er age! Jimmy listened attentively, with one eye on the
stage and the other on his watch:

"Tut!" he said, trying to arrange things. "There's no great harm in
receiving bouquets on the stage. However, as you object, if any more of
them come, they shall be handed to you, to dispose of as you please.
That's all that I can do."

It was gradually filling up behind Clifton and Jimmy; the iron door was
constantly slamming upon the passage; knowing-looking Roofer girls passed,
two by two, always two by two, joked for a moment with the scene shifters,
shook hands here and there, disappeared up the dressing-room staircase.
There was life, swarming life, everywhere, in the corners, behind the
back-cloth. The New Zealanders arrived, with Lily and her Ma, for Ma never
left her now, for fear of the gentlemen who prowled around like famished
hyenas: villains who did not hesitate to throw bouquets on the stage to
make ugly girls think they were pretty!

Lily seemed sad. She stopped for a moment. A haunting serenade droned
across the stage, a Spanish melody sung by soft tremolo voices, with
tapping of tambourines. It reminded her of Mexico: everything reminded her
of that time now. She compared herself with Ave Maria. Oh, she would have
liked to tell the whole world how she was treated, just the plain
truth!--in her own little way. But no one cared, not even that rotten
josser of a journalist, with his article published in _The Piccadilly
Magazine_. It made her out a spoiled child, who had learned to ride in the
country-lanes, with her French governess, and who had surprised her father
and mother by coming home one day with her head on the saddle of her
bicycle and her feet in the air, thereby causing an unparalleled scandal
in that old Yorkshire family. Since then, they had been obliged to yield
to her fancies and allow her to go on the stage with her little troupe of
friends. Her salary? Ten pounds a night. Her recreation? The banjo....

"Rotten josser of a journalist!" thought Lily.

Nevertheless, she was flattered at heart because of the ten pounds a night
and the governess.

But things happened to distract her thoughts: the Three Graces entered in
their turn, followed by Nunkie; they stood talking for a few moments,
while the apprentices went and dressed; and Lily soon followed them, after
a last glance at a little woman and her "partner," who were getting things
ready for their performance---some little hoops, two cardboard