Two Proposals — Ray Cummings

Poppy is waiting for a proposal… it is just not the one she was expecting! (note: short story)

excerpt
Poppy Blake sat up in bed, on the morning after the show's chilly opening, and read what the heartless, senseless and diabolical critics had to say about “The Idol's Eye.” The show was a frost. Anybody could have foretold it, even before the final curtain. And if any lingering doubt remained with the most optimistic, all they had to do was read these morning papers.
Poppy made an entrancing picture, sitting there in bed. She was very small and slight, with very large, dark eyes and long, wavy hair, coalblack, and tumbled now in a mass over her white shoulders and the lacy nightgown. But Poppy was not interested in her appearance. She was wrathful at the critics, and despairing at the future that opened up before her. For if “The Idol's Eye” were a flivver, Poppy was destined to go broke. It was obvious. Another show was unlikely to start so late in the season; and even if it did, her finances could never stand the strain of another period of no-pay rehearsals.