Bambi | Page 9

not let Bambi support you? She says she wants to."
"I am willing she should support herself, but not me."
"So the only question is, will I support you?"
"Exactly. With Bambi off your hands, you will have no other
responsibility, and you could not do a bigger thing for the world than to
help me to instruct and inspire it."
"Aristophanes!" exclaimed the Professor. "You are unique! You are
number twenty-three."
"Why twenty-three?"
"Because that is neither much nor little."
"Your daughter thinks my plays will sell, but I tell you frankly I doubt

it."
"How can you instruct and inspire if nobody listens?"
"They must listen in the end, else why am I here?"
The Professor relinquished his chase, to stare again. "You are at least
sincere in your belief in yourself--twenty-three. I'd like to hear some of
these great ideas of yours."
"Very well. I am going to read a play to your daughter this evening. If
you care to come, you may listen. Then you will see that it would pay
you to stake me for a couple of years."
"I'll come and listen."
"If you decide to undertake me, I insist that you shall not continue this
scornful avoidance of me. If we three are to live together, we must live
in harmony, which is necessary to my work."
"Whose favour is this, yours or mine?"
"Favour? Good heavens! you don't think it is a favour to give me food
and a roof for two years, do you? I thought it was an opportunity for
you."
The Professor, not easily moved to mirth, did an imitation of laughter,
holding both his sides. Jarvis turned his charming, boyish smile upon
him, and walked up the path to the house. Strange what things amused
Bambi and her parent!
That night, after dinner, Bambi arranged the electric reading light in the
screened porch, drew a big chair beside it, placed the Professor's
favourite chaise-lounge near by, and got him into it. Then she went in
search of her performer. She looked all over the house for him, to
finally discover him on the top floor in hiding.
"Come on! I've got everything all ready, even the Professor."

"I am terrified," Jarvis admitted. "Suppose you should not understand
what I have written? Suppose you thought it was all rubbish?"
"If I think so, I will say so. Isn't that the idea? You are trying it on the
dog to see if it goes?"
"If you think it is rubbish, don't say anything."
"How silly! If you are spending your time on trash, you ought to know
it, and get over it, and begin to write sense."
"I feel like one of the Professor's slugs," he muttered.
"Better try us on the simplest one."
"Well, I will read you 'Success.'"
She ran downstairs, and he followed, to the piazza.
There was no sign of the Professor.
"Ardelia," called Bambi, "where is the Professor?"
"I don't know, ma'am. I seen him headed for the garden."
"Professor Parkhurst, come in here!" Bambi called. "We are to hear
Jarvis's play."
"Oh, that is it. I couldn't remember why I was placed in that chair, and
Ardelia couldn't remember. So it occurred to me that I had forgotten
my trowel," he said. He put the trowel, absent-mindedly, in the tea
basket, and took the seat arranged for Jarvis.
"Here, you sit in your regular seat," Bambi objected, hauling him up.
"That isn't wise, my dear. I am sure to go to sleep."
"We'll see that you don't," she laughed.

"I've never heard a play read aloud that I can remember," said the
Professor.
"You will probably be very irritating, then. Don't interrupt me. If you
fumble things, or make a noise, I'll stop."
"That knowledge helps some," retorted the Professor, with a twinkle.
"If I can't stand it, I'll whistle."
"Be quiet," said his daughter. "Go ahead, Jarvis."
"What is this play supposed to be about?" Professor Parkhurst inquired.
"The title is 'Success.' It is about a woman who sold herself for success,
and paid with her soul."
"Is it a comedy?"
"Good Lord, no! I don't try to make people laugh. I make them think."
"Go ahead."
"Don't interrupt again, father."
Jarvis began to read, nervously at first, then with greater confidence.
He read intelligently, but without dramatic value, and Bambi longed to
seize the manuscript and do it herself. Once, during the first act, the
Professor cleared his throat.
"Don't do that!" said Jarvis, without pausing for the Professor's hasty
apology.
The play told the story of a woman whose God was Success. She
sacrificed everything to him. First her mother and father were offered
up, that she might have a career. Then her lover. She married a man she
did not love, that she