ent on this prophecy. And in the
same flash, she interpreted the Larson girl's look, half incredulous,
half satirical, and her, "You've got as good a chance of losing your job
as Galbraith has of losing his."

"I haven't heard anything about being put in the sextette," she said
quietly, "and I don't believe I will be."

"Well, I don't know why not." There was a new warmth in the medium's
voice. Rose had won a victory here, and she knew it. "You've got the
looks and the shape, and you can dance better than any of the big girls,
or us mediums, either. And if he doesn't put that big Benedict lemon
into the back line where she belongs, and give you her place in the
sextette, it will be because he's afraid of her drag."

Rose forbore to inquire into the nature of the Benedict girl's drag.
Whatever it may have been, John Galbraith was evidently not afraid of
it, because as he dismissed that very rehearsal, calling the rest of the
chorus for twelve the following morning, and the sextette for eleven, he
told Rose to report at the earlier hour. And a moment later, she heard
Dave say to the big show girl named Vesta Folsom (some one with a vein
of playful irony must have been responsible for this christening),
"Well, maybe I didn't call that turn."

"You're the original wise guy, all right," Vesta admitted. "You're
Joseph to all the sure things."

Barring Olga Larson, the chorus was probably unanimous, Rose reflected,
in looking at it like that. They accounted for her having got a job in
the first place at Grant's expense, and a promotion so soon thereafter
to the sextette, by assuming that John Galbraith had a sentimental
interest in her. Whether his reward had been collected in advance, or
was still unpaid, was an interesting theme for debate. But that, past or
present, the reward was his actuating motive, it wouldn't occur to
anybody to question.

There was no malice in this. Rose didn't lose caste with any of them on
account of it. But a chorus-girl is the most sentimental person in the
world. If there's anybody who really believes that love makes the world
go round, she is that one. It's love that actuates men to deeds of
heroism or of crime; it's love that makes men invest good money in
musical comedies; love that makes stars out of her undeserving sisters
in the chorus; love that is always waiting round the corner to open the
door to wealth and fame for her.

So when Grant came back and ate her humble pie in vain,