On Monday there was a meeting of one of the committees she had organized
for the furtherance of what she called the movie stunt. The committee
met at the Colony Club. Most of the committee were women of large wealth
and of executive ability, and they accomplished a deal of business with
expedition in their own way.
There was some chatter, but it was to the point. At length during a
discussion of various forms of entertainment Mrs. Noxon said she was
afraid that the show would be deadly dull with only amateurs in it. Mrs.
Dyckman thought that professionals would make the amateurs look more
amateurish than ever. The debate swayed from side to side, but finally
inclined toward the belief that a few professional bits would refresh
the audience.
And then suddenly Mrs. Neff had to sing out: “Oh, Charity, I've an idea.
Let's get some stunning dancer to do a special number. I remember one
who would be just the ticket. What's the name--Zada Le Something or
other. She's a gorgeous creature. Have you seen her recently?”
Several women began signaling wildly to Mrs. Neff to keep quiet. Charity
saw their semaphores at work, but Mrs. Neff was blind--blind, but not
speechless. She kept on singing the praises of Zada till everybody
wanted to gag her.
An open mind to gossip is an important thing. We ought to keep up with
all the scandals concerning our friends and enemies. Otherwise we
lose many an opportunity to undercut the latter and we are constantly
annoying the former.
It was Mrs. Neff, of all people--and she loved Charity Coe dearly--who
caused her public shame and suffering. Mrs. Neff had defended Charity
from the slanderous assumptions of Prissy Atterbury and had refused to
listen to Pet Bettany's echoes.
She had, indeed, a bad reputation for rebuking well-meaning
disseminators of spice. This attitude discouraged several persons who
would otherwise have told her all sorts of interesting things about
Charity's husband's _entente cordiale_ with Zada.
Charity had dwelt in a fool's paradise of trust in Peter Cheever for a
while, then had dropped back into a fool's purgatory of doubt, where she
wandered bewildered. Now she was thrown into the fool's hell. She
knew that her love had been betrayed. Everybody else knew it and was
wondering how she would act.
Charity was sick. This was really more than she had bargained for. As
before, she felt it immodest to expose her emotions in public, so she
said:
“Yes, I've seen her. She is very attractive, isn't she? I don't know if
she is dancing in public any more, but I'll find out.”
Mrs. Neff sat back triumphantly and let the meeting proceed. But
there was a gray pall on the occasion. Women began to look at their
wrist-watches and pretend to be shocked at the lateness of the hour, and
all of them shook hands solemnly with Charity. There was a poorly veiled
condolence in their tone.
Charity carried it off pluckily, but she was in a dangerous humor. She
really could not endure the patronizing mercy of these women.
That night Cheever made again his appearance at the dinner-table. He
had some notion of putting Charity off her guard or of atoning to her in
part for his resumed alliance with Zada. He could not have told what
his own motives were, for he was in a state of bewilderment between his
duties to Mrs. Charity Tweedledum and Miss Zada Tweedledee. He could not
tell which one had the greater claim on his favors.
Charity studied him across the table and wondered what he really was,
faun or traitor, Mormon or weakling. He was certainly handsome, but the
influence of Zada L'Etoile seemed to hang about him like a green slime
on a statue.
She could not find any small talk to carry the meal along. At length
Cheever asked:
“What you been up to all day?”
“Oh, committee stuff--that movie thing, you know.”
“How's it coming on? Got a manager yet?”
“Not yet. We were talking about getting some professionals in to
brighten up the evening.”
“Good work! Those amateurs make me sick.”
“Mrs. Neff proposed that we get some stunning dancer to do a turn.”
“Not a bad idea. For instance--”
He emptied his glass of Chablis and the butler was standing by to refill
it when Charity answered:
“Mrs. Neff suggested a dancer I haven't seen on the stage for some time.
You used to admire her.”
“Yes?” said Cheever, pushing his glass along the table toward the
butler, who began to pour as Charity slid home her _coup de grace_.
“Zada L'Etoile. What's become of her?”
Cheever's eyes gaped and his jaws dropped. The butler's expression
was the same. He poured the Chablis on the back of Cheever's hand and
neither noticed it till Charity laughed hysterically and drove the sword
a little deeper:
“Is she still alive? Have you seen her?”
Cheever glared at her, breathed hard, swore at the butler, wiped his
hand on his napkin, gnawed his lips, twisted his mustache, threw down
the napkin, rose, and left the table.
Charity's smile turned to a grimace. She saw that the butler was ashamed
of her. He almost told her that she ought to have known better than
subject him and the other servants to such a scene.
Charity caught herself about to say, “I beg your pardon, Hammond.”
She felt as if she ought to beg the pardon of everybody in the world.
She could not stand the lonely dining-room long. She rose and walked
out. It seemed that she would never reach the door. It was a _via
crucis_ to her. Her back ached with the sense of eyes upon it.
The hall was lonely. The thud of the front door jarred her. She went
into the library. It was a dark and frowning cavern. She went into the
music-room, approached the piano, looked over the music, turned up “Go,
Lovely Rose.” The rose that Jim Dyckman said she was had been thrown
into the mud. She went up to her room. The maid was arranging her bed
for the night. She had turned down one corner of the cover, built up one
heap of pillows, set one pair of slippers by the edge.
Charity felt like a rejected old spinster. She sat and mused and her
thoughts were bitter. She remembered Doctor Mosely's sermon and wondered
if he would preach what he preached if he knew what she knew. She would
go to him and tell him.
But what did she know? Enough to convince herself, but nothing at all
that even a preacher would call evidence.
She must have proof. She resolved to get it. There must be an abundance
of it. She wondered how one went at the getting of evidence.