Booth Tarkington

“ MRS. ZELL had begun to cry too, she was so upset. “You mustn't cry, 'Thea,” she said. “You know how it ruins the eyes. Jane didn't mean—”
“She did!” 'Thea was stormy. She choked and sobbed and stamped her foot, and her soft voice was getting wet-sounding and hoarse. “She meant it! She knew we were acting the story of the Sleeping Beauty, didn't she? It isn't for myself I care anything about it, Mamma; it's because she spoiled the story. I was supposed to be the Beauty, wasn't I? ”

“ It seems just to happen that perhaps for a month or a year, or even longer, a girl appears to a young man to be the whole glory of life concentrated into one person; and then, all of a sudden, within half an hour, or even as short a time as five minutes, everything alters, and he doesn't see any glory about her at all. She's just the same, then, as any other girl, except that she's painful to him and other girls aren't.
I'm not speaking of mere sailorlike fickleness, but of the kind of change that came over me when I listened to 'Thea Zell carrying on the way she did with her sister. ”

“ I suppose there are “artistic” people and “modern” people who would only have thought it was beautiful, and that 'Thea's splendid loveliness had some Grecian sort of right to be disclosed so generally. In a professional ballet of the “modern” type, I doubt if I'd have thought it immoral or improper, myself—probably I shouldn't have thought anything about it at all. But to see the woman who'd been little 'Thea Zell that we all knew, Fred Cooper's wife—and everybody knew Fred, too—to see her so revealed in public, step by step, so to speak, was more than startling. ”

“ Jane didn't say anything to that, but 'Thea laughed in a caressing way she had when she was pleased, and said she was afraid some of the old-fashioned people were going to be a little shocked; the idea didn't seem to distress her. “Some of the old-timers are going to think it's pretty risqué,” she laughed. “We're fearfully modern! I'm afraid you'd better get Aunt Clara to stay away, Jane.”
“No; let her come,” Vairing cut in, before Jane could speak. “Let her come. If she's of the old school, let her come, because it will do her good to see what the revolt has established.” ”

“ I said. “If he's such a power, what's he going around getting up charity amateur shows for? 'Thea's not in her first youth any more; and though she's beautiful, she can't act any, and she can't sing any, and she can't really dance to speak of, either. You couldn't pound any sense into her head at all?”
“No,” said Jane. “And she's so happy I wasn't even able to make her angry. Poor Fred! I'm afraid he's got a trial in store for him next Wednesday night; and I'm glad the children aren't going. I'm pretty sure you and Fred and Aunt Clara and I are going to be embarrassed.” ”

“ People often speak of a girl's having “golden hair” when they really mean blonde hair or fair hair; and it's only a few times in your life when you see a head of hair that actually might have been made of gold turned into hair. That was the kind 'Thea had; it looked as if somebody had taken a pretty large fortune in gold—not new gold, but gold that's been used a little and gets a tint in it almost greenish—and had made it into the finest kind of hair for 'Thea Zell. ”

“ Fred said, pretty miserably. “Of course they explained to me it's all done to music as a sort of dance and it's 'purely symbolical,' or something; and they have to be 'real' because 'realism is absolutely art, and anybody who thinks there's anything improper about art ought to be hooted and condemned. When I objected again and wanted to know more details about the Du Barry scene, 'Thea asked me if I had minded her wearing a bathing-suit last summer, and what was the difference? She said she wouldn't stand for any 'Aunt Clara-ism,' whatever that means, and told me I must have an impure mind.” ”

“ Just by chance, apparently, a human being without any flaw, from the crown of her little gold head to the soles of her pretty little feet, had been born into a world made up of people pretty generally rather homely; and this perfect-looking person happened to be 'Thea Zell of our town. Milton Zell was what people used to call “a mighty fine-looking man,” and 'Thea's mother had been pretty, people who knew her said; yet neither of them showed anything to account for their having a daughter like 'Thea. But then, 'Thea would have been a miracle anywhere, no matter who her parents were. ”

“ The Salome one is pretty wild; there isn't any back to it at all, above the girdle, and not a great deal more in front; but I've seen ball-gowns lately almost like it. As 'Thea says, people have changed their views about such things, and I think myself that she can wear the Salome costume and not be severely criticized, except by a few old-fashioned people. The Lucrezia Borgia dress is really gorgeous, and she'll look magnificent in it. It's a little more revealing than the Salome, and I'm afraid even moderately 'modern' people will be rather shocked. The Du Barry dress is entirely modest ”

“ But when we got up the steps, she sank down on one of the porch chairs and began to cry as if her heart would break.
I thought it would kill me! It didn't seem possible to live and see that divine creature suffer. I begged her to tell me what was the matter; but she'd only say, “Nothing!” again, and go on sobbing harder. ”

“ Zell who put Fred into the Prince's part; and the Courtiers were all certain she did it because his father owned the Car Wheel Works and not because he was any handsomer than the general run of Courtiers and other people.
The scene after the one showing Fred poking around among the cobwebs and thorns outside, was inside the Castle again; and there was lots of applause for 'Thea when she was discovered asleep on a silver sofa, with the King and Queen and Courtiers draped over chairs and tables and lying around on the floor. The lights were all focused upon her, and she was a glorious sight ”

“ It comes last; so it's to be the 'extremely daring' limit, I'm afraid.”
“How?” I asked him. “Is it the old stuff about Mrs. Du Barry taking chocolate in bed?”
“No; I wish it were.” He looked at Jane, then got red again and looked away. “I suppose I'm old-fashioned, but just even to hear about it—well, it scares me! As I understand them, the Duc de Richelieu wants the King to fall in love with Madame Du Barry. 'Thea is to appear in the scene at first in an eighteenth-century French court costume, and then Richelieu, to show the King how beautiful she is—he—well, I dresses her on the stage.” ”

“ She didn't know how to go about it, and what I'm afraid of is that now she thinks she does know—through this Vairing. She thinks he's a great manager and a great actor and that if he thought enough of her 'work'—that's how she speaks of it—he could put her right into a New York theater as a star. That's what he's made her believe, and naturally it makes me nervous. When I think of the children—”
“They'd get along all right,” Jane told him. “And so would you.”
He was surprised to hear her say this, and he told her so. “You don't think it would be right in her, do you, Jane?” he asked. ”

“ Everybody had seen her or heard about her, even before she danced at the Orphan Asylum Benefit at Masonic Hall. She was about twelve then, and her costume looked as if it must have cost probably a little more than what her father made that year out of the hardware business. Nobody could tell what the dancing and so forth was all about, but you usually can't, anyhow, and don't expect to, unless there's some explanation on the program; so that didn't matter. There was a full orchestra, playing Weber's “Invitation to the Dance;” but 'Thea didn't seem to be inviting anybody to dance with her. ”

“ Things are forgotten quickly; old people go and new people come, as the town grows; and Jane was relieved to find that this temporary return of 'Thea's didn't make any stir at all.
Fred had married again, two years after she left him; and the children got fond of the second Mrs. Cooper right away, and never mentioned their real mother. But Jane thought 'Thea had a right to see them, and that they ought to see her, because 'Thea wanted it; and Fred gave his consent. ”

“ When aldermen voted the Keys of the City to a middle-aged “royal personage” who was touring the country, it was 'Thea, dressed as Columbia, who presented the blue velvet box to him; and the personage was so appreciative that his entourage had a lot of trouble with him, persuading him to go on to the next town. 'Thea represented Columbia again in the pageant celebrating the hundredth anniversary of our city's founding ”

“ Zell was the greatest organizer of charity entertainments we ever had; and the poor certainly should have blessed her. There wasn't a month in the year, it seemed, when 'Thea didn't appear as the star of some sort of kermess or pageant or bazaar-show. ”

“ IN those days I never knew 'Thea to be in any danger of getting lines on her forehead except once; and that was on the night when she had her greatest triumph. She was seventeen then, and Mrs. Zell was busier than ever organizing charity shows for 'Thea and the worthy poor. This time it was “The Sleeping Beauty,” to buy Thanksgiving dinners for the unemployed ”