Dolly was getting along very well, thank you. Mostly, she was reading the
papers. For if Charles-Norton thought for a moment that his indiscretions
were to go unrecorded, he was very much mistaken.
Cuddled in the big Morris chair of the little flat, a be-ribboned sack
loose about her comfortable little body, her head golden in the soft
cascade of light falling from the lamp, an open box of candy at her
elbow, Dolly was reading the evening paper. It was all about
Charles-Norton Sims, the paper, though it did not mention him by name,
but variously, according to the temperaments of its correspondents, as a
condor, an ichthyosaurus, the moon, an aeroplane, a Japanese fleet, a
myth, a cloud, a hallucination, a balloon, and a goose. As she read, she
alternately frowned and laughed. Her brows would draw together very
seriously, and then suddenly her red lips would part to let through a
sparkling rocket of laughter, and then her brows would again knit in
concern. The laughter was of triumph at seeing her prophecy come true,
for of course, all the time, she had known that Charles-Norton, left
alone, would make a fool of himself; the concern was at the thought that,
still alone, he would continue to make a fool of himself.
"Well," she said finally, as the paper slipped from her knees to the
floor; "well, it's about time I rescued the poor dear. I must go to him."
She sat gazing mentally back over the lonely two months, the period of
her existence now about to terminate, and was astonished to find that,
after all, it had not been so bad. Ever since the first crisis, ever
since she had made up her mind to hold on to Charles-Norton, the worst,
somehow, had been over. It had seemed as if, that determination once
made, there was little left to worry over, that things could not possibly
come out wrong, that the cosmos itself was with her. And so, she had not
worried. And she had had a pretty good time; a pretty good time. Better,
in fact, in some ways than----
"Sh-sh-sh," she hissed, stilling the thought.
But why was that?
Well, first of all, there had been the engrossing mystery of the spring
hat; this, followed by the still more exciting problem of the summer hat;
and now she was planning for the fall hat--she had seen the cutest
feathery toque, that came low down about her face, pushing to all sides
little wisps of golden curls and making her look--well, very nice indeed.
Then, of course, there had been less housework, and she had had much more
time to herself, more time and more freedom. The acquaintance with
Flossie, the young wife of the floor-walker in the flat across the
landing, had helped a lot. Together they had plunged deep into the
intoxication of the shops. And several times they had gone off, a bit
defiantly, on little orgies. They would go to the matinee, and then have
a chocolate ice-cream soda at Huyler's, and called that "having a fling."
All this, of course, had been impossible when Charles-Norton had been
about. But why? Oh, because he worked so hard, and there wasn't much,
there wasn't so much----
Dolly paused and blushed. "Oh, that money," she said deprecatingly;
"that horrid, horrid mon----"
She rose to her feet to a sudden new thought and went into her room,
where from beneath ribbons, stockings, gloves, and theater-programmes,
she drew out of a drawer a little yellow book and a longer, more narrow,
green one.
When she returned, she was a bit pale, and sank rather limply into her
chair. "Ooh," she exclaimed disconsolately; "ooh, now I've _got_ to get
to him; get to him _soon_!"
Go to him. But where--how--where?
She knew where he was now, it is true--but only relatively. The first
report of his antics had come from a little town in the California
foothills; the second from a summer resort in a Valley of the Californian
Sierra. He was being reported pretty well all over the United States now,
but the first news in all probability were the only valuable clew. They
were desolately vague though. A man who flies covers much ground. Where
did he sleep? Where was his lair--or his nest, rather? It was sleeping,
not flying, that he was to be caught. How could she locate him? It would
take time, to do this, and money. And the check-book--oh, Lordie, that
check-book!
Little Dolly, always at the bottom a pretty level-headed creature, had
become wonderfully patient in the past month. Patient with a
determination fixed as a star, as a law of Nature; a determination which
was stronger far than herself; which was outside herself; which she could
feel, almost, a huge pressure behind her, as of great reservoirs filled
through trickling aeons; and which astonished her. She had written of it,
once, to her aunt.
"Dear Dolly," had answered this Darwinian lady; "you are right. It is not
of you. It is of all women that have gone before you, of the millions and
millions of women who have fought, and plotted, and intrigued in order to
keep alive the spark of Life and hand it down to you. It is, Dolly, the
Persistence of Woman; the inexorable persistence of Woman, Dolly, holding
Man. Holding Man, Dolly, in spite of his superior physical strength, of
his superior brutality; holding him through the ages. The terrific
persistence of Woman holding Man, Dolly, Man--the restless, the moody,
the incomprehensible; the erratic one, ever dissatisfied, ever bounding
to the end of his chain in blind surges toward painted things of the air
which _we_ know do not exist.
"Oh, no; you cannot help it, dear little Dolly. Cling, Dolly, cling!"
"That's horrid," Dolly had said, when she had finished this epistle.
And then, after a while, but this time with a smile; "how _perfectly_
horrid!"
But now, this patience, this persistence, was indeed a precious thing. It
enabled her to wait calmly for the turn of chance which would enable her
to find Charles-Norton. She read the papers every day. Truth to tell,
they promised little help, for by this time they were announcing
Charles-Norton simultaneously in New Orleans, Quebec, Key West, and
Victoria. Wisely, Dolly had preserved the first clippings. And after all,
it was from the papers that was to come the solution. The paper, one
morning, after describing appearances of Charles-Norton in Vladivostock,
Paris, and Timbuctoo, had slid from her knees to the floor, when her eyes
lit upon an advertisement on the up-turned back-page.
BISON BILLIAM
AND
HIS WORLD-RENOWNED WILD-WEST SHOW
PERMANENTLY
NOW
AT THE HIPPODROME
NIGHTLY
* * * * *
HENRIQUE FARMANO, IN HIS AEROPLANE,
WILL FLY FIFTY FEET!!
"Ooh!" said Dolly, suddenly clapping both her hands to her heart; "ooh,
I've got it!"
She sat there, a little weak with excitement, while a rosiness came to
her cheeks and a light in her eyes. "Yes," she said at length; "yes;
that's it!"
Upon which she dressed very carefully, put on her hat, and went downtown
to the Hippodrome.
Once there, she hesitated a moment before the glazed-glass door with its
shining brass plate, then knocked like a little mouse. A big bass voice
told her to come in.
The owner of the voice was seated at the desk, leaning back in his
rolling-chair, a big firecracker of a cigar in the corner of his mouth.
His feet were on the desk, and Dolly noticed them first: they were
encased in high-heeled boots that seemed very soft and fitted like
gloves. A soft, wide-brimmed felt hat sat rakishly upon his head. Hat,
cigar, and boots dropped to a simultaneous disappearance. The man rose,
and Dolly saw that his hair was very white and long, and cascaded in
curls to his shoulders; and that, what with this hair, the little white
goatee at the end of his chin, and the long rapier-like mustachios, of
the same color, upon his upper lip, he looked like a French musketeer of
the seventeenth century. He bowed, sweepingly. Now he was like a Spanish
grandee. But the little eyes beneath his bushy eyebrows were blue and
shrewd.
Recovering from her first movement of surprise, Dolly made straight for
the desk, her eyes set, her lips firm. "Mr. Bison Billiam?" she asked.
He bowed again in assent. "And at your service, madam," he said, and bent
his head down toward her in courteous attention.
But at the first rush of words from her, an agitation came over him; his
shrewd little eyes flitted here and there about the room as though
suspicious. He stopped her with a wide gesture. "Sh-sh," he hissed
gently; "this is very important indeed; we must not be overheard. Won't
you step into my private office. Do me this favor," he asked, opening a
heavily-paneled door behind him.
Dolly had a glimpse of a broad polished mahogany table, of heavy chairs.
She went in; he followed her; the door closed.
Fifteen minutes later, she stood again at the outer door, Bison Billiam,
knob in hand, arching above her in deferential leave-taking. "I will see
to everything," he assured her; "everything. This is certainly most
worthy of being looked into. And I shall do it myself. Myself," he
repeated, emphasizing the two little syllables as though that fact were
of tremendous importance; "myself." He bowed again, to the ground. The
door closed.
Dolly, alone on the landing, suddenly slid the length of the hall in an
airy jig. "Oh," she said, "we're going to be rich. I'll have a butler;
and things!"
"Clang!" went the elevator, stopping at the floor. Dolly abruptly became
again a very dignified little lady. Once out on the street, however, she
went straightway to the milliner's, where she purchased almost with the
last of her bank account the coveted fall hat. It was a furry toque, with
a white aigrette; it came down to her ears and made her look like a
little Cossack.