Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder Page B

got on well with everybody, and who I thought was level-headed and resourceful. I didn’t tell him your name, but I said you were a Yale man. Mr. Bell’s a Yale man, too. But I don’t want you to do this for me. You’re free to tell me it’s a nauseating underhand business and that you’ll have nothing to do with it.”
    â€œBill, I intend to enjoy it. I like demands on what you call my resourcefulness. I would like to hear the whole project from Mr. Bell’s own mouth.”
    â€œHe will reward you well—”
    â€œStop! I’ll go into that with him. When can I see him?”
    â€œCould you be in my office at six tomorrow evening? That’ll leave another day for further plans.”
    I shall now have to repeat a good deal of the above material, but I want the reader to hear it from another angle. At six o’clock on the following evening Bill was sitting in his office. A gentleman of about fifty whom I suspected of having “touched up” his hair and mustache was striding about the room kicking chairs.
    â€œMr. North, this is Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell, Mr. North. Sit down, Mr. North.” Mr. Bell does not shake hands with tennis coaches. “Mr. Bell, I suggest that you let me start the story. If I get anything wrong, you can correct me.” Mr. Bell grunted unhappily and continued his prowling. “Mr. Bell is also a Yale man, where he had a notable athletic career. He has served at intervals on the Board of the Casino for almost twenty years which shows in what high esteem he is held. Mr. Bell has a daughter Miss Diana who’s played excellent tennis on these courts since she was a child. She’s a most attractive young woman with a host of friends . . . perhaps a little self-willed. Can I say that, Mr. Bell?”
    Mr. Bell slashed at the window-curtains and overturned a championship cup or two.
    â€œMr. Bell and Mrs. Bell have discovered by chance that Miss Diana is planning to run away from home. She ran away from home once before, but she didn’t get very far. The police were alerted in three or four states and she was brought home. That’s quite a humiliation for a proud girl.”
    â€œOh, God, Bill! Get on with it!”
    â€œThe Bells are, on the whole, year-round residents of Newport, but they keep an apartment in New York and spend some months there in the winter. Mr. Bell won’t mind my saying that Miss Diana is a high-spirited girl, and some of those newspapermen got in the way of reporting that she was seen in public places with certain undesirable acquaintances—including the very man she was with when that pursuit was set up.” I kept looking Bill in the eye. I could see that he had regained a large measure of his New England spunk and that he did not intend to let Mr. Bell off easily. “Now Mrs. Bell happened to come across a letter hidden in her daughter’s lingeray. A man in Newport whom I know slightly sent her the arrangements for their meeting tomorrow night. It contained plans for a trip to Maryland where they planned to be married as soon as possible.”
    â€œOh, God, Bill, I can’t stand this!”
    â€œWhose car are they driving, Bill?” I asked.
    â€œHer car. His car is the school truck in which he carries his teams to athletic meets. They’re driving off the island on the ten P.M. ferry to Jamestown, then the ferry to Narragansett Pier. You can well understand that Mr. Bell doesn’t wish to call in the police a second time. Above all, the family wishes to avoid any more of that Sunday-supplement publicity—what they call the ‘scandal sheets.’ ”
    Mr. Bell advanced on Bill angrily: “That’s enough of that, Bill!”
    â€œThese are facts, Mr. Bell,” he replied firmly. “We’ve got to put the facts on the table. Mr. North must know what we’re asking him to do.” Mr. Bell clenched his fists and shook them before him.