“So much as all that,” laughed Mame. But she was not to be dissuaded. “Audacity, audacity, always audacity,” had been among the mottoes of the office calendar. Besides, had they not exclusive news to offer and had not New York just had dramatic evidence of its value?
That, of course, was the crux of the whole matter. And it was a point upon which Lady Violet was very much in the dark. In Mame’s judgment the time had not yet come to enlighten her. She would have to know presently, but this was not the moment for a certain rather awkward disclosure.
XXIX
CELIMENE prophesied disaster when the enterprising partner showed her the cable she proposed to send.
“Leave this to me, honey.” Mame sounded absurdly full of confidence. “I know New York better than you. If New York wants a thing it wants it. And if it thinks a thing worth while it don’t mind what it pays.”
“But are we so worth while as all that?”
Mame appeared to have not the least doubt on the point. She clapped on her hat, sallied forth and sent the cable.
In four and twenty hours, less forty-five minutes, came the answer. Four hundred dollars a week were offered with a contract for one year.
Mame was triumphant. “What did I tell you, honey? They sure want us bad.”
Lady Violet marvelled. “Let us make haste and accept it, before they change their minds,” was her advice.