But after a long pause of temptation I shook my head in negation of the suggestion....
It would be a lark, but I had pledged Dineen that I would give him no more trouble with my vagaries....
And, besides, I didn't trust Jack Travers—once they had me in their power, he and his kidnappers might hide me away for several weeks ... to "bust up" the play entirely; would, I wisely reflected, be, to Travers, even a greater joke than merely to delay its production.
And I wanted this time to show my enemies that I could be depended on in affairs of moment....
We had to have recourse to Kansas City for our costumes. And we were more fortunate in them than the cast of She Stoops to Conquer had been the year before....
Costumes had then been rented for them which left the children mysteriously itching, driven to the inexplicable necessity of scratching in embarrassing localities....
The poor girls especially were terror-stricken ... and many of the boys were too innocent to conjecture what was the matter ... at first they thought that the rented costumes had imparted some obscure skin disease to the entire company ... and word was conveyed to the costuming firm that they were to be sued....
But when it was discovered that an indecent sort of vermin was the cause, the case was dropped....
Suit could not be conducted on such grounds....