Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/302

 She just had time to put right foot forward, raise arms for her entrance, and see Beman watching from the opposite wings.

Dam it! Why does he have to be here when I'm late, and him such a devil for rules, she thought, and missed the first beat of her cue.

"Ilona is having one of her Sunday afternoons and I promised Vida I'd come. I haven't seen Ilona for weeks or her new studio," Lucy told Mae.

"I was hoping you'd go on a date and have some fun. You haven't been out once after the show since I came back. You're always working with Ranna these days. You ought to enjoy yourself more," Mae worried.

She could read in Mother's anxious expression that she was still thinking about Lyle or, if it couldn't be Lyle, why wasn't there another man like him with money and position who would take care of her daughter's comfort so she'd only have to look pretty and be a première danseuse for fun. Mother lived in a romantic storybook world. Talking with her you could hardly believe she had been married, had a child, and been deserted. She was satisfied to stay at home with Huyler's Assorted and her continued stories, even though she was still attractive enough to get a husband. What kind of life was that, to want nothing for oneself? How could one explain to such an innocent darling that these days you couldn't go out with men and not let them make love, sooner or later. Men didn't want friendship. They didn't want to talk to you, most couldn't teach you a thing, and if you wouldn't make love they thought there was something the matter with you. Did they complain too to the girls of Clarissa's society set "I thought you were a good sport!" when they wouldn't, though from what one heard and saw "Everybody's Doing It!" Not that lovemaking isn't fun. It is, but only when a man is a friend too. That's why the boys in the chorus are more fun than Lyle's crowd, if that's all one wants, a good time with a friend. Tessie says lovemaking is good for the glands, but then she is older. It isn't right to marry just to be kept, though maybe she ought to marry for Mother's sake. She never would let herself be kept though without marriage either, unless so much in love it didn't matter. Think of those poor girls in that kept apartment Lyle had taken her to. What will happen to them? They'll have to settle for anyone, or be like those girls in the 290