-"

"We want jobs, me and my little sister--when she gets here. I told you
about her, you remember. I--I've had experience on Western--"

"Naughty--naughty eyes--devilish eyes! Don't you look at me like
that--don't! You big little devil, you!"

"What is it, sir?"

"Good! Sit there with the sun on you--you've got hair like--"

"I've had experience with first-row--"

"Gad!" He swerved suddenly forward in his chair so that his small feet
touched the floor. "Gad, stand up there--stand over there in that
sunshine by the window!"

"What--"

"Stand up--there, agin that screen there--"

Dark as a nun in her wimple, but golden as a sun-flower, she rose as
Trilby rose to the eye of Svengali--

"Gad!" he repeated, bringing his small tight fist down on a littered
ash-tray, "by Gad!"

Wine was suddenly in her blood.

"You ought to see me and my little sister when we pose together; we--"

"Take off your hat, girl."

She stood suddenly quiet, as if the wine in her blood had seethed and
quieted.

"Aw--no--whatta you think I am--I--"

"Take off your hat, big little girl, and if you're good to me I'll tell
you something. If I hadn't taken a fancy to you I wouldn't tell you,
neither."

She lifted the heavy brim with both hands and stood in the bar of
sunlight.

"Gad!" he cried--"Gad!" and jerked open a drawer and threw the big bulk
of a typewritten manuscript on the desk before him. "Read that; read
that, sister!" His heavy spatulate finger underlined the caption.

"'The--Red--Widow,' 'The Red Widow,' by Al Wilson."

He rose and jerked her by her two wrists so that she flounced toward
him, her hair awry and the breath jumping out of her bosom.

"That's _you_, sister--the Red Widow!"

"The Red--Widow?"

"You're goin' out in a road chorus next week and get broke in. At the
end of a season I'm goin' to feature you in the biggest show that ever I
had up my sleeve."

She regarded him with glazed eyes of one dazed, and backed away from
him.

"Me!"

"You--the Red Widow, sister! You know what a Hy Myers production means,
don't you? You know what an Al Wilson show is, don't you? Add them two.
I'll make you make that show or bust. Stand off there and lemme look at
you again--there--so!"

"Quit!"

She sprang back from his touch and raised her hand with the glove
dangling in the attitude of a horseman cracking his whip. "You--you
quit!" Like Dryope changed into a tree, with the woodiness creeping up
her limbs