Fresh Every Hour: Detailing the Adventures, Comic and Pathetic of One Jimmy Martin, Purveyor of Publicity, a Young Gentleman Possessing Sublime Nerve, Whimsical Imagination, Colossal Impudence, and, Withal, the Heart of a Child.Toohey, John Peter
General
Fresh Every Hour: Detailing the Adventures, Comic and Pathetic of One Jimmy Martin, Purveyor of Publicity, a Young Gentleman Possessing Sublime Nerve, Whimsical Imagination, Colossal Impudence, and, Withal, the Heart of a Child.
Toohey, John Peter
Press agents -- Fiction
Jimmy had collaborated with the prince on a telegram which was to be
sent by the bridegroom to Junius P. Easton immediately after the
ceremony. It would, he felt, give an added touch of the picturesque to
the proposed program of events: “Your sister has done me the high honor
of becoming my princess,” it read, “and all Hydrabad will kneel in proud
homage at her feet. I have cabled my revered father for his august
blessing. May we not hope that you will shower your honorable good
wishes on us.”
The prince and Miss Fannie were in the music room when Jimmy was
announced. She had just been singing “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes”
to her own accompaniment on the piano and she was as radiant as a June
morning. She wore a tea gown of baby blue, embroidered with pink
rosebuds, and her bleached hair was done up into a billowy cluster of
tiny curls which swayed with every movement of her head and which
somehow accentuated the essential maturity of her foolish fat face.
Jimmy gave an almost audible gasp when he crossed the threshold of the
door. He was prepared for the worst, but he had not expected to find
himself face to face with a being out of the comic supplement. She ran
to meet him, laughing sillily.
“How do you do,” she said gayly, extending a pudgy hand. “It isn’t
necessary for the dear prince to introduce you. He’s told me all about
you and I know that we’re going to be kindred souls. You must vibrate on
our plane, you know. I’m certain you must because you are his friend and
one’s friends always vibrate on one’s plane. Don’t they, Rajjy, dear?”
“Of course, my jasmine bud,” replied the prince from the sheltered
embrace of a huge arm chair. “Mr. Martin is of our inner circle. He
shares the secrets of our hearts, sweet lily. He is my councilor and
chosen guide. Let us bid him sup coffee with us which you will pour with
your much-to-be adored hands.”
Jimmy cast a roving eye in the general direction of his dark-skinned
fellow conspirator and was greeted by the latter with an expressive
wink, which was not visible to Miss Fannie, who was bustling about a
silver tray on which was a pot of steaming coffee. She poured and served
it with a fluttering air of heavy coquetry which irritated the press
agent beyond measure and which made him feel decidedly uncomfortable.
She was such a simple, trusting, foolish soul that he didn’t have the
heart to enlarge upon the merits of the bridegroom-to-be in the
expansive and flowery fashion he had decided upon on the way from the
hotel. He remained strangely silent for a time listening to an exchange
of preposterous love words between this oddly assorted and incongruous
pair and wishing himself a long distance away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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