"There Hilarie found me. And she thinks she is doing the best thing in the world for me when she gets me taught to be a tragedy queen."
"You shall be a great actress, Molly. You shall rake in fifty pounds a week, and you shall wear long chains of diamonds, if you like."
"I've got ambition enough, if that counts for anything. I like that part of it where the great actress sweeps across the stage, with all the people shouting and clapping. Why, when daddy took me to the pit, and I used to watch the leading lady marching majestically—like this—with her long train, sweeping it back—so—I resolved to be an actress. And when she spoke the lines, I didn't care twopence about the sense, if they had any; I was thinking all the time how grand she looked, and how splendid it must be to have all the world in love with you."
"You shall have it, Molly—if you like, that is. You were always ready to think about fellows being in love with you, were you not?"
"Why not? The stories and the plays and the songs are all about love. A girl can't help wanting all the world to be in love with her. At the theatre I used to see love and admiration on every man's face. The women's faces were not so full of love, I noticed."
"Oh, you noticed that, did you? At so early an age? Wonderful!"
"And now, Dick, now, you see, I've found out that it means work; and after all the work it may mean failure. Sometimes I think—Dick, I don't mind saying everything to you—girls who are beautiful—like me, in my way—were never intended to work; they were to be rewarded for their good looks by—you know—the prince, Dick."
"Sometimes it comes off," Dick replied thoughtfully. "There was Claribel Winthrop—Jane Perks her real name was—in one of my country companies; she married a young lord. But she worked desperately hard for it. All of us looked on and backed her up. It might come off that way; but I should be sorry, Molly. You're born for better things; you ought to have an empty purse."
"What should you say, Dick, if it was to come off that way?"
"Is there a young lord, then? Already?" He changed colour.