Three weeks passed. There were almost twice as many first-nights.
"Mary Ogden," as Clavering called her for want of the truth, was at
each. She never rose in her seat again, and, indeed, seemed to seek
inconspicuousness, but she was always in the second or third row of the
orchestra, and she wore a different gown on each occasion. As she
entered after the curtain rose and stole out before it went down for
the last time, few but those in the adjacent seats and boxes were
edified by any details of those charming creations, although it was
noticeable that the visiting of both sexes was most active in her
neighborhood.
For by this time she was "the talk of the town," or of that important
and excessively active-minded section of Greater New York represented
at first-nights. The columnists had commented on her. One had indited
ten lines of free verse in her honor, another had soared on the wings
of seventeenth century English into a panegyric on her beauty and her
halo of mystery. A poet-editor-wit had cleped her "The Silent Drama."
Had it been wartime she would inevitably have been set down as a spy,
and as it was there were dark inferences that she was a Bolshevik agent
who had smuggled vast sums of money into the country and passed it on
to the Reds. There were those who opined she was some rich man's
mistress, recently imported, snatched from some victim of revolution
who could no longer afford her. Blonde madonnas were always under
suspicion unless you knew all about them. Others, more practical,
scoffed at these fancy theories and asserted roundly that she was
either a Russian refugee who had sound American or English investments,
or some American woman, educated abroad, who knew no one in New York
and amused herself at the theatre. Indeed? Why then should an
obviously wealthy young woman of as obviously good birth and breeding
bring no letters? Something crooked, not a doubt of it. A European
girl or young widow of position would never come to America without a
chaperon; nor an American brought up abroad. A woman with that "air"
knows what's what. She's simply put herself beyond the pale and
doesn't care. Some impoverished woman of the noblesse who has taken up
with a rich man.
The men would have liked to put a detective on the track of every
millionaire in town.
Clavering had confided in no one, and Mr. Dinwiddie, although he had
attended a party given by one of the most hospitable of the
Sophisticates where the unknown was discussed from cocktail to
cocktail, and where, forgetting his arteries, he had befuddled himself
at the generous fount, had guarded his tongue. To Clavering he had
been unable to extend either hope or information. Mrs. Oglethorpe had
turned a bleak and rigid countenance upon the friend of her youth when
he had called with an eager ear, and forbidden him tartly ever to
mention the subject to her again.
"Interview must have been devilish unpleasant to curdle poor old Jane
like that," he had commented. "No doubt the girl showed her the door.
Gad! Jane! But Mary's daughter could do it. None better."
Clavering was deeply disappointed. He turned a scowling back on the
gossips rending The Topic to tatters. New York must have a new Topic
every season. This girl had arrived in a season of dearth. And,
unless she were discovered to be living in absolute flagrancy, they
would throw down the carpet. Some went even further. After all, what
about . . .
But there seemed to be not the remotest prospect of meeting her, nor
even of solving the mystery. She had been seen striding round the
reservoir in a short skirt and high laced boots of soft pale leather.
One triumphant woman had stood next to her at a glove counter and
overheard her observe to the clerk in a sweet and rather deep voice
with an ineluctably refined--and foreign--accent that gloves were
cheaper in New York than in Paris. She had been passed several times
in her smart little car, and once she had been seen going into the
Public Library. Evidently she was no hermit. Several of the
Sophisticates had friends in Society and questioned them eagerly, but
were rewarded only by questions as eager in return.
On the sixth of these first-nights, when the unknown slipped quietly
from her seat at the end of the last act, she saw the aisle in front of
her almost blocked. One after another the rows of seats were hurriedly
deserted. Clavering, as usual, was directly behind her, but Mr.
Dinwiddie, forced from his chair many aisles back, was swept out with
the crowd.
When she reached the foyer she found herself surrounded by men and
women whose frank interest was of the same well-bred but artless
essence as that afforded a famous actress or prima donna exhibiting
herself before the footlights. It was evident that she had a sense of
humor, for as she made her way slowly toward the entrance a smile
twitched her mouth more than once. Clavering thought that she was on
the point of laughing outright. But he fumed. "Damn them! They'll
scare her off. She'll never come again."
One or two women had vowed they'd speak to her. After all a
first-night was a club of sorts. But their courage failed them. The
crowd made way for her and she crossed the pavement to wait for her
car. Clavering, always hoping that some drunken brute would give him
the opportunity to succor her, followed and stood as close as he dared.
Her car drove up and she entered. As it started she turned her head
and looked straight at him. And then Clavering was sure that she
laughed outright.
He started recklessly after the car, plunging between automobiles going
in four different directions, and jumping on the running board of a
taxi, told the man to drive like hell toward Park Avenue. There was
amused recognition in that glance! She had, must have, noticed him
before tonight!
And then he had his chance. To the brave belong the fair.