human
It isn't the work I'd like for him, she said with a regretful sigh.
gpt
Joe is getting to be like all the rest--he's making too much money. She waited a moment and added,
human
I should so like him to be as he was when you knew him.
gpt
I'll be curious to see how he has changed. You must let me see him,
human
Why yes, of course.
gpt
Over in Paris he had so much. He was such a wonderful lad for dreams--with the most exuberant fancy in the way he used to talk of New York and what he wanted to do back here--to use the backyards and the roofs and turn them into gardens. This town, when Joe got through with it--well, from an aeroplane it was to look more or less like a bed of roses--or a hill town in Italy. But that was only his lighter vein. When his fancy was really, working hard, he took department stores, hotels and huge railroad terminals and jammed them all together into one big building. How deep in the earth it was to have gone I really can't remember, nor how far up into the skies. But there was a garden at the top--or a meadow or prairie or something.
human
Yes, thought Ethel,
gpt
I'm going to like him.
human
Joe could talk of his plans all night, Dwight went on good-naturedly.
gpt
And keep a poor lazy musician like me from my piano where I belonged.
human
Was it you who taught him to play?
gpt
On the piano? It was, he replied.
human
Isn't his touch amazing? And so thoroughly Christian, too.
gpt
Christian?
human
Yes. He doesn't let his right hand know what his left hand is doing.
gpt
Oh, please go on, she begged him.
human
I had no idea you knew him so well. Did he do nothing but talk over there?
gpt
He did--he worked like a tiger. Joe could stand more hard labour in one consecutive day and night than any fellow I ever met. And he could do it night after night. I remember dropping in on him for coffee and rolls one morning. A chap named Crothers and myself-- Ethel started at the name--
human
But you say it's money now.
gpt
Yes, she replied.
human
It's money.
gpt
I wouldn't be so sad, he remarked.
human
Money isn't as bad as it seems.
gpt
Oh, yes, and I want it, Ethel declared.
human
But I want the others so much more!
gpt
You and Joe must get together some time. Couldn't you call him up some day and get him to lunch with you?
human
Gladly.
gpt
But don't be disappointed, she said,
human
I know, but I rather like it.
gpt
What?
human
Oh, don't be so indignant, please. I am an artist--honestly. But some of these men I've met over here--well, they fascinate me. Such boundless energy and drive ought to go into a symphony. Plenty of drums and crashing brass. Good-bye, Mrs. Lanier, he added.
gpt
This has been a lucky day for me.
human
Thank you. Don't forget about Joe. And meanwhile--till next Tuesday.
gpt
All right, Ethel, very good.
human
When you meet him, she said to Dwight,
gpt
I'd rather you wouldn't speak of my lessons. I want my singing to be a surprise. And besides, I'd so much rather that any old friends of my husband's come to him through his partner. It seems so much more natural.
human
I see, said Dwight.
gpt
But he doesn't, she thought,
human
Later, of course, I'll tell him, she said,
gpt
But just now, in the state he's in, if you or any one else of his friends who knew him as he used to be should come and say, 'Sent by your wife, with her compliments and fervent hopes of your speedy resurrection '--oh, no, it wouldn't do at all.
human
How many of us are there!
gpt
Of us, he explained,
human
Joe's old friends, who are to dig him up, you know.
gpt
Bill Nourse is not a very brisk digger.
human
Well, she remarked, in a casual tone,
gpt
Say no more. I'll search the town. Their eyes had met for an instant.
human
Yes, she thought,
gpt
I'm getting on.
human
In a good many ways, he assured her,
gpt
Of Paris!
human
Very much so. There's a lot of Paris in him yet.
gpt
Now, she said, when she rose to leave,
human
You insist on his being home every night?
gpt
That depends,
human
Suppose I take him some night to my club. We have quite a number of architects there.
gpt
Oh, wonderful! How good of you!
human
Mrs. Lanier, said her teacher,
gpt
I'm under your orders--digging for gold.
human
Joe likes it, he reported.
gpt
And he has already met some chaps who knew of him and his earlier work, not only in Paris but over here, he was one of the most brilliant designers in the city, I find--and a good many men were disappointed when he threw over his true profession and went after ready cash. How would you like me to put up his name?
human
For club membership?
gpt
Precisely.
human
And I obey.
gpt
This is getting rather intimate, Ethel told herself that night.
human
Never mind, my love, you've been perfectly honest. He knows very well what you're after. And if he likes you and wants to help, so much the better.
gpt
Dwight was already finding one, although he had been here less than a year. In this teeming city of endless change he had found a deep joy of creation, of newness, youth and boldness that made even Paris seem far behind.
human
It's all so amazingly big, he said,
gpt
How simple it was for him, she thought, with a little pang of envy. A young musician with plenty of talent, easy manners, single, free. As he spoke of his club friends and some of their homes that were open to him, the glimpses exasperated her. Here were the people she wanted to know, a little world of artists, architects and writers, and goodness only knew what else. She was still rather vague about them. To her surprise she discovered that many were after money, too.
human
Decidedly, her teacher said.
gpt
Excessively,
human
But at least, she rejoined, defending them,
gpt
She caught her breath. What an idiot, to have said so much!
human
I'm so glad, she added lamely,
gpt
He's doing something for the club, Dwight was saying cheerfully.
human
Some of those chaps are a bit too refined and remote for this raw crude city of ours. And Joe is getting back enough of his old vim and passion, his wild radical ideas of what may still be done with the town, so that he jars on such sensitive souls--makes 'em frown and bite their moustaches like the husbands in French plays. On the other hand some are decidedly for him. I hear them discuss him now and then.
gpt
Oh, how nice!
human
Ethel Lanier, the first thing you know you'll be dropped like a hot potato, she thought.
gpt
There's nothing unselfish about this man. Don't make him feel he has you on his hands. And she would grow studiously abstract and detached in her talk about the town. But it kept cropping up in spite of her, this warm eagerness to
human
It's funny, she said to Dwight one day.
gpt
I had thought of music and all that I wanted as being so different from Joe's work. But now in this city that you seem to know, I find that what I've wanted most is just what he ought to want in his work! The two go together!
human
Exactly!
gpt
The city Joe once lived in. She frowned.
human
There are so many cities in New York. But I don't want to try to get into his, until I can do it through Joe himself. People will have to want me because I'm the wife of Joe Lanier.
gpt
I think they'll want you more than that. His tone was most reassuring.
human
But I like the way you are going about it. It's so delightfully novel, you see--conspiring to make your husband find his friends all by himself--so that when he has found them he'll come to you with a beaming smile and say, 'Woman, I bring you wealth and fame and friends in abundance. Take them, love, and bless me--for I have done all this for you.'
gpt
I don't like you to joke about it,
human
Very well, he agreed,
gpt
You mean they think he's hopeless,
human
Oh, we'll make them open their eyes in time. I drop in on them every now and then. I had Crothers to the club last week, and let him hear some of the gossip about the emerging Joe Lanier.