FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37  
38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>   >|  
dress with grotesquely painted face. They were all talking at the same time, and at intervals Fletcher muttered hotly: "This time she leaves the bill or I walk out of the theatre!" Then a clear voice cried: "Me voila!" and a dainty apparition in an ermine wrap tripped into the centre of the group, tapped the manager lightly on the shoulder and said: "Allons! I am ready!" Mr. Mackwayte's face creased its mask of paint into a thousand wrinkles. For, on seeing him, the dancer's face lighted up, and, running to him with hands outstretched, she cried: "Tiens! Monsieur Arthur!" while he ejaculated: "Why, it's little Marcelle!" But now the stage manager interposed. He whisked Madame's wrap off her with one hand and with the other, firmly propelled her on to the stage. She let him have his way with a merry smile, dark eyes and white teeth flashing, but as she went she said to Mr. Mackwayte: "My friend, wait for me! Et puis nous causerons! We will 'ave a talk, nest-ce pas?" "A very old friend of mine, my dear," Mr. Mackwayte said to Barbara when, dressed in his street clothes, he rejoined her in the wings where she stood watching Nur-el-Din dancing. "She was an acrobat in the Seven Duponts, a turn that earned big money in the old days. It must be... let's see... getting on for twenty years since I last set eyes on her. She was a pretty kid in those days! God bless my soul! Little Marcelle a big star! It's really most amazing!" Directly she was off the stage, Nur-el-Din came straight to Mr. Mackwayte, pushing aside her maid who was waiting with her wrap. "My friend," she cooed in her pretty broken English, "I am so glad, so glad to see you. And this is your girl... ah! she 'as your eyes, Monsieur Arthur, your nice English gray eyes! Such a big girl... ah! but she make me feel old!" She laughed, a pretty gurgling laugh, throwing back her head so that the diamond collar she was wearing heaved and flashed. "But you will come to my room, hein?" she went on. "Marie, my wrap!" and she led the way to the lift. Nur-el-Din's spacious dressing-room seemed to be full of people and flowers. All her little court was assembled amid a perfect bower of hot-house blooms and plants. Head and shoulders above everybody else in the room towered the figure of an officer in uniform, with him another palpable Englishman in evening dress. Desmond Okewood thought he had never seen anything in his life more charming tha
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37  
38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Mackwayte
 

pretty

 

friend

 

Monsieur

 

Arthur

 
Marcelle
 
English
 

manager

 

broken

 

waiting


Directly

 
charming
 

twenty

 

amazing

 

straight

 

pushing

 

Little

 

uniform

 

flowers

 

officer


figure
 

people

 

spacious

 
dressing
 
towered
 
blooms
 
plants
 

assembled

 

perfect

 

Desmond


laughed

 
gurgling
 

thought

 

Okewood

 

shoulders

 
evening
 

throwing

 

Englishman

 

flashed

 
palpable

heaved

 

wearing

 

diamond

 
collar
 

Allons

 

creased

 

shoulder

 

lightly

 

tripped

 
centre