Beloved Scoundrel Read Free Page A

then both she and her husband laughed.
     
    David and Fanny seated themselves opposite the husband and wife so unalike in appearance. And David said, “I’m David Cornish and this is my wife Fanny. We’re here to open in a play.”
     
    “Most interesting,” Ernest Sherman said. “May I ask under whose management you are appearing?”
     
    “Desmond Dempsey,” David replied promptly as the maid served him and Fanny with ample dishes of the beef stew.
     
    The thin man’s face shadowed. “Desmond Dempsey! The name has a familiar ring but I do not know him.”
     
    Fanny smiled. “He seems a true gentleman. He is going to allow us to form our own company.”
     
    “Unusual,” the thin man said. “The big names in New York at the moment are Forrest and Booth. That is Edwin Booth I mean, the father has been dead for several years.”
     
    “l’m familiar with the work of Forrest and I have heard of Booth,” David said. “I would say New York theatre goers have sound fare.”
     
    “Much of it is good,” Ernest Sherman said. “My wife and I are employed by the greatest of them all, P.T. Barnum!
     
    “Well!” Fanny exclaimed. “May I ask what so famous a man is like when you know him?”
     
    “His heart is as large as his body and he’s a big man,” Emest Sherman said. And he turned to his mammoth wife, “Isn’t that so, my dear?”
     
    “Oh, it is!” Little Emmie agreed seriously. “He won’t let me overdo myself for fear my heart may suffer.”
     
    The thin man said, “My wife and I are employed in Mr. Barnum’s Freak Museum. But every second day we have the lunch hour free. We are not due at the museum until this evening.”
     
    Fanny gazed at the huge woman. “Of course! You are one of the attractions!”
     
    Ernest Sherman spoke up at once, “My wife and I are both featured at the museum. Little Emmie weighs more than three hundred pounds and claims to be the fattest woman in the world, while I am a sword-swallower and fire eater!”
     
    “How interesting!” Fanny exclaimed.
     
    “And a bit dangerous?” David suggested politely.
     
    The thin man looked at him happily. “You have an astute mind, sir. And you are right. I have quite ruined my digestive organs with my weird diet! I have very little appetite for ordinary food. But my dear wife makes up for us both!”
     
    Little Emmie said shyly, “I’m continually in need of a snack.”
     
    Fanny smiled, “Well, we mustn’t allow you to get thin. I was in a museum of novelties in London.” And she told them all about her experiences as a mermaid in Gilbert Tingley’s freak show.
     
    Ernest Sherman was delighted by her account as was Little Emmie. “What luck!” the thin man said. “You are one of us! I must tell Mr. Barnum we have a mermaid at our table at home. He is one to enjoy a joke!”
     
    “David and I will attend the museum as soon as we can,” she promised. “I do not want to miss it!”
     
    Little Emmie’s broad face was wreathed in smiles and double chins. “Ernest and I will look forward to it. And I’m sure you’ll have a chance to meet Mr. Barnum. He spends much of his time right at the museum.”
     
    David Cornish said, “As soon as I’ve settled our affairs with Mr. Desmond Dempsey we’ll take a look around the city.”
     
    After they had lunch they consulted Mrs. Larkins as to the address which Desmond Dempsey had sent them. She studied the slip of paper with a brow wrinkled and told them, “That will be up Broadway a few blocks and on this side of the street.”
     
    David thanked her. Then dressed in their best, he and Fanny walked to Broadway and up the several blocks which Mrs. Larkin had indicated. They finally reached an ugly, red brick building with a sign on it, “Godhunter & Godhunter, Theatrical Printing.” David consulted the paper again and found this was the address they wanted.
     
    He glanced at her, “This must be the place. No doubt Mr. Dempsey has his office