“He’s like a sleepy baby when he’s like this,” whispered Ellen softly. She stuck the folded bathmat under his head and brushed the sweaty hair off his forehead. He was hardly breathing. She leaned and kissed his eyelids very softly.
“Miss Elaine you must hurry ... curtain’s ringing up.”
“Look quick am I all right?”
“Pretty as a picture.... Lord love you dear.”
Ellen ran down the stairs and round to the wings, stood there, panting with terror as if she had just missed being run over by an automobile grabbed the musicroll she had to go on with from the property man, got her cue and walked on into the glare.
“How do you do it Elaine?” Harry Goldweiser was saying, shaking his calf’s head from the chair behind her. She could see him in the mirror as she took her makeup off. A taller man with gray eyes and eyebrows stood beside him. “You remember when they first cast you for the part I said to Mr. Fallik, Sol she cant do it, didnt I Sol?”
“Sure you did Harry.”
“I thought that no girl so young and beautiful could put, you know ... put the passion and terror into it, do you understand?... Sol and I were out front for that scene in the last act.”
“Wonderful, wonderful,” groaned Mr. Fallik. “Tell us how you do it Elaine.”
The makeup came off black and pink on the cloth. Milly moved discreetly about the background hanging up dresses.