She kept them laughing all the way to the club with her tales of their
difficulties and excitements in getting off. Her exclamations on
everything she saw were convulsing. When they arrived at the club, and
she discovered that she was to have the little room next to Bambi's, her
satisfaction was complete.
Bambi ordered the entire family to repose on its respective backs for an
hour before they dressed for dinner. So they parted to obey orders. For
that hour Bambi held herself firmly upon her bed, completing her plans.
They had agreed, she and Jarvis, that if there should be a call for the
author, they would take it together, and Jarvis would speak. She was not
sure just how she was to make the revelation to him of her dual
personality. She decided to leave it to chance.
Never in her life had she been so excited. The double responsibility as
author and playwright shrank to second place in comparison with the fact
that this night she was to tell Jarvis of her love for him--hear him
speak his love for her.
Before the hour of enforced quiet was over she could hear Ardelia
tiptoeing about her room. Presently her head was cautiously inserted
through the door. When she saw a hand waved at her, she bounced in.
"Laws, honey, I'se so excited, I cain't hol' my eyes shet. I got de
Perfessor's dress suit cloes all laid out smooth, wif de buttons in de
shirt, an' de white tie ready. Now, yo' let me help yo' all git dressed
befo' I begin to wrassle wid dat tight skirt ob mine."
"All right, sit down and hold your hands till I jump into my bath."
While Bambi bathed, Ardelia shouted all the gossip of home through the
bathroom door. Upon Bambi's reappearance, she insisted upon dressing her
like a child. She put on her silk stockings and slippers, getting
herself down and up with many a grunt. She constituted herself a
critical judge in the hairdressing process, and fussed about every pin.
"Why ain't yo' all had one ob dese heah hair-fixers do yo' haid?"
"And make me look like a hair-shop model? Not much!"
"Well, yo' done purty good."
"Wait till I curl it," said Bambi, throwing up the window and popping
her head out into the night air.
"Fo' de Lawd's sake, yo' curl yo' haih in Noo Yawk jes' lak yo' do at
home."
"Why not? This cold, damp air is just the thing. Now look at me," she
boasted, shaking her head so that the soft, curly rings fluttered like
little bells about her face.
"Yo'll do," said Ardelia.
Bambi disappeared into the closet, and presently she popped out her
head.
"Ardelia, prepare to die of joy. When you have seen my new dress, life
has nothing more to offer you."
"I ain' gwine to die till after dis show."
Out of the closet Bambi danced, her arms full of sunset clouds
apparently She held it up, and Ardelia's eyes bulged.
"Yo' don' call dat a dress?"
"Put it on me, and you'll call it a poem."
"Dey ain't nuthin' to it," she protested, as she slipped it over Bambi's
head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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