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 Letts' hand. "It don't mean that I can't work today, does it, ma'am? Honest, I'll go crazy if I got this far and can't go through with it."

Inexorable laws which dare not be broken. . ..

"If I had any kind of a dress in this wardrobe room I could give you, my poor child," said Mrs. Letts, "I'd do it in a minute. But I've used everything we have in stock. I'm sorry, dear, but I can't pass you. However, I'll be able to give you a very good recommendation and if you like I'll speak to Mr. Reeves personally and tell him how well you look in an evening gown. Don't be discouraged, you'll probably be called within a day or so."

Minnie turned and fled from the room. Hastily she undressed and wrapped the gown in the brown paper. Again in her suit she rushed through the corridor and out to the elevator. It was only 8:45 and if she reached the Vitagraph Studio before nine by some unexpected good fortune they might be able to use her.

But the casting director at the Vitagraph told her to drop around again in a day or so.

It was five o'clock before Minnie arrived home. She had been walking the streets since two. She had gone to a pawnbroker with the dress. "Four thirty-five, though it's worth only two," he told her. Her courage failed when she started to hand it across the counter. . . the first pretty thing she had ever owned. With that money, though, she could silence those bitter tongues, Pete's and Nettie's and her mother's. They couldn't flaunt her failure at her again. She would give them to understand the money was paid her for work at the studio. The following day she planned to try