rk also,
_I_ promise you. But, with your talent, ... you'll manage better than I
should. And to-morrow," he added, "I will give you something on account of
your salary."

"No, I have money," said Lily, very proudly and fearing lest she should
wear out her luck by adding that to it, by being paid for doing
nothing....

Lily spent the whole week in a fever of expectation; she did not know
where she was for joy. But she stifled that within herself. And it was
owing to her talent, all owing to her talent! When people wanted a
difficult trick done, they did not go to Daisy or the fat freaks, no, they
came to little Lily! And it was settled, she wanted no more familiarity,
now that she was going to top the bill at the Astrarium! A lady should be
more reserved in her friendships: she would make herself very
short-sighted, so short-sighted as to be almost blind, when she met the
rotten lot! Resolved, that she would give up saying, "Damn it!" give up
talking of smackings and using vulgar expressions:

"Do you hear, Glass-Eye?" she said, calling her maid to witness. "You're
to box my ears if you catch me at it again!"

The thought of having to handle that delicate machine increased Lily's
importance in her own eyes. She had noticed that Poland, apart from an
inordinate love of champagne suppers, had very nice manners: Lily would
profit by her example and become more refined; she would show Pa and Ma
the kind of Lily they had lost and she would crush them with the amount of
her salary! She would earn more by herself than the whole troupe. She
would let them know it, even if she had to do the trick for nothing, for
glory, to see her Ma beg her pardon on her knees! She had recovered all
the pride of her eighteen years, all her freshness, in a day: the touch of
bitterness about her lips had changed into a smile. It would have taken
very little more to make her dance for joy. But she restrained herself,
dared not believe in her happiness; and she was quite decided not to
accept anything from Jimmy before earning it. It was bad enough to owe him
that thousand marks. She made herself a nice practising dress and spent
the morning in bed reading a novel of fashionable life, of which the
heroine was called Lily, like herself! And she, too, would become a
society-girl, just to show them, damn it! But, suddenly, catching herself
at fault, she laughed and asked Glass-Eye for a box on the ear; and a
desperate pillow-fight ensued, in which