Carrie was sipping coffee, and did not look up.
“Regular people who get you a place?”
“Yes, I think so,” he answered.
Suddenly the air with which she asked attracted his attention.
“You’re not still thinking about being an actress, are you?” he asked.
“No,” she answered, “I was just wondering.”
Without being clear, there was something in the thought which he objected to. He did not believe any more, after three years of observation, that Carrie would ever do anything great in that line. She seemed too simple, too yielding. His idea of the art was that it involved something more pompous. If she tried to get on the stage she would fall into the hands of some cheap manager and become like the rest of them. He had a good idea of what he meant by them. Carrie was pretty. She would get along all right, but where would he be?
“I’d get that idea out of my head, if I were you. It’s a lot more difficult than you think.”
Carrie felt this to contain, in some way, an aspersion upon her ability.
“You said I did real well in Chicago,” she rejoined.