Mr. Fox, playing the grandfather, read the encouraging lines. Peggy answered him. The pieces were beginning to fall into place now. She read with mounting conviction and assurance until, abruptly, a voice shattered the illusion.
“Thank you, Miss Lane. We’ll be in touch with you.”
It couldn’t be over yet! Peggy stopped in stunned amazement. Just when it was going so well! She felt the script being taken out of her hand and realized that she had been dismissed. Fighting back the tears, Peggy moved over to the right of the stage and ran off into the wings.
She was grateful there was no one backstage to see her. She turned the corner that led to the stage entrance and thudded against somebody coming into the theater.
Peggy blinked the tears away and looked up to see Katherine Nelson standing in front of her. Katherine Nelson opened her mouth to speak, but Peggy didn’t stop to listen.
Murmuring apologies under her breath, she brushed past the star and threw open the heavy door. All she wanted was to get out of the theater and as far away from Innocent Laughter as she could. She barely heard the steel door clang shut behind her as she walked quickly down the street—away from Broadway.
VI
“Why Don’t You Quit?”
“Peggy, honey, it just can’t be as bad as all that!”
“You don’t know!” Peggy was in her dressing gown, stretched across her bed, still thinking about the audition that morning. “I hardly got out five lines before he stopped me. Honestly, I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.”
“You can’t tell,” Amy said. “Maybe he didn’t have to hear any more.”