me?" + +"What I'm saying," said Trampy, aghast, "is for your good, from the point +of view of the business, the salary." + +"_My_ business, _my_ salary, damn it!" cried Lily. "_Mine, mine_, do you +understand? And it concerns nobody but myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +It came as a smack in the jaw to Trampy. + +"_My_ pay, _my_ work, _mine_!" + +It meant no more pocket-money with which to lord it at the bar. It meant a +cheap cigarette instead of his glorious cigar. It was the end of a +beautiful dream; and the awakening was a hard one. At first, he hoped to +make Lily jealous by going about openly with the stage-girls; but she no +longer paid any attention, seemed to suggest that he had better amuse +himself on his side and she on hers: + +"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," she said. + +Lily would no longer take his orders; and, because he felt his wife escape +him, it was he, Trampy, who now became jealous. When, from a distance, +among the tables, he saw Lily ride round the stage and all those heads +raised toward her, those opera-glasses pointed at her, he followed her +with an anxious eye. "Miss Lily!" "Miss Lily" was his wife, after all! +Those rounded arms, that lissom figure, those twinkling legs were all his, +every bit of them! He was the husband, by Jove! It was not a marriage for +fun, as with Ave Maria: it was a marriage for good and all, which had cost +him two pounds--"Yes, siree!"--at the Kennington registry-office. And it +wasn't only her flightiness, her smiles at the front boxes, but "_my_ +work, _my_ salary, _mine_" into the bargain! She was acting like a bad +wife, forgetting her most sacred duties! + +Lily stood on no ceremony with him, took her title of "Miss" seriously: +very flattering for him, very flattering, he must say! He no longer knew +himself: he who, in the old days, used to answer: "My lord, rely on me!" +when a half-tipsy swell invited him to come and drink champagne with some +stage-girls, now became furious if men in the audience, not knowing who he +was, sized up "Miss Lily" before him--her shoulders, arms and the +rest--with reflections such as "I could do with a bit of that!" or, "A +nice little supper ..." He felt inclined to shout in their faces that she +was no "miss," but his wife, by Jove! + +He became more and more jealous. The thought of Jimmy, especially, kept +running in his head. He felt a twinge whenever he heard him mentioned. And +Jimmy was often mentioned just at present, for he was said to be preparing +a new turn, a turn which would make him famous, unless it killed him. + +"If only it would!" Trampy hoped. + +Jimmy was Trampy's bugbear. He had flattered himself that he had snatched +Lily from Jimmy by sheer prowess; and not a bit of it! The recollection of +that drove him mad, the sense of his powerlessness exasperated him, he had +but one idea left: to show Lily ... and Jimmy ... the sort of man he was; +to take his revenge. That great scheme of his, that discovery that would +show what he was made of, the invention which he had patented in America +with Poland's money--oh, she had revenged herself finely, had that +Parisienne!--well, the time to apply himself to that trick had come. Lily +had refused to do it. All right, he would do it himself! + +But, if he was to succeed, it was necessary that Lily should supply him +with money, more money, lots of money. The apparatus was incomplete and +had probably got damaged in the London warehouse; it would need repairs, +improvements. Now Lily seemed intractable. She was vexed at having to earn +money for two, pretended to have none too much for herself; it was her +costumes now: six sets of tights, one for each evening, pink, green, red, +blue, gray, white and assorted ornaments, silk ribbons.... + +She didn't want to kill herself with work for nothing, as she had been +doing up to now: + +"A lady isn't a performing dog!" she said. + +Trampy swallowed his bitterness when he heard that. Lily was escaping him +altogether. Sometimes, he would go on the stage, sit down in a corner and, +from there, see Lily, a shawl over her shoulders, her throat wrapped in a +scarf, walk up and down, behind the back-drop, like a passenger on the +deck of a ship, at one time with a monkey-faced, red-whiskered +sketch-comedian; at others, according to the chances of the week, with the +female-impersonator, the boy with the green eyes. There was no harm in +that: they were at home, among themselves, Lily was no damned +lalerperlooser, he wouldn't have had her so. And Trampy did not dare say +anything, for fear of being made a laughing stock and also lest he should +offend "Miss Lily." But he was tormented with jealousy nevertheless, +merely at seeing her talk pleasantly with her acquaintances. And yet it +was innocent enough, a mere "Hullo, Lily!" "Hullo, old boy!" by way of +keeping herself in touch with the news, for Lily hardly ever looked into +_The Era_ or _Das Program_; all those names, all that competition +frightened her! + +[Illustration: THE BOY WITH THE GREEN EYES] + +She had learned nothing new about Pa, except that the troupe still +existed, but in quite a small way, of course. Her Pa was in favor of soft +treatment, now, so they said; he had changed his manner. "Too late!" +murmured Lily thoughtfully; but she was much amused when she heard that +Tom, in addition to keeping up his trade as a shoeblack, was learning +boxing, with bulldog obstinacy, in order to give Pa back his blow on the +nose and beat him in a square fight. And didn't some one say that Tom was +stage-struck, too? Tom, that dwarf, with his short arms, on the stage! +Crazy! every one of them! + +And then they were always talking of Jimmy: Jimmy here, Jimmy there. It +was becoming serious, Lily couldn't get over it. She wondered what old +Martello would say if he heard that: Jimmy an artiste! Pooh! Nonsense! And +it was true, mind you! It was repeated from mouth to mouth, his fame was +spreading, his fame, that is to say, in the bars, in the wings, among +pros; you heard his name mentioned together with a hundred others; but +that already was a great deal, that one could say, Butt Snyders, Laurence, +Jimmy, Marjutti, all mixed up, as though he were their equal, he who had +done nothing! But he would "do," it was in the air: some stroke of luck, +who could tell? And Lily knew him to be ambitious. Lady or no lady, she +was an artiste first and foremost and hated competition. She had been +whipped for her rivals, Lillian, Edith and Polly, had caught it for +Laurence and for the fat freaks, too, and she depended on her work for her +bread. When she saw a new troupe come to the front it made her anxious: +even children "that high," who played bike in between the pillars of the +stage, she felt inclined to stamp upon; and if people ever asked her +advice, she did not hesitate to tell them wrong. Men especially were +disastrous competitors, even the ignorant ones. You never knew where you +were with them, they dared do anything! She could not help getting mad +when she thought of it. One more to take the bread out of her mouth! For +it was all very well to treat him as a simpleton, to talk of his +crotchets--he had views concerning a stage-apprentices' fund, a home of +rest for superannuated artistes and so on--Lily considered him dangerous. +He was not a silly Glass-Eye or a stage-struck Tom; he was an ambitious +Jimmy. But all the same, how absurd! A hypocrite like that was fit to +write to Pa and get a poor girl in trouble, but was not the man to risk +his skin! She laughed, not a stage smile, no, a real laugh, head thrown +back, full-throated. An artiste, O Lord! Yes, like a heap of bluffers who +were to do this and that, all sorts of wonderful things! and who ended by +making a laughing stock of themselves, the whole business was so childish, +faked up with ropes and weights, nursery-toys, Punch-and-Judy rubbish. It +would be just like that with Jimmy, sure: lots of noise and then ... +nothing! And he would have lost his place as manager and he would starve, +the josser: that would teach him to be spiteful! And where was Jimmy? He +might be very clever, in his shed in London, swinging from his rope, like +a monkey on a string, but to do that before an audience was different. +There would be no Jimmy left! + +She liked to talk to herself like that. Miss Lily avoided thinking of a +possible stroke of luck, she who had taken such pains to attain so little, +just to become Mrs. Trampy, to have the honor of working for Trampy and +feeding Trampy. Oh, she was tired of it, did all she could to find him +work, to spur him on! She even wanted him to practise. And she mentioned +Tom and Jimmy to him, all those beginners, all the others who were coming +on. + +"She thinks more of him than of me," he said to himself. + +And time passed and passed. It was now eight months that they had been +traveling through Germany: and then, at last, came Berlin, the center of +the agencies, like the plunge into Chicago, after the Western Tour, or New +York, after the Eastern, or Paris, or London. Lily asked herself for what +part of the world she would sign contracts. She would have liked +Australia, South Africa, the States, so as to leave her husband in Europe, +sitting up on his hind-quarters, like a trained dog, waiting for his +"missis" to come back: + +"If I could have the Kolossal in the meantime," Lily thought. "A month +there would do me nicely! I'd like to beat the fat freaks in their own +country and show Pa that I don't need his old troupe to star with!" + +And Lily had some hope: an agent had given her to understand that she +would be engaged, without a doubt, at that famous music-hall. But no! She +learned that the Kolossal was not wanting cyclists, it had an attraction +for next month, something sensational, it was said. And, in fact, +suddenly, in the space of a night, the walls of the capital were covered +with huge posters--"Bridging the Abyss!"--at the Kolossal! + +"What's that?" Lily asked herself. + +And she was thunderstruck when she learned that this was Jimmy's new +trick! She had no doubt left when, looking into a bookseller's window, she +saw Jimmy's portrait in _Die Illustrirte Zeitung_, the popular illustrated +paper in Berlin. + +Her arms fell to her sides! What, she thought, already? All this +advertisement for that Jimmy? She had lost the Kolossal because of him. +Already Jimmy was taking the bread out of her mouth! She could have wrung +his neck! + +Never had the New Zealanders, or the Hauptmanns, or the Pawnees, or any +one, or anybody known such advertising as that, except the great breakneck +performers, Laurence, the Loopers, the Motor Girl; and even then the girl +was packed up in her machine like a sausage. But "Bridging the Abyss," the +papers said, required art: everything depended on the exact impetus, the +faultless balance. The press was filled with clever puffs, biographies, +descriptions of the apparatus, the cool daring which it needed to try that +without a rope, to risk the performer's life six times in six seconds. +London and Paris were both said to have wanted the attraction; and Berlin +was to have it first; and _hoch_ for the Kolossal! + +Trampy also was flabbergasted, when he read about this: + +"But ... but ... but it's my apparatus and nothing else! Why, I patented +it in America! Do you understand now," he asked, without, however, +entering into technical explanations, "do you understand now, when I +wanted you to help me? It wasn't a question of the rusty bike! You've made +me miss fame and fortune! And to think that I have an apparatus rotting +away in London, in a warehouse, and that, if you'd listened to me, I +should have been at the Kolossal now ... and covering you with diamonds!" + +"I like your style!" said Lily. "You'd have made me break my back in your +stead! I know you!" + +"Oh, but I shan't swallow that," said Trampy, in his exasperation. "We +shall see! I have my rights. I shall enforce them!" + +"Don't make a fool of yourself," said Lily. "When a thing has to be done, +it gets done without all that talk: look at Jimmy!" + +"Hang your Jimmy!" + +"It's not a question of _my_ Jimmy," retorted Lily, "but of _my_ money. I +should simply have flung it away! You, do a thing like that! You risk your +skin! Rot!" + +Trampy, in his rage, would have boxed Lily's ears, had it not been for her +nails, which she held ready to scratch his face, and he went out fuming. +He ran off to the agents, but there was nothing for him. And yet Trampy +knew or, at least, supposed that they must want an opposition show to +"Bridging the Abyss." They must, surely! Why, everywhere, in all the great +centers, every music-hall had its rival opposite or beside it: everywhere, +each establishment strove to inflict empty houses upon its rival by +offering more sensational or more breakneck tricks. At the Kaiserin, the +rival of the Kolossal, they were, without a doubt, looking for something +to set against "Bridging the Abyss" and they had nothing, or else Trampy +would have known it: among pros such matters were always known long +beforehand. Oh, Trampy was prepared to do anything to escape his wife's +sarcasm! + +And, one evening, behold Trampy returning in triumph to the café where +Lily awaited him: + +"I knew it!" he cried. "I knew it wouldn't go like that!" + +"Well, what?" asked Lily. "Have you got a number thirty-seven? +Thirty-eight? A fresh conquest? Something quite out of the common?" + +"Laugh away, Lily! That son of a gun shall hear me talked about yet, by +Jove! And everybody else will, too. You must be prepared for anything, +Lily, when you marry an artiste!" + +"Why, what's happened?" asked Lily, much surprised. + +This had happened: the two music-halls had fought. Jimmy, who was unable, +it seemed, to get London or Paris, had offered his "Bridging the Abyss" to +the Kaiserin, but his price was considered too high. From there he went to +the Kolossal and made the same proposal. Now, times were hard for the +music-halls, sucked dry by the enormous salaries that had to be paid. The +managers were standing shoulder to shoulder, in the presence of the common +enemy, the artiste and, more particularly, the originator of sensations, +who is indispensable and who makes you an offer with a pistol at your +head, like a highwayman demanding your money or your life. + +But a turn like that meant an assured success; and the Kolossal offered +Jimmy five hundred marks a night, so as to spike the Kaiserin's guns by +getting hold of a unique turn and one not easy to replace; a piece of +underhand work involving two months' empty houses at the Kaiserin, which, +as it was, had only a second-rate troupe by way of "sisters," while at the +Kolossal they had Roofers engaged by the year, real ones, the complete +dozen, words and music guaranteed. And now the Kolossal would make huge +money with "Bridging the Abyss" and sink its rival; it was a +master-stroke. But they knew everything at the Kaiserin. The Kaiserin also +wanted a "Bridging the Abyss." It would have one, a better one, with a +finer title: "Arching the Gulf!" And they would get it for three hundred +marks! And they must be ready, quick, quick, before the Kolossal, and it +was just possible: they had twenty days yet; the apparatus would be made; +they knew the plans, the dimensions; the house would be fixed up +accordingly; they must succeed at all costs and not let themselves be +strangled without defense! It was a struggle to the death! They would +fight with corpses, if need be! Other people had broken their backs for +them before now; there would be no difficulty in finding one more to risk +his life six times in six seconds for three hundred marks a night. + +And it was at that moment that Trampy offered himself. They had heard his +name: + +"Trampy Wheel-Pad, the tramp cyclist with the red-hot stove?" + +"That's me," said Trampy. + +And, full of self-assurance, he explained the object of his visit: + +"I was the first to construct it; I patented it myself at Washington; I +will produce the documents!" + +It will be understood why Trampy wore his air of conquest when he returned +home that day. He had his engagement in his pocket! He displayed it +victoriously to Lily, passed it over her face, reveled in his revenge. At +last he was going to show Lily whether he was able to keep a wife or not; +and champagne suppers every evening, by Jove, with girls--no damned +lalerperloosers--just to show her! + +That same evening, he left for London, with an advance from the +management, and came back to Berlin with the apparatus, the whole set up +and repaired in a week, a gang of men working night and day. Followed +practice with the rope, on a movable pulley, from early dawn, like a man +determined to accomplish his breakneck feat, alive or dead; for Trampy +would have done, no matter what, for Lily to cease being "Miss" Lily, to +admit herself married and married for love and not to escape whippings, to +cease being ashamed of him, to show herself proud of him, on the contrary, +especially before Jimmy! + +Trampy, in his less enthusiastic moments, felt a certain uneasiness: +Jimmy's proximity, his own patents far away, in America. But he assumed a +bold face, declared himself the inventor, practised unrelentingly, with +hatred of his rival in his heart. This hatred seemed to increase his +powers of work. He practised, practised. He had a lively intelligence, if +his heart was a trifle flabby. And he was very skilful, besides, when he +condescended to take the trouble. He was a quick worker: in less than +twenty days everything was ready, and "Arching the Gulf" sprawled over the +hoardings of Berlin, side by side with "Bridging the Abyss." One saw +nothing else; and the Kaiserin opened its doors forty-eight hours before +Jimmy. It was a huge success. Trampy received an ovation when, after the +release of the terrible springs which flung the bike from one pedestal to +another, in five seconds he fell on the mattresses outspread to receive +him, behind a cloth. + +It goes without saying that Jimmy was present at the show. He was smashed +before he had even begun! There, before his eyes, was his own invention +worked by another! He had expected competition, of course; it was +impossible, he knew, to discover anything that wasn't copied at once; +snatchers of ideas, who prowl around artistes, plagiarists, pirates, +swarmed as thick as any other sort of thieves. And, as ill luck would have +it, though his turn was difficult to perform, the apparatus, at least, was +simple to construct: four powerful springs, screwed down with a jack, +which the weight of the leaping cyclist, as he fell upon each pedestal, +released one after the other, causing him to take enormous jumps forward. +It was an ideal breakneck machine, easy to carry about; only the +calculations had been difficult. They had cost him a lot of trouble to +establish; and now another was profiting by them! Perhaps some one had +patented the invention before him! For he, too, before showing it in +public, had patented it in England and Germany; and his anger knew no +bounds, his energy was increased fourfold when he learned the name of the +plagiarist: Trampy again! Trampy, who had stolen his love, who had stolen +his Lily ... and who was now stealing his idea ... robbing him of the +fruit of his labor! Jimmy, in spite of his fury, resolved to keep calm: +the law first. He was protected by the law, unless--and that was +impossible--unless Trampy had had the same idea as himself before him and +taken out his patents before the publication in _Engineering_. Jimmy +showed a prompt decision, a feverish activity. First of all, he must put +the law in motion, bring an action against Trampy, telegraph to the patent +office at Washington to ascertain the date. Meanwhile, he made his first +appearance on the day fixed for it. His success was even greater than +Trampy's; his leaps were twice as wide, more in accordance with his +courage. The way in which he "bridged the abyss," in the huge hall where +he gave his show, was enough to prove that he was the inventor, the +creator, the great, typical, daring performer, who, disclaiming death, +marches to glory and fortune even as heroes, flag in hand, rush to the +assault under fire. + +It was a bolt from the blue for the Kaiserin when the little paper +arrived, the injunction against "Arching the Gulf." A steamer caught in a +cyclone would undergo much the same disablement, under a sea sweeping her +from stem to stern, swamping the saloons, drowning the very rats in the +hold. Jimmy's active inquiries had not taken long: telegram followed upon +telegram; the British consul woke up. The law at Washington was formal and +precise: nothing could be patented that had been known, or used, or +published before the patent was applied for. Now the article in +_Engineering_, of course, appeared prior to the step taken by Trampy. And +in Germany, also, Jimmy won his case; the court found in favor of the +absolute novelty of the invention. The Kaiserin could not give its +performance short of paying five hundred marks a night to its rival, the +Kolossal. This meant the wreck of "Arching the Gulf;" and Trampy came down +with it. For a few days, he led a terrible life, a desperate struggle, +made efforts in every direction; but, at last, worried, hustled, driven to +bay, Trampy disappeared into the darkness, while Jimmy, freed from this +enervating opposition and feeling sure of himself henceforward, gained +fresh courage, added another arch to "Bridging the Abyss." + +It was done, he had made his start, he had a name, he was the man who +draws crowds; he received brilliant proposals from all sides, from the +Western Trust, among others. He felt himself somebody; and money also was +coming in. He could at last realize what he had in his head ... in the +absence of love there would be fame ... oh, something a thousand times +more sensational than "Bridging the Abyss," more modern, more scientific, +something which he confided to nobody, which he kept locked up in his +brain, in his heart, like a love passion, a thing which would be his +alone, this time, which no one could take from him! For it would not be a +question of a spring and a click, only. The thing moved in his breast, +lived in his brain. When he thought of it, his cheeks became hollow with +ambition, his eyes lit up. He seemed to tower over immense perspectives; +and, from that height, Trampy appeared to him so small, so small, so +really small that he felt his anger decrease. And then there was Lily! To +send Trampy to his wife with a black eye or a bloody nose, to turn the +husband into an object of ridicule to his wife, that was impossible for +him; it would have shown lack of respect for Lily, poor darling; he would +not humiliate her in her man! She loved him, perhaps, in the illusion of +her seventeen years! Hurt _her_? Never! Jimmy wiped the episode from the +slate; hard as it was, he forgave that highway robber, in the name of his +dead love. + +Ah, if he could have seen Lily when Trampy was driven to confess his +discomfiture to her! He would have been revenged offhand! Lily seethed +with rage against her husband, that footy rotter! What! Was that his great +scheme? Did he call that an idea? How often had not Jimmy spoken to her +about it! It was pinned on the wall, it lay about in the Gresse Street +workshop for months. She remembered seeing the plans, the diagrams, the +drawings in the papers. Jimmy had explained everything to her at the time +when he was still a josser. And Trampy had stolen it from him, stolen it, +stolen it! Oh, he would make her die of shame! + +It was a terrible dispute, a real "playing humanity," with threats, +clenched fists, broken crockery strewing the floor. + +"To humiliate me like that before Jimmy!" said Lily, furious. + +"Drop that about Jimmy!" snarled Trampy, green with jealousy. "I won't +have you mention him!" + +"I shall mention him if I like! Jimmy is a son of a gun! Very well! But +he's a man! He's worth two of you." + +Trampy strode up to her with his fist raised. + +"If you touch me," cried Lily, seizing the lamp, "if you touch me, I'll +smash it over your head!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +When Trampy received the visit of the _Gerichtsdiener_, with the bill of +costs to pay--for the Kolossal sued the Kaiserin for damages and the +Kaiserin came down upon Trampy--when Trampy learned that, he became a limp +rag. Already he saw himself dragged before the courts, his whole past laid +bare: two wives on his hands, for all he knew; Lily crushing him with her +scorn; Jimmy triumphant. + +Trampy had a moment of real despair. Lily preferred him like that, humbled +at her feet. She seemed to understand her husband, a man spoiled by easy +conquests, a boozer, a rake, who had taken too much upon himself when he +wedded a wife. Trampy was certainly not made for marriage: having a wife +was a different thing from having thirty-six girls. His heart, weakened +with premature enjoyment, was no longer made for real love. All this he +too now perceived; and, in spite of himself, realizing his unworthiness, +he felt overcome by an ever-increasing jealousy. + +Those were melancholy weeks in the small room. He sat for hours brooding +over his disgrace. Lily silently turned this time of rest to account and +mended her costumes, sewed spangles on her bodices, beside the earthenware +stove, on which the stew was bubbling; and then came the meal, on the +table hastily cleared of the mass of ribbons, thread and needles, to make +room for the plates. Trampy choked as he swallowed that dinner which he +had not earned, sighed sadly for the good cheer of his dreams, the +champagne suppers with girls. He gulped down his meagre fare in silence, +he who had known the gay junketings, the noisy laughter and the "Roman +nights!" To go from there and drown his sorrows in the bar next door was +but a step. And Trampy had sorrows outside his recent defeat: sorrows +which were even more bitter. He felt that, this time, he was losing Lily. + +Lily was surrounded with sympathy. When she went the round of the +agencies, the pros courted her. They looked upon Lily in the light of a +wife tired of her husband. They prowled round that possible prey. A Lily +was worth the having, meant an assured income for whoever succeeded in +winning her affections and managing her properly: not with brutality, no, +rather not; home joys, like Mr. Fuchs! Who was destined one day to own +those full-blown seventeen years, those twinkling legs, that lissom body, +trained to spin round and round, unerring and exact? What lucky dog would +have her for himself, would succeed in making her love him? They pitied +Lily openly, to disgust her with her husband and hasten on the +catastrophe. Trampy? He was no husband for her! They, ah, yes, now that +was a different matter! And they talked of the dangers attendant upon +Trampy's mode of life; the impersonator told her of the terrible diseases +brought on by constant tippling; they exaggerated it all on purpose, +amused themselves by frightening her; until Lily, sometimes, would look +upon herself as a pretty little gazelle chained to a mangy bear. + +Trampy suspected all this, having himself, in the old days, in the time of +his glory, been one of those who hovered round wives ready for divorce, +helping them, if need be. He could have smashed the face of that +green-eyed impersonator. There was also that architect, that +theater-builder, Harrasford's friend: he was passing through Berlin and +Lily had taken his fancy the other evening, at the café; he had patted her +cheek gaily: + +"I knew you when you were 'that high.' You used to sit on my knee. How +beautiful you've grown!" + +There appeared to be an infinity of people who had known Lily when she was +"that high." They paid her more and more attention ... and then they +believed her to be looked after by Jimmy. That again was a friendship +dating back to her childhood, they said: Jimmy, the bill-topper. He, too, +had known her when she was "that high." + +The greater part of this talk reached Trampy's ears. Oh, he could have +killed that Jimmy! But he was obliged to hold his tongue. Jimmy had him +under his heel, with that crushing lawsuit. + +They did not even dare speak of it, so painful was the subject. The little +table by the earthenware stove separated them like a wall; and there was +one thing always between them: Jimmy. Trampy never mentioned his name now. +He would have had too much to say.... And there were continual summonses, +always; and lawyers, always; and costs, always. Money melted away, like +butter in the sun. Lily was tired of it; and an agony overcame her at the +thought of leading a life like that for the rest of her days: + +"Oh," she said, "he's taking the very bread from our mouths, with his +lawsuit! And I haven't a decent hat to wear." + +"He'll drive us to the workhouse," grumbled Trampy, staring before him, +with folded arms. + +"It's your fault!" Lily began, but soon stopped: the subject led to a +surfeit of quarreling. + +But, in her own mind: + +"That son of a gun of a Jimmy!" she thought. "All the same, who would ever +have believed it of him? Can he guess that all of this falls upon me?" + +"Suppose you were to go and see him," said Trampy, at his wits' end, one +day when he had exhausted himself in stormy explanations with the manager +of the Kaiserin. + +"I go and see Jimmy?" exclaimed Lily. "What for?" + +"To try and arrange things," replied Trampy, dropping his head. "No one +but you could ..." + +"I'll think about it, I'll see," said Lily. + +But she had to get used by degrees to the idea of going and seeing that +Jimmy who was now ruining her. A strange curiosity, nevertheless, drove +her toward that conqueror, once a bike-cleaning workman, who was now +topping the bill at Berlin and making as much money by himself as a whole +program put together. He would receive her kindly, she was sure of that. +Oh and then she wanted to tell him that she had had nothing to do with +that business of the patents ... that she did not approve of Trampy's +conduct ...! And then he could give her news of Pa and Ma, as he had come +from London, where he must have seen them! And she was dying to know! The +idea was increasing with her that life with Trampy had become impossible. +And, in case she should leave him, she dreaded finding herself alone. +Already there were all those offers being made to her, a married woman, +driving her mad! She, Lily Clifton, was treated like a "Parisienne": she +hated that sort! To walk about the stage, two by two, might pass; but it +was possible to go too far, like the conductor of the orchestra, who, the +other day, tried to kiss her in her dressing-room, married woman though +she was! Then what would it be when she traveled alone! On the continent, +too! Oh, she would have liked to be a good little wife! But, as that could +not be, better go back to her Pa and Ma and have a home, a real one, with +a servant in it. She was yearning for a home. But how would she be +received in that case? Would they put the blame on her? Had they forgiven +her? Had she a Pa and Ma still? That was what she wanted to know. + +Lily would have liked to look handsome and elegant on the day when she +went to Jimmy, so as to show him that he was not the only one who made a +lot of money; but she felt very small and terribly excited. The hotel +itself, the great clock, the waiters, everything made an impression on +her, so different from her boarding-house in the Akerstrasse. She felt +like running away after knocking at his door; and Jimmy opened it with the +preoccupied air of a man who is disturbed at an inconvenient moment. But +suddenly he put out his hand in hearty greeting: + +"Hullo, Lily! Come in." + +Lily entered a bright sitting-room, neatly furnished with a sofa and +comfortable chairs; no bed; a room which served only for that. She at once +felt more at her ease. Jimmy motioned her to a seat near a table covered +with papers, full of marks and signs which she did not understand, and +books, rulers and compasses. She tried to be simple and dignified; +apologized for interrupting him: + +"Brain-work, I see," she said, pointing to the papers. "That's hard, too, +I suppose," she added, to say something, for a start, like talking about +the weather. + +"A matter of habit, like the bike," said Jimmy, in a tone of conviction. +"Sit down, Lily, there in that big arm-chair; you're not disturbing me." + +"'K you," said Lily, sitting down, feeling reassured by his cordial +welcome and thinking that, at least, he was polite. + +"I am glad to see you again, Lily," Jimmy went on, taking a chair himself. +"Always glad to see you. And how are you? Keeping well?" + +"'K you," said Lily. + +"I'm very glad to hear it," said Jimmy, scrutinizing Lily with great +kindness and trying not to see her preoccupied expression. "I know what +brings you here, Lily. You're a dear little thing, a kid, eh? A real kid +at heart, aren't you? I bet you I guess. I've come from London. You want +to hear the latest news of your Pa and Ma, eh? You're not angry with them, +I hope? Oh, it would be wrong of you to be angry with them still! They're +very fond of you, you know. They cried when you went away, Lily. Your ... +going away," Jimmy insisted, with a quaver in his voice, "was ... a great +blow ... to them ... too." + +"How do they get on without me?" asked Lily eagerly, not wishing to break +down and cry before Jimmy. "Poor Pa! Yes, he was fond of me. He never let +me fall on purpose. He did not force me to work when I was ill." + +"Your Pa!" Jimmy broke in, glad of the chance to give a fresh turn to the +conversation. "Why, there's no harm in him! Your Pa's an artiste in love +with his art, that's all! I shouldn't be surprised if the troupe made a +hit yet. It's had a success of a sort already--in the small halls--at +Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. Your Pa just does without you as well as he +can. He runs after his pupils all day long, damn it!" said Jimmy, with a +laugh. "Your cousin stars." + +[Illustration: COUSIN DAISY] + +"_Who_ stars?" asked Lily. + +"Your cousin Daisy. She came as soon as you ... as you went away and +offered to take your place. Pa Clifton sent her to the right-about, +treated her like a ... like an I don't know what, but she returned to the +charge. She's doing very well now. She tries to be like you." + +"No! Impossible!" exclaimed Lily. "What, that fat freak?" + +"And your Pa will succeed," Jimmy hastened to add. "You'll see. You ought +to be proud of having a Pa like that." + +"Yes, in a sense," said Lily, who felt a certain satisfaction at being the +daughter of her Pa. + +He was a bit harsh at times; but a man like her Pa, or like Jimmy, was +much better than her loafer of a tramp cyclist! + +"And ... Ma?" asked Lily. + +"Your Ma," said Jimmy, in a lower voice, "cried ... oh, how she cried when +she found that you had gone! No doubt, she exaggerated any wrong she had +done you. It seems she fell upon her knees and prayed and asked for +forgiveness." + +"Forgiveness? What for? Of whom?" Lily inquired. + +"Why," said Jimmy, in a serious tone, "of whom do you think people ask +forgiveness, when they are alone, on their knees?" + +"Oh," said Lily, greatly touched, "I understand! So they didn't put the +blame on me?" + +"What blame?" + +"For my marriage," said Lily, lowering her eyes. + +"No ... if you had gone off to live with him ... oh, not you, not you, I +know!" protested Jimmy, seeing a gesture of Lily's. "But marriage is +different, I suppose. You had the right, you were old enough to go away +with the man you loved." + +Jimmy turned pale as he said this; but Lily, hanging her head and red with +shame, did not notice it. + +"What!" said Jimmy. "You're blushing! Do you regret it?" + +Lily did not reply. + +"Then," continued Jimmy slowly, "what they said--I wouldn't believe it, +but you know they say a lot of things--is it true?" + +She nodded yes and raised her eyes to him with a sad, weary smile. + +"He doesn't love you? And ... and ... you, Lily," asked Jimmy, taking her +hand in his, "don't you love him?" + +"Certainly not!" said Lily, with such an accent of conviction and such a +look of disgust that Jimmy was, at one and the same time, delighted to the +bottom of his heart and pained to the verge of tears. + +Poor Lily! He now noticed her pallor, the dark rims round her eyes, that +exquisite face refined by inmost grief. Lily, upon whom, since her visit +to the shop in Gresse Street, he had built his hopes of happiness! It +seemed to him like yesterday and already it was the distant past. Was that +what her rebellion, her bid for freedom had ended in? Was that the +crowning point of her hard life? Lily, fashioned to be the companion of a +loving heart, was the prey of a footy rotter! Oh, if Jimmy had not +controlled himself, if he had not clenched his teeth, for fear of talking! +If he had listened to his anger, let loose the storm that raged within +him, shouted out what he felt! But what would be the good of telling her +his love? Why add to Lily's sorrows by letting her know what might have +been and thus cause trouble in her household, when he wished for one thing +only, Lily's happiness? Suppose she did not love her husband: Trampy, +alas, unworthy though he was, remained her husband, nevertheless! And +there was no hope of breaking the chain. The letters from Denver and +Houston were anything but encouraging. No proofs, no recollections of +Trampy's marriage over there. So there seemed no way out. + +Nor did he wish to incense Trampy's jealousy. Lily would have had to bear +the brunt of it ... as in the old days, with Ma's temper. Oh, there was no +doubt about it: Jimmy, to hold his tongue now, needed more courage than +when risking his life six times in six seconds! But what was the use of +fighting against fate? Better submit, when there was no remedy, and strive +for peace! + +"Everything gets straight sooner or later," Jimmy went on. "Many lives +that once seemed spoiled have become quite endurable. Time is the great +healer. Trampy, no doubt, will get over his faults. He will learn to +appreciate you. Have patience. Don't exaggerate your bothers, Lily. There +are others unhappier than yourself. You have a claim to happiness. You +will know it yet. Just think. You're so young, you have all your life +before you." + +"The simpleton!" thought Lily. "It's easy for him to talk. But then ... +why was he so jealous? Why did he tell Pa about me? But for him, I should +be at home now!" + +It was certain that, notwithstanding his kindly reception, Jimmy now +seemed to be taking Trampy's part, as formerly he had sided with Pa and +Ma. And he was lalerperlooser enough to ask Lily if her husband knew that +she had come to see him: + +"I hope he knows, Lily. We must have no secrets: did you tell him?" + +"He sent me," she said, resolving to tell everything frankly, since that +was what she had come for and not, after all, to talk about love ... +money, only, and business ... it was a question of bread and butter to +her. + +"Ah! He did!" said Jimmy, a little surprised. + +"Yes," said Lily, "it's about that lawsuit." + +"Speak quite frankly, Lily. Tell me everything," said Jimmy, very calm. + +"Well," said Lily, yielding before his air of candor, "Trampy is at the +end of his tether; he has no money"--she colored up to the eyes--"no +money, no work; the law-costs ..." + +"And whose fault is that?" interrupted Jimmy, rising and picking up a +cigarette, so as to have something to fumble at with his fingers. "Whose +fault is it, Lily, if not that ... well, if not Trampy's? Isn't it fair +that he should pay for it? It would really become too easy, else, to steal +other people's ideas! You know quite well, Lily--you saw it at my place, +on the wall--is it my invention or is it not? And here comes Trampy," he +continued, crunching up his cigarette with a nervous gesture, "and patents +it ... as if it were his own. It's a bit too much, you know!" + +"Jimmy," cried Lily, starting up from her chair, "I swear to you that I +had nothing to do with it! If I had known, Jimmy, I would have stopped it! +I call it stealing, as you do." + +"Oh, I'm quite sure of that, Lily! I never thought it was you! Calm +yourself; sit down, do," said Jimmy, relieved at the sight of Lily's +indignation, as she stood before him with blazing eyes and her face +crimson with shame. + +"Important tricks like that!" went on Lily, sitting down again. "No, those +have no right to be copied. It's brain-work. You designed it yourself." + +"Yes, but about the present," said Jimmy, with a serious air. "I can't +give in to Trampy. I'm bound to defend myself. You came to see me about my +action, Lily. I can't say anything on the subject. It's ... Trampy's +business, I suppose! Why, what would you do in my place, Lily?" + +"I should do as you're doing, Jimmy, you're perfectly right," said Lily, +very low, without raising her head. "But couldn't one come to terms ... +avoid a lawsuit ... and not waste all that money on jossers? What do you +gain by it yourself? We can't pay up, Jimmy: those costs are breaking +us." + +"What do you mean by 'us'?" + +"Trampy isn't working," continued Lily. "He hasn't done anything for a +long time." + +"But then," asked Jimmy, stopping in front of her, "how does he live?" + +"I ... I'm earning money," explained Lily, blushing, ashamed to own her +distress. + +Oh, it was hard for her, Lily Clifton, to have no money and to confess it +to Jimmy, that josser, who was making his five hundred marks a day! Jimmy +saw her before him, huddled in her chair ... her faded hat, her mean gown. +He took in everything at a glance. Poor Lily, who used to dream of +dresses, to be reduced to that! Then he understood. Pity moved him at the +sight of that poor Lily. It was all very well for him to say, just now, +"Business is business," and to ask, "What would you do in my place?" He +knew what he would do. A lawsuit was not a question of sentiment, +everybody knew that; but still, it was no longer between men.... + +"Listen, Lily," he said, putting his hand kindly on her shoulder, "if all +this is to fall upon you, we must see how we can arrange matters. Sorry +you didn't come sooner; I don't want to add to your burdens, Lily, heaven +knows I don't! I never thought of that. I ought to have suspected, +perhaps. However, I will withdraw the case. I'll manage. And the costs ... +well, I'll pay them myself, if necessary, for you, Lily, for you; because +I knew you when you were 'that high' ... no, not quite so small; how old +were you? Thirteen ... and such a little thing, such a dear little wee +thing. Do you remember when I made night and day in your cabin, by just +touching my levers? And then it seems to me that I always knew you: in +Mexico, in India, in South Africa, at the time of the elephants and the +tiny birds. And then later, that other Lily, the London one: the one of +only a few months ago. The one for whom ..." continued Jimmy, in a voice +smothered with emotion. "The Lily of Rathbone Place. The Lily of Gresse +Street. That little toque, which suited you so well and which you +complained of ... you poor little Lily!... You poor silly little thing! +There, go home now and make your mind easy, as far as I'm concerned, Lily. +None of your troubles shall come from me. Besides, as they say, a bad +settlement is better than the best lawsuit. I'm doing it for your sake. +Well, is that all right?" + +"Oh, how kind you are!" she said, raising her eyes to him, with a tear in +them. "Why, Jimmy, you're not so bad, after all!" + +"Pooh!" said Jimmy, lighting a cigarette. "I'm no better than most, Lily, +and no worse. Flesh and blood, like the rest. And, besides, for you, Lily +... If ever you need me, Lily, if I can be of any use to you ..." + + * * * * * + +"For me," thought Lily, as she returned home, "for me. Ah, if I had known! +Ah, when I think that he, too, wanted to marry me, what a fool I was!" she +said, with a sigh. + +She still felt in her own palm the gentle, manly pressure of Jimmy's hand. +She still heard the kind words with which he had comforted her on the +threshold. Goodness, how happy she would have been with a man like him! +Her ill-will disappeared. He was no longer a cur, that josser, but a +gentleman, rather, a brother, a friend.... And she was proud, also, that +Jimmy, who was so busy and making such a lot of money, had promised to +come and applaud her, one of these evenings, at her theater, at Kleim's +Garden, before his own turn at the Kolossal. Oh, wouldn't she work hard +that night! She would do all her tricks! She was bent on pleasing him. And +how vulgar and common Trampy appeared in comparison. However, there was no +help for it now; and Lily hastened home to bring him the good news.... In +any case, Trampy would be grateful to her for what she had done for him. +As a matter of fact, it had cost her an effort to go and pay this visit. + +She happened to run up against Trampy coming out of the bar, where, +according to his custom, he had been drowning his cares. He had a moment +of delight on learning the result of the visit, but, mad with jealousy, at +once adopted a lofty tone, so as not to have to thank her: + +"I knew he would knuckle under!" he said, without looking at Lily. "The +braggart! He prefers a settlement, eh? And quite right too! He knows he's +in the wrong. He's retreating, he's afraid." + +"Afraid of what?" asked Lily, bewildered. + +"Afraid of me. He knows it won't pay to try my patience too far!" + +"Afraid? Jimmy?" said Lily, indignant at all that foolery. "Do you think +he's done that because he's afraid?" + +"And for what other reason would he have given in so soon?" + +"He did it to please me, he did it for _me_, damn it, for _me_!" said +Lily. "You're rid of your lawsuit: you ought to talk differently and thank +me!" + +"And why should he do it to please you? What is there between you?" asked +Trampy, looking her in the face. + +"You're drunk!" said Lily furiously, with her hand ready to scratch. + +"No scenes in the street!" said Trampy. "We'll go into this at home ..." + +"Then I shan't come in!" said Lily, abruptly turning her back on him. "I'm +going to the theater!" + +She had nothing to do on the stage; only the idea of being alone in the +room with Trampy seemed intolerable to her. At the least discussion, Lily +felt it, she would have thrown the lamp at his head, so great was her +indignation at his insolence! + +She was boiling over with anger when she reached the theater. There were +people practising; it was the time for it. Lily went up to her +dressing-room, shifted things in her trunk, anyhow, for something to do. +The idea that her husband thought her capable of anything wrong made her +angry. Oh, to get a divorce, to part from him! As this could not go on for +ever, it might as well be done at once; but it would be better if there +were no fault on her part. A divorce, yes; but with the honors on her +side; a divorce in her favor! Patience, the opportunity would come! It +ought to be quite easy, with the girls whom Trampy beguiled, the love +letters which he received, to catch him in the act, cover him with +ridicule, get the best of him. Oh, if she only could! To be a poor little +victim, how touching! A dear little outraged wife! + +"You fool, if I catch you!" she said. + +Then another idea passed through her brain. Oh, if it were true! She would +have danced for joy! Trampy's marriage in America. + +"Is it true? Is it true? God above, grant that it be true!" + +It was possible. Already, a few days before, the Jim Crows who hovered +round her had talked about it, in covert words, in the hope of making +things worse. There must be some truth in it. There was so much news going +from mouth to mouth: Lillian, Edith and Polly were the rage in Chicago.... +That poor boy-violinist: at Budapest, the stuffed seat to his trousers had +slipped from its place and allowed the dog's teeth to reach the living +flesh; he had had to spend a week in bed with poultices.... Harrasford was +contemplating a theatrical trust on the Continent, planning a model +music-hall in Paris.... There were Jimmy's successes, his ambitions.... +Amid all this news, to which Lily listened, sometimes absent-mindedly, +sometimes with interest, among these adventures dating from +everywhere--names which she greeted like old acquaintances, with a little +nod: "Denver? Yes, I know; a big flat stage. Mexico? I remember!"--among +all those tales, Lily pricked her ears when she heard the name of Ave +Maria coupled with Trampy's. She had a vague recollection of Ave Maria's +flight, after her departure from Mexico; was it with Trampy? Were they +really married then? Oh, if it were only true! God above, grant that it +were true! + +Lily, haunted by this idea of a divorce which would set her free, had +rummaged in Trampy's trunk, among his programs and posters. It was full of +letters, photographs of girls in outrageous hats, in tucked-up skirts, in +tights, with inscriptions. All this dated back to before the marriage, a +collection of treasures which he had not had the courage to destroy. She +had hoped to find some proof, some clue; but no, there was nothing serious +in it. Lily did not give up, for all that; on the contrary. After the +visit to Jimmy, which made Trampy so meanly jealous, she lost no +opportunity of inquiring. But Martello himself, the father, never had news +of his daughter. He hadn't heard for ever so long; and it was to no avail +that Lily asked about Ave Maria, the one who ran away with a man, a great +artiste; she always received the same reply: + +"Ave Maria? Don't know the name. Ave Maria? Haven't seen her since ..." + +But Jimmy, always; Jimmy here, Jimmy there; they talked about him all the +time: his ideas; something new he had invented; something no one had ever +seen: much cleverer than "Bridging the Abyss," it seemed; but nobody knew +what. + +"I know!" said Lily, with a well-informed air and very proud of knowing +Jimmy and of letting people think ... + +"Do you know Jimmy?" + +"Ever since I was that high," answered Lily. "He used to hold me on his +knees." + +"And what is his new trick?" + +"I'm not allowed to tell. He asked me not to say." + +Everybody praised her for her discretion. The sympathy with which she was +surrounded increased. + +"Jimmy," they hinted. "Now there's a fellow you ought to have married, +instead of your ..." + +"Not a word against my husband," she said, like a good and devoted little +wife. "I won't have him insulted." + +That did not prevent her from laughing with her friends. She felt a need +of forgetting, or she would have died of boredom, with a husband like +that. She was heavy at heart, sometimes. She was a woman, not an icicle. +She felt herself made for love. She was flesh and blood, like Jimmy. She +would have liked some one to console her, to talk softly to her, as +Glass-Eye Maud used to do. There were plenty willing to play the part of +Glass-Eye Maud, no doubt: the female-impersonator, for instance, with the +green eyes. Oh, she would have liked to be hugged, kissed full on the +mouth, or else stroked and petted gently! No home, no happiness; marriage +without love; that was her life henceforth. These stage friendships were a +relief. + +The Bambinis romped with her. She loved their gaiety, liked to touch their +sturdy little limbs. That evening, Lily, who was ready for her performance +early, was having fun with them. Dressed in her pink tights, she looked +like a blithe nymph playing with rollicking cupids. + +"What a charming group!" said a voice behind her. "If I were a painter, +Lily, I would do you like that!" + +It was Jimmy, who had come to see her on the stage, as he had promised. + +"Am I spoiling your game?" he asked. "It's so pretty! It makes me want to +kiss the lot of you!" + +"Well, booby!" said Lily, all excited and laughing. "Why don't you? You +daren't!" + +"I daren't! I'll show you whether I dare ... and ... I'm stronger than I +look!" + +And thereupon he caught hold of Lily and lifted her like a feather--Lily, +all taken aback, had not time to say "Oof!" so great was her surprise--and +Jimmy crossed the whole stage with Lily in his arms, shouting to the +manager: + +"Look what a dear little baby I've found! Isn't she sweet, eh?" + +And then, in the wings, he gave her a good big kiss on the cheek before +putting her down. + +The people around them laughed, applauded that stage joke: + +"Jimmy, her old friend," they said, "knew her when she was that high." + +Lily was very proud of it. And, a few minutes after, when he had left her +to take a seat in front, Lily jumped into the saddle and rode round and +round, without a hitch, smiling to the audience, smiling to Jimmy in a +front box, Jimmy to whom she was grateful for coming to see her: a famous +bill-topper putting himself out for her ... before everybody! She was +faultless that evening, did a dozen twirls on the back-wheel, made a +record, was grand. + +Trampy, meanwhile, was waiting for Lily outside, in the passage leading to +the stage-door. He had not seen Jimmy kiss Lily, but he saw him carry her +across the stage, just as he was coming on himself, so he had turned and +hurried out to avoid scandal ... giving way to his wife, who worked while +he did not. He had gone out at once, time to run to the bar and drown two +or three sorrows, and he was waiting for her now, without paying any +attention to the girls passing. As soon as he saw Lily, he seized her by +the arm: + +"I've had enough of this," he said. "I saw you, you and your Jimmy! You +can't deny it this time!" + +"Oh, Trampy, don't insult me like that!" protested Lily. "Why do you +always say 'my' Jimmy? One can have a laugh and a joke on the stage +without meaning wrong, you know one can. Besides, if you didn't like to +see him carry me in his arms, you ought to have smashed his face, without +so much talk." + +"I didn't want to make a fuss." + +"You were afraid to. You're afraid of him, that's what you are!" + +"Stop jeering at me!" said Trampy, shaking her violently. "You're dragging +me in the mud; it's like those whippings of yours! I'm tired of the +affronts you put upon me! You ought to have married your Jimmy and left me +in peace." + +"I can't say," sneered Lily, "that I remember running after you!" + +"That Jimmy!" repeated Trampy. "I'll kill that fellow like a dog! If I +don't do it now, I will later, in a year, in a hundred years, if +necessary. I'll kill him like a dog!" + +Lily gave a little laugh as she went out, followed by Trampy. She did not +wish, in that lobby, before the people passing, to look like a woman +insulted by her husband. She laughed bravely, as she used to, on the +stage, with Ma, in the days of the great smackings. To see her laugh, one +would have thought that Trampy was telling her a story; and he repeated: + +"I'll kill him like a dog, like a dog!" + +"Pooh!" said Lily, who knew Trampy. "You talk too much to act." + +"We shall see. Where's your Jimmy hiding?" + +"You'd be nicely caught, if you met him," said Lily, who had just noticed +Jimmy leaving the music-hall to go to the Kolossal: "there he is, behind +you."... + +"What's that? Don't you try to get at me!" said Trampy. + +"I tell you, he's behind you, damn it! Turn round and you'll see ... if +you have eyes to see with." + +Trampy turned round, half-reluctantly: he didn't like those jokes, but he +didn't wish to seem afraid. + +"Where? Where do you see Jimmy?" he grumbled. + +"There, in front of you," insisted Lily, pointing with her finger and +pushing him by the shoulder. "Off you go!" + +There was no drawing back. He marched straight up to Jimmy, who did not +even recognize him and who stopped politely. But Trampy had time for +reflection, no doubt: a clearer perception of professional brotherhood. +Better, after all, to remain friends ... among artistes. And, when he +stood before him: + +"H'm, h'm. Have you got a light about you, Jimmy? Give us a match," said +Trampy, taking a cigar from his pocket. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +It stifled Lily, for the moment. She would rather have received twenty +"contracts" with the steel buckle than see that cowardice in her husband. +She had her Pa's blood in her, damn it! + +"What!" she thought. "He believes me to misconduct myself with Jimmy, and +he is too much of a coward to object!" + +But there was nothing to be done. Trampy was as incapable of anger as of +love. All those years of a low life had degraded him to that point. And +Trampy had even lost the right to bear Jimmy a grudge, made as though he +had forgotten everything, said that, after all, it was much better to be +friends. And all this under Lily's critical eye! + +Jimmy! To be obliged to look pleasant at Jimmy! It gave him a lump in his +throat. Fortunately, he had the others, the crowd of assiduous pros who +thronged round his wife. Against those he gave free scope to his jealousy, +and showed himself as strict with the rest as he had been accommodating +with Jimmy. He meant to keep an eye on his wife: + +"A married woman, on the stage, alone! I won't have any more of that!" + +He hit upon a contrivance to be always with her: he would be her "comic." +It was a new system which had come into fashion: the most plastic +performances spoiled by the juxtaposition of their caricatures; acrobats, +Olympian gods, parodied by a merry-andrew in a ridiculous coat: just as +though Nunkie Fuchs, for instance, had taken it into his head to appear +with his Three Graces and mimic their tricks, kicking about at the end of +a wire with his fat, fatherly paunch and his round, silly face. + +And Trampy, riding behind Lily, would simply give a parody of her tricks; +it meant little work to him and was as good a way as another of going on +the stage with her and establishing his title to _her_ work and _her_ +salary.... + +And off they went again, with the basket trunk, and the bikes; and on the +stage, every night, Lily, looking like a goddess, and Trampy, dressed in +rags, went through their tricks and smiled ... applause for her, always; +none for him, ever. Lily wore a very sad look in consequence, when they +returned to the wings: a poor little wife, so sorry for her husband; but +she triumphed at the bottom of her heart, while Trampy turned green with +spite. He was furious with Lily: tried to make her fall, pushed her in +turning; but Lily was too clever and sat as firmly on her bike as Ave +Maria walked her slack-wire, when the brother used to shake it on purpose, +whip in hand and snarling as if to bite. + +Oh, if Lily had not made efforts to be a good little wife! Trampy was +becoming unbearable. She posed as the poor little thing, despised, +deceived and betrayed by her husband; she loved to hear people tell her +so, called them to witness and continued, but without result, to make +inquiries about Ave Maria. + +And there were everlasting scenes at home. Lily had enough of it, more +than enough of it! She had even decided to go away, to return to London; +but, worn out with worry, she had to take to her bed, with a high fever. +It was the finishing stroke: no work,--all the savings gone.... + +Trampy, fortunately, found an engagement: + +"It's all right, the neighbors will look after you," he said, as he took +his leave. "A man's duty is to see that his wife doesn't starve, eh, +darling? I'm going to make money, too, and I'll bring you heaps when I +come back; and I'll send you some. That's the sort of man I am. I don't +talk of '_my_ money!'" + + * * * * * + +Lily was left alone in Berlin. + +Generally, she hated the hotels frequented by artistes, but she was very +glad to be in one this time. She, poor little broken-down thing, was not +left to the care of a common servant; she had nice, kind nurses.... And +she had no lack of friends who took interest in her, very sincerely, for +that matter, for she was a favorite with all of them, that pretty Miss +Lily, who would soon be free.... + +Lily let herself be coddled. Pending the arrival of the money which Trampy +was to send, she wanted for nothing, especially in the way of luxuries: +chocolates, sweets, flowers, they brought her everything. Her friends +passing through Berlin, the impersonator, the Paras, many others, hearing +that she was ill, came to see her, treated her as a lady, cried out how +well she was looking, how pretty she was and how it suited her to be ill +in bed. + +Lily thought that very nice, put on a languid air, like a poor little +jaded thing that had got out of gear: + +"I shall die of overdoing it, I know I shall," she said. "I've been at the +bike ever since I was that high"--raising her hand twelve inches above the +bed--"and my heart's worn out by the hard work. My knees, too. Sit down +there on the basket trunk. You at the foot of the bed. Have a chocolate." + +Then she turned over in her sheets, which molded her firm, plump shape, +took a bag of sweets from the chair beside her and offered it round. Poor +little martyr, she had been forbidden them by the doctor, because of a +cough.... But she took them all the same, merely for the sake of taking +them, with a graceful movement, her bare arm outstretched, her wrist +making a supple curve, like a swan's neck, as she dipped her pretty hand +into the bag. + + * * * * * + +In addition to her regular friends, such as the impersonator or the Paras, +others, the people staying in the hotel, would tap discreetly at the glass +door between her room and the passage, come in on tip-toe, speak in a +whisper. + +"What nonsense!" Lily would say. "I'm not dead yet, you know!" + +And she laughed, and "Ugh! Ugh!" a cough or so, a matter of lifting her +embroidered handkerchief to her mouth, a favorite gesture. And there were +stories from all parts, the cackle of the profession. The Paras were +living together now, as they explained to her. The parrots? No go; given +them up; one had its neck wrung by a monkey in Chicago; another died of +consumption at Stockholm; the rest of the troupe sold to the +stage-doorkeepers of the different variety-theaters. His sight was +beginning to fail. She wanted smartness; wasn't--how should he put it? The +husband looked for a word--wasn't "Tottie" enough. However, they managed +somehow, as "eccentric duetists." Lily thought that very nice, those two +talents combined, very original; but could they give her any news of Ave +Maria ... a great artiste ... on the wire?... + +If ever Lily might have hoped to receive news of Ave Maria, it was during +this illness, from the artistes who visited her, on their way from +anywhere to God knows where. Lily had news of everybody: of Mirzah, the +white elephant, who had to be pole-axed for killing his keeper; of Captain +North's seals; of the Three Graces, who were doing triumphantly in +England; of Poland, the Parisienne, now starring at Bill and Boom's. Tom +was talked about: biceps like thighs, now: a hornpipe danced on the hands. +She had news of the Pawnees, of the Hauptmanns. Roofer was sending out +four new troupes, to Canada, Australia, India, Cape Colony: the +Greater-England Girls. She had news of the New Zealanders and of her +cousin Daisy, who seemed to find the star business jolly hard work: + +"The wind-bag!" said Lily. + +They talked of Jimmy, of dogs, cats and monkeys and of Tom Grave and Butt +Snyders, those great breakneck acrobats: they talked of one and all, but +not a word of Ave Maria. They knew her by reputation, as one who had been +through the mill, more than Lily had, as Lily modestly admitted. + +"Darling," said the impersonator affectionately, "don't bother about that +Ave Maria of yours. I'm jealous. Be mine, darling! How well we two should +get on together, eh, Lily?" + +"Hands off!" said Lily. "Be good ... there ... like that ... down by your +sides ... or you'll get a smacking!" + +Concerts were got up for Lily's amusement. Sketch-comedians pulled their +faces: a musician twanged his banjo. At other times, by closing her eyes, +Lily could have imagined herself in an aviary: the Whistling Wonder +imitated the nightingale, the thrush, the lark. Another, an equilibrist, +showed her how, when he was obliged to stay in bed with a broken leg and +had nobody to wait on him, he used to wait on himself by going round the +room on his hands ... like that. Lily was given, for nothing, a +performance which was worth a whole music-hall program. To put everybody +at their ease, Lily told them to smoke, took a puff or two at a cigarette +herself--"Ugh! Ugh!"--almost choked.... + +They amused themselves, among themselves, free from any constraint due to +the presence of jossers. Lily joked with them as she used to do with the +apprentices in the mornings, when they showed one another their bruises of +the day before. She made them look at her pigeon's egg, on the side of her +foot, the little ball-shaped muscle special to her profession, like the +triceps of the pugilist or the dancing-girls' calves. She was vain enough +to put on a silk stocking, poked out her foot from under the bedclothes, +let them feel "her egg," made it jump under their fingers by a sudden +contraction. + +"Is that all you've got to show us, darling?" asked the impersonator. + +"You don't want much, I _don't_ think!" said Lily, pulling back her foot +under the quilt. + +The incident was interrupted by new-comers who had also known Lily when +she was that high. They brought fresh news from Lisle Street. They had had +a drink with P. T. Clifton himself, had had a drink with an author who was +writing a book on the business. + +"Another josser who's sure to talk a lot of nonsense!" cried Lily. "If +only they told the truth and described us as we are, a sight better than +the society ladies, who come and wait for pros outside the stage-door!" + +And they went on. The healths they had drunk with this girl and that girl; +and new turns: competitors who were cropping up ... names ... names ... +Ave Maria? Dead, they said: somewhere in Ecuador or Peru. + +Then Lily stretched herself to her full length in the sheets, feeling +weary, weary, crushed under all that talk. + +And Trampy just didn't write, sent no money at all. She blushed for him +... in spite of her wish to catch him tripping, before witnesses. She was +ashamed to be his wife, his only wife, his little wife for ever. + +On that day, as it happened, Jimmy came to pay her a visit. His engagement +at the Kolossal was ending. He was to perform at the London Hippodrome, +before going to the States. A certain air of respect surrounded him from +the moment he entered the room, that Jimmy who already stood higher than +any of them among the famous bill-toppers! And they gradually retired, as +though Lily would prefer that. It was no use her saying, "Do stay!" They +went all the same; and Lily was left alone with him, a little embarrassed +and yet flattered at being thought on such good terms with Jimmy. As for +him, he had just heard about Lily's illness, Trampy's absence, and hurried +to see her, bringing her the good news that the lawsuit was over. Trampy +would have nothing more to pay.... + +From that day, Jimmy was sometimes seen at Lily's. He spoke little, sat +down on the basket trunk, listened, thought of things. He was known to +have his mind full of an invention superior to "Bridging the Abyss," one +could expect anything from him: a wonderful chap Jimmy, a bit cracked, +though, with ideas of his own which went the round of the profession and +were variously appreciated. A fund for stage-children; a reserve upon +their earnings, to be banked and kept untouched till they came of age; a +home of rest for the old and the sick; a weekly matinée for the benefit of +the fund.... + +Jimmy described the piteous lot of those who grow old in a profession +intended for youth: but a few shillings a month paid into the fund, a +benefit performance or two ... and our home is established and endowed and +we should see no more stars flung aside, to die in hopeless poverty, after +amusing crowds of people for years and years. + +"I'm with you," said Lily, laughing. "Put me down for a pension for my old +age ... if ever I reach old age ... ugh, ugh!" + +And she coughed, with the embroidered handkerchief at her lips. + +But Lily's joke was left unechoed: everybody talked professional shop, +quoted figures; the habit of signing contracts, of avoiding the traps laid +by the agents had given them all a keen sense of business. And the +frequent traveling, in the absence of education, had made them sharp at +understanding, quick in the uptake. Their clean-shaven faces fell into +wise folds, like lawyers'. + +Jimmy also explained his idea about the apprentices, the compulsory so +much per cent., the inalienable deposit paid in by the Pas and Mas ... +and, much more still, by the profs and managers.... + +"Good!" said Lily. "I'm with you!" + +There was a general laugh. The Whistling Wonder interrupted the +conversation by quacking like a duck at Jimmy and cooing like a pigeon at +Lily. Jimmy got up and said good-by, pleased to see Lily making daily +progress. + +"Ah, Lily," they said again, when he had gone, "that's the one you ought +to have married, not the other!" + +And thereupon they began to pursue their favorite theme and amuse +themselves by describing the awful troubles which she would get into one +day with "the other," that drunkard;--the man with the thirty-six girls! +And they laughed and they laughed, my! Lily herself held her sides with +laughing. + +All this was stage effect, professional exaggeration. Lily dared not +indulge in it before Jimmy. She was more sincere, always a little +embarrassed, in the presence of that man toward whom everybody was driving +her, as though they all saw farther into her life than she herself could. +She was no longer ill, only tired, with an accumulation of past +wearinesses that made her love to lie down flat. But she would get up +to-morrow, instead of remaining in bed to see her friends; no humbug +before Jimmy. + +The next day when he came, Lily was alone. So much the better, he had +something to say to her. He had made up his mind that day. His own present +prosperity formed too great a contrast with the poverty of Lily ... that +poor kiddie who had run away from home in pursuit of happiness and whom he +now found here, in this squalid room.... It was all very well to theorize +about children who have earned fortunes and who haven't a farthing; but +that was mere talk! Suppose he helped Lily a little in the meantime. He +had prepared all sorts of good reasons; he had found a smart excuse, the +great excuse of the music-hall, that he had been betting on horses and +losing. He would ask Lily to keep his money for him, as a kindness, +otherwise he simply couldn't help it, his money burned a hole in his +pocket. Then, on second thought, why all that fuss? Hadn't he known her +since she was that high? And, the moment he came in, he just handed Lily a +thousand-mark note: + +"For the law-costs, Lily! And, anything over, for your expenses, till +Trampy's money comes. Only too pleased to be of any use. You can pay it +back when it suits you. And good-by, Lily, ta-ta!" + +And he hurried out, leaving Lily with the thousand marks in her hand. + +Lily was stupefied and confused. She asked herself why? why? a real piece +of brain-work, which made her head ache. Anyhow she would give back the +money to-morrow! She wouldn't keep it! Trampy would be sure to bring some; +it was impossible that he should bring nothing; but, come what may, she +would give back the money to-morrow! She took the great oath of the stage +upon it: three fingers of her right hand uplifted; her left hand on the +lucky charm. And then she went and shut the door, turned the key in the +lock and lay down.... + + * * * * * + +A noise woke her: some one was knocking outside; but, before she could get +out of bed, one of the glass panes of the door broke into fragments. +Somebody had smashed it with his elbow. A hand came through the opening, +turned back the key. The door opened and Trampy entered, raging, +growling: + +"There's a man here!" + +"You won't find him; you can kill me if you do!" cried Lily. + +She expected a terrible scene. Trampy, drunk, had the look which he wore +on his bad days. He peered into the corners, turned a cunning eye on +Lily. + +Trampy had spent the evening at the café and there heard of the visits +which Lily received during his absence. The neighbors he didn't mind +about, but Jimmy. Jimmy again! The damned dog! Why should he poke his nose +in? And, perhaps, at heart, Trampy was not sorry to have a scene with +Lily, for he wasn't bringing home a pfennig, having spent all his money on +champagne with girls. He felt himself at fault. He would get out of it +with violence. + +"There's a man here!" repeated Trampy, walking up to Lily like a madman. + +She was humiliated to the core when she saw Trampy, dazed with tobacco, +heavy with beer, stoop and look under the bed. And, suddenly, seeing the +banknote which Lily had laid on the table, Trampy shouted: + +"You can't deny it this time. Tell me where the money comes from!" + +"It's from Jimmy," said Lily, beside herself. "He thinks of me, Jimmy +does, while you leave me here to starve. It's ... it's for the +law-costs." + +"Oh, that's another thing!" said Trampy, putting the note in his pocket. + +"Let the money be!" cried Lily, leaping out of bed. "Don't you touch it!" + +"Everything here belongs to me, I should think," said Trampy, a little +more calmly, already overcome with drunken drowsiness. "Everything, even a +dear little wifie," he continued, putting his snout under Lily's disgusted +nose. + +But she gave a movement of revulsion so spontaneous that Trampy turned +pale under the insult: + +"W-what! N-no love?" he stammered. "I'm not used to that. I can get +l-l-love for the asking ... at the ca-ca-café ... or the th-theater ... or +anywhere." + +And Trampy, making a false step, caught hold of the curtain and drew it +back. + +In the pitiless light of the morning, he appeared to Lily like a drowned +man, with a puffed-out face, swollen eyes and wan cheeks. To think that +she belonged to that! Lily spat at him in contempt. Oh, rather sleep with +lizards and guinea-pigs than that; rather with a woolly dog, like Poland, +that Parisienne! Oh, to get rid of him and be free again, thought Lily, +never again to have Trampy before her eyes! And, suddenly, her mind was +made up. She dressed herself hurriedly. + +"Where are you going?" asked Trampy. + +"I'm off!" said Lily. "I've had enough of this!" + +"What's that?" said Trampy, dull-mouthed, flinging his body across the +bed. "What's that? Say it again!" + +"I say I hate the sight of you! I'm going back to my Pa and Ma!" + +"You, you're going back to ... well, good-by, darling, goo-good ... +goo-good-by," stammered Trampy, sprawling on the bed, among the disordered +clothes.... + +Lily moved freely round the room, without even troubling about him, like +one who has made up her mind once and for all. She packed up her things in +the basket trunk. She put her bike outside the door; and, just as she was +going to look for a neighbor to help her down with her trunk, an idea +entered her head. She stopped on the threshold, came back to Trampy, +slipped her hand into his pocket and gingerly took out the banknote: + +"An insult like that!" she muttered. "I'd rather starve than not give +Jimmy back the money!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Lily!" + +She thought she heard herself called, in her dream, just because she was +back in her room again, in London, among familiar objects. She felt as if +her life was going on exactly as in the old days, as if nothing had +happened in between. Her marriage? A nightmare. And her home-coming +yesterday had been very nice: no questions asked, no whys and hows. Her +parents knew, of course. They knew all about her troubles with Trampy. But +no reproaches, nothing: kisses, everybody very happy, including herself. +She snuggled under the bedclothes, in the hollow left by Glass-Eye, who +had gone down-stairs. Lily felt sorry that she had left her trunk at the +hotel, when she thought of the cordial welcome she had received at the +hands of Pa and Ma. + +It was quite three weeks since she left her husband. She went over it all +again in her head. Her departure from Berlin! She meant to go straight to +Jimmy, first, and give him back that money; only, those Vienna hats, +displayed in the shop-windows, those dresses, those boots, when she saw +all that, Lily understood that she could not return to London, to her +parents, with dingy-looking clothes, after her successes on the continent! +Pa and Ma would have laughed in her face. + +Lily felt bound to say that she had been most reasonable: three hundred +marks for that Vienna dress, which suited her so well; why, Jimmy himself +would have approved. + +"Let's see!" + +She reckoned on her fingers: forty marks the hat, three hundred the dress; +and the underthings, chemises, stays, a silk petticoat, boots ... that +came to ... came to ... a week at a hotel in Berlin ... time lost at +Hamburg ... the journey from Hamburg to Rotterdam, Harwich and London ... +the hotel on arriving, so as to be able to dress before going home: it +left her just fifty shillings to play the lady with and buy presents for +Pa and Ma. And Jimmy ... Jimmy, who was in London also, due to open at the +Hippodrome! And she had sworn that she would give him back that money at +once! To quiet her conscience, Lily, under her blankets, took the +"counter-oath" of the stage, with her left hand behind her back, the +fingers closed over the thumb, that she would repay him the money, most +certainly, as soon as she began to earn any. + +"Lily! Can I come in, Lily?" + +It was Ma, bringing her breakfast and a paper, _The Era_. Lily gave a +quick glance round the room: her skirt was hanging on the peg; the bodice +lay, without a crease, over the back of a chair, the hat on top of it, the +linen neatly folded: good! She did not look a scarecrow, at any rate! And, +sitting up against the pillows, with a napkin on her knees, Lily +breakfasted daintily, with her finger-tips: + +"Pa, Where's Pa?" asked Lily. "Tell him to come up." + +"Your Pa has gone out with the apprentices," said Ma. "He wouldn't wake +you, you looked so tired last night. Here, Lily, some more coffee? Another +slice of bread and butter?" continued Ma, spreading it for her. + +"'K you!" + +Lily accepted this as her due, like a lady accustomed to the manners of +good society, to having her breakfast brought to her in bed by the maid. + +"Oh, Ma," said Lily, as she sugared her coffee, "they do understand things +on the continent! They know how to appreciate artistes there. I've had +such successes!" + +"And you were angry with us for teaching you your profession," said Ma. +"You see now that it was for your good." + +"But it depends on how it's done," said Lily. "If I had always been +treated like this, I should never have left you." + +"Well, you don't bear your Pa and me a grudge, I suppose," said Ma, "or +you wouldn't have come back. We knew you'd come back. This has always been +your address; your Pa never took your name out of _The Era_." + +"You didn't treat me fair," said Lily, "but I've forgotten most of it. Oh, +don't let's talk about it any more! Let's talk of something else; let's +talk of you." + +Lily knew all about their struggles, their successes; had heard of it on +the stage, in the cafés. But here, in her room, as described by Ma, she +put her finger on it, so to speak, and realized more fully what a blank +her flight had made, what a catastrophe it had been for them. + +And Ma gave details, tried to interest Lily in the fate of the troupe; +told her that, for months, the troupe had been refused everywhere, because +she wasn't in it, and her Pa had to change apprentices. + +"I was the troupe!" said Lily. + +"Oh, the trouble your Pa took running after his own fat freaks! I thought +he would get heart-disease! And months of it, without earning a thing. Oh, +if your Pa hadn't had some money ...!" + +"But he had plenty!" said Lily. + +"Oh, not much, not so much as you think!" Ma hastened to say, thinking she +saw a spiteful allusion in Lily's remark. + +"Yes, all right, I know," said Lily. "Never mind about that. It's my turn +to make money now, for myself." + +"Still that independent spirit! We haven't got her yet!" thought Ma. + +And she went on talking of the troupe, of the cousin who played the star. + +"Pooh!" said Lily. "A nice sort of star!" + +"It's not every one who can star in Berlin by herself, like you," said Ma. +"Do you know, Lily, you ought to stay with us: we should get on so well +together. You would manage the troupe; and, one day--who knows?--you might +make a nice marriage." + +"But I am married, Ma! I didn't live with him! Do you mean to say you +think ...? Not I!" + +"I know you're married, but you can get a divorce. Jimmy used to make love +to you; now there's a man who ..." + +"And you used to say he was a drunkard, Ma!" + +"Never!" said Ma, rising to leave. + +Lily was flattered, at heart, to be received like that. She also felt +proud that her Pa had not been ashamed of her and that he had kept her +name in _The Era_. Well, they treated her as a lady, saw her value, gave +her her due. And she lay for a while enjoying her triumph, while she +turned the pages of _The Era_ in an absent-minded way: Miss This, Miss +That, Cape Town, Calcutta ... actors, singers ... + +"Those aren't artistes, any of them!" + +Programs, plays, songs: "_Why I Love Women_!" + +"I know, you footy rotter!" + +"_Is Marriage a Failure_?" + +"I should think so!" thought Lily. + +And articles, biographies ... + +"Pack of lies!" thought Lily. + +And pages of "Wanted ... Wanted ..." + +Lily ran her eye down the columns: artistes' boarding-houses, +_costumiers_, scene-painters, dancing-schools, every town, every theater. +Hullo!--she had turned the page--Tom, the dancer--Hullo! At Milan! + +"Bravo, Tom!" + +Jimmy at the Hippodrome next week; private address, Whitcomb Mansions. + +"Pooh, he's well off! What's fifty pounds to him?" + +Hullo! Miss Lily--Berlin--Permanent address, Rathbone Place, London, W. + +"Well done, Pa! Serve him right, the tramp cyclist!" said Lily, throwing +down the paper and jumping out of bed. + +Quite a business, her toilet. She was two hours titivating herself. She +wanted Pa and Ma to be proud of her, of her successes on the continent. +And, when the apprentices came in from practice, you should have seen her +walk into the dining-room. A little air of simplicity, her forehead put +out for her delighted Pa to kiss, hands all round--"Hullo, girls! Hullo, +Daisy!" And she sat down like a lady accustomed to smart restaurants, who +does not despise dinner at home, however, with a boiled leg of mutton to +recruit her inside after those champagne suppers, those truffled +pheasants, that damned continental cooking! She accepted everything, and +thought it all very nice, simple life, simple joys, the only ones! + +She set a good example to the new apprentices, who eyed her stealthily, +instead of eating, for Miss Lily's presence turned their heads entirely. +My! A star like that, a real one! Lily Clifton, the New Zealander on +Wheels! And dressed ... dressed like a lady in the front boxes! Cousin +Daisy was green with jealousy. Lily talked of her travels, her successes +and the crossing, gee! Waves "miles high," the boat standing on end! Glass +Eye Maud devoured her with her one eye, screwed up her fat red cheeks in a +fixed and motionless laugh, scared before Lily, who came from over the +sea, from countries where savages live. Glass-Eye, in her perturbation, +served Lily first. Pa made no objection, asked Lily's permission to light +his pipe: was she sure she didn't mind smoke? Lord, you never knew, with +those ladies! He swelled with pride. If it had been Christmas-time, he +would have ordered a pudding, my, a real wedding-cake three feet across! +His ideas of grandeur returned, his triumphal tour round the world, the +definite extermination of the fat freaks ... if Lily remained with him +... + +After dinner, the apprentices retired, to finish sewing some bloomers. +Lily approved: + +"Bloomers? Very nice ... for a troupe!" + +Presently, in the afternoon, the three of them went for a walk: Pa freshly +shaven; Ma decked out in her jewelry: Lily did not wear any, "only in the +evening when she went into society." Tottenham Court Road, the Palace, the +Hippodrome.... Pa would have liked to write up on his hat: + +"Lily has come back!" + +He looked to right and left, had the satisfaction of distributing nods and +bows to some artistes, with Lily on his arm, as though to say: + +"You see it was wrong, all that people were saying, about those smackings! +And the proof is, here she is,--on my arm, damn it!" + +As for Lily, she thought only of showing herself: + +"If Trampy could see me now!" she reflected. "And Jimmy, if he could see +me, in my fine dress, while it's still new!" + +Regent Street reminded Lily of Pa's generosity. She would not be +behindhand. Pa had to accept a red tie, a pair of gloves, a match-box, as +a present; Ma, an embroidered handkerchief, a lucky charm. Lily had the +satisfaction of paying with gold and receiving change. + +She was tired, in the evening, put on a languid air: gee, her mother would +have shaken her for less in the old days! Lily put it on still more, to +show them all that times were changed. But she did the troupe the honor of +going to see their performance at the Castle. It was a great success for +her. + +"Made a bit, eh?" asked the manager, seeing her fine dress. "Coming back +for good, to star with the New Zealanders?" + +"I don't know; I shall see." + +Lily was quite ready to come back, in her own mind, but she wanted to +return in triumph. It all depended on the price offered: to think that she +had worked for them at ten shillings a week, when she was worth quite two +pounds a night! She would see; she would make her own conditions: for +instance, herself in tights, the others in bloomers ... a special tune for +her entrance ... no star beside herself! + +Lily watched the New Zealanders' performance with the air of an expert: + +"Not so bad; quite good ..." + +And she had various ideas: herself as a fine lady, undressing on the +stage. Or rather, no, as a statue, on a pedestal in a park ... with Cousin +Daisy at her feet, throwing flowers to her. Then she would come to life, +as though waking from sleep, and step down prettily to a special tune. +Hullo, what's this? A bike! And then, gee, a blast of the trombone and she +would show them what a star was, a real one! Yes ... she would see ... if +Pa and Ma insisted ... perhaps ... + +But her real triumph was next day, at practice. Her Pa, excited by her +presence, ran and ran, notwithstanding his palpitations of the heart. It +was no use his trying to restrain himself: his enthusiasm mastered him as +soon as he saw them all in the saddle, his little Woolly-legs! + +And no more Tom: he was all by himself now; and, when he sat down to take +breath, he still ordered his little Woolly-legs about, shouted his cutting +remarks at them. + +Lily raised her head proudly. She seemed to take the apprentices to +witness. She had gone through that, much worse than that, for years! She +was a gentle little lady, all the same. Besides, she was all for +gentleness: + +"Leave her to me, Pa; you're making poor Cousin Daisy quite nervous. She +doesn't know; I'll show her!" + +And, under her great waving feather, Lily, without even taking off her +gloves: + +"There, put your foot there ... like that ... and like that ... firmly. +No, not like that!" + +And, suddenly, stimulated with professional zeal: + +"Wait, I'll show you how it's done!" + +And, in an instant, to show them all how you're got up when you're a star +and when you come back from the continent, Lily took off her bodice, +pinned up her skirt amid the rustling of the silk and, bare-armed, in a +lace-trimmed chemisette: + +"Now then, I'll show you!" + +And Lily, with all her little muscles alive, took a bike, jumped on it as +she would on a stool and then--yoop!--the bike on its back-wheel, spinning +round like a top. + +"Twirls are as easy as anything: you only have to know how to do them. +Come on! Have a try!" + +And the other, encouraged by a friendly slap, tried in her turn +and--yoop!--succeeded ... very nearly. + +Pa was enraptured at the mere sight of Lily's little curled nostrils and +her earnest look: + +"What a professor she would make!" he thought. "If ever she takes the +belt, she'll be simply grand. I can just fold my arms!" + +But he made her dress very quickly. That exhibition of dainty underwear, +which flattered his pride as a father, would have driven girls used to +sewing their own calico shifts quite crazy: there would have been no +holding them; and, besides, artistes might come in at any moment. It would +not do for Lily to be seen half-dressed like that; and she realized this +herself, like a sensible little lady, who hates scandal. + +"Stay with us, Lily," said her Pa, at home, after dinner, when the +apprentices had gone out. "Stay with us." + +"It's your duty," said Ma. + +"If you stay," continued Pa, "I'll make you a present of a brand-new +banjo!" + +"Thank you, no more banjo for me," said Lily, laughing. "I've had my +share." + +"All right, no more banjo," agreed Pa, "provided you stay with us: that's +all I ask. I shall be afraid of nobody then; I'll show them what an +artiste is!" + +And, warming to his subject, Pa built up his plans: the great English +tours; and Eastern and Western America, Australia, South Africa: + +"Eh, Lily? Wouldn't you like to see it all again? Or else, for once, I'll +get up a troupe and take it round the world myself, with you in it!" + +"But, Pa," said Lily, very coldly, "I have business arrangements of my +own, more engagements than I want." + +"It's a business arrangement I'm proposing to you," said Pa. + +"And shall I come on in tights?" + +"In tights, if you like." + +"And no other star but me!" continued Lily, explaining her idea: +undressing on the stage, or else the statue, her own scenery ... + +"Capital idea!" cried Pa. + +"And then there's the money side of the question," said Lily. "I make a +lot of money now. I want to work for myself." + +"And what you make with us, won't it be yours, one day?" suggested Ma. + +"Stay with us," said Pa, "and Trampy will burst with spite and you'll be +much happier here, with your Pa and Ma, instead of with that +good-for-nothing!" + +"Or instead of remaining alone, which is even worse," Ma insisted. "You +want us still, Lily ..." + +"And you me! Let us talk business," interrupted Lily, who would have liked +a pencil and paper, to make her calculations with. + +Ma, in her heart of hearts, did not think it at all nice of a daughter to +consider only her own interests; but Pa hurried up, thought Lily was quite +right ... although he was greatly embarrassed in reality and asked himself +how much he could well offer her, so as to make a profit for himself. + +Fortunately, he was relieved of his predicament by Glass-Eye, who came in +with a telegram for Miss Lily. + +"Give it here!" said Lily, who noticed, as she opened the envelope, that a +chair had creaked and that the palm of her left hand was itching: a sign +of money. "I'll bet it's about an engagement. I have offers from every +side; you have no idea ... Well, I never!" she said. "A telegram from +Jimmy, at the Horse Shoe! I thought he was at Whitcomb Mansions. What can +he want with me? He asks me to call on him! Funny way of treating a lady. +Why can't he come himself?" + +But Pa and Ma thought differently: Jimmy was "somebody," a man to be +considered, right at the top of the profession; she'd have done better to +marry him and not her Trampy Wheel-Pad!... + +"You must go," insisted Ma. "Don't you like going alone? Shall I come with +you?" + +"Yes, that's different," said Lily, who had a certain pride and who felt +sure that Jimmy would never mention that thousand marks before a witness. + +Her heart beat a little, as she went up the staircase of the Horse Shoe to +the third floor, on the left, door 32. At first, she was surprised that he +should be there, having read in _The Era_ ... but he might have moved. On +the whole, she was not sorry to show herself to Jimmy in her pretty frock, +he having seen her last in her room in Berlin, looking ill, unkempt and +frightfully ugly. She was not sorry, either, that Ma was with her: + +"He's in love, I suppose," said Lily. "Everybody makes love to me: why do +they, Ma? I'm not a bit pretty, off the stage." + +And she took a mischievous pleasure in enlarging upon her successes and +her flirtations, there, on the staircase of the Horse Shoe, with Ma beside +her, and no smackings, gee, nor any fear of smackings in the future! What +a change since her marriage! + +"Yes," Lily went on, as she read the numbers on the doors--29--"Ma, you +ought to see the flowers I get, the chocolates, the sweets"--31--"but all +that does not prevent a lady from keeping straight"--32-- + +Then she gave a stifled cry, her voice stuck in her throat: Trampy, Trampy +himself stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets, a cigar in his +mouth, his hat cocked over one ear; and he looked at her with a bantering +air: + +"Sorry to disappoint you, Miss Lily. You hoped to find some one else, +eh?" + +Ma, utterly flabbergasted, had dropped on to a bench in the passage, in +the shadow. Trampy did not even see her. Lily was crimson with shame at +being caught tripping by Trampy: she could not deny it. She wanted to run +away, but, stupefied with surprise, remained where she stood, with dilated +pupils, open-mouthed. + +"You can look at me till to-morrow morning and it won't help you," said +Trampy quietly, with the air of a man who has prepared his speech. "I've +got you this time! I sent the telegram; I knew you'd come, wherever he +thought fit to meet you; you'd have come for less than Jimmy; you'd have +come for the impersonator or any one else, never mind whom; any one in the +rotten lot, any gentleman in the front boxes, eh? It's 'Whistle and I'll +come to you, my lad!' with you! But I thought Jimmy would do best, Jimmy +your lover, whom you followed to London. Now my luck has brought me here, +too ... for my work ... not like you! And, by the way, Miss Lily, have you +brought me that thousand marks which you got from Jimmy and which I was +going to give back to him, when you stole it out of my pocket? Or did you +spend it on the way here? You hadn't a rag to your back, when you left me, +and I find you dressed up like a Tottie. My compliments, Miss Lily." + +"O God, strike him dead!" prayed Lily. "Strike him, kill him, kill him!" + +Lily felt like fainting. She could not breathe, her ribs seemed to be +crushing her lungs. At last she drew a long, slow breath: + +"Well," she stammered, overcome with shame, "well, we can be divorced ... +if you like." + +"I'll see," said Trampy, hardening his voice and throwing away his cigar. +"Go back to your Jimmy in the meantime. You may be sure I have no use for +a traitress like you, an idler who refuses to work, a woman who lets every +man make love to her!" And, suddenly, pointing to the stairs, "You can be +sure that I've no further use for you! Get out of this, damn you! And +you're not going, mind you: I'm kicking you out!" + +And therewith Trampy went back into his room and slammed the door in her +face. + +Mrs. Clifton and Lily remained glued where they were. At last, Ma, +trembling all over, rose from the bench and led away her daughter, who +shook her fist at the door, crying: + +"Liar!" + +"Why didn't you speak just now, my poor Lily?" said Ma. "You ought to have +answered back! So it's true, all that? A nice thing! You, who +pretended...." + +"Oh, let go, you're crushing my sleeve!" retorted Lily angrily, pulling +her arm away from the hand that clasped it. + +She went down the stairs, followed by Ma, without knowing what she was +doing. She would have liked to find a train on the pavement, a motor, to +jump into it, to make off and never see anybody again, after the +humiliation which she had undergone before Ma. + +She flung herself into the first cab that came along, yelled a direction +to the driver: Hyde Park, anywhere! Ma found herself by Lily's side, +without being asked to step in, and she repeated: + +"Lily, you ought to have ... Why did you let him treat you like that? Is +it true?" + +"First of all," said Lily, suddenly turning and facing her Ma; "first of +all, it's your fault ... yours ... all that's happened, damn it! If you +had been less hard on me, I shouldn't have gone off with that footy +rotter!" + +"I've often been sorry since," said Ma. "I've been sorry for it. Calm +yourself, Lily. And then ... were we so very wrong? Look how your husband +has just treated you before me, before your mother!" + +"He's a liar! I swear it!" + +"And Jimmy's thousand marks? What was that money for? Why didn't you give +it back?" + +"It's a lie! It's a lie!" + +"You, who pretended you were making such a lot of money!" continued Ma. +"There's not a word of truth in what you said. You haven't a penny. I can +see it. Oh, you're the same as ever, my poor Lily--extravagant habits, +dresses--and here you are, penniless, left to yourself with your expensive +tastes. You'll die in poverty one day, without a Pa or Ma. Come back to +us, Lily." + +"To make nothing? No, thank you!" + +"Who says so?" + +"Oh, I know! Ten shillings a week, eh? Family life, as that old beast of a +Fuchs says!" + +"Lily," said Ma severely, "don't insult decent people! Have some respect, +at any rate." + +But Lily had no respect left for anybody. Pas, Mas, Trampies, Nunkies, one +and all, were so many slave-drivers! + +"And yet it's quite true, I'm penniless," thought Lily to herself. "I, who +have earned a fortune for you!" she grumbled under her breath, stifling a +sob. + +"You're mad, my poor Lily! All that we have will be yours some day. You +never think of the future; you spend your last penny." + +"I earn and I spend!" + +"And suppose you fell ill, my poor Lily?" + +"Hospitals aren't made for dogs! Besides, I have friends. And then, at +least, I shall have had some fun for my money, while you, if you died +to-morrow, Pa would marry another woman, who would spend all your savings, +all the money I have earned for you." + +"Lily," cried Mrs. Clifton, "you're insulting your father!" + +"I'm telling you things as they are; and I won't come back to you, because +I can make more elsewhere! Every one for himself!" + +"But you don't make a penny!" said Ma, gradually getting angry. "You heard +Trampy, just now. He called you an idler. Your Pa, at least, used to make +you work. You're trying to bluff us with those stories of your successes. +I dare say you'll be glad, one day, of a crust of bread with us." + +"Ma!" + +"Your contracts," said Ma, "you're always talking of your contracts. I +should like to see them and your programs too." + +"Certainly," said Lily. "I'll show them to you: Munich, Berlin, Hamburg. +I've had successes everywhere, engagements everywhere! I make more by +myself than all Pa's troupe put together!" + +"Yes, but how do you get your engagements?" said Ma, pale with anger, +seeing that Lily was escaping them and, this time, for good. "Tell me how +you get them?" + +"Why, through my talent, I suppose." + +"Your talent! Pooh! You've none left! You get them through your friends: +through your Jimmy, your gentlemen friends...." + +"That's a lie!" + +"You get them ... by looking pretty and getting round the men ... you ... +you ... you...." + +"Mother!" + +Lily drew back her shoulder, her arm stiff, ready to strike; but a sense +of respect withheld her. + +"Stop!" she cried to the cabman, in a hoarse voice. + +And, without even waiting for the cab to pull up beside the curb, Lily +jumped out in the roadway, into the mud. + +"Mother," she said to Mrs. Clifton, "mother, I shall never forget this!" + +And, mechanically, in her haste to get away, she handed the man what money +she had left, made a sign to him to go on and, without saying good-by, +Lily saw the cab drive off. It was evening, in a quiet street: where was +she? Lily did not know; her head was in a whirl. She recognized Old +Compton Street: had they gone no farther? It seemed to her that she had +been riding for an hour ... but no, barely a few minutes.... + +Alone in London, without money, in the mud, in the dark, oh! she wished +she could be swallowed up in the sewer. She felt like killing herself. + +"If I walk toward the Thames," she muttered, "I am done for!" + +And she took a street on the left, leading in the direction of the +embankment. The movement restored her to her self-consciousness. + +An idea came to her, a distant hope, a glimmer, very faint at first, which +suddenly grew in dimensions within her and lit her up in every particle. +Jimmy! He appeared to her, all at once, like a giant eight feet high, as +on his posters. Ah, people seemed to associate her life with his, to +presume all sorts of things ... though he had never even kissed her! Yes, +he had ... on the stage ... in Berlin, but that was before everybody! And +everything drove her toward him, she always found herself on his path: +Jimmy was everywhere, always. And Jimmy was powerful and he was +good-looking and he loved her! He loved her! To keep straight was no use. +Why, all of them, all of them, including her husband, that footy rotter, +who was jealous of Jimmy without reason: she'd give him cause for jealousy +soon, if it killed him with rage, him and all the rotten lot. And she'd do +it that very moment! At two minutes' walk from where she stood, in +Whitcomb Mansions! She was not one of those women whom you can drive to +despair with impunity: she had her vengeance ready.... + + * * * * * + +Jimmy was alone in his room; his table was covered with books and papers. +He was still at his great plan. + +Jimmy sat plunged in work, without the least thought of what was happening +near him: in fact, he did not even know that Lily was in London. His +installation of "Bridging the Abyss" at the Hippodrome had taken him the +whole day. There was a scenic effect to contrive with the manager: a +"hydrodrama" ... bridging the abyss over a torrent ... with a waterfall +behind ... and the whole thing set and framed in a pantomine, which was +ready for production, because Jimmy had been expected for a month; in +short, it would go of itself. + +And under the peaceful light he resumed his compasses, or else flung +himself back in his chair, lit a cigarette, followed the smoke with his +eyes.... + +Poor Lily, what was she doing, over there, in Berlin, thought Jimmy. She +deserved something better than Trampy, that adorable Lily, to whom he, +Jimmy, would gladly have devoted his life ... and whom he felt as it were +swelling up inside him ... in his heart ... in his brain ... in spite of +himself! That poor Lily! To think that he could do nothing for her, that +he almost regretted having done her a service, after the short scene which +he had had the day after with Trampy, blinded with jealousy, because he, +Jimmy, had visited Lily during his absence; the reproaches which that +simple action had earned for him: + +"Look here, you righter of wrongs, you who preach to others and go making +love to their wives!" + +To have put himself in a position that he could be spoken to like that, in +a position to have Lily suspected! What a shame! Oh, the worries it would +cause her! Yes, he had been imprudent, perhaps: it was all his fault; +another man's wife.... + +[Illustration: "Oh, you mean cur!" roared Lily.] + +A tap at the door. It was opened behind him, before he had time to say, +"Come in," and Lily walked up to Jimmy, who sat dumb with surprise: a +strange Lily, feverish, distraught with passion. At any other time, she +would have felt constrained, because of the thousand marks, or proud to +show off her dress. Perhaps also she had prepared things to say. But all +that was forgotten, gone, blown away, like a straw in the storm, for +nothing came from her but this, in an anxious voice: + +"Tell me, Jimmy, is it true that you love me?" + +"Why," said Jimmy, perceiving Lily's agitation, without guessing the +reason: oh, but for Lily to do a thing like that! How she would regret it +later; it was terrible this time really. He saw all that at a glance; a +great pity invaded him; and yet he was a man of flesh and blood and felt +stirred to the marrow. "Why," he began, in a voice which he strove to make +friendly, no more, "why, Lily, who told you that? Why really ... I...." + +"Jimmy," she cried, fixing her eyes, like two flaming swords upon him, +"answer me! Do you love me or not?" + +Jimmy, turning as pale as a corpse, looked at her without flinching and +shook his head in sign of no. + +"Oh, you mean cur!" roared Lily. + +And she struck him on the face with her clenched fist. + + * * * * * + +Then she went out without a word, ran down the stairs, out into the blaze +of Leicester Square, made for the dark streets and plunged into the +night.... + + + + +INTERMEZZO + +I + + +The artistes' special left Euston at noon that Sunday. The Three Graces +were the first to arrive; then the waiting-rooms, until lately deserted, +began to fill with silent groups of five or six persons at a time, who +had, no doubt, arranged the night before, at the theater, to travel +together and avail themselves of the reduction allowed to members of the +M. H. A. R. A.: a reduction of at least a third, provided there were five +in the party. They now swarmed into the station from every side: pale +faces, under huge feathers; wrists hooped round with bangles; breasts +bristling with gollywogs and lucky charms. There were little girls with +bows over their ears, dressed in plush and velvet and following their Pas +and Mas. There were troupes of carpet acrobats, with low foreheads, broad +shoulders and bow legs; and profs, bosses and managers, recognizable by +the richness of their watch-chains, looked after the luggage. Theater-vans +discharged immense basket trunks, marked with letters a foot +high--"Brothers This ... Sisters That ... So-and-so Trio ... Miss +Such-and-such"--and bearing on the handles, on the yellow labels of the M. +H. A. R. A., addresses of Empires and Palaces and of Grand Opera-Houses +and Grand Theaters, too, for there were not only "artistes," but singers, +actresses, "chicken-necks," "woolly-legs," who rubbed shoulders with the +muscular acrobats. All of them crowded round the booking-office; they +handed in professional cards, helped one another, among pros; those who +were traveling alone borrowed tickets to enable them to get their +over-weight luggage labeled: complicated pieces of apparatus, +nickel-plated rods wrapped up in sacking, equilibrists' perches; the +coaches, which were carried by assault, were encumbered with hand-luggage, +bags, parcels, picture-frames containing photographs for the doors of the +theaters, heaped up in the racks, under the seats, in the corridor; and +there was a constant fire of "Hullo, girls! Hullo, boys!" + +The Three Graces, standing before the carriage-door, now that their things +were settled, watched this tumult sadly, especially Thea. What was it? +Nunkie's absence? No, but poor Lily had been kicked out by her husband, so +they heard, and turned out by her mother as well: was it possible? Lily +was dead or vanished, they didn't know which; they were told about it at +the theater; a stagehand had met her near St. Martin's Lane, in a small +street, with her hair undone and her hat on the back of her head, crying, +biting her handkerchief, drunk, apparently, and running in the direction +of the Thames. And, since then, they had had no news of her. + +"Poor Lily, what can she have done, what can have happened?" sighed Thea. +"Poor Lily, she was always so nice!" + +Thea could have cried for sadness. + +The start caused a diversion. The collector punched the tickets: + +"Blackpool? Glasgow?" + +The Three Graces stepped in, the engine whistled. But a porter rushed +past, pushing before him, with a rumbling like thunder, a huge trunk on a +barrow. Thea turned her head and a name in scarlet letters caught her +eyes: "Miss Lily!" And, running after the trunk, magnificently bedecked, +in a hat all feathers and gold tassels, who? What? Lily! Lily herself, red +and out of breath, leading her bike with one hand, carrying an umbrella in +the other, and Glass-Eye, her arms stretched wide with parcels, following +in her train! Just time to throw her bike to the porter in the luggage-van +and quick, quick, Lily came scudding back, hustled along by the +train-master! She would have missed the start, were it not for Thea, who +opened the door and, with her arms of steel, gripped her as she passed: + +"Hullo, Lily! That's a good girl! Quick!" + +Lily leaped into the carriage with a bound. Glass-Eye, entangled in her +parcels, had, amid general laughter, to be dragged by main force, through +the narrow doorway, like a piece of luggage. Oof, just in time ... Off +they were! + +In the railway-carriage was nothing but gaiety and handshaking and +ingenuous questions: + +"Traveling by yourself? Where's Trampy? And your Pa and Ma? So you're not +dead, eh?" + +"Certainly not," said Lily. "If they had come to annoy me at the station, +I'd have shown them if I was alive or dead! I was ready for them!" + +And she brandished her umbrella. + +Then she had to make herself comfortable, to find room for all her +belongings as best she could. Lily pushed Glass-Eye about, like a fine +lady used to being waited on: + +"Here, take my hat, Glass-Eye; hang it up. Take my wrist-bag. Wait, give +me my handkerchief first!" + +To look at Lily, all fresh and rosy, one would never have suspected the +trials she had passed through, but a few days ago. Still quite flustered +with that hurried departure, she smiled as she watched the Three Graces, +who, on their side, were carefully folding up their cloaks. And the train +rushed on, rushed on through deep cuttings, dashed through deserted +stations ... and then, suddenly, entered a tunnel. Lily, but for the noise +of the wheels, would have seen herself as she had been that night. Oh, she +would never forget it! It clutched at her heart. She clenched her fists +with anger. Turned out by Trampy! Insulted by her Ma! Flouted by Jimmy, +that mean cur! Oh, when she left his place, a few days ago, she felt like +a madwoman! Her first idea was to disappear, to take a header into the +black water! But, ugh, the mud, the cold! And then the hospital, with +those people who cut you up! She must also show Pa and Ma whether it was +through her gentlemen friends that she meant to earn more by herself alone +than they and all their rotten troupe put together. Perhaps Pa and Ma +would come to her, one day, to beg their bread! But Ma must first ask +Lily's pardon on her knees. On her knees, damn it! And, in despair, +inwardly raging, her chest aching with grief and spite, Lily, penniless, +but brave for all that and ready for the fray, returned to her hotel, +where, to her great surprise, she found some one waiting for her, with a +parcel in her hand. + +Lily recognized Glass-Eye. + +It was, indeed, poor Glass-Eye. When she heard what had happened and that +Lily would starve in London and a jolly good thing too, that she could +sleep in Leicester Square for all they cared: when she heard this behind +the door, Glass-Eye almost fainted. Without a word to a soul, she had +packed up her parcel and gone to join Lily; and Lily, in her misery, cried +for joy when she saw the decent girl, who offered her her savings, twelve +shillings in all, saying: + +"Take me with you, Miss Lily; I'll wait on you for nothing. Take me, take +me!" + +Oh, not to feel alone, to have some one beside you who loves you: that had +consoled Lily.... + +The next day, accompanied by Glass-Eye, she called on the agents, in the +Leicester Square quarter, at the risk of meeting Pa, or Trampy, or Jimmy; +but who cared? With her umbrella in her hand, she feared nobody and did +not give a fig for any of them. + +Nothing for her at Harrasford's, where the Warwicks were starring. Very +well, she'd come back again some other time! And straight on to Bill and +Boom's in Whitcomb Mansions, below Jimmy. As she climbed the stairs, Lily +screwed up her eyes, like a short-sighted person, for fear of meeting +Jimmy, prepared a haughty attitude; but she saw no one. She was not kept +waiting, was shown in at once to Boom's office. Lily Clifton? the New +Zealander on Wheels? Straight away a contract! And Lily left with twenty +music-halls in her pocket! Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield and so on: a +week in each town, beginning on Monday next. And that was how she got +engagements through her gentlemen friends! + +The next day, she borrowed some money on her contracts from the Brixton +financier: "loans from five pounds upward, in the strictest confidence." +Then, proposed and seconded by two artistes, she joined the Variety +Artistes' Federation and, in return for ten shillings, received the red +card of membership. She paid another ten shillings and the same for +Glass-Eye, her maid, to the M. H. A. R. A. and obtained the right, for one +year, to travel at reduced fares, including an insurance against +accidents: five hundred pounds to her heirs in case of death--her +heirs!--and two hundred and fifty pounds if she lost a hand or foot in a +railway accident; and one hundred and fifty for a serious injury. Then she +bought a big gollywog, for her dressing-room, and a little lucky charm for +her watch-chain--a closed black hand, with the thumb between the fingers, +as a preservative against falls--and with that and her bike she would have +set out for India and Australia as calmly as she might have taken the +omnibus to Earl's Court. + +Oh yes, she had done a deal in those few days and, above all, she had got +out of her difficulties, thanks, to a certain extent, to Glass-Eye, who +had comforted her. And besides, hang it, that was all over now! The +worries were forgotten, and, as the train emerged from the tunnel, Lily, +with her arm round Glass-Eye's waist, was patting that decent girl and +Glass-Eye lifted her one good eye to Lily, while the other, the glass one, +gazing fixedly at the door, reflected the thinly scattered houses and the +beginning of the country. + +Lily, when she had recovered a little from her mad rush, lay down at full +length among her bags, parcels and bandboxes. She laughed with the Three +Graces; and there was no one there to interfere with them; there they +were, by themselves, among themselves, alone in the compartment, a +regular, rollicking school-girls' picnic. Lily made them scream by telling +them about her life since they had last seen her. She felt a need for a +reaction of gaiety, after her sadness of the days just past. The Graces +fixed their round eyes upon her, upon that Lily who was so thoroughly up +in all sorts of things which they knew only by hearsay: men, love. A life +fit to kill a horse; and a very nice girl, for all that: a kind of +forbidden fruit, pink and fair-haired, soft to the touch; and no jealousy +between them, friendship rather, a rare thing, in the "Profession".... + +Lily grew excited in talking, told of her successes, the receptions, the +teas she used to give in her drawing-room, in Berlin, when she was ill. +Jossers, according to her, would have paid any price to have been there! +It would form a subject of conversation over there for many a long day to +come. And then her journeys, her impressions of the continent--"Jam with +your meat, my dear!"--and such clean dressing-rooms in Germany; very +severe managers, though: gee, harder than Pas. But very good to her, all +the same. The Battenberg at Leipzig: nothing but leading turns; and she +had topped the bill at Leipzig! And to see all those people eating, during +the show, when you were hungry yourself, had a very funny effect upon you. +By the way, she didn't like that system of being lodged and boarded by the +management; it was all very well for those people; but none of that for +her: give her a nice flat in town or a smart hotel! Once she was started, +Lily never stopped, called Glass-Eye to witness, went on telling of her +life in Berlin; how Jimmy had fallen in love with her when he saw her on +the stage, and he had the cheek to want her to run away with him; but who +got a box on the ear that day, eh? She perhaps: yes, rather, over the +left! And Jimmy and Trampy had fought for her! So had all the pros, worse +than dogs in September! + +"What a rotten lot!" concluded Lily. + +"My, how you've changed!" said Thea. "You used to be so fond of men." + +"I give it them where they deserve," said Lily, slapping her firm, round +hips. + +And they laughed noisily at Lily's anger when, with her shoulder drawn +back and her arm ready to strike, she spoke of breaking the jaws of those +two scoundrels. + +"Go it! Hit me!" said Thea, putting forward her deltoid muscle. "Hit away! +You'll only smash your wrist!" + +And then those Spartans calmed down, asked one another for news of absent +friends, talked about different people they had known, all over the place, +on the stage: their conversation always came round to the profession. +Lily, with greater refinement, sometimes tried to discuss dress: tulle +ruches were to be worn this year, she heard; feather boas. The Graces knew +nothing about that, stuck to their "Did you ever know...? Do you +remember...?" And every part of the world was mixed up in their talk: +India, Tasmania, Mexico, South Wales, New South Wales, York, New York, +Hampshire, New Hampshire. + +"Did you know Ave Maria?" asked Lily. + +"No." + +But they mentioned other friends, like school-girls living in the same +quarter; only, for them, the school, the quarter was San Francisco, +Chicago, Berlin, and the schoolmates were the girl in a knot, who had sold +her skeleton in advance to the Medical College: Marjutti, the +double-knotted girl, to whom the South Kensington Museum offered five +hundred pounds for a cast of her figure; the Pawnees, who had just won a +treble beauty prize; and the Laurence girl, whose cruelly daring +performance was forbidden by the Manchester police; and heaps of others +whom they had known and who, at that moment, were asleep at the antipodes, +right under your feet, or waking up in the Far West, or going to bed in +the Far East, or pitching on the ocean, or rolling in express trains +toward the five corners of the earth. And their own traveling adventures, +the Graces' and Lily's: broken railway-bridges! ships on fire at sea! +towns blazing up in the night! ropes breaking, falls head-first, my! One +would have thought that these girls of seventeen to twenty were South Sea +pirates, talking of hangings and tortures, or, rather, children playing at +frightening one another. Lily, for instance, in India: two eyes glaring at +her in the dark, gee! And, in New York, a fall into a mirror; all over +blood; half dead. She grew excited, in her desire to outdo Laurence and +Crack-o'-Whip: the steel-buckled belt, the kicks in the ribs! Stories of +brutal treatment picked up on every side--from the Gilson girl, from Ave +Maria, from all the boys and all the girls and all the monkeys who had +been through the mill--she made every one of them her own, served them up +hot and hot to the astounded Graces, talked of whole days spent in +practising on rough, uneven boards--"And given no food, was I, +Glass-Eye?"--so much so that she would sometimes get up in the night and +go and pick up the crusts under the table, gee! Lily reveled in the +pitying expressions of the Three Graces and her heart swelled with pride +when Thea, greatly touched, remarked that, in such cases, it would have +been better not to be born. + +"You're quite right," said Lily, with a drooping air; but she burst into a +peal of fresh, young laughter when she saw Glass-Eye overcome with +emotion. "What's that?" asked Lily, giving her a thump in the ribs. +"Crying? You silly cuckoo!" + +If it hadn't been for her Ma's insults and Jimmy's and Trampy's--when it +all came back to her, it was like a needle stuck in her heart!--Lily would +have been in the seventh heaven! No more Pa, no more Ma, no more anybody; +no boss, no prof, no husband, nothing, all alone ... with her maid! +Certainly, there would be the worry of business, looking for her "digs," +seeing the agents, writing letters and so on; but she would know how to +put herself forward, how to make the most of her work; and she smiled as +she reflected how little all those worries meant, compared with her past +life: and she would be free, free, free at last. She was going to earn +money, to enjoy life. + +And the train rushed on, rushed on through the fields. Glass-Eye, with her +nose glued to the window, was astonished to find everything so large +outside of London: red villages decked the green country-side; and then +came empty railway stations. Sometimes the train slowed down:--a large +silent town lay spread in the valley, white smoke rose from the endless +roofs; homes, more homes; the air of rest, the empty streets and the +indistinct chimes of the church-bells proclaimed to the pale heavens the +majesty of prayer. Lily listened with a dreamy air; it all reminded her of +things: + +"It's like the American engines," she said to the Three Graces, "that used +to ring their bells when they passed through Syracuse." + +But the train rushed on, rushed on.... And they again began to talk shop, +as always: with, here and there, an excursion into the cost of food. The +Graces, just then, were unpacking their lunch; and Lily fetched her +traveling provisions from her bag in the corridor. There was a sound of +clattering plates from end to end of the train, in a mist of +tobacco-smoke. Lily rejoined the party very quickly, to avoid coming in +contact with the pros, and, waited on by Glass-Eye, attacked her meal and +broke her bread so heartily that the crusts flew to the ceiling. They +drank out of the same cup, took their meat in their hands, Lily saying +that fingers were made before forks. They chattered noisily, with the +time-honored jokes about apples and bananas. They made Glass-Eye talk a +lot of nonsense. Lily, flinging back her head, laughed full-throated, held +her sides. + +"My!" said the Graces. "What a pity that we are separating! It would have +been so nice to travel together; one's never bored with you. What a +tomboy!" + +"'K you!" said Lily, greatly flattered, with a stage curtsey. + +Unfortunately, they would have to part at Warrington. The Graces were +going on to Glasgow, Lily was changing for Liverpool; a few moments more +and it was good-by, until chance.... + +At Lily's request, the Graces gave her a few last words of advice, +explained the system of the pass-book of the Artistes' Federation: the +sixpenny stamp to be stuck in the little square every week; the extra +stamp at each death of a member, for the benefit of the heirs. They talked +to her of the Friday meetings at Manchester, at which every artiste can +speak and see himself printed afterward in the London _Performer_. + +"Good!" thought Lily. "I may have things to say. There will be news for +somebody!" + +The Graces had a "three years' book," the professional _agenda_, with +nothing but Mondays marked on it for the weekly engagement: 8 January, 15 +January and so on. + +"Yes, I know," said Lily. "Mine's full for months ahead!" + +They showed her, on theirs, the last pages containing portrait +advertisements of famous artistes: the Pawnees, Marjutti, Laurence. + +"Oh, if I could get there one day!" thought Lily. "I'd post it to Pa; it +would be the death of him!" + +And then followed the thousand and one details of the wandering life: your +name on the red list, the list handed in at the station; the journeys at +reduced fares; the music for twelve instruments, forty executants, sent on +to the theater a fortnight in advance. + +"And matinées are paid for now. And you know, Lily, in the Federation you +can get a solicitor free." + +"That's a good thing to know," thought Lily, "for my divorce from that +rusty biker!" + +Oh, how she hated pros, now! The sight of them in the corridor, looking at +her with glistening eyes, made her want to put out her tongue at them! But +she preferred not to see: + +"I don't like to seem stuck-up with them, it's not polite," she observed. + +Nevertheless, she shrugged her shoulders when one of them who, no doubt, +had known her when she was "that high," blew kisses to her from the tips +of his fingers, with a gesture straight at her heart, through the window. + +And the train rushed on, rushed on. They were nearing Warrington. The +slopes, on either side, bristled with chimneys and houses, houses, endless +roofs ... a Lancashire rid of its black smoke, like an extinct and silent +crater ... Warrington! + +A few minutes' wait. There was a general hustle, pros stretching their +legs, running to the refreshment-room for a drink, some seeking seats in +the train, others saying good-by: + +"Write to me, eh? Cathedral Hotel, Melbourne." + +And a shake of the hand; so long; perhaps for ever. More basket trunks +were being trundled down the platform. A wife was leaving her husband: six +months, twelve months, without meeting; who could tell? Or else, perhaps, +between two trains, as the luck of the tours would have it; and they +seemed very fond of each other, too; Lily thought it very pretty. But she +had other things to do than sentimentalize. She handed out her parcels to +Glass-Eye and then, standing on the platform, said good-by to the Three +Graces: + +"Hope you'll have a good journey! _Au revoir_! Send me some post-cards," +said Lily. "Address them to the theater, I love that! Good-by! Ta-ta!" + +The train started. Lily waved her handkerchief to the Three Graces. + +One more separation; one more little rent: Lily had had so many in her +life. As far back as she could remember there had been heads at the +carriage-window, like that; ships standing out to sea; trains rushing into +the night. But, this time, she was alone, with her maid. And she drew +herself up proudly, like a lady who had a sense of her responsibilities. A +new life was opening before Lily, as before a girl just coming out. Poor +Lily, a girl still, in her way, yes, with, for her portion, a feather in +her hat, a gollywog in her trunk, a pair of supple legs and nerves of +steel, unerring and exact, trained to turn round and round.... + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"Liverpool! Come along, Glass-Eye!" said Lily, jogging her maid in the +ribs. + +Glass-Eye, half asleep, clumsily gathered up her parcels, while Lily +looked round for the baggage-man. On the platform was an avalanche of +bags, boxes, picture-frames, as at the departure from Euston; the basket +trunks were being piled up in the theater-vans. Lily pointed out her +hamper and her bike to the boy from the theater, who had come to meet the +"program" at the station. + +"Are you the bicyclist?" + +"I am," replied Lily modestly. + +She gave her address: not the pros' boarding-house, but private "digs" +which had been recommended to her in London, with a note of introduction. +Then she walked out of the station, followed by Glass-Eye. + +Lily knew Liverpool, vaguely, as she knew all the towns of the United +Kingdom and those of America, too, and Australia and India and Germany and +Holland and elsewhere. They were all muddled up in her memory, she had +seen so many, and made as it were one great city, but for occasional +salient points, as in the towns which you came to in a boat, or those in +which you had a circus parade, or others still, here and there: Glasgow, +where she had fallen and broken a tooth; Blackpool with its ball-rooms, +its tower and a "contract!" Sheffield, with its smoking chimneys; +Washington, with a dome at the end; New York, with its sky-scrapers. The +towns of her early childhood, leaning against mountains, buried under +trees, were more remote, more like a dream. Elephants, monkeys, harnessed +buffaloes; and then Mexico and Ave Maria, London and those footy rotters! + +Liverpool was Lime Street: Lily remembered a sort of round church; when +you got to that, you turned to the left. She soon found the house and +received from a huge, full-blown lady the friendly welcome which Lily's +artless air and fair curls always insured her. No gentleman with them? All +alone by themselves? A room with a big double bed, a little parlor with a +bow-window; sixteen shillings a week, including the use of the kitchen. +Just then, the baggage-man arrived, took the trunk up to the room and went +on with the bike to the pros' boarding-house and the theater. Lily, +assisted by Glass-Eye, fixed herself up for the week: her dresses on the +pegs, her linen safe under lock and key in the hamper. Then she made a +special parcel of things for the stage: paper flowers, ostrich feathers, +white laced boots. + +"There, wrap that up in my petticoat," said Lily. "And the music and the +gollywog: you can bring all that to my dressing-room to-morrow morning." + +Next, Lily made herself look smart, freshened up her two bows, threw her +green muslin scarf over her shoulders and went down to the parlor to pick +out her favorite tune--_The Bluebells of Scotland_--with one finger on the +piano. Meanwhile, the landlady spread the cloth: bread, marmalade, +watercress, two eggs. Then, according to instructions received, Glass-Eye +announced to Miss Lily that tea was ready. Lily affably invited Glass-Eye +to sit down to table with her; and the two ate away like friends. Lily +took the opportunity to settle her expenses; for instance--and this she +insisted upon--if she, Lily, took a maid, she wouldn't have her for +nothing; she intended to pay her some small monthly wage. + +"And a good many little perquisites besides, you understand, Glass-Eye; my +old frocks, my hats." + +Glass-Eye did not ask that, would have given her other eye to serve Miss +Lily. + +Lily was still asleep, at twelve o'clock the next morning, when Glass-Eye +entered the room. She had lost her way, had walked miles, had been to the +landing-stage of the music-hall.... + +"At what time's rehearsal?" asked Lily. + +"At one o'clock, Miss Lily." + +"And you let me sleep till twelve, when I have so much to do!" said Lily. +"Go and get breakfast ready ... or you'd better mind yourself!" + +And Lily put out her hand to lay hold of a boot; but Glass-Eye was gone. + +[Illustration: GLASS-EYE MAUD] + +Lily, while dressing, reflected upon her new responsibilities, upon the +way in which servants should be treated. No familiarity; not too severe, +either; and no smackings ... that is to say ... however ... + +"I must dress her simply," thought Lily. "My hats, but without the +feathers; coarse thread gloves; and she must always carry a parcel." + +Lily was eager to go to rehearsal, accompanied by her maid. There is no +rehearsing at "rehearsal:" the "times," the scenic effects are settled +with the conductor of the band; there are no bare arms or bloomers +practising on their carpets: a few dark groups, in ordinary walking dress; +others, in their shirt sleeves, are opening boxes, and no mystery, no +shifting lights: the stage and the house one wan hole, except the red and +gold note of the curtain and the black mass of the musicians, with the +gleaming brasses. + +The artistes went up to the conductor, one after the other, and explained +their "turns:" + +"When I come on, this tune, soft, six times, to begin with; then, once, +loud. When I go off ... a roll of drums." + +The band, each time, played two or three bars, mechanically, at sight; +then it was understood and ... next, please. + +Lily had seen this before, but not under these conditions; not dressed as +at present; not accompanied by a maid. She listened as hard as she could +when she walked on to the stage, caught the remarks, enjoyed the +impression which she produced. They seemed to ask: + +"Who is it? A singer? A dancer?" + +"No, Lily; Miss Lily, you know." + +She guessed all that. Then: + +"My score, Maud!" + +And, leaning toward the orchestra, she explained, in her turn: pizzicati, +mazurka, frog, swan, back-wheel, the waltz for the twirls, the march for +the exit. And Lily withdrew with a half-curtsey and a pretty smile. Next, +she put out her things in her dressing-room, on the table, before the +looking-glass: brushes, pencils, grease-paints, strings of pearls for her +hair. She hung a cord from the door to the window, to dry her tights on, +when she washed a pair in the basin. She got out her little work-box, in +case of anything tearing, threaded a needle, freshened up the knots of her +ribbons, pinned photographs and p.-c.'s on the wall. And, over all, she +hung her gollywog, a hairy doll, white-collared, red-waistcoated, with, in +its black face, under the bristling hair, two shining tacks by way of +eyes. It was the protecting idol. Not that Lily, ever faithful to the +Church of England, believed much in gollywogs; but, like most music-hall +people, she felt safer when she knew it was there. And her dressing-room, +with the spangled skirts and the tights hanging down like flayed skins, +suggested some strange, exotic chapel in which a fetish sat enthroned. + +After that, Lily had nothing left to do. She went out with Glass-Eye and +walked round to the front to look at her lithos. She saw to her annoyance +that a serio was topping the bill--and a comic singer middling it and a +cinematograph bottoming it. But no matter, she had a good place, just +under the bill-topper. + +Next came shopping, through the windows. She bought a pair of thread +gloves for Glass-Eye at Lewis's and then went in and lay on her bed, +feeling ever so tired from getting up late that morning. She dreamed and +dreamed, while Glass-Eye went marketing. As soon as Lily was alone, the +thought pricked her like a pin: looking pretty, indeed! Her gentlemen +friends! Jimmy, that traitor, and Trampy! Trampy would be sure to play her +some dirty trick. Oh, if she could get a divorce from him, in spite of +all! She had made inquiries in London. She would want a solicitor. She +must have one, to set inquiries on foot.... She could have as many +witnesses as she pleased: all those girls ... and the stage hands ... and +two artistes, on the day when Trampy, in his fury, had flung his bike at +her on the stairs; the pedal had grazed her temple, yes, at Dresden. That +wasn't the way to treat a lady. Everything that had happened was his +fault; and they'd see who won the day, he or she. Her forehead wrinkled up +with anger when she thought of it. She bit her lips and clenched her fists +and then ... and then ... enough of that! She'd see to-morrow. And other +cares came to bother her: the indispensable things which she would have to +buy at the end of the week out of her salary; open-work stockings, an +aigrette for the theater, a little black bog-oak pig to wear at her wrist. +And Jimmy's thousand marks ... + +"Damn it, let him wait!" And, with her hand on her lucky charm, Lily fell +asleep. + +In the evening, at the theater, she forgot everything. She felt a longing, +a fevered desire to appear. When her turn came, after the xylophones, who +seemed, behind their tables laden with bottles, to be keeping a bar of +musical sounds; when the light shining on the great back-drop threw up +into dazzling relief the blue sea, the blue sky and the white colonnade +and terraces; when, amid the flash of the lime-light and the thunder of +the orchestra, she made her entrance on the stage, Lily had a smile of +triumph. Life was beginning for her at last! She could have cried out for +happiness to that human mass which, behind the flaming streak of the +footlights, spread itself, bare-necked and bedizened, in the warm shadow +of the front boxes. And she directed a scarlet smile, set off with a glint +of gold, to the audience. + +"I believe I was grand to-night," said Lily, as she went off, out of +breath. "Oh, if there had been an agent in the house! But no such luck: +they're never there when they're wanted! And those two fellows," she +thought to herself. "If they had been there, they'd have died of +jealousy." + +Everybody spoiled her. She needed a strong head to resist the flatteries +with which she was overwhelmed, both as artiste and woman. For instance, +when a row of Roofers were puffing away on the stage, some manager, who +had known her when she was "that high," was sure to observe that her +talent, her firm, round hips--"Eh, Lily, you've got plenty of that now!" +... Lily blushed under the compliment--would make more impression than a +whole herd of Roofers: + +"Eh, Lily? I say, what are you doing to-night? Come and have some ..." + +"Glass-Eye, my handkerchief," Lily broke in, suspecting an invitation to +supper. + +Glass-Eye, in obedience to a gesture of Lily's, opened the wrist-bag, gave +Lily the lace handkerchief and Lily hid her mocking smile in a scented +gesture. Then: + +"Good-by. Ta-ta!" + +And they shook hands, like good friends, nothing more. + +Glass-Eye frightened off the admirers with her fixed stare. And Lily had +no lack of them. She loved flirting. She wanted adulation, wanted to be +made much of. She had a revenge to take, arrears to make up; she and +sympathy had, till then, been strangers. She now took her fill of it, got +carried away, saw nothing but lovers around her, three or four at a time, +as when the comic quartet, the Out-of-Tunes, used to grin kisses to her in +the street. It was for her that they were there, every one of them, down +to the acting managers, who did not disdain to come round from the front +and take a turn on the stage. It might be a question of steam-pipes or +electric wires; no matter, Lily took it all to herself, made herself +amiable toward their dress-coats and white shirt-fronts, and said "'K +you!" with the great stage bow, the body bent in a sweeping curtsey, when +they complimented her on her firm, round hips. She stabbed them with +smiles, to make sure of complimentary phrases in their weekly reports to +the central boards. All of them; the electrician, the conductor of the +band, she had them all at her feet. It became a need for Lily to see +people all around her dying for love. It gave her a feeling of mingled +pride and remorse. + +"Can I help it, Glass-Eye?" she would ask, to quiet her conscience. +"They're mad. They would leave their wives and children for me!" + +She had an autograph album filled with "thoughts" and declarations: + +"I love you! _Je vous aime! Ich liebe dich_!" + +[Illustration: In the pros' smoking-room.] + +Lily, now that the audience was good for invitations to supper, bouquets +and sweets, occupied herself with that somber mass which, formerly, did +not cause her so much uneasiness as the presence of her Pa. Lily, like a +real stage-girl, who had beheld waves miles high between Harwich and the +Hook of Holland, saw in a few flowers a bouquet large enough to fill a cab +and the least little love letter grew, in her eyes, into an offer to +present her with motor-cars and to abandon wife and child. If a gentleman, +for once in a way, stood on the pavement waiting for her, she dreamed of +an elopement. And there were pros, too, who prowled around her, in the +half light of the wings, and came up to her with outstretched hand: + +"Hullo, Mrs. Trampy!" + +"Call me Miss Lily," she said, in a vexed voice. "That's the name I'm +known by." + +And many of them did know her, in fact, from having talked about her in +Fourteenth Street in New York, or in State Street at Sidney, or in the +theaters in South Africa, for that story of the whippings had traveled all +around the world, under the folds of the Union Jack. Some proposed to take +her with them in their show, or to go with her to clean her bike, instead +of Glass-Eye: + +"Is it a bargain?" + +"Yes, I _don't_ think!" said Lily. + +Another, just off for Melbourne, told her that, in Australia, you could +find fire-escapes to marry you for half-a-crown. They joked without +constraint, in the pros' smoking-room, a small and dark corner between the +house and the stage.... All of them, all the pros, she had them all at her +feet; but she didn't care for that sort and she sent them all to eat +coke. + +The months all passed alike. She had finished the Bill and Boom tour. She +continued in the private music-halls, from north to south, from east to +west of England. In spite of Glass-Eye's impossible cooking and the +everlasting ham sandwiches and pork-pies of the railway station +refreshment rooms, Lily grew plumper and plumper, her nervous leanness +filled out, with pigeon's eggs and ostrich's eggs everywhere, in front and +behind. She did not kill herself with work. Once, in Glasgow, at a +music-hall where, a few weeks earlier, Laurence had had a terrible fall, +lying unconscious for two whole hours, the frightened manager said: + +"No dangerous tricks, mind! They only get us into trouble!" + +Another time, she was given only seven minutes, watch in hand, on the +stage. + +"Couldn't you cut that little trick? You know the one I mean," said the +manager. + +He called a little trick a performance which it had cost her eighteen +months' hard practice and no end of bruises to learn. Lily did not wait to +be asked twice. She cut as desired and thought it a jolly lot easier to +trot round quietly, as though out for a ride, with pretty smiles to the +audience. She ended by paying more attention to her dresses than to her +work: + +"It's not so much what one does," she said, "as the way one does it." + +The sympathy with which she was surrounded unmanned the Spartan in her. +She strove to please, no longer gave her performance for herself, like a +machine, unerring and exact. Already in a few months, she was spoiled. She +looked for adventitious successes. She said, "The audience is very cold at +Birmingham," because she was not asked out to supper, and, "They do like +artistes at Sheffield, gee!" because a gentleman had sent her champagne +and flowers in her dressing-room. + +In the towns where she played three times a day--a matinée and two night +turns--she gave half of her performance, cut whatever was dangerous or +tiring. She never practised now; just went down in the morning to fetch +her letters at the theater, where she loved receiving them, post-cards +especially, which any one could read. She said to the jossers: + +"Send me lots; talk about motor-cars and champagne suppers: that drives +the pros wild." + +She left them lying on the table, or else walked about on the stage, with +her letters in her hand, like a lady overwhelmed with offers, with +invitations. If, by any chance, she went to the practice at the end of the +week, it was to display her hat, her new boots; and she laughed to herself +when she saw the artistes, each on his carpet, fagging away like mad. She +felt like a fine lady visiting a boarding-school, among those little girls +practising their flip-flaps or gluing themselves to the wall to try their +back-bendings. The pride of a Marjutti, who, they said, tortured her +spinal column to achieve a double knot; the inordinate ambition of a +Laurence, risking her life for the pleasure of risking it, were things +which she did not understand. And then, all those accidents! Dolly Pawnee, +the other day, had broken her arm at the New York Hippodrome; the Gilson +girl had fallen on her head at Budapest. They were mad, thought Lily, to +do all that without being obliged to! No, no; no more of that for her! The +last thing she wanted was to spoil her face, seeing that she had nothing +but her smile to keep her. And Lily grew timid, looked upon herself more +and more as a very precious little thing. She gave herself terrible airs +on rehearsal day; thought the stage too slippery, or too small. Lily +wanted a stage thirty feet wide, no less; she who, in the old days, at a +gesture from Pa, would have performed her whole turn, including the +head-on-the-saddle, on the top of a cab or on the Stoke Newington +pavement. Formerly, she used to think everything good, did not know what +fatigue meant; now, in the middle of her turn, she would say to herself, +sometimes with a feeling of discouragement: + +"I've only done half. I've still got this and that to do." + +And the audience itself seemed to act as her confederate. When she missed +one of her tricks, Lily would lay her bike on the stage, step down to the +footlights, bow with a confused air, beg pardon with a smile and receive a +reassuring round of applause. Lily loved these refined audiences: _her_ +audiences, as she said; not the matinée audiences, with seats at reduced +prices: to see your grocer or your butcher in the front boxes was rotten; +and those people gave themselves such airs. A cheap way of doing the +grand! + +And the landladies spoiled her, too; those worthy souls who treated her as +their own daughter. + +"And a jolly sight better!" thought Lily. + +Others pitied her for the profession she followed, feared she would break +something, one fine day. Lily thought that very sweet of them, would have +liked to stay with them for ever; but there was the constant rent at +parting, a bit of herself which Lily left behind her every week. And the +bothers that Maud caused her! Her stupidity drove Lily mad: tickets lost, +bags mislaid, disputes with the tradesmen, battles with the bike, +scratches on the shins, on the hands, everywhere. Lily lost patience, +threatened her with the leather belt, damn it! + +Sometimes, Lily became incensed with herself and everybody. Her divorce +kept running in her head. And her three years' book, with its last pages +unsoiled by engagements, also gave her cause for uneasiness; and yet the +acting managers must have sung her praises, in their weekly reports,--the +ones who came and made love to her on the stage! + +After different music-halls, she had done the Harrasford tour, but without +any great success. People who had known her with the troupe thought that +she had gone off. Lily was furious: if, on those evenings, she missed a +trick, she would knock Glass-Eye about when she returned to the wings, +storm at the stage--"Slippery as ice, damn it!"--fling her bike, which was +not to blame, against the wall. Lily, in her pink tights, under the +pendants of false pearls on her forehead, looked like an angry savage, +ready to fly at your throat. + +That was her life. No adventures, really; theaters in which she caught on, +theaters in which she didn't go down so well; more or less prolonged +applause; an encore or two; and, here and there, a bouquet large enough to +fill a cab: those were the great events. And it was always the same show, +on the same stage, from one end of England to the other; theaters and +theaters; so many theaters that, in her memory, they ended, like the +towns, by making only one. It was always herds of Roofers, swaying in +unison, with flaxen wigs, scarlet legs, boyish voices; and "families," +"sisters," "brothers," all different, but all alike, going up the +staircase to their dressing-rooms in wraps, like gouty people at a spa, +and serios, serios, with choruses emphasized by dances. Sometimes, a new +attraction, a Venus without tights, or a bare-breasted Salome, would draw +whole groups, boys and girls mixed, to the wings, with their necks +stretched toward the stage. And there were exotic features, too: conjurers +from Malabar; boomerang-throwing bush-men; the Light of Asia, a Chinese +girl without arms, an artificial product, like those beggar-monsters whom +they cultivate in pots in the mountains of Navarre. She saw the +boy-violinist again. Since that bite in the seat of his trousers, at +Budapest, he had abandoned all hope of fame and was looking for an +engagement in the orchestra. She saw the female-impersonator with the +green eyes. She saw numbers and numbers. She ended by seeing them all +again, in the various greenrooms. She heard names mentioned. People were +coming on all round: Tom, singing-girls, dancing-girls. She would have to +do something, too, after all, to get herself talked about! She had +received a shock on opening _The Era_: they had not taken out her name! +There was still a Miss Lily at Rathbone Place: her cousin Daisy, it +appeared, a stranger, was there in her stead, under her name! And they +were stealing her idea! The New Zealanders were now called the New +Trickers; no doubt the turn which she had described to Pa. Something new, +something new was essential. She must manage to hit upon something! She +turned it all over in her head. There were too many Lilies, Lilians, +Lillians; you saw nothing but Lillians on the posters. But what about a +Lilia Godiva, quite naked on her bike, like the other on her horse? She +would mimic the scene, love and despair, and she would think of something +to raise a laugh! Peeping Tom, for instance, stretching out his neck and +stealing a kiss as she passed. Oh, she would find a way--trust her!--of +showing them what she had in her! And Jimmy and Trampy pursued her +incessantly with their hateful memory. Trampy, she was told, was still the +darling of the fair. + +Lily was greatly astonished that he had not tried to obtain a divorce, on +his side: + +"He's afraid," she said to herself. + +More than ever, she busied herself with collecting her witnesses; she +would soon be rid of her tramp cyclist. + +People also talked about Jimmy, whose reputation was still increasing. +After a triumphant season at the Hippodrome, he had left for America. +Jimmy was becoming a national champion. An article in _The Era_ spoke of +"our Jimmy." + +"He's a friend of yours, Lily," people said. "You ought to know all about +him." + +Lily tossed her head, like one who could say a great deal if she +would.... + +Oh, how she longed for revenge when she thought of that! Oh, if she could +only have served them out somehow! If she could get _The Performer Annual_ +to send her those questions to answer: "Q. Your favorite town? Your +favorite audience? Your idea of marriage? Your pet aversion?" wouldn't she +give it them hot, just! She thought of having her biography written, the +real one. She herself sometimes jotted down things she remembered, on bits +of paper, on the backs of envelopes, in her dressing-room; arranged her +picture post-cards in order; called that writing her memoirs. She would +crush them with her successes, give names and dates: that lord who wanted +to travel with her, the fifty-pound diamond brooch he had given her. And +bouquets, chocolates, sweets ... by the cart-load! That stage-manager who +cried when she went away! All, all in love with her: yes, those and ever +so many more! + +She had so much to say that she did not know where to begin. She knocked +up against too many people, men and women, without counting monkeys, +parrots, dogs, cats, ponies, elephants; it all ended by getting mixed up +in her head, like the theaters and the towns. She grew quite bewildered, +among so many different things. She had seen everything and done +everything. Once, during a week when she was "resting," she had helped her +landlady, who kept a public-house, to draw the beer and had waited on the +customers, with her fifty-pound diamond brooch at her throat. + +At a benefit performance, one night, when they were drinking champagne on +the stage, actors, singers, artistes, all together, her pink tights had +excited the dress-coats. Lily had been "pressed in company," that is to +say, surrounded till she did not know which way to turn, while her time +was pretty well taken up with saying, "Paws off!" before, behind, on every +side. She had triumphed at galas, above a tumult of heads and parasols: at +Roundhay Park, among other places, beneath the motto, "Let Leeds +flourish!" Feeling anxious about her future, she had consulted a "Zanzig" +at Earl's Court. Each week brought its surprises, its fresh knowledge. +Lily learned something every day: "If you see a lamb in the fields with +its head turned toward you, that's lucky; if you see its tail first, it's +a sign of bad luck," and the way of holding your hands, of placing your +fingers, of whispering certain words in certain circumstances. + +She collected halfpennies with holes in them. In Ireland, she had kissed +the Blarney stone and picked shamrock in the ruins. She had lost her +little mother-of-pearl hunchback in the labyrinth of underground passages +at the Blackpool Tower Circus. The loss of this lucky charm had damped her +spirits for a week. And her profits were small and her "exes" constantly +increasing: tips to the call-boy, who cleaned her bike; tips to the +stage-manager; half-crowns and five shillings in every direction. As soon +as she had put a trifle by, a week without an engagement made her hard-up +again. Though she traveled at reduced fares and contented herself with a +ham sandwich or a slice of pork-pie on the road, she would never, never be +able to repay Jimmy that money: she had not even paid Glass-Eye yet! Her +dresses for on and off the stage swallowed up everything. And yet she +couldn't go about naked, like Lady Godiva! + +And time passed and passed. Lily was growing _old_: she was eighteen! +There were girls of her age who were already beyond work, used up, like +that girl contortionist who had just been cut open for a tumor; and Lily +had as yet achieved nothing! Oh, she ought to have signed for America or +Australia, or else for Russia, of which she had heard wonders--Poland, the +Parisienne, had just returned from there covered with diamonds--theaters +that played all night and did not close till dawn, to the clicking of +champagne-glasses. Lily dreamed of it, ecstatically: England was no good +to her now. The New Trickers, with their own cheap Lily, were working her +idea on the Bill and Boom Tour! If only she could have the continent! They +were talking of a new music-hall which Harrasford was to open in Paris. He +meant to make a palace of it, they said, and he was also stretching out +his arm toward Antwerp, Cologne, Lyons, Marseilles, a continental +trust.... + +"That's what I ought to have," thought Lily. + +Her present life seemed empty, notwithstanding its excitement: it was like +the sound of a band; nothing remained of it. Departures, constant +departures from one town to another, always leaving, never staying. But +for Glass-Eye's company she would have cried, sometimes, for sheer +melancholy, as at the sight of those really loving couples in the +boarding-houses, on the stage itself; those babies in the arms of their +Mas; it made her heart ache; the thought of it pursued her like the call +of distant bells, while the train rushed into the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + + "May joy and pleasure be your lot + As through this world you trot, trot, trot. + + "X." + + "In the golden chain of friendship, regard me as a link. + + "Loving Pal (Palace, Sheffield)." + +There were pages and pages like this in Lily's autograph book. The last +entry was that of a couple of friends, the dark one and the fair one: + + "May success always follow you, and eventually a good + fellow collar you, is the sincere wish of the + + "Sisters Arriett and Nancy--The ideal pair (of legs!)" + +Since Miss Lily's arrival in Paris, her collection had been increased by +the addition of a fervent declaration from her friend, the architect. This +had been her welcome in Paris, the good fellow, no doubt, prophesied by +the ideal pair of legs; yes, she had hardly reached Paris and already +there were people dying of love around her, already a man at her feet. + +Lily was delighted to meet this sincere friend again, a friend of her +childhood, who, she said, had known her when she was "that high": one poor +devil the more ready to leave wife and children for her sake. The evening +before, in her dressing-room, at the Bijou Theater, she had told him the +story of her life since leaving her parents. It made her forget to ask +about Harrasford and the new theater which he was to open: was it ready? +The architect ought to know better than anybody. She would ask him +to-night. And Lily lay turning this over, in the morning, in bed, +notwithstanding her other cares, for she must get clear somehow, must see +the agents that afternoon. She had plenty to do beside her turn. She had +to busy herself with those thousand and one details.... She would never +have believed that it was so hard to fill her three years' book. Lily felt +half-dead with fatigue before she started: + +"Let me sleep!" said Lily, stretching herself in the big double bed which +Glass-Eye had just left; "clear out! Let me sleep!" + +But Glass-Eye made a rush at Lily, tickled her in the neck, stifled her +laughter under the pillow: it was a necessity for them in the morning, +those few minutes of horse-play, of thumps and smacks, which rang out on +every side. Lily, at last, full-throated, with fluttering nostrils, cried +out for mercy. The maid went off, Lily, now quite awake, remained alone, +and her worries returned: no more love, no more music, as at the theater, +no more purple rays, nothing but gloomy hours, a long day stretching out +before her like a gray corridor. It was real life now: letters to write, +costumes to mend, last night's tights to wash in the basin.... Lily, +sitting on the edge of her bed, took her purse from where she had hidden +it under the bolster--a habit she had acquired in marriage, because of +Trampy's nightly ferretings--and emptied it on the sheets: one blue +banknote; one, two, three gold coins. How much did that make in pounds, +shillings and pence? Hardly seven pounds. It was all in vain for her to +economize, like that Ma of a star, who counted the potatoes. It was all in +vain for her to stint in every way, to keep back Glass-Eye's wages for +over a year, saying that she would pay her in a lump: she would have +almost nothing left after the purchases which she had to make. It was true +that, to-morrow, she would receive her fortnight's pay; and she hoped for +a renewal. She felt sure of it, if only because of the way in which the +manager had taken her by the chin. Then a fortnight at the Brussels +Alhambra--1 November, Flora, Amsterdam--10 January, Copenhagen--and, for +the rest, her three years' book was empty and each empty page represented +months without work--all her profits would be swallowed up by her enforced +idleness. She would never clear herself, never be able to pay Jimmy. Oh, +she was furious with him because she could not discharge her debt to him +once and for all, fling his money in his face, show him if people remained +penniless long when they had her talent! That idea comforted Lily. And it +was important that she should look nice to-day, to go the round of the +agents. Lily dressed quickly, cunningly puffed out her bows, a trick she +had learned as a child, and then, before putting on her dress, cooked the +food with Glass-Eye, who had just come in with her parcels. + +Then a dash of scent on the handkerchief, a touch of rouge on the lips +and, leaving the room all untidy, she went out, followed by Glass-Eye, +rigged out in a pair of thread mittens and carrying the sunshade and the +wrist-bag. Quick, quick! For Lily knew by experience that it is well to be +the first at the agent's or else there's nothing for you. + +She did not dislike those walks through the Paris streets: + +"Let's have some fun," she said to Glass-Eye. + +By this, Lily meant laughing at those "tiny Frenchies"; and, if they +ventured to accost her, crushing them with a "_Vous hettes oun cochon_!" +Although, among the people she mixed with, agents, artistes, stage-hands, +everybody spoke English, Lily had not come to Paris without learning a few +words, "_Oui_ ... _Non_ ... _Vous_ _hettes oun cochon_!" and so on, which +were indispensable, she thought, to a girl who wanted to make herself +respected on the continent, a girl alone, especially. And she loved to +snub those damned _parley-voos_ who dared to accost ladies. It seemed to +lighten those days of visits to the agents, the very prospect of which +gave her a headache in advance, because one had to think of everything, +lithos, photographs, programs; and, if the agent wasn't in, ruin one's +self in correspondence; and puff one's self in every way, rub it into them +that one was the cleverest person on earth.... + +"If you're too modest," said Lily, "they'll take you at your word!" + +And the pay would drop, in consequence. + +"Never tell your salary!" was another of Lily's favorite maxims. + +She gave out that she made heaps, that a little star like her, the Marie +Loyd of the bike, was only to be obtained for untold gold. But, at the +agent's, she had to cut her prices: there was no hiding anything from +them; it was like going to the doctor. + +"And, when you're in work, everybody wants you; and, when you're out of +work, they have nothing for you: it's help yourself as best you may!" she +said. + +She had to help herself now; and it was delicate business dealing with +people who have only one idea in their heads, to swindle you, in order to +curry favor with the managers by getting them cheap turns. They would have +skinned you alive: + +"Two pounds a week. Do you accept?" + +"Go to Halifax!" Lily would reply in such cases, looking them straight in +the face. It took courage to do that: the agent might grow bigger, become +an enemy. She didn't care! She wasn't going to lower her price for +anybody! And the commission she had to pay them was a torment to Lily; +calculating the percentage made her head split--not to speak of the +complicated nature of the contracts, worse than insurance policies. The +poor artiste was bound down on every side, at the mercy of the manager; +everything was foreseen, down to the prohibition of black tights, which +concealed one's poverty. And it was bad enough in England; but in the Dago +countries, on the continent, it was worse. + +"Can you understand a word of it, Glass-Eye?" asked Lily, explaining to +her maid the tricks which the artiste had to fight against. "I don't know +how the small turns manage," she concluded, in the tone of a woman who +towers above all that. + +Lily's prettiness made the people in the street turn round to look at her. +They would gaze at her cheeky feather, whisper, "You pretty, pretty +darling!" in her ear. Lily, secretly delighted, held herself ready to +crush the saucy rascal with a "How dare you?" like a lady who knows how to +appreciate a compliment, without permitting the least familiarity. And +when she approached the agency, she insisted on Glass-Eye's keeping by her +side, asked for things: her wrist-bag, her embroidered handkerchief. And +her way of walking in! Lily pretended to be short-sighted, so as to see no +one in the rotten lot. She sent in her card, sat down in the waiting-room. +It reminded her of the dentist's, with those pale people sitting on +benches; those serio-comics, all over-fat; loud-voiced topical singers, +who took the place of the real artistes, just like the bioscopes and +cinematographs! There were also little families--small turns that had +struggled hard to learn a few tricks--nobody wanted them, because they had +no "chic" costumes, sometimes, or no lithos.... + +Those were received like dogs: a wretched couple was just coming out, a +man and a woman, sad with a humility accustomed to rebuffs; and the agent +drove them toward the door, with his voice: + +"Eccentric mashers? No opening for you. Call again." + +Lily got a good reception, in the agent's room; but there was nothing for +her. And the agent saw her to the door, with a satisfied air and a knowing +wink, as though to make the others believe ... Lily didn't like that +kind--her short-sightedness did not prevent her noticing it and blushing +at it--but she was very pleased, all the same, to be seen to the door, +before those small turns who were received like dogs.... + +On the pavement outside, the wretched couple came up to her shyly: + +"Don't you know us, Miss Lily? The Para-Paras." + +She had to listen to a pitiful tale. She heard nothing but that, when she +went on her rounds of visits to the agents. Oh, the distress which she +beheld there! It made Lily feel quite ill at night. A little more and she +would have said her prayers, before getting into bed, to thank God that +she hadn't come to that. Poor Paras! Starving, no doubt, remaining for +weeks in their garret, pretending that they had been performing in the +provinces ... abroad.... Lily pictured them passing the stage-doorkeepers +to whom they had sold their parrots and being greeted with a "What's for +breakfast, Polly?" + +"Miss Lily," they confessed, in a whisper, "you know such a lot of people: +if ever you hear of anything for us, never mind where ..." + +"Poor beggars!" thought Lily. + +And her Ma had prophesied to her that, one day, she would be worse off +than they! No, she would never be half so badly off! Why, she could have +had anything she wanted, motor-cars, Paris gowns, for the asking. + +[Illustration: THE PARA-PARAS] + +"Glass-Eye, my bag!" And, handing a small gold coin to the wretched +couple, "There ... between artistes, you know ... give it back when you +can; good-by. Did you notice, Glass-Eye," asked Lily, as she walked away, +"how flattered they were when I said, 'Between artistes?' They looked +quite touched." + +But there was no time to waste in nonsense, on a day when she was calling +on the agents. The thing was to get there first; and Lily consulted her +addresses.... + +She was exasperated at being obliged, with her talent, to climb all those +stairs, to hang about in the waiting-room, she, Lily Clifton! And it +reeked of vice, stunk with the trashy scent of the "not-up-to-muches:" +merely to look at them suggested faces seen in Piccadilly at night or in +the Burlington Arcade. + +Lily sent in her card, threw a short-sighted glance around her and +remained standing, like a lady who is never kept waiting and who is sure +to be received at once. And, with her head bent down and her chin in her +gold-spotted tie, she turned over the pages of _Le Courrier des Cafés +Concerts_ on the table ... names which she didn't know ... the small +"numbers" of the continent ... so much the better ... all the more chance +for her. But the engagement which she dreamed of did not offer this time +either. What the agent did propose to her, almost without lowering his +voice, with the door open, before everybody, was the grated private boxes +of South America ... the private rooms of Russia ... accompanied, at a +startled movement on Lily's part, by this concession: + +"You needn't sleep there, you know!" + +To talk like that to a lady! Lily felt stifled. Was that what she had +learned the bike for? To exhibit herself after the show, at the customers' +disposal? Lily could have fainted on the stairs, as she went down. + +"One of those!" she said. "Not I!" + +And she continued her weary pilgrimage of stairs, from agent to agent. + +"I must have six months filled up in my book before to-night!" she said, +determined to visit them all, small and large, rather than go back +empty-handed. + +There were some who suggested to her that ten per cent. was really very +little.... + +"I like their style!" thought Lily. "They want an extra sop thrown to +them: one might as well work for nothing!" + +She thanked them, nevertheless, so as not to make enemies of them--one +never knows--and the agent doesn't matter so much; but the assistant, who +happens to have known you when you were "that high" ... better give him a +tip, lest he should round on you. + +She also saw a former artiste, a friend of Pa's, who had become an agent. + +"Miss Lily? Lily Clifton? What are you doing now? Won't you see my +secretary? Leave your address with him." + +"Fellows whom Pa helped!" she grumbled angrily, as she went down the +stairs. "They're the worst of all! They make you pay for the humiliation +of their own failure on the stage!" + +Presently, she came to an agent who practised almost in the street, in an +arcade somewhat like the Burlington, an agent for everything ... circus, +music-hall, theater ... artistes formed in a week ... white flesh at +famine salaries. There were all sorts of people there, a moving heap of +frayed velvet and shabby plush. Lily passed by with great dignity. Next, +she came to the big agent, with offices in Berlin and London ... the +ting-ting of telephones, the tick-tack of typewriters all day ... business +pure and simple, an exchange for supple loins, swelling biceps, muslin +skirts, pigeon's eggs ... a sheaf of stars who, from there, radiated over +Australia, America, England, the Eastern and Western Trusts, Bill and +Boom, Harrasford, the continent. Lily felt a little ill at ease as she +entered--she had a pain in the pit of her stomach, as when she used to +expect a smacking--and again in the private office crammed with papers and +registers, when alone with the agent, who looked at her card, he seated, +she standing. Then, suddenly: + +"Lily? Miss Lily? Your price is two hundred francs a week, I believe." + +"What!" said Lily. "With a bike and a maid?" + +"It's what you had at Maidstone, so I was told." + +"What a lie!" said Lily. "Three hundred francs is the lowest I've ever +had. I'll show you my contracts." + +"Don't trouble," said the agent. "I thought ... we can get plenty at that +price, you know ... in your style...." + +"In my style, perhaps ... but not me." + +"Pooh, the audience doesn't know the difference." And he started looking +through a register, turning over the pages and repeating mechanically, +like a refrain or a lullaby, "The audience doesn't care a hang; it's all +the same to the audience." And, suddenly, with his hand flat on the open +book and the other ready to take up the pen, with a piercing eye fixed +upon Lily, "I can give you a month at a thousand francs ... they want a +girl in tights ... at Lisbon." + +"Lisbon?" said Lily. "That's at the Colosseo. A thousand francs to go to +the Colosseo, with one's luggage and a maid?" + +"Well?" broke in the agent. "And what do you want a maid for, you +extravagant little beast? Why not your maid's family while you're about +it? A thousand francs: will you take it? I've got some one who will, if +you don't." + +Lily had to say yes or no quickly. Her forehead was wrinkled with the +effort of turning the francs into shillings, the shillings into pounds. +She consulted her book, like an artiste who doesn't know, who may not be +free, for a whole month. She lowered her chin in her tie, but without +smiling ... had a cramp in her stomach, rather ... at a pinch, by leaving +Glass-Eye in Paris.... After Lisbon, one generally had Madrid and +Barcelona and returned by Marseilles and Lyons. Friends of hers had done +well like that. But to accept a lower salary once meant accepting it +always, in establishments of the same class; it meant reducing her price, +for always, by two pounds a week, at least. + +"A thousand francs: will you have it?" + +And Lily: + +"No, it's impossible! I can't take less than twelve pounds a week." And +she began to sum up her proofs: "Look here, at the Hippodrome, Glasgow ... +at the Palace, Leeds...." + +But the agent wouldn't listen, shut up the register, was sorry: + +"Can't do it ... bad season ... cyclists to be had for the asking. +Good-by." + +"Good-by." + +And Lily went out, went down the stairs, feeling half-inclined to go back +and accept; but no! Lower her prices? Never! Oh, those cheap artistes, +those black-legs deserved to be hanged! Great lazybones who learn a few +baby tricks on the bike or the tight-rope, back-shop acrobats, slop-shop +Lilies, who practise at a safe distance, by watching you on the stage, +through an opera-glass. They cut your prices by half; they would work for +a handful of rice, like a monkey. They deserved to have the iron curtain +come down on them, and flatten them out like black-beetles, the +wind-bags! + +"I say, Glass-Eye, perhaps it's they who fell into the orchestra, was it, +when I got my thighs full of lamp-glass from the footlights, eh? They copy +you, think themselves artistes.... What! Yes? You say they are, Glass-Eye? +Damn it, I'll have your eye out!" + +And Lily had a fit of laughing when she saw Glass-Eye, who hadn't said a +word, raise her elbow in affright to ward off the blow. + +Lily held the banister with one hand, leaned on Maud's shoulder with the +other and laughed and laughed, only to see her maid's terrified face, a +regular fat freak shrinking before the belt. My! She would have fallen +with laughing, if Glass-Eye had not held her up; she plugged her lips with +her scented handkerchief, slapped her thighs. She had never laughed so +much in her life. She already felt consoled for all her bothers: + +"Watch me, Glass-Eye! This is the way to go down-stairs!" + +And, nimbly as a bird, Lily hopped on the banister, with her back to the +wall, and--w-w-w-w-whew!--slid down to the bottom, keeping her balance +faultlessly, sprang to her feet on the last stair and, with a wave of the +hand, as after a successful trick: + +"There! What do you think of that?" + +Lily was not given to long spells of sadness. Reaction always followed +immediately upon her worries, made the thousand and one vexations of a day +like this easier for her to bear. The compliments which caught her ear in +the street comforted her too: + +"You pretty, pretty ..." + +But she had no time to listen. Six months in her book before night! As +time passed, Lily would have been content with less. And trot, trot, trot: +while she was at it; then she would end by seeing whether they would get +her for a handful of rice. + +This idea amused her. Lily had confidence in her talent and continued her +visits. She saw them all: other agents, former bosses or profs, who had +sucked apprentices dry to the marrow and who continued their evil +practices in their offices; this sort sized you up with the eye of a +slave-dealer. There was also the lucky agent, who had started a +sensational attraction, a Laurence or a Light of Asia. This agent had a +touch of pride about him, with his eternal, "I gave her her first start!" +as though to say: + +"They'll never find another like her, never! They don't turn them out like +that now!" + +And all this was a pretext for offering you ridiculous terms, because you +were neither Light of Asia nor Laurence. It was no use Lily's boasting of +having declined Bill and Boom and Harrasford, pretending to be an artiste +for whom the managers were competing against one another with sheaves of +banknotes. There was nothing for her at this one's ... nothing for her at +the others', either ... only a scrap of news of her family, through an +artiste. The New Trickers were all the rage in Scotland, it seemed; an +engagement in London, at the Palace, was waiting for them. When Lily heard +that, she turned pale with envy: so it was on their account that she had +been refused that tour in England, so that they might have it! Patience! +Her + +[Illustration: LILY] + +day would come ... when she returned from the continent and, instead of +Miss, called herself Mlle., like Adeline Genée and lots of others! +Meanwhile, she had found nothing. Still, Lily knew that one sometimes had +whole months of enforced idleness, without knowing the reason, and then, +suddenly, one's luck returned. One only has to wait a bit, thought Lily, +making herself very short-sighted as she passed before the arcade, the +haunt of the out-at-elbow pros and of the piffling little agents, the +jackals of the profession, on the lookout for a bone to gnaw. And it was +not a little vexing to hear her name pass from mouth to mouth--"Mrs. +Trampy, Mrs. Trampy"--and who could be drawing attention to her in that +rotten lot? Was Trampy there, by any chance, pointing his finger at her? +She felt inclined to go back to them, to tell them in two words what she +thought of them. Mrs. Trampy, indeed! It was not for long, in any case. +Her divorce was not far off! + +In the evening, at the theater, she forgot her bothers, as usual. The day, +for that matter, was quite an ordinary one: it was the typical day, the +trot, trot, trot, of the star alone, in search of engagements. And, +thoroughly tired, in her dressing-room, she related in her own way the +adventures which she had had since the morning, the compliments on her +beauty; and at the agents', my! If she had liked, she could have filled up +her three years' book! The architect came in her dressing-room for a +moment: so interesting a Lily! so amusing, he thought, as funny, in her +way, as Light of Asia, the Chinese girl without arms. Sitting on the big +trunk, he admired by turns Lily and the disorderly dressing-table, its +cracked looking-glass, scribbled over with names, and, under the glaring +light, the grease-paints--red, white, black--the powder-puffs and hare's +feet, the biscuits in the tray among the hair-pins, a bottle and glasses +beside the powder-box. From nails on the whitewashed walls, scratched all +over with inscriptions, covered with penciled dates, hung rainbow skirts, +bodices with metallic flowers. The bike shone in a corner, half-buried +under Lily's outdoor clothes. Tights hung beside it, like pink skins, gold +spangles strewed the uncarpeted floor and scent hovered over +everything.... Half-open doors admitted gusts of music from the orchestra; +and Lily, opposite the glass, fumbled among her pots with the tip of her +finger, stained her lips blood-red, fixed the rebellious curl to her +forehead with a touch of gum. Outside, in the passage, was the row of +doors, with spy-holes and visiting cards, half-sheets of paper, stuck down +with wafers and bearing the names of the various occupants: + +"Prof. X. The Famous X. Family. Absolutely the best." + +There were others "absolutely the best." + +On Lily's door, her card--"Miss Lily"--and, under that, modestly: + +"And maid." + +Lily revived amid these surroundings; here she forgot her fatigue, +blossomed out to her heart's delight. With her rainbow dress, her feathers +and her pearl pendants, combined with her elaborate gestures as she made +up her face in front of the gollywog, she resembled the officiating +priestess of a strange religion, pacifying some angry-eyed idol to the +sound of distant choirs. + +While finishing her make-up, Lily continued her stories, talked of her +successes in England and here and there and everywhere ... and the lord +who wanted to marry her and rained down presents upon her: fifty-pound +brooches, diamonds.... Everybody in love with her: to listen to her you +could have followed her traces like the passage of a cyclone ... men gone +mad ... others blinded through weeping ... millionaires ruined in +chocolates and sweets ... and flowers, my! + +"You could fill the Colosseum with them, couldn't you, Glass-Eye? I've +been spoiled everywhere," continued Lily, "and I'm known everywhere! Even +in Paris, to-day, there were a lot of ladies and gentlemen under an arcade +and you heard nothing but 'Miss Lily, Miss Lily,' didn't you, Glass-Eye?" + +"Yes, Miss Lily." + +But these social successes did not make Lily forget her business affairs. +Harrasford's new music-hall worried her: if she could only play there, +only snatch it from the New Trickers! For they would certainly try to get +there; and the architect, of course, knew ... + +But Lily was interrupted by the call-boy: time for her to go down to the +stage! + +A hurricane came up from the orchestra, muffled, with beats of the big +drum, like distant cannon. The curtain would go up soon; it was the time +when Lily stretched her legs, before giving her performance, and took a +breath of air in the painted forest. A click of the padlock and: + +"Come along, Glass-Eye, the bike!" + +Lily, in spite of her brilliant successes in England, was dead tired of +tipping the boys; it ran away with all her money. As she allowed herself +the luxury of a maid, by Gollywog, she might as well make use of her; she +wasn't going to feed her to do nothing! And poor Glass-Eye attended to the +bike, at the risk of putting out her other eye. Every day the struggle +between Glass-Eye and the bike formed the joy and the delight of the +passage. There were incredible swervings, scratchings of the wall, +barkings of Glass-Eye's shins. Lily followed behind, bursting with +laughter, warning Glass-Eye to take care or she would put the bike out of +gear by knocking it about with her legs: + +"Oh, where's my belt?" she cried, patting the back of her hand. + +The artistes, attracted by the noise, half-opened the doors; laughing eyes +gleamed at the spy-holes; voices cried: + +"Go it! Never say die!" + +Glass-Eye perspired like anything, pursed her eyebrows above her fat, red +cheeks, grumbled, in her Whitechapel slang: + +"Kim up, you lousy moke! Igher up, Jerusalem, you pig-headed bag of +tricks!" + +Lily lost patience, snatched the machine from her, ran it down the stairs, +pushed the door of the "meat-tray," and found herself behind the scenes, +the drops rising and falling, the nightly spectacle since she had been +"that high," the land of the unreal lights. And the sudden glare from the +reflectors set clusters of shoulders blazing with a silvery glow, brought +up out of the shade the pale flesh of the dancing-girls, heaped up behind +the pillars. It swarmed from every side, right and left--"Hi, there! Meat, +meat!"--under the rush of the stage-hands shifting the wings. There were +fleecy foams of fair wigs, smiles from kiss-me-quick lips, blinkings of +made-up eyelids, a swarm of arms, thighs and necks, preparatory to a +ballet, _Heures d'amour_, in which Poland, the Parisienne, triumphed with +her costumes _Déshabillé gallant, Dessous diaphanes, Le tub, Volupté, +Dodo_, eight pantomimic scenes in a sumptuous setting, with girls to +impersonate the Hours, from pale-pink flirtation to scarlet desire. + +Lily watched this familiar sight with a wandering eye; and suddenly she +turned pale: what was that? Who was that? In the midst of it all, smiling +to her from a distance, as though laughing at her, stood Trampy! My! + +"Here, hold my bike, Glass-Eye!" + +It was close on her turn, but, before going on, she had a word to say to +the stage-manager and, walking up to him: + +"Do you see that josser looking at me?" said Lily, pointing to Trampy. "If +he stays here, I ... to begin with, I shan't go on. I won't be humbugged +by any one!" + +"Who is it?" + +"My husband!" + +"All right, darling," said the stage-manager and, suddenly, between the +scene which was being hoisted up and the other let down on the silent, +empty stage: "You there! Get out!" + +Trampy could not believe that the words were meant for him. He waited +until the order had been twice repeated. He, an artiste, before those +girls! He made a gesture as though to ask: + +"Do you mean me?" + +"Yes, you! No jossers here," said the stage-manager. "Sling your hook!" + +"Gee!" thought Lily, when he had gone. "This time you've been paid back in +your own coin! So you kicked me out at the Horse Shoe, did you? It's my +turn now, you damned tramp!" + +She exulted with delight, as she went through her performance. It was her +first revenge! the other's turn would come next. + +"I don't forgive and I don't forget," she muttered to herself. "Every dog +has his day." + +Oh, how happy she was! She was magnificent on the stage, under the +flashing lights, and the dull sounds in the orchestra were to her as the +throbbing of a riotous heart. + +"Well, Trampy, you got soaked to-night, to-night," thought Lily, as she +might have said, "One, two!" to mark her times. "To-night, to-night. And, +if you don't like it--one, two--you've only got to lump it! Divorce was +made for men and women, not for dogs!" + +Lily was triumphant, laughed, winked her eye, as she rode past, at the +stage-manager, who threw her a kiss and grinned. Immediately after her +turn, she ran to her dressing-room, poured water on her steaming skin, +while the make-up trickled in pink streaks down her face, and devoted an +hour to the dainty care of her person, like a cat licking itself. And then +Lily, without paint or powder--awfully ugly, not in the least pretty off +the stage, as she said, smiling in her muslin tie with the gold +spots--Lily went out by the front, to avoid the pros' corridor. + +The moment she was in the lobby, she assumed the air of a lady accompanied +by her maid. She cast an indifferent eye at the string of carriages, like +one who changes her mind and prefers to walk, a smile to the gentlemen at +the _contrôle_, a nod to the Roofers going out, two by two, always, a dark +one and a fair one. Lily stopped for a second, to look round.... + +Then: "Let's go home, Glass-Eye!" + +She took a few steps along the street, but a jolly voice behind her +cried: + +"Gee, what a spanking walk!" + +She turned round; it was Trampy again! + +"Ah, this time," thought Lily, "I shall have witnesses!" + +She expected blows! She would have given anything to be struck: her +divorce, at last, would be hastened on! Cruelty, public insults! But no: + +"How's my dear little wife?" asked Trampy, with outstretched hand. + +Lily was so greatly surprised that it took her some seconds to recover her +presence of mind; and then, without turning her head: + +"Come away, Glass-Eye," she said. "There are drunkards about." + +"Don't let us quarrel, little wifie. Aren't you my dear little wifie? +Well, then...." + +And Trampy took her by the arm. + +"Let me go, or I'll break your jaw," muttered Lily, under her breath. + +Trampy seemed in a jovial mood, with his cigar in his mouth, his cheeks +flushed with insolence, his eyes moist with libations. + +"Let's make peace," said Trampy. "Peace in the home: that's my motto!" + +"Divorce!" cried Lily. + +"Peace in the home for me!" rejoined Trampy, who grew the more radiant as +Lily grew more and more incensed. + +"Let me tell you," he continued, puffing luxuriously at his cigar, "that +divorce--why, how can you think of it?--means a public scandal, my name +dragged in the mud...." + +"Footy rotter!" roared Lily. + +"Dragged in the mud; and my dear little wife left to her own resources, +marrying again, as she feels inclined, marrying some one unworthy of her, +perhaps. I won't have it! I'm responsible for you! I'm your natural +protector! You're not Miss Lily, you're Mrs. Trampy. You've been in the +wrong, certainly; you had me turned off the stage, me, your husband; but I +forgive you." + +"And I ... take that!" Lily broke in, spitting in his face. "That's how +_I_ forgive _you_! Take that! And that!" + +Trampy reveled with delight: + +"You _are_ my dear little wifie, aren't you? And you'll remain so ... and +you'll never belong to any one else, do you hear? I am a faithful husband. +You're trying for a divorce, I know, but you won't get it. The wrong is on +your side and I'm not going to law, and you're Mrs. Trampy and Mrs. Trampy +you'll remain! Will you come and have a drink, Mrs. Trampy?" he continued, +lighting a fresh cigar. "Won't you? Very well. Good night, wifie!" + +And Trampy, turning his back to her, disappeared in a cloud of smoke. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Lily came home and went straight to bed, without even waiting for supper, +so great was her hurry to forget. It seemed to her that things had +happened, things without end; that this day had been as long as a year. +She simply could not understand Trampy. She could have imagined anything, +except that! She racked her brain to conjecture how, why; and sleep +quieted her till the next morning; and she woke up with teeth clenched and +eyebrows set and ... why? Why? And again why? Did he still want to keep +her?--after realizing in a hundred different ways that she did not love +him, that she loathed him, that she had married him only to escape her +whippings and that she had but one idea in her head: to divorce him! + +Now--only Lily could not know this--it was because of that very reason +that Trampy clung to her, like a faithful husband: Jimmy, Jimmy was his +bugbear. He believed Jimmy to be in love with his wife. Once Lily was +divorced, Jimmy could marry her; and Trampy would see him further first! +The greater Jimmy became, the more jealous Trampy grew. He knew the steps +Lily had taken to obtain a divorce, the witnesses she had tried to secure. +She was very keen on a divorce, was she? All the more reason for not +gratifying her; and she wasn't going to get it. The witnesses, Trampy had +just heard, declined to give evidence. They had seen nothing, heard +nothing. A bike at her head? Maybe. They didn't know. A bit of a fuss +between artistes, such as you see every day, and none of their damned +business. Outside that, Lily had nothing to go upon; on the contrary. She +had abandoned the conjugal home; all the wrong, apparently, was on her +side. He, Trampy, alone was entitled to file a petition; but that never! +He considered that Jimmy and Lily had trifled with him sufficiently. He +could not swallow the idea that they were only waiting for the divorce to +get married; the idea that Lily would be Mrs. Jimmy, of her own free +choice, after marrying him, Trampy, to escape her whippings; no, he +couldn't swallow that! Now it rested entirely with him to prevent that +marriage. He had only to keep his dear little wife for himself. In that +case, Jimmy, if he wanted her, would be obliged to do without her or else +to "live with her" and set a bad example, lavish bestower of good advice +that he was, the dirty hypocrite, preaching morality to others! That was +what Trampy had determined to do. As for Lily, Trampy, who was incapable, +at bottom, of either hatred or love, didn't care one way or the other. He +was always sure to want for nothing, so long as there were girls on the +boards and whisky in the bars. + +There was another reason still that urged him to let matters rest, without +going further. To embark on a divorce-case, to have his name in the papers +and his story hawked round the four quarters of the globe--"Trampy, you +know. You knew Trampy, didn't you? The husband of Lily?" and so on--was +what he didn't want at any price, for a reason known to himself. He had +made inquiries, quite privately, at the beginning, when he thought of +petitioning for a divorce; and what he had learned had made him prudent: +his marriage in America was valid beyond a doubt. He was well and duly +married, whether he liked it or not. By the common law, two wives meant +bigamy; and bigamy meant prison, which was the last thing he wanted, as he +himself said. But, so long as there was no scandal, he ran no great risk. +He had lived on tenter-hooks at first, in Germany. Chance might have +brought him face to face with Ave Maria, on the stage of a music-hall. +This danger was not to be feared now, so far as he knew. Ave Maria and her +brother Martello were no longer fit stars for Europe, nor for North +America. He was too well known to the agencies; his brutality had produced +too many complaints, too many denunciations to the police; it discredited +any theater employing him. He might have come to Europe--who knew?--to try +to get hold of the Bambinis, now that the old man had not much longer to +live. But that was not very likely, either. An artiste, come across by +accident, had seen the pair at Iquique, in a wretched circus that was +doing the coast of Chili. He gave Trampy details: poor Ave Maria had grown +very ugly; a body all skin and bone and nerves; no hips, no chest; nothing +of the woman about her; in the last stages of consumption; and finished, +as an artiste, done for; no spring left in her overworked thighs, no +suppleness in her loins: even her brother, that brute, could get nothing +out of her now. And Trampy, who knew Chili, followed them, in his mind, on +their tour along the coast, from Iquique to Copiapó, to Valdivia: a trying +climate, biting winds which would kill her on the spot, unless she went +and perished in the fever-stricken plains of the Argentine.... When people +had fallen so low as that, they did not rise again: there was nothing to +fear from that side. But her presence was not necessary; the danger still +existed. There were documents, in black and white. Their names were +bracketed on a register somewhere or other: he knew where. It was better, +therefore, in every way, not to call attention to himself. Meanwhile, he +was playing a nice trick on Lily and her Jimmy. And Lily was Mrs. Trampy +and Mrs. Trampy she would remain; and that was all there was about it. + +But it was no use for Lily to give herself a headache trying to make out +why and how. She did not guess Trampy's secret thoughts, any more than he +suspected the actual nature of her relations with Jimmy. For her, too, one +thing was certain: Mrs. Trampy she was and Mrs. Trampy she would remain! +She would never be free; she would always be chained to that tramp +cyclist! And, if a match should happen to turn up for her among her +admirers, the architect, for instance--you can never tell: plenty of +others had already proposed for her hand in marriage, in England--she +would be obliged to refuse! And, if some gentleman were to pay her his +addresses, treat her like a lady, take her to choose a hat or a silk +petticoat in a smart shop, there was somebody who would have the right to +say to her, as she passed: + +"How's my little wife getting on?" + +Oh, those two Jim Crows round her, spoiling her future! Jimmy and Trampy! +They would end by being the death of her. Oh, if she had had Thea's arm, +what a blow in the jaw for one or both of them! And Lily, when she thought +of it, wore the face which was hers on her bad days, teeth clenched, +stubborn forehead. Glass-Eye shook in her boots when she saw it, for +sometimes Lily vented her anger upon the poor girl with a smack, +considering herself quits if she begged pardon after! + +"If it's one of those footy rotters," growled Lily, hearing a knock at the +door, "smash a bottle over his head!" + +But no, it was simply her letters, sent on from the theater. Nothing of +importance this morning; prospectuses, mostly: a wig-maker, special +theatrical department; a manufacturer of traveling-hampers, for South +Africa, Australia.... + +"No use for them," thought Lily, with a sigh. + +[Illustration: A ROOFER GIRL] + +And, on opening _The Era_, she received that discouraging sensation: +always so many names, and so many tricks, and all "the best;" new ideas +and troupes, troupes, troupes; another new troupe of fat freaks, a very +flood of them; and Roofers, Roofers; "Greater-Greater England Girls," +words and music guaranteed, with scarlet legs and muslin skirts, complete; +page upon page of pink tights; and national troupes and colonial troupes; +and one had to earn a livelihood and shine among all that! Lily was half +crushed; and everybody she knew was triumphing: the Pawnees,--one hundred +and thirty music-halls, the whole of the Eastern and Western Trusts, the +great two-years' tour! The Three Graces also were continuing their +triumphs. Lily, who felt herself the equal of any of them, held her breath +as she read the news. Laurence had won her terrible bet that she would +ride straight across Manchester and Salford on her bike, hands tied +together, feet fastened to the pedals. At the Art Institute in Chicago, +Marjutti had given a lecture on the art of contortion. + +"Some josser of a journalist wrote it for her," thought Lily. + +And _The Performer Annual_ had sent Marjutti its set of questions to +answer, she had been published in print! And Lily was still waiting! And +Tom? Tom was in England now, in the De Frece circuit; had had a triumph at +the Portsmouth Hippodrome, as "Topsy Turvy Tommy," dancing a sailor's +hornpipe on his hands. All, all were successful, including others even who +were not so good as she was: one who obtained engagements because she had +a nigger in her show; another because of a monkey. + +"And I've done nothing yet!" grumbled Lily. + +Oh, to be talked about in her turn, to achieve something, to become "our +Lily!" + +"It's twelve o'clock and I'm still in bed!" she cried. "I ought to be +practising!" + +It was just a flash of pride, mixed with remorse. She knew it well enough; +often and often, she had reproached herself for her idleness, for her +habit of sleeping till the middle of the day, of taking her meals before +the performance; but she would make up for it to-morrow! It is the usual +refrain of stars who have become detached from their troupes, far removed +from regimental discipline, so to speak: without a Pa, without a boss, you +can do nothing. You must have some one to force you. + +"A month on the three years' book before to-night!" prayed Lily, touching +her lucky charm. + +And she studied the omens with an expert air, gave an ear to passing +sounds, tried to catch the meaning of them, for she had visits to pay, +letters to write, business, damn it! + +That was what Pa used to say before her. And it was not so easy to turn a +letter prettily: that was Trampy's forte. She knew something about it. +Lily, in her night-dress, with her elbows on the table, bit her pen, +reflected, in a mental effort that gave her a headache. And that +note-paper wasn't nice, either, without a heading; true, it only rested +with herself; every day she was approached with offers of artistic +photographs, even of tricks which she did not do: standing with one foot +on the saddle, the other in the air and her arms stretched out before her, +like a flying genius; or as Cupid, with his dart in his hand: impossible +things which neither the Pawnees nor Laurence would have dared to attempt! +But it would look well, with her name in red letters: "Miss Lily," or "La +Belle Lily." Or else a photograph showing her strolling in a great park, +with a palace in the background, taken from nature, followed by her maid, +or by a footman, hired by the hour, for the occasion. + +"I think I shall select the governess," said Lily to herself, "because of +my biography; it will be nicer, truer. Or I might be taken riding on the +back-wheel, like a lady just leaving the house and doing that to amuse +herself?" + +Lily, still undecided, took up the pen again: one foot on the saddle; six +pairs of tights; three dresses; the theaters at which she had +appeared.... + +What a pack of jossers! She couldn't forgive the agents for her present +want of success. She was exasperated. She felt inclined to go and see the +managers themselves, those who had made love to her on the stage, and to +send in her card to them--"Miss Lily"--just to teach those jossers of +agents! Her independent ways had already made enemies for her: she knew +that; but how could she help being angry? The tricks they played you, down +to making you miss a marriage, as had happened in London, the other day, +to the Three Graces, to one of them, who had been courted, during Mr. +Fuchs' absence, by the boy-violinist. Their agent had launched into +slanders and even insults to prevent the marriage, which would have split +up the troupe and broken the contract.... + +"What a pack of nigger-drivers!" thought Lily. "As long as they get their +ten per cent., the rest can go hang, for all they care!" + +There was no doubt that Lily had got out of bed on the wrong side, at the +thought of having to climb all those staircases again and to dance +attendance with the rotten lot in the waiting-rooms. But, by Jove, she +could have boxed the ears of the first agent she visited that afternoon! +He had the impudence to offer her a magnificent engagement in the Indian +show at Earl's Court, she to stain her skin brown, dye her hair black, +with rings in her nose, at the wrists, at her ankles; a costume like Miss +Ruth's, all in gauze; the nautch-girl on the bicycle; six times a day, in +the open air, to the sound of tomtoms. Play the negress; that's what he +offered her! She could not help laughing, in spite of her anger. But she +became quite intractable and snubbed another agent who suggested a one +day's billet in a tiny music-hall at a ridiculous price. + +"I don't give my performance under five pounds, or on a stage of less than +thirty feet!" cried Lily. + +At last, luck seemed to turn; she settled for Spain and Portugal, and that +same evening, at the Bijou Theater, she was offered another engagement, +for three months hence. This contract would procure her others, after her +spell of ill luck. Lily at once took courage again: + +"Oh, if I had the Astrarium!" she thought. + +Everywhere, at the theater, at the agents, people were talking of the new +music-hall. It even became a current joke. They said, "So-and-So's +performing at the Astrarium," as though to say, "He's not performing! He's +living in a castle in the air!" Every one was talking of the great +music-hall which was to open in a few months and which was not to be seen +building anywhere. Some said that it was serious; they quoted engagements: +Tom; the Three Graces; the impersonator; nothing but turns quite unknown +to Paris; novelties, nothing but novelties: Marjutti; Laurence, perhaps; +or the New Trickers. Lily shivered when she heard that!... She opened wide +eyes, like Alice in Wonderland. Oh, to appear there! But she had performed +in Paris. Then she would change her name; bike mixed with dancing; and her +whole trick done backward, as Pa had once advised Trampy to do in Mexico! +Oh, if she could have that! Lily Godiva, undressed on the bike! She'd show +them she was a lady, not a performing dog! The Astrarium, that was +certain, would open in Paris in a few months. Harrasford had said so +himself. There was no doubt about it. They even told the name of the +stage-manager, Joe Brooks, the cleverest of all. Lily felt herself carried +away with ambition. Oh! to open there! Oh, if it were true! God grant that +it might come true! Oh, if Daisy, their star, could only break a leg! The +few days which Lily was still to remain in Paris, before leaving for +Spain, she employed in obtaining further information. She learned the most +exact particulars. Incredible though it seemed, the Astrarium was to open +quite shortly! The blue-chins discussed the thing, amid clouds of tobacco +smoke, in the bars, after the show. To allude to it now was not like +talking of castles in the air; on the contrary. To tease a pal, one said: + +"You're opening at the Astrarium, aren't you? I _don't_ think!" + +Which was another way of saying: + +"The Astrarium's no place for you! They're taking nothing but bill-toppers +there!" + +The new music-hall, even before it came into existence, was beginning to +spread, like the story of the whippings; it would be talked about, all +round the world, as something stunning, a more complete show than the +Tivoli at Sidney or the New York Hippodrome. Harrasford was credited with +designs for a palace in onyx and marble. He had bought or was going to buy +a theater with the object of transforming it; names and prices were given. +Everybody was interested in it. Just now, especially, when the bioscopes +and the gramophones and the singers were taking the bread out of the +"artistes'" mouths, it meant twenty turns more to receive princely +salaries there; and, every month, that galaxy of stars, which Harrasford +would send shooting to Paris, was to disperse toward Brussels, Antwerp, +Marseilles, Hamburg: the European Trust, the Moss and Stoll tour of the +continent, managed by Harrasford, the great English manager. + +To open at the Astrarium meant having work insured and your three years' +book filled for ever so long; meant appearing in public, later, wearing on +your chest the medal which they meant to distribute in memory of the +opening. Gee, Lily had a pain in her side at the thought of it! The Three +Graces, it was said, were on the program. Lily would have consulted +them--there was no jealousy about the Graces--but they were not yet in +Paris. Oh, Lily was longing and dying to be settled! Who was Harrasford's +agent? If she had to go to London to see him, she would go. + +Why, damn it, she would go to Heaven itself to get the Astrarium! +Anything, anything to open there! That dream of greatness made her endure +her present vexations. Mrs. Trampy ... Mrs. Trampy ... She was addressed +as Mrs. Trampy everywhere. Trampy must be telling the story, taking his +revenge for the whippings, making little of her in his turn. One night +even, the night before her departure for Spain, when the architect was to +wait for her at the door of the theater, Lily, who had dressed herself in +her best, once more had the humiliation of being accosted by Trampy in +front of everybody. + +"Hullo, wifie! How are you, darling? All right?" + +Lily bristled with rage as she left Paris. Even when she was far away, she +still felt that she was dragging a chain which lengthened out endlessly +without breaking. Never, oh, nothing could ever get her out of that! Yes, +a brilliant triumph. Then, at least, she could crush him from the height +of her success, that footy rotter with his red-hot stove! Oh, what a +grudge she bore him! Jimmy was different: that was a wound of her own and +nobody would ever know; but Trampy, who laughed at her everywhere and +called himself her husband! He would make her lose all her friends. To say +nothing of the fact that those tales perhaps counted for much in her +failure: they were repeated from mouth to mouth. Oh, her profession +disgusted her at times! And to think that she, an English girl, was going +to earn her bread among the Dagoes, instead of starring in England! + +Her wandering life continued; her journeys from town to town, in the +Spanish provinces, her arrival in the chill of the morning, her anxiety +about her salary, the hustle and bustle of departure and--trot, trot, +trot!--lugged about in the railway-carriage, like a performing dog in his +box. + +And what theaters! It was worse than Germany or even Paris. In England, on +the Harrasford tour or the Bill and Boom, they had nice dressing-rooms, +with a carpet, water hot and cold, quick attendance, stairs swept every +day. Here, old plaster and those idiots who looked as if they understood +nothing--it took three of them to shift a scene--Dagoes who asked her +straight out, in Pidgin-English, if she was alone: + +"No man viz you?" + +It touched her on the raw. Lily lost all her cheerfulness: to begin with, +that engagement was not a particularly brilliant one; it was not at all +calculated to prompt her to do better, to introduce novelties into her +turn. Besides, on stages not yet overrun with Roofers or fat freaks, an +artiste performing by herself made an impression. Her old tricks sufficed; +sometimes she topped the bill: + +"Theaters are the same everywhere; artistes the same everywhere, from New +York to Bilbao. Topping the bill in one means topping the bill in the +others ... doesn't it, Glass-Eye?" + +But she knew quite well that it didn't; and, besides, that satisfaction of +her vanity put no money in her pocket. The amount she owed, my! She +thought of the past, of what she had earned for "them" since Mexico. If +she had only had half of it, a quarter, a quarter of a quarter, damn it! + +Meantime, she had to make herself respected. In those countries, where +people used gestures when they spoke to you, a lady could not be too +careful. Why, the men treated an English girl just as they treated their +own women. She could have flung her bike at their heads! And they kept it +up all night, as in Russia, all except the jewels; you had to stay till +morning and were expected to accept invitations for supper, so as to keep +the customer there and push business! A little more and she would have had +to sleep there! She had threatened to tear up her contract, to complain to +the consul. And what annoyed her also was being in the same dressing-room +with singers who undressed without shame, while receiving their friends, +and made eyes at Lily worse than the impersonator. + +And she had to have her food at the theater, no dessert, nothing but a +biscuit or an apple; and, if she asked for a pear, it caused a terrible +to-do. Rather than stand that, Lily went to the hotel, which put her to +double expense, for the board at the theater was compulsory. She had to +pay in any case; so that she went away without a farthing, thinking +herself very lucky if the manager did not try to kiss her in his office. +Oh, the things she saw, the things she rubbed shoulders with, the vice, +the promiscuity, the rushes of girls in the passages before the onslaughts +of footy rotters, direct propositions, with eyes looking straight into +eyes, brief wooings on the stairs, behind the properties, between people +just about to take the train, one east, the other west, and in a hurry to +have done with it; a silent embrace in the dressing-room, a neigh, a kiss; +and _au revoir_, ta-ta! + +And the conversations between the stage-girls, who were always surrounded +by legends of the white slave-trade; stories of disappearances; of +"engagements for Caracas" and finding one's self over there without +resources, stranded in a bad house: like that poor girl, a Roofer, who had +received a letter and some sweets in her slipper, which she had sent +flying into the audience with a high kick--Lily remembered--well, she had +disappeared in South America, somewhere; one or two despairing letters and +then silence. And that other one, at Alexandria, who had called out for +help, behind her green blinds; and ever and ever so many others, whom she +had known slightly. Lily shivered: brrrrrr! + +She was sick to death of it. She had had enough of it, was fed up with it. +She aspired to better things. Lily had hoped that her engagement in Spain +would have marked the end of her bad luck; but no, nothing offered. She +was sour, bitter, fierce; a wild bull, a stallion, as Ma used to say. And +she became especially terrible now, when her energy was spent in neither +work nor love, so much so that there was a cross against her name in the +agents' books. + +Oh, she had often felt inclined to send them all to the devil: the made-up +eyes, the kiss-me-quick lips, the tow wigs, the low jokes, the +monkey-claws! There were some who had merit, no doubt, like that boy who +was all over scratches, from head to foot, through training cats; but the +rest, almost all of them, were a pack of good-for-nothings who copied +their betters: amateurs, jossers all; and they had more work than she, who +had taken such pains and who had made a fortune for her Pa. Oh, if that +wasn't enough to make her chuck everything and see life, in her turn. She +had only to choose ... + +These reflections came to her more particularly when she returned to +Paris, after Brussels and Copenhagen, and was again performing at the +Bijou Theater, where she had already appeared. + +"To make all that money," thought Lily, when she saw Poland again, "and +never to have been through the mill!" + +She admired Poland for that, envied her good manners, her grace, the way +she slipped on her dressing-wrap in the living picture, _The Bath_. She +turned green with jealousy at the sight of Poland's motor-car, her +thousand-pound ear-rings, her sable furs. It was not that Lily lacked +admirers or sympathizers. She even had a little triumph at the Bijou +Theater, one day when she passed round the hat for old Martello, who was +ill in bed and penniless. Lily topped the bill in her own fashion, by +putting her name at the head of the list, and the collection was a +success, everybody contributed ... including the architect, who was still +prowling round her, in the passages, on the stage, everywhere. Lily was +decidedly courted: the rich bookmaker who ran the theater as his private +harem, he, too, patted her cheek in a funny way, complimented her on her +firm, round hips before the group of dancing-girls packed like poultry, in +the shadow of the pillars. Gee, it only rested with herself to have as +much of that as Poland! And everything reeked with love, amid the +cannonade of the big drums and the clash of the cymbals, while the sudden +flashes of the reflectors, moonlight-blue on one side, bright-red on the +other, lit up all around her the herd of the languid Hours. But her heart +swelled and puffed with pride. No, no, not that! She would succeed by her +talent, damn it, not by getting round men! She, an English girl; she, Pa's +daughter; she, who had gone through the mill, to sell herself like cat's +meat! Never! And her Ma should beg her pardon on her knees, on her knees, +damn it! The thought infuriated her. + +She was quite sincere with herself. It was all her fault. She ought to +have worked and practised, practised every day, improved and improved her +turn; but she would do so now, to-morrow. It was her last chance. She had +hardly any money left; her three years' book was virgin once again, +unsoiled by contracts; but she had a stage to practise on and she was +going to practise to-morrow even if she had to pay somebody to run after +her, with the belt, if need be! Lily had nothing but that in her head now: +to get out of her present life, to get out of the mud, to reach the summit +at a bound. Was it possible? She consulted the Zanzigs; she spent a +fortune in penny-in-the-slot machines to learn the future, but always +received the same reply: + +"You will marry the man who loves you. You will be very happy." + +She smiled with pity when she read that nonsense; to prophesy her +marriage: how silly! She was only too much married! That was not what she +wanted to know; but the Astrarium! the Astrarium! Would she be there or +would she not? The New Trickers were plotting to get there, with a turn +which she had given them, goose that she was; and Cousin Daisy, that +farthing dip, would triumph and not she, a star, a real one! Lily was +rather in the position of Pa, when he arrived in London from New York ... +with this difference, that Pa had money and Lily had none. But there was +the same display of energy, once her pride was aroused. Lily also had run +round Paris like a mad thing: not to the agents!--with them it was: "Lily? +Lily Clifton? nothing your way to-day!"--but to her friends and +acquaintances, to find out about the Astrarium. Lily grew crazy at the +idea that she might perform there, be there at the opening, ride over all +of them, treat the New Trickers like so many fat freaks! + +"Oh, God, if it were true!" she cried, with her hand on her lucky charm. +"God above grant that it may come true!" + +She was at the end of her tether. Nothing short of the Astrarium could set +her on her legs again. She had no choice; it was either that or an +absolute come-down: the nautch-girl on the bike, at Earl's Court, or else +nights of dissipation, champagne and diamonds, like Poland; and Lily, like +her Pa in the old days, clenched her fists and gnawed her lip as she went +off to the Three Graces, who had their engagement and who would be able to +give her some hints. + +Lily knew their hotel by reputation. Nothing but pros; a rallying-point of +troupes, an hotel where nobody's skin was free from bruises and where, +from morning until night, you heard the clatter of the clog-dancers' +heels. It reeked of potatoes, of sleepers three in a bed; chests, +strange-shaped packing-cases, ticketed with distant labels, made the yard +look like the stage-entrance of a music-hall. Lily did not care for that +sort of place: no matter; besides, the Bambinis were there and their mad +rushes, their yells of mirth filled the gloomy house with gaiety. And Lily +did not mind walking in with her gold-tasseled hat on. All those heads at +the windows: it was just like a fine lady visiting the poor. And yet she +was not proud now. Formerly, she would have laughed on learning the kind +of life led by the Three Graces, those three girls who remained good so as +not to break up the troupe and annoy Nunkie and who were said to spend +their spare time in sewing and cooking and doing Sandow exercises and +measuring one another round the biceps and the chest: simple joys, the +only true ones. + +"They may be right, after all," thought Lily, who envied them from the +bottom of her heart for having the Astrarium. "If I had only practised +too! Practising is certainly better than attaching all that importance to +dresses or sending those puff photographs to the agents!" + +A surprise awaited Lily when she entered the hotel; pros were talking with +a mysterious air. There was muttering in the corners, a piece of news was +going round: the Bijou Theater had closed, that very day; the treasury was +empty, bankrupt; everything sealed up; just on the eve of pay-day too! + +[Illustration: THE BAMBINIS] + +"My! Is it possible?" thought Lily, distracted and forgetting the +Astrarium and the Three Graces. "And what am I to do for food to-morrow? +Come, quick, Glass-Eye!" she whispered, catching her a thump in the ribs. +"To the theater, quick!" + +For Lily knew by experience that it was a good thing to be first. Her Pa +had saved his salary once, in a similar case, at Perth, in Australia; but +one must arrive in time. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +There was a crowd in front of the Bijou when she arrived. They were +commenting on a notice pasted on the door: + +"_Fermé_." + +What could that mean? Lily had not provided for this in her vocabulary of +the French language; but the theater was closed until new arrangements +could be made. It meant complete ruin, enforced idleness.... + +"The rotten lot!" growled Lily. "Money, damn it, money! Pay up, you pack +of thieves!" + +But Lily soon recovered herself, when she saw that there was nothing to be +done. She had been through worse than that, when the iron curtain all but +smashed her to a jelly, at Milwaukee, and when she tumbled into the +orchestra, at Glasgow! Notwithstanding the anguish that wrung her inside +and heralded the coming hunger, Lily put a good face on the matter before +all those people, like a lady who is above that sort of thing: a +disappointment, that was all. + +"But how will those small artistes manage?" she seemed to say. "Those +families with babies?" + +Lily declared that it was very sad, called Glass-Eye to witness, as usual; +but poor Glass-Eye remained dumb, reflected that she would never, never be +paid, if this went on. Lily owed her eighteen months' wages now! True, she +got enough to eat, or nearly; she traveled with Lily; and she wore her old +hats. + +Meanwhile, the door opened; the artistes were allowed to take away the +implements of their work, before the final closing. The move began: they +fetched out basket trunks, hoisted packing-cases on to cabs. It was a +heartrending sight, all those things, made for the glitter of the +footlights, now displayed in the street. And everybody made such haste as +he could, under the eyes of the inquisitive passers-by, for fear of a +general execution, with every door sealed up and days to wait before one +could recover one's property. Fellow-artistes from other theaters came to +look on. Some were indignant that the Artistes' Federation could not take +up the matter and hurl the experience of its lawyers at the heads of the +proprietor or syndicate responsible, to say nothing of the moral weight of +its five thousand members, who had already made the English music-halls +come to terms by means of a wholesale strike. Others observed that it was +a private theater, one of those theaters run, for the fun of it, by some +prosperous gambler or lucky bookmaker; a sort of harem theater, with +almost empty houses, but with swells on the stage, among the swarm of +half-naked women; and no one responsible, the old boy ruined, the treasury +empty, bankruptcy; couldn't be helped; take in your belt a peg, that's +all! + +"What do you think of this, eh, Lily?" asked a voice. "Only yesterday we +were passing the hat for others!" + +Lily still had the list; and the money was locked up in one of the +dressing-rooms. Then it passed from mouth to mouth, like a watchword: they +would give back the collection; but not in the street, not before +everybody, for the honor of the profession. Lily, quite excited, entered +the passage and there, in the dim light, assisted by two one-legged +artistes, who called out the amounts and ticked off the names, she handed +back the collection of the previous day. Some received their share with an +air of furious determination; others looked shy and blushed; others, +again, refused, Lily among them; and it was decided to go to the "Pros' +Corner," or artistes' bar, near the stage entrance, to drink up what +remained: the ups and downs of life, damn it! Your turn to-day, mine +to-morrow; jolly lucky not to break a leg, after all! And their gaiety +returned, amid the smoke and the glasses, through a need of reaction; and, +after the first drink or two, came jokes, after-dinner stories, impromptus +which had traveled ten times round the world and brought tears of laughter +to the eyes of the audiences in thousands of music-halls, not to speak of +the second-class cabins of every ship of every line and the +smoking-carriages of every train, from the G. I. P. R. of Bombay to the S. +F. of Buenos Ayres. + + "Owen Moore went West one day, + Owing more than he could pay. + Owen Moore came back to-day-- + Owing more!" + +And they joined in the chorus and they sang, "We all came into this world +with nothing!" and the one-legged artistes beat time with their crutches, +my! the pink Hour and the scarlet Hour, who were there, got a stitch in +their sides. Lily, with her head flung back, full-throated, laughed +nervously. Besides, as she said, artistes did as they pleased and didn't +care a hang for anybody! All made plans for the morrow, all had been +through that sort of thing before and much worse, too: six stories cleared +at a bound, to escape from a theater in flames! Falls of seventy feet on +one's head! And wrecks! And waves miles high! Already they began to talk +of going away, of traveling; traced the route with their finger on the +table: Cape Town, Australia, the States. To listen to them, those +everlasting wanderers seemed to have pretty nearly the whole world under +their hands. They spoke of taking a rest at their permanent addresses: +good old London; good old Manchester; there was nothing like good old +England, after all, eh? They'd had enough of the Dago countries! + +But enthusiasm broke out when the great news arrived, brought by some one +straight from the agencies: Harrasford--"Guess, boys!"--Harrasford had +bought the Bijou Theater! It was all signed and sealed. He was carrying +out his program: and he wanted to open at once. For three months, it +appeared, there had been a silent struggle between him and the unlucky +bookmaker, who did not want to sell; and Harrasford had got it almost for +nothing; he had practically won it, yesterday, at the races,--with Dare +Devil, his wonderful horse. Dare Devil had beaten Cataplasm, his rival's +colt, and the smash had followed at once: the Bijou closed; a forced sale; +Harrasford had bagged it; and that was one, with more to come! + +The artistes were carried away by this daring stroke! Harrasford, a son of +a gun, who could put them all in his pocket! The one-legged artistes +fought a mock duel between France and England, the victor to marry Lily: +what did they think of that? Hurrah! + +"Say, boys, which is the quickest way of dropping money?" + +"Fast women!" + +"No, slow horses!" + +It was grand. They drank to everybody's health. They drank to Harrasford; +they drank to the Astrarium! They counted the money on the bar-counter; +the amount of the collection had been greatly exceeded and somebody +suggested that it was a nice thing, upon my word, yes, a very nice thing, +what they were doing: having a good time, while the Bambinis, perhaps, +were going to bed without any supper! The whiskies and sodas had warmed +their hearts: my turn to-day, yours to-morrow, damn it! It might happen to +any of them, to hop the twig and leave Bambinis behind him. + +"Lily, the hat!" + +And Lily handed round the hat again and collected more than on the day +before, even among those who had had their money back. + +"Take that to the Bambinis," they said. "We've been behaving like Dagoes, +damn it! Artistes ought not to act as such!" + +"'K you! 'K you!" + +And Lily Clifton walked off, very proudly, with her maid, to hand the +money to Nunkie, who was acting as treasurer. + +"And, meantime, one's got to live," said Lily to herself, when she was +outside. + +After the spurious gaiety of the moment, she seemed to be returning to her +distress, with no work, no money, the Bijou closed, Harrasford taking +possession of the theater. She revolved all this in her head, without +succeeding in connecting the whole: rags of ideas hung in her brain, like +the strips of scenery at the back of the stage. She had not even the +courage to go and take her bike ... to-morrow ... to-morrow. The Hours, +the pink one and the scarlet one, who came out of the bar also, resigned +themselves gaily. Their salary mattered so little. As they explained to +Lily, you're always well paid, when you have rich friends, and, if you +haven't, all you have to do is to look out for them: + +"Like Poland, what! A fat lot she cares the old boy's ruined! All she will +do is to find another, change her owner!" + +Lily had knocked up against everything, seen everything, heard everything, +in her adventurous life; but this way of getting out of a difficulty +always made her blush to her eyes. No, a triumph at the Astrarium: that +was the only solution for her, Lily Clifton! She was eager also to hand +the money to Nunkie. The Bambinis' money was a different matter from +Jimmy's: they were hungry children. Nunkie must be at the theater now, +with his Three Graces, quite close, and they were going to perform at the +Astrarium. So it was not essential never to have appeared in Paris! That +meant one more chance for her! + +"Come along, Glass-Eye!" + +They now passed into the noisy quarters. The Olympia opened its furnace of +light before them. The Three Graces stood displayed in life-size on +posters, with others beside them, names which Lily knew vaguely, as she +knew them all, from seeing them somewhere,--as she knew the stage-entrance +of the Olympia, by instinct, in the dark street, at the side: the mouth by +which the monster nightly swallowed and rejected its fill of meat. A +courtyard ... three steps up ... turn to the right ... Lily was at home +again, amid rainbow lights. + +"Hullo, Lily!" + +It was Nunkie greeting her on the stage, while his dear girls were +dressing in their room. He took the money for the Bambinis, congratulated +Lily on the result of her collection, thanked her. + +"And what about the Astrarium?" asked Lily. "Do you know...?" + +Of course, Nunkie knew. His dear girls were engaged to perform there. And +he had seen some one on his way to the theater: the opening would take +place in a month ... in six weeks at the latest.... + +The architect--"You know, Lily?" said Nunkie--the architect who used to +hang about on the stage, in the passages, on some pretext or other--to +make love to girls, apparently--was minding everything for Harrasford! He +was taking measurements, drawing out plans: + +[Illustration: THE ARCHITECT] + +"Everything is ready in advance, everything's ordered; they've only got to +put things in their places; the workmen will start to-morrow." + +"So that's what he came for!" thought Lily angrily. "The damned +_parley-voo_!" + +"And your Pa, you know," continued Nunkie, "will be there too, with his +New Trickers: it would have been easy for you to get there first," he +added, with a meaning smile. + +"The New Trickers! Daisy Woolly-legs!" stammered Lily, turning pale. "Who +told you so?" + +"I'm sure of it, I had it from Jimmy himself," replied Nunkie. + +"Jimmy told you? And what has Jimmy to do with it?" asked Lily, +anguish-stricken. + +"What has he to do with it? Why, he's simply going to top the bill," said +Nunkie. "And, besides, Harrasford has left it to him to make out the +program. Why, didn't you know?... Your friend Jimmy...?" + +She was in the street once more, feeling weak-kneed and light-headed. She +leaned on Glass-Eye's arm; she had a pain in her side from the emotion. +She felt inclined to enter a café, to get drunk on champagne, to forget. + +The next day an awful headache made her keep her room. + +"To-morrow," she said to Glass-Eye, "to-morrow I will fetch my bike." + +She dared not go out; she felt as if it was written on her forehead: + +"The New Trickers at the Astrarium! Daisy Woolly-legs at the Astrarium and +not you!" + +And, "to-morrow," again she spent the day stretched on her bed. And the +next day, well, as she had to ... as her bike was her bread-winner, after +all ... her only bread-winner, whatever happened!... + +"Come on, Glass-Eye! Let's go for the bike! I don't care if I do play the +darky at Earl's Court!" + +But, on reaching the Bijou, she could not restrain a cry. Nunkie had +spoken the truth; they were at work everywhere, unloading joists, running +up scaffoldings, attacking the theater from every side. Her friend, the +architect, passed, looking very busy, greeted her with a "Hullo, Lily!" +But Lily did not even see him. + +"I hope our things are still in the dressing-room. Hurry up, Glass-Eye!" + +And Lily ran along the passage, where already sacks of plaster had taken +the place of the velvet and nickel properties. She crossed the stage, +which was still untouched, took the dressing-room corridor and there, +almost before her door, met Jimmy! She felt like turning her back on him, +after spitting on the floor, as a mark of contempt; but, after all, no! +The coward! They'd see which of them should lower eyes first! And she +planted hers straight in his face, like a blow of the fist! + +Jimmy, who was coming toward her, had a moment of hesitation ... but it +did not last. He soon recovered himself. It would have been obvious to any +one seeing that masterful face that here was a man cured of his love, a +strong man and sure of himself, a man whom a kid like Lily--Lily had +always remained a kid to him, and not Mrs. Trampy, not the wife of Trampy, +that thief in the night!--a man whom a kid like Lily could not have at her +beck and call. And he held out his hand, like a good friend, simply, among +artistes: + +"How do you do, Lily? Delighted to see you." + +"Glass-Eye," said Lily, opening the door of her dressing-room, "Glass-Eye, +my bag ... the key of my trunk ... get out the bike first. One can't turn +in this rotten hole," she added, as she entered. + +And, as Glass-Eye seemed all day releasing the bike from the hooked-up +skirts and tights hanging from the wall, to say nothing of the kicks which +she received from the pedals, Lily, grumbling, snatched it out of her +hands, and ordered her maid to go and wait for her in the street, great +good-for-nothing that she was! + +"So you refuse to speak to me?" asked Jimmy. + +Lily lowered her head, took no more notice of him than if he had not been +there, collected her clothes, pulled the gollywog from the wall without +the slightest regard, heaped up everything promiscuously in the trunk, +thumping it down with her fists, as though eager to have done with it. + +"Come, Lily, are you still angry with me?" asked Jimmy, quite at a loss. +"When you took me by surprise that day, at Whitcomb Mansions ..." + +"A lot I care for your love!" growled Lily contemptuously. + +"But my friendship, Lily ..." + +"Your friendship," said Lily, "your friendship ... a rag! I'll show you +how I value your friendship!" she said, flinging a dirty towel on the +floor and stamping on it in her rage. + +"And that Daisy Woolly-legs!" resumed Lily, with an unspeakable expression +of scorn on her face. + +"What do you mean?" asked Jimmy, who did not understand. + +"Giving that shop to the New Trickers!" she continued violently. "You who +always used to talk of my talent! Giving a shop like that to those New +Trickers, who haven't as much talent among the six of them as I have in my +little finger!... You! To treat me like that!... When I think," cried +Lily, beside herself, "when I think that Pa and Ma will be here ... with +tricks stolen from me! footy rotter that you are!" + +Jimmy understood that the engagement of the New Trickers exasperated Lily: +a question of outraged pride, of professional jealousy. He tried to +explain: she had already performed in Paris and Harrasford insisted on +that. He, Jimmy, wasn't altogether the master. The New Trickers were very +clever, very original, very new ... + +"And I'm only fit to throw to the dogs, eh?" cried Lily furiously. "And +that rot about having performed in Paris. The Graces have performed in +Paris and they're to be at the Astrarium and why not I? Because you're my +friend, perhaps. Such a friend! When it would have been so easy for you to +give me that pleasure. But no one will ever do anything to please me! Yes, +strangers, gentlemen in the front boxes; but not friends like you! You +always bore me a grudge for marrying Trampy.... And who knows what people +say of me behind my back!... that I cut my turn ... that I do less than I +might. You know what I can do, damn it! But it's work I want, do you hear, +work! I'm not what you think!... One of those ... not I! I'd rather chew +glass than take any of that!" + +And Lily spoke with nervous movements of the shoulder and fiery glances +and she forced Jimmy to lower his eyes and she told him what she thought +of him straight out, told him all her heaped-up, rankling spite, told him +all she had at heart, in words round and solid enough to build a tower of +Babel on! + +"And I would have given my life, yes, given my life to perform here! +However, it's done now, isn't it? And it can't be undone," said Lily, more +calmly, and two tears sprang to her eyelids.... Then, while Jimmy, plunged +in his own thoughts, watched her without speaking and listened to her like +a judge, "You've nothing to say to me, eh?" she continued, closing her +trunk with a thump of the fist. "Nor I either. Then help me to carry down +my hamper: you haven't helped me to get into the Astrarium; at least you +can help me to get out of it. No? You refuse? And you so generous!" she +said, with a scornful laugh. "Well, then, help me take it on my shoulders. +No? Not even that? Then I must try by myself ... and never mind if I do +get crushed! _That's_ all I care for my life now!" added Lily, snapping +her fingers. + +"But, Lily," said Jimmy, taking up the hamper. "You're going out of your +sense; you know that ..." + +Jimmy could find nothing to say. He was pained to the bottom of his heart +... for the grief which he was causing her. The tone of feverish banter +which Lily was adopting upset him more than her anger had done. He felt +himself filled with pity for that poor little creature standing at bay. + +With a turn of the hip, Jimmy jerked to his shoulder the great basket +trunk which contained all Lily's fortune. It was not very heavy: tights, +spangled skirts, faded flowers. And, in the passage down-stairs, the +astounded stage-doorkeeper saw the famous bill-topper submissively +carrying the trunk of the bicyclist, who walked in front of him, wheeling +her machine beside her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The fortnight that followed upon this meeting was such a strenuous one for +Jimmy, with eighteen hours out of the twenty-four spent at the Astrarium, +among the day and night gangs; his life was such a slavery that he had +hardly time to think of Lily. But he did think of her, for all that. He +seemed to hear her still. Yes, he confessed to himself, he had, perhaps, +believed ... he had, in fact, been told that Lily was Lily no longer ... +But he had just been admiring her magnificent anger. He had seen her eaten +up with ambition, quivering from head to foot, and that brave face lifted +up to his. Twenty times over he was on the point of saying something to +her; but he must see first ... Would she herself be willing? Even though +she had seemed resolved to do anything? + +"Meanwhile," thought Jimmy, as on the former occasion, when she was ill, +in Berlin, "how are we to help her out of this ... how?" + +And he was caught in the whirlwind again: it was Jimmy here, Jimmy there. +He had to be in ten places at once. Not that he was manager or +stage-manager: his was a special case. Since his return from America, +Jimmy possessed an even more thorough knowledge of all the machinery of +the theater. He had his memorandum-books filled with notes, his head +crammed with new ideas. He had a smattering of everything, a vast amount +of experience picked up in rushing about the world. After his triumphs +with "Bridging the Abyss," the managers, knowing that he had prepared +something different, something strange and terrible, without knowing +exactly what, the managers had bombarded him with offers: Chicago, Berlin, +London. A conversation with Harrasford, whom the Astrarium held body and +soul, had determined the matter otherwise: he would open the Astrarium +with Jimmy and remodel the theater from top to bottom in view of the new +trick, the most sensational that had ever been seen. And Jimmy should make +the necessary alterations, he should have a free hand. + +Jimmy accepted. To open in a theater made for himself seemed preferable to +Jimmy to launching his new invention in a closed hall, such as the London +Hippodrome, for instance, which did not provide the aperture in the roof, +the door opening on to the stars, which he required to obtain his effect +upon the crowd. And that was why, in the work at the Astrarium, everything +turned upon Jimmy. He was responsible to both Harrasford and himself. For +that matter, he was fully equal to the interests at stake. Harrasford, a +great judge of men, intrusted everything to Jimmy, the sensational +bill-topper, removed above all jealousy; and he left it to his experience +to construct the program. Harrasford himself, the chief and master, rarely +left London; he managed all his theaters from his office, with the 'phone +at his ear, or else flew like the wind in every direction, buying a +theater here, picking up a star there, on the wing. It was not until the +third week that he came to see for himself how the work was doing and to +discuss the accounts. His broad back was seen, followed by Jimmy, to +plunge down the plastery corridors, to pass under the + +scaffoldings. He looked like a conqueror, tracing with his finger the plan +of the palace that was to rise upon the ruins of the destroyed city; or +else he would point out things with a jerk of the chin: + +"The proscenium pushed forward to here, eh, Jimmy? A cluster of electric +lights here. Another there. And what about your trick, Jimmy?" + +"You must imagine the house in darkness," said Jimmy, "and blue and green +rays falling on the stage from above. Through the blue, we send a great +dazzling beam, from over there, lighting up every inch of the house, a +terrific light, the light of the Last Judgment...." + +"Good!" said Harrasford. "We want two or three fits of hysterics at the +opening, real ones, not hired at two bob a night," he added, with a wink. +"They're working, up there," he continued, a piece of old plastering +falling on his shoulder, as they crossed the floor of the house, denuded +of its seats. + +"It's the opening in the roof," said Jimmy. "I should have liked to show +you ... the staircase is blocked with scaffoldings ..." + +But Harrasford, at the risk of breaking his neck, had already grasped the +rungs of a provisional ladder, made of spokes stuck through one of the +four beams which rose from the floor to the ceiling and supported it, +while the whole of the space between them was being opened. The architect +was there when Harrasford came out on the roof. He showed him four piers +of strong masonry which were being built against the outer walls, +explained that two T irons of considerable strength would rest with their +ends on the piers and run across the roofing from wall to wall. Two other +irons, also parallel, but running lengthwise, would be bolted to the first +two. This arrangement would make a horizontal frame of twenty by thirty +feet. They would then remove the beams which supported the roof during the +operations. When the plastering was finished and the gilding applied, this +would form, as seen from below, a handsome frame to the sky. The architect +also explained how the truncated roof would be secured to the frame, +forming a whole as firm as a rock, and how a light iron sash, completely +glazed, could be drawn along the two transverse T irons, thus opening or +closing the hall as desired. + +"The whole thing's worked from below by electricity," said Jimmy. + +"How long will it take?" asked Harrasford. + +"It's all ready. It's only got to be fixed up," said the architect. + +"And how much? Give me the detailed account to-night, at the station. I'll +study it on my way to Berlin." And, turning to the workmen, "_Faites vite! +Dépêchez_!" + +They were the only words of French he knew, a vocabulary no more extensive +than Lily's, but of a different kind. + +"And the lights?" asked Harrasford, before he went down again. + +"Here, there," said Jimmy, "on steel rods, connected by electric wires." + +"That'll dish the Berlin Winter Garden, with its stars set in black +velvet," said Harrasford. + +And he followed Jimmy toward the stage wall, which stood out above the +roof of the auditorium. Here some other workmen were cutting a doorway. + +"Let's go and see the floor now." + +And Harrasford plunged through the door, followed by Jimmy. They crossed +the fly-galleries and + +made for the blocked staircases. Before they went down, Jimmy called his +attention to a pulley which was being fixed to the ceiling and which was +to carry a rope with a stirrup for the performer's foot, to enable him to +reach the stage in a few seconds, after doing the trick. + +"Very good," said Harrasford. + +In half an hour, he had visited everything: the roof, the flies, the +cellar, the auditorium, the front entrance. Workmen were hurrying +everywhere. Harrasford encouraged them with a slap on the shoulder: + +"_Dépêchez! Faites vite_!" + +They were working at everything at once, from the new installation of +electric light and the steam-heating apparatus, in the basement, to the +emergency exits and the main lobby. Upholsterers were taking measurements +in the front boxes. The sound of the hammer rang out from top to bottom, +amid a cloud of dust; men climbed the scaffoldings, hoisted up things; and +the sight of all this activity gave the impression of a plan thought out +in advance, executed with great certainty, but incomprehensible to any one +not in the secret. There could be no doubt but that the spectacle which +was being prepared would be of a sensational character: even the back-wall +of the stage, which was empty at that moment, had been altered. By +clearing away a few dressing-rooms, they had raised the floor and ceiling +of the huge property-entrance. It had been closed up at the back and +fitted with a sliding door in front. + +"The bird's cage," said Jimmy, with a smile. + +"And how does he get out?" asked Harrasford. + +"Windlasses here ... a rope up above ... hooks," said Jimmy. + +"And when will it be fixed?" + +"Finished next week, everything's ready, the trials have been made. It +will only need a little practice, here, on the spot, calculating the +effort, getting used to the distance." + +"House packed for six months!" said the manager. "Here's a cigar to your +success, Jimmy! Come and let's have a drink at the bar; we'll settle the +program over there." + +A moment later, the two entered the bar where, a fortnight earlier, Lily +had handed round the hat a second time for old Martello and his Bambinis +and where the artistes, who had already dispersed toward the four corners +of Europe, had raised their glasses to the success of the Astrarium. And +there, in the little back room, which was deserted by the artistes, now +that the theater was closed, but which would soon again be the +intersecting point of so many vagabond existences ... where the nigger +cake-walker from Chicago would play poker with the equilibrist from Japan +... where the profs and the bosses would exchange complaints about the +strictness of the regulations concerning the work of apprentices ... where +little girls, worth their weight in gold, would come, coyly, encompassed +by Pas and Mas, but with glances askance at flight; in that corner where +funny men would swallow mixed drinks and talk through their noses; there, +under the frames containing row upon row of signed photographs of +artistes: human pyramids, girls in a knot, foaming muslins, Apollos and +Venuses all muscles; there, in Pros' Corner, Harrasford, the man for whom +all those people toiled and moiled, head down or feet in the air, the man +from whom one thousand persons drew salaries night after night, Harrasford +lit his cigar and sat down at a table with Jimmy, over a + +bottle of beer, and, forthwith, pencil and note-book in hand: + +"Let's see the program." + +Jimmy, on his side, took a written list from his pocket and laid it on the +table. + +It goes without saying that the select turns which they were about to +discuss had long been engaged for Harrasford's different music-halls, some +of them two or three years ahead, as often happens in the case of the +great bill-toppers, and the question was to choose among the best, so as +to insure the triumph of the opening night. For Harrasford, who had as yet +appointed no one as manager or stage-manager, the thing was to settle a +program which would discourage any attempt at competition, to have none +appearing except stars, without counting those whom he held in reserve for +the following month, before distributing them over his variety-theaters in +England, or, later, to any part of Europe, in the "Great Powers Tour" +which he proposed to create and of which the Astrarium would be a sort of +"commodore" music-hall, or headquarters. Jimmy only gave his opinion, +after which Harrasford would decide. + +Harrasford's dream was a model music-hall, something, in its own way, like +the Grand Opéra in Paris: a palatial edifice, in a new style of +architecture, with friezes displaying bodies in contortion, caryatids, +cast from life, supporting the springers of the arches, mixed groups of +loins and chests with swelling muscles, under the electric lights, and, in +the lobbies, a lavish display of African onyx, Scotch granite and Russian +porphyry. The crowd would pass in between Venus and Apollo, holding +flowers and lights; and there would be music everywhere; gaiety, noise, +red and gold everywhere; all cares would be laid aside and forgotten on +entering; it would be a hall containing every modern convenience, like the +Iroquois at Buffalo or a 'Frisco sky-scraper: newspapers, café, bars, +smoking-room, barbers' saloon, telegraph-office, telephone-office, +messenger-boys, ticket-office, private rooms in which phonographs would +shout out the latest news illustrated with telesteriography, from eight +o'clock till midnight. The idea was to create, thirty years ahead of its +time, the great popular music-hall, with its ball-rooms, as at Blackpool, +its side-shows, a palm-garden, a roof-garden; to draw to the theater those +who, on getting up from dinner, go to the café and stay there; to give +them an atmosphere of mirth and jollity, of comforting lights, a sort of +night forum, of People's Palace, with, in the middle, in the sumptuous +hall, facing the furnace that was the stage, a long thrill of three hours' +duration. + +And he would realize it next year, but he was in a hurry to open now, to +plant his flag of victory: + +"_Faites vite! Dépêchez_!" + +Dare Devil had won the place for him and Jimmy was bringing him the +sensational attraction, the inspired godsend which would pack the +Astrarium for six months and fill its till and spread its name far and +wide over Europe. + +Harrasford thought of this with a puff at his cigar, after glancing at the +photographs on the wall, and then, suddenly: + +"Let's see the program." + +"Nothing but bill-toppers," said Jimmy. "Picked turns from the first to +the last ..." + +"Which will be you," Harrasford broke in. + +"Yes ... I ... or somebody else ..." + +"What do you mean, somebody else?" + +"Perhaps," said Jimmy, "to heighten the effect of my turn ... for reasons +which I'll explain to you ... perhaps it would be better to have a woman +... better for the success of the attraction!" he hastened to add, at an +astonished gesture of Harrasford's. + +"And ... are you sure?" asked the other. + +"I think so," said Jimmy. + +"The program first," said Harrasford, returning to his notes. + +"We open with a gallery in marble and gold, something showy and quaint, in +the Potsdam style, with a negress inside." + +"I know. Light of Asia, eh? The armless Chinese girl whom I discovered at +Poplar.... Music of cymbals and triangles, eh?" + +"No," said Jimmy. "I have something better ... more æsthetic, less cruel +... a Soudanese woman from Chicago. She walks on to the stage in a +low-necked dress ... a magnificent woman ... a creamy complexion, with a +touch of pink ... and golden hair ..." + +"You said a negress," interrupted Harrasford. + +"Wait ... a splendid voice ... classical music ... then a wild African +melody.... She feels a flutter of homesickness; the perspiration streams +down her face; she presses the sponge soaked in water, hidden beneath her +wig,--and the enamel, the white of the shoulders, the pink cheeks all +trickle away and, finally she appears black as ebony, and, to the growl of +the kettle-drums, does a disheveled dance, kicking up her legs like a +puppet on a string ... Patti-Patty ... talent and absurdity mixed ... a +crazy toy ... movement and noise, while the hall fills." + +"Next?" asked Harrasford. + +"Next, without any interval," continued Jimmy, "directly after that +performance by the court fool before his majesty the audience, the curtain +rises upon a park ... and the New Trickers chasing one another among the +trees." + +"The New Trickers!" said Harrasford. "Bicyclists: that's very stale. And, +besides, what about you?" + +"Has one ever," asked Jimmy, "seen a music-hall give two similar special +turns, two bicycle turns, for instance, in the same show?" + +"Absurd!" said Harrasford. "Explain yourself." + +"It's to differentiate between my invention and trick-riding from the very +first," replied Jimmy, "to show, once and for all, that mine has nothing +in common with the ordinary turns you see on the stage: 'Bridging the +Abyss' or 'Looping the Loop.'" + +"You may be right," said Harrasford, "it will prevent confusion; yours is +purely scientific. And the New Trickers: tights? Bloomers?" + +"Skirts, all in white, Warwick style," said Jimmy. "A school-girls' spree: +see-saw on the bike ... somersaults over the benches ... waltzes, lively +tunes: an impression of gaiety and happiness. The star is a statue on a +pedestal in the park. The others throw flowers to her. She wakes; steps +down: 'Hullo, a bike!' And then a special tune for the star and a waltz on +the back-wheel, amid the admiring circle of school-girls." + +"All right," said Harrasford. "And what's the price of the New Trickers?" + +"So much." + +And he jotted it down in his note-book, near the prices of Dare Devil and +Cataplasm. + +Jimmy also took notes, mentioned the names of the great serio, the great +comic singer, with their figures: + +"So much." + +"They earn their money pretty easily, those two!" grunted Harrasford. "But +I've got to submit to it, I suppose. Next?" + +Jimmy only described the spectacular turns. Harrasford listened, saw it in +his head: a corner of untamed nature, a valley in the mountains, blue +distances, sunshine in the foreground. The Three Graces arrive all out of +breath. + +"You understand," said Jimmy, "they are supposed to have been chasing the +deer or hunting butterflies. As a matter of fact, Mr. Fuchs will have made +them do their Sandow, before going on, to bring the blood to their cheeks; +he's full of ideas, is Mr. Fuchs. On arriving, a moment's rest, an +adorable group in all the splendor of the nude ... sweet, solemn music ... +and then a glorious performance, a sort of human cluster hanging from the +trapezes, something healthy and robust." + +"All right," said Harrasford, putting a cross in his note-book opposite +the Three Graces. "And next?" + +With Harrasford it was always "And next?" like a man who never has more +than just so many minutes to spare, because his train's waiting. + +It was a curious sight to see the two talking together in low voices, with +an occasional glance at the door when some indiscreet person looked in. +They might have been taken for a pair of conspirators plotting a move; no +one would ever have suspected that they were composing a performance, +unique of its sort, which would be famous to-morrow. Everything was +provided for: scenery, music, the color of the dresses, effects of light, +the alternate doses of laughter or grace or terror to be served up to the +audience; everything was discussed then and there, in all its details, +down to those two sketch-comedians, with faces streaked red and white, +against a back-drop representing an old English street, two drunken +sports, with hats mashed in, coats turned inside out, ten minutes of mad +tricks and inhuman cries; for the audience must have its pittance of the +grotesque as well. + +There was a herd of comic elephants, five enormous animals in a Hindoo +setting; and no master on the stage, no boss, no prof: they all obeyed a +whistle blown in the wings. And, conducting the orchestra with an air of +unspeakable gravity, a monkey, Mozart II., a caricature of an infant +prodigy, made the huge brutes perform their evolutions, to the Soldiers' +Chorus from _Faust_. Then, in his enthusiasm, Mozart sent his desk flying +into the air, followed by his coat, his shoes, his conductor's baton, and +ended by seizing his tail in his hand and beating time with that. + +"That dishes Orpheus and Mad-darewski," said Harrasford. "And next?" + +The _entr'acte_ came next, with portraits and biographies of the artistes +distributed among the audience. + +"Yes, yes," said Harrasford, laughing. "Old English families ... +clergymen's daughters...." + +"Learned all that with their governesses, as a surprise for their Pa and +Ma!" continued Jimmy. "Mozart II., a favorite of the king of Lahore; +Patti-Patty, a descendant of the Queen of Sheba: we've got to do it. +There's no getting away from it." + +"We must hide the bruises," said Harrasford. "And next?" + +"Next, I hope to have the Bambinis: ten minutes of rosy mirth; real +biographical babies, born with that in their blood, brother and sister, +two marvels. I shall obtain permission for them to appear, though they're +under the age; the old father is dying, the famous Martello." + +"We must engage them for my tour," said Harrasford. + +"If the old man doesn't die first; in that case, there's a brother who +will come and claim them, it seems. They're a fortune, the two Bambinis, +to whomever secures them." + +"One dress-coat more on the stage," said Harrasford. "And next?" + +"Topsy Turvy Tom." + +"Oh, yes, I know!" said Harrasford, laughing. "The fellow who used to wear +leaden armlets to harden his muscles and smash Clifton's jaw." + +"That's the one," said Jimmy, laughing in his turn. "A threat of +Clifton's, who said that he would 'make him dance the hornpipe on his +hands, damn it!' suggested the idea of a turn to him, so they say. He set +to work with superhuman energy--and now he is a bill-topper...." + +"Well done!" cried Harrasford, banging his fist on the table. "There's no +country but old England can turn out bulldogs like that, lads who jump +from the gutter to the top of the bill! That's what I call a man! And +what's his turn like?" + +"A scene of his own: the front of a palace. A pink marble figure, naked +down to the waist, supports a huge cornice. A thunder of big drums, a +flash of lime-light and the palace splits from top to bottom. The figure +staggers, falls on its hands and gives a stupendous acrobatic performance: +somersaults on the hands; waltzing; treading the ball: the 'hornpipe, damn +it!' And then Tom stands on his feet, all in shadow. A powerful ray of +light is thrown upon him, and you see the muscles of the abdomen slowly +moving, the pectoral muscles quivering, the deltoids leaping and starting, +the biceps swelling; and, when he turns round, the rhomboids hollowing +out, the muscles of the back rolling: the triumph of the human machine ... +and of Tom." + +"And of will," said Harrasford. "How much?" + +"So much." + +"It's worth it. And next?" + +"Roofers, high-kickers: the Merry Wives. We begin with dancing and end +with dancing. The puppets make their bow to the public before being put +away in their boxes ... the curtain falls ... and good night!" + +"And then you come!" + +"Then I come," said Jimmy. "Or she." + +"Your invention," said Harrasford seriously, "is not a music-hall +entertainment. It is, undoubtedly, the greatest of all scientific toys, a +marvel of modern ingenuity. Do you really want a pair of tights on the top +of that? And, first of all, where will you find the woman who will dare?" + +"That's the question, obviously," admitted Jimmy. + +Not that Jimmy must have been in love with Lily, to think of her! It had +first just passed through his head, no more. But, on reflecting, it had +appeared to him that, in the theater, the beauty of a Lily would add +greatly to the success of his attraction. To work his invention in public +was different from experimenting with it in his shed in London. It was +leaving the laboratory to take its place in life; and it would be a +triumph to see the daring trick succeed, every day, at the fixed hour, +within a restricted compass; to see it go through the opening above; to +see that machine worked by a young girl in whom one would have suspected +neither the strength nor the nerve: it would make the public infer the +excellence of the engine. Now Jimmy was possessed, above all, of +scientific enthusiasm. His machine before everything; not his personal +triumph, his machine. He dreamed of giving that added grace to his +diagrams; and he considered that there was no disadvantage in allowing +science to be introduced by youth and beauty. Moreover, Jimmy was a little +heavy for an apparatus in which he had even suppressed the motor, in order +to make it more easily manageable ... a lighter body would perhaps be +better ... Lily, Lily was the ideal operator; but was she capable of it? +Jimmy had confidence in her. Jimmy, certainly, did not allow sentiment to +mix in his affairs; there was the weight of his responsibility to +consider. But then there was also his meeting with Lily in the +dressing-room passage. And he had understood her mental agony. He had seen +the gleam in her eyes and so great a display of energy in her face that +Jimmy had resolved to try her; and he would judge her much better by the +way in which she should face death. + +That is what Jimmy explained to the manager, leaving a good deal untold, +of course, and Harrasford retired behind the smoke of his cigar, listened, +approved. + +"It's your affair, when all is said and done. All you want is success, I +suppose? And will you arrange with her ... with your ... what did you say +her name was?" + +"Lily." + +"There are so many Lilies; and, if somebody has to break his or her back, +I had rather it was a Lily, one out of the bunch, than you." + +Lily, meanwhile, was loitering outside. Harrasford and Jimmy had no notion +that the girl about whom they were talking was quite close to them, +thinking of them. Lily had heard an artiste say that Harrasford was +visiting the Astrarium. She had come in all haste, impelled by some vague +hope. Chance would have it that she was still in Paris. Everything, +besides, seemed to be keeping her there: an agent, the day after her +interview with Jimmy, had advised her to stay a few days longer; there +might be something important for her. Lily could not understand in what +way; however, she had stayed, though she was almost without means of +support. She began by trying to sell her jewels, the fifty-pound diamond, +among others, which that lord had given her in England: the jeweler handed +it back to her, saying that it might be worth eight francs! That meant +destitution. And yet hope always returned to her in one way or another. +She had even received three blue banknotes, three hundred francs, in an +envelope! Her fortnight at the Bijou! No doubt about it, they were paying +the artistes' salaries; perhaps the Federation had taken the matter up? +Three hundred francs; not enough to pay Glass-Eye or to give to Jimmy, but +just sufficient to settle her small debts, buy some new dresses and go to +London to play the darky at Earl's Court. Oh, what a ridiculous come-down! +And so, when she learned that Harrasford was at the Astrarium, she took +her courage in both hands: she would see Harrasford. She would try the +fascination of her smile upon him. She would be settled at once and for +ever.... When she thought of the New Trickers, her blood seemed to stand +still in her veins: the New Trickers at the Astrarium! And Jimmy, the mean +cur, not to have got her that shop, when she had such a splendid idea: +Lady Godiva on a bike! And a scene of her own: the front of Peeping Tom's +club, with all the boys at the windows! + +Just then, Harrasford came out of the bar. She hurried up to him and +introduced herself: + +"Miss Lily." + +"Which one?" said Harrasford. "Excuse me; no time now. See Jimmy, will +you?" + +And he plunged into a cab and shouted an address to his driver. + +Lily stood stupefied, as she watched the cab disappear. This time it was +finished, quite finished.... She gave a last glance at the Astrarium and +sighed.... + +"Lily!" It was Jimmy coming out and crossing the street. "Hullo, Lily!" + +She did not reply. + +"Listen, Lily," said Jimmy, gently and gravely. "You wanted to get there +the other day, didn't you? You told me you would do anything for that." + +"To take the place of the New Trickers, yes!" exclaimed Lily. "I'd have +risked my life!" + +"The New Trickers are there," said Jimmy, "and are going to remain. Listen +to me, what I have to propose to you is very serious: it's something +else." + +"What else? You know that's all I'm good for ... to go round and round ... +you know it quite well!" cried Lily, her face drawn with impotent anger. +"I know what you can do. Look here: would you like to be above the New +Trickers? Would you like to top the bill? Are you ready to do everything +for that?" + +"May God forgive you for mocking at me!" + +"Will you top the bill?" asked Jimmy again, in an accent that sent a +thrill down her back. "Answer me: yes or no?" + +"Yes," cried Lily. "My life, everything, damn it!" + + + + +AMONG THE STARS + +I + + +Jimmy was greatly excited when Lily had given him her answer and he led +her to the Astrarium. To understand his feelings fully, one would have to +know his life since the evening when, at Whitcomb Mansions, he had looked +Lily in the face and told her no. He realized then, from the emotion which +he experienced, how great a place Lily had filled in his heart, the little +passenger from New York to Liverpool; the girl who came to see him in his +shop in Gresse Street; the Lily whom he dreamed of "helping out of that" +when he saw her on the stage, from up in the fly-galleries; the one whom +he had tried to take away from Trampy; the poor sick girl in Berlin; those +Lilies whom he felt moving inside him, around him, like a breath of April; +all those Lilies, he had broken with them all! Oh, it was hard! Lily +should never, never know what courage he had needed to keep silent, he, +the man she thought so cold, nor what a tempest ... oh, if she could only +have seen into him! And then ... he had not met her again.... + +He, after his engagement at the Hippodrome, went off to America; Lily +traveled on her part. Also, he was a prey to his fixed idea, his great +project, always: his ambition increased, the same longing for success +which, formerly, in Gresse Street, had made him spend nights in study +after days of toil, at the time when, under Lily's influence, his roaming +thoughts built castles in the air, when he felt awakening within himself +his racial instinct as an heroic seeker after profitable adventures. + +And his ambition took great strides forward, was not limited, as in +Clifton's case, to upsetting the fat freaks or training New Zealanders to +spin round and round. He dreamed of a useful life, based upon his own +efforts. He wished to found his future upon a discovery of his own, which +had long haunted him and which had ripened in Berlin, between his flights +in "Bridging the Abyss," a thing at which he worked incessantly in +Whitcomb Mansions; and, this time, the stage prowlers, should not steal +his idea. To begin with, apart from a few pieces of technical advice which +he received from a friend of his, an engineer, nobody knew about it; and +Jimmy felt sure that, even when the apparatus was at work, he would not +fall a victim to the confraternity who, ever on the watch for new tricks, +study them, judge of the weak points, copy whatever suits them, including +scenery and music, and, sometimes, succeed in earning more money than the +inventor himself; he would have nothing to fear from the Trampies, the +pirates, the plagiarists, those plagues of the profession. Certainly, +there were great bill-toppers, creators of sensations who discovered new +things--terrifying feats of gyroscopic balancing, or flights through +space, based upon principles of ballistics, assisted by the spiral +spring--daring risk-alls, nerve-shakers, purveyors of thrills, turning to +intelligent account the seductive power which dangerous feats exercise +upon the public. Jimmy knew all about that. He was not the only one; but, +this time, it was a question of a scientific application which would, +beyond a doubt, place him at the head of that pick of the music-hall. It +would be pure science and patient calculation: an algebraical hippogriff, +with pluck in the saddle. + +Jimmy's plans resulted from intuition rather than real knowledge; but +learning has nothing to do with the creative spirit. Now Jimmy, although +he was unaware of it, possessed the genius that invents; and his +comparative ignorance did him no great harm: his imagination, unhampered +by theories, was all the freer for it. Jimmy had the higher instinct of +the born machinist, who is content to use a bit of string where a +school-bred engineer will cram every manner of gear, chains, pulleys and +windlasses. It is true that he was assisted in his research by many +experiments already tried elsewhere; but he dreamed of something different +and, in the calm of Whitcomb Mansions, had studied without respite. + +"Pooh!" he reflected. "All those sails, all that weight! Boxes heaped one +on the top of the other--cubes to catch the air--a man sitting inert in a +basket, with his hand on a lever and a crank: it's as though one tried to +make a stuffed bird fly! And what becomes of the man in all that: the back +push, the daring stroke? The man has got to be the backbone of the +machine, with his quick balancings, his bendings, which are worth more +than any wheelwork." + +And, always, his inventive imagination built on without respite, pulled +down, built up again. + +His daily success at the Hippodrome did not divert him from the end he had +in view. "Bridging the Abyss," for him, was but a means of making money, +to enable him to climb higher. He thought of nothing but that: getting on, +climbing higher; and this obsession of the future made him scorn or rather +overlook the temptations of the stage. He would only have had to choose +among the lot. All, down to the great Parisienne, would have jumped at a +champagne supper with Jimmy, the famous bill-topper, the man who looked +like the swells in the front boxes and who made such a "pile." But Jimmy +knew all about that: he left the theater in the quietest way, took a glass +of ale with the boys or girls at the Crown, had a light supper and went +home. And sometimes a frenzy for work made him rush to his table, as +though the band of the Hippodrome were shaking his nerves: + +"Get to work," he would growl, "get to work, cheesy brain!" + +"But, Pa, I can't!" + +"But you've got to, my little siree!" he insisted, with a flickering +smile. + +And he read treatises, made diagrams; took up his compasses again ... or +else stayed as he was, with his chin in his hand, plunged in his thoughts, +his mind soaring above London.... He seemed to fly over the huge city, +whose distant rumbling rose up to him, similar to the roar of the sea.... +Oh, he would succeed, he knew he would! And he felt within himself an +increasing will of so tenacious a character that he could have swung it, +so it seemed to him, like a battering-ram against the obstacle to be +overcome and then: + +"Damn it!" he would growl, banging his fist on the table. "That thief in +the night! What a sweet wife he got hold of! Poor Lily, to fall into such +hands! Ah, yes, she would have done better to stay at home!" + +And Jimmy got to work again, to forget Lily; and he kept on thinking of +her: + +"Damn that girl!" + +What on earth did he think of her for ... when he didn't love her, after +all? + +Even during his triumphal tour of the Eastern and Western Trust, that +Lily, whom he did not love, haunted his memory. At first, he hoped to +forget her in his life of excessive activity. And he saw so many theaters, +as many as Lily did in England: so many artistes, on so many stages ... +faces whom he had already met in England: fair wigs, scarlet legs, boyish +voices; "Roofers," "brothers" and "sisters," returning from London, +Manchester, or Glasgow. He would have ended by seeing them all again in +time. There were other Lilies shooting up, Lilies "that high," elbowed by +every vice, petted by every hand, kissed by every pair of lips. His +sympathy went out to them all; and Lily had lived amid all that; it was +just her life. He found something to remind him of her at every turn, on +those stages on which she had performed. He seemed to see her near him, +with her light walk, in her little black dress, looking so nice in her +"performing-dog" toque: the poor little silly thing, running away with +that thief in the night and left alone now, quite alone, it appeared, +among the "rotten lot." The thought drove him mad: + +"Damn that girl!" he said to himself. "I don't love her. Then why am I +always thinking about her?" + +And he rushed into work, into danger, when he thought of that; risked +terrible leaps in "Bridging the Abyss." He sometimes felt as though he +were rushing toward oblivion, into the jaws of death! And his great +project also nearly outweighed Lily's influence: + +"What are the leaps in 'Bridging the Abyss,'" he thought, "if not a +fractional flight? If I had two flat surfaces, one on either side, and a +motor behind me, it seems to me that I should continue to go upward; and +the best rudder would be the man riding it, with his flexible body, his +springy back: a live weight is less heavy than a dead weight. How many +hundred volts does pluck stand for ... or skill ... or hatred ... or +love?" + +By dint of composing his machine in his head and studying it on paper, +Jimmy grew calmer. He thought less about Lily, or, at least, thought about +her only in her interest, not his. For instance, in that little town in +the West which was not on his tour, but in which Trampy had appeared, +Jimmy tried to obtain information. He went out of his way in order to make +inquiries. A marriage with Trampy Wheel-Pad? It was impossible to discover +anything; and he would not be able to make Lily the magnificent present +which he had dreamed of: her divorce from Trampy! + +And "Miss Lily," Miss Lily, always; he was not satisfied with thinking of +her, he heard her name mentioned. Boys and girls who had seen Lily in +England and whom the chances of travel brought across his path in America +told him with many amplifications, of her outrageous adventures, her +passion for flirting. She no longer did all her turn. She paid more +attention to her dresses than to her performance. She was extravagant, +traveled with her maid, put up at the big hotels. She received bouquets, +my, as big as cabs, and invitations to supper and post-cards covered with +x x x x! She had an autograph-book full of declarations of love. +Motor-cars, furnished houses: she was offered everything. The son of a +lord had ruined himself in jewelry for her, the impersonator was nearly +off his head for love of her, gee, she did have a good time! She spent her +life receiving chocolates and sweets and distributing her photograph as +Lady Godiva, with her signature. Lily, according to them, laid waste every +heart; men had left wife and children for her sake; her love affairs were +going the round of the world, like her whippings. Lily was the thing; and +game and mustard for Jim Crow. + +These tales left Jimmy very sad. He made allowances for professional +exaggeration in matters of love as of smackings, but, nevertheless, there +must be some truth in what they said, for it reached him from various +sides. Oh, he pitied that dear little Lily from the bottom of his heart! +The harm was done, the theater had spoiled the woman. This time, he felt +that it was finished, between her and him.... He, no doubt--who could +tell?--would continue his forward progress, and, one day, he would have a +wife of his own, a woman without a past, and he would take his stand +firmly on the earth, with a home and love; and Lily, soon, would be little +more than a dead memory.... + +Meanwhile, his brain, redoubling in vigor amid those stormy squalls, took +in everything, seized everything in a wide sense, became steeped in life, +rejected bitterness and retained enthusiasm. He heaped up personal +observations which he noted every evening, enough to build the ideal +music-hall one day. Harrasford, he knew, was cherishing that plan. Perhaps +they would realize it together? And the retreat for the aged and the home +of rest for the sick, and, in each capital or large town, a local +artistes' home--like the Sailors' Home--a little corner of England, +providing comfort for the man and protection for the girl. And his scheme, +his scheme was ripe now, the bold stroke which would enable him to realize +all the rest later. He felt the strength within him, if not to succeed, at +least to dare everything: "Brass Heart," as he had been christened at +'Frisco. He had served an apprenticeship to will-power: he had bruised his +ribs with a vengeance in a fall at the Columbia Theater at Cincinnati; he +had nearly split his skull at the Milwaukee Majestic; he had shed his +blood at the Washington Orpheum; and he was going to risk more with his +new invention. No matter, he had now but one idea, to return to England, +in spite of magnificent offers from Australia. + +The moment he reached London, he set to work. And he fixed up the whole +apparatus at his leisure, in the shed which he had kept, notwithstanding +the expense: a sort of large hall in which he had already rehearsed his +"Bridging the Abyss." Here, with a couple of confidential assistants who +had traveled with him in America, he worked from morning till night, +correcting, revising, improving, in the midst of stretched cords and nets. +And then came his interview with Harrasford, his engagement at the +Astrarium, his meeting with Lily, in the dressing-room passage.... + +And it was untrue! What they had said about her was a lie! Lily had not +fallen! Jimmy, merely at that moment's sight of her, would have sworn it +in the face of the whole world: the tales about Lily, due probably to +professional boasting on her own part,--were false! He knew it, because he +had seen her magnificent anger and the flash from her chaste eyes. And he +would give Lily that joy--he owed at least as much as that to his dead +love--and he would see that it was all right. It would not be a question +of: + +"Pa, I can't!" + +"But you've got to, my little lady!" + +She would have to dare of her own accord, with a will of adamant, and Lily +would do it, Jimmy was sure of that. He had found the partner wanted for +his success and he rejoiced to the bottom of his heart as he led Lily to +the stage of the Astrarium. + +Lily, on the other hand, felt an anxiety which made her sides ache and her +heart beat: + +"What on earth can it be?" she asked herself. + +But, whatever it was, she would do it if it cost her her skin! And Lily +did not even take the stage oath, so sincere and spontaneous was her +resolve. + +"I'll show you, Lily," said Jimmy, seeing her look at the hall and the +opening in the ceiling as she passed. "It's a new trick." + +"Yes," said Lily, "new: it'll be like the last, they'll take it from you +as soon as it's out. It's like me, the tricks which Pa invented and which +the fat freaks cribbed from me. Tricks are always copied, you know they +are," continued Lily, who trembled at the thought of seeing others beside +herself topping the bill with that. + +"You needn't be afraid," said Jimmy, "they won't take this one from me; +and yet I hope, in a few years' time, to see it all over the place." + +"You hope to have it taken from you in a few years only, eh? But why?" + +"For all the world to profit by it." + +"All the world on the back-wheel!" protested Lily, who was always thinking +bikes. "Then what will become of the artistes?" + +"In a few years, Lily, people won't go about on wheels," said Jimmy +jokingly. + +"What will they do then?" + +"They'll fly!" + +Lily would have burst out laughing, in other circumstances; but they had +now reached the stage. The iron curtain was down. She looked round with +scared eyes for something out of the common. Jimmy, after making sure that +they were quite alone, walked up to the monster's cage, slid back the door +... + +The aerobike, with wings wide open, seemed to loom out of the darkness. + +"My!" cried Lily. "It's a bird! So that was your brain-work in Berlin and +in ... What is it?" + +It was, in any case, a strange creature, with two inclined planes, one on +either side, that looked like wings; and, at the back, it showed a +screw-propeller sticking up in the air, like a tail. The whole thing +rested on two wheels. + +"And it's a bike, too! I knew it!" cried Lily, clapping her hands. "Well +done, Jimmy! And do you want me to get up on it? Come along! Just wait +till I take my hat off," she went on, drawing out the hat-pins from under +her big feathers. + +"Not so fast!" said Jimmy, laughing. "Keep calm! We'll start next week. +There are a good many little things to make sure of first; and then I must +put up a cable in case of a fall." + +"I don't care a hang for a fall," cried Lily, immensely excited. "You'll +soon see if I'm afraid!" + +"Be serious, Lily. Listen to me," replied Jimmy. "Yes, you will have to +stand on the back-wheel, but not to ride round the stage. You will have to +start up at full speed and then go up and up, straight up, into space and +then shoot out through a hole which they are making in the roof." + +"Yes," said Lily, "I saw. . . . My, that makes a good distance! And, when +I'm through the hole, what do I do up there? Go on...!" + +"I'll explain all that to you," said Jimmy. + +"Dive into the street, eh?" asked Lily, in her Spartan voice. "Well, I +don't care! Anything! I'll do anything! And I'll show them," she added, to +herself, "if you can do _that_ through your gentlemen friends!" + +But she calmed herself: after all, she was going to top the bill; have her +name in all the papers, with her portrait; see the walls covered with her +posters. What a revenge for her! That was enough, for the moment. She did +not want to appear surprised before Jimmy. The right thing was to take it +as something very natural, like a lady who is used to the best. + +Jimmy, meanwhile, was explaining his trick: + +"We shan't fly at once," he said. "We shall practise on the stand to learn +how the handles work. Oh, you'll have to think of everything during the +few seconds that the flight lasts! The machine isn't perfect, it's a first +attempt, it can only be ridden by a professional and a very clever one. +Look here," he continued, "it's the principle of the back-wheel; you'll +have to keep your side-balance and front and back, but you'll do it, I'm +sure. _I've_ done it." + +"What you can do, a man," Lily interrupted, "I can do too. One can do +anything on the bike!" + +The machine which Jimmy explained to Lily in detail was a bike just like +another, with a few differences in its general construction, bearing upon +the services which it was expected to perform. The saddle, for instance, +was made to slide backward and forward, so that the center of equilibrium +could be shifted with a push of the rider's back. The stability of the +apparatus did not depend upon that alone. The ascensional rudder or +screw-propeller, which was able to impart a speed of thirty miles an hour +to the machine, was in the extension of the horizontal bar of the frame. +It was fitted to a long piece of bent steel, pinned below the saddle, +which, running beside the frame, ended by forming a pedal, so that, with a +pressure of the foot, the rider could move it downward, at will, within an +arc of some ten degrees. This propeller, which was small in dimensions, +but endowed with enormous speed, was, in its normal position, +perpendicular to the frame. The pressure of the foot raised it to its +highest point. In this position, the propeller turned at full speed and +therefore tended to descend and, consequently, to point the front of the +aerobike upward. When brought still lower, its ascensional force increased +and the front of the aerobike pitched downward. These two extremes would +obviously serve only in sudden movements. In reality, the rider's skill +would consist in moving the propeller only very slightly, in order to +maintain a horizontal flight. As for the machine itself, Jimmy had +rejected the cumbersome system of cells, which he compared to boxes: + +"The shape of a fish for the ship, the shape of a bird for the +flying-machine," he said. + +He stuck to that principle and therefore he had added two enormous wings, +one on each side. He had first experimented with reduced models, shaped +like a bird, sending them up anyhow, to see, and he had ended by +constructing one which preserved its stability when gliding over the +atmospheric layers. He had thus been led to construct wings with a +slightly rounded surface whose coefficient of yield was nearly double that +of wings with flat surfaces. The width of these wings was about five feet +and their length about sixteen. They tapered a little, were drawn out in +front and widened at the opposite end, so as to get a more powerful hold +of the air. They were made of double-milled canvas, stretched on curved +ash and fastened to the sections by aluminum stays riveted with copper and +clenched. They were as light as they were stiff. These two wings pointed +slightly upward in front, parallel to the machine, and were fastened to it +in the middle by means of an axis below the saddle-pillar, which brought +their axis to the center of gravity. Other ingenious and quite individual +arrangements made the apparatus very manageable. The resistance of the +air, combined with the propelling power of the screw, exercised all its +force in vain: the wings remained stationary. Their lines were carefully +studied to facilitate the flow of the air, on the principle of Langley's +kite: and the two of them presented a carrying surface of forty-nine +square feet. + +"It's not much," Jimmy explained to Lily, who listened attentively. "If I +carried my motor," he said, "I should have a bigger surface. The machine +ought then, theoretically speaking, to rise when it is going at a rate of +thirty miles an hour; with a good back push the front-wheel would leave +the ground and continue its course upward. But, on the stage, we have no +room to acquire speed: we shall get it from an inclined plane, as at the +start of 'Looping the Loop.' As for the side steering, the front wheel has +spokes fitted with canvas and offers resistance to the air: it will steer +the aerobike to left or right at a touch of the handle-bar, as in ordinary +riding, and there you are, Lily." + +"My!" said Lily, bewildered by all this complicated apparatus. "Did you +work it all out on paper? It's enough to drive one mad!" + +"When you're on it, Lily," said Jimmy, smiling, "you'll have to work also, +_I_ promise you. But, with your talent, ... you'll manage better than I +should. And to-morrow," he added, "I will give you something on account of +your salary." + +"No, I have money," said Lily, very proudly and fearing lest she should +wear out her luck by adding that to it, by being paid for doing +nothing.... + +Lily spent the whole week in a fever of expectation; she did not know +where she was for joy. But she stifled that within herself. And it was +owing to her talent, all owing to her talent! When people wanted a +difficult trick done, they did not go to Daisy or the fat freaks, no, they +came to little Lily! And it was settled, she wanted no more familiarity, +now that she was going to top the bill at the Astrarium! A lady should be +more reserved in her friendships: she would make herself very +short-sighted, so short-sighted as to be almost blind, when she met the +rotten lot! Resolved, that she would give up saying, "Damn it!" give up +talking of smackings and using vulgar expressions: + +"Do you hear, Glass-Eye?" she said, calling her maid to witness. "You're +to box my ears if you catch me at it again!" + +The thought of having to handle that delicate machine increased Lily's +importance in her own eyes. She had noticed that Poland, apart from an +inordinate love of champagne suppers, had very nice manners: Lily would +profit by her example and become more refined; she would show Pa and Ma +the kind of Lily they had lost and she would crush them with the amount of +her salary! She would earn more by herself than the whole troupe. She +would let them know it, even if she had to do the trick for nothing, for +glory, to see her Ma beg her pardon on her knees! She had recovered all +the pride of her eighteen years, all her freshness, in a day: the touch of +bitterness about her lips had changed into a smile. It would have taken +very little more to make her dance for joy. But she restrained herself, +dared not believe in her happiness; and she was quite decided not to +accept anything from Jimmy before earning it. It was bad enough to owe him +that thousand marks. She made herself a nice practising dress and spent +the morning in bed reading a novel of fashionable life, of which the +heroine was called Lily, like herself! And she, too, would become a +society-girl, just to show them, damn it! But, suddenly, catching herself +at fault, she laughed and asked Glass-Eye for a box on the ear; and a +desperate pillow-fight ensued, in which they indulged whole-heartedly, +like two regular tom-boys who loved to wrestle and punch each other. And +it put her in a good humor for the rest of the day. She went shopping +through the windows, only bought herself a spray of roses to fasten to her +bodice. She went to the Astrarium, walked in as though the place belonged +to her, followed by her maid. She examined the works with the eye of an +expert. Three days, three days more and she would begin to rehearse! Her +legs were itching to commence! + +The alterations to the stage especially interested her. The door of the +cage remained closed and Lily looked at the auditorium: + +"Is it possible, after all?" she thought. + +And she measured the distance with her eye. It seemed enormous to her, but +never mind, she'd do it! And she grew wildly enthusiastic in the midst of +all that activity, of a theater which was being rearranged for her: "For +me, Glass-Eye! All of it for me! From here," she said, stamping her foot +on the stage, "from here to right up there!" And she pointed to the hole +in the sky. "All that on the bike! A somersault miles high!" + +[Illustration: OLD MARTELLO] + +Glass-Eye opened two terrified eyes, wondered if Lily was going mad.... + +Glass-Eye had become dulled through constant obedience, had lost her +memory, mixed up her yeses and noes, like those actors who forget their +parts through playing them too frequently; her recent life had excited her +too much, and never a sou in her pocket, only barely enough to eat ... it +was ten times worse than in Rathbone Place.... And then that new crotchet +of Lily's. + +"Can I fly, Glass-Eye, or can't I? Am I a bird or am I not?" It was enough +to make Glass-Eye lose her head.... + +Glass-Eye was obliged to answer yes ... and that very quickly. But she +kept on trotting behind Lily, who, realizing that she would soon be taken +up with her rehearsals, took advantage of her last days of liberty to pay +visits and show herself a little, accompanied by her maid, like the fine +lady that she was. She went and took the Bambinis some candies. Poor kids! +Their games and laughter no longer filled the hotel with mirth and gaiety: +old Martello was getting worse and worse and was now not able to leave his +room at all. Lily found a kind word for everybody and was grieved at not +having any money, which would have allowed her to be generous. That would +come later. She worked out a scheme for occupying herself with the +children when the old man was gone, for having them always with her, like +two dear little lucky charms. It was impossible, of course: never mind, it +was the idea of a lady, which she would not have had in the old days, and +Lily was pleased with herself for having entertained it. + +"I will speak about you to Jimmy," she said to the Bambinis. "I'll get you +engaged at the Astrarium, eh?" + +And the old man trembled with delight, stammered out his thanks, tried to +accompany her to the door, like a princess; and the little boy, to thank +her, promised to teach her a way of standing on your head which he had +learned all by himself! + +"Poor darlings!" thought Lily, as she left them. "If ever they fall into +their brother's hands! They would be better dead! Luckily for them, he has +disappeared for good; and his Ave Maria with him, unluckily for me!" + +For Lily understood how badly her position as a lady went with that name +of Mrs. Trampy. It was like dragging a tin kettle at her skirts, to make +the people in the street turn round and look at her. + +And, more than ever before, Trampy posed as a faithful husband. Nothing +sufficed to take down his arrogance. Always the same old Trampy: great, by +Jove! And, with his red lips, his glittering eye and the cigar stuck in +the corner of his mouth, he made love to second-rate "sisters," inferior +Roofers in red calico skirts. His glamorous title as the bill-topper's +husband still won him a few conquests. And Trampy, especially since +Jimmy's return, plumed himself more and more on the fact that he was the +husband of his dear little wife! + +Lily knew all this and it made her fume with rage at heart; but she showed +nothing, pretended, on the contrary, to treat it as a little matter of no +account. For instance, after her visit to the Bambinis, as she passed an +artistes' bar, quite close, there stood Trampy, lording it on the +pavement, among a lot of unemployed pros. Lily made herself short-sighted +to the point of absolute blindness. Trampy caught her, as she passed, with +a: + +"Hullo, Lily! Hullo, my dear little wife!" + +But Lily behaved like a real fine lady who knows how to put people in +their place without calling them names: + +"Hullo, Mr. Trampy!" she replied, in a sarcastic tone. "Still got your +red-hot stove, Mr. Trampy? Still a success with the girls? Kind regards, +Mr. Trampy!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +But Lily was grandest of all at the rehearsals. She was now no longer a +lady: she once more became the Spartan, bare-necked, her hair undone, her +body streaming with perspiration, and to work, to work, to make up for +lost time! In the mornings, alone on the deserted stage, she practised and +practised.... + +"Come on!" said Jimmy. "And mind you do your work properly," he added, +with a laugh, "or else, you know ..." + +And he patted the back of his hand. + +"I don't care!" said Lily. + +"You may break your head, you know," continued Jimmy, to try her. + +"It's none of your damned business if I do! Show me your tricks. To +work!" + +And Jimmy showed her a movement to execute on her bike, which she had +brought with her: balancings, as in "Bridging the Abyss," an excellent +training for the aerobike. And Lily went about it clear-eyed, +hard-cheeked, with all the little muscles contracted on her stubborn +forehead, ready to butt at the obstacle. A few falls to begin with, but +she jumped up again nimbly: + +"That's all right!" she said. "It's part of the game!" + +"But stop, stop," insisted Jimmy. "Be careful!" + +They were sometimes on the stage for hours at a time, but to Lily, all +wrapped in her work, it seemed so many minutes. She understood the jerk +which she was to give at the moment when, after rolling along the inclined +plane, she should shoot out into space for the soaring flight of fifty +yards: + +"The start, that's the great thing with the back-wheel," she observed. +"The rest goes of itself." + +"Don't cry till you're out of the wood!" said Jimmy. "It'll be different +when you're riding the aerobike." + +Lily was longing to begin that famous practice! And, a few days later, she +at last had that delight, took that further step toward triumph. Jimmy +removed the bird from the cage, fixed it on a stand. When Lily sat in the +saddle, she was crimson with pleasure, prouder than a princess sitting on +a throne for the first time: + +"There," she said. "Here I am! And what next?" + +Jimmy explained the complicated touches--"Press your left foot, there, +like that, to make it point upward"--and showed how, explained why; then +he passed to the working of the handle-bar--"There, like that, to turn it, +there"--and how and why the saddle slipped backward and forward. + +"And then?" + +"That's all." + +"That's all?" repeated Lily. "That won't want any smackings! Let's see, +like this, eh? Then that. Suppose I'm coming down at full speed. I throw +myself backward, a back push, there, like that. A kick, gently, there, +that's it. I'll do it as soon as you like! This minute, if necessary!" + +But Jimmy, without replying to these sallies, proceeded methodically. He +made her practise again, standing still, with the motor going at +half-speed. This was a different impulse: the displacement of the air +raised a stormy wind, the dust flew, the scenery hanging from the flies +waved to and fro and Lily shook in her saddle under the vibration of the +propeller. + +"Well, Lily?" said Jimmy. "That shakes you up, eh? That complicates +matters?" + +"Pooh!" said Lily. "And what about the boards? There are some of them that +are pretty rough, too! At Pittsburg, you know, it's like riding over +cobblestones. I prefer that to a stage that's too smooth: it's less +treacherous." + +A few days later, Jimmy ran up a steel cable from the stage to the opening +in the ceiling, which was now finished and covered with a tarpaulin; and +Lily was to try the flying. At the time for practice, there was no one in +the theater, from which the scaffoldings had been removed. There were no +seats on the floor or in the boxes: everything was being made outside, and +would be put in place in a day or two. In the afternoon, when there was no +practice, the house was filled with workmen, painters, upholsterers, +carpenters, whose places were taken by others at night, working by +electric light. Ten days more and they would have the triumphal opening; +already Paris was covered with picture placards: you saw Tom, as a +caryatid, supporting the weight of a palace; the Three Graces entwined in +their radiant nudity; the impersonator standing, like a Don Juan, +surrounded by a bevy of women: the ballet-girl, the shop-girl, the fine +lady; then, besides those, the New Trickers--"My idea!" thought Lily, but +she didn't care a jot now--the New Trickers fluttered round Daisy. You saw +the elephants; the monkey; Patti-Patty, the white negress; all, all, down +to the Bambinis, whom Lily had "got" engaged. The whole program was +reverberated on the walls and hoardings, like a thousand-voiced echo. An +even larger poster than the others, all blue, strewn with stars, displayed +the aerobike in full flight in the sky; and a human figure, seated upon +it, lifted a hand filled with rays. + +The mere sight of the posters was enough to stimulate Lily to the maddest +feats of daring. She felt herself firmer than steel, when she thought of +the New Trickers and of Pa and Ma, who were coming with Daisy, their +farthing dip! + +When everything was ready, Jimmy hung the aerobike to the steel cable by +two ropes, ten feet long, ending in pulleys which ran along the cable. +Each of these two ropes was looped up and the loop secured with thin +twine: this was an infallible way of ascertaining if the aerobike weighed +down upon them or if it was supporting itself in the air; the two cords +acted as a spring balance registering the tension in the rope. Should the +twine break, because the aerobike rested on the ropes, then the ropes +would unloop and the machine remain hanging without any danger for Lily. +This was the way in which Jimmy had worked when learning "his trade as a +bird," as he called it; and Lily, he had no doubt, would succeed even +better than he did, being more supple, lighter and quite as plucky. + +Oh, the rapture with which Lily bestrode the aerobike for the first +flight! + +Jimmy and two confidential assistants hauled up the machine to the top of +the inclined plane that gave it its impetus. Jimmy spent an endless time +in verifying and testing everything. The electric wire that set the +propeller in motion also caused him uneasiness. It had to unroll behind +and follow the aerobike without weighing upon it, without retarding its +flight; for the machine, which was necessarily a small one, to be able to +move within a confined space, did not carry the additional load of a +motor, but only a wire, as wireless transmission of power was not yet +available. At last, when everything was provided for, Jimmy allowed Lily +to make her trial. He trembled; not that she ran any danger, for a fall +was impossible: the machine was stopped, up above, automatically, by a +cable stretched crosswise and fastened to a strong spring, which slowed +and stayed the flight within the space of a few yards. But if the two +pieces of twine broke suddenly and if this happened several times in +succession, the shocks might come to frighten Lily, for all her +self-control. + +And Jimmy went on explaining. + +"I know," said Lily. "I quite understand. It's like this, like this, yes, +I know. It's only a matter of trying! It's a trick I've got to do and +that's all about it! Daisy would kill herself on it and so would the fat +freaks, but I shan't! I shall succeed." + +"Well, then, steady!" cried Jimmy, and his voice rang through the empty +theater. "Go!" + +The machine ran down with a swoop, the propeller whirred, Lily gave a +magnificent back push, when she reached the bottom of the inclined plane; +then she went straight up and the two pieces of twine snapped in two. Lily +found herself hanging fifty feet in the air, the two pulleys glided slowly +backward toward the stage. Jimmy stopped the machine. + +"That's wrong!" cried Lily. "Let's try again. I see what it was: I forgot +to push down my foot to point the machine up. It was a slip." + +However, at the next attempt, it went better. The twine broke each time, +but Lily rectified her movements: + +"It's my back push! It's the propeller! It's the front-wheel!" + +And, in fact, that was what it was. Jimmy and his assistants, who followed +her with their eyes, had noted the fault and Lily, too, had observed it, +in spite of the giddy flight. She was extraordinarily plucky and cool, her +eight stone of flesh and bone, unerring and exact, seemed made for the +aerobike. + +"Bravo, Lily! Hurrah!" cried Jimmy. + +She could have screamed for joy in the street, as she went out. + +Her unparalleled stroke of luck in being chosen tickled her heart. She +felt her sense of responsibility increase and also her wish to do well; no +sooner had she left off practising than she was seized with but one idea, +to begin again: + +"Eight days more!" she thought. + +At night, she dreamed of backward jerks, of turning the handle-bar, +pushing the pedal. Poor Glass-Eye, cowering in a corner of the bed, had +terrible nightmares, and, in the morning, after Lily's kicks, she rose +with her ribs smarting and her shins all black and blue. That was all her +profit, for Lily had hardly any money left and was not yet drawing a +salary. + +Lily submitted to all sorts of privation with a proud dignity. She would +be beholden to nobody. Soon her whole fortune would consist of her box of +lucky halfpence and a franc which she had won by turning a cartwheel, for +a bet, among artistes, in the country, to stagger the jossers. And so +their little evening meal was a scanty one. A sausage, a little fruit, a +cup of tea ... and then to bed. That was better than listening to the +owner of the Hours and all those men who propose things to you. Never, +never! Her work, her work! Lord, after what she had seen of Poland and the +Hours, it was much simpler to work, to be self-reliant. At night, +sometimes, Lily would lie awake and think ... where did that three hundred +francs of the Bijou come from? Not from the Bijou: Cataplasm's defeat had +swallowed up everything and the theater had long been without a penny; +they used to fill the house with paper distributed among the staff, with +orders to get rid of it anyhow. They were not far short of inviting +soldiers from the barracks. There had never been more than two hundred +seats paid for of an evening; it meant flat bankruptcy. And she was the +only one who had received anything: why? How? Then it must have been some +admirer, but who? Not the architect, surely, that josser! Who then? And +why had Jimmy engaged the Bambinis, when she asked him to? He did +everything to please her. He was letting her top the bill: why? She made a +heap of guesses, without getting at the exact truth ... Jimmy ... Jimmy +... that man, with his coldness, interested her. While so many others were +prowling around her, he alone seemed indifferent. She would have liked to +see him in love with her ... to make him suffer a little in his turn! All +the beauty-shows which Lily had seen, all the exhibitions of painted Hours +had not spoiled her good taste: Jimmy pleased her, with that strong face +of his. What an endless pity that she had married Trampy! She gave a +scornful pout when she thought of it: she married to Trampy! Married to +that soaker: she, a woman made for a man, a creature of flesh and blood, +who admired fine muscles, rough sport and virile smackings! Gee, if she +had been a man, it seemed to her that she would have enjoyed spoiling a +little Lily: outside working hours, of course! And, if a little Lily had +asked her, "Do you love me, yes or no?" she would never have answered no. +To-day, she would have bitten off her own tongue rather than put that +question to Jimmy! And yet Jimmy had a dignity about him that pleased her. +She could see into the game of the others. The architect, for instance, +would give her just a smile in passing, a pleasant word, as one performs a +social duty, between two pieces of business. A little amusement, no more: +that was all she was to him ... and to all of them. Jimmy seemed +different. But, still, if he loved her, why hadn't he the courage to tell +her so? And, besides, when all was said, she was sick and tired of men! +Some of them ran after you like dogs; others, damn it, were icicles! A +girl could have Marjutti's figure, Thea's arms, Nancy's legs, Lillian's or +Laurence's face ... and still they would not be satisfied! And thereupon +Lily pursed her brows, asked herself how and why and went to sleep like a +baby. + +And the rehearsals continued every day, without respite. Lily became +terrible the nearer she drew to success: her indomitable spirit mounted to +her heart. Jimmy had difficulty in holding her in. She made twenty +flights, thirty flights ... and the twine no longer broke. From that +moment, she was sure of succeeding, always. When you have once succeeded, +even if it be but once, you have no right ever to fail again. She had been +brought up in those principles, had had them rubbed into her skin. She +could not fail now, it was impossible! Even in her flight to the opening +up above! She had learned her "times," she knew how to aim exactly at the +right spot. Jimmy hastened to have the roof arranged for the final exit, +when the aerobike would disappear before the eyes of the audience, in the +star-strewn sky. All that remained was to get everything ready for the +final rehearsal: the complete show, with all lights lit, as for a gala +night. Lily seemed to see it all beforehand. On the day when she realized +that no accident was possible, that it was a trick of which she was +certain, she stifled a cry of triumph in her throat. She was afraid to +believe in it herself, so greatly did it surpass her dreams. She would +have stayed for days on the aerobike to experience the delight of the leap +into space. It seemed to her as though she were becoming a bird and about +to hover in mid-air and leave them all behind her, in the crowd below ... +all, all ... and be a little Lily, flying away on the back-wheel before +their noses. + +"You'll make yourself ill," said Jimmy. "Take a rest; there's no need to +tire yourself; you do it as well as I." + +For Jimmy, of course, had done the thing too, if only to show Lily; +besides, it was easy for him, who had had so much practice in London and +who knew his machine from end to end. And he appreciated the difficulty +all the more. He admired Lily's incredible pluck, her all-devouring +ambition and that splendid determination to get out of her scrape, to be a +little Lily earning her bread as she knew how, by her work, even if she +had to break her neck in the doing of it! And proud to her finger-tips, in +spite of the dog's life she had led. + +"If I had not procured her this delight," thought Jimmy, "I should never +have forgiven myself to the end of my days." + +And, from working with her for hours and hours, from holding her by the +waist at the first trials, from feeling that little body quiver under his +hand, from seeing Lily rush at danger, Jimmy became madly in love with her +again ... if he had ever ceased to be so! Ah, if Trampy...! But Lily was +married ... the divorce depended on the husband ... and the husband +wouldn't have it ... at any price: not for a million, he said, by Jove, +would he be separated from a little wife whom he adored! + +"Poor Lily!" thought Jimmy sadly. "Will she always be doomed to drag that +dead weight about with her?" + +During the intervals for rest, while Lily wiped the perspiration from her +forehead, Jimmy talked to her ... at first, of insignificant things ... +the name "Astrarium," for instance ... a place devoted to planets, to +stars: as a palmarium is to palms. Stars ... that was to say, +bill-toppers: the Three Graces; the Laurences; the Lillians; the +Marjuttis; the Lilies ... yes, the Lilies! Then he pitied her for +belonging to Trampy; and what a good little Lily she would have been if +she had remained with her family! + +"But I _am_ a good little Lily!" she said, with a display of childish +vehemence. "What more do you want? We artistes do what we jolly well +please, and we don't care a damn for the rest!" And she had half a mind to +tell him that it was all his fault! "I had to do a silly thing and I did +it," she continued, with an expression of regret on her face. "I married +without love, but lovers, my! I've had, I may say, as many as I wanted ... +from the son of a lord down." + +And Lily, to excite him, told him the long array of her love affairs, as +it was told everywhere, on the Bill and Boom Tour, on the Harrasford, on +the Eastern and Western Tours, like the whippings and the rest. + +"Yes, I know," replied Jimmy, very coldly. + +"What, you don't believe me!" exclaimed Lily. "There were men who would +have left wife and child for me! ... heaps of lovers, tons of them!" + +"My poor Lily, having so many is the same as having none at all," added +Jimmy dreamily. + +But still he did not declare his love: besides, he had constantly to leave +her, to go and give orders, or climb up on the roof, or look at the +heating-apparatus, below. + +Lily watched him go, followed him with a sphinx-like glance, while a vague +smile flickered about her lips.... + +But she hardly had time to think of all this: the assistants replaced the +bird in its cage, locked the door, opened that leading to the +dressing-room passage and the artistes arrived and took up their places on +their carpets. + +Lily had seen it a hundred times, a thousand times, "millions of times!" +She never wearied of it. She spent the day there, among the groups of +bloomers: the Three Graces, bare-armed, went to work, practised the human +cluster; Nunkie kept an eye on his dear nieces and rehearsed the Bambinis, +now that old Martello was keeping his room for good. Lily, who was almost +reduced to eating dry bread, but who remained the fine lady nevertheless, +brought them bags of sweets. Calmed by her work, she sat down in a corner, +laughed, her head thrown back, full-throated, applauded the others with +her thumbnail, shook hands with new-comers, made herself liked by all. And +it was: + +"Hullo, girls! Hullo, boys! Dear old Blackpool! What's the news at the +Palace? Who's topping the bill at the Hippodrome?" + +Lily, on her rickety chair, made as it were a little center at which the +news was exchanged; to think that, instead of being there, at the top of +the profession, she might have been at Glasgow, some twopenny theater, +where ladies are admitted without shoes or stockings, or playing the darky +at Earl's Court! Yes, but for Jimmy, that's where she would have been! Or +else the Parisienne, in Russia! She, an English girl, my! And Lily +fervently touched her lucky charm: oh, work, work, thank goodness for it! +And Lily rendered homage to work and sprang from her chair to shake hands +with Tom, who had come to see his palace unpacked: + +"Good morning, Tom! Welcome!" + +This Tom, who now topped the bill everywhere and had a permanent address +and his own scenery: wasn't it wonderful? He was no longer her Pa's old +servant: genius removes all distances; a man is what he makes himself! And +they shook hands warmly, like equals. + +Lily, as a sensational bill-topper and a friend of Jimmy's, was always in +great request. She talked nicely, without pose of any kind, like a woman +who is sure of herself and knows things. The Astrarium ... the Astrarium +... what did that mean? They asked Lily: + +"It's like ... a palmarium," she explained, "with sunflowers in it, all +sorts of things ... girls ... stars ..." + +She described her journeys, storms, gee! Weren't there, Glass-Eye? People +who had never been outside Europe and the States had no idea! Lily talked +of India, Africa, Australia; talked of lions, which stand on their +hind-legs when they're angry, and tigers, which lie down flat; mentioned +stage friendships between elephants and camels and herself in the midst of +it all: "That high!" lowering her hand to six inches from the floor; +talked of animal-training: dogs, cats, sea-lions and that "great, big, +wicked Australian rabbit" which boxed like a man. She was a well-informed +person, was Lily. And a providence for her family also, to listen to her. +When any one brought news of her Pa and the New Trickers, with Daisy as a +statue on her pedestal, one of the successes of the year: + +"Yes," Lily replied, in a patronizing tone, "I know. It was my idea. I +gave it to them!" + +They thought it very nice of her. She listened with great dignity to what +they said about the New Trickers. They would not be at the Astrarium on +the opening night. They were finishing an engagement on the Bill and Boom +that same evening. They would be in Paris the next day. Mr. Clifton was +reckoning on this appearance for the final triumph of his troupe ... and +he deserved it. What a man, Mr. Clifton, what a man! "Not easy to please, +eh, Lily?" And the inevitable gesture followed. But Lily would have none +of that now, she would not hear her Pa spoken of as a brute! Did they take +her for a performing dog? One was born with the gift or else one remained +all one's life a Daisy or a fat freak! She was proud to have a Pa like +hers. She wasn't a mountebank picked up on the road! Lily had a Pa and a +Ma: a Ma of her own, a Ma whom she was certain about. She bore a +well-known name. She belonged to the "father and son" aristocracy of the +music-hall. She had never needed "that" to make her practice, she an +artiste, brought up like a lady: + +"Wasn't I, Glass-Eye? Tom, wasn't I?" + +And the jewelry and the sweets her Pa bought her, my! Tons of it! Of +course, he would stand no nonsense about behavior; and Lily made them all +laugh till the tears came about that footy rotter who made love to her in +London, before the time when drink made him look so disgusting, and, when +she loitered in the street with him, Pa, the moment she reached the door, +caught her such a blow that she took all the steps to the basement at one +jump; and there found her Ma waiting for her ... gee! + +"And they were quite right, too! And ... do they know that I'm going to +top the bill at the Astrarium?" she asked. + +"No, they think you're in Spain or somewhere." + +"Somewhere!" said Lily to herself, with a thrill at her heart. "I'll show +them!" + +She choked with joy at the idea of the startled look on the faces of Pa +and Ma when they saw her on the aerobike. An exuberant gladness filled her +heart. And that feverish work, those laborers everywhere, the opening in +the roof, the terrace up above, those posters all over Paris and there, +behind the iron door, in the dark, the bird! It was all for her: a theater +for herself! And she felt a need to leap, to laugh, to spread gaiety all +around her; and she rushed about madly with the Bambinis, romped with them +behind the pillars, rolled with them on the floor of her dressing-room, +became once again the Lily who had played truant all around the world, +inventing practical jokes in India and climbing apple-trees in Honolulu. +She crossed the combs and tooth-brushes on the Roofer girls' tables, +rushed into their room when they were undressed, drove the trembling herd +of them distracted, talked of the thousand dangers that awaited them if +they didn't mend their ways, made them fly to their lucky charms to ward +off ill-luck, when she offered them a yellow flower, with great pomp, or +some broken glass in a jewel-box. Then she talked to the Three Graces, +those big girls who always astonished her with their cloistered +existence--Nunkie before everything--and who amused themselves by +measuring one another round the biceps, round the chest, or else, with +their elbows on the table, played at who should first bend back the +other's wrist. Lily sat down for a moment with them, then stopped, +breathless with larking and talking, and went back to her dressing-room: + +"I shall have months to spend in here!" she thought. + +[Illustration: LILY'S GOLLYWOG] + +And, assisted by Glass-Eye, she pinned up bits of stuff, tied a silk bow +to the back of the chair, put up nails for her costumes, laid out on her +table long rows of post-cards, photographs of friends, all dispersed to +the four quarters of the globe, some dead, others done for, all the poor +witnesses of her life. Then she took her black gollywog from her trunk and +kissed it passionately--"Darling! Darling! Darling!"--before hanging it up +on the wall. And along the dressing-room passage and through the window +came the sound of voices ... snatches of homesick tunes: _From Rangoon to +Mandalay_ or _Way down upon the Suwanee River_ ... and "Hullo, Lily! +Hullo, old boy!"... The female-impersonator walked into her room as though +it were his own, sat down on the basket trunk, plunging his green eyes +into hers. + +And sometimes Jimmy passed, always at a run: something had gone wrong +somewhere, the heating apparatus, the electric light.... + +"Hullo, Lily!" And he stopped for a moment, frowned at the sight of the +impersonator. "Always busy?" he asked, seeing Lily, bare-armed, washing +something in her basin. + +"Have to be," said Lily. "I always wash my little blouses; we do +everything ourselves, don't we, Glass-Eye? And, when I'm performing, I +have two pairs of tights to wash a day!" + +"Two pairs of tights!" + +"Why, of course, matinée and night! You have no idea, Jimmy ... the nickel +... when I sit on the handle-bar, it makes a great mark ... just here, +look!" + +And she laughed at Jimmy over her shoulder while she pointed to the place +... and then blushed, like a frolicsome child that has been found out and +is, oh, so sorry! + +"Every one's got to keep to his own dressing-room!" said Jimmy, feeling +very uncomfortable, to the man with the green eyes. "You can't stay here; +it's against the rules!" + +"We're doing no harm, please, Mr. Jimmy," retorted Lily, sitting down +beside the impersonator and slipping her arm round his waist. + +"Poor Jimmy!" said the impersonator, when the other had left the room in a +rage. "He's jealous, isn't he, darling?" + +"He jealous? Then why doesn't he say so? One can't guess a thing like +that! When you're a man, you speak out!" + +And the architect appeared in his turn, he, too, running from one end of +the theater to the other. He wore a bandage over one eye: + +"Knocked up against a beam ... a little accident. Have you seen Jimmy?" + +"He's over there, I think," replied Lily, without troubling to look at +him. + +There was no jealousy about the architect. He stayed for a moment, sniffed +at the scent-bottle, smiled at the photographs on the wall. A green-eyed +impersonator, a blue-eyed impersonator: the room could have been full of +impersonators, for all he cared. Dark girls, yellow girls, fair girls, so +many playthings to distract him from his rules and compasses. He was bored +at once; turned to another at once; and it was all so amusing! He was the +typical lover of the woman of the stage, with his little surface passions. +And very amiable withal, knowing them all, and friendly with them, a great +purveyor of anecdotes: + +"The Para-Paras, you know, Lily, committed suicide in their room ... awful +poverty. The wife wasn't ... Tottie enough ... and the husband was +teaching the English accent to continental clowns! Poland? A magnificent +engagement in Russia. Old Martello hasn't three days to live. Oh ... and +Nunkie! There's news among the Three Graces! The troupe's done for this +time!" + +And he told how, last night, poor Thea, while mending her uncle's +overcoat, found in the lining an old letter from America ... from some +swain she had had over there ... a letter glowing with love and regret. +Yes, Nunkie knew how to hold his nieces, the architect explained, laughing +... watched them like a Spanish duenna, confiscated the letters that came +for them, if necessary, the old rogue, and calmed their ardors with a few +drops of bromide in a glass of water, every evening, on the pretense of +keeping them from catching cold in the drafts. Oh, the old rogue! And Thea +had almost fainted with grief in her dressing-room when she read the +letter. + +"Quite a business, Lily! A scandal in their little home! Very funny, eh?" +he added, as he ogled Lily's pigeon's eggs and rolled a cigarette. + +Lily, who had seen poor Thea cry before and who knew to what extent her +lover's treachery had humiliated her, was secretly furious to hear that +josser talk carelessly of things like that: did he imagine, the idiot, +that they weren't built like other people, in the profession, that they +had no feelings? What need had the public to know about their lives? It +was among themselves, quite among themselves, all that! + +"Get out of my sight, you damned josser!" said Lily. "Go and eat coke!" + +But the other, greatly amused, described his latest discovery, a pearl, in +an out-of-the-way neighborhood ... at Vaugirard fair ... an extraordinary +girl, showing off on a couple of trestles in front of a canvas booth, in +which her man lifted weights to the light of the Argand burners: + +"Picture this girl, Lily," said the enthusiastic josser, "picture this +girl on her trestles, doing weights, balancings, all sorts of things. A +body like a boy's, all muscle, and thin: whew! Not _that_ much fat on her, +no hips, arms and shoulders, like Michael Angelo's flayed model. And I +talked to her afterward! And her man gave me a queer look you know ... I +got a blow...." + +"Well done!" cried Lily, clapping her hands. "The beam, eh? That'll teach +you to meddle in other people's business! Oh, you don't know those +tenters! One of these days you'll be picked up with your face smashed in, +or shot through the chest with a revolver." + +"I say, though," the architect interrupted, "that girl ... I don't know +how we came to speak of you ... she knows you, Lily!" + +"That's right! Now I have mountebanks among my acquaintances!" said Lily, +with an air of disgust. "Get out of this, I say!... You wanted Jimmy; +there he is, look!" + +And Lily, furious, jerked her head toward the passage. + +When Lily went home again she did not even think of what she had just +heard. The death of the Paras; the Graces ... Nunkie, that old rogue!... +She forgot all about it.... She saw only that: the theater, the aerobike, +the theater! Ah! she had it in her blood, in spite of those ugly stories! +Even outside, when, upon Jimmy's advice, she went to take the air in the +parks, under the great blue sky, she regretted the dark stage, the canvas +landscapes of the back-drops; the open-air scenery appeared paltry to her, +beside it. Between her and nature there was always the aerobike! In a few +days ... was it possible? She clenched her little hands over an imaginary +handle-bar, hardened her pigeon's eggs, made pedaling movements, in spite +of herself, on the floor of the tram-car which she very soon took to get +back to the theater again! It was her life, her joy, her suffering, her +good and evil ... it was her field, her very own field, the field which +she had sown with sweat that she might reap fame and glory. + +And, when she returned, she reveled in that smell of hot glue and tar and +scent; oh, it was much nicer than the country! And more interesting, too: +all the little drama that was being enacted among the Graces, for +instance; Nunkie had lost his wonderful reputation, he was surrounded with +less reverence; the story of the confiscated letters was beginning its +round of the world. It was all very well for him to spoil his dear girls, +to double his attentions, to treble the doses of bromide; there was no +doubt about it, the troupe's days were numbered. The boy-violinist and +others were making love to the Three Graces, fresh troupes were being +formed, three more, any number! And they all talked freely, turned their +backs without hesitation upon Nunkie, who was prowling round: + +"Well?" he asked. "What's the mystery?" + +"We were discussing marriage, Nunkie," the Graces answered. + +"That's right, my children," he replied, with a sigh. + +Lily, in all these plots and counter-plots, knew how to remain neuter and +to be very nice to everybody; she had been trained from childhood to keep +her opinions to herself; none of her damned business, all that; something +that might have been foreseen and expected ... like the death of old +Martello, which Jimmy told her of.... Yes, the old man had flickered out +in his bed just like that.... + +But she needed all her composure, indeed, when Jimmy told her that those +dear little Bambinis ... ah, there was bad news for them, the poor loves! + +"What? What?" asked Lily. + +"Well, we are going to lose them; they've been claimed by their brother, +it seems." + +"What!" cried Lily. "Their brother? The ... the Mexican one?" + +"Yes, I think so," said Jimmy. "He's come back from South America. He is +in Paris now ... somewhere in a penny show, in the suburbs ... I don't +know where ... with a girl." + +"With a girl!" thought Lily. + +Everything returned to her in a flash! The girl with the bruised skin ... +that boy's body all muscle ... Ave Maria! Ave Maria! Not dead! She felt +inclined to run up to Trampy, to fly at his throat, to bellow in his face +that Ave Maria was here, just to see the effect! But she restrained +herself. Suppose it were not true? Oh, she would soon know! That footy +rotter, if it were true! O God, grant that it might be true! + +All this passed through her brain in less than a second. + +"Why!" said Jimmy, seeing her turn pale. "Does that affect you so much ... +the loss of your little friends, the Bambinis? For you're going to lose +them...." + +"No, Jimmy!" she replied indignantly. "You shall not give up the Bambinis +to their brother, a cruel, cowardly brute like that, right at the bottom +of the profession. I know ... I've seen.... You shan't do it, Jimmy, and, +look here, I forbid you!" + +"Well, Lily, Lily, I'll do what I can, to please you, you know; I'll try; +I'll see the police; you must give your evidence, if you have anything to +say. Do you know, Lily, you are as good as gold. You're a good little +Lily: hard upon herself and kind to others." + +But he was interrupted ... Jimmy here, Jimmy there ... he was wanted ... +for the flies, for the roof.... Jimmy flew to the stage, bothered on every +side, worried by the Astrarium ... and Lily. Lily! He could not escape her +now, do what he might! He had her in his heart, in his brain, everywhere. +She lived and existed in his breast, shot up there like a flame! Whatever +he had been told about her he no longer knew, did not want to know. And, +besides, even if it had been true, oh, he would have forgiven everything! +He would have passed over everything! He would have plunged into the abyss +to get Lily out of it, whatever she had done; yes! In spite of everything! +in spite of everybody! In spite of Trampy, husband or not! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +To-morrow was to be the great day, the opening of the Astrarium, the first +night; and Jimmy, more bustled than ever, forgot Lily ... almost ... on +that evening, especially, the evening of the dress-rehearsal: not an +ordinary rehearsal, with the band-parts handed to the conductor across the +footlights--"A march here, please, a waltz there. 'K you"--no, the whole +show, with orchestra and all complete; the stage flooded with light; each +turn in its own setting: corridor, wood, room, palace. Jimmy multiplied +himself in the final fever. The theater, arranged according to his ideas, +was still encumbered with ladders and scaffoldings; but gangs of laborers +were hard at work on every side. The obstructions all disappeared like +magic, were juggled away. Jimmy had made sure that the roof was ready; he +had run from the landing-point, out of sight of the audience, through the +door contrived in the wall of the stage, crossed the fly-galleries, come +down by the pulley-rope; the whole thing, from roof to stage, had taken +him, watch in hand, thirty seconds. And Lily had done it also. It formed +part of the turn, a sensational addition to the aerobike. All would be +ready, all would go well, provided that Lily was not nervous that evening +... and to-morrow especially! Those confounded crazy little girls! Crazy +every one of them: Laurence herself, the bravest of the lot, had just had +an awful fall, at Boston, in her excitement at losing her lucky charm. It +was the event in the profession, the accident of the day. Lily might be +frightened by it. Now it was essential that she should succeed and succeed +at the first attempt. His fortune and hers, his future, the success of the +Astrarium depended on it. And Jimmy, obsessed by his labors, had hardly +time to think of Trampy, in the formidable effort of the eleventh hour. +And yet, sometimes, he felt a pain at his heart. That adorable Lily! Would +he succeed in making her love him? And now there was that impersonator! +Oh, to work, to work! And he went at it, hammer and tongs, to make sure of +the aerobike's success. To make them talk of him ... to achieve fame ... +which was as sweet as love! And he was wanted from one end of the theater +to the other. Oh, he might well look upon the Astrarium as his creation! +Already, a few days before, rumors of a strike were current. The managers +were boycotted by the artistes, in England.... Jimmy feared lest the +Astrarium should feel the consequences, under the pressure of the +Performers' Association, but he had arranged everything, seen each artiste +separately, explained his plans: gala matinées, creation of an asylum, a +home of rest ... a glory to help in such a task ... who could tell but +that they were working for themselves by adding their stone to the +edifice? He quoted the Para-Paras and their wretched end; old Martello, +dead without leaving a penny; the Bambinis, homeless; Ave Maria, +unprotected. The men listened, with serious faces. As for the girls, his +words came straight from the heart. Those decent girls, who earned their +living as they knew how and the living of others besides, they understood +him at once; and Lily no longer laughed; on the contrary: + +"Me? Whatever you like! For nothing, if you like; rely on me, Jimmy!" + +And now the hour had come; they were to appear under the critical eye of +Harrasford. The acting-manager had arrived from England that same day with +the stage-manager, who was "behind." It made a strange impression, that +huge red-and-gold house, glittering with light and sounding curiously +empty to the thunder of the band. Everybody was at his post: the tall +flunkeys stood motionless at the entrance-doors, in the promenades, as if +the audience had been there, whereas there was practically nobody except +Harrasford and the manager. And on the stage, which had been cleared of +every superfluous piece of property, splendid order reigned: the +scene-shifters, up above, had their hands on the windlasses; the two +electricians, on their perches, turned the lime-light where it was to +fall; the drops rose and fell without a hitch; the scenes slipped into +their places, shifted, in the English fashion, by one man. For each turn +on the stage, the next was ready to come on, no more; all the rest were in +the dressing-rooms. But there, behind the iron curtain, one could picture +staircases crowded with people running up and down, passages full of +light, a flurried ant-hill, and feel that a ring of bells would be enough +to bring tumbling on to the stage a whole glittering, grotesque or radiant +world of people, from the monkey-faced comedian to Lily, in her pink +tights, an image of Venus. There was electricity in the air of that empty +house, in which all felt the presence of the powerful master, harder to +please than a crowd! And rays of light ran along the stage, the back-drop +seemed a cloud ready to split in the crash of the thunder, under the storm +of the raging brasses. On the stage, the turns defiled in their order, +under the shimmering lights: the Bambinis, brother and sister, supple +grace and strength combined, filled the huge space with the free play of +their rosy bodies and the brightness of their genuine gaiety. The Three +Graces formed the human cluster, a hanging group of faces, figures, +shoulders and glorious lines. The program poured out laughter, harmony, +beauty, till, against the blue forest, came the scarlet step-dances of the +Roofers. And then silence: the feature of the evening, the aerobike! There +was a moment's anxiety. A net was stretched above the stalls, from the +footlights to the opening in the roof. For the audience, at any rate, all +danger was removed, even in case of a fall. Then the glass dome above +opened, and the curtain rose on the Elysian glimmer of a scene studded +with stars; and everything was empty, stage and auditorium. The distance +seemed immense: "miles and miles!" The machine was to start out suddenly, +rush through space, disappear up above, like a meteor that shoots out from +infinity and returns to it. + +A few seconds passed, during which Jimmy gave Lily her last instructions: + +"You're not afraid, Lily? Would you like me to do it?" + +Afraid! She turned her calm face to him. Oh, she could have accomplished +impossible and cruel things, braved torture, walked on burning coals! She +felt herself made of supple steel, unerring and exact: + +"Up, quick, quick! Ready, Jimmy?" + +"Ready!" + +"Then ... GO!" + +The aerobike flashed like an arrow from the bow, raised itself with a +magnificent jerk; the propeller hummed like a thunder-bolt, the wings +rustled in flight, pointed toward the opening, went up ... up ... up ... +disappeared in the star-strewn sky.... It was done! The band struck up the +triumphal march, Harrasford, the manager, the few who were present all +burst into cheers; and, suddenly, over the house plunged in darkness, from +the back of the stage, came a burst of light. Lily, after running over the +roof and sliding down the pulley, was descending against the blue +back-drop, bringing with her the star! First, one saw the light breaking, +then swelling and increasing in brilliancy, and Lily appeared, a starry +Eve, holding, in her upraised hand, a dazzling luminary, a crystal globe, +which an invisible wire from behind filled with an intensity of light. And +powerful rays shot to every side, end-of-the-world coruscations, above the +crater of the orchestra. + +"Splendid!" cried Harrasford. "That dishes the waterspouts at the +Hippodrome, the avalanches, everything!" And, as Jimmy came up, "Good boy, +Jimmy!" he said, catching him a great smack on the shoulder by way of a +compliment. "And your girl ... your ... Maggy ... your ... what's her +name? Lily ... glorious! Very good indeed! Couldn't be better! Capital +idea!" + +He gave a quick glance at his watch, a few words to Jimmy, to the manager, +over his shoulder, on the wing: + +"All the boxes booked three weeks ahead? All the stalls? That's right! +Good-by, good luck!" + +Already his broad back was disappearing through the door; had to catch the +midnight train for Cologne; presence indispensable. + +"Telephone to-morrow; let me know how things go. Ta-ta!" + +And Harrasford was far away. + +And Lily? Lily was in her dressing-room, stupefied with delight. How soon +it was done! How simple it was! Jimmy, after all, with his scrawls and his +scribbles, with his brain-work: what a discovery he had made! She would +have liked it to last for ever, the flight on the aerobike; she still +seemed to be rushing up to the stars, to feel the coolness of the night on +her face. How funny it was, going up, up, up and out through that hole. +She was still laughing at it, with little convulsive movements of the +shoulders, and stammering out things. + +When she was dressed, she received Jimmy's congratulations and +everybody's. They gave her a bouquet: + +"To our little favorite!" + +She answered, without knowing what she said; went home. Everything seemed +to be turning round and round. She ate a few mouthfuls, washed down with a +glass of milk; and then, suddenly, made a rush for Glass-Eye! A pillow +fight followed: + +"Here, take that! Take that! And that! And that!" + +Ten minutes of an epic struggle, on the bed thrown into confusion and +disorder, as after a murder; huge slaps on the firm, rounded forms; virile +smackings; and Glass-Eye, breathlessly, had to own herself beaten, to beg +for mercy. + +"That'll teach them!" cried Lily, falling on the bed, panting, drunk with +joy, drunk with joy! Trampy, Mexico, Ma's insults, the jealousies, the +grudges, Daisy, the fat freaks: pooh, none of that existed for her! +Nothing remained but herself, drunk with an immense joy! She was almost +delirious, in the excess of her great happiness: + +"I'll smash up their damned troupes, do you hear, Glass-Eye? There! Like +that!" And she tried to renew the fight, but her strength failed her. +"Dished and done for, their damned troupes!" + +And she laughed, she burst with laughing, when she thought of their +eighteen feet of stage: + +"Stages as big as my hand, Glass-Eye, is what they've got to turn in!" + +Whereas, she went straight up in the air, up to the stars, miles high, up +above everything! Bang! A smack for Glass-Eye, who was just taking off her +skirt! + +"And I say, Glass-Eye! Ma, who said that I ... you know what she said! But +wait till they see me in my grand dresses! I'll order them to-morrow; and +my hats too. And I'll invite Pa and Ma to the hotel! And we'll drink +champagne and I'll have fifty francs' worth of flowers on the table, just +to show them! 'Our Lily,' that's what I'm going to be, 'our own Lily,' +damn it!" + +Lily, when she was in bed, turned things over and over in her brain. Yes, +her Pa was quite right. It was for her good, for her own good! Big +salaries, which would all belong to her! And no more performing-dog +toques, but big hats and feathers and motor-cars and furs, but no goggles! +No, she must find something that wouldn't hide her face, so that people +would recognize her and say: + +"That's Lily!" + +And the road behind her motor would be strewn with the bodies of pros who +had died of jealousy! + +And she would consult Pa and Ma on the color of her liveries, on her +crest: a wheel, with wings to it! And Lily dropped off into a sleep +interrupted by awful nightmares, in which Ma was dead--poor Ma!--before +witnessing her triumph--and in which elephants trumpeted in her honor and +sea-lions applauded her with their finny fore-paws, all along a queer sort +of Tottenham Court Road, paved with fat freaks, at the end of which a +Horse Shoe, as big as the Marble Arch, opened out upon the stars. + +Poor Glass-Eye, on her side, had the most outlandish dreams. Her brain was +turned from living in the midst of all that. She dreamed that she was +flying, too; that she was Lily in her turn; that she was soaring over +Whitechapel; but, from time to time, a nervous kick from Lily recalled her +to the realities of life. + + * * * * * + +"Glass-Eye! There's a knock at the door, I think. Or else I'm dreaming. +What's the time? Ten o'clock. Get up, Glass-Eye! If it's the landlady, +tell her I'll pay her next week!" + +But Glass-Eye, who had gone to the door, shut it suddenly and came back to +Lily, looking quite startled: + +"Miss Lily, there's some one, all in black, on the stairs; a ghost!" + +"If you're trying to frighten me," cried Lily, jumping out of bed, "I'll +knock your other eye out! Take care!" + +She was choking with excitement. Lily was afraid of nothing. But those +confounded ghosts: poor Ma, perhaps! And she quickly separated two fingers +wide behind her back, so as to be on the safe side and ward off ill-luck: + +"Come with me, Glass-Eye; you go first!" + +And Lily, in her night-dress, half-opened the door, looked out. + +A thin woman, all in black, stood motionless. It was not Ma. Lily breathed +more freely: + +"What do you want?" she asked. + +"I want to speak to Miss Lily," said the woman in black. "I went to the +theater and they gave me your address. I came.... I suppose you don't +remember me, it's so long ago. Ave Maria, on the wire in Mexico?" + +"Ave Maria! Come in," said Lily. + +Ave Maria, whom she had sought for so long. She would know at last! Oh, if +it were true! God grant that it might be true! Lily, hardly recovered from +her fright, quivered at the thought. And she devoured Ave Maria with her +eyes. She recognized her, now that she knew: it was she indeed, but grown +old before her time, looking wretched, thin, hollow-eyed, a face all skin +and bone. And the two stood contemplating each other in silence. + +"How pretty you've grown!" whispered Ave Maria timidly. "No one would take +you for a professional." + +But a sudden fit of coughing brought scarlet patches to her pale cheeks. + +"It catches me here," she said, pressing her hand to her chest. "It's +damp, sometimes, in the tent. And then half-naked on those trestles. The +work warms one, it's true. The other night I saw some one who knew you, a +gentleman. I should have liked to ask him more, but my brother struck him +in the face. I got my turn after. However, I wanted to see you. I went to +the Astrarium. I asked them." + +"Go on," said Lily, who was burning to know, but did not want to show it. +"Glass-Eye, give me my dressing-gown. Go on, please!" + +"I don't know that I dare," said Ave Maria, "now that I have seen you. You +are so much better-looking than I am. Are you still living with him?" she +asked, in a low voice, fixing two fiery eyes on Lily. + +"No," said Lily, "I am living with nobody!" + +"But they told me. I heard at Buenos Ayres ... the story of the whippings, +your running away with him...." + +"What whippings? And I'm living with nobody!" retorted Lily, very +haughtily. + +"But you have lived with him ... in Germany ... Trampy, you know." + +"No," said Lily, "I was married, wasn't I, Glass-Eye?" + +"But _I'm_ married to him!" Ave Maria broke in, more aggressively than +before. + +"Oh, if it were true!" thought Lily. "Oh, if it were true!" + +She dared not believe it, it would have been too beautiful, beautiful +beyond dreams. And, with her nerves stretching to breaking-point: + +"Prove it!" she said coldly, to Ave Maria. + +"Yes, I have my proofs," replied Ave Maria, shaken with a furious cough. +"And I'll show them! Trampy belongs to me, not to you! He's in Paris, they +tell me.... And I mean to have him, do you hear? I've suffered enough and +to spare. I've done everything since he left me. Look here, at Caracas +people used to offer me twopence to let them black my eye, sometimes, when +my brother was locked up at the police-station. And there were the +one-horse circuses where we slept in a heap on the straw, in Chili or some +such country. And, sometimes, I lost my balance on the wire, because of my +cough. And my brother: you know him! And the cattle-men, when they're +drunk! One of them stabbed me here, with a knife, there, here, in the +breast; they had to cut it off--the breast--later, at Montevideo, because +of the gangrene. Yes, he stabbed me with a knife, because I wouldn't say, +'I love you,' to him! Fancy my saying, 'I love you,' to any one but +Trampy! Never! I would have let them jump on my chest with their hobnailed +boots first! And, now that Trampy's here, I want him! He belongs to me and +I mean to have him." + +"Well, take him, if he belongs to you!" said Lily. "I don't care a hang +for your Trampy; I've turned him out long ago!" + +"So ... it's true? If he's no longer with you, I can have him again. I +shall have him! I'll have my brother locked up, if necessary, to be free! +I have only to say a word, not because of the story of that nose which he +bit off at Rio: no, the other day, at Vaugirard, he used the knife. I'll +tell everything, to have my Trampy back." + +And her rough voice became gentle now, in her Anglo-Italian jargon, with a +dash of Spanish in it; everything became clear, everything yielded before +the violence of that fierce love. Lily was astounded to hear it: + +"That's what I call love!" she thought. "I had no idea, my! And all for +Trampy! It's worse than in the novels." + +And she was touched, in spite of herself, and, when Ave Maria cried, "Oh, +how happy you must be, if he loves you!" Lily dared not protest that she +didn't care a hang for that soaker, for fear of hurting the poor martyr. +She replied, on the contrary, that Trampy was very nice, but that he was +hers no longer, that he belonged to Ave Maria, since Ave Maria had the +proofs ... _if_ she had the proofs. + +"I have them here, Miss Lily, my marriage-lines. I was able to get them, +after he went. I had the certificate witnessed. My brother, when he came +to fetch me, never knew about it. I sewed it into the lining of a +portmanteau; no chance of losing it: here it is." + +And she produced a yellow document from her bodice and laid it on the +table. + +Lily seized upon it ... read it at a glance ... it was quite regular! Oh, +the footy rotter! Two wives! To say nothing of his thirty-six girls! And +what a fine trick she would play him! At last, she was about to get rid of +her festering sore! She could not breathe for happiness. And, as Ave Maria +was watching her movements, lest she should keep the paper, Lily handed it +back to her, certain that it was in good hands, that it would not be +lost. + +Then and there an idea came to her. Trampy would be at the theater that +afternoon with Tom, who, knowing little about all these stories, +interested only in the condition of those biceps of his, had taken Trampy +as his assistant and had told Lily so. And Lily had said nothing, +reserving to herself the right to have him turned off the stage by Jimmy, +with a smack in the eye, before everybody: the footy rotter, coming there +to defy her! Well, there would be no smack in the eye; she would simply +hand him over to Ave Maria, as one flings a lump of carrion to a tigress! + +"Wait a bit, you faithful husband!" she growled. "You'll see, presently!" + +And, first of all, when Ave Maria rose to go, Lily forbade her to do +anything of the kind, for fear that the brother, who must be out looking +for her, might drag her back to the booth at the fair and then take the +first train to some other place, after getting hold of the Bambinis. And +Lily meant none of all this to take place; she would rather go to the +police and have the brute arrested! + +"Stay here, Ave Maria," she said. "I'll give you back your Trampy this +afternoon." + +Oh, if she had been alone, how she would have flown at Glass-Eye, to work +off her superabundant joy! It would have been a merciless fight, with +slaps in the Mexican style! But a lady receiving her friends must set a +good example. She contented herself with hustling Glass-Eye by word and +gesture: + +"My new dress! My big hat!" + +Ave Maria, quite taken up with the excitement of seeing Trampy again, of +having him back again, left herself in Lily's hands. She felt as if she +were looking at a princess, when Lily made Glass-Eye spin round the room. +She could not even help smiling when she saw Glass-Eye catch her foot in +the dresses spread out on the floor, so much so that Lily asked her +angrily if she meant to go on hopping about like that for ever, if she +really wanted to have a candle lit in her glass eye to make her see that +bodice, there, right in front of her nose, damn it! And Glass-Eye's +fright, when she heard that ... though Glass-Eye was never surprised at +anything that Lily said or did! + +Going to the Astrarium, Lily, followed by Glass-Eye, walked along the +street with her cheeky feather waving like a flag in battle. Ave Maria, by +her side, kept close to the wall, with frightened glances to right and +left; Lily did not call her attention to the Astrarium posters for fear of +humiliating her: she would have had to explain that she was topping the +bill and poor Ave Maria, who was starring at the fair, would never have +understood. A professional abyss separated the two of them. Lily saw this +and had too kind a heart to let the other feel it. What a difference +between them! Merely in the way in which Lily entered the theater and +smiled to the stage-doorkeeper! Ave Maria followed very timidly, like a +beggar-woman stealing into a palace. She felt out of her element in those +big theaters, where she had not appeared for ever so long, having come +down to the level of one-horse circuses, patched canvas tents, acrobatic +performances in the open air, on the slack-wire stretched from tree to +tree. Lily looked a princess beside her, really. Ave Maria was even +surprised to see her address a gentleman who was there: it was the +architect, with a bandage over his eye. Ave Maria recognized him; and he, +rendered prudent by the blow which he had received from "her man," stepped +back instinctively at the sight of her. But Lily caught him by the lapel +of his coat: + +"You've been fooling me ... with your measurements," she said, "and there +are certain things that jossers oughtn't to meddle with; and it serves you +right, that black eye of yours; but I forgive you, because of the immense +service you're doing me ... without knowing it ... you lover of +second-rate goods!" she muttered, as she watched him slink off, taking her +forgiveness with him. + +The stage was almost empty. Tom had come, not Trampy; so much the better, +there would be all the more there presently, for the great scene! + +"Wait for me a minute," she said to Ave Maria. "Sit down over there, in +the corner." + +And Lily went up to her dressing-room; she wanted to look her best, to +bedizen herself ... a little red on her lips, a little blue on her eyelids +... to make Trampy regret the more what he was going to lose. And, when +she was ready, Jimmy passed and, icicle though he was, could not help +paying her a compliment on her good looks. He appeared quite +disconcerted: + +"Just imagine, Lily. What do you think happened to me, in the +impersonator's dressing-room? I had something to say to him ... I walk in +... see the impersonator half undressed ... and it's a woman, Lily, a +magnificent woman! You never told me, you kiddie!" + +"Hush!" said Lily. "Don't give her away; it's a secret, it's her living, +Jimmy." + +"Don't be afraid, Lily, I won't prevent any one from earning her living, +as long as she does all right on the stage. But I don't know where I am +now. That woman who came in with you, for instance," continued Jimmy +jestingly, "she looks just like a man; there's no knowing; nothing would +surprise me after that!" + +"She's a woman, Jimmy, a married woman! You'll see presently. We'll have a +good laugh; mind you're there! I want everybody to be there! It's a +surprise, Jimmy!" + +What a kiddie she was, thought Jimmy, as he went down the stairs. The +architect, the impersonator: the two scandals of her life. That +impersonator whom she kissed in front of him, a story that had gone round +the world, Lily's love affairs, one more ready to leave wife and children +for her sake: the exaggeration of the stage, always; professional +boasting. Like the story of the whippings, like those girls whom she had +described to him, and herself, with all over her skin--"Here, here, damn +it!"--wounds that you could put your finger into. Or like those who were +said to be done for, or burned alive, or drowned in shipwrecks, with waves +miles high, all for the honor of the profession; when, perhaps, it was +simply as good a way as another of retiring from the stage, to get +married, with a flourish of trumpets! It wasn't true, all that, or their +parade of vice either, all humbug, from end to end, their amorous +conquests, their orgies, their escapades, like their ostrich-feathers, +that long, or their sham diamonds, that big, and bouquets large enough to +fill a cab. But they were decent-hearted girls, all the same: that Lily, +what a kiddie, thought Jimmy, feeling quite comforted, quite glad on her +account. + +And just then, as luck would have it, he met Tom, to whom Glass-Eye had +brought Miss Lily's album, with a request for his autograph. Tom, whose +formidable muscles were hardly capable of wielding a pen, especially to +write "thoughts," was holding the album with a sheepish look, turning it +round and round: + +"I say," he said, as Jimmy passed, "write something; for me!" + +"All right!" said Jimmy. + +And he lightly turned the pages of the album, the famous album, said to be +crammed with passionate declarations. Not a bit of it! Nothing but foolery +and childish nonsense: + + "May joy and pleasure be your lot + . . . trot, trot, trot!" + + "... Regard me as a link. + Loving Pal." + +"_Un afetuoso saludo y un augurio de feliz viaje le desea Pedro y +Paolo_." + + "Hoping we shall meet again, if not here, there. + + "Joe Brooks." + +"_Puedo decir que nunca he visto yoo ... tan cuida y bella_...." + +There was page upon page, in this style, with, here and there, a rough +sketch: a heart pierced by an arrow, signed, "Castaigne;" a dried +shamrock: "Blarney Castle;" a bit of seaweed: "Dundee." Jimmy smiled to +himself and especially at what he heard beside him, where Glass-Eye, while +gazing wide-eyed at Tom's immense arms, was telling him all her troubles: +quite mad, Miss Lily, ought to be locked up! And _she_ ought to know: +never left her side since she began traveling by herself, day or night. + +"You're a lucky one, you are!" Tom broke in. + +"I should like to see you try it, just!" Glass-Eye retorted. "And meantime +I get more smacks than halfpence. Oh, I know she'll pay me all in a lump, +when she gets it! She's very generous, really. And her Pa and Ma ... yes +... do you know what she means to do? She's not angry with them any +longer. She's going to stuff them with turkey and pudding at the hotel and +stand them fifty francs' worth of flowers. She's forgiven them!" + +"That's more than I have!" replied Tom. "Her Pa will know what I am made +of to-morrow, the brute! He'll have one on the mug, for boxing my ears and +kicking me out ... you know ... because of the letters from Trampy." + +"If you do that, Tom, you'll have Miss Lily to reckon with! What! You're +laughing!" cried Glass-Eye angrily. "You don't know how it hurts ... on +one's bones! And those pillow-fights: I've had my nose smashed in one of +them before now! Nothing surprises me that Miss Lily says or does. Why, +this very morning, she wanted to put a lighted candle in my glass eye!" + +"Eh, what? A light in your eye?" exclaimed Tom suddenly. "I wonder if one +really could ... I say, Jimmy, could one?" + +"Yes," said Jimmy, greatly amused, "with an invisible wire under the +dress...." + +"Hurrah!" cried Tom. "Would you like two shillings a day, Glass-Eye? And +your food and clothes? You shall travel with me; you shall appear on the +stage. Come along to the café, we'll sign the engagement!" + +"But what will Miss Lily say?" objected Glass-Eye, trembling at the idea +of announcing her departure to her terrible mistress. + +"Well," said Tom, "I'll be nice to her Pa, if she's nice to you. Come +along!" + +"But I don't know how to sign my name." + +"You can make your mark, before two witnesses. Come along!" + +Glass-Eye, dazzled and beglamored, followed Tom. She, an artiste! On the +stage! At last! Going round the world with Tom ... living with him ... +married ... almost! + +"That's come in the nick of time!" said Jimmy, as he watched her go off +the stage. "Lily, perhaps ... in her new position ... will want a real +maid, not a Glass-Eye! Lily ... why, she's perfection! To think of the +abysses she has walked along without falling! There's more merit than one +thinks in that kind of life. And how I should like to get hold of the +people who talk ill of her. And that ... that ... oh, that one!" + +And Jimmy clenched his fists, at the thought of Trampy, and his heart +burst forth: all his patient, brave, manly heart, now well nigh +exhausted. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Poor Ave Maria, indifferent to what was going on before her, was still +waiting on the stage. For that matter, it was but a few minutes since Lily +brought her there. Ave Maria felt inclined to go and meet Trampy on the +pavement, to throw her arms round his neck as soon as he appeared. But +Lily had earnestly recommended her not to move, whatever happened. So she +remained in her corner and, under the pale light, with her back to the +forest scene, in the shadow, Ave Maria looked like a lurking she-wolf, +ready to leap out at any moment. + +[Illustration: AVE MARIA] + +As for Lily, she tripped down the stairs to the stage, for a few seconds +contemplated all those bill-toppers at her feet, so to speak; but she took +the last stairs at a bound: Trampy had just entered! Ave Maria, in her +corner, behind the pillars and the confused heap of scenery, could not see +him. Lily preferred that. She would manage everything her own way and get +rid of him once and for all ... get rid of that footy rotter who had come +there to jeer at her. He stepped along, with his hat on one side and a +dead cigar between his teeth. Trampy, broken, diseased, done for, was +jubilant for all that; turned his broad smile from girl to girl, winked +his eye gaily at the Roofers, who drew back in disgust, and, with +outstretched hand: + +"How d'you do, Lily? How's my dear little wife?" + +He enjoyed the humiliation which he was inflicting upon her, would have +liked his clothes to be still shabbier, his shoes more down at heel, so +that he might thoroughly disgrace his dear little wife--that great +bill-topper, who was leaving the pink of husbands in such a state of +destitution. And he threw out his chest, increased his familiarities, and +even pretended to kiss her, pushed his blotched and pimpled mug close to +that charming face. Jimmy gave a bound: Trampy! On the stage! Lily's +tormentor! Jimmy, pale with fury, walked up to him, stiff-armed, ready to +break the jaw of that thief in the night and chuck him into the street, +without more words! But Lily stopped him with a quick gesture: + +"Why, Jimmy," she said, "would you keep a man from earning his living? Do +you find fault with a husband for loving his little wife? I am your little +wife, am I not?" she continued, tantalizing Trampy with her peach-like +cheek, tickling his nose with her fair curls. "Don't you deserve a dear +little wife?" + +"Why, of course I do!" Trampy agreed, surprised, all the same, at this +loving reception from his dear little wife. + +"There!" cried Lily, unable to restrain herself any longer and giving him +a box on the ears. "That'll teach you to call me your little wife, you +damned tramp cyclist! I've never been your little wife. I'll show you your +little wife, the real one. Come along, Ave Maria! Here's Trampy!" + +"Eh, what?" said Trampy, turning color. "Ave Maria? I don't know any Ave +Maria." + +But already Ave Maria was upon him, pressing him in her arms: her Trampy! +And her cough brought pink-red patches to her hectic cheeks. + +"What's this mean? I don't know you," he stammered, gazing horror-stricken +at this old, lean woman, who was taking possession of him before +everybody, taking possession of him who cared only for plump little +things, sultan that he was. "I don't know her, I don't know her!" + +"Here!" cried Lily, snatching the paper from Ave Maria's bodice. "Do you +know that? Can you read? Now will you deny that she's your wife ... your +wife ... your wife?" she repeated, rejoicing in being able to hurl the +word to Trampy, who turned pale with fright. + +"We'll try and arrange it," whispered Jimmy, still hardly recovered from +his surprise. "A divorce in Lily's favor first! She'll dictate your answer +for you; you've only got to say yes to everything. And then you can be off +somewhere; to West Australia. I'll pay your expenses. And don't you ever +dare to show your face again! Never! Do you understand?" + +"And that'll teach you to make little of people!" cried Lily. "Let's drink +to the health of Trampy, the faithful husband! I'll stand champagne all +round to the health of good old Trampy and his dear little wife!" + +But, without waiting for the champagne, already Ave Maria was dragging +Trampy to the door and the Roofer girls gave him a triumphal exit. They +sent him to Halifax, they sent him to Coventry. They flourished things at +his head, amid an uproar of jolly hootings, and took aim at him--"Ping! +Ping!"--and pinched him, as the Merry Wives did Falstaff in Windsor +Forest. And they slipped off their shoes in honor of his wedding, by Jove! +And Trampy fled under a shower of boots and slippers, fled like mad, as +though the devil were after him. + +Jimmy did not know if he was on his head or his heels for joy: + +"I'll stand the champagne!" he said. "To Miss Lily's health!" + +So much had happened in those few minutes: Lily free again ... and no +scandal ... the divorce assured ... Trampy admitting his misdeeds, +inventing them, if necessary, confessing anything they asked him to, as +long as they did not mention bigamy.... Jimmy, had it been possible, would +have offered a general picnic to the whole company. He, usually so calm, +felt inclined to sing, to laugh. Never would he have dared to hope.... And +it had all come so simply, like the things that are bound to happen. Lily +was free! + +"Bring the bottles up here," he said to the call-boy, "and biscuits and +cakes. We'll drink it here! We'll christen the stage, as if we were +launching a ship ... in champagne, here, by ourselves! among ourselves! +Here's to the stage-manager! Here's to all of us!" + +Lily, happy as happy could be, shook everybody by the hand, distributed a +"'K you" here and a "'K you" there. She would have liked to have Glass-Eye +by her side, to keep her in countenance, open her bag, give her her +handkerchief ... liked to be a little lady who can't do without her maid +... but, damn it, where was Glass-Eye? And Lily clenched her fist when she +saw her return with cakes in her hands, escorted by Tom, who helped to +carry the champagne. + +"Where have you been, Glass-Eye?" asked Lily severely. "What have you been +doing with Tom? Give me my handkerchief, Glass-Eye." + +"Here's your bag, Miss Lily," said Glass-Eye excitedly. "I'm going to +leave you, Miss Lily." + +"What for?" said Lily, feeling vexed. "Because I owe you a few little +things?" + +"Oh, no, not that! I'm going to be a star, too; on my hands: Demon Maud, +the lady with the flaming eye; a candle in my glass eye ... before two +witnesses ... I made my mark at the bottom." + +"She's drunk!" cried Lily, utterly dumfounded. "Or else she's going mad. +Jimmy! Tom! Glass-Eye's going mad!" + +But, when Tom had explained, Lily approved. Glass-Eye wasn't stupid, +really; very intelligent, though you'd never think it. Glad to see her +engaged.... And she shook her by the hand, like an old friend and comrade, +glad to hear of the success of others ... among artistes.... + +And, suddenly, with head thrown back, full-throated, her feather nodding +hysterically on her head, Lily laughed ... laughed ... laughed! + +Maud an artiste! On her hands! A candle in her eye! One fat freak the more +on the stage! Gee, they must drink to Glass-Eye's health: Glass-Eye, the +bill-topper! + +They were all laughing now, filling their glasses at a table in the middle +of the stage, eating cakes, amusing themselves with the corks, which went +pop, like toy guns, and applauding with their thumb-nails. To the +Astrarium! And long live jollity! That night, they would one and all risk +their skins. They were like soldiers drinking to their sweethearts, in the +trenches, before the battle. And everything promised well; already a +legend was forming among the painted faces: the booking office besieged; +ladies and gentlemen in motors; motors in a row, miles and miles of +motors; the street bursting with people who had come to book seats! And +champagne on the stage, cakes, my, for the asking! An orgy which would +start its trip around the world to-morrow, with those few bottles +transformed into a Niagara of champagne, enough to flood every greenroom +from the Klondike to Calcutta! + +They all enjoyed themselves and let themselves go. And the Roofers, who +worshiped Lily, in spite of her abominable tricks, raised their glasses to +her health, crowded round her, smiled merrily at her with their white +teeth, congratulated her for sending that footy rotter packing: + +"Here's to Miss Lily! And a round on the thumbnail in honor of Miss +Lily!" + +This christening of the Astrarium was turning into a triumph for her; and +there was the evening to come ... the evening! It made her forget Trampy, +Jimmy, Glass-Eye, everybody. And ... the next day ... her Pa, her Ma, the +New Trickers would be at her feet! Oh, she would give ten years of her +life if to-morrow could be there now! + +And the evening came. Lily did not leave the theater. She walked nervously +from her dressing-room to the stage, inspected the final operations, +interested herself in everything, stopped the boy-violinist, who was +crossing the stage with the other members of the band, congratulated him +on his approaching marriage with one of the Graces. She talked to the +artistes going up to their dressing-rooms, bestowed a smile upon Jimmy, +another on the stage-manager, joked with the limelight-men working their +apparatus on either side of the stage. The footlights lit up with a row of +flames, the storm approached. There was a ringing of electric +bells--"Ting! Ting! Ting!"--as in the machine-room of a ship before the +tempest; the orchestra roared; and, as though at a thunder-clap, the +velvet curtain split asunder: Patti-Patty was revealed on the stage, while +the band played as if possessed. Lily, in the shadow of the wings, put her +hand to her heart; her veins were ablaze. And that audience, at which she +peeped through a crack in the scenery; that audience was hers, with its +rustling silks, its bare shoulders, its diamonds, its flowers! She would +have liked to step forward, to say: + +"Here I am!" + +She felt herself excited by a curious feeling; an aggressive mood, which, +no doubt, came from all the healths she had drunk: to the Astrarium, to +this one, to that one, to all of us! Gee, what fun it had been: champagne, +cakes, my, tons of cakes! And Lily, who had long been unused to any such +excess, felt her head splitting. A fever seemed also to reign all over the +dressing-rooms and passages. They talked of front boxes reserved at a +thousand francs by the Aero Club; stalls at fifty francs; every seat in +the house filled; and the best people, nothing but the best! Lily, in her +exalted condition, took it that they had all come for her; and she had to +dazzle them all! And soar above them all! To a hurricane of applause from +"her favorite audience," the Astrarium audience, on a first night! + +And she felt so gay that she was not angry when Glass-Eye asked her, now +that _she_ was an artiste, too, to teach her her stage-smile. + +"Why, of course, Glass-Eye! I owe you that, to say nothing of the rest! +But you won't lose by waiting! Take my word for it: among friends, you +know!..." + +And she kissed her maid, felt inclined to cry, became quite sentimental at +her going.... + +She was less amiable to Nunkie, who was prowling around near her. Oh, how +angry she felt with that old rogue! Because of Thea, first of all; and +then it was he who gave her away, not Jimmy! Tom had told her. Nunkie +mumbled something to her: his dear girls; ungrateful creatures who were +leaving him! His poor life shattered! His pigeons, he had his pigeons +left; yes, and his home; but what was that compared with loving hearts? +And, as she was on such good terms with Jimmy and everybody, couldn't she +use her influence? Oh, if he could have the Bambinis, be appointed their +guardian! "He would bring together such a nice little family troupe: all +the joys of home! + +"You old wretch!" cried Lily, in a threatening voice. "Just go and look, +at the corner of Oxford Street and Newman Street, if you can see me! You +old snaky! You old bromide merchant! Hiding letters, too, you +nigger-driving humbug! Oh, you're sure to get the Bambinis, I _don't_ +think!" + +"_Ver-r-rdammt_!" + +Nunkie turned on his heel, shaking the passage with tremendous oaths. + +"I thought," Lily shot at him from behind sarcastically, "I thought one +ought never to swear! It's wicked to swear, Mr. Fuchs!" + +In her dressing-room, she went on laughing at Nunkie and his +"_Donner-r-r-wetter-r-r_!" and his "_S-s-satan_! _S-s-satan_!" It made her +comb her hair all awry and apply the grease-paint to her cheeks with a +trembling hand. She felt a buzzing in her head: that confounded music +which seemed to come from everywhere and hissed in her ears! But, when her +turn came, she'd show them! Never had she felt so light. She was sure of +herself, strangely sure. It seemed to her that, if need be, she'd have +shot up to the stars, damn it! + +As soon as she was ready, she went down to the stage. She didn't know why. +It was her wish to be everywhere, her craving for movement. The aerobike +had been taken from its cage, behind the back-drop; the stage-manager, +Jimmy and Jimmy's assistants were standing round it. Jimmy was testing +everything, for the last time, making sure that there would be no hitch: + +"Hullo, Lily!" he said, when he saw her. "Are you ready?" + +"Ready?" said Lily. "Look!" + +And she flung back her wrap with her two bare arms and stood, a figure all +charm and grace, with youth, joy and courage sparkling in her eyes. In the +mysterious half-light, amid the endless sounds from the band, Lily seemed +to shed rays. Jimmy, dazzled, looked at that dainty form, that delicate +breast, those rounded shoulders, that splendid body fashioned by years of +Spartan life, each muscle of which was quivering with enthusiasm. And she +laughed ... laughed ... head thrown back, full-throated; told the story of +Nunkie, with furious gestures, as though she were strangling the old +beast. And then came sudden displays of feeling, for the Three Graces and +the Bambinis. + +Jimmy had never seen her like that. The stage-manager also thought her +queer, for he looked at Jimmy as though to ask what on earth was the +matter with her. And, going up to him, he said: + +"Look how she's trembling! One would think she had a fever." + +"It's quite true," said Jimmy. + +And the two stared at each other in consternation when Lily, stooping to +pick up her cloak, was nearly losing her balance and coming to the ground. +They exchanged a few words in a whisper. Then the stage-manager said: + +"Go up to your dressing-room, Miss Lily. You mustn't stay here, you know. +We'll send for you when the time comes. Go and put your hair straight." + +It was only a pretext; but the same thought had passed through both their +minds: it was the champagne! Lily, who was accustomed to drink nothing but +water, was ... if not exactly drunk ... well ... + +Thereupon, in an instant, Jimmy made up his mind: it was finished and +settled, irrevocably, as though he had spent hours in reflecting. The +newspapers had expressed doubts; there had been suggestions of trickery. +An immediate, brilliant success was essential, to carry the thing off: a +hitch and all was lost and the luck of the Astrarium and his own fame +vanished in smoke! Lily was out of the question that night: she was +bubbling over at every pore with unnatural excitement ... she was not +Lily,--was not herself ... it meant certain death to her, the aerobike +smashed to pieces, the end of all things! Lily would do it to-morrow, the +next night; but not to-night. + +He had just time to go to his dressing-room and put on his white sweater, +black breeches, black stockings: an athletic costume which he always kept +at the theater in case of need. And quick, in the saddle: the moment had +come! He must succeed, now or never! And Jimmy, calm and sure of himself, +took his seat on the aerobike. A great silence followed.... + +Lily, at that very minute, anxious at not being sent for in her +dressing-room, was going back to the stage, but she was stopped at the top +of the stairs by the stage-manager, who said that he had received an order +by telephone from Cologne, from Harrasford: Lily not to perform that +night.... + +"Let me pass," cried Lily, laughing in spite of everything. "That's enough +of a joke. It's time for me to go on, I say! Are you mad? I tell you, it's +my turn!" + +But she ceased, as though struck by thunder. The aerobike, with wings wide +open, was taking flight toward the stars, in a tempestuous wind. + +It was done! The thing had shot past her very nose! She thought that she +would fall, so great was the pain at her heart. + +"No! No!" she gasped, with dilated eyes. + +And, suddenly, she understood and uttered a cry of rage! + +But she could have shouted, "Murder!" and it would have sounded as the +buzzing of a bee amid that explosion of cheers. And the orchestra grew +like a flame and the light appeared, increased and shone all over the +house. + +Lily flung herself back, closed her eyes so as not to see, fled to her +dressing-room with a shriek like a wounded beast's.... + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +She dropped into her chair, stopped up her ears; but the cheers never +ceased, kept on increasing, filled the theater with a roar as of thunder! +Oh, it seemed to her that her chest was on fire, that they were pounding +her heart; that some one was taking her by the hair and banging her head +against the walls! And that storm of applause kept on and kept on ... but +it wasn't for her! It was for Jimmy all the time: they had tried it with +her, that was all! To see if it worked! And she, she, she who, only just +now, was giving herself airs with the others: a poor rag, yes, that was +all she was, less than anybody; less than Tom, her old servant, less than +Glass-Eye, that idiot, less than Ave Maria, less than a performing dog, +less than anything, worse than anything, perhaps! Mad with rage she jumped +at her gollywog, pulled down the white-eyed idol--the traitor!--spat on +it, crushed it on the floor with her heel, furious, beside herself; and +then dropped into her chair again, with her two arms flat on the table, +her head between her arms, among the grease-paints, the powder, the +overturned box of spangles, which rolled about everywhere and strewed the +floor. She felt inclined to bite into her flesh to relieve herself, she +clenched her fists and dug her nails into her skin. Oh, she would have +liked to die, to die! It was so fierce a longing, so desperate a cry that +the force of her prayer ought to have struck her dead where she sat. And +suddenly the tears began to flow and she cried and cried, all convulsed +with sobs, floored, shipwrecked, done for. She cried and cried, as though +stupefied, saw nothing save through a thick veil of water, like a person +drowning, sinking. It seemed to her as if the tears would groove her face, +for always. Oh, what would she give to be at home, in bed! Never, never +again would she have the strength to do a thing. She was done for, buried +alive. And that coward of a Jimmy, to obey Harrasford's order! Oh, the +harm he had done her! She would rather have died smashed to a jelly on the +stage: she would have suffered less! Oh, to behave like that: to flash so +much before her eyes; and then to fling her to the ground! Oh, when she +had thought that he loved her and that she loved him also, perhaps! And +Lily cried and cried.... + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, in front, the aerobike was receiving endless applause. The +disappearance through the opening, the plunge into space, the star +snatched from up above, that piece of theatrical symbolism filled the +audience with enthusiasm. The aerobike brought down the house, its success +surpassed all expectation, and the Astrarium was opening with a victorious +clamor. + +"Yes, but at what a cost!" said Jimmy to himself, in spite of the cheers. + +And, as soon as he was able to escape, putting off for a few minutes his +replies to the cards that poured in--the chairman of the Aero Club, +journalists begging for interviews--Jimmy had but one idea, to console +Lily for her disappointment of that evening: poor Lily! + +His heart was beating very loudly as he went to her dressing-room. Jimmy +was no longer the fellow who knew no fear. To fly away on the aerobike, to +risk his skin was easy, for him at least; but to face Lily ... to explain +to her ... with all those things seething within him ... and, oh, the pain +he was causing her! How could he approach her after that? And could he +ever get her to love him? Ah, perhaps it would have been better if he had +gone and broken his neck in the street, on the pavement! Jimmy was +trembling like a child; in his perturbation, he even forgot to knock at +the door ... turned the knob ... entered.... + +Lily heard nothing, seemed crushed into her chair, with her face buried in +her right arm folded on the table, while the left hung lifeless by her +side. Her whole attitude expressed abject misery, profound despair; she +seemed extinguished in a terrifying calmness. + +Jimmy, to attract her attention, closed the door noisily. Lily stirred no +more than a wax figure: one might have thought her dead. + +He shivered; and, stepping forward, leaning over to her, anxiously, he +placed his hand on her shoulder. + +It was like a spring that is suddenly released! Lily threw up her +sorrow-stricken face, down which the tears, mingling with the red paint, +flowed like blood, looked at him for a few seconds with a wandering air +and then leaped at him, as though she meant to bite him in the face; but +her lips shriveled up in silence, nothing came from them; and she crushed +Jimmy with an unspeakable look of terror and contempt. + +Jimmy did not flinch: + +"You must not be angry with me," he said gently. "I was bound to do it, +Lily; I had to save the theater." + +"And get rid of me!" cried Lily, wild-haired, hard-eyed, hoarse-throated, +with the tears drying on her red-hot cheeks. + +Jimmy was pale as death. Ah, all his dreams, too, were fading away! + +"Lily," he said, in a voice which he strove to make firm, but which +trembled with emotion. "I have done my duty to everybody, yourself +included! But for me, you would be lying dead at this minute and the +Astrarium would be ruined. You were not in a state to appear in public ... +this evening ... believe me, Lily. The stage-manager himself...." + +Lily lowered her head under his calm gaze.... + +"But you'll do it to-morrow," continued Jimmy, very quickly, "before Pa +and Ma! To-morrow and the following days ... and always! Your name will be +right at the top of the bill! Do you hear? To-morrow ... and always!" + +"But what...? Why...?" asked Lily, as though stupefied. + +"Poor Lily," he replied, gently raising that face all distorted with +grief. "Poor little Lily! I have caused you a heap of pain." + +Lily, for her sole answer, gave a convulsive sob; a tear leaped to her +eyelids. + +"Don't cry," whispered Jimmy, "don't cry any more. It will be your turn +to-morrow, before the New Trickers. To-morrow! Every night!" + +"Every night?" asked Lily, still incredulous and yet transfigured with +hope. "You're saying that, Jimmy; but...." + +"Do you doubt my word, Lily?" he replied, pressing her gently to him. +"What, I, your best friend, your only friend ... I who ... haven't I +always loved you, Lily? Do you think I've changed?... I love you more than +ever I did! I will explain everything later. And you doubt me ... who +would give my life for you; yes, life without you means nothing to me," +continued Jimmy, in a stifled voice and clasping Lily in his arms. + +Lily quivered in his embrace, hid her blushing features on his breast, +where she heard great dull throbs. She trembled from head to foot. Her +quickened senses seemed to perceive everything now; the passing +indisposition from which she had suffered, without knowing it, the light +fumes of the champagne: all that had suddenly gone, was far away; she had +never felt more lucid; she saw, she understood and was overcome with +delight, overcome with a delight beside which her enthusiasm of the +previous day seemed dark and dreary. The ardor of her eighteen years +swelled her breast. Success, in any case! To-morrow! And that man was +hers, that heart was hers! It was a dream, an enchantment! Her head rolled +back, a smile drew up her lips, her eyes, through her tangled curls, +seemed all ablaze. Jimmy bent his glowing face over her. Lily, on the +point of swooning, raised her lips to his. + +Vanished around them the low ceiling, the scratched walls, the shabby +rags. Standing on the wretched spangles that strewed the dusty floor, +Lily, drunk with joy ... Jimmy, distraught with pride ... seemed like +youth and love, in mid-sky, among the stars! + +CURTAIN + +[Illustration: Lily quivered in his embrace.] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Popular Copyright Books +AT MODERATE PRICES + +Any of the following titles can be bought of your +bookseller at the price you paid for this volume + + +Marcaria. By Augusta J. Evans. +Mam' Linda. By Will N. Harben. +Maids of Paradise, The. By Robert W. Chambers. +Man in the Corner, The. By Baroness Orczy. +Marriage A La Mode. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. +Master Mummer, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +Much Ado About Peter. By Jean Webster. +Old, Old Story, The. By Rosa N. Carey. +Pardners. By Rex Beach. +Patience of John Moreland, The. By Mary Dillon. +Paul Anthony, Christian. By Hiram W. Hays. +Prince of Sinners, A. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +Prodigious Hickey, The. By Owen Johnson. +Red Mouse, The. By William Hamilton Osborne. +Refugees, The. By A. 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