ented
months without work--all her profits would be swallowed up by her enforced
idleness. She would never clear herself, never be able to pay Jimmy. Oh,
she was furious with him because she could not discharge her debt to him
once and for all, fling his money in his face, show him if people remained
penniless long when they had her talent! That idea comforted Lily. And it
was important that she should look nice to-day, to go the round of the
agents. Lily dressed quickly, cunningly puffed out her bows, a trick she
had learned as a child, and then, before putting on her dress, cooked the
food with Glass-Eye, who had just come in with her parcels.

Then a dash of scent on the handkerchief, a touch of rouge on the lips
and, leaving the room all untidy, she went out, followed by Glass-Eye,
rigged out in a pair of thread mittens and carrying the sunshade and the
wrist-bag. Quick, quick! For Lily knew by experience that it is well to be
the first at the agent's or else there's nothing for you.

She did not dislike those walks through the Paris streets:

"Let's have some fun," she said to Glass-Eye.

By this, Lily meant laughing at those "tiny Frenchies"; and, if they
ventured to accost her, crushing them with a "_Vous hettes oun cochon_!"
Although, among the people she mixed with, agents, artistes, stage-hands,
everybody spoke English, Lily had not come to Paris without learning a few
words, "_Oui_ ... _Non_ ... _Vous_ _hettes oun cochon_!" and so on, which
were indispensable, she thought, to a girl who wanted to make herself
respected on the continent, a girl alone, especially. And she loved to
snub those damned _parley-voos_ who dared to accost ladies. It seemed to
lighten those days of visits to the agents, the very prospect of which
gave her a headache in advance, because one had to think of everything,
lithos, photographs, programs; and, if the agent wasn't in, ruin one's
self in correspondence; and puff one's self in every way, rub it into them
that one was the cleverest person on earth....

"If you're too modest," said Lily, "they'll take you at your word!"

And the pay would drop, in consequence.

"Never tell your salary!" was another of Lily's favorite maxims.

She gave out that she made heaps, that a little star like her, the Marie
Loyd of the bike, was only to be obtained for untold gold. But, at the
agent's, she had to cut her prices: there was no hiding anything from
them; it was like going to the doctor.