The position of Peggy Harper Author:Leonard Merrick Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III There were eighteen parts to be filled for the provincial tour of the play at the Sceptre Theatre, and actors and actresses desirous of filling th... more »em were informed that Mr. Bailey was to be found in the business manager's office upstairs. When Tatham, who arrived betimes, explored the quarter indicated, not more than fifty to sixty applicants sat and stood about the landing, awaiting admittance to the room; but their number was continuously reinforced. By half-past one, when Mr. Bailey, having disposed of other matters, proceeded to attack the task before him, the staircase had become impassable, and at the foot, groups of men sat morosely on the ground. Behind the enamelled door, visible only to the most fortunate, the eagerly sought interviews seemed, to those interviewed, unpromisingly brief; to those outside, they seemed eternal, and as the weary hours lagged by, several girls who could find no space to sit, clung weakly to the banisters. It was Tatham's turn at last. One girl's limbs felt as if they must give way; she screwed up the courage: "Oh, do let me go next!" "I heg your pardon—certainly!" The promptness of the assent amazed her. She turned and regarded him thankfully as he drew hack. In that throng of wearied mediocrities fighting for bread in an overstocked profession, a man and a girl's gaze met for the first time, and they smiled at each other. So, although he had no idea who she was, Tatham trusted, while he continued to stand there, that behind the enamelled door the interview was proving satisfactory to her. And when she came out, he glanced at her inquiringly. Did she shake her head? he wasn't sure; but she had made her meaning clear, "I'm sorry," he murmured as she passed. The enamelled door opened again and an underling a...« less