Part 35 (2/2)
”Me and Cottie was always great ones for red. I ought to had the red serge you made so much fun of dyed for mourning, but Cottie--”
”Red! When you, in a tight-lookin' black that hugs you like it was wet, and a black hat with a tilt that Anna Held would buy right off your head, can walk into any office in the row this morning and land in the show-girl row of any chorus on the bills. If you think that's an easy stunt, ask any girl in this house.”
”I--I ain't scared a bit now, since I'm going around with you, Ysobel: but gee, if I had to go alone!”
”Fallows does the same thing for all of them. When I was in last spring from first pony in a Middle West company of the 'Merry Whirl'--remind me, and I'll show you my notices--when I was in last spring Fallows dumped a little doll-eyed soubrette on me that didn't do a thing, after I dragged her around to the offices, but grab a part away from me in a Snooky Ook.u.ms quartet that Jim Simmons was puttin' out.”
”Honest?”
”Sure! A production I'd been holding off for all season. Me that's made the boards of more stages creak than she's ever seen!”
”Mrs. Fallows says you're just the one to show me around, that you are one swell little pony, and an old one in the offices.”
”An old one in the offices! I don't see Fallows herself suffering from no growing-pains. They don't come any farther gone to seed than her. She tried to stick to her soft-shoe act till the office boys of the Consolidated a.s.sociation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Managers got up a subscription and bought her this four-flights' rooming-house to keep her feet busy with. Fallows better lay low with me or I can do some fancy tongue-work.”
”She didn't mean--”
”Easy there, girl! Didn't I learn you for two hours last night to get the cold-cream on smooth, first? Smooth--now the powder--more white on the nose--more!”
”Like that?”
”Say, I met Vyette D'Orsay up in a office yesterday, and she thought I was tryin' out a comedy line on her when I told her I found one I had to learn how to make up.”
”Lily, a girl from our town, used to powder and--”
”Little more red over the cheek-bones--see, honey?--like mine--say, if you wanna see swell work you ought to see me made up for spot--didn't I tell you to work back toward the ears? There--more--good! Don't give yourself a mouth like a low-comedy gash. Use the cheese-cloth, honey.”
”Look how it smears!”
”There, a Cupid bow in the middle is all you need. You got a mouth just the size of a kiss, anyway.”
”John--John used to say about it that--”
”Good! Say, you're some little learner--you are! Easy there--always line an eyebrow downward--there--more--so!”
”So?”
”Say, you got Zaza, Perfecta, Lillie Russell, and the whole hothouse bunch of them knocked through the gla.s.s ceiling.”
Delia leaned to her radiant reflection in the mirror and smiled through teeth faintly pink from the ruby richness of her lips.
”You ought to see my little sister Cottie, Ysobel. When she comes you'll sit up and take real notice. I ain't even in her cla.s.s. She can sit on her hair--it's so long--and it's so gold it's hot-lookin'.”
”Before I had typhoid mine was the same way--you can't put them dresses on over your head, girl. You gotta climb in--there ain't no room for a overhead act. There! Say, look at that side-drape, will you! I bet that lace set some dame back ten a yard. Some cla.s.s! Don't forget to strike for thirty right off the bat--they'll think more of you. Say, girl, it's worth the time I'm wasting on you to see Casey's face when I steer you into there this morning.”
”Ain't it--a beauty, Ysobel! But it's a little tight, kinda--”
”Now begin that again, will you? Honest, if Vyette could hear that line!”
<script>