Her spirits lifted. The room was two dollars less than she was paying now. Walter would be pleased with her.

“I’d love to have it,” she said.

“Why not? But you know, it’ll be three weeks or so.”

“I thought you said two—”

“Since I talked to you, my agent called. He’s got something for me in some musical about New Orleans. That’s the way it goes. You never know.”

Annie was silent. Perhaps she could sleep in Johnnie’s car for the week. Then when Walter came, maybe he would do something about the man and the dog.

“I don’t have my own agent, really,” Cranford said, smiling. “That sounded important, didn’t it? It’s only an agency I’m registered with. They always stick me in the boys’ chorus lines, in the back, because I’m tall.”

“Mr. Shore said you were going to New York. Is that where you’re from?”

“Oh, no…my home is just outside of Phoenix. My folks have a little ranch. Well, it’s a farm really. We just call it a ranch. I thought of going east, thought I might do better in the theater. Only if there’s a war, I suppose I’ll go into the army. Actually, I don’t have much hope about the theater. Any job will do, now. I don’t want to be in Arizona or Ohio. I only like coasts.”

“You like the ocean?”

“No, no. I just don’t like being inside the country, you know? I want to be on the very edge! How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“You trying to break into pictures?”

“No.”

“Oh, come on…”

“No, really.”

“Then, are you from California?”

“I’m from New York.”

“I don’t know what you’re doing here. It’s the you know what of the world.”

“Everybody I’ve met hates it,” she said. “But still, they stay.”

“Actually, I don’t know why I bother to stay myself. It’s just another two-step job in the chorus line.”

He was funny, trying so hard to be accurate about what he really meant.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-three.”

They put out their cigarettes at the same time.

“It’s this money thing,” he said in a puzzled way, bending forward and clasping his hands together. “It drives me crazy. I lie here thinking up ways to make money. I’ve got a buddy who’s worse than me. When we get together—you can’t imagine all the crazy schemes we think up! Sometimes I think he’ll end up in jail! My nature isn’t especially criminal though.”

“I wonder a lot what it’s like to have money. Last night I was at a movie writer’s house. It had an artificial brook in the garden and a dining table longer than this room. He must have given the cabdriver a hundred dollars for taking us around all night.”