The Gorgeous Girl Part 3

He lived at a club called The Hunters of Arcadia, where he paid an occasional stipend and gambled regularly, sometimes winning. He also promoted things in half-dishonest, half-idiotic fas.h.i.+on, undertaking to bring on opera singers for a concert, sometimes realizing a decent sum and sometimes going behind only to be rescued by an old family friend.

g.a.y.l.o.r.d was always keen on dinner invitations. And because he was a son of Vondeplosshe the same family friends endured his conceited twaddle and his knock-kneed, wicked little self, and sighed with relief when he went away. It would be so much easier to send these dethroned sons of rich men a supply of groceries and an order for coal!

Besides these lines of activity g.a.y.l.o.r.d wrote society items for the paper, and as he knew everyone and everything about them he was worth a stipend to the editor. He was considered a divine dancer by the buds, and counted as a cutey by widows. But his standing among creditors was: If he offered a check for the entire amount or a dollar on account, pa.s.s up the check!

Steve had destroyed several IOU's with g.a.y.l.o.r.d's name attached for the sole reason that Gay had been a playmate of Beatrice's and she rather favoured him.

"He is so convenient," she had defended. "You can always call him up at the last minute if someone has disappointed for cards or dinner, and he is never busy. He can shop with you as well as a woman, lunch with you, dance with you--and he does know the proper way to handle small silver. Besides, he loves Monster." Monster was Bea's pound-and-a-half spaniel, which barked her wonder at the silken beauty of Beatrice's boudoir.

So g.a.y.l.o.r.d travelled his own peculiar gait, with his married sister occasionally sending him checks; as busy as a kitten with a ball of yarn in making everyone tolerate though loathing him. When he visited Steve's office in the first flush of Steve's success, to ask the thousandth favour from him, and spied Trudy Burrows in all her lemon-kid booted, pink-chiffon waisted, red-haired loveliness--as virile and bewitching as any one g.a.y.l.o.r.d's pale little mind could picture--he proved himself a "true democrat," as he boasted at the club, and offered her his hand in marriage in short order.

Having just despaired of winning a moneyed bride g.a.y.l.o.r.d chose Truletta, reasoning that if she were a little n.o.body it would give him the whiphand over her, since she would feel that to marry a Vondeplosshe was no small triumph. Besides, a chic red-haired wife who knew how to make the most of nothing and to smile, showing thirty-two pearly teeth as cleverly as any dental ad, would not be a bad a.s.set among his men friends. Had the Vondeplosshe fortunes remained intact and Gay met Trudy he would still have pressed his attentions upon her, though they might not have taken the form of an offer of marriage. Trudy's virile, magnetic personality would have commanded this weakling's attention and admiration at any time and in any circ.u.mstances--which is the way of things.

Very wisely Trudy kept the engagement somewhat of a secret. She estimated that by being seen with Gay she might meet a not impoverished and real man; and Gay--who still hoped for an heiress to fall madly in love with him--was willing to let the matter be a mere understanding.

So this oversubscribed flirt and this underendowed young gentleman had been waiting for nearly two years for something to live on in order to be married or else two new affinities in order that they might part amicably.

They did not speak until they were in the cafe, where it looked well for g.a.y.l.o.r.d to be attentive and Trudy gracious.

Under the mask of a smile Trudy began: "I'm cross. You were gambling again--yes, you were! Never mind how I know. I know!... I'll have macaroni, ripe olives, and a cream puff."

"The same," Gay said, mournfully; adding: "Well, deary, I have to live!"

"Why not work? I do. You sponge along and waste everyone's time. I'm not getting any younger, and it's pretty rough to be in an office with horrid people ordering you round--to have to hear all about Beatrice Constantine and her wonderful wedding. I'm as good as she is--yet I'll not be asked, and you will be."

"Of course I am. I'm her oldest playmate," he said, proudly.

Trudy's temper jumped the stockade. "So, you paste jewel, you'll go mincing into church and see her married and dance with everyone afterward; and I'll sit in the office licking postage stamps while you kiss the bride! I'm better looking than she is; and if you are good enough to go to that wedding so am I!"

"Why, Trudy," he began, in a bewildered fas.h.i.+on, "don't make a scene."

"No use making a scene in a fifty-cent cafe," she told him, bitterly, "but I'm plenty good looking enough to have a real man buy me a real dinner with a taxi and wine and violets as extras. Don't think you are doing me a big favour by being engaged to me."

"Oh, you're a great little girl," he said, nervously; "and it's all going to come out right. It does rile me to think of your working for Steve. Never mind, my s.h.i.+p will come in and then we'll show them all."

"I'm twenty-three and you're twenty-six, and my eyes ache when I work steadily. I'll have to wear gla.s.ses in another year--but I'll wash clothes before I'll do it!"

"When it gets that bad we'll be married," he said, seriously.

The humour pa.s.sed over Trudy's head. "Married on what?" She was her prettiest when angry and she stirred in g.a.y.l.o.r.d's one-cylinder brain a resolve to play fairy-G.o.dfather husband and somehow deliver a fortune at her feet.

"I can't live at your club," she continued; "and your sister is jealous of her husband and wouldn't want me round. We couldn't live with the Faithfuls; Mary's a nice girl but I can't go their quiet ways. I only stay because it's cheap. I owe more than two hundred dollars right now."

g.a.y.l.o.r.d was sympathetic. "I owe more than that," he admitted; "but I'm going to have some concerts and there'll be good horse races soon--sure things, you know. You'll see, little girl. What would you say if I showed you a real bank account?"

"I wouldn't waste time talking. I'd marry you." Her good humour was returning. "Honest, Gay, do you think you might draw down some kale?"

Like all her kind she had an absurd trust in any one who was paying her attention. With a different type of man Trudy would have been beaten, courageously had the gentleman arrested, and then interfered when the judge was directing him to the penitentiary.

"I wish you wouldn't talk that way. When we are married and you meet my friends you'll have to brush up on a lot of things."

"I guess I'll manage to be understood," she retorted; "and when we are married maybe you can get my job so as to support your wife!"

The orchestra began playing a new rag, and Trudy and Gay immediately left their chairs to be the first couple on the floor. They were prouder of their dancing than of each other.

After several dances they became optimistic over the future and finished their dinner with the understanding that at the first possible moment they would be married and Trudy was to be a hard-working little bride causing her husband's men friends to be nice to the Vondeplosshes, while husband would persuade the Gorgeous Girl to be nice to his wife.

They decided, too, that Mary Faithful was clever and good--but queer.

That Steve O'Valley would discover that a self-made man could not marry an heiress and make a go of it as well as a man of an aristocratic family could marry an adorable red-haired young lady and elevate her to his position.

That Trudy was far more beautiful than Beatrice Constantine, and as one lived only once in this world--why not always strive for a good time?

Whereat they had a farewell dance and moved on to the moving-picture world, where they held hands and stared vapidly at the films, repairing to a cafeteria on a side street for a lunch, and then to the Faithful parlour. Mary had gone to church, Luke had boy friends in to discuss a summer camp, and his mother snored mildly on the dining-room sofa.

They took possession of the front parlour, and the enlarged crayons of the Faithful ancestors bore witness that for more than two hours these young people giggled over the comic supplement, debated as to the private life of the movie stars, tried new dance steps, and then planned how to get everything for nothing and, having done so, not to share their spoils.

"A perfectly lovely time!" Trudy said, glibly, as she kissed Gay good-night.

"Perfectly lovely!" he echoed, politely. "Don't work too hard to-morrow, Babseley, will you? And do nothing rash until you see me."

"Call me up to-morrow at eight, Bubseley," she giggled. The pet names were of Gay's choice.

So Bubseley tottered down the walk while Babseley turned out the lights and retired to her room with a bag of candy and a paprika-brand of novel. At midnight she tossed it aside and with self-pity prepared to go to sleep.

"And I'll have to go to work to-morrow," she sighed, planning her next silk dress as she did up the t.i.tian hair in curlers.

CHAPTER III

WHEN the world was considerably younger it dressed children in imitation of its adults--those awful headdresses and heavy stays, long skirts to trip up tender little feet, and jewelled collars to make tiny necks ache. Now that the world "is growing evil and the time is waxing late" the grown-ups have turned the tables and they dress like the children--witness thereof to be found in the costume of Aunt Belle Todd, Mark Constantine's sister, who had shared her brother's fortunes ever since his wife had been presented with the marble monument.

Like all women who have ceased having birthdays Aunt Belle had not ceased struggling. She still had hopes of a financier who would carry her off in a storm of warmed-over romance to a castle in Kansas. Her first husband was Thomas Todd, the carpenter, chiefly distinguished for falling off a three-story building on which he was working and never harming a hair of his head; also for singing first ba.s.s in the village quartet. Aunt Belle had slightly recoloured her past since she had lived with her brother. The account of Mr. Todd's singing in the quartet was made to resemble a brilliant debut in grand opera which was abandoned because of Aunt Belle's dislike of stage life and its temptations, while his rolling off the three-story building was never alluded to except when Mark Constantine wished to tease.

She was a short, plump person with permanently jet-black hair and twinkling eyes. Prepared to forgo all else save elegance, she had brought up her gorgeous niece with the idea that it was never possible to have too much luxury. Seated in the Gorgeous Girl's dressing room she now presented excellent proof that the world was growing very old indeed, for her plump self was squeezed into a short purple affair made like a pinafore, her high-heeled bronze slippers causing her to totter like a mandarin's wife; and strings of coral beads and a gold lorgnette rose and fell with rhythmic motion as she sighed very properly over her niece's marriage.

"It will never be the same, darling," she was saying, glancing in a mirror to see if the light showed the rouge boundaries too clearly--"never quite the same. You'll understand when your daughter marries--for you have been just as dear as one."

Beatrice, who was busy inspecting some newly arrived lingerie, did not glance up as she answered: "Don't be silly. You know it's a relief.

You can sit back and rest from now on--until I'm divorced," she added with a smile.

"How can you even say such a thing?"

Beatrice tossed the filmy creamy silk somethings or other away and delivered herself of her mind. "Alice Twill was divorced before she married this specimen; so was Coralie Minter; and Harold At.w.a.ter; and both the Deralto girls were divorced, and their mother, too. And Jill Briggs is considering it, and I'm sure I don't blame her. Everyone seems to think a divorce quite the proper caper when things grow dull.

You may as well have all the fun you can. Steve wants me to have everything I fancy, and I'm sure he'd never deny me a divorce."

"You are marrying a splendid, self-made young man who adores you and who is making money every day in the week. No girl is to be more envied--you have had a wonderful ten years of being a 'Gorgeous Girl,'