What have
you been a-doin' of all that while?"
"Play-acting. I had a part last week in a play at the Lincoln's Inn
Theatre and Mr. Rich has promised me an engagement when the theatre
opens for the winter season."
"Oh," said Mrs. Higgins with a sniff which might have signified pity or
contempt, or both. "I dunno as I hold with play-actin'. Brazen painted
women some o' them actresses is and the words as is put in their mouths
to say--well--there----"
"I know--I know," returned Lavinia hurriedly and with heightened colour.
"But that isn't their fault, and after all, it's not so bad as what one
hears in front--in the gallery----"
"What, the trulls and the trapes and the saucy footmen! It made my ears
tingle when Hannah took me to Drury Lane. I longed to take a stick in my
hand an' lay it about 'em. So you're a play-actin' miss are ye? I'm
sorry for it."
"I can't help that, Mrs. Higgins. One must do something--besides there's
good and bad folk wherever you go."
"Aye, an' ye haven't got to go from here neither. A pack o' bad 'uns,
men and women, come to Hampstead. They swarm like rats at Mother Ruff's,
dancin' an' dicin, an' drinkin', an' wuss. I won't say as you don't see
the quality at the concerts in the Great Room, but the low rabble--well,
thank the Lord they don't come _my_ way."
Then Betty Higgins, who all this time had been eyeing the girl and
apparently taking stock of her, suddenly harked back to the all
important business which had brought Lavinia to her cottage.
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