"Ranna says it will be the interesting contrast we need to fill the evening. He wants to do only one solo, his ballet, and our duet and me to do two solos and my ballet. He says it is more effective not to appear too often but somehow it scares me to have Ilona in the recital because I feel as though I am her pupil again in Denver and nothing has happened for me all these years."
"I can't believe you let yourself be talked into it. Sometimes you are such a softy you make me sick!" Vida said disgustedly.
"Maybe Ranna is right—though, to tell you the truth, I think it's because he's too lazy to make new dances. I keep telling myself it's true that in a show the première danseuse only does two solos, so maybe it's being smart."
"It's being idiotic—it will make hash of the recital."
"He does know more about it than you do, or me, because he was a great concert artist in Europe. You don't even care about dancing, and I can tell you are not even putting your mind to what I'm telling you now. Don't tell me there's something the matter with you too?"
"How many times must I tell you there's absolutely nothing! It's that I don't know what to say and am worried about you," said Vida, evading Lucy's gaze.
"I never thought things could get so complicated. In fact I did something I never did before. I let that fortuneteller who comes backstage read my palms and give me a horoscope last night."
"You didn't!" Vida said, aghast.
"She scared me. She said I was going back to a girlhood sweetheart. Do you think there can be anything in that?" she quavered.
"Certainly not!"
"It gave me the creeps, I hardly slept all night. Then this morning Clem's painting came and of course I've been trying to be nice to him because it was the money he paid me for posing that helped get me to New York. But I couldn't love him—" She broke off and put her hands to her face and then ran them back through her hair with her eyes closed. "Then I got to thinking," she resumed tonelessly, "that what with Mother wanting to go back to Congress, and me hating to be alone, I might let myself be talked into going back too and marry Clem for Mother's sake, especially as show business is so up and down. I can't imagine anyone else the fortuneteller could mean because when I think of a girlhood sweetheart it is always the idea of one I've never met. The way you used to talk about the poets. Maybe you outgrew that and I'm slow."
