“RUN AWAY?” HE ASKED
Dorothy nodded.
“Well, don’t feel so badly about it, my girl. We’ll see if we can’t find her for you. But first you had better tell me the story. It will help greatly. You see when we engage a girl and she happens to prove satisfactory we have no excuse for dismissing her unless she might be under age—and then her parents—of course—”
“But I must keep the entire matter from her parents,” interrupted Dorothy. “I must find Tavia myself and I know when I do she will listen to me and it will be all right again.”
Dorothy was visibly trembling. The manager folded his arms and looked at her thoughtfully.
“You’re quite a young girl to undertake this,” he said finally. “But I like your spirit, and I’m going to help you. I tell you, my child, the stage is no place for a young person who has had no experience with the ways of the world. I never encourage a young girl to go on the stage. There are plenty of older characters whom we can get and then there is less danger. But this girl you are looking for—was she about your height?”
“Yes, with very brown hair,” replied Dorothy. “And such lovely light brown eyes.”
“Let me see,” and he consulted the book again. Dorothy waited anxiously, as he turned page after page. Then he stopped. “Yes, here it is,” he said. “Christina Travers. That must be the girl. They rarely give the name just right.”
“Yes, she might say Christina,” admitted Dorothy. “The girls at school called her ‘Chris’ for short.”