“But Tom’s so good,” Peggy protested. “He’s the only one in the cast who isn’t being affected by her.”
May shook her doubtfully. “He’s only human,” she said. “I’m afraid the strain is going to show.”
May was right. Tom began to fall to pieces during the next rehearsal. Where he had once been alive and vital, he now read his lines unevenly, in a lackluster mumble. In the second act, he completely forgot one of his lines, and in the third act he forgot to come in on his entrance. That was when Craig Claiborne lost his temper and bawled him out in front of the other members of the cast. During the tirade, Peggy stole a glance at Katherine Nelson. The actress was standing perfectly still, an unholy gleam in her eyes.
XIV
The Secret
Craig Claiborne was slumped deep in the easy chair in Oscar Stalkey’s office. A look of troubled guilt was stamped across his face. “I apologized later,” he was saying to the producer, who for once was not pacing. He was sitting across from his director, chewing nervously on the stump of a cold cigar, looking haggard and careworn.
“What did he say?” Stalkey asked.
“He mumbled something about its all being his fault and shuffled out.”
“Where did he go?”
“How the devil should I know? I’m not his nurse.” Claiborne passed a weary hand over his forehead. “I’m sorry, Oscar. I didn’t mean to snap at you. But this thing’s got us all to the breaking point.” He paused and looked at the producer steadily. “Have you thought of asking for Katherine Nelson’s resignation?”
Stalkey removed the cigar from his mouth. “On what grounds?” he shot back. “Yes, I’ve hinted at it,” he added morosely. “But she laughed at me. She said she’d never resign.”