New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Three dollars.”
“I'll take it.”
Miss Havender accepted the inevitable, gave her the address of the
studio--far up-town in the Bronx--and told her to report at eight the
next morning.
Kedzie went back to her home in a new mood. She was the breadwinner now,
if not a cake-earner. Gilfoyle was depressed by her good news, and
she was indignant because he was not happy. The poor fellow was simply
ashamed of his own inability to support her in the style she had been
accustomed to dreaming about.
Kedzie was sullen at having to get the dinner that night. The hot water
would not help to give her hands the ballroom texture. The next morning
she had to leave early. Gilfoyle was too tired of doing nothing to get
up, and she resolved to buy her breakfast ready-made outside. Her
last glance at her husband with his frowsy hair on his frowsy pillow
infuriated her.
The experience at the big studio assuaged her wrath against life. It
was something new, and there was a thrill in the concerted action of the
crowds. She wore a rented ball-gown which did not fit her. Seeing how
her very shoulders winced at their exposure, one would not have believed
that she was a graduate of the Silsby school of near to nature in next
to nothing.
She danced with an extra man, Mr. Clarence Yoder, a portly actor out of
work. He was a costume-play gentleman, and Kedzie thought him something
grand. He found her an entrancing armload. He was rather aggressive and
held her somewhat straitly to his exuberant form, but he gave her so
much information that she did not snub him. She did not even tell him
that she was married. Indeed, when at the close of a busy day he hinted
at a willingness to take her out to see a picture that evening, she
made other excuses than those that actually prevented her accepting. She
spent a doleful evening at home with her dour husband and resented him
more than ever.
On the second day Kedzie was a slum waif and did not like it. She pouted
with a sincerity that was irresistible.
Mr. Ferriday did not direct the crowd scenes in these pictures. His
assistant, Mr. Garfinkel, was the slave-driver. Mr. Yoder cleverly
called him “Simon Legree.” Kedzie did not know who Mr. Legree was, but
she laughed because Mr. Yoder looked as if he wanted her to laugh, and
she had decided that he was worth cultivating.
During the course of the day, however, Mr. Garfinkel fell afoul of Mr.
Yoder because of the way he danced with Kedzie. It was a rough dance
prettily entitled “Walking the Dog.” Mr. Yoder, who did a minuet in
satin breeches to his own satisfaction, pleased neither himself nor Mr.
Garfinkel in the more modern expression of the dancer's art.
Mr. Garfinkel called him a number of names which Mr. Yoder would
never have tolerated if he had not needed the money. He quivered with
humiliation and struggled to conform, but he could not please the
sneering overseer. He sought the last resort of those persecuted by
critics:
“Maybe you can do better yourself!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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