Meade County news., 1917-07-26

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1t. Because. by dancer, he mean
something very different from a pranc
ing chorus girl. The others gigglet
and exchanged glances with Dave Il
the piano. They didn't understand
To them, the compliment seemed t.
have been delivered with the lef
hand. And somehow, an amused rec
ognitiOn of the fact that they didn't
understand as well as of the fact that
she did, flashed across from John
Galbraith's eyes to hers.
The impetus and direction of Roses
career derived from two incidents
which might just as well not have
happened-two of the flukiest of small
chances.
The first of these chances concerned
itself with Edna Larson and her bad
voice. 1t was bad voice only when
she talked. When she sang it had a
gorgeous, thrilling ring, and volume
enough for four. Besides, she had an
infallible ear, and sang squarely in
tune. But when she spoke it sounded
like someone who didn't know how,
trying to play the slide trombone. She
was simply deaf, it seemed. to the
subtleties of infection.
Daily, she reduced Galbraith to help
less wrath. Evidently he didn't mean
to be brute about it. He began ev-
cry one of his tussles to improve her
reading of line with a gentleness
that would have done credit to a kim
dergartener. But after three attempts,
each more ominously gentle than the
last, his temper would suddenly fly all
to pieces.
The girl, queerly, didn't seem to
care. But in the dressing room one
night, after one of these rehearsals,
Rose got a different view. AS she sat
down on a bench to unlace her shoes,
she hooked straight into Edna Lar
sons face-a face sunken with a
despair that turned Rose cold. The
fearless, tragic eyes were staring,
without recognition, straight into
Roses own.
Rose delayed her dressing till the
other girls were gone, then sat down
beside Edna.
You're all right" she said, feeling
very inadequate. I'm going to help
you"
"It's always like this" the girl said.
"It's no use. He'll put me back in the
chorus again."
mot if l can help it," Rose said.
"But the first thing to do is to come
along and get something to eat"
During the next hour Rose learned,
for the first time, what the weight Of
an immense melancholy inertia can be.
The. girl was like one paralyzed-
paralyzed by repeated failures and
disasters, of which she told Rose
freely. When Galbraith had put. her
into the sextette, hope, just about
dead, had been reawakened. She'd
learned to dance we'll enough to es-
cape. censure, and she'd seen for her
self how Indispensable her singing
voice was tG the 'sextette. And then
1t had appeared she'd have to talk !!
And her talking wasn't right.
Look heret" said Rose, when the
story was. told. (This was across the
table in a dingy little lunch room)
"You're going to Say your lines before
tomorrows rehearsal so that Galbralth
won't stop you once. We're going to
my room now, and I'm going to teach
you. Come along"
In a Sort of daze, the girl went!
Rose put her into chair, sat down
opposite her, took the first phrase of
her first speech, and said it very slow
ly, very quietly, half a dozen times.
That was at half-past eleven o'clock
at night. BY midnight, Edna could say
those first three words to Roses sat
isfaction. They worked like that
straight through the night, except that
two or three times the girl broke
down; said it was hopeless. She got
up once and said that she was going
home, whereupon Rose locked the door
and put the key in her stocking.
At seven o'clock in the morning they
went back to the lunch room and ate
an enormous breakfast; then Rose
walked Edna out to the park and
back, and at eight they were up in her
room again. They raided the delica-
lessen at eleven, and made a slender
meal. And at twelve, husky of voice,
but indomitable- of mlnd-Edna at last,
as well as Rose-they confronted Gal
braith.
When the test scene came, Rose
could hardly manage her own first
line, and drew a sharp look of inquiry
from Galbraith. But on Edna's first
cue, her line was spoken with no
hesitation at all, and in tone, pitch,
and infection it was almost a phono-
graphic copy of the voice that had
served 1t for a model.