reflecting, it had
appeared to him that, in the theater, the beauty of a Lily would add
greatly to the success of his attraction. To work his invention in public
was different from experimenting with it in his shed in London. It was
leaving the laboratory to take its place in life; and it would be a
triumph to see the daring trick succeed, every day, at the fixed hour,
within a restricted compass; to see it go through the opening above; to
see that machine worked by a young girl in whom one would have suspected
neither the strength nor the nerve: it would make the public infer the
excellence of the engine. Now Jimmy was possessed, above all, of
scientific enthusiasm. His machine before everything; not his personal
triumph, his machine. He dreamed of giving that added grace to his
diagrams; and he considered that there was no disadvantage in allowing
science to be introduced by youth and beauty. Moreover, Jimmy was a little
heavy for an apparatus in which he had even suppressed the motor, in order
to make it more easily manageable ... a lighter body would perhaps be
better ... Lily, Lily was the ideal operator; but was she capable of it?
Jimmy had confidence in her. Jimmy, certainly, did not allow sentiment to
mix in his affairs; there was the weight of his responsibility to
consider. But then there was also his meeting with Lily in the
dressing-room passage. And he had understood her mental agony. He had seen
the gleam in her eyes and so great a display of energy in her face that
Jimmy had resolved to try her; and he would judge her much better by the
way in which she should face death.

That is what Jimmy explained to the manager, leaving a good deal untold,
of course, and Harrasford retired behind the smoke of his cigar, listened,
approved.

"It's your affair, when all is said and done. All you want is success, I
suppose? And will you arrange with her ... with your ... what did you say
her name was?"

"Lily."

"There are so many Lilies; and, if somebody has to break his or her back,
I had rather it was a Lily, one out of the bunch, than you."

Lily, meanwhile, was loitering outside. Harrasford and Jimmy had no notion
that the girl about whom they were talking was quite close to them,
thinking of them. Lily had heard an artiste say that Harrasford was
visiting the Astrarium. She had come in all haste, impelled by some vague
hope. Chance would have it that she was still in Paris. Everything,
besides, seemed to be