Rollo Landers Todd, the "Poet of Manhattan," had stalked in with a
Prussian helmet on his head, his girth draped in a rich blue shawl
embroidered and fringed with white, a bitter frown on his jovial round
face; and in his hand a long rod with a large blue bow on the metal
point designed to shut refractory windows. Helen Vane Baker, a
contribution from Society to the art of fiction, with flowing hair and
arrayed in a long nightgown over her dress, fortunately white, was
assisted to the top of the bookcase on the west wall. Henry Church, a
famous satirist, muffled in a fur cloak, a small black silk
handkerchief pinned about his lively face, stumped heavily into the
room, fell in a heap on the floor against the opposite wall, and in a
magnificent bass growled out the resentment of Ortrud, while a rising
but not yet prosilient pianist, with a long blonde wig from Miss
Dwight's property chest, threw his head back, shook his hands, adjusted
a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, and banged out the prelude to
_Lohengrin_ with amazing variations. Elsa, with her profile against
the wall and her hands folded across her breast, sang what of Elsa's
prayer she could remember and with no apparent effort improvised the
rest. Lohengrin pranced up and down the room barking out German
phonetics (he did not know a word of the language, but his accent was
as Teutonic as his helmet), demanding vengeance and threatening
annihilation. He brandished his pole in the face of Ortrud, stamping
and roaring, then, bending his knees, waddled across the room and
prodded Elsa, who winced perceptibly but continued to mingle her light
soprano with the rolling bass of Mr. Church and the vociferations of
the poet. Finally, at the staccato command of Mr. Todd's hoarsening
voice, she toppled over into his arms and they both fell on Ortrud.
The nonsense was over.
No one applauded more spontaneously than Madame Zattiany, and she even
drank a cocktail. By this time every one in the room had been
introduced to her and she was chatting as if she hadn't a care in the
world. As far as Clavering could see, she had every intention of
making a Sophisticate night of it.
The pianist, after a brief interval for recuperation, played with
deafening vehemence and then with excruciating sweetness. Once more
cocktails were passed, and then there was a charade by Todd, Suzan
Forbes and the handsome young English sculptress, which Madame Zattiany
followed with puzzled interest; and was so delighted with herself for
guessing the word before the climax that she clapped her hands and
laughed like a child.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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