“Oh, no,” Peggy protested. “We’re going Dutch, same as always.”
“Nothing doing,” Randy said. “Tonight we celebrate.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little early?” Peggy said.
Randy looked over at her and slowly shook his head. “No, I don’t,” he said, reaching out for her hand. “Frankly, I don’t think you can miss.”
Randy kept Peggy’s hand in his until Tony came up to their table, looking for a place to put the cheese. Finally Randy drew his hand back and gave Peggy a wordless smile.
It was nice to know everyone was so confident, Peggy thought to herself, but she knew tomorrow wouldn’t be easy. She glanced up at the clock over the open kitchen in the rear. It read six-thirty. In fifteen hours, she would be on the stage of the Elgin Theater, reading for the part of the general understudy in Innocent Laughter. Just fifteen short hours! The thought sent a shiver of dread and almost unbearable excitement running down her back. Telling herself that tomorrow was still a long way off, Peggy picked up a fork and tried to concentrate on Tony’s wonderful spaghetti.
Why, she wondered miserably, had she ever thought she could be an actress? Why hadn’t she stayed home in Rockport and become a schoolteacher as her father had wished?
V
Tryouts
Peggy was still thinking the same thing the following morning as she walked up Broadway toward the Elgin Theater. The day had started off badly with showers and sharp, gusty blasts of wind that sent a fine rain spattering over the deserted streets. New York’s theater district was like a ghost town in the early-morning hours. Except for a few familiar faces—the blind newspaper dealer at the corner of Forty-fourth and Broadway, the white-jacketed soda fountain clerk reading a magazine in the window, and the inevitable knot of musicians clustered at the corner of Forty-fifth street—no one was abroad. People in show business worked late and slept late. But by noon, Peggy knew, the streets would be crowded.
She hurried past the newspaper stand, her high heels beating a brisk tattoo on the sidewalk. The dealer was sitting inside his tiny booth behind neat stacks of newspapers. When he heard Peggy’s footsteps his head came up and a smile crossed his face.