Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-03-21

He finished the phrase by the deed.
The Office routine went on and Daphne
might have been the chair she sat In,
for all the attention he paid her. She
felt rather ungallantly ignored. Still,
she had asked to be treated on a
business basis. He was taking her
at her word.
Before the contracts were ready
Mr.. Patterson appeared. He was one
OF Reben's stage managers, worried,
emotional little man, worn to shreds
with his task of stimulating and cor
recting the emotions by which others
earned their wages and fame.
Reben introduced him to Daphne
and explained her new Office. Batter
son seemed none too well pleased with
the news that Daphne was ignorant
Of stage work to the last degree. He
had found it hard enough to make the
experienced actors read their lines as
they must be read and keep on read
ing them so. To teach this dramatic
infant how to walk and talk was an
unWelcOme labor.
He took Daphne into his office and
pulled out a set Of parts. When she
stumbled over them he cast his eyes
heavenward in his swift Impotence.
He explained them with a. vinegary
gentleness. He talked to her of the
canonS Of Interpretation. He walked
through her scenes and spoke her lines
for her again and again and yet again.
But somehow he could not teach her.
He tried everything, but beating
her. He flattered her, Wheedled her,
parodied, satirized, rebuked her, and
occasionally he cursed her. She did
not rebel even against his profanity,
because she had no confidence in her
self to support her resistance. She
felt that she was far worse than he
said she was when he said she was
worst. She, used all her funds of res
olution In keeping from throwing down
the part and running away in tears.
She had none left for asserting her
right to politeness.
Once Daphne was out in the street
again and released from the ordeal of
pleasing Patterson, youth and ambi-
ton brought hope back again. Broad
way at twilight was athrob with en-
thusiasm and she caught rest from the
crowds. She was going home to study.
carrying her little set Of textbooks like
schoolgirl. But she felt the wings
Of conquest fedging at her ankles or
the wheel Of fortune spinning under
her toes.
Her very first effort had succeeded.
She was woman with salary. She
would be no longer a parasite on any
man. She had a career and business
as well as the best Of them.
Her mother was at home alone.
Leila had gone from that tea party
to another to which Mrs. Kip was not
invited. Daphne's mother greeted her
with relief She told her news with a
gush of enthusiasm. It left Mrs. Kip
cold, very cold.
She was pious, church-going wom-
an, Mrs. Kip. She had always looked
upon the theater as a training school
for the still lower regions. She went
to plays occasionally, but usually with
a. feeling Of dissipation and worldli-
ness. Besides it was one thing to see
plays and another to act them.
Daphne tried to reason her mother
out Of her backwoods prejudices, but
she only frightened her the more. Mrs.
Kip retired to her room to write an
urgent telegram to her husband de-
manding that he come on at once and
rescue his child. She always called on
him in an emergency and he always
responded.
Leila came home eventually full Of
gossip and triumph. Her Dutilh gown
had made tremendous success; the
other women wanted to murder her.
Mrs. Kip broke in on her chronicles
with the dismal announcement of
Daphne's new insanity. Leila was al
most as bitter. in opposition as Mrs.
Kip had been, but from quite another
motive. Leila had aristocratic i'm
pulses and looked forward to social
splendors. She would gain no help
from the fact that her husbands sister
was theatrical struggler.
Daphne escaped an odious battle
with her by referring to the need Of
close study, and retreated into her
own room, locking her mother out.
She stayed there, repeating her lines
over and over and trying to remember