hing after you have written a
wonderful success for this theatre! And isn't he getting his share of
the profits? Directly after the performance you must go round and ask
him. Of course he will be delighted to give you the stage. I will be
hostess," said Mrs. Peagrim radiantly. "And now, let me see, whom
shall we invite?"

Mr. Pilkington stared gloomily at the floor, too bowed down by his
weight of cares to resent the "we," which had plainly come to stay. He
was trying to estimate the size of the gash which this preposterous
entertainment would cleave in the Pilkington bank-roll. He doubted if
it was possible to go through with it under five hundred dollars; and,
if, as seemed only too probable, Mrs. Peagrim took the matter in hand
and gave herself her head, it might get into four figures.

"Major Selby, of course," said Mrs. Peagrim musingly, with a cooing
note in her voice. Long since had that polished man of affairs made a
deep impression upon her. "Of course Major Selby, for one. And Mr.
Rooke. Then there are one or two of my friends who would be hurt if
they were left out. How about Mr. Mason? Isn't he a friend of yours?"

Mr. Pilkington snorted. He had endured much and was prepared to endure
more, but he drew the line at squandering his money on the man who had
sneaked up behind his brain-child with a hatchet and chopped its
precious person into little bits.

"He is _not_ a friend of mine," he said stiffly, "and I do not wish
him to be invited!"

Having attained her main objective, Mrs. Peagrim was prepared to yield
minor points.

"Very well, if you do not like him," she said. "But I thought he was
quite an intimate of yours. It was you who asked me to invite him to
Newport last summer."

"Much," said Mr. Pilkington coldly, "has happened since last summer."

"Oh, very well," said Mrs. Peagrim again. "Then we will not include
Mr. Mason. Now, directly the curtain has fallen, Otie dear, pop right
round and find Mr. Goble and tell him what you want."

II

It is not only twin-souls in this world who yearn to meet each other.
Between Otis Pilkington and Mr. Goble there was little in common, yet,
at the moment when Otis set out to find Mr. Goble, the thing which Mr.
Goble desired most in the world was an interview with Otis. Since the
end of the first act, the manager had been in a state of mental
upheaval. Reverting to the gold-mine simile again, Mr. Goble was in
the position of a man who has had a chance