FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  
ission in life was to bring together Society (meaning the caste of money) with the Arts (meaning those humble souls content to sell their dreams for the wherewithal to sustain life). Her passion for bromidioms always stupefied Staff--left him dazed and witless. In the present instance he could think of nothing by way of response happier than that hoary banality: "This is indeed a surprise." "Flatterer!" said Mrs. Ilkington archly. "_I'm_ not surprised," she pursued. "I might have known _you'd_ be aboard this vessel." "You must be a prophetess of sorts, then," he said, smiling. "I didn't know I was going to sail, myself, till late yesterday afternoon." "Deceiver," commented the lady calmly. "Why can't you men _ever_ be candid?" Surprise merged into some annoyance. "What do you mean?" he asked bluntly. "Oh, but two can play at that game," she assured him spiritedly. "If you won't be open with me, why should I tell all I know?" "I'm sure I don't know what you're driving at, Mrs. Ilkington." "Would it improve your understanding"--she threatened him gaily with a gem-encrusted forefinger--"if I were to tell you I met a certain person in Paris last week, who talked to me about you?" "It would not," said he stiffly. "Who--?" "Oh, well, if you _won't_ be frank!" Mrs. Ilkington's manner implied that he was a bold, bad butterfly, but that she had his entomological number, none the less. "Tell me," she changed the subject abruptly, "how goes the _great_ play?" "Three acts are written," he said in weariness of spirit, "the fourth--" "But I thought you weren't to return to America until it was _quite_ finished?" "Who told you that, please?" "Never mind, sir! How about the fourth act?" "I mean to write it _en voyage_," said he, perplexed. From whom could this woman possibly have learned so much that was intimate to himself? "You have it all mapped out, then?" she persisted. "Oh, yes; it only needs to be put on paper." "R'ally, then, it's true--isn't it--that the writing is the least part of play construction?" "Who told you that?" he asked again, this time amused. "Oh, a _very_ prominent man," she declared; and named him. Staff laughed. "A too implicit belief in that theory, Mrs. Ilkington," said he, "is responsible for the large number of perfectly good plays that somehow never get written--to say nothing of the equally large number of perfectly good playwrights who somehow never get any
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Ilkington

 

number

 

fourth

 

perfectly

 
written
 

meaning

 

America

 

thought

 

spirit

 

finished


return

 

voyage

 

perplexed

 
weariness
 
butterfly
 
entomological
 

humble

 

manner

 

implied

 

changed


subject

 

abruptly

 

learned

 
laughed
 

implicit

 

declared

 
amused
 
prominent
 

belief

 
theory

equally
 

playwrights

 
ission
 

responsible

 
Society
 

construction

 

mapped

 
persisted
 

intimate

 

possibly


writing

 
yesterday
 

afternoon

 

Deceiver

 
smiling
 

witless

 

commented

 

Surprise

 
merged
 

candid