o it, it
grips you and draws you and draws you, and the nearer you get to the
end the easier it seems to win, till all of a sudden, ah! there's the
whirlpool.... 'J.,' keep away from it, my boy."

Jadwin laughed, and leaning over, put his fingers upon Cressler's
breast, as though turning off a switch.

"Now, Miss Dearborn," he announced, "we've shut him off. Charlie means
all right, but now and then some one brushes against him and opens that
switch."

Cressler, good-humouredly laughed with the others, but Laura's smile
was perfunctory and her eyes were grave. But there was a diversion.
While the others had been talking the rehearsal had proceeded, and now
Page beckoned to Laura from the far end of the parlor, calling out:

"Laura--'Beatrice,' it's the third act. You are wanted."

"Oh, I must run," exclaimed Laura, catching up her play-book. "Poor
Monsieur Gerardy--we must be a trial to him."

She hurried across the room, where the coach was disposing the
furniture for the scene, consulting the stage directions in his book:

"Here the kitchen table, here the old-fashioned writing-desk, here the
armoire with practicable doors, here the window. Soh! Who is on? Ah,
the young lady of the sick nose, 'Marion.' She is discovered--knitting.
And then the duchess--later. That's you Mademoiselle Dearborn. You
interrupt--you remember. But then you, ah, you always are right. If
they were all like you. Very well, we begin."

Creditably enough the Gretry girl read her part, Monsieur Gerardy
interrupting to indicate the crossings and business. Then at her cue,
Laura, who was to play the role of the duchess, entered with the words:

"I beg your pardon, but the door stood open. May I come in?"

Monsieur Gerardy murmured:

"_Elle est vraiment superbe._"

Laura to the very life, to every little trick of carriage and manner
was the high-born gentlewoman visiting the home of a dependent. Nothing
could have been more dignified, more gracious, more gracefully
condescending than her poise. She dramatised not only her role, but the
whole of her surroundings. The interior of the little cottage seemed to
define itself with almost visible distinctness the moment she set foot
upon the scene.

Gerardy tiptoed from group to group, whispering:

"Eh? Very fine, our duchess. She would do well professionally."

But Mrs. Wessels was not altogether convinced. Her eyes following her
niece, she said to Corthell:

"It's Laura's 'grand manne