the details of the business through with
Goldsmith and Block, she'd taken for granted. Now, here she was chucked
into the water and told to swim. She'd never in her life, of course,
tried to sell anything. What her mind first awoke to was that the
partners were looking rather blank. Block, indeed, let his eyes follow
the retreating Galbraith with a momentary look of outraged astonishment.
Her wits, quickened by the emergency, interpreted the look. Galbraith,
chucking her into the water indeed, had thrown her a life-preserver--the
tip that her wares were good.

Goldsmith, quicker and shrewder than his junior, was already smiling
politely. "They really are very good," he said. "If they are not too
expensive for us, we'll consider buying them."

"They'll be," said Rose, "the twelve of them, four hundred and
sixty-five dollars." She had something the same feeling of astonishment
on hearing herself say this, that she'd had when she heard herself
telling Galbraith that she'd design the costumes. Something or other had
spoken without her will--almost without her knowledge. She had one
figure clearly etched in her brain; that was the one hundred and ninety
dollars she must pay back to Galbraith; and she'd put in fifty of her
own. There was also a matter of twenty dollars or so still to be paid to
the wardrobe mistress and her assistant. But this four hundred and
sixty-five dollars had simply come out of the air.

Block pursed his lips and emitted a fine thin whistle of astonishment.

Goldsmith heaved a sigh. "My dear young lady," he protested. "The
inducement held out to us to wait for these costumes of yours, was that
they were to be cheap. But four hundred and sixty-five dollars is
ridiculous! That's a lot of money."

"Quite a lot less," said Rose, "than the ones Mrs. Goldsmith picked out
came to. They were just over six hundred." Goldsmith smiled
indulgently. "By the figures on the tags, yes," he said. "But would we
have paid that, do you think? Those figures represent what they'd like
to get from people who buy one apiece. But from us, buying twelve ..."
He shrugged his shoulders expressively.

Well, this was reasonable and no doubt true and it left Rose rather
aghast. She turned away toward the stage with the best appearance of
indifference she could muster. Her mind was making an agonized effort to
add up one hundred and ninety, fifty and twenty. But in the excitement
of the moment it simply balked--rejected the pro