he would stand in the wings," once more perching herself on the footboard, "when I was trying my best to get through my scenes and talk to me so loudly I know the audience must have heard him. 'Hurry up, you fool. Take all night to say a few little verses. What in the name of all the gods is the idiot trying to do now? Stand on your head! Stand on your head and be done with it, the public paid two dollars a seat just to watch you. Of course I amount to nothing. It does not matter if I never get my cue. Take your time, idiot, imbecile, until by the time I would leave the stage you can imagine the condition of these none too vigorous nerves.”

Some way we were both laughing uproariously over this. The spectacle of this great celebrity taking the trouble to dodge about from wing to wing to throw such childish gibberish, yet in such a vituperative spirit, at a defenseless girl struck me as most ridiculous especially with my merry companion's way of telling it.

"Yes," she drawled, her pearly teeth gleaming good naturedly from her rosy mouth, "it sounds funny now, but the ogres of our childhood were never more terrible than this man when he begins his persecution acts. And it seemed all the more horrible because, on occasion, he could be so perfectly angelic and kind. However, I only had to stand his nonsense a couple of weeks, for, lo and behold! on the salary day following my 'failure to appear,' as they say in Court, I was given my notice with the side remark

from 'father's' personal representative, 'that my work was most unsatisfactory and Mr. Greatstar would politely suggest that I seek another profession; possibly that of nursery maid would be quite to my liking, as I could not only then be surrounded by those of my own mental calibre, but also by the pure and innocent whose society I evidently craved'; this latter a shot at the fact that I had been chummy with Goodstreak, yet couldn't make the car. But the crowning point of all was that the madame, 'father's' wife, didn't speak to me after she knew what I had done to her banker, although she was at the hotel and wouldn't have been at the supper had I gone. Can you beat that for the fine and beautiful?"

Then followed a long list of gossipy short comings of this great man in response to my dubious comments that such things could be in a good company and no one raise a voice in protest. This list was not only long, but I must say woefully black with scarcely a redeeming saving grace for this modern Aristippus, but as it was mostly what even my present informant had gathered from others, and what had become more or less tradition, I was glad not to accept it all nor do I care to record it.

CHAPTER VII.

AN ENGAGEMENT SECURED.

Though it had been highly amusing to hear Miriam's recital, I found myself a little perplexed that this had occurred in the company of a star who held a most exalted position and who, as he had said, received two dollars (and sometimes more) a seat for his entertainments. Where were my hopes of being associated only with the best if I was to meet, even there, such an element as this? I expressed this fear to the fair occupant of my footboard, but she waved her hands gaily in the air and cried:

"Oh, rubbish! I'm going to get on. Such things as that won't keep me down. "There is always room at the top,' and my ambition knows no bounds. I'm afraid you are apt to be puritanical. One need not necessarily be like these people; and, besides, when one has reached the top she can pick and choose her associates. Art is beautiful and, to me, all absorbing, and I'm going to make a name and place for myself in it or perish in the attempt. Besides," she added, as she sprang lightly from her perch, "as the man sagely observed when he charged a poor mortal five dollars for a beefsteak, "I need the money.' "

Gradually things began to take on a brighter hue for me. To Miriam Merriworld life was scintillating; not necessarily a holiday, but nevertheless something to be felt and enjoyed. Her exuberance and ambition were like a tonic to my faltering spirits, and I soon found myself reasoning in the same vein with her thoughts; that where there was youth, enthusiasm, ability, and ambition there were no obstacles. Such things as might occur to hinder progress were merely hitches and bumps, and must be utterly ignored as either nonexistent or merely be quietly stepped over.

It was certainly a bright and hopeful way to feel and gave to each day an impetus to forge ahead in spite of all. By working hard to perfect ourselves in our chosen profession, our opportunities surely would come; nothing could keep them back.

Of course, we pictured wonderful things for each other, and, absurdly, we wanted our careers to run along together. Just how we could both be great stars in one company did not seem very clear, but "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," and we had determined, if possible, to make our future engagements together. Miriam being much more experienced than I naturally would come in for a more prominent rôle and position, and it ought not to be impossible that I could count on a small part in the same play. So whichever one of us obtained an interview with a manager was to "speak up right away for the other."

I loyally and stoutly asserted that I simply wouldn't accept an engagement without her; she gave my hand a sympathetic squeeze and said "Me too."

Another thing which helped to put a rosy tint on life as lived in New York, was an almost constant going to the theatre. The courtesy of a complimentary order to various places of amusement is extended to members of the same profession I now learned, and a great majority of the theatres gave to us waifs this privilege that winter. Miriam always did the asking, and I suppose the sparkling "something" of her personality made it hard even for such business representatives as stood at the doors, who were acknowledged boors, to refuse her.

It was like opening the gates of Paradise to me, this source of study; for in this sense only I took it; a chance to see others work, to become familiar with methods and technique. I remember, however, of secretly wondering at the unevenness of the work on, what should be, our representation stage; and seeing that some performances of great strength and brilliancy would come perilously near to being utterly ruined by one prominent member of the cast, perhaps the most advertised and featured of the attraction.

Again, it was pitiful to see what was to me a perfect cast, a perfect play, go down to the oblivion of a few weeks' "run" unhonored and unsung, though not always unwept, for many great hopes and aspirations are downed with what, to an unsupporting public, seemed only a casual failure. Yet again it was