ealanders though they might be, were nobodies to
"him;" Lily--one of a thousand, among all those of both sexes who
performed in his theaters. There might have been ten cycling rhinoceroses
on the boards; he might have seen Lily swallow her bike, and change into a
butterfly: he would have paid no attention. Those were details that
concerned the stage-manager. He hurried across the stage to the
fly-ladder, made Jimmy explain things, took notes as he went, wanted to
see for himself, pointed to the first batten, to the electric switches.

"How much for so many lamps? And that? What does that come to, roughly?"

And he stopped for a second in his course, his ear stretched toward Jimmy
to catch his answer flying; then both of them went on again, quickly.

Jimmy was now following Harrasford along the bridges, with the whole stage
below him, in the ruddy semi-darkness; at one side, the half-naked bodies
fell with a heavy thud after their somersaults; or else it was the sharp
sound of a bike skidding; and distant voices rose up to him:

"But, Pa, I can't!"

"But you've got to, my little lady!"

"Poor little thing!" thought Jimmy, disappearing in the flies, toward the
side-rails, at Harrasford's heels. And Lily went on riding and Pa running
after her, round and round and round. She seemed to be fleeing madly,
pursued by a devil. Suddenly, Pa stopped, having exhausted his strength,
and Lily fell rather than sat upon a hamper by the wall.

"Here, Lily, put this over your shoulders," said Pa, giving her his
jacket. "You'll catch cold, darling. Oof, let's take breath a bit!"

But a glad voice burst through the silence: it came from the Three Graces,
who always worked on stubbornly, even during the absence of Nunkie, who
had been out for a smoke. Thea greeted his return with a cry of triumph:

"Ten pullings-up with one arm, Nunkie! Ten without stopping!"

"Well done! I'm very pleased with you," said Mr. Fuchs; and he crowned
their excitement by declaring that, as a reward, he would that very day
buy Thea the sleeve-links which he had promised her ever since last year.

"Dear Nunkie!"

A spasm of vanity made them rush back to their work; and soon the three of
them formed, in mid-air, an involved group of ropes, bars and hardened
limbs.

Lily, in spite of her fatigue, was amused at those mad girls. To take all
that trouble for the sake of a pair of sleeve-links! Her shoulders shook
with nervous laughter, in spite of Pa's pr