The Property of a Lady - Elizabeth Adler [179]
“Well, here’s to C. Z. then,” O’Hara said as Rosa, Missie, Beulah, and the boarders raised their glasses in a toast. “And to young Dick Nevern’s grand success with Scheherazade.”
“I expect you’ll be leaving us now you’ve come into money,” Rosa said resignedly, thinking that would always be the way it was; as soon as the young hopefuls made some money and at last she could be sure of her rent, they would move on to a grand apartment of their own.
“The fact is I’ll be working early till late and I’ll have to move nearer the studio,” he confessed, “but I’m keeping on my room, Rosa. Just in case.”
“Oh, but you’ll never come back,” Azaylee wailed suddenly. “I just know you won’t. It’s all going to be different again.”
Tears stood in her eyes and they glanced at her, alarmed.
“It won’t change, Azaylee,” Dick said gently, “I’ll still have my room here, with my things in it. And I’ll come and see you all as often as I can. You know what?” he added with a grin, “I’ll even get you a little part in Seheherazade—if you’re a good girl, that is.”
“You will?” Her eyes shone with excitement, all tears forgotten. “Can I dance in it?”
“We’ll see,” he promised. He looked around at their beaming faces, at Marshall and Millie, Lilian and Mary, Ben and the others. “In fact, you will all have a role in Scheherazade.” His fair-skinned face was red with excitement and champagne. “The kids too. It’s my thanks to Rosa and to Missie for letting me owe my rent and to all of you for putting up with my dreams.”
As the cheers went up O’Hara refilled their glasses. “Hold it, hold it,” he bellowed. “I have something important to say to you all. I have known Rosa Perelman and Missie O’Bryan for a long time, and for years I’ve been askin’ one of them to be me wife. All I’ve ever gotten is a ‘maybe’ or ‘ask me again in a year.’ A lot of water has gone under all our bridges since then and it’s just this week that I’ve found the woman I love again. And I love her more than anything on God’s earth.” Turning to Missie, he said quietly, “Missie, I’m telling all these people that I loves you, but what I really want to do is to tell the world. I’m asking you to marry me, Missie, and I’d be obliged if this time you’d give me a straight answer.”
Missie’s eyes linked with his and it was as if there were no one else in the room, just Missie and O’Hara. His big handsome face shone with anxiety and he looked as if he were holding his breath, waiting for her answer. He looked so rock solid and honest and was so blatantly in love with her that he was not ashamed to show his feelings in front of a roomful of people. “O’Hara,” she said, “I only wish I had said yes a long time ago….”
“Then you will marry me?” he demanded.
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” she whispered.
“B’jaysus,” he bellowed, clasping her in his arms, laughing and crying as the others cheered. “You’re mine at last, Missie!”
After planting a big kiss on her mouth, he pulled a box from his pocket. “I went to the classiest jeweler’s in New York and got you this—just in case,” he added with a broad wink to the others as he opened the box and showed her a large brilliant-cut diamond from Cartier. “And a matching wedding band,” he said excitedly. “What d’you think of that, me darlin’?”
“Oh, they’re beautiful, just beautiful,” she murmured, “and far too grand for me.”
“Nothing is too grand for the wife of King O’Hara,” he exclaimed fiercely. “Why, I’d give me very life for you, Missie O’Bryan. The future Missie O’Hara!” he added with another wink. And then Winona sat down at the piano and thundered out the wedding march and he whirled her round and round in his arms. And in the flurry of excitement and congratulatory