New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-06-22

opening from the street level up
on the foot of a broadlsh stair
which took you up rather suddenly
At the head Of the stairway, tilted
back In a kitchen chair beneath O
single gas Jet whose light he was try.
ing to make suffice for the perusal of
u green newspaper, sat a man, under
orders, no doubt, to keep intruders
away. The thing to do was to 60
by as II, for such as she. watch
men didn't exist. The rhythmic pound
ing of feet and the frayed chords
from a WORKOUT piano, convinced her
she was In the right place.
Her stratagem succeeded. The man
glanced up and, though she felt he
didn't return to his paper again, he
made no attempt to stop her. She
walked steadily ahead to another open
through which sounds and light came
In.
Rose paused for q s%teadying breath
before she went through that farther
door, her eyes starry with resolution,
her cheeks, just for the moment, a lit
tie pale.
The room was hot and not well
lighted. In the farther wall of 1t was
a p%rOscenium arch and a raised stage.
On the stage, right and left, were two
irregular groups Of girls, with a few
men, awkwardly, Rose thought, dis
posed among them. All were swaying
a little to mark the rhythm of the mu-
sic industriously pounded out by a
sweaty young man at the pianO-a
swarthy, thick young man in his I'M
dershirt. There were u few more
people sprawled in different parts of
the hall.
1t was all a little vague to her at
first, because her attention was TO-
cused upon a single fgure-a compact,
rather slender, figure, and tall, Rose
~thOught-Of a man in a blue serge
suit, who stood at the exact center of
the stage and the extreme edge of the
f%OOtlights. He was counting aloud
the bars of the music-nOt beating
time at all, nor yielding to the rhythm
in any way standing, on the contrary,
rather tensely still. That was the
quality about him, indeed, that riveted
Roses attention and held her, as still
as he was, in the doorway-an ex-
hilarating sort Of intensity that had
communicated itself to the swaying
groups Oh the stage.
You could tell from the way he
counted that something was gathering
itself up, getting ready to happen.
Three . FOur Five
j.. Six . Seven-Now"
he shouted on the eighth bar, and with
the word one Of the groups rams
formed itself. One of the men bowed
to one of the girls and began waltzing
another.
Rose watched br~eathlessly, hoping
the maneuver wouldn't go wrOng-fOr
no reason In the world but hat the
man there ut the footlights a so
faulty determined that It shouldn't.
Determination triumphsd. The num-
Der was concluded to JO;ia Galbraith's
evident satisfaction. Every good" he
said. "If you'll all do exactly what
you did that time from o on, I'll
not complain" Without pause he went
on: Everybody on the stage-big
girls-all the big girls" And to the
young man at the piano, "Well do AT
ternOOn Tea"
There was a mOmentary pause then,
filled with subdued chatter, while the
girls and men realigned themselves for
the new number.
Rose looked them over. The girls
weren't, on an average, extravagantly
beautiful, though, with the added
charm of makeup allowed for, there
were. no doubt, many the audiences
would consider so. They were dressed
in pretty much anything that would
allow perfect freedom to their bodies,
especially their arms and legs bath
ing suits mostly, or MILDLY blOuses and
boomers. Rose noted this with salts.
faction. Her old university gymna-
stun costume would do perfectly. Any.
thing. apparently, would do, because,
as her eye adjusted itself to details,
she discovered rOmper suits. pima
fOres, chemises, overalls-all equally
taken for granted.
Galbraith struck his hands together
silence, and scrutinized the now
m%OtiOnless group o. the stage.
'We're one shy" he said. "WhO's
Inissing?" And then answered his own
question: Grant! He wheeled
and his eyes searched the hall.
Rose became aware, for the first
time, that a mutter of conversation had
been going on necessarily since she
had come in, In n Of the recessed
window seats behind her. Now when
gaze plunged in that d.
she turned and looked too.
A big blonde chorus girl was In there
with a man, a girl who. with twenty
pounds trained of her, and that sulky
look out of her face, would have been
a beauty. She had reused herself with
a sort of defiant deliberatiOn at the
sound of the directors voice, but she
still had her back to him and went on
to the a I
"Grant! !" said John Galbraith again
md this time his voice had a cutting
SvNy