Читать книгу The Passionate Quest онлайн

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"Duggie," he remonstrated, "why didn't you bring the young lady along before?"

"She's only just at liberty," the other explained. "Had hard work to persuade her to come into a rotten show like this."

"Better late than never, Miss Vonet," the stage manager declared. "Rehearsal at two-thirty this afternoon. You get a fiver a week when we start, if we ever do. We find the clothes. Don't be late."

The author looked at his watch.

"Time we went and had some lunch, Miss Vonet," he suggested.

"But—"

"Grillroom at Ciro's," he interrupted. "I know what you're going to say—old clothes on, and all that. It doesn't matter a bit. Come along."

He led the way into the street. Rosina walked demurely by his side.

"Of course, I'm not going to refuse a perfectly good lunch," she said, "if you think it really doesn't matter about my terrible clothes. But will you kindly tell me if you really are the author of the play, and what it's all about?"

"My name is Douglas Erwen," he announced. "I am a New Yorker, although I am over on this side a good deal. To a certain extent I wrote the play, but it's one of those silly affairs, you know, with a skeleton plot, a slight book, plenty of songs and dances, and a dickens of a lot of gag. They call me the author," he went on meditatively. "I suppose I do supply them with an idea or two as a peg to hang the rest on. I certainly don't do more."