“Hi!” someone called, raising a hand with a dripping brush. Peggy peered intently at the slight figure and dark hair, and recognized Chuck Crosby, their intense young director. “Get to work,” he ordered with a smile and went back to his painting.
A well-built young man with a heavy mass of light-brown hair rose with his can and beckoned to her. Peggy picked her way through buckets and flats, following him.
“Danny Dunn!” she said with a shock of surprise. “How on earth am I supposed to know you under that disguise?” Danny was to do juvenile and some character parts for the company. Now he looked like a clown as he smiled at her with a paint-dotted mouth.
“Tomorrow is another day!” he quoted dramatically. “Tomorrow and tomorrow—I can hardly wait! By the way, sorry I couldn’t join you all for dinner, but I just had a sandwich here. Tell me everything tomorrow—if I’m still alive.” He made a face, “Here, ingénue, fill a can.”
In a clear corner near the wall, Michael Miller sat hunched over a hot plate with a bubbling pot of melting glue. He looked like an ancient alchemist as he stirred and poured, mixing paint, whiting, and glue into large buckets.
“The white cliffs of Dover,” Michael muttered romantically, taking a bag of powdered chalk and measuring it into his caldron.
“Sure, double, double, and all that,” Danny replied, nodding kindly. “Well, just keep steady, old chap, we’re all a little tired tonight.”
“It really is the white cliffs of Dover,” Michael protested as Danny walked away. “For the ground coat,” he added, peering up at Peggy through his steaming glasses. “Here, have fun.” He waved her away.
For the next four hours Peggy knelt on her hands and knees, laboriously painting flats. These were frames of white pine, over which was stretched unbleached muslin, like a painter’s canvas. They had already been sized with a solution of glue and water until they were drum-tight. Over the ground coat that Peggy was painting, Gus would design wallpaper for interiors, fireplaces, outdoor scenes. Peggy’s back ached as she worked silently. No one said a word.
