The Washington times., 1913-02-19
CHAPTER vI.-(Continued.)

wy HITAKER. laughed quietly and
Nh( turned the conversation,
w accepting the managers s
pseudo-confidences at their
face value-that is. as pure plague.
quite consistent with the managerial
pose.
Whitaker laughed quietly and turned
the conversation, accepting the man
ayers pseudo-confdences at their face
value-that is, as pure blague. quite
consistent with the managerial pose
They rose presently and made their
way out into the crowded, blatant night
of Broadway.
We'll walk. il you don't mind Max
suggested. 1T isn't far. and I'd Ike to
get a line on the house, as 1t goes In
He sighed affectedly. Heaven knows
when I'll see another swell audience
mobbing one of my attractions.
His companion raised no objection.
This phase of the life of New York cX-
erted an attraction. for his imagination
of unfailing potency. He was more
willing to view it afoot than from cab
windows.
They pushed forward slowly through
the eddying tides. elbowed BY a match
less motley. of humanity, deafe1ed by
its thousand tongues, dazzled tc blind
ness by walls of living light. Whitaker
experienced sensation Of participa, ling
in a royal progress: Max was plainly
man OF mark; he left a wake of rippling
interest. At every third step somebody
hailed him. as a rule, by his first name:
generally he responded by curt nod
and a Tightening Of his teeth upon his
cigar
street. shouldered by a denser rabble
whose faces, all turned In one direction.
shone livid with the glare OF gigantic
electric sign. midway down the block
THEArER MAX,
SARA LAWS FAREWELL
IT was nearly $50 O'Clock; the house
had been open since o'clock. and sun
a cue ran from the gallery doors TO
Broadway, while still an apparently IN,
terminable string of carriages writhed
from one corner to the lobby entrance,
paused to deposit it's perishable freight,
and streaked away to sixth avenue.
The lobby itself was crowded TO sumo.
cation with an Occidental durbar OF
preme manifestation of its religion. the
ultimate rite in the worship OF the
pomps of the flesh.
Loot at it," MAX grumbled through
~. ..at?-' Whitaker had to lift his
voice TO make II carry above the bug
zing of the throng.
The money I'm losing returned
the manager. vividly disguised. Il
could've filled the Metropolitan Opera
House three times over.
He swung on his heel and began to
push his way out of the lobby. Come
along-no use trying to get in this
way"
Whitaker followed. to be led down a
blind alley. between the theater and
sign advertised the stage door, through
which, via a brief hallway. they en-
tered the proscenium-a vast, cavern
Gus, cluttered. shadowy and drafty
visible for the most part
by an unnatural glow filtering fro NTH
footlights through the painted walls OF
an interior set Whitaker caught hasty
glimpses of stage hands idling about:
heard a woman's voice declaiming
loudly from within the set: passed
MAY dragging him by the arm-a mid
actor waiting for his cue be-
side a substantial wooden door in the
walls: and. STOPPING, passed
through a small door into the gangway
behind the boxes.
Curtains just up Max told him:
Sara doesn't come on TIL near the
middle of the act. Make yourself COM
Portable: I'll be back before long"
He drew aside a curtain and usnered
his guest into the right-hand stage box,
self the sole occupant of the box. es-
tabIished himself in desolate grandeur
as far out of sight as he could arrange
his chair without losing command of
the stage. A single glance over the
body of the house showed him tier up
on tier of dead-white shirt bosoms
framed In black, alternating with bare,
cleaning shoulders and dazzling eX-
Iuisite gowns. The few empty stalls
were rapidly filling up. There was a
fuent movement through the aisles. A
subdued hum and rustic rose from that
portion of the audience which was al
ready seated. The business going ON
upon the stage was receiving little at
Lention-from Whitaker as little as
from anyone He was vaguely con-
scious only of a scene suggesting with
cruel cieverness the interior of a
shabby -genteei New York fat and of a
lew figures peopling II, all dominated by
. hcayy-l!mbed, harsh-voiced terma-
CANT What he was most sensitive to
was a purely psychological feeling OF
suspense and excitement, a semi-hys-
LericaI. high-strung emotional state