about fifteen
minutes to eleven
`` It is that Miss Adair will not understand it until Miss Hawtry is at work , and before that all may be dead , '' Mr. Meyers consoled , as he , too , fell upon `` The Purple Slipper . '' At two-thirty the now soggy A. D. T. received the last manila envelope to deliver to the busy girls down in Mr. Vandeford 's office , and that distinguished producer was stretched out on his bed in cool darkness while Mr. Meyers was in a subway nodding his way up to his humble room on One Hundred and Sixteenth Street . `` If I live through seeing her past the reading of the blamed thing to-morrow , I 'll be stronger than I think I am , '' Mr. Vandeford murmured as he felt the calmness of sleep fall upon him . Rehearsals for `` The Purple Slipper '' had been called positively for September first , and the response became unanimous at about fifteen minutes to eleven at the Barrett Theater on West Forty-sixth Street ; that is , it was unanimous except for the presence of the author and the angel -- Miss Adair and Mr. Farraday -- and Miss Violet Hawtry , the star , who never came to first readings until the whole cast was assembled and could be impressed with the fact that she came and went as she listed . `` Ladies and gentlemen , I take it that you all know one another -- and Mr. William Rooney , '' said Mr. Vandeford , as he took a seat at the left of a table placed in the center of the stage just beyond the footlights . Mr. Rooney marched to a place beside him , and rapped with a large black pencil for attention from the groups into which the dozen members of the cast had fallen after mutual introductions and greetings . `` Everybody grab a seat that is good enough to glue to for five hours while Fido here gives out your parts , '' commanded Mr. Rooney , without in any way acknowledging Mr. Vandeford 's introduction to the company .