"I don't understand that, either."
"Some one to pay the bills while you're being taught. To hire a company and a theatre as a gamble."
"Impossible! I want money at once. I supposed that my—my beauty would command a position on the stage; it's certainly a bar to employment off it."
"Of course it would; yes, yes, but not immediately. Why, even Mrs. Farquhar had to have long and expensive training before she made her debut. And you know what a scandal there had been about her!
"Not that there's been any about you," he added hastily, to my look of amazement. "But you know—ah—public mention of any sort piques curiosity. Er—what's your act?"
"My act?"
"Yes; what can you do?"
"Sing a little; nothing else. I thought of opera."
This proposition didn't seem to strike him favourably.
"I don't know—" he hesitated. "You have a wonderful speaking voice, and you've been advertised to beat the band. Who's your press agent?"