However, it's worth trying. I don't believe you're a stick. Ah,--
would you walk on?"
"I don't understand."
"Stage slang; would you be willing to go on as a minor character--wear
fine clothes and be looked at without saying much--at first, you know?
Or--of course your idea's to star-you got a backer?"
"I don't understand that, either."
"Some one to pay the bills while you're being taught. To hire a company
and a theatre as a gamble."
"Impossible! I want money at once. I supposed that my--my beauty would
command a position on the stage; it's certainly a bar to employment off
it."
"Of course it would; yes, yes, but not immediately. Why, even Mrs.
Farquhar had to have long and expensive training before she made her
debut. And you know what a scandal there had been about her!
"Not that there's been any about you," he added hastily, to my look of
amazement. "But you know--ah--public mention of any sort piques curiosity.
Er--what's your act?"
"My act?"
"Yes; what can you do?"
"Sing a little; nothing else. I thought of opera."
This proposition didn't seem to strike him favourably.
"I don't know--" he hesitated.
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