The Sorrows of a Show Girl | Page 9

there on the bed when all of a sudden the door opens and in
marches twelve little soldiers, about six inches high, dressed in blue
pants and red coats. They climb and start to pull off a zouave drill on
the foot of the bed. That made me sour, for I don't feel like a military
pageant, so I lift up my foot and kick them out on the floor. The
soldiers don't say a word, but jump up and climb out through the
transom. In about five minutes the door opens and in marches the
whole army, all about six inches high. Gee, there must have been a
million of them, for all I could see was blue pants and red coats. I'm
lying there on the bed, taking it all in, when up rides a dinky little
officer on a horse. He salutes me and I salute him, just to let them know
that there wasn't any hard feeling. Then he says, "I am glad to state that
you have but one life to lose for your country; therefore we are going to
shoot you." Well, you know me, Dearie. I jumped out of the window.
The next time I come out of it here is this guy doing snake charming

stunts on my stomach.'
"Can you beat that for a pipe? I look after this party with all the loving
care of a sister, and thanks to the doctor and a pump we pulled him
through. When he was able to be shipped home I went down to the
train to see him off and as he kissed me goodby he said, 'Don't you
worry, kid, I won't forget this.' I didn't pay any attention to his chatter,
thinking it nothing but balloon juice. But this letter says that he died
about a week ago and left ten thousand to me in such a way that it won't
do his wife no good to yelp. Ten thousand! Gee, ain't that an awful
huge lot of money for one poor little merry-merry to be burdened with!
The lawyers sent that first hundred along to show that they are not
pikers, and said that the rest would be along in a few days. Gosh! I
won't know what to do with it. I can't get that much in my little lisle
thread bank without spoiling the contour of that new gown effect I am
going to be poured into. Clothes, well I should hope so, dear. When the
true meaning of that effusion soaked into my system, the way I grabbed
my hat and took it on the run for the dressmaker's was a caution to cab
horses.
"I'm going to get a bunch of clothes and then slide for home. You know
my father was mayor of Emporia for nearly a whole term, and I can go
right back into society. That is a great burg; if anybody wears anything
but a Mother Hubbard on week days they are doped out as a actress.
Sure! That's the way they know that there's a show in town, that and the
band. That town will have nothing but the best. If a show isn't good
enough to hare a band it might as well cancel. It's a great show town,
all right; sometimes they have two shows there the same week, 'East
Lynne' and something else. The Boston Store has the 'Pilgrim's
Progress' on the recent fiction counter.
"Well, I must rush right along. I've got to go over to some place and get
a mile or two of those puff gags, mine are all moth eaten. I've got some
more things to buy and then I am going around and make faces at all
these theatrical agents. Bye bye."

In which Sabrina receives the balance of the fortune, says farewell to
the hall bed-room, secures more imposing quarters, a French maid, an
automobile and other accessories as befitting her station.

CHAPTER FOUR
"I've got Adversity laying on her back and purring with Contentment,"
remarked Sabrina the Show Girl, as she stepped out of a taxicab in
front of a cafe, "and I guess she'll stand hitched for a few minutes. Tell
my driver to wait and then come in and have a little liquid nourishment.
This is the only place I can find where one can get any kind of service.
My, ain't I getting fussy? Here 'two weeks ago coffee and butter-cakes
were a banquet. But why dig up the past, and I reiterate the remark, 'Let
the dead bury its dead.' If anybody mentions Mink's to me I am liable to
throw a foaming fit and fall in it. Every time I pass a bread line I am
filled with sorrow for the poor unfortunates, while heretofore I