, refused, Lily among them; and it was decided to go to the "Pros'
Corner," or artistes' bar, near the stage entrance, to drink up what
remained: the ups and downs of life, damn it! Your turn to-day, mine
to-morrow; jolly lucky not to break a leg, after all! And their gaiety
returned, amid the smoke and the glasses, through a need of reaction; and,
after the first drink or two, came jokes, after-dinner stories, impromptus
which had traveled ten times round the world and brought tears of laughter
to the eyes of the audiences in thousands of music-halls, not to speak of
the second-class cabins of every ship of every line and the
smoking-carriages of every train, from the G. I. P. R. of Bombay to the S.
F. of Buenos Ayres.

"Owen Moore went West one day,
Owing more than he could pay.
Owen Moore came back to-day--
Owing more!"

And they joined in the chorus and they sang, "We all came into this world
with nothing!" and the one-legged artistes beat time with their crutches,
my! the pink Hour and the scarlet Hour, who were there, got a stitch in
their sides. Lily, with her head flung back, full-throated, laughed
nervously. Besides, as she said, artistes did as they pleased and didn't
care a hang for anybody! All made plans for the morrow, all had been
through that sort of thing before and much worse, too: six stories cleared
at a bound, to escape from a theater in flames! Falls of seventy feet on
one's head! And wrecks! And waves miles high! Already they began to talk
of going away, of traveling; traced the route with their finger on the
table: Cape Town, Australia, the States. To listen to them, those
everlasting wanderers seemed to have pretty nearly the whole world under
their hands. They spoke of taking a rest at their permanent addresses:
good old London; good old Manchester; there was nothing like good old
England, after all, eh? They'd had enough of the Dago countries!

But enthusiasm broke out when the great news arrived, brought by some one
straight from the agencies: Harrasford--"Guess, boys!"--Harrasford had
bought the Bijou Theater! It was all signed and sealed. He was carrying
out his program: and he wanted to open at once. For three months, it
appeared, there had been a silent struggle between him and the unlucky
bookmaker, who did not want to sell; and Harrasford had got it almost for
nothing; he had practically won it, yester