Page:Our Little Girl (1923).pdf/24

 retort. At such moments he looked not unlike a highly intelligent horse.

"No, but you are!" cried Mrs. Loamford triumphantly. The flutter of pages at the desk indicated a victory for Mrs. Loamford. They fluttered frequently of nights.

"I don't see why Dorothy shouldn't be a great singer," Mrs. Loamford resumed, partly for her husband's benefit and more for her own satisfaction. "I've been reading of this new singer at the Metropolitan who was known once as the girl who had no voice. Now they say she gets two thousand dollars a night and everybody raves about her. It shows what you can do with good instruction and will power. Dorothy has will power. Look at the way she passed her history after flunking it twice. And she has a voice. There's no reason why she shouldn't become a really great singer. All she needs is a little encouragement. I've often said that many geniuses never are recognized because their parents don't help them out. It's the duty of a parent to do everything possible for her child. We go about making a great hullabaloo about foreigners and when we have a genius right in our very home we don't even notice it. It's the system that's at fault. It's time we begin to recognize-"

Here the bell rang.

"Elliott's here," announced Loamford.

A puff of cigarette smoke preceded the entrance of Elliott Reitz. It was to her brother that Mrs. Loamford turned for satisfaction. He was one of the big men in the men's hats industry and he was famous as an executive. In the trade magazines he was known as "Brass Tacks" Reitz and the only question involved was whether or his sister was prouder of the nickname. He was large, stout and aggressively bald.