ng our heads about honesty, and that rubbish, we shall be
always down in the world. How do other people make money and get on?
By humbug, my dear. By humbug. As for you, a little play-acting is
nothing."

"But I am not the man's daughter, and my own father's alive and well."

"Look here, Lotty. You are always grumbling about the music-halls."

"Well, and good reason to grumble. If you heard those ballet girls
talk, and see how they go on at the back, you'd grumble. As for the
music--" She laughed, as if against her will. "If anybody had told me
six months ago--me, that used to go to the Cathedral Service every
afternoon--that I should be a Lion Masher at a music-hall and go on
dressed in tights, I should have boxed his ears for impudence."

"Why, you don't mean to tell me, Lotty, that you wish you had stuck to
the moldy old place, and gone on selling music over the counter?"

"Well, then, perhaps I do."

"No, no, Lotty; your husband cannot let you say that."

"My husband can laugh and talk with barmaids. That makes him happy."

"Lotty," he said, "you are a little fool. And think of the glory.
Posters with your name in letters a foot and a half long--'The
People's Favorite.' Why, don't they applaud you till their hands drop
off?"

She melted a little.

"Applaud! As if that did any good! And me in tights!"

"As for the tights," Joe replied with dignity, "the only person whom
you need consult on that subject is your husband; and since I do not
object, I should like to see the man who does. Show me that man,
Lotty, and I'll straighten him out for you. You have my perfect
approval, my dear. I honor you for the tights."

"My husband's approval!"

She repeated his words again in a manner which had been on other
occasions most irritating to him. But to-night he refused to be
offended.

"Of course," he went on, "as soon as I get a berth on another ship I
shall take you off the boards. It is the husband's greatest delight,
especially if he is a jolly sailor, to brave all dangers for his wife.
Think, Lotty, how pleasant it would be not to do any more work."

"I should like to sing sometimes, to sing good music, at the great
concerts. That's what I thought I was going to do."

"You shall; you shall sing as little or as often as you like. 'A
sailor's wife a sailor's star should be.' You shall be a great lady,
Lotty, and you shall just command your own line. Wait a bit, and you
shall have your own carriage, and yo