Coming from behind him, and therefore unable to see his face,
Miss Wanda Malone advanced in her character of ingenue, speaking
with an effect of gayety: "Now what are you two good people
conspiring about?"
Potter stamped the floor; there was wrenched from him an
incoherent shriek containing fragments of profane words and
ending distinguishably with: "It's that Missmiss again!"
Packer impelled himself upon Miss Malone, pushing her back. "No,
no, no!" he cried. "Count ten! Count ten before you come down
with that speech. You mustn't interrupt Mr. Potter, Miss--Miss--"
"It was my cue," she said composedly, showing her little
pamphlet of typewritten manuscript. "Wasn't I meant to speak on
the cue?"
Talbot Potter recovered himself sufficiently to utter a cry of
despair: "And these are the kind of people an artist must work
with!" He lifted his arms to heaven, calling upon the high gods
for pity; then, with a sudden turn of fury, ran to the back of
the stage and came mincing forward evidently intending saturnine
mimicry, repeating the ingenue's speech in a mocking falsetto:
"Now what are you two good people conspiring about?" After that
he whirled upon her, demanding with ferocity: "You've got
something you can think with in your head, haven't you,
Missmiss? Then what do you think of that?"
Miss Malone smiled, and it was a smile that would have gone a
long way at a college dance.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36