It was just a
newly kindled fire that warmed her shivering spirit; that made her
fearless; in a quite unreasoning way, confident.
The only touch of self-conscious thought about her was a vague wonder at
her long submission. What had she been doing all that while, drifting
like that, letting herself be beaten like that, consenting to live amid
the shabby degradations of the life that had surrounded her ever since
the company had gone on the road? The sense of the unreality of those
past weeks grew stronger. She felt like a person just waking out of a
long troubled dream.
She mode her way among the loungers in the lobby of the hotel, not
unmindful of their stares, but magnificently impervious to them; came up
to the desk and told the clerk she wanted to see the proprietor.
"Nothing doing," said the clerk.
Then as he got the straight look of her eyes, he amended his speech a
little.
"It won't do you any good to see him," he said sulkily.
"I'll see him, if you please," said Rose.
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