This is my first professional engagement; but I was no stage-struck girl when I first applied for the position.

Rather, the thought was most repugnant to me.

My earlier life had been passed under conditions which held me quite aloof from anything of the kind.

While I always enjoyed interpreting character as a relaxation, and even achieved, while at school in the East, a rather enviable reputation as an amateur, I nevertheless had a distinct prejudice against the professional stage, even while intensely admiring its higher exponents.

My turning to it for a livelihood was a grim necessity, my first week on the road a continual horror.