Marion Marlowe's Escape, or, A Dangerous Mistake on the Road — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

must pop out of his head if he reads the pa- pers—and I intend that he shall, for I shall send every one of them to Hickorytown. “Ves, and we’ll send a batch of your next pictures,” chimed in Bert again. “Oh, I’m just dying to show them what Marion has done! Just think, Mr. Temple; she came straight from a farm, and here she is on the high road to fortune!” “And happiness, I hope,” ple, gently. Marion blushed a little, but she answered decidedly : “T should be an ungrateful girl if I wasn’t, _ Mr. Temple! Why, just see how many good _ friends I have! Really, I cannot understand how I ever got them!” “Oh, it’s your abuse that wins us,” said Bert, dramatically. “You piérce our hearts with your poisoned spears and then laugh at our agony while we suffer and adore you.” Marion slammed the door and went back into.the car. She wanted to show her dis- gust at Bert’s form of raillery. said Mr. Tem- “A beautiful girl! She grows more beauti- ful every time I iook at her,” murmured Mr. Temple, musingly. . “Poor fellow! Have you got it as bad as _ that?” asked Bert, condolingly. “Let me ad- vise you to wear green goggles, old man! At that rate of speed you'll lose your eye- sight directly.” _ Mr. Temple laughed and then came back _ to the subject of their conversation before Marion appeared to them. “Yes, I’ve seen trouble enough on the road, I can tell you, Jackson, and we are bound to find it waiting for us in some of the little Western towns. That is why I don’t want it oat the very beginning. How would you like to strike a town when you are dead tired out Band find that the only hotel in the town won't take you; or, how would you like to get to _the theatre ten minutes before the time for the curtain to rise and find it as dark as a pocket and as cold as Greenland? Then again, I’ve struck a town where I expected big business and found that my advance 38: ent hadn’t stuck up a single poster, with ‘Tesult that my actors had to face empty denches “fd o ae Am hg ‘ MY QUEEN. 13 “Pd call that hard luck,’ said Bert, who was getting interested. . “Well, I’ve called it worse than that,” said the manager, dryly. “Why, many’s the time I’ve had to hire a brass band to go tooting around the streets to let the people know we were with them; and besides all this, there is always the deuce to pay ina company when things go wrong. The leading man gets full and the star has hysterics, and ten to one the calcium gives out and part of the ‘props’ are left behind—and, well to sum it all up, it’s no life of ease that we find on the road, and it’s only fair that you greenhorns should know i Bert drew a long breath, but his eyes twinkled merrily. “So long as we don’t have to nail our trunks to the floor and drop out of seventh- story windows to skip our board-bills, I don’t mind,” he said, gayly; “and I draw the line at being encored with cabbages and rotten exygs! Anything else goes, old man! I’m not a bit fastidious! JI depend upon this tour to give me experience. If it gives me any- thing else, why, I'll be that much the win- ner, “You're made of the right stuff! I see I can’t scare you,” said Mr. Temple. Then he leaned nearer to Bert and lowered his voice > a little. “Look out for Preston, young man! He’s got a nasty temper! Sometimes I honestly think the fellow is half crazy. He’s a sort of a friend of mine, and, in most things, he’s al! right; still, 1 wouldn't try to get his ill- will, unless | had a deucedly good reason.” “But I have a good reason,” said Bert, em- pkatically. “I detest the fellow, and I wish him to know it! So long as he keeps in his place and is nothing but an actor, I shall con- tent myself with snubbing him, but’—here Bert’s pleasant voice took on a manly ring— “when I catch him trying to deceive a woman 1 the company into thinking that he is de- cent or fit for her to associate with, I’ll put a stop to it, you bet, and I won’t lose any time about it, either !’’ “Why, what do you know about Preston that is detrimental to his character?” asked the manager, wonderingly. ‘< :] hi 3 . 4 . Only this,” said Bert, dropping his yale in