Just Around the Corner Part 41

"Aw--aw, Del darlin'--honest, I--I don't know what to say, only it--only--it ain't like she was your _real_ mother, Del darlin'. You can't be hard hit over a blind old dame that used to make it hot as sixty for you."

"Poor old soul--she lived like a rat and--died like one, I guess."

"With you sending her money all the time--nixy!"

"Like a rat! Poor old maw."

Della's voice was far removed, like one who speaks through the film of a trance.

"When my old dame died I felt bad, too, but Gawd knows she wasn't peaches and cream to have around the house. And look, darlin'--Cottie's comin' now--look--Cottie's comin'!"

"Cottie--Cottie--comin'?"

"Sure she is--see, read, honey--'Am ready.'"

"Oh, Gawd, Ysobel, now that it's come I--I'm scared--she--she's such a kid--she--Ysobel--I--I'm scared--I--"

"'Sh-h-h. There he is knockin', Del. Try and smile, hon'. You know how sore a long face makes him. Maybe you won't have to go to-night, now--smile, darlin'--smile! Come in!"

The door opened with a fling, and enter Mr. Hy Myers, an unlighted cigar at a sharp oblique in one corner of his mouth, hat slightly askew, and a full-length overcoat flung open to reveal a mink lining and studded s.h.i.+rt-front.

"Gad," he said, dallying backward on his heels, his thumbs in the arm-circles of his waistcoat, and regarding the s.h.i.+ning silver figure--"Gad, girl, you're all right."

Della drew back against the dressing-table and twirled the rings on her fingers.

"I--I got bad news, Hy. I can't go to-night. Here, read for yourself."

He reached for the paper, pa.s.sing Ysobel as if she belonged to the trappings of the room.

"I--I can't--go to-night, Hy."

He read with the sharp eyes of a gray hawk of the world, and drew his coat together in a gesture of b.u.t.toning up.

"Don't pull any of that stuff on me, Beauty. Just because the old devil you've been tellin' me about--"

"Oh--you--you--"

"Them ain't real tears--you'd be laughin' in your sleeve if you had any on. Come on; step lively, Beauty. I ain't givin' this blow-out to be made a fool out of. Give her a daub of color there, Du Prez."

"Hy! She was my stepmother, and--"

"Come, Beauty, what you actin' up for? Ain't that doll you've been piping about all these months comin' now that the old woman is out of the way? Bring her on and lemme have a look at her. If she's in your cla.s.s, lemme look her over."

"Gimme--a minute, Hy. I--I just wanna send--a wire."

"Sure; tell her to come on. I'll send it for you. I'll look her over, and--"

"No--no! Let Ysobel send it. You do it, Ysobel. Here, gimme your pen, Hy."

She wrote with her breath half a moan in her throat, and her bosom heaving and flas.h.i.+ng the diamond heart.

"Send it right off, Ysobel darlin'--read it and send it off, darlin'."

She daubed a rabbit's foot under each eye and slid into the silver-fox coat.

"Read it, darlin', and send it."

Ysobel read slowly like a child spelling out its task.

Breakers--ahead. Stay at home, dearie.

DELLA.

Through eyes that were magnified through the glaze of tears Ysobel burrowed her head in the silver-fox collar.

"Oh, Del--Del darlin'--I'm wise--but, oh, my darlin'."

"Come on. Whatta you think this is, a soul-kiss scene--you two?"

"Comin', Hy--comin'."

"Della darlin'."

"Good night, Ysobel; lemme go, dearie--lemme go."

Then out through a labyrinth of stacked scenery, with her elbow in the cup of his hand, and the silver s.h.i.+mmering in the gloom.

"Gad, you will have that scrawny little hanger-on around and gettin' on my nerves! If I weren't always humorin' the daylights out of you she wouldn't spoil a ballet of mine for fifteen minutes, she--"

"It's darn little I ask out of you, but you gotta lemme have her--you gotta lemme have that much, or the whole blame show can--"

"Keep cool, there, Tragedy Queen, and watch your step! I don't want you limpin' in there to-night with a busted ankle on top of your long face."

They high-stepped through a dirty pa.s.sageway stacked with stage bric-a-brac, out into a whiff of night air, across a pavement, and into a wine-colored limousine.

He climbed in after her, throwing open the great fur collar of his coat and lighting his cigar.

They plunged forward into the white flare of Broadway, and within her plate-gla.s.s inclosure she was like a doomed queen riding to her destiny.

"Light up there, Dolly! No long face to-night! The crowd's going to be there waitin' for you. Look at me, you little devil--you little devil!"

"Gawd, what are you made of? Ain't you got _no_ feelings?"

"Tus.h.!.+ You ain't real on that talk. I know you better'n you know yourself. Ain't I told you that you can bring the little sister on and lemme look her over? There's nothin' I wouldn't do for you, Beauty. You got me crazy to-night over you. Eh! Pretty soft for a little hayseed like you!"

She smiled suddenly, flashed her teeth, cooed in her throat, and reared her white throat out of its fur like a swan rears its head out of its snowy neck.

"I--I'll be all right in a minute, Hy. Just lemme sit quiet a second, Hy. I--I'm dog-tired, encores and all. Gimme a little while to tune up--before--we get there. Just a minute, Hy."