"It was just a show gotten----" "Oh, I see," said the woman, interrupting her.

"No, I don't know of anything now." Carrie's countenance fell.
"You want to get some New York experience," concluded the affable Mrs.
Bermudez.

"We'll take your name, though." Carrie stood looking while the lady retired to her office.
"What is your address ?" inquired a young lady behind the counter, taking up the curtailed conversation.
"Mrs.George Wheeler," said Carrie, moving over to where she was writing.

The woman wrote her address in full and then allowed her to depart at her leisure.
She encountered a very similar experience in the office of Mr.Jenks, only he varied it by saying at the close: "If you could play at some local house, or had a program with your name on it, I might do something." In the third place the individual asked: "What sort of work do you want to do ?" "What do you mean ?" said Carrie.
"Well, do you want to get in a comedy or on the vaudeville or in the chorus ?" "Oh, I'd like to get a part in a play," said Carrie.
"Well," said the man, "it'll cost you something to do that." "How much ?" said Carrie, who, ridiculous as it may seem, had not thought of this before.
"Well, that's for you to say," he answered shrewdly.
Carrie looked at him curiously.

She hardly knew how to continue the inquiry.
"Could you get me a part if I paid ?" "If we didn't you'd get your money back." "Oh," she said.
The agent saw he was dealing with an inexperienced soul, and continued accordingly.
"You'd want to deposit fifty dollars, anyway.