case and a couple of hat boxes and my specially designed jewellery box
and the travelling hamper for the dogs, we having decided to travel
light and probably not stay over three or four days, Ma went into the
all-tiled kitchen and commenced getting up a little smack of cold beef
and potato salad and fried cheese sandwiches and coffee and a few hot
biscuits and honey so's we wouldn't have to go out and eat, which Ma
certainly loves to do and no cook ever stands it for more than a week
and the current cook's week was up that morning before we went downtown.
Well anyway while she was doing this I went into the drawing-room which
is all fitted up in handsome gold furniture--that the dealer said was
one of the Louis periods. Louis Cohen I guess,--I never remember quite.
And to put a record on the phonograph in the case I had especially built
in the same style at fifty dollars extra and all the instalments paid,
and streached out as good as I could manage to on the chaise loung,
which is a sort of housebroken steamer-chair, and while John Macormik's
own voice sang my little grey home in the west to me in the privacy of
my own home, I thought dreamingly about Jim and how much I was missing
him and how swell we danced together and how kind and loving and brave
he was and how refined, and believe me he's about the only theatrical
male that don't murder a dress suit, and how horrible it was to be
seperated from him after being married only two weeks and what fools we
was to have danced together in every first-class theatre in America and
only got married so recent, for if only we'd been married sooner mabe
the pain of seperation wouldnt of been so great by now. Who knows? And
believe you me it was some pain, and I had myself crying before I knew
it. For I sure am stuck on that poor simp and my only war-work aint been
done on the screene, Gawd knows, when I give him up to whatever the
Allies was fighting for, which if it dont turn out to be as represented,
believe you me, myself and a whole lot of other girls is going to want
to know why!!
Well anyways, before Ma had the biscuits baked and I had run jada jada
and sing me to sleep, I was wild to get away to the pure country ocean
air and some healthy outdoor exercise which would help me forget my
loneliness. And a lot of quiet and rest and sleep, with the ocean
pounding me to the pillow and all that.
I had only a sort of twenty minute small time sketch of a idea of what
Atlantic City was like on account of me having been there for openings
only and getting in at four forty five with the show beginning at eight
fifteen and the washup you need after the trip and Ma always insisting
on me doing a twenty minute practice in my room and underwear before
every opening which is perfectly correct and one of the principal things
which has made my handsprings what they are, and getting dinner far
enough in advance to do the hand-springs in time. I knew little nor
nothing of what Jim calls the Coney Island that went to finishing school
except that there is swimming and horseback riding and a boardwalk that
any one without French heels to catch in the cracks can have a elegant
walk on. What little sniff of air I had outside the theatre and my
bedroom at the hotel give me a appatite for more, which up to now I
never had the opportunity to get because of always being with a
high-class show that went right back to N.Y. Sunday to open on Broadway.
But now I was going like a regular American lady citizen to rest and get
full of health and do as the regular resorters did. And I was glad. I
was so anxious to keep myself in a pure atmosphere for Jim's sake and
the studio wasn't exactly the farm--do you get me? You do! And a rest in
the country was the very thing. I got quite excited thinking about it;
dried my tears, stopped the phonograph and made sure that Musette put in
my riding suit, bathing ditto, and walking boots. And when this was done
I felt better already as the saying is, and fully able to take some of
the nourishment Ma had got up.
The minute we set down to the table I see that she had also been making
good resolutions and waited till she got ready to confess. It come after
the seventh tea-biscuit and honey. On her part I mean, I only taking
coldmeat and salad and things I dont like much, for reasons before
stated.
"Mary Gilligan!" she says. "I believe I'm getting heavier," she says,
just as if it occurred to her for the first time. "And I have decided
that while I am away to Atlantic City I wont eat to amount to anything
and reduce in other ways the whole time I'm there!"
"You dont say," I says, without batting an eye. "Do you really think you
need to?"
"I do!" she says. "This is my last real meal. And you needn't try to
persuade me out of it."
I didn't. And next morning right after breakfast we caught the one
twenty, hats, dogs, Musette, and all, and met up with Maison Rosabelle,
which was dressed in a simple little trotters costume of chiffon and
ermine which looked like it had been made in Babylon. I mean B.C. not
L.I. And with her was a little surprise in the way of the same Jewish
gentleman, Mr. Freddy Mayer, with another gardenia on him and a fine
line of plausable explinations.
"Aint it a co-co-strange, Freddy just happens to be going our way!"
cooed Maisie with all the innocence of a N.Y. livery-stable pidgeon.
"Yes, I'm taking a special offering of champagne to a special friend in
the hotel business there," says Mr. Freddy. "And with three such
beautiful lady companions its no hardship to leave Manhattan behind nor
the Bronx," says he gaily. "Altho when we come back we may find the
Aldermen has decided to change both names after July first," says the
humorous dog.
"Will you please kindly open this window a little?" I intrupped him.
"The air in here aint so good as it was."
I dont know did this get over, but believe you me I didn't care for that
well washed young wine-seller at all, nor for his company. And it was a
relief when he done as I asked and him and Maison found their seats was
at the other end of the car. In a way I can understand her liking
traveling-men but not up to the point of traveling with one, even by
semi-accident. And so opening the Motion Picture Gazette to look at the
double-page spread of myself "Who has at length been lured by the
artistic possibilities of the picture world," and keeping a eye on Ma to
see would she stop the candy-boy, settled down to the soothing sound of
Maison's laugh, and begun my quiet little trip to Healthland.
There is a large variaty of ladies which have husbands still in the
army, but believe you me they certainly got one thing in common, or
else no looks at all. And that is, the temptation to take up with other
company to some degree. Because of course while the war was holding the
stage a husband's absence could be stood, but what with this
peace-hyphen in the fighting and everything, you cant help but commence
wondering what kind of a girl is detaining him over there and feel
inclined to have a understudy kind of waiting off stage in self defence.
For believe you me, there seems to be something sort of attractive about
a war-widow and the ones which ignores the fact and minds their own
affairs is the real patriotic women of America.
Not that I want to say a word about Maison, and what happened to me
after the end of that train ride on which I was sitting so
superior-minded, taught me a lesson; because its a cinch to be good when
you want to be. A person which has suffered themselves is slow to bawl
out the other fellow so quick next time. Do you get me? Not yet.
Well, after we had rolled by the lovely scenery and read the handsome
ad. signs on either hand, not to mention the pipe-line, and got the
invigorating smell of low tide in our eager nostrils, we come out on
that quiet little country railroad station platform, our destination, to
be greeted by only several hundred busses and a thousand or so
taxi-cabs, each yelling at the top of their voices. As we got off the
train Maison rushes up to us and pipes a cheering little question.
"Where are we going, dearie?" she said, blithly.
"Where are we going?" I says. "Maison Rosabelle, do you mean to say you
didn't wire no place for rooms?"
"Why no!" says Maison. "Didn't you?"
"Certainly not!" I says. "I never wired for rooms in my whole life. The
advance agent always done that for me."
"Well Mary Gilligan, I'm not your advance agent!" she snapped, and then
she kind of looked at Mr. Freddy in a sweet, helpless womanly fashion
expecting him to fork up a little help. But it seems Mr. Freddy was one
of these birds that only think to take care of his own comfort. He had a
room alright at the Traymore. And he meant to keep it!
"We'll take the bus to there," he suggested. "I'm sure there'll be lots
of room."
But no bus for me on account of professional reasons. So we took one
taxi for him and us and another for Musette and the dogs and the bags,
and then commenced a round of seeking for shelter as the poet says,
which had the "Two Orphans" skun a mile. We went to six hotels and not a
room among them. Believe you me, there is just one person can make you
feel cheaper than a Atlantic City hotel clerk when he says "No
reservations?" and lifts his arched brows, and that is the head waiter
when he says "nothing to drink?" and you say "yes, nothing!" Well, thank
Gawd thats one thing prohibition will prohibit.
Well anyways, we tried six hotels until at last we come to a little
place where the young feller at the desk give his reluctant consent to
our admission. It was a simple little place done quitely in red plush
and gold and marble columns, very restful with not over a hundred people
sitting about in the lobby, listning not to the sad sea waves but to a
jazz orchestra and inhaling the nice fresh tobacco smoke of which the
air was full.
Well, Mr. Freddy give a gasp of relief and bid us good-by, after dating
up Maisie for dinner, and a flock of bell-hops hopped upon our stuff
and we commenced a walking tower to our rooms. As we started off down
the Alleyway, Maison give me a nudge.
"Look it, that sweet young officer! Aint he handsome?" she whispers only
just loud enough for him to hear. And before I thought I turned my head
and he certainly was easy to look at. He looked, in fact like a cross
between a clothing ad. and a leading juvinille with a touch of bear-cat
in him to make a regular he-man out of him. He was a captain, although
so young, and had a cute little moustache and had that blue-blooded
air--you know--like a Boston accent even without hearing him speak. And
he was sitting all alone under a big poster advertising a entertainment
for the benefit of blind soldiers or something. Of course I didn't
notice him at all, because I being a perfect lady I dont do them things.
But I couldnt help seeing that he didn't blush at what Maisie said,
although I knew he heard it, but a sort of crinkly expression come up
round his nice blue eyes as if he thought us comic or something. It made
me just boil because my clothes is nothing if not refined and I never
wear anything but a little powder on my nose when off the stage, and if
its one thing gets my goat it is to be taken for a show-girl which
undoubtedly he thought the two of us was and they not in his class, for
even with the passing glance I had taken I could see he was used to the
Vanderbilts and all that set and had never had to be taught to take his
daily tub. Do you get me?
So I walked like I hadnt looked, and of course I really hadnt, and
proceeded to the before the war section of the hotel and the handsome
suite all fitted in real varnished pine and carpets just like a
Rochester boarding house when I was on the small time before I made my
big success, and it made me feel quite at home or would of only for what
I knew the difference in price was going to be. I guessed it just as
soon as I heard Ma gasping over the hotel rules which she was reading. I
went over and looked at them too, and at first I couldn't see nothing
unusual about them. There was the usual bunk about the management not
being responsible for the guest in any way, and Gawd knows how could
they be and I dont blame them. And then, a little ways down I see what
had got Ma stirred up. It seems dogs was ten dollars a week per each,
and of course we had two of them and Ma never has cared for my two,
anyways.
"Well, I hope the sea air will be good for the poor little lambs," she
says very sarcastic. "Mebbe it'll make 'em grow--into police-dogs or
something useful!"
Well I see by this that the salt air had not yet got to Ma, although the
troublesome journey had. And so I put on a simple little suit of English
tweed and low heeled shoes and a walking hat, which seemed to me the
right thing for the country, and went out to pry off a little health
before dinner.
The outdoors was something grand. The air was as good a cocktail as a
person would want, and the lights along the boardwalk was coming out
like dandelion blossoms. There was hardly anybody around--just a few
here and there and the surf of that wide and cruel ocean which Jim was
the other side of, was breaking close to the rail in big white ostrich
plumes. Overhead the sky was as clear and high as a circular drop with
the violet lights on it, and a few clean stars was coming out. It was
just cold enough to make a person want to walk fast until the blood got
singing through you and you wanted to shout and run, only of course no
lady would. But just the same, I commenced to feel glad I hadnt died
when I had the measles, and I loved everybody and had a great career
before me and--and--oh that grand yearning happy feeling which comes out
of being young and full of strength and a good bank-account. Do you get
me? You do!
Well anyways, here I was walking like I had money on it and huming a
tune to myself, when along comes a man the other way, walking two to my
one, and huming the same tune, "How I hate to get up in the morning," it
was. When he heard me and I heard him we both sort of half stopped out
of surprise, and I got a good look at him. It was the young Captain from
the hotel.
He also give a start of surprise when he seen me, showing he recognized
me just as good as I did him. Only it was a real, genuine start, as if
he realized something more than the fact he had seen me at the hotel.
Then he smiled--a smile which would of done any dental ad. proud, and
passed along, looking back over his shoulder--once. While I went along
minding my own business and only know he looked back on account of my
happening to look back to see how far I had gone. I went a mile further
and somehow that smile of his stuck in my mind and made me sort of happy
for no reason, and at the same time awful extra lonesome for Jim. I made
up my mind I would get Jim a new car for a surprise when he come home
and I would send him a extra box of eats this week and some of them
cigarettes he likes so well, and a whole lot of stuff like that, the way
a woman does at such a time. Do you get me? Probably.
Well anyways, I walked myself into a terrible enthusiasm over Jim, and
then come back to the hotel. Which, by the way, its a strange thing how
much further it is coming back to a Atlantic City hotel than walking
away from it. And there at the door was Ma with the two dogs. A real
strange sight for I never knew her to take them out before, and it
looked like a guilty conscience, for she give me a peek out of the
corner of her eye for some reason and then hastily explained how she had
thought she'd take them herself this time instead of Musette. Well, we
got rid of the dogs and then come down to dinner where Maison sailed
down upon us all dressed up and no place to go, for it seems this Mr.
Freddy had stood her up on the dinner, having telephoned he'd be over
later with a friend or two but business prevented him paying for her
meal, or at least thats what I expect he meant. And Maison was wild. But
she had to eat dinner with us, and register a bunch of complaints
between bowing to friends and so forth.
"The luck I have!" she says. "That guy Freddy doesn't think any more of
a nickle than he does of his right arm! And with all the conventions
which is held at this town of course we would have to pick on the date
the Baptist ministers was here! Its a fact! The clerk told me. And what
is more if there ain't Ruby Roselle and Goldringer and will you look at
that wine and it twelve a quart without the tax! Well, of all things!"
III
And there sure enough was Ruby across the room with Goldringer, which he
evidently had come down to wait for the answer to that cable in the
fresh air, and I suppose Ruby was a accident, the same as Freddy, for
goodness knows, I wouldnt say a thing against her even behind her
back--and a good deal could be said behind what shows of it when in
costume. But I wouldnt say it anyhow, because even if it was the truth
that woman would sue a person for liabale if only to get her name in the
paper. And if she happened to be taking dinner with Goldringer, Gawd
knows, its a comparatively free country and he's her manager as well as
mine and its a good thing to assume its only business whenever possible
as thinking the best of people never hurt anybody yet.
Also across the room all by himself was that young Captain, and he
looked over twice but of course I pretended it was the picture on the
wall over his head which had took my eye. Altogether that strange dining
room wasnt much more lonesome to us than the Ritz or Astor for tea would
of been. But the most remarkable part of the meal was Ma. Because she
didn't touch it! Actually, and it the American plan which would tempt
one of these Asthetics if for no other reason but that you have to pay
for it anyway. And all she took was a piece of meat about the size of a
dime and a leaf of salad.
"I'm going to stick by what I said if only because you said I wouldnt!"
she says, looking me square in the eye. "Diet is my middle name."
Well, I mentally give her until to-morrow on that but said nothing at
the time. And we went out into the lounge where Mr. Freddy and three
friends was already lounging and after they had joined us, Goldringer
and Ruby did the same, and the drinks commenced to flow with that
frantic haste like into a river at the edge of the ocean as the poet
says, meaning because its near its finish. While I, never using any
alcohol myself except to remove my make up, sat there flushed with Bevo,
and couldn't help noticing the way the Captain which he was still all
alone, looked over at the menagerie, and it made me boil for how could I
help that piker Freddy and his cheap friends and the rest, and believe
you me there are many perfect ladies in pictures and on the stage, only
the public dont often recognize them because they are swamped with a
bunch of roughnecks which all are popularly supposed to be.
It was a big relief when the Captain got up and went away about nine,
and left us to a endurance contest as to which could sit up the longest
in that refreshing atmosphere of cigarette smoke and drinks and
ten-dollar perfume with the sad sea waves beating vainly outside the
carefully glass enclosed verandah until one o'clock--when I personally
went to bed leaving them to their fate.
I give the telephone operator a terrible shock by leaving a call for
seven thirty, and when it come I put on my riding suit which I had left
from a dance called "The Call to Hounds" which Jim and me done at the
Palace just before he enlisted, and went out into the keen morning air.
And it was some air! Then I commenced to look around for horses but had
great difficulty in finding the same, for it seems the Atlantic City
horses dont get up any earlier than most of the visitors, and believe
you me I and a few coons which were picking up scraps and so forth off
the boardwalk, was the only birds in sight at that hour. Well anyways I
walked along breathing in that sweet air at about fifty cents per breath
by the hotel rates, but feeling pretty good in spite of it, when I
actually found a place where the horses was up--or mabe they had been
all night. I got a horse which looked considerable like a moth-eaten
property one but could go pretty good and commenced to ride gently along
what seemed to be my private ocean, when all of a sudden who would I
see but the young Captain riding very good indeed. He come up to me on
high and then tried to put on the brakes when he seen who it was, but
the horse had its mind on something else and wouldnt, so he got by me
but not without a "Good morning!" Which I thought fairly safe to smile
at seeing we was so rapidly going in opposite directions. But it seems
he must of spoke roughly to his steed for he come up behind me and spoke
with just that grand refined Big-Time drawing-room act accent I knew by
his little moustache he would have.
"I say! What luck!" he says. "You are Miss Marie LaTour, are you not?"
Was I sore? I was. Any lady would be and of course after the company he
seen me in at the hotel what could I expect but to be picked up? But
more particularly as he had my name and it with a good reputation, and
no one can say different with truth, I simply had to show him where he
got off.
"Sir!" I says, just like a play. "Sir! I do not know you. Please beat it
at once!"
"I know, but really!" he begged, flashing that white smile. "I'm not
trying to be impertenant--let me explain...."
"Explain nothing!" I says very haughty. "I wont listen."
"But I'm not doing what you think!" he cries out. "Please wait until you
hear...."
"I've heard that 'please listen' stuff before," I says. "Good-by!"
And then I done the bravest act of my life, not being really acquainted
with horses, especially Atlantic City ones. I give the horse a lash and
off we went, I trying hard to give the impression of a good rider and
not looking back because I dasn't with that animal headed for the steel
pier full clip. But I heard the Captain's remarks, just the same.
"By jove, I'll _make_ you listen to me--just for that!" he says. And I
heard no more, for the bird which keeps the horses come out and rescued
me just before we hit the pier and I got off and started for the hotel,
boiling with rage. Me treated like a common chorus girl! Me, once the
best known parlor dancing act in the world, and now even more so on the
motion picture screen and a lady or dead! I wouldnt of looked at that
guy again on a bet--I made up my mind right then and there to show him
his mistake and that if my accent wasnt as good as his my morals was
better and no attempt on his part could get me to speak to him again.
Well in this state of mind I run into Ma, just before we reached the
hotel which she was hurrying to just ahead of me, and believe you me I
was sure surprised because I never knew her out so early although she
generally is up by seven, but with her curlpapers still on and a kimona
and thats different from coming out in public.
"I've been taking my exercise!" she says before I could speak. "And I'm
glad to see you do the same," she says.
And I certainly had to hand it to her strength of mind because after
being out so early and all she eat was only tea and dry toast for
breakfast.
After which we stopped by the office and just before we got there I see
the Captain give a note to the clerk and walk away. When we asked for
mail that note was the first thing the clerk handed me.
"Captain Raymond just left this for you Miss LaTour," he says.
I didnt even open it.
"Kindly return it," I says, very dignified, giving it back, and looked
over my other mail. But no letter from my husband, which is always the
way on a day a woman most needs one. So I went upstairs very low in my
mind and sort of glad that even if Jim couldn't think to write there was
others would be glad enough to if they was let. And then I went and got
Maison out of bed which she was taking her breakfast in.
"You come down here for your health and look what you do to it!" I says,
and made her go for a boardwalk which she held out for about half a hour
and no wonder with the heels she wears, and then stopped me with a gasp.
"Dearie, you surely must be the one that put the hell in health," she
says, "For heavens sakes leave us sit down."