Virginia Tracy

“ The mention of the club, the impregnable ease and security with which the club's chiefest member admitted having been struck, these were oil upon the flame of Melville's torment.
"—— —— you," he began to curse. "Is that what you're going to do? In there? To tell! Are you? What did you come in here for anyhow? What do you want?"
"I don't want to make a reputation off you, if that's what you mean," the other smiled. "I came in here for a row, but we're quits now, as I said; we can call it off. ”

“ Norris might well have considered himself doubly responsible, because he had a young and pretty wife who now sat opposite him in a holiday mood which allowed her to rest from her habitual but ineffective commentary upon life: "We must economize," and to take pride in the fact that in his tie blazed, conspicuous, her Christmas gift, a large and handsome emerald surrounded by diamonds. ”

“ They had happened to build the star-room over some furnace, perhaps, that they couldn't turn off—for the steam had to be kept up all the time to send it into the front of the house for the audience—and no wonder the man couldn't stand any more heat. Norris even wondered how they got the room cooled off sufficiently to impress interviewers, and then he recalled the sick child and turned his clear glance enthusiastically upon that composed mask of Melville's, where at least the complacency could be broken. ”

“ Melville regarded his leading man with a kind of slow congealment of his pleasantness; the blank glaze of authority formed itself upon his face. "Very sorry. I can't allow steam behind the scenes," he said at length.
NORRIS turned and walked to the stage. The next moment an outbreak of welcoming applause announced his entrance. But there had been bystanders, and to them Melville said: "If the child's so sick he can't do his work in the same way as other people, I better get somebody who can. I don't want a child to work when he's sick any more than anybody else does." ”

“ You won't trouble Georgie. Only to think, though, that I took you seriously; to think in another moment I'd have nearly killed you."
"Well, that's between man and man—quits, as you said. I don't bear any grudge for that—old fellow. But you mean, then, you won't say anything, Norry, about—"
"The stove? What, while the boy's at stake! Throw away a valuable piece of property by which I can effect a little high-class blackmail! No such extravagance! But look here, you know! How about the steam heat?" ”

“ Geoffry, just think what we've been through the last few years when you were out with the Trust, and your position to keep up and everything, and all we've planned to do lately and that I've set my heart on; you know I have, now, just as we're beginning to be comfortable— Oh, and it does make me so mad to see how people use you and spend your money and get you to take up their quarrels just because you've always done it, and they say, 'Oh, that's just like Norry,' and they make a lot of you at that nasty 'Babes' that takes up all your time, and that's all the thanks you get for it! ”

“ Melville insists that his magnificent health depends upon the maintenance of natural atmospheric conditions," thus began the interviewer, proceeding at length to embody the disgust of the vigorous and full-blooded athlete at "the monstrosities of modern improvements." "As a player of heroic roles, Mr. Melville has the immense advantage of being a thoroughly manly man, and if his superb physique is the result of no steam heat, many of his fellow actors might adopt his practise to their advantage." ”

“ You don't feel the cold so very much, and why should you get into trouble on account of a lot of people who haven't got spirit enough to stand up for themselves?"
"Oh, I shall keep the peace!" her husband sighed. "But there's younger blood in the field, my dear. Just now there's nobody in charge of all Engle's theaters but Wellfort, and, of course, Melville has his ear. But wait till Engle gets back to town, and you may yet see two or three people 'standing up for themselves,' people who can afford to."
"Dear me!" said Mrs. Norris, "it's a pity about them! ”

“ And Georgie, long trained in propitiation, trembled out: "Oh. I'm not sick, Mr. Melville, I just—got a cold—kind of."
"Well, now, my boy, this is just the place to get rid of it. If you were in a hot, stuffy room, breathing foul air, first thing you knew you'd be laid up. I used to be an invalid myself till I found that out, and now look at me. If you feel cold take deep breaths."
"Oh, I don't feel so awful cold," the child replied. "Mr. Norris gave me some whisky, and in his room he—" He stopped, warned by the cloud on Melville's face, that he had damaged his cause. ”

“ There are more lights for one thing. What do you think of bringing him in there for the matinée? Sam 'll carry your things."
THERE was a lounge in Norris's room, and Norris threw his ulster on it and motioned to Georgie to lie down inside the ulster. "Never mind your make-up. Your mother can fix that again at the last minute." He tucked the rough cloth round the child, who lay there snuggling in his warm nest, nothing to be seen of him except his querulous, elderly, small face. "You don't seem to crowd the room very much," said Norris. ”

“ GEOFFRY NORRIS was not by nature of a domestic habit, but an excessive laziness may sometimes do duty for domesticity, and at this particular moment it was certainly very warm, very comfortable and sunny, in the pretty morning room where he continued to linger over his newspaper and his late, late coffee. It was also nearly noon on Christmas Day, so, of course, there was to be a matinée presently, and in their actors Christmas matinées must always inspire a grudge. As a practical, middle-aged man, however, who has lately experienced considerable anxiety about money, Mr. ”

“ The other gasped, with a little spitting swallow of rage. "Maybe you forget my man's just outside. All those stage-hands belong to me. I can have you thrown out of here, kicked out of the theater, by calling!" ”

“ That's what all the books say, I know, about the wives of eminent men, and yet I don't see but what they all did just about as they pleased anyhow, however eminent they were, and they spend more money on their cigars this minute than their wives do on their clothes, and I'm sure you're always perfectly furious when my clothes aren't as good as other ladies'! ”