I
Jerome had failed with Stella; she had thrown him over for another man;
now he had found Lili—had almost desperately, without quite realizing it,
seized upon her. He needed her—that is, his ego needed her. It wasn’t an
aggressive or egregious ego; certainly there was nothing of a Don Juan
about it! But it was a decently masculine ego, and stood possessed of a
salient sense of dignity. Under the circumstances, even had Lili’s spell
been less rare and beautiful, it could have required no prodigious effort
to convince himself that he loved her. As time went on and his brave new
life unfolded, what elements of sheer convenience in it all there might
be obtruded less and less.
Her wonderful eyes, her gay manners, never failed. He couldn’t help
himself—didn’t _want_ to—idealized her lavishly because he really loved
her, though behind that, subtly, because his ego loved her. Had he pried
down deep into his heart—ah, but this was no time for prying; it was a
time for living! He loved, and laid long plans into the future, and more
or less realised, underneath all his reverses, that it was proving the
happiest and most consistently advancing period of his life—even if Lili
did keep holding off.
And indeed he didn’t, after all, have time to sit down much and brood
over his troubles; for entirely aside from matters of heart interest
he was a full fledged business man, now, with problems to work out,
increasing responsibility, tricky accounts to keep straight. Jerome was
proving to Mr. Curry that much of the business of contracting for cargo
could be entrusted to him. He was getting first-hand information about
everything connected with shipping and insurance; worked right along with
the broker—who might be a little inclined to chuckle over occasional
evidence of a rather unusual naïveté, but who soon perceived he was
dealing with nobody’s fool when it came to figures.
The impresario looked on with a glow of thanksgiving and relief, and was
very glad indeed, as things had turned out, that Tony and Alfredo had put
the clerk in the supply closet. “Lord, Lord! It’s wonderful the progress
that boy is making!”
Yes, Jerome found the world a great place. And the most valuable lessons
of all were lessons of contact with men—of all sorts, yet nearly all
prepared to get the better of their fellows if possible.