Wild Wings | Page 8

the doctor, with his protecting arm around Tony.
"Holiday!" muttered Hempel. "There was a Holiday once who married
one of the finest actresses of the American stage--carried her off to
nurse his babies. I never forgave that man. He was a brute."
Tony stiffened. Her eyes flashed. She drew away from her uncle and
confronted the stage manager angrily.
"He wasn't a brute, if you mean my father!" she burst out. "My mother
was Laura LaRue."

"I know it," grinned the manager, thoroughly delighted to have struck
fire. The girl was better even than he had thought. She was magnificent,
angry. "That's why I'm here," he added. "I just offered this young
person a part in a practically all-star cast, touring the West. Do you
mind?" he challenged Doctor Holiday.
"I should mind her accepting," said the other man tranquilly. "As it is, I
am duly appreciative of the offer. Thank you."
"What if I told you she had accepted?" the wolf snapped.
Tony saw the swift shadow cloud her uncle's face and hated the
manager for hurting him like that.
"I didn't," she protested indignantly. "You know I wouldn't promise
anything without talking to you, Uncle Phil. I told him I couldn't go."
"But you wanted to," persisted the wolf, bound to get his fangs in
somewhere.
Tony smiled a little wistfully.
"I wanted to most awfully," she confessed, patting her uncle's arm to
take the sting out of her admission. "Will you ask me again some day?"
she appealed to the manager.
He snorted at that.
"You'll come asking me, young lady, and before long, too. Laura
LaRue's daughter isn't going to settle down to being either a butterfly or
a blue-stocking. You are going on the stage and you know it. No use,
Holiday. You won't be able to hold her back. It's in the blood. You may
be able to dam the tide for a time, but not forever."
"I don't intend to dam it," said the doctor gravely. "If, when the time
comes, Tony wishes to go on the stage, I shall not try to prevent her. In
fact I shall help her in every way in my power."
"Uncle Phil!" Tony's voice had a tiny catch in it. She knew her

grandmother would be bitterly opposed to her going on the stage, and
had imagined she would have to win even her uncle over by slow
degrees to the gratifying of this desire of her heart. It had hurt her even
to think of hurting him or going against him in any way--he who was,
"father and mother and a'" to her. Dear Uncle Phil! How he always
understood and took the big, broad viewpoint!
The manager grunted approval at that. His belligerency waned.
"Congratulate you, sir. That's spoken like a man of sense. Evidently
you are able to see over the wall farther than most of the witch-ridden
New Englanders I've met. I should like the chance to launch this
Rosalind of yours. But don't make it too far off. Youth is the biggest
drawing card in the world and--the most transient. You have to get in
the game early to get away with it. I'll start her whenever you say--next
week--next month--next year. Guarantee to have her ready to
understudy a star in three months and perhaps a star herself in six. She
might jump into the heavens overnight. Stranger things have happened.
What do you say? May I have an option on the young lady?"
"That is rather too big a question to settle off hand at midnight. Tony is
barely twenty-two and she has home obligations which will have to be
considered. Her grandmother is old and frail and--a New Englander of
the old school."
"Too bad," commiserated the manager. "But never mind all that. All I
ask is that you won't let her sign up with anybody else without giving
me a chance first."
"I think we may safely promise that and thank you. Tony and I both
appreciate that you are doing her a good deal of honor for one small
school girl, eh Tony?" The doctor smiled down at his flushed,
starry-eyed niece. He understood precisely what a big moment it was
for her.
"Oh, I should think so!" sighed Tony. "You are awfully kind, Mr.
Hempel. It is like a wonderful dream--almost too good to be true."

Both men smiled at that. For youth no dream is quite too extravagant or
incredible to be potentially true. No grim specters of failure and
disillusionment and frustration dog its bright path. All possibilities are
its divine inheritance.
"Mr. Hempel, did you know my mother?" Tony asked suddenly, with a
shadow of wistfulness in her dark eyes. There were so few people
whom she met that had known her mother. It was