“But are you quite sure it is so, Mrs. Clarendon?” she urged. “I mean that ladies don’t go on to the stage? It used to be so, no doubt, but things have been changing. I’m sure I’ve heard that both ladies and gentlemen are beginning to take to acting nowadays. And I can’t see why they shouldn’t. It seems to be better than——”
She stopped, and looked a little embarrassed.
“Better than doing nothing at all, you were going to say,” Isabel supplied; “like myself, for instance? Perhaps it is. But I fancy that the ladies who go on to the stage are generally those who, for some reason or other, have lost their places in society.”
“With a large S,” put in Ada, still without looking up.
“Yes, a very large one,” assented Isabel, smiling.
“And suppose,” exclaimed Rhoda, suddenly bold, “I don’t care anything about the society which spells itself with a large S.”
Mrs. Clarendon shook her head indulgently.
“My child, you can’t help caring about it.”
“Not if I find something I like better outside it?”
Mrs. Clarendon crossed her hands upon the paper, and sighed a little before speaking.