The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1917-08-03

| err"
The rest OF 1t didn't matter to Ros,
1.-The more guarded but nevertheless
cordial approval of the two owners
who had yet to make sure on the fig
ures; and the details of settlement
which left her more than hundred
dollars profit, even after she had de
! Quoted the hundred she owed Rod
ney The polnt-the polnt-settIed
by Galbraith's praise-was that she
had succeeded.
II was, on the whole, a good bar
gain on both sides. But Goldsmith
and Block came back next day and
drove another bargain. principally to
their own advantage.
you've certainly got good eye for
costumes, Miss Dane" Goldsmith said,
and here's proposition we'd like to
make. A lot of these other things
We've got for the regular chorus don't
look as good as they might. You'll be
able to see changes to make in them
that'll improve them maybe fifty per
cent. Well, you take 1t on, and wen
begin paying you your regular salary
nows you understand, twenty-five dol
lars week, beginning today"
Rose accepted the proposition with
warm flush of gratitude. But, from
the moment her little salary began
! she found herself retained, body ant
soul, exactly as Galbraith himself
was. They'd bought all her ideas, al
her energy, all her time, except
few scant hours for sleep and few
snatched minutes for meals.
She gave her employers, up to TIL
time when the piece opened at tn,
Globe, at conservative calculation
about five times their moneys worth
Even IL she hadn't been in the com
pany, she'd have found something like
two days work In every twenty-foul
hours, just In the wardrobe room
There wasn't single costume outside
Roses own twelve that didn't have to
be remodeled more or less.
On top of all that, the really ter.
rible grind of rehearsals began
property rehearsaIs. curIously discon-
certlng at first; scenery rehearsals
that caused the stage to seem small
and cluttered up, and. last and ghast-
Hest, a dress rehearsal. which began
ut seven o'clock one night and lasted
till four the next morning.
II you had seen them that morning,
utterly tagged out, unsustained by
single CLEAN of hope, you'd have
said 1t was impossible that they
should give any sort OF perform
ance that night-let alone a good one
But by eight o'clock, when the over,
ture was called you wouldn't have
known them for the same people
There was the feeling, on the edge OF
this first performance. that they were
now on their own.
The appearance, back on the stage
of John Galbraith In evening dress
| just as the call of the first act brought
them trooping from their dressing
rooms, intensified this sensation. He
was going to be, tonight. simply one of
the audience.
Rose herself was completely domi.
mated by the new spirit. Her nerves
slack. frayed, numb an hour ago
had sprung miraculously into tune.
She not only didn't feel tired. II
seemed she never could feel tired
again.
1t wasn't until along in the third
act that the audience became. for her,
lnythlng but n colloid mass-some-
thing that you squeezed and thumped
and worked as you did clay, to get it
into properly plastic condition of
I receptivity, so that the jokes, the
songs, the dances. even the spindling
little shafts of romance that YOU shot
out into it, could be felt to dig In and
| take hold.
But along in the third act, as She
came down to the footllghts with the
rest of the sextette in their "All
Alone" number, one face detached If.
self suddenly from the pasty gray
surface of those that spread over the
auditorium; became HUMANITARIAN
a1-and intensely familiar; became
the face, Enthusiastically. of Jimmy Wal
lacel
1t is probable that of all the an
dtence, only two men saw that any.
thing had happened so brief was the
frozen instant while she stood trans.
fixed. One of them was John Gal.
braith, in the back row, and he let his
breath go out again in relief almost in
) the act Of catching it. He guessed