Three hours later he let himself into the quiet office, switched on the light and went to the desk. A broken paper knife lay near the inkstand. He picked up the pieces, held them together with half a smile, then let them drop from his hand into the waste basket.
The chair he had pushed forward for Gloria stood as she had left it. He drew it over, sat down, and with broad mouth firm but hands that shook a little, pulled a sheet of foolscap toward him and took up a pen.
The pen moved across the sheet, sometimes hesitating, sometimes swift as a comet. But the determined line of little ’Dolph’s mouth never relaxed.
My dearest little girl:
I’ve been thinking a lot since dinner, and when a fellow has sort of lost the habit of thinking about anything but his next show it comes hard. But don’t you jump at the conclusion that what I’m going to say is hasty or that it ain’t final. For years there was a funny old feeling inside of me that I had something to tell the world and no way to tell it. I wanted to put over something on the stage that would sound like music or look like a beautiful painting. Scenery wouldn’t do it. The women I had trained couldn’t do it. I didn’t even know, myself, just what it was. I used to tell myself often I was a poor nut. Then you came along with that voice of yours and those eyes and the fire that hasn’t any name, and did it all for me. If there hadn’t ever been anything more for me than seeing those hopes come true, it would have been enough. But I’ve had you for almost six years. You made me happier than you know, kiddo. And what has a poor old dub like me ever done to expect more than the happiness life has already handed me through [216] ]you? Why, that’s a fortune that makes the Rockefeller millions look like thirty cents. If I try to hog more, if I keep you from the thing you’ve got a right to, the thing you gave me for six years, shooting’s too good for me.
You don’t think I could let you stay on with me, knowing that you and John belong together, do you? And you do belong together. You know I always said you made a fine team. Why, kiddo, it would finish me. I want you to be happy, that’s all. And I saw to-day where that happiness is for you.
I fixed it so that John couldn’t get off to-night. And I’m going to fix it now so that you’ll play together the rest of your lives. I’m sailing Monday to fix up those English contracts. When I come back in the fall you’re going to be free. No, not free, I’m wrong. I want to take you and John by the hands and say—Bless you, my children!
You remember, I called myself once your old back drop. Well, being that is about the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I’ll keep on being that if you’ll let me, until you quit the game. Let me go on putting you over just like always and I’ll be O. K. Don’t you worry.
God bless you, kiddo.
’Dolph.
He folded the sheets without reading them, put them into an envelope, sealed it carefully, went downstairs and looked up the head usher.
“Take this to Miss Cromwell and give it into her hands yourself,” he said. “And here, kid.” And he slipped the boy a dollar.
[217]
]TWO MASTERS
ROMANCE
Love is a fantasy, a dream that only sacrifice can make come true. The tragedy of it is not in dying, but in living without it.