Page:Our Little Girl (1923).pdf/98

 His gaze indicated that he certainly hoped that she had.

“I've been so busy—but please tell me where and I'll send for a copy.”

“It doesn’t matter. It was only half a column or so. I called the place the Melody Music Mart to dodge libel although I had the stuff on the crew. It’s a simple game. They flatter graduates of conservatories with illiterate mail-order stuff. Then they stage a recital. That’s legitimate enough. But the artist has to pay all expenses of the show-"

“Why, that’s terrible!”

“No, there’s nothing terrible in that. Almost all début recitals are paid for by the artists. It’s the usual thing.”

“I never heard of that.”

“There probably are a lot of things you didn’t hear about at St. Cecilia’s. However, that’s the usual game. And a legitimate bureau charges you a fee for its assistance and supplies the hall and so on at cost. However, the Harmony boys make a genial profit out of the expense budget. Where the customary managerial fee is a hundred dollars, which ought to be all that the bureau should get, Harmony makes another hundred out of a padded rental—look up some concert announcements and see what sort of theatres they give you—inflated printing bills and a postage item that would run Sears, Roebuck for two weeks and three days.”

“Mother was so impressed, with the letter.”

“That was the idea of the letter. I’m glad you mentioned it, because Harmony gets a lot of young singers that way.”

“But one of the girls also got a letter and she went to see them and she says they were just lovely to her.”

Tommy always seemed a little too knowing.

“Lovely’s no word for it. They fall at your feet down