led out. "Come right in. Hello! Where
are you?" He stepped to the door and looked out. Mr. Butler was being
conducted toward the stage door by the burly stage hand. He was trying
to expostulate. "Hi! What you doing?" shouted Harvey, darting after
them. "Let my friend alone!"

Up came Ripton in haste.

"O'Brien, what do you mean? Take your hand off that gentleman's
shoulder at once. He is a friend of Mr.--Mr.--ahem! A terrible
mistake, sir."

Then followed a moment of explanation, apology, and introduction,
after which Harvey fairly dragged his exasperated friend back to
Nellie's room.

She was still standing in the middle of the room trying to collect her
wits.

"You remember Mr. Butler, deary," panted Harvey, waving his hand.
Nellie gasped in the affirmative.

At that instant Fairfax's big frame appeared in the door. He was
grinning amiably. She glared at him helplessly for a moment.

"Won't you introduce me to your husband?" he said, suavely.

Nellie found her tongue and the little man shook hands with the big
one.

"Glad to meet you," said Harvey.

"I am glad to see you," said Fairfax, warmly.

"My friend Butler," introduced Harvey.

Mr. Butler was standing very stiff and pallid, with one knee propped
against a chair. There was a glaze over his eyes. Fairfax grinned
broadly.

"Oh, Butler and I are old acquaintances," said he. "Wife out of town,
Butler?"

"Sure," said Harvey, before Butler could reply. "And we're in town to
see the sights. Eh, Butler?"

Butler muttered something that sounded uncommonly like "confounded
ass," and began fanning himself with his derby hat and gloves and
walking-stick, all of which happened to be in the same hand.

"We're going to take Nellie--I mean Miss Duluth--out for supper after
the play," went on Harvey, glibly. "We'll be waiting for you, dearie.
Mr. Butler is doing the honours. By the way, Butler, I think it would
be nicer if Nellie could suggest an odd lady for us. We ought to have
four. Do you know of any one, Nell? By George, we've got to have a
pretty one, though. We insist on that, eh, Butler?" He jabbed Butler
in the ribs and winked.

"Don't do that!" said the unhappy Mr. Butler, dropping his stick. It
rolled under a table and he seized the opportunity thus providentially
presented. He went down after it and was lost to view for a
considerable length, of time, hiding himself as the ostrich does when
it buries its head in the sand and imagines it is co