A beautiful and very successful actress was the star of a new musical show. Her home was in the country, but she didn’t want to have to go back there every night, so she rented an expensive flat in the centre of the city, bought some beautiful furniture and hired a man to paint the rooms in new colours. It was very difficult to get tickets for her show because everybody wanted to see it, so she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better and more willingly for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter’s bill. At the bottom of it were the words “Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance,£3,” with this note : “After 5 p.m. I get fifteen shillings an hour instead of ten shillings.”