At noon he was telephoning at Tom regarding the question of
whether there ought to be one desk or two on the stage.
He skipped the evening meal at Mrs. Arty's, dining with literary
pensiveness at the Armenian, for he had subtle problems to
meditate. He bought a dollar fountain-pen, which had large
gold-like bands and a rather scratchy pen-point, and a box of
fairly large sheets of paper. Pressing his literary impedimenta
tenderly under his arm, he attended four moving-picture and
vaudeville theaters. By eleven he had seen three more one-act
plays and a dramatic playlet.
He slipped by the parlor door at Mrs. Arty's.
His room was quiet. The lamplight on the delicately green walls
was like that of a regular author's den, he was quite sure. He
happily tested the fountain-pen by writing the names Nelly and
William Wrenn on a bit of wrapping-paper (which he guiltily
burned in an ash-tray); washed his face with water which he let
run for a minute to cool; sat down before his table with a grunt
of content; went back and washed his hands; fiercely threw off
the bourgeois encumbrances of coat and collar; sat down again;
got up to straighten a picture; picked up his pen; laid it down,
and glowed as he thought of Nelly, slumbering there, near at
hand, her exquisite cheek nestling silkenly against her arm,
perhaps, and her white dreams--
Suddenly he roared at himself, "Get on the job there, will yuh?"
He picked up the pen and wrote:
THE MILLIONAIRE'S DAUGHTER
A ONE ACT DRAMATIC PLAYLET
by
WILLIAM WRENN
CHARACTERS
_John Warrington_, a railway president; quite rich.
Pages:
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