Mrs. Tarbury, dressed in a loose kimono, with her bare feet thrust into well-worn Juliet slippers, was lying across her bed, in the pleasant leisure of Sunday afternoon, a Dramatic Supplement held in one fat ringed hand, her head supported by her pillows in soiled muslin cases, and several satin and velvet cushions from a couch.  In the room also were Connie Girard and Rose Ransome, who had a bowl of soapsuds and several scissors and orange-wood sticks on the table between them, and were manicuring each other very fastidiously.  A third actress, a young Englishwoman with a worn, hard face, rouged cheeks, and glittering eyes, was calling, with her little son, upon Mrs. Tarbury.

“Hello, darling!” said the lady of the house herself, as Julia came in.  The girls gave her an affectionate welcome, and Julia was introduced to the stranger.

“Mrs. Cloke is my real name,” said the Englishwoman briskly.  “But you’d know me better as Alice Le Grange, I daresay.  You’ll have heard of my little sketches—­the Mirror gave Mr. Cloke and I a whole page when first we came to this country, and we had elegant bookings—­elegant.  I’d my little flat in New York all furnished, and,” she said to Mrs. Tarbury, “I was used to everything—­the managers at home all knew me, and all, you know—­” She laughed with some bitterness.  “It does seem funny to be out here doing this,” she added.  “But there was the kiddy to consider—­and, as I told you, there was trouble!”

“Parties who used their influence to get ’em out!” said Miss Girard darkly, in explanation, with a glance at Julia.  “Favouritism—­”

“And jealousy,” added Alice Le Grange.

Julia was sympathetic, but not deeply impressed.  She had heard this story in many forms before.  She attracted the attention of little Eric Cloke, and showed him the pictures of the Katzenjammer Kids and Foxy Grandpa in the newspaper.  Later she accompanied Rose and Connie to their room, put on loose clothing, and lay on her bed watching them dress.

The girls were to dine together, with two admirers, and urged Julia to ask a third man, and come, too.  Julia refused steadily; she was very quiet and the others thought her tired.

She lay on her side, one hand falling idle over the edge of the bed, her serious, magnificent eyes moving idly from Connie’s face to Rose’s, and roving over the room.  Hot sunlight poured through the dirty windows and the torn curtains of Nottingham lace, and flamed on the ugly wallpaper and the flawed mirrors.  A thousand useless knickknacks made the room hideous; every possible surface was strewn with garments large and small, each bureau was a confusion of pins and brushes, paste and powder boxes, silk stockings and dirty white gloves, cologne bottles and powdered circles of discoloured chamois, hair kids and curls of false hair, handkerchiefs and hat pins, cheap imitations of jewellery, cheap bits of lace, sidecombs, veils and belts and collars, and a hundred other things, all wound up in an indistinguishable mass.  From these somewhat sodden heaps Connie and Rose cheerfully selected what they needed, leaning over constantly to inspect their faces closely in the mirrors.