hamateur!' she hissed as she went past, and the next instant she was on the stage, graciously bowing to the audience, while the small, dark man twirled extravagantly about on his tiptoes.
'Hello, girls!'
This greeting, drawled with an inimitable vocal caress in every syllable, close in her ear, caused Edna to give a startled little jump. A smooth-faced, moon-faced young man was smiling at her good-naturedly. His 'make-up' was plainly that of the stock tramp of the stage, though the inevitable whiskers were lacking.
'Oh, it don't take a minute to slap'm on,' he explained, divining the search in her eyes and waving in his hand the adornment in question. 'They make a feller sweat,' he explained further. And then, 'What's yer turn?'
'Soprano—sentimental,' she answered, trying to be offhand and at ease.
'Whata you doin' it for?' he demanded directly.
'For fun; what else?' she countered.
'I just sized you up for that as soon as I put eyes on you. You ain't graftin' for a paper, are you?'
'I never met but one editor in my life,' she replied evasively, 'and I, he—well, we didn't get on very well together.'
'Hittin' 'm for a job?'
Edna nodded carelessly, though inwardly anxious and cudgelling her brains for something to turn the conversation.
'What'd he say?'
'That eighteen other girls had already been there that week.'
'Gave you the icy mit, eh?' The moon-faced young man laughed and slapped his thighs. 'You see, we're kind of suspicious. The Sunday papers 'd like to get Amateur Night done up brown in a nice little package, and the manager don't see it that way. Gets wild-eyed at the thought of it.'
'And what's your turn?' she asked.
'Who? me? Oh, I'm doin' the tramp act tonight. I'm Charley Welsh, you know.'
She felt that by the mention of his name he intended to convey to her complete enlightenment, but the best she could do was to say politely, 'Oh, is that so?'
She wanted to laugh at the hurt disappointment which came into his face, but concealed her amusement.
'Come, now,' he said brusquely, 'you can't stand there and tell me you've never heard of Charley Welsh? Well, you must be young. Why, I'm an Only, the Only amateur at that. Sure, you must have seen me. I'm everywhere. I could be a professional, but I get more dough out of it by doin' the amateur.'
'But what's an 'Only'?' she queried. 'I want to learn.'
'Sure,' Charley Welsh said gallantly. 'I'll put you wise. An 'Only' is a nonpareil, the feller that does one kind of a turn better'n any other feller. He's the Only, see?'
And Edna saw.
'To get a line on the biz,' he continued, 'throw yer lamps on me. I'm the Only all-round amateur. To-night I make a bluff at the tramp act. It's harder to bluff it than to really do it, but then it's acting, it's amateur, it's art. See? I do everything, from Sheeny monologue to team song and dance and Dutch comedian. Sure, I'm Charley Welsh, the Only Charley Welsh.'
And in this fashion, while the thin, dark man and the large, blond woman warbled dulcetly out on the stage and the other professionals followed in their turns, did Charley Welsh put Edna wise, giving her much miscellaneous and superfluous information and much that she stored away for the Sunday Intelligencer.
'Well, tra la loo,' he said suddenly. 'There's his highness chasin' you up. Yer first on the bill. Never mind the row when you go on. Just finish yer turn like a lady.'
It was at that moment that Edna felt her journalistic ambition departing from her, and was aware of an overmastering desire to be somewhere else. But the stage manager, like an ogre, barred her retreat. She could hear the opening bars of her song going up from the orchestra and the noises of the house dying away to the silence of anticipation.
'Go ahead,' Letty whispered, pressing her hand; and from the other side came the peremptory 'Don't flunk!' of Charley Welsh.
But her feet seemed rooted to the floor, and she leaned weakly against a shift scene. The orchestra was beginning over again, and a lone voice from the house piped with startling distinctness:
'Puzzle picture! Find Nannie!'
A roar of laughter greeted the sally, and Edna shrank back. But the strong hand of the manager descended on her shoulder, and with a quick, powerful shove propelled her out on to the stage. His hand and arm had flashed into full view, and the audience, grasping the situation, thundered its appreciation. The orchestra was drowned out by the terrible din, and Edna could see the bows scraping away across the violins, apparently without sound. It was impossible for her to begin in time, and as she patiently waited, arms akimbo and ears straining for the music, the house let loose again (a favorite trick, she afterward learned, of confusing the amateur by preventing him or her from hearing the orchestra).
But Edna was recovering her presence of mind. She became aware, pit to dome, of a vast sea of smiling and fun-distorted faces, of vast roars of laughter, rising wave on wave, and then her Scotch blood went cold and angry. The hard-working but silent orchestra gave her the cue, and, without making a sound, she began to move her lips, stretch forth her arms, and sway her body, as though she were really singing. The noise in the house redoubled in the attempt to drown her voice, but she serenely went on with her pantomime. This seemed to continue an interminable time, when the audience, tiring of its prank and in order to hear, suddenly stilled its clamor, and discovered the dumb show she had been making. For a moment all was silent, save for the orchestra, her lips moving on without a sound, and then the audience realized that it had been sold, and broke out afresh, this time with genuine applause in acknowledgment of her victory. She chose this as the happy moment for her exit, and with a bow and a backward retreat, she was off the stage in Letty's arms.
The worst was past, and for the rest of the evening she moved about among the amateurs and professionals, talking, listening, observing, finding out what it meant and taking mental notes of it all. Charley Welsh constituted himself her preceptor and guardian angel, and so well did he perform the self-allotted task that when it was all over she felt fully prepared to write her article. But the proposition had been to do two turns, and her native pluck forced her to live up to it. Also, in the course of the intervening days, she discovered fleeting impressions that required verification; so, on Saturday, she was back again, with her telescope basket and Letty.
The manager seemed looking for her, and she caught an expression of relief in his eyes when he first saw her. He hurried up, greeted her, and bowed with a respect ludicrously at variance with his previous ogre-like behavior. And as he bowed, across his shoulders she saw Charley Welsh deliberately wink.
But the surprise had just begun. The manager begged to be introduced to her sister, chatted entertainingly with the pair of them, and strove greatly and anxiously to be agreeable. He even went so far as to give Edna a dressing room to herself, to the unspeakable envy of the three other amateur ladies of previous acquaintance. Edna was nonplussed, and it was not till she met Charley Welsh in the passage that light was thrown on the mystery.
'Hello!' he greeted her. 'On Easy Street, eh? Everything slidin' your way.'
She smiled brightly.
'Thinks yer a female reporter, sure. I almost split when I saw'm layin' himself out sweet an' pleasin'. Honest, now, that ain't yer graft, is it?'
'I told you my experience with editors,' she parried. 'And honest now, it was honest, too.'
But the Only Charley Welsh shook his head dubiously. 'Not that I care a rap,' he declared. 'And if you are, just gimme a couple of lines of notice, the right kind, good ad, you know. And if yer not, why yer all right anyway. Yer not our class, that's straight.'
After her turn, which she did this time with the nerve of an old campaigner, the manager returned to the charge; and after saying nice things and being generally nice himself, he came to the point.
'You'll treat us well, I hope,' he said insinuatingly. 'Do the right thing by us, and all that?'
'Oh,' she answered innocently, 'you couldn't persuade me to do another turn; I know I seemed to take and that you'd like to have me, but I really, really can't.'
'You know what I mean,' he said, with a touch of his old bulldozing manner.
'No, I really won't,' she persisted. 'Vaudeville's too—too wearing on the nerves, my nerves, at any rate.'
