Читать книгу The Passionate Quest онлайн

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On her way towards the first place on her list, she paused for a moment to look at the bills outside the Garrick Theatre. A forthcoming production was announced, and the front of the house was closed. A thin stream of girls and men was making its way down the flagged passage which led to the stage door, and she chanced to overhear the word "rehearsal." With a little laugh and a valiant instinct for adventure, she turned and followed them. As luck would have it, the doorkeeper's attention was momentarily engaged as she passed in single file, with several other girls, before his glass window. She followed them down a network of dark passages, past several doors on which cards were pinned, until she stood at last in what she realised must be the wings of the theatre. Here she had a few minutes in which to collect herself. A young man and a girl were standing in the middle of the stage. A short, olive-complexioned, fat personage, with jet-black hair, was walking around them, with a typescript in his hand, apparently on the brink of tears.