ed, went to work, practised the human
cluster; Nunkie kept an eye on his dear nieces and rehearsed the Bambinis,
now that old Martello was keeping his room for good. Lily, who was almost
reduced to eating dry bread, but who remained the fine lady nevertheless,
brought them bags of sweets. Calmed by her work, she sat down in a corner,
laughed, her head thrown back, full-throated, applauded the others with
her thumbnail, shook hands with new-comers, made herself liked by all. And
it was:

"Hullo, girls! Hullo, boys! Dear old Blackpool! What's the news at the
Palace? Who's topping the bill at the Hippodrome?"

Lily, on her rickety chair, made as it were a little center at which the
news was exchanged; to think that, instead of being there, at the top of
the profession, she might have been at Glasgow, some twopenny theater,
where ladies are admitted without shoes or stockings, or playing the darky
at Earl's Court! Yes, but for Jimmy, that's where she would have been! Or
else the Parisienne, in Russia! She, an English girl, my! And Lily
fervently touched her lucky charm: oh, work, work, thank goodness for it!
And Lily rendered homage to work and sprang from her chair to shake hands
with Tom, who had come to see his palace unpacked:

"Good morning, Tom! Welcome!"

This Tom, who now topped the bill everywhere and had a permanent address
and his own scenery: wasn't it wonderful? He was no longer her Pa's old
servant: genius removes all distances; a man is what he makes himself! And
they shook hands warmly, like equals.

Lily, as a sensational bill-topper and a friend of Jimmy's, was always in
great request. She talked nicely, without pose of any kind, like a woman
who is sure of herself and knows things. The Astrarium ... the Astrarium
... what did that mean? They asked Lily:

"It's like ... a palmarium," she explained, "with sunflowers in it, all
sorts of things ... girls ... stars ..."

She described her journeys, storms, gee! Weren't there, Glass-Eye? People
who had never been outside Europe and the States had no idea! Lily talked
of India, Africa, Australia; talked of lions, which stand on their
hind-legs when they're angry, and tigers, which lie down flat; mentioned
stage friendships between elephants and camels and herself in the midst of
it all: "That high!" lowering her hand to six inches from the floor;
talked of animal-training: dogs, cats, sea-lions and that "great, big,
wicked Australian rabbit" which boxed l