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diff --git a/old/55933-0.txt b/old/55933-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cf84e46..0000000 --- a/old/55933-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5098 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peggy Finds the Theatre, by Virginia Hughes - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Peggy Finds the Theatre - Peggy Lane Theater Stories, #1 - -Author: Virginia Hughes - -Illustrator: Sergio Leone - -Release Date: November 11, 2017 [EBook #55933] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY FINDS THE THEATRE *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -[Illustration: _Randy was, as Peggy had suspected, a fine dancer_] - - PEGGY LANE THEATER STORIES - - - - - _Peggy Finds the Theatre_ - - - By VIRGINIA HUGHES - - Illustrated by Sergio Leone - - - GROSSET & DUNLAP _Publishers_ - NEW YORK - - © GROSSET & DUNLAP, INC., 1962 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - - CONTENTS - - - 1 Dramatic Dialogue 1 - 2 Dramatic Decision 9 - 3 In the Wings 20 - 4 Two Auditions 33 - 5 Starting a New Role 46 - 6 Cast of Characters 57 - 7 The Biggest Stage 69 - 8 First Act 77 - 9 Theater Party 89 - 10 Peggy Produces a Plot 102 - 11 Rehearsals 110 - 12 Intermission 119 - 13 The Hidden City 127 - 14 The Hidden Theater 135 - 15 The Stage Door 145 - 16 Understudies for Danger 154 - 17 Backstage Fright 160 - 18 Forecast—Fair! 171 - - - - - PEGGY FINDS THE THEATER - - - - - I - _Dramatic Dialogue_ - - -“Of course, this is no surprise to us,” Thomas Lane said to his daughter -Peggy, who perched tensely on the edge of a kitchen stool. “We could -hardly have helped knowing that you’ve wanted to be an actress since you -were out of your cradle. It’s just that decisions like this can’t be -made quickly.” - -“But, Dad!” Peggy almost wailed. “You just finished saying yourself that -I’ve been thinking about this and wanting it for years! You can’t follow -that by calling it a quick decision!” She turned to her mother, her -hazel eyes flashing under a mass of dark chestnut curls. “Mother, you -understand, don’t you?” - -Mrs. Lane smiled gently and placed her soft white hand on her daughter’s -lean brown one. “Of course I understand, Margaret, and so does your -father. We both want to do what’s best for you, not to stand in your -way. The only question is whether the time is right, or if you should -wait longer.” - -“Wait! Mother—Dad—I’m years behind already! The theater is full of -beginners a year and even two years younger than I am, and girls of my -age have lots of acting credits already. Besides, what is there to wait -for?” - -Peggy’s father put down his coffee cup and leaned back in the kitchen -chair until it tilted on two legs against the wall behind him. He took -his time before answering. When he finally spoke, his voice was warm and -slow. - -“Peg, I don’t want to hold up your career. I don’t have any objections -to your wanting to act. I think—judging from the plays I’ve seen you in -at high school and college—that you have a real talent. But I thought -that if you would go on with college for three more years and get your -degree, you would gain so much worth-while knowledge that you’d use and -enjoy for the rest of your life—” - -“But not acting knowledge!” Peggy cried. - -“There’s more to life than that,” her father put in. “There’s history -and literature and foreign languages and mathematics and sciences and -music and art and philosophy and a lot more—all of them fascinating and -all important.” - -“None of them is as fascinating as acting to me,” Peggy replied, “and -none of them is nearly as important to my life.” - -Mrs. Lane nodded. “Of course, dear. I know just how you feel about it,” -she said. “I would have answered just the same way when I was your age, -except that for me it was singing instead of acting. But—” and here her -pleasant face betrayed a trace of sadness—“but I was never able to be a -singer. I guess I wasn’t quite good enough or else I didn’t really want -it hard enough—to go on with all the study and practice it needed.” - -She paused and looked thoughtfully at her daughter’s intense expression, -then took a deep breath before going on. - -“What you must realize, Margaret, is that you may not quite make the -grade. We think you’re wonderful, but the theater is full of young girls -whose parents thought they were the most talented things alive; girls -who won all kinds of applause in high-school and college plays; girls -who have everything except luck. You may be one of these girls, and if -you are, we want you to be prepared for it. We want you to have -something to fall back on, just in case you ever need it.” - -Mr. Lane, seeing Peggy’s hurt look, was quick to step in with -reassurance. “We don’t think you’re going to fail, Peg. We have every -confidence in you and your talents. I don’t see how you could miss being -the biggest success ever—but I’m your father, not a Broadway critic or a -play producer, and I could be wrong. And if I am wrong, I don’t want you -to be hurt. All I ask is that you finish college and get a teacher’s -certificate so that you can always find useful work if you have to. Then -you can try your luck in the theater. Doesn’t that make sense?” - -Peggy stared at the faded linoleum on the floor for a few moments before -answering. Then, looking first at her mother and then at her father, she -replied firmly, “No, it doesn’t! It might make sense if we were talking -about anything else but acting, but we’re not. If I’m ever going to try, -I’ll have a better chance now than I will in three years. But I can see -your point of view, Dad, and I’ll tell you what—I’ll make a bargain with -you.” - -“What sort of bargain, Peg?” her father asked curiously. - -“If you let me go to New York now, and if I can get into a good drama -school there, I’ll study and try to find acting jobs at the same time. -That way I’ll still be going to school and I’ll be giving myself a -chance. And if I’m not started in a career in one year, I’ll go back to -college and get my teacher’s certificate before I try the theater again. -How does that sound to you?” - -“It sounds fair enough,” Tom Lane admitted, “but are you so confident -that you’ll see results in one year? After all, some of our top stars -worked many times that long before getting any recognition.” - -“I don’t expect recognition in one year, Dad,” Peggy said. “I’m not that -conceited or that silly. All I hope is that I’ll be able to get a part -in that time, and maybe be able to make a living out of acting. And -that’s probably asking too much. If I have to, I’ll make a living at -something else, maybe working in an office or something, while I wait -for parts. What I want to prove in this year is that I can act. If I -can’t, I’ll come home.” - -“It seems to me, Tom, that Margaret has a pretty good idea of what she’s -doing,” Mrs. Lane said. “She sounds sensible and practical. If she were -all starry-eyed and expected to see her name in lights in a few weeks, -I’d vote against her going, but I’m beginning to think that maybe she’s -right about this being the best time.” - -“Oh, Mother!” Peggy shouted, jumping down from the stool and throwing -her arms about her mother’s neck. “I knew you’d understand! And you -understand too, don’t you, Dad?” she appealed. - -Her father replied in little puffs as he drew on his pipe to get it -started. “I ... never said ... I didn’t ... understand you ... did I?” -His pipe satisfactorily sending up thick clouds of fragrant smoke, he -took it out of his mouth before continuing more evenly. - -“Peg, your mother and I are cautious only because we love you so much -and want what’s going to make you happy. At the same time, we want to -spare you any unnecessary unhappiness along the way. Remember, I’m not a -complete stranger to show business. Before I came out here to Rockport -to edit the _Eagle_, I worked as a reporter on one of the best papers in -New York. I saw a lot ... I met a lot of actors and actresses ... and I -know how hard the city often was for them. But I don’t want to protect -you from life. That’s no good either. Just let me think about it a -little longer and let me talk to your mother some more.” - -Mrs. Lane patted Peggy’s arm and said, “We won’t keep you in suspense -long, dear. Why don’t you go out for a walk for a while and let us go -over the situation quietly? We’ll decide before bedtime.” - -Peggy nodded silently and walked to the kitchen door, where she paused -to say, “I’m just going out to the barn to see if Socks is all right for -the night. Then maybe I’ll go down to Jean’s for a while.” - -As she stepped out into the soft summer dusk she turned to look back -just in time to see her mother throw her a comically exaggerated wink of -assurance. Feeling much better, Peggy shut the screen door behind her -and started for the barn. - -Ever since she had been a little girl, the barn had been Peggy’s -favorite place to go to be by herself and think. Its musty but clean -scent of straw and horses and leather made her feel calm and alive. -Breathing in its odor gratefully, she walked into the half-dark to -Socks’s stall. As the little bay horse heard her coming, she stamped one -foot and softly whinnied a greeting. Peggy stopped first at the bag that -hung on the wall among the bridles and halters and took out a lump of -sugar as a present. Then, after stroking Socks’s silky nose, she held -out her palm with the sugar cube. Socks took it eagerly and pushed her -nose against Peggy’s hand in appreciation. - -As Peggy mixed some oats and barley for her pet and checked to see that -there was enough straw in the stall, she thought about her life in -Rockport and the new life that she might soon be going to. - -Rockport, Wisconsin, was a fine place, as pretty a small town as any -girl could ask to grow up in. And not too small, either, Peggy thought. -Its 16,500 people supported good schools, an excellent library, and two -good movie houses. What’s more, the Rockport Community College attracted -theater groups and concert artists, so that life in the town had always -been stimulating. And of course, all of this was in addition to the -usual growing-up pleasures of swimming and sailing, movie dates, and -formal dances—everything that a girl could want. - -Peggy had lived all her life here, knew every tree-shaded street, every -country road, field, lake, and stream. All of her friends were here, -friends she had known since her earliest baby days. It would be hard to -leave them, she knew, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was -going to do so. If not now, then as soon as she possibly could. - -It was not any dissatisfaction with her life, her friends, or her home -that made Peggy want to leave Rockport. She was not running away from -anything, she reminded herself; she was running _to_ something. - -To what? To the bright lights, speeding taxis, glittering towers of a -make-believe movie-set New York? Would it really be like that? Or would -it be something different, something like the dreary side-street world -of failure and defeat that she had also seen in movies? - -Seeing the image of herself hungry and tired, going from office to -office looking for a part in a play, Peggy suddenly laughed aloud and -brought herself back to reality, to the warm barn smell and the big, -soft-eyed gaze of Socks. She threw her arm around the smooth bay neck -and laid her face next to the horse’s cheek. - -“Socks,” she murmured, “I need some of your horse sense if I’m going to -go out on my own! We’ll go for a fast run in the morning and see if some -fresh air won’t clear my silly mind!” - -With a final pat, she left the stall and the barn behind, stepping out -into the deepening dusk. It was still too early to go back to the house -to see if her parents had reached a decision about her future. Fighting -down an impulse to rush right into the kitchen to see how they were -coming along, Peggy continued down the driveway and turned left on the -slate sidewalk past the front porch of her family’s old farmhouse and -down the street toward Jean Wilson’s house at the end of the block. - -As she walked by her own home, she noticed with a familiar tug at her -heart how the lilac bushes on the front lawn broke up the light from the -windows behind them into a pattern of leafy lace. For a moment, or maybe -a little more, she wondered why she wanted to leave this. What for? What -could ever be better? - - - - - II - _Dramatic Decision_ - - -Upstairs at the Wilsons’, Peggy found Jean swathed in bath towels, -washing her long, straight red hair, which was now white with lather and -piled up in a high, soapy knot. - -“You just washed it yesterday!” Peggy said. “Are you doing it again—or -still?” - -Jean grinned, her eyes shut tight against the soapsuds. “Again, I’m -afraid,” she answered. “Maybe it’s a nervous habit!” - -“It’s a wonder you’re not bald, with all the rubbing you give your -hair,” Peggy said with a laugh. - -“Well, if I do go bald, at least it will be with a clean scalp!” Jean -answered with a humorous crinkle of her freckled nose. Taking a deep -breath and puffing out her cheeks comically, she plunged her head into -the basin and rinsed off the soap with a shampoo hose. When she came up -at last, dripping-wet hair was tightly plastered to the back of her -head. - -“There!” she announced. “Don’t I look beautiful?” - -After a brisk rubdown with one towel, Jean rolled another dry towel -around her head like an Indian turban. Then, having wrapped herself in -an ancient, tattered, plaid bathrobe, she led Peggy out of the steamy -room and into her cozy, if somewhat cluttered, bedroom. When they had -made themselves comfortable on the pillow-strewn daybeds, Jean came -straight to the point. - -“So the grand debate is still going on, is it? When do you think they’ll -make up their minds?” she asked. - -“How do you know they haven’t decided anything yet?” Peggy said, in a -puzzled tone. - -“Oh, that didn’t take much deduction, my dear Watson,” Jean laughed. “If -they had decided against the New York trip, your face would be as long -as Socks’s nose, and it’s not half that long. And if the answer was yes, -I wouldn’t have to wait to hear about it! You would have been flying -around the room and talking a mile a minute. So I figured that nothing -was decided yet.” - -“You know, if I were as smart as you,” Peggy said thoughtfully, “I would -have figured out a way to convince Mother and Dad by now.” - -“Oh, don’t feel bad about being dumb,” Jean said in mock tones of -comfort. “If I were as pretty and talented as you are, I wouldn’t need -brains, either!” With a hoot of laughter, she rolled quickly aside on -the couch to avoid the pillow that Peggy threw at her. - -A short, breathless pillow fight followed, leaving the girls limp with -laughter and with Jean having to retie her towel turban. From her new -position, flat on the floor, Peggy looked up at her friend with a rueful -smile. - -“You know, I sometimes think that we haven’t grown up at all!” she said. -“I can hardly blame my parents for thinking twice—and a lot more—before -treating me like an adult.” - -“Nonsense!” Jean replied firmly. “Your parents know a lot better than to -confuse being stuffy with being grown-up and responsible. And, besides, -I know that they’re not the least bit worried about your being able to -take care of yourself. I heard them talking with my folks last night, -and they haven’t got a doubt in the world about you. But they know how -hard it can be to get a start as an actress, and they want to be sure -that you have a profession in case you don’t get a break in show -business.” - -“I know,” Peggy answered. “We had a long talk about it this evening -after dinner.” Then she told her friend about the conversation and her -proposed “bargain” with her parents. - -“They both seemed to think it was fair,” she concluded, “and when I went -out, they were talking it over. They promised me an answer by bedtime, -and I’m over here waiting until the jury comes in with its decision. You -know,” she said suddenly, sitting up on the floor and crossing her legs -under her, “I bet they wouldn’t hesitate a minute if you would only -change your mind and decide to come with me and try it too!” - -After a moment’s thoughtful silence, Jean answered slowly, “No, Peg. -I’ve thought this all out before, and I know it would be as wrong for me -as it is right for you. I know we had a lot of fun in the dramatic -groups, and I guess I was pretty good as a comedienne in a couple of the -plays, but I know I haven’t got the real professional thing—and I know -that you have. In fact, the only professional talent I think I do have -for the theater is the ability to recognize talent when I see it—and to -recognize that it’s not there when it isn’t!” - -“But, Jean,” Peggy protested, “you can handle comedy and character lines -as well as anyone I know!” - -Jean nodded, accepting the compliment and seeming at the same time to -brush it off. “That doesn’t matter. You know even better than I that -there’s a lot more to being an actress—a successful one—than reading -lines well. There’s the ability to make the audience sit up and notice -you the minute you walk on, whether you have lines or not. And that’s -something you can’t learn; you either have it, or you don’t. It’s like -being double-jointed. I can make an audience laugh when I have good -lines, but you can make them look at you and respond to you and be with -you all the way, even with bad lines. That’s why you’re going to go to -New York and be an actress. And that’s why I’m not.” - -“But, Jean—” Peggy began. - -“No buts!” Jean cut in. “We’ve talked about this enough before, and I’m -not going to change my mind. I’m as sure about what I want as you are -about what you want. I’m going to finish college and get my certificate -as an English teacher.” - -“And what about acting? Can you get it out of your mind as easily as all -that?” Peggy asked. - -“That’s the dark and devious part of my plan,” Jean answered with a -mysterious laugh that ended in a comic witch’s cackle and an -unconvincing witch-look that was completely out of place on her round, -freckled face. “Once I get into a high school as an English teacher, I’m -going to try to teach a special course in the literature of the theater -and maybe another one in stagecraft. I’m going to work with the -high-school drama group and put on plays. That way, I’ll be in a spot -where I can use my special talent of recognizing talent. And that way,” -she added, becoming much more serious, “I have a chance really to do -something for the theater. If I can help and encourage one or two people -with real talent like yours, then I’ll feel that I’ve really done -something worth while.” - -Peggy nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak for fear of saying -something foolishly sentimental, or even of crying. Her friend’s -earnestness about the importance of her work and her faith in Peggy’s -talent had touched her more than she could say. - -The silence lasted what seemed a terribly long time, until Jean broke it -by suddenly jumping up and flinging a last pillow which she had been -hiding behind her back. Running out of the bedroom, she called, “Come -on! I’ll race you down to the kitchen for cocoa! By the time we’re -finished, it’ll be about time for your big Hour of Decision scene!” - - -It was nearly ten o’clock when Peggy finally felt that her parents had -had enough time to talk things out. Leaving the Wilson house, she walked -slowly despite her eagerness, trying in all fairness to give her mother -and father every minute she could. Reaching her home, she cut across the -lawn behind the lilac bushes, to the steps up to the broad porch that -fronted the house. As she climbed the steps, she heard her father’s -voice raised a little above its normal soft, deep tone, but she could -not make out the words. - -Crossing the porch, she caught sight of him through the window. He was -speaking on the telephone, and now she caught his words. - -“Fine. Yes.... Yes—I think we can. Very well, day after tomorrow, then. -That’s right—all three of us. And, May—it’ll be good to see you again, -after all these years! Good-by.” - -As Peggy entered the room, her father put down the phone and turned to -Mrs. Lane. “Well, Betty,” he said, “it’s all set.” - -“What’s all set, Dad?” Peggy said, breaking into a run to her father’s -side. - -“Everything’s all set, Peg,” her father said with a grin. “And it’s set -just the way you wanted it! There’s not a man in the world who can hold -out against two determined women.” He leaned back against the fireplace -mantel, waiting for the explosion he felt sure was to follow his -announcement. But Peggy just stood, hardly moving a muscle. Then she -walked carefully, as if she were on the deck of a rolling ship, to the -big easy chair and slowly sat down. - -“Well, for goodness’ sake!” her mother cried. “Where’s the enthusiasm?” - -Peggy swallowed hard before answering. When her voice came, it sounded -strange, about two tones higher than usual. “I ... I’m trying to be -sedate ... and poised ... and very grown-up,” she said. “But it’s not -easy. All I want to do is to—” and she jumped out of the chair—“to yell -_whoopee_!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. - -After the kisses, the hugs, and the first excitement, Peggy and her -parents adjourned to the kitchen, the favorite household conference -room, for cookies and milk and more talk. - -“Now, tell me, Dad,” Peggy asked, her mouth full of oatmeal cookies, no -longer “sedate” or “poised,” but her natural, bubbling self. “Who was -that on the phone, and where are the three of us going, and what’s all -set?” - -“One thing at a time,” her father said. “To begin with, we decided -almost as soon as you left that we were going to let you go to New York -to try a year’s experience in the theater. But then we had to decide -just where you would live, and where you should study, and how much -money you would need, and a whole lot of other things. So I called New -York to talk to an old friend of mine who I felt would be able to give -us some help. Her name is May Berriman, and she’s spent all her life in -the theater. In fact, she was a very successful actress. Now she’s been -retired for some years, but I thought she might give us some good -advice.” - -“And did she?” Peggy asked. - -“We were luckier than I would have thought possible,” Mrs. Lane put in. -“It seems that May bought a big, old-fashioned town house and converted -it into a rooming house especially for young actresses. She always -wanted a house of her own with a garden in back, but felt it was foolish -for a woman living alone. This way, she can afford to run a big place -and at the same time not be alone. And best of all, she says she has a -room that you can have!” - -“Oh, Mother! It sounds wonderful!” Peggy exulted. “I’ll be with other -girls my own age who are actresses, and living with an experienced -actress! I’ll bet she can teach me loads!” - -“I’m sure she can,” her father said. “And so can the New York Dramatic -Academy.” - -“Dad!” Peggy shouted, almost choking on a cooky. “Don’t tell me you’ve -managed to get me accepted there! That’s the best dramatic school in the -country! How—?” - -“Don’t get too excited, Peg,” Mr. Lane interrupted. “You’re not accepted -anywhere yet, but May Berriman told me that the Academy is the best -place to study acting, and she said she would set up an audition for you -in two days. The term starts in a couple of weeks, so there isn’t much -time to lose.” - -“Two days! Do you mean we’ll be going to New York day after tomorrow, -just like that?” - -“Oh, no,” her mother answered calmly. “We’re going to New York tomorrow -on the first plane that we can get seats on. Your father doesn’t believe -in wasting time, once his mind is made up.” - -“Tomorrow?” Peggy repeated, almost unable to believe what she had heard. -“What are we sitting here talking for, then? I’ve got a million things -to do! I’ve got to get packed ... I’ve got to think of what to read for -the audition! I can study on the plane, I guess, but ... oh! I’ll be -terrible in a reading unless I can have more time! Oh, Mother, what -parts will I do? Where’s the Shakespeare? Where’s—” - -“Whoa!” Mr. Lane said, catching Peggy’s arm to prevent her from rushing -out of the kitchen. “Not now, young lady! We’ll pack in the morning, -talk about what you should read, and take an afternoon plane to New -York. But tonight, you’d better think of nothing more than getting to -bed. This is going to be a busy time for all of us.” - -Reluctantly, Peggy agreed, recognizing the sense of what her father -said. She finished her milk and cookies, kissed her parents good night -and went upstairs to bed. - -But it was one thing to go to bed and another to go to sleep. - -Peggy lay on her back, staring at the ceiling and the patterns of light -and shade cast by the street lamp outside as it shone through the leaves -of the big maple tree. As she watched the shifting shadows, she reviewed -the roles she had played since her first time in a high-school play. -Which should she refresh herself on? Which ones would she do best? And -which ones were most suited to her now? She recognized that she had -grown and developed past some of the roles which had once seemed -perfectly suited to her talent and her appearance. But both had changed. -She was certainly not a mature actress yet, from any point of view, but -neither was she a schoolgirl. Her trim figure was well formed; her face -had lost the undefined, simple cuteness of the early teens, and had -gained character. She didn’t think she should read a young romantic part -like Juliet. Not that she couldn’t do it, but perhaps something sharper -was called for. - -Perhaps Viola in _Twelfth Night_? Or perhaps not Shakespeare at all. -Maybe the people at the Academy would think she was too arty or too -pretentious? Maybe she should do something dramatic and full of stormy -emotion, like Blanche in _A Streetcar Named Desire_? Or, better for her -development and age, a light, brittle, comedy role...? - -Nothing seemed quite right. Peggy’s thoughts shifted with the shadows -overhead. All the plays she had ever seen or read or acted in melted -together in a blur, until the characters from one seemed to be talking -with the characters from another and moving about in an enormous set -made of pieces from two or three different plays. More actors kept -coming on in a fantastic assortment of costumes until the stage was -full. Then the stage lights dimmed, the actors joined hands across the -stage to bow, the curtain slowly descended, the lights went out—and -Peggy was fast asleep. - - - - - III - _In the Wings_ - - -When Peggy awoke in the early-morning sunshine that slanted into her -room, it was not yet six o’clock. She reached over to shut off the alarm -so that it would not ring at seven, the time she had decided to get up -for her big day. - -“People say that actors live in a dream world,” Peggy thought with a -smile. “Maybe that’s why I seem to want so little sleep. I get enough of -dreams when I’m supposed to be wide awake!” - -Recognizing that it would be useless to try to doze off again, she -quickly slipped out of bed and quietly set about her morning routine of -washing and dressing. The extra time gained by her early awakening would -give her an opportunity to select her reading for the Academy, Peggy -told herself as she stepped into the shower. But first things first; -before she could think about the reading she would need a clear mind, -and that meant that all the many details of packing and dressing must be -taken care of. As she wrapped herself in an oversized bath towel, Peggy -was already mentally choosing her clothes. - -An hour and a half later, when Mr. and Mrs. Lane came downstairs for -breakfast, they discovered Peggy, dressed and ready for the trip, -sitting surrounded by books at the big desk in the “library” end of the -living room. Her suitcase stood fully packed in the front hall, a large -traveling purse leaning next to it like a puppy sleeping by its mother. - -“My goodness!” Mrs. Lane said. “What did you do, stay up all night? Why, -you’re ready to board the plane this very minute!” - -“Not quite, Mother,” Peggy answered with a smile. “I still haven’t -settled on what to read tomorrow, and I want to do that before I go. -Otherwise I’ll be carting so many books with me to New York that we’ll -have to pay a fortune in extra-baggage charges!” - -“Oh, I’m not worried about you,” her mother said. “You’ll have your mind -made up and your part memorized before we even leave, if I remember the -way you go at things! Now you can just put the books away until after -breakfast, because I’m going to need some help in the kitchen.” - -As Peggy stood up, her mother looked approvingly at the costume she had -chosen for the flight. It was a smart beige suit with a short jacket -that was well cut to accent Peggy’s trim figure, and its tawny color was -the perfect complement for her even summer tan and her dark chestnut -hair. A simple pearl choker and a pair of tiny pearl earrings provided -just the right amount of contrast. - -“Is it all right?” Peggy asked. Noting her mother’s admiring nod, she -added, “I packed my gray silk suit and two dresses—the green print and -the blue dress-up, in case we go someplace. I mean someplace dressy, for -dinner or something. And I have the right shoes packed, too, and -stockings and blouses and toothbrush and everything,” she added, -anticipating her mother’s questions. - -Mrs. Lane smiled and sighed. “Well, I suppose there’s no use my -pretending that you’re not all grown up and able to take care of -yourself! You pass inspection with flying colors! Now, let’s get that -jacket off and get an apron on—we have some work to do!” - -Peggy and her mother went into the kitchen to prepare what Mr. Lane -always called his “traveling breakfast,” a huge repast of wheat cakes, -eggs, sausages and coffee, with plenty of orange juice to start, maple -syrup to soak the wheat cakes in, and more coffee to finish up on. While -breakfast was cooking, Mr. Lane was on the phone, confirming their plane -reservations and, when this was done, arranging for hotel rooms in New -York. The last phone call was finished barely a minute before the first -steaming stack of wheat cakes was set on the kitchen table. - -“Well,” he said, sitting down to look with satisfaction at his plate, -“everything’s under control. We leave at two this afternoon, which -should have us in New York by five. That gives us plenty of time. We’ll -leave the house about one.” - -“Plenty of time!” Peggy wailed. “What about my reading? I’ve got to get -started right away!” She gave a fairly convincing performance of someone -who must get started right away, except for the fact that she showed not -the least sign of moving until she had finished her breakfast. - -During the meal, the talk was all of reservations, changing planes at -Chicago, what kind of rooms they would have at the hotel, and all the -many little details of a trip, but Peggy hardly heard. She was still -sorting out plays and roles in her mind and trying to make a decision. - -By the second cup of coffee, her decision was made. “I’ve got it!” she -announced in triumph and relief. “I’ll prepare three short readings -instead of one long one! That’ll give them a chance to see the kinds of -things I can do, and if I’m bad in one, I’ll have two more chances!” - -“Makes sense,” her father agreed. “What three parts do you think you’ll -try?” - -“I’m not completely sure,” Peggy said, “but at least I know what kinds -of parts they’ll be, and that will make the job easier. One of them will -surely be Viola in _Twelfth Night_ because I’ve done it, and I’ve always -felt that it was me, and besides, it’s Shakespeare, and I think I ought -to have one Shakespeare anyway.” - -“That’s a good choice,” Mrs. Lane said. “Now I think you’d better pick -out one that’s more dramatic and another that’s something of a comedy or -a character part, don’t you?” - -“Exactly what I had in mind,” Peggy answered. “It shouldn’t be too hard -to select, now that I know what I’m looking for.” - -But it wasn’t easy, either. Peggy spent the whole morning carefully -looking over her collection of play scripts. Every time she thought she -had the right role, she found there was no single scene that seemed to -be right for a short reading. There was no trouble over Viola, because -Shakespeare always wrote good scenes and speeches, and because there was -no need to sketch in what had led up to the scene in the play, since -everyone was sure to be perfectly familiar with it. But everything else -seemed to be a problem. It was not until her parents were all packed and -there was only half an hour before leaving, that she finally made up her -mind. - -For the comedy reading, she determined to do Sabina in the first scene -of _Skin of our Teeth_, which had much more to it than simple comedy. -The business of Sabina’s stepping out of character to talk directly to -the audience as a disgusted actress criticizing the play and its author -gave added dimension to the reading. For her dramatic role, Peggy chose -the part of Miriamne in the last scene of _Winterset_, a hauntingly -beautiful tragedy. She selected this, she explained to her parents as -they drove to the airport, because it was one of the few dramatic, -poetic parts written for a girl of her own age, and she felt that she -could identify with the character. Then, book in hand, she started to -study. - -[Illustration: _They waited for the passenger call_] - -Peggy continued to read all through the arrival at the airport, the -business of checking in and loading baggage. They waited for the -passenger call, then walked up the steps into the plane. When she was -settled in her seat by the window, she lowered her book and turned, -wide-eyed, to her mother. - -“Do you know,” she said in slow, awed tones, “that this is my first time -on an airplane, and I’m just sitting here reading?” She closed the book -on her lap. “That’s just going to wait for a while, until I see what’s -going on!” - -Looking out the oval window, she saw the steep steps being wheeled away -from the plane. A red fuel truck drove under the wing and sped across -the wide concrete runway. Then the plane’s engines whirled, coughed once -and started, and the plane lumbered down the runway slowly. Reaching the -end, it deliberately turned, stopped for a moment, then suddenly -gathered up strength, leaped forward and sped into the wind. Peggy -watched, fascinated, as the ground dropped away and the shadow of wings -below grew smaller and smaller as the plane rose. She watched until the -tiny farms, winding ribbons of highway, and gleaming rivers disappeared -beneath a puffy layer of cloud. Then she looked back to her mother. - -“Well,” she said, “it looks as if my new career is off to a flying -start! Now I’d better study these plays, or I’m in for an unhappy -landing.” - -Reluctantly tearing her eyes from the fantastic cloud formations that -floated past, Peggy once more opened her book and was soon deep into the -even more fantastic world of Thornton Wilder’s _Skin of Our Teeth_. - -The quick flight to Chicago, the change of planes, the landing and -take-off, scarcely attracted her notice, and the three hours flew by at -faster than air speed. Peggy had finished reading and marking Sabina’s -role, and was deep into Miriamne’s when her mother interrupted her. - -“They want us to fasten our seat belts again,” she said. “We’re coming -into New York now.” - -This time Peggy noticed! Spread below her, stretching out as if it would -never end, was the maze of streets and avenues, rivers and islands, -towers and bridges, that was the city of New York. The late afternoon -sun touched the windows of skyscrapers with fire, gilded the steelwork -of the bridges, cast deep, black shadows into the streets and over the -rooftops of low buildings. Giant liners stood tied at docks; others -steamed sedately up or down the river, pushed or pulled by tiny tugs. -Even from their soaring height above the scene, New York refused to look -small or toylike. It stubbornly looked only like the thing it was—the -busiest, tallest, most exciting city in the world! - -Turning in a great, slow arc, the plane descended until it was skimming -only a few feet above the waters of a broad bay. Peggy wondered if they -had flown in on a seaplane, and if they were to land in the water and -have to take a boat to shore, but even as the thought occurred to her, -the rocky shoreline suddenly appeared beneath her, and the plane swiftly -settled down on the long, concrete runway of New York’s LaGuardia -Airport. - -It was the rush hour, and parkways and streets were jammed with -homebound cars, but their cab driver knew his way around back streets, -and turned and twisted around one corner after another until Peggy lost -all sense of direction. Her father, though, seemed to know exactly where -they were at all times, and kept pointing out buildings and parks and -bridges to Peggy and her mother, telling the name of each and how it -figured in his memory. People, trucks, cars, buses, cabs, motor scooters -and little foreign autos filled the streets. Mr. Lane called out the -names of famous avenues as they came to and crossed them: Park Avenue -... Madison Avenue ... Fifth Avenue.... - -The taxi passed by store after store, their windows like so many stage -sets. By the edge of Central Park, they drew up in front of their hotel. -Bewildered, excited, dazzled, delighted, Peggy stepped out of the taxi -and stood for the first time on the sidewalks of New York! - - -The temptation had been strong to give in to all the glamour of the -city, to go for dinner in one of the famous restaurants, to ride in a -hansom cab through Central Park behind a plodding old horse, to race -through the bright streets and gather in all the excitement of New York -in one whirling evening. The temptation had been strong, but Peggy had -bravely fought it off. She had work to do before her tryout the next day -at the New York Dramatic Academy. - -After a fine but hurried dinner in the hotel’s handsome, formal dining -room, Peggy and her parents went upstairs to work on her readings. She -read first the passage she had marked out from _Twelfth Night_, since -Viola was a familiar role for her and she needed only a short time to -work on it. The speech she selected was the best known in the play, and -for that reason it was probably the hardest to do, for everyone who -would hear it would have his own idea of how it should sound. Any actor -knows how hard it is to put new life into old, familiar words, and Peggy -was well aware of this. Still, because this short speech gave her a -chance, in only a dozen lines, to indicate the whole character of Viola, -she thought it was worth the risk. - -Viola, pretending to be a boy, tells the Duke Orsino of a sister she -never had, and by so doing, confesses her own love for the Duke. The -first difficulty of the speech lay in making Viola seem both a boy and a -lovesick girl at the same time. The second difficulty was to make the -imaginary sister of the speech seem like a real person. - -Mr. Lane began, reading the Duke’s lines, in which he says that no woman -can love as deeply as a man. When the speech was done, Peggy spoke, -sounding at first completely feminine, “Ay, but I know—” She broke off -the phrase in well-acted confusion, as Viola quickly realizes that she -has spoken as a woman, rather than as the boy she is supposed to be. - -“What dost thou know?” - -“Too well what love women to men may owe,” Peggy answered firmly, saying -the line with boyish confidence. Then she went on, in a confidential, -man-to-man tone: “In faith, they are as true of heart as we./My father -had a daughter loved a man,/As it might be, perhaps were I a woman,/I -should your lordship.” - -“And what’s her history?” Mr. Lane said. - -Now Peggy subtly shifted the character, and when she replied, after a -short pause, it was not in the manner of either the lovesick girl or the -confident, manly boy. Now she spoke dreamily, a story-teller, a poet, as -Viola fell into her own pretended character, half-believing in the -“sister” she had created. - -“A blank, my lord. She never told her love,/But let concealment, like a -worm i’ the bud,/Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,/And -with a green and yellow melancholy/She sat, like Patience on a -monument,/Smiling at grief—” - -She was interrupted by a round of applause from both her parents, and -responded with a start, suddenly realizing that she was in a hotel room, -not in the court of the Duke Orsino or even on a stage. - -“But there’s more to the speech!” she said. “You shouldn’t have -applauded yet!” - -“Couldn’t help it, Peg,” her father said. “Besides, I’m afraid that if -you work on that any more, you might ruin it. As far as I’m concerned, -it’s perfect just the way it is. You can do the whole speech tomorrow.” - -“Oh, you’re just being a loving father,” Peggy answered, in pleased -confusion, but she knew that there was more to his comments and -compliments than this. She remembered how, during the weeks when she -first struggled to breathe life into the character of Viola, her father -had read lines with her and criticized sharply every time she did -something not quite true to the role. Remembering this, her pleasure now -was doubled. Even so, Peggy insisted on reading the whole speech, then -doing it several times over, before she would go on to her next marked -reading. - -Sabina, in _Skin of Our Teeth_, was a complete change of pace. Peggy -worked on the satirical, comic, sometimes silly-sounding lines for two -hours before she felt she was ready to go on. Then, two more hours went -swiftly by as she developed the poetic, passionate lines of Maxwell -Anderson’s Winterset, working on Miriamne’s death scene. - -When at last she was satisfied, it was a little after midnight, and -Peggy felt exhausted, as if she herself had died with Miriamne. - -“I should have done Sabina last,” she said. “Maybe I wouldn’t feel so -much as if I had just been murdered after three acts of blank verse!” - -“On the other hand,” Mrs. Lane said, “you might not have been so ready -for sleep as you are now, and sleep is what you need most, if you’re -going to do as well in the morning as you did tonight.” - -“That’s right,” added Peggy’s father. “We have just time for eight good -hours of rest and a decent breakfast tomorrow before you go to keep your -ten-o’clock date with destiny. Let’s go.” - -Peggy didn’t argue. She kissed her parents, went to her own adjoining -bedroom and, in three minutes, was curled up between the crisp, fresh -sheets. Tonight she was too tired to think about the excitement to come. -She had barely settled her head on the pillow before she was deep in a -dreamless sleep. - - - - - IV - _Two Auditions_ - - -Peggy hadn’t really known what to expect of the New York Dramatic -Academy, but whatever it was, it wasn’t this! - -The Academy was housed on two floors of an ancient office building only -a few blocks away from their hotel. On either side of a tall door that -led into a long, dim hallway was an assorted collection of name plates, -telling passers-by what to expect inside. One somewhat blackened brass -plaque, about a foot square, gave the name of the Academy. Other -plaques, some brass, some plastic, some polished and others almost -illegible, announced that the building also provided offices for a -dentist, studios for two ballet schools and a voice teacher, and the -workshop of a noted costume designer. Other trades represented included -theatrical agents, song writers, an export-import company, an -advertising agency, and a custom bootmaker specializing in ballet -footwear. - -At the end of the hall, two old elevators wheezed and grunted their way -up and down in grillwork shafts. Over the ornate elevator doors were -indicators telling on what floors the elevators were. Neither of them -worked. But, when one car landed with a sigh of relief and its gates -slid open with a creak, Peggy found that the operator was, surprisingly, -a young man, quite good-looking and smartly uniformed. He greeted her -courteously and took her to the top floor with the air of a man who was -giving her a lift in his own chauffeured limousine. - -The minute Peggy looked around her, any misgivings she had about the -building vanished. The atmosphere was ageless, shabby, and completely -theatrical. The elusive smell, both indefinable and familiar, but which -was nothing but the smell of backstage, perfumed the hall. Through a -closed door to her left, Peggy heard a chorus reciting in unison some -lines from a Greek play she could not identify. Directly in front, -through an open door in a wall of doors, Peggy saw a tiny theater of -perhaps one hundred seats. A few people lounged in the front seats while -on the bare stage, under a single floodlight, two young men acted out -what sounded like a violent quarrel. To the right, where the long -hallway was crossed by another hall, a boy appeared, swinging a fencing -foil. He turned the corner out of sight. - -“This must be where I go,” Peggy thought, starting for a nearby door -marked OFFICE. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked in. - -The pretty receptionist, greeting her by name, said that she was -expected and that Mr. Macaulay, the director of the Academy, would see -her right away. - -The first thing that Peggy noticed was the office, in the elaborate -clutter of which Mr. Macaulay seemed to have disappeared. It was a -large, square room, its walls paneled from the Oriental rugs to the -high, carved ceiling. Two tall windows draped in red velvet showed -glimpses of rooftops and river through lace curtains. Every available -piece of wall was covered with pictures: photographs of people who were -surely actors and actresses, paintings of people and of places, heavily -framed etchings, newspaper clippings, book jackets, theater programs, -old theater posters, magazine articles and, apparently, everything else -that could possibly fit into a frame. Where there were not pictures, -there were books, except for one narrow wall space between the windows, -where there was a small marble fireplace, over the mantel of which rose -a tall mirror. The mantel itself was a jumble of pipes, tobacco tins, -more pictures in small frames, china figurines, candlesticks and boxes -assembled around a pendulum clock which stood motionless under a -bell-shaped glass cover. - -In one corner of the room was a heavily carved black grand piano, -covered with a fringed cloth and stacked high with ragged piles of sheet -music, play scripts, books, more pipes, more pictures. - -In the opposite corner stood an immense desk, also heavily carved, and -behind its incredibly cluttered surface rose the tall back of a -thronelike chair. In the chair, almost lost from view, sat Mr. Macaulay. - -When Peggy first realized he was there, she almost laughed, thinking of -various animals whose protective coloration lets them melt into their -natural backgrounds, the way the dappled coat of a deer seems merely -more of the forest pattern of light and shade. - -Mr. Macaulay was as ornate as his room. He was a small, round man who -concealed a cherubic smile beneath a pair of curly, white handlebar -mustaches. His red cheeks and white hair made the perfect setting for -bright blue eyes that glittered behind an old-fashioned pair of -pince-nez glasses perched precariously on his nose. A black ribbon from -the eyeglasses ended in a gold fitting secured in his lapel. The round -expanse of his shirt front was covered by a brocaded, double-breasted -vest such as Peggy had never seen except in movies set in the Gay -Nineties, and when Mr. Macaulay rose in smiling greeting and came around -the end of the desk, Peggy could not help looking down to see if he wore -gray spats. He did. - -“Welcome!” Mr. Macaulay boomed in a surprising bass voice. “Now let’s -sit down and talk this over.” He motioned Peggy to sit on one of a pair -of straight-backed chairs, while he stood by the other with one foot up -on its petit-point seat. - -“Now,” he said abruptly, “what makes you think you can act?” - -Taken aback, Peggy stammered a little. “Well ... well, I’ve been in a -lot of plays in college and high school and ... and I always got good -reviews ... I mean, everybody always thought that I was....” - -“Won’t do.” Mr. Macaulay cut in decisively. “You’re telling me why other -people think you can act. What I want to know is why _you_ think you can -act.” - -This time, Peggy answered with more control. “I don’t really think I -can, Mr. Macaulay,” she said calmly and earnestly, “even though I did -get those good notices. But I know that I want to, and I hope that I can -learn here.” - -“A good answer!” the little director thundered happily. “Now tell me -_why_ you want to act, and how you _know_ it’s what you really want to -do, and we’ll be well on the way to a lasting friendship.” - -Peggy thought for a minute before answering. She sensed that her answer -would be important in deciding whether she would be accepted as a member -of the Academy or not, and she wanted to be sure that the words were a -true reflection of what she wanted to say. - -“Mr. Macaulay, I want to act for the same reason that I grew up in -Rockport, Wisconsin. It just happened. I didn’t choose it; it chose me. -And I know it’s what I really want because when I’m acting, I feel about -one hundred per cent more alive than when I’m not—and it’s a wonderful -feeling.” - -Mr. Macaulay nodded solemnly, removed his foot from the chair and walked -twice around the room in silence, neatly dodging the chairs and tables -that filled the place. As he seemed to be starting a third circuit of -the room, he stopped, turned and replaced his foot on the chair. - -“Young lady,” the little director said softly, “if you’re any more alive -on the stage than you are right here in this room, you’ll light up the -audience like an arc lamp!” - -Then he strode rapidly to the door, opened it, and turned to smile -warmly at Peggy. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you,” he said. - -“But, Mr. Macaulay,” Peggy said, “won’t you even give me a chance to -read for you? I’ve got three short selections prepared, and—” - -“Not for at least six months,” the director cut in. “I never hear -readings from beginners.” - -“Six months? Then I can’t start this term!” Peggy said, almost in tears. - -“Of course you’ll start this term,” Mr. Macaulay said. “We begin in two -weeks. Miss Carson will give you all the necessary forms and the -catalogue and anything else you need. Glad to have you with us!” - -“But ... but ...” Peggy sputtered. “You mean I’m accepted? Without even -reading for you? Just like that?” - -“Just like that,” Mr. Macaulay agreed calmly. “I don’t believe in -readings. What I look for is personality and presence and a feeling for -the stage. The right kind of feeling for the stage,” he added. “As for -the readings, I’ll be glad to hear you after you’ve had about six months -of work with the Academy. I can tell you’ll be one of our good ones.” - -With a few words of farewell to the confused Peggy, he led her to Miss -Carson’s desk and quickly retreated to what Peggy already thought of as -his “natural habitat.” - - -Only after she was through with Miss Carson and her papers and forms and -was on the way down in the ancient elevator did it finally dawn on Peggy -that she had actually gotten what she had wanted for years—she was -accepted in the best dramatic school in New York! The elevator seemed -hardly big enough to hold her; she wanted to run, to jump, to sing! What -she was actually doing seemed the silliest thing imaginable. She was -grinning a wide, foolish grin and at the same time tasting the salty -tears that were probably smearing her mascara. - -“Congratulations,” said the elevator operator. “Not everyone makes it.” - -“Oh! How did you know?” Peggy gasped, dabbing at her eyes with her -handkerchief. - -“Knew you were trying when I saw you come up with the play scripts,” he -answered. “And I knew you made it when I saw your face.” He slid back -the squealing grillwork gate. “So long,” he said. “See you in a couple -of weeks.” - -At the end of the long hall, the doorway filled with sunshine seemed to -be paved with gold. Outside, it seemed to Peggy, the whole city was -paved with gold. She impulsively ran to the door, poised in the -sunlight, and blew a theatrical kiss at the sky. - -When Peggy, bubbling with her news, returned to the hotel, it was -decided to fill the time before lunch with a necessary shopping tour. -She needed so much, now that she was to live in New York. Mr. Lane -decided to let Peggy and her mother take care of this aspect of the -trip, while he visited some old newspaper friends. He arranged to meet -them for lunch at the hotel in two hours, kissed them fondly, and -boarded a bus downtown. - -Rockport was never like this, Peggy thought, as she and her mother -walked along looking in shop windows. They were so excited just deciding -which stores to shop in and what things she needed, that before they had -a chance to actually buy anything, it was time for lunch. - -“At least we had a chance to find out where all the nice stores are,” -Mrs. Lane said. “And it doesn’t matter that we didn’t get you your -things. You’ll probably have more fun going shopping by yourself or with -some of your new friends when you come back here to live. Besides, we -won’t have to bring things home and then carry them all the way back to -New York again.” - -Peggy agreed that it made sense, and at the thought of her “new friends” -and of buying her own things in New York’s world-famous stores, she got -a little thrill of pleasure and anticipation. - -After lunch, made memorable by Mr. Lane’s new collection of newspaper -stories picked up from his old friends, it was time to travel downtown -to meet May Berriman and see where Peggy would be living. - -As their taxi took them downtown from the hotel, Peggy noticed how the -city seemed to change character every few blocks. The types of buildings -and the kinds of stores changed; the neighborhood grew progressively -more shabby; there were more trucks in the streets and fewer taxis. -Peggy wondered what sort of neighborhood May Berriman’s place was in. -Mrs. Lane, too, looked a bit concerned and whispered to Mr. Lane, “Are -you sure we’re going the right way?” - -He nodded and said, “You don’t know New York. Wait and see.” - -In the middle of what appeared to be a district of warehouses and office -buildings, the cab turned a corner, and a swift change again overtook -the city. Suddenly there were well-kept apartment houses and residential -hotels and then, with another turn, it was as if time itself had been -turned back! - -The street ended in a beautiful old-fashioned park surrounded by a high -wrought-iron fence in which were set tall gates. The street around the -park was lined with old, mellow brick mansions whose steps led up to -high doors fitted with gleaming brass knobs, knockers, and hinges. Peggy -almost expected to see top-hatted gentlemen emerge from them to descend, -swinging slim canes, to waiting carriages. - -“This is Gramercy Park,” her father said. “It’s still one of the most -fashionable and beautiful parts of the city. May’s house is just off the -park, and she tells me she has park rights for herself and the girls who -live with her.” - -“Park rights?” Peggy said wonderingly. “Do you mean it’s a private -park?” - -“That’s right,” her father answered. “One of the last in New York. Its -use is limited to people who live right around it, all of whom have keys -to the gates. That’s one thing that makes this such a nice place to -live.” - -The cab had made almost a complete circle of the park when the driver -turned off into a side street. Two doors down he stopped before a -handsome brownstone house, complete with the steep steps and brass -fittings that were typical of the area. On either side of the steps, at -street level, stood a square stone column, and on each one was a -polished brass plate engraved: Gramercy Arms. - -As Peggy started up the steps she caught a glimpse through the windows -in the little areaway below street level. The spacious kitchen she saw -looked far more typical of Rockport than anything she would have -expected to find in New York City, and it made her feel sure that she -would like living in May Berriman’s house. - -May Berriman herself proved to be as big and as warm looking and as -countrified as her kitchen. Her erect carriage and bright-red hair -belied her more than sixty years, and her voice was deep and even, with -none of the quaver that Peggy was used to hearing in older people. She -met them at the door with vast and impartial enthusiasm, kissed them all -and ushered them into a tiny sitting room, tastefully furnished with a -mixture of modern and antique pieces. They had scarcely had time to say -hello when tea was served by a bright-eyed, kimonoed Japanese woman who -might have been any age at all. Peggy watched in silent pleasure as May -Berriman poured the tea in the formal English style, using an essence, -fresh boiled water, an alcohol burner to keep the tea hot, and an -assortment of tongs, spoons, and strainers. It was not until each of -them had a fragile cup of hot, fragrant tea and a plate of delicate -little sandwiches that May Berriman sat back, relaxed, for conversation. - -“Peggy, your father told me on the phone that you have been accepted in -the Academy. I’m delighted. Now tell me, what do you think of Archer -Macaulay?” - -“I hardly know,” Peggy admitted. “I’ve never met anyone like him. Is he -always as abrupt as that?” - -“Always!” May Berriman laughed. “Ever since I’ve known Archie—and that -goes back a good many years—he’s tried to act like a bad playwright’s -idea of an Early Victorian theatrical genius. It’s a peculiar sort of -act when you first see it, but after a while you get used to it and -hardly notice at all. Besides, it’s not all sham. He may not be Early -Victorian, but he is a theatrical genius.” - -“Was he an actor?” Peggy asked. - -“Goodness, no! Only in his personal life! There’s a world of difference -between acting and teaching; you hardly ever find anyone who’s good at -both. Macaulay’s a magnificent teacher, so he had sense enough never -even to try acting.” - -“But,” Peggy objected, “how can you teach something you can’t do?” - -May Berriman smiled. “Oh, Archie can do, all right. He’s that rarest of -all talents—a talented audience. He knows when something is good and -when it isn’t, and if it’s not good, he knows just what it lacks. He -just keeps asking for what he wants, and when he gets it—if he gets -it—it turns out to be just what everyone else wants, too. That’s why he -has been able to discover and develop more fine talent than any other -man of our time. You’re a lucky girl to be able to work with Archer -Macaulay. Even to be accepted for his school is a great honor.” - -Peggy nodded in understanding as May Berriman talked about the talent -for recognizing talent, remembering her last conversation with her -friend Jean Wilson. Maybe some day, Peggy thought, she herself, an old -retired actress, would be serving tea in her own house, and talking in -just such tones of affection and admiration for her friend Jean, who -would then be the famous director of the best dramatic school in.... - -She was brought out of her daydream by her mother, who touched her arm -gently and said, “Back to earth, dear. Mrs. Berriman wants to show us -the room you’re to have.” - -The room was small, but comfortably furnished as a sitting room, with a -large couch that opened to a bed. Two tall windows with window seats set -in their deep frames looked out into the tops of two lacy trees that -rose from a tiny, well-kept garden. An easy chair and a low table stood -in front of a little fireplace that really worked—a rare thing in New -York. An antique desk between the windows and a large bureau opposite -the fireplace completed the furnishings. The couch was covered in a deep -blue that matched the blue carpet, the walls were white, and the windows -were draped in a white fabric with blue cabbage roses. The same fabric -covered the easy chair. - -“It’s perfect!” Peggy said, and rushed off to try the big easy chair. -“I’m going to love it here!” she said. “In fact, I hardly want to go -home!” - -“I’m afraid, Peg,” Mr. Lane said, looking at his watch, “that that’s -just what we’re going to have to do, and in a very few minutes. If we -want to make our plane, we’d better be getting back to the hotel to -pack.” - -The brief good-by, the taxi ride around Gramercy Park and back uptown, -the hurried packing, the trip to the airport and the now-familiar -process of boarding and take-off seemed to Peggy as fast, as jerky and -peculiar as a movie run backward. She wanted to play it back right -again, to put everything in its proper sequence, and live over her -exciting day. - -And that’s exactly what she did, in her mind’s eye, all the way back to -Rockport. - - - - - V - _Starting a New Role_ - - -Rockport had never looked so little as it did from the air. The plane -circled the town at dusk, just as the stewardess finished serving -supper, and as Peggy looked down from the oval window next to her seat, -she saw the street lights suddenly flick on, section by section, all -over the town. The familiar streets glowed under their canopies of -trees, the houses were almost hidden under other trees and, in the -center of the town, a few neon lights added warmth and color. - -Peggy hardly knew what she felt for the place where she had been born -and where she had lived her whole life. A wave of tenderness came over -her for Rockport, so small and homelike, surrounded by its farms and -forests and lakes. And at the same time, she compared this view from the -air with the sight of New York, towering and dramatic in the afternoon -sunshine. Who could settle for Rockport, after breathing the excitement -of the giant city? Still ... she wondered if New York could ever be to -her the home that Rockport was. - -The somewhat bumpy runway of Armory Field was under their wheels. Peggy -was home again. But in her mind, she was still in the city, starting her -new and wonderful life. - -After quickly unpacking and changing to a skirt and blouse more suitable -to Rockport than the smart traveling suit she had worn on the plane, -Peggy came running downstairs. Her father sat in his easy chair reading -the two issues of the _Eagle_ that had come out in his absence. Her -mother sat in the wing chair opposite, working serenely on her needle -point. To look at them, Peggy thought, one would suppose that they had -never left home, that nothing at all had changed from what it had been -two days ago. - -“I’m going out for a while,” she announced. “I’ve just got to tell Jean -right away, or I’ll burst for sure!” - -“All right, dear,” Mrs. Lane said. “But don’t stay out too late. You’ve -had an exciting day, and you’re going to need some sleep.” - -With a wave of her hand, Peggy left and, whistling boyishly, skipped -down the front steps. Once on the street, the last of her grown-up -reserve left her, and she ran all the way to the Wilson house to arrive, -panting and breathlessly bright-eyed, a few moments later. - -“Jean’s down at the Sweet Shop,” Mrs. Wilson said, “but I know she’ll -want to see you. I’ll call and tell her not to leave, and you can meet -her there.” - -Peggy thanked Mrs. Wilson briefly, and ran back home once more to -collect her bike. As she pedaled down Chestnut Street, she wondered how -many more times she would ride her bike again. It was not the sort of -thing one did in New York, obviously. And besides, the bike was a part -of her childhood and early teens, and now she was coming out of them and -off to the great adventure of becoming a woman! Thinking this, she -slowed down a little, so as to enjoy the ride and the familiar sights -around her. Growing up would happen soon enough, she now knew. -Meanwhile, she wanted to slowly taste and enjoy the pleasures of -small-town girlhood that were not to come again. - -Her subdued mood lasted only until she arrived at the Sweet Shop. There -she found Jean, Betty Dugan, Alice Schultz, and Millie Pratt crowded -around a soda-laden table, laughing and talking. They managed to make -room for one more chair and as soon as Peggy was seated, turned silent, -expectant faces to her. - -Looking from face to face, Peggy suddenly laughed. “You look like a -nestful of baby birds waiting to be fed!” - -Then she told her friends the whole story of her trip, starting, of -course, with the main fact that she had been accepted at Mr. Macaulay’s -famous New York Dramatic Academy. Describing him, she acted him out for -them, and soon had the girls in fits of laughter. Then she went on to -tell about May Berriman, the room she would live in, the quaint -old-fashioned neighborhood around Gramercy Park, the private park and -all the rest. When she had finished, she said to Jean, “Doesn’t it make -you want to change your mind? I do wish you’d come, too. It’s going to -be wonderful, but with you there, it would be absolutely perfect!” - -Jean shook her head ruefully. “I must admit it sounds tempting,” she -said, “but I stand on what I told you before about what I want to do. I -don’t think I’m an actress at all, and if I tried to be one, I’d -probably only fail. And that wouldn’t make me happy at all. If I do what -I plan to, though, I’ll probably succeed, and that way I’ll have a happy -life.” - -Peggy nodded her agreement. “I guess I was only testing you, in a way,” -she admitted, “just to see if you really meant it. Now that I know you -do, I’m sure that you’re absolutely right.” - -Then she told her friend about the discussion she had had with May -Berriman about Mr. Macaulay, and what the older woman had told Peggy -about his great ability as a teacher and his lack of ability as an -actor. - -“She said, too, that the ability to recognize talent and to develop it -is a lot rarer than the talent itself. And all the time she was talking, -I was thinking about you and our last talk together.” - -“Well, that makes me feel a lot better,” Jean admitted. “It’s good to -know that there are other people—real professionals—who think about -things the same way I do. Thanks for telling me.” - -Then the talk turned to other things besides the theater: clothes, boys, -the coming school year at Rockport Community College, for which Peggy -would not be there—all the hundreds of things that girls talk about. -Before Peggy realized it, it was ten-thirty, and she was beginning to -yawn. - -“It’s not the company,” she said, “it’s the hour. Not exactly original, -but perfectly true. I’m afraid I’d better be getting home.” - -The others agreed that it was their bedtime too, and they trooped out to -the bicycle rack to say their good nights. Peggy and Jean rode side by -side slowly down the leafy street, feeling the first slight chill that -announced the end of summer was at hand. - -“When will you be leaving?” Jean asked. - -“I guess in about a week,” Peggy said. “The term starts in two weeks, -and I want to get settled in New York before school begins, so that I -can have my mind all clear for work. I think I’ll need a week just to -get really comfortable in my room, do the shopping I’ll have to do, and -find my way around the city. I want to know about buses and subways and -things like that before I get started.” - -“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Jean replied. “What I would do if -I were you is to get a street map of the city, and a guidebook, and -spend some time just wandering around so you get the idea of where -things are.” - -“That’s just what I plan to do,” Peggy said. “In fact, my father -suggested the same thing. He said that I should go on a few guided -tours, too. They have buses that take tourists all around the city and -show them everything of interest. Dad says that native New Yorkers, and -people who are trying to make other people think that they’re native New -Yorkers, are ashamed to be seen on the sight-seeing buses, which seems -pretty silly to me. The result is that people who come from out of town -often know more about New York than the people who have grown up there!” - -Both girls laughed at the idea, then Peggy continued, “I plan to spend -at least a week taking tours, and walking around the streets with a -guidebook, and shopping. I’d better leave next week, I guess.” - -“It seems so soon,” Jean said a little sadly. “I’m going to miss you.” - -“It is soon,” Peggy admitted, “but I’d rather be rushed than have to -wait for a month and think about nothing but the day I’m going to leave. -Even as it is, there’ll be too much time for good-bys, and I hate saying -good-by. Especially to people I care for.” - -The girls rode the rest of the way in silence, each thinking her own -thoughts about their long association which was now to come to an end. -They came to Peggy’s house first and stopped their bikes. - -Then Peggy said, “Of course I’ll write,” as if she were answering a -question that Jean had asked. - -Jean laughed, “You’re right! That’s just what I was thinking! I wonder -how long it’ll be before either of us finds another person we can do -that with again?” - -“I don’t suppose we ever will,” Peggy said. “And it’s probably just as -well. There’s something a little weird about it!” - -Then, on common impulse, they recited in chorus the witches’ lines from -_Macbeth_, only changing the “three” to “two.” - -“When shall we two meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” - -And with laughter and witchlike cackles, they said good night. - - -The next week flew by in a continual round of farewells, packing, -endless talk in the Sweet Shop about acting and the life Peggy would be -leading in New York and, the night before her departure, a big farewell -party at Jean’s house. It was a tired Peggy, glad to be on her way at -last, who found herself once more at the airport with her parents. But -this time, she was to fly alone. - -“Are you sure you packed everything?” her mother asked for perhaps the -tenth time. - -“Positive,” Peggy assured her. - -“And you know how to get from the airport to Gramercy Park?” her father -asked, also for perhaps the tenth time. - -“I’ll never forget!” Peggy laughed. - -“Well...” Mrs. Lane said. - -“Well...” Mr. Lane said. - -They stood, all three, looking at one another, not knowing what to say. -Then Peggy’s mother, with more than a faint suspicion of tears in her -eyes, threw her arms about her daughter and kissed her. - -“Oh dear!” she said. “You’d better get on that plane right away, or I am -going to be silly and cry!” - -Peggy kissed both her parents and started through the gate across the -concrete strip where the big plane waited. As she turned to wave -good-by, her mother called, “Are you sure you have—” - -“Yes!” Peggy shouted back. “I’m sure!” - -“And don’t forget to phone the minute you get there!” her father called, -his last words drowned out by the sound of a plane that swooped low -overhead. - -At the top of the boarding steps, Peggy waved again for the last time, -then went in to her seat to start her first flight alone—a flight that -would bring her to all she had ever hoped for. - - -It was dark when the plane arrived in New York this time, and if Peggy -had thought the sight breathtaking when she first saw it, she was -absolutely stunned by this! - -In every direction, as far as she could see, the streets stretched out -like blazing strings of lights, white, red, blue, green, with sudden -bursts and knots of brighter light where major streets joined. As the -plane banked and turned, she saw a superhighway winding along the edge -of a bay, interrupted by complicated cloverleafs, underpasses and -overpasses. The lights on the highway were diamond-blue, and the road -was dotted with headlights and taillights of thousands of cars like -fireflies in the night. - -Then the turning of the plane revealed midtown Manhattan, tall and -sparkling! The Empire State Building towered over all, its four bright -beams sweeping the sky over the city. The UN building stood out like a -solid slab of brilliance against the rest of the skyline. Beyond it, -Times Square blazed like a bonfire. - -All around her in the plane, Peggy saw the rest of the passengers, -including obviously experienced travelers, pressed against the windows, -enchanted by the fairy-tale sight below. They were all talking, -pointing, comparing notes on the beauty of this or that. - -The plane swept lower now, and the skyline seemed to rise and grow even -more mighty. Over the East River, the bridges were spider-webs and -pearls; small boats like water bugs skimmed under them and out again. -Then, abruptly, a new and closer brilliance of searchlights and whirling -red and green signals—and the plane settled smoothly into the bustle and -roar of LaGuardia Airport. - -Peggy was glad that she had been there before with her parents, or she -might never have found her way out. Crowds of people swarmed about the -place, sweeping past in every direction. Piles of luggage and groups of -waiting travelers seemed to block her way no matter where she turned. -Ignoring the crowds as best she could, and following her sense of -direction and her memory of where she had gone the previous week, Peggy -worked her way to the front of the terminal where the taxi stand was. A -bank of phone booths reminded her to call home before going on. Then she -hailed a cab and gave the driver the address of the Gramercy Arms. - -She had planned to take the airport bus to the terminal in Manhattan and -a cab from there, but she had changed her mind. This one extravagance, -Peggy felt, would be worth the price. Settling back in comfort, she -opened the window to a cool rush of air and became absorbed in the -passing sights of parkways, streets, bridges and, finally, the entrance -over the giant Triborough Bridge into the enchanted isle of Manhattan. - -“Your first trip to New York?” the taxi driver asked, noticing her -fascination with the sights. - -“No,” Peggy answered, feeling herself quite the experienced traveler. “I -was here last week. But that was the first time,” she confessed. - -“Staying long?” - -“Forever, I hope!” Peggy replied. “I’m going to live here.” - -The East River Drive went into a sort of tunnel, supported on one side -by pillars, through which Peggy could see a string of barges slowly -forging upstream. - -“You know what’s above us?” the driver asked. “No? It’s a park! That’s -right. This road is built under a park!” - -Farther on, after they had come out of the tunnel, they plunged into -another one. “Another park?” Peggy asked. - -“Nope. This time it’s an apartment house!” - -The third time the road went underground, it was the UN building that -was above them. What a fantastic city! Peggy thought. Everything seemed -topsy-turvy. The idea of driving under parks, apartment houses and giant -office buildings was so queer! She said as much to the driver, who only -laughed. “Miss, you’ll get used to all sorts of queer things if you live -here! I’ve been driving a cab in this town for twenty-four years now, -and I haven’t seen the end of odd things. As fast as you can see one, -they build two more!” - -When they arrived at the Gramercy Arms, the driver leaped out and helped -her with her bags up the steep front steps. She didn’t know then how -unusual it was for a cab driver to help with luggage. He was being -really gallant. - -“Good luck,” he said, on leaving. “You’ll need it. It’s not an easy town -to get started in, but young girls like you come here every day to try, -and most of them make it somehow. Just don’t let it scare you. It’s big, -but it’s not unfriendly. And there’s no place else in this world that -I’d rather live!” With a wave of farewell, he climbed into his cab and -rode off around the corner. - -Peggy took a deep breath, patted her hair, and rang the bell of her new -home. - - - - - VI - _Cast of Characters_ - - -The door was opened, not by Mrs. Berriman, but by a small, dark-haired -girl with huge, black eyes and a gamin grin, who greeted her with a -decided French accent. - -“Allo, allo!” she said brightly. “Come een! Are you Amee or Peggee?” - -“I—I’m Peggy,” Peggy said, somewhat taken aback. - -“Good!” the French girl cried. “You don’t look like an Amee! I’m Gaby, -wheech ees short for Gabrielle. I leeve ’ere. Maman Berriman she ees out -shopping, mais les autres girls sont ici. Pardon. I meex too much French -een with my talk. Parlez-vous Français?” - -“Un peu,” Peggy said. “A very little peu, I’m afraid. But I understood -you. You said the other girls are here, right?” - -“Parfait!” Gaby grinned. “Maybee I can teach you how to speak, if you -would like that?” - -“I would,” Peggy agreed enthusiastically, but added quickly, “not -starting right now, though!” - -“Okay,” Gaby shrugged. “Come on! I first introduce you.” - -Four girls waited in the large, comfortable living room, all looking -expectantly at the door. As Peggy entered, a pert-faced redhead bounced -out of her chair to say hello. - -“I’m Dot,” she announced. “Are you Peggy or Amy?” - -“Peggee, of course!” Gaby cut in, before Peggy could answer. “Does she -look like an Amee to you?” - -“No, I guess she doesn’t,” Dot said reflectively. “Well, welcome!” - -“Thank you,” Peggy said. “Now will somebody tell me who Amy is?” - -“Let me introduce you first,” Dot answered, taking Peggy by the arm. -“This is Irene, our household beauty queen,” she said. Irene, a tall, -startlingly beautiful brunette, languidly waved a gesture of welcome -with long, perfectly manicured fingers. Smiling, she said, “Don’t mind -her jealous tones, Peggy. They say that beauty is in the eye of the -beholder, and that means that she must love me, or she’d think I was -ugly.” - -A pretty, round-faced girl with almost white blond hair done in a long -single braid came over to Peggy. - -“They sound very catty,” she said with a gentle smile, “but we think -they wouldn’t know what to do without each other. Now, no fighting -tonight,” she said to Dot and Irene. “We want to give Peggy a chance to -get used to us first.” Then, turning back to Peggy, she said, “My name -is Greta. Your room is right next door to mine. And this is Maggie.” - -Maggie, all freckles, brown bangs, and bright China-blue eyes, was -sitting cross-legged on the floor. Without uncrossing her legs, she rose -effortlessly, offered a wiry handshake and a warm grin, and sank back to -her former position in one fluid movement. - -“She’s not showing off,” Dot said, noticing Peggy’s startled look. “She -does that sort of thing all the time without even thinking about it. -She’s a dancer, and she makes the rest of us seem like a herd of -elephants by comparison.” - -“Not elephants,” Maggie said. “Not since I’ve been teaching you all how -to move and walk. Maybe buffalo, but not elephants!” - -“Do you know ’ow to move and walk?” Gaby asked. - -“I always thought so, but now I’m beginning to have my doubts,” Peggy -replied. - -“Walk to the door and then back,” Maggie said. - -Peggy did so, trying to be as graceful as she could, without seeming in -any way affected. She had never really considered her walking ability -before, and now that she was doing so, under the close scrutiny of the -five girls, she suddenly felt that she had never walked before. Coming -back to Maggie, she waited hopefully for her judgment. “Elephant?” she -asked. - -“Nope,” Maggie said, as if trying to find just the right kind of beast. - -“Buffalo?” - -“A little better than buffalo, I think. Maybe a well-bred cart horse. -But don’t feel bad about it. You haven’t had lessons yet. Now, we can -start by—” - -“We can start by sitting down and getting to know each other first,” -Greta interrupted. “Come on, Peggy. You must be really confused by all -this.” - -“A little,” Peggy admitted. “It seems that everyone wants to teach me -something. I was hardly in the house when Gaby was offering French -lessons! What do you teach?” - -“I try to teach good manners to my crazy friends here,” Greta said with -a laugh, “but I don’t seem to be very good at it!” - -When Peggy was established in a comfortable chair, with the other girls -around her, the first thing she asked was, “Now, who is Amy?” - -“Amy Shelby Preston is all we know about her,” Dot said, “just as Peggy -Lane is all we know about you. That, and the fact that you were both due -to get here tonight.” - -“Good!” Peggy said. “Then I won’t be the only new girl in the place! -That ought to make it a little easier on me, and on all of you.” - -“Oh, you’re not a new girl any more!” Irene laughed. “You’re only new -around here for the first five minutes, and you’ve been here nearly ten -by now! If Amy Shelby Preston takes another half hour to get here, -you’ll be an old-timer by then!” - -“Oui, that ees so!” Gaby put in. “Everybodee here ees so open—they tell -you everytheeng about themselves so très vite—that means veree fast—that -you know them so like old friends in no time, yes?” - -Peggy thought that this was a fine idea, and she said so. Then, in -accordance with what she now knew to be the household custom, she told -the five girls as much about herself as she felt would be interesting to -them: where she was from, why she was in New York—a five-minute -autobiography. - -“... so, you see,” she finished, “I wanted to study acting and I felt -that this was the only place to go, so here I am.” - -“It’s pretty much the same with us,” Dot said. “None of us is from New -York either, and we all came to be in the theater or some part of it. -I’m a comedienne and eccentric dancer, and I sing a little, too. I’m not -going to any school but I still work with a voice coach and a drama -coaching group. I’m from California originally. I was in a few movies, -but not in any good roles. I’m not a movie type. I came here when I got -a chance to do a television series that originated live from New York, -and when the series ended, I stuck around. I’m in a Broadway musical -now, lost in the chorus. It’s not much, but it pays the rent.” - -“She’s too modest,” Greta said. “She’s not just in the chorus. She has a -dance specialty and a few lines, and she’s understudying the lead -comedienne. And she’s good at it, too.” - -Dot blushed and said roughly, “For goodness’ sake, don’t be nice to me! -It makes me feel I have to be nice to you, and that’s not my character!” - -Greta answered promptly, “All right, then, let’s talk about me! Anyone -who doesn’t want stage center isn’t going to get it!” She stood up, -walked to the center of the room and made a small pirouette, her thick -braid whirling around her. “I am Greta Larsen and I come from Boston,” -she recited in a little-girl voice. “I know I have a face like a Swedish -dumpling, and everybody thinks I should have come from there or at least -from Wisconsin like you. If you come from Boston, you’re supposed to be -Irish. I’m an ingénue and I’ve been in four off-Broadway plays and one -Broadway play, and all of them were flops. Right now I’m working as a -script editor for a TV producer, and trying to make him realize that I’m -an actress. So far he hardly realizes I’m a script editor. He thinks I’m -a hey-you.” With a comic bow like a mechanical doll, she sat down to a -round of laughter and applause. - -“Who’s next?” Peggy said, still laughing. “I haven’t had such fun in -ages!” - -Gaby, who stood up next, threw the girls into gales of laughter by -announcing first that she was French. Then she went on to tell Peggy -that her full name was Gabrielle Odette Francine DuChamps Goulet, but -that she only used the name Gaby Odette. Her mother was dead and her -father worked for the UN in New York, but spent most of his time -traveling about the world, only returning for a few weeks at a time. -Gaby had studied acting in France, and had even attracted some critical -attention and good personal reviews in her one acting part in Paris, but -when her father came to America, she decided to come with him and make a -new start here. Since her arrival about a year ago, she had been -devoting all of her energy to studying English, and hoped that in -another six months or so she would be good enough to start looking for -parts. - -“I guess I’m next,” Irene said, stretching her long, well-shaped legs -and leaning back in her chair. “I’m Irene Marshall, and I’m—” But just -then the doorbell rang, interrupting her. - -“That must be Amy,” she said. “Now I don’t have to tell my history -twice.” - -She strode to the door to let the new arrival in, and in a few seconds -ushered her into the living room. - -“This is Amy Preston,” she announced, “and this,” she continued, waving -a hand at the five girls in the living room, “is a room full of girls. -Come on in and meet them.” - -Peggy thought that Amy Preston was just about the prettiest girl she had -ever seen, and as she watched her gracefully shaking hands and saying -hello, she felt sure that they would be friends. Amy’s honey-blond hair -framed a small oval face, large brown eyes and a smiling, self-possessed -expression. When she spoke, it was with a soft, pleasant Southern accent -and a low voice. Irene introduced Amy to Peggy last of all, and Peggy -said, “I’m really glad to have you here. I’m new too. I just came in -about a half hour ago, and I was so relieved to know that I wasn’t going -to be the only new girl.” - -“It makes me feel heaps better too,” Amy said. “In fact, as much as I’ve -been looking forward to New York, I’ve been half dreading this first -meeting. I may not look it, but I’m really quite shy.” - -“And I was just thinking how well you handled yourself during all these -introductions!” Peggy said. - -“Oh, you have to do that if you’re shy,” Amy said. “That way, people -never know about it. It’s the same thing as going on the stage, I guess. -They say that the best actresses and actors are always just nearly -paralyzed with stage fright. In fact, I think that’s what adds the extra -excitement to their presence. At least I hope so!” - -“Did you come to New York to act, too?” Peggy asked. - -“I hope to, if I’m lucky,” Amy replied. “But first off, I came to -study.” - -“So did I,” Peggy said. “Where are you studying?” - -“The New York Academy,” Amy answered, with a faintly perceptible touch -of pride. - -“Why, so am I!” Peggy cried with delight. - -The two of them quickly fell into an animated discussion of the Academy -and of Mr. Macaulay. They were just comparing notes on their interviews -with him when Dot gently but firmly interrupted. - -“You girls will have a lot of time for all that, but now it’s time to do -all the introductions. Amy, you tell us about you, and then we’ll go on -about us. Gaby and Greta and Peggy and I have told about us already, so -we won’t repeat it now. We’ll catch you tomorrow. So there’s only you -and Irene and Maggie to go.” - -Then she explained about the household method of introduction, which Amy -agreed was a fine idea. - -Amy’s speech was short and direct. “I’m Amy Preston, and I come from -Pine Hollow, North Carolina, which nobody ever heard of except the -people who live there. I went to college for a year and acted in four -plays, and then I persuaded my parents to let me come to New York to -act. There’s nothing else to tell about me, except that I think I’m the -luckiest girl I ever knew to find a place like this to live in and a -place like the Academy to study at. I know I’m going to like you all, -and I hope you’re going to like me, too.” Blushing slightly, she sat -down, and Peggy noticed that her hands were trembling a little. She -hadn’t been fooling about the shyness and stage fright then, Peggy -thought, but she was certainly able to keep it from showing, unless you -looked very closely. Peggy was sure that Amy would prove to be a good -actress. - -The rest of the introductory speeches went swiftly. Irene, it turned -out, was from Cleveland. Her real name was Irma Matysko, but she -thought, and everybody agreed, that Irene Marshall sounded a lot better -for a would-be actress. She had acted in several television dramas in -minor parts, and was supporting herself mostly as a fashion model. - -Maggie, the dancer, spoke next. “I’m Maggie Delahanty,” she began, “and -I was actually born in Ireland, only my parents brought me here when I -was two, so I don’t remember anything about it. I was raised in -Philadelphia, where my father is a bus driver, and I’ve been dancing -since I was three. I’ve worked in musicals on Broadway and on the road, -and I’ve worked in night clubs, which I hate. Right now I’m studying -singing with a fine coach, so that I can get some good work, because -there’s nothing much for a dancer who can’t sing. I just got back last -week from a summer tour with a music circus, in which I danced my way -through ten states in as many weeks. Right now, I don’t know what I’m -going to do, except sit down as much as I can.” - -With another one of her uncanny, fluid movements, she sat down. - -The general introductions done, Peggy and Amy went back to their -conversation about Mr. Macaulay and the Academy. Amy’s experience in her -interview had been much the same as Peggy’s. She too had prepared -material to read and, like Peggy, had thought at first that she was -rejected when Mr. Macaulay wouldn’t let her read it. Now she could -hardly wait to get started. - -Irene, who had heard all about Mr. Macaulay and his brusque approach -before she had tried to get into the Academy a year ago, said that she -knew she hadn’t made the grade the minute he had started being kind to -her. - -“Why did he reject you?” Peggy asked. - -“He said that a girl as pretty as me didn’t need acting lessons,” Irene -said with a laugh. “He said that even if I learned to be a good actress, -I would never have a chance to prove it, because I would be given the -kind of parts that just need looks. I told him that I wanted to be a -good actress as well as a pretty one and he told me that it would be a -tragic mistake, because there aren’t any parts written for people like -that!” She laughed again, then in a more sober tone, added, “I think he -was just being kind to me and trying to make me feel good. And you know -what? He succeeded!” - -As the conversation turned to plays and roles and types of actresses, -the other girls joined in. They had just gotten to a spirited and -somewhat noisy discussion of the ability of a well-known actress, when -May Berriman came in. - -“Well, Amy and Peggy!” she said. “I see you’ve met everybody and you’re -right at home! Good! Now let me make you feel even more at home by -acting like a mother. Do you girls know that it’s very late? And do you -know that I’ve been busy making hot chocolate for you? And that it’s -waiting in the kitchen right now, getting cool? Well, now you know, so -get moving!” - -The seven girls and May Berriman trooped downstairs to the big, homey -kitchen that Peggy had noticed on her first visit. Full of friendly -people and the smell of hot chocolate and homemade cookies, the kitchen -seemed to Peggy the nicest place she had ever been. Seated in antique -painted chairs around the long sawbuck table with May Berriman at its -head, they passed around cookies and chocolate and continued the -discussion of the prominent actress, carefully taking her apart, gesture -by gesture, until it seemed a wonder that she had ever gotten so much as -a walk-on role. - -“It’s all very easy to criticize your elders and betters,” May Berriman -finally said, “but it’s quite another thing to stand up on the stage -with them and act on their level! That’s not to say that I disapprove of -discussions like this. I think they’re good, because they do develop -your critical abilities, but I think they can be carried too far.” With -a glance at the clock, she added, “And I think this one has gone far -enough into the night. Now all of you, get up to bed. Peggy and Amy -haven’t even unpacked yet!” - - - - - VII - _The Biggest Stage_ - - -There were no meals served at May Berriman’s Gramercy Arms, but the big -kitchen was considered common property, and anyone who wanted to was -allowed to prepare breakfast and dinner there. Lunches were eaten at -restaurants and counters. - -Each of the girls had a wire basket labeled and filled with her own food -in the giant hotel-size refrigerator, and each was given shelf space for -other things. Since Peggy and Amy had not stocked up the night before, -the other girls invited them to share breakfast with them. - -“We have a system,” Dot said. “Each of us cooks for all the others in -turn, but that’s only for breakfast. At dinnertime, you shift for -yourself. The dishes are done for us, thank Heaven, by Aniko, the -housemaid. We each contribute to a dishwashing fund every week to keep -Aniko happy. Since you’re both new, we’ll put you at the end of the -list, which gives you about a week to get used to us in the morning, -before having to cook for us.” - -“She’s being optimistic,” Maggie called over her shoulder from her -position at the range. “It’s impossible to get used to us in the -morning. How do you like your eggs?” - -They settled on scrambled, which was diplomatic, since they noticed that -Maggie was whipping up a bowl of them for the others. In short order, -they were seated around the long table, eagerly eating the eggs, bacon, -toast and fresh sliced tomatoes, and washing it down with good, hot -coffee. - -Irene and Greta huddled together, looking over a copy of _Variety_ and -writing in small notebooks. Catching Peggy’s inquiring glance, Irene -explained, “It’s _Variety_, the bible of show business. We’re looking at -the casting notes. Every time a producer has a play and wants to see new -actors, he puts a notice in the casting call page. The notices tell you -what kind of people he’s looking for and when he’ll see them. We’re -looking—along with a thousand other actors—to see if there’s something -for us. I’ve got two that sound interesting, and Greta’s got one.” - -“And do you just go up and say, ‘Here I am’?” Amy asked. - -“That’s about all I do,” Irene admitted with a laugh, “because I just -answer the ads for Showgirl types and beautiful ingénue roles. I just -stand there and hope they like my face and figure.” - -“I don’t see how they couldn’t,” Peggy said. - -“Oh, it’s easy! I’m too tall for some, and too fashionable-looking for -others, or I should be blond, or they wanted an outdoor type, or I’m -just what they’re looking for, but so are twelve other girls who all -have more acting credits. It’s not easy.” - -“It’s no easier for me,” Greta put in mournfully. “I’m an even more -definite physical type than Irene is, and to make matters worse, I have -to act for them. Most of the time, my round, red face and my blond -braids eliminate me at the start. If they don’t, I then have to go -through an audition reading. I’m just waiting for a casting notice that -asks for a new actress with a face like a Campbell’s Soup kid, and I’ll -rush right up and get the part!” - -“If I ever meet any playwrights, I’ll put in a word for a part like -that,” Peggy said. “But by then, you’ll be famous, and the ‘new actress’ -part would disqualify you.” - -When breakfast was over, the girls scraped the dishes, put them in the -sink for Aniko, and went their separate ways. - -Gaby was off first, for an early English class at a language school, -which would be followed by a full day at Columbia University studying -English literature, American history, economics, and a special course -called Literature of the Theater. With a small “_au revoir_,” which was -all she had said since her first quiet “_bon jour_,” she slipped out. - -“Gaby’s a night person,” Dot explained. “You can hardly get a word out -of her until sunset. Then you’re lucky if you can keep her quiet for -five minutes!” - -“How about you?” Peggy asked. “Are you a night person, or a morning -person?” - -“I think I must be a twenty-four-hour person.” Dot laughed. “I work on -stage until eleven-fifteen, but it doesn’t keep me from getting up as if -I were on a farm. I have to, though. I have a busy day. We rehearse -three days a week, just to keep the chorus work tight, and I have -special rehearsals for my understudy part. It keeps me going nearly -every day from nine in the morning until after midnight, but I seem to -thrive on it.” - -Greta left for her office, to put in a day of script editing (whatever -that is, Peggy thought), Irene went upstairs to “put herself together” -for a photo shooting to take place later in the morning, and Maggie went -off to a rehearsal studio to practice her stretches and scales. Amy and -Peggy sat alone in the kitchen. - -“What shall we do?” Peggy asked. “I feel so useless having no program, -and we sure can’t spend the day sitting here in the kitchen.” - -“Why don’t we go out for a walk, and learn something about the -neighborhood?” Amy suggested. - -“Good! In fact, why don’t we find a sight-seeing bus and take a ride -around the city? My father said—” - -“So did mine!” Amy interrupted. - -“We get more alike every minute!” Peggy said, grinning. “Let’s go up, -put our things away, and go out to learn all about New York.” - - -Later that afternoon, sipping her first cup of Automat coffee, Peggy -slipped her shoes off under the table and sighed, “I certainly had a lot -to learn when I said we’d go out and learn all about New York! My feet -are killing me, and we haven’t even begun to see the city!” - -“We saw a lot, though,” Amy replied thoughtfully. “We saw Chinatown and -Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side and Riverside Drive and Park -Avenue and Central Park and Sutton Place and....” - -“And neither of us could find our way back to any one of them unless we -took a sight-seeing bus again!” Peggy said. “Why, we’ve hardly begun! -I’ve been checking off where we’ve been on my city map and guidebook, -and we haven’t seen anything but the sights the guides think are -picturesque! I saw loads of places that we just shot by that I’d love to -go back and explore when we have time; and the guidebook lists hundreds -of things that we didn’t even come near! Did you know that there are -Italian street festivals, and an Indian mosque, and a Spanish museum, -and shops that sell nothing but cheeses from every country in the world, -and an Armenian district, and a Greek one, and Russian restaurants, and -Japanese, and French and German and Turkish and Mexican and....” She ran -out of breath and stopped, eyes shining with excitement. - -“My goodness!” Amy said. “You make it sound like a World’s Fair!” - -“It is. It’s the biggest permanent World’s Fair anywhere, and we have a -chance to see it without anything to take our minds off it from now -until school starts!” - -“Your energy just scares me,” Amy said in a make-believe little-girl -voice, accentuating her Southern drawl. “Ah’m afraid you’ll just have to -carry li’l ol’ me.” - -“I’m afraid you’ll have to do the carrying,” Peggy retorted, “unless I -can get these shoes back on! I think all the walking we’ve done has made -my feet three sizes larger!” - -Sensibly, they finished the day’s excursion with a Fifth Avenue bus ride -downtown. - - -The next few days until the Academy opened were a round of sight-seeing, -eating exotic foods in the restaurants of many lands that Peggy had only -started to enumerate, and shopping in the famous stores. - -The shopping expeditions were among the most exciting things that Peggy -and Amy did. The huge stores, crammed with merchandise from all over the -world, were like nothing that they had ever seen before. Even the -afternoon that Peggy had spent window-shopping with her mother had -failed to prepare her for the size and complexity of these shops. -Everywhere were rows on rows of dresses, coats, skirts, blouses, robes, -and gowns. Counters and showcases displayed incredible arrays of -lingerie, purses, shoes, gloves, scarves, and other accessories. And -everywhere, at every time of day, the crowds of shoppers clustered as -thick as bees around a hive. - -Beautifully dressed women in furs walked side by side with trim young -secretaries and vied with them for bargains at sales counters. -Embarrassed men sidled past lingerie departments in search of gifts for -their wives and sweethearts; short, stout women admired dresses designed -for tall, slim models; elderly ladies tried on hat after hat, each one -looking less suitable than the last; girls sprayed themselves with -perfume at the cosmetic counters, or stood and watched demonstrators at -work. One demonstrator who especially fascinated Peggy was a beautiful -girl with long blond hair, who was showing a new hairstyling spray. She -would spray it on, and with a few expert flips of a comb, create a -hairdo; then, combing it out again, she would quickly arrange it in a -different style. Each one took her only a minute or so to make perfect, -then, out it would come, more spray would be applied, and another -coiffure would be combed in. Peggy wondered how she wore it when it was -time to go home at night. Probably pulled back in a bun, she thought. - -These shopping tours represented diversion as much as necessity, though -in the course of visiting all the stores, the girls did buy what they -needed. Peggy got several dresses, some skirts and sweaters, a new coat, -shoes, bag, and a hat. Also, on Amy’s advice, she bought some school -things that would be suitable for stage work, plus a leotard, tights and -ballet shoes that Mr. Macaulay’s secretary had told her she would need. - -When neither girl could think of anything else that she needed to buy, -the temptation to revisit the stores just to see things was still great. - -“We’d better not, though,” Peggy said sensibly. “I don’t think I’m -strong enough to resist temptation, and I’ve just about used up all my -clothing allowance. Let’s visit some museums next.” - -“Oh dear,” Amy sighed. “I suppose it’s a good idea, all right, but I -just wish school would hurry up and start. I’m afraid I’m going to get -indigestion from swallowing all of New York in one big gulp!” - -So did Peggy, but museums were on her “little list,” and museums it -would be. Besides, she knew that once school began, she would have -little time for anything else. - -So the guidebook came out once more, together with the flat walking -shoes. But, though their time was spent in museums, their minds were in -the future, and their talk was of nothing but the Academy, which was due -to open in a few short days. - - - - - VIII - _First Act_ - - -Peggy and Amy thought they had arrived early for opening day at the New -York Dramatic Academy, but when they entered the old building, they -found the long hallway filled to capacity with students waiting their -turn on the ancient elevators. - -Some obviously new students milled around aimlessly, looking somewhat -lost and more than a little frightened. Peggy wondered if she and Amy -looked the same, and made a determined effort to appear at ease and -knowing. But her pose couldn’t have been very convincing, for a small, -thin boy with huge glasses and a shock of black hair came over to them -with a grin and said, “You’re new, aren’t you?” - -“Why, yes,” Peggy answered. “Do we show it?” - -“Oh, no, not at all,” he assured them earnestly. “You look just fine. -It’s just that I’ve been here two years, and I know everyone. I’m Pete -Piper, but everyone calls me Pip. I just thought I’d help lead you -through the maze, if you’d like.” - -Peggy and Amy introduced themselves, and thanked Pip for his help. - -“Oh, don’t thank me,” he said. “Everybody does it. Whenever we see new -students on the first day, the old-timers introduce themselves and offer -to help. It’s kind of a custom.” - -Looking around, Peggy noticed that the “lost lambs” she had first seen -were by now in conversation with other, older students, and all of them -looked a good deal more relaxed. - -“I think it’s a lovely custom,” Amy said. “It makes our Southern -Hospitality look right cold by comparison!” - -By this time, it was their turn at the elevator doors, which suddenly -flew open with their usual wail of protest. Peggy, Amy, and Pip were -almost carried in, with no need to walk at all, by the mass of students -around them, and soon were packed as tight as berries in a basket. -Protesting loudly, the elevator slowly ascended. - -Upstairs, the halls which had been nearly empty when Peggy had last seen -them were now swarming with students. The ones who seemed to know where -they were going swirled and eddied around others who looked around -doubtfully and hesitated to go anywhere. - -Pip shook his head and said, “More waifs and strays up here, I see. I’ll -set you on your way, and then gather up a new crop. You just go right -into the little theater—ahead of you, through those doors—and take -seats. From there on, you’ll be told what to do and where to go. I’ll -see you around.” - -He started off to gather a new group of first-term students, but before -he had taken more than three steps, he was back again. “Let’s have lunch -together with some of the others,” he said. “That okay with you?” - -“We’d love to,” the girls chorused. - -“Good. Meet you downstairs in front of the building at twelve. S’long!” - -Feeling no longer lost, but already a part of their new school -community, Peggy and Amy proceeded into the little theater, found seats -near the front, and started to introduce themselves to the other new -students nearest them. The exchange of names, home towns, impressions, -and ambitions occupied the next fifteen minutes or more until the -dimming of the house lights and the illumination of the stage brought a -hush to the small auditorium. - -The last few whispers died when Mr. Macaulay walked to stage center, -bowed formally to the right, the left and the center, and then -unexpectedly sat down on the apron of the stage with his legs dangling. - -“The bows were your formal welcome to the Academy, and I hope they take -the place of a speech,” Mr. Macaulay began. “I hate speeches. From now -on, we’re going to be informal and friendly, because that’s the only -atmosphere in which people can get any work done. And you have a lot of -work to do. You will have physical work in which you will learn to walk, -to move, to dance a little, to stand up and to sit down. You may think -you already know how to do these things, but you probably don’t. - -“You will have mental work,” he went on, “in which you will learn how to -read a play, how to understand the motivation of a character and his -relationship to the other characters. You will learn elocution, voice -projection, and a dozen other things that have to do with speaking -lines. You will learn the history of the theater, become familiar with -the classic plays, and learn something about stage design and -construction. In this last area, you will pick up the practical craft of -making flats, painting scenery, and wiring lighting—a type of pedestrian -work that has occupied the time of nearly every actor before he was -allowed to appear even in a walk-on role. - -“And last, and perhaps most important,” Mr. Macaulay concluded, “you -will learn that the informality and friendliness of the theater must not -be mistaken for lack of discipline; in short, you will learn how to take -direction!” - -Still seated on the edge of the stage, Mr. Macaulay called out his staff -of instructors one by one, introduced each to the students, and gave a -short history of each one’s background and qualifications for his or her -work. All were seasoned professionals, and were very impressive to the -students. - -Mr. Macaulay also explained that leading performers from the Broadway -stage, movies, and television would make regular guest appearances at -the Academy, as would outstanding directors, choreographers, designers, -and playwrights. The size of the staff, in effect, was unlimited. - -After this, the individual instructors spoke, each saying a few words -about his specialty and what he hoped to achieve in his course. Each -one, it seemed to Peggy, opened up whole new areas of knowledge for her, -until at the end she felt that she knew absolutely nothing at all, and -wondered how she could ever have thought of herself as an actress. This -was going to take a lot of work! - -After the meeting, the rest of the morning was spent in the routine of -registration, getting class cards, finding out where the rooms were, -getting locker assignments and book lists and, bit by bit, eliminating -the first sense of confusion. - -Peggy and Amy, happily, were registered in the same class, and went -together through the busy morning. Before they knew it, it was time for -lunch with Pip Piper and “some of the others.” - -The others proved to be Connie Barnes, a cheerful comedienne who managed -to be wonderfully attractive without being in the least pretty, and a -dark, muscular, tough-looking young man with a face like either a -private detective or a gangster in a grade-B movie, who was introduced -by Pip as Mallory Seton. - -Much to Peggy’s surprise, when he spoke it was not at all the tough, New -York sound she had expected, but a quiet, cultured English accent. “Call -me Mal,” he said. “Mallory’s rather a mouthful, isn’t it? At least, it -seems so here. At home, they used to call me ‘Mallory John’ all the -time, so as not to confuse me with my father, who is named ‘Mallory -Peter,’ but I can’t imagine anyone in America doing that. If I’d been -brought up here, I’d probably have been called ‘Bud.’” - -Following Pip, the students walked around the corner to stop in front of -a narrow delicatessen store. The sign on the window said, “Tables in the -rear,” but Peggy could see from the crowd that clustered at the counter -that there would be no chance of getting one. And besides, the place -didn’t look wide enough to hold a table that would seat the five of -them. - -“Oh dear,” she said, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to eat here, -there are so many of us. Perhaps if Amy and I went somewhere else, you -three would have a chance? We don’t want to make it difficult for you—” - -“Don’t be silly,” Pip cut in. “We didn’t expect to get a table here. -You’re lucky if you can get a seat at the counter for one, much less a -table for more than one. We’re going to buy sandwiches here and take -them to the park.” - -Whipping out a notebook, Pip started to take orders and money, with -frequent reference to the menu pasted to the delicatessen window. Then -he plunged into the place and, in less time than Peggy thought possible, -was back with a giant bag full of sandwiches and cold, bottled drinks. - -It was only two blocks to the southern boundary of Central Park, and -once they had crossed Fifty-ninth Street and stepped into the -tree-shaded, winding footpath, the city seemed to disappear behind them -as if it had never been. At the foot of the first gentle hill, there was -a small lake bordered by a bench-lined path. There were some empty -benches, but Pip ignored them. - -“If you don’t mind walking a little farther,” he said, “we have a -favorite spot on the opposite shore, where hardly anyone ever comes.” - -The path brought them across a small arched footbridge, through a thick -copse, and out alongside a broad lawn which ran down to the lake’s -shore. It was here that they chose to eat, sitting on the grass. - -“Now that we’re comfortably settled,” Mal said, “I have some great news -for you, but first I think we ought to tell Peggy and Amy what we’re -talking about, so they won’t feel left out of the conversation. Connie, -you tell them about the play.” - -“Just a minute, Connie,” Pip interrupted. Then he turned to the -newcomers. “Do you know what the term ‘Off-Broadway’ means?” - -“Why, yes, I think so,” Peggy replied. “It means you’re not using one of -the regular, big theaters, and you charge less admission, and—” - -“More than that,” Pip broke in. “It’s generally an experimental -group—though that doesn’t mean necessarily that it’s amateur, and one -thing you can be sure of—it never has enough money. Everybody has to do -a little of everything. Now go on, Connie.” - -“Well, the three of us are in that kind of group,” Connie started, “and -we’re trying to produce a play off-Broadway. We’ve been working at it -for about six months now, trying to raise the money and get a theater -and do all the rest of the work that goes into these things. The play is -called _Lullaby_, and it’s terrific, or it will be if it ever gets -produced. Mal’s going to direct it, and I’m already cast as the -comedienne, and Pip plays opposite me. There are a few more of us in it -too, of course, and there’s Randy Brewster, who wrote it and is -producing it. But I want to hear the great news before I talk any more. -What is it, Mal?” - -“I don’t want it to be a shock,” Mal said, “so I’ll say it very slowly. -Randy has raised almost all the money we need, and he’ll have the rest -in a few days. It looks as if we’re actually going to get this on the -boards this season—if we can find a theater for it!” - -“Wonderful!” Connie breathed. - -“Wow!” Pip exploded. - -“But where did he get the money? What happened? Do you know?” Connie -asked. - -“You remember the reading we did at that Park Avenue penthouse a couple -of months ago?” Mal asked. “The one where all the people seemed so cold -and hostile, and we felt that we had made a miserable botch of it?” - -“Don’t tell me!” Connie said. - -“All right,” Mal said, his tough features composing themselves into a -broad grin, “I won’t.” - -“It’s only an Americanism, Mal,” Pip said eagerly, “and it means ‘tell -me.’” - -“Oh, I would never have guessed,” Mal said innocently. “Well, that was -the reading that did it. Actually, those penthouse people weren’t -hostile at all. It’s just what they consider good manners or something. -Anyway, several of them came through, and we have almost all we need to -put the play on. And Randy says that once you have most of the money, it -gives other investors confidence, and they come along, too.” - -“How much do you need?” Peggy asked. “I shouldn’t think it would take so -very much to do an off-Broadway play.” - -“Those were the good old days,” Pip said mournfully. “Nowadays you need -at least ten thousand dollars, which is still practically nothing -compared to what it costs to put a show on Broadway. You have to pay -high rent for theaters now, if you can find one at all, and you have to -spend money on costumes and sets, because the public expects more from -off-Broadway than they used to. And you have to pay your actors, or else -Equity, which is the actors’ union, won’t let you open. And you have to -advertise, and print tickets, and pay for lighting equipment and a -hundred other things. It all adds up to a lot of cash.” - -“Will the backers have a chance of making money?” Amy asked. - -“Well, it all depends on the type of theater we can find, and on the -critical reviews of the play,” Mal explained. “If the reviews are good, -and if the theater holds enough people, and if they keep coming for long -enough, there’s a chance. If any one of those factors is lacking, then -there isn’t a chance.” - -“What’s the play about?” Peggy asked. - -Connie frowned and said, “That’s kind of hard to answer. It’s a comedy, -but at the same time it’s a serious play. I mean it’s serious in what it -talks about, but funny in the way it says it. It’s mostly about a boy -genius—” - -“That’s me!” Pip interrupted. - -“—who feels that the only way to get along in the world is not to let -people know how smart he is, because people are jealous and suspicious -of people who are too smart. He meets a girl genius—that’s me—who has -come to the same conclusion. Both of them try to act like ordinary -people, and to adjust to the world, because everybody says it’s best to -conform and be just like everybody else—” - -“And one of the main problems is that neither one of them wants to let -the other one know that he or she is any different,” Pip interrupted, -“and that leads to a lot of misunderstanding and—” - -“And a lot of serious discussion under the comedy,” Mal said, “about -whether or not conformity is any good, and what to do with outstanding -people, and how they can be educated, and how to use them properly in -the world. It’s a really first-rate play.” - -“It sounds wonderful!” Peggy said. “Has this Randy Brewster written any -other plays? Who is he?” - -“Randy has written lots of others,” Mal answered, “but this is the first -one that looks as if it’s going to be produced. He’s a good playwright, -and I think he’s going to be a success. At least I hope so, because if -the play is well received, we all have a chance of success too.” - -“What does he do besides write plays?” asked Amy. - -“He’s a dancer and a singer,” Connie said. “He’s been working in night -clubs and on television, and he’s good, but he has a real talent as a -writer, and we all agree that he’s wasted as just another song-and-dance -man. If you want to see him, you can tune in to your television set on -Saturday night. He’s got a spot on the Road Show hour.” - -“I haven’t got a television set,” Peggy answered, “though I guess I -could find one to watch, but I’d like to do more than look in on this -via TV. Is there anything I could do to help with the show?” - -“Well....” Mal began doubtfully, “we’re almost all cast for it now, and -the few parts that are open aren’t exactly your type—” - -“Oh, no!” Peggy said. “I didn’t mean to ask for a part! Why, I’m just -beginning here, and I don’t think I’d be good enough at all! No, I meant -that if you need an extra pair of hands to make costumes, or to paint -flats or to sell space in the theater program, I’m volunteering. I’ll -run errands, or—” - -“Me, too!” Amy put in. “Can you use a pair of maids-of-all-work?” - -“We sure can!” Connie said eagerly. “That’s the hardest kind of people -to find. I’m certainly glad that Pip thought to ask you two to lunch!” - -Mal looked quite relieved to find that he was not to be put in the -position of having to refuse more actresses. Since word about the -project had first gotten out around the Academy, he had been besieged -with students who wanted to be in it, and the work of casting and at the -same time not hurting the feelings of friends had been pretty difficult. - -As they strolled back to the Academy, Mal told the girls that there was -to be a meeting of the theater group that evening at Connie’s apartment, -and invited them to attend. “I know that everybody will be glad to meet -you, and you’ll get a chance to read the play and to find out what we’re -up against in trying to produce it.” - -After leaving their new friends in the school corridor, Amy and Peggy -went off to their first elocution class, feeling as if they were really -a part of the Academy and the new life around them, and looking forward -eagerly to the meeting at Connie’s that night. - - - - - IX - _Theater Party_ - - -Connie’s apartment was not the easiest place to find, but she had given -detailed instructions, even to drawing a little map on a paper napkin, -and after only a few wrong turnings, Peggy and Amy found themselves that -night at a low pink door set in a high brick wall on a winding street in -Greenwich Village. They pushed the button marked “Barnes-Lewis,” and -soon an answering buzz let them know that the door was unlocked. - -Pushing it open, they entered, not a house, but a narrow alley between -two buildings. Along one wall was a bed of flowers and green borders, -and hidden among them were small floodlights which gave a gentle, -guiding glow. At its end, the alley opened into a little courtyard with -a small fountain and a statue of a nymph surrounded by canvas lawn -chairs. Fronting on it was an old, low, white-brick house, its door -opened wide. Connie came out to greet them. - -“I see you didn’t have any trouble finding our hideaway,” she said. “I -must be a good map-maker.” - -Tactfully refraining from telling her about the wrong turns, Peggy and -Amy agreed with her. - -“What a wonderful place you have here!” Peggy said. “However did you -find it?” - -“I didn’t find it,” Connie said. “I found Linda Lewis, my roommate, -which was a good deal easier. She was already living here, and when her -roommate got married, she asked me if I’d move in.” - -“And how did she find it?” Amy asked. - -“Same way,” Connie laughed. “These places get passed along from friend -to friend. You could hunt for apartments every day for a year and never -even see a place like this. You just have to know somebody, or be lucky. -I’d hate to show you the miserable place I lived in before I moved in -here.” - -“Here” proved to be a spacious room with an extraordinarily high ceiling -and a fireplace with a tremendous copper hood. An open stairway mounted -up one wall to a landing, then turned a corner and went up again. The -only other room downstairs was a kitchen. Upstairs were two bedrooms and -a bath. - -“That’s the whole house,” Connie explained. “It used to be a carriage -house for one of the big places on the street, before all the big places -were turned into apartments. Now come on in and meet everybody.” - -Linda Lewis, Connie’s roommate, rose from the piano bench to greet the -girls. She had apparently been playing until the bell had announced -their arrival. Linda was a tall, slim, rather plain girl with a sweet -smile who was a music student at Juilliard, considered by most people to -be the best music school in the country. She greeted them shyly, and -returned to her place at the keyboard, where she began playing quietly, -as if to herself. - -Pip rose from his seat on the raised hearth of the fireplace to greet -them and to introduce them to his companion, a striking woman in her -mid-thirties. “This is Mona Downs. She’s in the play, too.” - -Before they had a chance to do more than say hello, Connie was -introducing them to the last person in the room, a handsome middle-aged -man with curly dark hair that had turned completely white at the -temples. His name was Thomas Galen, and he, too, was a member of the -cast. - -“I suppose it’s terribly tactless of me,” Peggy said, “but I don’t mean -it that way at all. It’s just that I always thought that these -off-Broadway plays were done entirely by students or—or—very young -actors and actresses. I mean....” - -Mona Downs laughed. “Don’t feel embarrassed to talk about our advanced -ages. We aren’t supposed to look like fresh young things!” - -Tom Galen smiled in agreement. “We’re here because Randy needed some -actors for the more mature parts, and we were lucky enough to be picked. -The off-Broadway plays are a good showcase for experienced actors, too, -you know. Take me, for instance—I’ve been acting for a good many years -now, but I’ve never had any really good vehicles. I’ve made a living on -supporting roles and road shows, and I’ve even played some good leads in -stock, but somehow I’ve never quite hit it. Maybe I’m not good enough, -but on the other hand, I may just not have had the breaks. These -off-Broadway shows nowadays are seen by all the top critics in New York, -and if I do a good job, and if they like the play, I have a chance to go -on to a whole new kind of career. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why -Mona is here. Besides, you can’t do a believable show with just young -actors.” - -“I see,” Peggy nodded. “And I hope you didn’t mind my mentioning it....” - -But before Tom Galen or Mona Downs had a chance to reassure her again, -the buzzer rang, and they broke off. - -“That must be Randy and Mal,” Connie said. “I’ll go get them.” - -She pushed the button to unlock the gate, and opened the front door -expectantly. A few seconds later, Mal entered with a tall, grinning, -engaging-looking young man with flaming red hair. For a moment, everyone -seemed to be talking at once. Randy and Mal were apologizing for being -late; Connie was saying that they weren’t late at all; Pip was trying to -get Randy away to introduce him to Amy and Peggy; Mona and Tom were -asking him about the financing he had managed to get for the show, and -Linda was playing “Hail the Conquering Hero” in loud, solid chords. - -When the initial excitement had died down and the last resounding notes -of the piano had quieted, Randy Brewster was introduced to Peggy and Amy -by an excited Connie. - -“We’re having all the luck today!” she exclaimed. “You come up with the -backing for the play, and Pip discovers these two wonderful girls who -want to be beasts of burden for the show!” - -“The two prettiest beasts in New York, I’m sure,” Randy said with a -smile, and Peggy was positive that she was blushing, though she tried -her hardest not to. “I’m grateful for your interest,” Randy continued, -“and I only hope that we have a chance to use your help.” - -“Why, now that you’ve raised the money, isn’t it certain that the play -will be produced?” Peggy asked. - -“We have a better chance today than we had yesterday,” Randy explained, -“but it’s far from a sure thing yet. You see, we have the central -problem now of trying to find a theater we can use. And I’m afraid -that’s going to prove to be a harder job than raising the money, or even -than writing the play in the first place.” - -“Mal and Pip and Connie mentioned the problem of finding a theater a few -times today,” Peggy said, “but I didn’t know it was as serious as all -that. Why should there be such a shortage?” - -“For a lot of reasons,” Randy answered. “And there’s a shortage even on -Broadway—maybe even a worse one. Forty years ago, there were more than -twice the number of theaters in New York than there are now, and every -year we lose a few more. One reason is the fire laws that make it -illegal to have a theater with anything built over it. In other words, -you can’t have a Broadway theater on the lower floors of an office -building; and with real-estate values as high as they are in Manhattan, -it just isn’t profitable to use up all the space a theater takes without -building high up as well. Off-Broadway rules are a little easier, but -the downtown theater has become so popular that everybody and his -brother wants to put on a play off-Broadway, and all the available -theaters are booked way in advance. Not only that, but dramatic groups -have rented almost all the places that can be converted to theaters, and -there don’t seem to be any left for us.” Then, breaking his serious -expression with a sudden grin, he said, “But don’t let it worry you. I’m -trusting to luck that we’ll find something.” - -“I hope luck does it,” Peggy said doubtfully, “but I’d prefer to trust -in something a little more trustworthy!” - -“If you have any ideas, I’ll be happy to hear them,” Randy said, “but -right now, we’d better get on with this evening’s meeting and reading. -I’ll talk to you over sandwiches and coffee afterward, if you like.” - -Peggy delightedly accepted, then found herself a seat with Amy out of -the way to watch the proceedings. - -First, Randy told the assembled group about the investment in the play, -and about his hopes for the small remaining amount they would need. -Then, having completed his report, he turned the evening over to Mallory -Seton, who immediately began the readings with an authority and -toughness that went well with his rugged face. - -Peggy observed carefully how Mal would interrupt one or another of the -actors, acting out a line for him or her, or asking for a somewhat -different emphasis. Sometimes a small change in timing or inflection -would turn an ordinary line into an unexpectedly comic one, and Peggy -and Amy laughed aloud several times. - -Randy followed with his master script, every so often stopping the -action to make a change in dialogue. “Sometimes a thing sounds fine when -you write it, but it just doesn’t read well,” he explained. “That’s one -of the main purposes of these early readings—to let me have a chance to -hear what I’ve written and see if it plays.” - -Other changes were made at the suggestion of one or another of the cast, -who found a line unnatural to say, or somehow uncomfortable or out of -character. Randy listened to every suggestion, and took most of them, -but on one or two occasions he insisted that the actors accommodate -themselves to what he had written. - -Peggy was fascinated by the whole process, and particularly appreciated -the air of good will with which changes in script, style of reading, and -interpretation of character were made. This was a company of willing, -hard-working friends, and they were already molding the play in a joint -effort. She was sure that they would be successful. - -At last the readings for the evening were completed, and people started -to say good night. Randy brought Mal with him and said, “Why don’t you -come along for coffee and a sandwich with us? Peggy seems to have some -ideas about the theater problem.” - -“Oh, no!” Peggy disclaimed. “Not really! I was just wondering if—” - -“Let’s wonder over coffee,” Mal cut in. “Come on, Amy. Let them talk -about the theater, and we can talk about you!” - -A few blocks’ walk brought the four of them to a coffee shop where, -seated around a tiny marble-topped table, they studied the menu. To -Peggy and Amy it was a revelation. There were over twenty kinds of -coffee offered, most of which they had never heard of, plus dozens of -exotic pastries and sandwiches. They finally settled, on Randy’s advice, -on _cappuccino_, which proved to be coffee flavored with cinnamon and -topped with a froth of milk, and which was perfectly delicious. With it, -they had an assortment of _amaretti_—hard, sweet Italian macaroons that -came wrapped in gaily decorated tissues, and cornetti—pastry horns -filled with some creamy whip. - -“Now,” Randy said, when they were all served, “what did you have in mind -about a theater for us?” - -“Well, nothing at the moment,” Peggy admitted, “but I’m against the idea -of just trusting to luck, the way you said you were going to do. It -seems to me that some hard looking would get better results.” - -“I agree, and I have been looking,” Randy replied. “We have our names on -the waiting lists of every known off-Broadway theater in the city, and I -call regularly just to remind them that we’re serious about it.” - -“Have you been looking around for a place that you might convert to a -theater, too?” Peggy asked. - -“We gave up on that. We found that it would cost too much to do a decent -conversion, and not only that, but we’d be in the real-estate business -as well as the play-producing business, and we don’t want that.” - -Peggy nodded thoughtfully. “I see. Well, how about all the theaters that -you said used to be in existence forty years ago? What’s happened to all -of them? Maybe some of them are just sitting around and not being used.” - -“Oh, they’re being used!” Randy laughed. “They’re being used as movie -houses and television studios and ice-skating rinks and churches and -even supermarkets.” - -“Have you looked at them all?” Peggy pursued. - -“Well....” Randy said, “maybe not all, but....” - -“Then that’s what I’m going to do for you first!” Peggy announced with -determination. “I’ll go look at them all, and maybe I can find some -usable place. At least, I’m willing to try.” - -“But, Peggy,” Mal put in, “you don’t know anything about New York at -all! It’s not like Rockport, Wisconsin. It takes a lot of looking, and -you have to know where to look. How will you start?” - - [Illustration: A few blocks’ walk brought the four of them to a coffee - shop....] - -“I don’t know just yet,” Peggy answered, “but I’ll think of a way. I -used to help out as a reporter on my father’s newspaper, and I’m used to -digging up facts. If there’s an empty theater in New York City, I’ll bet -I know about it in a couple of weeks. If there isn’t one, I’ll know that -too, and at least that will save the rest of you all the trouble of -looking.” - -Randy looked a little doubtful. “I’m sure that you mean what you say, -and I don’t doubt that you can get things done as well as any of us, -Peggy, but as Mal said, New York isn’t Rockport. And I don’t mean just -that it’s bigger. It’s not a—well, a _nice_ city in every part. And a -search like this can lead you into some pretty tough parts of town.” - -“Oh, pooh!” Peggy said. “In the last two weeks, I’ll bet Amy and I have -walked around more of New York than either of you has in the last two -years! And that included some pretty tough-looking neighborhoods, and -nobody bothered us, and everybody was very nice. I think that’s a lot of -nonsense! Besides, we’re big girls, and we can take care of ourselves by -now.” - -“We certainly can,” Amy agreed. “And I plan to go, too, just the way -I’ve dragged my aching feet after Peggy for two weeks now. That girl can -cover more territory in a morning than a Tennessee Walking Horse can -manage in a whole day!” - -“Well, if you really want to try, it’s okay with me,” Randy said. “And -I’m grateful to you for wanting to. If you need any help along the way, -be sure to ask for it.” - -“You can start by giving me a list of all the places you’ve gone to, so -I won’t waste my time, and I’ll take it from there.” - -Randy promised to bring the list to the Academy the next day, at which -time, if it was okay with Peggy and Amy, he would like to join them for -lunch. Then their interest turned to other things, including more coffee -for the girls and another huge sandwich to be split between the boys. - -By the time they had finished and walked to the Gramercy Arms, it was -nearly midnight. Peggy and Amy whispered quiet good nights on the -stairs, and hurried up to bed. Tomorrow was school again, and they -needed all the sleep they could get. - - - - - X - _Peggy Produces a Plot_ - - -“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; a peck of pickled peppers -Peter Piper picked; if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, -where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?” - -“A perfect peck of pickled peppers, Peggy,” said Miss Linden, the -elocution instructor, “except that you picked them a trifle too quickly. -That’s the big temptation of tongue twisters; you always want to show -that you can rip them out at great speed without making a mistake. What -I want you to do this time is to say the same thing, but to concentrate -on a normal rate of delivery that will allow your voice to carry to the -rear of a hall without becoming blurred. Distance, you know, tends to -make sounds run together. Now, Peggy, if you don’t mind....” - -More slowly this time, and concentrating on making her words reach the -back of some huge, imaginary hall, Peggy once more spoke the tongue -twister. - -“Much better. Much better,” Miss Linden approved. “Now, John, will you -please read ‘round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascals ran,’ -and try to read it as if it had a meaning, as if those ragged rascals -were at the end of their endurance, as if you were one of them, almost. -Make the words clear, project them, and at the same time give me a note -of urgency and a feeling of near-exhaustion.” - -John, a handsome boy whom Peggy had already judged vain and stupid and -who, she suspected, had gone into acting on the strength of his -appearance, struggled with the assignment. Peggy tried to maintain an -interest in what he was doing, but her mind was on her coming lunch -meeting with Randy Brewster. - -What on earth was she going to suggest? Why had she volunteered to -undertake the search for a theater with such confidence? It had been -bothering her since she had awakened this morning, and the more she -thought about it, the less likely it seemed that she would come up with -an idea worth pursuing. Still, there must be some angle that Randy and -Mal hadn’t thought of, some idea that would occur to her, with her -reporter’s training, that had escaped them. That all sounded very good, -she commented to herself, but what was the angle? Miss Linden’s tongue -twisters were child’s play compared to this puzzle. - -Before her turn came to read again, it was time for the elocution class -to end and time to go, empty-headed, to meet Randy. Peggy had never in -her life felt so stupid, nor so embarrassed, for having made the boast -last night that she could find what they had missed. - -Amy, sensing the reason for Peggy’s gloomy silence, didn’t question her -about it. Without a word, the two girls moved through the crowded -corridor to the elevators, rode downstairs, and stationed themselves at -the front door. Finally Peggy spoke. - -“Oh, Amy, I hope he doesn’t think I’m a complete fool! I like him so -much, and I’ve made him take this special trip to bring me his list of -theaters, and if I don’t come up with an idea that makes sense, I won’t -blame him for thinking I’m a dope!” - -“Are you trying to find a theater or a boy friend?” Amy asked with a sly -smile. - -Blushing, Peggy stammered, “Why, Amy, I ... I just met him last night -... the same as you ... and ... Oh dear! Here he comes now, and I look -like an embarrassed lobster!” - -“Don’t worry,” Amy said with a laugh, “with his red hair and your red -face, you make a lovely couple!” - -Before Peggy could answer, Randy had reached them and either did not -notice, or gallantly pretended not to notice Peggy’s confusion. He -greeted them with a smile, and gaily waved a large paper bag. - -“I took the liberty of ordering for you, ladies,” he announced in the -manner of a musical-comedy headwaiter. “The caviar, _pâté de foie gras_, -and pheasant under glass are not of the best quality today, so I decided -instead to get ham on rye, pickles, and potato chips. I also have two -cartons of milk of a superior vintage. We dine on the terrace by the -lake.” - -In the laughter, Peggy regained her self-possession, and the three of -them started for the park where, Randy told them, they would be joined -by Pip and Connie. - -At the mention of Pip, Amy said, “I was wondering how, with a name like -Peter Piper, Pip ever got through that tongue-twister stuff. It must -have been terrible for him!” - -“Ask him to do it for you sometime,” Randy replied. “He’s learned that -the best defense is a good offense, so long before he came to the -Academy he had that one perfected. He can do Peter Piper in any accent -or dialect you ask, and can even do it in a rapid-fire stutter! It’s -funny enough so that nobody ever kidded him about it. In fact, he’s got -it worked up into part of a first-rate comedy bit.” - -On their arrival at the lawn by the lake, they found that Randy had -brought a large paper table-cloth and some oversized paper napkins for -the girls to sit on. As she helped set out the lunch, Peggy was -impressed by this extra display of thoughtfulness, and felt that she had -been right in thinking Randy Brewster was a special kind of person. She -had just finished setting the “table” when Connie and Pip joined them -and added their own lunches to the spread. - -When they were all settled comfortably, Randy opened the conversation -with the question that Peggy had been fearing all morning. “Well, Peggy, -I brought the list of theaters we’ve seen, and now will you tell us what -you have in mind?” - - [Illustration: When they were all settled comfortably....] - -Much to her surprise, Peggy found herself answering as smoothly as if -she had known all along what she was going to do. “The first thing,” she -said, “is to make use of all the city records. Since a license is -required to operate a theater, there must be a list of all the places in -the city that have been licensed. I’m going to go to City Hall, find the -list, and copy the names and addresses of every theater that has been -opened in the last fifty or sixty years.” - -“Are you sure the city will let you see the records?” Connie asked. - -“Of course,” Peggy answered. “They have to. Anything in the city files -that doesn’t concern individuals is a matter of public record. I learned -that from my father. He always said that the city or town archives of -any place were the best reference books a reporter could want.” - -“I think that makes good sense, Peggy,” Randy commented. “But it’s going -to be a long list. What are you going to do when you’ve got it?” - -“I’m not sure,” Peggy admitted, “but I think the best thing to do would -be to cut the list down before I start to work with it.” - -“I see,” Randy said. “That’s why you wanted the list of theaters we’ve -already visited, so you could eliminate them.” - -“Right. The next thing to do, I think,” Peggy went on, with a dreamlike -feeling that she did not know at all what she was going to say next, “is -to look up theaters in the classified telephone book. All the ones that -are listed, I’ll eliminate from my list, on the theory that they’re -probably being used by somebody right now.” - -“Peggy, you’re a smart girl,” Pip said admiringly. - -“You sure are,” Connie echoed. - -“I won’t dispute that,” Randy agreed, “but I’m still a little puzzled. -When you’ve eliminated all the theaters listed in the phone book from -the theaters listed by the license bureau, what will you have?” - -“What I’ll have,” Peggy said triumphantly, “is a record of all the -places in New York that started out to be theaters and aren’t theaters -now!” - -“Wonderful!” Amy said. “Then you and I will go to visit all the -addresses and see if any of the places aren’t being used, and if they’re -for rent!” - -“It makes a lot of sense,” Randy admitted. “But you know, it’s going to -take a lot of work and a lot of walking. And disappointment, too. You -won’t be able to find even a trace of many of those theaters.” - -“On the other hand,” Peggy answered, “we may be able to find a hidden -theater that nobody even knows is there! And wouldn’t that be grand?” - -“I can see it all now,” Pip said in a hollow voice. “A huge, haunted -opera house of a theater, its hangings in tatters, its chandeliers -covered with dust and its stage peopled by the ghosts of players long -gone! There it sits, undiscovered, unknown, hiding behind a Chinese -restaurant just a block east of Broadway!” - -“Don’t tease her, Pip,” Randy said. “I think Peggy has a good idea, and -it would be a pity to discourage her before she gives it a try. Maybe -she won’t find a theater, but at least this is the most sensible way -I’ve heard of yet to start looking for one.” - -A little shamefaced, Pip said, “I didn’t mean to tease. You know me; I -always want to turn everything into a comedy routine. But, seriously, I -think this makes sense and, Peggy, if you need any help in tracking down -places, you can count on me!” - -All the others chimed in their agreement, and Peggy thought proudly, and -with some surprise, that she had gotten herself out of a spot quite -well. At least Randy didn’t think she was a fool, and that was something -to be pleased about. - -When lunch was finished, and the last crumbs had been fed to the ducks, -it was time to return to the Academy. Peggy said good-by to Randy and -went up to her afternoon’s work. - -Only by dint of the most intense concentration on the study of -Elizabethan drama did Peggy keep her attention from the theater-hunting -problem. But the minute the class was ended, all other thoughts fled -from her mind. “Come on, Amy!” she said. “I’m heading for City Hall -right now!” - -“I’m sorry, Peggy,” Amy said, “but you’ll have to count me out today. I -didn’t know that you’d have any plans, so I made a date to have a soda -with Mallory Seton. I’ll go with you tomorrow, though.” - -“And you accused _me_ of looking for a boy friend instead of a theater!” -Peggy said with a grin. “If anybody around here should blush, I think -it’s you, Amy Shelby Preston!” - -“Why, Ah don’t know what yo’ talkin’ about!” Amy said, in her best -Southern belle manner. “Mistah Seton asked me to join him, an’ Ah -scarcely thought it would be ladylike to refuse the gentleman!” - -Then both girls dissolved into very unladylike giggles, and Peggy made a -dash for the elevator. “See you tonight,” she called. - - - - - XI - _Rehearsals_ - - -“So. ’Ow marches the search for the theater, Peggee?” Gaby asked, -bouncing into the living room at the Gramercy Arms. - -“Awful,” Peggy admitted, looking up at Gaby from her position on the -floor. She was surrounded by scraps of paper, pencils, a classified -telephone directory, and several assorted notebooks, guidebooks, and -city maps. “I think it would be easier to list all the perfume shops in -Paris than all the theaters built in New York since the nineties.” - -“Perfume shops! Pouf!” Gaby shrugged. “We don’t ’ave so manee. Most of -our perfume is export, to Amérique. But theaters! Oh! You would ’ave the -same trouble in Paree as you ’ave ’ere. So, _bonne chance_; mean to ’ave -the good luck.” With a wave of her hand she went upstairs. - -“A little _bonne chance_ is what I could use right now,” Peggy confessed -to Greta, Maggie, and Amy, who were disposed in various chairs with -books and magazines. - -“Anything I can help you with?” Maggie asked. - -“No, thanks, Maggie. I’m through the help stage. Amy and I have spent -every afternoon for the last three days just trying to get a list of -theaters from the city archives. It’s not that they’re not helpful down -there. Everybody has been just as nice as can be, but nothing’s easy to -find. In the first place, all the records aren’t kept in one big handy -book, or in a list or anything simple. Oh, no! They’re in dozens and -dozens of volumes marked by year, and we’re trying to go back about -seventy years. Not only that, but the books aren’t separated by kinds of -licenses, so that you can’t just get a volume of theater licenses. You -have to look at each page to see what’s been licensed. There are -groceries and bakeries and amusement parks and drugstores and hardware -stores and livery stables and saddlemakers and—” - -“Well, at least you’ve gotten into the early years, I see, if you’re on -livery stables and saddlemakers,” Greta commented. - -“You’d think that it would be easier,” Maggie murmured. “I mean, if you -wanted to find out what year the Ziegfeld Theater was licensed, for -instance, would you have to go through all that?” - -“Oh, no,” Peggy answered. “They have an alphabetical index by name, and -you could go right to it. But we don’t know the names of the places -we’re looking for, and that’s what makes it so difficult.” - -“Even so ... what if the police needed to know, for example, and they -had to know really fast? Suppose they wanted the names of all the -theaters? Would they have to do what you’re doing?” Maggie asked. - -“No,” Peggy answered, “and that’s one of the things that makes this so -frustrating. The Police Department has all its own files, and the clerk -who’s been helping us says that we could find out what we want to know -from them in no time at all.” - -“Then why...?” Greta began. - -“Police files are for the use of the Police Department for police -business,” Peggy interrupted. “We’ve been told that very emphatically.” - -“And there aren’t any exceptions,” Amy added, “so poor Peggy and I have -had to make our own police files.” - -“And what’s worse,” Peggy went on gloomily, “is the hours we’ve had to -work at it. The bureau closes at four-thirty sharp, and isn’t open on -Saturday, and we’re busy with school all day long. Amy and I don’t -finish with our last class until three o’clock, and then we make a mad -dash downtown. That gives us about an hour a day to go through the -books.” - -“How close are you to finishing?” Greta asked. - -“That’s the happy part. We finished 1890 today, and that’s as far back -as we’re going to go, unless this batch turns up nothing for us. Then, I -suppose, we’ll try another ten years before we quit. My guess is that -anything built before 1880 wouldn’t be worth looking into anyway. If it -were still standing, it would probably be an old rat’s nest.” - -Maggie smiled. “Don’t let May Berriman hear you say anything like that. -This beautiful old house that we’re living in was built in 1878, and -it’s hardly a rat’s nest! And you’ve passed the house that Washington -Irving lived in, just a few blocks south of here? It’s still a -fine-looking house, and I don’t know how old it is, but Washington -Irving died in 1859, so it’s got to be a lot older than that!” - -“Oh, Maggie!” Peggy wailed. “You haven’t made me feel the least bit -better! I thought I had a logical date to stop looking, and that made -things easier somehow. Now you’ve opened up the whole thing again!” - -“Oh, don’t start to feel sorry for yourself yet,” Greta put in. “You -have a lot of work to do on the theaters you’ve found since 1890 before -you start to think further back. And you may find just what you want in -that list.” - -“I sure hope so,” Peggy agreed, smiling wanly. “But I’ll never find it -by lying here and talking. I’d better get back to work.” - -“Oh, no, you don’t!” Amy said. “What you’d better do now is go upstairs -and take a shower and fix yourself up! Don’t forget it’s Friday night, -we’ve got a date tonight, and you have a lot to do before the boys -come.” - -“But, Amy, it’s still early, isn’t it?” Peggy asked. Then, with a glance -at the grandfather clock in the corner, she gasped. “Oh! Six o’clock -already and they’re coming at seven! And I haven’t even begun! Why -didn’t you tell me?” - -Sweeping up all her papers, notebooks, and other gear in a single -gesture, she bounced out of the room with Amy right behind her, -protesting that she hadn’t realized herself how late it had grown, and -that she too had a lot to do to get ready, and.... - -But before she could finish her sentence, Peggy had dropped her papers, -grabbed a towel and bathrobe and raced for the bathroom. With the door -held open the merest crack, Peggy peeped through, grinning broadly at -Amy, who stood in the hall still apologizing. - -“You’re forgiven,” Peggy said impishly, “but your punishment for loafing -and not watching the time while I was working is that I get the bathroom -first!” Then she quickly shut the door before her friend could push her -way through. - -“I don’t care!” Amy called through the door. “I can always use the other -one upstairs!” - -“You can,” Peggy answered with a laugh, “if you can figure a way to get -Irene the Beautiful Model out. She always goes in at six o’clock, and it -would take an atomic bomb to get her out before seven! You’ll just have -to wait for me!” - -Any further conversation was made impossible by the noise of the water -running, and Amy resigned herself with a philosophical sigh, telling -herself that it was probably better for Peggy to go first anyway, -because she always finished quickly, as if that made a difference, -which, of course, it did not. - -The timing, however, must have made sense in some mysterious way, -because both girls were ready at precisely the same moment. It was at -the exact instant that the grandfather clock began to chime softly that -Amy and Peggy both stepped from their rooms into the hall and said, in -chorus, “You look lovely! How do I look?” - -Laughing at themselves, each girl whirled around and showed herself to -the other. Peggy’s turn made a wide sweep of her black taffeta dress -with its black satin cummerbund smartly making the most of her trim -figure. For this special occasion, her first real date in New York, she -had put her hair up and skillfully used a little eye make-up. Her long, -slender neck was accentuated by a single string of pearls, which were -echoed by her tiny pearl earrings. - -Amy had chosen to set off her pale, blond beauty with a brocaded dress -of dark, lustrous green that seemed to add a green glint to her brown -eyes. She wore a delicate, flat gold necklace, small gold earrings and a -slim, antique gold bracelet set with semiprecious stones. - -As Peggy fastened a hook and eye for Amy (it was located in that one -spot that just cannot be reached), the last notes of the clock sounded, -followed immediately by the sound of the doorbell. - -“That’s Randy and Mal now!” Peggy said. “We’re all so prompt that it’s -hardly possible!” She ran down the stairs to answer the door, Amy at her -heels, and a few minutes later, the four were strolling down the street -arm in arm. - -“You sure look beautiful tonight—both of you,” Randy said. “I’m glad -that I decided to wear a tie!” - -“If you hadn’t, I’d have sent you right home to get one,” Peggy said -firmly. “And besides, you did say that we should dress up for dinner and -dancing. That is, if you’ll put up with me. I’ve never danced with a -professional dancer before.” - -“Oh, I’m not a dancer, really,” Randy said. “I’m a hoofer. You know, tap -and soft-shoe and a couple of gestures and turns that make the customers -think I studied ballet. Mostly I dance just enough to carry off the -singing, so that the act will have a little movement. I hate singers who -just stand there and croon.” - -“Where did you study singing?” Peggy asked. - -“Oh, I’m not really a singer,” Randy said with a grin. “I just sing -enough so the customers won’t notice that I’m not dancing well!” - -“I’d love to see you work and make up my own mind,” Peggy said. “When -can I get a chance?” - -With an expression halfway between a smile and a frown, Randy answered, -“I hope that you never get a chance. I’m not working now, and with any -luck, I won’t have to do night-club work again. I’ve always wanted to -write for the theater, and I believe in the play we’re doing now, so -I’ve turned down all engagements until we get it produced. It may be the -break I need. I’ve been able to put away enough to live on for a while, -so I don’t need the night clubs. If the play flops, though, I can always -go back to them, much as I don’t want to.” - -“In that case, I hope I never get a chance to see your act, too,” Peggy -said. - -“A sensible wish!” Mal put in. “I’ve seen it, and I tell you, as a -singer and dancer, Red Brewster—as he bills himself—is a darn good -playwright. I won’t say it’s the worst night-club act in New York, but—” - -“I know,” Randy interrupted cheerfully, “but it is.” - -“But he makes a living at it,” Amy protested, taking the lighthearted -insults a little too seriously. - -“Just proves an old contention of mine,” Mal answered airily, “that the -public has a lot more money than taste!” - -By this time, they had reached Fourteenth Street, a wide, busy -thoroughfare bright with neon lights and gaudy store windows crammed -full of bargain merchandise. It hardly looked the sort of neighborhood -to come to dressed as they were, and for a moment Peggy had a feeling -that Randy hadn’t been joking about coming without a tie. “Where are we -going?” she asked cautiously, not wanting to offend the boys. - -Randy laughed. “I wondered whether or not you knew about Fourteenth -Street. Since you’re so deep in the history of the theater, I thought -that we’d take you right into some. This run-down street was once the -heart of the fashionable theater district!” He waved a hand to indicate -the tawdry movie houses, the corner hot-dog stands, the poolrooms, the -pizza places. - -“This?” Peggy said. - -“This,” Randy answered solemnly. “And the funny thing is that this is -far from being a bad neighborhood. Especially when you compare it with -some of the places you’ll be visiting in the next few days!” - -“You see that movie house?” Mal said, pointing to a place plastered with -signs for a double horror monster show. “That was once the most famous -musical theater in the city. And the Irving Theater over there was a -great dramatic showcase.” - -“But why are we here tonight?” Amy asked in bewilderment. - -“To show you that, in the ashes of the past, a good bit of the past -still flourishes with no sign of decay,” Mal intoned dramatically. - -“He means,” Randy interpreted, “that we’re here to eat dinner at -Luchow’s, one of the best restaurants in the city. It’s German, not -Chinese, and you pronounce it with a German _ch_ that sounds like a -cough, if you can. If you can’t, you settle on ‘Loo-shau’s,’ which most -people do. It’s been here since the theater district was here, and it -hasn’t changed at all through all these years. Diamond Jim Brady and -Lillian Russell and Tony Pastor ate here, and tonight we’re going to do -the same!” - -With a bow and a flourish, Mal and Randy opened the doors and led the -girls into, not just a restaurant, but another century and another -world. - - - - - XII - _Intermission_ - - -Peggy had never seen anything like it! The tremendous, high-ceilinged -rooms paneled in darkly polished brown wood led in a seemingly endless -procession from one to the other, connected by arch after arch. In front -of them, across the first room, four steps mounted up to a kind of -gallery, itself an immense chamber that stretched back as far as one -could see. In the front of the gallery, near the steps, a small, -three-piece orchestra played Viennese waltz music. Peggy noted with -amusement that the three musicians looked as old as the restaurant, -almost as if they had been playing ever since opening night. - -To the right, an oversized archway connected the room they were in with -what appeared to be the central room of the place, even higher and more -glittering than the others. Peggy’s eyes mounted up toward the ceiling, -which appeared to be three or more stories high, and she saw that it was -a kind of old-fashioned leaded glass skylight. - -Another arch between the rooms contained the largest ship model that she -had ever seen. It was a full-rigged ship and stood easily six feet high. -Everything here was on such a large scale! Even the beer steins that -stood all around on shelves high on the paneled walls were immense. Some -would easily hold two quarts of beer. - -Everywhere were waiters scurrying about between the crowded tables, -carrying trays loaded to improbable heights with dishes, glasses, -covered serving vessels, baskets of bread, rolls, and cheeses. The whole -place glittered with hundreds of lights, each caught and reflected in -the tall mirrors, the glassware and the polished wood. - -And the noise! The many conversations, the clink of silver on dishes, -the rattle of glasses, the waltz tunes of the small orchestra, all -blended into one happy, congenial roar. - -Peggy and Amy stood dazzled by the sights and sounds of Luchow’s, and -tried to get their bearings, while Randy and Mal checked their -reservations with the headwaiter. Soon they were assigned by this -impressive personage to a lesser headwaiter whom Peggy thought of as -their guide. This gentleman, beckoning them to follow, plunged into the -jungle of tables and, in a kind of safari fashion, they tracked him -through several rooms, up some steps to a gallery like the one on which -the band was playing, and to a large round table by the rail. - -It was not until they were seated that Peggy realized that there was not -an endless number of rooms, but only about six. The illusion was caused -by giant mirrors on either wall, set in arched frames like the arches -that separated the rooms. Even so, it was the biggest and busiest -restaurant that either she or Amy had ever seen. - -“Well, what do you think of it?” Randy asked. When Peggy replied with a -smile and a bewildered shake of her head, he continued, “I know. It -always affects me that way, too, but I still love to come here. This is -what New York was really like in the Gay Nineties, and they haven’t -changed a thing that they didn’t have to change. Even the lighting -fixtures,” he pointed out, “are the original gaslights, except that -they’ve had to wire them for electricity. But the best thing is—as it -should be—the food. That hasn’t changed either. Let’s order now, then we -can talk.” - -The menu, Peggy thought, was of a size to match the restaurant, and it -was crammed with dishes she had never heard of, most with German names, -many with British names. At Randy’s suggestion, she let him order her -dinner, which was sauerbraten, the house specialty. Amy, less -adventurous about food, settled for roast beef. Randy ordered a lobster -for himself, and Mal asked for roast larded saddle of hare, which made -Amy shudder a little. - -“I just don’t like the idea of eating rabbits,” she explained. “They’re -such cute little things!” - -Mal grinned. “If you once start to think like that,” he said, “you’d -have a hard time eating at all. Think about all those cute lambs, and -those nice, sweet-tempered cows. And think about—” - -“I do my best not to think about them,” Amy interrupted, “and if you -don’t stop, I’m going to order a vegetable dinner and have an awful -time!” - -Still, when the food came, she and Peggy consented to try the hare, and -were forced to agree that it was one of the most delicious things they -had ever tasted. Amy also liked Peggy’s sauerbraten, which was a kind of -sweet-and-sour pot roast of beef, done in a rich brown gravy and served -with potato dumplings and red cabbage. - -“You know, it’s an odd thing the way Americans eat,” Mal said between -bites of the saddle of hare. “I’ll wager that there are millions of -people in this country who have never eaten anything but beef and pork -and perhaps a bit of fish. And I don’t mean poor people, either. I found -out on my first tours here that there are many parts of the country -where you can’t even get lamb or veal, and mutton is almost unheard of.” - -“Is it very different in England?” Peggy asked. - -Randy answered before Mal had a chance to reply. “In England they eat -things that would make the average American turn pale with fright.” He -laughed. “They eat suet puddings and kidney pies and chopped toad....” - -“Chopped toad!” Amy almost shrieked. - -“It’s not at all what it sounds,” Mal explained in his most British -tones. “It’s actually a sort of a hamburger thing, and it’s not made of -toads or anything like toads. And, personally, I can’t stand it.” - -“Is the food the reason why you left England?” Amy asked teasingly. - -“Partly,” Mal said with a smile. “But not because I didn’t like it. I -liked it well enough when I could get it. The reason I left was that I -wasn’t able to earn enough money to eat with any degree of regularity. -When I got a part with an American movie company that was filming a -picture in England, I was asked to come back with them, and I jumped at -the chance. I made a few films in Hollywood, and then I decided to come -to New York.” - -“Why did you leave pictures?” Peggy asked. “I mean, if you were working, -and if you were starting to be an established actor, why did you come to -the Academy to study?” - -“I didn’t like the roles I was being given,” Mal answered. “It’s because -of my face, you know. I look like a young thug, so I was given nothing -but young thug parts. But, when you come to think of it, how many roles -are there for young thugs with English accents? Besides, I didn’t want -to spend the whole of my life in cops-and-robbers films. I decided that -I should try the stage, where I might have a chance to play a variety of -roles. Also, I thought I might like to direct. The trouble was that I -had no experience with stage technique, so I applied to the Academy for -a year of basic training. It was there that I met Randy, who has given -me my first chance to direct, and now that I’ve had a taste of it, I -know that’s what I really want to do.” - -“It’s nice of you to say that I’ve given you a chance to direct,” Randy -put in, “but unless Peggy and Amy can produce a theater, I’m afraid that -the chance will be a strictly imaginary one. Which reminds me, how are -you girls doing with the search?” - -Peggy told him about the troubles they had encountered in making up a -list, and he nodded sympathetically. “We’re finished with that part of -it now,” she said in tones of relief, “and we only have to finish -checking against the phone book before we go out to look.” - -“And when will you start?” Randy asked. - -“Tomorrow afternoon, I think,” she said. “We ought to be done with the -telephone book by noon, if we don’t sleep the whole morning away as a -result of this heavy dinner. Then we can look in the afternoon.” - -“Sounds good,” Randy said. “It looks as if the best help we can give you -is to see to it that you work off this dinner so that you don’t waste -the morning in sleep! What do you suggest, Mal?” - -“Dancing,” Mal said firmly. “Best way to get rid of the full feeling. -But, unfortunately, I can’t dance on an empty stomach, so we’d best -order a sweet, right?” - -The girls and Randy protested with groans, but somehow managed to eat -every scrap of the thin pancakes with lingonberries that Mal ordered for -them. A final cup of coffee, and then it was time to go. - -“I feel as if my dress is going to split any minute!” Peggy whispered to -Amy. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk to the door, much less -dance!” - -Stepping out of Luchow’s, leaving its noise, gaiety, and glitter behind, -was once more like making a transition between worlds. Fourteenth -Street, now almost deserted, looked even sadder and more run-down than -before. The night lights in the windows of the closed shops cast baleful -gleams on the pavement; the thin sound of a cheap dance band far off -lent its sad jazz beat to the relatively quiet night. Peggy shivered a -little in the first chill of autumn. - -“It’s like two different cities, in there and out here,” she said. “It’s -a shame, isn’t it, that the real one is out here?” - -Catching her mood, Randy put a reassuring arm about her shoulders. “It’s -two hundred different cities,” he said, “and the real one is wherever -you happen to be at the moment. So let’s leave this one, to make it -unreal, and go uptown. By the time we turn our backs on this, it will -disappear.” - -And it did disappear, or nearly, in the sophisticated decor and subdued -harmonies of the St. Regis Roof. Randy was, as Peggy had suspected, a -fine dancer. His lightness and his certainty helped her, and she knew -that she had never danced so well before. But even as they floated about -the gleaming floor, the sounds of the elegant music could not quite -drown out the tinny jazz sound of Fourteenth Street that echoed in her -mind. - -No, she thought, Randy had not been altogether right. This beautiful -room, these handsome, well-dressed people were not nearly so real as the -world outside. And it was that world, in which she would start her -search tomorrow, that stayed uppermost in her thoughts through the rest -of the dreamlike night with its dancing, its carriage ride around the -park and (or was this too a dream?) Randy’s gentle good-night kiss on -the steps of the Gramercy Arms. - - - - - XIII - _The Hidden City_ - - -When the list was completed, Peggy had found over forty theaters built -since 1890 and not currently listed as theaters in the classified phone -book. Now there was nothing to do except visit each one to see if it was -still there at all, and if there, to see what it was being used for. -Checking the addresses against her city map and street-number guide, -Peggy listed those that she would visit first. - -“I’ve started out with a group I think we can cover in one afternoon,” -she explained to Amy. “And the district I’ve picked is not too far away -from most of the off-Broadway theaters in Greenwich Village. I’d like it -best if we could find a theater near where people are used to going, or -at least in districts that are easy to get to by bus or subway.” - -“Don’t worry too much about that,” Greta commented from the depths of an -easy chair. “If you can just find a place to put on the play, and if the -play is good, people will come. Even if they have to walk, or pay -tremendous cab fares. That’s one wonderful thing about New York. People -love the theater, and they’re willing to go through all kinds of -hardships to see a good play.” - -“The proof of that is the prices people pay to see a Broadway show,” Amy -agreed. “Six and eight dollars a seat for some of them!” - -“And that’s at box-office prices,” Irene commented. “They pay -twenty-five dollars to a ticket broker sometimes to see a really popular -show. I think that the thing to be in this business is a broker, not an -actress. That’s where the big money is!” - -“We’ll remember that when we get our theater,” Peggy said, laughing. -“I’ll put aside a whole lot of seats in my name, and if the show’s a hit -I’ll make a fortune on them!” - -“No theater, no tickets,” Amy said dryly. “And no show either. We’d -better get going now.” - -The area that Peggy had decided to cover first was a section south of -Fourteenth Street, and somewhat farther east than where they had been. -This was an old part of town, in which the theater had once been -centered even before it had moved “uptown” to Fourteenth Street. -(Fourteenth Street itself is now very much downtown from the present -theater district in the west Forties and Fifties.) - -This old district had seen wave after wave of immigrants come from -various lands. Each nation had left its mark. There were Russian stores, -Rumanian restaurants, Irish bars, Jewish delicatessens, Italian grocery -stores, and Spanish shops of all sorts. - -“It’s like looking at a cross section of certain kinds of rocks,” Peggy -said. “You know, the kinds that give you a million-year history of the -earth and the kinds of life that have come and gone. Finding all these -traces of different languages and peoples is sort of like geology.” - -“Yes,” Amy agreed, “and you can tell pretty well which groups came to -the neighborhood first and which ones followed, and which are the -latest. I’d say the Irish were first, and then the Rumanians and the -Russians, a lot of whom were Jewish, and finally the Puerto Ricans. Look -at that store!” - -She pointed to an old building with store windows lettered -“_Carnecería_,” which is Spanish for “butcher shop.” Over the windows -was a faded old signboard which the present tenants had neglected to -remove. Its gilt letters, nearly illegible, read, “A. Y. Ravotsky, -Inc.,” and on either side of the lettering, carved into the wood, was an -Irish shamrock and harp. - -“It’s like a one-stop history of New York!” Peggy said. “I’ll bet if you -dug underneath it you’d find Dutch shoes and Indian arrowheads!” - -A few blocks’ walk brought them to their first address. There was no -sign of a theater at all. In its place was a large, squat hospital; on -its cornerstone appeared the date it was built—1912. - -“Well, that takes care of Hewett’s Theater,” Peggy said sadly, crossing -off the name on her list. “Now let’s try the Emperor. It’s only two -blocks away.” - -The Emperor Theater was now effectively disguised as a Greek Orthodox -church, complete with a turnip-shaped steeple and a Russian signboard -outside. The next theater on the list was a large and gaudy caterer’s -hall, used for weddings, parties, lodge meetings, and dances, according -to its poster. The next two on the list had also totally disappeared, -giving way to a garage and an apartment house. - -“This is hardly encouraging,” Amy said. “I somehow feel already that -we’re on a wild-goose chase.” - -“Amy, this is no time to get discouraged!” Peggy said. “Why, we’ve only -gone to five places, and we’ve got nearly forty more on the list! And, -after all, it’s not as if we were looking for a dozen theaters. All we -want is one, so I don’t care if all but one prove to be shut or -converted. And we have to see them all, just in case it’s the last one -that turns out to be for us!” - -“That makes sense,” Amy agreed, “and I certainly don’t want to quit. -It’s just that I wish we had hit it right the first time!” - -“You’re a lazy girl,” Peggy reproached her. “Do you know the way I feel -about it? Even if we had found a good theater on our first call, I’d -still want to see everything else on the list, just to make sure that we -had the best one!” - -After some more walking, in which they found two more missing theaters -and one that had been converted to a funeral parlor, they decided to -stop for lunch in a delicatessen where sausages of every shape and size -hung like decorations from the ceiling. They sat at a small table near -open barrels of pickles, pickled tomatoes, and sauerkraut and stuffed -themselves with corned-beef sandwiches on fresh, fragrant rye bread -dotted with caraway seeds, homemade potato salad, cole slaw, and -pickles. Afterward, they felt much better, and more heartened for the -rest of the day’s search. - -As they worked their way downtown, the neighborhood began to change once -more, and the girls were unable to guess what might be the nationality -of the dark, strong-faced people they now saw about them. The signs on -the windows didn’t help either, being in a language they could not -identify. - -It might have remained a mystery, had they not been stopped by a -policeman who said, “What are a couple of nice-looking girls like you -doing in the Gypsy section? This is no place to sight-see, you know. I’d -advise you to take a guided tour.” - -“We’re not sight-seeing,” Peggy said. “We’re looking for an -address—actually for an old theater. Maybe you can help us. We want to -find the Burke Theater, if it still exists.” - -The policeman was puzzled until Peggy showed him the address, and then -he smiled broadly. “Well, you might just as well forget it,” he said. -“It might have been a theater once, but not any longer. The Settlement -House has it now, and it’s the local boys’ club, complete with a -gymnasium equipped for every sport. It’s done a lot of good in this -neighborhood, I can tell you.” - -Peggy and Amy thanked him, and then asked him about the Gypsies. They -hadn’t realized there were any in the city—or at least not enough to -make up a whole district. - -“It’s not a large district,” he said. “No more than a thousand or so, at -the most. At least that’s what they say, but it’s not easy getting them -to hold still to be counted. They’re good people, once you get to know -them. Only they speak a language nobody can understand, and their ways -are different. If I were you, I wouldn’t hang around here much.” - -Thanking him, the girls left, not without casting a few glances back -over their shoulders until they were sure they were clear of the area. - -The remaining theaters on their first day’s list were to the west of the -Gypsy district, and these too proved to offer nothing. The district they -now found themselves in was on the outskirts of Chinatown, and was half -Chinese and half mixed-New-York. Of the theaters on the list for this -part of town, one had been at one time a Chinese movie house, and was -now a Rescue Mission. Signboards in rusty black with large white -lettering warned sinners to repent, and offered soup and bread to anyone -who attended the services. From inside, the girls heard some wheezy -voices and an even wheezier organ sounding the plaintive notes of a -hymn. - -Peggy realized with a start that this was the Bowery, the sinister, -pathetic district inhabited by the poorest examples of humanity—those -who had almost resigned from the human race. Looking about her, she saw -tattered men in doorways, sleeping figures huddled under stairs, groups -of tough-looking tramps standing idly on street corners. She was -suddenly aware that she and Amy were the only women in sight. - -“Amy,” she said in a shaky voice, “I’m afraid we shouldn’t have come -here! This is the Bowery, and you remember what the guide said about it -when we took that bus trip. He called it the worst district of the -city!” - -“Oh dear!” Amy whispered, looking nervously about her. “What should we -do now?” - -“I think we’d better go,” Peggy said. “Chinatown starts right across the -street, and I remember what the guide said about that, too. He said not -to believe all the old mystery stories; Chinatown is just about the -safest place in the city. The Chinese have practically no criminals -among them, and any tourist is safe there. Let’s go!” - -Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, and doing all they could to -avoid the appearance of hurrying, Peggy and Amy crossed the street and -turned into a narrow alley between two Chinese food shops whose windows -were filled with things that neither girl could identify. - -Once more they were made aware of the sudden changeability of the city. -In no time at all, they were out of the frightening streets of the -Bowery and in the crowded, noisy, bright-colored center of Chinatown. -The streets, so narrow that in some places the sidewalks were scarcely a -foot wide, were lined with restaurants, gift shops, importing houses -that specialized in tea and spices, and more of the oddly stocked -Oriental groceries and markets. Somewhat shaken by their fear on the -Bowery, they stopped for tea and rice cookies in a large Chinese -restaurant, where they sat at a small table on a balcony overhanging the -main street of the district. - -“I think we’d better stop looking for theaters today,” Peggy suggested. -“Besides, it’s after five-thirty now, and almost time for dinner. Why -don’t we look around some of the shops here, and then come back to this -restaurant for dinner? We can look for theaters again tomorrow.” - -Amy agreed, but looked pained at the suggestion that they do more -searching the next day. “I don’t know how you can stand it,” she said. -“My feet are killing me from today’s walk. Why don’t we wait awhile?” - -“Because tomorrow’s Sunday,” Peggy replied firmly, “and it’s our last -chance to get in a full day’s looking before next week. After-school -hours just aren’t enough. If we really want to check out this whole -list, we have to work weekends.” - -Amy sighed. “My worst habit isn’t laziness,” she said, “it’s picking the -wrong kind of friends. If I had known, when we first met, how much -energy you have, I would have refused to know you!” - - - - - XIV - _The Hidden Theater_ - - -Sunday, like Saturday, produced one blank after another. - -Peggy and Amy saw theaters that had been turned into television studios, -union halls, social clubs, and lodges; theaters converted to restaurants -and supermarkets; sites of theaters long vanished and forgotten now -occupied by office buildings, apartment houses or the blank-faced, -featureless warehouses that fill much of lower Manhattan. - -On Monday, when their last class was over at two-thirty, Peggy once more -took up her list and her bundle of city maps and guides. “Let’s go, -Amy,” she said in tones of mixed determination and resignation. “We’ve -got a couple of hours this afternoon, and we might as well use them.” - -“Why don’t we take the afternoon off?” Amy asked. “My feet are just -killing me, and I’m sure if I walk for another two hours I’ll come down -with an awful blister. We can look again tomorrow, after a day’s rest.” - -Peggy considered the suggestion for a moment. It would be a relief to -take an afternoon off and just loaf about the house. But then she shook -her head. “No. If we don’t have any luck, we can take tomorrow off, but -I’d like to go out again today. There’s a meeting of the players tonight -at Connie’s, you know, and I’d love to be able to report that we found -something today. Let’s give it a try.” - -“All right, Peggy,” Amy agreed, “if you’re game, so am I. And it would -be nice to have some good news for the gang tonight. I’m just afraid -that we’ll put a damper on the evening when we show up all tired out -with some more of our usual bad news.” - -Peggy half agreed, but knew that if she gave in and let down her pace, -she might never again get up the kind of drive she had been working on -for the last week. With a deep breath and a determined expression, she -swept Amy off with her. - -“The section we’re looking in today,” she explained as they walked to -the subway, “is a little west and south of Greenwich Village. It’s -mostly warehouses now, but there were once several theaters there, and -since there’s been almost no new construction in the area in the last -fifty years, there’s a chance that some of the theaters have been left -alone. I’m particularly interested in two of them that I think have a -better chance of being there than the others we’ve looked for.” - -“Why should these two have a better chance?” Amy asked. - -“The licenses show that there were several theaters built in the city at -one time in a way that got around the fire laws. The law said that you -couldn’t build a theater with any other kind of space over it, and with -land so expensive, it kept a lot of people from building theaters. So a -few smart builders put theaters on the top floors of office buildings, -and got more rentable space on their ground that way. I’ve found permits -for over a dozen of these top-floor theaters.” - -“But why should they still be there,” Amy asked, “any more than any of -the other old theaters?” - -“Two reasons,” Peggy answered. “In the first place, nobody would want to -convert a top-floor theater to a restaurant or a garage or anything like -that. And in the second place, the district we’re going to has -practically no apartment buildings in it, and that means that there -aren’t residents in the neighborhood to want to use a theater for a -social club or a church or a funeral parlor. I have a feeling that we’re -going to find our theater here, if we find it anywhere.” - -Amy agreed with Peggy’s logic and further noted that, if they did find a -theater in this district, it would be a good location. There were two -subway lines that had stops on either side of the area, and several bus -lines as well. - -These observations gave them a somewhat more cheerful outlook, and it -was with a renewed sense of anticipation that they came up from the -subway and started their search in this promising new district. - -The streets in this part of town were narrow, and crowded with trucks -that were backed up at all angles to loading platforms that ran like -boardwalks along the fronts of the buildings. Most of the buildings were -produce markets where wholesale food merchants received the meats, -vegetables, fruits, and packaged goods that fed the city. Wide -protective canopies that overhung their fronts gave the loading -platforms the appearance of old-fashioned porches. Other buildings were -warehouses, obviously designed for storage. Their blank windowless walls -and heavy steel doors made them look like ancient fortresses. Here and -there, between these and the produce markets, stood the most familiar -kind of New York business building, the so-called “loft,” used for light -industry or, occasionally, offices. It was in front of one of these that -Peggy stopped. - -“Here’s our first address,” she said. “According to my list, a theater -was licensed here by the original construction permit in 1892.” - -Amy looked at the worn, red brick front, unconvinced. “A theater here? I -can’t imagine it! Maybe this place was built later, after the original -building with the theater was torn down.” - -Peggy shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I’ve gotten pretty good at -architecture in the last few days, and I think I can guess the date of a -New York building within a couple of years. This wasn’t built much later -than 1892. It must be the original building with the theater. Let’s see -if we can get any clue to it.” - -The girls walked across the street in order to get a better view of the -building and, as soon as they turned to look, Peggy’s eyes lighted. -“Look up!” she said. “There’s a theater up there, all right!” - -“How do you know?” Amy asked wonderingly. - -“Look at the windows! The first five floors have windows all the same -height—a normal ceiling height. But the top floor has windows that must -be twenty feet high! That means that the ceiling height is over twenty -feet up there. What else could it be but the theater?” - -“You must be right!” Amy agreed with excitement. “What do we do now?” - -“Let’s see if there’s a janitor or anyone who can tell us about it; if -it’s being used, and what for. Even if someone’s using it, we might be -able to rent it from him if we can pay him more than he’s paying now. -Let’s go and look!” - -They ran across the street and into the vestibule of the building, but -when Peggy tried the door, she found it locked. A small sign on the door -read O & O TRUCKING Co. And the same name was written over the bank of -mailboxes. Apparently there were no other tenants in the building, and -nobody seemed to be in the O & O offices. - -“We can always write to them,” Amy suggested, “or we can try them on the -phone until we find someone in.” - -“I guess we’ll have to,” Peggy agreed. But then she noticed the -doorbell, almost invisible under many layers of thick green paint. “Wait -a minute! Let’s see if the bell works. Maybe there’s a watchman, or -somebody else.” - - [Illustration: The door swung open] - -A push at the button produced a loud ringing from deep within the -building. Its sound seemed to echo for seconds after Peggy released the -button. - -“If there’s anybody in there, that’s going to bring him,” she said. -After a few minutes’ wait, she decided to try again. This time, at the -same instant that she touched the doorbell, the door swung open, -revealing a man in dirty overalls who stood blinking at the light and -regarding them with a scowl. - -“Whatta ya want?” he grated. - -“Are you the superintendent?” Peggy asked politely. - -“I’m the janitor. Whatta ya wanta know for?” - -“Well, we’re just wondering about the theater upstairs—” - -“Theater? Ain’t no theater here, kid,” the man growled, and started to -shut the door. - -“Wait!” Peggy said, holding the door open. “There is a theater upstairs! -We know there is! All I want to know is what it’s used for.” - -“It ain’t used for nothin’,” the janitor started angrily. Then he -stopped himself, remembering his first statement. “Besides, you got the -wrong place. Like I said, no theater here. Now beat it!” With an extra -push, he slammed the door shut, and Peggy and Amy once more were faced -with nothing more enlightening than the O & O sign. - -“Why, I’ve never in my life seen such awful manners!” Amy said, almost -with a stamp of her foot. “I’m going to write to that company as soon as -we get home and tell them about—” - -“Amy,” Peggy interrupted, “I think you’re getting excited about the -wrong thing. Let’s get away from here and talk this over.” - -But before leaving the district, she crossed the street once more to be -sure that she was not mistaken about the building. Her second look -convinced her that she had been right. Those windows could only mean a -high-ceilinged room of some sort, and the license clearly stated that it -had been a theater. - -“Amy, there’s just one thing to do now. We’ve got to check the city -records again, this time to see the plans of this building. Then, once -we’re sure it’s a theater, we’ve got some thinking to do before we act.” - -“But why would that janitor say there was no theater there if there is -one?” Amy said. - -“That’s the question,” Peggy agreed darkly. “I want to know why he said -that, and I want to know what the place is being used for.” - -“But, Peggy,” Amy protested, “why should we go poking into other -people’s business? We already know that they’re not going to rent us -this theater, and that they’re downright unpleasant people. Why don’t we -just cross this one off, and go look at the others on your list?” - -“Amy, you’re not thinking clearly,” Peggy said patiently. “It seems to -me that the only reason anyone would have for acting the way that -janitor did is that there’s something wrong going on in there—something -that makes it important for them to keep people out.” - -“If that’s the case,” Amy said reasonably, “why did the janitor act so -suspiciously? If he had just said that the theater’s been converted to -some other use and isn’t for rent, we would have gone away and not -thought a thing about it.” - -“That’s true,” Peggy agreed, “but I think we caught him off guard. After -all, it’s undoubtedly the first time anyone’s come around to ask him -about the theater, and he just didn’t know what to say. Besides, I don’t -think he’s very smart. He’s certainly not the man in charge of whatever -crooked business is going on in there.” - -“If you’re sure it’s something crooked, why don’t we just report it to -the police?” Amy asked. - -“We can’t go to the police with just our suspicions,” Peggy replied. -“They want some kind of indication that there’s something illegal before -they can investigate. In fact, I know they can’t even get a search -warrant without evidence. No, I’m afraid we’ll have to look into this on -our own.” - -“But, Peggy,” Amy protested, “we’re supposed to be looking for a -theater, not playing cops and robbers!” - -“This _is_ looking for a theater,” Peggy said intently. “If we uncover -something crooked going on in there, and if we can convince the police -of it, that building’s going to be vacant pretty soon. Come on! Let’s -dig up the plans for this place before the Bureau closes for the night! -I want to see what kind of stage the group is going to have to play on!” - - - - - XV - _The Stage Door_ - - -This time, knowing the name and address of the theater, and knowing -exactly what they were looking for, the girls had little trouble finding -the file set of plans for the theater, kept with the Fire Department as -a record of the seating plan, capacity, and exits. - -Mason’s Starlight Theater, as the place had originally been called, had -a good working stage plan, not too wide, but with extraordinarily good -depth. It accommodated four hundred seats, which was a small auditorium -by Broadway standards, but larger than most of the off-Broadway houses. -Wing and fly space was generous, to allow for easy movement of scenery -off to the sides (or wings) or up on ropes and pulleys to the flies. The -dressing rooms were small, but they were well located. It seemed to Amy -and Peggy like the perfect jewelbox of a theater that they had dreamed -of since they had started their search. - -The entrance to the theater, they found, was not through the street door -of the loft building, but down an L-shaped alley that ran alongside the -building and, when it turned, opened into a sort of courtyard. Playgoers -had been taken up to the top floor on an oversized freight elevator -which also had served for bringing in scenery and props, and which was -rated to carry fifty passengers at once. Two additional exits were -provided by fire-escapes outside the building. There was no way to enter -or leave the theater from the rest of the building, and the elevator -stopped only at the theater level. The loft floors were served by a -regular-sized passenger elevator reached through the front hall. - -“Well, it looks just perfect,” Peggy said triumphantly. “Now all we have -to do is find out what it’s being used for, expose it, and move in when -the crooks move out!” - -“I think you’re jumping to conclusions,” Amy said. “It seems to me that -the janitor might actually not have known about the theater. After all, -it can’t be reached through the building, and if he’s never been told -about the back elevator, or never been allowed to use it, he might not -know what’s up there.” - -“Maybe,” Peggy said doubtfully, “but it seemed to me that he looked -awfully guilty about something. I’m sure he’s part of whatever’s going -on there.” - -Amy protested. “That’s just the point! Maybe there’s nothing going on -there! Maybe the janitor doesn’t know about the theater, and it’s not -being used by crooks, but just sitting up there empty, gathering dust! -Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” - -“It sure would,” Peggy agreed, “but I don’t think we’re that lucky. Of -course we could look up the name of the owner of the building and ask -him about the theater, but if it is a crooked game, and if the owner is -in on it.... No. I don’t think that’s the way to do it.” - -“How do you think we should handle it, then?” Amy asked. - -“I think we ought to go back to the place right now,” Peggy said, -“before it gets dark. I want to look around that back alley and theater -entrance just to see if we can pick up any clues. Then we’ll talk it -over with the boys and listen to their ideas.” - -“I can believe that you’ll talk it over with them,” Amy laughed, “but I -have my doubts about your listening to anybody’s ideas! Still, I said -I’d go theater hunting with you, and I’m not going to back out now!” - -By the time they had turned in their plans and charts to the file clerk -and returned to the loft-theater building, it was almost six o’clock. -Most of the trucks that had filled the streets were gone now, not to -return until after midnight, when the produce market would open for one -more business “day.” A few of the offices, small manufacturing -businesses and printing shops that filled the surrounding lofts, were -still open, judging by the lights in their windows, but for the most -part the streets and buildings were empty in the pearly twilight. - -Making every effort to be inconspicuous, the girls ducked down the alley -to the rear courtyard entrance of the Starlight Theater. A miniature -marquee bearing the name “Mason’s” overhung a short flight of stairs -that led up to a loading platform, at the back of which was a wide, high -elevator door with pillars on either side. Above it, a plaster arch was -decorated with the twin masks of Comus—comedy and tragedy. - -“Do you still think that the janitor didn’t know there was a theater in -the building?” Peggy whispered. “He’d have had to be blind as well as -dumb.” - -Walking very quietly, the girls ascended the steps and approached the -huge elevator door. “Look!” Peggy whispered, pointing to the metal -doorsill. Amy nodded, clearly understanding the meaning of the bright -metal. - -“It’s being used regularly,” Peggy said. “You can see where the sill is -dark and rusted toward the sides, and bright in the center, where people -have been walking over it.” - -“And the lock!” Amy said. She and Peggy examined the heavy padlock that -secured the door to the frame by stout hasps. It was bright and clean, -of modern design and well-oiled. Any further doubts they might have had -were dispelled by examination of the door hinges, which were coated with -a heavy layer of fresh grease. - -“Not only is the theater in use,” Peggy whispered, “but whoever is using -it is being awfully careful that he doesn’t make any noise opening and -shutting these doors. Are you convinced now?” - -Amy nodded, wide-eyed. “I surely am. And I’m convinced that we’d better -get out of here before the man with the keys comes along! I’d hate to be -caught snooping around!” - -Feeling not in the least as calm as she hoped she looked, Peggy motioned -Amy to wait while she took a last look around to be sure that there was -nothing she had missed. Then, her heart beating wildly, she and Amy left -the alley as cautiously as they had entered it. But neither of them felt -really safe until they were blocks away, and on their way to Connie’s -for the meeting of the players. - -“We seem to be practically living in alleys,” Amy said as they let -themselves in through the street gate and started down the passage to -Connie’s little house. - -“Yes, but I feel a lot better in this one than in the last,” Peggy said. -“When we get the theater, we’ll have to fix up that alley like this one, -with flower borders and lights to make it cheerful. We can fix up the -courtyard, too, with a little fountain and some garden seats and—” - -“You’re awfully confident about getting that theater,” Amy interrupted. -“I hope that you’re not going to be disappointed.” - -“I won’t be,” Peggy said. “I know that it was just meant for us, and I -mean to make sure that we get it!” - -Connie let the girls in, and while they were saying hello to her and the -others, the buzzer announced the arrival of Tom Galen and Mona Downs. - -“I’m so glad everyone’s here at once!” Peggy said. “We’re so full of -news that if we had to wait for anyone, I think we’d burst!” - -“Don’t tell us you’ve found a theater!” Randy exclaimed. - -“I will tell you,” Peggy answered, “because we did!” - -“What’s wrong with it?” Mal asked. - -“Where is it?” Connie said at the same time. - -“And how much is it?” Randy put in, in the same instant. - -“Whoa! One at a time!” Peggy protested. “If everybody will get settled -and hold the questions for a few minutes, I’ll tell you all about it. -Now,” she said, when the players were seated in expectant attitudes, -“now I’ll tell you everything you want to know. It’s called Mason’s -Starlight Theater; it’s on the top floor of a loft in the market area -southwest of Greenwich Village; we don’t know the rent; it’s a perfect -theater, just the right size, and—.” - -“I feel a _but_ coming, rather than an _and_,” Randy said. - -“Well, only a small _but_,” Peggy said. “The place happens to be in use -right now.” - -“Great,” Mal said sarcastically. “You can now add your name to the long -list of those among us who have located perfect theaters that happen to -be in use!” - -“Wait!” Peggy said. “This is different. In the first place, nobody will -admit to using it; in the second place, we think there’s something -crooked going on there; and if we do a little bit of detective work, I -think we can find out what it is. If I’m right, and if it’s being used -by crooks, we can get the theater for ourselves by getting the crooks -out!” - -Their interest aroused by this unusual statement, the players began to -question Peggy and Amy about their suspicions and about the -circumstances that surrounded their discovery of the Starlight Theater. -When the girls had told them about their interview with the janitor, and -about their later visit to the alley behind the building, everyone -seemed convinced that there was something peculiar going on at the -place. - -“The polished doorsill and the greased hinges and the new lock prove -that it’s being used,” Peggy concluded. “And the janitor’s attitude -seems to indicate that it’s being used for something illegal.” - -“It sounds like an airtight case to me,” Pip said. “Why don’t we just -take the facts to the police and let them investigate?” - -“Because there are no facts yet,” Peggy said. “All we have are guesses. -There must be thousands of places in use in the city, and thousands of -janitors who don’t want to be friendly and tell what they’re used for, -and I don’t think that the police would be willing to agree that they’re -all run by gangsters.” - -“Peggy’s right. We can’t go to the police without more evidence,” Randy -said. “Before they’ll swear out a search warrant, we have to have -something more definite for them.” - -“Then let’s get it!” Pip said with enthusiasm. “What do you suggest, -Peggy?” - -“I think we ought to set up a lookout post in that back alley,” she -answered decisively. “There’s a place under the fire stairs on the far -side of the building where two people could hide and see without being -seen, and it shouldn’t take more than a couple of nights of looking to -find out what’s going on.” - -“Why nights?” Randy asked. “They might be doing whatever it is they do -in the daytime, too. I’m afraid we’d have to set up a twenty-four-hour -watch to be sure of finding anything out.” - -“I don’t think so, Randy,” Peggy argued. “If they were using the place -by day, they probably wouldn’t have taken so much care with the hinges. -What’s more, I’m sure the janitor was sleeping when we rang the bell, -which is why he took so long in answering it. I would guess that he -works at night with the rest of the gang. Besides, that neighborhood -would be perfect for night work. The markets are practically deserted -between six and midnight. Probably after midnight, when the markets open -up, the crooks run a legitimate trucking business as a cover-up.” - -“The girl’s a positive Sherlock,” Mal said fondly. “Anyway, we can try a -few nights, and if nothing shows up, we can then worry about extending -the watch during the daytime as well.” - -“When do we start?” Tom Galen asked. - -“Tomorrow night,” Peggy said. “It’s too late to start tonight. We’d want -to be in the alley and under the stairs before it gets really dark. -Tomorrow Amy and I will stand watch, then—” - -“Oh, no, you don’t!” Randy said. “You two have done your part in this. -The lookout work will be done by men!” - -“You’re probably right,” Peggy said, outwardly reluctant to give in, but -secretly happy that she wouldn’t have to spend nights crouching under -those dark stairs and waiting for heaven only knew what. - -“I’ll go tomorrow,” Pip said. - -“I’ll go with you,” Tom Galen said. “We’d better go two at a time, at -least for the purpose of having two witnesses to anything we see.” - -“Good. Randy and I will go the next night,” Mal said. “We can alternate -from there.” - -Everything arranged, Mal tried to turn the group to the original purpose -of the meeting, which was to work on further readings of the play. He -soon realized that everyone was too keyed up to concentrate, and -canceled work for the night. - -“I think, in fact, that we’d better forget about rehearsals entirely,” -he said, “at least until we have this theater business settled one way -or the other. For one thing, we’re going to need all the sleep we can -get on the nights that we’re not standing watch.” - -Everyone agreed, and in varying states of tension and excitement, said -good night and parted, knowing that the next few days might be very, -very busy. - - - - - XVI - _Understudies for Danger_ - - -School the next day seemed almost unreal to Peggy. Or was it the dark -alley and the night watch to come that was the unreal thing? Considered -carefully, nothing seemed quite real, even her home and her parents in -the neat, orderly world of Rockport. A ride on Socks around the autumn -fields of Wisconsin would clear her mind, she thought, or just an hour -alone in her favorite thinking spot in the harness room. - -Her thoughts, shuttling restlessly between the friendly barn and the -now-sinister alley, were definitely not on her work, which was a lecture -session on television acting technique. - -At lunch in the park, the discussion centered on the night’s work that -waited for Pip and Tom Galen. It all seemed very melodramatic. - -“I’ve arranged with Tom,” Pip was saying, “to meet me downtown a little -before six. We’re both going to wear black slacks and sweaters, and -we’ll take black gloves. That way, we ought to melt into the shadows -perfectly.” - -“How about your faces?” Connie giggled. “Are you going to go in -blackface like a couple of Al Jolsons?” - -“We considered it,” Pip said seriously, “but we decided that it wasn’t -necessary. If anyone comes, we’ll hold our gloved hands over our faces, -and look through our fingers.” - -“I must say you’ve thought of everything,” Amy said in admiration. - -“Everything,” Pip echoed gloomily, “except what to do if we get caught. -We even worked out something about that, but I don’t know how good it -is.” - -“What have you worked out?” Peggy asked. - -“We’re supposed to call Randy at one in the morning to tell him that -we’re going off duty. If we don’t call by then, he’s supposed to call -the police. Tomorrow night, he and Mal will call me at one.” - -“That sounds sensible,” Peggy commented. - -“Sure. Sensible. But if they catch us, say, at ten o’clock, we could be -in some pretty bad trouble by the time the police come around after -one.” - -Feeling that this line of conversation was doing them no good at all, -Peggy tried, with little success, to change the subject. By the time -lunch was over and they had returned to the Academy, all four of them -felt thoroughly depressed. - -Somehow, Peggy got through the afternoon. - -And somehow, she got through the night, but it was scarcely a restful -one. She lay awake until one o’clock worrying about Pip and Tom, and -finally, at one-fifteen, called Randy. He answered at the first ring, -quite awake. - -“Did they call?” she asked. - -“At one o’clock sharp,” he assured her. “They haven’t seen anything at -all, and they’re perfectly all right. Now get some sleep. Good night.” - -Feeling relieved, Peggy went back to bed, but it was not easy to sleep. -What had seemed such a good idea yesterday was beginning to seem foolish -today. The boys were engaging in unknown risks, and nobody knew what -dangers they might encounter. Perhaps they should have gone to the -police in the first place, and tried to convince them that something was -amiss. Perhaps they should still do so.... - -Finally, she slept, troubled by vague, unpleasant dreams. - -The next day, her doubts grew stronger. Pip appeared at school late, -looking like a molting owl. He had rings under his eyes and seemed not -to have slept at all. - -“We decided to stay on until daylight,” he explained wanly, “just in -case your idea that any action would take place between six and twelve -was wrong. Nothing happened, and we left at five-thirty in the morning.” - -“But, Pip!” Peggy protested. “That’s a twelve-hour watch! You shouldn’t -be in school today!” - -“It’s all right,” he assured her with a weak smile. “I’m rested. Slept -from six until nearly nine.” - -He tackled his work gamely, but by noon agreed with Peggy that the -wisest course would be to cut school for the afternoon and go home to -sleep. - -“Remember,” she cautioned him, “you have to set your alarm clock for one -in the morning, in case you don’t get a call from Randy and Mal.” - -“I’m going to do better than that,” Pip said. “I’m going to shut off the -bell on my telephone so I can sleep straight through to midnight. Then -I’ll have the alarm wake me, so I can turn the phone on, and I’ll set -the alarm for one o’clock then.” - -Pip left, somewhat unsteadily, and Peggy went to her afternoon class on -Elizabethan drama. She forced herself to concentrate, knowing that she -would have more than enough time that night to worry about the mystery -of the alley, and to speculate on what troubles the second night watch -might bring. - - -It was five-thirty and teatime at the Gramercy Arms when the troubles -began. - -“Your redheaded boy friend’s on the phone for you, Peggy,” Greta -announced from the head of the stairs. “He sounds worried.” - -Hurriedly putting down her teacup, Peggy ran from the kitchen and up to -the phone in the hall. - -“Randy,” she said. “Is something wrong?” - -“I’m afraid so, Peggy,” he answered. “Nothing serious, but I’m afraid -that Mal and I are going to be hopelessly late for our watch tonight, -and unless you want to take a chance on missing whatever action might -take place in the alley, Pip and Tom are going to have to cover it -again. At least for the first few hours.” - -“What happened?” she asked. “Where are you?” - -“It’s my car,” he answered. “I had to go out to my family’s place on -Long Island to get some stuff, and Mal came along for the ride. We -thought we’d have plenty of time, but on the way back, the car broke -down. We’re in the middle of nowhere, and the trouble will take at least -another hour to fix. That means that we couldn’t possibly be at the -alley until about seven-thirty, and, to tell the truth, eight or nine -would be more like it. Will you get hold of Pip and Tom and tell them -the sad news?” - -Peggy agreed, wished him good luck with the car, and hung up. - -Pip’s phone didn’t answer, and after ringing for several minutes, Peggy -remembered his decision to shut off the bell until midnight. She next -tried the midtown hotel where Tom Galen lived, but he was not in his -room, and the desk clerk had not seen him for several hours. - -Hurrying downstairs to the kitchen and her now cold cup of tea, she -broke the news to Amy. - -“Well, maybe nothing will happen before eight or nine,” Amy said -hopefully, but not looking too convinced. - -“I’m afraid that if anything is going to happen, that’s just about the -time for it,” Peggy said. “The neighborhood doesn’t really empty out -until after six, and it starts to get busy again a little before -midnight. If I wanted to do any work in that alley, I think I’d plan to -arrive by eight and leave by ten, if it could be done.” - -“Nothing happened last night,” Amy said, “so maybe nothing will happen -tonight either.” - -“I’m going to have to disagree again. Just because nothing happened last -night, I think that we stand a better chance of seeing something -tonight. Judging from the used condition of that doorsill, whoever’s -using the place doesn’t let too much time go by between visits.” - -“But what can we do about it?” Amy said. “With Randy and Mal out on Long -Island, and Pip and Tom unreachable, that leaves only us.” - -“I know,” Peggy said firmly. “And that’s who’s going to go tonight!” - -“Oh, Peggy! Do you think we ought to?” Amy asked. “I mean, it might be -dangerous, and we are a couple of girls, and....” - -“This is no time to play the feminine Southern belle,” Peggy said. “We -have to go. And besides, there’s no danger. It’s not as if we’ll be -seen, or as if we meant to rush out and stop the crooks if we see them! -We’ll just hide under the stairs and watch. Anyway, even if you don’t -want to go, you can’t stop me.” - -“That settles it,” Amy said with conviction. “You’re not going to go to -that place alone. When do we start?” - -“Right now!” Peggy said eagerly. “It’s almost six o’clock, and we -haven’t got too much time to get there before it’s dark. Come on! We -have to get dressed for the occasion!” - - - - - XVII - _Backstage Fright_ - - -Peggy giggled uneasily as she and Amy inspected themselves in the hall -mirror before leaving the Gramercy Arms. “We look like a couple of -character actors dressed up for a skit on the Beat Generation.” - -“Or like a couple of weird vampires from a horror movie,” Amy replied -with a nervous laugh. - -Greta surveyed them critically. “At least you don’t have to worry about -anything,” she said acidly. “Those getups would frighten off any man in -the world. If the crooks do catch sight of you, all it’ll take is one -look before they scream and run!” - -Both girls were dressed identically, having taken their cue from Pip in -the matter of appropriate clothes for playing detective in a dark alley. -They wore black skirts and sweaters, black stockings and black shoes. -They carried black gloves and black scarves. The scarf was necessary for -Amy to cover her bright, blond hair, and Peggy thought it was a good -idea for her to take one, too, as a face covering. Neither wore any -jewelry at all, so there would be nothing to rattle or jingle or catch -the light. - -“If we’re not back by morning,” Peggy said wryly, “send out the -bloodhounds for us.” - -“I’m waiting up for you,” Greta said. “And if you’re not back by -one-thirty, the first bloodhound to pick up your trail is going to be -me. With an appropriate police escort,” she added. - -“Don’t worry,” Peggy said. “We’ll be all right. Just wish us luck, and -we’ll be on our way.” - -“All right, then. Good luck,” Greta said, opening the door for them. “I -just hope the police don’t pick you up, for looking like suspicious -characters.” - -Peggy and Amy left, feeling a little foolish about their costumes, but -after walking for a block or two, they realized that nobody was even -looking at them. - -“That’s the wonderful thing about New York,” Peggy said. “You can wear -anything, or do anything, and nobody seems to care as long as you don’t -disturb the peace.” - -Amy nodded in agreement. “The other day I noticed a man with a beard -down to his waist. He was wearing a long Biblical-looking white robe and -a pair of sandals, and nobody on the street was paying the least bit of -attention to him. Just try to picture him passing unnoticed in Pine -Hollow or in Rockport!” - -“Just try to picture us passing unnoticed in Pine Hollow or in -Rockport!” Peggy laughed. “We’d probably have a crowd of people and -barking dogs and small boys throwing stones by now!” - -The driver scarcely glanced at them as they boarded a bus. - -“I suppose it’s nice to know that nobody bothers about you in New York,” -Peggy said when they were seated, “but in a way it’s kind of scary. I -mean, supposing something were to happen to us, do you think that anyone -would even notice it if we screamed?” - -Amy shivered. “I know what you mean,” she said. “I suppose a lot of -people would notice it, and then they’d just put it out of their minds -and do nothing about it. They’d just figure it was none of their -business, after all, and go right on doing what they were doing.” - -The thought was not a happy one, and both girls lapsed into a tense -silence as the bus bore them downtown into the deepening twilight. - -They got off in a district of office buildings, shops, and showrooms, -all dark now. The streets were empty, save for an occasional car or taxi -and the taillights of their bus, receding in the distance. As they -turned to the west, down a narrow side street, the street lights came -on. They seemed to accentuate the darkness rather than relieve it. The -girls hurried on past closed doors and shuttered windows. Each block -they walked brought them past older and lower buildings. The smell of -the river was brought to them by an incoming mist. Somewhere in the -distance a foghorn sounded two short, mournful blasts and then was -still. - -They were in the market and warehouse district now. Parked trucks stood -silently by darkened loading docks, and shadows crouched behind tall -stacks of crates and boxes. One shadow suddenly detached itself from the -rest and shot by them with a wail! Peggy’s heart leaped and she clutched -Amy’s arm before she realized it was only an alley cat. - - [Illustration: One shadow suddenly detached itself from the rest] - -“A cat!” she exclaimed, her voice trembling in mixed fear and relief. -“Just a cat! Oh dear, if I let that sort of thing scare me, I’m not -going to be much good tonight!” - -“I ... I was frightened, too,” Amy said. “It was so sudden! We’ll -probably see more of them here, chasing the rats that must live around -these food markets. We’d better get used to it.” - -But the thought of rats did nothing to calm Peggy’s nerves, or Amy’s -either. What if, in the alley behind the theater, rats should come? What -if they should come at the same time as the crooks? What if, under the -fire stairs, there should come a quiet scratching...? Peggy wondered if -she would be able to keep her silence then. - -But they were near the theater alley now, and Peggy resolutely put her -fear of rats out of her mind. Let’s just worry about one thing at a -time, she told herself. The street was deserted, as she had hoped it -would be, and they were able to slip into the alley unobserved. - -They walked cautiously, taking care with each step. If there was any -work going on in the alley now, this would be no time to disturb it. -Before turning the corner into the back court, they paused and listened -for what seemed a very long time. Not a sound disturbed the night. The -immediate silence was so perfect that they could hear, far in the -distance, the never-ending rumble and stir of the city, the growl of -subways and motors, the far-off drone of airplanes. - -They turned into the empty courtyard, darted noiselessly for the fire -stairs and crouched in the shadows, their hearts drumming loudly and the -blood roaring in their ears like the noise of the distant subways. - -It was some time before they felt calm enough to take stock of their -position. The fire stair was, as Peggy had told the boys, a perfect -place to hide. Most of it mounted out of sight in an airshaft on the -side of the building opposite the entrance alley. Only the last six -steps came out into the court, having turned the corner of the building -at a landing. The space below the landing made a cramped little lean-to, -protected by the steps themselves on one side and by a latticework of -metal on the other. The space was open only in the rear, from which -direction nobody could approach them. - -The steps themselves were steel, and the risers between the steps were -of the same metal grillwork as that on the side. It was almost -impossible for anyone to see into the shadowed cubbyhole behind the -grill, but quite an easy matter for the girls to see out. - -“I think we’re safe enough here,” Peggy whispered, tactfully restraining -herself from adding, “as long as no rats come around.” - -“It seems safe,” Amy agreed, “but I wouldn’t exactly call it -comfortable. It’s too low to stand in, and I hate the thought of sitting -down on the dirt that’s collected here. There’s a box out there in the -courtyard. Why don’t we bring it in to sit on?” - -“Better not,” Peggy answered. “Someone may remember having seen it -there, and if it’s missing, it might give them the idea that somebody’s -been here. And we don’t want anyone to get ideas like that.” - -Amy agreed reluctantly with the sense of Peggy’s argument, and shifted -her position. “No wonder Pip was so tired,” she whispered. “A whole -twelve hours of crouching like this must be a terrible thing to go -through! We’ve only been here for about fifteen minutes, and I’m -beginning to get pins and needles already.” - -The next hour and a half, spent mostly in silence, and in trying to get -used to the cramped position beneath the stairs, passed by with terrible -slowness. Every so often, the roar of a truck would be heard in the -street, and the girls would grow tense, waiting for it to turn into the -alley. But it always went by, leaving an even deeper silence behind it. - -“It’s almost time for Randy and Mal to come,” Peggy whispered. “I don’t -envy them their night, but I’ll sure be glad to get out of here!” - -“So will—quiet! I hear another truck,” Amy said. - -Quietly shifting into new positions of comparative comfort, the girls -held their breath and waited to hear the sound of the truck passing the -alley. But this one didn’t pass. - -A bright beam of headlights swept down the alley and lighted up the -court as the truck turned in off the street. - -“Those headlights!” Peggy whispered. “When they turn the corner into the -court, they’re bound to light up this whole stairway!” - -“Just hope the driver doesn’t look this way!” Amy whispered in return. - -But before the truck came into sight, the headlights were switched off, -and the driver came in under the soft glow of the parking lamps. The -truck was an ordinary-looking, box-body affair, a little shabby, dented, -and in need of both a washing and a paint job. Faded, once-gold letters -high up on its side read “O & O TRUCKING Co.” The forlorn appearance of -the truck was belied by the soft, powerful sound of its well-tuned -engine as it turned into the alley and was expertly backed up to the -loading platform. - -Two men silently leaped out of the cab and carefully closed the doors. -Moving on rubber-soled shoes, they climbed onto the platform, unlocked -the rear doors of the truck and swung them back. A third man, holding a -rifle in his hand, stepped out of the truck. - -“Okay,” he said quietly. “You get the stuff out, and I’ll keep watch.” - -He jumped lightly down and stationed himself at the corner by the alley, -his rifle held ready, while the other men unlocked the elevator doors -and opened them. - -They worked swiftly and quietly in the darkness, which was relieved only -by a very dim work light mounted in the truck body. By its pale glow, -Peggy and Amy saw only an anonymous series of boxes being transferred -from the truck to the elevator. There was no way to tell what they held -but, Peggy thought, it couldn’t have been anything legal—not if it had -to be loaded secretly at night and under an armed guard. - -Thinking of the armed guard, she suddenly shivered with fright as a new -thought came to her. The boys! Randy and Mal! What if they should choose -this moment to make their appearance? The man with the rifle stood -motionless and poised for action. Peggy was sure he would not hesitate -to shoot anyone who walked into that alley. Biting her lip and holding -tightly to the steel support of the stair, she prayed that Randy’s -engine would give him more trouble, or that they would run into heavy -traffic or want to stop for dinner or ... or anything! Anything to keep -them from coming here until the truckmen had finished their business and -gone. - -At least she was not kept long in suspense. The men were quick and -efficient, and their cargo was not a very large one. In a very few -minutes, the elevator was loaded and, with a smooth whir not at all like -the Academy elevators, it ascended to the theater. It returned not long -after, emptied of its crates, and the workmen shut off the mechanism, -swung the doors closed, and clicked the lock on them. - -The watchman with the rifle nodded his approval, climbed back into the -rear of the truck and once more allowed himself to be locked in. Without -a word, the truckmen took their places in the cab, soundlessly shut the -doors, and the battered truck swung smoothly into the courtyard, backed -up, and turned down the alley. - -It seemed like the first time in ten minutes that Peggy had breathed. - -“I was frightened to death that the boys would come!” she said. - -“That’s all I could think of, too,” Amy whispered in a shaky voice. - -“Now all I want is for them to come fast!” Peggy said. “We’ve got all -the evidence we need for the police, I think, and I just want to get out -of here!” - -“If we do get this theater for our play,” Amy said, “I wonder if I’ll -feel good about it. I’m afraid I’ll never feel quite right about this -place after tonight!” - -“Oh, we’ll make it all over,” Peggy said with enthusiasm. “We’ll put -bright lights in the little marquee, and we’ll put up lighted theater -posters on the walls, and I think we could paint the wall behind the -loading platform white with gilt trim on the pillars on each side of the -elevator. Then, if we can find a fountain for the court, the way I -suggested before, and maybe a few stone benches, we—Oh!” She gave a -start of fright as a male voice laughed close to her ear. - -“Just like a woman!” Randy said. “Supposed to be keeping a lookout, and -you’re decorating an alley! But where are Pip and Tom? And what are you -doing here? And—” - -“We’ll tell you everything over coffee,” Peggy said. “Oh, Randy! It’s -all over! We’ve got our crooks—and they’re crooks all right—and we’ve -got our theater, I’m sure—and I’m so glad you didn’t come ten minutes -earlier, and.... Oh, let’s get out of here!” - -“Let’s,” Mal said. “This is hardly my idea of a place for a date! Amy, -take my arm. I have a feeling you need it. And Randy, get a firm grip on -Peggy, if you please.” - -“Stop directing, Mal,” Randy laughed. “I think I’ve already written this -scene quite nicely, and the hero has the heroine well in hand!” - - - - - XVIII - _Forecast—Fair!_ - - -Seated at the desk in her room, Peggy selected a fresh sheet of paper. -She was on the fifth page of a letter to her friend Jean Wilson. - - -So you see I was right. There _were_ crooks using the theater all the -time. The next day, Amy and I told the police what we had seen in the -alley, and I think they were really pleased, even though they did bawl -us out for poking around in police affairs. At that, they admitted that -if we had come to them the first time with nothing but suspicions, they -probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Anyway, they put a -guard under the stairs and stationed some more policemen around, and two -nights later they caught the gang. - -It seems they were hijackers, which means that they held up trucks on -the road and stole valuable cargo from them. They were using the theater -as a warehouse for the stolen goods until they could dispose of them in -whatever way crooks get rid of stolen goods. When the police searched -the place, they found thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of furs -and silverware and liquor and appliances and all sorts of things. The -cartons that we saw them unload the night we were there turned out to -contain nylon stockings, and they were worth about twenty thousand -dollars, which is an awful lot of nylon stockings. - -The police say we’re going to get a big reward from the insurance -people. The boys wanted to give it all to me, but I refused it. I’m -going to give it to the players’ group, which really means to Randy and -Mal, to rent the theater on a long-term lease and to fix it up properly. -They said once before that they didn’t want to be in the real estate -business, but I think that they’re changing their minds about that. - -The police got in touch with the owner of the building, who is retired -and has been living in Florida for a long time. He didn’t know anything -about what was going on in the theater and was quite grateful that we -had gotten his crooked tenants out of the place. It seems he has been so -long away from the New York real-estate scene, that he didn’t know his -property was in demand as a theater. He says it hasn’t been used as one -for over fifty years! Of course, he could get more money renting it as a -theater than as a warehouse, but he says he doesn’t need more money, and -we need a theater. He has offered it to us on a ten-year lease for the -same rent he was getting before. - -Randy says that the rent is so low that even a moderately successful -season would give him and Mal enough profit to live on comfortably, so -they’re now beginning to talk about becoming managers, doing their own -shows and, when they don’t happen to have a show for a particular -season, renting the theater to other groups. - -What’s more, the rent covers the whole building, and the boys are -thinking of turning part of it into apartments for themselves, and the -rest of it into apartments for other young actors, something like a -Gramercy Arms for boys! - -Incidentally, the theater is beautiful. The police let us in to take a -look at it today, and even with all those boxes and crates and fur coats -and things stacked around, we could see how nice it is. It’ll need new -seats, I’m afraid, and a new lighting system and a switchboard and a -curtain and loads of other things, but the reward money will more than -cover all that. And we even have a name for it—the Penthouse Theater. -How does that strike you? I only hope you can come to New York to see it -when it’s all ready. - -Or, better than that, plan to come to New York next season when, with -luck, I might have a part in a play there. One of the things I like best -about Randy and Mal is that, even though they’re just bursting with -gratitude and they keep calling me a heroine, they haven’t tried to ‘pay -me off’ by offering me a part in the play. I’m still going to help just -by painting scenery and selling ads in the program and running errands -and things like that. This way, I know that if I ever get a part in one -of their plays, it will be because I deserve it as an actress. - -Another thing I like about Randy is that he’s coming to take me out -again tonight. Which reminds me—I’d better sign off now, before Irene -and Amy install themselves in the bathrooms! - -Do you suppose that’s what they mean when they say that one of the most -important things for an actress to learn is timing? - - More next time from - Peggy - - [Illustration: Endpapers] - - - [Illustration: Back cover] - - - - - PEGGY FINDS THE THEATER - - -As far back as she can remember, Peggy Lane—young, pretty, and -talented—has wanted to become an actress. Ambitious but realistic, Peggy -knows her name isn’t going to be in lights immediately but finally -persuades her cautious parents to let her spend a year in New York to -try to gain a foothold in the fabled world of the theater. - -Peggy’s first big test is an audition at the New York Dramatic Academy, -whose eccentric director will decide whether she shows sufficient -promise to be accepted for professional training. Meanwhile, Peggy -becomes friends with Randy Brewster, a young playwright, and Mal Seton, -who will direct Randy’s experimental play if and when they can find an -off-Broadway theater in which to produce it. Peggy eagerly volunteers to -help in their desperate search and, exploring the byways of the city for -a forgotten theater, unwittingly stumbles into a mysterious and -dangerous situation. - -The launching of Peggy’s career, her struggle to make her dreams become -a reality, is a delightful and heart-warming story. - - - _Peggy Lane Theater Stories_ - - Peggy Finds the Theater - Peggy Plays Off-Broadway - Peggy Goes Straw Hat - Peggy on the Road - - - _Peggy Lane Theater Series_ - - By VIRGINIA HUGHES - - [Illustration: Back cover] - -Peggy Lane, the young heroine of this exciting new series, is an -aspiring and talented actress. Her adventures as a drama student in New -York City, and her slow climb to success, with dedicated young theater -people like herself, make the theme of this inspiring new career series -for girls. - - 1 PEGGY FINDS THE THEATER - 2 PEGGY PLAYS OFF-BROADWAY - 3 PEGGY GOES STRAW HAT - 4 PEGGY ON THE ROAD - - GROSSET & DUNLAP _Publishers_ NEW YORK - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - ---Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public - domain in the country of publication. - ---In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the - HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.) - ---Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and - dialect unchanged. - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Peggy Finds the Theatre, by Virginia Hughes - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY FINDS THE THEATRE *** - -***** This file should be named 55933-0.txt or 55933-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/9/3/55933/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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