Something New | Page 5

showing surprise and hesitation
when invited to a confidential chat with a second-floor front young
man whom she has known only five minutes. But there is a
freemasonry among those who live in large cities on small earnings.
"Shall we introduce ourselves?" said Ashe. "Or did Mrs. Bell tell you
my name? By the way, you have not been here long, have you?"
"I took my room day before yesterday. But your name, if you are the
author of Gridley Quayle, is Felix Clovelly, isn't it?"
"Good heavens, no! Surely you don't think anyone's name could really
be Felix Clovelly? That is only the cloak under which I hide my shame.
My real name is Marson--Ashe Marson. And yours?"
"Valentine--Joan Valentine."
"Will you tell me the story of your life, or shall I tell mine first?"
"I don't know that I have any particular story. I am an American."
"Not American!"
"Why not?"
"Because it is too extraordinary, too much like a Gridley Quayle
coincidence. I am an American!"
"Well, so are a good many other people."

"You miss the point. We are not only fellow serfs--we are fellow exiles.
You can't round the thing off by telling me you were born in Hayling,
Massachusetts, I suppose?"
"I was born in New York."
"Surely not! I didn't know anybody was."
"Why Hayling, Massachusetts?"
"That was where I was born."
"I'm afraid I never heard of it."
"Strange. I know your home town quite well. But I have not yet made
my birthplace famous; in fact, I doubt whether I ever shall. I am
beginning to realize that I am one of the failures."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-six."
"You are only twenty-six and you call yourself a failure? I think that is
a shameful thing to say."
"What would you call a man of twenty-six whose only means of
making a living was the writing of Gridley Quayle stories--an empire
builder?"
"How do you know it's your only means of making a living? Why don't
you try something new?"
"Such as?"
"How should I know? Anything that comes along. Good gracious, Mr.
Marson; here you are in the biggest city in the world, with chances for
adventure simply shrieking to you on every side."
"I must be deaf. The only thing I have heard shrieking to me on every

side has been Mrs. Bell--for the week's rent."
"Read the papers. Read the advertisement columns. I'm sure you will
find something sooner or later. Don't get into a groove. Be an
adventurer. Snatch at the next chance, whatever it is."
Ashe nodded.
"Continue," he said. "Proceed. You are stimulating me."
"But why should you want a girl like me to stimulate you? Surely
London is enough to do it without my help? You can always find
something new, surely? Listen, Mr. Marson. I was thrown on my own
resources about five years ago--never mind how. Since then I have
worked in a shop, done typewriting, been on the stage, had a position as
governess, been a lady's maid--"
"A what! A lady's maid?"
"Why not? It was all experience; and I can assure you I would much
rather be a lady's maid than a governess."
"I think I know what you mean. I was a private tutor once. I suppose a
governess is the female equivalent. I have often wondered what
General Sherman would have said about private tutoring if he
expressed himself so breezily about mere war. Was it fun being a lady's
maid?"
"It was pretty good fun; and it gave me an opportunity of studying the
aristocracy in its native haunts, which has made me the Gossip's
established authority on dukes and earls."
Ashe drew a deep breath--not a scientific deep breath, but one of
admiration.
"You are perfectly splendid!"
"Splendid?"

"I mean, you have such pluck."
"Oh, well; I keep on trying. I'm twenty-three and I haven't achieved
anything much yet; but I certainly don't feel like sitting back and
calling myself a failure."
Ashe made a grimace.
"All right," he said. "I've got it."
"I meant you to," said Joan placidly. "I hope I haven't bored you with
my autobiography, Mr. Marson. I'm not setting myself up as a shining
example; but I do like action and hate stagnation."
"You are absolutely wonderful!" said Ashe. "You are a human
correspondence course in efficiency, one of the ones you see advertised
in the back pages of the magazines, beginning, 'Young man, are you
earning enough?' with a picture showing the dead beat gazing wistfully
at the boss' chair. You would galvanize a jellyfish."
"If I have really stimulated you-----"
"I think that was another slam," said Ashe pensively. "Well, I deserve it.
Yes, you have stimulated me. I feel like a new man. It's queer that you
should have come