The Company would sit there, every one showing the Parlor Face
and pretending to be entranced, and after she got through they would
Come To and tell her how Good she was.
She made so many of these Parlor Triumphs that there was no Holding her.
She had herself Billed as a Nightingale. Often she went to Soirees and
Club Entertainments, volunteering her Services, and nowhere did she meet
a Well-Wisher who took her aside and told her she was a Shine--in fact,
the Champion Pest.
[Illustration: CRITIC]
No, Lutie never got out of her Dream until she made a bold Sashay with a
Concert Company. It was her Professional Debut.
Father fixed it. The Idea of any one paying Real Money to hear Lutie
sing struck him as being almost Good enough to Print. But she wouldn't
be Happy until she got it, and so she Got It right where the Newport
Lady wears the Rope of Pearls.
On the First Night the mean old Critics, who didn't know her Father or
Mother, and had never been entertained at the House, came and got in the
Front Row, and defied Lutie to come on and Make Good. Next Morning they
said that Lutie had Blow-Holes in her Voice; that she hit the Key only
once during the Evening, and then fell off backward; that she was a Ham,
and her Dress didn't fit her, and she lacked Stage Presence.
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