"But last week you said you wouldn't mind it."
"Oh, why do you keep throwing up things I said last week?" she burst out, pettishly.
"Do you wish to forget them so soon, Miss Harding? Then you must be very fickle-minded, and I am sorry that I had that poor soubrette discharged for your sake!"
"For my sake! Oh-h-oh!"
"Why, certainly; because you were so anxious for a place, and I wished to please you above all things," tenderly; "and, of course, you know the manager dare not refuse anything reasonable that I ask, so I persuaded him to discharge poor Bettina."
"Oh, let her keep the place, do! It was cruel to turn her off."
"It is too late to replace her now. She has accepted an offer from a company that is going to remain in New York, and I shall have no end of trouble getting another girl to fill the place. I thought you wanted the chance so badly," reproachfully.
Geraldine flushed crimson, and the tears she had been fighting back brimmed over in her eyes.
"Oh, I have acted abominably," she sobbed; "but—but—a girl has a right to change her mind, hasn't she?"