“Well, I’ll try anything he gives me,” he said at last, striving for the enthusiasm he could not feel.
“You’ll go big, too,” said the girl. “Believe, me Kid, you’ll go grand.”
In Baird’s offices he sat at the desk and excitedly undid the package of stills. “We’ll give ‘em the once-over before he comes,” she said, and was presently exclaiming with delight at the art study of Clifford Armytage in evening dress, two straight fingers pressing the left temple, the face in three-quarter view.
“Well, now, if that ain’t Harold Parmalee to the life! If it wasn’t for that Clifford Armytage signed under it, you’d had me guessing. I knew yesterday you looked like him, but I didn’t dream it would be as much like him as this picture is. Say, we won’t show Baird this at first. We’ll let him size you up and see if your face don’t remind him of Parmalee right away. Then we’ll show him this and it’ll be a cinch. And my, look at these others—here you’re a soldier, and here you’re a-a-a polo player—that is polo, ain’t it, or is it tennis? And will you look at these stunning Westerns! These are simply the best of all—on horseback, and throwing a rope, and the fighting face with the gun drawn, and rolling a cigarette—and, as I live, saying good-by to the horse. Wouldn’t that get you—Buck Benson to the life!”
Again and again she shuffled over the stills, dwelling on each with excited admiration. Her excitement was pronounced. It seemed to be a sort of nervous excitement. It had caused her face to flush deeply, and her manner, especially over the Western pictures, at moments oddly approached hysteria. Merton was deeply gratified. He had expected the art studies to produce no such impression as this. The Countess in the casting office had certainly manifested nothing like hysteria at beholding them. It must be that the Montague girl was a better judge of art studies.
“I always liked this one, after the Westerns,” he observed, indicating the Harold Parmalee pose.
“It’s stunning,” agreed the girl, still with her nervous manner. “I tell you, sit over there in Jeff’s chair and take the same pose, so I can compare you with the photo.”
Merton obliged. He leaned an elbow on the chair-arm and a temple on the two straightened fingers. “Is the light right?” he asked, as he turned his face to the pictured angle.
“Fine,” applauded the girl. “Hold it.” He held it until shocked by shrill laughter from the observer. Peal followed peal. She had seemed oddly threatened with hysteria; perhaps now it had come. She rocked on her heels and held her hands to her sides. Merton arose in some alarm, and was reassured when the victim betrayed signs of mastering her infirmity. She wiped her eyes presently and explained her outbreak.
“You looked so much like Parmalee I just couldn’t help thinking how funny it was—it just seemed to go over me like anything, like a spasm or something, when I got to thinking what Parmalee would say if he saw someone looking so much like him. See? That was why I laughed.”