The Benson signal., 1918-03-02

dinner! But you won't be allowed to
eat. You'll have to begin at the begin
ming and tell us all about her."
Jimmy, his effect produced, his long
meditated vengeance completed by the
flare Of color he'd seen come up in
Violet's cheeks, settled down seriously
to the telling of his tale, stopping oc-
casionally to bolt a little food just be-
fore his plate was snatched away from
him, but otherwise without intermis-
sion.
He'd suspected nothing about the
costumes on that opening night Of
"Come On In," until a realization Of
how amazingly good they were made
him search his program. The line
Costumes by Dane'' had lighted up in
his mind a wild surmise of the truth,
though he admitted it had seemed al
most too good to be true. Because the
costumes were really wonderful.
He cast about, he said, for some way
of finding out who Dane really was.
And, having learned that Galbraith
was putting on the show at the Casino
he looked him up.
Galbraith proved a mine of infor-
mation-no, he was more like one Of
those oil wells technically known as a
gusher. He simply spouted facts about
Rose, and couldn't be stopped. She
was his own discovery. He'd seen her
possibilities when she designed and
executed those twelve costumes for the
sextette in "The Girl Upstairs" He'd
as his assistant. She worked for Gal
braith the greater part Of last season.
Jimmy had never known of anybody
having just that sort of job before.
Galbraith, busy with two or three pro-
ductiOns at once, had put over lot
of the work of conducting rehearsals
on her shoulders. He'd get a number
started, having figured out the maneu-
verS the chorus were to go through,
the steps they'd use, and so on, and
Rose would actually take his place; !;
would be in complete charge Of the re-
hearsal as the directors representa-
tive.
The costuming last season had been
side issue, at the beginning at least
but she'd done part of the costumes
for one of his productions, and they
were so strikingly successful that Abe
Shuman had snatched her away from
him.
"The funny thing is the way she
does them," Jimmy said. Everybody
else who designs costumes just draws
them: dinky little water colored plates,
and the plates are sent out to a COM
pany like the Star Costume company
and they execute them. But Rose can't
draw bit. She got mannequin-not
an ordinary dressmaker's form, but a
regular painters manneQuin-withle legs
and made her costumes on the thing !;
or at least cut out sort of pattern Of
them in cloth. But somehow or other,
the designing of them and the execu-
ton are more mixed up together by
Roses method than by the orthodox
one. She wanted to get some women
in to sew for her, and see the whole
job through herself; deliver the cos
tunes complete, and get paid for them.
But it seems that the Shumans, on the
side, owned the Star company and
raked off big profit on the costumes
that way. I don't know all the details.
I don't know that Galbraith did. But
anyhow, the first thing anybody knew,
Rose had financed herself. She got
one of those rich young bachelor wom-
in r. int fhn I'M Cp
with her, and organized a company,
and made Abe Shuman an offer on all
the costumes for Come On In Gal
braith thinks that Abe Shuman
thought she was sure to lose lot of
money on it and go broke, and that
then he could put her to work at a
salary, so he gave her the job. But
she didn't lose. She evidently made
chunk out of it, and her reputation
at the same time"
Violet was immensely thrilled by
this recital. "Won't she be perfectly
wonderful" she exclaimed, 'for the
Junior league show, when she comes
back!"
Jimmy found an enormous satisfac-
tion in saying: "Oh, she'll be too ex-
pensive for you. She's regular rob-
ber, she says"
"She says!" cried Violet. ''Do you
mean you've talked with herY'
''Do you think I'd have come back
from New York without" said Jimmy.
"Galbraith told me to drop in at the
Casino that same afternoon. Some Of
the costumes were to be tried on, and
Miss Dane would be there.
"Well, and she came. I almost fell
over her out there in the dark, because
of course the auditorium wasn't light
ed at all. I'll admit she rather took
my breath, just glancing up at me,
and then peering to make out who
was, and then her face going all alight
with that smile of hers. I didn't know
what to call her, and was stammering
over a mixture of Miss Dane and Mrs.