"Sure I'll come up. My name's Valentine Mitchel. I can't shake hands
just now. It's been a long time since I've talked to any one who doesn't
say 'deez' and 'doze.'"
When, later in the day, they walked toward Hugo's home, he was at a loss
to explain Charlotte. The young painter would not understand why he, a
college man, chose so ignorant a mate. On the other hand, he owed it to
Charlotte to keep their secret and he was not obliged to make any
explanation.
Valentine Mitchel was, however, a young man of some sensitivity. If he
winced at Charlotte's "Pleased to meetcher," he did not show it. Later,
after an excellent and hilarious meal, he must have guessed the
situation. He went home reluctantly and Hugo was delighted with him. He
had been urbane and filled with anecdotes of Greenwich Village and
art-school life, of Paris, whither his struggling footsteps had taken
him for a hallowed year. And with his acceptance of Hugo came an equally
warm pleasure in Charlotte's company.
"He's a good little kid," Charlotte said.
"Yes. I'm glad I picked him up."
The gala opening of Hogarth's Studio of Strength took place a few nights
afterwards. It proved even more successful than Smoots had hoped. The
flamboyant advertising posters attracted crowds to see the man who could
set a bear trap with his teeth, who could pull an angry boa constrictor
into a straight line. Before ranks of gaping faces that were supplanted
by new ranks every hour, Hugo performed. Charlotte, resplendent in a
black dress that left her knees bare, and a red sash that all but
obliterated the dress, helped Hugo with his ponderous props, setting off
his strength by contrast, and sold the pamphlets Hugo had written at
Smoots's suggestion--pamphlets that purported to give away the secret
of Hogarth's phenomenal muscle power. Valentine Mitchel watched the
entire performance.
When it was over, he said to Hugo: "Now you better beat it back and get
a hot bath. You're probably all in."
"Yes," Charlotte said. "Come. I myself will bathe you."
Hugo grinned. "Hell, no. Now we're all going on a bender to celebrate.
We'll eat at Villapigue's and we'll take a moonlight sail."
They went together, marvelling at his vitality, gay, young, and living
in a world that they managed to forget did not exist. The night was
warm. The days that followed were warmer. The crowds came and the brassy
music hooted and coughed over them night and day.
There are, in the lives of almost every man and woman, certain brief
episodes that, enduring for a long or a short time, leave in the memory
a sense of completeness. To those moments humanity returns for refuge,
for courage, and for solace. It was of such material that Hugo's next
two months were composed. The items of it were nearly all sensuous: the
sound of the sea when he sat in the sand late at night with Charlotte;
the whoop and bellow of the merry-go-round that spun and glittered
across the street from his tent; the inarticulate breathing and the
white-knuckled clenchings of the crowd as it lifted its face to his
efforts, for each of which he assumed a slow, painful motion that
exaggerated its difficulty; the smell of the sea, intermingled with a
thousand man-made odors; the faint, pervasive scent of Charlotte that
clung to him, his clothes, his house; the pageant of the people, always
in a huge parade, going nowhere, celebrating nothing but the functions
of living, loud, garish, cheap, splendid; breakfasts at his table with
his woman's voluptuousness abated in the bright sunlight to little more
than a reminiscence and a promise; the taste of beer and pop-corn and
frankfurters and lobster and steak; the affable, talkative company of
Valentine Mitchel.
Only once that he could recall afterwards did he allow his intellect to
act in any critical direction, and that was in a conversation with the
young artist. They were sitting together in the sand, and Charlotte,
browned by weeks of bathing, lay near by. "Here I am," Mitchel said with
an unusual thoughtfulness, "with a talent that should be recognized,
wanting to be an illustrator, able to be one, and yet forced to dawdle
with this horrible business to make my living."
Hugo nodded. "You'll come through--some winter--and you won't ever
return to Coney Island."
"I know it. Unless I do it for sentimental reasons some day--in a
limousine."
"It's myself," Hugo said then, "and not you who is doomed to--well, to
this sort of thing. You have a talent that is at least understandable
and--" he was going to say mediocre. He checked himself--"applicable in
the world of human affairs. My talent--if it is a talent--has no place,
no application, no audience."
Mitchel stared at Hugo, wondering first what that talent might be and
then recognizing that Hugo meant his strength. "Nonsense. Any male in
his right senses would give all his wits to be as strong as you are."
It was a polite, friendly thing to say. Hugo could not refrain from
comparing himself to Valentine Mitchel. An artist--a clever artist and
one who would some day be important to the world. Because people could
understand what he drew, because it represented a level of thought and
expression. He was, like Hugo, in the doldrums of progress. But Mitchel
would emerge, succeed, be happy--or at least satisfied with
himself--while Hugo was bound to silence, was compelled never to allow
himself full expression. Humanity would never accept and understand him.
They were not similar people, but their case was, at that instant,
ironically parallel. "It isn't only being strong," he answered
meditatively, "but it's knowing what to do with your strength."
"Why--there are a thousand things to do."
"Such as?"
Mitchel raised himself on his elbows and turned his water-coloured eyes
on the populous beach. "Well--well--let's see. You could, of course, be
a strong man and amuse people--which you're doing. You could--oh, there
are lots of things you could do."
Hugo smiled. "I've been thinking about them--for years. And I can't
discover any that are worth the effort."
"Bosh!"
Charlotte moved close to him. "There's one thing you can do, honey, and
that's enough for me."
"I wonder," Hugo said with a seriousness the other two did not perceive.
The increased heat of August suggested by its very intensity a shortness
of duration, an end of summer. Hugo began to wonder what he would do
with Charlotte when he went back to Webster. He worried about her a good
deal and she, guessing the subject of his frequent fits of silence, made
a resolve in her tough and worldly mind. She had learned more about
certain facets of Hugo than he knew himself. She realized that he was
superior to her and that, in almost any other place than Coney Island,
she would be a liability to him. The thought that he would have to
desert her made Hugo very miserable. He knew that he would miss
Charlotte and he knew that the blow to her might spell disaster. After
all, he thought, he had not improved her morals or raised her vision. He
did not realize that he had made both almost sublime by the mere act of
being considerate. "White," Charlotte called it.
Nevertheless she was not without an intense sense of self-protection,
despite her condition on the night he had found her. She knew that
womankind lived at the expense of mankind. She saw the emotional
respect in which Valentine Mitchel unwittingly held Hugo. He had
scarcely spoken ten serious words to her. She realized that the artist
saw her as a property of his friend. That, in a way, made her valuable.
It was a subtle advantage, which she pressed with all the skill it
required. One night when Hugo was at work and the chill of autumn had
breathed on the hot shore, she told Valentine that he was a very nice
boy and that she liked him very much. He went away distraught, which was
what she had intended, and he carried with him a new and as yet
inarticulate idea, which was what she had foreseen.
He believed that he loved her. He told himself that Hugo was going to
desert her, that she would be forsaken and alone. At that point, she
recited to him the story of her life and the tale of her rescue by Hugo
and said at the end that she would be very lonely when Hugo was gone.
Because Hugo had loved her, Mitchel thought she contained depths and
values which did not appear. That she contained such depths neither man
really knew then. Both of them learned it much later. Mitchel found
himself in that very artistic dilemma of being in love with his friend's
mistress. It terrified his romantic soul and it involved him
inextricably.
When she felt that the situation had ripened to the point of action, she
waited for the precise moment. It came swiftly and in a better guise
than she had hoped. On a night in early September, when the crowds had
thinned a little, Hugo was just buckling himself into the harness that
lifted the horse. The spectators were waiting for the dénouement with
bickering patience. Charlotte was standing on the platform, watching him
with expressionless eyes. She knew that soon she would not see Hugo any
more. She knew that he was tired of his small show, that he was chafing
to be gone; and she knew that his loyalty to her would never let him go
unless it was made inevitable by her. The horse was ready. She watched
the muscles start out beneath Hugo's tawny skin. She saw his lips set,
his head thrust back. She worshipped him like that. Unemotionally, she
saw the horse lifted up from the floor. She heard the applause. There
was a bustle at the gate.
Half a dozen people entered in single file. Three young men. Three
girls. They were intoxicated. They laughed and spoke in loud voices. She
saw by their clothes and their manner that they were rich. Slumming in
Coney Island. She smiled at the young men as she had always smiled at
such young men, friendlily, impersonally. Hugo did not see their
entrance. They came very near.
"My God, it's Hugo Danner!"
Hugo heard Lefty's voice and recognized it. The horse was dropped to the
floor. He turned. An expression of startled amazement crossed his
features. Chuck, Lefty, Iris, and three people whom he did not know were
staring at him. He saw the stupefied recognition on the faces of his
friends. One despairing glance he cast at Charlotte and then he went on
with his act.
They waited for him until it was over. They clasped him to their bosoms.
They acknowledged Charlotte with critical glances. "Come on and join the
party," they said.
After that, their silence was worse than any questions. They talked
freely and merrily enough, but behind their words was a deep reserve.
Lefty broke it when he had an opportunity to take Hugo aside. "What in
hell is eating you? Aren't you coming back to Webster?"
"Sure. That is--I think so. I had to do this to make some money. Just
about the time school closed, my family went broke."
"But, good God, man, why didn't you tell us? My father is an alumnus and
he'd put up five thousand a year, if necessary, to see you kept on the
football team."