up, "Good boy,
Jimmy!" he said, catching him a great smack on the shoulder by way of a
compliment. "And your girl ... your ... Maggy ... your ... what's her
name? Lily ... glorious! Very good indeed! Couldn't be better! Capital
idea!"

He gave a quick glance at his watch, a few words to Jimmy, to the manager,
over his shoulder, on the wing:

"All the boxes booked three weeks ahead? All the stalls? That's right!
Good-by, good luck!"

Already his broad back was disappearing through the door; had to catch the
midnight train for Cologne; presence indispensable.

"Telephone to-morrow; let me know how things go. Ta-ta!"

And Harrasford was far away.

And Lily? Lily was in her dressing-room, stupefied with delight. How soon
it was done! How simple it was! Jimmy, after all, with his scrawls and his
scribbles, with his brain-work: what a discovery he had made! She would
have liked it to last for ever, the flight on the aerobike; she still
seemed to be rushing up to the stars, to feel the coolness of the night on
her face. How funny it was, going up, up, up and out through that hole.
She was still laughing at it, with little convulsive movements of the
shoulders, and stammering out things.

When she was dressed, she received Jimmy's congratulations and
everybody's. They gave her a bouquet:

"To our little favorite!"

She answered, without knowing what she said; went home. Everything seemed
to be turning round and round. She ate a few mouthfuls, washed down with a
glass of milk; and then, suddenly, made a rush for Glass-Eye! A pillow
fight followed:

"Here, take that! Take that! And that! And that!"

Ten minutes of an epic struggle, on the bed thrown into confusion and
disorder, as after a murder; huge slaps on the firm, rounded forms; virile
smackings; and Glass-Eye, breathlessly, had to own herself beaten, to beg
for mercy.

"That'll teach them!" cried Lily, falling on the bed, panting, drunk with
joy, drunk with joy! Trampy, Mexico, Ma's insults, the jealousies, the
grudges, Daisy, the fat freaks: pooh, none of that existed for her!
Nothing remained but herself, drunk with an immense joy! She was almost
delirious, in the excess of her great happiness:

"I'll smash up their damned troupes, do you hear, Glass-Eye? There! Like
that!" And she tried to renew the fight, but her strength failed her.
"Dished and done for, their damned troupes!"

And she laughed, she burst with laughing, when she thought of their
eig