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In one night she had passed the turning-point from girlhood to womanhood, from womanhood to wifehood, and there had been no love, no faith, no glamour even, in the act. She had deliberately sold herself; she wearily wondered where the new road led surely not to happiness. Toward evening Adoree Demorest telephoned, and with many anticipatory exclamations of pleasure invited Lorelei to dine.
My dear fellow, do you realize that " He swung into his pet subject so swiftly that Bob could not head him off and was forced to listen somewhat dazedly. Lorelei reached forth and drew Adoree down to her, whispering: "I'm so glad, dear. I knew he would end by loving you, for everybody does." Pope concluded a lengthy harangue by saying: "My mistake last year was in the food. Ducks need soft food."
The knowledge of his shortcomings robbed him of confidence and helped to confuse him. Adoree rose, she removed her tango cap and the mantle elaborately draped from one shoulder that served as an evening wrap, then with a lingering backward glance she disappeared into her chamber.
It's nearly theater-time," she told him. "It's one of the penalties of this business that nothing must hold the curtain; but I'll be back the minute the show is over." "Lorelei needs you." Adoree nodded; her eyes met Bob's squarely, and he saw that they were wet. Her face was tender, and in spite of her grotesquely affected toilette she appeared very simple and womanly at this moment.
Sometimes it seems to me that I can soar heavenward on the wings of of melody and get close enough to make myself heard. In my own way I was sort of praying for those two children. Foolish, isn't it? I'm sorry I told you. It sounds nutty to me when I stop to consider it." Pope stirred uneasily under Adoree's gravely speculative eyes. "Lorelei's all right?" Adoree nodded. "It's a boy."
An hour later Adoree tiptoed back to the piano after a surreptitious peek into the back room, whence nothing but the faintest murmurs issued. Her face was radiant. "You've played some high-priced divorce lawyer out of a good case, Mr. Cricket," she beamed on Campbell. "She's in his lap." Pope's rippling fingers paused, his hands dropped, and he sighed.
This change, this new life, I owe, next to God, to you, ma très chère, mon adorée Jeanneton to you who do not heat me occasionally, like an alcohol flame, but work in my heart like warming fire. Some one is knocking. Visit from the co-director, who complains of the people who will not pay their school taxes. The man asks me whether my fiancée is tall. "Oh yes; rather."
The doctor heard him fumbling at the bedroom door and admitted him; then a low, aching cry of disappointment sounded, and Adoree Demorest bowed her head upon her arms. When Bob groped his way back into the living-room his look was ghastly; his face was damp; his eyes were desperate. "She sent me away," he whispered. "Poor thing!" He winced at Adoree's tone. "God! I heard her when she saw you.
All the evening Victorine played the tunes the music-master gave her, and once or twice broke into a song of joy; but when I asked her to try the one beginning "Ma cruelle adorée," she looked green, and said she was tired, and would go to bed. Then Jean and I had a game of billiards we often do now after dinner.
Be it understood that the Machine-Fixer was human, that he would take a letter provided he liked the sender and deliver it to the sender's adoree without a murmur. That was simply a good deed done for a friend; it did not imply that he approved of the friend's choice, which for strictly moral reasons he invariably and to the friend's very face violently deprecated. It was in fact inevitable.
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