If Bangs had indulged in any dream of a change of life in Laurie,
however, following this reconciliation, the next few days destroyed the
tender shoots of that hope. Laurie's manner retained its pleasant
camaraderie, but work and he met as strangers and passed each other by.
The routine of his days remained what they had been during the past five
weeks. He gadded about, apparently harmlessly, came home at shocking
hours, and spent most of the bracing January days wrapped in a healthful
slumber that infuriated Bangs, who wandered in and out of their
apartment like an unhappy ghost. On the rare occasions when he and
Rodney lunched or dined together, Laurie was entirely good-humored and
when Epstein was with them seemed wholly impervious to any hints thrown
out, none too subtly, by his producing partner.

"Listen, Laurie," said that disgusted individual, almost a month after
the new year had been ushered in, "the new year's here. That's a good
time for a young fella to get busy again on somethin' vorth while. Ain't
I right?"

Laurie suppressed a yawn and carefully struck off with his little finger
the firm ash of an excellent cigarette. He was consuming thirty or
forty cigarettes a day, and his nerves were beginning to show the effect
of this indulgence.

"I believe it is," he courteously agreed. "It has been earnestly
recommended to the young as a good time to start something."

"Vell," Epstein's voice took on the guttural notes of his temperamental
moments, "don't that mean nothin' to you?"

Laurie grinned. He had caught the quick look of warning Bangs shot at
the producer and it amused him.

"Not yet," he said. "Not till I've had my adventure."

Epstein sniffed.

"The greatest adventure in life," he stated dogmatically, "is to make a
lot of money. I tell you vy. Because then you got all the other
adventures you can handle, trying to hold on to it!"

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