the bioscopes
and the gramophones and the singers were taking the bread out of the
"artistes'" mouths, it meant twenty turns more to receive princely
salaries there; and, every month, that galaxy of stars, which Harrasford
would send shooting to Paris, was to disperse toward Brussels, Antwerp,
Marseilles, Hamburg: the European Trust, the Moss and Stoll tour of the
continent, managed by Harrasford, the great English manager.

To open at the Astrarium meant having work insured and your three years'
book filled for ever so long; meant appearing in public, later, wearing on
your chest the medal which they meant to distribute in memory of the
opening. Gee, Lily had a pain in her side at the thought of it! The Three
Graces, it was said, were on the program. Lily would have consulted
them--there was no jealousy about the Graces--but they were not yet in
Paris. Oh, Lily was longing and dying to be settled! Who was Harrasford's
agent? If she had to go to London to see him, she would go.

Why, damn it, she would go to Heaven itself to get the Astrarium!
Anything, anything to open there! That dream of greatness made her endure
her present vexations. Mrs. Trampy ... Mrs. Trampy ... She was addressed
as Mrs. Trampy everywhere. Trampy must be telling the story, taking his
revenge for the whippings, making little of her in his turn. One night
even, the night before her departure for Spain, when the architect was to
wait for her at the door of the theater, Lily, who had dressed herself in
her best, once more had the humiliation of being accosted by Trampy in
front of everybody.

"Hullo, wifie! How are you, darling? All right?"

Lily bristled with rage as she left Paris. Even when she was far away, she
still felt that she was dragging a chain which lengthened out endlessly
without breaking. Never, oh, nothing could ever get her out of that! Yes,
a brilliant triumph. Then, at least, she could crush him from the height
of her success, that footy rotter with his red-hot stove! Oh, what a
grudge she bore him! Jimmy was different: that was a wound of her own and
nobody would ever know; but Trampy, who laughed at her everywhere and
called himself her husband! He would make her lose all her friends. To say
nothing of the fact that those tales perhaps counted for much in her
failure: they were repeated from mouth to mouth. Oh, her profession
disgusted her at times! And to think that she, an English girl, was going
to earn her bread among th