I Could Go on Singing Read Online Free PDF Page B

reached to rap on the dressing room door and turned, frowning. “I wasn’t with her then. My tour of duty is ten years so far. But Ida was. Anyway, I never heard any mention of Wegler. And damned few people know.”
    “He was in on it, from the studio end. He helped hush it up.
    George nodded. “I can understand more why she hates the guy. He wouldn’t have the slightest idea of what it meant to her.”
    “And he probably exerted the deciding pressure that made her give up the child. She hinted as much to me.”
    “Sometimes,” George said, “it’s a very cruddy profession.” He gave a single rap on the door and opened it and went in, Jason following him. It was a sizable dressing room. Jenny sat at the dressing table, wearing a robe. The hairdresser was pouring Jenny a drink.
    Jenny turned and said, “Brownie, you look great. And it’s been too long. George, what am I stuck with?”
    George tossed Mrs. Glynne’s bouquet into a chair and said, “Absolutely nothing. You don’t have to see anyone.”
    “You are a dear man,” she said.
    George roamed over and parted the curtains and looked out the window, back toward the stage door. “It’s started to rain hard,” he said wonderingly, “and there must be five hundred of them milling around out there. London loves you, sweetie.”
    “Oh sure,” she said. She sipped her drink, made a grimace of pain and rubbed the side of her face and throat. The hairdresser moved in behind her and began combing and fixing her hair.
    “Why don’t you lie down?” Ida Mulligan said. “You’ll get in a state.”
    “I’m in a state. Make the call again.”
    Ida shrugged and picked up the phone, placed the call. George poured a drink for himself and one for Jason and took Jason’s over to him. Jason could sense the tension in the room.
    “Doctor Donne, please,” Ida said into the phone. Jenny turned her head sharply and stared at Ida, her expression tense and expectant. After a pause, Ida shook her head at Jenny and she relaxed. “Then when do you expect him?… Yes, it’s Miss Bowman again.” Jenny got up quickly and began to pace. The hairdresser stood waiting patiently for her by the bench, comb in hand. “Well,
can
he be reached?… Yes, it is an emergency. Thank you. I’ll wait. What’s that? Well, when you do, have him call Miss Bowman. Thank you.” She hung up. “He’ll call,” she said.
    “Where is he?” Jenny demanded.
    “In the country.”
    “Call the country!”
    “They’re calling the country.”
    George said, “Larry was wondering about …”
    Jenny whirled on him and said, “I tell you I’m losing my voice!”
    “So we notice,” Ida said quietly.
    “And I want a doctor!”
    “We’ve got the name of a doctor,” Ida said. “Doctor Rudolph Lessing.”
    “Call him,” George said.
    “But I want Doctor Donne, dammit!”
    Jason saw George glance at Ida in the silence. Jason couldfeel the tension and he suspected the three of them had forgotten his presence.
    Ida said, “But maybe he doesn’t want to see you.”
    Jenny glowered at her. “He’s a doctor, isn’t he? He’s got to see me. It’s medical ethics, isn’t it?” She was standing still, and the hairdresser moved to stand behind her and work on her hair, fluffing it with great deftness, and she seemed totally unaware of him.
    George moved close to her and took her hand. “Jenny, can I advise you as a friend? Why don’t you get dressed and we get the hell out of here, go get something to eat someplace. Jenny darling, you’ve been losing your voice for twenty years and you still haven’t lost it. But this time it’s different? So okay, it’s different. Then you need a doctor. By all means, let’s get a doctor. The best in London. And if he’s not enough, we’ll fly Bidderman from the coast. But please, I beg you, leave David Donne alone.”
    She pulled her hand away and asked quietly, “Is that the advice?”
    “That’s the advice.”
    The phone rang. Ida