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Chapter XXXVIII
in Elf land DISPORTING—­the grim world without

When Carrie renewed her search, as she did the next day, going to the Casino, she found that in the opera chorus, as in other fields, employment is difficult to secure.  Girls who can stand in a line and look pretty are as numerous as labourers who can swing a pick.  She found there was no discrimination between one and the other of applicants, save as regards a conventional standard of prettiness and form.  Their own opinion or knowledge of their ability went for nothing.

“Where shall I find Mr. Gray?” she asked of a sulky doorman at the stage entrance of the Casino.

“You can’t see him now; he’s busy.”

“Do you know when I can see him?”

“Got an appointment with him?”

“No.”

“Well, you’ll have to call at his office.”

“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Carrie.  “Where is his office?”

He gave her the number.

She knew there was no need of calling there now.  He would not be in. 
Nothing remained but to employ the intermediate hours in search.

The dismal story of ventures in other places is quickly told.  Mr. Daly saw no one save by appointment.  Carrie waited an hour in a dingy office, quite in spite of obstacles, to learn this fact of the placid, indifferent Mr. Dorney.

“You will have to write and ask him to see you.”

So she went away.

At the Empire Theatre she found a hive of peculiarly listless and indifferent individuals.  Everything ornately upholstered, everything carefully finished, everything remarkably reserved.

At the Lyceum she entered one of those secluded, under-stairway closets, berugged and bepaneled, which causes one to feel the greatness of all positions of authority.  Here was reserve itself done into a box-office clerk, a doorman, and an assistant, glorying in their fine positions.

“Ah, be very humble now—­very humble indeed.  Tell us what it is you require.  Tell it quickly, nervously, and without a vestige of self-respect.  If no trouble to us in any way, we may see what we can do.”

This was the atmosphere of the Lyceum—­the attitude, for that matter, of every managerial office in the city.  These little proprietors of businesses are lords indeed on their own ground.

Carrie came away wearily, somewhat more abashed for her pains.

Hurstwood heard the details of the weary and unavailing search that evening.

“I didn’t get to see any one,” said Carrie.  “I just walked, and walked, and waited around.”

Hurstwood only looked at her.

“I suppose you have to have some friends before you can get in,” she added, disconsolately.

Hurstwood saw the difficulty of this thing, and yet it did not seem so terrible.  Carrie was tired and dispirited, but now she could rest.  Viewing the world from his rocking-chair, its bitterness did not seem to approach so rapidly.  To-morrow was another day.