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does.”
    â€œDid Kurt”—Elizabeth turned her face carefully away and
made her voice overcasual—“leave any message for me with you, maybe?”
    â€œNope,” Jane said.
    Elizabeth stood up. “I think I’ll go on back to the Cottage and go to bed.” She seemed suddenly to droop like a wilted sunflower. “I’m kind of tired and Mr. Price wants me in the box office at nine. Got a handkerchief, Jane? My glasses are filthy.”
    â€œApprentices aren’t supposed to work in the mornings,” Jane said, handing her one of the small white squares of linen she always carried. “We’re supposed to have classes in the morning.”
    â€œSure, I know, but if Mr. Price tells me to be in the box office at nine, there isn’t much I can do about it. Maybe he won’t keep me long. I love being in the box office any other time.” She blew on her glasses and wiped them with Jane’s handkerchief.
    â€œIf Price is going to work you at all hours of the day, he shouldn’t make you pay room and board.”
    Elizabeth sighed, handing Jane back her handkerchief. “I’d give my eyeteeth for room and board. I’d feel okay about Aunt Harriet, then. It’s a lousy business, accepting money from people, especially when they don’t want to give it. Let’s go.” She took the key out of the cash box and turned off the light, and they left the office. Elizabeth locked the door behind them and put the key in the pocket of her skirt.
    â€œWant something to eat before we go back to the Cottage?” Jane asked.
    â€œNo, I don’t think so.”
    â€œDinner was a long time ago. I’ll treat you.”

    â€œThanks a lot, Jane. But I really don’t want anything. You go ahead, though.”
    Jane shook her head. “I’ve already had a hamburger with John Peter and I told him to wait for me in the Cottage.”
    The Cottage, where all the apprentices and most of the professional company lived during the summer, was several blocks from the theatre and the beach. The theatre had once been a casino and the Cottage had first been a private home and then an orphanage. The casino went bankrupt and the orphans were moved to a larger and newer building. Even though the Cottage was set back from the beach, the floors were always sandy under the rugs and the sheets damp in cold weather, and it constantly smelled musty.
    Elizabeth and Jane walked side by side on the sidewalk. “I’ll bet your Aunt Harriet doesn’t approve of your staying up late like this,” Jane said.
    Elizabeth grinned. “I think Aunt Harriet’s fond of me—in her own way—but I know she doesn’t approve of me. Your parents sound so wonderful, Jane, the way they really like you, and don’t mind about your wanting to be an actress.”
    Even the darkness could not hide the forlorn look that suddenly fell on Jane’s face. “They don’t approve of John Peter,” she said.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI don’t know, but it makes me unhappy anyhow.”
    â€œBut they let you come here with him this summer,” Elizabeth said.
    Jane shook her head sadly. “It’s just their way of doing things. They know if they tried to keep me away from him it’d
just make it worse. But it’s like your aunt hoping you’d like chemistry better than the theatre. I’ll never like anyone better than John Peter.”
    They had reached the Cottage now and they climbed the stone steps in silence. There was only one dim light on in the large living room, which the apprentices, and occasionally the company, used for rehearsals. Dorothy Dawne, also known as Dottie, the same blond woman Elizabeth had seen in Mr. Price’s office, and Huntley Haskell, another one of the professional actors, were sitting together on one corner of a sagging sofa, embracing passionately. This was nothing unusual, and Elizabeth