After those kind remarks Laura’s goat naturally make a quick exit.  She jumped to her feet, and with one of those ‘Parted on Her Bridal Tour’ expressions, said:  ’It’s you, is it, Sabrina; you were always noted as the Butting-in Kid.  But now if you have got all of that humorous monologue of yours out of your system you can toddle right along and sell your matches, as this kind gentleman and I are discussing a few words in private and do not wish them to get all over town.’

“‘Can that chatter,’ said I, ’and don’t forget the happy days you spent at Sid Euson’s.’  Right there is where I got that scratch.  But I being pretty nifty with my fins gave her a cuff on the chops that she won’t have to put down in her diary to remember.  I was just fishing for an opening to land when Wilbur stayed my upraised arm, and I could only give her a kick on the limb with my French heel.  Naturally the noise and the words attracted some attention even from that bunch; that is, it could be heard above the usual hum of conversation.  The dame, knowing that I was in the right, tried to tuck the Pittsburg party under her arm and duck the dump, but Pittsburg being a game guy, stuck for the big show, and Laura loped for the ‘L’ alone.

“Wilbur was naturally surprised and grieved at my actions, and for a moment allowed the green-eyed monster to take up standing room in his heart, thinking that I had succumbed to the wealth of the coal dealer, but my ready outburst of maidenly tears quickly set me to rights.  That was the only thing that marred the evening, except one of the girls spoke kindly to a chorus man, and he, poor fellow, threw a fainting fit and we had to force the only jig juice in the crowd between his clinched teeth before he could be revived.

“Yes, I am still on the stage, but I have got the stage manager trained so that I only have to slip him a five spot any night I fail to appear.  No, there isn’t much doing except that some of the girls are rehearsing for the soul kiss contest, but I personally do not have to advertise.

“What!  Going?  Say, on your way down tell the barhop to mix me up a life preserver in a rose glass.”

    Sabrina touches on the advantages of having a hotel for chorus
    girls and makes several comments on the dramatic possibilities
    of “The Mangled Doughnut,” with which she is rehearsing.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Say,” remarked Sabrina, as we met her in front of her favorite cafe, “say, loosen up, cough, give down, come to, kick in.  You’ve got to donate for a couple of tickets to the annual benefit of the Unemployed or Otherwise Disabled Chorus Girls’ Home, and the quicker you come across the quicker your suffering will be over.  Sure we are going to have a benefit that will make even the Friar Festival get up and hump itself.  And you know that’s going to be some show.  The Chorus Girls’ Mutual Knocking Society is going to build a home so that the poor doll who comes in from the high grass in her normal condition, broke, can have some place to go and rest and refresh herself without having to hock a couple of wedding rings before she can have her hotel trunk sent up.