Meade County news., 1917-07-26
CHAPTER xVl-continued.

CHAPTER xVl-continued
~
"What professional experience have
you had?" he asked.
81 haven't had any,"
He almost smiled when she stopped
there. ANY amateur experienceT he
inquired.
"Quite lot" said Rose; "pageants
and things, and two or three little
plays"
"Can you dancer"
"Yes," said Rose.
He said he supposed ballroom dane
Ing was what she meant, whereupon
she told him she was pretty good
ballroom dancer, but that 1t was gym
nastic dancing she had in mind.
"All right" he said. "See IL you
can do this. Watch me, and then
Initiate me exactly."
In the intensity of her absorption
In his questions and her own answers
to them, she he'd never given a thought
to the bystAnders. But now as they
fell back to give him room, she swept
q glance across their faces. They all
wore smiles Of sorts. There was some
thing amusing about this-someth
out of the regular routine. A. little
knot Of chorus girls halted in the act
Of going out the wide doors, and stood
watching. Was it just hoax? The
suppressed, unnatural silence sounded
like 1t. But at what John Galbraith
did, one of the bystanders guffawed
outright.
1t wasn't pretty, the dance step he
executed--a sort of stiff-legged skip
accompanied by vulgar hip wriggle
and concluding with straight-out
Bldewise kick. A sick disgust clutched
ut Rose as she watched-an utter re-
vulsion from the whole loathly busi-
ness.
"Well?" he asked, turning to her as
he finished. He wasn't smiling at all.
"Im not dressed to do that" she
said.
II know you're not" he admitted
cOOlly; "but 1t can be done. Pick up
your skirts and do it as you are-if
you really want job"
There was just faint edge of con-
tempt in that last phrase and, merci-
fully. it rdpsed her anger. A blaze
kindled III her blue eyes, pnd two spots
of vivid color defined themselves in
her cheeks.,i
She caught up her skirts as he had
told her to DO, executed without COM
promise thel stiff-legged skip and the
wriggle, and, finished with a horizon
tai, sidewise kick that matched his
own. Then, painting, trembling a lit
tie, she stood looking straight into
his face
Galbraith was staring at her with a
look which expressed, at first, clear
astonishment but gradually cpmplicat-
ed itself with othet emotions--con-
fusion, CLINT of whimsical amuse-
ment. That CLEAN, perfectly honest,
kindly one, decided Rose to take him
on trust. He wasn't brute, how
ever it might suit his purpose to act
like one.
"We've hecn rehearsing this piece
two weeks" he said presently, looking
AWAY from her when he began to talk,
"and couldn't take anyone into the
chorus now whom I'd have to teach
the rudiments Of dancing to. That's
why Il test was necessary. Also. |
couldn't take anybody who had come
down here-fOr n lark"
With that, Rose understood the
whole thing. John Galbraith had clas-
silied her, or thought he had, as a
well-bred young girl who, in a moment
of pique or mischief, had decided it
would he fun to go on the stage. The
test he had applied wasn't, from that
point of view, unnecessarily cruel. The
girl lie had taken her for would, on be-
Ing ordered to repeat the grotesque bit
of vulgarity of his, have drawn her
dignity about her like cloak and
gone back in chastened spirit to the
world where she belonged.
A gorgeous apparition came sweep
hng by them just now, on line from
he dressing room to the door--O fig