The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1917-08-24
wouldn't ask for anything handsom-

err"
The rest of 1t didn't matter to Rose
the more guarded but nevertheless
cordial approval of the two owners,
who had yet to make sure on the hg-
ures; and the details Of settlement,
which left her more than a hundred
dollars profit, even after she had de-
ney. The point-the point-settled
by Galbraith's praise-was that she
had succeeded.
1t was, on the whole, 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 a good eye for
costumes, Miss Dane" Goldsmith said,
land here's a 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 it on, and We'll
begin paying you your regular salary
now; you understand, twenty-five dol
lars week, beginning today"
Rose accepted the proposition with
a warm flush of gratitude. But, from
the moment her little salary began,
she found herself retained, body and
soul, exactly as Galbraith himself
was. They'd bought all her ideas, all
her energy, all her time, except
few scant hours for sleep and few
snatched minutes for meals.
She gave her employers, up to the
time when the piece opened at the
Globe, at a conservative calculation,
about five times their moneys worth.
Even If she hadn't been in the COM
pany, she'd have found something like
two days work in every twenty-four
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 rehearsals, curiously discon-
certing at first; scenery rehearsals
that caused the stage to seem small
and cluttered up, and, last and ghast-
Hest, a dress rehearsal, which began
at seven o'clock one night and lasted
till four the next morning.
If you had seen them that morning,
utterly tagged out, unsustained by
a single CLEAN of hope, you'd have
said it 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. 1t |
seemed she never could feel tired
lgain.
1t wasn't until along in the third
lct that the audience became, for her,
lnything but colloid mass-some-
hing that you squeezed and thumped
md worked as you did clay, to get it
nto a properly plastic condition Of
so that the jokes, the
ongs, the dances, even the spindling
title shafts of romance that you shot
ut into it, could be felt to dig in and
AXE hold.
But along in the third act, as she
anne down to the footlights with the
est of the sextette In their "All
lone" number, one face detached it.
elf suddenly from the pasty gray |
urface of those that spread over the I
became Misunderstanding
land intensely familiar; became
ne face, Enthusiastically, Of Jimmy Wal I
icel II
1t is probable that OF all the au- {
Ience, only two men saw that any
ling had happened, SO brief was thel
.ozen instant while she stood trans I
xed. One Of them was John Gal l
raith, in the back row, and he let his i
reath go out again IN relief almost In
le act Of catching It He guessed 8