person who had set to work in a blaze of eager
enthusiasm, on the part she played so mechanically now.

She tried to reassure herself with the reflection that the tour meant
nothing to her, except as it fell in with an ulterior purpose, and that
it was actually serving that purpose well enough. She'd deliberately
turned aside from the main channel of her new life to give mind and soul
a rest they needed. When she'd got that rest and rallied her courage,
she'd take a fresh start. She had, lying safely in the bank in Chicago,
where Galbraith had taken her, something over two hundred dollars; for
she'd lived thriftily during the Chicago engagement and had added a
little every week to her nest-egg of profit from the costuming business.
So she had enough to get her to New York and see her through the process
of finding a new job. What sort of job it would be, she was still too
tired to think, but she was sure she could find something.

Meantime, out there on the road, she was making no effort to save. She
indulged in whatever small ameliorations to their daily discomforts her
weekly wage would run to.

It was thus that matters stood with her, when, with the rest of the
company, she arrived in Dubuque on a Wednesday morning, with an hour or
so to spare before the matinee.

CHAPTER XVI

ANTI-CLIMAX

It was a beastly day. A gusty rain, whipping up from the south, by way
of answer to the challenge of a heavy snowfall the day before, inflicted
a combination of the rigors of winter, with a debilitating, disquieting
hint of spring. The train, for which they had been routed out that
morning at seven o'clock, had been blistering hot and the necessarily
open windows had let in choking clouds of smoke.

The hotel was hot, too. Rose and Dolly, as soon as they had registered,
went up to their room and washed off the stains of travel, as well as
they could in translucent water that was the color of weak coffee. Then
Rose, in a kimono, stretched out on the bed to make up some of the rest
their early departure from Cedar Rapids had deprived her of. She did
this methodically whenever opportunity offered, but without any great
conviction.

Dolly, though she looked a bit hollow-eyed and much more in need of rest
than Rose (for she hadn't any stamina at all. She was an
under-nourished, and probably anemic little thing, and was always
train-sick when their jumps began too early in the morning), went
straight ahead with her toil