"My husband is a man who has never felt the want of affection. He is so self-centred in his devotion to his work that I have always been shut out of his heart. At first this did not trouble me, for I was ambitious, too. But so many things have happened to develop me this last year, to awaken me to my full womanhood!
"I have had to face, as you do, the ache of an unwanted love, tossed back to eat its way like a corrosive acid. Once, not long ago, I thought, perhaps, things were going to change for me. I thought he wanted me. But now I have come to know that it is to another woman he turns for sympathy and understanding.
"So, you see, my dear, we two have the same heart history. No wonder we have felt our way through time and space, to clasp hands in such deep affinity. I lay my hands upon your head, Jarvis.
"YOUR LADY."
His reply came by the first mail.
"Oh, my dear, my dear, we have found each other at last, in all truth. It was meant from the beginning of time that it should be so. Let me come to you. I cannot bear to live another hour without the touch of your hand. To think that I do not know your name, or the colour of your kind eyes! Say that I may come?
"Devotedly, "JARVIS."
"JARVIS, MY BIG BOY: You may not come yet. It is part of a dream, cherished since you came to be the heart of me, that we should not come together until the night of the opening of our play. I know you will poohpooh this as sentimental nonsense. You may even call it theatrical. But let me have my way, this last one time. Afterward, my way shall be yours, beloved. Write me to say you will be patient with my foolishness!
"I am afraid of our meeting. Suppose I should fall short of your ideal of me? That you should think me ugly or old, I could not bear it. I have come to know all my happiness lies in the balance of that one night, toward which we walk, you and I, every minute of every day.
"YOUR LADY."
His answer came, special delivery:
"It shall be as you wish, dear heart. But if anything should happen to delay the opening of the play, I think I should ask you to remit the sentence of banishment. I live only to look into your eyes!
"How can you say that you may disappoint me? If you were old, humpbacked, ugly--what difference? You are mine! We must find freedom for ourselves and a new life. I adore you.
"JARVIS."
"I wouldn't have thought it of Jarvis," said Bambi as she read it. "He makes a very creditable lover."
"My DEAR ONE: I am as impatient as you are for our meeting. I gladly agree that we shall bring it about, at once, if anything happens to postpone the play opening.
"What you say about being indifferent to my looks makes me happy. I shall not try you too far, my lover. I'm quite pretty and young. Did you know I was young?
"You speak so confidently of freedom and a new life together. Are we to shed our old mates, like Nautilus shells? My new coming into love makes me pitiful. Must we be ruthless?
"YOUR OWN."
"DEAR, GENTLE HEART: I do not wish to seem ruthless to you, much less to be so. But has our suffering not entitled us to some joy? I know my wife to be absorbed in another man; you say your husband turns to another woman. We represent to them stumbling-blocks between them and their happiness. Surely it is only right that we should all be freed to find our true mates.
"I find it daily more of a burden to carry this secret in my heart, when knowledge of it would lighten my wife's unhappiness. Shall we not confess the situation, and discuss plans for separation? I owe this girl who bears my name more than I can ever pay. I would not do anything to hurt her pride. Tell me what you think about it, dear one?
"YOUR JARVIS."
"JARVIS DEAR: Again I must seem to oppose you. Please let us keep our secrets to ourselves until our meeting. Suppose that something should happen even yet? Suppose we should not wish to take this step when the time comes? I do not want you to hurt your wife. I respect and love you for your sense of obligation to her. How can she help loving you, my Jarvis?
"When the day comes for me to prove my devotion, may you say about me that you owe me more than you can ever pay.
"I live only for the completion of the play.
"YOUR LOVE."
XXV
Bambi felt the renewed vigour with which Jarvis attacked the final problems of their task. He was working toward the goal of his affections, a meeting with his lady. She, too, felt the strain of the situation, and keyed herself up to a final burst of speed. The middle of February came, bringing the day which ended their labours.
"Well, I believe that is the best we can do with it," Jarvis said.
"Yes, our best best. For my part, I feel quite fatuously satisfied. I think it is perfectly charming."
"I hope the author will be pleased," he said earnestly.
"I'm much more concerned with Mr. Frohman's satisfaction. If he likes it, hang the author!"
"But I want to please her more than I can say."
"You have a great interest in that woman, Jarvis. What is it about her that has caught your attention?"
"It is difficult to say. As I have grown into her book, so that it has become a part of my thought, I have been more and more absorbed in the personality of the woman."
"You told me the heroine was like me--once."
"Did I?" in surprise.
"You've changed your mind, evidently?"
"No-o. Her brilliance is like you."
"But not her other qualities?"
"She seems softer, more appealingly feminine to me, than you do. You have so much more executive ability----"
"You think I'm not feminine?"
"I didn't say that," he evaded.
"Why do you insist upon thinking the author and heroine to be one person?"
"Just a fancy, I suppose. But the book is so intimate that I feel consciously, or otherwise, the woman has written herself into 'Francesca.'"
"You may be approaching an awful shock, my dear Jarvis, when you meet her."
"I think not."
"These author folk! She'll be a middle-aged dowd, mark my words."
He rose indignantly, and put the last sheets of the manuscript away. She watched him, smiling.
"Shall you go to New York to-morrow?"
"Yes, if I can get an appointment by wire. I am going to see about it now."
"I do hope he will be sensible enough to put it on right away."
"He told me to rush it. I think he means an immediate production."
"The end of our work together," mused Bambi.
He turned to her quickly.
"You care?"
"Don't you?"
"It has really been your work, Bambi."
It was her turn to be startled, but evidently he had no ulterior meaning.
"Not at all. I think it is wonderful how well we work together, considering----"
"Considering?" he insisted.
"Oh, our difference in point of view, and, oh, everything!" she added.
"It would disappoint you if it were our last work together?"
"What an idea, Jarvis! I look forward to years and years of annual success by the Jocelyns."
He frowned uncomfortably, as if to speak, thought better of it, and kept silence.
"I'll go send my wire," he said. She kissed her finger tips to his receding back. Later, too, she went to the telegraph office and sent the following wire.
"_Mr. Charles Frohman:_
"See Jarvis, if possible, to-morrow. Play finished. Sure success.
"FRANCESCA JOCELYN."
The secretary answered Jarvis's wire at once, making the appointment at eleven o'clock on the morrow.
"It seems incredible that anything could run as smoothly as this for me," said Jarvis, as he read the dispatch.
"That's because I'm in it," boasted Bambi, with a touch of her old impudence. "I'm your mascot."
"That must be it."
"It means a midnight train for you, to make it comfortably. Do you suppose you will stay more than a day?"
"I should think not. I don't know."
Ardelia came in with a yellow envelope.
"Sumpin' doin' roun' dis heah house. Telegram boy des' a-ringin' at de' do' bell stiddy."
"For me?" said Bambi.
"_Mrs. Jarvis Jocelyn, Sunny side, New York._
"Mr. Frohman will see you at three o'clock to-morrow."
Bambi gazed at it a moment, a bit dazed, then she laughed.
"Anything the matter?" Jarvis inquired.
"No-o. Oh, no."
This was how it happened that Mr. Jarvis Jocelyn took the midnight train to New York, while Mrs. Jarvis Jocelyn followed on an early morning one.
"But why, if you both have to go to that city of abominations, do you not go together?" inquired the Professor.
"Part of the secret," she reminded him.
"Dear me, I had forgotten we were living in a plot. How is it coming out?"
"I will know to-day, definitely, just how, when, and where it is coming out."
Jarvis presented himself at the theatre at eleven sharp, and felt a thrill of righteous pride when he was ushered into the private office without delay. His vow that he would enter without so much as a calling-card had come true sooner than he had hoped.
Mr. Frohman smiled in his friendly way, and shook hands.