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There were a couple of Americans in the hall who had been watching him for weeks, and they began to investigate the case. Arlt, it seems, hadn't eaten anything for two days; and, just as he had started for the concert, he had received legal notice that the next day his mother and sister would be turned into the street, because the rent was unpaid." "And then?"
We shall just get into the midst of a little rational conversation, though, and two or three stupid people will come in and reduce us to talking about the weather." "You might send out cards," Arlt suggested, with the hesitating accent which was so characteristic of him. "Why not announce that on Tuesdays you are at home to clever people and friends only?"
"Now, when you get hard up for ideas, Arlt, when you actually can't get enough out of your gray matter to fill up your pattern, you go off somewhere and study something. Now, if I " "What have you to do with it, Bobby?" Miss Gannion queried. "I represent literature, of course, just as Arlt represents music. If I were to go off and study something, what would you all think?"
I am very sorry; but I shall be unable to accept your invitation." There was no underlying rancor in the slow, deliberate syllables; they were merely the statement of an indisputable fact. Most women would have accepted them in silence. Not so with Mrs. Lloyd Avalons. "But you played for Miss Van Osdel, last week," she persisted. Arlt rose to his feet.
Arlt, there might be a question. Legitimate slumming presupposes two willing parties, the slummer and the slummed." "In other words," Bobby added; "it is socially possible to foregather with the slum in the next ward; it is death to speak to the undesirable neighbor in the back alley. The fact is ordained; but it will take several generations of social scientists to ferret out the cause."
"All in all," he answered quietly; "from my slight knowledge of the teeming millions who are standing in line before the portals of American literature, I think the establishment of such a school ought to be the first duty of a self-respecting American government." Thayer, meanwhile, was preparing for a longer absence from America than even Arlt was aware.
Thayer untied his necktie with a long, deliberate pull, and made a second attempt to arrange it to his liking. At length he turned from the mirror and faced Arlt. "Would you be willing to allow Katarina to take such a risk?" "No," Arlt answered honestly, after an interval. Neither man spoke for some time.
You must be perfect or peculiar. The latter alternative is the greater help. If Arlt would grow a head of hair, or wear a dinner napkin instead of a necktie, it would improve his chances wonderfully." "But, if the right people would take him up?" Thayer suggested. "They won't; or, if they do, they'll drop him as a monkey drops a hot chestnut.
Heart and soul, he was working for the boy's success, for he realized that into this simple overture Arlt had put the very best of himself, that the young composer's happiness was bound up in the success or failure of his maiden effort. The creative power had come upon him; he had worked to the utmost limit with the material ready to his brain.
For this reason it was a distinct honor, Thayer was told, to be bidden to sing for Mrs. Lloyd Avalons, and therefore Thayer had promptly made up his mind that Arlt also should have a hearing upon this occasion. The boy already had decided to come to America. Thayer realized with regret how cold a welcome the country of his own ancestors was accustomed to extend to struggling young musicians.
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