"You'd better save a little for summer," cautioned Lola."We'll probably close in May."
"I intend to," said Carrie.
The regular entrance of thirty-five dollars a week to one who has endured scant allowances for several years is a demoralising thing.Carrie found her purse bursting with good green bills of comfortable denominations.Having no one dependent upon her, she began to buy pretty clothes and pleasing trinkets, to eat well, and to ornament her room.Friends were not long in gathering about.She met a few young men who belonged to Lola's staff.
The members of the opera company made her acquaintance without the formality of introduction.One of these discovered a fancy for her.On several occasions he strolled home with her.
"Let's stop in and have a rarebit," he suggested one midnight.
"Very well," said Carrie.
In the rosy restaurant, filled with the merry lovers of late hours, she found herself criticising this man.He was too stilted, too self-opinionated.He did not talk of anything that lifted her above the common run of clothes and material success.
When it was all over, he smiled most graciously.
"Got to go straight home, have you?" he said.
"Yes," she answered, with an air of quiet understanding.
"She's not so inexperienced as she looks," he thought, and thereafter his respect and ardour were increased.
She could not help sharing in Lola's love for a good time.There were days when they went carriage riding, nights when after the show they dined, afternoons when they strolled along Broadway, tastefully dressed.She was getting in the metropolitan whirl of pleasure.
At last her picture appeared in one of the weeklies.She had not known of it, and it took her breath."Miss Carrie Madenda," it was labelled."One of the favourites of 'The Wives of Abdul'