"What do you think of them?" he asked.

"Oh, I guess we'll be able to whip them into shape," said the
latter, with an air of strength under difficulties.

"I don't know," said the director. "That fellow Bamberger
strikes me as being a pretty poor shift for a lover."

"He's all we've got," said Quincel, rolling up his eyes.
"Harrison went back on me at the last minute. Who else can we
get?"

"I don't know," said the director. "I'm afraid he'll never pick
up."

At this moment Bamberger was exclaiming, "Pearl, you are joking
with me."
"Look at that now," said the director, whispering behind his
hand. "My Lord! what can you do with a man who drawls out a
sentence like that?"

"Do the best you can," said Quincel consolingly.

The rendition ran on in this wise until it came to where Carrie,
as Laura, comes into the room to explain to Ray, who, after
hearing Pearl's statement about her birth, had written the letter
repudiating her, which, however, he did not deliver. Bamberger
was just concluding the words of Ray, "I must go before she
returns. Her step! Too late," and was cramming the letter in his
pocket, when she began sweetly with: