Chapter 18
"WOULD YOU CALL ME AN ARTIST?"
Simone Calvette, the French singer, had vanished beyond reach of Beman's cables and in her place he reluctantly put his mistress, Tessie Soler.
Lucy worked zealously at Master's to perfect her dances for Beman's Revue but despite her activity gained four pounds and had chocolate malteds cut from her diet. In a way she was disappointed not to feel sad about Carly so she could be certain she really had been in love. Instead she felt relief at being free to apply herself to her profession, wiser and more grown up.
The show opened in Boston and was a success, with her name only slightly smaller than Tessie Soler's. While she was still in Boston a letter came from Ilona Klemper announcing her New York arrival in January, and a long letter from Vida.
December 20, 1922.
Dear Lucy,
Merry Christmas! It is so long since I've heard from you I wonder whether a letter went astray in my home, if you know what I mean. Next time you write, send it c/o Cheever's where I'll be sure to get it. I stop in there every day on my way home from school because Cheever's has a lending library now and I get all the latest books for ten cents. I'm reading Wells' Outline of History. Have you read it? Or Gertrude Atherton's Black Oxen? Congress is still very angry about Main Street and now Babbitt. Mr. Lauter who, you remember, owns the Husker-Sun, made a speech against both books on Congress Day. Semy wrote the speech and put in a poem he rewrote from Wordsworth to apply to Congress. Of course it made a big hit. Semy is a good friend of Herold Lauter's now and goes to all the Lauter parties. By the way, river woods is being made into a park and the river is widened into a pond for boating or, now, skating, and there is a playground for the kids. It's called Lauter
