These poor telegraph operators! The honey they have to transmit must fairly stick to the wires and gum up the keys.
Winfield determined5 to go, anyway—and to surprise her. He set out without warning and flew to the theater as soon as he reached New York. The tip-loving doorman
declined so fiercely to take his card in that he frightened the poor swain out of the proffer6 of a bribe7.
While Winfield loitered irresolutely8 near the stage entrance an actor strolled out to snatch a few puffs9 of a cigarette while he was not needed. Winfield was about to
ask him to tell Miss Kemble that Mr. Winfield was waiting for her. He saw that the actor was Eldon.
He dodged10 behind the screen of a fire-escape from the gallery and slunk away unobserved. There was no fire-escape in his soul from the conflagration11 of jealousy12 that
shot up at the sight of his rival, and the thought that Eldon was spending his days in Sheila’s company, while her affianced lover gnashed his teeth outside.
He hung about like Mary’s lamb for meekness13 and like Red Riding-Hood’s wolf for wrath14. He would wait for Sheila to come out for lunch. Hours passed. He saw Eldon
dash across the street to a little restaurant and return with a cup of coffee and a bundle of sandwiches. Ye gods, he was feeding her!
With all a lover’s fiendish ingenuity15 in devising tortures for himself, Winfield transported his soul from the vat16 of boiling oil to the rack and the cell of Little
Ease and back again. He imagined the most ridiculous scenes in the theater and suspected Sheila of such treacheries that if he had really believed them he would surely
have been cured of his love.
He saw that a policeman was regarding him with suspicion, and since he was faint with torture on an empty stomach, he went to a restaurant to kill time. When he
returned he waited an hour before he ventured to steal upon the stage-door keeper again. Then he learned that the rehearsal3 had been dismissed two hours before. Aching
with rage, he taxicabbed to Sheila’s hotel. She had not returned. Out riding with Eldon somewhere no doubt!
He went to the railroad station. He would escape from the hateful town where there was nothing but perfidy17 and vice18. He called up the hotel to bid Sheila a bitter
farewell. Pennock answered and informed him that Sheila had been at the dressmaker’s all afternoon and was just returned, so dead that Pennock had made her take a
nap. She shouldn’t be disturbed till she woke, no, not for a dozen Winfields, especially as she had an evening rehearsal.
Winfield returned to her hotel and hung about like a process-server. He waited in the lobby, reading the evening papers, one after another, from “ears” to tail. He
telephoned up to Pennock till she forbade the operator to ring the bell again.
The big fellow was almost hysterical19 when a hall-boy called him to the telephone-booth. He heard Sheila’s voice. She was fairly squealing20 with delight at his
Sheila had just learned of Winfield’s arrival. She promised to be down as soon as she had scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She invited him to take her to dinner at
Claremont before she went back to “the morgue,” as she called the theater—and meant it, for she was fagged out. Everything was wrong with the play, the cast, and,
worst of all, with her costumes.
There was further tantalism for Bret in the greeting in the hotel lobby. A formal hand-clasp and a more ardent22 eye-clasp were all they dared venture. The long bright
summer evening made it impossible to steal kisses in the taxicab, except a few snapshots caught as they ran under the elevated road. But they held hands and wrung
fingers and talked rapturous nonsense.
The view of the Hudson was supremely24 beautiful from the restaurant piazza25, until Reben arrived with his old Diana Rhys and the two of them filled the landscape like
another Storm King and Dunderberg.
Mrs. Rhys had for some time resented Reben’s interest in Sheila and had made life infernal for him. She began on him at the table. He was furious with humiliation26 and
swarthier with jealousy of the unknown occupant of the chair opposite Sheila.
Sheila explained to Winfield in hasty asides that she was in hot water. Reben did not like to have her appear in public places at all, and then only with the strictest
chaperonage.
“It isn’t that, honey,” Sheila said, “it’s business. He says that actresses, of all people, should lead secluded28 lives because—who wants to pay two dollars to
see a woman who can be seen all over town for nothing? He’s planning a regular convent life for me, and he’s shutting down on all the personal publicity30. I’m glad
of it—for I really belong to you.
“Reben wants me to be especially strict because I’ve got to play innocent young girls, and he says that many a promising31 actress has killed herself commercially with
the nice people, by thinking that it was none of the public’s business what she did outside the theater. Of course it isn’t really their business in a way, but the
public make it so.
“And you can’t wonder at it. I know I’m not prudish32 or narrow, but when I see a play where a character is supposed to be terribly ignorant and pathetic and
trusting, it sort of hurts the illusion when I know that the actress is really a hateful cat who has broken up a dozen homes.
“So you see Reben’s right. He’d come over here now and send me home if old Rhys would let him. He’s dying to know who you are. But of course I won’t tell him.”
This did not comfort Winfield in the least. It angered him, too, to think of Reben as right about anything; and he felt no thanks to him for his counsels of prudence33.
When it is insisted too strenuously34 that honesty is good policy, even honesty becomes suspect.
The tête-à-tête and the dinner were ruined and it was not yet dark enough on the way back to permit any of the embraces and kisses that Winfield was famished35 for. He
took no pleasure even in the spectacular sunset along the Hudson—miles of assorted36 crimsons37 in the sky, with the cool green Palisades as a barrier between the radiant
heavens and the long panel of the mirror-river that told the sky how beautiful it was.
Winfield was completely dissatisfied with life. It was peculiarly distressing38 to be so deeply in love with so dear a girl so deeply in love in turn, and to have her
profession and its necessities brandished39 like a flaming sword between them.
This experience is likely to play an increasing part in the romances of the future as more and more women claim a larger and larger share of life outside the home.
Existence has always been a process of readjustments, but certainly at no time in history has there been such a revolution as this in the relations of man and woman.
From now on numbers of husbands will learn what wives have endured for ages in waiting for the spouse40 to come home from the shop.
The usual pattern of emotion was almost ludicrously reversed when Winfield took his sweetheart to her factory and left her at the door to resume her overtime41 night-
Winfield hated the situation with all the ferocity of a lover denied, and all the indignation of an old-fashioned youth who believed in taking the woman of his choice
under his wing to protect her from the world.
But he had chosen a girl who proposed to conquer the world and who would find the shadow under his wing too close. He felt himself as feeble and misallied as a ring-
dove mated with a falcon44. She was an artist, a public idol45, while he at best was as obscure as a vice-president; he was only the indolent heir of a self-made man.
He dawdled46 about, revolting against his dependency, till Sheila finished her rehearsal. Then she met him and they rode through the moonlit Park. She loved him
immensely, but she was so exhausted47 that she fell asleep in his arm. He kissed the wan29 little moon of her face as it lay back on his shoulder. He loved her with all
his might. He loved her enough to take her home to her hotel and surrender her to herself while he moped away to his own hotel.
The next day it was the same story except that she promised to ask for a respite48 at the luncheon49 hour and meet him at a restaurant near the theater. The appointment
was for one o’clock. He waited until two-thirty before she appeared. And then she had only time to tell him that Reben had given her a merciless scolding for her
escapade of the evening before.
Winfield expressed his desire to punch Reben’s head, and Sheila rejoiced at having a champion, even though (or perhaps because) the champion claimed her more
exclusively than Reben did.
Bret had to endure another dismal50 wait until dinner, and then there was again an evening rehearsal. The time of production was approaching and Batterson was growing
demoniac. After the rehearsal Bret from across the street watched all the other members of the company leave the theater. Even Eldon came forth51, but not Sheila.
Another hour Bret spent of watchful52 waiting, and then she appeared with Reben and Prior. They had been having a consultation53 and a quarrel, and they continued it to
the hotel, Sheila not daring to shake them off. Winfield shadowed them along the street, and waited outside till they left the hotel; then he made haste to find
Sheila.
She was distraught between the demands of her play and her lover. Revisions had been made and she had a new scene to learn and a new interpretation54 of the character to
achieve before morning. The only crumb55 of good news was the fact that Reben was to be out of town the next day and she could sneak56 Winfield in to watch a rehearsal, if
he wanted to come.
He wanted to exceedingly. It was one way of borrowing trouble.
He stole in at the front of the house and sat in the empty dark, unobserved, but not unobserving. He had the wretched privilege of watching Eldon make love to Sheila
and take her in his arms. A dozen embraces were tried before Batterson could find just the attitude to suit him. And that did not suit Sheila.
Partly because it is almost impossible for a man to show a woman how she would act, and partly because Sheila could almost see Bret’s gaze blazing from the dark like
The stage-manager was reaching his ugly phase, and after leaving Sheila in Eldon’s clasp for ten minutes while he tried her arms in various poses, all of them
awkward, he walked to the table where Prior sat and muttered:
“Her mother would have grasped it in a minute. Isn’t it funny that the children of great actors are always damned fools?”
The whole company overheard and Winfield rose to his feet in a fury. But he heard Sheila say to Eldon, for Batterson’s benefit:
“Why, I didn’t know that Mr. Batterson’s parents were great actors, did you?”
Batterson caught this as Sheila intended, and he flew into one of the passions that were to be expected about this time. He slammed the manuscript on the table and
made the usual bluff58 of walking out. Sheila did not follow. She sank into a chair and made signals to the invisible Bret not to interfere59, as she knew he was about to
do.
He understood her meaning and restrained his impulse to climb over the footlights once more.
Batterson fought it out with himself, then came back, and with a sigh of heavenly resignation resumed the rehearsal. The company was refreshed by the divertisement and
Sheila and Batterson were as amiable60 as two warriors61 after a truce62. The embrace was speedily agreed upon.
“To think that my wife-to-be must stand up there and let a mucker like that stage-manager swear at her! Good Lord! I’ll break his head!”
Sheila wondered how long she would be able to endure these alternating currents, but she put off despair and cooed:
“Now, honey, you can’t go around breaking all the heads in town. You mustn’t think anything of it. Poor old Batty is excited, and so are we all. It’s just a
business dispute. It’s always this way when the production is near.”
“And are you going to let that fellow Eldon fondle you like that?”
“Why, honey dear, it’s in the manuscript!”
“Then you can cut it out. I won’t have it, I tell you! What kind of a dog do you think I am that I’m to let other men hug my wife?”
“But it’s only in public, dearest, that he hugs me.”
At the recurrence64 of this extraordinary logic65 Winfield simply opened his mouth like a fish on land. He was suffocating66 with too much air.
Sheila and he kept silence a moment. They were remembering the somewhat similar dispute in another moonlit scene, at Clinton. Only then he was an audacious flirter;
now he was a conservative fiancé. Her logic was the same, but he had veered67 to the opposite side. She murmured, dolefully:
“You don’t understand the stage very well, do you, dear?”
“No, I don’t!” he growled68. “And I don’t want to. It’s no place for a woman. You’ve got to give it up.”
“I’ve promised to, honey, as soon as I can.”
“Well, in the mean while, you’ve got to cut out that hugging business with Eldon—or anybody else. I won’t have it, that’s all!”
To her intense amazement69 Sheila was flattered by this overweening tyranny. She rejoiced at her lover’s wealth of jealousy, the one supreme23 proof of true love in a
woman’s mind, a proof that is weightier than any tribute of praise or jewelry70 or toil71 or sacrifice.
She said she would see if the embrace could be omitted. The next day Reben sat in the orchestra and she went down to sit at his side. She did not mention Winfield’s
“Do you know something? I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s a mistake to have that embrace in the second act. It seems to me to—er—to anticipate the climax74.”
“That’s so! I always say that once the hero and heroine clinch76, the play’s over. We’ll just cut it there, and save it to the end of the last act.”
Sheila, flushed with her victory, pressed further:
“And that’s another point. Wouldn’t it be more—er—artistic if you didn’t show the embrace even then—just have the lovers start toward each other and ring down
so that the curtain drops before they embrace? It would be novel, and it would leave something to the audience’s imagination.”
Reben was skeptical77 of this: “We might try it in one of the tank towns, but I’m afraid the people will be sore if they don’t see the lovers brought together for at
least one good clutch. Nothing like trying things out, though.”
Sheila was tempted78 to ask him not to tell Batterson that it was her idea. The fear was unnecessary. Any advice that Reben accepted became at once his own idea. He
advanced to the orchestra rail and told Batterson to “cut out both clutches.”
Batterson consented with ill grace and Eldon looked so crestfallen79, so humiliated80, that Sheila hastened to reassure81 him that it was nothing personal. But he was not
convinced.
He was enduring bitter days. His love for Sheila would not expire. She treated him with the greatest formality. She paid him the deference82 belonging to a leading man.
She was more gracious and more zealous83 for his success than most stars are. But he read in her eyes no glimmer84 of the old look.
He hoped that this was simply because she was too anxious and too busy to consider him, and that once the play was prosperously launched she would have time to love
him.
This comfort sustained him through the loss of the two embraces. He could not have imagined that Sheila had cut them out to please Winfield, of whose presence in her
environs he never dreamed.
At dinner that evening Sheila told Bret how she had brought about the excision85 of the two embraces. He was as proud as Lucifer and she rejoiced in having contrived86 his
happiness. This was her chief ambition now. She was thinking more of him and his peace than of her own success or of that disturbance87 of the public peace which makes
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1
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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hideously
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| adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地 | |
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rehearsal
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| n.排练，排演；练习 | |
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rehearsals
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| n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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proffer
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| v.献出，赠送；n.提议，建议 | |
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bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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10
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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12
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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meekness
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| n.温顺，柔和 | |
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14
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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15
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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16
vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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perfidy
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| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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19
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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squealing
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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27
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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28
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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29
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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32
prudish
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| adj.装淑女样子的，装规矩的，过分规矩的；adv.过分拘谨地 | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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strenuously
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| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
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famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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crimsons
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| 变为深红色（crimson的第三人称单数形式） | |
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distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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brandished
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| v.挥舞( brandish的过去式和过去分词 )；炫耀 | |
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spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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overtime
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| adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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falcon
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| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
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idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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dawdled
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| v.混（时间）( dawdle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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51
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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54
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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55
crumb
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| n.饼屑，面包屑，小量 | |
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56
sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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57
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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58
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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59
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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60
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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62
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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ursine
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| adj.似熊的，熊的 | |
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recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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67
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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68
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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69
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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70
jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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71
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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72
craftily
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| 狡猾地，狡诈地 | |
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73
insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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74
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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75
snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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76
clinch
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| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
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77
skeptical
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| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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78
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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79
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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80
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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81
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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82
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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83
zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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84
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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85
excision
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| n.删掉；除去 | |
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86
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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87
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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88
acrobats
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| n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 )；立场观点善变的人，主张、政见等变化无常的人 | |
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