Goddess of the Green Room: (Georgian Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

wife.
    Another cut in salary. Dorothy was getting worried. Grace said: ‘I don’t know how we’ll manage. The public is deserting Crow Street for Smock Alley every night. I’ve seen this sort of thing happen before. People like something new. And they say that Daly has engaged John Kemble.’
    ‘How will he be able to pay his salary?’ pondered Hester.
    ‘Daly was wise,’ replied Grace. ‘He married a woman who could not only help to fill his theatre by her own performances but could pay for those of others. He’s a very clever gentleman. He’ll go up and the more he rises the lower will Tom Ryder fall.’
    ‘It’s a gloomy prospect,’ agreed Dorothy. She hated playing to half empty houses almost as much as receiving a small salary, but it was no use complaining to Tom Ryder, for what could he do?
    While they were discussing the state of affairs a young boy arrived with a note for Miss Dorothy Francis.
    Grace, recognizing whence the boy came, could scarcely suppress her excitement.
    Dorothy opened it and read that Richard Daly requested the favour of a visit from Miss Dorothy Francis to his office at the Smock Alley Theatre that afternoon as he had a proposition to put before her.
    Grace and Hester could not hide their delight which was mostly relief. Here was a way out of their troubles for there could be no doubt what that note meant. One of the remaining draws at Crow Street was Dorothy Francis and Daly wanted her at Smock Alley.
    Dorothy hesitated while her mother and sister looked at her in astonishment.
    ‘Don’t you know what it means?’ demanded Hester.
    ‘Of course I know what it means.’
    ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’
    ‘Tom Ryder gave me my chance.’
    ‘He would be the first to say Go. Besides we can’t live on what he’s paying you.’
    ‘And then…’
    ‘Then what for Heaven’s sake?’
    ‘With Mrs Daly in the company what parts should I get?’
    ‘Nonsense. They’re in business. They’re going to give the parts to the actress the public wants to see in them. You’ve got to go and see him.’
    ‘I’ll see Tom first.’
    Grace lifted her eyes to the ceiling. Sometimes she thought Dorothy’s heart would rule her head; but Hester thought Dorothy would make the right decision because always she considered her duty to her family before anything else.
    Tom Ryder regarded her sadly.
    ‘You’ve got to go, Dorothy,’ he said. ‘Crow Street will be closing down if we go on like this. I said there wasn’t room for the two of us, didn’t I?’
    ‘I shall never forget what you did for me.’
    ‘All in a matter of business, my dear. And that’s what you must consider. If you don’t accept this offer now, there might not be another. The profession was never a bed of roses.’
    So she saw that she must go. She had been hoping all the time that they would persuade her against this.
    Daly! She could not get that sly lecherous face out of her mind. She had in a way enjoyed their encounters in Crow Street; it would be different in Smock Alley where he would be something more than a fellow performer.
    In Smock Alley she would be to some extent in his power. On him she would depend for parts and salary.
    It was a challenge, but a disturbing one.
    Moreover, there was the family to consider.

Tragedy in Smock Alley
    DALY RECEIVED HER with a mixture of effusiveness and mockery.
    So she wanted to come to Smock Alley. He had thought she would. He would pay her three pounds a week as he was paying Kemble only five. What did she think of that?
    ‘It is what I expect,’ she told him.
    ‘Then I am delighted to satisfy your expectations. I hope you will satisfy mine.’
    ‘I have not quite decided whether I wish to come.’
    ‘Not for a chance to play opposite Kemble for three pounds a week?’
    ‘Ryder gave me my first chance.’
    ‘Don’t be an idiot, girl. This is the serious business of the theatre. There’s no room for sentiment.’
    ‘I happen not to agree.’
    ‘That’s