“That is most unfortunate. Just now you need a mother to look out for you. But you have a home. If you were to become an actress, it is probable you would not have a home. Six months in the year, perhaps, or even more, you might be searching for an engagement, living as best you could during that time, uncertain as to the future. You would be the prey of sharks and sharpers, you would be bullied and cheated, you might get out with a company and be left stranded and penniless a thousand miles from anywhere. Your sensitive nature would revolt against mankind and the world. All your finer nature would be ruined. Then you would do one of two things. You would end it all by taking your own life, or you would turn about and prey upon men, sinking lower and lower, traveling the road to destruction.”
The girl shuddered and cried out:
“Oh!” she gasped. “I can’t believe anything so horrible would happen to me!”
“It has happened to thousands before you.”
“But I—I thought——”
“That all actresses were happy and prosperous—that they lived lives of ease and pleasure.”
“Yes, it seemed that way.”
“And I dare say you thought it an easy thing to become an actress?”
“It seemed so,” she repeated.
“Did you ever stop to think if you had any special qualification for becoming an actress?”