“The New York Academy,” Amy answered, with a faintly perceptible touch of pride.
“Why, so am I!” Peggy cried with delight.
The two of them quickly fell into an animated discussion of the Academy and of Mr. Macaulay. They were just comparing notes on their interviews with him when Dot gently but firmly interrupted.
“You girls will have a lot of time for all that, but now it’s time to do all the introductions. Amy, you tell us about you, and then we’ll go on about us. Gaby and Greta and Peggy and I have told about us already, so we won’t repeat it now. We’ll catch you tomorrow. So there’s only you and Irene and Maggie to go.”
Then she explained about the household method of introduction, which Amy agreed was a fine idea.
Amy’s speech was short and direct. “I’m Amy Preston, and I come from Pine Hollow, North Carolina, which nobody ever heard of except the people who live there. I went to college for a year and acted in four plays, and then I persuaded my parents to let me come to New York to act. There’s nothing else to tell about me, except that I think I’m the luckiest girl I ever knew to find a place like this to live in and a place like the Academy to study at. I know I’m going to like you all, and I hope you’re going to like me, too.” Blushing slightly, she sat down, and Peggy noticed that her hands were trembling a little. She hadn’t been fooling about the shyness and stage fright then, Peggy thought, but she was certainly able to keep it from showing, unless you looked very closely. Peggy was sure that Amy would prove to be a good actress.
The rest of the introductory speeches went swiftly. Irene, it turned out, was from Cleveland. Her real name was Irma Matysko, but she thought, and everybody agreed, that Irene Marshall sounded a lot better for a would-be actress. She had acted in several television dramas in minor parts, and was supporting herself mostly as a fashion model.
Maggie, the dancer, spoke next. “I’m Maggie Delahanty,” she began, “and I was actually born in Ireland, only my parents brought me here when I was two, so I don’t remember anything about it. I was raised in Philadelphia, where my father is a bus driver, and I’ve been dancing since I was three. I’ve worked in musicals on Broadway and on the road, and I’ve worked in night clubs, which I hate. Right now I’m studying singing with a fine coach, so that I can get some good work, because there’s nothing much for a dancer who can’t sing. I just got back last week from a summer tour with a music circus, in which I danced my way through ten states in as many weeks. Right now, I don’t know what I’m going to do, except sit down as much as I can.”
With another one of her uncanny, fluid movements, she sat down.
The general introductions done, Peggy and Amy went back to their conversation about Mr. Macaulay and the Academy. Amy’s experience in her interview had been much the same as Peggy’s. She too had prepared material to read and, like Peggy, had thought at first that she was rejected when Mr. Macaulay wouldn’t let her read it. Now she could hardly wait to get started.