Radio Digest (Nov 1929-Apr 1930)

109 bee-line for my holy of holies and got out a bottle. For when the dove of peace settles on a troubled household, its' time to celebrate. Finally Gert called: "Come on in, Harry. We got no sleeves rolled to the elbow— soapsuds, splashings, faint gurgles of joy. Gert was giving little Harry his bath. "Talk about your bathing beauties," -said Victor, "Fd rather see that kid of mine in his bath than the Venus of Stealing softly from the room, although I don't believe they'd have heard a horse and wagon, I made a bee line for my holy of holies and got out a bottle. Harry: Gert wanted to know why I didn't tell her I'd rented a flat." "Very interesting," I said. "Why didn't you tell her?" "If you must know, I thought, maybe some day, I'd like to have a party. Only after I'd looked 'em all over, I found I didn't want a party with anybody but Gert. That's the gospel truth, Harry." "I believe you," I said. "And very complimentary to you, Gert." IF THAT'S a compliment," said Gert, "give me ant poison. I don't a secrets from you." And then I entered on as pretty a domestic scene as one could hope to find: Victor kneeling worshipfully on the floor, Gert seated beside him. her Milo." "Well, I should hope so!" said Gert. "•Tell Many what you told me — about your flat." "Oh!" said Victor. "It's like this. see how you can stand there, Victor Wiggins, and look me in the face! Is dinner ready, Harry?" "Not quite," I said. "It will be, though, by the time that bottle of champagne I put on ice gets cold." "Good work," said Gert. "I haven't had a drop of champagne since our wedding. One thing, Harry, even if I wasn't with Victor on our honeymoon, at least no other woman was." "There you go!" said Victor. "One minute you tell me you've forgiven me, and the next minute you land on me." "I have forgiven you, honey. But every time I think of that Mabel person— " "Forget her!" I said. "I will," said Gert. "Poor girl! I suppose she's just the way God made her — all except her ankles; Armour and Company must have made those. Here, Victor, hand me that towel." "Have you told Victor about the new house?" I asked. "No, I haven't. You tell him. Now get out of here, both of you; I'm going to put little Harry to bed." "Women are queer," said Victor, as we adjourned to the parlor. "Gert has forgiven me five times already, and I've only been home half an hour. The first time was great, but after that, just when I'm beginning to feel good, she turns around and forgives me all over again. I wish she'd quit it. What's all this about a new house?" I told him, thinking he would be pleased. He wasn't. "It won't do," he said. "Down town I'm in the middle of things. Supposing Abe Herowitz is putting on a show and wants a song? He says: 'There's Victor Wiggins over on Eighth Street. I'll run in and see him.' "It's a fact, Harry. Yesterday Abe did that very thing. You meet all the lyric writers and song pluggers down there, too — all the fellows that are working along the same lines you are — and it puts pep in you. Then there's my job at the theatre — " "That's another thing Gert wants you to give up." "Nothing doing," said Victor. "I'll quit it like a shot, though, as soon as I've made good. And I'm going to make good, Harry. I'll make a lot of dough, too. But do you know what would happen if I was to let Gert lock me up in a big room with a grand piano? It would be curtains for me — I'd never do another lick oi work as long as 1 lived "There was a time when 1 wouldn't have eared a whoop in Hades: I'd have Sponged off you for the rest oi my natural lite. But something you told me today made me see things different. What I'm doing now is for little Harry. I want my boy to be proud of his dad." Well, there you are! Victor certainly had changed. Also. 1 knew the answer — it was Grandfather Gidding's red hair. CHAPTER N AS \ MAX thinks. SO he is — even if lie isn't. Search the desert around Douglas, Arizona, for a thousand years.