Пользователь - WORLD'S END

So far in Newcastle Lanny had lived a restricted life and hadn't met a single person outside his own class. But the impulse to get interested in strangers was still alive in him; and now he met Gracyn's friends, a group of young people with feeble and pathetic yearnings for beauty, and having no idea where to find it. Several were working in factories during the summer months, earning money to go to college; others had taken commercial courses in school, and now were taking jobs in offices, knowing themselves doomed to the dull round of business life. Most of them had never seen a great painting, or a "show" except vaudeville and cheap "road shows," or heard music except jazz dances and the bellowing of a movie theater organ.

And now came Lanny Budd, an Oberon, master of magic. Lanny could sit at the little upright piano in the Phillipson home and, without stopping to think for a moment, could cause ecstasy to flow out of the astonished instrument; could weave patterns of beauty, build towering structures of gorgeous sound. He would play snatches of Chabrier's Espana - and Gracyn, who knew nothing about Spanish dancing except for pictures of girls with tambourines, would listen and catch the mood. She would say: "Play it again"; the young people would pull the chairs out of the way and she would make up dance steps while he watched her over his shoulder. Among the country-club crowd everybody had so much and was bored with everything; whereas here they had so little and were so pathetically grateful for a crumb of culture and beauty.

VII

Lanny took to being out frequently in the evening; and of course the watchful Esther did not fail to make note of it. Once more, she would say nothing to her stepson but only to his father. Robbie didn't feel the same way about a young man enjoying his evenings, provided he had done his job during the day; but Robbie understood his wife and tried to please her, and said he would speak to the boy.

What he said was: "I hope you're not getting in too deep with that girl, Lanny."

"Oh, it's quite innocent, I assure you, Robbie. Her mother sits in one room and paints watercolor designs for house decorations; I play the piano and Gracyn dances and her young friends watch. Then we make cheese sandwiches, and twice we've had beer, and felt bohemian, really devilish."

"Couldn't you do that with some of our own crowd?"

"It just happens that I haven't met any of them who take my music or dancing seriously."

"They are a rather frozen-up lot, I suppose."

"The trouble with most of them is they have no conversation."

Robbie repressed a smile, and asked: "Aren't you ever alone with the girl?"

"I've taken her driving two or three times; that's the only way she'd ever see the country. But we talk about the theater; I've told her books to study, and she has done it. Her whole heart is set on being an actress."

"It's a dog's life for a woman, son."

"I suppose so; but if you're really in love with art, you don't mind hard work."

"What usually happens is that a woman thinks she's in love with art, but really it's with a man. You mustn't get her into trouble."

"Oh, no, Robbie; it "won't be anything like that, I assure you. I've made up my mind that I'm through with love until I've got my education, and know what I want to be and do. I had some talk with Mr. Baldwin, my master at St. Thomas's, and he convinced me that that's the wisest way to live."

"Maybe so," said the cautious father; "but sometimes the women won't let you, and it's hard to say no. You find you've got your foot in a trap before you realize it."

So Lanny had to go off and consider in his mind: was he the least bit in love with Gracyn Phillipson, or she with him? He was sure that if he had been thinking of falling in love, he'd have chosen some girl like Adelaide, who was soft and warm, and obviously made to melt in your arms. It would have been a wiser choice, because his parents would have been pleased, and her parents, and they would have a lovely church wedding with bridesmaids and orange blossoms and yards and yards of white veils spread all around her like a pedestal. But he hadn't been thinking about love, he had been interested in acting, and in music and dancing and poetry and the other arts that Shakespeare had woven into an immortal fairy tale. Gracyn was boylike and frank and interested in the same things, and they had made a pleasant friendship on that basis.

If she'd been thinking about anything else, she'd have let him know it. Or would she? She was an actress; and might it be that she was acting the part of boylike frankness? Acting is a tricky business, and a woman might fool herself as well as others. Gracyn wanted a start in life, and could surely not be unaware of the fact that Lanny might give it to her. His father could get her a start if he chose to take the trouble. Gracyn must have thought of this; and would she think that Lanny was careless and indifferent to her needs? Would she be too proud to hint at it, or take advantage of their friendship? If so, she must be a fine person, and Lanny was putting her to a severe test.

VIII

He took her driving the next evening, that being the only way she could ever see the country. They followed the river drive, and a full moon was strewing its showers of light over the water; fireflies were flickering, and the world was lovely, as well as mysterious. Over in France the doughboys had begun their long-expected drive, and the newspapers were full of their exploits; which lent a strange quality to any happiness you felt - as if it were something you had no right to, and that might disappear while you held it in your hands.

"Gracyn," said Lanny, "I've been thinking that if you're going to get a job this season, you ought to be in New York now, while the managers are getting their fall productions ready."

"I know, Lanny; but I can't!"

"What I thought was, I'd ask my father to back you to the extent of a trip there. He saw your performance and liked it a lot."

"Oh, Lanny!" The girl caught her breath. "Oh, I couldn't let you do that!"

"It wouldn't break him."

"I know - but I haven't the right - "

"You can call it a loan. Anybody starting in business borrows money and pays it back out of his earnings. You surely won't fail to earn something; and it would make me happy if I could help you."

"Oh, Lanny, what a darling you are!"

"You'll do it, then?"

"How could I say no?"

"I haven't asked him, you understand; but he's never refused to do anything within reason."

"Lanny, I'll work so hard - I'll have one reason more for making good!"

"I know you'll work; the chances are you'll work too hard and do yourself up."

The road passed a wooded point, and came to an open spot with a tiny bay. "Oh, Lanny, how lovely!" whispered the girl. "Stop for a bit."

They drew up by the roadside, as young couples were doing along ten thousand rivers and streams of America. They sat looking over the water, strewn with shimmering bright jewels; and Gracyn put her hand on Lanny's and murmured: "Lanny, you are the kindest, sweetest man I've ever known."

"It's easy for me to be generous with money I don't have to earn," said he.

She answered: "I don't mean only that. I mean a lot, lot more than that."

He felt her hand trembling, and a strange feeling which he had learned to know began to steal over him. When she leaned toward him he put his arm about her. They sat so for quite a while; until at last the girl whispered: "Lanny, let me tell you how I feel."

She waited, as if it were a question; he answered: "Yes, dear, of course."

"I think you are the best person I've ever known, and I'll do anything I can to make you happy - anything in this world. You have my promise that I'll never ask anything of you, never make any claim upon you - never, never!"