The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-08-09


their own advantage.
you've certainly got a 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
thatll improve them maybe fifty per
cent. Well, you take 1t on, and well
begin paying you your regular salary
now; you understand, twenty-five dol
lars n week, beginning today"
Rose accepted the proposition with
n 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 q
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 IL 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 ut first; scenery rehearsals
that caused the stage to seem small
and cluttered up, and, last and ghast-
liest, 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
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
lust 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 doml
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. 1
seemed she never could feel tiret
again.
II wasn't until along in the thlr(
act that the audience became, for her
,nything but collold mass-some
thing that you squeezed and thumpet
and worked as you did clay, to get /
into properly plastic condition o
receptlvity, so that the jokes, tn,
songs, the dances, even the spindlini
little shafts Of romance that you sho
out into it, could be felt to dig In ant
take hold.
But along in the third act, as sh
came down to the footlights with tn
rest of the sextette In their "Al
Alone" number, one face detached II
self suddenly from the pasty gra
surface of those that spread over tn
auditorium; became human-individu
al-and intensely familiar; becam
the face, Enthusiastically, of Jimmy Wal
lacel
It Is probable that of all the au
dience, only two men saw that any
thing had happened, so brief was tn
frozen instant while she stood trans
fixed. One Of them was John Ga
braith, in the back row, and he let hi
breath 90 out again In relief almost 1
the act Of catching 1t. He guesse
well enough what had happened. Bu
it was all right. She was going on o
If nothing had happened.
The other man was Jimmy Wallac
himself. He released, too, little sig
of relief when he saw her Off In he
stride again after that momentar
falter. But he hardly looked at tn
stage after that; stared absently ,
his program instead, and present.
availed himself of the dramatic cri
les license and left the theater.
AS for Rose herself, in her conscior
thoughts she didn't recognize the hoI
already beating unanimously In hi
veins, that he would tell Rodney-thi
perhaps even before she got back
her dismal little room, Rodney, pacir
his, would know.
It was so irrational hope-so u
expected and so well disguised-thi
she mistook 1t for fear. But fear new
made ones heart glow like that.
That's where all her thoughts wei
when John Galbraith halted her
the way from the dressing room aft
| the performance was over.
D ~ know you're tired" he sa
brusquely. "But ! fancied you'd
tlreder In the morning, and l have
, leave for New York on the fast trai
a co Won eaa n was now or never"