Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Don-a-dreams.djvu/254

 That was a measure of the difference between his thought of her and his thought of Margaret. He could not have imagined himself making such a confession to Margaret. With a lover's unconscious duplicity, even in his reveries, he concealed from her everything in himself that did not seem worthy of her.

  The "Rialto," on these August mornings, was the resort of all the actors and actresses who were still in search of an engagement for the "season"; and Don accompanied Walter Pittsey, from agency to agency, in the atmosphere of a life that was new to him. Here were the leading men of road companies, bearing themselves with an obvious "stage presence," dressed in the correct summer costume of the footlights and preserving the unreality of the stage in the very faultlessness of clothes that had the appearance of being part of a theatrical "wardrobe." Here were comedians, more or less "low," who carried a lighter manner, a necktie fluttering in the breeze, a straw hat slanted over the eyes, a hand waved in an airy greeting as they hurried by. Chorus girls of conspicuous complexions, in gowns of lace and appliqué, raised their dragging skirts to show silk petticoats of pink or green, and stared through their heavy chiffon veils at the would-be "ingenues" in their simple frocks. Soubrettes, "heavies," "general utilities" and young graduates from dramatic schools,