, great schemes in his
head! for instance, he must try to get permission for Lily to appear in
the States.

"Time for a cigar, I guess," said Trampy, as soon as Clifton was gone.

Work stopped abruptly; a tumbler's carpet rolled up in a corner formed an
inviting lounge; and Lily, panting from her practice, would stretch
herself beside him and enjoy a few happy moments, the only really happy
moments of the day; for there were matinees in the afternoon and the
evening performance at night, till she was ready to drop with weariness.
Trampy treated Lily nicely, like a grown-up person, called her by the name
of a fruit, or a flower, or a bird, jollied her, called her "little
wifie:" it was all one to her. He made her laugh with his funny stories,
his fairy tales about himself, his terrible struggle with a snake in the
streets of 'Frisco, after a champagne supper: girls, by Jove! He toned
down his anecdotes and dished them up for Lily's entertainment; told her
absurd yarns enlivened with mimicry, in which he excelled, like the real
mummer that he was, and Lily shrieked with laughter, head thrown back,
full-throated.

And there was a spice of fear in it all: was that Pa coming back? No, a
carpenter or scene-shifter, perhaps, or else the Martellos, brother and
sister, going to practise slack-wire, head and hand balancing. Their
father, old Martello, a famous name, lived in London, it appeared, alone
with his Bambinis, mere babes still. His other children and his
apprentices had all run away, to escape his horsewhip, and the brother in
Mexico was continuing the tradition. His brutality, in fact, got him into
trouble wherever he went, so much so that the big music-halls were closed
to him, for fear of scandal. And he terrorized his sister, Ave Maria, a
girl of sixteen, a dark girl with great dark eyes. Ave Maria never spoke
to anybody; when she passed through the room where Lily was having fun
with Trampy, she fixed a fiery glance upon them, even ventured on a smile,
for Trampy in particular, whose lively stories reached her through the
partition behind which she dressed. Oh, how she envied Lily! But she
passed very quickly, because of her brother.

And this time it was Pa! Lily jumped on to the saddle like mad, played her
part to perfection, puffed and panted, as if the last drop of strength
were oozing out of her, and Trampy joined in the little comedy of fibbing
and dissembling:

"There, like that, Lily, or I'll smack you