New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
On this vast bell of silk she hung streamers of rosettes, flowers of
colors that would have been strident if they had been the eighteenth of
a shade stronger. As it was, they were as delicious as cream curdled in
a syrup of cherries. The whole effect would have been burlesque if it
had not been the whim of a brilliant taste. Men would look it at and
say, “Good Lord!” Women would murmur, enviously, “Oh, Lord!” Kedzie's
soul expanded to the ultimate fringe of the farthest furbelow.
When the fantasy was assured Lady Powell-Carewe had Kedzie extracted
from it. Then pondering her sapling slenderness, once more she caught
from the air an inspiration. She would incase Kedzie in a sheath of
soft, white kid marked with delicate lines and set off with black gloves
and a hat of green leaves. And this she would call “The White Birch.”
And that was all the creating she felt up to for the day. She had
Kedzie's measure taken in order to have a slip made as a model for use
in the hours when Kedzie should be too busy to stand for fitting.
It was well for Kedzie that there was a free ride waiting for her. Her
journey to the studio was harrowed by the financial problem which
has often tortured people in limousines. She did not like to ask Mr.
Ferriday for money in advance. He might think she was poor. There
is nothing that bankrupts the poor so much as the effort to look
unconcerned while they wait for their next penny.
Kedzie was frantic with worry and was reduced to prayer. “O Lord, send
me some money somehow.” The number of such prayers going up to heaven
must cause some embarrassment, since money can usually be given to
one person only by taking it from another--and that other is doubtless
praying for more at the very moment.
To Kedzie's dismay, when she arrived at the studio and asked for Mr.
Ferriday, Mr. Garfinkel appeared. He was very deferential, but he was,
after all, only a Garfinkel and she needed a Ferriday. He explained that
his chief was very busy and had instructed Garfinkel to teach Miss Adair
the science of make-up for the camera, to take test pictures of her, and
give her valuable hints in lens behavior.
Late in the afternoon Ferriday came in to see the result of the first
lesson. He said, “Much obliged, Garfinkel” and Garfinkel remembered
pressing duty elsewhere.
His departure left Kedzie alone with Ferriday in a cavern pitch black
save for the cone of light spreading from the little hole in the wall
at the back to the screen where the spray of light-dust became living
pictures of Kedzie.
Kedzie did not know that the operator behind the wall could peek and
peer while his picture-wheel rolled out the cataract of photographs.
Ferriday was careful of her--or of himself. He held her hand, of course,
and murmured to her how stunning she was, but he made no effort to make
love, to her great comfort and regret.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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