Mary Stewart Cutting

“ Mr. Canton had been working too hard on a providentially ordered portrait to do much in the movie line; but little Mrs. Gayle had had one accepted after another, and was boyishly pleased and shining-eyed.
Nobody could help liking Billy; he had a genuine lightness and sweetness of disposition that makes friends. The dancing was more and more of a joy to him, but he always came back to Mrs. Atterbury for a partner; her perfect dancing gave the real touch to the afternoon—she was so large and soft, and sweet and understanding, she made a certain quality of home.
The quality of home! ”

“ He stepped softly in—Tips evidently was in the closet. She emerged from the closet, hurling some clothes into an open trunk which he now perceived standing on the floor. As she emerged, he looked at her in wonder. Was this the pale and repressed girl of the last month? Tips was a blaze of colour; her little figure was swathed in a turquoise kimono half dragged from a small milk-white shoulder, her ruddy hair was tumbled down, her cheeks flamed scarlet, her white teeth gleamed between parted red lips, her eyes—no tears there!—radiated blue fire ”

“ Sterling must certainly bring you after this," said Agnes Atterbury warmly. "We are all so proud to know him."
"That is very sweet of you," said Tips.
"Really, dancing with him has spoiled me for dancing with any one else," said Mrs. Breeze. "He leads wonderfully."
"He's so clever, he always gives you new ideas," chimed in little Mrs. Gayle gratefully, in her deep, boyish voice. "I went home last Friday, after that heavenly one-step, and wrote on my new play until four o'clock in the morning. Hoskyns—my husband—sat by me, stacking up the sheets from the typewriter and giving me coffee. ”

“ He was going through that awful period which comes to all people of creative endeavour—poet, author, artist, straight through to the master mind of the business man, yea, even to that of the woman who plans the wonderful gown she is to make herself—when after the inspiration, the clear vision evolving out of space of a New Thing, triumphantly perfect, the illumination gradually fades, leaving something inexpressibly hackneyed and futile in its place. ”

“ Atterbury was delighted with the new plan of the villa, and showed his delight.
"I don't know what you've done to the thing, Sterling—I can tell you now that I was disappointed at first, but you seem to have caught just the idea; even I, with my limited understanding, can see that it is beautiful. You'll be the rage before you know it, and I tell you this recreation is doing you good. You look like a new man. ”

“ Gayle, and for that poor Mrs. Breeze you were so furious at, you bad child."
"And you've done it all without me?"
"No, no, not a bit of it," he averred anxiously. "Now, smile—aren't you going to smile ever again? Never mind if there isn't anything to laugh at; smile at me! I'm the joke! There, that's better." He stood up, still with his arms around her.
From the floor below the music of a phonograph fox-trot came wafted up the shaft. Unconsciously they stepped lightly off to it, together, between the bed and trunk and the dressing table.
"Why, you dance like a bird, Tips!" ”

“ It annoyed him; he resented, amid all the pleasure at the Venetia, being put, even tacitly, by others in the category of the maritally disaffected. Once, at first, Mrs. Atterbury had asked him to bring his wife, and his short, "Thank you, she doesn't dance," had, he felt, given a false impression. He had refused an invitation to dine at the Cantons' and at Mrs. Gayle's.
He loved his wife; they had been the dearest companions—and more, how much more! Why, Tips—Tips! It hurt him now to see her suffer. Why should she suffer? He was doing everything in the world he could for her. ”

“ There wasn't a woman there who could compare to him with his wife. As for the dancing afternoons, he had been feeling gradually that his attendance on them hung by the slightest tenure. Oh, well!
There are undoubtedly organizations which are supersensitive to those well-known shadows of coming events. Billy, joyously entering the grill-room of the Venetia with Mr. Atterbury, was conscious suddenly of some faint dissatisfaction haunting him ”

“ Gayle is talking about getting you to build her French château for her. She's making money hand over fist; that, of course, will be something really big, so I thought we'd better get our little shack in now," went on Mrs. Breeze.
Billy gasped. Mrs. Gayle, too! A queer, chilly current seemed to be going through him. Atterbury's words: "You'll be the rage before you know it, Sterling," returned to him. He saw that chasm—ever terrifyingly ahead of him no matter what the security of the hour—permanently closed by this bridge to Fortune. ”

“ There are times when even a man the most defenceless to domestic attack, gives that silent masculine warning that he is to be let alone. He was consciously banking down the fire within him until he was ready to let it blaze up. ”

“ Billy found himself being introduced to a Mr. and Mrs. Breeze, the latter very handsome and the former very homely; a Mr. and Mrs. Canton, who looked singularly alike in being small, bright-eyed, and pale; and a charming, boyish little Mrs. Gayle.
"This is the Mr. Sterling who is making the lovely plans for our new house," said Mrs. Atterbury. "I'm so glad you brought him with you, John! Now you mustn't take too long over your tea, with that music going on. What do you think? Anna Breeze has nearly had a photo-play accepted ”

“ Billy made an involuntary step forward, but to his eager "Ah, come on, Tips," she only shook her head decisively.
"No. No, Mary, I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid we can't come to-night. Tell your mother I don't dance the new dances, but it was very kind of her to think of us."
"Oh!" said the child, without moving. She regarded the two with sparkling eyes, before starting in with a rush: "Mother says she thinks married people are awfully tiresome when they never want to do the same things; it makes it so inconvenient to invite 'em! Mr. Sterling likes to dance and you don't, Mrs. Sterling ”

“ Atterbury.
There was of course that knowledge of the time when this work should be completed, far off though that might be; there was always that chasm looming ahead to keep one from being too cocksure yet of any future.
It was impossible not to see a change of attitude in the whole party toward him, frankly welcoming him as one of them. Mr. Breeze still waited for any reply from the Bumheimer Film Company, but Mrs. Canton had had such a nice letter from the Highbrow Performers, in returning her plays, that it quite inspired one to writing more! ”

“ You dance, don't you?"
"After a fashion."
"Come on, then; it'll do you good. Besides, my wife wants to talk to you."
"Well, all right," said Billy, with sudden alacrity; it was bad policy to say No to the invitation of a wealthy client.
He had a sense of exhilaration as he rolled off in the big motor with Mr. Atterbury, pleasantly intensified by the warmth of Mrs. Atterbury's greetings in the charmingly lighted and decorated grill-room of the Venetia, as she sat, with a laughing, fashionably appareled group at one of the tea-tables that skirted the space for dancing. Mrs. ”