Читать книгу The Passionate Quest онлайн

77 страница из 87

He looked at her in surprise.

"Aren't you in the show?" he asked.

"Not yet," she answered hopefully.

"Then what the dickens are you doing here?"

"I just saw the others coming in and I followed," she explained. "I was on my way to apply for a post at a fruit shop, at two pounds ten a week. I would so much rather go on the stage."

The young man turned and studied her attentively. After all, she decided, he was not quite so young as she had thought at first. He was a little freckled and very much sunburnt, clean-shaven, bald on the top of his head, with humorous mouth and kindly grey eyes. She liked him quite well enough to endure his scrutiny and to smile back at him.

"Sure you're not getting at me?" he demanded. "You're not a leading ingénue in disguise, or anything of that sort?"

"Nothing of the kind," she assured him. "I am a poor but honest girl, seeking to make a respectable living."

The rehearsal was in full swing now. The young man called to his confederate who had been coaching the unhappy pair.