she said with deep dejection. "Well, it isn't quite like that," he replied. "There are fellows in the profession, for instance, who are known to touch three figures a week, and who simply live in motor-cars; it's a known fact. Other poor devils like myself walk on with the crowd, or get an understudy—or something of that kind." "It must be nice to be an actor," said Bessie, looking at him with awe. "It is—when you are an actor," he replied solemnly. He moved away a step or two restlessly, and then came back to her. "I say, Miss Meggison—there's something I'd like to say to you." "Not about the bill!" she pleaded. [40] [40] "About the bill—yes; and about something else," he replied earnestly. "The bill worries me horribly—and it worries me more in your case than it would in the case of anyone else. I haven't any money, and I've got a large appetite—which I endeavour to suppress as much as is consistent with keeping a figure fit to be seen behind the footlights. Many and many a tasty dish, Miss Meggison, which you may think I scorn, I pass by because I simply feel that I have no right to touch it; it would not be fair. I never come into your little dining-room without seeing the figures of my bill in huge white characters on the wall; I'm ashamed of myself." "I wish you wouldn't speak of it," she urged. "But I must speak of it; it haunts me," he exclaimed. "I know that in time it will be all right; I know that in time I shall be able to pay you in full—and pay other people as well. More than that, the time will come when you will be proud of me—really proud of me." "We're all proud of you now; I laugh still when I think of that time when you gave me tickets for the pantomime, and I saw you as the front part of the donkey." "Don't!" he said in a low tone. "I know I was funny. Everyone said so—but I could get no real expression into it; you can't when the only way in which you can move your jaws is by a string. But I shall do finer things than that. In the years to come I shouldn't be a bit surprised if Arcadia Street was the scene of a rather imposing little ceremony—on my account." [41] [41]
Prev.
Back
Top