IV
STRATAGEM
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
UTTERBOURNE NARROWS HIS EYES
I
Jerome gradually learned the ways of the formidable box office, and took charge of the General Ledger. Thus his time was abundantly filled: during the day hustling around with brokers in the interest of cargo shipments, and at night helping check up with the house manager. As a matter of fact, the company treasurer, whose real and legitimate profession was selling life insurance, had been approached with an attractive offer by a local insurance branch and at the end of the present engagement the main brunt of the financial responsibility would rest with Jerome—a rather vaster contract than the stool-pigeon job at Oaks, Ferguson & Whitley’s.
He found being connected with a theatre very delightful—the contacts, the excitement, the sense of privilege he felt early in the evening standing out in the lobby between a glaring poster that announced the night’s attraction and a huge frame within which were arranged the pictures of all the principal songbirds. He would watch the people stream in, then would himself slip inside until the curtain had gone up, after which he would go behind and absorb more and more of the mysterious atmosphere which the audience was denied. Here he could chat in the wings with his new friends, and hold long, important tête-à-têtes with Lili during periods of idleness when she wasn’t “on.”