"Talk on; talk on! Thank heaven, Jane Judd doesn't talk."
The day that the costumes were finished was the last the three women saw of Jerry. The prophets swallowed him up. He flung himself on his bed at all hours of early morning, after rehearsal. He ate where and when he could. Never had his powers been called on to such an extent. He had to deal with two hundred women. He needed the endurance of an ox, with the wisdom of a serpent. He met jealousy, anger, hatred, social politics, with the same genial tact. The women were crazy about him. He refused to referee any fight, and he had a committee select the chief actors in the drama.
The night before the performance they rehearsed until two in the morning. They were all to spend the day of the great event in rest. Jerry slept until early afternoon, then walked to the club to look over the ballroom for the last time. It was extremely beautiful, and he felt satisfied with it. At the top of a wide sweep of stairs a circular window showed blue, star-specked night beyond. It was against this background that the groups were to assemble. The effect of the costumes against the blue-black of the sky proved very successful.
It seemed to Jerry as he went out onto the street again that this pageant had absorbed his whole life, that he had thought in Biblical terms and planned for this all his days. He realized that new currents were astir in him, that new people were crowding in. To-morrow he must take stock of the whole experience, mark where he was going.
He walked past Bobs's door, on his way to his own, and rapped. She called out and he went in. She was lying on a couch.
"What's up; anything?"
"I was knocked down by an automobile, that's all."
"What? How did it happen?"
She explained the accident, how she had refused to go to a hospital, and how some nice, strange man had carried her home and gone for the doctor. He, on his arrival, had ordered perfect quiet, said there was no real damage done, except to nerves. She raged at the idea of being interrupted in her work, and to comfort her Jerry suggested that he have dinner sent in for both of them, from a near-by café.
"Jane is here to take care of me, but you can have dinner with us."