between gratification and misgivings, joan followed her guide in a flutter of emotion. when intending nothing more than to provide an excuse for using the anteroom as a temporary refuge, she hadn't for an instant questioned her right to use marbridge's name. but now that it appeared she was to gain thereby the boon of an audience with arlington, she was torn by doubts.
after all, her acquaintance with marbridge had been one of the most tenuous description. true, the man had seemed attracted by her at the time; but that was many months ago; and only recently he had looked her fair in the face without knowing her. she had really gained her advantage through false pretences. and when marbridge learned of this, would he not resent it? had she not, through her presumption, put herself in the way of defeating her own ends?
she brought up before a closed door in a state of nervousness not natural with her.
"you're to wait a minute," her guide advised.
she was thankful he wasn't the guardian of the outer defences: just at present she was in no fit mood to bandy persiflage successfully.
but she was uncomfortably conscious that this present boy eyed her curiously as he threw open the office door.
she entered, and he closed it after her.
the room was untenanted, but a haze of cigar smoke in the air indicated that it had been only recently vacated. it was handsomely furnished, carpeted and decorated. the broad, flat-topped desk in one corner boasted an elaborate display of ornate desk hardware. in the middle of the blotting-pad a sheaf of letters lay beneath a bronze paperweight of unique design. all in all, an office owning little in common with the generality of those to which joan had theretofore penetrated....
she sat herself down uneasily.
a door communicating with the adjoining office, though a solid door of oak, was an inch or so ajar. through it penetrated sounds of masculine voices in conversation—but nothing distinguishable.
five minutes passed. then the conference in the next room broke up amid laughter; the doorknob rattled; and joan rose automatically.
marbridge entered.
for a moment, in her surprise and consternation, joan could only stare and stammer. but obvious though her agitation was, marbridge ignored it gracefully. shutting the door tight, he advanced with an outstretched hand and a smile there was no resisting—with, in short, every normal evidence of friendly pleasure in their meeting.
"well, miss thursday!" he said, gratification in his carefully modulated voice. "this is public-spirited of you!"
joan shook hands limply, her face crimson beneath his pardonably admiring stare.
"i—thank you—but—"
"really," he went on smoothly, "i consider it mighty nice of you to look me up. fancy your remembering me! do sit down. we must have a chat. fortunately, you've caught me in an off-hour."
retaining her hand coolly enough, he introduced the girl to a capacious lounge-chair beside the desk, then settled himself behind it.
joan shook her wits together.
"you're awf'ly kind—"
"i—kind?" marbridge denied the implication with an indulgent smile. "my dear miss thursday, if you get to know me well—and i sincerely hope you will some day—you'll find there's not a spark of human generosity in my system. i think only of my own pleasure. how can there be kindness to you in my seizing this chance to improve our acquaintance? i declare, i thought you'd forgotten me!"
"oh, no!" joan protested.
"really? that's charming of you. but tell me about yourself. how long have you been back?"
"not long," joan replied instinctively to the first stock question that marks every other similar meeting in the theatrical district of new york. "that is—i mean—a couple of months."
"oh, then you didn't stay with 'the lie'?"
"you knew about that?"
marbridge nodded briskly. "indeed, i did! pete gloucester told me all about you—how splendidly you were doing at rehearsals—and then, one afternoon in chicago, i saw the sketch billed and dropped in at the theatre for the sole purpose of seeing you. and if i hadn't had a train to catch, i'd have come right round back to congratulate you. fact! you were wonderful. you were more than wonderful: you were downright adorable, and no mistake!"
under the tonic stimulus of his flattery, joan recovered her self-possession with surprising readiness—so swiftly that she almost forgot to cover the phenomenon with prolonged evidences of pretty confusion.
she looked down, her colour high, and smiling traced with a gloved forefinger an invisible seam in her skirt; and then, looking up shyly, she appraised marbridge with one quick, shrewd, masked glance.
her instinct had not misled her: this man esteemed her at a high value.
"it's awf'ly kind of you to say so," she murmured demurely.
marbridge bent forward, leaning on the desk, his gaze ardent.
"i only say what i think, miss thursday. i watched you act that afternoon—and so far as i was concerned, you were the whole sketch!—and made up my mind then and there you were a girl with a great big future."
"oh, but really, mr. marbridge—"
"give you my word! i said to myself then and there: 'here's a little woman worth watching, and if ever i get a chance to lend her a helping hand and don't do it, i'd better quit fussing with this theatrical game.' and that was the effect of seeing you play just once, mind you!"
"i'm afraid you're a dreadful kidder, mr. marbridge."
his injured look was eloquent of the injustice that she did him.
"you don't believe me? very well, miss thursday—wait! some day i'll surprise you." he swung back in his chair, smiling genially. "some one of these days you'll set your heart on something i have the say in—and then you'll be able to judge of my sincerity."
"if i dared believe you," joan told him boldly, "i might put you to the test sooner than you think."
"well, and why not? i'm ready."
but as joan would have gone on, the desk-telephone rang sharply, and marbridge, excusing himself with a mumbled apology, turned to the instrument and lifted the receiver to his ear.
"hello.... who?... oh, send her in to see mr. arlington.... oh, he did, eh?... well, say i'm not in either.... yes, gone for the day."
replacing the instrument, he swung round again. "there's proof already," he informed her cheerfully. "that was nella cardrow—one of the biggest propositions on our list—star of 'mrs. mixer.' and i'm putting her off solely to show you how sincerely i'm interested in what you have to say to me." he bent forward again, confidentially. "now tell me: what can i do for you?"
"give me a job," joan informed him honestly. "that's all i want just now—work—a part in anything you have influence with."
"then you have left 'the lie'?" marbridge persisted incredulously.
joan nodded. "i had to. i couldn't stand it any longer."
"but—without you—why, i don't know what they were thinking of, to let you go!"
"i just couldn't get along with the star, and that's all there was to it," joan declared. "he was a boozer and—well, i had to quit."
"and the sketch—"
"oh, it went on, all right, i guess."
"without you! well, that's hard to credit. however...." marbridge leaned back and for a moment stared thoughtfully out of the window. "i really can't think of anything we've got open just now that's good enough to offer you."
"please don't think of me that way, mr. marbridge," joan pleaded earnestly, more than half deceived. "i'm ready for anything, to get a chance to show these people what i can do. anything—however small—just so it gives me a show—i don't care what!"
marbridge preserved admirably his look of intent gravity. "let me think a moment," he requested, pursing his full lips.
joan watched him closely through that brief silence, her mood one of curious texture, compounded in almost equal parts of hope and doubt, of wonder and misgivings, of appreciation of her own courage and shrewdness, and of admiration for marbridge.
he was by no means what she would have termed handsome, but he was uncommonly individual, a personality that left an ineffaceable impression of strength and masculinity; and with this he had an air of being finished and complete, as though he not only knew better than most how to take care of himself in all ways, but slighted himself in none. she thought his mode of dress striking, combining distinction and taste to an extraordinary degree.... and when in his abstraction he pinched his chin gently between thumb and forefinger, she was impressed with the discovery that a man's hand could be at once well-manicured and muscular....
he turned back abruptly with a sparkle of enthusiasm in his bold and prominent eyes.
"by george, i think i have it!..."
"yes—?" she breathed excitedly.
he considered an instant longer, shook his head, and jumped up. "i must consult arlington first," he declared. "i wouldn't care to commit him without his consent. no—don't get up. just excuse me one minute. i'll be right back."
and before she could protest—had she entertained the faintest idea of doing anything of the sort—he left the room by the same door which had admitted him.
immediately she was again aware of a rumble of voices in the next office, but now it was even more indefinite.
and again she waited a full five minutes alone....
when marbridge rejoined her, it was with an air apologetic and disappointed.
"it's too bad," he announced, aggrieved, "but it seems arlington has really gone for the day. i shan't see him before evening, likely, possibly not until tomorrow. so i must ask you to trouble yourself to come back, if you don't mind."
"mind!" joan laughed, rising. "oh, i guess not."
"well," marbridge assured her, "i don't think you'll have any wasted time to regret. but i can't promise anything until i'm sure arlington hasn't made other arrangements, or until i've managed to put a crimp into 'em if he has."
"but you mustn't do that—"
"hush!" marbridge paused to chuckle infectuously. "there's one trouble," he amended, more gravely, "and that is, i haven't got any too much time. i'm booked to sail for europe saturday, and have got so many little things to attend to, i'm running round in circles. but don't you fret: i've got this matter right next to my heart, miss thursday, and i'm going to put it through if it humanly can be done. now let me think when i can ask you to call again."
"any time that suits your convenience, mr. marbridge."
"well, it's a question. i'd like mighty well to have you lunch with me before i go, but.... the truth is, i haven't got hardly a minute unengaged. you just happened to catch me right, today.... i wonder if you could call in friday, say, about half-past three?"
"of course i can, but i don't want you to—"
"didn't i tell you, hush!" marbridge interrupted, mock-impatient. "not another word. remember what i told you about how i felt that day i saw you act, out in chicago. the time's coming when i'm going to be powerful' glad you gave me this chance to give you a lift, miss thursday. and then"—he paused in the act of opening the door, and took joan's hand, subjecting it to a firm, friendly pressure before continuing—"and then, perhaps, i'll be coming round and begging favours of you."
for an instant joan's eyes endured, without a tremor, the quick searching probe of the man's.
she nodded quietly, saying in a grave voice: "i guess you won't have to beg very hard—not for anything i could ever do for you, mr. marbridge."
his smile was as spontaneous and bright as a child's. "it's a bargain!" he declared spiritedly. "and you can bet your life i won't forget my end of it!... good afternoon, miss thursday. remember—friday at three-thirty...."
