"Oh, yes. A gay old man asked me if I was alone?" "What?" he exploded. "He did. He liked my looks enormously. I could see it." "Did you call a policeman?" "Not I. Do you think I am a 'bitty-lum'?" "A what?" he asked. "Once a pig molicepan, Saw a bitty-lum, Sitting on a surbcone, Chewing gubber rum. Hi, said the molicepan, Will you sim me gome? Tinny on your nintype, Said the bitty-lum." "How old _are_ you?" inquired Jarvis. "Well, I've got all my teeth." "What did you do with the old masher?" "I squelched him." "Did he go away?" She nodded. "You must be more careful on the streets, Bambi. People misunderstand you." "Well, I can always explain myself," she added, laughing. "Then what did you do?" "More or less directly, I came here, and lunched, in the conviction that you were closeted with Belasco. Did you have any lunch?" "Yes. The blond one drove me out for half an hour." "I should have gone with you." "Why?" "I would never sit anywhere seven hours." "What would you have done?" "Gone to Belasco's house, or telephoned something startling that would have brought him down quickly." "For instance?" "Well, that the theatre was on fire." "But when he got there?" "I'd have made him see it was a joke." "Maybe he hasn't that kind of a sense of humour?" "Then I should have perished bravely." So the incidents of their first day's careering ended jocularly. Bambi called Mr. Strong on the wire next day, and told him of Jarvis's unprofitable sitting. Could he get her a letter to Belasco? Or to any other leading manager? He laughed, said he did not know Belasco, but thought he could arrange it for her. He promised to send a letter to the club. With this assurance to fall back upon, she persuaded Jarvis to go to the office of one of the newer managers who seemed to be of an open mind in regard to untried playwrights. She showed him a magazine article about this "live wire," named over his productions, and repeated his cordial invitation to new writers. Jarvis set forth reluctantly. He liked salesman work as little as he had expected to. But he felt he owed some effort to Bambi, since he was her guest, and her mind was so set on his success. This time the cheeky-faced office boy admitted that the manager was in. He accepted and scrutinized Jarvis's card with disdain, but on his return from the inner office he ejaculated, "Wait!" So Jarvis sat down for his second endurance feat. The same Johnnies and Billies and Fays came to this office in their endless seeking. He began to vision the great, ceaseless army of them "making the rounds," as they call it, often hungry and tired. They were most of them uneducated, you could tell by their speech, for all their long "a's" and short "r's." That they were physically unadapted to the profession was obvious enough in many cases. They were probably badly trained. How did they live? Where did they go? They began to haunt him.