Ralph Henry Barbour

“ Gale’s order! I swear, Gale, the service here is getting rottener every day. If we had a house committee who could read writing, I'd send in a complaint that would make them see colored lights! Don’t order cutlets, whatever you do. A man has no business eating veal in summer, and every time I run counter to my convictions I regret it. I never saw a veal and don’t know what sort of an animal it is, but I’ll bet any money it plays house in summer, like the oyster, and isn’t meant to be eaten.”
“What’s the news here?” asked Roger, when he had ordered. ”

“ Mark my words, Gale, she’s going to be the one little female It of the stage in a few years. I wish to goodness, though, she had a decent manager over here.”
“What’s the matter with Sommers?”
“He isn’t good enough. He doesn’t know how. He'll start her out like a blooming aggregation of English Daisies. Look here, there’s your chance. If the play makes a hit with her, get her to sign a contract with you for next year; I’ll swear you could manage her and make her tell.”
“No, thanks, Burlington. It’s one thing to handle pitch and another to become defiled. ”

“ I’ll go down to my grave writing criticisms that no one cares a cuss for; unless some one comes along some day and starts a paper that isn’t run by the advertising manager and lets me do my worst. In that case, life might be worth living. ”

“ Roger nodded and studied the menu.
“They tell me you’re doing a play for Sommers—so?”
“Yes, that is so, I’m sorry to say.”
Burlington raised his thin eyebrows.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, I can’t seem to knuckle down to work lately. I’ve finished two acts, but the rest simply won’t come.”
“How long you been up there?”
“Three weeks or more.”
“Humph! Of course you can’t work. You’ve collapsed. My dear fellow, a man can’t bury himself in the country for that length of time and hope to have any inspiration left. He needs to come down and mingle ”