e had been mistaken.

"I was just figuring out the way to work it," he said then, explaining
his silence. "I shall tell Goldsmith and Block (Block was the junior
partner in the enterprise) that I've got hold of a costumer who agrees
to deliver twelve costumes satisfactory to me, at an average of say,
twenty per cent less than the ones Mrs. Goldsmith picked out. If they
aren't satisfactory, it's the costumer's loss and we can buy these that
Mrs. Goldsmith picked out, or others that will do as well, at Lessing's.
I think that saving will be decisive with them."

"But do you know a costumer?" Rose asked.

"You're the costumer;" said Galbraith. "You design the costumes, buy the
fabrics, superintend the making of them. As for the woman you speak of,
we'll get the wardrobe mistress at the Globe. I happen to know she's
competent, and she's at a loose end just now, because her show is
closing when ours opens. You'll buy the fabrics and you'll pay her. And
what profit you can make out of the deal, you're entitled to. I'll
finance you myself. If they won't take what we show them, why, you'll be
out your time and trouble, and I'll be out the price of materials and
the woman's labor."

"I don't think it would be fair," she said, and she found difficulty in
speaking at all because of a sudden disposition of her teeth to
chatter--"I don't think it would be fair for me to take all the profit
and you take all the risk."

"Well, I can't take any profit, that's clear enough," he said; and she
noticed now a tinge of amusement in his voice. "You see, I'm retained,
body and soul, to put this production over. I can't make money out of
those fellows on the side. But you're not retained. You're employed as a
member of the chorus. And so far, you're not even being paid for the
work you're doing. As long as you work to my satisfaction there on the
stage, nothing more can be asked of you. As for the risk, I don't
believe it's serious. I don't think you'll fall down on the job, and I
don't believe Goldsmith and Block will throw away a chance to save some
money."

At the end of another silence, for Rose was speechless here, he went on
expanding the plan a little further. And if the assurances he gave her
were essentially mendacious, he himself wasn't exactly aware that they
were. It had often happened in productions of his, he said--and this
much was true--that to save time or to accomplish some result he wanted,
he put up a little of his ow