"Yes, and it commenced, "They were born in India without any father or mother." Was there anything ever so absurd?"
"The success of Mr. Linton's play will mean a great deal to him. He is not rich, I am afraid."
"If he isn't he ought to be," said Fanny, brushing with great care the tresses she pretended to despise; "wearing his brains out in the way he does. He did look anxious, didn't he, while Mr. Kiss was reading it? And how beautifully he read! I felt like kissing him when he was going through the love scenes. They do kiss a good deal on the stage, don't they?"
"Yes," said Phœbe, speaking with difficulty, her mouth being full of hair-pins; "but then they don't mean it."
Fanny made a face. "I shouldn't care for it that way," she said, and then she laughed, as though she had said something funny.
"Do you think Bob meant it," asked Phœbe, "when he said he was going to be an actor?"
"Bob's a riddle," replied Fanny. "I give him up."
"He might do worse. It's quite a fashionable profession."
"It isn't a profession. Didn't Mr. Kiss tell us that an actor was a rogue and vagabond by Act of Parliament."
"That was only a joke. Mr. Kiss is a gentleman."