“I questioned him closely and learned that my mother had been sick abed for ten days. He had set out to find me, and if possible, persuade me to return home, but I could not do that, much as I wished to, for I was now a bread-winner and the support of an afflicted mother. My argument won, and he finally left me; it was not long until I needed him, for the second day after that I received notice that my contract would be canceled at the end of the week.
“What was I to do? I told some of the girls, and one of them, a little brunette, said to me, ‘Well, I am leaving the company this week, anyway, and I don’t mind telling you where your trouble started.’
“‘Tell me please,’ said I.
“‘Dollie Squires, of course.’
“‘But I have never harmed Dollie; tell me some way that I can become reinstated.’
“‘Go to the musical director, he is the power behind the throne.’
“I went. That night I went to lunch with him after the performance. Next day, Dollie, on small pretext, assailed me in an unmerciful manner; she heaped abuse upon my head. I said nothing when she had finished, but had the regulation cry; when I came out I came with teeth set hard, what was the use? My condition was not to be considered. My poor mother was a deceived and ruined woman, my father whom I had worshiped as a divinity, was a bigamist and a seducer. The blight was on me. My mother was ill; it was due to my father’s misstep that I was placed where I now was. I must now feed, clothe, and house the woman whose life he had ruined.
“Professor Riggles was ugly, red-faced and slouchy in his habits, but he told me his wife objected to his dressing better, and besides, he was so wrapped up in his music that he cared little, in fact, there was not much in this world to make him happy. I was touched by his pitiful story. I asked him how Dollie happened to have such an influence over him; he laughed and said she was a willful, headstrong girl.
“The fact that I could hurt her never entered my head until I was dressing for the first call after she had abused me so, when I overheard a conversation between two of the girls.
“‘I wish she would,’ said one, ‘it would be just good enough for her, and if Althy would try she could make herself so solid with old Rig. that he would throw that smarty Squires out.’