The moment he reached London, he set to work. And he fixed up the whole apparatus at his leisure, in the shed which he had kept, notwithstanding the expense: a sort of large hall in which he had already rehearsed his “Bridging the Abyss.” Here, with a couple of confidential assistants who had traveled with him in America, he worked from morning till night, correcting, revising, improving, in the midst of stretched cords and nets. And then came his interview with Harrasford, his engagement at the Astrarium, his meeting with Lily, in the dressing-room passage....
And it was untrue! What they had said about her was a lie! Lily had not fallen! Jimmy, merely at that moment’s sight of her, would have sworn it in the face of the whole world: the tales about Lily, due probably to professional boasting on her own part,—were false! He knew it, because he had seen her magnificent anger and the flash from her chaste eyes. And he would give Lily that joy—he owed at least as much as that to his dead love—and he would see that it was all right. It would not be a question of:
“Pa, I can’t!”
“But you’ve got to, my little lady!”
She would have to dare of her own accord, with a will of adamant, and Lily would do it, Jimmy was sure of that. He had found the partner wanted for his success and he rejoiced to the bottom of his heart as he led Lily to the stage of the Astrarium.
Lily, on the other hand, felt an anxiety which made her sides ache and her heart beat:
“What on earth can it be?” she asked herself.
But, whatever it was, she would do it if it cost her her skin! And Lily did not even take the stage oath, so sincere and spontaneous was her resolve.
“I’ll show you, Lily,” said Jimmy, seeing her look at the hall and the opening in the ceiling as she passed. “It’s a new trick.”
“Yes,” said Lily, “new: it’ll be like the last, they’ll take it from you as soon as it’s out. It’s like me, the tricks which Pa invented and which the fat freaks cribbed from me. Tricks are always copied, you know they are,” continued Lily, who trembled at the thought of seeing others beside herself topping the bill with that.