“Time alone will tell,” said Solomon soberly. “Art is long. First comes the Civic Theatre. And that is task enough for the present.
“And by the way!” His eyes brightened. “Miss Bryce gave me many valuable suggestions regarding our opera. She is one of the greatest living authorities. No one can play such varied roles as she. With these suggestions, faithfully worked out, we should succeed.”
He led the way back to the Civic Theatre. There Florence awaited Jeanne.
In her dreams that night the little French girl danced upon a stage as long as a city street and strewn with flowers, while an audience of millions screamed their approval.
“That,” she told herself as she sat up, rubbing her eyes, “was a strange dream. Of course it will never come true. All the same, in our little theatre, surrounded by my own beloved Golden Circle—ah, well, we shall see!”
CHAPTER XXIX
A SHADOW FALLS
Her glorious Golden Circle; this is what the fellow members of her cast were coming to be. How different was the atmosphere of this new setting from that of the old Blackmoore.
“Of course,” she whispered charitably, “the Blackmoore was a horrible shell of a place. And it is easier to be happy and kind in beautiful surroundings. And yet I am sure that some of the most wonderful circles of friendship are found in the west side tenement region.” She was thinking of the blue-eyed Merry’s Golden Circle.
“Surely their lot is hard enough,” she told herself. “And yet they are happy in their own little circles.
“What a sad place this grim old city would be,” she philosophized, “if it were not for the thousands upon thousands of these little golden circles of friendship we find everywhere! Sometimes it is a group that meets periodically in a pool room or a drug store. There are tiny club rooms everywhere. The people who work long days in downtown stores call one another Mary, Bob and Tom. They, too, are happy as they feel their tiny golden circle bind them round and round.