"I should think it was nicer in the country than in London," said Bee, "isn't it? You do see a different piece here every week."
"Yes," he answered. "One gets a change. But I never see a piece right through, you know. There's so much to do in front."
"The business of a theatre," observed the Professor ponderously, "is naturally enormous. The outsider has no conception of the—er—intricacies of theatrical management. These young ladies look at the stage in the limelight, they know nothing of the commercial element of the enterprise. The sea of figures in which the manager wades is to them of course a terra incognita."
Vivian stroked his moustache, and hid a smile.
"Yes, the figures are a bit of a bore," he said. "I was acting manager to a company on tour before I joined Jordan. That was more bother still, you know."
"Acting manager?" said Hilda. "To manage the acting I should have thought was jolly?"
"Oh, I had nothing to do with the stage! 'Acting manager' and 'business manager' mean the same thing."
"How curious!"
"Yes, it is rather odd. No, I had nothing to do with the stage, but there were the journeys to arrange then, and there are always people in a company who grumble at the train call, whatever time it's for. If you take them early they complain because they have to get up so soon; and if you take them late, they say they've never known a tour on which they had to make so many journeys at night. And of course it's always the poor acting manager's fault!"
"Why not take them in the afternoon? Wouldn't that get over the difficulty?"