“They repudiate the agreement,” she said in a quiet voice. “They give no reasons; they simply tell me that they don’t want me. Do you remember that evening when I left the Palace of Mirrors?”
“Indeed, I do——”
“That was only one example. I left with an excellent contract, signed. The next day, when I returned, the management took my contract out of my hands and tore it up.”
“What! Why, that’s outrageous——”
“Hush! That is only one instance. Everywhere it is the same. I am accepted after a try-out; then, 147 without apparent reason, I am told not to return.”
“You mean there is some conspiracy——” he began incredulously, but she interrupted him with a white hand over his, nervously committing him to silence:
“Listen, Garry! Men have followed me here from Europe. I am constantly watched in New York. I cannot shake off this surveillance for very long at a time. Sooner or later I become conscious again of curious eyes regarding me; of features that all at once become unpleasantly familiar in the throng. After several encounters in street or car or restaurant, I recognise these. Often and often instinct alone warns me that I am followed; sometimes I am so certain of it that I take pains to prove it.”
“Do you prove it?”
“Usually.”
“Well, what the devil——”