“Come on, Glass-Eye! Let’s go for the bike! I don’t care if I do play the darky at Earl’s Court!”
But, on reaching the Bijou, she could not restrain a cry. Nunkie had spoken the truth; they were at work everywhere, unloading joists, running up scaffoldings, attacking the theater from every side. Her friend, the architect, passed, looking very busy, greeted her with a “Hullo, Lily!” But Lily did not even see him.
“I hope our things are still in the dressing-room. Hurry up, Glass-Eye!”
And Lily ran along the passage, where already sacks of plaster had taken the place of the velvet and nickel properties. She crossed the stage, which was still untouched, took the dressing-room corridor and there, almost before her door, met Jimmy! She felt like turning her back on him, after spitting on the floor, as a mark of contempt; but, after all, no! The coward! They’d see which of them should lower eyes first! And she planted hers straight in his face, like a blow of the fist!
Jimmy, who was coming toward her, had a moment of hesitation ... but it did not last. He soon recovered himself. It would have been obvious to any one seeing that masterful face that here was a man cured of his love, a strong man and sure of himself, a man whom a kid like Lily—Lily had always remained a kid to him, and not Mrs. Trampy, not the wife of Trampy, that thief in the night!—a man whom a kid like Lily could not have at her beck and call. And he held out his hand, like a good friend, simply, among artistes:
“How do you do, Lily? Delighted to see you.”
“Glass-Eye,” said Lily, opening the door of her dressing-room, “Glass-Eye, my bag ... the key of my trunk ... get out the bike first. One can’t turn in this rotten hole,” she added, as she entered.
And, as Glass-Eye seemed all day releasing the bike from the hooked-up skirts and tights hanging from the wall, to say nothing of the kicks which she received from the pedals, Lily, grumbling, snatched it out of her hands, and ordered her maid to go and wait for her in the street, great good-for-nothing that she was!
“So you refuse to speak to me?” asked Jimmy.
Lily lowered her head, took no more notice of him than if he had not been there, collected her clothes, pulled the gollywog from the wall without the slightest regard, heaped up everything promiscuously in the trunk, thumping it down with her fists, as though eager to have done with it.