"This is first rate, I must ask Figente who did it," Vedder said.
Clem glanced but not seeing a recognizable style or known signature was uninterested.
"It's nearly twelve, and I must get back—Lucy will be waiting for me," Vida said.
"Yeah, let's get back to the fun," agreed Herold enthusiastically.
Lucy and Ranna were drinking champagne with a tall blond young man.
"I thought Figente would have a band, let's find the victrola and dance," the blond young man said, ignoring Ranna.
"There's going to be a show in a few minutes, then supper, after that there'll be a band," Lucy said, hailing Vida.
"Vida, this is Rad Welford, he's a terrific dancer."
"Let's make our own music and dance," Rad said to Vida.
He was looking at her as no man ever had, as though she were Lucy, Vida thought thrilled. "Ask me again later," she said, trying out for the first time a look learned from Lucy.
After the Manger tableau, which had been somewhat delayed by joyous shrieks and drinks celebrating Merry Christmas, and while Hal was David playing the harp in a manner that won reluctant attention, Lucy hastened into the Queen of Sheba's revealing gauzes and joined Ranna on the saffron sofa behind a big screen.
Ranna was still sulky about Rad and she teased him playfully though she had discovered humor was lost on him. It's another thing I'll have to be careful about, she thought. It's funny how a man assumes a girl is always ready to be unfaithful, either when he wants to take you away from another man, or a new man wants to take you away from him.
"If you loved me you would not dance with other men," Ranna had complained when she had casually mentioned having gone dancing after the show.
"That's silly! The Charleston is more like a game than a dance."
"Then it is not a dance that becomes an artist."
"You may have something there," she had conceded.
Their time together was spent only at his studio as if there lay their only ground of understanding. Lovemaking, while fun, was a dance in which she was the audience; but more and more when it came to work he was increasingly lazy. She knew that he never worked when she was not there but went out to visit women in
