little.

"The question is," he went on, "whether they're worth making a fight
about. Are they so bad as I think they are?"

"Oh, yes," said Rose. "They're dowdy and fourth-class and ridiculous. Of
course I don't know how many people in the audience would know that."

"And I don't care." said John Galbraith with a flash of intensity that
made her look round at him. "That's not a consideration I'll give any
weight to. When I put out a production under my name, it means it's the
best production I can make with the means I've got. There may be men who
can work differently; but when I have to take a cynical view of it and
try to get by with bad work because most of the people out in front
won't know the difference, I'll retire. I'm only fifty and I've got ten
or fifteen good years in me yet. But before I'll do that, I'll go out to
my little farm on Long Island and raise garden truck."

There was another momentary silence, for the girl made no comment at all
on this statement of his _credo_. But he felt sure, somehow, that she
understood it and there was nothing deprecatory about the tone in which,
presently, he went on speaking.

"Of course a director's got only one weapon to use against the owners of
a show, when it comes down to an issue, and that's a threat to resign
unless they let him have his way. I've used that twice in this
production already, and I can see one or two places coming where I may
have to use it again. So, if there's any way of throwing out those
costumes without giving them their choice between getting new ones or
getting a new director, I'd like to find it. Would it be possible, do
you think, to get better ones that would also be cheaper? That argument
would bring Goldsmith around in a hurry. It's ridiculous, of course, but
that's the trouble with making a production for amateurs. You spend more
time fighting them, than you do producing the show."

"I don't believe," said Rose, "that you could get better ready-made
costumes a lot cheaper; at least, not enough to go around, and in a
hurry. Of course every now and then, you can pick up a tremendous
bargain--some imported model that's a little extreme, or made in trying
colors, that they want to get rid of and will sell almost for whatever
you'll pay. But the two or three we might be able to find, wouldn't help
us much."

"And I suppose," he said dubiously, "it's out of the question getting
them any other way than ready-made; that is, and cheaper