“Six months? Then I can’t start this term!” Peggy said, almost in tears.
“Of course you’ll start this term,” Mr. Macaulay said. “We begin in two weeks. Miss Carson will give you all the necessary forms and the catalogue and anything else you need. Glad to have you with us!”
“But ... but ...” Peggy sputtered. “You mean I’m accepted? Without even reading for you? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Mr. Macaulay agreed calmly. “I don’t believe in readings. What I look for is personality and presence and a feeling for the stage. The right kind of feeling for the stage,” he added. “As for the readings, I’ll be glad to hear you after you’ve had about six months of work with the Academy. I can tell you’ll be one of our good ones.”
With a few words of farewell to the confused Peggy, he led her to Miss Carson’s desk and quickly retreated to what Peggy already thought of as his “natural habitat.”
Only after she was through with Miss Carson and her papers and forms and was on the way down in the ancient elevator did it finally dawn on Peggy that she had actually gotten what she had wanted for years—she was accepted in the best dramatic school in New York! The elevator seemed hardly big enough to hold her; she wanted to run, to jump, to sing! What she was actually doing seemed the silliest thing imaginable. She was grinning a wide, foolish grin and at the same time tasting the salty tears that were probably smearing her mascara.
“Congratulations,” said the elevator operator. “Not everyone makes it.”
“Oh! How did you know?” Peggy gasped, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief.
“Knew you were trying when I saw you come up with the play scripts,” he answered. “And I knew you made it when I saw your face.” He slid back the squealing grillwork gate. “So long,” he said. “See you in a couple of weeks.”
At the end of the long hall, the doorway filled with sunshine seemed to be paved with gold. Outside, it seemed to Peggy, the whole city was paved with gold. She impulsively ran to the door, poised in the sunlight, and blew a theatrical kiss at the sky.