VIII
Wynne was extraordinarily full of himself in the days which followed. Day and night he worked with feverish energy on schemes for the play. He went out and came in at all hours. In his excitement he entirely ignored Eve’s presence, except when he appealed to her on some delicate point dealing with the attitude of the women characters. Having secured what he wanted he would wave aside further discussion and plunge afresh into his thought-packed aloneness.
Once he jerked out the information that he was to receive a hundred pounds for the production and ten per cent. profits during the run of the piece.
“I’ve engaged the cast and we shall arrange about the theatre in a day or two. Here, read that speech aloud—I want to hear what it sounds like in a woman’s voice. Yes, that’s it. Thanks! That’s all I want to know. You read it quite right. I believe you could have acted! Is there something to eat ready? I’m going out in ten minutes.”
“It won’t be long.”
“Quick as you can, then.”
As she laid the cloth, Eve ventured to say: “Don’t you think we might have a maid to do the grubby work? It would give me more time to help you.”
He seemed absorbed.
“Yes, all right. Some day. You do everything I want, though.”
“Yes, but—”
“Is that lunch ready?”
Some clothes arrived for him a few days later, and for the first time Eve saw her husband well clad. The build of them gave an added manliness to his slender figure.
The business of taking a theatre being successfully accomplished, Wynne assumed instantly the guise of a commander-in-chief. He spoke with an air of finality on all subjects, and wrapped himself in a kind of remoteness not infrequently to be observed in actor-managers.
Oddly enough, his new importance possessed Eve with a desire to laugh and ruffle his hair. Had he taken himself less seriously she would have done so.
Once she asked if he would not like to give her a part in the play.
“Heavens alive!” he said, “I’m pestered the day long with people who want engagements. Spare me from it at home.”
It was hardly a graceful speech, but it demonstrated his frame of mind with some accuracy. Perhaps he realized the remark was churlish, for he followed it with another:
“Besides, you’ll have plenty to do. We’re going to get out of this. I took a flat this afternoon.”
“Without saying a word to me?”
“I said all that was needed to the agent.”
“Yet you might have mentioned it.”
“I was busy. After all, it only requires one person to take a flat. There, that’s the address. Fix up moving in as soon as you can.”
Eve picked up the slip of paper he had dropped into her lap. Despite her disappointment she felt a thrill of excitement at the news:
“How many rooms are there?”
“Oh, four or five—a bedroom for each of us—I forget the number. Have a look at it in the morning.”
“We shall want carpets and some more furniture.”
“Yes, but that can wait—can’t it?”
Take away the joy of planning from a woman and you rob the safe of half its treasure.