“Why?” said Eldon. “Can’t he pay her ordinary human courtesy?”
“He’d better not,” said Mrs. Vining, “or he’ll start the other members of the company and the gaping crowd of outsiders to whispering: ‘Oh, he’s carrying her valise now! It’s a sketch!’ ”
“A ‘sketch’?” Eldon murmured.
“Yes, a—an alliance, an affair. A theatrical troupe is like a little village on wheels. Everybody gossips. Everybody imagines—builds a big play out of a little scenario. And so the actor who is a true gentleman has to keep forgetting that he is one. It’s a penalty we women must pay for earning our livings. You see now, don’t you, Mr. Eldon?”
He bowed and blushed to realize that it was all meant as a rebuke to his forwardness. He had been treated with consideration, and had immediately proceeded to make a nuisance of himself. He had no right to carry Sheila’s burdens, and his insistence had been only an embarrassment to her. He had behaved like a greedy porter at a railroad station to whom one surrenders with wrath in order to silence his demands.
He had not progressed so far as he thought. His train had been ordered to back up. When he had placed Sheila’s baggage and Mrs. Vining’s in the seats they chose in the day coach, he declined Sheila’s invitation to sit down, and sulked in the smoking-car.
The towns that followed Milton were as stupid as Jaffer had said they were. The people who lived there seemed to love them, or at least they did not leave them, but they were dry oases for the lonely traveler. Few of the towns had even a statue, and most of those that had statues would have been the richer for their absence.
Of one thing Eldon made sure—that he would never inflict another of his compromising politenesses on Miss Sheila Kemble. He avoided her so ostentatiously that the other members of the company noticed it. Those who had instantly said when he carried her valise, “Aha! he is carrying her valise now!” were presently saying, “Oh, he’s not carrying her valise now!”
CHAPTER X
Gradually the company worked a zigzag passage to Chicago, where it was booked for an indefinite stay. If the “business” were good, it would be announced that, “owing to the unprecedented success, it has been found necessary to extend the run originally contemplated.” If the business were not so good, it would be announced that, “owing to previous bookings, it would unfortunately be impossible to extend the run beyond the next two weeks.”