“Your book is so delightful. Every fresh reader is one friend more for the man who has written it.” Lady Violet yielded to none in point of tact. Over that course few could live with her. “But I do hope you realise,” she went laughingly on, “that, although you are your own best asset, as of course every true author has to be, you have also had a very clever and enthusiastic friend to pull the strings over here.”
Elmer realised that.
“One doesn’t say your success might not have been as great without her; but it could hardly have come so soon.”
Yes, Elmer was sure.
“The way that dear child has worked for you has simply been splendid. Had she written the book herself, I don’t think she could have been prouder of it. She literally bullied your publishers into boosting you—you know what even the best publishers are!—she bullied me into corralling the Prime Minister—it was a rare bit of luck getting him to come and make that speech—and it was her idea, wasn’t it, that you should come over here and let us see you?”
Elmer felt all this was true. But gallantly he wanted to include Lady Violet herself in the big bill of his gratitude.
“Please keep it all for Mame. That good child deserves every bit. She has worked for you like a demon. As good as gold, as true as steel. And she is quite cast down that you are leaving us next week.”
Unluckily there was no help for it. But Elmer P., like most people of true genius, was simple at heart. He responded to the piping. Mame Durrance—in the mouth of her former employer the accent fell upon the first syllable of her surname rather than upon the second—deserved all the luck there was in the world. She was as real as they made them; and she was able to think of others.
Lady Violet drove that right home. “I, of all people, have reason to know it. She is capable of big things, that dear child. Some day, when you come and see us again, as of course you will, I may tell you a little story about her.”
Elmer could not help a feeling of subtle flattery. It is difficult for rising young men to resist such a feeling when they find themselves tête-à-tête with an accomplished woman of the world. Lady Violet was quite as intriguing as any of the Fifth Avenue queens, with one or two of whom he was beginning to get acquainted. Mame had had amazing luck to put herself in so solid with this fascinating woman. It was true that Elmer personally owed a lot to Mame, a peerless little go-getter, but it was also true that Mame for her part owed much to this brilliant daughter of a famous statesman who in his day had done a great deal for the English-speaking world.