“But we don’t want them to laugh at the beginning,” replies the producer. “Hurry up there. We don’t want it to last until midnight.”
So the superfluous author hurries to thank the players. The hero is just sitting at his supper, and replies quite modestly to the author’s thanks: “Oh! thank you, but that’s no part at all.” Clara is annoyed because she has torn her frock on a nail. Katie is in her dressing-room sobbing with rage because the producer has been terribly rude to her. “Is it my fault,” she sobs indignantly, “that the same cue comes twice? I have to go on when Clara says the word ‘Never,’ and it’s not my fault that this word is said twice.” The author attempts to console her, but Katie weeps all the more heartbrokenly. “He . . . has been so rude to me . . . just on the first night too . . . how can I go on playing . . .”
So the superfluous author nobly consoles her with “But, my dear young lady, no one noticed that part of the play was missing at
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