And then in a lower tone to Leighton: “That was for old man Dameron’s benefit. Did you see him jammed back in the corner of the car? Queer old party and as tight as a drum. When I can work off some assessable and non-interest bearing bonds on him, it’ll be easy to sell Uncle Sam’s Treasury a gold brick. They say the old man has a daughter who is finer than gold; yea, than much fine gold. I’m going to look her up, if I ever get time. You’d better come over soon and pick out an office. Verbum sat sapienti, as our loving teacher used to say. So long!”
Leighton walked back to his office in good humor and better contented with his own lot.
CHAPTER XIII
A REHEARSAL OF “DECEIVERS EVER”
“Well, I butted in all right,” said Balcomb, cheerfully. “I suppose you’re saying to yourself that it’s another case of the unfailing Balcomb cheek. Welladay! as Prexy used to say in the good old summer-time of our college days. The good Lord has to give everybody something, and if he gave me an asbestos-lined, Bessemer-covered outside to my face, it’s not my fault.”
“You’re a peach, Jack, and no mistake, as I’ve said before. I wish I had your nerve,—”
“But say, they just had to have me in this show! It proves how every little thing helps as we toil onward and upward. You know I was tenor on the glee club at college, and you’ll remember that when we came over to town and gave that concert for the benefit of the athletic fund I was a winner, all right. Well, I’m going to throw my whole immortal soul into this thing,—”
“You’ll leave an aching void if you do.”
“Thanks, kindly. As I was saying, I’m going to do myself and Mrs. Carr proud. She’s one of the grandest women we ever had in this state. Most of these women that preside at meetings are N. G. They haven’t any sense of humor. But Mrs. Carr knows that all this woman’s suffrage business is so much Thomas Rot. She works her sisters just for fun, and they never catch on a little bit. She just has to be president of things, and she’s an ornament to the community, by gum.”
Leighton thanked his stars that Mrs. Carr had discovered her tenor without his help. He and Balcomb were standing in the Carr library, where the last undress rehearsal of Deceivers Ever was about to begin. Leighton, who was stage manager, also sang in the chorus, which appeared in one act as foresters and in the other as soldiers. Mrs. Carr always had a reason for everything she did. Her reason for insisting that the Dramatic Club, of which she was the president, should give a comic opera was thoroughly adequate, for at this time she was exploiting a young musician who had lately appeared in Mariona, and who was not, let it be remembered, a mere instructor in vocal music, but a composer as well. He was a very agreeable young man, who wished to build up a permanent orchestra in Mariona, and Mrs. Carr was backing this project with her accustomed enthusiasm. Nothing could help matters forward so well as a social success for Max Schmidt. He had written an opera, which many managers had declined for the reason that the music was too good and the book too bad.
Deceivers Ever was the name of the work, and Mrs. Carr was preparing to produce an abridged version of it on the night before Thanksgiving. The scene was set in Germany, and there were six men—the gay deceivers—all of them officers in the army. The chief girl character was the daughter of a new commandant of a post, but at a ball given in his honor she changed places with her maid, and no end of confusion resulted. Mrs. Carr had urged Zelda to take the principal rôle, and Zelda had consented, with the understanding that Olive Merriam was to be elected a member of the club and given a part in the opera. Zelda saw only perfection in Olive; she declared that Olive’s voice was far superior to her own; and so Olive, who had never moved in the larger currents of Mariona social life, found herself unexpectedly enrolled in the Dramatic Club and a member of the cast of Deceivers Ever.