FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  
121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>   >|  
isten. I've been at rehearsal all day, or I'd have been here before you were awake." She seated herself nervously and nodded her head at Carroll in an excited and mysterious manner. "What is it?" he asked. "Have you and Reggie--" "Listen," Marion repeated. "Our fortunes are made; that is what's the matter--and I've made them. If you took half the interest in your work I do, you'd have made yours long ago. Last night," she began, impressively, "I went to a large supper at the Savoy, and I sat next to Charley Wimpole. He came in late, after everybody had finished, and I attacked him while he was eating his supper. He said he had been rehearsing 'Caste' after the performance; that they've put it on as a stop-gap on account of the failure of 'The Triflers,' and that he knew revivals were of no use; that he would give any sum for a good modern comedy. That was my cue, and I told him I knew of a better comedy than any he had produced at his theatre in five years, and that it was going begging. He laughed, and asked where was he to find this wonderful comedy, and I said, 'It's been in your safe for the last two months and you haven't read it.' He said, 'Indeed, how do you know that?' and I said, 'Because if you'd read it, it wouldn't be in your safe, but on your stage.' So he asked me what the play was about, and I told him the plot and what sort of a part his was, and some of his scenes, and he began to take notice. He forgot his supper, and very soon he grew so interested that he turned his chair round and kept eying my supper-card to find out who I was, and at last remembered seeing me in 'The New Boy'--and a rotten part it was, too--but he remembered it, and he told me to go on and tell him more about your play. So I recited it, bit by bit, and he laughed in all the right places and got very much excited, and said finally that he would read it the first thing this morning." Marion paused, breathlessly. "Oh, yes, and he wrote your address on his cuff," she added, with the air of delivering a complete and convincing climax. Carroll stared at her and pulled excitedly on his pipe. "Oh, Marion!" he gasped, "suppose he should? He won't, though," he added, but eying her eagerly and inviting contradiction. "He will," she answered, stoutly, "if he reads it." "The other managers read it," Carroll suggested, doubtfully. "Yes, but what do they know?" Marion returned, loftily. "He knows. Charles Wimpole is the only intel
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  
121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Marion

 

supper

 

comedy

 
Carroll
 
Wimpole
 

laughed

 
remembered
 

excited

 

rotten

 

recited


places
 

finally

 

scenes

 

notice

 

forgot

 
interested
 

turned

 

paused

 

answered

 
stoutly

contradiction

 
eagerly
 

inviting

 

managers

 

suggested

 

Charles

 

loftily

 
doubtfully
 

returned

 

address


breathlessly

 

rehearsal

 

delivering

 

complete

 

gasped

 

suppose

 

excitedly

 

pulled

 

convincing

 

climax


stared

 

morning

 

matter

 

performance

 

rehearsing

 

revivals

 
fortunes
 

Triflers

 

account

 

failure