h her voice well warmed, she could not but make
a success of the song that was nearer to what would be expected of her
in musical comedy. Crossley called out: "Now, the sight singing,
Moldini. I don't expect you to do this well, Miss Gower. I simply wish
to get an idea of how you'd do a piece we have in rehearsal."

"You'll have no trouble with this," said Moldini, as he opened the
comedy song upon the rack with a contemptuous whirl. "It's the easy
showy stuff that suits the tired business man and his laced-in wife. Go
at it and yell."

Mildred glanced through it. There was a subtle something in the
atmosphere now that put her at her ease. She read the words aloud,
laughing at their silly sentimentality, she and Moldini and Crossley
making jokes about it. Soon she said: "I'm ready."

She sang it well. She asked them to let her try it again. And the
second time, with the words in her mind and the simple melody, she was
able to put expression into it and to indicate, with restraint, the
action. Crossley came down the aisle.

"What do you think, Mollie?" he said to Moldini.

"We might test her at a few rehearsals."

Crossley meekly accepted the salutary check on his enthusiasm. "Do you
wish to try, Miss Gower?"

Mildred was silent. She knew now the sort of piece in which she was to
appear. She had seen a few of them, those cheap and vulgar farces with
their thin music, their more than dubious-looking people. What a
come-down! What a degradation! It was as bad in its way as being the
wife of General Siddall. And she was to do this, in preference to
marrying Stanley Baird.

"You will be paid, of course, during rehearsal; that is, as long as we
are taking your time. Fifty dollars a week is about as much as we can
afford." Crossley was watching her shrewdly, was advancing these
remarks in response to the hesitation he saw so plainly. "Of course it
isn't grand opera," he went on. "In fact, it's pretty low--almost as
low as the public taste. You see, we aren't subsidized by millionaires
who want people to think they're artistic, so we have to hustle to
separate the public from its money. But if you make a hit, you can
earn enough to put you into grand opera in fine style."

"I never heard of anyone's graduating from here into grand opera," said
Mildred.

"Because our stars make so much money and make it so easily. It'll be
your own fault if you don't."

"Can't I come to just one rehearsal--to