Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/480

 There was a pause at the other end. "The day after tomorrow at the Athenée," the secretary said.

"You see!" Vida said triumphantly.

"You've become awfully bossy," Lucy said, smiling faintly.

"It's easier to do things for other people than for yourself," Vida catechized, "and if I don't get to work I'll lose my job. Remember now, you're not at all enthusiastic about accepting his offer because you'd rather go to Paris. I'll call you every hour, and stay with you tonight, and tomorrow night. Tomorrow and tomorrow. You don't know how to take care of yourself."

Chapter 39

THE TOAST OF THE TOWN

July night Vida Bertrand wrote in her notebook.

July 22, 1926

Lucy went through rehearsals in a daze, applying herself with pathetic perseverance.

The play is one in which a misty double, who represents her other self, reads and sings the lines behind a gauze curtain, in front of which Lucy enacts each scene. To me it is a "stunt" play, dependent more on effects than words, but it is a sensational success with all sorts of meanings read into Lucy's character as she moves through her part in a well-rehearsed dream state—which, incidentally, she seems unable to shake offstage.

It must be said that Beman has imaginatively dovetailed Lucy's Laurencin ballet into the play.

She is now "The Toast of the Town." All variety of things are named after her, from coiffures and clothes to a sandwich at Reuben's. She was photographed with the Mayor at a big charitable function; extravagant suppers are given for her which the Mayor also attends.

She moved into a larger suite at the Athenée, which she now 468