"Very well," said Mrs. Wohlbreit. "We've read this play, Love — the Redeemer, and we think it would make a grand picture. If you haven't done anything yet about the movie rights…"
Mr. Quarterstone drew himself up. He felt as if he was in a daze from which he might be rudely awakened at any moment, but it was a beautiful daze. His heart was thumping, but his brain was calm and clear. It was, after all, only the moment with which he had always known that his genius must ultimately be rewarded.
"Ah — yes," he said with resonant calm. "The movie rights are, for the moment, open to — ah — negotiation. Naturally, with a drama of such quality, dealing as it does with a problem so close to the lives of every member of the thinking public, and appealing to the deepest emotions and beliefs of every intelligent man and woman—"
"We thought it would make an excellent farce," said Mrs. Wohlbreit blandly. "It's just the thing we've been looking for for a long time." But before the stricken Mr. Quarterstone could protest, she had added consolingly: "We could afford to give you thirty thousand dollars for the rights."
"Ah — quite," said Mr. Quarterstone bravely.
By the time that Mrs. Wohlbreit had departed, after making an appointment for the contract to be signed and the check paid over at the Paragon offices the following afternoon, his wound had healed sufficiently to let him take Mr. Urlaub in his arms, as soon as the door closed, and embrace him fondly in an impromptu rumba.
"Didn't I always tell you that play was a knockout?" he crowed. "It's taken 'em years to see it, but they had to wake up in the end. Thirty thousand dollars! Why, with that money I can—" He sensed a certain stiffness in his dancing partner and hastily corrected himself: "I mean, we — we can—"
"Nuts," said Mr. Urlaub coarsely. He disengaged himself and straightened the creases out of his natty suit. "What you've got to do now is sit down and figure out a way to crowbar that guy Tombs out of this."
Mr. Quarterstone stopped dancing suddenly and his jaw dropped.
"Tombs?"