Finally, however, her thoughts were broken in upon by hearing Mr. Martin cry:  “Oh, quit, quit, and go rest yourselves, you ancient pieces of hickory, and let me forget you for a minute before I go crazy.  Where ’s that new girl now?”

Kitty rose and went toward him, trembling so that she could hardly walk.

“What can you do?”

“I can sing,” very faintly.

“Well, if that ’s the voice you ’re going to sing in, there won’t be many that ’ll know whether it ’s good or bad.  Well, let ’s hear something.  Do you know any of these?”

And he ran over the titles of several songs.  She knew some of them, and he selected one.  “Try this.  Here, Tom, play it for her.”

It was an ordeal for the girl to go through.  She had never sung before at anything more formidable than a church concert, where only her immediate acquaintances and townspeople were present.  Now to sing before all these strange people, themselves singers, made her feel faint and awkward.  But the courage of desperation came to her, and she struck into the song.  At the first her voice wavered and threatened to fail her.  It must not.  She choked back her fright and forced the music from her lips.

When she was done, she was startled to hear Martin burst into a raucous laugh.  Such humiliation!  She had failed, and instead of telling her, he was bringing her to shame before the whole company.  The tears came into her eyes, and she was about giving way when she caught a reassuring nod and smile from Hattie Sterling, and seized on this as a last hope.

“Haw, haw, haw!” laughed Martin, “haw, haw, haw!  The little one was scared, see?  She was scared, d’ you understand?  But did you see the grit she went at it with?  Just took the bit in her teeth and got away.  Haw, haw, haw!  Now, that ’s what I like.  If all you girls had that spirit, we could do something in two weeks.  Try another one, girl.”

Kitty’s heart had suddenly grown light.  She sang the second one better because something within her was singing.

“Good!” said Martin, but he immediately returned to his cold manner.  “You watch these girls close and see what they do, and to-morrow be prepared to go into line and move as well as sing.”

He immediately turned his attention from her to the chorus, but no slight that he could inflict upon her now could take away the sweet truth that she was engaged and to-morrow would begin work.  She wished she could go over and embrace Hattie Sterling.  She thought kindly of Joe, and promised herself to give him a present out of her first month’s earnings.

On the first night of the show pretty little Kitty Hamilton was pointed out as a girl who would n’t be in the chorus long.  The mother, who was soon to be Mrs. Gibson, sat in the balcony, a grieved, pained look on her face.  Joe was in a front row with some of the rest of the gang.  He took many drinks between the acts, because he was proud.